My husband got his blood work back from the doctor's office today. The first year they had him on the statins after a stent was installed in one of the arteries near his heart, his numbers were going upwards. They advised him to become even stricter with his diet and avoid all fats. They also advised him gently to quit smoking.
During the second year I went to the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference in Philadelphia and came home to start cooking with lard, pastured meats, real butter and whole, raw milk and pastured eggs. He worried. He said his doctor was going to have a fit. I told him he needed to quit smoking and it was the poisons he was eating and breathing that was causing the problems and if he would at least give real food a try, he might see some improvement.
He did try to quit smoking. In fact, he put them down for a couple of months. But this addiction is very difficult to overcome. I believe that as he gets healthier in other ways, and fewer and fewer of his friends smoke (or they die off), he will eventually find a way to quit.
In the meantime, I've been feeding him real food. It's a battle sometimes to get ferments into him. He has always liked sauerkraut, he just had never eaten it raw before. He doesn't flinch when I put fermented purple cabbage in his salads and he's come to love fermented turnip topping his mashed potatoes along with a dollop of butter and real sour cream.
Getting him to eat the pastured meat was a little tricky because I had to teach him how to cook it. He does the cooking Monday through Thursday at our house because I work and he is retired.
But we are now eating liver weekly and he's decided that liver pate is even better than liverwurst as a sandwich spread, so leftovers for him extend further into the week.
I've been cutting down on the carbs as I'm trying to lose weight. I'm sort of one of those folks who move into a new concept slowly, cut down, and cut down and will finally quit. I'm close to quitting carbs now but he still loves his potatoes and bread with his meat. We will get there.
In October he has been eating WAP food for year. Not with complete faith. But his consumption of junk food has gone almost to zero. He still cheats and eats a candybar a couple of times a month, but that's way down from all the crap he used to eat.
Guess what? He got his quarterly blood work back yesterday. His LDL is 66, his Triglycerides are 89 and his HDL is 85!. This is way better than a year ago. The doctor is impressed and told him to keep doing whatever he is doing.
I asked him if he told the doctor what we are doing and he confessed he did not. Poor doctor thinks he's following some highly restrictive, no fat, cardboard diet. At some point, he will have to tell him the truth.
In any case, I'm thinking his body is starting to heal. Now to get him off the statins.
If he could quit smoking, I think a lot of the inflammation that is causing the arterial blockages would eventually heal as well, but he's just not ready.
He admits that he likes the "new" traditional food. Much of the food we eat reminds him of the food his grandmother in the UK used to make. He said it also reminds him of pub lunches. He talks up the real foods whenever we are with friends, so I think he is eventually going to become a real advocate.
I wonder when I will get him to drink Kombucha?
Showing posts with label beginnings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beginnings. Show all posts
Monday, December 12, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Better Butter
I have a new found respect for butter.
I have been purchasing wonderful, delicious salted butter in two pound rolls wrapped in waxed paper from this place for just over a year. The butter I purchase from Quail Cove Farms is from Minerva Dairy in Ohio. It's not local, but it's really good butter at a pretty good price.
I've been getting real, whole, fresh from the cow milk for a few months now. It's milk from a Jersey cow and it's wonderfully rich and the cream rises very nicely to the top. I keep the milk in 1/2 gallon jars. I've gotten in the habit of letting the milk sit in the refrigerator and wait for the cream. The next day I pour off the cream into a pint jar, and usually get about a half a pint. Then I shake the milk jar to reincorporate any cream I missed and top off my pint. This pint becomes my coffee cream (real half and half) for next several days until I use it up and attack my second half gallon. .
Well, earlier this week, I took my coffee cream with me to training. Long story short, the little lunch box cooler did not stay very cool and my cream got to room temperatures overnight. I like clabbered milk but did not really want to put it in my coffee. But I'm loath to waste such precious stuff.
So, when I got home, I poured off the clabbered cream and fed the cats with the other bit of slightly aged milk.
The cream went into my food processor yesterday morning where it whirled for a good 20 minutes while I got dressed for work and low and behold, I got butter! There wasn't much. Just about 2 tablespoons came out of that 1/2 pint of cream. But it was real butter. And I made it myself.
