Happy Mother's Day!

Got any big plans for this Mother's Day? I actually don't know at this point if I do or not. But, I've done a lot of thinking about Mother's Day in years past. Can I share with you my thoughts?

For many mothers, this Sunday will come and go with little to no distinction from any other Sunday. It can feel very discouraging to have a holiday set apart for you go unnoticed. (Although, prior to the 1900s women did not even celebrate Mother's Day; they were completely content, unaware they were missing anything... because they weren't.) No matter if your Mother's Day will feel full or empty, I want to encourage you...

Even if no one notices the passion and diligence with which you nurture your loved ones...
Even if your children do not realize the investment you are making in them...
Even if you grow tired, doing the same tasks over and over again...
Even if no one else around you knows it's hard work!
Or, even if you are duly thanked and appreciated...

Take joy in your mothering. Treasure in your heart the thought that you are accomplishing something monumentally worthwhile. Be glad for all the little things you are able to do for your dear ones, the everyday moments you are able to spend with your family. Shower them with love. Joyfully!

We all feel bolstered by affirmation. We feel validated when someone celebrates us. But I'd like to encourage you to take joy in what you do everyday.

When your days are long and you still have to prepare supper...

When you spend abundant time preparing food only to have to clean up again...

When you sacrifice what you would prefer to do in order to carefully plan nutritious food for your family...

In all these daily efforts, take joy. That is an odd combination of words... but there is joy in daily serving your family. Take it!

Health begins with mom. In the majority of families, I think it really does. It begins with mom's hard work and commitment. What we do is wonderfully meaningful. And there is deep joy in cherishing that thought.

Mother's Day will come and go... fully celebrated or not. But come the following Monday, approach your "duties" with joy. Joy in knowing that you are bestowing long term blessings upon your family.

 Happy Mother's Day to you,

Yummy Taco Chicken plus Five Ways to Serve It

When I was recovering after the arrival of Superman right around the New Year, several friends brought our family supper. It was an unbelievable blessing. One friend (Thanks, Christie!) brought us fresh chicken tacos complete with avocados and whole grain tortillas from Whole Foods. The chicken she brought was shredded and seasoned with a recipe she found on Food Renegade. Our family loved it so much, I looked up the recipe and added it to my repertoire...

 

Only, as you well expected, I tweaked it a bit . :-) I never have onion powder on hand. And my chicken seemed dry if I didn't use some stock with the seasonings. So this is what I did...

 

I started by cooking a pastured chicken all day in a crock pot. I only added a cup of water and generous sprinklings of salt and pepper. (Sorry this is the only photo of the process! By the time I got home to finish the meal, I was desperately behind. There was not time to document in pictures.)

 

 

After cooking all day, I put the chicken to cool on a cutting board. Then I strained the cooking juices and let the fat rise to the top. After skimming most of the fat, I poured the liquid into a large skillet and set it on medium heat. I added the following (see Food Renegade for the original spices):

 

•1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
•1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
•1/8 - 1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper 

•1/4 tsp. Dried Oregano

•1/2 tsp. Paprika
•1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin
•1 tsp. Sea Salt
•1/2 tsp. Black Pepper

 

I stirred up the seasoning and chicken stock until well blended, then let it simmer. While it was simmering, I pulled the chicken off the bones and added it to the skillet. With each addition I stirred to blend the seasonings into the meat. After all the meat was in the skillet with the seasonings, I used two forks to pull apart any clumps. I left it to simmer until most of the liquid was reduced.

 

And there you have it. Terrifically spiced Chicken Taco Meat.

 

We have used it for:

1. Chicken Taco Salad... oh so perfect for these warm GA spring days!
2. Chicken Enchiladas... I usually make my own enchilada sauce, but this time around I just used some tomato soup that I made way too spicy for the kids. It worked perfect as enchilada sauce!
3. Chicken Quesidillas... using Sprouted Wheat tortillas and Cheddar Cheese
4. Chicken Burritos... wrapping up the chicken with sauteed onions, peppers and cheese
5. And, last but probably the best, Southwestern Chicken Noodle Soup... this was a last minute invention because second grade math lessons ate up my afternoon yesterday.

 

 (The soup was steaming when I snapped this picture, so the stock looks blurry... sorry again!)

 

This soup was so delicious. My husband even ate thirds! It's quite simple... Throw all of this in a large soup pot:

 

• 2 quarts chicken stock (or a combination of water and stock)
• 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes with the juice
• 1 can of drained and rinsed kidney beans (it would be best if you had soaked and cooked these properly, but I made do with canned)
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1/2 of a chicken cooked in the taco seasonings above
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
• A few generous dashes of Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 bunch of kale or chard, finely chopped (or, if your children are not used to greens, less)

 

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add about 8 ounces of whole grain pasta and continue to simmer until tender. Serve with a sprinkling of grated cheddar cheese.

 

I hope you enjoy these recipes!

The Winners!

Thanks to all my readers who entered the two giveaways on Health Begins With Mom last week! I really appreciate y'all. According to random.org, the winners are...

