Dried Foods

First off, I apologize as I have really neglected this blog. I own another blog called Weigh Healthy and I have put a ton of energy into that one lately and this blog has suffered because of that. That being said, I wanted to talk today about dried foods and food dehydration in general. This spring and summer I have been reading anything I can get my hands on about drying food. I have a son who is quite interested in eating raw. He is already a vegetarian/vegan and he is wanting to "up" his nutritional life a notch. He and I and his younger sister have been attending raw food pot-lucks and learning a lot. I have learned from a lot of raw foodists that they dry many foods they eat. This was interesting to me, because I thought drying hurt foods. One thing I became quite interested in was the nutritional value of foods when they are dried. I have been happy to learn that they don't change that much actually. This is good news on many levels. It is good because food can store long term(ish), foods become available now year round instead of having to wait until next year, and best of all, they taste great...plus dehydration is one of the cheapest ways to store food. The chances of micororganisms affecting the food (when dried properly) is quite low too. Lots of pluses to drying food. Besides, who doesn't like dried pineapple!

Here are some fun ideas I thought I would share with you about dried foods:

If you would like healthy baby food, simply dehydrate carrots, or corn, or peaches, strawberries, plums, any food and then once dried, blend them in your Vitamix or blender until they are powder. Store in a canning jar or something glass until you are ready to feed your baby. Then simply take warm water and put a few tablespoons of your dry whole food powder and the warm water and Wham-o, you have baby food...with no chemicals or preservatives!

Another fun trick for lunches is whole food delicious "Ramen" noodles...here is who you can do it:
Take a thermos and put a variety of dried foods like peas, corn, carrots, green beans, celery, and onions. Then add one Tablespoon bulgar, a couple tablespoons of small whole wheat pasta, like small shells. Now add boiling veggie broth and shut the lid of your thermos. At lunch time your home-made Ramen will be done and you can eat it free of preservatives!

I just did a google search for fun to see how much dried mushrooms are per pound. The are out of sight expensive. They are about $15 per 2 ounces!!! That is nuts on anyone's budget. Why not dry your own (and sell them). You will know what is in them and they taste fantastic too! Once dried you can blend them to make creamed soups. Use your mushrooms to make stroganoff, or add to a nice curry.

You can also make crackers and chips in your dehydrator that are healthy and yummy. Some may ask why a person would want to do this...the answer is simple: nutrition. Chips and crackers are loaded with preservatives and chemicals. It is fun to eat hummus, dips made from healthy foods and salsa. These dips can add a lot to your nutritional life if eaten with healthy chips. Healthy chips cost a fortune if you look at their cost per pound. Making home made chips from whole foods in an amazing blessing. I will put our a great recipe in a later post of how to actually make chips.

Dried fruits make great snacks in children's lunches for school, and they also go well in trail mixes for park activities. Christmas is a fun time to share your treats with neighbors and friends.

Dried vegetables make stews, soups, and casseroles taste delicious in minutes. When you are in a hurry, throw in dried veggies in your crock-pot soup, or Spanish rice dish in the fall and come home to a gourmet meal all ready to go.

I am new to dehydrating and I will post more ideas as I learn them. Health and dehydration go hand in hand. This is new information to me. For whatever reason I was thinking canning foods would be safer. After education myself, I now see this is not the case. There is need for both types of food preservation for sure. Drying food is fast, cheap, fun, and cost effective.

Lavender Oil

Hi Friends,

This morning while I was cooking breakfast for my family I accidentally placed my forearm on a hot fry pan. I got a nasty burn. I went and grabbed my Lavender oil and put it directly on the burn. It is amazing how much it helps burns. My burn does bother me a bit, but the soreness is nothing like it might have been without the Lavender oil.

Then right after I got burned, my daughter Addy came to me with an itchy back. I looked at her back to see what was bothering her and it honestly looked like she had a bad sunburn. Some sort of odd rash. I again went and grabbed the Lavender oil and put it on her back. Within 15 minutes her rash was gone! She went to school itch-free. Pretty amazing huh?!?

If you want to learn about oils, check out my website at www.butterflyoils.com

Loving Running

Hello My Friends on this cold and wintery day in Idaho. I am sitting here enjoying a delicious bowl of Grapenuts cereal with fresh blueberries and rice milk....yum! I am cooling down after my run today. It feels wonderful to be running again and having this incredible tool back in my life. I am older (almost 50 people) and so I am taking things very slowly with my running. I am still at only 2 miles per day but this is huge for me. In the next couple of weeks I will begin adding distance again. Today I added running at a harder pace. Here is how I do things:

I first begin by walking for about 2-3 minutes on my treadmill at a pretty quick clip. I stretch before and after my runs too, I forgot to mention that. Then I move my speed up and begin to run. I have some fun music my kids dance to and I cranked it up pretty high and I get going. Running is funny, for the first few minutes I think thoughts like "Why am I doing this....it is too hard today." or "My legs feel like wood! I can not do this right now." But I learned an incredible thing from my great friend Felicia who is an AWESOME runner. She told me "Running is hard, and there are times and days that you just have to push through it and make it happen." So while I am running along about the first 5-8 minutes I think deep thoughts (and pray) then my legs start to loosen up a bit and then I get really enjoying listening to the music or lost in my thoughts and then all the sudden I am at about 15 minutes and I am just sort of gliding at an easy pace. (Me! isn't that amazing!)It is the most incredible feeling to be 50 (almost) and to be running more than 5 minutes...and to be running more than one mile. It is so fun and so exciting. So I keep running for another 10-13 minutes or so. Then I increase my speed and make myself really push hard for about three more minutes and the sweat comes and for a runner, that is sort of a badge really. Ya know the cool runners you see along the road running with sweaty shirts and you think "Wow they are so in shape!" Well I sweat like that each day now! I admit not along the side of the road, but down in my basement in the privacy of my own family room, but even so, it is progress and I am proud of me, and now you can be too cause I am sharing this with you. After I run at a higher pace, I slow it down and run the last 5 or so minutes just back down to my beginning pace, but it feels like I am walking almost. I am loving this. I love running. I am so grateful to be moving again.

Do I have lots of pounds to lose? Yes. Am I rather old to be starting this? Probably, but life is for living and I am living and it feels great!

Have a good day. I need to get a shower and wash off my badge.

Running...still

It has been almost three months since I started running. When I started I could only run about one minute. I would run one minute and walk 5 until I gradually added more time. I am happy to report that I am now running 30 minutes per day and running over two miles per day. I hope to be running three miles per day six days per week by summer.

I have learned that if I take small baby steps with life, big things can happen. Three months ago I never would have thought I could run over two miles, but now here I am doing it.

I have a long way to go with getting to the fitness level I want to be at but I am going the right direction and that is what really matters.

Running is defining me in many ways. I am currently facing some hard times with some people I love deeply in my life. Running helps me find some sort of peace with it all. Running helps me deal with the grief I have for the loss of my sweet mother. Running works, it is some sort of magical thing in my life I can't really explain how it is saving me but it is.

If you are dealing with hard things, run, you will get better faster...maybe we "run" to our solution in the end. Interesting idea.

Happy Birthday Moma

Today would have been my mother's 70th birthday. It has been a nice day of thinking about her and how much I love her. My mother loved tulips, so I purchased some white ones and gave a bouquet to my brother and I bought some pink ones for me. My son Jake made a lemon cake in her honor which we will enjoy later tonight with candles. I am proud to be her daughter.

Happy birthday Moma, I miss you.