The Paleo Mama

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Choosing the Right Coconut Milk (for weaning babies)

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coconutbabies

My son, Frankie, is almost 15 months old. We weaned him from breast milk about a month ago because my donated freezer stash ran out, so I figured this would be a good time to wean him onto something else. He was on donated milk for almost a year! Incredible, eh? Well, I think so. It was a miracle, actually, and an answer to my deep cry out to God in prayer. You can read why we needed donated milk here.

First off, let me start this by saying I am NOT a professional, nutritionist, or medical provider. I am just a mom who has done extensive research in what to use as a milk alternative. I am also just going to address dairy-free alternatives and what has worked best for my family.

I am very confident in my children’s nutrition and that they are eating a balanced diet. So, milk, for us, is just a compliment to their diet; a treat. I don’t count on it for calcium, protein, or Vitamin D. In fact, there are many days that we go without milk. Even Frankie only gets milk twice a day now. When we weaned him from breast milk at 13 months old, he was drinking about 30 ounces of breast milk a day. So, my challenge was to get him used to the taste of water now. I kept offering less and less breast milk and more water and coconut milk. Coconut milk is what we chose to wean onto. I didn’t expect Frankie to just stop drinking milk when that is all he had for nearly 14 months. I looked at all my choices: hemp milk, coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk, raw milk, and store-bought organic milk. Coconut milk seemed to be the most nutrient-dense, dairy-free choice.

The hardest part about choosing coconut milk was the fact that EVERY single store-bought coconut milk had some terrible ingredients in the carton. The worst of these is Carrageenan. As quoted here off Cornucopio.org, “Carrageenan, a seaweed derivative used as a stabilizer and thickener in foods, has been found to be contaminated with a substance (degraded carrageenan) that is classified by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer as a “possible human carcinogen.”  Research funded by the National Institutes of Health raises serious concerns about harmful effects of carrageenan as an inflammatory agent on the human gastrointestinal tract.”

Homemade Coconut Milk

Method #1: Using Coconut Shreds

Cost: $2 for a half-gallon

So, I tried a few methods of making my own homemade coconut milk. The first way that I experimented with was using Bob’s Red Mill Flaked Coconut Unsweetened, 4 – 12-Ounce Bags to make the milk out of. This was MESSY and not so easy. However, the milk tasted amazing and it was pretty cheap. I used this recipe here and quadrupled it to make about a gallon. It cost me $2 to make a half-gallon of fresh milk…$4 for ALMOST a gallon. However, you need to make sure you get high quality unsweetened coconut shreds because with shredded coconut, the majority of the time the milk has already been expressed out of the shreds. Also, you may want to invest in a “nut bag” to help with the squeezing the milk because this is very messy.

Method #2: Using Whole CoconutCost: $4 for a half-gallon

The other method I did was I used a whole coconut and followed this recipe. According to this recipe, one whole coconut makes a about a quart of milk. The average coconut is around $2 so this method costed me about $4 for a half-gallon of milk…twice as much, however it was delicious! It was much richer than just using the coconut shreds and I could have probably diluted it a bit more with filtered water. However, we liked the richness of it and so did Frankie!

Method #3: Coconut Milk Tonic (using canned milk)

Cost: $4 for a half-gallon

The last method that I tried was this one. It is taken from the book, Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

14 oz can of full fat Native Forest Organic Classic Coconut Milk, 13.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)

2 1/4 cups filtered water

2 TB Coombs Family Farms 100% Pure Organic Maple Syrup Grade B, 32-Ounce Jug

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp Kal Dolomite Powder — 16 oz

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together in a medium saucepan over medium to low heat until all the dolomite is dissolved.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.

I didn’t have any dolomite powder and am confident that my kids are getting enough calcium from other foods so I didn’t add this. I just mixed everything up in a half-gallon mason jar and shook it! The milk separates from the water as it’s sitting in the fridge so you have to give it a little shake every time you use it. We really like this one too! It was rich, creamy and frothy! I even used it in my coffee a few times.

WHICH METHOD DID I LIKE BEST?

Taste-wise: Method #2, using a whole coconut was the best with method #3, the tonic following very closely behind.

Conveniency: Method #3, the Coconut Milk Tonic was the most convenient and easiest to make. Method #1, using the shreds was messy, took forever, and the taste didn’t even come close to the other two methods. The reason why, is because the process of making coconut shreds, takes a lot of the “milk” out. So, you have a much more watery taste to the milk.

Cost-wise: Obviously, the shreds was the cheapest.

WHICH METHOD DO I NOW USE?

I am using Method #3 and mixing it with a clean Almond milk that I found. Kroger is now making Almond Milk and the ingredients look pretty clean to me. It has no Carrageenan in it and the half-gallon only costs $2.50. So, I am mixing this 50/50 with my Coconut Milk Tonic. This way, it’s not costing me $8 a gallon to make the Coconut Milk Tonic. It’s only costing me about $3 to make a half-gallon of the coconut/almond mixture. Geez, I hope I didn’t just confuse you!

