Creamy Tomato Soup

• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups beef bone broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add flour & stir to blend.

Add undrained tomatoes and broth to saucepan. Turn heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Stir constantly until slightly thickened.

Transfer soup to a blender in batches and puree until smooth. Return soup to pan, stir in cream and cook over low heat, until heated through. Do not bring soup back to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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The peanut gallery ratings on a scale of 1-10, 10 being da-bomb-diggety:

• Hubba gave it a 8-9
• 14 year old said 10
• 11 year old said 9.9
• 7 year old just scrunched up his nose & tried not to swallow it (but I'm used to that!!!)
• Mom gives it an 8.5

Pumpkin Farina

1 cup farina
2 cups milk (or non-dairy alternative)
2 cups water
1/4 can pumpkin (about 4 oz)
1/2 t cinnamon
2-4 T sweetener (suit to taste)

Bring water & milk to a boil. Whisk in farina reducing heat to medium-low. Whisk in the remaining ingredients. Simmer about 40 minutes or until desired thickness whisking often. If your farina gets too thick, you can add more liquid.

The peanut gallery said this is the "perfect" amount of pumpkin. We made pumpkin rice cereal once & the pumpkin was overkill. They all drooled & asked for 2nds. The peanut gallery consists of 3 boys ages 14, 10 & 7.

Life Lately...

I wasn't sure what to title this post, but it's been several months in the making. We've been so busy around here lately, so many new things, so many changes. The end of last summer, I took on a very part time job. I also decided that when my daycare girl went to school, I would no longer be watching children on a long-term/permanent basis. School began the end of August & my hours at my job increased. In November I began another rep job. December brought an unpaid promotion to Hubba, where he took over the department in which I was working. Policy states that family cannot work directly for each other, so I put in my notice, and as of now, I am just working my rep jobs.

This is totally ok, though, as we also decided to put our house on the market. Repairing, redecorating & renovating a house to stage for market is a full-plus-overtime job, and it can be very overwhelming. By leaving my job, I have freed up 20 hours of my week. The kids are so happy to have me home again, too. It was surprising that even my teenage boy was unhappy with me working. He dealt with it, because he is old enough to understand, but he thinks me not working there anymore is like sliced bread, LOL.

I've been logging some of our progress on facebook, and you can view the pictures here.

Christmas was an amazing time. We spent it, just the 5 of us, at home. The boys were amazingly spoiled. We got a Wii for the family & 2 of the boys got a PSP & a Nintendo DS Lite. Keenan celebrated his birthday a week ago, & he also got a DS for his birthday.

This past Saturday I went to a freezer cooking class, aka Once-a-month-cooking (OAMC). Everyone I told about the class ahead of time laughed at me. Apparently I don't need cooking classes. I know I don't need it, but I had this fluky moment of "I WANT to do this." It was my first Saturday as a "free woman." I used the class for many reasons- weaning off of having something to do on Saturday, fellowship with like-minded people but mainly for inspiration. See, I love OAMC, but hadn't done it in a while. Knowing the overwhelming things happening in our lives right now, I went for inspiration. We need freezer meals right now. We need to know that there are meals ready for us just as quickly as pizza would arrive on our doorstep.

Sure enough, the inspiring part kicked in, and this past Tuesday I added 16 family meals to the freezer, along with 9 individual meals for Hubba to take to work. I love opening the freezer & seeing so many wonderful options in there. I love opening the freezer & thinking- tonight we will NOT order pizza.

So now I've freed up a couple of things to help with our transition- 20 hours a week & a few meals for the super busy days. We have so much to do. Some days I walk around in circles, because I don't know where to begin that day. One of our biggest issues is storage. When staging a house, you can't have boxes stacked everywhere. 2 of the storage properties I've called are full, and another hasn't returned my phone calls. Another place I was looking into, I found out, has horse stalls (more or less), so there's no privacy or security (yeah I thought "HUH?" too!). It's time to think outside the box on this one, and I have a couple plans.

So that's what's going on here in a very.small.nutshell. I don't have a lot of time, so I'll sign off with this for now, and I hope to "see" you all soon!

