Week 2 of Gluten-Free Rawness

So... Week two.
Not as easy as week one.
There was a lot of grace on week one.
In week two, my family realized their usual fare hadn't been tasted in a while.
They noticed there had been no bread for far longer than they were comfortable with.
They didn't like this.
One bit.

On Sunday, I had it with We haven't had a slice of bread in a million yeeeeears!
Just one piece of toast PLEEEEEEASE!
I just want a real meal!
What are you trying to do to us?!
My kids had a hard time with the food changes, too.

So I made them (gluten-free, un-raw) quesadillas and I fixed myself a lonely plate of vegetable slices with tahini and a jar of Black Sesame Jewel for lunch and sat in a corner to be left with my raw decision in peace and solitude.

Wouldn't you know it?  Our two-year-old sat next to me, grabbed a carrot, dipped it into tahini and ate.

And proceeded to eat most of the carrots and all of my tahini.

Yes, I took a picture.  It was momentous.

Then our four-year-old stole the rest of my carrots.  I wouldn't be lying if I said my eyes got a little tearish.  The miracles kept coming.  Our son asked for some of my drink and loved it.  And the crowning moment was when my husband even had a glass and liked it.

This was nothing short of divine intervention.  Jesus loves me, this I know!

Little did they know it just fanned the flame of rawness in my heart for the whole next week...

We tried a lot of Ani's "mylks."  Let me tell you, we loved 90% of them.  And let me also tell you that "we" really does mean the whole family.

Made in Mexico Mylk was amazing.

I love the texture vanilla beans bring to these mylks.

But to my surprise, the most favorite of all so far was the Beautifying Pumpkin Mylk.

The frothy head made it feel like a latte-esque treat, and since we were growing tired of everything tasting like dates, I used grade B maple syrup to sweeten the drink instead.

I dabbled into Ani's "Save the Chick" dishes.  They are incredibly attractive, but since we are a pro-egg family and my kids will take no substitute, we will stick with the real (cooked) kind.  If I ever go to another raw food party, I think I'll bring a dish of this to share:

Spanish Scramble

This week I also learned that most raw dishes are named as an imitation of a traditional dish.  My kids don't buy it.  Especially when it comes to pudding.  If it doesn't taste or feel like the pudding they are familiar with, it isn't pudding.  I respect that.  I learned this after serving the cacao pudding and my kids emotionally informed me that is was  not pudding.  So, the following day I called the Luscious Lemon Pudding Lemony Breakfast.  They bought it.  And even liked it!  Tonight we tried the Carob Pudding (only I used cacao.  Carob has no place here) and called it Chocolate Banana Pudding since it's only made of avocados, bananas, and cacao powder (when I make it), but only half of the brood finished their bowls.  You win some, you lose some.

On a side note, I noticed a shaky, light-headedness right around 4:00 after the all-raw mornings and afternoons.  A craving of anything cooked or meaty comes over me, and if I don't do something about it, once I eat dinner two hours later, my blood sugar does a massive plummet and I have to sit and recover for next to an hour.  It was no good.  So I've begun to set out cheese and tortilla chips for our last snack before dinner and that seems to even things out.

As far as the un-raw but gluten-free dinners go, there was a dish I came up with last week that I wasn't sure how it would be received, but it quickly and surprisingly became a new family favorite.

The recipe, along with more pictures of it will be shared another day.

This mama is happy about bedtime.

The end.

Our Reasons for Raw and Gluten Free

When we had our first baby over nine years ago (it is craziness that it's been that long), I thought we were a pretty healthy family.  I made most of our food (with white flour and refined sugar), we used lots of canned beans and tomato sauce (can you say, BPA?), and we ate fresh fruits and veggies.  I hadn't done any reading on the importance of organic, but my cheap frugal side said ain't no way.

When I was 25 and pregnant with our third baby, I stumbled upon The Maker's Diet and life as we knew it started to change.  After several books and food staple changes later, we have become a real food, no-refined-anything family, and I can't tell you how many good changes I have personally experienced: weight loss (on a whole fat diet), boosted energy, better moods, less allergies and sickness...  You know the list.

Last month, our church hosted a Wellness Seminar that was so re-aligning.  I learned some new things and was reminded of very important information.  I agreed with 90% of what was said, which is happy.  There was a whole session dedicated to gluten.  I honestly haven't done that much research on it, so it was a welcome bit of input.  As the symptoms of what gluten sensitivity was listed, I immediately thought of what my son has been recently experiencing.  Irritability, bloatedness, digestion issues, fatigue...  It all started to make sense.  After the onslaught of refined holiday goodies and (whole grain) baked goods for breakfasts most every chilly winter morning, his mood and body had changed.  He told me his stomach hurt every night for two weeks.  His stomach looked totally distended at the end of the day, but his extremities looked really thin.  I knew he was getting lots of nutrition, but his body didn't seem to be absorbing it.  I soak most of our grains, nuts and seeds, so the needed phytase enzyme was being released.  What was left?  Gluten.  So, for the next couple months, our family is going off gluten.  As best as possible.  And to boost any missing enzymes and to help digestion, we are eating raw for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

It's been a week so far.  I am going through Ani's Raw Food Kitchen for the first two-thirds of the day.  The first breakfast we tried, Good Morning Muesli, was so pretty.  Jer and I liked it.  The kids?  Not so much.

