So I’m a fan of turkey-eating occasions for a number of reasons.

1.  Mike cooks the turkey.

2.  Mike cooks the side dishes.

3. Mike cleans the kitchen.

Follow?

And now there’s another reason to adore the turkey-eating season, Gluten Free Bread stuffing – that actually doesn’t taste like soggy bread!

This is the recipe from Gluten-Free Girl, modified to use the sunflower whole grain, (very dense) gluten free loaf at found at the local bakery. I’ll leave you with the ingredients, but since I’m not sure what is the kosher way of ‘copying’ someone’s recipe (& giving credit of course), I’ll ask you to head over to her blog for the directions. If this doesn’t wet your appetite for turkey stuffing, nothing will!

THE GLUTEN-FREE STUFFING THE CHEF AND I WILL BE MAKING FOR THANKSGIVING

2 loaves gluten-free bread, diced into one-inch cubes, toasted and cooled
2 large ribs celery, medium diced
1 large yellow onion, medium diced
2 tablespoons good olive oil
2 tablespoons garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage, finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
find the instructions over at Gluten-Free Girl’s blog.

Doesn’t that list of ingredients make you run to her blog to see the rest? Hello? Anybody here?

This is it. Where the rubber meets the road. The test of the future. The thing of the… oh never mind. Its a menu.

Monday
Brown beans and barbecue sauce wrap (vegetarian)
Lasagne (vegetarian)

Tuesday
Egg salad wraps, sliced cucumber (vegetarian)
Chicken Gumbo (soup)

Wednesday
Poached Herb Salmon
Herbed Rice Pilaf
Honey’d Carrots

Thats all I got folks. Changing the entirety of one’s menu is not easy! Keep hangin’ in there. The results are worth it!

The absolute yummy-est way to use up the leftover veggies. Use anything you have on hand – just slice them thinner if they take longer to cook(carrots), and leave whole if they cook really quickly(asparagus).

Ingredients:

• mushrooms, quartered
• asparagus, 3 inch sticks
• cherry tomatoes, whole
• bell peppers, assorted colors, cut into 2″ chunks
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• 1 Tbsp Italiano ClubHouse All-in-One Seasoning

Instructions:

1. Cover cookie sheet with tin foil
2. Scatter veggies, sprinkle with EVOO and Italiano
3. Preheat oven to 400F and cook 3 – 5 minutes until tender crisp

These are so yummy just served alone. And are even better sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan.

Enjoy!

So, a recipe is a little overkill, but this idea is a great one, no?

Strawberry Pecan Parfait

This is an absolutely divine evening time snack – whole raw pecans, homemade plain yogurt, with sliced strawberries and a drizzle of natural honey. Yummmmm.

• papaya
• milk
• fruit juice
• hot cereal
• main course including protein (egg or meat)

And that, my friends, is a daily breakfast at Rethy Academy in Rethy, Zaire, West Africa.   And happens to be what I ate 5 days a week for 2 years.  I just so happened to stumble across some nice looking papaya at the market last week.

I would tell you how to pick a ripe papaya if I saw any, which I didn’t.  They are supposed to be a uniformly orange-y yellow-y color.  They start green, and turn yellow, then orange.  And then they are ripe, juicy, and sweeeeet.  they are not supposed to be spotted, and definitely not brown.  But, when they’re traveling from some equatorial country all the way to my sweet Vancouver, I can forgive a few brown spots, ya know?

Here are the ones we got.

Note – cut lengthwise, remove seeds like a melon, and cut peel off, serve chilled.  They have a very mild soft texture like a banana, watermelon-y taste, and very juicy.  They have NO strings like a mango, and are never bitter!  They are a very common, easily grown fruit, and available to the masses in tropical countries.  Here’s a few pics to show how to slice it:

whole papaya

slice papaya lengthwise

scoop papaya seeds from center

slice across the width of the papaya

the papaya meat can be scooped out to enjoy - there is very thin peel, the rest can be eaten.

The papaya peel is actually quite thin – like a peach – so you can eat most of the fruit middle.

