gingerbread men

I hate blog posts without pictures, but our camera just died so I have no choice right now! This post starts a series of recipes for healthful holiday treats. Gingerbread men are sweet and spicy, perfect with a glass of milk or hot cocoa (recipes for healthful hot cocoa coming soon!). My two-year-old is crazy about these and I love the fact that I can give him a cookie and actually feel good about it.

A couple of notes about this recipe: I use freshly ground wheat that I sprout and dehydrate myself. However, this can be overwhelming for a beginner, so if you want to just use regular whole wheat flour, that's a great start. Alternatively, you can order sprouted wheat flour online or find it at some health food stores or whole food groceries. I'll be doing a post soon on grains, flours and the reasons behind sprouting or soaking them. I sometimes have to use a little more flour than this recipe calls for, for some reason. The dough should be very soft but not totally sticky.

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c.rapadura or sucanat (whole cane sugar, available from a health food store)
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses
1/4 c. honey
1 t. baking powder
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1 T vinegar
2 1/4 c.whole wheat flour (preferably sprouted)

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and rapadura. Beat in egg, molasses and honey. Add baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and cloves and beat well. Stir in vinegar. Add flour and mix well.

Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper. Chill for 2-3 hours or til firm.

On a floured surface, roll dough to desired thickness. About 1/8" will make crispy cookies, thicker will make them soft. I like soft the best. Cut with gingerbread man cookie cutter and place on buttered cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 5-6 minutes, or until barely browned around the edges. Cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

drink milk!

I woke up to find this article on Yahoo news this morning. While I would disagree with much of what they say (such as downplaying the effect of hormones and antibiotics in storebought milk), I was excited at a couple of the things that the author advocated. Number one, he is trying to expose the myth that milk is evil. I have never been on the no-dairy bandwagon, but through a lot of bad information and propaganda, a lot of people have bought into the idea that milk is for baby cows, not for humans, and that it's actually terrible for your children! Number two, he promotes whole milk, which I am a huge fan of. After doing a lot of reading, I have come to the conclusion that fat is not bad for you, as long as it is the right kind of fat. Fat is necessary for vitamin and mineral absorption and for proper brain function. God made milk to contain cream. A coincidence? I think not!

Now where I would most seriously diverge from this article is that it doesn't address the issue or raw milk versus pasturized milk. If I could encourage a person to make one healthful change to their diet, it would probably be this one. Pasturization not only destroys or majorly decreases the vitamin and mineral content of milk, but it destroys all of the enzymes that help the body absorb and assimilate calcium. In addition, it makes the milk less digestible, which is why many people with dairy allergies can tolerate raw milk but not storebought. According to Nourishing Traditions, "All of the healthy milk-drinking populations studied by Dr. Price consumed raw milk, raw cultured milk or raw cheese from normal healthy animals eating fresh grass or fodder." (Pg. 35).

Where can you find raw milk, and is it expensive? For a listing of raw milk producers in your area, check out real milk and local harvest. As public awareness of this issue grows, raw milk is more readily available. Price will depend on where you live...in my area, I can get it for $5.00 a gallon, which is not much more than buying storebought milk. Even if you live in an area where it is more expensive, my opinion is that you are better off to drink less amounts of a high-quantity milk than a lot of an inferior and possibly even detrimental brand.

The average American drinks 43 gallons of sugary soft drinks a year. Ditch the soda! Drink milk!

the real food handbook

If you are starting to foray into real food, I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig. Based on the work of a dentist, Weston A. Price, who travelled the world researching traditional diets and chronicling his findings, it is a cookbook, a scientific manual, basically most of the food information you will ever need in one volume. It's a fascinating read, filled to the brim with quotes, recipes, ideas and inspiration. I will make one disclaimer: do not let this book overwhelm you! It's best digested in small portions to begin with because it might be too heavy to swallow all at once.

I received it as a wedding gift and have practically worn it out. It would also make a terrific Christmas or birthday gift. If money is an issue, check out your local library or look for a used copy on ebay or amazon.

If you decide to go the amazon route, just click on the ad in my sidebar...that will take you right to it.

getting started

It's overwhelming at times, isn't it? You want to feed your family well, you want to give them the best nutrition possible, yet when you search for information, the amount of it out there is staggering and much of it is contradictory. You are told to eat low-fat, low-carb, and low-sugar. Some nutritionists recommend artificial sweeteners while others tell you that they will rot your children's brains. Some recommend margarine while others tell you that it's made of petroleum and will slowly poison you. Some say that soy products are the answer to our country's woes while others say that they are the cause of our country's woes. And ten years later, the same nutritionists will have changes their minds and are now telling you to do the exact opposite of what they promoted before.

I am no expert. I am not a healthcare professional, I am not a nutritionist. I'm just an ordinary mom who wants to feed my family well. Therefore the information that you will find on this blog will most likely be based less on scientific information that it is on common sense. My philosophy, after wading through countless books, articles and blogs on nutrition, is that the closer our food is to it's natural state, the better it is for us. Real butter is better than margarine. And real butter from real milk, straight from the farm, is better than butter from ultra-pasturized milk. Real sweeteners like raw honey and whole cane sugar are better than processed, bleached, chemically-treated sweeteners. Real meat, from animals raised on natural diets, is better than meat from animals that are unnaturally fattened and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. Others can give you the scientific reasons behind all of this (and the evidence is out there, trust me, if you dig for it!) but the purpose of this blog is less about education and more about encouragement. You know that your family's diet is lacking and you want to make changes, but making those changes is overwhelming. Your kids like day-glo macaroni and cheese. They like storebought cupcakes, loaded with hydrogenated oils, artificial dyes and sugar. And they think that you are an awesome cook if you put chicken nuggets on the table every single night. How do you begin to change their palates without making them hate you? And how do you afford real food? Have you looked at the price of produce lately? That $.39 box of mac and cheese looks great when you start to add up the price of apples, raw honey and whole grain bread.

I'm here to tell you that you can do it! And I'm here to walk you through the baby steps that it will take to improve your family's health. Yes, it's overwhelming if you try to implement all of the changes all at once. But if you do it one step at a time, incorporating those changes into your lifestyle can be exciting.

Lest I sound like I have all of the answers, let me just say that I still fight the day-glo mac and cheese and chicken nugget battle, and no, my family does not eat perfectly. I am learning just like you...so let's encourage each other!