Please forgive typo's - this is a fast one today.

How do you know when life is simply too busy? When you are running late to make your scheduled appointment for...... a day off. Seriously, I can't believe this is happening to me! Geeesh. Still I wanted to blog.....

I made zuchinni pecan muffins this morning while leaning heavily on my food chopper. I can't get over how well muffins fit a busy mom's lifestyle. #1) They are portable #2) They freeze and defrost well #3) Any vegetable or fruit combination works here - and a few vegies are better than none #4) Using a blender and paper muffin liners make it easy to clean up #5) the kids can help and everyone is happy.

I also focused on ground beef for breakfast once again. I am stuck using one pound blocks of frozen ground beef. It is such a waste since my little five year old can't eat it before it becomes too old. Yet, I just figured out that I can probably make two breakfasts and then serve meatloaf on that second day without wasting the meat. Next time, I will try to find economical ground beef patties which have been frozen. If I allow them to defrost in the fridge (am I allowed to do that safely? I will have to doublecheck), then I can add some tasty beneficial spices. I might even ask the butcher at the grocery store if they can make smaller ground beef portions for me. That way I wouldn't have to expose as much ground beef to air. Anyway, my five year old likes salt and kelp seasoning with his beef. I thought it tasted good too! I have also recently found three new ecominical spice blends without avoids. One is called roast beef seasoning, steak seasoning, and I have forgotten the name of the third. Anyway, the brand is "spice it" and as far as I know, there are no anti-caking agents added to these. (It is not listed anyway.)

It was another economical trip to the grocery store. Rice milk and ezekiel bread are the most expensive items. Otherwise, everything else is quite cheap. True, it is not all organic, but I am trying to pick out foods which are the least likely to be high in pesticide residues. There is a book out there - "Safe Foods" which detail which veggies and fruits were found to contain high pesticides residues. Interestingly enough the worst contender out there was....... (drum roll, please)........ celery. While the book talked about both sides of the coin (buying traditional vs organic) and was ,in my opinion, a well written and objective book, it flat out said than in the case of celery -- just buy organic. Period. Pesticides just soak into the stalks, I guess.

Food for thought.. Tomorrow I will post the recipe for blueberry cookies. Yum!!!

Well, the family is on antibitotics and everyone is back to school or to work. I am still healthy. At this point I think that it is safe to claim that my lifestyle and D'Adamo's nutrition principles are the reason I did not fall. I base this on the following evidence:

Out of all the family members, I am the most compliant. (I eat more greens and I take D'Adamo's vitamins on occasion)

I work out three times a week.

I am 35 years old. The two year old, the five year old, and the forty year old contracted an illness. If age were the only determining factor here, then someone else in this family should have remained healthy.

Many of our neighbors and friends fell victim to this nasty bug. None of them follow the btd diet.

Ok, it is a rather loose scientific conclusion, I grant you, but as an A, I am not the sturdiest immune system within my household. In fact, whenever I break down and cry and their is a virus already present within the house, I usually get sick the next day. I had a stressful weak. I broke down on one occasion. But I also know my weaknesses and I vowed to get enough sleep, eat properly and excersise in that order. Yep, I just think my hypothesis is right. Enough said.

I cooked lentils yesterday. I followed the simple curried lentil soup out of the cookbook and served it over plain white rice. I made a huge batch, and I am now spicing each individual bowl a little differently. I also bought a jar of red curry paste for 1.89 at Woodman's grocery store, and I think I will add that to my next batch of rice and lentils.

Speaking of prices, I spent 70 bucks at the grocery store this week on food. Keep in mind that we have meat in our freezer at home. Still this is a huge improvement over past weeks. The beneficial meats for the O's will be: venison, buffalo and beef. The beneficial protein sources for the A's will be: lentils, pinto beans, black beans. Combination beneficials will be canned salmon, ocean caught tilapia, canned pumpkin, pumpkin seeds,walnuts, romaine lettuce, green and yellow squash, onions, parsley, broccoli and carrots. I won't bother to mention the neutrals.

Enough rambling for today. Thanks for reading and good eats.

I have got to be careful here. I think I have bragged before and then hit bottom immediately afterwards. Let's just report today's facts. Three of us within this house have caught bronchitis (forgive spelling, please). The two year old also has an eye infection (constantly using his hand as a kleenex, yuck!). Three of us are on antibiotics. And one of us who is much more btd compliant than the other three, is not yet sick. Will it last???????

My two year old can just barely fit in-between our two sliding glass patio doors leading to our back yard. He entertains himself for hours by sliding the doors back and forth, back and forth. He also takes great pride in the fact that it is very difficult for me to pull him out of there when he is not ready to go. Ha ha, “You can’t get me Mom!”

