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Hi guys, sorry I've been a little MIA lately. I'm trying to get a handle on this whole mom thing. Those newborn months are hard, am I right? And I have a good baby! I can't imagine if she were colicky or just loved to cry.
Anyway, I digress. I am here now with a recipe! You saw that my mom posted recently about a crustless quiche she made. She mentioned that she thought of it because my brother has been doing the Keto diet. Well, he's been pretty successful on it so far and it has inspired my husband to (semi) try it out. He says he is easing into it. I'm fine with him eating less bread because I am pretty sure he has a gluten intolerance. So I've been trying to make more low carb recipes, and PH loves Asian inspired dishes. I don't know if this Beef and Broccoli Bowl is really a keto friendly recipe, because I haven't really read into it to know if the ingredients I used in the sauce would be permissible. It was tasty though! Whenever we go to Panda Express I get the Beef and Broccoli Bowl because its lower calories and this reminded me of that dish.
PH liked it so much I made it twice in one week. I'll let you in on a little secret. We found a recipe to use, which called for beef broth. Well, we didn't have any, but we do have a few packages of Top Ramen. (This is what happens when you have a baby and send your husband to do the grocery shopping. He kept coming home with Ramen. And Oatmeal Cookies. And Bologna. Until I yelled at him.) Anyway, I used the seasoning package from the beef broth mixed with 1 and a half cups of water and it worked great! I also made some brown rice and we had a delicious dinner, and lunch the next day!
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Hey there everyone! Lindsey here with a new series: Baby Blinks! that name come from my husband, who thinks its funny to call our blog 4 Blinks instead of 3 Winks. Anyway, as a new mother there are millions of products thrown at you and you're told it's a must have. Well, I am here to review once a month baby products that I am actually happy I have, which have been very useful to me. This month I am telling you about our bottle warmer!
Fun fact, you should never microwave breast milk. It can kill off the good bacteria that should be going into your baby's little tummy. For us, this bottle warmer has been a huge help. If you remember from my lactation cookie post, our daughter has had a hard time latching when I nurse. this has resulted in me doing a lot of pumping and feeding her with a bottle. So we have lots of bags of breast milk in our refrigerator and freezer and we use this bottle warmer every time. It's so easy!
The warmer comes with this nifty little vial. You fill it with water to whichever fill line is appropriate and then pour the water directly into the warmer. Put the bottle in the bottle carrier and set it in the warmer and push the on button. The warmer will heat the water which will in turn, heat the bottle. If you fill to the 2 minute fill line, the warmer will heat for 2 minutes.
It also comes with a handy sterilizer.
When you need to sterilizer your pacifiers you stick them in the carrier. Fill the water vial to the five minute mark. After setting the carrier in the warmer, cover with the blue sterilizer cap. Five minutes later your pacifiers will be sterilized!
Here are some handy links to a few bottle warmers for you to choose from!
Those two (and many others) can be found on Amazon. You can also purchase from Target. Like these two options.
I love having a bottle warmer. It's made warming up our bottles so much more efficient. Don't take my word for it, ask the little baby puppy herself.
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Hello everyone! This week I have a guest blogger... sort of. You see, I am sharing with you what PH made for us, but he did not want to do the writing (I asked.)
For Christmas in 2016 I got PH a stove top smoker. As I have told you before, he is a really great chef, and he really enjoyed my brother's smoked turkey at Thanksgiving, so I got him a smoker so he could give it a try. Then we moved. The smoker sat in our garage and was left unused. I would make comments about it sometimes, which PH basically brushed off. Then, we had a baby and he has been home for four weeks going stir crazy because there is a flu epidemic so I won't take the baby anywhere. So he said to me suddenly the other day, "I think I am going to smoke that brisket in our freezer." I had bought the brisket a couple months before when it was on sale. It was 8.5 pounds of brisket, a lot for two people. I had been saving it for some kind of family gathering at the house, but, how can I tell him no? (Answer: I cannot.)
This is the stove top smoker I got him from Nordic Ware. I also got him this smoker recipe book to get him started. It works on the stove or outside on the grill. You place the wood chips in the bottom and then cover it with the pan for the meat. Cover the meat with the lid and put it on top of one of your stove burners. When it starts smoking you turn the valve on top to close it. Leave it there for half an hour, then place in your oven which has been preheated to whichever temp the recipe calls for. You leave it in the oven for whatever specified amount of time is required.
First PH did a wet smoke, where you put a little water in a separate pan. When he did the second half of it (the brisket was so big we had to do two separate nights of brisket) he did a dry smoke. I felt like for the brisket the dry smoke was a little more moist and tender. It made the whole house smell delicious both times though.
If you wanted to get started with smoking your own meat I'd highly recommend the stove top smoker. PH admitted to me that he had put off using it because he felt it was going to be much more difficult and involved than it actually ended up being. And for the brisket it was a total of four hours to smoke it. That would make a great Sunday dinner!
Smoked Brisket
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Our baby girl (PH calls her Baby Puppy, which my mom doesn't like, but she doesn't understand how much he loves dogs, and therefore, it is a term of endearment) is three weeks old today. Every day I stare at her in wonder. She is changing so quickly and it makes my heart hurt a little because these precious days are going so fast. On the other hand I'm also grateful because breastfeeding has been a battle royale for us.
I have been experiencing the joys of having flat nipples and nipple shields don't work. At least they don't for me. they move around and come off so she ends up with a shield in her mouth and nothing else. I also tried a nipple everter, which works except it expresses milk that gets everywhere and that is annoying. However, on those rare occasions she has latched she tries once and then gives me a look that says, "why have you done this to me?" then she goes to sleep and doesn't eat. Most nursing sessions have ended with us both in tears. Her crying because she is still hungry, and me crying because I am in pain, and feel like a failure as a mother. I personally am not ready to give up the ghost and switch to formula. (I am not judging anyone in a similar situation who has switched, or if you just started with formula from the get go. Although I know the nutritive properties of breast milk are better for baby, I am from the fed is best camp. You have to do what is right for you and your baby, and it is none of my business what that decision is. Just as long as you are feeding your little one.) This flu and RSV season have been horrible. We just heard on the news last night about two more deaths from the flu, and three children who live in our same county have died from the flu. So I am determined to give her breast milk at least through this RSV season, while I keep us quarantined in the house. Because of this struggle I have become a pumping warrior. Every time she eats (from a bottle) I pump. I have been trying so hard to do everything I can to increase my milk production so I can start storing breast milk and get ahead of our little eater. I take my daily vitamin every morning along with two fenugreek capsules. I eat oatmeal with flax seed, and I put brewer's yeast in my morning shake and chug it. Of course, I am trying hard to stay hydrated. In all of this effort I have been able to get back into baking a little more with lactation cookies. I mean, I don't know if you've ever had brewer's yeast, but it tastes like vomit. I personally do not enjoy that flavor, and somehow, when I put it into these cookies the vomit taste goes away, and I have something that will increase my milk production, AND taste delicious! Of course, I had to come up with a version that included pumpkin.
These cookies are moist, soft, and pumpkiny. They don't taste a thing like brewer's yeast, they taste like fall, and happiness. If you're looking for a way to boost your lactation, these cookies are the perfect solution. Pop a couple every day and watch your milk production increase!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
July 2024
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