What Was Cooking This Week

Breakfasts were…

Smoothies for breakfast, well smoothies for my breakfast, I haven’t been able to convince the Z Man into it yet.

Right now I’m also enjoying a mushroom scramble and a apple on the side for breakfast too. This isn’t a great picture, but it was yummy. This particular one I added homemade salsa on top.

This is what the Z Man likes to call “Somma” which means some of this and some of that. I took this picture before adding the bow tie pasta and fresh grated parmesan cheese. I served it along side grilled venison tenderloin. Very healthy and one of our favorite meals. It’s also very good with homemade pesto mixed in.

Another one of our favorite meals is enchilada night.

This particular week was venison and black bean enchilada with homemade guacamole, homemade salsa and homemade yogurt. We always use yogurt in place of sour cream. I love that most all of this meal is grown and / or harvested by our own hands. But then again most of our meals are.

And I roasted some veggies this week too. Carrots, turnips, butternut squash, potatoes and onions. I love roasting veggies, it’s such and easy side dish for any meal.

And there is a chicken in that pot 🙂

So that’s pretty much what we ate this week.

Lunches were leftovers of these meals.

I did not buy any groceries this week, so that keeps my total at $89.84 for the month.

We eat pretty darn good around the Z Homestead 😉

What did y’all eat this week?

Till next time,

Lori

Day 10 – No Prilosec – Update

I’m not proud to admit this, but to be thorough with this process, all needs to be noted which includes the good, the bad and the ugly of it.

Last night I had a bit of a melt down and was really having a pity party for myself.

See today is the 10th day of not taking prilosec (omeprazole) and for the past 7 days I have been experiencing some considerable discomfort with heartburn and reflux. It’s not constant, but it’s pretty typical after any meal I eat.

With this has come a bit of depression and I recognize it, but recognizing it doesn’t make me able to ignore it. This depression has caused me to be a bit of a short fuse.

The depression stems from constantly worrying about what I can eat, and how it will affect me causing pain or not. Like I said in a different post, when I was taking the prilosec I could eat or drink anything I wanted and it didn’t affect me. Just take a pill and it will be all better. This includes wine. I have come to realize that I simple can not drink wine, and as shallow as this sound I’m a bit sad over it.

The Z Man encouraged me last night not to give up and to do more research, to keep on keeping on. Which is so incredibly generous of him because he is the one who suffers the most from my mood swings and frustration.

The potato soup and cornbread I made for dinner last night was a lovely meal, but even the small portion that I ate caused me great discomfort. I suppose it was the onions in the soup.

I went back to my natural foods store this morning and got very lucky because there was a representative there who knew a lot about the subject of the PPIs drugs (prilosec, nexium, omeprazole) and was able to share some information with me as far as diet including bone broth (which I happened to bring with me for lunch today)

We went over everything I’m currently taking and he was in full agreement with all of them, however he suggested that I’m just not taking enough of them. So I will increase the doses of my current supplement regimen which you can read about here.

Sometimes, like last night I needed something for fast relief of heartburn and reflux, so I picked this up at the natural foods store this morning too.

I know I’m on the right path, and I know it will get better in time, I’m just being a bit impatient. For so long I was able to eat and drink anything I wanted and now (at least for right now) I’m not able to do that.

But I will keep on keeping on. 30 days of increasing the supplements and a stricter diet. Here we go!

What’s Cooking 5/18/16?

Breakfast: bone broth (homemade – chicken)
Lunch: same as lunch – bone broth
Dinner: same as lunch and breakfast – bone broth

I’m taking a break today from food, giving my digestive system a rest. And guess what, so far no heartburn or reflux.

Have a great day,

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 5/17/16?

The weather has been unseasonably chilly the past few days and today it’s rainy too so I think it’s a great day for a pot of soup.

My favorite soup is potato soup.

I’ll tell you how I make my potato soup, but bear with me because I do not measure at all with soups, it’s more of just a toss it in the pot process. But that’s part of the charm of soup isn’t it? Almost anything goes.

First a little funny for you… I actually googled the proper spelling of bear or bare to use in my above comment “bear with me” and if I had used the spelling “bare” with me, then by one definition I would have been unintentionally asking you to undress with me….

Whew, good thing I googled that! 🙂

Yes I’m 12 years old again.

Potato Soup Recipe

peeled and diced potatoes
chicken stock
diced celery
diced onion
finely chopped fresh rosemary
rendered bacon fat or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
masa corn flour
milk – warmed and full fat preferably

Peel and dice potatoes and boil in chicken stock until tender. While potatoes are boiling saute celery, onion and rosemary in bacon fat until softened, then add the mixture to the simmering potatoes. Test a couple of potatoes with a fork to make sure they are done and then add a heaping tablespoon (or 2) of corn masa while the soup is simmering (not boiling). You will need to stir the masa into the soup quite well and it will take a couple of minutes to get it completely incorporated. Then add warmed milk until you reach the “soup” consistency you like.

I find that by boiling the potatoes in chicken stock it adds flavor to the potatoes and the same for the masa corn flour. It adds a little flavor while not leaving that pasty texture you sometimes get with corn starch or flour.

My favorite thing to go with potato soup is a big pan of corn bread.

You can top your potato soup with cheese, sour cream and bacon bits what ever you like.

That’s the great thing about soup, you can just toss in anything you like.

Sometimes the next day I’ll add 2 bottles of clam juice and clams to the potato soup and it magically turns into clam chowder. YUM!!!

What’s Cooking 5/17/16?

Breakfast: egg and sausage fritata
Lunch: salad in a jar
Dinner: Potato soup and cornbread

What’s cooking for you today?

Have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/19/16?

This week is going to be a use it up week for meals. I noticed this morning that I have 6 dozen eggs in the refrigerator. We need to eat some eggs y’all! I made a batch of deviled eggs this weekend that we really enjoyed with our hamburgers and I think hamburgers has become our new favorite meal. SO GOOD!

Clearly eggs need to also become our favorite meal.

Deviled eggs it shall be….

Several years back I got into grilled cheese sandwiches. I experimented with all different types of cheeses and breads. I think our favorite was a grilled gouda cheese with an awesome fig jam (that was given to us) spread on marble rye bread. I think typing that just made me hungry! Again, SO GOOD!

I’m going to start experimenting with deviled eggs (like I did with grilled cheese) instead of making the same recipe every time. I saw one recipe that included caviar. That is not in the budget, and honestly I’ve had caviar and wasn’t impressed really. What would be fun is for y’all to share your favorite deviled egg recipes with me to try.

What’s Cooking 4/19/16?

Breakfast: Kashi autumn wheat cereal
Lunch: tuna salad with whole grain Wasa crackers, deviled eggs
Dinner: sausage and potato hash with either fried eggs or I’ll make it into a strata with a salad on the side.

Here is a pic of the eggs I boiled this weekend. I heard on some cooking show that the tell tell sign of an over cooked egg is the green ring around the yolk. No green on these eggs.

IMG_20160416_172042359

I love my chickens, they bless us with the most beautiful eggs every day. Like the Z Man says, “the best eggs you’ll ever eat”

Here is a picture of my favorite crackers that I’m having with my lunch today. They are plain and simple, three ingredients and only 40 calories, and good too.