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KerryAnn

Forty Plants Challenge: Week Three

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As this week includes Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there will be far too much sugar and other treats involved, which can and did increase inflammation and insomnia for me. I didn’t do well this week at all, between the amount of sugar present, feeling too bad to cook plus a ton of leftovers which diminished variety. What time I did feel descent was focused on decluttering and not cooking.

This week was so embarrassing I didn’t even want to publish it. But because I’m holding myself accountable, I went ahead and did it anyway.

Sunday

I was woken up twice in the middle of the night, but I was able to go back to sleep quicker than normal, so I wasn’t a total brain fog, inflamed mess on Sunday morning. I was able to somewhat function, which was good because Sunday began our two-day Christmas Eve celebration.

Sunday morning I didn’t eat anything other than ginger and turmeric tea. The supplements and OTC meds I use to deal with my histamine intolerance were helping to reduce my histamine symptoms, so the morning nausea is now gone, and I’m only left with inflammation symptoms like muscle and joint pain. But I slept in, so I decided to just start with lunch.

When Jeff and the kids got home from church, we started our Christmas Eve celebration (broken into two days due to interruptions by family visits and Christmas Eve church services, as well as me moving slow) and the Christmas treats began.

I had leftover Peanut Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner for lunch with added carrots, cauliflower and water chestnuts. The recipe includes peanuts, broccoli and lime and we served it over rice.

Snacks while we did a Christmas movie marathon included a few buckeyes, a tiny slice of fruitcake (and extra histamine meds, as it contains artificial colors that can further inflame my histamine reaction) and a small amount of Irish potato candy. I tried to keep it to a minimum.

For dinner we had taco salad. Simple, quick and easy. Corn, tomato, onion, black olives, pinto beans, bell pepper and lime.

Monday

Christmas Eve began with pancakes for brunch from a son who got up before the rest of us and decided to cook a nice meal for everyone. We ate at 11am, so lunch got lost in the shuffle once again, as we planned an early dinner so we could make it to our Christmas Eve service at church.

I drank turmeric and ginger tea all day and ate several pieces of ginger to help keep inflammation down.

Dinner was Roast Beast, Who Hash, roasted green beans, Grinch Punch and Who gelatin. That gave me carrot, white potato, red apple and green beans.

This meal likely kicked off the inflammation in earnest, because it contained a good lot of white sugar in the punch and dessert.

Tuesday

Christmas Day has arrived! We started the morning with our tradition, homemade cinnamon rolls. I experimented this year with pre-making and par-baking the cinnamon rolls using Better Batter. That gave me white and brown rice, a little bit of strawberry and a tiny bit of cocoa.

It also gave me yet more sugar.

Christmas lunch saw a family potluck. This gave me broccoli, cranberry, pecan, navy beans, parsley, and sweet potato.

Of those foods, I only made and brought the turkey, cranberry sauce and some gluten-free desserts (I took an assortment of cookies, buckeyes, Irish potato candy and fruitcake) and the rest was prepared by the others we were eating with. My turkey has a reputation of turning out well, consistently, so I always get asked to provide the turkey on holidays no matter who in the family we’re visiting. So I didn’t have much say in the rest of the menu.

Still, it was rather close to what we normally have on Thanksgiving, so it was a standard holiday menu for us. This was my first pass, and I went back and got seconds of the broccoli salad, sweet potatoes, some of the baked beans and another deviled egg half.

Tuesday dinner was all leftovers from lunch and the previous night’s dinner.

I had wayyyyy too much sugar again today. I also had hazelnut, oats, cocoa, coconut and peanut in my indulgences. By Tuesday afternoon I was a wreck of exhaustion and pain, yet I was so foggy that I didn’t yet make the connection that the amount of sugar I was eating was likely contributing to the situation. Because what I ate was spread out instead of all at one time, I didn’t realize how much sugar I was eating until I went back to record it.

Wednesday

So begins the lost week, the week where no one knows what day it is or what time it is. Jeff’s off from work the whole week, so that compounds the feeling. I think every day is a weekend.

Wednesday began our yearly decluttering spree. This year, we’re starting in the garage, basement and other long-neglected areas of the house because they aren’t the main living area. We live on the top floor and the bottom floor often gets forgotten about in my regular decluttering of our living space.

Breakfast was peanut butter oatmeal. Lunch and dinner were leftovers. So there were plenty of veggies, but no new veggies.

I also had multiple cookies throughout the day, a peppermint stick and three mini-Snickers. Later I finished off the buckeyes. Thankfully, that is the last of most of the homemade junk food. There’s still some store-bought stuff left.

There is still chocolate bark I haven’t even pulled out of the back of the fridge yet. It’s made from maple syrup, cocoa powder and coconut oil, but it needs to wait. I’ll save that for New Year’s.

Thursday

Another day in the basement, throwing away most of what is down there in a fit of ‘why is this even here, we never use it!’ Everything hurts and I’m moving very slowly. Very, very slowly. I’m so foggy I still haven’t realized that the amount of sugar I’m eating is likely to blame for how bad I am. Which left me kicking myself once I realized it.

We started with pancakes. At noon, after 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep which I needed so badly.

For lunch I had leftover Roast Beast, carrots and green beans around 3pm. Dinner was late for us, about 7pm, and we had leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, hummus and raw baby carrots. That gave me chickpeas and sesame seeds.

I had one ounce of dark chocolate, a small peppermint stick, a packet of chocolate hazelnut butter, a homemade peanut butter and chocolate chip monster cookie and I ate one King-Size Reeces Peanut Butter Cup. Whoops. I also ate multiple handfuls of candied almonds. And a couple of tortilla chips to help me get my evening supplements down.

Totally not a stellar food day for the many-th day in a row thanks to holiday treats, which was reflected in my joints, brain fog and my pain level from inflammation. But I did get enough water to drink, which was good as I’ve been drinking far less than what I need to feel well.

