Author Archives: Rachel

No Mercury in Our Mouths, please!

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This week, after over a year of living in a new state, I finally took myself and my children to the dentist for cleanings and checkups. To find our new dentist, I first asked my friend and “partner in crime” (more like: partner in natural living)–she had moved here from Michigan a couple of years ahead of me, and what an incredible resource she is! I already knew that I want to get my own mercury amalgam “fillings” removed at some point. The sooner the better, but it’s a pricey procedure. I knew that I wanted to work with a dental office that fully embraces bio-compatible dentistry (and would still be in my dental insurance network, for highest levels of cost coverage). So, I spent a couple of hours looking at the lists. Even after pouring over the short lists of bio-compatible dentists (checking maps and my insurance network), I ended up choosing the same dentist as my friend. Apparently, we are lucky to live in a metropolitan area with even a few enlightened dentists. (Let’s hope that some young people from “Weston Price families” and Waldorf families will grow up to study truly holistic dentistry!) Let’s get started, shall we? Here are the lists I looked at: Continue reading →

Rachel’s Typical Breakfast

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I continue my quest for truly simple nutrition, so that I’m spending minimal time in the kitchen and still getting the best nutrition I can.

The following is copied out of my FitDay.com account for what I ate this morning. This is very typical for what I eat almost every morning. Sometimes I eat more by adding on a piece of meat or almond flour muffin. Sometimes I leave out the egg yolk. Inspired by revisiting the book Eat Fat, Lose Fat, I plugged this into FitDay so that I could look at adding a tablespoon of coconut oil (same fat as 3.5 Tbsp of canned whole-fat coconut milk) prior to each of three meals. At a total of 461 calories, and with a daily target of 1400-1800 calories (for weight loss, based on my personal calculation using Primal Blueprint Weightloss formula as my guide), I still have enough calories budgeted for the rest of the day if I stick to Primal eating and do not cheat by eating sugar.

 Food Name Cals Fat (g) Carbs (g) Prot (g)
461 35.7 16.4 8
Canned Coc Milk 1.75 oz = 3.5 Tbsp. (same fat as 1 Tbsp. Coc… 114 11.8 2.7 1.1
Eve Primrose Oil, 1 tsp* 50 0 0 0
Fish oil, cod liver 123 13.6 0 0
Almond Milk Unsweetened 1 cup 40 3.5 2 1
Dandy Blend 1 Tbsp. 15 0 3 0
Zukay Kvass 1/2 cup Beet Ginger 13 0 2.7 0.3
Morning Blended LEMON SPINACH 29 0 5 2.4
Brazil nuts: 1 nut 22 2.3 0.4 0.5
Egg, yolk only, raw 55 4.5 0.6 2.7
 TOTALS: 461 35.7 16.4 8

My 5-year old daughter takes her egg nog with chocolate milk. She also gets a squirt of Trader Joe's chocolate syrup into her mouth with her brazil nut. I do not give the kids a multi-vitamin. (They do not drink the spinach, either.)

*I’m not even sure I will continue with the Evening Primrose Oil after I finish this bottle, so I’ll free up some calories for more interesting food.

I came to the conclusion quite a while ago that I needed to blend up some spinach in the morning and I wanted it to be easy, fast and taste good enough to slug it down. I add 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (Organic in a bottle, from Costco), one tiny scoop of KAL stevia extract powder, and about 1/2 cup water.

Instead of spinach for my husband, I give him Amazing Grass (a green food powder).

I blend raw egg yolks (as free-range as I can get) with unsweetened almond milk, vanilla extract and stevia extract. Top with a shake of ground nutmeg for a Morning Eggnog.

This morning regimen is NOT easier than if you just ate some scrambled eggs. However, it’s what I’ve come up with after several years of living with allergies, working toward Primal, and having picky eaters. This is just what I do.

Recipe: Creamy Tumeric Tea

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The kids are in bed and I’m off to relax in font of the TV for awhile with my hubby, just after I make this Creamy Tumeric Tea, which I found on Mark’s Daily Apple. This should be interesting. I’ll be using coconut milk for mine, though possibly cutting it with Almond milk. By the way, I see that Blue Diamond, my favorite brand of almond milk (I prefer the refrigerated beverage in half gallons, unsweetened Original or Vanilla), is coming out with Continue reading →

Shopping List for Erik’s Reboot

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1. Juice to blend with spinach, could be any of the following:

  • Trader Joe’s Country Peach or Strawberry Kiwi
  • Fresh pressed from your own juicer
  • Lemonade?
  • If you want to get calories from a different food instead of juice, you can blend your spinach without juice and use Rachel’s Blended Lemon-Spinach
2. Baby Spinach—Costco, about 1 – 2 pounds per week for 2 handfuls per day, one handful per meal
4. Cod Liver Oil (CLO) (provides Vitamin A and some Vit D). Pick one. More info on CLO–>.

