Spring time grilling

This winter has been amazingly mild, and we've had temperatures in the 40s and 50s on most days. I've loved being able to take my two little ones outside for fresh air and exercise. This past Friday I saw my first daffodil of the year, and on Monday the temperature even climbed to 60 degrees.  I decided it was high time we started using our grill again.

I had ordered some grass-fed hamburgers from our farmer last week, and I even remembered to pull them out on Sunday to begin thawing. The first time I cooked grass-fed hamburgers, I used our George Foreman grill, and I think I over-cooked the meat. They were rather hard and bland. This time I decided to do a little research before we grilled. I found a website with detailed instructions about how to grill grass-fed hamburgers. We grilled some sourdough bread for buns, and we added some raw milk Cheddar cheese. They smelled incredible when they were cooking, and they tasted juicy and flavorful. We added some grilled onions, mixed greens, ketchup, and mustard to the burgers. I haven't figured out how to make my own condiments yet, so that's a skill for the future.
Now on to the sides.  I read on a blog that beef tallow can be used to make french fries, and I thought that would be a fun side for the burgers. I saved beef tallow from the last time I made beef stock, but it's only a few Tablespoons of tallow. When I looked up the recipe for french fries, I realized I needed 6-8 cups of tallow!  Other than when you make stock, how do people get that much tallow? So that recipe was a bust. It did inspire some new items for my wish list: a french fry cutter,  deep-fat fryer, a whole bunch of tallow.
Since I still don't have my own copy of "Nourishing Traditions", I googled "nourishing traditions potato wedges." I didn't find any potato recipes that looked promising for dinner, so I tried www.tasteofhome.com, my former go-to site for recipes. I found a recipe for "Two-tone Potato Wedges," and I changed it a little based on what I've learned about traditional foods. In my teleconference with KerryAnn, she said that we shouldn't heat olive oil, so I substituted grass-fed butter. I also substituted sea salt for regular salt.
Here's the recipe for my version of Two-tone Potato Wedges
Prep: 10 min. Bake: 45 min. Yield: 5 servings
Ingredients:
- 3 medium organic potatoes
-2 medium sweet potatoes
-2 Tblsp grass-fed butter, melted
-1/4 tsp. sea salt
-1/4 tsp. pepper
1.5 Tblsp grated parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:
- Cut each potato into eight wedges; place in a large resealable plastic bag. Add the butter, salt and pepper; seal bag and shake to coat. Arrange in a single layer in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. greased baking pan.
-Bake, uncovered at 425 degrees for 20 min. Turn potatoes; sprinkle with cheese and garlic. Bake 20-25 min. longer or until golden brown, turning once. Yield: 5 servings.

I also cooked some organic green beans with melted butter and basil as a second side. Along with our kefir and mixed berry smoothies, we had a yummy weeknight dinner. Bring on grilling season!

The breakfast dilemma

When I started reading articles about traditional foods, one of the first things I started changing was our breakfast foods. We typically ate whole grain cereals, breakfast bars, non-fat yogurts, oatmeal, or bagels for breakfast. I thought that as long as the food had "whole grains" then we were eating healthy food. During my brief foray into low-carb dieting, I started eating more eggs, breakfast meats, and yogurt.
I was really discouraged to read an article about the dangers of breakfast cereal. I would still love to see more studies about extrusion and puffed grains, but until I see more evidence that they are safe, we've fazed out cereal in our house. It was not easy to give up because Curious George, my three year old, loved cereal, and I loved having an easy breakfast option. As he finished eating each box, I didn't replace it, and when he asked for cereal, I could just say that we ran out. He only asked me to buy more cereal a few times before he stopped asking for it.
So what's for breakfast now? I usually make scrambled eggs from pastured hens with raw milk cheese. My boys are starting to get tired of them, so they only eat them a few days each week. Then we have homemade waffles, toast, or oatmeal. We use sprouted wheat in our waffles and pancakes, and I've found sprouted wheat bread and sour dough bread from Trader Joe's. I know that I need to soak my oatmeal, but I just haven't gotten there yet. I recently found a family favorite in a recipe from Kelly the Kitchen Kop. I've made it twice now, and Curious George asked me for it again. I just started soaking the oatmeal tonight, and we'll enjoy the Baked Soaked Oatmeal all week.

I started soaking my oatmeal in buttermilk tonight, and I'll bake it tomorrow night. 

