Foodie

It's been a while. I know. 

I haven't been faithfully posting to this blog because of well life. 

Busy, full, rich, fast. That's how the days are going by as of late.

I have been dipping my hand (mind) into many new things. Reading, studying, learning. It's been such a great thing to learn. Feeding my mind is so important. You know the old saying, "Knowledge is power?" 

Clarity comes with knowledge. I have been praying over this word in my life. Clarity.  It seems to be the theme for the year, as I go back to it and pray for it in so many areas. Clarity about nutrition, about decisions, about direction. It's been amazing.

Right now one of my focuses has been on food. Of course. It's always there in the back of my mind, begging me to draw it out and learn learn learn more about it. Food, nutrition. Your body truly is the temple for the Living God. This is convicting in itself, but the thought, You are what you eat, also crosses my mind.

In my 29 years of life, I have gone through many phases of diets. Not the lose-weight-diet. But different eating habits. Growing up I had home-cooked meals often, which I am so grateful for. Even if it wasn't always the most convenient, my mom made most of our meals from scratch, using produce from her garden in the summer. What an amazing woman my mom is, to care for a family of 6, cook, clean, make sure we had clothes that were clean, and all the million other tasks in her life. What a balance she showed.

Then onto my college years, I remember suffering from various health issues due to my poor diet. It consisted of many processed, sugary foods and drinks. And on top of this much coffee.

In my after college years, my diet was whatever was at home, not exactly home-ade at that point, some, but not all. 

The next few years of my life were when I was first married. I shared already how I went through a valley in my life, suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. That was when a light went off for me.

The turning point. 

I realized how little I actually knew about what I was allowing into my body, whether it was food, drink, or medicine. 

That passion has been lit, and while it sometimes gets put on the back burner, the more I learn, I remember. And I get excited. And I want to share it with everyone (which I try not to do, so as not to annoy!). 

But these past few months, I have been blessed to cross paths with many like-minded women that share that same passion. Perhaps it's the new responsibility of caring for my son. Realizing how much I want to give him the very best. In turn, I want to provide the very best meals for my husband and I.

All of this though does come at a price. The price for healthier foods is not cheap. I have been trying to implement things, in baby steps. I realize as I learn more, I will find ways to be thrifty in obtaining the best foods for us. 

Proverbs 31 says 'she seeketh her food from afar'. I think she was a wise woman that knew how to find a bargain, but also provide the best for her family. 

My desire is to do this. I've planned a get together with several woman this Monday. We are all going to be talking food. I'm so excited about it. Here we meet after months of me thinking, and learning and growing in this area of food, and I get to share thoughts with others on the same path. What a blessing that is to me! If anyone is interested I can share my thoughts here next week. Now onto a quiet evening of reading! Baby is down, hubby is reading, I think I'll join him.

baby food

It was a busy day. I ran out to get groceries while Jonah was home with Oliver. I tried hard to stick to our budget, as it's getting towards the end of the month, I always struggle to stay in our budget with groceries. Truly this is the biggest challenge in home-making (is that the right word?).
But I did okay...still have to return a couple things for a couple reasons. One I forgot to use a coupon I had for one item, and two, I went over budget and will be returning something I can get next month. Yes- it's that important to stay on our budget that we planned for.
I was able to pick up lots of produce for Oliver.
I have been making most of his food for him, with the exception of a couple jars of babyfood. I do have babyfood jars stocked in my pantry though. I actually bought these while I was pregnant. What a nerd right? I had coupons and there was a sale, and it was worth it. I bought several Earths Best organic. I also bought some Beechnut....which I will be donating to someone that would like them. Any takers?
I don't say this to sound like an organic snob. I am not all organic....actually more like a couple things organic if they are on sale, and if they fit our budget.
Well, this is kind of off track for my original post, but I opened a jar of mango's for Oliver. Added some oat cereal to it and gave him his usual two meal today using that. Later I picked it up and read what the ingredient list was and it had several ingredients, one being white grapejuice. I know it's all made for babies, but I didn't like the fact that I didn't even realize there were other things added in (rice flour as well) and I was completely unaware, until I read it. I assumed 'mangos' meant just that, period.
It would be nice to give Oliver all organic, but budgetwise, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to do that. What I can do is make food for him. He hasn't progressed to a very elaborate diet yet, just simple one item foods (with the exception of avocado + banana) with cereal mixed in twice a day. So making food was not rocket science.
Well maybe a little. I did struggle with picking the perfect individual items. I wanted them to be nutritional and offer as much as possible, even if they weren't organic. I read somewhere that babies stomachs are small, and should be filled with as much nutrients as possible. This is so true! What they eat, even if it's tiny little portions, should be brimming with what they need.
So my research led me to some online sites for baby foods. I found a site I like and will be going back to when Oliver is a little older: www.wholesomebabyfoods.com
I also checked a book out of the library (twice actually, the first time it ran overdue and I owe money... I am terrible at remembering the due date and shouldn't be allowed to check out books with my record, I'm sorry to say. I will change this!) called Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.
I have liked a lot about it, and some of it I just ignore all together. It's kind of a take what you want out of it book. But I like that she breaks down the age, and what's appropriate for that age. This helps me in knowing if it's too soon to introduce beans or meats etc.
I like her porridge recipes too, but was skeptical about making one out of brown rice. Is this okay for Oliver to eat? Is it healthy, and not just a filling starch that his stomach will work extra hard to digest? I read that starches are hard for babies to digest due to them not having adequate enzymyes to break them down. (Que the screaming gassy baby after trying baby cereals for the first time) Now this may only be true for younger ones. I started Oliver at 5.5 months, and his first food was actually roasted butternut squash. But later I gave him cereal,  and now I mix it in with foods to get the iron from it.
Back to the rice. I received a book for Christmas (yes I really wanted this!) called 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. I'm loving it. It tells me the nutritional value for all 150 foods. So I flipped to brown rice and learned about the health benefits of it. White rice is actually stripped brown rice. It doesn't have the bran that brown rice does. Plus brown rice is a great source of fiber, and a great preventer of several cancers. I loved being able to learn more about this grain, and now I feel better about giving this to Oliver. So I'll be making that for him to eat in his morning meal. Eventually I'd like to move him into her 'super porridge' she writes about that has legumes in it, but he will have to be around 9 months for that.
So I picked up my produce spent a couple hours in the kitchen and now my freezer and fridge are cooling peas, spinach, cantaloupe, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, nectarines, pears and I previously made broccoli, carrots and butternut squash. No it wasn't hard to make these. No they aren't all organic. Some are, and I'm grateful for that. But they are fresh, and simple foods. One ingredient foods in which I know what's in them, and I know what will go in him.
Exciting? Yes indeed, it is to me!