Simply Real

Mise en place

2011-10-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

Mise en place is French for "Everything in its place." It means that you do some of your food prep in advance, with everything in its place so that the actual cooking is less stressful. They do a version of this on cooking shows all the time. All the onions are diced, all the ingredients are pre-measured. That way, when they're ready to cook, everything is in its place and they just move through the recipe instead of watching them measure out each ingredient.

Mise en place is a great technique for home cooking too. It can be varied and used to suit your cooking style and the time available. I will use this week's menu at the Neilson house and demonstrate two different variations of mise en place.

Menu:

Beef Stew

Burritos

Fried Chicken and sweet potatoes

Zucchini and Quinoa Bake

Baked Potato Soup

Beef, Cheese and Noodle Bake

Quick meal prep: Let's say you have a little extra time on the weekend to do some meal prep, but don't have hours to do all your weeks cooking. I would look at all my recipes, and see what ingredients are needed. For beef stew, I would chop all the veggies (onions, carrots, and potatoes) and meat, and then store them in a baggie in the freezer. You could continue on with all your recipes, pre chopping and freezing or refrigerating veggies. I would also use my short meal prep to make the breads, tortillas, etc. for the week, as well as any grains that take a while to cook.

Longer meal prep: The way I've been doing this is a little more in depth on "cooking day", but takes almost all the work out of weeknights, which has been fabulous! (I watched the clock this week and was able to have dinner ready in 5-15 minutes each night.) In addition to my weekly menu, I also needed to make granola this week, and french bread since the kids asked for bruschetta to take in their school lunch. Here's my action list. This really just takes a little time looking at each recipe and seeing what needs to be done and what can be done ahead of time.

Beef Stew:
Thaw Beef
Cube beef, cut veggies, cook in crockpot
Freeze cooked stew

Burritos:
Soak pinto beans
Cook beans in crockpot
Make tortillas

Fried Chicken:
Thaw chicken
Fry chicken
Freeze in pan
Bake sweet potatoes

Zucchini and Quinoa Bake:
Thaw zucchini
Cook quinoa
Add eggs, cheese and seasonings, freeze in casserole dish

Baked Potato Soup:
Bake Potatoes
Mash and make soup
Refrigerate for later in week
Chop and Cook bacon
Dice Green onions

Beef, Cheese and Noodle Bake:
Cook Pasta
Brown ground beef

Other:
Make french bread
Make bruchsetta topping
Soak oats for granola
Mix and dehydrate granola
Wash and chop lettuce, store in baggie with paper towel

Looking over this menu, with most of these meals I was able to put most of the meal together and just reheat. That hasn't been the case with other recipes I've done, and really will just depend on what you're making that week. A few of these meals will just need to be reheated the night of. Others, like the burritos, take just a few minutes of cooking since everything's in its place.

The basic plan is to
1. Make a menu for the week
2. Make a step by step action plan of what needs to be done
3. Decide what you can/ have time to do ahead of time
4. Get to work!

I will also add that the original article I got this idea from had more basic ingredients stored in her fridge instead of actual meals. That way, she could just throw together caramelized onion jam (which is awesome, by the way- recipe coming soon), wheat berries and squash, and dinner was ready. That's sounds great in theory, but it's not how I cook. I don't just throw a bunch of things together and hope for the best. (Well, sometimes I do, but it doesn't always turn out great.) But if that works for you, try to think of staples that you could make ahead of time. Sauté some onions and mushrooms, make some rice or quinoa, whatever your staples are, and voila! dinner is ready in a snap.

Mise en Place: The benefits of once-a-week cooking

2011-10-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I like to cook, so I never really thought of it as a problem, but lately, between four kids, my yoga business, cleaning, shopping, and all those other regular life things, I've been feeling that something's gotta give!

I'd heard of once-a-month cooking before, but it didn't really appeal. There are very few meals I make that would freeze well, and go straight from freezer to dinner. When I read an article in Whole Living Magazine about mise en place, I realized THIS kind of preparing meals in advance could work for me. The article talks about a chef who does the bulk of her cooking on one day a week, and then is able to throw the meals together in about 10 minutes after she gets home from work.

In my next post, I'll detail specifically what this kind of meal planning looks like for me, but here I just want to tell you some of the benefits:

1. Freer Afternoons. This is number one for a reason. This is huge! I've had more time to help my kids with their homework, play, clean my house, read a book, work on lessons--all that stuff that I haven't had time for. It's amazing what a free hour or two in the afternoon does for me. It's gone from a stressful time, to a stress-free time. *Happy Sigh*

2. Fewer dishes. I was able to re-use a lot of the dishes that were out without throwing them in the dishwasher. The cutting board cut all the veggies for the week without needing to be washed in between, the measuring cups did all their work in one day. And because the food is all made, there are fewer dishes after dinner too.

3. Less last-minute scrambling for dinner. Am I the only one who has this problem? The afternoon gets busy, or you get home later than planned, and suddenly, you don't have time to make what you planned for dinner. I've found myself searching the cupboards for something--anything that comes together quickly-- and we usually end up with some culinary masterpiece like noodles and eggs.

4. All the breads rise at the same time. This week's menu included three different kinds of bread (french bread, crescent roll dough, and pizza dough). Normally, I would make each bread on the night we use it, but on Monday, I made them all. One rising time for 3 breads- amazing! I froze the ones we'll use later in the week so they will still taste fresh with a quick reheat in the oven.

5. My kitchen only looks like a bomb went off once a week instead of everyday. If you do a lot of cooking from scratch, you probably know what I mean. Keeping the kitchen clean is always a challenge, but only tearing it apart one day a week means its a lot cleaner on the other days.

In my next post, I'll detail the specifics of how to try this out in your own kitchen.

It's Pumpkin Season!

2011-10-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

Even though it's 95 degrees here in Southern California, it's fall. And even if we're just eating it from a can, it's time to dust off the pumpkin recipes and make it feel like fall! Here are two of my favorites, Pumpkin Muffins and Pumpkin Pancakes. They are perfect for a fall morning... even if it feels like summer.

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship

Ingredients:

3/4 cup honey                                    ½ t. cinnamon
2 eggs                                             ½ t. nutmeg
¼ t. baking powder                          1 2/3 c. whole wheat or sprouted flour
1 t. baking soda                                  ½ c. melted butter or coconut oil
¾ t. salt                                               1/4 c. cold water
½ t. cloves                                          1 c. pumpkin (about half a 15 oz can)
1 Tbs. molasses (opt.)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together. Put in greased loaf pan or muffin tin. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 2/3 cups wheat flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil or butter and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot with real maple syrup.

Classic Fettucine Alfredo Recipe

2011-07-05T20:55:00.001-07:00

This delicious recipe should be in every food lovers collection.

New Blog

2011-06-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

I've been asked by a lot of people (okay, maybe just two) if I'm ever going to start blogging again. And I've finally decided, the answer is yes!

But I'm ready for a new challenge and a new blog. I can be found here: http://somanythingstotalkabout.blogspot.com/ , writing about... well, life. I'm sure food and nutrition, the main focus of this blog, will creep in there too. So, I hope you'll come check it out and talk about life with me.

Chanelle

Roasted Corn and Poblano Pizza

2010-09-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

I can't take much credit for this recipe. I got it from Cooking Light years ago and just made a few changes- things like swapping out egg whites and using whole eggs, and using whole wheat pizza crust instead of white, packaged crust. The cilantro and sour cream topping really makes this dish, so don't leave those out. If you're afraid of hot, spicy foods, just make sure to remove all the seeds and skin-- that's where all the heat is. Then all you're left with is a mild chile flavor without it being too spicy.

Roasted Corn and Poblano Pizza

Ingredients

2 poblano chiles

Olive oil or butter for sauteing

2 cups corn kernels

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Pizza dough*

2 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

*You can buy premade whole wheat pizza dough at stores like Trader Joe's and Fresh and Easy, in the refrigerated section. I make my own so that I know exactly what is in it.

Preparation

Preheat broiler.
Place poblano chiles on a foil-lined baking sheet; broil 10 minutes or until blackened and charred, turning occasionally. Place in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 10 minutes. Peel and discard skins, seeds, and stems. Chop peppers.
Lower oven temperature to 425°.
In a large skillet, melt butter or olive oil over medium high heat. Add corn, green onions, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in milk; cook over medium heat 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Cool slightly. Place eggs, salt, and black pepper in a bowl; stir with a whisk. Stir in poblano peppers, corn mixture, and cheese.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unroll dough onto parchment paper; pat dough to form a 13 x 8-inch rectangle. Spread corn mixture over dough, leaving a 1-inch border. Fold 1 inch of dough over corn mixture. Bake at 425° for 12 minutes or until set. Serve with sour cream; sprinkle with cilantro.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Yoga for Weight Loss

2010-08-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Back in my cardio-loving days, I would have laughed at the title of this post. Because I thought that burning more calories was the answer for weight loss, I considered yoga to be not the best use of my time.

Yoga helps reduce stress. Stress in the body releases cortisol, a hormone known for its link to weight gain. Deep breathing and meditation, both important parts of a yoga workout, reduce stress. This is another way of working with your body.
Contrast that with the person who is busy busy busy all day long, runs into the gym, continues running or doing some other form of cardio exercise, and then hurries on with their day. In that case, exercise continues to elevate the level of stress carried by the body. You send your body a message to burn calories and to produce cortisol, thus storing fat (particularly around the midsection)- a mixed message. (Note that in all three forms of exercise we've talked about, there are periods of rest, not a constant low grade stress on the body.)
Yoga helps you slow down your body and your mind.

Yoga strengthens your muscles. You get stronger when you hold poses for a long time. Though it works in a different (gentler) way than weight lifting, your body weight acts as resistance to build and tone muscles. And the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn, even at rest.

Yoga helps you feel good. With your muscles stretched and toned, of course you feel good after a yoga workout! But even more than that, you feel good about your body. Your muscles are stronger, and so is your mind. A few minutes of peace and relaxation helps you to remember that looking good is not what it's all about. You feel better about where your body is now and what it is able to do.
And when you feel good about your body, you want to treat your body better. You know that a donut is not going to nourish your body, and so- even when it sounds good! - it makes it easier to make a better choice.

I've said it before, but yoga is for everyone. If you are looking to start a fitness program, start with yoga.
Then, when you're ready to take it to the next level, you can add in heavy weightlifting and HIIT.

A sample weight loss, fat burning workout for the week (which doesn't include any traditional cardio) would look like this:
Monday- Yoga
Tuesday-Yoga
Wednesday- HIIT
Thursday- Yoga
Friday- Yoga
Saturday- Heavy Weightlifting
Sunday- Rest

There you have it: a workout that is better than cardio. Enjoy!

High Intensity Interval Training

2010-08-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

Once a week, I do exercise that could be considered "cardio." It gets my heart pumping. But unlike a traditional cardio workout, where you perform low to moderate intensity activity throughout the workout, HIIT training has periods of rest.

The basic structure of a HIIT workout is a warmup followed by intervals of intense exercise and intervals of rest.

I walk down to my local park. It's about a 5 minute walk, and that counts as my warmup. Then I run sprints across the length of the park. I have never been much of a runner, and I still wouldn't say I'm fast, but when I sprint I give it everything I've got. I try to pretend that a bear is chasing me. Or that my baby is on the other end and a bad guy is going to get him if I don't hurry across that field. Or that I'm in a race and this is the last 30 yards to the finish line. It's that kind of a run. Totally. Intense. Focused. Running.
I walk back to where I started and catch my breath. The first two times, I always think, "Why did I think this was so hard last time? This isn't so bad." By the fourth time, I'm starting to remember why I thought it was so hard. And after the 6th time, I can't run back right away. I have to catch my breath a little longer before heading out for another intense sprint. I do this 6 to 10 times in a row and I walk back home.

The reason HIIT training works is that your body doesn't "get used" to it. Just like with progressively adding more difficult weights, you progressively add more challenges with HIIT training- either by making your rest intervals shorter and your intensity intervals longer, or by lengthening the total time of the workout.

Here are some ideas of exercises to perform doing HIIT training:
sprints or hill sprints
jump roping
biking
swimming
plyometrics

Add your own ideas for HIIT in the comments below!

Kat at Body Incredible has some great thoughts on HIIT if you'd like to learn more.

Weight Lifting for weight loss

2010-07-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

In my last post I talked about why I think cardio is less effective for weight loss. Still. I do believe in exercise, and in the next three posts I will cover exercises that I believe ARE effective: heavy weightlifting, HIIT and yoga

Weight lifting. I learned about heavy weightlifting from Jen, personal trainer friend. I was already lifting weights, but she taught me a whole new concept. Instead of lifting 8 or 10 or even 15 pound dumbbells over and over and over, she taught me to lift heavy weights with less reps (repetitions). When she introduced me to this concept, I was used to teaching the S.E.T. (Strength Endurance Training) class at 24 hour fitness. We would lift weights for 3 minutes straight (followed by 3 minutes of cardio endurance). I would use about 20 pounds when I was squating for 3 minutes. With Jen's help, I worked up to squating 105 pounds-- and I definitely don't do it for 3 minutes straight!

The whole point of weight training is to tear muscle fibers so you can rebuild a stronger muscle. These tiny muscle tears happen when you add resistance-- or in other words, it has to keep getting harder!
When I was lifting a lighter weight over and over and over, I was working my heart, I was sweating, but after a while, my muscles got used to that kind of a workout. I wouldn't even get sore! With heavy weightlifting, I am always sore afterward, if I do it right. That's because I progressively add weight, or add a few more repetitions.

Weightlifting builds muscle. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn, even at rest. Or in other words, more muscle means a faster metabolism. That's what we're going for, right? Building muscle turns our bodies into calorie-burning machines.
When I was teaching aerobics, people would always ask me which burned more calories: cardio or weightlifting. The answer I would give was that cardio burned more calories during the hour you were doing it (usually not by a huge margin), but weightlifting burned calories while you were doing it and kept on burning calories afterward to feed the muscle you just built.

Weight lifting increases your metabolism because you force your body to build more muscle.

If you have never lifted weights before, it would be a great idea to have a personal trainer, or someone at the gym show you how. You want to make sure your form is correct so that you don't injure yourself. If you have done a little weight lifting in the past, here is a very basic workout that works all your major muscle groups and can be done in about 20 minutes. This is the workout that I always come back to if I'm in a hurry. It works the largest muscles in your body, making it efficient AND effective.

Warm up:
Squat (with no weights), 5 reps.
Chest Press with 5 lb. dumbbells, 5 reps.
Bent over row with 5 lb. dumbbells, 5 reps.

Workout:
When doing heavy weightlifting, you want to try to lift at a weight that you can maintain for 10-15 reps. If you can do more than 15 reps, your weight is too light. If you can't get to 10, take some weight off.

Squat with barbell., 10- 15 reps.
Chest Press with barbell, 10-15 reps.
Bent over row with barbell or heavy dumbbells, 10-15 reps each side.

Repeat this workout 2-3 times.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays.

Former Aerobics Instructor is Now anti-Cardio

2010-07-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

I went to a Jazzercise class last week with some friends. Jazzercise is basically aerobics, but each song has its own choreography. It was a lot of fun, and quite similar to what I used to do as an aerobics instructor. But it was interesting listening to them, and doing all this cardio when... I don't believe in it.

Let me just say first of all, that moving your body is good. Doing jazzercise, or aerobics, or jogging does keep your heart pumping and makes you feel good. But for weight loss (the reason most people exercise), I believe cardio is the least effective form of exercise.
Here are the reasons why I no longer believe in cardio:

It's not as simple as "calories in, calories out." The instructors at my class today reminded us of how many calories we were burning. ("One class can burn up to 600 calories, ladies!") But scientific studies have shown that cardiovascular exercise makes you hungrier. Your body wants to replace those lost calories. Basically, with cardio, you are fighting your body to lose weight. Dr. Stephan Guyenet uses a great analogy that helped me to visualize this. (You can listen to the entire podcast here.) He said that losing weight by doing cardio is like having the a/c on in your house. But when it gets too cool and you want to warm it up a bit, you open the front door. Well, you know what happens then, right? The air conditioner works hard to cool the house, requiring more energy. With cardio, you are burning more calories (working harder), so your body will crave more calories for energy too.
If "calories in, calories out" worked, then you would exercise (calories out) and eat less (calories in). But that is missing one very simple physiological process: hunger. You can only fight your body's hunger signals for so long.

Cardio can do harm to joints and cause overuse injuries. During the weight portion of the class, we worked very specific small muscle groups over and over and over. Jumping and running definitely have their place in an exercise regimen, but all you have to do is look at the number of runners with bad knees to know that overuse injuries occur. Often.

Your body adapts to cardio. This means that doing the same exercise becomes less effective over time. Your body adapts to the exercise-- that's why it gets easier. Your body is becoming more efficient at the exercise. Good for the body, but bad for weight loss. That means that to do exactly the same exercise, you will be burning less calories after a month than you were when you started.

So maybe you know someone who started doing cardiovascular exercise and lost a lot of weight. Maybe you know a lot of people who have done that. But what if it wasn't the exercise at all? What if, like my instructor said today, "after I've done a class, I don't want to go eat that cheeseburger. I worked so hard to burn those calories, I don't want to put them back in." Maybe cardio exercise changes our psyche more than our figure, causing us to make other changes, like in what we eat. Or maybe, when we start working out, we are burning so many calories that our body has a hard time replacing them all through food. But as time goes on, and our bodies adapt, we burn less calories and our exercise is less effective at helping us lose weight.

Coming up: In my next post I will detail what I believe in instead of cardio and how to work with your body to lose weight.

Wheat Berry Salad

2010-07-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite warm weather recipes. I first tried it at a party at my sister in law's house. It does make a great party food when you're doing Mexican or Southwestern, but I love to make a batch and eat it all week for lunch. The flavors go so well together-- it's easy to pack in a lot of nutritous veggies when they taste this good! Another perk is that the only cooking is done in a crockpot, so it doesn't heat up the house.

Wheat Berry Salad

4 cups cooked wheat berries (see below for directions)

1 red or orange bell pepper, diced

1 red onion, diced

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1-2 cups corn, fresh or frozen and thawed

1-2 cups black beans

Dressing

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lime (or lemon)

1 Tbsp. raw honey

1-2 tsp. chili powder

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

Whisk together and pour over chopped vegetables and wheat. Mix all together.

