Update on Our Food Journey and Recipe

   One of my favorite successes during our "Food Overhaul," has been our homemade granola.  I'll post the recipe below.  It's an adaptation of a good friend's recipe and we LOVE IT.  When we embarked on this journey into eating healthier foods and more natural foods I will admit that I panicked about snacks.  What will I feed the girls for snacks?  I was especially concerned about Ivy.  She can be pretty picky and I am not going to starve my kids on a whim.  So what have we been "snacking" on?

1.  This granola.  It's great in plain yogurt or if you are in the mood for a treat, MAPLE yogurt.  (Plain yogurt with a little maple syrup mixed in.)  It's also delicious as a cold cereal.  I have been eating it every morning for breakfast with a little milk.  So yummy.  It also makes a great snack by itself or mixed in with applesauce.  Ivy LOVES it.  She will eat it any time and any way.   It has become a staple in our home.  We buy most of the ingredients in bulk and it isn't very expensive that way.  It's chock full of delicious and healthy seeds and nuts and grains.  We sweeten it with maple syrup or honey. 

 Spread out on the pan and ready to bake! 

Pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, pecans, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and wheat germ are just a few of the ingredients. 

 2.  Bread.  I know there are a lot of schools of thought out there right now on wheat and gluten.  I happen to feel that whole grains are healthy.  I just don't want a lot of crap mixed in with my whole grains so we have switched to whole wheat flour with NO PRESERVATIVES.  This means it needs to be refrigerated and doesn't have a "forever" shelf life.  I am totally ok with that.  Our girls love this bread.  Lilia asks for it for desert.  I will make them sandwiches or just let them have a piece to snack on.

3.  NUTS!  Our family loves nuts.  They make a great snack too!  We started buying unsalted nuts in bulk and I have actually gown accustomed the the lack of salt.  I thought I would miss it with my cashews but I don't.

4.  What goes well with nuts?  DRIED FRUIT.  My girls will eat any kind of dry fruit.  What I love about dry fruit is that it's delicious, portable, and easy to find without any additives.  We have a food dehydrator and I would like to try and dry some of my own this summer.

5.  Hummus and veggies.  I love hummus.  It's a great snack.  Making your own is super easy too.  If you don't want to buy canned chick peas you can buy them dry and soak them yourself.  I haven't gotten to that point yet, but maybe one day.  

6.  Fruit!  It's a little tricky trying to find seasonal local fruit in February, but some of the farms around here still have apples.  We are going to crazy this summer.  I am already dreaming of strawberries and blueberries.    Yum!

 So the other area we have been successful in, I think, is cutting back on meat and eating more vegetables.  Everyone keeps asking me if our new diet is more expensive and the truth is, it could be, but it isn't.  Meat and dairy is more expensive if you choose to buy grass- fed, pastured, and organic meat and dairy.  What's the cliche, though?  Have you priced cancer lately?  Or any debilitating "disease of civilization?"  We want to eat better.  We aren't looking for a quick fix or the lowest price.  We are looking for quality.   I want to feel good about what I eat and where it comes from.  We specifically want to treat meat in our diet as a luxury and treat.  We have been converting a lot of our usual staples to more vegetarian versions.  Lilia is eating our cashew nut curry that we normally make with chicken and mushrooms.  This week we made it with extra mushrooms and carrots and potatoes.  It was delicious and still incredibly filling. 

   Cashew nut curry topped with raisins and more cashews.  I like to eat mine with a dollop of plain yogurt.   Fantastic! 

 Ivy Loves curry too.  You can see her hair is a mess because she licked the bowl clean.  Literally. 

  We love the milk that we are getting from Roanoke.  The cheese we are buying is also from VA.  The yogurt is from PA, but we love it and still consider that pretty local.  I LOVE looking at the ingredients and reading "milk, and cultures."  That's it!  They must let it ferment a while too, because it is so thick and creamy.  I would like to try and make my own yogurt sometime.  Baby steps.

