Joy, this is for you! :)

Here are two favorite dessert recipes that my kids LOVE!!! They are healthy options that are actually GOOD for you! Don't believe me??? Try it! And, then tell me what you think!

Carrot Cake
My friend Beth gave me this recipe which I know she found on the internet but I don't remember where...so if this is your recipe....SORRY! Feel free to comment here and let us know!
Makes 3 8-inch layers or a 9X13 pan

Wet Ingredients:
3/4 cup walnuts (I use my crispy nuts...Nourishing Traditions style)
1 1/2 cup peeled, grated carrots (3-4 large carrots)
3/4 cup crushed, unsweetend pineapple (fresh or canned in it's own juice)
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour (I use spelt)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.Line bottoms of cake pans with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat
3.Toast walnuts in preheated oven for about 10 minutes, then cool and chop coarsely with a knife or in a food processor
4. Peel and grate carrots to a medium grate
5. Drain the canned pineapple (reserve the juice for another use)
6. Combine the chopped nuts, grated carrots, pineapple, and raisins, and set aside
7. Sift the dry ingredients together
8. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter and agave nectar together until well blended.
9. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating the first egg before adding the second
10. On the lowest speed, stir in the dry ingredients
11. Fold the carrots mixture in by hand with a rubber or silicone spatula
12 Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the pan size. The cake is done when it bounces back when touched lightly in the center.
13. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting

I don't use frosting at all unless it's for a birthday or special occasion...in which case I make a cream cheese frosting with all organic ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1 stick butter
1 box powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
melt butter and then beat all ingredients together.


I'll post my recipe for REAL FOOD CHOCOLATE BROWNIES later... I don't have time right now! But I promise...they taste awesome!

Menu Plan Monday

So, I've taken a break from menu planning lately and it's not doing me any favors. But I'm back in the saddle again, however, so here's my plan for the week!

Monday:
Breakfast: leftover soaked buttermilk spelt pancakes, bananas and peanut butter
Lunch: leftover chili, salad
Dinner: Ezekiel spaghetti with meat sauce, salad
To Do: Soak chick peas, soak quinoa, start spelt sourdough starter for pizza

Tuesday:
Breakfast: raw yogurt, berries, granola
Lunch: leftover spaghetti
Dinner: grilled white fish, quinoa salad with dried cherries, nuts, green salad
To Do: thaw turkey

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Soaked oatmeal with cinnamon and honey
Lunch: Homemade hummus with carrots and celery. Raw cheese, and sourdough bread
Dinner: Turkey and zucchini soup


Thursday:
Breakfast: eggs, Ezekiel toast with homemade butter
Lunch: soup
Dinner: Homemade soaked spelt pizza with tomatoes, feta, spinach, and calamata olives
To Do: thaw chicken

Friday:
Breakfast: Soaked porridge (combination of millet, amaranth, and quinoa)
Lunch: leftover whatever
Dinner: beef and wild rice, asparagus
To Do: Soak rice, roast chicken, thaw roast

Saturday:
Breakfast: Soaked buckwheat pancakes, turkey sausage, and eggs
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Chicken and chickpea curry over brown rice

Sunday:
Breakfast: leftover pancakes, bananas
Lunch: veggies, hummus, cheese
Dinner: pot roast, potatoes, carrots, onions, etc.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

It's been so long since I've posted on here! It really is just because I'm busy and I don't post if I don't feel like it! :) Sorry to all of you who look on here often...all 3 of you! :0)
Anyway, I'm doing great. My kids are doing great. We're eating well, playing outside, doing tons (probably too many) of playdates, and I'm getting projects done around the house. I'm pretty determined not to get on the computer much during the day anymore, so I just don't have the time to write much.
Things have been going well for the boys and their skin until this week. It's so nice out and they've even worn shorts a couple times. Well, Abraham's legs are just super inflamed now...which I distinctly remember happening last year right about this time when he started to play outside. So, I'm pretty certain he's got some environmental allergies that I really can't do anything about. The only thing I have read is that people with environmental allergies should probably stay away from gluten and dairy even if they aren't necessarily allergic or sensitive to those things because they do produce a high level of mucus. During allergy season, this just should be avoided to help keep inflammation down as much as possible.
We'd actually been gradually adding dairy and gluten back in our diets on a rotating basis and the boys have seemed to handle it just fine. But, with this setback I'm afraid we're going to have to go back to square one! On the positive side, Eliot seems to be doing great! He's got a couple small patches, but overall his legs look amazing!
I haven't been quite as diligent about menu planning...I really need to for financial and health purposes. I will work on that and hopefully post a menu soon!

