Healthy, yummy, no nasty ice cream?? Yes Please!!

I don't usually buy ice cream but I did the other day and realised its so hard to find an ice cream without lots of yucky additives in or "numbers" as lots of people refer to them, in Coles the other day I could not find one ice cream I would be happy eating or feeding to my kids so I asked around and found this rad idea.

Frozen Banana Ice Cream 

Yummy, simple, healthy and quick and easy.

All you need is some frozen bananas approx 1.5 bananas per person and a food processor or similar.
I cut the bananas into pieces and sliced down one side of the skin to peel off, popped in the food processor and whizzed up I also added some coconut sugar and some raw cacao. I would recommend using quite ripe bananas for this because depending on the ripeness once blended you can get a bit of that "greeny" taste so once there just a bit to ripe to eat alone is best I have found.

You will be amazed at the lovely consistency of the whizzed up frozen banana!!

I cant wait to try out some other flavour combos, like honey, vanilla, mixed berry. 

My yummy yummy bliss balls

One of my fave healthy snack at the moment has to be bliss balls, I am a bit of a sweet tooth and we do eat super healthy in our house but I admit I just have not been able to kick my lolly/chocolate/ice cream habit *blush* and a lot of them are filled with so many nasties not to mention soooo much sugar. So I had been looking up recipes for healthy bliss balls and there wasn't one recipe I was 100% happy with so I made my own up using bits and pieces from a few recipes. 

12-ish dates, I like organic medjool dates nice and juicy
1 Tbs organic unrefined coconut oil

Pepitas
Almonds

1Tbs Raw Cacao
Spirulina powder 1-2 Tsp (optional)
Dessicated coconut

Method

De-seed dates if using seeded ones and pop into food processor with coconut oil and give it a whiz until its quite well blended into a paste.
I then chuck in some almonds a small handful I guess and some pepitas again I just chuck some in about a small handful and give it another whiz until there chopped up nicely through the date mix.

Add you raw cacao and spirulina (optional) and whiz again, I like to whiz it up until it forms a ball.

Then roll into balls and roll in dessicated coconut and your done :) I like them chilled in the fridge though makes them a bit firmer. 

You can do so many variations, you could include sultanas, dried cranberries, chia seeds, oats, whatever nuts you like and you don't have to add spirulina but I like to for the extra goodness and you don't have to roll in the coconut but I think it looks nicer :) 

The kids love them, they fill my sweet addiction and there good for you. 

8 Proud, Glorious months of Breastfeeding!!

I am not shy to say I am proud and so I should be, the 23rd of July marked 8 awesome months of breastfeeding for me and my darling little H.

It gives me such joy know I am giving my gorgeous girl the best start in life I can. 

Even though we started out with a few problems we had to work through since 8 weeks it has been smooth sailing. 

There were times at night where she was waking 1-2hrly and I will not lie it wasn't what I would call fun but I was happy to wait it out I understood it was normal and she needed it even though it wasn't that nice for me, this was happening  up until about 2 weeks ago but I'm so happy I just waited it out because now she is happily going for 4-5hr blocks at a time overnight. and its so good to know she did it all in her own time no sleep training or horrible periods of crying necessary. 

Here's to many months more of beautiful breastfeeding.

I sure did eat my placenta!!!

Ahh my last lonley placenta capsules and to be honest I am quite sad about it, I wish they could last forever.

Yes folks that is right I consumed my placenta after H's birth, not only did I encapsulate like you see in the green cup here but I also had pieces raw right after the birth to help stem my bleeding that was looking to be on the high side and if you had asked me if I could of done this a year ago I would of probably said " ewww gross" or "why would you" but I kept an open mind and researched it and decided it was something for me and the ewww thought I would of had in the past was just a reflection of our society's misunderstanding of the magnificent organ that is the placenta.

There are many benefits of placenta consumption:
-it was made by you for you and contains your hormones
-boosts iron levels
-has been shown to boost milk production
-reduces  post-partum bleeding
-helps reduces the severity of the baby blues and reduces the risk of developing post-partum depression by quickly restoring depleted hormones
-can be great to take for when your cycle returns too and just for general periods of moodiness ect.

