Crunchy Quinoa Salad

My good friend Andrea inspired this recipe. I saw the recipe she posted yesterday here and improvised it to what I had and what I wanted the salad to be. It worked!

So I am soaking my brown rice now. I rinse my rice and then drain it and put it in my crockpot. Then I cover it with an extra 2 inches of boiling water and put the lid on. There it sits overnight. Not on, just soaking in what I tell myself is hot water, at least part of the time. In the morning I turn the crockpot on high and add some coconut milk to cook it in. You cook rice in a 1:2 ratio, rice to liquid so I follow that and it cooks in my crockpot, after soaking all night, on high for about 2 hours. It's yummy and supposed to be better for the digestive tract this way.

Ok, that being said.... I had cooked brown rice in my fridge so this recipe came about in less than a half hour. Sweet.

I cooked the Quinoa following the package directions but I used light coconut milk instead of water to cook it in. (light coconut milk is just coconut milk and water, no fake sugar or anything). While the Quinoa was cooking I chopped up the following:

1 green apple

2 stalks celery

1/4 fresh pineapple

I added this to the Quinoa when it was fluffy and stirred it right in with some fresh lemon juice. Then I added 1/3 cup raw sunflower and a handful of dried cherries (no added sugar. I dried them myself last summer and they were hard and brittle but the hot quinoa took care of that nicely.)

Last I added some leftover rice from my fridge. It was cold but when I mixed it in everything was about the same temperature.

Super Yummy! Refreshing and filling and (you know me) PROTEIN PACKED!

I didn't add any sweetener so it wasn't super sweet but the coconut milk added the flavor it needed and the lemon juice added some sour along with the green apples. The pineapple also sweetened but the unsalted raw seeds added the perfect crunch and texture. And I love celery, I think every salad deserves that crispness that celery brings. The cherries, more sweet but I didn't add a ton and this is how I got my little girl to taste it. Adelle loved this salad, she ate 3 helpings and that was worth the cherries for me ;) She will not be my picky eater forever!

pumpkin pancakes/pudding

Well this was a total experiment that turned out fantastic. I love it when that happens. My kids are usually my guinea pigs and this breakfast today was a favorite. There wasn't even enough when they all wanted more!

Last night we attempted to have oven roasted butternut squash (I bought it pre-cut in a package for convenience). BUT, it was totally pumpkin. It was stringy and we couldn't quite down it with dinner. Who wants to eat pumpkin when you are expecting to eat squash? Not us, at least not last night.

Of course I didn't throw it away. I put it in the fridge and this morning I threw it in my blender to make breakfast.

Here are the steps:

Preheat oven to 350

In the blender blend:

1 cup pumpkin (mine was fresh but you could used canned)

1/3 cup light coconut milk (it's part coconut milk, part water)

1 1/2 cups almond meal

vanilla (Emmett did this part and he got a little carried away, maybe thats why they were so good. I'm sure there was a good 2 Tbs. in there)

salt (just a dash)

cinnamon (to your liking)

1 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

1 Tbs. softened butter or coconut oil (I used butter today)

Blend it all up and pour.

So the reason I didn't fry these is because they don't flip well. I have failed at this in the past, they are too soft. So at first attempt this morning I poured the batter in circles on my pizza stone and baked for 12ish minutes. This worked great but then they were gone and who wants to wait 12 more minutes.

So my second attempt I poured the rest in a pie pan and baked it for 15ish minutes. Then I brought it out and served it up that way. Much better.

The consistency was like a thick, warm, pudding. It was so yummy. I put some coconut oil on top and let it melt and seep in there.

The kids loved this breakfast. We will be doing this again but I will skip the little pancakes and go straight for the pie pan. Yes!

No Sugar !

No dairy !

No flour !

Happy St. Patrick's Day

from some jolly, green, coconut lovers!

Candida

It never fails. People ask me questions about certain ailments they are fighting. People tell my symptoms they are suffering from that never go away. 99 % of the time it is because they are suffering from Candida and they don't even know it. I was suffering from Candida last year and I didn't even know it. Then I got sick and I couldn't get better. What was going on?????
CANDIDA!!
But I didn't have yeast infections! Isn't that what Candida means????
This was the argument in my head over and over until I took this test and realized that I was in bad shape. Not because I was super unhealthy but a little sugar here, a little stress there, a few pregnancies.... It all added up to a Candida overgrowth and since cleansing and overcoming it I feel like a new person.
Seriously!
So take the test here and I will be back with some pointers. If you need them, but I am pretty sure you will. I really think almost everyone I know is suffering from this in one way or another. You can hide from it for a while.... but not forever. At least not comfortably :)

the taste of love

Man! Do you see the little loaf of bread in this picture? That is the taste of love. Seriously! Ask anyone in my family. There were 2 loaves, now there is 1. Soon there will be none.