Friday

Everything hurts. So it’s detox day to bring down my inflammation and histamine levels. I finally begin to realize that the amount of sugar is an issue once I sit down to begin putting this blog post together and look back at what has really gone in my mouth the whole week.

My plan was to enough water, gentle stretching, no sugar, juicing some anti-inflammatory veggies, eating low-histamine and plenty of rest. Three solid meals that don’t contain sugar, inflammatory or high-histamine ingredients. Using essential oils and muscle rubs and a detox bath to help the joint and muscle pain.

Then a kid got up in the middle of the night and me not getting back to bed until 5:15am meant I wasn’t human again until 2pm.

The kids also spent the night at Mom’s house Friday night, which meant I had no help to prepare food and I was too much of a foggy, painful mess to do it alone. I was too tired to safely cook, so I continued eating leftovers instead of doing anything new.

I had fried plantains for breakfast. Lunch and dinner was leftovers. So while I did eat and I did get plenty of veggies and stopped eating junk, I ate nothing new as planned, as I just far too exhausted to cook.

Saturday

Today was a day of eating whatever someone else would push at me. Insomnia and inflammation had me down for the count.

Breakfast was skipped, as I slept through it. Lunch was leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, carrots and hummus. Dinner was leftover roast beast.

That now finishes all of the leftovers except some turkey. So next week will be turkey and rice soup.

I did take a detox bath Saturday night, which helped significantly with the joint and muscle pain.

Overall, this week was a colossal failure. Too much sugar, not enough veggies, and not enough variety. Next week begins a severe restriction on white sugar and a savory instead of sweet New Year’s celebration.

Final Tally

  1. Ginger
  2. Turmeric
  3. White rice
  4. Brown rice
  5. Water chestnuts
  6. Carrots
  7. Broccoli
  8. Cauliflower
  9. Peanuts
  10. Cocoa
  11. White potato
  12. Corn
  13. Tomato
  14. Onion
  15. Black olives
  16. Pinto beans
  17. Lime
  18. Green beans
  19. Red apple
  20. Pecan
  21. Sweet potato
  22. Cranberry
  23. Navy beans
  24. Parsley
  25. Oats
  26. Hazelnut
  27. Chickpeas
  28. Sesame seeds
  29. Almonds
  30. Plantains

And partial servings of:

  1. Cherry
  2. Pineapple
  3. Orange
  4. Lemon
  5. Bell pepper

Photo credits- wsilver,  Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.

Forty Plants Challenge: Week Two

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This is the account of the week before Christmas, so my goal was to hit my 40 plants but also to enjoy the treats we have that lead up to the holiday.  So this week, I will be baking and prepping, making Buckeyes, fruitcake, cinnamon rolls, lime sherbet, dairy-free cheese balls and the like for the holiday weekend.

There was a lot of Asian food this week, as that tends to be Belle’s favorite (goes right along with her heart for missions and obsession with all things South Korea), so I allowed it with the understanding that as long as she was eating plenty and getting her veggies in, I was ok with it for one week.  I planned the lunches and dinners, and you’ll see more variety there. Because I got sick and kept pulling things from the freezer instead of having to cook, some of the Asian meals got pushed back to be used after Christmas Day.

And then things dropped off the wagon when I hit the wall of insomnia and my histamine intolerance flared due to the inflammation brought on by a lack of sleep plus where I am in my cycle, as hormones influence histamine tolerance.

This week quickly became a good illustration as to why freezer meals are so important for anyone with a chronic illness, especially around the holidays as there is extra work to be done. It’s also a good illustration as to why I begin preparing for Christmas on November first and cook many of the holiday goodies ahead and freeze them.

Sunday

Sunday is a day of rest at our house.  We don’t do a lot of work, and we try to spend the day resting as much as possible.  So I didn’t put much thought into what we ate and it’s the one day a week that I allow that.  We finish off leftovers and if someone volunteers to cook, so be it.  Today, hubby volunteered.

I woke up early, felt queasy and had a hot chocolate while nursing a bad headache.  I’m still on the upswing from the virus I had the previous week.  

For lunch, we got a knock-out deal on some grass-fed steaks, so hubby wanted to grill them.  I put white and sweet potatoes into the oven to roast and the kids handled everything else. I had a small serving of steak, a sweet potato with butter and brown sugar, and a small serving of sweet corn. 

I had planned on  roasting some frozen veggies to try it out, but we mis-timed it and didn’t have the right pans (my other sheet pan was in the freezer) so we had to settle for corn instead.  We’ll try the roasted veggies from frozen later in the week.

I ate all of the sweet potato, most of the corn and a little less than half of the steak.

   

For dinner, the kids were at a Christmas party so I was on my own.  I had a small piece of roast turkey breast, sauteed kale and homemade cranberry sauce mixed with a smidge of mayo.  I couldn’t find the sesame seeds to put on top of the kale.  I had turmeric and ginger tea with almond milk.

For snacks, I had a handful of plantain chips mid-afternoon.  This provides resistant starch.  Once the kids got home from their party, we watched White Christmas and I had two handfuls of popcorn with unfortified nutritional yeast and a strawberry Smash bar. 

Before bed I had one ounce of dark chocolate and 2 slices of ginger.

I drank iced red raspberry, nettle and peppermint tea sweetened with stevia.

I had sweet potato, corn, cocoa, coconut, kale, onion, garlic, plantain, cranberry, ginger, turmeric, nutritional yeast, white rice, red raspberry leaf, nettle and almond.

Monday

The night before, I combined 3/4 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup of rolled oats and 2 Tbs chia seeds in a mason jar and I let it sit in the fridge overnight.   When eaten cold, this provides resistant starch to the good bacteria in the gut.

The next day, I combined a green apple, dried cherries, dates, frozen strawberries, frozen cranberries, a smattering of raisins, a dash of salt and a half-cup of water and I simmered it about 20 minutes, until tender.  I mashed it with a fork, pulled it off of the heat and added a spoon of vanilla extract, and served half of it over the cold oats. I sprinkled it with slivered almonds.

