Hormones: The Natural Approach

I have recently watched this video from David Wolfe on the subject of hormones and natural hormone health.  It is fascinating!  I have watched it twice and taken extensive notes.  If hormones are possibly a problem area for you or someone you care about, take the time to watch this and take notes yourself.  I am posting the link, but I am unsure how long the video will be available to watch.  Check it out soon!

Hormones: The Natural Approach

Budget Stretchers

My friend just asked me today what we spend on groceries every week and it lead to a little texting discussion on groceries and ways to lower your grocery expenses and get more for your money.  Now I am not going to bother getting into the nitty-gritty of numbers, because grocery budgets will vary from income to income, family to family.  I think what's important is to target some areas of our own grocery budgets and see if we can make improvements, whether it involves actually spending less money or getting more food/better food for the same amount of money.  As a homemaker, working on the grocery budget is one of the biggest ways I can impact our family's finances.  So for now, I will highlight a few areas that have really helped our grocery bill the most.  I would love for people to then give their own ways they best save money on their groceries or just stretch their food budget, because I can always use more and new ideas.  With food prices rising, I am sure we could all benefit from some tip-sharing in this area.

My Best Budget Stretchers and Savers

1. A pot of soup each week made from homemade broth - I know I have probably beat this one like a dead horse on my blog, but I am convinced that our weekly pot of soup gets us some of the most bang for our buck with our grocery budget.  We usually get 3 to 5 meals(a few dinners and a few lunches) from our large pot of soup each week and I dare say we ever spend more than $10 on ingredients for the soup.  I most recognize how crucial our weekly soup is to our grocery budget in the hottest days of summer when it is just not feasible to make or eat hot soup in our non-air conditioned home.  In the dog days of summer, our grocery bill seems to suffer from the lack of soup.  Some people might complain that they couldn't eat the same soup that many times in a week.  If that's the case, eat it only twice and freeze the rest for a few weeks later.  The kids do sometimes say, "we are having soup again" but this is just a reality for our family financially and the same soup won't kill them.  I try and remind myself in many cultures people eat the exact same food for all their meals their entire lives.  Its just us spoiled Americans that don't want to repeat meals more than once a month.  Another way I make soup more appealing to the family is to pair it with some homemade muffins, biscuits or bread, which we usually don't serve with our other meals. 

2. The incredible edible egg - Even with our tight food budget, I really aim to serve meat at least at every dinner, except for about once a week when we substitute eggs instead.  When money is really tight, we may have eggs for several dinners because you just can't beat the price for the amount of protein you get.  Some people eat eggs on most mornings, so this may not be a way that you want to stretch your food budget.  Or, you could consider a different breakfast option on a day that you want to serve eggs for dinner. 

3. Homemade yogurt - Store bought yogurt is convenient, but it is also expensive.  Our whole entire family LOVES yogurt, and in years past I used to spend a significant amount each grocery trip on yogurt.  But now every week I just make yogurt from a gallon of milk.  I can usually get the gallon for under $3 and I get a whole gallon of yogurt.  I used to spend $3 for just one container that my family polished off in one breakfast.  This has really helped save us money on breakfast.  I'll be the first to admit I was majorly intimidated by the idea of making yogurt, but after a few batches I realized it wasn't a big deal and now it is just part of my weekly kitchen routine.

4. Whole Roaster Chickens - While in no way, shape or form am I going to endorse the health benefits of such chickens, I am going to endorse their cheapness.  We buy a whole chicken every two weeks for around $4.  That chicken usually gets stretched into 3 meals.  We roast it for the first meal.  Nate cleans off all the left-over meat for the second meal.  Then I make a pot of broth from the carcass.  Nate and I were not used to handling a whole chicken at first, but over time it has become habit and it saves us a ton of money.

