Day 1 FPC: Plum Chicken with Cabbage
Happy New Year everyone!!!!
As promised, I’m declaring the entire month of January a “Fridge and Pantry Cleanout” month whereby every meal will be formulated from stuff I have on hand in the fridge, freezer, other freezer, storage shed, or pantry. I just finished my proposed menu plan for the week, and I’ve gotta say, I think I’m going to be able to easily make it through the month of January (possibly February too) easily without buying much of anything.
Marinated Eggplant Chips
I’m not sure what it is about the crispy, crunchy taste of something slightly salty and flavorful, but it’s something I still have a weakness for. Since going grain-free, our “cracker and chip” options are few, but whenever possible I love to transform an otherwise bland vegetable into something delicious and enticing for my kids!
Today Only Special on Beyond-Organic Mandarins!
A few days ago I received this box of mandarin oranges from the generous folks at Chaffin Family Orchards. Besides being amazingly pure and beyond organically grown, they are the most delicious mandarins I’ve ever tasted! We have been enjoying these simple treats as a healthy dessert, topped on a delicious salad, and cooked into some lovely dishes. I am working on perfecting a crock-pot Mandarin Shrimp recipe (I’ll post it early next week after my “test crew” weighs in). I am also saving all of the wonderful pesticide-free peels so that I can make candied orange peel and to dehydrate for use in baking as orange zest! I am also going to use some of them to make lacto-fermented marmalade; a super-delicious source of probiotics and vitamin C.
These oranges are seriously the best I’ve EVER tasted. We had some store-bought ones served at our Thanksgiving dinner (we weren’t home) and they came no where near. You can tell by the deep orange color of the flesh and the juice that these are something special.
I remember hearing about people growing up in the Great Depression who were so delighted just to receive an orange at Christmastime. These oranges from Chaffin would truly be gift-worthy! I’m usually not that big of an orange fan because most oranges available commercially are obviously not locally grown and besides they taste–I find— is nothing to write home (or blog!) about. But these…..my, oh my!
Chaffin is a diversified Family Farm with beyond organic practices located in Northern California (which still sorta qualifies as “local” for this Oregonian).
The great news is that Chaffin is running a special for two days!!! Free shipping and their normally $39.99 box (for 15 lbs) is selling for $33.99!!!
Chaffin is also an excellent source of high quality, organic, locally made, extra virgin olive oil! Please go HERE to order Chaffin’s mandarins! Order today for a fantastic deal on a delightful, organic, and healthy treat that makes a fantastic gift!
And stay tuned for my recipe on crock-pot Mandarin Shrimp that is coming down the pike in a few days!!!!
Halloween: There’s a Monster at the End of this Month (and a few tips for how to survive it)
Seriously. I feel like Grover in the book “There’s a Monster at the End of This Book”. I feverishly want to scream at every parent; “Don’t turn the page! Don’t come to the end of the month! Don’t add an hour to your clock! Put your kids to bed at 5 pm, tell them that Halloween isn’t happening this year due to budget cuts, and wake up on November 1st happy and NOT in a sugar coma.
Transitioning a Child to a Gluten Free/Sugar Free Diet
Recently I’ve gotten several questions in this regard, so I thought I should share some of the tips that have worked for us in our transition to a gluten free (grain free, really) and sugar free diet. For our situation, it was really a medical necessity and I had no real choice but to go “cold turkey” on the gluten and the refined sugars. For those for which it is not necessarily a “medical necessity” (I use quotes because I think that every child should be off of refined sugar and should limit all starchy grains significantly), it’s nice to be able to gradually make the transition in a reasonable way without having to go cold turkey.
Matsoni: The Counterculteral Yogurt
Last week, as you may know, we were running the Cultures for Health giveaway for 3 starter cultures of your choice! In honor of my giveaway, I wanted to reflect on why investing in a starter culture is an easy, no-fuss way to add more nutrition and less cost to your life!
Matsoni is what I call a “counterculture” because it doesn’t need to be incubated in order to culture, as most traditional yogurts do. Although, to be fair to history and regionality, it seems to me that most of the yogurts that need to be “incubated” to remain at a constant temp of about 90-100 degrees–these yogurts actually hail from the parts of the world that have temperatures that are fairly constantly in that range! All that’s to say that I don’t think Nature intended for much fancy equipment in order to culture milk.