 

 

Albino Broccoli Soup

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We love albino broccoli in this house! There are so many things you can do with it! Broccoli’s little brother, cauliflower, is by far the most versatile vegetable that you can have in your house! You can make pizza crust, rice, mashed “potatoes” and so much more! Tonight I made my soup!

This is by far MY FAVORITE soup ever! I love this soup with meatballs. Tonight I am trying these Merguez meatballs from The Clothes Make the Girl, author of the amazing Well Fed cookbook. I usually make them with Arabic meatballs, which is a little different than the Merguez Meatballs.

I promise, the cauliflower tastes amazing in this recipe! It’s even more delicious if you use your own homemade bone stock! You can read my recipe for making stock here!

Albino Broccoli Soup

2 heads of cauliflower or 3 frozen bags, broken in florets

3 medium onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup butter or Grassfed Organic Ghee 7.8 Oz

3 cups of stock (I prefer my homemade chicken stock, but you can use beef stock too)

2 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

Directions:

Steam or boil cauliflower until tender. Drain and set aside.

Saute the onions and garlic in a pot over medium heat until tender.

Add cauliflower and stock to the pot. Mash with a potato masher or use a stick blender to puree the mixture to a consistency you prefer. I like mine a little chunky. If you don’t have a stick blender then you should use a blender to puree it.

Add salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.

If primal, serve with a dollop of sour cream!

Paleo Kids: What to feed them?

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My new friend over at Living Crunchy invited me to write a guest blog post on how to feed real, clean food to kids. Today, I’m going to share with you the post that I wrote and I hope it can help you on your Paleo journey as a family!

As a mother of two Paleo kids  I understand this very common question. Kids love junk. They love candy. They love bread. They love anything that isn’t “healthy”…right?

If I was to tell you (and I’m not bragging here, I just am proving that feeding kids Paleo is possible) that my kids love veggies, boiled eggs, slices of avocado, bone stock, olives, and every kind of meat; would you believe me? They can down a steak faster than a grown-up, and nothing quenches their thirst like water. They don’t even know what cereal is. They thrive on what I eat, and that is meat, eggs, veggies, nuts, fruits, and healthy oils.

Yes, it can be done. When I hear mothers say that they can’t get their kids to eat anything but mac n’ cheese, hot dogs, chips, crackers and cereal, I wanna ask them, “Are they the ones doing the grocery shopping?” Seriously, who is buying it? If you don’t buy it, it won’t be there to tempt them, but mostly, tempt yourself to throw something easy at them that you KNOW that they will eat and won’t fight about.

Here are two ways to start the process of eating healthier:

1) ease into it. Slowly eliminate the junk foods in your house and start by buying healthy alternatives. Let your kids finish the cereal, let your husband finish his stash of chips, but don’t buy anymore. Or…

2) you go cold turkey. This is how I did it. I bagged up all my junk food, grains, cans of soup and fruits, and I donated them. My personality is all-or-nothing. So this just worked for me. I don’t overwhelmed easily some could handle this more intense transition. Some people, can’t do it this way. For example, the working mom may find it really difficult to make so many changes all at once.

Either way, you are making healthier choices for your family. I had to stop looking at food as a means to an end (hungry—> so satiate that hunger) and look at it as a way to heal my body, grow my children’s bodies, and energize my life.

My kids never get a separate dinner. If we are having bone broth soup, so are they. If we are having grilled veggies and grilled chicken legs, so are they. And let me tell you how adorable it is to see a baby tear apart a chicken leg with his little mouth!   Once you break YOUR bad habit of feeding them the easy food, you will see that raising Paleo kids is just as easy as raising non-Paleo kids.

I’ve had many Paleo mothers ask me what to send in their school lunch. For me, packing my daughters lunch for preschool has really made me tap into my creative side. I bought a Planetbox lunchbox, which is a bento-style stainless steel box, to help me be diverse and make the whole “lunch dilemma” more of a fun thing that me and Arianna do together in the mornings.

I try to make her lunches creative, colorful and tasty. She eats some dairy, like cottage cheese and Greek yogurt on occasion because she loves it. I try to always include something in her lunchbox that she loves. This keeps her happy and looking forward to seeing what I included. She loves roll-ups, which is simply deli-meat rolled up.

Sometimes I cut the roll-up in 5 sections and neatly place them in her box. Some other protein-rich foods I put in her box are, boiled eggs, slices of avocado (drenched in lemon juice), beef jerky, pistachios, shredded chicken, and leftover steak. Then I try to add one or two veggie items. This is usually sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, or carrot sticks.

Now, if you have a toddler, then you know that they love to dip. So, I include a little container of almond butter or olive oil/balsamic vinegar that she can dip her veggies in. I always try to add a healthy fat. Sometimes this is the olive oil/vinegar dip but other times it is olives, nuts or avocado. Then I give her a fruit. It’s whatever I have on hand. I throw other things in that she loves like fruit leather, dark chocolate for a treat, Nut Thins, or a Lara Bar. And that’s it! It takes me about 5 minutes to make her lunch in the morning.

