..Probiotic-Packed Gummies with Hidden Vitamins..

This is a recipe of mine which the amazing Jenni S. asked if she could post on her blog. Elodie especially needs supplementation considering she eats little to no meat for moral reasons. These gummies were full of vitamins, probitoics, and protein. Plus, they had an amazing taste and consistency. And seriously? How pretty are rose shaped gummies? The girls just adored them. Dinosuars and roses.. those are my rough and tumble little ladies :).

We are making another batch this weekend using mangos, strawberries, and peaches :). I am also experimenting with using a lavender, chamomile, and lemon balm infusion in place of the spearmint infusion. Yum. Sounds delicious just thinking of it!

The Reformed Couch Potato's Blog

This recipe is from my friend and team member, Brittany V., who cooked up this concoction for her 4-year-old to add extra probiotics and protein to her diet. Plus, it’s a great way to add in extra vitamins. Brilliant! And looks delicious! Can’t wait to make these ourselves.

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..Rose Water & Hemp Heart Oatmeal..

My girls and I eat quite a lot of organic soaked and sprouted oatmeal. It is packed full of protein and nutrients, easy to digest when you sprout it, and it’s really easy to dress up to keep my little loves interested in it. Oatmeal is also one of the only foods that I can eat on a daily basis and not get immediately sick after having the first bite. And I can pack the bowls full of interesting ingredients and tons of fruit :). So there are many upsides to my household eating it. Although, it can get a little boring eating oatmeal all the time if you’re not willing to dress it up a little bit. Luckily for me, I found this awesome blog called Oatgasm, Beyond Breakfast. This woman has dozens of the most delicious oatmeal recipes, and while we don’t use all the same ingredients she does, it does give my girls and I tons of ingredient wiggle room to experiment with our daily dose of oats. Today we made a Rose Water & Hemp Heart Oatmeal that was light and delicious with this soft and comforting flavor. It was absolutely perfect, and with endless fruit combinations, I doubt we will ever get sick of it. And let me tell you.. the aroma was simply amazing!

This oatmeal recipe is exceptionally IC Friendly as long as you choose spices that are bladder friendly for you or choose to omit them altogether. Rose water should be an IC Friendly ingredient as long as it is homemade using organic rose petals. Hemp food products are also typically bladder friendly. Also.. if you are unable to eat bananas, simply chose a fruit that works for you. Don’t over complicate it :).

 

– organic soaked and sprouted oatmeal

– 1 to 2 ounces of homemade organic rose water

– 1 tbsp of organic hemp hearts

– 1 tbsp of organic chia seeds

– 1/2 to 1 tbsp of homemade organic vanilla extract

– organic raw honey or coconut sugar to taste

– optional organic spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, pumpkin or apple pie spice

 This oatmeal is incredibly easy to throw together. To make enough for myself and the girls (keeping in mind these are HUGE bowls with usually some leftover that we save).. I use four cups of water and two cups of organic soaked and sprouted oatmeal whether that’s rolled (old fashioned) or stone ground. Once the oatmeal has finished cooking, I typically leave it to sit for several minutes to allow the oats to finishing soaking and bloating up.. because this just works better for my medical problems, also why I sprout my grains as well :).

So next you just add everything in. Each of our bowls had about an ounce of rose water and 1 tbsp of my homemade vanilla extract. I mixed those in first along with about a tablespoon of organic catclaw honey.. which is deliciously soft and creamy and perfect for oatmeal. After that was mixed in completely, I added in a tablespoon of chia seeds and whichever seasoning(s) the girls wanted in theirs. Elodie loves cinnamon, while Eowyn heads for a cinnamon and nutmeg combo. I personally love a touch of ginger in oatmeal. Go with what works for you.

Next add your fruit on top. We had bananas in these bowls, and they were perfectly ripe and so sweet and creamy. We also love to have pomegranate aerials, sliced cherries, or berries. Sprinkle your hemp hearts on top of the entire bowl. And then enjoy :).

My girls each took a picture of their bowls. The above photo is Eowyn’s bowl, and the bottom photo is Elodie’s bowl.. she decided to be a little more artistic lol. She kept insisting the frog was trying to “steal” her beloved rose oatmeal. They were both so proud of their bowls, which they put together themselves, and of their photos :). When you make your children an active participant in the kitchen, amazing things happen!

