Why You Should Cross Salt Consumption Off of Your Guilt-List

As we're all frantically preparing for Thanksgiving today... and excitedly planning on stuffing our faces tomorrow, I just thought I'd throw out one thing you really shouldn't worry about:

Don't feel guilty about salting your food as you cook, or after you plate it either! 

Salt is good for you. Table salt (bonus points if it's high quality table salt) is not the evil sodium that you've heard you should stay away from.

Here are some really good posts that give you in-depth reasons why salt is great and why you should a) find a good source and b) eat more of it!

Yes, more salt!

But if you don't have time to read them today, don't worry! I'll recap.

So the first post is from Scientific American and to sum it up, I'll quote this sentence, "For every study that suggests that salt is unhealthy, another does not." This New York Times article agrees with that. So. That's confusing. Or maybe not! Maybe we should just use common sense and let "them" (whoever they are) argue about it.

We should cook with salt. And eat less fast food and less bags of chips. The salt in our home-cooked deliciousness will help us crave the chips, less. I hope ;-)

The next one I want you to read is 12 Reasons Why Salt is Good for You. Cause even if you only skim it, you'll feel less guilty about sprinkling salt as you cook the gravy! I mean, if nothing else, my favorite reason that salt is good for you is that it makes your food taste good! And if your food tastes good, you're tummy is happy. And if your tummy is happy, you are happy. Everyone wins! Bonus points if you want to read this article which compares different unrefined salts.

Katie Kimball is always my go-to resource on food questions. She has a really well-researched post on salt at Kitchen Stewardship. I really like how she breaks down all the chemical processes and additives in normal white table salt. It kind of freaks me out (ew) but it's still good to know!

And finally, Sally Fallon reminds us in the book Nourishing Traditions {affiliate link here} that with only a few exceptions, all traditional cultures use some salt. People have always sought out natural forms of salt. And discovered that salt helps preserve and even enhances the nutrients in vegetables (when lacto-fermented.)

A really important (and pretty easy) thing to remember is that if your salt is white, it's been tampered with. Natural salt is going to have some sort of color (pink, grey, brown, even red) which shows that it still has all of it's trace minerals. Katie Kimball says natural salt has 84 (!!!) trace minerals! Whew. All the buzz about "sea salt" doesn't really matter if the salt is white. That means they bleached it, among many other things. Ew!!!

So, colorful salt is the healthiest salt. 

We use pink Himalayan salt because it's the easiest for me to get from the German grocery store.

So while we are all probably justified feeling a tiny bit guilty about those three slices of pie, we don't really have to worry about salting our buttery mashed potatoes.

Wait, am I the only one planning on at least three slices of pie? ;-)

Today's takeaway: be thankful for (and eat plenty of) salt tomorrow, and every day! 

A very very Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Four Steps that Got Me to My New Haircut

I got my hair cut.  Short.  You can skip to the bottom of the post if you're really impatient and want to see the new do rightthissecond ;o)

But it all started about six months before we moved to Germany when I thought it would be a good idea to color my hair black.  I like to experiment.  That was a bad one.

So Step #1 = Color your hair black.  It wasn't bad because I hated the color... it was bad because I had to color it OFTEN (brown roots show up the worst!) and then when I got bored of black, Nina refused any drastic methods of coloring it brown again.  (i.e. she [thankfully] refused to bleach it so it would all be one color because she wouldn't ruin my hair)

So as Nina was helping me grow out the black (Step #2) by periodic highlights and a brownish-red at the roots, I'd been thinking for awhile that it'd be nice not to color my hair at all.  It doesn't seem like a very hippie-crunchy-earth-momma thing to do (chemical baths to my scalp and all)... and the other thing that was annoying was that the black line was pretty obvious as it grew out.

So I decided a cut was in order.  It just made sense.  The easiest way to grow out my natural hair color without it being super obvious.

But I wasn't ready to go from super super long to super super short, so I went in stages...

To commemorate the end of the longest hair I've had since high school, Kirsten did a mini photo shoot for me out by the rose bushes!