Wheat berries:

Combine 4 cups wheat berry kernels, 10 cups water, and 2 tsp. sea salt in crock pot. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Drain off any excess water. Chill. Wheat berries can be frozen for up to a month, keeps a week or more in refrigerator.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays and Two For Tuesdays.

Giveaway winner!

2010-07-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't think it would be that hard to get to the computer, enter some numbers in at random.org and choose a winner for the Organic Manifesto Book Giveaway! But somehow, it's taken me a week to actually do it! Life has been busy around here, but I have finally chosen a winner...

Entry #11: Alex from A Moderate Life

Alex, I'll need your contact information to send you this great book. I hope you enjoy it!

More posts coming up soon...

60 days with no sugar: what I learned

2010-07-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Going sugar free for the past couple of months was really eye-opening for me. My main motivation was to speed up my weight loss-- and I think it did-- but I learned some other things in the process.

Baked goods can be enjoyed without sugar. For the first month, I stopped making muffins for my family for breakfast. (I probably make muffins about once a week or so.) I didn't think they would taste good with no sugar, and I didn't think any substitutes would work quite as well. When I finally did try my banana nut muffins with honey, all wheat flour and coconut oil, they were great! I used honey in El Torito's sweet corn cake recipe, and no one even noticed the difference.

I have learned to like things a little less sweet. I use less sweeteners now, because I taste them more. As a culture, we not only eat sugar too often, but we eat too much of it when we do. A little sugar goes a loooong way. When you slowly cut it out, you change your taste. I used to live in Taiwan where I was a missionary. The Taiwanese people don't like things very sweet. They eat slightly sweetened beans for or fruit for dessert. Even the Snickers bars they sell in 7-11 have less sugar, because they just don't like things overly sweet. You can train yourself to like things less sweet.

The less you eat sugar, the less you crave sugar. And the opposite is also true. I think that's a good thing to remember if you are trying to cut sugar out of your diet. It will be hard at first, but will totally get easier. When those sugar cravings DO happen, it's usually your body telling you that you need fat. Have a few nuts and wait a little while and your craving WILL go away.

Most sugary foods aren't worth it anyway. Think about it for a minute. Most of the time, when you talk about sugary food, it's things like store bought cookies or ice cream... some may be okay, but most are not amazing. And most don't make you feel great afterward. Except for a little piece of dark chocolate. That does feel good on my stomach.

Cutting out sugar helps you lose weight. Studies have been done on this, but I will just add my own experience: my baby weight came off faster and easier while I was not eating sugar. I certainly didn't cut my caloric intake; I ate what I was hungry for, plenty of fat and protein and yes- carbs too, but no sugar or white flour. And my weight loss sped up. I am now within 10 pounds of my goal!

Be sure to check out my giveaway ending this week.
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, wholesome whole foods, and Vegetarian foodie fridays.

Book Review and Giveaway: Organic Manifesto

2010-06-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it. When I am making food choices for my family, I am much more concerned about our health than about the greater good. The more I read, and the more I learn, the more I realize that they are linked. People can't be healthy if the environment isn't. We are all connected. This book helped me see the bigger picture-- what organic means for the earth.

I buy a lot of organic IF. I buy organic IF it's not too much more money. I buy organic IF it's in the budget. I buy organic IF the produce I'm buying is on the dirty dozen list. I'd love to say this book made me see the error of my ways and I will only buy organic from here on out. The truth is, we are on a budget, and there have to be some "ifs" if I am going to stick to it. But I think reading this book and better undertanding the consequences of chemical farming will cause me to think even more about getting that chemically raised food. Maybe if I can't afford it from now on I'll just skip it.

I want to get the message out about organics, so I am giving away a copy of Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale.

Any of the following are good for one entry:

1. Follow or subscribe to this blog via email and let me know that you do in a comment below.
2. Leave a comment telling why you want to learn more about gong organic.
3. Share this giveaway with a friend on email, facebook, twitter or a blog; each good for one entry.

I'll choose the winner at random at midnight on July 7th. This giveaway is only open to residents of the continental U.S. Good luck!

This post is part of Tasty Tuesday Parade, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, Delicious Dishes and Two For Tuesday.

Renew You 2010

2010-06-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know I'm a big fan of FREE. I love getting something that I actually want without having to spend any money. This weekend we have that opportunity! There is a free teleseminar with amazing speakers called "Renew You 2010." All teleseminars are available 24/7 from June 24 to 28.

They will be speaking on the following topics:
■Karly Randolph Pitman: The Self-Care Pathway: Four Practices to End Emotional and Overeating

■JJ Virgin: Five Insider Secrets to Boost Your Energy, Shrink Your Waistline and Feel Your Best

■Brenda Kinsel: Defining Your Personal Style from the Inside Out

■Christine Arylo: Dare to be loved: Get the Love You Want by Loving Yourself First

■Connie Bennett: Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction with the Author of Sugar Shock!

■Rose Cole: The 3-Day Beautiful Skin Diet: Food for a Clearer, Younger & More Radiant Complexio

■Karen Russo: Discover a New Money Reality: The Love Path to Abundance

■Leanne Ely: Nurture, Nourishment and Nutrition: Saving You and Your Family One Meal at a Time

■Mary Tedesco: Inspired to Exercise: Get Active and Fit in 5 Fun Steps

■Laura Klein: The Smart Pantry: Time- and Money-Saving Foods for Health and Flavor

■Stephanie McWilliams: Your Space for Success: Designing Your Dream Environment for Greater Purpose, Passion and Profits

■LiYana Silver: Bringing Sexy Back: Decoding Desire, Attraction and Connection

■Melanie Dodaro: The Psychology of Permanent Weight Loss

■Alisa Vitti: Hot Sexy Hormones

■Jennifer Louden: Ending the Pain of Perfectionism

I am excited to listen and learn from these women. I will definitely be taking notes and hope to learn a lot that I am able to share. Click here to register and I'll see you there!

Black Bean, Corn and Zucchini Enchiladas

2010-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Near the end of the month, when most of my grocery budget (or all of it!) is gone, I try to find inexpensive meals that are still full of healthy, real food. Veggie and Bean stuffed enchiladas are delicious and a great way to stretch your budget. They are really filling and flavorful, and no one misses the meat. They are also gluten free. I served this last night with a side of cooked carrots. I included the cost breakdown. I make my own enchilada sauce, so it's really inexpensive. If you're purchasing it from the store, you may spend a little more.

Cost:
Tortillas: 98 cents
2 Zucchini: 25 cents
1/2 pack corn: 50 cents
Black beans: $1
Enchilada sauce: .50 - $1.50
Cheese: $1
Total: $4.23 for 8 (or more) servings
Cost per serving: 53 cents!

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter

2 cups diced zucchini

1 (10-ounce) package frozen whole-kernel corn

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

3 cups Enchilada Sauce, divided

Cooking spray

20 corn tortillas

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Sour cream (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups zucchini and corn; sauté for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat, and stir in beans and 1 1/2 cups cheese.

Heat 1 cup Enchilada Sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Heat tortilla in sauce until hot, about 45 seconds on each side. Spoon about 1/4 cup zucchini mixture down center of 1 tortilla and roll up. Place seam-side down in baking dish. Repeat procedure with remaining tortillas, and zucchini mixture. Heat more enchilada sauce as needed.

Top enchiladas with any remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Top with sour cream and serve.
(This recipe is adapted from Cooking Light.)

Notes: I make my own enchilada sauce ahead of time and can it. I like knowing exactly what's in there, and it's more cost effective too.
I also make the beans ahead of time and can those. If you're really ambitious, you can soak the beans the night before, let them cook slowly all day, and then add them to the enchiladas to retain the most vitamins. That's what I do, only I add the step of pressure canning them and putting them in my pantry so I can use them whenever I need them.

This post is part of Two For Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays.

Produce Buying Club

2010-06-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Every Saturday at 10:00, you can always find me at the same place. I am picking up produce at a beautiful resort/ farm. A group of us gather there to pickup our organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and eggs. Some of it does come from overseas, but some comes from just a mile away. A member of our group made the videos below with some of the farmers who grow the produce and the eggs for our group.

We talk a lot about moms cooking things with love-- well, when I watched these videos, that's what kept coming to mind. These farmers are farming with love. Watch as Mr. Guldseth carefully pulls a radish from the ground. He knows how it will taste; he has a passion for what he is doing.

Betty's eggs are the most colorful eggs I've ever seen. A mixture of blue-green, brown and speckled eggs fill those clear cartons, and the yolks are bright orange and so tasty. Most remarkable to me in the video was how much she cares about what she's doing.

If you've seen Food, Inc. compare the images of the henhouses, or the industrial crops being sprayed. Growing food with passion and love is better for everyone.

I was also impressed by the gratitude these people have that we're buying from them. They are able to do what they love, and we are better able to feed our families.

The G-Free Diet

2010-06-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

I picked up a copy of the G-free diet by Elizabeth Hasselback at the library last week. To be honest, I don't think I'll ever go gluten-free, but I thought the book might be interesting, and the cover looked so cute I thought I'd check it out.

There was a lot of great information on celiac disease, which causes the body not to tolerate gluten. The first thing I learned from this book was that it takes constant work to make sure you aren't eating gluten! If any of you reading this haven't heard of Amy's blog, Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, make sure to check it out. She has lots of great recipes and resources for those who are G-free.

The part of the book that I could most relate to is the Chapter "G-free and slim as can be!" Elisabeth explains healthy principles that can guide all of us in our food decisions, whether we are eating gluten or not.

From The G-Free Diet:

"Gone are the days of living off foods with mile-long lists of ingredients, or one dimensional starches that left me forever craving more... without providing my body with the nutrients that it needed to thrive. I have more energy than before. I have more stamina to train and work out more efficiently. By default, when those factors are in synch, I tend to want to eat in a healthier way.

You, too may find that by building your diet around basic foods close to their natural state--foods direct from the earth such as fish and meats, fruits and vegetables and nuts-- you will nourish your body, instead of merely cluttering it with empty calories and unpronounceable chemicals...

We obsess over fat and calories but pay very little attention to actual ingredients in the foods we eat, and the essential nutrients that they should be delivering. Somehow, we lose sight of the fact that, quite simply, some foods are healthier and more nutritionally dense than others. Some foods fill us up and leave us happy and satisfied; other foods leave us constantly hungry for more. Foods that carry maximum nutritional impact are crucial , whether you have embarked on a particular diet out of necessity or by choice.

Most people can relate to episodes of overeating. Many times, you might feel a persistent dissatisfaction, even after a monster meal. Sound familiar? No matter what quantity of food you are eating, if your body is not getting the nutrients that it needs, it will continue to want more. Your body has an internal checklist of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that it needs every day to flourish. If your diet is not checking off every item on that list, your body sends signals to "keep on searching," to fill those nutritional deficiencies... thus throwing us into "overdrive eating."...

The secret to long-term health and fitness is not counting calories and fat and leaping on the scale first thing every morning. (I have done all of the above.) Though these numbers may make you feel more in control, the critical information is what's behind those numbers. You can get triple the amount of fat from a bag of almonds than from a bag of M&M's, but the nutritional content isn't even in the same ballpark. In terms of heat and energy burned, 2000 calories is 2000 calories. That said, eating 2000 calories of junk a day would leave you with a significant mineral and vitamin deficiency-- and a significant lack of energy. Eventually, your body is going to cry uncle. Going G-free forces you to step up and start looking at the big picture."

EAting healthier for most of us doesn't have to mean going without gluten. It does mean making conscious decisions about our food. We need to choose whole over processed foods. We have to pay attention to what we're eating so that we can nourish our bodies.

Here are my suggestions to put this into practice:

1. Cook! Make something you would normally buy. If you make it, you can be sure of the ingredients.
2. Try something new. Quinoa. Kale. Flaxseed oil.
3. Read the list of ingredients rather than the nutritional facts on packages. Find out what your food is, rather than how much fat or calories it contains.
4. Take a look at your wheat intake. Try going wheat-free for a meal, a day, or more.

This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Two for Tuesdays, and Tuesday Tag Along.

Spaghetti Squash with mozzarella and chicken

2010-06-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

This was one of the first meals I learned to cook when my husband and I got married 10 years ago. That means it's easy, because I was not much of a cook back then. So, beginners, rest assured- this is right at your level.

This dinner's perfect as the weather warms up, because it's light and fresh. If you use the microwave, it won't heat up your house, but I like to use the oven to cook the squash to keep as many vitamins intact as possible. When I first learned this recipe, I used only extra virgin olive oil, but adding some butter makes it melt it your mouth. Oh, and speaking of melting- don't be afraid to add extra chunks of cheese. Those gooey, creamy bites of cheese make this dish.

Spaghetti Squash with Smoked mozzarella and chicken

Prep: 15 minutes

Microwave: 12 to 14 minutes

Oven: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 medium spaghetti squash

1 Tbsp. Olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 medium tomatoes

2 ounces smoked mozzarella or gouda cheese

12 ounces chicken breast cut for stir fry

½ tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Ground black pepper

¼ cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

3 Tbsp. butter

Directions

1.With tip of sharp knife, pierce squash in about 10 places. Microwave on high 6 to 7 minutes. Turn squash over and pierce in another 10 places until squash is soft to the touch. Alternately, cut squash in half and bake for about 45 minutes, cut side down, in a 375 degree oven.

2.Meanwhile, in nonstick 12 inch skillet, heat olive oil and 1 tbsp. butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender and golden, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.While onion is cooking, dice tomatoes and cheese.

4. Add chicken, ¼ tsp. Salt, and 1/8 tsp. Pepper to onion and cook until chicken loses its pink color throughout, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This is also a good recipe for leftover cooked chicken if you have some around.)

5.If using the microwave: When squash is done, cut lengthwise in half; discard seeds. Microwave or oven: With fork, gently scrape squash lengthwise and lift pulp out in strands as it becomes free; place in large bowl. Discard squash skin.

6.Mix tomatoes, cheese, ¼ tsp. Salt and 1/8 tsp. Pepper with hot squash. Spoon squash mixture into four individual bowls; top with onion and chicken mixture. Sprinkle with basil.

This post is part of Two for Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesdays, Tempt my tummy Tuesdays, and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Delicious Dishes.

Milk at the Grocery Store

2010-06-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

Reading labels on milk can be confusing: organic, rBst-free, pasteurized, skim, whole, etc. What do they all mean and what is the best kind to buy?

If you have access to it, I'm a big fan of raw milk for health reasons.

If you are limited to your local grocery store, you probably won't see raw milk on the shelf.

What you will see:

Organic milk: I'm all for organic milk. In fact, the raw milk we buy (when we can afford it) is organic. The bad news is that most of the organic milk you find in the store is ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to high temperatures. This kills off bacteria and enzymes that actually aid in digestion. So, why do they do it? Well, mainly it's to give it a longer shelf life. Ultra-pasteurization means that the milk can last on the shelf longer without spoiling.

Not all organic milk is ultra-pasteurized, but a lot of it is, so be sure to read the label.

The difference with organic and traditional milk is a simple question of if what the cow ate was treated with pesticides. No pesticides+ following lots of government regulations = certified organic.

rBst free milk: rBst is a growth hormone. It boosts milk production in cows by about 20 gallons per day. People in favor of using it say that it has no known effects on humans and that it is similar to a naturally occuring hormone in cows. Besides increasing milk supply, rBst also increases udder infections, which can increase the need for antibiotics. Your best bet is to find milk that comes from cows not given rBst. Many brands proclaim "rBst free" on the label. Walmart's Great Value milk has been rBst free since March 2008 (Source).

Skim milk, 1% and 2%: The first thing that is a problem with these low-fat milks, is that the body needs fat to use the vitamins in them. When the fat is taken out, the body is unable to absorb fat soluble vitamins. To make the milk thicker, powdered milk is added to 1 and 2% milk. Powdered milk is made by spray drying milk. This damages (oxidizes) the cholesterol, and has been shown to increase cholesterol in our bodies. This kind of milk does not do a body good! In Real Food, What to eat and why, by Nina Planck, Nina reminds us that in the olden days, the poor would sell off their cream and be left with only skim milk... and sickly children.

My recommendation: When I can't buy raw, organic milk and I have the normal grocery store selection, I would first look at the organic milk. Does it say "ultra-pasteurized" or UHT on the label? If so, skip it. It's great the cows never had pesticides, but since everything (good and bad) has been cooked out anyway, that is almost irrelevant. If it is pasteurized only, go with organic. If not, look at your whole milk selection and choose one that says rBst free on the label.

Kitchen Blunders

2010-06-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days have been spent canning tomatoes. I mentioned last week that tomatoes went on sale (for 50 cents a pound), and I canned whole tomatoes. For Memorial Day the same store had a three day sale for 33 cents/ pound Roma tomatoes. That was too good a deal to pass up. I spent the last couple of days in my kitchen canning spaghetti sauce and tomato soup.

I used my huge stockpot to simmer the spaghetti sauce. That's when disaster happened. Either the heat was too high, or the spoon was too short, or a combination of the two; either way, I ended up with a big mess at the bottom of my pan. And worse, a burnt taste in 50 pounds of spaghetti sauce!!! I googled it to find out how to get the taste out. One suggestion was a potato, but many other sites said this would not work. (However, if ever you put too much salt in your soup or sauce, it sounds like throwing a potato in and boiling will remove the salt.)

Instead, the suggestion that I kept coming across-- and people were all saying it worked-- was to add peanut butter. I put a small amount of sauce in a bowl and mixed in a little peanut butter. Then I tasted. No burnt taste. No peanut butter taste either. Amazing! I'm so thrilled to have saved my $16 of tomatoes, and even more important, my hard work! If ever your food starts burning and sticking to the pan, the best thing to do is ladle out the top half before you stir. Stirring just mixes in the burnt taste all throughout the food. But if you've already stirred, add some peanut butter to get rid of the taste.

The pan was another challenge. I had about an inch thick of charred tomatoes stuck to the bottom of my stainless steel pan. The best suggestions I found online were to soak in vinegar or baking soda. One said to soak in baking soda, boil baking soda water, then cool and scrape it off. It took a lot of elbow grease too, but I ended up with a usable pan again.

What kitchen blunders have you had, and what tips do you have to fix them?

