Bay Scallops with Bacon Vinaigrette

The other week we took Penelope on her first boat ride and it was a huge success.  She is such a little fish.  If there is water near, she is happy.  I swear, it is because she was born in water, but her Papa is fish too.  He is on the cusp of Aries/Pisces and he used to do competitive swimming, teach swim lessons.  He has been surfing and fishing, since he was a kid too. 

We got that hat at REI, mostly she rips it off, but I got her to wear for a little bit. And her shirt is another applique sneak peak, tutorial coming soon, promise!

This is what happened on the way in after a morning of boating and scalloping.  Scalloping is probably the most fun I have had in a really long time.  I will have to do another post on scalloping soon.

When we got home, I cooked up our scallops. It was such an interesting feeling to cook something that I also harvested/gathered myself.  When I was out there, I totally felt in tune with hunter/gather humans that have come before me.  It was also super cool to be eating an animal food that was local and in season.  Veggies are easy to eat local, but meat is a whole other ball game.

Before the recipe, just a note. Please excuse these horrible pictures.  My husband took them.  :)

First, cook up a half package of bacon.  I cut up the bacon and then threw it in the pan.  But I guess you could chop it up after, if you wanted.

While they are cooking, lay out your scallops on a towel to get rid of any excess moisture.

When the bacon is cooked, remove it and set aside.  Then I add minced garlic, apple cider vinegar ( I use Braggs, its raw and really good for you), and lemon juice.  Mix it all up and let the garlic cook for a second.  I used med-high heat.  And a cast-iron skillet.

Then add the scallops.  Just for like a minute and half, then take it off the heat and let it cook for another minute or two.  That is the trick to scallops, don't over cook them! 

Then mix your bacon back in and toss.  You can put this over pasta or a salad.

Inhale.

Sort Of Healthy Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes I made for a July 4th party we went to.  I was trying to make a patriotic version of a rainbow cake, but without using food coloring.  They didn't turn out the way I envisioned, but they were so tasty!

Everyone raved about how moist they were and my husband devoured them!  Well, truth be told, so did I!  I didn't let poor Penelope have any, but she learned the word cupcake.  I know its only a matter of time before I wont be able to control her sugar consumption, so I am going to hold out as long as possible.

First, get your cutie set up in the Learning Tower.  I had intentions of making her a July 4th dress, but this Mini Boden dress she had was perfect, so I will save the fabric for next year.

 Now, for the secret ingredients!  I used pureed blueberries in one batch and pureed strawberries in the other, just like I did when making Penelope's first birthday cake.

I used local blueberries that I picked and froze a few weeks ago.  I bought 10 pounds of blueberries and put them in the freezer.  Penelope actually likes to eat frozen blueberries better than fresh ones! I think it must feel really good on her budding teeth.

I just loved the way the bright color of the fruit looked against the bright orange pastured egg yolk and grass fed butter.  The cake mix was organic and I used raw milk. So these cupcakes, could have been much healthier by using sprouted flour and some sort of natural sweetener, but these are still a million times better than crap you buy at Publix.

The strawberry batch and the blueberry batch.  The strawberries turned the batter pink not red, I somehow forgot that and then the blueberries turned the other batter purple.  Not exactly, red white and blue, but like I said, tasty!!

For the first round, I did strawberry, blueberry, strawberry, trying to get a gradual linear stacking, a la ombre, of the colors.

The second round I just did what. ever.

Because this is what the inside looked like no matter what.  It was actually pretty cool looking, like a tye-dye art project.

Lastly, I put raspberries and blueberries on top to get the festive colors.  I was hoping to print out and make these cupcake toppers, but never got around to it.  Maybe next year!

P.S. These are the cupcake liners I used:

Gluten Free, Grain-Free Chicken Nuggets

As long as you are using good quality ingredients (organic grass fed butter, humanely treated chickens, etc), I think chicken nuggets are damn good and healthy meal.

You can use bread crumbs if you want, but if you are finding out that you have a hard time digesting grains, even ones that are sprouted and soaked, this modified recipe is for you!

As you know, my week of no-sugar and no gluten was a big eye opener for me. Once I introduced gluten and sugar back in, I realized how horrible they both make me feel.

Now, I am on a mission to eat gluten-free as much as I can, eventually, I would like to be grain free for at least a period of healing as well.

So here's my recipe:

2.5 pounds of chicken breast meat (I bought chicken strips to save time on cutting the meat up)
1 cup of finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup of almond flour
Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Basil, to taste
1/2 cup butter

Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl.  It gets really gunked up, so I like to put half in one bowl and half in another, so the crumbs stay crumbly longer.

