Organic Nerd

Host Your Own Recipe Party

2010-04-07T21:32:00.000-04:00

Does anyone else out there get tired of making the same old meals?

Yeah, that's me too!

Since starting to make monthly meal plans, I realized that even though I do cook mostly from scratch, I had a tendency to make a lot of the same things. Sometimes once a month, sometimes twice a month. Or I'd try a new recipe and think it was just OK and then toss it.

I've tried those email recipe exchanges and they never seem to work.

I've looked through all my cookbooks and keep coming back to the same recipes. I don't really want to buy new cookbooks right now (OK, actually I do really want to but I'm restraining myself). I did buy one new one that I'll write about once I make some things from it, of course!

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and have a recipe party. I'm actually amazed that the idea for this thing came from my brain and was not something I got from someone else. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but once I planned the event, I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of the idea sooner. And everyone who I invited thought it was such a great idea, even if they couldn't come. Several friends asked me to host another one so they could come the next time.

Here's how it worked. There are, of course, no hard and fast rules to follow when hosting a party like this one. You can make changes for whatever works best for you. This was just how I did it.

I sent an invitation to a lot of people! I was hoping for a lot of new recipes and selfishly, it was a chance for me to see some friends who no longer live nearby. I also opened up the invitation to anyone who came to bring a friend as well. In total, I had 14 women come together for the event. I was certainly hoping for more but we had a fantastic time together. I also told anyone who couldn't come that if they sent me five recipes, I'd send all the ones from the party. No one took advantage of this great offer like I was hoping, but I thought it was worth a shot!

I asked each person who was coming to email me five recipes, mostly main or side dishes, that are family favorites or "go to" meals they like to make. Each woman was then to bring one of those dishes to the party for all of us to try, sort of like a big potluck. I thought it would be fun to actually try some of the food first, and truthfully, I just like to eat, so that was an incentive as well.

I compiled the recipes together in one document which took a lot longer than I thought it would. I didn't have to retype anything, but I wanted everything formatted the same. I also wanted to keep soups, main dishes, salads, desserts, etc...together so everytime I cut and pasted from the emails everyone sent, I had to readjust a few things. I think I'd be faster at it next time around but it is something to keep in mind.

At first, I was going to give all the recipes out that night but it ended up being over 50 pages and that seemed like a waste of paper so I printed out just the recipes that were brought that night and emailed the rest to everyone. That way, they could print only the ones they wanted to try. I put the recipes in a small binder inside plastic sleeves and gave one to each person who came. I also included some blank copies of my recipe planning sheets, to get them started if they were interested. I had talked to a lot of friends who were hoping to do some better meal planning and recipe organization and thought this might help jumpstart that process.

That's basically it. Easy right? We had a great time and the food was really awesome. It really was a great way to have a girls night with some good food and wine and get inspired to cook some new meals in the process. I have put a lot of the new recipes I received in my menu plan for April and I'm excited to try them.

The other great part about the night is that a lot of them wanted to host their own party so I of course invited myself to their shindigs, whenever they decide to give it a go. I'm hoping to collect enough new recipes to have a new cookbook and won't have to buy one!

It really was a lot of fun and I encourage you to try this one on your own with some friends. You could make adaptations in a lot of different ways. One of my friends who came that evening wants to do this sort of thing on a small scale on a monthly basis. We're looking into doing that together. I'll let you know if it works out!

So go on! Do it! Grab some friends, some wine, some recipes and have at it!

What's For Dinner?

2010-03-28T14:59:00.001-04:00

If you follow any foodie-type blogs or people who love writing about food, you will probably come across their meal plan for the week. I've seen a lot of blogs where each week, they faithfully post what they are eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think it's always interesting to see what other people are eating, to see if we are in any way similar to other people or if we have these strange tastes, or if they do! On a recent comment, I was asked to show my menu plan. I don't have a scanner, nor do I know how to post or link to other documents so I can't do that, although I'd be happy to show you what it looks like. So instead I thought I'd just list our last two weeks of dinners, just to give you a feel for what we eat around here.

I think of our meals as pretty plain, normally. I like to cook simple food, without many ingredients, and it's mostly homemade. Again, I don't develop my own recipes and I love to get ideas from other people (hence, my most recent adventure in hosting a recipe party, which I'll post about soon). I have found our kids tend to like things pretty plain. I'm not sure if that's a phase or just how their tastes are in general. For example, I tried a new recipe last week making chicken curry which I thought was pretty great but they just ate plain rice. So, as I'm sure many of you know, wanting to cook a variety of meals can be tricky with young eaters.

When looking at what people eat, it can be somewhate misleading as to what eating 'real food' looks like. For example, when I say we eat "spaghetti and meatballs," I make my own sauce (normally, unless there's not time and then I use a jar of Muir Glen organic instead), and we use mostly Jerusalem articoke spaghetti or spinach spaghetti or a combination of both. There are many different varieties of pasta, wheat, spelt, etc...and not necessarily are all of them healthy choices. I make my own meatballs with beef we get from a local farmer. We order a quarter of a cow every year that we freeze. The cows are grass-fed (even with 3 feet of snow on the ground recently, they were out in a cleared space) and not treated with any type of inhumane practice of any kind. When we pick eggs up from the same farmer, we see them out in the field and say hello, knowing they will be butchered to give us nourishment. I never buy meat from the grocery store, and probably wouldn't eat it if we didn't have a local source.

We are certainly not perfect eaters, our kids have much more of a sweet-tooth than I would like (hmmm...wonder where they get that from??) and we do have times where we eat things I know we probably shouldn't. Eating healthy 'real foods' is a balancing act.

I say all of this because I do want to devote this blog to eating healthy foods and by saying what we eat could imply different things to different people. But I guess if you had questions, you could email me or comment and just ask. I certainly don't want to make sidenotes about every dish and exactly what's in it. But we do try to buy as many foods from local sources or organic sources as much as possible.

Anyway, as I ramble on and on, here's what we ate for the last two weeks!

Roast chicken, peas, mashed potatoes (I usually make a roast once a month and use the leftover chicken to make chicken salad, or other chicken meals during the week)
Chicken curry, rice
Spaghetti, meatballs, green beans
Wild flounder, sweet potatoes, asparagus
turkey burgers, homemade mac and cheese, carrots
Fettuccine alfredo (with a homemade sauce), broccoli
Tacos, guacamole (and yes, we use tortilla chips instead of shells)
Lentil soup
Homemade pizza (a new weekend favorite...we have it at least 2 times a month)
Chicken enchiladas
Fried rice, egg drop soup (a new recipe, not a family favorite which was too bad because it literally took 5 minutes to make)
Shepherd's pie
Grilled chicken, peas, sweet potatoes
Grilled steak, baked potatoes, green beans

So does that sound pretty normal to you?? I guess I look at what we eat like the same things most everyone eats. I do try to think about the source of the ingredients as much as possible. I guess I could do some more posts on my thinking behind that.

Here's what I'm planning to write about soon, in case you're interested in coming back to read more. I hope you are! I love to hear anyone who is inspired to make small changes!

My recipe party
Local farmers
Meat sources
Soaking grains
What's for breakfast and lunch?
Avocados
Homemade baby food

Menu Planning Update

2010-03-13T20:38:00.000-05:00

Last month, I finally dug in my heels and started planning a monthly menu. This was one of my goals for the year, to have more organized food plans. Even though we almost always cook from scratch, I was flying by the seat of my pants way too often. Here is my original post of how I got started.

I was pretty pleased with the first month. I enjoyed getting most of my staples in a single trip to our health food store. There were, of course, some forgotten items and a weekly trip to market for milk and produce, but it did feel like we were shopping less. I wouldn't say we spent any less than we normally do, but I think with time, I'll be able to get better at that.

I did make a few changes to my monthly planning sheet for March. I kept the same routine for planning dinners. I made a list of enough dinners for the month, trying to balance out beef, chicken, fish, and vegetarian meals. Instead of writing down specific breakfast and lunch meals for the month, I just wrote a generic list of the things we normally eat for those meals. I'll share those ideas with you soon, just in case you're curious what we eat around here for that.

I also decided to make a weekly planning sheet as well. I found that only having a montly planning sheet required a lot of moving meals around. I made a chart that has seven blocks, one for each day of the week. Then I put a line for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is each block. I then take my generic lists for breakfast and lunch and fill one in for each day. I use the master list of dinners and fill those in as well. I like planning for the week this way because I plan easier dinners for the nights my husband works or if we have something going on in the evening. It was always hard for me to plan weekly until I made the master month list first. Below the dinner line I put a section for planning ahead. So if I need to take meat out, grind flour, or soak some grains (another new thing I'm trying-more on this later), or prep something, I won't forget to do it. Well, as long as I remember to look! This has made everything go so much more smoothly.

The other thing I put on the weekly planning sheet is a small space to the right of the dinner blocks where I can put any ingredients I didn't plan ahead for or things like fruit and vegetables I might need to get at the beginning of the week. It's kind of like having a weekly grocery list and since it's right next to the menu, again, it's a lot easier.

Has anyone else given this a try? I encourage you to do so!

I'm having a recipe party next weekend. Can't wait to share the details of how it goes!

A Cloth Diaper Giveaway!

2010-02-22T21:14:00.001-05:00

OK, I don't do giveaways but lots of other super amazing bloggers do! And here's a great one from Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking. Envibum, a very cool cloth diaper company, is giving away a super cute, soft diaper to 3 lucky winners. You can read her review on this particular brand. Check it out at the link below if you are interested. If you want to read my link on our fave diaper, Fuzzi Bunz, to get an idea about cloth diapering, click here. I entered because they look awesome and her review had me sold. It's so fun to try new cloth diapers. Good luck if you enter!

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/02/envibum-giveaway.html

A Snowy Treat

2010-02-13T14:21:00.001-05:00

So what else do you do with 3 feet of snow on the ground?

A little bit of this...

A little bit of that...

And a whole lot of...

And when you're all done with that (OK the kids are never done with playing in the snow but their mama is),

you can make some snow ice cream!!

What? Really?

Oh, yes, I was a bit skeptical. But it was oh so yummy!

And of course, it was not my recipe or my idea. Check out Laura from Heavenly Homemakers for all the details (Thanks, Jennifer, for the reminder). And yes, it really works! And it is REALLY tasty!

Food, Inc. Just See It!

2010-02-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

I'm devoting this blog entry to encourage all of you who have not seen the move, Food Inc., to see it! I can't believe it took me this long to finally watch it!
If you haven't heard of the movie, here's a description directly from their website.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

I wouldn't be able to do justice to the actual content of the film. I think it's best to see it for yourself and take it all in. Here are a few "highlights" to hopefully spur your interest a little. Nerdy me, of course, took some notes while watching so I could, as directly as possible, quote parts I felt were important to motivate you to watch.

"The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you're eating because you wouldn't eat it."

They don't want you to know that a small group of multinational corporations control our food supply. It's a "world deliberately held from us."

The goal of meat companies to to make a lot of food on a small amount of land and sell cheaply so you buy it.

One hamburger patty you buy might contain over 1,000 different cattle.

We want to pay the cheapest price for food, BUT the price to pay for that is big companies and a cheap labor force. (By the way, all major corporations where intereviews were requested, declined ).

These large corporations use their POWER against farms, workers, and consumers. We are deliberately kept in the dark about what we eat and what it does in our bodies.

While much of the information in the movie wasn't new to me, it was eye opening to actually see with my eyes things that I've only read about as far as meat packing plants, large cattle farms, treatment of poultry, etc...

This movie might come as a shock to you, if you are unfamiliar with a lot of the facts presented. It might depress you, anger you a little, and hopefully above all, inspire change. If it doesn't make you change the way you look at food and go shopping, I would be surprised. Every small change you make after seeing the movie is a step in the right direction. I've heard some people say they wanted to become a vegetarian after seeing the movie. While I don't ever picture myself a vegetarian, I was certainly even more grateful for the small farms where we are able to purchase our meat.

I hope that you can see beyond just the meat industry, to how only a few small companies, basically control almost all the foods you would typically buy at the supermarket. How eating a bowl of cereal and milk or pulling into a drive through seems so innocent, and yet, how unhealthy it is and the sacrifice our nation's farmers have had to take.

Eating well does cost more. I've said that before. And while most of us are trying to spend less, food is one area where spending less has larger costs to our bodies and our world.

If you've seen the movie, or see it in the future, please share your feelings! And let others know about it. The more you know, the more power you have to make decisions about what you eat!

Pass Me a Cup of Joe, Part 1

2010-02-10T11:02:00.001-05:00

I love a good cup of coffee! Anyone else out there?? While I don't consider myself a coffee snob, I'm particular about how I drink my coffee, as most coffee lovers are. No sugar, only cream (has to be half and half, NOT milk). While half and half is not a health food by any means, I'm fortunate to have a source that only makes pasturized half and half versus ultra-pasturized (the same place where we buy our raw milk). Coffee is not something I've eliminated from my diet or have any intention to and I have no interest in drinking it black. Because of this, I try to buy fairly traded organic coffee or coffee roasted as close to home as possible from independent coffee companies. And yes, while Starbucks calls my name on occasion because we don't have many independent places in my area, I try to not frequent their store very often.

I asked my brother, the closest expert on the subject I know, to share a few thoughts on coffee in a short series. Hopefully, you'll find the topic as interesting as I do!

Coffee....the word that everyone knows, likes, loves, hates, takes with cream and sugar, is a snob about, or knows what their taste buds tell them.

My sister asked me to write a few things about the subject of coffee and share some thoughts. These thoughts come from 2.5 years of being a barista and a year of roasting experience, both for independent businesses whose owners care a great deal about coffee and providing it for their community.

While the subject of coffee can take many different roads, I'll start with the why. Why do you drink coffee? Is it a caffeine addiction? Do you like how it tastes in the morning or after dinner? Is it pleasurable to drink or have you formed a habit and merely kept it up? Do you like the many aromas and tastes you experience in the cup or is thinking about drinking a cup of hot liquid not really of interest to you?

Unless you answered that this subject is of no interest to you, then regardless of just having a caffeine addiction or enjoying the tastes and aromas of coffee, your experience with this well known drink can be more than you thought. Coffee is often compared to wine and chocolate in the sense that while it may seem simple (take a grape, smash it up and make a drink) the complexities of the whole process from start to finish have many factors, all contributing to the quality and experience of drinking it.

Our general enjoyment of coffee is dependent upon the region between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, which—except for Hawaii—we in the United States do not fall in. Therefore, the process begins far away from our kitchen counter. Because of this, when we buy coffee, our act is based on at least our preference of a certain kind, but it also involves a host of issues such as farmer relations, care of the roaster and why the coffee is sold (just for profit or a care beyond that). But when you think about it, these kinds of questions come or should come to mind no matter what we buy whether it's a new shirt or a pint of strawberries. The point is understanding and discerning how as a consumer you impact and care for what you buy. Don't worry, I'll stop there and just focus on coffee.

Let's take this in a 3-part series. Like part I, part II will be focused on coffee facts that will hopefully help you appreciate your next cup of joe, and in part III, I'll answer any questions you might have.

So if you have specific questions, feel free to comment or send an email.

Moving Ahead with Menu Planning

2010-01-28T19:52:00.007-05:00

Do you get overwhelmed by the amount of cooking that has to be done in the week?

I do!

And can I tell you how many times it has been 4:00 (OK, yes, sometimes 5:00) and I'm still unsure of what we're having for dinner? Sadly this has happened as often as I've been off on maternity leave as when I'm working full time.

I really do like cooking in general. I didn't grow up cooking much but I still like it. I can't make up my own recipes most of the time so I rely on cookbooks and other people's blogs and websites to dish out the good recipes. No pun intended.

Even with all of the information out there and all of the possibilities, I still find it hard to come up with things to make. And then I tend to make the same stuff all of the time. That gets pretty boring for my husband for sure.