Scallion Pancakes and Egg Drop Soup

2010-05-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

This is a simple dinner that can be made with ingredients you probably have on hand. It doesn't take long to make, and is a kid favorite around here. The scallion pancakes are dipped in sauce, which makes them fun to eat. The kids also like the swirls of egg in the soup.
Scallion pancakes are a street food in Taiwan. You can find vendors selling these steaming hot pancakes, wrapped in paper, so you can eat on the go. They are usually quite large, but I made mine about the size of my frying pan, for obvious reasons.

Egg Drop Soup

Boil 2 cups chicken broth in a medium saucepan. (Add salt if your broth is unsalted.) Add chopped scallions to taste. Beat 2 eggs with a fork. Slowly add the eggs while stirring. Serve.

Scallion pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 cup boiling water

1/4 cup flour

Sesame oil

4 Tbsp chopped scallion greens

Fat for frying

Mix flour and salt in the base of a stand mixer. Add olive oil and boiling water. If dough is too soft, add more flour (up to 1/4 cup). Knead about 5 minutes. Let stand for 20 minutes. (I skip this step, or just let it stand for a minute if I'm really in a hurry; it still turns out.) Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll out into a rectangle, brush with sesame oil and sprinkle with scallions.

From the long end, roll the dough into a cylinder, pinching the ends to seal. Coil into a little snail shape. Repeat with remaining dough. You can let the dough rest here for about 1/2 hour. I'm sure a chef could tell you why this step is so important. I'm not a chef, but a mom who is sometimes in a hurry, and I sometimes don't let it rest at all. ( I don't get to rest, why should my dinner?) Roll the coiled pancakes into circles, about 8 inches in diameter.

Heat fat in frying pan. I use beef tallow, but lard would also work well. If you don't have either of those, my next choice would be a combination of olive oil and butter. Whichever you choose, heat the fat, fry the pancake for about to 3 minutes per side.

Dip in soy sauce, or try the egg roll dipping sauce here.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade and Vegetarian Foodie Fridays.

My new goal: no sugar

2010-05-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

My youngest baby is 7 months old, and last time I checked, I'm still carrying around about 19 extra pounds (mostly in my lower body, see photo above). This is my fourth baby, so I have been through this before, but the weight wasn't coming off as fast as I would have liked (which, if you want to get technical, never comes off as fast as I would like). I decided it was time to really get serious about trying to lose this weight: I was going off sugar. I decided first to do an experiment. I wanted to see first if it was really hard, and second if it helped me lose weight any faster. For my experiment, I would go without any refined sugar or white flour for a week. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you probably know I don't eat a lot of sugar anyway. We hardly eat anything that is all white flour, but I would often mix it with wheat as a compromise with my husband.

The first question: was it really hard? NO! There were a few things I purposely didn't have around: no chocolate chips in the freezer, and I didn't make any muffins. I used honey or maple syrup in place of sugar for a sweetener, and I felt like I was getting plenty of sweet tastes in my diet.

The second question: Did I lose weight any faster? YES! After one week, I had lost 3 pounds. That was unexpected and really exciting for me. I don't think I lowered my calories at all, and I ate a lot of fats during that week. If I ever needed a treat, I made chocolate fudge with no sugar.

So, I've decided to continue on with my no sugar/ no white flour diet a little while longer. I know a goal should have specifics, like how long I am going to keep doing this...but for now, the goal is just to continue.

Confessions: The only times I have had sugar in the last month have been times when I was out to eat. Really, I don't know that there was sugar in it, but I'm just going to assume the pizza hut had some HFCS and the Pickup Stix was loaded with sugar. Oh, yeah, and the other time I cheated was my husband's birthday (even though I didn't even have sugar on my own birthday!). He requested I make him a German Chocolate Cake from scratch. It was the most fabulous cake I think I ever made and I have to say, totally worth it.

All alone canning tomatoes

2010-05-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Canning is a monotonous process. I enjoy it, but it's easy to let your mind wander. While canning tomatoes today, I thought of my pioneer forebears, who surely did this same task a couple of hundred years ago. I got interrupted by the baby crying, by the two year old wanting to "help." Pioneers probably had more kids running around than the three I have home today. Maybe they would gather together with a big group of women, talking and peeling tomatoes to store for the winter. maybe an older child would be put in charge of the babies, or the women would take breaks to watch the kids. Maybe most of the kids could run around outside, because the world was a little safer then, and you could actually let kids do that.
When the tomatoes were ripe and they had more than they could possibly eat fresh, it would be time to can. Today, I'm alone in my kitchen canning tomatoes for no other reason that the fact that I was out of canned tomatoes, and they were on sale for 50 cents a pound.
I've had lots of canning "parties" where friends come over and we spend the day canning. I'm sure the pioneers would be envious of us, complaining of the heat in our air-conditioned house, the dishwasher ready to go when we dirty another load. But today, I'm a little envious of them. A little nostalgic for a time when this kind of homemaking skill was the norm, and it wasn't quite as hard to find people who were interested in canning also.
The method to canning tomatoes is very simple. You can use either a pressure canner or a water bath canner. Most fruits can be canned using a water bath canner, while vegetables need a pressure canner. Tomatoes lie right on the border for acidity. That means, as long as you add some lemon juice, you can use a water bath canner instead of a pressure canner. A water bath canner is much less expensive. I bought mine for $12 at Kmart several years ago. It's just a big pot with a holder for the jars. (Pressure canners usually cost somewhere around $100.)

Boil a large pot of water. Dip tomatoes in for one minute, then set in a bowl of cold water. Scoop out the ... and peel off the skin. Place whole in jars. Press down to fit in as many tomatoes as you can. (They will shrink a little while canning.) Add 1 Tbsp. lemon juice per pint or 2 Tbsp. lemon juice per quart. Add sea salt if desired.

Keep unused lids and rims in a small pot of water heated at a low temperature. When the jars are filled, wipe around the top edges of the jar. Put lids and rims on. Boil in a water bath canner for 85 minutes.

Canned tomatoes will last at room temperature for about 1 year. These are a great alternative to store bought canned tomatoes (in actual cans) because the lining of those cans reacts with the acidity of the tomatoes, leaching BPA (bispenol A) into our food. BPA is a neuroendocrine disruptor. Canning your own is a cost effective way to avoid BPA, which is especially important for young children. (Source)

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

2010-05-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Homemade ricotta cheese is creamy and tastes much better than the store bought alternative. Store bought ricotta cheese has added preservatives to make it last longer. Ricotta's not hard to make, and unlike mozzarella cheese, doesn't take any special ingredients. All you need is milk, buttermilk and salt.

This recipe makes about 4 cups of fresh ricotta. It can easily be cut in half if you don't need that much. Although, there are so many yummy things to do with ricotta, you may just want to make the whole thing. Ricotta works well in lasagna recipes as well as stuffed shells or manicotti. You can also drizzle a little honey and some berries on top and eat it as a dessert. Ricotta can be served on top of pancakes, english muffins or crepes with a little maple syrup for sweetness.

This recipe comes from Cooking Light Italian. The only thing I changed was to use full fat dairy instead of low fat.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients:

1 gallon whole milk

5 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Directions:

Combine milk and buttermilk in a large stockpot. Cook over medium high heat until a thermometer registers 170, stirring occasionally (about 20 minutes). When it reaches 170, stop stirring. The cheese will start to separate from the whey. Keep heating until the temperature reaches 190. Remove from heat.

Drain cheese in a colander lined with damp cheesecloth. Whey will drip out. Reserve this for a later use, such as soaking oats for oatmeal. Let sit for 5 minutes. Gather edges of cheesecloth together and tie to a kitchen faucet or another place where it can drip into a bowl. Let drip for 15 minutes.

Scrape ricotta into a bowl. Stir in salt gently. Cool to room temperature.

5 Reasons I love yoga

2010-05-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

Yoga has definitely been an acquired taste for me. I didn't like it right away. It was so different from anything else I did in my life. It was slow. It was quiet. It kind of didn't seem like I was doing anything at all... Several years ago, I was asked to teach a Senior yoga class at the gym where I taught. I slowly came to appreciate that quiet time, where we would turn out the lights and focus on how our bodies felt.

Now, I do yoga almost every day and I love it. Below are 5 reasons why.

1. You can do it anytime of day. Maybe you're thinking you can do any workout any time of day... but it's not true. If you do cardio, or even heavy weightlifting in the middle of the day, you're going to have to take a shower afterward (you know you're not fooling anyone with that perfume shower), which means an added half hour at least to get all ready again. If you workout at night, it can make it hard to fall asleep. Cardio and weightlifting raise your core temperature, making you feel hot. That can also make it hard to sleep. Yoga, on the other hand, can help you wake up in the morning. It can help you relax before bedtime. It can also be done mid-day, with no shower necessary.

2. Yoga is everything I want for my old age. Yoga helps keeps you flexible. Your posture is straight and tall. You keep the joints lubricated and able to move. Isn't that what we all want when we are old? Mobility, flexibility and good posture? When I taught the Senior classes at the gym, I had a woman who would come diligently to the aerobics class, but never to the yoga. She once told me that she was having trouble turning her neck and it made it hard to drive, since she couldn't see over her shoulder. Another woman overheard, and said she didn't have that problem, because we always stretched our necks in yoga. Yoga also tones the muscles, keeping you strong and fit.

3. Yoga helps you calm the mind. That is important for everyone from students to stay at home moms to busy professionals. Taking deep breaths really helps you to slow down the mind. I don't know about you, but sometimes my mind is a never ending to do list. Yoga is a time when I can finally set that list down and feel really peaceful.

4. Yoga is for everyone. Yoga doesn't take a lot of equipment. All you need is a sticky mat, and maybe a yoga brick or strap. It can be done in your home with a DVD or even just going through the poses on your own. My two year old came and joined me on the mat today while I was doing yoga. He was able to do a pretty decent downward facing dog. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, because babies seem to naturally do many yoga poses as they become more active. Elderly or injured people can also benefit from modified yoga. It truly is an exercise for every body.

5. Yoga helps you set goals. You can always improve with yoga. It is a constant state of progressing--you can always progress to the next level of intensity. And yet, yoga focuses on doing what your body feels comfortable with today. There isn't the pressure to keep up with anyone else. Instead, it's an inside drive, to listen to and understand your body, and to work with your body to get to the next level.

If you haven't tried yoga before, I'd encourage you to get out there and give it a try. Check out a Yoga DVD or book from the library, or better yet, take a class at a local studio.

Avocado Egg Rolls

2010-05-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

Does that not look delicious? It is all real food, minus the store bought egg roll wrappers. If you are really ambitious, I'm sure you could make those yourself too, but I went with store bought myself. The ingredients on the list were okay. The two items I would have changed were to use wheat flour instead of white, and no "sodium benzoate" as a preservative.

Anyway, even with the store bought wrappers, these were awesome! They tasted just like restaurant egg rolls, only much better for you because they were fried in healthy fats instead of a combination of soybean and other polyunsaturated fats you'd get at a restaurant. Hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Ingredients:

Dipping Sauce

3-4 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup chopped cashews
2/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves
2 green onions
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

Add all ingredients and mix well.

Egg Rolls

2 large avocados
1 tomato, finely chopped
3 tablespoons minced red onion
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
3 egg roll wraps
2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
Egg Roll wrappers
Beef Tallow, Coconut oil, or Lard for frying

Directions:

Thinly slice avocados. Lay out an egg roll wrapper. Fill the center with 2 avocado slices, tomato, red onion, and cilantro. Mix cornstarch with 4 Tbsp water. With finger or pastry brush, apply cornstarch mixture to top and sides of egg roll wrapper. Fold in bottom edge (about 1 inch), then left side, then top, then right side. Press to seal. Repeat with remaining egg rolls wrappers. Heat cooking fat in a deep pan. (I only use a small amount in the bottom of the pan.) Cook until golden brown, turning once, about 3 minutes. Serve with dipping sauce.

This post is part of Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Tuesday Taste and Tasty Tuesday.

Dessert, Dessert, Dessert

2010-05-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

If you are going to have dessert, make it count.

I really try hard not to eat something just because it's there. Most store-bought cookies, cakes and candy are loaded with unhealthy ingredients. And almost as important... most of the time they don't even taste very good! My husband and I always ask each other "Is it worth it?" and if it's not... we pass. The more you do this, the easier it becomes!

An easy way to make dessert healthier is to focus on fruits. Try berries with whipped cream, or frozen bananas. The other night for dessert, we had whole wheat graham crackers (sweetened with honey) spread peanut butter on top, sliced bananas over it and topped it all off with chocolate chips.

Cookies

For cookies, my main changes are to use wheat flour and reduce the sugar. I generally start by reducing the sugar by half. Sometimes that's all you can do, but other times, you can reduce a little bit more. This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, with the sugars already reduced by half. You can use full sized chocolate chips, but using mini chocolate chips helps you use less without feeling deprived-- you still get lots of chips in every cookie. Blend the oats in the blender. I like to make these cookies in a pan for bar cookies, so they are nice and thick.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups wheat flour

2 1/2 cups powdered oats

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

Mini chocolate chips

Walnuts or pecans

Directions

Cream butter and sugar. Add brown sugar, then eggs, then vanilla, then baking powder and baking soda. Once all is mixed together add wheat flour and powdered oats (blend oats in blender first). Then add chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes, or 21 minutes for a 9x 13 pan.

Dairy Desserts

Dairy based desserts, like ice cream and pudding, blend well with maple syrup or agave nectar. These are less refined than sugar, and work well as a substitute. The other ingredients are good for you with lots of nutrition, like whole milk and eggs. These recipes come from The Joy of Cooking, with the only change in the amount and type of sweetener. Be sure to plan ahead, because these need time to chill.

Vanilla Pudding

Mix thoroughly in a heavy saucepan:

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 Tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

Gradually stir in, making a smooth, runny paste:

1/3 cup whole milk or half and half

Whisk in:

1 2/3 cups whole milk or half and half

Stirring constantly, heat over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Reduce the heat to low; stirring briskly, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, then stir in:

2 tsp. vanilla

Pour into bowl or individual serving cups. Place plastic wrap directly on the pudding to prevent a film from forming.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Chocolate Pudding

Mix together thoroughly in a heavy saucepan:

1/3 cup agave nectar

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

1/8 tsp. salt

Gradually stir in, making a smooth, runny paste:

1/3 cup warm water

Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat, then remove from heat. For an espeically thick and chocolaty pudding, add and stir briskly until melted:

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Stir in:

1 3/4 cup half and half

Place in a bowl:

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

Very gradually add, making a smooth paste:

1/4 cup half and half

Throughly stir the cornstarch paste into the chocolate mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Reduce heat to low; stirring briskly, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, then stir in:

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pour into bowl or individual serving cups. Place plastic wrap directly on the pudding to prevent a film from forming.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 2 days.

No Sugar Dessert

I have been trying to cut out sugar altogether for the last couple of weeks (I'll tell you more about how that's going in a future post). My new favorite treat is a chocolate fudge recipe I found here. SO. GOOD. And no sugar= no guilt! I follow the directions exactly, then pour it into petit fours cups (you could use muffin cups also, but I like the bite size pieces), and add a nut (almond or walnut) on top.

This post is part of Pennywise Platter.

Real Food and Religion series: Wrapping it up

2010-05-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Our real food and religion series is over. I have really enjoyed reading and learning from so many different perspectives. I found it interesting that even though some of the writers had similar religious beliefs, they translated to very different things in practice.

It's interesting to understand why people do what they do. There are many motivating factors regarding what we eat and feed our families, and religion is just one of those. But it seems to be one that people are passionate about.

For me, there are certain things I will never drink, like coffee, tea or alcohol. Science is sometimes ambiguous on all three of these (I've read good and bad about all of them), but God knows more than science, and it's not something I spend a lot of time worrying about. My beliefs in my faith matter a lot more to me than whatever new science may come out.

Here are links to all the posts in case you missed any:

Christianity

Southern Baptist

Lutheran meets Seventh-day Adventist

Latter Day Saint (Mormon)

Christ Follower

The Levitical Diet

Chrisitan

Fundamental Christianity

I wanted to say thanks to all the bloggers who participated in the series. They all have great blogs and you can visit them by clicking on the links below.

http://www.healthhomehappy.com/

http://traditionalsimplicity.com/

http://megdickey.wordpress.com/

http://www.dietwithkris.blogspot.com/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/misskris

http://www.halleethehomemaker.com/

http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/

http://www.steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com/

What's Up With the FDA?

2010-05-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

My mother in law, Mickie, is a faithful reader of this blog. She emailed me the following, and I thought it had so many good points that I should just include the whole thing! Below her email I shared my thoughts on the subject: "What's up with the FDA":

"My question is ..What's up with the FDA?
Years ago they told us that Saccharin can cause bladder cancer and issued a Warning.

Now when you look up the long list of artificial sweeteners, it includes Saccharin. They now say that it is considered a "mild carcinogen" and proceed to make a table of how much is considered a safe amount to consume.

There seems to be a public demand for an artificial sweetener so they keep coming up with them. After time passes the FDA admits they are harmful, but eventually allows them to be back on the "safe list" once again. How can this be?

I read an article recently about Folic Acid. The FDA knew it was important for pregnant women to get enough of this, but then the cereal and other food companies started adding it in their products in large amounts. Then one doesn't realize how much they are getting. Anyone that is not pregnant does not need the amount they are sometimes automatically getting. It is now known that it can be harmful in large amounts. Most people don't realize this and the FDA is not helping us at all.

We are all aware of the harm that hydrogenated oil has, even partially hydrogenated. Check the ingredients in a small package of Jiffy cornmeal muffin mix. They are still using fully Hydrogenated Lard in that mix. The FDA is not helping us control the problem here either.

I think we have to be aware that we, as mothers might just have to control the problem ourselves. A lot of mothers are focusing on reading labels on packaged foods these days, which is good. I think we need to continue to research and stay informed on food additives as much as possible. They fluctuate with time.

All this is pretty scary....consuming safe, whole foods should be a matter of utmost importance for every Mother. I commend your efforts in your blog!"

Thanks, Mickie, for bringing this up.

This is a subject I hadn't looked into much, so I spent some time on the FDA's official website. Just browsing the website was overwhelming. The FDA's motto is "Protecting and Promoting Your Health." They are responsible for Food and Drugs, but also Cosmetics, Tobacco, Medical Devices and more.

