apples a day recipes

I just purchased a huge amount of apples, organic from the coop and I am so excited for the annual 'make tons of new recipes' that follows. We will be eating apples out of our ears. As we speak, I have applesauce in the crock pot and I imagine how much Braveheart would be desiring to get his hands on some as soon as possible.

I am shocked at how quickly we ate all of this up!!!

more millet cooking

Have you ever cooked with Millet? It is a grain. According to NOURISHING TRADITIONS millet does not need to be 'soaked' like most seeds as they contain very little phytates. Phytic Acid is in all grains and long story short contributes to our being unable to digest most grains. This is where soaking beans started way back when..do you even remember why you soak beans when you cook them? Any whoo, you don't have to soak millet but it needs a good 2 hour cooking. Especially if you can cook it in gelatinous broth. I am experimenting with soaking grains before I eat them and using more non-wheat grains, especially millet. Also, especially non gluten containing grains. I guess you can make millet flour and I am going to buy a huge bag someday and grind some and use for muffins etc...very excited!
I will keep you updated but if you are tired of the same old noodles and want to be done with white noodles... I threw this together very quickly and we all loved it. There is no 'amount' so just throw it in cooks...

I had leftover potatoes
bag of frozen broccoli
couple handfuls of millet
rest of a box of organic chicken broth
package of chicken saugage
salt, pepper, whatever else sounds good in it...
oh was it good...mmmm

Well, I guess I should get something else done around here today...
love me

what am I making Monday

Well, my boys made it home from camping in caves over the weekend. B held back a little from the more in depth, messy, tiring activities, but came home raving over the food they ate while they were there. Let's just say they ate many pancakes which I believe is a staple at every scout camp out. He is taking prednisone these 5 days which you may already know can cause extreme hunger cravings. Well, last night as B was drifting off to sleep he asked if I could please make more pancakes, so I promised my precious, sleepy, hungry little boy that I would.
I made these buckwheat pancakes. B was a little worried at first that they wouldn't taste good. He could see the darker look to the flour. They are all used to me making altered versions of pancakes. I have just never settle for the white flour boxed kind. Not pointing any fingers, it's just true. Anyway, I have been trying for some time to eat more variety of grains and decrease our gluten intake, not go gluten free, mind you. I am on a mission to use more cancer healing food on a daily bases. This is nothing new for me, I have had a heart for wholesome cooking since I became a mom, but I have regrouped my efforts more toward cancer curing here at this cancer fighting home.
According to Nourishing Traditions, Buckwheat is a fairly neglected grain, falling under the non-gluten variety, valuable for it's high content of cancer preventing nitrilosides.
After loading it with organic butter (only bought due to sale and coupon) and good priced real maple syrup, I let out my breath when I heard B report that they were quite good! Next, I am hoping to order some buckwheat groats for the freezer so I can grind them into flour and pre-make large amounts of pancakes and waffles for my freezer using my Bosch mixer. For now, I bought a buckwheat pre-mix from Bob's Red Mill. I need a little simplicity some days and I know you all know what I mean there.
I hope to share some more here with you soon. Tell me what you are doing to eat more wholesome? My friend Stacy is making yogurt which I plan to try very soon!

Side note:
I have to tell you all that B sat down after eating two of these and made a very important observation; he said that he noticed how my pancakes made him feel more 'filled' after only two verses the 5 he had to eat while camping. This was a good opportunity to teach regarding white flours, filling whole foods and blood sugar spikes!

home grown popcorn

We usually try to grow some sweet corn in the garden each year, just a small patch, but this year we grew popcorn! It came with a special pack of kid friendly seeds. We have never done this before. We can't believe how well the stalks grew and how much popcorn just a few cobs supplied! Look how fun and fluffy those popped kernels are!!
And yes...they do pass the oh so yummy tastey test!! Mmmm....

happy valentines day

Well, we had a lovely Valentine day today. Mostly our celebration happened last night. Braveheart has had pizza on the brain and so we held him off until last night when it was dad's 'Friday' and after pay day. See the gourmet meal we ate?

