Carrot cake cookies

In the winter I tend to crave soup a lot more. It's comforting to have a nice warm bowl of soup. So I decided to make a butternut squash soup. I used part of my butternut squash for a risotto that I made. I cut up the other half of the butternut squash, shopped up a small onion, 2 carrots, and sauted them in a pot with a bit of olive oil, then I added homemade chicken stock that I made a while back, and let it come to a boil and then cooked on medium heat until the butternut squash was soft. I then used a hand blender and pureed it all. I also added a touch o;vf salt, some pepper and some nutmeg. This gave me two lunch size portions which was perfect, and it was really good. You can of course use vegetable stock but I really needed to use up the broth since it has been in my freezer for a while.

I also decided to try out a new recipe from the thud kitchen cookbook, I tried the carrot cake cookies, here's the recipe:

1 1/2  cups of flour (whole wheat, pastry or white) - I used spelt
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (I used fresh ginger)
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup plain almond or other nondairy milk
1/4 cup olive or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins or chopped candied ginger

Heat your oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger. Make sure there are no lumps of brown sugar hanging around in there. In a smaller bowl, mix together the shredded carrots, milk, and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir all that until there are only a couple dry spots. Fold in the nuts and raisins and stir until there aren't any dry spots. Scoop spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake until the bottoms are golden brown. 18 to 22 minutes.

My hubby doesn't like raisins so I left those out since I didn't have or wasn't interested in added candied ginger. They were really good! I would for sure make this recipe again, but next time I'll try it with coconut sugar to make it healthier.

Christmas is just around the corner, so I think my next post might only be in the new Year. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year!

New cookbooks

I got another early Christmas present. I won't be seeing a good friend of mine this year over the holidays, so she sent me my gift by mail which was 2 cookbooks, Thug Kitchen and 100 days of real food.

I already looked through both of them and there's so many recipes I want to try out. Thug Kitchen is vegetarian cooking, which is perfect for me, especially since I have been cutting back on meat, and 100 days of real food, is also amazing, with so many great recipes in there. For the first recipe, I chose to make the slow cooker flank steak fajitas. I know it's meat, but it looked so good, and I'm working on cutting out meat, since during the holidays it's a little harder to stay away from certain foods, especially since we will be visiting a lot of people. Once the new year hits, I'll be more strict with cutting out meat and going gluten free, so I can feel a lot better with having less pain.
Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds grass-fed flank steak
2 tbsp soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4-5 bell peppers, any color, cored, seeded and sliced
1 onion, sliced

In a small bowl, combine the chili powder, cumin coriander, salt and pepper
Rub the spice mixture over all sides of the flank steak, place it in the bottom of the slow cooker, and add the soy sauce
Top the flank steak with the jalapeno, garlic, bell peppers and onion. There's no need to add any water or other liquid
Cook on high for 5 to 6 hours or on low for 9 hours, or until the steak can easily be shredded with two forks
Thoroughly drain the meat and peepers, shred the meat and serve with the fajita fixings of your choice.

This was so easy to make and it was delicious! She's right about not needing any liquid because the vegetables give out a lot of liquid. We enjoyed this with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese, and lettuce on a whole wheat wrap.

Thank you again Dallas for these two wonderful cookbooks. She hasn't gotten my gift yet, but it's on its way. I didn't do any baking this past weekend, I was busy with Christmas shopping. Still a few more gifts to buy but just about done. I may not write as many posts this month, but will do my best.

Tomato and pesto sauce

Some friends came over for supper last Saturday and she requested the pasta with roasted red pepper sauce, which is a mix of a tomato sauce with pesto. I made this years ago, from the Epicure cookbook that I got. I do still sell Epicure, but it's just once in a while sort of thing, and I do love their spices.

This was perfect since I'm cutting back on meat, so I'm sharing this awesome vegetarian pasta recipe

Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper sauce

1 lb bite sized pasta (use any pasta you want, which I used spaghetti)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 - 7.25 oz (210 ml) jar roasted red peppers (or you can roast your own)
1 - 19 oz (540 ml) can tomatoes (I just used tomato sauce)
2 tsp (10 ml) VE Mint (Epicure sells this, but I didn't have any on hand so I used fresh mint)
1/3 cup (80 ml) prepared VE Pesto (I had this spice so I made it according to the spice jar, but you can make your own pesto)
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

In pasta pot, cook pasta according to package directions.
In a large frying pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Sauté onion and garlic until softened
Drain roasted red peppers, reserving liquid. In a food processor, combine with tomatoes and blend until smooth. Add to sautéed onion and garlic.
Add Mint and Pesto. Simmer 10 minutes until slightly thickened.
Moisten cooked pasta with liquid from roasted peppers. Add sauce and season to taste with Salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

My friend and I wanted to do a bit of shopping before supper so I ended up putting this all together into the slow cooker and put it on low. I got it ready first thing in the morning, and to make it more chunky, I added a red pepper (chopped) and also some mushrooms. I also didn't use the liquid from the roasted peppers, I just added some sauce to the pasta to prevent the pasta from sticking together, and so that the pasta can absorb the flavors of the sauce.

It turned out great, it was so good! Our friends also really enjoyed it. The guys really wanted some meat though so I marinated some chicken in some tomato sauce with rosemary for them. I also prepared some garlic bread and my hubby and I enjoyed a nice Italian wine to go along with it.

For dessert we had apple crisp. I had left over sauce and not enough pasta, so the next day I cooked up some macaroni brown rice pasta, and we have been enjoying the left overs for our lunch.