And then there's the times where I call my husband on his way home from work and ask him to pick up a few things on his way home and we spend 20 dollars just to make a meal because I didn't plan ahead. Or yes, order out for pizza occasionally.

There have been times where I've been OK, and I stress on the low end of OK, at planning meals. I know when I do, we spend much less money on food. It's also a challenge when I get home from work because I want to take as much time to play with the kids as I can, but then the call of dinner lingers around and I have to cook. So I am constantly searching for quick meals that are still healthy and call for few ingredients which means less time in the kitchen overall. As I find more meals like this, I'll be happy to share them with you.

There are a few reasons I wanted to do better with meal planning.

1. I'm going back to work after next week and the thought of going back to the "old way" of meal planning, which was jotting down a few ideas and then saying, "I'll figure it out later" and never did, is not going to fly anymore. I want to be more in control of knowing what we are eating to maximize my time with my family and minimize time in the kitchen. When you make a meal plan, you can also say things like...oohh, that meal takes sour cream and so let me come up with another meal to use the rest of the sour cream. Bet you never thought you'd say something like that before.

2. Taking kids grocery shopping can be a challenge as I'm sure many of you know, so having an exact list will be helpful. While I've done exact lists before, it was never exact enough. And I'd rather get as much stuff as possible in one trip and not have to make 10 trips a month to the grocery store.

3. I want to have a better idea of exactly how much we spend on food and how often we go through things. We've always had a pretty loose food budget because I think spending money on good wholesome food is important. BUT, it was getting a little out of control so we are trying to pull in the reins on how much we spend and stick to whatever amount we decide on. My plan is to record the dates of when I buy something so I know how long it takes us to go through maple syrup for instance, or how long it takes to use up a pack of toilet paper. There are people who really know these things and it helps them plan and budget better. This might not be of interest to you, but I'd like to have this information.

4. My husband will be a stay-at-home daddy for an indefinite period of time and I know it will greatly help him to know what to serve for breakfast and lunch. He's pretty handy in the kitchen but I know this will help him stay organized. I wish I had done this months ago so I was more in control while at home!

I guess those are the main reasons. I have in the past planned out dinners for a week but then I wouldn't take the time to do the following week in time and so it would sort of fall apart. The weekly thing wasn't working for me so I'm doing a monthly plan.

I tried doing a monthly dinner plan recently where I took a calendar and wrote dinners for the entire month. It sort of worked, sort of didn't because I left too many open holes for leftovers where there weren't leftovers. And I repeated too many things.

Breakfast is usually pretty easy to figure out and I don't normally plan for it but in this plan I did, just to see how it would work. Lunches are also usually flexible and I tend to buy the same things to have on hand for lunch but there are still days where I feel like lunch is boring and repetitive so I decided to plan for lunch as well.

I read a few methods from some fellow bloggers and then sort of took their ideas and my own ideas and came up with this system. I'm sure there are lots of ways of doing menu planning and this will be a work in progress but here's where I am at this point. You can use my ideas if you want or read some other menu planning blogger ideas too. It certainly feels awesome to have my first full plan finished!

The form I used I took from Stephanie at Keeper of the Home. You can find it on her website or just use a piece of notebook paper and draw a few columns like I did.

1. I started by writing down things that I know my family likes to eat for dinner(spaghetti, grilled chicken, tacos, etc...) I asked my husband how often he would want to eat these things (weekly, monthly, etc...) He doesn't like to eat the same foods as often as I do so I wanted him to have a say in what he would prefer. The kids will just eat what we make (or be hungry)!

2. I made 3 columns on a piece of paper, one each for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a place for the date on the side. The teacher in my really wanted to grab some chart table and hang it up on the walls, but I restrained myself. Plus, I don't have any chart paper at home.

3. I started by filling in the dinner column since I knew this would be the most time consuming. Using the plan that my husband gave input for, I started filling in some things to eat on each day. If it was something he only wanted once a month, I only used it once. I also had a few new recipes I wanted to try so I put those on as well. I made sure we had one fish meal a week, one soup a week, one vegetarian, and then the rest were a toss-up between chicken and beef or turkey. I made sure every line had a meal. I know we won't need every single meal because there will be leftover nights or a night we go to a friend's house or have someone over. Sometimes, we also like to make homemade pizza. The meals will be flexible from night to night in case something comes up and they have to be switched around. Also, I left some of them a little generic to fill in with a vegetable later depending on what I find on sale or what is in season. For example, if the meal is grilled chicken and veggie, I don't put a specific vegetable down because it might not be the best choice if it's not a good price when I shop for it.

4. I repeated this process for breakfast and lunch which was simpler and I could repeat things more often. For example, my kids love eggs and eat them about 3 times a week. Again, I put things like eggs and fruit. I'll let them choose what kind of eggs they want (egg surprise, scrambled, sunny up, etc...) and the fruit will be again, what's in season or what I found for the best price. This will be much easier in the summer when there is so much good stuff in season. I'm running low on the fruit I froze this summer already!

My plan is to highlight when we eat the meal so I can keep track of how accurate it was. I'll also fill in the specific fruits and vegetables we ate. If the plan changed, like we went to a friend's house, I'll record that and save that meal for another time.

5. Once my beautiful chart was complete, I made a grocery list. First, I made a list of all the staples I would need for the entire month, only writing down what I didn't have in the cupboards already. This was things like grains, pasta, rice, canned goods, dried fruit, oils, etc... These are foods I purchase at our local health food store or find in our main chain grocery store.

6. Then I made a list JUST for this week of what fresh produce I would need, plus things like butter, cheese, milk, eggs and bread that I buy weekly. These things I get from local markets. I'll make a new list every week for the fresh stuff based on what we have left and what the menu says we need. If I plan well enough, I should only have to go to the grocery store once a week to do the main shopping and then the local markets weekly.

Fortunately, I have lots of frozen meat from our beef we purchase yearly and chickens we purchase maybe twice a year so I don't have to worry about meat (unless I'm buying nitrate free bacon and hot dogs).

7. Finally, it was time to go shopping. I bought the staples for the month at our local health food store (with the exception of a few things I couldn't find). I was fortunate this month I already had a lot stocked up. Here's what my staples look like:

For future budgeting purposes, I recorded how much things cost at the health food store so I can price compare and find where the best deals are for specific foods. This will take awhile but it's part of my overall goals for meal planning and budgeting.

I bought some produce at the health food store and some from a local market. Here's our produce for this week. Hopefully it will last!

Hopefully I didn't forget too much and will only have to go to market for fresh stuff. Our local markets also have places to buy fish, nuts, dried fruits and things like that so it helps to avoid the grocery store.

This whole process of planning, not the shopping, probably took a few hours and I did it in bits and pieces when I had time. I didn't like doing it that way so from now on I'll take a chunk of time toward the end of the month and do it all at once. I think that will go more smoothly. Plus, now that I have a month done, I can repeat some of these meals, add new ones, and have a record of what we've eaten and when. Hopefully, it will just keep getting easier and faster as time goes on.

So, was that a lot to take in? It was a lot to write. I tried to be specific in case you were interested in trying it yourself. Hopefully, if you've been thinking about menu planning it will give you some ideas to get started. And if you want to start slowly, maybe just try it for one meal of the day and then move into other meals. I'd love to know what you're going to try or if you have a plan that works for you already. I'll keep you posted on how this works for us!

Back to Basics

2010-01-27T21:00:00.005-05:00

Do you have any idea how many blogs there are out there? Millions, probably.

And how many of them are about healthy and natural living? Thousands I'm sure.

If given time, I could get completely lost and absorbed in bloggyland. You know, how you read a comment on someone's blog, click on their link, and suddenly you are reading thoughts from a person you know absolutely nothing about. But there they are.

This is how I came to discover that there are tons of people out there writing about the same kinds of things I do. Only most of them seem to do it more often, know a ton more than I do, and in my opinion, write much better.

I had the thought this week to just refer you to my three favorite blogs on healthy eating and just turn in my resignation.

But then I remembered why I started blogging in the first place.

I've had a lot of negative experiences sharing my beliefs about food and eating well. Some people don't really understand, or they think you're in some way trying to be better than them. But I really do believe in the things I write about, or the things in my head that I want to write about and never seem to get around to it. And I wanted to share these things with others and help take baby steps to making changes in your lives that hopefully, affect your health in a positive way.

I know that most people who actually read this blog are friends of mine and that's where I wanted to start. There might be a few who were referred by my friends. And that's exactly what I hoped would happen. Just sharing my thoughts with people I love and then maybe getting a few more people on board and everyone sharing with each other what they are changing in their lives for the better with how they eat and live. So whenever someone emails me to tell me something they've changed, I celebrate.

I plan to refer you to my favorite blogging gals in some entries in the future and I encourage you to check out their sites because I really think they are all amazing at what they write about and how they write to encourage other people. All three of them are stay-at-home moms, love the Lord and their families, and encourage others in their journeys to organic and natural living.

As long as you still come back and visit me once in a while.

Once of the bloggers I follow is Lindsay from Passionate Homemaking. Lindsay recently had a post titled Can Natural Living Become an Idol? You can read the post yourself if you want. Basically she talks about how putting healthy eating or living above God and others can create a problem, and it can become your idol.

I thought her feelings on the matter were right on and it obviously hit a nerve with a lot of people because there were over 200 comments about this post. I didn't read all of them but after skimming, I got the feeling that a lot of people are doing their best to make small changes in the way they eat or live. They might not be able to eat all organic foods or do everything "perfectly" but they are doing the best they can.

I've been in the place, I'd say a few years ago, where, while I wasn't making eating organic food an idol, it was becoming a pride issue. While I wouldn't say I felt better than anyone else for the changes I was making, it did give me a sense of pride to stock my refrigerator with good food. Maybe I felt like this because I was just excited about what I was learning and maybe not. I did at times, wonder why other people weren't really all about it, why they didn't think making changes in their life was necessary. Where I would look at someone's grocery cart piled with plastic shopping bags and wonder why they didn't just buy some canvas ones. Or wonder if they ever cooked at all based on the contents of their cart. Or when I told all my friends about how great cloth diapers were, why no one really wanted to try them.

And so I sort of stopped sharing with people because I felt like no one really cared or no one was really listening. I was so excited to tell people but I felt like they didn't get what I was trying to do. I basically was making it more about me, and not about them and certainly not about my Creator, who was teaching me how to look at life and food differently. So maybe it was an idol, even if I didn't see it that way back then.

I think when I finally realized this, I changed my attitude.

It has still been a struggle at times to share my feelings on the pursuit of healthy living. Maybe continued fear of rejection? And that hope that people don't think I'm trying to be better than them? I do really want to just share things I'm learning and hope you'll learn along with me. And my hope is that you'll share with someone else something you've done and then they'll share with someone else what they've done and on and on. Sort of like, paying health forward.

And just a reminder, I'm on the journey right along with you. I'm still working to make changes in what I eat and how I live for the better. I have in no means "arrived" or do I do things perfectly. I'd say this past year, reflected in how often I've written, I've really struggled with eating well starting with how sick I was during pregnancy and how I had a hard time desiring to cook and eat well. While I do my best to feed my family a lot of organic and local food, we're not perfect. There are some changes I've made and will not go back on (in a future post I'll share that) and there are more things I hope to do better.

Which leads me back to the reason for this post. Whew...about time, right?

Remembering that the pursuit for healthy living starts with small changes, and I know many of you have made small changes, I started making a list of things I'd like to do better with and I'll be posting those things in the near future. I hope it encourages you to know we are all in the journey together. And the things I do are not things you have to do, but I'd love to hear about what you are doing.

So, all that being said, here is a sneak peek at a few things on my list. I'll be writing about these and some other areas in the future.

-Getting a better handle on the food budget
-making monthly meal plans
-composting
-less leftover waste
-making homemade snacks
-paying attention to how long things last (laundry detergent, etc..)
-finding more simple and healthy recipes

Knowing me, it will take me awhile!

And what about you? Any goals you have?

Chocolate Earth Balls

2010-01-17T16:51:00.005-05:00

I am forever searching for healthier alternatives to satisfy my seemingly endless sweet tooth. I'm not sure if it's eating more sweets than normal after Christmas or my post-delivery cravings, or a combination, but my sweet tooth has been in high mode for a few months now. And I, admittedly, have given in and eaten a lot of foods I wouldn't normally eat, but I haven't been super committed to limiting my sugar intake as of late. Both my husband and I are committing to eating less sugar, particularly refined sugar. There was a time I had almost completely cut it out of my diet, but as too often happens, the more you slip away from the good habits, the more the bad habits seem to take over. I used to be able to eat dates or coconut rolled dates and feel satisfied. While I still enjoy that treat, it's not my first choice these days. And the fact that pregnancy weight is coming off much more slowly than it did with my other children is adding to my determination to get a handle on my sweet cravings.

So while looking through my Whole Foods Market Cookbook for something for dinner, I poked around in the back section called Cooking With Kids, that I had previously ignored and found a great recipe for Chocolate Earth Balls. I happened to have everything on hand they called for (amazingly enough, that almost never happens when I find something I want to make) and made half a batch, to see what the kids would think. Well, we ate them all in less than 2 days so I made another batch today. They are chewy and smooth with a little bit of crunch and plenty of sweetness to be very satisfying. And the kids had fun helping me roll them together! They sort of give you a sense of eating a candy bar.

As always, you should try to use as many organic ingredients as possible.

Chocolate Earth Balls

1 cup peanut butter
Side note: you should really try to eat natural peanut butter that has all of the natural oils and not the added hydrogenated fats that most traditional brands use. Even better, try organic peanut butter because peanuts are not the healthiest nut and have more pesticides than other nuts). You could also use another nut butter such as almond butter or combine the 2 like I did in my batch today. You could even substitute a little bit of tahini.
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons carob powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut, divided
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used organic grain-sweetened)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts such as walnuts or pecans (I actually eliminated this because I didn't have nuts I wanted to use on hand and they were still fine)

Make sure peanut butter is stirred well. Mix honey, peanut butter and cocoa or carob powder until well combined. Stir in raisins, 1/8 cup coconut and chocolate chips. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Place remaining coconut, sesame seeds and nuts in 3 separate bowls. Roll mixture into balls and then roll into coconut, seeds and nuts. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to set.

This recipe made just over 2 dozen generously sized balls. I might do them a little smaller next time. They really are tasty so I encourage you to try them when you want something sweet AND healthy!

Hip, Hip Hooray for Handmade Gifts

2010-01-12T20:10:00.013-05:00

I wish I were a more creative person. Some people tell me I am, but the older I get, the more I realize, I am not. This became more evident over the month of December when all my daughter wanted to do was make Christmas crafts. The best I could come up with were putting glitter stickers and foam stickers on glass ball ornaments and making snowmen out of mini-marshmallows. Oh, and those foam craft kits were quite handy as well.

Despite my lack of craftiness, there is creativity that runs in my family. One of my brothers is quite creative and witty with his writing. My other brother just made us a compost bin with wood from a futon that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill. My older sister is very creative when it comes to food. While I enjoy eating and writing about food, she is great at experimenting with food and making food look really yummy (oh, and of course it tastes great too). At my nephew's recent birthday party there was a gorgeous camouflage cake and some super yummy and beautiful appetizers...things like mini-skewers of Italian meats,roasted peppers, and mozzarella balls. When she makes and presents food, it's just beautiful.

My younger sister amazed us all at Christmas. She lives on the opposite coast that we do and flew in bearing a least a suitcase full of handmade amazingness. I am still in awe at all of the things she managed to make in just a few short months. I would be lucky to have made one thing in that time. She even admitted to "messing a few things up," but yet, re-making them! While she has no formal sewing training, she has the patience and creative spirit to make magic happen! The things she brought for us could have been sold in those cute little shops that carry people's homemade things. Since I have no sewing talent whatsoever (OK, I MIGHT be able to sew a button), I love to support people who can make things on their own when possible. These items tend to be a bit more expensive than those made in factories across the world, but their uniqueness is priceless. But now that I know how talented my sister really is, I can just ask her to make them (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

So here are a few things that she made...

