Kid Feed

Candy Corn Cookies

2011-10-20T11:10:00.001-07:00

My kids have been interested in candy corn this October. I can't blame them. Candy corn just looks like a fun fall treat! After a bit of internet searching, I concluded that no one makes a natural, organic candy corn. Bummer! But then yesterday I saw a recipe for Candy Corn Sugar cookies at Our Best Bites blog, and my hope was renewed that I could make something similar for my kids.

I didn't know how the natural food coloring would hold up, but it did the job. We had three distinct colors of dough to work with -- white, orange and yellow, and the final product was completely satisfying to my kids!

I followed the sugar cookie recipe from Our Best Bites. My only substitutions were:

unbleached flour instead of regular flour (cup for cup)
xylitol instead of sugar (cup for cup)
natural food coloring instead of artificial food coloring

The xylitol caused my cookies to have a pocked appearance, but my kids didn't seem to notice or care. They just wanted to know how many of these little cookies they were allowed to eat in one sitting!

AC article - "How to Get Kids to Eat (and Like) Vegetables"

2010-02-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

How to Get Kids to Eat (and Like) Vegetables
A mother of three shares the helpful steps she has used to get her children to eat and enjoy vegetables on a regular basis.
Read More

Healthy Wheat-free Pumpkin Cakes

2009-10-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

These super-moist, healthy pumpkin cakes will be sure to please your kids! They are wheat-free, refined sugar-free, and yet they still manage to fill the kitchen with the delightful scent of autumn baking, and to satisfy tummies with the pleasant pumpkin taste that goes with the season. My kids enjoy turning their cakes into jack-o-lanterns by adding chocolate chips.

Healthy Wheat-free Pumpkin Cakes

4 eggs
1/3 c. agave nectar
1/4 tsp. stevia powder
1 c. extra virgin coconut oil
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
2 cups barley flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
** grain-sweetened chocolate chips (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix the eggs, agave, stevia, oil and pumpkin with a mixer until well-blended. Slowly add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, stirring until thoroughly combined.

Spread the batter evenly into a large ungreased baking pan (I use a 15-inch x 10-inch x 2-inch Pyrex baking dish, but two smaller dishes could also be used).

Bake for 25 minutes. Cool, then use pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter to cut pumpkin cakes. Add grain-sweetened chocolate chips for jack-o-lantern faces.

Note: These can also be cut into bars and/or topped with a cream cheese frosting (try tinting yours with some natural orange food coloring).

Get a new replacement SIGG bottle for free

2009-09-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

In August 2009, SIGG's CEO Steve Wasik wrote a letter announcing that all SIGG bottles produced prior to August 2008 were lined with a water-based epoxy liner that was found to contain trace amounts of BPA. He stressed that the bottles were tested and did not leach BPA, but regardless of this, many SIGG customers are upset. BPA was one of the main reasons many people switched to reusable water bottles.

Mr. Wasik has since apologized for his lack of transparency from the begin about the issue. The company says it never claimed to have BPA-free bottles, rather, they always stressed that their bottles did not leach anything. But in hindsight, Mr. Wasik wishes he'd been straightforward from the beginning about BPA in the liners.

In August 2008, SIGG began to line its bottles with a new "EcoCare" liner that is certified to be 100% free of BPA, phthalates, BADGE, BFDGE, and NOGE.

SIGG has established an exchange program for any customer that is concerned about the old liner and wants a new bottle with the new EcoCare liner.

As soon as I heard about the exchange program I contacted SIGG. They e-mailed me a return label and an RMA code to expedite my request. I had to pay for shipping to send my old bottles to SIGG (it was inexpensive... the bottles are very lightweight). Once they received my package, they sent me another e-mail with a gift code to be used on mysigg.com to choose replacement bottles. They also covered shipping for the new bottles. It was very easy to place my order and we received our new EcoCare bottles today.

I'm sad that SIGG didn't have BPA-free liners from the beginning, but I'm happy they made this exchange so easy.

If you plan to take advantage of this exchange program, act quickly. It ends on October 31, 2009. And if you want to avoid paying shipping to send your old bottles back, many SIGG retailers are participating in the exchange program. See the exchange program page for details.

Turtle Salmon Salads

2009-06-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

This was a really fun lunch for my kids. As they ate, we read about turtles in our animal encyclopedia. We learned some cool facts. Did you know that the outer segments on a turtle's shell are called "plates?" Did you know turtles don't have teeth? We also found out that they eat fish, birds, worms, insects, and the soft part of plants.

Here's what I used:

Body - wild caught salmon mixed with Trader Joe's regular mayonnaise, shaped into a roundish mound
Plates - organic baby spinach leaves
Head - baby carrot
Eyes - grain-sweetened chocolate chips, cut small
Mouth - tiny piece of raw beet
Feet - cucumbers, cut to shape
Tail - baby carrot, cut into a little triangle shape

I served them with Sweet Mustard Dressing on the side, and organic tortilla chips (which represented desert sand - my boys used them to scoop up the salmon mixture).

Here is a picture of the body without the plates. As you can see, he's already had a few scoops taken out of him at this point, but at least you get the idea of how the base was formed.

Guest submission: Cat Chicken Salad

2009-06-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Kid Feed reader "CB" shared this cute kitty she made for her kids recently. We love her creative use of healthy ingredients!

Here's what she used:

Head - chicken salad
Ears - corn chips
Eyes - carrot slices
Pupils - chocolate chips (cut smaller)
Snout - cucumber slice
Nose - carrot slice
Tongue - tomato slice
Whiskers - sliced beef

CB noted that it took some convincing to get her 2 1/2 year old to finally eat his cat. He loved looking at it so much that he didn't want to eat it at first!

Emperor Tamarin Shredded Chicken Salads

2009-06-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

This was my husband's attempt to make Emperor Tamarin faces (complete with mustaches). He was going from memory as he put these together, and he thinks the final versions ended up more like orangutans. But our boys were quiet pleased with the end result and talked the rest of the day about their Emperor Tamarin lunches.

Here's what he used:

Head - homemade shredded barbecue chicken (see below for recipe)
Hair - raw, grated beets
Ears - thin slices of organic apple
Snout - sliced apples
Mustache - thin raw beet shreds
Eyes - apple and grain-sweetened chocolate chips
Jungle - organic baby lettuce mix

*Each child got a small container of Sweet Mustard dressing for dipping.

Kid Feed Mommy's Shredded Barbecue Chicken

1 bag frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs (2 lbs., 8 oz.)
2 bay leaves
sea salt
pepper
organic, refined sugar-free bbq sauce (we like Organicville Original BBQ sauce)

Place chicken thighs in a large stock pot and cover with water. Add bay leaves. Bring to boil, then keep on a high simmer for 40-60 minutes, or until the meat is easily falling apart when you stick a fork in it.

Remove from pot and set aside to cool (you can reserve the broth for use in other recipes, if desired, or discard). Allow chicken to cool until you can comfortably handle it (approx. 15-20 minutes).

With clean hands, shred the chicken and place in a large mixing bowl, removing all fat as you go. Once chicken has been shredded, shake on sea salt and pepper, to taste. Stir with wooden spoon to mix. Then pour on the bbq sauce, to taste and mix with wooden spoon. I do about 1/2 c., but some may like it to be more sauce-heavy. (Because it's expensive, I like to do as little as possible while still acheiving a nice consistency and good flavor.)

Store in covered container in refrigerator. Keeps for several days and is great on salads, sandwiches, or even by itself!

Open-Faced Black Bean and Cream Cheese Sandwich

2009-06-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things don't turn out the way I imagined. Originally with this lunch I tried to make panda faces, but as they came together I knew they would never pass for pandas. Since my plan had failed, I tried to work with what I already had to make something recognizable.

I couldn't decide if it was a raccoon or a husky sled dog (one of my boys picked raccoon, and the other boy picked sled dog).

Here's what I used:

Face, ears, nose and whiskers - brown rice bread, cut into desired shapes (there is a small piece cut for the nose and placed on top of the face piece to give the face more dimension; the ear pieces are also cut separately and set on top of the face piece.)
White fur - Spread cream cheese all over the face bread piece.
Brown fur - Spread black beans (or beans of your choice) in the desired pattern on and around the face and on the nose bread piece.
Eyes - grain-sweetened chocolate chips

Toucan Salad for Kids

2009-06-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

My creative husband designed these awesome Toucan salads for our kids. I've never seen them so happy to eat greens!

Here's what he used:

Beak - 2 organic pink lady apple slices
Head - piece of buckwheat cake
Eye - grain-sweetened chocolate chip
Body/Feathers - organic mixed baby lettuce
Legs/Feet - baby carrots, cut to desired shape
Toucan's food - homegrown red clover sprouts

*Each kid also had a little bowl of natural salad dressing for dipping.

Variations on a Lion Lunch

2009-05-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

My husband came up with this "lion in the jungle" lunch for the kids over the weekend. After they ate their lions, he added a "river" (not pictured) which was made out of homemade sweet mustard dressing so they could dip the jungle leaves into the river.

Here's what he used:

Face - wild caught Alaskan salmon mixed with Trader Joe's mayo
Eyes - grain sweetened chocolate chips
Snout - carrots
Ears - carrots
Whiskers - shredded Tillamook cheddar cheese
Jungle - organic spinach leaves
River - sweet mustard dressing

Today I served my own variation of the lion lunch for the boys. I like my husbands version better because it's a more balanced meal. Mine is way too carb heavy for my liking, but they enjoyed it (of course)! I used my husband's river tactic to help them eat their jungle leaves.

Here's what I used:

Face - brown rice bread
Mane - organic round tortilla chips (Trader Joe's) and shredded Tillamook pepperjack and cheddar
Eyebrows or Ears - Tillamook cheddar cheese
Snout - Tillamook cheddar cheese
Whiskers - shredded Tillamook cheddar cheese
Mouth - carrot
Eyes - whipped cream cheese
Pupils - grain sweetened chocolate chips
Jungle - organic spinach leaves
River - sweet mustard dressing

Salmon and Spinach "Jellyfish" Lunch

2009-05-05T14:41:00.001-07:00

My husband got in on the animal food creations when he made lunch for the kids on Saturday. Trying to think of a way to get them to willingly eat spinach, he came up with these little jellyfish, and yes, they gobbled them all up - tentacles included!

Here's what he used:

Body - boneless, skinless canned Alaskan salmon (wild caught) mixed with Trader Joe's mayonnaise
Eyes - wild blueberries
Tentacles - rolled up spinach leaves

Tiger Cheese "Sandwich"

2009-05-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

A cheese sandwich is even more delicious when it looks like a tiger! It wasn't long after our elephant tuna sandwiches that my boys asked if they could have tigers for lunch.

Here's what I used:

Face, ears and snout - brown rice bread, cut into desired shapes
Stripes - Tillamook cheddar cheese
Eyes - cream cheese
Pupils - grain-sweetened chocolate chips
Whiskers - cucumbers
Tongue - spaghetti sauce

Elephant Tuna "Sandwich"

2009-05-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

My kids love animals, so they are bound to eat any food that resembles an animal (as I so happily discovered during the Easter season when they ate bunny faces and egg bunnies). My 3-year-old asked me to make him an elephant. Tuna was on the menu for lunch that day, and I decided to use the tuna in my elephant creation. Would they eat it, I wondered? Sure enough, they devoured their Elephant Tuna Sandwiches. I even replaced the "eyes" a couple of times so they'd eat more veggies.

Here's what I used:

Face and trunk - brown rice bread
Ears - tongol tuna mixed with natural mayo
Eyes - cucumbers
Pupils - grain-sweetened chocolate chips
Mouth - apple slice

Egg bunnies

2009-04-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

We used another idea from Little Nummies today for our lunch. These simple hard-boiled egg bunnies made for a happy meal!

Here are the ingredients we used:

Body and ears - Hard-boiled egg (slice the bottom off so that the egg sits more evenly, then cut the bottom in half and use for the ears - attach ears with small pieces of spaghetti)
Eyes - pieces of oats from homemade granola
Nose - small piece of carrot
Mouth - apple peel
Whiskers - brown rice spaghetti noodles
Feet - baby carrots (attach to body with spaghetti noodles)

Easter Bunny Lunch Idea

2009-04-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying the adorable food ideas from Little Nummies, a blog that presents simple but creative recipes using stuff you'd normally have on hand (without having to run to the store for special ingredients!).

When I saw the post about Easter Bunny faces for lunch, I had to try it for my boys. Here's how ours turned out! So cute!

These are the ingredients I used:

Face - slice of brown rice bread
Ears - hard-boiled egg cut in half, yolks removed (I also dyed them with beet juice so they had a pinkish hue to them)
Eyes - cream cheese for the whites, and grain-sweetened chocolate chips for the pupils
Nose - hard-boiled egg yolk
Mouth - raw beet slice
Teeth -Tillamook pepperjack cheese
Whiskers - Tillamook cheddar cheese

Healthy Valentine's Snacks

2009-02-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about eating more naturally is making special treats on holidays. I had so many exciting plans for Valentine's Day this year, only to have my entire family get hit with the flu this past week. (Yes, even though we eat healthy, we still get sick sometimes!) Yesterday I managed to put a couple of my plans into action, and the rest will have to wait until next year.

Tomorrow, my kids will be eating Heart-Shaped Chocolate Covered Marshmallows and Frozen Strawberry Cream Hearts.

To make the marshmallows, I used the Agave Marshmallow recipe from Volcanic Nectar, but also added a bit of natural pink food coloring, then spread the marshmallow creme onto a large, rimmed cookie sheet rather than a 9x11 pan. After they were set, I used heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the hearts. (Make sure to wet the cookie cutter in warm water before cutting for a nice, clean cut.)