Thanks Kirsten for making me look and feel like a rock star for the morning!

So the long hair is nice.  It's my favorite way to keep my hair... mostly because it's easy.  I can go days without washing it, it braids nice, it goes up in clips nice, and it makes me feel pretty.  But let's be honest - I never left it down, it was damaged, and I was bored.  

Bye bye long hair.  Step #3 = Cut #1

Apparently my Dad isn't the only one super partial to my loooooong hair... I practically had to hold Nina's hand and FORCE her to make the first cut!  Bye bye long hair and bye bye black hair color at the ends!  It was fine at this length but not quite what I wanted!  (PS photo credit to me - first successful self-portraits in awhile!)

Ready for the short cut?  Ready?  READY?

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Step #4 = I FINALLY DID IT!  I've wanted to go this short for a long time but I always chicken out!  Not this time baby! (photo credit to Steph, edits by me)

I LOVE IT!  It's a super-fun-controlled-mess and it's way easier than I expected... I was afraid short hair would require a lot of styling each day.  Not true!  In fact, it's even better to start with bedhead because I just wet, gel, and GO!

I was also a little afraid that a short cut would make me look too boyish... less feminine.  Also not true!  I feel playful, sassy, and still plenty girly!  The flowery hair accessories help ;o)  Plus I'm all about eye makeup, earrings, and high heels lately.

Did I mention how easy this style is for me?  EASY!  I was so so so glad I cut it before the beach, because man is short beach hair the best.  

So there you go everyone - the hair pics!  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go purge myself of all this narcissism by wiping the butts of my tiny humans and changing out of sweat pants.  

Hasta la Vista Teflon!

This just in: my home cooked meals now come without a side of potentially toxic chemicals!  Hippie win!  When I was engaged I didn't know much a blessed thing about the hippie obsession of avoiding environmental toxins... so of course I registered for a huge set of teflon non-stick pots and pans.

I wasn't a hippie at all until we started talking about having a baby and then Jesse probably watched with horror as his favorite processed foods were replaced with homemade "stuff" and maybe a little curiosity as I started making my own cleaning solutions.  Then it was all cloth diapers and hypnobirthing and who is this crazy woman and what did she do with my wife?  

But replacing pots and pans is a very expensive process.  So it was put on the back burner (hahahaha!) of my priority list for a long time.  But over the past few months I have slowly started to replace the offending chemical coated pots and pans with new stuff.  Here's what I came up with: instead of buying a large "set" of safe pots and pans that usually come with sizes I never use, I looked for how to get the most use out of the fewest number of pots and pans.  This hodge-podge mix works really well if you're a minimalist.  And it saved me money in the long run... because none of the sets really fit my kitchen needs.  (For example, no stainless steel set comes with an enamel coated dutch oven... go figure.)

This is my Lodge Logic 12-inch cast iron skillet  I use it almost every day, sometimes twice.  Now, there is something to be said about the fact that almost all cast iron skillets these days come "pre-seasoned" by the manufacturer... which could possibly mean a bit of chemical processing.  I haven't done much research into that.  I'm just crossing my fingers that it's no longer got that chemical coating since I've been using it regularly for the three years since my Brother got it for me for Christmas.

I use the metal lid that came with my teflon 12-inch.  I cook almost anything you can imagine in this, except I avoid acidic foods like tomato sauces since they can break down the coating of my pan.  I don't usually wash it with soap... just scrape out any food particles and wipe it down with coconut oil before storage.  I do use hot water and scrub it with salt if it was a particularly messy or sticky meal. It's a pretty good non-stick surface now, so I can even scramble eggs at a low temp without too much of a mess.  I love how it sears meat and I love that it can also go into the oven to finish off a steak, etc. I can fry crispy potatoes, grill sandwiches, saute mushrooms, and on and on.  It's a great pan.

Here we have my Cuisinart 12-quart stainless steel stockpot that I got last year before the holidays.  I am in love with the size of this pot... perfect for making a big batch of bone broth/stock (read: I can fit two chickens for 24-hour stock and even my huge Thanksgiving turkeys!) and also great for party-sized batches of chili and soup.

