Archive for the ‘Affordable Healthy Eating’ Category

Yes, it’s true, We Are Aliens!  Ha ha!  I say this is an apology because I have never been clear and up front about what we believe in this newsletter.  We’ve given our testimony and statement of faith in our classes but never here in this media.  I do not apologize for our beliefs, but for the fact I haven’t brought this to the forefront in the past.

This summer I was challenged at a business development seminar to stand up for what I believe in and to make sure I have a moment of truth with the people I touch.  It is common to become involved in some sort of life change program and then be led down a spiritual path you were not prepared for and did not believe in.  I’ve seen this happen in natural health so often as people start with yoga or ayurvedic or some form of Chinese medicine or exercise and from there fall into forms of religion or new age practices.

You know that I’m a Christian but I want to be very clear that the thing I value most is my relationship with God, the God of the Bible and His son Jesus Christ.  Everything I do flows from that relationship.

We Are Grateful Followers of Jesus Christ

Our book Wonderfully Well tells my story of being sick and calling out to God for help.  The God of The Bible is the one I prayed to for help when I was sick and said “God I can’t do this on my own, please send me help”, he answered me with a complete life transformation.  This is the God who has helped Phil and I maintain a strong marriage for almost 37 years.  This is the God who gives me wisdom and direction for every area of my life.  Without the Creator and my savior, Jesus Christ, my life would be a ship wreck.

I want you to know this so you are not taken by surprise when I talk about spiritual things.  All of my programs have a very strong spiritual component; in fact, the spiritual component is the most powerful.  Anyone can tell you how to eat fruit and veggies and drink water.  Our programs address burning wounds and bring them to the Lord in a powerful way for inner healing.  We clear the heart of bitterness, unforgiveness and resentments.  We ask God to release His power in us to move us forward, keep us on track and give us new direction.

This God, the God of the Bible, this is the one we’ve been waiting for.  So please be fully aware, when you read my writings or participate in a program with me, God is fully a part of every step, in fact, I’m just the tool, He is the one who does the work.

To conclude my apology I want to make you three promises:

1. We won’t disappear again, we will stay in touch.
2. We will look for healthy options for ourselves, and you, to make it easier in real life and share those with you.
3. We will always point you towards a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Thanks for listening, for accepting our apologies and for hanging in there with us!

Again, please leave a comment or a like or share the message here.  Let us know how you are doing.  Have you found something that can help us all along on this journey?  Did you fall off the wagon too?  Are you ready to get back on?

If you don’t have a copy of our book, Wonderfully Well, you can get one here.

Wonderfully Well

Life Isn’t Perfect and Neither Are We

My second apology has to do with being perfect, and not understanding your real life.  We found when our life got crazy this spring and summer it was not as easy to stay on the healthy road.  You see in Nashville we created the perfect life for us to be fairly perfect with our food and lifestyle.  Even our job promoted our perfectly healthy lifestyle.

You Juggle Alot!

At times you voiced how difficult it was, in fact, it seemed like your responsibilities to “other people”, travel, cost of healthy eating sabotaged your efforts and made it very difficult to do what you knew you needed and wanted to do to be healthy.  We encouraged you, You can do it!  But the truth is,

We Really Didn’t Understand!

Well, after the past 7 months of not enough time, staying in other people’s homes, hospitals, nursing homes, 155 days away from home, truck stops, poor planning, unavailable healthy food,

 We Get It!  It Really Is Hard!

It’s Especially Hard when you live and work in your original culture.  There we were, the town we grew up in, the people we loved, and we began to celebrate PEOPLE with food and began to deal with STRESS with food and when we were tired we just sometimes gave up putting forth the extra effort.  Emotions ran high all summer long as we were on a deathwatch with Phil’s dad.  Extended family stresses were there and just not having our own schedule.  But what am I saying?  You know this, You get it, You live it!

My dad wanted a bowling party for his 76th birthday complete with bowling alley food…..corn dogs!

I had a corn dog for my dad’s 76^th birthday, an egg and sausage mc muffin at mc Donald’s, many sandwiches with bread, my father in law’s favorite breakfast when I was with him, burnt toast and coffee, more pie than I care to admit.  When we ate out we chose our old hometown favorites, clam chowder on the Oregon coast, our favorite pizza, Mexican and Chinese foods from our hometown of Dallas, Oregon.  Now these would be fine celebration foods occasionally but we were celebrating every day, to the tune of a 12-pound weight gain for both of us, breaking our perfect record!

We were so happy to find some juice on the road!

Our family members were often sensitive to our food choices and at times we were blessed with fresh juice, that was life changing.  They bought food from the farmers market, shared the bounty of their garden and encouraged us with trying to eat better themselves.

Why Is It So Hard??? 

It’s In Your Brain

Addicts lose the ability to control their drives

Most Americans are addicted to processed foods.  Addictions highjack the “Control” mechanism in your brain.  When you detox, you clear your body, your taste buds are cleansed and your control mechanisms are restored.  However, old habits are still there, lying dormant in your brain.  So you begin to pick up a bag of chips, a ding-dong, have an ice cream and pretty soon you are wanting them all the time.  An addict who returns to their addiction typically picks up at the same level they quit.  You quickly find yourself wanting a BAG of chips or a BOX of ding-dongs or a CARTON of ice cream.  This is why a drug addict, off drugs for many years, will die after one time of using, they started where they left off.  So we left off at a point where our food choices over the years virtually doubled both of our body weight.  This summer, when we gave in to those old habits, we picked up where we left off.  We were aware but found it hard to stop.