Then, I made the chocolate coating. Inspired by Lauren of Healthy Indulgences and her ice cream bar chocolate coating, I melted 8 Tbsp. grain-sweetened chocolate chips with 2 Tbsp. extra virgin coconut oil and a shake of stevia powder. (This coating is amazing!) Once it was all melted and cooled, I dipped the marshmallows in and then laid them on foil and refrigerated them until the chocolate hardened. I used a knife to gently pry them off the foil and placed them in a sealed container until tomorrow.

To make the frozen strawberry hearts, I used the recipe for "Frozen Strawberry Cream" from Jeffrey Goettemoeller's Stevia Sweet Recipes cookbook. This is one of my favorite uses for stevia. This is a quick and simple ice cream recipe (you don't need an ice cream maker to make it), but this time I poured the mixture into this cute heart-shaped gelatin mold that my mother-in-law recently gave me.

It took about 4-6 hours for the mixture to freeze, then I unmolded them and put them in a container. They'll stay in the freezer until tomorrow night's dessert! (They need to be removed from the freezer one hour before serving so that they're soft enough to eat.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Stevia approved by FDA!

2009-01-14T16:50:00.000-08:00

It had to happen eventually. The sugar industry and artificial sweetener industry were no doubt dreading this day, but it has finally come. As of December 2008, the FDA has "no objection" to stevia. They didn't take it further and give it the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) rating, but "no objection" means companies can now use it without labeling it as a "natural supplement" and stores can carry it in the sweetener section instead of the supplement section (some stores were already doing this anyway, at least in my city). I'm very excited about this! Hopefully this means we will start seeing more and more stevia products on shelves. I'm hoping we'll start seeing stevia packets at coffee shops and restaurants right along side the sugar packets and Splenda packets (better yet, the Splenda packed will get tossed).

Mike Adams has an article about the FDA's decision over at NaturalNews.com. He discusses some of the reasons behind the FDA's ruling (hint: it had nothing to do with health and all to do with money).

Coca-Cola is already rolling out its natural soda that contains stevia. Sprite Green will be on a store shelf near you soon. I don't know what all the ingredients are, but I'll be sure to take a look at it.

I'm reminded of the letters I sent to Coca Cola and Wrigley's years ago, asking them why they didn't use stevia in their diet drinks and gum instead of artificial sweeteners. Maybe those letters really did make a difference. It was because of big companies like Coca Cola that the FDA finaly approved of stevia, after all!

Homemade Agave Marshmallows

2008-12-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

I've looked for a marshmallow recipe that uses unrefined sugar for YEARS. About five years ago, a friend and I tried a recipe that called for brown rice syrup. We were disappointed by the result. It was a gooey, sticky, brown mess that didn't resemble marshmallows AT ALL.

Yesterday, while searching for something totally different, I stumbled across Volcanic Nectar's link for an agave marshmallow recipe, complete with instructional video. I couldn't believe how easy it looked, so I tried it immediately. It worked beautifully. Last night we had stevia hot chocolate, and each of us got an amazingly delicious marshmallow in our mug.

In the past I've wanted to make fudge, but have found that many of the best recipes have marshmallows or marshmallow creme in them. Now I can try making fudge thanks to this fantastic marshmallow recipe!

Check out the fluffy goodness!

Too Many Pumpkins

2008-12-03T14:15:00.000-08:00

Chrissie over at flipflops and applesauce recommends wonderful kids books. Every book she has ever mentioned has been a gem. Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White, is no exception. We checked it out from the library after reading about it on Chrissie's blog. That was at the end of October. We have renewed it two times since then because my kids love it so much. It's such a fun, bright book with great illustrations and a charming story, and it's perfect for fall, especially with all the yummy baking that takes place this time of year. Be prepared to want to make lots of pumpkin treats after reading it!

Halloween Candy

2008-10-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

This year I've been working on some special treats for my boys that they will enjoy on Halloween. We will have candy bars and taffy, made without any refined sugar. They've already sampled the goods, but the bulk of it is packed away until Halloween.

For the candy bars, I used the Legally Raw Bar recipe from The Daily Raw Cafe. I had to make a few changes, the biggest being that I used peanuts instead of the mixture of cashews and almonds, since my son is severely allergic to cashews. I used agave instead of honey, and I didn't put any sweetener in the caramel part, since I thought it was already sweet enough with the dates. These bars taste like a cross between a Mounds bar and a Reese's peanut butter cup. They're great! I think if I made them again, though, I would melt grain sweetened chocolate chips mixed with some coconut oil and use that for the chocolate coating. The coating in this recipe is very tasty, but it doesn't harden up even after being in the freezer. If you want your bar to have a solid, non-messy coating, you might want to do the same.

For the taffy, I used a really neat recipe using brown rice syrup found at HeidiLogic. Some friends joined us and we had our very own Taffy Pull. It was so much fun. We made three different flavors - peppermint, almond, and orange. I recommend using a lot of flavoring if you really want to taste it. We did small amounts of each and wished we'd added more. I'd say a tablespoon would be a good amount.

I'm storing the candy bars in the freezer and the taffy in a glass jar on the counter. It will be fun to give the boys some special candy on Halloween!

AC article - "Healthy Halloween Snacks"

2008-09-30T08:43:00.001-07:00

You'll see some familiar ideas in this article, and a few new ones too. With October almost here, don't miss my new "Healthy Halloween Snacks" article!

AC article - "Making Healthy Eating Fun for Kids"

2008-09-30T08:40:00.001-07:00

This Associated Content article provides some general guidelines for making healthy eating fun for kids. It also includes a couple recipes. Check it out here!

Creamsicle Cupcakes

2008-09-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my lack of blogging recently. The good news is that while I haven't been blogging, I've been discovering lots of amazing recipes and trying them out on my family. I've also been doing some writing for Associated Content. I'll post links to some of my health-related articles soon.

The first new recipe I'd like to introduce was created by Lauren over at Healthy Indulgences. If you haven't been to her blog, prepare yourself. You're going to want to go out and buy ingredients for every recipe she has on there. It's filled with incredible and inventive recipes. I've tried three of her recipes so far, and all three have met and exceeded my expectations, which is actually a pretty rare occurrence for me. Usually when I find "healthy" recipes on-line, I get my hopes way up only to find them dashed when the food doesn't turn out the way I imagined. Lauren's recipes are a different story.

I recently made her Creamsicle Cupcakes. And what a hit they were with my family! I loved making them. They were so unique, and I loved the fact that the recipe includes two entire oranges, peel and all. I had never boiled oranges before. It was a cool experience.

Here are the changes I made to the recipe:

#1 - I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten free flour mix instead of the almond meal (Toosht can't have tree nuts). This flour worked wonderfully in the recipe.

#2 - I used 1/2 c. agave nectar instead of the mixture of stevia and erythritol for my sweetener, and this worked great as well.

#3 - Again, with the orange puree and the cream cheese frosting, I used agave (to taste) instead of stevia. I was pleased with the results

**Lauren's focus is to make her recipes low-carb. I greatly appreciate this since I don't like to OD on carbs. The changes I made to the recipe made the carb count quite a bit higher, so just take that into consideration when you are eating them!

$5 off your order at iHerb.com!

2008-08-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Enter my special referral code TIM110 during checkout at iHerb.com for $5 off your first-time purchase!

My husband and I are regular iHerb customers. We love this site because it has better prices and better shipping costs than anywhere else we've found so far. This is where we order our flour (usually buckwheat, barley, rice and sorghum), our SweetLeaf stevia (the cheapest place we've found it), our toothpaste (JASON for us, Weleda for the kids), and also some of our supplements like Vitamin C and my prenatal vitamins (Rainbow Light "Just Once"). We appreciate their low, flat fee shipping rates especially when our orders are heavy, like when we order a lot of flour. Not only are their prices good, but their customer service is excellent as well. We often find that when we order something, we receive it the very next day with their unbelievably fast shipping. When we've made mistakes with our order or forgotten to add something, they have been very helpful and understanding.

I highly recommend iHerb.com. Give them a try!

5 Steps for Avoiding Mastitis

2008-07-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

During the 18 months that I breastfed my first son, I suffered 7 breast infections (mastitis). These were full-blown infections with high fevers, chills (teeth chattering out of control!), aches, and weakness. I had to take antibiotics each time, and I was out of commission for an entire week. My husband had to take time off work to be home since I was completely without energy and could do nothing but lay in bed. When pregnant with my second son I decided I needed to take preventative measures in order to avoid having this problem again. This time I would have a toddler running around and I couldn't afford to be bed-ridden with sickness. I had gone to La Leche League meetings and I had read many books about breastfeeding, so I knew in theory what some causes of mastitis were. I knew that pressure on the breasts could cause milk duct blockage. I also knew that having breasts that were too full for too long could contribute to plugged ducts.

Here are the safeguards I put into place for the birth of my second son:

Step #1 - Don't use a front facing baby carrier (e.g. Baby Bjorn), which can put pressure on both breasts (I got a double breast infection a day after I carried my first son around in a Baby Bjorn for several hours.) Instead, use a sling that takes the pressure off your breasts (e.g. Hotslings).

Step #2 - Drink a lot of water. Stay hydrated so that the fluids in your body are plentiful.

Step #3 - Don't wear underwire bras, or any type of bra that puts pressure under and around the breasts. I solved this problem by getting rid of ALL of my nursing bras and purchasing nursing camisoles instead. It took a little bit of getting used to because I was accustomed to more support from the typical bra. But I began to love the way the camisoles fit, and how they didn't apply pressure or dig in to my breasts. I tried several different brands of nursing camisoles while nursing my second son, but didn't discover my absolute favorite until my third baby. I highly highly highly recommend Bravado nursing camisoles. They are simply wonderful. They're comfortable, they don't shrink or get misshapen, the straps are sturdy, and I love the shape, which is much more flattering to the bust line than most camisoles.

Step #4 - Don't wait too long in between feedings. Feed your baby on demand. This helps to keep your breasts empty and your baby happy. Make sure your breasts are empty after feedings, especially if it will be a while before you nurse again (like right before bed). If your baby nurses but you still feel like you have some milk, pump it out with a hand pump (I love the Avent hand pump). I was initially concerned that doing this would increase my milk supply, causing engorgement more often, but I found that I didn't have to do this very often after the first few weeks, and keeping my breasts empty was vital for me to avoid infection, so it was worth it. It's also a good idea to pump if you wake up and find that you are very engorged, but your baby is still sleeping and may continue sleeping for awhile longer. If this happens, pump enough milk to soften your breasts and relieve the discomfort, then wait for the baby to wake up for the rest.

Step #5 - Don't allow your life to get overly hectic and busy. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but it must be noted that it was during jam-packed periods of life that I got breast infections. I'm sure there were several factors coming into play. When I was extra busy, I was drinking less water, nursing my baby less, getting engorged more often, etc. All of these steps really do go hand in hand as preventive measures against mastitis. This is an important step though, and I want to stress it because I think young mothers are pressured to be busy. I often see baby magazine articles that praise the busy mother who can juggle so many different things. While this is indeed admirable, I don't believe it's something to which we should aspire. Activities with a baby can be fun and enjoyable for mother and for baby, but I think it's even more important that the mother take care of herself and provide a peaceful home for her baby. This is when I've seen my children the happiest, and when I have felt the most peace. Not only has it been good for me, physically and mentally, to slow down my pace, but it has also been good for my kids. They have come to appreciate the structure and security of their lives, and then when we do have an interesting outing or activity, they look forward to it with energy and excitement rather than dread and burn-out.

These steps have been instrumental in protecting me from breast infections. I nursed my second baby for 14 months and did not have a single infection. I'm currently nursing my third baby. She is 8 months old, and I haven't had an infection with her either. These steps really do work!

Natural Deodorant

2008-05-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

I stopped using antiperspirant a few years ago when I read about the health hazards of aluminum. I tried many different kinds of "natural" deodorants. They smelled nice and they were a good idea, but none of them worked well for me. The healthy deodorants were very expensive, and I eventually stopped buying them and started using the same brand of plain deodorant my husband was using. While it still had chemicals in it, I was just glad to be avoiding aluminum.

Recently, however, my cousin told me about a recipe for homemade deodorant she had seen that used coconut oil, arrowroot powder and baking soda. I had all those ingredients so decided to give it a try. It was fun and very easy to make. My coconut oil was in liquid form when I mixed everything together. I added a few drops of Fir Tree essential oil for a very faint scent (good for a man or a woman). I cleaned out an almost used up deodorant container and removed the labels. Then I poured the mixture into the container, put the lid on, and put it in the fridge to allow it to solidify. When I took it out of the fridge it was too hard for the container components to work, so I let it sit on the counter for just a few minutes until it was soft enough to turn the dial. It feels nice going on, all cool and smooth. I've used it for a couple of weeks now and it has worked great. My husband let me test it out for a week before he tried (he has to go to work, after all, and wanted to be sure it was effective!), and now he loves it too.

I'm especially happy about this because summer is arriving and I'll be wearing tank tops a lot. My baby is 6 months old. I hold her often and feed her often, so she is always in close proximity to my body (and my underarms). Those of you with babies know how they snuggle in and can end up getting their hands in the crevices of your arms, or wiggle their faces against your chest and shoulders. I feel a lot better about her being close to a natural product than to a chemical product.

The Versatile All-Day Snack Cake

2008-04-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

My husband created a cake recipe that is definitely a family favorite. We literally eat some version of this cake everyday. He makes a couple batches in the morning, and we get to eat it at meals and snacks all day long. It's so nice to have tasty cake whenever we want it. This is not a birthday-style cake. This is a slightly sweet cake that you can spread cream cheese or butter on. This recipe is so great because there are several different ways to make it. We alternate each day so that we eat a variety of grains in our diet. It is a key way that we avoid eating a lot of wheat. This recipe is also egg and dairy free.

