I was reviewing my top 12 fall vegetables list when I remembered that, despite their goodness, they are not appropriate for everyone at all times. Because gut healing is hard (and confusing), Y’all. To help, I’m assisting you with answering the question, “Can I eat these top 12 fall vegetables?”
How to Make Apple Cider in the Instant Pot
Good morning, my friend. I’m awake bright and early, excited to tell you that I succeeded in making Apple Cider in the Instant Pot so today I want to teach you how to make Apple Cider in the Instant Pot.
[Read more…] about How to Make Apple Cider in the Instant Pot
Let It Be Fall
Let it be fall 365 days a year.
It happened again, even after I, once again, told myself it was not going to happen. I didn’t decorate the house for spring or summer. There, I said it.
I was so excited for spring and summer to come along and to do all the decorating, but another year passed where I fell flat on my face.
Each year in August I can hardly stand the wait until the day I can let it be fall to pull all fall decorations out. In fact, each year that fall decorating day gets earlier and earlier. It used to be done Labor Day weekend. Last year it was in late August. This year? I’m making no promises because as I was thinking about this whole seasons and decorating post, I felt like a school girl just waiting to scream with excitement and do it now. Like as in today, or this weekend, or at the very least in a week or two. Send help.
And then each year around Thanksgiving, I’m itching to get out all the Christmas decorations. I really love Thanksgiving and I never skip over it, but the weekend following Thanksgiving Thursday, fall comes down and Christmas and holiday go up. That day of decorating is also a super lovely day. Ceci did it with me last year, and I will never forget that day or any of the days in year’s past of Christmas decorating.
Putting up both fall and Christmas decorations is an event. Truly. It goes like this. We make a warm beverage of sorts – usually a massive cup of coffee, latte, or maybe even a spiked drink. Ryan gets out our bins of (whatever season it is) decorations. I lay them all out on the floor and on the counters so I remember what I have to work with. We crank the country jams up, and place all the goodies strategically throughout the house, mostly on the first floor and in the kitchen + living room areas.
It’s an all-day event that usually ends with me heading to the store to grab a few new things, cleaning up, and then settling into the cozy look I love.
They are such happy days, those days of fall and Christmas decorating.
Immediately after Christmas, I take all holiday stuff down. I clean, minimize, and then tell myself a simple winter scene followed by lovely spring items, and summer to round out the year of decorating is exactly what I’ll do.
But not this year, nor any other prior year has it happened.
I’m over it.
I have given in and given up on caring so much about pushing for loving the deep of winter, spring, and summer decorating like I do fall and Christmas.
Let It Be Fall
Click HERE to save this post for later.
On Tuesday after work, I was out walking with the kids. Samarah had her meet ‘n greet night at preschool and Ryan was traveling, so I took all the kids out for a long walk and then to Sam’s school. It’s still miserably hot here in the California valley, and as I was sweating, all I could think about was – let it be fall – and how I enjoy the California summer less and less each year, which turned into all these thoughts about decorating (or lack thereof).
Those thoughts turned to life. (And no, you wouldn’t want to live in my mind for one day. Even the decorating thoughts turn to life.)
How many times do we push and push and push to try and love spring and summer decorating when we never have and likely never will?
For me?
I did it with yoga. I’ve tried a million times “because I should,” but I don’t.
I’ve done it with friends. Thought I could develop something real and meaningful, but it was not there.
I did it with relationships prior to Ryan. “Maybe if I just tried harder…..” and fell flat.
I’ve done it with seasons of life, knowing I should feel thankful and pushing myself to feel all the feels when I just would never get there.
Straight out of college, I did it with my career. Wear the ‘hose, dress the part, climb the ladders…..corporate America is where it’s at. But that was not my life’s purpose.
No matter how hard we try, an apple will never be a piece of chocolate cake. The elephant can never make a dollar out of fifteen cents. Spring decorating will never be fall decorating. The hot, summer days can never be Christmas.
