Organic Recipes

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the Weston A Price annual conference will be in Dallas in November. I noticed someone mentioned the Website. I've heard great things about the conference, and look forward to attending.

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My daughter (7) follows the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (breakingtheviciouscycle.info) due to several autoimmune illnesses. Until we started her (and us for the most part) on this diet, I didn't realize how much hidden, unnecessary junk is in food I thought was generally healthy. I have had to learn to cook from scratch, which takes up a lot of time, but has been so worth it. It's great you are going to cook healthy meals for your family!

My daughter LOVES banana pancakes. They are made with one banana and two eggs. Mix them in a blender and pour small amounts on a griddle (like silver dollar size). I cook them on medium and wait until they bubble before I flip them. There are photos on my blog here:

http://cravingthesavings.com/?p=3497

I also have a few other recipes I shared on my blog before I stopped blogging:

http://cravingthesavings.com/?cat=34

I just got a slow cooker and made a delicious taco salad recipe. I was surprised how good it tasted...smelled/tasted like our local Mexican restaurant's food. Here's the recipe:

TACO SALAD

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken breast
16 oz salsa - mix together:
-->4 medium tomatoes, chopped
-->1/2 white onion, chopped
-->3 cloves garlic, pressed
-->1/2-3/4 tube tomato paste (used the 360 brand from Whole Foods)
-->3/4 cup white vinegar
-->1/2 tsp cumin
2 cans of black beans (drained, soaked overnight and rinsed)
Taco seasoning - mix together:
-->1/4 cup minced onion
-->2 tbsp chili powder
-->1 tbsp minced garlic
-->1 tbsp salt
-->2 tsp paprika
-->2 tsp crushed dried red pepper flakes
-->1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
-->1 tsp cumin
-->1/2 tsp dried marjoram
-->1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Head of iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-2 avocados (optional)
Dripped SCD yogurt (optional)

In a slow cooker, layer the following items in the order listed below:

1. Salsa
2. Black beans
3. Half of the taco seasoning
4. Chicken (3-5 pieces)
5. Remaining taco seasoning

Cook on low for 7 hours. Once done, pull out the chicken breasts and shred (or do it in the slow cooker if able) and place back into the slow cooker. Mix the slow cooker's contents.

Ten minutes prior to serving, sprinkle one cup of shredded cheddar cheese on top.

Place a layer of shredded lettuce in the bottom of a bowl or plate. Scoop out a cup or two of the chicken mixture from the slow cooker. If desired, top with additional shredded cheddar, a few slices of avocado and a scoop of dripped SCD yogurt.

Makes approximately 10-12 servings.

*SCD yogurt is homemade yogurt that is fermented for 24 hours. When it is dripped, it tastes somewhat like sour cream when mixed in food. You could substitute with regular sour cream.

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I made this recipe today and it turned out well. I didn't puree it - so it was more like a chili.

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

1 pound dried black beans (or alternatively, 3 - 15 ounce cans of black beans, drained and rinsed)
1 - 15 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilis, undrained
1 - 15 ounce can pureed pumpkin
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth (I make my own broth in the slow cooker)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalepeno, seeded and minced (I didn't add this)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin (I doubled this)
1/2 teaspoon oregano (I doubled this)
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper (I added more after it was done)
hot pepper sauce to taste (only if you like "hot"... I preferred it without the sauce)
Cilantro, Cheddar Cheese and SCD Dripped Yogurt or Sour Cream (optional toppings)

If using dried beans, pour them in a large stock pot, covered with water 3 inches above the beans. Bring to a boil and simmer for one hour or until soft. You may do this a day or two before making the soup.

Combine the beans and all remaining ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook on low 8-10 hours, high 4-5 hours.

Once ready to serve, puree a bit of the soup to make it thick.

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If you like these recipes, Google "SCD" or "Specific Carbohydrate Diet" recipes to find others.

Good luck!

