Nourishing Traditions and other Recipes for a Better Health

[ORChick]

You could try growing Camellia sinensis (tea plant), although if you live in a cold climate it will have to live indoors or greenhouse. The fermentation process to make black tea might be too much trouble, but green tea is simply a matter of drying the leaves. One old chinese fella I knew told me that he could reuse the same green leaves (he got them as whole leaf) for pots of tea all day long-- sounds nice and thrifty!

Might be a little harder to grow coffee- I suspect you would need more than one tree to make a decent amount of coffee.

I often make a second pot of tea from the leaves in the first pot - as you say, nice and thrifty . I'm afraid thought that one (or even two) tea bushes probably would not cover my needs - and I never have found green tea to be a good substitute for a good, strong, Irish Breakfast type. I live just over the mountains from you, Britesea, and so might find growing tea a tad easier than you would - but only a tad I'm not too worried - I like my tea, but ... when its gone, its gone. I will mourn its loss, and turn to mint, and other things from the garden ... with regret, mind you, but I'll get over it . But I worry about those I know with a strong coffee addiction.

 

[Wifezilla]

Like my husband. I think if I pulled a blood sample it would come out strong and black with just a little blood in his caffeine system.

 

[lorihadams]

If you want to cut down on coffee...buy a french press and stop brewing coffee in a "coffee pot". Grind your own beans...I find it tastes better anyway and when done in the french press you can measure out enough for like 2 cups of coffee and only put in that much water. When it's gone, it's gone.

I find that with coffee, it is so expensive nowadays that when my husband brews some (he apparantly only knows how to make a full pot even though he will only drink one cup himself ) I will save it and drink some cold with ice and lots of fresh raw goat milk the next morning instead of pouring it out and making more. I just hate to waste it.

I am trying to stay GF. My family are bread addicts. If I made homemade wheat bread they would devour it the first day but then wouldn't eat it cause it wasn't soft anymore. So I am back to buying "regular" bread for them. The GF bread I have to toast first or I just can't eat it, it's a texture thing. I just recently found a GF bakery close by that I'm dying to go into and see what I can get. If I can find a GF alternative that my whole family will eat then I will switch.

Last night we had green beans, potato slices (baked in the oven with a pat of butter, salt, and pepper), carrot slices with a pat of butter, and a piece of hind quarter from a deer with Montreal steak seasoning on one side baked in the oven. It was sooooooo good. I cut up some cucumber slices and a red pepper for the kids to snack on while everything was baking.

If I could eat like that every night I would. We just get into food ruts and then I grab something quick and we end up eating a sandwich or can of soup or hot dogs (nitrate, nitrite free) and then we all just feel horrible.

My biggest thing is doing things that my kids will eat and that are GF. They love pasta, not GF--its "icky", so pasta dishes are out for me.

I have NT and love it but I can't eat some of the things in there, nor can I find a lot of the ingredients. I drink kombucha and raw goats milk and lots of water. We don't buy lots of convience foods except granola bars. We eat a lot of fruit and raw veggies for snacks and my kids love cheese sticks. I want to make my own mozzerella but just don't have the milk supply yet from the girls.

The cost of food is driving me crazy, our grocery bill is enormous because we buy so much fresh fruit and veggies each week. I would hate to see what it would be if I had to buy any meat cause we currently don't except an occasional pork tenderloin. We raise our own chickens and harvest as many deer as possible each fall for the year's supply and grind our own deer for "hamburger".

I'm trying to relearn how to cook from scratch but I find I am cooking the same things over and over and just get in a rut. When my husband asks "what's for dinner" and I tell him and gets an eye roll I just feel bad. My 4 yr old refuses to eat anything spicy....she hates pepper too. So then I get into issues with a lot of recipes cause they are just too spicy for her to handle. My hubby has a very boring palate and when I do anything out of the norm or "ethnic" he turns his nose up and eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then my kids won't eat it cause daddy won't eat it. Now I've spent all this money on spices and ingredients that no one will eat but me. Its frustrating.

 

[moolie]

I'm trying to relearn how to cook from scratch but I find I am cooking the same things over and over and just get in a rut..

Get your family involved in your meal planning

I've been slowly creating a binder cookbook made up of photocopies (well, scanned pages from my cookbooks that I have printed out and put into plastic page protectors) and my kids and hubs help choose what we will have based on what is in the freezer. My binder is divided into sections: beef/bison and ground beef/bison, poutry, fish, pork, other protein dishes (beans, eggs etc.), side dishes, breakfasts, desserts etc. (I'm not looking at it at the moment so there may be more divisions).

I've tried a few different things including picking a theme for each day of the week (so that Tuesday is always pasta etc.) and just trying to vary what we eat within each week, and at this point we just wing it and plan what we like that works with our daily schedule because we have two nights a week that the girls are out after dinner.

When we get bored with "dinner" we have breakfast for dinner or make a home made pizza. I'm fortunate that my girls like more exotic foods like Indian and Vietnamese, so we make our slightly lame-o home made versions from time to time as "take-out" night.

Collect all of your favourite recipes in one place and get everyone involved in deciding what you will eat each week and write it on the calendar--then they know what is coming, and they will begin to look forward to certain days. Don't be afraid to have a day of the week that is "Mom's choice" or "Dad's choice"--a surprise here and there is good for them too.

 

[FarmerJamie]

If you want to cut down on coffee...buy a french press and stop brewing coffee in a "coffee pot". Grind your own beans...I find it tastes better anyway and when done in the french press you can measure out enough for like 2 cups of coffee and only put in that much water. When it's gone, it's gone.

I find that with coffee, it is so expensive nowadays that when my husband brews some (he apparantly only knows how to make a full pot even though he will only drink one cup himself ) I will save it and drink some cold with ice and lots of fresh raw goat milk the next morning instead of pouring it out and making more. I just hate to waste it.

I already grind the beans, I agree with the better flavor. The fresh press is an idea I've be toying with (Christmas is coming ). Any suggestions on them?

FWIW, I agree completely on the "brew only enough to drink". I have a personal story/gripe about wasting coffee that irks me to no end, but I'll just say, "yep, I agree!"

 

[FarmerJamie]

Back to the NT recipes, lorihadams, I feel your pain - but my kids are older and are definitely feeling like they should have a say in the meal. I'm trying to convince the family to try a NT meal once each week. Our rut is time constraints and picky eaters DD1 and DD2.

I'm going to produce a meal proposal for next week, since some of the recipes next a couple of days of prep in order to make.

 

[MsPony]

@Bubblingbrooks - have you ever noticed (and I'm sure you have!) that the Africans that still live in the bush have the most beautiful teeth?

ETA: Minus toothpaste too!

My husband doesnt brush his teeth, unless I complain about his breath (he doesn't eat very healthy) and his dentists can't get over how perfect his mouth is. I brush religiously (recovering germaphobe) and I get brown streaks in my teeth and I try to eat NT/WAPF healthy! If he feels a gum infection he just rinses with GSE.

 

[MsPony]

Thanks, WZ, I get the cheese/meat snacks, but any substitution options for potato chips? Love the salty crunch.

Cucumber sprinkled w/ sea salt, pepper and a little lemon. MMMMMMM!

 

[Britesea]

Thanks, WZ, I get the cheese/meat snacks, but any substitution options for potato chips? Love the salty crunch.

I went to a meeting of the Weston A Price Foundation last night, and they handed out samples of fermented carrot slices. Oh. My. Goodness. They were crunchy, salty, healthy, and totally addictive.

 

[framing fowl]

Britesea, do you mind starting a separate thread about your experience with the meeting. Were there lots of people? What did you talk about? Samples... yum!