Are we a bread family? Nope. Do I think bread is healthy? Nope. Not usually. But I have been soaking my flour and the stuff is heavenly. That, and I am not feeling the bloated, gassy way that bread usually makes me feel.

So Wednesday night before bed I poured a ton of whole wheat flour into my Kitchenaid mixer. Probably at least 4 cups, maybe more. I topped that with a full 32oz of plain Kefir (unsweetened) and mixed until the flour was all moist. Then I left it. Thursday, left it some more. Tonight (Friday) I took the nice, digestible, fermented dough and made love. Ha. No pun intended :)

I mixed the dough with my dough hook and added 5 eggs, 1 Tbs. salt, 2 Tbs. Baking Powder, 2 Tbs. Vanilla, 2 Tbs. cinnamon, 1/2 cup raw honey, and 1 cube of melted butter. Then I prepared 2 loaf pans and poured the dough/batter into them evenly, half full. Baked it at 350 for 35 minutes. Let cool in pan. Take out of pan to finish cooling.
Devour!
My husband and kids seriously thought I fell off my rocker when I served them this bread with their dinner. Again, it is protein packed with all the kefir and eggs!

There was some dough left (after Emmett's fingers were licked clean) in the bowl and so I made some waffles to have in the freezer. Those will surely make a busy morning more delightful in the near future.

I'm into this soaking thing!

My college roomate, Jena, sent me this link that inspired this recipe. Thanks Jena! Download the FREE E-book and check it out!!
But hurry, this stuff takes days!!

Nothin' but the Nugget

In a blender/food processor blend together 2 cooked chicken breasts ( I actually used like 7 cooked chicken tenders) with 2 eggs and a dash of salt.

Blend until smooth, dough like (Adelle kept asking if she could eat the dough!!)

Spoon into small balls and roll in almond meal (just plain old almond meal). I used Bob's Red Mill.

Flatten into shapes (next time I will get fancy! Today I was in a hurry so I just flattened them into blobs.)

Bake in 400 oven for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!





My Friend, Erryn, shared this recipe with me and I thought it sounded too good to be true. Nope. Totally true. Totally easy. Totally yummy. Totally doing this again and again and again.

I thought it would be fun to get a bunch of mom's together and make up a bunch to throw in the freezer. I have been buying the organic chicken nuggets at the store and they are SO expensive. I still use organic chicken and it is still more expensive but I love how few ingredients are in these. Less is always more when it comes to ingredients in my book. If you are local and like the idea of getting together and mass producing these chicken nuggets let me know!

Next time I will add a bit more salt. They were a tad blah, but the kids of course dip them in ketchup so they didn't notice.

I love that they are pure protein! I am all about that. Just chicken, eggs, and almond meal. NO additives whatsoever. Perfection!

And since my little Adelle's favorite food is chicken nuggets..... we are in business!
(excuse the blue, my blogger has a mind of it's own lately ;)

Physical Health

Jess you inspired this post ;)

So Wednesday night is my night to exercise. I play basketball up at my church with a whole bunch of great ladies. It's such a sanity saver and I so look forward to Wednesday nights. 2 hours of running up and down a basketball court does the body so good!!

Jeff laughs that we now have jerseys. Not me, I feel official!

I am so glad I have this outlet. I have tried to start running again but it's so hard for me! There is always something going on, or something else that I give higher priority. This is something I am really trying to work on. I buddied up with a friend recently and we decided we would trade kids so that the other could run, and vice-versa. It's great when it happens, but again a kid gets sick, it snows... it seems like something always comes up to rain on my running parade.

So, here is to focusing more on physical health. I feel so great after a good sweat and I know my body and my mind appreciate it. I will do better. Thank you Wednesday night!

Brown Rice and Chicken/Vegetable Curry

This meal double timed it this week. I made it for our family and then I made it and brought it over to my mom and dad, who have been sick. I love serving my mom and dad. They are those people who are always doing nice things for others and I love when I can find something nice to do for them. They are both working full time so I thought a nice warm dinner to come home to would hit the spot.
I snuck over in the morning and plugged in both crock pots, and when they got home. Viola!

Super easy meal requires two crock pots.

In the first one, smaller one, mine is a 3 quart, I fill half full with brown rice. Then top with water to exceed rice 2 inches. Turn on low until done, about 3-4 hours. (or high for 2+ hours)

In the second crock pot (5 quart) put:
1 cup water
1 chicken bullion cube
2 frozen chicken breasts
1 onion, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbs. curry powder

Cook on low for 5ish hours. I am so bad about timing things. When it smells good, check it and go from there until it is done. Yum.
Pour the coconut curry over the rice to serve.
This is mild for curry. I would do more but I don't know how the kids would do so for now this is curry enough for them.

Enjoy!