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!

Baked Custard

How many of you got a creme brulee torch (or 5, if you're like us) for your wedding? I kind of wonder how many people ever use theirs. We do, but we really like creme brulee. Can you tell yet what an amazing sweettooth I have? Someone should track the percentage of dessert posts on here. ;-)

I wanted to share this recipe for custard that I'm making for tonight. The ingredients are all wonderfully healthy. If you so choose, at your own discretion, to dust a bit of sugar to the top and torch it then, well then that's another story. But I can tell you that the custard itself is a wonderful treat full of great, whole ingredients.

And it was incredibly easy.

The Recipe:

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream, not ultrapasteurized

1/4 cup maple syrup

5 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grab out a small pan (or, if you're fortunate enough to have one, a small enameled cast iron or stone pot) and start warming the milk and cream slowly over a low flame. While that's heating up, beat the egg yolks with the maple syrup. Add the heated milk mixture slowly to the eggs, beating constantly. Blend in vanilla. Pour into 5-6 individual custard cups that you have placed in baking dish(es). (If you don't have custard cups, I've used my teacups before - just make sure they're ok to go in the oven.) Pour water around the cups.

Bake at 325 for about an hour, until the center is just set and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Chill.

If desired, you can sprinkle some sugar over the top and convert this yummy custard dessert into a more sophisticated Creme Brulee fit for your snobbiest guests. Add some berries for garnish if you like.

Oven-Fried Chicken

I was having one of those days. You know, one of those days: the kind that really don't need further explanation. I wasn't nearly as on my game as usual and there was 4 lbs of drumsticks sitting in the fridge that were going to go bad. So although this isn't the most extravagant thing I could have done with them, it took me 10 (yes, 10) minutes to pull some oven-fried chicken together, all with things already in my pantry that you would probably have on-hand, too. Dinner was on the table (well, on a blanket in the living room, rather. Yup, one of those days.) at 6.

This recipe originally came from Betty Crocker's Bisquick cookbook. I'm proud to announce that we no longer keep bisquick in the house. I can also tell you that I haven't missed it. It just doesn't bother me to measure out 3 ingredients instead of one, especially when it means I have control over those ingredients. So I changed this recipe by making a simple subsititution for the bisquick, and I can tell you that it tastes just as good.

Recipe:

1 Tablespoon butter

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3- to 3 1/2-pound cut-up chicken (I just used drumsticks this time because they were super cheap)

Heat oven to 425. Melt butter in rectangular baking dish or pan in oven.

Mix all dry ingredients together. Coat chicken in this mixture.

Place chicken skin sides down in pan (pan and butter should be hot).

Bake uncovered for 35 minutes; turn chicken. Bake about 15 minutes longer or until juice of chicken is no longer pink.

Variations: decrease flour & baking powder by 1/2 and add 1/2 cup grated parmesan for Parmesan Oven-Fried Chicken. Or, decrease flour to 1/2 cup and baking powder to 3/4 tsp and add 2 T yellow cornmeal and 1-2 T chili powder for Mexican Oven-Fried Chicken.

I stuck half of the chicken pieces in the freezer for days that I don't have any idea what else to make. And even though it's nothing fancy, the whole family likes it. And, this meal, which provided us dinner and a delicious chicken salad for lunch the next day, cost me less than $5 at regular price, making it a great last-minute recipe.

Dear Sprouts, I ♥ U!

I just got my weekly mailer from Sprouts, and almost missed the "BUY A $100 SPROUTS GIFT CARD!! for only $89.99" sprawled accross the top. (I don't know why my eyes always miss things in big, bold print. It's likely that I might need massive amounts of therapy.)

What a deal, 10% off groceries! Stockin' up!

Packing a Lunch

So when I signed up for this mommy thing, there were a few things about it I knew I'd have a hard time with. I'm not a big fan of menial tasks, and I knew that a huge chunk of my time was to be spent doing just those sorts of activities.

We love getting out and doing things, but it means I have to pack us lunches. I think that's probably my least favorite thing about being a mom. Does it get any more monotonous than packing a lunch?

