Egg And Potato Scramble

This time I'm sharing a simple and delicious  recipe from my mother-in-law. This is one of our favourites for long weekend brunches but also a saver as a quick lunch. It requires no special ingredients; it's all in your cupboard and it's open to add any other ingredients (onion, green onion, cheese...) you prefer.

Ingredients:

- 5 small potatoes - peeled and cubed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 eggs
- dash of milk
- 1 teaspoon dried mint
- 1 teaspoon chili flakes
- salt & pepper
- freshly chopped parsley

Preparation:

- In non stick pan cook potatoes on olive oil until soft.  Cover the pan to speed up the process but don't forget to mix them time to time.
- In a bowl mix eggs with dash of milk.
- Pour eggs over potatoes and cook until eggs are set.
- Season with salt, pepper, mint and chili flakes.
- Serve with chopped parsley and tomatoes (optional).

Enjoy!

The best feeding bottle for babies

Whether for breast milk or formula milk but finding the right feeding bottle for your baby may be confusing. The bottle which helps with colic, the bottle which helps avoiding nipple confusion, the bottle that your baby who is refusing bottle will take... Unfortunately we skip very important part while making our decision: the material of which bottle is made. 

Although almost all brands have glass bottles as an option unfortunately now the feeding bottle market is dominated by plastic (polypropylene) bottles. Most of them have the indication "BPA free" but it doesn't mean that  plastic is the best material to keep your baby's food in.

BPA (Bisphenol A) is synthetic compound which is used to make certain plastics.Plastic which includes BPA is  used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical and dental devices, CDs and DVDs, household electronics, eyeglass lenses, etc. The major exposure to BPA is diet, and it's especially likely to leach from plastics when washed with harsh detergents and exposed to heat. It's found that BPA's effects on human bodies varies from obesity to different types of cancers, reproductive  disorders, heart disease.  

BPA is one of many synthetic compounds found in plastic and one that's known to be harmful. But BPA free plastic is still leaching different types of chemicals in the food kept in plastic containers or lined with plastic.

Otherwise glass which once was the only material used for baby bottles  is natural material made of sand, limestone and soda ash used for thousands of years and it's the safest material to keep food inside. Here are the pros and cons of glass and plastic feeding bottles:

GLASS VS. PLASTIC

Glass Bottle Pros:

- Glass is all natural, non toxic material.
-  It keeps the food free of any chemicals.
- Glass has an almost zero rate of chemical interactions ensuring that the product inside a glass bottle keep their  aroma and flavour.
- Glass is durable, it's one-time investment and saves you money in the long run.
- Cooling milk in glass is much faster process.
- Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity.

Glass Bottle Cons:

- Breakable.
- It's heavier to carry around.


Plastic Bottle Pros:

- Unbreakable.
- Plastic bottle is lighter and easier to carry around. 

Plastic Bottle Cons:

- Plastic realise chemicals into the food stored in them (even the BPA free ones), especially when heated.
- Plastic is easily scratched therefore is more prone to contamination.
- You need to renew the plastic bottle regularly because of the contamination risk.
-  At the end it comes more expensive than glass because you have to renew it.
-  Plastic is recyclable but it loses its integrity and  is “downcycled” and turned into other types of products. 

Weight wise it's approximately 150 gr. difference between 240 ml (8 oz.) plastic and glass bottles. I think it's not a huge difference to put me off especially when you think how many pros glass have.

     1. Dr. Browns 240 ml plastic bottle: 99gr.

     2. NUK 240 ml. plastic bottle : 245 gr 

When it comes to fragility  you should just be careful when handling it. And you can get one of these silicone sleeves to be on the safe side. 

How to set your child's biological clock?

I've always heard stories about babies and toddlers who are not sleeping during the night and exhausted and desperate parents. During my pregnancy everyone was telling me to rest and sleep because it'll be a dream once the baby is born.

Now my son is three months old and he's sleeping through the night since he was six weeks old and I had to wake him up for feeds. All babies are different and they don't respond to the same things the same way but I believe that these methods helped me to set his sleeping habit so I wanted to share them:

- GOING OUTDOORS EVERYDAY: First  six weeks it is difficult to go outside everyday I agree but as soon as you have kind a routine and feel ready to go, just go. Even a fifteen minutes walk around counts. Fresh air and light helps him to distinguish day and night. Except very  extreme weather conditions like very strong wind we were outdoor everyday after fifth week and these days sometimes we're out twice a day.

                                                       
                                                                       Walk in the rain

- DAY NAPS IN BRIGHT  & NIGHT SLEEPS IN DARK ROOM: I never darken the room for his naps and this way avoid confusion. If your baby has difficulty to sleep in the bright room you can try to make him sleep in dark and then open the blinds. But for night it's opposite; I make the room completely dark.

- BEDTME ROUTINE: For us it's play time, bath, massage and feed. We're very lucky that Edin loves bath because even the quick soak  has an amazing effect. He's having a bath every night since he's 10 days old and we skipped this routine maybe just five times since then.


-  LIGHTS DIM & NO TALKING DURING THE NIGHT FEEDS: This rule helps to keep baby sleepy and makes it easier to fall asleep again.

Raspberry & Blueberry Cake

This is my mum's recipe usually made with cherries, sour cherries, peaches or apricots but in this season when berries are abundant I decided to try it with raspberries and blueberries and it turned out delicious. It's simple to make and delicious to serve with coffee or tea.

Ingriedients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar plus one one tablespoon sugar to sprinkle over fruits
• 150 gr melted and cooled butter or 1 cup olive/sunflower oil and extra butter to grease the pan
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups multi purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 200 gr raspberries
• 200 gr blueberries  
• Icing sugar to serve

-Or approximately  400 gr of cherries/sour cherries/peaches/apricots/blackberries...

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 180 C and grease the pan. I used 32x22 cm pan.
• Wash fruits and pit them if needed. Sprinkle them with tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon.
• Beat sugar and eggs, and gradually add butter, milk, vanilla extract, lemon zest and finally flour and baking powder. Beat all together until smooth. 
• Add fruits in the mixture and mix with spoon trying not to crush them.
• Pour mixture in greased pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until a cocktail stick pushed into the centre is clean when removed.
• Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

          Enjoy!