Round Up: Top 5 Posts in 2011

Happy New Year!

To ring in 2012 I thought I would highlight my top 5 most popular posts in 2011!  I look forward to writing more nourishing recipes for you in the New Year!  Thank you for continuing to follow me here at Elevate Wellness!

The Top Five

Pumpkin Muffins


Cooking With Your Child:  Allergy-free Granola Bars


Cranberry Pumpkin Ketchup


Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Recipes


Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Menu Plan Week of January 2nd

Happy New Year!  While some may be suffering from the "holiday blues," I like to think of the positives that a new year brings - reflect on the year gone by and focus on the renewal of good habits.  I am not a huge fan of specific new year's resolutions, although I do always have a few goals in the back of my mind.  Rather than resolutions, I consider my goals to be refreshers, or a way to recharge the good habits that I feel I have formed over time but don't always stick to during the busy holiday season.  I think that this takes the pressure off of the whole concept of a new year's resolution, which makes success feel more doable.  Take some pressure off of yourself and try to do a few things every week or one thing every day to refresh your good habits while implementing new habits over time. 

Healthy eating is always a huge focus for the new year, and I would love to help refresh your healthy eating habits by posting some recipe makeovers right here on my blog.  Have you recently learned that you or someone in your family has a food allergy?  Are you looking to make your kids' favorite meals more nutritious?  Email me or comment below with a recipe that you would like to see changes to in order to meet your families health goals or dietary needs.  I would love to feature it right here.  Please put "Recipe Makeover" in the subject line and specify what changes you would like to see based on your needs.

Here is my menu plan for this week:

Monday:  Rose Bowl - GO BADGERS! :)  Pulled pork sandwiches (new recipe!  Sub in rapadura aka Whole Cane Sugar for brown sugar, if possible) with Roasted Broccoli (I will use plain lemon juice and coconut oil).

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Whole Chicken with Cauliflower Poppers (I will drizzle with coconut oil before baking) and a side salad
Tip:  Cook and carve the chicken on Sunday or Monday (if you are off on Monday) - you can stretch the meat over multiple meals throughout the week!

Wednesday:  Mexican quinoa (scoop quinoa onto a bed of greens, dressed lightly with oil and lemon) with Baked Corn Tortilla Chips (use coconut oil!), salsa and guacamole

Thursday:  Leftovers

Friday:  Turkey Salad (wrap/pita pocket optional) with kale chips and raw veggies

Saturday:  Out

Sunday:  Mark Bittman's Autumn Millet Bake with a side of green beans

Immune Boosting, Kid-Friendly Recipe

My cooking style and methods have shifted quite a bit over the past year with a focus on traditional foods and using as many whole ingredients (organic fruits and veggies) as I can with every meal.  One technique I am working on mastering is making bone broth.  I have made a few batches and the results continue to improve.  I use a crock pot to make it, as it is easiest for me with my busy schedule and a toddler taking much of my attention away from the kitchen!  When using the crock pot, it is incredibly easy to make!  I cook up a whole chicken in the crock pot (a 4 lb chicken is easily enough meat for two meals for my family of three), pull the meat off of the bones once it is cooked and use them immediately to start my broth. 24 hours later (and completely hands-off) - I have homemade chicken broth ready to use or freeze!

When my little guy and I came down with our first colds of the season this past weekend, I bumped up our probiotic intake and Vitamin D supplements and then took a few containers of chicken broth out of the freezer right away.  From all of the reading I have done, I have learned that homemade chicken broth is packed with nutrients and has the healing components that a boxed or canned broth cannot provide. 

Chicken soup is not a favorite for my toddler, so I had to find something creative to do with it to make sure he ate his fair share!  I concocted the following recipe - it turned out flavorful but relatively "neutral" which tasted just right with the stuffy noses and coughs we were battling!  You can change this recipe up by adding different veggies or a different kind of meat, as well!

2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
(***1 cup of additional veggies, if desired)
2 small cloves of garlic, pressed
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp of salt (no salt in my broth!)
1 lb of ground meat of choice (I used pasture-raised organic chicken)
2 cups homemade chicken broth
1 1/2 cups noodles, cooked (brown rice or your favorite noodle)
Fresh parsley, if desired

Boil the noodles and drain.  Meanwhile, warm saute pan to medium heat, add olive oil and saute onion until soft (***add any other veggies at this time, as well).  Press garlic and saute for 2 minutes.  Add spices and salt, saute for 2-3 minutes more.  Add ground meat and saute until cooked through.  Add broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer for 8-10 minutes.  Add cooked noodles and simmer for another 2-3 minutes, until most of the broth if absorbed.

