Last edited on Tue Aug 19th, 2008 22:51 by Pipistrelle

However, reading the labels, the commercial dried fruits are almost all coated in sunflower oil. And I believe sunflower oil has "D" in it. So, I really don't want to eat too many for that reason (beside the carbs).

We just had our grapes we've grown in our back yard ripen all at once (I'm really in no shape to stand for long) but as much as I am physically able I've been hand striping, sorting, washing the grapes. Then I lightly coat them in coconut oil before drying them in my warming drawer (at around 115 degrees F) for a day or two. My friends who have tried them say they are 'gourmet' ... I eat 10-20 of these homemade raisins whenever I need a little pick-me up.

1. Because of my love for true food, that is nutritious, full of flavor and farmed in a way that doesn't trash our home sweet home planet earth... I shop for organic as much a possible. Some foods are just to expensive organic, so I just don't buy them.

There is a top ten lists of 'worst offenders' concerning pesticides that I try to really avoid that includes strawberries, bell peppers and tomatoes. Frozen organic is an easy way to make sure that what we buy doesn't spoil. We buy small amounts of frozen organic strawberries and blueberries and they have the most wonderful flavor.

2. I also shop for fair trade because slavery has been making a come back around the world lately (especially for chocolate and other tropical crops) and it makes me uncomfortable to think I'm getting a lower price due to the oppression of other peoples.

I learned to look for sprouted grains somewhere along the line and the only store-bought sprouted bread that I have access to is made by the Alvarado Street Bakery. (They also do online ordering.)

I actually have stopped eating bread daily the way I used to, but when I do eat bread, their sourdough line is my favorite (no soybeans). All their breads freeze nicely and toasting the bread brings out the great flavor nicely.

Once you start reading this, you will see that in my passionate pursuit of recovering our family’s health, I have taken the advice of the Weston Price foundation and the recipes from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook very much to heart.

But please don’t think I am totally a health-food purist! I have lived by the 80/20 rule that says, "80% of the time put healthy eating first, 20% of the time put enjoyment first." Over time I have found ways to make nutrition and enjoyment come together in some wonderful ways. After eating this way for a couple of years, I don’t actually like the taste of factory-farmed meats and industrial cooking oils used in restaurant foods. Real food tastes ‘way so much’ better!

• Meats. I probably eat 1-2 ounces a day of protein from free-range, organic meats including chicken, grass-fed bison and beef. Less common meats would be turkey or lamb. I enjoy using the leftover bones, etc. to make homemade stocks for cooking sauces, soups, and as the liquid for making rice.
  

• Dairy. At least every other day I eat either a single slice of organic provolone cheese or I make a grilled cheese sandwich using raw, organic, grass-fed cow’s milk cheese (I order this cheese in quantity from the farm and have many months worth in the freezer). I use a little over a cup of raw organic milk from grass-fed cows almost daily, either in sprouted grain cereal or (if the milk has soured a little) as an addition to sauces.
  

• Sauces/Soups. Almost every week I will take a few cups of stock from the freezer and prepare enough sauce to last all week. It will usually have the basic all-purpose spices, a bit of cayenne powder, a cup of wine, some corn starch to thicken it, some chicken fat or olive oil for flavor, and a jar of spaghetti sauce for body (all organic, of course). In the winter I also make chicken or split pea soups.
  

• Vegetables. The freezer has a number of large packages of frozen organic items including broccoli, petite green peas, snap peas, green beans, and mixed vegetables. I add one or two cups of these to my main meal each day. On the days when I am feeling more up to it, there is usually green leaf lettuce, red bell peppers, carrots, onions, and zucchini available for making salads. As for starches, I very rarely eat potatoes, but I do love baking acorn or butternut squash and making a butter and honey filled mash with it about twice a month.
  

• Nuts. Not all nuts agree with me, but I enjoy nibbling on a handful of almonds, pistachio nuts, or macadamia nuts, pretty much every day. Almonds are my main snack nuts. I buy raw organic almonds and soak them overnight in sea salt to sprout them. The next day I hand peel them (because the brown peel is hard for me to digest) and then place them in the warming drawer for a full day until they are nice and crisp. Commercially processed almonds almost always make me sick, but this home-processed version sits very well with me.
  

• Bread/Grains. Our usual loaf bread or bagels are sprouted types from Alvarado Street Bakery. Almost every day I either have toast from these or a grilled cheese sandwich using this bread. Every other day I have a one cup bowl of cereal (Ezekiel sprouted cinnamon & raisin) with milk.
  

• Pasta. About once a week I prepare a full package of organic whole wheat pasta (al dente) that I then toss in cold-pressed virgin olive oil and store in the refrigerator for use in salads and sauces during the week (usually a cup per serving). A least once a month, I make up a couple boxes of Annie’s organic white cheddar cheese and macaroni to use as a base for a vegetable & meat dish for dinner.
  

