Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Ok. I know. This sounds horrible. This sounds cringe-worthy. This sounds like a nightmare. I thought it would be terrible too, but I just had to try it. The draw for me was the chocolate. I have a very bad addiction to chocolate. Especially dark chocolate. Well, I came across the notion of pudding made with avocado instead of milk (avocado is delightfully creamy and smooth when blended) while surfing the web for healthy desserts. I love pudding. I love avocados. I love chocolate. Yum. But....but... a sweet avocado dish sounds wrong. Well, it does work. I have had some friends try making it and think it is revolting, but the trick is the right proportions and to eat it cold. Super cold. I make mine the night before I want some.
The majority of recipes I found included banana as the sweetener. This just didn't work for me. I made this about 15 different ways and anytime I used banana the pudding made me gag. It made the pudding too gloppy. Sort of gelatinous. I like it smooth and creamy, like pudding made from milk. I have been trying to greatly reduce my consumption of milk (I think milk is what causes my dry skin, but I may be wrong) but I love love love love milk. Ice cream...pudding...cheese. I don't want to replace pudding made from milk with pudding made from soy. I think I'll gladly steer clear of all those estrogen-y hormones. Plus, I am trying to eat as much unprocessed food as possible. A good ol' avocado is pretty whole and unprocessed. The only ingredients are avocado, unsweetened cocoa powder, honey, almond milk (just enough to add enough moisture to mix in the blender without gumming up), vanilla extract, and  I like to add a bit of coffee because coffee intensifies the flavor of chocolate. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate for what seems like ages (a few hours) and slowly savor each and every to-die-for bite. Mmmmmmmm.You can even freeze in a cup with a Popsicle stick shoved in the center to make an ice cold chocolate bar on hot days. I always eat mine nice and cold in a cup for breakfast. There is enough of that tasty healthy fat to keep you nice and full for the whole morning until lunch time. I alternate between garlic spinach omelets and avocado pudding in the morning for my breakfast. My favorite breakfast food is certainly the pudding. I can't wait for my breakfast tomorrow!
Too bad I only get to eat about half of what I make. My children, my adorable perfect littles, see my cup and instantly the oatmeal they were gobbling up is chopped liver. They only have eyes for my pudding. And because I am nice...because I like that they eat healthy foods, like avocado, I reluctantly dip spoonfuls of the chocolate pudding into their little gaping impossible-to-fill mouths. I would just make them their own, but I know how that works. "It's mine? So, I have to eat this? I don't want it...". What I am eating is always the most interesting delicious thing on the planet compared to their food. I used to have fried eggs in the morning and Skye would steal about half. I started making her eggs instead of the oatmeal she always gets (and loudly declares she is in need of every morning). Then starts the whining: "Mom, I don't want eggs. I'm hungry. I want my oatmeal. Why did you make eggs????" Wasted eggs. Same scenario with toast and then again with tater tots. Waste waste waste. So they get their bowls of oatmeal and I get half of a serving of pudding.

How I make it:
1 avocado
a few tablespoons or so of cocoa powder (I don't measure anything anymore)
a tablespoon or more of honey (depends on how sweet you want it)
A few tablespoons of coffee (or espresso powder or instant coffee)
A splash or so of almond milk or any other milk of choice
A splash of vanilla extract

Blend until smooth. Be sure to taste it before putting it in the fridge. 

 Here is the Avocado

I am very generous with the cocoa powder

I added the almond milk and honey

This is the finished product. I took a photo of the honey I use because I want to remind people to eat local honey. I bought this from my local farmer's market. It was a great price and has the potential to reduce allergies and stuff. Or so I have heard.

Kauai

We just recently went to Kauai. My biggest tip for going to Kauai with children is: Leave the children at home if possible :) We had a great time and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Quinn was far too young to be away from mommy (still nursing), so there was no other way to vacation. But next year, we are going on a tropical vacation without the kids :) I predict a superb vacation with no crying. No fussing. No crying!!!!!

Brownies without wheat

I have been staying away from wheat for a number of reasons. I found that baking without wheat is tough. Well, it is possible, but it doesn't always taste very good. I found a few recipes for wheatless brownies and tried them this week. The first was a brownie made from black beans.

It is one can of black beans, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, eggs, coconut oil, and I believe there is baking soda in there. Here are some pictures of the process.

 These black bean brownies were....meh....ok. They weren't super duper good. I found a recipe with even less ingredients that is so outrageously good, I wanted to dance. MMM!
The ingredients : 4 eggs, 1 cups cocoa powder, 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1 cup coconut sugar, dash of salt. I threw in a bit of coconut flour because I didn't have quite enough cocoa powder. Mix these together. Pour into a greased 4x8 pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Delicious.

