Posted By Julie on May 4, 2013

My lucky little boy got to celebrate his 5th birthday twice this year—once on his actual birthday, and again a month later. That was because a snowstorm in March interfered with our original plans for a birthday party at Little Monkey Bizness, and we ended up rescheduling it for mid-April after my classes ended for the spring.

Even though we didn’t have a big party in March for his actual birthday, there still had to be cake, and where Nolan is concerned, chocolate is always the best option! I decided to make cupcakes to share with his preschool class, and tried my hardest to make them allergy-friendly because one of his friends has a pretty limited diet. Although I didn’t have a list of all her allergies, I did know she can’t do grains, dairy, soy, eggs, or nuts. I ended up making these vegan, grain-free chocolate chickpea cupcakes using homemade sunflower milk, flax eggs, and garbanzo bean flour, and topped them with chocolate avocado frosting. They look like regular chocolate cupcakes, taste great, and are full of protein, fiber, and healthy fats—kids and adults alike really enjoyed them, including the birthday boy. Unfortunately, Nolan’s little friend still couldn’t have a cupcake, as it turned out that she also can’t have legumes, sunflower seeds, or flax. But at least I gave it my best shot!

Chocolate Chickpea Cupcakes with Chocolate Avocado Frosting

Chocolate Chickpea Cupcakes

2 3/4 C garbanzo bean flour, sifted twice
1 3/4 C organic sugar
3/4 C Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder, GF/aluminum-free
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp unrefined salt
2 flax eggs (2 T freshly ground flax + 6 T filtered water, mixed and allowed to gel)
1/2 C olive oil
1 C sunflower milk (homemade, recipe below)
1 C boiling filtered water

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in eggs, vanilla, olive oil, and milk until just combined; batter will be thick. Slowly mix in water until uniform. Fill cupcake liners just halfway. Bake at 350 F for 23-25 minutes or until the top bounces back when lightly touched. (I cut this recipe in half and may have accidentally forgotten to halve the leavening, but if so, it wasn’t a problem.)

Source: Cupcake Project.

Chocolate Avocado Frosting

1 avocado, ripe and soft
¼ C Dutch-process cocoa powder
¼ C sunflower milk
3 T maple syrup
¼ C dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted (Chocolate Dream)

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Scoop out the flesh and put in a blender, or the bowl of a food processor. Add cocoa powder and the remaining ingredients. Process until smooth, occasionally scraping down sides. The chocolate chips can be omitted and/or more sunflower (or other non-dairy) milk added for a slightly looser consistency if you want to eat it as pudding; cocoa powder or maple syrup can be increased to adjust the flavor.

Source: Adapted from Food Nouveau.

Sunflower Milk

1 C hulled raw sunflower seeds
4 C filtered water, plus more for soaking

Soak sunflower seeds in filtered water 8 hours or overnight; drain and rinse. Place in blender with a fresh 4 C filtered water, and blend on high speed for 3 minutes. Sweeteners or flavorings like maple syrup, dates (soak overnight with the seeds), or vanilla can be added if desired.

When the snowstorm forced us to reschedule Nolan’s birthday party, we pushed it back a month so I would have a little more time to devote to party preparations. The party fell over lunchtime, so we went with a Mediterranean food theme: I made pitas, hummus, roasted and marinated vegetables, grilled chicken, and a farro salad with cucumber, tomato, and radish; Nolan likes my pitas with hummus and will eat some chicken most of the time, and we also provided some cold cuts, as well as peanut butter and homemade grape jelly for the picky eaters.

Unfortunately, my own picky eater decided food was much less interesting than trying to get back out to the bouncy house, and rejected everything until we brought out the cupcakes. This time I didn’t have to worry about any allergens aside from Nolan’s dietary avoidance of dairy, but I still ended up selecting a gluten-free recipe: chocolate quinoa cupcakes, made from the whole cooked grain pureed in my Vitamix with cocoa powder, plenty of eggs, and almond milk. I topped them with fluffy, gooey marshmallow frosting (the same from his first birthday cake, incidentally) and some dairy-free mini chocolate chips. Everyone really enjoyed these, including birthday boy, who ended up smeared with frosting from head to toe. Unfortunately, by that point, the staff was politely trying to bustle us out of the room—half an hour is nowhere near long enough to feed preschoolers lunch and cake, special needs or no—so we all gobbled down our cupcakes with no photographic evidence.

Category: Baking, Casein-free, Dessert, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Lunch, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Specialty Diets | No Comments »
Tags: avocado, birthday, cake, chickpea, chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut oil, cupcake, nondairy milk, quinoa, sunflower seed

Posted By Julie on March 17, 2013

Part of my homework this past week was to spend three days following a locavore diet. Strictly speaking, locavores emphasize the consumption of foods that are locally produced, in some cases requiring that it travel no further than 100 miles from farm to table.

As you might imagine, this was no easy task for a Colorado resident in mid-March. In fact, this might be the hardest time of year to eat locally here because it is the very end of the winter season—when you have likely eaten up any foods preserved from the previous year’s growing season, but it is a few weeks too early yet for fresh local produce or cream-rich springtime pastured milk. The weather was so gorgeous on Thursday when I started the diet that I went out in the herb garden and poked around hopefully, but so far all I can see greening up are tiny sprigs of parsley and chamomile… no asparagus yet!

My locavore journey started in my own pantry and freezer, where we had a few usable items preserved. Fruits included frozen peach puree, dried apple rings and pear slices, and home-canned jams, jellies, sauces, juice, and whole fruit. Vegetables were limited to dried zucchini, canned tomatoes, and a few ferments like sauerkraut. Meats in the freezer included pastured beef liver and some venison bones intended for stock. We also have raw milk from our herd share, locally produced honey from our postman/beekeeper, and a few other miscellany like container herbs and homemade apple cider vinegar.

