Five More Bunnies

Cranberry salad dressing

2011-12-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm going to start you off letting you know this may be the best salad dressing you ever eat. It's just amazing stuff. The recipe is from Ali over at Nourishing Meals however this particular recipe is from her cookbook. The whole life nutrition cookbook, one of my favorites. I was also hoping to get this to you before Thanksgiving, but alas that did not happen. I did make it for my Thanksgiving feast this year, and plan on making it again soon. Not sure if you could use frozen cranberries for this recipe but plan on trying later in the year to see if it works. It probably would. It would also make a wonderful Christmas salad dressing or even for Valentines Day due to the beautiful color!

If you are interested in what else I made for Thanksgiving I made a Maple Cream pie from this recipe at the NY times. I now make this every year for thanksgiving and it's pretty amazing stuff. The NY is a great resource for Thanksgiving recipes- a little late now but Thanksgiving recipes tend to be good for finding yummy things to eat when the weather outside is cold.

I do some slight changes to the salad dressing recipe, she cooks the cranberries and shallots and I do not. I have never made this recipe with cooked cranberries so I don't know what the taste difference is. However I feel there should be more raw cranberries in my life and since they are pretty difficult to eat by themselves this is a good way to eat them raw. Cranberries are also a great source of nutrition. Your bladder will thank you later for eating them.

It's rather common knowledge these days that cranberry juice can prevent and sometimes even cure a bladder infection. I myself have cured a bladder infection with cranberry juice. Cranberries are also high in antioxidants which defend the body from free radicals. Free radicals attack cells in your body- they are something you don't want. This is why antioxidant foods are so great, they assist your body in staying in optimum health by keeping invaders out. Cranberries also have Anti-inflammatory benefits and help to fight cancer. For more cranberry info go to whfoods.com.

Alright so here is the recipe. Again this is from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, which was written locally here in Bellingham and is full of dairy free gluten free yummy stuff.

You will need a blender for this recipe, but a food processor or hand blender would work to (note the picture of the Turkey below was thrown in from our Thanksgiving Dinner- I didn't cook it but it was a pretty bird!)

Ingredients:

2 shallots, sliced
1 cup fresh cranberries
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I didn't have this so I used white wine vinegar)
3 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon Orange zest
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Chop the shallots into usable pieces and combine all ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. This salad is great on top of Turkey and spinach. I found that Ali does actually have this recipe on her blog and you can see her version here.

This should stay good in your fridge for about 10 days.

This recipe part of Fat Tuesday Forager festival over at http://realfoodforager.com/2011/12/fat-tuesday-december-6-2011/

This post also part of Fight Back Friday from http://www.foodrenegade.com

baby/ toddler smoothie snack

2011-10-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a very simple recipe for some baby food. However, it also works great for toddlers or even adults! I noticed Leo has been backing off of fruits and vegetables quite a bit lately, so I though I would try to make him some "baby food" and see if that would help get some more vegis in him. It worked great. Toddlers still have very simple taste buds and often don't want the complex tastes that adults tend to crave. I often forget that. These pictures are from the beginning of September where he is 28 months. I stopped giving him anything similar to baby food awhile back other than green smoothies. However I have been trying to add some purred foods back into his diet as he likes them and they are easy to digest.

Babies need simple foods. This recipe is great for a baby starting around 8 or 9 months. Giving your baby lots of fruits and vegetables at an early age and keeping the dairy and gluten at bay until they are older is great for their digestive health. Did you know babies do not have the digestive enzymes to break down gluten? Those don't develop until their molars come in, usually around age two. Leo's molars came in at 18 months so I introduced gluten around that time. As a baby he was gluten free. Keeping your baby gluten free also keeps them from eating as many processed foods. It made not giving him cereals and crackers a much easier choice. I did feed him grains though, we made our own rice cereal and ate oatmeal. I also gave him rice puffs from time to time. He also had a period of time where he wouldn't eat any baby food, which was annoying since I worked and he was breastfed. And he wouldn't take a bottle. He ate lots of Nori and rice puffs for this stage. I also started giving him goat keifer around 10 or 11 months. Closer to age one he started eating lots of food. He also went for more solid things, baby pancakes, lentil soup, etc., instead of purred foods. I still made him typical baby food he just ate it less often than I thought he would. Every baby is different. I've met some babies that eat tons of purred food! When Leo did eat it he never ate very much of it. Anyways, here is some Leo pictures and the recipe:

Baby/ Toddler smoothie snack

One Pear
3-4 apricots
3 or 4 Kale leaves

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth! Serve right away and freeze unused portions in ice cube trays or other dishes. I put some in some empty baby food jars and froze. Note this recipe makes quite a bit for one little person!

This post linked to Figh back friday

Cooking from scratch

2011-10-23T23:24:00.000-07:00

So today I don't have a recipe, but wanted to talk about simple ways to make cooking from scratch realistic. I didn't grow up in household that cooked a lot or spent time on food. There was no canning in our house, but we grew food. And every year I saw lots of food go to waste because none of it was preserved or used in a creative way. This is probably one of the many reasons I am interested in food in the way that I am...

Anyways, cooking from scratch. Some people seem to do it. For others it seems like an impossible mission. I started slowly, cooking some things, and I am still learning more and more things to cook. It takes time, I wont lie. If you don't do it already starting will not be easy, but it's worth it. And the biggest thing to getting started is habit. I remember feeling frustrated at first trying to cook a meal for dinner every day instead of just quickly throwing something together. Now I feel strange if I am not cooking dinner. The key? Habit. I've become use to spending lots of time cooking making it easy and part of my daily routine. It is hard to change and add routines, but I really think this one is worth making the change for. Yes it is time consuming to make food but it's time well spent. Sometimes I think of other things I could do instead, and not a lot comes to mind anymore. It's just what I do. Though things do come up, especially in the summer with day trips and things that make spending time cooking not as conceivable, but I work around it. I plan (or try to.) It's time I do not spend watching TV or playing on the Internet. Sometimes I think about other species as well, and how for quite a few animals their entire day is spent finding food/eating food. While we have the luxury to only spend part of our days doing this. I know some people would love to go the Jetson's route and have all of our food be pre-made and ready to eat at the push of a button, I think it's very healthy to put your own hard earned time and energy into something you are going to eat. It brings value to the food that is priceless.

Another way to get cooking off the ground is use one food for several meals. Example: I sprouted a large batch of navy beans, about two cups dried. I then used them to make:

Peanut butter bean fudge (from eat nourishing)
Rice noodle pasta with a purred white bean/squash "cheese"
Navy beans in BBQ sauce

I made these over three days.

Now that I am eating meat as well doing this with a chicken is also helpful. I cook one whole chicken, which takes all day to cook so I can get good quality broth. And I freeze some of the yummy broth for an "instant" broth later and get about four meals out of the chicken, sometimes a bit more. The first day has more work put into it cooking the chicken and shredding it, but for the other days I already have pre cooked shredded chicken to start with.

Do you have any real food tips?

This post linked to Monday Mania

Lacto-fermented Salsa

2011-10-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, another lacto-fermented recipe! Pretty soon I might have to rename this blog into lacto-fermenting.com

I don't eat fermented foods like crazy. I do have a few in my fridge and a few on my counter. I don't eat them all the time but they come in handy and they last forever! I've been turning more to them as harvest season is dying down a bit and there is less local vegetables in the grocery store everyday. That's a reason to lacto-ferment in itself, that there will be tasty vegetables in your fridge or cellar when winter comes (if you don't eat them first!). If you are intimated by making or even eating lacto fermented foods think about everything you already eat that is fermented! Beer, sourdough, yogurt, cheese, sour cream... things you may have forgotten are actually fermented foods. We are attracted to them because they make food taste better, store better, are easier to digest, and help us digest other foods as well. However, as we often still ferment dairy and grains fermenting vegetables is not as common. Sauerkraut is still fairly common but not made traditional/fermented much anymore. I use to think sauerkraut was a strange food and wouldn't eat it, until I learned a bit about what makes lacto-fermentation so amazing (i.e. it's not just some old rotting food people are eating for some strange reason). You can tell the difference between rotting food and fermenting food. Fermenting food is usually still attractive in its own way, and will smell tangy- it will smell GOOD. Rotting food will not. You will not want to eat rotting food, nor want it hanging out in your kitchen...

