Beet chips

Delicious Beet Chips 

The boys and I visited the farm yesterday and pulled out a few beets out of the garden while we were there.

This morning I decided to make best chips with them since I haven't had beet chips since last summer! 

If you have never tried beet chips before then I highly encourage you to try them! Making your own is really easy too! 

Gord took over making them!

Using parchment paper
so they don't stick

Mandolin

About two years ago I got really into making best chips and I invested in a mandolin for slicing them nice and thin because they cook up nice and crisp but if some are thicker than the others you will find your self removing some early and keeping some in the oven to crisp up longer! Either that or you will have burned ones or undercooked ones! So having the mandolin is nice for ensuring you get more uniform thickness on all your chips! But not necessary! 

Anyways you just slice them up, toss them with a bit of olive oil and sea salt and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until they start to crisp up!

I like to use parchment paper to bake them on so that they don't stick to the pan.  Makes it easy!

Banana Pancakes

These little things are quickly becoming a Saturday a Tradition in our house!

This morning Asher asked for them and it's probably our 4th Saturday in a row making them :) 

Good thing for me these are super simple to make and only require two ingredients.

Banana Pancakes

1 banana

2 eggs

Directions: blend until smooth. Pour into hot frying pan and cook on both sides like a pancake until golden brown.





The great thing is that they cool quite quickly so they are perfect for the impatient baby begging for more!

Fresh homemade Ricotta Cheese

Yesterday afternoon I decided to make a batch of Ricotta for my Zucchini Lasagna since I had no cottage cheese or Ricotta on hand. 

It's been quite a while since I've made it, but I wanted to make the Lasagna and was inspired to make a batch PLUS it's so EASY! 

Any time I've mentioned having made Ricotta people seem to think I'm crazy, it might sound impressive to some that I made Ricotta cheese but to be honest it's SO easy! 

And you probably have all the ingredients in your fridge! 

Fresh homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk

1 cup half and Half cream

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

5 Tbsp lemon juice (approx two fresh squeezed lemons)

Combine milk, cream and salt into a medium sized pot. Attach candy thermometer to the side. 

If you don't have a Candy thermometer, no worries just let the milk mixture come to a boil slowly, it will all work out!

Stir occasionally while heating. When the temperature reaches 190 (once boiled) remove from the heat and add in the lemon juice. This will cause the curds and the whey to separate.  Stir slightly once and then let it rest for 5 minutes to allow it to separate do not stir at this point.  

You can see how the Curds and Whey are separating 

Line a strainer using either cheese cloth, coffee filter or even a few layers of paper towel.  I've used all 3 and it works either way! 

Pour your Curds and Whey into the lined strainer and leave it to drain until the curds and Whey have completely separated and all the whey is drained away.

This is the makeshift set up I used (I couldn't find my cheese cloth): 

Two strainers lined with coffee filters.  It did the trick!

Store Bought Cost Comparison

Is it cheaper to make Ricotta at home? 

Consider this..... a small tub of Ricotta Cheese will run you about $5 contains about half of what this homemade batch will give you. 

I might have used about 1/4 of my milk which costs me $5.09 which is about $1.27 in milk, and a cup of my cream which is about a 1/3 of the container do that probably cost me another 1.25. And the lemon juice and sea salt are just a few cents. 

So for about $2.55 I made my own Ricotta cheese as opposed to paying $5 and having a bunch of extra ingredients in it.  Plus I got more Ricotta from my homemade batch than I would have with the tub at the store!

I didn't get a good picture but there were a couple unnecessary ingredients listed probably used to preserve it on the grocery store shelves.

The homemade version lasts about 3 days in the fridge but I find that it never lasts that long (because we eat it so quickly)!

What's nice is that if I come across a recipe I want to try that calls for Ricotta, I don't have to run to the store or no make it because I don't have that ingredient because I am able to make up a batch at home if needed!  

Week 8 - 10 Weeks of Real Food Mini Pledges

Week 8 of the 10 weeks of real food mini pledges is about reading the ingredients on packaging and counting them!!!  This week I'm going to ask you to avoid any and all packaged food products that contain more than five ingredients no matter what ingredients are listed.  Obviously it would be ideal if these ingredients adhered to the other pledges we have already completed.   

Here is Michael Pollan's take on this rule:

“Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients. The specific number you adopt is arbitrary, but the more ingredients in a packaged food, the more highly processed it probably is. Note 1: A long list of ingredients in a recipe is not the same thing; that’s fine. Note 2: Some products now boast, somewhat deceptively, about their short ingredient lists. Häagen-Dazs has a new line of ice creamed called ‘five.’ Great–but it’s still ice cream. Same goes for the three-ingredient Tostitos corn chips advertised by Frito-Lay–okay, but they’re still corn chips.”

Try to find products where the ingredients are all real food and have a max of 5 listed!  It's a challenge but I know you can do it!!  

The main goal of this rule is to get people to start reading and scrutinizing the ingredient labels on their food
To give you a leg up here is a list of groceries that typically have less than 5 ingredients listed: 

• All fruits, vegetables, local meat/animal products, and wild-caught seafood
• Dried fruit, nuts and seeds
• Popcorn
• Carrot Raisin Manna Bread (Freezer Section)
• Lara bars
• Triscuits
• Fruit leathers
• Applesauce
• Whole-wheat Matzo crackers
• Brown rice crackers and cakes
• Oats
• Cheese
• Brown rice
• Whole-wheat pasta
• Olives
• Beans
• Peanut butter
• Puffed whole-grain corn cereal
• Shredded wheat cereal
• 100% pure maple syrup and honey

Good Luck!

