Getting off the Food Grid...

Today has been a feast day - and I haven't stopped since early this morning. I have been cooking our Samhain dinner all day - thankfully I had most of the treats done in the past few days as well as our desserts for today.

Right now everyone is very full and feeling really good. In case you are wondering - our menu for tonight's feast was marinated roasted venison, thyme roasted root vegetables, including our own fresh baby carrots and corn, Waldorf salad with homemade mayonnaise, stuffed onions with rice, leeks and feta cheese - sweet bread made with cranberries and walnuts and gravy.

It was fabulous, one of the best meals I have ever had and even the venison turned out tender and nice. I have not cooked game meat in several years, so I was fairly careful with this piece I wanted it to be just right. 

I marinated it for over 24 hours in homemade mustard with salt, pepper and extra olive oil to ensure it would not be tough or gamey tasting. I think the trick for this kind of meat is the marinade but also to keep turning it over as it sits in plenty of juice. The olive oil helped as well.

A lovely meal all round at the end of the day! 

Now that this day is coming to a close it will be interesting to see what this next month or so brings in terms of change, learning and my continual discovery about food. I am constantly surprised and amazed  at how much further we can go as a family to live more sustainably as well as to get off of the grid more and more.

For us, getting off of the food grid is our priority - I don't want to eat anything prepared by someone else. And it appears we have achieved exactly that and are now completely comfortable with that. Now, my mind has been wandering to how else we can remove ourselves from other energetic signatures around our food....

Time will tell

April 

Colourful veggies ready for the oven

Loving our feast and other weight loss stories

This is grueling, day after day of non stop eating!! LOL

Back into the kitchen again today to make crackers, gingerbread men, spelt breads, naan bread, garlic butter, pot of jam (use up fruit), chilli con carne with lamb mince, and the list goes on. All of that today and I still found time to make our meals, get some gardening done, read, write and exercise.

It all just seems to fall into place, of course it really helped that the day was bright sunshine for most of it, warm and pleasant all around. Everyone felt great, the kids kept themselves busy, the work got done and all with smiles on our faces because of the sun.

One of my favourite breads to make are naan bread, I made them especially to go along with the chilli (tomato free of course) and used my handy food mixer to make the garlic butter. I needed an excuse to use it! 

Naan bread dough

What makes naan breads different is the goat's yogurt I use to make it. Otherwise it is a simple easy bread to whip up in minutes - whole grain spelt flour, soda bicarbonate, salt, goat's yogurt, water and sesame seeds. Mix these ingredients together, with more yogurt then water, place onto a flat pan for baking and into the oven for about 20 -25 minutes or so.

Naan breads ready for the oven

The result is a very soft flat bread that tastes great with a stew or chilli. I also add herbs into the mix and sesame seeds on top to give it some more texture. Naan bread is great with garlic butter or used as a bun for burgers too.

Naan bread cooling on rack

After all that baking and cooking, I even had a chance to do some reading online - looking through some nutrition articles I came across one mentioning the problem with weight being stuck or doing all the right things and still not losing the excess weight.

That was me not so long ago. Excellent diet, exercise program, busy lifestyle and still the pounds crept on. Of course it is hormonal for the most part for nearly all of us, but what brings down our hormones and where does it all end?

For me, the answer lies in the toxins carried around, buried deep within inflamed cells. It has long been established overweight and inflammation go hand in hand. Of course, high levels of toxicity are also present in any site of chronic dysfunction.

The one area each of these articles missed was glaringly obvious - remove the toxin load from the body and you will reduce the inflammation, while losing excess weight and balancing body systems. It really is this simple. They mentioned nearly everything else, but the absolute necessity of detoxification.

Cleansing your body on the inside is as easy as cleaning it on the outside and should be carried out nearly as often. Using water, our bodies will be gently detoxed of embedded poisons over a period of time - this has changed my life or I should say simply given my life back to me. 

All of life, eating, living and being who we are should be simple, otherwise, why would we do it? 

Have a healthy day,

April 

Lamb tomato free chilli 

So much food!

Today was another day of cooking, eating and enjoying our feast days as much as possible. Even with the weather taking a little turn towards the rain, at least it was later in the day and I was still able to get out into the garden for some fresh herbs and salad leaves.

I have been itching to use my food mixer/grinder more, and have been looking for excuses to try it out. Today I decided to grind up some of the dried herbs from my garden - it did a fantastic job with them. Now I have jars of very fragrant freshly dried herbs which will replace the old ones.

I mention this because I am still astounded by how differently my own finely ground herbs smell and look compared to shop bought ones. What on earth do they do to them? Why is the food so different tasting and looking from homemade? Shocking!

So, on to today. Because I had so much food already on hand, I did not want to make much more, but I am still working away at my list of requests. With our main meal I decided to make onion bhajis - which everyone loves, and I have discovered an easy way to make them.

