Operation Baby Prep!

We're 2-6 weeks away from meeting this sweet little one and I'm in full nesting mode.

36th week!

Some Friends came over yesterday and we had fun crafting a banner for baby Ziggy. He won't have his own room at this point, but I wanted to do some thing that we could put in his room down the line, and just some thing to do to celebrate a new baby.

They also helped me puttogether 6 batches of biscuit mixes and 3 batches of banana muffin mix!!!!

This will save so much time and mess and energy after he arrives!

Which leads to other preparations...

The menu planning worked so well to get us through the first trimester I've decided to give it another go for after baby is born. It was a little more fun this time because I didn't have to worry about keeping things on the bland side or worrying about smells wafting through the house making me miserable!
 After having two unexpected rough births and subsequent long and hard recoveries (and starting back into real life too soon). I learned with my last baby to take it easy the first week. Full bed rest that first week made a world of difference in my overall feeling of well being and my recovery time. Even after my rough births, I tend to feel really good the first week, flying high on adrenaline and the thrill of not being big and pregnant any more. The joy of snuggling that fresh new squish. I'm done with the waiting and ready to dive back in to LIFE!
It's HARD to stay in bed, but seriously it made a world of difference last time and I'm hopeful it will help this time as well. I am trying to set every thing up so that I can literally stay horizontal in bed with my baby that entire first week.

My personal postpartum rules (and recommendation of my MW) are...

• WEEK #1: IN the bed, up only 5 minutes at a time to use the bathroom or take a quick shower (or do some gentle stretches once a day). Rest restores the body. No stairs. It's one intense, some times monotonous week in bed. ONE. If you need company ask friends to come hang out with you in your room. I spent most of my first week in bed with Pip staring at her, it was heavenly. If you can set things up to do this (as I am with meal plans and Hubby Joy and my Mom being around to take care of the big kids), revel in it. It's amazing and you will not get down time like that ever again (or until you have another baby ;)! And? It helps your body recovery on every physical level. Rest is a gift and it is worth it. Nursing baby and taking care of baby is the only thing you need to worry about in week 1. I plan to have snacks in my room and Hubby Joy will bring the meals I've planed out up to me after he's fed the kids.
• Week #2: ON the bed the second week. Limit stairs (hard in my home). Camp out on the couch. I don't have to stay indoors or in bed, but I need to be limiting time on my feet and care of other children. I need to be laying down in bed for at least 3 hours in the afternoon resting. Stay reclined at least half the day and limit time on feet carefully! No cleaning.
• Week #3: more freedom. Take it Easy, for every hour I am up I need to take an hour to rest. Shoot for 2 hours laying in bed with baby every afternoon. When I have a chance to rest, do it. No cleaning! But cooking easy meals is fine...Short outings are fine if you have a way to sit down and rest and there isn't a lot of time on your feet involved.
• Week #4 through #6: return to light Mom duty. When there is a chance to rest, DO it! You don't need to sleep, just lay down with baby. Get quiet when you need it. Close your eyes and take deep cleansing breaths to get more energy.  Baby's first year isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. The better you treat your body the easier your adrenal glands and lymphatic system (helps your liver function and cortisol levels, quality of sleep and so much more!)  recover and deal with the interrupted sleep you'll likely be dealing with for many many weeks and months to come!

Pretty much the goal the first 6 weeks is to have the house run as smoothly as possible with me curled up with the baby as much as possible. My goal is to see how much I can stay off my feet. NOT how much I can get done. NOT how fast I can get back to normal. NOT to feel bad about doing this for myself. I'm worth it and so is my new precious baby, you only get to do this once with each kiddo, it's worth it!

Too Sweet for Sugar Cocoa Chewy Drop Cookies

Due to candida over growth issues, and our desire to nourish our bodies, we don't "do" sugar. Finding ways to have treats with our dietary constrictions and long term health goals, well it is always an adventure! These cookies are sweetened with ripe bananas and 1 Tablespoon of maple syrup, chewey and filling - perfect rainy day treat.

We use toddler spoons for our cooking experiments!

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

4 eggs

1 1/2 C unsweetened shredded coconut

 2 Tablespoons oil (melted, I used palm shortening melted)

2T cocoa powder

2/3 C arrow root starch

1/3 C coconut flour

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

1T maple syrup

Directions

Whip bananas, almond extract, oil, and eggs in food processor or blender

In a mixing bowl combine coconut and dry ingredients

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix well 

Spoon by the tablespoon onto a cookie sheet ***lined with parchment paper*** and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until cookie is firm to a tap and sides look slightly crisp. 

Banana NOatmeal Cookies

I miss oatmeal, since we started our gut healing re-boot in the spring we have stopped eating it. It really doesn't agree with AJ's tummy (or mine for that matter). This morning the kids wanted to have a tea party and I was craving oatmeal cookies...I think this concoction comes pretty close!