So we've been making our bread, making our granola, making our salad dressings, making our own chicken stock and cutting back on meat.  We've switched to a lot of local produce, (especially greens,) and all dairy products from grass-fed animals.  I love the "creamline" milk.  It's non-homogenized and has the cream on the top.  SOOOO GOOD.   We are still struggling with a few things like condiments and treats.  It's hard to find chocolate/ sweets or even ice cream that doesn't have some derivation of corn or soy in it in the form of soy lecithin, citric acid, etc.  I guess the easy solution there is stop eating chocolate and ice cream, but I AM pregnant and sometimes ice cream is the only thing I want to eat.  We haven't found any really good unprocessed pastas yet.  I have also found that food coloring is in a lot of things.  I have stopped taking Zofran for now for my nausea and switched to Unisom, but even the tablets I take have Blue no.1 in them.  Why?  Why is that necessary?  I may try to go without medicine at all soon.  That would be the ideal, but it's hard to throw up all the time.  We make some allowances.  Other allowances we have made for now include coconut milk, curry paste, and bananas.  I'm not cruel or unrealistic.  Bananas will probably always have a place on our counter.  So enough of all that,  who wants a recipe??  I do, I do!!


Granola  (adapted from Lynn Johnson's recipe)
6 cups rolled oats
1 c raw wheat germ
3 T cinnamon
1 c sliced almonds
1 c pecans ( chopped or whole)
1/2 t salt
1 c raw sunflower seeds
1/4 c sesame seeds
1/4 c flax seeds
1/2 c pumpkin seeds

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Then add:

1 1/4 cup coconut oil, (warmed to liquid state.)
3/4 cup honey or 1 1/4 c real maple syrup  (We have been using honey because it is less expensive and holds the granola together better.)

Mix well and spread on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 45 min at 300 degrees.

Our GOAL This Year!

  I don't really "do" New Year's Resolutions.  To much pressure.  People fall off the wagon in the first week and give up.   This year, however, our family is resolving to change our eating habits and we are making and charting goals a long the way.  I have recently re-read a couple of books by Michael Pollan as well as "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and although this might sound overly dramatic... these books have really changed my views on the world of FOOD.

  I don't think that anyone will disagree that Americans have a very flawed relationship with food.  We spend countless hours researching what car to buy, what electronics are highly rated, what university to attend, and yet when it comes to food?  "Fast, Cheap, and Easy!"  Do most of us have ANY idea where our food is coming from?  Do we care?  I didn't used to.  In fact, I don't think I ever gave it a second thought while I was growing up.  We take it for granted that we have strawberries in December and cucumbers in February.  We don't think about where our bananas come from our how they get from point A to point B.  Some of us have arrived at the conclusion that "You are what you eat," but do we think about what we eat eats??  Does it bother us that animals that are meant to eat grass are being force-fed unnatural grains or even animal by-products?  Mad Cow Disease is of course a rather extreme example of what can happen when we don't take food sources into consideration, but there are also e.coli outbreaks and other unpleasant consequences of mismanaged livestock and feeding programs.  I could write about this all day, but I would bore most of you to tears and I've preached enough.  Our family has decided to make changes in the way we eat, but I feel this is a decision that everyone needs to arrive at at their own pace.  So what changes are we making?  What on earth is this adventure going to require of us?  Let me tell you!


1.  We are removing as much processed food from our diet at possible.  This includes, but is not limited to:  eliminating "junk foods" altogether.  No fast-food.  Possible exceptions for road trips, but we will try to plan for those as well.  We will be making our own bread.   This summer we will be making and canning our own tomato sauces and salsas.  We will be making our own jams and preserves.  We will be making our own chicken and vegetable stocks.  I will probably make some exceptions for favorite condiments, but ALL high fructose corn syrup is out.  ALL artificial sweeteners are out.

2.  We will be buying grass fed beef and pastured animal products.  This includes milk and cheese and yogurt and butter.  Should we feel the need for a sweet fix, this will include ice cream too!

3.  We will be buying as much as we possible can from LOCAL farms and vendors.  We are making exceptions for some international staples and bananas and avocados.

4.  We will be trying our very best to eat by the seasons.  This means gorging ourselves on strawberries and peaches in the summer and possibly letting go of bell peppers in the winter!  The good news is that the fall and winter bring winter greens and winter squash.  Yum!