Here it is in a little dish with a teaspoon next to it for size.
I was very excited and proud and shared my newest discovery with my husband who, of course, was amused by his crazy wife and paid out the required homages.
But if 1/2 pint of cream only makes two tablespoons of butter, how much cream does it take to make two pounds? I'm thinking it's a lot.
I have been purchasing wonderful, delicious salted butter in two pound rolls wrapped in waxed paper from this place for just over a year. The butter I purchase from Quail Cove Farms is from Minerva Dairy in Ohio. It's not local, but it's really good butter at a pretty good price.
I've been getting real, whole, fresh from the cow milk for a few months now. It's milk from a Jersey cow and it's wonderfully rich and the cream rises very nicely to the top. I keep the milk in 1/2 gallon jars. I've gotten in the habit of letting the milk sit in the refrigerator and wait for the cream. The next day I pour off the cream into a pint jar, and usually get about a half a pint. Then I shake the milk jar to reincorporate any cream I missed and top off my pint. This pint becomes my coffee cream (real half and half) for next several days until I use it up and attack my second half gallon. .
Well, earlier this week, I took my coffee cream with me to training. Long story short, the little lunch box cooler did not stay very cool and my cream got to room temperatures overnight. I like clabbered milk but did not really want to put it in my coffee. But I'm loath to waste such precious stuff.
So, when I got home, I poured off the clabbered cream and fed the cats with the other bit of slightly aged milk.
The cream went into my food processor yesterday morning where it whirled for a good 20 minutes while I got dressed for work and low and behold, I got butter! There wasn't much. Just about 2 tablespoons came out of that 1/2 pint of cream. But it was real butter. And I made it myself.
I was very excited and proud and shared my newest discovery with my husband who, of course, was amused by his crazy wife and paid out the required homages.
But if 1/2 pint of cream only makes two tablespoons of butter, how much cream does it take to make two pounds? I'm thinking it's a lot.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The Tupperware Dilemma
When I attended the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference last year in Philadelphia, I was absolutely overwhelmed with information. I knew I could not change everything in my kitchen overnight. I didn't have the money. But over the last year, I've made quite a few changes as I learned more and figured out more.
Now, I'm thinking about food storage more and more. Most of the stuff I make in large batches is stored in glass jars. My husband is amazed at how many jars I've managed to accumulate. There are rows and rows of glass jars in my pantry and there are a bunch of them in my deep freezer as well. And many things are stored in glass in the refrigerator as well.
But, I've not yet gotten rid of all of my plastic ware.
I pack my own lunch each day before I head off to work. I've even started packing on days I have court (my job involves testifying in court once or twice a week). It was a treat for me to eat in a restaurant on a court day, but I noticed that two to three days later, my face would break out and my gut would become unhappy again. When I miraculously went a whole month without a court day (and thus, no restaurant food), I had a whole month with no skin breakouts or bowel issues. Hmmm.
But back to the plastic packaging. Putting liquids like raw milk or kombucha into pint jars makes sense. But what do I do about the meat, fermented veggies and fruit? Too many jars in a lunch box makes for a very heavy lunch box and one that makes loud clanking noises! So, I have been using small plastic ware containers to carry my food to work.
I'm not a scientist but I'm concerned that some of the acids in my food, even without heating, are causing some of the plastics to leach into my food. Not good. We do have a good set up at work now with a two burner electric stove top and a toaster oven, a full sized refrigerator. My co-workers use the microwave a lot but I avoid it. I brought in a stainless steel sauce pan and a small stainless steel tray for the toaster oven.
But now, I'm looking for a way to transport and store my lunch that is affordable and not overly heavy. I'm going to experiment with some waxed paper and keep an eye out for stainless steel containers.
If anyone can recommend something let me know.
Now, I'm thinking about food storage more and more. Most of the stuff I make in large batches is stored in glass jars. My husband is amazed at how many jars I've managed to accumulate. There are rows and rows of glass jars in my pantry and there are a bunch of them in my deep freezer as well. And many things are stored in glass in the refrigerator as well.
