Some Recipe Link Love (SCD legal)

We loved this pizza tart today!  And these were some of the best banana based muffins I've ever had - Banana Blueberry Muffins.

All my boys (big and little) like these raw cookie dough bites - snickerdoodle.

We've also discovered that lasagne is still delicious using thinly sliced zucchini in place of the noodles.  Yum!

SCD Recipe Round-Up and Reviews

I've been trying some new recipes and, so far, have had really good luck!

The homemade beef pepperoni that tastes like summer sausage turned out great.  I substituted Celtic sea salt for the "Tender Quick."  We've been eating this with raw cheese, cultured pickles, and fresh fruit nearly everyday for lunch.

I also made SCD yoghurt with organic whole milk and Dannon plain yogurt as the starter.  You can also get a yogurt starter from Azure Standard.  I've been making mine using the oven light as the heat source.  A digital thermometer with an alarm has come in very handy for this.  We have been enjoying this yogurt with just some frozen fruit mixed in, no sweetener at all!  And the SCD website claims that a cup of this yoghurt (properly made) contains over 700 billion c.f.u. (compare that to the 5 billion probiotic I take each morning!).

I've also made this Lemon Poppy Seed Bread.  Mine wasn't nearly as pretty, but it sure tasted good!  Next time I'm going to try it with half the amount of honey, it was very sweet and moist.

Wednesday we had Comfy Belly's Cinnamon Bun Muffins.  Winner!  I made these exactly how she had written, getting 9 muffins out of a recipe.

Tonight we had Comfy Belly's Chili Chicken Stir-Fry.  Yummo!  I served it with 1/2 head of cauliflower fried "rice" (chop the cauliflower into rice sized pieces, then stir-fry with onion in half olive oil/half sesame seed oil).  No leftovers tonight!  And I even had a kid request it for lunch tomorrow!

We've also been eating homemade breakfast sausage using ground turkey mixed with scrambled eggs.  Top with some raw cheese and salsa to make it extra exciting!
 

Gearing Up for the SCD

With six members in our house, we have our fair share of "health problems."  Chronic sinus infections, chronic fatigue, seasonal allergies, food allergies/sensitivities, and emotional/physical issues from a massive stroke in our adopted daughter.  After reading Cheeseslave and all the benefits she has received from the SCD/GAPS diet, I'm finally going to jump in.  Well, maybe not "jump in"...  I'm not ready to down to the intro diet yet.  We're going to start eating legal foods (the best we can) and phasing out illegal foods as soon as possible.  In my kitchen right now I have four SCD compliant foods fermenting/slow cooking: chicken bone broth, SCD yogurt, homemade pepperoni (that tastes like summer sausage I hear - I substituted sea salt - to replace the all-natural lunch meat that contains sugar), and water kefir soda.  I have coconut flour in my stash and almond meal on my Azure Standard order.  I saw a recipe yesterday for Lemon Poppy Seed Bread that looks delicious! 

Anybody have tips, tricks, advice, favorite recipes for me???

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts:

sourdough toast with cultured butter and raw honey; oatmeal with cultured butter and raisins or blueberries; sourdough bread with peanut butter and raw honey or homemade jam; gf english muffins with sunbutter and raw honey, bacon and fried eggs

Lunches:

creamy mac and cheese; sandwiches (sourdough bread, all natural lunch meat, raw cheese, cultured pickles, tomato, lettuce, mustard, soy-free mayo; or peanut butter/sunbutter and raw honey/homemade jam) or all natural hot dogs, carrots and cultured ranch dip, fruit, chips

Dinners:

vegetable beef soup made with leftover roast; pepper steak, brown rice, green peas; taco salad (taco meat, black beans, raw cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, homemade salsa, tortilla chips); gf fried pork chops and gravy, garlic green beans, creamy mac and cheese

Weekly Menu Plan

I know it's Thursday, but here's the plan for this week anyway!  I'm leaving off the links, because I just don't feel like doing that right now....  It's either this or nothing!

Sunday:

out-of-town

Monday:

out-of-town

Tuesday:

Breakfast: toast, fried eggs, pears

Lunch:  sandwiches, chips, fruit, carrots and ranch

Dinner:  leftovers

Wednesday:


Breakfast:  smoothies

Lunch:  hot dogs, raw cheese, cultured pickles, chips, fruit, carrots and ranch

Dinner:  gluten-free pancakes, scrambled eggs

Thursday:


Breakfast:  toast

Lunch:  Dominoes pizza (shhh... don't tell!)

