Chickens Lay the Best Surprises

Do you think eggs are boring?  You know, identical white ovoids lined up by sixes in cardboard cartons.  Not so!  Our little backyard flock is always coming up with surprises; it really makes collecting eggs fun.  Our collection of seven is a mix of one- and two-year-old hens.  Last summer when the chicks finally started laying we got a few pee-wee eggs.  The pee-wees were so tiny compared to the eggs from our older hens, the kids (and parents) got a kick out of it.

Once all the girls were laying the same sized eggs we were amazed by the variety in their shapes.  Check these out.  The long skinny ones are the most grin-inducing, but they do make it hard to close the egg carton.

About a week ago one of our poor hens laid a honkin' huge egg.  Here is the shell compared with a normal egg.  The size discrepancy makes the normal egg look like a pee-wee!

Out of those two eggs came this deliciousness:

Yup, that's right.  That ginormous one housed two yolks, twice the best part (in my opinion).  When I was growing up we just called them "double yolkers".  The kids were very excited.  I cooked them sunny-side up and served them to the kiddos, the double yolker to BuggaBoo and the singleton to Doozer.  And, as usual, they both ate their favorite parts.

Doozer's egg.  Notice missing yolk.

BuggaBoo's egg.  Notice missing white.

They're always like this.  This morning I had a saute of bacon ends, mushrooms, onion, sweet potatoes, and chard for breakfast.  Like birds the kids picked from my plate;  BuggaBoo sticking to the veggies and Doozer consuming the bacon (the fattier the better).

How did that ditty go again?

Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His sister could eat no lean...

Anyways, get some chickens.  They always give you something to look forward to.

New Resolution Brings New Regime (Kinda)

Or something like that.

Since becoming severely depressed our family has been living on a fairly steady diet of junk food. Absolute junk. Surprise surprise, this has really affected our health. I tried doing GAPS a while back and I loved it and it was fabulous and the kids were even getting into it, but then a got a pretty bad bladder infection and had to take antibiotics for it despite trying to fix it myself. Antibiotics are really good at killing your gut flora and I just gave up doing GAPS.

After lots of therapy and working on myself I'm finally at a tipping point. Continuing to eat junk is worse than the pain it will take to change it. And I think the pain will be considerable. All four of us are very addicted to sugar and simple carbohydrates. BuggaBoo has been exhibiting what I'm calling "addict behavior" towards sweets. We will tell him to his face that whatever sweet (usually chocolate) belongs to another family member, but when we turn around he'll steal it and run to his bedroom to hide and consumes it greedily. Not a pretty situation. I already knew that BuggaBoo doesn't respond well to sugar but the stealing is a new thing.

The plan is to get off sweets entirely (written after eating two cookies) and get off grains and, oh, try really hard to eat a Primal diet. Vegetables, meat and fats, eggs, fruits, nuts and seeds, in that order. We'll have dairy sometimes, the kids love their plain yogurt with a bit of jam or honey stirred in. We're hoping it'll help The Hubby with his Type I diabetes, me with my heath issues, and the kids in behavior and health arenas.

On this journey of mine I will not mention weight. Not one bit. I'm not doing this to lose weight, I'm doing this to regain health. I firmly believe in Heath at Every Size. I also experienced too much body policing in my lifetime and I don't want to hate myself for being whatever size. Whatever.

Instead I'm going to try to get rid of: back acne, acid reflux, fatigue, headaches, yeast infections, post nasal drip, stuffy sinuses, brain fog, sore joints, lack of energy, anxiety, irritability, digestive issues, and hormonal imbalances. In my children I'm hoping to see an improvement in their overall health and behavior (although I feel behavior is closely linked to health, 'cause if you don't feel well you don't behave well).

I'm going to do as well as I can but I'm not going to hold myself to a perfect standard. For me I easily fall into a perfection-punishment cycle. I don't want to be perfect, I want to be better. Two different things.

So, I'll blog about this. And I might not keep it up. And I won't beat myself up for it. Sounds like a great resolution to keep.

Skinned Knees from Falling Off the Wagon

Do you know what tastes good?

Hot dogs.

If you have a barbeque, what do you need to prepare?

Hot dogs.

If you have family in town on a loverly Sunday what do you have?

A barbeque with hot dogs.

What is not allowed on the GAPS Diet?

Um. Hot dogs. 'Cause they have sugar and other starches in them.

So this weekend was full of half-way fails of the diet. I had (many) hot dogs and a few new potatoes from our garden and way more GAPS legal macaroons than I needed. However, I did not eat any buns or mayonnaise with soy oil or the muffins I made Sunday for my church class. I did eat some of my homemade sauerkraut which hopefully helped.

I certainly felt nasty after the day of gluttony. My belly hurt a lot. So, lesson learned!

I have decided to not hold myself so strictly to the GAPS Intro at this time and start easing into the Full GAPS Diet. There are way more options for food and that makes feeding BuggaBoo easier.

In other news I think I may be sensitive to coconut. I recently went all out and made coconut butter, bought five gallons of coconut oil, and acquired coconut flour for baking. I also made the aforementioned macaroons using dried unsweetened coconut. Coconut oil doesn't seem to cause me any troubles. But any other type of coconut seem to make my throat itch and hurt like I have a cold. I also have difficulty swallowing. I'm really upset by that because coconut is so delicious! I think I'll try some more experiments before I call it quits.

On a happier note I've been able to sneak some meat to BuggaBoo. Having been raised vegan his whole life until very recently BuggaBoo is understandably reluctant to eat meat. He likes bacon and ham and fried chicken skin. Oh, and pork rinds, because I persuaded him to try them on the premise that, "They taste like chicken skin!" He really loves pork rinds. I do too. Oh, and I totally want to try a variation of this recipe for pork rind pancakes. Pork. Rinds.

Right, where was I? Sneaking meat? Okay, I made chicken and pork pancakes. Because BuggaBoo will nearly nearly anything in pancake form. So I combined this recipe for coconut flour pancakes and this recipe for savory chicken pancakes to create a sweet-ish breakfast pancake that just happens to be made mostly of meat. Here's the kinda recipe:

Meh, 1/4-1/3 cup chicken
3-ish eggs
3 Tbsp fat (coconut oil, butter, something solid)
1 1/2" x 1 1/2" section of zucchini, or maybe more. Whatever.
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp honey
coconut flour to thicken

Throw everything in the blender, whiz until smooth. If it's pancake batter consistency then cook it up. If it's not then add the coconut flour a tablespoon at a time until it's thick enough. The coconut flour will make things thick in a hurry so don't add too much.

I fry these up in a cast iron skillet using tallow that I've saved from making bone broth. Tallow rocks for pancakes, I never have them stick. Trust me, the pancakes won't taste funny. And sometimes when I want to I'll put a whole bunch of tallow in the pan and make myself some fritters a la country fair. That's some good stuff.

