Circle of Life

There's something that Hubby and I have been discussing for years. We've both researched it from one end to the other in books, websites, discussions with friends and acquaintances who have gone through the same thing. We've thought about the impact it would have on our kids. Would it scar them for life or would they take it in stride just as they do other issues that come up in our lives? Well, after years of talking about it, planning it, researching it and sometimes dreading it, we finally did it! What is it, you ask, gave us such worry? What could cause such deliberation and thought provoking discussions? Obviously I'm talking about the slaughtering of our dear, pet, noisy, fat roosters!

Several weeks ago, Hubby did the deed and culled 3 of our older roosters and 3 of our older hens. Then this past weekend he culled 4 of our young roosters. We were worried about how the kids would handle seeing or even knowing that we'd killed some of the chickens that used to run around the yard like pets. Would they cry, would they be ok with it, and even more importantly would they eat chicken again? Surprisingly the kids were fine with it. When they saw me going back into the run trying to grab another chicken to cull they helped me pick which one would go. "Should I take Red or Fluffy?" (yes, we had a rooster named Fluffy.) "Take Fluffy, he's mean!" And then later in the week when I cooked up Fluffy they ate him with little more protest than they usually do at dinnertime.

For the older roosters and hens, which didn't have the skin left on, I slow cooked them in the crock pot with some veggies and herbs to try to tenderize them a bit. The older roosters had the darkest thigh and leg meat that I've ever seen! I'd call it red meat rather than just dark meat. But I guess our roosters did a lot of running and jumping, which would darken the meat much  more than a factory rooster that spends its short life in a cage.

The younger roosters were roasted with the skin left on. It seemed much more oily than the birds you get in the store, but was sooooooo good!


Roasting the young birds consisted simply of putting the pieces skin side up on a cookie sheet, rubbing skin with a little butter then sprinkling a tiny bit of salt and pepper on top. I roasted at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. I turned the broiler on in the first 10 minutes just to crisp up the skin, but I think that's optional.


Now that we have a few less roosters in the yard we should be able to mix our 2 flocks together getting the younger birds out of my garden. They've weeded it nicely and now need to go! I've got seeds started in the greenhouse and would like to get to work prepping the garden for planting some things outside. The chickens did destroy my strawberry plants, though, so I'll need to buy a few flats to replace mine.

I'm also glad that we've got some chicken in our freezer that I know has no antibiotics or hormones or other nasty stuff in it. I was there when those chicks arrived in the mail, and I saw them throughout their life. Other than the bugs, worms or weeds they found I'm pretty sure I know they ate throughout their life, and I know what kind of a life they had. And those are probably the most important things I want to know about the meat we eat.

Balsamic Chicken and Onions

It seems like I've only been posting Primal/Paleo recipes that are recreations of gluten and sugar filled foods. And I guess that's what people might not know how to do without some research, but eating Primal is so easy when you just focus on foods you already eat that fit into that category by their very nature. An example of that is a regular meat and veggie dish like Balsamic Chicken and Onions. I used to make this dish all the time years ago...well before trying to eat healthier and certainly well before eating Primal/Paleo. So when I was trying to figure out a new dish to make for dinner to break up the monotony, I remembered an old dish and decided to take it out for a spin again. Enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken and Onions
about 10 chicken thighs or 4-5 chicken breasts
2 Tbs butter
2 Red or yellow onions sliced into rings
1 C sliced mushrooms (optional)
1/3 C Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown both sides of chicken in butter over medium high heat.
2. Add sliced onions and stir until onions are on bottom of pan and chicken is on top of onions.
3. Add balsamic, salt and pepper then cover and cook for about 15 minutes on medium low heat.
4. Add mushrooms, cover and cook for another 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.


