Make Your Own Vegetable Stock at Home!

December 11, 2018March 19, 2019

Make Your Own Vegetable Stock at Home!

This is simply the easiest yet most useful and versatile thing you’ll make in your kitchen: vegetable stock!

If you make rice regularly, or any other whole grains (bulgur, couscous, farro, quinoa, etc…), then vegetable stock is something you should try at least once. It adds so much more flavor than water! This has become so ingrained in our lives because we love it and need it that much. Here’s my process:

1) I keep a gallon-sized baggie in my freezer at all times and add vegetable scraps as I go. As I chop veggies for dinner, all the ends, guts, skins and seeds get thrown in the bag. It makes dinner prep really easy – no trips to the garbage can.

2) When the bag is full or I’m out of stock, I dump a bagful of scraps into a stock pot and fill it with water.

3) I bring this pot to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for at least 1 hour (the longer you let it boil down, the more concentrated and yummy it becomes).

4) Then I strain all the scraps out (an Asian ladle strainer would be perfect for this, but any utensil with holes works just fine) and store! I measure 2 cups at a time to put in small plastic containers. This makes it easy to quickly throw it in a pot with a cup of rice.

5) Then, I pull stock from the freezer as needed. I try to thaw what I need overnight in the fridge before dinner prep the next day.

I use this stock for all kinds of things and it really does add flavor. Plus, depending on your scraps, it turns out different every time (beets make it purple!). I replace the water with stock in savory whole grains dishes and use it in soups and stews – any recipe that calls for broth or stock. I can’t even remember the last time I bought broth or stock from the grocery store.

I love the benefits:

Store-bought stocks and broths are notoriously sodium-dense. In this stock, there’s no added salt and you can control the sodium content in your final recipe.
Added flavor. Substitute stock and your whole grains will be more flavorful.
It’s free! And a great way to be resourceful with your vegetable scraps.

A few notes:

I do not add tomatoes or tomato guts, egg shells, meat or bones. I also get enough scraps regularly and don’t bother to pull carrot and potato peels from my sink. Too much work.
I add two gallon-sized bags of scraps at a time because my pot is big enough. Add only as much as is appropriate for your size stock pot.

I hope you enjoy this stock as much as we do and it can serve your kitchen well!

How does Marabou support women?

We live in culture where “bouncing back” is more valued than proper rest. As admirable as it may be for a sports star to get back on the field, the same rules don’t apply to postpartum recovery. The traditional resting period has been stolen from women through pressure to get back to their job or simply through lack of presence.

Grandmas, sisters and best friends who otherwise would have been there to help a woman transition into motherhood often live too far away to be of any help. Household chores and caring for older children inevitably fall on the mom. But she just delivered a new life! She needs rest.

Marabou Services is a unique gift registry which provides services instead of stuff. Most mom’s get too many onesies, too many baby blankets and not enough helping hands. Break out of a destructive cultural norm and start a Marabou registry today.

Start a Marabou Gift Registry!

With a Marabou registry you can sing up for any service which will benefit you or someone you know during the postpartum recovery period.

Postpartum doulas for a first time mom

House cleanings for moms of multiples

Childcare for moms with older children!

Once your registry is created, add it to any other registry or post it to your Facebook and ask friends and family contribute to your postpartum service, rather than buying you more stuff.

More and more moms find they have to figure out postpartum alone. Is it any wonder why PMDs are on the rise? Or women are embittered by the journey of motherhood? We can change that by giving the gift of peace.

December 10, 2018January 23, 2019

The Benefits of a Nesting Party

You may have read our post on throwing a nesting party (see here) in lieu of a baby shower for a pregnant friend. What we didn’t mention in that post was the benefits a nesting party can create for after the baby is born. This was maaaaaybe the reason for this idea in the first place: to familiarize a group of close friends and family (a mother’s inner circle, see here) with the goings on in her home so they can better support her postpartum.

Here’s how you can make the effects of a nesting party go as far as they can:

Start a Meal Train

Before the nesting party, start a Meal Train page for her. As they leave, have guests write down their email addresses so you can invite them to her meal train to sign up for meal delivery. See our printable here.

Extra tip: have this sign up sheet on the same table as the party favors, if you decide to do them (see some ideas here)

Coordinate Your Own Meal Delivery Plan for Mom

If you want a little more control over the situation, make an after-the-due-date calendar of your own that guests can sign up on at the nesting party. This way, you’ll have it (at least mostly) covered. Just remember:

Beforehand, ask mom about frequency. Does she want meals every night? Or just 3 times a week (to eat up those leftovers)?
Have your guests write down their email address under their name on the calendar, so you can send reminders.
Provide index cards for them to write themselves a reminder (see our printable here – be sure to print on cardstock)

Around the time the baby is born, send out a mass email to everyone who signed up to provide the calendar and give some general guidelines (What is mom’s time preference for delivery? Does the family have any food restrictions? Food aversions?)

