Cooking Classes

For those in my neck of the woods, I will be offering cooking classes in Blanco and New Braunfels. The schedule for July is now:

Cooking with Sugar Subsititutes - We will sample a variety of sweetners and will try some recipes void of white refined sugars. I will also talk about the different sweetners and their advantages and/or disadvantages.

Blanco - July 12, 10:00am
New Braunfels - July 26, 10:00am


Other upcoming classes will include:

Celebrations - How to prepare special meals and treats without all the artificial additives and refined products.

Homemade Jellies and Jams - Everyone will help prepare homemade jellies or jam to take home.

Mixin' It Up - How to prepare your own natural mixes to make cooking quick and easy. Ex. biscuit mix, cake mix, spice mix, etc.

Easy Scratch - I will show you that making meals from scratch doesn't mean you have to slave in the kitchen all day!

Homemade Cleaners - You will go home with recipes for making homemade laundry soap, hand soaps, bathroom cleaners, etc. We will also make some for you to take home and try.

Hopefully more to come!

Cooking Classes

I have been approached many times about my cooking from scratch and healthy cooking, so I have decided to offer classes to anyone interested living nearby. I am curious of any special topics you would like to learn more about. Here is what I have come up with:

Cooking with Kids
Sugar Substitutes
Easy Scratch
Celebrations
Homemade Jellies and Jams
Homemade Soaps


Suggestions???

My Famous Granola

I've had so many requests for my granola recipe - so I am going to share it here.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Mix into a large casserole dish:

5 cups rolled oats (old fashioned oatmeal)
1 cup unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds

Roast in oven for 20 min or until the coconut starts to brown.

In large saucepan on stove melt together:

1/2 cup butter, salted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses

Remove from heat and add:

3t vanilla

Mix sauce with oatmeal mixture. Turn oven to 350 degrees and bake for 5 more minutes.

We serve ours with homemade vanilla yogurt, but milk works great too!

Homemade Ketchup

As we search for natural alternatives, I have tried making substitutes at home. Although ketchup is considered all natural, it is full of white sugar. Why would I work so hard at keeping white sugar out of my family's diet only to allow them to swallow up french fries (homemade, of course) with store-bought ketchup? I found a recipe I like!

This is adapted from the More-with-Less Cookbook (which I have added to the cookbooks pictured above). I am loving this cookbook! Thanks grandma!

Tomato Ketchup

5-24 oz jars organic tomato puree
5 medium sized 1015 onions

Blend tomato with onion until smooth. Pour into large stock pot.

Add to pot:
1 1/2 T celery seed
5 t salt
2 c organic apple cider vinegar
1 dropperful of liquid stevia
4 t pickling spice in bag

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook slowly for 1 1/2 hours. Stir occasionally.
Remove spice bag.

Combine in small bowl:
5 T corn starch
1/4 c water

Stir into boiling tomato mixture. Boil for 5 minutes. Seal in 10-11 pint jars.

Blood Sugar and Foot Funk

Well I tested my blood sugar for a little over a week and recorded everything I ate. It turns out I have low blood sugar. Imagine that! My midwife said she wasn't worried about my sugars and I could stop checking them 4 times a day. I couldn't tell that any particular thing would cause my sugar to drop, but it just seemed like if I didn't eat regularly my blood sugar would plummet. Of course I don't eat a lot of white sugar. But I did experiment and had a root beer one day with no drop in my blood sugar. After pregnancy I may check my sugars again to see what causes change.

The foot funk is still no where to be seen. I haven't added in the grapefruit seed extract yet, but still taking probiotics. I plan on taking those through the pregnancy since the pregnant state can alter your body chemistry. Even the dry, scaly skin is gone!

Blood Sugar, Menu Planning, Probiotics

Another weekend without me went smoothly . . . well as far as what they ate. I planned out enough quick, easy meals for the weekend and my husband was able to feed them healthy food without much thought. Good thing too, because he ended up sick all weekend. Poor guy!

On another note - my midwife called me yesterday to let me know that my iron was low and my blood sugar was high. What!?!?!? I have low blood sugar, not high! She is having me test my sugar levels 4 times a day for about 2 weeks. I started testing last night after dinner and I have yet to be high. Actually I have hit as low as 62! (Anything below 70 is considered hypoglycemic.) So I will be testing and go see my midwife next Thursday. I am very curious to see how the rest of the week plays out. I am keeping a diary of what I eat and any other major changes that occur during the day.

And another note - I've had this "foot funk" for the past few months. It is unbearably itchy. I've tried several anti-fungal creams and salves with no relief. I was researching about how food affects my children's behavior and discovered something very interesting. If the fungal growth is high in your gut it will come out through warts, athlete's foot, yeast infections, etc. Interesting! So I started with simple probiotics daily. Three days later, my foot stopped itching. It has been a week now and still no itching or burning. I am very excited. I plan to continue my regimen with grapefruit seed extract.

Aprons . . . Aprons . . .

I love aprons. I don't really know why. I think they represent the idea of the mother in the kitchen. And the kitchen is one of my favorite places to be.

This week is the Bloggy Giveaways and the Apronista is giving away a free apron to one reader! Go check it out.

I also wanted to share what I did with my aprons. I didn't have an extra drawer for them and I really wanted to show them off. So I hung a string on my kitchen wall and with minature clothespins (found in the craft section) hung my aprons. They are easy to get to when I need an apron and they filled an empty wall in my kitchen. If I had a window in my kitchen I would love to make a curtain out of aprons. I wouldn't be able to use them, but it would sure look neat.