But, I've not yet gotten rid of all of my plastic ware.
I pack my own lunch each day before I head off to work. I've even started packing on days I have court (my job involves testifying in court once or twice a week). It was a treat for me to eat in a restaurant on a court day, but I noticed that two to three days later, my face would break out and my gut would become unhappy again. When I miraculously went a whole month without a court day (and thus, no restaurant food), I had a whole month with no skin breakouts or bowel issues. Hmmm.
But back to the plastic packaging. Putting liquids like raw milk or kombucha into pint jars makes sense. But what do I do about the meat, fermented veggies and fruit? Too many jars in a lunch box makes for a very heavy lunch box and one that makes loud clanking noises! So, I have been using small plastic ware containers to carry my food to work.
I'm not a scientist but I'm concerned that some of the acids in my food, even without heating, are causing some of the plastics to leach into my food. Not good. We do have a good set up at work now with a two burner electric stove top and a toaster oven, a full sized refrigerator. My co-workers use the microwave a lot but I avoid it. I brought in a stainless steel sauce pan and a small stainless steel tray for the toaster oven.
But now, I'm looking for a way to transport and store my lunch that is affordable and not overly heavy. I'm going to experiment with some waxed paper and keep an eye out for stainless steel containers.
If anyone can recommend something let me know.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Soaked Granola
Eating real food on a budget is a real challenge for a lot of families. Moving into this world of real food is challenging to do all at one time and it helps to do things one step at a time as you can afford it. One of the first things I did was replace my aluminum and teflon coated cookware with stainless steel cookware. I already had a lot of cast iron pans acquired over the course of a decade. I found a wonderful glass bowl collection at Target once. It was on sale and I splurged. Little by little, I've changed out my cooking utensils to get rid of the plastic.
I found over the course of about 3 months that NOT buying junk like breakfast cereal, snack cakes, chips, candy and most commercial bread; saved enough money for me to make one or two LARGE bulk purchases each month that last me for 6 or more months. For example, I bought a 50 pound bag of organic wheat berries and another 50 pound bag of organic rye berries for about $1.27 a pound. I soak the grains and spout then dry them, grind them in a grain grinder and make my own sprouted flours. A cup of raw wheat makes about 2 cups of flour. I can make a loaf of bread with about 3 1/2 cups. There are a lot of cups of wheat in a 50 pound bag. I store them in galvanized tins in an unheated and unused bedroom. I sprinkle grain with food grade Diatomaceous earth to keep the weavils out. Basically, I'm using about 50 cents of grain to make a loaf of bread. I also purchase yeast in bulk and keep it in the freezer.
Equipment is expensive, but when cared for properly. lasts for many years. I could not do this without my very large deep freezer. I keep it set below zero and I can keep foods for a very, very long time. It does not auto defrost, so I have to do that manually once a year or so, but that's an easy job. The grain grinder and my table top electric mixer are very important. I also have a meat grinder attachment for my electric mixer and a food processor and stick blender. I do not have a microwave, or a toaster.
Some basic foods like coconut oil, nuts, sea salt, and meat are much cheaper purchased in bulk. It's just a little scary to anticipate and budget for 1/2 beef, for example when you know you will be paying $1000 or more in a lump sum. But you are purchasing a year's worth of beef at one time. Sit down and really figure out what you are paying when you buy a year's worth of meat in incremental bits. I bet it will be more. What's nice about making that large bulk purchase of pastured beef from a local farmer is that you can very specifically dictate how you want your cuts done, how much of it is going to be ground beef, you get the organs. If you really get the opportunity to work out details, you can also ask for the hide -- if you have a use for it.
Start small and go for a 1/2 lamb. Then try 1/2 a hog. Find someone with pastured chickens and buy 6 of them. My husband fishes, but he does not hunt; but I know hunters and most years they will bring me a whole deer if I pay for the tag. You see why I need a large freezer.
If I could talk my husband into it, I would buy two of them and have one for meat and one for vegetables, fruit and other home prepared foods like broth.
But let me share my recipe for CHEAP healthy granola. Buy all the ingredients in bulk.
