Tag Archives: homemade

Favourite Foods at 8 Months

| 2 Comments | Baby

Two things before I get into the meat of this post:

1. If you’re interested, read the previous posts in this series first: First Foods, Favourite Foods at 6 Months and Favourite Foods at 7 Months.

2. This is a JUDGEMENT-FREE POST: Please note that this not how you *should* do things. This is just a window into how I did things, and I relied mostly on my instincts. Do what feels right mama. *Should precedes shame* so I strongly encourage you not to *should yourself*! Parenting is hard enough as it is. You’re doing great!! 

 

Favourite Foods at 8 Months

After 2+ months of solids, Baby H had developed some solid chewing/eating muscles! She started eating a bit more and actually digesting more, as in less vegetable matter was found in her diapers (I credit high quality food, ferments and a focus on gut-health!) At this point though, meals still had no impact on her nursing frequency, and we could skip meals without an impact. There weren’t a lot of changes from 7 to 8 months, although she did become quite good at feeding herself, and mostly refused to be fed with a spoon. The arrival of upper teeth meant we could no longer give her a hunk of meat, because she quickly learned to tear a piece off, that was usually too large and resulted in some gagging. So we chopped her food into baby bite sized pieces.

At this stage in our solids journey, Baby H is eating almost everything that we are. The only foods we exclude are grains (we only eat white rice once or twice a week, so that’s not a big deal, but it also means no GF foods), dairy (we both tolerate goat cheese on occasion), things that are too hard (plantain chips) or leafy greens because she didn’t have the molars to grind them and they made her gag (except for blended into eggs or a smoothie). 

 

Go-to Foods (in order of priority)

1.Proteins

Egg yolk – fried overhard and ripped into pieces

Ground meat – beef with taco seasoning, pastured sausages 

Fish – salmon en papillote, sardines direct out of a can (I had no expectations going in to this, and was pleasantly surprised when she loved them!)

Meat – she will eat little pieces of pork chop, steak or chicken, but it’s still a little tough for her to manage

Chicken – slowcooker thighs

 

2. Fats and Superfoods

Whole-food animal sources – sardines, salmon, egg yolk, fatty pastured meat

Whole-food plant sources – avocado, olives, coconut milk

Clean oils & fats – coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, pastured lard, grassfed tallow, duck fat

Ferments – at least once a day! Sauerkraut and kombucha are the most common. Occasionally fermented pickles if we have them!

Bone broth – as we enter summer we’re using bone broth less, so I try to make dishes over noodles or rice, like Instant Pot or slow cooker beef/chicken with bone broth (like this Thai Curry Beef recipe!)

 

3. Carbs

Root veggies – sweet potato, white potato or carrots, cooked in broth or a quality oil

Fruit – with an emphasis on berries (blueberries in particular!)

Plantains – ripe and fried in coconut oil

Cold Brew Coffee

| 2 Comments | Beatty Protocols, Beverages, Recipes

One of my favourite things to do is listen to Podcasts. I’ve always enjoyed listening when driving or walking the dog, but especially since becoming a mom since my time available for learning has plummeted. Podcasts let me consume content while doing something else! The Balanced Bites podcast is one of my favourites, and it was also the first place I learned about Cold Brew Coffee (a popular brand in the USA is a sponsor).

Fairly early into my coffee journey (I started enjoying a cup daily midway through high school. I blame my parents! lol) I realized iced coffee was amazing. But my favourite was a super sweet fake dessert iced coffee from Starbucks – so not super ideal for health. Then one VERY HOT summer working on a rooftop restaurant in Toronto, I started drinking plain ol’ iced coffee with some milk and sugar. I quickly learned that the best results came from brewing an espresso, chilling it and then turning it into iced coffee – that way it wasn’t watered down like when you brew coffee and try to chill it quickly with just ice! But it also took forethought.

Fast forward to this summer, where my coffee obsession is fairly high (this time I blame the baby. Ha!) and it’s hot. I’m often heading out in the morning when I want my second coffee, and can’t stand drinking hot coffee on a hot day. I tried to make an extra pot in the morning and chill it for later, but it doesn’t usually happen. That’s why DIY Cold Brew entered my life.

