Once again, it’s my favorite day of the week! There are some Sundays, when I am lucky enough to just hop out of bed and head right to my stove! Alas, today was not one of those days. My two year old has come down with his second ear infection since January 1st, and he is feeling very poorly. After visiting the local immediate care clinic, he’s been diagnosed and prescribed antibiotics. Now, I have learned the hard way what that means; Sean will develop the big “D”. It happens every time. I am hoping that the probiotic will combat this nasty side effect. Time will tell.

I’ll be dabbling around the kitchen today. Here is what I am hoping to do:

Mass rice production: store for later use

Sweet potato chips: the crispier the better

Canned artichokes and spinach spread or egg filling or??

Vegetable bread.

The vegetable bread will be the big experiment today. After looking at different bread recipes, I am going to try and make some kind of bread featuring Collard Greens and herbs. I once had a fantastic tomato and herb bread – and thought to my self that there must be more possibilities than just tomato!

Plus, I impulsively bought a large bunch of collard greens at the store with the intention of cooking it seven different ways this week. I just haven’t found my favorite way to eat these yet, and I would be thrilled beyond belief if I can get my children to eat this very nutritious vegetable. It has also dawned on me that I really need to stick to the beneficials for my little one until this cold spell has dissipated. Wish me luck! J

In the raw simply means that I am not using a word processing program to double check my typing or my grammar today. What you see is what you get!

Grocery shopping day- I love it. If you are lucky enougth to have a Woodman's in your town, you have to check this store out. The variety is stupendous, and the prices affordable.

While waiting for my car's oil to be changed, I planned the weekly menu. Planning one's menu is well worth your time. I had so many "impulses" at the store, and I am certain I would have spent more money if my list hadn't been ready and waiting. OUr mixed blood type family menu includes:



Breakfast for O's: Ezekieal Bread, Raisins, Butter, Honey, wheat free fig newtons, chocolate soy milk

almost compliant breakfast sausage ( I am still looking!! Another writer mentioned that Shelton had complian Turkey sausage, but I just can't find it! I did find a brand with no artificial flavors, preservatives, msg, corn syrup, etc. The avoid would be potato starch. Hmmmm)

Buckwheat Pancakes (I think he is an O secretor), blueberries, more sausage, apples, grapes.

Breakfast for A's: Ezekeil bread, ghee, honey, prunes, coffee (for me!!), rice milk, barley cereal (Bob's red mill - I believe. Cooks up like oatmeal) raisins, pineapples, buckwheat pancakes, eggs, onions and garlic.

Snacks for O's: bannanas, dried cherries with sugar (no corn syrup! yea!!), mozerella cheese and grapes, strawberries (a netural for an O secretor according to typebase 4), , raisins, apples, pears, pineapple

Snacks for A's: dried cherries, pineapple, goat cheese and grapes, peanuts, strawberries, grapes raisins, wheat free fig newtons, pears, sunflower seeds,

Lunch for O's : Zuchinni Pecan Bread made in my bread machine with spelt flour! Juicy juice box juices or a bottle of water. (Yes, this is it for the week. my school age child will not touch cold meat, will not eat hot soup, and will not eat a raw vegetable other than carrots if his life depended on it!) Ergo, I hide the vegies in the bread. Did I also mention that he doesn't like nuts and I have to grind them to a fine powder in order to hide them in the bread? Really!

Lunch for A's: Leftover Rice soups from freezer (kale and mushroom with brown rice, yum), rice with sardines, and garlic, tuna salad with celery on Rye and Sunflower seed bread (thank you Woodman's!), toasted rye bread with honey and fruit,

Dinner for A's and O's who eat together: Chicken and Mushrooms with garlic, parsley and sherry, cheese and grapes, sauteed zuchinni with olive oil, salt, cheese, Italian Chicken (from Cook for your bloodtype with rice, ) Venision meatballs with miso gravy, rice and vegies, romaine and iceberg salad mix (in a bag), Sesame chicken with side salad.

Beverages: apple juice, prune juice, soy milk, water

While I don't have seven seperate dinners planned out, this is enough to cover us easily for the week thanks to leftovers. Heck, we still have muffins coming out of our ears.

Why do you ask, is there so much chicken for dinner? The answer: we bought a freezer full last year and it has to get eaten before I spend our hard earned dollar on something else. But here's the good news: I panfried that cod last night, and the family said "Thumbs up!". Slowly but surely, the learning curve is straightening out.......

Keep it simple is the positive phrase is my life today. Things are starting to pile up, and I have got more work on my plate than I have patience!