And there you have it.. a surprising and delicious twist on a plain old bowl of oatmeal. The rose water gave the entire dish this enhanced flavor, while the vanilla blended perfectly with the hemp hearts. And how awesome would this be with crushed pistachios sprinkled along the hemp hearts?? We will definitely have to try that combination next week :).

..Turnip Cakes..

We had a bunch of organic baby white turnips in our produce box last week, and I have been struggling to come up with a way to cook them outside of the normal recipes or just eating them raw. I found a recipe for a Chinese turnip cake. I didn’t have all the ingredients, and there were a few healthier substitutions I wanted to make, so I deviated heavily from the recipe. I still kept the basic cooking instructions, although I did alter those to fit a few things in my own kitchen :).

..Turnip Greens..

– several organic baby turnips, grated

– 1 cup of water

– organic green onion, chopped

– organic red pepper chicken sausage, finely chopped

– 1 cup of organic rice flour

– 1 tbsp organic arrowroot powder

– 1 tbsp organic olive oil

– 1/2 tsp of sea salt

– 1/2 tsp of rock sugar (beet sugar)

– organic ground white pepper (or IC alternative)

Add the grated turnip and cup of water to a skillet and bring to a simmer. Simmer about 10 minutes, occasionally sitrring so the turnip does brown. It will produce liquid, although some will evaporate as it cooks. Continue to cook until you have about 3/4 a cup of liquid in the skillet. If you mess this up, you can simply add 3/4 a cup of liquid later on :). So no worries! Pour all of it, liquid included, into a large mixing bowl to cool.

Next, heat the oil in the same skillet on medium heat. Add the chicken sausage. Cook about 5-7 minutes. Then toss in the green onion, and cook just a few more minutes to blend the flavors. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

Add the rice four (I ground my own using an organic soaked and sprouted brown rice), arrowroot powder, sea salt, rock sugar, and white powder to the turnip and liquid. If you cooked all of your liquid out of the turnip, this is where you would add more. You can add 3/4 a cup of water or chicken or veggie stock (I had to add a little homemade veggie stock) or you can add something else like coconut aminos (which tend to be very IC friendly). Just be aware that if you’re using sausage, you will up the salt content by adding something like the aminos or store bought stock. Mix very well until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Add in the sausage and onion mixture. Mix well and then let it sit for 15 minutes. And then add the mixture to a well coated bread pan.

This is the step that got a little tricky for me, because it requires you to steam the mixture for 50 minutes!!! And you can’t skip this step either. The cakes will fall apart if you do. Learned that the hard way :). Steam on medium high heat for 50 minutes. I had nothing I could use to steam a loaf pan. Nothing. Until I spied my crockpot! I simply added two cups of water to the crockpot and placed the bread pan so that it was resting on the edges of the top without touching the water. It took a few minutes to adjust the pan to keep it up and still get the lid on and completely shut, but I managed it. Turned it on high and left it to steam for 50 minutes. Or so I thought. Because I left the house with my mom for a bit to run an errand and told my husband “turn this off in 30 minutes EXACTLY”. Guess who didn’t turn the crockpot off lol ;). So ours steamed for about an hour and a half total. It was a little over-steamed.

Once it has steamed though (for the correct amount of time!), it needs to sit in the pan and cool for 30 minutes. You then loosen the sides with a spatula and turn it out onto a cutting board. You then use a sharp knife dipped in water (to prevent sticking) to slice 1/2 inch thick pieces. Since ours was over-steamed, it did not come out easy. It stuck together very well, but broke into large pieces when trying to remove it from the bread pan. I ended up shaping mine into patties, which worked just as well. At this point, it IS cooked completely, so you can eat it as it :). Joel and I split one to see how it would taste as is, and it was really good. Kind of like stuffing, but that was probably due to the sausage we used.

Next, add 1-2 tbsp of oil to a skillet over medium low heat. Pan fry the cakes on both sides until golden and crispy, being careful not to burn them.

