Block vs. Grated Cheese

A few years ago we tried to go totally unprocessed.  We did really well for about 5 months, then I had to go back to the States for a funeral.  I was gone ten days and when I got home, I just couldn't get back into it!!  It was so much work!

Looking back, because I want to start again, I think part of the problem was that I tried to tackle EVERY SINGLE additive & preservative at the same time.  As well as cutting out all the white stuff ... you know, flour, sugar, rice etc .....

It was too much at once.

But, there are things I still do regularly that I learned back then.  Like ... making my own mayo - so easy!  (watch this video!)   And grating cheese. 

I'll admit, I don't do these things exclusively but I'm going to head that way.  I'm going to try to replace one processed product in my pantry/fridge with an unprocessed version each week.  I'm hoping that trying to tackle this on a smaller, more gradual scale will be easier. 

I'll share what I find.  

So, what's with the grating cheese thing?  I need to find where I read it and come back and reference it, but apparently, grated cheese contains an anti-caking agent and block cheese doesn't.  Grating your own cheese is an easy way to eliminate one preservative from your diet!

It's easy.  And you can freeze it. 

Start with a block ...

Pop it in your food processor.  Or grate with whatever you use to grate.  Do the whole block!

 

Into the freezer and ready for when you need it!

So quick.

So easy.

Roasted Garlic & Eggplant Dip with Almond Crackers

I picked an eggplant out of my garden this morning and went looking for a recipe to make a garlic eggplant dip. I found this recipe on pinterest ... I watched the video, took a couple notes and had it in the oven 10 minutes later !

While the eggplant was roasting, I went back to pinterest (my starting point for any recipe search these days!) and found an interesting looking recipe for crackers made out of almond meal. They looked easy to make. They were. 

I'll just write down the steps for the eggplant and then I'll tell you how to do the crackers.  Watch the video for the dip ... it's quite good and it's easier to understand than the written instructions will be.  And it cracks me up at the end when they just stand there munching on the crunchy crackers !

For the dip ... no real measurements as you'll see in the video.
Eggplant
Garlic cloves
Green chilli, I took the seeds out of mine and sliced them long
Olive oil
Salt
Lemon, for squeezing
Red Onion, finely diced
Fresh Coriander (Cilantro), chopped

Preheat oven to 230C/450F.

Make four long slits down the length of the eggplant.  Don't cut all the way through but go down far enough that you can stick stuff inside it.  I had to slice my garlic to fit inside the slits but in the video they leave them whole.  Put garlic and green chilli into the slits.  Put eggplant on a piece of foil and then drizzle eggplant with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Wrap up foil tightly.  Place in a small casserole dish and bake for 1 hour.  

When done baking, immediately remove eggplant from foil and put into the casserole dish.  Score skin on underside and then mash everything with a potato masher ... yep, skin and all !  Set aside to cool.

When cool, add red onion and coriander.  Season with salt and lemon juice til it's to your liking.

For the crackers ... 
I found this recipe on Home Cooking In Montana and she found it on Caveman Food.

1 cup almond meal
1 egg white
salt

Preheat oven to 350F/180C (although, I think I might go a bit cooler next time ... maybe 160/170)

Mix almond meal, egg white and pinch of salt.  Mix with a fork.  Roll into a ball.  If it's too sticky, add a bit more almond meal.  Put ball between two pieces of baking paper and roll out thin.  Cut (I used a pizza cutter) into squares and then lay on a baking tray.  I used the baking tray upside down because the crackers hung over the edge a bit ...

Bake 5-8 minutes or til crackers are golden.  Watch them towards the end because they brown up real quick !

Homemade Mac and Cheese - Unprocessed

This one is the baked one ... won't do that the same way again. It dried it out too much.

We love the homemade mac and cheese that I grew up on. The only problem turning it into an unprocessed meal was the cream of mushroom soup ! After talking to my Mom ... I decided to try making a white sauce with itty bitty mushrooms in it, to replace the c.o.m.soup ... IT WORKED !! It's a tiny bit more effort than throwing in a can of cream of mushrooms soup but it's unprocessed !! Hooray !!

So ... here's what I did.

Chop up a red onion, caramelize in olive oil. This takes a while ... 20 ? 30 minutes. Add 3 finely diced mushrooms. Add 6 TBLS butter. Melt. Slowly add 6 TBLS whole wheat flour. Mix. Very slowly add 3 cups of milk. Mix til desired consistency. Add salt and pepper. Mix. Add cheese. I probably did 1.5 cups cheddar and .5 cup mozarella. Too much. Will change amounts next time. Mix cheese in and keep on heat til melted. Add cooked (whole wheat) pasta to sauce. Stir. Done.