Creamy Fruit Dip

8oz cream cheese, kefir cheese or labneh (yoghurt cheese), at room temperature
1/3 c sour cream, plain yoghurt or creme fraiche, at room temperature
2-4 T raw honey or agave nectar
1 t vanilla extract

Add cream cheese, sour cream & vanilla to stand mixer. Use the whisk attachment to blend until well-combined. Drizzle in your honey or agave. While running the mixer, blend until light & fluffy. Store in refrigerator. This is good on sweet crackers & served with fruit for dipping.

Ranch Dressing/Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk or dairy kefir
1/2 cup sour cream, crème fraiche or plain yoghurt
2 T minced onion
1/2 t dried oregano
1 t dried parsley
1/2-1 clove minced garlic
1/4 t paprika
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t each salt & pepper or to taste

Combine all ingredients. Mix well. Leave at room temperature 7 hours (If you've already fermented your mayo, skip this step). Chill before serving (If you fermented your mayo, and you are not leaving at room temp for 7 hours, be sure to chill for at least 2 hours to allow the flavours to mingle).

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

4-6 slices bacon
1 pound sprouts, ends cut off & halved
1 medium onion, diced
3T oil (butter, coconut oil, rice bran oil, olive oil, etc)
1/2-1 t garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Fry onions & bacon til crisp & browned oil (I used CO). Add salt, pepper & garlic powder, toss with halved brussel sprouts, mix to coat the sprouts in oil & spices. Roast til browned.

I baked mine 45m at 350º

My oldest son said these taste like egg roll filling. This past Thanksgiving was the first year I was able to get him to actually EAT, not one, but 2 servings of them. Each year past, I've been able to feed a single taste to a scrunched up nosed face.

Can you say SCORE!?!?!

Glazed Sugar & Rosemary Pork Loin

Mix together

1/4 c brown sugar
1 t dried rosemary
1/4 t nutmeg
1 T apple cider vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Rub all over a large pork loin (mine was probably 3-4 pounds). Set crockpot to low & cook 7-8 hours.

Coconut Curry Rice with Butternut Squash

1 quart bone broth (chicken or rabbit, preferably)
2 cups rice
1/2 cup butternut squash puree
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 t curry powder

Bring stock to a boil. Add rice, curry powder, puree & coconut milk, lower heat & cover. Cook 45 minutes (20 minutes if you're using white rice), stirring occasionally.

Tuesday Twister

I am finally getting around to posting a Tuesday Twister, hosted by Wardeh at GNOWFGLINS.

After a rough year & a very rough summer, I jumped in the kitchen, after the whole family came down with a stomach bug & decided I HAD to get back on the wagon. And.stay.there.

On Thursday I got my act together & did water kefir, dairy kefir & kombucha.

We've also fallen in love with the egg drink. It's made the table regularly in an effort to cram as many nutrients in as possible. I've also added trace minerals, powdered vitamins & powdered greens to it, to pack more of a punch.

Yesterday was stuffed jalapenos for the freezer (after we snacked on a few).

A few other things we've worked on the past few days:

I cut up 2 heads of red cabbage. I pulled out 8 cups to make a double batch of coleslaw. Coleslaw is a semi-rare treat around here. This was SO pretty going together!!




The rest was layered in a 9x13 pan with salt & whey for kraut.



I also decided to try escabeche after seeing this recipe. It went into cold storage yesterday. It smells absolutely YUMMY! I'm looking forward to trying it! Again, this was so colourful & pretty!




Dinners started out bland after being sick. Chicken & rice; beef short ribs, mashed potatoes & watermelon (we've had a LOT of watermelon this past week to help combat dehydration); and yesterday we were able to eat spaghetti. I still have some cheats in my kitchen until my energy returns, but as it does, those cheats slowly will be weaned away again. Thankfully those cheats are organic, HFCS-free, natural, etc.

And totally off topic & not in the kitchen, I couldn't resist showing you this picture. We are loving this little critter.

Yesterday I rocked the kitchen along....

As well as recuperation would allow!!

I rinsed & fed my cold storage water kefir grains....... After severely neglecting them.....