Next, I did a little research on potential local food sources, and took a trip to Whole Foods and Vitamin Cottage to try and plug some of the gaping holes in my locavore menu. These included ground elk and a bone-in Berkshire pork roast, a few fresh vegetables (potatoes, mushrooms, parsnips, lettuce, tomatoes, and pea shoots), whole wheat pastry flour and millet, pastured eggs and butter, and raw goat cheese. As you can see, pretty much everything I purchased was very high quality food, organic and/or pastured and mostly from small independent farms, which drove up prices despite proximity.

I had to do some additional preparation at home to provide myself with a number of foundational items. Knowing I would be having tomato soup on the second day, I used the venison bones mentioned above to make stock; after an internal debate, I do admit to adding non-local veggies to the stockpot for this, because they add flavor and nutrients, and most of this stock will be used at some point after this locavore assignment is completed. I also used a quart or so of raw milk to make fresh ricotta cheese for one of my breakfasts.

 Finally, I baked a batch of soaked biscuits by mixing together whole wheat pastry flour, pastured butter,  raw milk, and apple cider vinegar, and letting this basic dough sour on my countertop overnight. The next morning, I added salt and leavening, and baked up a dozen gorgeous, fluffy, tender biscuits that constituted my “bread” for the duration of the trial. That first morning, with biscuits rising in the oven and millet porridge bubbling on the range, I had a few blissful moments of feeling almost like an industrious pioneer mama… at least until I realized I had less than half an hour to eat, dress, get Nolan up and ready to go to hippotherapy, as well as packing his backpack for preschool. Well, it was a nice feeling while it lasted!

Three-Day Colorado Locavore Menu
Non-local ingredients indicated in bold.

Day 1

Breakfast: Toasted millet porridge prepared with raw milk, rehydrated pears (plus their soaking liquids), homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam, pastured butter, vanilla whey powder

Lunch: Pastured egg (basted with filtered water and pastured butter, RealSalt); Pastured egg baked in a portabella mushroom with raw semi-firm goat cheese, fresh rosemary, RealSalt; 2 homemade soaked biscuits (whole wheat pastry flour, pastured butter, raw milk, apple cider vinegar, baking soda and powder, RealSalt) with pastured butter and local wildflower honey

Dinner: Sliced beef liver (soaked in raw milk, dredged in ww pastry flour) fried in pastured butter with onions, parsnip puree (parsnip, raw milk, pastured butter), butter lettuce salad with dried apple and zucchini slices, apple cider vinegar/honey/fresh rosemary

Snack: Home-canned unsweetened applesauce

Day 2

Breakfast: Peach pie smoothie–Frozen peach puree (homemade with skins on) blended with raw milk, pastured raw egg, leftover millet porridge, leftover parsnip puree, vanilla whey powder

Lunch: Roasted tomato basil bisque (hydroponic tomatoes roasted with RealSalt, homemade venison stock, onions, garlic, carrot) garnished with a hard-boiled pastured egg and fresh basil, 2 biscuits with local honey and pastured butter

Dinner: Sage-infused bone-in pork roast glazed with honeyed sage butter, garnished with sautéed portabella mushroom and sunflower seeds; roasted red potatoes (with sesame oil); pea shoots dressed with ACV, honey, melted butter, fresh sage

Snack: Glass of raw milk

Day 3

Breakfast: Fried eggs and biscuits with pastured butter, fresh ricotta cream (ricotta pureed with liquid from plums) with homemade canned plums (plums, honey, allspice), sunflower seeds, and a drizzle of honey

Lunch: Leftovers–roast pork and tomato bisque

Dinner: Elk patty with melted goat cheese and butter-sautéed mushrooms, pea shoots

Snack: Warm milk with local honey and cinnamon

So what did I think of my locavore experience? From a nutritional standpoint, there were definitely some holes, moreso because I’m pregnant and have increased needs in most areas. For instance, my overall caloric intake was lower than it probably should have been, even though the proportions of macronutrients (fat, carbs, and protein) worked out similarly to my typical diet. I  fell short on some specific nutrients, most notably vitamin E and essential fatty acids, which I generally get from non-local seeds and nuts like flax, chia, sesame and almonds; several major minerals also fell short of where I need them to be. Finally, the limitations on fresh produce put a big dent in my daily fiber intake, which caused me some discomfort at the end of the trial period.

I initially had concerns about the lack of variety that a locavore diet would impose, particularly given the season, as I had always been under the impression that greater variety equals better overall nutrition. However, reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration allayed some of these concerns, considering that many traditional diets comprised a very narrow range of local, seasonal foods without detriment to the peoples that maintained them.

On the plus side, practically everything I bought was organically grown, which improves nutrient density, protects soil quality and limits toxic exposures; some of the greenhouse produce was even grown hydroponically, which conserves water in our arid climate and reduces issues like pesticide run-off. All the animal products I purchased were organic and pastured as well, which not only improves the nutritional quality of the food but also the health and overall life quality of the animals; in the case of the pork, it was also a heritage breed, which prolongs biological diversity and uniqueness. And of course, this diet is also good for the local economy.

Making everything from scratch with whole foods is absolutely my preference, and I love the challenges of looking around in my pantry for specific items and figuring out how I can put them together in ways that are both appealing (visually, texturally, etc.) and nutritionally balanced. Since I had to do this on short notice rather than as a full-time lifestyle, I found myself working within extreme limitations, and my mind was constantly reeling with the options I could have had if I had been more efficient with gardening and preservation last summer. For instance, we had a stevia plant in the backyard that I sometimes used fresh, but I never got around to harvesting the rest of it before our first frost; if I had, I would have been able to use homemade stevia extract this week. Also, considering the degradation of vitamin C that occurs from freezing or canning fruits, I should have planned ahead and done some sprouting for this week; I was fortunate to able to find local broccoli and pea shoots at Vitamin Cottage.