It's helped (decrease the whining) to tell the kids we are going to taste test every recipe in the book and I need them to try it all so I can keep notes of what we want to eat again.  They have a job.  Taste-testing is a serious, esteemed role around here.

They're doing their part, I'm doing mine.  My copy of this book is getting massively scribbled on.  I might be the only one who understands the notes, though...

Since smoothies are the easiest way to get greens down my kids, they are used to every one looking, well, green.

Except for ones with cacao.  Carob Strawberry Bliss (substituted with raw cocoa powder because carob isn't chocolate.  Sorry.) was a huge hit.

We've tried some of the raw oatmeal, too.  The Almond Cinnamon one was a hit!

Surprisingly, the Banana Raisin Oatmeal (drizzled with grade B maple syrup)... wasn't.  I liked it, though.

It's been almost two weeks since we started this experiment.  After only five days, my son's stomach stopped hurting at night and his bloatedness has gone way down.  Personally, my, emm, muffin top-ishness has started to flatten.  This is oh so happy.  At the end of last week, we went to Chipotle with some friends and my son had a quesadilla with a white flour tortilla.  Wha?!  I missed that little hick-up.  Guess what?  His stomach hurt that night.

I'm hoping after this season of high-density nutrition, our son's body will be able to detox and then handle the occasional soaked/sprouted whole grain food without his stomach bothering him.  

In the meantime, I'll be checking in and sharing here about our findings.  One week down, seven to go...

I'm sharing this at Simple Lives Thursday.

As Simple as ABC

Some of us, after being inspired by a great work of literature, feel moved to tell the world about it in the form of a review.  I...  well, I... I really liked the pictures.

On a previous visit to the library, my children discovered Alphabet Soup.

Here's what I like about the book besides the pretty pictures:

• For ages 1-8+ This is a great book to read with the family (or for your older child to read to your younger ones as read-aloud practice).  Your children are introduced to the simple sounds of each letter of the alphabet and the book introduces the most common digraphs.  IE: Not only do the children find that snake begins with s, sheep begins with s, too.  Taking the time to point that out and thinking of other sh words is really helping my 6-year-old son to remember his digraphs.
• Animals, animals There is an animal who's name begins with each letter of the alphabet.  My children had fun guessing which animal would represent each letter.  Don't go with the easy animal choice, though!  They pull out some unique ones, which has been a fun way for my four-year-old to learn about some new creatures.
• Food for the foodie In the book, an animal friend is hosting a housewarming soup potluck.  Not only is there an alphabet animal friend for each letter, the friends bring tasty veggies and legumes that match their representing letter.  The foodie in me loves this part.  I think I was the one guessing which vegetable each animal would bring.  It's fun for the whole family, I tell you.

So there you have it.  My ABC book review.  It moved me, this book did.  Oh, the depth.  The suspense.  The intrigue.  The food. The pretty pictures.

Listeners On the Road

Living on the mountain is beautiful.  Living on the mountain is peaceful.  Living on the mountain means we have to drive a lot to get anywhere.  Calculating the amount of time we spend in the car was making me uneasy.  Although the drive is a gorgeous one, it still adds up to a lot of minutes my kids are just sitting.  Then I remembered a new habit (more like addiction) we picked up last summer.  Why it was dropped, I can't remember, but it's back in full swing.  Books on CD.  Brilliant concept, I tell you!  We do lots of reading at home already, but boy are we mowing through some great books now.  We rent about five books on CD from the library every week, depending on how long they are.

