My little sister gave birth to adorable (and hungry) twins a few weeks ago. She has been exclusively breastfeeding both of them, and her lactation consultant suggested that she try eating lactation cookies to help increase her milk supply. She asked if I knew how to make the cookies, and if I had tried them. I had certainly heard of them, and their benefits. I breastfed both my babies, one for 9 months, the other for 6 months, and I had supply issues that I battled both times the entire duration. I remember looking at recipes, and then losing motivation to actually bake them. Babies are exhausting, and when you are breastfeeding, you get short little breaks between feedings that you'd rather use to shower or shove carbs down your throat; not standing in the kitchen baking. That memory made me insist that my sister not worry about making the cookies; I would make them for her. So for those of you new breastfeeding mamas; send this recipe to your mom, your sister, or good friend and have them bake them for you. You go take a nap.
When I was younger, I rarely drank water. I lived off Cokes in my teens, Diet Cokes in my early twenties, and Coke Zero after that. I always felt like they gave me headaches (especially the diet ones), and were perhaps responsible for many other health issues I had at the time. In my mid-twenties, I decided to give up my daily soda habit, and switch it out with water. Since then, my afternoon headaches disappeared, my teeth feel consistently cleaner, my energy is higher, and all those annoying little health issues disappeared. I definitely attribute my water intake to my huge improvement in overall health.
Some stuff isn't worth making from scratch (in my humble opinion) because it just takes too long or is too complicated. Fortunately, enchilada sauce isn't one of those things. It is surprisingly easy and quick to make, and seriously tastes so much better than the store-bought kind. I used Tide and Thyme's recipe, because it looked both quick and tasty, and I was right. It took about 20 minutes to make 4 cups of deliciously rich enchilada sauce.
In an effort to decrease my meat intake, I have been eating a lot of tofu lately. Tofu can be a tricky food to love, especially if not prepared properly. While I'm still learning the best ways to cook and serve tofu, I think I have the actual preparation of tofu down pat now. After speaking with some of my friends, I realized that a lot of people have no idea where to even begin with tofu. So I have decided to devote a blog entry to all things tofu; aka: Tofu for Dummies.