Plate and serve with hot sauce or other condiment. And of course an IC option for those who need it. We used Sriracha sauce, but they would be delicious with sauerkraut, horseradish, sour cream.. just about anything. Asian dipping sauces would work great if you used shrimp in place of the sausage :). But no matter what you use, this recipe is incredibly tasty. After being pan friend, the turnip cakes have the consistency and flavor of crab cakes sans the actual crab taste. Like a cross between the rest of a crab cake and a stuffing without the traditional stuffing seasonings. I’m not sure that makes sense lol. But they were delicious.They make wonderful leftovers too :). Reheat under the broiler, by steamer, or by adding a few tablespoons of water to a skillet.

This recipe is a little time consuming, but it would make a great lunchtime prep. That way you’ll have almost everything done by the time you’re ready to begin supper with a huge break in between :). Once you get to the final cooking part, it goes pretty quickly. Even though it takes a while, the recipe is still relatively easy to make. Per serving this recipe contains 218 calories, 6.3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 40 grams of cholesterol, 26.2 grams of potassium, 30.2 grams of carbs, 3.1 grams of fiber, .2 grams of sugar, 17.7 grams of protein, 10.8% of your daily vitamin A, 41.7% of your daily vitamin C, 2.9% of your daily calcium, and 6% of your daily iron. It makes a great dish for my cataplexy diet :). This particular combination put the sodium at 364 mg per serving, with the whole recipe serving six. While using sausage makes the sodium a little high, that is easily remedied by using a different organic brand or by making your own (which is more bladder friendly anyway). You can also sub in a different meat like minced sea food or chicken.

Next time I might try it using a little minced wild-caught shrimp with minced bell peppers and a touch of garlic or ginger. There are plenty of ways you can substitute certain ingredients to make it IC friendly! Just get creative :). They’d pair really well with the Terrain Cultured Veggies too! Oh the choices!

..Organic Micro Greens Salad with Green Mandarin Salad Dressing..

I adapted this recipe from the Green Mandarin Salad Dressing from the Youngevity Aroma Share Club recipes for the month of April. I made a few changes to the recipe to suit my own tastes and what I had on hand in the kitchen. While the version I made isn’t IC friendly, it’s very easy to swap the offending ingredient out :).

The salad dressing was paired with an organic micro greens salad that was amazingly delicious. The combination of the dressing with the salad ingredients was amazing. It was light yet incredibly filling. This dish left me feeling great all day, and I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch. Joel and I actually squabbled over who was finishing the last of it off lol.

..Organic Micro Greens Salad..

–  few handfuls of organic micro greens (or other salad greens)

– organic orange tomatoes (omit for IC)

– organic raw white corn

– organic radishes, thinly sliced

– organic beets, cut into thing strips

– organic green onion, chopped

– Green Mandarin Salad Dressing (recipe below)

Really easy to toss together. Simply combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Add a few spoonfuls of the salad dressing, plate, and go to town :).

I had orange tomatoes in mine. There are a lot of ICers out there who can actually eat tomatoes. I have a much easier time eating organic heirloom green and orange tomatoes than I do eating any kind of red tomatoes. As long as I do so in moderation and not when my pain and other symptoms are spiking, I tend to do pretty well eating those two varieties. But feel free to omit where you need to.

..Green Mandarin Salad Dressing..

– 1/2 cup of organic raw unhulled, soaked & sprouted sesame seeds

– 1 tbsp of Terrain Sacred Herbs

– 8 organic frozen cherries, cut in half (mostly to check for pits!)

– 1/2 a chunk of fresh organic ginger

– about 2 cups of fresh organic orange juice OR pear/apple juice to make IC friendly

– 1 drop of Green Mandarin Essential Oil

Really easy to make. If you soak your sesame seeds yourself, soak them six hours to overnight. Drain very well. Blend all of the dressing ingredients together until smooth, except for the essential oil. The original recipe called for using nuts in place of the sunflower seeds and only 1 cup of juice. I have developed several nut allergies, so I made a safer swap. The sunflower seeds cause the mixture to set up like concrete, hence the extra liquid :). Once the ingredients are blended smoothly, add the Green Mandarin Essential Oil and blend for one more minute.

ICers- You can sub in pear or apple juice for the orange juice, but the essential oil should be IC friendly. You can also try using blueberry juice, but I’m not entirely sure how that would turn out. If you try it with that sub, let me know how it tastes :).

