Brain Washing My Kids

So I am very conscientious about the fact that I don't want my kids to be the weird kids who scream "poison" at some kids birthday party when the innocent mother brings out the cake and ice cream.  However, I really want them to understand that the American diet is NOT okay for our bodies.  I think they are getting the message.  A few days ago they were playing store and asked me to come buy some food from them.  At first they would hold up a plastic food item and I would say "Yes, I love pears, they have 5 grams of fiber!" or "Yuck, no donuts for me."  Well, they quickly caught on and began holding up food items and answering for me, such as "No soda for us, that has way too much sugar," or "Eggs are a great source of protein."  I found it cute when they even held up white bread and said "Mom, this is actually whole grain bread so you can buy it."  They know how to convince me!  In the end they had two separate buckets-- the healthy food and non-healthy food.

The other night for dinner Lucy abstained from Ketchup with her salmon because it has too much sugar.  I didn't say anything-- it was all her.  But I don't want my kids to feel like they can't have certain foods so I am still figuring out how to strike the balance.  In the mean time it is cute to see how much they are picking up as I learn and share with them. 

Ya win some, ya loose some

Talk about a Millet Disaster tonight.  Let me back up and explain.  I bought Real Wild Alaskan Salmon as this is suppose to be much healthier than the $7 cheaper version at Costco that is farm raised and has dye to make it look pinker.  So I decided that butternut squash and some sort of grain pilaf would be good sides to go with it.  Well, I got my bulk Millet out and decided to try out my pressure cooker (I've only used it once before) to save time since millet takes about 35 min on the stove top to cook.  It took me a good 20 minutes to review the directions on how to use the cooker and then I wasn't sure if I could add extra ingredients to make it a pilaf or not so I just added broth, garlic, and celery.  It cooked for 10 minutes, and then I had to wait another 15 min for the canner to cool off enough to remove the millet.  Above is what it looked like.  It was all clumpy and stuck together.  I thought it would be okay once it cooled on our plates until.....Liberty asked if she could have some.  I informed her I already put some on her plate in which she said I hadn't.  I glanced over to see that the spoonful I gave her actually was so formed that it rolled off her plate like a bouncy ball.   

Jon and I started laughing so hard I was sweating all over and almost choked. Not exactly the soft bed of millet pilaf I envisioned to lay a fillet of salmon on.  So whether it was the pressure cooker or that I shouldn't make up my own millet pilaf recipes in a hurry like that I don't know but I am pretty sure you shouldn't be able to remove the entire bowl of millet with one swipe of a spoon! 

oh well, won't make that mistake again!
Happy Eating
Chanda

Thursdays Meals

For breakfast I tried waffles again, this time with mainly buckwheat flour, a little of brown rice, then added flax, oat bran, and hemp protein (which turns things green by the way).  I used agave, half EV olive oil, half coconut oil but cut the overall oil the recipe called for in half.  Once again the kids didn't notice a thing and no syrup was necessary as long as you have all the fresh summer fruit to top it off with!  For lunch we were in a hurry so I combined cottage cheese, plain greek yogurt, walnuts, flax and oat bran again together in a bowl with more fruit.  I didn't get any veggies in which was a bummer but it held me over for a good 4 hrs with out a problem.  Here is dinner:

I call this a date night meal.  The Talapia comes seasoned from Costco and then I used tortellini and good old marinara sauce from a jar but its still better than going out to eat or grabbing a Little Caesars pizza which I would have done in the past on a really busy day like today.  So, it isn't as great as if I had made it all myself but its better than the alternatives and the kids fight over the Talapia which always makes me smile.  The salad though--I loved it.  I added spinach, kale, romaine and bok choy, then sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, strawberry slices, and dried cranberries. The contrast of the bitter kale and bok choy with fruit was perfect.  Lucy wasn't a fan of the bok choy and Liberty not a fan of the uncooked Kale but you can't give up on the first try, right?  Its good to have some leafy greens again though.  Still haven't finished my pantry and I got some more good things to try from Costco today so hopefully I will have more updates soon.

Oh side note, I knew I would be gone for about 4-5 hrs this afternoon and usually will throw in a Zone bar if I will be gone that long.  They aren't the best or the worst protein bar out there but since I am trying to eliminate non-whole-foods, I decided to try just bringing a banana (they come in their own nifty packaging) today in case I got low.  When I get low I need quick sugar and isn't that what a banana is --plus fiber?  It did the trick on the drive home, without all the other garbage in a packaged bar.  No protein so not the perfect option, but worked today!

Recall

Is that what they call it when the put something in a magazine and there is an error or misprint?  Well, I went to eat the homemade nature's path granola last night and it just wasn't the same as the day we made it.  Too much cinnamon and not enough binding agent.  So don't go try out the recipe I put on the blog just yet--give me a bit more time to see if I can get the ingredients down perfect! 