I picked up this little stainless steel guy at Globus just recently.  Though I need extremely large pots and pans for the majority of my cooking, I also need a small pot for reheating leftovers or making sauces.  Since I don't use it every day, I didn't see the need to buy the more expensive Cuisinart pot in the small size... and I didn't need the reviews to prove it was safe stainless steel because Europe has pretty high standards for that kind of stuff.  Plus it said Edelstahl (stainless steel) right on the tag!

I asked Mom and Dad for this Cuisinart stainless steel 5-1/2-quart casserole for Christmas this year.  I wanted a large stainless steel skillet to use for anything I wouldn't want in my cast iron skillet.  I opted for the "casserole" instead of a large skillet because the skillet Cuisinart sells on amazon doesn't come with a lid.  This did.  So it's neat cause it's HUGE and I can also pop it right in the oven.  Great for messy sauces like red curry meatballs (pictured) and I just used it yesterday for bacon.  Now, stainless steel does take a little getting used to because it's not non-stick.  But I haven't found any stuck-on-food too difficult to remove after a warm soapy water soak.

This beauty is my new favorite addition to the kitchen.  It makes me so happy to cook with a bright blue pot!  This is the 6-quart Lodge Enamel Dutch Oven and I loooooooove it!  I would have to take out a mortgage to afford the beautiful Le Creuset brand of this type of pot... but the reviewers on amazon said I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in performance between the two.  So I got this one.  It's large enough to handle a double batch of any of my soups and stews... and popcorn :o)  I use it 2-3 times a week.  I love that it can be a crock pot of sorts cause you can make an all day stew in your oven... but you can brown the meat first right in your pot and get all the ingredients together right there before popping it in the oven.  I've made slow cooked baked beans in this (in the oven) and also a beef brisket that turned out really good.  There is a little bit of staining already after two months of use but that doesn't bother me much.  I'm sure I could scrub a little harder with vinegar and baking soda, but again: I don't care!

So there you have it.  Jessica's newest pots and pans.  I've been getting along quite nicely with just these guys, but I'll keep you posted if I need to upgrade to more sizes or something really cool that I just have to have.

Not pictured: I also regularly use a baking stone (breads, pizzas, cookies) that my brother-in-law and sis-in-law gave me for Christmas one year.  For use with the baking stone I have two Silpat baking mats.  I also have a large cast iron griddle that someone gave me as a wedding present... I pull it out when making really big batches of pancakes and such. There's also a silicone muffin mold from my mother-in-law that gets regular use.

And I think that concludes my "cookware review!"

Non-Crunchy Confessions

These two YouTube videos should be a good introduction to today's post :o) 

I'm going to throw myself under the hippie-bus and lose some serious crunchy-points today.  Cause this post is all about confessions.  Am I a hippie?  I sure am.  BUT apparently there are still a few things that my non-hippie self is just not that convinced about.  

Any true hippies in these areas can feel free to share a boatload of articles about the evils of my remaining conventional vices.  But be nice!  Remember we come in all shades of green!

Confession #1:  I hate Castille Soap.  All the hippies love it because it's all natural and chemical free. I hate it because it smells funny and doesn't seems to rinse clean (two different brands and two different scents.)  I tried it as a shampoo for the girls and as a dish soap in the kitchen.  Blech.  *bad hippie still using Dawn*

Confession #2:  I love conventional shampoo and conditioner.  This goes along with #1.  I just can't seem to give up Herbal Essences.  Real hippies don't even use shampoo so I'm super behind the hippie-times on this one.  But my hair is the longest it's been in a long time and I just really do like using the crappy-for-me chemical-garbage.  There, I said it.  

Confession #3:  I'm actually trying to wear more makeup, not less.  WHO KNOWS what's in that stuff that I'm slathering all over my eyes... but I really am trying to make a point of wearing eye-shadow more often.  I wore some a few months back and Jesse commented on how nice it looked.  Fishing for husband compliments?  Maybe.  Trying desperately to feel put-together when I spend most of my days in pajamas covered with kid excrement?  Definitely.  When I leave the house, I usually have fancy-pants makeup on.  Not very earth-momma of me.  

