Recipe: Nursing Nuggets
Post by Paula Jahn, Registered dietitian and Co-owner at Nourish Northwest
A few friends of mine recently had babies. Some new moms worry about their milk supply. An exclusively breastfed baby is a mysterious creature. While there are many ways to verify a baby is getting enough milk (generally content baby, weight gain, many wet diapers per day, etc), not being able to see the transfer of milk from breast to belly can create some anxiety in nursing mothers. Then there are a small percentage of women who have a low milk supply and need some extra help. This is mostly a recipe post for tasty snacks I like to gift to new families, but I want to point out first that the absolute best way to ensure adequate milk supply is to nurse, then nurse some more.
On-demand, skin-to-skin nursing with no restriction on the duration of feeding is the best way to keep milk supply in sync with baby’s needs.
And, stay hydrated. A nursing mother’s body produces dozens of ounces of milk per day to feed an infant. That milk is made up of lots of water. Most moms will notice an increase in thirst once the milk comes in. Honor that thirst. Drink water.
Okay, before I move on to the recipe, this is my favorite breast feeding resource: KellyMom.com. That site has answered every question I have ever had about feeding a newborn.
There are a number of prepared “lactation cookies” on the market and recipes in the blogosphere. Many of them are made with refined flours and sugar. Yuck.
These balanced balls of yum can be enjoyed by anyone as a satisfying snack. For nursing moms, they are perfect one-handed nourishment for when getting up to go make a meal (or using a fork) is not realistic. As a bonus, they may increase milk supply.
Below is a list of some of the “active” ingredients and why I chose them for these delicious nuggets.
Dates-Dates are a wonderful natural sweetener. Most of their carbohydrate content comes from glucose, which is the easiest for the body to assimilate and use for energy. Quick energy is imperative while nursing. They are also an excellent source of fiber, with 1.6 grams per date. Along with hydration, fiber helps to keep bowel movements soft and regular. This is so much more important than most people realize (or talk about) after labor. I won’t go into details here. Fiber is good! Along with other trace minerals, dates contain a significant amount of copper. One of copper’s main functions is to help the body absorb and use iron to form new red blood cells. No need to state the obvious here.
Oats-Oats are a known galactagouge, or substance known to stimulate milk production in animals.
Sesame seeds-Studies are lacking, but sesame seeds are traditionally used across Asia to help with breast milk production. Sesame seeds are an excellent source of calcium and zinc, which are both important for bone health. They are also a good source of fiber and healthy fats.
Walnuts-Walnuts provide protein and omega-3 fatty acids.
Brewer’s Yeast-This may be the most effective in increasing supply. If milk supply is not an issue, omit the brewer’s yeast. It can impart a bitter flavor. Brewer’s yeast can be purchased at most health food stores or here.
Nursing Nuggets
Ingredients
1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
1 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup sesame seeds (or, 1/4 cup sesame seeds and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds)
1/2 cup oats, ground into flour
1 Tbs coconut oil
1-2 Tbs brewer’s yeast, optional
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
Pinch of salt
Preparation
- Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until completely mixed.
- With dampened hands, roll tablespoons of mixture into 1-inch diameter balls. Roll in extra chopped walnuts, if desired.
- Enjoy while you’re pinned to your nursing station.
Healthy Restaurant Round Up
Post by Olivia Martino, Registered Dietitian and Co-Owner, Nourish Northwest
As a dietitian, one question I always ask my clients is, “how often do you eat out?” Having lived and worked in other cities, when I asked this question I was really digging deeper to find out just how unhealthy my clients were eating. Here in Portland, that question does not have the same double meaning. Eating out here can actually mean eating healthier for some. We are so lucky to have so many healthy options and a community that values good quality, local food with a focus on vegetables. This is a life saver for those of us who lead busy lives, don’t always have time to cook but want to eat healthy. If you live in Portland and have ever traveled elsewhere, you are probably reminded of just how lucky we are.
There are so many healthy choices here in Portland an I’m sure I haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of trying them all out. Here is a list of some of restaurants that I have either been to or have heard good things about. Did I miss any? Let me know and I’ll add them to our resource list!
Sister restaurants, Prasad and Harlow bring similar menus to the table, serving up two very different areas of town. Focused on fresh, conscious cuisine that is gluten free and mostly vegan, both restaurants offer delicious, creative food and beverages. Harlow has amazing breakfast options, including juice and bowl combos, roasted veggies, smokey tempeh and/or farm fresh eggs and lemon poppyseed pancakes. Both restaurants also offer lunch and dinner options, including bowls, veggie burgers, salads and soups, not to mention tons of smoothies and juices.
Blossoming Lotus wins the creativity award for vegan food. They also have many raw food options. With menu choices like “live sushi” sunflower seed pate, pecan chorizo and baked cashew brie, this restaurant proves anyone wrong who says eating vegan is too limiting. Vegan or not, Blossoming Lotus is sure to inspire you to want to eat more consciously and get more creative with your diet.
