Monday, March 22, 2010

Mostly Raw Monday: March 22

Our basement is semi-dry, and I'm back into the swing of things. I also started some new batches of sauerkraut. This is a really good thing because I harvested my first batch last week (it made 3 quarts), and we've eaten almost 2 quarts already!

Breakfast
2 tablespoons Master Tonic
3 bananas
21 sprouted almonds

A quart of green smoothie made with 8 ounces of water, some stevia, 2 tablespoons hemp protein powder, a peach, 4 strawberries, half a frozen banana, 6 huge romaine leaves, and a ton of spinach
A couple pieces of red pepper, some orange, raisins and apple (can you tell I eat my son's leftovers?)
4 or 5 raw almond & flax crackers

2 ice cube-sized chunks of Raw Fudge (made with agave instead of honey, and with sprouted almonds and dried coconut added)

1 quart of postpartum tea

I meant to have some kraut, but I got busy :)

Mondays are a challenge to do raw. The weekends are so busy that it's hard to do the food prep. So I usually end up eating almost as much raw food throughout the week. I had Chia Pudding made with truly raw almond milk for breakfast, for instance :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey brenna! i'm doing research on baby cereals...dhara is 3 months now, and I know they say you can start giving cereals at 4 months, but I'm debating whether or not that is too early. When do you prefer to start on cereals? Also do you make your own baby cereals, or do you recommend an all-natural brand?
Thanks, Susan

Brenna Kate Simonds, Living Unveiled said...

Hey, Susan, our pediatrician recommended starting solids at 4 months, but we waited until 6 months to start solids based on several things. First, I had read that's when a baby's gut flora is developed & ready for something other than breastmilk. Since Bear has food sensitivities, this seemed especially important. Some stuff here: http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

We also looked for developmental signs of readiness, rather than starting at an arbitrary time. Signs that indicate baby is developmentally ready for solids:
Baby can sit up well without support.
Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
Baby is ready and willing to chew.
Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.

More info here: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032000.asp

We started with whole foods rather than cereals. Bear's first foods were banana, avocado & sweet potato. We followed some of the recs in this book: http://www.superbabyfood.com/

Some call avocado a perfect baby food that closely resembles breastmilk (see Dr. Sears link).

We did do cereal eventually, but I think next time I will make my own. There are some cereal recipes in the Super Baby Food book. For Monkey (4 months and 1 week old now!), I'm not even going to think about solids until he's 6 months old.

Many pediatricians recommend cereal because they are iron-fortified. Here's some info on that: http://kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html

Bear's iron dropped around 9 months, but that seems common for breastfed babies. Around 12 months, we increased iron-containing foods and added unsulfured blackstrap molasses, a great source of iron, to his foods.

Hope that's helpful!

Anonymous said...

wow, yes! this helps alot! thanks brenna! and I heard about the "Super Baby Food" book, so I invested in that...waiting to get it in the mail. Also got "Real Food for Mother and Baby"...heard it was good as well... exciting stuff!

Brenna Kate Simonds, Living Unveiled said...

Susan, I just heard about the "Real Food" books. I'm going to have to get that.