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... :)

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!

Today's Menu

First, an update on yesterday's menu.  I already mentioned how they loved the pumpkin coconut flour waffles.  I loved the garlic-spinach artichoke dip, but my hubby thought it was so-so.  I was a bit nervous about dinner- it had lots of new foods to try. 

Lesson learned today:  I need to get as much food prep done during the day that I can, so that it is ready to throw together at dinner time.  It was a bit stressful trying to get it all done.  The biggest success:  the deviled eggs.  They've always loved these, and could eat five or more a piece if I let them!  Semi-success: The roasted pepper soup.  Not-so-much:  The baked stuffed eggplant didn't go over so well, but I will definitely try it again when I have more time.  I rushed through a few of the steps, and I don't think it was as good as it could have been.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast:
Beef Sausage (It has lots of onion.  I was supposed to chop finely, but I was in a hurry & it was a big onion.  This is definitely an example of where a food processor would come in very handy.  You also add lots of spices like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cumin, coriander, sage, etc., which made me a little nervous.  Everyone really like them, but Jimmy said they tasted like little hamburgers with lots of onions.  My kids were lovin' it- hamburgers for breakfast!)
Greek Yogurt (plain, sweetened w/stevia) & fruit

Lunch:
A yummy BIG salad, w/avocado & a variety of veggies

Dinner:
Chicken & Bean Tacos (I'm supposed to soak my own beans for this, but I've got lots of canned food storage beans, and I'm just going to use them.  Normally you're supposed to use LETTUCE LEAVES for the taco shells!  I'm going to do that for Jimmy and me, but I'll use up some of the corn shells I have saved up for the kids).

Snacks/Sweets
Green Smoothie with Coconut Milk (has spinach, pineapple, bananas, and coconut milk)

Homemade Larabar Recipe Review 2

Yesterday's snack was supposed to be trail mix that had banana chips in it, but my bananas were still dehydrating & needed more time.  So I decided to try another recipe in my Healthy Snacks to Go e-book. 

I loved the first recipe I tried a week or so ago (see post HERE), which was a basic larabar, but my husband thought they were way too chocolaty.  This time I decided to make one without the cocoa powder, the "Coco-shew" bars.  The recipe is so basic, and sounded really good to me because I like cashews. 

Coco-shew Bars Grind: 1/3 c. cashews
Add: ½ c. raisins, ¼ c. coconut
Stream in: ½ tsp. vanilla

The author recommends making these bars in a food processor, but I don't have one so I used my Vitamix.  It worked fine, but it was hard to get down into the bottom of the blender picture & scrape out the sticky mixture around the blades.

Verdict:

Not nearly as good as the basic bars that I made last time.  They turned out WAY too sticky, so I kept adding more & more cashews to try and make them dryer.  I couldn't even really form them into bars or balls well.  The taste was alright- nothing to shout about.  The even more frustrating part?  I couldn't even get some of my family to try them. 

Lesson learned:  I need to remember that as I try these new foods some of my family will hesitant to try them, but I need to keep trying.  Maybe sometimes they'll be pleasantly surprised.

I give these bars 2.5 stars out of 5.
** I just had to update this.  I had put some of the leftover in a bag & put it in the fridge and just ate a little, and it is LOTS better!  The fact that it's not mushy... it's more solid, and the flavors had blended more or something.  It would raise my rating to a 3.5 stars out of 5 if refrigerated.

Recipe Review: Powerbars (Reverse engineered Larabars)

Last week I bought an ebook from Kitchen Stewardship.com called Healthy Snacks to Go.  I'd been looking for some good whole food snacks that I could have my personal chef make for my family when she comes next time, and this seemed like it would be a great book.

It was only $6.95, so I bought it.  It has 21 recipes of things that are fairly easy to make, and good to have on hand.  I've quit buying junk food, and I want to have healthy snacks on hand for my family.  If they enjoy them, even better.  I want to show them that eating healthy isn't torture, it can be great, and worth the trade off.

On Saturday I bought the ingredients for Power Bars (Reverse engineered Larabars).  [I have no idea what "reverse engineered Larabars" means in the title.  If any of you know, let me know.]   I made them that afternoon, and they were a HUGE hit with me & the kids!  Jimmy, not so much (he doesn't like that dark chocolate taste).

