Sugar Free for One Week (so far...)

Has it really only been 1 week since Ash Wednesday. Seriously? Aah! I was feeling pretty good about my decision to let go of sugar when I noticed I'm not even halfway through my timeline!

Yes, you heard me right. I decided that this year for Lent I was going to spend that time sugar-free. (Not to be confused with Splenda, equal and sweet-and-low substituted sugarfree which I don't believe are any better.) Natural sweeteners like maple syrup, honey and agave are all fair game in moderation. So at home since I can go to the trouble of making a healthy dessert I haven't really struggled with it.

And then there was 3 days ago when our Girl Scout cookies came. Punch to the stomach. Or that amazing looking coffee cake at a church meeting yesterday morning. Punch and a kick. It's been tough, but I've found that I'm rather black-and-white, so it's easier for me to have the will-power to get through this season with no sugar than to decide to get my sugar addiction under control by limiting my intake. For example, the amazing girl next to me at the meeting yesterday asked for a small piece of cake. Now that takes will-power!

I'm not Catholic, but I love that our God is bigger than religion. That allows me to partake in any kind of religious tradition that I find brings me closer to Him. Sacrificing something in the name of Jesus, especially something as dear to me as Cadbury Cream Eggs, Samoas and coffee cake, is quite the growing experience. I like to divert my temptations to prayer. And since I think about sugar often I'm allowed much more opportunities than what is ordinary to approach the feet of Jesus throughout my day.

What has this meant for me physically? Well, since I dropped sugar I've been motivated to make sure every bite counts. Sugar really is my sore point, so if I can't get empty calories from sugar then there really isn't anything else I'd rather get them from. I've been eating-to-live instead of living-to-eat. This is something that comes to mind frequently when I make choices about what to put in my mouth. Sure, sometimes we want to enjoy food. And most of the time we can and still know what we're eating is healthy. But the times that we are living to eat should be exceptions. For me the "exceptions" were not far between enough. Naptime, for example, was as good a celebration for a cookie as anything. I've even been eating things I don't enjoy just so that I can get my meal checked off and get through the day. I don't suggest that, but my kids eat some things I don't love and sometimes it's just easier to choke it down than make something different for myself.

My goal in this is partly to shed some pounds gained after getting married to Mr. Super Metabolism and having 2 kids within a small time period, but also to come out of this less dependent on sugary snacks. I will eat sugar again but I'd like to keep it out of the house. Especially once those Samoas are gone!

I'll leave you with some food for thought about refined sugar in your life. Did you know that sugar going through your system depresses you for 6 hours following? So if you've had a hard morning and for a comfort cookie, you've blown half of your day! But if you do decide you're going to cheat in this area you're better off doing it all in a one-hour period. Good to know, right?

Any Coke Addicts Out There???

I'm so proud of my husband! He kicked his 4+ soda's/day habit! It's been a couple of months now and for the most part he reports that the withdrawals are over. Phew! I'd been working on him for this for a long time. All those long hours of nagging, rationalizing and instilling fear finally paid off! Ok, not really. He had his blood pressure taken at some point while in medic school, and it was high. In fact, he's pretty much staying away from all caffeine.

My on the other hand, well, I'm not as worried about caffiene as long as it's in moderation. In fact there are days in this house where it's necessary to my survival. I am, however, concerned with all the other crap (for lack of a better word) they put in soda. I don't have a particularly strong draw to soft drinks, but every once in a while I just really want one. Especially when my tummy is all in a funk for whatever reason.

A few months ago I was at the market and I noticed an all natural Pepsi. It was like $6 for 4 bottles. The ingredients were something like: sparkling mineral water, sugar, kola nut extract. Then I looked at some of the other drinks they had. There was an "agave" soda, equally as expensive, that was sweetened with agave. It got me thinkin'.

I'd been keeping my eye out for kola nut extract in the stores and haven't been able to find it. So today I finally ordered some here for $12.74 including shipping. I plan to mix it with Perrier and agave to make an all-natural Coke for whenever the "need" arises.

