Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie

Until I tried this smoothy mix I could not get the monster to even touch a kiwi...

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 cup strawberries frozen, partly thawed
- 1 kiwi, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 cup Vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tbsp. honey


DIRECTION:

Place all ingredients in your emmersion blender cup and mix with immersion blender until smooth.

Tasty Tuesday - Cranberry Raisin Loaf

Just like everything else at the Wiseman's we make our own bread. I was trying to think how many loaves of bread we actually buy in a year -- I think it might be 5 or 10, if you count packages of hot-dog and hamburger buns.

We make our own bread for more then one reason: cost, taste, it's easy and, well, I enjoy it.

This recipe is for a bread machine; we probably use ours twice a week at minimum.

Ingredients:

● 1 1/4 cups water
● 1 egg
● 1/3 cup skim milk powder
● 1 1/4 tsp salt
● 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
● 2 tbsp butter
● 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
● 1 cup whole wheat flour
● 2 tsp cardamon, ground
● 1/2 cup cranberries, dried
● 1/2 cup raisins, dried
● 1 1/4 tsb bread machine yeast

Directions:

Add ingredients in order listed to bread machine. Select sweet cycle; dark crust.

Tasty Tuesdays - Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire Puddings is a great way to pretend to show off your massively talented baking skills, because most people think they are extra hard to make but in reality these are some of the easiest bread product out there to make.

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
● 4 eggs
● 1 cup all-purpose flour
● 1 cup whole wheat flour
● 2 cups milk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk until well blended. Whisk in the flour one cup at a time until frothy and well blended. Set aside.
3. Spray muffin pan with oil. Divide batter equally between the 12 muffin cups.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve immediately.

Busy Busy Busy

We have been keeping crazy busy so I have been neglecting my blogging duties...

On Fridays we started attending French Circle time at Ella Minnow Book Store, they have a great space in the basement where various mom and baby classes are held. This is also one of the best book stores (for english books) for children that I have ever been to in Toronto. They keep a great selection of books and the staff is extra helpful. They do have a section of french books but not tones.

Christophe has been "eating" apple sauce, peach mush, sweet potato mash and rice cereal. I say "eating" because most of it ends up on him... I have been trying to give him fruit in the morning and vegetable a super time with a bit of the rice cereal. I think he likes the apples but its really hard to tell, he still finds having food in his mouth kinda weird.

On another note Geoff thinks Christophe may have signed the work milk!!! We offered him milk and guess what he was hungary. For the past few weeks Christophe has been opening and closing his hand while nursing. I always though he was just playing but maybe he has been signing...

Books for mamas

I picked up the book "Fresh Milk" by Fiona Giles at Red Tent Sisters here in Toronto. I have to say anyone with an open mind that has ever nursed should definitely read this book. It is a combination of short stories and real life accountings of men and women from around the world and there breast-feeding experiences. It opens up many topics for discussion and makes you ask yourself tones of questions. The author sent out a questionnaire to a bunch of people in order to receive material for the book. Some of the questions she asks in the book and my answers are:

What single change in the world would have made breastfeeding easier for you?
For a visual aid to come to your hospital room and
demonstrate how it's done as soon as your baby is born.

If you could buy breastmilk by the liter from the corner store, how much would it cost?
If it was for babies that would otherwise be getting formula free. For anyone else; 1 000 000 for colostrum; 500$ a liter for a mother that has nursed less then 6 months and 100$ a liter if the milk comes from a mother that has been nursing more then 6 months.

If you could cook with breastmilk what would you make?
Ice Cream.

Within any given chapter in this book I cried, laughed and was slightly wired out.

It's an amazing book that all nursing mothers should read.

Breast-feeding Help

I have been meaning to blog about this topic for a few days now.

As some of you may know I had a though tim with breast-feeding during the first month, all is well now and we hope to keep that way. I know my problems were very minor compared to some other moms out there; however one thing I have learned and will share with any mom to be is you can not ever be over prepared for breast-feeding.

For me I was a bit nervous about the delivery and overwhelmed with the idea that Christophe's nursery was not completed so I had completly forgoten about breast-feeding and in reality I when to a breast-feeding workshop and said this looks easy it's going to be a piece of cake. Was I ever wrong.

Looking back at the last month or so I wish I would have done the following thing differently and I urge any new mom to consider taking this advice.

1. Read a good book on breast-feeding. Not a chapter in a book a completed book dedicated to breast-feeding; such as The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding: Seventh Revised Edition (La Leche League International Book) or Dr. Jack Newman's Visual Guide to Breastfeeding.
2. Consulting a lactation consultant as soon as baby is born. Most hospital will send a lactation consultant to your room if you request this. I had no clue about this.
3. Watch Dr. Jack Newman's DVD.
4. Watch Dr. Jack Newman's DVD. I can not stress this enough; I wish I would have watched this DVD before baby was born it is amazing.

And here is a list of the items I did to help increase my milk flow:
1. Pump, Pump, Pump. Not using one of those dinky little things you can buy at Babies'r'us but with a hospital grad pump that you rent. If you can afford the pump it's not a hospital grade pump. These are usually over 3000$ to buy that is why people rent them.
2. If there is a lactation clinic close to your home go over and over again. Make sure you have a concise list of questions to ask them so you do not feel overwhelmed.
3. Take fenugreek and blessed thistle.
4. Read and watch everything you can get your hands on about breast-feeding.
5. Last but I think this may be one of the most important ones - talk to someone that has been through a rough patch also there encouragement will make you feel loads better. (thank you; you know who you are)