This one is not baked ... it was much better but too cheesy.

Rory was saying we should
try adding some spices ... and then I found
THIS recipe ...
which we will try next time,
and also add cardamon (Rory's suggestion).
Will let you know how that turns out !

Any other suggestions are very welcome !!! This is a work in progress !!

Homemade Ketchup

This does not taste like Heinz ... not one bit. But, Jono, who is EIGHT, says it tastes better. Rory and I thought it tasted like a chutney. I took a few recipes I found on line and mashed them into this one recipe that I will share with you today. Simple process. Great outcome. But ... don't expect Heinz. Expect better ...

1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, whole smashed
6 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup palm sugar, grated
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup vinegar
10 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
1 tsp salt


Throw all ingredients into a pot. Cover, medium heat, simmer 45 minutes. Throw in blender and blend until smooth. Strain if you are worried about fennel/star anise bits. I wasn't worried. This will thicken more in the fridge.

Some Thoughts {on} The Whole Unprocessed Thing

I've recently come to a few startling realizations. The first one is that it is next to impossible to eat unprocessed in this day and age. The second is that I still want to eat unprocessed in this day and age.

I have seen such good results in this first month. The biggest one being that my cravings are gone. I do not crave any food - ever. It's crazy. Cravings have been such a huge part of my life for sooooo long. To not be totally controlled by them has brought me much freedom. Freedom that I never knew I needed to experience. I guess I just always accepted uncontrollable (??) cravings as part of life. Now I know better.

The other big thing is weight loss. I've lost 10 lbs already and I keep going down ... little by little. This has never happened to me before. I might go down a little but then I go up, further up. Then I go down a little but then I go up again ... more than before.. The little I go down has always been overtaken by the more I go up. I thought that I was doomed to stay like that. Now i know better.

I feel good. I feel healthy. I eat without guilt. My bowels move healthier and more regularly. (I won't tell you any more about that ... at least, not until I'm on Oprah, where everyone goes to talk about their poo.) I feel like I'm doing right by my kids. Teaching them healthy habits. Helping them to know better.

I feel like there is a lot more to do. And I don't want to give up.

I don't do that easily. Give up, I'm talking about. If something isn't going the way I want it to, I attack it with everything I've got. I research and plan and talk to people and plan and organize and rethink and plan and read and ... have I mentioned plan already ?

I've been trying to come up with a solution. My problem at the moment is time. I don't have as much of it as I used to. I know this is a common problem that many of us face.

This morning I was talking to Shay ... ya'll know her right ? It's too bad if you don't. You really should. Anyway ... she and I problem solve each others lives all the time and this morning was no different. In throwing ideas back and forth, we've come up with a couple of things that I think are going to be really helpful.

The first was an amazing idea by Shay to have meal portions in the freezer. So ... frozen tortillas, cooked rice, bread, etc ... I do some of those things but I'm going to concentrate on doing more. The tortillas are going to be my first task ! Getting homemade tortillas into the freezer will be a great help. That will make burritos and chimichangas and fajitas quick and easy meals again !!

And dips. I'm going to concentrate on trying lots of new dips. They are great to have on hand when you are eating so many vegetables !! Especially for school lunches ....

The second is that when I make my menu plans from now on, I'm going to make myself a master grocery list for that week. That means that in future weeks, if I find I'm busy and can't make a menu, I have some already planned, I can just re-print the grocery list, cross off what I already have in the house and be on my way ! Easy, right ? I'm hoping so ....

I hope it will give me a good supply of ready planned menu's and shopping lists. I will try to figure out how to make the shopping lists available here too for anyone of you who might want to use them ...

The third thing is that I just really really really have to be organized. Today I will sit down with my schedule and work out what day I will menu plan, what day I will shop (and get my online shopping happening again !!) and what day I will do the cooking to keep our freezer stocked. It just takes a little planning and a bit of work getting into new habits but sheesh ... that's the story of my life ! Once the habits are formed, and the plans are made, the work is minimal. And the reward is great.

Those are my thoughts at the moment. In my schedule planning as well, I'm going to work out how best to get recipes posted. It may just mean, I have to do them every other day rather than every day like I once aspired to do. But ... flexibility plays a bit part in having my fingers in as many pies as I do !!