Cold Brew Coffee is exactly as it sounds. Coffee that’s been brewed cold, instead of with hot water. There are many reasons for the rise of Cold Brew Coffee – with the most common being the smooth, rich flavour it has combined with the less acidic feeling in the stomach. I like it because it takes 1 minute to prep and allows me to have iced coffee all week! Here’s how:

Homemade Cold Brew Coffee

1. Measure out ¾ cup of organic, fair or direct trade coffee (why direct trade?), ground on the coarsest grind setting you have. I’m sure a high powered blender would work if you don’t have a  coffee grinder. Fine grind = bitter coffee, so make sure it’s coarse! Coarser (like with a mortar and pestle coarse) is better than fine any day!

                                    

2. Dump coarse-ground coffee grinds into a 1L jar.

3. Add 3 cups of filtered water to the jar. It can be cold or room temperature. Secure lid and place in fridge for 12-24 hours. (Note, after making this once, I no longer measure the water because I know that the jar is almost full with the water and grinds combined!) 

4. After desired length of brew (I like 18-24 hours best), remove from fridge, strain into another jar and voila – you’re done! Coffee for the week, or a few days if you are sharing with someone.

Keep in mind that cold brew is MUCH higher in caffeine. So enjoy smaller servings and/or water down with water, ice and your desired milk (I like full-fat coconut milk or grassfed cream). I also like to sweeten with a touch of maple syrup!

My favourite way to enjoy cold-brew is:

  • small cup, filled with ice
  • ½ cup cold brew
  • ¼ cup water
  • 2-3 tbsp coconut milk
  • 1-2 tsp maple syrup

You can also heat up cold brew and enjoy it like a normal cup of coffee! I do this on Crossfit mornings, when I want cup of coffee fast, and don’t want to wait for it to brew. I can have a delicious cup of coffee ready to go in less than a minute!

Are you an iced coffee drinker? Or are you a purest and only enjoy a cuppa joe hot. Share your favourite way for enjoying this delicious vice in the comments below!

 

Body Odour

| 2 Comments | Personal Care Products, Pregnancy & Postpartum

Anyone else find smelly armpits as annoying as I do? Well, it can be hard to 100% eliminate that issue (while staying clear of toxic compounds like aluminum, that is), but there are definitely a lot of hacks you can employ. Try some of these out and let me know how they work for you!

Diet

Of course the first thing I mention is diet. But that’s because it can have a huge impact. I have seen this first hand (both personally and professionally). The most notorious offenders for increasing body odour are:

Try eliminating these for a few weeks and see if you notice a change!

Beneficial Microbes

An imbalance of bacteria both internal and external (they cover our skin too!), can absolutely contribute to increased smelliness. To address, make sure you’re taking all the steps to maintain a Healthy Gut, with a focus on lots of fermented foods like sauerkraut, fermented carrots, yogurt and kombucha!

Topically, make sure to avoid conventional personal care products (like soap and antiperspirant) that can kill off the good guys. Usually when beneficial microbes are eliminated, the nasty ones grow back faster, creating an even more dramatic imbalance. You can also help encourage the growth of beneficial microbes by utilizing an apple cider vinegar spray (dilute 1:4 with water) or even a topical probiotic!

Deodorant, not Antiperspirant

Antiperspirants use aluminum (amongst other sketchy ingredients) to get into your sweat glands, causing them to swell and preventing sweat from being released. I heard a hilarious analogy, that’s a little off-colour. It goes like this… you know the feeling when you really really have to have a BM, but you’re in a really inconvenient place, like a coffee shop, or the library, so you hold it. That’s what you’re doing with your armpits – holding in something that really needs to get out – but instead of using muscle, you’re using a toxic compound. 

Deodorant addresses odour, but depending on the formulation it can often make things worse. So I recommend trying a few different types to find one that works for you. I struggled to find a natural deodorant that didn’t make me smell worse. And then I found Primally Pure – which is so clean you can eat it, and it actually works! Or you can go super simple (which I do sometimes too!) and just use a homemade deodorant of coconut oil, essential oils and baking soda.

Extra Help

Sometimes all that just doesn’t cut it. For example, during the postpartum period. It must have been the excess/different hormones that my body was having to break down, but ugh I totally smelled bad. Finding a good (natural) deodorant was great, but I had to take it one step further and help my armpits detox a bit! I know lots of people who swear by the armpit detoxes and cleanses (The Wellness Mama has a good one!), but considering how little time I have these days, I needed something faster. I started using Beautycounter’s Charcoal Cleansing Bar under my arms when I showered and after only a few uses the odour was completely gone. I was even able to stop using deodorant days that I wasn’t exercising!

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