That's it. I think they would be good with some seasonings like cinnamon or cardamom or cloves. Or all of those. Yum. Also, doing this in a blender beats the eggs enough that it eliminates the need for any baking powder, since baking powder is not GAPS legal. You may notice the lack of milk or other liquid. The zucchini makes up for that nicely since it liquifies in the blender.

Sarting the GAPS Diet--In Which I Still Try to Fix Everything With Food

Scatter-brained post ahead!

Ever heard of GAPS? The acronym stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Basically it's the understanding that gut health can affect the rest of your body, including stuff that's "just in your head." ADD? Probably gut related. Autism? Probably gut related. Depression? Gut.

The GAPS Diet is a program you can follow to heal your gut, thereby healing food sensitivities, allergies, mental, and behavioral problems. Many things can damage your digestive tract. The most common are antibiotics, hormonal birth control, chlorinated water, artificial flavors and colors, preservatives, lack of probiotic foods, not being breastfed, and eating improperly prepared foods that contain phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. Whew!

How does this apply to our family? I can't speak for The Hubby because I'm not him and therefore I don't want to air everything of his on the internet, but he's had several courses of antibiotics as a child, ate tons of processed foods and artificial sweeteners, and is diabetic. He's also working nights, which takes such a huge toll on his body and health.

For myself I've also have taken many courses of antibiotics. Looking at the list above I've done everything on it except two things: I was breastfed for a year and I've never taken The Pill.

My kidlets have had it better. They're still both breastfed, BuggaBoo had only one dose of antibiotics in his life (his fever broke right after the dose so we knew it wasn't due to the antibiotics and stopped administering them), they're not vaccinated (thereby decreasing the toxic load on their bodies) and we eat some probiotic containing foods. But I haven't been sprouting and soaking my grains, they eat too much sugar and such, and they are both exhibiting symptoms of food sensitivities.

What are our symptoms? Read on, they're in handy list form!

BuggaBoo's Symptoms

-Major reflux as a baby, will still sometimes spit up food or breast milk at 3.5 years old

All this in 5 minutes, plus more

-Ongoing cradle cap
-Lives for sugars, which negatively impact his behavior and cause extreme mood swings
-Has started to hit himself on the head when frustrated (not sure if this is normal toddler behavior or what)
-"Allergy shiners", dark or red circles around the eyes
-Starting to show sensitivity to noise
-Ongoing vomiting issues with no concrete reason (He started throwing up again Sunday morning, while nursing all over me. Delightful.)
-Often complains of "feeling sick" (our code for nauseous)
-Suspected thrush, but no classical symptoms
-Rotting teeth and malformed jaw


Doozer's Symptoms

-Until recently she wheezed
-Eczema behind and in her ears
-Suspected thrush, but, once again, no classical symptoms
-Yeast diaper rashes when younger

My Symptoms

-Ongoing yeast issues, including skin rashes, slow-to-heal lip splits (taking about 6 weeks), coated tongue, and, erm, the usual for the last 4+ years.
-Depression
-Intense cravings for sugar and other refined carbohydrates
-Bloating and stomach pain
-Incomplete bowel movements
-Acid reflux
-Extreme fatigue
-99.9999% sure I have hypothyroidism
-Weak teeth despite fluoride treatments
-Anxiety
-Sinus issues for, oh, I dunno, since I was about 12. So 15 years. Going dairy free didn't help.
-Brain fog. It cleared up for a bit after I first added fish back into our diet, but now it's back.
-Cradle cap, for as long as I can remember. I've even tried medicated shampoos. Nada.

Due to all of this I decided to try the GAPS Diet. On the 16th of this month I started Phase 1 of the Introduction Diet. It is extremely restrictive. At this stage I am eating:

-Meat and bone broths
-Boiled meat
-The "ooky" stuff left over from making broth, like marrow, chicken skins, cartilage, connective tissue, etc. Eating this stuff is a very important part of the diet.
-Well boiled onions, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.
-Winter and summer squash
-Garlic
-Ginger, chamomile, or mint tea with a small amount of honey
-Sea salt
-Sauerkraut juice (to repopulate my intestinal flora)

The children are eating a less restrictive diet because, well, they're a bit picky. In addition to what they'll eat from the above they're also having:

-Eggs, mostly just the raw yolks
-"Ice cream" from frozen bananas, raw egg yolks, and a bit of honey. Sometimes I add frozen cherries or blackberries.
-Whole milk plain yogurt
-Coconut flour pancakes

The first few days were no fun. I think BuggaBoo was vomiting from a die-off reaction. He also took two long naps on Sunday and was very irritable. I was not a happy camper and felt exhausted. I also had pretty bad headaches, lots of sweating, back and face acne, and a nasty mouth. Doozer was sleepy and cranky. On day three we all seemed to be doing a lot better and I had more energy. Today, Day 5, I'm sleepy again and feel the starts of another headache. My face and back are still breaking out badly.

But I see progress. And that's encouraging. I'm excited to see where this goes and such. I have found for me to feel satisfied on this food I have to eat a lot of fat. My most favorite thing to eat is the "ooky" stuff, but I've been that way since I was a kid. And since all my meat is grassfed the fat tastes so good. Yum! The meat itself is not settling too well for me, but that's okay. I'm perfectly happy to drink broth, snack on veggies, and chow down on "ooky" stuff all day long.

And I've noticed I don't have too many cravings for breads and sweets unless I"m looking at them. This does mean that I have to lay off looking at food blogs (boo!), and it's hard because my dear friend just dropped off some sourdough bread for my family (double boo!). And the kiddos don't quite understand why we're not eating that stuff.

Okay, that about does it for today. Hopefully I'll be a bit more coherent about this later. For now please read these thoughtful posts by Cara at Home, Health, and Happiness, and Jenny at The Nourishing Kitchen. These wonderful ladies wrote about GAPS much better than I did. May I blame it on the detoxing?

Turning Curses into Blessings

Summer is in full swing around here, which mean all of those lovely homesteading activities I fondly dreamed about are actually happening. My thoughts are not so fond now.

My internal monologue hit a swearing peak yesterday while my hair kept getting snagged in the twigs of our apple tree during thinning. As soon as I thought, "Man, why do we have SO MANY apples, I wish we had less," I knew I needed to shift my thinking or risk losing my sanity.

I could curse the fact that we had so many apples to thin out, and the future crop that will need preserving will be so large. Ditto the pears.

Or I can feel blessed because I'll have green apples just in time to make pectin for my raspberry jam. And I'm blessed to have new friends to share my apple crop with, making it manageable and blessing others. Also, how grateful I am to have future food assured and plenty of cool garage space to store fresh apples. Ditto the pears.

I could curse the fact that we planted so much garden this year it was hard to get to it all, and now all our greens are going to seed and turning bitter.

