Living Simply

Meal prep is faster and easier if you have things on hand that you use often to create a variety of meals.  Also, the more you make from scratch, the less you have to keep on hand. Here is what I make sure to keep well stocked at my house.  I can make many meals from scratch that are healthy for my family, easy and quick to prepare and inexpensive.  We spend about $70/week on food and household items (TP, diapers, napkins, etc. ) for a family of four (! know, one is a breastfeeding baby, but I'm counting my husband as two -- he eats as much as two men!).

Baking Supplies                                                           
Whole wheat flour
Sucanat (Natural unprocessed sugar)
Various Spices 
Coconut oil, virgin                                        
Olive Oi, extra virgin                                                                                                            
Corn Meal                                                                              Baking soda                                                                                                                                 
Baking powder, alluminum free 
Vanilla
Sea Salt
Cocoa Powder
Chocolate Chips

Pantry Supplies
Natural Peanut Butter
Mayonaisse
Brown Rice
Oatmeal
Honey, raw
Dried Beans -- black, red/kidney, garbonzo, etc.
Lentils
Whole Wheat Pasta
Raisins
Canned Fruits
Apple Cider Vinegar

Fridge Supplies
Yeast                                                                                                                                                              
Applesauce, unsweetened                                                                        
Yogurt, homemade 
Parmesean Cheese 
Chunck Cheese 
Butter
Eggs 
Milk  
Fresh Fruits (in season or what is cheap)
Fresh Veggies (in season or what is cheap)
Onions
Garlic
Milled Flax Seed
Mustard  
Homemade Ranch Dressing

Freezer Supplies
Corn
Peas
Ground Beef/Venison
Chicken
Berries -- strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
Homemade pizza dough
Homemade chicken broth
Butter -- I stock up when it is on sale and store it in freezer until I need it.
Pureed veggies/fruit -- I use my food processor to puree fruits and veggies if we will not use it all before it goes bad; then I freeze it and add then to various recipes.

Supplies I used to keep on hand, before going "no nightshade"
Canned tomato sauce, no additives -- to make into pasta sauce, pizza sauce, soup, etc.
Potatoes
Salsa
Ketchup
Shredded Cheese, pre-packaged -- they use potato starch to prevent clumping!

Challah bread is a traditional Jewish egg bread -- Often braided and brushed with egg and sprinkled with poppy seeds.
I make this bread into loaves and we use it for all our bread needs, mostly sandwhiches and toast.

I have a bread machine that makes a 2 lb. loaf and has a "dough" setting.  I use the bread machine to mix the dough and then divide it and into two pans and let rise one more time and then bake it.  I think the bread comes out much more moist and tasty than letting the bread machine bake it and it is still so easy!

This is the order I place ingredients into my bread machine:
1 1/2 c. water
2-3 Tbsp. coconut oil (or butter or olive oil)
1 egg
3 1/2 c. whole wheat flour (or 4 c. whole wheat flour and omit the milled flax seed)
1/2 c. milled flax seed
(You can experiment with adding other flours, just use 4 cups total flour/grains)
1/4 c. sucanat (or sugar)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 tsp. vital wheat gluton (you can omit this if you want)
2 tsp. yeast

Plug in the bread machine, set it to "dough setting" and press "Go"!  The dough setting on my bread machine takes 1 hour and 50 minutes.  When it is done I divide the dough in half, form into loaves and place in greased loaf pans.  I cover the pans with a dish towel and place in a cool oven with the light on.  I also place a pie plate of water on the rack under the loaves -- I leave it there for the final rise and during baking.  When the bread has doubled+ in size (a couple hours in a cool house).  I remove the dish towel and turn the oven on to 350 degrees and set the timer for 30 minutes (I don't remove the risen loaves).  When done baking I cool on a rack for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan to finish cooling.

This dough can also be used to make cinnamon rolls:

Unless one of your great interests is horiculture you probably don't know what "nightshade" is, although most of us consume many of them in our diets (even healthy diets) often each day.  Common nightshades that form an intrical part of many meals are: tomatoes, pepper (sweet and hot) and potatoes. 

My husband has suffered many years from what he calls "sore and stiff muscles".  He dislikes medical doctors and avoids going to them unless he is completely miserable (often for may days before he calls for an appointement).  He doesn't feel quite so strongly about chiropractors.  So, when he hurts so much that he can hardly move, he resorts to a chiropractor for an adjustment thinking that mis-aligned bones/joints are causing muscle stiffness and spasm. Often these adjustmens help a bit but not fully.  He has baffled more than one chiropractor. 

The most recent one gave him 20-30 minutes of stretches to do every morning before getting out of bed and any time he felt he needed to.  The next time he was "forced" to return to this chiropractor, he was amazed that my husband had been faithfully doing these stretches each morning for almost a year, and was still having the same pain and "stiffness" issues.  Because of his commitment to doing these stretches, he is very flexible but still feels like his muscles are "tight and stiff"...obviously they are not!

I kept telling my husband that we needed to do some research and find out why he was having pain -- that it was not normal.  His response was, "It's not?  I've had pain like this for so long that I forget that not everyone feels this way."  Well, we think we have finally at least started to figure it out!

Nightshade plants have a history of causing these problems in sensitive people!  It has been almost two weeks since my husband has cut out tomatoes, potatoes and peppers from his diet and he is feeling so much better!  This also explains why my husband has such a severe reaction to second-hand smoke (tobacco is a nightshade plant!)  We keep finding "hidden nightshade" in foods we regularly eat, so we will keeping looking and eliminating.

Some obvious (and not so obvious) nightshade in your kitchen:
Tomatoes -- fresh, sauce, dried
Peppers -- sweet, hot
Potatoes
Salsa (duh!)
Chili powder
Paprika
Pimentos (green, pimento-stuffed olives)
Shredded cheese (pre-packaged) -- they use potato starch to avoid clumping!

So, I will continue to remove nightshade from our diet and our kitchen.  I'm hoping that as we continue to remove it and as his body has a chance to "detox" we will see steady improvement!

Here are some websites we have found useful:

WHFoods

Suite101

Has anyone else found this to be true for them?

We finally took the plunge and traded in our microwave for a toaster oven.  We knew that the microwave was not a healthy choice for our kitchen, but the convienience of it kept it on our counter.  After receiving some money for my birthday, I decided that it was time to give up the "convienience" in favor of health. 

I have been pleased to discover that preparing food now is EASIER than before!  A few things take more time -- heating water and making oatmeal -- but I've gained easier meal prep and better tasting food!

We bought a Hamilton Beach Extra Large Counter Top Oven with Convection and Rotisserie.  It is only a couple inches taller than our old microwave and fits in the same spot on the counter.  I love that it holds two 12 inch pizzas (even though we haven't used it for pizza yet). and that is has a large, clear glass door -- I love the ease of being able to see my food cook/reheat and know when it is done!

So, even though my 2 year old is not liking the extra time it takes to make oatmeal on the stove in the morning, I'm enjoying the ease of reheating food and cooking in less time than using my oven.  It pre-heats much faster and with the convections setting, cooks much faster too!  I made the most wonderful baked chicken the other night in half the time it would have taken in the oven!