We're Talking About Food Today

(Is Best Life really the best life?)

Ahh, organizing, organizing. That's what I've been up to! Organizing areas of my life that have 'appeared' organized, but after prayer in some areas, realized that God had something better. Today, I'm talking about food. Yes, yummy food.

First off, I want to thank Candy over at Keeping the Home for her cookbook. I downloaded it the other day and then actually printed the whole thing out and slapped that sucker in a binder to make notes and annotate. I can't tell you what a blessing it's been. I've recently been looking into some of the benefits of probiotics and after reading some articles on Mercola.com's website, came to some conclusions. Probiotics are GREAT for you, BUT

1. I don't want to spend oodles of money, and

2. I think that taking a probiotic the natural way is the most beneficial.

There are many different pills out there that say they work just as well as maybe yogurt, Kefir, Kombucha, pickled veggies, tempeh, miso, buttermilk, sauerkraut, soy sauce, etc., but I don't think so. I've been interested in making cultures and fermenting, but haven't really given it a shot. This summer, I may just try some of these things since I'm on a 'garden break'. Summer is nice because from fall to spring, I'm constantly gardening. We get really busy in September and January when we're planting and then transplanting seedlings into the garden. Summertime is just a great time to compost, churn your soil, add your chicken compost (yes, poop!) and lots of leaves and grass clippings. Since we've revamped our garden, we need more soil. Lots more soil! We don't want to have to buy it all, so in the next few weekends, we'll be doing some serious raking in our backyard, moving our fallen tree leaves into the bottom of the beds of our garden. We do have one raised bed that is deeper than the others. It's deeper so that we can grow potatoes and carrots well. Our carrots have never stood a chance to grow to their full potential due to their short raised bed. So, we'll need to fill that raised bed with extra soil. Let's see how much we can fill without having to buy soil! :)

Okay, so this post is about food and I'm drifting.

I've recently been doing some more research on foods and what they do in your body, for your body, etc. and it's quite interesting. What you put into your body is what you get out of it. I'm convinced of this. Just in the past 4 or so months, I've been doing a bunch of research on foods and nutrition. I've lost 10 pounds just by switching to drinking more water, eating more fruits and veggies, cooking with different kinds of oils and feeling the effects of whole grains, versus grains that have been stripped of their nutrients. Do I cave once and awhile? YES. I love to treat myself to soda, dark chocolate and popcorn, I just eat them in moderation and tweak how a food is prepared. When I eat popcorn, I don't microwave it. I pour some organic butter into a pan, turn the heat on medium, pour in popcorn kernals, add a little salt for flavor and watch it pop. Then I enjoy it without all the guilt and without greasy fingers! I've been trying some different teas as well and love them.

Simple ingridients. It's what you want to look for.

Anything you can't pronounce isn't good for you!!!

I haven't purchased any books yet (surprise, surprise!). I've just been doing internet research and I've found a TON. I love reading Dr. Mercola's website, but everything that entails food has some sort of money driving it and I try to keep this in mind when reading about certain products. Especially products endorsed by someone supporting a website or the latest fad. That's why The Best Life disturbs me. It's a great way to loose weight (and yes, there are some nutritional foods like Wasa crackers that contain the health label), but some foods just aren't as good for you as they could be (don't get me started on Splenda!). For instance, milk. I am now more convinced than ever that even whole, organic milk doesn't have the nutrients that are worth drinking! It has added vitamin D, but I can feed my children broccoli and get even more vitamin D out of that. Milk from the grocery store is ultra-pasteurized or pasteurized which means they zap all of the good stuff (the good, probiotic bacteria which is great for digestion and your gut) OUT! Liability, people.

That's what it's all about. No one wants to be liable for anything. I was at Publix the other day, asking a manager who was passing by if they had any yogurt that have live, active cultures in it. She was clueless and started asking me questions. Well, of coarse I had my three little ones with me, so I continued to answer her questions as she plugged away and my kiddos hung on my legs and began showing signs of complete boredom! It was nice knowing that I could answer the majority of her quetions though and the ones I didn't know the answer to, I made a mental note to go home and do some 'Kelli research'. :)

Anyway, this post is really to ask anyone out there for some good breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner recipes. I'm open to desserts too! I used to have my meals organized by having a '30 Days of Dinner' sheet and I went off of that. Now that I'm realizing that some other foods are better for me, I want to change that and revamp my recipes.

(You just know I love REVAMPING!...smile)

So, I'll continue reading my cookbook and searching for more good recipe ideas. In the meantime, maybe someone will get creative and post some great recipe ideas. Especially in the areas of grains. I need some good Quinoa and bran recipes. I'm also on the hunt for a good, healthy cornbread recipe. Arrowhead Mills' recipe just isn't sweet enough and can taste a bit bitter.

Okay, off to find more recipes. When I finish revamping my recipe book, I'll have to share. Or maybe, I'll create an e-book. Now wouldn't that be a project? Have a blessed day everyone!