Is this where we're going?

Thomas Paine on unCommon Sense

3 Easy Ways to Pack Nutrition into Kids, Part 3

Cereal Grains

Oatmeal, 7-grain Cereal, 5-Grain Cereal, Farina, Grits, and more

By parading a variety of grains through the mornings, you will get more micro-nutrients in your family. Add berries, apples, dried fruit, chopped nuts, etc. for more flavor and nutrition.

Cooked grains are full of nutritional value, are easy, fast, and economical.

I have ground my own grain for 7-grain or 5-grain cereal but my Whispermill grinds it too fine for my family's taste. It is great for baby cereal though.

Bob's Red Mill has a plethora of different blends and varieties of cereal grains. If your family is opposed to oatmeal, surely there is something at Bob's that will appeal to them.

This morning we had 7-grain cereal with frozen berries. Delicious!
Not everyone was happy though. One boy, age 7, fried himself four eggs over easy. One boy, 17, had coffee and yelled at a congressman being interviewed on the TV. One girl, 5, whined for oatmeal again, after having it four days in a row. With raisins.
Then we all gathered around the TV and watched the Acorn spokesperson blather on. Smoke was coming out of our ears after that.

Nearly Free Soil Block Maker

Ah ha!

While searching for something else, I found this page on how to make your own soil block maker!
This is an excellent project for your kids!

Here's more good info!
PottingBlocks.com

Washing Dishes

Washing dishes is when I do my thinking.

There's a lot on my mind these days. I could simply not watch the dooms day news but I think it's a good thing to know what's going on, talk about it with my kids, and prepare.

Today, while I was listening to Obama, I started thinking about his energy taxes and what kind of affect they might have on our budget. One intent, I'm sure, is to force people to use less energy but PLEASE let me do it in my way, on my terms. I think there might be blood shooting out of my eyeballs now.

Moving on, so I don't hemorrhage to death.
The weather has been warm and gorgeous. I love spring!
We have been pruning, lots more to do, but it's fun work! The big boys have been finishing their building project. The kids have been cleaning the yard and their playhouse. I keep intending to start the cabbage and broccoli seeds but haven't got that done yet. Maybe today.

3 Easy Ways to Pack Nutrition into Kids, Part 2

1. Smoothie
2.Bread
3. Whole Grain Cereal

Fresh ground whole grain bread is another way to sneak micro nutrients into your kids.
Whole grain loaves that you make are very inexpensive compared to buying a loaf of bread at the store. Not only are they less expensive they are nutritionally superior!

Even buying organic grains is a fraction of the cost. A grinder will quickly pay for itself. I have the old Whispermill (it is now owned by a different company and called something else), my sister-in-law has the Nutrimill and both are fine machines.

The grains you use must be freshly ground. As soon as the grain is ground it begins to lose nutrients due to oxidation. This is why you do not want to ever buy whole wheat flour at the store. It has lost its nutritional benefit, although you will still get the fiber, and it tastes nasty because the oils in the grain have gone rancid. Nasty nasty tasting.

There are many wonderful recipes for whole wheat bread. I personally have a tendency to constantly experiment with different grains. I love multigrain bread and the nuttiness of actual whole grains and seeds in the bread. This is how you pack more nutrients into your kids. Each grain has different levels of nutrients and micronutrients. I add small amounts of amaranth, quinoa, teff, flax seed, and millet when I grind the wheat so it is all ground together. I also grind not just hard white, which is my family's favorite, but small amounts of hard red, spelt, and kamut. Another thing I do is soak wheat berries in water, then bring to a boil and cook until they pop. Then I either add them whole or blend them with the stick blender. When you add grains that are not "wheat" do not add too much and/or add gluten. Hard wheat berries have gluten which is what helps bread to rise. If your balance is off then... you might end up with a brick. Some people have sensitivities to gluten and are unable to pull this trick of adding non-gluten grains and adding gluten to your bread.

