Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Getting the hang of it

We've been doing our 'new way' of eating with the Feingold diet for a few weeks now.  The first couple of weeks were terribly hard on me.  It was so confusing trying to figure out how to eat a totally natural diet: no dyes, no artificial flavorings, no perservatives - I would walk into a store and feel like everything had flown out of my mind and left me totally confused!
But slowly and surely, I am seeing amazing results in not only Tommy, but the rest of our family, too.  This morning, I decided to clean out my vitamin basket, where everyone throws whatever medicine they are taking at the time, too, and realized no one is using allergy medicine anymore! What a blessing! 

Our house is almost completely free of the foods we can't eat now.  There's only a little margarine left in the fridge, a few crackers left in the pantry.  Which means that when I'm tired and open the pantry door to see what would be quick and easy to fix for lunch - I come up empty!  I am learning to plan ahead.  My mornings consist of baking two loaves of bread (which are usually gone by the time lunch is over) cookies (which are also gone by said time) and maybe putting soup on, making butter, and any number of things.

I find that more and more I'm buying less and less at the grocery store.  Farmers markets and friends houses are where I shop now.  And speaking of friends houses, it's very obvious spring has sprung.  Mondays are the day I get raw milk from a church friend.  But yesterday, she said they won't be selling for a while.  Seems their cow is about to freshen, so the milk is not good right now.  That's okay, I thought, I know lots of people who sell raw milk.  I was already on my way to another friends house.  I had discovered that shortening has BHA in it, something that Tommy cannot have on his diet.  So I am using butter and oil in it's place, but I needed something to fry in.  Another lady from church sells lard, so I was on my way there to buy five pounds.  She also sells raw milk.  But when I asked her about it, she said that her cows were freshening, too, and what milk she had was spoken for.  So I called the third person, same news.
Good grief!  I called the fourth, and thankfully, they have plenty, so I went to her house and got my two gallons of milk.
One of the nice things about buying raw milk is that you not only get milk, but a big load of cream on top, which is delicious for whipped cream or butter.  Today I made butter the old fashion way - by shaking a quart jar.  I believe that this will probably become a child's job....
But what a nice feeling when you see the butter rise up out of the cream:


Drain off the buttermilk (and save it!) then rinse the butter.  Take a wooden spoon and knead the butter in the bowl, pouring off the buttermilk as it works out of the butter until you have it all out.  Add salt and your all done!  This picture is looking down into my quart jar.  I have three more jars in the fridge that I need to work on...

 I am tired in the mornings, and love to have quick "here eat this" kind of breakfast.  But I can't buy granola bars anymore, so cooking it is.  Tommy is up at the crack of dawn, and I usually make him three eggs while he's in the tub.  This morning, after he ate both eggs and oatmeal (also the old fashioned kind - he can't have the instant stuff) and I was waiting for the rest of the gang to get up, it hit me that oatmeal cookies would make a really good, quick breakfast!  I looked up a recipe, and settled on peanut butter, chocolate chip oatmeal cookes.  Made with 'natural' peanut butter, old fashioned oats, fresh farm eggs and whole wheat flour that I had just ground when I made the bread, I figured it was at least as healthy as pancakes and syrup!!
And the early bird got to lick the beaters, all by himself!!


There's always an advantage to being an early riser.

So, fresh eggs and cookies for breakfast, and freshly made bread and chicken soup for lunch - made from the chickens we butchered last week.  I have a really funny video I could show you of a headless chicken chasing Max, who had just chopped it's head off, but it's a bit grusome, so I'll spare you!!





Please excuse the messy kitchen...after all, I had been working in there all morning!  And handsome boy in the picture with the cookie is washing dishes as I type!!  His turn - I've already done three loads today!

So, I am a busy beaver in the mornings, cooking, washing clothes, cleaning house, homeschooling.  I still need to get the animal chores done, but afternoons are all MINE!!

I love being a stay at home, homeschooling mom, raising healthy children.  The benefits are just great, and if I'm lucky, I'll get an afternoon concert.  Luke on the guitar with one string and the T-ball tube as a flute, Angel-Leah playing the drums with my coffee table and the rest of the T-ball tube (and yes, that's a chicken feather stuck in her hair), and Tommy lustly singing "HALLELUJAH~~~"





Life is still very good!


4 comments:

  1. Your description of your foods and the pictures are awesome!! Makes me hungry! Plus inspired to do more cooking from scratch - I've been getting a little lazy. Thanks for this blog Carla! You are motivating me!
    ~Dea

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  2. I've heard a lot of good things about the Feingold diet and am thinking of trying it myself for my boys/family.

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  3. can you post recipes?

    where are you getting your grain to grind? I am looking for oat groats so make breakfast with.

    I need to buy a grinder. what kind is yours?

    Autumn from co-op

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  4. Hi,
    I hope you are a member of the Feingold Association. www.feingold.org While the local supermarket is where most Feingolders get their food, your kids get to learn where our food really comes from! They are fortunate in many ways.

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