Category — Natural living

No more white flour. Lots of good bread to come.

Today at the end of a little painting session Corban decided to paint a television. Then the other two joined him as he sat and pretended to watch his TV.

I don’t know if it’s because they feel deprived or because I’ve been letting them watch too much….

But I thought it was pretty funny, in an ironic sort of way.

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I’ve posted! I needed to take a little break to catch up on a few things, like piles of laundry! Here are a few pictures from our week…

…A yummy breakfast of homemade yogurt and toast with apricot jelly from our CSA. Yes, I’ve found one that will work for our family this season…and among the fresh organic veggies and meat it has things like jelly that Jackson can eat!

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We added tomatoes back into Jackson’s diet last week. We couldn’t simply start serving canned tomato sauce or ketchup because those products still have additives like corn syrup or soybean oil. But I found a couple simple ways to add tomatoes by themselves:

Pizza Margherita

This is just a simple cheese and tomato pizza with basil, drizzled with olive oil. Instead of a canned sauce you simply use plain crushed tomatoes. So yummy! I’ve also made this by slicing ripe tomatoes thin and laying them on the crust before adding the cheese and a little basil from the kitchen window.

I use the dough recipe from my Kitchen Aide cookbook, minus the hour-long rising time (I recently learned that you don’t have to wait for flat breads to rise). There’s another recipe here, or if you’ve been using the dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, you can just grab a hunk of dough from the fridge and roll it out! Any way you do it, it’s a wonderfully quick recipe that can be ready in under an hour. Perfect for us!

Homemade Ketchup

A simple way to make ketchup to your own liking without all the additives: Start with a small can of tomato paste. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and thin it with water, half a cup at a time, until it reaches the consistency you like. Add spices like salt, onion, garlic, and cumin to taste. I also found some recipes online that called for cinnamon and cloves, but I personally didn’t care for them. Experiment until you have your own unique ketchup recipe!

I love tomatoes, but it seems that Jackson’s little body does not. He had an asthma attack a couple nights after we re-introduced them to his diet, so we’re back to no tomatoes, corn, or soy for another two weeks until he clears back up. We’re not sure if it was the tomatoes or the high pollen count. Part of me wants it to be the pollen, since we’re about to put several tomato plants into the ground this week…but still, it would be nice if one of the triggers was something we could control, like his diet. We’ll see…

What yummy foods are you making this week?

image by val'sphotos

The last few days have been full of thoughts of veggies. I’ve decided to take the next baby step toward natural living and try to buy as much organic food as possible, starting with vegetables. But of course I couldn’t just do it gradually…I soon found myself spending hours researching local CSAs.

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Jackson was diagnosed with asthma three months ago, and since then we’ve been on a whirlwind of different medications and lots of appointments to try to get it under control. Meanwhile, I’ve been reading like crazy, trying to learn as much as possible so I can make informed decisions about my baby’s health. Mostly I’ve been reading about more natural remedies, as well as preventative measures, in order to keep the medications to a minimum. Thankfully, his doctor seems to be on the same page.

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