Why Is It So Hard??? It’s In The Food

Junk Food contains chemicals that are addictive just like cocaine.

Add to your addicted brain, the addictive qualities of prepared, packaged and restaurant foods.  These foods contain thousands of chemicals designed by food scientists to make you addicted to their food.  When this addiction kicks in and the added salt, msg, sugar and fats grab your taste buds, you don’t desire REAL food.  You desire and look for the junk, you truly become, A Junkie!

You will never crave broccoli while you are still craving donuts and coffee.  You have to do what all addicts do.  Stop the behavior and go through withdrawal.  That’s what we did.  Our first days of getting fully back on track, juicing, eating raw veggies and fruits and no coffee and junk.  We Wanted The Junk!  But we didn’t have any available so we just pushed through and drank our juice, ate our veggies and in about three days the junk craving was over and the real food began to taste good.

Why Is It So Hard??? It’s In Your Heart

I was complaining about how hard it was to eat well when around all these family activities and Phil’s brother Jon replied “I didn’t’ seen anyone holding a knife to your throat when you ate that blackberry pie and ice cream last night.”  He was right!  The battle was in my mind and in my preparedness.  This was my time to realize that I STILL celebrate people with food, combat stress with Food and decide what to eat based on my company.  Ugh!

Can you relate to that?  When you are with family and friends, food is such a big part, it’s important to make a mind-shift and realize the celebration is the PEOPLE, not the food.

Why Is It So Hard???  Stress makes you crave fats, salt and sugar

Stress makes you crave fat, salt, carbs and sugar

When stress hits your body and your mind, you need to stay strong and healthy.  You will crave fats, salty foods and sugars.  That is the time to feed the body and eat nuts, seeds and fruit.  When you have a plan in place you can navigate change well.  My problem was, the our life-change hit fast this spring and I didn’t stop and create a new plan, I just flew by the seat of my pants.

We want to stay strong and healthy so we can feel good, enjoy people, have our brains work right and avoid getting sick.  People who have high stress lives get sick more often and have a higher risk serious disease.  You may have experienced this or no someone who had a ton of stress in their life but stayed strong and healthy through it and then once the stress was gone, they ended up with heart attack, cancer or some other tragic disease.

Here’s My New Plan for Stressful or Busy Times

1.  Be Intentional About My Food

Living Well Means Being Intentional, Training ourselves to eat well during stress, to celebrate people with conversation and love and interest, planning for change help us to accomplish our goals of optimal health and wellness.

2.  At Events – Celebrate PEOPLE not food-go to events to see people

• Listen
• Laugh
• Love
• Encourage
• Enjoy

3.  Prepare For An Event by drinking a Fresh Juice or a Protein Shake

Drink it before you go and you won’t be starving.  You will be able to focus on the people and not the food.

Fresh Juice or a Smoothie will curb your appetite and nourish your body.

4.  When You Encounter Stress:  Feed Your Body GOOD FATS

Wild Caught Cold Water Fish, Avocados, Nuts and Seed and Nut Butters

Good Fats – Grab a handful of nuts, eat some nut butter with an apple or celery, throw some avocado on your salads or make some guacamole and eat it with veggies.

5.  When You Encounter Stress Feed Your Body Natural Sodium

A green lemonade juice is packed with natural sodium, lemon, apple, celery and greens, it’s a great stress buster.  How about nut butter on celery, adding celery to your juice or squeezing lemons and lime into your water.

6.  When You Crave Sugary Foods and Treats Eat Natural Sugar

Natural Sugars:  Eat Fresh, Raw Fruit

Remember when you are busy or stressed you need

• More Energy
• Clearer Thinking

You get that from

• Good Fats
• Natural Sodium
• Natural Sugars

 We Found Some Affordable Products To Help In These Busy Times

Of course Lara Bars are great to put in your car, pocket or purse for busy or stressful times.  They are a perfect blend of nuts, seeds, fruit and natural sugar from dates.  But we had a hard time getting our juice made.  We brought our juicer to Oregon but it seemed everything else took priority and so it wasn’t used.

AIM Garden Trio, Healthy Food for Busy People

We overcame our unhealthy habits and addictions to junk food by having some healthy fast products on hand from a company called AIM.

Get the benefits of fresh juice without all the work!

AIM specializes in high quality dehydrated juice powders called BarleyLife, Just Carrots, Reddy Beets and CalciAim.  These are enzyme rich dehydrated juice powders you mix with water.  the juice powder takes 1 minute to shake and drink.  These are made from the highest quality fruits and veggies and are dehydrated in a way that preserves the natural enzymes and vitamins and minerals.

When fresh juice isn’t possible we have our Cleansing Juice, a mixture of BarleyLife and Reddy Beets wait 20 minutes, then have our Antioxidant Repair Juice, a mixture of Just Carrots and CalciAIM, quick and tasty!

Check it out at www.myaimstore.com/thewellnessworkshop  there are links to the web page in this newsletter.  The web page has many videos telling more about these excellent products.

