Foodie Friday: Pisto

2 Comments February 23, 2015 discoveringnaturalmotherhood

Hello! Today’s Foodie Friday is a bit labor intense, but I promise the effort is well worth it! This is a recipe my husband makes, it’s a vegetarian meal that can easily be made into a vegan meal.

Ingredients:

2-3 Peppers (varied colors), chopped finely

1 Onion, chopped finely

2 Zucchini, chopped finely

2 Tomatoes, chopped finely

2 Potatoes, finely cubed

2 TBSP Olive oil, more if needed

Salt & Pepper, to taste

Over easy egg (Optional)

(Please note: The pictures show a double batch. We always double to recipe so we have leftovers!)

Start by finely chopping the onions. The size should be about the size of your fingernail. We’ve tried chopping the vegetables bigger but the end results were not the same.

Put the olive oil into a pot and heat to a medium temperature. Add onions, cook 5-8 minutes.

Finely chop (fingernail size) peppers and add to the pot with onions. Cook for another 5 minutes.

While onions and peppers are cooking, finely chop the zucchini (fingernail size). Add zucchini and cook for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes of the onions, peppers and zucchini cooking, finely chop and add tomatoes. Turn the heat down to medium-low and let simmer for 25 minutes. The consistency will be similar to ratatouille, not quite soupy but there will be some liquid in the mixture.

While the vegetables simmer. Wash and peel potatoes and then finely chop (fingernail size). In a frying pan add olive oil and fry potatoes until golden brown.

While the vegetables simmer and the potatoes are frying you can cook your egg. Anthony loves his over-easy with the yoke runny, I like mine the be fully cooked. This is up to each person and can be eliminated if you’re going for the vegan option.

After potatoes are done, get out your plate, your ready to eat!

Put a layer of potatoes on the plate. Next put the egg on top of the potatoes and then add a large amount of the vegetable mixture.

Next, EAT!

This is one of the best dinners we eat. It is so yummy. Like I said it does take time to prepare but trust me it is so, so worth it. You’ll love every bite. We only made the recipe once without doubling it. We were sorry as soon as the last bite was gone. Pisto the next day is just as good, if not better. All the vegetables have time to join together for true deliciousness! Make sure the store the potatoes separately or they will become soggy. Heat up in a frying pan!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my husband and I do!

Love, Savanna

Top Mommy Blogs Update

Leave a comment February 16, 2015 discoveringnaturalmotherhood

Thanks for everyone who has been voting for me on the Top Mommy Blogs! I truly appreciate it!

BUT, I’ve been informed that WordPress is changing their format (from https to http) and the Top Mommy Blogs cannot track how many votes we’re getting right now. Once WordPress has finished changing formats, the Top Mommy Blogs are going to work on a new version for WordPress blogs that can track how many votes we receive.

I’m going to leave the button on my page but it will not count for anything at the moment.

Thanks again to all those who have voted! I will let you know when you can start voting again!!

Love,
Savanna

At Home Survey

Leave a comment February 15, 2015 discoveringnaturalmotherhood

Hello! How was your Valentines Day? I hope it was filled with lots of love and chocolate, of course! Anthony took me to Whole Foods to buy a treat! I bought some vegan chocolate cupcakes and a vanilla (almond milk) steamer, Yummmmm!

Anyways, I read a ton of other blogs and I love it when they do survey’s. You’re able to get to know your virtual friends and followers in a more personal way. So today I’m going to do a survey about things around my house!

Household chore I actually enjoy 

This is a tough one. There is not a particular household chore I enjoy 100% of the time. Sometimes I enjoy the effects of the chore after their done (For example, a clean house)! :). I love the feeling of a clean house. Usually this lasts about an hour, especially since Noah’s been around, but I do enjoy cooking 75% of the time. I find it relaxing to prepare a healthy meal for myself, and my family. However, Friday and Saturday nights I do not enjoy them. I’d rather enjoy eating takeout or going to our favorite restaurant.

