Chinese Salad

Okay, I really don't know if this is a salad that the Chinese people would eat, or even if they eat and enjoy salad. But it uses some ingredients that are sometimes found in Chinese cooking (at least, the kind of Chinese foods that I've had here in America), and together they make a green salad that, so far, is my favorite. Here's what I put in it:

1 head red lettuce, chopped or shredded

1 bunch spinach (washed, stems removed, etc., etc.)

1 small head Napa cabbage (I found this to be young and tender and mild, with just the right amount of crunch), sliced thinly

1 package cherry or grape tomatoes

2 tomatoes, sliced for salad

1 or 2 carrots, peeled and shredded

1/4 to 1/2 head of cauliflower flowerettes

1/2 cup or so (not a lot) of purple cabbage, chopped small

Combine all those ingredients, and any others you like, and serve with a bit of ranch dressing and some Chinese noodles and slivered almonds sprinkled on top.

I just ate this for my mid-morning snack, but I ate it over the top of the leftover sweet-and-sour pork, brown rice, and sauteed vegetables. It was soo good.

For the sauteed vegetables, I put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heated pan, and sauteed the following until tender:

1 cup celery, sliced on the diagonal

1 cup onion, chopped

1 can bean sprouts, rinsed and drained

1 can mushrooms, drained

You may not like the mushrooms or the bean sprouts, so feel free to leave them out. You may like to try some other vegetables that I did not want to put in, such as bamboo shoots or water chestnuts.

Serve over a bed of brown rice, with sweet and sour pineapple pork on top, followed by the above salad.

I'm liking how I can eat a big mid-morning snack and it's okay. I mean, sure, I ate two pieces of toast and two eggs and a plum for breakfast. But that was three hours ago, and I was hungry for more than "six almonds" or "1/2 cup of cottage cheese" or some other ridiculously unsatisfying suggestion from some of the diet advice that I've read. The emphasis in the Lean and Free 2000 Plus book is on feeding our bodies, not starving them, and I really like that!

Cinnamon rolls

This morning I made these cinnamon rolls from Dana Thornock's Lean and Free 2000 Plus book. They are light and yummy, and I highly recommend trying them.

Ellen

Crockpot Bean Soup

I threw some things in the crockpot last night around 5 p.m., knowing that we would be hungry after our session at the temple. It turned out pretty good, so I thought I'd share the "recipe" on here.

In a crockpot combine:

2 quarts water

1 cup dry soup mix from the cannery

1 cup 12-bean soup mix (this is a combination of dry beans--pinto, red, kidney, black, lentils, black-eyed peas, Navy, split peas, etc.)

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder

1/2 large onion

2 huge carrots peeled and diced

2 ribs celery cut up

1/2 pound ground turkey, broken into pieces

Cook for 4 hours on high. Then add a can of corn (I included the liquid) and a can of stewed tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.

We ate it with toast and butter, and a big plum for dessert. It hit the spot for me.

My Menu for the Week

I'm writing this here partly to share with you all, and partly because I lost my menu and I want to remember what I have planned so I'll do it :)

Tue: Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Put the chicken (whatever kind you want, I used chicken breasts, but you could use wings or thighs) into the crock pot. In a bowl mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 cup water. Pour over chicken and cook on low or high for as long as you need to. I did about 7 hours on low. Half an hour before serving, put some rice on to cook and add some pineapples to the crock pot. I served with broccoli and green salad. I was still hungry afterward, but it was delicious! Oh, and I also tried to add some cornstarch when I added the pineapples to thicken the sauce but it didn't work. I think I should have transferred it to another pan and warmed it more but I didn't want to do all that.

Wed: Taco soup and twice baked potatoes

Thur: Hawaiian Haystacks (using the leftover pineapples I saved from Tue)

Fri: Leftovers (and get a roast out to thaw for Sun.)

Sat: Homemade pizza (and make extra dough for rolls tomorrow)

Sun: Roast and mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls

Mon: Chimichanga's using leftover roast

Let me know if you'r interested in any other recipes, and I would love to see your menu's too!

Depression Cooking

Hey Josie, check out this YouTube TV series. It features 96-year-old Clara as she teaches you how to cook meals from the Depression. It looks like the series is about five years old, as the first two I've watched say she's 91 years old. Anyway, it's pretty cool. Basic, cheap, filling and nutritious meals for your family.

http://youtu.be/3OPQqH3YlHA

Meatless Chili

Last week when I was really on a healthy-eating kick (I still am, but I'm okay with eating meat this week, lol), I came up with this meatless chili recipe, again made from the ingredients I have on hand. I had leftovers for lunch today, and it still tastes good. And, just so you know, this recipe is made possible because Jim (Dad) bottles our dry beans for me so they are convenient to use, so that I will use them.

Easy Meatless Chili

1 pint bottled (or canned, I suppose) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint bottled (or canned, I suppose) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint bottled homemade salsa (made from the USU's Extension Service approved recipe)

2 pints canned whole tomatoes (or a quart bottled if you like)

1 tablespoon chili powder

That's it. Combine it all in a pan and heat through, letting it simmer on low for a bit. Between the chili powder and the salsa, it had just the right heat level for me, and I didn't need to add any salt, I suppose because of the canned and bottled stuff.

Also, when we bottle beans, no matter how hard we try to guestimate the right amount of beans to put in the bottle, they always swell more than we think and end up being crammed in there. So if you use store-bought canned beans, you may need an extra can of beans, in which case you might consider another kind of beans, such as Navy or Kidney or something.

Spinach-Fruit Salad

With our dinner last night I wanted to serve a salad, but the only greens I have on hand are from a bag of spinach that I bought a few days ago. Usually I think of spinach salad as having strawberries in it, but I don't have any fresh strawberries on hand. I do, however, have lots of apples, and a few walnuts. Oh, and look!, there are some dried cranberries, too! So I looked up a recipe for spinach-apple-walnut salad. I found several to choose from. I guess the main thing I needed was a dressing recipe. So here's an approximation of what I came up with (measurements are approximate):

Divide evenly between two serving plates:

2 handfuls of spinach

1 apple, cored and cubed

a few walnut halves, broken (I actually heated a frying pan and put these in it, along with a sprinkle of sugar, and stirred them around til the sugar melted and coated them a bit)

a few Craisins or dried cranberries

In a blender combine:

2 tablespoons frozen cranberry juice concentrate

2 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons safflower oil

2 tablespoons vinegar (I used cider)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Blend all together. Taste to see if you need to add more salt or sugar or vinegar or something to give it a bit of pleasing tang. Then pour a little over the two salads just before serving.

We also had some hamburger-stroganoff for dinner, which I made as roughly follows:

1 pound hamburger, cooked with

half a large onion, chopped

When the hamburger is longer pink and the onion is soft and cooked through, drain the juices and add:

a can of cream of mushroom soup

a can of mushrooms

a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

Stir till heated through, then remove from the heat and stir in a big spoonful of sour cream or plain yogurt. Serve over cooked rice or noodles.

