Lactation Cookies

I had a chance to go to bed early today but then I decided it would be the perfect time to try to make Lactation Cookies! I was even able to make them sugar free! Well, almost. I was naughty and replaced the raisins with chocolate chips, but next time I will make them the healthier way. The oats, flaxseed, almonds and yeast are supposed help increase milk supply. I literally just made these 30 minutes ago, so I will update this post in a few days to let you know if they helped increase my supply or not.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp flaxseed meal

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp stevia extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 cups oats

1 cup raisins (or chocolate chips!)

1/2 cup slivered almonds

2 tbsp brewer's yeast

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water together, let sit for 5 minutes

3. Cream butter and applesauce together, then add the eggs

4. Stir in flaxseed mix into the butter mix. Add vanilla

5. Beat until well blended

6. In separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients (except oats, raisins and almonds)

7. Add butter mixture into the flour mixture

8. Stir in the oats, raisins and almonds

9. Scoop onto cookie sheet (i placed parchment paper on them), bake for 11-12 minutes

These cookies are delicious! They have a fluffy texture, probably from the applesauce. Stay tuned for the update!

I heart Faces Photo Challenge!!

Our FIRST I heart Faces photo entry! I'm So excited!!


This is my cutie patotie nephew! he was trying SOOOOOOOOOOOO hard to catch the water shooting up from the ground. I love him :)


This photo was entered into the I Heart Faces photo challenge – http://iheartfaces.com

Emotional Week....

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.

This past week has been extremely draining.
It has been filled with such Joy and such sorrow.
Let me explain...
July 16th 2002
My brothers best friend, my friend, my teammate turned coach, and mentor
passed away.
I wont go into details, as that's not important.
What's important is I have never gotten "over" his death.
(can you ever get "over" a loss like that?)
Every year on his birthday and the day he left us
my heart hurts, like the day I found out.
Nine years and I still laugh at the stuff he told me
the jokes we had, or how we passed the water polo ball almost 200 times without dropping it in the water...
He was a huge influence in my life and I can honestly say I miss him
everyday
He was awesome...

Then this year
July 16, 2011
Another very good friend got married
I have NEVER seen him so happy
And She was BEYOND gorgeous!
So happy for them! This was Justin at I at Winter formal 2002
Such an amazing friend

July 20th 2009
I was pregnant with baby girl and my "twin" was pregnant as well
I got a text in the middle of the night.
A perfect baby girl born to soon.
I almost lost one of my best friends that night
Izzy (the baby) fought for her life for 4 days.
So babygirl's middle name is for Izzy
and I want her to know she was named after an Angel
On her birthday Last year we released two Pink Balloons
One for Izzy and one for Babygirl.
attached were kisses and a note saying we love her and her parents.
and this year we did the same
July 23 2009
I was so worried about Izzy and my "twin"
and another Miracle happened.
My beautiful niece was born.
Being pregnant with my first and seeing what my friend was going through,
seeing this little girl take her first breath,
helped my aching heart.
Happy Second Birthday Breeah Breeah
you helped me more in the first few moments of your life
than you can even imagine.


Thanks for understanding Ill be back next week I swear :)

Monsters in the Pantry

Have you looked through your pantry lately? Sharleanna posted a few months back on how she organized her pantry. I'm going to take that one step further and challenge you to really look at what is in your pantry. You might be surprised at what you will find! There could be monsters lurking in there with out you even knowing about it!

Expiration Dates!!! Yes, canned food, condiments and even jars of seasoning all have expiration dates. I recently helped my mom sort through her pantry. Now what you need to know is that mom loves to cook and she keeps her kitchen fairly organized and clean, so we were both surprised when we found close to 30 cans/jars that were close to or had expired!

An expiration date will be stamped on the bottom of a can or sometimes even on the side of a bottle.

You'll need two bags. One for the emptied expired cans and one for the contents of those cans. Make sure to double them!! You shouldn't throw the cans away unless you empty them first and rinse them out. This way they can be recycled.

Others may feel comfotable throwing away the contents in their sink and using the garbage disposal but we didn't want to risk clogging our pipes. Doing so would also waste a lot of water.
These bags aren't doubled yet, we should have doubled them to begin with. As mom was carrying the paper bags with the emptied cans to the garbage the bag broke and we had another mess to clean up!

What will you find in your pantry?

What my last post really should have been titled

I last wrote about how my breast milk supply has been dwindling. I still am continuing to eat the oatmeal and take the milk thistle and drink the Mother's Milk Tea, but a friend of mine asked me a question that should change the title of that post. Are you eating enough calories? I first answered 'of course!'.....then I actually thought about what I had had to eat that day. A bowl of oatmeal and a few grilled chicken pieces. At that point it was already 7pm. So NO, I was not eating enough. The next day I made it a point to eat every 3 hours and to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. By that night I was already pumping more than the day before. Right now I am consistently pumping 3.5-4 oz every 3 1/2 hours. I'd still like to increase that, if possible, to 5 oz so I will continue the supplements and the tea. If you are breast feeding, you need to consume 300-500 additional calories to what was needed to maintain your pre-pregnancy weight. That's really only 1-2 healthy snacks a day.
Instead of Remembering to just breathe ... the post should have been titled Remembering to just EAT!!!

Remembering to just breathe ...