I read that they are responsible for "taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement after it reaches market." (my italics) The manufacturer is responsible for telling the public what's in a supplement. So, as far as supplements are concerned, just because it's being sold doesn't mean it's safe. The people making the products are responsible for telling us how safe it is. (Sounds like the fox guarding the henhouse to me.) And then, after it has already been sold, the FDA will take action if it is unsafe. Umm... really, FDA? How will that protect my health if I've already bought and used that supplement?

I read a bit in the section on food additives. They said, 'some people might be allergic or have reactions to color dyes, but it's not a high percentage, so we're just going to put it on the label so you can avoid it if you want to.' The corn muffin mix with hydrogenated oil would probably come under the same category. I imagine the official policy would be, 'Well, some studies show it's bad for you, but we've got a lot to do here, so we'll tell the manufacturers to go ahead and put a label on it, and you can avoid it if you want to.' Or in other words, "No Lifeguard on Duty here: Eat at your own risk."

For a government agency who is trying to protect and promote our health, it sure seems like they are leaving a lot of the protecting our health up to us. The FDA says, "Some additives could be eliminated if we were willing to grow our own food, harvest and grind it, spend many hours cooking and canning, or accept increased risks of food spoilage. But most consumers today rely on the many technological, aesthetic and convenient benefits that additives provide."

I think many consumers today rely on these benefits because these foods are so readily available! If the FDA didn't allow them to be sold in the stores, then people would go back to the basics of cooking, canning and even growing their own food.

The good news is that, whether the government is promoting and protecting our health or not, we can protect the health of ourselves and our families. Be willing to grow your own food, harvest, grind, cook and can. I'd rather accept those risks than the risks of being "protected" by the FDA.

Chanelle's Salad

2010-05-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

Salads are really just a combination of ingredients-- just throwing some vegetables or other toppings on a bed of lettuce. But some salads just work better than others. The flavors blend together, the dressing brings out the vegetables... That's what happened with this combination. I don't usually name recipes after myself, but I was so proud of how this turned out, I decided it could be my own salad namesake.

This salad came from a combination of ingredients I had on hand. Since I liked it so much, I will be sure to have these ingredients on hand in the future to have this again! For a one person serving, I used a whole avocado.

Ingredients:

Lettuce (Green or red leaf)

Arugula

Grape tomatoes

Sliced Red Onion

Feta Cheese

Avocado

Optional Ingredients: chickpeas, kalamata olives

Dressing:

2 Tbs red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp. mustard

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Mix dressing ingredients with a whisk. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday, Food Revolution Friday, Food on Fridays and Foodie Fridays.

Real Food and Religion series: Christianity

2010-05-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

Our guest post today comes from Cara Faus. Cara lives in Montana with her husband and two young children. She loves learning about nutrition and God's natural remedies through food, herbs, and holistic medicine. She writes at Health, Home and Happiness.

Real Food and Religion: Christianity

Christianity, being more of a relationship with God than a religion with strict rules, presents itself in many different ways. I am here to share how my relationship with God affects how I feed my family, how I am learning and growing in how I believe God wants us to deal with food, and personal convictions that I hold. Everything I share is going to be from my personal perspective, open to changing as I grow and change as a Christian and as I learn about health and nutrition. Further, I believe that God calls different people to focus on different things at different times; I don't think that my way is best for everyone in every situation.

Our convictions about food are to eat food naturally as God designed it. We believe that before the fall of man everyone ate a raw vegan diet from the garden, not requiring any work. After the fall, and subsequent flood, we believe that humans have needed to do a little more work for their food (till, plant, harvest, hunt, cook- Genesis 3:19) and that God did give us the knowledge of how to properly prepare foods, along with specific dietary laws. While we know that following the food-related laws is not necessary for salvation (Romans 14:20) and we have no desire to be legalistic with them, we do think that they are good guidelines as a general way to eat, and that's why God gave them in the first place.

We don't want to drive anyone away from God because of our eating habits, so if our general 'eating rules' are going to be an actual hindrance to helping someone's relationship with God, then we will gladly eat whatever is appropriate at the time.

Our food convictions as of now:

We stay away from pork, bear, or any animal that doesn't have cloven hooves or fish that don't have fins and scales. The pork issue is what comes up most often, and I will happily eat a BLT at someone else's house, though I just keep in mind that 'unclean meats' aren't the best thing to serve my family and we choose not to buy and serve pork. For me it's more of, "God said this- if I don't have a good reason to go against it, I'll go ahead and just do what He said in the Bible."

We eat whole foods that have been traditionally prepared. I believe that God either directly told people how to prepare food (such as soaking grains), or He gave earlier generations intuition on how to make food in a fallen world most nutritious.

We seek medical help naturally first, in most cases. We're doing the GAPS diet, which doesn't allow grains although there are many mentions of grains as acceptable food in the diet. I believe that God gives us understanding of the body, and oftentimes gentle solutions to chronic problems through diet. I also believe that a diet with too many non-food items (preservatives, food dye,etc) in it will cause problems, though it will be different degrees for different people. While it may sound extreme to some, I felt God was leading me to get rid of a root canal I had, and a variety of health problems went away that were associated with it.

We strive to balance doing what we believe to be best for our physical bodies with what is realistic and best for us and others spiritually. This is constantly changing for our family; you can see in our 'journey to real food' that we are constantly taking baby steps to eat how we think God would like us to. We also are constantly checking ourselves to try to make sure we're not being over the top and trusting in food rather than God for our health.

We want to make sure we're not focusing on food to the point that we neglect other parts of our lives- so our meals aren't always perfectly balanced if it was more important to rock a cranky baby to sleep or help a friend move. Sometimes we do order pizza (for hubby and me), and sometimes the kids eat date-nut balls for dinner ~smile~. We try to think of what is the best thing I could be doing at this particular time- and that isn't always going to be preparing a fresh balanced meal three times a day; though I believe that as I get better at planning and family management, it will be possible to eat 'God's best' just about all the time.

With the kids, because we feel that as parents it's our duty to give our kids the best start reasonably possible, we do avoid letting them have food that we know will harm them. As a result, I do end up saying 'no' to french fries or Coke for the 9-month-old, or gold fish crackers for my 3-year-old who is on a diet to help with some developmental issues. While this could be too legalistic for some, it's what are convictions are regarding balancing the physical needs of our young children (especially since we can see a difference in them, so we know it affects them) and the feelings of those who are around our kids and may offer food. My husband and I don't mind eating a little junk food every once in a while to better 'fit in' with others, but we can handle stuff better since we're adults without health issues.

We have friends that we fellowship with that eat how we do, but as a general rule our church still eats the typical American diet. We usually just try to not focus on food, but focus on the Lord and everything seems to work out just fine!

More:

My thoughts on the book The Maker's Diet. I think this book is great for any Christian who is interested in changing their diet, whether it is to loose weight or for a health issue like diabetes.

How God has lead us to look into different child-related issues including birth, breastfeeding, and vaccinations.

Healthy Snack Ideas

2010-05-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

My sister requested a post about healthy snacks. Then she added "besides fruits or vegetables." Well, that's hard to do, because most of what we eat around here are fruits and vegetables. I was still able to put together this list, but could use some more healthy ideas, so be sure to leave your good snack ideas in the comments section if you have something yummy to add.

For snacks, the key is to having it readily available. If you're like me, you aren't going to sit around and wait for an egg to boil when you are hungry for a snack-- I want it now! So, I always try to have some snack foods available. Boil several eggs at a time and keep them in your fridge. Make a large batch of hummus and buy pre-cut vegetables (or just pre-cut them yourself and save some money). Keep fruit dip in the fridge. Whatever it is you like, plan for it ahead of time, so that you're not reaching for anything you can get your hands on when you need a snack.

Fruit

Apples/ Bananas and Peanut butter dip- mix equal parts yogurt and peanut butter
Peanut Butter Apples- Cut an apple in half and scoop out seeds and stem. Fill the cavity with peanut butter. Put the apple back together. It travels well and won't turn brown. Plus, it's like a little apple surprise that something is hiding in the middle.
Smoothies- I like a frozen banana blended with peanut butter, ice, and milk. Berry smoothies with milk and yogurt are also delicious.
Grapes and cheese

Vegetables

Vegetables with Hummus- carrots, sugar snap peas, and grape tomatoes are good
Tomato and Mozzarella Skewers- Alternate grape tomatoes and mozzarella balls on a skewer. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top. Sprinkle with dried basil. The friend who taught me this one also uses cut up string cheese if she's out of fresh mozzarella. Of course, you could always make your own...
Veggie platter- A while back I bought one of those platters with a circle in the center for dip and sections all around. When I put veggies on there and a little hummus or dip in the middle, the kids think they are having a special treat, even though it's still just vegetables (Don't tell them; we've got a good thing going here). For dip, I mix 1 cup sour cream with 1/2 tsp. of each of the following: garlic powder, onion powder, salt, parsley.

Crackers
There are very few store bought crackers I would recommend. When you read the label on most of them, you will see hydrogenated oils, added sugar, and all kinds of other additives and preservatives. If I had to buy some from a store, I would probably go with Kashi brand. But there is the option of making them your self. I have made both of the recipes below. I use Katie's method of rolling them right on my baking stone. It makes it much easier and you can roll them really thin.
Also, it's a good idea to add some fat or protein with your crackers (like cheese).

Homemade Wheat Thins
Homemade Graham Crackers - I've made this without the brown sugar and it turns out. You just need to add a little more milk ( 1-2 Tbsp.) so it won't be too dry.

And more...

Cottage cheese
Hard Boiled Egg
Nuts and dried fruit
Yogurt
Slice of whole wheat bread with butter or peanut butter for fat
Popcorn popped in coconut oil

Real Food and Religion series: Southern Baptist

2010-05-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Our guest post today comes from Michelle Brumgard. She has a blog called Traditional Simplicity where you will find her blogging about real food, time management and Miessence.

Real food and religion is very interesting. "The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin is the book I recommend to everyone in describing my religious beliefs about real food. If you wish, skip everything else in the book, just read the sections referencing the bible. Why does the Genesis diet not work? He tells us and shares the bible verses that confirm these beliefs. Real food is how my two Great Grandmothers, who both recently passed away at 98 and 103, ate every day. Realizing the way they ate and lived had something to do with their fabulous health into golden years, I began to think about real food. After reading "The Maker's Diet," I was convinced real food was the way for me to eat. I am a Southern Baptist, if I were to "label" my religion. Southern Baptists view the bible as the ultimate authority in shaping their lives. We believe in only one God, who is revealed as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. A heaven and hell is very real. The only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, believing God sent his only Son to earth to die on the cross to forgive us from all our sins. By faith, asking God to forgive us of our sins and acknowledging our belief in his son dying for those sins, gains us entrance into salvation; eternal life in heaven. This is the only way to heaven. We remember God's grace in sending Jesus to earth through the Lord's Supper. After receiving God into our lives and accepting him as our savior, we believe in baptism of the new believer. We do not believe in infant baptism. Baptism is meant to be a symbolic act, picturing what Jesus Christ did for the new believer through death, burial, and resurrection. It is only done by believers and as a testimony of their new faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is also a symbolic act of washing away the past life, resurrecting in the new life, as a new believer in Jesus Christ. In all my life, I cannot recall learning about any specific teaching of how a believer in Christ should eat. I recall many of potlucks and even my church today, holds an annual Chili cook off. So food is very much a part of our fellowship. In my personal quest to live the best life God has created for me, I am continually seeking to glorify his name. I do believe that when Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden, it became mandatory for them to consume flesh for protein. They needed the meat protein to sustain their lives in the new, hard, manual work they were now required to do. I have also become to believe we should try to eat foods as close to the way God created them, hence my belief in real food. I am often asked what I mean by real food. The simplest explanation I can give is, how did God give it to us? I believe he gave us wood to create fire and that the food was meant to be cooked. He did not give us the chemical equations that now create much of what fills out grocers. God gave us beef cows, dairy cows, deer, elk, bear, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and so much more. He did not give us high fructose corn syrup, MSG, red dye, etc. Eating as close to the way God created, I hope to continually strive to feed my family this way. If you have any questions or want to join with me in this journey, stop by my site "Traditional Simplicity."

A Mini Book Report about FAT

2010-04-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Of all the differences with my "real food lifestyle," fat is by far the most misunderstood. After a comment from a reader here; my sister asking, "Butter is only good in moderation, right?;" and conversations with friends about "fattening" food; I decided a post detailing fats was in order. I am going to do this in a book report. All of this information comes from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon in the Introduction section on Fats.

Fats:

Fats provide energy, are used for building cell walls and hormones, and slow nutrient absorption (so we can go longer between meals). They allow our body to use fat soluble vitamins and absorb some minerals.

Saturated fats make up more than half of cell membranes. Saturated fats keep our bones healthy by allowing calcium to be incorporated. They lower Lp(a), defined as "a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease." They protect the liver from toxins. They build the immune system. We need them to use omega 3 fatty acids. The fat around our heart is highly saturated. Saturated fats protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.

We have been taught that fat and cholesterol are harmful to our bodies. This theory, by Ancel Keyes, is called the Lipid Hypothesis. (Note that it is a hypothesis, but taught widely as fact.) There were many flaws in his research, but his theory received more publicity than opposing views, partly due to backing by the vegetable oil and food processing industries. Fallon says, "Most people would be surprised to learn that there is, in fact, very little evidence to support the contention that a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat actually reduces death from heart disease or in any way increases one's life span."

She then sites the following studies:

*In 1920, heart disease was rare. In the mid 1950's, heart disease was the leading cause of death in the U.S. Today it causes at least 40% of all deaths in this country. If what we have been taught is true, and saturated fats cause heart disease, then "one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fat in the American diet." But that's not what happened: saturated fat consumption decreased from 83% in 1910, to 62% in 1970. Butter went from 18 pounds per person each year to only 4. In this same time frame, vegetable oils increased 400% and sugar and processed food went up 60%.

* The Framingham Heart Study, which took place in Framingham, Massachucetts, collected data from 6000 people every 5 years starting in 1948. There were two groups: one who consumed small amounts of fat and cholesterol, and another who ate large amounts. After 40 years of this experiment, the director said, "In Framingham, Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol... We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active."

*A British study of several thousand men divided the men into two groups. The men on the strict diet reduced their saturated fat and cholesterol, stopped smoking and increased consumption of unsaturated oils. The other half continued on as they had, with no reduction in saturated fat or cholesterol, and were even permitted to continue smoking. After a year, the men on the strict diet had 100% more deaths than those who did not change their behaviors.

*MRFIT (Multiple Risk Intervention Trial) was a study comparing the death rates and eating habits of more than 12,000 men. The men who reduced saturated fat, cholesterol and smoking had a marginal decrease in coronary heart disease, BUT their mortality rate was higher. There was an increase in deaths from cancer, brain hemorrhage, suicide and violent death. Other studies have had similar results.

* The LRC-CPPT (Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial) gave all subjects a low fat, low cholesterol diet and cholesterol lowering drug or placebo. The subjects given the drug had a 24% decrease in heart disease related death, but other causes of death increased (cancer, stroke, violence and suicide). This study is often cited to give proof in favor of low fat diets, though low fat diets were not tested at all in this study (only the cholesterol lowering drug was).

*Michael DeBakey conducted a survey of 1700 patients and found no correlation between cholesterol in the blood and hardening of the arteries. A survey of South Carolina adults had similar results.

*Mothers milk is high in cholesterol and fat. Over 50% of calories in breast milk come from fat.

*Traditionally, people used animal fats.

Yemenites in Yemen: eat fats of animal origin. Yemenites living in Israel used vegetable fats (and large amounts of sugar). There was little heart disease or diabetes with the Yemenites in Yemen, but large amounts of both with the Yemenites in Israel.

India: People in Northern India eat 17 times more animal fat but have a 7 times lower rate of heart disease than people in Southern India.

Masai in Africa: eat mainly blood, milk and beef and have no heart disease and low cholesterol levels.

Eskimos: Eat lots of animal fats and have little or no heart disease on their native diet.

China: A study found that those in areas where whole milk was consumed in large amounts had half the rate of heart disease as those where only small amounts of animal products were consumed.

Mediterranean: Fat (including saturated fat from lamb, sausage and goat cheese) equals up to 70% of their calories. They are known for their low rates of heart disease.

Puerto Rico: The Puerto Ricans

Soviet Georgia: Those who ate the most fatty meat lived the longest.

Okinawa: The average life span for women is 84 years. They eat pork, seafood, and cook their food in lard.

In Conclusion...

If you had come up to me 10 years ago and told me that I would be blogging in favor of fats today, I think I would have said "Yeah, right" (and also, "what's blogging?"). Everything I'd ever read in magazines, fitness publications (I used to teach aerobics), nutrition/ diet books, and saw on the news said that fat is BAD. But the more I read about the actual studies that have been done, the more I realize, there was little reason to ever think that. Fat is not only necessary for our bodies and health, it is essential. And yes, saturated fat, I mean you.

I'd love to hear about any studies that helped convinced you that fat was not an evil villain, and how you got over your fat phobias. Please share!

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays.

Real Food and Religion series: Lutheran meets Seventh-day Adventist

2010-04-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

Our guest blogger for today is Meg Dickey. Her blog is about Godly living, health/ nutrition and children.