This type of food would normally have been fried or even deep fried (I bake them), they are delicious in a sweet and spicy way, great with a dip or salted on their own. I had a roasted duck ready for a warm duck salad, and wanted something substantial and complementary to go with it. 

The onion bhajis were perfect! To make the bhajis, I sliced a few onions, sautéd them with spices (ginger, turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper) in a pan until translucent. In the meantime I mixed gram flour and more of the same spices together with water.

Gram flour mixture

Once the onions were done, I mixed these two together until the onions were well coated with the wet flour. Using a wooden spoon I dropped large spoonfuls of this wet mixture onto an oiled pan and then placed it into a hot oven.

Saute onions

The trick with these seem to be baking them long enough - in the past I would think they were overdone and take them out early, however they do need the full 45 minutes or more depending on how thick they are. Halfway through the cooking, I turn the pan and brush the bhajis lightly with olive oil again. 

Once out of the oven, salt with sea salt and serve! These went nicely with warm duck salad, pickles, goat's cheese and other finger foods in our meal. It was all delicious, eating this way after our long fast makes it all worthwhile.

Onion Bhajis out of the oven

Oh and the halva turned out great, everyone loves it even though it did not set hard the way shop bought tahini treats do. Perhaps next time it will be better - however the taste is outstanding.

Let's see what tomorrow brings! LOL

Have a lovely day,

April

Hazelnut honey halva treats 

Banana Chutney

I know, this sounds different and it is something I would probably not have put together myself - however I came across a mention of banana chutney as being really nice with left overs from a big meal. Such as often happens when we have a feast!

Usually during any feast I am cooking up a storm and have found myself standing in the kitchen in my pajamas late in the afternoon having virtually not left the kitchen since my eyes opened in the morning - spending my day cooking.

The is serious stuff here for us and I wanted to try out some new tastes, textures and combinations of foods over this next little while. So, when I got to reading up on what to do with extra dates, I found a mention of this banana chutney which of course includes dates and a few other things.

Tonight, I decided to dive into making some and perhaps late next week we'll see how it tastes (it should be left to sit for about 10 days or so). It certainly smells lovely and even looks nice in a chutney sort of way.

Fruit and vegetables for Banana Chutney

For the chutney I mashed bananas, chopped apples, dried dates and apricots, sliced onions and diced garlic - this all went into apple cider vinegar to bubble away over half an hour or so. In the meantime part way through the cooking I added in some date syrup, water whenever it looked too thick, and spices (allspice, turmeric, ginger, salt, pepper, cumin).

Banana Chutney steaming away as it slowly cooks 

Once this was placed into jars and processed in the boiling water bath it turned out well and the jars sealed up. I am finding the larger jars take longer to seal and I really do prefer the screw top Kilner jars as opposed to the flip top lids. However, I will use anything that comes into the house at this point!

Apparently banana chutney is very nice served with cheese and crackers, leftover meat such as duck or lamb, salad and stirred into yogurt. When we have a feast day there is always lots of food left for the next meal, a nice chutney (or a couple of them) will add some interesting flavours to these meals and I can't wait to try them.

Well that's my story today - day 9 of my August cleanse, I was itching to cook something interesting and found it. Perhaps I will do some further searches to see what else I can find...

Have a healthy day!

April

Big jar of Banana Chutney

Just Go Nuts!

Today I am making some things for our party next week - I like to be a little organized, but it is also so much fun to be busy in the kitchen cooking, creating the foods we love. Even though I am fasting for my Master Cleanse and I can't taste these treats, my sense of smell is very keen, so I have a very good idea when they turn out well.

I decided to go through my list of requests for our feast and see which items I could make this week and store, as well, many things taste a little better after a few days or need the time to 'mature'. Homemade foods also taste a little better then shop bought mostly because they are made using fresher ingredients.

Starting with cashews I thought to try two different ways to make them. The first one is to soak the cashews over a day in a light brine solution of sea salt and water, then at the end of the day to roast them in a hot oven for about 20 minutes, adding more salt if needed and cooling. So far, this batch is still soaking, so I will let you know how they turn out tomorrow.

Cashews soaking in a light brine coating

With some other cashew pieces I wanted to just throw them into the oven with a tiny bit of oil (I used sunflower oil) and sea salt and see how they turn out. I have done this many times before to good results, however, we would still go out and buy ready salted cashews! I know, doesn't make any sense at all.

Oil, sea salt, brush for coating the cashews

Next,  I used a Christmas recipe for honey cinnamon roasted almonds, I have been making these for a few years now and they always taste lovely. For the almonds, I roast them first in the oven, while I make a syrup from water, honey, oil, cinnamon, sea salt and a pinch of pepper.

