An affair with Keifer

I want to first off say thank you for all the nice complements ! For many years I have had more than a little interest in something called nutritional healing, and have studied it with herbal medicine , but simply on my own and not in a formal setting. It started when I was first diagnosed as having PCOS and being unable to conceive. For so many years I was told by doctors an others that my life would be so perfect if I just lost weight ( wrong- life happens in spite of what the scale says and losing weight will simply address the physical issues and nothing more). It took a naturopath to find the condition and point out that my weight was a symptom of this condition and not the cause. It is a symtom becase of the way the body metabolizes food in PCOS , but ironically weight loss helps to bring the other symptoms under control. When he explained how a diet specifically focusing on certain nutrients addressed the metabolic issue , that made me very curious as to why. It was obvious that this thing called nutrition could do a lot more than just build strong bones and muscles, and I stated to study everything I could get my hands on about it. After Nick was born and autism entered our lives, nutritional healing once again became a factor. Could supplements and diet reverse this problem ? Turns out that it can make a dramatic difference. If it were not for evening primrose oil supplements, Nick would had been lost still and weight loss would have never been possible for him in the first place. Proper nutrition, addressing what a body lacks, can work a miracle.

There is food, and there is food. The longer I am on this journey, the more I am reminded at every turn of the importance of high quality, nutrient dense real food. One thing new to me is the concept of soaking grains before use in cooking. Soaking helps break down the grain and allows it to become more digestible. For some people grains are a problem in greater amounts. PCOS patients are amongst those. It has something to do with the metabolism of starch carbs amongst other things. It seems that this can be lessened with soaking the grains. It is one thing that currently is stored in my brain and makes sense but has not come to the level where I can put it into words yet, so let me show you my first experiment into this- steel cut oats soaked in keifer

Yum yum !!! But what is keifer you ask ? No, not the guy in the series 24- it is a cultured milk product similar to yogert.
I will let this web page explain- from keifer.net

"Both kefir and yogurt are cultured milk products...
but they contain different types of beneficial bacteria. Yogurt contains
transient beneficial bacteria that keep the digestive system clean and
provide food for the friendly bacteria that reside there. But kefir can
actually colonize the intestinal tract, a feat that yogurt cannot match.
Kefir contains several major strains of friendly bacteria not commonly
found in yogurt, Lactobacillus Caucasus, Leuconostoc, Acetobacter species,
and Streptococcus species.It also contains beneficial yeasts, such as
Saccharomyces kefir and Torula kefir, which dominate, control and
eliminate destructive pathogenic yeasts in the body. They do so by
penetrating the mucosal lining where unhealthy yeast and bacteria reside,
forming a virtual SWAT team that housecleans and strengthens the
intestines. Hence, the body becomes more efficient in resisting such
pathogens as E. coli and intestinal parasites.
Kefir's active yeast and bacteria provide more nutritive value than
yogurt by helping digest the foods that you eat and by keeping the colon
environment clean and healthy.Because the curd size of kefir is smaller
than yogurt, it is also easier to digest, which makes it a particularly
excellent, nutritious food for babies, the elderly and people experiencing
chronic fatigue and digestive disorders. "

It is thick , but not quite as thick as sour cream. Like yogert it has a "twangy " taste but it is more liquid than yogurt. To me this is a little easier to work with in a recipe , as it easily pours much like buttermilk. Here is the recipe I used for the dish:

Overnight oats with keifer

1 part steel cut oats
3 to 5 parts keifer
1 cup blueberries
1 t cinnamon

Place in fridge overnight or up to 24 hrs. In the morning add 1/3 cup
dried fruit and place in a greased casserole dish.Bake covered at 375
for 40 minutes

Not exactly a quick cook, but very yummy and filling. I was a little concerned that Nick might protest the twang without some major kind of sweetening, but he loved the taste. This one will be repeated in the future.

Lunch was an attempt to use up some leftovers from the night before, and it worked

A Thomas Lite multigrain English muffin spread with red pepper hummus, topped with leftover roast vegetables and mozzarella cheese , then baked at 400 for 10 minutes. Mini roast veggie pizzas ! I was out of wraps, so these worked just fine.

