I’m featuring two recipes for this week’s Real Food Wednesday because I feel like they compliment each other well and they’re inexpensive – which is perfect since our topic is Real Food on a Budget.

The major portion of this meal is the Lentil Loaf – lentils are cheap even when you buy them organic! The recipe also calls for brown rice, another inexpensive staple. The soup calls for only a small amount of beef which compliments the lentils while being easy on the wallet.

Lentil Loaf

1 & 1/2 Cups lentils

Water to cover

1 Tablespoon whey

2 cups soaked and cooked brown rice

2 onions, chopped

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon sage

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

Salt to taste

For topping:

1 can organic tomato paste

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons sherry

3 Tablespoons butter (melted)

salt to taste

Soak lentils in water with whey overnight.  Drain and rinse, then cover with water and bring to a boil.  Simmer until soft.  Fry chopped onions in cooking oil of your choice and mix with lentils, mashing partially as you mix.  Add rice and mix in seasonings. Press into a greased loaf pan.

Mix ingredients for sauce well and spread over lentil mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  (Recipe is adapted from the Farm’s cookbook)

Korean Beef Soup

1 1/2 quart beef stock

1/2lb beef brisket, sliced very thin (I have used other beef cuts as well)

1/2 cup brown rice

1/2 cup brown rice or buckwheat noodles, broken into pieces

2 Tablespoons naturally fermented soy sauce (or tamari)

Bring stock and rice to a boil and skim.  Add brisket and soy sauce and simmer for 1 hour.  Add noodles 10 minutes before serving.  (from Nourishing Traditions – I love the soup recipes!)

The lentil loaf also freezes well so this meal can be doubled and done in two loaf pans for a quick meal another day.

For more Real Food on a budget ideas visit Cheeseslave!

The hour is upon us… today is the start of our 30 day food challenge.  We’re taking 30 days to follow the principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) and the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation (PPNF).  Everything I prepare will be based on the principles of eating healthy traditional cultures had.  And foods I’m buying will be either from the “Best” or the “Good” category in the WAPF 2009 shopping guide.

The only exception I can think of will be Scott’s daily coffee because I’m not going to ask him to give that up.  I’m also not holding Scott to it because he’s a grown man and can decide what he wants to eat for himself – but at home he’ll be getting my cooking and I’ve been working hard to send good snacks with him to work.

I’ll be blogging throughout the trial to report how I’m feeling, and how I’m managing a traditional foods lifestyle with a family of six.  Traditional foods take more planning and preparation than processed foods from the market so it’s a little overwhelming to think of not taking any “shortcuts.”

I’m going into the challenge slightly bummed because I like making enchiladas once a week or so, but we can’t use store-bought tortillas during the trial.  I’ve been planning to make some but our source of whole corn is sold out   So no properly soaked tortillas until I find a source of non-GMO whole kernel corn.

My major goal for the challenge is to get myself into the habit of properly preparing grains – and to learn how to manage traditional foods with a large family to care for, homeschooling, and running a business.  I’m also hoping to work on eating more seasonal foods and, of course, avoid most canned products (tomato products are going to be an exception to the canned stuff avoidance).

I hope this eating style will also make good nourishing breastmilk for Galen and that it’ll put a little meat on Cassidy’s bones!

Ok… onto this week’s menu plan, and I’ll update how things go!

Monday: B -Egg, Beef, +Veggie Scramble; soaked oatmeal (we are going to have Scott try soaked oatmeal this week), beet kvass “shot”

L - Coconut fish soup, kraut

S - Balsamic carrot salad, Coconut chicken soup, Sweet potato “coins,” Liver with onions and mushrooms.

To-do – Soak kidney beans, soak oatmeal, soft-boil eggs, crockpot chicken, start chicken stock, boil white beans + transfer  small crockpot for overnight cooking.