Tonight I had a little bit of a freak out. I know that this isn't as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be in my head, but I seriously can't help it. Last month I wrote an entry on Increasing Breast milk Supply , I had started to take fenugreek to increase my milk supply and it was working. Well it worked for about a week and a half. After that the only thing it did was make me smell like maple syrup. Since then I've barely been pumping enough for baby M's next feeding, let alone having extra at the end of the day to freeze. I know me stressing isn't helping the matter either .....
Anyway if you remember, I need to add a little bit of powdered formula to the breast milk so that baby M can keep his food down. If I don't do this, he WILL spit up A LOT. Yesterday, I strictly breastfed him and he was a mess all day. The formula must really help weigh it down in his tiny tummy. Which is frustrating because I know the best way to increase your supply is to simply breastfeed more often!
Now I'm trying a few other things in hopes that something will work soon! I'm eating oatmeal every morning. Oatmeal has been very helpful for many women; it's a great source of iron and a healthy natural galactogogue (a galactogogue is any substance that increases milk supply). I've found recipes for Lactation Cookies that use oatmeal, but I haven't had a chance to make them yet. I also need to spend some time and alter the recipe a little to replace the sugars with Stevia. I unfortunately haven't noticed much of a difference with the oatmeal, but I will continue to eat it. It actually forces me to sit down and eat a healthy breakfast, something that usually gets pushed back till lunch time.

I am also starting to drink Mother's Milk Tea. I only started doing this yesterday, so I can't say much about it yet. I'm used to drinking teas without any sweetener at all, so the taste doesn't bother me. However, if you are used to putting sugar or honey in your tea you may need to do that with this one too. A close friend of mine had great success with this tea, but I'm impatient and can't wait a few more days to see if this alone will work.

So today at dinner I had half of a beer. I've read that the hops in beer is also a galactogogue, and that it's a good idea to drink a beer a couple times a week to maintain and/or increase milk supply.

Oh, and I also started taking Blessed Milk Thistle three days ago. My doctor said to give it at least a week and if I don't notice a difference then increase the dosage.

Back to my 'freak out'. D, baby M and I went to Best Buy this evening to pick up a few things and I had to feed baby M in the car. Of course he spit up a few times immediately after I fed him. Since we were out and I barely pumped enough for today's feedings, I didn't have any milk in the fridge for his dinner. When we got home I had to change him (bath was skipped) and feed him and put him to bed since it was already two hours past his bedtime. That meant I didn't have time to pump so I made him a bottle of straight formula. I know it's not a big deal, but it really is a big deal to me. I hate myself for doing that. Ever since I saw this blog post that showed the microscopic views of formula and how it's basically a 'dead' food product, it reinforced our beliefs and efforts in breastfeeding baby M for at least a year.

As I'm giving baby M his bottle and mentally beating myself up ( logically I know I shouldn't be doing that), I then remember there are a few bags of breast milk in the freezer!!!

SERIOUSLY??!??!?!?!?!?!

I think I need a nap!

Inspiration

Do you have someone that you {secretly} admire?

I have quite a list of people I totally DON'T know
but I stalk through Facebook and Blogger.
I'm coming out and telling you all
about my stalker-ness of two amazing people

First and for most (and the reason behind this post)
my Photography Inspiration.
Let me tell you a little back story,
My amazing friend Kathryn, who is GORGEOUS,
does a little modeling on the side
and she met this Photographer Trevor Dayley
Then she showed me his Facebook Page......
AND I'M OBSESSED WITH HIS WORK!!!
Then Kathryn told me he's one of the nicest guys out there
and I admit, I'm ONE of probably A MILLION Stalkers!
And today HE TOOK MY PICTURE!
Yes I got to meet him and he took a few photos of me
(actually my hair, I was a hair model for a friends business)
Did I tell him I was his stalker ::No::
Did I want to ::YES::
Did I get creepy shy like I always do ::THAT'S A BIG FAT YES::
Why am I such a weirdo! LOL
Go take a look at his photos... BREATHTAKING!

Now my blog Inspiration is
Little Miss Momma
She is so awesome. Plain and simple
I love her style, I love her Etsy Store,
I love her mommy stories (because it reminds me of Baby Girl and myself)
I love how she tells the TRUTH about her life.
I commented on a post (from a previous blog)
and SHE COMMENTED BACK
I seriously was so touched that she took the time and commented on my Blog.
Have I been stalking her pages (Blog, FB, Etsy) ::Yes::
If I still lived in Simi Valley would I "accidently" run into her ::I would make sure of it!::
Have I sent her an email telling her I LOVE her blog ::sadly no I'm a scare-dy cat!:
Will I be buying the "NEST" Pillow ::You bet your sweet little tushy!::

Now, I bet your wondering if there's more. Oh yes, there is.
(But I'm to embarrassed to tell you my WHOLE list)
I think my name should be Stalker Sharleanna.
Well, I am now going to let BOTH of them know that I am a stalker
(I hope they don't put a restraining order or permanently block me)

Who inspires you???

PS Like us on Facebook friends! PLEASE!! Click here!
Thanks bunches!

Budgeting

Budgeting.... Bleh.... even the word is horrible!

But pretty much we ALL have to do it.
So friends..
How do you budget?
There's all kinds of worksheets and programs out there
I started doing the Dave Ramsey
and it really helps!
However, I'm a very visual person
and I need to constantly write and rewrite our budget plan
So I have been using the FlyLady FACE control Journal
It is Awesome
If you haven't checked out FlyLady you need to
It has changed my life.

What do you use for your Budgeting?

Just thought I would share a picture of baby girl :)

Tip of the Week #6 - The Little things

How many of you out there have a hard time

"getting pretty" every day
you know...
Hair
Makeup
cute outfit
legs shaved
Really WHO has time for that!?

Between work, editing photos, baby girl,
Working out so your Worst Nightmare doesnt happen (again)
who has time to get all dolled up??
Well, I didnt think something so small would make me feel so good
PAINT YOUR NAILS!
Something so simple but it will make you feel better
I did my nails and toes and felt super fancy!
not my hand but the same color I just did!

This little color adds a bit of happiness to my day

What Color will you paint your nails?