Store in a glass jar and chill for two hours before using. Pour over any salad. It will last for about two weeks in the fridge. Be sure to give it a good shake before each use to remix all the ingredients after storing in the fridge :).

The salad dressing was light and slightly sweet with a nice tartness that was balanced out nicely with the bit of ginger, the flavors of orange, and the unique taste of sunflower seeds. And it’s IC friendly :). My husband was a little skeptical at first.. and rightly so. My attempts at recreating essential oil food recipes have been diastorous in the past, but this one was a winner :). We’ve used it several times in the two weeks since I made it. He gobbles down anything that’s under it, and my nearly three year old, Eowyn, loves to eat it as is or over fruit.

..Spicy Skillet Greens..

Tomorrow is our organic produce pick-up date, and we still had a fridge full of greens! So what is a Southern woman supposed to do? Why, make a big skillet full of greens, of course :). I wanted something a little lighter than traditional greens made with meat and animal fats, and this recipe hit the nail on the head. This recipe is light but very feeling. The greens had lovely fresh, crisp taste that was just perfect. Definitely a recipe we’ll make again and again.

This recipe serves six people with142 calories, 5.3 grams of fat, 21.7 grams carbs and 4.7 grams of protein per serving. It also has 48.5% of your daily vitamin A, 86.8% of your daily vitamin C, 27.5% of your calcium and 10.2% of your daily Iron per serving. It’s a plant based powerhouse fully of delicious goodness :). Who says veggies won’t give you what you need?

The red pepper in this recipe can be an IC irritant. You can omit them if it’s a problem for you. The flavor will still be amazing, it just won’t have that little kick to it :). It’s a delicious dish with or without the red pepper flakes. Don’t let them scare you away!

– 5 cups of chopped organic turnip greens

– 8 cups of chopped organic collard greens

– 6 cups of organic beet root greens

– 1 tbsp organic olive oil

– 1 organic medium onion cut into small chunks

– 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (or a pinch)

– 1/4 cup of water

– 1/8 tsp of rock sugar (organic beet sugar)

– fresh lemon juice to taste (optional)

This is really easy to toss together.  You may leave the ribs in the greens or take them out. I personally love the nice crunch they give to the dish, and they are full of nutrients :). It seems like a massive quantity of greens (and you can use just one kind by the way!), but the amount cooks down quite a bit.

Drizzle the olive oil into the skillet on medium heart. Add the onion and cook until just tender. It takes about 3 minutes or so. Then add half of the greens and cook them down.

After the greens have cooked down, add the rest of the greens to the skillet. Allow to cook down. Then add the water, rock sugar, and red pepper flakes. You can technically cook it until the water is absorbed if you wanted more mushy greens. I like the steams to be a little more crisp. So I only cooked it an additional 3-5 minutes. Plate and serve to taste with a little bit of fresh lemon juice if wanted.

It was absolutely delicious! Crisp and fresh with this nice subtle little bit of heat that complimented the flavors perfectly. My husband devoured his bowl in about two minutes, and we have plenty of leftovers to eat on for the rest of the week :). It’s easy to tailor to be IC friendly.. omit the red pepper if needed, you could use parsnips instead of onion for the different texture, and omit the optional lemon juice. Whether you doctor the recipe or leave it as is, it’s sure to be a crowd please-er :).

 

..Terrain Cultured Veggies..

This is a wonderful recipe that comes from Jordan Rubin, using one of his Beyond Organic products, Terrain Sacred Herbs. One of the reasons why I love the Terrain Living Herbals, especially the Sacred Herbs variety, is because they make a beautifully IC friendly vinegar substitute since they are very similar to apple cider vinegar.  And there are so many flavor options to chose from.

 

Terrain is the “power of sour”. They are living herbal supplements that boost metabolism, balance body pH levels, and support digestive healthy while providing a full complement of organic, herbal nutrition. Terrain products are raw/living and certified organic. They contain antioxidants, enzymes, probiotics, and organic acids. Plus, they contain zero calories. Terrain is made using a slow, long-term fermentation process that combines beneficial microorganisms and traditional organic botanicals to create liquid supplements made to “Transform Your Terrain”. This transformation happens in three foundational ways:

• Helps to restore proper pH balance in the body
• Helps to promote healthy metabolism
• Supports healthy gut flora and overall digestive function

Culturing veggies with Terrain in place of vinegar makes this dish a powerhouse of wellness. Cultured foods are some of the most nutritious foods you can eat, and some of the easiest to make once you get the hang of it :). Terrain also makes this a bladder and gut friendly option over other culturing methods. Culturing veggies with the probiotics found in Terrain turns this food into a superfood that everyone I’ve offered it to immediately falls in love with :). Even our toddlers much on it! Elodie’s favorite is cultured broccoli, while Eowyn eats it no matter which veggie it is. Once you start eating cultured veggies, you’ll never stop! They taste amazing, and you will be able to feel their amazing health benefits almost immediately.