Here is the recipe for Kelly's Baked Soaked Oatmeal

• 2-1/2 c. oats (steel cut or regular, but I like regular best)
• 1 T. whole wheat flour (provides phytase to help break down the phytic acid in the oats)
• 1-3/4 c. buttermilk (In place of buttermilk or yogurt or kefir for soaking, you can use 1 tablespoon of whey, lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup of liquid – usually water for those who can’t have dairy, but milk would be fine, too.)
• ½ c. coconut oil
• 4 eggs (preferably from pastured hens!)
• ½ c. sugar, maple syrup or honey
• 1 tsp. Baking powder (many have said they leave this out and it’s still really good)
• ½ tsp. sea salt 
• 2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 2 tsp. Vanilla
• 2 c. raisins
• 2 c. chopped apples or pears or other fruit of choice
• Optional: 2 c. chopped nuts (or sprinkle on each individual serving after baking

• Soak oats, flour and buttermilk covered on kitchen counter overnight, but 24 hours is better in order to break down more phytic acid. Before serving, beat oil, sugar, and eggs until glossy. Add baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla; beat. Stir in oats, raisins, and chopped apples (or pears). Sue said that she’ll sometimes add a little more milk at this point if the oats seem a little too dry.  Pour into 9×13 baking dish and bake at 350 for 20-40 minutes, depending on your desired consistency. 
• Note:  You can also mix all the ingredients together ahead of time (wet ingredients first, add dry ingredients, then add the last 3 ingredients) and freeze until you’re ready to set on the counter for up to 24 hours and then bake.  Or set it right into the oven with the automatic turn-on feature set so you can wake up to the smell of cinnamon in the morning and breakfast all ready to eat.
• One more thing:  In case you’re wondering why the oats don’t need to be drained after soaking overnight, Jenny from Nourished Kitchen has this to say:  “You don’t have to because phytic acid is degraded.  It doesn’t leach into the water like oxalates.” 

I couldn't get a picture before my husband cut some for breakfast. This is definitely a favorite in our house right now. 

Starting the journey

This week I slowly turned the lid on the Mason jar, and Chinese 5-spice lacto-fermented apples started spraying across my kitchen. Hmmm, maybe this is what they meant about needing to "burp" the jars. And is it supposed to taste sour and bubbly when it's done, or did I "over-ferment?" Is "over-fermenting" even a possibility? Clearly, I'm new to this whole thing, and I've got a lot to learn in the area of traditional foods and cooking.

In an attempt to get a handle on this new skill, last Thursday I found myself on a teleconference with KerryAnn from Cooking Traditional Foods.  Six months into this journey, and I was amazed at what I didn't know. It also made me think about how I got on this phone call in the first place.

I'm not a big joiner.  Okay, my marriage and my church are big exceptions, but I generally don't like to join groups or jump on bandwagons. I don't go to the YMCA for exercise classes. I like my exercise videos in the privacy of my home.  I read the books about how important breast-feeding is, and then when I hit huge problems in that area, I just fought through them. I didn't even think about joining a support group.  I don't like any of the facebook status updates insisting that if I truly loved my husband, Savior, child, or mom, I would copy and paste this in my status immediately. I don't need a status update to prove my love, and I always ignore them. So how did I end up committing to the traditional foods bandwagon?

I was raised in skim milk and non-fat yogurt land. My mom has always tried to make us healthy food, and  she was taught that fat is bad. We were served lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. I continued this style of cooking in my own home. My big problem was that the more non-fat yogurt I ate, the more weight I continued to gain.

Last winter I read an article in Reader's Digest about how I should be reducing carbohydrates and eating more eggs because fat doesn't make us fat. Yeah! Any reason to eat more bacon and eggs sounds good to me. Of course, not wanting to actually join anything, I read up on the Atkins diet online and made up my own meal plans based on their suggestions. I lost 10 pounds, and I was really proud of myself. I started buying Atkins meal replacement bars since they were sweet, and I missed sugar and carbs. We also joined a local CSA as a strategy for buying more local, organic produce.

All this time, I had this slightly annoying facebook friend that I describe as my "crunchy granola friend." She gets very passionate about topics, and then she's always posting articles on facebook. Sometimes I would get curious enough to read the articles, but they usually seemed off the deep end. One of her articles was on the dangers of Splenda. It caught my attention because Atkins uses Splenda as a sugar substitute, and I realized that my husband and I were consuming a fair amount of it. One article led to another, and it slowly started changing my thinking, shopping, and meal planning. I laughed at myself when I realized that I was actually making homemade soaked granola and sharing articles about the benefits of raw milk. I had become my friend.

So here I am. I haven't bought "Nourishing Traditions" yet or joined my local chapter of Weston A. Price, but I'm committed to this journey. I still need to lose weight, but this time I want it to be the right way. I know I have a lot more to learn, but I'm convinced that the health of my family is worth it.

I really should thank my "crunchy granola" friend.