Cooked carrots and broccoli were the vegetable(s) we ate with the meal, and I had a slice of bread and butter with honey on top for dessert.

Anyway, it was a good meal.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Last night I tried out these Pumpkin Pancakes from allrecipes.com for dinner. They were so good! I think I will start buying pumpkin puree now and trying other pumpkin dishes because even my kids liked the pancakes. I wanted to share the recipe here so besides posting the link I will copy and paste it too. I hope that's ok:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

I just put all the wet ingredients in my blender and blended them a bit then mixed all the dry ingredients together and dumped in the wet. These were the fluffiest pancakes I've ever had. They were a little bland but I think that's because I was missing the ginger and allspice. I still loved them though!

Couponing

So I've decided to actually plan some menus based on what's on sale, and use coupons to help me find some good deals. The thing that triggered this decision was when the Deseret News sales person called us last week and practically begged us to sign up for the newspaper again. They have a deal going on where you just get the Fri-Sat-Sun paper for one low price. The best part about the Fri paper is the crossword puzzle; the best part about the Sat paper is the Church news and the crossword puzzle; and the Sun paper--well, I guess I'll learn to use the coupons.

My new effort has coincided with the grand opening of Salem's new grocery store. Stokes, of Idaho, has come to Salem and opened a combination grocery store and Ace Hardware store. Today was their Grand Opening. I stopped by there twice, and Jim stopped in once. Everybody in Salem stopped in there today, I think. It's been crowded every time we've been there. They had some good sales, comparable to what I mapped out for Smith's and Macey's. Their boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.29 a pound, so I bought two packages, along with some pork chops and some chicken thighs. I came home and put together some freezer meals. My hope is that these will last us for at least a week, hopefully two, when combined with what we already have on hand. Broccoli and cauliflower were 79 cents a pound, sour cream 98 cents, fresh pineapple 79 cents a pound, and a package of coleslaw was 99 cents.

The freezer meals I put together include:

barbecue crock pot chicken (for sandwiches)

ginger chicken to be served over coleslaw

peanut butter chicken (to be served over spaghetti noodles and snow peas)

apricot-honey-glazed chicken (I kind of made this one up)

and one other chicken one, I forget.

and 2 packages of apple-honey pork chops

I still have some coupons and lists for Smith's, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens, but they'll come as I am in the area.

Fresh Salsa

I was at Fred Meyer last week and they were having a cooking demo to try to sell me on a nifty product that chops stuff up and makes life oh so simple. Anyway, the lady doing the demo threw together this salsa in like two minutes. It was so good! I almost paid $30 for the cheap plasticy product she was selling. Instead I just bought the ingredients I saw her use, came home, and made myself some salsa with a good old fashioned knife. Mine was almost as good as hers! And it took me longer to make but it was still easy and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a yellow bell pepper
• 1 roma tomato
• 1/2 of an onion
• handful of chopped cilantro (cutting it in with your shears works nicely)
• Big squeeze of a fresh lime
• a snip of a hot pepper (optional, I didn't do this)


Chop up vegetables and cilantro and combine them in a bowl. Squeeze in the lime and stir it all up. Scoop with some chips and enjoy the super fresh flavor!

• 

As you can see this recipe doesn't make much. I was worried mine wouldn't work out so I didn't make much for starters. It did work though and even my youngest two kiddos enjoyed it!

Danish Sweet and Sour Cabbage

A couple of years ago, when Jim was serving as a bishop at BYU, we were invited, along with the other bishops and leaders in the stake, to a dinner with President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, when he was there visiting for stake conference. So the meal that was served was planned and prepared by a member of the high council and his wife, based on a Danish-style menu. The foods were not what I was used to, but I enjoyed them all, very much. I remember some cabbage that must have been similar to this recipe. Sometime soon I hope to try it, but in the meantime I've posted it here so I can find it again when I'm ready:

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 2-pound red cabbage, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Method

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add cabbage and sauté until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add sugar, toss to coat evenly. Add vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover, simmer until cabbage is tender, stirring often, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 6-8.

That Zucchini Casserole Stuff

Okay, so I didn't really care for this. Jim said he liked it. The spices in the cornbread stuffing mix give it a good flavor. Also, I have to confess that we had a recipe similar to this posted in the RS bulletin on Sunday, so it wasn't totally my own idea. However, I did it my own way, including substituting the yogurt I had on hand for the sour cream. Also, just for the record, I don't feel an overwhelming need to use zucchini. It's nutritional value is not that great compared to other vegetables, but it's better for you than, say, candy. I don't plant zucchini, and it's a vegetable that I can take or leave.

Here is a webpage that shows the nutritional value of baby zucchini. It says:

The good: This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Niacin and Pantothenic Acid, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Copper and Manganese.

Caloric Ratio Pyramid

53%	16%	31%
Carbs	Fats	Protein

I Made This One Up

Chicken Zucchini Cornbread Stuffing Casserole
Spray a fry pan with cooking spray, and saute over medium-low heat:
1 zucchini, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
Add a little butter and let it melt in there too.
Add:
1 can chicken, drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 container strawberry-banana-flavored yogurt
1 box cornbread stuffing mix
Stir all together, then put in a casserole dish and put a lid on it. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly on top.
I'll let you know how it turns out!

Roast Beef

Last week when I knew we needed something to eat for meals the next day, but we wouldn't be home due to the temple and Education Week and work, and we didn't want to eat out, well, I got this idea, and it turned out really well.
Wednesday night before we went to bed I put in the crockpot:
a small beef roast
a cut up green pepper and half a red pepper
1n onion cut up
2 16-oz cans of whole tomatoes
Canadian steak seasoning
And put it on low all night long.
IN the rice cooker I put:
2 cups brown rice
4 cups water

Then we went to bed. During the night I heard the rice cooker going off, but managed to ignore it until sometime after midnight, when I got up and unplugged it and put the rice in the fridge. Then, in the morning, I shredded the beef from the roast, stirred it back in with the veggies, and then spooned a cup of it into a container over a cup of the rice, topped it with cooked green beans from the garden, and there was our lunches for the day. It was really, really good.

Chili-Cheese Potato Casserole

Tonight I made up a new dinner that was super easy to do, and I really liked it. I decided to call it:

Chili-Cheese Potato Casserole

8 small-to-medium potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt to taste
1 can chili beans
1 cup grated (mozzarella) cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel potatoes and cut into 1" (or so) cubes. Place in a casserole dish or 9"x13" pan and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and stir around to distribute the oil. Do not cover the dish. Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until potatoes are mostly tender when poked with a fork. Add the chili beans and stir to mix. Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake 5 more minutes.

We served it with some sides of carrot sticks, apple sauce, and a slice of bread.

