Preparing for a Home Birth

Home birth.... 2 words that when put together scare people still to this day. Why? We can all thank TV and Movies for that! Those horrible images of women screaming and cursing at who ever is in the room, doctors and nurses all at the other end of the woman poking and prodding and shouting at her to "PUSH" while she is laying on her back and feet at strapped to torture devices to keep her in optimal position so the doctor doesn't have to bend over. Poor doctor, we need to cater to him or her.....

Yeah I'd be scared to!! Maybe is a form of birth control for people? So when I tell people we are planning our 2nd home birth and 3rd out of hospital birth they give me the "Have fun with that (insert eye roll)" or the "What is wrong with you?" speech. I used to try to explain to them its not what you think, I'm not going to the woods with the wild animals to give birth. We WILL have a midwife there and she brings modern medical equipment. But by baby #3 I've changed my approach to "What do you think a home birth looks like?"

The answers can vary from people that are right spot on, to the out there ideas of chanting and incense with no help at all just the mom squatting in the woods next to a deer. Riiiight.....
From there I can better explain to them what really goes on!!!

 I like the comparison that Ina May Gaskin uses in in one of her books. Would you rather... have a bowl in the middle of the floor, be told to poop in there in front of a room of people, most who you don't know and have them all yelling at you to "POOP!!!" and do it quickly or else!! Or... would you rather have the privacy of your own home to do as you please, when and how you want, with the audience of your choice and with low or no lights and go when you feel ready. You tell me....

We are now at the safe zone of 37 weeks or more where a home birth is good to go! With that we also have to have some things on hand. Some items are needed other are just a personal preference. Also by baby #2 I realized its not so much the birth items you need as much as its the POST birth items!

So here a few my favorites:

•  Coconut Water with Pineapple 

great for during the birth for keeping electrolytes up and its just good an refreshing too! And After baby too its great to have while you are nursing.

• Witch Hazel with Aloe Vera 

Its a life saver for post baby recovery!! Put some on a large over night pad and put it in the freezer, you have.... Padcicle! The greatest comfort to a recovering bottom.

• Arnica

A great thing!!! You can use it with no affects to you or the baby. Its great for post birth with bruising and helping the uterus to contract down and help you not be in as much pain. Win win!!

• Vitamin C

Keep those electrolytes up!! Its great for drinking while in labor to replenish lots electrolytes and keep energy up. I drink it now too even before the baby comes.

Vegan Cauliflower Gratin

Are you ready for this? Do you like comfort food? If you answered yes to at least one of those questions then prepare yourself for the yummy treat I am about to show you.

Level of difficulty: kids were at my feet the whole time, they could have helped too!

Time: 20min to prepare and 20min to cook

Vegan (yes Vegan) Cauliflower Gratin

4 lb (2 large heads) cauliflower florets
2 cups precooked brown rice
4 TBSP coconut oil
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 TBSP all purpose flour
3 cups non dairy milk (coconut, almond, soy) room temperature
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp dried Italian herbs (whatever you have on hand, I used oregano, basil and parsley)
1 cup nutritional yeast and 1/4 cup for topping
1 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella cheese (I used Daiya) and 1/4 cup for topping (it was one bag for me)
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
pepper

*make sure your brown rice is done before you start... we all know how long it takes to cook*

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9 pan with olive oil or use your coconut oil to grease it

Cut cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and steam for 7min. Combine the cauliflower and rice in a bowl and set to the side.

In a large pot (you will see why you need a large pot at the end), warm the coconut oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Saute until softened. Add the flower and cook for another minute. Slowly start adding the milk, stirring after each cup to combine. Turn the heat down to low and let thicken. Add the nutmeg, cayenne and Italian herbs, stir. Add in the nutritional yeast and vegan mozzarella, stir. Let it all melt, may need to turn the heat up to medium again. Now take that bowl of rice and cauliflower and add it to the large pot. (Glad I warned you about the large part right??) Add salt and pepper to taste, stir to combine and coat the rice and cauliflower in the yummy cheese sauce.