And guess what? I have now come to realize that this is all perfectly okay.
Sometimes all we need is fifteen cents, and other times we should eat the chocolate cake because the apple can never fill the same needs.
It doesn’t matter if you are a fall, winter, spring, or summer person.
What matters is that you run with exactly who and what you are, in this season of life, and forget about a mold you should never try to morph into.
And for the love…..let it be fall.
p.s. If you see a blog post soon about how I decorated my house for fall (soon – like before September 1) please don’t judge. And if you feel me on this post, then you too should just let it be fall.
Xox,
SKH
Sweet Potato Hash
I wanted to save my Sweet Potato Hash recipe for today, the first day of fall.
3 Real Food Recipes for Babies
Today I have 3 real food recipes for babies to share with you.
Disclosure: I was sent all products used below from Infantino. I was not compensated for this post, and all thoughts (and recipes) are my own. But let’s at least get this out of the way immediately –> WE LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station. Mother’s everywhere are asking if it’s “worth it,” and if they should get one. The answer is “yes,” but this will become very clear throughout this post.
Sam was born A Gutsy Baby, but even if she were not, feeding her the very best would still have been on the top of my list.
People used to always say to me,
You just wait. Once you have children, you will not spend time in the kitchen anymore.
They were wrong then. They are wrong now.
I still spend hours and hours a week in the kitchen. For you, for me, for A Loving Spoon nut butter, but mostly for Samarah.
Feeding her the very best I can is a true passion. This includes at home and on-the-go. So when a friend of mine reached out on the Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station, I was so excited! Making my own baby food and combining it with a way for us to have it on-the-go = perfection.
Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station
- Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station
- 50-Pack Squeeze Pouches
- Fridge & Freezer Sleeve
- Keeper Squeeze Pouch
- Couple a Spoons
Note: I have not used the Keeper Squeeze Pouch or Couple a Spoons quite yet.
Baby Food Recipes
I post a lot of baby food stuffs on Instagram, and consequently, people are always asking me the “hows….” How do I know what to make? How do I know what flavors to combine? How do I do it? For me, this all feels very natural. It comes to me quickly, but I know it’s not that simple, and so I am happy to share what I do.
But the absolutely biggest piece of advice I could ever give any parent on “how to make baby food concoctions” is this: Ask yourself, “Would I eat it?” Babies don’t need a ton of flavor, but the last time I checked peaches, apricots, carrots and yogurt – pureed – just sounds plain rotten. I wouldn’t eat it, so I don’t feed it to her. (I could write a million posts on this. I’ll spare you.)
Ready?!
3 Real Food Recipes for Babies
Click HERE to save this post for later.
Purple Potato Punkin’ Chunkin’
(Do not judge the recipe names. When I’m in the kitchen doing these for hours on end and talking baby talk to Samarah, they just kind of start rolling off my tongue. She loves it. You would, too.)
Let me first start off by saying that I did not plan to have purple yams. Our local farmers’ market has one stand that I am in.love.with. I get my Moringa each week there (post coming on this soon) and so when I saw some hefty yams, I figured they would be perfect for this recipe.
But then I got them home, washed them and baked them, and when I cut them open, purple is what I saw.
Seriously, how awesome is that?!
You can use any color sweet potato/yam you want.
Just preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the potatoes on a tinfoil-covered pan, poke a few holes in each and lightly brush with coconut oil. Bake them for about 60 minutes.
When the potatoes are ready, you can dive into the rest of this recipe.
Purple Potato Punkin' Chunkin'
Author: Sarah Kay Hoffman
Recipe type: Baby
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 2 full sweet potatoes/yams, de-skinned
- 1 cup coconut milk light (see options HERE)
- 1 cup organic pumpkin (canned is fine, and they have a great one at Costco)
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp honey (I use local, raw and organic, and your baby must be old enough for honey, otherwise swap in maple syrup)
Instructions
- Bake the sweet potatoes for about an hour (or until softened)
- Throw all ingredients into a Vitamix (or good blender).