Confession #4:  Still coloring my hair at a salon.  What started out as "needing professional help to get rid of this black" (never doing THAT again) became "walking down the road to my German hairdresser every other month is one of the most relaxing me-treats EVER".  Nina makes me feel pretty.  She gives me gourmet coffee.  She told me she wouldn't cut my hair short ever ever ever because she loves it so much.  She gives me a head massage when washing the color out and always asks me if I'm okay because I seem to be falling asleep.  Yeeeeeeah... tired Mommy here.  I need that break and I need to feel pretty.  Hippies don't color their hair with chemicals.  Oh well.

Confession #5:  I'm not 100% convinced about the effectiveness of essential oils.  They certainly seem to work awesome for some things... like calming my mood (lavender) or keeping ants out of Mom's kitchen (peppermint).  But helping me naturally relieve a recent headache? (Peppermint didn't work there)  Does geranium really reduce the appearance of my stretch marks and cellulite?  Jury's still out.  And unfortunately, my husband is -30% convinced about the price tag on the stuff.  So there's that.

Confession #6:  I couldn't stick with homemade toothpaste.  I tried.  I even blogged about it.  But it just doesn't do it for me.  I'm sure I could research some form of natural toothpaste like Tom's or whatnot.  But I just haven't gotten around to it.  

Confession #7:  I'm crossing into dangerous waters with this one... are you ready?  I will love BABYWISE (and buy it for new moms) till the day I die!  I just made every attachment-parent who loves baby-led-weaning cringe x1000.  But I don't care.  (Okay, I do care... please don't crucify me!  We just disagree and that's fine!)  Seriously, this method of infant-rearing saved my sanity and I will stand by it forever.  But there are die-hard fans and die-hard haters of Dr. Ezzo's book.  (If you are bored today and want some entertainment check out some of the more heated amazon reviews of it...)  

True hippies in the area of attachment-parenting are usually so in love with it that they are on their soapbox all the time so I just keep my mouth shut.  It kind of becomes the elephant in the room, and if the topic turns that way I generally direct it elsewhere... by talking about my 24-hour chicken stock or the new cold remedy I'm trying (my kids call it "spicy medicine" and actually ASK FOR IT!) to avoid the controversy of infant sleep-training.  

So if you hate Babywise with a passion, take it easy on me in the comments section ;o)  

My favorite part of this post?  Unless you're already a hippie you have no clue and/or don't care about all seven of those things.  You're just wondering if those are cloth tissues in that Kleenex box.  Yes, yes they are.  Snot rags for the win!

One day hippies will rule the world!

One Step Closer to Stroller-Free!

We have a new addition to our baby-wearing collection!  Introducing Ergo #1. 

I decided that I was too much of a pansy to carry Sam on my back with our wraps... they just aren't really comfortable with toddler sized babies.  SO I asked around on this online crunchy group I'm a part of and all the hippies are torn between Ergo and Boba carriers for their bigger kids. 

I went with Ergo for convenience and cost... someone in the group was willing to sell me theirs for less than half the original price!  And the Ergo has a pocket that's big enough to stash a few diapers and wipes in.  When we get the second one, we'll be good to go for day trips in dear old Germany (and beyond!)

Europe is so not stroller friendly. 

I'm really looking forward to even just taking walks with Lily around Otterberg... if I have Sam on my back, Lily and I can go at a nice toddler-pace and I don't have to worry about pushing Sam in the stroller while keeping Lily out of the road!  Everybody wins :o)

Cloth Diaper Update

Overnight:  When I did the cloth diaper series, I told you I put LJ in disposables for overnight.  I didn't like the leaking I seemed to get with cloth (12 hours is a long time!) and I was also worried about her sitting in that much pee for so long (12 hours is a long time!).  But then I got to thinking about it and I decided to try again.  I did some research on Jillian's Drawers and they have some great information about what they recommend for overnight cloth diapering.  But I couldn't stomach the price without first giving my prefolds a second chance at this.  (Actually, My Love couldn't stomach the price without giving my prefolds a second chance!)  :o)

