Posted by donielle on March 12, 2010 · 1 Comment
Just peaking in during my week break from blogging to announce a couple things.
1. I’ve been busy working on my Preparing for Pregnancy e-course and am really excited with how it’s coming together! (though my brain is rather overloaded with information!) With my continued work on it, I may be around a bit less than normal, so if any of you out there would like to contribute a guest post, send your ideas my way!
2. Because I don’t have quite enough going on I also decidec to join Katie in her “Getting the Junk Out” challenge. Why? Because she was looking for someone to talk about getting rid of refined sugar. And since that is so my ‘thang’, I jumped at the chance. (which by the way – how are you all doing on staying away from sugar? I don’t want to tell you how I’ve been today {hiding face} but overall I’ve been doing really great!
Now, over the next couple months or so Katie has set up a great list of bloggers, each talking about getting rid of some sort of ‘junk’.
Get out your calendars, ladies and gentlemen bloggers, and mark down the dates for a 10-week rotating carnival called Spring Cleaning: Get the Junk Out!
We’re going to spring clean here at Kitchen Stewardship in a unique way. Instead of focusing on your physical space, we’ll look at a myriad of issues that you may want to get out of their diets, cleaning cupboards, bad habit collections or mental baggage. Each week, a different blog will host a theme that fits their mission and a linky for YOU to link up any pertinent posts.
Related posts for the linky might include a tips post, a recipe, a personal story of getting that issue “out”, or even questions you have about the issue.
Here’s the list of hostesses and weekly themes so you can plan to participate. There will be giveaways for each week. New and old posts welcome!
- 3/23 Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship: antibacterial soap/bleach
- 3/30 Amy @ Simply Sugar and Gluten Free: gluten
- 4/6 Beth @ Fake Plastic Fish: plastic food containers
- 4/13 Donielle @ Naturally Knocked Up: refined sugar
- 4/20 Micaela @ Mindful Momma: parabens
- 4/27 Lenetta @ Nettacow: food additives
- 5/4 Kelly the Kitchen Kop: CAFOs
- 5/11 Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers: pesticides
- 5/18 Mandi @ Organizing Your Way: clutter
- 5/25 Claire @ Saving Money Plan: debt
So it should be lots of fun, and there will even be areas to link up your own poast about the same subject so you all can play along!
That is all.
I’m off to my word doc. again.
Not twitter – I promise.
Posted by donielle on March 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment
It’s something I’m massively short on this week! Somehow my rule of “don’t plan anything more than 1 night a week” has turned into “gone all but one night”. Eeek! On top of that, I’m trying to write my new e-course, plant seeds for my garden, and keep up here around the house.
Soooo, whilst I love to hang out and chat with you all, I’ll be taking a short break until next Monday. Where I will be back with a bunch of recipes (I just checked out my photo folder and forgot how many pictures of food I’ve taken!) another giveaway, and the next part in my fertility diet series.
Have a great week everyone!!
*also Tiffany won the sprouted baking mix from last week – an e-mail should have gone out to you! Congrats!
**
Please do not construe my posts as medical advice, because *ahem*, I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am but a student of
Nourishing Nutrition and
Natural Health. I only hope to ignite a passion within you to do your own research and begin your own journey to better health.
And to make sure you don't miss a single post, you can add my blog's
RSS Feed to your reader or you can sign up for
free updates by Email.
Posted by donielle on March 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment
The following is another guest post from Allison as we follow along in her journey for increased health and and as she hopes for another little one. I’ve also added my own comments into the post as well (also red) and also want to remind everyone that we are all in different points on our road to Real Food!
Last week I introduced you to the beginning of my
acupuncture routine. While I had a short break this week, only one session on Thursday, I’m still feeling pretty good. My energy levels have been higher, my attitude better, and my stress level lower. Well, relatively lower, since we’ve just decided to put our house on the market. But that’s an entirely different post. My husband, who has lovingly nicknamed me “the zombie” (since most evenings I was so tired that I was pretty much non responsive) commented the other day about how I didn’t seem as tired as usual. Something must be working! Plus, it’s kind of nice to be able to interact with my husband at the end of the day.