Buckwheat Cake
(This is a thick, hearty cake that tastes great with peanut butter or cream cheese, or just by itself. One of our favorite ways to eat it is to mix extra virgin olive oil with organic peanut butter. We break up a piece of buckwheat cake into the mixture and allow the pieces to soak. Then we eat it from the bowl.)

Preheat the oven to 400º.

Place a stoneware or Pyrex baking dish (approx. 8x11) in the oven (while it is heating up) with a small strip of olive oil (enough to cover the bottom and sides once it's hot).

Meanwhile, mix together:
2 cups buckwheat flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

Then:
Pour in 2 cups water.
Pour in 1/4 cup olive oil.
Pour in 1/4 cup agave.
**Optionally you can add a 1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 tsp. lemon extract

Stir everything together thoroughly, especially the bottom where dry flour collects.

Pull out the heated stoneware from the oven.

Pour mixture into the stoneware. It should pour easily like cake batter.

Bake for 16-18 minutes.

Makes 8 servings. (28 carbs per serving)

Barley Cake (with Barley Ginger variation and Barley Chocolate variation)
(This is reminiscent of an English pudding cake. It is very much like a pudding in the middle, with a crisp outer crust. We like to melt butter on top of this and eat it warm.)

Preheat the oven to 400º.

Place a stoneware or Pyrex in the oven (while it is heating up) with a small strip of olive oil (enough to cover the bottom and sides once it's hot).

Mix together:
2 cups barley flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

Then:
Pour in 2 cups water
Pour in 1/4 cup safflower oil.
Mix in 2 tsp. stevia powder.

***To make the Barley Ginger Cake, add 1/8 c. ginger powder (and less than this if you don't like as strong of a ginger taste).

***To make the Barley Chocolate Cake, add 1/8 c. cocoa powder.

Stir everything together thoroughly, especially the bottom part where dry flour collects.

Pull out the heated stoneware.

Pour mixture into the stoneware. It should be slightly thick, and you will need to spread it out with a spatula.

Bake for 16 minutes

Makes 8 servings. (19 carbs per serving)

Note: This cake stays very pudding-like in the middle even when it's done.

Rye Cake
(This cake is thinner than the buckwheat cake but has a wonderful flavor and texture, also very good with cream cheese on top.)

Place a stoneware or Pyrex in the oven (while it is heating up) with a small strip of olive oil (enough to cover the bottom and sides once it's hot).

Meanwhile, mix together:
2 cups rye flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

Next:
Pour in 1 3/4 cups water (add slightly more if too thick).
Pour in 1/4 cup olive oil.
Pour in 1/4 cup agave.
**Optionally you can add a 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

Stir everything together thoroughly, especially the bottom part where dry flour collects.

Pull out the heated stoneware.

Pour mixture into the stoneware. You may need to spread it out with a spatula.

Bake for 16-18 minutes.

Makes 8 servings. (31 carbs per serving)

Sloppy Beef

2008-04-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

My husband spends just as much time in the kitchen as I do. By his own choosing, he makes a big, warm breakfast for us everyday. When the kids and I get up in the morning after he has already left for work, our breakfast is waiting for us in the warmer drawer. We are so spoiled! One of the many bonuses of having a cooking husband is that he enjoys experimenting and creating his own dishes. He's more daring than I am. Some of his experiments end up becoming family favorites. One such experiment was Sloppy Beef. (Yes, he names his experiments too!) My boys loved the sound of this meal, and so before they even tried it they thought it seemed cool. When they actually tasted it, they loved it. I feel like laughing every time I say "We're having Sloppy Beef for dinner." and it's even funnier hearing my two-year-old say "Mommy, I want some more Sloppy Beef!" This recipe came about one Saturday evening when I was exhausted from the week and from taking care of a new baby along with my two boys. All we had in the fridge, pretty much, was a pound of grass-fed ground beef, so my husband cheerily sent me to sit down and said he'd whip up a dinner for us. Sloppy Beef was the result. In case you ever need a quick, easy meal that even kids love (at least ours do!), here's the recipe.

Sloppy Beef

1 lb. ground beef (or other ground meat)
water
minced onions
garlic powder
parsley
thyme
basil
marjoram
oregano
pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 c. rye or buckwheat or oat flour
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. agave

Heat a pan on medium with 1/2 c. water.
Once the water is boiling, crumble the ground meat into the pan.
Brown the meat by letting it sit with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
Once meat is browned, drain liquid.
Add another 1/2 c. water and stir into meat.
Add several shakes of minced onion flakes (or 1 large onion, chopped and sauteed).
Shake in your desired amount of the other spices.
Grind in some fresh pepper (3-4 grinds).
Add another 1/2 c. water.
Add 1/2 tsp. salt.
Add 1/4 c. flour and stir into meat. Evenly distribute meat throughout the pan and cover the lid.
Turn heat down to medium low.
Let simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Stir in 1 Tbsp. olive oil and 1 Tbsp. agave.
Cover again and let simmer approx. 4-5 minutes.

Serve in bowls with spoons.

Note: You can add or remove spices as desired in this recipe. Put in what you like! Also, you can add more agave if you want it sweeter. We find 1 Tbsp. per lb. of meat to be just right for us.

Free stevia sample

2008-04-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Stevita is offering free samples on their website! Go here to sign up.

Cold and Flu Season

2008-03-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

If your family was anything like mine growing up, you probably drank Gatorade, Sprite, or 7-Up when you were sick, right? I can understand the mentality behind these drinks. When someone is sick, they need carbohydrates and salt to help their bodies fight the illness, and they need to stay hydrated. My biggest problem with Gatorade lies in the fact that there are artificial flavors and colors added. It seems wrong to give a sick person a drink that has added chemicals. Natural flavors are so good on their own. Sprite and 7-Up are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, and while their original versions don't have artificial flavors, some of their fancier varieties do include them. As with many things these days, you can usually find a healthier alternative, thanks to more awareness and more desire by consumers for natural products. I like using Recharge as an alternative to Gatorade when my kids are sick and need extra fluids. It comes in several different flavors and tastes really good.

You may be aware of recent changes in regulations for over-the-counter cold and cough medications for small children. They have been banned from store shelves as new findings have revealed they can cause harm to kids. So what can a parent do when their child is miserable? It's still safe to give them Children's Motrin or Children's Tylenol, following the dosage charts on the bottles. I try to give medication to my children only when it's absolutely necessary. If they have a low-grade or common fever, but are acting relatively normal - playing and talking, I won't medicate them. If they have a common fever or high fever and are moaning and groaning and aching all over, I will give them medicine. I love how Dr. Sears says to "treat the child, not the sickness." Each child will respond differently to fever and illness. Fever in itself isn't the enemy. Fever is one of the ways the body fights off sickness. I love Dr. Sears' discussion of fever and his fever terminology chart. It has been very helpful to me when my kids are sick.

Dr. Sears recommends a natural cold and cough medicine called Sinupret for Kids. We haven't tried this yet, but it's something I would like to get if my kids ever get really bad coughs.

My mother-in-law shared a recipe with me for homemade cough medicine that she got from a pediatrician back in the 80's. (There are tons of other similar homemade cough medicine recipes on-line if you do a Google search.)

Homemade Cough Medicine

Mix together equal parts lemon juice, honey, and whiskey.

Dosage - Give 1 tsp. every 4 hours as needed.

(Note: Do not give honey to children under 18 months of age.)

Our naturopathic doctor gave us a great recipe to help support the immune system while sick.

Immune Soup

Organic chicken broth
1 large onion, chopped
6-8 garlic cloves, crushed
1.5 inches ginger root, sliced thinly

Boil for 30 minutes (you can add water if you want to increase the volume), strain if desired, and drink broth. (Kids usually won't eat the chunks, but my husband and I like eating the veggies along with the broth.)

This is a great soup to have on the stovetop when someone in your home is sick. They can sip it all day long.

Oven Fried Chicken

2008-02-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

People often ask me how it's possible to eat healthy when natural and organic foods are so expensive. The truth is, we have to pick and choose which organic items we buy. Living on a single income in Southern California is difficult. One of the main reasons we're able to select healthier options is because we pretty much never eat out. We have also been blessed with family members who gift us with healthy groceries from time to time.

We are always on the lookout for the cheapest healthy foods. Lately, chicken legs have been our favorite cheap protein, and this is our favorite way to prepare them. My boys love these!

Oven Fried Chicken

10 chicken drumsticks*, skin removed
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder or flakes
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 dash white stevia powder (approx. 1/8 tsp)
1/4 c. flour (I have used oat, rye, and amaranth flour. I recommend using something other than wheat since most of us get more than enough wheat in our diets already.)
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat each drumstick with olive oil. Mix all spices and flour togther in a large bowl. Roll oil-coated drumsticks in spice mixture until well coated. Place chicken in a large Pyrex baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes.

*I strongly advise that you only buy chicken that is clearly labeled as being hormone and antibiotic free if you can't afford organic. We usually get natural-fed chicken from Trader Joe's, and only occasionally splurge on organic.

Stevia tips from SweetLeaf

2008-02-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by Mariam of Wisdom Natural Brands, Inc. (the makers of SweetLeaf), and she offered some really helpful tips when baking with stevia. In response to my comment about stevia sometimes making recipes dense and flat, she said:

"...this is so true, which is why we recommend using recipes that are adapted to stevia (like the cookbook you used). So if one already has a recipe calling for stevia, then it should be just fine, but if they’re using an old recipe and just replacing the sugar with stevia, then something else needs to be added to attain the bulk of the missing sugar. The stevia gives the recipe a sweet taste, but the volume of the sugar needs to be replaced. If your recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, we suggest using 1/3 c. plain apple sauce, apple butter, plain yogurt, powdered milk, sour cream, cream cheese, (or whatever else you think will work) as the volume replacement."

She went on to say:

"Also, Stevia is safe for cooking and baking, and heat stable to over 400 degrees. In baking, the only real difference from sugar is that stevia doesn’t caramelize or activate yeast."

I, for one, am glad to get the suggestions about good volume replacers in stevia recipes. Thanks, Mariam!

If you're ready to get started with stevia, go here for a great SweetLeaf equivalency chart to help you as you replace sugar with a healthier alternative.

The Wonderful World of Stevia

2008-02-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

Five years ago if I had been writing a post about stevia it probably would've been titled "The So-So World of Stevia." When I first heard about this natural, sweet herb, I was initially really excited about it. Not only was it 300 times as sweet as sugar, but it was calorie and carbohydrate free. For a person like me who easily gains weight if I overdose on carbs, this sounded perfect.

The first step to entering the world of stevia was to actually buy some. I eyed it several times at our health food stores, but I had a hard time forking out the cash. It came in tiny containers that were over $10. When bags of sugar could be purchased for pennies, this was tough to reconcile in my mind. Finally, though, I took the plunge and bought my very first container of white stevia powder. I went with what seemed to be the top name brand - SweetLeaf.

When I got home I set out to make some stevia cookies right away. The results were less than what I'd hoped for and I was disappointed. The flavor of stevia seemed strong and almost bitter. I looked for more recipes on-line and tried a few other things like chocolate cheesecake bites, which also didn't live up to my expectations.

For two years, I experimented off and on with stevia powder, and was usually underwhelmed by my creations. Later, I found liquid stevia for sale by SweetLeaf, and tried it with my tea. Now that I could handle. It only took 4-5 drops in a cup of tea to create a pleasantly sweet drink without any weirdness in taste.

Not long after this that I found out about agave nectar. Agave became my sweetener of choice. Not only did it taste like sugar, but it also acted a lot like sugar in most recipes so that I could bake all my favorite desserts again (stevia, because it lacks bulk, caused problems in my recipes - many things turned out flat and dense). While I adored agave, I still faced the same problem as before - I was eating too many carbs, making weight loss and weight maintenance difficult. Because it is a fruit sugar, agave still has lots of carbs. It's nicer than most sweeteners because it has less effect on blood sugar, but other than that benefit, my baked goods were still jam-packed with carbohydrates.

Two years ago for Christmas my husband got me this stevia cookbook. Some of the recipes called for very obscure ingredients, or combined stevia with other sweeteners, but there were a few gems that I have made again and again. The Frozen Strawberry Cream and the Mexican Wedding Cakes recipes are worth the cost of the cookbook! I was encouraged that there really are some excellent stevia uses out there.

The main thing I've learned about stevia usage over the years is that it's better to use a little than to use too much. If you use too much stevia, it will ruin the recipe. The key is in finding the perfect amount for your particular recipe, which may take some experimentation. I've also found that stevia works well with certain types of foods. I love it in drinks, sauces, marinades, and in some baked goods.

Something else I've learned more recently about stevia is that it does take some getting used to. It's not sugar. I had to get my brain wrapped around that concept before I could learn to accept it. I had wanted it to be sugar. It can't be sugar, but it can sweeten food. When I first started using stevia I had a hard time with the taste. Now? I actually enjoy the taste! I can eat something sweetened with stevia and think "Mmm, that's stevia." and actually like it. I guess it makes sense that after almost 30 years of using sugar for my sweetening needs, that it would take some time to accept something different. I owe much of my stevia appreciation to my husband, who wouldn't give up on it. Even when I'd thrown up my hands in frustration after countless attempts to use it, he pressed on, and began doing his own recipe experimentation.

I have many stevia recipes now and look forward to finding even more. It is such a versatile sweetener; it's not just for desserts either. You can add a few drops to pizza sauce, or shake a little into your taco meat mix, or into soups or stews.

I love how stevia is finally becoming more mainstream. At health stores it's usually in the "supplements" section (since the FDA has not recognized it as a sweetener... there's plenty of controversy on that topic out there if you want to do your own Google research). But at stores like Trader Joe's, it's (rightfully, IMO!) in the baked goods section with the flour and honey and agave and vanilla.