Ingredients
1 egg
4 Bananas
1/4 tsp Almond extract (5or 6 drops)
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1ish Tablespoon Cinnamon
Unsweetened Shredded coconut

Directions: in food processor mix *3* bananas with 2 cups of shredded coconut and 1 egg. Pulse until blended well.
Mix in other ingredients an combine well, **add final banana and chop coarsely **
(I just mixed with a fork).
Put on parchment paper line cookie sheet.

Bake at 350° for 20-25minutes until edges are golden brown.

Vanilla Honey Tea Time Macaroons

I found a recipe in one of those free for kindle cook books. The weird thing was, when I mixed them up? They were terrible. The consistency was impossible, dry and crumbly and we were obviously heading for a huge baking fail. It was one of those moments when you have to ask if the authors of those books even attempt the recipes before publishing. So I got creative and I think *my* end results were amazing.

 

Ingredients
2 Cups unsweetened shredded coconut*
2 eggs
1/4-1/3c honey*
1tsp vanilla
1T coconut flour
A pinch of baking soda

* if you use sweetened coconut reduce honey to 1T
*I like them less sweet but if you prefer a pronounced sweetness go for more honey.

Directions

1. In mixing bowl combine eggs, honey, vanilla, flour and soda- mix well... mix  in the coconut.

2. **on parchment paper** covered cookie sheet press cookies into firm mounds and pat down into a flat cookie. This is probably the most labor intensive part of these cookies, they are quite loose and messy. But they bake into a nice non-crumbly cookie. They don't spread while baking, so what you put in is what comes out. The firmer you press them the more macaroony they'll be.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (until bottom edges are golden brown and tops don't look liquid or squish when you gently tap them.

Enjoy with some Tea and some Read Aloud Time.

 (slurping spilled tea off the table optional)

4yar olds...sigh.

Grain-Free Savory Mini Burgers

One thing about this grain free adventure has been trying to balance our clean eating (we try to only consume organic meat and dairy products) with the budget. This gets tricky in a family of 5...The kids eat more individually at each meal than my husband and I do!

Thankfully, we are blessed to have easy access to abundant options when it comes to free range and grass fed meats-especially important with our youngest who has corn allergies. But how to prepare it? These Savory Mini burgers stretch to about 24 burgers from 1pound of ground beef! I used to make meat loaf with gf oatmeal... it always used an egg in the recipe and it kind of lead to some experiments in how to stretch a pound of hamburger to feed several people.

Ingredients

• 1 pound hamburger 
• 5 large eggs
• 2 T shredded onion
• 2 cloves garlic minced or pressed
• 1/3 C shredded *unsweetened* coconut*
• 3 dashes of chili powder (1/2-1tsp)
•  1T of ketchup
• 1tsp salt
• 1/8tsp black pepper

* another option would be to use 3/4 cup of cauliflower that's been put through the food processor so it's finely ground and sauté in butter or refined )coconut oil for 5minutes.

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead together thoroughly. Add 1-2T oil to skillet and add meat to hot pan in small meatball sized portions. Press down into burgers when you flip them.

Serves 6-8 approx. 24burgers
Prep Time 5minutes
Cook time: 20?

They're delicious on their own or dipped in sweet and sour cranberry dipping sauce (recipe coming soon!), spicy mustard, or (my kids preference) organic (HFCS free) ketchup.

Sides: oven baked French fries!
Or pan fried Sweet potatoes with drizzled maple syrup and cinnamon.
I often add some roasted kale chips or broccoli for some greens.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Sweet Chilli Hash Stew

It was one of those, "what do I Maaake???" Sunday afternoons. I threw stuff in the chefs pot and Sweet Chilli Hash was the result.

This was a delicious sweet and gently spicy stew. It got 2 giant thumbs up from my normally picky 4 year old. She and the 2 year old had 2 big bowls each!!! I really think some of the secret to it's success was the sweet and spicy pasta sauce from Wegman's...checkout their ingredients to find some thing similar! 

 

Sweet Chilli Hash Stew
By H. Burgett
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 LARGE Sweet Potato (diced)
4-5 medium russet potatoes (diced)
1 medium/large onion (chopped)
2-4 cloves garlic (minced) 
1 23oz jar of Spicy-ish Pasta Sauce (I use THIS from Wegman's)
3-4 dashes of chilli powder
2tsp sea salt

We use coconut oil for our cooking oil. In large skillet or wok brown beef until nearly cooked, add  oil (if beef is lean) and  potatoes (both kinds), onions, garlic, salt.

Toss potatoes occasionally for about 10minutes if potatoes stick (we don't use non-stick pans) pan add 1/4c of water and loosen with stirring.

Put lid on and cook for 15minutes stirring often.

Add jar of sauce and dashes of chilli powder  stir well... allow to simmer (stirring often) until potatoes seem soft (5-10minutes).

8-10 servings (depending on the crowd)

Option 2: I also browned the beef, sauted all the ingredients but the tomato sauce a bit and then threw it in the croc pot, mixed in the sauce, and left it to cook on low for 5-8 hours.

 

enjoy!