So there you have our second apology, we aren’t perfect, please forgive us for not getting how difficult a healthy lifestyle can be.  We ARE continually working on finding ways to make it easier and sustainable.

Please Leave a Comment Below, if you’ve enjoyed this article, please  Share with a Friend at the top of the page.

I’d love for you to leave a comment below.  Share your ideas, struggles or questions.  Let us know how YOU are doing!  We’ll answer your comments for sure.

It’s been almost 7 months since my last newsletter.  Please forgive us for disappearing.  Your health and wellbeing is very important to both Phil and I as we’ve become friends and fellow travellers on the journey to wellness. Phil purchased a big truck this spring and I’ve been working on a detox and healthy lifestyle for people who travel for a living and truckers.  It’s been on my heart for a few years and Phil tried to go out several times and develop it while driving but that just wasn’t practical.

We call her Gracie. This particular color blue in Spanish is “Celeste”!

Pass Your Physical

Pass Your Physical is a web-based coaching program that will help people lower their blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and gain more energy.  I’ll be telling you more about how to participate soon. Participants in our programs have normalized their blood pressure and blood sugar within 10 days and lowered cholesterol by 25 to 100 points in 28-days.  In just three months we’ve had participants drop total cholesterol over 200 points into normal and double their good cholesterol.

Spring Started With Us In and Out of Vegas and Fall Ended With A Great Loss 

We enjoyed visiting with family through the spring and seeing Phil’s parents who were still living on their own and strong in their 80’s and 90’s until Phil’s sweet mother had a heart attack early in the summer.  I joined other family members in Oregon to help with her recovery and care for his 91-year-old father.  In July his father had a heart attack and started a steady decline ending in his death on September 21 at the age of 92.  Mom has recovered nicely.  We miss dad but know he is home in heaven.  We were so thankful for the ability to have lots of time with him in the last months of his life.

Phil’s precious parents, Al & Marylou Davis, Al is 91 here

We’ve Been Enjoying the Kids

We are loving having more time with our daughter Jesi, her fiancé Kurt and grandsons Josiah and Ian, even with being away from home 155 days since April we’ve had some fun times with the boys and even enjoyed them visiting in Oregon to see Great-Grandpa one last time.  We miss our son Robb, still in Nashville but he also was able to join us for several weeks and then for the memorial service in September.

Our daughter Jesi and her fiance Kurt

Ian 4 and Josiah 12 hiking at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Vegas. Fun but Scarey with an enthusiastic 4 year old!

Son Robb and grandpa. He wrote an amazing tribute to his grandpa and was able to come out from Nashville and sing at the memorial service.

So all in all, it’s been a crazy but blessed spring and summer.   So we apologize for “disappearing” and will purpose not to do that again.

Leave a comment, let us know how your doing!  We miss you!

Fall leaves and fall vegetables share God’s display of rich vibrant color.

Have you ever noticed that fall foods – squash, pumpkins, apples, are the same colors as the beautiful changing leaves on the trees?  Fall veggies and fruits are rich in color.

Notice the dark almost black-green acorn squash and avocado, the deep yellow spaghetti squash, of course our favorite orange pumpkin and sweet potatoes and the rich red in variegated apples and late tomatoes and we can’t forget the rich purple grapes bursting with sweet juice.

There are also greens in fall; spinach, swiss chard, cabbage both green and purple, the cooler yellows in pears and parsnips.  I often hear people say fall is their favorite season with it’s rich color schemes, how comforting that God color coordinates his creation!

Fall Veggies Help You Avoid the Flu and Stay Healthy in Winter

There’s another side to those beautiful rich colors; they pack a ton of nutrition to prepare your body to be strong and healthy through the winter.  All of the fall foods are high in antioxidants.  What do antioxidants do?  They repair and protect your cells.

Your body is comprised of trillions of cells and the health of your cells determines the health of your organs, skin, hair and so on.  To have a healthy body, you must have healthy cells, antioxidant foods protect and repair your most valuable asset, your cells.

How To Identify A High Antioxidant Food

A good way to identify a high antioxidant food is by it’s color.  There are two things to watch for:

1.  The color must be bright.

2.  The color must go all the way through the fruit or veggie.

Compare Spaghetti Squash with Zucchini Squash

Zucchini is dark on the outside but white on the inside, nutritious but not a high antioxidant food. Spaghetti Squash has rich color inside and out, full of powerful healing antioxidants.

Better Than Supplements

These brightly colored veggies and fruits that protect and repair your body are also high in Vitamin C and A, to build your immune system and protect your skin in the harsher winter conditions.  They are high in fiber to keep your “winter gain” down and keep your blood vessels swept clean as you are likely more sedentary in the winter.

All these wonderful health benefits make me want to gobble up as many fall veggies and fruits as I can.

You’ll find some great winter vegetable recipes in our cookbook, Wonderfully Well.

We are enjoying this Spaghetti Squash Recipe, Faux Crab Cakes, here or on page 209

Faux Crab Cakes, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, full of nutritional goodness.

