O.k. My life as we know it has doubled in stress since we started this thing...not only do I think i am the most diabolical mother EVER! I think, why? WHY AM I DOING THIS???
And then I remember, I am a mother and I feel like I must sacrifice for our children! They don't know what or where their food is coming from and it is my job, no, my MISSION, to teach them. Also, I am a wife. A wife to a lovely man who cares for me in more ways than I can explain. But if I want him to continue caring for me, i will need feed him. This is a challenge when ALL he wants is a bag of NIBS and a can of coke...really?! So all day yesterday i had this INCREDIBLE headache...due to stress no doubt. All I could do to keep my head from imploding was to keep cooking... The baking is driving me INSANE! I bake for our family on a weekly basis. Rarely would you find a box of store bought cookies on a regular day at our house. But this no salt, no rising agents is literally killing me slowly and painfully...I made a loaf of bread yesterday that you could quite easily break a tooth on. no joke. I will give you the recipe though...here it is: don't bake without RISING AGENTS!! I separated the eggs and added the beaten egg whites last, but when you bake with your own HEAVY whole wheat grain. It just cannot rise with only eggs. Substituting honey for sugar works amazingly well and i will do this as a regular practice from now on because it is pure, natural product. Using melted butter instead of oil? LOVE IT! Again healthier choice as it is not processed like oils are. But yeast? oh lovely sweet, airy yeast, what will I do without you???
So I feel like I should share what has been going on in our house today...The children have had SunRype Apple Juice, SunRype fruit bars and we ALL ate whole wheat baking powder bread with our soup at lunch. Pretty bad eh? As Jonathan and I laid in bed last night (starving of course) we decided that the children should not have to go without fruit, so we extended our diet to include B.C fruit. Also, i will eventually be baking with rising agents as it much to painful to go without. I figure; the loaves that i have tried over the past couple of months just do not cut it. And also, my goal is to make my own product on a regular basis. Which means it must TASTE good, so that the family will EAT it??? right? A little bit of guilt but we are thinking of this diet as a challenge and we are trying our best to succeed in a way that is practical and sustainable for us. That being said it is a real bummer finding our our U-Pick farms did not have yields on their strawberries and raspberries. SOoooo, we are going to pick Nan King cherries at our local ATB treasury tomorrow. They have two trees in their yard!! Also, going to a u-pick outside of Cochrane for strawberries that may have survived the bad season. As well Saskatoon's will be getting ripe o the vine and the growers are positive about their outcome!
Right, so with the cheating off my chest i can let you in on our food for today...for breakie we had eggs. I do scrambled with cheese and cream and green onions out of the garden. We added pea meal bacon from The Butcher Shoppe in Airdrie. For snack the girls had fruit bars and bread with honey. Lunch was great, a soup that was completely out of OUR garden. Squash from last year, potatoes, parsley, onions and garlic with a chicken stock i had frozen from a Hudderite bird i made a while back. YUM. Ate it with the baking powder bread with butter and it was quite satisfying...For a afternoon snack I made blueberry/oatmeal cookies and the girls snacked on raw veggies. Dinner was potatoes sliced thin and baked in very hot oven with loads of butter. Much like a chip, very tasty! And my mom and dad brought out local bison ground meat as well as some bison sausages. They found these at Planet organic. Our salads are always picked right out the backyard...carrots, beets, onion, celery, sweet peas with spinach and head lettuce. We dress is with the very best sour cream out there. Vital Greens organic, and tonight we added dill and garlic form our garden.
So that's a wrap. I will leave you with the last thing that came out of my husbands mouth last night in bed...no no it was not I love you Honey...it was "No i didn't brush my teeth, I am saving what's in there for sustenance in the night!!!!
Welcome to my Blog! This is a first for me as i am generally computer illiterate. But with a little persuasion from friends and family and some help from a more computer savy comrade, i am well on my way to becoming part of the 21st century.
I lean a little towards the side of "hippy" when it comes to my lifestyle. People often raise their eyebrows when my husband Jonathan and I say we don't have cable television, iphones, or internet. Mind you we did have to cave and get an internet stick for Jonathan's business and this does seem to make more sense when one wants to start a Blog.
Fresh food has always been an issue for me. I'm sure it drove my mother crazy when i would constantly check expiry dates and refuse leftovers as a kid. My first five years were spent on a farm in Saskatchewan. My biggest memories seem to be of time spent raiding the crisp carrots and sweet peas from mom's garden. The smell of fresh buns filling our house. And of course, riding my horse in the wheat fields.
Warp ahead 26 years and i find myself wanting these very things for our three children. I find it crazy that I buy Canadian beef from a very American COSTCO. How many miles has that beef travelled to get on to our plates. Eating local seems to solve many problems occurring today. Of course environmental; the fewer miles travelled=smaller eco-footprint. It also supports producers who could be our friends, family or neighbors. And most importantly, for me, i know what I am putting into our children's mouths. Growth hormones, chemicals to promote longevity in food, and god knows what else is "added" for travel/taste. These things actually scare me. It was a little different when we didn't have kids. But now? now i am hypersensitive to what is in our food and how it affects their health, growth and behavior.
Having a background in Disability Studies, I worked with children of varying disabilities within their home and school environments. I really found that the parents who did their research and promoted healthy eating habits had better results with their child's behavior and overall health. This sometimes included limiting processed foods, removing sugars, and being generally more aware of food allergies occurring. I was able to SEE the difference with the children whose parents did the above and those who did not. This was one tidbit( along with many others) i chose to store for when i had my own children.
This will be an exciting journey for me. I look forward to all the ups and downs as well as the learning curve that is bound to happen.
Monday, August 2, 2010
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