Healthy Banana Bread

My mother-in-law makes the most delicious banana bread ever. My kids and I love it. She shared her recipe with me, and it involves a lot of sugar and some shortening. I'm getting a little stingy about putting that stuff in my food, especially when it's a substantial amount. So I did a search and found this healthy banana bread recipe that actually tastes pretty good. It has no oil and very little sugar. I actually didn't even add as much sugar as it called for and it still tasted fine. It definitely isn't as tasty as my mother-in-laws, but it's healthy so it's what we'll eat. And when we visit Grandma we can eat her's. Here's the link to the recipe: Healthy Banana Bread.

Black Bean Enchilada's, Homemade Almond Milk and Other Stuff to Say

This week I tried this recipe for "sloppy joe's" or sloppy lentils as the case may be. They were surprisingly tasty and super easy to make and I'm pretty sure you would like them Mom. Even Wayne had one. The only thing I changed was that I used brown sugar in place of the molasses and sucanat (I don't have those on hand) and I didn't have canned tomatoes either. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly and it was quite good. The seasoning was what made it good though, I still can't say I like lentils.

Anyway, making that recipe left me with a half a can of leftover tomato paste so last night I made some black bean and cheese enchilada's. They turned out quite tasty so here is kind of the recipe of what I did.

Mix:

6 oz tomato paste

1 little can of tomato sauce

1 can cream of chicken soup

about 3/4 cup salsa (I'm not sure how much, I just dumped some in until it looked about right)

1 Tb onion powder

1 Tb garlic powder

2 Tb chille powder

Then dump some black beans in a bowl and mix about 1 cup or more of the sauce with the black beans as well as a handful of cheese. Use that as the filling for your enchilada's. Dump the rest of the sauce over the top and bake it covered at 350 for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, top with cheese and then let it bake again while the cheese melts. Remove again and top with chopped green onions and tomatoes if you have them.

I think I make my enchilada sauce different every time I make them depending on what I have on hand. I learned this from my old roommate Meagan.

I also tried my hand at Almond Milk again this week because I have a huge bag of almonds that needs to be used! The recipe I tried this time worked out wonderfully and the milk was pretty good. Here's what I did:

Soak 1 cup of Almonds in 3 cups of water with 3 dates overnight. In the morning blend it up for awhile. Then I stretched an old clean t-shirt over a large bowl and pretended it was a cheese cloth and used that to squeeze the milk through. Then I dumped the strained milk back into the blender and added ice cubes to bring the level up to about 4 cups and blended it again. Then I dumped it into a pitcher and enjoyed it on my oatmeal that morning.

Now, I don't really know what to do with the left over almond meal stuff. I made some cookies the other night and threw a bunch of it in them. They didn't add to the flavor or texture, but maybe they added some fiber or something. I don't know. Any other suggestions of what I can put it in?

Trying new things

Since coming home from out little family vacation I am feeling motivated again to get back to healthy eating. The constipation that I thought we had gotten under control is back again in full swing so here we go again. We are going to cut out cheese and I am also cutting out milk for a bit to see if that helps. I bought almond milk this week and I really liked it, but I'm not the constipated one, and she won't drink it without chocolate mixed in, just because it had bubbles when I poured it into her cup. That's ok though, she'll get used to some small changes. I tried this quinoa pilaf from my cousins blog and I really liked it! If you like rice pilaf, you would probably like this recipe too. It's really not anything too terribly different. I also tried this quinoa bread recipe and it turned out great too. The only problem with it is that it's incredibly crumbly and a little hard to make peanut butter and honey sandwiches with. I think I will make it again occasionally, but not as my normal bread. Just because of the crumbliness though and it also takes longer than my normal bread making routine. The taste is delicious and I like that it has oatmeal and quinoa in it. So I still have a bit of quinoa left and I will probably try a breakfast cereal recipe with it and let you know how that goes. Oh, and another new recipe I tried was this cheese less mac and cheese and I'm sorry, but she must have an awful memory! The stuff was awful! I'm not meaning to be rude, but it's not a recipe I recommend. Luckily I was pretty sure my family wouldn't care for it so I made that as a side dish to our waffles last night. None of us liked it and it is not a recipe I will ever try again. I am finding that trying to pretend something is cheese when it really isn't is proving to be almost more disappointing than I can bear. So instead of trying all these cheese substitutes we will just try real recipes that don't include cheese for awhile. We will all miss it dearly but after the issue is under control again I think we might be able to add it in once or twice a week again.
So I am now off to make my shopping list and get some healthy food. Wish me luck!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

These are fat-free except for the egg yolk, and if you use two egg whites instead of one whole egg, they would be totally fat-free. I like them. I like them a lot. Of course, the chocolate helps. But I think it also helps that in this case the beans are replacing the shortening, no the flour. Here goes:

1/2 cup cooked mashed beans (I used a can of white beans and mashed up about half of them to get my half cup. I'm sure pinto beans or black beans or any other kind of legumous bean would work just as well!
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup rolled oats
(I just realized these should probably have 1/2 teaspoon of salt or so. But although I missed putting it in, I didn't miss it in the taste. Suit your own.)

In a mixer combine beans, sugar, egg and vanilla. Then put in the flour, cocoa, baking soda and oats. Mix thoroughly. Drop on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Herbed Lentils with Rice

Yesterday I did some sewing on the binding of Melinda's quilt, and while I worked on that, I watched Zonya's Healthbites on KBYU. She was talking about how to eat healthy on a slim food budget. She emphasized using fruits and vegetables as snacks, and buying them on sale. For the main course, though, Beans and other legumes are definitely the way to go. They are much less costly than meat and they are filled with protein, iron, fiber and lots of other good stuff.

She likes lentils because they don't have to be soaked ahead of time, and they only take about an hour to cook, and they are versatile flavor-wise in that they absorb the flavors of whatever you put with them. She shared two recipes, one for a casserole and one for a soup. I grabbed my pencil and paper and wrote them down. I had a red pepper in the fridge that needed to be used, and a 1-lb. bag of lentils in the cupboard, so I went ahead and made this casserole. I'll do the soup another day. She said that if you were to have a lentil casserole such as this just once a week in place of a macaroni-hamburger-cheese-type casserole, you would cut out a lot of fat over a year's time, enough to amount to a six-pound body weight loss.

I really liked this casserole, but not everyone would. For me it hit the spot. Dad didn't want to try it, although he has tried beans-and-rice type stuff in the past and been fine with it. This is supposed to serve six people with 1 1/2 cup servings. That's a lot. You may want to cut it in half.

Lentil Casserole: Herbed Lentils with Rice

1 3/4 cup water

1 can chicken broth

1 1/2 cups lentils, sorted, rinsed and drained

2 onions, finely chopped (mine were chunky and they are better finely chopped, trust me)

1 cup dry brown rice

1/2 cup additional liquid such as more broth or water

1 teaspoon dried basil, rolled in fingers to release the flavor as you add it to the pot

1 teaspoon oregano

2 oz. jar chopped pimientos or 1 chopped red pepper, optional (this is to add some color to the casserole)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

15 grinds fresh pepper (I'm not sure how much this is, but I added about 1/2 teaspoon)

Stir all of these ingredients together in a casserole dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and sprinkle some grated mozzarella cheese on top, then return to oven for another 10 or 15 minutes to melt the cheese.