Serve in bowls sprinkled with fresh parsley, if desired. Bump up the nutrition factor with a side of roasted veggies! Serves 3-4.

This post/recipe is linked up to a great blog called day2dayjoys and her post (posted on Wednesday) about boosting your immune system naturally.  It is also linked up to a blog called Real Food, Whole Health and their Fresh Friday Bites post! 

Saute onion

Add garlic and spices, salt

Brown meat with onion/garlic/spice mix

Add tasty, nutritious broth :)

Add noodles...

The result!  Nutritious comfort food when you have a cold or flu!

Menu Plan Week of 9/19/11

Fall is definitely here...  we have rainy weather with cool temperatures today.  It makes me want to tuck in with a soup or stew!  I have mentioned it before, but I LOVE fall!  It gives me the chance to get back into the kitchen and layer on the flavor and it is officially crock pot season (although if you follow this blog, you know that I am a year round crock pot fanatic!

My menu plan shifted a little bit this week.  My hubby found a BOGO deal on ahi tuna, so we will be grilled that tonight.  The little guy will eat a grilled pork chop and we will compliment it all with rice and broccolini (I found fresh organic broccolini at Costco today!  $5.79 for a huge bag!  You'll see it on my menu again later this week).  In terms of highlights from last week, the quinoa burgers turned out fantastic - extremely easy! 

Last but not least, I am SO excited to reveal some news about a new partnership that I have engaged in with a mentor of mine.  I am excited to take my passion for menu planning and for helping people elevate wellness through nutrition and food to the next level!  Stay tuned!

For more menu planning inspiration visit http://orgjunkie.com/blog.

Menu for this week:

Monday:  Oven roasted chicken with crock pot squash (sub coconut oil for butter if dairy-free) and salad

Tuesday:  Breakfast for dinner!  Quinoa pancakes, bacon and fresh fruit

Wednesday: White Chicken Chili (leftover chicken from Monday!)  with side of broccolini
I am going to give this a shot with coconut milk and coconut oil for milk/butter... we'll see how it goes.  As is, it is a really delicious recipe!
tip:  this is good leftover, so if you make it the night before, just stick the pot in the fridge after it's cooled and warm it up on Wednesday evening!

Thursday:  Winging it

Friday:  Pizza night

Saturday:  Out to dinner

Sunday:  Slow Cooker Pork Chops and Squash (don't know what "Kitchen Bouqet" is?  Assume it's just a spice blend.  I'll use sage and rosemary with salt and pepper.  Sub in coconut oil for butter if dairy free!)

Menu Plan Monday Week of 8/22

Happy Monday!  After a very relaxing weekend, we have just a few more days before we head back to Milwaukee for a long weekend!  There is always a fine line when it comes to grocery shopping during weeks like these - making sure we have enough food to get us through but that nothing goes to waste!  Planning is obviously key to this!  (And to avoid any or all take-out meals, which are not really an option for us anyway!)

I also want to provide you with the link to this amazing baked oatmeal recipe (via Just One Bite) that I have made twice and my family cannot get enough of it!  As it says in the recipe, it is worth doubling the recipe.  It is great for breakfast, lunch or dinner! :)  Here is the link.  To make this allergy friendly, I sub in Ener-G egg replacer, plain coconut milk for milk and coconut oil for the butter.  I do not add any nuts (but it would be SO good to make it with nuts - one of these days I'll make two separate batches so my husband and I can try it that way!)

Last but not least, I saw this link via Fresh and Natural Foods on Facebook for a Blueberry Basil Quinoa Tabouli and I am making a batch of this for lunches this week.  YUM!

Here is our plan for the week!

Monday:  Pasta with meatballs, salad
tip:  I use two pounds of beef and bake all of the meatballs, once cooled I freeze them in a Ziploc for another no-fuss meal!

Tuesday:  Coconut Chicken Tenders (no egg, sub-in olive oil) with green beans and potato wedges
tip:  slice chicken breasts into strips the night before; mix flour, salt and pepper in a storage container and shredded coconut in another so they are ready for assembly!

Wednesday:  Leftovers

Thursday:  Beans and Rice with Grassfed Beef Kielbasa, roasted veggies

Friday:  Off to Milwaukee!

For more menu inspiration, visit Orgjunkie's blog!

