Not Nice Spice
![]() I was really turned off when the pediatrician recommended starting Chickadee on baby cereal at 5 months (for the purpose of iron, as well). I didn’t want my daughter having anything fortified, if I could prevent it. I did a little research and decided to make sure she had beef and greens in her diet, but only when she was ready for solids—it wasn’t until she could sit up at just over SIX months. Also, I didn’t want to have her eating a cereal that I had to spoon-feed her. I love having her explore textures and flavors on her own terms. After she was getting adjusted to fruits and veggies, I decided to try out oat flour pancakes. I chose to grind the oats we used for our regular oatmeal, and adapted a recipe I found on Pinterest (my secret lover—it’s not a healthy relationship). Traditional pancake recipes use milk or buttermilk, but Stud and I only buy unsweetened almond milk. And I recently discovered Silk unsweetened almond cashew milk—the heavens have opened! It didn’t even dawn on me that Chickadee shouldn’t have our nut milk. My helicopter mommy skills were seriously slacking. She had been having the pancakes for some time before this factoid registered. Thankfully, there are no allergies on my side or my husband’s family. I kissed her whole freaking body. Goes without saying—review the recipe and be sure it will not cause potential allergies for your little scrumptious baby cakes. I give her two silver dollar pancakes each morning with pear butter. Oat BLW Pancakes: 1 ¾ C Ground Organic Oat Flour 1 T Baking Powder ¼ t Sea Salt *Mix ingredients thoroughly with a fork or whisk. Create a well in the bowl. Add: 1 C Unsweetened Almond Milk (or your preference) 1 ½ T Grass Fed Melted Butter (or Coconut Oil) 2 Organic Free Range Eggs 1 T Vanilla (real extract) *Mix thoroughly and let sit for 5 minutes. *Use an ice cream scooper (approximately ¼ C) and cook on medium heat until cooked all the way through. *It makes approximately 14 silver dollar pancakes. Pear Butter: 1 Organic Bartlett Pear, halved 1 Organic Green Apple, halved *Bake in convection oven at 350 degrees until juices ooze out (gross word, I know!) *Remove cores and seeds. 1-2 T Grass Fed Butter *Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. *Keep in a mason jar and spread on pancakes before serving!
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![]() Motherhood has shocked me. When my stud and I found out I had a chickadee growing inside of me we were speechless. Everyone said to start trying early because it could take years to get pregnant, yet it seemed all the stars aligned and WAM-BAM we were pregnant on try one. Certainly not complaining; trouble was that we weren’t nearly as prepared as we thought. Thankfully I was teaching at a high school in Long Island City and a fellow teacher was also a doula. She started asking me questions about what am I going to do about this or that—truth is I didn’t even have a doctor or a lady doctor for that matter! I truly was thinking, unless something is alarmingly wrong, you just go in and deliver. Well, this is not the wild frontier apparently! This started me on a long road of research, research, research. I couldn’t be happier when it was time for my chickadee to start solids, and I found what fit our family. Before starting Baby Led Weaning, I checked that she was on track: 1. Chickadee demonstrated interest in food. 2. She could sit up. 3. She could swallow (instead of just being a pool of drool) 4. She demonstrated her gag reflex (pushing food/pacifier/chew toy/bottle out of her mouth). 5. She could grab hold of large items (think baby board book). Even though just before 6 months she demonstrated interest in food while we were eating, she wasn’t sitting up on her own, so I delayed until that stage (she had all of her other ducks in a row). In the meantime we moved and had to do quite a few days eating takeout; I delayed a little longer, until she was at just over 7 months. Baby Led Weaning has changed my life! Initially I was set to be the queen of purees, but I stumbled upon BLW and couldn’t get enough. In short the baby eats when you eat and what you eat, starts solids after 6 months (under Dr. recommendation), you give concern for any family allergies, and present food that is ideal for sucking and “gumming,” usually in long strips and will squish with a slight touch. I crossed my t’s and dotted my i’s preparing for BLW—I wanted to be sure I knew how to respond to any choking, unforeseen allergies, or any other conundrum. I read Baby Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods- and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater. Chickadee is coming up on her 9 month now and is killing the food! She has had a few gag moments, but was able to spit the food right out. I’m the ultimate helicopter mom and if anything turns too stringy or whatnot I take it away. She seems to learn from these experiences and understand how her mouth works. Her first foods were banana, sweet potato and avocado. Here’s a list of her foods at this point: 1. Banana (1/4 of it and left in the skin) 2. Sweet potato (hyperventilates when I’m cooking or prepping it) 3. Avocado (loves the pit!) 4. Green and Red Apple (I bite off parts so that she can suck out juices) 5. Pears (Started with strips, after 2 times I halve and remove center—she downs the whole thing in about 5 minutes) 6. Nectarines (I take a few bites and she goes to town!) 7. Peaches (I take a few bites and she goes to town!) 8. Watermelon (this is the one food she actually hovered too fast and started chocking. I put it in a mesh foodie or blend into popsicles) 9. Honeydew 10. Mango (usually frozen chunks in mesh foodie) 11. Butternut Squash 12. Carrots 13. Cucumber 14. Green beans (extra long ones and fresh is best for cooking) 15. Zucchini 16. Grapes (mesh foodie) 17. Kale (in mesh foodie with a juicy fruit) 18. Spinach (in mesh foodie with a juicy fruit) 19. Chicken Leg & Breast 20. Ground Beef Burger (made with Sweet Potato) 21. Steak 22. Unsalted Butter 23. Allspice 24. Whole Milk Yogurt (I gave her about a teaspoon mixed with homemade cherry butter and she had a green stinky dark poop within a couple hours. Everything about her was normal—playing, temp, wet diapers. Thankfully her next BM was back to regular. No more diary for some time! We rarely have any diary in our diet.). 