Menu for the next 2 weeks

OK......:) First I will say what I decided on as far as sweets go.We *love* sweets in our family and I LOVE to bake but we really do need to cut out alot of sugar so......

Saturday tea parties- We will have healthy snacks made with fruit/natural sugar/whole grains except for one tea party a month.....We can choose whatever we want for that one tea party a month.

Family night (FRI) the children get to take turns choosing a dessert.This way I don't start feeling deprived that I don't even get to bake things for my children that are super yummy.:) I will limit myself though (and them) and just have one serving of dessert.

Saturday nights/date night dh and I choose what we want.It is a free night where I can eat whatever I want but unlike my previous free nights,I am stilll going to make the meal we eat as healthy as possible although I may give a little in some areas.Anyhow,I need a time to look forward to that I can eat what I want.

WED night I can make a healthy dessert.No white flour or processed sugar.All ingredients must be whole foods.This way my dh can have atleast one day of having some sweets in his lunch.:)

If someone gives us something sweet,we will eat it.That isn't our problem.If a special occasion arises,we will indulge.Special occasions are not our problem either.It is the every day stuff that we have the biggest problem with.

Grains.....All bread/toast/muffins/crackers/pancakes/tortillas etc. mentioned are soaked,whole grain and home made.

My children drink as much raw milk as they want and I will be trying to add it into meals when possible for myself.I am also allowing them to have vanilla/stevia milk in the evenings as a treat.Satisfies a sweet tooth, has zero sugar and is delicious!!

We will also be able to have healthy snacks in the evenings if desired even though they aren't listed on the menu below.

Herb tea will be had in the AM when everyone wakes sweetened with stevia and honey.(except for mine,I don't ever sweeten my tea)

I will be having my morning coffee with brown sugar and cream.....:) I will also have a cup in the evening if I want it which is about 1/2 the time.

Breakfast is served as soon as the children awake and they get their snack after all the morning chores are done and before school.

Yogurt is hm with raw milk.

The bone broth soup will be from freshly butchered chickens.

So,that said...........:)

WEEK 1

MON
BREAKFAST -Omelets with vegies/cheese and fried in butter/Toast/Yogurt with fruit
SNACK- Lacto fermented beets with home made cheese
LUNCH- "face" sandwiches which means a slice of bread spread with cream cheese/mayo and a face made out of vegies.
SUPPER- Peppered venison roast sandwiches/steamed brocolli


TUE
BREAKFAST- Peanut butter toast.....Green smoothie
SNACK-Crackers spread with "Cheese Crock"
LUNCH- Bone broth chicken soup with hm croutons and hm cheese
SUPPER-Brussel Sprouts Country Pie

WED
BREAKFAST- Open faced egg sands with sauteed vegies
SNACK-Sunflower seed sprouts....Crackers....Cheese Crock
LUNCH-Bone broth chicken soup (sounds grose doesn't it? lol)
SUPPER-Chicken Enchiladas....Mexican salad

HEALTHY DESSERT NIGHT....Coconut bars

THUR
BREAKFAST-Oats (unsoaked....just don't like soaked at all) with peaches....Sausage...Cucumbers w/ cream cheese
SNACK-Cottage cheese with pineapple
LUNCH- Face sandwiches
SUPPER- Sausage skillet supper (rice/beans/sausage/seasoning)

FRI (family night)
BREAKFAST-Boiled eggs....Cinnamon muffins
SNACK- Carrot sticks with hm french onion dip
LUNCH- Salad
SUPPER-Finger food buffet.....Boiled eggs/cheese/cucumber slices with french onion dip/Garlic cheese crackers with marinated pork loin cubes and chosen dessert is.....:)  Strawberry Cheesecake.Healthy almond/arrowroot crust and just a teeny bit of hm strawberry freezer jam for the topping.There will be sugar in the filling......