Tuesday: B - Egg, Beef, +Veggie Scramble; soaked oatmeal; beet kvass “shot”

L - White Bean Chicken Chili soup (chicken from the crockpot chicken yesterday), kraut

S - High enzyme salad, Egg soup, Red potatoes + butter, spinach + butter, Shredded chicken (served with poulet au porto sauce, chicken meat from our crockpot chicken yesterday)

To-do – soak rice, boil kidney beans and transfer to crockpot to cook, soak oatmeal

Wednesday: B – Egg, Beef, +Veggie Scramble; soaked oatmeal; beet kvass “shot”

L - Beans and rice Jamaican style, Simple soup (whatever soup takes my fancy that meal), kimchi

S - Caesar salad, Simple soup, kraut, steamed winter squash (w/ butter and nutmeg), rice, Hearty Hamburger and Heman sauce (I love this recipe lol!)

To-do – start beef stock (morning) soak oatmeal, soak nuts, start fermented sweet potatoes, soak rice

Thursday: B - Egg, Beef, +Veggie Scramble; soaked oatmeal; beet kvass “shot”

L - Beef stew, kraut

S - High enzyme salad, French onion soup, Baked beans, rice, kraut

To-do – soak oatmeal, soak rice, roast nuts

Friday: B - Egg, Beef, +Veggie Scramble; soaked oatmeal; beet kvass “shot”

L - Pate, fermented sweet potato, steamed squash (w/ butter and nutmeg!), kimchi

S - Ceasar salad, Roman egg soup, kraut, broccoli w/ hollandaise, spaghetti sauce, rice (yes we eat our spaghetti sauce over rice…in a gluten free family you learn to like strange things)

To-do – Soak lentils, soak rice, try Bacon, Egg, and Cheese muffin recipe (a GF recipe!)

Saturday: B - Scott makes breakfast

L- Omelettes, Simple soup, kraut, baked beets

S - Simple salad (in otherwords, one I throw together) and dressing, Korean beef soup, kraut, Lentil loaf

To-do – start beets early AM!, soak black beans, go to to farm store

Sunday: B - Scott makes breakfast

L – Black bean soup, kimchi

S - High Enzyme salad, Simple soup, kraut, steamed squash (w/ butter and nutmeg), Roast chicken and potatoes

To-do – start black beans early AM, soak oatmeal, start fish stock, sprout seeds, start kraut, soak white beans, grind beef for breakfasts

Snack Choices:

We have milk with every snack, and I add extra cream to the milk several times a week.

whole milk yogurt, raw milk cheese (spread with butter for me and kids), crispy nuts, soft boiled eggs, avocado, pate, marrow and cheese, bacon egg and cheese muffins (new recipe we’re trying this week!)

Visit the Organizing Junkie for more meal plan ideas

I sat down a couple of weeks ago and went over my goals for 2008 then set out my goals for 2009. I feel good about 2008 – I accomplished my major goal of having a healthy baby, and I redesigned my site with a fresh design and clean code.

Several of my 2009 goals center around our nutrition and I’m going to share those here:

Improve our overall family nutrition to be more in line with traditional nourishing diets:  We’re starting this with our 30-day WAPF challenge (eating only from the WAPF “best” and “good” foods for the entire 30 days). I plan to maintain that eating style as much as possible this year with my main focus being on properly soaking all our grains/beans/legumes/nuts.

Keep our family supplied with homemade fermented foods: sauerkraut and beet kvass are the two I want to keep going on all the time. I’d also like to learn to make kimchi and kefir this year.

Start a small square foot garden in the spring and have it produce through first frost in the fall.  We’re hoping to do 16 squares (1 square foot each) this year as we learn to keep up our own garden

Stock our pantry: I’d like to have a 3 month food supply stored in our pantry. This is challenging to since I want it to be as WAPF/PPNF friendly as possible. It also needs to be gluten-free so no wheat!

And some minor goals I have are to look into healthy cookware and how to eliminate microwave use, as well as move towards mostly green home and personal care products!

See more nourishing resolutions and get inspired at the Nourishing Gourmet!

Learn more about the WAPF and PPNF.

