My personal opinion? Breastfeeding a child exclusively for the first 6 months, and then continuing thereafter for another 6 months at least is the best thing you can do for them nutritionally. After that, as long as you offer them real, whole foods, and avoid artificial and processed foods, they will be well on their way to a healthy lifestyle.

Sounds simple enough, right? And I think it can be. But if you’re still overwhelmed by all the options surrounding “real, whole foods”, and are seeking a little guidance, Modern Alternative Mama has written an e-book just for you.

Breast to Bib covers the issues from breastfeeding to first foods to toddler pickiness and gives ideas for each stage. It’s not a comprehensive encyclopedia of each of these issues, but it is full of common sense advice and recipes to boot.

I really like the simple approach to feeding babies and small children: not too soon, not too much, and nothing out of the ordinary. OK, well maybe the suggestion for raw liver is a little out of the ordinary (I have to admit I have my concerns about feeding anyone – adults or children – raw liver!), but most of her ideas and recipes will fit well into any family’s lifestyle. You might even find some suggestions easier; for example, she recommends foregoing the whole baby food process (even homemade) and just feeding baby little bits of whatever the rest of the family is eating (note that there is nothing wrong with baby food; it’s just another method of weaning a child to solids).

The baby food section contains all sorts of recipes for soft and easily digested foods that will give your little one valuable nutrients and calories for growth. You will also learn when and how to introduce different kinds of foods for the healthiest approach to weaning.

The toddler section of the book contains a guide that will instruct you when to feed certain questionable foods (like honey and allergenic foods). It also contains recipes that will show you how to healthify such kid-friendly favorites as chicken nuggets, pigs-in-a-blanket, barbecue and ranch sauces for dipping, quesadillas and more!

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Breast to Bib! This giveaway will close at midnight on Tuesday, May 22, and is open to all readers everywhere. You will be notified by email if you win.

And that’s not all – everyone gets a discount on Breast to Bib! Use the code QUICK25 from now until May 25 to get 25% off the full price, making it only $6.75!
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I love turning trash into treasures. Egg containers, coffee cans, empty jars and bottles… none of them are safe from me! I love figuring out new ways to use them instead of just throwing them all away. Join me at Homemaker’s Challenge today where I show you how to turn an empty oatmeal canister into a toilet paper dispenser that will beautify your bathroom (really!).

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After all that, I still ended up over-eating, but the good thing is that I wasn’t hungry the rest of the day… so I ate nothing else the rest of the day! I was quite proud of myself for that. How are you doing with respecting your fullness?

This week’s menu is a little different for us. My dad is having open-heart surgery to repair a genetic condition, so I am leaving my boys behind to go be with him and my mom. I’ve tried to make the food easy on them by either making it ahead myself or keeping it simple. Hopefully, they will survive!
Breakfasts

• Tropical Smoothies
• Cold Cereal
• Oatmeal
• Oat & Buckwheat Pancakes
• 1-2-3 Granola

Lunches

• Leftovers
• Ham Sandwiches (made with nitrate-free lunchmeat, and this allergen-friendly bread)
• Hot Dogs

Dinners

• Spaghetti (Rice Noodles and Tomato Sauce for My Certain Little Someone, Whole Wheat Spaghetti and Alfredo Sauce for the rest), Carrots, Fruit
• Oat & Buckwheat Pancakes, Bacon, Fruit
• Pork Ribs, Baked Potatoes, Carrots
• Dinner Out

Snacks

• Nuts, Raisins, Cranberries
• Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (made with a mixture of Oat, Buckwheat and Sorghum flours to be wheat-free)
• assorted junk that has found its way into this house

In My Kitchen Today

• Artisan Bread
• Rice Milk
• Coconut Milk
• Coconut Milk Yogurt (following this method)
• Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Oat & Buckwheat Pancakes
• 1-2-3 Granola
• Awesome (Allergen-Friendly) Sandwich Bread
• Baked Donut Holes

*My concept of “Eating Intentionally”, and the 10 principles we are working through this year, come from the book “Intuitive Eating” by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I highly recommend it – I don’t agree with everything in it, but it is a great read for anybody who has ever been on a diet and/or is considering going on a diet. 

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Tropical Traditions

Tropical Traditions is offering FREE SHIPPING until Monday, May 14, with the code: 14512. This is the perfect time to try their products if you haven’t yet.

