Best Start Baby: making your own baby food.

With the recent baby boom in my circle of friends and the upcoming birth of my new niece or nephew, my sister and I explored the benefits of making our own baby food. We wanted to ensure that we are providing the best start for this new baby. By making our own baby food, we could be picky about choosing only food that was locally produced where possible, nutritious, and free of additives or preservatives.

In addition to the obvious health benefits to making your own baby food, there is also a cost benefit to this project. Despite the pricey cost of organic food, the higher quantity that it yields provides a greater cost savings. It's also a simple and fun project, taking only about an 1 hour to prepare for a week's worth of meals.

We wanted to share some of our tips that we learned while experimenting with making our own baby food:

Offer a variety of foods for your baby. This is the best way to shape your baby's palate.

Steaming food is the best way to keep all the nutrients in food.

Enjoy the natural flavours of food--don't add any spices, salt, sugar, butter, or seasoning, although I sometimes make an exception to cinnamon and tumeric due to their proven health benefits.

Here is also a guide to what your baby can eat during their crucial months of early development:

4-6 months
Babies can eat fruits like avocados, pears, and bananas, or cooked vegetables like green beans, squash, and sweet potatoes.
Cereals made from oats, rice and barley are also good choices.

6-8 months
This is a great time to introduce new food to your growing baby. You can try different fruit combinations that allow you to provide your baby with the most nutritious foods. In order to keep track of food allergies, make sure that you are only introducing new foods one at a time, and at least once a week. Foods that commonly induce an allergic reaction in children include:

Strawberries
Egg whites
Cow's milk
Wheat
Seafood
Citrus fruits
Tomatoes

8-10 months
Babies can be harder to feed as they start to become picky during this age. Looking at more textured foods and finger foods are an ideal option at this time.

10-12 months
This is the best opportunity to offer a wide variety of food to your baby. You can expand the number of foods to introduce to your baby so that their taste buds can recognize new flavours and senses. Spices can be added at this time, such as cinnamon or tumeric. This is the time to be more creative with baby food recipes.

Because of their hardness, texture or shape, some foods can cause infants to choke. Avoid giving these foods to children under 12 months of age:

Raisins
Grapes
Nuts
Popcorn
Hot dogs
Peanut butter
Raw carrots
Raw peas
Raw apples
Corn kernels

Raw honey should also be avoided during the first year of life, as it contains bacteria that could cause serious harm to the digestive tract of your baby.

Here are some easy recipes provided by The Vegan Society (www.vegansociety.com) that have been tried and tested by my loving circle of new moms:

Age 6-7 months
Vegetable Puree

1 large potato, peeled and chopped
Florets removed from 1 broccoli stalk
1 courgette, sliced
2 or more tbsp soya milk

1. Steam or boil all vegetables for 10 mins or until cooked.
2. Cool a little and place in a blender with soya milk. Blend until smooth and creamy. Other vegetables can be used instead of those listed.

Age 8-10 months
Lentil Stew

25g dried red lentils
1 small potato, peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp tomato puree or tomato juice
1 small carrot, cubed

1. Place all ingredients in saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil slowly and simmer until all liquid is absorbed and vegetables are softened.
2. Cool a little and blend until smooth and creamy.

Age 10 months +
Shepherd's Pie

750g potatoes, peeled and cubed
25g-50g vegan margarine
50ml or more soya milk
Vegetable oil for frying
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, diced
75g dried red lentils, cooked in water until tender
1 x 400g tin tomatoes, chopped
150ml vegetable stock

1. Steam potatoes until soft. Place in separate bowl and add margarine. Mash thoroughly, adding soya milk until potato is smooth and creamy. Place aside.
2. Heat vegetable oil in frying pan and add onions and celery. Fry until tender. Add carrot, lentils, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Simmer for 20 mins or until lentils are cooked and liquid is absorbed.
3. Place in casserole dish and spread creamed potato on top. Heat in oven at 180C, 350F or gas mark 4 for 15-20 mins until potato is browned on top.

W.L at Pretty Organic Cosmetics

The Importance of Shea Butter

Shea Butter is one of the most luxurious healing and moisturizing agents that can be found in Nature. It is derived from the nut of the shea tree, grown in the wild in West Africa and used by African women to keep their skin smooth and lineless.

Collecting shea butter is a tedious task. It involves sorting and picking the shea nuts, washing them and leaving the nuts out to dry. The shea nuts are then roasted over a fire until they turn shiny and oily. After the drying process again, the roasted shea nuts are pounded into a mortar until a dark chocolatey sludge appears.

The chocolate mixture is then ground into a smooth paste, adding a little bit of cold and hot water to the mixture. The shea butter than starts to separate from the mixture, after cooling, and rises to the surface, similar to the separation of cream from unhomogenized milk. The gray mass is then heated over a fire, and the butter is left at the bottom.