I’ve decided since I’m going to be working intensively on our nutrition that I’ll join the Menu Plan Monday brigade   Deciding this late I’m just barely going to make it on Monday

I’ve decided to try serving multiple-course suppers this week, in the hopes of actually filling my family of bottomless pits up.  Thus far this has effectively resulted in more food being served at supper, however I can’t exactly pull off serving separate courses – I just end up with all of them on the table at once.  We’re having a salad, soup, and main dish with every meal.  This brings us to two soups a day most days, as we almost always have soups with (or for) lunch.  Anyways, on with the menu plan:

Monday – B: Egg, mushroom, zuccini, and beef scramble.  Soaked oatmeal with butter, cream, and yogurt for the kids an I, leftover roasted potatoes for Scott.

L: Homemade nachos supreme, homemade tomatoe soup, sauerkraut.

S: Balsamic Carrot Salad, Coconut Chicken Soup, Liver with Mushroom and Onions, soaked rice.

To-do: Soak oats, crockpot cook chicken (for tomorrow’s soup and extra chicken to freeze for enchiladas next week)

Tuesday -  B: Veggie, beef, egg scramble.  Soaked oatmeal for kids and I, soaked rice with coconut oil for Scott.

L: White bean chicken chili soup, sauerkraut.

S: High Enzyme Salad, Chicken Rice Soup, Chicken supreme with rice (rice leftover from yesterday).

To-do: boil black beans and transfer to crockpot to cook through morning, soak rice, soak oats, start sunflower seeds sprouting, pick meat off yesterdays chicken; start stock

Wednesday – B: Veggie, beef, egg scramble.  Soaked oatmeal for kids and I, soaked rice with coconut oil for Scott.

L: Black bean soup, sauerkraut.

S: Cucumber yogurt salad, Roman egg soup, chicken gumbo w/ rice

To-do: soak nuts, soak oats, start sauerkraut

Thursday – B: Veggie, beef, egg scramble.  Soaked oatmeal for kids and I, soaked rice with coconut oil for Scott.

L: Beef stew, kraut

S: Salad, Mexican soup, Black bean enchiladas w/ guacamole and sour cream

To-do: start stew at breakfast, start fish stock, soak oats, roast nuts

Friday – B: Veggie, beef, egg scramble.  Soaked oatmeal for kids and I, soaked rice with coconut oil for Scott.

L: Coconut fish soup, kimchi

S: Caesar salad, Soup (whatever takes my fancy), Roast

To-do: meal plan/grocery list, thaw liver

Saturday – B: Scott does weekend breakfasts!

L: Pate with crackers, Soup, steamed squash, kimchi

S: Salad, Mexican soup, Tacos garnished with avocado

To-do: grocery shop

Sunday – B: Scott does weekend breakfasts!

L: Omelettes, soup, tomato slices, sauerkraut

S: High Enzyme Salad, Simple veggie soup, Roast Chicken w/ potatoes

To-do: soak rice, soak oats, grind beef heart (for breakfast’s ground beef), soak black beans, soft-boil eggs (for snacks for the week), soak marrow (for snacks for the week)

Thanks to Cheeseslave for the idea of publishing our menu plan

Visit Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas

I continue to emphasize it in new articles and here in the blog because so many women don’t realize just how important it is.  Of course there are articles all over telling you to eat your veggies and get plenty of whole grains.  But those very same articles give some very bad nutrition information for your pregnancy.

One of the fundamental ways these articles mislead you is by telling you that you really don’t need very much extra food during pregnancy.   You’re not “eating for two” the articles say.  In fact, they claim that at the end of pregnancy you need a mere 300 calories more than when non-pregnant.  And you supposedly don’t even need that at the beginning of your pregnancy!

I’m going to let you know now that this information is wrong - don’t believe it!

I had a horrible day recently.  Let me tell you why.  I normally eat three meals and three snacks every day.  Two of my snacks are made of 2 cups of milk (each snack) and another protein/fat source (like cheese or nuts).   Well we ran out of milk and I wasn’t able to go out and get any.  I missed having just the milk from my snack for a day, and then the next morning.

By lunchtime on the second day I felt horrible.  I felt exhausted, and a little nauseous.  A friend called me shortly after lunch and immediately asked if I felt OK.  I told her no.