Other Fabulous and Easy Fall Food Recipes in Wonderfully Well 

Cleansing Juice –  Thanksgiving Cocktail using apples, cranberries and grapes    page 153

Healing Juices – Knock the cold or flu before it takes hold with these juices                        page 155

Sweet Potato Fries – Healthy Southern Comfort food, rich in antioxidants             page 201

Winter Squash Recipes – Pineapple Acorn Squash and more                                   page 205-211

Butternut Squash Soup – Sweet and aromatic, like fall in a cup                              page 217

Refrigerator Apple Oat Muffins – stir up a batch & make fresh each morning                                  page 267

Please leave a comment below, do you have a favorite fall food or recipe?  Share it!

Faux Crab Cakes, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, full of nutritional goodness.

The first time I had crab I was in my twenties.  Some friends from Lebanon, Oregon, Kendal and Becky Evenhus, went to Alaska for the summer to work the crab season and brought us back a pile of crab that was about two feet tall on our table.  I grew up in Kansas, so seeing a real crab on my table was a new experience!  I tasted a little and Phil devoured the rest (west coast boy that he is).  Over the years I learned to love crab.  Then I became healthy and I learned a terrible truth, crab is a trash fish and very toxic!

Yep, scientists actually use crab and other crustaceans to determine the toxicity level of the oceans.  Hmmm…..then it became clear to me, eating crab or any shell fish was like taking the filter out of my aquarium and deep frying it.  Not quite as romantic, huh?

Now don’t get me wrong, I do eat crab on occasion and really enjoy it, like this summer when my brother-in-law and sister-in-law hosted a crab fest in Oregon.  We had fresh crab and cabbage salad with blue cheese on it, both of those are celebration foods for Phil and I and we really enjoyed the celebration, I’m sure we’ll do it again.

The problem is, I LOVE crab cakes so what to do?  When I discovered Spaghetti Squash at the ripe old age of 49, I began to notice how much it LOOKED like crab, hmmm….so I began to play with different crab recipes and finally landed on the one I’ll share today.

Fall Veggies and Fruits are rich and colorful, just like the leaves. They are also rich in antioxidants to protect your health during the winter.

Spaghetti Squash is a fall food.

It’s Easy

Spaghetti Squash is easy to prepare and store and extremely versatile.  If you haven’t tried it before, you’ll find it with other squash, usually near the potatoes in your grocery store.  It looks like a big yellow football.  It’s called spaghetti squash because when you cook and run a fork or spoon through it, it separates like spaghetti.

Save Money Too

Squash is fresh in late summer/early fall.  This is the best time to get a great deal.  Yesterday, in October, my big Spaghetti squash cost 98 cents.  It will give Phil and I three or four meals.  You can buy several and store in a cool dark place all winter long.

Cook Your Squash Before You Need It

I always cook my squash while preparing another meal and store it in the refrigerator or freezer until I need it.  I preheat the oven to about 450 degrees, put the whole round squash on a cookie sheet, poke a small hole with a knife in each end and bake for about an hour.  You will know it’s done when you can put a knife through the flesh on the end of the squash and turn it easily.  Take the squash out, allow it to cool to the touch, cut in half and scoop out the seeds.  Then take a fork or spoon and scoop the squash out of the shell and store in a baking dish.

Freeze For a Quick Meal Later

I like to put a batch or two in the freezer.  Place one cup increments in zip loc baggies, seal without any air and freeze flat for future use.

Freeze baked squash in one cup increments, put in a zip loc baggie, pat out flat and freeze flat. It will thaw easily and be a quick and easy meal on a busy winter night.

I store my homemade frozen foods in the boxes my baby spinach or greens come in.

I use the plastic boxes my baby greens come in for storage in the freezer, kitchen, garage, everywhere! Inexpensive storage item and helps the environment.

So your spaghetti squash is cooked and ready for use. Let’s make some Faux Crab Cakes!  Here’s the recipe, you can also find it on page 209 in our book, Wonderfully Well.

Celeste Davis (makes 8-10 / 3-inch cakes)

Enjoy this Vegan replacement that tastes like Crab Cakes. Top with a fruit chutney, dip in organic cocktail sauce or salsa and serve with a nice fresh salad.  Make them small and use for appetizers or “Faux Crabettes”, or as a veggie burger on an organic bun.

Even “non-healthy” eaters will enjoy these.  Our good friend Kay, who helped us by testing and editing our Wonderfully Well recipes makes them often for friends and family who gobble them up and don’t realize….”there ain’t no crab in the cakes”.

Ingredients

1½ cups cooked spaghetti squash

1 medium organic yukon gold potato, boiled and cooled

1 cup zucchini shredded

2 garlic cloves

2 small colored peppers

1 small onion

1 cup organic bread crumbs or crushed organic saltine crackers

¼ cup white Spelt flour

1 large egg 1 Tablespoon almond milk or whole cream

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon parsley

2 Tablespoons Grape seed Veganaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Grape seed oil for frying

Instructions

Cook Spaghetti Squash see “How To Cook Winter Squash” on page 205 of Wonderfully Well or follow my instructions above.

You will need to sauté the veggies before you pan fry the crab cakes.  You can use the same pan or have 2 skillets available.

Prep Veggies

Using your food processor or grater shred blade and shred zucchini, peppers, onion.  Remove to skillet that has 1 Tablespoon Grape seed oil in it. Shred cooled and peeled potato, set aside.

In skillet

Sauté zucchini, garlic, onion, peppers in oil until tender, about 2 minutes.  Add potato and spaghetti squash to zucchini mixture, and remove from heat.

