Thankful

I am so thankful that my eyes have been opened in the last year. It's hard to face the truth about what you're eating and breathing. Hard to make changes. Hard to pay more. Hard to realize that no matter what you do, it will never be perfect. In fact the more I learn, the more I realize how much more I could change.

And yet, I'd rather have that then ignorance. I want to do what I can to live cleaner, healthier, to protect and care for this earth - to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to my care. I want to pass this on to my children.

I read a very good book recently that opened my eyes a little more. It's called "Having Faith" by Sandra Steingraber. She talks about unborn babies and the chemicals/pollutions that cause them harm in the womb. She also talks about breastfeeding and the toxins in breast milk. A lot of things are hard to control - but ignorance won't change anything. A great read - a little scary. But we should be scared! Hiding our heads in the sand won't do anything but cause more harm.

Anyway, just wanted to share. Here's the link if you want to read a bit about the book.

http://steingraber.com/books/having-faith/

Broccoli Beef Stir Fry

I was reading this blog the other day and this recipe caught my attention. Super good!!!!! We had it with rice noodles and I added onions, red peppers and mushrooms.

http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2011/05/broccoli-beef-stir-fry.html

Run out

I have run out of steam. Completely and utterly out. I've got nothing left. Everything else on my list is just going to have to stay unchecked. So the freezer inventory is not going to happen. I'm just going to do my best to give you a list.

buns and bread
cinnamon muffins
banana muffins
monster cookies
pie crusts
chicken pot pie
meatloaf
raw hamburgers
baked meatballs
cooked ground beef
cooked rice
pancakes

Stormy in here!

Baking up a storm that is! Everyday that I can I have been baking. And Baking. And Baking some more!

And I'm getting very tired. But I'm almost done hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On today's list was buns and bread and pie crust, along with freezing double of what I'm making for supper: Honey mustard chicken.

I started around 9ish and still have a bit to go.

Out of the bread I have 78 buns, 6 bread loaves, 2 small pans of cinnamon buns, 1 pizza crust.
My pie crust is made but still waiting to be formed. I figure when I'm done I'll have about 20-23 crusts.

Besides running out of steam my new problem is: Finding room for all this stuff in my freezer!!!! I'm hoping to go through it later this afternoon and make some more room and write down everything that's in there.

Stay tuned for a list of all the things in my freezer that I've been baking to get ready for this baby . . .

p.s. In case you are wondering I'm afraid that I have been cutting some corners. I have been using some store bought flour. Mostly because I am just about out of the organic stuff again! When I made my last order I didn't count on doing all this extra baking! I'm also using more sugar than usual to make things like muffins and cookies. I'm using mostly brown and organic cane sugar. We don't usually have so many baked goodies in the house, but I have this feeling that when I'm sitting there with the baby and the kids are hungry I will appreciate having something to pull out of the freezer.

Not exactly like planned

So the pre-soaked bread did not turn out exactly how I planned it. The dough was very stretchy and very promising at first. I used a recipe that I found online and it turned out okay, but did not rise very well and I had to use lots of extra flour. So I decided to use the recipe that I used last time that produced very good bread. The dough looked really good - but when I went to punch it down it was super duper runny. When I went to form it into bread/buns it pretty much wanted to run off the counter. The buns ended up being really flat. (you pretty much need 2 to make a sandwich!)

So I think I will try this again with some variations - but not this time. It is way too close to when the baby comes. I will just put the pre-soaked bread on hold until later. Right now I just need to have something edible and taste-worthy in the freezer to get me through those first few weeks.

Right now I have several things soaking to be baked tomorrow. So we'll see how those turn out.

Is trying something new!

Well, I am thinking about trying something new:) We'll see how ambitious I get . . .

I am reading so much lately about why to use sprouted grains/nuts/seeds and the benefit healthwise to doing so. Unfortunately I am having a bit of a hard time finding the sprouted stuff and I'm not sure I want to pay for it. There is an alternative though and that is to soak your flour, oats etc. before using them in baking. The only trouble with this is that I have to plan ahead and I am not a very 'plan ahead' type of baker! If I want brownies, then I make brownies. But if I'm going to be soaking the flour I need to premix the dough at least 12-24 hours ahead of time. So I'm going to make a list (I hope!) and try to make a bunch of soaked goodies for when the baby comes. If I'm smart I'll learn how to always have something on the go so I can have these goodies in the freezer.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Struggle with Heartburn

Last summer TR took steroids for several weeks in order to get his colitis under control. For a few weeks it worked, and then his symptoms started coming back. That's when we started the new diet and everything changed. He has never taken another prescription for his colitis since.

But while he was taking the steroids he was also on an antacid. He was told the steroids were hard on his stomach and the antacids would help with that. He also has a narrowing of the esophagus presumably from too much acid and so the hope was it would help with that too.

The only problem is that he never experienced heartburn. One winter he did, but not since then. After he was done with the steroids he had lots of heartburn. And so now he has been on antacids everyday. Several weeks ago it got really bad. To the point that even if he remembered to take them every day he still had heartburn, sometimes really really painful.

And now . . . he has stopped taking the antacids. And there is no heartburn! I can hardly believe it. He says that occasionally there is some minor heartburn, but he was experiencing that even with his antacids.

Wanna know what he did???

He started taking coconut oil. A little in his tea every day. Yes in his tea. I've done it and it tastes good and not oily at all.

All I can say is how very thankful I am. I have a real dislike for prescription drugs. To me the list of side effects makes them very unattractive. If there is a natural and safer way to handle the body's problems I think it is way better. And I was worried about how these antacids would harm TR's body over such a long period of time.

I really couldn't say that he's out of the woods yet. It's only been about a week. But so far so good! What a wonderful blessing!

p.s. If you want to know more about the wonderful things that Coconut Oil can do read "The Coconut Oil Miracle" by Bruce Fife. We have ordered a big jar of Coconut oil and I'm going to see what else it can do for our family. I'll keep you posted :)