Coconut Carrot Zucchini Muffins

So I have some earth shattering news. No, its not about the earthquake that hit NYC the other day that apparently everyone but me felt. It’s about my baby. He’s going dairy, wheat and gluten free for the next few weeks due to some allergies we are experiencing. We will resume normal programming, however the content will be altered accordingly.

You can use the recipes as is or change them up for your own babies needs, like instead of rice flour you can use regular flour and so on and so forth.

I may seem calm about this whole thing but it really has shaken up our “eating schedule”. I’m trying not to have a panic attack. Snack time for the past 2 months has been yogurt and fruit. Simple, transportable, no need to be heated up…it was a nice balance. Im currently testing out almond and coconut based yogurts but I wanted to make muffins to break up the routine. I can also use these for breakfast and my husband likes them too…hey look at me im so diverse.

1 ½ cup white rice flour

½ cup coconut flour

1/2 tspn cinnamon

a sprinkle o’ nutmeg

a sprinkle o’ ginger

1 tsp baking powder

1 larger carrot

1 medium zucchini

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup raw agave

3 eggs

1.     Mix the flours, spices and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.

2.     Peel the carrot, wash the zucchini and grate together in bowl numero 2.

3.     Mix together the coconut oil, applesauce, agave and whisked eggs in bowl 3.

4.     Mix bowl 3 with bowl 1 then add bowl 2, got it? Good.

5.     Mix mix mix.

6.     Grease muffin tins, add mixture bake at 325 for an hour.

Song of the Week: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Ohm Nashi Me remix

I usually have no problem springing out of bed at the sound of my babys first stirrings but today and some days my body just doesn’t want to move. Other than a double shot espresso what helps is playing a good song, and playing it loudly. It wakes me up, makes my baby happy, we dance, we sing and it brings joy into waking up at the crack of dawn.

Listen here.

Now dance bitches.

Product Review of The Week: Earths Best Diapers

Nothing external about me screams organic super freak but deep down inside I am an earth loving kumbaya singing hippie. Sometimes I dream about living in the mountains, surviving off of my own vegetable garden, washing my laundry in the river…well, maybe not that. But you know what I mean. Being totally green isn’t as easy as it seems and it’s not my goal at all but there are some great companies out there that are making it easier and possible to make small changes in your life that are significant.

Example numero uno, baby diapers. Now, my first experience with organic diapers where brown paper feeling type things I saw my friend use on her baby and I remember thinking “poor baby.” When I had my baby I used pampers at first and I loved the way they felt and smelled. Yes, I smell everything. After a few weeks I realized hmmm, why do they smell so good? Why does his tushy get so red all the time? Chemicals! My poor little baby and all babies in the universe wear these things on their bodies 24/7, they cant have chemicals seeping into their unsuspecting bodies!

So began the hunt for the perfect natural diaper.

Earths best diapers are environmentally friendly and more importantly chlorine and chemical free. They’re plain white, with no characters on them, no smell…its like wearing a diapers in the 1950s and I love it. Its soft compared to others, my baby moves well in it and he hasn’t had a red tush since I made the switch. The only thing I must say is that for overnight use, try using a size up to prevent leaks. 

Available Here. 

WYG Chicken Soup

There must be 1,001 chicken soup recipes out there, but there’s always room for one more. This one is called What-You-Got Chicken Soup, also known as WYG. 

Simply open up your fridge, take a gander, sniff out the rotten crap and chop chop chop. In this weeks WYG soup, we shall be using zucchini, sweet potato, carrots, celery and of course chicken. 

2 chicken breasts

1/2 medium onion

1 zucchini, unpeeled

1/2 large sweet potato, peeled

3 carrots, peeled

2 celery sticks

1 cup stock

2 cups water

Helpful Hint: I like to pretend i'm on a food network show and chop all the ingredients before I start so that when the ball is rolling all you have to do is throw shit in, make it look pro.

Cut the chicken into small chunks, wash and chop all the veggies into baby size pieces, get the stock and water ready in a measuring cup…be organized. It makes the whole cooking process less tedious.

1.     Saute the chopped onion in olive oil.

2.     Brown el chicken chunks.

3.     Add the chopped veggies, stirring for a minute or two, until they start sweating.

4.     Add the stock and water, add more of either to cover.

5.     Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer for 45 min.

Although my baby has a handful of teeth I still like to puree his chick soup chunky because unlike chicken off the bone, chicken breast can be a little tough to chew and I like that he gets a spoonful of all the veggies in each bite.

Chick Soup Chunky.

I like the way that sounds.

Makes a lot.

I Was Kidnapped.

Yes, im serious.

Kidnapped by my sons first birthday party, my nanny leaving me for 8 days, family coming to town, a massive flood with real water that made real puddles in my house, my husband being attacked by poison ivy and a teething baby who decided that 4am is his new favorite time of day. 

