Pasta with Cilantro-Peanut Pesto

I got this recipe with my Harvest Bin two weeks ago and my family loved it so I thought I would share it.

Also, if you haven't heard of Dandelion Organic Delivery it's really awesome. Fresh, local, organic, produce at your door. Plus, they always include a recipe list of recipes that use the ingredients in your bin. It's brilliant. I like it. You can check it out here and... if you want to sign up tell them I referred you!

Pasta with Cilantro-Peanut Pesto
This recipe was originally from Everyday Food, June 2012
Total Time 20 minutes Yield 4

1 bunch cilantro, 1/4 cup leaves reserved for serving
1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled
3/4 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest, plus 2 Tablespoons lime juice (I don't have a zester so I skipped the zest)
1 teaspoon light brown sugar (I used pure maple syrup)
1/3 cup roasted peanuts (I used 1/3 cup Adams chunky peanut butter)
2-3 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

Noodles of your choice (I used rice noodles)

In a food processor combine cilantro, garlic, ginger, olive and sesame oils, red-pepper flakes, lime juice, maple syrup and peanut butter. Pulse until a coarse paste forms. Add soy sauce and pulse until combined. In a large bowl toss pasta with pesto. Roughly chop remaining peanuts to garnish (I rarely garnish)

It was yummy. I ate it hot and then cold the next day with sauteed shrimp. The cilantro was so fresh tasting and I love a good peanut sauce!!

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Detox Broccoli Salad

Day 3 of the detox diet and going strong!!

Tonight for dinner I made this salad to go with our Salmon.

It was really yummy.

Here is my recipe

In a medium size bowl combine:

4 cups of broccoli florets and broccoli stalk chopped up

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

handful of roasted almonds

Dressing:

1/4 cup Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

juice from 1 lemon

1 clove of garlic, minced

mix that all together and pour into the bowl. Toss it all up and let it sit for a while before eating it.

So yummy!

Horray for green food!

sippin' stock

So homemade stock is something that my mom taught me how to make, by simply doing it. I don't remember ever having a lesson but I watched her do it growing up multiple times and eventually caught on.

I typically make my own stock with bones from chicken, roasts... because of how cheap and easy it is to make.

What I am just now learning is how incredibly healthy it is for you!!

As part of the yearly cleanse my husband and I are doing now, they recommend sipping stock. So that is what we are doing and although it's not cold out, the stock is so yummy and soothing going down the throat. I love it.

The health benefits I have learned about stock/broth include but are not limited too:

Stock is loaded with calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus  from the bones. Make sure and add some apple cider vinegar to your water when you boil the bones so that the minerals can leach out.

Bone broth contains glucosamine and chondroiton which are used to prevent joint pain. Pretty sure this should help my joints in preparing for the 5k run we are in this weekend.

Bone broth contains gelatin which aids in digestion, helps your nails and hair grow, also improves joint health, and helps our body use the protein we are eating.

The more I read the more intrigued I am by this simple food. I have read that it improves immunity and has many other beneficial health factors.

The recipe I am using is copywrited but google stock and try to make some. Then you can sip along with me.

crock pot goodness

So I took a package of this organic ground chicken and threw it in the crockpot with about an inch of water and a half an onion, chopped. I turned the crockpot on low and let it sit for about 5 hours. Then I added two sweet potatoes, skin on, chopped into cubes, one can of drained black beans, and 5 tomatoes that I blended in my ninja. I let that cook for about 2 more hours. I seasoned it with a little cumin and chili powder and garlic powder and wa-la.

We ate it over wild rice for dinner Monday. It was delicious and easy/cheap.

I get the organic chicken at Fred Meyer. It's frozen and in the healthy food section of the store.

Oatmeal Sundaes and Kale

Not together, silly!!

This morning was oatmeal Sundaes! My kids got excited when I told them what we were having. Anything with the word Sundae at the end just sounds exciting and delicious, right.

I soaked my Gluten Free Oats overnight. Just a pot full of the oats, covered in water, with a Tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar. Overnight it sat. You can read more about soaking oats here if you want.

This morning I drained the water and put in fresh. Then I cooked the oatmeal as usual.

After the oatmeal was cooked I put a scoop in each of the kids bowls. 

Then they got to take it from there.

I had chopped up

almonds

walnuts

bananas

blueberries

and kefir if they wanted to mix some of that in as well, which of course they did!