I saw the Miracle Worker yesterday and we had an absolutely fantastic conversation.  We discussed in detail my new propension to be granola-y.  Every time I see her, it is like pushing a reset button.  This time, I was able to talk myself out of my current consumed-by-work mindset and put my health back on the plate.  (pun intended)

New Goals for This week:

1. Cut out all obvious forms of sugar (ps – these replacements are not a long-term solution, just the first baby-step)
   • replace with dried fruit
   • plan 2 extra snacks so I don’t just grab whats available
   • eat 1/3 cup of almonds through out the day
   • artificially-sweetened candy
   • fresh home-made baking sweetened naturally
2. note the satisfaction level of various foods on the family, and accommodate while we’re all adapting (ie: kids don’t eat enough grains when I serve brown rice, mike gets hungry when I don’t include enough protein-rich foods, carrots fill better than peas, etc)
3. Plan, plan, plan for food and eating.

This is awfully reminiscent of our previous transition to the gluten-free diet.  I was at such a loss as to what to feed us that I made lists – lists for snacks, dinners, and lunches, and I referred to them often. It meant more shopping, different lists, and triple the time in the grocery store while I read the ingredient lists.

Transitioning to Gluten Free was Easier

In some ways transitioning to the gluten-free lifestyle was easier, as we were forced into it. There wasn’t much of a choice.  We were also incredibly motivated to do it- and do it 100% and do it immediately.  There was a huge sense of urgency.

The reason I’ve become rather granola-y, is from the self-taught education of our food industry (from research in the states largely – and now in Canada).  This has definitely provided the motivation. Unfortunately it was the motivation not to eat meat.  So then I was hungry.  And I was refusing to cook meat.  So we all were hungry.  Then we went to McDonalds and stuffed ourselves with horrible food.  So all this hunger has provided the urgency that I feel.

And since I need to eat – well, I’m sort of left with no choice, but to change our lifestyle.  So that’s me.

How about you?  Did you make the change?  Are you still a non-granola-y eater?  (I still love ya, but really?  REALLY?  Is that the best you can do? )

To you  and yours,

Cathy

This falls in the weird and quirky category.  no, not the yogurt making – I plan on subjecting you to my rambling first. Between the ages of 13 and 17 I lived in Zaire (Republic of Congo now) and Kenya, East Africa.  For a few years I went to a boarding school, but when we first arrived (my parents and 2 siblings and I) we lived together at the Missionary Kids’ School.  (there are SOOO many stories I could tell from that time – but none of them relate to the #gfree lifestyle.   but i DO like to talk, so maybe I will one day anyway.)  Ahem.  My parents were the dorm parents for the intermediate children (us included), and my Mom ran the school cafeteria – which was so much more than a cafeteria.  This was the “Dining Hall” – the place we stumbled into for breakfast, the place we celebrated birthdays, visited in the afternoons, set tables, washed dishes – it was home.   And I also learned that you could make yogurt.  In fact we had our own herd of diary cattle and, ah, how to put it delicately?  Beef cattle?  We had chickens and dogs, and cats – it was very much like farm life.   Anywho.  When the milk came from the cows, it was from the cows, know what I mean?  It was pasteurized in the Dining Hall, cream was scooped off, and cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt was made.   And that brings me to, well, me!

We are a yogurt family.  Mike started eating it when he was on weight watchers and discovered he could actually eat 200 ml of the stuff for only 60 calories.  (zero, source brands)  I love it because its smooth and creamy – I loooove smooth and creamy – chip dip, pudding, yogurt, ice cream, mashed anything, creamy soup, I’m basically a lazy chewer.   The kids like it because its sweet, and I don’t feel guilty feeding them this pre-packaged snack.  Anyhow, we spend approx $12 – $18 on yogurt every week.  Ridiculous, right?  And since we’re going to be using 200% of our grocery budget to buy fair trade, organic, gluten free, pesticide free, grass-fed, granola-eating, fresh-fried, from our back yard, Christian meat, I figured I should find ways to cut corners in the other areas.

Thus.

The.

