Here Fishy Fishy.....stock!

We have been intending for awhile to use the fish heads/parts etc that we had collected from the Nice Wegman's Fish Man. Nothing like paying a dollar a pound for excellent wild caught low mercury halibut...

Fish is one of those food items that we would all love to eat more regularly, but the cost is just a problem for our tight budget. Especially when you consider the 2.30/lb we pay for free range organic chickens and the 3.40/lb we pay for our grass fed beef with all the bones! I love to try to get fish and all of it's goodness into our life, but I have found I need to be creative. (yes, it does help that my husband works for Wegmans, and we know when they have extra "parts" laying around for real cheap)

What comes home from the grocery store takes all that is in me not to hurl, (I'm still working on that) but the end product is quite delicious, nutritious, and typically gets us 3 meals!

How do we feed our whole family fish for 3 nights for just 3-4 dollars? Go to the fish man and ask him for all the filleted parts, the stuff they usually just chuck, and ask to have it/ or pay for it. Yes, you will get heads, tails, and various other things, but when made into stock, it will taste just like fish...I promise! Plus there are always "flakes" of meat left after you make the stock to thicken up your soups a bit.

Fish stock:
3 or 4 fish carcasses (non oily fish are best like, sole, turbot, rockfish, or snapper.)
1-2 onions
1-2 garlic bulbs or 5 garlic scapes or both if you like garlic:)
2 carrots chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
4-5 quarts water

The following add after the boil and skim:
6-7 basil leaves
parsley
dash of oregano
2-4 Tbsp cilantro

I added all the top ingredients and brought the water to a boil, and than skimmed it. I covered the pot and let it simmer for about 4-24 hours. When it is done, remove the carcasses and all the added veggies and herbs. If there is excess meat I save this for soup that day! Be sure to remove the excess fat that congeals on the top for long term freezer storage.

Place in the freezer in 2-4 cups storage pouches for later use.

What do you use fish stock for? Delicious soup!

Please check out the Nourishing Gourmet Pennywise Platter Thursday for more frugal recipes/tips, and tricks in your kitchen.

picture taken from Battle Creek Watershed Conservatory.

Candida Diet...Not So Bad

For those of you who don't know, I have struggled with Candida systemic yeast infections on and off for about the last 6 years. I always dread finding out that yeast is yet again what is causing my symptoms. I reluctantly buy all the supplements and get mentally prepared to do the "diet."

This reluctance really does show the human nature. I always feel so much better when all is said and done, but parting with some of my favorite foods is just so hard. I guess you can say, I like instant "food" gratification:)

This time around, as I started the candida diet today, I am determined to make it different. I am actually excited about this adventure. I hope to post many candida friendly recipes for you all to try-out or use if you are on the "diet."

I started some serious research tonight on pecan/almond/hazelnut flours and am looking forward to baking successes. After all, there shouldn't be a reason why one can't enjoy bread, pancakes, and french toast while starving off the yeast, right?

For those of you not familiar with what Candida is, in short, it is a massive yeast overgrowth that is affects you systemically. So, not just feminine areas. It is guesstimated that approx. 90% of woman struggle with some form of candida. Chalk it up to hormones, or just a lack of luck, but women seem to have more problems with this pesky yeast than man.

It starts in the gut, as most health problems do, and actually eats it way through your intestinal lining and starts to cause a whole mess of unwanted symptoms. The true irony here though, is that most Americans just roll with it. They wake up feeling awful, tired, moody, headachey, in need of caffeine and just think that that is a normal way to feel. Well it isn't! You should be able to go to the bathroom at least 2 times a day, and not get "tired" at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

The true kicker is that until you have done a yeast free diet, and know what it feels like to feel good, you truly have no idea how awful you feel everyday. Don't be fooled into thinking that yeast just give you moody, bowel issues. Yeast infections can be the underlying cause of various other health problems!

Obviously, I am not a doctor, but I can speak from experience! If you aren't going to the bathroom at least 2 times a day, suffer from bloating, headaches, sleeplessness, and sleepiness, and your a women...you probably have one...

Break Free! I hope I spiked your curiosity...stay tuned for more :)

Bread Glorious Bread...

I recently came to the conclusion just a week of 2 ago, that N will quickly be 2 and 1/2 and he has never tasted the goodness of a sandwich! I have tried so hard to find a way to adapt a recipe to a "starchless" "glutenless" bread, but really haven't had much success...until now.

I got a call from J saying we were going to have a family outing...which we all love, but my first thought was "uh oh-what am I going to bring for Noah?" I didn't have any "travel" food ready. I did a quick search online, and quickly found one of my new favorite blogs, cheeseslave (She is on the blog roll list and the picture is hers.) She has an amazing recipe for Almond bread.

I am constantly amazed at how one can use almonds to replace starch. I have had lots of success with Almonds in place of wheat flour...pancakes is one.

We gave it a go, and I love it, J loves it, and most importantly N loves it! And I am happy to say the little man got his first taste of a sandwich, a grilled cheese one at that! I feel as though I have had a great kitchen success this week!

I know you are all probably dying for the recipe so....