In the context of being a picky eater, I really appreciated the opportunity this diet provided for me to try some foods I might avoid otherwise–the beef liver, elk, portabella mushrooms, artisanal goat cheese, and pea shoots were all new to me, and even the millet porridge and ricotta cream for breakfasts. I didn’t care for all of them, but it still really forced me to stretch my gustatory boundaries with quality foods.

The biggest problem was just the amount of strain all of this put on my schedule, which is already so limited these days. I managed it in the short term, but considering I am almost 8 months pregnant, it was pretty draining. In just those three days, there were at least two occasions when my life would have been so much easier (and my empty stomach happier) if I could have eaten at a restaurant with my family between appointments. Of course, preparation of many staple foods is not too time-consuming if you make a regular habit of it, but it does require advance planning which is not always my strong suit.

It was a very interesting experience overall, but I have to admit, I was relieved to get back to eating foods like coconut oil, chocolate, bananas, almond butter, tea, molasses, and Sicilian pistachio gelato. After all of this, however, I will definitely be paying more attention to the source of my foods!

Category: Baking, Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Meat, Persnickety Bits, Soups, Specialty Diets | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Julie on February 1, 2013

Is this blog still on??

What a crazy year 2012 turned out to be! Seemed like there was a new development almost every single month…

• January saw flooding at our Salem home, and me running my first ever 5K race.
• By March, Jeremy was deep in the interview process with University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and was soon offered a position there.
• April was a frenzy of packing and prepping our house for sale, and I somehow snuck in my first half-marathon race as well.
• At the beginning of May, Jeremy moved into his temporary apartment in Colorado Springs.
• Just a month later, the Waldo Canyon fire threatened the city, coming less than three miles from his apartment. Our house in Salem also sold in June.
• I spent July working on my application to the Nutrition Therapy Institute and running my first (and maybe only) barefoot 5K.
• August saw a new 5K PR and my taking up kettlebells and trail running.
• In September, I started attending school (courses on anatomy and physiology, and biochemistry of the body) and we began the process of searching for a new home in Colorado Springs; we also had a big surprise.
• We put an offer in on a house in late October and finally closed the deal at the beginning of December, so that month was loaded with more packing and unpacking.

The surprise I alluded to above is that a new little boy will be joining our family this May! I am currently 24 weeks pregnant and everything is progressing nicely. So between my classes, Nolan’s schedule, and preparing for the baby’s arrival, 2013 promises to be no less action-packed than 2012, but I will do my best to record what I am cooking and learning about here more faithfully.

In that spirit, here are a few quick little recipes I discovered in the course of researching last week’s homework assignment. We were tasked with our first diet analysis, scrutinizing 7 days of our own diets for the full complement of nutrients. One of my discoveries was that my diet appears to be consistently lacking in potassium, an electrolyte mineral that is crucial for fluid balance and muscle contraction. Low potassium during pregnancy can cause a variety of discomforts, including fatigue, swelling, cramping, heart arrhythmia, or constipation.

There are lots of potassium-rich foods that I will striving to incorporate more frequently into my diet, including avocados; baked white and sweet potatoes; winter squash; spinach; Brussels sprouts; and lots of fruits, including kiwis, oranges, pears, and the obvious banana. Today’s star, though, is blackstrap molasses. Not only does molasses have a low glycemic index, it is rich in folate and a veritable powerhouse of minerals: iron, magnesium, calcium, manganese, zinc, and of course potassium. Every one of these is valuable during pregnancy, so I assigned myself the task of becoming more comfortable with the pungent depth of blackstrap molasses, which has never been a favorite flavor of mine. After sampling my first warm cup of spicy molasses-laced milk, however, I realized that this task will be much less daunting than I first supposed!

“Molasses Cookie” Milk

1 C whole milk (or milk alternative, such as homemade almond or coconut milk)
1 T unsulfured blackstrap molasses, preferably organic
Splash of vanilla extract
Pinch each of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves
3 drops liquid stevia, or to taste

Warm milk until steaming; thoroughly stir in remaining ingredients. Particularly relaxing to drink in the evening before bed.

Alternative: Substitute warm water for the milk and add 2 T raw apple cider vinegar for a drink like mulled cider; this adds a probiotic element if the water isn’t too hot, and is also particularly beneficial for pregnancy-induced heartburn and reflux as it helps balance stomach acidity.

Banana-Molasses Hot Cocoa

Another nutritious beverage option in which the molasses demurs to a facade of hot cocoa; it can, however, be drunk chilled as well!

1 C whole milk (or coconut milk, or water)
1 T chia seeds
1 small ripe banana, or 1/2 large
2 T cocoa powder
1 T blackstrap molasses
3 drops stevia, or to taste
splash of vanilla extract

Combine the milk (or alternatives) and chia seeds in a small saucepan; heat until steaming. Pour into a blender with remaining ingredients, and blend until very smooth. Serves 1.

Category: Dairy, Persnickety Bits | No Comments »
Tags: banana, beverage, milk, minerals, molasses, potassium, pregnancy

Posted By Julie on August 24, 2012

This post has been in my mind for a long time—the better part of a year, in fact. Last November I took the plunge and started eliminating unnecessary chemicals from my body care routine. Most of the adjustment was pretty straightforward for me, since I don’t do much primping anyway, and honestly, the product I was most excited to eliminate was toothpaste.

