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!