What I've Learned After 8 Years of Eating Real Food

Do you ever feel like real food is just exhausting?  I'll admit, I sometimes go to the grocery store and just want to pile random stuff in my cart that makes me happy, that I used to eat when I was a child!  Or I scan the grocery ads and think, "Man, I sure wish all the sales weren't for processed food."

Living a real food life in a processed-food world takes serious mental adjustment.

Wouldn't you think that after 8 years of a real food lifestyle, I would've gotten used to all this by now?  Well, maybe not.

  My family has, for a long time, enjoyed the benefits of raw milk.  We have had raw milk farm shares (what's a farm share?) with a few different family farms here in Oregon, and right now, we're loyal patrons of Helios Farms, which is "out Yoncalla," (rural Oregon slang for "in the Yoncalla zip code, but so far out of town you'd barely guess it.")

I really respect Theo's dedication to his farm, his family-friendly philosophy, and his quest for constant improvement.

However, I also...you know, like to actually drink milk.  And give it to my kids.

But sometimes, that doesn't happen as often as I would like.  So many little things can make small farm food production unpredictable: the sow goes on a rampage, and the farmers are up all night hunting it down, or the cow gets into the garden and everything tastes like tomatoes!

And the next thing I know, my 4-year-old is in the kitchen, tugging on my pant leg and crying because he can't have milk with his dinner!

This is the trade-off when you start pursuing real food:  You gain your health.  But you lose the convenience and predictability of the American food system that is based on speed and uniformity.

Is it a bad thing?

I don't know.  I think it's more of a hard transition, away from food being an afterthought.  Once upon a time, I could go through my whole day barely thinking about where my meal would come from.  No dinner plan?  No problem, we'll go through the drive through!  No lunch plan?  No biggie, I'll grab a granola bar from the vending machine.

But when, in the history of the world, has food been an afterthought?  Most people on earth even now spend much more of their time, income, and intention on feeding their families than the average American.

Here are a few of the main changes I've had to make in my thinking as we've adopted a slow-food lifestyle:

1. It's ok for food to make up a significant portion of our budget.

We are not trying to win an award for lowest grocery budget here.  Not that that's a bad goal!  We've been there!  Super-low prices have been very important to us in years past, but as our goals and priorities and opportunities have changed, so has our budget.  We are nourishing tiny bodies, bodies that are growing so fast, and literally laying down the foundation for a lifetime of health.  And did you know that Americans spend much less on food now than we used to?  My grocery budget gets put in perspective when I look at that graph and realize how much more my grandparents spent on food, comparatively!

I've had to become ok with food being more important to me than other things I could spend my money on.  Will we buy all new school clothes this year?  Nope.  Will the kids wear hand-me-downs and use their same tired backpacks from last year?  Yep.  Will they be able to participate in every activity they'd love to do?  Probably not.  But some things that used to be important to me have become more peripheral.  And good food has not.

2. It's ok for food to take up a significant part of my day.  

Making yogurt, sprouting beans, chopping veg, shaking the milk before pouring it into cups, washing so.many.dishes, these little things add up to make food prep more of a time commitment than it used to be.  I have to schedule time into my day to prep, eat, wash, repeat, and it can sometimes interfere with the other things I would like to be doing instead.  But it's worth it, both for the nutritional value of the food, and for the values it instills in my children and myself: patience as they wait for lunch to bake, diligence as they help me in the kitchen, and (let's be real here) independence when the control freak part of me is fed up with kids in the kitchen and tells them, "Just go play!  I need to finish in the kitchen by myself!"

3. It's ok for food to be an adventure.

Sometimes we have milk to drink.  Sometimes we don't.  You can't set your watch by it.  But isn't that what an adventure is?

Has eating real food been a big mental adjustment for you?  What are the hardest things about the change?  

Controlling Asthma Naturally Update - What Works for Me

When we moved from Oregon to Colorado 2 years ago, one of the first things I noticed was that my asthma started acting up.  Switching to Real Food years ago had gotten it under control for about 3 years without prescription meds, but when we got here, the humidity, pollen, whatever, made it really flare up again.

Especially during the spring and fall, even if I didn't have "classic" allergy symptoms like runny nose or itchy eyes, I would have shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and all the old asthma symptoms returned with a vengeance!

So, as I shared 2 years ago, I've been exploring different natural options to control my asthma without prescription medications.  

Here is what works for me:

1. A foundation of healthy fats. 
   
   They keep me full and drastically reduce blood-sugar swings.  By healthy, I mean fats from real foods, like butter, coconut oil, lard, olive oil, fatty fish.  I absolutely avoid ALL cheap, processed oils like canola, soy, vegetable, sunflower, etc.  These oils come from factories, not food!



2. Plenty of (safe) starches and carbs. 
   
   For me, this means potatoes, white rice, sweet potatoes, starchy/carby vegetables, and occasional non-gluten grains.  If I don't eat them, I don't feel full, and I have low energy.  But I make sure I eat them with plenty of fat, or else they do spike my blood sugar.
    
3. Avoiding (most) gluten.
   
   Some people do fine with a little wheat.  I generally don't, and many other asthmatics are in the same boat.  If I eat it, I have asthma symptoms, period.  I still occasionally do, like in social settings where it would be rude or awkward to refuse (after all, it doesn't make me hurt...just wheeze), or on a special occasion, like my kid's birthday cake (give me a break, those bean cakes on Pinterest are NOT good enough to give to guests).  I have noticed that good sourdough white bread bothers me the least of all wheat products, so if we do have wheat, we try to have it in that form.
4. Avoiding pasteurized dairy.  
   
   We still drink raw milk and eat yogurt, cheese, kefir, and sour cream with no problems.  Also, I have no trouble at all with pasteurized heavy whipping cream - I drink it in my tea every morning.  But milk from the store is out, as are ice cream, hot cocoa mixes, etc.  If I do have to eat these things, or just really, really need a little scoop of ice cream to make me feel human, I try to eat it with some raw milk or fermented dairy to help it digest more easily.  For me, this is almost as big a trigger as gluten.
    
5. Plenty of Fat Soluble Vitamins. 
   
   We take Cod Liver Oil somewhat regularly (a molecularly distilled type with synthetic Vitamins A and D added), eat high-vitamin foods like egg yolks, liver and oily fish, and I've started taking a D3 supplement.  I know some experts are against supplementing, but, honestly, I just can't feed my kids sardines at every meal when we go to a play date and they are offered PB&J's.  We already eat weird food, I don't want them to have complexes.  So we supplement a little bit to help cover those dietary gaps that come from being socially graceful.  For me, I've noticed a pretty big improvement in my asthma since adding in the Vitamin D supplement.
    