Now Foods, Cod Liver Oil, Double Strength, 650 mg, 250 Softgels–>

Nature’s Answer Cod Liver Oil Liquid–>

Twinlab Cod Liver Oil–>

5. Vitamin D3 supplement. Please educate yourself on the amount YOU need. This is highly individualized and should take into account the amount of Vitamin A you are taking in the Cod Liver Oil (CLO) and how much Vit D your CLO brand contains.

Now Foods Vitamin D3 Softgels–>

Nature’s Answer Vitamin D-3 Drops–>

Better yet, get one that’s combined with Vitamin K2: Thorne Research Vitamin D3/K2 Drops–>

6. Soup? I recommend making your own, or buying soup in a box (like tetra-pak; this avoids BPA, a hormone interrupter, in metal can linings) or fresh from the deli or restaurant.

7. Blue Diamond Unsweetened Almond Milk Beverage—near the soymilk in the refrigerated milk section. Look for the bright pink stripe on blue half-gallon box of milk

8. KAL stevia extract powder–>

9. Optional: NuNaturals Pure Erythritol Crystals–>

10. Coconut Water–> You need this to mix with magnesium and for making Coco Cocoa

11. Optional for Coco Cocoa: Navitas Naturals Cocoa Powder

12. Ground spices to make homemade chai (Vietnamese Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, maybe fennel)

13. Dandy Blend–> – a delicious, instant beverage powder which will help with liver cleansing and provide some minerals. Good with the almond milk and in the homemade chai.

14. You may also want:

Sparkling Water—good prices at Trader Joe’s or maybe try a SodaStream

Stevia flavors for natural sodas

POM Pomegranate Juice

Green tea or herbal teas: peppermint, Rooibos, Honeybush, Jasmine Green, Celestial Seasonings’ Roastaroma

I could add to this list, but these are the basics. Feel free to post or email me to ask a question!

Recipes: Today’s Chocolate Fix (and one Vanilla)

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I cannot eat cocoa. It’s one of those things that give me the itchies (or hives, if I eat a lot of it). But, I want to provide readers with lots of great recipes to fuel Primal families!

Primal Chocolate Cream Pie

http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2011/04/banana-chocolate-cream-pie-oh-my-dairy.html –>     Thanks to The Spunky Coconut!

Primal Chocolate Pudding

It’s quick and easy. I have made various versions of chocolate pudding based on avocado (or eggs), and my kids do like it.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/decadent-chocolate-fix–>

White Chocolate

My 7 year old prefers vanilla. I’ve made him a pudding similar to the chocolate pudding above, but made sure to make it sweet and vanilla. Despite the green color, he loved it. Be sure to get a perfectly ripe and mild avocado for this!

Dumping the Task List

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I met Patty Lennon at a Mindful Mothering conference a few months ago. She handed me her card when we met. Mom Gets a Life. Huh. Interested.

We sat next to each other–she took notes on her laptop and I noticed that she had some sort of system for making purposeful use out of the conference presentations toward her blogging, perhaps her own personal life–it seemed she might be putting items on her calendar or to do list, or something. Not to mention she was tweeting, I think. Anyway, it turns out we had some great conversations and lunch. I only wished we’d been able to connect some more. It felt we had more to talk about. I’ve been waiting for my right moment to look at her website, Mom Gets A Life –>. Today I did and I’m excited that Patty has practical suggestions to bring us some clarity and simplicity. I posted my own comment on Patty’s post, “Dump Your Massive Task List: A 30-Day Challenge!–>!”

I need a record of my comment on her page, so here it is:

