Real Foods Mom Blog

I now have my 'real foods mom' website up and running with several recipes/picture tutorials. Here is the website: http://realfoodsmom.wordpress.com/  

The other night I was talking with my mom and Scott and we were remembering when, about 4 years ago, the foods we fed our family were drastically different than what they are now. Most of our foods were not fresh and came packaged. Some common staple foods found in our fridge, pantry and freezer were: fishy crackers, hot dogs, Jif peanut butter, Dino Buddies(chicken nuggets), peanut butter crackers(the prepackaged kind with all the additives), and we went through a lot more white flour and white sugar then. In fact, I remember baking some sort of sugary treat every week. And so it's really not very surprising that our family was sick a lot during that time, too.

I would cook all different meals for dinner, but Elisabeth our oldest child and about 4-years-old, refused to try them and would only eat Dino Buddies. Scott suggested several times, that I stop buying Dino Buddies so that she'd try something else. At first I was hesitant because we make little children (our kids are always in the lowest percentiles at their doctor's visits) and I was afraid she would starve. I literally thought that if she didn't have Dino Buddies, she wouldn't eat anything. But I finally agreed and we stopped buying Dino Buddies. And you know what happened? At first she cried and whined and it was hard, but she got hungry enough that she started to try new things. I agree with Joel Fuhrman, the author of "Disease-Proof Your Child" when he said, "The trick is to adhere to this one most important rule: only permit healthy food in your home. Children will eat whatever is available. They will not starve themselves to death; they adapt easily and learn relatively quickly to like the food that is offered."

Because Elisabeth was older when we started introducing more whole and real foods, she was, and still is, our most challenging child when it comes to trying new things. But once she's tried the same food about 10-15 different times, she generally doesn't hate it anymore and many times she'll actually like it :). Through my, 'Real Foods Mom' blog, I will share real food recipes we've come up with that our family loves. My goal for now, since we have a newborn at home, is to post one recipe a week. Hopefully I'll be able to do more than that soon. I also hope to get comments from readers who are willing to share some of their favorite real food recipes and also any tips and advice they might have concerning whole foods.

Disease-Proof Your Child

A month or two ago I finished reading the book, Disease-Proof Your Child by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who is a family physician and specializes in nutrition based treatments(especially for obesity and chronic disease.). Like all the other health/diet/nutrition books I've read in the past, I really liked some things, and some things I just kinda go, "eh, I'm not so sure about that." But I'm glad I do that. I'm glad I don't take everything I read as the 100% truth, even if they are written by doctors and scientists. The only thing I've read and believe to be completely true and base everything else I read off that document is the Word of Wisdom which is found in Doctrine and Covenants section 89 (in the Book of Mormon). Fantastic stuff! And it's from God who knows everything so you know it's true. Anyway, back to this book. I typed up some notes as I read the book and then from that I narrowed it down to my favorites which you can read below. The sentences in bold are key things I really like.

I really liked what he had to say on picky eaters and how you can go about helping your kids and family to eat right, which summed up is basically to only keep healthy foods in your house. If you're going to have a treat, then go out and have a treat but don't bring it home. Okay, here you go:

Reforming the picky eater:

"Children are not responsible for their poor food choices- their parents are. Excluding those children with chronic illnesses or severe emotional disorders, a nutritionally poor diet is predominantly the result of misinformed parents and incorrect dietary choices." pg. 115-116

“When a family first brings their chronically ill child in to see me, I insist that the entire family come-- both parents and all siblings -- so that we can devise a new eating plan for the entire family. The focus is never solely on the ill child. For the ill child to recover, the crucial first step is for the entire family to make a recovery from their less than optimal diet style.” pg 117

“When the Petersons insisted, “josh won't eat fruits or vegetables,” I explained to them that all children would eat healthfully if shipwrecked. True hunger is difficult to deny. If faced with limited options, they will gleefully eat whatever food is available, without intellectual gymnastics to get them to.

It is not necessary to coax them to eat or to eat healthfully. In fact, battling about food with your child is counterproductive. The trick is to adhere to this one most important rule: only permit healthy food in your home. Children will eat whatever is available. They will not starve themselves to death; they adapt easily and learn relatively quickly to like the food that is offered"

Food Preferences Are Formed By One's Food Environment:

"Researchers studying children's food choices have found that the earlier in life the food is introduced, the more likely it will be favored. Parents have been shown to give up too easily when offering healthy food to their children. Keep offering the same food, even if your child rejects it. With persistence, it is likely they will eventually try it and even like it. One study showed that about 75 percent of parents gave up after five tries, while the research showed it took eight to fifteen times for children to accept a new food as familiar. Positive reinforcement, praise, and demonstration of family taste preference (showing your child how much you like it over an over) works better than forcing the child to eat it, and is better than bribing the child. Once the child does give it a shot, tasting the food again and again encourages an eventual favorable taste response.

Taste is a learned phenomenon – both children and adults like the foods they were raised on the best. What is most compelling is that a study shows that even the foods that mothers eat while pregnant and nursing affect what their toddlers will prefer.....Scientific investigations illustrate that children most often take on the eating habits of their parents. Research also indicates that adults who consume lots of fruits and vegetables are those who consumed lots of these foods during childhood.

What has been shown not to work is for parents to eat one way and force their children to eat a different way. In fact, parents who force dietary restraint on their children while they themselves eat unrestrainedly were shown to have an adverse effect that fostered the development of body fat on their children.