Have Guests Take their Nesting Cards with Them

Remember the nesting cards guests used to clean mom’s house at the nesting party (these bad boys)? Don’t toss ‘em! Have everyone take their cards with them to keep somewhere safe. When they deliver a meal, they can then help out with the area they were designated. They’ll have done it before, so it should be old hat. What a blessing for mom’s family to have an area of their house cleaned every time someone brings a meal. Double whammy! Even a once-over in the bathroom can do wonders for a postpartum mother’s peace of mind.

Onward, support people! Keep on blessing those new mamas!

How does Marabou support women?

Start a Marabou Gift Registry!

With a Marabou registry you can sing up for any service which will benefit you or someone you know during the postpartum recovery period.

Postpartum doulas for a first time mom

House cleanings for moms of multiples

Childcare for moms with older children!

Once your registry is created, add it to any other registry or post it to your Facebook and ask friends and family contribute to your postpartum service, rather than buying you more stuff.

More and more moms find they have to figure out postpartum alone. Is it any wonder why PMDs are on the rise? Or women are embittered by the journey of motherhood? We can change that by giving the gift of peace.

December 7, 2018January 23, 2019

The Needs of New Mothers (1st time moms vs. 2+ moms)

One thing was clear from the very beginning of our business: every mom is different. Each mother wants different things and has different needs. And it starts to get interesting when you pair new moms with doulas. I didn’t realize this right away, but doulas have varying approaches. Some doulas are more educational. They’re there to help mom learn in the beginning of motherhood and to transition with grace. Others are more practical. They get down to business in the household: dishes, laundry, meal prep. Most doulas are just – simply – there for mom and whatever her needs are that day. Doulas are jugglers! They roll with the punches and do their best to use their skills to bless a new family.

Of course, there are certain postpartum no-brainers. Mothers need rest, time to heal, and moral support after childbirth. But beyond those things, things might be different every time. First time mothers need more of the educational side, things like tips on newborn care and lactation consulting. Mothers that have other children just want a clean house and to know their older kids are okay! The needs of mothers are widespread and as various as the mothers themselves. Surely it teaches us that one-size-fits-all doesn’t apply to the postpartum world. Did your needs change from baby to baby?

How does Marabou support women?

Start a Marabou Gift Registry!

With a Marabou registry you can sing up for any service which will benefit you or someone you know during the postpartum recovery period.

Postpartum doulas for a first time mom

House cleanings for moms of multiples

Childcare for moms with older children!

Once your registry is created, add it to any other registry or post it to your Facebook and ask friends and family contribute to your postpartum service, rather than buying you more stuff.

More and more moms find they have to figure out postpartum alone. Is it any wonder why PMDs are on the rise? Or women are embittered by the journey of motherhood? We can change that by giving the gift of peace.

December 7, 2018January 23, 2019

Cherry on Top: Walnuts!

How to add simple nutrition using walnuts!

As I said in my other post about adding simple nutrition to any dish (see here), I love the ability to add simple and subtle superfoods to my snacks and meals. This is also handy when feeding kids. They can sometimes be … how shall we say … averse to things that are good for them.

As a subtle last touch, I love to add walnuts to many of our dishes. And here’s why:

They’re rich in antioxidants (higher than any other nut! See here and here).
They’re also the highest nut in omega-3s (one serving is enough for your daily intake! See here).
They contain several inflammation-reducing compounds and nutrients, including magnesium and the amino acid arginine. This is huge for disease prevention!
All these nutritional benefits contribute to lowered risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. They promote healthy aging (see here), good brain function (here), and male reproductive health (here and here).
Also: they’re calorie-dense! They satisfy you and fill you up. Some scientists even speculate that they’re satisfying enough to your body that they help you resist unhealthy eating habits (see here).

Phew! See why healthy eating is so important? Super foods are chocked full of all the things your body relies on to protect itself, develop efficiently, and age with grace.

You can add walnuts to pretty much anything: stir fry dishes, curries, and salads! But here are the two things I love to add them to most:

Porridge

My personal favorite is a millet breakfast porridge (find the recipe and PDF printable here). Millet is a little tough to find, but I’ve been able to find it at one branch of my local grocery store. Bob’s Red Mill is also a good source (here) or look at your local health foods store. If you don’t care to search for millet, feel free to use any other porridge recipe that suits you or just go for old fashioned oats.

I prepare this millet from start to finish and then sprinkle hemp seeds and walnuts (chopped up using this) and stir them in. My kids are none the wiser and get all the nutritional benefits listed above.

Homemade bread

Carbs are a great way to get a kid to eat, amiright? I make a wheat walnut bread that also includes sesame, sunflower, and poppy seeds and it’s delicious! All three of my kids are what we call “carb fiends.” They become little gremlins ready to attack for a morsel of bread. They love it! Find the printable for this homemade bread here. Chopped up walnuts are probably necessary here, too (instead of whole). 😉 And don’t let making bread at home intimidate you, it’s super easy to do and incorporate into your routine once you get used to it.

So, there you have it! Walnuts for the win! Add them to your diet and sneak them into your kids’ food!

How does Marabou support women?

Start a Marabou Gift Registry!