Or I can feel blessed for this opportunity to learn how to eat things out of my comfort zone. I'm grateful for fresh eggs from our hens and nitrate-free bacon from the store that makes eating greens more enjoyable. Also it's a joy to discover that some radishes bloom purple and feel excited for the seeds that are forming to preserve our heirlooms for next season. And now it's time to plant our fall crop, which is fabulous because here in the Pacific Northwest the best gardens are in fall.

I can curse the fact that because of all the things that need to be done I don't always have enough attention to devote to my kids.

Or I can feel blessed for this chance for my children to grow, for them to learn that they don't always need their mommy to play. They are finding joy in working with me (if I can look past the apples that Doozer unnecessarily thinned) and discovering that preserving the harvest can be fun and tasty. They are learning about priorities, and that there are other people in the world besides them. What a wonderful lesson!

In Genesis the Lord tells us that the ground was cursed for our sake. Well, I have learned something new today. A curse is just a blessing looked at from the wrong end. I am naturally a lazy person, so getting the initial gumption to start a new project is daunting. But there is so much joy in finishing it! Not just the first glow of success, but every time I grab another jar of blackberry jam or pull a homemade shirt over BuggaBoo's head or gather eggs from our well-built hen house I have continuing happiness and pride.

We are not a privileged family in the familiar sense, but when I look around me I see my world overflowing with blessings.

A Post About Cherries...In Which I'll Probably Gross You Out

Mmmmm...

Cherries.

source

Besides the watermelon, is there any fruit more quintessentially summer than cherries? I was visiting my family this past week and I was very happy to learn there was a local orchard that was allowing common people to come in and glean their Bing cherries. My little sister and I jumped all over that, and in the course of two days and a total of about six hours we picked close to a hundred pounds of cherries, which we split between us.

These cherries came from a neglected orchard. My theory, and my sister agrees, is the orchard has been bought by developers, but because there are still empty lots surrounding the orchard they aren't going to the trouble of pulling the trees out until the land is needed. Oh well, we'll gladly take those cherries off their hands.

However, since the orchard is neglected we ran into a little problem.

source

Mmmmm....?

Cherry maggots.

Ah, yes, the reason cherries are sprayed so heavily. Organic ways do exist to control them, but they're usually not the favored way amongst commercial orchards. And even organic sprays still kill beneficial insects. I estimate that 20-25% of the crop was infected with worms.

So, how to deal with worms? The usual answer is to soak the cherries, forcing the maggots to exit the fruit in an attempt to prevent drowning. The downside to this is your fruit will taste very watery and not very sweet. So, in my case since I don't see the point of eating a watered-down version of cherries, this isn't a viable option. I intend to make some fruit-only jam from part of the crop, and it's essential for the fruit to be as sweet as possible for that to work.

I could sort the cherries. I actually started doing that. It's mind-numbing work, even with the TV in the background. I just couldn't do it. Horrible. You have you check each cherry for a wormhole, it just takes too long in my opinion. Also, since it takes so long many of the non-wormy cherries would have gone bad by the end.

Well, I could cut each cherry open to pit it, and also evict it's resident. This is a slightly better option, but I pitted cherries like this a year or so ago and it's a tedious process. Throw two kids into the mix and it's a recipe for cherry-stained walls, if you catch my drift.

Well.

I could not care about the worms.

Yech.

Hmm, why yech?

Hello, MAGGOT! You know, those writhing, slimy, white things that eat rotting, putrid, dead flesh. But, well, these maggots have been eating sweet cherries. They're made of cherries. Heck, they're even the same texture as cherries.

But, ew, guts. Maggot guts. Seriously? Well, yeah, actually. I eat all sorts of guts. I eat liver, heart, tongue, and would be willing to eat sweetbreads (pancreas or thymus gland), tripe (stomach), and more. I eat clams and oysters whole, and that includes guts. So what makes this so different? And if you eat hot dogs, baloney, and other such food, there's a good chance you're eating organs as well.

But, can I honestly eat a bug? Chances are you already have. Insect parts and rodent hairs are commonly found in food. One estimate is that the average American consumes one to two pounds of insects a year. And I'm sure most of it isn't on purpose.

So, are the cherries even worth it? In situations such as this I like to think of my pioneer ancestors. What would they do if presented with fifty pounds of cherries? I'm sure they would jump all over that. Then they discover that about ten pounds of the cherries contain maggots. I'm thinking they would still eat the cherries, and probably wouldn't fuss too much about eating some worms.

In case you haven't gleaned (pun!) the information yet, I am consciously eating wormy cherries. If you're wondering, they still taste the same.

If you happen to have wormy cherries, here's what you can do with them. My little sister is planning on canning hers. My mom did this when they had a bad maggot year. When you open the jar to eat the cherries you just skim the worms off the top and then serve. No harm no foul.

If you aren't canning cherries this year, like me, then all the other options usually keep the worm inside. I'm not water bath canning because it's not my favorite thing to do. Instead I'm going to convert a large part of my cherries into jam and (shh!) use the inversion method to seal the jars. Throwing them into the blender before jamming should obliterate the worms so I don't have to see them and make a smooth jam. Yum.

Another way of cherry preservation is dehydration. Both of my dehydrators are full of whole pitted cherries. When they're done they'll make great snacks for the kids, and the worm will be invisible due to being dried out too. Bug jerky.

And our last method of saving our cherries is freezing after pitting. These cherries are specifically saved for smoothies. Since they'll be blended there's no chance of running into a whole worm.

But what's the point of saving all these cherries if I can't bring myself to eat them when the time comes? Making sure I can eat wormy cherries is a priority. To accomplish this task I've been eating my fresh cherries. Without checking for worms. I've learned that telling myself "There isn't a worm, there isn't a worm," doesn't work very well. There ARE worms, and it's just a matter of time until I ran into one. Instead I would chant in my head, "You're eating a worm, and that's okay. Just like oysters, just smaller." Ta-da! Mission accomplished, I'm now eating worms. Even The Hubby is on board with this, especially when he saw how much work it took to process the harvest even without worrying for worms.

Have I convinced you to eat wormy cherries? No? Don't worry, I won't be offering my cherry jam to anyone. I'll have plenty of blackberry jam later in the season and I love to share.

Have you decided that eating worms is no big deal? Then come on over and have some pie. Extra protein at no extra cost.

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This post has been shared on Simple Lives Thursday.

Succeeding with Traditional Foods...One Menu at a Time

Edited: I've added this to Simple Lives Thursday, so here's a lovely banner to look at. Also, check out GNOWFGLINS, they're pretty amazing over there.

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As previously stated we're slowly transitioning to a Traditional Foods Diet. Yes, it's capitalized. All diets are in caps nowadays, doncha know. But eating in a traditional way can be very time consuming. It is slow food at its most lethargic. All grains must be soaked, sprouted, or soured before use. All beans must be soaked or sprouted. Dairy should ideally be fermented. Many vegetables should be fermented. Bone broths should be cooked for 48-72 hours.