This week I began taking an herb called Wu Chi Pai Feng Wan. Now, when I think or herbs, leaves, plants and things of that nature come to mind. But oh no, I get to take a very special herb. Sure it contains lovely things like
Angelica sinensis root which is thought to help nourish the blood and harmonize vital energy. And
Panax ginseng root which in women is thought to stimulate hormone production. Who could forget Paeonia lactiflora root, which is also said to help nourish the blood. But wait, it gets better.
The very first ingredient listed, Gallus gallus domesticus. Sounds very mystical. Very powerful. Very much like…a chicken? Yes, this herb is made from the a
specific chicken that has black colored bones, meat and skin. Yes, you read that right. This ingredient is the marrow from black chicken bones. Ga-ross. But whatever, I can get past it. What’s a little chicken bone marrow compared to nourishing my body so I can have another baby? At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
(Marrow is sooo good for you! That’s why I make bone broth, so we get all of those nutrients into our diets on a regular basis. It’s even a delicacy in other countries)I’ve been warned that these pills can be pretty nasty to swallow. In fact, it’s recommended to drink it as a tea, but the taste is so horrid that I was told to just take them with some water. Three tries later (and one huge glass of water) I got them all down. It wasn’t that bad, but it was bad enough. Chalky, bitter, and just icky.
Did I mention how many of these I have to take at once? Honestly, there are too many to count. I thought I’d show you instead. .
Now do you see why it took me three tries to swallow all of them?
I did quiz my acu doctor on any diet changes that I should be making along with the herb. The only changes he suggested are eating plenty of dark leafy green veggies (hello spinach salad) and organ meat.
(See?! We have just been talking about how good organ meats are for you. They’re nutrient dense and the nutrients they hold are awesome for fertility!) If I can stomach it. Which I can’t. There’s just no way. So the next best alternative is eggs, yolk and all. Regardless of the cholesterol concern, I’m going to try eating one egg a day (anyone have a good recipe to pass along?).
(I do need to interject here for just a moment and talk about how good cholesterol is for you! Having cholesterol in your body is the only way you can use your vitamin D. It’s also important for cell growth and pivital in brain growth and function. I highly recommend eating 2 eggs per day, at least 5 or 6 days a week. Raw yolks are even better! Just pop them into your smoothies and you’ll never know the difference. Making scrambled eggs? Use a couple whole eggs and add in another yolk or two. Unfortunatley conventional medicine has us thinking that eating to much cholesterol will give us heart disease and it’s just not so. I’ll tackle this in another post soon!) I figure that I won’t be doing this for the rest of my life, so I’m not too concerned. We also talked about vitamins and he especially stressed the B’s. Good for energy, metabolism and blood. Also a daily vitamin and of course calcium with D. But those are staples that everyone should be taking.
(B vitamins can help correct irregular menstrual cycles, a progesterone imbalance, as well as poor egg and sperm development. B6 can also help lengthen the luteal phase of your cycle.)Next week I’m starting to chart my temperature again. I have one acu appointment set up, and then that’s it for a few weeks. It’s basically the wait and see game next. Will I ovulate? Will AF show? Only time will tell. It’s too bad that I’m not patient at all. These next few weeks are going to be a killer.
***************************************************************************************
**
Please do not construe my posts as medical advice, because *ahem*, I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am but a student of
Nourishing Nutrition and
Natural Health. I only hope to ignite a passion within you to do your own research and begin your own journey to better health.
And to make sure you don't miss a single post, you can add my blog's
RSS Feed to your reader or you can sign up for
free updates by Email.
Posted by donielle on March 3, 2010 · 8 Comments
So last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending my friend Jodi’s (of jodimichelle.com) cooking demo! I got to meet some new friends and we had a blast watching her cook up some fabulous food, and an even better time sitting around eating it all.
First she made some caramel corn. And while I’m still watching my sugar intake, this had to be sampled. No judgment folks…
We also made up a curry dip for veggies. Curry and veggies never really seemed to go together in my mind, but it was quite delish! My favorite thing about watching other people cook is that I find so many new flavors and combos that I’ve never tried.