Dinner:  t-bones, oven potatoes, steamed broccoli

Friday:


Breakfast:  toast, oatmeal, eggs

Lunch:  leftover spaghetti

Dinner:  roast, potatoes, carrots, garlic green beans, coconut flour drop biscuits

Saturday:


Breakfast:  soaked baked oatmeal, bacon, scrambled eggs

Lunch:  chicken salad, crackers, carrots and ranch dip, raw cheese, fruit, coconut flour brownies

Dinner: leftovers

Product Review: Fresh Pears

I received 20 pounds of Starkrimson pears this month and they are de.lic.ious!  I don't see that particular variety on Azure Standard's website right now, but other pears are available and the first fall apples!  Don't miss out on these great prices for organic/transitional fresh fruit!

Product Review: If You Care Large Baking Cups

I have started using these baking cups for all of our muffins.  Nothing (and I mean NOTHING!) sticks to these babies!  I don't have to clean muffin tins and no muffiny goodness gets stuck to the wrappers!  Now, these are not decorative and would not be a good choice if "presentation" is a factor, but for everyday, at home use, you can't beat them.  And they're only $1.55 for 60!

Weekly Menu Plan

I've been thinking about adding a weekly menu plan to this blog in order to share some ideas of what we're eating during the week.  Obviously, the one recipe or link I may share each week doesn't begin to cover what we actually eat around here.  The blogging thing is not my strong suit, so we'll just give this a trial run...  I'm going to approach this as an "what we actually ate" list instead of a "what we would eat if everything goes according to plan" list.  I'll start with today, Sunday, then (hopefully) add to this post as the week wears on.

Sunday

Breakfast: leftover baked oatmeal or leftover banana muffins (I used hard white whole wheat flour and sucanat)

Lunch: grilled chicken thighs with homemade BBQ sauce; steamed broccoli with cultured butter, Celtic sea salt, and pepper; baked potatoes with cultured butter, cultured sour cream, raw cheese, Celtic sea salt, and pepper; coconut flour brownies

Snacks: water kefir, fruit

Dinner: leftovers

Monday

Breakfast: leftover baked oatmeal or leftover banana muffins (I used hard white whole wheat flour and sucanat); oatmeal with cultured butter; sourdough bread with peanut butter and jelly

Lunch:  sandwiches (sourdough bread, all natural lunch meat, raw cheese, cultured pickles); baby carrots and cultured ranch dip; apple chips or potato chips; fruit

Dinner:  crockpot spaghetti (rating: thumbs down from everyone, bummer...), peas with cultured butter, Celtic sea salt, and pepper

Snacks: homemade vanilla ice cream from a friend, water kefir

Tuesday:

Breakfast: oatmeal with cultured butter; sourdough bread with peanut butter and jelly,  oatmeal with sunbutter and raisins, leftover baked oatmeal

Lunch: pigs in a blanket (reviews for these: weird but OK), potato chips

Dinner: smothered chicken with gravy and mashed potatoes (courtesy of my mom!) and steamed broccoli with cultured butter, Celtic sea salt, and pepper

Snacks: strawberry ice cream, water kefir

Wednesday:

Breakfast: sourdough bread with peanut butter and/or jelly, gluten-free english muffins with cultured butter and raw honey, fried egg and fresh pears

Lunch: sandwiches (sourdough bread, all natural lunch meat, raw cheese, cultured pickles); baby carrots and cultured ranch dip; apple chips or potato chips; fruit

Dinner: banana muffins (I used hard white whole wheat flour and sucanat) (we seem to have had a lot of ripe bananas lately!); scrambled eggs with raw cheese and salsa

Thursday:


Breakfast: sourdough bread with peanut butter and/or jelly, gluten-free english muffins with cultured butter and raw honey or sunbutter, fried egg and fresh pears

Lunch: creamy mac and cheese (I used rice pasta)

Dinner: chili with raw cheese and tortilla chips

Friday:


Breakfast: leftover banana muffins (I used hard white whole wheat flour and sucanat); sourdough bread with peanut butter and/or jelly, gluten-free english muffins with cultured butter and raw honey or sunbutter, fried egg and fresh pears

Lunch: sandwiches (sourdough bread, all natural lunch meat, raw cheese, cultured pickles); baby carrots and cultured ranch dip; apple chips or potato chips; fruit

Dinner: hamburger steak and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans

Saturday:


Breakfast:  sourdough bread with peanut butter and/or jelly, gluten-free english muffins with cultured butter and raw honey or sunbutter, fried egg and fresh pears

Lunch:   sandwiches (sourdough bread, all natural lunch meat, raw cheese, cultured pickles); baby carrots and cultured ranch dip; apple chips or potato chips; fruit

Dinner: lentil stew (super easy, good and filling - everybody liked this, but we're beans and rice kinda people!)