Kola nut extract is extracted from the seeds of the Cola nitrida tree. Descriptions I found online for kola nut extract describe it almost like a vitamin, saying it combats hunger and fatigue. It contains a small amount of theobromine, the mood-enhancing ingredient found in chocolate. I haven't invested much time into checking it out and wouldn't recommend taking this as a supplement, but hey, it's got to be better than Coka Cola, right?

So excited to try it!

A Few Challenges for Myself

So this road to understanding counter-culture health this day and age has a been long and windy one. There is so much to think about. There are so many things I'm used to just popping into my mouth or rubbing onto my skin that I've started to look at differently and wonder about. Is this something that was available 100 years ago? Does it contain ingredients God intended for consumption? What is it doing to my body: my metabolizm, my energy, my digestion, my overall health? And again, it's one thing if it's every-so-often, but when I decide to make something a common occurance at my dinner table, or contrarily restrict it, I want to make sure that I'm making the best decision for my family.


Bringing you all into this has been a great way to move me along. I've benefitted from the accountability and I have to think twice before writing something down if I'm not sure that it's a healthy way to go. It's brought further questions to mind.


What I'd like to do here is just list out a few things I'm rather confused about. Maybe someone somewhere has some insight to share. If not, hopefully getting this down for all of you to see will inspire me to find the answers. Thanks for visiting. This list is not by any means exhaustive, but it's a start. Maybe I'll add to it in the future!


~ Corn. Corn is confusing to me. I've read in numerous places that corn needs to be fresh, really fresh, because as soon as it's picked it starts turning to starch. This makes it less healthy and, surprisingly, less sweet. I've been slowly (very slowly) reading through The Garden Primer and she recollects therein growing up with corn in her garden. They would have a pot of bowling water all ready to go. Then the kids would go out, cut off the ears of corn, and make a mad dash to the kitchen to get the corn boiling right away, thus preserving it's sweetness. Now, I tried growing corn last year. It actually grew fine, but the ants loved it. I don't do ants. Not for anything. So the corn was left there to rot until my husband had time to pull up the crop and toss it in the trash. So this leaves me with the question: how do I buy corn? Is frozen corn ok? What about dried corn for popping?


~ Rapadura. In Sally Fallon's book, she talks about Rapadura being an appropriate replacement for white processed sugar. The problem is it's expensive, hard to find (amazon being the only option for me), and I've never heard anyone else talk about it before. What if she's wrong? But I agree with pretty much everything else in her book and I think it's fabulous. Her take on chocolate is probably my only beef, and it's possible that it's out of denial. =) But anyway, I'm having a hard time taking the step to rapadura simply because Sally says so.

~ I miss some of my favorite recipes that I just haven't found a suitable substitute for, mostly involving flour. I can't get my whole wheat flour to rise. If I could solve this problem, things like popovers, homemade bread and muffins that have otherwise healthy ingredients could be added to our menu. A good friend gave me a recipe for her whole wheat bread, but it is quite time-intensive. Someday...someday.

~ Cleansing. The Maker's Diet talks a bit about morning and evening cleansing without the use of antibiotic soaps. The problem is it doesn't say much more than order our cleansology kit. It talks about focusing on around eyes and in the nostrils, so as to help fight of illness from germs you may have picked up throughout the day. I'd love to know how I could incorporate some of these techniques without buying a kit. What sorts of things do they use? Wouldn't it be nice if after bringing my kids home from the nursery I could do a quick cleansing of the places where germs may have accumalated?

~ Gardening. I gave gardening a try last year, but it was mostly unsuccessful. I want to know more about composting, turning the soil, crop rotation, etc. I am working through a book, but I seem to learn better being shown. Maybe someday I can take a class.

This is what comes to mind for now! What sorts of things are you confused about?