Who has time for all this? Having been born as a Sidetrack Home Executive I just don't have the memory for anything. As the saying goes, if it weren't screwed on I would lose my head. I forget things nearly instantaneously. So how am I supposed to keep track of everything I need to do to feed my family this way?

Yesterday I sat down and wrote out a two week (plus two days to finish this week) menu. I am not a menu lady. I've always just created dishes from what's in my fridge. The hardest part for me was trying to think of what to eat. So taking a hint from the book "Simplicity Parenting" I assigned each day what would best be described as a theme. My themes were ingredients used. Some people use cuisine as their themes. So here's my week:

Sunday: Typical Sunday meal (meat, potatoes, vegetables, maybe dessert)
Monday: Pasta
Tuesday: Bread/Potatoes
Wednesday: Beans
Thursday: Rice
Friday: Soup
Saturday: Casserole

This made thinking of meals much easier for me. I can look at my theme and think of a recipe that fits that day. It also welcomes a lot of crossover. For example, we love dahl in our home. Dahl could work for my rice day or my bean day. Chicken noodle soup could be soup or pasta. Also, since we still love our vegetarian food these themes can easily accommodate both styles of eating.

I then broke down the recipe and noted what needed to be prepped ahead of time. Working with my dahl recipe I would prefer to soak my rice and sprout my lentils. If I wanted to make flat bread from scratch I would need to plan to use sprouted flour, soak my flour, or use a sourdough starter. If I wanted to use stock to cook my lentils I need to be sure to have that on hand.

I wrote out my menu on a calendar. Okay, it wasn't an actual calendar, it was just a sheet of paper split into thirds and then eighths. I wrote each meal into the appropriate day. Then I figured out what needed advanced prepping and how far in advance to start it. I noted on the correct day when to start preparations. The theory is before I go to bed I can quickly look at my plan and take care of those things that need some TLC.

This also helps with shopping. I'm able to look to my freezer, pantry, and garden and see what I have on hand. Since I'm only doing two weeks at a time I can generally predict what my garden will have ready for me. Also, I relegate a lot of our produce to side dishes, so in case things ripen sooner or later I can just move those around.

So here's my menu. Sorry for the horrible format, if I knew how to put a table in here I would.

Sunday: sliced beef tongue, mashed turnips and potatoes
Prep work: Save half the tongue for later in the week, freeze tongue simmering stock, soak black beans, soak cashews

Monday: mac 'n' cheeze with nutritional yeast/cashew cheeze sauce, steamed broccoli
Prep work: double the sauce, save half, thaw pumpkin, sprout previously soaked black beans, soak lentils

Tuesday: baked potatoes with all the fixin's, including the leftover cheeze sauce
Prep Work: sprout lentils and black beans, soak cornbread batter

Wednesday: black bean chili with roasted poblano peppers, cornbread
Prep Work: soak black beans, sprout lentils, prepare lacto-fermented salsa, soak rice

Thursday: pumpkin dahl served over rice, cumin carrots
Prep Work: sprout black beans, make sourdough bread if feeling ambitious

Friday: tongue stew using leftover stock, bread
Prep Work: continue salsa, thaw beef heart, soak rice, sprout black beans

Saturday: black bean and rice enchiladas served with LF salsa, salad
Prep Work: none!

Sunday: half a heart, stuffed, served with gravy, roasted root veggies
Prep Work: soak pinto beans, soak mung beans, save rest of heart for later

Monday: goulash made with TVP*, corn
Prep Work: sprout pinto and mung beans, soak or sour pizza dough

Tuesday: pizza, Greek-style green beans
Prep Work: sprout mung and pinto beans, soak cornbread batter, start a crock pot of bone stock

Wednesday: baked pinto beans, cornbread
Prep Work: sprout mung beans, soak rice, continue stock, thaw some liver

Thursday: heart stir fry over liver rice, miso soup with nori
Prep Work: stock, soak or sour bread if ambitious

Friday: Split pea soup with bacon, bread
Prep Work: soak rice, make yogurt

Saturday: chicken poppy seed casserole modified to keep yogurt alive, served over rice with salad or another green
Prep Work: None, haven't planned that far in advance yet.

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A few more loose ends and then I'll post this mammoth. I usually don't do side dishes, I am the queen of one-pot meals. I'm trying to rectify this, so if the menu seems skimpy to you, sorry. Also, I'm not planning for lunches or breakfasts. Breakfast is easy, lunch can be leftovers or sandwiches.

I want to incorporate a baking day into all of this so that I'm not attempting to make all my bread right before the meal. I also want to start making my own Traditional Foods approved pasta, this recipe for sourdough noodles should do the trick nicely. Since I love to hoard my eggs for breakfast or smoothies I'll probably use flax meal for my eggs as outlined in this recipe.

Feel free to steal my menu, I hope it helps you out. And if my family is wondering how I'm going to modify The Chicken Poppy Seed Casserole, well, this is what I had in mind. I was thinking of poaching the chicken to keep it moist, then warming the sauce separately, using yogurt instead of sour cream. Combine the sauce with the chicken. Then I was going to add the buttery cracker/poppy seed combo sprinkled on top.

Okay! Time to put this behemoth to rest. Goodnight, Buffalo Gals.

*Disclaimer: I've noticed a lot of new traffic to this post. Welcome! I wanted to explain the presence of TVP on my menu. I know that TVP is basically a frankenfood, but I have quite a bit left over from my vegan days and I hate to waste food. Also, The Hubby rather likes it, so I feel eating it once or twice a month is perfectly fine for our family.

Gratitude

I talked earlier about our evolution away from vegetarianism, but then I started thinking and I didn't want to leave you guys thinking that I totally despise the vegetarian way of life.

To start my ode to vegetarianism I must start back to my wedding. The Hubby and I started our married life together an decided that waiting a year before trying for a baby was the best course of action. So I'm sure you can imagine our dismay when we discovered that, oops! I was pregnant four months after nuptials.

At first we were very mad with God. We were being careful and this is what he saddled with us! The nerve. So we prayed. And prayed. And then we were excited. We were going to have a baby! Our little family was wrapped in happiness.

I lost the baby at just a few weeks. And then we were mad at God again. Why give us a baby, force us to accept it, and then take it? It made no sense! But we agreed that since we were ready to have that baby with joy then we were ready to start earnestly trying for our children.

So we tried. And tried. And lost another sweet child. And still we kept at it. For nearly two years. It was a crazy time. Now I don't feel the anxiety about it, because, hello, I have kids now. But I remember feeling like I was never going to have biological children. We made plans to save money for adoption. We discussed the option of invitro fertilization. And so much spontaneity was sucked out of our marriage because we were trying for just the right time to make everything work. It was exhausting.

Totally unrelated to the babymaking The Hubby and I went on a quick herbal cleanse. We also went nearly vegan to help The Hubby with his cholesterol.