5. Dried Beans - Beans, beans the magical fruit...ah...you know the rest.  Nate and I rarely ate beans until a few years ago.  Then we started using canned beans, but I just couldn't ignore the cost difference of the bags of dried bean.  We now eat quite a variety of dried beans, including navy, black, kidney, pinto, lima beans, lentils, and black-eyed peas.  Dried beans require a bit of forethought, but you will start to notice a trend that you pay more for convenience.  Dried beans are much healthier for you because almost all canned foods are lined with BPA plastic coating and certain types of beans contain artificial preservatives to retain their color.  As far as the magical fruit thing, there are a few things you can do to make them more digestible.  First, soak your beans overnight.  This reduces the phytic acid in the beans and activates natural enzymes in the bean to make it more digestible.  Second, eat more beans.  The more beans are part of your diet, the more your body will be used to them.  Lastly, if you really struggle with beans but want to make them part of your diet, consider supplementing enzymes that will aid your body in the digestion process.  If you think you don't like beans, consider looking up recipes to prepare them differently.  I find that plenty of good fats (butter, olive oil, bacon grease) and seasonings can make any bean quite tasty.  If you can't stomach them plain, then sneak them into recipes like soup, tacos, salads, etc.

6. Become good friends with cheap produce and cheap cuts of meat - If you've never had the chance to do this, take a trip to the store some evening with a pen and a notepad.  Stroll through your produce and meat sections and take note of the most inexpensive options.  Chances are you will come across produce or meat that is unfamiliar to you or you may not know how to cook or prepare it.  Take some time to find a few tasty recipes to incorporate these ingredients into your weekly meals.  Your pocketbook will thank you!  Also, don't forget to check the discounted produce sections to see if anything is worth the price (don't always be fooled by things that are discounted, though).

7. Eliminate or Reduce Prepared and Processed Foods - this kind of overlaps the dried bean section, but your grocery budget will always be higher if these foods are a "staple" of your groceries.  We certainly buy some process/prepared foods, but for most of our regular meals we try and avoid them.  Instead of buying Bisquick like we used to, we just make pancakes and biscuits from scratch.  It really doesn't take much longer.  I used to buy muffin mixes, cookie mixes, rice mixes, frozen foods and all sorts of soup and meal starters.  But over time I figured out how to make those things from scratch and it has made a considerable difference in our food budget.

8. Plan on some affordable "splurges" - It's not always fun to stick to a food budget or cook every single things at home from scratch.  There are some nights that you may not feel like eating leftover soup or whatever is planned for that meal.  To help through these tough spots, its a good idea to build into your budget some fun things or splurges that may give you an emotional boost to stick to your budget the rest of the time.  For our family that means we get pizza once a week.  Sure, I could make a meal much cheaper, but I find that I look forward to our pizza night.  It gives me a break from cooking and the whole family really likes pizza.  There are also times that we just scrap our meal plans and get take-out.  And with our budget that is OK once and a while.  It only hurts us if we do it too much.  And after seeing the take-out bill for our family,  I'm usually pretty motivated to cook a few cheaper meals to make up for the cost difference! 

What are your budget stretcher and savers?  Please share your ideas so we can all benefit from them!

Fermented Foods Update

The good news is our fermented vegetable medley (cauliflower, daikon radish, carrot, jalapeno and garlic) finally reached a good tasty point in the fermenting process, so we decided to put it in jars and stick it in the fridge.  It will keep fermenting some, but the cold temperature will really slow down the process.  This medley is so tasty and refreshing, with just the right amount of spice.  In fact, all three kids have been able to eat it because it has a more lingering spiciness to it that the kids seem to tolerate pretty well.  We only jarred it up Sunday and already we have polished off one of the three jars!

The bad news is that our fermented pickles turned to mush.  So that makes our fermented foods track record 2 for 2.  We lost a batch of sauerkraut due to mold and now it seems our pickles over-fermented.  But we have enjoyed a batch of sauerkraut and are really, really enjoying our spicy vegetable medley.  And we pretty much have our yogurt making process down pat, which we enjoy about a gallon of that each week.  Its a learning process.  I am sure we will continue to make lots more mistakes, but as always in life, you often learn more from your failures than your victories!

