Amalgam

Lately TR has been suffering from his Colitis again. Having a 'flair up'. We've definitely been more relaxed in our diet and not being as careful when at other people's homes, but TR discovered some information yesterday that makes us question whether there's more than just our diet at fault.

His discovery?

Some people have connected mercury poisoning with colitis (along with several other diseases/disorders.).

Where are we exposed to mercury?

Teeth. More specifically, the silver fillings to fix cavities. They are almost 50% mercury.

Please join us in prayer as we try to find a specialist who can answer our questions and perform the removals.

And take a look at this if you're interested in a first-hand account:

http://www.mercurypoisoned.com/rob_sherwood.html


TR found from everything he was reading yesterday that all those with Colitis who had their fillings removed and replaced with other kinds of non-mercury fillings became colitis free! From everything I've read about mercury this doesn't surprise me at all. Mercury is very damaging to the body, even in small amounts. Anyway, please pray for us as we look into this. It would be a very expensive and time consuming ordeal, we want to make sure it would work.

Thankful

I am so thankful that my eyes have been opened in the last year. It's hard to face the truth about what you're eating and breathing. Hard to make changes. Hard to pay more. Hard to realize that no matter what you do, it will never be perfect. In fact the more I learn, the more I realize how much more I could change.

And yet, I'd rather have that then ignorance. I want to do what I can to live cleaner, healthier, to protect and care for this earth - to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to my care. I want to pass this on to my children.

I read a very good book recently that opened my eyes a little more. It's called "Having Faith" by Sandra Steingraber. She talks about unborn babies and the chemicals/pollutions that cause them harm in the womb. She also talks about breastfeeding and the toxins in breast milk. A lot of things are hard to control - but ignorance won't change anything. A great read - a little scary. But we should be scared! Hiding our heads in the sand won't do anything but cause more harm.

Anyway, just wanted to share. Here's the link if you want to read a bit about the book.

http://steingraber.com/books/having-faith/

Broccoli Beef Stir Fry

I was reading this blog the other day and this recipe caught my attention. Super good!!!!! We had it with rice noodles and I added onions, red peppers and mushrooms.

http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2011/05/broccoli-beef-stir-fry.html

Run out

I have run out of steam. Completely and utterly out. I've got nothing left. Everything else on my list is just going to have to stay unchecked. So the freezer inventory is not going to happen. I'm just going to do my best to give you a list.

buns and bread
cinnamon muffins
banana muffins
monster cookies
pie crusts
chicken pot pie
meatloaf
raw hamburgers
baked meatballs
cooked ground beef
cooked rice
pancakes

Stormy in here!

Baking up a storm that is! Everyday that I can I have been baking. And Baking. And Baking some more!

And I'm getting very tired. But I'm almost done hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On today's list was buns and bread and pie crust, along with freezing double of what I'm making for supper: Honey mustard chicken.

I started around 9ish and still have a bit to go.

Out of the bread I have 78 buns, 6 bread loaves, 2 small pans of cinnamon buns, 1 pizza crust.
My pie crust is made but still waiting to be formed. I figure when I'm done I'll have about 20-23 crusts.

Besides running out of steam my new problem is: Finding room for all this stuff in my freezer!!!! I'm hoping to go through it later this afternoon and make some more room and write down everything that's in there.

Stay tuned for a list of all the things in my freezer that I've been baking to get ready for this baby . . .

p.s. In case you are wondering I'm afraid that I have been cutting some corners. I have been using some store bought flour. Mostly because I am just about out of the organic stuff again! When I made my last order I didn't count on doing all this extra baking! I'm also using more sugar than usual to make things like muffins and cookies. I'm using mostly brown and organic cane sugar. We don't usually have so many baked goodies in the house, but I have this feeling that when I'm sitting there with the baby and the kids are hungry I will appreciate having something to pull out of the freezer.

Not exactly like planned

So the pre-soaked bread did not turn out exactly how I planned it. The dough was very stretchy and very promising at first. I used a recipe that I found online and it turned out okay, but did not rise very well and I had to use lots of extra flour. So I decided to use the recipe that I used last time that produced very good bread. The dough looked really good - but when I went to punch it down it was super duper runny. When I went to form it into bread/buns it pretty much wanted to run off the counter. The buns ended up being really flat. (you pretty much need 2 to make a sandwich!)

