Clean eating!

I found a fabulous recipe on pinterest that's made with spaghetti squash and eggs... Instead of hashbrowns it's squash patties. I think it's yummy. The kids don't think so.

 After you cook your butternut squash in the oven for about 40 minutes on 350, use a fork to remove the spaghetti noodles.

After removing the noodles, put about a cup of noodles in a towel and wring out the excess water. As  you can see from the picture below, spaghetti squash holds a lot of water.

After you have removed the water from your cup of noodles, add 2 eggs, salt, cinnamon (if you want) and any other breakfast seasoning you might like.

Mix everything together and then put spoons of mixture on a preheated low temp pan coated with ghee or coconut oil.

Let cook for a few minutes and after it starts browning, flip to other side for 2-3 mins and you're ready to eat.

I thought they had just the right amount of sweetness. The first time I made it with coconut oil and the second time I made it with ghee. I preferred the ghee. I do not have a finished picture, but you can find me on pinterest and find the full recipe there.

 For one of their many... and when I say many, I mean MANY snacks of the day, I'm blessed that my kiddos like cucumbers. In doing our best to avoid dairy, they had their slices with salt and my oldest actually really liked it. They ate an entire cucumber.

For dinner that night we had butternut squash lasagna, yet again ANOTHER pinterest recipe. :-) I've never been accused of being a good cook, except when I lived at home and my mom thought almost everything I cooked was good because that means she didn't have to cook.

This recipe was pretty simple.
1. Preheat over to 350.
2. Brown ground meat of choice with fine chopped onions and 1-2 tsp of garlic.
3. Slice butternut squash into very thin rounds. The thinner the better so they cook evenly.
If you make your own meat sauce, go ahead and get it out because you will need it here. If you're still using store bought, then that will work fine too, but it will not fall under Whole30, Paleo, or GAPS diet since it's not natural and has extra ingredients.
4. Combine sauce and ground meat and layer bottom of pan.
5. Layer sauce with squash rounds.
6. Layer with more sauce.
7. Add last layer of squash rounds.
8. Top with 2 beaten eggs. Make sure eggs go in between all of the cracks and open pores.
9. Put in over for about 35 minutes or until eggs are done.
The longer you leave it cooking, the softer the squash rounds will be.

I ate mine with a little sauerkraut on the side. I though it was good but the kids only liked the meat. They do not have a taste for butternut squash yet.

On a side note, my daughter's eczema on the back of her arms seems to be getting better.

Here we go!

A full day of goodness. Today was Day 1 of no sugar, now wheat (or carbs), and no dairy for my kids. In starting on this journey naturally it puts more on my plate, but if it means drama free, eczema free, runny nose free, and mood swing free kiddos, then it'll be worth it. Today, my wonderful husband made breakfast with eggs and sausage for the kids and they loved the eggs. My husband is a fabulous cook, but he calls my new way of eating my "voodoo" diet. LOL

I took several pictures all day of everything I had cooked, but unfortunately I didn't have my card in my camera so I don't have them saved to share. Sorry. I'll do better next time. ;-)

 

For me, I had leftover spaghetti squash hashbrowns. They were SO good and I'm looking forward to making more tomorrow.

We had some friends over today and it was so cute when one of our visitors asked me where the snacks were. She ended up with a banana, an apple, and a pickle. Before long it was lunch time. Since I had just purchased a bag of tater tots, my 4 year old begged for some. Although they are a starch, I went ahead and made some for everyone, but since we had just ran out of ketchup it was up to me to make some. My adoration for pinterest did not fail me.

 

 I grabbed my last can of tomato paste, pulled up this recipe, and within a few minutes had ketchup that even my guests enjoyed. I even sent some home with my friend. Although I did have most of the required ingredients from the pinterest recipe, I did have to make a couple of adjustments because I did not have glycerin for the sweetener. No need to fear though, Amazon is sending me some. Instead of the glycerin, I added a little honey and brown sugar. I know the brown sugar is sugar so we weren't completely sugar free, but it wasn't even 1/4 tsp. It was more than 0 sugar, but still less than they usually have.