I hit publish post before I read through this whole thing and it ended rather abruptly. But ... I don't really have all that much else to say ... so, there you have it.

The End.

the whole unprocessed thing - the plan

Just three days away from the start of the new year, I though it about time I posted my 'master plan' for this whole unprocessed thing ! I've done lots of thinking, do continual reading and have chatted with my husband about this and we've come to an agreeable plan.

(photos - Christmas 2009 fruit bowls)

We will eat no foods with additives and preservatives (with the exception of a few like 'gelatine' that have no adverse reactions) I have a comprehensive list of additives and preservatives used in Australia to make our shopping easier.

No white flour.

No white sugar (or brown sugar which is just white sugar with molasses added).
We are classing anything that has more than .5g of sugar per serve as having sugar.

No white rice or pasta.

No trans fat.

We will limit our dairy. Cheese will be an occasional food. Milk and yogurt will still be part of our diet but I'll be researching nut milks. So far I haven't found any without added sugar. All of our dairy will be low fat.

We will concentrate on eating leafy greens, lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and legumes.

I will endeavor to keep our sodium intake to less than 1000mg a day.

Exceptions ...

I am not wanting to take our family into the 'realm of weirdo'. For that reason, we will have a few exceptions throughout the year. Each of our birthdays will be a 'free day'. We will be sensible and try to make decisions as close to our 'plan' as possible but we will probably have birthday cake with sugar in it ...

As well ... I will not put myself or my family or our friends through the awkwardness of 'we don't eat that' when we go to someones place for dinner. So ... again, making sensible decisions ... but we will eat what is served to us when we are at someones place. The same if we are in a restaurant. Although ... restaurants will be easier as we will be given a menu with many choices.

The reasons ...

Improved health is the most obvious reason. After reading Additive Alert a few years ago and then again recently, I feel that it's time we 'take the plunge' to eliminate these 'nasties' from our diet.

I also was struck by something I read in another book that was something to the effect of "why do we wait until we are sick to make the changes our bodies need to be healthy ?" To me ... it makes sense to feed my family (and myself) food that will keep us healthy instead of waiting until it is too late.

I'm not someone who has much success with 'little by little'. I'm an all or nothing sort of girl. Hence the reason we are cutting all of these things out at once. I've tried it the other way ... doesn't work for me. So ... here we go ... starting an adventure ! I'm excited !

Oh ... the other reason I want to do this has not got much to do with health but more with a trend I see in society that I'd like to not see in my home or in my children. That is the trend towards 'instant gratification'. The 'I'll just run out and grab something quick' sort of mentality. You know what I'm talking about ? I want to see what it is like to not be able to do that. I want to be forced to make things from scratch ... even more than I already do. I know it will take a lot of planning and preparation and organization but I think I'm ready for that ...

We'll see ... because it starts in just three short days !!

I plan to share with you the foods we eat. The recipes. The challenges. The struggles. The physical, emotional and financial changes we discover. I'll share books and resources and who knows what else ...

I'd love to know your thoughts. Suggestions are always welcome too ! Links to recipes that fall in line with our plan ... hook me up !!

Look out two thousand and ten ... here we come !!

Making Mayo

So ... I spent a looong time trying to make mayo today ! A freaking long time !! I knew mayo was tricky to make but sheesh ... I was ready to throw it all out the window ! I made two batches of "mayonnaise soup" but the third time was some wonderful kind of success !! And I am thrilled ... let me tell you about it ...

Here's the recipe I used :

Crack one egg into your blender. Add 1/4 cup of oil and whizz for just a couple secs. I used peanut oil this time. Then ... very very slowly ...my Mom said it should be like almost dripping into your blender... add the rest of the oil ... with the blender on, of course ! It took ages and I kept having to switch hands ... Anyway, once you're done, you should have beautifully emulsified eggs and oil ! AKA: mayo ! At this stage, I split the batch into three. I folded lemon juice to one. White Balsalmic Vinegar to another. And WBV, lemon juice and garlic to another. I just did it to taste. Maybe a teaspoon or two but I just drizzled it in, mixed it up, tasted ... and so on.

And so it begins ...

Not officially, of course ... until the 1st of January, but I'm working through the things in the house that we are no longer going to eat. Some of them, as I read the list of additives and cross-reference with this book, I'm just throwing away ! Others ... we are eating through and I'm just not going to buy anymore. Such is the case with the jar of mayonnaise I finished tonight !