Onesies for the baby...note the matching slippers for the middle two.

On the left are plastic sandwich bag replacements. They velcro shut and you can wash and reuse them and save a few bags. On the top right is a cute little wallet. On the bottom right is a little wristband thing (not sure the formal name) made with my late grandmother's handkerchiefs. They also doubled well for Christmas dinner as napkin rings.

These are reusable produce bags!

Some pillows...as my husband would like our son to be into sports someday. Right now he's really into musical instruments, hence the next pillow she made him. Cute, right?

A super cute doll (sorry, couldn't figure out how to turn the picture.)

And finally, matching aprons and chef hats. Oh, and the aprons are reversible!

Amazing, right!? And the pictures don't really do justice to the quality of what she made.

Anyway, the point of this post, other than getting to show off my sister's cool things, is to support people who make and sell handmade things. I cannot imagine the hours she spent making these, plus lots of other stuff for the rest of my family members. I'm sure even if she sold them, the cost of her time and talent would go unrewarded.

I'm sure you've all been in little shops where they sell handmade loveliness. If not, you can always check out etsy.com, a great place to check out all things handmade. Not only can you support others who often make a living or have a small side business doing what they do, you can get something original for yourself or someone else.

Three cheers for that!

The Beauty of New Life

2010-01-05T08:28:00.002-05:00

I was recently reading a blog of a friend who lists her friends down the side of her blog and it tells when they last posted. So when I caught a glimpse of mine that said something like 5 months ago, I was a bit surprised, but then again, not really. I seem to start every entry with an apology, as if anyone actually checks to see if I've written anything new. So I've decided, I'm not apologizing anymore, I'll just write when I feel led. It's not that I don't want to blog my thoughts and learning about food anymore, it's just that, with a new baby and time off from work at home with my other 2 gorgeous kids, well, it just hasn't been a priority for me. I've been enjoying being at home. I guess I've been a little self-centered in that priority, but for now, it's where I stand.
After our third child was born in October, I was in complete awe of her. I guess I was in awe after the other two as well, but it felt different this time. I kept thinking, "the beauty of new life." I would just stare at her, marveling at her beauty, innocence, perfect contentment at being held, trusting in me to care for her, all those thoughts that I'm sure all parents feel about their kids, those thoughts that make you marvel how much God loves us, how he adores and loves each of us. Maybe because this could be our last child were the thoughts stronger, maybe because God's timing is greater than our timing, I'm not sure. I'm amazed every day by my children, the things they do and say, what they're learning that you don't realize. There's just something about a newborn, though. The entry into the world, the newness, the hope, the beauty...so I'm still taking it all in and enjoying each day at home with my kids. I go back to work in 5 weeks, sigh...but I'm not thinking about that just yet. Maybe I'll write more when the time comes.
So while this has nothing to do with the main subject of my blog, it's where my heart has been. I have an ongoing list in my head of things I'd like to write about, but I'm not making a resolution to write more often. I'm not much for resolutions, but I do feel strongly about eating well and passing along some healthy tidbits here and there. So one of these days, I'll actually do that!

A Few Basil Ideas

2009-07-27T20:29:00.003-04:00

Does anyone else love basil?

I love summer produce for so many reasons and fresh herbs are on that list! I love the smell of fresh basil when it's just sitting on the counter. While I haven't been too successful at growing my own this year (I truly have a blue thumb, I think), we've gotten a bunch in our CSA pick-up. While I look for new ways to use it, here are 2 of my favorite recipes that I come back to all the time! Both are simple and easy to make. And with all recipes I'll ever post, they are not my original ideas. Both of these came from the cookbook I've mentioned before, Simply in Season.

Pesto

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves and stems
1-3 cloves garlic (go for 3)
1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or hazelnuts (toasted), although I usually skip the toasting step
3-6 TBSP. Parmesan cheese (go for fresh always!)
1/2 tsp. salt or to taste
2 sprigs fresh parsley (optional, but good)

Finely chop in a food processor. While the processor is running, add 1/3-1/2 olive oil until you make a thick paste. Serve over hot pasta, and remember you only need a little! Pesto is great because you don't need to measure exactly.

You can then use this recipe (or just a jar if you're not up to making your own, to make the following).

Creamy Pesto Pasta

3 TBSP. butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add flour and cook 3 minutes. Add milk and bring to a boil. Cook gently 5 minutes. (And seriously, pay attention when cooking milk and don't let your kids distract you like I did tonight and ended up with lots of burnt milk on my stovetop when it boiled over!)

1 cup Pesto (the recipe I listed is about 1 cup)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Stir into milk mixture and remove from heat. Add 1 pound cooked pasta of choice. Serve with extra parmesan cheese grated on top. YUMMY!

And here's one more simple and great tasting basil dish (with pasta of course!)

Fresh Tomato and Garlic Pasta

4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds tomatoes, chopped and seeded and drained (another great summer special!)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Combine and let stand at room temperature for 1-2 hours.

Cook 1 pound of your choice of pasta. Add sauce and serve immediately. Top with grated Parmesan cheese. I've also used fresh mozzarella. It's great either way!

Enjoy!

Anyone else enjoy basil a different way?

Sunscreen Tips

2009-06-27T21:56:00.004-04:00

It seems as though every post I have to begin with an apology and excuse for my absence from blogging. It just seems as though other priorities get in the way and I tend to forget to keep up with it. It's not that I don't want to, I have just been choosing to do other things with the little bit of free time that comes my way. However, after a few requests for some new information, I'm back (at least for tonight!) And thanks to those who have asked questions. I love to know that people actually read and learn and try something new! That makes my day!

A friend asked me about sunscreen and wondering about slathering it all over her kids if it is full of chemicals. A great question! And quite appropriate for our current summer weather! So here's my take on sunscreen.

Anything you put on your body, or on your children's body, is full of tons of different ingredients and, depending on the product you choose, tons of chemicals. This applies to sunscreen, lotion, bath soap, shampoo, perfume, toothpaste, deodorant, bath bubbles, etc...Knowing what is in the products you choose can help you make decisions that you feel are best. Obviously, anytime you choose a product without chemicals, the cost is going to go way up so you have to decide whether the cost is worth it to you. And just because it says natural or organic doesn't' mean it's the best choice. I've seen a few organic products that are still high in chemicals and use both organic products AND chemically laden products.

I think I posted the link that I love to use to determine what chemicals are in the products I'm choosing. Here it is again. You can look up just about any skin care product, find the ingredients, chemicals, and what diseases the chemicals have been linked to. You will also get a rating for how toxic the product is, from 0-10, 0 being the safest. I use this website frequently and we have gradually switched all of our personal care products to more safe products. I personally try to not buy anything rated higher than a 3. While a bit pricey, I'm fond of Aubrey Organics (for shampoo, lotion, sunscreen, makeup, etc...) Desert Essence for toothpaste, Crystal Stone for deodorant, and California Baby for sunscreen and a few other things. It's really interesting looking up the products you use and seeing the rating for them.

So, about the original question of sunscreen. All of us as humans, need sunlight. Most of us stay indoors cooped up way too much, especially our kids that need to be running around getting exercise in the sun (even when we are too hot and lazy to go outside...or is that just me?) I've read some interesting articles about sunlight being the only real source of Vitamin D (not the stuff added to your milk). Vitamin D can help protect against certain kinds of cancer, especially of the digestive system. When you absorb sunlight into your skin, it attracts immune cells to your skin's surface which can help control skin disease. Kids growing bodies need lots of Vitamin D and higher levels of vitamin D in kids could reduce neurological and autoimmune diseases (so I have read). Kids can actually get a good daily dose of Vitamin D with just 20 minutes in the sun (which would not necessarily need sunblock). But obviously, long bouts in the sun, especially between 10am and 2pm are necessary. Use SPF of at least 15. I know most people say use these super-high levels of SPF and I usually use around a 30. However, just for information sake, I've read that when you use above SPF 15, vitamin D can't be synthesized. Again, that's a personal choice.

Because whatever you rub into your child's (or your own) skin will soak in and spread to the bloodstream, I think the less chemicals the better. Here are a few ratings from the above listed website to give you an idea. You can follow the link to go directly to the page.

Banana Boat -there were a ton listed for this brand and most were ranked between 7 and 10 which is the highest rating for chemicals. This would not be the best choice.
Aveeno-ranked between 4 and 7 which is average. Not great, but better than some.
Coppertone-most were high hazard

If you want more information on sunscreen, read this article from the Environmental Working Group concerning their studies done on nearly 1000 sunscreens. "In a new investigation of 898 name-brand sunscreens, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 4 out of 5 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun, or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns. Leading brands were the worst offenders: None of market leader Coppertone's 33 sunscreen products met EWG's criteria for safety and effectiveness, and only 1 of 85 products from Banana Boat and Neutrogena, the second- and third-largest manufacturers, are recommended by EWG." This article will also give you their top recommended brands and chemical ratings. Have fun exploring!

Oh, and truthfully, chemicals are everywhere. Part of the food we might choose to eat, the water we drink, the products we clean with, the mattresses we sleep on, the air we breath...it can be overwhelming to think about. I don't think it's possible to eliminate everything, but whatever small things we can do, can help take the stress off our our bodies just a little bit. So anything small you do is better than nothing! If you find some new favorites, let me know.

Hummus

2009-04-28T00:47:00.000-04:00

Mmmm...I love a good hummus, don't you?

Truthfully, I've never really tasted a good hummus until recently and now I'm hooked! Most hummus brands I've tried in stores don't really have much taste. A friend recently shared this recipe and my husband and I ate the entire batch in two days. That's a lot of garlic, my friends, let me tell you. It was seeping from our pores. This recipe is full of flavor!

Nothing to not love about this recipe and oh so good for you!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. As soon as the parsley grows in our recently planted herbs in our backyard, we'll be making some more!

Hummus

2 15-oz. cans garbanzo beans, drained
1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste-you can find with peanut butter)
1/4 cup lemon juice (she says lime works too but I didn't try that version)
4-5 cloves garlic (less if you're not fond of garlic)
1/4 cup packed parsley
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/2-1 cup water (start with 1/2 and add more if too thick)
salt and pepper to taste, or other seasonings like Spike (natural all purpose seasoning)

Blend with the appliance of your choosing.

Serve with raw veggies, crackers or tortilla chips. Garlic crackers add an extra pizazz!

Confession

2009-04-13T15:11:00.000-04:00

I know I've been absent for some time. A few people have noticed and mentioned something to me. Actually, the only people who have mentioned anything are probably the only people who actually pay attention to this blog. Anyway, I thought I owed an explanation as to my whereabouts along with a small confession.

The main reason I haven't been blogging is that, well, I haven't been eating very healthy for the last, oh, 7 or so weeks. So it's been hard to motivate myself to actually write and tell other people what they should or should not be eating when I am not doing so well with that.

The main reason is that I've been pretty nauseous for the last, oh, 7 or so weeks, since I found out I was pregnant again. Plus, the added extra fatigue that comes with being pregnant has added to the fatigue already in existence from working full-time outside the home and taking care of two little ones. Honestly, the last 2 months have sort of just been survival, getting up and doing what has to be done and ignoring pretty much everything else.

I had nausea with my other 2 pregnancies but this time seemed to be much worse. Evenings were REALLY, really tough and sometimes I just went to bed because it was the only thing that helped. And when I felt sick, I just sort of ate whatever sounded good, whether it helped the nausea or not. And if it did help, it lasted about 5 minutes. Things that helped for a few minutes: usually potato chips and lemonade. I've had lots of those. And, here's the big confession, fast food a few times. I NEVER (seriously) eat fast food and I've had it probably 4 times since getting pregnant. And felt pretty miserable after, but you know, it sounded good at the time. Plus, I got a stomach bug a few weeks ago and spent a week where my body was pretty mixed up and I didn't eat much of anything other than soda and crackers. Yeah, tasty. Tasty and healthy.

I think the nausea has finally subsided so I'm hoping to start craving some good ole' tomatoes and lettuce soon. And if you're one of those people who never gets sick during pregnancy, please keep those comments to yourself.

So, now that I'm feeling somewhat better, I'm hoping to be a little more motivated to talk about (and eat) healthy food. With spring and summer veggies around the corner, I hope to post some good info on reasons to eat them! So stay tuned and don't give up making good, healthy lifestyle choices. They are worth it in the long run!

Global Food Crisis

2009-03-11T20:27:00.001-04:00

Whether or not you are aware of it, there is a true global food crisis in our world. Much of it stems from rising fuel costs, deep global economic problems, natural disasters, and rising food demands. For many that can grow their own food, they can't afford to buy it!

I think it saddens me so deeply to think about it, that sometimes I prefer not to think about it.

This taken directly from Compassion International's website (why put it into my own words?)

"The global food crisis threatens the lives of millions and has been called a "silent tsunami," unleashing turmoil against the most vulnerable children. The Secretary-General of the UN calls it a "moral outrage" and estimates that as much as $40 billion a year is required for the next three to five years.
Compassion International exists as an advocate for children in poverty and works in some of the areas hardest hit by this crisis. We are providing solutions through local churches with nutritional provision and long-term strategies, such as agricultural education, training and tools, so that those consumed by this crisis have the opportunity to grow and prepare their own food."

To read some startling statistics about children in povery around the world, go to http://www.compassion.com/poverty-map/.

Sometimes it seems that the problem is so huge, nothing will help!

But, every little bit of giving helps! And you can do something to help! As Christians, we are commanded to help those in need.

Compassion International, an organization I highly believe in, is sponsoring a Global Food Crisis day. Yes, it is today, and yes, I'm way behind as usual. But you can give anytime, not just in the next few hours. Compassion supports releasing children from poverty in the name of Christ and you can support children with a monthly donation to provide food, shelter, schooling, medicine, and many other things as well as a Christian education.

But even if you don't support a child, you can help with the food crisis. For just 13 dollars, you can feed a child for a month! I know I can't feed my children for that little a month. Knowing that the money donated goes directly to feeding hungry children is so encouraging to me!

I know that sometimes problems seem so insurmountable and that even a little doesn't really do much. But in giving a little, God can do so much more! He can use any gift, in any amount.

Please consider! Give from your heart!

To donate or find out more, click here.

Making Yogurt

2009-02-14T14:47:00.000-05:00

There are many things that I would like to be able to make from scratch that I never get around to trying. Sometimes it's fear that I'll mess it up and then waste a bunch of stuff, sometimes it's the time factor. I make most of our meals from scratch but rely on some bought items to make them that I COULD make on my own, but choose not to.

One of those things is yogurt. I really love yogurt, the full-fat kind, not the low fat stuff that I think tastes like nothing. My favorite store-bought brand is Brown Cow because it comes with the cream on the top that you mix in. I normally buy flavored kinds but my kids actually love plain yogurt. That grosses me out somewhat, but it's better since it's not sweetened. They like vanilla too but will go for just plain.

So, since we eat a lot of yogurt, I was calculating how much I spend on yogurt a week. It's anywhere from 10-15 dollars, depending how much we buy. That probably sounds like a lot to you, but organic yogurt is more expensive, we eat a lot of it, and we often use it for smoothies in the morning.

So then I calculated how much it would cost to make my own. If I make it from the raw milk we buy, and I use a half gallon of milk, it would cost me less than 4 dollars. That's a big difference!! So I decided to give it a try!

I have to admit, I was a little nervous but I've heard from a lot of people that it is so easy. I sat down and read a few different ways that you can make it and combined them and picked the way that sounded easiest for me. Here's what to do!

1. Heat 4 cups of milk (or 8) if you want more in a large pot on the stove to 180 degrees. This is just before the boiling point when little bubbles form around the edges. If you have a thermometer, it's best to stick it in the milk to check the temperature.