6. Good Bacteria.  
   
   I try pretty hard to eat something fermented every day, whether that is yogurt or kombucha or homemade fermented veggies or Bubbie's pickles, or whatever.  Also, we spend a TON of time outside playing in the dirt, working in the garden, petting the filthy dog even after he swims in the muddy pond, mucking the chicken coop, and we are NOT fastidious about washing our hands.  My 1-year-old has eaten more dirt than I thought possible this summer.  Permaculture has reminded me (sorry, I had to throw in at least one reference to it), that the microbial health of the soil is what supports the health of plants, and in turn, of bugs and larger animals that eat those plants.  The closer we are to our healthy soil, eating produce from it and exposing ourselves directly to it, I think the healthier we will be.
7. Careful Exercise.
   
   When I was younger and had time to jog, I noticed that regular running helped my asthma stay under control.  Basically, if my cardiovascular health was good, then "normal" life exercise didn't make me breath hard, so didn't bother me.  However, going for an hour run everyday made me tired and really made one of my hips hurt.  So my exercise now consists of working hard around the yard, doing jobs around the house, hefting kids/feed bags/tools around, and doing body-weight exercise like squats, push-ups, core, and yoga poses.  And if I feel like sprinting after my kids, dashing up to the garage to grab a shovel, or flying down a particularly tempting hill, I go for it.  When I listen to my body and run when it feels like running, I get some great sprints in, I have no trouble with my asthma, plus I enjoy every minute!  I feel invigorated and think, "I love sprinting places!" instead of feeling like a dead dog and thinking "Jogging is necessary torture."  Mark Sisson's 5 Essential Movements and Primal Blueprint Fitness E-book gave me a good start, although I take it more easy than he suggests, since I'm still nursing and notice a milk shortage when I overdo it.
    
8. Natural Remedies.
   
   I will preface this by saying, I still use my albuterol (rescue inhaler) occasionally, sometimes in the thick of allergy season when working in the garden or if I have a bad cold.  Also, if I have eaten dairy or wheat, I tend to be wheezy by evening.  Breathing is important, not something to mess around with, and you don't want to end up in the emergency room or morgue, so don't hesitate to take action if you (or your kid!) are about to asphyxiate!  However, when I'm just feeling a little wheezy or tight in my lungs, I often try some natural remedies instead of reaching for the inhaler.  A hot shower with plenty of steam helps relax my lungs.  Also, if I have annoying wheezing and can't sleep, but it's not bad enough to really cause distress, often a cup of hot tea helps ease the wheezing enough for me to drift off.  Along with that, eating cold foods sometimes makes wheezing worse, so I try to avoid that if I'm having a rough time of it.  I have heard everything from garlic to ginger to turmeric to lemon juice can help ease symptoms, but if you are eating tons of trigger foods and filling your body with inflammation-causing crud, a spoonful of turmeric is not an adequate long-term solution!  These remedies work best if you are already doing the hard work of changing your diet and improving your health.

A Little More Background About How I Got Here:

I considered putting myself on the GAPS diet, which is a gut-healing regimen that basically (as I understand it) tries to repair micro-holes in the large intestine by only allowing foods which digest in the small intestine.  This means most starchy foods are eliminated, like grains, uncultured/pasteurized dairy, most beans, all refined sugar.  And probiotics are gradually introduced, so that good bacteria can replace bad bacteria in the gut, further healing any damage.

There are many things I love about the idea of the GAPS diet:

• It is all real food.  Made in your own kitchen.  
• It emphasizes healthy fats (saturated from pastured animals).
• It uses traditional cooking methods, like long simmering of bones to make nutrient-rich broth.
• It eliminates many of the "problem foods" that I had noticed were aggravating to my asthma, like pasteurized milk and wheat.

However, since the GAPS diet has been so widely used in the past few years, I started finding many testimonials from people who had tried it and had issues with it.  According to these people, it really is amazing at doing what it claims - improving those "Leak Gut Syndrome" symptoms.  But it can also lead to fatigue, thyroid issues, and low body temperatures for some people.  In particular, one of my favorite bloggers, Sarah at Nourished and Nurtured, recorded her family's GAPS journey in detail.  She eventually decided that if she could do it over again, she would not have started the GAPS diet with her family, partly because of the problems it caused, and partly because it is just so much work for what it accomplishes.  

So, my next question was, "If not GAPS, then what?"  I gradually stumbled across Matt Stone and Chris Kresser and their "revolutionary" advice to listen to your body, experiment, and see what works for you and what your body is really craving (from more carbs to more sleep to less exercise!).  I also have really enjoyed the Perfect Health Diet, which is kind of a Paleo spin-off (like Chris Kresser) that encourages eating plenty of "safe starches."

So, that's the run-down of what has helped me, every day, to control my asthma naturally, without prescription medicine.  I still keep a rescue inhaler handy, but I have been able to avoid using preventative prescription medicines for 5 years now and counting!

Note: I'm not a doctor or nutritionist or anything licensed.  Please don't interpret my personal experiences to be medical advice, and check with your doctor before discontinuing any medicine, blah blah blah legal jargon.

Do you know anyone who suffers from asthma?  Have they had any luck trying to control it with natural methods?  What has been helpful for them?  Leave a comment and share your experiences and thoughts!

Posted at Small Footprint Friday and Fat Tuesday

Homemade Hash Browns in 20 Minutes

I am so excited with how popular my old post "How to Make Homemade Frozen Hashbrowns" has been!  Wow - Pinterest is an amazing thing for bloggers!

Here is the original post, in case you missed it the first time around:

But what if you haven't planned way ahead to have frozen hashbrowns in the freezer, ready to go?

I want to make sure everyone has a chance to enjoy the crispy, safe-starchy goodness of real hash browns, so here is how I prepare hash brown potatoes when I have NOT planned ahead!  This method takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, so it's perfect for dinner when I've forgotten to plan a side dish.

Ingredients:
Whole raw potatoes (3 average potatoes fit well in my medium skillet)
Butter (at least 2 Tbsp.)
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
1. Shred potatoes.  I use a box grater, but a food processor is even quicker.
2. Put shredded potatoes in a clean kitchen towel and firmly squeeze out any extra moisture into the sink.  This is like wringing out a washcloth - you have to squeeze the potatoes pretty hard.
3. Melt 1 Tbsp. of butter in the skillet over medium heat.
4. Place potatoes in skillet and cover tightly with lid.
5. Allow potatoes to steam for about 10 minutes with the lid on (check after 5 to make sure they're not browning too fast on the bottom)
6. Carefully flip potatoes (I usually divide them into a few sections in the pan to flip them one half at a time)  As you flip, put the rest of the butter in the bottom of the pan.
7. Cook potatoes an additional 5-10 minutes, with the lid OFF the pan.  Potatoes should not steam, but should get cooked and crispy on the bottom.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from pan as soon as bottom of hash browns reach desired crispness.  Serve immediately.