Biggest house disaster

I am an organized control-freak. I love to have everything in a specific space. That being said, when we moved into our house we put all of our extra things into our office closet. So, over the next year and half things kept piling up in there. We could hard slide the door shut and it DROVE ME CRAZY! I couldn’t even look at it. It gave me nightmares, haha! About two weeks ago I decided I had enough. I pulled everything out of the closet and sorted through it. This took a few days to get through! Then I went to Walmart and bought bins upon bins to organize our items. Last weekend, I finally finished! It looks amazing! I feel so much better that it’s clean and that we were able to donate the items that we hadn’t used in a long, long time. That was really the last area that was not organized in our house. Again, organized control-freak here! Not that it’s organized I’m no longer having closet over-flow nightmares. 🙂

Before company arrives, I hide…

Noah and Malakhai toys! We have toys upon toys around here! Malakhai has so many toys that I decided to go through and donate the toys he no longer plays with. He tends to stick with the same few toys and carries them around with him. It was pretty easy to decide which toys to donate. We were doing really well with baby toys until Christmas. Noah is so lucky to have so many people care about him. However, this also means that he got so many toys and gifts for Christmas that we have them in every room in the house. So when company comes over I try to put the toys either in our room or shove them against walls or under chairs- HA!

Most recent music download

The last music I downloaded to my computer was music for Noah. I typically get music from the library and put it onto my computer. I got a bunch of CD’s for Noah to listen to. I love getting music from the library because it’s free!!

The last thing I bought online

The last thing bought online was a telescope for Anthony for Valentines day! Typically, we don’t spend much money on Valentines Day but this year he has been working so hard that I wanted to get him something really special. He’s been talking about getting a telescope for years but it’s one of those things that it’s hard to spend the money on. He loved it! I bought him this one.

I hate to shop for

I hate to shop for groceries. I love eating healthy and nutritious meals, however, I hate seeing all that money week after week go to groceries. I do think it is worth it to spend the money on organic foods, though!

Favorite Family Ritual

My favorite family ritual would be Noah’s nighttime routine. I love reading books to him each night and seeing him get excited about reading. I especially love seeing Anthony read to Noah, I can’t tell you what it does to my heart when I see those two reading!

I have a style crush on

Dutchess Kate. I mean she is just so perfectly put together. She’s never overdone but has each outfit just cute and classy. Also, I love her hair! I’m sure she has people blow-out her hair and curl it perfectly for her but I still would love to have my hair look half as nice as hers does.

How did I ever live without

I don’t know how I ever lived without Anthony, Noah, and Malakhai. I am so thankful for each of them! Lately, I’ve been thinking how comfortable with who I am. Growing up it’s always hard to find yourself and to be comfortable with who you truly are. But I love the person I’ve become and there is no doubt in my mind that my three guys have helped to shape the person I have become!

Love,
Savanna

Nursing Must Haves

Leave a comment February 7, 2015 discoveringnaturalmotherhood

There are so many products out there that can be used while nursing. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I started looking into nursing essential since I wanted to breastfeed my son. However, once I started looking into the products, I quickly became overwhelmed with options and a lack of knowledge about all the products. It’s hard to know what you’ll really need for breastfeeding! So, now that I’m almost 6 months into breastfeeding, I thought I’d share some of my “must-have’s” for breastfeeding.

Boppy: I’ve posted about my Boppy before; it really has been a life-saver. Babies can start to become heavily quickly as they feed. The Boppy allows for the baby to rest mostly on it and you are just supporting your baby while he/she is feeding. GET THIS! You will not regret it, I promise!

Nursing Pads: These are a must! I’ve used a mixture of throwaway pads and re-usable. The re-usable ones are hard to find good ones. I have tried a couple brands that did not work at all. I did find these and they work really well! Although, I do always have some throwaway pads just in case!

Water Bottle: I’m always, always, always thirsty when I’m nursing. So I make sure to water next to at all times.

Nursing Bra: It’s nice that I have a supportive nursing bra when we go out in the public that I can feel comfortable in but will easy to unclip when needed

Nursing Cover: Just as the bra it’s nice when people come to the house or we’re out in public that I can quickly cover up. I like the infinity scarves that turn into covers!

Coconut Oil: I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again…I love coconut oil! It’s so useful for many things. I use it to help the stretch marks from getting to red. Also, when I first began breastfeeding I used it to help sore and cracked nipples.