They anxiously filled their bowls with whatever they wanted.

They totally loved it!!!

And yesterday I made these again for the first time this season. I had some extra Kale from my harvest bin and it needed to be used. The C cousin loved the kale chips as much as B-Rax.

Time to Spring Clean your Body!!

Remember when I talked about Candida and how I think everyone in our nation is suffering from it's ill effects? Remember how I promised I was going to go into more detail on it and teach you how to self diagnose it and how to treat it?  Remember that I never did that?

Well.....

Come on over and cleanse out your system with me!! My good friend, Brenda Wollenberg, is a licensed Holistic Nutritionist. She does this for her career and she is amazing. She is coming to my house to do a  5 hour group session/detox program and you really don't want to miss it. This woman changed my life. She is smart and healthy and she has a wealth of knowledge on women's bodies.

So join us!

Saturday, April 20th. 12-5:00pm

Email me or comment if you want more information or to reserve yourself a spot. The program is a 2 week cleanse and then adapting your lifestyle to healthier choices after that. The cost is $150 which is a killer savings compared to what she charges her clients. It includes a real food vitamin supplement and  If you chose to participate you will fill out paperwork before hand so that Brenda can adapt the plan to your personal body type/needs. This is a worthwhile opportunity for anyone seeking better health, increased energy, weight loss,...

Check out Brenda's website here!

Here is an expert from the website about the program you will be participating in:

For those looking for a short and sweet gentle dietary detoxification or weight loss kick start, In Balance also offers a four week 4Real program. With a base price of $325.00 (HST included) and the addition of our cost-effective all-in-one whole food multi vitamin/mineral, antioxidant and cellular communication supplement ($75.00 including HST), for a total of $100.00/wk, participants get four weeks of nutritionist support, 4 - 75 minute long weekly group sessions, a supervised and personalized food and lifestyle plan and an In Balance 4Real Guide to help keep you focused and on track. Because of the short duration of this program In Balance provides more time per session and supplies an additional amount of daily whole food nutritional supplementation to support you through cleanse and any needed weight loss kick start.

lemon quinoa muffins

These were a hit with my Sunday School Class today. They are gluten-free, dairy-free, and are sweetened with pure maple syrup. They were yummy!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Mix together 1/3 cup softened butter (butter isn't considered dairy, it's considered a fat)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 eggs
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Once that is all creamed together add
1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats (I soak mine overnight first)

In a separate bowl combine
3/4 cup quinoa flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 Tbs. chia seeds
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt

Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix together. Add grated zest from one lemon.

Spray mini muffin tins. Fill with batter.
Bake for 20 minutes or until done, maybe a couple minutes less would work ;)

Eat your heart out!

*remember quinoa is high in protein and chia seeds have more calcium than milk and loaded with omega 3's

Granola bars take 2

My 7 year old put it best when he said, "she just keeps adding and adding stuff trying to get the perfect granola bar."

My 4 year old was shocked to hear some of the ingredients and said, "what? There's beans in there?"

So, my friend suggested adding a ripe banana for moisture and I had left over black beans so I tossed them in too.

Today's granola bars were more moist than last weeks, and, I think they tasted better. Plus, the bananas were the only sweetener (aside from the chocolate chips of course) so that was handy.

Here is the new and improved recipe:

1/2 cup pureed black beans
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/3 cup softened butter

Mix all that together then add:

1 Tbs. vanilla
1 cup Raw Almond butter ( I use this brand)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. chia seeds
1 tsp. sea salt
1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
4 cups gluten free oats

Mix until combined and cook in 9 x 13 sprayed pan at 350 degrees for only 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Yum!

Dairy Free Breakfast Casserole

So I never claimed to be a photographer... for the record.

Good thing looks aren't everything ;)

The other night I made this for dinner and it was really delicious. Common folk think that breakfast casserole has to be smothered in cheese and loaded with cream and bread but we over here aren't your everyday common folk.

So I took a package of ground sausage out of the freezer. Jimmy Deans, baby. I do not think Jimmy Deans is "healthy", but I do think it was in my freezer and when things are tight you somethings have to make use of what you've got. So, that's what I did. 

So I put the frozen hunk of goodness and stuck it in my crockpot with about an inch of water and cooked it on low for the day. You can't get much easier than that.