Do you eat potatoes regularly?  What's your favorite way to prepare them?  Do you have any quick go-to sides that you can whip up in a pinch?  Leave a comment and share your ideas!

Posted at Fat Tuesday

Does Location Determine Eating Habits?

I am absolutely blown away by how productive my little raised bed garden is so far.  Since the kids helped (over)plant tons of greens, yesterday it was my mission to clear out a little of the bounty.  You know, so the other plants could actually get a little sunlight!  I headed to the garden, pulled a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and left with the garden looking barely touched.  

And I harvested a huge basket of green abundance:

You may have heard me mention before (like 10 or 15 times...) how easy it is to grow things here in Oregon.  If you will, compare the above basket of overflowing greens with the puny radishes below:  

Those radishes, plus about 4 little lettuce leaves, were my harvest in Colorado.  All of it.  For a whole year.  They represented hours of building, hauling soil, and watering.  And I was so, so proud of them!  My harvest the year before consisted of three carrots about as large as my pinky.

So what made the difference?  Yes, I learned a lot in the intervening years about soil, deer, water, etc.  But for me, the biggest difference was just location.  Even knowing all that I know today, the thought of trying to garden at 9000 ft. in the Rockies if we ever move back fills me with absolute dread.  To use my best Old English, I have seen the goodness of this land, and I am loth to depart from it.

The amazing fertility of this area makes it so much easier to find local food to make up a high quality diet.  Grass-fed cows roam every hillside, wild salmon teem in the river (and peoples' freezers), half my friends keep chickens for eggs, and I can get pastured poultry from the little town where we go to the library.  It is just SO easy to eat well here, and it was SO much harder in the area where we used to live.  

When we were first getting started in our real food journey and discovering things like grass-fed meats, raw milk, and locally grown produce, I was often so overwhelmed and discouraged by how hard it was for me to find the things I wanted to be able to eat!  Raw milk meant a 2-hour drive every week, the only grass-fed poultry I could find was 150 miles away, and even our local farmer's market had to import produce and pastured meat from over a hundred miles away.  There was no local cheese, no local butter, no delicious local bacon to be had in grocery stores.  I don't think I ever saw a cow laying down contentedly on a hillside in my area...the few I saw were always roaming voraciously, trying to find enough growing stuff to stay alive! 

I remember reading other peoples' experiences of buying all their quality animal products in one place at a cute little local farm, or finding amazing produce at roadside stands in the summer, and I felt like the odds were stacked against me because of my location!  I even once, in frustration, asked a blogger how I could be "expected" to eat anything but grocery store meat without spending a fortune, and was basically told, "thousands of families are making it work, surely you can too, if you just try a little harder."  

Okay, I may be writing this to let off long-suppressed frustration (hey, you are the one still reading this, don't blame me...), but also to remind others in the real food community that just because they live in a place where real food is easy to come by, does not mean it is just as easy for everyone!  

When you get all wrapped up in and sold on this real food thing, it's sometimes easy to think, "Once you know that it'll make you feel so much better, why in the world wouldn't you eat well?  What could be holding you back?"  My frustrated voice is calling from 2 years ago, saying, "Keep encouraging me!  Don't judge me!  It's frickin' hard to find good food where I live!"

If you are frustrated by the local food situation where you are, I so understand, and I encourage you to keep seeking, keep asking store owners to stock good things, and keep instigating positive change in your community!  Or just move to Oregon.  

What is the food environment like where you live?  Are you ever frustrated because you can't access the things you'd like to be able to eat?  Or are there a lot of like-minded real food eaters in your community?  What can people stuck in relative "food deserts" do to find what they need?

Posted at Fight Back Friday, Real Food Wednesday,  Fat Tuesday

Should Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and Mars Sponsor the American Dietetic Association?

Aren't we supposed to trust Registered Dietitians?  There's no way nutrition or dietetic associations would be swayed by the influence of "Big Food" industry giants, is there?

I may have a good answer for that question, and it involves (surprise!) money.

Eat Drink Politics (which is author Michele Simon's website dedicated to "Countering Industry Harm to Improve Public Health,") recently released a very thorough report about the corporate sponsors of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the new name for the American Dietetic Association).

The report's main point is that notorious industry giants (like Coca Cola, McDonald's, and Nestle) are influencing the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (or AND), mainly through direct advertising at Academy conventions and "continuing education" courses sponsored by particular companies.

I strongly encourage you to at least browse through the summary of the report (see the tab "Executive Summary" on the Eat Drink Politics' home page).  Although it appears that many Registered Dietitians (RD's) do not approve of some of the corporate sponsors, these huge companies are still in a position to drastically influence the opinions of the dietitians who attend AND events.

Some of the more disturbing items in the report:

• Coca Cola and other companies can pay to conduct "continuing education" seminars at the AND's annual conference, where they, among other things, defend the safety of sugar and aspartame consumption for children and claim that the federal guidelines for school lunches are really too restrictive (what?!).
• At the AND's annual conference, the expo hall (you know, the big room where you can wander around and sample things from the corporate sponsors) was dominated by "big food" companies, while tiny booths with real food representatives were squeezed into corners and along the edges.
• Since these companies are sponsors of the AND, they can put its logo on their products, along with proud claims about how they are partnering with the AND to help support healthy lifestyles.  I'm sure you can picture that kind of label on a box of cereal - this report paints a vivid picture of what that corporate sponsorship actually looks like from the perspective of RD's.

Now, dietitians are intelligent grown-ups who are free to make their own choices about whether McDonald's is really a "healthy choice" for children.  But this type of ridiculously blatant corporate manipulation helps explain the dire health of our nation today.  Dietitians receiving "continuing education" from Coca Cola?  And we wonder why we can't beat childhood obesity?

Fortunately, the report lays out some very clear suggestions for the AND, which, if followed, could drastically improve the credibility of the organization.  In the meantime, please share this information!  In ethical health and nutrition, as in so many things, the first step toward recovery is admitting that you have a problem.

What do you think about "Big Food"'s influence on dietetics and nutrition?  Do you think removal of these corporate sponsors might possibly urge the AND toward accepting more Traditional Food/Real Food values?