SAT (date night)
BRUNCH-Eggs/vegies/sausage and cheese
SNACK- Yogurt (greek style) with fruit
SUPPER- Italian meatballs/Salad/Garlic toast

DESSERT.....:) We will be sharing a *small* Symphony bar (dh and I) and having chocolate chip cookies and coffee.

SUN
BRUNCH-Dippy eggs with cayenne and toast
SNACK- Radishes with hm cheese
SUPPER- Leftovers

WEEK 2

MON
BREAKFAST-Eggs/cheese....Yogurt/fruit
SNACK-Carrot sticks/hummus/french dip
LUNCH-Beans loaded with pork chunks and sausage....salad
SUPPER- SAME

TUE
BREAKFAST-Venison back straps....eggs....green smoothie
SNACK-Crackers....hm cheese
LUNCH- Bone broth chicken soup
SUPPER-SAME

WED
BREAKFAST-Oats w/ peanutbutter
SNACK- Lacto fermented beets w/ hm cheese
LUNCH-Leftover soup with croutons...carrots/hm dip
SUPPER-Broc cheese baked potatoes with sour cream

HEALTHY DESSERT NIGHT- Peanut cookies

THUR
BREAKFAST-Sausage/pancake sandwiches....Green smoothies
SNACK-Venison jerkey....dates
LUNCH- Peanut butter tortillas....fruit
SUPPER-Shepherds pie....Bread....Cheese

FRIDAY (family night)
BREAKFAST- Boiled eggs....peach muffins
SNACK-Sunflower seed sprouts....crackers....cheese crock
LUNCH-Leftovers
SUPPER- Sprouts...Crackers....hm cheese w/ sundried tomatoes...jerkey....carrots and DESSERT will be a variety of Christmas baking that I am doing for neighbors and friends.

SAT (date night)
BRUNCH- Pancakes and eggs
SNACK- Yogurt and fruit
SUPPER- Chicken with sauteed onions and vegies served with a clear sauce (made from chicken stock) over pasta.I wanted to add pinenuts but at 25 $ a lb I passed.

DESSERT will be Christmas goodies again (pumpkin rolls,buckeyes/snickerdoodles/toffee/cinnamon rolls etc.)

SUN
BRUNCH- Breakfast burritos
SNACK-  This is a "treat" snack.Sweetened vanilla yogurt with peanut butter granola.
SUPPER-Leftovers

If you can't milk it,hunt it,gather it or grow it........

don't eat it......:)

That is one of the main "principles" of the "Schwarzbein Principle."

It is  what I am doing as far as getting healthy/weight loss.Well,I actually don't consider what I am doing  the "Schwarzbein Principle" but I did learn ALOT from this book! Things that I always believed to be healthy are really explained WHY they are healthy in this book! I consider this the way that the Lord *intended* we should eat.I don't agree with everything the lady says of course but that is the way it is with almost everything isn't it? :)

I am not going to do it 100% .My family is still going to continue to have a "sugar" dessert once a week and on special occasions.

I am in my child bearing years and I *have* to keep myself healthy for myself and my family.I am not unhealthy *yet* .I have always been extremely healthy and I feel GREAT except for..........

I am starting to have teeth problems that I never had.

I also need to lose weight.

My dh has teeth problems.

My children have alot of cavities in their baby teeth.

I want to turn this around and I believe it CAN be turned around.......

This is very interesting.I have this book and again,I don't agree with everything he says and don't plan on DOING everything he says....(like eating bone marrow lol) but I do agree with most of it.

It goes right along with Nourishing Traditions.

The actually ALL go together and agree with each other.

Nourishing Traditions
The Schwarzbein Principle and
Curing Tooth Decay

There is a wealth of information in these books.It is exactly the opposite of what we have been taught but thats no surprise is it?

I will be posting my menu sometime soon!

