"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the childrenof one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!"
I've been searching the web for new fall recipes to try for our November meal plan. I wanted to add a lot of soups to help keep our budget low this month and easy. Here is a great little tutorial for a Corn Chowder that looks super yummy! I'm making it for dinner tonight and making just a couple changes. Since our family does not like a lot of spice in our food, I am eliminating the jalapeno pepper. Also, because we are dairy free, I am replacing the cows milk with coconut milk. Should be yummy!
The other day I had a partial can of pumpkin puree sitting in my fridge that I needed to use up so I looked online for a festive pumpkin muffin recipe that I could try. I came across this recipe on Food.com and was not disappointed! It came out yummy and moist!
2 1/2 cups Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 tsp. salt
1 cup oil (can mix half butter / half oil)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup brown sugar or sucanat
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup milk (I used Almond Milk)
2 Tbps. Pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs
Topping:
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans and almonds)
1/2 cup brown sugar or sucanat
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix together wet ingredients in separate bowl, then combine both bowls. Mix until smooth. Line 12 muffin tins with papers.* Pour batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle topping on muffins; pat down into batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
*This recipe makes a bunch of batter. I actually had enough left over after the 12 muffins to make two small loaves!
So, let me be honest... I've struggled more with food and food prep since being pregnant than ever before in my life! As of January (right before we got pregnant), our family changed to receiving paychecks once a month verses every two weeks. These two things coupled together, have proven to increase my struggle and fight to fix real food on a cheap budget for my family. Also, with the increased need for me to eat more consistently due to being pregnant (high in protein) and both my husband's desire and mine to have healthy, yet yummy snacks around the house to munch on, I've been at a loss as to how to meet these needs and desires.
However, with the realization that in about 4 months my whole world will be changing for the rest of my life, with the addition of our first baby, I realize I've got to get my act together and figure out how to plan out a months worth of food and menus... on a slim budget. It can certainly be done... but it's been so incredibly hard for me to wrap my head around!!! To the point that for the last few months, I've partially given up even trying. Sad to say! Yet, when I look at other young moms, they seem to be able to pull this off... including making necessary changes for their family's allergies and dietary restraints. What does it take??? A lot of planning, dedication, and willingness to be patient as you work it out for your own family.
So... this post is not about how I'm going to do it... but rather some resources that I've found while seeking how to plan out a month food budget (plus a few fun resources I found while searching). Hope this is helpful to the rest of you. Enjoy!
A look at Some Basics:
Passionate Homemaking - Grocery Budget - This is very helpful because she breaks everything down to what she buys from each store and food co-op each month. I'm still trying to figure that out as we are members of a food buying club as well.
Week of Meal Ideas (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) - from Keeper of the Home's Real Food Makeovers. Here is another family Makeover with helpful ideas, especially when trying to get your hubby to eat more real foods and less processed foods.
I'm sure I've seen this before, but I just came back across Passionate Homemaking's Natural Living 101 Resource List on various things like: soaking/sprouting grains, soaking methods for the dairy intolerant, guide to natural sweeteners, coconut oil benefits, soy, natural skin care products, plus many, many more links.
I've always been scared to trying soaking (except for the soaked/baked oatmeal that I make) because of my dairy/wheat intolerances. How do you soak a store bought mix of gluten free baking flour?
Soaked Spelt/Rye Sourdough Bread - While this sourdough recipe is not gluten free, it is wheat free. Interestingly enough, I've been able to eat spelt flour crackers before, so I'm hoping to try making spelt sourdough bread, in hopes that my body will accept it. How wonderful would that be to find a cheaper bread to make at home that both Kyle and I can eat!
Recipe for canning pickles... something I eventually want to try!
Info on Why Not to Eat Soy products! (Something us diary intolerant people find hard to do when so many dairy free foods in stores are full of soy! Another reason to make things from scratch!)
Monday Missions Checklist - ok, this is the first time I've seen this list (you may already be familiar with it) but I literally thought "WOW" as I read through her links included on this post. If you're looking for how/where to start with sustainable living/eating healthfully, definitely check out her links here.
Well... this should keep me busy for a while! I've got a lot of planning to do... hopefully it won't be too long before I'm able to post about it.
Here is a great new recipe I tried last night for "almondaise." It is from the Body Ecology Diet book, page 252. I was a little hesitant about how it would turn out before I made it, but as soon as it was done, I was hooked!! (Including, licking spoons, fingers, etc...) Even Kyle liked it and thought it tasted like "real" mayonnaise! They say in the book that it makes for a great veggie dip as well and I agree!
So here it is:
Ingredients: (yields 1 1/2 - 2 cups)
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 to 3/4 cup water (I probably ended up using about 1 cup for the consistency I wanted)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1 cup organic, unrefined oil (flax or pumpkin seed)
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. raw, organic apple cider vinegar
1. Cover almonds with boiling water, allow to cool slightly. Slip off skins and have all other ingredients ready.
2. Place almonds in blender or food processor and grind to a fine powder. Add half the water along with garlic powder and seasonings. Blend well, then add the remaining water to form a smooth cream.
3. With blender running low, remove insert top and drizzle in the oil in a thin stream until mixture is thick.
4. Keep blender running and add lemon juice and vinegar. Blend on low 1 minute longer to allow mixture to thicken to desired consistency.
5. Scrape into a jar with a screw top and refrigerate. This will keep 10 days - 2 weeks.
I made my first batch of cultured veggies, coconut kefir, and coconut "cheese" last night. It took me about 3 hours to complete, not including the dishes!