Camis: I love little camis to wear when we’re around the house. They are comfy and easy access. Especially when Noah was first born, it felt like I was nursing 24/7. Plus, when you’re nursing you tend to get milk dripped on your shirt. These camis are cheap to buy a ton; I probably have at least 10. You can quickly change if you get milk on them. I have a few nursing tops, but I didn’t feel these were essential, plus they are pretty expensive.

So, that’s my list of nursing essentials. I hope that if you’re pregnant or nursing these items will help you too!!

All About Diapers

Leave a comment February 4, 2015 discoveringnaturalmotherhood

Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about diapers. There are so many brands of diapers out there that it can be overwhelming to choose from. When I was pregnant we looked into all of our options: cloth and disposable; both biodegradable and the kind you can easily buy in the store. In the end we thought chose not to do cloth diapers, it just wasn’t our “cup of tea”. We decided we’d do a mix of the biodegradable and the regular disposable diapers. We loved the idea of buying the organic biodegradable diapers, but they can get really expensive. So we put on our registry to have our friends and family buy store brand diapers from target. We also bought a box from Costco to stock up. We had heard that it can be nice to have a stock pile before you have the baby, so that way you don’t have to spend so much money on diapers when the baby arrives. Great idea, we thought!

Fast-forward to when we had Noah and were still in the hospital. The nurses had given us Huggies diapers to use. They worked okay. They had a line down the middle that way you could tell if the diaper was wet or had stool in it. But, we were so exhausted that we really didn’t mind what he had on!

When we got home we used up the rest of the Huggies that was left from the hospital. Next, we received a huge box of Pampers at our baby shower. Unfortunately, as soon as we put these diapers on, Noah’s bottom turned bright red. I thought he was having a bad case of diaper rash. I slathered the diaper cream on but it wouldn’t go away. So we went and bought more Huggies diapers. The redness almost immediately went away. We then decided we’d better use the Huggies diapers from now on since Noah might be sensitive to certain brands. But, every night we were having major leaks and blowouts. We were changing his diaper constantly. Soon we realized the Huggies diapers were just not fitting him well enough. We then moved onto the Costco diapers, and same things leaking and blowouts over and over. By this time we were becoming very discouraged thinking we were going to have to constantly having diapers that didn’t fit properly. We also tried the Target brand and Seventh Generation as well, and same thing occurred.

My mom finally suggested trying The Honest Company’s diapers. I was hesitant because I thought they were going to be very pricey. But she insisted and bought us a couple bags of diapers and wipes to try. We tried the same day she brought them to us, and what a difference! From day one he never had a leaky diaper, no blowouts, and they fit nicely. Not to mention, they were bio-degradable…score! I went onto their website thinking I was going to have to spend about $1,000 per month of diapers. I was wrong, they are very affordable. We purchased their bundle through their website and get six bags of diapers and 4 bags of wipes each month for less then $100. I do have to purchase one more wipes each month but it’s still really affordable. And I feel great knowing that we’re buying quality diapers that aren’t going to be sitting in the dump 20 years from now. I love that Noah rarely gets diaper rash and I don’t have to worry about him leaking out every half hour! Another perk of the diapers is that they come in cute patterns that change with the seasons! I would suggest buying the Honest Company Diapers to anyone!

The best part is I can feel great using the Honest Company because they never use harsh chemicals. It’s a great feeling knowing I’m not allowing my baby to have harsh chemicals that could affect his growth and development.

I have also tried many of their other products, most which I’d recommend! I’ve tried and continue to use: the body lotion, shampoo and body wash, hand soap and nipple butter. I tried their laundry detergent and it worked however, I prefer Seventh Generation laundry detergent. The clothes seem to come out less stretchy. I also used the diaper rash cream and while it worked on very mild diaper rashes, it did not help when Noah would get a big rash. But I’d suggest giving it a try, just because it didn’t work for us doesn’t mean it won’t work for you!

I’m really excited they just came out with re-usable swim diapers! I’ve put it on my list to come with our next bundle!

*Note- This post is not sponsored in any way. I just really, really love their products!

Something to talk about: What types of diapers do you/ did you use? Did you try many different types of diapers before finding the right fit?