Homeschooling Foodie

Gluten Free Caramelitas

2012-01-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

Since going grain free, I can honestly say that I haven't missed the bread, or the pasta, or the cookies. It helps that I have found some alternatives, (can you say coconut oil and chocolate mint candies?! yum!) to meet those occasional cravings.

However, there was one thing that I couldn't figure out how to get around missing-our family caramelita recipe. It is a divine mixture of oats and freshly ground flour and caramel and chocolate and nuts...and it is so scrumptious that I drool just thinking about it. It is possible that there are some emotional ties to this recipe, as I can recall having them in my earliest childhood memories and making them without using the recipe before I was 11.

In the past week I have been playing with some yummy treats I have found on pinterest. (Did I mention my new obsession?) I made an absolutely delicious samoa cookie, (though I used cultured raw butter for the caramel. Not super impressed with that flavor). While talking to someone about them, I had a bit of an epiphany...I figured out how to do the caramelitas with some of the same ingredients, just tweaking a bit!

Today, I finally got to try it out.

Oh. My. Yes.

I think we have it. Not exactly the same, but a close enough match to make me happy. So, at the risk of having it stolen for use to sell, (um, I just want a kickback. I'm not greedy.), here we go:

Gluten Free Caramelitas
(for dairy free use the coconut)
Shortbread

1 3/4 cup almond flour
1/4 c. coconut flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 c. honey
1 egg
1/2 c. cold cut up butter (or coconut oil)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. toasted coconut, (cooled)

Mix in the ingredients in order, using a pastry blender or your hands when you get to the butter, mixing until is just past crumbly and starting to stick together. You should have a nice press-able dough once everything is in. Divide mixture in half.
Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper so that when it is all cooked you can just lift it out.
Put half the dough into the pan and evenly press it until it fills the bottom. Bake at 350* for about 10 minutes.

While that is cooking make the caramel:

Caramel
1/2 c. good butter (kerrygold is great!) or coconut oil
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1/8 cup liquid sugar, (honey, or coconut nectar or rice syrup or tapioca syrup)
4 oz. heavy cream or coconut cream
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla (optional)

Cook the sugar and butter together until it starts to bubble just slightly, mixing well the whole time. Add the salt and vanilla and then the cream. Make sure this is in a tall pan as it will bubble up pretty high. Cook, stirring, until it hits 248*. (I actually went over because I was doing too much and let it hit the hard candy point, so that when it cooled it was crunchy. Still worked, just don't burn it!)
By the time it is done, your pan should be out of the oven. Immediately pour the caramel over the crust, smoothing it to cover the entire thing. Set aside the pan to lick when it is cool.

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips-soy free. (you could use the dairy free, soy free, everything free chips here too.)
1/2 cup crushed/chopped raw pecans or walnuts (If you have prepared crispy nuts, use those!)

Sprinkle these over the caramel in order of listing.
Take the other half of shortbread dough and crumble over the top of everything, spreading pretty evenly.

Bake for another 18-20 mins or until the top is golden brown.

Allow to cool. Take out of the pan, using your parchment paper. Place on a cutting board and cut into small squares. Try not to eat them all at once. Everyone is going to want to try them...

(I'll make these again soon and have more pictures to post. I forgot to take pix of the process until they were already cooked! I wasn't sure enough!)

Fun hair

2012-01-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

I must confess to my new obsession, joining thousands of others equally addicted. Pinterest is my new favorite website! I set up a page as a tool for myself to have a central location to keep all those great recipes that I find and then can never find again, or to put those articles that I want to save, but not on my bookmarks, or even just to have an idea page for crafts and homeschooling ideas for the kids. And it started out fine! I was happily pinning away, saving what I needed and only spending about an hour a month browsing other people's pins. Then it happened. I discovered someone who had GENIUS ideas for storage solutions...and that connected me to someone else with AMAZING ideas for kids science and crafts...and then I saw someone else's ideas for kids art and parties...that's it.

I am officially obsessed.

This morning, after spending WAY too much time browsing through, I came across some princess hair styles.

Well!

I have three lovely little princesses! I must try these out!

My first two princesses acquiesced without complaint and were pleased with their results.

My oldest princess, however, is a bit more particular...

Since it is also Chinese New Year today, (the year of the dragon), she decided that she wanted something that would fit the occasion.

When we saw this one, we knew it was the one.

It wasn't even that hard!

But I loved looking at it all day!

At least today, my obsession was justified...we'll see if I can stay away tomorrow...

Oh wait, we are using it for crafts tomorrow. Nevermind. :)

What about pinterest obsesses you?

Juice and Detox and Grains, oh my!

2012-01-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

Photo from Evoke blog.
A new year.

New chances for successes.

A quiet time for changes.

This is why I have decided to start off 2012 with some new, and not so new, beginnings.
This month I start school again, for a decidedly different second Master's degree. I will be doing the whole program online, which should allow me to continue to be present for my children in our daily lives. It is for holistic nutrition, which I am very excited about. The best part about the program, for me, is that each of the classes integrates a system of the body with nutrition. THIS is science I can get involved in. After watching my older sister go through all of the anatomy and physiology type classes for her PT program, I am very happy to be learning it all in a context that fascinates me.

My hubby and I are also doing a 21 day juice cleanse. There is not a program that I am following. We are just doing fruits and veggies in season, all juice for me, juice for him whenever he is home, but he will be taking the actual veggies and fruits to work to eat. (Being in his classroom all day is not so conducive for juicing and drinking juice that isn't fresh is just kinda yucky.)
There are many reasons we are doing juice instead of the 21 day sugar detox, or the 30 day paleo challenge. For one, I think it is good to give your body a chance to rest every now and then, allowing the digestive system to redirect much of it's energy into healing the rest of the body. While I strongly believe that going vegetarian is not good for long term, (there is just so much evidence that we need animal protein!), it seems to do really wonderful things for your health and physique on a short term basis. If you have never heard of Gerson's Therapy for cancer, check it out. It is a strong case for short term veggie based diet. Besides, if you have ever talked to someone who has just gone vegetarian, they can't say enough great things about how they feel and how they look.
Another reason we are doing juice is that abstaining from regular foods is an opportunity to add discipline into your life. I don't know about you, but by this time of year, most of my rules and regulations have exited quietly out the back door. (And then run screaming down the street, I think.) While I am anti-system as much as possible, even I have to admit that we all do a little better emotionally, physically and spiritually when there is SOME structure and discipline. This just reminds me of how little effort is really takes to make amazing things happen.

There are more reasons.

I might share some another time.

Photo from Slow Cook.

During our juice fast, I will slowly weaning my children off of grains for the next part of the challenge. Until the end of February, (with the exception of our Third Thursday night out and my birthday), I will be attempting to have my family go grain free. This means no wheat, no rice, no beer, no corn, no grain fed meats and no grain based liquor. Some of this will be easy since we have already been eating a Real Food diet for a few years, (and we don't really drink much). But I gotta say, I'm gonna miss my coconut oil popped popcorn....

I welcome everyone to try the grain free 60 days and share your experiences with me! My sister and some of her friends (and their families) are going to be doing grain free together and we will be posting recipes and ideas of how to make it happen with kids in an easy and affordable way. I might even host a couple carnivals! :) Stay tuned!

Breakfast, again?

2011-10-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

When cereal is not an option, every morning becomes a challenge to put a nourishing breakfast on the table that the kids will devour. My recent decision to go mostly Paleo has added additional difficulty. I mean really, how many eggs can a kid have before they just won't eat anymore?

I still let my kids eat some grains, (sprouted of course), because it helps to round out my weekly meal plan...and well, to be perfectly honest, I am not a huge proponent of throwing all of your proverbial eggs into one basket...

Which brings us to this morning! (Well, not technically since it has nothing to do with grains...)
I was reading through one of the Paleo blogs which just has tons of food ideas and came upon one that I knew would work for the kids. And then I modified, of course.

I knew that the main draw for this breakfast would just be that each kid get's their own individualized dish. The possibilities are endless!

So here it is:

First, heavily butter some ramekins, (raw butter for my allergy boy).
Add in some homemade salsa (ours is lacto fermented) or veggies, meat (we did bacon and chicken) and raw cheese (not paleo).

Lame picture that is blurry. That is bacon and chicken with a bit of cheese.

Crack an egg or two on top, add another tiny bit of raw cheese, some salt and pepper and bake in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes.