...Because toddlers have small stomachs and may choose to eat less at mealtimes, they should have access to snacks. Unfortunately, the most common snacks for toddlers are cookies, crackers, chips, milk and fruit drinks(not juice). A snack can and should be real food like fruit, vegetables, bean and nut dips, wholesome soups, and raw nuts.” pg 119

Don't Coerce Children to Eat:

When there is a true physiologic need for calories and when they are truly hungry, they will eat. You may be able to determine what they eat by what is offered or available in your home environment, but you have almost no ability to force your children to consume more food than their own internal drives them they need. It is especially difficult to get a baby or toddler to overeat. Most young ones will push food away when they are not hungry. By bribing, coaxing, tempting and teaching our little ones to constantly stuff down a few more bites, they are learning to ignore their body's correct hunger and satiation signals. Over time, and with the help of 'fake food' made with artificial flavors and concentrated sweeteners, it's very common for children to become chronic overeaters.

We are designed to consume a diet rich in natural plant fibers and micronutrients. This fiber (bulk) causes stretch receptors in the digestive tract to register that we have consumed enough food. When we eat processed food, which is high in calories and has little fiber, the body's natural satiation mechanism is fooled and we overeat. Appetite can also be driven by taste. The artificially high stimulation of taste with concentrated sweeteners and artificial flavors can make humans eating machines without constraints.” pg 120-121

“...when we are exposed to processed foods, the body's natural signals to stop eating are disturbed.” pg 124

“..the unnaturally high level of sugar, salt and artificially heightened flavors in processed(fake) foods will lessen or deaden he sensitivity of the taste buds to more subtle flavors, making natural foods taste flat.” pg 128

Protein Comparison Chart

Some people wonder how vegans and vegetarians get their protein. That's not a big surprise considering the large amount of money and influence in the meat and dairy companies. They're the ones who fund much of the health/nutrition education in schools. If you look at this chart you'll see that the first five items on this list, the items that have the most protein, are all vegetarian/vegan. Black beans, kidney beans, lentils, wheat gluten, etc. And peanut butter has more than most meats as well. I'm not 100% vegetarian(though I mostly don't like meat) but I thought this chart was good enough to share.

In Defense of Food

I recently read the book, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. The basic overarching theme of the book is to, 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'

I didn't like everything I read, as is the case with all health food books, but I did take some good notes on the parts I did like. From those notes, I gathered my favorite highlights and that's what this post is about. If you were curious about the book, but didn't want to read the whole thing, this post is for you. If you have no interest in health, stop here; this will just bore you.

When Pollan says 'eat food', he means that exactly. He says there are tons of food-like substances (processed foods with lots of different additives), but that we should eat real, whole foods. He gives some statistics and says Americans eat a lot more calories now than we did back in the 1980s. He says we eat by quantity not quality and that we manage to be "both overfed and undernourished, two characteristics seldom found in the same body in the long natural history of our species.”

Pollan says that the absence of nutrients in our bodies(that we get from plants) may counteract the normal feeling of satiety after enough calories are eaten.

In the third and last section of his book, Pollan gives some tips for choosing your foods. I copied the next few paragraphs word for word because I really liked it:

• "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize.

  "Imagine your great grandmother at your side as you roll down the aisles. You're standing together in front of the dairy case. She picks up a package of Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt tubes- and has no idea what this could possibly be. Is it a food or a toothpaste?...You could tell her it's just yogurt in a squirtable form, yet if she read the ingredients label she would have every reason to doubt that that was in fact the case. Sure, there's some yogurt in there, but there are also a dozen other things that aren't remotely yogurt like, ingredients she would probably fail to recognize as foods of any kind, including high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, kosher gelatin, carrageenana, tricalcium phosphate, natural and artificial flavors, vitamins, and so forth(and there's a whole other list of ingredients for the 'berry bubblegum bash' flavoring, containing everything but berries or bubblegum.) How did yogurt, which in your great grandmothers day consisted simply of milk inoculated with a bacterial culture, ever get to be so complicated?” pg 148-149

  “There are in fact hundreds of foodish products in the supermarket that your ancestors simply wouldn't recognize as food: breakfast cereal bars transected by bright white veins representing, but in reality having nothing to do with, milk; 'protein waters' and 'nondairy creamer'; cheeselike food stuffs equally innocent of any bovine contribution; cakelike cylinders (with creamlike fillings) called Twinkies that never grow stale. Don't eat anything incapable of rotting is another personal policy you might consider adopting.

  “One of the problems with the products of food science is that...they lie to your body; their artificial colors and flavors and synthetic sweeteners and novel fats confound the senses we rely on to assess new foods and prepare our bodies to deal with them. Foods that lie leave us with little choice but to eat by the numbers, consulting labels rather than our senses.

  It's true that foods have long been processed in order to preserve them, as when we pickle or ferment or smoke, but industrial processing aims to do much more than extend shelf life. Today foods are processed in ways specifically designed to sell us more food by pushing our evolutionary buttons- our inborn preferences for sweetness and fat and salt. These qualities are difficult to find in nature but cheap and easy for the food scientist to employ, with the result that processing induces us to consume much more of these ecological rarities than is good for us."
  

• "Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A)unfamiliar, B) unpronounceable, C) more than five in number, or that include D) high-fructose corn syrup."

And here's another short quote I liked which talks about the importance of eating meals together as a family.

“It is at the dinner table that we socialize and civilize our children, teaching them manners and the art of conversation. At the dinner table parents can determine portion sizes, model eating and drinking behavior, and enforce social norms about greed and gluttony and waste. Shared meals are about much more than fueling bodies; they are uniquely human institutions where our species developed language and this thing we call culture.” pg 189

Diagram:Effects of soda

I found this on my sister-in-law's blog awhile back. I think it's safe to say that you will do your body a big favor by staying away from soda.