I used the Marinara-Style Cultured Veggie recipe. I also consulted glued myself to this article with step-by-step instructions and pictures. My jars turned out beautifully, just like the recipe. It's really not that hard, just a little time consuming! Now they just have to sit for 4-7 days to finish culturing.
Next came the Coconut kefir. I enlisted the help of my strong husband to crack these things!
First he bored three holes into the tops of the young coconuts for us to drain the coconut water out of. Each coconut contains about 1 1/2 cups of sweet water. It's really quite yummy. After collecting the water, I heated it slightly, then added the Body Ecology Kefir Starter. In about 4 days we will have a great tasting Coconut Kefir to drink. It is highly nutritional for our bodies, especially for those of us who have a dairy allergy and cannot drink kefir made from cow's milk.
Lastly, this was the exciting part... cracking the coconuts open to get the meat out. Thankfully, Kyle is a very patient man and proceeded to spend a while cracking open the coconuts with a screwdriver and hammer.
Here he is... patiently pounding away...
Here is the inside... look at all that yummy coconut. I scooped this out, rinsed it, and threw it in the blender with some filtered water and made a pudding / yogurt / cheese mixture (whatever you want to call it!). I then added another culture packet and allowed it to culture overnight, rewarding us this morning with a nice little coconut yogurt. The culture eats the sugar out of the mixture so those of us with Candida do not have to worry about feeding our yeast infection. Yay!
***Note: Today is day 7 and I opened my veggies and they are great! Definitely a very strong onion and garlic taste, but mixed with a salad or other veggies they will make for a great, healthy addition to our meals. My Coconut Kefir however, did not turn out so good when I opened it on day 4. I think I let it sit out too long and it turned almost into a coconut vinegar. SO... next time, I'm doing only 2 days!***
Gluten free and Dairy free have come to Starbucks!!! Look at what my eyes beheld when we walked in the door tonight:
Two Moms in the Raw - Gojiberry Granola
I have yet to try this... I'm saving it for later.
I tried these and they were decent but very crunchy and "nutty" flavored. Not bad though for a store bought GF/DF cookie.
They also had baggies of dried fruit like apples. That looked good and I think they were organic. They also had new little fruit juices that looked fun for kids. I'm so glad they have finally started carrying more allergen-free snacks! They've had the KindBars for a while, which are great, but it's nice to have variety when you're staring at a case of cupcakes, donuts, and toffee bars! :-)
I've been struggling the last few weeks with dinner preparations after we get home from work. If we're trying to get out of the house, it's hard to wait for an hour to an hour and a half on dinner preparations! So, I've made up my mind to try some new crockpot recipes. My goal is to make Tuesday and Thursday nights our crockpot nights. We'll see how it goes!
So today I've been searching for some good, nutritional, gluten/diary free recipes. I have come across several that I want to try as well as one website that looks very beneficial. Check it out!
Today I threw in the crockpot some steak that I had in the freezer, along with potatoes, carrots, and onions. I have my crockpot cooking up at work and my plan is just to transport the crockpot with our dinner in it up to school tonight to meet Kyle to study. We'll see how it fares!
Last Saturday we helped some friends move into their new apartment here in Louisville. They have just moved up to come to Southern Seminary. We are very excited to have them here with us!
For breakfast that morning I made a new breakfast casserole to take over. I took a recipe from my new Taste of Home cookbook and tweaked it to meet our diary free needs. Click here for the original recipe. For those of you who know me well, you know that I normally will not eat pork. However, this recipe called for real bacon so I decided to bend and buy some... but only nitrate-free, non-hormone pumped bacon from Whole Foods. I bought 4 slices. Yet, when I cooked them, since I don't really know how to cook it, I burned it... :-( So I had to come up with a quick second option... I had some chicken breakfast sausage in the fridge and used that instead... but the bacon grease was still good so I was able to use that to cook it in.
My Version:
Friendly Brunch Casserole
1/2 lbs. Bacon or Sausage 1 medium chopped Onion 1 medium chopped Bell pepper 12 eggs 1 cup Rice Milk 1 package (16oz. ) Frozen shredded hash browns, thawed 1 tsp. Salt 1/2 tsp. Pepper
In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp, or sausage until browned. Remove to paper towels; drain, reserving drippings. Crumble bacon and set aside. In the same skillet, saute the onion and bell pepper in drippings until tender; remove.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and milk. Stir in hash browns, salt, pepper, onion and bell peppers, and reserved bacon or sausage.
Transfer to a greased 13x9 in. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Yield: 8 servings.
As I've been thinking about food for the holidays I found the magazine Delight at Whole Foods. It specializes in Gluten Free foods. I picked it up excited to learn some new recipes. It's a great magazine and has a lot of fun facts and tips for all cooks to enjoy. However, it does use a lot of dairy products in their recipes and since I am now also allergic to dairy, I may not be able to use a lot of them (or I'll substitute where I can with goats milk). However, it was still definitely worth the buy because I was just amazed at how informative it was!
Their website is also fun and looks very helpful. Check it out.
There is another magazine I've enjoyed looking through in the past as well that is gluten and dairy free! I love looking through Living Without and seeing what fun things can be made with allergies like mine. Many of the recipes use multiple kinds of flours so I tend to shy away from them and instead use recipes that call for fewer ingredients, yet I would like to try some of these various flours soon.
Born and raised in Texas... but moved to Kentucky where I met and married my best friend. We were then blessed with two precious little daughters, ages 3 and 19 months. I love the Lord and I am so thankful that He has given me the blessing of serving my husband and daughters in our home!