2. Remove from heat and cool milk down to 110 degrees. Mix 1/4-1/3 store-bought plain yogurt with a cup of warm milk OR mix one pack yogurt starter with a little warm milk (for 8 cups, double the starter or yogurt). Add the mixed yogurt to the entire batch and stir together.

3. Pour into a GLASS container and loosely put the lid on. I used an old jar that used to be filled with coconut oil.

4. Fill a cooler part-way with warm water, but not over the top of the jar.

5. Close the lid of the cooler and let it sit for 4-7 hours. Check on it occasionally to see if the yogurt has formed and to make sure the water is warm.

THAT'S IT!! Amazingly simple. The prep part took 10-15 minutes. For me, it was about 7 hours until the yogurt formed. The result is slightly more runny than store bought yogurt and even though it's plain, it's just a touch sweeter than store bought plain. And maybe that was just the milk I used. Sweeten with honey or maple syrup, fruit, or granola. Delicious! And really, it was very easy!

Anybody up for it?

Does Your Spouse Rock?

2009-02-09T06:59:00.001-05:00

I don't know about you, but my husband rocks!

He really does.

Yes, I wish that he could go to the grocery store and get everything on the list exactly right. And yes, sometimes the clothing on the bedroom floor becomes a small mountain.

But those are such small things. My husband loves the Lord, and our family and does all kinds of amazing things for us. He's such a blessing to us and I'm thankful for him in my life.

If you feel the same about your spouse, let him/her know it. AND, tell the rest of the world!

Check out frommetees.com for all kinds of stylish tees that promote marriage. In this world, anything that promotes marriage in a good light is a fantastic thing. We both have one and get some interesting comments and looks when we wear them (not at the same time, of course. That would be way too cheesy).

So celebrate your spouse in style! Maybe even in time to show them how much you love them this weekend!

For the Love of Chocolate

2009-02-01T20:32:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't love chocolate, right?

I certainly do and don't usually deny myself when I'm really wanting some. Sometimes it seems like there's nothing like chocolate when you want something sweet or are trying to beat the blues.

While we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day in a big way around here, it does make me start thinking about chocolate. Mmmmmm... And I'm a believer in "the right kind of chocolate is A-OK in moderation!"

Chocolate gets a bad rap most of the time. And yes, most chocolate is very processed, full of added sugar and other bad stuff so that most of the chocolate you buy is not very close to the original form. Dark chocolate, my absolute fave, is full of antioxidants, that help fight disease and aging. Chocolate can calm stress (ah...thank goodness) and help with blood flow. If you buy organic chocolate bars, which you could probably find in the organic section of your grocery store, get ready for a treat. Ooohhh, it's so good! And would probably have you saying good-bye to Hershey kisses.

When I buy actual chocolate bars, which is pretty rare, I'm rather fond of fair trade chocolate. Fair trade (on any product) means the farmer receives a fair share of wages which in turn, helps his community and helps to decrease poverty. I won't go on and on (at least in this post) about how poor farmers wages are, particulary in other nations, but buying fair trade can help at least a little. Here's a link if you'd like to learn more about fair trade.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few chocolate recipes, in case you're thinking of trying something new for someone special. The first is one I just tried tonight! It's not the healthiest recipe, mostly due to the sugar and I didn't try a substitute, but it's a good breakfast treat for a special day!

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

Mix the following in a large bowl:
1-1/2 cups flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat)
1 cup organic sugar
¼ cup baking cocoa (I use a fair trade organic cocoa)
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking powder

In a small bowl, combine:
1-1/3 cups mashed ripe banana (2-3 medium)
1/3 cup oil (I use coconut)
1 egg
Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened.

Fold in 1 cup (6 oz.) chocolate chips (I use grain-sweetened)

Bake 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Next would be a triple chocolate bonus for breakfast, if you make the muffins too...homemade hot cocoa! I've tried a few different ones but this is my favorite. My picky hot-chocolate drinking husband actually likes this much better than the powdered stuff...shocking!

Hot Cocoa

In a medium saucepan, boil 1/3 cup water, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup rapadura (evaporated cane juice, but you could use the regular white stuff if you're not into healthy sugars yet) and a dash of salt on med/high heat. Boil a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Turn on low and add 5 cups milk (raw is best if you can) and then add 1 tsp. vanilla

We love to make homemade whipped cream to add to the top. Mmmm...maybe I'll go make some right now!

And finally, chocolate cake!! Who doesn't love chocolate cake! And this one is pretty healthy with an added secret ingredient! Don't worry, you don't have to tell.

Secret Chocolate Cake

2 cups beets (cooked, peeled and chopped)
1/2 cup applesauce

Puree in blender until smooth. Set aside.

1 1/2 cups organic sugar (OK, not so healthy, but c'mon, it has beets too!)
1/2 cup oil (try coconut oil)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 eggs

Combine in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.

1/2 cup cocoa, sifted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add along with pureed beets. Beat another 90 seconds.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I've made it with all whole wheat and with wheat and unbleached white to cut down on denseness. Either way is good)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon (optional, but I think it adds a little something)

Gradually sift into the batter, mixing it in with a spoon but stirring only until blended.

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Stir in. Pour into greased 9 X 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Pour yourself a tall glass of milk!!

What's your favorite chocolate indulgence?

Good Old Mom and Pop

2009-01-27T08:59:00.001-05:00

I love a good bargain! How about you?

While I will never claim to be a super thrifty person, I enjoy saving money just like the next gal. I enjoy shopping at yard sales for kids clothes and toys and random household items, but alas, it is winter and I'll be itching to be "yard saling" in a few months. I have lots of hand-me downs for the kids, I try to make my own cleaning supplies (OK, sometimes), and we try not to buy stuff we don't need (again, most of the time, I'm not perfect)

There are lots of websites you can google with money saving tips: how to be frugal mom, how to reuse plastic bags 300 times, how to stretch a head of cabbage for 10 meals etc...I'm not linking to them because I don't follow any, but you get my point. You've probably seen them. However, there's something small I've been wrestling with that I thought I'd share.

With the economy being what it is, I'd like to take a few minutes to write about something that I've thought a lot about recently. As most people are, we are looking at our budget and making some trimmings where possible and making less trips to various stores unless we need to. With Christmas being over, I'm finding that much easier!

With big businesses announcing job cuts every day, I have to wonder what it does for the small business, you know, the little places you see all over and wonder, "What in the world do they sell there?" Or the small places you love to shop at because they carry unique and wonderfully cool things. Or the small hardware store versus large one, or small market versus large grocery store, or cool-individual toy store versus Walmart or Target.

I don't know about you, but I'm not much for big businesses. For those that know my family that might sound ironic since my husband is employed by a "big-business" home improvement store. We are grateful for that job as it helps provide for our needs and there have been times we have gotten some great deals that have helped make improvements on our home. But for the most part, we don't shop much there, unless he's getting a super-huge-can't-pass-it-up deal.

Without small businesses, we'd all be run over by the big companies. That's not to say all big businesses are bad, but when I think about the things I buy, say at Target or Giant (our local grocery store), I can find those things other places, at smaller stores. It would take some more running around to find them, perhaps, and I'm not all for that either, but it's not like they carry anything super unique that isn't found anywhere else. However, a lot of small stores have really neat things that you can't find anywhere else.

So what's the catch then? Why not always shop at small businesses? Well, you know the obvious answer, money! Small businesses have to charge a little bit more for all kinds of different reasons. They have bills to pay too, you know! And small businesses employ a lot of people. Take a look around sometime and think what would happen if some of the smaller businesses shut down. It would effect a lot of people.

I also have to say that advertising for some large businesses drives me nuts! The biggest offender is Wal-Mart. I am not trying to step on any walmart lover's toes so please don't get offended by these comments. It's really just my humble and personal opinion. But their advertisements of "Save Money, Live Better, Walmart," just tick me off. First of all, the store is totally overwhelming and I don't like walking a mile to find something I need when most of the time I can't find it anywhere because there is so much STUFF in that store. Second, whoever said that if you save a few pennies or dollars, your life will suddenly be better? Is life about saving money? Is "living better" defined by our back account? I certainly think not! Where is our trust in the One who promises to care for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field? Isn't it He who can make our lives better?

Don't get me wrong. Big businesses support a lot of people, provide a service to others, employ many people. They are not bad necessarily. I do understand the need to save money and that certain stores carry items cheaper than others, but I also understand the need to support the "little people." I love the little shops, the way you can talk to the owners and ask about their products and where they came from. There is a local soap store here where we buy all of our bath soap. She makes all of her own products and whenever we go there, she remembers our kids and has treats for them. She shows us new stuff or gives samples if we want them. I feel comfortable asking about her products. It's the advantage of a small personal business.

I'm also recently into buying homemade things. I love finding cool kids toys at yard sales for cheaper than new but sometimes I want my kids to have original stuff too. Check out etsy.com for an overwhelmingly cool site where people can sell their homemade stuff. Really addicting, by the way. If you spend too much time reading other people's blogs, get ready for a new passion.

Now, after saying all that, does it mean I'll never shop at Target again? No, of course not. But I will think hard about the things I need to buy and whether or not I'll buy them there or look somewhere else. And a bargain is a bargain so if I found a super deal at a big store, I'd consider it.

But I'll also think twice at whether the 24 cents rollback savings are really that important.

A New Toy

2009-01-05T21:14:00.000-05:00

You know how men love their toys? Tools, electronics, that cool funky stuff that I could care less about?

I have a small confession.

I have a new toy that I love.

Truly.

I know it's so materialistic to say that I love it, but I do.

Really.

It was my Christmas gift. Well, sort of. We were saving for AWHILE to get one (because really, it is a lot of money to spend on one toy) and just happened to get it in time for Christmas.

My husband was home when it came and even wrapped it for me. Even though I knew what it was and was planning to open it before Christmas. And it was sweet, even though he used the velvety wrapping paper I was saving. I love the man dearly, but he doesn't pay attention to things like velvety wrapping paper.

So what is this cool new toy?

A blender.

While that sounds boring, this is truly the blender of all blenders. It's a Vita-Mix blender. And let me tell you, it does everthing! It's like a juicer, blender, food-processor and more all in one! I can make my own juice, smoothies, ice cream, soup, grind nuts and make nut butter, grind grain into flour. You name it and it does it.

What I love is that it takes so little prep time and I can control the ingredients in so many foods. I can make my own nut butter and no longer have to buy it. I can grind my own flour and no longer have to buy it. Same for juice, ice cream, and many other fun things.

We made strawberry ice cream with strawberries, raw milk and cream, and a little sweetener. OH YUMMY!

If you don't believe it can do these things, check out their demo.

And while I'm not much for spending large amounts of money on "stuff," I think this one was worth the savings!

Any favorite toys you love?

A Fresh Start

2009-01-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

Well, after taking 5 weeks off from blogging, I think I'm back. At least I'm trying to get back to this. All 5 of you who used to read this blog are now totally uninterested in healthy living so I'm writing to myself, I'm sure. But, I'll take the chance.

Seriously, where does time go? I took a break from writing because my son got sick and had another seizure and then I got sick and my daughter got sick and then suddenly it was Christmas and even though I had over a week off from my job I still couldn't get back to blogging because I just really needed to break from things that were on my mind a lot. I tend to use run-ons when making long excuses. I do that when I leave long boring messages on my friends' answering machines too.

Anyway, a happy New Year to all! Don't you love the New Year! While I'm not much for resolutions, I love the feeling of a fresh start. If you're like me, you let yourself slip a little during holidays...eating more, drinking more, relaxing more, and suddenly January comes and you need to "get back to it" so to speak. While I try to eat healthy as much as possible, I do enjoy some extra Christmas cookies and candy when possible!

You know, while we tend to look at January as a time to get a fresh start, God gives us the opportunity of a fresh start every day! I love knowing that no matter how many times I mess up, He has grace abundant for me. Thank goodness! He knows I need it for sure!

So while I have no resolutions to share with you (OK, except maybe TRYING to blog more often), let me just say that I hope you find something fresh and new in each day. Sometimes we can get so bogged down by the "stuff" in life that we forget to see what goodness God is trying to show us in each day. He wants to shower us with His love and blessings.

Have you found any today?

GERMS

2008-11-30T13:11:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in the prior post, our family has been sick over the past week. In fact, since both kids are sleeping, I really should be cleaning my entire house that has been neglected

Or catching up on the mountain of laundry in the basement.

Or taking the pounds of tissues we used out to the trash.

Or maybe napping?

Or the grand list of other to-do's.

But there's always tomorrow, right?

And it's raining and dreary here so who feels like cleaning then? More like a cup of tea and a good book? Or should I say a cup of tea and online shopping for Christmas?

Anyway, my severe cold hit me earlier in the week, and yet I had to do some grocery shopping so I loaded my pockets with tissues and chapstick and managed my way through the store.

You know, I'm not normally a germaphobe (liberty with spelling, friends), but there's nothing like blowing your nose every 30 seconds to really make you think about it. Everything I touched at the store, I almost felt guilty about. I couldn't wash my hands every time I had to use a tissue so I'm sure I was spreading my cold to the world. I really thought about it in the produce section of the store. And then, I thought about how little I think about it. How when I'm healthy, I don't really pay attention and stop to think how many people touch things in public places. And where the food has been exactly before it shows up at the store. And how it really IS important to wash produce (I mean I do, but I've been guilty of neglecting that from time to time). Even pre-packed food has been handled by many different people. When you really think about it, YUCK!

And yet, we can't wear gloves our whole lives or little martian helmets or live in a bubble, we have to deal with the germs. They are everywhere, even where we don't realize. And if we're too clean and crazy about avoiding them, we neglect to let healthy bacteria in our bodies and allow our bodies to build its own natural defenses.

But, thinking about it, is really gross. I've heard recently that shopping carts are actually worse than public restrooms as far as germs like fectal material...eewwww! And your kitchen sink is actually worse than your toilet as festering bacteria! Some things I just don't want to know, and yet, I want to be aware of them.

So, I've decided to just be more dilegent about washing my hands, which is one of the best things you can do anyway. And you don't need antibacterial soap, just regular soap and water. Just sing your ABC's or a slow version of "Happy Birthday" and scrub in between your fingers too.

What do you do to stay germ free?

Guess The Product

2008-11-30T12:43:00.000-05:00

Anyone up for a game? I'll admit right away I am not the inventor of this game, but find it loads of fun. In Sally Fallon's cookbook (that I have learned quite a bit from), Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, she lists in various spots throughout the book, lists of ingredients to well known products and you read them and try to guess what product she's talking about. It's amazing when you isolate the ingredients, without knowing the product, that it's sometimes challenging to figure it out, but also it makes you THINK about the ingredients, what is really in food, and makes you second guess buying it ever again. Well, unless you're sick as today's post will indicate.

Sooo...here's your challenge for today. Actually this one's pretty easy, but fun nonetheless.

Water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar syrup, natural and artificial flavor, citric acid, locust bean gum, guar gum, ascorbic acid, carrageenan, natural and articifial color (may contain one or more of the following: annatto, turmeric, caramel, blue 1 & 2, red 3 & 40, yellow 5 & 6).

I'll give you a few minutes.

If you're not sure, I'll give you a few clues as I explain why I'm using this particular product.

My family has spent the past week passing cold germs to each other and it hasn't been fun. I don't sick too often and usually not severe, but this cold really did me in! I could feel my glands popping out of my neck and was desperate for something cold on my throat so I asked my husband to please pick up the above product because I needed something to help! I knew the basic ingredients of this product but it wasn't enough to stop me from eating one.

OK, three. AND letting my kids eat one.

OK, two!

And yes, if you haven't guessed yet, we're talking about popsicles!