I am happy to have my counters free from ferments for the time being.  I told Nate no more ferments until after the baby comes because I don't want to be laboring and smelling vegetables fermenting on the counter, lol!  Nate has found a recipe for a "teje", which is a beer/wine made from honey that he wants to make soon.  We will continue to share our experiments with you, both good and bad.  I hope you are enjoying our unusual journey as much as we are!

Naturally Fermented Vegetable Medley

As we continue our journey deeper in the world of fermented foods, Nate and I decided we were ready for a little spice.  Our first batch of sauerkraut was a dud.  It got moldy because we didn't watch the liquid levels close enough.  So that batch had to go in the trash.  The second batch of kraut turned out and we have already eaten it all gone.  We are anxiously awaiting a batch of fermented garlic-dill pickles.  They should be ready any day now.  Because it is winter and the house is colder, the pickles are taking closer to four weeks to ferment fully.  I made a batch in the summer in only two weeks, thanks to the warmer temps.  Nate and I threw together this beautiful vegetable mix to get another batch of something fermenting since it is taking so much more time.  We mixed cauliflower, daikon radish, carrots, jalapenos and garlic.  Looking back I probably should have added onion, too, but there will be more vegetable crocks in the future.  While we wait anxiously for our pickles, we have been feeding our fermented food needs with Topor's pickles from the store.  I love them because they are naturally fermented and they are less than half the price of Bubbie's pickles.  I will try and keep you updated on all of our fermented adventures!

Other posts on naturally fermented foods:

Naturally Fermented Sauerkraut
Boost Your Immune System Naturally

Green Smoothies to Start the Year Off Right

So whether or not you took your nutritional typing test yesterday, the fact remains that the majority of Americans do not get enough vegetables, raw food or good fats in their diets.  Sometimes a little creativity and concentrated effort can make a big impact on your health.  As we made our way through all the goodies, cookies, candies and hot chocolate of December, I could feel my body caving from too many carbs and too much sugar.  I immediately felt that I needed to get back to my "green smoothie days."

In the past I have drank a lot of green smoothies at different times for both health and weight loss reasons.  I first started when Julius was 5 months old when I felt I was not dropping the baby weight like I wanted.  Not only have green smoothies helped me lose weight and feel full for a good portion of the morning, they make me feel wonderful and energized.  My biggest problem has been consistency.  I have mainly only consumed them during warmer months.  At the end of December, I decided I could not wait for warmer weather because my family and I needed them.  More recently I have also discovered many foods that I wanted to incorporate into our family's diet and smoothies seemed like a perfect spot to sneak them in.  So in between Christmas cookies and gum drops I actually managed to make smoothies for the family during Christmas vacation.  Since school has started back up we have been having smoothies every other day or every two days.  That way I get a break from making them and no body seems to tire of them.

What's a green smoothie, you ask?  It is a smoothie that consists of both fruits and vegetables.  Some smoothie enthusiast actually like and prefer all-vegetable savory smoothies.  But around here we like them sweeter, so we stick to a ratio of 60% fruit and 40% vegetable.  I'll give you a run down of what's in our smoothie and why we chose those ingredients.

Our typical smoothie ingredients are:

• banana
• frozen spinach
• frozen mango
• frozen strawberries
• chia seeds
• sesame seeds
• ground flax seed
• coconut oil, melted
• raw honey
• filtered water
• homemade plain yogurt

I have no tried and true recipes, I just have experimented some and have learned ratios that make everyone happy.  I try and put as little honey in as needed and let the fruit be the main source of sweetness, but if you are used to a sweeter smoothie, a raw, natural and unprocessed form of sweetener will help you along.  Over time you may find you need less and less for your tastes.