The placenta has very high levels of some vitamins and mineral, B6 being one of them which is the one which plays a major role in warding off PPD when ingested by the mother.


There are several ways for you to consume:

Raw- on its own straight after birth some women like to hold a piece in their cheek to stem bleeding, or some like to cut up into pill sized pieces and freeze then you just take it as you would a pill if you are worried about tasting it I suggest using something like OJ which is strong to hide the taste, or some women have like to have it as a placenta smoothie.

Tincture- is a rather subtle way to take it, and can be taken as needed not only for mum but for bub as well during times of stress like teething

Encapsulation- the process where you dehydrate your placenta in an oven on low or in a dehydrator for 8-12hrs, you then grind it up and put into capsules and take as you would any other capsule. This method is appealing to most because it is just like any other pill and the encapsulation process it rather easy to do yourself or for you caregivers/family to do.

Cooked in a meal- some people make placenta casserole or incorporate it into other cooked meaty meals.

Consuming fresh raw placenta will have the most nutrient value but any of the other ways still have huge benefits and is absolutely worth while.

My own experience was great and is something I would do again. I personally had some right after birth fresh and raw as pill sized pieces as did Pappa B which a lot of people would think was odd but I love that he did, he wanted to be a part of it all and I think its pretty cool how many men can say they have tried raw placenta!!!
 My midwife also cut up some more pill sized pieces and popped the in the freezer for me to take before the encapsulation process was complete and she also cut up the rest in slices and put in our oven on low which we then left for about 10hrs then I did the grinding and the actual encapsulating myself.

I can say from my experience it helped with my energy levels, reduced the duration and severity of the dreaded baby blues, helped with my milk production and my PP bleed was light after the initial bleed after the birth and another thing I noticed was with H she didn't get the hormone pimples all babies get after birth that badly only one or 2 at a time which was different to my other 3 little ones so I wonder if the hormones passed onto her through my breastmilk helped with that too.

You can see in the pic above that we also did placenta prints, we did both sides H's side and my side I love that we have this and I can show H her "tree of life" I will get them framed and hung when I get around to it.

So for anyone interested in learning more about this here are some links I found useful :
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures
http://codenamemama.com/2012/01/09/placenta-smoothie-recipes/
http://placentabenefits.info/medicinal.asp
http://2doulasonamission.com/benefits-of-placenta-medicine/

Ahhhh so neglected I'm sorry, so anyway here's Wordless Wednesday

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY :)

 Really this doesn't need a description does it?

Raw honey and lemon for hot drinks and Olive Leaf extract to help kick my cold.

Mmmm, my yummo signature green smoothie.

2 Bananas, raw honey, raw cacao, chia seeds, some greens this time I used spirulina but sometimes I use spinach and milk so so yummy, so so good for you.

I have started making water kefir which is a pro-biotic drink made from fermented grains, this was my first batch I have done many since and have finally perfected it I think. Blog post to come about this in the coming days.

Last but not least my crystals out ready for a cleanse in tonight's full moon, they certainly need it too!!!

There we go enjoy my first Wordless Wednesday its something I plan to do every week, we have had a lot going on lately so the poor blog has been neglected and am hoping to break that drought.

Enjoy.

April/May update from the LLL family

Well its been rather busy here this past month we have been gardening a lot fixing up the veggie patch a bit making more room and planting some winter crops and Little Miss H just started baby led weaning which is super rad fun! We have had Mr. R's 2nd birthday just last week and mothers day this weekend.  

We have expanded our veggie patch out both ends and removed a huge Agapanthus from one end which was the cause of our snail problems don't know why we didn't do it sooner Pappa B found a great old water tank at work which we have now added to the veggie garden and we will use for things like garlic/asparagus/potatoes ect.

The kids love helping out in the garden L especially does any time she can get out there with Pappa B or I she does.