It was a great night with friends, and we will be celebrating Christmas with them in a few weeks, along with more friends. We are doing a pot luck style get together, and I will be trying out 2 new dips from Epicure, and I'm looking forward to it.

Orange flavored muffins

Christmas came early for my hubby and I. I've been wanting a kitchenaid mixer for a while now, so finally decided this was the year. I have been baking a lot more lately, and it would make baking a lot easier.

I got to try it out today and I love it! It will get used quite often. I watched Pioneer Woman this week and she made orange flavored muffins, so decided to make those, but I did make some changes so it's healthier. Here's the recipe:

2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup)
1 cup of sugar (used coconut sugar)
2 eggs
2 cups of flour (used spelt)
1 cup of buttermilk (used almond milk)
1 tsp of baking soda

Glaze:
2 oranges
1 cup brown sugar (again used coconut sugar)

In a mixer or bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, flour, milk, and baking soda and mix until well combined. Add the zest of 2 oranges and mix a bit to combine. Add to mini muffin tins and bake it in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes. Then in a bowl put the remaining 1 cup sugar and the juice of the two oranges and mix. Once the muffins come out of the oven, what I did was put them on a plate and then with a spoon I drizzled the glaze on top. This made about 42 mini muffins. Let them cool and enjoy!

My hubby and I tried one and they are really good!  It's a recipe I'll make again, it was simple and they are tasty. I'm also trying out another new recipe for supper. From the Rachael Ray talk show, they made their own scallop potatoes and they looked really good. I'll also cook up some asparagus and pork roast to go with it.

My last post, I said I was going to cut back on meat and gluten to help with my endometriosis pain, well a little update, I have cut back a bit, but last week my hubby and I go pretty sick, his lasted 6 days and it was 4 days for me, and the thing I love to have the most when I'm not feeling well is chicken noodle soup. We are both feeling better and I'm getting back on track, although tonight I do plan on having some pork roast but it will be a small amount. I had some pain yesterday, but today, so far so good.

Steak oscar and strawberry jam

A few weeks ago I was watching the Pioneer Woman, and got a really great recipe, steak oscar. You end up paying a lot of money when you order this at a restaurant, and I'm sure it's not as healthy as this recipe. We both loved it, and will make it from time to time.

Cook up a really great steak fillet that is thick cut so you can cook it up medium rare if that's what you like. The only thing you should add on the steak is salt and pepper. We cooked up ours on the BBQ, along with some asparagus, which I added some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Hollandaise Sauce: In a pot melt a stick of butter until it's melted and hot. In a blender add 2 egg yolks, then add in the juice of a lemon, pulse it a little bit. Remove the middle part of the lid so you can stream in the butter. Turn on your blender while slowly streaming in your hot butter, you will see that it will start to thicken as your going. Once butter is all in, turn off, and add quite a bit of salt and some pepper and just a small dash of cayenne pepper, and you can add a bit of fresh tarragon (1 tsp), but I didn't have any on hand so didn't add that. Turn on for a few seconds to mix up the seasonings and then it's ready.

In a pan fry up some shrimp. Doesn't take long, so this is why you cook this last. Plate up by putting your steak (make sure to let it rest before you cut into it), add shrimp on and around your steak and poor the sauce over it. She had cooked up a mushroom rice with this but I decided on some mashed potatoes and gravy. It was absolutely delicious! We enjoyed it with some red wine.

Today I decided to try a new cookie recipe, and made some peanut butter and jam cookies, and they turned out great, although I did have to add more liquid because I did follow the recipe but the batter was way to dry to form cookies, so I added more maple syrup. It called for any sort of flour, so I used buckwheat, and of course the peanut butter is all natural (only ingredient is roasted peanuts).

As for the jam, instead of buying one that is loaded with sugar and preservatives, I created my own, I used some frozen strawberries (can use any berry or fruit you want) and I put a layer at the bottom of a pot with a splash of maple syrup, and let it come to a light boil, then used my potato masher to mash them up.

I let it cook a while, then added it to a bowl with 2 tbsp of chia seeds (they act as a gelatin, but way healthier as they are a super food).

I mixed it up, and then put it in the fridge to let it do it's magic. Then I got the cookies ready and baked them in the oven. Once they came out I added my homemade jam on top.

So delicious and healthy! For the next little while I'll also be cutting back on meat. I have been eating quite a bit lately and it's causing some endometriosis pain for me. So I'm cutting back a lot and also going to go as gluten free as I can, and the pain should go away. From the book signing I went to, Joy told me how gluten free will also help my endometriosis, and it's the first time I have ever heard that, so will give it a try and see how I feel. I will let you know how it's going.

Hope everyone turned their clocks back an hour, and hope everyone had a great Halloween!