My kids all had special requests. One didn't want bacon, (I know, I know! I am working on her!), one wanted extra salsa, one only wanted one egg...and really, it is SO easy to make them exactly what they want!

Overall, it was a good response. My non-bacon girl didn't like it, (duh! It needs bacon!), and only one of the ramekins ended up on the floor!

Coffee Kombucha

2011-08-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Photo by wikia.com

I have been making kombucha off and on for 3 or 4 years and I have to admit, I am a bit unconventional even to the unconventional. Once I figured out that the scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) will ferment anything with sugars, I tried a variety of juices including but not limited to: grape, apple, and blueberry. They were Uh-mazing! So when I saw this post for coffee kombucha on FB, I knew that I had to try it.

Once I brewed up the coffee, I added palm sugar/coconut nectar sugar, allowed it to cool, threw in my scoby and left it alone for a week.

Sampling was interesting since I like my coffee sweet. This stuff was NOT sweet and had a bit of a sour tang. It wasn't bad though, which prompted me to have several people sample it that week. (You know, just to make sure I wasn't crazy)...Once I decided that it would be okay to drink, (nobody keeled over or threw up, though there were a couple of shivers), I was faced with figuring out how to make it palatable for MY tastes.

Keep in mind that this whole experiment was an effort to allow me my specialized coffee drink, but in a nourishing way. (I am all about getting around restrictions-even self imposed.)

The iced latte recipe on the blog I read didn't sound great for two reasons: 1. I don't care for honey in my coffee or my ice cream. 2. Kefir is not my favorite way to get cultured.

So, after more experimentation I found a delicious combination that I just had to share!

Ice Blended Mocha Bucha
1/2 cup coffee kombucha
1/2 cup raw cream (or raw whole milk)
1/4 cup coconut milk or cream
1 1/2 tbsp raw cocao powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2-1 tsp pure almond extract
ice (maybe a cup?)

Throw it all together in the blender and blend on high until all the ice is ground and it looks properly slushy. Add more milk or ice as needed for texture.

I'm already addicted. Mmmm!

A New Chapter

2011-06-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Quite literally, a new chapter!

Just last month, my friend Tracey and I, (at her urging), started a chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation in our area. In the past, I had considered doing this, but just had too much else going on to make it happen. But really, it wasn't time until she came along. I can't even tell you how much more is getting done because of her motivation and follow through! We already have a website, (thanks in part to the Santa Barbara folks), a gmail account, a way to send out a monthly newsletter, a FB page and an event, (hopefully with many more to come)!!!

The best part about the website is that we are actually setting up a resource page that I wish I had had three years ago! The joy! No really, it is a pretty exciting time!

In the meantime, we are very excited for summer to start, though we are almost as unplanned as last summer. Hubby is done with school, but hasn't really stopped working yet. The kids will be doing school through the summer, though admittedly it will be much more about field trips than writing samples. Our hope is to head east for a couple weeks to visit family and hit as many historical sites along the way as we can.

Perhaps now that I am on the computer more, I will be blogging more.

Do you have a new chapter starting in YOUR life?

Where I'm From

2011-02-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

My cousins, Anna and Martha, started this with a homework assignment and then a followup. I loved it, but wasn't going to do my own until challenged...sotospeak. Now, I'm so glad I did. It really brings back so many amazing memories of a childhood filled with love and joy and an extraordinary family that most could never relate to.

I’m from treehouses built out of scrap wood, raw milk, and walks across the 71^st street bridge for a 27 cent burger, including tax.

I am from the huge garden in the backyard near the chicken coop, the tiny house with the attic bedrooms and the flooded yard that doubled as a rainy day pool.

I am from the fruit trees in summer, the pond up the street where we were chased by bad tempered geese.

I am from “place and pillows saved” and love that knows no bounds, from Bell and Castagna, and an equal partnership of matriarch and patriarch.

I am from the one couch for ten people and food waits for no sleeping person.

From a long line of strong women and stories told again and again and again, until eventually all but one or two have heard and others more than once.

I am from church is the people, God is real and loves us really, and the attitude of service. From home is where the heart is, but home is wherever you are at the moment.

I’m from the windy city, real southern living and the golden state, from Mom’s spaghetti that now has chucks, and melt in your mouth caramelitas.

From the “looking down on you with respect”, the Great Depression with only one day out of work, the love of teenagers who met in a Jewish deli.

I am from hallways of age progression cousins and Christmas Eves taking turns looking through scrapbooks before opening presents.

I am from multiple parts that make a whole and pieces of an intricate puzzle that make a beautiful picture.

Now, why don't you try one? You can post the link in the comments section.

A new day

2011-01-03T20:54:00.001-08:00

I figured that I would start out the new year with the hope of writing a bit more. Even as I write that sentence I am wondering how on earth I will have enough time to think about it, let alone actually sit down to do it...but we try.

Just a quick review of 2010:

Everything this year is measured in time around "the accident". My sister, her husband and their three children were in a near fatal accident on May 26th. It took 90 minutes to extract the adults from the car that had gone full freeway speed into the back of a parked semi truck. For those who know of the "golden hour", they were not expected to make it. My BIL was airlifted to the hospital while my sister was taken by ambulance. My nieces and nephew all suffered broken bones and 4 out of the 5 of them had surgeries. I was first to the hospital and it was one of the hardest things I have ever been through. Still. Miraculously, they all did survive, though not without some lasting effects in each of them, some physical, and some not so physical.

We replaced every appliance in our entire house this year, starting before the accident, continuing through that time and finally ending some time after. Dishwasher, stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer, mixer and blender. It was a killer year for appliances...

My kids all turned odd numbers this year. 9, 7, 5 and 5. It is shocking to no longer have babies. If you are curious, we are physically done having children, but there is no telling what God has planned for our family. Ask me sometime about the conversation we all had in the car this week.

My buyer's club of real foods from real farmers doubled in size when our local natural food store closed. Still not sure how I feel about the extra work, but am truly enjoying the growth of community.

I started working on the beginnings of our city's first community garden with a member of the buyer's club. We are hopeful that it will be off the ground, (or in the ground rather), this year. I can't wait to see the community that develops from that!

Now today is a new day. We are now in a new year. I have made no resolutions and no plans or promises. I can hope that I will be back to compose again soon. And I can hope that you all will join me.

What are your plans/resolutions for this year?

Stinky Mac and Cheese

2010-05-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade.

Recently, my youngest sister discovered that her nursing daughter has a gluten intolerance. This immediately changed her entire diet.

Side note: Isn't it funny how we can do things for our children without thinking twice, but if it comes to doing the same thing for just ourselves it becomes an overwhelming and tedious process. Just an observation...

Anyway, because of her dietary changes, as well as those of another friend who has Hashimoto's- a hypothyroid issue which often includes gluten sensitivity- I have been experimenting with gluten free recipes, in order to pass on some yumminess to them.

This one is made with rice noodles, which I attempted to make today. I haven't tried the noodles yet, but I made them with rice flour, salt and water and used a dehydrator to dry them faster. I'll let you know later how they worked.

This dish is LOADED with the good kind of fats and is fast and easy too.

Stinky Mac and Cheese

1 bag rice noodles- or one batch of homemade (?)
1 cup "stinky" cheese, crumbled (I use raw blue cheese. Gorgonzola would be great too)
1 cup raw cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup raw milk
1/2 lb pastured bacon, cooked and crumbled
Celtic sea salt and pepper to taste
veggie (optional), I've used peas, green beans and chopped spinach on different occasions

1. Cook noodles according to instructions, drain and then dump back into saucepan.
2. Add cheeses, milk, bacon and salt and pepper. Mix until sauce takes on a nice creamy consistency.
3. Add the veggie at the very end, stir enough to warm the peas (I use frozen), or wilt the spinach and then serve.

This has gotten a 4/4 kid rating each time I've made it and is also a bowl licker. (I try to only do that at home with no company though!)

Try it next time you need a quick meal that covers all the bases.

Ponderings about the Great Gardener

2010-03-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

Today, as I was tenderly tending to my fresh garden, I had some interesting thoughts about the wonderful metaphor of gardening.

Everyday, I go out to look at my seedlings. I want to check their progress, see if they need water, see if they are going to survive the sudden drop in temperature, see how well they are growing. I talk to them, I touch them, I check the soil around them. Sometimes I go out many times during the day, even though I know what I see might be the same.

I am never disappointed in them if they are not thriving. I know that they are exactly where I placed them. I fix what I can and then let them do what they were made to do. If they wilt, I am not angry with them. I am sad, but not angry.