25. Ground Oat Pancakes (recipe on post: Pancakes, Please!) ***To learn more about BLW I recommend researching, talking to other moms, and most importantly your child’s doctor. You should always consult your child’s doctor. I am not a licensed physician and I am not giving medical advice. This is my own personal experience.*** ![]() Sometimes I hate talking about anything spiritual because I feel as though people just write off anything you say. It makes my skin crawl. I love diversity in every sense and always try to see others’ point of view; unfortunately I’m so opinionated many people take it as an attack. That’s so not the case!!! I’m just an bull in a china shop. Well, here’s a little spiritual tidbit for you. My stud and I have decided to take a week to fast, and PRAISE JESUS I’m nursing so I can’t really fast from food. Instead I chose TV. And boy, when you remove the drama from Bravo (their shows are so addicting- you want to look away but you end up getting sucked in further), you really are able to open yourself up to hearing God in a different way. I asked God to take lead of my devotional time, and I happened to plop my Bible open to 2Kings 4: The Widow’s Oil. Okay, I’ll admit that I thought instantly that God was saying my stud was going to die. Thankfully I decided to push through immature thinking and dig deeper. In short there’s a widow who now has her husband’s debt and is at risk of losing her 2 sons, when she is told to collect jars and fill them with the remaining oil in her house. When lo and behold, the oil fills all the jars she has collected and she pays her debt with some to spare! The typical preacher talks about how this passage tells us that God will always provide for us. And as a woman with a little family and student loans coming out of every orifice, I can relate to the fact that I need that kind of power from God in my life. But, that isn’t at all what I as drawn to. There is a part in the story when the son tells his mother there are no more jars left to fill--- Then the oil stopped flowing. Oooo. That’s good. Whatever we entrust to God He will take care of. Ever think if the widow had collected twice or three times as many jars? In NYC the bottle collectors amaze me. HBO had a special about the lives of bottle collectors throughout different boroughs. It was heartbreaking until I saw the story of a woman, who ironically enough was a bottle collector in my neighborhood! She had small children and was an illegal immigrant. She recognized that this manner of income was humbling, but she was proud because it was honest work. She wasn’t cheating anyone or letting others cheat her. It was work she could demonstrate to her children. I’ve seen bottle collectors and thought they had quite the load, but then there is always one person who has so many bottles all you see are large trash bags gliding through the streets. Somewhere in there is a person committed. They will search night and day knowing that the more they collect the more money they’ll pocket. I am the bottle collector coming before God. The more I give Him, the more He’ll fill my pockets. Not necessarily with money, but definitely with abundance in life (think family, friends, love, laughter, memories, and adventure). I want to be the woman who never stops placing myself before God, because I want to always be overflowing with Him. I want to be able to love more, understand more, relate more, create more, cherish more than I could ever on my own. ![]() I honestly don’t remember the last time my body- correction- my face ever hurt so badly. I’m moving through the morning like a deathly fog. After packing up an egg breakfast bagel, grapes and water bottle I ship my #1 Indonesian back off to NYC, I remember that I am operating on 3 hours of sleep. I mixed up a good remedy of “sleep while the baby sleeps” and found that at 4pm I’m feeling like a rock star, though still braless, pantless, and quite frankly careless. Note to moms: do NOT have a young single friend visit when your daily routine involves consoling 1AM crying and 3:30AM nursing sessions. Which of course must be followed up with an hour of hyperactive playing. The whole weekend I spent feeling guilty for living such a lame adult life. The only trouble is that it’s not compatible for entertaining friends, yet is freaking fabulous when you’re snuggled up with your chickadee or stud. Plans were high-jacked by 90 degree weather and sleeping baby combo. Our round two attempt at adventure was scrapped by Mother Nature. So here’s the deal- I LOVE hosting friends and family. I dream of being a reinvented version of Martha Stewart (sans jail time goes without saying), but it’s just not the case. Thankfully I have learned to invite over those nearest and dearest, which cuts down a lot of the smiling plastic face business. A good guest let’s you converse before noon with grunting, and isn’t stuck on accomplishing anything in particular. I stick to my go-to waffles and ice coffee with almond/cashew milk and let the reminiscing flow. |
Kate FrancesWhen you don't know what else to do, then it's time to write. Then write a little while longer for good measure. Archives
February 2020
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