I threw the rest out after I remembered the yummy slushies from Laura at

heavenlyhomemakers.com. Check out her blog sometime. She has amazing recipes (that I think she comes up with on her own...amazing woman!) for homemade crackers, soft pretzels, dinners and lunches, all kinds of good healthy stuff. And a great series called "Getting Real With Food" that I enjoy reading. Here's the link for the slushies. Oh, and you can leave out the spinach and use whatever fruit combination sounds good to you! After remembering them and realizing we had frozen strawberries and peaches from the summer, we made some and they felt fantastic on my throat. Then I got the brilliant idea to turn them into popsicles by putting the slushies in little dixie cups. We have a juicer and were making our own popsicles with fresh orange and pineapple juice but these are great because they're already partially frozen and you can put the popsicle stick in right away and not have to remember you have a tray of frozen juice in the freezer.

So try them sometime. You're in for a treat!

Cloth Diapering 101

2008-11-21T20:39:00.000-05:00

When I first told my husband I wanted to use cloth diapers after our daughter was born, he told me that was fine, but he would not be changing any diapers, thank you very much.

Now, he's a diaper champ!! He even swishes the poop out into the toilet! (OK, so not to be gross during this post, but it's about diapers so what do you expect?)

Some people think we're crazy to use cloth diapers.

Some people think it's really cool.

I'm amazed by how many people comment about our diapers. Most people have not seen the new and improved versions. When I first started doing research on cloth diapers, I went to ebay because I didn't really think many people used them. I was amazed by how much used cloth diapers were going for. So I wrote down the names of different ones and started to google them to do some research. I thought I was going to have to use a diaper service like my mom did, you know, with the pins and plastic pants. But let me tell you, cloth diapers have been revamped and are so easy to use!

There are lots of cloth diapers out there that I haven't tried and I know many people love but I'll share what kind we use and why we like them so much. We have used Fuzzi Bunz on both our children and LOVE them. So everything I write here is based on our experience with those diapers.

While I'm not a tree-hugger or anything, I do think it's insane how many disposable diapers go to landfills, approximately 27 BILLION diapers a year in the U.S. alone. And they sit for up to 500 years before decomposing...yikes! Even though the instructions on diapers say to dump the waste into the toilet, statistics say that 1/2 of 1% actually do. Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby EACH YEAR. Disposable diapers contain traces of toxins and pollutants that can have harmful effects on the body.

The average baby uses 6000 diapers in 2 years which makes an average cost of 1600 dollars. Cloth diapers do vary in cost so figuring out the saving depends on how many you buy and what kind you buy. The average cost of a cloth diaper is about 17 dollars. That sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot up front but over time, the savings do really add up. For my family, we have 3 dozen cloth diapers in 2 different sizes. My daughter is potty-trained and my son can still wear both sizes. We spent a total of about 700 dollars on cloth diapers, cloth wipes, detergent, and a few other supplies. If we went with the average listed above, cloth has saved us a ton of money. Plus, when you reuse them for different children, you really save money because you're getting so much more wear out of them. Wipes add to that cost and if you use washable wipes, you save more money.

For more statistics and break-down of costs, check out http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php. There are some stunning stats on that site with all their sources listed.

There are also diapers called gdiapers which are a compromise between cloth and disposable. They sound interesting but Fuzzi Bunz worked so well for us it didn't seem worth the investment because they are bit more expensive in the long run. I don't know anyone personally who has tried them but I'd love to know if you have.

Cloth diapers are soft against the baby's skin. They are made with fleece that keeps your baby's skin dry. Fuzzi Bunz, like many other cloth diapers, are pocket diapers so basically you put an cotton insert into the pocket of the cloth diaper to catch the pee and the outer part is waterproof so you don't need to put plastic pants on top. The outer part has snaps to fit different sizes of a child so you can use them as they grow. Some other brands of diapers use Velcro. They come in so many adorable colors.

Just look how cute they are hanging out on the line.

A lot of people ask about the smell and do they leak and is it gross to clean them? Most of the time, I don't notice a different smell with cloth unless I leave the diaper on too long. And disposables don't cover up a poopy smell any more than cloth. We store them in a special cloth bag after we use them and for the most part, the bag doesn't smell. In the summer when it's warmer there is more of an odor but we keep the bag in the bathroom and really, it's not that bad.

As for leaks, there is an occasional leak, but nothing out of the ordinary. Usually it will happen if the diaper is not snapped on properly or if it's too big. While I've read that people don't have problems at night, both of our kids got rashes when we used them at night so we do use a disposable overnight. We like the Seventh Generation brand because they are made without chemicals.

Getting rid of poop isn't really a big deal, most of the time you can dump it in the toilet. Yes, sometimes you have to swish it out in the toilet but that kind of stuff doesn't really bother me. When it's your own kids poop, it really isn't so bad. I've told anyone who has ever watched our kids that they can just roll up the diaper with the poop inside and we'll take care of it at home. Some have done that, others clean them out. I guess it's just personal preference. And even though you can't swish out disposables, you should dump the poop in the toilet!

With just one in diapers now and with the amount we have we only do a load or two extra every week. You use a tiny bit of detergent (we bought a special kind) and no fabric softener. You can't wash the diapers with anything else or it will cause pilling. You can line dry them or put them in the dryer. We have very few with staining on them and usually the sun will bleach it out if any is left. It's nice to air them out when the weather is good. We then spend 5-10 minutes putting the inserts in so it really is very minimal extra time to take care of them.

If we go on vacation or go to an amusement park or some place where cloth would not be convenient we do use disposables out of convenience. I totally understand why people choose not to use cloth, but it's worth exploring if you are remotely interested. I really do LOVE using them and would encourage you to do some research if you are curious about it. Or if you currently use them, let us know what you think about it.

Oh, and if you think they look cute hanging on the wash line, just think how cute they'll look on your baby's bottom!

Organic Defined

2008-11-17T20:52:00.000-05:00

Did you ever wonder what eating organic food really means? When you see the organic label, what are the requirements?

Organic food must be produced without the use of herbicides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals. Organic food has been proven to be more nutritious and taste better. Organic farming promotes good enironmental farming practices. The regulations for organic labels are pretty strict so when you eat organic food, you can guarantee better food is going into your body.

Organic food is not genetically-modified. I'm learning a lot more about this and am totally appalled by the trend of food. Genetically modified (GMO) food is food that has been created by a "fake" seed, a genetically produced seed, a copy of the real thing. It has altered DNA of the real thing. The effect of GMO's in our diet are untested. We've been eating GMO food without realizing it. Any food you pick up that is not organic most likely contains food that has been genetically modified. And why?? It all comes back to the same thing...money! GMO food is cheaper to make and mass produce so it's more money for the food companies. Because GMO's have been untested, they are particularly dangerous. In fact, Europe does not accept American GMO imports. Corn and soybeans are one of the largest GMO crops and they are in just about all processed foods in some form or another. Animals eat feed with GMO corn or soy and then it ends up in your meat. The best way to avoid GMO's is to eat whole unprocessed food as much as possible. Buy local and support quality farming.

As you experiment with reading labels and testing out the organic aisle in your local store, use these guidelines:

1. If a food is labeled 100% organic, that means 100% of product must be organic or contain organically produced products.

2. If a food is only labeled "organic," then 95% of the food must be organic.

3. Made with organic ingredients means at least 70% of the food must be organic.

4. If it says "all natural" or made with "all natural" whatever, it means NOTHING. There are no
guidelines for the natural label. So read the ingredients!

5. Conventional produce has 4 numbers on the PLU code. Organic produce has 5 numbers starting with 9. GMO produce has 5 numbers starting with 8. But just because you might only see 4 numbers doesn't mean it's the best for you because it still was produced with pesticides and chemicals. Local and organic are the best!

Some will argue that not all local produce is better for you because farmers might use unsafe practices. I think if you want to know, just ask them. Many farmers use organic practices but are not certified organic because the standards are very high and it is an expensive process. I'd rather buy something local when it's in season then something shipped across the country which uses more energy than a local farmer. But that's just my personal and humble opinion!

Since it's my blog, I get to write that!

Pesticide Control

2008-11-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

I know you've all heard about pesticides that affect our food, but what are they really? And how can we avoid them?

Pesticides were created to protect crops from insects and other pests as well as control weeds and disease from hurting the crops. This would lead to increased amounts of production and more money.

But of course, anytime we try to do something that is unnatural, there are quite a few side effects.

One of those is soil degeneration which decreases the quality of the soil making it more difficult from year to year to grow crops. Which decreases the yield of the crop, which goes against the whole reason for using pesticides in the first place.

Another side effect results from human consumption of pesticides: herbicides (weed control), fungicides (mold control), rodenticides (rodent control), insectisides (insect control), and antimicrobials (bacteria control). The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has determined that between 30-90% of pesticides used, depending on what type, are cancer causing. Other side effects listed on their website include nerve damage, birth defects, long-term health effects, and blocking the absorption of nutrients necessary for healthy growth of children. Children can be affected more easily because they are still growing and developing and pesticide damage could cause permanent damage.

Pesticides can be found in fruits, vegetables, and animal products because the animals eat feed loaded with pesticides that builds up in their system.

This next part I'm quoting directly from mercola.com because it was stated so well.

"Of course the EPA notes that the government does regulate pesticides to determine "that they will not pose unreasonable risks to human health or the environment." For food items, the EPA sets limits on how much pesticides can be used and how much can remain on food. However, there is really no way to know just how many pesticides are left on the food you eat aside from having it lab-tested yourself.
Alarmingly, the EPA also says, "You and your family have a right to know under the law that in certain cases, such as economic loss to farmers, a pesticide not meeting the safety standard may be authorized." This means that in "certain cases" unsafe, unauthorized pesticides can legally be sprayed on your food!"

YIKES, right?

So the best way to avoid them is to buy organic fruits and vegetables and free-range meat. More on that on another post. (I think I write that frequently and don't keep up with my promises!)

If you can't afford to switch to all organic produce, check out this great website.

http://www.foodnews.org/

You can download a copy of a guide from the Environmental Working Group that tells you which produce has the most and least amount of pesticides so you know which ones are better to buy organically. For example, bananas and avocados are low on the pesticide list so you could choose not to buy them organically. Peaches and apples are high on the list so are best eaten organically.
Obviously, some people will say buy everything organic, but to me, that's not totally practical so I think this guide is quite helpful.

Cool, right? Enjoy!

I'm It

2008-11-02T14:04:00.000-05:00

I was "tagged" the other day by another blogging friend.

This means I'm supposed to post 7 quirky things about myself and then tag someone else.

Hmmm, quirky. Well, I suppose I am quirky in some ways. We're all a little quirky when comparing ourselves to others. Since this is a blog on healthy eating and living, I'll try to relate the quirky things to that topic.

I need to think for a minute.

1. I love the smell of skunk. (OK, I know, nothing to do with the topic. But it's probably the quirkiest thing about me. And no, I wouldn't want to get sprayed by one, I just like the smell in the air. Must be the country girl in me).

2. I like to watch what people have in their shopping carts or on the checkout belt. Not to be judgemental or anything, it's just interesting to see what people buy. Sometimes I try to figure out what meals they might be having. That is, when I'm in line without my kids and am trying to avoid reading the annoying magazine headlines.

3. I never stop to eat fast food. Well, with the exception of when I was pregnant at the same time as my sister and she said she couldn't get enough of McDonald's sweet tea and had a fish sandwich that was amazing. So of course, I craved one too. And then I did get a lot of their sweet tea until my son was born. Maybe that's why he didn't sleep well for the first year? I can't believe I'm admitting that on a healthy eating blog...see, I am normal after all!

4. I love the way my freezer looks with all the meat lined up. We buy a 1/4 cow every year and a lot of chicken at once and use it throughout the year. I love the feeling of knowing it's there for the winter and just the way it looks when I open the door. I know, weird!!

5. I eat avocados with a spoon. I never thought this was strange until a lady I work with commented that she never saw anyone do that before. Yup, just twist, de-seed, and spoon away! And a little Celtic salt makes it all the better!

6. I get REALLY excited when I talk about health stuff with people...hence, the name of my blog. I know it's so boring to many but I love to hear about small changes people are making in their lives. I like to give them little cheers!

7. I have a pin on my bag for school that says, "I Geek Out on Organic Food." I made it when we were in Toronto visiting family. They had some neat stuff set up for kids downtown one afternoon and one of the crafts was to make a pin. Even though it was for kids, I thought it was fun to make one. The pins were pre-made with "I Geek Out on..." I filled in the "Organic Food" part of the button. I think I'm a little extra quirky for not throwing it away and wearing it with pride.

Wow, 7 already! I could put more but then I'd really be admitting some wild stuff so I'll just tag the next lucky blogger...Jaime, you're it!

Living Without a Spirit of Fear

2008-11-01T21:18:00.000-04:00

We had quite a scary experience a few days ago.

Not to go on and on but my son had a seizure while at the babysitter's. I left work early and went with him by ambulance to the emergency room, knowing only that he had a seizure, but nothing else.

It's amazing what your mind will do when you don't know what's happening.

It's amazing how it automatically thinks the worst.

I was practically hyperventilating on the way to get him because I couldn't stop going over the "what if's." I won't list them because if you're a parent, you've probably gone over them in your head.

Maybe a few times.

Fortunately we only spent a few hours in the emergency room after doctors determined the seizure was a febrile one, which means it was induced by a high fever that came rapidly. It most likely will not reoccur but we just have to watch him a little more closely with fevers than we would have before. Apparently they are pretty common with young children.

Which only makes me feel a tiny bit better, because really, when it's your child, statistics don't matter.

Reflecting back on the whole experience made me think about something and was reflected in a comment from a friend.

Being a parent opens up a whole new world of fear.

Being a parent is amazing, no doubt. Watching your kids grow and change in front of you and become these independent little people, laughing at the crazy funny things they do, and wanting to give them so much because you love them so much. I have 2 children, the oldest is almost 3, so I haven't been doing this for long. But I don't think that matters. All parents I know, no matter how young or old, with 1 or 5 kids, love their children with all that they have and would do anything for them.

But being a parent can be scary. There is so much in this world that could hurt my kids and so many things that I can't protect them from. When I got the call from the sitter, my heart almost stopped beating and I lost focus on all else. Thankfully, all is fine, but it was a reminder that my world can change in a heartbeat. I could allow myself to be consumed by all the things there are to fear. Why list them? You probably know the list by heart.

But we are not commanded to live with a spirit of fear. We have an Enemy who wants us to be fearful of everything.

Take the economy for instance.

Maybe you feel the same as I do and are tired of the reporting and constant negative environment that has been created through the media. When you are inundated with all of that information, you really can give into the fear and have it affect your life.

Fearful living is not healthy living.

I'm choosing not to give into fear because I know that God loves me more than the lilies of the field and the birds of the air and if he will provide for them, he'll provide for me too.

I'm choosing to not live in fear, but to trust in God.

Some days are harder than others, but I know that trusting God is the only way to survive in this world. I know that my children are not my own, but they belong to God first. For me, there is the constant "giving over" of them to God, reminding me that while they are my children, they are His children, just as I am His child. So while I cannot protect them from everything, I pray for them daily, and trust that He began a good work in them and will be faithful to complete it.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Raw What??

2008-10-27T21:20:00.000-04:00

Yikes it's been many days since my last post! But since my readers are few and far between, you probably didn't even notice!

So let's cut to the chase on today's topic...milk.

Milk is a tricky one to me, but since I started this blog with some big ingredients to avoid, high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil, I might as well go for another big one, pasteurized milk.

Yes, good ole' "it does a body good" milk.

Is it really that bad? I mean, it's milk...vitamin D, protein, great with chocolate chip cookies and cereal. So let me break it down for you a little and you can decide for yourself.

Milk from the grocery store is pretty much worthless. Milk from conventional cows, which are cows pretty much raised and abused for their products, have an abundance of things to be concerned about. Here are three things in a nutshell to remember: hormones, antibiotics, and feed.

