Finally! A YUMMY grain-free pancake!

Up to this point the only grain-free pancake I've been using is a coconut pancake, that is mostly eggs with a little bit of coconut flour mixed in.  They're not really that good.  They're flat, and they taste a bit like sandpaper.  I've tried adding a little milk & some almond flour, but not much improvement.  I've just put up with them, because I've figured they're better than no pancakes.

This morning I decided to try a recipe I found on the plantoeat.com blog:  Moist and Cakey Almond Flour Pancakes.    They based the recipe on one they found on elanaspantry.com:  Pancakes Revisited.  I mostly followed the ingredients on the first recipe, but it is helpful to look at both and see the differences.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups almond meal
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Butter or coconut oil for frying

Directions

1. In medium bowl mix dry ingredients. In a separate, small bowl mix wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Set batter aside to set up. (*in the elana's pantry recipe they recommend 15-20 minutes!)
2. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-low heat until hot. Once heated up add 2 tablespoons or so of batter to the pan to make each pancake. The pancakes should be no wider than 2 inches or they will not hold together well. The batter is fairly thick so you can spread it out a bit to thin out the pancakes.
3. Cook until bubbles start to form in the pancakes and underside has browned. Flip and repeat. Serve with butter, syrup, jam, or other favorite topping.

The pancakes were AWESOME.  So good!  Definitely a keeper.  Today I made regular wheat/white pancakes for my kids, but I'm excited to try this new recipe on them next week.  I think they'll really like it.

2/20/12 UPDATE:  I made the pancakes today for my kids, and YEA!  They were a hit!  I used coconut oil instead of butter because I was out, and I had a harder time flipping them than I did with the first ones I made.  I had to wait longer for them to cook so they were firm enough to flip, but then by that time they were almost black on the one side.  They still tasted good, but they didn't look so great.

Where's the Beef?

Today I'm looking for beef bones.  Ones to make broth with.  Grass fed beef.  Mmm..hmmm...  Expensive!

I'm looking at prices to see if this is even feasible with my family.  I know the argument that investing now in your health will prevent high costs later, but that same argument can be used for a lot of things.  Buy good quality now so you won't have to buy it again for 10 years instead of 1-2 years for cheap. 

The fact of the matter is, money is money.  If it's not there, it's not there.  I don't want to go into debt to live a healthy life.  So now, the research.  I really want to make this work. 

Know of any inexpensive pastured beef/chicken/pork, including bones?  Let me know.   I'll be searching today.

These Burgers are Alive!

Tonight I made the strangest meal that I have ever made- Sprouted Lentil Burgers.

MMMMMMmmmmm.  Sounds delish.... (at least I kept trying to convince my family!)

First of all, the lentils had sprouted A LOT.  I had no idea what to expect, but I'm not sure if I sprouted the lentils right.  I think so.  The first night I covered the lentils with water.  A few hours later before bed I checked on them and added another inch of water, because the lentils had already expanded more than I expected & I thought that overnight they might not all be covered.

Then it said to drain the lentils "up-side-down", which I'm assuming meant to put in the colander & sit throughout the day as they drained?  And I rinsed the lentils both morning & night for about 3 days.  The musty smell of the sprouts kind of made me nervous as I was preparing the burgers, because it was pretty funky.  I couldn't imagine how these would taste good at all.

The first step was to put a couple cups of the lentils into the blender along with 1/2 cup coconut oil, two inches of peeled ginger, 2 tsp of salt, and I was supposed to put in some horseradish, but all I had was Woeber's Horseradish Sauce, which COMPLETELY goes against everything pure I'm trying to eat right now.  Here are the ingredients:  Soybean Oil (!), Water, Corn Syrup (!), Vinegar, Egg Yolks, Modified Corn Starch (!), Horseradish, Salt, Artificial Flavoring (!), Potassium Sorbate (!), Xanthan Gum (!), Calcium Disodium EDTA (!).  I did put about a tsp, because I thought I better balance out all that ginger.  I'm still waiting to see if I have some sort of reaction to something in it.

I pureed the ingredients, then I was supposed to throw 6 cups of the sprouted beans in the food processor with the puree & coarsely chop them up so there was some texture for the burgers.  I don't have a food processor, so I hand chopped them.

That worked just fine.

Next step was to mix the puree and the chopped lentils together.  It was very moist, and I wasn't sure if it would even hold together while I was cooking it.