 My 4 year old liked the ketchup so much that he literally used his fingers to eat it when the tots were gone and then asked if I would send some to school with him for his lunch. Home Run and cheaper and healthier than store bought ketchup!

 

After lunch, we had an early dinner. My 4 year old began asking for pizza. He is fully aware he can't have dairy because of how his body reacts, so again, I got on pinterest for GAPS approved pizza recipes. Although I'm using GAPS based diet, I have NOT incorporated bone broth into my kid's diet YET. It's not far away though.

 

So, to make homemade pizza, I needed a crust recipe and a marinara recipe. In looking for pizza crust recipes, a lot called for cauliflower, which I had in the fridge, would have been good, but they also called for almond and coconut flour, of which I did not have. I finally found this recipe and although I cooked it longer than they suggested and it turned out a little harder than theirs probably did and didn't brown like they said it would, it still turned out good. My 2 youngest kids LOVED it. My oldest was in a mood so I'm not sure if he liked it or not.

Here's the pizza crust recipe I found and used. It does call for parmesan cheese, which I did use, which is GAPs approved, but obviously dairy free. In making my crust, I formed an outer edge so the sauce would stay contained and the kids would have something to hold when they ate.

Before I made the crust though I actually made the marinara first. In trying to find a GAPS approved marinara sauce, I found a few, but most had a couple of ingredients I didn't have. Fortunately for me I had just purchased some beets (for the first time ever) for some reason and I had everything this recipe asked for. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but even my husband said it tasted like marinara. The recipe says is tastes better after a day in the fridge. I can't wait to try it again soon.

My youngest, my middle, and my husband each had 2 pieces. My daughter said it was "100% good".

It wasn't long after we had eaten dinner than my daughter began asking for snacks. That girl can EAT and since we were out of fruit because we had eaten all of it today, I had to get back on pinterest and find something. I found these cauliflower bites. Her and I were the only ones that liked them. They were purposed to be popcorn replacement, but that didn't work out. Perhaps I should have let them brown a little longer.... Maybe next time.

 

Day 1 wasn't perfect, but it was a start.

Fermenting Veggies

In working to a clean health from the inside out, all of these are kindly being donated to my husband's work. Some are a month past expiration or are about to expire, but guys don't care. If they don't want to eat them, they can definitely throw them away. I'm replacing all of these store bough chemicals with my very first fermenting veggies

 This is from one head of cabbage. One thing the recipes online didn't say was to put something underneath the fermenting veggies because they could swell and the brine could overflow at night. I figured that out when I woke up to find some papers and one of my daughter's pieces of art wet. Of course, I might have put too much water and brine in the jars. Lesson learned. The cabbage could take 3 days - 2 weeks depending on my preference to tartness to be ready and the carrots are scheduled to take 2 weeks.

Fermented Veggies are a great source of probiotics and have LOTS of benefits.

Carrot & Chicken Pancakes & Ghee

EPIC FAIL!

In trying to get creative with my breakfast, I found a recipe on Pinterest that seemed pretty easy, quick, and healthy, but can't find it now to share with you---- but will keep looking. I think I might have added more than 2 oz of chicken as instructed since I don't have a small kitchen scale, but I'm not sure it would have made a difference. This was nasty. Healthy but nasty and will NOT be on my list of repeats.  

 I also made ghee for the first time. I made store bought butter healthy. It was pretty simple, but we haven't used much of it since I cook with coconut oil most of the time, but at least I have it for when a recipe calls for it.

Saving My Way to Health

 

It's been over a year (aside from a few months in the summer) since I replaced my store bought mouthwash with coconut oil and my teeth are noticeably whiter (at least to me). I can't smell my own breath in the morning. My ulcers have completely disappeared and my morning sneezes are almost gone, although I'm not sure if it's because of the coconut oil or other dietary changes I've made recently.

In trying to get healthy and cure my allergies and my children's eczema, I've been doing a LOT of research about not only getting healthy and clean on the inside but also getting healthy from the outside in. Chemicals in your body don't just come from the things you eat, but from the products you put in your body whether you ingest them or not.

