Day 8 - Five weeks left!

This week has been great. Overwhelming, certainly! I have spent SO much more time in the kitchen than I am accustomed to. It's been pretty much constantly messy. But I love it.

I have learned this week that we really can live without grains and sugar.

I have learned how to make yogurt! And found that we totally love it. And it's super easy!

I learned how to make fermented carrots. I may look for another recipe on those - I don't totally love them; they're just okay.

I have found that just getting rid of grains, sugar, and uncultured cow products (in the case of Barry, Julian & Tallulah,) has made a big difference already in our emotional states. Julian, especially, has made big strides.

This afternoon I used our raw milk to make yogurt and butter! Ohhhhh, you lovely fresh butter! Mmmmmmmm. But tomorrow I'll make ghee out of it. Another new thing to learn!

I've discovered that the best thing for me to do is spend time each night before bed changing kefir, washing dishes, getting meat out of the freezer and preparing as much as I can for the next day's meals.

For today:

Breakfast: Banana pancakes with applesauce, peanut butter, and/or sour cream. I 5 times-ed the recipe this morning. And they still ate them all!! Crazy kiddos! We also had kefir smoothies. No eggs, this morning - I was running low. With honey, goat milk, frozen peaches, strawberries, n bananas, cocoa powder and vanilla. So yummy!

Lunch: "Sandwiches" - roast beef, kefir sour cream dressing, cucumbers, tomatoes in lettuce. Or just in a pile on the plate, depending on preference. :) Also leftover roasted carrots and applesauce. And sauerkraut, of course.

Barry had yogurt for lunch, as well as a kefir smoothie and the leftover squashage.

Dinner: Fajitas with Grandma. Roast beef, roast pork, peppers and onions sauteed in bacon grease (sooooooo good!), lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, and sauerkraut. Very tasty!

Dessert: Healthy chocolate. I won't keep stating dessert and snacks unless we have something different. :)

Day 7

Tuesdays are my craziest days. We leave at 9:10 am and go to our awesome homeschool group. Then go to our music store all afternoon for me to teach lessons. We end up getting home about 6 pm. So makes for kind of a crazy day for meals! But overall, I think they went pretty well today. Other than the roast in the crockpot not being at all done when we got home. :( Guess we'll have that tomorrow!

Breakfast: Eggs and Bacon. Yummm. Eggs fried or scrambled in lots of lovely bacon grease. :)

Lunch: Homemade Yogurt! I got it all sweetened with honey and vanilla last night, and chopped up and froze strawberries and bananas to throw in it. We were supposed to have sliced almonds for it, too, but we forgot to grab them this morning along with everything else.

Dinner: "Squashage" summer squash and zucchini sauteed in bacon grease and then cooked sausage added in. Also chopped fresh tomatoes, fresh guacamole, sauerkraut, kefir sour cream, and leftover roasted carrot fries from last night. Quite a very yummy dinner!

Day 6 - October 6!

I found my kitchen!! I knew it was there somewhere... :) After canning and all the cooking I've been doing it was so buried I wasn't sure I'd ever find it again.

I'm super proud of my kids. They're being so good and happy about the food we're eating, and not complaining about what we're not eating. Julian, especially, is having fun with it - taking the things he knows he can eat and making stuff out of them. Like yesterday - he invented "ackum-milky" or just simply "pudding." Peanut butter, honey and goat milk mixed together. He even volunteered to make everyone their own bowls of pudding, and used the proper milk for each person! He's also decided he likes sauerkraut, which is a huge step! I've seen a big change in his emotional state and physical health in just the few days we've been doing this. He's much happier and kinder, and seems to have more energy and willingness to help.

I'm excited for a Family Home Evening treat tonight - my mom picked us up some almond flour! Woohoo! It'll be fun to see what Elanor decides to make with it!

Breakfast: Banana/egg pancakes with apple/honey syrup and peanut butter.
Lunch: Kefir smoothies (for us and Barry) and fruit for a snack. Julian also made himself another bowl of "pudding."
Dinner: Sticky chicken (recipe here), carrots roasted in the oven with ghee and salt, green salad with kefir sour cream dressing (sour cream with garlic salt, oregano, basil, thyme and curry), and sauerkraut, of course. Best compliment was from Barry, "Honey, you should open a restaurant!" :)
Dessert: Lemon Bars!! Gaps-friendly lemon bars!!! With an almond flour crust. Sooooooo good! And really, really nice to have a treat for our sweet teeth! :D And Elanor is very happy to be able to make her beloved lemon bars, and to make it for Montana and Steven, who are on the gaps diet. :)

October 5 - day 3, 4 & 5

It's been a busy few days! I love general conference! Between conference, canning applesauce, taking care of babies, and cooking all this cool new food (not to mention the clean up, yikes!), I've had hardly any time to blog!

But now I figured out I can get Blogger on my nook, so I can work on it while nursing monster baby Marco. (7 months old and he's wearing 18 mo. clothes!) Hooray!

