Food and Ferments....

I actually made them!  I am so proud of myself.  Fermented food has wonderful and beneficial bacteria in them.  As much as I hate them, I have 3 kids asking for them almost daily.  So I figured I should make them myself and see what they think.  Also a friend emailed me some recipes and I thought I would try some of them.  Really good.  My kids love salad and man did they love the grapefruit in it. 

Orange Chicken and lettuce, avocado and grapefruit salad with Italian dressing.  

Yum!

Shepherd's pie with cauliflower as the potatoes.  Honestly, I had to add some extra stuff to the the meat mixture like tomato paste and cheese.  Also, I prefer the the cauliflower on top over regular potatoes. 

Dilly Carrots

Whey from my kiefer I also added dill seed, garlic and sea salt

 Ketchup also has whey

 kimchi - all of these need to sit out for 2-4 days to ferment and then I can put them in the refrigerator to eat.

December 30, 2014

PS:  My kids hated them....  Fortunately, my brother actually asked for them when he was here last week and I gave him what I had.  It was either him or the chickens....  hee, hee!

Zeb's decision.....

Drum Roll please....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  To stay home!  I sat down with him Friday morning and we went over the pro and cons, this is his list:

Pros for Home school
finish earlier
better breaks 6 weeks on 1 week off plus most of December and all of August off
study Greek History
sleep in more

Pros for public school
easier
recess-play 4 square
see friends everyday

Cons for home school
tougher
subject I don't like Suzan Barton

Cons for public school
in school from 8:30-3
can't eat food at school or any treats
get up at 7 and be gone by 8:15
potential bullies
walk the path and stand in lines when it is cold

I told him that whatever he decides we are sticking with for the rest of the year.  He understands what I expect out of him and hopefully we will have a great rest of the school year.  I happily can say that I didn't try to persuade him any which way.  As a mom I thought it best to sit down with him and figure out both sides of each decision.  He seems to be happy with his decision and I think so because he got to make it entirely on his own.  My goal for him this year is responsibility and I hope he embraces it with fervor this year!

Pictures of Cozi's and Analise's rashes

No fun!  It takes about a week to run their course.  Cozi even took sourkrout and broth to help heal it.  And then Cozi broke out in a different rash all over her body.  It looked like a different rash this time. I really wanted to go into the Naturapath but I didn't have $166 since Cozi would be a first time patient.  So I sucked it up and went to the regular doctor.  He thought it looked like scabies!  Gasp!  No way, how on earth!  I was horrified!  I bought spray for the mattresses to kill the bugs and washed all the girl clothes, towels, and bedding.  Hannelora and Analise had it mostly on their hands and some on their back and neck.  Yuck!  They had to put a cream from head to toe and repeat a week later.  Everything is starting to go away. 

A dear friend asked why do I and another friend who has been on GAPS almost as long as I have develop so many skin rashes?  I don't know the full answer to that, but I can assume it is because our bodies show us ways that they can't handle what is going on inside of us.  Most of us have never had major stomach pain, except Hannelora.  Mine was always acne and skin itchiness.  If I think about it, it makes perfect sense that my girls would break out from something they ate that isn't from clean eating.  If we have been use to taking out all nitrates, grains, nitrites, sugar and then introduce them once in awhile, our bodies won't know what to do with the toxin are bit of food that is hard to digest.  It will be very interesting when we slowly introduce new foods back into our diet and see how we react.  It truly does stink. 

This has not been the easiest thing I have ever done.  In fact, just yesterday, I was craving gummy bears.  Silly! Of all things!  I was trying to justify that it would be ok to bring them back because they had juice in them!  Hee, hee!  We don't even drink juice unless it is freshly squeezed (highly processed).  No way am I going to waste precious fruit so I can have some juice.  Anyway, I have grown accustomed to many things about this diet.  It is easier to come up with different foods off the top of my head now a days.  Now if we can stop the cold that is going around.....