So if this isn't a good enough reason to at least try lacto fermenting I don't know what is! Now is a great time a year to try with the still warmish weather and all the vegetables in season. Perfect time for kraut! I have some on my counter. However, this recipe is for Salsa. I think lacto-fermented salsa tastes much better than fresh salsa! It adds a delious tanginess and will keep, if you don't eat it, for months. Fresh salsa is only good for a few days. Salsa is also one of the simpler things to lacto ferment and you can adapt any salsa recipe to make it fermented, but below there is a basic recipe, feel free to change to your tastes. Note in the pic below I used a purple bell pepper, it is not an eggplant!

Ingredients for fermenting:
1T Sea Salt

2T Whey (optional) (see this post on how to make whey)
Two wide mouth mason quart jars or one two quart jar (glass!) with lids

Ingredients for salsa:
One bunch cilantro
One onion
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno
half of a bell pepper
About a dozen small tomatoes or 6ish bigger ones, this all really depends on the size of the tomatoes... or use tomatillos. I used both, which is why my salsa came out green.
1 teaspoon Cumin
2 teaspoons oregeno

You can chop by hand but it is much easier to use a food processor.

Pulse onion,garlic, cilantro, cumin, and oregeno finely in the food processor. Add peppers and process some more. Add tomatoes and pulse just a few times. When you add the tomatoes add the 2T whey and 1T sea salt.

Pour into two glass jars or one big jar. This receipe makes about one quart and a half of salsa, you can add more tomatoes if you want to fill the jars completely.

Leave jars on your counter for 48 hours at room temp.

Release lids breifly before putting into fridge to let out trapped air. You may see bubbles, this is good, it means it is working. Your salsa will store for many months in a cold environment now! If you dont eat it all in a few days, because it will taste amazing and be the healthiest salsa you have ever eatten.

This post linked to Fight Back Friday!

This post linked to Sunday School at Butter Believer

How to make Whey

2011-10-03T00:18:00.000-07:00

Whey is a dairy product. Technically more of a bi-product. But it's a good bi-product with health promoting qualities (though not in it's powdered form.) When you separate milk you have two things, curds and whey (think little miss muffet.) You can use any kind of milk to get whey; cow, goat, sheep, etc. But why would you want whey? What is it used for?

The following is from Wikipedia on Whey : Liquid whey contains lactose, vitamins, protein, and minerals, along with traces of fat. In 2005, researchers at Lund University in Sweden discovered that whey appears to stimulate insulin release, in type 2 diabetics.^[6] Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, they also discovered that whey supplements can help regulate and reduce spikes in blood sugar levels among people with type 2 diabetes by increasing insulin secretion.

Wikipedia didn't have too much more interesting than that, but had a bit about traditional whey drinks. Whey having a positive effect on blood sugar, though, is very interesting!

Whey is also full of lots of good bacteria. The easiest way to make whey to take plain, good quality, yogurt or keifer and strain it through a cheese cloth. You then have whey and yogurt cheese. You can also take raw milk and sour it to make "curds and whey" and then strain that through a cheese cloth. Whey is also left over from cheese making but depending on the type of cheese you probably don't want to save that whey for lacto-fermenting but you could drink it if you want. Whey made during cheese making tends to be heated thus killing the bacteria we need for our fermenting adventures.

Whey can be added to bread, instead of water, for bread making.

I use whey for fermenting. Due to the lacto-bacteria content it's a great starter to use in making fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut, pickles, salsa, etc. There is lots of great recipes on line and I will post more as I make them.

Check out my Dilly Bean recipe that calls for whey!
The prairie homestead also has a blog post about 16 ways to use whey. Check that out if you are interested in even more things whey.

I also read, but now cannot find where, that whey is good for digestive complaints.

Nutritionally one cup of whey has:

60 calories

253 mg of calcium
24.6mg of Magnesium
192 mg of Phosphorus
352mg of Potassium
1.1mg of Zinc
4.4 mcg Selenium
Choline 39.4mg
17.2 IU Vitamin A

This is from a general nutrition website (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/100/2) and I bet grass fed milk would have an even higher nutrient content.

So here are some more detail instructions on how to make yourself some whey!

Get your good quality plain yogurt or keifer, whatever amount is fine but enough to fit in your strainer. 2 cups or so is a good amount to start with.

Line a fine mesh strainer with cheese cloth and put it inside a bigger bowl to catch the whey.

Fill your cheese cloth lined strainer with your yogurt (or keifer).

Let sit on your counter for the day or over night. Poor off whey. Some people like to let it strain the fridge but because its a fermented product it is fine to sit on your counter for a few hours.

Do not press down on or squeeze the yogurt cheese. This gets milk product into the finished whey.

Poor your whey into a glass jar and your yogurt cheese into another. The yogurt cheese will last weeks and the whey will last months.

You can also used soured milk to make whey but I have never tried that. I make my own keifer so I do keifer whey.

This post linked to Monday Mania

Lacto-fermented dilly beans

2011-08-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

What is lacto fermenting?

Well, according to Wikipedia, Lactic acid fermentation is a biological process by which sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose, are converted into cellular energy and the metabolic byproduct lactate. It is an anaerobic fermentation reaction that occurs in some bacteria and animal cells, such as muscle cells, in the absence of oxygen.

Lactobacillus is the most common bacteria used to make commercially cultured food, and is the also produced through lactic acid fermentation. The most common fermented foods you have probably eaten are yogurt and sauerkraut. However, there are many other types of bacteria that are involved in culturing food.

Part of the reason lacto-fermenting works to keep vegetables is when the fermenting is taking place the pH changes and the food becomes more acidic preventing and even killing harmful bacteria.

Cultured foods are also super good for you! They add enzymes (made by the bacteria) and probiotics to your diet and make the food you are eating easier to digest. They also save you money on probiotics and keep your food from going to waste. Plus they taste good. It's really a win win situation. If you haven't cultured your own food yet I suggest you try it, especially now in the warm weather. Having a warm kitchen will give you the best results.

Other benefits of probiotics:

Supports your immune system
Helps eliminate waste/harmful bacteria
assistance in producing vitamin B and K (formed in the gut)
help digesting complex carbs
Lowers the incidence of allergies
Inhibits candida yeast growth
helps with digestive issues

How do you know if your culture went bad/ or didn't work? Generally by taste/smell. I haven't had anything I cultured go bad yet, which is making me feel safer to experiment more. Basically if it smells bad don't eat it is the rule of thumb. If it gets moldy it also didn't turn out right. However if you don't have a proper closure on your fermented food it can get a layer of mold on the top. Sauerkraut traditionally fermented for long periods of time, does tend to get a layer of mold on top that is then removed. However, with things more liquid like pickles/ dilly beans I do not think I would still consume it if it had a layer of mold on the top. But if you do it right you should not get any mold.

Mold on the top is different from a thin film. Cultured foods do get film on the top sometimes. This wont effect the finished product but from what I have read if your product is doing this just scrape it off each day.
Lacto-fermented Dilly Beans

You need

1 quart jar
1-2 T Sea Salt
3 Tablespoons Whey (optional)
Green Beans, enough to fill the jar
1 T dill fresh or dried, use more if fresh
2 cloves of garlic, chopped into pieces (or more to taste)
filtered water (must be filtered! Chlorine inhibits the growth of bacteria)

you can add other herbs/spices to taste as well. Hot peppers would be good.

1. Slice your green beans into jar sized pieces. Leave them big or small. Put them in the jar.

2. In another container mix whey, 1 tablespoon Sea salt, or use two tablespoons salt if not using whey. You will get better results with whey as it is a starter culture. Add 1 cup or so of filtered water and stir to mostly dissolve the sea salt.