– sterilized glass jars with lids

– shredded organic cabbage

– chopped organic green onion

– a clove or two of minced organic garlic

– chopped organic green leafy veggie (we used bok choy)

– chopped organic cucumber (optional)

– shredded organic carrots (optional)

– 1 tbsp grated organic ginger or 1 drop of ginger essential oil (because I was out of fresh ginger)

– 2 to 6 ounces of Terrain Sacred Herbs (depending on amount you’re making)

– filtered water

There’s a reason why I didn’t put amounts for the veggies.. make however much you want :). We had a huge bunch of bok choy, a head each of purple and green cabbage, and two cucumbers that all needed to be used or tossed. Normally I would use carrots, but I had given the girls the last of them for lunch that day. And I was out of ginger.. which I used to juice a bunch of green veggies that day too, so I used a single drop of ginger essential oil instead. A single drop is all you need if using the essential oil. Do NOT use more than one drop or the ginger will completely overpower and dominate the dish. You can use pretty much any green leafy veggie along with the cabbage and carrots. A lot of people use kale, but I thought bok choy would pair nicely with the ginger :).

So you start by combining all of the food ingredients with the Sacred Herbs using a clean wooden spoon. This is also where you will add your ginger essential oil. Because we made massive batches of this, we used 6 oz of the Sacred Herbs per batch.. I made two different ones. A plain one using just cabbage, cucumber and green onions while the second one contained the same along with bok choy and ginger.

Pack the veggie mixture into sterilized glass jars and add just enough water to cover. Place the lids on.

Allow the veggie filled jars to sit at room temperature for 48-72 hours before opening. Refrigerate after opening. If your jars are freshly sterilized and still hot, they will seal nicely once you pack them and place the lid on. We’ve left ours sitting at room temp anywhere from 3 days to 9 months without having any spoiling. The longer they sit, the more delicious they are. But do remember to stick them in the fridge once you open the jars.

It’s very rare to get a bad batch. In fact, we’ve never had one, and I have been making this recipe for over a year now. But it can go bad if unfriendly bacterias are introduced. This can turn the veggies slimy and brown. You can have a rotting odor from a bad batch too. If this happens, simply toss them out and start over. Using sterilized jars and keeping your work space clean and sterilized will help to keep the risk of a bad batch down.

This recipe has endless combination possibilities between the veggies and the Terrain Living Herbal options. So go crazy :). Experiment and find the flavor combination that you like best! It makes a great side dish to nearly anything, works wonderfully in homemade tortillas or over beans, or as a snack. And remember.. organic veggies and glass jars!

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***The information contained on this website is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. None of the information or statements found on this website have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products on this side are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, please consult your physician AND pharmacist before using these products. Please be sure to always declare any herbal, nutrition, and aromatherapy products to your doctor. Information on this site is meant for educational and informational purposes only, to help motivate you to make your own healthcare and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider(s). It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment. 

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..Cast Iron Fried Eggs and Scrumptious Beet Salad with Beyond Organic Terrain Sacred Herbs Dressing..

We eat a lot of eggs and butter in our household. My Elodie will almost always eat organic, humanely raised, pastured eggs. She will eat them scrambled, fried, in soups, in rice.. the girl just loves to eat eggs. Which is amazing really, since she won’t eat beef because cows are her friends. We have breakfast for supper or lunch several times a week. Sometimes I keep it simple, other times I spice things a little with other veggies or herbs. We’ll pair eggs with just about anything. There really isn’t a lot they won’t go with, and there are endless ways to cook them if you just a little creative ;).  Eggs are a main staple in our household because of Elodie and because of my Cataplexy diet.

Wait… cata-what?