Milk: does a body good?

First off, I would like to say that I don't think drinking milk is bad. I do think too many American adults drink too much of it. I personally don't drink milk. Not because I thought it would be unhealthy, but because I've never liked it. I'm sure when I was very young I drank milk, but I don't remember ever drinking milk by the glass, but rather pouring some in with my cereal. Now I use yogurt or almond milk in my cereal(granola).

Do you remember seeing commercials growing up with celebrities drinking milk and saying, "Milk. It does a body good."? I do. And we learned all growing up that milk is really good for us and will make us big and strong. Strong bones, right?

While reading 'The China Study', I found out that the meat and dairy companies do really, really well in the USA. They have millions of dollars(and not a few million, but more like over a hundred million) a year to spend on advertising. They also give a good amount of money and other products to schools and all sorts of other places to promote their products. They are pretty powerful. In the same study, it was Casein, Cow's milk protein, which was given to the rats in their studies and which, when given as 20% of their diet, was causing tumors and cancer.

I read this quote the other day:

“There is really no requirement for dairy products in the diet,” says Amy Lanou Ph.D., nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC. “The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets. The connection between calcium consumption and bone health is actually very weak, and the connection between dairy consumption and bone health is almost nonexistent.”

Interesting. I'm not sure this is 100% true, but maybe we don't need to drink as much milk as we thought we did.

Babies and young children need milk(and I don't mean soy or rice milk; those are not suitable for babies and they won't thrive on it; adults yes, babies no), which is why, I'm sure, Heavenly Father made our bodies to produce milk during that time of life. Babies and children need to get fat and build their muscle and brain power and milk is a good way to do it. I'm hoping to breastfeed Jane for awhile longer. Once I'm done, I'm hoping to find a local goat farm where I can buy raw goat milk, since it's a closer match to human milk and therefor not mucus forming like cow milk is. Though if that doesn't work out, I'll give her cow's milk. Jane also eats plain yogurt, daily. All of us eat plain yogurt(sweetened with stevia and many times with granola), and we go through about a gallon of cow's milk maybe every 2 weeks...less in the winter time if someone in the family has a runny nose because then we use milk that's not mucus forming to help get rid of it quickly.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I don't think milk is bad. But I also don't think it's really as great as some make it out to be, especially when consumed in really large amounts. Most of what we're drinking should be water. I want to end this post with a short article I read on the green smoothie girls blog recently.

"...we have to stop believing, as a culture, that drinking cow’s milk is some kind of insurance against osteoporosis. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world AND the highest dairy consumption! The other highest rates of osteoporosis in the world are the other highest dairy-consuming nations. (Perhaps this is partly because in North America and Europe, we don’t get enough bone-building Vita D from the sun—but clearly guzzling milk by the gallon isn’t helping us build strong bone.)

Some of the lowest rates of the disease are found in countries that consume NO dairy products, such as in African nations where it’s virtually unheard of.

Dairy products have calcium that is about 32% bioavailable to humans, whereas leafy greens are over 60% bioavailable. (Plus dairy products are mucous-forming, they are pasteurized to kill all the helpful enzymes, and full of bovine pus, antibiotics, and growth hormones.

An exception to all those problems is to buy raw, organic milk and make kefir or yogurt from it. The fermenting process breaks the proteins down and avoids the body’s reaction of producing mucous to flush it out.)

So if we need more useable calcium rather than more calcium, greens are the most bioavailable source. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record here, but greens cover a multitude of sins.

And let’s not forget about our soda-drinking habit. If we’re guzzling pop by the liter, we’re draining the bones of calcium because of the massive amounts of phosphorus the body has to work overtime to neutralize. Check out my sources in Ch. 1 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods: kids who drink sodas have three to four times higher risk of bone fracture than kids who don’t. Kids only gain bone mass for 20 years or so, so it’s a crime to let them drink soda. “You can’t recapture your youth” has another important meaning…..you get only once chance to build bone mass.

I can’t promise anybody they’ll reverse anything. That wouldn’t be ethical. Prevention is easier than reversal. But I will tell you that I get emails EVERY SINGLE DAY about exciting stories of chronic conditions reversing, using the practices I teach.

I often have readers of my blog say, when I see them in public, “Is it really true you wore glasses when you were 20 and now you have 20/20 vision at 43?” I don’t know if I have 20/20 vision, but I did 4 years ago when I was last checked. And I didn’t have surgery or any other corrective actions.

I don’t know why that happened except that I juiced or blended vegetable and green juices for years and now eat 20+ servings of vegetables, greens, and fruits every day.

You can take MSM, or chondroitin, or whatever, to reverse osteoporosis, but I don’t think the studies show impressive results. What I have much more faith in is food and good lifestyle practices. Don’t drink or smoke. Breathe fresh air, find ways to release stress like yoga, let go of anger and guilt and resolve your emotional issues, and drink lots of water."

The China Study and other thoughts on nutrition

I finished a book called, The China Study, this past week. It was very interesting. It's the most comprehensive study that's ever been done on diet and health. Reading and learning about the results was enlightening. The author has listed over 750 references in his book, many of which are primary sources from scientific publications.

For those of you who don't want to read the 300 page book, I'll give you a brief summary. First I want to give you a short background on the author. Dr. Colin Campbell,who has also authored over 300 research papers, grew up on a dairy farm and did his graduate studies in animal nutrition, wanting to learn how to make cows and chickens get bigger faster. During that time, he conducted lots of research, read lots of research and began to realize the error in his ways and what nutrition and diet really meant to our health. He significantly changed his views on food.