Posted at Simple Lives Thursday, Healthy 2day Wednesday, Your Green Resource, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Thank Your Body Thursday, Fresh Foods Wednesday, WFMW, Fight Back Friday, Small Footprint Fridays

6 Reasons to Eat Fat

Goodbye, 80's and 90's.  The low-fat craze is officially over (but leggings are back?).  Here are my 6 favorite reasons to eat healthy, life-giving fats!

source: flickr

1.  Fat is Delicious.

   Let's face the facts here.  Anything cooked in butter is better.  Anything containing bacon is better.  Nearly   anything topped with a cream-based sauce is better.  Cooking with fat is one of the best ways in the world to make your food taste outrageously AMAZING!!  Just ask Julia Child.

  I have a theory that more Americans would cook their own food (and really enjoy it!) if they would cook with plenty of fat.  It really makes a world of difference in the taste, and it helps alleviate the desire to eat out all the time.  And eating more home-cooked meals means you can control what kind of fat you're eating, rather than getting whatever the restaurant cooks decided to use (often whatever is cheapest).  

2. Fat Helps Even Out "Sugar Highs" and Lows

   Since I have gotten really intentional about making fat a consistent part of my diet, I have noticed that I rarely have huge energy "crashes" like I used to.  You know that kind of queasy, ravenous feeling you sometimes get after drinking juice or eating sugary candy?  It is mysteriously absent when plenty of fat is consumed as well.  This is because the fat helps the contents of your stomach (including that sugary food) digest a bit more slowly, so it's not flooding your bloodstream with glucose quite as quickly.

3. Fat Helps You Feel Fuller Longer

   You hear a ton these days about fiber and protein, and how they magically keep you full for a long time so you can stick to your super healthy diet.  Okay, I am not denying that.  But fat is the most underrated stomach-filler of all time.  Haven't you ever complained about "that meal that is just sitting like a brick in my stomach...I feel like I'll never need to eat again?"  Chances are, it was a fatty meal.  So we all know intuitively that fat helps us feel full and satisfied, but we are so pumped full of fat-phobia that we don't take advantage of that knowledge.  Instead, we put ourselves on a high-carb insulin roller-coaster, wondering why we are always hungry an hour after eating!  Just add some healthy fat to what you eat, and you'll feel fuller much longer.

4.  Fat Helps Your Body Absorb Vitamins

   Not all vitamins.  Just the fat-soluble ones.  That would be good ole' A, D, E, and K.  Fat-soluble means these 4 vitamins don't dissolve in water, only in fat.  So having adequate fat in your diet helps your body get enough of 'em.  And, interestingly enough, it is these very vitamins that are seriously lacking in modern diets, especially when compared to diets of healthy traditional people of the past.  

   As luck would have it (just kidding), foods that contain fat also tend to contain these vitamins.  Think real dairy (skim doesn't actually qualify as dairy in my book), egg yolks, and animal products like liver.  So all those dietary advisers who say "it really is good to put dressing on your salad to help you absorb its nutrients" are absolutely right.  Now if only they would remind everyone to put butter on their cooked veggies...  

5. Fat is Not the Devil

   Okay, let me amend that statement... real fat, fat created as nature intended, is not the devil.  I'm not advocating Crisco and soybean oil here (or anything else dissolved, bleached, and deodorized in a factory).  But coconut oil, butter and full-fat dairy (preferably from pastured animals), lard, tallow and schmaltz (with the same pastured condition), high quality olive oil, have gotten some seriously undeserved criticism from the low-fat crowd.  

   Yes, fats do contain 9 calories per gram, instead of 4, like carbs and protein do.  But do they make you fat? Do they clog up your arteries?  Do they give you heart attacks, acne, and heartburn?  The evidence against healthy fats, my friends, is seriously lacking. 

   Even "mainstream" nutritionists (read: not fringe "Natural Health" nuts like myself) are now admitting that some fats are good for you (like the "Mediterranean Diet" kind - Extra Virgin Olive Oil seems to be above reproach in all nutritional circles), and recent research is finally vindicating high fat dairy, as well.  Cholesterol is being increasingly understood as a critical component of a healthy body, and even the "artery clogging" saturated fats in coconut oil and animal products are gaining popular acceptance.  

6. Healthy Traditional Diets Are Fatty

  People have been eating fat for millenia.  It has worked out pretty darn well thus far.  Oh, until the last 50 years or so.  Strange how as America's consumption of butter, whole dairy, and other real, natural fats have gone down, our rates of obesity, heart attack, stroke, and other "lifestyle diseases" have skyrocketed.        

What's your favorite fatty food?  Do you generally try to eat "low fat," or avoid any specific types of fat?  Leave a comment below and share your views on the fat debate!

Posted at Monday Mania, Gluten Free Monday, Hearth and Soul, Tasty Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and WFMW

Homemade Freezer Hashbrowns

If you want to put some hash browns in the freezer to have on hand, this is the recipe for you!  But if you don't have time for the freezer part and you want homemade hash browns right now, then check out my 20 Minute Real Hash Browns recipe!

If you've been reading a while, you may know that our family is limiting how many (and which) grains we eat regularly.  My husband is trying to lose some more weight (he's lost 25 pounds so far!!), and I'm trying to alleviate my seasonal allergies, which aggravate my asthma.  The kids are just along for the ride.

Since neither the kids nor I are trying to lose weight, we are being careful to eat plenty of carbs (we probably still eat waaay less than the average American, since our diets are based more around fats).  Also, I find that we all stay fuller longer, and have more energy, when we are intentional about keeping some starchy foods in our diets.  We are avoiding wheat for now (except occasional sprouted bread), and only eating corn, oats, and other cereal grains occasionally.  But rice, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes have increasingly become staples in our diet (hallelujah, they're cheap, too!).

One of our favorite ways to start the morning is with over-medium eggs and hash brown potatoes.  This is a good substitute for my husband's old favorite of eggs and toast, and the potatoes help us all stay full and energized (just eggs, and I am ready to crash by 10 am).

So we have two choices: Frozen Prepared Hash Browns or Homemade Hash Browns

• Frozen from the store: These are quick, easy, and fool-proof.  They are also much more expensive than a sack-o-potatoes, and they all seem to include soybean oil or dextrose (sugar).  Blech.
• Homemade Hash Browns: Making them from raw potatoes is too time consuming for busy mornings (Shred, steam, brown potatoes), and they sometimes turn out soggy, sometimes burn if you look away for 3 seconds.  But they're so cheap, and I can cook them in glorious butter.

Don't worry, there's a third alternative:

Homemade Frozen Hash Browns!  These require less hands-on time overall, are quick and easy to make in the morning, and always come out nice and crispy.  