I started a group on Pinterest called, “Arianna’s Lunches“. When I remember, I upload a picture of her lunch I made for that day.

The greatest lesson I have learned as a mother is that there are three things that we cannot FORCE upon our children: input (food), output (toilet), and sleep. In trying to “break” our kids and get them to conform to our will, we end up hurting the relationship even more. However, what we can do is give them options. Kids love to feel like they are in control too.

They are, indeed, little humans and have the same strong will that we have. Limit your food options to healthy choices and let them choose. Let them feel like they are choosing for themselves. Let them feel like they are in control of their own bodies. That’s the goal, right? To raise healthy children that will one day grow up and make healthy choices for themselves.

Great recipes from The Paleo Mama:

Fruit Gummy Snacks

Paleo Mac n’ Cheese

Baked Avocado-Coco Fries

 

Zucchini Brownies

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A friend of mine recommended me to try these Zucchini Brownies. I thought, “Hmm, that sounds weird, but I do love zucchini.” Then I looked at the recipe and was shocked to see that there is no flour! What the heck??? However there is 1 cup of dark chocolate, so I was IN! It was one of those nights where I was craving something, but I didn’t know what, so I made several things to try to satiate my odd craving.

In walks Zucchini Brownies…craving satisfied.

Here’s the recipe; this is from Fast Paleo’s website.

Ingredients

 

To see the instructions on how to make this recipe, click here!

This recipe is gold! We loved it. It’s pretty rich, so it’s a great treat and it’s loaded with protein too. Next time I won’t use 1/3 cup honey because the chocolate chips and peanut butter sweeten it pretty well. This is definitely a keeper! My 3 year old asked for seconds and I didn’t have to say no to her because they are so healthy!

Fruit Gummy Snacks

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My 3 year old LOVES gummy snacks. I’ve been getting the Cliff Rope Twist from Sam’s at a decent price but I wanted to see if I could create something that was similiar, but homemade. I love having ingredients on hand so that when we run out of something, I can just whip it up. In comes my new love with Great Lakes Gelatin.

A friend of mine told me about this gelatin that is made from grassfed beef. I was immediately fascinated and wanted to give it a try. I’ve been trying to create a fruit gummy recipe for a few weeks now but I wanted to avoid commercial gelatin because of the ingredients and dyes that are in it. Great Lakes Gelatin is a wonderful source of protein too, so how cool that I could give my daughter her gummy snacks, and also sneak some protein in!

Here’s the recipe that I came up with. It is very versatile.

Homemade Paleo Fruit Gummies

2/3 cup of fresh berries (I used strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries)

1/2 cup of water

1/3 cup of Great Lakes Gelatin or another unflavored gelatin

6-10 drops of Stevia or a few TB of honey

Throw the fresh berries in a blender and add a few splashes of coconut water to boost the nutrition even more ( you can use regular water). Puree  it till it is the consistancy of runny yogurt.

Next, pour the berry mixture into a small saucepan, put the heat on medium, and slowly added the gelatin. Stir the mixture till all the gelatin is disolved.

Pour the mixture into cute molds, ice cube trays, or just a small 8×8 Pyrex pan. Pop it in the fridge until it sets. It took about 30 minutes for mine to set completely. Since I used a 8×8 Pyrax dish, I then used little cookie cutters and cut out shapes.

Tada! You have a ridiculously healthy fruit snack…especially if you used the Great Lakes gelatin and coconut water! Even if you didn’t it’s still far surpasses the fruit gummies you buy in stores!

Enjoy!

Spirulina Smoothie

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Spirulina rests atop the green superfood pantheon. It’s a blue-green vegetable plankton that has been a source of nutrition for humans sinces the Aztecs harvested it centuries ago. It contains the highest protein and beta-carotene levels of all the green superfoods. It also is the highest known vegetable source of B-12. Spirulina is highly digestible, protects the immune system, aids in mineral  absorption and reduces cholesterol
(Learn more here)

I’ve been taking it for a few months now. I like to add it to my post-workout smoothie! You can add it to any smoothie, any way you like, but this is my favorite recipe I’ve created…

Spirulina Smoothie

10-12 oz of coconut water*

1TB chia seeds (for fiber)

1-2TB of spirulina (start small and then increase over time)

1 Frozen Banana

1/2 cup Frozen Berries

Optional: 1-2 scoops of your favorite protein powder

Throw everything in the blender and blend till smooth! I don’t need to add a sweetener because the banana and berries are usually enough for me. If you find you need a little sweetening, add some stevia or raw honey! Oh, and I have to make a little extra for my 2 kiddos! They have no idea how healthy this is!

Enjoy!

*I use coconut water because this is usually my post-workout smoothie and it is loaded with electrolytes. You can use coconut milk, almond milk, raw milk, goat milk, or just plain water.