Perfect Portions

Last month we found out that our daughter is allergic to soy.  While her allergy is mild, we have found that cutting soy greatly reduces her allergic reaction to our cats.  Therefore, until we find homes for our cats, she will be without soy always.


With this new found knowledge came a whole new world of challenges:

First was realizing that most processed foods have some form of soy in them.

Second was finding out that there may very well be soy in something, but the manufacturer doesn't have to report it because it is a certain form or a small enough amount that the law doesn't require it.

Third was realizing that even the butter we buy has soy in the hidden form of "natural flavors."

Fourth was coming to the conclusion that the only way to be sure she didn't consume soy was to make her food ourselves.


A short time after that, I concluded from hours upon hours of research that we as a family needed to change our eating habits.  I have certain medical conditions that normally require a great deal of prescriptions and semi monthly doctor visits, but we don't have insurance.  Therefore, I have gone without knowing that it could be detrimental to my health and I have suffered a great deal because of it.  However, I do not WANT to be on medications and I do not want to rely on doctors that took immensely longer to figure out what I had than it took me.  (Seriously, I told my doctor what I had and he dismissed it.  My other doctor diagnosed me after reading 1 test result!)

After a lot of thought and research, I found that changing our diet to be organic, raw and whole foods was actually doable within a reasonable budget.  I will have to join several co-ops within my local area (I'm actually very excited to get involved with other people who are as passionate about good eating as I am).  I will also have to obtain several different types of kitchen tools/ equipment that I don't own.  But when you get down to it, I CAN DO THIS!

(BTW, our whole house is starting an 8 week sugar detox next week.  Check back for updates on how we cope with our new found fountain of health!)

I'm viewing these circumstances as God pushing me closer to the simple homestead lifestyle that I've longed for.  What a blessing it is to have your desires confirmed by God's direction and divine intervention in your life!

The first step for us was to purchase a freezer.  With Ali being allergic to soy, we no longer have the option to "go get something quick" if I'm busy or sick.  My husband doesn't cook, so the burden falls on me to always do it.  I don't mind, but I have to plan for the inevitable sick day!

So I search Craigslist like a mad woman, day after day.  I had hoped to only spend $50, but I began to lose hope.  Then, last Sunday, I saw an ad for a deep freezer for $50!  I told my husband and text the number and planned to go pick up the freezer the following evening.  Well, as my days have been lately, my plan got ambushed by last minute work schedule changes and I was without a truck, a lifting helper, and childcare.  A dear friend lent me her husband, his truck and by the grace of God my hubby got home in time to watch our daughter.  We drove clear across town, purchased a $500 freezer for $50 and praised the Lord for His blessing.

Now all I have to do is fill it up!  That's what this post is all about!

I spent the past several days sprouting some pintos and cooking them up :-)  If I keep them in the fridge, they'll spoil before we use them up so I devised a plan!  I put my beans in a nifty silicone mini loaf pan.

 

Then I put them in the freezer over night and removed them.  You see, one mini loaf pan is the same amount that I typically use to make refried beans for burritos!  How perfect is that!

 

Then I just popped them out and put them into a labeled freezer bag!

 

Now they have been added to my deep freezer!  Yay!  I will also be doing this with soups and stocks.  The size is about the same size as a standard can, so it's the perfect portion for individual servings! 

How do you prepare for the inevitable sick or busy days?

Gratitude & Some Pie!

Gratitude: a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, as for gifts or favors

 

 

It's very easy, as a stay at home mom, to feel so unappreciated that I forget to show appreciation.  It's easy to side step the fact that as much as I want to receive it, I need to be giving it!

 

Obviously, I thank God constantly for allowing me to stay home, for providing for our needs, for my husband having a job, for the friends He has placed in our life, for my beautiful daughter, for the future He has for us, and for becoming a man and becoming my Savior!

 

What I tend to forget is to show gratitude toward my husband!  While I do express it verbally and I try to be consistent in encouraging my husband, I don't SHOW it very often.

 

A little background is that we all have different love languages and different dialects within our language.  I have 2 main languages and a minor language.  My 2 main love languages are Gifts and Words of Affirmation (hence my "telling" my husband how grateful I am) and my minor language is physical touch.

 

My husband on the other hand only has 1 love language and doesn't understand love any other way!  His is Acts of Service.  I do not speak love in that language AT ALL!!!  Expressing love to my husband in HIS love language is something that I have to conscientiously do.  That is why I try to keep my house spotless and home made food available.  I try not to complain when he refuses to put his clothes in the hamper, because in actuality it gives me yet another way to love him.

 

That being said, I was on Pinterest today looking for a pin that I wanted to reference.  Obviously, you can't go on Pinterest and not look at all the pretty new pins, so a browsing I went.  (Don't worry, I did get to reference the pin I went on there for.  I didn't digress too long!)  As I browsed I saw a chocolate pie with a coconut crust.  That's what I said, COCONUT!!!

 

This one little pin inspired me to use some of the not so healthy stuff still in my kitchen to make something special for my hubby.  You see, my husband is working from 7am-4:30pm at one job followed by 5pm-12am at his second job.  He is doing that for the next 3 days!