Believe it or not, once upon a time, I thought I wanted to be a dentist. It was probably around second grade, before dentists started pulling out my baby teeth early, giving me multiple rounds of braces, and trying to choke me with impression putty and oversized bite-wings. Now I have an uneasy detente with dentists at best: I go in every 6 months, and no matter how careful I have been at my tooth care routine, they still scrape at my teeth and complain about the ungodly amount of tartar and bleeding gums and tell me to floss more. Electric toothbrushes, waterpiks, fancy floss, mouthwash, and “professional” grade toothpastes seem to make no lasting impression in my mouth, and over the years the dentist has started ordering tiny preventative fillings in my molars, although nothing to the extent that anesthesia would be required.

I was so fed up with all that ineffectual brushing that it finally crossed my mind to look for alternatives. Not only did I want to avoid fluoride—which is poisonous, after all–but also sodium lauryl sulfate and glycerin. SLS gets put into everything from toothpaste to hand soap to laundry and dish detergent, but its original purpose was degreasing engines; it is readily absorbed through the skin and can interfere with hormones because it mimics estrogen. Glycerin is included in virtually every commercial toothpaste, even the natural ones, mostly for its sweet taste and smooth, slippery texture that makes your teeth feel super-cleen; unfortunately, the coating glycerin leaves on your teeth blocks the enamel’s natural remineralization process and can take up to 27 rinses to remove fully.

After this research, I ended up opting to make my own toothsoap at home. My recipe is based on the one found at Mommypotamus, but over months of use, I have tweaked the recipe slightly to my preferences.

Homemade Toothsoap

1 T Dr. Bronner’s castile soap, preferably baby mild (unscented) or peppermint
4 T softened or melted coconut oil
2 T olive oil
1 T raw honey
1-2 T calcium bentonite clay
20-40 drops essential oil (e.g.: cinnamon, peppermint, orange/lemon/lime, anise – your choice! Number of drops varies based on potency, so start small and build up.)

In a small bowl, stir up the first four ingredients until homogenous. Add 1 or more tablespoons of clay until desired texture is achieved, and drops of essential oil until desired flavor is achieved. No more than a pea-sized amount is necessary per use.

The clay can be omitted entirely if desired. You can also experiment with small additions of baking soda or food-grade aloe vera gel; however, the baking soda can be harsh for daily use, and aloe-containing toothsoap may need refrigeration. I sometimes add a squeeze of Soothing Salve from Trilight Health if I’m finding myself prone to canker sores (which in my case are linked to hormones).

Source: Slightly adapted from Mommypotamus.

If you follow the link to the original post, you’ll notice that my main deviation is the addition of calcium bentonite clay. This clay is not only a very mild, mineral-rich abrasive, it has detoxifying qualities and has even helped brighten the color of my teeth. Additionally, the clay adds some bulk to the mixture for a more paste-like texture and helps prevent separation; if it is summertime or your bathroom runs warm, however, chances are you will still need to keep a little spoon handy to stir it up every so often.

This toothsoap works so well that my mouth feels totally clean for up to 24 hours. Even after months of use, I still find myself running my tongue over my teeth in amazement at how smooth they feel, even way in the back. My brushing technique and flossing habits have remained the same but my gums are markedly healthier than they have ever been in my life, with no sensitivity, redness or bleeding. As mentioned above, I still get the occasional canker sore due to hormones; when it happens, I just use Alkalol as a mouthwash for a day or two. I’m just starting to notice a small amount of tartar build-up on the back of my lower front teeth, but it has been over 9 months since my last cleaning (due to a change in dental insurance), and for the first time in my life I am kind of excited to go to the dentist and hear what the hygienist has to say about my teeth!

The improvement in my teeth has been so marked that my husband kept complimenting me on the change and eventually asked to try it out himself. He is very sensitive to chemicals and has had negative reactions to some of the super-strength commercial toothpastes I used in previous years, but commented that my homemade toothsoap doesn’t make him want to gag when he brushes way in the back of his mouth. He has now been using it consistently since May, and his biggest complaint was that the last batch I made had too much castile soap in it (all I had at the time was eucalyptus-scented Dr. Bronner’s, which is not the nicest tasting option; a little extra coconut oil balanced the batch better).

I’ve had lots of inquiries from other folks as well, most of whom have already been trying to make conscientious toothpaste choices with brands like Tom’s of Maine (incidentally now owned by Colgate; even their SLS-free/fluoride-free toothpaste contains glycerin and some other undesirable ingredients). One batch of this homemade toothsoap lasts for months and is inexpensive, customizable, and completely edible—feel free to swallow instead of spitting it out! I may still experiment here and there with tooth powders like this one, but at this point, call me a homemade toothsoap evangalist!

As for the rest of my body care overhaul, the deodorant situation is still a work in progress, but I successfully switched out shampoo and conditioner with baking soda and vinegar, face and body wash with cold process bars and castile soap, and lotions with emulsified coconut oil and aloe. I will share more of my thoughts on these changes in another post very soon.

Category: Persnickety Bits | No Comments »
Tags: body care, skincare

Posted By Julie on August 14, 2012

Wow, so much has happened since the last time I posted on the blog. Sorry to have seemingly dropped off the face of the earth! I haven’t had much free time for writing these past few months, so this post will just be an overview of what we’ve been up to, and I promise I will make more of an effort with regular posts in the future… that is, if there is anyone still interested in our adventures!

My little Nolan’s fourth birthday was the first big event during the lapse. We had a quiet family celebration with a grain-free banana chocolate chip cake that Nolan made short work of, and since his birthday fell on a hippotherapy day, he got to go horseback riding too. The real present, however, was Jeremy being able to come to Colorado that week. The University of Colorado Colorado Springs flew him out for a job interview, and the timing happened to work out perfectly, so we considered ourselves very fortunate.

