Contemporary Earth Mama

a little mama time

You know, I love my girls, I do...BUT, I am a better mama when I get time without them.  This summer has been the most challenging summer ever.  Ups and downs, regrowth both on the business level and personally, and no solo mama time. 

This morning, though, Fannie took off for the north woods with my inlaws, and I dropped Sunny off at gymnastics, and suddenly felt a little burst of freedom.  So I stopped at the co-op and leisurely purchased a few things for my latest new craving, which I'll share in a later post.  I sought out the HR manager for a teaching idea I had in connecting the local district kids sports teams with the new co-op in town, Harvest Moon Natural Foods, and had a fulfilling conversation where germination of those seeds has already begun.  For those of you who are local, stay tuned to a great free offer coming up!

Then, I hit the bulk aisle, and if you know me well, you know I LOVE the bulk aisle.  And as I hit the bulk aisle and was filling my jar with cinnamon I realized I was singing along (outloud-so sorry) with the overhead Indigo Girls music...

"I'm gonna clear my head, I'm gonna drink that sound, I'm gonna love you good and strong while our love is good and young."

So I guess that about sums it up...that's my morning in a nutshell.  And now I am here, visiting a place that seems almost foreign it's been so long.  It's been too long.  I love to write and be creative and express where I've been and what I've been up to.  I do have lots and lots to share and am ready to come out of hibernation, so to speak.

As a heads up, you're going to see a bit of change around here.  I don't often talk work on this blog, and if I do it's pretty playful ( and frankly, helpful to many), but I want to give you the heads up that you're going to see more.  I'm going to be talking about my workshops, which are going amazingly well.  I'm going to share when I have a newsletter coming out ( this Sunday, and if you don't get it, "subscribe" to it by going to it in the upper right hand corner of this blog with your first name and email address).  I promise you will not be disappointed, and if you are, please let me know what you needed to make it a better experience for you.  I will be seeking your help in offering me connections if I throw them out there.  And you...you will continue getting great content from me...and My Healthy Beginning.

Because that's what I'm all about, creating memorable experiences and opportunities for education for you and your life.

 

gluten free pizza crust

I keep thinking I've posted this recipe and I haven't, so here it is.  We make homemade pizza once a week, usually on the weekends.  The girls love getting involved and my role now is as Kitchen Referee, where I try to find peace and harmony among two people one-upping each other in the Pouring Measurements Department.

This recipe is adapted from Naturally Gluten Free Cooking by Debra D. Smith.  We've tried making the flour mix a few different ways and having utilized all the gluten free flours for various recipes, this is the one we like the best:

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

1 1/4 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup potato starch flour

2 tsp guar gum

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 c milk ( works with cows, rice, almond milk)

1/4 c olive oil

cornmeal

Oven heated to 425.  In a medium sized bowl, combine all ingredients.  Stir well just until combined.  The dough will be crumbly, so you can drizzle in a little more oil if you'd like.  I sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on a bakng sheet and drop the dough onto the sheet, spreading it with a rolling pin.  This seems to help the dough stay together.

Top with sauce and toppings and you've got yourself a pizza...20-25 minutes, depending on your oven, should do the trick.

This crust is soft, but not chewy and is our favorite of gluten free crusts we've tried from scratch.

Enjoy and let me know what toppings you make this with!

Earth Mama Angel Baby Giveaway...

...and the winner of the Earth Mama Angel Baby gift package is....

 "Love their tea...and everything else that I've tried (and my doula clients have too)!"-Angela Coccoluto

another delightful breakfast

This morning, realizing I was out of milk of any kind, and steaming oatmeal was about to be served...I made a quick decision to "try" making my own almond milk.  This almond milk turned out frothy, sweet (but not too sweet), and the perfect fit for what turned into another delightful breakfast where all the flavors came together beautifully.

Of course, I didn't measure a thing when making it, so I'll give you guesstimates.

Homemade Almond Milk

::5 pitted and chopped medjool dates

::maybe 3/4 cup raw almonds

::splash of vanilla extract

:: 2 cups +, filtered water

I put all of this into my Magic Bullet and it was originally pasty, so I added more water and poured half of it into another Magic Bullet container (Cuisinart Blender currently on the fritz...anyone have a food processor they don't use?) and turned it on once more.  The result has me convinced I'll never buy almond milk again...unless I'm in a hurry and completely out of almonds, but I always have almonds...they're like clean underwear-they're always in the drawer.

 Strange analogy, but I couldn't fight what was on the tip of my tongue.

So, we took the almond milk and poured it over the aforementioned steaming oatmeal, tossed in a handful of whole walnuts, a handful of chopped apple, and a few drops of maple syrup and it was as close to heaven as I've been all week.

Try it.

Then let me know how you liked it.

Earth Mama Angel Baby giveaway!!!

Do you love Earth Mama Angel Baby products?  Not only do they have beautiful merchandise, but their products really work...I have used a few of them myself.  They are clean, smell awesome and always do the trick.  I've got good news, folks.  The gals over at Earth Mama Angel Baby are doing a giveaway with My Healthy Beginning (if you're not already receiving the super helpful info from My Healthy Beginning, enter your first name and email addy in the upper right hand corner).  They love our readers, they love our content and they want to share their goods!

Earth Mama Angel Baby is giving away a combo gift:  one Earth Mama Bottom Balm and one Earth Mama Bottom Spray to a lucky mama ( or mama-to-be!).

Leave a comment here, and we will randomly chose a winner.  Comments will close Friday morning, August 13, 2010.

 

Good luck!

we're back from Ely

The girls and I are back from spending a week with my parents at their cabin in Ely.  We hiked, caught frogs, swam, played in waterfalls, fished, read, and enjoyed being together ( until those moments snuck up on us where we weren't so much enjoying the time together and had to enjoy a bit of time apart, of course).

We've got big adventures up our sleeves for next summer...hmm, what about a whole month instead of one week?  A girl's gotta dream....