About 2 weeks ago, I started using coconut oil as a fash wash/make-up remover and moisturizer. I LOVE it! My face is smoother and I've only had 1 or 2 small zits that dried out almost as quick as they appeared. Normally, I can predict mother nature's visit by what my face is doing. I've been dealing with acne for over 20 years so this is EXCITING for me! I really did NOT want to be fighting acne at the same time my kids were... I mean come on! A mom needs to be able to guide her kids through some things that she's experienced and conquered right??? Now that I've conquered it, hopefully they won't have to worry about it and can save $$$ from what I've learned.

I also use coconut oil for lotion on my legs. It doesn't take much and it smells and feels fabulous. My husband isn't a fan of coconut, but he hasn't said anything about me smelling like a coconut yet.

 

I replaced ALL of this...

 with this!!!

I just started eating 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil every morning to help fight any candida or parasites I might have (and don't know about) and I cook with it. No more PAM spray for me! I guess I should have added that to the picture above.

Next on my list is to remove store bought deodorant since it has high levels of aluminum which has been link to Alzheimer's as well as many other illnesses.

 

My friend pinterest has helped A LOT in giving me recipes to use around the house.

This website shows 160 ways and benefits to using coconut oil.

Eczema... It's Back with a Vengeance!

If you've been following this blog for the past few days or week you read that I took my 4 year old off of dairy. Well, then we had friends over and I let him indulge in smores, marshmallows, and chocolate and from there we had Christmas parties and I slacked as a mom and let him indulge. On Thursday, at his sister's Christmas party he had a piece of double doozie chocolate chip cookie cake, pizza, and hot chocolate. Then Friday, he had HIS Christmas party which also included a cupcake and candy from the parents. He LOVED it, but his body not so much. By the time we left the Christmas party on Thursday, his rash was SO bad that he had been scratching it and it was bleeding and his ears were not only completely red, but were swollen. They were so red that even his brother noticed and that says a lot!

We went to the doctor just to make sure it wasn't any thing else because his rashes had never been this severe and he confirmed what I already knew. Yep.. he had eczema which was "probably" triggered by an allergy, but since he's never been tested he couldn't say what since he has never had allergy testing. I've been doing enough food elimination and research that I know what he's sensitive to and this just confirmed it. The doctor gave me 4 prescriptions. Honestly, I'm not even sure what they are,  but one was an ointment. One was an oral prescription and I'm not sure what they 3rd one was. Can you tell I didn't get them filled. I know the cause. I know how to help him heal from the inside so no need to spend extra $$$ for things that will actually cause more damage.

 

 

 

 It has taken my body over a week to heal from the smore and chips and dip I ate. I can't imagine how long it's going to take his poor little body to recover, but just by restricting his sugar and dairy intake for a 1 day and removing dairy and candy from his diet for a day (today), he's already improving and not scratching anymore.

Healing on the outside has started simply because we reduced and are restricting the things that cause even though he'd drink milk and have ranch with EVERY meal and in between meals if he could.

He probably isn't looking forward to it (because of dietary restrictions), but I'm looking forward to him healing and being able to eat what he prefers (in limits) once he is healed. He's a picky eater so I'm going to gear up for a battle, but it will be worth it.

Kombucha

I have a friend that makes Kombucha tea and she walked me through it the other day and even offered me a scoby so I can start brewing my own. Before starting my own brewery she suggested I try GT's Kombucha tea from our local grocery store. We only have 1 grocery store (30 minutes from me) that carries it. Not even our health store has it. I definitely wanted to try it prior to going through the initial brewing because I have NO idea what it's supposed to taste like and I wasn't sure if I would even drink it despite it's great benefits. As you read from the previous posts, I am currently making my own Kefir and I can't seem to acquire a taste for it.
Anyway, my friend suggested getting lavender or ginger, but I settled for green tea because that's all they had. I'm not a fan of green tea so I honestly wasn't expecting to like it. Upon taking the first sip, it had a carbonation that I'm not used to since I don't drink sodas and it almost had a beer like taste. I don't like the smell of beer, much less the taste, but as I took more sips it grew on my taste buds and before I knew it I was ready to drink the entire 16 oz bottle. Fortunately, I was reading about the side effects of drinking Kombucha and was reminded to stop at a few ounces as my body adjusted to the probiotics.

