Summer salad with homemade dressing

Made this salad tonight. All 4 of us devoured it. I was out of dressing and I prefer making my own, but was too lazy to make my usual dressing. So I ended up just putting lime juice and extra virgin olive oil and it was perfect.

4 large handfuls of spinach leaves or any lettuce
7 small or 4 large strawberries (sliced thin)
1 med carrot (washed & sliced thin, the skins are really good for you & I leave them on)
half of a large cucumber sliced
Handful of yellow raisins
Small onion (optional)
1/4 cup almonds the small thinly sliced (optional)
 about 4TBSP of feta cheese. ***

dressing: juice from half of a lime and 4TBSP of olive oil. Just enough to get everything nice & moist. ***

I do not usually measure, but just add until it looks good. The measurements are pretty accurate. Next time I think I am going to add some fresh basil.

*** (if you use a less salty cheese than the feta it would be a good idea to add a little salt & pepper to add seasoning. My feta is very salty and therefore the dressing doesn't need seasoning.)

Serves 4 to 5 people. Enjoy!

Pad Thai sauce.

I got the base recipe from a friend and it's super yummy. I have added a few things to it also. We love it though!

6TBSP of peanut butter (real peanut butter with nothing added is best. I get it freshly ground at Wegmans)
6TBSP of soy sauce (preferably low sodium, gluten free and preservative free) Kikkoman brand name
2 cloves fresh minced garlic
3/4 cup water
3 TBSP of maple syrup (you could use another form of sugar/sweetener though)
Juice from 1 1/2 limes and/or lemons. (I like to do half and half)

Spices that I like to add are, a little cayenne pepper & 1tsp of curry powder (curry powder is made up of coriander, red chillies, turmeric, cumin, pepper and fenugreek)

Serve with your favorite veggies and my favorite Thai Kitchen stir fry rice noodles or brown rice.

Makes about 4 to 5 servings

Enjoy!

Homemade whipped cream frosting

Stumbled across some healthy gluten free icing and whip cream/cool whip frosting recipes. Here's the one I used to frost Isaiah cupcakes. It's only 2 ingredients!!

1 cup heavy cream

2TBSP agava nectar

1TBSP of vanilla extract. (optional)

Whip with hand blender until it reaches peak. Fluffy. :)

This recipe was good, but the vanilla was just what it needed for me. :D It Frost about 10 cupcakes, but I made a double batch and saved the rest for my coffee. :D

Latest smoothies

I was looking for more ways to incorporate natural probiotics. I don't like yogurt.. :/ So I've been making smoothies with Keifer or yogurt almost every morning. The kids actually ask for them almost every day and are sad when I tell them today is not a smoothie making day. I also wanted to use mostly in season fruit. So here it is:

1 apple (cored not peeled) the skin has the majority of nutrients.
2 pears (peeled mostly and cored)
Handful of frozen strawberries
1 banana (optional)
1/2 cup Kefir. or yogurt
1/2 cup liquid (we've been using fresh local apple cider or raw milk)
About 2TBSP flax seed.

Blend and enjoy! If too thick just add more liquid. I just dump, so the liquid amounts are estimates.  :)

How to kick a cold

So our family (all 4) came down with an awful cold. We haven't gotten a cold in 9+ months and Aaron almost never gets colds. It was one tough virus. I knocked us all down quit a bit. :( I went to Lori's at first sight of cold after reading my health Bible. :) Isaiah came down with cold first Thursday and then the rest of us by Friday and Isaiah was better by Saturday and the rest of us were better by Sunday. 

Mercedes has a cough still, but that's just due to the fact the girl can not blow her nose and sucks up her snot continually. So for her she had to get better without getting the gunk out...

One easy and quick change we made was NO sugar and VERY little processed foods.

I have a book called Prescription For Nutritional Healing. I recommend everyone have the book especially if you have children. I got it off Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Prescription-Nutritional-Healing-Fifth-Edition/dp/1583334009

Here's a list of things I bought according to the book and what I did:

Down 8oz of water with 2tbsp of RAW apple cider vinger (BRAGGS brand) and if you are brave enough a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. (this alone will kick the cold) I do this for 1 to 3 days.