Pour into the 13 x 9 pan, even out and top with nutritional yeast, vegan mozzarella and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges start to bubble and you have a nice brown top on part of it. If you think the mixture looks to dry feel free to pour in some more of the milk in to it.

BEST VEGAN TOFU SCRAMBLE EVER!

Where has this recipe been? I have been trying various tofu scramble recipes, some were so over loaded with spice that it was just to much. Others were boring.... this one takes the cake!

All credit goes to Vegicano... here is the link to his recipe

Tofuevos – Tofu Scramble

1 package of firm tofu – drained
2 TBS Soy Sauce
1 TBS Vegenaise
1 TBS Almond Milk (or non-dairy milk)
1 Heaping TBS of Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric (for color)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp paprika
pinch of cumin
salt to taste

Canola oil – for lighly frying the tofu

1. Break up (drained) tofu with your hands (in smallish pieces) into a medium sized bowl.
2. Add the rest of your ingredients to the tofu.
3. Using a rubber spatula incorporate all of the ingredients thoroughly.
4. Taste your tofu. Adjust your salt level.

At this point your tofu as is should taste good. Salt to taste – If you need your adjust your seasonings to your liking this is when you should do it.

5. Heat Canola Oil in a skillet or rimmed pan. Add your tofu and cook until heated throughout.

This is when you decide how you want your tofu. For a harder ‘scramble’ allow tofu mixture to cook longer and brown evenly. For a softer scramble – heat throughout and eat!

Being Vegan and 35 Weeks Pregnant

Here we are, 35 weeks along and baby is growing healthy and big! We had the 28 week glucose test where they check your iron levels as well. Its interesting looking at the other 2 pregnancies and
I feel like with each pregnancy I am healthier and more aware of eating and living better. So waiting for the glucose and iron levels to come back I didn't have a doubt in my mind they would be ok.

Me on the left with another prego friend :)

With the first baby I was vegetarian and thought I was a healthy person and didn't  have much to worry about. The only issue I had was LOW iron levels! I had to take Floridix for my iron. But  it was ok after that. At that time I was still cleaning with some chemical cleaners in the house, wasn't making my own laundry soap, etc... I was walking a lot but not running yet.

Baby #1

Baby #2 I was all like "I got this!" No worries! I'm a runner! I eat clean and from our garden, more organic then not, made my own laundry soap, used my own cleaning products, did juicing the whole 9! I was vegetarian and on the verge of vegan by that point. Again a healthy pregnancy and no issues but some low iron levels for a short time, this time it wasn't as bad. The cure for the low iron was cooking in a cast iron pot and eating my greens with some citrus dressing. Also the molasses with cream of wheat was yummy too :)

baby #2 (37 weeks)

So come baby #3 life was pretty much the same as baby #2 but this time I was full on VEGAN! The crazy part is I wasn't trying to eat high iron foods but more of what my body wanted. It wasn't cravings so much as when I would go eat breakfast or lunch I would 'listen' to what my body wanted. Maybe one day it was a fruit salad, another day some leftovers from the night before, perhaps a tofu scramble... I found the best recipe for that!!! Will share it later....  but either way I was eating what my body wanted. It was satisfying and yet filling in the gaps of what my body needed. My running was much improved too! Right before baby #3 was decided on I had just finished my first half marathon.

My running had to be put on the back burner for a bit. This one decided to drop at 31 weeks and running with a baby that low is not comfortable at all. Picture a 25lb bowling ball sitting low in your pelvis, then run with that there... you get me??? Yeah so come post baby I am looking forward to getting my running shoes back on and getting back into a routine.

Review of the Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon by Sara Forte

This book is amazing! I was unaware of the Sprouted Kitchen and their other book before I got this book for review. So I would have to say I went into this book completely open minded and with no expectations.