My name is Meg Dickey. I am the wife and helpmeet to my husband, Brian. We are the proud parents of three beautiful children, aged 4, 2, and 3 months. I am happy to stay at home and minister to our family.   I blog at Cracking an Egg with One Hand. You are welcome to browse our family’s menu plans, and my Titus 2 Thursday posts, where I pass along articles that give encouragement to wives and mothers.
            When my husband and I first began dating, my parents expressed the belief that our married religious experience was going to end up like a bad joke – “A Lutheran marries a Seventh-day Adventist…” Exactly where do you go with that? As the years of our marriage have passed, we’ve navigated our way through with much prayer, fasting, and sincere desire to worship our Lord. We attend the children’s service on Saturday mornings at the Adventist church, and then attend the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran church for services on Sunday morning. It’s convoluted, but it works, and gives us a completely different mindset for the entire weekend, rather than just “church time”.
            One of the biggest differences we first noticed in our respective religions is the Seventh-day Adventist approach to food & eating. It is a predominantly vegetarian/vegan lifestyle (which I was raised on). After our marriage, in attempt to conjoin the bacon-loving Lutheran and the soy-loving vegetarian, we began actively seeking God’s guidance for our eating habits/choices. Through our study of the Scriptures, we felt that there was no real command, or even suggestion that vegetarianism was “best”. We did find, however, that there are specific commands for what types of meat are “best” for God’s people – a way to set themselves apart from the world in all things, be it eating, drinking, or manner of dress. We also began to delve deeper into how we wanted to approach health in light of a soy allergy (in our oldest son), a dairy allergy (in our second son and myself), and a genuine desire to eat, live, and feel better.
            We chose to eliminate all pork products, soy, and most pasteurized dairy products. We were blessed enough to discover that raw dairy does not affect our son or myself, so we drink plenty of raw goat’s milk from our own goats.
            I find it slightly amusing that the other two things we chose to eliminate from our diets (pork/soy) are hardest to avoid in the respective churches – when we attend potlucks at the Adventist church we are greatly limited by the soy products, while at the Lutheran church, we are usually hard pressed to find something that does not contain pork. Food is such an integral part of fellowshipping with other believers – potlucks are the most definitive example of this, although there is also a “coffee break” after service at the Lutheran church, which usually contains several items of the “high sugar” variety… something else we strive to limit in our children. My husband and I try to be vigilant with our family’s food goals, but we are careful to never allow it to become a stumbling block, in either our lives or those around us.
            We have learned over the years to base our choices in life, whether it be regarding food, dress, raising children, or any other thing, to base our decisions on the Word of God, and not on what the “latest research” might say. My husband is fond of quoting Isaiah 40:8 [“the word of the LORD endures forever”] to me when I’m showing him an article on a new fad, or new approach to something – a constant reminder that I should balance everything with the word of God before considering how to apply it to our family. It keeps not only myself in check, but it inspires me to dig deeper into the Word. And really, isn’t that what our greatest aspiration should be? :)

No- Knead Artisan Bread

2010-04-28T06:24:00.000-07:00

When I first heard about no-knead bread, I wasn't too impressed. I mean, kneading is not very hard (especially when you have a KitchenAid). The thing that really stood out to me about this recipe and finally convinced me to try it, was that it comes out like artisan bread from the bakery- crusty on the outside with a soft center. This bread is AMAZING!! Jim Lahey came up with the technique, which involves an overnight (or all day) rise. You will need some kind of ovenproof pot to cook it in. I have tried this bread with half wheat and half white flours, but it is equally as good with all wheat flour.

Whole Wheat No-Knead Artisan Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 1/2- 1 3/4 cups cool water

Wheat bran, coarse cornmeal or more flour for dusting

Directions:

1. Stir together flour, salt, yeast in a medium bowl. Add water and mix well using a wooden spoon. The dough should be wet and sticky. Add more water if needed. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours.
2. On a floured surface, shape dough into a loose round.
3. Generously dust a clean cloth with flour. Place dough on cloth. Dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal or flour. Fold ends of the towel over on the bread.
4. Let rise until almost doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours.
5. After dough has risen for at least 30 minutes, preheat oven to 475. Heat a covered 3 1/2 quart ovenproof pot (I use a Dutch oven) for 30 minutes or until dough is ready. REmove pot from oven. Uncover and add bread. (This is the hardest part. Be careful not to get burnt!) Slide your hand under the towel and flip the bread in. Cover with lid.
6. Bake for 30 minutes; uncover pot. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Real Food and Religion series: Latter Day Saint

2010-04-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Our post today comes from Kris Godak. She blogs at dietwithkris, all about eating whole foods. She includes lots of recipes and thoughts on food and diet.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Most of you probably know us as the Mormons. We prefer to be called "Latter Day Saints." Saints in this phrase means that we are followers of Christ. As such, we follow the teachings of the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. We also count as scripture, the Book of Mormon, which was written at about the same time as the New Testament, but its audience was the people on the American Continent. It is referred to as "another testament of Jesus Christ." It does not contradict the teachings of the Bible, but gives us another perspective. In addition, we have a record of modern revelation received through our living prophets, beginning in the early 1800's. This doctrine is where our code of health is found. Joseph Smith, through revelation from God, presented to the Saints what we refer to as "The Word of Wisdom."

The Word of Wisdom, in its entirety can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 89. If you would like to read it, here is the link: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/89/17#17. I'll paraphrase it for you here.

First, there is a list of things we should not consume. The Word of Wisdom tells us that drinking wine is not good, and isn't pleasing to God. It tells us that it would only be appropriate when giving sacraments (communion). And if we use it for that purpose, this wine should be homemade. We are told that strong drinks are not to be taken internally but can be used for washing the body. Tobacco is not to be used for the body nor taken internally, but can be used for bruises or sick cattle. We are also told not to consume "hot drinks."

The best part tells us what we should consume. We are taught that all wholesome herbs are ordained by God for the use of man. Every herb and fruit should be eaten in its season with prudence and thanksgiving. Meat of both land animals and birds are also ordained by God to be used but we are to use them sparingly, and only in times of winter, cold, or famine. All grain is to be used for man and animal and is to be the staff of life. It is repeated that meat should be used sparingly, and repeated that wheat, particularly, is the grain for man.

In the last part of the Word of Wisdom, we are promised blessings for following this code of health. We are told that we we'll receive health in our navels and marrow in our bones. We will find wisdom and treasures of knowledge. We shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

You can tell this was written a long time ago. As modern Latter-day Saints, we have to interpret what must have been meant by such doctrine. For instance, we have adopted the idea that "wine" and "strong drink" refer to alcoholic beverages. Devout Latter-day Saints do not partake of these at all. Even our sacrament meetings (communion) no longer include wine or even grape juice. We use water which has been blessed with a special prayer for this purpose. As for tobacco, we take the Word of Wisdom to mean that we shouldn't chew or smoke it. "Hot drinks" have been interpreted to mean coffee and tea. Science has shown us that these items aren't healthy for various reasons, particularly the addictive stimulant caffeine. Many Latter-day Saints do consume caffeine, though, in soda or chocolate. Since the law doesn't use the word "caffeine," many choose not to interpret it to mean that.

Mormon culture embraces the Word of Wisdom, for the most part. We certainly are a wheat-eating people. Most LDS have a good supply of stored whole wheat berries. We know that in the event of a disaster, we could live on this wheat for a long time. We truly believe that it is the "staff of life" and it is the #1 item purchased for emergency preparedness. Most LDS families are gardeners. We even have a song in our Children's Songbook called, "The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden." Here are the lyrics:

The prophet said to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do.
For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too.
And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully,
Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family.

We’ll plant the seeds to fill our needs, then plant a few to spare,
And show we love our neighbors with the harvest that we share.
Oh, won’t you plant a garden, too, and share the many joys
A garden brings in health and love to happy girls and boys!

From an early age, we teach our children the importance of growing our own produce. We teach them this so they can be healthy and self-sufficient. I think the Word of Wisdom and Mormon culture part company, however, when it comes to meat. Most LDS women, when planning their meals, start with a list of what meat will be served for dinner each night, and then plan an entree around that meat. I know many LDS women who would like to better follow the council to "eat meat sparingly" but have heard them complain that "my husband would never go for it." I struggle with this in my own home, too. American culture puts meat in every meal, and it is hard to break from this. I serve one vegetarian dinner in my home each week, and try to make my meat go further in my other dinners by using less meat than a recipe calls for and supplementing with extra grain (like 1/2 lb of ground meat and 1/2 lb cooked barley in my tacos). I think I'm the exception though. Most Mormon dinners include a large portion of meat.

Though this does not break any rule in the Word of Wisdom per se, I must mention that there are some classic LDS recipes that are just not healthy. If you stay in an LDS home long enough, you will most likely eat:

a potato casserole using frozen hashbrowns, cream of chicken soup, and velveeta cheese
tater tot casserole with cream of something soup, hamburger, canned corn, and tater tots on top
a salad containing jello, cool whip, and marshmallows
chocolate chip cookies made with butter flavor crisco (the secret ingredient) and white flour
homemade white bread with margarine and sugar sweetened homemade jam
home-canned peaches or pears in sugar syrup
some super-yummy cinnamon rolls with powdered sugar icing
Tang or Kool-aid

It is hard to be LDS and not partake of these things. These foods mean comfort and love. Sigh....

Real Food and Religion series: Christ Follower

2010-04-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Kris Mays is a Christ Follower, wife of 18 years to David and mother to five children ages 11-1, whom she home schools in rural Oregon. Beyond that, her passions are writing, raising food, cooking, and nutrition. You can find her on the web at www.homeschoolblogger.com/misskris

I don't care much for the word "religion." It's always grated. To me, the word religion implies living by a set of rules and regulations. Now I know that is not necessarily the dictionary definition of the word "religion," but I think it's the idea most people get when they hear the word. I also think it's one reason many don't seek a more "spiritual life."

For me, my faith isn't about following a set of rules, it's about pleasing God. It's a relationship with my Maker. Matthew 22:37-39 says, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (KJV) Those two commandments pretty much cover it all. If I do these things, I am pleasing God. If I do these things, I am automatically following the Ten Commandments.

The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is full of the many laws and dietary restrictions God set forth for his people. I don't pretend to know all God's reasons for these. But I do believe the dietary restrictions were to help set God's people apart from the world, and to help protect their health for future generations. Today, I don't live under Old Testament law. I live under God's grace and my freedom in Christ. Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." (KJV) This means there is nothing I can do to save myself, only God can do that through His son, Jesus. He did that.

According to Romans 14, I have full freedom in Christ to choose what to eat and what to drink. However, if what I eat or drink offends others, then that is sin, as I would be breaking the Second Commandment to love others more than myself. So obviously, if I should serve forbidden foods to my Jewish friend, this would cause offense. If I serve sausage to my family in my home when no one who would be offended was present, to me that is okay. However, if I am personally convicted to follow an Old Testament diet, then I should do that.

We have for several years tried to avoid pork and we seriously limit shellfish (which I personally don't eat at all). This is because we feel that health is a big reason God gave these restrictions in the Old Testament. We have also read about the parasites in swine, etc., that we'd really rather not have anything to do with. That said, we do eat bacon on occasion (from responsibly raised swine), because it's not about rules. Remember, we live in freedom. It's about balance and health. And sometimes we just really feel like eating some bacon!

In our church, I think most people eat just about anything. I don't see many abstaining from items because they are "unclean" and I know there are folks in our church that drink alcohol (we personally don't because of the Second Commandment). Food is definitely an important part of fellowship in many churches. Church potlucks, in general, are famous for their good food. Our church is quite large, so we meet in home groups during the week and those meetings generally include a shared meal. We are home group leaders, so we can steer the direction of the meals ourselves or decide to forego it.

As a mother of five children, I take seriously my job of feeding them nutritious foods and guarding their health. Just recently, I came to the realization that taking care of our bodies IS loving God. We should respect and be good stewards of His creation, and our bodies are a part of that creation. Although food and health has been an interest for years, this was a real light bulb moment for me. In the past year, we have been making some real changes in our diet and the way we prepare our meals. As I master one new concept, I move on to another. Like most who are on this healthy eating journey, I read and learn everyday. I pray and ask for wisdom. I talk to my husband, and then we do what we feel God would have us do for our family.

Some web sites that have been very helpful to me in my nourishing food journey are:

www.heavenlyhomemakers.com

www.thenourishinggourmet.com

www.passionatehomemaking.com

www.azurestandard.com

Real Food for Babies

2010-04-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

Our six month old started "solids" recently. My husband thought I was crazy when I told him that instead of the mainstream, politically correct rice cereal as his first food... I wanted to feed him butter.
"Butter?" he asked, "Who eats butter?"
"Butter is good for you," I answered.
"Yeah, but we don't eat it by itself."
I perservered and fed our baby butter. Why butter? It's full of fat, which babies need a lot of for their developing brain. We then fed him avocado, full fat yogurt, and banana. He still hasn't had grains which are harder to digest, but he will probably start them soon.

I have a confession to make: sitting there spooning baby food into a baby's mouth is not on my top ten list of things to do. (In fact, I'd rather change diapers!) I could not wait for the day when my babies were old enough for finger foods! The good news is that letting your baby feed himself is actually a good thing. It develops hand mouth coordination and lets the baby choose how much to eat.

Because our baby is still working on the coordination, and because I want to get as much food as I can in his little tummy just in case it will help him sleep through the night(!), we have a two part approach to feeding right now. We let the baby sit with our family at dinner. On his high chair tray, we put small amounts of food (usually part of what we're eating) and let him work on getting it to his mouth. Then, before bedtime, we feed him with a spoon.

If you haven't made your own baby food, it is really easy. I did this with all my kids because it cost less and because you can choose exactly what goes in it.

All you need is a food processor or food mill or even a blender. Any fruit or vegetable will work, but it's best to use organics for your baby so you expose them to as little pesticide residue as possible.

Here's what I do:
Cook the vegetable.
Puree it.
Separate into ice cube trays. When frozen, store in an airtight container in the freezer. Then reheat and serve.

Ideas for baby foods:
Peas- heat in saucepan
Sweet potatoes- bake
Apples-peel, chop, then boil with a little water until soft
Bananas- mush with a fork, serve raw
Avocadoes- mush with a fork, serve raw
Carrots- steam until tender
Berries- no need to cook, puree raw fruit
Green beans- steam until tender

Other baby foods:
Plain yogurt
Butter
Cheese
Eggs, scrambled
Beans (Kidney, black, pinto, etc.)

Check out this resource list by Nina Planck, author of Real Food for Mothers and Baby.

Kate at Modern Alternative Mama posted her thoughts about feeding babies here.
Please add any foods I've missed and any other tips you may have; I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Real Food and Religion series: The Levitical Diet

2010-04-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

Today our guest blogger is Hallee who blogs at HalleetheHomemaker. She blogs about family, food, homemaking and her religious beliefs. We'll take a break from the Real Food and Religion series and I'll cover some of your questions over the weekend, and then we have some more great guest bloggers coming up next week. Enjoy!

I am a Christian. I am a devout, set-myself-apart, Bible believing Christian who strives to make everything I am and all that I can be for God, to God, or about God. My beliefs are not tied to any specific religion. As a family, we choose to worship God in and work for God through and with the My family and I chose to worship God in a the Church of God (formerly called the "First Church of God of Anderson Indiana") for a few reasons:

They are a holiness church, and choose to use the Bible as a guideline for what to believe rather than a written doctrine.
We have a strong family background within the Church of God that goes back several generations.
They have a strong focus on missions, and this is extremely important to our family.
The area in which we live and the surrounding areas have many different Church of God churches, providing opportunities for inter-church fellowship and meeting.

This specific article is supposed to talk about our religion and what it teaches about food and abstaining from certain foods. I did some research, because I couldn't find anything readily available to me about foods within the Church of God, and had never heard or seen anything specifically taught about it. It seems that without a written doctrine, and using the Bible as a guideline for belief, that there would be something taught about food or abstaining from foods, but there is not. They do believe in abstaining from all alcohol. Other than that, and since there is no written doctrine, the abstaining from alcohol is simply an understood and traditional practice, there is nothing else other than a regular observance of the Communion that is done with bread or crackers and grape juice.
Apart from having any specific rules about food or abstaining from food, our church body definitely has a food culture. In nearly every instance of fellowship with the church body, there is food. Be it a "Soup-er" Bowl party on Super Bowl Sunday night with different soups and chili's being enjoyed together after evening worship, Valentine Dinners, Corn Husking picnics in the early fall when the corn comes in, or just a potluck supper "Linger Longer" after morning worship. Food is a way to bring people together, a chance to sit at a different table and chat with a brother or sister in Christ and enjoy the company of fellow believers.
Our church does some sort of fellowship something at least once a month, if not more often. It is definitely one of the benefits of being part of our congregation.
Our family, however, apart from the organized religion that we choose as a worship and works platform, follows a Levitical diet. We believe that the restrictions God gave pertaining to food in Leviticus are there for health reasons.

What is the Levitical Diet?

There may be some confusion between what defines a Levitical Diet -- sometimes also called a Levitican Diet -- and how it is different from a Kosher diet. The principles of keeping Kosher go far beyond the principles of a Levitical Diet. Without writing a book to explain the differences, there are 3 principles to the Levitical Diet and they are:

Eat only substances that God created for food. Avoid what is not designed for food.
As much as possible, eat foods as they were created - before they were changed or converted into something humans think might be better
Avoid food addictions. Don't let any food or drink become your god.

The reasons our family follows these principles are easy to explain. The bottom line is that the Levitical Diet is healthier than alternative eating lifestyles (III John 1:2). However, the diet we choose for our family does not reflect judgment of what others eat or how they prepare their food. When we are guests at another person's table, we eat whatever is offered in the spirit of hospitality and are blessed by their generosity (Romans 14:2-17). While we realize that following this diet is NOT the key to our salvation, we follow the guidelines offered in God's word as an act of worship and faithfulness.