At around 4:30 I chopped up 3 leftover baked potatoes into hefty chunks. I put them into my 9x13 favorite pan in the world (stoneware pan). Then I drained the cooked sausage and poured it evenly over the potatoes. Then I cracked 10 eggs into a bowl and whipped them with 1/2 cup of water and a little pepper. I figured Jimmy Dean took care of the salt for me! I poured the egg mixture on top of the sausage and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes? Basically until the eggs are cooked... I actually do not remember if it was a half hour or maybe an hour?? Maybe in between the two somewhere. Just watch it. 

So this was gluten free and dairy free.

It was really good and really simple.

We had veggies on the side. You could add veggies and cook them in it but I knew my kids little girl would prefer it without the broccoli cooked in. So, improvise. Enjoy!

Granola Bars from scratch

The more I learn about gluten, the more I try to avoid it. My family is not gluten-free per se but we only eat gluten in really minimal amounts. For instance I buy gluten free oats to make our granola bars.

There are some foods that I really try to avoid. I am not perfect at it but I try tremendously hard. Sugar is one of these "foods."

So here is the granola bar recipe that I am still perfecting. They are a little dry still but they taste really good... like I made this 9x13 pan yesterday and after my kids and their friends had one my husband ate the other 1/3 of the pan. 

Here it goes:

Preheat oven to 350

I use a stoneware pan so I don't grease it, but if you use glass or metal I would spray the pan with olive oil. 

In a large bowl mix:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups almond butter

3 eggs

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. salt

1-2 Tbs. chia seeds

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

5 cups rolled oats ( I prefer gluten free)

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix that all up and flatten it into your prepared pan. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan.

So here are the dirty details of what goes through my head.

Sugar is in most everything you buy, so I try to make homemade to cut sugar.

But.... kids will only eat something that tastes good. Sugar makes things taste good.....

so this is definetly a balancing act and one that I have to constantly work to improve.

These granola bars fill both desires of my heart to give my kids something that I know is nourishing their bodies and something that they enjoy eating. 

These bars are filled with protein between the oats, the eggs, the almond butter and the chia seeds.

These bars are gluten free.

These bars do not have any refined sugar, except for what is in the chocolate chips.

These bars have calcium from the chia seeds.

These bars have the good fat from the butter, the sunflower seeds, and the almond butter.

These bars have the fiber from the oats, the coconut, the almond butter, the sunflower seeds and the chia seeds.

My goal is almost always to balance the sugar content to the protein content to the fiber content to regulate the blood sugar and provide a healthy snack. I don't have a nutrition label to put on these babies but in my head these bars do exactly that.

Enjoy!

Chia Seed Pudding!

The other day while browsing my favorite recipe websites I found this recipe for Chia Seed Pudding. I am a sucker for Tapioca. Love it! But it's made with all the good things I don't eat... dairy, sugar... So the chia seed pudding was really tempting. I altered the recipe a bit and this is what I came up with! Delicious!

In my Ninja blender I combined the following:
1 cup organic coconut milk (the pure stuff sold in the can)
1 cup filtered water
1 tsp. vanilla
6 Tbs. Raw Chia Seeds
small pinch of stevia

I blended it all together until it was combined and put it in this glass bowl, in the refrigerator  overnight. And then, the next morning, we feasted on pudding for breakfast. All my kids loved it, my husband loved it, and I, as usual, loved it too. Try it. The texture is nothing short of yummy tapioca and the flavor is vanilla goodness.

Squash and Bean Buritos

 Homemade tortilla's with coconut oil. Found the recipe here and I just used regular coconut oil and they didn't taste like coconut oil at all.. I used whole wheat flour too.

 Baked acorn squash and baked sweet potatoes, mixed together. Refried beans. Cheese for some.

And here you have a yummy burrito for lunch. I made these on Saturday for my family and then rolled up extras to have in the fridge for a quick lunch or snack. My kids are in love. I put a little cheese on theirs but ate mine without the cheese ( I don't do any dairy except for the occasional ice cream splurge!!).
These were a hit.

Lentil Salad for Lunch

My husband loves modeling food for me. Isn't he good at it!?

So I want to eat at the local co-op every day for lunch. I want to! But, I can't. Truth be known. So I have decided to bring the co-op to my kitchen.

