Finding a balance

Dinner was good last night. I ate one bite of the roast and didn't gag.

I am trying to find a balance here. I have found a lot of valuable information relating to traditional foods. I just do not believe it is all good for my family. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have been given a revelation about our health. It is called The Word of Wisdom and is found in the Doctrine and Covenants- Section 89. I have found that most members of my church focus on the "don'ts". No alcohol, drugs, coffee, etc... But, and this is a BIG but, there is so much more revelation given in this section!

Grain is ordained to be the staff of life. Herbs and "as also fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground-" are for us.

Verse 10 And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—
Verse 11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

Verse 12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;
Verse 13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

Verse 14 All agrain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;

I love the Word of Wisdom! Here are the last few verses. I find them so beautiful and hopeful!:

Verse 18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;
Verse 19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of dknowledge, even hidden treasures;
Verse 20 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
Verse 21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

You can find the whole section here: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/89
You will have to copy and paste, I cannot seem to post a link on this blog.

I am going to be revamping our diet to better meet the needs of our family and the revelation given to us.
1-Wholesome Grains are going to play a bigger role in our diets. I am going to keep working on my sourdough and hope to have something spectacular soon.
2-I am going to find a raw milk source and I hope to get cream too so I can make butter.
3-We are going to eat more fruits and vegetables.
4-Meat will be eaten sparingly but I will also prepare it in a healthy way. I am also going to find a source for healthy meat.

I know more inspiration will be given to me as we go. "Line upon line, precept upon precept......."

I am really looking forward to spring. I want to join a CSA and be a regular at the farmer's markets come summer time.

I am excited about our little garden. We have but a tiny patch of ground so I am going to be researching square foot gardening. I have much hope for the spring!

Sourdough Take One

I want to document how I made this batch so I can remember. I made a sponge in the morning with 1.5 cups starter and added 3 cups WW flour and 2 cups unbleached flour and 4 cups water. I let is sit for about 11 hours and then I added 4 cups WW flour and 1/2 cup water and 2 tsp salt. I kneaded it for 10 min and then oiled my dutch oven. I put the dough in the pan and covered it with a cloth diaper and let it sit overnight on my counter.

I woke up this morning to find my dough had risen over the edges of my pan. So, I squished it back in and let it rise an hour longer. I placed my pan on the back burner of my stove and turned the oven on to heat it up nicely.

This morning I preheated the oven to 400, slashed the top of the dough and cooked it for 10 min. Then I turned the oven down to 325 and baked it for 70 min.


The crust was pretty hard. I oiled my dutch oven with coconut oil but I still could not get the dang bread out in one piece.


It was so heavy my poor cooling rack was sagging! LOL! The inside was nice and chewy. Pretty sour though. I am not a big fan of sourdough but I will learn. :) It tastes much better with butter slathered on it. I think I will make a smaller loaf this next time. I started a new sponge with 1 cup starter, 1 cup WW flour and 1 cup unbleached flour, and 1 1/2 cups water.

*fingers crossed!*

In knitting news-I am working on Hannah's longies:

My proofing box

Here is a picture of my lovely proofing box.


Here is the inside:



I now have 4 jars of starter and I have a sponge sitting on my counter. *HUGE grin* My mom and sister are each getting a jar of starter and I will ask my sister-in-law of she wants one as well.

Here is my sponge:


See that bubble? That little bubble in the bottom left corner? It is much easier to see in real life. My sponge has only been sitting out for about an hour and it already has one bubble! I cannot believe how excited I am about this sourdough experience(or should I say experiment?)

Traditional Foods

I am looking into the Traditional Foods way of eating. I have been a vegetarian for the last 17 years. Except when pregnant I crave meat so I eat a little chicken then. Really, I HATE the taste and texture of meat. It makes me nauseous to even think about eating meat, let alone to actually have it in my mouth. *shudder*

My health is in the toilet and I have been feeling for the last year that this is something I need to do.

I have sourdough starter in a proofing box that John made for me yesterday. We all went to the hardware store and John picked out several gadgets. He came home and a little electrical tape and fidgeting later I had a snazzy heat light on a dimmer switch. He cut a hole in the top of a styrofoam cooler and put the light through it. Viola! A proofing box! Now my starter is in a quart canning jar under the cooler. I am really excited about this. I LOVE to make bread and I love to bake and be in the kitchen. To be honest, I find that when I am making food for my family that is healthy I tend to say a little prayer over it. I do not do it consciously(most of the time)but I want to start doing that.

Yesterday as I was mixing up my culture(I ordered it from sourdo.com)I found my self saying a little prayer and thinking about the health and well being of my family.

Bread is the easy part for me, and I am going to start making yogurt. I am looking into raw milk sources and excited about that as well. I do not want to think about the meat aspect. LOL!

John and the children eat meat and they seem very excited about this change. :)

I figure even if I only eat one or two bites of meat to start it is okay. Baby steps.

We had tons of fun talking about how sourdough works and the children are just as excited as I am about watching our culture do its stuff. They are helping me monitor the temp in the proofing box.

I bought Nourishing Traditions and Wild Fermentation to read and when I ordered my sourdough culture I also ordered Classic Sourdoughs.

Wish me luck!