Category: homemade

addiction, ADHD, Adult, Biggest Looser, blender, blueberry, body, bread, celery, children, chocolate, cleaning, coffee, egg, eggs, family, Family night, happiness, Happy, health, healthy eating., holiday, holidays, homemade, Homemaker, house, house keeping, housework, kid, kids, life, living, living in the moment, motherhood, Parenting, Uncategorized

Week 1 of the Elimination Diet

Olof

15780727_10158075158725118_1783184102113680661_n.jpg

OK I have decided to share with you my journey in the search to healing my body. 6 months ago I was really sick. I was in so much all over pain that I needed pain medicine to function for my family. I hated it and tried not to take it because I did not want to turn into a narcotics statistic but then my family suffered. My joints hurt so badly that I was having a hard time getting around. Then my body just started hurting all over. I went to the Dr to have blood work done and everything came back normal. He sent me to a rheumatolorgist and even though I had inflammation he couldn’t place it so he just gave me the umbrella diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and sent me home with a medication that I should just take. I read the side effects and was not OK with it.

I had the Mirena IUD placed 4 months post partum because of abnormal bleeding, which ended up only making the bleeding worse, and the Dr still kept talking me out of having it removed again and my symptoms had been getting worse since then so I decided that I was ready to heal my body. Not cover up symptoms. Clearly my abnormal bleeding was a clue that things were not in balance and I needed to have the Mirena removed to know really what was going on. I scheduled an appointment to have it removed and the PA that was removing it for me tried to talk me out of it again and told me that there was no way that it could be the Mirena that was causing me any of my symptoms. A week later My joint pain was almost gone and I had started running again.

I made an appointment with a holistic Dr to help me get rid of some symptoms I had had for years now which included brain fog, dry brittle nails and hair, dry skin, hard time focusing, sugar and processed food cravings,  poor quality of sleep, seasonal allergies, my cycle was short why my periods where long and heavy and excess weight. This lead to blood tests that tested both my genetics for how I process vitamins, blood count, state of my nutrition and so on. I learned that I have genetics that make it hard for me to process B vitamins and folates so I need to be sure to supplement those and that I was low on CoQ10 and Omega 3s. Just starting to take these suppliments changed so much for me. I was functioning again. I quit hurting. My skin got a little better. But I wanted to tackle the rest of my skin issues, the rest of my brain fog, my short attention span, my sugar cravings that were still going strong and my weight.

I was seen by another holistic Dr and she told me that it was probably my gut that was wreaking havoc on my system. So she prescribed an elimination diet with supplements and antifungals. Warning me that I was likely to feel much worse on the diet before I got better so to wait until after the holidays to do it. She believes I have something called Leaky Gut Syndrome. So pieces of my food are actually penetrating my bowl and leaking into my bloodstream causing inflammation and all my issues. The 4 week plan will hopefully help my gut heal and then I can slowly introduce some of these foods again.

An Elimination diet means that I would not be eating eggs, wheat, corn, Soy, sugar, shellfish, beef, pork, alcohol or coffee (when she said this I told her she went too far LOL). She did hand me a long list of things I could eat. Including rice and oats so that was something.

I decided that Jan 1st was a good a day as any to start and it gave me time to wean myself off of coffee and switch to green tea which I could have. The Dr had sent me a meal plan and a grocery list and like the ADD person that I am I waited until the first day of the diet to fill my prescriptions and go grocery shopping. That trip to the grocery store was a $300 trip. A lot of the items I will be able to use a gain nest week because it is a 4 week plan so this weeks trip will be less expensive. I ended up going to 3 pharmacies to fill my prescriptions because the anti fungal that I needed at those places had simple syrup added to them which I couldn’t have. I’m on day 7 now and still haven’t gotten that yet because of pharmacy transfers and other issues but hopefully Monday will be a better day.

I have cooked sooooo much this week and it was all new to me recipes. Most of them were very good and we had fish 2 times this week which was nice. I haven’t been good enough at cooking fish and that is the reason for my Omega 3 efficiency.

