Sprout Love

I'm back... (Cue screaming) So I have been kind of dead to the Internet lately. We had family visiting from out of town (more on that later) and I just didn't feel like I would be a great hostess if I was on the computer a ton doing my blog. So that is my excuse. But I really don't feel like I need excuses. I mean I will blog when I feel like it, okay??? If I sound a little bit snippy it is because my husband is out of town and I get kind of grouchy when he is gone. Yet another excuse. ANYWAY...

The good news is I finally started using my sprouter that my wonderful sister-in-law bought me a couple of years ago. Remember the one that has been sitting on my counter for forever?? Anyhow, wouldn't you know it, it really isn't that hard to sprout. So we can just add sprouting to my list of easy things that I needlessly procrastinate doing.

So here is the low down on sprouting... You can sprout seeds, nuts, legumes, beans, etc... Just soak what you want to sprout overnight in filtered water. I just did it in a regular bowl. The next day drain and rinse them using a fine mesh strainer. Then if you have a sprouter (which I suggest getting) you just lay them out on the tray and rinse them morning and night for a few days until they have nice long sprouts. Different things take different times to sprout. You can find this information in your sprouting kit instructions or online.

I have this sprouter,

which I recommend for a couple of reasons. 1. It's the only one I have ever used. 2. The tray drains easily with it's built in holes and then when you are done sprouting you can just stick the tray in the fridge with the lid on and they will keep for a while that way.

You can stick the sprouts in salads, wraps, and even smoothies. A loves them so much she just eats them plain. But she is a little weird. I mean that kid inhales salads.

Variation on a Theme: Oats for breakfast

I eat some form of oats almost every morning for breakfast. Boring, you say? Easy, I say. Breakfast is the one meal of the day I don't have to put too much thoughtinto (not to mention time.) And oats are great for you. So here are 3 ways we do oats at our house.

1. Rolled oats - or old fashioned oats. You can get these at any store. Don't get quick oats - they are even more processed. You can do these on the stove top or just microwave an individual serving. I think a key to good tasting oatmeal is putting in a bit of sea salt.

2. Steel cut oats - even less processed than rolled oats. You can get these at most stores. I think it is more cost effective to get from the bulk bins. We do these on the stove top. The proportions are 1 cup oats to 2 cups water. Add water and oats  and a few dashes of sea salt to a pot. Bring to a boil and then turn off the heat. Cover the pot and leave it on the burner. Let sit for about 20 minutes or until most of the water is absorbed.

3. Raw Oat Groats - the least processed. We get these in the bulk section of the health food store. Soak these over night. In the morning rinse them in a fine mesh strainer. Here is the recipe:

1 cup oat goats
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup pitted dates
few dashes of sea slat.

Blend.

All of these taste great with almond milk and whatever else you like. But try not to add any other sweeteners. Oats taste great with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, flax meal, nuts, cinnamon, etc...

Date Syrup and a Vinaigrette recipe

So in my quest to only use dates to sweeten my dishes I came across this video from the raw chef. This will make a date syrup that you can use to replace maple syrup, agave, or honey in recipes. The date syrup is not as sweet as those other sweeteners so you might want to add a little more or you might just like your recipes a bit less sweet than usual.


Date Syrup
1 cup pitted medjool dates (soak them in the water for a while if you don't have a high power blender)
1 cup water


Blend water and dates in blender until nice syrupy texture. (See video)


You can store this in jar in your fridge to have on hand to add to your recipes.


Here is a vinaigrette recipe that uses the date syrup:


Balsamic Date Vinaigrette (adapted from ohsheglows)


2 1/2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 TBSP date syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 clove minced garlic (optional)
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil


*** Don't forget to exercise this week.!!!

CONTEST!! - Fitting in Exercise

The scary dungeon

So today I weighed myself. Oh yeah, remember I was supposed to do that every Friday? Well, I fell off the diet wagon a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't bring myself to weigh myself because I didn't think I could handle any more bad news with the state I was in. I was already feeling pretty down by a discouraging appointment with my spine doctor, which is why I fell off the diet wagon in the first place. Why, oh why does my eating have to be so connected to my emotions? Grrr.


Anyhow, I braced myself and weighed myself today and I have lost .8 pounds since the last time I weighed myself, which I can't ever remember when that was. Anyhow, I am feeling a lot more peppy and positive now and I am back on track with my eating. I am also getting back on track with my exercise.


