“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”

Hello ma’ Ladies. You can see that things have changed a little bit around here. I’ve decided to change the focus on this blog as it’s morphed in a short period of time into more of a foodie blog than anything. You can tell that cooking is something I’m tremendously passionate about. I found the raw food thing interesting and energizing and will probably return to it more fully at some point and certainly revisit it from time to time but I’ve realized that I just love ALL food too much to restrict myself and loved ones to the few things that Natalia gave a thumbs up to.
I haven’t seen the new flick, Julie and Julia, but all the hype about this movie has been getting me excited about cooking again and it’s reminded me just how much I LOVE to hang in the kitchen, concoct interesting eatable things and share a meal with new friends and old. I look forward to sharing a little bit of life with you through sharing different things I’ve prepared in the kitchen through this blog!  I hope you’re enjoying you’re all enjoying your weekend.

One Week Later and Where I’ve Been

Hello, Friends! Well, life has been happening lately and I just haven’t had the time to get on here. We’ve been spending much more time together as a family since Abel’s had more free time. Last night we took Uriah swimming at a pretty fun waterpark nearby. This was the FIRST time we’d been swimming as a family all summer long! That says a lot about how busy we’ve been!
In the week since I started blogging and detoxing, I’ve really had to make some adjustments to keep on this path. I’ve kind of backed off of Natalia’s Detox for Women plan and I’m trying to semi-follow her Raw Food Detox Diet which basically allows you to eat whatever you want as long as it’s high quality/organic and fresh as well as properly combined. That means I’ve been eating stuff like organic chicken, a fair amount of good carbs including sprouted grain bread (did I mention just how delicious the Food For Life brand Ezekiel bread in the red and white package is toasted with some good butter and honey?!). I’ve also been kind of relaxed about combining my foods well. I think that this blog is turning into more of a foodie blog than anything! I seem to be eating much like I did when I was preggo and to be honest, my appetite is much like it was back at that time! Perhaps it’s because I’m still nursing that I still have a pretty good appetite. Whatever! Really, I don’t think I ever had more peace with my body and food than when I was preggo so perhaps this place that I find myself isn’t that bad!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed hearing about some of the things I’ve cooked in the past week and that perhaps you’ve even tried some of these recipes. I’m excited to continue posting some delicious recipes! Here are some that I’ve been busy with lately:
For a fantastic and easy vegetarian chili recipe check this out: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/veg-head-three-bean-chili-recipe/index.html.
For a wonderful, seasonal, indulgent chocolate zucchini bread, check this out: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/ChocolateZucchiniBread.html.
I made a pretty yummy spelt pizza crust that I found here: http://www.cookingcache.com/breads/speltpizzacrust.shtml?rdid=rc1. I didn’t have molasses and it was still quite good.  I added a good amount of honey.  Spelt is an alternative grain to wheat and is quite de-lish.
One last thing before I sign off for now: Abel and I started working out together this week! It’s been INCREDIBLE for giving us some fun time together and providing more energy. There’s nothing like a good Billy Blanks video to make you feel ridiculous around your significant other! Oh yeah, we caved and ordered the infamous P90X that my bro’ and his wife, Jess started. Abel’s been wanting to do this for a long time and it was actually his suggestion that we get it and give it a try. I’m curious how this will go.

Love y’all!

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake and Perfectly Chocolate Frosting

Okay, Friends.  To your left is just one of the ways that I blew off the weekend and my detox.  I thought it would be nice to make a little victory indulgence for Abel (and myself) for all of his hard work studying for ordination.  He came back from all of his testing last night with the news that he got licensed but not ordained.  This is a HUGE victory in and of itself, the licensure part that is, but he still has to reappear before the presbytery in November to re-answer some questions on the sacraments that they want him to have down more solid before they ordain him.  So there’s much to celebrate and much more celebrating to come when he gets ordained!  I made both of us heart-shaped chocolate cakes from a recipe off of the back of a Hershey’s cocoa container.  This is simply the best chocolatey cake we’ve ever had!  You can find the recipe at www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=184.