Day one I felt good and was doing fine. My older kids were still at their grandparents so I was still getting to sleep in with the 1 year old. Day 2 wasn’t that bad either, the kids came home that day and I went for a run that night. Day 3 I hurt all over and the brain fog hit me to the max. I was always full because the meal plan leaves no availability to go hungry but I was dragging. Day 4 I was dragging even more. Day 5 I was still in a funk but still sticking to it but missing coffee and Day 6 was hard. It was Family night which means pizza and a movie on the couch with the kids. Husband, being the good husband he is, brought home the pizza and handed it to me while he changed out of his work clothes so that I could pass the pizza out to the troops. That was the first time I really wanted to break the diet. Handling and smelling the pepperoni pizza. I didn’t want to cook so I ate leftover beans and rice and made my self a bad smoothie. Day 7 and I am a little bit peppier. Good husband let me sleep in since I was up and down all night with the one year old and have been all week getting around 4 hours of sleep on average a night. This does not help me heal but it is the way things are at the moment.

I’ve been doing my research and apparently the trifecta of getting rid of sugar, gluten and dairy + antifungals (the one I have) and probiotics is causing a storm in my gut flora and the nutrients I am getting from my food.  So my Dr was spot on about things feeling much worse before they get better. I’m just hoping that by the middle of next week I will start to get the ability to think back. I seriously could just stare at a wall and I wouldn’t get bored because I just can’t think at the moment. Writing this post was hard. But I know I am doing this for a reason and hope that since the antifungals have done their job and I no longer crave sweets all the time that I will be able to keep it up after I quit this diet. I will be incorporating some of these meals into our normal meal plan because the fish we had was really good and so was some of the chicken. The smoothies have not been good at all.

I am also happy to announce that 12 lbs have been shed since we purchased this house. 2 during this week. If I lose 2 lbs a week for the next 3 weeks I will be very happy and this will have been worth it. I’m more than tired of my gut and my double chin. If I could just stop being so tired all the time that would help too.

If you read this all the way through then thank you for reading. Have you done the whole 30 or an elimination diet? Is it something that you need to do but have been putting off? Tell me about how it went. Did you have withdraws? Anybody have any recipes they want to share with me?

healthy eating., homemade, Recipe, Uncategorized

How to Make Chia Drinks at Home

Olof

IMG_20160320_094156I don’t know about you but I love these drinks but at over $4 a 10 oz bottle that is a little over my budget so I set out to harness the goodness of the chia seed on my own with out that high price tag. Chia seeds are high in OMEGA-3, fiber, antioxidants, minerals, and protein. This seed is really a super food and the antioxidants help keep the oils in the seed from going bad for a long time. What I am most interested in is the study that shows that after taking in chia people had less inflammation in the body and a steadier blood sugar. So I plan on making a chia drink every day for the next 30 days and see if I see a difference at all in my allergies and joint pain.

Let me share my recipe

What you will need:

1 cup water

2.5 table spoons Chia Seed

1 cup of your favorite juice

a 16 oz jar that you don’t mind drinking out of.

Before bed, blend warm filtered water with the Chia Seed in the jar and stir well so that the seeds separate well. Then put the lid on and set in fridge overnight. When you get up the seeds and water should be in a gel state. Add the juice and stir well. If you don’t finish the drink straight away then store it in the fridge. I like juices with pulp in it but you can use whatever juice you really enjoy.

Do you use chia in your diet? How?

children, homemade, Homemaker, motherhood, Parenting, Radical Homemaking, Stay at home

Choosing My Family

Olof

This Christmas day had me thinking about what I want out of life. What I want for my children and my future. What is more important to me and our family. I always go through certain stages of grief when I become stay at home again. It is almost always the same. I go from Super Mom and Wife in the first 2 months where everything is cleaned up and put away and I dive into closets and drawers to rearrange and clean out and suddenly around month 3 I hit a wall. I know what it is. I can analyze it but to stop it is harder. I hit the dip. The depression and I have a hard time getting myself out. I get tired of doing it all and getting no thanks or acknowledgment for it. I get tired of picking everything up after everyone but I don’t want to be the wife and mom that bitches and moans constantly so it builds up and I stop doing it all. I start only doing the things that have to be done and if there is no deadline it doesn’t get put on the to do list. Oh, my to do lists. They are sad now. I write them out and then ignore them and then I see them again and just get depressed. I, by all means, do not sit around all day picking my nose. I have a very active, giant two year old that I run after all day getting him off the top of my desk or stopping him from pushing his chairs or rocking horse over to a child gate to climb over it. I am constantly putting out fires it seams of dirty diapers, laundry, meals and picking up children from school, helping with homework and getting them in bed.