One final thing worth mentioning here is that not all stevias are equal. I still find SweetLeaf brand to be the best, most reliable company for stevia. It also tastes better, with less chance of that bitterness I discussed earlier. There are some less expensive brands out there to be sure, but they often include fillers, and sometimes even added sweeteners.

I will be sharing some of my favorite stevia recipes here for you.

For starters, here is my:

Easy Pizza Sauce

1 can (15 oz.) sugar-free tomato sauce
1 small can sugar-free tomato paste
1 Tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. fennel powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder (opt.)
10 drops liquid stevia

Mix all ingredients together in a small sauce pan, heat on medium until bubbly. Use immediately or refrigerate (or freeze) for later use.

Other easy stevia uses:

To sweeten a cup of tea, brew tea as you normally would, then add 3-5 drops liquid stevia and stir. You can do this with hot or cold tea.

Like chocolate milk? Try Stevita Delight. Mmmm. My husband got me some of this for Christmas and I love it. You mix 1-2 tsp. of Stevita Delight with 8 oz. of your choice of milk and shake it up or blend it up well.

If you have a favorite stevia use, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section!

Sweet Mustard Dressing

2008-02-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

I like to make my own sauces and dressings in order to avoid unwanted additives and refined sugars. Here is my favorite salad dressing recipe:

Sweet Mustard Dressing

6 Tbsp. cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. dijon mustard (any mustard you have on hand will work fine)
2 Tbsp. organic apple cider vinegar (you can substitute a variety of other vinegars if needed - organic white distilled vinegar and white wine vinegar have worked for me in a pinch)
2 Tbsp. agave nectar or honey
1 garlic clove, crushed

Place all ingredients in a container with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously until well-blended. Store in refrigerator and shake before using.

Sophie the Giraffe

2008-01-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

This time around with a new baby I decided to ditch the junky plastic baby toys I had collected with my other two. All the news headlines about lead in toys made me more aware of what my children were playing with and putting in their mouths. Around this same time I found out about BPA in plastics. These toxins made me want to find more natural toys for my children. I'm becoming more and more of a believer in the phrase "You get what you pay for." It seems to be true about many things, including toys. I like the idea of getting a few high quality toys for my children that will last and also be safe.

I am so excited to announce what I think is the best baby toy I've seen yet:

Sophie the Giraffe, by Vulli

Isn't she darling? I hope my daughter ends up loving her as much as I do. This toy is a dream. Sophie is made of natural rubber and food-based paint. She is imported from France and is apparently very popular there. She is soft and easy for tiny hands to grasp. She has interesting spots and dark black eyes that easily grab a baby's attention. My 7 week old gets a huge smile on her face when I put Sophie in her line of vision. Every review I've read about this toy has been overflowing with praise. People say their babies can't get enough of Sophie. She is an excellent teething toy, with several great places for a baby to suck or chew - the ears, the horns, the snout, and the legs. My daughter isn't quite ready to start grabbing for toys yet, but if we place Sophie in her hand she gets a greedy look in her eye, and with a slight smile she tries to suck on an ear, or whatever part she can find. Sophie also makes a cute squeak when she is squeezed. I envision this toy being a prized possession by my daughter in months to come. I'll be posting an update in a few months to report back.

I initially balked at Sophie's price, and decided to wait on purchasing one. But then last week we were at Disneyland and I saw a Sophie in a woman's diaper bag. I told her I'd read about it on-line, and immediately the woman began raving about it. She said it was the absolute best toy and that her daughter adores it. Their Sophie goes everywhere with them. After hearing that and seeing a Sophie in person, I was sold. The next day I had ordered one from Amazon and two days after that it arrived at our house. My boys were excited about it too, and quite disappointed that it was their sister's toy and not for them.

As far as baby toys go, Sophie is at the top of my list. I am also pleased with Haba toys, so be looking for a post about them soon.

Non-Toxic Sippy Cups

2008-01-19T12:07:00.000-08:00

We've been pleased with our Sigg bottles, but because of how expensive they are, I've wanted to have some cheaper cups on hand as well. Before my baby girl was born, I learned about BornFree cups. She was blessed to receive two of these trainer sippy cups from her grandparents for Christmas. I'm looking forward to trying them out. They are BPA-free and non-toxic.

While those are good for babies, I was still hoping to find some sippy cups for older children. Today I came across The Soft Landing, and discovered that most Nuby products are BPA-free! This was good news, since that's what Toosht has been using for his rice milk since he was 1 year old. The Soft Landing lists several other non-toxic sippy cups that I have never heard of before, but they look cool. The site also lists non-toxic bibs and utensils. I'm very excited about this!

If you're interested in winning a free "Safe Sippy" by Kid Basix, check out NatureMoms Blog to enter the drawing!

Sand Cups for a Pirate Party

2008-01-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

For Toosht's 2nd birthday yesterday, we had a pirate theme and I made Sand Cups for the dessert. I used chocolate pudding for the bottom layer, a homemade version of Cool Whip (my sister's recipe) for the middle layer, and crushed Barbara's Vanilla Snackimals animal cookies for the top "sand" layer. Colorful paper umbrellas were the finishing touch. I thought the Sand Cups were great, but they seemed almost too sweet to me. In the future a variation I may try will be to use plain whipped heavy cream rather than the Cool Whip recipe. It was rich and sweet and maybe didn't need to be so sweet with the already sweet chocolate pudding and crushed animal cookies. My boys and my guests didn't seem to mind the sweetness, however!

CHOCOLATE PUDDING

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 teaspoons arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Sift (so as to avoid clumps) the cocoa into a saucepan, then add 1 1/2 cups of the milk and the agave. Bring to a simmer, over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of the milk, arrowroot powder, salt, egg yolks, and vanilla in a bowl. Gradually whisk the hot mixture into the egg mixture. Return to the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat whisking constantly, until the pudding comes to a full boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, and continue whisking until thick, about 2 or 3 minutes more.

Pour the pudding into 6 small cups. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or ideally overnight until set.

(Note: I doubled the pudding recipe in order to have enough for everyone at the party.)

HOMEMADE COOL WHIP

1 c. heavy cream, whipped
10-12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. agave nectar

Cream together cream cheese and agave. Add the already whipped heavy cream and mix until combined. Chill until ready to use.

A note about Barbara's Snackimals... the only flavor without cane sugar is the Vanilla flavor.

Bug Birthday Party

2008-01-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Toosht's 2nd birthday is coming up this weekend, and I'm remembering the bug-themed party we threw for him last year. DH and I spent a couple of hours the night before the party decorating each bug cupcake uniquely with our naturally colored frosting. We used Panda licorice pieces for the bug heads. The cupcakes themselves were made using Martha Stewart's chocolate cake recipe (plus my modifications). We cut off the tops of the cupcakes, split the tops in half, and then put them back on the cupcake bases to resemble wings. To do the dots and lines with the frosting, we cut off the corners of plastic sandwich bags and squeezed the frosting out through the holes.

We also did a batch of cupcakes that were frosted normally, with white cream cheese frosting, and then we placed pretend frogs and bugs on top of them. I sewed a very simple tablecloth to add to the theme.

There were hors d'oeuvres too. We served ants on a log (celery topped with peanut butter and raisins), caterpillars (jack cheese, grapes, and carrots for the antennae), and lady bugs (dates and cherry tomatoes).

This was such a memorable party (for me, anyway!). It was so much fun preparing all these buggy treats in celebration of my precious little guy's first year of life.

Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls

2008-01-03T08:35:00.001-08:00

I've tried several cinnamon roll recipes over the past few years, and none of them were as good as I hoped they would be... until last year when I found a recipe on the Food Network. My sister and I have made these rolls more than once now, and while they do take a lot of preparation, they are so amazingly good for special occasions. I'm not sure why this recipe is better than the others I tried. I'm wondering if the trick is with the use of egg yolks.

Here were our cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning '07!

The recipe is here. Below are the modifications I made to the recipe.

For the dough I used:

1/4 c. agave nectar in place of the 1/4 c. sugar in the dough.

6 oz. goat milk + 3/4 Tbsp. white distilled vinegar in place of the buttermilk.

unbleached flour in place of all-purpose flour

sea salt in place of kosher salt

Also, a tip I got from my friend Leah, who is a culinary genius, is to use dental floss to cut the dough (instead of a serrated knife). The floss creates a really clean cut and is much easier than a knife.

For the filling I used:

1/2 c. agave nectar in place of 1 c. brown sugar

For the icing I used:

3 Tbsp. heavy cream (organic/raw cow or goat milk would've been fine here) in place of 3 Tbsp. milk

agave nectar to taste in place of 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar (I used MUCH less than 1 1/2 c. agave here... it doesn't take much agave to make the icing very sweet.)

Mock Toffee

2007-12-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

Mock Toffee was my comfort food of choice during the final month of pregnancy, and has also proven to be my comfort food of choice in the postpartum period! I can't get enough of it, especially when I spread cream cheese on in. So delicious! Lately I have been making it without nuts due to some nut allergies in our family, and it's just as tasty without the nuts. Here's the recipe:

Mock Toffee

1 c. brown rice syrup
1/2 c. butter
Midel graham crackers (or homemade)
grain-sweetened chocolate chips
pecan pieces (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line large cookie sheet with foil, butter heavily; Place crackers side by side to cover cookie sheet.

2. Combine butter and brown rice syrup in a saucepan and heat until they boil and bubble. Pour immediately over crackers; Bake 10-12 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and sprinkle surface with chocolate chips. Allow to sit for about one minute, then spread chocolate around with a spatula until all the crackers are coated. If using nuts, sprinkle over chocolate and press into chocolate with spatula.

4. Allow to cool and harden in refrigerator.

5. When cool, break into pieces and enjoy!

Agave Nectar

2007-12-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

I've had several people ask me for more information about agave in recent months. For a great overview about agave, I recommend reading Debra Lynn Dadd's write up on it here.

Agave is one of my favorite natural sweeteners because it tastes very much like sugar in recipes. It is a liquid, so it does behave a bit differently than granulated sugar. I usually use 3/4 c. agave for every 1 c. sugar in a recipe. Sometimes I'll go as low as 1/2 c. agave per 1 c. sugar, but I tend to prefer things less sweet.

I also like agave because it doesn't spike insulin the way refined sugars do.

As for where to get agave, you can find it at health food stores, but it's expensive. The cheapest way we have found to buy it is to order a case of it from Amazon. We usually buy Madhava Raw Agave Nectar. You can also order in bulk from Agavebythecase. On that site you enter in the products you are interested in buying and they e-mail you a quote for how much it would cost, shipping included.

At this time, according to Debra Lynn Dadd, Mexico is the only country that produces agave nectar (some have asked if it's possible to find agave produced in the U.S.).

Aromatherapy Candles

2007-11-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

Today at Wild Oats I discovered Aroma Naturals Candles. They are fabulous! There was a display for some of their holiday candles (scented with 100% plant aromas). I immediately fell in love with the "Wish" peppermint and vanilla scent. Yum! I also picked up an evergreen votive. I love having natural, seasonal scents in my home, and these candles are a welcome addition. Not only do they smell great, but they are aromatherapy candles, so they have an extra dimension to them. Hmmm, I wonder if I should get the candles called "Tranquility," "Serenity," and "Peace" to light when my little boys are bouncing off the walls?!

What will kids eat?

2007-11-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

I read this article yesterday, which details a study done by the University of Minnesota showing that when children were served healthier school lunches, the sales did not decline. I found this to be encouraging and I hope it will be eye-opening to parents (it certainly was to me). I've always found it disturbing that children's menus at restaurants rarely have healthy options. At a local seafood restaurant we like to visit, the children's menu only has deep fried options. Before I had kids, I wondered if that was because children simply would not eat things that weren't breaded and fried. According to this study, that belief is false.

Obviously, children will eat fried foods if that's all that is offered to them. Those foods are immediately pleasing to the palate for most people. But if kids never try the fried stuff, they will be much more likely to try a fresh, healthy option when they are hungry. I know this is true, because I see my boys eating broiled and poached fish on a weekly basis.

As the article stated, it takes more work and costs more to prepare foods in a healthy way. But how encouraging to know that if the effort is made, children WILL eat the healthy stuff.

Fantastic Cranberry Sauce

2007-11-24T17:25:00.001-08:00

I've always loved cranberry sauce, and this year I made some using agave nectar. Wow, it was delicious, and SO easy to make. We didn't have any cranberry sauce left over after Thanksgiving dinner. I ended up making an entire new batch so that we would have it to go along with our other Thanksgiving leftover foods!

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 c. water
3/4 c. agave nectar

Place cranberries, water and agave in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5-7 minutes until the cranberries have popped and sauce has thickened. Stir several times while the mixture is boiling. Allow to cool, then refrigerate.

A Chocolate Cake Recipe for All Occasions

2007-11-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Martha Stewart has a fantastic chocolate cake recipe that I have altered to fit my family's preferences. This cake can be used to make sheet cakes, frosted birthday cakes, cupcakes and more.

Here are my changes to the recipe:

*Instead of all-purpose flour, use unbleached flour.
*Instead of 3 c. sugar, use 2 or 2 1/2 c. agave nectar (I tend to use the smaller amount and the cake is still plenty sweet).
*Instead of buttermilk, use plain organic yogurt, OR use goat milk, organic milk, or raw milk with an added tablespoon of vinegar.
*Instead of vegetable oil, use virgin coconut oil (high oleic safflower oil would work well too).

I usually use my basic cream cheese frosting recipe when I frost this cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. butter, softened
4 T. honey or agave
1 t. vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Beat in honey or agave. Add vanilla.

For Tie-Dye's birthday last year I made a lion cake using this recipe. I got the lion idea from Martha Stewart's website as well. She used buttercream frosting to do the lion's face, and licorice for the whiskers. I just whipped up some organic heavy cream, liquid stevia, and natural yellow food coloring for the base of the lion's face and in between the two cake layers, and then used cream cheese frosting for the mane and face.