Soaked Granola
2 cups of organic raw oatmeal
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cups of warm water
1/4 cup of dried fruit (I like organic raisins or cherries)
1/2 cup of crispy nuts (pecans or walnuts)
1/2 cup of crispy pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup flaked coconut
Put the oatmeal in a large glass bowl, stir the sea salt into the warm water until dissolved. Pour liquid over the oatmeal. Stir gently until all the oatmeal is submerged. Cover the bowl with a towel and put on the counter overnight.
In the morning drain the oatmeal through a colander and rinse. Dump back in the bowl. Heat coconut oil and maple syrup in a sauce pan until blended and the oil is melted. Pour oil and syrup mixture over the oats and stir a couple of times. Spread the wet oatmeal out onto a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with edges). Put in the oven and set the temperature to just below warm. Leave for 8 hours. I put it in before I go to work and take it out when I get home. Once dried it will be crispy. Break it up and put it into a dry bowl. Add the fruit, nuts and seeds and coconut flakes. Stir. Store in quart jars. Eat with yogurt, kefir or raw milk.
I found over the course of about 3 months that NOT buying junk like breakfast cereal, snack cakes, chips, candy and most commercial bread; saved enough money for me to make one or two LARGE bulk purchases each month that last me for 6 or more months. For example, I bought a 50 pound bag of organic wheat berries and another 50 pound bag of organic rye berries for about $1.27 a pound. I soak the grains and spout then dry them, grind them in a grain grinder and make my own sprouted flours. A cup of raw wheat makes about 2 cups of flour. I can make a loaf of bread with about 3 1/2 cups. There are a lot of cups of wheat in a 50 pound bag. I store them in galvanized tins in an unheated and unused bedroom. I sprinkle grain with food grade Diatomaceous earth to keep the weavils out. Basically, I'm using about 50 cents of grain to make a loaf of bread. I also purchase yeast in bulk and keep it in the freezer.
Equipment is expensive, but when cared for properly. lasts for many years. I could not do this without my very large deep freezer. I keep it set below zero and I can keep foods for a very, very long time. It does not auto defrost, so I have to do that manually once a year or so, but that's an easy job. The grain grinder and my table top electric mixer are very important. I also have a meat grinder attachment for my electric mixer and a food processor and stick blender. I do not have a microwave, or a toaster.
Some basic foods like coconut oil, nuts, sea salt, and meat are much cheaper purchased in bulk. It's just a little scary to anticipate and budget for 1/2 beef, for example when you know you will be paying $1000 or more in a lump sum. But you are purchasing a year's worth of beef at one time. Sit down and really figure out what you are paying when you buy a year's worth of meat in incremental bits. I bet it will be more. What's nice about making that large bulk purchase of pastured beef from a local farmer is that you can very specifically dictate how you want your cuts done, how much of it is going to be ground beef, you get the organs. If you really get the opportunity to work out details, you can also ask for the hide -- if you have a use for it.
Start small and go for a 1/2 lamb. Then try 1/2 a hog. Find someone with pastured chickens and buy 6 of them. My husband fishes, but he does not hunt; but I know hunters and most years they will bring me a whole deer if I pay for the tag. You see why I need a large freezer.
If I could talk my husband into it, I would buy two of them and have one for meat and one for vegetables, fruit and other home prepared foods like broth.
But let me share my recipe for CHEAP healthy granola. Buy all the ingredients in bulk.
Soaked Granola
2 cups of organic raw oatmeal
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cups of warm water
1/4 cup of dried fruit (I like organic raisins or cherries)
1/2 cup of crispy nuts (pecans or walnuts)
1/2 cup of crispy pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup flaked coconut
Put the oatmeal in a large glass bowl, stir the sea salt into the warm water until dissolved. Pour liquid over the oatmeal. Stir gently until all the oatmeal is submerged. Cover the bowl with a towel and put on the counter overnight.