I had this right after noon, for a very late breakfast.  Next time, I will only use 1 Tbs chia seeds and use the white ones instead of the black.

The kids ate a Spanish omelette.

   

For an early dinner, I made a triple batch of Jeff’s favorite soup, tomato and fennel, to go with dairy-free grilled cheese. I added extra celery and carrot to the soup. 

We have a local grocery salvage near-by, and they sometimes get bags of the dairy-free Daiya cheese and loaves of Udi’s bread for about 15-25% of what you would pay at the health food store.  When we can get it at that price, which is rare, we pick some up and do grilled cheese.   I’m not big on the texture of Udi’s bread, but when I can get one of their large loaves for 99 cents, I don’t complain and I make something with it.

This gave me tomato, fennel root, fennel frond, onion, garlic, celery, parsley, carrot, white rice, basil, sorghum and brown rice.  Also a small amount of red and green bell pepper, as the cheese was pepper jack.  I only ate one of the two sandwiches pictured.

Since dinner was at 4pm, I had a larger snack than normal around 7pm. I had the rest of the little box of raisins from breakfast, a slice of ginger and an ounce of dark chocolate.  I also had a handful of the leftover graham crackers from making Jeff’s fruitcake. I continued to drink the red raspberry leaf and nettle iced tea all day.  I also had a hot chocolate right after dinner.

     

Tuesday

Trey got up and made biscuits before everyone else was up.  He occasionally gets in the mood to make them, so who am I to say no?  I ate them with a little grape jelly.  I will need to make more jelly this Summer.

For lunch, I had a steak salad.  It included butter lettuce, carrot, craisins (dried cranberries), broccoli and cucumber.  He also included a smattering of the pepper jack dairy-free cheese and a maple vinaigrette. 

   

I drank red raspberry leaf and nettle iced tea.   I had ginger and two ounces of dark chocolate for a snack.

For dinner, I made a Chinese chicken dish.  It’s a new recipe for me, but the kids requested we find a recipe that was little bits of fried chicken with an Asian sauce after seeing one made on a cooking show on TV.  I served roasted broccoli, cauliflower and carrots on the side.  We put it over brown rice.  

Nothing for this meal went right.  The sauce was far too salty, the brown rice was under-done and my following instructions on a website about how to roast veggies from frozen resulted in burned veggies.  That’s why you see mostly chicken on the plate, the rest of the veggies were burnt and inedible.

At least the chicken turned out ok.  I used it as an opportunity to teach Belle how to fry.  And I did eat the veggies that were edible, even if they were too browned in spots.



     

Wednesday

Wednesday fell off the rails thanks to insomnia. I have it cyclically, and it’s all hormonal. I can count on having it around ovulation and again around my period starting. I can also count on dealing with it anytime I get woken up in the middle of the night, whether that is by a pet, a human, the weather, the neighbor’s dogs or because I need to pee. It takes me around three hours to be able to fall back asleep if I get woken up. Even if I get a good amount of sleep after that three hours awake, I feel like I haven’t rested and have a lot of brain fog.

I can normally do ok for a day or two and still function. But eventually I quit functioning. Wednesday was when I quit functioning.

Wednesday morning I had leftover Tomato Fennel soup for brunch.

Wednesday evening we had chicken and dumplings from the freezer. I was too tired to do anything else and I forgot to thaw meat for dinner.

I also ate a lot of ginger, as insomnia sets off inflammation for me and ginger seems to be one of my best weapons to fight inflammation. With inflammation comes histamine issues if I am not able to get it under control quickly.

Thursday

Thursday was another day off of the rails thanks to insomnia, which led to worsening inflammation. I couldn’t stand up straight, had severe brain fog and I hurt all over. Histamine symptoms kicked in.

I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then the kids left for my mom’s house, which meant I had two options. I could eat leftovers or I could eat food that had been previously frozen, as I was not safe to prepare and cook with that level of sleep deprivation. So I pulled out a package of two servings of potato soup from the freezer and let it thaw. I had frozen potato soup for both lunch and dinner, as Jeff had something else going on and wasn’t home for dinner. I spent the evening holding down a recliner, watching TV, after a friend dropped by.

Friday

I finally got some sleep! Eleven hours of uninterrupted sleep and I woke up feeling human and with no brain fog and a far lower pain level! So the plan was to eat breakfast, get a shower and spend the day painting. I am working on a commissioned piece for a friend.

For breakfast, I had the leftover fruit compote over rice, sprinkled with slivered almonds.

For lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and inhaled it as fast as I could to get back to painting. Not ideal, but the kids still weren’t home from my mom’s house yet, so it was what it was.

For dinner, we had spaghetti. Quick, easy and a welcome, fast meal after standing for several hours while painting. Trey made the spaghetti.

Saturday

Another night of insomnia, which brought back the inflammation and brain fog and another worsening of the histamine intolerance symptoms.

Saturday morning breakfast was ginger and turmeric tea and I finally went onto my histamine reaction supplements.

Lunch was chicken and dumplings pulled out of the freezer. It contained green beans and English peas, carrots, potato, and celery.

Dinner was Peanut Sheet Pan Chicken. I used gluten-free soy sauce, and I added several carrots, cauliflower, and water chestnuts to the pan. After dinner, I drank yet more ginger and turmeric tea.

I also dipped the Buckeyes into chocolate. I made the centers a few weeks ago, omitted the chocolate chips and froze them for the holidays.  I dipped them into melted chocolate today for Christmas treats, so I had a couple of those.

