Sorryyyyyyyy!!! We're back and BETTER THAN EVER!!

I'm not really sure how many times I can apologize for being gone for so long, but I think i'll shoot for 1 million. :)

I am so sorry that I haven't posted anything in so long. I do have two excuses though. Justin and I decided we no longer wanted to live in our Canton townhouse and chose to move to a townhouse in Jackson and we are much happier. We were having some problems with our neighbor after their dog bit me and things just weren't smooth. We have a neighbor on each side of us where we are now and they are both really nice people with a few children. The one little girl is over almost every single day playing with Josie and Oliver.

The other reason I haven't been able to post is that we haven't had any form of internet. We now have internet and I can now post! I'm so glad to be getting back into the swing of things and I have so many wonderful things to tell you.

First off, Oliver is 10 months!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!! That's only two months away and he'll he a year old! Honestly it kinda makes me a little sad. I miss my little new born. :( Things are great with him. He is so smart and such an awesome little boy. He now has SIX TEETH! Six I tell you! He also doesn't really bite me anymore when he's nursing. Not on purpose any way. He still sometimes gets a little rough when he's falling asleep and forgets he's nursing, but besides that there are no problems. He's still going strong with the breast milk and loving it just as much as he did when he was a tiny little guy. I still love nursing him too of course and will be so so so sad and heart broken when he decides he's done. He started crawling right after Christmas, and started standing while holding onto things a little after that. He's so fast too! Sometimes we have a hard time catching him. I am still making his baby food though he is now eating more solids. Like this morning he is having cantaloupe! :) how cute

I am still wearing him in his stings and wraps and he still loves being worn just as much as he did when he was just born. He is also still uncircumcised and is not having vaccines. The vaccine topic is a whole other post though for another day.

Oliver and I are both vegan and were about 50% raw a few weeks ago. We are now transitioning into a 95-100% raw vegan diet and it feels great! I started doing a lot of research on youtube and really all over the internet about raw foodism and got sucked in pretty fast. We already have a lot of fresh fruits and veggies incorporated into our diet bur I never really knew that benefits of going completely raw or at least high raw. Let me tell you, soooooooooooooo many great and amazing things. I'm actually going to put up another post later tonight about everything a raw vegan diet can do for you. Along with the new diet change comes videos! Yep, that's right, I am documenting every single day what is going on in our new raw lives! In fact I'm uploading a video right now as I type and it's at 63%. The youtube channel is going to pretty much be a daily vlog about what is going on in our lives from where I am with my weightloss, to how Oliver is doing as a raw vegan baby, and even videos of me “un-cooking” many many yummy things. Like today we are going to have zucchini pasta for lunch with some crushed tomatoes and italian seasonings. MMMMM! I may even do two videos a day! So make sure you check out my channel quite frequently, you wouldn't wanna miss out on anything juicy. :)

I will part for now only to return later for a second post of the day probably after Ollie goes to sleep. Have a wonderful day and Go Greens!!

Health and Vitality

Crunchy Mama and The Whole Grain Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/megavocado 

New Things and Butternut Squash Tutorial!!

Well last night Ollie and I were at my moms for dinner and some time spending, and I mentioned something about how much sugar is in juice and that I pretty much never want to give him any. My mom then says "Oh, do you want my juicer? It's just sitting in my cupboard collecting Dust." I then responded with much excitement "Are you sure?!", about a million times. I was so shocked that she wanted to give it to me first of all because it's only like half a year old, and two because it's huge and super nice. Probably because it's the Jack La Lanne's Super Juicer. It is amazing! It came with two different books with several interesting healthy recipes. I cleaned the dust off, threw in about 8 organic baby carrots, half a cucumber, and tada! Delicious {and good for you!} car-cucc-juice!!!! YUM!

Then she also found 14 of these amazing cook books in the dumpster behind her business. They all go together and were copy written in 1971. Each one is from some where different in the world. That's probably why they're called "Foods of The World". Also, they come with pretty much everything you need to know about the culture in that specific Country, not just about the food but everything! Pretty cool!!