FMTV Live - A free Food Matters event - continued

I have put up to posts for this live event, covering Day 1-8, here's the last two days of this event:

Day 9 was Hungry for a change, a really great documentary. I have seen this before but it was great seeing it again. They start it off like most of us do, get up to the sound of our alarm, to then have to get ready and go to work. They talk about how sugar is in so many things, and it's so addictive. Kris Carr is in this, and if you don't know who she is, she's really incredible, she has a few books and her own documentary of her journey of cancer. Jon Gabriel says something that is so true "You can eat up to 10,000 calories in a day and if your not getting the specific nutrients your body needs in a way they can digest and assimilate, then your starving on a nutritional basis, and as long as your starving on a nutritional basis your body is going to stay hungry to get those specific nutrients".  They talk about how a lot of us work behind a desk, and we eat to many calories with little nutrients. They discuss how aspartame is in so many foods, and it can cause migraines, seizures and can lead to certain types of cancers, and more. Another eye opener that they mention is about high fructose corn syrup, it comes from corn, but it's concentrated and refined so much that it's no longer healthy. For example the coca leaf is perfectly safe and healthy, you can drink it as a tea, it's not addictive or anything but if you change that coca leaf  and refine it into cocaine, then it's no longer healthy for us. So high fructose corn syrup is like snorting cocaine, and has the addictive quality to it as well. If you take sugar, is extracted from beets or sugar cane, white flour is a pharmaceutical carbohydrate, and like cocaine is extracted from the coca leaf, so all three of these are on the same category, and they cause imbalances in the body and lead to a host of problems. Then they go on in explaining how we will feel so much better by eating healthy, like vegetables that come from the garden. We need to eat a lot of vegetables, they are loaded in nutrients. This is another really great documentary to watch, very motivational.

Day 10 was a live Q&A with Jon Gabriel, he was in Hungry for a change, and he has his own book, which I have and read, and it's really good. He just created another book on visualization, and I did listen to one of his, and it works pretty well but I haven't stuck to it, and I should try it again.
He talked a lot about digestion, and that we need live enzymes to help our digestion. Live foods are more digestible, as well as fermented foods, they have friendly bacteria that we need. It's not about calories, it's about the right fat, it's the best thing you can put in your body as well as live foods (raw), and your body will lose weight naturally. He didn't diet when he lost 220 pounds, he said that as you get healthier you want healthier foods. At the beginning he kept having food cravings for pizza, chocolate and all the other junk food, but he kept adding more and more live foods, and after a while he no longer craved the junk food. Nuts and seeds need to be soaked before, add superfoods and greens, and the weight will fall off. If you have seasonal allergies, he said it's related to digestion issues, and your immune system might be low, so concentrate on digestion, best thing is to take probiotics, which you want 10 different strains of bacteria in it. Omega 3 is really good for the circulotary system, therefore good for people with heart condition, so to have things like chia seed oil, flax seed oil, and lots of greens, cold water fishes, will help a lot. A question was asked about tofu, if it's good for us, and he said it causes problems with digestion, even soy, especially when it's not organic, it elevates estrogen levels (not good at all for endometriosis) so to stay away from it, but tempeh, miso and tamari are the best, it's fermented and good for us. He also talks about how you need to take care of your emotional/stress issues in order to lose the weight, if you don't your body will always stay in a stressful state and will hold on to the weight, his book is really great at explaining this. Another great question was asked is when is the best time to take a probiotic, he said that some say that it's best on an empty stomach, before bed or first thing in the morning. but some say you need to take it with food because it helps the probiotics to get through, he said no one really knows so he does both, on an empty stomach, and then again with food. I always took it on an empty stomach so I think now I'll try both. This was another really great live Q&A, so much great information.

The next three days they will have replays of all the documentaries and live Q&A, but other then that, nothing else new from this live event. I'm really glad that I was a part of this, it was really amazing. I did ask questions in regards to endometriosis but didn't get any answers, as there were so many questions coming in every few seconds. I did sign up to FMTV online, which gives me access to so many documentations, interviews, recipes and exercises, so I'm really excited to get to learn a lot more, and I'll keep sharing more information on my blog.

I have been wanting to post a recipe that I tried out about a week ago, and it was delicious! So I will share that on my next post, but not tonight as it's getting late. Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

FMTV Live - A free Food Matters event - continued

My last post was Day 1 to 4 of the free food matters event, so now to continue because this is a 10 day event, here is more great documentaries and live Q&A information:

Day 5 was the super juice me documentary. I haven't seen this one either, and at the beginning Jason Vale dedicates this to his mom who passed away from lung cancer. For this documentary he got 8 people with 22 different diseases between them, and they will drink only freshly made juices for 28 days. They mentioned one good point, when something says fat free, what ends up making that food taste good is they put a lot of sugar in it, when it says sugar free, they put artificial sweeteners, and both have an addictiveness to it and makes you want to eat more of it, and it causes us to gain weight and not feel so good. I love how they put in a commercial of a medicine stating how it can cure this but it isn't for everyone because there are so many side effects, and one important one saying it can be life threatening, meaning death, and Charlotte Gerson goes on and says and people go out and buy this because they are looking for relief of their symptoms, but all it is, is a quick fix, not a cure. They had all 8 people look at the side effects of their medications and it was shocking the horrible side effects you can get. Look for no label food, because it's all natural, not processed. Meat is fine to eat, but make sure it's a good quality meat, meaning grass fed beef,  and free range chicken. After 28 days, absolutely amazing results, but you must see this documentary for yourself, another absolute must see. Very inspirational, and lots of great information.

Day 6 was a live Q&A with Jason Vale. He was very close to his mom, and she believed in healthy eating, and it's been many years that he wanted to do a documentary to help others change like he did. He first suggested to juice half an apple with an inch of ginger and drink that every morning. A question was asked if you can juice a large batch of juice and freeze it and use it at a later time, and he said yes you can, absolutely. Another question was asked if anyone can go on many days of just juice, or if we should check with our family doctor, and he had a very good point, no one asks permission to eat chips, chocolate, and other unhealthy foods, but to ask permission to have what your body needs which is fruit and vegetable, it makes no sense really to have to ask for your doctor's permission. After a juice program, you want to eat low human intervention (LHI) foods, so things like fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts/seeds, and to keep eating that way to stay healthy. Jason's challenge for any juice skeptic; if you are thinking of doing it, go for it, because something is always going to come up, but your body is the most important thing, so your 28 days away from being the best you can ever be. If it doesn't work you can go shout at him. Take the challenge and write to him after to tell me how you feel! Jason Vale is really amazing, he provided a lot of great information.