Final Tally

Final tally for this week:

  1. Sweet potato
  2. Sweet corn
  3. Cocoa
  4. Coconut
  5. Kale
  6. Plantain
  7. Cranberry
  8. Ginger
  9. Turmeric
  10. White rice
  11. Red raspberry leaf
  12. Nettle
  13. Oats
  14. Chia seed
  15. Green apple
  16. Cherry
  17. Dates
  18. Red grapes (raisins)
  19. Strawberries
  20. Almond
  21. Brown rice
  22. Fennel root
  23. Tomato
  24. Onion
  25. Garlic
  26. Celery
  27. Carrot
  28. Parsley
  29. Sorghum
  30. Broccoli
  31. Butter lettuce
  32. Cucumber
  33. White cauliflower
  34. Water chestnuts
  35. Peanut
  36. Green onion
  37. Green beans
  38. English peas

I also had a partial serving of:

  1. Nutritional yeast
  2. Peppermint
  3. Stevia
  4. Fennel frond
  5. Basil
  6. Red bell pepper
  7. Green bell pepper

Photo credits- wsilver,  Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.

Dairy-Free Lime Sherbet

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As I discussed in our last post, we are doing Grinch Floats for Christmas Eve. That required a lime sherbet and lemon-lime soda. I couldn’t find any sherbets on the market that were available locally and dairy-free. So I had to make my own.

If you have an ice cream maker and a blender, it’s a very quick and easy recipe. You can make it ahead and store the sherbet in the freezer for up to two weeks. That frees up your time so you don’t have to worry about it on Christmas Eve. I set the sherbet out about twenty minutes before we’re scheduled to eat, to allow it to soften enough to scoop.

I use a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. This is by far my favorite ice cream maker after going through many brands. You must freeze the tub for at least 24 hours before you make the ice cream. I place my tub into my deep freezer several days in advance so it’s ready when I need it. During the summer, the tub has a permanent spot in the freezer so we can make ice cream anytime we want.

I recommend you read the ingredient lists on your frozen limeade concentrate. The ones at the big box stores that I could find all contained high fructose corn syrup. We avoid that ingredient as it gives some family members bladder irritation and urgency. Not a fun way to spend a holiday.

Old Orchard is one brand that is free of high fructose corn syrup that I was able to find. It is made with sugar and stevia, and is available in many stores nationwide.

To make Grinch Floats, you need to use a lemon-lime soda with the sherbet. One option is Sierra Mist, as it is high fructose corn syrup free. While it does have a preservative in it we avoid as a general rule (sodium benzoate), it is the only lemon-lime soft drink I know of that is made with sugar and is available nationwide, as it is part of the Pepsi brand. Another option would be Zevia, but I know it is not easily available in all markets and it costs more. It is sweetened with only stevia.

Scoop the sherbet into a glass, pour the soft drink over the top and you have Grinch Floats!

Dairy-Free Lime Sherbet

2 cups almond milk or your preferred dairy-free milk
12 oz. lime juice concentrate (sometimes labeled limeade frozen concentrate), partially thawed
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of one lime

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a quart mason jar, cap tightly and place in the refrigerator until well chilled, at least 2 hours.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions or until it reaches a soft-serve consistency.

Transfer sherbet to an airtight two-quart container, cover the surface with plastic wrap and seal. Freeze overnight or up to two weeks before use.

When ready to use, allow to sit on the counter for 20 minutes before scooping.

This is the consistency you’re looking for. It took my ice cream maker about twenty-five minutes to reach this stage.

Grinch Party: A Christmas Eve Family Celebration

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Every year for Christmas, we choose a theme for the year.  We do ornaments, activities, pajamas, movies, gifts and more to fit that year’s theme. It’s become a fun family tradition that we all enjoy.

I had no idea when I chose this theme in January that my grandparents  would be joining us for Christmas or that a new version of The Grinch would be coming out in theaters.  So that just makes it doubly perfect! 

My grandparents are coming up from Florida to spend the holiday with us.  Growing up, we called my grandfather The Grinch around Christmas because he would always tease us about killing the holiday.  That led to me being given several Grinch-themed gifts through the years and developing a love of the Grinch story from Dr. Seuss.

We are splitting our Christmas Eve into two days, in order to have enough time to celebrate. We have some scheduled activities on Sunday and Monday that we must work around including Sunday morning service (and serving), a candlelight service and an extended family party.  Because our Christmas Eve is normally packed full of family activities, we will split it between two days.

     

Yearly Inspiration

I take the first day of the month every month to plan anything needed for that month for holidays or birthdays, and I also use that day to set up the budget for the month, pay bills and do once a month tasks like changing air filters.  So planning a holiday or celebration in advance becomes routine and it takes the stress out of it.  

I do pick the theme early in the year so I can keep an eye out for items that match the theme on sale or clearance all year.  Because we do Dave Ramsey envelopes and I put an equal amount into our gift and holiday envelope every month year round, I always have the funds available to purchase items when I see them available. 

This also allows me to purchase things I know we need for the holiday as soon as they come out, instead of waiting until near Christmas.  More than one year, we have waited to purchase the fruit for the fruitcake and other similar items and had to go to multiple stores to find them, and some years we couldn’t find them at all.  So we shop early.

Especially if a theme is Christmas oriented (like the Grinch or Elf, as opposed to Bob Ross or The Princess Bride as we have done in the past), you can get the best deals on items in early January instead of waiting until after Thanksgiving to purchase.  As I have done this yearly for a while, I have noticed that Christmas items actually take a price jump around Thanksgiving or just before, so it’s better to purchase early instead of waiting until the holiday begins.

Once I pick a theme, I start a Pinterest board (even if it’s January) and begin thinking about plans.  I set the menu on November 1st based on ideas from Pinterest, then I start keeping an eye out for any special items or ingredients we need for that meal.

I created a Pinterest board to keep all of my Grinchy ideas, but I soon found that many of the food ideas are difficult to carry out because so many have food dye.  However, there are many non-food ideas and a lot of inspiration here if you’re willing to seek out natural food coloring options.

