Food for Thought

I just had to share this little tidbit I learned this week. I just finished reading Michael Pollan's"Food Rules" book, and am about halfway through a book by Dr. Furhman called "Disease Proof Your Child." Both are great reads on feeding your children and family a whole foods diet- basically just feeding them real, unprocessed foods. Dr. Furhman said that at the beginning of each day they cut up some fresh fruits and veggies and put them in bowls on the kitchen table along with some selections of raw nuts. They leave this food out the whole day for the family to snack on. It's really a simple thing, but I tried it out this week and it had amazing results.

Especially since we home school, my kids seem like they are eating 24-7. And, not always the best of choices. But, I cut up several different types of raw and steamed veggies, one big bowl of fruit, and put out several different types of nuts throughout the week. The result: They stopped asking me for food between meals. They would just go over and eat what was out. They were eating raw fruits, veggies, and nuts all day long too! I found that my husband and I were going over and snacking on the produce too. And since the whole family was eating good stuff throughout the day, I didn't find myself worrying or nagging them to eat up veggies at mealtimes. I still served them, but it wasn't like that was all they were going to eat for the day, so it made me feel really relaxed.

When I got home from the market, I took about 30-40 minutes and washed all the produce and cut it up and put it in containers in the fridge. Each morning it took me all of about 5 minutes to set stuff out. I made sure to put out different stuff every day and put out stuff I know my kids like, plus some foods that they've never tried. I learned this week that Benjamin loves red bell pepper. Over the course of a couple days he ate 2 raw bell peppers himself! Bradley ate an entire jicama this week, plus an array of other great foods. Savanna really like the broccoli and kale salad. I found that I really like raw celery and carrot sticks. I've never eaten too many veggies without some sort of dip or dressing, but since they were all just out solo, I found I was munching on them throughout the day.

This week our snacking table consisted of: carrots, celery, jicama, bell pepper, kale, artichokes, peanuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, strawberries, oranges, cucumber, tomatoes, apples, cantaloupe, and peas...isn't that cool?!? Just thought I'd pass on this little tip!

Grandma's Pasta Gravy!

I have slowly been adding more meat and dairy into our diets. I am not a big meat eater- never have been. I just don't care for it, so I tend to not cook a lot of it. My kids don't do well with dairy from cows either, and Brad has his whole allergy issues. Plus, I have done too much reading about what happens to our food before it hits our tables, especially in the animal products realm, that it has been a slow adjustment for me to bring these into the home. So needless to say, our menus have been strictly limited. However, I have started to transition from the extremist view of complete abstinence from certain foods to one of an informed consumer. I have found some great local farms that sell organic, free-range, grass-fed meats that I feel good about supporting. I also buy my kids goat products which tend to be healthier not only because they are easier to digest, but because they don't contain the hormones, antibiotics, etc. that a lot of dairy products from cows contain. So, we still eat mostly a plant-based diet, but have our animal products in moderation throughout the week. The meat or dairy tend to be the side dish of most meals we make...we follow Dr. T. Colin Campbell's rule from his great nutritional study, "The China Study," which says that 90% of our diet should come from plants, 10% from animals. Anyway, the kids are doing great with the changes, and we've made some very yummy recipes lately! It feels liberating. :)

Here is my grandma's recipe for pasta gravy. You can make this without the meat or with some kind of meat substitute, but we made it with the organic ground beef from New Frontiers health food store.

Ingredients:

3 lbs ground beef

2-4 chopped garlic cloves

1 large red onion

2 large cans of tomato puree

1 large can of Italian seasoned chopped tomatoes

2 small cans of tomato sauce

Seasonings to taste: LOTS of garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasonings, oregano, and parsley

Directions:

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in a small pan.

Cook meat or meat substitute, if using, and drain.

Combine the onions and garlic with the meat and all the rest of the ingredients.

Cook over low heat for several hours or put in a slow cooker for the day.

Pour over noodles, grilled or fried eggplant, use in lasagna, etc.

We poured it over fried eggplant and served it with garlic bread and salad- so good!

This recipe made enough for 2 meals (for the whole family), and we had three jars on top of that left over! We store our pasta sauce in mason jars in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Homemade Salsa

This is a GREAT recipe, care of my friend Carolyn. :) I modified it a bit due to what I had on hand, but I will post her exact recipe since I can't remember exactly what I did! Almost all of the ingredients came from our garden- we've made about 12 jars of salsa in the past week, and seriously, it is the best salsa I've ever had!!