- Blend to a puree.
- Pour puree into your Fresh Squeezed Squeeze station (setup instructions below), cap and put away.
- The end.
NOTE: this recipe uses honey, so if your child is not yet 1 years of age, make sure to ask your Pediatrician if honey is okay (it’s generally noted to not be okay until age 1. In that case, substitute with maple syrup.)
* Recipe made about 8 pouches.
Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station
- The base stands upright.
- Insert Squeeze Pouch into Squeeze Station.
- Place the puree base (clear tubes) on top of the base and lock in place.
- Pour in the puree.
- Using the soft rubber press, press down the puree to fill the pouches.
- Remove pouch from base, cap and put away.
Honestly, I wish I had a more dramatic way of explaining it to you, but I don’t because it really is that simple. Pouches slide in and out easily. Puree pours in easily. Cleanup is simple. Having one of these ensures me that for our next baby I will never, ever need to buy an on-the-go pouch again (I lie, unless of course we are stuck in an airport or something ridiculous like that sans-baby food.)
‘Nanna Oats
I do not make my child be gluten free like I am. Unless we find out she is intolerant or allergic to something (i.e. dairy like she is!), then I am doing my best to ensure that she is eating the most nutritionally-sound, gut-friendly diet possible.
Except for oats. She does eat gluten-free oats. This is purely because these are the oats I used to eat, and I think they are the best.
For her oats, I first grind them into a flour.
I then take 3 Tbsp oat flour and mix it on the stove with 5 Tbsp coconut milk light.
It takes all of 1 minute, and then we get ready for the Squeeze Station.
'Nanna Oats
Author: Sarah Kay Hoffman
Recipe type: Baby
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 5 Tbsp coconut milk light
- 3 Tbsp oat flour
- ½ ripe banana
- ⅓ cup coconut milk light
Instructions
- Combine the first two ingredients (coconut milk light and oat flour) and make the oatmeal, per the above.
- Once the oatmeal is done, place all ingredients in a blender (smaller blender for this one will work better).
- Blend to a puree.
- Pour puree into your Fresh Squeezed Squeeze station (setup instructions above), cap and put away.
- The end.
* Recipe made about 3 pouches. I made 2 batches.
Tropical Beans ‘n Coco
We need a moment for full disclosure on this one. Samarah absolutely loved this one. The problem is that it did not love her back.
Even though I am A Gutsy Girl and should have known better with A Gutsy Baby, I wanted to at least try it. As I mentioned above, I do not believe in food group restrictions on our baby unless we are 100% sure she is intolerant or allergic to something.
But beans….ah, beans. There are easier ways to digest beans, but for her, I just mish-mashed some things together and fed her.
What I mean by mish-mash is quite important and is a money-saving baby food secret: I go to the local farmers’ market and find the stands with the “old fruit” (i.e. extremely ripened). I buy this in bulk because it’s only 75 cents per pound, and then I freeze it to puree later. So when I mention “mixed fruit” in the ingredients below, this mish-mash is exactly what I am referring to (recipe is called “Tropical” because those are the sorts of fruits I used). You can use whatever fruits your baby likes best (though you probably won’t want to mix oranges, kiwi, strawberries, etc. in this one)
Tropical Beans ‘n Coco
Author: Sarah Kay Hoffman
Recipe type: Baby
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic (no salt) black beans, rinsed
- 1.5 cups mixed fruit
- ½ cup coconut milk light
Instructions
- Rinse your black beans.
- Combine all ingredients and place into a blender (I used our Vitamix, but a smaller one will work as well.)
- Blend to a puree.
- Pour puree into your Fresh Squeezed Squeeze station (setup instructions above), cap and put away.
- The end.
* Recipe made about 5 pouches.
This has been a really long post. I get that.