   

Menu

This is the menu we have planned for this year on Christmas Eve to fit our Grinchy theme:

  • Roast beast (beef roast with carrots, omit potatoes)
  • Who hash (latkas made without bacon)
  • Roasted green beans with bacon
  • Garlic knots (this recipe for Parkerhouse rolls with garlic butter brushed over the top and a dash of garlic powder in the dough)
  • Grinch floats
  • Who gelatin and whipped cream

     

Grinch Floats

I will combine a dairy-free lime sherbet with Sierra Mist.  Sierra Mist is free of high fructose corn syrup and is made with sugar, so it is our preferred carbonated soft drink for special occasions, but you could use any clear, lime-flavored carbonated drink.  We allow the kids to have it at holidays and birthdays.

Check back here tomorrow to see the recipe for the Dairy-Free Lime Sherbet! Here’s what a test run of the punch recipe looked like, nice and foamy.  The kids thought it tasted great.

         

Who Jello

Take lime and strawberry jello cut into cubes and layer it with dairy-free spray coconut whipped cream (it’s also available in almond).

It’s a pretty standard dessert you see in cafeterias, but for us it’s a big treat because we rarely have packaged gelatin desserts or the spray whipped cream.  This will be the first time the kids have ever had this dessert.  And we’ve only had the spray whipped cream one time, at Thanksgiving.  It was a hit and the ingredient list isn’t horrid so we will allow it for holidays and special occasions.

This dairy-free spray whipped cream is one of those ingredients I mentioned above that seems to be hard to get your hands on, as we had to check more than one store for it for several weeks before we finally caught it in stock.  So this is an ingredient we start shopping for early and store it in the back of the fridge (and place a bounty on it- you open it early, you must pay to replace it and go shopping with the disgruntled adult to pick it up) until the holiday.

There are some good options on the market for dye-free, clean gelatin desserts now, so I don’t feel like this is a completely junky dessert.  They are, however, expensive when compared to the dye-containing gelatin desserts which cost less than $1 a box at the local big box store.  So we only have them very rarely. I prefer to make them homemade, but it wouldn’t have given the right colors for the holiday.

   

Ornaments

Each year, I purchase or make an ornament based on that year’s theme in triplicate.  That way we can keep a copy on our family tree, and when our children leave home, they can have a copy of each of the ornaments to start their own collection of Christmas ornaments.

This year, I made the ornament.  Here are the directions to make the ornament.  It’s adorable with the little Grinch hiney sticking out of the chimney and we all love it!

We used fishing line in place of the ribbon, as we had no matching ribbon on hand.  I have ordered the paint pen to make the bricks on the film canister ‘chimney.’  I will complete the project when the paint pen comes in.

In previous years, we’ve found ornaments on Etsy or Amazon.  I always label the ornament with the year on the back or bottom.

The finished ornament is adorable.

      

Pajamas

There are a lot of cute Grinch pajamas and clothes out this year!  

We got Grinch pajama bottoms for me.  The sets I picked up for the kids in October are no longer available, but Amazon has a ton of cute Grinch pajamas available right now!

   

Games

In addition to watching all three versions of The Grinch over the two days we will be doing our Grinch theme, we will also have a game to play during each of the two movies at home.  

I found Grinch bingo cards all over Google and Pinterest.  I printed one per family member to be used during the original movie.  First person to hit Bingo gets a Grinchy Prize.

Then when we watch the Jim Carrey version, I have a small wrapped gift.  Every time someone says ‘Who’ in the movie, you pass the gift to the right.  Whoever is holding the gift at the end of the movie wins it!

   

I hope these ideas give you some fun inspiration for activities to do with your own kids this holiday season and beyond!

   

Forty Plants Challenge: Week One

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In my last post, I outlined why I am changing my diet based on test results.  Moving to a plant-dominant diet from an animal-dominant diet is quite a mindset change, and many people have asked me to blog the experience.  Therefore, I will be posting what I’m eating and my counts for each week as I continue on this journey.

This week was a bit tough, with the extra goodies for Christmas floating around and me catching the creeping crud that was going around.  It left me listless and with a fever.  Nonetheless, I did track what I ate and worked hard to hit my goal of forty plant foods.

Let’s look at how I did.

     

The Challenge

The idea is that you want to go for a single serving of 40 color/type combinations of plant foods in a week to give you a good diversity. 

You can consume fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, spices, nuts and seeds. Each color of the same type will count separately.  So a red apple counts as one serving and a green apple counts as a second serving.  Black olives would count as one serving, and green olives would count separately.   White, purple and green cauliflower would each count if you eat enough to be a single serving of each through the week.

You can have more than one serving of any one plant food, but try to get at least a single serving over the course of one week.  For example, I might have to take 2 Tbs of sesame seeds and spread it over 3-4 days to get the whole amount eaten, one sprinkle at a time. Or I might have a cup of coconut cream over several meals or drinks.  If you eat enough in a week to count as single serving, you can count it in this challenge.

The main things to keep in mind are color and diversity.

I also aim to get several servings of resistant starch every week.  Starches that are cooked, cooled then refrigerated, or certain starch flours are resistant.  This feeds the beneficial bacteria in the gut.  Good examples are cold potato salad, overnight refrigerator oats, and cooked and cold rice pudding.

   

Week One Menu

Sunday

Sunday Brunch–  We were snowed in, so we slept in and hubby got up and made everyone a big brunch before we watched our church service online.  He made bacon, scrambled eggs, toast from my homemade bread, grape jelly and hot chocolate. 

This gave me oats, white rice and brown rice from the bread, cocoa and coconut from the hot chocolate and grapes from the jelly.

Sunday Drinks– I had two cups of turmeric and ginger tea.

Sunday Dinner– White Chicken Chili from my website.  I substituted Northern Beans for the cannellini beans, because we didn’t have any.  I substituted green chilies for the jalapeno as the kids aren’t big on heat.  I left off the sour cream and cheese.

This gave me Northern Beans, carrot, celery, green chilies. cumin, chili powder, onion and garlic.

   

Monday

Monday Breakfast– Another snow day. Trey volunteered to make waffles so I didn’t turn him down.  I topped mine with a little peanut butter.  I also had two cups of turmeric and ginger tea.

This gave me white rice, brown rice, peanuts, ginger and turmeric.