Vitamins vs.Whole foods

I have never taken vitamins.Well,I guess I did once in my first pregnancy.....I did for a little while because that was/is just the thing to do.In pregnancy,you take prenatal vitamins.Everyone does.I haven't taken any "vitamins" since then.I have heard that with the way the world is now,(pollution,depleted soils etc.) that we *can't* get enough vitamins out of the food we eat.I don't believe it.:) I believe that we *do* have to be extremely careful in our food choices.Grow/raise what we can,buy local and be very careful when we buy food from a store.In other words,Wal-Mart is out lol. HERBS are a great source for vitamins and minerals too! I believe that the further that you get away from God's original product,the worse off you are.

Raw milk  It is FULL of amazing  vitamins,minerals,good fats,protein etc.

Eggs  from free ranged chickens.ANOTHER absolutely amazing food that is just loaded with nutrition,*especially* the yolks.Funny that two of the most nutritious foods (raw milk and eggs) are considered *unsafe* and *unhealthy* by the "professionals".

Smoothies.......I use HM yogurt,frozen fruit,vanilla and kale.OJ concentrate is great for making smoothies good without added sugar.I don't use it much though as it is still a sugar.

Apple cider vinegar......A tsp or two a few times a day in water.

Bee pollen I hate the taste of bee pollen so I recently put it into capsules for my dh and I.

Spirulina I have recently started trying to get this into our diet but it really gags me.Capsules are real messy to do.I can stomach it in my smoothie but I sure like my smoothie better without it.Sooooo the other day I thought that I would just mix it with some water and down it THEN drink my GOOD smoothie.NO way could I do it....It was so disgusting lol.I think I will just have to do put it in my smoothies.

Herb tea...I have mentioned this before many times I know:).If you have never read it before,go read my blog post about Nettle and then do a little research on it.Amazing stuff.There are so many wonderful tonic herbs that are safe to take daily.Get educated and have fun making your own tea mixes.

So anyhow,those are our vitamins! :)

The home remedies I reach for first......

I love herbs.I have since I was a teen.I love growing them,gathering them,buying them and making my own teas,tinctures,salves,syrups etc.It is SO fun and satisfying.There are so many different herbs that I love and use but I thought I would post about the very first things that I reach for in almost every illness.

Cayenne/Ginger/Honey-Cayenne and Ginger both STIMULATE the body into high gear which is what you want to do when you are fighting of *anything*.You want your body working at it's best.Cayenne is great for big people.At any sign of *anythig*, pop a couple of cayenne capsules, get into a hot shower or bath and stay in as long as you can.Do that a few times a day.Ginger is a more mild stimulant but is wonderful! It is great for children and adults.A very easy way to give your children ginger is to mix it with honey.Give them a 1/4 to a 1/2 tsp mixed with honey several times a day.Ginger is also wonderful for stomach bugs.If you take enough and keep on it it can truly keep you from getting sick when everyone else is sick around you.It will make you feel hot!!I put it in the bath too.It will really heat you up! When my children are fighting something,one of the first things I do is get them into a hot bath with a stimulant.It really gets the body working well.

Garlic-I can't imagine life without garlic.Both for flavor and medicinal value.Garlic is one of the best natural antibiotics.There are many ways to take it but fresh is best.Chewing it or crushing it is supposed to be the best way to take it,Chewing up a garlic clove is really not as bad as you might think.Just have a glass of water ready.:) You can crush it,chop it,mix it with honey,put it on toast or you can even make a tea out of it.Raw is best but there are still lots of benefits in cooked garlic.My young children are not fond of chewing garlic so I chop it fine and mix it with honey.:) A couple of cloves,several times a day for adults.Less for little ones.Garlic is just fantastic for *everything*.

Echinacea - Another wonderful antibiotic! I love to grow my own echinacea and make tincture.I give a tsp or so of echinacea tincture several times a day.I will put my children on it for a coupe of weeks now and then during flu season just to give their body a boost.

Elderberry-I add fresh elderberry to my tinctures and dried elderberries to my teas.I also make elderberry syrup.They are just FULL of good stuff! They are supposed to be an excellent flu fighter!