Within two months I was pregnant, and that was BuggaBoo. I really feel that my body was so junked up with stuff that I needed to do the cleanse and then eat a clean diet to prepare myself to carry a baby. My family has a history of hormonal disturbances, the most prominent is my mother has polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. I have many of the same symptoms. I feel that getting off CAFO meats and diary helped to control the amount of hormones in my body leading to successful ovulation and implantation. Fabulous!

So to the best of my knowledge and feelings, if I had not gone vegetarian I would not have my children.

I have other, less important reasons to be grateful. So let's touch on them rapidly.

I can now bake without eggs or milk or butter. This is great when I want to whip something up and only have pantry supplies.

My cooking experience increased. I can now think beyond meat/potato/vegetable or casseroles. Yum!

I was introduced to a deeper realm of natural living which led to my research on midwifery. This in turn led to my wonderful experiences with the prenatal care and birth of my children.

Vegetarianism is still a large part of my life and I don't think that will ever change. I'm not really the carnivorous type, although I do enjoy some meat binges. And eating plants is very satisfying. I am thankful for the experience I've had with being vegetarian and vegan, I've learned a lot and grew some more.

Big Changes Part II...Finally!

Part I can be found here.

So I have come to the conclusion that I can drastically improve BuggaBoo's tooth and jaw health through diet, and hopefully head off any problems in Doozer. Also I hope to be able to finally cure the weak spots in my teeth that have plagued me since before my marriage. I have tried fluoride and it does not work for me.

So we've started introducing animal foods back into our diet. Last summer we started with eggs, and a few weeks ago we added more variety, starting with fish. Now we eat some beef and we had a bit of pork at Easter and there was this one time I had some fried chicken. We are trying very hard to be conscientious about our choices. We eat sustainable fish such as sardines and pollock. We buy our beef from local pastured steers.

We have decided to make an emphasis on eating the whole animal, especially the parts that other people don't want to. My freezer is full of bones, livers, tongues, and hearts. We feel that it is more respectful to the animal to use all of it; that if it is going to give its life for our benefit we better be sure to make the best use of its body. The positive to eating the parts no one else wants is we get the most nutritionally dense foods available, so we don't need to eat as much.

Are we perfect? No, not by a long shot. But we try. Eating out is the hardest, because most restaurants don't use humanely raised meats. But I wish they did. Heck, I really need to do my part and only buy at the places that meet my standards, but my budget would basically permit Chipotle and they already make a super killer vegetarian burrito.

Right. So, the benefits of this? Well, let me tell you. For months, months, I have been having problems with brain fog, lack of energy and motivation, major problems with speaking and typing, and just all around feeling like my whole life was an out-of-body experience. Seriously, it was so hard for me to speak sometimes; my tongue felt so huge in my mouth it was impossible to form words. Simple, easy words. My fingers didn't want to obey my befuddled brain signals. I made a lot of typing mistakes. And I just felt listless, needing 12+ hours to feel normal, but never getting that with little children in the house.

After starting to eat fish again that all cleared up. It felt wonderful to be able to think, to be quick again. And I do not think it was only the magical omega fatty acids. I was taking an algae based DHA supplement and eating lots of ground flax and I didn't see any improvement.

May I say that I feel that is a major downfall of being veg*n? The whole movement tends to break food down into their nutrients. Are you craving beef? Then it must be the iron or protein or fat or something. It can't be the beef. It can't be something we haven't discovered yet, or heck, even be a synergistic reaction between everything in the beef. To satisfy the criteria of veg*nism all foods must be their components and nothing else.

So, we eat animals. And we feel okay about that. Okay, we adults feel okay about that, BuggaBoo is still having a rough time with it. I don't blame the kid, his whole life we've told him it's sad to eat animals. Then, BAM! It's all okay to eat them. Poor confused child. We're treating him very gently, giving him lots of time.

We're still trying to get into our groove. I have been feeling heavy after meals recently; I'm taking that as a sign to lighten up. The first few weeks I couldn't get enough eggs, meat, fish, or bone broth. Now I'm feeling fuller, which is reassuring to me. I feel I am working to fill my deficiencies, and that just feels right.

There is so much more I want to implement in our new diet besides animals foods. That's just part of it. More fresh and raw veggies would be amazing. I'm learning how to soak and sprout my grains to reduce phytic acid and increase nutrient absorption. I'm experimenting with fermented foods, which taste amazing and help bring my internal flora and fauna into balance. I'm learning more about healthy fats and why animal fat isn't such a scary thing after all, and how vegetable oils can be downright terrifying.

But! All of this is just skimming the surface. And I have done a lot of reading and researching to get here. Too much to go over at 11:00pm. So let me wrap up by saying I'm happy where we are in our life, and I'm excited to see where we go from here. As always, comments are encouraged, opposite viewpoints are respected, but let's be civil.

Big Changes Part I

So I hinted in my last post that we aren't exactly vegetarian anymore. And if you aren't exactly vegetarian, then you aren't at all, because it's really an all-or-nothing proposition.

I have strong feelings about eating animals. I've been vegetarian for over four years and vegan for about 2.5 of those years. I read and prayed and studied scripture about this, and I came to the conclusion that animals are not for consumption unless needed for health. I believed that due to modern science and food availability veganism was the healthiest and most spiritual way of eating. I felt that eating animals when not needed was sinful.

Well, I still have those same feelings. What is different is now I believe that for me and my kids eating animals will contribute to our health.

This all started with BuugaBoo's teeth. He had some major reflux as a baby, and will still spit up sometimes if he eats or nurses and then runs around. It runs in The Hubby's side of the family. His first teeth erupted at 3.5 months, and he had a mouthful of pearly whites by the time he was one. They were beautiful.

Right after he reached his first birthday his front upper teeth began to decay. This is him around the age of two, notice his upper teeth:



And I don't know why he looks so old in this picture, must be the angle and the lighting. Believe me, this is when he was younger, he has a ton more hair now.

My midwife and pediatrician chalked up his tooth decay to the reflux. A dentist we saw said it was due to night nursing, which I totally disagree with. We became extra diligent about brushing his teeth and the decay stopped. It got to the point that when we took BuggaBoo into a pediatric dentist the dentist didn't even know he had decay, he thought BuggaBoo had malformed teeth. It took a lot of insistence on my part that his teeth came in perfect for him to believe us. His confusion stemmed from the fact that BuggaBoo's side incisors were worse than the middle ones. He said the only way that would happen is if his side incisors came in first. When I informed the dentist that exactly what happened, he then agreed that the decay stemmed from the reflux.

A few months ago BuggaBoo's teeth started decaying again, despite the fact that we were careful to brush his teeth and he's been nightweaned since 20 months old. This is what his teeth looked like on his third birthday:


So I started reading a lot about how to nutritionally heal cavities, because the proposed plan of action was fillings or extractions. And I ran across this thread and thought, "Huh? Tooth spacing? Baby teeth are supposed to have GAPS?!"

