I am just starting to figure out the "method" behind the madness. Easy shopping tips for a busy mom would include:

1) If serving different dishes for the A/O breakfast, one dish must be made fresh (grilled meat) and the other dish must come from the freezer (premade muffins or bread).

2) Lunch must always include a protein source, and both fruits and veggies must be ready to eat. I made pan fried tilapia using spelt flour, onion powder, salt, and kelp. I chose the canola oil as it just works better with fish. Side dishes included fresh strawberries and baby carrots.

Snacks are easy too - nuts, fresh fruits or fresh veggies with pre-made dip. If I can't get my dips pre-made on the weekend, one pre-made dish on Monday makes the rest of my week much easier. I cooked pinto beans in a crockpot last night while we slept. Today, I will whip up a dip and continue to eat from it for the next 3 - 5 days.

3) Salted rice cakes and thinly sliced veggies have replaced potato chips. (Except for the organic corn chips. They just blend so well with both bean dip and garlic veggie dip.) The O gets a chip from the health food aisle which is as compliant as I can get it. By giving the boys two different kinds of chips, neither one of them feels left out. Sometimes eating is more psychology than one might think!

4) Dinners - either the husband helps cook or he eats what I prepare. I always tell him in advance so he can think about it. I strive to make certain the five year old gets one red meat serving a day. Frozen ground beef patties help me cut down on wasted meat. Otherwise, it's meatloaf to the rescue!

5)Once our frozen ground beef is used up, I am buying fresh. Our grocery store cuts the meat once it gets there, so I know I can safely cook fresh meat and then freeze it for later use. Ask your butcher!



If there are any busy moms who would like to share the strategies, feel free to e-mail me. I would love to hear them! Good eats, everyone!

Here is an interesting one. Take the blueberry cookie recipe and change the following:

Use a food processor or blender and blend everything together (yes, the blueberries too)

increase flour by 1/2 - 3/4 cup

add 1/2 to 1 tsp of anise flavoring

increase sugar by 1/4 cup

Bake at the same temp. Drop by small tsp onto cookie sheet. When the cookies are done, they resemble speckled eggs. They taste like black jelly beans - or licorice if you will. My husband (who normally hates my cooking) said that they were unique and that he liked them. (Who knows? Maybe it is an O thing! I was worried about my 2 year old receiving enough candy in his Easter Basket. Right now, he has cookies, some allergy free lollipops, and some sesame candy bars (just newly found in the grocery store).

In case you are wondering, I follow the btd diet as closely as possible EXCEPT for desserts. I think that if you are eating correctly 99% of the time, a small dessert will not hurt you.

I also have to admit, that if I were fighting cancer or some other serious illness, I wouldn't cheat at all. Good eats, everyone!

It's easy to see my lack of sleep. Posting a recipe twice within my blogs- silly me! Today was a great practical experience kind of day. I was faced with the dilemna - no time to cook, must eat in the car, what to do? The answer? Treat the grocery store like a fast food resteraunt. I took the kids to a children's museum today. And of course, every mother knows it's smarter to feed the children before you go anywhere - especially when a two year old is going to be up past his nap time. So, we hit "Highlander" which is a decent size grocery store chain which has a "natural foods" section. Seven bucks later, we purchased two boxes of cookies - one A and one O btd appropriate. My two year old ended up with oatmeal raisin cookies (no avoids) and the five year old ended up with oatmeal chocolate chip (wheat free and milk free). Cookies for lunch you say? Breakfast included swedish pancakes with spelt flour and Cinammon Raisin Ezekiel Bread. The afternoon snack will include tuna with honey on sliced zuchinni (chips and dip) along with grilled turkey burgers. It all works out in the end. I think dinner will be pan-fried fish preceeded by some raw veggies. Just an example of every day life.....