The Principles

1) In brief, the first principle allows for eating what the Bible calls "Clean" foods and avoiding foods that the Bible deems "Unclean."
Clean foods include herbivorous animals that have divided hooves and chew cud, such as cattle, sheep, and goats (Leviticus 11:3); all fish that have fins and scales, either fresh or salt water fish, such as perch, trout, tuna, and salmon (Leviticus 11:9); birds that do not eat carrion such as chicken, pheasant, goose, duck, and turkey (Leviticus 11:13-19); a few insects (so we have something to complain about, I guess) like locusts and grasshoppers (Leviticus 11:21-22)- dried locust is nearly 75% protein which could explain how John the Baptist remained in such good health; milk (Exodus 3:8); all seed-bearing fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables (Genesis 1:29); and honey - we purchase our honey from a local beekeeper and we try to get the comb as well. If you don't have a source of local honey, try your best to purchase "pure honey" (Exodus 3:8).
Unclean foods include pork, kangaroo, rabbit, anything without a divided hoof and chews the cud (Leviticus 11:4-8, 26-28); fat (Leviticus 7:23); blood (Leviticus 7:26); kidneys; (Leviticus 3:4 ) bottom feeders such as catfish, oyster, shrimp, crab, lobster, shark, octopus, squid, clams, coral, and any fish that doesn't have scales and fins; any plant that grows in water, whether salt or fresh water, such as spirulina (algae), sea weed, kelp, and food additives such as carrageenan (Leviticus 11:10-12); birds that eat carrion such as the eagle, osprey, hawk, kite, vulture, raven, ostrich (including eggs), goat sucker, seagull, buzzard, swan, pelican, owl, carrion eagle, stork, heron, crane, hoopoe; bats (Leviticus 11:13-20); any insects that crawl, as opposed to hopping like locust and grasshopper, which makes nearly every insect off limits (Leviticus 11:23-25); rodents such as the mole, mouse, rat, and shrew; any animal torn, mangled or worried (painful death such as roadkill); any cattle dying of disease (Leviticus 11:29-43); all reptiles including turtles, lizards, alligators, and snakes (Leviticus 11:4, 10, 29, 42); and any food that has touched anything unclean, such as a mouse chewed on it (Leviticus 7:23).
The health reasons for the distinctions between clean and unclean are fairly apparent. Avoiding unclean foods means avoiding harmful toxins and possible disease. For example, unhealthy toxins are stored in the fat and removed by the kidneys of every animal. Bottom feeders were created to remove toxins from the seas and their flesh is full of unhealthy toxins and metals. There are many, many reasons to avoid pork. Pigs will literally eat anything, and pork can contain up to 30 times more toxins than beef or venison.
Conversely, lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, milk, and scaled fish are healthy foods in so many, many ways. The benefits of each are so plentiful, I won't attempt to list them all, but they include: good proteins and amino acids, healthy omega-3's and 6's, healthy carbohydrates, and balanced measures of beneficial and soluble minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
2) As much as possible, eat foods as they were created - before they were changed or converted into something humans think might be better. There are some excellent examples of this and more and more research is showing that the further we remove ourselves from our food sources, the unhealthier we become as a result.
Consider margarine: Leviticus 7:23 prohibits eating any of the fat of even clean cattle. God noted in Leviticus 3:17that this would be a "perpetual statute" prohibiting the eating of fat. Back in the nineteenth century, a Frenchman learned how to turn vegetable oil into an artificial animal fat substitute we know as margarine in direct conflict with the Levitical dietary law. In the last 200 years, we have changed our diets and our lifestyles so much that we have caused an epidemic of cancer, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Angina pectoris has only been described in the English medical literature for the last 200 years. Two hundred years before, NONE of these diseases or conditions existed at all or in any appreciable numbers.
Consider unfermented soy. In recent studies, even the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has listed unfermented soy as an Endocrine Disrupting Chemical (EDC) meaning it contains natural hormones that emulate human hormones, the consumption of which can lead to obesity, infertility, genital malformation, reduced male birth rates, precocious puberty, miscarriage, behavior problems, brain abnormalities, impaired immune function, various cancers, and cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association (AHA) recently withdrew support for any definitive health claims related to soy protein and coronary conditions.
Consider genetically modified or engineered foods (GMOs or GEOs) many of which are sterile and thus are not "seed-producing" which has been linked to a variety of health concerns including many of the same problems with unfermented soy.
Consider high fructose corn syrup, added to literally everything from ketchup to cough syrup, which shuts down the human metabolism and has been linked to high blood pressure. Consider enriched bleached, white flour" which contains none of the healthy oils or nutrients of whole grains and is enriched with industrial grade chemicals.
Consider that it is highly unlikely that you will ever encounter any health problems as a result of preparing and eating unmodified "real" foods. You won't live forever, but you will certainly live longer and better as a result.
3) The final principle, that of not making any food or drink or any diet or eating lifestyle into an idol, is a bit subjective but also not difficult to integrate into our eating lifestyle. Some things which can become too important include alcohol, caffeine, and sweets (Ecclesiastes 10:17). Devoting too much energy or too much of your finances to purchase exclusively this or that kind of food is also a danger, especially if you place more financial importance on that practice than on, for instance, offering a tithe (1 Corinthians 10:31). If rich delicacies or rarities rank high on your dietary priority list, this can also present a risk (Proverbs 23:1-3).
One way to break food addictions or binge cycles, a method which also has definite health benefits, is fasting. According to recent studies, Americans in particular rarely if ever experience real hunger anymore. Essentially, we have not yet digested our last meal before we have already eaten our next meal. Therefore, we never feel hungry. A short fast, such as a "daylight" fast can offer time for prayer and meditation and alert you to certain unhealthy cravings or food attachments. If you take no food or drink, or else only allow for drinking pure water, during the hours of daylight, coupled with prayer, your body can send you signals of certain foods which have become too important. This is particularly true of caffeine and alcohol.
A prolonged fast, such as the Daniel's Fast, also offers time for prayer and meditation while weaning your body of possibly dangerous addictions to any but "clean" foods.

Real Food and Religion series: A Christian Perspective

2010-04-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Todays guest post is from Kate Tietje. She blogs at modernalternativemama. She blogs about real food and describes herself as "Living the non-mainstream life: Jesus-loving, debt-free living, home birthing, extended breastfeeding, cloth diapering, non-vaccinating, organic gardening and real-food cooking mama!"

I am a Christian. Currently I attend a non-denominational church that has Baptist roots. I grew up Catholic and my husband grew up Church of God. But now we basically focus on the fact that we follow Jesus.

The biggest thing we take about food from our religion is that sacrifices and ceremony are not necessary. We’ve studied this issue indepth in our Bible studies with friends, and Jesus teaches that the “Ways of Old,” like animal sacrifice or avoiding certain foods, are not necessary, because they are just for show and are not as important as loving people and celebrating with them. This is what we follow – we don’t worry about celebrating with anything in particular, or avoiding anything in particular because we don’t believe that the rituals are as important as the spirit.

However, we strive to eat what is natural and created by God. We try to avoid food that isn’t the way God created it – which is anything that is processed, like store-bought prepared meals, canned foods, etc. We try to be good stewards of the resources God has provided, by doing things like sourcing local foods, picking things wild, etc. It is important to us to eat naturally. Although not as important as not offending our hosts should we be fellowshipping with others who don’t share our passion!

Our church highly encourages us to get together with a small group on a regular basis and share a meal. There is no specific menu, it changes every time (we eat together about once a month). The idea is to sit down and “break bread” together, as Jesus did with many people during His lifetime. Our focus is on togetherness and sharing.

We don’t have much of a problem between science and religion. It’s funny, but I’ve done a lot of research on diet and have come to various conclusions based on my research and my religion, but the “mainstream scientists” don’t agree. Then, within a few weeks or months, a new mainstream study will come out basically proving what I said all along! I have a friend who frequently sends me articles she finds, saying, “There’s that thing you were talking about!” So science vs. religion isn’t really a problem for me.

We do take this seriously! Following God’s design for food and the world (looking for food that is in season, prepared the way it was designed to be, eating things as minimally processed as possible) is very important to us.

Real Food and Religion series: Fundamental Christianity

2010-04-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

The Real Food and Religion Series starts today with this post by Steve and Paula Runyan. They have two blogs, sustainablefirstfruits and steveandpaularunyan.

We attend a home fellowship, which practices fundamental Christianity, as taught by Jesus Christ, recorded in the 4 Gospels and the epistles. We believe in a real Heaven and real Hell, that Satan is a real, living being who opposes God and attempts to win people away from following God. The only way to Heaven is through the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Salvation is a free gift given to any who is willing to repent of their sins and accept the gift.
Our “religion” teaches nothing about food. No foods are forbidden by our fellowship, nor are any required. The body of Christians we fellowship with also has no set standard for food. What we personally believe about food comes from the Bible. Romans 14 is both a literal and allegorical chapter about eating, which we do take literally. We do not observe Old Testament food laws, because of the New Covenant established in the New Testament. We believe the vision of Peter was a literal as well as allegorical event, and that God, as He told Peter, has given us every creeping, swimming, flying and crawling thing for our food. We also find no prohibition against alcohol in the Bible, in fact, the opposite, as when Paul tells Timothy to drink wine for his stomach. The Bible does command us not to drink in excess; “be not drunk with wine, but the Spirit.”
Personally, we have begun to take a very critical look at today’s food culture in the US. Tied to this is also modern medicine. When God created the earth, after each event He looked at it and declared, “This is good.” Now in many instances our government and food safety agencies are telling us that many of God’s created foods are not good, unless they are modified before use. One of the biggest of these cases is milk. Our government tells us milk is dangerous and unhealthy for us, unless it is altered through pasteurization. Yet, it comes from cows, which God created, with big udders that fit perfectly in a human hand. When he made cows, they were declared to be good. Throughout the Bible, the phrase “milk and honey” is used to denote good, desirable land, or good things. As in Canaan was a land “flowing with milk and honey.” Breast feeding is also frowned upon by many local governments and agencies, though that is God’s design for rearing an infant. We are told that man made formulas are better for our infant children. God didn’t cause milk to flow from a mother for any other reason. So we drink raw milk now, and have seen improvements in our health. We believe many if not all medical conditions in the US are deeply tied to what we eat.
We eat a vast amount of fish and wild game. We believe this is part of our good stewardship of the earth. We also raise chickens for eggs and meat, raise a garden, and pick wild berries. We attempt to feed the chickens an organic diet, as frugally as possible. God’s directive for good animal husbandry takes us away from the industrial meat mills and toward smaller, sustainable farms when we do need to purchase meat. God mandated a 7 year cycle to His people, in resting their fields every 7 years, which helps the land regenerate and should still be practiced today by rotating crops.
Food is a part of our fellowship. We have a large family meal (potluck) after each Sunday meeting, and often meet with families within the congregation for dinner. Food also is used in one of our most important traditions, Breaking of Bread. We use grape juice and crackers or bread, to celebrate communion each Sunday, and remember Christ’s ministry and sacrifice here on earth. We also hunt and fish together sometimes to put up food for the winter. Fish and game often makes up a part of the potluck dinner on Sunday, as well.
Blessings,
Steve and Paula Runyan

www.steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com
www.sustainablefirstfruits.blogspot.com

Coming up...

2010-04-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some things that are coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Real Food and Religion Series:
This week we start a series called Real Food and Religion. Many bloggers are helping out and have written great posts I'm excited for you to read. They will talk about how their religions influence their food choices.

I wanted to do this series because our religious beliefs are a driving force for many of us. I wanted to know why people do what they do and eat what they eat. I got back some very thought-provoking answers, and I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I have.

What we believe about where we come from and where we are going influences what we do in between. As a Latter-day Saint (Mormon), we have general health guidelines, but many of the specifics are left up to us. As I have pondered the specifics, I have been led to study our religious guidelines in more depth. A lot of the bloggers whose posts you will read in the next few weeks have done the same thing and learned some really interesting things in the process.

Answering your questions:
In between the Real food and religion series, I will be answering your questions. You had some great things to cover! I will be posting about snacks, desserts, the FDA, and saturated fat. If you have a question, but haven't posted it, just let me know.
Edited to add: I'll also be posting about baby food and some new recipes!

On TV:

Tomorrow night on PBS, Food, Inc. is showing at 9pm. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you watch it. This is a really informative show about what is happening with our food. My husband and I watched it together. Up until that point, he had kind of gone along with all the changes we had made to our eating habits. After that, he said, "Wow, how can we avoid eating like that?" I was happy to tell him, "We already are."

Canning Chicken Broth

2010-04-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

In my post yesterday I explained how I make homemade chicken broth. I divide my chicken broth into 3 unequal parts: some to freeze, some to refrigerate, and some to can.

Freezing
Freezing is a great option because it keeps the nutrients intact and preserves for a long period of time. For me though, it definitely has some down sides: it takes up freezer space (which can be at a premium if the freezer is well stocked) and you have to thaw it. I don't like to use my microwave because when you do, you lose nutrients. So that means freezer food is not convenience food for me. I have to plan to get it out of my freezer about a day in advance to let it thaw in the fridge. And sometimes that works great. But other times I may not have realized I need it and I forget to thaw it... that's when I'm glad not all of my chicken broth is in my freezer.

Refrigerating
Refrigerated chicken broth lasts for 3 to 5 days if you leave the fat on top. After that, you could remove the fat, boil and put it back in the fridge for another 3 to 5 days... but that sounds like a lot of work to me when you could just use it at that point.

Canning
Canning does destroy some nutrients, but from what I can find the jury's out on how much is really lost. (I found different sources saying anywhere from 10-90% of some vitamins are lost!) That is the downside. The things I love about canning are:
Work one day, have food for many days.
Shelf storage: even if the power goes out or there is an emergency, you can use your canned food.
It doesn't take up freezer space.
It lasts a long time.
Cans of food on the pantry shelf gives me a sense of accomplishment and security. Really. I can go in my pantry and think two things, "Wow, I provided this food for my family." and, "No matter what else may go wrong, at least we have food."

How to Pressure Can Chicken Broth:

Remove the fat from your chilled broth.
Heat lids and rings over low heat. Simmer.
Wipe lids and rims of your jars. Top with hot lids and rims.
In a separate pot, boil 3 quarts of water.
Pour boiling water into pressure canner. Add jars.
Close pressure canner and turn heat on high. Let steam flow for 10 minutes.
Add pressure regulator.
Process at 11 pounds pressure. 20 minutes for pints, 25 for quarts.

Chicken Broth

2010-04-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

Chicken Broth is loaded with nutrition. My favorite part is that it's made from leftovers, so it's practically free. Homemade broth tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the store. It makes your gravies and soups taste great. There is a lot of room for variations on the recipe below. You can add salt (I leave it out and add it when I'm using it in recipes), reduce or increase any of the vegetables.

And don't feel like you don't have time to make this if you aren't going to be home all day. It can simmer without you there watching it as long as the heat is low enough.

I buy whole chickens and save all the bones in plastic baggies in the fridge. I separate the chicken into two baggies, cooked bones and raw bones. I also have a baggie for vegetables in the freezer. When I have a baggie or two filled up, it's time to make some broth. Cooking the bones and vegetables intensifies the flavor of the broth.

Ingredients:

Chicken Bones

Onions

Carrots

Celery

Parsley

Garlic

Preheat oven to 450. Roast raw chicken and vegetables for about a half hour. Place all ingredients in a stockpot or other large pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Skim off any impurities that rise to the top. Let it simmer all day or overnight. Just make sure it has a lot of water in there and is at a low temperature to keep too much water from evaporating.

Strain out the solids. Cool. Divide into containers. (I use mason jars.) Chill in the refrigerator. A layer of fat will form on top. You can use it as cooking fat.

Store in the freezer for longer term storage. I can some of the jars with a pressure canner. You lose some nutrients that way, but you have the convenience of being able to pop open a can and it's still much healthier than what you can find in the store.

Any questions??

2010-04-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

My sister suggested that I open up the blog for questions.

Use this comment section to let me know what you would like to see in future posts. Request specific recipes, more information on diet and health, or whatever questions you have. I'm happy to research it if I don't know the answer!

Anytime you want more information on a specific post, please ask in the comment question. I read and respond to all comments!

Soaked Granola

2010-04-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Since posting my granola recipe, I have adapted it to make a soaked version. Soaking oats reduces phytic acid, which was my original reason for doing it, but it also changes the texture into yummy little clumps of granola.

I don't have a food dehydrator, so I use my oven turned down as low as it can go, which is 170. (Of course, if you're lucky enough to have one, use it!) It cooks for about 12 hours at 170. You need to be around to stir and break it up every so often. Below are a few different variations, depending on how healthy you want to make it. I double the recipe when I make it, since I want to fill up my oven if I'm going to have it on that long!

Basic Soaked Granola Recipe

This makes a crunchy, sweet, clumpy granola.

The night before, measure out:

6 cups oats
6 cups water
3/4 cup whey

In a separate bowl, mix:

1-2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Enough water to cover

In the morning, drain the oats and nuts.

Meanwhile, melt in a small saucepan:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. sea salt

Mix the coconut oil mixture and nuts with the oats.

Add:

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Spread out on a baking sheet. It will not look anything like granola at this point- don't worry! It's supposed to look like someone dumped a bowl of oatmeal on your baking sheet. It will look like that for a while. It starts looking a little more granola-y about halfway through.

Bake at 170. Check about every 1-2 hours (you have some wiggle room here), stirring and breaking into clumps. It is done when you can break apart a cluster and it's not wet in the middle, anywhere from 8-12 hours.

Variations:

Cut the sweeteners in half, 1/4 cup of each.

Omit the brown sugar.

Substitute honey for the brown sugar.

Omit the coconut.

Substitute up to half of the coconut oil with butter. (This substitution is purely for cost. I like to leave at least half coconut oil because it's sweet and because it's not something we tend to get a lot of in our diet.)

White, Brown, and Raw Sugar

2010-04-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

So, you know sugar is not good for you. You want to get it out of your diet, but you still want something sweet. What's a girl with a sugar craving to do? Here is a list of 3 common sugars, how they are made, and what the difference is.

Raw Sugar: Raw sugar is made by pressing the juice out of the sugar cane, mixing it with lime, evaporating the liquid, and spinning in a centrifuge. Umm, what happened to the raw part? When you talk about raw milk or raw honey, that means nothing was done to process them. Raw sugar, on the other hand, is actually processed! In one statistic I read, it is only 5% less processed than white sugar.

White sugar: White sugar is made basically the same way, but they add chemicals to take the color out. They can do this before or after crushing the sugar cane, but the end result is the same: they bleach out the color and filter out the vitamins and minerals found in whole sugar cane.

Brown Sugar: To make brown sugar, first they make white sugar, then they add in some of the molasses. That's where it gets its darker color. It has a very small amount of minerals from the molasses, but brown sugar is only about 5% molasses, so most of what you are getting is empty white sugar calories.

I used to buy Organic Evaporated Cane Juice from Trader Joe's. Sounds good, right? Well, from all I've read on sugar, there is really very little difference between the "raw" and the "white."

I try to reduce my sugar consumption and use honey or maple syrup as an alternative. For those few things I still make with sugar... I use regular old white or brown sugar, just because it costs less. I like to use my shopping dollars where they really count, and it doesn't make sense to me to spend more than twice as much on the "raw" sugar, for only a 5% variation in the final product.

More reading on sugar:
"Get the refined sugar out."
"Will the real raw sugar please stand up?"

Water, water everywhere

2010-04-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Do you know the saying, Water Water Everywhere, but not a drop to drink? That’s how I feel lately.