Why, yes, yes they are. Like so:

source

The gaps provide ample space for the adult teeth to erupt. Did you know that teeth are supposed to be straight? Straight teeth are normal, braces are here to correct jaw deformities. Wisdom teeth are supposed to stay in the mouth. In order to have enough space for all your adult teeth you need to have wide dental arches.

source

Notice this diagram has all molars present and the teeth are not crowded. Compare this drawing to this mold of a narrow dental arch:

source

Actually, that last example looks a lot like my bottom teeth. Here is a picture of my top teeth:


I always liked my unique teeth, I like the way they look. They are very tight, so flossing is a big problem for me since I often shred the dental floss. Also, if I get kissed too hard or I accidentally bump my mouth my teeth will slightly split my bottom lip, and I often get canker sores from that.

I went in for a braces consultation once and the orthodontist said he wanted to pull 4 of my molars(!) to make room for the other teeth. I asked why they wouldn't pull my wisdom teeth (I still have them, they have not erupted yet) and he never gave me a good enough answer.

Where was I? Diet? Right. So I had always thought that teeth were the result of genetics and that was that. So I was surprised to run across internet mommas who had fixed their children's teeth issues with nutrition. And the way they were healing their teeth was by eating animals products.

The nutritional regime that seems to work the best is lots of raw milk and milk products, lots of animals fats, lots of organ meats, lots of bone broths, lots of cod liver oil, lots of fermented foods, lot of raw eggs.

So, in the next part I'll talk about how this jives with our family.

Part II here.

Please, Train, Please Slow Down

Did I say I was going to do a give-a-way in my last post. Bwa-ha! I'm just hanging on for the ride right now.

We're moving in a few weeks. Guys, this new place is divine. It's just down the street from where we live now, but it's an actual house. The lot is a third on an acre and there are an apple tree, plum tree, pear tree, and grapes in the backyard, which is totally fenced. The landlords and encouraging us to garden as much as we want to and are letting us keep chickens. With my research I'm finding we can keep six hens, so I'm so super excited to be eating pastured eggs again.

In other news, I've had some preliminary muscle testing on the kids to identify food allergens. Doozer came up positive to wheat and milk, and they cause her respiratory issues. BuggaBoo came up positive to milk, peanuts, sugar, and xylitol, and they give him behavioral issues.

So I've been trying to avoid those things for the kids' food as well as my own. See, since I'm still breastfeeding both chilluns I need to stay away from their allergens or they'll just be getting them through me. I haven't been 100% with the wheat, but I've been perfect for milk, xylitol, and peanuts and pretty okay with sugar.

Oh, boy, the sugar. The first few days I took BuggaBoo off the sweet stuff he was having major withdrawal symptoms. The only sugar he was getting was a tiny bit in some of Dave's Killer Bread and some in organic tomato sauce we were using to replace his ketchup. The poor boy would ignore whatever needed dipping and was DRINKING the tomato sauce from the little cup it was in. He then would ask for more, which I would decline. Many tantrums during this time.

BUT! Yesterday BuggaBoo was playing some computer games. After I while I decided it was time for him to get off, and braced for the expected screaming-meemie meltdown. Instead he said, "Okay!", hopped off, and played with real toys. I tell you, not having the constant screaming is worth this detoxing headache I have right now.

I'm feeling very positive about all the changes going on in our lives right now. I'll keep you updated on my cleanse, which at this point is just cutting out sugar, peanuts, and all gluten. I want to avoid gluten until I can get Doozer more thoroughly tested. It would be lovely to have my little girl go longer than a week without wheezing and hacking.

Have a wonderful day!

Bummer

I made bread today. Even went the extra mile and added tons of wheat germ to healthify it.

What I forgot to add was salt.

Have you ever had no-salt bread?

I like I said, bummer.

Preserving: A Way of Life

Today I bought two boxes, about 22 lbs, of peach seconds for $16.00 at the farmer's market. I have been trying to snag some all season but they're always sold out or I walked there without a wagon. This time I brought my bike and trailer. Still, it was two trips, one to buy the buggers and another to leave the kiddos with The Hubby and pick up those peaches.

Tonight those bruised and somewhat *cough* moldy beauties are being transformed into peach butter using my favorite method, overnight crockpot cooking. I would have taken pictures but:

1) I was trying to do this with a toddler and baby in tow and
2) I'm pretty un-squeamish when it comes to how many bruises I leave in my fruit, but maybe someone would take offense to it. All the moldy parts were cut out, scout's honor.

Speaking of having babies and trying to preserve food I often think, "How did the pioneers do this? And preserve enough to eat all winter?" The answer, they didn't. They all starved to death and we are descendants of an invading alien tribe.

Actually, all joking aside, I think they enlisted more help from their little ones than we modern parents do. I'm sure at 2.5 years old BuggaBoo would have some pretty important jobs on a frontier farm, including taking care of his little sister. But I wonder if they really had a childhood? I'm not saying our way is better or worse, just different. We have the luxury of allowing our children to be children.

Anyway, back to actually making the stuff. I first cut out pits and bad spots. Then I just cut them into smaller chunks and throw them in my blender, skins and all. Then I put them in my crockpots with spices and cook them on low all night with the lids propped so the puree can reduce to a butter. For more detailed instructions click on the link above.

I chose to make butter this time around rather than jam because I didn't want to be boiling substances around Doozer (she was on the counter in her Bumbo and she has quite the reach), so I'll process the butter tomorrow when The Hubby can help me out. Also butter doesn't take pectin, so it's that much cheaper to make. Also also I don't like to use a lot of sugar because of The Hubby's diabetes and with butter you can get away with not using a lot of sugar. I do have some no-sugar-needed pectin (thanks Mommy!) but tonight I just wanted something tried and true.

So if you want, sometime this winter come on over and I'll cook up some amazing fluffy pancakes and dollop some peach butter on top. If you can handle the fact that it was made with bruised fruit.

It's the Small Things

Okay, enough gloom, here's a quick rundown of little events that have made me happy.

Yesterday, I dumpster dived food.

Okay, it wasn't in the dumpster, it was in a pile behind my favorite grocery store. But it was technically expired and free. I scored three boxes of organic spinach, four boxes of organic spring mix salad, a bag of organic arugula, two bags of organic salad mix, two containers of organic herbs, several containers of pre-cut watermelon, and three perfectly good mushrooms.

I whipped up some coconut butter, and it wasn't hard!

Using this recipe from Coconut Mama I made some sweet coconut butter, which is like peanut butter. She uses 2 cups dried coconut in her food processor, I used 3-ish cups in my blender to be sure I had enough butter to clear the blades and still move around.

Seeing Doozer love food so much.

It's a little heart-paining for me because I wanted to exclusively breastfeed for a year, but Doozer has been demanding solid food since she was 4.5 months old, I finally gave in at 5 months. She loves bananas, homemade hummus, curried chickpeas, and berries.