Gooey

And here's the finished product. I just now put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes to see if it will set up some more. Honestly, it's not that great. Maybe it's because I'm all beaned-out from the bean quesadilla I had for dinner. But if it wasn't for the chocolate flavor and the nuts to give it some texture--well, let's just say regular old brownies are better, in my opinion. Maybe a little frosting on top would help, once they're set up, that is.

Stay tuned for Brownies #2 when I try making my brownie recipe substituting beans for the shortening instead of the flour. Maybe Friday.

Ellen

Brownies #1

Right now, even as we speak, I have a batch of brownies in the oven. These are grain-free brownies that are supposed to be made from black beans; however, I don't have a can of black beans, and I'm too lazy to open the 25-pound bag of black beans and soak them overnight. So I opened a bottle of home-canned pinto beans and used those instead. I figure, hey, the beans are taking the place of the flour, and flour is white or brown, not black--it's the cocoa powder that makes brownies dark--so why should it matter? Well, I like the color from using pinto beans.

It's the easiest brownie recipe I've ever made. You put everything in a blender and blend it together.

Then pour it into an 8x8 pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Oops! I forgot! You're not supposed to blend up the chocolate chips and walnuts, but instead fold those in to the mixture before you pour it into the pan. After I put the batter into the pan, and after I took this picture, I sprinkled them on top and used a knife to stir them in.

While we're waiting for them to cook, I'll share the recipe. It's a gluten free recipe that came from this blog and it goes like this:

Healthy Grain Free Brownies

2 cups black beans (I used pinto), or 1 can beans, rinsed and drained

3 lightly beaten eggs

1/3 cup melted coconut oil or butter

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey or other sweetner

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch pan. Blend everything but the chocolate chips and walnuts in a blender (I suggest putting the eggs in first so your blender has some liquid to work with. The motor on mine started to smell a little funny, if you know what I mean) and blend until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour into pan and bake for about 30 minutes.

2 Winner's and my weeks menu plan

I was talking to my friend on the phone recently and she asked me how I was doing with this whole diet thing. It was a hard question to answer. I feel like I've been a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other. If I'm not doing extremely well with eating, then I'm pigging out on ice cream and not knowing what to fix for dinner because I feel so overwhelmed lately. Overwhelmed by all the contradicting information out there. Overwhelmed by trying to force my family to enjoy "healthy" foods. Overwhelmed by my kids whining at me because they are not eating what I make and they are hungry and grumpy, and quite frankly, so am I! So here's how I'm doing. The thing is, when I started this I said that the main reason was to help my daughter get over her constipation problems. She is doing wonderfully! It all started with one dose of mirilax, cutting way back on cheese (really, cheese was a huge staple at our house) and talking, talking, talking to her about foods that are pooper helpers and pooper stoppers and going when she needs to go. She is doing so well and I'm so glad. So now I am pretty much back to where I was before. I realized that we already do eat pretty healthy around here. I mean not to any extreme, but we eat home cooked meals, home baked bread, tons of fresh fruit, and really not much in the way of processed foods. And that's ok with me for now. Even if my bread is 60/40 wheat to white. That's the way we like it. That being said I want to share two delicious recipes that we will be incorporating into our snacks. The first is the granola bars that Mom already tried. I finally tried them today and WOW!!! They are so delicious not to mention so incredibly easy to make! And the possibilities with them are endless. So, no more sunbelt granola bars around here. The second is a wheat thins recipe I posted about on my blog about a year ago, but never actually tried yet. But they are amazing and easy too! When Audrey tasted one she said, "Wow! I like these crackers!" And then when Wayne tried one he said, "You made these??!" and then he kept asking me, "wow, how did you make these? These are better than wheat thins!" Here are the two links: Granola bars Wheat thin crackers I love how with the crackers you can make a bunch of dry mix and store it in your freezer, which brings me to my next goal. I have been so busy lately that it gets to be 5 or 6 at night and I haven't thought yet about what we are having for dinner. It's frustrating and stressful for everybody so I need to plan better, and that means planning meals I can make mostly in the morning, or doing freezer meals (hint, hint, Jessica!) or of course the crock pot. So here is my menu for the week (Oh, and I only plan dinners. Lunch is leftovers and breakfast is whatever):

• Tue: Cornflake chicken and potato salad


• Wed: Chicken tortilla soup (crock pot)


• Thur: Chile and twice baked potatoes (crock pot and I will make tons of potatoes whenever I can and then twice baked potatoes freeze well for future)


• Fri: Stuffed shells and bread sticks (the stuffed shells can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen)


• Sat: Pizza


• Sun: Roast (crock pot) and mashed potatoes


• Mon: Fajitas (from leftover roast)

Whew! I feel so much better about this. For now. I already have my chicken marinading in the fridge (in buttermilk with garlic salt and some pepper) so I can just shake it and bake it before dinner (we call it chicken nuggets and the kids love it). I also pretty much have the potato salad made already. So dinner will not be stressful tonight, even though I will be leaving when Wayne gets home around 3 to go get some dirt and stuff for my garden and will probably be working in the garden until 5!

Basic Vegetable Soup

2 carrots, sliced

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups cabbage, chopped

1 14.5-oz. can tomatoes

1 can water

1 tsp beef bouillon

1 cup frozen cut green beans

1/2 dried basil

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 small zucchini, sliced

Spray a large saucepan with cooking spray and saute carrots, onion and garlic over low-to-medium heat until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and continue to saute a couple of more minutes until cabbage begins to soften slightly. Add tomatoes, water, bouillon, green beans, basil and oregano. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook for about 15 minutes, or until green beans and cabbage are cooked. Add the zucchini and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until soft. Serve warm.

Black Bean Brownies

I've been curious about trying black bean brownies, and today I happened across a couple of recipes for them.
http://coffeebeankisses.blogspot.com/2011/01/black-bean-brownies.html
http://kingdomfirstmom.com/2011/03/healthy-black-bean-brownies.html
Both of these people are interested in cooking without gluten, so apparently the beans take the place of the flour. I am not concerned about gluten-free cooking, but rather low-fat cooking. I'm wondering if I can make regular brownies and substitute the black beans for the shortening? When I bought my bags of black beans and white beans at the dry-pack cannery a couple of weeks ago, I overheard the lady telling someone that you can substitute cooked white beans for shortening, cup-for-cup. I've been curious to try it ever since.
I hope to experiment with this concept this week, and as I do I'll share what I find.

