Living Food

I haven't been seized by the desire to write about a particular topic this week, so I thought I might post a few recipes. You may be wondering what we do for breakfast around here. Then again, you may not. Either way, I'm going to share our morning routine with you! I get up around 6:30am and shuffle around the kitchen bumping into the dining table for about 20 minutes. Once I finally gain my bearings, I prepare Phase 1 of breakfast. In this house you get two choices for breakfast: muesli or hot porridge. Ali, Finlay and I prefer the cold cereal, so we get to eat first. Also, Finlay gets picked up for school at 7:50am, so I need to make sure he's fed early. My muesli recipe is pretty easy. I keep a large Rubbermaid container filled with a mixture of 2/3 organic rice puffs, and 1/3 organic millet puffs. After this goes into the bowls, it's time for the toppings. The kids like to sprinkle their own toppings on if they happen to be up, otherwise I do it. I get out unsalted sunflower seeds, unsweetened shredded coconut, chopped pecans, and raisins. After all these are sprinkled over the cereal, I finish off with a sliced banana. The boys can choose whether they want unsweetened coconut milk or almond milk. These days they are going through an almond milk stage, but I prefer the coconut milk. There's more fat in it. And I'm a big fan of fat.

Once the younger boys are taken care of, and Finlay is off to school, then I start Phase 2. Calum and Adam prefer porridge, so I make oatmeal. I make a batch large enough for three days, so I don't have to prepare it from scratch every morning. If you aren't a big fan of oat porridge, then you really should try this recipe. It's really really good. Unfortunately for me, when I eat porridge I'm starving 30 minutes later. It just doesn't hold me like the muesli does. Anyway, I bring two cups of unsweetened coconut milk plus two cups of water to a boil. I add two cups of rolled oats, and lower the heat to medium-low. Let this simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When it's done I add one tablespoon of organic unsalted butter, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Calum likes sunflower seeds, brown sugar and sliced banana on his. Adam gets ground flax seeds, banana, and chopped walnuts with a splash of coconut milk. As you can see, we go through a ton of bananas. The boys snack on them as well, so we devour a large bunch daily.

This probably sounds like a lot of work for so early in the morning. It is. I also spend a good two hours in the kitchen preparing lunch, and then another two hours again to prepare dinner. I spend an awful lot of time in my kitchen each and every day. Good thing I really like my kitchen. I know most of you would never dream of spending so much time preparing food everyday. Luckily, I love to cook. I've always prepared food from scratch and have always made the effort to cook a really healthy homemade dinner every night. Now I've had to step up my game to the ultimate level. If you don't have developmental delays, neurological conditions, food allergies, chronic migraines and cancer represented in your household, you may struggle to find the motivation to spend so much time and energy preparing meals. But, you may have other motivations. Perhaps you have seasonal allergies, joint pain, insomnia, excess weight, PMS, asthma, or any other number of various ailments plaguing your family members. It might be time to re-think the way you use your kitchen, and what positive changes you can make to your dietary health.

If you haven't seen these before, take a look:

 

These are Kirlian images of a tomato. The tomato on the left is raw, and those little beams of light are energy being emitted from that little raw vegetable. The tomato on the right has been lightly steamed. The energy has been dimished somewhat, but there is still evidence of a life-giving force coming from within the tomato. I haven't been able to find Kirlian images of, say, a Stouffers lasagna, but I would be willing to bet that there aren't any beams of light shooting out from within it. We've heard it all before, that whole foods are better for us. But, look at those photos! It's more than a simple case of fat, calories and carbs. Whole foods contain valuable vitamins and minerals, but they also contain beautiful radiating energy. Here's something else you can't measure in a lab. Recently I watched a YouTube video of a pale thin raw vegan chef making kale chips. She had a breathy voice and a very airy way about her, which I found mildly annoying, BUT she said something that really grabbed me. She said that she really likes to handle her food as much as possible while preparing it. She feels that through her hands she can take advantage of that radiating energy, and make it hers. I can totally see that. I've been tempted to acquire a food processor to help me with the endless chopping, shredding, and dicing. But, I think the vegan chef is right. When I handle vegetables all day long, washing, peeling, dicing, chopping, and slicing, I'm exposed to that radiating force within it. That is just as nourishing as eating the food once it's prepared. I also have a very firm belief in the X-Factor of homemade foods. I am convinced that when I prepare and cook food completely from scratch, using my loving hands, that MY energy is transmitted to the food. That energy and love then travels into my husband and children when they consume what I've prepared. The secret ingredient is love, people. Maybe it's sounds a bit crazy, but we all know the unspecified power of homemade food prepared by none other than Mom. You are missing out on so much when your diet consists primarily of processed food. That Stouffers lasagna has been prepared by a machine. Where's the love? It ain't there. If your children eat cereal from a box for breakfast, bologna on commercial bread with potato chips for lunch, and a rotisserie chicken with frozen peas for dinner... you haven't actually touched any of it. There has been no transmission of your love through the food into your family. We have been preparing food the good old fashioned way since Adam and Eve, and only in the past generation have we gotten so far removed from the basic art and pleasure of cooking food for our families. I know everyone is busy, and many women work outside the home. But, it is possible, even if only a few dinners a week, to make a simple meal from scratch for the sake of your health, and the health of your family. I can put together a salad, broiled fish, and homemade potato wedges in 30 minutes. You can find a few recipes that everyone enjoys and that you can lovingly prepare in a short amount of time. And you will reap the benefits of handling that food as well. Now get in that kitchen!