So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  I have good reason, I promise.  We put our first house on the market last summer, and let me just tell you that the whole moving process is A BITCH.  There, I said it.  No sugar coating this one.  Moving kicked my ass!  First, there was the decluttering that started well before we even interviewed real estate agents.  We had been toying with the idea of moving back to our hometown (The PTC Bubble), and when we finally made the decision that we were ready, we were committed.  We had been in our house for almost 10 years at this point.  The longest we both had been in any housing since childhood.  You would not believe the amount of STUFF that one accumulates in a 10-year period.  Or, maybe you would.  INSANE!  We started with closets, and proceeded to the basement, attic, garage, and shed.  We started with plastic storage bins for the stuff we wanted to keep for the time being but knew we needed to keep out of sight for staging purposes.  We spent a small fortune on the cheapest plastic bins The Home Depot sells.  That small fortune was not enough.  Every weekend, I tried to tackle a corner of our modest, but very full, starter home.  It took months.  I’m so proud of how our staging efforts turned out, but I was ready to sleep for a week out of sheer exhaustion of tackling such a large organization project.  I’m looking forward to sharing the end product with all of you.

At the same time, I was also experiencing a health crisis of sorts.  This may be an exaggeration, but I’m sure many of you understand the feeling of being fed up and ready for change.  You may remember from my g-free post that I suffer from psoriasis.  This has been an on-going struggle of mine that is sometimes very manageable and at other times causes a lot of stress.  I was at the point where I knew something had to give.  I had been “managing” for years, but I still hadn’t discovered what would keep it at bay for the long-term.  I debated having thousands of dollars of blood work done to determine the best course of action.  But, then I attended a free class on gut-health hosted by the Green Queen herself and led by an intelligent neuroscientist.  Both of these women had discovered the GAPS protocol on their own and had seen it work wonders in their own lives.  I was intrigued.  I dove into research and decided I wanted to give it a try.  While I was purging my house of material things and cataloging 10 years of memories, I prepared for a life-changing adventure in the kitchen.  Hubby was on board (especially since I decided against spending all that money on testing), and we both agreed Munchkin would join us for the ride.  We started the GAPS protocol the same week the “For Sale” sign went in the yard.

Y’all, I am certifiable.

More on the GAPS protocol at a later date, but suffice it to say, it is labor intensive.  Every meal and snack produced a mess in the kitchen; a mess that had to immediately be attacked so that the house was ready for showings.  I am a glutton for punishment.  The first week is a blur of food prep and food cleanup, but for the first time, I was waking up without an alarm clock and not wanting to hit snooze.  The recipe that follows is one of the first GAPS recipes I made, and it is still a favorite!  It may seem time-intensive, but most of it is inactive soaking and dehydrating time.  These steps are important in the GAPS world and help your body digest the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors found in the nuts.  Wellness Mama and Mommypotamus both have great posts on the benefits of soaking nuts.  I encourage you to give it a try.  Your digestive tract will thank you 😉

The first step in preparing Crispy Nuts is to start with raw nuts.  This recipe calls for cashews, almonds, walnuts (easily becoming my favorite nut), and pumpkin seeds.  I have been pretty happy with the selection at my local Costco for bulk nuts.  Nuts are expensive!  Trader Joe’s can be another great source.  The package should say “raw” and the ingredients listed should ONLY be the nut.  NO oils, salt, etc.  These are the nuts I used:

Cashews

Kirkland Signature Whole Cashews

Almonds

Kirkland Signature Whole Almonds

Walnuts

Kirkland Signature Walnuts

Pumpkin Seeds

Raw Pumpkin Seeds

The next step is to soak.  Measure out the nuts in four separate bowls.  3 cups each of cashews, almonds, and walnuts; 1 cup of pumpkin seeds.  Fill each bowl with warm water until the nuts are covered by an inch.  The nuts will absorb the water while soaking, so you want to make sure there is plenty of water in the bowl.  Next, add salt:  2 teaspoons each for cashews, almonds, and walnuts; 1 teaspoon for pumpkin seeds.  I lined up my bowls in order of soaking times and noted the end time for each nut.  The recommended soaking times are as follows:  Cashews 3-6 hours, Almonds 7-8 hours, Walnuts 6 hours, and pumpkin seeds 7-8 hours.