My favorite cooking oil, Expeller Pressed Napa Valley Grapeseed Oil, it’s green!

In Magic Bullet or separate bowl

Put bread or cracker crumbs in magic bullet cup, and add spices and salt.  Add egg, almond milk, Dijon mustard, Veganaise.  Blend well with magic bullet.

In Food Processor with S blade

Put all veggies in a bowl or food processor (use the same bowl you used to shred the veggies), add egg mixture in magic bullet and pulse 2 -3 times to blend well.  Put mixture in a bowl and cover.  You may need to gently mix with your hands to be sure the spaghetti squash is well distributed.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer for mixture to become more solid and flavors to blend.  At this point you could freeze the cakes before cooking.

Cover a baking sheet with wax paper. Drop “balls” of uncooked squash mixture on the paper or cooled cooked cakes. Freeze until solid, store in zip loc baggies.

Cook the cakes

Make these cakes as thick or slightly thinner than the typical restaurant crab cakes – your choice.

Put 1-2 Tablespoons Grape seed oil in cast iron skillet, medium heat.  Dip out ¼ to 1/3 cup with a measuring cup and gently drop onto the skillet, drop it CLOSE to the skillet so you don’t splatter the oil – an ice cream scoop works great for this.   I like to dredge my cakes in a little gluten free or spelt flour just to keep them from sticking, again, your choice.

Use a spoon to form the mixture into a patty on the skillet, to the size and thickness you desire (test and see which you prefer).  Fry until crisp on one side, then turn and fry on other side.  Cakes are done when they are firm and cooked in the middle. Drain on a paper towel, keep warm in the oven.

Vegan?  Use 1 Tablespoon of finely ground flax seeds mixed with 2 Tablespoons filtered water to replace egg.

Gluten Free? Substitute bread crumbs, crackers and flour for Glutino saltine type crackers and/or panko bread crumbs and Pamela’s Gluten free baking mix.

Enjoy!

Serve with a fresh salad for a delicious, health giving meal.

There are many “toppings” for these Faux Crab Cakes, marinara sauce, a garlic aoli, pineapple salsa, be creative or use a typical crab cake sauce recipe.

Quick and Easy Veggie Burger

Take cooked crab cakes out of the freezer, warm cake on a skillet or in the toaster oven and make a veggie burger with fresh tomatoes, lettuce and the tartar sauce below.

We also like this tartar sauce, page 211 in Wonderfully Well

Put all in a magic bullet or blender and blend well.  Refrigerate for up to one week.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Grape seed Veganaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons Greek sliced pepperoncini peppers

Juice from 1/4 of a lime

1/8 red onion

1 clove garlic

2 inches fresh dill or 1/2 teaspoon dried dill

Please Leave a Comment

I’d love to hear what your favorite fall veggie is and what do you like to do with Spaghetti Squash, leave a comment below, I’ll be sure to answer.

There is nothing more comforting and delicious than a bowl of homemade chicken soup.  There are many traditions about the health benefits of soup stock, now we know there is science to back it up!

“Properly prepared, meat stocks are extremely nutritious, containing the minerals of bone, cartilage, marrow and vegetables as electrolytes, a form that is easy to assimilate. Acidic wine or vinegar added during cooking helps to draw minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth. Dr. Francis Pottenger, author of the famous cat studies as well as articles on the benefits of gelatin in broth, taught that the stockpot was the most important piece of equipment to have in one’s kitchen”.  Sally Fallon- Nourishing Traditions

In addition, the gelatin produced by the bones in the broth (gelatin makes the broth thick when it is cooled) aid in digestion, are extremely healing for the intestinal tract, help in healing colitis, Crone’s disease, arthritis and joint related problems.  The rich minerals in the broth help to build our bones and teeth and boost the immune system.

“Bone broth” so called because the main ingredient, other than water, is bones, is easy and economical to make and preserve.  You can use it for soups, gravies and sauces.

We like to make a bone broth from our organic roasted chicken.  How to roast a chicken.  Once your chicken is roasted you must remove the meat from the bones.  This is best done when the chicken is still warm (not hot).

Chicken bones from roasted chicken after meat has been removed

Roasted chicken meat separated from the bone

Packaged chicken meat to freeze or refrigerate

Be sure to cool the chicken before storing in the refrigerator or freezer.  We do not add the chicken to our soup until we are ready to eat.  It is not wise to reheat chicken more than one time.

Soup stock with veggies and roasted chicken bones

In a large pot place the chicken bones and skin you are not going to serve, cover with water, add one large onion, quartered, 2-3 whole unpeeled carrots, 4-5 ribs of celery with the leaves, 1 Tablespoon dried parsley and up to one gallon of filtered water.

Bring to a simmer but do not boil.  Cover with a lid and simmer up to four hours.

After four hours, strain the broth by pouring through a strainer into a clean pan.  Discard the veggies and chicken bones.

Fill the sink with water and ice, place pan of broth into sink to cool quickly.  If you are going to store the broth pour into clean freezer proof containers in no more than 2 cup increments (to make it easy to thaw).

Create a warm, nutritious and satisfying soup or gravy with this homemade soup stock.