I recommend their Palm Shortening, which is also on sale 42% off! That makes the 112oz tub only $23.59, an excellent price (you won’t find this good a price anywhere else, even other brands of palm shortening!).

See the rest of Tropical Traditions specials here.

Amazon.com

• Stretch Island Fruit Leather 30pk $10.88 w/ Subscribe and Save – only $0.36 each (unbeatable price)
• Sunbutter 6pk 160z jars $21.76 w/ Subscribe and Save – only $3.62 each! (AWESOME price!)
• HAPPYBABY organic baby food Fresh Mango 16 pouches $13.60 w/ Subscribe & Save – less than $1 each

Vitacost

Shop Vitacost’s Mother’s Day store and get up to 54% off products you and your mom will both love! Remember that shipping is always free with orders $49 or more. (If this is your first time ordering through Vitacost, you can save $10 by clicking on my link!)

Want to try making cheese?  Until May 21, you can get 10 % off Cheese-Making Kits at Cultures for Health. Prices start at $14.95.

Printable Coupons

Coupons.com

• $1.50 off Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• $1.50 on 2 Kashi Steam Meals
• $1 off Alexia products
• $1 off Star Olive Oil
• $1.50 off 2 Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmers
• $0.50 off Hormel Natural Choice lunchmeat or chicken
• $1 off Nature’s Bounty supplement
• $1 off 2 Greenworks
• $1 off Sundown Naturals supplement
• $0.55 off So Delicious almond or other non-dairy milk
• $2 off Florastor probiotic
• $1 off 2 Wolfgang Puck products
• $1 off McCann’s Oatmeal
• and more

Get premium coupons now in the Coupons.com Savings Club

• $1.25 off when you buy any ONE Barbara’s® Cereal
• $1.50 off AVENT BPA-Free Toddler Cup
• $1.10 off Nature’s Bounty® Vitamins or Supplements
• $1.10 off when you buy any ONE Sundown Naturals® product
• $1.00 off THREE 24.5 oz Jars of DOLE® All Natural Fruit
• and more

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So in the picture above, you see what I threw away this week:

1. a child’s serving of chicken
2. cucumber-tomato salad
3. (not pictured) 3-4 soft potatoes

The chicken is leftovers from going out to eat with our extended family to celebrate some birthdays. I tried 3 different times to get both kids to eat their leftovers, but they categorically refused. By then, it was time to throw them away. Sadness.

I made myself the cucumber-tomato salad, ate half of it, then forgot about the other half. Oops.

And the potatoes went bad surprisingly quickly! I’m going to half to cook up the rest of the bag for dinner tonight before they go bad, too.

You’re probably wondering about the sweet potato peels, aren’t you? I have not recently thrown away any sweet potato peels. In fact, I’ve discovered recently that sweet potato peels actually make an amazingly delicious little snack that’s good for you, too. Considering it’s made from something most people would grind in the garbage disposal, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal!

Now if you Google “sweet potato peels”, you’ll find a bunch of tutorials that instruct you to bake the sweet potato whole, scoop out the flesh, and then roast the peels. That’s great if you actually need sweet potato puree, but not so great if you’re wanting to peel and cut the sweet potatoes for some other purpose (like sweet potato fries, for example). In that case, you’re starting with raw peels, a totally different thing altogether.

I couldn’t find a single recipe online that started with raw sweet potato peels, so I invented my own. And Oh. My. Goodness. They were soooooooo good. Even better (in my humble opinion) than the variety that starts with baked potato peels. Instead of baking the peels, I boiled them a little bit first so they weren’t completely raw when I put them in the oven. The olive oil just soaked into the tender peels and created a crisp but tender salty little treat that was rather addictive.

Boiling the peels adds an extra step, so these aren’t the QUICKest snack in my repertoire. But they’re still done in half an hour or less.

Very EASY! No special skills required.

Oh yeah, these are CHEAP. Can’t get any cheaper than this!

And very HEALTHY, too. The fiber from the peels and all the antioxidants and other goodness from the sweet potato is just the icing on this cake.

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These upside-down tomato planters have intrigued me since I first heard about them, and I’ve been wanting to try them forever! So when I was sent one to review, I was ecstatic. (Yes, ecstatic!) Unfortunately, it was just a little bit too early to put them to use, so I had to curb my enthusiasm for a week or two until I could actually plant some tomatoes.

