Meal Time

I know that when I don't use a recipe, things turn out absolutely yummy.  Tossing in this and that works very well.  :)

1 Pound Lean Ground Beef browned with salt, pepper & 3 TBSP minced garlic

1 medium purple onion rough chopped

2 pounds frozen mixed veggies

1 can black beans drained

1 can new potatoes drained

1 can garlic and onion flavored spaghetti sauce

I use cans when I don't have produce from the garden.  I'm getting ready to harvest some red potatoes in a couple of weeks, so that will eradicate the need for potatoes.

I browned the ground beef, added the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer covered for about 1/2 hour.  

While that was simmering, we worked together to make Mr. G's favorite cole slaw.

Carrots, Purple and Green Cabbage with a tablespoon of Poppy Seeds, 1 cup mayo, 2 TBSP Milk, 2 TBSP Honey mixed well, then add 2 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

This is Mr. G's plate.  He has potatoes, but I do not.

What did I have to eat today?  :)

Breakfast I had a salad, or maybe I should call it brunch.  LOL  The salad had romaine lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, diced avocado, yellow peppers, tomato and sunflower nuts with Ranch dressing.  We had to return a purchase today, so I grabbed some popcorn chicken at the W*lm*rt to tide me over till dinner.

Lost!

For those of you who do not know, I am working toward a goal of losing 100 pounds this year.  I didn't start this goal until Spring, so I'm giving myself until the first of May 2013.  So far, I've lost 20 pounds.

This is in April of this year.

I am working toward healthier eating.  Even though we've been eating quite healthy, the problem for me is Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome [PCOS].  I can eat the healthiest diet on the face of the earth, exercise regularly and still gain weight.  My thyroid is fine.  The secret to all of this weight gain is carbohydrates, namely breads--white, whole wheat, multigrain--you name it, it's a large part of the problem.

Saturday August 11, 2012

As you can see, there is a big difference in my face from April to August.

What more have I done?

Carbohydrates are everywhere in multiple forms.  White flour and sugars are represented in a variety of forms in multiple things that we, as a society, consume in the products we purchase.  There are labels to read on every package to make sure you're not ingesting MSG, high fructose corn syrup, partial hydrolized (fill in the blank), and a whole host of other Genetically Modified Organisms [GMO's].  You truly need to brush upon your chemistry to make sure you or your family are not ingesting something bad for your body.  Or do you need to do that?  Hmmmm, certainly something to think about.

I've been trying very hard (some days are better than others) to eat breads only on 2 days a week.  This doesn't just include breads, but carbohydrates in general.  These days are when I have one brownie, we make whole wheat pizza for dinner, I have a sandwich for lunch, or I plan to have peach coffee cake.  Is this a good thing?  Well, I know full well that my body does need the vitman B's in the multigrain things that I don't eat as much of any more as well as the fiber, but for me, my body doesn't need the carbohydrates as often.

What do I eat?

I love this picture!  I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, meats, dairy, nuts.  I use salt free butter (not margarine).  It is more expensive, yes, but I don't have to worry about unhealthy chemicals in my foods.  I also use coconut oil to cook with.  I'm working toward using red palm oil as well, but I'm in the researching phase of where to buy it least expensively or if I need to look for a good sale and buy it in bulk.

How can I do this?

It isn't easy to go to the kitchen to bypass the carb laden snacks and grab the bag of pistachios, but I do it.  It is such a blessing to have my precious daughter willingly, without asking me, make me scrambled eggs with my home made salsa in it while I'm finishing up my Bible study for the day.  It is wonderful!  I still need to work on saying "no" to the 2 scoops of ice cream on every other day except my carb days.  LOL   Things are coming along, but not without challenge.  I've developed what is known as insulin resistance.  Every carbohydrate that goes in to my body, my body doesn't like it, sends my blood sugar level up and the energy from that carbohydrate is turned in to fat instead of used up.

Exercise?

We have a 2 story house with a basement.  When the children, all 3 of them, went to work for some friends of ours this summer on their berry farm, I decided to take over the laundry from the assigned child. This equates to at least 12 trips up and down 2 flights of stairs numerous times a day.  I also walk 8 miles a week or, if the weather is cooler, I use my elliptical that my beloved Mr. G bought for me this past spring.  For now, this is all I've been doing.  I do some stretching, some tummy exercises, but nothing to speak of.  I do foresee a time in the not so distant future when I'll need to add more things in to my exercise routines, but for now this is working for me.

Counting calories?  Points?  Amounts?

I don't do Weight Watchers, I don't count calories and the only amounts I limit myself on is all carbohydrates.  This means I can eat a huge salad without worrying about every single little calorie or point in it.  For example, my breakfast this morning was this:

2 "dippy" eggs cooked in coconut oil

1 Kiwi Fruit

1 Avocado with sea salt and pepper

1 cup coffee with Half & Half and Generic Splenda

(Yes, I'm working on an alternative to this.  As with all things, change takes time.)

