Halloween Candy

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"

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"

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

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!

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

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

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.