Laughing Planet/Dick’s Kitchen
Laughing Planet and it’s sister restaurant Dick’s Kitchen can both be described as healthy fast food. While Laughing Planet focuses on bowls, burritos and salads, Dick’s Kitchen favors the Paleo diet and serves humanely raised beef burgers, as well as special guest bison, elk, venison and wild boar burgers. Dick’s also has the crispiest baked fries you will every come across and yummy seasonal veggie sides.
A new edition to the Pearl District, Garden Bar is a casual salad-centric restaurant. You can choose from one of their signature salads or build your own. Salads are made fresh to order and are huge… making this dish perfect for leftover lunch the next day. You will never get bored with all of the toppings they have to chose from, including pickled onions, roasted chickpeas, hemp seeds, and tarragon corn.
I have never actually eaten here but it’s on the top of my list for a special occasion. Natural Selection is a fine dining restaurant, featuring seasonal produce and an optional $45 four course prix fixe menu. I love how all of their menu items are almost exclusively vegetable dishes and are mostly vegan/vegetarian and gluten free. Can’t wait to try it!
Portobello is a vegan restaurant, mostly known for their pizzas and infamous cashew cheese. They also have a really yummy beet burger and a lot of veggie packed pasta dishes.
Canteen has a small menu but does a good job with their offerings. They serve bowls, salads and juices. I love the one bowl meal trend and theirs don’t disappoint, packed with greens, veggies, protein and yummy sauces. My favorite is the Southern Bowl with BBQ soy curls, collard greens, black eyed peas, carrot cabbage slaw and cashew ranch dressing.
Paradox café in my opinion, is highly underrated. I never hear it talked about and it doesn’t usually make the top of the Portland healthy eating guides. Everything I’ve had there (especially brunch) has been awesome and is super affordable, ranging from $4-$9. Their menu is extensive, and includes satisfying salads, breakfast scrambles, burritos and benedicts modified for omnivores and vegans/vegetarians alike. Check this place out!
Sweet Hereafter/The Bye and Bye
Both of these restaurants, owned by the same people, are actually bars. They are great spots for hanging out at in general but what draws me there is always the food. They have some delicious bowls to choose from, as well as an awesome tofu bahn mi. One thing you gotta love about Portland is that you can order order super healthy “bar food.”
Harvester Brewing, now known as Ground Breaker Brewing
Harvester is Portland’s only (to my knowledge) certified gluten free brewery, that has recently added a certified gluten free kitchen. While they are mostly known for their award winning beers, their food is just as amazing. It’s wonderful to be able to refer client with Celiac Disease to a place they can eat and not have to worry one bit about cross-contamination. With menu options like toasted chestnut and corn risotto, Oregon halibut with local chanterelles and lentils and charred octopus and purple potato gnocchi, I don’t think anyone will be missing the gluten here.
The Case of the Exploding Apples
Post by Paula Jahn, Co-owner and Registered Dietitian at Nourish Northwest
Nourish Northwest now has two harvest traditions: peach picking in the summer and apple picking in the fall. The past two years, Olivia and I have gone apple picking at Draper Girls farm. This year, we hit the season just right, and didn’t even have to use the ladder. I have to say, I prefer apple season. They store well, seem to be more versatile, and I just love fall flavors.
Last year, we made the most delicious sugar free Chai Spiced Applesauce. It was just as perfect this year. It’s a great way to use lots of apples, but it barely made a dent in our 20 pound box.
Okay, so you might be wondering about the exploding apples. Thankfully, there were some good sports in our Autumn Harvest cooking class last year. Right before we pulled the baked apples out of the oven, we talked about how important recipe testing is, and how we had a minor problem with the baked apples exploding in the oven. We assured our attendees that we fixed the problem. Nope. They splattered their innards all over the oven. We ended up with a column of tasty date stuffing standing among the carnage of apple flesh.
Our cooking class participants were so generous that they laughed and then happily ate the wreckage.
Instead of running the risk of explosion again this year, I decided to test a new baked apple recipe. I figured that I would avoid the build up of pressure by slicing the apples in half before baking them. (Alternative theories welcome).
After about 25 minutes in the oven, I started to helicopter mom the apples. “Stay intact, stay intact…”
They were amazing! I just might have to “test” one more time before our cooking class this Thursday. Let me list the reasons they were so much better than other stuffed apples: No sugar added, perfect portion, nutty fall flavors, did not explode. Case solved.
Stuffed Apple Halves
Serves 8
Ingredients
4 apples, halved and core scooped out
Filling:
4 dates, chopped
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon (to taste)
2 Tbs butter, vegan butter, or coconut oil
Pinch of salt
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix filling ingredients together in a medium bowl. Hands work best for this.
3. Arrange apple halves in a 9 x 13″ baking dish. Stuff each apple half with 2 Tbs filling.
4. Bake apples for 30-35 minutes, until tender.
My Healthy Challenge Progress
Post by Olivia Martino, Registered Dietitian and Co-Owner, Nourish Northwest
So it has been 2 weeks of working on my goals and I’m here to report on my progress. Overall, things have been going well but I have definitely encountered some challenges.
