Hot Tip Friday #2
savory granola, a day of frivolous things, salt for babies
Hello and welcome to another Hot Tip Friday, and also to my Substack debut1! Gonna make it shorter and saltier this week.
Hot Tip #1: savory granola on salads
I’m in a breakfast rut. As such I finally made a recipe I’ve had bookmarked for years - the “Decidedly Not-Sweet Granola” from Alison Roman’s first cookbook, Dining In. While I’ve been meaning to eat it with yogurt and cucumbers as she recommends, instead I’ve mostly been snacking on it. In addition to my breakfast rut, I’m also in a salad rut (womp womp)… and so I was overjoyed to discover that this savory granola REALLY amped up my otherwise-very-boring salad the other day. I think it would make a great topping on any dish that could use some flavorful crunch/croutons!
If you have Dining In, the recipe’s on page 143; I also found it on the internet here in case you want to try! Love the buckwheat in there.
Hot Tip #2: a day of frivolous things
I celebrated my birthday recently with a day to myself, meaning my husband watched our daughter all day (except when I popped in to feed her). As I was thinking ahead on how to make the day extra special, I came up with the idea to spend it doing joyful things that I now consider too “frivolous” to prioritize.
At the top of that list was to get lost in a creative art project, namely redoing this weaving that I had made at one of artist Meghan Shimek’s super fun workshops.
I didn’t get to my weaving until later in the day, so sadly only spent ~2 hours on it, but it was a glorious day comprised of the following:
a luxurious 1.5 hours of journaling / reflecting on my past year
another hour or two playing with outfits in my closet to get ready for a wedding I’m attending in a few weeks (and also making videos to send to my mom/friends with outfit options)
a multi-activity workout outdoors: biked to the park, did my fav 20-min abs in the grass, did a “thinking hike” in the woods, biked home
took my weaving down while jamming out to music
went on a girls date to dinner at a new place with one of my besties, and I biked there (my first bike-to-get-somewhere ride since moving here!)
It was SUCH a refreshing day! And definitely inspired me to make more time for the “frivolous” things in life. The reactions from my friends when I told them how I was spending my birthday were all so enthusiastic, that I thought I’d share this here too in case it inspires you to schedule more “frivolous” days with yourself!
Hot Tip #3: salt for babies
When I started feeding my daughter solid food, I had heard and read a few cautionary articles that made it seem dangerous to feed salt to babies. I was skeptical and wanted deeper answers on this, as it’s hard enough to feed babies, without having to worry about keeping salt out of the food too! After some googling, I found this very in-depth article by a real-food-focused nutritionist that convinced me not to worry about it!
“Don’t Add Salt to Baby Food: The Surprisingly Weak Evidence for Infant Sodium Requirements”
Highly recommend reading if you are getting ready to start solids or are in the process!
The TLDR is that as long as you’re mostly cooking food at home (re: not feeding baby processed food), there’s not good evidence to worry much about salt for babies. I was most fascinated by the way they determined the “recommended amount” of salt for infants, and I also loved how the author looked into whether there are actually high numbers of cases of infants being treated for high levels of sodium (answer: nope).
That’s all for today! See you next week.
Love,
Jess
If you’re not already familiar with Substack, it’s a new-ish platform for writers. AKA it’s where all the cool writers WRITE! Highly recommend the app for your phone - it’s my new fav app that I actually feel good about using. You can also read in your email inbox as usual. I’m sure I’ll be slowly updating/editing the look & feel, and I’m still figuring out how to use this site, so thanks for your patience and apologies for any kinks as I make this #techtransition.