Dr Campbell says we need to be eating a more plant-based, whole foods diet. After conducting studies on rats over a long period of time and then going into areas all over China and doing lots of human blood and urine samples, watching diets etc, he found that if you eat about a 5% animal protein diet, you will be healthier and more disease free. If you eat closer to a 20% animal protein diet (which most American's do), you'll most likely end up having all sorts of health problems when you get into your middle and late years. Things like diabetes, cancer(breast, prostate and all the others), obesity, kidney stones, heart disease and many, many others can be prevented and fixed by a diet that is low in animal protein. They in fact injected Aflatoxin, a carcinogen, into a group of rats and then divided the rats into 2 groups. Group 1 they fed a diet with 5% animal protein. They were healthy and strong. Group 2 they fed a diet with 20% animal protein. They got fat, stopped running on their wheels and developed tumors and cancer. Then they went in and switched their diets. The rats who were dying with tumors, once they switched to the 5% animal protein diet, got rid of the tumors. They got slim and started running on their wheels again. And the opposite happened with the healthy ones. Once they changed their diet to 20% animal protein, they all got fat and developed tumors and cancer.

When they say 'animal protein' they mean not only meat but also cheese, ice cream, milk etc. In the study they conducted on the rats, they experimented with Casein, which is cows milk protein. I'm going to quote a little piece that sums up the main point:

“These findings demonstrate that a good diet is the most powerful weapon we have against disease and sickness....

“By any number of measures, America's health is failing. We spend far more, per capita, on health care than any other society in the world, and yet two thirds of Americans are overweight, and over 15 million Americans have diabetes, a number that has been rising rapidly. We fall prey to heart disease as often as we did thirty years ago, and the War on Cancer, launched in the 1970's, has been a miserable failure. Half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, and over 100 million Americans have high cholesterol.

“To make matters worse, we are leading our youth down a path of disease earlier and earlier in their lives. One third of the young people in this country are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Increasingly, they are falling prey to a form of diabetes that used to be seen only in adults, and these young people now take more prescription drugs than ever before.

“These issues all come down to three things: breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Good book. After reading it I decided I'd cook meat in one meal a week (which wasn't much different than before anyway), and that we'll cut back on dairy. We'd already switched to Almond milk so that's not a big deal, but cheese is going to be hard for us because we typically eat it every day. Eventually I'd like to get to doing 2 meals a week with dairy...but we're not quite there yet. Soon hopefully. I just need to test out some more recipes. I'm not going to include yogurt in with the typical dairy for several reasons which I won't take the time to list now. The book had some really good information. Though I'm sure it's also a book that would make people mad; you'll have to read it yourself if you want to know what I'm talking about. You should be able to find this book at your local library.

A couple of other random thoughts on nutrition:
1. I went to a whole foods class this past weekend at our local health food store. Robyn Openshaw, the Green Smoothie Girl, taught the class. I loved it. She pointed out that just because someone isn't overweight, doesn't mean they're healthy. It's important for even the naturally skinny ones to eat healthy so they can prevent developing different health problems in the future.

2. I like Billy Blanks. He's the Tae Bo guy. In one of his exercise dvd's called Insane Abs, he lists three things you need to do if you want to see your abs: the first two had to do with strengthening and toning muscles, but the third caught my attention. He says you have to eat to see your abs. Several times during that dvd he mentions how important it is to eat good foods if you want to see results. I was glad he said this because there are many people out there who say, "I ____(fill in the blank with run, play sports, swim etc), so I can eat whatever I want." I used to say that myself, but now it bugs me. I get what they're saying, but I also think there's more to health than just your size. I don't know about you, but I would still like to be healthy in my 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and so forth. Slowing down, yes. But still healthy.

After school snack

I make green smoothies every day. I've been doing this for the past 8-9 months. Even though they are called green smoothies, they are not always the color green; depending on the berries you add, sometimes they're purple or brown. They're called green smoothies because they have leafy greens inside-I usually use spinach and kale or chard. Today I put in beet greens that I had left over from making my Hot Pink Breakfast Smoothie. When I make our blender full of smoothie, I drink a couple of tall glasses and then I put the rest in jars for the family. Each person has their own jar with their name on it(Scott sometimes takes his to work). When Elisabeth gets home from school, her smoothie is waiting for her in the fridge and she has it as part of her after school snack. I only fill the kids jars about half full right now. They all like them pretty well so it works out nicely.

Top three reasons I love green smoothies:
1. We're healthier-we have had zero sick visits this year...not counting Annabelle's foot fracture and dislocated elbow, of course :). No colds, no ear infections, very few runny noses and a few of us got a 24 hour bug this year, but that was it. This is amazing for our family. It really is. Just a couple of years ago I remember telling friends that one of us always had something, even if that something was a runny nose. Now it's not so common!!! Also, along with being healthy, greens clean out your insides which many of us(meaning Americans) need to have done because of all the processed and junk food we eat.