Then melt the butter.

Dip the raw chicken meat in the butter, then the dry mixture, and place on cookie sheet.

Then put in the oven, at 375, for at least 20 minutes. Every oven is different, so keep your eye on them. Take them out when they are golden brown.  These freeze great, so when you take them out frozen, just heat them at 375, till they are warm.

Don't pay attention to how ghetto my cookie sheets are.  New ones have been on my wish list for awhile.  I realize in hindsight, why people have big weddings!!

Also, a side note about cookie sheets and non-stick pans, they have chemicals in them that leach into your food.  I use a cast iron or stainless steel to cook with when I use pots and pans, but my sheets are crap.  You can line them with parchment paper if you don't have stainless steal sheets.  But I always forget.  Got get better about that.

Enjoy! Both Peter and Penelope devoured these!  This is what your family plates will look like if you make these nuggets! And if you have kids, you know how much they love chicken nuggets.

Now, you have a recipe that you can 100% feel great about feeding them instead!

And check out Miss P.  She is a big girl now, no more high chair.  We were given this hand me down booster seat last week.  She LOVES being able to eat off the table like us.  She will actually sit in her seat now and eat (before she would stand up and do yoga, while eating).  Amazing.

How I Quit Sugar

For five days anyway.

Well, five days may not seem like a lot, but to me it was.  I have never gone more than a few hours without sugar (in any form) since I was 12 months old.  Maybe sooner, who knows when my parents starting giving me processed apple juice (aka SUGAR.)

Let me just start by saying, that sugar is bad.  Really bad.  I could write a whole book on the topic, in fact, many people already have.  Suffice it to say, sugar is at the root of all sorts of issues from high blood pressure, diabetes and even cancer (cancer tumors feed off sugar).

It messes with your digestion system, and if your digestion is bad, your health is bad. Period.

Seriously, I can't even begin to go into how horrible sugar is for you.  So just do me a favor and go read these books:  Nourishing Traditions and The Diet Cure.

The Diet Cure is an amazing book.  It's wonderfully written and makes it easy to comprehend the complexities of the human body, how it works and how what you eat (nutrition) affects every thing in your body.

I first read the book when I was focusing on quitting my caffeine addiction.  With the help of some amino acids, as recommended in the book, I have been caffeine free for almost 6 months.

Sugar was next on my list!

I knew I may have had a slight yeast overgrowth in my body, and that part of my powerful addiction to sugar, was from the yeast yelling at me to feed it more sugar, but what I didn't realize, until after reading The Diet Cure, is that I very may well be ALLERGIC to sugar as well!!

By end of day 2, I felt like I was going to die.  Like I had the worst kind of flu.  I am not sure if was drug (sugar is a legal drug people) withdrawal effects or if I was feeling the yeast die-off effects.  I was feeling much better by day 3.  By day 4 I felt great!

Typically, they say that you shouldn't do a detox while you are breastfeeding.  But from what research I did, I felt like a yeast detox is not the same as a heavy metal detox and would be ok.  And plus, I figured if I have yeast overgrowth, she does too from drinking my sugary, yeasty milk (sigh).

Here are the supplements I took to help fight off the yeast in my body:

• garlic
• oregano oil
• grapeseed extract
• licorice root (there is some controversy about this herb and whether or not it is ok to take while breastfeeding.  I went ahead with it and listened to my gut, because I felt my body could handle the hormonal fluctuations and I felt like it was really important to kill the yeast in my body now, before I get pregnant again and I can't take this herb then.) 
• Solarary (my preferred brand for all supplements and vitamins) actual makes a pill that combines all of the above, so I just took one pill three times a day to get all those herbs in me.
• additional doses of reuteri probiotics (normally I just take one a day, but I upped it to two a day for the two weeks I was abstaining from all carbs to kill off the yeast).

These are the supplements I took to reduce my sugar cravings and normalize my blood sugar:

• L-Gluatmine ( I took this 4 times a day, one with each meal and one before bed time)
• Chromium 3 times a day with meals
• Biotin, 3 times a day with meals
• Vitamin B1, 2 times a day with meals
• I also upped my prenatal vitamin to three times a day, previously I had only taken one a day.  But after reading The Diet Cure, I realized that you are supposed to take 3 to 6 pills in one day to get the full amount!  Check your bottle at home, it will probably say one serving is 4 pills!
• I also upped my calcium and magnesium.  This is not directly related to sugar cravings, but something I realized I was a little deficient in after reading about the amounts I should be getting per day in a supplement.