Chicken, Veggie and Brown Rice Soup served with organic saltine crackers and Aunt Celeste's Kale Salad

Chicken, Vegetable and Rice Soup

4 cups Chicken Broth

1 onion, chopped

2 large cloves garlic

2-3 carrots, chopped

2-3 ribs celery, chopped

1 cup cooked brown rice or quinoa

1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked, boned and chopped free-range chicken

Put soup stock in a large soup pot and bring to a simmer, cover with a lid, do not boil.

Chop onion, garlic, celery and carrot to coarse chop in food processor or by hand (can also be sliced with a mandolin).

Saute veggies in 1 Tablespoon grape seed oil for 2-3 minutes

Add sauteed veggies to soup stock, simmer until the veggies are tender.

Add chopped chicken and cooked rice or quinoa.

Simmer 1-2 minutes longer.

Serve with a green salad and organic crackers.

If you have leftovers, cool soup before storing in refrigerator.  We only reheat one time for safety.

Mac the Raw Dog

Meet Mac Arthur Davis, our only Grand-dog.  We enjoy Mac, he is full of personality.  He likes to chomp his teeth at us when we ask him if he wants to go outside and he loves to smile.  Mac does some fun tricks like shaking your hand.  A fun and loving dog, Mac loves to hang out with Blue as much as possible.

Since his adoption by our son, Blue, three years ago, Mac has suffered from a chronic skin condition that the vet dubbed an “auto-immune disease”.  Despite many drugs and treatments Mac’s skin continued to worsen so Blue decided to put him on a raw diet to see if that helped.

Phil and our son Blue, age 31

Mac’s original diet was Trader Joe’s Dog Food, which had slightly better ingredients than conventional dog food.  After much study Blue developed a recipe for Mac’s raw diet.

Blue learned that historically, before they were domesticated, dogs did not have three square meals a day and they did not eat any grains (even the “healthy” dog foods today consist mostly of grains).  Historically and in the wild, dogs hunted, ate the grasses and dug up tubers; when they didn’t find food they fasted.  Blue learned that it is healthy for a dog to fast one day per week.  He also learned he should transition Mac slowly to the new food so he did it slowly over about two weeks.

First Blue made poor Mac go without food for 24 hours.  Then he began to mix Mac’s traditional dog food with the pulp of the veggie juice Blue drinks every morning.  Mac really took to the pulp mixed with his food, no problem there!

Blue developed a recipe consisting of raw, uncooked, organic chicken liver, gizzards and hearts, raw organic ground beef or bison, raw organic eggs (with the shells) all mixed with about a cup of raw veggie pulp each day and a clove or two of garlic.  Blue’s juice is usually carrot, apple, lemon, celery and some form of leafy greens.  One day a week Mac fasts, with only water and no food.

Mac loves his new food and Blue says Mac is full of new-found energy.  His skin problems are improving and he isn’t shedding as much.  He did experience “the runs” the first few days of transition but now Mac’s elimination is much healthier and surprisingly less odorous than it was on the dog food.

Blue reports Mac’s raw diet costs twice as much as his Trader Joe’s Food, but only about $10 per week.  It takes Blue about an hour a week to prepare Mac’s food.  He developed a system and prepares and packages the meat at the beginning of the week so each time he feeds Mac all he has to do is mix the meat, juice pulp and egg at serving time.

Blue will continue to tweak Mac’s raw diet until his skin clears.  His next addition will be ground flaxseeds.

Many of our clients feed the pulp from their juice to their dogs.  Dogs go crazy over it and it is a wonderful nutritious addition to their doggy diet.

The BARF diet has great info on the nutritional value of certain foods for dogs.

We eat mostly raw fruits and veggies, beans, nuts and seeds, however, we do partake of twelve ounces or less of a good quality animal protein per week.  The cool winter weather and a touch of a cold created a longing for some nice warm soothing chicken soup, homemade of course!

My good friend, Organic Chef Cyndi turned me onto the Ina Garten lemon and garlic roasted chicken.  Cyndi made it for a little going away dinner she had in my honor this winter when we moved from Franklin, TN.  I have to tell you, I’d never had such a wonderful roasted chicken.  This recipe gives the BEST flavor is moist and juicy and makes a wonderful stock.

Using an organic or naturally grown, free range chicken is imperative, you will not get the same results from a conventional grocery store chicken.  The lemon and roasted garlic gently infuse the chicken with wonderful flavor and roasting at a high heat seals in the juices for wonderful moist flavorful chicken.

Because we only eat a few ounces of animal protein at a time, a whole chicken lasts us for about six meals.  We use animal proteins more as a condiment than the main part of the meal.  For more information about the best balance of animal protein to veggies check out our book, Wonderfully Well.

I plan my chicken roasting day so I have time to also make a stock and have a nice traditional roasted chicken dinner.  You need to be home for about four hours to do it properly so you can roast your bird, bone it and then put your stock on the stove to simmer for several hours.  If you can’t make the stock that day you can do it the next day, just be sure to refrigerate the carcass or bones.

This chicken would also give a dinner party the “Wow” factor and can be simple if you roast veggies along with your chicken.  Prepare a beautiful fresh greens and veggie salad ahead of time and your fabulous meal will be simple to prepare.