In my garden, I have some weeds. There are really two kinds of weeds that invade the planted areas. One is a Mexican Primrose that is prolific in the spring and likes to grow beautiful pink flowers. The roots are fairly straight down and they are easily removed from the areas they don't belong.

The other kind is not so nice. I have both mint and grass that think they can take over places they aren't welcome. Both of these weeds have a complex root system that sends out shoots to spread. If I see grass growing, I know that pulling it will be something that disrupts the soil for several inches, and sometimes even a few feet! The mint is easier to pull up, but the same thing happens. By the time I see those delicious smelling leaves, I know that the roots run under the soil for at least a couple feet and pulling them could potentially destroy those tender new plants that are just becoming established.

Again though, I am never angry that my lovely planted seeds are in the path of these annoying and destructive weeds. In fact, when contemplating what to get rid of, I always take them into consideration. If pulling a weed is going to cause my plants to be uprooted or greatly disturbed, I will leave the roots in place and just clip the symptoms of the "disease". When my plants are established and can handle a little upheaval I will revisit the problem and attack it with careful alacrity.

My job as gardener is to tend the garden. To do everything in my power to empower my plants to do what they are designed to do: to grow, to produce fruit, to feed my family. I take great joy in the successes of my plants. I know that if they are given the opportunity to grow to their potential they will be beautiful and full of fruit. If they struggle, I am there to help them along, tenderly. If they die, or are choked off before I can get rid of the weeds, I am angry...at those darn weeds! And sad that they never got the chance to shine, to be what they were "born" to be...

Hmmm....I think that the Great Gardener does an even better job than me...

If you give a mom a messy kitchen...

2010-03-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

Warning: what you are about to read contains some not so secret information about my particular dysfunctions. If you would prefer to continue to see me as the perfect mom and wife, I suggest that you stop reading now and come back when I have a good recipe to share...ahem...
photo credit

If you give a mom a messy kitchen, she will ask you for a sponge to go with it.

Once she starts cleaning she will ask for a computer to distract her from the task she doesn't like.

When the show that she watches is over, (probably back episodes of LOST), she will have to do a search to find blogs about some LOST theories.

Once she has read all the blogs she will want to look at some other blogs about food.
When she is reading about food she will think about the yogurt that needs to be made and will remember that her kids need to eat lunch and will have to stop everything to make something.

While she is cooking she will realize that her kitchen is very messy...
and she might just go hide in her room...

Another breakfast idea

2010-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

Image by sodahead

Isn't it funny that I can go weeks without writing, and then the next best yummy something comes along and it draws my fingers to the computer.
This week, I created a yummy smoothie for a friend who went off wheat. I was looking for more creative ideas for her to have for snacks, or just a pick-me-up when she came home from work. This morning, I made myself one for breakfast and I am LOVING it! How can you go wrong with fruit, protein and coconut!

So here we go:

Chocolate Banana Smoothie
1 banana (yes, I know, not exactly in season or local...)
1 scoop, (about 1 Tbsp), raw cocao powder
1 tsp maple syrup or honey
2 Tbsp coconut cream
1 raw pastured egg, (I wouldn't risk supermarket eggs here)
1 cup raw milk

Blend in the blender until smooth and enjoy!

This serves one person. This morning I doubled it and also fed my four kids...

I imagine you could substitute something like coconut milk if you really can't do dairy, but I haven't tried it. I also encourage you to try the raw before you write off milk altogether. As long as you know your farmer and your sources, raw milk is one of the healthiest way to get loads of proteins and nutrients.

So there you go, more of what happens in my house...

Real Cereal

2010-01-12T09:14:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been on in a long time, and that may happen again after this, (so much for blogging twice a week!), but after the breakfast we just had, I had to throw it out there.

A little over a year ago I stopped feeding my kids cereal. Really, we stopped buying anything that had any measure of processing and cereal was at the top of the list. Well, this instantly complicated life just a bit since now I would have to get up with my little early birds and make breakfast. I found a pretty good soaked homemade granola recipe a few months ago and made it a couple times. I just didn't love it like I loved my old tried and true unsoaked granola! So, we were back to square one.

Don't get me wrong. The breakfasts we have been having since then have been fun and so yummy! How fun to be able to have breakfast cookies or sprouted scones or just fried eggs with bacon every day! But once in a while, a little cereal would be nice...

Over Christmas I soaked and then dried some oats in my wonderful dehydrator. They were soaked in water and a little buttermilk (about 2 tsp per cup) for about 24-48 hours and kept at about 85 degrees. After drying them I had these nice crispy oats. I stuck them in a bag and left them alone until today, not quite sure what I was going to do with them...

(I imagine if you don't have a dehydrator you could dry the oats in the oven at low low temps, under 150 degrees. In case you don't know, the soaking is to break down and minimize the harmful effects of the phytic acids that prohibit absorption of certain vital nutrients.)

This morning, I decided it was high time for some easy granola. So here is what I did:

4 cups of soaked and dried oats
1/2 cup dried apples
1/2 cup dried pears
1/2 cup raisins
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup soaked, dried and finely chopped walnuts
2-4 tbsp maple syrup

Mixed all together in a big bowl and served with cold raw milk.

The great thing about this recipe is that not only is it fabulous, (and I am pretty picky when it comes to flavor!), but it can be infinitely modified to add whatever dried fruit and soaked nuts are in the house. I almost added flax seeds but didn't want to take the time to grind them. Next time maybe.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.

Why Food?

2009-08-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Photo: Microsoft clipart

It has come to my attention lately that I am a bit of a food fanatic. Some people would call me a "foodie", others call me crazy. I do a few things that might cause the average food enjoyer to shiver.

The normal things I do:
Make my own bread, make 3 meals a day from scratch, get an organic CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) box, mill my own flour

The slightly "excessive":
buy no processed foods (whenever possible), feed my family only RAW dairy, sprout and dry my own grains, make organic jams, buy locally whenever possible...

The "downright crazy":
make my own buttermilk and yogurt, buy only meat and eggs from pastured animals, soak my oats or unsprouted grains before use, refuse to use my microwave and encourage the intake of good animal fats.

I had some serious discussion with my husband after unwittingly offending some people who are very dear to my heart. Here is his analogy:
"This food journey you've been on is kind of like a religious experience or conversion. Once you have studied it and learned all about it and then converted, it is like you are a new believer, totally excited about it and just wanting everyone else to join you in it."

Did I mention that he is brilliant and insightful?

So yeah, apparently in my zeal I have caused others to feel judged. Dang it! This is the LAST thing I want! What I want is for everyone to learn as I have learned! What I want is for people to be able to enjoy food the way it was created to be enjoyed-bringing health instead of sickness.

So why Food? A few reasons actually:
For one, food is the core of our physical existence. Without it, we would literally die. Food can be, and often is, pleasurable in the making AND in the eating. And yet, food can either sustain us, or slowly kill us. Astounding in its complexity...

The more I learn about how real food, (natural food, food that is in its original form), reacts with our bodies to create health and to not just sustain us but also protect us, the more amazed I am at the detail and love the Creator put into it. Before we had refrigerators and freezers people had to come up with other methods of food preservation. Amazingly, most of these methods actually make the nutrients in the food MORE accessible to our bodies and in many cases also make it more easily digestible. How can that be unless food was created FOR us and with our lives in mind?! I love to think about that!

It is also interesting to consider what the industrialized food revolution has wrought, in our country at the very least. Before "food" was accessible to everyone in the supermarket down the street, not only did folks eat seasonally, (in cold areas preserving the heck out of everything to make it through the winter!), but they also ate locally. It is unlikely that they would be buying beef from New Zealand when Farmer John up the hill butchers a cow once a month to sell at the market. The greatest thing about that life, tough as it could sometimes be, was that not only did you KNOW where your food came from (and what it ate or was grown in), but you also developed RELATIONSHIPS with the folks you got the food from. In fact, often you could be trading for goods and services instead of spending cold hard impersonal cash.

Now, not only do most people have no idea where their meat is coming from, it is likely that the ground beef someone just bought at the supermarket, (which was probably fed gut destroying genetically modified grains), came from more than one animal from more than one feedlot! The boxed cereal that many ate for breakfast was processed to the point that all the natural nutrients in the food have been stripped and the artificially added minerals only add to the toxicity of it as a whole. The milk that is now so readily available has been so processed that the good pathogens that are naturally occuring have actually been destroyed allowing all kinds of bad bacteria to grow, making milk generally worthless for the body's systems. And forget about knowing the farmers! The meat in CA could have come from Idaho or Colorado. How does anyone know what the feedlot looks like or how it treats its animals?