Jonesey wins the Glasslock Storage Container Set from CSN stores! And, I might add, she won with her comment to tell me that she posted the giveaway on her blog... so it really paid to go for the second entry.

Renee (reneecordle@...) wins the Safe Home Value Pack from EcoSmart!

I will notify each winner by email. If for some reason you do not receive my email, please email me for prize instructions. (ae @ healthbeginswithmom . com)

Earth Fare Couponing

I don't usually post about couponing. I have found some great healthy coupons out there, but there are so many blogs dedicated to coupon savings, I prefer to leave the topic alone... mostly. (I did post a great link to healthy coupons a while ago here.)

All that being said, I am going to post about coupons today... because Earth Fare has just released a whole lot of coupons on their website. If you live near an Earth Fare, take a moment to peruse the list and see if they offer coupons for items you normally buy.

While you're there, I encourage you to sign up for their email list (at the bottom of this page). I did this a few weeks ago and have been really impressed by the generous coupon they send out each week. A while ago it was a free pineapple! And last week it was 20% off of your entire bulk food purchase. I used it to save big on organic popcorn, sucanat, rice, dates, almonds and organic corn meal. It was well worth subscribing!

For other ways to make eating healthy affordable, read my "On the Affordability of Eating Healthy" series here. There are five parts....

Have a great weekend!

Making Yogurt in a Crockpot

We eat a lot of yogurt. The active cultures in yogurt and kefir are a boon to good health. Aiding in digestion and utilization of nutrients, strengthening the immune system, keeping candida and other unwanted pathogens at bay, even contributing to healthy skin... yogurt should be a staple of every good diet.

Have you found that yogurt can be pricey? Especially if you want to buy organic! Especially for a big family...

I have been making our yogurt since grad school days. Since good quality milk is much cheaper than yogurt, I have found that making yogurt at home keeps our grocery budget from skyrocketing. In times past, I made a quart of yogurt at a time. Then, I upped it to two quarts. Now, with six yogurt eaters in the family, we can easily eat a quart a day! I was getting weary of making yogurt over and over again...

So I decided I would try to make a gallon at a time. I thought using my crockpot would be the best solution for this large volume. I found that using a crock pot to make yogurt can't be more simple!

In my experimentation, I started with the how-to on Nourishing Days. (Read the detailed steps here.) However the instructions there are for making only two quarts... which may be exactly the volume you need to make for your family. If so, visit Nourishing Days for the exact timing for each step. But, if you are like me and need to make a gallon... here's how I tweaked the timing to make the process work for me.

Like I said, it's really simple. But times do matter because temperatures matter with yogurt. You may want to follow the timing laid out below, but use a thermometer to double check temperatures... just to be sure. Crock pots may vary in their performance, so using a thermometer the first time may prevent failure.

• Pour one gallon of milk in a crock pot set on low.
• Leave for 5 hours and 45 minutes. At that point, the milk should be 180 degrees.
• Turn the crock pot off, unplug it. Let cool for 4 hours. At that point, the milk should be 110-115 degrees.
• Ladle out about three cups of the warm milk into a bowl. Gently wisk in one cup of plain yogurt (either from a previous batch or from store-bought yogurt if this is your first time). Then gently wisk this four cup mixture back into the whole batch of milk.
• Wrap the crock pot in two heavy towels to keep in warmth, and leave it alone to culture for 8-12 hours. (Less time equals less tart, more time yields more tart.)
• Move the lidded crock pot crock to the refrigerator and let set for about 8 hours. During this time, it will thicken, or what I call "set".
• At that point, you can stir up the yogurt and transfer to quart glass jars for storage.
• You may want to add some maple syrup to one quart for sweetened yogurt. Or some all-fruit preserves for flavored yogurt. Or, you can just keep it plain for use in smoothies and other recipes.

Not difficult at all, right? It does take about 24 hours, but none of the steps require much work.

One note: I used non-homogenized milk, which I won't do again. Because the milk sits still for so long while heating, the cream separated to the top. In the end, there were some tiny lumps of creaminess. It didn't affect the flavor or the usability (especially since most of our yogurt is for smoothies), but I plan on skimming the cream off next time.

Reminder: Just one day left to enter my two current Giveaways! They each close at midnight tomorrow (4/30). Please follow these links to enter... comments on this post will not be included as entries.

• EcoSmart Safe Home Value Bundle (Non-toxic Insect Repellent and more...)
• Glasslock Storage Container Set

For your health,

Personal Review: Skecher's Shape Ups

Do you see the ads for Skecher's Shape Ups and wonder if they really work? I'll tell you my experience.

But first I must note that this is totally my personal review, my own opinion. Skecher's in no measure has compensated me for this review of their shoes. In fact, they don't even know I exist.

I saw the ads. I was curious. I saw more ads. I even went online and watched their five minute infomercial (which you can see on this page if you scroll down). I put them on my short Christmas Wish List: Shape Ups or money to buy Shape Ups.