Shea butter is used for a variety of purposes, not strictly for cosmetic uses. In West Africa, it has many meanings--it is the pride of the women in Sahel region of Africa, not only for it's skin softening properties, but also as a source of income and independence. In fact, women exclusively collect and trade shea butter, as it is known as a curse for men to touch the shea tree. Many cooperatives have been built from the making and trading of shea butter, and women have been united to improve their living conditions through the sale of shea butter.

Aside from leaving your hands and feet feeling like silk, shea butter is used as a vegetable oil for cooking. It is highly nutritious and contains fat soluble vitamins and essential plant sterols. It is safe enough to consume, and it is also one of the safest ingredients to use for massaging the delicate skin of babies. In addition, shea butter is used as an intensive hydrating and healing treatment for eczema, psoriasis, and cradle cap.

At Pretty, we use over 90% concentration of shea butter in our hand and foot butters, as we know the importance of this miraculous nut. The rest is simply pure essential oils and antibacterial neem oil to keep the butter fresh. We know that using this important ingredient in our products does wonders for our skin, but it also helps to support a community of women to live independently and provide for their families.

W.L at Pretty Organic Cosmetics

Pretty Perspective Series: what does Pretty mean to you?

Dear Pretty,

I have been a fan of your products since you first launched. It’s refreshing to see a great cosmetic line that embodies mother natures ingredients and respects the environment. I hope you plan on expanding your product line for men soon. My wife uses Pretty almost exclusively and I love the smile it brings to her face. I went on line the other day to purchase some products to surprise her and came across your blog. I must admit, this is my first time blogging and for some reason I was compelled to do so.


What does Pretty mean to me?

Pretty is a state of mind, it’s a feeling of comfort, love and confidence. Pretty is not tangible nor can it be seen with the naked eye. My wife and I have been together for 3.5 years and what we have is Pretty special. My life revolves around a few simple pleasures.

Giving my wife a little kiss on the cheek while she still lays asleep in the morning,

holding her hand while we walk the dogs or just watching her laugh.

Throwing a football with my nephews or enjoying a feast with my parents on a Sunday afternoon. To most this may seem mundane, but to me, I’m the Prettiest guy in the world.

I think we make life too complicated. No one ever has it all figured out and Mother Nature's path in life can be a bit bumpy at times. Often we get sidetracked and we literally can’t see the forest through the trees. I’m no different, and at times it’s important to stop and better value the love and relationships around us………only then will we truly experience real joy.


Kudos again to you for embracing the challenge and having the dedication to produce such a great product line. My wife comes to bed with your face mask all the time…..it must be true love.


Wishing you all a Pretty life,

Constantine

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the practise of applying essential oils to achieve physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Dating back over 5000 years, essential oils have been used for methods of healing since the existence of the Egyptian Pyramids.

What exactly are essential oils? The rising popularity and increased usage of essential oils in the Western world is evident most often in cosmetic practices. Essential oils are the highly concentrated and extremely potent aromatic essences of plants. They are derived from a variety of flowers, herbs, bark and leaves from around the world. Although they are called oils, their actual consistency is not oily. In fact, essential oils are quickly and easily absorbed into the skin.

There are multiple uses for essential oils, ranging from stimulating circulation and preventing hair loss to opening up nasal passages and preventing headaches. At Pretty, our products are based specifically on the practise of using aromatherapy to heal and balance the skin. There are so many uses for oils as each one has its own unique properties and therapeutic uses.

I like to keep an "emergency" kit of essential oils with me that include the following pure essential oils:

Lavender oil for headaches, burns, bug bites, and sore muscles.
Peppermint or eucalyptus oil for migraines, bug bites, itchy rashes, fatigue, congestion.
Tea Tree oil as a natural disinfectant (antibacterial and antifungal). It's also great for bug bites, scratches, and scrapes.
Roman Chamomile for relaxation, easing sore muscles, and as an antispasmodic.

We do encourage you to try making some of your own products by combining pure essential oils. The following recipe is a great one to try: it helps to calm the mind and relieve insomnia.

Insomnia Recipe

Ingredients:

10 drops Roman Chamomile
5 drops Clary Sage
5 drops Bergamot
2 drops Lavender

Directions: Blend the oils well in a clean dark-colored glass bottle. Add 1-2 drops to a tissue and place inside your pillow to aid you in falling asleep. Or if you have an essential oil diffuser, you can add this combination to the diffuser for an hour prior to bedtime.

We would love to hear and share some of your recipes or usages for essential oils.


W.L at Pretty Organic Cosmetics

Kenyan Inspiration

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to travel to Kenya, where I was able to see first-hand how to truly appreciate nature and learn the importance of living a sustainable lifestyle. Not only was the landscape jaw-droppingly beautiful, but the culture of the Masai people taught me more than I could imagine about living in harmony with our planet.

Their focus on embracing our land and learning how to use the natural resources available to them was truly inspirational.

Take a look at some of these photos that demonstrate how innovative one can be when we strip away many of the material goods that we take for granted.

