It was big news when Starbucks opened in my neighborhood, which is made up of mostly small independent shops and cafes. Of course it had to open near the end of my pregnancy, when I was desperately craving chocolatey/milky things daily. My husband and I got a bit too used to the 2 minute walk around the corner and also chose to ignore the significant amount of money flying out of our wallets. Well, now that baby is out, we have cut back significantly. A big reason for me besides spending too much is that too much dairy consumption by me noticeably affects my boy - in a spit up way! Not that it is causing him discomfort, but I was getting a bit sick of changing my/his clothes a couple of times a day.
Taking all this into account, I decided I still needed a daily treat (trust me, when you are taking care of a newborn, you need this) but I didn’t want to spend lots of money, and I didn’t want to have dairy or soymilk. So, I decided to invest in a thermo-cup and create my own version of a mochaccino - 1/2 instant coffee, 1/2 chocolate almond milk. Of course it doesn’t taste like a Starbucks mocha, but more money in the bank and less laundry makes it worth it. Besides, I love almond milk, and it does taste pretty dang good.
If you don’t like to have too much dairy and you have never tried almond milk, I highly recommend it. It has a nice consistency - thinner than soy milk but not as thin as rice milk, and it tastes great (not too almondy like you would think). I use the original unsweetened on cereal, have used the vanilla for baking (makes cupcakes extra moist!) and the chocolate is good straight up in a glass.
Stay tuned for another faux Starbucks drink attempt soon - green tea lemonade!
Hello! Wow - it has been a long 4 months since my last post. For those who don’t know my baby boy was born naturally at home Feb 9 with no complications. It was an amazing birth, and life is going along here with lots of love and little sleep! It is hard to adjust to someone else’s needs and wants coming first, but I have managed to squeeze in a few moments to think about nutrition, scope out new products, and of course, make cupcakes - ha! These are all things I will need to do for my little guy anyway once he gets those chompers.
recipe: two bananas, 1 cup vanilla almond milk, two handfuls chopped up kale, tablespoon flaxseed, squeeze of honey - whiz it up!
So far, my pregnancy has been relatively free of challenges. I had very little morning sickness, have not had a lot of headaches, pain, or any other irritations or complications. Last week I went for a standard Glucose Challenge Test, and my result came back one value above “normal”. This Monday, I am going for a 3-hour Glucose Tolerance Test, to see if I possibly have Gestational Diabetes - which is not necessarily a very bad thing for the pregnancy, but can be a predictor of my chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