Day 7 was the Carb Loaded documentary.Starts off by talking about a guy that weighs the same weight since high school, he goes to the doctor's and finds out he has diabetes, with no family history and with what he thought was a good diet. With advances in medicine it would seem that people should be healthier now then ever before, however it starting to appear that the opposite is the case and most experts agree that we have a serious problem. They go on explaining what diabetes is and it is the 8th leading cause of death world wide. Our food portions have gotten so much bigger! So many products contain carbohydrates, and they explain about high fructose corn syrup, making it sound like it's healthier because it's lower in fat, but it's high in carbs, but it really isn't healthy. We need fat, but healthy fat. They explain how people say healthy food is expensive, but in the long run, it's not that expensive "Pay the farmer now or pay the doctor later" so yes you might not spend much on food now but later on you will pay so much in medical bills, so it's best to spend a bit more and eat healthy. You want complex carbs (fruits, vegetables, healthy grains) in your food not high glycemic load (white flour, white sugar, processed foods). Just eat real food! This documentary was very good, and also helps open your eyes more to how eating healthy is so important.

Day 8 was a live Q&A with Dr. David Perlmutter. He had a part in carb loaded and he has a book called Grain brain, because food has a huge impact on brain health. If you have type 2 diabetes, you increase your chances of Alzheimer. Autism is a gut disorder. An autistic brain, is a brain that's inflammed, so it's all about the gut. Use probiotic and fermented foods to help. Most issues with the brain will be cured by curing the gut. Yes you can eat grains, but make it healthy grains, but watch your carbohydrate intake, and that it's not GMO grains. Fermented foods: it's a process that happens in nature that we adopted. It is a positive event, it helps grow positive organisms, and has an important role in healing the gut. Fermentation is something we really need to revisit. How to heal your gut? By eating lots of fermented drinks/food, taking a probiotic, or probiotics through enemas, or you can do a fecal transplantation (from someone who is healthy). We should be eating fats, it's so important, have some extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil (mostly saturated fat, but it's vegetarian so it does not contain cholesterol, so it's very healthy), nuts/seeds, meat should be grass fed, avocado. Butter? Grass fed organic butter is good, don't go crazy, but you can have some. Fruits are good for us but be restrictive, because it does have sugar in it, healthy sugar, but still shouldn't eat to many in a day, especially dry fruit, it increases inflammation. Dr. Perlmutter suggests we have the following on a daily basis: Probiotic, some form of DHA (fish oil), tumeric, good fat, and vitamin D (starting at 5,000 units). If your vegetarian, include B vitamin, and iron. So much information was provided, it was amazing.

There's still 2 more days to go on this free Food Matters event, I will post the last two days on Thursday. Hope everyone is enjoying all this great information like I am.

FMTV Live - A free Food Matters event

I joined Food Matters on Facebook a while back, and I noticed a post about FMTV Live. It was free to sign up and here's the way they set it up:

Day 1 it was Food matters, a documentary providing amazing information. They talk about our food, that local is better because when it gets shipped to us, it can be days or weeks before we actually eat the food which by then the food loses a lot of nutrients. One thing they mention that really makes you think is in a 23 year study, there are 2,438,000 people that died from a drug reaction (medical prescriptions) but only 10 people have supposedly died from having a reaction to vitamins. That's a huge difference!  And the word supposedly is used because it was never proven. There's so much more information provided in this movie. I love this documentary I have watched it a few times, and if you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it!

Day 2 is a live Q&A with Dr. Andrew Saul. He has his own book called Doctor yourself (natural healing that works). He started by saying how vitamins can be used to cure disease and food does matter but vitamins as well. Niacin (B3) was mentioned many times in helping lots of things like anxiety, depression, heart disease, high cholesterol, and many more, but it has to be a no flush niacin, which I didn't really understand what that meant, but I plan to look it up. The way they had this set up, is they were taking questions through facebook, and I posted my question since I felt like I was catching a head cold, so asked what's best to fight off a cold, and here's what he said; to take some Vitamin C, and everyone is different on how much to take. Juicing is very good as well, and cut down on food, liquids are best. Something he also mentioned is that most people fall short in the following vitamins: Vitamin C, Vitamin E (100 units a day), B complex (especially when under stress). There was a lot more information provided, but it was really amazing and glad I was able to take part in this.

Day 3 is Love Bomb, another documentary, that I have never seen before. They started with talking about 9/11, and the awakening that can happen in the wake of  something like 9/11 can encourage us to want to do something more positive with our life. Rhea Zimmerman Komarek knew that she can help more by becoming a chiropractor to help others around the world. 3 people set out in 2012 to Peru to help them, and once they got there, they got started right away. They explain how chiropractors can help, and also about their journey there, showing beautiful people and beautiful views of Peru. Everyone explains and sees love in many ways, and when we love we release a chemical called dopamine and growth hormone and that's what gives nourishment and maintenance to the cells and at the same time we release oxytocin, all those chemicals say bond, stay together, and it's nature's way to say that she really wants us to be in love. Love causes us to be at our best. I recommend you watch this documentary, it was very inspiring.