Menu and Shopping List

Brown Rice
Cucumbers
Lemons
Zucchini
Cabbage
Potatoes
Onions
Squash
Oranges
Spinach
Bananas
Strawberries
Lettuce
Peppers
Cauliflower
Pork chops
Fish
Frozen green beans

Monday
Breakfast: Grain Compote with fruit
Lunch: Tuna Sandwich with spinach and celery, orange
Dinner: Apple pork chops, mashed potatoes, broccoli and carrots, spinach-strawberry salad
Snacks: Apple, Popcorn, green smoothie popsicle from freezer (last week's green smoothie)

Tuesday
Breakfast: Pancake and peaches
Lunch: Vegetable Soup (see below), bread and cheese
Dinner: Pizza with veggies, strawberry-banana smoothie, chocolate chip cookies
Snacks: green smoothie, apple, popcorn

Wednesday
Breakfast: Grain compote with strawberries, apples
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Bean enchiladas, corn, green salad
Snacks: green smoothie

Thursday
Breakfast: pancake and peaches
Lunch: Vegetable Soup
Dinner: leftovers
Snacks: apple, orange, veggie tray

Friday
Breakfast: Grain compote with strawberries, apples
Lunch: Tuna sandwich with spinach and celery
Dinner: Spaghetti noodles with chicken-vegetable prima vera
Snacks: apple, orange, green smoothie

Saturday
Breakfast: pancakes and peaches
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: fish, mac & cheese, carrots-broccoli-cauliflower
Snacks: apple, orange, green smoothie, popcorn

Here's the Vegetable Soup Recipe that I plan to use. I got it from Weight Watchers when I did that program a couple of years ago:
2/3 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cups fat-free broth (beef, chicken or vegetable)
1 1/2 cups diced green cabbage
1/2 cup green beans
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup diced zucchini
Spray a large saucepan with nonstick cooking spray, heat. Saute the carrot, onion, and garlic over low heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add broth, cabbage, beans, tomato poaste, basil, oregano, and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until beans are tender. Stir in the zucchini and heat for 3-4 minutes. Serve hot.

Cookies revised

I followed the cookie recipe, below, but this time I added a cup of oatmeal and a cup of nuts. It gave it some texture and, while they were still soft, they weren't so mushy. Very good. I've eaten too many already!

Ellen

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm going to post the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies from Lean and Free 2000 Plus. But before I do I want to mention that I tried that whole grain compote from the recipe in the Deseret News, using the cracked grain cereal that I bought, and I really liked it. The cracked grain cereal already has flax seed in it, and I'm not interested in buying flax seed and making it a part of my diet, so I left that out. I think I left out the orange juice, too. But I did do the cut up apple and used cut up strawberries for the berries, and raisins for the dried fruit, and I poured milk over it and ate it like regular hot cereal. I like it a lot.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup applesauce
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 egg whites (I used two whole eggs)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 oz) chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix applesauce, butter, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients. (I then chilled the dough overnight.) Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet (a little cooking spray is helpful). Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. Cool slightly before removing from baking sheet.

These make a soft, cake-like cookie that is easy to eat (a lot of!). I'm going to make them again and try it with an added cup of oatmeal. Or, rather, rolled grains. Hey, why not?

Whole grain cereals

I finally made it to the Roller Mills and bought some whole grain cereal. Above is the six-grain rolled cereal that includes a mixture of red wheat, white wheat, rye, oats, barley and sunflower (seeds?). It comes in a 3.5 lb. ice-cream-size bucket and costs $7.00. You can also buy it in a 25-lb or 50-lb bag, but I figured I'd try it first.

Below is a picture of the 9-grain cracked cereal. It includes red wheat, white wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, millet, flax, and buckwheat. The bucket is the same size as the other one, but with being cracked rather than rolled it weighs 4.5 pounds instead of 3, and the cost is cheaper for $6.25. It also comes in either a 25- or 50-lb. sack if you like. I'm going to put it on to soak overnight so I can try that recipe from my last post for breakfast tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how I like it.

I wonder if you could use the rolled cereal in oatmeal cookies, and if it would taste any different or alter the nutritional value. I'm sure it's probably more expensive than just the plain rolled oats, but still, it might be fun to try.

Some Interesting Reading

The Life (i.e., Food, or "C") Section of today's Deseret News has some interesting articles about food, including this one about a book and a blog by two different authors who are interested in following the Word of Wisdom. The book is called "The W.O.W. Diet," and the blog is called wordofwisdomliving.com. Here is a recipe that is shared by Skip Hellewell, the author of the blog:

Breakfast Compote
1 1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup cracked whole grains
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup dried fruit
1/4 cup fresh berries
1/4 cup chopped apple
1/2 orange, juiced
1 tablespoon freshly ground flaxseed
2 tablespoons chopped nuts
Honey, brown sugar, or maple syrup to taste
Cinnamon, Cardomon, vanilla, or nutmeg to taste
Day 1: After finishing breakfast, prepare the mixture for the next day by combining the hot water and cracked whole grains in a pan and place it on the back of the stove to soak. (Local whole foods store offers a nine-grain mixture, mostly cracked wheat (note from me: the Leland Mill that is near me offers this).)
Day 2: Bring the pot to a boil, add roleld oats and dried fruit. Turn off the heat and let sit for five minutes. While the oats and dried fruits are cooking, prepare two bowls by adding to each the flaxseed, crumbled nuts, sweetner and spices to taste.
Wash and prepare fruits in season, adding to teach bowl to the berries, apples and orange juice. Combine all ingredients into the bowls and enjoy.

There's also an article by the food editor, Valerie Phillips, about a food "blogger" from the 1930s and '40s named M.F.K. Fisher. Actually, her article is about a book by Anne Zimmerman, "a Utah native who has chronicled Fisher's life in a new book, 'An Extragavant Hunger: The Passionate years of M.F.K. Fisher.'"

There's also an article about the nutritional benefits of asparagus, along with a recipe for a green asparagus-potato soup. I would copy the recipe here, but if you go to the article itself, you'll see a nice picture, so I'll leave it at that. I think this might be a way for me to try asparagus and see if I'll like it this time. The only thing is, I need to find out what prosciutto is.

And, finally, here's a link to an article about having fun with food for St. Patrick's day tomorrow. One fun idea is to put a few drops of green food coloring in your children's glasses in the morning, so when you pour milk into them, the milk will magically and surprisingly turn green.

These articles were all of interest to me, so I thought I'd share them. I'm going to try that breakfast compote. I'll swing by the Mills this afternoon to pick up some multi-grain cereal, something I've been meaning to do anyway. Do you want me to pick some up for you as well?

Cornmeal pancakes

These are pooper helpers. I actually like these better than whole wheat pancakes because corn is a bit more flavorful. My kids seem to like them too.

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 T sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup oil or melted butter

Then you know how to do the rest, right? This is just my regular pancake recipe, I just substituted half the flour for corn flour.
**Edited to add in the baking powder. Sorry about that. But like I said, you can just use your own pancake recipe and just do half corn meal if you are interested.