Jeremy accepted the UCCS job offer at the beginning of April, and that is where the real whirlwind started. I flew out to Oregon near the beginning of April and spent a week renovating our house’s bathroom, doing yardwork, and getting a start on the packing. I then flew back to Colorado to run my first half-marathon and help shuttle Nolan around to a series of medical tests at Children’s Hospital while he was still assured of Medicaid coverage.

Jeremy valiantly packed most of our furniture and a ton of boxes into two ReloCubes without any assistance at all, but since he only had a month between accepting the job offer and getting everything moved out to Colorado Springs—himself included—I ended up flying back to Oregon one more time at the end of April for the final push. We ended up donating a good half of our furniture to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, plus tons of smaller household items to Value Village and pantry items to the food bank; shipping more than we would have liked through FedEx; recycling everything we could; and taking a few truckloads to the dump for the remainder (thank God for my Aunt Marty, who brought the truck and helped us out in the last two days!). Incredible how much stuff you can accumulate in a house over 10 years! Once the house was empty, I did as much cleaning as I could, including a new poly finish on the hardwood floor, and Jeremy took care of some painting and other handiwork.

In the end, after over a week of putting in hard labor for 16+ hours a day and no place to sit but an air mattress on the floor, we were able to get the house cleared out and the car filled up. Two long days of driving, and we finally made it to Jeremy’s apartment in Colorado Springs, just in time for the ReloCubes to arrive with all our furniture the first week of May. Fortunately, unpacking always seems to go so much quicker than packing! He started his new job at UCCS just days later on May 7th, and although Nolan and I are still living up in Littleton for school and therapy, we could not be more thrilled to have Daddy just one hour’s drive away instead of 23!

We had one more spot of anxiety and excitement at the end of June with the Waldo Canyon Fire. Jeremy’s apartment is west of I-25 near Garden of the Gods, and was less than 3 miles from the fire’s perimeter on the day it destroyed so many homes. He evacuated that day with the dog and we sat watching the news and hitting reload on the Colorado Springs Gazette webpage all day for updates, but thankfully the weather began to cooperate after that point and the firefighters were able to start making headway on containment. What a crazy year—from flooding in Salem to drought and wildfires in Colorado in the space of six months!

In the midst of these major events, I’ve done my best to keep exercising, and have lost 20 pounds in the first six months since I started jogging. I’ve already mentioned the half-marathon I ran: the Platte River Half on a drizzly April 15, in which I successfully finished with a solid time of 2 hours 36 minutes and an unfortunately sharp pain in my left soleus.

The next step was supposed to be finishing training for the Colfax Marathon on May 20, but my calf pain was severe enough that I worked with a physical therapist for myofascial release (this around all the packing and moving and unpacking) and then had to take about a month off of running. That meant the marathon was out, but I started running again when everything settled back down in June, and had a great time at the Father’s Day 4K with my dad in Boulder, miraculously winning my division and earning a free pair of OluKai sandals!

I also got a free entry to the Naked Foot 5K in Clement Park in July, and took the opportunity to try my hand (or rather, foot!) at racing barefoot. About the first half of the course was on concrete, which gave me some plantar pain and several pre-blisters on my toes, but it just made the soft wet grass in the home stretch feel that much better! I was nearly able to match my PR from January, but more importantly, I tried something that I never would have thought to do as a child or even as a young adult—most of the time, I don’t even walk in grass barefoot! So it was fun to try at least once.

Most recently, I talked Jeremy into trying his hand at racing and signed us up for the I Run Colorado 5K on August 5th at Wash Park. His legs were hurting a bit because of an old pair of shoes, but we stuck together for almost the whole race and both finished under 35 minutes; my new 5K PR is 34:16! I’m now training for the Summit Assault 5M ascent at Granby in mid-September with weekly trail runs and kettlebell sessions, and will be capping off the season with the Bear Chase trail half-marathon a few weeks later.

Of course, this is a foodblog, and right about now you are probably wondering if I am even going to mention food. We kept Nolan on the GFCF diet through June, but were unable to determine any real benefit to his health and behavior from the removal of gluten, so I have slowly started reintroducing it to his diet, concentrating on ancient grains like einkorn and spelt, as well as soaked, sprouted or soured wheat to aid digestion. I still give him some gluten-free and grain-free foods for the same reason, and we have continued with the casein-free part of the diet.

It is all very much a work in progress, and over the course of this past year, it has become more and more clear that holistic nutrition has become a passion for me, not only for Nolan’s sake, but for my own and that of all of our family and friends. Because of this, I have enrolled at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver for the upcoming fall term, beginning my certification as a master nutrition therapist over the next few years. As full as my schedule will be, I very much look forward to sharing some of my explorations here on the blog!

 

Category: Baking, Casein-free, Dessert, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Persnickety Bits, Specialty Diets | No Comments »
Tags: bake, birthday, cake, chocolate, coconut milk, life events, NTI, nutrition, running

Posted By Julie on March 14, 2012

I know I haven’t been posting many recipes lately. The world of gluten-free, casein-free cooking is a bit of a labyrinth. Seems like everything I cook these days is highly experimental, full of substitutions and too uncertain to share here. Some days I am a little overwhelmed, some days my mind is filled with the possibilities rather than the limitations; and some days I just want to curl up with a simple bowl of soup, especially considering we have all been knocked out with nasty colds in the last week or two.

The base of any decent soup is the broth, and I finally got organized enough this week to try my hand at beef bone broth for the first time. I used marrow and neck bones, and browned them well in the pot before adding the water, veggies, seasonings, and vinegar. It simmered for about 30 hours before I strained it off for use in my soup. The photo above actually shows a second batch of broth getting started from the same set of bones, along with some fresh carrots and onion trimmings.