I finally rebatched my water kefir....... after severely neglecting it


I f.i.n.a.l.l.y got around to making a new batch of k-tea.....


.....after SEVERELY neglecting my last batch. I'm so ashamed. No, wait. Nevermind, I'm not ashamed. I think this one is funny!!!


I revamped my dairy kefir grains & hope for dairy kefir later today or tomorrow. These ones weren't TOO severely neglected, thank you very much!

Filipino Chicken Adobo

I found this recipe on a forum I was a member of quite some time ago. It is delicious served with rice. I like to double the sauce ingredients so we can ladle it over the rice.

3# chicken thighs
3 crushed garlic cloves
3 bay leaves
peppercorns (about 12-15, your preference)
1 c vinegar
1 c water
1/2 c organic soy sauce
2 T sugar
S&P to taste

Place chicken in a heavy bottomed pan. Add remaining ingredients. Cover & bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium/medium-low. Simmer til liquid has thickened, and chicken is cooked. Remove bay leaves, & serve over rice.

Thank you Hunt's brand!

I had heard that Hunt's ketchup had gone back to a HFCS-free ketchup. While in the store a couple days ago, I saw it with my very own eyes. I'm very excited about this. While I know that Hunt's ketchup is still not the perfect food (neither is the organic stuff that's processed), this is one of our "compromise foods."

If you enjoy a HFCS-free diet, or you like ketchup, please send Hunt's an email showing your appreciation!
I did:

"I wanted to thank you for going back to a HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) free product with your ketchup. I had been buying organic ketchup, as in my area, it was the only ketchup I could find with no HFCS. HFCS-free foods are extremely important to our family. Thank you so much for making this change. We will be able to purchase Hunt's ketchup & do so more affordably now that we don't *have to* buy organic."

Sunflower Seed Butter

I don't eat a lot of nut butters. I do like cashew butter. The problem with them is the nuts are not soaked. Soaking is a vital part of healing cavities, as well as overall health. This includes nuts & grains. Sunflower seeds do not have to be soaked from what I'm told & from what I can find on the subject. The only other nut I have on hand is walnuts, and since I wanted to make something now, I went with sunflower seeds. Before I go to bed tonight, I will (hopefully, if I remember) set some walnuts to soak.

Here's how I did my sunflower seed butter:


Sunflower Seed Butter

• 1 cup raw shelled sunflower seeds
• 2-4 T light oil (olive oil, rice bran oil, etc. I advise against coconut oil in this recipe, as it will be stored in the refrigerator & will become rock solid & unspreadable)
• pinch of salt

Blend seeds in blender or processor until ground well. You want almost a powder form. If you can attain a powder form, even better. Once your seeds are (close to) powdered add salt, and slowly stream your oil in while your blender is running. Add enough oil to your desired consistency. Store in a glass jar in your refrigerator. Makes about 3/4 cup.

All of the recipes I've seen called for a sweetener. Personally, I think raw sunflower seeds are sweet enough on their own, and I chose to forgo the sweeteners. This will also help in the healing of cavities.

Momma's Dental Healing Smoothie

Refrigerate the following ingredients, so your smoothie is cold without having to water it down with ice. This makes about 5 cups of smoothie.

2 cups plain yoghurt or mild dairy kefir
1 large avocado, cut into chunks
2 large bananas, cut into chunks
1 packet of powdered stevia
4 pastured eggs

Add all ingredients to blender & blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Mango Smoothies

Quick, easy & sure to please. These super thick & creamy smoothies are not overly sweet. My kids scraped the sides of their glasses with spoons (After making Tropsicles, our local grocery put mangoes on sale 2/$1, so I grabbed 8. I've used 4 for the Tropsicles & found myself tiring of making them, so I decided to go with the basic recipe I linked & try smoothies.). As the kids said "Make.a.gain....."

So I have to "write it down:"

Mango Smoothies

1 can coconut milk
1 mango cut into chunks
1 large banana cut into chunks
7 ice cubes

Put everything but ice cubes into blender. Blend until smooth. Add ice cubes and blend well. Serve in glasses. Add a spoon. You'll need one :D

Garlic Dill Mayonnaise

This stuff is so good, I could eat it with a spoon..... No seriously, I just did.