She then put together a salad, and while I’ve never been to big on sweet salads, this one will grace our table now and again. I was very pleasantly surprised! The sweet, the crunch, the goat cheese……oh wait. We won’t talk about the cheese huh Jodi. 
Oh and the poppy seed dressing……..Mmmmmm.
We (she) also made some salmon. Now, salmon is something I’ve just been making for a few years now and while we do like it, I’ve never stepped away from the “butter, salt, and pepper” basics. We chatted a bit about how she cooks it and why and I left with some great tips for the next time I make it for dinner.
She pricks the fish before pouring butter over it. Because it helps get the butter into the fish. Awesome!
She uses a fantastic amount of butter.
Sprinkled with a bit of brown sugar.
Broiled it and served with a slightly sweet red sauce.
To. Die. For.
And there was even a mocha torte for dessert, though I did not take a picture of it. But it was fabulous in all it’s brownie, mocha, whipped cream goodness.
Thanks Jodi, I had a blast! Can’t wait to do it again!
Do you ever get together and cook with friends? I’m really thinking this is a fabulous idea and a great way to try new recipes!
Posted by donielle on March 3, 2010 · 1 Comment
Wordless Wednesday!
Posted by donielle on March 1, 2010 · 38 Comments
JoshEWEa’s is sponsoring another giveaway with your choice of either their Popcorn Bread Mix or the Carob Snack Cake Mix! These convenient baking mixes are ones I wouldn’t mind in my house as they’re made from freshly ground sprouted wheat. And I’m not talking fresh as in they ground it a few weeks ago. They actually grind the wheat when the order comes in! As an additional plus, the rest of the ingredients are all organic.
JoshEWEa’s speaks my language.
To enter:
- Visit the JoshEWEa’s site and leave a comment to let us know what products you’d love to try
- After you have done the above you may enter one one time with an additional comment answering the following: “What is one question you have about becoming pregnant or about your fertility?” or if you’ve already had little ones “What is one thing you wish you would have known beforehand?”
Good luck guys – just remember you need to have a U.S. shipping address and enter before March 5 at midnight!
Posted by donielle on February 26, 2010 · 10 Comments
Last week we changed over our breakfast items to whole food, and I’m wondering……how did you do? Where you able to toss your cereal out and stick with homemade items? I uploaded a few picks from our weeks breakfasts {oatmeal, sourdough bread used to make french toast, scrambled eggs, and sourdough pancakes} to my Flickr photostream and you’re able to add your own as well if you took any.
Because last weeks “challenge” was a bit tougher in the aspect of not only the time it took each day, but also the fact that you had to get over one of America’s love affairs – cereal. This week we’ll do something a bit easier.
I want you to plan just one days food.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
If you already plan your menus, fabulous! Take it one step further and plan one day of completely unprocessed foods.
Don’t do a menu plan yet? Take it easy on yourself and eat what you normally would, just make a plan and stick to it.
Menu planning is one of the only ways I’m able to actually stick to eating whole (and homemade) foods. Otherwise I find myself at 5:00pm wondering what I’m making for dinner! Making your meals like this is just a welcome mat for processed and unwholesome foods to enter your home. It’s also a great way to make sure the food you already have doesn’t go to waste.
Menu Plan Basics
- Take inventory of your fridge and cupboards. Check to see what you have on hand for each meal.
- Make a list of everything you need to buy in order to complete those meals
- Go shopping
- Write a physical list and place it on your fridge
- The night before prep whatever you can
- The day of – stick to your list!
What do you think….can you do it?
**
Please do not construe my posts as medical advice, because *ahem*, I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am but a student of
Nourishing Nutrition and
Natural Health. I only hope to ignite a passion within you to do your own research and begin your own journey to better health.
And to make sure you don't miss a single post, you can add my blog's
RSS Feed to your reader or you can sign up for
free updates by Email.
Posted by donielle on February 26, 2010 · 4 Comments
Another great recipe from Scott of Zukay! Don’t forget – you only have until tonight at midnight to enter to win a case (1 of each flavor) of his fermented salad dressings!! (I’ve tried them, they’re delicious!)