  Day 4 is a live Q&A with Dr. Rhea Zimmerman Komarek. At 9 years old her dad was diagnosed with cancer, and that's where her life changed. She decided to live life to the fullest, and had a spark before 9/11 that change her life. 9 months before she quite her job, she got into a mountain bike accident, had no use of her left arm, and reached out to a friend, and went to see a chiropractor, and she just knew that's what she wanted to do. There were quite a few questions that were asked and one was about if yoga and just moving/stretching has the same effect as going to see a chiropractor? Her answer was no because with a chiropractor they go within, at the spinal cord, and you just can't replicate that, it's a big force and big adjustment, and you won't know if you need an adjustment until you get checked. Someone else asked a great question, which I replied to saying I would love to know as well, which is would a chiropractor help a child that is autistic and she said yes that there's a  positive response with autism. Another questions was how often and do I have to have something wrong in order to see a chiropractor?  No you don't have to have something wrong, you can see one to see if you need it, to make sure you have a great working spine. And how often; the chiropractor will know your case and will tell you how often you would need to go. Dr. Rhea's documentary was released 3 weeks ago, and she's hoping for community screenings with volunteer opportunities, and they do have love bomb t-shirts on their website. She is so amazing and it was great to be part of this live Q&A.

There's still more documentaries and Q&A's coming up (10 days total), I will put them on another post to share some great information, and hopefully get you watching these amazing documentaries.

Thanksgiving

I'm overdo with this post, but last weekend was Thanksgiving, and I had my dad over for supper. My brother went hunting so we are going to his place tomorrow to celebrate. Since we were just three people for supper, I got the smallest turkey I could find, which was 8 lbs.

To start, I got my desert ready first, and made my absolute favorite, apple crisp. I'm pretty sure it's my sister in law that found this recipe, and it was so good that she shared it with my mom and I, and we would each make it from time to time and it would disappear fast.When it was everyone together, we would triple this recipe, and since we were going to be three I decided to double the recipe because I'm completely fine with having some left. Here's the recipe:

3 cooking apples
2 tbsp of water
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Dash of salt
3 tbsp of soft butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (used Demerara sugar)
1/3 cup flour (used spelt, and some oats)

Heat oven at 350 F. Butter casserole dish. Peel and slice apples into casserole. Sprinkle with water, cinnamon and salt. Blend remaining ingredients to make a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle over apples and pat down lightly. Bake for 40 minutes.

 

You can make changes to this recipe, you can use whatever flour you would like, but a healthier one is for sure recommended. You can also use oats only, and the sugar you can always use different ones as well, like coconut sugar.

If your wondering what Demerara sugar is, here's a great explanation:

"Demerara is a light brown, partially refined, sugar produced from the first crystallization during processing cane juice into sugar crystals (this process is similar to what happens with naturally evaporated cane juice). Unlike brown sugar, which has the added molasses flavor, Demerara has a natural caramel-like flavor that hasn’t been refined out. This lends warm caramel notes to whatever you add the sugar. Also, Demerara sugar is also referred to as Turbinado sugar in many markets, which has more to do with how the sugar is processed in turbines, than where it originates."

So not the healthiest sugar, but tastes great in this recipe.

Next on the list was getting the turkey in the oven. For my marinate I used the turkey rub from Epicure and added onions and chicken stock. I then prepared my garden salad.

I used romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers and radishes. We of course had to have stuffing so I created my own and it turned out really good. The bread I often buy from Farm boy had gone dry, so it was the perfect way to use it up rather then let it go to waste, so I chopped up the bread into cubes

Then I diced up some celery and an apple, and used the sage and apple stuffing seasoning from Epicure

I boiled up some water and added the spice, celery, apple, and bread and mixed it up. I added it to a dish and roasted it in the oven

Once the turkey came out of the oven I did used some of the juices at the bottom and made a gravy using arrowroot to thicken it. Which I of course also made some mashed potatoes. Here's our supper

We did also have an Ontario red wine with supper. It was absolutely delicious!

What did a do with the left over turkey, well I made a wonderful soup that we love, and we also had some turkey sandwiches. Other great things to use left over turkey is to create a turkey pot pie, or you can add it to salads, stir fry's, and so much more.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Foods to avoid...

I got a really great question from my aunt, what foods should I avoid? So I'm going to talk about that today. There are quite a few foods out there that is best to avoid, but having it once in a while is ok. What I aim for is eating healthy 80% of the time, and the other 20%, it's fine to have that treat. What makes it better though is by making that treat yourself so you have control over the ingredients.

I will start by adding the following link from Food Matters. If you haven't seen the documentary, I highly recommend that you do. The link I have added is for the top 10 food additives to avoid. There's a lot of great information, and they do talk about the following topic.


Artificial Sweeteners: There are so many artificial sweeteners out there, and they do have that addictiveness to them, which makes you want more. So here's a list to avoid, Aspartame, sucralose, high Fructose corn Syrup, white/brown sugar, Agave Syrup, brown rice syrup, and Xylitol. I'm sure there's more, but if you do a search online you will get a lot of information.

Here are the healthy sugars, you should be having: raw honey, maple syrup (the real stuff, not the fake one), dates, stevia, yacon, coconut sugar, and molasses. Here's a great site from the wellness warrior that talks about all of these.

Next food is Trans Fat which is used to extend the shelf life of food products. You can find trans fat in deep-fried fast foods and some processed foods. Trans Fat increases LDL (bad cholesterol) and decreases your HDL (good cholesterol), so please read your labels.

White flour/bread/pasta and white rice: This does not have any nutritional value at all. You should be eating whole grain or whole wheat bread instead. It contains fiber and will keep you feeling fuller longer. There are so many healthier options like brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, bulgur, millet, spelt and wild rice.