 

So now down to the reason you're reading all of my commentary, The Pie!

 

I looked at how to make this pie and it was VERY simple, but I of course had to make it my own, so this is the way I made it.

 

Coconut Turtle Pie

 

Ingredients:

4 Tbl unsalted butter (softened)

11 oz Sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 c Caramel ice cream topping (You can use as much as you want, I just didn't have much)

1/2 c Peanuts (salted or not)

1 c Heavy cream

8 oz Semisweet chocolate

 

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 350.  Put the butter and 1/3 of the coconut into your food processor and run it until it becomes a ball (1-2 min).  Then place in a bowl and mix the rest of the coconut into the mixture with your fingers.  Put the coconut into a 9" pie plate and press into the center and up the sides, leaving the coconut at the top of the sides fluffy.  Place your pie plate on a baking sheet and cover the edge of the crust with a foil ring.  Bake until the center begins to brown (about 15 min).  Then remove the foil ring and bake until the edges are browned (about 4 min).  Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the chocolate filling.

 

To make the chocolate filling:

Heat the cream on the stove until it almost boils.  Then pour it into a heat proof bowl and stir in the chocolate.  Stir it until the chocolate is completely melted and incorporated.

 

To assemble the pie:

First, pour the caramel topping onto the crust followed by the peanuts.

 

Lastly, pour the chocolate filling on top of the peanuts.  The peanuts will float, but I pressed mine down so that they would at least have a chocolate coating.

 

All you have to do now is place you pie in the refrigerator for about an hour to cool and set.  It will keep its freshness for about 1 day.

 

If you're making this as a special treat for someone you love, you can leave a little note for them like the one I'm leaving my hubby on the garage door :-)

 

What kind of things do you do to express gratitude to the ones you love?



Home-Made Snacks

It's been crazy lately.  I guess that means it hasn't been so simple!  Haha

It really hasn't, I'm guilty!  It's been eating out and buying way more at the store than I usually would.  Shame on me!

Actually, I've been feeling rather icky lately.  That coupled with the massively over stuffed schedule had led to a backslide in our home.  I think this week is the first week in a few months that my house has stayed fairly clean!

Over the past few weeks I've taken several steps toward simplicity; I just haven't had time to update you!

For today, I'm going to share just one of the big changes being made.

A couple weeks ago, my beautiful little princess turned 2!  That meant we had to take her for her 2 yr check up.  I decided that I was tired of my girl being on Singulair (for crazy allergies) and that I wanted her tested to see what on earth she is reacting too!  Well, long story short she is allergic to cats and dogs, but not their dander.  She is also mildly allergic to soy.

After talking to the doctor and then realizing how ridiculous her comments on the topic were, I decided that I needed to cut the soy out of my daughter's daily diet. Why cause her body to be constantly fighting something that it thinks is poison?  Why weaken her immune system that way?  Why limit her body's ability to heal that way?  Why ignore her need to make my life easier?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to freak out if someone gives her something with soy in it and I'm not going to forbid her from having store bought cake mix occasionally.  I just don't want to allow her body to be always fighting because it's easy to ignore or her reaction isn't overly noticeable to me.

My journey into this challenge began with a trip through my pantry.  Almost all of my daughter's diet has some kind of soy in it.  I guess I've allowed too much convenience food into my house!  Actually, it's cheap and that's why we have it, but that will have to change.

It continued when I went to Wal-Mart (my closest grocery store) to find a few soy free items including peanut butter, bread, buns, and crackers.  The only one of those I could find was soy free peanut butter.  Ugh!

Then I move on to trying to figure out what to give my daughter to snack on until I can make my way to a health food store (which I'm not overly hopeful about).  For this week, we've stuck with fruits and veggies.  She likes them, but they can get boring after a while.

I resorted to making them a little more interesting!  I made kale chips and beet chips!

Now, I know that there are a lot of recipes for these online so I'm just going to give you the gist of how I made mine.


Kale Chips:

1/2 bunch of kale
1 Tbl coconut oil
1/2 tsp iodized sea salt (purchased at Wal-Mart, believe it or not)

Wash, dry and tear the kale into pieces, but not too small because they do shrink quite a bit.  Toss the kale in a bowl with the coconut oil and salt.  Once the kale is evenly coated spread them onto a baking sheet and baked at 325 for about 20 minutes.  If you have smaller pieces, you may want to remove them from the oven sooner so they don't burn.  Place the sheet onto a cooling rack and once the chips are cooled you can eat away!

These were actually very tasty and my daughter loved them!  My husband ate them, but he said he prefers potato chips :-D


Beet Chips:

2 small beets
1 Tbl coconut oil
1/2 tsp iodized sea salt

Peel and slice the beets very thin.  I used a mandolin and set it for 1/32 thickness.  Toss the beets in a bowl with the coconut oil and salt.  Put them on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Bake at 325 for 20-30 min, then flip the beets and bake another 20 min or so.  You'll know they are done when they are a lighter color.  I had to take a few off at a time because they weren't all done at the same time.

These were delightful.  My husband liked them, but I don't think he'll continue to eat them since he insists that he doesn't like beets.  My daughter can't stop eating them!

That's all for today!  What types of allergies do you have to eat around?