HERB TEAS-Yarrow,Catnip,Peppermint,Chamomile and Nettle are a few of the herbs that I reach for first.It would be SUCH a hard decision but I think if I had to choose 5 leafy herbs,they would be the 5 I chose.I don't want to go into a bunch of detail about what each herb is good for as that is not what this post is about.(You can research/Google them and find TONS of info about all of the details.The Bulk Herb Store also has really good information.) BUT,hot herbal tea is wonderful for the immune system.I love to serve it to my children every morning.We go through a gallon some mornings!Yarrow is a powerhouse herb.It is very STRONG and BITTER. I don't usually use it unless I am really worried about an illness or am very serious about fighting something off.It is fantastic stuff though.Nettle (I have a blog post here about Nettle under "herbs") is a wonderful tonic herb FULL of vitamins and minerals.Peppermint is a stimulant, a decongestant,antiseptic (plus lots more!) and also makes yucky herbs taste good! :) Catnip is just a wonderful children's herb overall.Chamomile is delicious,soothing and settles the stomach.I make these herbs seperately or mix them sometimes.

Anyhow,I give my children ALL of the above stuff at the same stuff....:) Other than an occasional tylenol and one child that had antibiotics for Lymes,my children have *never* had ANY other medicine.(That I can remember)Oh,I did buy cough syrup once, years ago ,but only used it a couple of times.I use herbs for *everything*.They WORK!!!

Are you taking care of yourself .....

so that you CAN take care of your family?

It is way to easy for us Mammas to put our own health aside because we are to busy taking care of everyone else.WE CAN"T DO THIS! We CAN"T! All those excuses we have are all just excuses.The TRUTH is that our health is not a priority and THAT is why we don't have time.Most of us find time to do what we really want to do.So don't say "I don't have time." because you do! :):)

I for one do not want to start having problems with my pregnancies/births/recovery/breastfeeding.I don't want  to be overweight! I have 25-30 pounds that I have been hanging onto for my last few pregnancies that has GOT to go.I am expecting that I will probably be EXPECTING again :) before I get the weight lost but that is ok.I am going to keep plugging away even throughout my next pregnancy (If I should be so blessed) BECAUSE what I am doing is not dieting but lifestyle changing.Eating healthy is a constant desire/battle of mine.I am passionate about it and I know that because of that, alot of people assume things about me that are NOT true.Things like..... my family never eats junk food and that I eat salad everyday.:) Not true!:) The TRUTH is that I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I definitely love my Symphony bars.:) I don't eat near as many salads as I would like to because I don't take the time to make the salads!Anyhow,I just wanted to make it public that I fight the junk food battle just like everyone else :).I am trying to find a balance though.We aren't cutting it OUT but just trying to be moderate with it.

I have already lost 25-30 lbs but then I started slacking.I am back at it again though and hope to truly stick with this.

Join me in my weight loss journey why don't you!???? We can only neglect our health for so long! You may eat tons of junk food and very little good food and feel fine NOW but it WILL catch up with you! 40's-50's is when most of the health problems start happening.I can't guarantee that I won't have any but I can sure do a whole lot more to keep myself healthy than I AM doing.

My plan:

SLEEP- I don't get NEAR enough sleep and I only have myself to blame.I am a night person AND a morning person and that = not enough sleep! :) So I am trying to get to bed around 10:00 which gives me 6-7 hours of sleep.

WATER- Make sure that I remember to drink it.I love water but sometimes just forget to drink.I rarely drink anything else other than water.

EXERCISE- aprox 30 minutes a day.I do about 300 different reps.I am doing two different challenges with MOMYS.A pushup challenge to work up to 100 pushups and a Situp challenge to do 200 situps.I am also doing Couch to 5K.As I said,about 30 minutes a day and I exercise at 6:30 sharp so it is DONE.No exercise on Sunday.

FOOD-3 ,Healthy, well balanced meals a day and I am trying to SIT and eat them SLOWLY.I am trying to always include some protein and vegies plus plenty of good fats.No counting calories but I *am* trying to eat less junk carbs.Two snacks a day....1 healthy and one sweet :).Friday starting at supper time is eatwhateverIwant  night.