Monday Lunch– Sauteed onion and kale topped with sesame seeds and chicken and sweet potato hash. We normally eat the hash for breakfast, but the leftovers make a great lunch.

This gave me kale, sesame, lemon, sweet potato, garlic, onion and red apple.

   

Monday Dinner– Taco salad served over tortilla chips because snow meant no trips to the grocery store for lettuce, which has been rather scarce lately due to recall. 

I used my homemade taco seasoning mix on the ground beef, put it over the tortilla chips, then sprinkled everything else on top.  We used navy beans at the request of one child who prefers them over pinto beans.

This gave me navy beans, corn, garlic, tomato, cilantro, green chilies, black olives, onion and chili powders.  

Monday Snack – Two chocolate no-bake cookies.  I substituted almond milk for the dairy milk, and rapadura for the brown sugar. We made a quadruple batch before the snow.  This gives us some nice snacks, and allowed us to put a large batch into the freezer for Christmas.

This gave me oats, cocoa and peanuts.

     

Tuesday

Tuesday Breakfast– Yet another snow day, this time I got out of bed and got moving instead of letting others volunteer to cook. I soaked some raw, rolled oats overnight in almond milk.  Served cold or at room temperature, this gives resistant starch which feeds the beneficial bacteria. 

I topped it with a compote of a handful of frozen cranberries, seven frozen strawberries, a fresh red apple, and three dried dates.  I just chopped up the fruit and simmered it over medium-low heat in about a half cup of water until the fruit was tender and mashable. I let it cool until warm, then put it over the cold oats.

Then I topped the dish with walnuts. 

This gave me cranberries, strawberries, dates, red apple, walnuts and oats.  There isn’t enough almond in almond milk to really count it.  

   

Tuesday Drinks– I had hot chocolate in the morning and two cups of turmeric and ginger tea.

That gave me cocoa, coconut, ginger and turmeric.

Tuesday Lunch– The last of the leftover kale and a cup of burrito beans. I season my burrito beans more heavily than what this recipe calls for.  The beans were served over a half-cup of cold, cooked white rice to provide resistant starch and one high quality hot dog.

This gave me kale, lemon, sesame seeds, pinto beans, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, tomato and rice.

Tuesday Dinner– Before the snow storm, we prepared a good bit of food in a single day, expecting the power to go out.  It never did.  So I pulled some of my quick chili from that prep session out of the freezer and put it over a baked potato.

This had dark red kidney beans, carrot, celery, tomato, onion, garlic, and white potato.

Tuesday Snack– a handful of plain potato chips.  The kids prefer to take chips to their class parties. Because Tuesday was supposed to be their Christmas party and it was a snow day instead, I let them open the chips.  

I also had a peanut butter bar.  This is a recipe I’m developing and should have it posted to the blog soon.  It’s a peanut butter cookie-style crust with a powdered-sugar and butter-based icing.  It’s definitely a treat.

Again, this is about adding what you need and less about denying yourself everything that isn’t optimal.  A little bit of junk is fine so long as you keep it all in perspective and don’t go overboard.  This is more junk or sugar than I normally have in a day, but it was a high stress day and my period started early giving me a massive headache, so I decided to indulge.

I had white potato, coconut and peanuts.

   

Wednesday

Wednesday Morning– Wednesday is where things really fell off of the rails.

I had planned to have the second half of the fruit compote from Tuesday, served over cold rice pudding.  But the earthquake combined with insomnia left me sleep deprived which resulted in a queasy tummy. Later, I realized I had a head cold virus and my period got ugly, bringing with it a repeat of the bad headache.  My sinuses were pounding to the point even my teeth and hair hurt.  All on the same day.

 So I had toast with a little grape jelly, ginger and turmeric tea and hot chocolate, scattered throughout the morning and into the afternoon.

I had white and brown rice, grapes, ginger, turmeric, coconut and cocoa.  All repeats.

Wednesday Lunch– Still off the rails, I had a hot dog with a little mayo and cranberry relish.  And that was it.  And I only ate it because a teen shoved it at me and insisted around 2pm.

I normally have a bad day or three when my period starts, so I give myself some grace.  And this is also why I cook in advance and try to get food set aside in the freezer, for the days I can’t cook.

I had cranberries.

Wednesday Dinner– Even further off the rails. The kids heated up dinner from the freezer while I held down a recliner.  We had pigs in a blanket (I had extras left over from preparing for a holiday party in early December), hummus, raw carrots and mayo/cranberry dip.

I had carrots, chickpeas, sesame seeds, lemon, garlic, and cumin.   Overall, Wednesday was a bad food day.

   

Thursday

Thursday Brunch– Slept twelve hours and I still needed to spend the day holding down the recliner.  I ate the remaining fruit compote over cold rice mixed with coconut milk and a dash of salt.  I sprinkled it with pecans. 

Next time, I would do this over cold quinoa or another grain/seed I haven’t yet had in the week.  But because I’m sick and we already had cold rice in the fridge, I went with it. Eating something was better than eating nothing.

This gave me cranberries, strawberries, dates, red apple, pecans, coconut and rice.  

Thursday Dinner– Still holding down the couch. I put Belle in charge of this meal and told her to make whatever she wanted with the thawed ground beef in the fridge.  She made another big taco salad because that is quick and easy.  I just asked her to use a bean we hadn’t had yet in the week, so she chose pinto beans.

I had pinto beans, black olives, corn, chili powder, garlic, onion, and cilantro.

Thursday Snack– Hot chocolate, on which I managed to badly burn my mouth.  Because I really needed that on top of everything else!

Turmeric and ginger tea.  A couple of pieces of sesame candy, brought home by hubby. 

I had cocoa, coconut, turmeric, ginger and sesame.

   

Friday

Friday Morning– The kids had a make-up day for co-op today, which meant I wasn’t in charge of anything and could sleep in.  So I stayed in bed until my fever was back and I was aching from not moving around. 

