Bee Pollen

I ordered this book a little over a month ago, and I really enjoyed Kimberly's second installment. I've relearned a lot about different foods, as well as learned a lot of information of new information! I definitely recommend reading. It will inspire you to nourish every cell in your beautiful body. Take it a day at a time, and keep it as simple as you can. Spend time and energy on the things that matter most.

Okay, on to something that I've never even heard of as a food source: bee pollen! Here is a picture:

 
Looks interesting, huh? Bee pollen is filled with most B vitamins, so it provides stress relief, improves digestion and balances your hormones. Side note-it doesn't take much to throw your hormones out of whack: pregnancy, monthly cycle, breastfeeding, trauma, stress, etc. I've had many indications that my hormones are out of whack, so bee pollen is my new best friend.

Bee pollen is also a complete protein, contains all essential amino acids, essential fatty acids and nucleic acids. It helps control hunger and protects the nervous system against radiation. It also protects vitamins C & E, which helps protect and repair your skin. How awesome is that?!?!

I throw it in smoothies and eat it straight, only about 1/2 teaspoon. You can find it at your local health food store, from www.mountainroseherbs.com or from a local beekeeper.

Have you ever had bee pollen before?

Chilaquiles

Thanks to Simple, Healthy, Tasty for this one. Delicious!!! Our kids lapped it up.

Chilaquiles

Coconut oil

1 onion, chopped

1-2 colored bell peppers, chopped

chili powder

cumin

Mexican seasoning

1-2 cans of kidney beans and/or black beans (we cook in large batches and freeze in 3 c bags)

corn

salsa

olives, sliced

Green and/or Purple Cabbage, finely sliced

tomatoes, chopped

fresh cilantro, chopped

Lime slices, optional

Saute onions and peppers in coconut oil. Add spices to taste. Add beans and corn (and additional veggies as you like). Lastly, add tortilla chips, salsa and olives. Stir until coated and warm.

Place large handfuls of raw sliced cabbage on your plates and top it with the filling from the pan and then add the cilantro and tomatoes. Squeeze lime juice on top and pour ranch dressing and cheezy sauce on it. (I add almond milk to the cheezy sauce to make it a little more runny).

Ranch Dressing

1 cup of Sunflower Seed Sour Cream (recipe below, Note: This can be left out if you are in a hurry or just want it more simple! It's not quite as rich, thick, and creamy, but still really good)

1 cup almonaise

3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1-2 T Ranch Dressing Mix (see below)

Mix all ingredients until nice and smooth. It will be dip like consistency and great for carrot sticks etc. To make more dressing like consistency add some water or rice milk. Also it will thicken a bit in the fridge so keep that in mind. 

 

Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

1/4 cup basil
1 cup dill
1 cup parsley
1/2 Tablespoon garlic granules
1/4 cup onion powder
1 Tablespoon Real Salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Combine ingredients in a jar stir or shake until well combined.  Use about 1-2 Tablespoons per 2 cups of dressing.

Sunflower Seed Sour Cream

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

1 cup water

4+ Tablespoons lemon juice

1 garlic clove pressed or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Rio Chicken Salad

This. Is. Amazing. I know I say that about a lot of our recipes, but seriously! Okay, I must remember what is in this, because there is gobs of things. We actually made most of it to eat with some friends, and this is what we did with the leftovers.

We don't eat much meat anymore, I need to say that up front. Maybe...maybe once a month. Maybe. But this dish was definitely worth eating with meat. Mmmmmm!!!!

K. Here we go.

Chicken
Put 5 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts in crockpot.
Whisk/blend together the following:
1/3 c agave
1/3 c olive oil
1/3 c balsamic vinegar (or raw apple cider)
1/3 bunch parsley (leaves only)
4 cloves garlic (minced, or the whole clove if you are blending with a strong blender)
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
1 T fresh basil
1 T parmesan cheese
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
Pour over the chicken and cook on high for 5-7 hours. Shred chicken and leave in juices to keep moist

Lime Rice
2 T coconut oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
Saute in large pan.
Add the following and bring to a boil:
6 2/3 c water
4 t vegetable broth powder
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 t cumin
3 T fresh lime juice
1/2 t sea salt
3 c brown rice
Reduce heat and simmer until the water is gone (about an hour, but check at 45 minutes)

You need a batch of Tomatillo Dressing.