Tomorrow is Tie-Dye's 4th birthday, so today I will be making chocolate cupcakes. I'm going to try a little experiment and turn them into Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes. For the cheesecake filling I will use 6 oz. softened cream cheese, 1/4 c. agave nectar, 1 egg and 1/8 tsp. sea salt. I hope they turn out!

***As a side note I wanted to let you know that my posts may continue to be less frequent than usual this month and next, not only because it's a busy time of year with birthdays and holidays, but because I'm now 9 months pregnant and my baby is due in 23 days! Once the baby has arrived and we're all settled I should be able to resume more regular posts. Thanks for your patience!

Chili for an Autumn Evening

2007-10-31T15:35:00.000-07:00

It is our annual tradition to have crock pot chili on the evening of October 31st. We like to eat it with organic corn chips and organic sour cream. The house smells so good right now as it cooks. I can't wait for tonight!

Chili in a Crock Pot

3 cans tomato sauce (sugar free)
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 medium onion
2 cups pinto beans, cooked
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 stalk celery, chopped finely
2 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1/2 Tbsp. oregano
1/2 Tbsp. basil
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 c. beef stock or water
ground pepper, to taste
10 drops liquid stevia (optional)

Brown ground meat with chopped onion in a large skillet. Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low all day (approx. 8 hours).

Good toppings include chopped lettuce, scallions, fresh spinach, grated cheese and sour cream. Eat with corn chips.

Another Pumpkin Recipe

2007-10-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

Here is another recipe we have been enjoying this season. I like it because you can really taste the pumpkin, and it's so moist.

Pumpkin Bars (aka Pumpkin Cake)

4 eggs
1 c. agave nectar
1 c. virgin coconut oil
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
2 c. unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a bowl, mix the eggs, agave, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Separately, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.

Spread the batter evenly into an ungreased 9x13 dish. Bake for 25 minutes in preheated oven.

These can be enjoyed plain or topped with whipped cream cheese, or topped with a cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!

Hot Dogs

2007-10-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

It's becoming more common and mainstream to see hot dogs and sausages labeled "nitrate free" these days. Even Costco sells some nitrate free meats now. While this is a step in the right direction, I think it's still important to be cautious when buying these products. Again, make sure to read the ingredient label! I've been disappointed so many times when finding a product that looks great on the front, only to turn it over and read that it still contains sugar or dextrose, along with other additives. So many of the nitrate free hot dogs still contain plenty of other ingredients I wouldn't want my family to eat. And I have to wonder why would they add sugar to hot dogs, of all things? The only reason I can think of is that we as a culture have become so addicted to the taste of sugar that we need to have it in everything, including hot dogs.

There are two brands of hot dogs that I deem acceptable for my family. Shelton's Turkey Franks and Applegate Farms Hot Dogs. Of these two, I find the Applegate Farms Hot Dogs to be superior in taste and texture. Applegate has beef, chicken, and turkey dogs.

A final note about hot dogs - When serving them to your children, PLEASE be sure to use safety guidelines by first slicing them lengthwise after cooking, and then cutting them into small, bite-sized pieces. And always supervise a child eating a hot dog. Hot dogs are a leading cause of choking deaths in children because the circumference of a hot dog is the same as that of a child's throat. A round hot dog chunk can act as a perfect plug. While children (and adults) of any age need to be careful, it is especially important to monitor little children. I know this firsthand because I choked on a hot dog as a small child. Fortunately my dad was right there and used the Heimlich Maneuver to save my life!

Quitting Sugar

2007-10-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

By Kelly Pinkham

I thought I'd share some of the things that helped me to get rid of my sugar addiction. And when I say "sugar," my definition is "refined sugar" (think white table sugar, sometimes called sucrose).

The key to quitting sugar is wanting to quit. You have to be convinced that it's bad for you, and that it's harming your body in order to stop. It reminds me of losing weight. In the end, no one can make you lose weight. It's ultimately your own responsibility and your own drive and desire that will make it happen. Many people don't think sugar is bad enough to quit, or they think they don't really eat a lot of it, and that the supposedly small amounts they have are harmless. If you have yet to be convinced of the negative effects of sugar, check out 146 Reasons Why Sugar is Ruining Your Health.

Once you're convinced that you need to quit sugar for your health, you then have to remove it from your diet, and that can be very difficult depending on the levels of sugar you've been consuming regularly.

There are some key steps to the process of removing sugar from your diet:

Step 1 - Read the label on every food item you buy. Reading the front of the package won't suffice. The fronts of food packaging can be very misleading. They can make you think you're buying something healthy. Take bread, for example. I used to buy bread that said it was "all natural and whole grain." But when I turned the loaf over to read the actual ingredient label, I was shocked to find that it contained a huge list of ingredients including sugar, corn syrup, and even partially hydrogenated oil. This was the case with so many items I normally bought. Frozen fruit, dried fruit, chips, crackers, even cheese and hot dogs. At first I felt frustrated. I remember thinking, "There's sugar in everything! How can I avoid it?" You may also be thinking "The amount of sugar in the bread can't be that high. As long as you avoid adding sugar to everything and don't have blatantly sugary things you'll be fine." I have to say that if you think this way, you will probably never quit sugar. I went through a period of time where I had this mentality. The problem is that if you allow a little sugar here and a little there, it still adds up, and your body is still taking it in and you are still feeding the addiction. During the time when I did this, I would sometimes allow myself to indulge in a sugary dessert at a work function, or when I went out to eat. Again, I was thinking just once in awhile would be okay. I did great at first, but it quickly became more than once in awhile. Soon it was happening frequently, until there I was, right back where I started. That's how it was with sugar for me, and most likely for you too. I got the taste in my mouth and then I wanted more. There is also the common statement: "I only eat sugar at special occasions." I don't know about you, but I have a lot of special occasions in my life. Lots of birthdays, lots of holidays, lots of get-togethers. Those special occasions really added up, and because they happened frequently and all throughout the year, I was never really getting a break from sugar. I usually overindulged during those times too. When I saw a dessert, my body and mind immediately told me I wanted it.

Step 2 - Stop eating out. This is a step that usually takes some time. Myhusband and I had to wean ourselves off some of our favorite restaurants very slowly. Unfortunately, most restaurant foods contain sugar. Every sauce and dressing will have sugar in it. Every bread, baked good, and tortilla will probably have sugar too. And beware... even meat will contain sugar when you go to a restaurant! Once, when I called Taco Bell headquarters to find out the ingredients in some of my favorite menu items, I was told by the customer service rep that the meat contained sugar. I used to think Chik-fil-A was a healthy fast food restaurant. After all, they served chicken breast sandwiches. Chicken breasts are the hallmark of a healthy diet, right? Looking on their website way back when, I read that the chicken breasts themselves contained sugar in the seasoning, along with other ingredients (including artificial flavoring) I wouldn't have expected to find in the meat itself. I thought I was just getting a plain chicken breast! Even Subway's meats are filled with unhealthy ingredients (sugar, soybean oil, corn syrup, etc). You can read the ingredients on their website. Avoiding restaurants, especially at the beginning of your quest to quit sugar, is very important. You may find a restaurant or two that really can serve you a meal without sugar. Over the years we've found a few that we can trust. But in the beginning you really do need to stay away from restaurants while you're working so hard to free your body of the sugar addiction.

Step 3 - Get creative! Stop saying "I could never give up my favorite dessert" (or whatever item it is that you love). Instead of thinking that way, come up with an alternative way to make whatever item you feel you can't live without. I thought I would never be able to give up Boboli pizza, or cookies, or ice cream, or plenty of other tasty foods traditionally made with sugar. I had to experiment with natural sweeteners in my recipes. I scoured the internet for ideas and meticulously searched the aisles of health food stores. Eventually, I had recipes for most of the things I loved. It took time and it took some failed attempts, but it was fun at the same time, knowing I was eliminating a toxin from my diet for good.

There are so many benefits to eliminating sugar. One benefit is that after you have truly kicked the addiction, you will no longer desire sugar. This has been a huge benefit for me. I used to look at a dessert menu, or watch other people eating sugar foods, and nearly drool, always thinking how good it looked. I can honestly say that this never happens now. Once you're off refined sugar, your body realizes it doesn't need it. (For you scientifically minded people out there, yes, our bodies do need sugar, but the body converts carbohydrates into the sugar we need. We certainly don't need to add extra, as made obvious by the obesity epidemic and diabetes epidemic we are facing in the U.S.) I've had people apologize to me for eating sugary foods in front of me, thinking they're being a stumbling block. But it really doesn't bother me and it's no longer a hardship on my part. I have no problem turning down foods that I know contain sugar. They don't even taste good to me anymore. That's a huge step in and of itself. Before you get off the sugar habit, you will think sugary foods taste so delicious when you let yourself have a bite. This can change. If I ever get an accidental taste of sugar in a food, my mouth quickly feels gross and has a bad aftertaste and I feel like I want to brush my teeth immediately. Sugar has become a foreign object.

This doesn't mean I've lost my desire for delicious, sweet tasting treats by any means. I love special occasions and times when I make cookies or fudge or toffee with my alternative recipes. I love eating the wonderful foods my friends make who share the same food values. I think an additional benefit to getting off sugar is that things no longer have to be as sweet in order to satisfy the sweet tooth. There are desserts my family loves that the average sugar-eating person may not think are sweet enough.

When it comes to children, the very best way to protect them from sugar addiction is to never start them on it in the first place (this includes when they are in the womb). They will love the less-sweet things you make for them if their tongues haven't been tainted by sugar. One of my friends, who is the 2nd of three daughters, had parents who were health-conscious even back in the 70's. They read about how sugar was bad and decided not to give it to their first child during her first two years of life. After she turned two she did start to have some sugar, and her younger siblings ate sugar earlier than age two. But my friend tells me that her older sister has never craved sweets the way the other two sisters do. Even at Halloween she would eat a little of her candy and the rest of it would sit and never get eaten.

Dr. Sears has written about similar results with his own children. He and his wife didn't give their children refined sugar, and when the children were older, Sears observed how they would often turn down sugary foods, or only have a very small amount, and after eating it they would say it made their tummies hurt.

These examples have encouraged me to keep my kids' diets free from sugar while they are little and I can still control everything they eat. Someday when they are older and making their own choices, hopefully they will never have developed an addictive need for sugar and will gravitate toward more natural foods. I know this has certainly been the case for me, but it was harder since I had to wean myself first before enjoying the benefits. How great it would be to start with a clean palate from the very beginning. If your children are already addicted to sugar, it's not too late. You can slowly wean from it as a family. Turn it into an exciting journey you can embark upon together!

Lil' Pumpkin Cakes

2007-10-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Last year we started what I hope will be a new tradition, when we ate cute mini pumpkin cakes after our trip to the pumpkin patch. It was the perfect way to end our lovely autumn day.

These cakes are so much fun to make! To get the round pumpkin shape, I used the mini fluted stoneware pan by Pampered Chef (which I don't see on their website right now, so I don't know if it's available any longer). However, you can use any mini-bundt style pan, or use two regular sized bundt pans and make one big pumpkin cake. You may need to adjust your baking time for larger cakes.

Lil' Pumpkin Cakes

1 1/2 c. agave nectar
1/2 c. unsweetened organic applesauce
1/2 c. cold pressed olive oil or organic virgin coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
2 c. unbleached flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

**Cream cheese frosting and natural orange food coloring (see Jack-O-Lantern cookie post for frosting recipe)

**Cinnamon sticks and fresh mint leaves for decoration.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour mini-fluted pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In large bowl combine agave, apple sauce and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, then beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread batter into prepared pan/pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Allow to cool.

After cakes have cooled, place one cake upside down and spread a good layer of frosting on the flat part that is facing up. The frosting should act like glue so that when you set another cake right side up on top of the first cake, they will stick together. Then frost over the "pumpkin" shape until covered as desired.

Cut a cinnamon stick into small pieces and stick into the center of each cake to make the "stem." Garnish with fresh mint leaves for the "vine."

Happy baking, and Happy Fall!

Natural Food Coloring

2007-10-04T11:22:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in the Jack-o-Lantern post, I use Seelect natural food coloring for all of my special baking projects. I was so thrilled to find these food colorings. Before I found them I was trying to make my own food coloring, which was fun, but time consuming. For instance, I boiled beets to get a red liquid which, when mixed with my cream cheese frosting, created a nice pink color for Valentine's Day cookies.

I do need to say that if you're expecting natural food coloring to work the same way artificial food coloring works, you will be disappointed. The colors are definitely not as bright, and they don't mix with each other the way the artificial ones do. If you try to mix natural blue and natural yellow, you won't get green. Trust me, I've tried!

But if you are looking for a healthy alternative to artificial food coloring, and are open to a more natural look on your baked goods, you will be very pleased. I've frosted lots of cakes, cupcakes and cookies with natural colors, and they look great and bring joy to my boys' faces, which is what matters most to me. Plus, I know I'm not feeding them chemicals in their birthday desserts!

In my experience, the best Seelect colors are Yellow, Orange, and Red/Blue. I have tried the Blue, but it has always looked like a very dull purple for me. The Red/Strawberry has also turned out too dull for me, looking like a light brownish pink. Yellow is very true yellow and works great. Orange is also very true and I use it a lot in the fall for all my pumpkin-y treats. The Red/Blue doesn't end up looking red, but it does create a pretty darkish, bright purple color (I've found that this one looks prettier if the frosting sits in the fridge overnight). I have yet to try Brown and Red/Pink, but am curious about how they would work. I haven't found a good Green either, though I've tried by boiling spinach and other veggies! Still working on that one...