This weekend I also enjoyed this salad that’s really more like a salsa from one of Rachael Ray’s cookbooks: http://stanford.wellsphere.com/kidney-failure-article/mexican-chunk-vegetable-salad/348109.  It’s pretty fantastic with some good corn chips (and I’m just now noticing that part of the web address for this salad includes the words, “kidney-failure” which is a little freaky, but oh well!).

I pretty much poorly combined my meals this whole weekend partly because I just decided not to care about stuff for awhile.  I definitely paid for it last night though!  Man oh man, did I have trouble sleeping last night, partly because I ate kind of late.  Does anyone know the feeling?  It’s like your body is so busy digesting all night long that it really interrupts your sleep and makes you wake up with a really sour stomach.  Yikes, I do not want to do that again!

I’m reading a marital book that was commended to me called Intimate Allies written by a fantastic counselor, Dan Allender and a Bible scholar, Tremper Longman.  These 2 paired up to create this pretty great book on some important relational issues within marriage and God’s design and will for man and wife.  Last night I busted it out and was reminded of some truly edifying stuff that I thought I’d share here.  Of course, this is written in the context of marriage but I think it applies in many ways to women in general and who God wants us to be.  Here’s a bunch of stuff from a section in a chapter called, “The Qualities of a Godly Wife”:

In spite of the efforts of certain women’s groups, the media’s picture of the ideal woman at the end of the 2oth century is still defined in predominantly physical terms.  And the neuroses of many modern women confirm the tensions that they experience  from the expectations of society.

What is the ideal woman in our society?  She is trim, thin, lithe.  Her hair is full, and her complexion is soft and lovely.  She dresses well and smells like a garden.  Her attitude toward men is seductive.

Our diverse society reflects variety in the image of the ideal woman, but whether she is pictured as an aggressive, competent businesswoman or a sultry, sexy siren, physical attrativeness is a constant standard for women to achieve and for men to desire.  The tragedy, of course, is that not all women can meet the standards erected by movies, ads, and tv.  Many of the stresses of modern women can be traced to a feeling of failure to live up to the modern ideal.

But society places an additional demand on modern women.  Not only should they be pretty, but they also need to excel at their careers.  Indeed, we should applaud recent progress in opening up access for women in areas that they formerly were prohibited from entering.  Women who do want to devote their lives to home, church, volunteer work, or noncareer work feel as if they are second-class women because they have not entered the professional workforce.

The pressures on all women in our society are intense.  The choices have expanded, and the voices that urge decisions have increased.

But what is the biblical picture of a godly woman?  The Bible will not specifically answer all the questions we want to ask it.  For instance, as we have already observed in Proverbs 31,  the Bible does allow for women to carry on a professional life, but that does not mean that every woman should.  It does not demand that a woman work outside the home, and the final choice is one that each woman must make in relation to her family.

However, the following passages provide an important lens through which we should view the pressures on women today.  And the first 2 passages affirm the perspective expressed in Proverbs 31:30: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”  The principle that stands boldly against modern standards is that physical beauty pales in signficance next to spiritual beauty.

The authors then quote 1 Timothy 2:9-15 and 1 Peter 3:1-6 which I encourage you to look up.  They stress that Paul and Peter’s, the writers of these passages, “tirade against braids, jewels, and expensive clothes should not be seen as some kind of puritanical hatred of beauty, but rather as a slap in our faces to make us wake up and see what is important.”  They conclude that, “compared to what is really important–namely our character and our relationship to God–physical beauty is insignificant.”  They say that this is good news to both men and women:

No longer is our ultimate worth connected to how thin we are, how tall we are, how sexually attractive we are.  What matters is our relationship to God and our spiritual maturity.  By faith we see that physical beauty is but a mere metaphor of a greater, more compelling beauty–a heart given to God.

I don’t know about you, but there’s MUCH for me to meditate on here and internalize and BELIEVE.

Italian Veggies with Goat Cheese and Day 2…

Here’s a pic of last night’s yummy feast.  I’m not sure if any of you are fan’s of butternut squash.  I didn’t think that I was until I sauteed it in some good olive oil.  What we have here is some sauteed onions and garlic with butternut squash, zucchini and mushrooms spiced up with some dried oregano and fresh basil and topped with some really good quality hard goat cheese.  This is easy and simply yum!