ITALIAN GREEN BEANS
Ingredients:
¾ – 1 lb fresh green beans (or wax beans)
1-2 cloves garlic
½ tsp dry oregano
½ tsp dry basil
½ tsp dry thyme
2 tsp sea salt
culture*
Luke warm water (as needed), preferably non-chlorinated
1 qt. mason jar
Chop up green beans into 1 inch long pieces and place in bowl. Mince garlic cloves and add minced garlic and spices with green beans in bowl. Mix well.
Place vegetable mixture into 1 qt. mason jar, pushing down on veggies to get as much in as possible. Add salt and culture. Add enough lukewarm water to jar to bring level about ½ – 1 in below top of jar. Put lid on jar, and shake jar to evenly disperse culture and salt. Place in a warm (70 – 80F) place out of direct sunlight, and allow to sit for at least 3 days, and up to 14 days. Once fully fermented, refrigerate.
NOTES:
1. You should place jar in a dish to catch leaking water, as the pressure in the jar can make the jar leak
2. Make sure the contents get fizzy. If they do not get fizzy, discard the contents, as that is a sign that the lactobacilli did not properly ferment the vegetables and pathogens may have been able to take hold
*I put 1 packet of yo’Kefir culture into 1 quart of non-chlorinated water. Add 1 cup of this mixture in place of dry culture and water.
Posted by donielle on February 26, 2010 · 12 Comments
(Week two in our guest post from Allison of alli-n-son)
Acupuncture Week One – My Diagnosis
Well, I’m full of great news this week! I’ve had three acupuncture appointments in the last week and, in all honesty, it was simply amazing. I mean AMAZING. After just my first treatment I felt like a new woman, which was something that I completely didn’t expect. I figured I would maybe feel a little different after a week or so. But after the first treatment, no way.
Let me back up a little bit. I had my first appointment last week Thursday, which consisted of about 45 minutes of talking, discussing, asking questions and listening. The next 20 minutes was the treatment. After explaining my reason for seeking acupuncture for my
fertility problems, my need to have a healthy body ready to carry a baby, and my desire to do all of this without meds, we came up with a game plan. And a pretty simple one at that.
First of all, let me tell you what I was diagnosed with. I have a blood deficiency. Basically, what this means is that my reproductive organs are not getting the blood that they need to a support normal reproductive cycle. What causes this? Anything from a vegan or vegetarian diet, overexercising to gastrointestinal issues (often caused by anxiety, worry and over thinking). (source:
http://www.redpeonyhealth.com/acupuncture-fertility-clinic-portland/139/food-for-blood-deficiency/). Yup, that just like me. I’m not a vegetarian, but I don’t eat a lot of meat, I do really enjoy a good workout (and possibly over do-it every once-in-a-while). I would say this is a perfect fit. (If you’d like to learn more about blood deficiency in Chinese medicine and it’s symptoms, check out
www.redeonyhealth.com or this article on
ezinearticles.com.)
Most of the symptoms I’ve just been living with because I never realized that they were symptoms. Irregular cycles or amenorrhea. Fatigue and dizziness. A pale complexion, pale tongue, thin and weak pulse. Forgetfulness and poor memory. I had always just attributed these things to raising a toddler!
So what happens next? The good news is that my problem will be pretty easy to fix. Miscarriages, short cycles, things like that are a little trickier to figure out. After 4 months of treatments (maybe less), I should be ready to get pregnant. In the grand scheme of things, that isn’t too bad. I happened to start treatments at just the right time. I had one week of birth control left (done now), which means that I should be starting Aunt Flo soon (this is the only time I got Aunt Flo, when I’m on BCP). I have three acu sessions under my belt, all designed to stimulate blood movement and increase energy (which it really has, I feel great). Next week we are playing it by ear. When AF has left, I’ll start treatments again, including taking an herb (more about that next week). We’ll do a few more treatments, then stop. I’ll start charting my body temperature again to see if I’m ovulating, and we’ll go from there. With any luck, the acu and herb combo will do their thing, and I’ll be ovulating again in no time. If not, well, we’ll dig a little bit deeper to find out what’s going on. If I do ovulate and get a complete cycle, then we’ll continue acu during the second week of each cycle for about 4 months, maybe even less if things go well. After that, I’ll have the stamp of approval to get pregnant!
I’m sure that everyone has a few questions about acu. I’ll do my best to answer them.