I used my hands, because I really needed to shape & mush together.  It said to use a skillet, but I just used my electric griddle at about 300 degrees.

Even at this point I wasn't so sure about these burgers.  I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to flip them with them falling apart.  Surprisingly, they were fine.

I loved that they even browned, which looked more appealing. 

So, the verdict?  They tasted about 50 times better than I thought they would.  It turns out our family dinner time was a split up, with Jimmy eating on the go.  He ate one and was really good about it.  He said "Tastes.... healthy".  Then he said it had an Asian flare to it, and on his way out he commented on the strong aftertaste.

He took Jess & Bek, and KJ and Grace are gone.  So it was Shiloh and me.  Her reaction?

I give this recipe 3 out of 5 stars, and thought it wasn't too bad.  It's definitely something that would have to grow on my family, and is a great recipe for Halloween.  My kids think it is creepy.

Busy Day! Feels good.

Today has been busy & productive.  It's fall break here, so the kids are out of school today & tomorrow, & Jimmy doesn't have to work (working for the schools has its perks!).  I was actually able to SLEEP IN until 7:30am, which is almost unheard of for me.  My body has an internal clock that is set between 5-6am, and it rarely budges, so this was a nice treat.

I did a lot in the kitchen today.  I roasted/cooked four chickens for most of the day, got all of the meat off, and will make chicken broth with the carcasses tomorrow.  I bought the chickens (organic, all natural) from Costco- two for around $22.  That is a lot compared to what I normally spend on chicken, but I decided it was worth it.  I've seen all natural chickens for $22 a piece, so I decided it was the middle ground... a good compromise.

I got a lot of meat out of them, too.  If I stretch it out a bit it is enough for seven meals, plus all of the chicken stock I'm making tomorrow.

I was able to fit one chicken in my smaller crock pot, two in my larger crock pot, and then I roasted one.  The instructions for roasting said to put it in the oven at 350 for one hour.  It didn't say whether or not to cover it, so I did, thinking that it might dry out uncovered.  I took it out at one hour, and it didn't seem quite done.  I put it back in for 30 more minutes, and even then parts of the leg/thigh didn't seem done.  So I think I should have cooked it another 15 minutes at least.  The chickens in the crock pots cooked for 8 hours, and were definitely done.  Hopefully not too done- but they seemed all right. 

I decided to try making yogurt again, with a few changes from the first time.  Everything went much better, except I let it come to a boil again, dang it!  It happened a lot quicker this time.  In the instructions it said to stir it about every 10 minutes, so I had stirred it once after 10, I set the timer, and thought I had time to run down & throw in a load of laundry and make it back in time to stir again.  I made it back in less than 10 minutes, but it was already boiling.

I googled it, and found out that everything is fine if it reaches the boiling point, but the yogurt might not be as smooth.  That's a relief.  I can handle that, as long as everything else is working fine.

I had plenty of time to let it cool down (plan on hours!).  After more research I've discovered that you can cool it down by placing the pan in cool water, too. (DUH, Jan!)  Once it was about 90 degrees I poured it into the jars, added a tablespoon of Greek yogurt to each one and stirred them up.

I decided to use the cooler again, but this time I used a hot water bottle, and then covered it with a towel.

This should work a lot better than the cooler all by itself (duh, Jan! It's like I'm in the kindergarten of natural living).  I was going to use a heating pad, but we don't have one & I was going to have to buy one.  Everyone that I found had a 2-hr automatic shut-off, which wouldn't work.  The hot water bottle should be just fine.

I couldn't get the lid to stay down tight.  Like my red-neck solution?

I started my first sprouting project a few days ago.  Here's an update:

SWEET!  Kind of creepy, but sweet!  I took this picture in the morning, and now the sprouts are 2-3 times longer!  I can't even remember what's coming up in my meal plan that I'm making with this.  Can't wait to try it, whatever it is.  (Now if I can get my family to eat it!)

And last, but not least, I made Cowboy Cookies.  I was supposed to make these last week, but didn't get around to it. 

I know they're not much to look at, but they are GOOD.  I used a recipe from my October grainless meal plan that I ordered from http://www.homehealthhappy.com/. 

They have almond flour (I ground up my own almonds), coconut flour, salt, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, honey, pecans (I used walnuts instead), shredded coconut (I used chipped coconut), and raisins or other dried fruit (I left this out).