Getting back on track. Well, sort of...

Let's face it, last week I did not do so good with the whole eating healthy or exercising thing. I have been exhausted being up all night long with sick kids. I want to get back on track this week, but I'm still exhausted. I tried to exercise this morning and I only made it through 2/3 of my workout before I had to quit. We'll try again tomorrow.
Meanwhile I made some stuffed peppers for dinner tonight and I think they would qualify as healthy so I will share my recipe with you. I tried to look up recipes but everyone wants me to put tomato sauce and or tomatoes in, but if there is one thing I'm picky about it's tomato sauce mixed with rice or potatoes. I just hate it. So I made up my own recipe using stuff I thought would taste good with red peppers. You can use whatever proportions you like. This recipe made lots of extra filling that I just put in the fridge and will probably wrap in tortilla's for lunch tomorrow. Here it goes:
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 brocoli crown, chopped up a lot
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 small handful of fresh spinach chopped up
Italian seasoning
about 1 cup cooked brown rice
1 handful of grated cheese, whatever kind you like

Saute the garlic and onions in a tiny bit of oil. Add the brocoli and grated carrots and stir fry until they are tender. Add the cooked rice and continue to stir until heated through. Throw in the spinach and Italian seasoning and warm that until the spinach is wilty. Stir in the cheese. Use this to fill bell pepers that have been prepared like this:
Cut bell peppers in half and take out the stems and seeds. Drop them in a pot of boiling water and let boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from pot and dunk right into ice water to stop the cooking process. Then they are ready to be filled.
After you put the filling in, bake them in the oven for about 5-10 minutes just to make the cheese nice and melty and enjoy!
We (I should say I) had these with corn bread and green smoothie. They were filling for me, but Wayne was starving an hour later (probably because he didn't have any cornbread or green smoothie).

What Does Clabber Mean?

When I read the instructions for making buttermilk, I noticed that the instructions say to leave the mixture sitting out at room temperature for several hours, until the milk has "clabbered." I wondered what that means, and if it has anything to do with how Clabber Girl baking powder got its name. Well, I looked it up, and the answer to both questions is just what I suspected. Clabber means when milk goes sour and curdles, and the famous baking powder got its because of the leavening action of sour milk. I'm not explaining it very well. You can read more about it here. Actually, the Clabber Girl website has some fun family activities and science experiments to do with young children, plus some recipes to try. You may like to check it out. In the meantime, I just mixed up my buttermilk concoction. My buttermilk is already five days past the expiration date, but I figure that it was sour milk to begin with, so it shouldn't matter if it's a little more sour. It had separated into a liquid on top, which I think would be a form of whey, but I just shook the carton until it was mixed up well and then used it anyway. Maybe I'll use it to make some sour dough waffles in the morning. I'll let you know!

Food Storage

Okay, I have an idea. Instead of focusing my efforts on eating more grains and legumes and fruits and vegetables and calling it "healthy eating," I'm going to focus my efforts on eating more grains and legumes and fruits and vegetables and call it "using our food storage." That shopping list that I posted from "The Mormon Diet" book looked, as Josie said, like a food storage list. Since we have wheat and oatmeal and rice, and beans and barley and powdered milk, how about if I just use those? After all, according to a booklet that we found among our stuff from the Utah State Extension Service, the Golden Rule of Food Storage is to STORE WHAT YOU EAT AND EAT WHAT YOU STORE, or, in other words, ROTATION.

This booklet gives some recipes for using food storage, which, surprise, surprise, seem to be very similar to recipes for healthy eating. Things like making your own cream soup, making yogurt and buttermilk and sweetened condensed milk, wheat berry pudding, barley pilaf, and golden harvest muffins. So I'm going to post one of those recipes on here, with the commitment to try it this week, and give a report on how we like it. Actually, I'm going to go with two recipes. The first is for buttermilk (because I have some buttermilk in the fridge that needs to be used), and the second is for cream soup (because I want to try making my own cream-of-something soup base).

Buttermilk
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 cups warm water
1 cup nonfat dry milk OR 1 1/2 cups instant nonfat dry milk
Put buttermilk, water and dry milk in a large clean jar and stir or shake until powder is dissolved. Cover the jar with a lid or clean cloth. Let stand at warm room temperature until it clabbers, about 10 hours in the winter or 5 hours in the summer. After it clabbers, store in the refrigerator. Save 1/2 cup to mix buttermilk next time. Buy commercial buttermilk occasionally for a fresh "start."

Homemade "Cream" Soup Mix
2 cups powdered nonfat milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup instant chicken bouillon
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon basil leaves
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup instant rice
Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Store in air-tight container until ready to use. Equivalent of 9 cans of soup.
TO SUBSTITUTE FOR 1 CAN OF CONDENSED SOUP: Combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cups of cold water in saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened. Add to casserole as you would the canned product.
Variation: Add a 4 ox. can of mushrooms, undrained, as part of liquid for cream of mushroom (10% fat)

Fiber energy bars

Yes, I tried yet another fiber recipe. It also turned out good, which is why I'm posting about it, but my kids still don't really care for it. However, after trying all these things using all whole wheat, I think I can now start making bread using 100% whole wheat. At least my kids love my wheat bread, although I've never done it with all whole wheat before. I recently switched to hard white wheat instead of hard red, and we like it a whole lot better.

Anyway, the recipe for these bars I found here, but I think you could very well use your own basic bread recipe to do this. I never would have figured that you can just use a basic whole wheat bread recipe and turn it into fiber bars, but they have instructions for how to do just that, along with a bunch of other fun ideas, if you scroll down the page a ways. I'm not going to re post the recipe here because I followed it pretty much exactly except I had no wheat gluten or lecithin however I did use the optional egg which I believe has lecithin in the yolk? Oh, and I omitted the salt, but that's just because I was using salted peanuts. I even ground some flax seed in my blender and it actually worked! I've never dared do that before.

So Mom, you can try some when you get here, I have plenty! By themselves they are a little bland unless you bite into a raisin or something. Kind of like eating a plain piece of raisin bread. They aren't very sweet. They would be delicious with butter and honey on top. This morning I used two of them to make an egg sandwich for breakfast and it was delicious. This is a recipe I will definitely use again. I think it will grow on my kids. Oh speaking of my kids, for two of them I told them it was a bagel and spread cream cheese on it and they ate it.

Today's lunch

Okay, so yesterday's dinner actually did fill me up, for quite a long time. And then when I got hungry, around 9 p.m., I was really hungry. I took your suggestion to heart for lunch today, Josie, and added black beans. All I needed was a little salt, and this was actually a really yummy lunch.