There have been days since starting this way of eating when I just can't seem to get enough vegetables.  Then a few days later, I can't seem to get enough protein.  I try to get those things in a variety of forms, but I find myself eating more often those things my body is craving.  What if I crave carbs?  I eat an apple, carrot, peppers, fresh peas or have a glass of juice.  These foods have natural carbohydrates in them.  You can't get any closer to "God made" than a couple carrot sticks, peppers and peas fresh off the vine.

Why?

I'm glad you've asked!

Matthew 6:24-34  "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.  (25)  Therefore I say unto you, be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?  (26)  Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value then they?  (27)  And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life?  (28)  And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  (29)  yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  (30)  But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  (31)  Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (32)  For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  

(33)  But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 

 (34)  Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." [emphasis mine]

Hence the reason for this blog in particular, we are created to eat naturally.  All the added processed foods of our day are not only UNnecessary, but they're killing our bodies.  What God created back in the Garden of Eden was deemed by the Lord, Himself, as "Very Good."  When we attempt to make what was deemed "very good," new and improved, we not only disrespect our creator, but we are setting ourselves up for terrible disease because in our limited "wisdom" we think we know more than THE ONE who created us.

God forgive us for ever thinking that anything "man made" is better than HIS creation.

Naturally as Possible

The tomatoes have lots of blossoms on them, along with a few that have already developed tomatoes on them.  What a joy to watch them grow!  Mr. G is getting old pallets together to make stakes for these tomato plants.  Weeding time is upon us, but not too much or the native bugs will not have enough to munch on and will go after the garden plants.

The first mound is leftover white potatoes from last year that Mr. G planted in this mound and covered with 12" thick of hay.  The next row is red potatoes.  There are 3 rows of red potatoes and one row of white.

We have 2 patches that are 6' wide x 85' long.  We planted as many yellow beans as we could in one and green beans in another.  I know that for some folks a pound of bean seeds is nothing in comparison to what they grow, but this seems to be the right weight for us.

This week we plan to plant our lettuces and other annual herbs.  It is slowly coming together this year, but it's doing fine.

Cravings

There is an interesting combination of foods that I have been craving recently.  Oddly enough, this week, I haven't craved meats.  I eat them, but thus far today, I haven't had meat.  I've had proteins like pinto beans, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, eggs and so forth, but I haven't had any meat at all today.  I'm not trying to stay away from meats, mind you.  I just haven't eaten them today.

Isn't that how it goes though?  Our bodies crave things, but do we truly listen?  Ever since I've been pregnant and given birth, I've tried to listen to what my body was telling me.  Although 17 years ago, my cravings for kielbasa and sauerkraut were so very real and ravenous.  Of course I didn't give in all the time to those cravings.  However, when it was that time of year to have kielbasa and sauerkraut and I happened to be pregnant, I indulged a little.  :)  But, what was my body craving?  Probably the fermented veggies.  I'm just beginning to learn about the benefits of fermented foods, so please forgive my ignorance.  Perhaps we could learn together?!  :D

Lately, I have been craving avocados with a little sea salt and pepper.  At other times it's pinto beans/refried beans with cheese.  I know that these foods are good for you, so I don't mind eating a small bowl of pinto  beans followed by an avocado.

Last week I couldn't get enough protein one day, so there has to be something to these cravings.

...as long as I don't give in to the Cheetos.  LOL

The Dirt and Food Connection...

In my last post, Amending the Soil, I wrote about how important it is to make sure your soil is amended with good organic decomposable things to make the soil rich and nutrient dense without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  Since we started using this method, we've not used Miracle Gro or anything else, but the natural sawdust, manure, grass clippings, compost, and leaves for our garden.

Why?

We have a connection to the dirt.  It is the dirt that gives us the nutrients that we need to sustain life, regardless of the source.  Face it, we're stuck with dirt!

Now, having said that, the same would be true that whatever we put in to the dirt, would eventually make its way to our bodies giving us either optimal health or decay and disease.  If I put good foods in to my body, made with ingredients that the common ordinary person can pronounce, like eggs, milk, cheese, flour, coconut oil--things like that, then my health will be more optimal than if I fed it with processed foods filled with all sorts of disease causing ingredients that no one can pronounce.

So if we come from dirt and to dirt we'll return, it stands to reason, that the closer our food source is that grows from dirt or something that eats a food grown from dirt would give us the most optimal health possible?

Oh, but wait!  What about GMO's or Genetically Modified Organisms?


Deuteronomy 22:9  "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled."

Leviticus 19:19  "Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed:..."

Science Fiction Horror Story by Michael Pearl.

Amending the Soil

Seven years ago when we moved to our current home, the dirt was clay and hard.  We worked very hard adding leaves, compost, finding manure to add to the soil and grass clippings.  Our first garden here did not produce as much as we have at our previous home, where our garden was established, of course.  It was to be expected.  It took work.  A LOT of work.

While it does look brown in this picture, it was very compact and clay-like.  The work continued, until we reached this size garden.

For those of you who do not know,  the black plastic keeps the weeds down by burning them through the sun's rays heating up and being absorbed by the black plastic.  The weeds are decomposed and turned in to compost....unless they find their way through to the little holes where the tomato plants were to grow there.  To the little holes, we added grass clippings, leaves and mulch.  This began our first year growing here in our current home.