Where once it was my goal to solely teach you how to eat real food and live with your IBS and/or IBD in the best way possible, has now turned into the *ADDITION* of doing the same for mother’s trying to make the best real food possible for their babies.
After all, babies guts grow into children’s guts, which then become adult guts.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this, and if you know of a mother or soon-to-be mother who might benefit from this post, click HERE to share it on Facebook and HERE to share it on Twitter. You can also email this link directly to them: http://agutsygirl.com/2014/10/14/3-real-food-baby-food-recipes/
Xox,
SKH
s CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results
woolrich rabatt 4 weirdly extraordinary periods atlanta divorce attorneys seth rogen flick elegances CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results
woolrich usa bestellen 4 weirdly extraordinary periods atlanta divorce attorneys seth rogen flick elegance
woolrich rabatt 4 weirdly extraordinary periods atlanta divorce attorneys seth rogen flick elegances CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results
woolrich usa bestellen 4 weirdly extraordinary periods atlanta divorce attorneys seth rogen flick elegance
Lemon Garlic Basil Spaghetti Squash featuring Nutiva Organic Hemp
Ready for this Lemon Garlic Basil Spaghetti Squash featuring Nutiva Organic Hemp today?
One of my most popular pins to date has been repinned almost 1,500 times.
It doesn’t involve chocolate, cake, peanut butter or ice cream (seriously, who are these people, right?!).
But it does involve fall and for that, I smile. Just let it be fall. All. Year. Long.
Fall is my favorite, so I decided to re-create the popular Lemon-Lime Cilantro Spaghetti Squash and superfood-it-up with hempseed oil and hemp seeds.
Both are a part of my new daily routine, and after Ryan loved the Hemp Kale Chips, I knew this recipe must be upgraded – stat!
8 facts you might not know about Hemp
But let’s all be honest here, no matter how good something is for us, if it doesn’t taste good, we are less likely to eat it.
You’re in luck.
Hemp is delicious!
I cannot make specific claims about anything, but as part of my Perioral Dermatitis healing, I did consume hemp internally and the hempseed oil externally on my face (whole blog post about the healing soon)! So, I’m just sayin’…..
When my mom was here visiting, I made her this meal and turned a new fan. She mentioned that upon returning back home to the homeskillet, she would be ordering hemp online. Good mama!
Now it’s your turn. Go, be, do, hemp, make.
p.s. Make your life easier and grab The Ultimate Guide on Cooking Spaghetti Squash.
Lemon Garlic Basil Spaghetti Squash featuring Nutiva Organic Hemp
Click HERE to save the Lemon Garlic Basil Spaghetti Squash featuring Nutiva Organic Hemp recipe for later.
Lemon-Garlic Basil Spaghetti Squash {featuring Nutiva Organic Hemp}
Author: Sarah Kay Hoffman
Recipe type: Main
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
- 1 spaghetti squash (medium sized will cut best), cut lengthwise and then halved (4 total pieces) with seeds removed
- 2 small lemons
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 Tbsp fresh basil leaves
- 4 Tbsp Nutiva Organic Hemp Oil (plus extra for baking)
- sea salt, to taste
- capers, to taste
- Nutiva Organic Hemp Seed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cover an oven safe pan with tin foil.
- Prepare spaghetti squash.
- Place spaghetti squash on tin foil and brush with hemp oil and lightly sprinkle with a little sea salt.
- Bake spaghetti squash for about 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the juice of 2 small lemons, minced garlic clove, basil leaves and 4 tbsp. hemp oil in a small blender and blend. Set aside.
- Remove spaghetti squash from oven and let it cool.
- Once cooled, scrape out with a fork into a large bowl. Add the mixture from blender and mix together. Add sea salt, capers and hemp seed as desired.
- Place your wild salmon over the bed of spaghetti squash and serve.
Notes
I always broil my wild salmon in the same way: broiled on low for about 8 minutes (for 1-2 small pieces). It's simple, quick and effective.
Xox,
SKH