Friday, June 21, 2013

Milk and Cookies!!!

Hi friends! 

I was lucky enough to "meet" Zoe from The Cookie Girl Store and she sent me a box of cookies to taste and review! 


The Cookie Girl Store is a Texas based cookie shop. They specialize in custom made sugar cookies for all kinds of events. Visit their website or facebook page to see more pictures of their work, but I can't help  to share this one that caught my eye...



I remember getting my first Rainbow Bright doll as a kid! I loved her!

Back to my review :)

In April, The Cookie Girl Store debuted a new line of Motherhood cookies and I had the privilege to try some samples.

Zoe explains how this line of cookies came about here on her website, but I thought I would share it with you now. This is taken directly from her website. Please follow the above link to find it on her page.

When I was searching for lactation cookie recipes, everything that I found tasted like, for lack of better explanation, “Wow! These must be good for me.” What I really wanted was a cookie. Just a yummy chocolate chip cookie that tasted good AND also boosted my milk supply. Is that too much to ask for?!? So, since I love cookies and I have tons of recipes and I actually think it is fun to create my own recipes, I started baking. I took all the lactation recipes that I could find, and all my “regular” cookie recipes, and baked and ate, and baked and threw away, and baked and ate, and baked and shared, and baked some more, until I finally developed recipes that I wanted to eat AND boosted my supply. My next quest was to share these cookies. All of the moms that have tried them so far have had an increase of some sort. Some moms need to eat 4 cookies a day, and others only need to eat 1 a day before they notice a difference. Every person is different, and we don’t really know why these ingredients cause an increase in breastmilk supply, but for many moms, it does help. I also shared these cookies with non-lactating people to see what would happen. The only thing that happened is that they loved the cookies and thought they were delicious! Which is exactly what I wanted! I wanted a cookie that anyone would enjoy eating without thinking, “well, that’s a little odd!” or “Hmmm. Must be good for me.” Or even “I guess I could eat it, but I’d really just rather eat a chocolate chip cookie.”


Will is the second baby that I have nursed and in my little more than two years of nursing I have been lucky enough to not have significant supply issues. My supply has been (God willing) pretty good, but I do notice a decrease when I do not drink enough water or eat enough calories.

During these dips in supply, I end up researching online the to find things that will help me to increase my milk. I had never tried or made lactation cookies so I was excited to try some.

Now you can laugh at the title of today's post. I couldn't help myself ;)

Lactation cookies contain galactagogues that help to increase supply. The special ingredients in these cookies are brewer's yeast, flaxseed, and yeast.

Here is what I was able to try:

  • Chocolate Chip (lactation cookie)-This was pretty good. Especially the first day I received them. I liked it best after warming it up a little.
  • Lavender Shortbread (nausea remedy/insomnia relief)-I was surprised that these were my favorite of the bunch. The shortbread cookie was really yummy! I actually ate one on a night that I was having a hard time unwinding from the day and I swear it helped to relax me!
  • Almond Apricot (heartburn/reflux relief cookie)-I didn't really like these. There was nothing at all wrong with the cookie. I'm just not really an apricot lover ;)

Here are my thoughts:

  • The cookies arrived quickly and the packaging was very cute -which was a fun bonus :) I'm so sorry that I forgot to take some pictures of it to show you, but I was a little too excited to open up the box!
  • Each cookie came individually wrapped with a logo sticker on top. I do kind of wish the stickers had the name of the cookie printed on them, but this did not take away from my experience at all. 
  • The cookies tasted fresh even after being shipped.
  • I did feel like my supply increased when I ate two or more cookies a day (it is very, very possible that I might have eaten 4 in one day on a particularly long day).
  • I would absolutely order these cookies (you can customize your dozen of cookies order by calling) if I felt like I needed to boost my supply. 
  • Zoe was a sweetheart to work with! 
Make sure you check out The Cookie Girl Store if you ever need morning sickness remedies, lactation cookies, or adorable sugar cookies!

XOXO Sarah

**I was given a dozen cookies, but all opinions are my own.***

Monday, June 3, 2013

Magnet Fun

Happy Monday!!!

A few weeks ago I splurged at Target (gasp!) and bought Liza a really cool $3 horseshoe magnet. Here is the first activity that we used it for.

Fun with Magnets:


Supplies:

  • Magnet
  • sorting baskets 
  • random items from around the house
Procedure:
  • Collect random objects from around the house and put in a basket
  • Demonstrate to your kiddo how to see if the magnet can pick up an object.
  • Sort objects into two piles: Magnet picks up/Magnet does not pick up
  • Let your kiddo(s) learn and discover as they play!







Have fun exploring and learning at home! I hope to start a new posting schedule next week so stay tuned for lots of fun :)

XOXO Sarah