Chicken Zoodle Soup a.k.a. Bone Broth Soup

 It's been 4 days since my cheat (when I ate the smore) and although I haven't been eating like I used to, I haven't been eating whole foods like I had been and my sinuses are suffering. The past few days have me realize even more how much better eating right really does make me feel and how much more I need to be sugar free, dairy free, and as of now legume free. This isn't going to be so easy when my husband and I go on dates, but it will be possible.

I made my first bone broth soup tonight and am eating as I type this. I put a little chicken in it hoping my kiddo will eat it, but used zucchini instead of noodles and used carrots. It's a little bland because I didn't use seasoning, but other than that, it's not bad. The broth itself actually tastes like the broth in chicken noodle soup.

Kid's Probiotics

My kid's probiotics came in last week. My daughter who loves ALL things sweets loves them and asks for them daily because they taste like candy. My youngest who would eat chocolate all day if I let him does NOT like them. He says they're too sour. At least 2 of the have started their journey of cleansing and repair.

 

I was WRONG!

Last week we had a few friends over for a small Christmas party. I had been doing SO good on my new lifestyle diet that I decided ONE cheat would be OK. Just one... it's OK right... I mean everyone else is eating it. I was SO wrong!!!! I had one s'mores that turned into one bite of apple cobbler and WOW has my body been letting me know how much it does NOT like all of the sweet delights. That night my throat and ears started itching but after about 30 ounces of water it finally stopped. Here it is 3 days later and my throat is starting to burn, my nose is running a little (again) and I am exhausted. My 4 year old being awake from 12 AM - 3 AM the night before last didn't help with the exhaustion, but I can't help but wonder how I'd feel if I had not rebelled and "treated" myself. Lesson learned... back to square 1.

 Today, I'm planning to get my GAPS diet binder prepared so I can officially start the changes next week while the kids are out... or maybe I should wait until they start school... hmmmm... either way, I want it ready and prepared with LOTS of recipes so I have to do as little thinking and a lot of preparing as I can.

Blah!

Today (last Friday) my daughter had a field trip to the zoo. It's about 2 hours away and I didn't pack a lunch for either one of us. She's OK with that, but apparently my body is already adjusting to the new way of eating. I was REALLY hungry so instead of eating one cheeseburger, I ate 2. My body rebelled. One the 2 hour drive home I got extremely tired and at one point almost fell asleep while driving. Remember the other day I mentioned  how I hadn't needed or desired a nap since I took dairy and bread out of my diet? Now here I am eating both and wanting to take a nap WHILE driving. Hmmmm... I wish I could flush my gut to get this junk out. I did make it home (obviously) and went straight to bed for a quick power nap but am still feeling a little sluggish. Time to eat some fruit and something healthy to get some natural energy back.

Probiotics it is!

 In preparing to start the GAPS diet, it's recommended to be on a probiotic so that all good bacteria will be replaced while getting rid of the bad bacteria. What most don't realize is that while antibiotics help our bodies heal quicker, they also do a lot of damage to our good bacteria which can lead to other issues later on. Since taking dairy and most carbs out of my diet, my digestive system seemed to be rebelling and wasn't flowing as normal. I got these probiotics in yesterday and took my first one after lunch. Within an hour my digestive system seemed to be working a little better than. I chose this one because it was recommended by someone that I met on a FB group about the candida diet, which I am also researching because that was the primary reason I stopped eating sugar... because of the excessive yeast in my body.
Here are a few pros and cons of probiotics.

Speaking of probiotics, I started my first round of milk kefir, often referred to as MK by those who take it and are on Facebook talking about it. I purchased dehydrated kefir from a trusted site and used store bought pasteurized milk to activate the kefir. Apparently since they've been dehydrated they must be activated with regular milk (not raw) because it has the best effects because it has most bacteria. It's said to take about 4 cups of milk over a period of 5 days. After the kefirs have been activated you can then use raw milk if you desire. The are a lot of health benefits to incorporating kefir into your daily diet. Although I have a couple of friends that have incorporated kefir into their daily lifestyle diet, I'm kind of surprised I'm just now hearing about this.