Does it hurt? I’m not going to lie about this, depending on the pressure point, it can be a little painful. But it’s not the type of pain you are thinking of. You can feel the needle go in, but most of the time it’s just the sensation of the doctor tapping the needle into place. Sometimes the needle will need to be adjusted for the right angle, but that’s just a little tug here or there. The strangest sensation is the needles that go into the pressure points below my knees and in the webbed area of my thumbs. These can get a little uncomfortable, but just for a moment. The needle goes in, there’s a pause, and then this tightening that radiates out from the needle. In my knee, it travels down to my ankle then stops. In my hand, it travels to one or two other fingers. Then it’s gone. A brief moment, then back to normal.
Can you feel the needles? A little. It’s more of a tug on the skin if you move. But it does not feel like there is a needle in your arms. The needles that are used for acu are long, but super, super thin.
Does it hurt when the needles are removed. No. There is a slight tugging sensation, and then it’s out.
Do you bleed? Not usually. The one or two times that I’ve bleed was after the needles are removed. It was a tiny drop of blood, and that’s it. On occasion a bruise can develop, but this hasn’t happened to me so far.
How many needles do they use? in my treatments so far, there were 9. Two in each leg (ankle and below the knee), one in each hand (by the thumb), one on each wrist, and one blow the belly button (this one is for energy). But I’m sure that it varies with each individual’s needs.
What does it feel like? Amazing. I lie there for 15-20 minutes (I’m sure this varies by the treatment). My doctor will stay in the room for part of it and leaves for part. When he’s gone, I close my eyes and just relax, kind of like a mini spa. For the next few days after, I feel whole. I know that may sound funny, but it’s the only way that I can describe it. You know how you feel if you’ve ever ran for 6 miles, went mountain biking or another very strenuous activity? Empty and drained. I realized that’s how I was feeling most of the time. But after my acu sessions, I somehow feel whole again. Fuller than I did before.
Resources
If you’d like to dig a little bit deeper and learn more about acupuncture, how it works and it’s benefits, here are some web sites that can help. (I have no affiliates or relationships with these sites, I just thought that they may provide some useful information.)
Do you have a question that I didn’t cover? Let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it. And if I don’t have the answer, I’ll be sure to ask my acu doctor when I next see him.
Next week, I’ll be talking more about the herb I’ll be taking, my progress, and answering any questions.
**
Please do not construe my posts as medical advice, because *ahem*, I am not a doctor or medical professional. I am but a student of
Nourishing Nutrition and
Natural Health. I only hope to ignite a passion within you to do your own research and begin your own journey to better health.
And to make sure you don't miss a single post, you can add my blog's
RSS Feed to your reader or you can sign up for
free updates by Email.
Posted by donielle on February 25, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Here’s another recipe that Scott from Zukay sent along with his guest post the other day. It seems super easy and I think I’ll be trying it soon myself! If you try it out, let me know how it goes!
*Also – don’t forget to check out his guest post if you haven’t yet, it’ll make recipes like this seems even less daunting. His giveaway for a case of lacto fermented dressing ends tomorrow night – so make sure you enter!!
ROOT SLAW:
3 medium carrots
3 medium parsnips
1-2 medium size turnips
1 tbsp Celtic Sea Salt
chlorine-free water
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
Culture*
Chop carrots, parsnips, and turnips into smallish chunks. Personally, I don’t peel them, and the closer they are to coming out of the ground, the less necessary that step is. In a food processor, chop up all the veggies to the desired thickness. Mix in salt and spices. Put chopped veggie mix into a quart mason jar, pushing down as hard as possible. Add in chlorine-free water until veggies are fully covered. Close up and ferment!
Fermentation time: At 67 F, my best advice is to ferment for at least 2 weeks. You will need to gas off container on a daily basis, especially for the first week. My experience has been that the raw parsnip taste overtakes the flavor until several weeks has been reached. Also, the veggies soften a bit and are more pleasant to the palate.
*I put 1 packet of yo’Kefir culture into 1 quart of non-chlorinated water. Add 1 cup of this mixture in place of dry culture and water.
Another recipe from Scott: Classic Sauekraut!
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