The Cook Books

{In Rainbow Order}

Middle Eastern Cooking

Russian Cooking

The Cooking Of Provincial France

The Cooking Of India

The Cooking Of Vienna's Empire

The Cooking Of Italy

African Cooking

Pacific and Southeast Asian Cooking

The Cooking Of The Caribbean Islands

American Cooking: Southern Style

American Cooking: The Northwest

The Cooking Of Scandinavia

A Quintet Of Cuisines

Classic French Cooking

We plan on making several things from each cookbook and trying "Foods of the World".  I love trying new things and so does Justin. We hope to get a few favorites out of these books that we can share together and with Ollie when he starts really eating solids {still mostly breastfeeding and will for 3 years}. 

Speaking of which, I made some baby food today and wish I would have taken some tutorial photos. Yum yum yum! We got an organic butternut squash from Giant Eagle today. I took it home and washed it of course. Even though you don't eat the outer layer, tiny yucky things can get to the meaty inside when you cut it.  

After washing thoroughly, I prehreated the oven to 375. I cut it into quarters, removed seeds, then layed the pieces cut side down in a baking dish. I then added a 1/4 cup of water to the dish and baked it for about 45 minutes. When I {carefully} removed my crispy goodness from the oven, the outer part was rough while the meat was very tender. They kind of take a while to get soft because they are harder. Butternut Squash resembles a pumkin more than summer squash, meaning it's much thicker and "like a rock" {no pun intended}

I let the quartered pieces cool before touching them. When they were a decent temperature, I used a spoon to scoop out as much meat as I could. I had my Ninja Food Processor ready and added as much as I could without over flowing. Re-using the water your fruits or veggies were baked or boiled in saves a lot of nutrients by the way. Blend, pulse, blend! Finally finished and I have two medium sized containers full of orange goodness! I let it cool in the fridge over night before pouring it into freezing trays. They make these nifty little things that freeze your baby food into the perfect portion size. Once frozen, remove and store in a BPA free freezing container. Always label and you're good to go! You now have a nice little portion whenever you want for up to 6 months!! Even enjoy with your little one if you like. YUM!

From now on I will post a tutorial with photos of the foods I make for Ollie and some of our "interesting" dinners. 

Peace, Love, & Happy Foodies!

Whole Grain Baby & The Crunchy Mama

No Post Here

Internet is not on my side the past few days. We are about to get it on Thursday and I will no longer have to depend on other sources. If you don't already know this, the library in Ohio now times you on their internet even on your own laptop. Hmm. Highschool much? Well, I apologise for the lack of posts, and I know I promised there would be things up everyday, but it really will happen soon. I PROMISE!!

Peace, Love, & Frown Faces! :(

Whole Grain Baby & The Crunchy Mama

Make That Milk!!!!

Ok so I feel like in the past month my milk supply has maybe gone down a little and it has made me paranoid. I have read a lot of things about natural remedies and ways to boost your supply as well as things to eat. I don't want to take any supplements yet because I would like to try other options. Then Justin and I went to the Breastfeeding Center today to get some Rockin' Green: Funk Out detergent for the nappies {cloth dipeys} as well as some of the sippie cup tops tor the Prince Lionheart bottles we have. I meantioned something about raisin oatmeal cookies and the woman say "Oh, we have a recipe for you!". She handed me a recipe for "special ingredient" oatmeal raisin cookies! Here is is with a photo tutorial-ish!! Enjoy!!

Housepoet's Famous Lactation Boosting Cookies

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons water

2 Tablespoons Flaxseed Meal {be generous}
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flower
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons Brewers Yeast {be generous}
3 cups oats
1 1/2 cups chocolate or peanut butter chips {optional}


Directions:

1. First make sure you have your helper. Ollie loves to be in his Hava Sling to help me cook or bake. 

 2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

3. Mix together water and flaxseed meal, and set aside for 3-5 minutes.

4. Beat butter and sugars into a cream.

5. Add the eggs one at a time, mix well.

6. Stir flaxseed mixture well and add to the butter then add vanilla. Beat until blended.

7. Add dry mixture and mix with a spoon. 

8. Put Tbs size amounts of cookie dough on a greased baking sheet.

9. Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on size

Ugh!!! I'll have to upload more of the photos later in an update!! I really don't like when things don't work! Oh well, you'll see them very very soon. Oliver and I had so much fun making these cookies and they turned out chewy and delicious. Justin came home from work and ate about 12 of them! I guess he won't be having any lactation problems!!!! hahaha

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did and I want to know if it helps anyone with their milk supply. Hope to hear great things.


Peace, Love, & Flaxseed!