So, I took the idea of the pocket diapers and cut up an old fleece blankie to use as a fleece liner.  Fleece wicks the moisture away from baby's skin.  YAY!  Also, I double-diapered Lily.  Poor girl had such a big butt... but no leaks in the morning!  DOUBLE YAY!  I also tried the same technique on SJ... same result.  No leaks, no rash.  Sweet.  After some more experimentin', I discovered that neither of them are actually heavy overnight wetters, so they've both graduated to only one prefold and the fleece liner.  Ta-da! (Sam was especially glad to be in only one prefold, as two made her diaper so bulky that her poor little legs stuck straight out!  She didn't complain, though, cause she's the favorite!)

So we're officially cloth diapering now for everything except church on Sunday.  And babysitters.  And "Momma didn't wash the diapers in time and we're out of covers" kind of days ;o)

Wipe Spray:  I use a simple wipe solution to spay on cloth wipes, or directly onto baby's hiney.  Just a squirt of baby shampoo and baby oil in some water in a big water bottle under the sink.  Then I refill three little squirt bottles as needed.  (Squirt bottles are kept where ever I need to change the little squirts' diapers!)  Problem was, I was getting a stinky, maybe moldy?, smell.  And that wasn't making Momma happy... who wants to spray icky water down there?  Thankfully, Bonnie showed me the light of Tea Tree Oil and hip-hip-hurray for it's antiseptic properties!

So, revised cloth diaper wipe solution spray = water, squirt of baby shampoo, squirt of baby oil, and a few drops of Tea Tree Oil.  Bye-bye icky water, hello happy tushies.

Side note:  It's on my list of things to do someday to research this more, but apparently parabans and fragrance are shady things to find in the ingredient list of your personal care products (among other things).  I'm kind of procrastinating looking into this more because a) I'm busy b) I love the smell of the baby shampoo and baby oil (both of which contain parabans and fragrance) c) the alternatives are usually expensive and d) I'm not convinced the small amount of bad ingredients in our products are really that much of a health concern.  Hence the needing to look into this more.  Stay tuned.

So the moral of this whole story is:  Cloth diapers take a bit of experimenting.  If it's not working for you a certain way, don't give up!  Try something else and it just might work!

Why Natural?

I keep asking myself why I choose to give birth naturally. (More like, I KEPT asking myself while I was GIVING birth naturally!) I wanted to escape the pain...considered the epidural...was gonna let them break my water towards the end to "speed things up"...but I hesitated. I just felt "better" doing it without any intervention...Jesse and I were talking about it (in between getting rocked by contractions, of course!) and we both were more comfortable with just waiting it out and letting it run it's course.

Strike that...only *one* of us was more comfortable waiting it out...the *other* one was definitely NOT comfortable! :o)

Moving on...maybe I do it naturally cause I've never heard any horror stories about natural labor? No complications, no side effects, no problems...just a bit of pain. Quite a bit of pain...but I guess it's worth it to me. I know my body is capable of doing it without meds...

People act like I'm a hero. They assume I have this amazing pain tolerance...that I'm a beast or something. But that's definitely not true! I'm totally a pansy about pain! :o)

So why go through the pain of childbirth without any meds?

I guess I...just do. It's my mommy-choice. I feel strongly about it...which I think is an absolute MUST if you're going to do it.

And I don't look down on other momma's who don't go natural...cause I TOTALLY get why! It really does hurt!!!

Just some random musings.

Inductions

Yesterday afternoon at my doctor's appointment, my midwife asked me if I was interested in an induction at 39 weeks.

Come to find out, this is a "routine" offer. *I cringe*

I politely declined, and she went on to tell me Sam is measuring great, my blood pressure is great, my weight gain is great, Sam's heart rate is great, and pretty much everything is great. (She also helped me draft a sassy and succinct birth plan to make sure "they" know "I mean business" :o) and she told me she wrote in my chart that she wants to be paged when I come into Labor and Delivery even if she's not on rotation. Looks like I scored me a true pro-natural-labor midwife!)