This is how big our gardens are now.  The big garden is 35' x 85' and the two smaller ones are 10' x 85'.  This picture was taken in 2010.  The mound you see is the manure/sawdust pile.  Currently, it is still there, but the friends we get it from have added goats, chickens, and cows to the variety of the manure, so it is a good thick rich variety of nutrient rich microbes for our soil and plants.

This year, we've finally added the grapes to the garden.  Yes, where you see the mounds of potatoes that Mr. G is watering, in the very beginning of the bed, closest to the mound is where our grapes are growing.  We only have 2 vines right now, but we plan to add enough to fill that entire 85' long bed.  The bed next to it will be blueberry bushes.  We'll do the same thing with them when we plant those as well, as finances allow.  We're hoping to fill that bed next year with those bushes and finish filling the grape vine area as well.

This year with our potatoes, we've added 12" of hay on top of the manure for mulch.  Our tomatoes and peppers are not as plentiful as they were last year, however.  We decided to scale down with them in order to plant other things with the kids.  The kids are working this year and with our school year beginning again on Monday, July 2nd, we may just let that part of the garden rest.

We do not use pesticides in our gardens.  We try to keep the weeds down within reason.  A good practice is just a few weeds for the native bugs to feast on.  I've seen bugs completely decimate a weed stalk while leaving the vegetables alone, so some weeds are good.

We plan to put newspaper around the plants, then put more manure/sawdust around the plants to hold the newspaper down.  We'll keep adding grass clippings as they are readily available.

A friend of mine mentioned "Lasagna Gardening" on her blog, so I looked it up and found some intriguing things that we were already doing.  :)

On my list of things to do is to look up a better alternative to our compost area than what is currently being used, which is just a pile right now.  I'd like to get one of those black--off the ground--tumbling kind that you just crank every so often.  In two weeks you're supposed to have good composted soil.  So, we'll see what happens.  It is an ever changing thing, gardening.  To think one particular way works every time, hands down, is not opening one's mind up to a variety of other things that could potentially help.

Read lots and lots of blogs, books and websites about gardening.  Try things out one year and learn from those ideas.  What works and what doesn't?  It's all a great experiment. :)

To Begin

What better place to begin, than at the beginning?  Of course when God created everything, and it was good.  It was without mutation, without chemical fertilizers or bug sprays.  Everything was there, in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 1:1-31  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  (2)  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  (3)  And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.  (4)  And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.  (5)  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.  (6)  And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."  (7)  And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.  (8)  And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.  (9)  And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.  (10)  God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.  (11)  And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so.  (12)  The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  (13)  And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.  (14)  And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,  (15)  and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.  (16)  And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars.  (17)  And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,  (18)  to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.  (19)  And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.  (20)  And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."  (21)  So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  (22)  And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."  (23)  And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.  (24)  And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds--livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.  (25)  And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  (26)  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."  (27)  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  (28)  And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."  (29)  And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.  (30)  And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.  (31)  And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

We have, as a church, allowed the large chemical producing corporations to tell us that we "need" to get those pests under control.  We need to make sure to use their product to get the greatest yields with the least  possible pest issues.   Can you imagine a crop raised on pure sawdust and manure?  If you look at the picture above, you'll see the beginning crop of yellow beans from our garden last year.  Much of what we do is organic planting complete with companion planting and cultivation to keep the weeds down.  Some weeds are beneficial here where we live.  Yes, I said "beneficial."  When we do get the pests, we let some of the natural, what we would call, weeds grow so that the bugs feed on the weeds instead of our plants.  There are times when we do need some intervention, however.  The intervention does not include spraying our plants.  We use Japanese Beetle "traps" to lure the insects in to them with a natural pheromone.  This does nothing to the plants as a chemical spray on them at all.  It simply lures the Japanese Beetles away.  

Much of what we do, we've learned over trial and error, reading in books or listening to others who have had this condition before and what they've done about it.  Many, many people control things with chemical pest control.  But, what does that do to the foods we consume?  It leaches in to the ground and if it is in the ground, it will affect the plants because the plants get their nutrients through water in the ground.  There is no magical barrier where the chemicals will not get absorbed by the plant's roots.  This means that our plants are sucking up all that wonderful chemical soup and depositing it in to our food.  It isn't the plant's fault.  Although it is a living thing, it has no brain to think about these things.  The Lord gives us wisdom about these things and in theory, no pests seem such a grand idea, but chemical problems in our food supply have caused greater health problems whether cancer, reproductive problems, or any other malady.  

The problem is bigger than me, it is bigger than you.  How do we address this and get it taken care of and eradicated?  Simply growing our own, natural, organic foods.  Starting small, simply grown from seed heirloom untainted fruits and vegetables.  

Just the way God intended it.

Welcome to My Food Blog

Out of a need for creative expression in the kitchen, geared toward the use of more "close to nature" ingredients and the need to eat healthier unprocessed foods, this blog has been created.

Come join me as I share with you not only what research I've found, my menus, how I challenge myself to keep exercising in spite of downfalls as well as triumphs.