venison?

I had to laugh about this.  Aleena's friend came home with her on Tuesday.  (She has a friend home with her a few times a week!)  Aleena asked if the friend could stay through dinner.  I said, "yes but we are having venison".  Aleena turns to her friend and says, "it's just deer!"  Like everyone eats deer but venison is just some weird fancy name!  (The friend wound up staying through dinner but NOT eating.)

I used a recipe from Nourishing Traditions that had me marinate the chops in red wine, orange zest and some thyme.  Then I browned the chops and let them simmer in the marinade for an hour.  It was a hit.  And a great way to use some of the venison that has been given to us.

I'm getting ready to thaw my beef tongue to use for tacos tomorrow night.  Hubby is soooo excited I am making lengua tacos.

soaked kefir spice muffins

I have lots of kefir now that I got my own grains. I love it, but we don't drink smoothies every day. I used some to make buttermilk biscuits the other day and they were awesome. I decided to make some buttermilk spice muffins like the ones at Mimi's Cafe. But I did tweak the recipe a little to fall in line with how we are trying to eat now. I only topped a dozen of the muffins because I have one kiddo that doesn't like nuts. Next time I think I will skip the topping altogether and add the nuts to the batter. And D (the husband) thought they needed raisins or cranberries or something, but that's his personal preference. I thought the muffin itself was quite yummy.

Here's a link to the original recipe.

And here's my recipe

Soaked Kefir Spice Muffins

Combine 1 1/2 c kefir and 2 1/2 c freshly milled whole wheat pastry flour and let soak overnight.

In the morning.
cream 1/2 c butter
1/2 c turbinado

Add 3 eggs and beat for 1 minute.

Stir flour and kefir mixture to soften up and make more pliable then add to eggs, butter and sugar, and stir to mix.

Add
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix until combined.


Stir in 3/4 c dried cranberries or chopped nuts

Pour into prepared muffin tins and top with nut topping (optional, follows). Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Yield 18 muffins

Nut topping, optional
1 c chopped walnuts
1/3 c cane sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg

what's wrong with cereal?

I know we can probably all find any study that says anything we want it too, but I read this one about cereal the other day and it's freaking me out a little.

We rarely have anything in the house besides WIC cereals anyway because that's what we get with our vouchers, but I'm still not crazy about the fact that it's so processed. I hate having to read long ingredients lists. :oP And since I've read that study I really want to get away from them.

One big problem? Cereal has become the go to food in this house. After school snack, breakfast, easy supper. Today I made a batch of granola to help steer the kids towards something else. It's not difficult at all, but I know they will also want variety so I will continue to work on that.

There was a time when I thought they wouldn't survive the winter if I didn't buy instant flavored oatmeal packets. I stopped buying those this winter. I had some I got with free coupons, and the kids inhaled them, but when they were gone...they managed to find something else to eat. I know the same thing will happen with cereal.

Taking steps away from processed foods is hard, but it's important to me. And I am more and more amazed at what goes into my cart at the grocery store. The things in it are ingredients to make a myriad of things. I am still very much a work in process.

still reading

I've been continuing to read my book and still thinking through a lot of things.

It resonates so much with me because I see that even as our "health" consciousness rises in the US...eating low fat foods, cutting back on sugar and using artificial sweeteners, using chemically altered products instead of real butter, buying white bread that has stuff added to it to make it more like whole grain bread...This country is fatter than ever! We have more diseases now that we didn't have 150 years ago. Sure people are living longer in a polluted environment now, but...

Last winter when I got my grain mill, I started reading about whole grains and how we really can't buy any whole wheat flour at the store. The nutrients in the wheat start to break down within a few hours. By the time it's packaged and in the stores, it's lost most of it's vitality. And if any of the oil from the kernel is still present, it's rancid by then.

Now this January I am reading more along the same lines. just how natural foods...in their fat laden states are good for us. Butter has nutrients, did you know that? Does that tub of hydrogenated oil we call margarine have any shred of naturalness left in it? Not really. We stopped eating margarine long ago. I realized that it has the same calories as butter. It just has processed fat as opposed to natural fat. So we chose natural fat.

Molasses and honey have nutrients too. Molasses is full of iron. And one of the easiest ways to protect yourself from seasonal allergies is to eat raw local honey. By ingesting that little bit of pollen, you allow your body to fight off the onslaught of it when it becomes bothersome.

Those are things I've known for a while. So as I read my book, I am feeling more and more comfortable with what I am reading. I will be making more changes to my family's already weird diet I'm sure.

Nourishing Traditions

I've just begun reading this book.

Have you read it and what do you think? I think I will be changed by this book. I can feel it already. And I'm having a lot of inward struggle with it. The Weight Watcher in me wants to run away. The mother in me wonders how to do this.

I need to read some more.