Over the next couple of months I'll be posting pictures and recipes for a few of the natural food coloring creations that I've done for my boys' birthdays and for other holiday celebrations, so be sure to check back!

Jack-O-Lantern Cookies

2007-10-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

October is here! This time of year I start thinking about the great scents and tastes of the season. Pumpkin is one of my favorites. I enjoy coming up with special treats for my family to match the time of year. Last year I made these jack-o-lantern cookies and will most definitely make them again.

To make the cookies, use the Sugar Cookie recipe from Sweet Savvy and cut them out with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter. Once you have baked the cookies, you can use any frosting recipe you like. I prefer to use a simple cream cheese/butter recipe:

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. butter, softened
4 T. honey or agave
1 t. vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Beat in honey or agave. Add vanilla.

Color the frosting to your liking using Seelect Natural orange flavoring.

You can frost the cookies and leave them as plain pumpkins, or you can use grain-sweetened chocolate chips to create the jack-o-lantern faces.

How My Family Eats

2007-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

For about five years, we have followed the eating and lifestyle plan of Dr. Diana Schwarzbein. Usually when I say that to people, their eyes glaze over or they say "Huh?" Her name itself is kind of a mouthful. But the truth is, her eating plan is awesome! It would be impossible to explain all the intricacies of her plan in one post. That's what her books are for. But I wanted to give a brief overview.

In her newest book The Program, she begins by saying "You need to be healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to be healthy." What a statement in a world where people want a quick fix. People (including me) don't usually like to change. We'd rather have an easy way out of health or weight problems rather than actually having to do something. It took me a long time to come to this realization. I struggled with weight beginning in high school. Eventually I tried Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers does work if you follow it correctly. You will most certainly lose weight. And I do think it encourages people to look at their portions and think about how they can have more control over the amount of food they eat. However, I have never met a single person who has done Weight Watchers who hasn't eventually gained all their weight back again. This was true for me. The plan works for as long as you do it, but no one wants to starve for their entire life, and they eventually fall off the plan.

This is why I love Dr. Schwarzbein's program so much. It's not a quick-fix plan. It is truly a life-changing program. It's not just about losing weight, either. It's about having a healthy lifestyle, and healing the damage that has been done to the body from poor eating and lifestyle habits.

In a nutshell, Dr. Schwarzbein's program focuses on Healthy Nutrition, Stress Management, Eliminating Toxins, and Smart Exercise.

Healthy Nutrition means eating with balance. You don't have to count calories with this plan. You don't have to feel hungry. She encourages meals and snacks throughout the day. One misconception many people have about this is plan is that it is a low-carb plan. I would say that it is a "healthy carb" plan. You eat plenty of carbs, along with a balance of proteins, fats and vegetables, but the carbs are good carbs. Schwarzbein calls these "real carbohydrates." She defines real carbohydrates as ones that can be grown, picked or harvested.

Stress Management is part of her plan because stress can affect our hormones in significant ways. She encourages adults to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. This is one of the most difficult parts of her plan for me at this time in my life. But she does address the fact that parents with young children and new babies will probably not be able to achieve uninterrupted sleep! Even though I can't follow this part of her plan perfectly right now, I still know it's important to have downtime and to try to relax and breathe deeply and find a way to deal with stress.

Eliminating Toxins may be the hardest part of the plan, especially when you first start. The toxins she's referring to are refined sugars, artificial sugars, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and medicines. For most people this is very difficult, and definitely doesn't happen overnight. It probably took us 2-3 years to eliminate sugar completely. I would tell anyone beginning this plan to take baby steps. Over time it will get easier!

Smart Exercise means a moderate plan of resistance and flexibility exercises. Cardiovascular exercise, when done to the extreme, can actually cause serious health problems and breaks down the body. She recommends cardiovascular exercise only for fun if you plan to do it at all. I love her exercise plan, and when I actually do it, I feel so great. This is the most difficult part of the plan for me while pregnant. But the nice thing about her exercises is that they are great for easing into after pregnancy, and have helped me after my last two pregnancies to obtain a healthy body composition afterwards.

There are many, many more details that make up Dr. Schwarzbein's plan. As I said, this is just a brief overview. I highly recommend her latest book The Program. It contains everything you need to get on the healing track for your body. She provides lists of all the staple foods you should have in your kitchen and pantry, how to balance your meals properly, and even several meal-plan options to get you started. She also includes a section with easy exercises you can follow to strengthen your body.

People who are resistant to the way my family eats will say things like "I could never do that because I like to enjoy what I eat." I've had people look at my plate, often filled with vegetables, with disdain, or with "I feel so sorry for you" looks and comments.

Well, if you know me personally, you know that I am quite the food-lover! Baking and cooking and food appreciation are hobbies of mine. I wouldn't stick with a plan if I didn't enjoy the food I was eating, believe me. Something DH and I have found is that over time, our palates have actually changed. Once, they were tainted by artificial flavors and sugar addictions, making more natural foods seem bland and unappealing. Now that sugar is gone from our diets, we taste the true flavors of the wonderful, natural things God has created. I don't think I would have said green beans tasted sweet when I was younger, but now when we eat steamed green beans, we both marvel at how they sweet they are! Or what about sweet potatoes? In the past I only liked them if they were covered in marshmallows and a sugary sauce. I have discovered that they are called "sweet" potatoes for a reason. They really are sweet, all by themselves, if your tongue isn't tainted by the addictive need for more sugar!

I believe if you follow Schwarzbein's plan and truly eliminate toxins from your diet, you will come to enjoy real, natural foods just as much as we have. It will open up a whole new world of food for you. You may think that a life of eating processed, sugary foods is so much more enjoyable, but when you put that behind you, you could be pleasantly surprised at what you find!

The Dangers of Soy

2007-09-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

There are mixed messages about soy. One side says soy is great for your health while the other side says it's overrated and can be very dangerous, especially when processed to the extreme degree that the Western world has processed it. There is now scientific evidence to show that soy can lead to a variety of problems including improper thyroid function, fertility problems, breast cancer and a new study even linking soy to the growing rate of leukemia in children. Soy is high in estrogen, a hormone, which can explain why it is so harmful, especially in kids.

Children are starting puberty earlier and earlier. I don't need research to tell me that (though I've read plenty). I see it for myself all the time. Nine and ten year old girls are developing already, looking years older than they really are. What else could be the cause of this other than an excess amount of hormones in their diets?

In his very telling article Soy is making kids 'gay,' Jim Rutz writes of even more problems with soy, and with the way it is consumed in our country. Another incredible article from Mothering.com reveals the not-so-healthy underbelly of the soy industry, and how we as consumers have been misled. It also addresses the common arguments for soy such as: "Asian cultures have been eating soy for centuries and they are healthy."

I used to love soy and believed it was good for me. For a time, I drank soy milk everyday and enjoyed soy protein bars often. It's interesting to me, looking back, that that was also the time I wanted to get pregnant with my first baby. I couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to get pregnant! During that same time I learned that I was dealing with an issue involving my thyroid. It was then that I began researching about thyroid problems, and discovered that soy consumption can be responsible for those issues. Reading labels on food items showed me that soy is in so many things. Soy protein isolate is one of the most common ingredients in so-called "healthy" American snacks.

All soy is not equal. In her book Natural Prescriptions for Common Ailments, Dr. Carolyn Dean explains that in Asia, soy is used in the fermented state (tempeh, miso, soy sauce). "In the West," she states, "it is not fermented soy that is being heavily advertised and marketed. Soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein are used in protein powders and meat substitutes. But the extensive processing to reach a final product makes it not only toxic, but the antinutrients are preserved!" (p. 184) Dean goes on to tell of a group of scientists who are lobbying to have soy formula removed from the market because they are so concerned about soy's effects on children.

Our family doctor is very supportive of natural living and a healthy diet, but she has told me quite plainly that I should not give my children soy milk as an alternative to dairy. She suggested rice milk or almond milk, and warned that the latest medical research continues to show that soy milk is not a good alternative.

The Mothering.com article I linked to above concludes with this:

The bottom line is that the safety of soy foods has yet to be proven, and that human beings have become guinea pigs in what Daniel M. Sheehan, formerly senior toxicologist with the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research, has called a "large, uncontrolled and basically unmonitored human experiment."

We don't fully understand soy's hormonal power. With the mountains of evidence already existing about its dangers, I certainly don't want my children to be a part of that "human experiment."

A Healthier Home Part IV - Cookware & Bakeware

2007-09-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

When DH and I were choosing items for our wedding registry, we didn't give a thought to which things were safer and better for cooking. We picked whatever looked the coolest and nicest. The first time we ever questioned our cookware was when we were given a George Foreman indoor grill. We loved using it and used it often. Then we started hearing about how Teflon products were carcinogenic. We learned that while the nonstick Teflon coating is reportedly safe, if it chips at all it can get into the food and be ingested (and from my own experience I've found that Teflon seems to chip pretty easily). The FDA stated that these ingested chips wouldn't cause harm, but when have I ever fully trusted the FDA anyway, considering that they allow saccharin and aspartame on the market? We felt convinced that we should avoid Teflon just to be safe, so we got rid of our indoor grill (and missed it for a while...but got over it!).

I found several lists on the internet determining the pros and cons for different kinds of cookware and concluded that the best options are hard-anodized aluminum, cast iron, glass (Pyrex), and stoneware. I certainly was relieved to find out that, quite unknowingly, DH and I had chosen hard-anodized aluminum pots and pans by Calphalon for our wedding registry years before. It was nice to know these expensive items wouldn't have to be replaced.

But what about bakeware? I still had nonstick cookie sheets and a cheap, rusted cooling rack. There had to be something better for baking. I discussed this with my cousin and she mentioned that Pampered Chef has a line of stoneware products. A visit to their website confirmed this. I was giddy with excitement as I browsed all the options! My cousin then suggested I have a Pampered Chef party so that I could get discounts on the products I wanted. Genius! I did just that, and before long I was the happy owner of some lovely stoneware pieces, which have proven to be some of our favorite kitchen items.

We use our round mini bakers practically everyday. The round pizza stone gets used at least once a week, if not more. Any time I bake muffins I use the stone muffin pan. The fluted mini bundt pan is an item I especially love. I don't use it incredibly often, but when I do use it I have so much fun! I was a little intimidated at first, thinking stoneware would take a lot of maintenance, but I've found that it is easy to clean and the more you use it, the more it naturally become nonstick.

If you are interested in purchasing stoneware, I suggest making sure you are getting it from a reputable place, where they can state in writing that no lead is used. I know there are sometimes cute and inexpensive pans and dishes at discount stores. Unfortunately, these are more than likely laden with lead (the same goes for tableware, cups and mugs).

I don't own any cast iron items yet, but I plan to get a large cast iron griddle that can cover the length of two burners on my stove. With my family growing as it is, I'm going to need something big for when I cook multiple burgers, pancakes, french toast, grilled sandwiches, quesadillas and more!

Supplements

2007-09-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of options for children's supplements. I remember the fruity multi-vitamins I took sometimes as a child. Most of the children's vitamins I have seen in regular stores contain sugar or artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors and colors.

I've often wondered if it's really necessary to give my kids supplements, but I'm coming to see more and more that we're in greater need of them than past generations. Dr. Schwarzbein says we have damaged our food supply by processing most of our foods and depleting our soil of many essential nutrients. She states that chemicals and toxins surround us daily, which require antioxidant protection.

At this point I don't give my boys a multi-vitamin, but I want to start as soon as I find a brand I like (suggestions are welcome!). They currently take Hyland's Vitamin C Tablets daily (this is an exciting event for them because we serve up their tablets in a little treasure chest that they each get to open to reveal their "buried treasure"). Another supplement I'm very interested in starting for them is fish oil. The benefits of taking fish oil are so great (improved brain function and development, for one!). I know they benefited from it when they were breastfeeding since I take fish oil, but now that they are both weaned I want them to continue receiving all the benefits. I'm extremely interested in Dr. Sears' new GO FISH Children's Omega-3 supplement. Of course, it's expensive, but after looking at Wild Oats and Henry's, GO FISH looks to be the best children's fish oil out there. I asked our family doctor about it and she said it was definitely a smart idea and that Dr. Sears' brand would be good.

While fruits and vegetables may not be as nutritious as they used to be, I still try to give the boys a variety of quality produce. Blueberries are very high in antioxidants, so I'm always happy when they eat them. They'll usually eat them in oatmeal or rice grits, and they even like to have them straight from the freezer as a cold treat (be forwarned - their fingers get stained purple when they handle frozen blueberries!).

I'm interested to hear what supplements you give your children. Do they take them regularly? Do you give them certain supplements when they are sick?

A Healthier Home Part III - Cleaning Products

2007-09-17T12:38:00.001-07:00

If I wanted to have a healthier home I knew I needed to reevaluate my cleaning products. I was certain that the products I was using were toxic and dangerous. And even if I did store them out of reach of my children, how was I to know what harm they were causing just by using them in my home? It was, and still is, an ongoing process, as I look for the best and the most affordable products. There are so many natural, non-toxic cleaning products out there, but many of them are expensive. I've had to try to find the right balance for our budget.

A product I've been using for a long time is Simple Green. I like how versatile it is, and that I can buy it in bulk and make up a spray bottle of it as needed. A more expensive product that I've tried is Seventh Generation's all purpose cleaner. When I first started using it I wondered if it was really doing anything because it didn't have a very "clean" scent like I was used to with the old products. We really do associate cleanliness with a strong smell (or at least I do!). I decided I'd just have to get over this association and know that if I was diligently cleaning my bathrooms once a week, even if they didn't smell like bathroom cleaner, they were still clean. This cleaner also didn't foam up and look impressive on the porcelain. If it wasn't foaming, was it truly cleaning? Yet again I knew I needed to get rid of the association. I eventually stopped using Seventh Generation because I couldn't afford it. Although looking on their website today I see they have coupons you can sign up for, so maybe I'll give them a try again!