As soon as naptime was over that day I took the kids to the store and we got milk.  Since then I’ve made sure milk is available for my snacks – or that I add extra to my snack to make up for the milk I missed.

I felt this bad from missing the protein/fat/minerals/vitamins from just a few snacks.  I was still eating full, big meals – meals packed with nutrition.

But my body and my baby knew they needed more than that.

In pregnancy you are building a human being from scratch! Your body has to continue to support itself and build an incredibly complex life form at the same time.

It’s a modern lie that your body “only” needs 300 extra calories, and that you should use “lowfat” products.  During pregnancy you need to eat.  You need extra protein, fat, vitamins, minerals – everything.  Do eat plenty of veggies and whole grains.  But you should also be sure you’re getting good healthy fats and proteins in your diet.

Be sure you’re eating enough to stay on top of your baby’s rapid growth – and the increased needs of your own body!  Your blood volume expands, your babe is growing, and you need to store some extra “padding” for breastfeeding your baby.

I also personally feel that you should eat meats, eggs, and dairy products during your pregnancy to give your baby the most nutrient dense foods as possible – and to build your own body up for pregnancy and for your birth and postpartum period.

For more information on solid pregnancy nutrition start with my article on pregnancy diet – and do your baby and yourself a favor…ignore the magazines and eat a bountiful, nutrient dense diet.

So today my own tips were invaluable! I’ll share the best ones I’ve had recently:

• Plan your menus. Plan out on a weekly basis, or perhaps bi-weekly if that works better for you. Plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. You may want to have breakfast and lunch the same every week (a certain meal every Monday, a certain one on Tuesdays, etc.)

• Plan your cooking. I think this is the thing that has helped me the absolute most recently. Look ahead to what you’ll cook the next day so any meats are thawing in the fridge or beans are soaking. And learn to think about what vegetables will need to be chopped for the meal. What dishes need to be started an hour before supper – and how you can make that very easy for yourself.

Now, these things aren’t really very easy. Especially if you haven’t learned how to plan meals or how to order your cooking – and like I said yesterday, they’re not skills taught anymore.

I’ve been taking care of a family for awhile now, and cooking for others since I was in high school. But I was mostly “winging it” and figuring it out on my own. It has just been the past couple of months that I’ve really grasped how to plan cooking well. And one resource has made the biggest difference – a menu mailer service.

This service emails you a menu plan each week. Your menu is all made out with delicious, healthy recipes for your main dishes. The recipes are well-written with step-by-step instructions. And there’s a shopping list made out for you already. And the biggest bonus of all – a day-by-day preparation plan. It tells you when to thaw or soak what. It tells you when to chop veggies. When to start marinating a dish.

Using this menu mailer service I was able to truly learn how to think about meal preparation in an organized way. I used it for several weeks while I was having my worst morning sickness (and I also ordered a special mailer issue of all crock pot recipes for my hardest days!). It was so helpful then, but the benefits are continuing even now. My meal prep times are close to effortless because I’m able to think about everything I’ll need to do to prepare a meal.

Learn more about my favorite service by clicking here.

Now let me give you a tip related to the above that has helped me: As I prepare a snack or lunch I do some of the preparation I’ll need to do for supper. For instance if I want to roast a chicken that evening here is what I do:

• Morning Snacktime: I prepare the snack then take a few minutes to cube potatoes for the chicken.
• Lunchtime: I get lunch ready, then slice a few lemon slices. I mix the spices I’ll need for my chicken.
• Around 4pm: I grease the bottom of my roasting pan and scatter the potatoes in. I season my chicken with the lemon wedges and the spices I mixed earlier, put in on the rack over the potatoes and put it in the oven.
• Around 5pm: I take the chicken out of the oven to cool and get together a salad. It’s ready to be carved and served shortly thereafter.

I have a delicious meal with just small bits of effort here and there throughout the day. On days I don’t have time for prep throughout the day a crock pot meal is perfect – or a “30 minute one skillet dish.” On these days it can be helpful to chop vegetables for the crock or skillet the night before.

