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Paleo Baby

Choosing the Right Coconut Milk (for weaning babies)

October 13, 2012 by Jackie Ritz 37 Comments

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!

 

 

Filed Under: breastfeeding, milk sharing, My Recipes, Paleo Baby, Paleo Toddler Tagged With: coconut milk, dairy-free alternatives, homemade coconut milk, kids, milk, Paleo Baby, weaning

My Paleo Story

February 14, 2012 by Jackie Ritz 5 Comments

Yay!!! I have been talking about Paleo for so long now, I thought I should start documenting how Paleo has changed my life, start documenting recipes and things I cook, and start sharing with the world how Paleo is FOR EVERYONE!!! My goal for this blog is to present Paleo options to my readers on how to be a modern-day Paleo mama; not only in choosing healthy options for your families to eat, but also in loving and caring for the earth, living sustainably, and loving the Creator of it all!

A couple days ago a very popular Paleo website, www.paleoparents.com, asked me to write an article for them on how Paleo has helped my family. I follow them on Facebook and they had a status update on how they love bacon. Who doesn’t!?! I commented and said that my husband had jumped on the Paleo-train with me and this past month and his cholesterol had dropped 61 points in just one short month of eating Paleo!!! That is insane! I knew Paleo would work, but I never dreamed it would work THAT good! So, here’s my story I sent in to them explaining how Paleo not only lowered my husband’s cholesterol, but also, helped me to overcome some things I was dealing with too.

My Paleo journey began in October 2011 out of curiosity. My friend had talked about it, and since we already were real food eaters I thought that this wouldn’t be that much more of a stretch for my little family of 4. I had just had 2 babies in 2 years, so I had the inevitable pooch pouch and just “Ick” feeling all the time. Two months prior to my Paleo journey I gave birth to my second baby. A month prior to starting my Paleo journey I had very tragically lost my younger sister, and in that month after her death I had put on a good 5-8 lbs. I felt terrible. I had weight from my pregnancy, and now I had extra weight from the stress of losing my sister. Not only did I feel miserable physically, but mentally I was really struggling as well. I was diagnosed with depression and parts of post-traumatic stress disorder, so needless to say, I was one big mess! I needed something and I needed it fast.

My husband wasn’t on board with me at first. I didn’t push him, because I wanted my life and health on Paleo to be evidence enough. After I started with this new way of eating, I felt so much better. My mind felt clearer. I could function more thoroughly as a mother and as a wife. My depression went away. I felt more confident. I felt like the clouds had cleared, and I could now see ahead of me again.

It was around the same time that I started Paleo in October ’11 that I had asked my husband to get off his statin drugs. He had struggled with high cholesterol for 4 years, and had been on a statin drug ever since. He agreed to get off his statin, but didn’t make any significant changes in his diet. A few months later around December’11 he went in to see what his cholesterol numbers were and they were 250—much higher than the recommended 200. So, he said he was going back on his statins. I pleaded with him to give Paleo a try with me for the month of January and to retake the cholesterol test at the end of January. He agreed! We did the Whole30 Challenge together from January 1st-January 30th.  We ate the approved foods for “strict” Paleo, which consisted of lots of red meat, bacon, sausage, eggs, nuts, fruits and vegetables. We had no dairy, wheat, beans or sugar. My husband retook his cholesterol test when our Whole30 Challenge was over and his numbers dropped from 250 to 189!!! We were shocked! We had also lost a combined weight of 35 lbs in just one month of eating Paleo (45 lbs if you count from October when I started Paleo).

We are now, wholeheartedly, Paleo believers and have a happy Paleo family consisting of a Paleo toddler and a Paleo baby! This lifestyle has changed our lives pretty drastically in so many ways!

(You can read the article here: https://paleoparents.com/2012/guest-blog-how-paleo-reduced-cholesterol-in-30-days/)

Filed Under: About Me, Cholesterol, Starting Paleo Tagged With: Paleo Baby, paleo mama baby kids cholesterol healthy eating

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Hi, I'm Jackie Ritz and welcome to The Paleo Mama! I'm a published author, certified herbalist, and voracious researcher of natural medicine and nutrition. I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around for awhile!

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