When I pack a lunch, there are several factors I have to keep in mind. (1) I don't want to spend a ton of time putting lunches together when I'm trying to get out the door. (2) I don't want to deal with messes at lunchtime and I don't want to be any more involved than I need to be when I'm trying to feed myself or socialize. (3) My kids want to eat what everyone else is eating, and this isn't the time to have a battle over food. (4) 70% of the time (and especially at Disneyland) my kids are way more interested in the activity of the day than eating.

Balancing these things is hard, but I've found that there are lots of ways to do this without compromising too much on my principles. I don't mind compromising here and there, but since we're often out at lunch I'm not willing to do that with every time. Today's Disneyland lunch is a good example of what I'll pack for them.
Popcorn is a beautiful thing. What kid doesn't love popcorn? I use extra-virgin olive oil in my popcorn popper and pop about a cup at a time. I sometimes add a little sea salt, or I can leave it plain. My boy gobbles it up either way. It's super easy and healthy, too. I just keep it on the shelf in a freezer Ziploc and it keeps for quite a while. This is a great option because the kids love it enough to be totally okay that the kid next to him is eating fruit snacks.

Yup, right there below the popcorn are my juice blocks. =)

I always have plain yogurt and frozen fruit on hand. I stick some fruit (today it was mangoes) in their with the yogurt. The fruit keeps the yogurt cold and defrosts by the time lunch comes around. I have to help them a little bit with the yogurt, but it's worth it to me. They like it, eat it well, and they get their protein in. I'll sometimes do a different finger-protein instead, but the nice thing about fruit and yogurt is that I never have to guess whether I'm going to have to fight with them to eat it, which has been known to happen with chicken or cheese.

In the snack cup are Annie's Whole Wheat Bunnies. These are the compromise, but it could be much much worse. I chose these because they didn't have any soy, trans fats, or refined flour. The vegetable oil is questionable, but it is expeller pressed. The only real problem is that whenever my son has these, he asks for them every snack and meal time for about a week following. He loves them, which makes them great for packing a lunch. I just have to keep them hidden the rest of the time or he'll be mowing through them (and our grocery budget) constantly!

Also on the pricey side is the freeze dried pears. The ingredients list: pears. I love that! They're sweet and yummy, and I find I sometimes have to pack me some, too, or else I'll accidentally eat them all! They're about fifty cents a pack at Costco, so this again is something reserved just for lunches. Or when Daddy is in charge of a meal. =)

Oh and the glorious banana. Nature's best snack food. No crumbs, easy to transport, and it comes in it's own wrapper. Love, love, love. What else can I say?

What about you? What are your favorite things to put in your kids' lunches? I'd love to know!

Gelatin Juice Blocks

We don't do juice in our home. Our pediatrician was adamantly against introducing juice, which was further backed up by the counseling I took for the gestational diabetes I had throughout my second pregnancy. I finally asked my counselor: "Hey, what's the big deal if it's just fruit?" She explained that juicing fruit takes all the fiber out of the equation and leaves your body processing it the same way it would regular sugar. Furthermore, when you drink a glass of OJ, you're probably drinking more like 4-5 oranges instead of sitting down to just 1, which would cause your blood sugar to spike anyway. Basically, you're better off eating a cookie. Fruit's great, but in moderation, because it does have sugar. All I needed to hear. If my kids are going to have a sugar-rush, I just assume they enjoy a cookie or cake or something really worth it on the rare occasions that's okay, ya know?

Juice blocks are my only exception. And since I make an exception, I make sure I'm making it worth my time. I get this juice at Trader Joe's, because it has things like spinach, broccoli, and spirulina listed on the ingredients. Sure, it's listed far below the apple and pineapple juice, but I'll take it. And, ugly as it is, my kids enjoy every last bit of it!

This is really, REALLY easy. So if you've never made gelatin blocks from scratch before, let me show you. There's simply no reason to go for the boxed Jell-O after you see how easy it is.