My dad is still fighting off bronchitis and, although my own energy level is back to normal, I make sure to keep tissues and Alkalol close at hand. When my nose was at its worst, with sinuses completely swollen shut and feeling full of concrete, the only thing that seemed to help me start breathing again was a big skilletful of onions and garlic sauteing on the stove for dinner. So French onion soup with homemade broth sounded like the perfect solution to all our ills. Only problem: I don’t do soggy bread.

The recipe I chose solves that issue handily by substituting a cheese flan for the crouton and adding a handful of toothsome barley for texture. Honestly, I wasn’t convinced that a flan in my soup would be much preferable to soggy cheese-bread, but I made mine with Gruyere and they turned out to be incredibly delicious little flavor bombs adding excitement to an otherwise basic soup. If you really miss the bubbly cheese aspect of French onion soup, you could probably sprinkle a little grated cheese on top and torch it, but I honestly thought this soup was perfect as-is, and I will probably make a habit out of it every time I pass the marrow bones in the freezer case from now on!

French Onion Soup with Barley and Gruyere Flans

You really should go to the extra trouble of making beef stock from scratch for this recipe, since there are so few ingredients in the soup. Using a mandoline to slice the onion helped me save time and tears. For our small family, I cut the flan recipe down by a third, using 1/2 C cream, 2 eggs, 2/3 C onions, and about 3/4 C Gruyere; I blended it in our Magic Bullet, and divided it between 6 silicone muffin liners. Finally, to save time, you can also cook the barley separately in few cups of the beef stock before adding the lot to the onion mixture; or omit it entirely for a gluten-free meal.

2 T butter
2 T olive oil
8 C thinly sliced red onion (2-3 large)
1/3 C pearl barley
3 T dry Sherry
About 8 C homemade beef stock (or chicken stock for a lighter soup)
4 fresh thyme sprigs

3 T butter
2 C sliced sweet onions
3/4 C whipping cream
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/4 C (packed) grated Gruyere cheese

Source: Epicurious.

About to reheat a bowl of soup—just look at the gel on that stock!

Category: Dairy, Dinner, Meat, Soups | 1 Comment »
Tags: barley, bone broth, gluten-free, gold star, Gruyere, onion, souffle

Posted By Julie on March 13, 2012

We have had some absolutely gorgeous weather in the last few days, enough to really feel spring in the air! My dad and I finally got out to the community garden yesterday afternoon to check on the few plants we decided to try overwintering, and here are the (rather surprising, to me at least) results:

Our garlic and shallot bulbs have started to sprout, both the autumn-planted sets in the community garden and the softneck cloves I planted last summer.

Most of the leeks survived. Some of the smaller plants, mostly in our backyard garden plots, have cold-burned leaves, but I’m thrilled that they still look so big and strong. There will be lots of leeks to eat this spring!

These are turnips that we planted on Labor Day last year. It will be interesting to see whether the roots are intact and edible!

Out of our row of Brussels sprouts, this was the only plant large enough to weather the cold. The sprouts on it are a bit on the small side yet, but they look very healthy!

I could hardly believe my eyes when I realized that some of the spinach we planted on Labor Day made it through the winter. Apparently mulching over everything with lots of leaves really does insulate the beds!

On to the herb garden in our backyard: This is an anise plant, which I didn’t realize would come back. Maybe it reseeded itself?

Curly parsley—not my preference, but it is apparently hardier than the flat-leaf Italian variety.

Oregano, another herb that I half-expected to freeze over the winter. Our two thyme plants, sage, lavender, and garlic chives all survived, as well as…

French tarragon, believe it or not. That stuff is apparently hard to kill and grows like a weed. Too bad I don’t much care for its flavor.

And finally, chives in a planter box that I grew from seed last year, harvested carefully from chive flowers in my community garden in Salem. We haven’t even done a thing yet, and the gardening season is already off to a great start!

Category: Veggies and Salads | No Comments »
Tags: Brussels sprout, community garden, gardening, garlic, herbs, leek, spinach, turnip

Posted By Julie on February 29, 2012

To me, it is so sad that, now that we finally have reliable access to high quality raw cow’s milk, my son can’t have it anymore. The irony makes the whole process of seeking out dairy-free milk alternatives that much more difficult for me.

As a traditional foodie, and considering that many people who don’t tolerate casein often develop a similar sensitivity to soy proteins, my first instinct in non-dairy milk is coconut milk. But convenient as they may be, Tetrapak boxes of drinkable coconut milk contain not only guar gum, but also carrageenan and synthetic vitamin A, often along with sugar and other unnecessary additions. Canned coconut milk seems to be a prickly subject, as well, due to several factors: the BPA lining in cans, the frequent addition of guar gum as a stabilizer, and the inconsistent quality of the product all make it difficult to find a preferable brand. For instance, Native Forest supposedly has organic coconut milk and the only BPA-free cans, although they are not labeled as such; but they also contain guar gum, and the Thai-sourced units I bought contained very thin coconut milk with no solid cream. And, of course, you usually wouldn’t drink coconut milk straight from the can any more than you would drink straight whipping cream.

The best solution to the coconut milk problem seems to be, as with so many other foods, simply to put in the time and make it yourself. This can be done either by cracking into a whole coconut or by using unsweetened shreds, and in either case it is doubly cost-effective, since the squeezed-out solids can then be dehydrated and ground into coconut flour. Even better, this process doesn’t necessarily require a high-powered blender, like most of the nut and rice milk recipes I’ve been researching. I haven’t tried making homemade coconut milk yet, but since it is finally payday, I see a big bucket or two of shredded coconut in my immediate future!