So ... I need to make mayonnaise in the morning ! I boiled 6 eggs to make egg salad and then discovered I was at the bottom of the mayo jar ... after I'd chopped all the eggs !! Luckily, I had enough to make one sandwich for Rory for work tomorrow !

Does anyone have a tested mayo recipe ? (preferably one that works !)

Brekky

Years ago, my children started eating raw oats.
They just topped them with milk and ate them. They still do it.
I've decided to add to the oats ... and we all love it.

Here's what I do.
In a big plastic cereal container, I mix :

Rolled Oats.
Sunflower seeds.
Sesame seeds.
Flax seeds.
Slivered Almonds.
Pumpkin Seeds.

To eat we mix through some greek yogurt and top with some yummy fruit.
I keep frozen berries in the freezer. They are easy.
Fresh mango is yummy too ...

An Unprocessed Conversation

Adding my two cents to the conversation Bonnie started...

So, quite a few inspirations are bouncing around in my brain. For me, going unprocessed is mainly about health. And not just about getting skinny, although that is DEFINITELY part of the plan!! I also want to eat food as food was intended to be - to break my addiction to additives and weird chemicals that make food taste yummy, but make my butt plump alarmingly! And I'd like to eat food that could NOT survive a nuclear holocaust with little to no change in appearance or flavor.

Although my motives are similar to Bonnie's, my lifestyle is NOT. I'm not a mom, I'm a student, so my challenges are different. (Somehow, I doubt my professors will be as apt to join me in the kitchen as Jono and Alia!!) So how does this unprocessed thing look like for my context?

I'm kicking around some ideas.

I think my greatest ally will be the freezer.
In the summer, it's pretty easy to pick up some tasty looking fruits and veggies at the store and just go nuts. In winter, not so much. But things like black bean chili freeze really well. In talking with my personal advice guru, Aunt Kathy, we thought about making and canning chicken broth and using the cooked chicken to made casseroles to freeze or just a tupperware of protein to throw into a dish!

Canning also attracts me. I think it would be awesome to make a giant batch of sketti sauce, can it, and keep it in the cupboard. I remember my mom making apple butter and granola from scratch (the granola wasn't canned, obviously), and I want to follow in those footsteps! Something that just occurred to me... homemade granola over some homemade yogurt would be a fantastic breakfast!!

I realize all these things are almost impossible to create by myself. But how cool would it be to have a day (or even a weekend as Pammy suggested) to get a bunch of ladies together, cook in BULK, and everyone take home cans and containers full of healthy, easy, food! It would be cheaper and it's such fun to don and apron and cook with your favorite people. There's just something...primal and satisfying!

So those are my thoughts.
What are yours?

The Whole Unprocessed Thing

This morning when I checked my email there was one from Jill asking "...what does the whole unprocessed thing mean? i mean, olive oil and spices are processed, but it's hard to cook without them. and they aren't really bad for you ..." Good question Jilly ! I am still formulating what it will mean for us, I mean, I'm the one who decided my family was going to do it (I should mention that my husband is on board with the idea) so I'm the one who has to decide what the conditions are. I thought rather than just email Jill back, I'd respond as a post. Maybe I can get some feedback from everyone ...

There are a few motivating factors for me wanting to do this. The first one is our health. I've done a lot of reading over the years and have been gradually making changes to the way we eat as a family. I guess this is just the next step in that journey. We do eat pretty unprocessed already. Meaning, I make A LOT from scratch. I don't buy ready made meals. Or meals in a box. The only frozen stuff I buy is frozen veg, berries and ice cream. So ... what am I going to cut out ? Well ... white flour and white rice (with the exception of sushi rice from time to time - I just can't go brown in sushi !!) and all refined sugars. Trans fats ... gone. Anything that has additives ... which could be tricky because what about olives ? I'm still working on that one. Processed lunch meat. Gone. I'll miss you salami !

Basically we are going to try and eat as close to the natural state of food as possible. So ... things that don't need preservatives to make them live on a shelf for a long time, or added colors to make them look good enough for us to buy. We will be eating lots of fruit and veg. Whole grains. Nuts. Seeds. Beans. I'll be doing lots of experimenting ...

Oils, vinegars, spices ... all fine. Except, I'll be reading labels. I've already discovered that my balsamic vinegar has a coloring in it that is really bad for you so I'll be on the search for one without the coloring or just using my white balsamic vinegar.

I read a statement recently that made sense to me ... it said something to the effect of "why do we wait til we don't have a choice to make changes to our diet ?" It's true. If someone has a heart attack or gets cancer or some other horrible disease and then makes the changes ... well, that's good but I would like to make the changes now to try and avoid those and other diseases as much as is in my power to do so.