An Interesting Read

If you've never read The Maker's Diet, I highly recommend it. It's got a lot of info you probably already know, but it's got some other interesting stuff. Although I think Nina Planck's books are easier and more fun to read, The Maker's Diet has a better variety of info. And more than that, I find it fascinating how he ties in Old Testament dietary and sanitary commands to healthy living. Although according to Paul we are no longer bound by these laws, according to Ruben it sounds like our bodies will benefit from us trying. It's only around $11 on Amazon (link above), or better yet if you have a Paperback Swap account or would like to set one up, they seem to have plenty available.

But in the meantime if you haven't read the book I wanted to share this article that I found online. It's not super in-depth, but it's got a few interesting tidbits in it, and it's free. =) And reading it may help you decide whether you'd like to get the book or not.

Couscous and Beef Stuffed Peppers

Here's the recipe for Stuffed Peppers I promised. I love this recipe for a bunch of reasons: it's easy, the hubby loves it, it's got all the food groups wrapped up in 1 course, it freezes really well in individual servings, and will go from freezer to oven. The only real problem I see with it is that it does mix dairy and beef which isn't kosher. (We now know that the sanitation practices and dietary restrictions God imposed on the Jews in the Old Testament were incredibly medically advanced for the time period, therefore the Jews avoided a lot of illnesses during that time, which subsequently led to them being hated by many Gentiles throughout history. This law, derived from Deuteronomy 14:21, may have been because we now know that the iron present in red meat bonds to the calcium in milk, thus depriving your body of both of these important nutrients. That said, I've decided that on rare occasions such as this one, a little bit of cheese atop my family's meat is fine.)

You will want to allow yourself 30-45 minutes to prepare this, but you can start early in the day and do it little by little. I love making dinner this way; it makes it seem like much less of a chore and leaves me with less to do when the kids are fussy and ready to eat!

Recipe:

~ 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

~ 1 medium onion, chopped

~ 2 garlic cloves, minced

~ sea salt and fresh ground pepper

~ 12 ounces ground beef

~ 2 cups (about) diced tomatoes or 1 - 14.5 can of tomatoes

~ 3/4 cup couscous (uncooked) or cooked brown rice

~ 4 bell peppers, halved lengthwise, seeds and ribs removed

~ 1/2 cup raisins or mango cubes (optional)

~ 1/2 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper; cook until softened, about 3 minutes.

Add beef to skillet. Cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1 cup water and optional raisins or mangoes; cook until sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in couscous (or rice).

Fill pepper halves with couscous mixture.* Pour 1/2 cup water into a large baking dish; arrange stuffed peppers in a dish. Cover with foil, and bake until peppers are tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle cheese over the tops. Return to oven; bake, uncovered, until cheese has melted and peppers are very tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

* If you've prepared extra for the freezer, this is where you'll want to stop, wrap individually, and freeze. (Freeze the cheese separately.) Because parchment paper is not conducive to wrapping these tight, I recommend flash-freezing, then wrapping in plastic wrap, and freezing in a Ziploc bag. Label with baking instructions if you'd like. Make sure to remove plastic at least from around the meat before defrosting.

Here are my peppers right before I flash-froze them:

Cooking with Tomatoes

It seems like a lot of recipes we use call for canned tomatoes. You can even find canned tomatoes among the few items they sell in bulk at Costco because they're used so often. And anytime I've tried to find an alternate recipe for something like marinara sauce or tomato soup that used fresh tomatoes, I've had a very difficult time. This is unfortunate. A friend recently pointed out an article in Prevention Magazine that said tomatoes are the worst thing you could eat from a can. Remember BPA, the chemical that freaked parents out when it was found in baby bottles? Well, BPA is also in the lining of aluminum cans as a way to prevent the aluminum from leaching into our food. So we get BPA instead. The problem with tomatoes specifically is that their high acidity causes the BPA to really leach into them and contaminate the food we eat.

Last summer I tried my hand at a vegetable garden. Most of my veggies failed, but my tomato plant was ruthless. I harvested tons of tomatoes and hardly did anything to get it to grow. It was the easiest thing in the world. I understand that even if you don't have the room for a vegetable garden, you can grow tomatoes hanging upside down from one of those hanging mesh plant holders. Just make sure you start from seed. I wished I'd had a good way to "can" (or freeze) all those tomatoes for use during the winter when my family was craving all those tomato-y comfort foods.