Okay, and there I went on my tirade. The point of it all is that there exists a way of eating and buying foods that is not just sustainable-Eating foods that work WITH the body instead of against it, and buying food that BUILDS relationships instead of tearing them down...or just not having them at all.
And I am all about relationships. Some of the most important relationships in my life are the ones with my children. How could I do anything less than feed them the best possible options for food? To build their bodies and their health and let them know that I want only good for them and will not feed them what I know is not beneficial. To teach them that there is a way that is different from the world, that is better for the world...How I wish everyone I love could know and understand real food...

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by the Food Renegade!

Stealing Ideas

2009-08-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take my cousin Anna's idea to daily blog and, just like every recipe I find, modify it just a bit. (Check her out, she has some awesome blogs!) Practically, blogging daily is an impossibility because 1. I take way too much time on each blog, 2. I'm not nearly cool enough to have an iPhone from which I could blog anywhere, and 3. with the munchkins starting "school" next week, time will suddenly be at a minimum...

Sooo! I've decided to attempt to blog a couple times a week, with no restrictions on which days I put one in.

Blogs coming soon, not necessarily in this order:

Vacation 1- So Cal to Shasta
Vacation 2-Crater Lake to Salem, OR
Vacation 3 (what?! It was a three week long trip!)-Portland, Abundant Life Farm and Tahoe
Why Food?
Cream Cheese Ice Cream
Surgery
Scheduling unschooling
Seed Storage
The co-op

Whew! I guess I have a lot to say soon...hope you'll hang out with me as I blab..er blog.

The accidental meal success

2009-06-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is good not having a menu plan! Well, okay, maybe I won't go that far, but this made up dinner marks a true highlight in my culinary adventures, and it was all because I thawed some meat without a plan!

That morning, I pulled out 1 1/2 pounds of beef (from Organic Pastures) from the freezer, thinking that surely I would be able to make something yummy, (if I could just sit down for a second to figure out what!). Then, for breakfast we had scrambled eggs (pastured, of course), with raw cheese and 1/2 package of bacon. Bacon is just so good!

All day, I just kept thinking about that other 1/2 package of bacon...(it could be because my whole house still smelled like it...), and how I could work it into dinner. OOOOOOOH! Bacon cheeseburgers...yum...

However, 4pm rolled around pretty quickly and we have an old charcoal grill...I just didn't want to go through all the trouble of getting it going! Plus, I was out of bread, completely. So...how can I make something with bacon and beef, that won't take that long, and that the kids will devour...?

Behold, the bacon cheeseburger meatloaf!
(Sorry, I didn't think to take a picture until we had almost finished the whole thing! Even then I had to keep pushing my DS's hand out of the picture cuz he wanted more!)
Can I copywrite a recipe? Cuz this one is somethin special!

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
1 1/2 lb. pastured ground beef
1/2 lb. uncooked bacon, sliced small
1 onion minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. lacto-fermented ketchup (I haven't made this yet but when the tomatoes are ripe...)
1 1/2 c. shredded raw cheddar cheese (reserve the 1/2 c.)
1 pastured egg
1 c. *soaked oats (soaked with 1/4 c. buttermilk for 12-24 hours), optional: sub. 1 c. sprouted breadcrumbs (remember, I said I was out of bread?)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl really well, then throw it into a glass baking dish, (9x13 maybe). Sprinkle the reserved 1/2 c. cheese on the top and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes. Then enjoy!!!

We had these with another made up recipe, Skillet Au Gratin Potatoes made with organic potatoes, raw cream and raw cheese(See picture at the top). I'll have to blog on that one next. Yum yum!
*Disclaimer: Okay, my oats weren't soaked this time since I was on such a time crunch and hadn't planned ahead. However, next time I make this, (and I will!), I will either use leftover bread (sprouted) or soaked oats. I have no doubt that it will still be just as good...

This blog is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Cheeseslave.

The Best Chocolate Ice cream I Have ever made

2009-06-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, since my folks were coming to visit, I needed to make ice cream. My dad and hubby are both ice cream addicts, so normally, they would go out on a special ice cream foraging trip and bring home lots of natural stuff like B&J's and Breyers. Of course, my dairy sensitive son can't have any so with the recent start of the Organic Pastures co-op here, I was able to get fresh raw milk and cream specifically for making the good stuff.

The foundation of the recipe is the same for every type of ice cream that we make, utilizing all raw materials to make it healthy enough for the kids to fill up on it without any qualms on my part.

Basic Ice Cream
(variations in amounts depend on ice cream maker size. Ours takes about 1 1/2 cups of each and 4 eggs.)
1-2 c. raw cream
1-2 c. raw milk
4-6 pastured egg yolks
1/2 c. raw honey
1 tsp. vanilla

Whisk all together (I use the food processor or blender) and put into the ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.

Chocolate Variation (when using this, omit the honey above)
In a medium saucepan, melt together over the lowest heat, (do NOT boil!):
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. cocoa (raw if you have it)
5 tbsp. raw or pastured butter

Mix until smooth then cool completely.
Once cool, blend together with milk mixture and cool in the fridge for a couple hours.
Freeze in ice cream maker.
Option: At the last possible minute, add 1 c. choc chips (try homemade!)
Option: Even better, to make it with mint, add 1 tsp of mint extract when you add the vanilla.

I made the chocolate mint ice cream. When it was finished I had a friend try it. She said she thought about it all the way home! It is that flavor that you just want to leave in your mouth for a long long time! Yum.

Pump the Jam

2009-05-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

We get all of our produce from a co-op of organic farms called Abundant Harvest. We love them, wish they were just slightly more local, but haven't been able to find what we need from local farms. Our area is JUST getting on the organic band wagon and we still deal with a lot of spraying and GMO crops.

Anyway, they have just started their summer fruits and have an optional add-on of 15lbs of cosmetically challenged stone fruit for $9. I don't know about you, but a deal that good is hard to pass up. The first week, my kids ate so much I barely had enough to make a couple peach crisps!

Additionally, my friends and I started a small garden co-op this year and see that we might run into a slight abundance of things like tomatoes and cucumbers. I had never canned anything before but have always wanted to. My friend Erin however, is a seasoned jammer.

Soooooo, yesterday, with some of her materials, I took all those peaches and made some jam.
Now, we are all into that Nourishing Traditions, slow food, traditional cooking thing, so I couldn't just use any jam recipe or any pectin. I wanted to make my jams with honey, so I could feel good about my kids slathering it on their biscuits. Apparently, jams are delicate, though a pretty simple process. I don't know that much about jamming but I do know that you pretty much need pectin and that you have to get special pectin to make no sugared jams. It is nearly impossible to find organic pectin (if anyone has a resource please let me know!), so we get our natural stuff from Pomona.
These are Erin's supplies!

So here is what you need:
Fresh fruit in season
pectin
calcium water
Some smallish canning jars and lids
sweetener, honey, rapadura, coconut sugar, etc.
lemon or lime juice
a few pans for heating
a very large stock pot or roasting pan for boiling the jars

I followed the recipe on this page. So I started by peeling and mashing a bunch of peaches. I set those aside to deal with in a minute. Then I measured out just less than a cup of honey. Put it in a bowl with 1 tbsp. of pectin. Those have to be mixed together until the pectin is completely incorporated.

Next, I took all those organic lemons and made some lemon juice. I needed 1/4 cup to add to the 4 cups of peaches. Then I added 4 tsp. of calcium water (see instructions on the recipe sheet) and mixed that all together. In the meantime, I was also preparing the jars.
First, I washed all of the jars in warm soapy water, then let them sit in hot water until I needed them.
Then took all the lids and rings and boiled them. After boiling, I just turned down the heat and let them sit in hot water til I needed them.

Once that stuff was ready, I took the peaches and boiled them in a medium sauce pan. As soon as it boiled I added the honey mix and stirred vigorously for 1-2 minutes until it was well mixed. Then I let it come to a boil and turned off the heat.

Filling the jars is a no-brainer, except there has to be about 1/4 inch left from the top of the rim. Wiping the rims with a clean towel is essential for sterilization purposes, then the lids and rings go on.
I started with just my roasting pan but by the second batch I realized that I had a couple jars that would not be completely covered when I put them in, so I had to bring out the big soup pot. I used tongs, though it would be really nice to have those specialty tools for placing and removing jars from boiling water.
The jars have to boil for about 10 minutes before they are removed and allowed to cool without being touched. Apparently it can take up to 2 weeks for them to set!