3. Add dill and garlic to green beans in the jar.

4. Poor salt water over beans. Add more filtered water to fill jar but leave an inch of room at the top (important for expanding fermentation).

5. Put lid on jar and shake around a bit to get all mixed up. Leave on your counter, at room temp, for several days. I put mine out for three days then put in the fridge, thought that wasn't long enough, them took them back out and on the counter to ferment more. I then looked up more recipes and saw that a lot people fermented dilly beans for 2 weeks! So, leave them out between 3 days and two weeks. Taste every so often to see when they are ready. They should still be crunchy and when you take the lid off you will see bubbles rise to the surface.

TIP: Your beans need to stay under the water to not get moldy. If they float to the top what you can do is take a plastic baggie, fill it with salt water brine and put it in the jar to weight the beans down. This will keep everything under water. You wont need a lid on them if you do that, but may want to cover with a towel to ensure bugs and such stay out.

Once your beans are done put them in your fridge or cellar. They will keep for about 6 months! Note that this recipe also works well for carrot sticks too. You can ferment all kinds of things. More recipes to come!

This post part of traditional tuesdays blog hop hosted by realfoodwholehealth.com

This post also linked to Kelly the kitchen Kop Real food Wednesday

Grain free Blueberry coconut pancakes

2011-08-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Pancakes have to be Leo's favorite breakfast. When we were picking strawberries a few weeks ago and I asked him what we were going to do with them he said "make pancakes!"

I've been delving a bit into GAPS and learning about the potential benefits of being grain free. Surprisingly, you can still eat lots of yummy things on a grain free diet. Including these coconut blueberry pancakes. I got the recipe from http://www.nourishingdays.com and changed it slightly; using keifer instead of milk, lowering the amount of baking soda and adding blueberries which are very abundant right now!

I've been making my own keifer. When I started I felt pretty unsure about it, but now I love it. It's great to have around for cooking and the keifer eats all the lactose in milk so I find myself using keifer for all my baking needs instead of milk-substitutes. Don't get me wrong, I do love hemp milk and even soy milk, but they aren't the freshest foods to be eating. When you buy them boxed they are heated to a pretty high temp to stay good in there and not go bad. I tried making my own hemp milk a few times but it wasn't very good. Plus regular milk is just more nutrient dense, and keifer is full of probiotics!

Here is the pancake recipe, but note if you don't have access to keifer use yogurt. Otherwise you can use milk or a milk substitute.

4 eggs
1 cup Keifer
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBS honey (or maple syrup)
1/2 cup coconut flour (yes that's all you need!)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
Butter/ coconut oil for frying
Blueberries! (optional)

Mix liquid ingredients together well (eggs, keifer, vanilla, honey). Make sure the eggs are well combined and frothy.
In a separate bowl mix coconut flour, baking soda, and salt.
Combine

Your best bet for success in this recipe is to use cast iron. I use an enamel covered cast iron pan.

Heat your grill with coconut oil or butter until hot over medium heat.

Once hot add your batter. Note this recipe will cook different then regular pancakes! It feels more like cooking eggs. Make the pancakes small but thick. Use the back of a spoon to spread them out. If using blueberries, add them now by pressing them into the cooking pancakes.

Make sure the pancakes are well cooked on one side before flipping or you will have a mess! Once you flip your pancakes cook just a few minutes more and enjoy with your favorite pancake toppings. This is one of my favorite pancake recipes. Great to try even if you aren't grain free! Plus with all the eggs they are quite high in protein. I feel a lot fuller eating these pancakes than traditional ones. The leftovers also make great toddler snacks.

Lima bean Succotash

2011-08-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

A succotash in usually a dish containing Lima beans, or beans, and corn. I didn't use corn for this recipe. This recipe in general is a bit strange for this site because it includes meat. I've recently started adding meat into my diet. Still adjusting to how I feel about that since I have been a strict vegetarian since the age of 14. I will be turning 30 next month.

There is a large variety of reasons that have pushed me in the direction of eating meat again. So far I have been eating fish and chicken/turkey. Red meat feels like a whole different step.

Alot of it comes down to the importance of lots and lots of minerals we need for our bodies and the best source of that is simply meat. I have also been reading the GAPS diet book, and How to Cute tooth decay. Both of these books talk about the importance of a grain free diet for health. Grains are a large staple of the vegetarian diet. They also talk about the importance of meat as a health food.

Soy is also an issue. 91% of soy we eat is genetically modified. I want to avoid GM foods as much as possible and avoiding soy helps. There has a lot been a lot of recent research on how soy causes its own array of health problems. I think soy can still be healthy, however, but in it's traditional fermented forms such as tempeh, natto, and miso. All excellent health foods if not eaten too much.

Lima beans themselves are a bit interesting. I hadn't eaten them in many years and for one reason or another I started to crave them. They are very rich in minerals! Here is a great link to the health benefits of the Lima Bean.

This meal is best planned ahead.

You will need:

1 cup Lima Beans
1 small zucchini
1 stalk celery
1/2 green bell pepper
2 chicken or pork sausages that are nitrate free (or use Tempeh)(I used Italian flavored with fennel)
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp sea salt

Step one:

Soak 1 cup of Lima beans over night in water

When ready to make your dish, cook Lima beans by draining off soaking water and rinsing beans.

Cook Lima beans in three cups of water over medium heat. When it comes to a boil lower heat to low and cover for about an hour. Meanwhile:

Dice the following:

One Onion
One celery stalk
One half of a green bell pepper
One small zucchini

Over medium heat cook the onion first in coconut oil, butter, or lard until soft. Then add the other vegetables and cook until soft.

In another pan cook two sausages. I used chicken sausage.

After sausage is cooked chop and add to vegetables. Add cooked Lima beans. Mix together and add 2 teaspoons of thyme and 2 teaspoons of sea salt.

Serve!

Spring food

2011-04-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

Spring.

Time to brush off the heaviness of winter and move forward into the time of light. Spring is a natural time to eat less and eat more lighter foods. It's a traditional time to do fasting as well. If you ever thought about doing an elimination diet now is a good time. More wild foods are becoming available, I picked nettles about a week ago and made nettle pesto. It was my first time picking my own nettles and I was lucky to find a great spot. Though nettles are every where so it's not too hard in this climate to find them. If you are interested in picking your own pick young nettles, just pick the top leafs so the rest of the plant can continue to grow. Also wear gloves! Nettles, as you probably know, sting. If nettles seem a bit too daunting of a thing to collect try picking some dandelion greens. They are also abundant and a great spring food for acclimating yourself to the new weather. Wild food is the best food you could possibly find.

"The ancient Chinese believed that seasons have a profound cyclical effect on human growth and well-being- that we are influenced by climatic changes and should live in harmony with them. " - Healing with Whole Foods.

Healing with Whole Foods has a section on Spring, and each season. I wanted to talk a bit about what Paul Pitchford says about Spring. Below is a paraphrase of his section on Spring.

Chinese medicine associates Spring with Wood. Spring is a time of cleansing, the body reacts to the fast bright green food growing around which helps bring on cleansing in the body. The body cleans itself not only of excessive food but of emotions as well this time of year. Spring is the time to pay attend to your liver and gall bladder. Salty foods are heavy and weigh the body down for winter, in the Spring eat less salt and eat leafy greens and spouts- foods that are uplifting towards this time of light. Pungent herbs, basil, fennel, marjoram, rosemary, caraway, Dill, and bay leaf, are all good at this time of year. Grains and starchy vegetables are also sweet and help with the ascending nature of spring. Raw foods can also be emphasized in a spring and summer diet. Though I personally do not advocate an all raw food diet, raw foods have value and are good this time of year. Eat more raw food as it gets hotter as it is cooling to the body.

Light soups and salads and great nourishment in the spring. Enjoy this time of year, it is gorgeous outside!