Once these are out of the oven I simply coat the hot almonds with the hot syrup, stir and turn a few times and then allow to cool on a piece of parchment paper. Often they stick together, but that is usually no problem as they are gobbled up so quickly!

Honey cinnamon roasted almonds cooling on parchment 

For a feast, I like to have snacks, treats and things in the house ready for any impromptu gourmet needs and roasted nuts are so easily made at home in a few minutes. One thing that I will note - the smell is delightful as they come out of the oven, nothing like anything from a package - it is deep, rich and full as if the nut itself is bursting open. 

Homemade food just doesn't compare to anything else! 

Have a healthy day,

April

Lightly salted roasted cashews

A Feast Day!!

Today is a feast day (everyone you have got to read my book The Pagan Diet© smile!) therefore I am spending my day cooking and preparing food. Actually it all started last night with the cinnamon apple butter...here's the story so far.

Chopped apples in the slow cooker

Last night I chopped up loads of apples, using about 4 different kinds (both tart and sweet cooking apples) placed them all into the slow cooker with generous spoonfuls of nutmeg and cinnamon. Then just enough apple juice concentrate and water to cover the bottom of the large crock pot. I turned it on high and left it until just before bedtime when I turned it down on low and left it overnight.

Cinnamon Apple Butter after 10 hours cooking 

This morning it was mush and well cooked, I turned it on high again for another couple of hours (probably 12 in total cooking time) and then let it cool down a bit as I got the jars sterilized and ready for the apple butter. 

Apple butter is different from apple sauce which does not cook as long - also, apple sauce is made from usually one kind of apple. With apple butter, the key is in the use of a slow cooker, the apples are gently cooked over lower heat for a long period of time until the apples breakdown, caramelize and thicken. Lovely! Adding spices only makes it more tantalizingly yummy! 

Cinnamon Apple Butter on spelt bread

Next, on the agenda today is our feast dinner which will be ready for tonight (it's a full moon too!). I have a butterflied leg of lamb that has been marinating in homemade mustard sauce for a few hours. This will go into a warm oven to be slowly cooked over the afternoon to be ready for tonights' feast.  I usually make roasted root vegetables to go with this type of meal (sweet potato, carrot, turnip, onion and pumpkin). 

Lamb in mustard marinade

Lastly, during my preparations for the day, I decided to make my own mustard, mostly because I already had all the ingredients at hand for the marinade and I wanted to give it a go. The last time I made this it was tasty, but did not thicken (there's that thick thing again!) as much as I would have liked. I think that I did not put enough dry mustard in or maybe too much liquid. 

Today, it came out perfectly, I just kept blending it (I used an immersion blender) until it was where I was happy with it. The children were not impressed because it was a little spicy from all the mustard, but that is easy to change with a little honey added in. This is the simplest thing in the world to make - why on earth do we buy it??

Homemade mustard 

So, that is where I am at right now, the feast is in progress, the lamb already in the oven, the apple butter has been preserved in jars with some left out for our dinner, and there is enough great tasting mustard for a month! 

Now to get ready for the rest of the meal, hmmm, dessert - ginger cake and peach ice cream? 

Enjoy this day!

April

Bean Burgers

Yesterday was what we refer to in our house as a 'big eating day' or a day with a big meal of several courses and dessert. This is as opposed to a fast day, cleanse day, small eating day or festival! All of which are very different from each other and have their own significant meanings, rituals and celebrations.

For our big eating day, which usually follows our 10 day Master Cleanses - by way of a little celebration - we decided to have a mung bean burger feast with sheeps' cheese, roasted root vegetables, jasmine rice stir-fry with fresh greens/herbs from the garden and peach ice cream for dessert. 

Those of you who have my 1st recipe book The Way to Heal - Body, Mind & Soul, would be familiar with this recipe that has been loved by my family for a few years now. These are the absolute best bean burgers that you can possibly make and are preferred here over lamb burgers.

To make the bean burgers the main ingredient (mung beans) must first be sprouted over 2 or more days, I find them ideal after about 48 hours or so. Then once the beans are ready these are ground together with fresh greens such as spinach or yesterday I used baby rocket leaves from my garden and garlic.

Soaking Mung Beans

We then add grated carrot, chopped onion, leeks and broccoli to this burger base mixing it thoroughly and then frying it in hot sunflower oil. (And no, they do not fall apart) These are lovely with a piece of mature goat's cheese, homemade mayo and fresh naan bread right out of the oven. 

Needless to say, yesterday was a lovely meal for us - the culmination of days and weeks spent cleansing, cleaning and detoxing. I can only imagine how lovely next week will be with the harvest feast (Lughnasdh) just around the corner! 

Mung Bean Mixture - with rocket and garlic

Voila - bean burgers! 

Have a lovely day,

April