Food Combining

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Hopefully you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate lots of good healthy food. I enjoyed a delicious homemade dinner with the company of lots of loved ones.
Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, coconut oil carrots, brussel sprouts, green bean and mushroom casserole, homemade cranberries, ceasar salad.

No rolls. No pumpkin pie. (Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite things to eat!!!)

I have read this book 2 times now and I'm really sold on some of the principles. One such principle is: food combining. Basically, which foods to eat together and which foods to NOT eat together.

He says in the book, "The continued use of sweets, even fruit, after protein is the worst of the combinations, and is one of the most destructive to health. This can also be said of most fruit juices combined with protein meals"(Matsen, pg.117).

This is why I didn't have pumpkin pie after dinner. First, I was full. Second, I didn't want to confuse my system that was busily breaking down the protein from the turkey ( I know, I did eat the potatoes (starch) and a small amount of cranberries (sugar) but give me a break, I did the best that I wanted to do...)

Let me review what I know concerning this matter:
The gut of your health determines your overall well being.
Your gut health is maintained by good digestion and elimination.
Carbs are first digested by alkaline juices in your mouth.
Proteins are digested to stomach acid.
When you eat carbs and proteins together your stomach juices neutralize causing digestion to slow down.
When your food is in your gut for long periods of time bad bacteria grow and toxins release.
Eating carbs and proteins together slows digestion and therefore increases toxicity.
Increased toxicity equals decreased health.

And there you have my rationale.
Oh, and for the record I did have pumpkin pie the next morning for breakfast. Because that's the way my system and me like it!
Now you can add this book to your Christmas wish list.... I highly recommend it!

Tori's favorite Dinner

Have you ever done something seriously crazy. Like, you look back on it and think, "Wow, Did I really do that?"

Well I have, plenty of times really but I will share one such occasion.

Back in March I was going a little crazy. My husband had been out of work for a little while. We were really poor. I was hit or miss as far as emotions went. I was super happy and determined to not let anyone know I was struggling at one moment and then at another moment (inside closed doors) I was emotionally stressed and completely burnt out.

One particular week my husband went out of town for a side job. I was at home, alone, with my three babes. It was busy. I didn't have the husband to give me any relief. One day I decided to serve my friend, Tori. She had had a baby a few weeks back and I wanted to bring her a meal. Like that day I wanted too! Now!

So, in my crazy, stressed state in between juggling kids I started throwing things together. Some black beans, some brown rice, a little chicken....

The next thing I knew I had walked my 3 kids up to her house with the casserole in tow and delivered a meal THAT I HAD NEVER EVEN TRIED AND THAT I COMPLETELY MADE UP ON A WHIM!

This is crazy to me, looking back. BUT.... now she swears it's her favorite thing to eat! I doubt it's really her favorite but it's at least super good. The second time she requested it I actually made it for my family too and I wrote it down and my family loves it as well. So, I guess the story has a good ending.

We all got a good, cheap, healthy meal out of the deal!

Here is the recipe. I will always remember this story and I will always call this dish "Tori's favorite!"

In a 9x13 pan mix up the following
2 cups brown rice ( I use short grain)
2 cups drained black beans
1 12.5 oz. can chicken drained
4 cups water
3 heaping TBS. taco seasoning

Cover with foil and cook at 350 for 55 minutes.

Grate as much cheddar cheese as you like
When the 55 minutes is up sprinkle cheese on top and remove foil (in the reverse order) and bake uncovered 5 more minutes until the cheese melts.

Also, I don't do cheese on half because I don't want the cheese and I prefer for Emmett to not have the cheese yet so you can be creative with that part of it too.
And one more thing, totally you can do this without the can of chicken and you've got yourself a vegetarian meal.

Enjoy!

Supplement Monday

Today's Supplement is Garlic. Some take a capsule. I don't have any experience with that. I do it the old fashioned way....
Take a garlic whole clove. Peel it. Cut it into fourths. Swallow it with water.
There are a lot of colds going around and I don't want one. Last night I took a clove, tonight I will do the same. Think about it, garlic is strong stuff it's bound to kill off those bad guys!


Here is some facts I found here.
Garlic and infections

There’s a large body of research which shows that garlic has numerous health benefits. Not only has it been used successfully as a natural remedy for thousands of years, but science is now proving its effectiveness, too.

Among the myriad medicinal talents of garlic, we find an apparent ability to fight infections such as the common cold, and especially to help clear up respiratory infections and lung congestion.

It keeps the delicate mucous membranes of the digestive and respiratory system healthy and can be soothing for sore throats. Early in the 20th century, it was sometimes used in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Tasty Kale chips ( I fed these to my teenage girls at church and they loved them!!)


Here are my kids drinking their Kefir to the very last drop!


Kefir Stache!

Today's healthy recipes!