Rinse and spin 2-3 large romaine hearts. Tear into bite sized pieces. Assemble your salad: lettuce, chicken & rice, shredded cheese (opt), pico de gallo, fresh chopped cilantro, avocado slices, freshly snipped chives and lime wedges. Top salad with tomatillo dressing or just squeeze fresh lime juice over the salad.

You can also do this in a burrito, if you'd like, but we (I mean, allllllll of us, age 1-35) loooooved the salad more then the burrito.

Summer Taco Salads

Becky's Taco Salad
1 LARGE bowl
2 large heads romaine
fill the rest up with spinach or another favorite green
1 large cucumber, diced
other salad veggies (peppers, tomatoes, radishes, etc...)
2-3 large handfuls non-GMO tortilla chips, crumbled
1-2 c black beans
chopped cilantro, to taste
1 small jar of salsa (or make your own!)
Mix all together and serve. If you like avocado, slice and put on the side.

Mexican Caesar Salad
1/4 c crumbled feta cheese
1/3 c roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3+ T lime juice
2 c crumbled organic blue tortilla chips
1 large avocado, diced
2 large heads romaine lettuce, rinsed & chopped (we put ours through a salad spinner
1/2 c sliced 365 Everyday Value Jumbo Pitted Black Olives, optional
Any other salad veggies you want to add.
Mix all together. Add lime juice as desired. We put a plate of lime quarters on the table and let the kids squeeze what they want on their salads. Fresh & nice on a hot day. :)

Carrie's Favorite Salad

I'm out of town right now, and quite frankly, it's been quite nice to prepare meals without kiddos tugging on me. I miss those kiddos sooo much, though, and the payoff when I cook isn't quite like it is when I'm cooking for my sweeties. But, my sister kinda likes this salad. Craves it, even. Sorry, no picture. Maybe I'll make it later and take a picture:


Carrie's Favorite Salad
Your favorite greens (we did a baby spring mix and some spinach)
3-4 clementines, peeled and sectioned
1/4 c raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 c raw sunflower seeds
chopped almonds
big handful organic raisins
opt: sprinkling of unsweetened shredded coconut

Combine all ingredients and serve with a salad dressing of 2 parts cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, 1 part raw apple cider vinegar, 1 part raw honey, 1 T poppy seeds.

Spring Strawberry Salad

Spring is in the air! Our kids loved helping make this. Only took a few minutes to throw together. Enjoy!!

Spring Strawberry Salad
Spinach-our big family uses about 1/2 pound at least!
1/2 small container organic strawberries, sliced
1/4 c raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 c raw unsweetened shredded coconut
1/8 c raw sunflower seeds
opt-1 can mandarin oranges, drained

Combine and drizzle with some Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing.

Thanksgiving

Woooo Hoooo for Thanksgiving! Our family usually does the same thing every year: stress stress stress and then head to my sister's house for grub, gossip and yawning after stuffing ourselves silly. :) No, really, it's a lot of fun, but our family hasn't had a Thanksgiving (that was PLANNED) with just us. At our house. So, much to the chagrin of some of my family members, we opted against the "status quo" and stayed home. We let each of the kids pick a dish that they wanted to make, and it was absolutely delightful! We didn't go overboard, didn't have a "set time" to eat and just enjoyed each other, learned how to set the table properly together, played games and went at  our own pace. 

And I got to do something that I love: COOK! 

Our turkey was the best we've ever had! I will do a separate post on that, along with a new trick we learned on how to peel a whole bunch of garlic in 20 seconds.  No joke!

Here are a few recipes that we LOVED this year:

Okay, isn't this picture beautiful? I love the colors!!!

 

Cranberry Sauce:
2 clementines
12 oz fresh cranberries
1/3 c agave nectar
1 cinnamon stick
With a zester or fine grater, remove 1/2 t zest from the clementines and set aside. Peel the clementines and chop the flesh coarsely, discarding any seeds. Place in a saucepan and add cranberries, agave, cinnamon and 2 T water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, and then lower the heat, simmering. Stir occasionally until cranberries pop open and sauce thickens. (Kids love to listen to the berries pop.) Remove from heat and stir in zest. Discard the cinnamon sticks and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for up to a week.