Today begins a celebration of one of the eight holidays in my spiritual tradition and I wanted to get the shopping and chopping done early so Saturday would be totally free for fun. We did our grocery shopping in the evening and grabbed a quick dinner out. I had a barbecue chicken sandwich and was reminded of my love hate relationship with barbecue sauce. I love the taste, but it gives me heartburn almost instantly. I should have grabbed soup or salad instead.

Can you pass the test ?

Planning and cleaning day yesterday for me- two very necessary chores for the smooth running of this house. Menu planning keeps us on track food-wise, money-wise and helps me with time management. Housecleaning keeps us all sane and organized. They can be boring jobs, but I have come to embrace the act of planning as an adventure all in itself. I also began to plot out next weeks homeschool lessons, and was reminded by the calendar that it is about time to do our annual attempt at the President's Physical Fitness Challenge. Anyone remember that ? It is a standard of fitness that tests the number of push ups, sit ups , running speed and so forth to label one as fit or unfit. While checking for this year's resources , I came upon a PDF document that has the Adult Fitness Test. Think you can pass it ? Check it out here. If nothing else, if you do not belong to a gym or have a trainer, this could make for a good basis on which to form your own workout plan .

Breakfast was overnight oats with apples and pears added in with the morning heating and topped with a tablespoon of ricotta cheese. Reason for this addition was that I have part of a container of ricotta in the fridge that will go out of code soon, so I am looking for creative ways to use it up. Tasted pretty good !

Lunch was Split Pea soup, raw veggies and walnut hummus. Walnut hummus makes for a nice variation , and can be a little easier to find the ingredients for most home kitchens

Walnut hummus

1 can drained chickpeas
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (omit if you don’t have them)
2/3 cups chopped walnuts
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
sea salt to taste

process in a food processor till smooth

Dinner was black bean burgers with Zucchini Skillet. I thought the zuchini dish would be flavorful, but we discovered that it really needed something with a more savory flavor to add in. The combination of sweet potatoes , corn and bell peppers made it too sweet for our tastes.After I snapped the photo we began to eat it and wound up putting a spoon of ricotta cheese on top to balance out the flavors. Next time I will try adding nuts to this or substituting the parsley for cilantro or something.

Bean Burgers ( makes 4)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups black beans
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. wheat germ or oatmeal

Chop the sunflower seeds in a food processor or hand chopper and mash the beans with a potato masher or food processor and mix. Mix in the remaining ingredients and form patties. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool until you can pick up each patty and compress it firmly in your hands to reform the burger. Then cook for another 15 minutes on each side.


Zucchini Skillet- serves 6

3 cups diced sweet potatoes
1/3 cup water
2 cups diced zucchini
1 cup diced red onion
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup green onion -- sliced
1red pepper -- diced
1 green pepper -- diced
2 orange peppers--diced
1 clove garlic -- minced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

In a covered large skillet, saute the sweet potatoes in water for about 10 minutes.
Add zucchini, red onions, corn, green onions, red peppers, green peppers, and garlic.
Saute in water until vegetables are tender. Add remaining ingredients and allow flavors
to blend. Serves 6.

Be careful what you wish for 'cause you just might get it

When I was pregnant , I had fond hopes and wishes for my son. I wanted him to be intelligent, compassionate, law abbiding and able to stick up for himself. Yesterday I realized I had gotten my wish- and wanted to kick myself. Then later in the day I began to think that perhaps I should nudge my son into considering a career in law...

The day began with Birthday wishes and overnight steel cut oats. In today's mix took 4 cups of water, 3 chopped madgool dates , 2 T of dried tropical fruit mix and brought it to a boil. Then I turned off the heat, added 1 cup of steel cut oats, put a lid on it and went to bed. In the morning I put it back on the heat, added a little more water because it had swelled so much and cooked it about 5 minutes. The I topped it with blueberries- quick , healthy breakfast for 3 ! A nice start to the day.