I am trying really hard not to touch all those beautiful jars right now, but I am very excited for my next venture in food preservation. I would love to get to a point where all of our canned foods come straight from our own garden or local farms.

This post is part of fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade!

Pain is good?

2009-05-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

Last week, all my expectations came crashing down around my feet.

Since February of 2008, I have been in a state of constant pain. With each movement, sharp shooting pains spike down the back of my leg. The rest of the time, it tingles like it is "asleep". Walking hurts. Sitting hurts. Playing with the kids, when it is possible, hurts. Sleeping hurts. I don't even remember what it is like to be able to live without pain.

I have read books and prayed. I have tried resting, icing, heating, exercise, stretching, and wine. After a full year of alternative treatments, last week my doctor told me that he thought surgery might be the only way to go for me. Coming from him, whom I not only trust but also is as "granola" as I am, this was quite a blow.

And yet...maybe it is not as bad as I have convinced myself that it is. In the last few weeks, I have felt like God is calling me to a state of peace in the midst of suffering. It is just so hard to give up the hope of healing! Can I live like this for the rest of my life? Can I praise him in the center of the worst of it, when I haven't slept much for days in a row, when I can't find a position that will give me enough of a release to let me rest. Sleep is a beautiful beautiful thing. As a mother, I know this truth inside and out, but now...it is more precious than gold. How can I have peace in the midst of this?!

And yet...do I really believe that God is a God of love? Do I really believe that this suffering, (compared to some it is really nothing!), is in my life for a purpose? If I believe He wants the best for me, than there is peace to be found.

And now this. Surgery on my spinal column! Sure, it is a quick surgery, but it is still ridiculously high risk! Is this how I get to heal? Or is this the way to the worst? I honestly have no idea. I have no insight into God's voice right now.

There is only one thing I know for a fact. If I do have this surgery, there is no way I am eating hospital food!

Sprouted grains (Updated)

2009-04-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Since discovering the advantages of sprouted grains, I have been a grain sprouting, drying, milling, experimenting fool! I'll post some recipes soon, but I wanted to let folks know that this too is attainable for YOU!

Making seeds grow is something that my kids do on a regular basis. They find a seed, grab a ziploc and a moist paper towel, throw it all in together and tape it to a window. (Usually all before I have a say in the matter. I have tape marks all over my dining room window, since currently we only have a lemon seed growing...) Within a few days, we have plant life to watch!

Sprouting grains for cooking is just as simple and takes about as much time! Of course, it is much easier to make all the recipes I have if you have a grain mill...(which I HIGHLY recommend for healthy cooking! Check out info about anti-caking agents added to store bought flour!)

The Sprouting Steps:
1. I usually select a grain, fill my gallon jar about 1/2 full, fill it to the top with water and put the mesh screen lid on. Then I leave it overnight, or for the whole day, up to 24 hours.

2. Dumping the water takes 2 minutes, (a couple more if you dump it in your garden like I do), then the jar goes on it's side on the counter.
3. The seeds/grains get rinsed once or twice a day, (depending on how anal you are...sometimes I get so busy they don't get rinsed at all! gulp!)
4. Within a couple days, you'll see all those little seeds growing little tiny sprouts. When they are about 1/16 inch long, they are ready to be used. Be careful though, if you let them go longer they will keep growing until they are no longer a grain, but now plant life. (Makes for a much greener flavor...)

Drying Sprouts:
This part takes about as much time as sprouting.
1. Dump your jar of sprouted grains onto a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides) or on a pizza pan with holes in the bottom (I just discovered that the grains don't fall through the bottom and it gives it great air circulation!) and place in a warm oven. It is very important that the oven not go over about 105 degrees. If they dry at a higher heat, you kill all those good enzymes you just let out by sprouting!)
2. Every so often, 2 or so hours, reach in and mix em up. The oven is only warm so if it is too hot for your hand, then it is too hot for the grain.
3 After about 5-18 hours, depending on your oven's convection features and how thinly your grain is spread on the trays, you have dried grains that can now go right into the flour mill! (They should feel just like the dried grains do when they are ready to go through the mill.)

Cooking with Sprouted flour:
One thing I have found so far is that most of the time sprouted flour can be substituted straight across for any other flour in a recipe. However, every once in a while it needs just a bit less liquid...not exactly sure why.

Yeh! Found my camera cord. This last picture is of the scones that my 7 year old made all by herself!

Later, I am making sprouted hummus! We'll see how it turns out!

This post is a part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade!

Raw Milk at Organic Pastures

2009-04-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Our spring break was so exciting! In between family visits, sister weekends and driving all over the state, we got to go visit Organic Pastures raw milk dairy in Fresno, CA. Since we already buy milk from them, I thought it would be the perfect supplement to the kids' education to see where our milk comes from, literally. I made an appointment the week before our trip to get a tour and when we arrived, another family tour was just finishing up.
Kaleigh, Marc McAfe e's daughter, was our tour guide. (Of course the pix I took of her are nowhere to be found!!!) She was bubbly and sweet and very informative. She is basically in charge of marketing for the company and you can completely tell that her heart is all the way in it! It will be cool to watch what happens as she becomes more and more involved.

All of the following is info we got from her. (Any error in information is my mistaken memory!)

When Marc and his family first moved out to their farm he wanted to have goats. His wife didn't like goat's milk, cheese or meat so she wanted cows. Obviously, happiness of the wife is happiness in the home so cows it was! They had never been farmers so they kind of let the cows do their thing, their way. Pretty soon, folks were coming with buckets, asking for raw milk. Initially, they just gave it away for free! Then the demand became great and they realized that to meet the demand they would have to actually venture into some bottling processes. So they started with a couple trailers, thinking it would be a temporary fix and ended up using more to make their current creamery.

For sanitation purposes they can't let people actually go IN to the creamery, but we got to look in the window to see how they bottle the milk.

Amazingly, everything that can be done by hand is done by hand! We can see now why the milk has to cost what it does! (I wish I had been able to get the picture of the guy with the mountain of butter and the scooper. He was scooping butter into the containers, one at a time!!!)

They are hoping that when they get the new creamery built (within a couple years!) they can actually streamline things, meet a little more of the outstanding demand, and perhaps even get the prices down quite a bit!

Next we got to see the cows!

Our first stop was the mama pasture, full of pregnant cows ready to give birth.
Cows are pregnant for about 9ish months, close to the same as humans. They get to be in this pasture away from milking and daily cow busy-ness for about the last month. Sounds like a dream! There were holsteins and jerseys and some mixes, mamas who were on their first baby and some who were old hats at this. At Organic Pastures they let the cows go through the labor and delivery process as naturally as possible without any human intervention unless there is some problem or the labor takes more than an hour.

(An hour!!!! Can you imagine if we lived organically in a natural environment and with little medical intervention? Would our babies come out as quickly and with such ease? I think so!!!)

Typically, the delivering cow will take herself about 200 yards or so out away from the herd and lumber around, swaying and loosening up. The calf will then come out, plop down on the ground, followed by all the afterbirth. She will eat up all the yucky stuff, clean her baby and he will wobble himself up to his feet.
See how close we were?

Then how far away from the rest?

Next we walked/ran, (this was lovely for wearing out the 3, 5, 7 and 9 year olds!), to see where they take the babies once they have their legs under them. There are coyotes in the area that will come and take the calves if they are not protected a bit.
There were little pens that they stay in for a couple weeks until they get moved to the big kids playpen

and then on to the big kid area out in the pasture. While they are here, we can pet them and let them "nurse" off of our fingers. (This is a feeling much like a human baby, just with a much deeper mouth.) They were very sweet!

Organic Pastures does not do any branding of their animals, which I love. It does, however, have its drawbacks. Just recently, they had about a hundred calves stolen. Yes, stolen. Can you believe people still do things like that? I'm not sure if they are going to change their practice on that end but I hope not. I love that these cows are so free to be truly natural.

A cow can typically live anywhere from 15- 25 years. At nearby dairies, the cows live an average of 3-4 years. This could be because the farmers give them things like gummy bears and molasses chips to make them produce more milk. (!!!!!!! Did you catch that???????? Talk about natural!!! UGH!) These cows are also kept in small pens and given no opportunities for normal life. From those cows I can understand the pasteurization practice!!!