This week's menus

so we haven't done a lot of menu planning lately...i've been a bit lazy. and sick. and poor. i went to costco about 12 days ago and stocked up...and haven't been grocery shopping since! well...wait matt went once and picked up meat to grill, but other than that we're using up what we have until payday (friday). things won't be so tight for a while because we're getting a significant tax return and matt will have a closing (the first one in almost 6 months!)...things are looking up! :0)

here's our very meager menu plan until payday comes:

monday (yesterday, i know)
breakfast: porridge (millet, amaranth, quinoa, oat groat) with homemade applesauce
lunch: leftover veggie, rice noodle soup
dinner: pork fried rice with leftover pork chop, egg, onion, carrot, zucchini, broccoli

tuesday
breakfast: toast with almond butter and agave (we used ezekiel hamburger buns and GF rice bread), scrambled eggs, and homemade applesauce
lunch: leftover soup, carrot sticks with hummus, kale chips
dinner: at a friend's...we're bringing the veggie (broccoli, i think)

wednesday
breakfast: steel cut oats, apple slices, peanut butter
lunch: leftover noodles and red sauce, salad
dinner: lentil pancakes and indian style beef and cabbage

thursday
breakfast: teff skillet bread, pears
lunch: leftovers
dinner: turkey and tomato bean soup

friday
breakfast: leftover skillet bread, orange slices
lunch: leftover soup
dinner: black-eyed pea salad, green salad, grilled salmon

saturday
breakfast: buckwheat pancakes, turkey sausage, fruit
lunch: personal pizzas on ezekiel bread
dinner: lamb shepherd's pie

sunday
breakfast: leftover pancakes, fruit
lunch: out with friends
dinner: salmon burgers, salad

Makers Diet Menu

Ok, I really was kidding that I won't be posting just because Matt's a better writer! I have just been busy! :) Just to catch you up, Matt and I are doing a dietary cleanse. I say dietary because we aren't doing any pills or staying buy the toilet all day for a week! We're just cleaning up our food in a big way. We eat very well on a regular basis, but over Christmas break we ate too much sugar and just too much food in general. So, we're doing the Maker's Diet, a three phase, 40-day diet that basically detoxes your body from all carbs and sugar for a month! Yeah...not easy. But, I've done it before and I feel SO much better. We're not going to take out healthy grains for the boys but they won't be having much/if any sugar at all either! The first two weeks there are no beans except lentils, very few nuts...mainly almonds. No grains, potatoes, cow's dairy (we can have goat's), no pork or shellfish (hence, Maker's Diet). You may notice that I'm doing eggs and veggies every day! I have been eating that for months anyway and I don't get sick of it. I do change it up a bit by adding herbs, goat cheese, making omelets, fried eggs, scrambled, etc. Sorry if it's boring to you, but it's just so much less for me to think about and we love it. Also, again, to make it easier on myself, I always make lots at dinner so there's plenty for leftovers for lunch the next day. So, here's our menu for this first week of the plan:

Monday
Breakfast: eggs and sauteed veggies in coconut oil
fiber drink, cod liver oil, greens capsules, whole food multivitamin
Lunch: Green salad with onions, carrots, peppers, sprouts, goat cheese, avocado, sprouted sunflower seeds with homemade apple cider vinegar dressing.
Cocount/chicken broth with cilantro and scallions
Dinner: Frijole Soup, green salad
Snack: goat milk yogurt, blackberries, raw honey and sprouted sunflower seeds

Tuesday
Breakfast: eggs and veggies in homemade butter
fiber, greens, clo, multivitamin
Lunch: leftover soup
Dinner: Wild alaskan salmon with lentils and green salad
Snack: Crispy nuts and goat cheese

Wednesday
Breakfast: veggies and eggs
Lunch: leftover salmon and lentils sauteed with cabbage, onions, veggies
Dinner: Lamb chops, green beans, green salad
Snack: Tomatoes, onions, and avocado with apple cider vinegar, herbamare and olive oil

Thursday
Breakfast: veggies and eggs
Lunch: cold lamb meat over salad
Dinner: Indian beef and cabbage, steamed broccoli with butter
Snack: Hard boiled eggs, carrot sticks

Friday
Breakfast: eggs and veggies
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Homemade spaghetti sauce with beef over spaghetti squash, green salad
Snack: Goat's yogurt, berries, seeds, and raw honey

Saturday
Breakfast: eggs, turkey sausage, veggies
Lunch: Tuna salad with natural mayo over salad with avocado, peppers, onions, sprouts, etc.
Dinner: Healing Chicken soup with ginger, green salad
Snack: Crispy nuts, goat cheese

Sunday
Breakfast: eggs, veggies
Lunch: leftover soup
Dinner: Salmon burgers, salad, steamed broccoli
Snacks: tomato, avocado, onion salsa

Soy Candles

Hello everyone! I just wanted to put in a good word for my friend, Hollie, who is selling homemade soy candles for Christmas! While I don't recommend eating soy, it is very safe to burn! :) She only uses natural ingredients and they are dye-free! Her blog is here. If you're local, she can deliver for an additional charge. Or if you know me and you want to pick them up at my house you can! I have ordered a bunch of these every year! They are great for giving to teachers! I also love to stuff them in my family's stockings! They smell WONDERFUL!
Remember to buy local and natural whenever possible!
Blessings and Merry Christmas!

No need to blog

Since Matt (my husband) started his blog, I no longer feel the need to write here anymore! :) This is reminding me of how we both started to learn guitar at the same time in high school but he got so much better so much faster so I quit! I'm just going to have to be ok with the fact that he's smarter and more talented in all the ways I want to be. Maybe he's super jealous that I have a lot of hair! :) I will hold on to that for now.
Anyway, I've tried and tried on here to express myself on "green" living and organic foods and buying locally. But, of course, on his 4th blog post EVER, Matt nails it on the head. I'm like, "yeah, that's what I've been thinking but couldn't figure out how to say it! whatever, smarty pants!"
So, go read it. Sometime soon I'll think of something to write about that Matt doesn't know anything about...keep waiting, it may take awhile! :)