In the morning drain the oatmeal through a colander and rinse. Dump back in the bowl. Heat coconut oil and maple syrup in a sauce pan until blended and the oil is melted. Pour oil and syrup mixture over the oats and stir a couple of times. Spread the wet oatmeal out onto a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with edges). Put in the oven and set the temperature to just below warm. Leave for 8 hours. I put it in before I go to work and take it out when I get home. Once dried it will be crispy. Break it up and put it into a dry bowl. Add the fruit, nuts and seeds and coconut flakes. Stir. Store in quart jars. Eat with yogurt, kefir or raw milk.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Next Step
For the last year, I have been working to replace processed foods with whole, healthy, natural foods. I am getting closer to that goal every day. But I find that I'm still having intermittent bouts of bloating and aching joints and a welts that appear on my face. I'm sure that it's an allergic reaction and I'm pretty sure it's something I'm eating. It's just too much like a toxic reaction to be a coincident.
The fact is, there are still some unhealthy things I am eating that I need to eliminate:
I also have times when I cheat and do reach out and grab that piece of bundt cake that someone kindly brought into the office to share instead of walking away or eating a piece of fruit or another bite of meat.
I feel like I've done a good job of eliminating soy from my diet and do feel much better having done that. I can tell almost immediately when I've accidently injested it. The reaction is in my face, my hands (swelling), my head (headache), belly (bloating with gas and pain). I seem to also have a reaction in my face.
I also have facial skin reactions to stress and heat. When I get very, very hot my legs, ankles and feet and hands also swell up badly. The swelling and facial rash make me wonder about Lupus sometimes, but I'm thinking even if it is Lupus, there's not much doctors can do with that other than steroids and I'm just not willing to accept the side effects. I'd rather control it with diet, very controlled exposure to heat and sun and mild to moderate exercise.
So, back to the question of what goes next: Grains (especially wheat) or by beloved coffee?
If coffee: Should I drop coffee and go to tea for a while and then get off the tea or just suffer the 10 days of caffeine withdrawals and get on with my life?
If grains: Do I eliminate all of them at one time and deal with my husband who cannot live without his bread, cookies, pies and cakes (not to mention my cravings for such things), or should I just eliminate one grain (like wheat) and see how I do on just rye or oats or some other grain like barley? Is the problem gluten or is it an actually allergy to one thing, like wheat?
If sugars: These are mad carbohydrate issues for me. I'm moving slowly in this direction now with the elimination of white sugar (other than what goes into the kombucha) but I'm back to drinking alcoholic beverages which I know is not good for me and are definitely an addiction. Within a month of going back on wine, I went from one glass a night to finishing a regular sized bottle to buying a box and making that last about three days (when there is actually about 4 bottles worth in that box). So that has to go. I do better with beer and am pretty content with just one can/bottle for an evening. But beer has both the alcohol and the grain issue. Can I separate alcohol from the sugars and carbs? I dunno?
I don't want to do all at once. I'll admit it. I'm a wimp when it comes to self inflicted suffering. Both of these are addiction issues and I fear I will break down and throw in the towel on everything if I try to break all the bad habits at one time.
The coffee is easier. I can substitute for a while with various teas and gradually move from caffeinated to caffeine free teas. I think a lot of the draw of the coffee is that hot beverage in my hand.
So, starting tomorrow (since I've already had a cup of coffee... two actually) this morning, I will leave my beloved coffee and move to tea. I can do that for a couple of weeks I think and then wean myself off of the tea... since I really don't much care for tea.
The fact is, there are still some unhealthy things I am eating that I need to eliminate:
- Coffee (or caffeine)
- Artificial sweetening (it goes into coffee)
- Too many grain based carbs
- Too many sweets (even healthy ones like maple syrup and honey)
I also have times when I cheat and do reach out and grab that piece of bundt cake that someone kindly brought into the office to share instead of walking away or eating a piece of fruit or another bite of meat.
I feel like I've done a good job of eliminating soy from my diet and do feel much better having done that. I can tell almost immediately when I've accidently injested it. The reaction is in my face, my hands (swelling), my head (headache), belly (bloating with gas and pain). I seem to also have a reaction in my face.