My biggest food priorities in the smoothie are:

• Coconut oil
• spinach (or some other type of green)
• chia seeds
• sesame seeds
• ground flax seeds

These foods are my priorities because I have a harder time finding ways to incorporate them into our daily meals.  Fruit, yogurt, honey and water are easy to get in and don't have near the health benefits of the other ingredients.  What makes the above foods so special?

Coconut oil falls into that mysterious wonder food category with so many health benefits (amazingly good saturated fat, helps weight loss, blood sugar control, has antiviral and antiseptic qualities) it is hard to comprehend.  Head on over to Organic Facts to read more. Spinach or similar greens are packed with Vitamin K and other minerals that help strengthen bones.  Too much attention has gone to calcium through the years, and research has found that calcium is a dud if it doesn't have the proper vitamins and minerals working with it.  Greens provide those necessary complimentary nutrients to calcium.  Spinach and coconut oil work well together because it is proven that eating vegetables with a good saturated fat allows the body to better digest the vegetable and get more nutrients from it.  Most people are deficient in Vitamin K, so for that reason alone, greens added to smoothies are a big plus.

I have long heard the benefits of ground flax seed.  It is high in B vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and phytonutrients.  It is also cheap and readily available because of it's current popularity, so it makes a nice addition to a smoothie without hurting the pocketbook too much.  I can also get sesame seeds very cheap at my health food store.  Sesame seeds are high in copper, magnesium, manganese, and calcium.  They also have a high phytosterol content which helps lower blood cholesterol,  improve heart health, enhance the immune system and decrease malignancies.  The last little addition to our smoothies is chia seeds.  I have only recently heard of their benefits and now you can too!

7 Good Reasons To Start Eating Chia Seeds

1. Help weight loss. Chia seeds are popular for weight loss. They reduce food cravings by preventing some of the food that you eat from getting absorbed into your system. This blockage of calorie absorption makes them a great diet helper.
2. Feel fuller faster: They can also help your diet by making you feel full. This is because they absorb 10 times their weight in water, forming a bulky gel.
3. Hydration for athletes: They are also great for athletes because the "chia gel" can hydrate the body.
4. Reduce your blood pressure: There's evidence to suggest they can reduce blood pressure.
5. Omega-3: They are the richest plant source of Omega-3 (the vital fats that protect against inflammation—such as arthritis—and heart disease). In fact, they contain more Omega-3 than salmon!
6. Benefits for diabetes: Because chia seeds slow down how fast our bodies convert carbohydrates into simple sugars, studies indicate they can control blood sugar. This leads scientists to believe chia seeds may have great benefits for diabetics.
7. They are easier to digest than flax seeds, and don't need to be ground up.

So there you have it.  This post is very long and probably overwhelming.  I know I haven't even begun to give justice to the true benefits of such amazing foods.  The key is just to start somewhere.  If I recall correctly my first green smoothie had romaine lettuce and pears in it.  I just kind of expanded from there.  Most people have either made or drank a smoothie at some point.  Start by taking your average, full fruit smoothie and adding a handful of greens to it.  If that goes well, a tablespoon or two of melted coconut oil goes in pretty unnoticed.  After that is accomplished, experiment by adding a tablespoon or two of a healthy seed.  If you are worried about the taste, maybe these pics of little people sucking down their green smoothies will convince you that they can be quite tasty if done right!

Free Nutritional Typing

I was pretty excited today when I saw on Dr. Mercola's website that he now offers his nutritional type testing for free.  I have been very intrigued by this concept, but didn't want to shell out the $30 just to take the test.  Well, now you don't! 

Dr. Mercola offers this testing because he believes people require different diets or forms of fuel to help their bodies run at their best.  Some people require much more protein and fat in their diets.  Others require many more vegetables.  If you have been frustrated with your health, weight or overall well-being, the test only takes a few minutes and could point you in the right direction to make the changes you want.  The cool thing is the test comes with two free downloads.  One is a booklet explaining the nutritional types in depth, and the other is a cookbook outlining tons of recipes for each nutritional type.  All good stuff if you ask me.