I have always loved exercising but with being a busy homeschooling mom it is hard to fit it in. Lately I have realized that there really is no ideal way to do it. You always have to make some sacrifice to exercise. Right now, mine is that I let my kids watch a video during Baby G's second nap while I exercise down in the "dungeon." This is not ideal in so many ways.


1. The dungeon is kind of scary.

2. I would really prefer my kids only watching one video a week.


But oh well. I know I could exercise at in the early morning or at night when the kids are still in bed. But let's be realistic, here: That is never gonna happen!! It is what it is. I mean I need to exercise. I mean I really need it. Not just how we all need it but if I don't exercise that is when my back starts acting up and my family can't survive with me out with back problems.


So I exercise and I want you to, too because exercising is one of the major keys to good health. So here is the contest. Everyone who exercises 3 times (at least 30 minutes each) by next Friday can leave a comment next Friday sharing how they fit in their exercise with all their other demands. Then I will randomly select one commenter to win a $15 gift card to Amazon.com.


So go start exercising, even if you have to exercise in a scary dungeon. It's worth it!!

Best Dessert Ever and how to slice an orange

Wait for it... Fruit!


Since I have been trying to lose weight, I have been really trying to cut back on sweets and of course then I crave them more. And interestingly enough, I have not been craving fruit at all. Lately, I just haven't wanted to eat it. I mean fruit just hasn't seemed appealing at all. But I just make myself eat it. I know this sounds weird. Anyhow, so these times when I have been craving sweets I make myself eat fruit, specifically an orange. And you know what, most of the times that satisfies my craving.


Fruit used to be almost the only dessert we ever ate. In the past year as I  have been experimenting with unrefined sugars we have been eating a lot of treats. I think, perhaps, too many. I have really felt this need lately to get back to basics, to simplify my life and to get all these sweets OUT OF MY HOUSE!!

Now I am not saying that everyone should only eat fruit as a treat but for a while we want to really cut back on sweets over here. So we have decided to just have fruit and the occasional chocolate smoothie.

Some of our favorite fruits for dessert are - oranges, grapes, pears, and apples with peanut butter.

The other night A. had the idea to make a fruit salad and she was really proud of herself so she had me take a picture. I made a simple "cream" sauce to put on it made from almonds, cashews, water, and dates.


A few years ago a friend of mine showed me a better way to cut oranges and it changed my life. This way it is so much easier to eat all of the orange without getting too messy. Here are some pictures to show you how.

Start with the orange sideways then slice it like this:

You will end up with circles...

Then cut the circles in half...

You end up with this..

and this...

You can basically rip the fruit out with your teeth...

And you are left with nothing but peel...

Baptism Review and how to get more veggies in your salad

So E's baptism was awesome. It was a really great experience. We had a lot of friends and neighbors come and share that special day with us. It was really nice.

 I realized too late that I should have taken a picture of the food. But here is a run down of what we ended up serving:

veggie tray (from Costco)
Homemade vegan ranch dressing
Hummus
Wheat pitas
Spinach artichoke dip (From Costco)
Organic tortilla chips
store bought peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies (gag!)
Homemade peanut butter oatmeal chocolate cookies
Raw coconut balls
Pink Lemonade

Even at the baptism I was pushing my healthy recipes on people. I got good reviews of the hummus, ranch dip, and coconut balls.

Anyhow, today I don't have a recipe so much as a tip. I got this idea from the blog Whole Food for the Whole family. In this post she talks about using a mandolin to slice her veggies to give them a good "mouth-feel." It will make more sense if you read her post. Plus she has some good picks. But the gist of it is that you shred your veggies into your salad they are a lot more enjoyable to eat than knife sliced veggies. (Cue clouds dispersing, sun shining, and birds singing!)

This was such an easy concept but I had never thought of it before but it is so true. Now I don't have a mandolin so I just started using my old trusty cheese grater to grate up raw carrots, zucchini, beats, etc.. into our salads. We were never eating these in our salads before. And let's face it I just don't enjoy biting into a big chunk of raw zucchini but if you shred that zucchini up and can eat the whole thing.

So try it and see if you can't get your kids, and yourself, to eat some veggies on your salad you never did before.