Yogurt

Making

Am I not freaking domestic?  I didn’t even know I had it in me.  And now, I’ll let you in on my secret:

How to Make Yogurt:

• Heat milk (lots of it – I use approx. 2 liters) over medium heat to 180° F.  Stirring occasionally.
• Add 1/2 cup of plain active-bacteria yogurt per 2 liters of milk.
• Add sweetening if desired (I used vanilla flavored liquid stevia which was excellent)
• Cool to 110 – 115°F.  I was using our meat thermometer (since its getting lonely these days) and hung it over the side of the pot so it wasn’t touching the pan but was deep in the milk.
• Add to warmed oven and keep between 110 – 115° for 9 – 12 hours*

* When I did 12 hours exactly we ended up with a nice cottage-cheesy texture.  The kids were not so fond of it.  So next time I did 11-12ish hours – was still cottage-cheesy.  If I ever get the perfect texture I’ll update this post.

Note: To keep the yogurt at this temperature – I put my yogurt in a warmed oven, and kept the thermometer in it.  I placed my milk mixture into two one liter sized containers, covered them, and wrapped them in a tea towel, placed them in the oven, turned the oven off, and kept the light on.  This seemed to work fairly well for me.

This last time, I left the sweetener out because I really like the tangy taste of plain yogurt, especially when you put gobs of jam in it.   Now- I wonder if I leave out buckets of fruit, it’ll turn into jam?

• cattle are treated well because the farms have some sort of production guarantee ticket.  It is a guarantee that a certain amount of milk will be purchased at a regulated price.  so they know they will be paid, and the price will always be fair.
• there is a slowly rotating milking machine, that the cows willingly walk onto, are milked twice a day, and they do their slow chewing, sulky walking
• Farms are NOT allowed to routinely administer antibiotics.  All antibiotics on animals are reported immediately.  The milk is thrown out.  The cows are still milked for production reasons, but the milk is tossed.  If antibiotics are found in any of the next testing points, the milk is tossed.  If too many doses are given to cows in one location, the farm is investigated.  I’m sure this isn’t perfect system – but its a good start!
• milk is tested when it is collected
• it is kept at a regulated temperature
• tested before being added to the farm’s ‘collection’
• tested again before being loaded into transport
• tested again twice before processing at the processing plant
• It is law in Canada that milk be pasteurized and contain vitamin D.  Other milk products do NOT have to contain vitamin D.

That’s what I know.  There is a lot that I don’t.

You can download the entire booklet of Dairy ‘rules’ in Canada at the National Farm Animal Care Council.

So, for our family, milk is IN.   I’m so happy!

I looked up ‘tree hugger’ to find a humorous pic to entertain y’all, and look what I found!!

Anywho.  Cute little guy aside, I have indeed gone tree-lovin’ loopy.  I was nearly in tears again over meet the other day.  Today I was in the meat aisle at Overwaitea Foods and wanted to weep over all the dead animals.  Lovely.  I’ve reached a whole new level of nutso.

Acceptance, so I’ve heard, is key.

I was actually in the meat aisle looking for something ‘organic’ hoping beyond all hope that it would also mention that it was an ‘ethical’ farm, or some sort of something that would indicate their animals aren’t stacked on top of each other, sprayed with pesticides, stuffed with antibiotics to prevent the gaping sores from leaking puss into their food supply.  The thought of them having so little room to swoosh their tails that they get bitten to insanity by bugs, makes me sick to my stomach.   Fortunately they can just cut off the beaks of birds who’ve gone cuckoo so they don’t peck themselves to death.  Whew.  I was worried.

Okay, to reality – we eat meat.  We do.  I don’t have a problem ethically or morally about the idea of meat.  I only take issue with the misuse of animals.  I also don’t think we should hunt down the last leopard in the world to use their skins for my shoes.  But thats just me.

So, hungry yet?  Drooling in fact for chicken?  Yeah.  Me neither.

Recipe Failure Lesson

from this week.  (I had to pick only one.)