My tongue is still painful from being burned yesterday, so I didn’t do anything but sip on cooled hot chocolate and water.  I focused on trying to get hydrated.

Friday Lunch– I drank more water and cheerleaded myself through getting down a coconut yogurt I didn’t want but that I knew I should eat. Hubby bought a few containers, hoping it would help me get something down.  He’s concerned when I don’t eat.  Still, today is better than yesterday.

Friday Dinner– I was beginning to feel a little better by dinnertime. We only eat out maybe twice a year in total.  We had picked up Chick-Fil-A for my son’s birthday recently and they botched the order, so they had given us a voucher for a free order to make up for the mistake.  Because I was sick and they were out so late running errands and doing business, he decided to use it and bring it home to me instead of trying to figure out food once they got home.  I had one of their grilled chicken sandwiches on a gluten-free bun.  The kids ate my fries.

Frankly, I didn’t care, I finally felt like I could eat but I didn’t yet have enough energy to fix it for myself.  So I was willing to eat anything safe that they could give me. One kid pushed a plate of tacos minus the meat at me once the sandwich was gone, because they were concerned I wasn’t getting enough veggies while sick.  😀 

At bedtime, they shoved another cup of yogurt at me, since I had been able to successfully eat everything else.

I had tomato, lettuce, white rice, corn, black olives, onion, pinto beans, coconut and strawberry 

   

Saturday

Saturday Breakfast– The fever has finally broken and I am in recovery mode.  I got up late after sleeping in again and ate a cup of strawberry yogurt and a cup of hot chocolate.  I’m feeling much better.

Saturday Lunch–  We had a late lunch, as we didn’t really all get moving until 11am.  I pulled chicken and dumplings out of the freezer and heated them up.  I ate a double serving.  My appetite is back, thankfully.

I don’t have a recipe for this, as I made it a few months ago from some leftover chicken soup before freezing.

This gave me white rice (in the dumplings), carrots, corn, celery, tomato, white potato, green beans, and English peas.

Saturday Dinner– Dinner somehow got forgotten because we didn’t eat lunch until 3pm, and Belle had a Christmas party at 5, so we didn’t really do anything for dinner.  Instead, we snacked.  I had carrots and hummus.  Two small handfuls of red grapes, to make sure I reached a full serving of grape. A serving of plantain chips and a few slices of crystallized ginger.

I had carrots, chickpeas, sesame, garlic, lemon, red grapes, ginger and plantain.

Saturday Drinks– I’m still trying to get rehydrated, and tea is easier for me to get down than plain water.  I made a quart of nettle, red raspberry and peppermint infusion.  I keep a mix of 60% nettle, 40% red raspberry leaf and a dash of peppermint on hand in a 2-gallon glass jar, and make it as I feel I need it. 

When I’m needing to get hydrated or shift fluid in my body, nettle is my go-to herb.  Red raspberry is my go-to for encouraging hormone balance. 

I fill the jar 2/3 full of herb in a filter, fill with boiling water, screw on a lid and allow to stand for 8 hours at room temp. Once it is done, I strain, dilute to taste, sweeten with stevia and put over ice, storing it in the fridge.  I drink it as iced tea all day instead of drinking water.  Drink within two days.

This gave me nettle, red raspberry leaf and a partial serving of mint.

Saturday Snacks– One no-bake cookie. 

   

Final Tally

Considering that I was down with or recovering from a virus for four of the seven days, I’m very surprised that I met the goal.  Next week, my focus will be on more servings of vegetables and fewer spices to meet my goal.

For the week, I ate at least one full serving of each of the following plant foods:

  1. Oats
  2. White rice
  3. Brown rice
  4. Red grape
  5. Cocoa
  6. Peanut
  7. Red apple
  8. Green chili
  9. Onion
  10. Coconut
  11. Navy Beans
  12. Garlic
  13. Sweet potato
  14. Kale
  15. Sesame seed
  16. Lemon
  17. Corn
  18. Tomato
  19. Black olive
  20. Northern beans
  21. Chili Powder
  22. Cranberry
  23. Strawberry
  24. Dates
  25. Walnut
  26. Carrot
  27. Celery
  28. Pinto beans
  29. Cumin
  30. White potato
  31. Dark red kidney beans
  32. Ginger
  33. Turmeric
  34. Chickpeas
  35. Pecan
  36. Green beans
  37. English peas
  38. Nettle
  39. Red raspberry leaf
  40. Plantain

I also ate a partial serving of:

  1. Oregano
  2. Almond
  3. Peppermint
  4. Stevia   

Photo credits- wsilver,  Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.

Add Color to Your Diet: Plant-Based Foods When Animal Foods Aren’t Healing Your Gut

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What do you do when you think the ‘perfect’ diet for you has stopped working?  Or worse yet, it works for a bit then symptoms change and you have to pick a different ‘perfect’ diet and start all over?

Are you tired of chasing symptoms and changing diets, only to have things change every few months to a year?  You’re tired of being told that changing diets is good because it means you’re healing, but you don’t really see evidence of that healing.  You only see it shifting without progress which means you’re getting frustrated.

  

Stop Guessing and Find the Root- It Isn’t What You Think

I have been working with a wonderful practitioner, Elizabeth Eckert at Wellness Images (website, Instagram and Facebook), on healing my gut so that I can return to amazing health.  Based on my latest test results, we have seen that the diversity in my gut isn’t the way we want it for vibrant health. 

This lack of diversity and the ratios of bacteria present mirror the symptoms I am experiencing.  But more importantly, they are a root problem that comes from not eating the way that is best for my individual body, which has allowed gut damage to remain despite me working twelve years to heal and seal my gut.

The truth is that I was doing a lot of work, but I wasn’t really making much progress.  DIYing gut health just really doesn’t work for many reasons.

   

DIY Doesn’t Always Work

Testing is showing the root of my issues, and it is time to stop using diet as a band-aid, thinking that is the cure.  Diet alone will not cure you if you’re on the wrong diet and not getting what you need to heal, you need more of a certain nutrient to heal than you can possibly eat each day, or you aren’t being exposed to the right mix of bacteria so they can take root in your gut and grow. 