Menu Plan Monday Week of 8/15

We just returned from a great weekend up north with family.  Two weeks and then another trip out of town to Milwaukee for more family fun - and THEN we will be home for quite a few weeks in a row.  Phew!  It has been a crazy summer!  I am proud of the strides my family and I have made from a cooking and food perspective and look forward to having time this fall to dig even deeper into the traditional foods approach to eating.  I have also done a lot of work to figure out how to shop on a budget while eating almost 100% organic (You ask - Is that even possible?!  My answer - YES!)  More to come on this... 

Here is our menu plan this week!

Monday - Out!  (A "walking date" with a friend around Lake Calhoun, then Chipotle!!)

Tuesday - BBQ Chicken Breasts (you must check out this recipe - looks amazing!), rice, green beans
tip:  brine them the night before, take out of brine and refrigerate until you are ready to rub/cook them.  Prepare rice in advance and refrigerate or freeze in family-size portions until ready to use.

Wednesday - Beef Roast sandwiches (frozen leftovers, yay!), kale chips, pasta

Thursday - Mexican Quinoa with all the fixings
tip:  this is great leftover - you could even prep it Wednesday night and warm it for dinner on Thursday, would work great that way!)

Friday - Date night in (i.e. easy dinner for the little guy, take out or easy grill out for us after bedtime!)

Saturday - Maple Dijon Turkey Burgers (from Cooking Traditional Foods), potatoes and green beans

Sunday - Crock Pot Pulled Pork, (I've tried this one, it is awesome!) corn and black bean salad, peas
tip: prep crock the night before

Go to Orgjunkie's blog for more menu inspiration!

Nourishing Snacks

I think the biggest challenge when converting my family to a traditional foods diet (while still being allergy-friendly!) has been weaning us off processed foods almost 100%.  My cupboards used to be full of processed foods - crackers, chips, cereal, granola bars, etc.  I am proud to say they are only about 50% full now (and mostly with rice, pasta and other non-processed staples), but it will take some time to completely convert (and, let's be honest, there will always be busy times when we will have to grab a granola bar or a bowl of cereal)! 

The most challenging time of day for me comes at snack time for my little guy (and for my hubby and I)!  This is where planning and preparation are SO key.

In the past few weeks I have dug up quite a few great resources that I would like to share with you.  Even if you can implement just a couple of these "non-processed" snack ideas into your repertoire, you and your family will be that much better off!

My go-to snacks for Ben include:
Apple slices dipped in coconut milk yogurt
A sprouted corn tortilla spread with Sunbutter (we love Food For Life brand tortillas)
Frozen grapes (I keep baggies of them in the freezer) with ham or turkey roll-ups
Homemade granola and sliced grass-fed beef sausage sticks with peas (toss the sliced sausage with frozen peas!  So easy and great on-the go!)
 
Now I am/will be layering some of these ideas into the mix:

Top 10 Snacks from A Nourishing Home

Easy Pate (yes, liver pate - one of my near-term goals is implementing this incredibly nutrient-dense organ into our diets.  Everything I read and anyone I speak with who follows this diet swears by pate... my little guy loves dipping things so I think this is my best shot at getting him to eat liver!)

e-Book:  Healthy Snacks to Go by Kitchen Stewardship (I just purchased this book for $6.95 and just finished making the granola which turned out great (not soaked because I just can't have my oven on that long in the summer.  But I will do this in the winter!)  The highlight are the "LaraBar" recipes...  great for my hubby and I for pre- or post-workout snacks!)

If you have favorite homemade snacks that you would like to share, please comment here or email me! 

Happy Snacking!

From Healthy to Nourishing

As I continue to tackle some new cooking and diet techniques, I want to share with you a little bit about what I am doing for my family.  Thanks to Nourishing Our Children (see their Facebook page here) for putting together this "checklist" of ways in which you can start implementing traditional foods and traditional cooking techniques into your family's diet! 

Buy a copy of the book Nourishing Traditions
**this is an extremely interesting book - I just started digging in.  Although some of their techniques appear extreme to the everyday American, it is FULL of information regarding traditional cooking methods, some of which are very easy to integrate into your repertoire.

Join your local community: http://www.westonaprice.org/find-a-local-chapter
...
We encourage you to start with a single item from the list below and create changes one step at a time.

Eliminate all industrially processed soy foods from your household.

Replace sugar with natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw local honey, grade B maple syrup, pure maple sugar, molasses, dehydrated coconut nectar, coconut palm sugar, green powder stevia, rapadura and sucanat.

Replace fruit juices with lacto-fermented beverages, such as kombucha, traditionally made ginger ale and beet kvass.
**I am making my first batch of water kefir this week - stay tuned!

