These days, you may find yourself using your coffee grinder less often than you did before pregnancy. Instead of letting the grinder gather dust, why not use it for some less-traditional purposes? Besides using a coffee grinder for morning coffee preparation, you can use a coffee grinder to…
- …grind lavender flowers for a relaxing scent (or taste!)
Lavender has been shown to reduce stress and make people feel more calm, and it also functions as a helpful sleep aid. You can use a coffee grinder to grind lavender into a finer powder to use in recipes like lavender tea cookies, cucumber-lavender-mint infused water, and chicken with herbs de provence. You can also make sachets with dried lavender to keep around the house, or make lavender water to put in spray bottles to spray onto cloth.
It’s rare, but lavender can have potential side effects, so you’ll want to check with your healthcare provider before you start putting lavender in your recipes. - …make green powder from dehydrated greens
Here’s a really easy way to get a few quick servings of vegetables. First, dry out some kale, beet greens, and lettuce in a dehydrator, or put them in the oven for 4-6 hours until they’re completely dried. Fill the coffee grinder with the brittle leaves and pulverize them into a powder. You can add this powder to sauces, smoothies, soups, and lots of other recipes for an easy nutrition boost. - …chop or grind nuts and flax seeds
Your coffee grinder can also serve as a tiny alternative flour mill! Flax seeds offer healthy fats and fiber, as well as important vitamins and minerals. You can grind them into a flour in your coffee grinder and use them as a low-carb alternative to regular flour; you can also add them into recipes or use them as an egg replacement (1 tablespoon flaxseed meal to 3 tablespoons water).
You can grind nuts like walnuts, cashews, and pecans in a coffee grinder too. Make sure to continuously check the grinder for any pieces of nuts that might have gotten stuck in the blades, and stop before the nuts get too ground up. - …grind peppercorns for flavoring
If you’re watching your salt intake, you might be interested in using pepper as an alternative for enhancing food flavor. Using a coffee grinder to grind peppercorn will give you a much finer result than an actual peppercorn grinder – although you’ll want to make sure that you rinse out the grinder before using coffee beans again. - …grind coffee grounds for face scrub
Okay, so this one still involves coffee grounds, but did you know that coffee grounds serve as an excellent exfoliator? You can make an all-natural exfoliating mixture by combining together one teaspoon of very finely ground coffee, one teaspoon lemon juice, one teaspoon salt, and one teaspoon honey. Scrub it on your face, let it sit for a few minutes, and then rinse it off with unscented soap. Your face will be glowing and you’ll get a refreshing whiff of coffee in the process!
When your normal rituals have to get adjusted for pregnancy, it’s worth getting creative with various tools in your kitchen. At best, trying new things with a coffee grinder can make certain tasks a little easier. And at the very least, it’ll temporarily keep your mind off caffeine cravings that arise from time to time!
Sources
- “Ch. 17: Nutrition During Pregnancy.” ACOG. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Apr 2015. Web.
- McKel Hill, RD. “Citrus Coffee Body Scrub.” NutritionStripped. Nutrition Stripped LLC., Jun 19 2014. Web.
- Catherine Winter. “Flour Power DIY: use a coffee grinder to make gluten-free flours at home.” Inhabitat. Inhabitat.com, Mar 2015. Web.
- Micah Dorfner. “Essential Oils and Pregnancy.” NewsNetwork.MayoClinic. Mayo Clinic, Jun 2016. Web.
