Eating healthy

So I’m trying to eat healthy. I have been taking baby steps. I have switched from white rice and pasta to brown. We try to bake, ovenfry, grill, steam you know avoid deep frying. I’m almost only drinking 100% juice. I try to do frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. The problem is if my mom see’s a sale the eat healthy agreement goes out the window. I also let some of my healthier habbits go while I was pregnant so I’m working on getting them back. For example before I was pregnant I stopped eating egg yolks because of my cholesterol, but I needed protein because I developed preeclampsia so I got hooked again. Being home/ pregnant brought some good habits too. I forced/ was forced to eat more veggies.

But now that I’m not pregnant I do not put as much thought into eating vegetables. Even though I’m nursing my veggie intake has decreased. It decreased after she was born and now that she’s eating solids I see it dwindling more. You know I no longer have to eat carrots(drenched in honey) for her; I can feed em ( mashed with no honey) to her. With that said I gotta get it together. I’m like a kid I either have to put cheese on my veggies or hide them in my food.

I really want my boobala to grow up eating healthy, so that it’s second nature to her. So when wants a sweet she’ll crave fruit before candy. I will let the foodnetwork and my vegetarian friends inspire me to establish some tasty vegetable dishes to add to my signature recipe collection. I think food created with the vegetarian in mind is going to be the way to go. I just finished some vegetable dumplings and they were yummy (next time I will order them steamed and not fried).

If you have a recipe please post it here.

Baby hijabis

We all see the pictures of babies of babies in hijab and say aaaaawwwww. You can’t help but aww they are babies, they are always just so cute. I’ve never really thought about putting one on my babe at this age. But I came across this website where this sister sells hijabs and I got the impulse to buy. Not because I think I need to train my boobala to wear hijab, but because they were just so adorable. Well my empty pockets stopped me from purchasing. But I found myself thinking if I did buy one would I even put it on her? Everyday, Fridays? Would she keep them on? (she is not a fan of hats, but she wears her headbands.)

It’s funny because until I saw the hijabs for sale I had no interest in buying one for her. No interest despite the fact that when I go to jumah my babe is one of the few, if not the only baby without a hijab on. And despite the random sisters suggesting I should start putting hijab on her. (Before I continue, for those who do not know, my daughter is 8 months).

Even prier to having my babe I’ve had this romantic idea of how my daughter would start wearing hijab. She would walk up to me one day after she hit puberty and say mommy I want to wear hijab. Then we would have a conversation about what it means and go hijab shopping. I’ve dreamt of her coming to me for hijab fashion advice and me (having magically acquiring the skills) fixing her hijab up in fabulous styles that rival the most acclaimed hjab stylist (Yes there is a such thing).

I don’t want to “train” her to wear hijab. I’m not opposed to strongly suggesting she think about dressing modestly. But I don’t want to feel like I forced her into anything. I want her to do it, but I want it to come from her. To be a reflection of where she is spiritually, not a false representation of her iman. I want her to own it, love it, understand it etc etc etc.

And before she is at the age of understanding her wearing hijab would simply be a reflection of what I want her to wear. That is not to say that if she is four and she wants to dress like mommy :-D I won’t be like YAY!!! But let’s make a full circle. Babies and hijab or even kids and hijab, how do you feel?

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Young girls and hijab

Halal baby food

It wasn't until I came across baby food meat in the supermarket that I thought about it. Although, I purchased some jars of lamb, veal, turkey and chicken I couldn't bring myself to serve it to Nuriyah. I know she is at the age where she can begin eating meat, but for some reason the thought of jarred meat is disgusting. I have decided that if I cannot bring myself to taste it then I won't feed it to my babe. So I have given away several jars of meat. I've decided that if I really feel like she is in need of protein and iron I can feed her things like beans and iron fortified cereal.

So what do I feed my baby. I started out by making her cereal from brown rice and moved on to pureeing things like yams and bananas. (Superbaby food is a must read if you want to make your own food) Like nursing for me it came easy,allhumdulliah, but unlike nursing I stopped. Now I buy Earths best (it's organic) if I can Gerber or Beach nut if I can’t. I also make sure my cereals are always whole grain. But back to meats, although I am fine with my baby being vegetarian for the first few years of her life, I know other mothers are not. But what options are out there for us Muslim mothers? Have a vegetarian baby, make your own baby food meat, use Gerber(I have not seen any other brand of meat in stores) or if you have a large Jewish community nearby you might have kosher babyfood available to you.

Well those are your options if you’re in the states. There was a company started in 2005 in Columbus Ohio named Nature’s Noor, but I believe they are no longer in existence. I wonder why the company failed. In Europe their seems to be more success in the baby food market.

Created in 2006 Malaika is produced in Switzerland and is available in Europe, France and online. The company guarantees that all of its meat is Halal and all of its fruits and vegetables are biological. From what I gathered from the website biological means organic and earth friendly (kinda cool). I appreciate that the website tells you exactly what you find in each jar of food. Their meat flavors include Potato corn and Halal Beef and Carrots, Fennel and Halal veal.

Mumtaz Khan, the multi- millionaire owner of the Mumtaz curry restaurant created Star Mumtaz in 2007. Mumtaz is available in stores in Europe, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. If you order online they ship to the US but the shipping at about 44 pounds cost more than the food. Their meat flavors include Spring Vegetables and Chicken, Potato Lamb and Spinach, Vegetables and Lamb, Wholemeal Rice and Chicken, Pasta and Lamb and Baby Sweetcorn and Chicken.

Created in France around the same time of Mumtaz, Petit Gems babyfood is also available throughout Britain and France and online. It is a family run company started by Ismail Pirbhai It is certified by the Halal Monitoring Committee. Their meat menu includes Garden Vegetables and lamb casserole, Chicken and Vegetable Bake, Vegetables and Roast Beef, Garden Vegetables and Beef Stew, Spring Vegetables and Lamb Tagine and Chicken and Vegetable Risotto. Both Mumtaz and Petit Gems are looking for US based distributors.

Although Mumtaz and Petit Gems may be the most well known Halal babyfood companies in Europe they were not the first. In 1998 Gazala Saleem launched Mother Nature Baby Foods. They offered flavors like chicken korma and lamb korma. Like Mumtaz and Petit Gems it was available in Asada stores. I am not sure if Ms. Saleems business is still up and running. But it is interesting to note that many articles claim that Mumtaz and Petit Gems are the first to create Halal babyfood, when both Sister Sakeena Abdur-Rashid of Nature's Noor and Sister Gazala Saleem of Mother Nature Baby Foods started their businesses years before. Bad journalism or a slight to woman operated businesses?

Vitameal is manufactured in Morocco. They offer baby juice and a variety of vegetable, fruit and meat combinations. They are the only company that I have seen to offer fish, namely their Salmon carrots. Unlike the other Halal companies but similar to Gerber they have plain meat choices. These include chicken, beef and turkey. I wonder if they flavor the meat.

Next on my list is Yamee Organic Baby food. Yamee is an Australian family-owned company. They make baby and toddler food. Some of their meals are Pumpkin Risotto (with beef), Risotto Verde (with beef & cheese) and Red Veggie Medley (with Lamb). This company does home deliveries. I think this brand is particularly cool because they are organic and the offer a very different selection of food. It would be nice if they were available outside of Australia.

I also came across the up and coming company Tiny Tots Baby Food.. Unfortunately, I was unable to learn much about them. Insha'allah they will be based in the US.

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