July 15, 2007 at 11:26 pm (beginning, milk)
Not much. We went out this weekend (we as in husband and I on a much needed day of together time!) Found some wonderful mushrooms, some gouda (raw milk) that I brought home for on eggs and what not, and some more honey…we really are going through the honey. I tried toasting nuts, but that didn’t go so well. I did it once before, but this time it was a total flop…not sure what I did. We had the Nourishing Tradition’s pancakes this morning. Very good, though I felt like the batter needed a bit of sweetness to it aside from just pouring maple syrup over the finished cakes. They take awhile to cook, so make sure you don’t have your burners up too high or you have goo in the middle and toasty outsides.
Things I plan on cooking this week include cabbage and beef casserole (trying to get the family used to cabbage before springing saurkraut on them), bread (my rye starter is bubbling and brewing up a storm), liver (shhhhh, don’t tell the family this!), and lots of fresh veggies like sweet corn, green beans, onions with mushrooms, and whatever else I can get my hands on.
It’s getting easier to work in the kitchen. I’m much more automatic now in grabbing and doing what needs done. Soaking things is something I am actually remembering to do ahead of time and meals are starting to form in my head well in advance instead of an hour or two before meal time. I like this part of our culinary adventure. The twins are starting to drink milk and our milk useage is likely to double. I used to think that we would never go through three gallons in a weeks time, but the two I got last week will just make it to the one week mark. I know our herdshare (hoping to start with that next week) will be able to get us 3 gallons a week, but I need to check with out Amish family until then. I don’t want to take all their milk as they have a large family (10 children.)
Getting the twins off formula is important to me right now, they are eating table foods (without teeth!) right along with us and with gusto, they like the milk…why again am I paying so much for a canister of powdered chemicals? So thankfull that all four of my children have always been good eaters, quick to try something new. If I had one that was picky it would make this whole change quite a bit more stressful. Meanwhile, I am enjoying our new foods that we are trying, liking the new way of cooking, feel like I am drowning in dishes at times but thankful for what we have, what we’ve tried and where we are going.
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July 2, 2007 at 10:21 pm (beginning, how)
Some days I feel as if there is nothing I can cook for supper, that there are no options for snacks, and that life in general right now will fall apart without a donut or some Dairy Queen. Then I get over my little snit and am thankful I’ve finally figured what I have out and work hard on trying to learn more. “I need to find some recipes”, “what can I cook?” was constantly repeating over and over in my head. I happened to spend a little bit of time with a family today that is following the same type of lifestyle change that our family is and it was so refreshing and uplifting!
They showed me how they have taken their old favorites and modified them. I’m not giving up all the foods and recipes I’ve loved, I am re-learning how to cook! Hopefully now I can keep my perspective straight and start enjoying cooking again.
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June 29, 2007 at 2:41 am (beginning, deep clean)
I’m not sure how I did get here, rather how it all started. I’ve always wanted what is best for my family. I think if I had to trace it back to something in particular it would be my first year of marriage. My parent’s never taught me to cook, so needless to say we were eating quite a bit of Hamburger Helper and the like. I noticed after consuming meals as such I would get headaches…sometimes bad headaches that would only go away with a dark quiet room, sleep, and time.
I’ve looked off an on for the last few years for guidelines on what to eat to stay healthy. I’ve tried Atkins, Weight Watchers (as I would like to drop a couple pounds), and also the food pyramid and calorie guidelines. None of it worked. In fact in this time I developed high blood pressure, high enough that in my mid-twenties I was going through rounds of medications trying to find one that would keep it down and also told not to have anymore children due to the dangers to myself and the child. This is when I started getting a bit more determined. Now I have found the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website, read “The Maker’s Diet” by Jordan Rubin as well as “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon and have discoverd an approach to nutrition and cooking that finally makes sense! I hope to keep reading, to keep searching, as I am not convinced that these resources are the end all off information on the topic.
Meanwhile, our family has switched to raw milk, butter, and cream. We get our beef and eggs from farms that we are familiar with. I am slowly weeding out the processed foods from my fridge and pantry. Slow but sure I plan on switching us towards a more traditional, whole food diet. It has made a difference in the couple of short weeks we’ve been trying. I feel better, I have more energy and am less moody. I’ve noticed my children acting better as well. If our bodies have to work harder to process the already processed stuff (read: processing stuff that was not meant for us to ingest) it would make perfect sense that your don’t feel optimal and therfor don’t behave optimal.
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