So I think I will try this again with some variations - but not this time. It is way too close to when the baby comes. I will just put the pre-soaked bread on hold until later. Right now I just need to have something edible and taste-worthy in the freezer to get me through those first few weeks.

Right now I have several things soaking to be baked tomorrow. So we'll see how those turn out.

Is trying something new!

Well, I am thinking about trying something new:) We'll see how ambitious I get . . .

I am reading so much lately about why to use sprouted grains/nuts/seeds and the benefit healthwise to doing so. Unfortunately I am having a bit of a hard time finding the sprouted stuff and I'm not sure I want to pay for it. There is an alternative though and that is to soak your flour, oats etc. before using them in baking. The only trouble with this is that I have to plan ahead and I am not a very 'plan ahead' type of baker! If I want brownies, then I make brownies. But if I'm going to be soaking the flour I need to premix the dough at least 12-24 hours ahead of time. So I'm going to make a list (I hope!) and try to make a bunch of soaked goodies for when the baby comes. If I'm smart I'll learn how to always have something on the go so I can have these goodies in the freezer.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Struggle with Heartburn

Last summer TR took steroids for several weeks in order to get his colitis under control. For a few weeks it worked, and then his symptoms started coming back. That's when we started the new diet and everything changed. He has never taken another prescription for his colitis since.

But while he was taking the steroids he was also on an antacid. He was told the steroids were hard on his stomach and the antacids would help with that. He also has a narrowing of the esophagus presumably from too much acid and so the hope was it would help with that too.

The only problem is that he never experienced heartburn. One winter he did, but not since then. After he was done with the steroids he had lots of heartburn. And so now he has been on antacids everyday. Several weeks ago it got really bad. To the point that even if he remembered to take them every day he still had heartburn, sometimes really really painful.

And now . . . he has stopped taking the antacids. And there is no heartburn! I can hardly believe it. He says that occasionally there is some minor heartburn, but he was experiencing that even with his antacids.

Wanna know what he did???

He started taking coconut oil. A little in his tea every day. Yes in his tea. I've done it and it tastes good and not oily at all.

All I can say is how very thankful I am. I have a real dislike for prescription drugs. To me the list of side effects makes them very unattractive. If there is a natural and safer way to handle the body's problems I think it is way better. And I was worried about how these antacids would harm TR's body over such a long period of time.

I really couldn't say that he's out of the woods yet. It's only been about a week. But so far so good! What a wonderful blessing!

p.s. If you want to know more about the wonderful things that Coconut Oil can do read "The Coconut Oil Miracle" by Bruce Fife. We have ordered a big jar of Coconut oil and I'm going to see what else it can do for our family. I'll keep you posted :)

Recipes

Broccoli Smother in Coconut Chicken Sauce
~ From The Coconut Oil Miracle

1 head broccoli divided into flowerets (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 onion chopped
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can (14oz) coconut milk
1 cup water or chicken stock
1 can (4oz) mushrooms
3 cups cut up cooked chicken

Cook broccoli in steamer. While broccoli is cooking, saute pepper and onion in oil over medium heat 5 min. Remove from heat. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat stirring constantly until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat. Stir in milk, water, mushrooms and chicken. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer 10 min, until sauce thickens. Serve over hot steamed broccoli. Serves 4.

LOVED this! Of course I made a few modifications. We're just about out of coconut oil so I just sauted the veggies in some olive oil and didn't blend in the flour until after I'd added the coconut milk. We also added 2 cloves of garlic (TR said it wasn't enough but he really likes garlic!) And we served some pasta with it too. Very very good, as good as any cream sauce made with cream/milk.

~*~

Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
~ From Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts

3 cups half and half
1 cup cream
1 cup packed fresh mint sprigs, coarsely chopped, stems and all
1 strip lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
dash of salt
4 egg yolks
4 oz (100grams) chocolate chunks

Combine half and half, cream, mint and zest. Simmer over med heat. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 30 min. Add sugar and salt. Return to heat and cook until sugar dissolves. Add eggs slowly (put the eggs in a glass container, add a little of the ice cream while mixing, slowly adding more until the eggs are getting hot, then add to the pot). Heat to 175 F (or until the mixture coats the back of the spoon, not boiling). Strain. Cool and then process in ice cream maker.