I continued to take my protandim, cod liver oil and extra vitamin D like normal.  I also still take GABA and Tryptophan to help restore my adrenals from a lifetime of sugar and caffeine addiction.  I will probably stop taking them in another month.

It's a lot of pills. I know.

And its expensive, I get it.

But once you have killed the yeast and freed yourself from your addiction to sugar you do not need to take anything other than your normal daily vitamins (which for me is a prenatal, vitamin d, now calcium and magnesium, cod liver oil and protandim).

So, I made it 5 days. No gluten and no sugar, no wine, nothing.  Day 5 I had a piece of chocolate cake. Day 6 some chicken tenders and beer.  Day 7 it just went down hill fast.  I pretty much binged on sugar for the next week.

I thought that I didn't loose any of my belly flab, but when I reintroduced sugar (read:stuffed my face) my belly almost instantaneously got bigger, flabbier, and more bloated.  If I could have stuck with it for a few more weeks, I know I would be prancing around in a two piece right now.

Those 5 days taught me a lot.

I now notice much more how shitty gluten and sugar make me feel ( my lymph nodes get swollen, I feel waves of extreme fatigue and irritability, and nasal drip and congestion).

I think my yeast is much stronger than I realized.  I also think that I am a much more of disordered eater than I realized.  For me, that means I rely heavily on food for emotional nourishment and to de-stress.

So I need do some more emotional work to get my head in a more stable place before I try this again (maybe its the yeast making excuses!)  I have been doing a new treatment for the past two weeks and I really think it is making a big difference. It's something called Trauma Release Exercises, and it is awesome. I will tell ya'll about it soon.

Back to the drawing board I go. Just putting one foot in front of the other.  At least going in the right direction and praying that one day I will quit my sugar addiction for good.

If anyone wants to do some more research, here are some good links that talk about how awful sugar is for you:


Insuline Resistance


Stop Sugar Cravings

Guide To Natural Sweeteners


Intestinal Belly Fat and Yeast

Sprout Tutorial and Giveaway!!

Sprouting is one the simplest things you can do to add fresh, raw, nutrient dense greens into your diet.

BUT, do not sprout Alfalfa!  Which of course is the main seed that all sprouting kits come with.  Apparently, Alfalfa sprouts are mildly toxic and inhibit the immune system. 


I mostly sprout lentils but I also like to sprout fenugreek.  I have found that if I eat fenugreek sprouts I get in a boost in milk supply, much more of a boost than if I take fenugreek in a pill form.

I eat the sprouts as a little side to my meal, I like to eat crunchy things with my meals like bread and crackers, because I don't really like soft things in my mouth (I know that sounds dirty but I am serious!) so if I have sprouts with my meal, I tend to eat less bread or crackers with whatever I am eating.

So all you need to do, to have fresh sprouts (after you enter our giveaway!) is to soak the seeds in about two inches of water in a large class jar overnight.

Then rinse them out twice a day.  After I rinse mine, I lean my jar upside down on the counter to make sure all the liquid gets out, so mold doesn't start to form.  And wait for the magic!  You can eat them whenever you want.  Some people like longer sprouts, and others like them just as they have sprouted with no tail.

Here some lentils two days in.

And these are four days in.

So do you want add sprouts to your diet?
Then you will want the awesome Sprout Garden Kit! Here is how to enter:

MANDATORY ENTRY: Any new comment, on any post!

I will pick our favorite comment, whether it is witty and funny, or sweet and thoughtful, controversial or introspective, whatever strikes us as particularly awesome.

Good luck everyone! Giveaway will run until 5.11.11! I will use random generator to pick a winner and will email the winner and announce it here on the blog. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be announced.


DISCLAIMER: I was not paid for this post. If you are interested in having me do a review and giveaway for your business or product, or about our advertising pricing, send me an email at mamaandbabylove at gmail dot com.

This Moment: Belly Flab

Oh, man, this is kind of painful.  Hopefully it will hold me accountable and help inspire me to eat less sugar.

Basically, this is what eating cookies every day looks like.  I eat very healthy and make sure to meet my nutritional needs, but I have a serious sweet tooth. 

I have no words for this one.


Well, at least my arm looks ripped in this one.

Freezer Cooking with Slow Cooker Recipes

Welcome, Pinners!  Please be sure to check out my Real Food tab at the top to find more slow cooker freezer meals!


Like I mentioned in my post the other week, the last time I did a big cooking day, I had big ah-ha moment.