2. More energy! The greens and fruits that go inside these smoothies provide SO many vitamins and minerals. It's no wonder we don't get very sick anymore. Instead of feeding the germs/illness in our bodies with sugar(which really, really slows down your immune system), we're making the white blood cells stronger so they can fight things off quicker. I feel so good most of the time and I'm no longer exhausted by 4pm, watching the clock during that last hour before Scott gets home. When I have energy the house is cleaner, meals are better prepared, I can think with more clarity and I'm happier which makes the whole family happier. :)

3. Weight loss. I say this for a couple of reasons. One, when you have more energy you can do more and you want to do more. I exercise every day, though that's not really a change for me; but either way, you have the energy to move around more. Two, and this has been the biggest help for me is that when you add drinking 32 oz of something to your day, something else has got to go because this will fill you up(don't forget that spinach along with many of the other greens, provide quite a bit of protein...Popeye ate spinach for a reason). It could be a breakfast or lunch replacement or a replacement for your snacks during the day. Also, all the fruits inside the smoothie leave you feeling very satisfied. Sometimes I'll save a little green smoothie for myself and drink it after dinner because it really helps to curb a sweet tooth....and we all know I have a sweet tooth; just look in my recipe section and back to old blogs to see for yourself :). And I'm not saying that I don't still have sweets, but a whole lot less often and the sweets we make in our house, we make with more natural sweeteners.

Drinking the green smoothie makes you feel good. Just like exercising makes you feel good. I personally think that when you feel good about yourself, it's easier to make good choices. When I exercise, I don't feel like eating junk food soon after. And the same is true the other way around. When you put junk in your body or when you are lazy, isn't it just that much easier to continue doing those things and to be down on yourself? Anyhow, these are a few of the reasons why we drink green smoothies daily.

Agave

There are opposing opinions about agave, as is with many things in life. I've read articles on both sides. This is a little bit of what I've gathered(for those of you who care):

1. Agave is a plant that is mostly grown in Mexico. They process it to make it into a syrup...kind of like making maple sap into syrup . (by processing all I mean is that they're bringing it to a temperature higher than 118 degrees. Some companies will keep it under this temperature so it will be raw).
2. Some of the agave companies in Mexico have gotten a bad rep because they were adding in high fructose corn syrup with agave to make it less expensive for them.
3. There are companies that don't do this(add HFCS) and their agave is natural and safe with no additives. You can read on the label of the agave you buy and it should say on there that it's certified, organic and USDA approved or something like that. Another good way to go is through a group buy...you just have to get a lot.
4. Agave is low on the glycemic index scale. Which is a good thing for controlling cravings. I've read that many doctors who have diabetic patients tell there patients to use agave for this very reason. Here's some more info from a website on the glycemic index that I found helpful. I've put the source at the bottom:

The glycemic index scale starts at zero and goes to 100. According to the University of Wisconsin Center for Integrative Medicine, foods that rate between zero and 49 have a low glycemic index, foods between 50 and 70 have a moderate glycemic index and foods that rate over 70 have a high glycemic index. A 2 tbsp. serving size of agave nectar has a glycemic index of 30, placing it in the category of low glycemic foods.

In addition to considering the glycemic index rating of agave nectar, another number you may want to consider it its glycemic load. According to the UWCIM, the glycemic load of a food takes into account the percent of carbohydrate contained in a food. Foods that rate between zero and 10 have a low glycemic load, foods between 11 and 19 have a moderate glycemic index and foods that rate over 20 have a high glycemic load. A 2 tbsp. serving size of agave nectar, according to All About Agave, has a glycemic load of 9.6, placing it just at the cutoff between low and medium. To calculate the glycemic load of any food, first find the number of carbohydrates the food contains by looking at food labels or a nutrition chart. Then, multiply this number by its glycemic index, and divide the total by 100.

The higher a food ranks on the glycemic index, the faster and more dramatic is its effect on blood sugar levels. You can use this information as a comparison to help you decide which foods to select and which to avoid. For example, compared to agave nectar's glycemic index of 30, table sugar comes in at 65 and honey is at 58. Factoring in the glycemic load reveals that agave nectar is a clear winner. Compared to agave nectar's glycemic load of 9.6, table sugar comes in at 15.6 and honey is at 19.7

http://www.livestrong.com/article/293527-what-is-the-glycemic-index-of-agave-nectar/

I use agave in some things I bake. I notice a difference in my body when I use agave rather than sugar. When I bake with agave I don't experience the cravings I do with sugar. I can have just one bite or slice of something and be done, rather than over doing it with sugary sweets. I don't feel like it's spiking my blood sugar though I do notice the spike with sugar and even with honey. Our bodies are different and will probably respond in different ways. You could try it for yourself and see how you like it. And that's all I've got for now.

My green smoothie baby

Remember how I said Jane wasn't loving solids. That was before we tried bananas and green smoothies. She LOVES them! Here she is drinking mom's green smoothie...I keep it in my Nalgene for easy access and so I know how much I'm getting. She doesn't really drink out of a straw, I just dip her baby spoon inside my Nalgene.


Her green smoothie beard:

Agave Pumpkin Bread

We made agave sweetened pumpkin bread this week and it was so soft, moist and yummy. We made 3 mini loaves and 15 muffins with this recipe. I froze some so that it'll last us a little longer. I also used a cup of white flour because my wheat flour ran out, Jane was sleeping and I didn't want to turn on the wheat grinder and chance waking her up while I was in the middle of baking. Here's the recipe:

Agave Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups pumpkin (1 15 or 16 oz. can)

1 1/2 cups agave

3/4 cup canola oil

2/3 cup water

4 eggs (or 1 1/3 cup egg substitute or egg whites)

3½ cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ginger

Steps:

Heat oven to 325°F. Grease two 9 x 5 or 8 x 4 inch loaf pans.In a large bowl or blender, blend pumpkin, Xagave, canola oil, water and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix remaining dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with hand mixer at low speed until all ingredients are moistened. Then beat for 1 minute at medium speed. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake at 325°F for 60 to 75 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool and serve.