Cataplexy is “a sudden loss of muscle control with retention of clear consciousness that follows a strong emotional stimulus (elation, surprise, anger, embarrassment, laughter)” – Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary.

It’s a little more complicated that that though. There are several other factors that can affect cataplexy. Some of these factors are sex, sleep, diet, stress, certain physical movements, illness, or injury. The medical community is a little behind the times with a few these factors, though. Most neurologists will roll their eyes at you if you say your diet alters your cataplectic symptoms or if you say your symptoms worsen when you have a cold. At least that’s my personal experience and the experience of other patients who I have spoken to over the years. And you’re hard pressed to find medical information about alternative means of dealing with it. Laughter has to be one of the worst triggers for me. Because laughing good and hard makes me collapse to the ground someone tossing a sack of taters. Belly laughs are always better accomplished when sitting down or next to a soft something to fall into lol.

Cataplexy is basically a “sudden fall”. Kind of like passing out, only you are completely conscious the entire time. Episodes have been known to last a few seconds to a few hours (more rarely). Usually the episodes are followed by a complete recovery, but patients can become injured during falls. While a full fall is characteristic of cataplexy, it can also target individual muscle groups (neck, jaw, shoulders, limbs) Cataplexy is most often seen in patients with narcolepsy, however, there are the rare patients that experience cataplexy completely separately. When this happens, it is called Isolated Cataplexy. I happen to be one of the rare patients :). It’s like a won the oddball medical lottery or something!

I used pharmaceutical medications to control my cataplexy symptoms for several years. The medications worked wonderfully. Nearly all of my symptoms were halted immediately after beginning treatment. But that came at a huge price. I had endless side effects, and in the end, the side effects were not worth the good parts of taking the medications. I went off all of my medications (under the watchful eye of my doctors!!!) when I found out I was four weeks pregnant with my first child. I have been off all of my cataplexy medications every since.

I use alternative treatments that I found helpful like chiropractic care, relaxation techniques, herbs and essential oils, but this post is about the wonderful things dietary fats and cholesterol do to help my cataplexy symptoms. If you have access to the internet or a local news channel, you’ve probably seen or heard the new (and old but re-vamped) research surrounding the benefits of consuming proper dietary fats and cholesterol. In fact, the great egg debate took a complete turn when a large portion of the medical community changed it’s entire stance on the cholesterol found in eggs and heart disease. Authority Nutrition has an easy to understand article detailed (with sources!) some of the good benefits of consuming eggs. If you do a little research on pubmed, you will find countless articles about neurological condition and the therapeutic benefits of consuming dietary fats and cholesterol.

My medical conditions thrive with daily consumption of healthy fats, cholesterol, and carbohydrates. You will never see any low-fat ingredients in our house or in any of my recipes. I crash without fat, cholesterol, and carbs. And most of my crabs come from fruits. Because this is what works for me. This is what keeps me healthy. This is what helps control my pain and bad flare ups. This is what helps my neurological issues, my digestive issues, and my bladder issues. A full fat, cholesterol, and carb-ed up (mostly from fruits) lifestyle betters my health. And it’s one of the reasons I became a health coach. Our bodies might be the same basic anatomy, but we’re all individual people. We should eat according to that and according to how our bodies thrive. This just happens to be what makes all my innards happy :). And as a bonus.. I lose weight this way, which is a huge struggle with my four.. count ’em, FOUR.. reproductive disorders. So you’ll find us routinely munching dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, avocados, organic pastured butter, eggs, fatty fish, non-gmo fermented tofu, shrimp, raw organic pastured cheeses, bulletproof coffee/dandelion coffee, and all kinds of fresh fruits and soaked and sprouted ancient grains.

So.. we continued our eggs for supper tradition yesterday with some cast iron fried eggs with a scrumptious beet salad that gave me the dietary fats and cholesterol I needed yesterday. We paired the eggs and salad with watermelon  and some beans for Elodie (she doesn’t eat salads right now).

IC Friendly Egg Tip: Eggs can be an IC trigger for some people, however, some ICers with egg troubles are able to eat organic pastured duck or quail eggs instead. Tucson has several local sources of duck eggs, so make sure you check in your local areas for sources around you. We found our source through a Craigslist search believe it or not, so make sure you check all avenues.