The one thing that I am doing for myself today is writing this blog. Seriously, I have not brushed my hair, showered, gotten out of my pajamas, etc. I spent the night sitting up with my two year old. Poor little kid has been so miserable. He has a nasty, nasty head cold on top of an ear infection. Of course, I took him to the doctor too early the first time and he was not treated for anything. Two days later we went back again, and boy was he sick. Eating beneficially didn’t help at this point, because he wasn’t eating at all. I think it’s time to look up the immune protocols and stock my medicine cabinet accordingly. Speaking of medicine, I have not given my 2-year-old D’adamo vitamins because I didn’t know how to sneak it down him. I had previously tried putting it inside of one of his drinks, but it must taste pretty strong, because he wouldn’t touch it. As I was relaxing next to my husband watching “The Simpson’s”, it suddenly hit me. Hide it in applesauce. Duuuhh. It took a cartoon character to light the way. As soon as he starts eating again, one vitamin is going into some applesauce daily. If this works, both kids are going to get applesauce with every breakfast!

Dare I break my promise here? Hmmmm. Ask me if I am sick yet. Nope.

Blueberry cookies:

1 tablespoon of ghee

2/3-cup brown sugar

1-tablespoon compliant milk (rice milk for us)

1 tsp of vanilla

A pinch of sea salt

½ tsp of baking powder (Rumford)

½ cup millet flour and rice flour or oat flour

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

¼ cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, smaller is preferred

*If you can use eggs, omit applesauce and add one egg.

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Cream the ghee and sugar. Add milk and vanilla and mix well. Beat in all the other ingredients except the blueberries. Gently fold in blueberries (I think next time I would double the amount of blueberries). Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a non-stick cookie sheet and bake 10 – 14 minutes. Allow cookies to cool before attempting to take them off the cookie sheet.

My kids ate every single cookie. In fact, skip the blueberries and you have a nice sugar cookie recipe using btd flour instead of the traditional refined white flour. With Easter right around the corner, I think I will make blueberry cookies when the kids are sleeping and fill their Easter Baskets with some of these. I might even be able to add natural colors to these cookies and shape them like Easter eggs. (Blueberry juice, cherry juice, cranberry juice, hmmm.)

Perhaps, I will bake peanut butter cookies for the A, and blueberry cookies for the O. I am now inspired!

I also tried to make a homemade chicken soup today. Here’s what I did:

Swanson’s Natural Chicken broth (there is corn sugar in this in the form of dextrose)

1 whole chicken, giblets already removed

Carrots

Onions

Minced garlic

Several handfuls of chopped parsley

1 big bay leaf

Several shakes of dried basil seasoning

Salt

Throw it all into a crock pot for 8 hours on low. Pull the chicken out and debone. Return chicken to the pot. It’s missing a little something, but I can’t quite tell what. In some ways that is the fun part. With each bowl I eat, I add a little bit of new spice until I finally hit the right one. Paprika went into the last bowl. It was good but not the missing ingredient I was hoping to find. I think I am missing the taste of pepper. There has got to be a substitute out there. Until then…. Good eats everyone.

Ok, ok. I promise.. this is the last time I will mention health vs illness. My two year old has a fever, and my five year old came down with an ear infection. Hubby is still fighting bronchitis, but he is functioning. I have been as compliant as possible and I have stuck to my guns regarding excersise. I need to brag about my husband here. He has supported my attempts to get to the gym, even though he would rather see me take care of the kids. I know that he is still feeling ill and needs to rest. I also know that if I fall, he will lose much more time as I recuperate in bed. Plus, if he covers me for the two hours I need, then I take on the entire night shift so he can get uninterrupted sleep. He's really acting like a true partner here, and I just wanted to thank him.

Anyway, here's the bottom line: Illness can be prevented through D'adamo's principles. Mom's are supposed to carve out time for themselves every single day.

Blueberry cookies! My kids ate these up:

1 big heaping tablespoon of ghee

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon rice milk or any kind of compliant milk

1 tsp vanilla (the real stuff!)

1/4 tsp sea salt - fine crystals

1/2 tsp rumford baking powder

1 cup millet flour or 1/2 cup oat flour with 1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup applesauce (plain or with cinnamon)

1/4 cup fresh blueberries (frozen will also work)

if you aren't allergic, then add one egg and omit applesauce

Cream the ghee and sugar. Add milk and vanilla and beat. Beat in all other ingredients except the blueberries. Gently fold in blueberries. Drop by tsp onto non stick cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 14 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely before attemtping to remove.

The recipe was taken from allergy free cooking by Eileen Rhude Yoder and tweaked a little bit. We didn't have any leftovers.