Meatless Monday: Why I Am a mostly vegetarian - Meatless Taco Salad

I became an "at home vegetarian" about 2 years ago. For almost the past 20 years of my life I have been learning about nutrition and trying to figure out the best way to eat in order to be the healthiest possible. 2 years ago I returned to studying one of the commandments of my church, the Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom is God's law of health and it tells us to avoid harmful substances like coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol, and narcotics. It also tells us to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, grains and to eat meat sparingly.  I thought I was already doing okay in the eating meat sparingly department but as I did more research and more self reflection I realized that my idea of "sparingly" perhaps was still too much.


We have lost close family members to cancer and if you start to do your research you will see that eating a lot of meat increases your risk of cancer. With this family history I feel like I need to be even more careful about what my family eats. As I have done this research I am convinced that the revelation to eat meat sparingly was truly inspired.  


Now, I know some times the idea of giving up meat can be an overwhelming and emotional idea. But what about this idea of "Meatless Mondays?" I think that could be a good start  and then from there you could continue to decrease the amount of meat your family eats. Do you need to be a complete vegetarian or an "at home vegetarian"? Maybe not. I am a true believer in you being able to be the expert on what your family needs. I think you do your research, if you are religious - pray and if not, trust your intuition because I think you can figure out what is best for you.


For the first 8 years of our marriage my husband would often say that he didn't get full unless there was some kind of meat in the meal. I was worried about that when I wanted to go "veg" but now my husband thanks me all the time for making this change for our family. So it is possible. I swear.


Meatless Taco Salad - no taco required

* This is how we do Mexican at our house. I pile all this on a bed of romaine lettuce:
Mexican rice, beans, sauteed peppers and onions, fresh tomatoes, salsa, guacamole ( my family crumbles tortilla chips on top).

Mexican Rice (original recipe from my awesome sis, Jen)
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 medium chopped onion
1 1/2 cups  brown rice
2 1/2cups vegetable broth
1 cup salsa


Sauté the onion in the oil in a saucepan for about 5 minutes on low heat. Add the rice and stir until slightly browned. Add the broth and the salsa. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for about an hour, check after 40 minutes.

Beans
2 - 4 cans of beans with liquid (I usually do a mixture of pinto and black)
2-4 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
3 tsp onion powder
3 tsp garlic salt


Stir all into a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour or more. (You could stick these in a crock pot in the morning and have them cook all day.)


Guacamole
1 Roma tomato diced small (I use my food processor)
1 clove minced garlic
2 avocado
1tbsp lime juice
salt to taste


Hand mash the avocados and then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Super easy and yummy

Sick baby - First Green Smoothie

Okay so I kind of checked out of blogging last week. Since I am a "Real" mom and not a professional blogger I can do that. My sweet little baby G has been sick since last Monday. She has been on antibiotics for an ear infection and has had a running, stuffy nose and cough. I feel so sad for her. It is a real bummer when your kids are sick. It's also a bummer for the mom since often they don't sleep well and are extra fussy. G is a pretty calm, sweet baby and she is trying to still be sweet but this illness is kicking her rear.

So in honor of G and her struggles here is a video of here first experience with a green smoothie. For her I just put in spinach, blueberries, and banana.

** This last week we added dandelion greens to our green smoothie and the kids couldn't tell. So there is one more green I can get into them. So far we eat collards, spinach, kale, chard, beet greens, and dandelion greens in our smoothies. So far so good.

** This past week I also realized I am just not going to post 5 days a week, which was my over ambitious original plan. With everything else I have going on, like back issues (which equals tons of doctors and physical therapy appointments), trying to homeschool my kids, and actually trying to live what I preach and make healthy food for my family, I just don't have the energy or desire to write that often. And let's face it. I don't really have that much to say! So the new plan is to post 3 times a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I hope you will still check in!

Healthy Sweets - A how to and the Best Chocolate Shake Ever!!!!

A few months a go I made a deal with my kids that if they would stop asking for store bought treats and turn down treats offered them by well meaning people I would make them all the treats they wanted at home. The treats you make at home will almost always be healthier than what you buy at the store and they will taste better too. Here are some tips on how to make your treat recipes even healthier.


1. Eggs - try to buy  free range organic, preferably from a local source.


** If you don't want to eat eggs at all. You can use a mixture of 1 Tbsp ground flax seed and 2 Tbsp water for each egg in your baked goods.

