HEALTHIER LIVING

ok-this post has been in my "file" box for 2 months now! just keep adding pics and trying to find time to write!

Over the last year or so I've been striving to make better, healthier choices for my family...especially in the area of food.

I have been wanting to share the little things I've done to change my family's diet, so here goes. :)


It started with John allowing me to invest in a grain mill and a Bosch mixer so I could make bread (and other various breadish things!). We bought 2 different types of wheat and now I can freshly grind wheat whenever I need it. Freshly ground is SO much better for you than grocery store white flour (white flour is completely devoid of any nutrition!) and still better than grocery store "wheat" flour cuz that is just white bleached flour with wheat bran added back in, it still doesn't have all the nutritious wheat properties.

Now I make everything bread-ish with fresh wheat flour so everything is "from scratch" -waffles, pancakes, breads, foccacia bread, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, regular rolls, etc.

it's a little bit of extra work, but for me, it's SO worth it knowing I'm feeding my family the freshest, healthiest (and really high fiber!) breads.

Then I started reading a blog The Nourishing Gourmet.

The gal that writes it has done quite a bit of research on living a healthier lifestyle, especially in the area of food. I love reading her blog and trying out her recipes!!

Nourishing Traditions is a book by Sally Fallon (and some other folks) and it has been a resource for the gal writing The Nourishing Gourmet. I borrowed it from the library and found it fascinating!

One big aspect of using a nourishing ingredient is using coconut oil! yep-it's not a "bad fat" like it was made out to be a few years ago. :)

Coconut oil is something we should all add into our diet. Do some research! It has some amazing properties...anti-bacterial, immune system boosting properties! it's a "good fat"!

you can read about it HERE -you REALLY should take 5 minutes and read it...you'll be amazed!

I decided to slowly add it into our diet by baking with it...using it in place of butter or oil in recipes. If you buy the high grade, properly expressed kind, it barely even has a coconutty flavor!

I also often use a mixture of coconut water/coconut milk in place of regular milk in recipes like pancakes and waffles..again, with barely a coconut flavor but with a great added health benefit!

I also started making my own chicken broth to use in soups/rice/noodles/etc. It's SOOO easy. I have no idea why I didn't do this earlier..seriously!

I often cook a whole chicken in my crockpot...just throw it in there, cover it with water, you can add veggies or not, and cook on low the whole day. The result is super tender yummy chicken meat. I then use the chicken meat in recipes -casserole recipes mostly. After getting all the meat off the bones, I throw the bones back into the crockpot still filled with chicken water. :) I keep it on low, pop the lid on, and it simmers until morning. By doing this, I'm getting the minerals and goodness out of the bones and marrow. In the morning, strain out the bones and any meat/fat..and you have yummy, healthy, chicken broth.

another tip I read on The Nourishing Gourmet was the use of Rooibos tea. Rooibos is actually an herb from South Africa and it has some great antioxidant benefits. Since it's an herb, it's naturally decaffeinated..so you can drink it anytime of the day.

I LOVE this vanilla rooibos tea. It's SUPER yummy iced. I use THIS recipe often. Rebecca and Elizabeth love it too. :)

Butter

I have switched over to exclusively using butter in our house. yes, it has more fat in it than margarine. but it's made of natural ingredients..margarine is not. I read about how margarine is manufactured in Nourishing Traditions. My stomach turned. seriously. it's disgusting. g**gle it. I dare ya. :)

a brief synopsis is cheap (and NOT healthy oil) is processed with heat, chemicals are added in to the mix..the mix is grey which would be too gross for consumers to eat so it is bleached out and then a more appealing yellow coloring is added back in. mmmmm..yummy huh?!

butter is simply churned cream...and sometimes salt is added. that's it.

I read a book years ago about getting back to basics, getting back to a more natural way of eating...eating non-processed foods...and one of the BIG things it talked about was eating REAL food...REAL butter, REAL ice cream..stuff that only has a few ingredients...ingredients you can pronounce! :)

that information always made sense to me so in some degree, I tried to do that, but not very well....but then after reading about how disgusting margarine really is...well I just had to stop using it :)

I bought a little butter crock which safely keeps a small amount of butter at room temperature for spreading purposes..and then I just stock up on butter at the stores when it is on sale and freeze it.


Other simple changes I've made:

*I've also switched us over to using sea salt instead of regular iodized table salt

*I make my own salad dressings (Italian versions...John and the kids love store bought ranch dressing to much right now. :) ) ~the recipe I use is THIS ONE and I just vary up the vinegar and spices I use.

*I make my own bean dishes instead of buying them in the can. I didn't realize how super easy it is to do so, just by using the crock pot! check out a recipe HERE . yes, I know you can just boil them or use a pressure cooker...but what I love about doing it in the crockpot is that I don't have to be right in the kitchen monitoring them. It totally frees me up!

I'm sure some of you are thinking "wow! I don't have time to do all of that!"
or, "my family would never go for all of those changes!"

I was a bit overwhelmed too, at first. But I just took things slowly, changing a little bit at a time. Like I said, this process started nearly a year ago!

Thanks for letting me share! and maybe it's motivated you to look at how you can integrate something "healthier" into your family's diet. :)