I have, in the meantime, been using canned coconut milk to make a drinkable coconut milk tonic, which is very helpful to have on hand in the fridge for cooking (and the occasional smoothie for me!) even though Nolan has not taken to drinking it straight yet. I started out with two variations of Sally Fallon’s coconut milk tonic in mind, using up some leftover boxes of coconut water from when Nolan was dehydrated in December. Now I make it even easier on myself and just dump a can of coconut milk into a quart jar, refill the can with filtered water and dump that in as well, and then shake it all up. I can always add a little flavoring or sweetener by the glass later if I like. At that point, the only concerns are separation or lumps developing in the fridge—not a big deal—and calcium supplementation, which is a much more pressing concern.

Sally Fallon recommends dolomite, a naturally-occurring form of calcium carbonate, as a supplement in her coconut milk tonic to equal the calcium found in dairy milk. A plus-side of dolomite is how inexpensive it is, but I was only able to find it in tablet form at Vitamin Cottage. Calcium carbonate, however, is less bioavailable than some other forms such as calcium citrate and can also have a neutralizing effect on stomach acidity, so I did some further research and found that dissolving calcium carbonate powder in an acidic medium such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice effectively converts it to calcium citrate. The photo above shows my dolomite tablets starting to break down: my homemade apple cider vinegar worked faster, but since that was fermented with whey, I have been using lemon juice for Nolan’s supplements instead; the chemical process takes at least 4 hours, and fortunately neutralizes the sourness of the lemon, since Nolan is not a fan of that flavor. I add a tablespoon of this liquid mixture to each jar of coconut milk tonic, and also add a bit to Nolan’s water on days when he isn’t interested in any other drinks.

I have also been researching the possibility of extracting calcium from eggshells using the same acidic soaking technique. I would only recommend this when you have access to extremely high quality eggs from a trusted source, since undernourished chickens will not produce eggs with fully mineralized shells. But if you do have a reliable source for pastured eggs, and eat as many of them as we do, you likely have a great potential source of calcium that would otherwise just end up in the trash or compost! I have taken to rinsing and drying all our eggshells, and then use our Magic Bullet to grind them to a fine powder. (For some reason, although the Magic Bullet won’t crush ice or even ripe bananas in a smoothie, it does a very good job on eggshells!)

You can see the formula for calcium citrate written out on my bag of powdered eggshell. I haven’t tried it yet because calcium is best taken with a magnesium supplement, and where dolomite does provide some magnesium, I don’t know about the eggshell and would want to add some magnesium for Nolan, probably in the form of magnesium oil or more frequent Epsom salt baths. If we don’t end up using the eggshell for Nolan’s calcium, it is still highly useful as a supplement for pets or soil amendment, so I consider it a worthwhile addition to my kitchen routine.

Finally, just for fun, I couldn’t resist making a batch of coconut milk yogurt just to see what it would be like. I bought a small bottle of MegaFlora probiotic capsules in order to have a non-dairy source of inoculant, used just one can of coconut milk for a small test-batch, and added a little maple syrup to feed the culture and a little grassfed beef gelatin for thickness. After a night in the dehydrator, the bowl had thickened slightly and obtained a mild yogurt tang; it solidified almost too much in the fridge thanks to the gelatin, so I will definitely at least decrease the amount next time, if not omit it entirely. It was delicious in smoothies, salad dressings and dips, and I thought it was yummy just drizzled with honey too. Certainly a potential non-dairy substitute for buttermilk or sour cream, and I’d like to try this soon with almond or cashew milk also.

Category: Casein-free, Dairy, Specialty Diets | 2 Comments »
Tags: beverage, biomedical therapy, coconut, coconut milk, egg, fermentation, gelatin, supplements, yogurt

Posted By Julie on February 27, 2012

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

This was the perfect Daring Bakers challenge for our family’s transition to a gluten-free, casein-free diet this month, and rather than loaves, I made a whole bunch of muffins. We eased into the dietary changes slowly, omitting only dairy for the first two weeks, so my first few quick breads still contained gluten. First up, shown above, was a batch of cornbread muffins, sweet and moist, loaded with healthy fats from coconut milk. Although the Bob’s Red Mill medium-grind cornmeal I had on hand made these muffins grittier than I prefer, they were so fluffy and moist—and not overtly redolent of coconut—that I might not go back to using buttermilk or sour cream in my cornbread even if given the chance!

It was surprisingly, and somewhat dishearteningly, difficult to find recipes that omitted only casein. Everything either emphasized vegan or gluten-free, or both gluten-free and casein-free, or every-possible-allergen-free. Since we were already losing the nutritional profile of dairy, I certainly didn’t want to remove eggs from the equation also. I chose to make banana muffins first, so I just substituted freshly made clarified butter for the regular butter in this recipe; coconut oil (or probably a nut oil like walnut) would have also worked nicely here.

Nolan loved the banana muffins and devoured almost the whole batch singlehandedly, so I made a second batch with a slightly different approach: grain-free, casein-free muffins with coconut flour. I even made half the batch with walnuts for eating at home, and the other half with just chocolate chips for taking to preschool as snacks. (One of the kids in Nolan’s class has a peanut allergy, so they really cracked down on making all snacks peanut- and tree nut-free, which is unfortunate because he loves all sorts of nuts and nut butters, and I’d love to experiment more with almond flour.) I didn’t get a photo of the batch, but Nolan seemed to think they were alright, although after eating a few, he mostly just cracked into them to pick out the chocolate chips.