And then, the trouble started. Bad news on the doorstep, in the form of the Sunday Paper with coupon inserts. Nick LOVES to read the paper and he pays very close attention to those things that he has learned to be important - like the sales fliers and coupon inserts. He also loves the Arts and Entertainment section, the book section and home and garden. Good things. Nick is a high functioning autistic who has some behaviors that make you think of the movie Rain Man (KMart has underwear 3 for 5), and can drive you nuts. He also memorizes things like our house rues, everybody;s favorite everything,and more. Thus was the makings of "The Perfect bad food storm". House rule 1 is that when it is your birthday, you get to pick the eats. House rule 2 is unless there is an allergy involved, no substitutions. House rule 3- use a coupon whenever possible. So when it is your birthday and the paper offers coupons for Steak and Shake and you repeat this fact to your mom 9 billion times in an hour and remind her of how much she likes their portabello burgers between those repetitions, it becomes something like Chinese Water Torture. I finally asked him if he was trying to say he wanted to go to Steak and Shake for his birthday lunch and he said yes. Nick still has problems discerning between being asked if he wanted something and being told we are doing something, so we try not to mention anything he fixates on unless we are prepared to offer it. I forgot because I was being pecked to death by a duck, so to Steak and Shake we would go. Bob got home, we told him of the change in plans and then he dropped the next bomb- his singing schedule for the month after Easter. 3 Saturdays and Sundays , which means once again we can do nothing on any weekend, go no where and weekends will be rushed. Extra bonus if there are any Saturday Morning Funerals, which there is no way to predict in advance. After 29 years of this, I am getting really , really tired. Yet, there is no way out of the situation. It is who he is, his vow of ordination means he will serve in what ever capacity he is called on for , and we need the money he makes from this. Also his plan for retirement ( coming in 10 years) is to go full time into doing wake, funerals and weddings in a multi denominational capacity , and he needs to build up contacts and connections now. Just means I have to think more outside of the box to figure out a way to make all this work. I will,but at the moment I felt like I had been beaten by a sledgehammer and I just did not care about food. Steak and Shake it is.

Afterwords we went for a walk in the park, and talked. Walking and talking really helps me to clear my head, and we were given a rare 20 minutes of peace while Nick decided to play in the playground. It kind of ended when he fell off the slide ( mass + gravity+slick pants = boy shoots off slide like a missile). It was really nice to walk in the sunshine and STIFF breeze though !

Dinner was right back on program for all. Nick requested crab cakes, macaroni and cheese and spinach salad for dinner . I made baked crab cakes for the guys ( Moc crab, lemon juice, yogert, horseradish, breadcrumbs , mustard and parsley , form into patties and bake at 350 for 15 minutes) and the following

Mandarin Spinach w/ Caramelized Walnut

Line 3 bowls with desired amount of baby spinach, add thin sliced red onion an 1 clementine orange to each. Top with caramelized walnuts and dressing ( recipe follows)

Caramelized Walnuts:
2 cups water
1 cup ¼” diced walnut pieces walnuts
3 Tablespoons splenda
Boil water. Add walnuts and cook for 40 seconds. Strain the walnuts. Combine walnuts and sugar in a bowl. Stir to coat. Place sugar covered walnuts on a sheet pan and bake at 325 degrees for approximately 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Dressing:
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1 /2 cup splenda
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tsp Spanish paprika

Process in a blender till combined

And Macaroni with 4 cheese- a healthier version of an old favorite comfort food

Macaroni and 4 Cheeses

Cooking spray
1/2 pound small shaped whole wheat pasta
1 can solid pack pumpkin OR 1 pack frozen pureed squash
1 cup skim milk( or rice, soy or almond milk)
2 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar -- grated
1 ounce Monterrey Jack cheese -- grated
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 /2 teaspoon powdered mustard
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon unseasoned bread crumbs
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender but firm, about 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, place the pumpkin or frozen squash and milk into a large saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash with a spoon until defrosted. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the mixture is almost simmering, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Cheddar, Jack cheese, ricotta cheese, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper. Pour cheese mixture over the macaroni and stir to combine. Transfer the macaroni and cheese to the baking dish.
Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan and oil in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes. Then broil for 3 minutes so the top is crisp and nicely browned

Dinner got thumbs up . Spring break begins for us today and my plan is to do a lot of exercise and figure out how to further refine our life !