Eventually I found Method cleaning products at Target. They were affordable and they were advertised as being non-toxic, safe around children, and safe for the environment, comprised mostly of natural ingredients you can pronounce. For this time in my life with the budget I'm on, this sounds perfect. I've been happy with Method products and feel comfortable using them while pregnant, and using them around my children.

Finally, I wanted to discuss something I think many of us don't even think about - dish detergent. I began to think about this when we moved into a house with a dishwasher and started using it on a regular basis. Every once in awhile there would be some residue from the detergent left on a plate or in a cup. I thought about the fact that we eat off of these things, so we should probably pay a little more attention to what we use to clean them. As seems to be the case with pretty much everything these days, there are plenty of alternative detergents out there that don't contain dangerous, toxic chemicals. We've been using Trader Joe's automatic dishwasher detergent for several years now and it has worked well for us (we also use Trader Joe's dish soap for hand-washing). A Google search will take you to all kinds of options. One concerned mom wrote an informative article about the dangers of dish detergent (among other household products), especially where children are concerned, here.

About a year ago I hosted a Pampered Chef party and I remember the consultant saying to all of us: "Did you know that your dish detergent is the most caustic thing in your house?" I was glad to know that we were using a safe alternative already when I heard that!

My First Holistic Dental Experience

2007-09-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

I experienced my very first laser dental cleaning yesterday. I was a little apprehensive beforehand since it was something I'd never done before, and isn't even standard practice in most dentist offices. But I had read enough about this holistic dental center to know it was something both DH and I would like.

Founded by Dr. Richard Hansen, the Comprehensive Dental Center is on the cutting edge of health in dentistry. I was surprised to find out that people come from all over the world just to be treated at the CDC! One woman recently came all the way from Saudi Arabia and stayed two weeks to have a complete mouth reconstruction done.

I really like that Hansen is focused not just on the mouth, but on the whole person. He sees how everything works together, and how the mouth is such an important part of a healthy, working body. His center uses only bio-compatible materials when doing dental work, which I think is totally awesome and wonderful. Whereas a standard dentist would drill into a tooth, removing not only the decayed section, but also good portions of the tooth in order to fill a cavity (thereby weaking the structure of the tooth), Hansen and his staff use high tech lasers to remove only the decayed area, leaving the rest of the tooth alone, and can then fill just that small section. At the CDC they don't use silver, mercury, porcelain, or any other materials that could leech back into the body and cause harm.

My visit was fun and relaxing. As soon as I walked in I was treated so well. There was a list of herbal teas at the front desk that were available while you waited, but I didn't even get a chance to sit down in the waiting room because I was immediately taken back and given a tour of the office. Because I'm pregnant, they didn't do full x-rays on me - just a limited x-ray on one tooth I thought might be having a problem. Even though they do digital x-rays, which use a considerably smaller amount of radiation, I felt totally protected. They first wrapped a full body shield around my stomach, tucking it in under me, and then placed not one, but two more shields over me. I felt like they were showing so much respect to me and to my baby by taking extra precautions, even with the safety of digital x-rays, and even with a note from my OB saying I was okay to have limited x-rays.

Next I had the great privilege of meeting Dr. Hansen. I didn't expect that I would be seen by the founder himself! He was so kind and gentle. He used a neat little camera in my mouth and we were able to see my teeth, larger than life, up on monitors. A flat-screen monitor was right in front of me so I got to view my teeth up close and personal. It was a little weird to be on the inside of my own mouth, but cool at the same time (now I know where I need to focus my tooth-brushing)!

After my brief exam (I'll have a full exam after the baby is born) I had my cleaning. Again, such a cool experience. The dental hygienist showed me the laser she would be using. The chair I sat in looked like a normal dentist chair, but I was delighted to find out it was a massaging chair. For the duration of the cleaning I had a massage while I sat there! It seemed more like I was at a spa than a dentist's office. She told me the rinse she was using was comprised of echinacea and essential oils of lavender and eucalyptus. The whitener she used was made of baking soda and sea salts. Music to my ears (and teeth)!

The cleaning itself was so amazing. I'm used to leaving a dentist's office with a sore mouth and gums from all the scraping, and a slight taste of blood along with the toothpaste sensation. This was so much different. The laser loosened the plaque without causing any pain at all. She only had to do minor scraping, and my teeth looked and felt so smooth and clean after. I don't see how anyone could go back to a regular dental cleaning after experiencing this.

Before I left I asked the dental hygienist what the CDC dentists thought about fluoride, since I had been reading things in the holistic world for awhile saying it is toxic and dangerous and has no business being given to children, or anyone. She said none of the dentists use it and they don't have any products in their office with fluoride. She told me of Dr. Hansen's extensive research and experience with fluoride, and how he had included a chapter about it in his book. They ended up letting me borrow their office copy of the book so I could read that chapter. I wish I could quote the entire chapter here, but instead I'll just encourage you to get a copy yourself. There is an incredible amount of information that every interested person should read. I was thoroughly convinced by his research and conclusions.

Pesticides in Produce

2007-09-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

I have on my fridge a "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce." DH and I are constantly referring to it. It lists the produce items that are highest in pesticides and should therefore be bought organically whenever possible, and the items lowest in pesticides, which can be bought conventionally if desired (though still washed thoroughly with a fruit and veggie wash).

Here is a wallet guide you can download, to post on your fridge and to keep in your wallet.

A Healthier Home Part II - Body Care

2007-09-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

While evaluating the many products I was using in my home, I also started looking at the things I was using on my own body and on my children's bodies. The lists of ingredients on my shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deodorant and toothpaste were surprisingly long and filled with words I'd never seen before. What exactly was I putting on my body?

For years I'd picked out the body products that smelled the best or had the prettiest packaging, without giving a single thought to the ingredients. My shampoo had to be okay, right? It was cucumber melon scented! A scan of the ingredients showed me there wasn't even a hint of cucumber or melon in the shampoo. It was time to do some more research. I learned that a common ingredient in shampoos, soaps and toothpastes is sodium laurel sulfate (or variations of that), which creates a nice foaming effect. While there is still controversy surrounding SLS, many studies have shown that it has a carcinogenic effect. It didn't take me long to decide I didn't want to use a cancer-causing chemical all over my body. It seems some companies already recognize the potential dangers of SLS, and even advertise their products as being "sodium laurel sulfate-free!" There really are plenty of natural body and hair cleansers out there if you look in the right places (Trader Joes stores carry their own nice shampoos and conditioners, and then of course the usual health food stores have them). Try brands like JASON and Avalon Organics for a start.

What about deodorant? My parents were the first in my family to read about the problems with aluminum in antiperspirants. Aluminum is coming up more and more in studies about Alzheimer's, and many other diseases as well. I recommend using a deodorant without antiperspirant. Yes, you will actually sweat, but the deodorant should take care of odor. I know the idea of sweating is very undesirable for many, but when you think about it, isn't that what our bodies were designed to do? Is stopping our body from doing something natural like sweating causing more problems than we even realize? I think it's very possible.

As for cosmetics, I used the cheapest makeup I could find for years - usually Cover Girl products. Once again, during pregnancy, I re-evaluated what I was using on my skin (pregnancy is so great for making you think about how you are taking care of your body!). The ingredients in my makeup didn't look so good. I saw aluminum on the list, along with many, many other chemical names and artificial fragrances and colors. I know our skin is absorbent, so that meant my skin was probably absorbing those chemicals. This was an extra concern to me due to a health problem I had developed over the course of several years that ended up requiring a very serious and major surgery. This experience caused me to want the most natural of products on my skin, since no one truly knows the effects all these synthetic ingredients can have underneath the skin, in our organs and glands. I thank my mom for discovering bareMinerals makeup, with their great slogan: "Make-up so pure you can sleep in it." That's exactly what I was looking for! It costs a lot more than my Cover Girl products did, but it lasts an incredibly long time. And it's pure and made of minerals. I love it! There are lots of other natural make-ups out there. Debra Lynn Dadd has a great list of natural body products on her website.

Toothpaste was one item we struggled with for a while, trying everything from brushing our teeth with natural soap (not a pleasant experience!) and tooth powder (okay, but rather difficult to use). We finally settled on JASON toothpaste for us and Weleda Children's Tooth Gel for the boys. I can't say enough about how great Weleda products are for babies and children! The tooth gel is fantastic, and we also love their diaper rash cream and calendula baby cream. Our family doctor told me she thinks the calendula cream is a wonder product! I couldn't agree more. Toosht had some really bad cradle cap during his first few months. I started applying this cream and it helped so much, plus, he loved having it rubbed on his head and face. He got this look of total bliss as DH or I would massage it into his soft, sensitive skin.

Since I was spending a lot more time in health stores, I was noticing a common phrase on many body products - "paraben free." I assumed parabens must not be good if companies were boasting that they were free of them. I learned that parabens are chemical preservatives widely used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Much like SLS, there is controversy about whether parabens really are dangerous. Here is one article warning of possible links to breast cancer.

We can't be completely sure that these chemicals are harming us, but why not avoid them if we can? It makes sense that the closer we are to nature, the better off we will be. Our bodies are natural, after all!

A Healthier Home Part I - Fabric Softener

2007-09-10T08:08:00.001-07:00

I've come to realize that I will never be able to take away all the potentially dangerous toxins from my home. A millionaire could do it, but an average family can't possibly afford to create a totally "green" home. And even so, it still wouldn't stop the neighbors from continuing to use products that include chemicals. In the world we live in, we can't avoid exposure to bad things, and we would go crazy if we tried to protect ourselves from every single cancer and disease causing agent in existence. This is why we can rely on God to be our ultimate protector!

That said, I do still believe there are some easy and practical things any family can do to create a healthier environment.

I first started putting more thought into this when I was pregnant with baby #1. As I cleaned my bathrooms, I looked at my cleaning products with new eyes. As I did laundry, I read the ingredients on the detergent for the first time. I was most definitely using products that contained strong chemicals. Common sense told me the strong, eye-watering and stinging scents coming from these products couldn't possibly be good for me to breathe or absorb into my skin. And how much more harmful would chemicals like these be for babies and children?

The first thing I stopped was my use of fabric softener. Research quickly showed me that this seemingly harmless product that millions of Americans use weekly is filled with chemicals, coloring, and artificial fragrance. I think many people are very attached to their fabric softeners. They've come to love the mountain fresh or spring rain smell of their laundry as they pull it out of the dryer, and they carry that smell around on them all day like a perfume when they wear their laundered and fabric-softened clothes.

There are all kinds of articles that describe the dangers of fabric softener use. Here is one I particularly like, because it also provides alternative ideas for those who are still concerned with static cling.

When I stopped using fabric softener I started noticing other people's fabric softener scents on their clothes, and I couldn't believe how strong the scent was, nor how artificial it smelled. Over time my nose had grown accustomed to the potent scent of my own fabric softener so that it was barely recognizable to me, but once I stopped using it, I sometimes felt overpowered by other people's fabric softeners. It no longer seemed pleasant to smell.

I did, however, desire my laundry to have some scent, and it wasn't long before I found some lovely bags filled with dried lavender flowers, made especially for use in the dryer. I love these bags, and I know even a person with the most limited of sewing skills could make her own. My laundry comes out smelling lightly and subtly like a meadow filled with lavender. It's not overpowering in any way, and to me that seems so much more natural and desirable to have on clothing that I will wear all day, or on towels I will use on my own body or on my boys' bodies.

As for static cling, I don't seem to have that problem very often with my laundry, but there are lots of homemade fabric softener recipes out there. I've tried one of them and liked it, but haven't made it lately since I don't use it on a regular basis. I may have to mix up a new batch as fall begins and I notice more static in my clothing.

Here's the recipe:

Homemade Fabric Softener

In a recycled gallon sized vinegar jug add 2 cups baking soda and 2 cups distilled white vinegar. When mixture finishes foaming, add 4 cups of hot water and essential oils to desired strength. (Try using 20 drops each of lavender and lemon.) Shake before each use and add about 1 cup for large loads in the rinse cycle. Essential oils can be found at health food stores locally and of course on the internet. They are a bit expensive but last a very long time.

PB (&J!) Cookies

2007-09-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

My friend Leah gave me this great natural peanut butter cookie recipe. I made them last night when we had company and they were a hit, as usual!

Peanut Butter Jam Jams

3/4 c. natural sweetener (brown rice syrup, agave nectar, or honey, or a combination - I did 1/2 c. agave and 1/4 c. brown rice syrup)
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. natural sugar free peanut butter (preferably organic)
1 T. milk or cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 c. unbleached flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Fruit jam or jelly (100% fruit, no sugar added)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine butter, peanut butter and sweetener in saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat and mix well, adding milk and vanilla. Whisk in egg.

In separate bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and stir until smooth and combined.

Drop heaping tablespoons full of cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet or stone. Using your thumb, make a gentle impression in the center of each cookie. (If the dough is sticking, try wetting your thumb.) Fill each impression with a small amount of jam or jelly, using a small spoon.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Yum Yum!

My Favorite Ketchup Recipe

2007-09-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ketchup was another item we initially gave up when we started our healthier lifestyle, but I soon found that Whole Foods carried a ketchup that was fruit-sweetened. I liked it and we bought it several times, but it was very expensive, and Whole Foods is quite a drive, so I learned to do without it.

Then I came across a wonderfully simple ketchup recipe that was easily altered to fit our diet. I love this recipe! When I make it I like to double the recipe, pour it into three different glass jars (that I've collected over time from other condiments), freeze two of the jars and keep one in the fridge. I have been making it more and more now that I have a child who likes sauces of all kinds.

Give it a try and see what you think!