If you are looking for nutrient dense meals a great site to go to is www.nourishedkitchen.com. A great website to research is www.westonaprice.org as well.
Dr. Mercola has some great skincare I think you will like as well at www.mercola.com. You can also do a test called Nutritional Typing on his website to see which foods your body chemistry needs to thrive and lose or maintain your healthy weight. After you complete the nutritional typing you get a free downloadable cookbook too! The test is also free!
Hope this helps and congrats on making the hard choices to get back to the basics and support organics and local farms.
Another good site that will help you with your purchases with fruits and veggies is www.ewg.org. It's the environmental working group website. They are a non-profit without any government money in their pockets (so they are un-biased). You can get a list of the "dirty dozen" and the "clean 15" of fruits and veggies. You may not have to buy everything certified organic, so read the list see which ones you MUST and which you can skip buying organic to save some cash.
I always tell my patients that to save money use this list, buy organic when you can, next best is to buy local.
You may know most of this, just thought I would put it out there for all the other mommies that are heading in this direction as well!
Hope this helps!

Good for you!! In terms of the cooking question, here is my solution. We subscribe to a veggie share (community supported agriculture, or CSA), which basically means we get a veggie box every week full of fresh organic local produce. I'm sure you guys have something in your area that's similar...most farms do fall/winter shares too, with lots of squashes and root veggies.

Every week I roast veggies (no oil; roast at 350 until soft)...carrots, tomatoes, squash (whatever kind we get), yellow or green beans, eggplant. Then I puree and freeze them, like I'm making baby food. But my kids are 2 and 4 now...so every day or every other day I will pull out one of my veggie purees from the freezer, thaw it, and incorporate it into whatever I'm making for dinner that night. All of the veggies are organic, and also I buy organic milk, pastas, eggs, etc. The rest of veggie box usually contains some greens, which I love to saute, or if you get kale, you can make kale chips with...my kids love them! (recipe below). Also we get fresh broccoli, carrots, herbs, and tomatoes, all which I use a variety of ways (ideas below).

For the purees:

Tomato:
1) Spanish rice: add some pureed tomato to the water/stock after boiling, when you add rice...adds a beautiful color to your rice and tons of nutrients to the dish.
2) Tomato sauce - just throw your pureed tomatoes in a saucepan, add some good olive oil, salt, garlic, oregano, and simmer until yummy. Pour over pasta or use in lasagna or eggplant parmesan.

Eggplant:
1) Slip into meat mixture when making meatballs or hamburgers

Squash:
1) Stir into mac & cheese - your child will never know it's in there!
2) Stir into grits that you cook on the stove...also stir in pieces of colby or sharp cheddar cheese. YUMMM

Carrots:
1) After thawed, mix well with peanut butter and use on pb&j.

Also pretty much any of these purees can be blended into a soup or chili.

Broccoli - I LOVE this cut into bite-size pieces, drizzled with olive oil & salt, and roasted at 375 for about 12 minutes (until the heads are a little crispy)
Carrots - awesome kid snack cut up and served with hummus...mine like it with red pepper too

Kale - if you get the super curly variety of kale, you can slice leaves into about 4 pieces, drizzle with olive oil, and roast at 450 for a few minutes...they will crisp up like chips and taste like heaven. Just keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Happy Organic Cooking mama!

I follow these blogs:
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/
http://www.totallyhealthyrecipes.com/

I also find random recipes off of the foodnetwork.com and whole foods websites and just use my organic ingredients.

No suggestions for the healthy foods part, but as far as the makeup goes, Mary Kay is one of the best makeup brands that is very environmentally friendly...they have an entire department that works on being "green"!

The Whole Foods website has vegetarian as well as healthy recipes using meat. I like the photos, ratings and comments.

www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes

http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://www.anjasfood4thought.com/p/recipe-index.html
http://www.foodista.com/browse/recipes
http://www.girlcooksworld.com/
http://healthymamainfo.com/category/nutrition/
http://spoonfulofsugarfree.com/