I've already taken my test.  I came out as a mixed typed.  I require a pretty even amount of fats, proteins and vegetables!  What type are you?  Head on over to mercola.com to find out!

What It Looks Like

....in a traditional foods kitchen.

(from left to right)

yogurt fermenting in the cooler, sauerkraut fermenting in the crock, walnuts and almonds soaking for 12 hrs and waiting to be dehydrated, and lastly, filtered water.

Fortunately this picture is taken a while back.  Now my counter top is clear, ready for all the holiday food preparation.  For the next week or so I will be moving on to less healthy things like making Christmas sugar cookies, bagels and maybe even some gingerbread men!

What will you be preparing this next week?

Curry, Squash, and Black Bean Soup

Since I tend to make soup on the fly, Nate suggested that I write down this recipe to remember it in the future.  We eat soup every week, so this Indian spiced concoction was a nice change from some of our regular soup recipes.  This is a comforting soup in cold weather!  We enjoyed it with a jar of homemade applesauce from our friend Amy.

Curry, Squash, and Black Bean Soup Recipe

1 large pot of homemade beef or chicken broth
1 bag of black beans, soaked overnight and cooked until tender
1 large can of petite diced tomatoes
1 medium to large butternut squash, peeled and diced
1/3 head of cabbage, chopped
2 onions, diced
5 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
2 heaping tsp. sea salt
1/2 to 1 tsp. black pepper, to your liking
1 Tbsp. curry powder
2 tsp. dried cilantro or 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 to 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (add enough to brighten the flavor)
Optional - 1 lb. cooked ground beef (really beef, pork, chicken or sausage would all go well with this soup, but it would be good without the meat, too.)

Place all ingredients into large soup pot.  If using fresh cilantro, wait to throw it in until the last 10 minutes of cooking.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes, or until squash and onion are tender.  Throw in cooked ground beef and add apple cider vinegar.  Enjoy!

Naturally Fermented Sauerkraut

With some of my birthday money, I purchased two 2-gallon stoneware crocks, perfect for fermenting.  Our first project in the crocks is sauerkraut.  Nate graciously took the bull by the horns on this one and shredded all the cabbage in the food processor and packed it in the crock with plenty of salt.  All  I really had to do was clean up and take pictures!  It should be ready any day now.  I am excited about this, not only because we are learning to do this ourselves, but I have been paying over $5 a jar for naturally fermented sauerkraut.  A whole head of cabbage is less than half of that, and I dare say we will get several jars from that.  Don't know the benefits of naturally fermented, probiotic foods?  Here are a few links to check out.

The Healing Power of Probiotics Impresses Researchers
Fermented Foods: Top 8 Reasons to Eat Them
Proactive Probiotic Foods
Baby Step: Eating Cultured and Fermented Foods

Enjoy the reading.  I will let you know how the kraut turns out!

Black Bean Salad

I always get requests for this recipe, so I figured I needed to put it on my blog so I can tell people where they can find the recipe.  This recipe is fresh and delicious.  It makes a large amount, so its perfect for parties, potlucks or just sharing with others.  If you have no one to share it with, I would recommend only making half.

Black Bean Salad

4 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 16 oz. bag of frozen corn, cooked and cooled
1 large red bell pepper, diced
2 bunches of green onions, chopped, green tops only
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
very generous amount of sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin and even a bit of cayenne pepper if you want some extra spiciness

Taste and adjust spices to your liking and add more olive oil as needed.  Refrigerate for a bit to let the flavors meld together.  Will keep covered in the fridge for several days, but will just get a bit juicier.  Enjoy!

We Love Tomatoes

Picnic Lunch for a Hungry Crew

The unusually warm weather inspired this last picnic of the season.  The kids were thrilled with an outside lunch.  How much more fun to run around and eat than be stuck at the dining room table!  Um, they were hungry!  Not a lick of food left.  And the first to go....avocado.  They were fighting over the last pieces.  Next to go was the naturally fermented pickles.  Carrots, then peanut butter sandwiches and grapes finished last.  Hmm.. this blog post is making me hungry!