The Masai of East Africa build their homes with sticks, cow dung, and grass. The cluster of homes is surrounded by a boma, a thick thorny bush of acacia trees. The boma provides formidable protection against lions, elephants, and the dangers of the wildlife in the Serengeti.

Their shoes are made of rubber tires, taking recycling to a whole new level. Their cooking utensils are made from gourds or carved instruments from wood. Cattle is considered sacred to the Masai, and the blood and milk of the cow is their main source of food. Living as their ancestors did, there is little evidence of Western civilization in their tribes.

The waste produced through their daily activities is recycled back into the earth, through the process of decomposition. Their "leave no trace" philosophy made perfectly sense in an area where humans beings live alongside the wilderness. Despite their evident lack of commodities, the people were friendly, happy, and caring. We celebrated through dance and song, around a fire that we watched them start using dry grass and the strategic angle of the sun.

In our world of over-consumption and our society's focus on always wanting more, it was a humbling experience to see how many people in the world live with so much less. This experience really made me question whether we were placing value on the wrong things in society.

W.L at Pretty Organic Cosmetics

The Pretty Perspective Series: Lisa's Story

This story is near and dear to my heart, written by someone who I think is incredibly beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

W.L at Pretty Organic Cosmetics


Lisa's Story

This is going to sound characteristically unfeminist for me but I'm not sure if I have ever thought of myself as pretty. While I never remember a time in my life where I was called ugly or plain, I'm not sure 'pretty' was ever anything I aspired to or thought of myself as. Early in my life, my mom discouraged me from wearing make up and shaving my legs like my classmates (luckily I'm Chinese) and while I was fairly spoiled, I never wanted 'pretty' clothes either as I have always been very much a tomboy. Being pretty was just never a priority for me.

For someone who considers herself a feminist and socially and politically aware, I don't know if I have ever head on dealt with feelings about being pretty or if I should have some affirmation for myself. One of my best friends in the whole world is gorgeous (inside and out) and through my early 20's, I came to recognize that in the presence of someone significantly prettier than me, I could get 'lost' or become invisible. I'm lucky it didn't bother me much because I realized that as soon as I conversed with guys or girls, some kind of 'pretty' shone through because I was no longer invisible. The older I got and the more I grew into the woman I am now (with many mistakes and lessons along the way), the more I have come to know this to be true. The older I get, the 'prettier' I have become. I'm no prettier physically than I was when I was 19, but I must wear confidence and maturity well because I no longer am that invisible girl I was over 10 years ago.

My sense of pretty has always revolved around character and how a woman shares who she is through self expression, whether in dress, mannerisms or personality. For some women, that involves wearing make up, nice clothes, or whatever helps them show the world who they are, but to me, pretty is that delicate balance of expressing yourself without having your exterior overshadow who you are on the inside. Cliche, but at the end of the day, looks fade and a pretty face is just another pretty face without someone who knows that what matters most is inside.

L.L

The Pretty Perspective Series: Brian's Story

My friend Brian is an accomplished author of Not All Men are Monsters, an autobiographical book about sex, travel, food, and life. He has spent much of the last few years travelling and blogging around the world, developing his culinary skills from different cultural experiences. You can read his amazing blogs at: http://sextravelfoodlife.wordpress.com/

What do men consider beautiful? This is Brian's perspective.

W.L



The Pretty Perspective Series: Brian's Story

I’d like to start by distinguishing what the difference for me is between pretty and beautiful. There are a couple circumstances when I’d be most likely to use the word pretty to describe something: the first would be an adolescent girl who is dolled up, and the second would be for objects that create an attractive focal point, such as a pretty dress, pretty shoes, a pretty necklace, and so on. So when I think of ‘Pretty’ as a cosmetics line, I think of products that move the attention off of objects, and back to the woman, by rejuvenating the natural, youthful glow found in unadultered skin.

The word Beautiful and the concept of beauty is something that continues to expand for me, as I’m exposed to more and more people around the world through my travels. I’ve appreciated women with features in all shapes, sizes, and colours, and to be completely honest, it is a woman’s attention to the most fundamental of details that I find most beautiful. Some of the first things I will notice and compliment a woman on are her natural nails, hair that looks soft without any split ends, and healthy skin (in Africa, I often find myself looking down at women’s heels, to see if the skin is soft or cracked). When a woman takes care of these very feminine features without having to colour or doll them up, it gives me the impression that she knows how to take care of and appreciate herself, and doesn’t feel the need to hide behind makeup or expensive trips to the salon to look and feel beautiful. The ultimate for me is when I take a woman out, and she only needs a few minutes to fix her hair in whatever way suits her mood, and a few minutes more to put on a dress that is flattered by her confidence to go out without any makeup on.

When it comes to defining what physical part of the female body is most beautiful, I feel that this is something unique in every woman, and finding and cherishing that special feature is a great way to nurture our bond.

So my recommendation is to pay attention to the most natural features that make you feel like a woman, feel comfortable in your own skin, and allow your confidence to radiate and reflect the beauty inherent in every one of you.

B.J
http://sextravelfoodlife.wordpress.com/