The Need for Green Living

2011-03-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

A reader wrote to me and asked to do a guest post. I thought that was a great idea. If you are interested in doing a guest post feel free to email me. Fivemorebunnies@gmail.com

A Need for Green Living, a guest post by Eric Stevenson

Driving less, a healthier diet,
less use of water bottles, and gardening are just a few examples of some aspects
of living green. With a high number of diseases resulting from environmental
exposure to toxins in the home, the benefit of pursuing a holistic approach to
everyday life is becoming more and more valuable. Patients of these illnesses
are helping to extend their life expectancy through a series of green-related
approaches, as well as seeing some of the other benefits of these changes, such
as increased financial and energy efficiency.

Driving less, a healthier diet,
less use of water bottles, and gardening are just a few examples of some aspects
of living green. With a high number of diseases resulting from environmental
exposure to toxins in the home, the benefit of pursuing a holistic approach to
everyday life is becoming more and more valuable. Patients of these illnesses
are helping to extend their life expectancy through a series of green-related
approaches, as well as seeing some of the other benefits of these changes, such
as increased financial and energy efficiency.

Another way green living can be
particularly beneficial is within the lower amount of toxins being taken in.
This will also help to prevent things like irregular heartbeat or shortness of
breath, two common mesothelioma symptoms.
There are green alternatives to everyday items that will be more beneficial to
the body, whether it's a household item like a cleaner or a hardware item like
paint.

A healthy diet will be one of the
major positives of adapting a green outlook on living. The use of organically
grown food coupled with lowering red meat intake will result in addition by
subtraction. Organic food will help the body in preparation to fight illness and
improve physically. Many cancer patients alike are using this holistic, organic
approach to the fighting of their diseases. This type of lifestyle can be
particularly important towards a positive outlook in different cases of cancer
and mesothelioma life expectancy.
When the body is nurtured right, it will be better equipped in dealing

Another way to ensure the use of
fresh and organically grown produce is to garden them yourselves. Gardening will
ensure that the food is chemical free and will also add to everyday physical
activity by providing yourself with a consistent routine of being outside to
work in the garden.

When taking a holistic and organic
approach, the consumption and use of water is an important factor. Removing use
of bottled water will take away the chance of consuming chemicals, which can
sometimes be found on the bottles. Using tap water with the proper filtering
system will always make for the healthiest option for drinking water.

There are also some health benefits
to using natural light in the home. Not only will using natural light during the
day cost less financially and save some energy, it can also help the body. The
body’s production of Vitamin D will increase with a little more exposure to
sunlight. The natural light can also improve overall mood, specifically in the
winter time.

All of these aspects of green
living are helping to improve a number of facets within people’s lives, but are
also helping patients of terminal illnesses improve their own outlook and life
expectancy. These examples also help to show why living this type of lifestyle
can be very beneficial to anybody’s long term overall
health.

Heart shapped mini cake gluten free

2011-03-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

This recipe is a combination of the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and Martha Stewart. It's a bit old now, as I made these for valentines, but still worth sharing!

This valentines treat was also to be a birthday cake so I wanted to do something a bit different. I wasn't finding what I wanted, as I needed to have something gluten free and dairy free, and the birthday goer did not. I was looking at Martha Stewart's website for ideas. She has such pretty food pictures it can be inspiring. Though I don't use her recipes much...

The cut out heart cakes came from Martha Stewart, which also suggested stacking them in twos with frosting in the middle.

Did I mention the frosting I used has no powdered sugar?! Or food coloring for that matter?

BTW, this cake, despite being "free" of so many things (no eggs, milk, refined sugar, no gluten) , it still tastes great. It is a very good cake for cutting into hearts because it is firm. I was worried about my cake falling apart when using a cookie cutter to make it into hearts but this recipe is great for cutting into shapes because it holds up so well! You could get rather creative if you wanted to. Stars could be fun.

The cake recipe comes from this site , which is my favorite recipe site.

Here is the recipe:
2 cups brown rice flour or sorghum flour
½ cup tapioca flour
¾ cup
unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum or guar gum
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 cup
prunes
½ cup virgin coconut oil
1 cup maple syrup
tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Take one large cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper.
In a
medium sized bowl place the brown rice flour, tapioca flour, cocoa powder,
baking soda, xanthan gum, and sea salt; mix together well with a fork or wire
whisk.

Place the prunes in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over
them. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Place the prunes and water into a
blender and add the coconut oil, maple syrup, water, apple cider vinegar, and
vanilla. Blend until very smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix
well, though be careful not to over mix.

Immediately pour batter onto the cookie sheet, using your spoon to spread. I did not fill the cookie sheet to the edges. It held it's shape without "melting." Bake for about 20 minutes.
© Alissa Segersten 2008

Okay, so now the fun part! Wait until your cake cools completely, then take a heart shaped cookie cutter, I'm not exactly sure how big mine is but maybe three inches? And cut as many hearts as you can out of it. What you do with the left over cake pieces is up to you :)

The frosting recipe also comes from Ali over at the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, with some small changes that I made. The trick is to use raw beet juice to make the frosting pink. Ali suggests using a garlic press but that did not work at all for me, so I grated some beet, which lets out ALOT of juice easily, and squeezed the grated beet into my frosting. Don't worry your frosting will not taste like beets! A small amount of juice turns the frosting pink quick.

2 cups organic coconut oil (Ali used palm shorting) (make sure it is room temp!)
1 cup arrowroot powder
1 cup maple syrup
4 teaspoons non-alcoholic
vanilla
2 to 4 teaspoons beet juice
(optional)

Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer, or a electric hand mixer, which is what I used. This frosting tastes excellent Btw! I was very happy with how it turned out as I have been looking for a good alternative to powered sugar.

Now frost your cute heart cake and enjoy.

Here is a picture of me and Leo at the Birthday Party where we enjoyed this cake. This is in Drayton Harbor, WA. We went out of town for valentines weekend and it was great to get some quiet time.

This post linked to Friday potluck

This post linked to Decidedly Healthy or Horridly Decadent Blog Hop

Peanut Butter

2010-10-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Peanut Butter.

We've all eaten it hundreds of times. Many of us grew up on it. It's a common staple food in America. It's cheap source of protein that requires no cooking and no refrigeration.

Peanut butter, is also, quite tasty. I miss peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I miss them because for the most part I try to avoid this food. I do eat it, but not regularly. I choose other nut butters such as almond or sunflower seed butter.

If you do choose to eat peanut butter it is very important to choose organic. Peanuts are often rotated with cotton crops to put the nitrates back in the soil that the cotton took out. Cotton crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides since we don't eat cotton. When the peanuts are planted the following year after cotton their oils pick up the pesticides making peanuts a heavily toxic food. In general foods that are oily absorb chemicals (which is way you should keep oils and oily foods in glass jars).

If you only ate one food that is organic it should be peanut butter. But peanuts have additional problems as well. Peanuts are easily subject to mold. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

"The peanut plant is susceptible to the mold Aspergillus flavus which produces carcinogenic substance called aflatoxin.^[10] Since it is impossible to completely remove every instance of aflatoxins, contamination of peanuts and peanut butter is monitored in many countries to ensure safe levels of this carcinogen. In 1990, a study showed that average American peanut butter contained an average of 5.7 parts per billion of aflatoxins, per the US Food and Drug Administration guidelines of 20 parts per billion"

Peanuts grown in the south are especially subject to this. Peanuts grown in drier climates have less issues with mold and aflatoxins.

Here is some info from wikipedia on aflatoxins:
"Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by many species of Aspergillus, a fungus, most notably Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxins are toxic and among the most carcinogenic substances known.^[1] After entering the body, aflatoxins may be metabolized by the liver to a reactive epoxide intermediate or be hydroxylated and become the less harmful aflatoxin."

Above are some great reasons not to eat peanuts. However, peanuts have been used as a food source for many years. What other benefits to peanuts offer?