Easy Homemade Ketchup

8 oz. sugar-free tomato sauce
6 oz. sugar-free tomato paste
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
1/4 c. agave

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate (freeze any extra). Refrigerated ketchup should stay fresh for about a week.

Soft Drinks

2007-09-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have never been a huge fan of soft drinks. When we gave up sugar and artificial sweeteners over five years ago, eliminating soda didn't feel like a loss. I know this is a big issue for some people, though, when they find out how my family eats (and drinks). I often hear "I could never give up Coke." and "How can you live without soda?" or "Your children will be so deprived if they can't have soda!" It turns out, folks, that there are some natural alternatives out there!

A few years ago a friend discovered Dr. Tima's Root Beer. Dr. Tima's is sweetened with honey and has a very small, simple list of all-natural ingredients. Coupled with Rice Dream vanilla ice cream (sweetened with brown rice syrup) we even made some fabulous root beer floats for Tie-Dye's birthday one year.

In very recent months, however, DH found what I think is an even better root beer. Virgil's Diet Root Beer is wonderful! It's sweetened with stevia and xylitol, making it incredibly low-carb. Only 2 carbs per bottle! This makes it the perfect treat to have alongside a more carby meal like pizza. We find our Virgil's at Mother's Market (Newport Beach, CA) and Henry's Farmers Market (various SoCal locations). I'm guessing it's also available at Whole Foods stores and other natural stores. Make sure to get the Diet version. The regular version contains sugar.

Reed's Premium Ginger Beer is another tasty soft drink, sweetened with honey. We get this occasionally and usually share a bottle between the four of us.

I've been following a news story about how Coca-Cola is planning on making a Diet Coke sweetened with stevia for the United States (they are calling stevia "rebiana"). The Japanese already have stevia-sweetened Diet Coke. I think this is a step in the right direction, but I still wouldn't want my kids to drink it everyday. Soft drinks contain high levels of phosphorus, which has been shown to weaken bones, especially in young girls (read more about the problems of phosphorus in soft drinks here.) It won't ever be a staple item in my fridge, but I would certainly allow it for special occasions, and I'm glad to see that major corporations like Coca-Cola are realizing they should make healthy changes in their recipes. Hopefully more and more companies will do the same.

Oreos

2007-09-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

This summer Tie-Dye participated in our church's Vacation Bible School week. As is my custom before my kids attend an event, I found out in advance that they would be having snacks in their classroom each evening, most likely cookies. I was a craft teacher for the preschool classes, so I decided I'd pack some cookies for Tie-Dye and then just scope out what kind were being provided for the rest of his class. They were given Oreos and some sort of yellow powder mix drink. The first night, Tie-Dye had the cookies I brought for him and his water. The following day I searched all over for a homemade Oreo cookie recipe and finally combined a couple different recipes and altered some things until I came up with this:

Homemade Oreo Cookies (aka Faux-Reos)

COOKIES:

1 cup agave nectar

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups unbleached all- purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder
FILLING:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

4 T. agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the agave and butter. Add the salt, egg, water, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Beat in the flour and cocoa until well combined; the dough should be very stiff.

Roll the dough into balls about the size of a shelled chestnut, or a “shooter” marble - the big marble you use to shoot at the little ones. Place the balls on parchment-lined or lightly greased cookie sheets and flatten each ball until it’s 1/8 inch thick, using the bottom of a glass dipped in cocoa powder. You may also use a cookie stamp, for a more realistic faux-reo effect. To get a nice crisp cookie, it’s important to press them thin use a ruler on the first one so you can see just how thin 1/8 inch is. (If you press them thinner than 1/8 inch, you run the risk of having them burn.) Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator to chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 18 minutes or until done. It’s important to bake them just the right amount of time: too little and they won’t crisp properly; too much and they’ll scorch. Watch them closely at the end of the baking time, and at the first sign of darkening edges or first whiff of scorching chocolate, remove them from the oven immediately: Remove the cookies from the baking pans and cool them completely on a wire rack.
To make the filling: Beat cream cheese and butter in mixer bowl until fluffy. Beat in agave to taste. Add vanilla and mix well.

The batch made a little over 100 wafers, so I could have technically made 50 Oreo sandwiches.

I just made Oreo sandwiches as needed and kept the rest of the plain chocolate wafers in the fridge for DH and the boys to snack on. They loved the cookies both ways.

Also, the recipe says to chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes, which I didn't do. The hardest part was pressing them out with the bottom of a glass because sometimes they would stick. I had to keep putting lots of cocoa powder on the bottom of the glass to help them not stick as much.

Tie-Dye was very pleased to have his special Oreos each night. On the second night, immediately after the children finished their cookies and drinks, three different children complained of tummy aches. One boy actually had to lie down and we had to get his dad to pick him up early. This was yet another confirmation to me that the packaged, processed foods our children are exposed to are not good for their little bodies.

Healthy S'mores

2007-09-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

In honor of Labor Day, I thought I would share our family's alternative S'mores recipe. This recipe was created two years ago for a 4th of July barbecue and is now a tradition for holiday meals. We've even done these over a barbecue pit at the beach.

Healthy S'mores

Mi-Del graham crackers
Bananas, cut into marshmallow sized chunks
Grain sweetened chocolate chips

Prepare "chocolate bars" in advance by melting grain sweetened chocolate chips on the stove top (a double boiler works best), then pour into a wax paper lined Pyrex dish and refrigerate until hardened. Break into chocolate bar sized pieces.

Roast banana chunks over an open fire or grill on a BBQ until they reach desired doneness.

Piece together your S'more by sandwiching a chocolate bar and a roasted banana between two graham crackers.

Kid Feed in Utero

2007-08-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

Eating healthy while pregnant has been an ongoing process for me that I continue to perfect. During my first pregnancy, DH and I were learning how to eat well. We still went to certain fast food restaurants occasionally, and I even remember partaking of some run-of-the-mill Costco desserts at my workplace. Shortly after Tie-Dye was born I called Taco Bell headquarters and asked for the ingredients of some of my favorite items. I was disappointed to find out that the taco meat contained sugar, and the tortillas had hydrogenated oil. Though it was difficult at the time, DH and I gave up Taco Bell for good. This encouraged us to come up with our own recipes to mimic Taco Bell food, and we developed a great Homemade Grilled Stuft Burrito recipe! (To view this recipe, click on the Comments section at the end of this blog post.)

By the time I was pregnant for the second time, my diet was substantially better. I no longer ate any refined sugar (until we went on a cruise during my seventh month and I know I ate sugar during that week!).

Now, during my third pregnancy, I've changed a few other things. This time I've been aiming for greater variety in my diet, including a lot more low mercury fish. For a great list of safe fish during pregnancy and child-bearing years check out the American Pregnancy Association's site. DH and I eat fish almost every morning for breakfast now. Another great benefit to this is that our boys eat more fish too. They love salmon or tuna sandwiches for lunch. We have been doing a 4-day rotation diet. This way we are constantly eating different fruits and veggies, proteins and whole grains. This is a big change for us. DH and I are both such creatures of habit. We would have been content eating our favorite same few things over and over again. Recently we've come to learn, however, that eating this way can cause the body to develop allergies to these foods. For instance, we used to eat eggs every day, often more than once a day. Same thing with cheese, spinach and wheat products. Now we are enjoying the tastes of new foods. Amaranth muffins, barley pancakes, corn grits, cream of buckwheat... it is a pleasant change to try new things!

As far as supplements go, I take one all-natural Rainbow Light pre-natal vitamin every morning, along with Carlson's fish oil and Vitamin C.

Something else I really enjoy, both when pregnant and not, is the delightful beverage called kefir. Kefir is packed full of pro-biotics (lots more than yogurt) and is great for the digestive system. Kefir is available in most health food stores, but you can make your own, as we do. For lots of great information about kefir check out Dom's Kefir site. My boys love it too, even though it's not sweet at all. It sort of reminds me of buttermilk.

Hopefully this new baby is benefiting from the varied diet I've been eating. There are no guarantees that anyone will have a healthy baby, but we pregnant mothers make a choice every time we put something into our mouths. We do have the power to eat the best foods possible while our babies are depending upon us for all their nutritional needs.

SIGG Bottles

2007-08-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

I began researching sippy cups for toddlers when Tie-Dye was under a year old. I kept coming across warnings about plastic and how it can leech chemicals into the water. But every sippy cup in existence seemed to be made of plastic. Then one day I stumbled across SIGG's website and was so excited to see they made children's bottles. They are made of light-weight aluminum, and the inside is coated with an FDA approved water-based lining that is guaranteed not to leech any aluminum. At the time, there weren't a lot of retailers selling these bottles in the U.S. Coincidentally, however, my dad happened to be in Europe at the time, and was going to Switzerland! I e-mailed him and told him about the SIGG bottles. When he came back to the U.S. he brought SIGGs for DH, me, and a cute Winnie the Pooh one for Tie-Dye.

Tie-Dye weaned at 18 months, and it was around that time that he started drinking rice milk, so we found a cute SIGG on Ebay for his milk. By the time Toosht came along it seemed to be a given that each of our kids would have a water SIGG and a milk SIGG. We found Toosht's at Whole Foods Market.

These bottles are great and last a long time IF you take proper care of them, which I admit, I did not. I used a regular bottle brush to clean them, and just recently noticed that the metal on the end of the bottle brush was scratching the inner linings. A whole lot of good that lining will do if it's scratched! I don't feel comfortable having our boys use the scratched bottles. Now I'm on a hunt for the best price for four new bottles, AND a SIGG bottle brush cleaner, made especially for the SIGG line. I think an Ebay store is going to be the best bet again. All in all I'm probably going to pay around $80 for the four bottles and the brush. To me, investments like this are totally worth it. Not only are we getting a quality product that lasts, but we are also protecting the health of our boys by avoiding plastic.

I am aware of a company that makes safe, plastic baby bottles and sippy cups. BornFree cups are made from a safe honey-colored plastic called Polyamide (PA) that is free of Bisphenol-A. Supposedly Babies R Us carries the cups, but I went today and they didn't have them and the woman running that department had never even heard of them. From the look of the cups on the BornFree website, they seem to me like they're more for older babies and young toddlers, and they are very expensive. I might consider trying one out with our third baby (coming this December!) if I can find one at Whole Foods, but my boys are used to their SIGGs and enjoy the fun, colorful scenes on their bottles. They also like the free flow of the drink, as opposed to many sippy cups that have a sort of vacuum on them, forcing the child to suck hard to get anything out. Again, good for babies, but not so good for older toddlers and preschoolers.

Graham Crackers

2007-08-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Since our kids don't go to nursery school or preschool, their first experience with childcare is at our church. Around age one they graduate from the nursery to the "Toddler room" where they play outside for awhile, then come in for a snack and story time. The "snack" is always Honey Maid graham crackers. That sounds pretty harmless and tame, right? Graham crackers are a fun snack that millions of kids have grown up eating. But when I read the ingredients for these graham crackers, I knew I couldn't let my kids eat them.

Here's the ingredient list for Nabisco Honey Maid graham crackers:

Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Sugar, Graham Flour, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Honey, Calcium Carbonate (Source Of Calcium), Leavening (Baking Soda, Calcium Phosphate), Salt, Emulsifiers (Vegetable Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin), Vanillin-An Artificial Flavor

Sugar, high fructose corn syrup AND partially hydrogenated oil! Not to mention the artificial vanilla flavoring! I felt sick thinking about these innocent one-year-olds being fed such addictive junk. It was time to find an alternative that I'd feel okay having my boys eat once a week at chuch. A trip to Whole Foods was all it took. I discovered Mi-Del honey graham crackers.

Here's Mi-Del's ingredient list:

Whole Wheat Flour, Honey, Unsulphured Molasses, Soybean Oil, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Salt, Soy Lecithin, Lemon Oil.

And my boys love them! Every Sunday morning DH packs up their little personalized Pottery Barn Kids lunch bags with containers full of Mi-Del graham crackers and off to church we go. They have never felt left out during snack time. The Sunday School teachers are informed that our boys can only eat snacks from their bags. They love their special crackers, and I have actually observed more than once other kids trying to sneak a taste of our boys' Mi-Dels!

Intro

2007-08-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

My two boys (hereafter known as Tie-Dye and Toosht) have never eaten at a fast food restaurant. Yes, that's right. They have no idea what lies beneath the golden arches. They've never heard the term "Happy Meal."

DH and I have chosen to raise our children on the most natural foods possible. We learned the hard way, growing up eating junk food, that those things are addicting and very difficult to wean from later in life. We want our boys to have a better start than we had. We want them to know the pleasure and richness of natural flavors, untainted by additives and sugar. It was clear right off the bat that we wouldn't find what we were looking for in stores (at least not very often). If we wanted our boys to eat healthy foods, we'd have to make them ourselves.

Tie-Dye is almost four-years-old now, and we've learned that it's a challenge to raise a healthy family in this culture. What's really amazing is how much animosity and negative feedback we receive for eating differently than most people.

The way we eat has become more and more detailed and particular as we are constantly in the process of eliminating bad and substituting good, but here's the general idea:

Say NO to:
refined sugar (this, to us, includes evaporated cane juice)
hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils
artificial colors or flavors
hormone or antibiotic laden meats or dairy

Say YES to:
cold-pressed and other healthy oils
whole grains and unbleached flours
natural sweeteners (stevia, agave, honey, brown rice syrup)
organic fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy (when we can afford them!)

About that last one... We are a young family on a low budget, so eating healthy is already quite a stretch for us. But we do try to buy organic foods whenever we can afford them. When we can't, we look for the best options and wash our non-organic produce thoroughly.

Are we extreme? Yes, I think we are. And you'll see as you read that it's not always easy to eat this way. But is it worth it? Yes, I think it is! Someday my children will grow up and go out into the world with the freedom to choose their food, but I want them to have a solid foundation from the start!