Molasses-Sweetened Soaked Baked Oatmeal

We love this baked oatmeal recipe from Nourishing Days!  It is moist and cake-like, not too sweet, super easy to make and feeds all of us 3 meals.  Gluten-free and flour-free, naturally sweetened.  Now that fall (?) is coming this will be a great, warm breakfast to have on hand.

Cultured Lunch Ideas

I got a newsletter from Cultures for Health yesterday and it had an article with lots of great ideas for including cultured/fermented foods into your lunch.  There are several things mentioned that I want to look into.  Just thought I would share!

Creamy Mac and Cheese

Just wanted to pop in and say that the recipe Laura has for Creamy Mac and Cheese is sooooo good!  It is one of the easiest recipes I've ever used.  Maybe even easier than buying the box!  I prefer the taste of rice pasta rather than that of the whole wheat pasta.  Also, one recipe provides 3-4 servings when using it as a main dish for my kiddos lunch.  Let me know if you like it!

Granita

About a month ago, Pioneer Woman posted a recipe for Watermelon Granita.  It looked like a wonderful treat for the 100+ degree days we've been having ALL SUMMER LONG...  I had about 1/2 of a gallon of apple juice taking up space in my fridge, so I decided to make granita with it instead.  All I did was pour it into a glass dish, stick it in the freezer, and scrape it with a fork every so often.  Easy.  Simple.  Refreshing.  I loved it, and the kids thought I had made them a marvelous treat!  (Plus, it wasn't near as messy as serving pop-sickles!)  Go forth and make granita!

Fresh Green Beans

This summer we had green beans in our garden and were able to enjoy several pots cooked up just like my grandmother.  Delish!  I took notes and measurements during one batch to share with you here.








3/4 lb green beans, ends removed
3/4 lb new potatoes, quartered
4 cups water
1/4 onion, sliced
2 tsp Celtic sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Put all ingredients in a soup pot, bring to a boil.  Boil for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

Simple Egg Salad

This simple egg salad is a cool, nourishing treat during these HOT summer months!  I served mine on sourdough bread with tortilla chips and salsa on the side.  Oh, don't forget some fresh strawberries (or cherries!)...

6 hard boiled eggs
6 tbsp mayo
3/4 cup chopped, cultured pickles
1 tsp mustard

You could always make your own cultured pickles if you have any cucumbers in the garden...

Water Kefir Soda, An Update

I'm still loving my water kefir soda! 

For awhile I started to get overwhelmed with feeding it and bottling it everyday (even though it only takes about 10 minutes), so prior to VBS and a week of being out-of-town I fed it and stuck it in the fridge.  The directions that came with my water kefir grains say that you can use 3-4 tbsp of grains to culture 1-3 quarts of sugar water.  I washed out an old gallon glass pickle jar and decided to try making bigger batches, less often. 

It's working!  When I got my kefir grains out of the fridge I drained of the liquid and put it in fresh sugar water in my gallon jar.  I used 3/4 cup sucanat and 9-12 cups of water (I just pour water in to a line I drew on the jar).  After letting it sit two days (with a quart jar I only let it sit one day, but it seems to be taking longer to work through this much liquid) I bottled it up with a little grape juice and let it sit 18 more hours on the counter.  Delish!  I'm getting 4-5 full bottles every other day and when I run out of bottles (I have a dozen) I'll just stick the grains back in the fridge until I need to start again. 

Just thought this might be helpful for any of you trying to manage your water kefir.  Let me know if this is unclear.

San Marcos Steak

My sister, Amy, sent me this recipe years ago.  I had forgotten all about it until this week.  It is so incredibly fast and easy to throw together and tasty too.  The original recipe calls for Lipton Onion Soup Mix, but that's full of stuff your body doesn't need, so I've tweaked the recipe using herbs and spices from my pantry.