Patty:
I am revving into a new cycle and have tons of energy and feel like I’m gaining some clarity. I’m a driven person and willing to throw out old ideas, so this is working well for me. I am reading The 4-Hour Work Week and gleaning ideas from that to apply to my ways of working at home. Yesterday someone who is launching her own career into coaching people into finding their own passions (kind of like you, in a sense), was telling me how she thinks the most useful approach is managing all of this by “mindful scheduling.” Then last night as I was reading “4-Hour” I was receiving this message about “working from priorities” and letting the rest go (elimination). Today I am feeling these are opposites and I am embracing the work-from-priorities advice. The key piece is elimination, which it seems like your post above is leading to. I can’t say I’m going to run out and make my list of 1,000 things, but I can definitely see the power in it (maybe I will later?). Right now, I’m easily casting things to the wind, so I think right now the steam has been generated to propel me. I’ll give a concrete example: I keep volunteering for more on the Parent Association of our school. I want to follow through with things I’ve already volunteered for, but I’m going to find ways of working more efficiently, not harder (right from 4-Hour, of course). I’m responsible for taking notes at the PA meetings and I have the task I’ve been avoiding which is to type them up. So, today I’m going to tackle it, but I’m going to put them into a format which is much more simplified and focused on the PA group action items, but I’m going to leave out the fluff–no use being a reporter on everything everyone said in the meeting. Just action items. And, I’ll present the “notes” and clearly state that this is the level of note taking I’m willing to sustain. If someone wants to do more work on the notes, they may have at it! Yea, Me! (By the way, it was such good fortune to meet you in NY at the MOM Mindful Mothering conference. That was a great day and I’d wished we had more time to connect there.

I’m on facebook. Email me if you can’t find me. I’m friends with Families for Conscious Living and my blog-FB page is “Hearth and Gnome .com”

I think that the magic behind this massive exercise is the consciousness it would bring to what we’re doing. I’m not convinced yet, but in the Brain of Rachel, these things don’t go away easily. What do you think? Is anyone going to be taking on this challenge?

I will say, I am most definitely ready to dump some tasks. I have to go handle the simplification of my job as Parent Association note-taker. If you don’t know where else to start, why not try Patty’s 30-day challenge?

Recipe: Cherry Mocha

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One of my old recipes which I posted on Food.com (it was Recipezaar.com, back in 2004) is still hanging around and a few people still stumble into it and enjoy it. It’s not something my hubby will be enjoying this next couple of weeks while he’s on his “juice fast” Reboot Challenge v.2, but he sure does like this drink. I usually pull the recipe back out when he is low-carbing (or would that be spelled “carbbing”?). I personally have been questing after my own perfect cup of masala chai during this Minnesota winter. There’s nothing like a hot cup of something creamy and sweet on a cold winter’s night. So, I give you this Low-Carb Cherry Mocha –> (my version is on Food.com which gives serving nutritional info, or you can see the same recipe below).

To make a more natural version, I recommend for the sweetener a mixture of: Continue reading →

Erik’s 2nd “Juice Fast”

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Several months ago my hubby decided to try a different king of weight-loss diet. He watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and as a result, endured a 14-day liquids-only “juice fast” like the Reboot. We purchased a juicer and I did a lot of work sourcing fresh produce from farmers markets (this coincided with harvest season in Minnesota, so it worked out well). But, it was a ton of work for me and we decided we didn’t love owning a juicer and we returned it to the seller.

Now he wants to do another juice fast, because of course he lost weight on the first time. But, without a juicer, what should he do? Well, I compiled a list of nutritious liquids that he could use.  Continue reading →

Recipe: Simple, fresh, Horseradish Cream

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Aaagh. I would love to have some horseradish sauce with my beef pot roast tonight. Alas, allergies.

Horseradish is often sold prepared in vinegar. Since I’m allergic to yeast, hence vinegar, I found the fresh root at my local co-op grocer, The Wedge (I couldn’t believe it was that easy!). I Googled and noted that Continue reading →

Recipe: Rachel’s Chuck Roast

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My January 2012 project is reading The 4-Hour Workweek and culminating all my food knowledge into a very simple plan. Instead of my pattern over the past 13 years to add variety and optimal nutrition, I am now looking at choice-optimal (limiting choices and decision making) so that I have time for other things. This pot roast is easy and I’ll probably make it every-other week.

This Chuck Roast is prepare ahead and my whole family loves it. This past time I was in heaven eating it with the Horseradish Cream.

Rachel’s Chuck Roast

beef chuck roast (approx 5 lbs.)
coarse salt (I use Redmond Real Salt Kosher)
coarse/fresh ground black pepper
1 large yellow or white onion, coarsely chopped
1 large ripe tomato, chopped or a can of diced tomatoes in juice
6 regular cloves of garlic, (Easy tip: Use peeled garlic or 1/2 of a large clove of “Elephant garlic” sliced thinly)
water
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, or Soy Sauce (see Tips)–I no longer add this because I am allergic to yeast.
1+ tsp. sweet paprika (not smoked)

Optional: Potatoes, celery, carrots (Rachel loves turnips, but NOT in this dish!)

Allow meat to sit at room temp half hour before cooking it. You don’t want any almost-frozen spots in the meat. You want it to be on it’s way to getting warm so that it doesn’t suck all the heat out of the skillet too quickly.

Continue reading →