Ingredients:

Potatoes.  Lots.

Directions:

1. Scrub potatoes.
2. Bake potatoes at around 350 F for 45 minutes (way less hands-on time here than hovering over the stove while potatoes steam).
3. Grate potatoes (waaaay easier than grating raw potatoes, by the way)
4. Freeze potatoes (I like to freeze them on baking sheets, then break them up and put them in freezer bags so they don't clump together)

Ready to Eat Directions:

1. Heat pan and melt copious amounts of butter in bottom.
2. When butter is melted, add layer of frozen hash browns, and salt and pepper as desired.  Cook 4-5 minutes, or until hash browns are browned on bottom.  Flip and cook until other side browns.  Since potatoes are pre-cooked, you can cook them to your desired brownness, and they will still be "done."

Note: Once the potatoes are in the oven, they bake themselves.  So you can, you know, leave the room and do something else.  Glorious.

Grating cooked potatoes is pretty easy, especially if you use a food processor shredder attachment.  Mine is broken.

If you enjoyed this "Real Convenience Food" post, check out my Frozen Chicken Broth and Frozen Chicken Nuggets.  Simple to make, and so convenient to have on hand!

Posted at Monday Mania, Gluten Free Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Fat Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Fight Back Friday and Simple Lives Thursday

Southwest Chicken Salad in Avocado Bowls (Grain-free)

My poor husband hates soup.

So I am trying to make him all kinds of delicious, grain-free (or at least grain-restricted; we still eat rice sometimes) dinners...without breaking the bank.  Let's face it, large chunks of good quality meat cost money.  Soups are fantastic ways to stretch meat into satisfying, cost-effective dinners, without resorting to using grains as cheap fillers.  But soups generally only rate about a 6 on my husband's 1 to 10 scale of dinner deliciousness, and that is when they are accompanied by something light, fluffy, and wheaty.

Enter the meat salad.  It can pass itself off as a large serving of meat, but it has so many vegetables in it that it's much more economical.  Also, the delicious dressing can contain enough fat to make the meal filling and satisfying.  So hungry husband feels like he is getting a ton of hearty meat, and I know that I have stretched that meat within an inch of its life.

An added bonus here: chicken salad is a fantastic use for leftover meat from a whole roast chicken.  Or for less-desirable chicken parts.  In this case, I had a bunch of chicken thighs in the freezer (they are so much cheaper than chicken breasts that I can buy organic for about the same cost as a conventional chicken breast), but the hubster is not a huge fan of thigh meat on the bone, either.  When it's cooked and chunked or shredded, however, it ceases to be chicken thigh and becomes just...chicken.

Southwest Chicken Salad in Avocado Bowls

Ingredients:

Oil for cooking chicken

1/2 to 1 lb chicken, cut into chunks

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp paprika

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1 egg yolk

1/4 c. olive oil (or mayo-making oil of your choice)

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 bell peppers, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

2 large avocados

sour cream (optional)

fresh cilantro (optional)

Instructions:

1. Cook chicken in oil of choice (I used refined coconut) until it is no longer pink.  Add spices (onion powder through paprika), and salt and pepper.  
2. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, whisk egg yolk, mustard, apple cider vinegar very thoroughly.  Then, starting with one drop at a time and gradually adding, whisk in olive oil very thoroughly.  This sauce mixture should become frothy and creamy-looking.  When chicken is done, whisk the oil and spices from the cooking pan into the mixture as well.
3. Stir cooked chicken, bell pepper, and tomato into sauce mixture.  Adjust salt/pepper as necessary.  Perhaps make the chicken salad a bit saltier than you'd usually like, since it will be eaten with unseasoned avocado.
4. Slice avocados in half, remove pits, and spoon chicken salad into them.  (If desired, avocados may be sliced up or removed from their skins before serving.  We enjoyed just heaping the salad on top and eating with a spoon.)
5. Garnish with sour cream and fresh cilantro, if desired.

What are your favorite dollar-stretching meals?  What is your favorite way to save a little money and still eat the way you want to?

Posted at Pennywise Platter, Simple Lives Thursday, Fat Tuesday, WFMW, Fight Back Friday, Food on Fridays and Monday Mania, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, 

Because a Joyful Heart is Good Medicine

Melissa the Dyno-mom - one of my favorite bloggers - and her (10!) children compiled a hierarchy of meat deliciousness the other day, and it was just too funny not to share.

Can You Guess...

Which eggs came from the store, and which came from our backyard chickens?

Hint: the ones from the store are huge and pale...

Did you know that eggs, when they are laid, are protected by "bloom," which dries and adheres to the eggshell until it is washed or rubbed off?  The bloom helps seal up the microscopic pores in the eggshell, protecting the contents from dust, dirt, bacteria, and other things that you probably don't want in your omelette.  It also helps keep the egg fresh for extended lengths of time, even at room temperature, by blocking oxygen from entering the egg.  Grocery store eggs have their bloom washed off.

Did you know that eggs from pastured chickens (who eat plenty of green, growing grass), can have 400% more omega-3 fatty acids than store-bought eggs, 40% more Vitamin A, and 30% more Vitamin E?

Sources: Comparison of Egg Nutrition Values, Mother Earth News

University of Illinois Department of Animal Sciences, "What is Egg Shell Quality and How to Preserve It"

Posted at Barn Hop and Monday Mania

Grain-free Beef/Veggie Potpie

I've been working on broadening our grain-free horizons lately by adapting conventional recipes into forms that are a little more suitable for our dietary preferences.  This is the latest - all the comforting, hot deliciousness, with none of the grains.  The crust on top uses a grain-free biscuit dough that I recently discovered -  it's surprisingly light and fluffy!

Ingredients:

Filling:

1 lb ground beef (or meat of your choice - I used ground elk)

3 large carrots, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

3 tomatoes, chopped, or 1 can diced tomatoes

1 Tbsp. butter/oil (I used coconut oil)

Crust (biscuit dough):

1/3 c. coconut flour

4 eggs

1/3 c. butter, melted

1/2 t. salt

1 T garlic powder

1/2 c. shredded cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F.
2. In large skillet, melt butter/oil.  Cook ground beef with carrots and onion until beef is browned and onions are tender.  Add garlic and tomatoes, then simmer on low heat and stir for about 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
3. Meanwhile, combine all crust ingredients except shredded cheese.  Stir very, very well until all the coconut flour lumps are incorporated.  You can't over-stir this, since it doesn't have any gluten in it.
4. Carefully transfer meat/veggie mixture to oven-safe casserole dish (or if you cooked it in an oven-safe skillet that has enough room in it for biscuit dough,  you can just use that).
5. Arrange crust dough on top of meat mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until biscuit dough is cooked through and golden brown.  
6. If desired, sprinkle with cheese and brown under broiler for about a minute, until cheese melts.
7. Let cool for 5 minutes, then serve.

