The winner of Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers, is Mindy! She said, “This books seems like a good way of starting my kids out in a healthy manner. I’m always trying to feed them more healthfully.”
Send an email to kelsey[at]vanillajoy[dot]com to claim your prize.
Thanks again to Anni Daulter and Rodale Publishing for sponsoring this giveaway!
THE PRIZE
One reader will win a copy of Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies and Toddlers by Anni Daulter.
MY REVIEW
This is a longish book review, but baby food is an important topic and I wanted to share all the new things I learned that are helping me feed my family better.
Organically Raised is a new book from the publisher of the Eat This! Not That! series, and it’s an excellent reference AND cook book with tons of information about how to provide the healthiest food options for babies/toddlers.
Part 1: Information
I really like Anni Daulter’s philosophy about feeding babies/children, that baby food can be healthy and taste great. The food we feed our babies is crucial to developing healthy habits for a life time, and with all the obesity and heart disease, you have to start from day one with fruits, vegetables, and grains and stay away from the convenient but processed poison that most of us eat.
Here are some of my favorite parts of the book:
1. “Sacred Mama’s Milk” – studies have shown that “breastfed babies have improved brain growth and development, better vision, and strengthened immune systems, which leads to fewer chronic illnesses” (page 2).
I love hearing findings such as this to support all those mothers who make the effort to breast feed. Breastfeeding is hard at first for lots of women, myself included. The only way I get through those first few weeks and months is by putting in long hours and working really hard to nurse, pump, supplement, nurse, nurse, nurse constantly. I know it’s a full time job and so hard, especially when you have other kids to look after, but it’s SO MUCH BETTER for your baby.
I love that Anni supports and encourages women to breast feed on the first page of the book.
2. I’ve been concerned about the health of cow’s milk, and she provides some interesting information and some possible alternatives (page 4).
3. I started making my own baby food for Gus after I got the Beaba Babycook, which is a worthwhile investment if you’re interested in doing homemade. However, I learned that frozen baby food has reduced nutritional value and tastes different. I made large batches and froze it all in small portions, and with my next baby I will follow her advice to use fresh baby food as often as possible. Microwaving baby food also breaks down nutritional content, so she recommends reheating by stove top (pages 10, 12).
4. Use vegetable purees as pasta sauces or dips (page 15).
5. Eat the rainbow – there’s a chart on page 23 with a list of fruits by color and what benefit each group has to the diet. This is a great reference that I use all the time to help us eat the rainbow (page 23).
6. Kids will eat better when they’re comfortable – use a high chair with a foot rest or a kid size table (page 49).
7. Add healthy (and secret if you prefer) “mix-ins” to kids’ food to give them that extra nutrition. Examples – nuts, goji berries, dried seaweed, wheat germ, flaxseed, and acai berries (page 59).
Part 2: Recipes
Pear, Craisins, and Millet Cereal
And now for the recipes – the thing I love about her recipes are that they use mostly natural ingredients like fruits, vegetables, and grains. We all need more of those things in our diet, and all of the recipes make great meals for kids and for adults!
The recipes are simple but use grains in ways I didn’t know how to do before. For example, did you know you can easily and very inexpensively make your own rice/oatmeal cereal? Duh! I’ve been eating it for breakfast along side my kids!
Oatmeal Cereal
Grind 1/2 c. oatmeal (I use the WonderMill Junior hand grain mill and it’s fabulous – you can use an electric grinder or even a blender)
Boil 2 c. water
Add ground oatmeal, cook on low for 7-10 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture is thickened.
Add pureed or chopped fruit.
She talks about when to introduce what kinds of foods, and for young babies she has recipes for making all different kinds of cereals using oatmeal, millet, and other grains.
And she uses fresh new fruit/vegetable combinations that I never would have thought of! Green beans, broccoli, kale, and banana; carrot, beat, spinach; yam, spinach, tofu; lentils, carrots, etc.
There are also recipes for older kids and desserts using the same healthy and natural ingredients. I can’t wait for Gus to be ready for all those dishes!
I’ve checked out handfuls of cookbooks for kids, and this is my favorite because of the simple ingredients and preparation. The biggest take away from this book is that feeding my children healthy foods isn’t hard or expensive, but it is absolutely necessary for their health.
Here are some links from the Organically Raised website with lots of the same information from the book:
I give it 5 out of 5 stars – thanks to the authors Anni Daulter and Shante Lanay and Rodale Publishing!
GIVEAWAY RULES
- Visit OrganicallyRaisedCookbook.com
- Make a comment on this post telling me why you’d like to win before midnight Sunday, July 25.
- A winner will be selected and announced at the top of this post on Monday.
- Only one comment per person unless you earn extra entries.
- Giveaway open only to residents of the continental United States…sorry.
- Winners must email me to claim their prize within 5 days.
EARN EXTRA ENTRIES
You may earn 1 extra entry each for doing the following (make a separate comment for each thing you do):
- Become a Facebook fan of Organically Raised
- Follow Organic Raised on Twitter
- Follow Vanilla Joy on Twitter
- Tweet about this contest with a link back here
- Become a Facebook Fan of Vanilla Joy
- Facebook about the contest
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- Sign up for my newsletter
- Add my button to your sidebar
- Comment on any non-contest post (must contribute to the conversation)
GOOD LUCK and THANKS!
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