 

..Cast Iron Fried Eggs and Scrumptious Beet Salad with Sacred Herbs Dressing..

 

For the Cast Iron Fried Eggs:

– 2 tbsp grass-fed organic pastured unsalted butter

– organic pastured eggs

To make the eggs in a cast iron pan, take your well seasoned pan and place over medium heat. Melt two tablespoons of grass-fed organic pastured unsalted butter. Once the butter is completely melted, crack your eggs into the pan. Room-ish temperature eggs will typically cook much better in cast iron than cold eggs :). If you plan on flipping your eggs, wait until the pan-side egg is completely cooked before flipping, otherwise they will stick to the pan. This is were people go wrong cooking eggs in cast iron. Flip if you like. Runny eggs gross me out a little visually even though I like the taste, so we do a soft yolk instead. This way you still get some of the same nutritional benefits of a runny egg without the runny part that people sometimes object to. Remove from the cast iron pan as soon as they are done to your liking and wipe it down to clean.

I typically don’t eat a lot of salt, so we almost always use unsalted butter. It’s much more bladder friendly. I also don’t salt food very much. Since I was seasoning the salad with just a touch of salt, I didn’t add any to the eggs, but feel free to season them to your taste :).

For the Scrumptious Beet Salad:

– handful or two of organic greens of choice

– grated Beyond Organic Green-Fed Cheddar Cheese

– handful or two of organic fresh or pickled beets, thinly sliced into bite size pieces (use fresh for IC Friendly!)

– 2-3 tbsp of organic raw sunflower seeds

– about 10 or so organic Japanese cucumber slices

– thinly sliced organic onion (optional)

– sea salt to taste (optional)

– freshly ground black pepper to taste or IC Friendly Black Pepper Alternative (optional)

Salads are pretty straight forward :). Just combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, saving the sea salt and black pepper for last and use to taste. Then simply put a little salad dressing on it, and you’re good to go! Joel added organic raisins to his salad while I added sliced organic onion to mine. While we had fresh beets in the fridge, I have other plans for those this week :). I used organic pickled beets.

Most people with IC are unable to eat vinegar, but I have no trouble with it. We each a food that we can eat that others can’t, and vinegar happens to be mine! Lucky me. But if you can’t eat foods fermented in vinegar, simply slice fresh red or golden beets instead. As far as the Beyond Organic cheese goes, this is the only aged cheese that I have found to be IC friendly. Eowyn absolutely loves it! She would devour an entire block of it in one sitting if we allowed her to. She is highly sensitive to dairy, and the Beyond Organic dairy products are the only dairy products she can eat without getting terribly sick. They’re IC friendly and kind to the digestive tract :). Definitely worth a try if you’re hunting for IC and gut friendly options.

For the Sacred Herbs Salad Dressing (IC Friendly!):

– 2 tbsp of Beyond Organic Terrain Sacred Herbs

– 1 tbsp organic lemon juice or 1 drop of lemon essential oil (optional) -(I recommend buying lemon essential oil from Here or Here.)

– organic olive oil

Very simple salad dressing. Just mix it all together. I used a small attachment for my NutriBullet to make sure it was completely incorporated. And then just add it to your salad. See.. quick and easy :).  If you want to make this dressing IC friendly, simply omit the lemon juice or try using a drop of lemon essential oil. Essential oils can be great alternatives to bladder triggers like citrus ingredients. Even without the lemon juice, the recipe tastes amazing. If you omit the lemon juice, you can add an extra tablespoon of Terrain Sacred Herbs.

This was a quick and easy IC friendly meal that was a great way to end a long day of cleaning and school work. Joel and I ate the leftovers for lunch today, with the addition of organic orange tomatoes in his salad. It’s definitely a salad I could eat over and over again considering the different beet combinations.

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***The information contained on this website is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. None of the information or statements found on this website have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products on this side are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, please consult your physician AND pharmacist before using these products. Please be sure to always declare any herbal, nutrition, and aromatherapy products to your doctor. Information on this site is meant for educational and informational purposes only, to help motivate you to make your own healthcare and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider(s). It should not be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment. 

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..Grilled Wild-Caught Crab..