My husband started a new work schedule. He works 8-6 M-Thur. so that he gets every other Friday off. This is another adjustment. By the time he gets home most nights it is 6:30pm and the kids go to bed at 7:30. So each day he only gets an hour with them except for one Friday where he is home when they get home from school. It makes for a VERY long day for me.

2014 Willow Tree Ornament 

I have my outlets. I have play dates at my house on Tuesdays where my fellow grad student stay at home parents come to talk to save their sanity and mine. Where our children play and we get to talk about how non-glorious it is to be a parent. The poop, vomit and little to no sleep you get. Then we turn around and boast about how great our children are and how we couldn’t imagine life without them.

My being home now is a choice that I go back and forth on if it is really what I want. I love working. I love being around other intelligent grown ups. I love the immediate change I have made. Being home is different. I know this is what is best for my children but the rewards are small and far between. There is no paycheck and the gratitude is little to none when it comes to kids. I take enjoyment from hearing my kids interact with one another. They are really forming good lasting relationships. If I had them in aftercare then they wouldn’t even be in the same room after school. Being a mom and wife is frustrating a lot of the time but the good moments are REALLY good. I get to go on field trips and see the plays. Pick them up from school and ask them about their day in a non-rushed manner. I get to be in the moment with them and not constantly worrying about if I have everything for dinner or will I have to feed them fast food again.

Dough raising for homemade bread

As a parent how do you choose? How does one keep themselves sane and do what is best for their family? I’m reading Radical Homemakers which is really helping me see my value as a stay at home mom with a very expensive Master’s degree. In our current society, that values more what you can buy instead of make and produce, it is hard to stay focused on all I do for my family by growing our veggies, raising chickens for eggs, keeping bees for honey, knitting, sewing, baking from scratch, and learning now to clean with safe chemicals. Making a home. Raising a family. Being here for them. Choosing to produce instead of buy.

My backyard flock

I choose to be home because I choose my family. I choose forming good solid bonds with my children, I choose spending more than 2.5 hours a day with my children that are just rushed because dinner needs to be made and then things need to be cleaned up. I choose having time and energy to make home cooked meals instead of fast food or frozen meals full of chemicals that I can’t even pronounce. I choose to cut back, have a smaller home, have second hand items and older cars because in the long run that is not what kids really care about. They care that their mamma is there for them. That she is willing to cut back and live a less lavish lifestyle so that she can be home with her kids. They care that their mamma is there to cheer them on and not some care taker that might not even work there tomorrow.

As you see in this post this choice was not easy for me as an individual that loves other grown ups and needs to be mentally challenged but as a mother it was a no-brainer. I choose my children because they are little for such a short time and before I will know it they will be too busy with their own lives to need me this much. I tried working. While I was happy at work I felt guilty about leaving my children to be cared for by someone else not even related to them.

Road Trip back from the grandparents.

I am far from perfect. I do the best I can with what I have but when women say that they can’t afford to stop working what they are saying is that they are not willing to give up the huge house, the new car and the cable package for their children. It is possible to live on one income. It is hard. It takes a lot of work and planning but you can choose your family over running the rat race. You just have to downgrade to the point where one income is enough and then make that a home. Your home made by you and not what commercials tell you it should look like. I have a friend that does an amazing job of keeping a home on her husband’s income. Her home always looks like it is out of a magazine but almost ALL of the things are bargain finds at flea markets, second hand stores, craigslist, and antique shops. If she can’t find it that way she has her husband make it. She even dug her own fence posts and built a fence around her back yard herself. They bought a beautiful home that needed a LOT of work cheap and did almost all of the work themselves fix it. I have another friend that is home with 5 kids all 7 years or younger who she homeschools, keeps a neat home, grows her own food, keeps chickens and goats and makes a lot of food from scratch. These women are superheros in my mind. On top of this they themselves look amazing.