I also have facial skin reactions to stress and heat. When I get very, very hot my legs, ankles and feet and hands also swell up badly. The swelling and facial rash make me wonder about Lupus sometimes, but I'm thinking even if it is Lupus, there's not much doctors can do with that other than steroids and I'm just not willing to accept the side effects. I'd rather control it with diet, very controlled exposure to heat and sun and mild to moderate exercise.
So, back to the question of what goes next: Grains (especially wheat) or by beloved coffee?
If coffee: Should I drop coffee and go to tea for a while and then get off the tea or just suffer the 10 days of caffeine withdrawals and get on with my life?
If grains: Do I eliminate all of them at one time and deal with my husband who cannot live without his bread, cookies, pies and cakes (not to mention my cravings for such things), or should I just eliminate one grain (like wheat) and see how I do on just rye or oats or some other grain like barley? Is the problem gluten or is it an actually allergy to one thing, like wheat?
If sugars: These are mad carbohydrate issues for me. I'm moving slowly in this direction now with the elimination of white sugar (other than what goes into the kombucha) but I'm back to drinking alcoholic beverages which I know is not good for me and are definitely an addiction. Within a month of going back on wine, I went from one glass a night to finishing a regular sized bottle to buying a box and making that last about three days (when there is actually about 4 bottles worth in that box). So that has to go. I do better with beer and am pretty content with just one can/bottle for an evening. But beer has both the alcohol and the grain issue. Can I separate alcohol from the sugars and carbs? I dunno?
I don't want to do all at once. I'll admit it. I'm a wimp when it comes to self inflicted suffering. Both of these are addiction issues and I fear I will break down and throw in the towel on everything if I try to break all the bad habits at one time.
The coffee is easier. I can substitute for a while with various teas and gradually move from caffeinated to caffeine free teas. I think a lot of the draw of the coffee is that hot beverage in my hand.
So, starting tomorrow (since I've already had a cup of coffee... two actually) this morning, I will leave my beloved coffee and move to tea. I can do that for a couple of weeks I think and then wean myself off of the tea... since I really don't much care for tea.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Shocking!
Just over a year ago, my dear friend, Angel talked me and another mutual friend into attending the Weston A. Price Conference in Philadelphia, PA. Angel is one of those people you never have time to visit with because she is constantly on the go and the opportunity to actually spend a few days with her, was more than tempting. She initially paid my way and so I really had nothing to lose. By the end of the four days, I had paid her back and we were laying plans to create some sort of scholarship fund for less financially able but deserving participants in our goal to recover our health from big agriculture, the government, and big business.
In the year since, I have to a much greater understanding of the difficulty of this undertaking but have noted significant improvements in various areas of my health. I also recognize I still have a long way to go before I actually reach my goals. But I am far more optimistic about getting there now.
One of the greatest challenges is rather ironic in that while I live in the country and should therefore have greater access to healthy food, finding it continues to be a challenge. But each goal reached is putting me in touch with opportunities to reach for the next goal.
I left Philly with several goals:
I have not met all of these goals. But I have reached some and am closing in on others. I have learned new ways of cooking and eating that seem to fly in the face of conventional medicine and mainstream opinion. And I've done it without a single sick day! Not one.
This blog is going to be about this adventure and the folks I've managed to drag along with me.
In the year since, I have to a much greater understanding of the difficulty of this undertaking but have noted significant improvements in various areas of my health. I also recognize I still have a long way to go before I actually reach my goals. But I am far more optimistic about getting there now.
One of the greatest challenges is rather ironic in that while I live in the country and should therefore have greater access to healthy food, finding it continues to be a challenge. But each goal reached is putting me in touch with opportunities to reach for the next goal.
I left Philly with several goals:
- Find a local, affordable source for raw milk.
- Find a local, affordable source of pastured beef.
- Figure out a way to get pastured chickens, and lamb, and eggs.
- Find a source for local, organic vegetables and fruit that were affordable.
I have not met all of these goals. But I have reached some and am closing in on others. I have learned new ways of cooking and eating that seem to fly in the face of conventional medicine and mainstream opinion. And I've done it without a single sick day! Not one.
This blog is going to be about this adventure and the folks I've managed to drag along with me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)