Finally, I was able to plant them, but now… Now I have to wait for them to grow and make cute little tomatoes. *Sigh* Patience is totally not my strong suit. 

But while I’m waiting, I’m going to give you a chance to win a tomato tree for yourself! These handy little planters will make your gardening life a lot easier.

The benefits to using a tomato tree planter instead of planting them in the ground like people have done since the dawn of time?

• It takes up less space. If you don’t happen to have a lot of ground to work with, these are perfect for you! I happen to love it because I only have a small balcony to work with, so hanging the tomato plants creates a lot more floor space for me to use with other plants.
• No need to stake your tomato plants.
• No holes to dig or other grunt work involved.
• Simple assembly that takes very little time.
• No weeding!

It took my husband and myself less than 10 minutes to plant the tomatoes in these hanging planters. The process is simple: drill a hole for the hook, open the planter, insert the plant and secure it with a foam wedge, gently fill the planter with soil, place the lid on top, and hang it from the hook. Done!

Of course, just like any potted plant, some maintenance is required: it is absolutely essential to water them generously every day, especially in the hottest days of summer. I read an ingenious idea elsewhere online (but haven’t tried it myself yet) to create a self-watering planter by inserting a milk gallon jug cut in half above the soil in the planter. Poke some holes in the bottom of the gallon jug and pour water into it. The water will slowly drain into the soil, reducing the need for frequent watering.

My only concern with the planter was that when we were assembling it, one of the three steel cords it hangs from snapped. It happened so fast, I’m not sure what caused it, but I think it was because we were trying to place the lid on too forcefully.  I couldn’t find any instances of that happening to anyone else when reading numerous reviews online, so I think it was a freak occurrence. We were able to fix it successfully with duct tape (yay, marvelous duct tape!) and it’s hanging quite nicely on our balcony now.
But what do you have to lose? Nothing! Entering this giveaway is simple and costs you nothing, so you can give it a try yourself. This giveaway is open until next Tuesday at midnight, and I will send the winner an announcement via e-mail. This giveaway is only open to US residents. And please note: the tomato plant is not included, only the planter itself.

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Happy 1st Year Anniversary of H2W!

Rachel of Day2Day Joys and I are so excited to be joining you again.

Link up to any of our blogs with your favorite healthy post!

Top three this week:

Since you were one of the three “chosen”… you’ve been Facebooked and Tweeted by Rachel!

Breakfast Crunch (Grain Free)from Green Bean Gardens is an awesome healthy way

to enjoy your most important meal! Yummy!

Food is not your God by Stacy Makes Sense is a great post putting things into perspective!

Tips for Frugal Meals and Indian Lentil Recipe from The Balanced Platter are

some great healthy tips to add your your list.

Rules for this Link-Up:

• Share an idea, tip, recipe, things to avoid, something new to try, natural remedy, alternative medicine, going “green” tips, etc. that will help us to remain or become more healthy!

• If this is your first time participating read more info & get button here.

• Comment on another participant’s post.

• Add button or link back to that day’s link up.

• Spread the word so we can learn more ideas on keep our families healthy; feel free to share on Facebook or Twitter.

• Ideas: homebirths, natural remedies, an interesting article, something eco-friendly, a review, natural cleaner, alternative or holistic approaches to health, how to’s, the list goes on & on!

• If you are adding a recipe, make sure the ingredients do not include white flour, refined sugar, processed products, packages products (unless it is clearly stated or pictured that it is organic or all natural) and the like. We are looking for whole food recipes that are beneficial to our health! 

If you’re not participating today, I hope you’ll come back & join in next week!

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You may or may not have noticed, but I derailed a little bit in April. I had some other stuff going on (namely, finishing up my e-book that is now being edited and formatted), so I took a little blogging break, and in the process, totally neglected my Eating Intentionally series.

But I’m back now. So here we go.

I’m just going to totally skip principle #4 (Challenge the Food Police) because it kind of echoes a lot of the aspects of principle #3 (Make Peace with Food), and I feel like continuing in that vein will only result in beating a dead horse.

So onward and forward to Principle #5, which is: Respect Your Fullness. Ah, now, here we get to the good stuff. 