Zinc lozenges- make sure they do not contain citric acid, sorbitol or mannitol, because these inhibit absorption.  I bought NATURE'S PLUS
Herbal Actives ImmunActin Zinc Lozenges http://store.lorisnatural.com/store/product/38069/NP-Immunactin-Zinc-60l/ 

Also these zinc lozenges contain: olive leaf,  elderberr, echinacea &  goldenseal. 

Raw garlic- I added this to our foods, ate it raw and for the kids added it to there bath. (They would not eat raw) :)

Vitamin C- For this I juiced oranges and lemon. If you don't have a juicer you can still hand juice some oranges. 

Vitamin D3- We laid out in the sun for at least an hour everyday.

Stayed active- Staying active is really important. 

Eucalyptus and lavender essential oil- we added this to our baths and showers. I also put the eucalyptus in a dish with cut up raw garlic by our beds. Important to only buy 100% pure oils and they are expensive, but worth it to me. :)

Echinacea tea with raw honey

Good nights sleep- At least 8 hours

We continued to take our multivitamins- Natural vitality liquid (Calm multi for kids) and juice plus vitamins. If you are taking cheap vitamins from the store then stop and go buy quality ones. Cheap vitamins can actually do you more harm than good.

The book also mentions sipping on good organic chicken or turkey broth, olive leaf, elderberry, echinacea &  goldenseal. 

 

The zinc lozeges contain most of the above!! :)

Most of the above was from the book. I was really amazed how fast we got over everything. Seems like a lot of work and money, but it wasn't. Being sick longer would have been more work. 

Next up I will tell you how we got rid of double ear infections and pink eye. We got that back in January. :(

 

Energy peanut butter balls!

Most amazing peanut butter balls

• 1 cup organic (dry) oats   (I use old-fashioned oats)
• 1/2 cup organic coconut flakes (shredded and un-sweetened)
• 1 cup organic peanut butter  
• 1/2 cup organic ground flax seed and/or chai seeds
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips minis   
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon   (optional)
• 1/3 cup local raw honey
• 1 tsp. organic vanilla
• 1/4 cup raisins  (optional)

To make:
Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed.  Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like.  (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.)  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

I also put nuts and dried fruit in sometimes.

Cops came to the door

So after thee initial shock wore off, I realized just how crazy the whole event was. So I decided to write what the cop must have been thinking verses what really happened.

Cop gets several 911 calls from a young female... He looks into the information they have on the homeowner the calls are coming from. Oh great they have guns... Better get my armor on and get over there fast..

Me: Cedes comes into the room and wakes me up. Baby starts crying.. ugh, I better go get him. I lay back in bed with the kids and try to wake up.

Cop pulls up.. Hmmm, house seems innocent enough. Wait pretty small maybe the wife killed her husband to collect life insurance money.

Me: kids STOP jumping on bed before someone falls of it. We're getting up in 2 mins.

Cop: I better get in there. Where's my gun... Bangs on door. No answer. Bangs again. Still no answer. Oh crap something is definitely wrong. Time to brake down door.

Me: who the heck is knocking at the door that LOUD! Probably the water meter guy, he always knocks LOUD! Well I better check just to make sure. Oh s***! it's the cops! Why in the world is he here. AHHHHH!!! I got to get dressed and quick before he brakes down the door! Oh wait take mouth guard out!!

Cop: Ok, the door is coming down! Oh wait someone's coming. Lady answers. She looks like she's been drinking or drugs and wait what is that blood on her shirt!!

Me: OH man, I can't seem to open my eyes. Oh great I have a huge ketchup stain on my shirt... Looks like blood. He's asking about Cedes falling, wait no, that's a birth mark. Oh good he believed me.

Cop: 2 cute kids she has. Oh just a birth mark. Oh phone is right at child level. Looks at mom who is checking her phone. Sure enough dumb mom leaves phone for kid to call 911. Ok, I'm out of here.

Me: Thank goodness he's leaving... Sit down and calm down. Oh this would be a good FB post.

Thanks for reading. And yes, I wasn't dressed, barely awake, mouth guard wearing and ketchup stained shirt.