Soda: Pop is loaded with sugar. And if you have ever read the book The Cure by Timothy Brantley you then have read a story he writes about. He explains how when he was a kid, he was helping his dad in the garage, and he was using different harsh chemicals to clean a car part, but nothing was working on getting it clean. Then his uncle comes over, and tell him no, all you need is Coke, so he pours the soda and it cleans it off like nothing. So if very harsh chemicals couldn't clean it but soda could, imagine what it's doing inside you. We have very delicate organs, so pop really is not so great for us. What should you drink, well water is always the best. Our bodies consists of mostly water, so we need to stay hydrated. Another great drink option is creating your own smoothie or vegetable/fruit juice. With a juicer or blender, you can create amazing drinks, and it will provide you with so much nutrients!

Margarine: This is man made, with a list of ingredients so long it's crazy. They make you believe that it's better then butter, but it really isn't. Butter has one ingredient, milk, so I don't know about you, but I rather go with the one ingredient.

Processed meats: Found in beef jerky, hot dogs, and processed lunch meats. These contain nitrates and a lot of preservatives. As in my previous post about Aubrey's it's best to pick quality meats, where beef is grass fed, and chickens are free range. I know that the meat market I go to, create their own sausages that are free of preservatives and nitrates. Want to eat a sandwich/wrap, then boil or bake some chicken, turkey, beef, pork and shred it up or cut it up thinly, or pound your meat so it's nice and thin then cook it up.

Lastly, baked goods! So many of them contain white flour, margarine, and sugar. You can still have dessert just make it a healthier version. I have posted a few healthy snacks and desserts, and I have even taken recipes and substituted healthier ingredients. Example: Brown sugar or white sugar, use coconut sugar, maple syrup, or any of the ones I listed above. White flour, use spelt flour, oat flour, buckwheat or any other grains I mentioned above. Any grain can be turned into flour, all you need is a food processor or blender. Now a days though, you can buy it already grounded for you.

Now having listed all of this, it's fine to have the occasional treat, but don't go overboard because that is when you will get into some problems with your health. Try to eat all sort of colors, the more color the more nutrients you consume. Every day I try to have lots of vegetables, some fruit, healthy grains, and occasionally meat. I think it's good for us to eat vegetarian from time to time (especially if you have endometriosis). Explore with your food, and create different meals, and have fun!

Army Run

Sorry it's been a while since I have put up a new post. Been really busy these past few weeks, with our baseball tournament, then we went to Sudbury for a wedding, and last weekend my cousin came down from Sudbury, and we did the half marathon.

Now do note that with our not so great year, we struggled with training for this half marathon, but we still did it, and finished it!  We also didn't have the best weather, it rained most of the time. We ran about 1/4 of the race, and walked the rest, and it took us 3 hours and 49 minutes.

Might be a bit hard to tell from the photo but we are soaked! Although the weather wasn't nice and we got bad blisters on our feet, so exhausted, and were muscle sore for a few days, we did have a good time, we chatted most of the way and we finished a half marathon!  We are very proud, and we did this race for my mom, our aunt and grandma.

This event is set up every year in Ottawa, and it's so great to help our members. For the 5 km race there were 13,000 people, and for the half marathon (21.5 km) there were 12,000 people.

This weekend I finally had some time to get busy in the kitchen, and I did a lot of chopping, but all my vegetables will be easy to grab during the week. I also decided to make banana muffins, and I took the recipe from Anna Olson's book, back to baking, but make a few changes to the recipe. Instead of using brown sugar, I used coconut sugar, and instead of white flour, I did a bit of a mix of 2 tbsp of coconut flour, with some oat flour (took rolled oats and put it in my blender to turn it into a flour), and also some spelt flour. The recipe was for a banana loaf, but I decided to make muffins instead, makes it easier to grab and eat as a snack at work. They turned out really great!

Long weekend

This long weekend, we ended up staying home because I needed some time to get busy in the kitchen, and to also relax and sleep in. I was feeling quite run down, and this weekend at home was just what I needed.

After getting the house cleaning done, and laundry, I got into the kitchen on Saturday and prepared a butterless pie crust which I got from my friend's blog, and I followed her recipe and it turned out great.

I put those in the fridge, then made some guacamole, and a healthy salad dressing. I used 2 avocados (should have only used one, two made it to thick), I added some anchovy paste (about 4 tsp), juice of 2 lemons, a splash of red wine vinegar, one garlic clove, and touch of salt and added some pepper and a few fresh basil leaves, and turned on my blender and streamed in some olive oil.

Turned out nice and green, but it's really good. So now I have lots for salads this week.

Then I ended up making a batch of cookies, and also finally decided to make the black bean brownie from the Joyous Health cookbook, and they are good! Very easy to make, and there's no flour in this recipe, and love the idea of putting cocoa nibs at the top, like she suggests in her book.

For our lunch I prepared a taco salad. I put in some romaine lettuce, spinach, yellow pepper, a few grape tomatoes, some red onion, and I cooked up some ground bison and added lots of chilli powder, a bit of cumin and a bit of chipotle pepper (ground), as our salad dressing, I used some salsa, guacamole, and for the hubby some sour cream, and topped it with a little bit of grated cheese.

It was delicious! We usually don't have cheese in the house, but a friend came over and brought a bag of grated cheese and told us to keep the rest.