According to Paul Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition

"Peanut: Warming thermal nature; sweet flavor; affects lungs and spleen-pancreas; lubricates the intestines; harmonizes the stomach. Used to increase the milk supply of nursing mothers (add roasted peanuts to rice or millet soup), to stop bleeding including hemophilia and blood in the urine (eat raw peanuts), to treat deafness (eat raw peanuts), and to lower blood pressure (drink tea of shells). Note: in the above remedies, use the whole peanut, including the thin brown skin. Caution: Peanuts can cause skin outbreaks. They also greatly slow the metabolic rate of the liver. Therefore they should be avoided by overweight, damp, sluggish, yeast-infected, or cancerous persons. If eaten moderately, peanuts can benefit the person with fast metabolism such as the thin, nervous person who digests food quickly"

This explains why we are so attracted to feeding peanut butter to children. It slows down their fast metabolism and acts as a nourishing food. But is peanut butter safe to feed to children? That is for you to decide on your own. I have yet to give any peanut butter to my 17 month old and if I can help it I would like to keep it from him for another year or so. Peanuts can also be highly allergenic, which is not surprising considering the amounts of toxins they can potentially hold.

I still eat peanut butter. But I do not eat it often. I keep my jar of peanut butter in the fridge to help it last a long time. Peanut butter, even organic peanut butter, is pretty affordable compared to other nut butters. Nut butters can be an expensive food but they are worth the extra money. If you buy them recognize them for being a strong food and use them wisely to help stretch your dollar. Even better you can also make your own nut butters with a food processor.

Make your own nut butter by placing nuts in a food processor and adding a bit of oil as needed to help it turn to butter. Coconut or palm oil is a good choice, but you can use any oil. Try to avoid soy oil and canola oil.

And last here is some more information about peanut butter from Nourishing Traditions

"The Peanut is a legume that is particularly rich in protein and fat. It is an excellent source of niacin, pantothenic acid and biotin as well as other B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, calcium and potassium. Peanuts are also rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes a healthy nervous system. As peanuts are often grown as a rotation crop with cotton, a heavily sprayed commodity, it is important to buy only organic peanuts and peanut butter. The carcinogenic mold aflatoxin that sometimes develops in peanuts, especially those grown in moist climates, is virtually neutralized by cooking or soaking. Peanuts should never be eaten raw. Buy freshly ground peanut butter made from roasted organic peanuts or make your own peanut butter."

Sally Fallon holds a more positive view of peanut butter than I do, saying it holds no problems if cooked and organic. What do you think about peanut butter? Does it have a place in every fridge? Do you think it's a safe food for children?

This post added to
Monday Mania!

and hearth and soul!

Gluten Free Birthday Dessert!

2010-09-27T01:06:00.000-07:00

Birthdays! Who doesn't love 'em? Well, today (technically yesterday) is my birthday, and since I love baking I made my own concoction.

The trouble was I couldn't decide what to make, and threw something together last minute. But it turned out! And it's a bit different, which is good.

So what did I make?

I made Maple Walnut Buttermilk cupcakes (gluten free) with Pumpkin Custard for frosting. The key to these is I have been on the lookout for frosting alternatives to avoid the powdered sugar. I have found a few but none yet that have been ideal. This is my favorite alternative thus far! Plus is perfect with the onset of fall. It's fairly simple, not too sugary, but rich and will compliment a cake well.

I can't give you the recipe for the cupcakes because I didn't write things down as I was putting them in the bowl. I could give estimates but that doesn't help most bakers.

However, I will give you the recipe for this awesome pumpkin custard topping. Note, you don't need cake for pumpkin custard, go ahead and eat it by itself.

Pumpkin Custard

One Pie pumpkin, baked.
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 cups heaving whipping cream
2 T whole cane sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon clove
1 T coconut oil (optional)

Blend or food process pumpkin with maple syrup, coconut oil, and spices.

Remove pumpkin and add to a large bowl.

In blender or food processor blend whip cream and whole cane sugar until thick, being careful not to over blend. This part is important! Note make sure to use good quality cream from pastured cows.

Add whip cream to bowl with pumpkin and fold in. Voila! You have a great dessert.

I also received a dessert book for my birthday, the pages are golden and it is huge and shiny. I feel overwhelmed looking at it with so many new recipes to try. Hopefully you will all see some of them soon on this blog, but modified, of course, to encompass my whole foods approach.

I hope you are all enjoying fall. It is a great time of year to start reflecting and making the journey inward as we prepare for the cold. If you haven't had the chance it's not too late to do some preserving. I am making lacto-fermented pickles as we speak. I also made some blackberry/Italian plum agar agar jam (recipe to be posted soon) to go in my freezer. I also plan on making garlic honey and infusing some oils and vinegars for later use. What do you do in your kitchen to prepare for the cold season ahead?

This post linked to Monday mania!

This post also linked to Hearth and Soul

This posted linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays

Corn Chowder

2010-09-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed yet it's harvest season! Perfect time for vegetable dishes of all types. Here is a great chowder using fresh corn, fresh potatoes and fresh peppers! This would turn out well later in the year when peppers are from Mexico and the corn is frozen, but if you get the chance try it now. Your body will appreciate it.

The first trick to this recipe is the corn. You may already know this but I just found out from Rebecca Wood's book The Splendid Grain that corn grated on a cheese grater (large holes) works fantastic for soups and other corn baking dishes. It is messy, however, but worth the extra effort. It is also easier to do this by cutting the ears of corn in half. Use all of the milk from the corn as well and if needed run a knife over the outside of the cob afterwards to pull off excess corn (Tip: wear an apron.) I also didn't have broth on hand for this dish, so if you have it replace the water and bouillon with vegetable or meat broth.

Julie's Corn Chowder
Serves 3

Four ears of corn (prepared according to directions above)
3 medium potatoes
1 large carrot
1/2 red bell pepper
1 jalapeno
1 small onion
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups water + 1 cube bouillon
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sage
1/2 tea allspice
sea salt to taste

Put corn in the soup pan after it is grated.

Dice onion and bell pepper and saute for a few minutes in butter (or coconut oil) until translucent. Add onions/peppers to soup pot. Add water and bouillon. Cut potato, carrots, and jalapeno and add to the soup (make sure to cut the jalapeno small). Add sage and all-spice. Cook for about 30 minutes on medium heat. Just before soup is done add the milk and salt to taste, and you have a great late summer soup. I ate this with buttermilk gluten free biscuits and apple cobbler. Note, this soup would still be great without the milk!

Fun fact about corn: Corn cannot pollinate itself and needs us in order to survive! Good thing we grow so much of it. The growth of corn is heavily subsidized by the government which is one of the main reasons high fructose corn syrup is so cheap and abundant in our society.

Here is a few pictures of my son Leo. We went on the Whatcom County Farm tour this last weekend. One picture is at Bellwood acres (apple farm) and another is at Cloud Mountain Farm, a nursery in Everson. I'm already excited to go again next year. The weather turned out great for an end of summer outing. Plus, it is important to get to know your farmer! I am lucky that I live in an area so abundant with fresh food. We have many farms here in whatcom county growing lots of fruit and vegetables as well as dairy farmers and animal farms. In the summer months I do my best to eat as local as possible. Since this is a new concept to me within the last few years I am getting better each year. Hopefully next year will be even better. My goal for next year is to make canning a new family tradition. I've made some freezer jam but no actual canning yet.

If you make the soup please leave a comment telling me how it turned out. Enjoy!

This post linked to hearth and soul http://amoderatelife.com/2010/09/welcome-to-to-the-hearth-n-soul-blog-hop-volume-14/

And Monday Mania

And Real Food Wednesdays!

Also, don't forget you can still sign up for the Real food for Rookies ecourse! Classes start 9/16/2010. Go here to register

Winner!

2010-09-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

And the winner of the Real Food For Rookies class is.... Jenn! Thank you all so much for entering and supporting this blog. Having readers makes writing worth while. For those of you who didn't win you can email me and get a coupn code for a discount off the class! fivemorebunnies@gmail.com. You have until 9/15 to sign up. Class starts 9/16/2010.