Don't ask me for a specfic recipe. I've been working on making one especially suited for an enormous 5-loaf sandwich bread pan. I have determined that each loaf is 50 ounces and have adjusted my recipe accordingly. That made the recipe too big for the Bosch, believe it or not! I head the machine bogging down and the bowl was full so I didn't attempt to knead it with the Bosch. I pulled it out and kneaded it by hand one loaf at a time. Next time I will cut the recipe in half and do it in the Bosch twice. I bought this huge sandwich 5 loaf pan at a restaurant supply store, it was used and cost $5 I think. Not much anyway. My personal favorite bread are artisan loaves made in brick bake ovens. (Local folks-I love the New Pi loaves.) I had been working on making that type of bread in my oven last fall. I was starting to get good loaves but then got distracted and didn't make much bread all winter until I started messing around with my sandwich loaf pan. My goal with it is multigrain bread that is high and soft for sandwiches. I'm still working on it. I'd like to do it with sour dough starter instead of yeast. My point here is that you need to find a recipe and tweak it to suit your family, your bread pans, your oven, your ingredients, etc. There are zillions of bread recipes on the internet. Do a Google search.

A great place with tons of good information is Bread Becker's. They have everything you need and lots of great information.

3 Easy Ways to Pack Nutrition into Kids, Part 1

1. Smoothie
2.Bread
3. Whole Grain Cereal

Smoothies are my favorite way. You can hide healthy things in smoothies. If you add bananas you won't need to add any other sweetener. I buy bags of brown bananas, peel them and put them in freezer bags. They turn dark in the freezer but it really doesn't matter.

A few years ago I caught on that Smoothies were a wonderfully easy way to get healthy foods into my children and I started serving them for breakfast. They loved them and we quickly started having them for lunch and snacks too. This is how we make them.

Plain Yogurt (usually homemade) or Kefir for all the good bacteria we need in our gut Raw Eggs for protein (from our chickens or another free range flock) Coconut Oil for all of its health properties Vitamin C powder, again, for our health Frozen Bananas for sweetening and because they're so healthy Frozen Berries or Pineapple for our health and palate

It is fast and easy. Throw all that in and blend away!

The amounts are going to depend on how big your blender is and how many you are serving. If you like it sweeter, then add more bananas. I figure 1 c of yogurt, 1 egg, 1 T of coconut oil, and 1/3 t of Vit. C powder per person. This is approximate because of course the Littles don't eat much and the Bigs go around slurping up all the leftovers.

When we're out of yogurt we use milk or buttermilk.

We have a cow and chickens so I can easily and economically take care of the milk and eggs.

Coconut oil I have to bring from afar. I have bought excellent coconut oil from Tropical Traditions and Wilderness Family Naturals. I have had really bad coconut oil from Spectrum.

Vitamin C powder I buy but I suppose in desperate times I could collect rose hips and pulverize them. ; )

Bananas and pineapple are things I can't grow in Iowa. boo hoo

But I can and do add honey if we are out of bananas. I have been buying honey but God sent a bee swarm to our orchard last year and we caught it! I did not harvest the honey last fall in September because I did not know what I was doing. I still don't but I'm learning! Our bees are alive in spite of the bad location we put them. This year, I intend to get bee keeping right and not buy any honey. By the way, honey is on the healthy food list.

Berries are on every single super food list. I have been working on planting different berries around our place. Raspberries I can do easily. The absolutely most important thing to do right with raspberries, in my experience, is to keep them weed free.

Blueberries, I am still working on perfecting their cultivation. They need acidic soil which I do not have but can amend. One key thing I learned from a local expert is that they need a sandy soil. As I have said before, my excellent soil is rich and heavy. Last fall my boys put sand around all of my berries and early this spring I am supposed to put fertilizer on top of the sand. There is a particular type he recommends but I wonder if the copious amounts of manure around here would suffice? Then, on top of the fertilizer, mulch with pine boughs. That is easy to do in the spring. When we clean yard, we put all the little pine branchs around the blueberries, raspberries, and hydrangea (not a fruit but it like acidic soil).

I buy berries or fruit trees every year, slowly growing the amount and variety that we have here. Last year I bought from Raintree Nursery and was very happy with what they sent us. They have a huge and excellent variety of small fruits. We bought several variety of cider apple trees last year.

My goal for next season is to not buy any berries but to harvest and freeze a year's supply. I'll have to do some math to figure that number out.