Lately, with the pasteurized milk industry not doing as well, some of the organic dairies are coming to the McAfee family and asking them to buy their cows. When the non-pastured cows are unloaded from the truck they are a bit skittish about this prickly green substance under their feet. It takes them a couple of nervous hours before the joy takes them over. At that point they begin to literally dance across the pastures, kicking up their heels, bounding through to the boundaries of their newfound freedom. Kaleigh said she wished she had a video so she could put it on YouTube. (Get it, please!!! I want to see!!!)

After the tour, we came back to the offices where the kids ate all of the raw almond samples and had some raw milk and chocolate "colostrum" samples.
I love this dairy. I love how much they care about their products and their animals. I am so happy to be supporting them!

Cookies for Breakfast?

2009-04-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, that's right. I did. I gave my kids gigantic cookies for breakfast. Two of them each, in fact. Even saved two for dad. It seemed like a good idea at the time...still does, except when I hear them talking to someone about the cookies they had for breakfast. *Ahem*
But wait! They were good cookies! They had flour and oats and eggs and cinnamon and honey and homemade buttermilk! (And of course I didn't take ONE picture!- I thought about it...then wondered what people would think...) And the kids loved it so much. They sat there, eating those cookies that were bigger than their hands, with smiles that can only come with dessert. I'm mom of the year now and it was food that was actually GOOD for them. I love it!

Pizza will never be the same

2009-03-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

For a few years now, I have been making homemade pizza, partially to save money and partially to prove that I could be THAT good. But lately...I think I may have achieved star status. Ramiah, my pickiest eater, not only loves to help MAKE the pizza, but has proclaimed that pizza is her FAVORITE. (I suppose it is of no consequence that she wants to put all the stuff on it but even as she is grinning about eating "piiiiiizzzzzaaaaaa" she is picking all of that stuff off!)
Until last week, Asher, my allergy boy, has always had to have a separate pizza that was only his. It was always made with less sauce, (tomatoes give him a rash), and some other kind of cheese, (soy-before I knew better, almond-just gross, goat-only kinda gross). His dairy allergy always made his pizza just different enough that nobody wanted to share...
Until this week.

I now buy only raw cheeses, obviously made from raw milk. So this week, we made pizza with a raw cheddar. It smelled divine, looked even better and the taste...ah well...let's just say that dear hubby proclaimed this one to be one of the best yet. And the best part? Asher ate from the same pizza as all of us! Not only that, he ate 4 slices before I cut him off! Oh, dawn has risen and the family is whole! (Okay, slightly melodramatic, but it was a good day, a very good day.)

Asher isn't pictured, but his twin sure enjoyed it too! By the way, this is also a great way to get the kids to eat their veggies. This pizza had peppers, tomatoes, onions, and spinach on it. Apart from Miah, nobody took anything off the top! If you want my recipe, leave me a comment. :)

Operation Organization

2009-03-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

After the twins were born, many things in our household slowed to a crawl. Everything from making dinner to going to the store became a task of monumental effort. There was not a moment of regret, just the instinct of survival. In that time, we had many amazing and generous people involved in our lives. Some gave of their time, some gave financial support, and others gave stuff. Cool stuff, fun stuff, stuff for the kids, stuff for the grownups, stuff to feed us, stuff to entertain, loads and loads of stuff. Then there was all that stuff that comes naturally from having children in the house...lots of kids, lots of stuff.

Ordinarily, I would have been able to process the stuff and clear and edit as we used it up. However, with four very young kids, it was all I could do to keep the house looking decent, (just don't check for dust!), get food on the table and make sure they are healthy and happy. As a result, we ended up with a lot more stuff than we had space for and much of our space was a bit overwhelmed.

The garage was in serious trouble. Every time poor Tony had a fun woodworking project to do, it took him about an hour to clear the work space so he could use his saws. My sewing area, used somewhat sporadically during those first two years, was filled to the brim with fabrics, projects and mending.

By the time the twins were two and able to play independently for more than a couple minutes,

my major project, aside from homeschooling, became somehow getting control of the clutter. It was a goal, a frustration and a constant task. Each time I cleared one area, the sense of relief was overshadowed by the renewed awareness of how much it would take to get the next area done. Yet still, I struggled on, plugging away whenever a free hour came about. About 6 months into this process, I realized it would take me many many many months to really get everything done that needed to be done and the garage...well, let's just say that the enormity of the task gave me pause.

Fast forward to the aftermath of the amazing gift from my amazing family and friends. While Vanessa quietly coordinated monitary collections, Tony and I interviewed and discussed the merits of several organization companies. The first one we interviewed was my favorite by far, and of course, the most expensive. They listened to me, recognized my need and were willing to go the extra mile to accommodate our own brand of quirkiness. :) When they called back a couple weeks after submitting their estimate, we had already decided to go with free family garage organizers. However, they were totally willing to come back and submit another estimate for just the sewing and computer areas, and work with me on the time so we could actually afford it.

In the meantime, my brother Aaron and his lovely wife, Nadine, who have had a bit of experience in the garage organization process, agreed to come and spend a weekend with us to clear and reorganize the biggest task. They were phenomenal!

We spent two days, from morning to night, purging, cleaning and grouping. By the time we were done, we had "gotten rid of" several hundreds of dollars worth of school supplies that I no longer needed, as well as much baby stuff, games, etc. Most of it ended up being donated to a preschool that had just lost it's funding. That made me happy!

Admittedly, it took another week to actually get everything out of the driveway, but once the purging had happened, it was just a matter of time.

Inside the garage it was like a whole new world had opened up! Suddenly, there was so much space! There is a removable curtain for Tony’s shop, (to keep the sawdust off of everything else in the room!).

We could park all the kids’ bike type vehicles within their reach and still have room to set up paints and do projects!

While this took an amazing amount of time and effort, (and lots of familial support for kids and food!) financially, this was the smallest part of the process. The next step came with the professionals.

We decided, after much deliberation, to hire the first people we interviewed, Operation Organization. They have a stellar reputation in LA and agreed to work within our budget to get as much done as they could.

The areas they attacked were almost as bad as the garage, certainly in terms of neglect-the sewing area, which I wanted out of our bedroom, and the computer area which was underutilized and way over stuffed. (See following for embarrassing before pix)

I know, scary. Because these doors would close, this was the drop site for anything that

looked like paper or crafty stuff. The computer, old and full of viruses, was almost never used. We have laptops that are the daily work zones and they wouldn’t fit in here anyway.

The sewing area was just as bad. Though there were no doors, it was hidden away in the corner of our bedroom and so was allowed to be last on the list of priorities, even though it was an area I needed to use on more than one occasion. (Much like Tony’s work space in the garage, it took so much time to clear an area to work, much of the motivation was gone before I had a chance to begin.)

Katrina, the owner of the company, came in with a small work crew and lots of energy. They worked for 4 hours the first day and 4 hours the next.

She shopped for everything we needed to make the space usable. We donated several piles of things and threw out 4 bags of papers, shredding (burning) an additional 3 boxes. It was glorious! Here come the afters!

I LOVE the drawer! So much fits and it is all easily accessible!

This was where the sewing area was in my bedroom. Now that it is where the computer used to be, I have room for an elliptical machine with a built in shelf so I can watch shows on the computer while I work out!

The piano used to be here, but is now moved to near the front door where the shoes used to collect. (They now go into the kids' rooms; well, they are supposed to anyway.)

The computer and sewing table ended up in Adriel and Ramiah’s room, (with no internet), so they could learn how to use a computer without close supervision. Of course, this also is a great motivator to keep their room clean!

They even set up a new filing system that can go easily from the house to the garage and holds all the important and immediate paper needs.

All of the fabric is now hidden in the living room boxes and cabinets and all of the toys that once lived in those places are relegated to the appropriate bedrooms, hopefully rarely seen by us grownups!

So family and friends, I hope that you can see that your gift was well spent and has literally changed our lives. There is something of a peace that comes when the mess, even hidden, is gone from your life. I’m sure this is a great metaphor but for now, I’ll just leave it, knowing that whatever your motivation, you have been a part of a revitalizing and joyful renovation that would have otherwise taken me months to achieve. And we are so so grateful.

Real Food Wednesday Part 2 :donuts, (the good kind)

2009-03-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

This blog is part of Real Food Wednesday.

Mmmmmmm! Those donuts were good! The recipe is on heavenly homemaker's blog. I used honey instead of rapadura and added a little flour at the end to make them rollable. I also used raw milk and 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinn. and nutmeg. Delicious!