My family LOVED them.  Jimmy couldn't believe that they had no processed sugar, only honey.  He still can't get over the fact that butter is okay.  Yesterday he asked if he could buy some "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter" to put on his popcorn, and I said NOOOOO!  If only I could get him to read the book... :)

Intro to GAPS diet- here I come!

First, I need to say that my family had CHILI tonight! I was a bit nervous about it, but all went well (no, I didn't tell them what was in it.  More about that another time).

I ordered the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome:  Natural treatment for Dyspraxia, autism, A.D.D., Dyslexia, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride MD, MMedSci(neuroloty), MMedSci (nutrition), and it came last week.  I've spent every spare minute reading it! 

It's obvious to me that I need to get down to the nitty gritty and do the Intro to GAPS diet.  It is even stricter that what I've been doing so far, and Jimmy thinks I'm crazy.  But the more I study, the more convinced I am that this is what I need to do.  The Intro to GAPS diet is designed to heal and seal the gut lining quickly.  It's for those who have serious digestive symptoms:  reflux, diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating, severe constipation, etc.  I don't have any of those, but then the author also says that those with food allergies should do it, too.

You can move through the program as fast or slow as the symptoms will permit.  I think that I'll be able to move quickly, and if not, then that will show me that I really needed the healing!  There are six stages, and you add a little more and more at each stage.

In stage 1 you start off having homemade meat or fish stock, homemade soup with the meat stock & veggies, and probiotic foods like fermented veggies, whey, sour cream, yogurt, and kefir.

In stage 2 you have the above and add raw organic egg yolks to the broth, plus stews and casseroles made with meats and vegetables (no spices, just salt), and GHEE.  What is ghee, you might ask?  (I had never even heard of this a month ago!)  It's a type of clarified butter.  What is clarified butter, you might ask?  (nope- I hadn't heard of it!).  Clarified butter is milk fat rendered from butter to separate the milk solids and water from the butterfat.  Clear as mud?  Yeah, to me, too.

Stage 3- Previous foods plus add ripe avocado, nut butter/egg/winter squash pancake, scrambled eggs, sauerkraut & fermented veggies.

Stage 4- Previous foods plus roasted and grilled meats, cold-pressed olive oil, fresh pressed juices, starting with carrot juice, and  nut flour bread.

Stage 5- Previous foods plus cooked apples, honey, raw vegetables

Stage 6 Previous foods, plus raw fruit, baked sweet things (using dried fruit as a sweetener)

Now that I've eaten the way I have for two and a half months now, the thought of doing this diet doesn't overwhelm me as much.  I'm 2/3rds of the way there, anyway.  My family IS NOT going to do it with me.  I know that from just doing this week and a half trying to do some of the regular GAPS diet with them.  I'll still cross my fingers that down the road they'll have a change of heart.  I still plan on having them eat ultra healthy, though.  Just not quite as strict as GAPS is.

Of course I'm still in the planning phase of the GAPS Intro diet, so I won't start it immediately.  But, the sooner the better to stay away from the holidays.

Hits and Misses of the Week

Last week there were some big hits & misses with the new foods we're trying on the GAPS diet.  These recipes were taken from the October grain-free meal plan from http://www.healthhomehappy.com/.

The Hits:

Garlic-Spinach Artichoke Dip-  I LOVED this.  So good with veggies.

Banana Chips- My first experience with the food dehydrator, and they turned out so yummy! 

My kids LOVE them, and it is so great to see them snacking on such a healthy treat.  When I do bananas again I'm going to soak them in lemon juice.  I like the flavor better, and my kids like them either way.

Beef Jerky- I did this kind of last minute, not expecting much.  I took some beef sirloin, cut it into small strips, sprinkled on Montreal Steak Seasoning, and then dehydrated it over night.  When I looked at it in the morning I was shocked because it looked like I had dried it too long (sorry... no pic!).  But when I tasted it, it was EXCELLENT!  My family went nuts over it- especially my 14-yr old son.  My kids said it was the best jerky they had ever had, which says a lot, because they love jerky.

Green Smoothie with Coconut Milk- Soooooooo good!  My 12-yr old dd loves smoothies, and she was in heaven.  She said she would even pay for this one at a smoothie bar.  It had spinach, pineapple (I used canned crushed pineapple instead of fresh because I need to use it up.  Shhhhhhh- don't tell!), frozen bananas, and  coconut milk. 