As far as gelatin goes, I bought this stuff here on Amazon. It was a great price for gelatin, cheaper than Knox packets from the grocery store, and I know it comes from beef. Knox doesn't disclose on the package where their gelatin comes from, so I've got no clue. Gelatin is great because it helps your body be more efficient at processing protein. Since grass-fed beef is expensive, we don't eat it too often. My kids aren't huge meat-eaters anyway. So gelatin is an important part of our diet, allowing us to get the most we can out of the meat we do eat.

It's just 1 Tablespoon of gelatin for every 1 cup of juice. If you're using Knox packets, there's 1 Tablespoon in each packet. (If you want to make regular gelatin you'd eat with a spoon, it's half that.) I use 4 cups of juice in my 9x13 baking dish.

Measure out 1 cup of juice and pour into your 9x13 dish. Then measure out 3 more cups into a pot. Turn the heat on. Once the juice is well on it's way to boiling, sprinkle your gelatin over the cold juice in your dish and let it sit for 1 minute. Here it is, just gelin':

After a minute, add the boiling juice to the dish and stir for about 5 minutes until the gelatin is dissolved.Cover and put in the fridge for about 3 hours. You can speed up the process by putting it in the freezer for the first 1/2 hour.

Cut 'em and scoop 'em, and that's it!

A Mama's Prescription for Uneasy Tummies

This winter we were up at the in-laws' cabin with my husbands whole family. 4 of the 9 of us ended up feeling not-so-hot that first night. I won't go into details, but let's just say I sure wished I could throw up like some of the others did! Never been much of a puker, myself...

I decided some gingerale was in order. Unfortunately, any store-bought gingerale I've seen does not have any ginger in it these days! Can you believe it?! Even dearly beloved Trader Joe's. Since ginger is known to settle the stomach and is the key reason people turn to gingerale for tummy upset, I set out on a self-imposed mission to make my own!

Recipe for Homemade Gingerale:

1 cup ginger root, grated

3 cups water

1 cup raw honey

natural mineral water (Perrier is naturally sparkling mineral water, Pellegrino is water with CO2 added)

lime (optional)

lime wedges (optional)

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Add ginger. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Strain the ginger out of the liquid, discarding ginger. Mix in honey.

Make individual drinks by mixing 1 part ginger/honey solution with 1 part mineral water. Add a squeeze of juice from a lime and garnish with a lime wedge, if desired.

CAUTION: Homemade gingerale packs a powerful punch! You might need to adjust the ratios to meet you preferences. My picky husband did consume this, but he needed it watered down a little bit. And, he even admitted that it made him feel much better. If you know my husband, he's not one to make this sort of admission lightly!

And since this recipe makes quite a bit, I poured the extra ginger/honey mixture into these ice cube trays and froze it. The cubes now wait patiently in the freezer for the next stomach ailment to enter unwelcomed into our home.

Comfort Drink

It's still cold, rainy, and wet outside. I'm not complaining! I love change and, since I've spent pretty much most of my days living in Southern California, this comfy, dreery weather is a welcomed change for me!

I decided to join the masses and make myself a mug of cocoa as I gear up for the peace that awaits as the children nap. (I'll have a fire going, shortly.) But I used all-natural, healthy ingredients and, of course, fair trade chocolate. So I'll take my cocoa less the guilt, please!

There's not much to this story aside from the ingredients I chose. I'll tell you about them and let you find the ratios that work for you.

The chocolate comes from Sweet Earth Chocolates. You can find fairtrade cocoa powder at other places, but I buy a lot of my chocolate from this place because it's the best place for chocolate chips. I did recently see them at Sprouts, but they were very expensive. Fairtrade is very important to me and I think it should be to you, too. Chocolate is a luxury, so I would first do without than buy something I don't need that is tainted by the blood of child slavery. If you'd like to know more about this, you can check out Stop the Traffik for starters.

I use raw milk for drinking, but it's very expensive. Trader Joe's has unhomogenized milk that is pasteurized, so I sometimes mix it with the raw stuff and use it for cooking. There's just no sense paying $16/gallon for unheated milk that I'm just going to be heating up anyway! If you can't afford either option, definitely look for milk that is not ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that heats milk to 280 degrees for 3 minutes, the end product devoid of important enzymes and nutrients we drink our milk for. Ordinary pasteurization heats milk to 180 degrees for 30 minutes. It's not a great option, but it beats ultra-pasteurized hands-down! If you want to learn more about the subject of pasteurization (why we started pasteurizing milk, what it does to the product, the benefits of raw milk, how to determine if your unpasteurized milk is safe, etc.) check out the Real Food book on my bookshelf. She's dedicated a lot of her book to this topic.