I broke a couple of “rules” yesterday including having a slice of banana bread made with some white flour and having a glass of coffee and some tea but no bigs, right?  I was up late studying with Abel for his ordination exams that are in progress as I type this.  I’m SO looking forward to passing this milestone and celebrating all of his hard work up to this point.  You know, once he passes ordination exams we will really have to celebrate because this is like the crowning jewel for all of our time in seminary and starting this new ministry here in Ashland.  I’m still trying to figure out what to get Abel as a gift(s).  He honestly seems to want a new X-Box more than anything, silly boy!  I love that my hubs loves to have some play time.

This morning, I didn’t juice but simply had some fresh fruit.  It’s definitely taking me some time getting used to not having my morning joe or cup o’ tea to start things off.  Both coffee and tea aren’t really advocated in Natalia’s plan.  Let’s see, what does she say about these two: They have a “negative effect on your adrenal glands…[and] put a strain on your immune system during a time when you want to give it all the support you can.”  She says that if you have to have your coffee that you should do it on an empty stomach otherwise it will “acidify everything it is taken with” but herbal tea is fine anytime.  For lunch, I had some of the leftover Italian veggies I made from last night sans goat cheese because a protein coupled with a starch is not a “Quick Exit Combination” that Natalia talks about.  I’ll talk about what this means in a sec’.  Last night when I topped my veg dish off with goat cheese I was breaking one of her rules but she does say that if you’re going to have a poorly combined meal that the best time to do it is during the evening meal since your body will be digesting that for several hours until you wake up and take more food into your body.  I guess this is a good place to introduce to you her concept of Quick Exit Combinations.  Here are Natalia’s categories of foods (Note: She says that vegetables combine well with ANY of these categories):

STARCHES: This category includes the whole grains that she mentions are okay 1-2x/week including millet, spelt, kamut, Ezekiel/sprouted grain breads—high quality, easily digestible grains–as well as brown rice and pasta from high quality grains; sweet potatoes; avocados; cooked corn (raw corn combines as a vegetable); and young coconuts.

FLESHES: Fish; eggs; organic chicken and other organic meats; game; shellfish; and raw goat cheese.  In Detox for Women, Natalia doesn’t really advocate eating organic meats like chicken or other meats but in her first book, Raw Food Detox Diet, she says it’s okay depending on where you are in your transition to raw food.  If anyone has questions about this, let me know!

NUTS/SEEDS/DRIED FRUITS: Raw nuts; raw seeds; raw, unsulfured dried fruits; almond butter; and mature coconut (small and brown).  Again in her book Detox for Women, she doesn’t suggest women eat nuts.

FRESH FRUITS: Citrus; bananas; plums; nectarines; grapes; berries; and other fruits.  In her book for women she recommends low-sugar fruits only on occasion.

Again, she says that any of these categories combine well with veggies but they shouldn’t be combined with one another to ensure proper digestion and quick elimination, thus they’re called “Quick Exit” Combos.  I have to say that I’m definitely feeling a lightness in my gut and I’m on the throne many more times than normal.  Until now, I didn’t really notice how bloated I usually am when I just eat whatever and however I want, even though I’m a pretty healthy eater, but I can definitely say that my mid-section is much less inflated.  I’m liking this!

Dinner tonight wasn’t anything special but properly combined and pretty darn good.  I’ve noticed that this way of eating really simplifies my shopping list and my recipes in general.  Uriah can eat most of this stuff too.  This way of eating isn’t just for big people.  Natalia has great suggestions for food for babies, kids, preggos and even dudes.  She doesn’t emphasize the Quick Exit stuff and properly combined meals for kids though in order to allow for more flexibility.  She talks about something she calls “baby shakes” which are basically fruits and veggies blended together for babes.  Uri’s dinner tonight was a whole banana with an avocado and some almond milk all blended together.  He LOVED it.  I liked the taste or two that I sneeked as well!

Well, if any of you are ready to start feeling better in many different ways, let me know!  I’d love some company on this new path!  Kepp checking back here for yummy recipes.  Love y’all!!