Pear Hazelnut Salad
1/2 c hazelnuts
3 c or more of mixed greens
2 pears, cored and cut into thing wedges
1/2 c crumbled blue cheese (optional)-we decided we didn't care for blue cheese!

Preheat oven to 375. Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast until lightly golden, 10-12 minutes. Wrap nuts in clean dish towel and rub together to remove skins. Set aside to cool and then chop. Make salad by combining remaining ingredients and tossing with 2 T olive oil, 1 t Dijon mustard, 1 T white wine vinegar, 1/4 t sea salt and a bit of cracked pepper.


Sourdough Stuffing
1 loaf sourdough hearth bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 T coconut oil
3/4 lb-or less- fresh chicken sausage, removed from the casings
4 Gala apples, cored and diced
4 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 large onion, diced
2 T organic butter
2 1/2 c vegetable broth
1/3 c fresh sage leaves, chopped
3/4 t sea salt
1/2 t ground pepper

Preheat oven to 300. Spread bread cubes on 2 baking sheets and bake until dried but not browned, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat and add sausage. Break into chunks and cook until browned. Add apples, celery, onion and butter and cook until vegetables are softened. Add to the bread along with remaining ingredients. Heat oven to 350 and bake in a butter dish until lightly browned on top, about 50-60 minutes.
***This is our family's new FAVORITE! YUM!

Sweet Potatoes
***warning: no measurements here...we just put stuff in until it tasted good!
Peel and cut sweet potatoes into chunks. Cover with water and boil until tender.
Combine with organic butter, canned coconut milk (to desired consistency), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, sea salt (a little bit!), maple syrup, agave nectar. Use a hand mixer to whip together. They were so yummy, we couldn't get enough!

 Thanks to my sister who introduced me to Leftover casserole: layer your Thanksgiving leftovers in a casserole dish to eat the next night for dinner. Oh, it is so yum! This one is layers of the following: stuffing, turkey, a bit of gravy, a bit of cranberry sauce, green beans and sweet potatoes. Mmmmmmm!!!! Bake at 350 until bubbly.

Thanksgiving Lunch at Kid's School

Today was hectic, but oh man, how it paid off! I'm so grateful for our health! I ought to knock on something, but I feel so blessed that our sickness has been so limited since we changed the way we eat. The kids rarely complain of stomach problems (in fact, usually it's after we eat meat, interestingly enough!), and we just feel good! Now, we aren't perfect in how we eat, but we take it a day at a time and have found joy in the smallest improvements.

So today was the kids Thanksgiving feast at their school. We could either pay $6 a person (or $3 a kid) and get a styrofoam tray of sugared up, chemical laden stuff (I'm not sure that I could actually call it FOOD!)....or bring our own! We brought our own, had so many folks stop and comment on how delicious and colorful our lunches looked, and one little boy sat with us, staring at our food until I offered him some. Needless to say, most of his bought lunch went into the trash.

What did we have, you ask? Salad. Yep, a humongous plate of salad, filled with fun toppings. We also had Black Bean Brownies for dessert.
Here is what we did:

a mix of romaine and spinach topped with any or all of the following:
pomegranate seeds
mandarin oranges
diced apples
raisins
sliced raw almonds
diced orange pepper
diced cucumber
raw shredded coconut

It was a beautiful salad. 2 of the kids opted for no salad dressing, which was fine by me. They loved the juice that the fruit left on the leaves, but everyone else had the following dressing:

1⁄2 C extra virgin olive oil 
 2/3 C orange juice
1⁄4 C agave or raw honey
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar 
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1⁄4 tsp. dried oregano
1⁄4 tsp. black pepper
1 T poppy seeds
Blend in power blender until smooth, then stir in the poppy seeds. (This makes a lot, we only used about 1/4 of the dressing!)