If this was high school I would get an F for fail. But its not. Its the blogosphere where people love you and wait for you to come back from the chaos that is sometimes your everyday life. 

Welcome home to me.

Product Review of the Week: Bjorn Bib

Before I had my baby I was a borderline shopaholic, I must have gone shopping everyday. When I had my baby I completely lost interest in the whole thing. Now I do it out of necessity, its like ok I cant wear these pajamas/clothes everyday, people are starting to look at me funny, I need to get a few things just to blend into society as a functioning human being. Shopping now is definitely not out of pleasure anymore…I kind of hate the whole process and dread walking into a department store, id rather get my teeth cleaned. Anyway, my love for buying crap definitely transferred over to my baby. Giggle was my second home, the cute diapers.com box was at my door constantly, im a number one amazon mom...its all been a blast. 

I call this post product review of the week, I figure I might as well share my favorite baby stuff with you since i've tried it all. I went through 4 different types of bibs. Cloth, vinyl, paper and plastic, I have to say that my all time favorite bib is the bjorn bib. Some people might think it’s a bib, whats the big deal stop being so DRAMATIC, but it is a big deal! Some bibs get soaked, some get pulled off too easily, some flaps don’t stay open and nothing gets caught…this whole bib thing isn’t as simple as it seems. This bib catches everything…food, water, utensils, toys you name it. So save yourself time money and aggravation, don’t get suckered in to buying the wrong bib like I did, just buy one or two of these and call it a day.

Buy Here.

Meat-Ah-Balls

Little tiny baby meatballs. What's better than that?

1 lb natural ground beef

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup onions divided

1 egg beaten

1/4 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp thyme 

2 garlic cloves 

1 140z can organic no salt diced tomatoes

Sunflower oil

A quick word on sunflower oil. Used just as you would olive oil, sunflower oil is great for frying. Its high in vitamin E, Vitamin B, is an antioxidant and has folic acid.

1. Combine the beef, breadcrumbs 1/4 cup onions and egg in a bowl.

2. Mush with you hand until well combined. Add more breadcrumbs if you feel it needs it.

3. Form little baby meatballs and arrange on a plate.

4. Brown the meatballs for 1 min on each side with the sunflower oil.

5. Meanwhile, in a seperate pot fry the rest of the onion and garlic for a few minutes with the sunflower oil.

6. Add the sauce, oregano and thyme and let it get warm and toasty for a few minutes.

7. Throw in the meatballs, bring to a boil and let simmer for 25-30 min.

You can puree this, serve with pasta stars or brown rice.

Makes 30 meat-AH-balls.

Heating Up Baby Food

My baby likes warm food. I have a friend whose baby could drink cold formula and eat cold anything. She explained to me that she “trained” her baby to like cold or room temperature things from the beginning. Lucky her, because i’m a slave to perfectly warm baby food.

If the food is straight from the fridge, ill put it in a glass bowl. Then, take another larger bowl, put a small amount of water in it and then microwave that plain water for 45 seconds until its steaming hot. Then, I place the small glass bowl with the food in the bigger bowl with the plain water and cover with a towel. You following?

If it’s from the freezer, I have a bigger problem…remembering to take it out the night before. I would say 5 out of 5 times I forget to take it out the night before. Why? Because I have too many damn things to do before bed, that’s why. Moving along.

For a few weeks I switched up my baby’s feeding schedule per my doctors request and instead of milk first thing in the morning I gave him fruit and oatmeal. This didn’t last long. Picture my baby starving, screaming, my eyes barely open at the crack of dawn before my coffee, realizing I forgot to take the food out of the freezer again.

It was a disaster. I had to heat up the frozen food in a small pot, which sucked because I lost some of the food in the transfer, the food got way too hot and I had to clean a pot. So what I do now is give him his milk first thing in the morning and then feed him his fruit and oatmeal an hour and a half later, which leaves me enough time to defrost it via my bowl regimen.

Craziness I tell ya.

If any of you have a better/magical way of heating up your food without the microwave or stove let me know!

Blueberry and Banana Pancakes

Before my baby was born, my husband and I never ate breakfast together. I’m the rooster in our relationship, getting up at the crack of dawn and he’s more like the vampire. Now that he’s forced to be up early, we’ve adopted the habit of making breakfast and actually sitting down at our table and eating together. At first I kind of felt like the partridge family, thinking “look at us all grown up with a baby sitting down having eggs and coffee, listening to a record, reading the paper…were so typical, were so OLD” But now I kind of love it and cant wait for our weekend breakfast sessions.

I know its Monday and the weekend seems so far away, but here’s a recipe for delicious pancakes that wont make you feel so bad about yourself and your baby will love it too.

1 cup Arrowhead Mills organic pancake mix

1 organic free range brown egg

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp Agave

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp almond milk

Handful of blueberries

Sliced banana

Organic virgin coconut oil

100% pure and organic dark maple syrup (not for baby)

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl. Add more almond milk if you think its too thick.

Fry in coconut oil.