After two weeks without dairy, we also removed gluten from Nolan’s diet. According to the peptides test we had done last fall, he had a much stronger response to casein than to gluten, so this hasn’t been an overly traumatic experience so far (she says a week into the process). To keep things easy on myself, I used the Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour mix to start out, and selected a recipe for pumpkin muffins with coconut flour streusel since Nolan (and everyone else I know!) is a streusel-lover. I thought these tasted good, but Nolan didn’t like them, probably because the streusel wasn’t mega-crunchy and sort of melded into the top of the muffins. They also seemed to dry out rather quickly, which problem I have never had with a pumpkin muffin before.

Finally, I couldn’t let a month of quick-bread muffins go by without trying some zucchini muffins. For two years now, I’ve been meaning to try my hand at making zucchini muffins from dehydrated zucchini shreds, and I finally got to it! I soaked the dehydrated shreds for about 15 minutes in some coconut milk tonic (basically coconut milk thinned for drinking), but the next goal is to try making a recipe that just uses them dry; an overnight soaked batter would be ideal!

Double-Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

My gluten-free flour blend here was 70% (brown rice, sorghum, buckwheat, and oat flours; in descending order by weight) and 30% (tapioca, potato, and arrowroot starches; in descending order by weight); I made a large batch and shook it all up before scooping out one cup for the recipe. Also, if you want to make these muffins with freshly shredded zucchini, the original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of shreds and no coconut milk.

3/4 C dried zucchini shreds (equivalent to 2 C fresh), covered with enough coconut milk to equal 1 C
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
12 drops liquid stevia, optional
1 C gluten-free flour blend
2 T coconut flour (optional; use 1 T at a time to thicken batter if necessary)
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C coconut sugar
1/2 C coconut oil, melted
1/2 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line your cupcake tin with papers or silicone cups. Mix together the dehydrated zucchini with the coconut milk in a liquid measuring cup and allow to soak until the zucchini has softened. Stir eggs, vanilla, and liquid stevia into this mixture.

In a large bowl, combine flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar.

Dump the liquid ingredients over the dry, along with the melted coconut oil, and stir to combine; stir in the chocolate chips and dish about 1/4 C of batter into each of 12 muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Source: Adapted from Vegancraftastic.

So, some new favorites and some—let’s say, yet-to-be-appreciated—muffins: all in all, a gentle introduction to the somewhat intimidating world of dairy-free and gluten-free baking. So, thanks so much, Lis, for getting me off on the right foot!

Category: Baking, Casein-free, Foodblog Events, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Specialty Diets | 5 Comments »
Tags: bake, banana, biomedical therapy, casein-free, chocolate, coconut milk, cornmeal, Daring Bakers, gluten-free, muffin, pumpkin, quick bread, streusel, zucchini

Posted By Julie on February 26, 2012

In recent posts, I have hinted at the major changes we are beginning to make with Nolan’s diet. A month ago, we began treating him with methyl-B12 nasal spray, and have had many positive comments from his teachers and therapists about increased alertness and attentiveness. The next step, around the start of February, was to remove all casein from Nolan’s diet. Since he hasn’t been a big milk drinker for a while, the biggest changes revolved around removing cheese from his snack rotation, and dairy products from his baked goods. I took it a step further and have also removed casein from the bulk of our family meals, so that he will always be able to eat what we are eating if he so chooses; only those items he has no interest in—like yogurt smoothies, ice cream, pudding, and feta or gorgonzola on salad—still contain (preferably raw) dairy for the rest of us.

The one dairy product I still use in cooking for Nolan is clarified butter, which, if properly filtered, contains only butterfat with no residual whey or casein. Allowing the milk solids to brown (but not burn!) before straining produces ghee, a nuttier flavored clarified butter that is commonly used in Indian cuisine. Since both ghee and clarified butter are so expensive to buy directly at the grocery store, making a big batch of clarified butter was my first project for this new adventure. It didn’t go as well the first time around as I had hoped, to say the least.

The real problem was that I didn’t give myself quite enough time before we left to see a movie (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a sad, sweet movie featuring a little boy whose character may or may not have Aspberger’s tendencies). The butter I used was frozen, and considering the amount I needed to melt, I should have realized that it would take a while to liquify and spit out all the water and milk solids. When I ran out of time, I just removed it from the heat, covered it with a lid to keep dust out, and left it that way for about 3 hours, not thinking it would be any trouble to pick up where I left off. Turns out that is not a great idea… the butter was still liquid when I returned, and I removed the lid and set it over low heat on the back burner while getting some things out to make dinner. A few minutes later, I ran down the basement steps to grab an onion and heard a pop: the butter had exploded all over the kitchen, floor to ceiling. My best guess is that there was a little water trapped underneath the cooler butterfat trying to boil and create steam. I was mortified—albeit very fortunate not to have been standing in front of the stove at the time—and let’s just say that it was good that it happened in advance of starting the actual casein-free diet because the kitchen was in no state for cooking that night and we ended up having pizza as a last hurrah.

The next day, in a sparkling clean kitchen, I very tentatively started over again with 3 pounds of newly purchased butter. Much better! No fat explosions, I strained it through cheesecloth twice to remove every trace of solids, and ended up with about 8 sticks of clarified butter that has a high smoke point, can stand at room temperature longer than standard butter without spoiling, and adds real butter flavor to baked goods. No hydrogenated margarine for us!

Clarified butter is certainly not the only cooking fat we will be using, of course. The pantry is well-stocked with organic extra virgin olive oil and expeller-pressed grapeseed oil, green as grass; and I may soon take to buying coconut oil by the gallon from Tropical Traditions, since it figures prominently not only in the kitchen but in my personal care routine, in everything from lotion to soap to first aid to toothpaste.

Next up: Milk substitutes—a first pass!

Category: Casein-free, Dairy, Specialty Diets | No Comments »
Tags: butter, casein-free, clarified butter, gluten-free