She does not like spinach or rice. She'll try to eat everything, even contraband items like peanut butter and wheat and soy. Heck, plates of food on the ground are her strongest motivation to crawl. It's truly a joy to see her discover food.

Making and eating some truly amazing gluten-free flat bread.

And it was quick! And chewy! And bendy! A total of 20 minutes to mix and bake and then BAM! Some really yummy bread. I found the recipe over at Gluten Free Gobsmacked, but replaced the sorghum flour with teff flour and made my own millet flour and replaced the potato starch with cornstarch. I also didn't use milk powder or replace it with anything. Oh, and I only did salt as a seasoning, but I'll be sure to try out other spices. I'm craving some good caraway bread, so that might be next. BuggaBoo loved it and kept asking for more bread. When I put it away he was so sad because he thought it was all gone.

Well, that's all I could think of right now. And reading over the list does make me feel happier, maybe I should do this more often. DO you guys have anything small pleasures to report?

Snack Tray Attack

Okay, I feel really lame for bringing this up since I haven't put together a snack tray in ages, but I love them and I want you love them, too.

I read about snack trays in "The Baby Book" by Dr. William Sears and his wife, Martha Sears, RN. I wanted to try them out since BuggaBoo likes to graze. I'm sure being a distracted toddler is one reason for snacking all day, but I strongly feel another is because BuggaBoo has a weak epiglottis. When he was a baby he spit up all the time. I am not joking. Our pediatrician was surprised that he even gained weight. I always fed him on demand, I know that's why he thrived.

My mother-in-law said all her babies had the same thing, and both my nephews from that side of the family had it as children. My one nephew who is ten still has episodes of vomiting, especially if he eats too quickly or has a carbonated drink. So I think grazing may be BuggaBoo's way of not overloading his stomach.

The basic principle of a snack tray is to offer a variety of finger foods in a balanced manner. Dipping sauces are encouraged since toddlers can't resist them. First of all I sat down and composed a list of toddler-friendly nutritious finger foods that were quick and cheap. When I started I used a muffin tin.



What you see here, left to right, is whole wheat spiral pasta, bagel with peanut butter, pear chunks, tortillas filled with hummus, homemade seitan, and steamed carrot sticks. Well, this was way too much food for my little guy. He also didn't get the concept at first, he kept coming to me and telling me he was hungry. I would direct him back to the tray telling him he could eat whatever he wanted whenever he felt like it.

The next day he caught on and was so very excited about the whole thing. I decided to scale down production to an ice cube tray so there wasn't too much food.



This one was pretzel sticks, dried apricots, tortilla spread with peanut butter and wheat germ before rolling up, steamed broccoli, cucumber chunks, olives, peaches, and steamed carrot sticks. The dip was homemade hummus. As you can see by the glimpse of BuggaBoo's face he was pleased with his snacks. The ice cube tray proved to be the right amount of food to feed him until dinner.

After that BuggaBoo put in orders for what snacks he wanted and hovered over the assembly. As soon as I set his tray down he pounced on it, and even offered me some of his food. Snack trays became a hit in our household.



Here we have bread with peanut butter, olives, celery sticks, leftover Field Roast, honey tangerines, dried apricots, sauteed tofu, garbanzo beans, and something so obviously delicious it didn't make it to the photo shoot.

On benefit to having a free-access snack tray is BuggaBoo has a better mood most the day. He still has a hard time articulating when he's hungry and I'm so bad about preparing food on a set schedule. I eat whenever I'm hungry and it's not always when he's hungry, but I forget that he'll get hungry before me. I know, bad mommy. By the time he's hungry his mood has deteriorated to a point of nuclear war and trying to make something for him during the meltdown is difficult. So a snack tray circumvents all that! Also, I love to share with him, there's something about eating food that is bite-sized.



Olives (BuggaBoo adores them), pear chunks, canned peaches, pretzel sticks, cooked pasta, zucchini sticks, and sauteed tofu. Dipping unknown, something creamy.

So in conclusion I want to start making these again. They're fun, easy to put together, and the rewards are, well, rewarding. And I sometimes find little treasures like these:


This is, of course, and animal cracker drowning in peanut butter-apple sauce dip. He was delicious.

I Love Me Some Omega-3's!

The Hubby (finally!) transferred pictures from the camera to the computer, so now I can put up all the tutorials I've been wanting to do. Today I was waffling between putting up a crafty tutorial or a foody tutorial, but food won out since I'm hungry. So I'm treating you to my recipe for Flaxy French Toast.

Well, I'm using the term "recipe" loosely here. I didn't measure anything, flax is something that you have to do by feel sometimes. But I have pictures and explanations so that will have to do.

First you have to find yourself some flax meal. It's important to know that whole flax seed is impossible for your body to digest, so it needs to be ground before using it. I prefer to buy whole flax seed and grind it in my coffee grinder that has never seen coffee. Ground flax goes rancid quickly so buying it pre-ground can give you a bitter experience, literally. Also, at my local bulk store, ground flax goes for about $1.00/lb and whole seeds are $0.56/lb. After grinding your flax store it in the fridge and use it in a week or two for the best results.

Pour your ground flax into a bowl.



The ratio for flax-to-water to make an "egg" is 1:2 or 1:3, depending on how thick you want it. A tablespoon of flax meal plus your wanted water equals the binding power of an egg. I think I use about 1/2 cup of meal for 4-5 slices of bread. But don't add your water yet!

Instead, add your seasonings. I use cinnamon, nutritional yeast, and salt. I think the cinnamon is the key to getting it to taste like eggy french toast, but that's what I grew up with. The nutritional yeast helps the flax taste a bit like eggs, it's also high in B vitamins. And it's yummy in it's own right.



Whisk the flax meal and seasonings together and add your water. Flax meal mixed with water will thicken upon standing for any length of time, so take that into consideration. Experiment, it won't hurt. This is the texture of my flaxy goodness that I like to use. To be clear, this is the texture of it after standing.



If you're using homemade bread for this (and why not!) then slice it while you're waiting for the flax to congeal.



Dip your slices in the flax mixture. You might have to scrape some mixture off it it's too thick. Again, experiment. Then lay it into a heated sprayed pan to cook. I use a medium-high heat.



Then enjoy!



The flax gives it a delightful nuttiness that I just love. It's also great for slicing into sticks and giving it to your toddler to dunk. And you can pat yourself on the back for not buying frozen french toast sticks.

Doesn't breakfast sound good right about now?

Fluffy Vegan Pancakes

I really like pancakes. So does BuggaBoo, especially when I sing the pancake song. Which goes something like this:

One, two, three, four pancakes in a pan.
One, two, three, four pancakes in a pan.
One, two, three, four pancakes in a paaaaan...
One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four pancakes in a pan.

I thought I would share my recipe with ya'll. This makes a very fluffy pancake, if you like them thinner then use more liquid. I'm also going to describe my process, you can obviously make it easier by substituting ready-made ingredients. And I'm giving you the batch doubled because if I'm going to go to the trouble of making pancakes I'm going to make it worth my while and freeze the extras. This recipe is adapted from a 1950's Betty Crocker cookbook.