First the Look and feel: I love a good cookbook that gives you a taste of the food via the pictures before you even get to actually taste them in person. This book did exactly that, the feel of the book was warm and inviting. No pretense for fancy dishes or high expectations, from you, the chef. 

The types of food: Let me warn you my fellow reader this is NOT a VEGAN book. There are a lot of recipes that are vegan or can easily be changed to be vegan. But don't think this is a 100% vegan book, its not, nor do the authors claim it to be one. There are some dishes that are made with lean meats but that can be changed to tofu or your meat substitute if you wish.

The recipes: I tried a variety of them on the family, from the Spanish Chopped Salad to the Slow Roasted Veggies and Soba to the Lentil and Rice bowl to the Hippie Bowl to the Ginger Apple Crisp. Every single one I would make again! That is rare.... I chose some recipes that were a weird combo of ingredients in my book and thought "this will be interesting...." but every time the flavors won us over. Even my super picky 5yr old tried the dishes and liked most of them, that was win in my book!

Time: The time some of these dishes take was a bit more then I was thinking, but its mostly just preparing different parts of it then placing them all together. I got wise to that fact after a couple of recipes, so I would make extra brown rice for another night. Or pre-cut some veggies for the next day. But over all once I got the idea of the book the recipes didn't take that long.

The verdict: 5 out of 5 forks!!!
I can't wait to try more from the book and see what their other book has as well

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

My review of The Chia Cookbook by Janie Hoffman

I tried to get into this book and had hoped it would help me with my aversion to chia seeds. The pictures are great! Recipes easy to follow and very diverse. The only issue I had was that no matter what I tried chia seeds still gave me the creeps. This has nothing to do with the book but is my own personal problem. It would have been a great book if I liked chia seeds...


I received this book from Blogging for Books, the opinions given are my own.

Cleaning a Pack and Play to save a few $$

I am always looking for ways to save a few dollars (or more), this was one of those times...

Pinterest oh how I have a love/hate relationship with you!  All these brilliant ideas and recipes, yet most sit in my pin board as gentle reminders of how busy I am and how I will never get around to doing most of them. Thanks... thanks....

Since baby #3 is coming along in August we took all the baby stuff we had left out of the attic the other day. One major thing was the Pack and Play, don't worry I checked to see if it had been recalled. Since it had not and this thing had been with us for over 5yrs now and NEVER had a good cleaning. It. Was. Time. You know how much poop, pee, spit up and dirt this thing has seen??? YUCK!

So the pins I saw said to soak it in the tub with HOT water, laundry soap, baking soda a vinegar. The amounts varied for each pin,  but I will tell you what I did.

• 1 Cap full of laundry soap (I make it my self, if you want the recipe just let me know)
• 2/3 cup of baking soda
• 1-2 cups of vinegar

Then you let it soak for 30 minutes..... set the kitchen timer... flip it to the other side for 30 more minutes.
You will note from the pictures I didn't fill the tub up all the way, this was because our pack and play had a lot of extras on it that needed cleaning so I knew it would take 2 tub fulls. Why waste water right?

This was the first batch, main pad, the 2nd level basket thing and the accessory tray.

 

After you soak it for the 60 minutes total, quickly take it outside. I say quickly because it will drip everywhere!!! Then rinse it off with your hose and let the beautiful sunshine dry and 'bleach' it for you.

I'm so glad it was a sunny day because everything dried within a few hours and looked way better!

Sadly I didn't take any major before pictures of the whole thing, but once I was about to wash the main frame I took close up shots of the arms. So same procedure here too, hot water in the tub, laundry soap, vinegar and baking soda. 30min, flip 30min more. Rinse outside, dry.

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

BEFORE

AFTER!

After my experience I would recommend others try it as well!! It came out great! Considering the age and wear on our pack and play I thought that if I ruined it then no major loss. But this thing is a good a new and ready for the new baby.


*if you try it an ruin yours please don't come after me with an angry mob!*