Superman was born two days after Christmas, so even though I got some money to purchase my Shape Ups, I didn't get around to it until about 6 weeks postpartum. At that point, I was really eager to try them out... just to see what wonders they would work on my out-of-shape-self. Because of Superman's transverse position and the trouble that caused my hips, it had been four months since I exercised last!

I ended up ordering a pair off Ebay... gotta love discounts! And when they came I eagerly laced them up. At that point, six weeks postpartum with a very slow recovery, it was my tendency to walk and stand hunched over. My fifth pregnancy and the cesarean left my abdominal muscles weak, to say the least. It was just hard to stand up tall. Do you know what I mean?

I wasn't ready for full blown exercise at that point, but the Shape Ups really helped my posture. I wore them around the house and as I was working in the kitchen. And I really noticed how they caused me to stand straight and tall. Correspondingly, they worked on tightening my core muscles... which is just what I needed.

The shoes came with a DVD of two workouts. The fifteen minute workout was great for getting used to the shoes and doing some easy-to-moderate strengthening exercises. I couldn't do much more than that when I first started back into an exercise routine. I have also tried the thirty minute workout a few times. It is a true workout... I was sore the first time for sure!

I don't think I noticed a big difference in muscle strength and tone until I started wearing them on my morning exercise walks. We walk at a brisk pace and there are a few big hills on our route. It is a good workout even in regular shoes. But with my Shape Ups on I really, really observed (and felt!) how different they were then my regular sneakers. They truly give a good workout! And, since I only have 30 minutes to walk, I need every step to count. 

So the ads say that Shape Ups "tone your muscles, promote healthy weight loss, and make it easy to get in shape!" I would have to agree that they tone muscles.I've seen my legs and backside shape up. And I would add that they improve posture. Even though I don't wear my Shape Ups all day, my posture is improved throughout the day. 

I would recommend Shape Ups... I think they really are different than regular sneakers... just like the ads say. What do you think? Have you tried Shape Ups? If so, how do you exercise in them? Do you like them?  

The Castle Birthday Cake - Icing Woes - And Giveaway Reminders

Well. The cake was delicious. It wasn't one of my best presentations. (I'm sure you could make it look a lot better.) But it tasted good. Witzy was pleased. Minus the icing. Here's the cake and the story.

I used the Super Moist Oatmeal Chocolate Cake using soaked grains. (Recipe here.) That was the good part. I doubled the recipe and baked two 8x8 squares and seven cupcakes. The cake assembly was simple. Layer the two squares. Stack three cupcakes at the front for the front tower. Stack two cupcakes at each back corner for the back towers.

Then came the icing woes. I wanted the icing to be healthy -- whole foods, natural sweeteners. I had tweaked a cream cheese icing recipe from Nourishing Traditions for my son's coonskin cap birthday cake. But this time around, I needed a lighter color. So, I searched online and found a recipe using just honey and cream cheese. I mixed it up and gave Witzy a taste. She politely told me she didn't like it.

So, I had to make a few changes. I added some vanilla and some stevia, because it was the only natural sweetener I had on hand that wouldn't add color or bulk. That improved the taste 100%, but it still wasn't excellent... consider where we started. I began to spread it on the cake. ARG! I wasn't going to have enough for the whole cake! And, then I looked at the clock and realized I was quickly running out of time!

I had planned on adding Blueberry Juice to part of the icing to make a pretty lavender. Witzy told me she wanted purple decorations on her Castle Cake. But that wasn't going to happen since I barely had enough icing for the front of the castle. (The back of the cake is bare!) I wasn't going to have any purple for trimming up the edges. It was looking sloppy, and time was running out! (Did I mention that the day of her birthday celebration was one of the worst of the year... fiasco after fiasco.)

I had to delegate the job of cutting out the cones, flags and grass to Rainbow. I also asked her to make doors and windows since I wasn't going to have purple icing for that either. She was cheerful about helping. I was tempted to ruin her gladness when things didn't come out perfect. But I restrained myself. I reminded myself that her memory of helping with the birthday cake would be a treasure... unless I made her feel bad because it wasn't as good as if I had done it. Children before cakes, right.

When the cake was complete, I was quite flustered. It didn't look at all as I had planned and the icing was just mediocre. I was nearly an hour late starting supper. Witzy and Spiderman had been playing outside. When Witzy came in for some water and saw her cake on the table, she said, "Oh Mamsie, that is the prettiest birthday castle cake I have ever seen. Thank you so much for making it for me!" Which made everything better.

Like I said, I am sure you could make this cake look better. But in the end, it made for a perfect birthday celebration. Witzy was so pleased. And Rainbow was so excited that she got to make the paper additions.

***************************

Have you entered to win my two current Giveaways? If not, please follow these links to do so... comments on this post will not be included as entries.

• EcoSmart Safe Home Value Bundle (Non-toxic Insect Repellent and more...)
• Glasslock Storage Container Set

***************************

And one more thing... Are you having trouble loading Health Begins With Mom? Is it slow to come up on your browser? For some reason, something is slowing it down... any thoughts? I can't figure out the trouble. I need some technical help!

Thanks!