So Friday, Oct 3:
Breakfast: Banana egg pancakes - quadrupled. We still ate them all!
Lunch: Kefir smoothies, leftover soup
Dinner: Sausage patties, sauteed summer squash & zucchini, sauerkraut

Saturday, Oct. 4:
Breakfast: Bacon, eggs, sauerkraut
Lunch:
Dinner: Carrot fries fried in tallow with a delicious dip made from kefir sour cream, basil, oregano, garlic salt, and curry. Also German pancakes which were basically this recipe with a few variations - honey instead of sugar, goat milk instead of coconut milk, and then I added a couple things from this recipe - the apples and the baking powder. It was SO yummy!

Dinner Saturday night was funny because I had very little available to cook with for this diet, at least that was thawed out and ready to go. No eggs, bananas, cauliflower, flours, etc. So my sister, Montana, gave me the idea for the carrots, and I found the recipe for the pancakes that would work with the 4 eggs I did have left. Turned out pretty amazing, though! :)

Sunday, Oct. 5:
Breakfast: German pancakes with apples again!
Lunch: Yogurt with sliced almonds, honey, vanilla, strawberries, bananas, and/or peanut butter.
Dinner: Cauliflower soup, hamburger patties, sauerkraut, fermented carrots.

Snacks and desserts all three days - apples, applesauce made with honey, fruit, and pumpkin fat bombs - 1 c healthy fats, 1 c pumpkin, 3/4 c or so honey, vanilla, pumpkin pie kind of spices. Freeze. Soooo yummy! They taste like little pumpkin pies. :)

October 2 - Day 2

Today's a crazy day in my kitchen! Apples, apples everywhere! We're making as much applesauce as possible in one day with one mom, three big helper-kids, and two noisy babies (one of whom is teething right now, poor little bug.).

Last night I started some carrot sticks fermenting for future snacking! Hoping Julian will like these - he can't stand sauerkraut... Poor guy. He's having a tough time with the diet change. He lives for bread, and it's pretty rough on him to not be able to have it. Pretty much all he ate yesterday was apples and some sausage. Hopefully as we get his gut healthier he'll be more comfortable with all these healthy foods! He does seem to be doing better this morning; he LOVED the pancakes. "Can we PLEASE have these again tomorrow?!?" So Hooray for that! :D

I've decided to spend time in my kitchen each night before bed (after the kids are in bed) working on all my projects. :) Changing kefir grains as needed, starting new foods fermenting, making yogurt, etc. It's a great time for me to unwind from the day and get all that healthy food going. Last night Barry did dishes while I made the carrots. We had a wonderful time chatting. So much better than just vegging in front of a movie! <3

Breakfast:

• Banana Egg Pancakes (Banancakes) with Apple Honey Syrup
• Yogurt/Kefir Smoothies (yogurt, kefir cheese, honey, vanilla, strawberries, cocoa powder, frozen peaches, frozen bananas)   

 Lunch:

• Leftover Squash/Beet Soup with Sauerkraut
• Freshly made applesauce with honey and cinnamon (Yum!)
• Barry's lunch - an extra Kefir Smoothie from breakfast and lots of apples to snack on.  

Dinner:

• Soup made from short ribs (in crockpot all day with onions and celery), frozen roasted beets, and home-canned soup base (potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans and celery). 

Dessert & Snacks:

• Leftover healthy chocolate
• Apples, apples, apples!

6-week diet

I'm super excited to be starting a kind of diet, kind of cleanse with my family! We're going off of all sugar, grains, beans, cow milk products (except for Elanor & I), and really trying to boost our healthy gut flora with fermented foods, probiotics, and all kinds of other healthy stuff.

We decided to do it for six weeks. Partly because of cost, partly because of how overwhelming it seemed. :) So from October 1 - November 12, here we go! I want to keep track of what we eat each day, and of the recipes I use for future reference.

From depression to not sleeping well, from allergies to eczema, there are a lot of things wrong with us that I know start in the gut! I'll post some more tomorrow about more specifics where we're each at, and what we can or cannot eat. But for today, here's what we ate:

October 1 - Day 1!

Breakfast:

• Bacon
• Scrambled Eggs with Sauerkraut and Kefir Sour Cream as toppings
• Kefir Smoothies (kefir, raw eggs, honey, vanilla, cocoa powder, strawberries, and frozen bananas - BEST smoothie I ever, ever made!)

Lunch:

• Taco Salad - leftover shredded beef roast, lettuce, Kefir Guacamole (avocado, lime juice, salt, kefir cheese), and Beet Chips (beets dehydrated with olive oil, salt and garlic).

  
Dinner:

• Squash/Beet Soup (SO amazing!!! Followed this basic recipe, but added beets & garlic in with  the apples & onions for sauteing, and used kefir cheese instead of the heavy cream. Oh, and bacon grease instead of butter! It came out an electric red color that was FABulous! The picture does NOT do it justice!)
• Sauerkraut (in the soup)
• Kefir Sour Cream (also in the soup)
•  Sausage Patties (were good as a side or cut up & dropped in the soup)

Dessert:

•  Healthy Chocolate (coconut oil/sausage grease, cocoa powder, honey, and chopped almonds) - one of my favorite recipes! 1 cup of healthy fats, 1 cup of cocoa powder, 2/3 to 3/4 cup of honey, and then whatever else you want to add - peppermint or orange oil, coconut, vanilla, etc. Today's version with sausage grease and almonds is Barry's invention. :)