You can see my wooden rooster wind chime here in this pic its my fave got it for a few bucks at a garage sale , the gate we use to grow our beans on, the besser block and the water tank were all freebies from work                                                                                                                

H has just started baby led weaning (BLW) the other week I was adamant she wouldn't be having anything more than breast milk till 6 mths but she had other ideas and started showing an interest around 5 mths so we thought why not seeing as we were doing BLW and not purees we though if she wasn't interested then she just wouldn't go for it. I was so surprised at how much she just loves it!

We started with some banana and avocado and in the last 2 weeks she has really just gone for it even trying a bit of lasagne from our plates I wasn't sure but she insisted yelling at us until we let her try it.   

I decided to get creative and get out my dyes and did a bit of tie dye and also tried my luck at some felt food which was to go with R's birthday presents and it was all going great until my machine decided to break.

R had his 2nd birthday mid week, he had a blast.

Playing with some of the felt fruit I got to make, so bummed my machine broke before I finished.

Mothers Day- I hope all the mums had a great day I sure did

So what is this Attachment Parenting?

We practice Attachment Parenting in our house.
Have we always? Nope not at all in fact we were pretty much the opposite, detached! 

We used to think we needed to implement routine and foster independence in the kids by having them sleep alone we used to use controlled crying and "cry it out methods" because we were told by so called "experts" to do as little as possible as it would become a habit, not to rock our babies to sleep, to have a strict routine and the like which now I just shudder at the thought of all of that but did I love my baby? yes. and was I doing the best with what I knew? Yes, of course as we all are but sometimes what's recommended by so called baby experts and health professionals isn't always what's best for baby and there is scientific evidence to show this.

I'm not sure why but it seems the trend these days is disconnected parenting which I think has come from us having such busy lives these days lots of families have both parents working ect so society now believes that babies should fit into there lives and dare I say it "scheduled" like everything else in their lives. Society has extreamly unreasonable expectations of babies in regards to sleeping, feeding and just needing love its just compleatly unnatural I've seen it written somewhere else before "were giving birth to stone age babies but putting modern day expectations onto them"  When we have a baby we need to understand they are demanding little creatures and we cannot expect them to fit in with our lives we need to fit our lives into theirs.

Basically Attachment Parenting is just a name for natural parenting how it should be.  Its all about instincts and about meeting you babies emotional and physical needs and responding in a gentle and sensitive way to those needs. This produces a strong, trusting relationship between parent and child and in time produces a well adjusted, confident and independent little person because as a baby their basic needs were met by feeding baby on demand and for an extended period of time, responding to you babies cries, carrying your baby or "baby wearing", co sleeping with your baby and using gentle methods to help you baby to sleep and minimising separation between yourself and baby for the first few years.

For me I feel it was a natural progression I started questioning what we were doing and started following my instincts gradually more and more so which led me to find the fantastic AP community I now have in real life and online and I kid you not its changed my life!!!

 If my little miss is hungry I feed her even if I only fed her an hour ago, if she is crying I pick her up and if I have stuff I need to get done I use my ergo or mai tai so I still have my hands free and can get on with what I need to do whilst meeting my babies needs. 

We co sleep with a side car cot so she starts out in her cot and during the night when she needs to nurse I just pull her over into me and away she goes, Little Miss is now 5 moths and still feeding 2-3 times a night and breastfeeding + co sleeping make this no drama. When she goes down for a nap if she is struggling myself or Pappa B will lay down with her and just chill ourselves until she is nice and relaxed and happy to go off to sleep, we use gentle discipline with our older children and recognise that "bad" (I hate that word) behaviour is often caused by an unmet need or emotional frustration so instead of punishing we look at what led to that behaviour and what we can do to avoid it and help our child express and deal with their emotions.

Since adopting this approach we have been so happy, my life feels so fulfilled I feel like I'm not wasting a day or moment and I get so much pleasure out of watching my kids grow up and they amaze me so much they are just thriving in every way. We just go with the flow and keep it simple and its awesome!

ATTACHMENT PARENTING = NATURAL PARENTING