Garlic Dill Mayonnaise

• 1 small clove garlic chopped
• 1-2 T freeze dried dill (suit to taste)
• 1 pastured egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 pastured egg, room temperature
• 1/2 t real salt
• 1 t yellow mustard
• 2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 c light oil (extra light olive oil, rice bran oil, etc. You may sub up to 1/4 c coconut oil, melted & cooled, but this tends to chill rock hard in the fridge)

Place all ingredients in blender except oil. Blend until light & fluffy, about a minute. Slowly add oil while blending. Once all your oil is added, scrape sides of blender, and blend about 30 seconds longer. Scrape sides of blender again & mix with a rubber spatula. Scrape into a clean glass jar (Since it's dill, I used a dill pickle jar, LOL). Allow to mingle a couple of hours before using either in the fridge or on your countertop. Store in the fridge.

Keeps about 2 weeks.

Tropsicles..... (Tropical popsicles)

Bestill my heart!!!

I saw a very basic popsicle recipe. So I was going to do it.... Then I started adding more & more stuff.... If these babies are as good frozen as they are by the spoon, I'm in.big.trouble.....

Tropsicles (Tropical Popsicles)

• 1 14oz can coconut milk
• 1 large banana, cut into chunks
• 2 medium mangoes, peeled & cut into chunks
• juice of 1 lime (and any pulp from juicing)
• 2-4T honey (depending on your taste & the size of your lime/amount of lime juice)

Add all ingredients to your blender. Blend & freeze in popsicle molds.

What a glorious shopping day!

Even if things did go a bit awry.

Let me tell you- Azure Standard ROCKS!!! The last 6 orders that were loaded onto the truck, the printer died, so there were no invoices. Of course, that's not why they rock..... That stinks, to be quite honest. So when Kyle (fabulous driver) shows up neither of us know how many cases I'm supposed to be getting. Here's the turn of events.....

• I'm sick, have 0 energy, have 2 people coming to help with the drop (1 of them I arranged at the last minute because I knew I couldn't handle it even with *D* there). I arrive 10m early, and he's already there. Um.... it's just he & I...... We (Kyle & I) load the stuff into my truck. He rocks.
• I call *D* to tell her to go ahead & head to my house, he was early, we're done (my kids are at home & they know her, so I wasn't sending her to sit by the curb). Her stuff is sitting on the ground next to my truck, and *M* shows up, so she helps me get the rest of *D's* stuff into the truck. We chat for a couple, I head home.
• Get home
• Get on Azure to print invoices from the drop point manager
• Drop manager refuses to load.....
• And refuses to load.....
• Go back to garage & call Azure
• HAND WRITE 3 people's worth of orders so we can separate them
• Run back in to check something......Drop manager has loaded
• Print previously hand written lists for double checking. Good thing, too, we had a couple things wrong that the lady at Azure missed.
• Realise we're missing a WHOLE BOX of frozen items
• Remember, we had no case count......
• My corn, 2 gals' bison & another gal's roast.....
• Call Azure to let them know. Spend awhile on the phone giving order numbers & lists of items missing. The 3 of us missing items will be credited
• Call Kyle (awesome driver) to let him know what happened & ask him to keep an eye out

Thankfully that ordeal is over, but I was so frustrated. I've been wicked sick for a few days. I was ready to cry BEFORE I left to get the order, and poor *D* was so patient (bless you, *D*, I know you'll be reading this soon). I told her when *I* did the orders it took an hour max..... No seriously, it did. As soon as I have help, the time doubles??? LOL

The good news is, the Boys are happy to have hot dogs in the house again..... and dried papaya..... and organic raisins..... and..... well, here are the pics of the Azure Standard order. Not pictured are the hot dogs, as they were in the freezer. And my corn.... obviously. NO CORN!!!!! *cries* They were also out of the kids' vitamins I ordered & the organic corn chips. I already knew those weren't coming, so I wasn't expecting those. BUT MY CORN *wails in tears again*

25# brown rice, 25# organic cornmeal, 50# raw sugar

1# raw walnuts (*M* & I bought a 2# bag to split, they are in the rubbermaid container), 2 of the 3 bags of organic chips (we opened a bag- YUM!), 5# organic raisins, 1 gallon Biokleen cleaner, 1 gallon rice bran oil & in the jars are organic kelp granules & dried papaya strips.