Let's talk about pomegranate for just a minute. First of all, watch this! It shows how to cut and de-seed a pomegranate. Super easy!  Why eat pomegranate? This seasonal fruit is rich with antioxidants, fiber, vitamin C and vitamin K.  It keeps blood platelets from clumping together and forming unnecessary clots.  It is great for those at risk for heart disease, stroke, breast cancer, prostate cancer, Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure as follows:
-it raises the good cholesterol while keeping the bad cholesterol from oxidizing in the body
-reduces plaque in arteries
-may prevent and slow down the growth of breast cancer and prostate cancer
-can prevent heart attack and stroke
-can lower blood pressure 
-can prevent and slow down Alzheimer's
-helps prevent cartilage deterioration


I love learning about how our bodies can heal itself through eating the right things. Of course, this is best done by eating it in it's most natural state-fresh and RAW! Best yet, they taste yummy! In fact during lunch today the kids kept asking for more of those beautiful jeweled seeds! Thanks, Jess, for reintroducing me to pomegranate! Mwah!

Should you drink the popular POM juice? No!!!! Juice begins losing it's nutritional value 15 minutes after juicing! Yep! It's true. I no longer buy juice in the store. The only juice that I don't do fresh is lemon and lime juice. I juice them and then freeze in ice cube trays for when I need them, which is better, but not the best. Tangent, I know, but anyway, be careful what juice you buy and ingest. Most juices are pasteurized (meaning most of the good enzymes are killed by heat!!) and then filled with added sugar or chemicals to keep it fresh. Ew, right? C'mon, folks, let's take good care of our bodies: it's the only one we have!

Pear Salad

We had this scrumptious salad for lunch today before church. It was filling and light and wonderful!

1/2 pound spinach (or more)
3-4 fresh pears, diced
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c raw shredded coconut
sprinkling of raw sesame seeds
1/2 c chopped raw almonds

Mix and use a sweet dressing. We used this one:
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 c raw apple cider vinegar
1 c olive oil
1 T mustard
1 t sea salt
1/2 c onion
1/2 c alfalfa and red clover sprouts
Blend all together in your high powered blender and then add 1 T poppy seeds.

This makes A LOT of dressing. I usually cut the recipe in half, and we still have enough for 3 humongous salads.

Spruced Up Green Salad

Our family has our salad at the beginning of the meal, as the main course. The "dinner" that follows is served in smaller portions because we have just filled ourselves up with all sorts of nummy green food! ***see below for more information on this***

Well, last night, I commented that we really needed a new spin on our salads. I mean, even though I make a different dressing most nights, it's the same salad every night. So, we all started brainstorming, deciding that adding a fruit and a nut, along with some raisins would make things more interesting.
I chose to add apples and walnuts to today's salad, but I could have easily done strawberries, blueberries, pears, mandarin oranges, mango, almonds, pecans, macadamias, etc. Get creative!!! :)


So, here's what we did:
2 cups fresh organic spinach
1 head of Bibb lettuce
2 organic apples, diced
(I was out of raisins, dang it!)
1 handful of raw walnuts, chopped

Mix together and add the following dressing:

1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 c raw apple cider vinegar
1 c olive oil
1 T mustard
1 t sea salt
1/2 c onion
1/2 c alfalfa and red clover sprouts
Blend all together in your high powered blender and then add 1 T poppy seeds. This makes a LOT of dressing, so add and mix, and add more if needed.

The result: 2 of the 4 kids had seconds, and the other 2 ate and said it was really good. And it was! Soooo GOOD!

***Enzymes. Green plant food provides enzymes. What are enzymes? Enzymes is what our bodies NEED to break down our food and get the nutrients from it, sending the rest out of the body. Enzymes are critical for DIGESTION! Our bodies have a limited capacity to produce these critical elements, and anything we can do to help our body digest will allow it to focus more on cleaning and healing and protecting itself, since most of our energy is used for digestion. If we eat a nice big salad, as well as green smoothies every day, preferably prior to eating anything cooked, our body will thank us later for the help in digestion.
Short term effects of our body pulling enzymes from ourselves: indigestion, heartburn, constipation, gas, bloating
Long term effects: all degenerative diseases, resulting from burnout of our organs.
Now, I kinda like my organs, and I especially like them healthy, so anything I can do to not tax them-I'm gonna do it! Including having a salad prior to my dinner, and any other time during the day that I need some good ole enzymes.

p.s. the only other food out there that is higher then greens in enzyme content is sprouted seeds, nuts and grains. Our family has started sprouting, and I sneak them into EVERYTHING! The kids don't even notice it in salad dressings, wraps, smoothies, etc. Bahahaha!