When I first started the BTD, I was using the Cook for your Blood Type book. Little did I know anything about cooking! Stir-fry? Sauté? Broil? Steam? Blanche? And spices, let’s talk about spices for a moment! There were so many that I have never even heard of, let alone tasted. Well, I attempted to follow those 30-day recipe guidelines and I did enjoy some of the dishes very much. But as things got more complicated, and I desired to cook for both O’s and A’s in my family, I grew furiously frustrated.

Keep it simple, stupid. (Or silly, if that offends you.)

My little A and I enjoyed a hot grain cereal (took 10 minutes on the stove) along with sunflower seeds, brown sugar, and a can of cherries. That’s right. A can. I dutifully read the label and found one brand of cherries without artificial colors or any nasty added ingredients (just water). I think next time I might even puree the cherries in my blender. Rice milk was the beverage of choice.

My five-year-old O was offered two slices of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin bread along with a little butter. Chocolate soymilk rounded out the meal. While neither of these are beneficial (I believe), I am content with the fact that there are no avoids in this meal (for an O secretor.)

Someday you just gotta be happy one is avoid free.

Lunch for the O consisted of pumpkin rye muffins (imagine lol) and juice. Lunch for the A’s consisted of sliced cucumbers with peanut butter and honey. Here’s where it gets funny. I am trying to combine the peanut butter and honey into some appropriate restaurant type of dip, when my two year old grabs the peanut butter laden spoon and starts chomping. So I dot the cucumbers with honey and waaalaaa –we are done. Silly, silly, silly.

Snacks today will include nuts (for the A’s), raisins and mozzarella cheese for the O. Dinner will be wild ocean cod pan fried in canola oil, a little ghee, and rice flour with salt for the breading. Maybe an egg wash first – hmmm gotta play with this one a bit. Veggies will include baby carrots (raw for the O) and glazed carrots and onions for the A’s.

Tomorrow is grocery-shopping day. I can’t wait.

According to typebase 4, semolina wheat and wheat gluten are neutrals for A secretors and avoids for non-secretors. After eating a large plate of this delicious angel hair and garlic pasta, my stomach cramped up once – and then it was over. Several hours later, my right hand started to swell slightly.

I keep thinking about Miranda’s topic for the week. One of the things she mentioned is her genotype and phenotype. One of her parents was an A and the other an O. Further testing revealed that she is as close to an O as a dominant A can get. I have to wonder if I might be in the same category. Was the stomach cramp a fluke, or do I have an intolerance for wheat like most O’s? As a matter of fact, the last time I ate a traditional delivery pizza, my stomach was upset for two days.

I can’t quite figure out my tolerance for tomatoes either. My body seems unpredictable. I think I am going to have to take my own advice. I will eat cleanly for several days and then purposely inhale an avoid and see what happens. I will have to rule out other variables (for example: make sure that I had gotten enough sleep the night before so fatigue isn’t an issue, etc.) But knowing for certain will be worth it. I guess the important thing to emphasize to my children is the question “How do you physically and mentally feel?” We are all individuals, after all.

Let’s face it. My grocery bill just tripled. Like most of the hard-working Midwest, I aimed for what was on sale. I did my homework by visiting three different grocery chains armed with a notebook, pen, and calculator. I recorded key items, their prices, and compared my results. I found the two least expensive shopping centers in town and concluded that we had no choice but to shop at these affordable locations. Little did I know…?

Three years later, I gave birth to an adorable and completely lactose intolerant boy child. Even the pasteurized products produced unbearable pain. And of course, the two most affordable places in town did not carry the beverages and food items he could tolerate. So, in the interest of time and money, we switched.

Now armed with the knowledge of how much JUNK exists within those affordable boxed packages, I just want to shriek. So let’s talk turkey for a second. How much money was spent on unnecessary doctor visits because of the “cheap” affordable food we were consuming? How much money would my insurance company have saved if I had been motivated to bye healthier, less processed food items?

Here’s a specific example: Testing my son for celiac disease cost close to 1,000 dollars. After buying a 20-dollar book at the bookstore on the “elimination diet”, I was able to test my son for this disease myself. It took three weeks and a lot of focus, but it cost not even 1/10th of what my insurance company was charged! Somebody, please pay me 500 dollars and say, “Thank you!”

So, here I am, looking at the family budget and grimacing. I need to cut corners. I need to find economical solutions. I need to find the best prices in town. I NEED to find long-term solutions even if the results of these solutions are intangible to the naked eye.

Food for thought.