Whole grain cereal

Interestingly enough before I found out that JJunior needs a special diet I started reading the following book: Super Baby Food. It was recommended to me by a friend, (who actually has a blog herself and I will include a link to it as soon as I got her ok for it;0)) after my daughter was born and at the time I started making my own rice cereal. But aside from that I soon went back to my "old ways" and didn't pay much more attention to different cooking ideas.

Recently I have been getting more and more aware of what we are actually eating and what is REALLY in all that processed food from the store. Among many interesting and helpful infos, recipes and newer healthier ideas for your kids food, the book contains some inside on what happens when grains get processed for instance. It opened my eyes, to what all is being done to our food before we pick it up at the store. All the good stuff is taken out, all the minerals, vitamins, fibers are gone...we might as well eat paper I felt. Empty calories! I now rather eat regular sugared and oiled pancakes, which contain whole wheat, with extra wheat germ and Brewer's yeast to enhance the content. It means more calories, but those calories are actually healthier and better for you, then a low fat pancake which is made from white (empty) flower, fake or no sugar...Anyway, I am being opinionated here and I do not want to hurt anybody's feelings, everyone has their own tastes and what works for me, may not work for you. So please do not feel offended if you disagree.

As you can tell, between the dairy and soy free challenge, and me trying to change my(our) eating or at least cooking habits made the last few months interesting and challenging to say the least! Here was my first attempt to a healthier baby, thanks to the above mentioned book:http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=superbabyfood&x=0&y=0

 I take a quarter cup of whole brown rice and grind it in the blender for 2 minutes.

I put it the powder in boiling water, about one and a half cups of it.

I cook the rice water mix for 10 minutes. Then I mix it with a fruit of my choice and feed it to my boy. The rest I keep in the fridge for a few days in a bowl, so we do not use too much plastic which could leek other unwanted ingredients into my baby food.

Obviously I am taking some shortcuts here, I could puree and cook all organic fruits too and freeze them and use them to safe money. Yes the organic fruits, especially the baby food are very expensive. But for now I am a little out of time and patience. You have to start somewhere and move along at your own speed, I think. Don't ever beat yourself down. Be patient with yourself. You do the best you can everyday. ;0) Namaste. Romy

Dairy Free

When JJunior was about a week old I started to notice problems with his digestion and over the first few months things didn't improve. So the doctor and I watched and decided to feed him and me dairy, soy and red meat free. The first few weeks of that major diet change for me were hard, since I am a chocaholic and love to eat all the good things out there. Now it turns out, dairy is in EVERYTHING, and if it does not contain dairy it has soy. The red meat wasn't that much of a problem, since I could still have chicken.

I got a few books and started reading and realized that cooking at home wouldn't be such a big deal. You can substitute dairy for cooking and baking with all kinds of things, Rice milk, almond milk, shortening...Obviously you need to try it out and adjust things as you go along and learn all the new ways of eating. But it is easily manageable. The problems start if you go out and dine at restaurants, go to coffee shops, bakeries or want to EAT ICE CREAM;0)

Most restaurants now ask in big signs to let them know about specific allergies. But I must admit, when you do, many struggle to help you. Some are very professional and have prepared lists easily accessible, for example Chipotles has a list with all the meals and ingredients as a little printout.  Friendly's had a messy folder with so many sheets to read and search through. Not a very easily manageable task, when you sit in the restaurant with a hungry husband, preschooler and a whiny baby.  You end up trying to please everyone (including the oh so helpful waitress), racing through the list and eating nothing good and healthy.... Margaritas has a list of all their items that contain dairy, or soy, or any other allergens. So you have to read the regular menu and when you find something you like, you check the allergy menu if any of your ingredients are to be found there...and again, first time I ended up with plain rice and plain grilled  chicken...Burger King actually has a printed menu on the wall with all the allergy information. Very helpful. Not that I dine there a lot, but occasionally I do.  

Now one important thing, if you are very allergic to something, you shouldn't trust the waiter to tell you about the ingredients. I have had a couple of occasions where people looked me in the eye stating that this and that was dairy free and I had to insist for a written and approved list of ingredients (oh how I love to be a pain in the neck... you should see husband hiding behind my back when I get annoying;0)) just to find out that the waiter was wrong. It's not such a big deal for us, since JJunior wouldn't have immediate life threatening symptoms, but many people do. But I am sure those of you who do, are probably aware of people's obliviousness. 

We are now introducing Soy back into my diet and JJunior's diet, so my life has improved a 80 percent. We will see how baby does with it and then we can start giving him Soy milk at age 1. So buy buy nursing and stinky predigested formula;0) I am sure JJunior will approve!