I have a wonderful accountability partner and that is helping SOOOOOOO much!

Come on ladies! You can do this!

Preserving Kale (and any other greens)

I really,really want to like Kale.My midwife tells me that she finally found a way that her boys will eat Kale! They are asking for seconds! She blanches it first, sautees it in olive oil, and then adds toasted sesame or sunflower seeds and seasoning.They love it.Since Kale is like one of the very best vegetables there is for you I am determined to get it into our diet.I have about 20 plants so hope to get several gallons in the freezer this year!

Wash Kale............

Fold in half and cut off stems.

This is the Kale with all of the stem removed.

Blanch is boiling water for 2 minutes then immediately dunk in cold water.I just have my strainer right in my sink and either spray it with cold water for a few minutes or have my sink full of water and put it right into the water.Either way works.You just want it to be cooled right away to stop the cooking process.After cooling,roll the greens up in a towel or something absorbant.(I used a diaper! lol) SQUEEZE to remove water!

The last step is to spread the greens onto a cookie sheet and freeze.When frozen you can pack into your freezer bag! Beware that a huge bag of greens will shrivel up to practically nothing! lol

Time to make butter!

When I was getting ready to make butter the other day I thought....You know,I ought to take pictures for those who have never had the chance to make butter! :) So here you go! The first one is the cream in the churn (3 quarts).I get that much from about 3 gallons which is what we are getting every day currently.Not for long though as we have another cow getting ready to freshen any day!

Here the butter is done and still sitting in the buttermilk.

Buttermilk is drained her and the butter squeezed together....

Next I add water and squeeze,squeeze the butter to get all the buttermilk out....

Drain the water and squeeze as much out with your hands as possible and you are done!

Eliminating refined sugar and white flour....

We have always used *alot* of wheat flour....We have even ground our own for several years now.....My Mom was/is and excellent cook and taught me how to bake bread (and alot of other things!) from scratch...I really enjoy it and most of the things we eat *are* from scratch.BUT....we use WAY to much sugar and white flour.....Wheat just isn't the same in some things....Yes,soaking helps the texture etc. but it still isn't the same as white....Sugar is another things hard to replace.....I love to bake desserts and we all love to eat them.....BUT, we love our health better....I have *always* been very interested in health/herbs.I have lots of herb books,grow my own herbs and love to make my own medicines for my family.We rarely go to the doctor but treat our own illnesses with herbs/wholesome foods.We live on a farm,drink our own raw Jersey milk....make cheese,yogurt etc.We have a huge garden and preserve alot of our food.We eat local grown meat....I could go on and on....I am passionate about health and health topics.Still,white flour and sugar are something that we still eat to much of.They are two big things that don't belong in our healthy lifestyle! Two things that we have not managed to give up and they also happen to be two of the worse things for us!I feel that they are two VERY bad things in our diet and that we suffer alot of consequences from eating them....Which makes me feel guilty.... Some think I am crazy for feeling this way as everyone thinks that we eat *sooo* healthy and we do *compared* to alot of people....I have never believed in that .We can always make ourselves feel better by comparing our eating habits with *most* other people as sadly,most people out there are severely lacking knowledge about health and eat very unhealthy....We should instead,compare our eating habits to what is the RIGHT way to eat.The Lord designed certain foods for us to eat and we believe that the healthiest way to eat is to eat our foods in their natural state as much as possible....Sooooooo white flour and refined sugar do not belong!We have recently decided to quit using both.....100%....We will have some *rare* exceptions of course and down the road,after we break ourselves from these addictions I am sure I will use them both again OCCASIONALLY but for now we are done! It feels great! It has been a couple of weeks now and I am AMAZED at the delicious desserts that I have been able to make without either of them!!!! We are using only unrefined sugar and MAPLE SUGAR off of our own property, that we made, is the number one thing we are using! DELICIOUS!! I have alot of recipes I will be putting on my blog that are just delicious!