When using onions and garlic, and all those yummy vegetables, tossing with whole grain brown rice pasta, and being oh-so-very tree-hugger-ish-ish about it, use seasoning.  Trust me.  Seasoning is good.  We like seasoning.  I highly recommend Italiano Club House All in One Seasoning – yummy!!

photo courtesy of vancouver.ca

Do you remember the days of yesteryear – where mashed potatoes, heaped with gobs of fat, and a giant hunk of meat, perhaps with a few peas on the side served as dinner?   Are you still living in yesteryear?  I was.  Yesterday.  Then I read Skinny Bitch.  Now, I have to say, since then, I’ve learned quite a bit in my attempts to refute their claims.   If you are going to read this, (if you’re not, just skip this paragraph) you need to differentiate between their common sense arguments, and others common sense arguments. What is common sense to them, may not be common sense to everyone else (or you).  The footnoted claims to fact are another story – almost entirely true from what I can tell.  :(

Okay, back to yesteryear.  :)   This blog is going to be the place I chronicle our change to a healthy diet and ‘clean’ living approach to food.  I’m going to mix up my own common sense, with the ‘whole food’ movement, the ‘local’ food movement, organic food, but most of all – ethical food. I am (at this point) prepared to dowse myself in chemicals from the skin of vegetables – Yes, I may get cancer.  However, I am not prepared to support an industry that mass-produces meat to the point of chemically-inducing growth, causing animals to grow malformed because of cramped living quarters, and feeding them a life-long regiment of antibiotics so that the meat stays healthy enough to serve my kids.  Animals that are grown in areas that any breathing person would consider unnecessarily painful and slaughtered violently – the mercy of death coming wayyyy to late in the process.   that is plain unethical.

Let me say that I do not blame the industry (mostly), or the people who work in the slaughter barns.  What else can you expect when in order to provide their families, they have to produce thousands of pounds a meet, every day?  And the people that kill the animals, are forced to do so at such a rate, that the ‘kill’ part of the process sometimes misses the mark – so that the barns are full of screaming animals, half slaughtered, half alive.  And the worker has to move on to the next animal to hopefully make their mark this time.  It reminds me of war (please understand that soldiers deserve our undying support and devotion), in that the people who are forced into this position cannot help but be changed by it.  What a sad situation!

Does that mean I am going to stop eating meat?

Personally, I want to cry every time I look in my freezer and see the piles of frozen meat in there.  So yeah, I haven’t eaten meat in about a week, except for fish.  But no, in general, I hope that this weepy-ness wears off with a certain time of the month, and the knowledge that there are farms out there from whom I can buy more humanely produced meat.

Recently I’ve met another Mom from my kids’ school and in getting to know each other, I found out what “Applied Biology” means as a university field of study.  Oddly, it has little to do with biology, and a lot to do with the relationship between peoples and their food source.  The topic is wide and varied and insanely interesting!  Anywho, she subscribes to the local-food, ethically produced (of course), and primarily vegetarian diets.  So I’ve been picking her brain about how exactly to cook in this way, and also which farms I may have access to around here that produce food in an ethical manner, that I could, in good conscience feed my family.   More to come on this in future posts.

For now, I have an announcement to make:  We are going ETHICAL.  And it aint’ going to be easy.  All of us that have changed our diet from gluten-’normal’ to gluten-free, know how difficult it can be to read all the ingredients, source out the safe foods, and cook an entirely different menu (if necessary).   And I’m doing it again.

Times are Changin’!

I hope you’ll join me, at least to cheer me on, if not to join me!  I remember how much work it was to change our diets from gluten to g-free, and now, I’m going to change our diets again – new grocery lists, new meals to plan, new ideas to conjure up, new everything!  Oi!! I need a nap.

Thanks for playing along!!

PS – have any of my readers been down this path before?  Which path?  How long ago?  Any locals (vancouver)?

The annual review of my kitchen is coming up at the end of the month, and I’ve been reminiscing and writing like a mad woman.  Its been cathartic, energizing, and oddly encouraging.  I can’t wait to share it with you!   However, I may need to share it with you, before I keep on going down my new path…

This time, I’m not going down the weight-loss path (not because I don’ t need to!), I’m working with a therapist on identifying my real stumbling blocks to change, and moving forward in areas that I can, dealing with my reservations, one at a time.  It is inspiring to me that I can succeed at the goals that we set.  And nothing motivates like success!  Anyhow, I’ve been working with my miracle worker therapist on staying motivated, so I’ve been reading.  A healthy-living magazine here, and a book from the library there.  Its great and fun and relaxing.