That is why working with a knowledgeable practitioner is so critical.  They can figure out the root of your individual issues so that you can fix that root.  Once the root is healed, vibrant health can return.  Chasing symptoms never really fixes the problem, and most diets just chase symptoms. Because health is so much more than just what you put in your mouth.

By removing foods and food groups in the lack of a true allergy or intolerance, you are actually changing your biome by limiting its diversity and making to harder for your body to heal.  Your body needs a wide diversity of foods for the nutrients necessary to heal.  So wholesale cutting out categories such as grains, beans, nuts and others will negatively impact your gut in the long-run.  It certainly has impacted mine negatively, even though it gave short-term symptom relief.

If I could tell you anything, it would be to please stop trying to band-aid symptoms and figure out the root yourself, quit wasting time, and hire someone knowledgeable to help you get to the root of it quickly, target your specific issues, and heal quickly so you can move on with vibrant health. 

   

Ugly Truths

The ugly truth is that had you asked me, I would tell you I suspected my gut was healed because I have optimal bowel movements as described by many practitioners and I had already been through a six-month gut healing protocol meant to remove parasites and heal the gut. 

I neither have constipation or diarrhea, I go at least once a day, I have minimal gas, and I’m consistently in the right target on the Bristol Stool scale.  So if we went on symptoms alone, I wouldn’t assume my problem is my gut because my poop is good and it’s always easy to go.

However, a lot of my issues are still in my gut.  Changing my gut has resulted in changing hormones and energy levels and alleviating other symptoms not related to digestion.  It really is true that all disease begins in the gut.  So if you are having any health symptoms at all, even if it’s easy to poop and your poop looks right, you should still suspect that the root of your problem is in your gut.

   

Regrets

My biggest regret is that I didn’t do this sooner.  I have tried to fix it myself for so long, and I thought I was making progress because we’d see symptoms change.  But in six months, I’d have to change diets again.

Symptoms decreasing or changing alone is not evidence that a diet is fixing the root of your problem, especially if you have to change diets again in six months or a year because the symptom comes back or you develop new symptoms.  You never actually move to another level, you’re just spinning wheels.

Quit chasing diets.  They won’t heal you if the root cause isn’t something that can’t solved by diet alone, and most gut issues are too complex to be fixed by diet alone. Or you need more of certain nutrients that you can practically eat in a day, or you need exposure to a certain gut bacteria you aren’t getting in your diet.

   

My Changes

Based on my test results, she has challenged me to move from a fat heavy, moderate protein diet to a diet dominated by plants, with only enough fat and meat to keep me feeling full and healthy. 

This is quite the change in both diet and mindset, as for years, I’ve been thinking that animal products and fats would be what would heal me.  But my test results show otherwise.  These diets aren’t working for me. 

My gut reflects that, at least for my individual body chemistry, animal-heavy diets won’t take me where we want to go.  I have repeatedly changed diets for the last many years, but it has only worked to help alleviate some symptoms temporarily and not truly address the root of my issues.

Keto, low-carb, paleo and animal-heavy Nourishing Traditions have left with me with a gut that doesn’t have enough inflammation-fighting bacteria and too much sulfur-producing bacteria, among other issues.  So the goal is to eat in such a way that feeds and encourages the bacteria I need to flourish while discouraging the good bacteria I have too much of to reduce, and the bacteria we don’t want to leave.

Yes, it is possible to have too much of a certain good bacteria.  It’s not just enough to have good bacteria, but have the good bacteria in the right balance.  Once they are balanced, then your symptoms have the opportunity to reduce or go away for good.

So I need plants.  Lots of colorful plants.  Both for the beneficial chemicals that plants contain, such as polyphenols, and for their fiber which will encourage the right balance of bacteria to grow.

Shifting your biome with the right foods and some targeted supplements isn’t a quick process.  You should expect, after you go through the testing and start your individualized program in order to get where you want to go, that it will take a few months or even a year to get to optimal.  And that’s ok.

   

Getting Help

My practitioner, Elizabeth, is starting a small group coaching program in January.  This will arm you with the ideas you need after your testing, to make menus and meal plans to help you with specifically what you need. (PLEASE NOTE:  I do not get any money or kickbacks for referring people to Elizabeth, I’m just a happy client who wants to see others get well, too.)

Elizabeth has challenged me to try to eat at least 1 serving of 40 different colored plant foods each week to help diversify my diet and get the nutrients I need.  This diet isn’t about eliminating things, but more about adding what will help heal me, and I can still have the other things as I have room.

So I will continue eating some meat and fat, I can still have some treats as I have room.  At this point, the only food I remain off of strictly is gluten because I haven’t seen any well-designed, long-term studies showing it’s safe to go back onto once you quit reacting, and dairy other than butter, as we have not yet trialed it. 

I can trial dairy anytime I’d like.  I’ve been back on butter for about a year, but my test results showed that dairy fat (butter) is not an optimal fat for me as it encourages the growth of sulfur-producing bacteria, so I will hold off on that until after the holidays.

I can still have some butter, but I will make an effort to include more coconut oil, olive oil and other healthy fats while reducing the butter.  Again, this is about including more of what is best for me over completely eliminating what is not optimal for me.  Progress, not perfection is always the goal.

   

Join the Journey

I’ve been posting about this challenge on my personal facebook page, and some of you have asked me to publish menus and post about what I’m eating, so I decided to go for it.

I will publish one or more posts weekly writing up what I have eaten for that week, with links to recipes or giving the recipe for the item if it is my own recipe.

I hope you will join me on this journey.   The first weekly post will be out Monday, chronicling what I’m eating every day, even through the holidays and seasonal sniffles.  I will focus on plant diversity while not feeling deprived of some treats and enjoyment.

   

      

   

Photo credits- wsilver,  Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.