Stainless Steel Heaven

My parents got me a set of stainless steel pans for my birthday.  Wow!  I have wanted to toss the remainder of my non-stick pots for the past 6 months.  I was planning on using all of my birthday money to buy some stainless steel pots.  Now the dilemma is what do I get with my birthday money?  Thanks mom and dad!  They are already being put to good use.

REAL Cheesy Bacon Potato Soup

A few weeks back as I prepared to make some of the same boring soup that we eat all the time, I saw that I had a pound of bacon on hand and a spare block of cheddar. I knew that I needed to make a cheesy, bacon potato soup. But after much searching on the web, I was disappointed with the quality of recipes that I was finding. Most of the recipes called for processed cheese. If it called for real cheese, then it called for some type of canned soup. If it wasn't canned soup, then it included bouillon cubes or granules. Ugh!

I am not trying to cast judgment on those who utilize processed foods. I don't eat real, whole foods all the time. Last Tuesday night I was scarfing down a burrito from Taco Bell at midnight, courtesy of my loving husband, at my request. But when I go through the labor of love of cooking for my family, I want it to be real food. That way I don't have to stress about other occasions where processed foods will come into the picture.

So, with the limited recipe options, I went ahead and created my own. It turned out pretty good. This soup seems to get better after it sits in the fridge and is reheated. It makes a nice, cozy fall soup. Enjoy!

REAL Cheesy, Bacon Potato Soup

1 pound bacon
1/2 stick of butter
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large celery stalks, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
8 potatoes, cubed (peel if you prefer, I left the skins on)
6 -7 cups of chicken stock or broth(homemade is best)
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar
2 1/3 cups milk
1/3 cup flour
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped or 2 tsp. dried parsley

Cook bacon in large soup pot. Remove bacon and leave grease. Add 1/2 stick butter, onions, celery and carrots. Cook over medium-high heat until vegetables are soft and onions are getting transparent. Add potatoes and broth. Add salt and pepper. If using dried parsley, add now. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender. Add cheese and stir until melted. In a separate bowl stir flour into milk until mostly dissolved. Pour this into soup. Once bacon is cooled, chop and add it to soup. Stir continually for about 5 minutes or until soup has thickened. If using fresh parsley, add at the end. Check soup to see if additional salt and pepper are needed.

Everyone enjoyed this the first night and the next two days as we finished the leftovers at lunch. Enjoy!

Boosting Your Immune System Naturally

While I don't have time to go into great depth on this subject, I thought I could at least bullet some ways to help boost your immune system. As we enter the fall/winter season, it seems that we become more vulnerable to colds, flues and other viruses. Dr. Mercola recently posted a video on many ways to naturally boost your immune system, so I thought I would share some of his tips. I respect the quality of his information and trust his opinion on most health topics. So here we go!

So, your throat may be feeling scratchy, or your stomach doesn't feel quite right. What do you do?

1. Eliminate sugars - Sugars are proven to impair your immune system, so at the first sign of symptoms, cut your sugars for a few days. This will give your immune system a hands up in fighting the infection.

2. Go to bed - Our immune systems function best when we get 6-8 hours of sleep. So if you aren't feeling so good, try not to burn the midnight oil for a few days. Do your best to minimize interruptions during the night(parents with young children, good luck!).

3. Deal with your stress - Research is showing that stress has a much bigger impact on our physical and mental health than we have ever before realized. While we can not eliminate stress completely, at the first signs of sickness, try and lessen your stress load. Delegate some responsibilities to others. Spend some time in prayer and relaxation. Turn off your cell phone, computer and TV for a few hours. Just let the unimportant things slide for a few days.