Here are the instructions & ingredients:

In food processor, grind & add together: (I don't have a food processor, but it's now on my wish list.  I used my Vitamix, and it worked just fine.  They don't recommend doubling the recipe if using a blender, but I did with no problem).
1/8 c. walnuts
1/4 c. almonds
Add
1/2 c. dates
1/8 c. raisins
Stream in
1 Tbs coconut (I used flakes)
4 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 Tbs coconut oil
+ pinch of instant coffee (We don't drink coffee so we left this out... It was fine!)
optional:  1/2 tsp mint extract (I didn't have any, but sounds really good!)
Form the final product.  You can form them into bars, or balls.  I made them into smaller bite-sized balls.

I give this recipe 5 out of 5 stars!  They were SO good.  I didn't tell my picky eaters that they were eating blended dates & raisins.  They tasted the chocolate, and knew that they were eating a yummy treat.  My 12-year old thought they weren't sweet enough, but she did go back for seconds (she knew they were made out of dates & was more hesitant).  Oh, and by the way- I'm not supposed to eat most of the things in these power bars, but just HAD to try them.  I'm starting to do that a little more here & there.

I've ordered some bulk nuts from Azure Standard, and when my order comes the next type of bars I'll try is Coco-shew bars.  They're made with cashews, coconut, raisins, and a little vanilla.  I think Jimmy will like something like that. 

Have you tried Larabars before?  What's your favorite flavor?

Chocolate. Really?

Well, my suspicions were confirmed today.  I decided to give dark chocolate another try as a little guilty pleasure, but I suspected that I am allergic to it.  Well, I think it's been 3-4 weeks since I last had chocolate, and tonight, after having a few small squares of 85% cocoa chocolate I have an itchy throat. 

When I first started this diet the thought of cutting out chocolate kind of freaked me out, but now I just like... Hummmph.  Too bad.  (but not too stressed about it).  What I'm finding is that I can totally find other healthy options that totally satisfy me.

So now my list of allergies are:  coconut oil, chocolate, hazelnut, gluten, pasteurized dairy (raw seems to be okay).  I have my follow-up appointment with my naturopathic doctor in about a month, and I can't wait to see how my blood work results have changed. 

Today's Juice: the great eliminator

I still have shivers from today's juice, but it wasn't that bad.  I am stuffed full, too.  This recipe made 3 cups, and I drank it all.  Next time I'll have to share.

Here's the recipe:

the great eliminator
*What does that mean?  Eliminator of toxins?  Or that I'll have to use the bathroom a lot today?  Thankfully I'm mostly at home today just in case.  UPDATE:  It's the 2nd one, but just one good clean out. :) Thought you'd like to know.

makes 2 to 3 cups

1 medium or large beet
1 cucumber
1/2 to 1 head romaine lettuce
10 medium carrots
1 inch fresh ginger (optional) *I left this out!  I know it's good for detoxing, but I just couldn't bring myself to add it.  I haven't recovered from that last juice I had with fresh garlic & ginger!

I give this juice 4 stars out of 5.

Rough morning

I woke up hungry today.  I think it is because I didn't have any protein with my dinner last night.  Anyway, I made my kids breakfast first (pancakes), and that smelled really good.  I wasn't really tempted to eat any, but I was hungry. 

I got them fed, then I made myself two eggs, using our farm fresh eggs today.  Once I ate, I still felt really hungry, and even worse, I felt that yucky coating all over my mouth again.  So yucky.  So then I started trying to figure out what I was going to eat, and then I kind of panicked.  I opened the fridge & looked at all of the vegetables, and I thought "I'm going to starve!"  Nothing looked good.  I felt horrible!

I ended up getting some chicken breast out of the freezer, thawing it, and then cooking it with some Montreal Steak Seasoning.  Once I had that in my system I was okay.  The rest of the day has been fine, too.

I went to Real Foods and stocked up on some foods I can eat.  I got some sprouted pumpkin seeds, and got some little snack bites that have sesame, flax, and pumpkin seeds, and are perfect for what I need.  I'm definitely going to have to find some recipes that can make this more economical, becaue $5+ for a little bag of snack bites isn't going to cut it.  I'll definitely have to budget more for the food in the future.  I also got some raw milk.  Some of the things that I have read say no to milk, but my dr. said yes to raw milk.  So for my sanity, I'm going for it.  I had some tonight, and so far so good.  Oh- and I forgot to mention that I bought some Redmond Clay there, too.   I mixed 1 tsp in water & drank it tonight.  Didn't taste great, could be worse.  It's bentonite clay, and it's supposed to have some great healing properties.