Week 7 - Real Food Mini Pledge - Unrefined Oils and Healthy fats!

Here is Mini Pledge Week 7: No refined or hydrogenated oils including (but not limited to): vegetable oil, organic vegetable oil, soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, organic canola oil, margarine, and grape seed oil.

Olive oil, for example, that is unrefined, uses olives that have been pressed to extract the oil, but the oil itself hasn’t been filtered, heated, treated with chemicals, and so on. In other words, without getting too technical, it’s in its pure state.

Overall, it is best to consume unrefined oils.

Many of the oils used in the modern American diet are hazardous to our health. They are processed, cleaned with chemicals, and most come from genetically modified corn, canola or soy. Most oils found on the grocery store aisles are heated to very high temperatures during processing; this heat oxidizes the oils. Oxidation also creates free radicals that can damage the cells of our bodies so it is best to avoid them. The processing increases the shelf-life of the oils and removes most of the natural flavoring, making them more attractive for the industrial food industry, but less attractive to the consumer. Vegetable oils, like canola and corn oil, are usually made with genetically modified corn, canola, and soy. So, I suggest you limit the use of such oils and stick with unrefined oils.

Here’s an easy checklist of oils to avoid:

Vegetable Oil
Organic Vegetable Oil
Soybean Oil
Corn Oil
Canola Oil
Organic Canola Oil
Grape Seed Oil
Hydrogenated Oils
Margarine
Any oil that is labeled as refined, hydrogenated, partially-hydrogenated

Oils to use:

Coconut Oil - When buying coconut oil, make sure you buy organic, unrefined, centrifuged oil. To receive the maximum benefits you really want to find the best oil possible. Coconut oil is extremely stable so it is great to use when higher heat is necessary. In a typical recipe, coconut oil can be used as a replacement for other oils 1:1. If you are sautéing, however, I have found that you need less coconut oil than you may initially think (due to low water content), so use it very sparingly.

Butter - best is organic and grass fed but regular butter will do for this challenge!  Go for unsalted.

Olive Oil - When buying olive oil, look for oil that is extra virgin, cold-pressed, and unfiltered.

Sesame oil is a stable oil that is great for cooking at high heats.

Red palm oil is a beautifully rich red oil that contains oleic and linoleic acid.

Flaxseed oil is rich in omega-3s and should be kept refrigerated until consumed. Since heat will oxidize this oil, it should not be used to cook with, but rather only added to salads, smoothies, and other cold foods. It is best to use this oil in small quantities because the body absorbs it slowly. I add Flaxseed oil to Asher's Smoothies to bump up his calorie level because he has a hard time putting on weight!

Lard – preferably from organic, pastured animals

Ghee (clarified butter) – good to use at high temperatures

Tallow – preferably from organic, pastured animals

Avocado oil – good to use at high temperatures

Although cooking at home with healthy oils can be an easy switch, it can be far more difficult to find processed foods cooked with healthy fats.  Make sure to read the labels on packaged foods to know what kinds of oils were used and choose products that use the most healthy ingredients.  Gord and I have found avocado oil chips that are a nice treat once and a while and I love knowing that they are cooked without canola or another unhealthy refined oil!

Start small with this pledge and work towards eating more and more unrefined oils.  If you have never used coconut oil maybe this week try purchasing some and using it for cooking and baking in your home!  Tonight Asher asked for grilled cheese and I had run out of butter so I used a little coconut oil and it was wonderful!  Coconut oil is great for so many uses including moisturizing the skin!

Comment below "All in" if your are participating in this weeks pledge!

Day 1 - 30 Day squat Challenge

Here we go!

Today was day 1 of the 30 day squat challenge and we were set to do 50 squats today!

This morning we were packing up to go camping and I was trying to figure out when I would do my squats, when I got home I figured and then it hit me, why not do it right here, right now and get it over with.   So I looked out at the ocean, campers watching, holding my 16lb babe and did my first 50 squats of the challenge!

I was happy to have done it and got it out of the way before the day began!

Week 6 - 10 Weeks of Real Food Mini Pledges

Mini-Pledge Week 6: June 2 to June 8 – Do not eat any food products that are labeled as “low-fat,” “lite,” “light,” “reduced fat,” or “nonfat.”

Yep that's right!  I'm saying that low-fat or lite food is not REAL food or dare I say it healthy!

I too was a part of the low fat craze in my late teens and early 20's but when I read Michael Pollans book in Defence of Food I was shocked to learn that the whole low fat campaign was pretty much a hoax and no one was willing at admit that they were wrong and put an end to it.  

Here is a quote from his book:  "At this point you’re probably saying to yourself, Hold on just a minute. Are you really saying the whole low-fat deal was bogus? But my supermarket is still packed with low-fat this and no-cholesterol that! My doctor is still on me about my cholesterol and telling me to switch to low-fat everything. I was flabbergasted at the news too, because no one in charge – not in government, not in the public health community – has dared to come out and announce: Um, you know everything we’ve been telling you for the last thirty years about the links between dietary fat and heart disease? And fat and cancer? And fat and fat? Well, this just in: It now appears that none of it was true. We sincerely regret the error."

So let’s put the low-fat craze behind us and move forward by embracing the right portions of real food and real food only. No more faked low-fat products where according to Pollan, “fats in things like sour cream and yogurt [are] replaced with hydrogenated oils” and “the cream in ‘whipped cream’ and ‘coffee creamer’ [are] replaced with corn starch.” And just to be clear this pledge applies to all reduced fat products including milk. When the fat is removed from dairy products like milk some of the beneficial nutrients are lost with the fat as well.