To be so young again…..J

24 hours later…… geesh! I can’t believe how long it has taken me to get back to this computer. I have been looking forward to the creative aspect of writing all day and all nightlong. Sick kids, sick husband and a sick car (no kidding, we had to drive it in to the dealership this morning) caused immeasurable delays. I even had to cancel my afternoon weightlifting class. (Big audible sigh.) I am still hoping to make it to the YMCA for my personal workout before bedtime.

Ok, enough rambling. I simply wanted to share with everyone my menu planning strategy. Here it is:

B: Oatmeal, dates, barley malt, honey, sunflower seeds

Chopped steak and apples

S Raisins

All natural fruit leathers

L Noodles and Peanut Sauce, raw carrots

Banana carrot rye muffins

S Cucumbers and garlic veggie dip

Cheese and raisins

D Diced chicken, shrimp, Garlic, and rice noodles, salad for all

* *

B Oatmeal with natural applesauce

Grilled beef patty with 5 spice blend (salt, parsley paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic, onion,)

S Dried cranberries

All natural fruit leather

L Pinto Bean Garlic dip with corn chips and carrots

Banana Carroty Rye Muffins, pumpkin seeds

S Pumpkin Raisin Bread

Pumpkin Raisin Bread

D Steamed broccoli Medley with baked chicken for all

B Oatmeal with chopped dates and seeds

Grilled beef patty with 5 spice blend, apples

S Raisins

All natural fruit leather

L Rice, Tuna and Broccoli

Banana Carrot Muffins with pumpkin seeds

S Plums

Green apples and pumpkin bread

D Leftover tuna and broccoli

Venison Muffins with homemade ketchup



B Oatmeal and blueberries

Grilled beef patty with cheese and apples

S Dried cranberries

All natural fruit leather

L Peanut butter and jelly on white rye bread

Banana Carrot Muffin with pumpkin seeds

S Plums

Dried cranberries

D Leftover veggies and scrambled eggs

Swedish pancakes with maple syrup

B Leftover pumpkin raisin bread with canned pineapple

Grilled beef patty with cheese and canned pineapple

S Gala apples

Gala apple

L Mushrooms with honey, tamari sauce and corn chips with garlic veggie dip

Banana carrot muffins

S Diced pears

** Diced peaches

D Vegetable fritters (rutabaga, onion) with pan Fried salmon patties for all.



What about day 6 and 7? Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. Now, I didn’t say that my meal planning was perfect or that there is enough variety within it. But this is just a realistic example of what my children will actually eat. (Sometimes the hubby surprises me and joins us.) And truthfully, my five year old is still a little squeamish about eating meat first thing in the morning. One of these days I might be able to experiment with beef jerky. He loves anything tough and chewy (hence the all natural fruit leathers for his school snack every day.)

I believe that at some level our brains tell us what we need to eat. That is based on the assumption that one has been eating foods in their natural state for quite some time (otherwise, artificial flavors, etc fool the brain.) As for myself, I literally inhale garlic like it is oxygen. I also pay attention when my two year old turns up his nose at familiar good tasting foods. I even ask my five year old the question, “what do you feel like eating?” Unfortunately, he can’t tell me. I always get the same answer “you just pick it, Mom.”

This is the same kid who becomes visually grossed out watching his brother eat black bean dip or Mom eating green veggie dip. Hmmm. I think the five year old would eat Pizza Hut every day of the week if I allowed it. (Addictive, addictive, addictive)

Food for thought.

We had one day where he seemed to be winning the battle. Alas, it was the calm before the storm. He is suffering from a runny nose, loose bm's and a chronic nightime cough. At this point, I will try to feed him nothing but beneficials and coax a little lemon juice down him. Simple hot water with lemon juice really seemed to help me during the last bug. I hope it helps him as well.

I hit the grocery store today with only 100 dollars to spend on groceries for a family of four. I spent a lot of time planning our menu and based it on the remaining inventory in our cabinets as well as balanced meal plans. Part of that money also covered certain non-food essentials. I am not certain how well I did, for it felt like I did not bring very much food home. When I have a little more time, I will share the A/O weekly meal plan. Chanur mentioned that she hits the grocery store more than once a week as she can't fit all of the vegies in the fridge for a family of four. Both of our meat and vegetable bins plus one more fridge shelf are usually filled with produce. Three of us easily eat the three recommended servings of fruit per day - that's 9 times seven or 63 servings of fruit per week!

In order to try and induce variety I bought: raisins, cranberries, canned pineapple chunks, green granny smith apples, gala apples, frozen blueberries, canned diced peaches, canned diced pears, canned diced fruit, fresh plums and applesauce. All of the canned fruit was packen in either 100% pineapple juice or some other fruit juice concentrate. (No corn syrup or added sugar here!)

Anyway, it's the middle of the night and I am out of steam. More later......