4. Probiotics - In our modern day society, new research is showing many people's bodies to be deficient in important good bacteria. This is due to our very sterilized food chain, overuse of antibiotics and antibacterial agents, and the lack of naturally fermented foods in the Western diet. A quality probiotic supplement or probiotic foods and drinks such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha and naturally fermented pickles, salsas and sauerkraut can deliver much needed good bacteria to your digestive tract. It is now believed that your digestive tract makes up 85% of our immune systems, so if we take care of our digestive health, we are taking care of our overall health.

5. Eat healthy, unprocessed foods - Again, to take care of our bodies, we need to be putting the good stuff in. Healthy unprocessed foods deliver the most nutrients to our immune systems, which provide the fuel to fight off infection and disease.

6. Vitamin C - While it is easy to get Vitamin C, many doctors in the natural health circles are recognizing the importance of taking Vitamin C that is derived from a natural, whole food source. Synthetic, isolated forms of Vitamin C are not as beneficial. Dr. Mercola stated that he prefers Vitamin C from Acerola cherries because they tend to have 80X the Vitamin C of other foods.

7. Oil of Oregano - This supplement is shown to be beneficial in fighting off infection. Dr. Mercola said to look for Oil of Oregano with a high concentration of carvacrol. The higher the carvacrol concentration, the greater the antimicrobial effects.

8. Olive Leaf Extract - Research shows that Olive Leaf Extract has amazing antimicrobial actions without any toxic side effects.

9. Elderflower Extract - It is shown to support your immune system.

10. Vitamin D3 - There is tons of amazing research on the effects of Vitamin D3. If you have the time, check it out for yourself. Dr. Mercola stated that a daily dose of Vitamin D3 produces 200 to 300 antimicrobial peptides, which is basically your body's natural antibiotics.

Dr. Mercola also stated that Peppermint powder and Yarrow are also affective in boosting your immune system among other natural supplements. His main recommendation was that all supplements need to be high quality, made with raw material and processed in a way that doesn't harm the useful qualities of the ingredients.

I thought that these were a good starting place for anyone looking for natural ways to help their immune systems. On a daily basis, whether we are healthy or sick, we drink Monavie(one of the blends that contains probiotics) and take a probiotic supplement or eat some form of probiotic food. When we get sick, I try and add some additional natural supplements to our diets to help us fight and recover from the infection. We have been utilizing many of these ideas, but I will definitely have to give a few more of them a try the next time we start getting sick. I hope these are helpful, but I pray you won't even have to use them because you will remain in excellent health!

Links for Delaying Solids

At the request of a friend, I wanted to offer some links to articles regarding the delaying of solid foods in an infants diet. Here ya go!

Why Delay Solid Food?

It's Baby Food Time

Heed Natural Timing before Infant Introduction to Solid Foods


I really enjoyed rereading over this information again. I hope you enjoy it too!

Officially Weaned

This little man hasn't nursed for the past week, so I'd have to say that a chapter is finished in his precious life. No longer a baby, but on to becoming a big boy. 17 1/2 months of nursing. Wow! I have never done that before, lol! Layla only nursed for 10 1/2 months and poor Julius only did about 7 1/2. I feel horrible, but my views on health and nutrition were so different a few years back.

I think the reason I was able to successfully nurse so long is because I handled his food introduction much different than with my other two kids. With Layla and Julius I began introducing cereal around 4 to 5 months and quickly proceeded to fruits and vegetables. Layla got exclusively homemade baby food and Julius got only store-bought baby food. I noticed that as soon as I did this, nursing became less and less of a priority to both them and me. They struggled to nurse efficiently throughout the day and then wanted to chow at the milk bar all night long. It was not fun times.

But with Gunnar, I had read some interesting theories on food introduction that differed quite a bit from what conventional doctors and baby sources teach. Four months, five months and six months passed and I exclusively nursed. Around six months of age, about once or twice a week I would give him a little bit of mashed up avocado. And then, still only once or twice a week, I would let him have some mashed banana. These special treats only happened between nursings, so that they would not fill him up and make him too full to nurse. This happened over a period of 3 or 4 months.