Day Eins, Uno, One

Ahhh, I can feel things moving right along, if you know what I mean, as I slurp down my carrot-romaine juice! Don’t get me wrong: I can admit that it’s an ugly, ugly drink but there’s a certain sweetness about it that I kind of dig and knowing that it’s full of tons of good stuff that I couldn’t just sit down and eat in a salad, I’m feeling good. Hold on a sec’…Okay. I’m back. The throne was calling! I’m not trying to be crude but just wanted to share that this stuff is ALREADY working on day 1! You see, I had some low-sugar fruit this morning, an apple and banana, of course only on an empty stomach just like Natalia says to do and now I’m having my veg juice. I’ll have to get a pic of this juice on here at some point. It looks and tastes (slightly) like chocolate milk! Crazy! I’ll have to trick Uriah out sometime later when he knows what chocolate milk is! Getting back to talking about elimination though, Natalia has a theory that I think makes a lot of sense and it is this: Weight=waste. So this means that a lot of that extra weight you’re carrying around is there because of what you put in your body, a.k.a., all of that processed, man-made stuff.
So I got stocked up this morning at the supermarket on the things that Natalia emphasizes–stuff for juicing, including romaine, carrots, kale, apples and lemons; sweet potatoes with organic butter and honey; tons of veggies for salads; some almond milk for added calcium and vitamin D; almond butter and celery, a favorite snack of mine; and of course, some organic dark chocolate. The 2 juice recipes that I seem to gravitate toward the most (I’ve been juicing for a few months now here and there but it’s really emphasized in Natalia’s program) are the carrot-romaine which is 1 pound of carrots with one head of romaine and the green lemonade from her book. The latter of these is really quite good. It’s composed of a head of romaine, 4-5 kale leaves (and I’m not a big fan of kale but it’s really quite good in this juice) along with one lemon and 1-2 apples.
For lunch today, I’m probably going to do a really big salad what with all the fresh veggies people keep bringing us from their gardens here in the country. I’ll probably do one of Natalia’s favorite dinners for supper, some sauteed Italian veggies with some good organic pasta sauce on top and some goat cheese. I’ll make Abe some pasta to keep his meal related to mine. I know you’re probably wondering how this is going to work with having a hubby who’s NOT embarking on this food journey with me. I hope to incorporate a lot more fresh produce into his meals but I don’t want to be forceful about it or make him feel like he has to do what I’m doing. I hope that I rub off on him a bit.
Part of the Scripture that I read this morning comes from Acts 19:11-22. In sum, it’s about the sons of Sceva, the group of Jews that heard about what Paul was doing in casting out evil spirits from people and healing the sick. They wanted to do what Paul was doing even though they didn’t know Jesus. They went around casting out evil spirits in Jesus’ name! The evil spirit says, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” We probably all know this story. Later on in the passage, many in Ephesus, including Jews and Greeks, confess Jesus as Lord as they were filled with great “fear” as they witnessed Paul’s miracles. I’m particularly drawn to the part where God speaking through His Word says, “Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done. Some of them who had used magic brought their magic books and burned them before everyone. Those books were worth about fifty thousand silver coins.” Seeing the word “evil” strikes me as different ’cause I mean, how often do we hear or see this word in the world? Not often, right?! So many of us hardly even think about evil even though it’s out there and inside of us. I guess what gets me the most about this passage is the passion that the former magicians express even deciding to burn precious items all as a result of wanting to pursue Jesus and the life that He alone offers. The question for you and me is obvious, right: What happens when God’s people turn away from sin and truly seek to obey him? What sins do you and I need to put away?  I know that for me, I don’t want to idolize food, detoxing, Natalia, my body, etc., throughout this process.  Actually, I’m hoping that embarking on this new path will allow all of those things to take a back seat.  One of the things Natalia talks about that comes with eating more healthily is mental and spiritual clarity.  I’ve experienced this kind of clarity before through detoxing and I’m looking forward to experiencing it again.  It’s amazing how wonderful you can feel in your heart and mind when you’re not making food an issue and to incorporate our passage for today, it’s amazing how wonderful you can feel when you know that you’re pursuing God with all you are and bringing your idols to Him to be cast out.  One of the things that deeply saddens me about the detox movement and community in general is that they understand body cleansing but they don’t seem to understand the heart cleansing and thus the reason Jesus is so important and necessary to solve our whole real dilemma as human beings.  Love you all!