You can find this recipe and others here: http://blog.xagave.com/agave-pumpkin-bread/comment-page-1/

Cranberry Vanilla Muffins

I've recently begun browsing through a website called onceamonthmom.com. I wouldn't ever do what she does exactly which is this: she spends 10-12 hours cooking and freezing everything she cooks, one day a month, eats out for lunch and dinner that day and sends her kids to a babysitter, then doesn't really cook the rest of the month but will warm up what's in the freezer. I do like to freeze foods and have them on hand for later, but this is a bit extreme.

The thing I really like about this website is that it has all sorts of recipes you can freeze and a menu that is seasonal, meaning the ingredients in the recipes for that month are things in season and generally, on sale. So instead of taking an entire day to cook and freeze, I try out some of these recipes occasionally, we'll eat a normal serving for dinner or breakfast and then I'll freeze the rest. If it's something my family loves, the next time I make it I'll probably double the recipe and freeze more.

Here is a recipe I tried this past week, though I made quite a few modifications. I'm going to post my modified recipe here because I really liked it and it's healthier for you. If you want the original recipe you can go look it up on her website. Also, as an FYI, just know that you can almost always substitute agave for sugar in baking. The measurement equivalents are 3/4 c agave to 1 cup sugar.

Scott and I really like these. The kids didn't care much for them after the first time they tasted them, mostly they didn't love the pieces of cranberry inside the muffin. But since that first day, they've had them several times and they like them much more now. A familiar saying within our home is, 'if you don't like it, give it at least 10 more tries(and on different days).' And usually, they end up liking the food. This muffin only took 2 or 3 taste tests before they liked it, so that's good.

With these muffins you can either thaw them in the microwave for 30 seconds, or you can put a few in a ziploc bag and in an hour or so they'd be ready to eat and still so yummy!

Cranberry Vanilla Muffins
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/8c agave

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 c nonfat Greek yogurt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 and 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 and 1/2 c whole wheat flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c milk

2 1/2 c fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 12-14 muffin cups with paper liners.

Mix vanilla and agave together in large bowl. Add the butter and Greek yogurt until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until smooth and fluffy. Fold in the cranberries.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake until the muffins are light golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12-14 muffins

Macaroni and bread sticks

Here are a couple of recipes we love. The macaroni and cheese recipe was one I found in my Deceptively Delicious book. The garlic bread recipe was one I made combining different recipes and making my own healthier modifications.

Macaroni and Cheese- Deceptively Delicious

2 c elbow macaroni

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp flour

½ c milk

½ c butternut squash or cauliflower puree

1 ½ c shredded cheddar cheese (about 8 oz)

4 oz (almost ¼ c) reduced fat or nonfat cream cheese

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the macaroni, and cook according to package directions until al dente. Drain in a colander.

While the macaroni is cooking, coat a large saucepan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add the oil, then the flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles a thick paste but has not browned, 1-2 minutes.

Add the milk and cook, stirring every now and then, until the mixture begins to thicken, 3-4 minutes. Add the vegetable puree, cheddar, cream cheese and seasonings and stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. Stir in the macaroni and serve warm.

Bread Sticks- Makes 18 bread sticks

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups warm water
  

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened

• 3 c white flour

• 1 c wheat flour
  

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1/4 cup white sugar (you can make it without sugar)

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds

• 2 tablespoons dry milk powder

• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

• garlic powder (about 2 tsp sprinkled)

• garlic powder and parsley flake mix

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix yeast and sugar in water in a liquid measuring cup. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. While waiting, combine dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add the water mix. Combine and knead for 5 minutes. Turn off oven. Put dough in a glass dish and place in warmed oven. Let stand 20-30 minutes.

2. Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment sheets.

3. Remove dough to a lightly oiled surface. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough up into 18 pieces. Roll each piece on an oiled board, from center of piece to the outside edges to form bread sticks. Place bread sticks at least 1 inch apart on the prepared pans.

4. Brush bread sticks with butter and sprinkle with garlic powder and parsley flakes.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Degrading, mind-numbing, time wasting....

I've always loved the story of Superman. I loved having a good, honest, virtuous superhero who helped others. Scott and I rented Lois and Clark some years ago, from the library, and watched all the seasons. They were fun and pretty clean for the most part. Scott and I used to be faithful watchers of the TV show Smallville. After finishing season 7(a few years ago), we decided we wouldn't watch it regularly. It was getting pretty violent and there was some other bad stuff occasionally too. Once season 8 finished airing on tv, we ended up renting it from the library and watching the whole season on dvd, fast forwarding the sketchy parts. Season 9 we didn't watch at all while it was on TV but one day I saw a preview online which showed they were starting season 10 and that it would be the final season of Smallville. 10 years of episodes coming to an end. Which means Clark Kent would learn how to fly and Lois and Clark would get together. I'd been waiting for this to happen for years! I started thinking, 'well we'll just go back and watch the last few episodes from season 9 and then we can start watching season 10, since it's the last one.' Well, season ten has lived up to it's violent reputation and I think has gotten worse. And there's other trashy material in so many different parts that we ended up going to other websites during the show and actually watching maybe half of it(we watch it online after it's aired so we can watch it at a more convenient time). Like Elder Hales said in the previous conference, there are some shows he'll never be old enough to watch. I felt this way while watching Smallville.

After last week's episode, Scott and I had a talk. We decided that it'd be best to stop watching it. Forever. Yes, I'm still curious as to what will happen in the end(though if you know the Superman story, we all pretty much know what will happen, right?) and when he'll fly, but I've decided that my curiosity is not worth having my mind filled with filth. And, I don't want the CW to get the wrong impression and think that I like all the trash that they're showing because my TV is on.