For supper I roasted a whole chicken, which I got from Aubrey's and I marinated it with Dijon mustard, and sprinkled on some epicure spices (the turkey seasoning), and to go with that, I made some mashed potatoes, and roasted some carrots. Supper was really good, and we even enjoyed it with some red wine. The left over chicken was the perfect amount for me to create my chicken pot pies which I made yesterday. I created 3 pies, which I doubled the dough recipe twice. I had some dough left over, but didn't do anything with the rest. I also made a different batch of cookies, and for supper we had one of the chicken pot pies, and I froze the other two, which will come in handy when I don't have time to prepare anything.

Here's my recipe for the filling of my chicken pot pies:

4 carrots, diced
4 celery stocks, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Thyme
Salt & Pepper

Saute in a pan until soft, then add shredded chicken (I had about 2 cups), add about a cup of green peas, and then add some chicken stock until it just to say covers everything. Bring to a boil, then add 3 tbsp of arrowroot (you can use cornstarch or flour as well) which has been mixed in a bit of chicken stock. Simmer for a few minutes, then let it all cool down. Add some to each pie, and cover leaving the top vented. I cooked it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Today I am taking it easy since I have gotten a lot accomplished this weekend. Although I did step out for a run. I ran and walked a few times in between therefore took me 1 hour and 7 minutes to do 9 km. So I'm quite out of shape, but felt good to be out there. I ran along the bike trail which there are some wooded areas, but you still get the view of the road, which makes it safe for me to run along since I was alone. Now I will relax the rest of day, but I will be making fajitas tonight for supper.

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!

Beef Stew and blueberry icebox dessert

This morning I got busy in the kitchen. I haven't used my slow cooker in a while and asked my hubby if there was something he would like me to make and he suggested a beef stew. Therefore I pulled out a cookbook that I have had for years, and made the beef stew from the eat clean diet

In a zip lock bag, add 1/3 cup of flour (I used spelt), 1 tbsp of Oregano, 1 tbsp of basil, and 1/2 tsp of Salt and pepper. Add your beef cubes in the bag and shake it up till it's all coated. In a pan, add olive oil, and brown the beef cubes, then add to the slow cooker.

Chop up the following vegetables:
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 carrots
2 parsnip (I used turnip instead)
4 celery stalks
2 sweet potatoes
Water chestnuts (1 cup)

Add all vegetables to the slow cooker, then add 3 cups of beef stock and 1 tbsp of tomato paste. I also use some of the left over flour and herbs (3 tbsp) mix it in a bit of beef broth and add to slow cooker to help thicken it up more. I have put mine on high for 2 hours, then brought it down to low to continue to cook until supper. I got up a bit late this morning, so decided to cook it on high for a few hours.

I also prepared a dessert that I haven't made in a long time, but it's one of our favorites. This is a raw dessert, from Ani's Raw Food desserts

She puts Pineapple for hers, but I put blueberry. I have tried it with pineapples and it is very good, but I have plenty of frozen blueberries in my freezer. This dessert is very easy to make, and no cooking involved, which makes it great for a very warm day. Here's how you make it:

Crust:
2 cups cashews
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean or 1 tbsp alcohol-free vanilla extract
2 tbsp agave syrup

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mix well. You will need to stop it and scrap the sides a few times. Take half and put it at the bottom of a loaf pan, I used a glass container with a lid for easy storage in the fridge. Press down to form a crust at the bottom.

Filling:
1 1/2 cups cashews
1/3 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup liquid coconut oil
1/4 cup filtered water, as needed
2 1/2 cups chopped cored pineapple (or any fruit of choice)

Combine all the filling ingredients except the fruit into a high speed blender and blend until smooth, adding water as needed to create a creamy texture. In a mixing bowl, add your filling and fruit and stir to mix well. Spoon the filling into the loaf pan and sprinkle the remaining crust on top. Freeze for 2 hours, or until chilled.

Will keep for 4-6 days in the fridge or for several weeks in the freezer.

This is before I put the crust on top.

Something I have found out recently is that agave syrup is apparently not so healthy for us, it is processed, and we should use either raw honey, maple syrup, dates, stevia, yacon, coconut sugar, or molasses. I do have a big jar of agave syrup so I will use it up here and there, but once it's gone I will stick to maple syrup, I find it does taste similar to agave syrup.

Also, for the above recipe, you may be thinking that is a lot of cashews, but know that nuts are healthy for us, and if your not a fan of cashews you can use something else. I have used almonds before, for this recipe, or a mix of almonds and cashews. It's all about having fun in the kitchen and with changing it up, you create new flavors.

Joy McCarthy (Joyous Health Cookbook)

I'm still excited about my night so decided to post it now. I got to meet Joy McCarthy tonight, the author of Joyous Health. I went with a friend, and had a wonderful night. My friend made this delicious pasta, and we had a yummy apple caramel pie for dessert, then we went to the book signing. I of course got my book signed

She did a wonderful presentation on health. I'm learning that having a healthy gut is really important, and she talked quite a bit about that, and mentioned about the Greens + and Greens Whole body, the difference is Greens + is just vegetables and fruits (powder form), but the whole body is fermented vegetables which helps to have a healthier gut because there are a lot of good bacteria that our gut needs. She talked about drinking water with lemon every morning, which I already do, but she said to make it even healthier, is to add the Green + or whole body, so I did buy the whole body, which I got to try both tonight and they really don't taste bad at all. She also talked about all the bad toxins we take in on a daily basis, like pollution, cleaning products, beauty products, and the wonderful pesticides they put on food, and how it's important to eat healthy and to get as much nutrients as we can. And to eat as organic as possible, especially the dirty dozens. So much great information, and I even had a chance to talk to her for a little while, and I asked about endometriosis, and she suggests a diet free of dairy, sugar, caffeine, and to have a gluten free diet, as all of these cause inflammation. I mentioned meat, and she said that yes that can also cause inflammation. I actually never heard of going gluten free before for endometriosis. I would have loved to talk to her for a lot longer, but there was others that wanted the opportunity.