I finally broke down and bought a thermometer and it's so much better than guessing! I didn't have the mint leaves so I just used extract. Can't remember how much, 1 or 2 tbsp I think. So I omitted the 'let stand 30 min' part. WOW. This is the best ice cream I've made. Super creamy and rich. LOVED IT! A little more work than the other recipes I'm used to, but very worth it.

Set back

So I just have to say that as much as our diet change has been about TR I think I have benefited equally from it. I never thought I had too many problems before, but the truth of it is that I just didn't know that you could feel better! I wish I could say that I have more energy, but considering that I am just over a month away from having a baby I am actually quite drained!
Last week we were in the city for an appointment and I went out to eat at Pizza Hut. It took me about 3 days to really recuperate from that. Not only did I eat food that is hard to digest, but I also didn't eat very much food throughout the rest of the day. I really should have packed more food from home, but because I hadn't and didn't really like the options I found at the convenience stores we stopped at, I really didn't eat that much. BIG MISTAKE!
What a difference eating properly makes. I've been trying a few new recipes lately. I'll try to post them soon . . .

Dreams

We recently ran out of the organic flour and I had to buy some flour from the store. My bread turned out awesome :( I say that is sad because I don't think that the flour from the store is the healthiest option and so we picked up more organic flour. And I'm going to keep on trying to improve it until I love the organic bread. It's not awful, it's just different. It's way crumblier (good if you want breadcrumbs though) and the taste is stronger, it doesn't rise as much and the crust is often way crunchier. I also really don't like how it feels to mix it with my hands, and I have to sift the flour every time I use it, making it more time consuming.

But I WILL NOT GIVE UP. This flour will not have the better of me. I refuse to believe that I can't make good bread with it. I just have to keep trying.

Today I tried again and so far so good, but I haven't cut into the bread yet :) The dough actually had air holes in it and was a lot more flexible than usual. I just kneaded it a lot more. Knead for 5 minutes. Let stand. Knead for a few more minutes, let stand. I must have repeated that 5 times or so. The buns tasted really good and if the bread turned out then I guess I know what I have to do.

My next dream is making my own cheese. Right now I've ordered a few books from the library and then the next step will be getting the starting cultures and whatever else I need. I'm thinking it will be way cheaper than buying the organic cheese from the store, plus I can control the ingredients. And I don't know about you, but there is a great satisfaction in doing it yourself. Yes it takes work, but time is relative. And what better way to spend my time than to make good things for my family, and save money at the same time.

BBQ Sauce & Moroccan Veggies

So I'll tell your right now - the BBQ sauce is awful! Incredibly awful . . . TR said it smelt like something that had been left out for weeks, and it didn't taste much better! The name of the recipe however is . . .

The Best BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. sea salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
Dash of tabasco sauce

Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and saute about 5 min. Stir in remaining ing. Simmer 5-10 min. After it had cooled a bit I blended it so that we would have a smooth sauce. Up until the blending it looked okay, but the oil didn't want to mix properly so I don't think it would have worked without blending. Maybe it was the kind of oil I used (extra virgin olive?). Whatever the case I will be taking this recipe out of my book and into the garbage.

Moroccan Roasted Root Vegetables

4 cups root veg. cut in 2 cm cubes
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp. dried parsley
salt and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix spices and oil. Coat veg. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet lined with wax paper.
Cook uncovered 40-50 min, turning occasionally.

This was AWESOME! We all really liked it a lot. Even Chloe asked for seconds. I just did potatoes this time and left the peel on. They were crunchy and soft on the inside. The flavour was really really good. I am sure that this will be a staple in our house from now on :)

* Just a little side note about turmeric. It is a really healthy spice, but in order to get the full benefits (I read this in a book about fighting cancer) it needs 2 things. You need to mix it with oil before you add it to the dish (it stabilizes it I guess) and you should eat pepper at the same time too.

Birthday Cake

So the recipe really is called Birthday Cake, and that is what I used it for :)

Makes 1 11" spring form pan & 1 7" spring form pan.