Our first attempt at roasting a chicken!  The chicken was fabulous.  We definitely burnt the vegetables, though! 

Ivy is excited!

YUM!

Cliff and I feel so very blessed to be living in such a "locavore" paradise.  Charlottesville and the surrounding area boast countless small farms that provide meat and dairy and produce.  We have MULTIPLE wonderful farmers' markets and CSAs available to us.  We are looking forward to really exploring all of the food options we have this coming season.  It would be a crime to bury our heads and ignore the abundance of central Virginia!  Stay tuned as we begin our journey.  Now that I have put it out there we are accountable!!!

Catching Up. I'm Pregnant.

   In case you didn't know, I am pregnant again.  Yup, that's right.  Me.  Pregnant.  #3 is on its way.  I haven't been feeling great, but that comes as no surprise.  Pregnancy and Jill May just don't seem to get along well.  I'm glad that there are women out there that enjoy pregnancy, really I am.  Just keep them away from me, please.  Having said all that, we are absolutely thrilled to be having another adorable baby!  I know I am biased, but I think we have pretty fabulous children.  We can't wait to meet this little bundle of "excitement" this June.  I am currently 19+ weeks, so stay tuned for the great gender reveal this month! 

  Because I was feeling like death warmed over this New Years, we laid low.  We had a family pajama party downstairs with blankets and pizza and Mary Poppins!  It was a huge hit.  The girls loved eating pizza on the floor and dancing along to Mary Poppins.  Paper plates made for easy clean-up and we had everyone in bed before 8:30, (ourselves included!)  We might have to make this a New Year's tradition as we all had a blast! 

Dancing with Ivy!

Snugly girls

Lilia watching the movie and Ivy... being Ivy.

 In other news, Ivy is growing like a wiggly little weed.  She is hilarious.  She has soooo much personality.  She doesn't speak any language that I am familiar with right now, but she DOES speak.  She is constantly jabbering away about something.  Very emphatic in her gestures and intonation as well.  She really desperately wants you to understand her and we really are trying.  I can't wait until we are both on the same page and we can make some sense of her because I'm sure that whatever is going on inside that head is going to have us rolling on the floor laughing. 

   She has developed a really fun relationship with her sister recently too.  They chase each other around the downstairs laughing and squealing while I try to rest on the couch and not puke.  It makes me smile.  I'm glad they have each other because I have been pretty useless lately.  They like to dance together and Lilia loves to hug and kiss her "little moochie moochie." 

Multi-tasking while putting the girls to bed. 

Cliff has been such a tremendous help these past few months.  I really don't know what I would do without him.  He cooks.  He cleans.  He works.  He runs.  He bathes and readies the girls for bed.  He changes diapers.  He never wants me to be pregnant again...   He really is Super Daddy.  It helps that the girls love him to pieces and the feeling is mutual.  

   I haven't been driving much because the motion exacerbates my nausea.  Because of our lack of travel the girls get really excited when we go anywhere.  ANYWHERE.  We have all gotten a bit stir crazy this winter.  I am SOOOOO ready for Spring.  Regular winter blues combined with puking every day takes its toll on a body. 

  I have a lot to be thankful for, though.  This pregnancy is perfectly timed.  Cliff will be home the entire pregnancy and for the babies entire first year!  We have never had that before!  We are stateside with no deployments and family within a day's drive.  We have a spectacular ward family here and super supportive neighbors.  My girls are an absolute joy (most of the time) right now.  They make me laugh every day.  Lilia is becoming a remarkable little lady with a vivid imagination and opinions on the world around her.  She asks me the most amazing questions.  She wants to know EVERYTHING about the new baby.  She asks me after everything I eat, "Mommy, does the baby like that?  Is the baby eating that food through it's umbilical cord?"  "Mommy can you hear the baby kicking you right now?"  I have really enjoyed our conversations these past few months.  She loves to snuggle at night and has recently taken up back rubs and foot massages!  What a gem!

  I'm just so grateful for the love of my family and all that they do for me each day.  I hope that I can return their love and service soon.