Thursday 27 September 2012

Raw & Cooked Food for Baby (tomato gazpacho and roasted potatoes)

I made gazpacho this summer with tomatoes, onion, bell pepper and parsley from the graden then added garlic, celeri, cucumber and apple. It can be lovely with nectarines or pear and pretty much any herb or even chopped spinach. You can easily add quinoa too. Which brings me to talking about Raw & Cooked. Notice it's not Raw vs Cooked (that title is perhaps for another day).

Choose the best of all worlds for your baby! Look at what others are doing and do not judge them. Decide what you want to do and do it! Be proud of your decisions and for taking health at heart. Be grateful of the abundance of foods (and other things, people, information, ressources...) you have ACCESS TO!
Multiply your sources of information i.e. don't rely on only one.

I've just summed up my philosophy about a lot of things. So now on to the tomatoes...


I blended some leftover cold tomato soup and froze it for Guillaume to have in the Fall : )  Yes, my tomato season is officially over. Having been mixing it to carrot puree these past few times I wanted to do something different today for his lunch. Grabbed roasted potatoes from the fridge, mashed them with a fork and assistance of freshly boiled water, before removing the pieces of peel.


Pouring in gazpacho made this all very liquid so thickening with cereal was necessary. I added a baby spoonful of chia seed, stirred in well and finally, added heaping 1 Tbsp of dehydrated cooked oatmeal cereal (pablum). 



Note that I no longer keep chia gel in the fridge because my baby has moved up on the textures ladder. Also, I have begun introducing nuts which can be done - with some caution and a milling blade - after 6 months of age.

More about that in my next post! 

Enjoy your raw baby food experimenting and please share about your experiments in the comments area!





Saturday 22 September 2012

Raw juice today, green smoothie tomorrow!

This morning we had raw juice made with 6 broccoli stems, a bell pepper finally turned red - from the garden,an apple and a lemon. It is bitter so for the babes (they were actually "fighting" over the sippy cup) water and "sun rype" juice was added to make it more palatable. Tomorrow at our workshop I will be serving a green smoothie, incorporating fruit and vegetables of all colours of the rainbow. I call it a chakra smoothie! And I know it will be a HIT at our HAPPY NOW!wellness workshop. There is still room for registrations, we are close to Ottawa but closer to nature. Details of the event are on the Healthy Active Lifestyle Facebook page.




Wednesday 19 September 2012

Do you dare to be dairy?

I went to a raw green smoothie workshop last night in Ottawa. It was educational, fun, tasty and free!
Sarah Ives, founder of Oh My Raw, has an information-packed blog and website. Click on the link above to see for yourself and to read a perfect smoothie recipe for this time of year.

Sarah's workshop helped me to realize that I feel really good about doing what is right for me and for my family. The event, where I asked many questions and offered insights also made me notice how passionate I am about leading others toward choosing the best for themselves and their families.

I learned that dairy inhibits the absorption of nutrients found in raw greens so having already reduced the amount of gluten, carbohydrates, sugar and starch we consume at home, I know too that dairy should be limited.

Since cutting out wheat and gluten for myself three weeks ago I have been relying on milk products and meat more than I did before. This has also been to see whether they have a bad influence on my gut as I do have bouts of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I love cheese and I enjoyed my recent meat cooking experiments (baked chicken with tostitos and curcuma crisp - doesn't it look amazing??, and pork tenderloin baked with pear, tomato, onion and broccoli bits) as I seem to assimilate these non vegan friendly meals well.

Now my aim is to cut down on cheese and yogurt - again - as I have been eating 3 or 4 portions of dairy per day as of late. I feed them to the kids too but noticed Lucas, my two year old boy, developing some acne. While I was visiting my dad, freshly diagnosed celiac, a couple of weeks ago, I read a good part of Dr. William Davis' Wheat Belly. He exposes in his book (and blog) that acne is nonexistent in cultures where cow's milk is not ingested.

Lucas has just started daycare and although I drop him off with a container full of raw fruits and vegetables to complement the morning snack (usually a muffin) and lunch, I am not seeing everything he consumes any more.  I'm going to cut down his dairy intake and see what difference this makes. I will keep you posted on what is noticed!

So do you dare to be dairy?
I do, slightly!

On another note... talking about skin...
I was suffering from eczema and it is now all healed since I withdrew wheat from my diet. Coincidence? I think not! The problem was worsening since Guillaume's birth 9 months ago. Really, my skin hasn't been this soft since I was a little girl!