The type of cloth diapers I use

A few people have asked me what kind of cloth diapers I use and how they work. Here is a little about the cloth diapers I find to be the best. I think this may also be one of the cheapest way to diaper.





 Below is a diaper called a pocket diaper. It is a water proof shell with suede cloth inside. There is a pocket on the top for inserting some sort of absorbent material. The pee goes through the suede cloth and is absorbed by the cloth on the inside. With the absorbent part not touching the skin, baby's skin stays nice and dry. I like these diapers because they keep Quinn nice and dry. They are a bit more expensive though. They typically run around $15 or more, depending on brand name and where you purchase them. I bought this one for about 4 dollars per diaper because I joined a co-op on facebook. Here is the diaper fully assembled.

 This is the pocket diaper next to its insert.

 Below is how the insert is put into the diaper.

 Below is my favorite way to cloth diaper. It is just a water proof cover and a large piece of cloth. I will show you how to put it together. Here is the assembled diaper.

 This is the cloth I use to absorb the pee and hold the poop. It is just a huge flower sack towel. You can get these from target or walmart for 1 dollar per piece of cloth. They typically come in packs of 3 or 4. I use about 5 packs in my cycle. I wash every 2-3 days. You can see how big it is compared to my cell phone in the corner.

 You fold the cloth in half once. Then fold it in half again.

 Then you tri-fold it. Fold one half to the middle as shown below.

 Then fold it again until you have a long thin piece of cloth. Lots of good layers for absorbing peepee.

 Here is the shell. I love this color!

 Here is the shell next to the cloth.

 And here is the cloth placed inside the shell. Put on baby. You are done! Diaper covers are usually around 10-15 dollars a piece. I recommend having 10 or more in your rotation. As long as you care for them correctly, they will last through the whole time you diaper your baby and they will also last through one or two MORE of your babies!

 I also use cloth wipes. They are super easy to make. I made most of mine. I also use old baby wash clothes as wipes. I just use water to clean up the bum. I either soak the wipes I will use in water really quick or I have a spray bottle handy next to the place where I change baby.

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Birth of Quinn Alexander

So Quinn is my newest baby. This is how he was born.

