Rethinking Meat

For about 7 years of my life I was a very strict vegetarian. I guess you could say that I became a bit of a hippy when I went off to college, I certainly dressed the part and I decided that giving up meat was the right way to go. Though I have to admit it was difficult coming home for Thanksgiving telling my parents that I gave up meat because of all of the chemicals while smoking a Marlboro Light, but I digress. For the most part I was very content with my decision.

In 2002 I became pregnant with Zola and I started to be more concerned about my diet because now I had a whole other life that I needed to feed. So after talking with a fellow student at my massage therapy school and doing some research I decided that I would start to incorporate some fish into my life. I started to notice that just by adding a portion of fish about once a week that I was feeling better and had a little more energy through the pregnancy. I continued on with eating occasional fish after the pregnancy.

Ten months after Zola was born I discovered that I was pregnant with Ajay. I was really craving meat through this pregnancy. I used to go out on my lunch break from work to a deli that served an amazing ham pot pie (pot pie in PA is much different from other places, it is like a thick, creamy, doughy stew), it had huge hunks of ham that I would pick out and toss and I tried to calm my cravings with just the flavors of the ham.

It was the same way when I was pregnant with Taj, any time I had the chance I would have beef gravy on my food to once again try to calm my cravings for meat.

As the years have gone on and I have researched different types of diets I have started to rethink my vegetarian ways. Perry used to be into eating for your blood type and the books said that type O (me) should not be vegetarian and that a little red meat was good for our bodies.
But knowing what I know about meat there was no way that I could eat just any old meat.

One of the biggest factors for making the switch was reading the cookbook Nourishing Traditions and my introduction to the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Last fall I was talking with Perry about how I was thinking about slowly incorporating some meat back into my diet, but it would strictly have to be organic meat. So he put me in contact with a customer at the co-op that raises organic free range chickens. She was just about to butcher so I bought 3.

I thought that I was going to cook these and feed them to my family and reserve the bones to make broth for myself to eat. At the time I really didn't have any intention on eating the meat. It was kind of scary how when that 1st chicken came out of the oven how easily I dove into it. Perry sat there staring at me as I tore the meat off of the bones enjoying every bite. A few weeks later I was given a pound of local grass fed organic beef. I decided to make meat balls with it for Perry and the kids, once again when they came out of the oven they smelled too good to resist. So now about once per week I have been enjoying a big plate of meat for dinner.

I believe that is where the answer lies for a great way to eat. Listen to your body. Give your body what it is craving but in the healthiest form possible.

Not as Yummy, but Healthier!!!

Homemade "Doritos"

Ok, so they don't taste exactly like a Dorito (though I want to make these again when I have some Wildtree taco seasoning) they are still very yummy.

Ingredients:
Corn Tortillas (organic)
Grape Seed Oil
Seasoning and Salt
(I had Cajun and Fajita on hand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil both sides of the tortilla, stack all of them and cut with a pizza cutter. Arrange in a single layer on your baking sheet and season. Bake for about 9 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Enjoy!!!

I have made these before, but I had only salted them. Having these healthy seasonings in my cupboard has opened a brand new door to my homemade chips. The next time I make these I think that a garlic blend could be really yummy.

So, maybe I really bit the big one when it came to selling Wildtree, but maybe I could get a job in their test kitchen.

I have been trying to make more and more of our food from scratch and my reasons were certainly validated at our recent Holistic Moms Network meeting! This was the first time that I had heard about Morgellons Disease and it's link to GMO's. It really is frightening and I don't understand why we aren't standing up as a nation and fighting for our food!!!! Here is a great site and source for foods to avoid and foods that are safe.

Now, I am off to the store to buy a GM free baking powder, ugh.

Many Paths, One Journey to Health

So, I can not believe that I haven't flipped through this book sooner. The Holistic Moms Network has had a cookbook out for a few years and just recently published a second one. Well, on Wednesday Mary brought both with her to our leaders meeting to help give me some ideas for my topic of "Living Green on a Budget" at the next meeting. So once nap time finally rolled around that afternoon I sat down and flipped through both of the books and all I have to say is WOW!!! I think these books are going to be the most useful of all of my cookbooks (and trust me there are many). First of all they aren't just about one way of cooking, the are almost all inclusive with vegan and vegetarian, raw, macrobiotic and even an awesome section on fermented foods. Not only does this book contain many, many yummy looking recipes (even many that I think my kids would even eat) but there is also an entire section for remedies and other recipes.