In entering yesterday's food intake into the food journal on fitday.com, I came up with 2,688 calories. 74% of that was carbs, 17% of that was fat, and 9% of that was protein. The percentages sound about right for the diet I'm trying to follow, and I'm going to have to trust that the number of calories is okay, too. I mean, it's what I seemed to need to feel satisfied, and, while that number is not a "dieting" number, it is within normal limits, I think, so I will call it good. FYI, the only fats that I intentionally added to my diet yesterday were some butter on two pieces of bread (for my evening snack--remember I got hungry?), and the peanut butter on my PBHoney sandwich for my morning snack. No milk (not even on my oatmeal yesterday morning), no eggs, no meat.

Today, on the other hand, I used the milk that is going sour in the fridge to make our pancakes, and I'd like to say that it helped them be fluffy like buttermilk pancakes, but I can't say that for sure. Anyway, they were good with peaches on top, and a glass of water for a beverage.

As far as having more energy and being able to run and not be weary and walk and not faint, I had a hard time on our walk this morning. Maybe it's because I didn't go to sleep till after 10:30 last night, was up once in the night, and woke up around 4:30 this morning. Or maybe it's because I was hungry from not eating enough protein yesterday. Anyway, I was struggling with my energy level, and was still breathing hard even after we'd been home and showered. Eating breakfast is when I started to feel better. So that's something to be aware of.

Just sharing!

Seconds

But I still didn't feel totally satisfied. So I got me another baked potato (I had baked about eight of them, so there was plenty more), and decided to open a can of corn and have a little of that as well. And, what do you know? All of a sudden I was full. No meat, no butter, no dairy. Hmm. I wonder how many calories? I'll enter it on fitday.com and get back to you on that.

Tonight's dinner

Baked Acorn squash packed with brown rice, a baked potato, and some broccoli. Will it be enough? Will it be too much? I didn't want to put butter or other fat on the vegetables (thankfully I've never cared for sour cream on my potato, but I do like butter), so I decided to experiment with some seasonings. I used plenty of salt, along with some onion powder and garlic powder, on the potato and the squash and rice. Broccoli I can eat plain. It was pretty good!

Delicious fiber packed blueberry muffins!

I have found a truly amazingly delicious healthy enough for my standards recipe! I am excited to share this. I tried it today, and one of my kids gobbled one down, so I think we are making progress. The other two kids just took little nibbles, but that's to be expected. It sounds too healthy to be tasty and I don't think I would have tried it except for all the great reviews but they are delicious! So, here is my adaptation of this recipe from allrecipes:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup wheat bran

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/4 cup wheat germ (I think that's what I used, but I'm not sure because it was from an unlabeled bag in my cupboard)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup blueberries

1 banana mashed

1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup milk and 1 tsp lemon juice)

1 egg

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract (oops, I guess I forgot to put this in)

Mix dry ingredients first, then add the blueberries. Then mix wet ingredients and add them all to the dry ones. Fill muffin tins all the way to the top. Bake at 350 for 15-18 min or until top springs back when touched.

Next time I make these (which will be very soon) I will use craisins instead of blueberries. My daughter thought she wanted blueberry because she likes blueberry bagels (probably made with imitation blueberries) but she didn't like the big gooey bluberry blobs in this. I think she will really like it with craisins though and I think the craisins will help soak up a bit of the moisture and dry them out a bit as they were quite moist. I really really liked them, although you wouldn't want to gobble down the whole batch yourself.

Why does it all have to be so contradicting?!

It seems like every time you learn something about nutrition (or lots of things in life actually) there is always at least two very opposing sides of the issue. It's so frustrating! You would think with all the scientific studies we are capable of, we would have overwhelming evidence one way or the other. Anyway, today I was reading about soaking grains. At first it seemed everyone was agreed that soaking grains is essential for optimal nutrition. But wait! No. Not everyone is agreed. So, I present to you these two interesting articles that I invite you to read and discuss with me.
Read this one first: How and why to soak grains
And then this one: The soaking of grains investigated
I know they are kind of long (especially the second one) but they are very interesting. After you read them, You can read what I think.
Here's what I think:
I was very glad to find that second article after reading a whole bunch of stuff telling me I was not doing good enough by just eating whole grains. She really breaks it down well and it sounds like she did her research. I very much appreciated how she pointed out that there is purpose both in soaking and in not soaking. It won't hurt you to soak them, and it won't hurt you not to! And I loved how at the end she brought in a very religious aspect about how good whole grain is for you, (as we believe in the Doctrine and Covenants it is the staff of life) and how Jesus called himself the Bread of Life. I had never made that connection before and it made me feel really good about continuing on. Her ideas seemed very consistent with the Word of Wisdom and in just being moderate in all things and I loved how she ended with a very excellent scripture in James stating that, "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." And it all helped bring me down from my overwhelmed confused thoughts and remind me that it's all ok. Just do the best you can, know the Word of Wisdom, and follow the scriptures as best you can. Of course everything is so complex, because we are here to learn and have our faith tested. If we just had all the answers revealed to us, then we would probably be held to a much higher accountability and then we might really be feeling overwhelmed! We do have what we have in the scriptures, and personally, that is enough for me to feel accountable for.
Anyway, I still wish I knew more of the answers to things, but I do know that in trying out this experiment and eating more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and eating meat more sparingly, I really do feel great. I hope to keep doing better and keep feeling better and better.
Disclaimer: This is my opinion after doing what little research on soaking grains I have done today. I reserve the right to change my opinion and try new things. I am always open to other peoples opinions on this because I am always trying to learn and figure things out.

Pitas

I filled mine with beans and salsa, corn, peppers, and some green salad.

Puff oven pitas

So, you take your regular old bread recipe, and for each loaf-size hunk of bread, you divide it into four pieces. Make a ball of each piece, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Gently lay it on a piece of wax paper to rise for about 20 to 40 minutes, until lightly puffed. While it's rising, preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. Transfer the pita dough, gently and carefully, to an ungreased cookie sheet which has been lightly sprinkled with cornmeal or flour. You should be able to fit two pits on each sheet. Place in hot oven, turn on the light, and watch it slowly puff up. This should take about three to five minutes. When nicely puffed and rounded, open the oven door and use a spatula to flip it over. Let it cook for another minute or two, until lightly brown and set. Remove from oven and allow to cool. As it cools, it will flatten back down. When totally cool, cut each pita in half to form the pocket, fill with your favorite filling, and enjoy.

Losers

These are things that were in my pantry that I think are not good for me, but I don't dare throw them out because someone might like them (including me). But they are confined to this shelf. They include Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, soda pop (good for upset tummies), cashews, Jello, Dream whip, corn-syrup-based-syrup, and peanut butter.

Fruits and veggies

This is a picture of my pantry shelf that now consists of only fruits and vegetables. It includes Progresso vegetable soup, water chestnuts, green chilies, stewed tomatoes, craisins, raisins, bottled peaches, applesauce, apricot nectar, grape juice and plum juice. These are the things that were already in my pantry and are now sorted onto this shelf.