We purchased an air-cooled free range organic chicken from Whole Foods Market for $3.49 per pound, it cost about $12.00.  The two of us will get approximately 6 meals with the meat from this chicken costing us about $2.00 per meal, adding in the veggies, we spend about $4.00 per meal on fantastic organic food that would cost at least $15.00 per person if we ate in a restaurant.

The wonderful benefit of cooking this way is that once your chicken is roasted and your stock is made from the bones the prep for the rest of your meals is quick and easy! How to make soup stock.

My plan for two people with this chicken:  

Meal 1 – Roasted Chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy with a salad.

Meal 2 – Chicken vegetable soup made with the stock of the chicken bones.

Meal 3 – Chicken-Cashew Stir Fry made with leftover chicken.

Meal 4 – Chicken on a beautiful green salad with lots of fresh veggies a basalmic nd dressing.

Meal 5 & 6 – Left over Chicken Vegetable Soup and Aunt Celeste’s Kale Salad.

A roasted chicken is a fantastic way to provide delicious and nourishing meals for your family.  It is important to buy a free range, vegetarian fed chicken that has not been given anti-biotics or hormones.  You can find such a chicken from a local grower at your farmers market or find a local farmer at www.localharvest.org.  Whole Foods Markets or other natural supermarkets are also good places to get better quality meats.

You can purchase roasted chickens in the store, however, if you take the time and minimal effort to buy a quality organic chicken and prepare it yourself, you will be AMAZED at the difference between homemade and “store-bought”, there is no comparison, the homemade will knock your socks off.

Preheat your oven to 425 and prepare a roasting pan large enough for your chicken.

A free-range, organic chicken will come packaged with the giblets (gizzard, liver and heart) in a little sack, packed inside the cavity of the chicken.  You will need to remove the giblet back when you bring the chicken home.  Then wash the chicken out with cold water to remove any debris from packaging.

An uncooked chicken will have a giblet bag inside

Remove the giblet bag and excess fat from the chicken, rinse in cold water

Our son, Blue Davis, feeds his dog Mac a completely raw food diet.  He started this because Mac had a chronic skin condition; if you have a dog or cat, you could use the giblets for your animal.  We don’t eat them ourselves.  Mac’s Story.

The cavity of the chicken will be empty, rinse well, sprinkle with sea salt

After your chicken is rinsed and salted on the inside do the following:

• Wash an organic lemon in raw apple cider vinegar or hydrogen peroxide and cut it in half or thirds and place in cavity of chicken.
• Peel away the outside of a head of garlic and cut it in half so there is a top and a bottom, splash the garlic head with a drip of Grape Seed Oil and place in cavity of chicken.
• Place a sprig or two of fresh rosemary or a teaspoon of dried rosemary in the cavity.

Beautiful roasted lemon and garlic chicken

You will have beautiful, flavorful drippings in the bottom of the pan to use for gravy or a sauce, you could also use in a soup stock but honestly it is really too fantastic to waste in a soup stock.  How to make fabulous chicken gravy.

Rich flavorful gravy base from roasted chicken

Once the chicken rests and cools slightly the chicken will pull apart easily.

Tender roasted lemon and garlic chicken

First remove the lemon, garlic and rosemary and discard the rosemary.  Put the garlic and a little broth or water in a magic bullet or blender to blend the garlic, use the garlic in a gravy or soup stock.

If you are going to serve the entire chicken to a family or group, gently separate the pieces and slice the breast with a sharp knife, move to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm.  Don’t put it back in the hot oven, you will dry out your perfect chicken.

If you are going to use the chicken for many meals, as we do, cut off the part you are going to serve immediately (we eat about 2 ounces each) and set it aside to keep warm.  Quickly remove the meat from the bones.  Package the meat you are not going to eat in 4 or more packages, allow to cool and then freeze or refrigerate.

You will now need to make gravy if you are going to have roasted chicken and gravy and make your chicken soup stock from the bones.

Enjoy a fabulous, flavorful roasted chicken meal!

Roasted Chicken and Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes and Gravy

We made this for one of our 8 Steps to Wonderfully Well class.  It is quick and easy to make, stores well in the freezer and reallysatisfies the chocolate cravings!  I like to put it in the little plastic cups you get your salad dressing in at a salad bar, you can get them at GFS or Costco.  I fill up those little cups with mousse and freeze them, then when I need a chocolate treat, it’s ready and waiting, a wonderfully healthy chocolate treat that tastes like a fudgesicle.

Want to know just how healthy it is?  Check out our blog, What is a food I should eat every day and learn about how valuable Avocado is to your health.

Ingredients

3 perfectly ripe avocados (firm soft to touch, like a ripe peach, dark but no indented black spots)

1-teaspoon lime juice

1 cup frozen or fresh PITTED dark cherries (if frozen, keep the juice and add it to the mixture)

4 Tablespoons Raw Cacao (best) or organic cocoa

5-10 drops liquid Stevia

2-4 Tablespoons raw local honey

½ teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract

Dash Celtic sea salt

Instructions

THAW Frozen cherries:  Remove from freezer, thawing approximately 1 hour.