Fresh roses add to the atmosphere. I miss fresh flowers.

T was on cookie duty. He did a great job creating our family valentine cookies.

Aren't they sweet?

We invited the gramster over too and played Charades.

waffle night

It's waffle night at the chapel. What fun to pick from a multitude of terrific toppings. Mmmm.

Damsel is being plain Jane tonight.

It is soooo good to see this smiling face back in action. Just look at that plate, not to mention, I love that smile!

After the food we had the privilege to listen to a missionary family from Ecuador tell us all about their life down south. What a blessing that was.

Did I tell you how stylin' this girl is? I love all the cute outfits she puts together. Some are so classical and others just fun and outrageous.

Look who was here. This gal is one sweet lady. She has really ministered to us in dealing with our son's cancer. Her daughter Darcy passed away years ago. Thanks dear friend.

crock pot follies

Does this look as good to you as it does to me? I have to laugh because if you're like me, the men in this house cannot understand why we girls take pictures of our food!!

Anyway, remember that my goal right now is to cook nutritious food that is super easy? Well, here's one of those and no special shopping required. I already had a roast in the fridge thawing and I had a can of black beans and the few ingredients needed to make it BBQish (not from a bottle) and just threw it in the o'l crock, then at dinner I just threw some butter and coconut oil (yes, fat can be good for you) in the pan and fried some burger buns (spelt ones I already had) and tossed this on top! I felt so gourmet and I really wasn't. :) My husband was especially pleased with the grilled bun; he and even Dylan (very picky) thought it was quite good.

Here's what it looked like in the crock.

Mmmmm...I may need to go make that again.

leftover pork soup

I found the most fun crockpot website that is right up my alley. I love Stephanies conversationalist style and mostly simple and wholesome ingredients. It inspired me to use mine for soup this week. I'm not a gourmet type cook. I love healthy, fast and easy! I love using my crockpot for the throw it in and go mode. I use it to cook winter veggies all the time. I have tried a few of her recipes, all good so far, but this one I just made up as I went with leftovers. Hey, Karl, if you're reading this, first of all it IS pork and we DID think we were going to go to the hospital the next day when we put it in, so don't think we forgot about you. :)
Our friends blessed us with a delicious pork dinner with italian peas and homemade applesauce...yum. Thanks. We put the leftovers to good and extended use. Ahhh... warm soup on a cold day.

Here is my assistant chef. She helped make it and put all the ingredients in the pot. In addition she even served everyone and made a beautiful table that I wish I had captured here. Man I think food is pretty!

Here is what I did.

Added a pat of butter to the pot.

Strip cut the leftover pork and a small sweet onion.

Plopped in all the rest of my organic carrots from the fridge, leftover cabbage, the italian peas, pre-soaked brown rice, salt, pepper and tumeric. (I wanted to add this into our diet as I have read it is a great antinflammatory and good for fighting cancer) I am going to look up more on how it is used as a flavoring. I thought it added a rich golden color and couldn't really tell if I could taste it but the soup was the bomb!! Yum!

I put it on high for a couple hours then low for the rest of the day.

Well, not any kind of new recipe but it was fun and best of all soo easy for any mom who is busy or preparing for hospital admission. I will share my other easy and fun one I tried when I had to cook a roast waiting in my fridge. Let me just say that it has to be super easy right now for me or I don't make it at all. My time is very limited in this area currently.

home made chicken noodle soup cravings

What a delight today was that my boy's vomiting eased in the afternoon and he was 'craving' different foods, searching for the right one to please his palette. Suddenly he remembered!! "Mom, you just have to make your home made chicken noodle soup! That would really make my stomach happy." Music to a mama's ears. He requested the right veggies and to pick out the noodles and even peeled the one potato, adding the carrots and goodies himself. Oh, how I have missed the joy of my little cooking helper boy. All the kids gobbled it up with gusto.

Look how perky he looks tonight after eating three helpings! What a contrast to how he looked earlier this week. Mmmm...Mmmm...good.