And, of course, our good friend agave nectar. Agave is an all-natural sweetener that does not raise your blood sugar. There are other appropriate sweeteners you can use: pure Grade B maple syrup with it's multitude of nutrients, and raw honey which has anti-viral properties among other things. I usually choose agave, though, since it doesn't affect blood sugar.

Chicken Patties

I have been searching for a good replacement for the frozen chicken nuggets I used to buy. Since they quickly became our go-to dinner, I just stopped buying them. Yup, cold turkey. Even though the box toted "All Natural" across the top, the ingredients list revealed hydrogenated oils, refined flour, and there's no way that meat came from cage-free chickens. No big deal every once in a while, but since these were being consumed in bulk on a regular basis I set myself out on a mission to change that!

I got distracted from my search when I found a recipe for Chicken Patties in my Nourishing Traditions cookbook. I strayed off-course for these babies when I noticed the recipe listed things like spinach, onions, red peppers, and other veggies my kiddos won't touch with a 10-foot pole. "Why not?", thought I, and I gave them a try.

Here's the recipe:

2 lbs ground chicken*

2 cups whole grain bread crumbs*

1 cup cream

3/4 cup cooked spinach, chopped and well drained*

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 red pepper, finely chopped

2 eggs

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp dried thyme

4 T butter

4 T extra virgin olive oil

Soak bread crumbs in cream. Mix chicken with bread crumb mixture, spinach, onion, pepper, eggs and seasonings.

Form into patties.

Saute about 7 minutes per side in butter and olive oil, or until cooked through.

Now, here's the scoop. This recipe has got lots of ingredients I don't normally keep on hand, lots of chopping, and some prepwork. But, the cooking is minimal. This is a GREAT recipe for freezing. I didn't even double it (since it was my first time making it) and was able to freeze enough for probably 2-3 more family meals, more if I just need to pull a patty out for the kids. Next time I will definitely at least double this meal, because the whole family enjoyed it and meals like those are sure hard to come by!

Here's my patties, separated by parchment paper, ready to freeze:

*About the ingredients: The ground chicken at my local market was "all-natural", but didn't say anything about what the chickens were fed. So, for the same price, I grabbed a package each of boneless, skinless, organic, free-range chicken breasts and thighs and had the butcher grind them for me. To make the bread crumbs, I just lightly toasted a few slices of my whole-grain bread and pulsed them in the food processor. The recipe actually took more bread crumbs than it called for. I had spinach on-hand, so there was no need to buy a bag of frozen stuff. Not a bad idea if you don't love cooking spinach, but anytime I've used frozen spinach for a recipe it's been a pain to drain so it's almost easier to just cook the pre-washed, bagged spinach.

Like I said, our whole family thoroughly enjoyed this! I made a white-wine cream sauce for Jon & I, and he went to town making a lovely presentation of it. And here's a pic of the girl num-num-numming away:

Rain Calls for Lemons

So it's rainy outside today. Rain means lots of things in the Sudduth house. It has always meant cozy, inside, sleepy days. With the advent of children it has meant stir-crazy days filled with lots of creative activities. For me, today, it just seemed like lemons were in order. We've been getting lemons in our produce box, and I've yet to do anything with them.

My mom makes the best, no the BEST, no THE BEST lemon bars ever! Trust me, I've tried others. Nothing like reaching for something that looks to be just as good, my mouth watering expecting that yellow, perfectly tangy, perfectly sweet yummy goodness when reality hits. That's just not my mom's lemon bar! No, Corner Bakery, your lemon bars do not even come close. Well, today I decided to do the unthinkable: change the recipe. I wanted to make lemon bars a little more healthy. All the yummm without the guilt, ya know?

Here's her recipe:

~ Sift together 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Add & combine 1 cup melted butter, and then press into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes @ 350 degrees.