Joel has been doing a lot of the cooking lately while I’ve been slammed with extra studying and finishing up coursework. He’s been so amazing with it all :). I’ve been nagging him about snapping some photos so we can add recipes to the website, but he says it “diminishes his man skills in the kitchen” lol. Cause you know.. photography.. it’s so emasculating when you’re wearing a Vera Bradley apron and jammin’ to Hanson’s Live From Albertane album while dancing the Truffle-shuffle with Eowyn ;).

The other week we stopped in at Whole Foods after church. We hadn’t been in the Oracle store since it was remodeled, and I’ve been wanting to check it out. Elodie spent the entire drive to church begging for “tree stars” and “green food”. Seriously.. if you don’t know what those are, you need to watch The Land Before Time movies! But anyway, we stopped into Whole Foods so Elodie could pick out some vegetables. The remodeled store looks amazing! We should have popped in long before now. The fish counter had a great wild-caught selection, including these beautiful crabs. They were huge! And so reasonably priced. We snagged one to split between us for supper. They were big enough to feed two!

Because we had just picked up a small charcoal grill, Joel decided he wanted to grill them crab. It was pretty windy outside, so it took us a while to get the grill going. And when I say “us” I really mean me. Because I got the grill going like the awesome woman I am :). The embers were glowing and hot, and it was a perfect temperature for a slow grilling of the crab. Joel cooked the crab for about 30 minutes, but he did burn it slightly. He was a little distracted with the girls and Minnie. I would say to check it after about 10 minutes depending on how hot your coals are. Our crab would have been perfect after about 20-25 minutes.

Even though it was a little charred, it was absolutely delicious! I plan on heading back to Whole Foods on at the first of the month to see if they have any more of those delectable crabs! We left the crab completely unseasoned, and the flavor was great. I wouldn’t have added a single thing to it. It’s a wonderfully easy and IC friendly meal that can thrown together at the drop of the hat and with very little effort.

..Garlicky Mushrooms, Kale and Chicken with Spaghetti Squash..

My IC pain and cataplexy symptoms have been very bad lately. This is probably the worst spell I have had in years, and it shows no signs of letting up.

My husband, Joel, has been an absolutely dear over the last few weeks. He’s been helping with the cleaning, laundry, supper prep, and even cooking occasionally. And he’s actually been following my recipes for suppers! The man can really cook when he wants to :).

He made a delicious meal using my recipe for Garlicky Mushrooms, Kale and Chicken with Spaghetti Squash. He did a wonderful job. The dish was full of flavor, and he prepared it perfectly! I couldn’t get him to take photos for the blog, but I did manage to snag a photo of my plate. We’ll definitely make this one again and again! It made delicious cold leftovers too. And Joel is a huge fan of garlic, so even though he hates mushrooms while I absolutely love them, he still found the entire dish incredibly yummy!

 – 1 medium cooked organic spaghetti squash

– 2 tbsp of organic olive oil

– 6 cloves of organic garlic cloves, minced

– 3 cups or organic baby portobello mushrooms, chopped

– 1 tbsp of organic thyme

– 1 to 2 chicken breasts cut into strips (might need two depending on the size)

– 4 cups of organic kale leaves

– zest of 1 organic lemon (optional)

– sea salt

– 1/8 tsp of organic cayenne pepper, or to taste (optional)

Start with cooking your spaghetti squash. You can either roast it or make it ahead of time in the crockpot, which is what I did. To cook it in the crockpot, place the squash in the crockpot with a cup of water. Cook on low 8-10 hours. I let mine go a little longer that that. I fell asleep. So when Joel went to pull it out of the crockpot, it burst open when he touched it! No cutting required lol.

Add olive oil to a skillet and heat on medium. Add the minced garlic and mushrooms. Saute for five minutes, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant and the mushrooms have browned.

Add strips of raw chicken and cook about 1-2 minutes before adding the chopped kale leaves. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked through.

Next add the lemon zest (optional), sea salt, and cayenne pepper (optional). Stir and cook an additional minute. Remove from heat.

Strip the spaghetti squash into strands using a fork. Place in a bowl. Add the chicken, mushrooms, and kale. Toss together and serve. You can also serve a little rated cheese over the top :).

This was a delicious meal that was bursting with flavor, and the leftovers were just as great. It’s a quick and easy meal. And it’s IC friendly :).