Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014
Katz Delicatessen (NYC) Pastrami Rueban Sandwich
Although I don’t like to think of how I eat as a “diet” … sometimes that word just works.
Today, I’m sharing with you a meal I had in New York recently, where I went off the rails completely in exchange for a true New York foodie experience. Was it worth it? Oh yes. Yes, I enjoyed every devilish bite.
As you can see from the picture above, I had a sandwich. Ooooh so crazy, eh? Ha. Well, since I don’t eat wheat these days, it was very different for me. Plus, it wasn’t grass fed. But, a healthy lifestyle goes beyond just food. It involves happy experiences, family, friends, rest, fun, and so much more. And, take note, I always say that when I travel to France (some day), I will enjoy their authentic foods with pleasure in all its wheat filled glory. Same goes for Italy.
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Grass Fed Beef Tongue Ratatouille
BREAKFAST
- Fermented Cod Liver Oil. High Vitamin Butter Oil. – I took a teaspoon of each and chugged them down with filtered water. They have fat-soluble vitamins that work synergistically to help boost immunity, longevity, and fertility. That being said, while I’m pretty sold on the beauty of High Vitamin Butter Oil, I’m not completely sold on the fermented cod liver oil. My jury is still out. I praise it for the high vitamin A content which is why I like it (along with the vitamin D), but I’m not sure we need fish oil in our diets especially if we already eat a low omega-6 diet, thereby requiring less need for omega-3? Not to mention, we eat sardines and wild caught salmon (along with other high quality grass fed animal products) giving us great sources of omega-3. I’m not sure I’ll ever have the answer so I usually choose to have the fermented cod liver oil on hand in the case of illness but not take it regularly.
- 2 raw pasture-raised, organic egg yolks swallowed from a shot glass and chased with iced herbal tea. Oftentimes I add 2 to 3 drops of this crazy hot and therapeutic cayenne tincture.
- Smoked Oysters (canned)
- Vitamin Supplements (various ones like magnesium, CoQ, organic turmeric – taken with fat, probiotic – trying a new one, multi)
- Decaf Upgraded Coffee with organic grass fed cream and Upgraded grass fed Collagen
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Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
Olive n Veggie Pasta (gluten free, paleo, raw vegan)
The first time I created this recipe both my husband and I knew it’d become a regular in our house, and it has been for years. The textures and flavors are refreshing and delicious (especially fantastic during the warm summer months), and it’s a pretty dish. Oh, it takes a maximum of 10-minutes to throw together – I love that.
Olive and Veggie Pasta (Gluten Free. Raw Vegan. Paleo.)
Yield 2 servings
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 medium to large red bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 avocado, pitted, scooped / peeled, and diced
- 6 raw olives, pitted and chopped*
- 4 to 5 leaves fresh basil, chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh chives or 1 green onion, chopped
- fresh organic lemon or lime juice, a good squeeze’s worth
- drizzle high quality raw olive oil
- sea salt, to taste
- Using a spiral vegetable slicer, spiralize the zucchini into noodles (if you have kids, have them help with this because they’ll love it). If you don’t have a spiral slicer, use a vegetable peeler to cut the zucchini into long, thin, ribbon-like slices.
- Put the zucchini in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients.
- Toss well with some fun bamboo hands and serve immediately.
* We really love Essential Living Foods Raw Peruvian Black Botija Olives. They are so unbelievably good… very juicy and meaty. The only ingredients are organic raw botija olives and sea salt.
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Thursday, April 10th, 2014
Modding my Chipotle Bowl with 5 ingredients for higher performance.
As you all know by now, I’m a wee bit picky when it comes to my food. I want the highest quality and most nutritious goodness for my body and for my family. I want high performance, longevity, and energy. So, to ensure I get all of those things I prepare all of our high quality foods from scratch. That’s no small task as you might imagine, but it matters to me.
Sometimes, I need a break, or sometimes we’re traveling and food choices are limited.
Chipotle Bowl with white rice, steak, and guacamole. It needs to be enhanced.
One of the places on our list of “OK to eat” is Chipotle. It’s by no means perfect; but, on the spectrum of fast casual restaurants, they get my vote. They try to source quality ingredients and they listen to their customers. For example, they changed their oil by switching from crap gmo soy oil and now use less-crappy-but-still-crappy rice bran oil due to customer complaints.
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Red bell peppers
It’s time for a raw plant based recipe today. A fun one, too. Even though I eat a diet rich in high quality animal products, it doesn’t mean I don’t make my family raw plant-based recipes, too. I find value in raw vegan recipes for their diversity to my family’s diet and the phtyo-nutrients they offer. Whole-food, plant-based recipes have a place in all diets although I no longer subscribe to a 100% plant based diet anymore for us.
Apart from the soaking time of the sunflower seeds, this recipe can be whipped up in no time flat – that’s my kind of recipe. Or, use Go Raw sunflower seeds which are already sprouted and it’ll take even less effort. The texture of the final recipe will have some crunch since the seeds won’t be soaked but that’s totally cool, too.
Easy Stuffed Peppers (Gluten Free. Raw Vegan. Paleo.)