Okay, So I Needed Just 1 More Day…

So it’s our 3rd anniversary today and I feel like I need just one more day to say goodbye to some of my favorite foods before embarking on Natalia’s Detox for Women. I really hope that this doesn’t turn into a case of the, “I’ll do it tomorrow”s. Does anyone out there know what I’m talking about?! Well, I better be off. Abel’s taken the whole day off just to spend together which is a huge deal since he’s going through ordination right now. I’m so glad that he’s decided to put things on hold so that we can be together. We really need this time. Our little love Uriah will be going with us on our anniversary adventures. I think we’re going to venture out to some great botanical gardens and sushi. Marriage takes A LOT of work, but today I’m especially thankful for it. It’s such an opportunity to grow in ways that wouldn’t happen otherwise. My mom told me the other day that it’s easy to think that you’re a patient person until you have things that really challenge your so-called patience like kids for instance, and I think it’s the same with marriage: It’s easy to think you’re a pretty good person until you get married and see all of the flaws and real sin in your life and heart. Iron sharpens iron, you know? Well, friends, love you and have a beautiful day.

So, Why am I Doing This?!

Hello my friends!

Although I keep telling myself that there’s NO WAY I have time for a blog with a nearly 1-year old son, being involved with church revitalization and working part-time not to mention all of the little projects I take on here and there, I thought I’d give it a go.  Part of this is because I’ve experienced SO much encouragement through many of your own blogs/websites and I’m hoping that this will be encouraging to you somehow as well.  But I also want to do this because I’ve shared a little bit and a lot with some of you about my past relationship with food and by pursuing a little self-cleaning for the next 90 days, I’m hoping to feel better but also discuss some of my thoughts about food, the body and the soul.  Thanks for walking on this journey with me!    Every one of you whom I’ve asked to check out this blog have been such true friends on the journey.  I hope that this experiment with fresher food will take you not only into what’s going on in my body but also what’s going on in my heart and spirit.  Who knows?  Perhaps I’ll continue this blogging thing past the 90 days which officially start in the next day or so.

Some of you know that I’ve been trying to get on the raw-food train for a few months now with some ups and downs.  I don’t think that I’ve ever really tried this full-throttle, so this is my stab at it.  Consider me an experiment in the raw food world!  Natalia Rose,  a thoughtful and intelligent woman with some pretty sweet credentials, wrote a book called, Detox for Women, which was made available just this past spring.  I have to admit that as a Christian woman, there’s A LOT about her knowledge base that I simply cannot accept, but she’s definitely on to A LOT too.  If you haven’t heard of her, I commend her to you.  It’s this book off of which I’ll be basing my next 90 days.  In summary, this is what I’ll be doing:

What I can go “hog wild” on includes: All fresh veggie juice, all raw veggies including steamed veggies, non and low-starch veggies—green veggies to mushrooms, carrots, and beets.

What’s considered okay daily includes: Avocados, fresh fish, raw goat cheese, high starch veggies—sweet potatoes, butternut squash.  Oh, not to forget dark chocolate!

I’ll be avoiding: Fruits, grains, nuts, mainstream animal products, beans, mainstream package foods, soy products, white flour, sugar, and cow products.

Those things considered exceptions include: Low sugar fruits—berries, grapefruit, apples, bananas–grains such as millet, kamut, and spelt but only minimally, 1-2 x/wk.

There are MANY benefits promised by Natalia that follow from adhering to this way of eating which include great elimination (some of you ladies know how wonderful this can be when you’ve struggled as I have and perhaps you have!), weight loss with little exercise required (especially awesome for those like me who are still trying to lose some baby weight), and great energy and lightness of body and spirit.  I’m definitely looking forward to these benefits but probably my biggest motivation is an upcoming trip to Mexico with my family during which I’ll be living in a swimsuit.  That’s a little bit of a scary thought at this point, but hopefully I’ll be feeling better about that after these next 90 days.  Okay, ladies, hopefully this will go really well and encourage you in going more natural in your eating habits.  Check back here for some wonderful, fresh recipes that I’ll be trying.  I don’t want this just to be about food but I hope to discuss other issues along the way including how we as Christan women are to view the body and beauty itself.  I definitely want to know your thoughts along my journey!  Love you all!!!