Well, not about water so much, we have plenty to drink. It’s about milk. I live in a tract home in a fairly rural area. If I drive 5 minutes in almost any direction from my house, I will see cows grazing, horses running, and goats chasing each other trying to escape their fences. But somehow, I can’t seem to find any local raw milk! Right now, I drive a half hour to pay an arm and a leg for raw milk that comes from several hours away. Unfortunately, my raw milk source raised their prices, so I have been trying even harder to find a local source of milk.

I ask people who live in the country or on farms. Most don’t know anyone, but I have had a couple leads for raw goats milk. I’ve never drunk goats’ milk before, but if it’s raw and less than $8.88 for a half gallon, I’ll take it!

The trouble is, no one will sell it!

They are afraid I will one day get sick and sue, or that some one will come find they are selling milk and come after them. I don’t want to cause any trouble; I just want some milk!

The last woman I talked to said that she drinks it, but her mom tells her not to sell it to anyone else. "If the goat was sick or something, you could get sick," she said. “But you would know, right?” I asked. “Well, yeah,” she said, “but I still don’t think I should sell it.”

So, here I am, living by all these cows and goats, but I can’t get any milk. If only we could fit a cow in our backyard…

Need your help!

2010-04-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I have a bunch of things planned to blog this week, but today I wanted to ask for your help. I am in the running for a contest to win a year supply of organic milk. I would so love that! But I need your help!

Would you please take a second and vote for me? Chanelle Neilson

http://simplegoodandtasty.com/polls/who-do-you-think-should-win-simple-good-and-tastys-school-lunch-challenge

Thanks so much!

Weekday Breakfast Ideas

2010-04-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Busy mornings can make you want to reach for the packaged breakfast cereal. These are two breakfasts that we have on weekdays that take about 5 minutes to prepare and are packed with nutrition. If you chop the fruit for the parfaits or the veggies for the skillet ahead of time, it will be that much easier to get on the table.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits are a simple breakfast that my family gets really excited about. Even though it is really simple to make, it seems like a treat. It's all about the presentation! We serve these parfaits in our tall stemmed glasses, so the kids think they are really lucky and we are having something very fancy.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits

Ingredients:

Yogurt
Chopped Fruit (I used blueberries, strawberries and bananas)
Granola

Directions:
Layer yogurt and fruit in a glass. Top with granola.

Breakfast Veggie Skillet

Ingredients:

Olive oil and butter for sauteing
2 Eggs
Chopped Veggies ( I like zucchini, onion, avocado and tomato)
Cheese (Gorgonzola is my favorite)
Sea Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

Chop veggies. Heat butter and olive oil in skillet, saute veggies until tender (If using avocadoes and tomatoes, you can add these later) . Add eggs, cook until done. Add cheese and tomatoes. Top with avocado. Season with salt and pepper.

This post is part of Finer Things Friday.

Pig's Head Torchon

2010-04-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have a special recipe today for Pig's Head Torchon. It uses a real pig's head, shown above. The original recipe is from The Momofuku Cookbook.

I came across this pig's head from my local freecycle group. Freecycle is a group where people give away things they don't need any more- things like old furniture, kids clothes, books or... pig's heads. A woman posted a list of things she had to give away, and way down at the bottom, she listed:
"2 Pig heads -- yes, pig heads. Frozen, organic, happy (mostly), free-range pigs we had raised & butchered. We got the head and thought we'd make something exotic with it but we haven't. I thought maybe someone knew what to do with it and would be happy to get it ?"
Well, though I had no idea what to do with it, I am always up for trying new organic free range animals and was happy to get it!

I didn't tell my husband when I went to pick it up, but later that night, I couldn't keep it a secret any longer.
"Why is the garage freezer plugged in?" he asked.
"Oh, I got some pig parts today."
Something in my voice must have tipped him off, "Chanelle, what kind of pig parts are we talking about?"
"Oh, you know, just parts of a pig..."
"Chanelle!" (If you've ever heard Ricky Ricardo call out "Lucy!" you'll know the tone he was using here.)
"Well, the head part. And she gave me a heart too! And some fat to render into lard!"

Needless to say, he was not as excited as I was. The thought of eating the head of any animal just plain grossed him out. I have been giving a lot of thought to this pig, particularly this pig's head, as it has sat in my freezer for the past week or two. We are so disconnected from our food supply. In Food, Inc., they point out that there are no bones in our meat anymore. Most of the meat we buy is off the bone. It kind of separates us from the fact that this is a real animal we are eating. I think that, in a weird way, it shows respect to the animal to eat all of it. There's a philosophy out there about this, called head-to-toe eating, where you try to use ALL of the animals edible parts. It also shows respect for the earth as we try to waste less and use all that we can.

With all those thoughts in my head, it was time to deal with the head of the pig. First I boiled the head with some vegetables. Then came the hard part: separating the meat from the um, unusable parts. I expected to be grossed out by the eye; it really wasn't so bad. The tongue and the teeth were by far the "ickiest" part (to quote my mom). Regardless, I got through the meat picking and on with the recipe. This is what it looked like when I got through picking the meat.

I separated the meat from the fat to make the torchon. I then added salt, pepper and roasted garlic to the meat. I layed a layer of fat on plastic wrap and lay the meat on top of that. There is a surprising amount of meat on a pig head, mostly around the jaw. But since this pig was skinned (a good thing since I didn't have to look at the snout), I didn't have a big layer of fat. You can see in the picture below that there is much more meat than fat.

The next step is to roll it all up and refrigerate for 2 hours.

After refrigerating, you are supposed to slice it into 1 inch slices. My little roll didn't stick together, I think because there just wasn't enough fat/ skin. So, I improvised. I got out the food processor and pulsed the fat and the meat together. I was then able to form the meat and fat into little patties.
I dipped each patty into 3 bowls: flour, egg and water mix, and bread crumbs.
Then I fried them for a couple minutes on each side in a mixture of butter and olive oil.

The final verdict?
Pretty good! My 5 year old ate 3, my daughter liked it and ate one, I ate two, and my husband... well, he knew it was pig's head and he tried it, so I think he gets points for that.

This post is part of Pennywise platter Thursday.

Banana Coconut Walnut Muffins

2010-04-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

The original recipe for these muffins comes from Ina Garten on Food Network. I've made a few healthy changes, like swapping out half the white flour for wheat, reducing the sugar by more than half and swapping half the butter for coconut oil. You can use all butter in this recipe, but I like to use some coconut oil for a little added sweetness; I feel like it lets the recipe get away with less sugar. If you don't have coconut oil (or don't want to use half a cup of the pricey ingredient), you can use all butter, but you may want to increase the sugar to almost 1 cup. That sounds like a lot, but it's still half of what the original recipe calls for, and this makes 18 large or 24 regular sized muffins.

Eat with butter for added fat and raw milk for extra protein.

Banana Coconut Walnut Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sprouted wheat flour
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)
1 cup medium-diced ripe bananas (1 banana)
1 cup small-diced walnuts
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Dried banana chips, granola, or shredded coconut, optional

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 24 large muffin cups with paper liners. Sift the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and coconut oil and blend. Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas, and add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well. Don't overmix.

Fold the diced bananas, walnuts, and coconut into the batter. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each 1 to the top. Top each muffin with dried banana chips, granola, or coconut, if desired. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan, and serve.

Living With Real Food: A husband's perspective

2010-04-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

I asked my husband James to write something for this blog. Here's what he came up with, unedited by me. I'm glad to hear that he is willing to give new foods a chance, since I have a special surprise for him later this week. (Check back, it'll be a good one ;)

Living with real food: A Husband's Perspective

This post is from the guy who is eating all this “simply real food”. My wife is an amazing cook, unfortunately I am not an amazingly adventurous eater. Lets just say when we first got married I didn’t eat salad or much of anything else that you couldn’t find on a kids menu at a local restaurant. I pretty much grew up on hotdogs and macaroni and cheese despite the encouragement from my mom to eat new and heather things. You couldn’t use any amount of reasoning with me, for instance, “if you don’t eat…fill in the blank…you won’t grow up to be big and strong” yeah well I’m not buying it, I was a tall kid and I ended up being six foot 10 inches, so try again. I’m a picky eater and I don’t like food changes, enough said.

Chanelle and I have been married for ten years and I am happy to report that I can now eat a salad and actually enjoy it. In fact I even think mac and cheese is pretty disgusting (wow, never thought I would say that). These changes did not come easily nor did they come quickly. I am still kind of a picky eater but I am much better than I was. My wife broke me in easy. Actually, she tricked me into eating a lot of stuff at first, like putting ground beef into a salad with ranch dressing and crushed up chips on it, looked like some kind of weird nachos to me. I caught on after awhile but she still sneaks secret ingredients into our meals; stuff that she knows if I knew was in my food I wouldn’t eat. I don’t hear the, “so what do you think?” question as much after dinner anymore because she knows before I answer I’ll say, “I don’t know, what was in it?” Truthfully, I really like most, if not all, dinners she makes. Regretfully, I gave my wife way more grief than I like to admit about our food changes. Some things I still think warrant a small amount grief like when I ask, “what do you want for Valentines Day?” and she says, “a real cow” or when I ask her what she wants for her birthday and she tells me, “chickens in the back yard”. Seriously woman, our backyard is not that big! No room for any type of farm animal.

While writing this I have come to the same conclusion that I always do, my wife loves our family and she will do everything in her power to make sure that she takes good care of us. So to anyone that has a hard time with food changes I say give it a chance. Do I love all the simply real food changes? Not always, but we are able to talk about what works and what I seriously will not eat (I still hate sea food). In the end Chanelle is an amazing cook, an amazing mother, an amazing wife, she is simply the real deal.

This post is part of real food wednesdays.

Real Food Basics: Eggs

2010-04-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Real Food Basics series covers the difference between industrial (grocery store) food and traditional, real foods.

Recently my husband visited an egg farm as part of his job. He met the farmer and was allowed to see inside the henhouse. The man had two henhouses, actually. One was tenement slums for chickens, all crowded in together, and the other gave them space to move. "Free range," he explained. These hens are all fed the same feed. They all live inside all day, though one set of hens has more space.

The farmer explained to my husband that free range eggs cost more because the chickens eat more. They have room to move, so they are burning more calories and eating more feed. But, he said, "Might as well buy the cheap ones, the eggs are all the same."

There is another kind of egg that I go to some effort to get- a real egg from a happy pastured raised chicken. I call them happy chickens to distinguish from "free range" or other misleading labels. A happy chicken gets chicken feed, but also goes outside in the sunshine, pecks at grass and bugs and produces healthier eggs because of it. This is a better life for the chicken, and it also produces better eggs.

Real eggs from happy chickens are different than what you find in the store. The yolks are brightly colored orange, due to the greens and insects added to the diet while they are out pecking at the ground. A study done by Mother Earth News found that pastured eggs had:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol

• 1⁄4 less saturated fat

• 2⁄3 more vitamin A

• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids

• 3 times more vitamin E

• 7 times more beta carotene

Nourishing Traditions explains more about the ratio of omega-6's to omega-3's. "Organic eggs from hens allowed to feed on insects and green plants can contain omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the beneficial ratio of approximately one to one, but commercial supermarket eggs from hens fed mostly grain can contain as much as nineteen times more omega-6 than omega-3!" That is a huge difference.

Search out a farmer in your area who sells real, pastured chicken eggs. Or, raise chickens in your own backyard (a goal of mine for the future). The yolks are brighter, the flavor is richer, and they are more nutritious.

Giveaway winner announced

2010-04-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Tiffany!

You are the winner of $25 of jewelry from Sontina's creations.

(The winner was picked at random from random.org.)

I will contact you with details.

For those of you who didn't win, check out her website and great prices so that you can order your own beautiful jewelry creation!

Niu Rou Mian- Authentic Taiwanese Beef Noodle

2010-03-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

I lived in Taiwan for a year and a half as a missionary. I have a lot of good memories of the people and the culture, and many good recipes of the food. In Taiwan, a common greeting is, "Have you eaten?" (Chi bao le ma?) When getting to know people, they would often ask how I liked the food. I was glad to be able to say that I loved it. Taiwanese food uses a lot of fresh vegetables and meat, fish or tofu over rice. They don't eat a lot of sugar, and a common dessert is fresh fruit or sweetened beans.

Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle) is a food you can buy from restaurants or vendors, but can be easily made at home. It takes some work ahead of time, so be sure to start early.

Ingredients:

2 lbs Beef Shank/Short Ribs or Stew Beef
2-3 tomatoes
1 Whole Onion
5-6 Cloves of Garlic
Olive oil
2 big pieces of ginger
3-4 stalks of Green Onions
1/2 cup of Soy Sauce (Dark and Regular)
2 cups Beef Broth
5 cups of water
Noodles( I used Barilla whole wheat linguine)
Bok Choy
Cilantro

Directions:

Slice onion, tomatoes and garlic. Saute in a dutch oven in a little bit of olive oil until softened. Add meat. Cook until browned. Add soy sauce, ginger, green onion, beef broth and water. Let simmer for 4-6 hours, adding more water if needed.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Add bok choy during the last minute or two of cooking. Drain. Dish up noodles and bok choy. Scoop beef mixture over noodles.
You will need a fork and a spoon to eat. Enjoy!

This post is part of Tasty Tuesdays.

School Lunch on TV

2010-03-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

After my post earlier this week about school lunch with my daughter, a few readers let me know about other things happening with school lunches around the country.

Tonight the new show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" will air on ABC. I watched it online earlier this week. His main objective is to teach people to cook their own food and be aware of what they are eating. His first attempt was in a school cafeteria in Huntington, West Virginia, the unhealthiest city in the U.S. It's really interesting to see their reaction: not only are the lunch ladies not grateful to see him there, they are downright hostile towards him. The big shocker to me was that they don't see anything wrong with the food they are serving. Looking at a box of hamburger patties, where ground beef was the number one ingredient, Alice (a lunch lady) didn't mind that there was a long list of other ingredients mixed in there too.

In Chicago earlier this week, students prepared to meet with their school board to protest against the school lunch food. They are concerned that nachos, fries, pizzas and slushies are the daily fare. Their suggestions include: having an organic school garden and cooking the food on site. The board turned down the students request to meet with them, but a teacher promised to deliver their speeches for them. You can read the full article here. The powerful part is that students here care enough to try to make a change in what they are served.

Jessica Ortega, one of the high school students involved in trying to make changes in her school lunch, said, "If we could get used to the nasty food, why couldn't we get used to the healthy food too?" That's part of why the school lunch is such a concern: at a very young age, we are getting kids used to unhealthy food as the norm.

Michelle Obama has taken school lunch up as one of her issues. “Every day, with the food you serve, you're teaching them these critical lessons about nutrition and healthy eating,” Obama said. “You're shaping their habits and their preferences, and you're affecting the choices that they're going to make for the rest of their lives.” She is working from the top down, and students working from the bottom up, maybe we have a chance of making a change in the quality of food we feed our nation's kids.

Less than a week left for the jewelry giveaway- be sure to enter before the 31st!

School Lunch

2010-03-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

I met my daughter for school lunch today. I rarely let her buy lunch, so it was a double treat-- buying lunch and having her parents there (my husband met us too).

I had seen the school lunch menu and was not impressed. Corn dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, and always a choice of yogurt if they don't like the main entree. So I had pretty low expectations. I'm glad to say there were some positives, although there is definitely room for improvement.

We started with milk. We had 3 choices: plain, chocolate or strawberry. I chose plain, but that was the only one I saw at our whole table. Most kids went for chocolate (including my daughter and my husband). The milk was not labeled as low-fat, and I am assuming it was whole! I was pleasantly surprise to see these kids getting healthy fats. I was also very surprised to see "Grade A. Pasteurized." Notice something missing? The milk was not homogenized, and had instructions to "shake well." Homogenization breaks up the delicate fats, so I'm thrilled that the milk is un-homogenized. One environmental note: the milk was served in little pouches as opposed to cardboard containers. I'm just guessing here, but thin plastic like that seems like it would take longer to break down, even though it does take up less space in a landfill.

As we moved down the line, we were able to fill our trays ourselves with orange slices, salad, cucumber slices and baby carrots-- as much as we wanted. The fruits and vegetables were fresh, and most kids took at least some of the fruit and veggies. I liked that they were able to choose, and help themselves to whatever quantities they desired. There was only one type of salad dressing offered- ranch. I put it on my tray, but when I saw the ingredient list, I left it unopened. The ingredients list covered the entire packet, and the first ingredient was soybean oil. Kind of takes away from the healthfulness of the salad if all you have to dip it in is that.

We were on to our entree next. There were three choices. A tostada, macaroni and cheese, something labeled "Taco Nada" that looked like a tamale, or a low-fat strawberry yogurt. My husband and I chose the tostadas. It was a little soggy on the bottom and cooked-in-the-microwave-style crispy on the edges. Our daughter had the neon orange macaroni and cheese. These are the kinds of foods that give school lunch a bad name. Processed, reheated foods with little nutritional value. White noodles in a fake cheese sauce or a melted cheese-like substance on a fried shell are not my idea of healthy choices.

I'd break it down like this: Positives: un-homogenized whole milk offered, fruits and veggies offered, no dessert. Negatives: two of the three milks have added sugar, the only dressing is made with soybean oil and other unhealthy ingredients, the entree is highly processed. So, while they has lots of room for improvement, I'd give the overall lunch a C+. School lunches have long been known for being less-than-desirable, but our school is trying.

Being at school lunch today brought back a memory from my own school days of Brad Benner following me around the playground asking me if I liked soggy hamburger buns. I could see he was holding something under his shirt, so it was with caution that I asked, "Why are you asking?" "Just answer the question," he insisted. "No, I don't like them." I said, still wary. Out from under his shirt came a petition and a pen. "Sign your name here if you don't like soggy hamburger buns." I signed. And you know what? We still had hamburgers at school, but they changed those soggy buns. Instead of heating the burger and bun together, which did make a soggy bun on the bottom, they heated them separately. It was a simple solution, and the most amazing thing of all is that the change was brought on by an elementary school student.

Maybe we need to start another petition for healthier school lunches. Until there are significant changes, my daughter will continue to bring her lunch. But what about all the kids who have parents who don't think they have time to bring a lunch, get school lunch paid for, or just don't care? It's for those kids, that are eating this food every day, that something needs to change.

Link to giveaway.

This post is part of Things I love Thursday.