These cows are given hormones to increase their production of milk. Many cows are forced to produce 3 times as much milk as they are intended to. You might have heard of this hormone, genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone. Some milk that you can buy from local dairies is still pasteurized but will say rBGH free or something like that. I suppose that's a step in the right direction, but not far enough. These cows also need quite a bit of antibiotics from getting sick so often. In addition, cows are designed to feed on grass and just be lazy in the field, chewing on the cud (sounds tempting to me on some days). Conventional cows are given feed, often a genetically modified soy feed, which is not digested in their bodies the way cows were designed to digest grass. Arguments have been made that many people who cannot tolerate milk, perhaps can't tolerate what's in the milk, a result of what the cows were fed. While I'm not necessarily an animal lover, this treatment of cows is horrible and affects the quality of the milk product you drink. All that stuff ends up in your milk and in your body when you drink it.

Pasteurization is the process of heating the milk to destroy bad bacteria, and in the process kills the good stuff too. While most people insist it is necessary, we have much cleaner conditions today than back in the day when pasteurization was invented. If you find a trusted source for milk, sanitation should not be an issue. Pasteurized milk still carries bacteria and has caused salmonella outbreaks. Raw milk will sour naturally, but pasteurized milk, because all the beneficial bacteria have been killed, will putrefy. I used to drink organic milk but after 2 or 3 days the smell was so bad I was wondering what in the world I was really drinking. Pasteurization alters the amino acids in the milk making it less digestible and protein less available. It also changes milk-lactose into beta-lactose which is more rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream and has the same effect that sugar does on your body, raising your blood sugar levels rapidly. Pasteurization also destroys enzymes from the milk that help build calcium in your body. Pasteurized milk is linked ironically to osteoporosis and diabetes, allergies, tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.

If milk is pasteurized, all the natural vitamins have been removed so any vitamins in the milk are synthetic ones that were pumped back into the milk. The less fat in the milk that you drink, meaning you drink 2%, 1%, or skim means there are pretty much no nutrients anywhere. Your body needs the fat to help digest the milk as much as it can. When eating food in it's most natural form, that means the full fat version. If I didn't drink raw milk, I'd try to find some non-homogenized whole milk. If I couldn't find that, well, I'd have to seriously think about what I wanted to do. Some people say if you can't drink raw milk, don't drink it at all!

Homogenization is the straining of fat particles, which takes fat molecules which cannot pass into the blood stream and turns them into the small ones that can which allows toxins to enter the body. Homogenization is linked to heart disease. Raw milk has the cream which rises naturally to the top. I usually pour the cream off and use it in coffee or for cooking when I need cream. Or I put it on my oatmeal in the morning. I wish I could get more cream off the top!

A note on organic milk...some people think it's better because it doesn't have the rBGH and the cows are not treated with antibiotics. True, but it's still homogenized and pasteurized and follows the above reasons for not drinking that kind of milk. Plus it is ultra-pasteurized which is a violent process that heats milk to boiling in a few seconds. Why this process is used I don't know so if anyone else knows, please tell me! I used to drink organic milk, thinking it was better but I can't stand the taste of it now.

Raw milk tastes so amazing, I can't explain it. It's smooth and natural and not thick feeling in your mouth like whole milk. The farm we use sell it in glass bottles. There is something very refreshing about milk from a glass bottle. Plastic and cardboard boxes with milk leave a taste on the milk and it's never quite cold enough.

Some states do not legally sell raw milk. If you live in a state that does, check out this website for sources of raw milk or information on raw milk. If you find a local source you can trust, I say go for it! I'm not concerned about the bacteria and both my young kids drink it and we've never had any problems. I've read that many people who are allergic to milk can handle raw milk.

If you're not ready for milk, maybe try cheese and other products made with raw milk. I think cheeses closest to the source taste best but our local grocery store carries raw milk cheese as well. Any dairy you can buy made from raw milk are going to be better pure sources than pasteurized. Dairy products should always be the full fat versions, anything less than that is processed more in some way and all the original good stuff is removed.

Whew...so was that a lot to take in or what?

I know to some of you this sounds crazy and not a step you are ready for. My advice is to just investigate. If it's something you're interested in pursuing, go for it. If you're not ready for it, just educate yourself so you know both sides and make your decision from there.

I'd love to know what you're thinking!

Show Me the Money, Part 2

2008-10-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this is really a part 2 of what I wrote before, but as I've been thinking about living a more simple lifestyle, I also want to cook more simple meals. Meals that take only a few ingredients save money because you're not buying as much food to make them. And for working moms like me, save you time in the kitchen and give you more time to play with your kids after work. I'm always up for that.

I know there's a cookbook out there from the same group I mentioned before with the Simply in Season cookbook called More with Less. I don't own it yet, but a lady at our local market carries it so I might buy it from her. All of the recipes have only a few ingredients. As much as I enjoy Rachael Ray and the meals I've made from her cookbook were tasty, they take lots of stuff that I don't often have on hand and end up costing a bit more. If you check out the link, you can view sample recipes.

Soup is a great meal to make that usually takes not too many ingredients and often includes stuff you have on hand. Sometimes the list looks long because of all the seasonings but it's usually pretty quick and easy to make. Soup recipes galore exist online and in most cookbooks you find. Now is a great time of year for soup as the weather is getting cooler. I love a big pot of soup with some warm bread, especially if I have time to make it myself (which hasn't happened recently). Soup is also great because you can either double the recipe and freeze it for some night you don't feel like cooking or just save the leftovers and freeze them. Most soup recipes make a good amount.

I could probably spend a few weeks posting all the soup recipes I love but here are 2 of my favorites!

Lentil Soup (from my mom)
**lentils are great because you don't have to soak them like you do other beans

1/4 cup olive oil
1 diced onion
2 diced carrots
2 chopped celery stalks
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. dried basil
2 cups lentils
8 cups chicken broth
1 14.5oz can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup thinly sliced spinach or kale
2 TBSP vinegar
salt and pepper

1. In a large pot, saute vegetables in olive oil until tender. Stir in garlic and spices. Cook 2 minutes.
2. Stir in lentils and chicken broth and add tomatoes.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour.
4. When ready to serve, stir in spinach (if using kale, you may need to steam a little first). Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Hearty Broccoli Soup (from Simply in Season cookbook)
**I've made a lot of broccoli soups, and this one is my husband's favorite (he's pickier than me when it comes to soup)

2 cups diced potatoes
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/2 cup minced celery
1 cup water

1. Cook above ingredients for 5 minutes.
2. Add 2 cups chopped broccoli and cook 5-10 minutes.
3. Add 3 cups milk, 2 chicken bouillion cubes and 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce. Heat until boiling.
4. Blend 1 cup milk and 1/3 cup flour until smooth in a small bowl. Stir into soup and cook just until thickened. Turn off heat. (I've also just used heavy cream instead).
5. Add 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese until melted.

What kind of soup do you like?

Ditch the Water Bottles

2008-10-18T21:22:00.000-04:00

Plastic water bottles are so convenient, are they not? Throw one in your bag when you need it, not having to worry about filling up your reusable one, even if it is better for the environment. Plastic bottles fill up landfills at an alarming rate, that' s for sure. While I'm not much for bottled water because all those little bottles add up to a lot more per gallon than gas right now, I did have a few bottles on hand.

After reading this article from Environmental Working Group, I'm going to rethink EVER buying them again.

To summarize, a series of tests were done on several bottled water companies and the tests revealed LOADS of chemicals in bottled water, chemicals that lead to cancer, heavy metals, arsenic, caffeine, Tylenol and many others. These chemicals are basically being accused of bottling tap water and making quite a profit on it. The article is short and even just skimming it will give you enough information to make you not even want to water your plants with it.

But as always, the choice is yours! Let me know if you decide to switch!

And if you find some really cool water bottles.

Reflections

2008-10-17T06:14:00.000-04:00

I promise I will get back to writing about food and my thoughts on healthy eating. It's been a little challenging with time in the last week. But my plan for this blog is a place to ramble about healthy eating AND living so I thought I'd share some reflections I had after our family's recent trip to Toronto, Canada to visit my huband's family.

I've always enjoyed visiting Toronto. It is a beautiful city...I love the skyline, the clean streets, the feel and rhythm. It's incredibly multi-cultural, not pockets of ethnicities here and there, but everywhere together. We went to a small park for a few minutes and it was amazing to see about 10 different cultures represented in the 10 children playing there. In the small town we live in with not much diversity, my biracial children fit in well there.

With 5.2 million people it's busy, lots of traffic, lots of having to really watch your kids to make sure they don't run off and you can't see them. Toronto is trying to be a green city so every family has to buy 3 different trash cans, one for regular garbage, one for food and compost, and one for things that can be recycled. At the grocery store, you have to bring your own cloth bags or pay for plastic ones...I like that rule, wish it would catch on here! There's other stuff they're doing, too. Every little bit of saving counts!

Anyway, there is a lot to see and do.

I had an interesting conversation with my brother-in-law, who pretty much knows everything that is happening in the city, knows where all the events are, etc...He was saying how kids today have everything at the touch of a button, the internet, texting, food, cell phones, video games, etc...They don't know what it's like to have to wait for anything. Even my generation has some of these issues (hence, part of the reason for our economic housing downturn). Those who live in Toronto and other large cities, have tons to do. There is always something going on somewhere.

And yet, they're bored.

The day after I got back from Toronto, I was listening to a speaker at a professional development (I am in the education field), and he was talking about the days when he was a kid growing up in the South without much to do. He told stories of what he and his friends did with a cardboard box, the games they invented, how they reused things over and over. He was an amazing storyteller and put a longing in my heart to have lived back then, or experiency that life today.

His story and point were similar to the conversation I had with my brother-in-law. Even with so much around us to do and get quickly, why are people still bored and restless? Why can't we be satisfied with the simple things in life? Why is there such a need for more and more?

I used to come back from Toronto feeling like I was missing something, somewhere. Like I wanted to go and DO stuff. This time, I came back content with my simple life in a somewhat small town. While we live pretty simply, we're not like Laura Ingalls Wilder, mind you, I really want to strive to live MORE simply. To have my kids find joy in the small things, to be creative thinkers and not button pushers. Don't get me wrong, I won't go back to a dial-up modem, but do you know what I mean? Let's just live simply, and stop complicating life with stuff and wanting more. Let's go back to the good ole' days, so to speak, where we had to be more creative and didn't need to have everything immediately.

Am I crazy? Or does anyone else know what I'm talking about?

DETOX!!

2008-10-13T21:54:00.000-04:00

I've been away, off to Canada for a few days to visit my husband's family. I really do love visiting Toronto, even though we don't get there that often, and I have a few thoughts to share about our recent visit, related of course to the theme of this blog, on a later post since we didn't get much sleep this weekend. But I digress...

When you eat healthy most of the time, your body gets used to feeling a certain way. And when you go off that track, for purposes of visiting relatives outside of town who eat out in restaurants much of the time, you eat food that say, you wouldn't normally eat. Which was the last 4 days for us. It's amazing how fast your body takes a downhill spiral. My blood sugar is out of whack, I've had an ongoing headache, and not to give too much infomation, but, let's just say my pipes aren't working normally. And I've noticed the same is true for the rest of the family. Because truly, when you eat well, all those things don't happen.

So it will take a few days to get back to normal. And can I just say that eating pretty much whatever we felt like the last few days really wasn't that much fun! I missed our food! Despite eating some greasy food and some fried food and some sweet food loaded with all the things and more that I've written about are horrible for you, it didn't make me feel like I was missing much. Feeling like crap right now...yeah, not worth it!

So all of that is just to say, if you do try to make changes, you should feel differently, for the better. And when you go back to your old ways, you'll notice!

I need to detox!

Show Me the Money

2008-10-05T13:27:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest responses I hear when people want to know things about healthy eating is, "How much do you spend a month on food?" Or, "I'd like to eat healthier but it's too expensive." Well, I have a few thoughts on this I'd like to ramble about.

First, I could share how much we spend a month on food but I choose not to. At least not now, anyway. Because, to be honest, I'll bet we all spend around the same amount, give or take a little. No matter how you eat, food costs money. People are complaining about the cost of food nowadays with the economy being what it is and yes, I agree the cost of food has gone up to a degree. But we can control WHAT we buy, and who we choose to give our money to. There are things we buy that people would say, what?? And then other things I put my foot down and say, no, not doing it. So I simply say, if you think it costs too much, don't buy it. Don't complain about it, just don't buy it. I might spend 7 dollars for a bag of grapes and you'd think I was crazy. But you might spend that much for 2 boxes of crackers or 2 bags of chips and I'd say you were crazy too! So, much is in the eye of the beholder.

I think as Americans, we are used to things being cheap...we want cheap gas, food, clothing, the works. Many people in many other countries are not used to things being cheap. So, either buy what you want for what it costs and don't complain, or just choose not to buy it. Seriously, I and some others I know get a little ticked off by people talking about how expensive everything is. We all have a choice about what we spend our money on. We all can adapt our budgets a little to give room for some other things. OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

So, as for food, here's my theory. FOOD is one of the most important, if not THE most important thing we buy. Why? Because we can do without a lot of stuff, like cable TV, getting our hair or nails done, cool electronics, new furniture or cars, or whatever. Even though that stuff is great, I love new clothes by the way and would spend lots of money on them if I had the money to spend, but we don't need them. FOOD, we do need. We NEED to take care of our bodies and food gives us the energy we need and sustains us. Remember back to elementary school where you talk about needs and wants? Food, water, shelter, and clothing (OH, there's my excuse for new clothes!) are our basic needs. So I choose to spend more money on food than other things because I choose to take care of my body in the way I think is best. My hope is that by feeding myself and my family well, we will be less worried about being sick now and later in life and can live an abundant life! What we eat affects our bodies and in turn, how we treat others and how we fulfill all that God has intended for us to be. I know when I eat junk (and I do on occasion), it affects my body entirely differently than when I eat the way God intended for us to eat. I then treat others differently when I don't feel well after I eat that stuff. I just feel yucky and don't have the energy to do what I need to do, whether it be clean the house, work to my full potential, play with my kids, etc...So maybe this is a totally new soapbox, I'm not sure! It's so much a part of how I think these days.

I'd love to have the time (maybe I will someday) to do an experiment and take a typical menu I make and buy the groceries. Then take a menu that uses a lot of pre-packaged food and buy the groceries. Then compare and see what happens. If you want to see what happened when someone else did it, read this article.

Eating the way I talk about does cost money. The ingredients I talked about before, and some other ones I haven't blogged about yet, are cheaper to make and have a longer shelf life than fresh foods which is why you might think they are more affordable. BUT, they are NOT good for you! If you're used to buying certain foods and you try to switch all at once, you will spend a crazy amount of money. But if you make slow, gradual changes like I've talked about, you won't feel it as much. Here are a few other ideas to try to save. But remember, I think food is the most important thing I buy! So think about how important it is to you? To your family?

Here are some tips that work for me:
1. Pre-plan your meals: When you go to the store, buy only what you need for the week or month or however you do your shopping. Take a list or else you'll just pull stuff off the shelves that sounds good.
2. Avoid processed food as much as possible: This stuff really adds up! Try homemade oatmeal (recipe below) or eggs for breakfast instead of expensive cereal.
3. Buy local: In season, local produce, is cheaper than shipped produce or out of season produce.
4. Pack lunch, make your own coffee, eat out minimally: This stuff really adds up to, eating out takes a whopping amount of your money. Add up what you spend in a month on all of it, you might be surprised? Treat yourself on occasion, but have a budget to do it.
5. If you have a freezer, stock up on things that are on sale or look into buying part of a cow from a local farmer (more in a later post). Freeze local produce when it's in season for the winter.
6. Drink water...juice, soda, tea, all that stuff adds up.
7. Avoid going to the "corner store" or gas station...those prices are much higher than a grocery store. Just a few items adds up quickly!

Here are 50 tips if you want more. Those are just a few I use.

Here's one more thought: everything in life has a cost to some degree. Not financial, but a different kind of cost. When we make choices, it costs us something. We move to a new town, take a new job, take a risk in a relationship, tell someone how we feel, etc...Sometimes the choices we make are worth the cost, sometimes, maybe not. Eating healthy adds a cost financially. To me, it's worth it. What about you?