This week, we listened to Heaven for Kids.  Do you ever read a book and think, this book is changing my life.  This book could change the world.  Everyone needs to read this book?  I stumbled upon it quite unintentionally.  Outside of barely recognizing his name, I was unfamiliar with Randy Alcorn's works, much less his theology.  Let me tell you, it was a happy surprise.  This is one we will most definitely rent on an annual basis.  Here's my bullet-point book review:

• For ages 6-130 (in my humble opinion).  My six-year-old son surprised me with how much he absorbed and enjoyed this book.
• It's a great point of reference.  When my children ask questions about important topics from salvation, to why we do what we do, to those hard-to-answer questions on eternity, this is an extremely helpful book to talk through.
• Salvation 101.  I remember being a child and having so many questions, lots of which I never asked, I just observed life and let my observations define my world view.  This book hits the most commonly asked questions children have on salvation and eternity and explains them in a very understandable way.
• Not just for kids.  I'm telling you, listening to the fundamentals again was rocking my world.  I was beginning to give up on wearing eye make up before getting into the car because most of it ran down  my cheeks with happy tears.  Ah, to step out of the push-and-pull, just-get-it-done mentality of everyday and into the reality of eternity and of what really matters everyday: relationship with my Father and His people.  Here come the waterworks again!
• Narnia in real life.  He references the Chronicles of Narnia all throughout the book to help the children visualize and understand more about salvation, Jesus, and heaven.  I highly recommend reading through the Chronicles first before (or right after) reading (or listening to) this book.

Books on CD have definitely changed my attitude toward our longer car drives; we all kind of look forward to them now, like a good round of storytime.

Together Outdoors Tuesday ~ Easy Garden Projects

Rain seems to enjoy falling most of all on Tuesdays, making it rather difficult to be "together outdoors."  But we are on the cusps of prime gardening season, and if you haven't already, now is a great time to dream, plot, and prepare.

I was given the book Easy Garden Projects to Make, Build, and Grow: 200 Do-It-Yourself Ideas to Help You Grow Your Best Garden Ever a few years ago.  I absolutely love it.  It has something for everyone, whether you're a first-time gardener, gardening with children, or an advanced, looking-for-inspiration one.  It provides quick, easy-to-follow how to's for things like: different methods of composting, making candle holders out of gourds, building raised beds, fences, trellises...  Trust me.  The know-how level for this book is not "general contractor."  If I feel like I can build these things, that's saying a lot.  I'm easily intimidated when it comes to constructing anything that involves a hammer and nails and such.  This book makes me feel capable.

6-year-old wants our next garden project to be "growing no-work tomatoes" found on pages 18-19.  No work?  I'm down with that.

It's definitely a book I'm happy to own, not borrow, but you might want to check it out on your next trip to the library to see if you feel the same way.

Be inspired.  Be encouraged.  Be a gardener.  It's holistic, nourishing fun for the whole family.  Enjoy!

~ Take a gander at more Katie's Quick Home Keeping Tips Here. ~

A Raw Review (Rawview?)

I've been hesitant to dive into the world of raw.  Warm, crispy, cheesy foods; if they were a love language, nothing would say "I love you" more to me.  Slightly exagerarting.  Slightly.  But the greater love of health and energy trumped the wonderous warmed, cheesy tasties and I started to dabble into the, what I thought would be the cold, rough abyss of rawness.

As I waited for my first un-cook book to arrive in the mail one summer day, I did a search for raw peach cobbler because I needed something to put the plethora of peaches ripening on our tree in.  I found this amazing recipe.  It was nice & quick to assemble, but the best part (outside of it being deemed absolutely delicious by some anti-raw foodies) was that it was warm.  I made it in a pie pan and set it in the dehydrator for a couple hours and the whole kitchen filled with the scent of peaches.  Success!

Then, the aforementioned un-cook book came.  I was so excited to plunge into it head first!  Until it took two hours to make a simple dish.  Oy.  Don't even get me started on trying to hack into three coconuts to make a couple cups of raw chocolate pudding (before I knew I needed to buy baby coconuts which are much easier to break open).  Drat.  I'm a mama for four.  I can't really justify spending about six hours a day in the kitchen, even if the food is wonderful and nourishing.

Thankfully, a friend came to the rescue & lent me "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen."  It seriously took me a couple of weeks to even crack it open. I couldn't deal with the thought of being responsible for more knowledge of how important raw was for my family & then neglecting it because of time restrains.  Once I did, I was very encouraged about how do-able these recipes seemed.  Before I knew it, I was back into raw, and so happy about it.  So far, I've made this:

Almond Nog.  I loove egg nog.  This totally works.

Garlic Walnut Soup.

This rich soup is for garlic lovers (me!) and 1/2 cup will fill you up.

Coconut Chutney

Great to garnish on anything you want to add spice to.

Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice" topped with Coconut Chutney

There's a first for everything & this was the first time I ate raw butternut squash.  Delish!

Spicy Kream of Avocado Soup

A small bowl of this soup gives me more energy than a cup of coffee.  No joke.

I love that she has seasonal recipes, meaning you can grow/buy in-season, local produce all year 'round and use this book.  Good for you, good for the earth.  Happy.

So raw is the new cooked.

Also, my friend Sky just started a new blog where she shares raw recipes of her own & let me just say, I gaze upon the foodie photos with great desire.  I can't wait to try them out; you should too!  Be raw with me.  :)