This recipe got pretty rave reviews from my family.  I wasn't sure how they would accept the non-grain crust on top, but that was their favorite part!  It really does have a nice, butter taste and fairly fluffy texture (even better topped with cheese).

Posted at Monday Mania, Hearth and Soul, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, WFMW, and Fat Tuesday

Gluten-free Chicken Gravy

We love a good roast chicken.  This week, we had our first ever real, live, happy, pastured chicken (well, it wasn't happy anymore...it was dinner.  But it had a heck of a good life) from a farmer down the road!

We have been eating only organic chicken for over a year, only occasionally (because those poor organic birds are still not necessarily pastured or well-raised), and only whole birds (waaay cheaper, plus then we get all the bones, and we're not supporting the illogical "boneless skinless breast" phenomenon).

So this particular chicken was a bit of a treasure, and I intended to use every bit of it.  We ate up the chicken, popped the carcass in the crock pot with some water to make broth, and drained the drippings into a pan, which went in the fridge.

A few days later, those gorgeous drippings were calling my name at lunch time.  They looked like they would be perfect as a gravy to enjoy over rice noodles!

With some nice, soft noodles and ooey-gooey sauce, I was even able to pass this off to the kids as a mac 'n' cheese substitute.  It was grudgingly accepted (I thought it was delicious)

Chicken Gravy

Ingredients:
1/2 c to 1 c chicken drippings
2 tsp. rice flour (I think arrowroot starch would work too as a thickener)
1 c. cream, milk, or chicken stock
additional salt/pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat chicken drippings in small saucepan
2. Thoroughly stir in rice flour (a whisk helps get the lumps out).
3. When flour is thoroughly incorporated, slowly add cream, milk, or chicken stock, stirring well, until gravy reaches desired consistency.  Remove from heat.

Do you have any "rubber chicken" ideas that stretch a single cut of meat into more meals than one?  What are your favorite leftover ideas?

Posted at Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday and Pennywise Platter

Check out the Podcast at GNOWGFLINS!

I just finished listening to GNOWFGLIN's Wardeh Harmon's first ever podcast on traditional food and preparedness.  It was excellent.

If you're at all interested in putting food by or storing a little bit in case of unexpected events (you know, power outage, financial difficulty, zombie apocalypse), and you want your stored foods to be traditional and nutrient-dense, Wardeh has fantastic ideas to get you moving in the right direction.

Homemade Baconnaise

So, we've established that homemade mayonnaise is doable and so worth it, right?

Here's my next step: an extra burst of flavor from our old favorite...oh yes, bacon.

This is apparently a favorite in the Paleo community, so I thought I should probably jump on the bandwagon, for my husband's sake.

It is super easy, with only a few ingredients, and since I save our bacon fat, it was nearly free for us.  If you are a little short on bacon fat, I bet the bacon-y flavor would still shine through if you used, say, half a cup of bacon fat, and half a cup of olive oil.

Homemade Baconnaise

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks*
1 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. melted bacon fat (or tallow if you want to make beef-aise, duck fat if you want to make duck-aise)

Instructions:

1. In medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, mustard, and ACV or lemon juice very thoroughly.
2. Very slowly, add melted fat to the egg yolk mixture, whisking quickly the whole time.  I mean super slowly, like start out with just a drop or two at a time. 
3. Watch to make sure the oil is incorporating itself into the mixture, and that it is starting to get thick and creamy.  If it is super-runny, and the oil is just pooling on top, your baconnaise has "split," or failed to emulsify.  You can save it by adding it (again, very slowly) to an additional egg yolk.

Note 1: This is a "sometimes food" in our house, not because of the saturated fat or cholesterol (which we are generally fans of), but because bacon from less-than-ideal sources (even if it's uncured, like mine) is pretty high in omega-6's compared to omega-3's.  Most of us could use more omega-3's in comparison to our omega-6's, so unless we have a really great source of bacon (like pastured/fed fantastic stuff), we probably don't want to be inhaling the stuff every morning.  Also, I've read that pigs are notoriously bad at converting PUFA's (less stable polyunsaturated fatty acids) from their food into saturated fat (the stable kind we like) in their bodies, also making bacon a good choice for, well, sometimes.

*Note 2: These are raw egg yolks.  If you aren't comfortable with that, or you don't know where your eggs came from/don't trust their source, use pasteurized in-shell eggs.  Washing the egg before cracking it is supposed to help prevent contamination from any salmonella on the shell, however, I guess something like 1 in 30,000 eggs may have salmonella inside it.  The chances of the average egg-eater encountering such an egg is one in every 84 years, to put that in perspective.  But do note that all the official food safety people advise against eating raw or undercooked eggs.

Do you have a favorite homemade mayo or sauce recipe?  What are your feeling on eating raw/undercooked eggs?


Posted at Pennywise Platter

Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

My family is a whole lot happier eating real food when it tastes, well, like what they are used to!

Unfortunately, so many of our favorite "signature flavor" sauces and condiments are full of preservatives, rancid oils, or frightening chemicals, making them off-limits for a real-food family.

Not to worry!  Almost every classic condiment can be easily made in your own kitchen.  

I just have to share my own favorite sauce, good old Ranch Dressing.  This recipe tastes as much as I can make it taste like H*dden Valley, but without the MSG and other fake food ingredients.  

Taking an idea from the name brand variety, I love to make a ready-to-use dry mix with all the right spices.  Then I can just pick how I want to use the dressing and mix accordingly.  Note: the flavors blend together and taste best if the dressing, dip, or spread is mixed up the night before and kept in the fridge overnight before use.

For example, for salad dressing (thin and pourable), I stir the dry mix into 1 cup sour cream (I'd love to see how homemade Greek yogurt or kefir cream would work for this, too!), 1 cup mayonnaise (homemade if possible), and 2 cups buttermilk (I also use plain raw milk sometimes)

For veggie dip (thicker), I love to mix with just 1 quart of sour cream or yogurt.

For a thick spread (like to put on crackers or veggie pizza), mix with 1 c. mayonnaise, 1 c. sour cream, and 16 oz. softened cream cheese.

