~courtesy of glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com

This is not my picture, nor is this topic my idea.  However, once I visited my favorite blog, I was inspired and had to follow in her footsteps.   On this day of thanks, there will not be any pictures of fabulous food, only a picture of an empty plate to remind us that there are people in this world, this country, and likely your town, that do not have a plate full of food on this Thanksgiving Day or any day.  I am taking this opportunity to appreciate and give thanks for the food on my plate, the warmth in my home, and the smiles on my children's faces.   

Thank you, Gluten-free Girl, for your inspiration, your recipes, and your willingness to share.

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

Take some time to drop off a coat or box of food.  Chances are, there is a place right down the road that is willing to accept your donation and bring it to those in need.

~ Happy Thanksgiving ~

Homemade Vegetable Stock...It's not as difficult as you think!

An easy way to add flavor and extra nutrients to your dishes is to use homemade vegetable stock.  It's not as difficult as you may think.  As you chop your vegetables for your weekly meals, save the ends and unused pieces and store them in the freezer.  I save everything from the little corners of the garlic cloves to the ends of the carrots and parsnips.  I even save the tops of the strawberries and ends of the lemons.  While you are chopping, just leave the open bag right there next to the cutting board.  Instead of throwing the ends in the garbage, toss them in the bag and stick them in freezer until the weekend.

Either Saturday or Sunday, take out your bags of frozen ends and dump them into a large stock pot.  Once you've emptied the bag, put the empty bag back into the freezer and use it again next time.  Any herbs that might be wilting can go in the pot too. You can even throw in a bay leaf or two.  Fill the pot with filtered water.  I use filtered water since I don't boil the stock.

Now, use the lowest setting your stove will allow and walk away.  The longer you leave the stock on the stove, the richer and deeper the color and flavor will be.  Just be sure not to boil it.  You can't rush this.  If you boil it, you will lose nutrients and turn the stock cloudy.  I don't exactly know why it gets cloudy so please feel free to post a comment if you know why!  The amount of time you leave it on the stove also depends on the veggies you have in there.  As long as the veggies stay green you can leave the pot on the stove.  Once I notice the greens aren't as vibrant, I know it's done.  Then just strain and keep the liquid in jars in the fridge to use during the week.  I add it to the water (50/50) to flavor the pasta as it cooks.  I use it in place of water when making quinoa.  It will add great flavor to your dishes during the week and it will make your house smell great on the weekends!

A good tip I just read somewhere was, "Don't salt your stock."  I forget which blog I was on, but they made a good point.  Your stock is not your finished product.  Whatever dish you are adding it to will determine the amount of salt to add, if any.   Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for reading!

Fall's Favorite Things

Crunchy red leaves, fairytale pumpkin squash, big bulky scarves, Chai tea, knit blankets and of course, my Crock Pot!

Now that its gets dark so soon, I feel like my time to cook dinner has shortened.  The kids get home from school, play for an hour and then it's dark outside.  I know we have the same number of hours, but it doesn't feel that way especially since we all get tired earlier.

So I feel like the crock pot gives me extra time.  At around lunch time, I throw some ingredients into the crockpot and forget about it. (OK, so I follow a recipe - it sounds much better though when I say I just "throw in" the ingredients!) Then at dinner time, all I have to do is make a side of pasta or a veggie and set the table.   

I like to make cream based soups because I find them so much cozier and filling, but I don't like using actual cream.  Instead, I boil a whole cauliflower (minus the green part) until it's soft.  Then, drain it and throw it in the blender or food processor with a little skim milk or Earth Balance buttery spread.  I know it sounds weird, but what you get is rich cream that doesn't taste like cauliflower. 

I first got this idea from the South Beach Diet Book's mashed "potatoes" that was actually boiled and mashed cauliflower.  I add this rich cream to the soup and no one knows the difference.  I add it at the end though, right before I serve it.  I don't know why, but I feel like it might retain more nutrients if I don't let it sit in the crock pot for hours.  I know this doesn't make sense since I just boiled it to death! 

Yesterday, I made New England Clam Chowder with cauliflower instead of cream and everyone loved it - no one knew!  It tastes great and it's an easy way to slip in some extra nutrients like vitamin K and C, fiber, potassium, boran, phosphorus, and B vitamins. 

Please feel free to share some of your favorite Fall things and healthy tips.  Thanks for reading!

The Coconut Oil Miracle...Really?

I was standing in line at the health food store a few years ago when a book caught my eye.  It was titled, "The Coconut Oil Miracle" by Bruce Fife, C.N., N.D.   It caught my eye because I thought, “What in the world could be so miraculous about coconut oil?"  I picked it up, read a page in line and bought it.  As it turned out, I finished the book in a few days – it was amazing to read about how this oil could heal the body.