Linked up to Homegrown Learners Wednesday "What's for Dinner"

Another Chocolate Pudding Recipe - Paleo/Primal, Dairy & Gluten Free

I've recently been getting a box of yummy, organic veggies and fruits every week from Mother Nature Organics. I love it! I get some things I'd not normally buy, but have found I like them all the same. This has made me get creative in coming up with dishes that use these veggies and fruits. The other day I had a ripe avocado in my fruit/veggie bowl that looked like it was ready to eat. I've been eating guacamole quite a bit and didn't really want to eat it again that day. So I mined the recesses of my brain and remembered something I read in Deceptively Delicious a while back about making chocolate fondue from avocados. I pulled out that book and found that her recipe called for a LOT of sugar and margarine. That wasn't really what I was looking for, so I decided to improvise and came up with something that was very yummy with only 3 ingredients! And believe it or not, my picky picky son loved it. After knowing what was in it, my daughter decided she wasn't interested, but my son tried it and ate it! So give it a try!

Chocolate Pudding made with Avocado
1 ripe avocado mashed until smooth
1/3 C cocoa powder
1/3 C maple syrup (add bit by bit, stir then taste to get right amount for you)

Mash Avocados until smooth then stir in cocoa powder. Add syrup a little at a time tasting until you get the right amount of sweetness for you.

Dr. Bronner's for your hair?

In my ongoing quest to use more natural bath products I decided to try out Dr. Bronners Conditioning Rinse to replace my regular conditioner. I'm already using and loving Babo Botanicals Lavender 3 in 1 for my shampoo, but I was still using the  regular Costco brand of conditioner for my fairly long and very thick hair.

I started out by reading the instructions on the Conditioning Rinse bottle, because this product definitely needs instructions. It looks a bit like thick molasses and smells like strong lemon juice. The instructions say to dilute one to 2 cap-fuls in a cup of water, stir, then pour over your already washed hair while combing with your fingers. The lemon smell almost overwhelmed me! But I guess since lemon is supposed to invigorate you, a strong lemon smell in your morning shower is a good thing. I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair and combed my fingers through it. Usually after conditioning my hair is very smooth, but this time it didn't feel quite that way. The bottle also suggests that for those with long hair they repeat the conditioning process. So I did. After the second rinse my hair felt much the same as after the first.

I let my hair air dry that day then brushed it after it was dry. I found quite a few tangles and just didn't feel my hair was as smooth as it had normally been. But I don't like to give up on a product after the first use. So I tried the conditioning rinse again a few days later, but got the same result. Dr. Bronner's also has a couple of leave-in conditioners that may give me the smooth and silky feel that I'm looking for, and I'll probably give those a try. I definitely like the natural ingredients and lack of parabens and sulfates in Dr. Bronner's products and may try the soap for shampoo when I run out of Babo. I have one of those great big bottles of the soap and plan to try it as hand soap, body wash and maybe laundry soap. If you have any experience with Dr. Bronner's I'd love to hear about it!

So to sum it up, after using Dr. Bronner's Conditioning Rinse I could definitely get a comb through my hair and it smelled pretty good, but it was definitely not as smooth and silky as it is when I use a chemical-laden conditioner. I may be ok with that on most hair-washing days just to be able to use a more natural product, but on days when I want my hair to look and feel nice, I'll probably go back to my Costco conditioner bottle...until I find a natural conditioner that gives me better results. Have you found a great natural conditioner?

Primal/Paleo Apple Crumble

The other day was Pi day (3.14), and as we all know you have to eat PIE on Pi day. Pie doesn't necesssarily fit into my Primal/Paleo lifestyle experiment, but I thought I could come up with something that would work just a well. Hubby requested an apple dish, which is by far his favorite dessert. He orders the apple-whatever every time we have dessert in a restaurant. Apples sounded good, but I had to come up with a crumble topping that would actually crumble. I usually use oats, flour and butter as the backbone of my crumble topping, but obviously none of those would work. So I gave almond flour and coconut oil a shot. I think the result was quite tasty, and the rest of the family agreed!