The Misses:

Coconut Flour Crepes.  These sounded really good to me, but were a big flop.  Aren't they pretty?  They did start to look a little nicer (a bit rounder, more even colored), but they didn't taste good.  They were pretty much like eating sawdust.  I made some honey cinnamon butter for the kids to put in the middle, but I tried one and it didn't help much.

Butternut Squash Pizza.  I should have taken a picture.  They actually looked pretty good, but they didn't taste good!  I just took a small butternut squash, peeled it, cut thin discs from the neck, baked them for 15 min, flipped them, added the toppings (tomato sauce, cheese), and baked another 15 min.  Bleh.  Tied for the worst failure.

Baked Stuffed Eggplant.  Again, no pic.  I'll try & get in the habit.  I mentioned these on one of my other posts HERE.  This didn't turn out so well, but I made it on a night that I didn't realize would be so rushed and I didn't give it the time it deserved.  We'll try this again.  You're supposed to cut it 1/2, bake it for 15 min, make a slit down the middle, stuff it with chopped onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, parsley, honey, and sausage.  Now looking back, I don't think I added the honey.  And I didn't have any parsley to add, and that might have made a difference.  Parsley has surprised me in the past with how good it can make food taste.

A few Interesting Recipes in the upcoming week:

Celeriac Hash Browns-  I had never even heard of celery roots, and when I found them in the store I was quite surprised.  They look gross, and Jimmy hates celery, so we'll see how this turns out.  I won't tell them what it is before hand!

Warm Lentil Salad- with sprouted lentils.  I have never sprouted anything on purpose before, so this will be new.  This recipe calls for fennel, which I HATE.  A vegetable that tastes like black licorice!!?  How cruel.  I might try it, but only one more time!

Homemade Sauerkraut- my parents made this when I was a kid.  I like the taste of sauerkraut, so this will be interesting!

Skillet Mousska!  (What?!)  This is a Greek dish made with eggplant, LAMB, and sauce.  I have NEVER cooked lamb before.  I ate some yummy lamb when I was growing up, though.  We had some sheep ranchers in our church congregation, and we would have awesome summer parties with deep fried lamb.  We'll see if this can compare to that...

Chili- This sounds normal, right?  Don't tell my family, but it's going to have chicken liver mixed in with the ground beef!  Wish me luck!

The New World of Dehydrators (to ME, anyway!)

On Monday I received a Facebook notice that bananas were on sale at one of our local groceries, for 19 cents a pound.  Finally!  A great deal on produce that would fit in my family's diet!  I arranged to borrow a couple of food dehydrators and then went & purchased a 40 lb box of bananas.

I've never owned a dehydrator, but I've had one on my wish list for a while now.  I figured this would be a good test to see if I liked it, and if it was worth buying it. 

I did a google search on-line on how to make banana chips, and the recipes were pretty straight forward.  I peeled them, sliced them pretty thin (hoping they would be end up crispy), soaked them in lemon juice (I used bottled rather than fresh because I've got a large bottle that I need to use up), and then put them on the trays.

It was nice to try two different kinds of dehydrators.  One of them was a Nesco American Harvest dehydrator.

I really like it.  It had six trays, and had a fan in the top.  The temperature was adjustable, too.  This dehydrator dried the food noticeably faster than the other one I used (which didn't have a fan).  Another thing I really like:  the price!  I looked this up on Amazon, and for $50-$60 I think this is a great deal.  I was thinking I would have to spend closer to $150-$200.   It has pretty good reviews, too.

The second dehydrator I tried is a 7-tray Ronco Food Dehydrator. 

This dehydrator doesn't have a fan, but has a heat element in the bottom part that radiates up through the trays to dry the food.  Because it doesn't have a fan, the drying takes longer.  The banana chips tasted the same from either machine, and the price was very comparable.  The model I used (pictured) is not currently available on Amazon, but a new model is, and it is about $49.  It doesn't have very good reviews, so I didn't even put a link for you.

The option that I didn't try was my oven.  I didn't want to tie up my oven for that all day, and it only goes down to 170 degrees, so I would still prefer to have a dehydrator.  Oh, and did I mention that you can make YOGURT in your dehydrator, too!?  Guess I know what I'll be hinting at for Christmas this year.