Nourishing Traditions Lacto Fermented Jam and class give away!

2010-09-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

I am giving away one class entry to Kelly The Kitchen Kop's Real Food for Rookies Class!

I am excited to give this class away.

Click here to register!
In Kelly's class, which is 12 weeks long. You will learn about healthy meat, dairy, and eggs. You will learn why is these foods are good and how they will help you maintain great health.
Kelly says it best here:

"It’s time to take control of your health. Doctors want us to be well, but they don’t always know what’s best for us. The USDA and pharmaceutical companies certainly don’t know what our bodies need. Our food supply has completely changed in the last few decades and we’ve never been more unhealthy. It’s time we rediscover the power of Real Food to nourish our bodies so we can live full, active, pain-free lives."

The food Kelly is telling you about is not scary strange health food. But real food. Food your great grandmother probably ate. This is the diet I eat, and I am thankful I found this way of life. I grew up eating boxed foods. Maybe people don't know what to cook beyond easy boxed dinners anymore. This class will teach you how to eat different, but also some EASY meals, and CHEAP meals as well.

Here is Kelly's 12 week class schedule!
1. READING LABELS TO AVOID THE JUNK.
2. CHOOSING WHICH FATS & OILS TO USE IN YOUR KITCHEN
3. CHOOSING WHICH SWEETENERS TO USE & BATCH BAKING TIPS TO SAVE TIME
4. CHOOSING THE RIGHT MEATS
5. CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRODUCE
6. CHOOSING THE RIGHT DAIRY
7. HEALTHY BREAKFAST IDEAS
8. HEALTHY LUNCHES, SNACKS AND ON-THE-GO FOODS
9. HEALTHY DINNERS & FAST FOOD ALTERNATIVES
10. SUPERFOODS PART 1
11. SUPERFOODS PART 2
12. BEYOND REAL FOOD

You can sign up for 120$ for the entire session, or four payments of 35 dollars. If you have health problems at ALL you are doing yourself a huge favor by taking this class. You can also win the class for you or a friend here! If you enter into the contest you also get a discount coupon off the enrollment fee.

Here is Kelly telling you about the class herself.

So here is how to enter!

1. Leave a comment below telling me you added yourself as a follower of my blog either through RSS feed or google friend connect.

2. Share this post on Facebook or twitter and leave a comment (separate from the first) letting me know you did this. (BONUS- you get two entries for doing this!)

3. Email four of your friends and let them know about the giveaway, and leave a comment telling me you did this.

If you do all of these things you can earn up to four entries! Winner will be chosen at Random. Contest ends Thursday September 9th a noon. Make sure to check back to see if you have won! If the winner doesn't contact me within 48 hours I will choose a new winner. Good luck! Prize value is $120!

Remember, by entering you also get a coupon for a discount off the class! Registration for the class ends 9/15. Classes start 9/16!

Note: I am an affiliate for this class and get a small commission that supports this blog if you sign up through me. Thank you! Click here to register for the class!

And here is the recipe for Lacto Fermented Jam you have been waiting for!

This is from Nourishing traditions. I was excited about this recipe as it's a way to make your jam much healthier. However, due to lacto fermenting things needing salt, it's salty. It's not really salty, but you can taste the salt. It's also not very sweet. It tastes much better on things. I tried some by itself and didn't like it, but I didn't give up and tried some on a thumb print cookie and thought that was pretty good. So you may or may not like this one depending on your tastes, however it's a great way to eat jam!

You need:

Four cups fresh berries. I used blackberries and blue berries. Don't use strawberries, however, they are too acidic.

1/4 cup rapadura (whole cane sugar)
1/4 cup whey
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons Pomona's universal pectin (available at health food stores)
2 teaspoons calcium water (comes with Pomona's pectin)

Add all ingredients together and mash with a wooden mallet or spoon until well mashed. You could try a food processor as well. I used a wooden spoon, but had an after thought that the food processor would have worked better.

Put into quart sized mason jar and close the lid tightly. Make sure there is at least one inch of room from the top of the jar. Leave out for 48 hours to ferment. Then it's done! Store in a cool place or your fridge for up to two months. Enjoy!

Recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

This posted linked to Monday Mania!

And Tuesday blog hop!

And Real Food Wednesday!

Tahini Thumb Print Cookies (Gluten Free)

2010-09-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

These cookies are high protein and gluten free. Which means they are great for snacks! I made them for my little toddler.

Kelly The Kitchen Kop, as many of you probably already know, is having a class real food for rookies, which you can learn more about here. Kelly's class is an affiliate for my blog so if you sign up you are supporting this blog! Thank you :)

Very soon I will be giving away one free class! So stay tuned if you are interested in taking it. I will also be giving away out a discount coupon for the class as well.

Kelly's class covers the basics of the real food movement. What is that? It means eating like your grandmother, as Michael Pollen put it. Or better yet your great grandmother! We live in a time with many new health problems. We live in a time where many people lack cooking skills, and in turn lack those skills to teach to their children. There is a lot of confusion about what diet is actually the "healthy" diet and what should we actually be eating. That knowledge used to be passed generation to generation but now that system is broken. Taking Kelly's class helps restore that knowledge as it is about food people ate traditionally. What kind of food is that? Meat, dairy, butter, and fermented foods, to name a few. Foods that you probably thought were bad for you. But meat and and dairy have potential to be very good for you if used correctly! The Real food for rookies class will show you how and WHY you need these foods to be healthy. You may think it's a bit odd to hear me promoting meat on my vegetarian blog! But I do think grass fed animals can play a very healthy part in a diet. But I also don't think you HAVE to have meat to be healthy.

I've been a much healthier happier person since finding and eating real foods. My moods have stabilized, my weight has stabilized, my skin is clearer, my hair is shiner. It's a pretty good way to diet. Basically, eat good whole foods = feel awesome!

And here is that cookie recipe you have been waiting for!

High Protein Tahini Gluten Free Cookies

1 3/4 cups Rice Flour
1/2 cup hemp flour
1/2 arrowroot flour (or tapioca)
1 t xantham gum
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t sea salt

Mix Dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix together:

1/2 cup good quality tahini
2 T coconut oil (or palm or butter)
1/2 cup rapadura (whole cane sugar)
1 EGG (if you don't eat eggs use 2 T flax seed in 1/4 C hot water)
1 T maple syrup (optional if you don't have it)
2 T applesauce
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon

Add wet and dry ingredients together. If you think the dough is a bit dry you can add more applesauce.

Roll into little balls and press down with your thumb. Bake for 12 minutes at 350. I left my cookies black for the most part, but you can fill them with jam, or an almond, or any other cookie fillings you have laying around! I recommend apricot jam. I filled a couple with habanero raspberry jam that was amazing, but too hot for my toddler!

This post linked to Real Food Wednesdays!

http://kellythekitchenkop.com/category/real-food-wednesdays

This post also linked to http://wearethatfamily.com/

Thanks for reading!

This post entered into Fight Back Fridays!

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/food_drink/home/

Blueberry Kudzu Pie

2010-08-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

This recipe is slightly adapted from the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen cook book.

First of all, what is Kudzu. Well, according to Rebecca Wood, one of my favorite food authors, Kudzu is a vine plant that grows like crazy. It was officially classified as a noxious weed in 1970. The part that is used is the chalk like root of the vine. It's expensive per pound, but light weight and you generally don't need a lot of it.

Kudzu has been used in Chinese medicine for 2000 years. It is best known for helping with intestinal disorders and alcoholism. It's also great for colds and hangovers.

Kudzu is a superior thickener. Use it to thicken sauces, soups, and deserts.

But lets not forget about the pie!

crust:

1 cup almonds
1 cup pecans
1/2 t Cinnamon
1/4 cardamom
1/4 ginger powder
1 cup medjool dates, pitted

Place nuts and spices in food processor, then add dates. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan.