Although, I had a blast with Lauren, it was logistically very difficult to accomplish, between the juggling of cooking and childcare, the prep work, organization and scheduling, it can be overwhelming.


So this latest big cooking day, I did it by myself and only did slow cooker recipes.  Basically, all I was did was chop vegetables and assemble ingredients.



Even with doing it this way, it was still a 3 hour affair, but during this time I was able to finish all the cooking AND the cleaning.  Most importantly my feet didn't ache at the end like they normally do.  I also didn't have any sort of panic or anxiety leading up to the big cooking day like I normally do. HUGE.

I chopped all the vegetables with Penelope in her Learning Tower before nap (which was really fun, I went through all the colors of the vegetables with her and talked about rainbows and made it a fun learning experience).


Then I assembled everything during her nap (thank you Jesus, I can now skip a pump session here and there and can do other things at nap time than sit in front of a computer) and finished cleaning up after nap, again with her in her Learning Tower.  


This time she played independently with a bowl of soapy water, she made a huge mess,  but the rags I used to clean up her mess where the same rags I used to clean up my mess so it wasn't that bad.

I just dumped the veggies into the gallon ziploc bags, then added the meat, then added the spices.


Once I was done and cleaned everything up, I felt like I had invented electricity!  I thought I was such a genius for finally (it took me over a year, people) getting once a month cooking down to an efficient and easy art form.

I am telling you it will change your life! Give it a try and tell me how it went!

Here are my recipes.  I use a ton of vegetables in each meal, because I don't tend to eat a lot of veggies through out the day, so I try and get them all in at dinner.  And Peter is more apt to eat veggies if they taste like barbecue or curry than as a plain side dish.


 
Healthy Mama Barbecue Chicken
3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard (I wasn't sure if this meant actual mustard or the spice so I did a little of both)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.


Stephanie's Goulash
3 cups chopped onions
2.5 cups coarsely chopped green sweet peppers
4 large beets, peeled and diced
2 cups of carrots
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into one inch cubes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika or regular paprika (I used regular)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups hot cooked noodles
1/2 dairy sour cream


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. EXCEPT the sour cream, that is for garnish after the meal is cooked.


Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5 pounds chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes
2.5 cups baby carrots
2 cup coarsely chopped mango
1 cup chopped onion
1 zucchini chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 chicken bouillon
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.


To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

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January Freezer Meals

I swear, one of the best parts of cooking a ton of food in one day, is the satisfaction of laying it all out and surveying all of your hard work.

This Once A Month Cooking round, I did it at my friend Lauren's house.  She has an awesome kitchen and tons of toys and her husband works from home, so he was able to step in and pitch hit, when needed.  Although, in true husband form, he wasn't that helpful, but it was a nice idea.  She also has a learning tower.  I had been wanting one for awhile, but after spending all day in the kitchen and using hers it sealed the deal for me and we got one shortly after.

We made 6 recipes and doubled them, so we each got two containers of each recipe.  Two of the recipes, the Beef Stew and Apple Pie Porkchops, were big ah-ha moments for me. They were the only two recipes that were slow cooker meals.  So all you do is compile the ingredients, freeze it and then later dump it in the slow cooker.  How awesome is that?

Here are the links to the recipes we used:

Chicken Nuggets


Meatloaf (the recipe is in Nourishing Traditions, and its amazing).  Lauren had a great idea of smooshing the mixture into finger size portions instead of a big loaf, so that you can defrost them individually and serve to little ones for lunch.


Buffalo Shrimp


Broccoli Cheddar Soup


Beef Stew

Apple Pie Pork chops 

Has anyone else adopted freezer cooking as their main style of cooking family meals?

-Stephanie ;)

This Moment: Love My Learning Tower

The Learning Tower we got for Valentine's Day is as awesome as I had hoped and dreamed. No more Penelope standing on a chair with the possibility of her cracking her head open at any moment.

She LOVES to stir and help. I put about a cup of dried lentils in a bowl and she stirred them for a good 15 minutes.

And then she thought it would be a good idea to dump my entire bottle of Paprika onto the floor and counter. Oh well, the mess is so worth it. And yes, that is a Cuisinart food processor circa 1983 that I bought at a garage sale for $10 and works like a charm.

I love having her in the kitchen with me and hope it continues for the rest of her life. I hope that she will never have to go through what I went though/still go through in regards to having to teach myself how to cook. I really believe that part of being a good parent is not only feeding our children healthy foods, but teaching our children how to actually prepare and cook healthy foods for themselves one day.