Then I realised we didn't have any hot dog buns, so off to shopping we go. We stop at the discount grocery store to see what they have..... I bought 5 packages of their baked in-house breads of various kinds. We decided to go with these yummy little dinner rolls they offer & cut the hot dogs in half for mini-dogs.

And came home with all this.....



I also scored some Hansen's sodas for the kids, some organic applesauce cups, and lest you think we are this perfect little TF family..... A little something for Hubba (if I don't buy it he will. Steak sauce is on my to-learn-make-do list though).....


I have yet to put away all the groceries we got today & I'm already drooling over, highlighting & dog-earing this:


Hopefully in a couple days, I will be able to blog good news about corn, vitamins & corn chips.

Our want to try list- Produce

This past payday we tried starfruit. I took this post (in my head) when I went grocery shopping. It was actually kind of ironic, because a few days before I read Amy's post, I'd added 4 new recipes to my shopping list at All Recipes dot com.

Then I realised how many things the kids had asked me to buy to try while we were in the store. Now, we've tried many new things, especially since going whole/traditional foods. But there is SO much more out there!!! I couldn't find kumquats, but after reading the above post, those were on my hit list..... Recently we've tried the starfruit, as well as blood oranges, different types of squash and a variety of sweet potatoes. I am a SUCKER when the kids ask for healthy items. I am the type of Mom that can say no to anything & not feel a smidge of guilt......

Except healthy items- fresh produce, olives, pickles, cheeses, real (fresh) juices, fresh fish, ingredients for certain recipes, etc. Cakes & cookies & chips, I can say no to & not.bat.a.lash....

Here's the conversation I was having with KerryAnn:

stonythorn: Maybe we'll do coconut next payday. I figure I can squeeze one new thing in each payday
stonythorn: coconut, then maybe red bananas
stonythorn: the boys think those & baby bananas are cool
stonythorn: then jicama (for cookies)
stonythorn: I should write a list

So...... here I am. Writing a list.....

• Kumquats
• Coconut ( the boys -mostly Tris- want one. I've had them. My Dad used to scale trees in FL and toss them down to us)
• Red bananas
• Baby bananas These were so gross. They are so beyond sickeningly sweet & taste more like sugar than bananas.
  
• Jicama
• Key limes
• Plantain
• Pomegranate (I've tried pomegranate, the kids have not)
• Kale (fried kale chips, yum)
• Honeydew melon (again, I've tried it, the kids have not)
• Patty pan squash (getting some seed this year for the garden- YAY!!!)
• Romanesco Italia Broccoli (getting some seed this year for the garden- YAY!!!)

I'll add to the list, and I'll cross off from this list as I think of more, or as we try them.

What's new on your palate these days?

My how they reproduce!!!

I am changing the post date on this to keep it at the top. The interest has been phenomenal, so I want to be sure everyone has a chance to see it. Please scroll down for newer blog posts!!

I have been doing water kefir now for several months. My kids particularly love the "apple soda" I make. I finally figured out the way to make my grains reproduce like no other..... The only bad part (for me) is that I have LOADS of them now.

So, not bad for you, I'm offering dried grains at $6.50 a batch shipped (in the US. Ask about international shipping). My grains are only grown in raw sugar with filtered water & my own pastured eggs shells. Occasionally I add organic raisins, sometimes not. My grains have been coming out HUGE. The dried grains have a brown tint to them. This is because of the raw sugar I use. You will receive 2 heaping teaspoons of dried grains & instructions on how to brew them, along with my apple soda recipe!

If you wish to take me up on this offer, please leave a comment with your email address (my comments are moderated & any comment that includes an email address, I will not publish). Include in your comment your email address & that you are interested in the grains. I will send you my paypal information, and let you know the the availability of grains.

If you have rec'd ferment starters from me in the past, I would love if you left a comment with your testimonial. Feedback for me, so to speak!