Today is mighty chilly outside.
It is a perfect stay-at-home-and-bake-day!
My house was hoppin' with kids this morning. My sisters kids spent last night with us and my girlfriends kids came over this morning. All the kids played together so well which left me with not much to do except, well, create recipes.

Squash Whole Wheat Pancakes:
Left over squash from last night (about 1 cup)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbs. flax ( my nephew is allergic to eggs so this is what I substituted)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tbs. cinnamon
! Tbs. vanilla
dash salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Mix it all together. Add water until you get pancake like consistency (about 1/3 cup)
Cook on a hot skillet! Enjoy! (Lesha your kids loved these!)

*note: I never sweeten my pancakes with sugar/honey... I figure they are going to get smothered in syrup/jam anyways so why add the extra sugar. No one ever notices and I feel better about it. And Emmett, the babe, he doesn't get syrup on his. Just good old pancakes with melted coconut oil for him. He loves it and I love that he is getting all the nutritional benefits of the coconut oil with his breakfast!


Kale chips:
2 bunches of kale. Washed and dried ( I washed it last night in vinegar water and dried it all night on paper towels on my counter)
Turn oven onto 275
Cut out the stem/rib of the kale.
Cut the leafy part into pieces, whatever size you want!
Lay kale pieces on cookie sheet and spritz with olive oil
sprinkle with salt ( I also got crazy with some batches and did wasabi because I like my wasabi!)
bake for 20 minutes.

These are so crunchy and good! They have a strong flavor but the crunch is fantastic. They are packed with nutrients! Braxton liked these. Adelle and Emmett... nope!

Gluten and Dairy Free Pumpkin Muffins:
Beat all ingredients together in mixer
2 eggs
2 cups pumpkin canned
1 1/2 cups almond flour (almond meal is the same thing)
1 Tbs. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup black beans (not drained, not smashed)
1 Tbs. vanilla
dash salt

Add
chocolate chips ( I did 1/2 cup but you can do as many as you want)
Pour into greased muffin tins 1/2 full (made about 16 muffins)
Bake in 350 oven for 25 minutes
Let cool completely in tins

These came out really dense and custard-like. They were sooo good my kids are at the table begging for more.

I LOVE pumpkin season!!!!!!

Swiss Chard

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/sauteed-swiss-chard-recipe/index.html

I wish I had a picture of this beautiful vegetable! Swiss chard is so beautiful! It's really good for you too.

As a side tonight I made the recipe above with fresh swiss chard. I used fresh lemon juice rather than vinegar and only 2 TBS. butter, and it was really yummy! The kids weren't crazy about it but they ate acorn squash instead and loved that so we both won!

Here are some cool facts about this vegetable that is most common in the Mediterranean.
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=16
Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Benefits

As an excellent source of vitamins C, E, beta-carotene and the mineral manganese, and a good source of the mineral zinc, chard offers an outstanding variety of conventional antioxidants. But these conventional antioxidants are only part of chard's fantastic health benefits with respect to prevention of oxidative stress and diseases related to chronic, unwanted oxidative stress. Equally outstanding are chard's phytonutrient antioxidants. These phytonutrient antioxidants range from carotenoids like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin to flavonoids like quercetin and kaempferol. But the range of phytonutrients in chard is even more extensive than researchers initially suspected, and at this point in time, about three dozen antioxidant phytonutrients have been identified in chard, including betalains (both betacyanins and betaxanthins) and epoxyxanthophylls. Many of these antioxidant phytonutrients provide chard with its colorful stems, stalks, and leaf veins.

As a rule, the phytonutrient antioxidants in chard also act as anti-inflammatory agents. Sometimes they lower risk of chronic, unwanted inflammation by altering the activity of pro-inflammatory enzymes. At other times, they help prevent the production of pro-inflammatory messaging molecules. Because chronic low level inflammation (especially when coupled with excessive oxidative stress) has repeatedly been shown to increase our risk of obesity, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and several forms of arthritis, chard is very likely to show up in future studies on humans as a key vegetable for lowering risk of these health problems.

Carrot Canadian Bacon Sandwiches

So today for lunch Adelle and Emmett and I had Carrot and Canadian Bacon sandwiches. They were pretty tasty.
High protein
High fiber
Low sugar and starch!

This "sandwich" was Adelle's creation.

All I did was cut up carrots into coin shape. You know, thinly sliced just lay the whole carrot on the cutting board and cut tons of circles.

Cut up Canadian bacon into little pieces, just because Emmett eats it better that way.

I gave them each a plate with carrot coins and canadian bacon pieces. Then I dolloped a bit of hummus on their plates and handed them to them.
The next thing I know Adelle has taken the carrot, stacked it with canadian bacon, put a carrot lid on top and says, "look mom, it's a carrot sandwich."

Works for me!