I had enough bananas to do a second round of banana chips.  The second time I didn't soak the bananas in lemon juice, because I wanted to see what the difference would be, and I wanted to see if they wouldn't stick to the trays as bad.  They actually look really good, and didn't turn darker like I thought they would.  The biggest negative, though, is that they taste more "banana-ey", which is a flavor I have a hard time with.  In fact, I've only started to even tolerate bananas in the last year. 

Next I'm going to make some homemade jerky, but then I better get these dehydrators returned!  I have nice friends :).

Game Plan this Week

I'm coming up with a new game plan each week.  Changing something here... tweaking something there... going back to Plan A a bit modified- you get the picture.  I'm not sure why I can't just find one idea and stick with it.  I'm taking bits of pieces of every one's advice & then adjusting according to my experience.  Part of the change is because I'm learning so much every day!  I wish that I had hours & hours on end to study & read about healthy, whole food living.  I read a bunch of sugar-free blogs this weekend- LOVED IT!  But now to take all that I'm reading and focus it in for this week.

Before I mention my plan, I need to say that I read about an elimination diet on http://www.nourishingmeals.com/  (HERE) that helps you figure out which foods you are allergic to.  If you've read my past posts you've seen how I can now really tell when a food hits me wrong & I am sensitive to it.  Everything that I read about the elimination diet rang true- You can get that in tune with your body to know when foods cause irritation. 

Before reading the article on this website I had been wondering why it is so bad to eat a food that might irritate you a little bit.  Why not just suck & up & deal with the scratchy throat or itchy skin, or bit of headache (etc.), but still enjoy the food.  Now I know that when you avoid the food, your body isn't causing that irritation, thus retains less water, and has less swelling.  I think I see that in my abdominal area- it's not so poofy, even though I'm not doing much ab work.

Last week I didn't lose any weight.  I've lost 18 pounds total, which is great, but I'm aiming for at least 10 more.  I bet some of you can guess why...  Mmmm hmmm.  My personal chef (read about it HERE).  I've found that having extra things in the freezer isn't so great for me.  If it's there, I want to eat it.  They were yummy & healthy, but I just didn't need to be eating them.  I usually wasn't hungry when I ate them.  I'm definitely an emotional eater.  So I'll still have her come, but we'll focus on healthy food for my family that is still off-limits for me.

Okay- back to business.  Here's my game plan for this week:

Breakfast

Daily:  Triple Leaf Detox herbal tea
One time:  2-3 free-range eggs with onion, tomato, spinach, raw goats milk cheese
Two times:  Creamy buckwheat hot cereal or Cream brown rice cereal with raw milk & a few drops of stevia *Mmmmm- yummy!  This has helped me with some variety in my diet- I missed my morning cereal!
Four times:  Fresh juice made in my juicer (natalia's class "green lemonade, life force energy power-ade, vegetable "chocolate milk", and the great eliminator)  *It's kind of surprising to me, but when I only do juice for breakfast, it is completely satisfying to me & I'm not hungry until lunch time. 

Lunch

Daily:  Huge salad with romaine lettuce.  Add ins:  Any of the following:  spinach, bell pepper, cucumber, cilantro, tomato (preferably locally grown, vine ripened!), red onion, cooked quinoa or brown rice, and a large avocado.  Juice from 1/2 lemon for dressing, plus salt & pepper.  *Love this salad!  I've tried switching it out for more variety, but I've found I miss it too much.  For now it's here to stay.  Notice I'm not adding in any proteins with my veggies.  Just starches with neutral veggies for this meal (avacado is considered a starch in this case).

Dinner

Here's where it gets a bit trickier.  At this point my dinner is usually different from my family's.  Not sustainable for the long run, but I'll get there!  Bit by bit.

Daily:  Small green salad with romaine & any add ins (other veggies)
Other Days:
Canned salmon (wild-caught)-  *Just out of the can (stirred up to crush the bones).  I'm completely content with that.
Turkey breast from Costco
Meat loaf (gluten & sugar-free)
3-4 egg quiche *Found a new recipe with a brown rice crust- can't wait to try it!
Chicken/veggie soup
Shredded beef on a brown rice wrap w/veggies
Homemade personal pizzas *shredded cauliflower/egg/goat's milk cheese crust with shredded raw goat's milk cheese on top