But that's a topic for another day.  Today just want to say GO GET A LEARNING TOWER!!!

Raw Egg Yolk for Babies?

So this was supposed to be a post about toddler smoothies, but as I started typing, it digressed into a post about raw eggs. So here you go: a post about why raw eggs are very important to your young child's diet.


Last night my husband and I got into an all out brawl, because he noticed me putting raw egg yolk into the blender and he was all: "um, are you putting raw egg yolk in her smoothie?" To which, I replied, "um, what does it look like?!" Imagine the sarcasm dripping from my lips, because I have been putting egg yolk in her smoothie for almost 6 months. 6 MONTHS! He has seen me make it, many a time, and he is JUST now realizing I put raw egg yolk in it?


Oh, Lord Jesus, save me now,  I just might kill him.


Anyway, so then he looses his mind and says that I should have talked him about putting raw egg in her smoothie before doing it and that he doesn't think its a good idea because she can get salmonella, blah, blah, BLAH.


So then I loose my mind, because he is essentially saying I am putting her in harms way, and here I am busting my ass to give Penelope 100% perfection, in regards to her nutrition, AND I can't freaking STAND IT, when people make fear based decisions and have not done any research whatsoever to back up their purely emotional reaction. The argument ends with me stamping me feet (seriously) and yelling, "I am RIGHT and you are WRONG!"


I know, I'm so mature, right?


Once I calmed down, I apologize and say I should have known that he would like to have a say in what goes in her smoothie (I love him, but good grief, the man has to have a say about EVERYTHING) and that he needs to do his research and back up his statements and then we can have a civilized conversation about what is best for Penelope later.


So now I have to gather my research and present my argument to Peter and all of you get to come along for the ride.


First off. Know your eggs. I would never in a million years give Penelope conventional, industrial raw eggs from the grocery store. Not even regular organic, "free range" eggs. I only give her eggs that I go and pick up myself from the farmer. In a pinch, I will buy farmer eggs from New Leaf, but that rarely happens anymore.


Here's a quote one of my favorite blogs, Nourished Kitchen:


"Raw egg yolk tends to get a bad rap – and it’s unfortunate that consumers have become so fearful of their food. While everyone recognizes potential dangers of food borne illnesses, like salmonella from raw eggs, what they don’t consider is that only about one in every thirty thousand conventional eggs is infected and the incidence is even less among pastured eggs in which hens are kept in optimally healthy conditions: on grass with free access to consume the foods most natural for them. Raw egg yolk, are a potently rich source for two nutrients critical to health: biotin and choline.  They are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, lecithin and enzymes."


Here are a couple of links from the Weston A Price Foundation website: 


This one has some information about egg allergies (usually kids are allergic to the egg white, not the yolk) and how many eggs to give a child per day (as many as they want!).


This one talks about how egg yolk supplies cholesterol needed for mental development as well as important sulphur-containing amino acids. Egg yolks from pasture-fed hens or hens raised on flax meal, fish meal or insects are also rich in the omega-3 long-chain fatty acids These fatty acids are essential for the development of the brain. Parents who institute the practice of feeding egg yolk to baby will be rewarded with children who speak and take directions at an early age. The white, which contains difficult-to-digest proteins, should not be given before the age of one year.


This one says that eggs have been a highly valued foods since the beginning of time—eggs from chickens, ducks, geese, turtles and fish. Egg yolks are the richest source of two superstar carotenoids—lutein and zeaxanthin. Not only are bright yellow yolks loaded with these fat-soluble antioxidant nutrients, they are more bioavailable than those found in vegetables, corn and most supplements. While these nutrients have a reputation of combating macular degeneration and cataracts and supporting overall healthy vision, they have a long list of other benefits, including protecting the skin from sun damage and even reducing one’s risk of colon and breast cancer.


Another quote from of one my favorite blogs, The Healthy Home Economist, from her post about The Right Way To Feed Babies, she says:


"Children who receive sufficient omega 3 fats in their diet tend to speak clearly and understand verbal direction from the parents at a very early age.    I just went back and looked at my children’s baby books and all 3 of them (even the boys) spoke short sentences by 15-17 months of age (with first words at around 7 months).   While these sentences were very simple (“Get that”, “Don’t want that”, “More of this”) I have no doubt that getting ample omega 3′s from their diet played a big part in their ease of communicating at an early age with clear enough diction to be understood by even those outside the family."


This is a quote from a local personal trainer and nutritionist: "raw eggs are soooooooooooooooooooooooo good for you!"


