..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 :).

..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 :).