One of the most interesting facts about this oil is what it’s made of.  If you look at the nutrition facts, you’ll see that it is a saturated fat.  We have always been taught that saturated fats are bad.  Turns out that there are all different sorts of saturated fats, but if you were generalize them, you could put them into three categories:  Short chain fatty acids, medium-chains, and long chains. 

Coconut oil is made up of mostly medium chain fatty acids which do not get stored by the body as fat.  Medium chain fatty acids get converted directly into energy.  This is why if I absolutely must fry something, I always use coconut oil – just make sure you don’t burn it.  If your oil starts to smoke (and this is good advice for any oil) throw it away and start over.  If you use oil that has smoked, you are basically drowning your food in a toxic soup made up of free radicals.

I also use the same coconut oil I fry with to moisturize my body – 100 percent pure, unrefined coconut oil.  If you don’t like the taste and smell of coconuts, then buy the refined coconut oil which has been stripped of the smell and taste, but all the health benefits remain.  In the jar, this oil is useless and consists of the usual triglycerides found in all other oils.  However, once applied to the body, it is broken down into monoglycerides and becomes a powerful antimicrobial that is quite destructive to bad bacteria, but isn’t harmful to the beneficial bacteria in our bodies.  For example, the hand sanitizers that we all use are mostly made up of alcohol.  The alcohol kills everything on our hands including the beneficial bacteria leaving our hands without our natural defenses.  Using coconut oil instead, boosts the good bacteria on your skin and kills the bad, all while acting as a great moisturizer! 

If you google the health effects of coconut oil, you’ll read about HIV patients using coconut oil instead of medication to keep their viral load down or eliminate it all together.  Apparently, the lauric acid in coconut oil breaks through the once impenetrable protective shell of the HIV virus and destroys it.

I use it, my kids use it, and everyone I know gets a copy of the book and a jar of coconut oil for their birthday.  In an attempt to peak your interest, I have posted some of the viruses and bacteria, noted in the book below, that are killed by the lauric acid found in coconut oil – and not in crazy amounts. Along with a healthy lifestyle, replacing your current cooking oil and adding it to recipes, along with using it on your skin, may be all it takes to see the health effects.

VIRUSES                                           BACTERIA

HIV                                                     Listeria Monocytogenes

Measles                                              Helicobacter Pyloria                                   

Herpes                                               Chlamydia Pneumoniae                            

Sarcoma                                             Staphylococcus Aureus

Syncytial                                            Streptococcus Agalactiae

Human Lymphotropic                    Groups A, B, F, and G Streptococci

Vesicular stomatitis                         Gram-positive organisms  

Visna                                                  Gram-negative organisms

Cytomegalovirus

Epestein Barr

Influenza

Leukemia

Pneumonovirus

Hepatitis C  

For more information, you can visit the author's website at http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/

Thanks for reading!



Who Has The Time?

Don't have the time to eat healthy?  OK, but the question is, do you have the time to eat at all?  If the answer is yes, then you can eat healthy. 

Some people enjoy a bowl of ice cream every night...I know I do - EVERY NIGHT!  You have to go to the grocery store to buy the ice cream right?  While you are there, breeze into the produce section and pick up those ugly weird fruits call pomegranates.  Next time you sit down to your usual bowl of ice cream, cut a pomegranate in half and squeeze the blood red juice and crunchy pellets over the top of the ice cream.  The pellets offer a slight resistance against your teeth before getting to the surprisingly satisfying crunch in the center.  You'll be surprised at how much your mouth will thank you for the delightful addition to your regular nightly treat.   If you really want to know what this powerful fruit can do for you, here's a good website http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/11-health-benefits-of-pomegranate-juice.html to get a quick at-a-glance read on the benefits.

If you'd like to take this healthy tip a bit further, try changing your regular ice cream brand to one that uses a coconut milk base.  People are always so surprised when I tell them the saturated fat in coconut milk is actually good for you.  At first, when you turn the pint of coconut milk based ice cream around to read the nutritional facts, you may gasp when see the high percentage of saturated fat.  But here's the secret...the fat in coconut is made up of mostly medium-chain fatty acids.  Unlike long or short chain fatty acids, the medium ones cannot be stored as fat - they turn directly into energy.  So eat up..it won't go to your thighs ladies!! 

You'll have to wait until my next blog when I divulge some of coconut's other secrets.  This poor little fruit has been curing people since the beginning of time, yet gets little credit.  Thanks for reading!