I had another bad experience with a show this week. Scott had to go into work one night from 10pm-1am to watch traffic where there's lots of construction going on. I thought I might try and wait up for him. So I went onto new.lds.org and read some conference talks and other things which was great. After awhile on there I thought I'd see if I could find a movie or something to watch online to kill some time. I had heard a couple people say good things about a show called Glee which had singing and dancing, and thought I'd give it a try. Wrong! It was SO bad. So, so bad. I snapped it off within the first couple of minutes because of how immoral it was and decided to just go to bed. So now Scott and I are back to watching zero shows again and you know what, I'm glad. We're so busy already that having a regular show each week felt like a complete waste of time, especially when the shows regularly have that, 'one bad part'. It reminded me of the many talks that were given in general conference about being careful of entertainment that is 'coarse, degrading, violent, mind-numbing, and time wasting.' It's so nice to have latter day apostles and prophets who know what we're up against these days and give us continual guidance and counsel.

LikenTheScriptures DVD

While my brother and his wife were visiting with their family, one Sunday afternoon they pulled out a couple of 'Liken' dvds for us to watch. We'd never seen them before, and we all loved them! Since the only media we watch or listen to on Sunday is gospel oriented, I thought this would be a good one for us to own. We bought Samuel the Lamanite and we got another Liken dvd which we'll save as a gift to the kids for Christmas. The kids love to watch these, they are entertaining, lots of songs, some dancing and they all teach scripture stories and have good modern day messages. It's so cute to hear Annabelle walking around the house singing, "All's well in Zion! All's well in Zion!" If you want to watch a short clip of Samuel the Lamanite, click on this link , scroll down, click on 'Samuel the Lamanite' and watch the one that says, 'introduction'. You can buy them from this website, right now they're on sale and you can buy the dvd and cd for $15 total. You can also find them at some Walmart stores in Utah and then you won't have to pay shipping. They also sell them for $15 but they don't come with the cd soundtrack.

Canned salsa and tomatoe sauce

We've had quite a few tomatoes turn red over the past few weeks. I've made several batches of fresh salsa, and given quite a few to our neighbors who don't have a garden, but even then, we still had too many leftover. This past week Scott and I canned 12 pint jars of salsa and made 6 c of freezer tomato sauce. This is my first time canning salsa and I wanted to know if it was any good. We opened one of the jars the other day and finished it within 24 hours. Elisabeth LOVES it, though she's always been our salsa and all-foods-Mexican lover. Must be the Mexican from my side of the family coming out. Here's the recipe if anyone else wants to give it a whirl. Just be warned, it takes hours. From start to finish, it took us probably 3-3 1/2 hours to do the salsa. The freezer tomato sauce is a lot less labor intensive(you don't have to chop up loads of onions, chiles, etc), but I let it simmer on the stove and boil down for probably 6 hours. I think next year I'd like to do 24 jars of salsa because I don't see how this is going to last us through the winter. It won't. We'll just have to supplement with store bought salsa, it's just not nearly as yummy as our home garden salsa.

Chile Salsa (Canned salsa)

10 c peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes

6 c seeded, chopped chili peppers(use a mix of hot and mild Anaheim, Ancho, College, green jalapeno, Serrano, habanera, etc...I didn't do this many cups because we didn't have that much from our garden. Instead I used 7 serranos and 2 bell peppers. It could've been a little spicier)

4 c chopped onions

1 c vinegar (can substitute lemon juice)

3 tsp salt (not iodized)

½ tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

To peel tomatoes place tomatoes in boiling water for 30-60 seconds or until skins split. Dip in cold water, then slip off skins and remove core and seeds. Follow recipe exactly, DO NOT increase amounts of peppers or onions. Combine ingredients in a large saucepan. Heat to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle hot into pint jars, leaving ½ inch head space. Adjust lids, and process in a water bath: 15 min at 0-1000 feet altitude, 20 minutes at 1,001-6,000 ft, 25 minutes above 6,000 feet.

Yield: 6 to 8 pints

The truth about chicken nuggets

I found this on my friend April's blog and thought it was interesting enough to share. It's pretty gross. We don't eat fast food or store bought chicken nuggets on a regular basis, but even then, this is still gross and makes me want to cut it out forever. I have a home made recipe that we all like pretty well, but I want to give this one a try too.

Dinner Diva
Chicken Nuggets
By Leanne Ely, C.N.C.

Admittedly, it doesn’t take much to get my nutritional feathers ruffled. I’ve seen a lot of things that have made me crazy over the years and you’ve heard me harp on them—from “healthy” whole wheat donuts to artificial sweeteners, Olestra and acrylimide. I’ve sang the siren’s song about good nutrition and what I believe too, to be common sense nutrition. Why would we drink something, in the name of quenching our thirst, that looks like toilet bowl cleaner or antifreeze?

Anyway, today I stop singing and start sounding the alarm. We absolutely must stop the madness that is fast food. We absolutely must stop the madness and the obesity and the rise in degenerative diseases. We are raising an unhealthy generation because we feed this junk to our kids! PLEASE STOP!

I know there are attempts at some fast food places to do better. As Oprah says, “When you know better, you do better.” Well, today you are going to know better about chicken nuggets, because today, I am going to tell you all I know about them.

First, McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets contain 38 ingredients. Yes, THIRTY EIGHT ingredients! Some of those ingredients are things you wouldn’t give to your DOG. Some of those things, you could use to start a fire—well, almost. Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) is a derivative of petroleum that is sprayed on the nugget or in the box that holds the nugget to keep it fresh. TBHQ is also a derivative of butane, also known as lighter fluid. It is furthermore a suspected carcinogen—cancer-causing agent.