Breakfast Porridge (taken from Sally Fallon...I'll post on her later)

1 cup steel cut oats (you can find these in bulk at most grocery stores, or in a can in your organic aisle)
2 TBSP. yoghurt, buttermilk or kefir
1 cup warm water
pinch of salt
1 cup of water

Mix yoghurt, buttermilk, or kefir in 1 cup warm water. Add oats and soak covered, 7-24 hours. Boil 1 cup water to a boil. Add oats mixture and simmer for 5-7 minutes. A quick, filling, and delicious breakfast! I add cream, butter, and a sweetener, usually rapadura or maple syrup. Choose what you want! YUMMY!

Local Folk

2008-10-01T21:37:00.000-04:00

Preplanning meals is very important but also thinking about what kind of food you are making for the time of year is also very important. The concept of cooking "in-season" is such a brilliant idea, and yet it escaped me until very recently. My mom bought me a great cookbook called "Simply In Season" and it has become a new favorite. Traditional cookbooks are organized by category: main courses, soups, appetizers, desserts, etc...This cookbook is organized by season, and lists recipes that contain mostly foods that you can buy when they are in season from a local farmer's market or farmer. Brilliant, right? I wish all cookbooks were organized this way!

When we shop for produce in a grocery store, we are purchasing food that has been shipped from all over the country, or world, which uses a lot of a variety of resources. We don't know exactly how that food is grown, how the soil is prepared, what the people are like who raise it, and how the production of that food affects the land. If we buy from our local farmer, we are not only saving those resources but getting fresher, healthier food and supporting local farmers and community. We are making a statement about how we want our food produced. The more people who pick up on this concept, the greater the support for the local farmer and the less demand for use of resources to ship our food.

While I had great ambitions of starting a small garden this year, it didn't happen. I hope to next summer and despite my lack of a green thumb, I'm optimistic for at least a few things to grow. My family did join a CSA this year, which has been such a neat experience we have loved and will continue in future years. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a community of individuals who come together to support a particular farm operation by purchasing a weekly share of the produce from that farm. You pay money up front for the cost of the farming and farmer's salary, and pick up a share each week of produce that has been grown. Typically, a season runs from late spring to early fall. There is satisfaction in supporting a local farmer and having some connection with the land and food you eat. For us, we can see where our food is grown, know the farmers who are tending the land and raising it, ask questions about the food, and share with others in the process. You also share the risk of pests or weather ruining the crops but the benefit of the bounty is amazing. This summer we have had so much produce every week that we've had to search for new recipes. Despite loving fruits and vegetables I've tried many new things this summer that I never had before like bok choy, okra, kale, collard greens, kohlrabi (I didn't even know that word existed before), yellow and orange watermelon, various colors and varieties of tomatoes and eggplant. It's been incredible! Here is a picture of a recent share.

There are over 2000 CSA's in our country! If you don't know of local farmers in your area or if you have CSA's available check out this website: localharvest.org. You can enter your zip code and get all kinds of information about what is available in your area.

Regardless of whether you join a CSA or not, look up where you can go for local produce. Try buying as much as possible in season and limiting what you cook that is out of season. It does save money too because the cost of local in-season produce is much cheaper that buying shipped out of season produce. As much as I want strawberries in the winter, they are too expensive and not as tasty. I'll have to wait until June! Now is the time for me to stock up on apples, make and freeze as much applesauce as possible to last through the winter. I'm also freezing local green beans and peppers. I don't know how to can and I'm sure there is much more I could do but I think that every little thing I can do is better than nothing.

So think along the lines of a local county's theme: Buy Fresh, Buy Local!

What's For Dinner?

2008-10-01T21:24:00.000-04:00

Did you ever have this experience??

You're wondering what in the world to make for dinner so flip through a cookbook, find a recipe that sounds good, write down everything you need, go to the store to buy it all and then gasp when you see how much you actually are spending to make it! Does that sound at all familiar or am I the only crazy one who does such things?

Pre-planning meals can be a huge help to make sure this doesn't happen. I know there are some fancy menu planners online but I just use a generic calendar and keep track of what I'm making for the week. I'm only just getting better at this, by the way. I have struggled with pre-planning for a long time. Then at the end of the month, I can look back and see what I've made and try not to repeat everything the following month, since my husband likes variety!

I'm a working mother so it definately is beneficial to me to preplan what I'm making. If I get home from work without a clue what's for dinner it ends up being toasted cheese sandwiches! Sometimes I have to do some prep work the night before so that I'm not trying to do all of it after a long day at work and 2 little kids tugging at me. I like to spend my time in the evening with my family so it can be a hard balance to find. It might mean going to bed a little later so I can stay up and pre-make the meatloaf or the stuffing for peppers or chop vegetables for soup. Eating healthy does require a lot of time to prepare meals, so I try to make as many simple meals as possible that don't require a lot of ingredients. Regardless, making fresh food takes time! But the benefit of eating whole food compared to processed food is worth the effort.

TRANSport That Fat Outta Here!

2008-09-29T22:32:00.001-04:00

What is the deal with trans fat, anyway? Have you noticed food packages that say "trans fat free?" Well, in many way, sadly, you can't believe the package!

So what are they? Trans fats are created in a hydrogenation process-by heating liquid vegetable oil (remember, the polyunsaturated fat that's not supposed to be heated?) in the presence of hydrogen to make them solid at room temperature. If you look at food packages you will see "partially hydrogenated oil" or some form of that, on EVERYTHING! Frozen foods like pizza, shortening, salad dressing, all snack foods, white bread, cookie dough products, chips, processed cheese, margarine and "heart healthy" butter, ice cream, candy, all fried foods in polyunsatured oils, and the list could go on.

And what is so bad about trans fat? I'm glad you asked! Trans fats are the artery-clogging fats. They increase your bad cholesterol. Therefore, they increase the risk of cancer and heart disease. The good fats we talked about allow fat to do the job it was intended to do while trans fats help to reverse that process. They are a hot topic these days and many restaurants are being asked to remove them from their businesses. So if you eat the foods listed above on a regular basis, chances are you are eating lots of trans fat! I was oblivious to this fact just a few years ago. Knowing how bad trans fats are help me to stay away from the above listed foods. If you're not ready to go without processed foods, try switching to organic products. While not the healthiest either since they are still processed, they will not have trans fat in them because they won't be made with hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oil.

Why would companies use hydrogenated oil if it's so bad for us?? Great question! The answer is the same for many of the crappy products they use...money and shelf life! I'm sure you're not surprised! It's cheaper to use this kind of oil so they can price their products more competitively (even though it's still expensive these days, no?). And the product can sit on the shelf longer so they won't lose money on a stale product. Have you ever seen the expiration date on many processed foods...they can sit there a REALLY long time!

Again, it goes back to the fact that we want to believe companies are looking out for our health, but really, they are not. Case in point...you will see "trans fat free" labels on a lot of products that list partially hydrogenated oil in their product. Because the government doesn't have strict guidelines on this one, if there is less than 500 milligrams of trans fat per serving, it can be labeled as "trans fat free." But if you take that small amount and add the other small amounts from all the other food you eat with trans fat, it adds up to a lot! I saw a box of Dunkin' Donuts that said "Trans fat free" on the front. Right, we're supposed to believe that? My sister says you can feel your arteries clogging when you eat one but yet it's not bad for us? Hmmm....

All that is to say, read the labels on what you buy! Seems to be a common theme here. I'd love to hear what foods you are finding it in!

I spent way too much time tonight writing about this subject of fat but once I get rolling...sometimes I can't control myself! So I'll give you a break to digest this and I'll try to come back with something a little lighter!

The Truth about Fat, Part 2

2008-09-29T21:54:00.000-04:00

Now that we've talked about different kinds of fat, how do we know which kinds to eat and which kinds are good or not good?

I know in some ways it seems crazy to eat more fat, especially if you typically try to eat a low fat diet. I know for myself, the more fat I eat, the fuller I am, meaning overall, I probably eat less than I would if I ate low-fat. Plus, hopefully you read about the benefits your body gets from fat. There are cultures all over the world that eat lots of good fat and are very healthy people. They don't have processed food like we do in America and their health is overall tons better than ours! I've read research (well, OK, only the summaries of research) where doctors say that increasing saturated fat in the diets of their patients improved their overall health, and allowed them to lose weight.

This is not to say if you suddenly decide to drink a jar of olive oil every day you'll suddenly be healthier. Eating the right kinds of fat as well as reducing sugar and refined carbs are important. Also, not all "good fats" are created equally. Cold-pressed oils are better becasue the process doesn't damage the fat and our bodies cannot easily metabolize damaged fat.

So maybe try a few new things, like cooking in butter or coconut oil, saturated fats that are good for cooking. I used to use olive oil almost entirely for cooking but because it is a monounsaturated fat, it is not as preferable to use for heating, especially on a high heat. Now I mostly use olive oil as part of my salad dressing but I do occasionally cook with it or roast vegetables with it. I'm also experimenting with palm oil, a good saturated fat and baking with coconut oil. Other good saturated fats are cream, eggs, meat, and cheese. I havent' posted yet about the kinds of these that are best yet but that's too much for now. Can I just say I love putting butter and cream on my oatmeal...had it this morning! Yummy!

Some monounsaturated fats to try...do you like avocados? My family loves them and they are so filling and delicious. Try them along with a hamburger or on a salad. I give them a sprinkle of sea salt and eat them out of the shell. There are lots of oils I've never tried like almond oil and grapeseed oil but maybe they sound good to you?

Now, the polyunsaturated fats. These again are not used for cooking and many of them do not sound tempting to me like salmon oil, chia seed oil, hemp seed oil and wheat germ oil. I really would have no idea what to do with such things! My family does daily take cod liver oil, right off the spoon. Both my kids, under the age of 3, love it! We buy Carlson Lemon flavored Icelandic cod liver oil and it is such a great supplement with all the benefits of omega-3's. I know it sounds disgusting but it's not so bad. Now, the non-lemon flavor...I can't deal with that one (and I tried) so don't try to be a hero, unless you really want to. I also use flaxseed oil when I make smoothies. I can't drink that one alone either but mixed with something stronger, I can't even taste it at all. I know I listed oils such as safflower, corn, sunflower, and soybean as sources of polyunsaturated fat but they are very high in Omega-6's and are a great source of what leads our diets to a bad balance. All processed foods have these in some form and even organic processed foods don't use the best oil, even if they are organic. So limit those kind of vegetable oils when possible.

Animal products, free range eggs, wild fish, nuts and seeds are all great sources of healthy fat. Maybe you want to try having fish once a week? Or mixing some almonds and sunflower seeds with some chocolate chips or cranberries (hey, I'll give you a break to have something sweet!) Or maybe you'll switch to butter from the horrible substitutes that are out there (more on next post).

Are these oils more expensive? Well, yes, of course, like all things that are good for us. So again, go slow. Pick one thing that sounds good and try it. If you like it, then switch one more. That's the best way to make a positive and consistent change.

Please read the next post about the kind of fat to avoid as much as possible! But I'll leave you with a smoothie recipe from Jordan Rubin. I use this as my base and then change out the fruit or make different flavors. It makes a great breakfast! And full of good fat!

Basic Smoothie Recipe

Mix in a blender:
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt, kefir, or coconut milk or coconut water (yogurt and coconut milk are a personal favorite)
1 tsp. organic flax seed oil
1tsp. organic extra-virgin coconut oil
1 Tbsp. raw honey
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit, pref. local or organic (I like using frozen, makes it icier)
1 scoop goat's milk protein powder (a product of Jordan Rubin, but you could omit this)
dash of vanilla extract (optional)
1 raw egg (optional but gives protein and good fat!)

The Truth about Fat, Part 1

2008-09-29T20:58:00.001-04:00

One thing everyone, OK not quite everyone, but most people assume when I tell them I eat a little differently is that I must eat a low-fat diet, or a low-carb diet. Yuck to both of those, for the record. Truth is, I eat a lot of fat! My family's diet is actually rather high in fat when you break it down, which is one thing I love about it! The KIND of fat I eat is what is most important because there are different kinds. Not all fat causes us to gain weight, which is great news!

Fats are necessary for our bodies. It can be a solid fat or a liquid fat called an oil. We get fat from our food and it is stored in our body and used for energy. Fatty acids give our bodies insulation and a cushion for our vital organs. All cells in our body need fatty acids to make and build new cells. They are also vital in our nerve impulse transmissions and for brain development.

Fatty acids are chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms filling the available bonds. Most fats that we eat and that are in our bodies are a collection of molecues called triglycerides that is formed from three fatty-acids attached to a glycerol molecule. OK, so I know this isn't biology class but it does help explain different kinds of fats. A saturated fat means the carbon bonds are saturated with hydrogen molecules. This makes them stable and they won't easily go rancid, even when heated for cooking. They are mostly solid at room temperature. The body prefers these to burn for energy. Examples of saturated fats are animal fats from meat, butter, whole milk, cheese, cream and plant sources such as coconut oil.

Monounsaturated fats have a link in the carbon chain where 2 carbon molecules share 2 bonds with each other. This makes them mostly stable like saturated fats and they can be used in cooking as well. They are mostly solid when cold and liquid at room temperature. This would be fats like olive oil and nut oils like almonds, cashews, peanuts, etc...and avocados.

Polyunsaturated fats have 2 or more double bonds in their carbon chain. They are always liquid, go rancid easily and should not be heated or used for cooking, but can be eaten. Oils such as corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower would be examples.

The two most common fatty acids from the polyunsaturated category probably sound familiar to you, Omega 3 and Omega 6. Because the body cannot make them, they are called essential fatty acids, and must be obtained from the food we eat. I won't go into any more sciencey explanations here but only explain the importance of getting these essential fatty acids in our diet. I know there is a lot of talk out there about making sure we get Omega 3's so here is why. Omega 3 fatty-acids help the arteries and other parts of the body stay free from inflamation so they have been shown to help improve diseases that cause inflammation in various parts of the body such as autoimmune diseases, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Omega 3's also reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and reduce symptoms of depression, hypertension, ADD, joint pain, and other diseases. They strengthen the immune system as well. They protect the nervous system and are crucial in fetal and early childhood development. They can improve cardiovascular health and balance insulin levels. You can get Omega 3's in fatty fish such as salmon and albacore tuna, high omega-3 eggs, flaxseed oil, walnuts and cod liver oil as well as various fruits and vegetables.

The other kind of EFA (essential fatty acid) I'll discuss is Omega -6, found in grains, cereals, baked products, and vegetable oil. Omega-6 is particulary helpful in blood clotting and supports skin health. However, omega-3 and omega-6 must be balanced correctly. Most of us have a diet that is too high in omega-6's. I've read that many American diets have a 20-1 ration (20 omega 6's to 1 omega-3). The ratio should be about 4 parts omega-3 to one part omega-6. If there is too much omega-6's in our bodies, this is a big promotion for disease.

While most doctors will tell you to decrease your consumption of fats, particulary saturated fats, it's not this kind of fat that leads to cardiovascular disease. Eating refined sugars and carbs that build up in our bodies and don't get burned for energy can increase triglycerides that lead to heart disease and weight gain. Fats are an important part of what we eat because they help us absorb nutrients more slowly so we can feel fuller longer. This is one reason most low-fat diets don't work for long periods of time because people are very hungry all the time!

So I think that's enough to digest for now. More on the next post!

Healthier Sugar Substitutes

2008-09-26T21:45:00.000-04:00

To summarize the last few posts, sugar in general is not good for our bodies. Sugar, and chemically produced substitutes, can cause a lot of damage. So reducing the amount of sugar we consume is a great idea. Consuming too much of any kind of sugar, healthy substitute or not, can upset your body chemistry. But let's face it, we all will consume sugar in some form so we need to think about some healthier substitutes.