The second motivating factor is to try and get an appreciation for how valuable food is. I will only speak for myself but I know how easy it is to go into the grocery store, buy a bunch of food, eat some of it, not eat some of it, throw a bunch of it away and go get more. Rory and I have done pretty well cracking down on it this year but still ... I'll do it from time to time. It's wasteful and I think if I didn't come by the food so easily, I would not be so hasty in just tossing it away !

I'm going to try and limit what I buy at the grocery store. We have great fruit and veg stores, great butchers, great fresh fish markets, great general markets and a couple of great health food stores in our area. I'm going to make myself a regular at those stores this year ! I'm going to limit my big grocery store shopping to toiletries as much as possible ... and hopefully limit it to online shopping ! It will be a learning experience but I'm ready to learn !!

We are also planting lots of veg in our little back yard garden. I've got a great supply of fresh herbs and we're hoping the veggies we grow will supplement all that we are going to eat ! Again ... it's about appreciating the value. That there is a process to get the food from the field to the plate. One that I think shouldn't be taken for granted. My big dream is to grow enough to be able to trade with friends for fruit or eggs ... neither of which we have room to grow and raise !

The third motivating factor is my never ending desire for simplicity. Now, to some, this probably seems like I'm taking the simple out of it ! ha ha. I may be saying that too, a week into it ! But ... I have visions of having the kids in the kitchen with me more ... something they would love to do and continually ask but I haven't really embraced as much as I want to ! Saturday night will be the night we do things that involve a lengthier process. Like ... making pasta, making flour tortillas ... etc. We'll be making nut butters. Condiments. All of that stuff.

Like I said earlier ... I haven't completely formulated my plan. But, I'm very determined to do it and I've been giving it a lot of thought, doing a lot of research and planning for at least a month, maybe two now ... I'll have my plan and lists of yes and no's before the 1st of January. We're already eating through things on the no list. Last night I made poppy seed bread ... used a lot of the while flour and most of the white sugar. Those won't be replaced once they're gone.

I'm excited. I'm excited to take on a new challenge. I'm excited to increase the level of health in my family. I'm excited to see what other things happen in our bodies. Do we have more/less energy ? What changes might I notice in the children ? What changes might they notice in me ? I'm excited to slow down. Intentionally. We live a full life. We love it. But we also need slow. Simple. If our life is too busy to slow down ... then maybe it's too busy. This will be a good test. I, of course, will keep you all posted on the progress. The trails. The errors. The triumphs. The excitements. All of it ...

Does that answer your question Jill ? Maybe a little bit ?

Menu Plan Monday - Bonnie - 30 November 2009

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Looks like I've missed two weeks of posting menus ! I didn't even realize ... Sheesh, time flies !! It has been a bit crazy busy around these parts though so I'm not really surprised ! I don't have a menu for this week. I'm working my way through our pantry and fridge/freezer again. And I'm getting ready for 2010 ... a year unprocessed ! I'm still working through the details but I'm wanting to try to go for a year feeding my family totally unprocessed. We eat pretty unprocessed already but I have been doing some reading, and thinking and there are still more things I want to eliminate from our diets totally. As well, I'm wanting to see what effect certain things have on our bodies and our energy levels and our outlook and ... I'll let you know when I get all my thoughts together !!

So ... last night we had leftover black bean chili soup.

Tonight we are going to have salad ... with pimiento's de padron and I'm going to try cooking Curried Millet with Brown Onions.

Tuesday will be something with beans.

Wednesday will be something using a whole grain ... anyone got any good amaranth recipes ?

Thursday will be a crock pot something ... I hope. I've got some pumpkin and potato ... maybe a soup ? It's not really soup weather, but it's what I've got !!

Friday will be time to shop again ...

But ... my plan is that Friday will be International Night. Saturday will be something with fish. And Sunday I will do a big cookup each week to get meals into the freezer.

I'm hoping that by having a theme each night .. ie salad, beans, whole grains, crock pot ... etc, it will make it easier for me to plan. Narrow down my search parameters. There are just so many choices !!!

Anyway ... I'm off to go sit with my pile of library books and work more on my 2010 plan !! If anyone has any good websites they can recommend ... unprocessed, raw, vegetarian ones are great for finding fresh wholesome recipes ... I've visited a lot but the web is a big place and recommendations are ALWAYS welcome !!