I firmly believe that kids should be part of the process...they enjoy it more that way.

Ramiah was fabulous at the egg cracking process! No shells or anything!

Adriel really got into the shaping process.

Asher is always explaining to everyone exactly what he is doing. He actually only shaped 2 donuts. His talking slowed him down.

He couldn't wait for the frosting. He wanted one right now!

Finally eating! They all loved em. Had to con them into saving one for Dad. He never gets the good stuff.
I'd say this counts as math today, right?

Real Food Wednesday: donuts and bagels

2009-03-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, this morning we are making donuts because I saw it on a blog here and remember how much I loved when my mom would make us donuts for breakfast. Of course, we only got them on weekends because we all had school on the weekdays. I'll post a picture after we are done, hopefully I'll remember to get the whole process because you KNOW the kids will be helping!

Also, I need a recipe for a basic sprouted grain bagel! I could make it up, and I am getting sorely tempted to do so, but if anyone has a recipe out there I could much more easily do adaptations. We love Trader Joe's sprouted wheat cinn. raisin bagels but I am tired of paying for 6 of them and having only 2 servings for my kids! Anyone?

Garden Co-op

2009-02-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

We've been talking about community living, sustainability, organic produce, etc. Finally, a few of my friends and I are going to do a cooperative garden project this year. I am not completely sure how it will work, but this week I am supposed to be doing an inventory of garden spaces, seeds, sunlight availability and current needs. I'd better get on it. I'll post more info as it comes. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for the kids to learn a whole mess of stuff about gardening and how a community can work together.

The Twins' birth: Warning: graphic details included

2009-02-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

So many people ask, so I thought I would just tell it here, while I was in the blogging mood. When my second child was 16 months old, we found out we were expecting again. While we were quite happy about it-we had been trying for a few months-I was a bit nervous as I tend to get very sick during the first part of my pregnancies. Sure enough, at just about 3 weeks, the nasty sickness started. Oh well...at some point, I remember telling my husband that if we wanted to have our four kids we would have to adopt, because I couldn't imagine being that sick with THREE little ones running around! I went to the same midwife i had had with both of my other kids and things were going fine until I started getting chastised for the amount of weight gain...I gained 14 lbs in a two week period with no change in appetite or activity. I couldn't figure it out! Finally, at 18 weeks, it was time for the ultrasound. I went alone, since we didn't expect it to be anything unusual, and thought I had plenty of time to finish up and go pick up my youngest from preschool. I was lying on the table, the technician smiling and asking random questions to make me comfortable. Then I noticed that the questions had stopped and her face was looking a bit confused. She stopped and said, I'll be right back. My stomach dropped. What could be wrong with my baby!!!!??? Pretty soon, she comes back in with the main tech guy, who introduces himself and says that he will be doing the rest of my ultrasound. sheesh! I was scared. I wanted my husband to be there so badly! Then he smiles as he moves the thing over my belly. "Yes, it looks like twins.", he says....Shock...joy...shock...when can I call my husband?? Before I called him, I had to call the preschool to let them know I would be late. Apparently, it takes twice as long to check out twins!

This picture is me at 19 and 1/2 weeks, about a week after I found out it was twins.

Eventually, the sickness subsided and we continued to try to prepare for the two babies that would be coming. My midwife couldn't legally deliver them, due to strict laws in CA. (stupid!) So I had to start seeing some regular OBs. In my town, covered by my insurance, there wasn't much to choose from. All the OBs in the practice I landed at were only willing to offer me the natural option if both babies were in the head down position but they would prefer to just schedule my C-section for sometime after 36 weeks, assuming I made it that far. I prayed a lot. I didn't feel like that was what I needed to do so I found another option. We hired a midwife from 100 miles away to come and do a home birth, if things were all good. We live 5 minutes from the hospital so we figured that it would be easy to use that as a back up plan. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this unless you really have a peace about it from God!This is me at 24 and 1/2 weeks. I already looked 9 months and I was only about half way there! Yikes!This is right before the twins were born. Actually, I think I may have had a couple more weeks after this. It was insane! By 36 weeks, I was using a walker to get myself out of my bed. The only place I could sleep was on this antigravity chair with my feet propped on pillows on a dining room chair. My poor kids knew that mommy wasn't going to get up to break up their fighting or pick them up if they fell. So sad! When we went to the store, I had to park in the handicap spot just so I could make it in! Then I would use one of the in store wheelchairs so I wouldn't have to stop every 3 feet to rest. I was heavy! Though, I only gained a total of 63 pounds. Not too bad for two full term babies. My mom, bless her heart, took a sabbatical from work to come stay with me and help with the kids for 3 months. She was there for the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy and for a month after they were born. She was amazing.

Delivery Day:
At 40 weeks plus 1 day, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom, not an uncommon event. It happened to be a weekend that my dad and sister were visiting, and it was a Sunday. On my way to the bathroom, all of 10 feet, my water broke. It felt like I peed all over myself, but without the actual action of the bladder involvement. I was shocked. I hadn't had that happen before. I told my husband, "Uh, I think my water broke. I didn't know that happened in real life! I thought it was just a movies thing! Well...I guess we should call the midwife, huh?" At that point I still hadn't had any contractions but I figured they would be starting soon enough. So we called her. She got right up and was on the road within 1/2 hour. Good thing too since it was an hour and half drive to get here. We started setting up the bed with the plastic and the old sheet and woke Mom up at around 5 or 5:30am to let her know that we would need Dad on kid duty that morning.
The contractions finally started around 5:15 or 5:30a, going from 5 minutes to 4 minutes apart pretty quickly. By the time the midwife arrived at 7am they were about 3-4 min apart but not too bad. Once she had gotten set up, she checked me and told me that whenever I was ready I could start pushing. What?! I wasn't ready. The one thing I remembered very clearly from my first two births was that the time right before the pushing was the hardest because the urge to push was overwhelming. This time, I wasn't overwhelmed yet. So I waited. Then waited a little longer. At around 8:10a, she suggested I go ahead and start pushing. So I did. My daughter Eden was born at 8:23am. She came out so fast that the midwife almost dropped her. The contractions mercifully stopped for a few minutes, and Eden's twin slipped into place as she worked her way out. My husband cut her cord while she lay on my stomach. I think I might have said, "I don't want to do that again!"
Pretty soon, though, the contractions started again and I had to start pushing again. I was so tired! To make matters worse, he was in the breach position! I felt like I pushed out his head but heard the midwife say that only his bottom was out and that we had just a few seconds before he would start losing oxygen. She sounded a little scared so I grabbed everything that I had in me and pushed til I couldn't anymore. Finally, he was out. Asher was born just 35 minutes after his sister, at 8:53am. Of course, with him, came such a gush of blood that everyone knew something was wrong. As we would find out a bit later, their cords were very short, only about 12 inches each, and they were both attached to a fused placenta that was in a good high position. When Eden came out, she tore a bit of the placenta away from the uterine wall, leaving a gush of fresh blood flowing. Since Asher immediately moved into place in the birth canal, he effectively plugged the hole so that no one knew I was losing blood. By the time he came out I was so weak from blood lose that I passed out twice while they were trying to change the sheets on the bed. I was plied with this green drink and gaterade, and the midwife tested my blood about once an hour. There was point when I knew that if I went to sleep I wouldn't wake up so I told whoever was there to make sure to wake me up if I stopped breathing. My sister told me later that there was a moment when she saw me "leave". I was there, then I wasn't. It really freaked her out. I knew that I didn't want to die, that I didn't want to leave my husband with four little kids to raise on his own, that I wanted to raise them myself. I thought all of that while I was just minutes postpartum. I guess it was enough, cuz here I still am.Day one, we finally got them weighed, after all the drama subsided. Eden weighed in at 8 lbs 1 oz. Asher was a whopping 8 lbs 8 oz. The placenta was another three pounds. When I was able to get up to get on the scale the next day, I found I had lost 25 lbs in a day. What a lovely feeling!
It took me three weeks before I was allowed up and around. I basically lived in my room with my babies. Food was brought, visitors came, my girls came in a few times a day to hang out with me, but it was a long three weeks. It was 5 weeks before I could walk without great pain, and 5 months before I could walk on a treadmill. I think I may have fractured my pelvis while they were in there, and it took me that long to recover. Now, they are 3. Beautiful, amazing, full of personality and life. I wouldn't have changed anything.

