After some prayer, I was led to look at Luke's diet. I decided to remove artificial colors and preservatives from his diet. Which meant moving to an almost completely "from scratch" way of cooking. I like to cook so this didn't seem too bad.
Except for breakfast. We were addicted to the box. Of cereal, that is. And even the healthy cereals have BHT and other chemicals in them. And most are LOADED with sugar.
So I have embarked upon a journey to ban the box from our house.
Last week I made 20 dozen muffins (pumpkin chocolate chip, double chocolate, applesauce, whole wheat English muffins, and whole wheat scones). Got them in the freezer with 8 loaves of applesauce bread. So each morning I take some out, microwave them for 20 seconds or so and the kids slather them with butter. Mmm!
I also made a 2 gallons of applesauce and 1 gallon of granola. This should last us a couple weeks.
This morning I made whole wheat tortillas and we ate them with butter and cinnamon sugar. We also had yogurt. And even though the kids are sick and crabby, they aren't acting crazy.
I purchased some ebooks from The Heavenly Homemaker and I'm really enjoying learning to cook REAL FOOD that doesn't involve cans of chemical laden crap.
Here are a few pics of my newly fixed and stocked deep freeze (notice the 12 freezer meals too! Woot!)
And just for fun, this is what happens when you don't clean off your counters before starting the crockpot. Oops!
So, please, spam me with your favorite make-ahead breakfast recipes.
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10 comments:
Go, Tamara! It really is amazing the effect food has on us, esp our little ones who have no coping mechanisms like coffee and Tylenol popping. Lol. Looks like you are doing an awesome job.
ACK! That's an awesome job! How exciting. I need to get my freezer stocked up... real bad.
Oh, check out Passionate Homemaking for the blender pancake recipe. I make those in a double batch and freeze. I also make waffles and freeze them. Breakfasts around here are muffins, pancakes, waffles, baked oatmeal, eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.
We do LOTS of homemade waffles and pancakes and then put them in the freezer. A few minutes in the toaster and they taste great!! We use pure maple syrup or just a little jam on them. We also add flaxseed to EVERYTHING. We cut out artificial colors and preservatives, as well as high fructose corn syrup about a year ago and the only one having an issue with it....is Brian. Go figure. :D
I recently inherited my mom's Belgian waffle maker. She didn't use it, so she passed it on. I'm in love with the machine! The kids love waffles and they freeze great. (Read: make a couple of batches ahead of time, freeze 'em, and heat 'em up in the toaster in no time flat!) We've also been eating less boxed cereals, which really wasn't so much of a conscious effort as it was a desire to have something other than cold cereal in the mornings. Your thoughts on the cereal-behavior link are interesting; I'll have to pay attention to whether it makes any difference with my own kids or if they're just being typical kids. Our 6-yr-old has been on the hyperactive side for quite a while. Definitely something to think about!
way to go! It's amazing how much food can affect little bodies. My oldest is REALLY affected by sugars and artificial stuff. We mainly eat eggs, oatmeal, or pancakes here for breakfast... I don't make to much breakfast stuff ahead of time... probably should.
I'm not quite sure how you have time, but I admire you a bunch. Wish you were closer to me, I'd let you mentor me. I mix breakfast up around here, just because cold stuff gets old after a while. We do muffins(not usually from scratch getting ready for work in the mornings too), pancakes, waffles, bagels, oatmeal, cream of wheat.
I wish I had know about all this food allergy stuff when my kids were little. We had lots of problems with an out of control child. It's never to late though! We took him off milk for a few years at about 12 years old.. and oh the changes! He can drink it now and he's fine. (2 years later!) Thanks for the great recipe sites! I think now that the weather is cooler... I will bake on my days off! Prayers for you Tamara! Don't stress yourself out too much! and don't overdo yourself!
Very excited that you have made the switch to real food! I make Porridge (recipe here: http://schooloflife.org/oats/index.htm#Breakfast) several mornings a week, which is soaked overnight the night before and only takes 5-10 minutes to cook in the morning. Then we add butter, cream, local/raw honey & non-irradiated spices - pumpkin pie spice is the favorite right now! On the other mornings I make pancakes, muffins & scones with sprouted grains. And eggs (which I buy locally & free range so they're full of goodness) are another staple breakfast at our house! We always add fruit and usually whole milk yogurt with a bit of honey or maple syrup stirred in. If you have a toaster oven you may want to consider using it to defrost and heat food instead of the microwave, because microwaving food destroys much of it's nutritional content. There is a lot of info. on microwaves available online, but here is a short article on the topic if you are interested: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6463.cfm
Keep up the good work! You're an inspiration to me, and I love reading your blogs!!
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