12 oz bittersweet chocolate (about 340gr.)
1 cup butter
10 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour

1. Melt chocolate and butter
2. Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
3. Fold flour into choc. with rubber spatula. Fold into egg mixture.
4. Fill 11" pan 3/4 full, pour remaining into 7" pan.
5. Bake at 375 F for 25 minutes.
6. Once ready, allow to cool at least 30 minutes before removing from pan.

I cut this recipe in half and didn't layer it. It made a 9" square pan. It tasted a little like brownies and was REALLY good. I had to have two pieces :) The eggs took a really long time to get stiff and they really didn't get all that stiff. I used brown sugar and not white. I would like to try it with honey too, but figured for the birthday I didn't want to change too much. I cooked it 10 min. longer than they suggested because the center still seemed too soft. Next time I think I would maybe let it cook 30 min. but the extra 10 minutes was too long, and the edges were starting to dry out too much. But overall a great cake and definitely one I'll make again!

Icing I used:

1/2 cup-3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup honey
about 1/2 cup whipping cream

Blend together in food processor or electric mixer until smooth. Works best if honey is not runny.

Shepherd's Pie with Lentils

Another new recipe. I really liked it. TR said it just needed some more salt :)

2 small potatoes, quartered
2 carrots, sliced
1 cauliflower seperated into small florets
olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 lb. ground beef
2 1/4 cups canned green lentils, rinsed and drained
1 tsp. savory or dried thyme
1 tbsp. dried parsley
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups creamed or niblet corn
1 tsp butter cut in squares

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cook potatoes and carrots app. 20 min. Cook cauliflower in microwave 8-10 min.
Heat oil in skillet and saute garlic and onion until tender. Add beef and cook. When meat is cooked add lentils and seasoning. Remove from heat.
Drain potatoes, carrots and cauliflower. Puree and season with salt and pepper.
Transfer meat to ovensafe dish. Layer corn and then veg. puree.
Dot with butter and bake uncovered 30 min. until crust turns golden.

So of course I did a few things different. There's no point in turning your oven on so early. I cooked the potatoes and carrots together and then when they were almost done I added cauliflower to the pot (I used frozen). I added cream and butter to the mashed veg. I used peas instead of corn and I didn't dot with butter since I'd already added butter when I mashed them. (I did puree them a bit and the texture was good) It took a little longer in the oven then what they said, but I think that was because I prepared all the layers in advance and cooled them and then just put it together before supper.

Skillet Roasted Chicken with Rosemary, Garlic, Maple Balsamic Glaze

So that is really the title in the recipe book! I found it in a Cast Iron Skillet recipe book. I did cook it in the oven in our cast iron skillet, but I'm sure it would work in other oven-proof pans too.

2 tbsp. fresh rosemary (about 5 sprigs) plus 5 sprigs
2 cloves garlic
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 whole chicken, (3-4 lbs)
2 lbs. potatoes, scrubbed and halved or quartered.
Salt and Pepper

- Place rack in the centre of the oven. Preheat to 400 F
- Using a mortar and pestle crush together the 2 tbsp. of rosemary, garlic and lemon zest until they form a paste. Place paste in a bowl and whisk in vinegar, oil, syrup, and lemon juice (or put in blender)
- Rinse chicken and pat dry. Rub with salt and pepper. Loosen skin and rub rosemary mixture under skin. Halve the lemon you used for zesting and place in cavity along with the 5 sprigs of rosemary.
- Place potatoes in a 10"-12" skillet. Season with salt and pepper then place chicken on top. Roast in oven for 55-65 min. for a 4 lb. bird (add 8 min for each additional lb.)
- After 20 minutes baste the chicken. Repeat 20 minutes later. Roast until thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh reads 170 F - 175 F and juices run clear.
- Let chicken rest 5 min. before serving.

~*~

This was REALLY good. I enjoyed it a lot. TR said it tasted like a fancy meal at a restaurant. I did make a couple of changes and that is I used 1/2 of a chicken from a farm. It took probably 1.5 hours to cook. I think next time I would either cut the potatoes a lot smaller or put them on the sides of the chicken instead of under. The potatoes that were under cooked a lot slower and we ended up putting them all to the side about half-way through. I used dried rosemary as I didn't have fresh, but grinding it in the mortar worked really well. Since I used a half of a chicken I didn't have a cavity and just omitted putting lemon halves and sprigs of rosemary in the chicken.