With a Marabou registry you can sing up for any service which will benefit you or someone you know during the postpartum recovery period.

Postpartum doulas for a first time mom

House cleanings for moms of multiples

Childcare for moms with older children!

Once your registry is created, add it to any other registry or post it to your Facebook and ask friends and family contribute to your postpartum service, rather than buying you more stuff.

More and more moms find they have to figure out postpartum alone. Is it any wonder why PMDs are on the rise? Or women are embittered by the journey of motherhood? We can change that by giving the gift of peace.

December 4, 2018August 13, 2019

Why You Can’t Always Ask Your Best Friend

I know what many of you will say when you hear about crowdfunding a postpartum doula package for your soon-to-be-mom friend.

Unnecessary, right? Frivolous? Expensive?

Maybe you’re thinking: We’re here for our friend. We’ll give her all the support she needs. We did a meal train for our last friend and she loved it!

I get that. Best friends, co-workers, aunts, cousins, and grandmas-to-be are all crucially beneficial to a mother in the first month postpartum. We cannot and will not try to replace the real benefits of the community surrounding a mother. But, let me offer some ways in which postpartum doulas are different, why their training is special, and why a meal train can’t cover everything:

Your best friend might not do your laundry and your granny shouldn’t clean the toilet.

When people from your social circle come to see you postpartum, they are often coming to meet the baby and see how you’re doing. Maybe they’ll bring a meal. But will they clean it up after? Maybe the grandma will hold the baby while you shower, but are you going to ask her to clean the toilet?

Some of us have people who will throw in that load of laundry or tidy up the house without being asked to. But often, even a best friend doesn’t want to mess with your dirty laundry nor do you want them to. It just makes all parties uncomfortable.

On the other hand, this is what doulas do – they take care of household business! Most of them have seen it all and take initiative, so mom doesn’t have to worry or even ask for things to be done. It’s what they’re there to do. And it’s a professional relationship, so even nitty gritty tasks get done.

There are things family and friends don’t know and won’t catch.

Nobody knows you better than those who live with you day in and day out – your spouse, mother, and best friends. But even women with healthy relationships can struggle with perinatal mood disorders, which range from baby blues to the more serious Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Anxiety. Often, mothers who struggle with this don’t get the help they need because loved ones who know her best may still miss the signs or have trouble pinpointing what’s really going on.

Hormones course through a woman after they give birth like coffee beans through a civet. And every woman’s experience is unique – your mother or best friend may have struggled differently than you and may not be able to empathize with your unique birth and postpartum experiences.

Doulas are said to be “experts in normal.” They can assure you that your thoughts and feelings are not insane. They help moms process their birth experiences and transition into motherhood and their growing families. Even more importantly, doulas know how to recognize Postpartum Depression (PPD), Postpartum Anxiety (PPA), and distinguish them from a case of the baby blues that needs a simpler emotional outlet. But if you need extra help, they provide that too, whether personally or by referral.

In addition, the knowledge doulas possess goes beyond ushering positive emotional processing. They bring their training and experience in lactation, baby quirks, and postpartum nutrition. This is a different realm than what your family and friends provide for you.

Best friends and family members have a different role.

Doulas know how to tune into a mom and connect with her on a deep emotional level. However, that connection cannot replace the long-term, day-in-and-day-out emotional care and support that family and friends bring! When there’s a doula taking care of the behind-the-scenes work of the household, the people in a new mom’s life are free to enjoy the change with her. Bringing a new baby into the world is a time of celebration! Friends and family ought to be able to share in that joy! I don’t know if there’s any research on this yet, but I believe that this idea – people coming together just to say, Congratulations! We are so excited for you! – helps mom make that transition. It helps her overcome funky emotions and the difficult newness of motherhood. It helps her realize that the transition into motherhood – though stressful – is a good and exciting time. It helps her see herself and her family as others see her – worthy of enthusiasm and support! As Heng Ou suggests in The First 40 Days, “Ritual and acknowledgement of the mother has always helped to hold the social order in place and let mom know where she is in the large story of her life. More than a few sociologists have observed that formally acknowledging motherhood as a source of pride and power helps a woman to decrease the fear of birth and stress or even depression afterward.” (Ou, 36)

I think if more people enjoyed transitions with new mothers – purely and simply – PPD would be less and mothers would feel more peace.

So that, my friends, is why doulas are not frivolous. They may not be necessary for plain old survival. But, they sure do help a mother get what she deserves – a rejuvenating, peaceful start with her baby.

See our other posts in this series on the why and how of our business:

How does Marabou support women?

Start a Marabou Gift Registry!

With a Marabou registry you can sing up for any service which will benefit you or someone you know during the postpartum recovery period.

Postpartum doulas for a first time mom

House cleanings for moms of multiples

Childcare for moms with older children!

Once your registry is created, add it to any other registry or post it to your Facebook and ask friends and family contribute to your postpartum service, rather than buying you more stuff.

More and more moms find they have to figure out postpartum alone. Is it any wonder why PMDs are on the rise? Or women are embittered by the journey of motherhood? We can change that by giving the gift of peace.