I don’t have the first friend’s talent for homemaking. I also don’t have the second friend’s patients to homeschool and I certainly am not keeping myself in shape at the moment even though I am trying.  I am not an interior designer  or a school teacher at heart. I knit, sew, cook and bake with the best of them but the work it takes to keep a home like she does is more than I have the energy to do with 3 kids 6 years and younger. I do the best I can with what I have. I am a housewife first and foremost.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule when it comes to being able to stay at home. If you are a single parent or you have lost your spouse then you have to work. Also if your spouse is unable to work then that also leaves you to be the bread winner. I have friends that are stay at home dads and that is awesome. At least there is one parent there to take care of the child or children and home. People are not bad people or parents if they choose to work away from their children but if there is a will there is almost always a way. It just takes choices that you might think are steps back when really they are steps forward. 

homemade, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, jars, live cultures, reduce, reuse, thermometer, Tutorial, Yogurt

Making Yogurt from Scratch-Tutorial

Olof
OK so I’ve been trying to find many different ways to save my family money and provide quality food so I started thinking about the cost of yogurt and how hard and expensive it is to find yogurt that doesn’t have any additives or chemicals in it so I looked up how easy it is to make it yourself. Found out it is REALLY easy.

Here is how I make it. If you plan on doing this at home please read the whole post before you start.

 I gather my supplies of half a gallon of whole milk, clean jars with lids (I use ones that I have saved from food that I have bought to reduce and reuse) a pot large enough to hold the gallon of milk and a thermomitor and some starter yogurt (I had flavored in my frig and they don’t recommend using flavored but it worked out fine for me). Make sure the yogurt has LIVE cultures in it (mine had lots).

Make sure your pot is very clean and then poor your milk in it and put the thermometer in it and  put it on your stove on low. Stir it a lot so that the milk does not burn to the bottom of the pot. Bring the milk to 185 degrees F or close to 200F but don’t let it boil.

Then I take a larger pot, put some ice and water in it and then put the pot with the milk in it (don’t poor it in but have the pot float in it) until the temp of the milk is down to abut 112F. Put a few table spoons of the Yogurt starter in a cup and add some of your warm milk to it and blend till smooth. Then add that cup to the pot of milk and stir (this gets the lumps out and spreads the live cultures through out the milk) Then poor the milk into the jars and I put mine in the oven with the pilot light on but if you don’t have that then a heating pad on medium and the jars put on top for 8 hours will do covered with a towel.

8 hours later the yogurt should be set and there might be some greenish water on top which makes it perfect! Mine becomes nice and thick using whole milk. I never used anything else but others have complained about homemade yogurt being runny. We use a lot of yogurt in this house and finish a half a gallon in less than a week. The boys love it with their morning cereal and we put it in our smoothies.

What are some of the things you make to save money?

Chili, Dutch Oven, homemade, Recipe

Best Chili I Ever Made

Olof

Ingrediants 
1 celery rib
2 carrots
1 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 can tomatoes and green peppers (mild)
1 large can crushed tomatoes or 2 regular cans
1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 can red beans (rinsed)
2/3 cup Salsa (mild)
1 can Corn (drained)
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
4 shakes Texas Pete Hot Sauce – 6 oz

Toppings
Grated cheese
Corn Chips

Directions
Put the celery, carrots, yellow onion and garlic cloves in the food processor until chopped or chop it very fine by hand.
Put olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven and empty the contents of the food processor in to it once the oil has warmed up on medium heat. Cook until the onions become caramelized using a little water to deglaze if needed. Add beef and cook until the beef is fully cooked. Add rotel tomatoes, black beans, red beans, and crushed tomatoes. Then the spices.
Let simmer for 35 min to an hour and then add the Salsa and the can of corn right before serving. That way the corn is still a little crunchy and sweet.

Serve up with grated cheese and corn chips and enjoy.

I couldn´t get enough of this chili. The whole pot was eaten in less than 24 hours by me and my family.

If you enjoy savory dishes like stew, roast, chili and such I recommend investing in a Dutch Oven things cook up more even and you can take it from the stove and pop it in the oven. If you watch cooking shows they talk about using them all the time.