Oil Pulling

My journey to health began a LONG time ago when I used to do fitness competitions (pre-kids) that only lasted a couple of years but it wasn't until recently that I got back on the health bus and I'm so glad I did. My intro back into becoming a "crunchy" mom started about a year ago when I started oil pulling. I heard about it, did a little research and without hesitation I started... BEFORE the new year began. Yep... can you believe I didn't put a date on it??? I started when I was ready and I think that had a lot to do with the changes staying. That and seeing all of the benefits of course!
It's a simple process that can seem overwhelming at first, but once it becomes a habit, it's hard to go back to store bought mouthwash. I like the fact that I don't have crazy dragon breath in the morning... you know the breath so bad you can smell it yourself. EEK! Yeah...that one! I like the fact that I can get about a year's supply for less than 2 BIG bottles of store bought mouthwash that only lasts about 1.5 months between my husband and myself. I like that it's all natural.
After oil pulling for about 6 months, the summer came and with it so did sleeping in. See... oil pulling during school season is easy for me because I rinse while I get ready. The timing is perfect. During summer, my kids are old enough they let me sleep in a little and I don't always have somewhere to go so I don't always have something to get "ready" for. With that being said, I hadn't noticed the benefit of oil pulling until I stopped. I guess absence made my mouth grow founder. It wasn't too much longer after I had stopped oil pulling that my constant ulcers had come back. I had completely forgotten how bad I used to get mouth ulcers. Within a couple of days of starting back, the ulcers were gone again and haven't returned.
Another nice benefit was that right before I had originally started oil pulling I had gone to the dentist and she discovered I had a small cavity. When I went back 6 months later after 6 months of oil pulling, my cavity had NOT gotten bigger. That's a BIG deal. I don't know that I've ever had a cavity stabilize like that and my dentist was actually surprised by the fact that it had.
Since being back on the oil pulling train my allergies and sinuses have calmed down, my dragon breath has gone away, my mouth feels fresher longer, I no longer get morning breath that sometimes happened hours after I brushed my teeth (before I oil pulled), and I think my teeth are actually whitening.
There are TONS of benefits to oil pulling and you can find TONS of great resources. I purchase my organic oil from Amazon. Do NOT get coconut oil from Wal-Mart. I made that mistake. It is not refined and does NO good.

Bone Broth Round 1

 

Well... my first can of bone broth is complete. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to look or not. I drank my first cup yesterday while it was warm. It was perfect warming agent for me because I was cold! My daughter even had her first small cup and she liked it. Well... I'm not sure if she actually liked it or not. She said she'd drink anything to be able to eat sugar again. Slight addiction maybe????

This is all we got from one small chicken carcass. It's not a lot, but it's a start.

Bone Broth - Getting Started

Well... it's official. Our first batch of bone broth is in the crockpot simmering for another 21 hours. We ate the chicken last night and I put the bones and carcass in today after church because I forgot to do it before church. After letting the bones sit in water and 2 tbs of apple cider vinegar for an hour, I added carrots and celery. I would have added onions, but was out and didn't know it. :-/ There I go again being unprepared.... Well.. I'm heading to grocery store to buy onions. I figured 20 hours is better than none right????

We finished eating the leftover chicken meat last night and our 20 lb turkey my husband got from work should be thawed out enough tomorrow for me to cook it for the meat and more bones to make more broth. I want to make sure we have plenty so we never go without since it's suggested to drink bone broth with EVERY meal. Check out this site for more information about GAPS diet.

Plenty of Water

I've been an exclusive water drinking since I was in college. I stopped drinking sodas (except for Sprite) when I was 16, but eventually the carbonation started tasting bad and I gave Sprite up too. So, I've been caffeine free (in regards to drink) for almost 20 years. Although I LIVED on sweet sweet tea and sodas when I was younger I can't imagine my lifestyle any other way than with refreshing water. My body actually craves it. I don't have to have lemons or any flavoring. Water is good enough. Since last week I've been more diligent about how much I drink and have worked hard to increase my water intake. The hardest part for me was finding a cup that was big enough to hold enough for me for when I was out and about all day. I work from home, but I'm not home often so there are days when I'm gone from 7:45 AM until 9 PM... It's those days I have to be very diligent about preparing and making sure I have enough with me.
After breaking almost every tumbler that I have, I finally remembered this beauty that was GIVEN to me when I had my children. I got one at the birth of each child, but I must have left my last one at the hospital because I only have 2 now... but 2 is good since I can only drink out of one at time. It's great to have a back up when I wash one.