2 Tbsp flax meal mixed with 4 Tbsp water (equivalent of two eggs)
1/4 C raw cashews, sunflower seeds, or another raw nut
2 C water
2 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar then more water to equal 1/2 C (total liquid will be 2 1/2 C, but keep them separate right now)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 C whole wheat flour, or 2 C whole wheat flour with 1/2 C alternate flour (oat, cornmeal, bean, quinoa, etc. I grind many soft grains in my coffee mill.)

As stated mix your flax meal and water first, you want it to reach egg consistency before you mix it into your other ingredients.

Grind nuts, mix with 2 C water in blender, blend until smooth. Prepare lemon juice and rest of water, mix lemon water with nut milk to make a faux buttermilk. Or, if you wanna, pour 2 Tbsp lemon juice into your measuring cup and then add enough ready-made non-dairy milk to make 2 1/2 C. Let this milk clabber while you sift your dry ingredients. Oh, I've also had good success just using lemon water instead of milk, but the milk does make them taste richer.

Sift the rest of the ingredients together. Heat your griddle or pan at this point. I spray oil into my pan for the first pancakes but don't for the rest. I do have a non-stick pan. When your pan is hot enough a water droplet will skip about. When your pan is heated then add the flax and milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until all lumps are gone.

Ladle out batter into pancakes. Because this is a very thick batter I spread my pancakes out with the back of the ladle. These pancakes don't form bubbles like thinner ones, they're ready to turn when the edges and maybe a few spots in the middle start looking a little dry. I like my pancakes really crispy, though, so experiment. This makes about 16-20 pancakes depending on how big you like them.

These pancakes are intentionally not sweetened nor have added fat. We usually eat them with "butter" and something sweet, so why put that into the pancake? Leftovers freeze well, reheat in your microwave or toaster depending on how crispy you like them. One of my favorite things to do with leftover pancakes is to toast them and then split them down the middle like a biscuit. Ta-da! Two thin crispy pancakes.

Okay, I'm outta here. The Hubby just made me some amazing tofu-noddle-broccoli-dish-thing and I'm starved. Have a great night!

A Day in My Life

I decided to journal my day yesterday and put it up here. This is a typical yet not typical day for me.

9:30 Wake up, nurse BuggaBoo. Design clothes in my head

10:00 Get out of bed. Change BuggaBoo's diaper and dress him. Dress myself.

10:15 General clean-up, including taking care of sewing mess from previous day

10:30 Wash dishes

11:15 Pick up daycare kid from bus

11:30 Quick-soak garbanzo beans. More general clean-up. Make small talk with The Hubby. Get on the internet to get my Facebook fix.

12:40 Get garbanzo beans into crockpot for dinner tonight.

12:45 Make dough for pitas and loaves of bread. Includes grinding some split peas into flour to use in bread and kneading time. Leave dough to rise. Semi-clean the kitchen.

1:30 Read books to the kids.

2:00 Put BuggaBoo down for a nap. Be interrupted by the UPS guy bringing school books for The Hubby.

2:15 Come out of bedroom after BuggaBoo falls asleep, find that daycare kid fell asleep, rejoice.

2:20 Punch down pita dough, form into balls. Let dough rest. Preheat oven for pitas. Wash and stab eggplant, put into oven to roast for dinner tonight.

2:30 Think of an awesome blog post entitled "A Day in the Life Of Krista" and start typing it out.

3:00 Start baking the pitas while chatting with The Hubby. Eat a pita for, um, quality control! Yeah, that's it… Couldn't detect a difference from the split pea flour, which was ½ cup to 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour with a little gluten flour added to make up the missing gluten. Score! Punch down bread dough.

4:00 Welcome hubby home from school.

4:15 Punch down bread dough. Let dough rest. Start on cooking dishes while having a discussion about natural birth with The Hubby.

4:30 Shape bread dough into loaves. Freak out over appearance of weevil larva.

4:45 Save BuggaBoo from the bedroom since his nap was over. Take the roasted eggplant out of the oven (no, it hasn't been roasting this whole time, but it was a convenient place to keep it) and make baba ganouj.

5:00 While preparing baba ganouj call a friend and try to set up a babysitter for tonight for impromptu date.

5:30 Get a call from a different friend, chat while preparing garbanzos and grinding some sesame seeds for later.

6:00 Get off the phone, get BuggaBoo ready to go to the babysitter's, resign myself to not getting pretty for the date. Send daycare kid home.

6:30 Take the kid over to the babysitters, go on the date. This includes going to the video rental store to get "9", going out to eat Thai food, going to a natural food store and picking up a quart of chocolate-peanut butter soy ice cream, then heading home and watching the moving while gorging on ice cream.

10:30 Go pick up BuggaBoo from the babysitter's.

11:00 Go to bed.

So if you ever wonder what a stay-at-home mom does this should give you an idea. Hope you enjoyed a peek into my life.

*Bugged-Out Eyes*

Okay, yes, I'm back and it hasn't been a week. Go ahead and laugh.

A little preface to this post, The Hubby and I are people watchers. Some people watch birds, some are all about whales, we stick close to home and watch people. And comment on them. A lot. Our favorite hunting ground is the grocery store. I seriously think you can learn a lot about people by seeing what's in their cart. For example, I'm about able to, 85% of the time, pick out families on WIC because of what is in their cart. It's not hard, if it's full of eggs, milk, cheese, and juice you've probably got a WICer.

So I had to blog about this. Even though it is probably rude and lowbrow of me. Because The Hubby and I could not stop staring.

We went grocery shopping tonight to pick up a few staples and fresh food. The guy in front of us in line bought these items:

Ice cream Drumsticks
Pepperoni
Three Tortino's Pizzas
Those little Hot-Pocket snack-things filled with pizza filling
A 24 pack of Mountain Dew
A 24-oz bottle of Mountain Dew
BBQ Beef Hot Pockets
A large package of cheese sticks
Lunch meat
A brick of cheese
Two or three other packets of cheese
A loaf of french bread
Pork sausage wrapped in pancakes ON A STICK
Microwavable monkey bread


I mean, holy cow! I'm sorry if this doesn't seem crazy to you guys, but all this man is living on is pop, ice cream, meat, cheese, and white flour. And a lot of fat. And I think it was doubly sad because this is what we bought:

Three types of whole wheat pasta
Dried chickpeas
Pears
Oranges
Broccoli
Bulk garlic powder
Brick of tofu
Toasted sesame oil
Whole wheat bread
Cabbage

I'm not trying to have a holier-than-thou attitude about my food. It was just a bit funny to see his purchases and our purchases side by side on the conveyor belt. And, seriously, we just couldn't stop staring. Could not!

Okay, got that off my chest. You'll probably be hearing from me soon.