Beans

These are the beans that were in pantry: dried black beans, pinto beans, red beans, split peas and lentils; canned garbanzo beans, pinto beans, and red beans.

Grains

These are the grains that were in my pantry: a little brown rice, some popcorn (in the green plastic thing), bulgur wheat (what is that, anyway?!), macaroni, noodles and spaghetti (okay, okay, so they're not whole grain, but it's what I have!)

Flavors

These are flavorings that I had in my pantry that do not include corn syrup or MSG. There is liquid smoke, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, taco seasoning (I read the label--no MSG!), and sloppy joe seasoning (maybe we can cook up some lentils and season them with sloppy joe seasoning and pretend they're hamburger?)

This Week

I'm slow getting my goals posted for this week, but here's what's on my mind.

Today I went through my pantry and read labels and sorted things. Below you'll see pictures of what I found. These don't include everything, of course. This is just what was in my kitchen in the tall pantry, and does not include the food storage downstairs, nor the cupboards of baking goods with white flour, sugars, oil, and assorted seasonings and flavorings.

More than 2,500 years ago, Daniel and his three friends embarked on an experiment for the King. For 10 days they drank only water and ate only "pulse," which is interpreted to mean fruits and vegetables and grains including nuts and seeds. During that time, the rest of the king's men ate the meats and rich foods upon which the king himself dined. At the end of the 10 days, Daniel and his friends were strong and healthy and clear-minded, in comparison with the other young men.

I want to try it. Today is March 1. In 13 days I will get to experience my first colonoscopy. (I know, I know, that's probably TMI, but, oh, well!) So I have about ten days (if you allow for the prep days that precede the procedure) to try the experiment for myself. Josie has already been trying foods in her diet that have helped her feel better. Her efforts are inspiring me.

There is a book by Earl F. Updike called: The Mormon Diet, A Word of Wisdom, 14 Days to New Vigor and Health. I checked it out of the library. The emphasis in his book is on plant-based foods, and avoiding animal-based foods such as milk and meat. Here is the shopping list he gives for a week's worth of food:
10-20 lbs. whole-grain wheat (check!)
5-10 lbs. whole wheat flour (check! (if you count grinding the wheat, that is))
5-10 lbs brown rice
10 lbs. potatoes (check!)
10 lbs. dry corn (check!)
5 lbs. cornmeal (check! (if you count grinding the corn, that is)
4 pkgs. frozen green vegetables (check! (canned green beans, as well as frozen veggies))
2 pkgs. frozen corn (check! (I have lots of canned corn, so I'm counting that))
Various fresh or frozen fruis and vegetables (check!: acorn squash, onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, grapes, bananas, apples, oranges, bottled peaches and applesauce, frozen blueberries, raspberries, and marionberries)
2 cans tomatoes (check!)
2 cans tomato juice (check! (if you count the bottled tomatoes))
Cornstarch (check!)
Vinegar: white, cider, wine (check!)
Dried fruits such as raisins (check!)
2 lbs. barley (check!)
Honey (check!)
Ketchup (check!)
salad dressings oil-free, low-sodium (I have the recipe of Neva's that I'll use, even though it calls for oil)
2 bunches celery (1/2 check!)
baking powder (check!)
pasta sauce (check!)
5 lbs. popcorn (check! (but, wait, isn't that the dry corn listed above??))
100 percent whole wheat bread (check!--got it raising right now)
non-animal egg replacer (not likely to buy this--I'll use egg whites instead, so... check!)
whole wheat pita bread (making it right now when I make bread) (check!)
baking soda (check!)
soy milk (I don't plan to buy this. I'll use powdered milk instead)
dry milk (check!)
non-fat yogurt (hmm, not sure I want this one)
10 lbs. pinto beans (check!)
5 lbs. navy beans
5 lbs. lima beans
5 lbs. carrots
10 lbs. onions
1 42-oz. box regular oatmeal (check!)
2 16-oz. boxes oat bran cereal
2 20-oz. boxes Wheatena cereal (what's this???)
Pure fruit jams and jellies (gonna use what I have, and it's sweetened--sorry!)
fat-free, low-salt Mexican salsa (check!)
soy sauce
maple syrup, pure (not sure I want this. I don't care for pure maple syrup. Do you??)
5 lbs or more pastas (check!) although it's not whole-grain. oh, well
36-pack corn and lime only tortillas (check!)
salt-free mixed seasoning (I have some Mrs. Dash, but it's pretty old)
garlic powder (check!)
cayenne pepper (I have red pepper flakes. Does that count?)
nutmeg (check!)
dill weed
onion powder (I have onion flakes)
cinnamon (check!)
black pepper (check!)
oregano (check!)
parsley flakes

I know this is getting long, but before I quit I'm going to share with you the first day of suggested menus. Here it is:
Breakfast:
Wheatena cereal, double helping; follow package instructions; it's best if you use no milk. If you must, use skim milk or soy milk diluted 3 parts water to 1 part soy milk. Eat an orange or other fruit if you are still hungry.
Lunch:
One or two lettuce and tomato sandwiches on whole wheat bread, plain, or with your favorite no-oil, low-salt dressing and/or some mustard; a variety of cut-up raw vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, onion, celery, carrots, or radishes. Eat an apple, applesauce, or other fruit for dessert.
Dinner:
One, two, or more baked potatoes; a frozen green vegetables; green salad; whole wheat bread; soda water (huh? Yuck!) plain or mixed with fruit juice. Banana or any fruit of choice for dessert. Keep small bags of cut up bananas in the freezer ready to create a soft ice cream-like dessert or snack any time: place equal amounts of frozen bananas and any sugar-free frozen fruit (i.e., raspberries, strawberries, peaches) in a blender. Blend, with a little water if necessary. This treat is all complex carbohydrates. To prepare potatoes, microwave one for 6 minutes, microwave two for 9-10 minutes, or bake six or more in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees; store unused potatoes in the refrigerator for future use.

As you can see, this diet is based mostly on starches. This is interesting, because starches are--guess what?--CARBS! However, I agree with the theory that carbs should make up the majority of our diet. The dietitian that Neva met with suggested a general rule for choosing what goes on your dinner plate: divide the plate in half and fill one-half of it with the vegetables. Then divide the remaining half in half again, and put your protein or meat serving in one section and your carbs or bread serving in the other section. That is one way of eating. It is based on vegetables being the staple of the diet. However, what Mr. Updike points out is that the Word of Wisdom says that wheat is the staff of life, or the staple of the diet. He suggests that the majority of our diet should come, not from vegetables, but from one of five basic starches: beans, potatoes, brown rice, corn, and grains. This is the basis of the diet that I want to try.

My concern, as always, is alienating my husband. He, like most men I know, feels deprived when he is served a meatless meal. I'm not sure what to do about that, other than ask him to support me for the next ten days by either eating what I eat, or fixing his own. I think he can handle it.