Yield 2 servings
- 3⁄4 cup raw organic sunflower seeds
- 1⁄2 cup chopped celery
- 2 tablespoons organic flax meal
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons minced fresh chives
- 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
- 1⁄4 teaspoon himalayan crystal salt (or perhaps less, if using already salted seeds like these)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1⁄8 teaspoon chipotle powder
- dash of freshly ground pepper
- 2 medium to large organic red, orange, or yellow bell peppers
- Put the sunflower seeds in a bowl and add filtered water to cover by about 1 inch. Let them soak at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours, or overnight if that’s easier. Drain the sunflower seeds and rinse. Remember, if you use already soaked and sprouted raw sunflower seeds like Go Raw’s then you can skip this step.
- In a food processor, combine the sunflower seeds with celery, flax meal, chives, lime juice, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Process the mixture until it’s a lightly coarse texture.
- Cut the top off each bell pepper, including the stem, and pull out the seeds. Stuff the bell peppers with the sunflower seed mixture. Serve immediately.
Image credit
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My husband’s solution to not using tap water at our hotel, while traveling in Mexico. Cover up the faucet with a horse face. I’m sure housekeeping was amused.
We traveled to Mexico during the winter and it was the first time taking Kamea outside of the United States. I was concerned about the possibility of getting ill as you so often hear from people traveling to Mexico, so I did my best to research and prepare well for the trip. Thankfully, as a result of my preparations and packing, we all stayed perfectly healthy.
Please note: I am not a doctor, nor a midwife, nor a nurse… I don’t even have a Ph.D. in motherhood yet. The following info, as well as everything on my blog, is not to be considered medical advice. Please, do your own research.
Before leaving for Mexico, we were advised by our Naturopathic doctors to start taking probiotics and to continue taking them while traveling. We usually have probiotics on hand in the house anyway so that was easy. Here is the brand that Greg and I take and here is what Kamea takes.
The following list is what I packed for our trip.
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Wednesday, March 26th, 2014
I keep these in the car for enhancing foods I eat at restaurants.
We had a very busy day so I thought I would share how we sometimes eat when we have a full schedule and we’re on the go. The majority of our meals are all made from scratch three times a day, and almost always eaten at home. However, sometimes I need a bit of help in the kitchen so there are few organic premade items that I buy from the grocery store (jars of organic tomatoes as they’re often more delicious than fresh tomatoes depending on the season, organic pasta sauce – with no sugar added, snack bars, gluten free crackers, sardines, smoked wild caught sockeye salmon, etc). And, sometimes we eat at a couple of carefully chosen restaurants.
Here was our schedule on this busy day…
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Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
I’m not much of a social butterfly, though I pretend to be one sometimes (because deep down I wish I were more extroverted). But I’m a mom now, and, well, Kamea needs more human interaction than just from her parents, right? Add homeschooling to the equation and the pressure increases to expose her to people and situations so she doesn’t grow up to be a hermit.
Therefore, the hunt to do more with others began for us.
Kamea learning science. Homeschool.
To start, it seemed like a good idea to enroll Kamea is various classes where she could learn skills, enjoy herself, experience new activities, and meet other kiddos. I put her in classes like music, gymnastics, dance, swim, etc, but I learned that in those structured environments it’s kind of difficult to really meet and get to know the other kids. Not to mention it’s hard to strike up a conversation with other parents who usually have their noses in their smart phones. Err… not that I would ever do this myself.
So, I did what I always do when I’m trying to figure something out… I went to the internet. It works for most things, including introducing me to my husband years ago (thanks, eharmony!), so why not see if I can learn how to make more friends for us with it?
Enter: Meetup.com
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
Spicy Metabolic Vanilla C Tonic with grapefruit
Everyone has heard of the master cleanse right? I tried that diet / cleanse, among most others. I lasted almost 5 days before I was so hungry I was dreaming of lettuce to eat, desperate as I was. Well. I have to admit that the tonic you make on the Master Cleanse is pretty darn tasty and possibly has some nutritional value, but not nearly enough. That’s where my Spicy Metabolic Vanilla C Tonic comes into play. It’s my spin of the Master Cleanse tonic that is to be enjoyed whenever and where ever BUT not as a replacement for food! Note: I am not suggesting that you drink this as part of that cleanse, or any cleanse, that involves removing food because I am not a fan of cleanses – food is a good thing. I’m simply sharing a delicious and nutritious tonic that you can drink anytime.
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Ginger Cream Green Smoothie
Do you ever feel like you want more salad in your life but simply lack the motivation to get everything out, chop it up, make a dressing, and put it all together? I know I do, and that’s why I’m drawn to green smoothies, especially lately. By making green smoothies like the one I’m sharing with you today, I’m able to get light and fresh greens in my diet… and, it’s quick which is important to me. I’m a busy mama who home schools, reads, plays Words with Friends, socializes on play-dates at the park, and makes all of our meals from scratch. Oh and I clean the home on occasion. So, yeah. Busy.
Green smoothies are pretty regular in our house, but they’re probably not the same as the green smoothies you see so often on the web which are usually full of dark leafy greens like kale, chard, or even spinach. If I eat those, I cook them for proper nutrient import and export.
I also don’t feel drawn to a high sugar or carb-heavy diet these days, even if it is from fruits, so you won’t see many fruits in my smoothies. I do eat berries and some seasonal citrus, and I’m not opposed to fruit in general, but I find that I feel better if I’m not eating too much of it. So these days, I like to keep my smoothies sweet-fruit-free.
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Hi! I'm a chef, author, homeschooling mom, and I love to eat and cook super healthy food. I'm a former vegan, now real-food omnivore, who enjoys coffee(!), dark chocolate, rebounding, and researching the latest tips for optimal living. 