Eating the way God intended

2009-02-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Well...that's what we tell ourselves we are doing. Recently, we started getting a CSA (community sustained agriculture) box. It is basically a bunch of organic farms that work together to provide people with fresh and seasonal produce. Fortunately for us, we live in CA where the growing season goes on all year. It has been an interesting challenge to come up with recipes that will appeal to all 6 of us with some of the things that have been showing up in the box. This week we had kale, mustard greens, turnips, and arugala among others. Tonight I made turnip fries, that tasted remarkably like zucchini and greens with bacon and onions. Yum! It was so good that I am going to use the leftovers as a soup base for tomorrow's dinner...of course, I'll have to blend up the wilted greens since two of the kids made a point to gag on them tonight...sigh. They do so well normally! Well, most of them do. Right now, we are just working on teaching Ramiah to stop complaining about the food before she has even tasted it.

Blog By Adriel

2009-01-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

up here what we have is me on a pier.

(ummm..............)

the other picture is my Little cousins: in order it is Avarie Josh Rian and Jayda.

Mission Organization

2009-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm not that organized. Before I had kids I never needed to be. Once I actually had a couple of kids I realized that I couldn't just know where everything was, I actually needed to have some systems in place that gave the things somewhere to be. The problem was that I never really knew how to create those systems. When I was growing up in a family with six kids we just never had enough "stuff" to be categorized into systems. Books went on the shelf, crayons went into the boxes my dad made for us, and toys...well, I think we had maybe a total of two boxes worth of toys and they lived in a closet somewhere.
After the twins were born, well, after I could breathe again, I realized that the systemless state of my house was actually causing me stress. Have I changed that much? My sister Ness and I have had loads of discussions about this as I have processed through kids clothes and have begun to figure out what our daily and monthly needs are in terms of stuff. After listening to me and supporting me for the past year of slowly going through my house decluttering as I went, she organized an organization gift for me for Christmas from friends and family. What it is going to turn out to be is a weekend with a professional organization company, cleaning out and setting up systems. I'm both excited and terrified.
Today I had the first consultation meeting with one of the four companies on the list. It was very interesting. I really liked the owner and the employee she brought with her. I was showing them the garage and my problem sewing area and realized for perhaps the first time how my house must look to those who have a knack for this organization thing. At some point in the conversation I came to another realization; no matter how hard I try to get myself and my house organized, without the knowledge of "systems" I can only make so much headway. There will always be an element of dissarray, of scrambling to clean, of fighting the clutter and the mess...unless I can somehow grab hold of this stuff that they seem to know intrinsically. How do people get that? Are they born with it? Is it drilled into them in childhood? I'm sure there are classes on it now somewhere!

Unschooling and gardening

2008-11-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was finally released from working a part time job that was wearing me down. I had prayed about it and then just waited to see what was going to happen. Whew! One of the reasons I wanted to stop was because I want to move on to greener pastures. Literally. I want to start a community garden mostly for young children in my area. Since we live in So. Cal. we have a very long gardening season. Plus, the amazing amount of learning kids can achieve in a good garden motivates me to no end. I am not completely sure where to start but I can't seem to get it out of my head. This is usually an indication that I should pay attention and at least check to see if I can find some open doors.
One of my inspirations right now is a little urban homestead in Pasadena, CA called Path to Freedom. Check out their website and then tell me what you think!
Additionally, I am working on a name for my nonprofit corp. (This is what I need to be able to really do the garden right!) Any ideas are welcome. I wanted it to be something like Growing Green Kids, but that is already taken. Ideas? Ideas?
Somehow, I will include organic sustainable eating, composting, measuring, colors and sorting, weather, plant identification and sustainable water and solar practices. I am so excited about this!

Santa Barbara Weekend

2008-11-08T22:42:00.000-08:00

We went on this great weekend with some of our Bible Study family to the beautiful Santa Barbara. We rented a huge house together and hit the beach, State Street, the Farmer's market...just generally a great time. It was raining that weekend and the morning we were going to leave we woke up with fog all around us. It slowly burned off, heading toward the mountains. I told the kids, who were all sleeping on our bedroom floor, to "Quick, look out the window! The clouds fell out of the sky! They are on the ground!" They all rush to the window...
Adriel, ever the vigilant says with some disdain, "Uh, mom, that's called fog."
Love it...

Toddlers to Tikes

2008-11-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

Next week my twins turn 3. There is a bitterweetness to this reality. If I were still having children, I would either be pregnant or have a very young child right now. That I don't isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a bit thought provoking. When hubby got his surgery, adoption went on the table. Well, at least my table. For him, it is still a bit of a fantasy of mine. What can I say? Four kids just seems like I am doing things the easy way...

Yesterday, we had peas with our dinner. One of the twins made the brilliant discovery that those little green things fit perfectly inside his nose. With giggles abounding, the other twin quickly tried to see if it worked with hers too. Her laughter became tears almost immediately, while his grew in intensity. You might think I am a terrible mother at this point but I was still putting hot food on the table and missed most of the discovery interaction. They are FAST, these little ones! "Mom!" I heard, "I have a peas in my nose!"
Fortunately, no trip to the urgent care was required, nor was minor surgery. They have learned well how to "blow" and with some prompting we got everything out so that we could finish dinner in peas...er...peace. They were scolded, warned, then we tried to scare them with how their brain could rot away if the food decomposed inside their noses. The older two were convinced. No pea, or hopefully anything else, was going to find its way into anything but their mouths! However...about an hour later, while getting jammies on the boy I noticed that his nose was bleeding just a tad. Nothing unusual for him, he has nosebleeds with every change in the weather. I got a kleenex, had him blow...and threw away the two peas he had stuffed in...ew. What do you do with that?!

First Day of School

2008-09-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

This is normally where we take the sweet pictures and sigh with a bittersweet feeling as we send them off. Unless you are homeschooling!
Today was our first day of school. Last night I spent some time figuring out and writing out a schedule so that we could stay on track and keep the pace going. I posted it in our little yellow school house, (I'll post a picture later), and prepped a couple sentence strips for our calendar time. I felt accomplished and ready; nothing like those days when I was teaching and expecting a brand new class, complete with a new set of parents and personalities. I know my students this year, perhaps too well at times...
We went to the gym after breakfast,( it is the only time that it works out with their childcare hours). All 4 kids were excited at the idea of starting school, though only the oldest has any kind of idea or expectation. I have liked the idea of having "school time" to kind of give us a place to go and time that is structured. I am a strong believer in routines and structure for young kids. At least my kids seem to function and even sleep better when they have a routine. Now, at the end of our first day, I think it is going to take us a few months to get the hang of school at all...

What was I thinking?

2008-09-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

You can't imagine my relief on the first day of school, when I got all the kids dressed and ready without any time pressure and loaded them up to go to the gym. I had a great workout and they all did some fun crafts. After avoiding a couple of school related questions from the childcare woman, we loaded back up and went home for a leisurely day of pool play, (they don't know that a 1.5 foot pool isn't as fun as an underground!). Since my hubby is a teacher, I had decided we needed a few extra days to recoup after a summer of having him home before diving into the next adventure, namely, homeschool.
My oldest just finished a year of private school where the tuition and the drama went up a few notches. With three others at home, it was a logistical nightmare getting them all ready everyday. I was tired. Plus, after going to school for years to get my teaching credentials I figured we shouldn't have to pay for our kids to be educated when I have all the tools, (and supplies), to do it myself. (This was not as easy a decision as I make it sound. I agonized and prayed and fretted for months! Once the decision was made peace came...)
So here we are.
Home. School. WHAT?! What was I thinking?! Today we sat down, the two girls, (age 6.8 and 4.8), to do a functional activity. We are making a book to appreciate all the wonderful things that Gramma and Papa do with and for us. Then we can sign it and send it to them so that we don't have the leftover clutter at home. It was great for about 10 minutes. Then one of the twins, (ages 2.8), dumped out the whole box of crayons and proceeded to spread them all over the floor, making cleanup SO much easier...okay. Great sigh. So we finish our book tomorrow. Today wasn't technically the start day anyway...

My philosophy of homeschooling: To educate my children using real life situations and moments, using advanced level books and art to stimulate self learning and to create an environment in our home where learning is encouraged and exciting. Organic learning to go along with our organic eating.

My practice is going to take a while to match my philosophy. Coming from an educator background it is HARD to shift things to make it less about structure and standards and more about each child and their strengths and interests...how did we go so wrong in our school system? More on this later.

So...we start on Monday. For real. Figuring out how to manage and occupy the twins will be the big task, I think. I have some ideas...we'll see how they work.