Fitting in exercise is hard to do. The only way to ensure I met this goal was to schedule it in just like I would any meeting or appointment. At the beginning of each week I had to make sure I planned out which days I would exercise and what I would do. Most importantly, I had to follow through and the benefits of doing that are so worth the scheduling effort. Exercising makes me feel great, makes me want to make healthier food choices and makes my overall mood and stress level better.
Not drinking during the week is just as challenging as I thought it would be. This is 100% related to social gatherings and events. There were celebrations at bars, dinners and concerts. I went to some and didn’t drink, but passed on others.
Not eating sweets was actually pretty easy. I always tell people it takes only 3 days of omitting sugar to kick the craving and I stand by that. It’s amazing how you don’t even crave it when you aren’t eating it. I highly recommend taking a 3 day sugar challenge if you feel like your intake is getting out of control.
Biking to work has been a challenge because of some of the barriers I have. It’s important to consider barriers when setting goals and I failed to really think this one through. The main problem is that each day I have to transport food for the day, my laptop, purse, workout clothes and/or business clothes to work and I have no efficient way of doing so on a bike. I need to invest in a sturdy backpack or bike bag to transport my things. A couple of days I planned ahead and brought enough stuff for a few days that I could stash at work. I also don’t own rain gear, so with the upcoming forecast this goal is going to get difficult. However, one thing I learned is that I love riding my bike to work. It adds more exercise into my day and helps me de-stress. I need to invest in appropriate gear and then I would love to continue to set this as a goal.
Tracking food was a very interesting experience for me. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I didn’t find it tedious like I had expected and I definitely noticed that the act of food logging made me more mindful of what and how much I was eating. I really liked the MyFitness Pal app. It has a huge database of foods, including recipes I used from popular blogs and websites. I can see how this can be an effective tool for weight loss.
On the flip side there are some things I dislike about tracking, one of the main ones being the focus on calories. My Fitness Pal does give you a more detailed nutritional breakdown of your day but calories are emphasized as the main thing you are supposed to be focused on. I actually noticed myself making less healthy choices because of this. A few times I chose a non-nutritive rice cracker as a snack because it helped to keep me within my calorie goal. When I realized that my super nutrient-dense homemade protein power balls always made me go over my calorie intake for the day it made me want to steer clear of them. I was experiencing a shift away from my philosophy of focusing on quality of food and heading more towards focusing only on quantity. I can see how this could happen for many people that track and I don’t think that’s a good thing. I firmly believe quality of food is more important than quantity. If a snack that is chock full of omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, calcium, Vitamin E and protein has more calories than a snack that is devoid of any nutrients, my choice is going to lie with the nutrient density. This is the type of nutrition I have always practiced and I don’t want to get away from that.
Tracking my goals has helped tremendously. It seems like such a simple concept but it really made all the difference in the world. Seeing a visual of my goals and progress every day kept me accountable. It was also a great way for me to measure success. Recording my exercise and whether or not I met my food goals at the end of the day really made me feel like I had accomplished something.
In 2 weeks the scale has not changed, a reality that I was aware may happen and may be frustrating. According to My Fitness Pal I should have lost 8 pounds by now, which is a goal I know is not realistic for my body. It’s not a simple equation of calories in vs. calories out. Everyone’s metabolisms, body types and compositions are so different. I have had many clients that get frustrated by their rate of weight loss but the reality is, it can take a long time. Eating healthy and exercising have benefits that extend far beyond weight loss and the scale won’t tell you that. It’s important to measure success in ways other than weight, which is another reason why setting concrete goals is crucial.
What I have really learned from this experience is that for me, the hard part is not eating well and exercising, it’s about planning, scheduling and setting goals. The busier I get, I know that this is something I will need to continue to do. Maybe the scale will change and maybe it won’t but I know that I feel a lot better, stronger and healthier already and that is enough to make me want to stick with the plan!
Recipe: Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes
Post by Paula Jahn, Co-owner and Registered Dietitian at Nourish Northwest
Now, on to the pancakes. Because I’m only going to want to eat them for another couple months. These are substantial, filling, and wholesome. They contain no refined sugar and will not leave you with a pancake coma.
These are not every day pancakes, partly because pumpkin spiced things go to bed after winter, but mostly because they are a little involved. There are quite a few steps and ingredients. But, once you gather them all, putting them together is a breeze. Mixing the dry ingredients ahead into mason jars makes the morning production more feasible.
This recipe is easily made vegan by using two flax eggs in place of the eggs.
Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes
Yield: 10-12 pancakes (feeds 4-6)
Ingredients
1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
2 tablespoons buckwheat groats
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves or allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup almond milk (or other milk)
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Instructions
- Process the oats and buckwheat groats in a blender until finely ground, about 60 seconds. Add the spices, salt, and baking soda. Do ahead: store in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, milk, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined.
- Heat a non-stick pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat (or 350F for an electric griddle). Lightly oil or butter the surface.
- Pour 1/4 cup portions of the batter onto the heated pan. Cook until bubbles form around the edges of the pancake. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes on the other side.