Mary at Giving Up On Perfect is having a 10 week weight loss challenge.

I was going back and forth about joining in. But, what do I have to loose?!

Well, I do know exactly what need to loose…all this squish making my clothes too tight!

So, like Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife and Ashleigh at Heart and Home I’m going at this the real food way.

Here’s my starting plan:

*Lower carbs

*8-10 glasses of water

*Coconut oil

*Lots of veggies, some fruits

*Grass fed protein

*30 minutes + of exercise daily

Y’all I am totally printing this out and putting it on the fridge.

Oh. Boy.

Here. We. Go!

{insert nervous sigh}

I have been trying to compile a list of what foods are in season each month.  Not only will the food taste better, but it will be a lot less expensive!  I was giddy when this little gem showed up in my Google reader…

Chart by Leon

(The chart was made by the Leon restaurant chain in London, but since British weather is very similar to the climate of most of North America, it works well for most of us.)

You can get your own chart here…for free!

I grew up eating sauerkraut from a can.  I liked it pretty well, but then I was introduced to REAL sauerkraut!  I’m talking about lacto-fermented sauerkraut, alive and health-giving.   There’s no way to describe the difference between canned sauerkraut and fresh, real sauerkraut!

(I haven’t taken any pictures of my sauerkraut, so I’ll give you a few links that explain the process.)

(It’s important to remember that these new ways of eating and cooking get so much easier with time.  So, if things feel awkward at first, don’t be concerned. )

Crystal Miller shares: How to make sauerkraut-Step by Step.

Debbie Apple shows how she makes sauerkraut.

Have you ever made sauerkraut?  Do you make other fermented veggies or have a favorite recipe to share?

Go to Food Renegade for Fight Back Friday to learn more about great food!

(This is a timely repeat from the archives.)

If you listen to the news you hear a lot about flu and cold season.

So, I thought I’d share what has helped our family stay well.

When our babies were sick I would have given anything to make their pain go away.
So after suffering through a few colds, I had enough!

It was time to be on the offense.

I  found our there is  SO MUCH we can do to keep from getting sick!
Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:

Sugar is public enemy number one.

Eating one teaspoon can lower the immune system up to six hours.

Ever wonder why the flu season happens around the holidays?

Think about all of the pies, cakes, brownies, sugar cookies…

It’s hard not to eat sugar but it’s even harder to see your babies with what my daughter calls “booger nose”.

Enough said.

Over 80% of your immune system is located in the intestinal tract.

Help keep the digestive tract working well by taking  a good quality probiotic or by eating naturally fermented foods, like yogurt or sauerkraut.

Peroxide is a wonderful helper in the fight against disease.

Bubble out your ears with peroxide.
(Just dip a cotton ball into the peroxide, lay on your side and use the cotton to drip peroxide  into your ear canal.
Wait until you hear it stop bubbling and then tip your head and pour it out.
It’s helpful to have a hand towel on the pillow.)

I do this whenever we have any symptoms and it really seems to help.  With little kids you can just take a cotton swab and dip it into the peroxide and gently put some into their ears.

If you are having a sore throat you can gargle with a mixture of  half water and half peroxide.

Wash your hands, eat healthy foods, get plenty of rest and STAY WELL!

(I hope these things help your family too.  I’m not a doctor, so these are just tips from one Mom to another.  May your family stay healthy this winter!)

“… I am the LORD that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:26 KJV)

If you enjoyed this here is some additional reading:

My homemade germ killing cleaner.

How to treat a cold.

Drink enough water.

For more info on improving your health visit Food Renegade on Fight Back Fridays

How many of you make sauerkraut?

I have made two batches. The first (amazingly) was really good, the second was really bad.  I used whey and salt for the first batch and just salt for the second.  Has that made a difference for you all?

What do you all put your cabbage in while it ferments?  I just read that Sally Fallon (Nourishing Traditions) puts hers in closed top mason jars.  Will the building gasses cause the jars to explode?

Thanks for all your help!  Any advice is much appreciated by this sauerkraut making newbie!

Head on over to Food Renegade to learn more about real food on Fight Back Fridays!

As a fair-skinned Mama with fair-skinned children, I have to think about the sunscreen issue a lot.  I don’t want the increased risk factors from getting sunburned, but I also don’t want a bunch of toxic chemicals soaking into our skin!  What’s a Mama to do?!

The solution: the Environmental Working Group’s 2009 Sunscreen Guide!

With this handy tool you can check the ingredients in your favorite sunscreen, see how your current sunscreens toxicity is rated and find the best non-toxic sunscreen for your family.

Enjoy your summer…safely!

I grew up eating wild mushrooms called Morels.  They are some of the most delicious things you will ever put into your mouth!

They grow better in the Northern states, but we still find a few in Middle Tennessee.

This is Matthew, our son, holding a Morel mushroom we found in our yard last year.  One of two…not quite enough to eat!

I had been doing some research on edible plants and mushrooms in our area, so Matthew and I went on a search in the woods around our house to see what we could find.  We found a tree that had fallen, but the large stump was still standing. On that stump we found… Oyster Mushrooms!  There are no look alikes in the US, so we were sure that we had the real deal.

This is what we harvested…about four pounds of free, tasty, gourmet mushrooms!

The best way that we have found to eat Morel and Oyster mushrooms is to gently pan fry them in butter.