Replace poly-unsaturated vegetable oils and trans fats with traditional fats such as raw and cultured butter, olive oil, sesame seed oil, coconut oil, lard, chicken fat, tallow, etc.
**I just started using coconut oil for cooking and baking the past couple of weeks - it is so tasty.  We even melt some in our oatmeal in the morning - YUM.  You can fry meat, veggies, etc. in it.  You can find it at your local co-op or Whole Foods possibly even Trader Joe's?  I need to check on that...)

Replace industrially produced breakfast cereals with nutrient dense eggs from hens on pasture, non-nitrate bacon, homemade kefir, whole milk yogurt, and soaked oatmeal.
**Who doesn't love bacon?!  :)  Try Beeler's or Applegate - easy to find.

Replace pasteurized dairy products with raw and cultured dairy.

Replace processed, convenience foods (boxed, packaged, prepared and canned food items) with fresh, organic, whole foods.
**Of course, fruits and veggies are a given.  But, I am starting to think beyond that and looking at all of the other processed snacks we eat.  My family eats a lot of breakfast and granola bars.  This seemed like a natural first thing to move away from when it comes to the boxes in my cupboard.  I made my own granola "bars" this week (it came out more like bites than bars - but it was SO yummy - between the three of us it is already almost gone!)  Check out my menu plan post from last week for the link!)

Take your daily dose of high vitamin cod liver oil – with no synthetics added, along with high vitamin butter oil.
**My little guy and I are now taking cod liver oil daily - I mix his with some of his Barlean's Fish Oil (as mentioned in this post).  Again, this is a little "extreme" (it's not the most pleasant stuff) but take a look at some of the history and health benefits, it may motivate you to give it a try!

Check out Nourishing Our Children on Facebook for a wealth of information!!! 

Taking it a step further...

After another asthma attack and further prescription medication administered to our little guy (along with his ears continuing to be inflamed with fluid behind his ear drums, potentially requring tubes if we don't correct it quickly), we have decided to take my son's health into our own hands and meet with a chiropractor/naturalist to discuss alternative options to help heal him from the inside out as opposed to masking his health issues with these medications that could result in long term side effects.  As a result, my family will be taking yet another step towards a more traditional way of eating.  This will take some effort to adjust to in the short term, but so worth it for our overall health and wellness in the long term!  This includes all organic/grass fed meats, dairy free for the little guy (sub in coconut milk), and other food preparations that will help his gut heal, his ears clear up, and his asthma diminish.

So, you will see a few changes to this blog as a result.  I am excited to introduce some of you to cooking techniques and recipes that, like myself, you may be new to.  The people with whom we have surrounded ourselves for the sake of our son's long-term wellness have also been awesome about referring us to resources that I intend to make mention of where appropriate. 

Please let me know your thoughts and ideas, as well.  The biggest thing I have learned in the past couple of weeks is that you don't have to accept the status quo - challenge the "norm" if your gut tells you that it may not be the right path for you and your family!

I found this great list of 10 tips for real food newbies from Nourished Kitchen (thanks to Taiha Wagner for referring me to this site, it is awesome!)

Interesting (Foodie) Reads This Week!

My passion for cooking for my family (and my family's allergy-friendly cooking journey) drives me to read a lot about food and cooking - there are so many awesome resources!  I plan to share some of my favorite articles, news and sites along this vein as often as I can.  I hope that this will be a great go-to resource for you and your family, too!  You can also check me out on Twitter @elevatewellness (see my feed to the right) for some of my favorite daily posts!  Please email me or send a Facebook message with any sites or news that you think would be great additions to this type of post!

Thanks to one of my Facebook friends, Bridgett, for making me aware of this news on Subway adding gluten-free options to their menu!  Maybe the beginning of a movement towards more intolerance and allergy-friendly food choices at restaurants?!

My family LOVES Chili in the wintertime!  Check out this post from Shaina who writes a blog called Food for My Family (a fellow Minnesotan and food lover!) (via babble.) 

Check out Karina's Kitchen on Facebook here.  As she explains, her FB page (and blog!) is "a dynamic gluten-free food blog for families living well with celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, ASD and food allergies. Vegan friendly."

As you know, I am a big quinoa fan - these seeds can add big nutrition to your meals!  This article elaborates on the benefits of quinoa!

Eating seasonally and sustainably - the more I learn about this movement, the more passionate I become about it!  This article (and recipes!) at Simple Bites got my attention!

I hope you enjoy these reads!  Any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated!