Everyday Life for Four Seasons

Our friend Sue had her baby this morning! A boy. Now they have two boys. I took this photo last night after they came for dinner. Her due date was today and she was definitely ready to have the baby, so last night I invited the family over for a labor-inducing meal. I cooked a veggie lasagna and garlic bread. I borrowed some features from Scalini's, that restaurant in Georgia that serves the eggplant parm dish that supposedly sends overdue women into labor within 48 hours. I did a little research and found that basil and oregano can stimulate uterine contractions, and those are some of the ingredients in the eggplant dish. By the way, the eggplant recipe is phenomenal. I don't make it much because it takes a long time to prepare, but it is well worth it.

Let me just stop here and mention that I ate this pretty much every day for 2 weeks at the end of each of my pregnancies. 2 weeks. I was at least a week overdue with A and I did go into labor a few hours after eating a lot of basil and oregano. But I had been eating it all along. And with H, it did nothing.

That said, it's fun to think that it worked for Sue, and maybe it will work for someone you know! You know how hard it is at the end, when you are willing to do almost anything to get that baby to come out and greet the world.

My veggie lasagna went something like this (it's easy!):

Heat some olive oil in a large pot on medium high
Add 2 crushed cloves of garlic
Add 8-10 oz. of spinach
Cook until the spinach is wilted and most of the water has evaporated.
Mix the spinach in with 2 jars of tomato sauce (I use Newman's)

Meanwhile, mix together in a large bowl:
Ricotta cheese (32 oz container)
1 egg
chopped basil (I used about 1/3 cup but that was the labor-inducing version, you can use less)
chopped oregano (you only need a tablespoon or 2 if you're not expecting a baby)
salt and pepper
a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese

layer in a large baking pan:
tomato sauce
Barilla no-boil lasanga noodles
ricotta cheese mixture
lasagna noodles
tomato sauce
I add a few uncooked broccoli sprigs at this point on top of the tomato sauce
lasagna noodles
ricotta cheese mixture
noodles
the rest of the tomato sauce
mozzarella cheese

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, then check to see if it's hot all the way through.

I also made some garlic bread using this recipe I found on the internet a while ago. It's definitely not low-fat, but it is really yummy and it's loaded with italian herbs, so I figured that might help Sue go into labor.

Happy birthday to Sue's baby and all the other babies that are born today!