Ingredients:

• 12 cups blended tomatoes (she blanches her first and removes the peels, but I didn't do that)
• 2 bell peppers (I used green)
• 2 Anaheim peppers
• 3 jalapeno peppers
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 large onions
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro
• 2 T sugar, 2 T sea salt, 1 cup of white vinegar (I only put in about a 1/2 cup of the vinegar)

Chop peppers, garlic, onion, and cilantro in the food processor, or if you like it chunkier, by hand. Mix with your blended tomatoes.

Bring to a boil. cook down for about 1 1/2-2 hours.

Place in jars and process them in a water bath canner for 25 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

**Makes about 3 quarts of salsa!

Homemade Applesauce

Well, I love to make fresh applesauce, but we got a HUGE amount of apples from a friend's tree, so we decided to can some so it lasts longer. We just made it up as we went along, and the results were great. Here are the details:

Slice apples- I didn't take the skins off, but most people do. I have a Vitamix that completely pulverizes EVERYTHING!

Put them in a large pot with just a cup or two of water to steam them until they are soft.

Blend them until smooth. I added a bit of honey and cinnamon.

Pour into the cans, and can in a water bath canner. Applesauce takes about 20 minutes (for pints and quarts) in the canner. Cool and Store!

**Fresh applesauce is even better tasting and better for you, and will last about a week in the fridge. Just cut up the apples and process in a food processer with honey and cinnamon until it is the consistency you want (you can put it in the blender for really smooth- we use the fp so it is a bit chunky).

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Savanna and I made this yesterday- SOOO good! Not really one of my healthiest recipes, but it's seriously good!

Ingredients:

• I package of organic frozen spinach, defrosted
• 7-8 artichoke hearts, chopped (you can use the marinated kind or I just bought a bag of frozen hearts at Trader Joes and defrosted them)
• 1/2 cup of grated mozzarella cheese (you can use any kind you like- if you use soy cheese, use the Follow Your Heart brand. It's the only kind that melts. We actually used goat cheese- sounds weird, but it's really good).
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 container of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
• garlic powder and sea salt to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil on low. Add the defrosted spinach and artichoke hearts. Stir in the Tofutti cream cheese and grated cheese and whatever spices you want until well mixed. Put this mixture in a baking dish and bake at 325 degrees until hot and cheese is melted all the way through- about 15- 20 minutes. Super fast, and super delicious!

***A friend of ours has a goat farm and she was telling us all about the benefits of using goat products over cow products. Now our family doesn't eat very much cow dairy, and I'm trying to get away from using soy products a lot, so we thought we'd give it a try. Goat's milk does have some lactose, but it does not have Casein, the protein in cow's milk. Casein is a huge allergen, and two out of the three of my kids can't tolerate it at all. Savanna really liked the goat cheese, and it tasted just like regular cheese in this dish. Even James thought it was great and ate it up- and that says a lot!

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs of Roma tomatoes


• 4-5 minced garlic cloves (depending on the size- I like a lot of fresh garlic)


• 1 tsp of sea salt


• 1 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper


• 2 1/2 tsp of dried Italian seasonings


• 1/2 cup cold-pressed olive oil

Cut off the ends of each tomato. Slice tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices. Carefully cut out all of the seeds. Gently stir/mix the sliced tomatoes with all of the above ingredients. Marinate for 8 hours or overnight. Spread out on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 115 degrees for several hours (the amount of time will depend upon the texture you are looking for- the longer you dehydrate the chewier and dryer the tomatoes will get). It takes about 8-10 hours, depending on how you like them.

I store them in glass jars. These are the best sun dried tomatoes I've ever had. They are great in salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes- my kids even like to eat them plain. Sometimes, they don't even make it to the dehydrator!

Cashew "Ranch"

This dressing is SO good. For all you ranch lovers who think you could never go vegan, try this recipe! I have made this so many times that I just eyeball it now. I can't find the original recipe that I began using years ago, so just play around with it until you get what you like. The amounts will vary depending upon the consistency and spice that you enjoy in your ranch.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cashews (soaked for four hours or overnight)
• 1 lemon juiced
• 1/2-3/4 cup water (more or less depending on the thickness desired)
• lots of seasonings- I add garlic powder, sea salt, ground pepper, lots of dill, parsley, Italian seasonings, and a few fresh basil leaves
• Optional- some recipes call for one small avocado. This adds the fat to the dressing and gives it a creamier taste. Warning: it does turn your pretty white "ranch" kind of a drab green (The first picture above is a batch with avo, the second, whiter batch, is without).
  

Blend all the ingredients in a blender, and then chill in a glass container. Will stay good in the fridge with avocado one week, without avocado up to two weeks..

Let me know if you like it!!