The batter is set in shortening (hydrogenated oils) and in turn, it is cooked in partially hydrogenated oils at the restaurant. Some of the additives in there are antifoaming agents, emulsifiers, leavening agents, preservatives, fillers and binders. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it? Something you’d want to feed your kids?

The nuggets themselves contain 53% chicken. You wanna know what that 53% chicken is? I promise you it isn’t nice white chicken breasts! If you find those nuggets spongy and watery it’s because the chicken meat and skin is ground into a slurry, binders and fillers are added, plus lots of water, then formed into neat little nuggets.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ILL. Why do we manufacture stuff like this and then call it food? Where’s the value in it?

Please, for the children’s sake and for your own health’s sake, let’s stop this craziness with the food. It’s time to get back to basics and only eat food that is 100% identifiable. If you don’t know exactly what went into what you’re eating, you’re making a mistake. Our bodies do not need to contend with more pollution than what is already in our environment.

Here’s a quick and easy alternative to chicken nuggets:

Crunchy Honey Mustard Chicken Fingers
Serves 4

1 pound chicken tenders
1/4 cup honey, warmed
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 cup corn flakes, crushed

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a small bowl, mix mustard and honey together. In another bowl, place the crushed corn flakes.

In assembly line fashion, dip the chicken tender in the mustard mixture, then roll in the corn flakes and place on the cooked sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, or when cooked through.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Poundcake

We made this dessert and ate it as our Family Home Evening treat this week. It was yummy. I found the dessert in the book, The Kind Diet. They use maple sugar and maple syrup as the sweeteners. I changed a couple of things in the recipe since I'm not vegan and will eat things like eggs and butter.

As a side note, I've been doing more of my own recipe modifications when it comes to sugars. Instead of using a cup of sugar, I'll use a teaspoon of stevia or 2/3 c agave. I use agave in more baked goods like my breads and things. I've substituted stevia for the maple sugar in my granola recipe which will make it a lot less expensive and is still really yummy.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Poundcake
serves 8-10

1 c whole wheat flour
1 c flour
1/3 c maple sugar
2 tsp egg replacer (I used two eggs)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt
½ c soy, rice or nut milk (I used regular milk)
¼ c fresh lemon juice
½ c safflower oil (I used ½ c butter)
½ c maple syrup
1 tsp lemon extract
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

Lemon maple glaze: (we made this lemon glaze. I think next time around I'll use a little less lemon juice).
½ c maple syrup
½ c lemon juice
2 tsp kuzu, diluted in a little bit of cold water

Berry glaze:
1 bag frozen berries, thawed
Maple syrup to taste
vanilla to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil the pans (you can use 3 mini loaf pans, a muffin tin, or 4 mini bundt pans).

Combine the flours, sugar, egg replacer, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the milk with the lemon juice and set aside for a few minutes; it will look curdled. Whisk in the oil, syrup, and lemon extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir just until combines. Fold in the poppy seeds.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans, and bake for 15-25 minutes (mini loafs and muffins take about 15-18min; loaf and bundt pans take 20-25 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pans on a baking rack.

If using the lemon maple glaze, combine the syrup and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the diluted kuzu, and continue stirring until the glaze comes to a boil. Simmer for 1 minutes. Drizzle over the cake and serve.

If using the berry glaze, whiz the berries in a blender with the syrup and vanilla to taste. Drizzle over the cake and serve.

Taquitos

This recipe came from the book, Deceptively Delicious. In the book they're called, "tortilla cigars". I didn't like that name, and since they look like taquitos, I thought we'd change their name. Basically a cheese and chicken quesadilla, rolled up on half a whole wheat tortilla. Yellow squash and carrots are the hidden purees. I had just pureed some squash this weekend that I got from our local garden share(I love garden shares. Brilliant!). And I had some frozen carrot puree from a few months back. My kids LOVED these. Elisabeth and Charles each ate several and during dinner they kept saying things like, "good job mom!", "these are so good!" "this is my new favorite dinner." and "we should make these every day!" Hearing things like that is rare and so rewarding. I don't know why I didn't think to try these earlier since I know they love tacos and burritos(which reminds me: "taco, burrito, what's comin' outta your speedo, you've got trouble, whew! You're blowin' bubbles, whew!" Anyone know what I'm quoting from? Scott, you can't guess. You're all going to think I'm crazy, but it just popped into my mind and I couldn't help myself). Here's the recipe with a couple slight modifications:

Taquitos

1 c shredded, cooked chicken

½ c grated cheddar cheese

½ c yellow squash puree

½ c carrot puree

4 oz cream cheese

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp salt

6 burrito size whole-wheat tortillas

optional: I substitute 1 c cooked black beans for the chicken

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. In a large bowl, stir together the chicken, cheese, squash and carrot purees, cream cheese, garlic powder and salt. Cut the tortillas in half(pizza cutter makes things easy). Place one half on the work surface with the straight edge facing you. Spread about 2 Tbsp of the filling along that edge from one side to the other. Starting at the edge, roll the tortilla into a taquito shape, completely enclosing the filling. Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Stuff and roll the rest of the tortillas the same way. Bake until the tortillas begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

Armor of God

Elisabeth cut out a picture in the Friend magazine of a boy all dressed up in cardboard armor. On his shield was written (in crayon) CTR or Choose the Right. I knew the kids would love to have some CTR shields of their own so for Family Home Evening this week, we made our Armor of God. We didn't make all of the armor as it was a little time consuming, just shields and swords. We read from D&C 27, verses 15-18 about, "putting on the whole armor that ye may be able to withstand the evil day....taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked...and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you...and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also."