Hopefully these tips will be helpful to you! They have been so wonderful for me and have really helped make my meals “effortless” but still delicious (and healthy for making a new baby!)

The need for good nutrition continues into pregnancy and nursing and throughout childhood. Solid nutrition helps to build solid, happy, healthy babies and children. But one of the challenges mothers (and mothers-to-be and mothers preparing to conceive) face is finding the time to cook good foods. In fact, you may not even really know how to cook good foods. Cooking and domestic life is not really taught in schools anymore. You just have to flounder around and figure it out for yourself!

In the past couple of months I’ve come across some resources and ideas that have made a big difference for me – helping me to make better meal choices and learn how to manage making meals without feeling overwhelmed. Surprisingly I’ve found cooking has become fairly easy – and I’m cooking nutrient dense meals from scratch! This is especially wonderful because I know that even through my tiring early pregnancy weeks I’ve provided my family with something tasty and good for their meals.

Speaking of meals, I need to run now to work on supper. But I’ll write tomorrow to share a little more about my favorite resource and the tips that have helped me the most!

I have an excellent book in ebook format. It’s not available any longer but I am going to try and see if I can get permission to share the book with you. Until I find out if I can, the book is based on the work of the late Dr. Tom Brewer – who did tremendous work in the field of prenatal nutrition.

Another source of information on Dr. Brewer’s work is the Bradley Method of Childbirth. If you want to take childbirth classes rather than do a home study I recommend Bradley classes. But even if you don’t take them, their prenatal nutrition resources are excellent. You can read it here.

If you look at the top of the Bradley page you’ll see a link to download a spreadsheet. This will help you keep track of your prenatal nutrition and it’s based on research that has shown results. I downloaded it and I’ve been impressed with the spreadsheet. It takes the work out of keeping track of my prenatal nutrition. It calculates protein and keeps track of all my veggie servings and other things I need on a daily basis. It has made it easier for me to be sure I’m eating well.

I didn’t worry so much about my nutrition early on, I just tried to make sure I was getting three healthy meals a day and some protein servings. But now that I’m reaching the end of the first trimester I know that my baby is going to be building up quickly and I want to know that my diet is complete to support my baby. The Bradley spreadsheet is so helpful. I give my many thanks to whomever took the time to create it, and thanks to the Bradley Method for making it available to mothers-to-be free of charge.

It’s also easy to print, so if you doctor or midwife asks about your diet at each appointment you can just print out your sheets and take them in. I hope this resource is helpful to you!

I am a firm believer in the Brewer Diet after having had three very healthy babies born after three wonderful labors and excellent births – all while following the Brewer diet. While my second child was a baby I began to read a little on the works of Dr. Weston A. Price and became very interested in his work after my third child was born. I have been working on the diet for pregnant and nursing mothers recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation since I got interested in Dr. Price’s work.

This diet is the Brewer diet with some extras and notes added in. It includes focus on rich bone broths, yummy fermented foods, and just a lot of good common sense. I’ve been following this diet and adding in some things found to be good for conception in with them.

I really think diet is one of the keys to a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby which is why I stress it so much on NBBC and stress it with myself. It can be a challenge to “eat so well,” especially when there is so much convenience food out there. It will especially be challenging in early pregnancy if I feel sick at any point. With my previous pregnancies I felt some nausea, and with my third baby it was persistent nausea for weeks. I’m hoping the good nutrition starting in the preconception period this time will prevent that. But I know it could be an issue.

With that in mind I’ve been thinking of ways I can plan very healthy meals that don’t take too much energy. I’m also working on my meal planning techniques. I have been able to do effective menu planning for awhile – it just takes practice. It makes it much easier to get all the nutrition needed in. Now I’m working on learning how to plan meal preparation. One time period of chopping all my veggies for the week makes for a solid block of time in the kitchen but saves a lot of later labor. It seems to work best shortly after the shopping trip.

I think this will help during pregnancy because even if I feel tired or ill I can quickly throw pre-chopped ingredients together. And the planned meals will let me be sure that I have everything I need in my diet – from protein to yummy greens. I’ll continue more about nutrition and meal planning later.