I have read in many different places about how the French people (any actual French people out there who can attest to the accuracy of this analysis, please feel free to pipe up!) eat foods that we would often consider “bad for you” or “fattening”, but they’re typically quite skinny, and fairly healthy as a society. Many people speculate that one reason is because the French eat very slowly, enjoying their food; and they rarely eat seconds.

I think this is where we as Americans struggle the most. Besides the obvious fact that the average American eats a lot of junk, one big cause of our obesity issues is that we simply eat too much. Food looks appetizing, so we indulge. And we take another helping, because wow, that was some good stuff! We go to buffets and have to sample every single option offered.

In short, we are trapped in our abundance. Even people on limited budgets, like myself, have a wide array of enticing desirable food options, and our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

So the secret is to gain a little discipline: learn to stop eating when the stomach is full. I have seriously been concentrating on this recently. So far, I haven’t seen an improvement on the scale yet, but I have definitely learned that I don’t need to eat as much as I’m accustomed to eating.

How does this work practically? Here are a few tips:

1. Start with small servings. Chances are, if you put it on your plate, you will eat it. This is why the oft-repeated advice to use a smaller plate is so effective.
2. Eat slowly. Use all the tricks: put your fork down between bites, take a sip between bites, converse with your fellow diners, etc. (Note: this is where it comes in really hand to have mastered the principle of Honoring Your Hunger. If you are starving when you eat, it will be difficult to eat slowly, and you will inevitably end up over-eating.)
3. Pay attention to the taste and texture of the food as you eat (more on this in principle #6).
4. After eating a portion of your food, ask yourself, “Am I starting to feel full? Am I still hungry?”
5. When you’re finished your meal, note how you feel: stuffed? comfortable? satiated? Learn to identify the feeling of satiated – no longer hungry, but not stuffed or “full” either.

For more information, please read Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche.

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Wow,Secret Recipe Club time came around fast this month! It totally caught me by surprise near the end of my OAMS cycle, and due to poor planning on my part, I happened to be completely out of flour and oats. That pretty much eliminated any baking, and I didn’t have time to try any main dish recipes. Thankfully, Cupcake Muffin, my assigned blog, came to my rescue with a simple recipe that not only requires minimal ingredients (that I happened to have on hand, miracle of miracles) but that also tastes amazingly delicious. Even better? I’m the only one in the house that can eat them, so they are all mine. Muahahahahahahah! There are some perks to being the only person in the house without any dietary issues.

As for next month: I will not run out of wheat flour and I will finish my Secret Recipe Club long before it’s due. I’m trusting you all to keep me accountable, OK?

Now back to my assigned blog: Cupcake Muffin is written by Sara, a grad student at Berkeley who cooks up some pretty amazing stuff. From creative ways to serve vegetables (Carrot Fennel Salad, for example), to delicious new twists on old dinner-time favorites (try the Chicken Tinga Tacos), to decadent desserts (how about some Grapefruit Mint Tarragon Chocolate Tart?), she’s got you covered! After all, she’s been blogging since 2007, so there’s a lot of great content to be discovered.

For reasons already mentioned, I chose to make her Orange Chocolate Chip Macaroons, which turned out to be quite serendipitous. Orange and chocolate is a combination I love , and I always enjoy trying new recipes to utilize it. These macaroons were no exception! Delicious, in a word. You definitely won’t be able to eat just one.

I made only a portion of the recipe, since, as I mentioned, I’m the only one in the house who can eat these. So here’s my small batch version, which doesn’t differ much from Sara’s original recipe.

I would recommend using Let’s Do Organic  or Tropical Traditions  dried coconut for this recipe, as most other versions have lots of sugar and other unnecessary ingredients in them. If you use the right kind of coconut, these will actually be some pretty healthy cookies!

These cookies were so QUICK to make – they do take a long time to bake up (25 minutes) but the prep time was minimal, 10- minutes or less.

Deliciously EASY, too. For some reason I always thought macaroons were hard, but not so!

This recipe uses minimal ingredients (especially in a small batch, which is great if you don’t need a large quantity), so it’s a great CHEAP treat.

If you use the right kind of coconut, and chocolate chips with real ingredients, these cookies can be relatively HEALTHY. They still have sugar, so they’re not a health food, but they’re a healthier option for snack than most cookies (especially store-bought ones!).

Intrigued by the Secret Recipe Club concept? Join here!

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Hearth & Soul  Traditional Tuesday

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