I also got the opportunity to take a picture with her

She's such a wonderful person, and you can tell that she's healthy. She just has this glow and I hope to get to that point. Now that I have met her, she's truly a person I look up to, and will finish reading her cookbook so I can get all the wonderful information she has shared. She also mentioned that she's working on another book about detoxing, which she mentioned we should detox every day, and one of those things is starting with a glass of water with lemon, and if you can to add Greens + or whole body. As well, she talked about how important it is to take time for ourselves on a daily basis, even if it's just 5 minutes, and yoga and meditations are also great things for us.

Tonight really got me motivated to work harder at being healthy. For a while I wasn't doing so good with everything going on, but working on getting back on track, and so far I'm doing pretty good.

Thank you Joy for a wonderful evening, and very happy you came to Ottawa and that I got to meet you.

Health

This week has been about health, even some Joyous Health. A friend of mine told me how Joy McCarthy will be in Ottawa this coming week, and I'm going with a friend tomorrow to meet her and I hope to get her to autograph my book. I will let you know about my night.

This week I have been getting back into exercising. During my lunch hour I went to the gym, been running a bit more and feels great to be moving again. Although the last 2 days I haven't done much thanks to twisting my knee while playing baseball but it's gettiing there, and will get to the gym tomorrow.

Since I'm going to the book signing, I thought I would try a few more of her recipes. I made the Goji Berry Glory muffins, and they are awesome. They are loaded with so many things like carrots, coconut, apple, goji berries, and other amazing ingredients, they are a must try!

This morning I made the coconut flour banana panckaes, although instead of banana I put blueberries. My hubby didn't like them so much but I did. The first attempt at cooking them I made it to big and it was hard to flip the pancake over so made a mess with it, but the second round turned out better. It made quite a few pancakes so now I have them in the freezer for a quick healthy breakfast. Next time I make them I will try it with a banana,

I also realized that I haven't taken the time to read her cookbook and so far there's some great information. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night. Will post about it very soon.

Organization

Yesterday I decided to get myself organized by chopping vegetables. First I grabbed the lettuce and chopped it up with my plastic knife (can use a metal knife but the greens tend to brown more quickly). Once all chopped up, I put it in my trusty salad spinner to give them a good wash

Then I put it all into a large zip lock bag. I also cleaned and chopped my radishes, celery and broccoli. You'll notice in the picture below that I kept the stems of the broccoli, they are great to put threw the juicer, or even to chop up and add to salads, soups or stews. They have lots of nutrients in the stems as well, and why throw away something that you can eat.

 With chopping your vegetables ahead of time, it makes it easier to grab when your in a rush. With those vegetables all prepared, I can easily put together a salad, or just grab some to snack on. Since I was having fun in the kitchen, I also prepared a coleslaw, and made some chocolate chip cookies. For supper we enjoyed small steaks on the BBQ with the coleslaw and some mashed potatoes.

Yesterday I took out some dough from the freezer, and will roll it out, create squares, and then put fruit in the middle and fold it over and bake those in the oven. Will be a great dessert, and for supper I am making macaroni (I use brown rice pasta) with tomato sauce, and will of course add lots of vegetables. If there's left over, it will make a great lunch at work.

It only takes a bit of time to get yourself organized in the kitchen over the weekend, and then it makes things a lot easier during the work week to put together lunches, snacks and suppers.

Camping

My hubby and I took 2 weeks off work, and left last week on Monday to go camping in Sudbury. He was able to help out his dad around camp, and I did a lot of reading. I had read the first 2 books of hunger games, so brought the third book with me and was able to read it all. Weather during the week wasn't so nice, it was cold and rainy, but time still went by really fast, and it was nice being out in nature.

Wednesday of last week, I decided to head out for a run, and it was great. Ran 3 km which took me 20 minutes. Not my best time, but not bad considering I haven't been running much lately. What made it even better is jumping into the river once I was done my run, it was a great way to cool down. We had time to play cards, and I even got to feed the chipmunk

I even got him up into my hand a few times. He's so cute! Most nights we would cuddle up around a fire, which this one night, my father in law put in this awesome log, there was a hole in the middle so the fire was coming out of it, it was cool to see

Over the weekend it was finally nice outside, so got to go swimming again, and we went out on the boat and did some fishing. I caught a very tiny pike, so it got thrown back in, and my hubby got three, but only one was a good size to keep. His aunt came along as well, and she caught one, but not big enough to keep. For supper his dad cooked up the one fish, and we had steak and potatoes for supper, it was all delicious!

Before going home, we stopped at his aunt's camp to wish his godson a happy birthday, and we went out on the boat. For the first time I went onto a tube pulled by the boat, it could fit 4, and I was on it for a while. The first group, the tube ended up flipping over, not sure how I landed exactly but my head hit the water hard cause I had quite the headache, and my neck muscles are a bit sore. I had fun though, and would do it again.

Now that we are back home, I am working on catching up on laundry, did groceries since we had no more food left in the house, and been relaxing. It's nice having a few days at home before going back to work. It's going by so fast though and it's sad that it's coming to an end.

Do you love camping? If so, what's your favorite thing to do?