Jan. 25. 2014


I am proud to announce that Owen has lost a total of 13 pounds. That's half a pound a day. All we have done is remove processed sugar and add whole, mostly organic, foods. Yesterday we had a really yummy meal. We ate pork chops, with broiled pears on then, sweet potatoes fried in coconut oil, and roasted broccoli. We love eating sweet potatoes fried in coconut oil. I just wash the sweet potatoes and cut them thin, then fry them in coconut oil in a cast iron pan. I love cast iron. It gets nice and hot for frying and stays with even heat. I fry the potatoes until they begin to caramelize in their own sugars. I use a spatula to turn the potatoes over instead of a spoon that stirs them. This keeps the potatoes more intact.


The broccoli recipe came from a friend. You put a few tablespoons of olive oil and a couple cloves of crushed garlic into a container with a lid. Add broccoli florets and shake up. Pour contents onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Yum!!


I have to admit I haven't mastered pork chops yet. They always end up a bit dry, but really tasty. As for the pears, I just sliced them onto an oven-safe dish and put them under the broiler for about 5 minutes or until browned and soft. The pears were really good on the pork chops and it all looked really nice on the plate.


That was lunch. For dinner I boiled a chicken. We raised the chicken here on the Frost Farm. After the meat was cooked I took it out and added organic carrots and rice noodles to the broth. When the chicken was cooled a bit I took the meat off the bones and added it back to the soup. Ten minutes later we had chicken noodle soup. Madisen made gluten free biscuits and whole wheat biscuits. They were a bit heavy so we'll have to work on perfecting a fluffy whole wheat biscuit.


For dessert I made a wonderful peach upside down cake. I'll share the recipe with you. When I made it I made it with frozen blueberries instead of peaches because I didn't have peaches, so any fruit would work. We also made one recipe with gluten free flour and it turned out great!


Here's the recipe:


Topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups peaches


Place butter, honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the butter is melted. Pour mixture into bottom of 8" square cake pan. Make an even layer of peaches over the honey-butter mixture.


Batter:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 c maple syrup
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp lemon peel grated


Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and spoon over topping.


Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until golden brown. When done, flip pan over and allow to cool with topping on top.


This is a great recipe. It's important to use fruit that has a lot of moisture so the cake part is moist.


Until next time...