Gluten & Dairy Free Apple Crumble
1 1/2 C almond flour
3 tsp cinnamon divided
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C coconut oil
2 Tbs maple syrup
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 apples, peeled, cored then chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 C unsweetened apple sauce

1. In one bowl combine flour, nutmeg, salt and 1 tsp of cinnamon. In another bowl combine oil, syrup and vanilla. You may need to warm the coconut oil until it's a liquid.
2. Stir wet ingredients into dry to make the topping.
3. Place apples in a 1-2 qt glass dish then sprinkle them with remaining cinnamon. Pour apple sauce on top of apples.
4. Crumble topping over apples.

5. Cover and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. When filling is bubbling up around crisp, remove cover and bake for another 5-8 minutes until crisp is golden.

I've listed this recipe at Homegrown Learners' Wednesday recipe day.

Primal/Paleo style St. Patrick's Day Dinner

I love St. Patrick's day dinner! Every year I make corned beef and cabbage, roasted veggies and Irish Soda Bread. My friend, Debbie who is from Ireland, usually hosts a St. Patrick's day lunch where everyone wears green and brings green or Irish food to share. I usually try to bring soda bread to the party, but this year my Primal/Paleo way of eating posed a bit of a problem with that. The soda bread I've made in years past contains mostly wheat flour and buttermilk, which are 2 foods I'm not eating right now. But being the persistent person that I am, I had to give soda bread a try anyway. Once again, Elana came to the rescue with a soda bread recipe that mostly fit the bill, but I made a couple of tweaks of my own. 

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,

May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

~Irish Blessing

Gluten & Dairy Free Irish Soda Bread
2 C Almond Flour
1/2 C coconut flour (can use all almond flour instead)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C raisins
2 Eggs
1/4 C coconut or almond milk
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl mix all wet ingredients
2. Mix wet ingredients into dry. Add more milk or flour as needed to form a slightly crumbly dough.
3. Form dough into a disk shape then using a knife cut an X shape across the disk.
4. Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.


Crock pot Corned Beef and Cabbage
2-3 lb corned beef brisket with spice packet
2 C carrots (baby or regular sized cut into 2 inch pieces)
1 large onion cut into wedges
1 head cabbage cut into wedges
3 C warm water
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs honey

1. In a crock pot mix water, vinegar, honey and spices from corned beef package.
2. Mix in the onions then lay brisket on top of onions.
3. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours adding warm water as needed.
4. Add carrots and cook on low for 1 hour.
5. Add cabbage and cook on low for 20 minutes or until cabbage and carrots are tender.




See More Recipes on Homegrown Lerners' Wednesday recipe day

Primal/Paleo Pancakes - Gluten & Dairy Free

Every Sunday morning my family and I have pancakes for breakfast while reading the Sunday Paper. It's a tradition that we all look forward to each week. Since starting to eat foods that follow the Primal/Paleo lifestyle I've had to make a separate meal for myself which usually consists of eggs, bacon, sausage or similar. Now don't get me wrong, I love eggs, bacon, and sausage, but I wanted to share the traditional pancake breakfast with my family. So, I set off on a quest to find a pancake recipe that would fit my grain and dairy free eating plan but would also satisfy my family's taste buds. I started at Elana's Pantry and found this pancake recipe. It looked good, but I had to make some changes, because that's just the way I am. The following recipe is the one I made this morning for my family. My daughter had thirds so I think it was a hit!

Primal/Paleo Gluten and Dairy Free Pancakes
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 Tbs maple syrup
2 Tbs vanilla extract
1 banana
1/2 C Coconut or Almond milk
3 cups blanched almond flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
(I added chopped walnuts to my pancakes and the kids added chocolate chips to theirs.)

Directions:
1. In a blender, mix Eggs, Syrup, Vanilla, Banana and Milk until smooth.
2. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the blender a bit at a time. Add more milk if the batter becomes too thick to blend. Batter should pour easily but not be runny.
3. Preheat griddle or skillet on Medium heat (300 degrees for griddles).
4. Pour pancake batter onto griddle or skillet making about 3 inch pancakes. Add any nuts or chocolate chips to the uncooked tops of the pancakes.
5. Pancakes will form little bubbles, when bubbles open, flip pancakes over and cook other side.
6. Cool on a wire rack or plate and eat immediately.
7. Makes about 15 pancakes.