I'm up to 3 of these cups a day... That's 90 oz of water. Eight 8 oz glasses are recommended. I drink a full cup before I take my kids to school in the morning and before I leave I fill it back up to drink throughout the day. Then fill up again when I get home and have a 3rd before going to bed.

How is your water intake? If you're getting ready to change your lifestyle through diet and heal from the inside out, I would suggest first starting with replacing at least one drink a day with water and gradually work your way to replace it all. Not only is it better for you, but it will save you a LOT of $$$. Click here for other benefits to drinking water.

Being Prepared

I knew Thursday was going to be a busy day and I wouldn't be home to cook dinner so after kids got ready for school I started dinner in the crockpot. I found a great GAPS recipe from pinterest that seemed pretty easy so I thought I would try it. It's Stage 3 GAPS, but since we don't have Bone Broth yet, I figured it wouldn't hurt to eat something that was GAPS approved.

When starting a new food lifestyle it's important to be prepared. As I put everything in the crockpot I realized I didn't have cilantro or broth so I had to run to store before taking kids to school because that was the only time I had to get it. I put everything in crockpot and it was done by 12:30 and family was able to eat a delicious dinner that EVERYONE loved without me being there.

Here's the recipe we used.

When I got home that night my husband said the kids LOVED it and actually raved about it... Adding this to our regular menu. It was SO easy and would have been easier had I had everything I needed when I started cooking. ;-)



It's a process

Day 2 & 3

 

In trying to heal from the inside, we found a healthy breakfast my youngest likes.... my husband's smoothies. It's not completely compliant with what I want him to have, it's a LOT better than the pancakes and syrup full of corn syrup he was getting.

This smoothie contains protein powder (which does contain milk) peanut butter, honey (needs to be replaced with local honey) and a banana. The only way he eats fruit is in smoothies. My youngest is was a milk drinking, chocolate eating kid. The change hasn't been as bad as I expected though because he can SEE and FEEL the changes. Now that he's no longer drinking milk, his nose isn't constantly running. When he does eat a lot of food with milk in it during the day, he coughs throughout the night. Changes... they don't have to be sudden. It's a process. Start slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner

I found a great recipe on pinterest that called for chicken, pizza sauce (we didn't have ingredients to make homemade) and cheese. I cooked the chicken in coconut oil, which in itself is healthy and healing, chopped it up, put in a 9 x 13 pan, covered it in pizza sauce (will use homemade next time) and then covered only 1/2 (the 1/2 my husband and oldest ate) with  and served with green beans.

Everyone enjoyed it and my youngest like it. It was a hit.

Healing from the Inside

WOW! It's been a while! OVER 3 years... that's a life time in the eyes of my child. Since then, there have been LOTS of challenges and BIG victories, some that I hope to share on here and some that will be saved for 1-1 conversations on an as needed basis. Nonetheless, I'm back for at least now. ;-)
My kids are now 9, 6 and 4 and will be 10, 7, and 5 in just a few short months. I'm back to journal our journey into eating clean and the lifestyle changes we are getting ready to embark on.
About 1.5 months ago, I went to a local Dr who specialized in homeopathic and he was amazing. He actually deactivated my allergies to pollen and trees. It was fabulous being able to breath again. I also discovered that I had a yeast build up in my system... often referred to as candida and my 4 year old although has no allergies is sensitive to milk. During very recent days I also found out that eczema can actually be caused by what is termed as "leaky gut" and can best be healed from the inside out... So starts our journey of healing from the inside out.
As we approach this new lifestyle, I am going to take it day by day so I won't get anymore overwhelmed than I already am over all of the changes that will happen.

Today is day 1:
I found a friend that makes her own Kambucha tea so when she gets back from Disney, we will start on that. For today, I made our own dairy free, gluten free ranch dressing. My youngest is SO excited because now he can eat ranch with ANYTHING!!! More like eat anything with ranch. That boy LOVES him some ranch dressing.

click here for the recipe.