Eat this, not that

2010-03-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

There is a series of books with the title "Eat this, not that." This is my real food version of eat this, not that. Some are really simple changes- just throwing something different in your cart at the store, and some take a little more work.

Sea salt, not iodized salt
Iodized salt is washed, stripped of minerals and bleached. Then, to restore some of what was lost in that process, potassium iodide is added back in. Sea salt has trace minerals, including naturally occuring iodine that is more readily absorbed by the body. Unfortunately, not all products called "sea salt" are unrefined. Look for salt that is a light grayish color that has not been bleached.

Plain yogurt, not commercially flavored yogurt
I'm not saying that you have to eat all your yogurt plain, but if you are adding in your own sweeteners and flavorings, you will add less sugar than a corporation would (unless, of course, you're my Dad and you add sugar to your Cap'n Crunch). You also get to control what kind of sweetener goes in, allowing you to use maple syrup instead of high fructose corn syrup or other highly processed sugars.

Maple Syrup or fruit syrup, not maple flavored pancake syrup
Real maple syrup is a naturally occuring product that comes from a tap directly in the maple tree. Since it can be pricey, we alternate between maple syrup and fruit syrups. But we have completely eliminated the fake stuff from our diets. Usually the number one ingredient in the fake stuff is HFCS, followed by other processed foods, none of which have any redeeming nutritional value.

Homemade bread, not store bought bread
With store bought bread, there is usually a long list of unpronouncable ingredients. When you bake your own, you know exactly what goes in it. You can even do things to increase the nutrition and digestibility, like soaking or sprouting your grains. Besides all the health reasons, homemade bread tastes so good, and costs much less than store bought.

Daisy Sour Cream, not store brands
Daisy Sour cream has one ingredient: cultured cream. Other brands I've seen have around 10. Daisy sour cream is delicious, and I'm sure their short list of one ingredient has something to do with that.

Rumford baking powder, not Clabber Girl
Clabber Girl baking powder, along with most store brands, contains sodium aluminum sulfate. Aluminum is not something we need more of, so it's best to avoid a product that is adding extra.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, not pure olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil is cold pressed, and keeps all the nutrients. "Pure" olive oil is what they make after
they make EVOO. They use heat to get the rest of the oil out of the olives. It destroys some nutrients and
also causes it to become rancid, so they sometimes have to add in some virgin olive oil just to make it
taste decent. EVOO is the way to go for health and for taste.

Homemade Broth, not Swanson's
Broth is the simplest thing to make: Add water, bones, and veggies to a pot. Simmer for hours. Drain out the veggies and bones. That's it! Unfortunately, most broth that you buy in the store contains autolyzed yeast extract or soy lecithin. You can find brands without added ingredients. If making broth seems too much of a chore and you are going to buy it, look for a brand that contains: chicken (or beef), vegetables and maybe some salt. That's really about all that should be in there.

Pastured Meat and Poultry, not Factory Farmed
This can be a hard one, because it costs more to get the good stuff. But it's better for the animals and better for us. They have happier, healthier living conditions, resulting in healthier meat on the animals. Their health depends on what they eat (like grass for cows), and their environment. Pasture raised animals don't need routine antibiotics and are generally allowed to grow without any added growth hormones.

This is far from a comprehensive list, but hopefully it will get you thinking. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

Note: I got some feedback from my family that my giveaway post was confusing, so let me clarify: you don't have to do ALL those things to get an entry- each one is good for one entry, for a total of up to five. So click here and head on over to enter!

$25 of gorgeous jewelry--giveaway!!

2010-03-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

Drum roll please....

I am excited to announce a great jewelry giveaway.

Sontina of Sontina's Creations has graciously agreed to giveaway $25 worth of her gorgeous jewelry!

This is one of a kind, hand crafted, wearable art.

Her jewelry is affordable, so even if you don't win this giveaway, if you're in need of some jewelry (or a gift) be sure to support this small business owner and spread the word about her new business!

Ways to enter:
(There are a total of 5 possible entries.)

1. Visit the website and then come back here and tell us what you like.
2. Subscribe via email or follow this blog (or tell me that you already do).
3. Email 3 friends about the giveaway.
4. If you have a blog or a website, post about the giveaway and link back to this post.
5. Click the "Share this" button at the bottom of the post and share the giveaway.

Please let me know what you did, and use a separate comment for each entry.
This giveaway ends at midnight on March 31st. It is only open to residents of the continental U.S.

Falafel with yogurt sauce

2010-03-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Beans are a great source of nutrition that doesn't cost a lot of money. This delicious recipe for Falafel comes from Food Network's Guy Fieri, with a few changes from me. I made Falafels for years while reading the recipe from a magazine. It wasn't until I was talking with a friend that I realized I was pronouncing it wrong. So, in case you too are unsure of the pronuncitation, it is:
Fa-La- Full
Not, Fal-a-fell, as I went around calling them.
Oh well, my friend got a good laugh and I learned a new word. Falafels are made from chickpeas and fried in little patties. They can be eaten in pita with lettuce, tomatoes, or even cucumbers, or wrapped in lettuce. This recipe is very versatile. You can leave out the bell peppers, use dried herbs instead of fresh (be sure to reduce the amount if you do), or eat the whole thing in a pita with lettuce and tomato. Chickpeas are a good source of protein and folate, high in fiber, calcium and minerals. And they taste really good.
Nourishing traditions recommends soaking chickpeas for 24 hours in a little whey (or lemon juice), and simmering for about 6 hours. I do this soak and slow cook, but then I can or freeze the beans. Freezing is better nutritionally speaking, but it's not quite as convenient to have to thaw a container as it is to get one out of the pantry and pop it open. For that reason, I usually prefer canned. Dried beans are much less expensive than (store bought) canned also, so a little planning ahead will save some money.
I'd seen many recipes for yogurt sauce, and it just never sounded good. I tried this one with my homemade yogur t and, in the words of my father in law, "it'll knock your socks off." It's so good I use the leftovers (if there are any) as a salad dressing.

Falafel (Fa-la-full)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 14 oz. cans chickpeas, drained

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 egg

1 Tbsp. salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4-1/2 cup flour

2 cups chopped parsley leaves

3/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Lettuce, separated into cups

Directions

In medium skillet over medium heat, add 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil and sweat onions and peppers 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook until translucent, 5 minutes more.
In a food processor, pulse together chickpeas, ground cumin, egg, salt and pepper. Add flour, parsley and cilantro. Pulse until the mixture starts pulling away from the sides of the food processor. If it doesn't, you need to add more flour until it does.
Remove mixture to a large bowl and mix in the onion mixture. (I usually do a rough chop on the onions and pepper, and then chop it finer in the food processor since it's already out.)
Scoop falafel into one inch rounds.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook, flipping occasionally, until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt while still hot.
Serve in lettuce cups (or pita bread) with yogurt sauce.

Yogurt Dipping Sauce

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest

1 Tbsp. freshly sqeezed lemon juice

1 Tbs. salt

1 Tbsp. freshly chopped cilantro leaves

2 Tbsp. freshly chopped parsley leaves

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

Mix ingredients together in a small bowl and chill until ready to use.

Help Wanted: Religious Real Foodies

2010-03-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

I am going to be starting a series soon on Real Food and Religion. I'm looking for some bloggers/ writers of different religious beliefs to help me out with this project. If you are interested, comment below with:

1. Your name
2. Your religion
3. A link to your blog if you have one

I have a list of questions to get you started on your post.
I will be running the series starting in mid- April.
I'm excited to be running this series; please help me make it a success!

Lessons in Composting

2010-03-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

A few months back I began working on my compost. I'd never done it before, and after reading about it, I thought, "How hard can it be?" You save some scraps, put them in a bin, and voila! compost!
Except, when I finally went to check on it, all I had was a stinky mess of rotting fruit and vegetable parts.
I've been on the phone with Master Gardeners and reading more about the subject, so that I can do this better the second time around. Here's what I've learned.

Compost needs air. I do remember hearing this. In fact, a friend told me that she had drilled holes in her bin to allow air in. I kind of bypassed this step since we don't have a drill. I thought maybe air coming in the top (since my bin doesn't have a lid) would be enough. It's not. Drill or cut holes.
Another way to get air to your compost is to have a compost pile instead of a compost bin.

Compost needs brown matter. This same friend told me that also. I did add some, but not enough. Brown matter can be dried leaves, straw, or dead grass clippings.

Compost needs bugs. Worms crawl in through those holes in your compost bin, and eat up the organic matter you've put in there. Even if no worms get in, tiny bugs (aka bacteria) will also do the job of eating up your discarded food material. I guess that's why composting will also work directly on the ground, because it allows those bugs access to your compost.

Compost needs water. The ingredients in your compost bin need to be moist to provide an environment where the bacteria can multiply.

Why Compost?
Composting reduces your waste. You will have less of an impact on the planet, and as a bonus, you have to take the trash out less.
Compost provides a gourmet meal for your garden. And my garden needs all the help it can get.

Good things all over the blogosphere

2010-03-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

Today I want to use this post to point your attention to all kinds of great giveaways and other great things happening online.

A giveaway and a challenge

The nourishing gourmet is having a spring cleaning challenge. This week's challenge is to clean your pantry. I am lucky enough to have a large walk in pantry, and 'cause it's so big, it stays pretty organized. There were a few things I needed to do to spruce it up. When you participate in the spring cleaning challenge and leave a comment, you are entered in the giveaway. That's great motivation for getting things clean!

I do lots of canning, as you can see in the picture above. But not all of that is actually canned. Some of those are old peanut butter or spaghetti jars that I've reused for storage of bulk items. Using glass jars makes things look neat and organized, and bonus!- they are free and help you save the planet when you reuse old jars.

Giveaways

The Nourished Kitchen is having a giveaway for organic, grass-fed ghee. Not familiar with ghee? (pronounced gee with a hard g) It's clarified butter and can be used to cook or saute foods. Ghee can be heated to a higher temperature than butter and will last longer-- in fact, it doesn't even need to be refrigerated.

Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is having a giveaway for 3 bread pans from Urban Homemakers. They look great, and are made from tinware, something I had never heard of before. If you're the lucky winner, you can use them to make this delicious soaked bread recipe.

Emily at Not so idle hands is having a Mikarose giveaway. Mikarose is a modest clothing company. They have lots of cute dresses. The giveaway is for a $60 gift certificate for clothing of your choice.

Some good things I've read lately

Elizabeth at the Nourished Life wrote a great post about yoga and weight loss. I used to teach aerobics and yoga, back before my son got banned from the gyms daycare. I can't say that I fully "got it" back then, but I've definitely grown to love yoga and plan to teach again soon.

This post is about a woman who traveled to Kenya and had a touching but inspiring experience. Some of the things she saw and experienced are really heartbreaking, but it makes you think: what can I do to help those who are less fortunate?

Enjoy your reading and good luck on the giveaways!

Becoming a Locavore

2010-03-11T06:52:00.000-08:00

Locavore: someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles (240 km). The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with some arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.

I don't have a radius from whence my food must come, but increasingly as I eat real food, I find that more of my purchases are local. I've always had a thing for good produce. A juicy, fresh peach on a hot summer day- heaven. And that's not something you find at a grocery store in the middle of March. You find it at farmers markets, on a friends peach tree, or on a local farm.

Earlier this year, our family joined a CSA group (Community Supported Agriculture). Every week we pay $22 for a basketful of organic produce. It's supposed to all be local, although I have noticed a few stickers that say things like "chile" or "peru"-- not quite the local I was looking for. Most of the produce is from places in California (where I live), and almost all of it tastes much better than what you'd find in the store. An unexpected benefit has been meeting like-minded people. Some are there because they are vegan, some for the value, and some because they want to support local farms. It's been a great adventure to bring home new veggies that I've never tasted before and to try to figure out something new to do with them. It's made me (and my family) try all kinds of new foods.

From the produce buying club, I met some people interested in going in on a beef purchase. A while back, we were able to split a side of grass fed beef from a local farm. It actually cost less than the per pound price I paid for grass fed ground beef at the store.

This same group is going in on some pastured chickens, again from a local farm. We are buying in bulk and getting a discount. I'm excited to be supporting a local farm, and for the added nutrition of pastured chickens. I like knowing they were raised humanely by someone supporting the environment.

My eggs come from the local nursery or a small farm down the street. These eggs are like nothing I've ever seen in a store, even when I've bought "free range, organic eggs." The yolks are bright orange with a rich, distinctive egg flavor. I've become a regular at the nursery, and the lady at the counter always knows what I'm there for. Last time I came by in the morning, she was washing eggs that had just been gathered from outside. The happy chickens live just out back.

Becoming a locavore is a process. I still buy many things from grocery stores that have been shipped from who-knows-where. But I am becoming increasingly aware of where things come from, and how that impacts both the environment and our health. This summer we plan to expand our garden so that we can eat from the most local source available- our backyard.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday.

Roasted Chicken with Onions, Potatoes and Gravy

2010-03-09T16:58:00.000-08:00

The first time I ate a whole chicken was after the birth of one of my children. A friend brought it over and I was impressed! It tasted great, looked fancy, and seemed like something only a pro would make. I have since made many whole chickens myself and found that it's surprisingly easy, but the results are still impressive. Cooking a whole chicken with the skin on is a great way to get lots of healthy fats into your meal, and it adds lots of flavor.
A whole pastured chicken can be pricey, so I make sure we use it for at least 3 meals. If I'm making a whole chicken, we'll carve pieces off the bird for the first meal. Then, I pick all the leftover meat off, shred it, and store it for a future meal. Finally, I take all that's left: bones, that little bag of innards that came with the chicken, and any fat or inedible meat parts. I usually put all this in a bag in the freezer, and when I have enough stored up, I make chicken broth.

Roasted Chicken with Onions, Potatoes and Gravy

(Recipe from Williams-Sonoma)

Ingredients:

1 pastured whole chicken

1 1/4 tsp. sea salt, divided

3/4 tsp. black pepper

oregano sprigs

1 lemon, quartered

1 celery stalk, cut into 2 inch pieces

2 Tbsp butter, melted

2 pounds medium yellow onions, peeled and cut into 8 wedges

2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into 1 inch wedges

1/4 cup wheat or white flour

14 oz. chicken broth, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Remove giblets and neck from chicken (Save for your broth). Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumstick by inserting fingers between skin and meat. Rub 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper under loosened skin. Place oregano sprigs, lemon slices and celery inside body cavity. Lift wing tips over and back, tuck under chicken. Tie legs together with a string. Place chicken, breast side up, on the rack of a broiler pan.
3. Combine 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, melted butter onions and potatoes in a large bowl and toss well to coat. Arrange onion mixture around chicken on rack. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325 (do not open oven); bake an additional 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 165. Set aside onions, potatoes and chicken. Keep warm.
4. Drain chicken drippings into a small saucepan. Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, flour 1/2 cup chicken broth in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture and remaining chicken broth to saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes or until gravy thickens, stirring frequently with a whisk.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Real Food Basics: Fats

2010-03-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

The Real Food Basics series covers the difference between industrial (grocery store) food and traditional, real foods.

If ever my mom wanted to lose weight while I was growing up, she would count her fat grams. It was an "eat less fat, be less fat" kind of mentality. That was the wisdom of the day, and continues to pervade a lot of our thinking.

Even now, most people are scared of fat. Doesn't fat make you... fat? No! It doesn't. Fat is necessary and keeps our bodies alive and healthy. But fat must be fattening, right? No again! Eating fat doesn't make us fat.

Fats essential roles:

Source of energy

Slows down the absorbtion of food and helps us feel fuller longer

Builds cell walls

Needed to absorb fat soluble vitamins

But aren't some fats bad?

Yes, but maybe not the ones you think. We have been taught that animal fat is bad. How many times have you heard to avoid red meat, avoid butter, avoid egg yolks? This is actually the kind of fat we need to be eating for our health. There is a lot of science out there to prove this, and there's no way I could include all of it in this one post. Instead, I'll explain why our family eat the fats we do, and why we're not afraid of fat. If you want more information, see my suggested reading list, or feel free to post any questions in the comments section.

New Fats and Old Fats

Think back a hundred and fifty years or so. Pioneer times. Ladies in long dresses and bonnets, men out working on the farm. What kind of fats would they have used? They would have used primarily animal fats: lard, butter, beef tallow, chicken (or other poultry) fat. In other parts of the world, they used olive or coconut oil.

There was no grocery store to go buy vegetable (soybean) oil, of course. Margarine hadn't been invented yet. Canola oil, the newest of the oils in the market, surely wasn't available either.

So, what happened? Michael Pollan talks about having a food culture. Mothers are in charge of this food culture, because traditionally, they have been the ones feeding their families. In our country, the food culture changed. Instead of trusting in the wisdom handed down from earlier generations, we turned to science to figure out what to eat.

In the 1950s, a researcher named Ancel Keyes was instrumental in changing our food culture. He did studies that "proved" that saturated fat was dangerous and causing heart disease. Here's a short video clip from the movie Fat Head that is kind of funny and does a great job of explaining how we all came to believe that saturated fat is bad.

How I decide

Sometimes studying all this conflicting information about nutrition is enough to make you crazy! (For example, if you watched the clip, you notice that the authors didn't seem to think wheat was a good thing either. I disagree with that one, and we are wheat eaters at our house!) For me, I read and study what I can, but I ask myself two questions when deciding what my family should eat:

1. Is it traditional? (Have people been eating this food for a long time? Or is this a new product, something that a corporation came up with?)

2. Is this how God designed it to be eaten? (Is it in a whole form or has it been chemically altered?)

I used to be more mainstream in my thinking. I was always jumping on the next new science. But when I started reading some of the lierature out there, I realized that not only does science not have all the answers, much of what they've taught us has been wrong.

In the concluding paragraph of her section on fats in Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon says,

"In summary, our choice of fats and oils is one of extreme importance. Most people, especially infants and growing children, benefit from more fat in the diet rather than less. But the fats we eat must be chosen with care. Avoid all processed foods containing newfangled hydrogenated fats and polyunsaturated oils. Instead, use traditional vegetable oils like extra virgin olive oil and small amounts of unrefined flax seed oil. Aquaint yourself with the merits of coconut oil for baking and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat egg yolks and other animal fats with the protein to which they are attached. And, finally, use as much good quality butter as you like, with the happy assurance that it is a wholesome-- indeed an essential-- food for you and your whole family."