2 lbs chuck steak (I used tenderized round steak)
2 tbsp coconut oil
8 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp onion powder
4 tsp beef base (I like to use Organic Better than Boullion b/c it doesn't have MSG or hfcs)
1/4 tsp celery salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 (14 oz) can Italian diced tomatoes
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar or Balsamic vinegar
pepper
garlic powder

Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the steaks.  Sprinkle with seasonings.  Pour tomatoes over the top.  Sprinkle remaining ingredients over the tomatoes.  Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

Easy, peasy.

Serve with brown rice or mashed potatoes!

Non-Toxic Cleaners and How I Get Them for Free!

I joined Melaleuca, The Wellness Company over a year ago during a $1 membership promotion.  A few months later I referred 8 others during a $1 promotion.  So far I have spent about $20 for 13 months worth of dish-washing detergent, laundry soap, bar soap, mascara, lip gloss, pro-biotics, vitamins, cleaners, disinfectants, hairspray, deodorant, aftershave...  And the list goes on!  I love all of their products.  None of their cleaners require a safety cap and they really work!  No bleach or formaldehyde either (you'd be surprised what main-stream cleaners have in them...).  You can check out a slideshow about the company here (passcode is Melaleuca).  Joining is easy and they're having $1 memberships again through August 16th!  I'd be happy to help you get set up!

Chicken and Shrimp Soup

Oh, wow, this soup is so good! If you like things HOT, cajun, and gumbo-y, this will become your go-to recipe. When I subscribed to Mark's Daily Apple I received a recipe e-book which includes this recipe. I'll include my notes as we go. (Disclaimer: Mark's Daily Apple believes in evolution and I totally do not!)

Heat oil in a large soup pot:
1/4 cup olive oil

Add veggies and cook 5 minutes:
1 onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (I left this out)
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced

Add garlic and cook 2 minutes:
2 tbsp minced garlic

Add following and saute a few minutes:
2 cups diced tomatoes (I diced up fresh tomatoes)
2 cups cauliflower "rice" (1/2 head of cauliflower chopped in the food processor until rice-like in size and shape)
1/2 tsp. cayenne (Very hot! I liked it, but the rest of the gang was begging for mercy...)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. Celtic sea salt

Add chicken and cook 5 minutes:
2 cups chopped chicken (I chopped up raw, boneless, skinless thighs)

Turn heat down to low, add stock and simmer 20-30 minutes:
8 cups chicken stock (I think you could use as little as 4 cups, depends on how soupy you want it)

Add remaining ingredients and simmer 5-10 minutes:
1 lb. shrimp
1/4 cup scallions (I didn't have any)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Enjoy!!!

Coconut Flour Muffins and Brownies

OK, I tried this muffin recipe from over at the Heavenly Homemaker's blog; and they were a big hit!  No pictures, sorry.  It was a busy meal and we ate them all in one sitting.  I used butter instead of coconut oil and did not add any mix-ins.  I've got Cheeseslave's coconut flour brownies in the oven right. now.  Oh, yes!  I used sucanat instead of date sugar.  The batter has all been licked up, so I'm sure the finished product will be delish!  More to come...

UPDATE: Yum!

Coconut Flour

I have been trying to eat less grains lately and just came across Cheeseslave's Coconut Flour Bread recipe.

I already ordered 1 lb of coconut flour (grain free, gluten free, low carb!) this month to try out some other recipes I have come across (muffins, cookies).  When I saw this recipe for bread -and how easy it is!- I began wondering how much more it would cost to just make this for the whole family rather than go to all the trouble of making my whole wheat sourdough bread (I feed the starter, mix the batter, knead, let rise, then bake - a 24 hour process).

Here's the breakdown (based on what I ordered this month):

-10 lbs of organic hard white whole wheat flour costs $6.85

that's 35 cups of flour

it takes 2.5 cups to make 1 loaf of bread

that's $.48/loaf

-1 lb of organic coconut flour costs $5.05

that's 7.75 cups of flour

it takes .75 cups of flour to make 1 loaf of bread (coconut flour absorbs lots of liquid, so you don't have to use as much)

that's $.48/loaf

Sweet!

You can buy either of these in larger amounts, which would obviously lower the price per loaf.

I have not actually made this loaf of bread yet, it is on my to-do list.  Do any of y'all have experience with coconut flour?