Time for my rant.

Why would they want to induce labor? If everything is going great, or even just "normal", why on earth would it make sense to induce? I get it, pregnancy stinks. For some more than others. And as you near your "due date" and there's the possibility that you're not really starting labor at all (like me!) an offer like that can be very tempting.

You mean I could have Sam this weekend? Hmmmm...gosh that *would* be nice. I'd get to hold her finally! (And kiss her and hug her and love on her!!!) I'd be on the road to having my body back to myself (minus the nursing part) and I could be saying goodbye to all the uncomfortable pregnancy junk we ladies deal with. Jesse would be able to take some leave and we'd get some great quality time together as a family.

But, uh, what if Sam's not ready? What if God designed her little body to send a signal to my body to let everyone know that it's time? What if that's nine days "late"...like her big sis?

What if inducing labor early would put us both through a ton of stress and lead to complications...like a c-section??

What if *40 weeks* is not a magic number and should be held lightly?

Again, I get it. Induction can save lives. There are definitely medical reasons to do it. Some kids really do overstay their welcome in hotel uterus. Some mommies really do have complications that can lead to unsafe conditions for both. But there are also clear medical reasons not to induce. Especially if it's just for the convenience of others (mom, doctor, etc). If there's no real reason to induce, let the poor little baby cook till it's ready!

Background: My mom is my hero. I put her (and her poor body) through one heck of an ordeal when I was born. (Side note - I was induced) Fast forward to her last baby. She decides to go natural and delivers my sister at a birth center with a midwife...drug free. Induction free. Pain free? No. But, she always told me it was the best labor and delivery of the four of us. So when it was my turn to consider the options, my mom's experiences encouraged me to step into the realm of hippie stuff like natural childbirth.

I'm so glad I did.

(Hi, Mom! I LOVE YOU!!!)

Um, so the moral of this story is I wish our society would stop doing such a disservice to poor mommies and their bodies and their babies by doing silly things like offering unnecessary inductions. Or even that doctors would take a chill pill and actually do some tests to determine if an "overdue" baby is truly overdue. Sometimes they aren't! Seeing 40 weeks as a black and white delivery date is crazy talk! And inducing for no reason is just nuts!

The end. Thanks for listening. And please pray that Sam comes *relatively* close to her due date...not for my convenience ;o) but so that I don't have to do battle with any induction-happy doctors.

The end. For real this time.

Garlic Girl

Last week when Lily was sick, I was researching natural ways to help her feel better. Luckily, she was a sleepy head (can't get more natural than that!) and spent most of the day and night like this.

Garlic. Garlic is amazing. It tastes great and I put it in EVERYTHING! It smells awesome, except on mine and LJ's breath (sorry Jesse!). And *apparently* it's got all these great antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti...cold...properties! I kept coming across this over and over. Then I came across a weird idea. It was so weird that I had to try it.

Apparently, as an organ, your skin does an amazing job of absorbing things. Apparently, if you crush up some garlic and mix it with a little olive oil...and put it in your...socks... :o) ...then your skin can absorb all it's wonderful health benefits. You don't have to eat it (although I made her eat plenty of garlic flavored stuff last week!) and you can have it "on" all day. Weird. So LJ spent a day like this. With garlic in her socks. And the whole house smelled. And she smelled. And I smelled. And Jesse picked on me. And I'm not sure I'll do it again :o)

I'm not convinced it didn't work, cause she did start feeling better within a few days. But I'm also not convinced it did work. And it took me a lot of washing to get the smell out of her clothes and slippers. And sometimes, when she sticks her piggies in my face, I swear I can smell garlic. Still. It's been a week, people! Maybe I'll try the garlic magic trick next time I have a cold to truly test it? Lily's feet *were* really soft when I bathed her that night!

You can call me a hippie-mom (Dad!) but don't judge me! ;o) Some people swear by this trick. And they probably smell like garlic all cold-season. The end.