Blueberry filling:

6 TBS kudzu dissolved in 2 TBS water
1 1/2 cups berry juice (i used apple)
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 TBS real maple syrup

dissolve kudzu in small sauce pan and meanwhile place juice, berries, and syrup in a blender and blend until smooth. Add to kudzu in sauce pan and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. It will be thicker, but will not set until cool. Poor into pie pan. Place into fridge to cool. It will take about two hours.

I used good quality whip cream for the topping as well as some blue berries and cherries. However, you can also make a cashew cream topping as the recipe suggests if you don't want to use dairy.

Cashew cream:

1 cup cashews
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 to 3 TBS water
2 tea vanilla

Blend in blender until smooth and creamy!

Enjoy your awesome pie! This is a great way to eat your blueberries.

Note that here is a place to buy kudzu

Also note that I didn't have enough nuts when making this recipe so I replaced some of the nuts when oatmeal. I also used hazelnuts instead of walnuts/pecans. It worked well.

This post linked to two for tuesdays!

Cabbage and Hijiki in Mustard Sauce (Healing With Whole Foods)

2010-08-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Cabbage and Hijiki

Cabbage and Hijiki are both very medicinal foods. I use to not like both of these foods, but now I think they are great. Seaweed can be hard to get into a western diet. Hijiki is a mild tasting seaweed and worth trying if you don't normally like seaweed. When cooked, its taste becomes even more mellow. Some healing properties of Hijiki according to "Healing With Whole Foods" By Paul Pitchford (a great food resource.)

Hijiki:

detoxifies the body, cooling to the body, benefits the thyroid, and moistens dryness. Also has ample amounts of calcium, iron and iodine (the latter usually strongly lacking from the western diet) B2 and niacin. Good for bones and teeth, helps normalize blood sugar, helps with weight loss, and supports hormone functions. It also makes your hair shiny. I ate a lot of seaweed before I had Leo and I noticed a significant increase in the quality of my hair which is partly why I am trying to get it back into my regular meals.

Cabbage: great for the digestive system and intestines. Cabbage has an ample amount of sulfur which acts to destroy parasites and purify the blood. I just planted Cabbage in my garden to have later this fall. This is my first fall/winter garden so we shall see if it does well. Cabbage is a good fall/winter plant.

The following recipe is adapted from Healing with Whole Foods. I changed it, but not because it wouldn't be good the way it was, but that I have a hard time following recipes.

1/2 head of green cabbage, chopped.

2 small carrots, shredded

1/8 cup of hijiki rinsed then soaked for 15 minutes (make sure you discard the soaking water!)

1 cake of baked tofu (optional) (mine was sweet chili flavored)

sesame oil for cooking (olive oil will work as well)

SAUCE:

2 T soy sauce/tamari or braggs

1/2 t mustard power

1/2 t fenugreek

1/4 cup milk, optional (I used Eden blend rice/soy milk, but almond milk would be great too)

Mix ingredients for sauce together in small bowl.

Heat pan with oil

Fry Cabbage and carrots and tofu if using for one or two minutes. Add Hijiki and fry for two or three minutes. Add sauces and continue to cook until cabbage looks shiny and done. Careful not to overcook. My cabbage turned out well cooked but I think this would be a bit better if it was slightly crispy still. But it is up to you.

So how does this interesting meal taste? Surprisingly good. Slightly salty and mellow flavored. I didn't notice much of a seaweed taste and cabbage has a mellow taste when cooked as well. It would be a good meal served with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

Note: Here is some more interesting info on Hijiki from Eden foods

This post linked to Monday Mania blog carnival and
Two for Tuesdays

Cherry Chutney (Nourishing traditions)

2010-07-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

Cherries!

Cherry season is almost over, but with this you can preserve some cherries for a few months. There are many wonderful ways to eat cherries. The best is the classic way to eat them plain as is. Recently cherries have been shown to act as a mild pain killer (similar to aspirin) on the body. But they need to be fresh to have this effect, and you need to eat a decent amount of them. Another great reason to eat your fruit!

This Chutney is a nourishing traditions recipe

You will need to whey for this recipe, which helps preserve the chutney and ferment it. This step is very important as the fermentation adds valuable enzymes which is half the point of making fermented things (the other half is to preserve it). Here is a how you make whey.

For the Chutney:

Four cups ripe cherries, pitted and quartered (I halved mine)

1/2 tea coriander seeds
1/2 tea whole cloves
grated rind and juice of one whole orange
1/4 cup whey
1/8 cup rapadura (whole cane sugar)
2 tea sea salt
1/2 cup filter water

Put the cherries in wide mouth mason jar. Mix other ingredients in another bowl, then pour over cherries. Make sure the cherries are two inches below the liquid. Add more water if needed. Put a lid on it then leave it at room temp for two days in order to ferment. Then move it to your fridge, where it will keep for about two months.

All done! So how does this taste? Different then I thought. I pictured sweeter. I made have added to much salt. The salt helps preserve the food as well. It has a strong spice/orange/salt taste. But it's good. However, chutney is usually used on meat dishes, and as a vegetarian I haven't decided what would go good with this dish! Maybe some wild rice? We shall see. Let me know if you have any ideas!

This post added to Real food wednesdays!

Blue GF Cornbread

2010-07-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

Blue Corn Gluten Free Corn Bread!

I love Cornbread. But for some reason the past dozen or so times I have made corn bread, it didn't rise well and came out a bit strange. It did, however, taste good. The problem was the recipe. So, I changed it! This may be the best corn bread I have made. I think the key is the xantham gum. I'm not a huge fan of using this, but, I see it is a good comprise now that I am GF.

If you don't have blue corn, you can use regular corn flour. But I like blue corn.

Recipe:

1 1/4 cups blue corn flour

1 1/4 cups rice flour

1/3 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 T sea salt

1T baking soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Mix dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center of dry mix or mix in a separate bowl:

1 egg.

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup water

1/3 melted coconut oil

3 T honey

Blend everything together. It should be a thick pancake like batter. Add more water if needed. I needed to add more water to mine so the amounts may be off slightly.

Bake at 350 for 20ish minutes. Enjoy!

Again, this is some of the best cornbread I have had. I hope your comes out as well!

I made my corn bread into a Sunday of sorts.

I cut it in half and filled with pink beans and cheese and topped it with more beans, salsa, and sour cream. It was like eating desert for dinner.

For those of you interested as well I made my own sour cream this past week! I turned out well. I recently found out that many companies use powdered milk in the products! This is not good. Powered milk is all kinds of bad. Whole milk is good, however. So I checked the ingredients on my Organic Valley sour cream I had been buying, and one of the ingredients is non fat milk. Non fat milk does not belong in cream, which leads me to believe it is powdered milk, because according to this post powdered milk can be added to products and they can just label it "milk." Part of the problem is that we have a milk surplus right now. But I was quite upset by this as I have been trying to avoid powdered milk. I used Nancy's organic milk products because they have great flavor, but at least they state on the package that they use powdered milk. So I stopped using them. Really I just need to make my own milk products. It is not hard, it's just different. My first sour cream turned out great and was really easy. I was quite sure that I was about to ruin a perfectly good quart of cream... I will be trying again a few more times and then posting the results.

For those who cannot wait take one tablespoon of butter milk an add it to a quart of cream in a very clean jar. Leave 20 to 24 hours. All done!

This post linked to two for tuesdays!

Sprouted Rice

2010-07-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

Sprouted Rice.

Now is a great time to make this. Why? Well because Rice can be tricky to spout and sprouting is very easy in the warm summer months! Rice is also great for cooling summer heat (according to Healing with Whole Foods). Sprouted food in general also cools the body plus it is easier to digest.

Pick any kind of brown rice. I'm pretty sure I used brown basmati rice, because that is my fav. But I have many kinds of rice on hand at all times. Short grain, long grain, jasmine, Black Rice, Red Volcano Rice, there are so many kinds!