A few weeks ago I did find a recipe for marinara made with real tomatoes. The problem was that it had me peeling and de-seeding the 5 pounds of tomatoes I'd bought. I quickly grew frustrated and thought there had to be a better way! Well, there is! I'm going to show you my substitute for diced tomatoes. It is a little more involved than opening a can. But I probably spent 10-15 minutes actually working on the tomatoes. And this is definitely do-ahead friendly. Do this when you have a whole bunch of tomatoes and then freeze in batches. It's so worth the effort. Your food will be so much more flavorful. I prepared the tomatoes on Friday for a dish I made the following Monday.

Here are my beautiful tomatoes. Aren't they gorgeous? Make sure you get really good tomatoes for this. They taste so much better and since you're going to the trouble, do it right. Go to the farmer's market. The cherry tomatoes came in my produce box so I wanted to use them for this. I won't use cherry tomatoes next time, though, because once you get rid of the peel and the seeds there isn't much left. The bigger ones worked wonderfully.
First you want to blanch them. What is blanching? Oh my goodness, it's so easy. Just boil a big ol' pot of water. Once it's boiling, I mean really boiling, stick the tomatoes in. You only want to leave them in for a minute or two to get the skin loose. We don't want the tomatoes getting too mushy. Here, see how the skin is just beckoning you to pick it off?So that's exactly what you'll do next. Leave them to cool a bit (or if you're in a hurry run them under cold water) and then gently peel the skin off. It should come off very easily. Then, with a very sharp knife, cut them in half horizontally. (Yup - bolded for importance.) Then you should be able to gently squeeze the seeds and accompanying goop out all at once. Voila! Cake, I tell you. Cake.
Once you've gotten rid of all the peel and seeds you can loosely dice them. You'll want to measure them and freeze them in batches of about 2 cups since cans of tomatoes typically come in a 14.5 oz size (just under 2 cups). My 3-ish pounds of tomatoes yielded about 3 cups, but if you use all regular-sized tomatoes you'll probably get more than that.I used all of mine in doubling my recipe for stuffed bell peppers. I'll be sharing this with you later on this week.

Egg in a Heart

February is here! What a fun month! I love Valentine's Day. And while it's definitely changed some since having kids, it's more fun too. I've been brought back to childhood memories of craft-filled heart parties, exchanging Valentines with whomever, and returning from a fun-filled day reveling in all the warm thoughts and wishes from others. I'd say Valentine's Day is even better these days; there are simply more people to share it with.

Last year my fabulous mother-in-law gave me lots of heart-shaped cookie cutters in different sizes. This year, I'm putting them to good use!

Growing up my mom used to make me Egg in a Hole. A very simple idea, but it was always so special and it brings back fond memories. I'm so very thankful that my kids are good egg-eaters, especially since they don't eat a lot of other meats. Eggs are wonderfully nutritious, especially if you're careful about the ones you buy. My boy especially loves Egg in a Hole, and the resulting "moon toast" that comes when you save the hole and toast it. I showed it to him one time and said "See? It looks like the moon, right?" and ever since he asks for his coordinating "moon toast" everytime I present his Egg in a Hole!

So to start of February right I figured we'd better try Egg in a Heart. I found just the right size cookie cutter and went to work.

Start by buttering both sides of the bread. Grab your cutter (when I make regular Egg in a Hole I just use a glass) and cut out the center. Place both pieces in a pan. Break an egg into the center.

This part is optional: I don't care for undercooked (i.e. over-easy) eggs, so therefore my kids certainly don't, right? I wait a few minutes for the bottom to set a bit and start scrambling with my spatula. Then after flipping, I make sure to poke the center to get all the juiciness out.

Keep an eye on the cut-out piece because it will probably toast (and then burn) much quicker than the rest. After a couple minutes when the egg is mostly set you can flip it over. Let it finish toasting, find a good time to jab if you like your eggs cooked hard, and then serve it up with a sweet, Valentine's Day-ie smile!