2 1/2 cup whole crispy almonds (or crispy pecans) (recipe in Nourishing traditions CB)
1/4 cup butter (coconut oil, or lard, homemade yogurt or creme fraiche)
3 eggs
1 Tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Measure nuts whole and place in a food processor or blender (I like the blender better for getting more of a fine meal) When almonds are pretty much pulverized remove from chopper of choice and place in a bowl. Add the eggs, and fat of choice and mix until well blended. Put "dough" (it will look much more like "sweet bread" recipes in consistency) in a small bread pan and bake for 40-60 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean.

You can also buy almond meal at the store. You still use 2 1/2 cups, and soak this overnight in yogurt/buttermilk/kefir covered to remove the phytic acid and than proceed with recipe as noted above.
Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before using a butter knife to remove it from the pan.

We have used this for traditional sandwiches and also some french toast today. I wish I had taken pictures.

This recipe excits me for so many reasons, it is GAPS friendly, and yeast friendly, starchless, and full of protein. All and all, I am yet to find downers. :)

I will warn it sticks together really well, but the texture is not exactly like bread...it is a little more dense...kind of like a sweet bread. :) Enjoy!

Side note: just did this with pecans and added cinnamon, it is denser, but good. If you are looking for sandwich bread...definitely go with the almond!

A Must See Movie

So, I know some of you much prefer to watch movies instead of reading lots of information. I know I like a good documentary every once in a while.

So, one I watched this week on Hulu, was the Future of food. If you are curious to understand more about the debate that goes on between the GMO world of farming and the non-gmo world of farming and how all of this plays into what you buy at the grocery store, this is a wonderful video. You get to see first hand what the farmers are up against. It is relatively short and worth your time.

While I considered myself "knowledgeable" on the topic this documentary really did blow me away, and it should cause you to really think about what "Nourishing Food" advocates are up against!

Sugary and Not So Sugary Problems

Pop quiz: What is the largest source of calories in the Average American's diet?

If you answered soda you would be correct!

This is truly a sad reality. Consumption of sugar, in general, causes insulin spikes and dips, but in the larger quantities like we see in pop (or soda) it has the potential to devastate this balance leading to type 2 diabetes, potassium depletion (leading to muscle weakness, constipation, and neuromuscular disorders), osteoporosis, attention deficit disorder, insomnia, kidney stones, and tooth decay, and obesity...just to name a few. Not to mention as well, that it is taking precious stomach room away from nutrient rich foods in children and adults alike.

As American's we tend to look at the potential side effects of life, drugs, etc, and take them in stride, with the ignorance of thinking these things will never happen to me...or my children. But everyday Average American's, and most likely the same that are the average consumers of pop, are diagnosed with those conditions...

Soda consumption is a simple if/than analogy. If you consume soda on a regular basis than your risks of contracting all the of above conditions increases drastically, and if you continue to consume soda than your risks just get higher. For every can (I mean a can, not a bottle) of pop you drink a day you increase your risk of obesity by 60%! Yup, that's right, 60%! So, if you are a two canner a day, you are 120% likely to become obese. If you are sipping a soda and reading this...you can put the can down now.

Some of you woman might be thinking now, “well that is why I drink diet soda silly!” While you may think you are avoiding all of the above by drinking your diet variety, you are falsely lead as well.

Since most woman are obsessive compulsive calorie and fat label checkers, the soda companies, and all the other manufacturers for that matter wised up to our weakness and created something just for you...with no fat and calories...

Now, do you ever stop to wonder how you could be consuming such a “sugary” beverage with almost no or no calories and no sugar? We can all thank the company Monsanto for such a discovery...or curse. Aspartame itself doesn’t have any calories, but basically, one of its ingredients, the amino acid phenylalanine, blocks production of serotonin, a nerve chemical that, among other activities, controls food cravings. As you might well imagine, a shortage of serotonin will make your brain and body scream for the foods that create more of this brain chemical—and those are the high-calorie, carbohydrate-rich snacks that can sabotage a dieter. Obviously, the more aspartame one ingests, the more heightened the effects. Simply put, aspartame appears to muddle the brain chemistry.

A great example of this is when one consumes aspartame (equal, sweet n low, spoonful), it appears that it still causes an insulin spike, but with no true “sugar” to counter-act this process, cravings for food that will counteract the insulin..ie: sugar or simple carbs (junk food) happen, and the body will not quit until the insulin level is returned to normal.

For those of you who knew Aspartame wasn't a good option, and chose the safe alternative “splenda” or sucralose, I have some bad news for you too. Splenda actually has never undergone long term human study. So, the only research I can offer is from rats, mice, and rabbits. This research showed that sucralose consumption can cause shrinking of the thymus gland (up to 40 percent shrinkage), enlargement of the liver and kidneys, atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus, increased cecal weight, reduced bodily growth rate, decreased red blood cell count, hyperplasia of the pelvis, extension of gestational periods in pregnancy, decreased fetal body weights and placental weights, and diarrhea.

Long story made short. You are best to stay with what is natural. Natural meaning how you would find it in nature. Nature doesn't produce High Fructose Corn Syrup...a manufacturer has to change the molecular make up of corn to do it. Nature doesn't make fat free milk...it gives us cows that have varying fat contents throughout the year and different vitamins and minerals in the grass. Nature does give us a wide variety of delicious fruits and veggies that are wonderful freshly juiced or squeezed!

If you would like more information about any other sweetener alternative here is a large database.

sources not linkable: The Lancet 2001;357:505-508