Seriously, I had never even thought to make my own Elderberry Syrup. If you have never heard of this, it is a great immune boosting syrup that I give to my entire family religiously through the fall and winter. Well, at about $13 per 4oz. bottle of Sambucol passed out to a family 6 (well, only 5 take it) equals not lasting long and costing A LOT of money. The money that is going to be saved this fall/winter will be great.

Well anyway, I have been watching "Julie & Julia" a lot on one of the movie channels the past few weeks and this has given me an idea...I am going to work my way through the second HMN cookbook "Many Paths, One Journey to Health" and write about how it tasted or worked for my family.

The first item on the list was window cleaner. I was out of my natural brand of cleaner and was just thinking about googling a homemade batch when this book fell into my hands.

The ingredients are water, vinegar and a drop of dish soap (or Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap), I mixed it up in a spray bottle (I just rinsed out the empty one I had from the natural brand) and went about spraying the windows. This window cleaner gets an A+ in my book!!!! I sprayed and wiped down the windows with a micro fiber cloth and my windows have never been cleaner. I have sliding glass doors by my kitchen table that seem to always have toddler hand prints all over them. This stuff cut right through those nasty prints and left my windows clearer than ever. They might have even been perfectly crystal clear if I had some old crumpled news paper to wipe them with, but oh well we do not get one.

All I can say is that "window cleaner" will never be on my grocery list ever again.

My Little Tree Hugger (literally)

The other day when I picked up the kids from school I noticed that Ajay was holding a sad little branch in a bag. I soon discovered that he was given a tree from big, bad Wal-Mart in celebration of earth day, to take home and plant. OK, I guess I can cut them a little slack for one day, because I did find it to be a nice gesture to give all of the kindergarten and first grade students at our school a tree to plant.

He was so excited to plant it as soon as we got home. Well, those plans were put on hold since we are renting and I told him to go next door and ask the landlords if and where we could plant his new tree (yes, that is the landlords dog in the background).

It was fun how this little tree quickly became a bit of a community event. Our entire family came out to watch Ajay plant his tree as did our neighbors and their two dogs. Ajay was beaming from ear to ear as he placed it in the ground and Perry covered it with dirt.

One of the things that I really admire about my son is how in touch with nature he is. He loves to rescue the toads that get stuck in our window wells, put the worms on our driveway after a rain back in the dirt and will talk about how sad it is that a plant dies once it has been picked. Last summer was the first time that we had the space to have a vegetable garden and Ajay couldn't get enough of it. He was right there with me all summer pulling weeds, watering and harvesting the fruits (or veggies) of our labor.

He has been so connected to this little tree, watering and talking to it each day. He even started a tree journal where he writes about any changes in the tree and has taped photos of the tree in it. He told me the other day that we are going to take a picture of him and the tree every year on his birthday so that we can watch Ajay and the tree grow. I just hope that for his sake this poor little tree does take root and grows to be a big strong tree. My little boy will be devastated if something were to happen to it.

Of all of my passions that I had hoped to share with my children, one of the things I am the most proud of is that they get how important nature is to our well being. My kids amaze me every day!

No Pooing

Seriously, this has nothing to do with being constipated! You can give up your shampoo and conditioner and not have to have dreadlocks to do it. Have you ever taken a look at the ingredients on a conventional bottle of shampoo or conditioner? How many of those words were you able to pronounce? If you are already educated in how terrible these ingredients are for your health then I am sure that you have shopped for the really expensive "natural" hair products.

Guess what, there is another, more affordable and much healthier way to clean your hair. All you need is baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

You can google "no poo" and you will find many links to applying and mixing, but here is what I have found works for me:

I do have short hair so I only use about a half of a tablespoon of the baking soda in a small cup. To this I add a little water to make a paste that is applied to wet hair. I rub this into my scalp for a minute or two, some days longer when I am really stressed and a good head massage feels so good. Then rinse. After this I squirt my premixed 1 part apple cider vinegar to 4 parts water making sure to saturate my hair and rub it all through. I let this sit for a minute or so before rinsing. I find that I do not need to wash my hair everyday with the baking soda (and yes I do use hair products) but I do use a daily rinse of the apple cider vinegar. I just dry and style as I normally would. Some people have stated that there is an adjustment period for their hair, but I have never really noticed this. My only issue is that when I have found myself in a position of not having my "no pooing" supplies and I needed to wash my hair with regular shampoo my hair looks awful!!! I feel it takes me about 3 washings with "no poo" to get all of that residue out of my hair.

Give it a try, I love it and I use it on all of the kids (well those that have hair). I am still working on converting Perry, but now the our local grocery store has stopped carrying his favorite $8 bottle of shampoo I may have more luck. It is a comforting thought knowing the 2 ingredients that I am putting on my head on a daily basis.