~ Meanwhile combine: 2 cups sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs, 4 T lemon juice (from real lemons, and if comes in a bottle and is self-proclaimed "Real Lemon Juice", it's not from real lemons) and 4 tsp (or so) grated lemon peel.

~Pour over warm crust and stick it back in the oven for 25 minutes. Chill, and before serving cut into 2" squares & sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Here's my new (and hopefully improved) recipe:

~ Blend: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 3 oz agave nectar, 1 1/2 sticks butter. Press into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes @ 325 degrees.
~ Meanwhile combine: 1 1/2 cups agave nectar, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs, 4 T lemon juice (from real lemons, and if comes in a bottle and is self-proclaimed "Real Lemon Juice", it's not from real lemons) and 4 tsp (or so) grated lemon peel. (I got enough juice from 1 lemon, but needed 4 to get enough rind. Buy 4 lemons, just in case.)

~Pour over warm crust and stick it back in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Chill, and before serving cut into 2" squares. Sadly I omitted the decorative powdered sugar.

So I gotta tell ya, my updated version of one of my favorite dessert recipes is pretty darn close. I used the agave substitution suggestions here very carefully and it seems to have worked great. They aren't nearly as pretty, and perhaps a bit more crumbly. If making for guests, you may want to use unbleached flour and a lighter agave (I used blue agave) for aesthetic reasons only. I will definitely be making these again. Enjoy!

About Mmmwah

A few people have suggested me starting a blog. Sounds like a great idea, but I'm not really that into blogs. I can never remember to read them, and honestly, would much rather meet for coffee than spend another second in front of the computer catching up. That said, the idea of having one place to send everyone when I get emails about a certain topic does appeal to me. So... stop by, stay if you like, get cozy, and pretend we're talking over coffee, sound good?

A little about me:
~ I am a child of God. This is number one for a reason. I am not ashamed to tell you that my relationship with Jesus Christ absolutely defines me and is core to who I am. I bask in our blossoming relationship and look forward to how He grows and stretches me in ways no one else can.
~ I have an amazing husband. He's really great and I love talking about him! His name is Jon. I encourage you to get to know the guy if you're ever blessed with the chance. He's God-fearing, hardworking, loving, loyal, affectionate, passionate, and he fights honorably for our family. He is an amazing father to my children which, I've got to admit, makes me fall more and more in love with him every day. Which brings me to...
~ My kids: I love them. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. We laugh, we cry, we go wild, we pull our hair out; all in a days work. Mothering is so very different than I'd always dreamed it to be, and oh-so-much better. My son was born in 2007 and my daughter 15ish months later. I love them equally but for completely different reasons. I love to talk about them, too, but I guess that's not really what this is about. We'll save that for a real coffeebreak sometime, K?

So, what do I do that is so blog-worthy? Well, I've invested quite a chunk of my life lately into finding out how I can feed my family wholesome, time-honored food. OK, let's go back a little further. I wasn't exactly a cook when I got married. And since my firefighter hubby was home during the day while I was at work, he started out as our family chef. After a little while some friends and I started a meal exchange group. We'd each mass produce one recipe and once a month get together and exchange them. So, basically, I learned to cook in bulk and freeze things. As time went on, I started questioning conventional cooking practices and wondering if it's really the best idea to be eating some of the things our generation has become accustomed to eating. Over time, I've read several books and developed my own way of taking care of our family's nutritional needs. I use old fashioned recipes, ingredients, and wisdom, and have incorporated my well-learned habit of cooking a lot and freezing for future use. So even though these recipes are more involved and time-consuming, I probably spend less time in the kitchen overall the average mama.


Lastly, I do not have it all figured out! In fact, I'd venture to say I don't have much figured out. Keep that in mind as you're browsing. This is a learning process for me and part of the intrigue is that I'll be kept accountable. Those who know me best will tell you I'm very opinionated, and I don't apologize for that. But as much as I cling to my convictions, you can know that I value yours and am absolutely open to the Lord (albeit, painfully) changing my mind about things. I'm not sure where this will go and what sorts of things will end up here, but I thought I'd give you that just in case!