After the nuts have soaked, drain them in a colander and spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Dehydrate at the lowest setting on your oven, 150 being preferable.  (On my oven, this is actually the “keep warm” setting.)  Dehydrate for 12-24 hours until the nuts are dry but before they brown.  Note:  my oven automatically shuts off after 12 hours, so make sure to reset your oven before that expiration if you want crispier nuts.

Next, prepare the sauce. 

In a large stockpot on low heat, melt the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt until combined.  (Tip: measure the coconut oil first, then use the same measuring cup for the honey.  The oil will keep the honey from sticking to the measuring cup.)  Then, pour all of the crispy nuts into the pot and stir until coated.

Add in the coconut flakes and the raisins.

Voilà!  The perfect GAPS snack!

I store mine in an OXO Good Grip Container (available at Bed, Bath & Beyond with a coupon 😉 ) in the pantry; store in the fridge for a less-sticky version.

Bon Appétit!

Nutola

2017-04-06 19:40:34

Yields 1

A delicious GAPS snack!

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Ingredients

1. 3 cups raw almonds, soaked and dehydrated
2. 3 cups raw walnuts, soaked and dehydrated
3. 3 cups cashews, soaked and dehydrated
4. 1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked and dehydrated
5. 1/4 cup coconut oil
6. 1/4 cup raw honey
7. 1 TB vanilla
8. 1 TB cinnamon
9. 1 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
10. 2 cups organic unsweetened raisins
11. 1 cup shredded coconut

Instructions

1. Combine coconut oil, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt in a large stock pot over low heat until fully mixed. Turn off heat.
2. Add in nuts and mix until coated.
3. Add in raisins and coconut and mix well.
4. Store in an airtight container. Can be stored in the pantry, but best if stored in the fridge.

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“Chicken and Rice.” This is currently one of Munchkin’s favorite meals.  If we ask him what he’d like to eat, no matter the time of day, the answer is usually “chicken and rice.”  Now, rice is not generally one of my favorites.  At any Mexican restaurant, I will gladly take double the refried beans over rice and beans.  But, I LOVE fried rice!  Hibachi, anyone?  I’d seen some recipes floating around Pinterest and decided to give it a go. 

I’ve made this recipe several times now and have combined several recipes into this one.  This recipe is perfect for Meatless Monday because it’s quick and easy, but you could also easily add some cooked chicken or any other protein you happen to have on hand.  I made a full recipe of rice last week for my stuffed peppers, but I only used a portion of it, so I had just enough left over for this recipe without having to make any more.  It doesn’t look like much going into the crock pot, but we always have plenty for seconds and leftovers.  😉

Veggie Fried Rice

Veggie Fried Rice

2016-03-14 17:35:20

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Ingredients

1. 2-3 cups cooked brown rice
2. 3 TB butter
3. 1 TB sesame oil
4. 2 TB soy sauce
5. 2 TB Worcestershire sauce
6. 1/4 tsp salt
7. 1/2 tsp pepper
8. 4 garlic cloves, minced
9. 1 TB minced or grated ginger
10. 1 onion, diced
11. 1 red bell pepper, diced
12. 1 frozen bag of peas and carrots
13. 1 cup broccoli (optional - I use if I have on hand)
14. 1 cup corn (option - I use if I have on hand)

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 2 to 3 hours, just long enough to cook the eggs.

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I am terrible about using up food in our refrigerator, but I am trying to be better.  I menu plan several days at a time, but it never fails that I have left over ingredients that end up in the trash can.  Not only is this wasteful of good food, but it is also unnecessarily expensive.  I’ve been cleaning out our fridge on a weekly basis when I menu plan so that I can see what ingredients I should include in the upcoming week’s meals.  Certain ingredients obviously keep a long time in the fridge, but if I have leftover parsley, I can be sure to use it up in the next couple of days.  I call it the Fridge Challenge.  This is also a good way to see what I’m buying that we are not eating.  For instance, I always seem to have a giant bag of baby carrots in the fridge.  Untouched.  I KNOW carrots make a great snack, but I never seem to CHOOSE carrots for my snack.  So, on my menu this week is homemade hummus.  Maybe then I’ll eat those carrots.  (Or, at least, they’ll make a colorful spoon! 😉 )

Today’s recipe is a great way to use up leftovers.  You could use so many different ingredients to make your own custom recipe.  This is actually one of hubby’s favorite dinners.  He knows they are easy and cheap, so whenever I ask him for ideas to fill in during menu planning, he picks this one often.  Another reason I love this recipe is that it cooks in the crock pot but only for a couple of hours.  This is very easy to throw together at the last minute. 