• Other Grains. Less than once a week I will make a bowl of organic oatmeal with SteviaPlus and coconut oil added in for flavor. Occasionally we make a crock-pot stew with barley or rice in it. As a special treat I will make Thai rice with coconut cream and curry in it.
  

• Fruit. I don’t eat much fruit these days. Maybe one organic fuji apple with cheese slices per week. Maybe two or three organic bananas per week. A couple of handfuls of organic (no added oils) raisins or grapes some days. And perhaps twice a month a bowl of melon of some kind. We do enjoy black olives in our salads from time to time. Very rarely I will use a fruit spread on my toast. At least twice a month I will make a frozen fruit smoothie with organic frozen blueberries, strawberries, bananas and coconut cream concentrate.
  

• Oils. Cold-pressed virgin olive oil for homemade salad dressings and with pasta. Virgin red palm oil for popcorn and browning onions. Coconut oil for low temperature cooking. Butter for grilled cheese sandwiches. Sesame oil for pesto.
  

• Beverages. Once or twice a day I fill a two-quart pitcher with filtered water, [and a couple of SteviaClear drops for sweetner] ...  Once or twice, during the hottest days of summer, I made an iced sparkling water drink flavored with kombucha and cranberry concentrate.
  

• Snacks. About once a week I make organic popcorn in a mixture of red palm and coconut oils topped with sea salt. This is my favorite snack, but it seems to be hard on my jaw joints and may be a slight allergen for me. A couple of times per week I eat a couple of cups of garden of eatin' white corn chips with a homemade dip (see condiments). [I don't have these chips as much now because they also have sunflower oil!]
  

• Condiments. Homemade dip made from plain Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt, Emerald Valley raw green & red salsas, and Rejuvenative Foods cultured sauerkraut. Also, I will turn this dip into a salad dressing by adding some olive oil before tossing into my salads. I also enjoy adding organic mustard and cultured sauerkraut to hot dishes just before serving.
  

• Sweets. For many years, I have learned by hard experience that commercially made sweets not only drop the bottom out of my energy levels, but I often would get very sick after indulging in too many pieces of cake, etc. too. Because of these bad reactions, I rarely take even one cookie from the plate at social events. Now, homemade coconut macaroons made with organic vanilla and maple syrup, well, they are a different story altogether! And, there are some ginger cookies made by Pamela’s that really bring me joy. In fact, I usually eat one or two of those ginger cookies after my one large meal each day. [I stopped this after I found they use egg yolks.] The only other sweet that I indulge in is small amounts of organic low sugar dark chocolate. Sometime towards the end of the day I will usually pull out my current dagoba new moon bar and break off 1/5 oz to savor (<2g sugar). A 2 oz bar lasts me over a week, unless I decide to eat more to ‘medicate’ with more after a stressful event.
  

• Alcohol. Any drinking is limited to ½ a glass of wine or beer about once a month at a meal because the same kinds of reactions I have to sweets also happen if I drink more than the smallest amounts of beer or wine.

• Meals out. I almost forgot to confess those meals eaten when not at home! Probably 4-6 times per month [not anymore--maybe once a month now] you will find me all bundled up with dark glasses at a table in one of the local restaurants--Japanese grill, Baja Fresh, Soup Plantation, or Wood-fired Pizza--eating some !non-organic! dishes (but not seafood).

[Now I find at this stage in the protocol that I can't physically handle standing for as long doing food prep, so I do less in the kitchen. But some things, like home made chicken stock, are too important to me, so I wait for a 'good' day and spend it preparing stock and other foods to use for the days when I'm not able to cook as much.]

I have found that when my body is in a lower energy state, cooking vegetables provides nourishment without overloading the digestive system. Some vegetables may actually be a bad idea raw, large amounts of spinach, for example. I believe adding butter increases the absorption of minerals in the vegetables. And if you are want more 'live' foods, raw fermented foods are very nutritious (pickles, saurkraut, kimchee).

It took some digging on the internet to find this a while back, but apparently the study done in Europe showing the adverse changes in the blood chemistry after eating microwaved food was never published because the microwave manufacturers convinced a court to rule that publishing the study would be harmful to the industry, so the court issued a gag order. Or so the story goes.

Whether the story is true or not, I don't use them. I have fun cooking the old fashioned way and the flavors are better.

http://www.foodscience.csiro.au/micwave1.htm

http://www.health-science.com/microwave_hazards.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13318043.400-science-why-microwave-cooking-fails-the-taste-test-.html

Last edited on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 02:41 by rebeckah

Last edited on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 07:02 by eClaire