Soak your rice over night, or for 6 to 8 hours.

Drain.

Rinse two to three times a day.

You can do this by leaving them in a colander or by using a mason jar with a cheese cloth on it or a handy sprouting lid

I use something very similar to this lid. It makes it way easier.

Drain your rice after Rinsing by putting it upside down in a dish rack or bowl.

Proper Draining is important!

Your rice should be ready in two to three days. It is done when there are small sprouts coming off of it. Don't let it go for too long or it may get moldy or go bad. You KNOW when it goes bad. It has a strong unpleasant smell. This can also happen from not rinsing.

As you can see in this picture I also soak my nuts before eating them. This makes them more digestible. Nuts are one of the more difficult foods to digest. Think of how much power is in one nut! Think of a walnut, then picture a walnut tree! Nuts have things in them to encourage them only to grow at the right time.. Soaking them starts the spouting process which releases all of that dormant energy. After I soak them over night I toast them on low in the oven to make them crunchy and store well. Soaked nuts go back quickly, which I have learned several times recently... But when you dehydrate them they last for many months in a cool place!

So what do you do with all of that rice? Well you could make rice milk by blending it with water.

I used it to make Spanish rice.

This is a pretty simple meal. The Rice was cooked with onions, garlic, and a canned of fire roasted tomatoes. I used canned black beans as a side. I generally prefer to cook my own beans, but I keep canned beans around as a quick "fast food" for when that doesn't happen.

Sprouted Rice also makes a great breakfast cereal when cooked with water or milk.

This post is part of two for tuesdays Blog Carnival!

http://girlichef.blogspot.com/2010/07/two-for-tuesdays-vol5.html

Gluten Free Lentil Burgers

2010-07-03T00:02:00.000-07:00

Lentil Burgers!

I've been on a gluten free diet lately. I was tested recently for celiac and thankfully it came out negative. But I still suspect some gluten intolerance. We shall see! The only way to figure it out is stay off the gluten and then reintroduce it. Some days I think I feel way better without it, some days I feel no difference. Most days, however, I miss bread. I made these and didn't use a bun due to avoiding gluten, however, they were rich enough that I didn't miss the bun. I think using bread may even take away from their flavor.

I used sprouted red lentils. But you can use any kind of lentils, sprouted or not. I recommend at least soaking them over night first. This makes them more digestible. You will also need a food processor for this project.

First, cook the lentils. Cook one cup lentils in about two cups of water. Bring lentils to a boil, cover, lower heat and simmer. Add some sea salt near the end of cooking time.

Cooked Lentils
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/8 cup grated carrot
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 quinoa (if you don't have this on hand it will work without it, I used some leftovers)
1 t cumin
1 t oregano
herbmare or sea salt to taste

Blend sunflower seeds in food processor until finely ground. Add all other ingredients except for rice flour. Blend well. Add half of rice flour, blend again. Test mixture for thickness. If it is not thick enough, add more rice flour. If you have ever made falafel, it should be a similar consistency. The finished product should be thick and heavy. Kind of like cookie dough. I am not sure how much rice flour I used as I don't like to use measurements, but should more, since I am writing a food blog...

Form into patties, and fry. I used a cast iron skillet, which worked great. I fried these in cold pressed sesame oil as well. Coconut oil would also work.

Top with your favorite toppings. I used avocado sauce, and barbecue sauce.

I made a coleslaw to go with them

But I will give that recipe another day!

2010-06-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

Curried Vegetables. This is a recipe from the Whole Life Nutrition Blog, which can be found here. It's great blog with many whole food and GF recipes. It is one of my favorite food blogs as well! And because of that, I felt like I should share my cooking experience from this recipe.

I followed the recipe (http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2010/06/fresh-vegetable-curry.html) for the most part, but used asparagus instead of green beans, which was awesome. However, I think asparagus just went out of season so that may not be as easy to repeat now. But in general this is a good filling not to hard to make meal. This is also a good way to get a large variety of vegetables into one meal. I tend to make curry a lot as one of my staple dinners, which is somewhat similar to this but with coconut milk. I think I was excited about this recipe because some days I feel like curry but the coconut milk seems heavy. I do love coconut milk though, and do consume quite a lot! I eat a lot of coconut oil too. Coconut oil is fantastic for you.

It's great for cooking, because it holds stable when heated to a medium temperature. Most oils go bad when heated! Which creates lots of free radicals in our bodies

Coconut oil has a high amount of lauric acid, another high source of lauric acid is breast milk. Lauric acid has a role of killing bad bacteria and viruses in our bodies.

Coconut oil is also beneficial for calcium absorption. There is a lot of info out there that we do not take on as much calcium from dairy products as once thought, so it is important to get calcium from other places as well. Coconut is a helpful source!

Coconut oil also helps with weight loss, digestion, increased energy, diabetes, skin care, healing cuts, and many more things! This web site has some good info on coconut oil as well.

Mung Beans

2010-06-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today I am sprouting Mung beans. These beans are one of the easiest beans to digest and don't cause a lot of digestive problems that other beans can. They are good in soups, but I think they taste best sprouted and eaten raw.

The easiest way to sprout most things is to use a wide mouth mason jar. I used a half a cup of mung beans, that when sprouted will fill up most of the jar! You can buy a sprouting lid, or you can use a cheese cloth and rubber band the top.

Soak beans over night. Drain. Rinse twice daily.

The key is good draining. This batch only took two days to sprout because it was so warm out! They usually are done in three days.

According to Chinese medicine mung beans pull out heavy metals and radiation in the body, another great reason to eat them! I plan on using this batch in some Pad Thai.

2010-06-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

Me and Leo had Teff for Breakfast.

Teff is a small high protein grain that is a stable food in Africa. It's great as a breakfast cereal as it compliments sweet flavors well. I have also used teff flour in baked goods but have yet to try it in a grain salad or stir fry. I ate it with maple syrup, goat milk, strawberries, and my first nectarine of the season! Leo is my 12 month old son. I often share breakfast with him because that leaves me one less meal to cook and less dishes to wash. Plus it's becoming a good habit. He seems to eat more breakfast than any other meal of the day. I'm introducing foods slowly to him in order to give his digestive health a good start and help prevent food allergies. Lots of simple foods right now! And teff is a great simple food that gives us a break from the daily oatmeal breakfast. Teff is a gluten free grain by the way. Teff is also the smallest grain in the world! Here is some additional health info on Teff:

"Because the grains of teff are so small, the bulk of the grain consists of the bran and germ. This makes teff nutrient dense as the bran and germ are the most nutritious parts of any grain. This grain has a very high calcium content, and contains high levels of phosphorous, iron, copper, aluminum, barium, and thiamin. It is considered to have an excellent amino acid composition, with lysine levels higher than wheat or barley. Teff is high in protein, carbohydrates, and fiber. It contains no gluten so it is appropriate for those with gluten intolerance." From http://chetday.com/teff.html

Recipe:

Boil 1 1/2 cups of water

Add 1/2 cup teff

turn to low. Stir once and awhile, but especially towards the end of cooking so it doesn't all stick to the bottom, because it will! It takes 15 to 20 minutes to cook. Top with your fav cereal toppings. It's great with maple syrup!

A blog a day

2010-05-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

I have a fascination with real food. Cooking it. Eating it. Sharing it. I want to share education about real food.

I have a passion for food that is organic, local, and sustainable.

Since I started cooking most of my food from scratch and eating real food I have felt so much better about myself and the world I live in. I have a firm belief that all health lies in food. I use to get sick all of the time. I have rarely gotten sick since I changed my diet.

Heart disease.. cancer.. diabetes.. these are all food related problems. But the best part of eating well is that I can eat a lot of good food and not feel guilty about what I eat.

So what am I cooking? Well today I made these:

http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/03/gluten-free-nut-free-toddler-snack.html

I have an 12 month old boy who cannot yet eat nuts or wheat. So these are great for him! Plus they are tasty, which helps.