Lunch is not supposed to be fast. I have been convincing myself of this the past couple weeks. I love to cook. Cooking healthy meals for my family is very high, sometimes obsessively high, on my priority list, but for some reason lunch always gets the shaft.

I think it's because I am not a lunch person. I love breakfast, I think it's super important. I love dinner, sitting down as a family around a homemade meal. But for some reason lunch sucks. I never have time to do it. We are always in a hurry to eat before they take a nap, we're out running earrands, we just got home....

Lunch is a huge burden.

So I know it's hard.

But... nursing a baby I am really hungry. Often. I need to eat a good lunch. So I have been making more of an effort and it's paying off.

Today we had Lentil Salad.

I got my inspiration from here but of course I modified it to my own liking.

Here is my lentil salad that we had for lunch today. It was delicious! Another thing about this salad that you may be interested to know is that many of the ingredients are natural cleaners. If you are working on detoxifying the body apple cider vinegar, olive oil, turmeric, cayenne... all really good cleansers for the body.

Enjoy!

2 cups dried brown lentils
1 green onion, chopped
2 leaves thai basil, chopped

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

Vinaigrette: 
1/3 cup cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon



Directions:
1. Rinse lentils well, drain. Place in a pot and cover with a 3-4 inches of water, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Check lentils for doneness after 15 minutes, but they should take about 20 minutes in total. 
2. While the lentils are simmering, make the dressing by placing all ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake vigorously to combine. I used my ninja blender.
3. Finely dice green onion and basil. 
4. When the lentils are cooked, remove from heat, drain and place under cold running water to stop the cooking process. Once cooled slightly but still a little warm, place lentils in a large serving bowl and toss with dressing. Add green onions, basil, and sunflower seeds.

Hydrogen Peroxide in the Ear

Knock on wood we have had our healthiest winter yet. It's such a good feeling to have healthy kids. I am an analyzer and a prevent-er so there are lots of things to which I personally attribute to having a healthy season. This is one of them.

Hydogen Peroxide in the ear

Back in October when Gage was born Emmett seemed as if he was coming down with a cold. I asked my midwife, also a Pediatric Naturopath, her advice and she told me to bathe him and then put hydrogen peroxide in his ear. So knowing me, of course I did. It immediately started to bubble which told me something good was happening. Emmett didn't mind it at all, in fact he thought it was fun. Since then I have each of the kids do it weekly.

After the tub I lay them on my bed on one side, drop a couple drops of hydrogen peroxide in their ears, then after about 5-10 minutes I flip them over on a towel to drain the one and fill the other.

It's magical. I don't know exactly what it does but some times they bubble, sometimes they don't. I feel like it is an easy thing for us that is helping them stay healthy. Why not?

Also Jeff and I have been doing it when we start to feel slightly under the weather and I had my sister in law, Jess, do it when she got a cold while visiting after Christmas and she said it helped.

If you don't want to take my word you can read the following article. I attached the link and the part of the article that is relevant.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/03/13/hydrogen-peroxide-part-one.aspx

Email from Wendy Fyfe, Subscriber
Brush, Colorado

Thanks to one of your articles in your newsletter about using peroxide in the ears for flu or colds, my family and I have had a relatively flu/cold free winter! We have been exposed to a serious flu in our area, but have managed to dodge it. Here are some specifics:

My 6-year-old son had kept me up during one night with coughing and sneezing. By noon the next day he had a fever. I then remembered recently reading in your newsletter about using three drops of peroxide in each ear for 10 minutes. You should have seen his face when I told him I was going to put peroxide in his ears! He was nervous, but soon settled down. It bubbled a lot in both ears. I did only one treatment in each ear, and from then on, his fever went away and his symptoms were reduced to the sniffles. That night he slept well, as did mom. The cold did not return!

Next came myself. About a week later I felt like my head was in a "fog", a familiar fog that is a sure sign I am going to get sick with a bad cold or flu. I used the peroxide treatment in each ear and went to bed about an hour early. The next morning I felt fantastic! Not a trace of illness.

Again about a week after I had felt something coming on, my husband started feeling "ugh". I told him about the peroxide and he looked at me skeptically. But he tried it. And it worked! He works for the school district in the bus shop and is around the drivers (who are around all those kids passing germs about) frequently.

