Blogging needs to become my forte. :/ I have much to post but never seem to have the time to do the blog justice!

Say Cheese!

I took my first Cheese making class on Saturday and it was amazing! I was battling between going to a local WAPF conference but I chose the cheese making, simply because I've decided to go to the BIG conference in November and meet all of the fantastic bloggers I've been learning from this past year. I'm glad I took the class as I made some awesome contacts!

We made feta, mozzarella and ricotta and i was so much easier than I thought it would be. The class was about 4 hours but that included a lot of down time and some clean up time. I think it'd be much easier my second time and at home now that I know what products to use and bring. I think I might make delicious lasagna with these cheeses.


The next step is finding a farm that sells raw milk that I KNOW what went into the cow feed. I love the idea of making cheeses with no preservatives from grass-fed cows milk. I've been soaking up all kinds of info lately and my GOAL is to get to the point where I know what goes into the majority of the food I eat and/or I make and grow my foods.

One day.

From Nourishing Our Children ~
"The best hot chocolate I have ever had - seriously -- just now, courtesy of Barbara Wetzel, is a must for your family because it is so nutrient dense!

1. Bring filtered or spring water to "just before a boil" enough to dissolve the cocoa and honey.
2. Add raw, organic cocoa (please note post script below), and whisk in raw honey in approximately 2:1 ratio
3. Add raw milk to accommodate the number of people you'll be serving
4. Add coconut oil
5. If you're adventurous, add cayenne pepper, or perhaps some peppermint

Delicious and nutritious!

P.S. Instead of chocolate, carob chips are recommended as an alternative by Sally Fallon Morell: http://thenourishingcook.com/2010/04/carob-chips-are-a-good-alternative-to-chocolate/




"Nourish the soil before you plant the seed" ~ I couldn't have said it better! If you're pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant, think about what you're putting in your bodies. Make sure you're giving your babies all the nutrition they need.

Also, a little something to think about ~ If you aren't thinking of getting pregnant even for a few years, the food you take now could effect the baby! If your fat stores are full of trans fats, those fats get transferred to the baby so be sure to keep that in mind when reaching for Zaxby's chickens strips! :p

What are Traditional Foods?

It's amazing how many sites and blogs are dedicated to traditional foods. Lately, I've had folks asking me what 'traditional foods' really are. I usually say they're foods your grandparents or in some cases, great grandparents would eat. Raw milk, fresh eggs, etc that lack today's processing. I found this lovely summary of traditional foods from the Traditional Foods Guild.


What Are Traditional Foods?

Traditional foods ARE the foods that our ancestors ate.

Traditional foods ARE the foods available to our grandparents and great grandparents, before modern processing.

Traditional foods ARE often referred to as ‘real food’ and ‘slow food’.

Traditional foods ARE delicious, full of diverse and naturally occurring flavors.

Traditional foods PROMOTE health and vitality and protect us from disease.

Traditional foods OFFER nutrients needed for healthy conception, pregnancy, growing infants and children

These ARE foods grown on small to medium-scale, organic farms or ethically wild-gathered from largely local sources.

Animals ARE cared for with traditional and humane husbandry techniques and fed their natural food diets.

Traditional foods ARE nutrient-dense.

Traditional foods ARE foods prepared in ways that maximize nutrients & digestibility.

They ARE prepared in ways that anyone with home kitchen tools could do.

Traditional prepared foods ARE composed of recognizable food ingredients and generally few.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Traditional foods ARE NOT new, industrial, machine-made foods that were not available to our ancestors. Industrial foods displace traditional foods in modern commerce. Industrial foods are have few or synthetic nutrients and promote modern ailments

Traditional foods ARE NOT foods grown on large scale and industrially managed farms.

They ARE NOT food grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

They ARE NOT from animals or fish that have been industrially raised in inhumane conditions and fed foods that are not natural to their species.

They ARE NOT foods that are transported over long distances when similar foods are available locally.

Traditional foods ARE NOT industrially prepared foods.

Traditional foods DO NOT have ‘empty’ calories nor synthetic vitamins added.

Traditional foods ARE NOT foods that are processed in a way to unnaturally alter or preserve foods.

They ARE NOT foods that have been processed with solvents, high heat, irradiated or otherwise treated in factory machines. They DO NOT have any chemical additives, flavors or preservatives.

They DO NOT have large ingredient lists composed of unfamiliar or chemical items.

From Traditional Nutrition Guild

I am almost baked out! Two sausage quiches, 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, 2 dozen white chocolate chip cookies, 40 peanut butter ritz crackers covered in white chocolate and assorted other goodies = ready to throw in my oven mitt. Can't stop now. Have a pecan pie to make for tomorrow's gathering and a white chocolate peppermint cheesecake to make for Sunday's shindig. It's going to be great! My sweet friend, Candice came up to rock the bake-a-thon with me. Her three children and my niece watched Christmas movies and helped with 'quality control'. :) Good times!

I'm more than a little stoked to try these homemade gluten-free brownies! Divine Health is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to gluten-free recipes.

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Coconut Flour Brownies (Gluten Free)
By lydia, on December 15th, 2010

Since going gluten free and pretty much grain free this past spring, I have had to come up with a lot of new recipes to replace old favorites. Brownies are one of our favorite easy family snacks, therefore I was determined to come up with a recipe for gluten free brownies using coconut flour. I picked out one of my favorite brownie recipes and attempted to convert it to a coconut flour brownie. It took much trial and error, while I was still learning how to work with coconut flour, but I think I finally nailed it!! This brownies are a huge hit in my home and even people who are not health conscious or gluten free rave about them!! So I am happy to share this recipe hoping others will benefit from it! Let me know how you enjoy these if you try them!! I call them ‘Brownies Divine.’

Brownies Divine
Makes 1 – 8×8 pan

12 tablespoons butter, ghee or coconut oil
1/2 cup organic cane sugar or rapadura (if you like use a 1/3 cup of sugar instead)
3/4 cup sifted good quality cocoa powder (Hershey’s or Nestle’s will simply not do, unless of course it’s all you can get!)
pinch of sea salt
Half of a 73% dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s ( or half a cup of chopped dark chocolate, preferably organic fair trade without soy lecithin in it)
3 pastured eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (gluten free)
1/4 cup coconut flour

Melt together butter, sugar, cocoa, salt and chocolate in a pan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add in the eggs one at a time. Mix well, at first it will not be smooth, but keep whisking until you get a smooth consistency. Then add in the vanilla.Sift in the coconut flour. Pour mix into a parchment lined 8×8 pan.
Preheat oven to 325. Bake the brownies for 20-25 minutes. (I do it for about 22 minutes)
Remove from oven, let cool 10-15 minutes before digging in.
These brownies are the perfect palette for some homemade vanilla ice cream!!! Or for a dairy free dessert, use some coconut whipped cream recipe above. Enjoy


From Divine Health

Made gluten free sausage cheese balls and they were a hit! (no one knew they were gluten) BBQ pecans, chex mix (which is gluten free) and some yummy desserts! Going to keep trying to alter recipes to make them more 'natural' and healthy. The cheesecake needs a...BIT more altering :/ This was the first time I had ever made a cheesecake so I used regular sugar but will try a sub next time. The good news is that everyone loved the food! When the cheesecake was served the conversation came to a grinding halt with exclamations of 'this is delicious!' peppered throughout. Now time to lay down in exhaustion and happiness :)