During this time I made sure he had lots of "tastes" of goodies from our meals, but never very much, because I didn't want to take away from the priority of nursing. This way his taste buds became very accustomed to tastes and flavors of what we ate, without diminishing his feedings.

Gunnar at 10 months old

At 10 months old I began to feed him several times a week, and by12 months old he was eating most meals with us, right from our table. This kid never saw a lick of baby food. And I can say from experience that getting to feed your little one right from your table is much easier then hassling with baby food, whether you are making your own, or stocking up at the store. Plus, he has been my least picky eater because he knew no different than what we eat everyday. This kid will eat everything from fish to Brussels sprouts, beans to pork, you name it, this kids is likely to eat it (on most days).

At 12 months old, Gunnar was still nursing early in the mornings, before both his naps each day, when he went to bed and a few times in the night. As the months past and he grew older, he dropped his morning nap, which dropped a feeding. Soon he was no longer needing to nurse in the morning either. By 16 months old, he was rarely nursing in the day and only nursing about twice a night. These last few weeks he dropped to one nursing at night. Last week I decided that I was ready for a full nights sleep, and I quit nursing him entirely. The first night or two he seemed a bit put out, but since then he has been good. I am happy that I was able to give him such superior nutrition for the past year and a half and I wish I could have done better for my first two kids. I will definitely be proceeding very slowly with food with my next baby since I feel it made all the difference with successful nursing and created an excellent eater. Hope this is helpful to any of you mamas out there!

Last Day of Summer

Today we enjoyed our last summer day as a family. Nate reports back to work tomorrow. Today was a scorcher, so we decided to be away from the house as much as possible. We went and ate at Little Caesars and then cruised around town checking out twin mattresses. Julius is still in a toddler bed, but we feel he is no longer getting the quality sleep he needs because the bed is too small for him. Holy cow, mattresses are ridiculous! We looked at several stores and just priced things out. We'll save the spending lots of money for another day, lol!

Then this evening we packed up dinner and headed to the beach. We actually had to pay to get into the park because when we traded in our old van, we forgot to peel off the state park pass. Bummer. The lake was nice and cool. We enjoyed real turkey sandwiches, just like after Thanksgiving dinner, along with cucumbers, strawberries and lemonade. Thanks Mom for dropping off the fixings! It made the perfect beach dinner!

The lake helped us cool off enough that we could come home and face our hot house. I am looking forward to some cool, crisp air in the weeks ahead. And I really miss soup. I am ready for some good soups and chili. Hope you all are drinking up these last days of summer, too!

Time's Flyin'

Sorry for the long absence. We have been at my parent's house for the past week visiting with family that were in town from Florida. Layla, Julius and Gunnar get pretty spoiled every summer getting to play a ton with their cousins. I've been trying to catch up on laundry and I managed to get the fridge restocked. This humid heat is killing us! I was not using my brain when I did my grocery shopping. All the meat and vegetables I purchased need to be cooked either in the oven, crockpot or stove-top. My dryer is heating the house up enough, so while he was out running errands, Nate was kind enough to grab some salad, vegetables and shrimp that required no cooking for tonight's dinner. And of course ice cream was a nice cool completion to our "serve cold" meal. I got lots of pics of our trip to Houghton Lake and other things we have done the past few weeks. Stay tuned. I promise to not be gone too long this time!

Pure Summer

Nate entered this photo recently in a local contest. We are not ones to usually enter photo contests, but a random bit of watermelon eating inspired Nate to carve out good ol' Michigan from our summer time snack. For fun we took some pics with his phone and sent them to friends and family. One friend suggested that we enter it into a contest. The original phone pictures were really bad, so we staged this one to make it a bit more appealing. As fun as this picture looks, it pales in comparison to the amazing photos entered by most others in the contest. So we are pretty confident there will be no prize money earned here, but we had fun and hopefully entertained a few in the process. Enjoy your summer!