But.

Oh.

My.

Word.

I am sick to my stomach.  I have been reading – completely by accident – how the mass-production farms work in the states.  (And I’m sure we’re no better in Canada.)  Inhumane doesn’t begin to cover it.  I mean on a daily basis thousands of animals are accidentally boiled alive, because the whole humane part of the process doesn’t work part of the time. And thats the tame stuff, that I feel is okay to post online to unsuspecting eyeballs!

Seriously?  I’m horrified that I eat meat.  Horrified.  And so far I have read about the pork, beef, and chicken industries.

“If we don’t eat meat, in one year we could save 90 animals per person.”

90.

I’m thinking the I-can’t-do-anything-by-myself argument is out the window.  Drat.  I am, however, going to find another book with a little less opinion and more fact on the matter.  Although this book, the Skinny Bitch, (and the language isn’t any better on the inside), has footnotes and scientist quotations scattered through out like part of the paper.

Truly, I’m not sure I could recommend the book – I’m only half way through it myself.  First, the language is atrocious.  If you don’t want to be called names and told to get off your F*ing Fat Ass, then I would stay away.  In its defense, the language does seem natural (so that rules them out as BFFs I would guess), is cleverly placed, and definitely humorous.  Either way, you are warned!

However, the next book I read will be more conservative, I’ll probably choose something from the ‘other side’.  Because, really?  I don’t wanna be a vegan!!!  The crazy, granola-eating (but probably without the oats, wheat, and honey), tree-huggin group is not my cup of tea.  Speaking of, I wonder if tea is out/in?

Of all the nasty things to happen – our regular HOT CHOCOLATE mix now has gluten in it!!  Check carefully – over and over.  Ad nauseum.
To your good health,

Cathy

It has been nearly 3 years since Mike has had his old fave – chicken teriyaki rice bowl.   Its not that I hadn’t tried to come up with my own teriyaki sauce, its just that I suck at it.  So I caved and found a recipe online – and?  It is DIVINE.  Simple, easy, goes with anything (we had it with pork tenderloin over rice), and tastes great!

Thank you very much JuniperNW at RecipeZaar.

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 5 tablespoons packed brown sugar (I substituted 1/2 splenda)
• 1-2 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water

Directions – Combine everything except cornstarch and 1/4 c water in a saucepan and put on med-high heat.  Combine cold water and cornstarch separately in a shaker.  Add liquid to saucepan.  Heat until thickened.  If it is too thick, you can add a bit of water.

Enjoy!

Orange Cocoa

Makes 3 servings:

• 2 Tbsp cocoa
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 3/4 c boiling water
• grated rind of 1/2 orange
• 2 c milk
• whipped cream
• extra lemon or orange rind for garnish

Directions:

1. In saucepan, combine cocoa, sugar, and hot water.  Sir to combine.
2. Add grated orange rind.
3. Add milk, heat over medium low heat until piping hot.
4. Strain.  Garnish, if desired. Serve.

This can be done in the microwave as well, if you use single servings, and heat the cocoa and sugar and water first so that it blends.  Then add milk and orange rind, heat until hot.  Strain, garnish, and serve.

We were sent a couple samples to try, and I ADORED them!  They were too coconut-ty for Mike, and I wouldn’t let the kids try them because I have a job to do.  And these babies – tasted like Coconut macaroons – I love my job.

Warning – these are NOT for weight loss!  They are for energy and possess raw, organic, vegan foods that have calories inherent but also (I suspect) don’t create a huge sugar-rush either as there is so much fiber and protein to keep the blood sugars all in line.   Here’s what they say:

Ingredients of the Coconut Acai bar:

Would you like to try them?  Click on the giant – prana logo in my sidebar to try some very yummy bars (& support this blog o’mine!)

This was the other bar that I was sent: the Boomi Apricot Cashew.  Yeah, its a super-tough job.

The stats on this one:

This was nice and chewy – although more like a soft natural-fruit bar.  My preference was definitely the first one, the coconut macaroon one.  It made a delicious dinner a while ago.

Enjoy!