Food Processor, S Blade:

• Put in avocado and lime juice, blend well.
• Add cherries and cherry juice (if frozen cherries) and blend well.
• Add raw cacao or cocoa and blend well.
• Add organic pure vanilla extract and blend well.
• Add Celtic sea salt (about 1/8 teaspoon) and blend well.
• NOW ADD THE SWEETENER, do this to taste.
• First taste the mixture and decide how much sweeter it needs to be.  Add honey and stevia in increments, remember, Stevia makes everything 100 times sweeter.  Add 2 Tablespoons of honey and 3-4 drops Stevia, taste, continue alternating until it is the sweetness you like.
• You may need to add a little more salt to taste as well.

Put in dessert cups, alternate with Coconut Crème Fraiche; if you like you can layer bananas and fruit in between or just put in a dessert cup or in a pie shell, top with slivered almonds, even put some almond butter on the bottom.  Do it your way!

Refrigerate one hour before serving.  Will keep 3 days in fridge.  Can be frozen, allow to set 10 minutes if frozen before serving.

** For individual servings, put into small dessert cups with lids, have one a day for several days!

Inspired by Delightful Delicacies blog, crust recipe from  http://www.zupas.com/2010/02/recipe-hazelnut-and-pecan-pie-crust

Just Desserts Please!  Many of us, given the opportunity would be happy to skip the meal and just have dessert.  You could actually do that with this pie because you will have your fat, protein and carbs all in one beautiful green bite!  My Dad and I made this pie for our 8 Steps to Wonderfully Well classwa and everyone raved about it.  It was so delish we devoured it at the class and forgot to take a photo so if you make one, and it is beautiful, send us a photo please!

Here are some things we learned when making this treat:

1. Pan Size:  It will make a nice thick pie if you make this particular recipe in a small springform pan (6 inch, no bigger than 8 inch).
2. How to serve:  Put the pie in the freezer for up to an hour, remove and let sit for 10 minutes and then cut and serve.  There are some fun ideas on serving at the end of this article.  Put left over pie in freezer in a freezer container, it will keep about 2 weeks.
3. Crust:  The crust is FABULOUS, reminds me of graham cracker crust with no wheat flour!
4. Lime Zest:  Personally, I think the recommended lime zest is too much but the people in our class disagreed, they liked it as is.  I recommend starting with about half the recommended amount of zest and adding more by taste until it is just right for you.

Pie Crust Ingredients

• 1 cup of filberts (hazelnuts), toasted
• 1 cup of pecans, toasted
• 2 Tablespoons agave nectar, raw honey or 100% maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Dash of vanilla
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Pinch of Celtic sea salt

Key Lime Filling Ingredients

• 4 1/2 perfectly ripe avocados (soft to touch like a ripe peach, not mushy, not hard & not black inside)
• 1/2-cup maple syrup (can use less maple syrup and several drops of Stevia to cut sugar)
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed limejuice
• Zest of 2 organic limes
• 4 to 6 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted **
• Large pinch of salt
• Healthy dash of vanilla

Coconut Crème Fraiche Ingredients

• One 15-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
• 1 Tablespoon raw local honey or more to taste (optional)
• 1-teaspoon vanilla or more to taste (optional)
• Dash of salt to taste (optional)

Crust Instructions-this crust is for an unbaked pie such as a cheesecake or cream pie, etc.

Toast nuts:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine nuts and on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for a total of approximately 10-15 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.  Stir nuts about every 5 minutes and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.  Definitely check color at 10 minutes.  You can also toast on stovetop over medium heat in a heavy skillet, watch closely.  Nuts tend to burn very quickly.  Allow to cool prior to making crust.

Make the crust:  Using S Blade in food processor: Turn food processor on first and pour nuts, a few at a time into the bowl through the top.  Blend nuts until fine.  Add rest of crust ingredients and pulse until well blended.

Pat crust in bottom of lined pie pan. (you can grease w/ Grapeseed oil to make it come out easier, do not use coconut oil as it will stick and be hard to get out).

Filling Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a good blender or food processor, blend until creamy and smooth. Pour into pie crust, chill for up to 1 hour in the freezer.

Serve cold, topped dollop of coconut creme fraiche , a slice of kiwi, a mint sprig and some lime zest.

** If you are adding the coconut oil be sure it is melted, then as everything is blending pour it in a constant stream. Let the pie chill for a bit as the coconut oil will solidify and help the pie to be a little thicker.

Coconut Crème Fraiche Instructions

• Put can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight or at least for several hours.
• Open the can and you will see the coconut fat has hardened on top, scoop that out carefully, try not to get any of the water below.
• Save the coconut water to use in coconut soup, smoothies or ice cream.  I usually just put it in a container in the freezer and write on the top what it is and the date.
• Put the fat into a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat with the honey, vanilla and salt until fluffy.
• Keep refrigerated and use soon after beating.

Chef Tip

Make your dessert look like a gourmet dessert: prepare a red or green fruit sauce to drizzle on the plate and put a few raspberries on the side.

 Fruit Sauce to drizzle

Green Fruit Drizzle

Peel 1-2 kiwi and put in magic bullet with a drop of lime juice and some raw local honey, blend well.  Add lime juice or honey for taste and consistency, you want it to be a syrup like consistency.

 Red Fruit Drizzle

Use raspberries instead of kiwi and do the same, about ½ cup of raspberries.

Use a squeeze bottle to “squiggle” sauce on the plate, put the piece of pie on top and drizzle a little zig-zag on top, add a mint leaf sprig and a couple of raspberries for an ahhh from your guests.