Happy Eating
Chanda

What A Hit!

While in Spokane last April, my sister Stacy served us Lundberg Jubilee rice with a hard boiled egg on top.  Not gonna lie--when she first handed it over, I was most skeptical that this was all we were having for lunch.  However, I loved it and finally got my azure standard order with packets of Jubilee rice in my possession so I made it for dinner.  The kids literally freaked out they loved it so much.  Briggs ate his rice plain and was asking for seconds before I even sat down for prayer or brought over the boiled eggs.  The kids had never had boiled eggs and were thrilled to peel them and mash them into their rice.  I told them that we could have it for lunch like I did at Aunt Stacy's and Lucy exclaimed "Lets have if for lunches and dinners!"  I really wish I could have paired it with a nice green salad as that would have gone better but alas with my husband gone for the second week I can't get to the store for more fresh greens so we went with broccoli and zucchini and fruit salad.  I was SO full afterwards and I didn't even take any seconds.  I was worried there wasn't enough fats with this but apparently the eggs have enough fat with the protein because we were all plenty satisfied.

Now, since I didn't get to post this last night I do need to tell you what happened tonight at dinner.  I spent the afternoon cleaning out my pantry and trying to fill it with only whole foods (hopefully pics on this tomorrow) and so I wasn't prepared for dinner.  I have foods in my freezer I want to no longer keep with our new lifestyle but figure I am not going to just throw away so with Jon gone I decided I could serve Dino-bite chicken nuggets for dinner for the kids.  They were fine with this until I pulled out the leftover rice and the last boiled egg for myself.  HOLY COW.  There was mass complaining that I didn't offer this to them.  What kids choose multi-grain rice with a hard boiled egg over Dino-bites?  See, you gotta try this meal!  Oh, FYI, I do think a little sea salt sprinkled on top does make the meal.

Happy Eating
Chanda

Buckwheat Pancakes

I've been trying to incorporate Buckwheat more into our diet lately.  This morning I ground it into flour to make these pancakes.  Here is the recipe I found and what I did:

Tasty Buckwheat Pancakes
1/2 c whole wheat flour--I used brown rice flour (still deciding on how I feel about wheat flour...)
1/4 c buckwheat flour
1/4 c quick cooking oats
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup skim milk
3 tablespoon safflower oil--I used 1 1/2 tbsp canola and then ran out so used coconut oil for the other 11/2 tbsps.
2 tbsp honey--I used 1 tbsp agave instead of honey since honey often makes the pancakes looked burned
1 egg, lightly beaten--skipped the beaten since I'm lazy
Oh and I added 1 tbsp flax as I always do.

They were delicious!  I am constantly trying alternatives to syrup so this morning I drained some homecanned peaches and put them on top.  Served it with an egg and fruit and was completely full until lunch time, no low blood sugar or anything!

So excited for my first shipment from azure standard tomorrow.  Hope to share all kinds of new things with the new products arrivals!

 Happy Eating
Chanda

Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax Granola

WE DID IT!  

Costco had a coupon for Nature's path Pumpkin Flax Granola so we decided to try it. Though it has 6g protein and 5g fiber which is far better than most breakfast cereals, it still has 10g of sugar!  So it is fine for a treat but still not a great substitute for breakfast.  Therefore the kids and I set out on a mission to see if we could reproduced a healthier version.

Here are the original ingredients:  Rolled oats, evaporated cane juice, soy oil, brown rice flour, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, oat syrup solids (oat syrup solids, tocopherols), sea salt, molasses, cinnamon.  It also is produced at a facility that uses peanuts and tree nuts.  

Here is what we used in our first batch: 2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup crispy brown rice, 1/4 c pumpkin seeds, 1/4 ground flax seed, 1 Tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup molasses, 1/8 c brown rice syrup.

Bake at 325 for 7 min, remove and mix around, bake for another 7 minutes.

I am not a huge molasses fan and was worried it would be too much so I made a second batch with 1/4 cup honey, no brown rice syrup as this was not necessary and I shouldn't have added it to the first batch. 

Note that I used ground flax seed instead of solid like the original recipe since our bodies can't absorb the solid flax and they just get stuck in your teeth which is really annoying so why not use the ground version--plus then you don't need to use as much oil! Also, I added some crispy brown rice since the original granola had something that was puffed it it but we couldn't figure out what and thought this would be a good choice to try--I think it was!

We did a blind taste test with all three types and both Lucy and Liberty didn't know the difference between any of them.  I could tell the store bought only because of a slight texture difference that I was aware of in advance but otherwise all three really taste almost identical except maybe a slight taste of molasses in the homemade molasses version (it also gives it a darker color).

The last test was to have Lucy eat it with milk like cereal.  She just smiled, nodded her head and said "Good!".

Now I am wondering about adding hemp protein for more nutrients or coconut oil for an even yummier result!  hmmmmmmm

Happy Eating!
Chanda