Ingredients (to be mixed with 1 qt. wet ingredients):

2 Tbsps. dry parsley flakes

1 Tbsp. dry onion powder

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dry dill 

1/4 tsp. sweetener of choice (like Rapadura)

Another note: Depending on your choice of liquid ingredients, if you add some homemade whey to the liquid ingredients, mix well, and set the mixture on the counter overnight before refrigerating, the friendly bacteria in the whey will help keep the Ranch Dressing good in the fridge much longer.  Otherwise, if you use homemade mayonnaise in your dressing, with no whey, remember that homemade mayo is only good for a day or two, even in the fridge!

What are your family's favorite condiments?  Do you ever make them from scratch?

Posted at Simple Lives Thursday, Your Green Resource and Pennywise Platter

How I Cured My Migraines with Real Food

How's that for a gripping title?

It's a true story.  I can't guarantee that everyone who reads it would have the same outcome that I did, but I'm telling you what really worked for me.

I suffered from migraines for 11 years.  They started in 5th grade, and continued until the year I got married, my senior year of college.

I generally got between 1 and 3 migraines each month, and they all followed the same "classic" pattern:  I would have visual disturbances (like I couldn't see out of half of one eye, or I saw bright squiggly lines all over my field of vision) for about an hour, then I'd be in pretty horrid pain for 3 to 5 hours, then I'd usually vomit several times, and finally, I'd have a "migraine hangover," or mild-ish pain, on one side of my head, for the next day or two.

If I had 2 migraines a month (fairly typical), that meant about 4 days of being mostly out-of-commission, missing school or college classes (or work), fun times with friends, etc.  In high school, when my youth group went to Washington D.C., after I narrowly avoided throwing up in the White House (sure wish I had now - that would make a great story), I spent the rest of the day suffering back at our lodging instead of touring the city with my friends.  My freshman year of university, I had the huge joy of taking my first ever college finals while only being able to see out of one eye, and with pain quickly building in the back of my head.  But my favorite (ha ha) memory is of sitting on stage with my high school orchestra at a highly-anticipated all-city concert, being thankful that I had my music mostly memorized, because I couldn't see it, and praying that I wouldn't vomit into my clarinet.

I started planning ahead when I got that familiar fuzzy-vision feeling, making sure I only ate things that would not be too horrible to throw up later.  It was something of a pathetic science.

If I averaged 4 migraine-suffering days a month, for 11 years, that's 528 days of my life, basically down the drain.  About a year and a half.

My doctor was a very kind and conscientious man who sympathized with my pain, gave me a list of "migraine triggers" to try to avoid, and prescribed me a prescription drug to take when a migraine began.  The medication didn't help at all (and I usually threw it up after a few hours anyway... it was really gross tasting), and the list of "triggers" I was supposed to avoid included cheese, wine (hmm, scratch that one off, I was in 6th grade), chocolate, stress, lack of sleep, travel, and changes in weather, like high winds.  Wow.

So as long as I didn't eat two of my favorite things, travel, worry ever, attend slumber parties with friends, or experience wind storms, I just might be okay?  Sounds like a real treat for a kid.  Oh, and none of it helped.

So, why am I sitting here, looking back and laughing about these rather nasty experiences, instead of hating my life 3 days a month while hanging my head over the toilet in searing pain?

I stopped consuming MSG and Aspartame.

That's it.

I know, you've probably heard plenty of people talk about Aspartame giving mice cancer, or MSG somehow mysteriously poisoning the nation's Chinese food.  You may be on board with these theories, or you may think they are a load of hooey.

I am just telling you what worked.

After one particularly horrid migraine, before which I had consumed copious quantities of Crystal Light (hey, it's healthy, it has no sugar, right?), I started wondering.  I had also started reading a bit at that point, some classics like The Maker's Diet and Never Be Sick Again, and I was just starting to wonder if maybe my body was trying to tell me something.

It has been a journey since that time, first just avoiding MSG and Aspartame (and all the sneaky MSG variations), then learning all about good fats, and gradually evolving my food philosophy to where it is today.  But one thing remained consistent.

If I ate anything with MSG or Aspartame in it, I got a migraine.  I was like a walking MSG-detector.  The migraines were not as severe after a while, and I started carrying crystalized ginger everywhere with me to help alleviate the symptoms (it was much more effective than that old prescription, plus I figured if it didn't work, it would taste better on the way back up.  It worked.)

I haven't had a migraine in almost 3 years.

If you get migraines, or if you know anyone else who does, I am not saying all migraines are the same, or that my solution will work for you.

But guess what?

The whole 11 years I was suffering, my doctor never once, NEVER EVEN ONCE, suggested eliminating MSG or Aspartame from my diet.  Avoiding travel and high winds?  Uh...I'd much rather just stop eating the seasoning in Top Ramen, thanks.

If you or someone you know is suffering, isn't it at least worth a try?

What are your experiences with your food choices impacting health in dramatic ways?  Do you have a story like mine or know someone who does?  Has conventional medicine ever let you down?

Posted at Fat Tuesday and  WFMW

What I've Learned About Mayonnaise

Oh, grocery store mayonnaise.  It tastes fine, it is SO easy, and it is SO cheap.  That's the trifecta of grocery store value, isn't it?

Why in the good Lord's name would I ever want to make (from scratch!) something that cheap, easy, and decent-tasting?

I'll tell you why.

The ingredient list.  Horror!

I have looked and looked (and looked), and I just can't find any store-bought mayo (even from the "natural food" aisle) that meets my criteria:

No canola oil

No soybean oil

No mysterious "vegetable" oil

No preservatives

No "flavors" added

There is a very good reason I can't find a product that doesn't contain those first three oils: they are "shelf-stable" (read: rancid, but deodorized and bleached so they will last forever without anyone suspecting), and basically ubiquitous on the American grocery store shelves.

Even the seemingly improved olive oil-type mayonnaise uses canola/soybean/vegetable oil to achieve that shelf-stability and mild flavor that people expect.  And with the recent expose on not-so-virgin olive oil this last year, who knows what that mayonnaise really contains, anyway?

But for me (and maybe for you?), having those old familiar sauces and condiments that were a part of my childhood made eating other real food seem a little less scary, a little more...doable.  There is just something about the taste of normal mayo from a glass jar that makes my frightening and strange homemade soaked or sprouted sourdough taste like a comfort food.

Also, who learns to make and understand emulsions when they are growing up in the kitchen?  Not I.  Ants On A Log?  Yes.  Mysterious oil-and-water-come-together-at-last?  No.

