Pictures of my finished soap!

It turned out beautifully and smells better than you can even imagine!! The dark brown is the "Angel Food Spice Cake" and the other the "Vanilla Fudge".None of the soap is trimmed up in these pictures.When it cures/dries out some more in a day or so I will trim it up and get rid of all the rough edges etc.

Soap making really is a blast and EASY.You should try it!

Making soap!

Here you go Ang! :) My SIL and I are making soap for a soap exchange and I wanted her to see my pretty swirl soap.:) I am so proud of it! The last swirly soap I made was oh about 3 years ago and my SIL and I actually made it together.It was a cream colored soap with beautiful blue swirls but as we sat admiring the beautiful soap we remembered that we hadn't added the essential oils!! lol Soap is not soap without scent :) so we were dumping bottles of oil in and stirring.We ended up with beautiful blue soap with no swirls.......

Anyhow,the soap that I made here is Vanilla Fudge and it smells SO good.I will add more photos tomorrow when I cut it.....I will also add pictures of the soap I made yesterday called "Angel food spice cake".

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!

Bringing Home The Bacon PART 3

Here are a few pictures of the meat getting ground,bacon being cut and the sausage.We had a total of 11 children helping and there was a job for everyone except the babies! lol We ended up getting 130 pounds of meat! :) 50 lbs sausage,20 lbs bacon and 60 lbs of ham/loin/chops etc.We fried some sausage up right away to make sure the seasoning was right.It is soooooooooooooo good!!! We want to smoke our own hams/bacon but that will have to come later.We are thrilled to have some good,hormone free pork!!!!

Home Butchering PART 2

                           Finishing the skinning and then the meat brought into the house to start cutting.

Bringing Home The Bacon PART 1

 
We butchered our first hog!! We have 3 hogs......two of them are for us and one is for our neighbor.We only butchered one of ours because we had never done a pig before.We've done a steer,chickens,rabbits,ducks,turkeys,deer etc. but never a hog! :) It went great and was no different than the steer.We will be doing our other one next weekend probably.We had friends here to help who had never butchered a hog before and so that was really fun!!! They were alot of help!

So these first 4 pictures are before butchering and then skinning........