After we harvested them, I put them in salt water to get rid of any bugs.  I rinsed them off gently and carefully.  Next I put them into a zip-top bag and coated them in flour.  Then I fried them in butter and salted them to taste.  They were so good!

The next time you go to the grocery, look at the gourmet mushroom mixes.  I bet you’ll see small oyster mushrooms in there!

For more information check out these sites:

General Mushroom Info

Edible Wild Mushrooms

(Time for the disclaimer:  Do your own research. Make sure you are harvesting in a clean area, not by a road, because mushrooms absorb heavy metals and toxins.  Don’t eat any mushrooms that you aren’t ABSOLUTELY  SURE are safe.)

For more real food fun visit REAL FOOD WEDNESDAY!

I just finished reading some wonderful books…I have limited time to sit down and read, so I usually stick to topics I’m trying to learn more about.

(If you read this blog very often you’ll not be surprised at my list!)

The first book I’d like to recommend is Crunchy Cons.  As I read this book, I was so glad to know there are others like me out there!

You see, I’m usually walking this narrow road between the right and left wing politicians. For example:  As a Christian I believe we are to take care of our earth because we are to be good stewards of God’s gifts.  But, we also need to remember that all we do is for people…for their good.  If we plan carefully, the earth can be kept clean and people can be well taken care of.  (stepping off of soapbox now)

Even if you don’t see eye to eye with me (and that’s okay) then you will still learn a lot from this book.

Now for a classic…Nourishing Traditions!  This book changed the way I fed my family forever.  I have seen some amazing changes happen in our family since I started feeling them whole, real foods, made in traditional ways.

By the way this “traditional” doesn’t mean your Grandmother’s condensed soup filled, topped with fried in trans fat onion pieces, canned green bean casserole that showed up at the Thanksgiving table every year!

Tasty, yes.  Good for you, nope. Sorry.

By “traditional” I’m talking about things that healthy, “primitive” cultures have been eating for thousands of years.  Like butter from animals fed only grass, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, etc.

Now for the benefits we’ve seen by eating this way:  Since October 2008, my husband has lost over 20 pounds, I’ve lost 30, my children have had an easier time doing school work, their behavior has improved, they are growing well and we are all really healthy.

I could go on and on…go ahead, take the plunge into traditional, nourishing foods and see what good things happen in your family!

For those of you who have already seen the great things eating healthy foods can do, please share your comments!

Want more? Then head over to Fight Back Friday to see what’s new!

The first time I read Nourishing Traditions I was shocked.   I thought I was feeding my family a healthy diet…like the food USDA pyramid says.  Wrong.

One of the ways we have improved our diet tremendously is by switching to raw milk. This change has only been made after much study and prayer.

My main concern was with e-coli.  My young niece was swimming in a local river and doing what kids do…she swallowed some water while she swam.

There was only one problem…cows.  This river runs along cow pastures and the cows come down to drink…and go potty.  There in lies the problem.

These cows are your regular grass and grain feed cows and obviously carried e-coli.  My niece almost died, her kidneys were shutting down and if it hadn’t been for the healing power of the Lord, she would have died.

I couldn’t think about my children laying in a hospital bed, with their kidneys shutting down, just from drinking raw milk! It just wasn’t worth it!  So, we just kept drinking our “ultra pasteurized,homogenized, organic milk” from the grocery. Until the day we visited our local farm store…

You see, they had cow shares available, which was the only way to get raw milk in TN at the time.  I told Debbie, our farm store owner, the concerns I just shared with you.  She wasn’t upset at all, in fact she said she wanted people to be asking questions and doing research.

This was the day that my thoughts about raw milk changed forever.  Debbie told me about a piece of information that I hadn’t heard …the difference between grain fed cows and grass fed cows.

This is the summery what she said:  When you feed a cow ANYTHING but grass, their naturally alkaline stomach environment will become an acid environment.  So, if a grass fed cow does pick up e-coli, that bacteria will die in the acid environment of our stomach. No problem.

The problem starts when cows are fed ANYTHNG but their natural food…grass. (This includes grain at milking time.) This changes their stomach environment to acid, instead of alkaline.  If they do pick up e-coli, then the e-coli adapts to live in an acid environment…like our stomach!

Debbie also milks her cows in a closed system, into stainless steel and chills the milk immediately. She also tests the milk for any indications of abnormal cells.

By ONLY feeding a cow grass and milking properly,  then you virtually eliminate the danger from e-coli.

You can read about our farm store’s milk share story here and here is more info on raw milk.

Here is a WONDERFUL article about raw milk!

Visit Food Renegade for more healthy info at Fight Back Fridays.

Wool Dryer Balls From Good Mama

My Mother in law just gave me some wool dryer balls that my aunt made.  I’ve been wanting to make these for a while, but have never taken the time to do it!

I used them on the mountain of laundry that I washed yesterday and they worked really well.  My aunt said that when she uses 8-10 of them she is able to cut her drying time in half!

Saving money and having no static cling… naturally, that Works For Me!

If you want to make your own dryer balls, GoodMama has the instructions!

Be sure to check back on Friday for the latest L. Herbert Design prints that will be featured at Nesting Place!

Want to win a free print from my store?  A High And Noble Calling is hosting a giveaway!