Last week, I made my fabulous black bean chili.  Now, I’m not kidding when I say that this recipe makes a ton.  We ate it for lunch and dinner for a couple days, and I froze a couple pints for future use, and I STILL had some leftover.  So, I decided to use up those leftovers in some stuffed peppers.  Chili really makes a great leftover; there are so many ways you can use it!  I mixed it with some rice and tomatoes, and voilá! Yummy dinner!  Don’t forget your favorite chili toppings!  We topped ours with Greek yogurt. 🙂

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers

2016-03-07 12:23:26

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Ingredients

1. 4 green peppers, tops and seeds removed
2. 1 1/2 cup leftover chili (Use black bean chili for meatless!)
3. 1 cup cooked brown rice
4. 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles

Instructions

1. Combine the chili, rice, and tomatoes. Scoop into the prepared green peppers. Place in the crockpot, making sure that the peppers stay upright. Cook on high for 2 hours. (If you like your peppers softer, cook for longer.)

Notes

1. Look for green peppers with flat bottoms. This will ensure that the peppers stay level in the crock pot 😉
2. Also, when cutting off the tops of the peppers. I like to insert the knife perpendicular to the top and cut in a circle around the stem. This will also cut off most of the ribs of the pepper inside making clean out very easy!

Listfull Days http://listfulldays.com/

I found this recipe years ago!  In fact, the printed date on the recipe is 2009.  This is definitely a favorite, although I tend to forget about it.  We make crock pot chili fairly regularly, so I have to be careful on chili-esque overload.  The great thing about this recipe, though, is that it comes together so quickly!  As in, less than 30 minutes.  This is the perfect mid-week meal when the last thing you want to do is spend hours in the kitchen.  Unless your kitchen has wine, in which case, I will gladly spend hours there 😉 

I adapted this recipe from Whole Foods’ Mexican Taco Stew.  If you haven’t checked out their website for recipes, you should know that it is a great resource.  They also have some great categories for whatever requirements you may have when menu planning.  I especially like their budget category and have made many recipes in that category over the years. The original recipe calls for taco seasoning.  While I’m sure Whole Foods has a great option free of preservatives, I have really moved away from using any pre-packaged spices.  After our g-free experiment and years of reading about the food industry in general, I’ve adopted the philosophy of making as much of my food at home and that includes spice mixes.  Not only can I better control preservatives and hidden ingredients, such as gluten where it doesn’t belong, I hardly ever have to worry if I have a certain spice in the pantry.  I also added additional zucchini to the recipe to make sure we’re getting enough greens.  Then, I don’t have to worry about a side salad 😉  Add a little Greek yogurt and shredded cheese for some oomph!

Taco Stew

Bon Appétit!

Taco Stew

2016-02-23 15:10:38

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Ingredients

1. 1 lb ground beef
2. 1 onion, diced
3. 2 garlic cloves, minced
4. 1 TBS chili powder
5. 1/4 tsp garlic powder
6. 1/4 tsp onion powder
7. 1/4 tsp oregano
8. 1/2 tsp paprika
9. 1 1/2 tsp cumin
10. 1 tsp salt
11. 1 tsp pepper
12. 2 cups organic low sodium chicken broth
13. 2 zucchini, cut into bite size pieces
14. 1 1/2 cups black beans (or 1 can)
15. 1 can diced tomatoes
16. 1 jar of salsa

Instructions

1. Over medium high heat, brown ground beef in a soup pot. Remove, drain, and set aside. Then, sautée the onion and garlic in the soup pot until translucent. Add the ground beef to the onion and garlic. Add in the spices and stir until combined. Add in the remaining ingredients, cover, and simmer for at least 15 minutes.

Adapted from Whole Foods Market

Adapted from Whole Foods Market

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