Try to eliminate HFCS, artificial sweeteners, and processed white sugar from your diet. Eat lots of fruit which is naturally sweetened. And, when you want sweetener for baking or tea and coffee, here are some alternatives. There are actually a lot more that I could include but to be honest, I don't know as much about them and these are the ones I use the most frequently or at least have tried at some point. I'll put some links to these products so you can see what they look like. I'm not endorsing the actual sites, but it's just to give you a picture or you can do more reading on your own if one of them greatly interests you.

1. Raw Honey-Honey that has not been heated to over 117 degrees has lots of enzymes that help digest carbohydrates and nutrients as well. There are lots of forms of honey so the closest you can get to raw honey is the best but any honey to start with is good. I love this product called Really Raw Honey. It is amazing! Baking with honey is a little tricky. I've found that unless the recipe specifically calls for honey, you have to really adapt it because honey is more liquidy than sugar. So I'm not quite an expert on that yet, but I'm experimenting and learning. I'll post some recipes in the future you can try. Remember not to give raw honey to infants, though.

2. Maple syrup-Not the kind you buy in the store that has HFCS in it and uses formaldehyde in its production, but pure maple syrup. It is rich in trace minerals. It is a little pricey to buy but the taste is great. Not only good on pancakes, but sweet potatoes and baking as well. I think it's great as a natural sweetener added to plain yogurt. Again, like honey, you have to adapt the ingredients due to the liquid content and it is much sweeter than honey so you don't need as much. Maple sugar is the powdered form of the syrup. It is quite expensive but I buy it to use sparingly to sprinkle on oatmeal or sweet potatoes but it is really sweet and a little goes a long way.

3. Rapadura/Sucanat-I've heard the terms used as equals but they do have some differences and Rapadura is the most pure of all but I use both of them. Rapadura is the commercial name for dehydrated cane sugar juice. You'll see in a lot of organic processed foods they use evaporated cane juice. Rapadura is full of minerals and mimics sugar closely so it can be used in baking and retains its nutrients after baking. I substitute it mostly for brown sugar but have for sugar as well. It is really rich tasting and good on oatmeal and sweet potatotes as well.

4. Stevia powder-a little of this goes a long way. It's not good for baking because it doesn't add bulk but is good for sweetening coffee, tea, and recipes that call for just a teaspoon or 2 of sugar. The taste to me is definately different and not my favorite, but that's just a personal opinion. I'm thinking of trying it again. This one will not spike blood sugar levels.

5. Agave nectar-I really love this sweetener in tea but I have read that the effect on the body is very similar to sugar so it may not be one of the better ones but still a better option than white sugar. It comes from the Agave cactus. It says it's 90% fructose but the more natural fructose, not HFCS. You can use it again in recipes that don't call for as much sugar.

6. Xylitol-Another good sweetener that will not spike your blood sugar level. I found a brand called Spry that makes gum and mouthwash with xylitol. It seems to be good for the teeth because it limits growth of bacteria that cause tooth decay. While I have read some mixed things about xylitol because it is a sugar alcohol, it seems to be overall an OK choice. I like the taste of it but don't use it for baking. Some people have intestinal issues with it, just as a heads up!

While they do sell organic white sugar, it really isn't that much better than regular white sugar. Yes it is organic and yes it is a little less processed but it is still white sugar. I do use organic white sugar in baking sometimes but I'm trying other healthier substitutes in baking to see what the end product is like.

Again, read labels to see what kind of sugar is in the products you buy. Any processed food is going to have several forms of bad sugar. While organic processed food is still processed, the sugar they use will be in a much better form.

There are others if you want to do your own research like date sugar, malted grain syrups, molasses, etc...but again, I haven't used them before. Hopefully this will give you a few ideas to get started! I'd love to hear what you try and what you like!

Just Say NO to Aspartame

2008-09-25T06:12:00.000-04:00

Before I post a list of alternative sweeteners, it's been nagging me to make sure I say something about artificial sweeteners. The name "artificial" should make everyone want to run since it is not a natural sugar, not even close. And what companies want you to believe is that the ingredients used to create these sugars are innocent and pure, but when put together, has a different character that wrecks havoc on the body.

One of the biggest ways people cut down on HFCS is to switch to diet soda, thinking that since they are consuming less calories, they'll lose weight. Or switch to foods created with Splenda since it means they can "have their cake and eat it too." The ironic part is that artificial sweeteners increase the craving for more sweets and trick the body into thinking that sweet things have low calories, which causes the consumption of more sweets. I've heard people say that if you absolutely can't give up soda (which you really should), drink regular soda because as bad as HFCS is for you, artificial sweeteners are worse!!

Artificial sweeteners come in pink, blue, or yellow packs as most folks know them by, but they are in so many of the foods we consume that we don't even realize including yogurt, gum, mints, and lots of processed snack food. They are most often listed on ingredients as aspartame. Aspartame which is more commonly known as Nutrasweet or Equal is highly toxic, yes toxic. The heat in our bodies reacts with acids that the sweetener breaks down into which converts to formaldehyde, yes you heard me correctly. It can cause genetic damage as well as neurological damage and damage to the immune system. It breaks down a barrier in our brain which allows toxins to come in. Aspartame has been linked to MANY MANY diseases and conditions including epilepsy, migraines and headaches, depression, autoimmune disease, brain tumors. diabetes, birth defects, and the list goes on.

Splenda, also known as sucralose, does not have as much research behind it and claims it is made out of sugar. And yet, it is still an ARTIFICIAL sweetener and has been linked to many disorders as well including enlarged organs, lots of complications with pregnancy, diarrhea, reduced growth rate, shrunken thymus glands, and others. So don't believe the hype...it is just as bad as other sweeteners.

So, again, read labels. Know what is in the food you purchase!

Pour Some Sugar on Me

2008-09-22T21:17:00.000-04:00

SUGAR...oohh, probably my biggest weakness, sweets! There are alternatives, and semi-healthy at that, hooray!

So yesterday, I spoke about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and why you should avoid it. Let's talk a little about sugar in general, shall we?

I think everyone knows that sugar should be avoided, yes? Most people I know would like to cut down the amount of sugar in their diet. But cutting out sugar is easier said than done since it's in just about every food we eat, particulary man-made foods and it comes with all kinds of crazy names...sugar, corn syrup, HFCS, sucralose, sucrose, fructose, etc...Before we can look for some alternatives, I think we need to know WHY something is so bad for us. It gives us a reason to make change!

Sugar can do so much damage to our bodies. If you REALLY want to see some of the data, read this article from a health website I visit often that will give you 76 things sugar can do to your body. http://www.mercola.com/article/sugar/dangers_of_sugar.htm Here are a few highlights...can increase cholesterol, lead to cancer, obesity, poor eyesight, tooth disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, allergies, excema, damage body parts, lead to depression, etc...And yet I don't think most of us need to read all of the information to know it's bad for us. We all know that and want to do something about it. So why is it so hard?

Part of the explanation might be the way insulin works in our bodies. When we eat something high in carbs and sugar, particularly in the absence of fiber that helps digest the sugar and slow down digestion in general, our pancreas releases insulin that tells the body what to do with the sugar. Insulin helps the body lower its blood sugar and balance our bodies. Insulin does a lot of other things in our body but since I'm not a biology major, I can't really remember them all. The overall goal is to keep our insulin levels low. The way to do that is to avoid refined grains and sugar that cause our bodies to release the insulin. Our bodies become resistant to insulin the more it is released which means our bodies will no longer use it correctly or be insensitive to it. This could cause excess blood sugar in the body which could then lead to diabetes or other diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease.

The most important thing I think to remember about sugar and insulin is the cycle we get caught up in when we eat sugar. Here's what happens: Eat sugar (or white flour carb products), drive up blood sugar and gain energy, insulin is released to balance body, blood sugar lowers rapidly inducing hunger, eat something else with sugar to get the energy rush, repeat cycle. So basically, eating sweets makes us want to eat sweets more. Eventually our bodies start to reject the insulin which causes us to have increased blood sugar, increased fat in our bodies, and increased clogging of our arteries leading to increased risk for disease.

WOW, so was that overwhelming or what?? Take a deep breath!

Now, is that to say that I never eat sugar! I wish! I still eat it, although I have found some substitutes that are not as harsh as processed white sugar (more on a future post). But what I will say is that because I do choose to eat the best I can and I have eliminated most white sugar from my diet, my body does react harshly when I eat it. I know exactly how I'm going to feel. So if I CHOOSE to eat it, I pay the price with headaches and energy crashes and sluggish feelings.

If you do decide to cut out sugar or lessen the amount you eat, your body will respond with cravings as it goes through withdrawal...just like other addictions. And yes, our bodies are addicted to it. Be patient, alternatives are on the way!

Oh, and for those of you with questions, I'll post answers as they fit in, or maybe I'll just slip them in just for you!

High Fructose Corn Syrup

2008-09-21T21:50:00.000-04:00

So, what I decided to do is write about something that you should try to avoid in your diet. Then in subsequent posts, I'll try to give you some alternatives, OK, not try, I WILL give you some alternatives and if I can't, well, then I won't write about that topic anyway!

I decided to start with high fructose corn syrup, as per request from my granola, earthy, green living younger brother. He also insists everyone needs an organic nerd in their life, like it or not. Jordan Rubin lists "The Dirty Dozen" which are 12 foods he says to avoid ALL the time. So this is one of them, and I have read and heard about it from many other health gurus. I've read a lot about it and the effect it has on the body so I'll explain it the way it makes sense to me and hopefully will make sense to you.

High fructose corn syrup (from here on called HFCS) is a chemically produced sweetener that is chemically produced by a process that converts milling corn to fructose, which is a super, super sweet sugar (note the word chemically used emphatically). Corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and so it is very high in sugar. This process is cheaper than importing real sugar. Because it is cheaper, you'll find it in TONS of foods, and a lot of foods you wouldn't expect to find it. Foods would would expect like soda and processed foods but also in condiments, applesauce, cereal, salad dressing, fruit juice, jelly, and many others. I've read people today eat more HFCS than ever in history! Because corn is one of the major genetically modified crops (GMO), it could contain a toxic mold. More on GMO's later but basically it stands for genetically modified organism meaning it is a man-made version of the real thing.

Some of you are saying, "Fructose, isn't that a good sugar like in fruit?" When you eat fruit, the body is able to digest the fructose because fruit has natural enzymes, vitamins, and minerals that help digest the fructose. The body metabolizes fructose from HFCS differently from other sugars. It actually turns it into triglycerides which increases risk for heart disease by increasing your LDL (bad cholesterol) and decreasing your HDL (good cholesterol).

If you aren't yet conviced, another reason is that when you eat HFCS, your hormones are not stimulated to tell you when you’re full. While sugar is not good for you, and I will post more on how insulin works in your body, it does trigger something to make you feel more full and satisfied. What happens is that when you eat something with HFCS, your body doesn't feel satisfied so you will keep eating more and more things that are sweet to try to satisfy that sweet tooth desire but it won't be satisfied.

I know most of us would like to believe that food companies are looking out for our best interests and if they say a food is healthy we should believe them. This is becoming one of my biggest pet peeves and this topic will come up again and again in future posts. Food companies want one thing, MONEY! They will use cheap products that are HORRIBLE for your health to make a few extra (or a lot of extra) dollars in their pocket. Read labels! Avoid HFCS when possible!!

So Where Do I Start?

2008-09-21T21:39:00.000-04:00

A question that I often get asked by people is, "Where do I begin? What comes first?" I'm sure the experts would have a direct answer to this question, but mine is more simple. Really, I would just pick ONE thing, ANYTHING and make a change. Truthfully, it's too hard to change it all at once. There is too much to change, too much money to spend doing it, and too hard to maintain if you try to do it all at once. So I think the easiest thing to do is make one change, and once you start doing that well, pick something else to change.

That being said, making small changes aren't going to miraculously change your health overnight or suddenly make you lose a lot of weight. But gradually, as you make more and more changes, you will notice a difference in how you feel and you will read ingredients more and think twice before eating something. And yes, sometimes you will choose to eat it anyway. I'm guilty of that. But other times, you will say, "No, it's not worth putting that poison into my body." There's a lot of freedom in being able to make those kinds of choices.

I think when we started this back some years ago, we switched a bunch of things at once, at least some of the time. I know we switched to organic processed foods, meat, and produce. But things like changing condiments, personal care items, dairy, and other stuff didn't come until much later. There is so much to learn and I'm still learning and making changes that I'll share as those topics come up. So don't feel like you have to keep up with all the things I'm going to write about. Maybe one of them will spark your interest and you'll want to try that one out first.

Reminder: Go S--L--O--W--L--Y!! But you can do it! You can make changes! I know you can! And write and tell me all about them...I'll be excited for you!

Getting Started

2008-09-17T20:58:00.000-04:00

Hmmm...so I really am not sure where to even start! I have so much I want to write about and I probably should get it organized before I start but then again, it might take me too long to write so I'll just start writing something!

My husband and I started eating and exploring eating more organically about 6 or 7 years ago. It's hard to exactly define what eating "organically" looks like so I'll gradually make new posts that explain the specifics of what good eating looks like. Basically, I take the philosophy of Jordan Rubin. I've read three of his books (he's written a lot), I've done The Maker's Diet and recently, after reading Perfect Weight America, got motivated to start eating the right way again. Alot of what I have learned has been from him, but I do read things from others and this blog will contain a hodgepodge of sources. So things that I write here I won't always credit to one person because I read different things from different people but I'll try to link to sources when I can. There are lots of different people that tell you different things about what healthy eating looks like and you have to navigate through them and find the common threads. I hope future postings will help you see some of those similarities. There are many people who know a lot more than me and could explain things more clearly and in better ways. You could even Google what you want to learn and get lots of information. But as I said before, I feel led by God to encourage others in changing their eating habits.

So, no, I don't consider myself an expert but I do know that eating this way makes me feel a ton better, have more energy, and maintain my weight better than anything else I've ever done in my life. There are certain topics I know a lot about and others I'm still learning about. This idea of eating does go alot against what mainstream doctors and nutritionists will say but it makes so much sense!

The kind of food I'm talking about eating is, well, REAL food. Basically it is food that is created by God for food and in a form intended for the body. It's eating organic or local fruits and vegetables, raw milk products, whole grains, nuts and seeds, grass fed and free range meat, and wild caught fish. Food that tastes amazing and is freshly prepared in it's full fat version as close to the original as possible. Avoiding processed food of all kinds (even organic) is the best.

Now that I've said that, I certainly do not eat this way ALL the time...I'm not perfect. But I do strive to a certain standard. I still love lots of food that I know I shouldn't eat and that will always be a struggle. But most of the time, we eat this way. And it does taste great and you feel amazing. And yes you can still make sweets and desserts...you just alter the kinds of ingredients you use. It's best to make small changes...if you do too much at once it's just too hard to maintain. So hopefully you will keep reading and find some small changes you can make!

OK, so I knew I would start rambling for my first few entries. I'll try to get more organized as I go along!

Welcome to bloggyland

2008-09-15T22:24:00.000-04:00

So I'm finally doing it! I've been talking about it, mostly to myself, but I'm finally doing it. I'm thinking if I send this to enough people that will probably not read it anyway, it will help hold me accountable to posting. I really don't know much about having my own blog but I like reading everyone else's so I guess I'll just learn as I go.

Anyway, I have lots of friends who blog about their kids, which I love by the way. I love being able to follow their lives, especially friends who live far away. It's great!

However, this blog is not about my family, but about heatlthy eating and living. I actually feel called, so to speak, to help spread the message of good health and I think this site is a way to help me do it.

That being said, I am not an "expert" by any means, but someone who loves healthy and organic eating, loves learning more about it, loves sharing with others, and really wants to see others make life changes to live a healthy and more abundant life. The information I post will probably "go against the norm" in many ways. It's not solely about losing weight and definately not about eating "low-fat," gross, sorry, but about eating the foods God intended for us to eat.

It will probably take me some time to get organized but I hope you check back and enjoy my ramblings on healthy eating and living.