These are all the reasons I was afraid to make homemade mayonnaise.  Oh, and did I mention that I once went all out, gung ho, with my lightly-flavored olive oil, mustard, whey, egg yolks, and trusty, splattered copy of Nourishing Traditions, and started to make mayonnaise, only to have it "split" when I added the oil too fast?  Unfortunately, I didn't know the damage could be repaired, so I just tossed everything in the trash and put that on my list of "Things I really don't want to try again."

We carried on, eating grocery store mayo and trying not to think about it.

But, oh, that ingredient list.

Well, the other day, I just had enough.

I am pleased to announce to the world that I have conquered mayonnaise.  Feel free to applaud loudly and extol my grit and determination.  

I have to thank my husband (again) for motivating me in this department.  He is doing so well with his new Paleo eating, and I so wanted him to have decent sauces to put on his food.  My sour cream ranch was just missing something, so I decided I'd better make mayonnaise to put in it.

It was only a little scary!

And I learned:

• You can make a mayonnaise-type emulsion with any kind of oil you like, as long as you have an egg or egg yolk to emulsify it.  The egg yolk contains lecithin, which is the secret ingredient that makes the oil and other liquids blend together.
• Don't make your mayo in the blender if you have to take the lid all the way off to drizzle the oil in.  It will make a mess.  It will get all over your face and hair if you peer in.  I am still cleaning mayo off my kitchen cabinets.
• If you hand-whisk your mayo in a bowl, it will be easier to see whether the oil is emulsifying, rather than guessing and hoping while it whirs in said blender.
• If your mayonnaise "splits," or doesn't emulsify, DON'T throw it out.  All that good oil floating on top can be re-mixed with a new egg or egg yolk for a second try.

Have you ever made your own homemade mayonnaise?  How did it go?  Do you have any ideas or advice to share?

Posted at Hearth and Soul and Fat Tuesday

Confessions of a Struggling Real Food-lover

The other day when I was sharing about how my husband has gone Paleo, a friend of mine commented that sometimes when I post about our real-food ambitions or accomplishments, she feels bad that she isn't as interested in healthy eating as I am.  She has a blog too (that's how we've kept in touch since we moved far, far away...), and she is so incredibly transparent and sincere on when she writes - it's one of my favorite things about reading her blog.

I think sometimes in the Real Food world, it's easy to read about other peoples' lives and feel like we're not doing everything right, or we're not doing enough.

Like, what if my organic produce came from a state away, instead of my backyard?  Failure!

What if my backyard hens eat food that comes in a bag, instead of all grass, worms, and hand-chopped slugs?  Failure!

What if I let my kid take normal (i.e. white flour) cupcakes to the park to celebrate his birthday with friends, instead of baking up some sort of horrible healthy monstrosity (my last attempt, soaked-wheat muffins from Nourishing Traditions, were so dry that the other kids wouldn't touch them)?  What if I actually let my kids eat said normal cupcakes so they wouldn't feel like social pariahs?  Failure!

What if I was so sick and out-of-it on Sunday that when my mom called and offered to bring us a pizza for dinner, I said, "Absolutely, thank you so, so much" instead of "Never let that white-flour blasphemy reach my ears again, Mother!"   Failure!

The thing is, when you're trying to feed your kids all nourishing food in a not-very-nourishing food environment, there are bound to be some not-so-perfect moments.  But who blogs about all the things they screw up?  Not me!  I tell you all about my progress, ideals, and successes.

Maybe there are a few of you who are either so motivated, so dedicated, or so experienced that you really never eat any unhealthy crud.  I applaud you.  Maybe someday, I will be like you.  But for now, I will do what I can and try not to agonize over the rest.  I'm not saying we're not striving to improve, or making progress.  But I need to remember to compare myself to myself (like, am I doing better than I was this time last year?), instead of comparing myself with others (like, would so-and-so-the-cool-food-blogger eat this?).

And, by the way, I did peel the cheese and pepperoni off the pizza my mom brought and give the crust to the chickens (poor girls)...

I know we all try our best to eat real food, support real agriculture, and change the food landscape in whatever ways we can.  How often do you compromise on your food?  What percentage of your diet do you feel proud of, and what part do you wish you could change?  Is there anything that takes precedence over real food?

Posted at Simple Lives Thursday and Fat Tuesday

The Elusive Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Maker

I learned something new today, and on a cream-and-honey induced high, I want to share it with you.

Without pictures.

Because mine looked really bad, but tasted really good.

If you want to see pictures of this amazing Blackberry Terrine, visit the original at Things My Belly Likes.

I have to admit, I was skeptical that a dessert found on the Food Renegade blog could be this spectacularly non-healthy-tasting (and well-received by my family).  But it was.

Anyway, here's the new thing I learned today: a Terrine (which in this case was basically frozen whipped cream and whipped egg yolks), is part of a genre of French cuisine called Forcemeat.  Which is meat (or something else delicious)...forced into a dish.  Sounds pretty horrible, and honestly, the Wikipedia picture of Forcemeat looks rather frightening.

But I am delighted to learn that there is an actual genre for meat squashed into a pan.  Apparently, pate, which I hope will be my next adventurous culinary creation, is in the Forcemeat category.

My brain loves categorizing things, so just in case yours does too, you can tuck pates and delicious blackberry-flavored machine-less ice creams into the same category.

How to Start Making Kombucha

Step 1: Make friends with teenage staff member whose mom cooks real food.
Step 2: Mention that we like real food too.
Step 3: Gasp when said "Healthy Mom" picks her son up for the weekend, and she suddenly presents me with an extra kombucha Scoby.
Step 4: Decide not to kill Scoby.
Step 5: Rationalize that if "Healthy Mom" can keep kombucha alive along with her 7 kids, I can probably manage it with just 3.
Step 6: Start brewing.

That's why we now have a gallon jar of kombucha on the kitchen counter.  I will admit, I was afraid of kombucha.  But it turns out, it's super easy, even easier than the water kefir I used to make (until I killed it when we moved to Oregon).

So, here's how easy it really is to make kombucha:

1. Boil 3 quarts of water, then add 1 cup of sugar to the hot water.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  
2. Add 4 teabags, and let steep.  
3. Let sugar/tea mixture cool to room temperature (you can just leave the tea bags in until everything is cooled)
4. Pour sugar/tea mixture into gallon jar, add 2 cups of kombucha from a previous batch, and plunk the old scoby into the jar.
5. Cover with towel, secure with rubber band, and ignore for a week!  That's my favorite part...

These instructions assume you've gotten a scoby from someone else, along with a little bit of kombucha to add to your first batch.  If you aren't fortunate enough to have a scoby foisted upon you by a friend, you can also order a dehydrated one online from Cultures for Health or a plethora of other online vendors.

Posted at Monday Mania and Fat Tuesday