Tuesday, March 20th, I woke up. Husband and I left early to go view houses for sale. We saw a lot of them and I did a lot of walking. I started to feel uncomfortable around the 3rd house. My contractions were very irregular, but they did hurt. I kept telling myself to ignore it. It was just false labor and it would go away, like all the other times it has in the past week. We got home and had lunch. I took a short nap and got an incredible urge to mow the lawn. Then I needed to do laundry. Then I needed to vaccum. Then I needed to clean Skye's bathroom. Then we went grocery shopping. By this time, I was getting grumpy with the pain from my contractions and just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. I didn't actually fall asleep until around 11pm or so.
At 1pm I woke up to a whopper of a contraction. I woke myself up going "aoooaaooooooaoohh". I shook Jon after about 3 of those and told him I thought I might be in labor and I was going to go take a bath to try to make the contractions go away. This made them worse. Much much worse. I started to not be able to think during my contractions. I still was in denial this was real. I got out around 1:30 and told Jon to wake up, that I *might* be in labor. My contractions were very intense, 4 to 5 minutes apart and lasting at least one minute. I couldn't believe that I had progressed that fast in such a short amount of time. Especially since my last labor was a full 24 hours long. I decided to call people to watch Skye. No. One. Was. Answering. I started to freak out a LOT and had to go deep down to calm myself. All this time, my contractions were getting more intense and I was getting very loud. I did "ahhhhh AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHH ahhhhhhh" a lot. Threw in some "ooooh OoooooOOOOOHHHHHHHHH" too. Later, I started to do lots of wonderful swearing. Finally, I got a hold of my friend and she came to get Skye. As JOn and her were loading Skye up in the car, I had a big contraction and felt the baby move down. Then pressure. And I thought "oh my god. THis baby is going to come out NOW". So I expressed my immediate need to go. I think I kept saying it over and over. I can't remember. I got in the car and had a contraction. That sucked a lot. A lot a lot. I told Jon I couldn't have another contraction in the car. I would probably die. I still had 2 more before we got to the hospital. We arrived at 3:30am. Jon parked and I got out as fast as I could, racing my own contraction. I tried to hobble as fast as I could to the entrance and then a room. I didn't make it to a room before another contraction hit and I had to lean on the wall. A few nurses saw me (and the whole place heard me I'm sure) and right away directed me to the nearest delivery room. I was asked to pee in a cup. I did so and found lots of mucus and blood in my underwear. I knew this baby was coming soon.
My contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 3 centuries and I had almost no time to compose myself between them. TRANSISSION! I got louder here. I got to the bed somehow. They took my vitals and all that garbage. I wanted to punch them in their throats. I was pretty polite though. All I could think was "STOP TOUCHING ME". Luckily I was too busy roaring to say anything like that, and in between contrations I was too busy thinking "no epidural no epidural no epidural" to choke anyone. I did want Jon to push on me. I kept thinking I wanted him to push my back like he was trying to break it. That helped a bit. I was checked a few contractions after getting in the bed and found to be 100% effaced and 8cm dilated. THe nurse started to say I had a bulgy bag and she wanted to break it but I think I changed her mind when I informed her that I had group B strep. At this point I couldn't be still anymore between contractions and I was squirming around a bit. Roaring. You know... Nurse number one asked if I wanted an epidural. My wonderful husband said No ( love!) and I said no I think. I can't remember. Nurse number two comes in and sees me about to spontaneously combust and asks if I want an epidural. I was so damn mad at this point. Seriously, if I wasn't so busy trying to survive, I would have killed someone. They need to not ask women that. Just assume they want to go natural. Because you have no idea how tempting and delicious that epidural sounded. I had to chant to myself that I didn't need it. And I wanted it. Soooooooo bad. Most women would cave. It's like double chocolate brownies being held by a very muscular man who loves to tell you how awesome you are. That's what an epidural sounds like when you are 8 cm dilated and your contractions are trying to eat you.
Anyway, a few contractions later, my water broke. During a contraction, I felt a pop and a warm water fall. And I knew. I just knew that the next one was going to kill me. And..........it was the most intense sensation I have ever felt in my life. I can't even describe it. I started to breath way too fast. I was getting really scared. 3 or so of those and the automatic pushing started. I wasn't pushing. My BODY was doing it on it's own. I started saying "I think I need to push. I'm pushing I'M PUSHING!!!!!" They told me I coulndn't. Everyone in there was telling me not to push. To breath. To breath? It was horrible. With all the contractions, all the pain, the baby coming out, everything else, the absolute worse part was when I had to writhe in the bed and not push. I HAD to push. I think I endured 2 or 3 contractions like that and my CNM showed up. She checked me and, YEP, I was 10 cm and ready to push. All the pain went away. It was like bliss. It was so amazing. I don't know how to describe. This is what I wanted to do. My body was happy to do it too. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes and Quinn crowned. I felt that burning. My nurse midwife told me to push past the pain and not stop. There was no way I *could* have stopped. I had to push no matter what it felt like. It was really painful, but it was so short. I did a high pitched screech/scream that probably terrified all the early labor women. But then his head was out. She checked his neck for the cord. There was none. So I screech/screamed again and felt his weight slide out of me. It felt so good. Then I immediately got my slimy little boy placed on my chest and I just touched him and talked to him and smelled him. Born at 4:25am. Totally worth all I went through. No doubt. They asked if they could clean and weigh him. I of course said no. NO. Way.
 I tore a little, but didn't feel it. women are scared of that part. You seriously cannot feel it. Just the burning "ring of fire", and that's not even that bad. Just because it lasts 3 seconds. Then you get your baby. :)
He nursed well right away and is doing well still. He likes the boobie.

My whole labor, from start to finish, lasted 3.5 hours. Super duper intense. I almost had him at home.

Homemade Laundry Soap

So, I need a nice scentless detergent that does not cause build-up because I have to wash diapers. I also need it because I don't want all those nasty chemicals in my clothes either. So I've been getting expensive detergents that are phosphate free and dye free and perfume free. Well, I finally got fed up with the cost and looked into how I could go about washing our clothes and Skye's diapers cheaper. I found some recipes for homemade laundry detergent. It is easy to make and washes the clothes very nicely AND IS ENVIROMENTALLY FRIENDLY. There much less packaging involved with mixing your own laundry detergent. And It's just awesome all around. Here is the recipe that I chose.

2 gallons of hot water
2 cups of baking soda
2 cups of borax
1 bar of soap (you can use Fels Naptha soap or dove or any other soap that isn't frilly-foo-foo. Frilly-foo-foo soaps will have all kinds of extra ingredients in them that will leave gunk on your clothes and stuff)

First grate the soap with a cheese grater

Add water to cover the soap

Cook the mixture on medium heat until the soap is completely dissolved

Put the mixture in a container. You can use a bucket or anything that works for you. Add the 2 gallons of hot or warm water. Then dump in the baking soda and borax and mix nicely.

Label your container so that it doesn't get confused with something else. Use about 1/2 a cup per load (more or less depending on the size of the load).

Be sure to carefully stir the mixture before scooping up the liquid to put into the washing machine