Left Over Rice Pudding

In search of breakfast this morning, I discovered that we had a lot of leftover rice.  I'd like to tell you that it was yummy, fluffy brown rice from some healthy home cooked meal.  I can't do that, however, because the reality is that it was hard dry white rice left over from Chinese take out.  Instead of just tossing it, I turned it into something good.  I don't know if this can technically be called rice pudding since traditional rice pudding has butter, eggs, lots more sugar, and is baked in the oven.  My version is vegan, and I did it on the stove top.  Maybe a rice porridge is closer to what this really is. Whatever the case, it's really good; it's really easy, and it uses up left overs, so you don't waste any money.

Fruity Oatmeal Muffins

My goodness.  Forget everyone else, I might fall over from shock!  Two recipes in two days.  Amazing.

Anyway, I had a bunch of odds and ends fruit in the house - bananas, blueberries, oranges, apples, blackberries, and I needed to do something with it. I know I could always freeze it for smoothies, but that's not very creative, and truthfully, we are such avid smoothie people that we already have a ton of frozen ingredients on hand.  

I decided on muffins, because they make for a quick, easy, healthy breakfast or snack, and it's been awhile since we've had any.  I didn't want a dessert muffin though.  I wanted a lightly sweet, hearty breakfast muffin that was appropriate for both me and the toddler.  These are a goldmine of awesome, if I don't say so myself.  There is no added sugar or sweetener of any kind; they're sweetened soley by the fruit, and there's no added fat at all.  They're also vegan.  Win win win, right?  Lastly, I was able to mix up the whole thing in ONE bowl.  Minimal dishes!  I just doesn't get much better than that.

Skinny Cherry Almond Milkshake

Surprise! 

No one fall over from shock or anything, but I've got a recipe of sorts.  Also, don't get too excited, because I'll be the first to admit that I'm likely going to post and then disappear for months again.  Life has taken a busy busy, but joyous turn, these days.

Anyway, this takes a little bit of planning and preparation, but it couldn't possibly be easier, and it's certainly worth it.  You're going to need to freeze some cherries and some milk cubes.  I suppose you could use whatever milk you'd like, but I suggest unsweetened almond, since that's part of what makes this milkshake skinny.  It doesn't take long to get the cherries frozen enough.  I pitted a cup while feeding the babies dinner, and popped them into the freezer for about three hours.  You're going to have to plan ahead for the milk cubes though.  I generally always have some on hand, because I've got a huge passion for frozen coffee drinks, but less of a passion for the price and the calories.

Tropical Oatmeal Vegan Pancakes

My OB says that pregnancy cravings aren't real and that I should ignore them.  I don't believe her though, because nothing but a pregnancy craving could account for the intense desire I've had for pancakes since Friday night, especially considering, as I've mentioned before, I don't especially like pancakes.  I tried to listen to her; I ignored it for as long as I could, but today, on my way home from the gym, I just knew I was going to have to finally have some pancakes, and the tropical oatmeal pancakes were conceived on the drive home.

Breast Milk Yogurt

This post is about breast milk, babies, and itchy breasts.  If you don't have some combination of the aforementioned, you're probably going to want to skip this post, because it's not going to do anything but gross you right out.  Back in July, the baby and I had Thrush.  This is a fantastic condition that causes white patches in the baby's mouth and on his tongue, and it infects the breasts as well, making them itch like mad.  It's actually a yeast infection and is usually passed back and forth between mom and baby, so it must be treated.  The baby continues to nurse during the treatment, but any pumped milk cannot be frozen and later given in a bottle or sippy, because Thrush survives the freeze/thaw, and it will re-infect the baby.

I was already on a pump schedule, and had been for months, in order to build my freezer stash.  I continued to pump during our lovely experience with Trush, because changing the schedule would have caused a drop in production.  At first I was just pumping and dumping, but then the pediatrician told me that Thrush doesn't survive heating, so I could go ahead and freeze it and save it for cooking when he started solids.

We had a rough night several weeks ago, and in a sleep deprived state, at two in the morning, I started wondering if I could make yogurt out of breast milk.  I stated on FaceBook that one of the things I wondered about at 2:00 a.m. was whether or not I could make breast milk yogurt, and an awesome friend pointed me at this recipe.  I started researching and looking around to see if other people had done this and what the opinions and different methods were.  What I mostly found where a bunch of lectures on how making breast milk yogurt was stupid because heating breast milk kills all the good things in it.

So excuse me while I go on a tangent here, but no, it does not.  Heating breast milk does indeed kill the white blood cells.  No argument there.  However, heating it does not "kill all the good things in it."  Even pasteurized breast milk is better than formula or cow's milk.  This isn't a breast feeding versus formula feeding versus dairy debate though.  It's simply facts about how cooking with breast milk does not, in fact, negate ALL the good of breast milk.  Here's the nutritional composition of breast milk,  made simple.  Here's an in-depth if you care to read it.  Anyway, my point is that while you do indeed lose SOME of the benefits of breast milk when you heat it, you certainly don't lose them all.  You don't even lose most of them.  The fats, the carbs, the proteins, the vitamins are all still there.  Does cooking your beans make the protein go away?  There's the answer, right there.  Let us not forget the fact that it's human milk, and I wanted to turn it into a treat for a human baby.  Alright, I'm stepping off of my soapbox now.

The recipe my friend linked me was the best of the very few I found out there, so my recipe is a combination of her recipe and my own, coupled with experiences and methodology learned while making soy yogurt in my crock pot (and I should probably post that recipe, because it's so easy and time saving!).  Every now and then I think I've reached the pinnacle of my hippie-ness only to surprise myself and go beyond.  I think this might be it though.  I have produced yogurt from breast milk.  I may have reached the epitome of hippie-dom!