The Matsoni is perfectly happy at around 70 degrees to culture within 12-24 hours. I made my first batch this week and here is what I love about it:
1) No need to incubate (already explained above!) so no expensive equipment or hassle required. Just add the starter, and do nothing until about 12 hours later when it’s ready!
2) You can transform regular pastuerized store-bought milk into an enzyme-rich treat!I actually cultured a quart of half & half and got a really creamy, mild, delicious and thick yogurt! If you strain this just a little bit, you end up with delicious, probiotic-rich cream cheese (raw cheesecake anyone? Or perhaps a smoked salmon-cream cheese roll up?)
3) It saves money! Organic yogurt can cost up to $5.00 per quart. You can buy an entire half-gallon of organic milk for about the much, which means you can make your own for half the price. By adding your culture week after week you can eventually pay for the price of the culture with the savings.
4) Did I mention it was easy? College students could keep this going in their dorm (bootleg a quart or two of whole milk from the cafeteria and culture it in your dorm room!!!), busy moms can quickly and easily make a batch in about 2 minutes and forget about it until the next day. No heating milk, cooling it to just the right temperature, then configuring some way to keep it warm, etc. No adding skim milk powder or gelatin to thicken it, because it thickens right up (especially when you add cream or half & half).
5) The taste and texture are amazing, even my husband liked it! This is reason enough to stick with Matsoni. I’ve tried kefir, fil mjolk, and regular yogurt and the taste is just too “off” for my husband. I recently make the Indian cucumber yogurt dip called raitaand my husband raved about it. My kids love the Matsoni mixed with fruit sauce (just boiled down blueberries or peaches; no sugar added) for a fun and easy “fruit on the bottom” breakfast. The texture (especially when using half and half) is thick and pudding-like and once the culture is set (about 12-18 hours for me) there was absolutely no “runniness” to it.
If you missed my recent contest to win your own yogurt culture, there’s good news. Thursday, September 17th I’ll be announcing the winner for the contest along with a special coupon code for discounts at Cultures for Health. This offer is limited, so check in when I announce the winner so you can get the deal!
This is what Works for Me when it comes to Organic & Thrifty Real Food!
Kefir for Kids
Kefir has always been a mainstay in my family; but up until now, the kids usually only had it in smoothies once or twice a week. Since I always have plenty of kefir on hand, I figured I needed to step it up and serve it more often. Again, reading _The Body Ecology Diet_ reminded me of the immense benefits of kefir for healing and restoring the microflora of the gut.
For the past two weeks or so, our bedtime routine has included a glass of kefir. Rich in protein, minerals, and probiotics (not to mention many other things: go here for more info), kefir is the perfect bedtime snack. Its high calcium and magnesium content calms the nervous system and the profuse amount of probiotics helps to digest dinner!
I’ve noticed that both of my sweet kiddos (Jonathan dodged the camera in the picture above, but you can see his orange straw representing for him!) LOVE their nighttime kefir. It couldn’t be simpler to make. Here’s what I do:
I use 3 simple ingredients: stevia, alcohol-free vanialla, and raw goat’s milk kefir (for info on how to make it and get starters,check out my resources page). Cinnamon is also a good addition. Basically, any sugar free “spice” you like can be added, but my kids are into vanilla and/or cinnamon right now. Trader Joe’s sells an alcohol-free glycerine-based vanilla extract for a little over $3.00.
Night-night Kefir
1 cup of goat kefir
8 drops stevia
1/8 tsp alcohol-free vanilla flavor
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Serve it with a straw (doesn’t every kid love a straw?!?!) and know that your kids will have incredible nourishment throughout the night.
Since giving her the kefir nightly, my daughter has slept soundly through the night (whereas before she was waking up once or twice screaming for something to eat or drink).
Incidentally, this is an awesome “good morning” drink as well! I sometimes just have a glass of kefir in the morning and find that often it’s all I need for several hours.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend investing in a milk-kefir grain. Read the links I posted above; this drink is amazing.