2. Use Whole Wheat Flour. Soft white wheat is the closest to white flour. You can also get Whole wheat pastry flour at some stores but it is more expensive.

3. Consider using Virgin Coconut Oil instead of butter or margarine. Here is a link that describes the health benefits of coconut oil. Here is a link for a great place to buy quality coconut oil for cheaper than you can get at the health food store. You want the virgin, unrefined one.  If you don't want to use coconut oil, use butter.

4. Replace the sugar with Sucanat, which is dehydrated, unrefined organic cane juice. You can also try Coconut or Palm Sugar.*

*I really like the palm sugar, nutritionally it is probably one of the best suagrs you can use.

5. Use Aluminum Free Baking Powder. You can find this at health food stores and most grocery stores.

6. Get Alcohol Free Vanilla Extract. Did you realize it had alcohol in it? I didn't until a few years ago. Finding alcohol free can be harder and it is more expensive. I have found some at Trader Joe's and my local health food store. I really like this brand.

7. Use Sea Salt (or Original Crystal Himalayan Salt) for all the minerals in the whole food rather than the processed salt stripped of nutrition, and cut the amount of salt in half.

Best Chocolate Shake

The only sweeteners in this are bananas and dates.

3 cups unsweetened almond milk
4 - 6 frozen bananas (Important – they must be frozen or it won’t be a “shake”)
2-3 medjool dates with pits out (we like 2)
1-2 Tblsp of unsweetened cocoa (we like closer to 1)

2- 3 Tblsp of natural peanut butter (optional)

Blend it all in your blender

** You can use regular milk if you want. We use Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla flavored almond milk. You can find it at health food stores and some grocery stores.

** Whenever your bananas start to get too brown, break them in to pieces and freeze them in ziploc bags. I always have a ton of frozen bananas in my freezer. If you don't have a powerful blender, let the bananas defrost a little so you don't kill your motor.

**Start out with the smaller amounts of cocoa and dates and taste it, if you want more, add them.

**These are seriously so delicious. They taste like a shake you can get from a malt shop. So good.

Getting Started - Green Smoothies

I realize now that this should have been my first post. I think when we have the desire to help our family eat more healthy foods it is sometimes hard to know where to start. There are a lot of good ideas and recipes out there but it is hard to translate that into habits for our families. When people ask me where they should start I always say green smoothies. Well, in reality I am not sure how many people have asked me that but let's just pretend you asked for this advice.


Green smoothies are awesome because they contain lots of fresh, raw leafy greens, which are some of the most nutritious foods on earth. Green smoothies are also easy to make and most people like them once they have given them a shot. The only special tool you need is a blender. Now I have a Blendtec blender, which is like a $400 blender. It seems really ridiculous to spend that much on a blender. But the good news is you do not need an expensive blender to make these. I made these for a long time on my $40 blender from Target and they were great.


Okay here are the steps to making green smoothies:


1. Fill blender with 2-3 cups water. ( I like mine thin so I put in a little more than 3 cups)
2. Put in several handfuls of greens - really pack them in (When first starting with kids put in less)
3. Blend the greens and water for about 1 min,
4, Add 2 ripe bananas ( not overly ripe like for banana bread but not green)
5. Blend again
6. Add whatever fruit you like ( I usually do frozen fruit because it is convenient and we like these smoothies cold)
7. Blend again and drink up! - (I stick my husband's portion covered in the fridge and he drinks it when he gets home. He usually just stirs it up before he drinks it)

** You don't have to blend up everything seperately but I think it comes out with a much smoother consistency when you do.

**The easiest green to start with I think is spinach - it's easy to find and if you have a Sam's Club or Costco membership you can get big tubs of organic spinach for cheap. Spinach has a really mild taste that is mostly masked by the fruit. Other mild greens are:

collards

chard

kale

beet greens

It's great to mix and change up your greens but for now just start with spinach till you get the hang of it.

** The choices for fruit are almost endless. I have used apples, pears, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, oranges, mangoes, pineapple, etc... Lately I have been using a frozen tropical mix from Walmart.

** There are lots of other things you can add to smoothies but don't make them too complicated at first.

** I would love to get you feedback on these. So if you try them, let me know!!