At the same time my 10-year-old son who is rarely sick said he didn’t feel well. I wasn’t sure if he was saying that because he felt left out (the peroxide treatment aroused his interest), or if he really was coming down with something. So, I gave him a treatment, not seeing that any harm would come of it. He had strong bubbling on one side. He soon felt better and did not become ill.

The peroxide has been used a few other times on all of us with almost amazing results. There was a different result in one case, which had to do with myself. It had been a couple of weeks from my first use of the peroxide on myself.

I came home from our local library book sale, which was held in the basement. I quickly became ill, as if allergic to something in the basement, of which this was my first time down there. By the next morning I had a full-fledged cold and felt awful. I tried the peroxide.

Although I had to repeat the peroxide treatment about every 4 hours, the peroxide alone relieved my symptoms! I was a bit tired, but other than that, no sneezing, coughing, fever, etc. After about 4 hours I would feel pressure building in my head (especially the ears) and I would begin to get quite cranky. Then I would use the peroxide again and be much better.

The peroxide allowed me to maintain my schedule of homeschooling the boys and doing my chores. It worked better than anything I have tried over the years and had no side affects!

A few notes: the peroxide feels like ice when it is dropped into the ear! It usually did not sting. The hardest thing for me to get used to was the tickling of the bubbles!

Thank you again for the information on peroxide for flus and colds. This wife and mom has had many peaceful nights thanks to you! Thank you also for ALL the fantastic information that you pass along in your newsletter. If it weren't for you, how would we know of these things?!?

Last fall I started using EFT and am very pleased with the results and that I have such a useful tool for others and myself. I learned of it through you. You have made a difference in many lives.

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

Today I learned a valuable lesson. Don't cry over spilt soup!

This morning was wonderful. I got up and read my scriptures alongside my 7 year old son. He inspires me. Then after breakfast while making his lunch I decided to whip up our new favorite soup to take to a friends for lunch. Everything was going great. The soup smelt great, we walked to school, came home, the soup was done. Perfect. We were off.

Driving to our play date we went around the round about and sure enough the soup that was in the crockpot on the floor in front of the passenger seat tipped over. Soup spilt on the floor, on the door, and I am driving and unable to really do much expect put it back in upright position and put the lid back on.

My little girl in the backseat says, "mom, something smells yummy." Thank goodness for her perspective. I really wanted to cry. All that work, all those ingredients... ah, it's just soup I guess. I didn't cry.

We get to our friends and I haul in the babe and the other kids, the box of satsuma oranges I also brought and head back out to clean up. My other friend came out and helped me. We got the soup out and put it in the house, luckily there was still enough for all of us to have some. Then we basically took anything of value out of the front passenger seat area and hosed the soup out.

Here is the soup recipe. I will be making more soon! My whole family loves this soup. I got this recipe out of the recipe book from San Juan Islands. The author believes recipes are to be shared, not secrets. I agree.
This is the exact recipe

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

2 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 lg. onion, diced
6-7 cloves garlic ( I don't use this much, I have a nursing baby. Usually I use 2 cloves or just a Tbs. garlic powder)
1/4 ginger root peeled and minced (again I use 1 Tbs ginger powder)
1 1/2 Tbs. Curry powder
1 hot chili pepper minced ( I don't use this)
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup sweet red pepper, diced
5 cups sweet potatoes, diced
14 oz coconut milk
2 cups dried lentils, washed
8 cups vegetable stock
juice of one lime
salt to taste

1. Heat oil and saute onion, garlic, ginger for 15 minutes in a large soup pot over med/low heat.
2. Add next five ingredient, saute another 5-10 minutes.
3. Add coconut milk, lentils, and stock.
4. Simmer, covered, until lentils are done and sweet potatoes are tender, approx. 45 minutes.
5. Add lime juice. Serves 6-8.

The first time I made this soup I did it the way I just listed above. It takes a lot of time so now I do it like this and I think it's just as good.

1. Oven roast the sweet potatoes, onions, carrots and peppers in coconut oil at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.
2. While the veggies are roasted saute  the ginger powder, garlic powder, and curry powder in the olive oil in large soup pot.
3. Add the stock to the pot with a cup of water and the lentils. Boil the lentils until tender.
4. Once the lentils are tender add the coconut milk.
5. When veggies in the oven are roasted blend them in blender with 8 more ounces of stock until pureed. Add puree to soup. Enjoy!