1/4 cup per person per day

11 people x 1/4 = 11/4 = almost 3 cups daily

365 x 3 = 109,995 cups = 54,997 pint freezer bags of berries

Wow! That's a lot of berries! Did I do that math right?

I'll just freeze as much as I can and then ration it from there. Reality...

Another nutrient rich food list

Andrea referenced this site about the world's healthiest foods in a previous comment. I just wanted to say that from what I've seen, I really like the info on this site. Their list also gives me more to focus on.
I encourage readers to go take a look.
Thanks Andrea!

Super and Nutrient Dense Foods

I did a bit of searching in my (not really) free time (hahahhahahahaha). My goal was to try to find out what fruits and vegetables to concentrate my time and effort on. Here are the food lists I found. I highlighted in red the foods that I can grow or already have growing in my yard. I live in Zone 5, you might live somewhere else and be able to grow pomegranates and oranges.

From WebMD:

• Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Oats
• Oranges
• Pumpkin
• Salmon
• Soy
• Spinach
• Tea (green or black)
• Tomatoes
• Turkey
• Walnuts
• Yogurt

From Center for Science in the Public Interest:

• Sweet Potatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Milk
• Broccoli
• Wild Salmon
• Crispbreads (WW crackers)
• Brown Rice
• Citrus Fruit
• Butternut Squash
• Spinach or Kale

From superfoodsrx:

• Apples
• Avocado
• Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Cinnamon
• Dark Chocolate
• Dried Superfruits
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Garlic
• Honey
• Kiwi
• Yogurt
• Oats
• Onions
• Oranges
• Pomegranates
• Pumpkins
• Soy
• Spinach
• Tea
• Tomatoes
• Turkey
• Walnuts
• Wild Salmon

I confess, I have a few problems with these lists. They certainly can't be perfect. They do have some overlap, so I'll definitely go with that. My questions:
Why is turkey on it? I understand the salmon because of the omega fatty acid blah blah blah. But why turkey? I like turkey, don't get me wrong. But what is so special about it?
AND
Where's the beef? As a I beef producer I am offended. Beef is a fine food that should be on these lists. In fact most people should eat more beef. I know personally, that when we happen to be out of beef and are eating mostly chicken, we all get weird food cravings and go nuts for beef.

I'm getting sidetracked from gardening here.

Where are potatoes? I just read the other night that between milk and potatoes most nutritional needs are met.

You know what? I think the diet dictocrats are confused all the way around. I think the safest bet is to have a wide variety of whole foods and to get some of those foods from afar.

Now, one of the premises of this blog is to grow your own food for almost free and that's what I invite you to journey with me through. I'll make my own list of super foods that I'll concentrate on and put it in the sidebar.

Gardening Goals

This year I'm trying to spend as little as possible gardening. Some years my gardening has been rather expensive. I bought a Troybilt tiller the year that my sister-in-law planted a one acre market garden. I sometimes got a little crazy buying flats of flowers and that can add up. In the winter I go crazy ordering seeds--the garden catalogs can be like a restaurant menu. Loads of delicious looking food that I imagine myself serving up to my family in numerous beautiful ways like that lady on the old Victory Garden show. When I get my kids involved in ordering seeds it gets even more expensive because they want to do exotic vegetables or buy the seed for the giant sized vegetables. But this year I'm going to hold myself, and my children, back.

Last year I ordered my seed from Baker Creek and we saved seeds from the things that were successful. We also ordered way more seed than we planted and I hope that they will germinate.

Another goal is the same old same old--a weed-free garden. But maybe this year I'll be more successful at it because I intend to have tunnel vision on gardening. Let the rest of the world pass on by--I'm growing food.

Any tool that I buy must be re-usable. I don't want any disposable pot type things, like Jiffy pellets (which work fine by the way--I just don't want to buy them again and again). Somewhere I have a soil block maker and I'm going to use it. I need some trays though to put the soil blocks in and I'm not sure of the best way to do that. Make them with wood? The plastic trays are flimsy and don't last terribly long.

I also plan on growing potatoes. I am typically not that great at growing them big. But I'm going to do better this year! From my reading about potato culture I have decided that our soil is too heavy. More on that later.

Tea Party