I mean really, do I need to say anything more after that?


Penelope is right on par with her verbal skills, which is pretty awesome, considering almost everyone (professionals we worked with when trying to get her to nurse) told me she would have speech problems from her tongue tie and TMJ.  And she astounds me by how much she understands.  Pretty much everything I say to her she understands completely.  Her perception of what I am saying is 100% right on.  Now, I do spend a fair amount of time talking to her, reading to her, doing baby sign language and other things to build her verbal skills, but I really think the egg yolks play a huge part in how smart she is.


I feel that good nutrition is so important in general, but even more so, the first 3 years.  What she is eating now is setting her up for the rest of her life.  Maybe its a little fanatical, but I think egg yolks are going to make a major difference in her mental success later in life.  I have no doubt in my mind that Penelope will be smarter and more emotionally balanced because she got enough omega- 3's in her diet early on.


Ok, ok, but why RAW EGGS you ask?


Heating the yolks destroys some enzymes, reduces certain nutrients and destroys cysteine (amino acid) which helps make glutathione, which is the master antioxidant (and p.s. Protandim also increases glutathione). They are also just plain easier to digest raw.  Raw egg yolk is the perfect complete protein.  Notice I said PERFECT, nothing comes close.


I found this analogy on another blog and I think it explains the difference between raw egg yolk and cooked well:
 
"Imagine a delicate crystal vase. Now imagine someone smashes it with a hammer and then tries to convince you that it is the exact same vase as before they destroyed it because, hey, all the pieces are still there. Well, obviously it's not the same. It not only looks different, but it can't perform the important function of holding fluids or displaying the beauty it had prior to being smashed with the hammer.
Well, an unheated egg yolk may seem similar to a cooked egg yolk, but it is far more complex and precise. We just don't appreciate that as we can't see it at the molecular level. If we could, the picture would be just as clear as with the vase."

So, to my dear husband, while I appreciate your concern for our daughter's health, and yes I should have asked you first,  please stop acting like I was putting a rice krispy treat and some goldfish in her smoothie.  I have this area of her life under control.  Not only do I have under control, what Penelope is eating is very close to absolute perfection.    You can thank me now, or thank me later,  as in, when she has a full ride to Standford Medical school.


And Mama's, if anyone gives you shit, just print this out and stamp your feet!!


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Recent Freezer Meals

This week I am going to cook it up with my friend Lauren and build up my freezer meal stash, and I remembered that I hadn't posted some of my freezer meals from November.

I made Chicken Enchiladas from Nourishing Traditions, Beef Empanadas and homemade tortilla chips and everything came out ah-mazing. 

Here's the Chicken Enchiladas recipe:

Meat from 1 whole chickens (save bones to make stock!)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 green peppers, seeded and diced
2-4 jalapeno peppers( I actually omitted this, Peter doesn't like spicy foods)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or lard
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
.5 teaspoon red chile flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, peeled and mashed

Saute the onions and peppers. Then add tomato paste, stock, oregano, cumin, red chile flakes, salt and garlic. Cut up chicken and stir meat in. Simmer for 15 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Serve up with the usual garnish sides, like avocado, shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.

Then I fried up my own tortilla chips and they were the bomb.com.  I bought sprouted tortillas and then sauted them in bacon grease. I have since also tried it coconut oil and it tastes almost as tasty as the bacon grease, but come on, its bacon grease, so nothing really can possibly taste better.   I am going to try and do it in lard next.  Yes, lard!  Lard is good for you! Isn't it awesome?  Check out this post to learn more about the awesomeness of lard and how to fry  tortilla chips in it.

Then, I made up some empanadas. These are such a BITCH to make, but they are so tasty.
Cooking up the inside is not such a big deal, it's the rolling every little empanada that takes forever. This is the recipe I use, but I tweak it a bit and add a couple of chopped up boiled eggs, because that is the way Peter's mom makes them.  Also, that recipe calls for cutting out circles from pie crust pastry, whoever thought that was a good idea was nuts.  So I have Peter's mom bring me loads of pre-cut empanada pastry from Miami every time she comes to visit and I keep them in our beloved deep freezer. 

Empanada freezer warning.... do not smooch them all into a container like I did. They will not pull apart. They will still cook up tasty, but you will have a one big glob of empanada. So next time, I am going to wrap the each with freezer paper or freeze them on a cookie sheet for a few hours first (kinda like blueberries) and then add them to a container already frozen.

Wish me luck for Wednesday! We are only doing 6 different recipes, but it's still gonna be a handful!