An Update

Since my last post many things have changed. We moved, Chandler started High School, Dylan started 7th grade Elliot started 2nd grade. I was without a computer for a full month so I am very behind on my updates.  I have very much enjoyed our new apartment. We settled in here rather quickly. I was very surprised at how fast things went together. I have had a bit of fun since moving in and much of it had to do with my jars. With my Cricut and some contact paper I made cute labels. I customized one of my shelvs to hold the jars better. At the thrift store I found a spinney rack to hold more jars that I love and the $3 price tag made me happy as well which was a good thing since I got in a car accident in the parking lot of that thrift store. I also found a wine holder for free at the swap shop to hold even more jars. These few shelves holding my jars has freed up a lot of cabinet space and made the jars much more functional.

Free rack from Swap Shop

$3 shelf from thrift store.

Shelve that I customized by adding some additional shelves to it and covering with contact paper.

Plenty of storage space above my cub bards for my food storage jars.

A close up of my personalized lids.

I have a lot of posts to do so keep a look out.

My Love Affair.

So it is fathers day and I just spent 3 hours with....... wait for it...... Canning Jars. What you might ask, did I read that correctly? Yes I said Canning jars. They are good for so many reasons.  The funny thing is I have never canned in the traditional sense. I have a long term goal of not using plastic for food (except the plastic lids) and reducing waste by not using baggies and Tupperware that don't last very long.
Now I am going to give you a canning jar tutorial.

1. Use them instead of Tupperware. They are cheaper, last longer, and are nicer to the earth. They won't leach plastic into your food and they can be put into the microwave or oven. I often freeze leftovers and when I am ready to use them I take them out in the morning and an hour or so before dinner I put the whole jar in the oven on warm and I have a hot meal.

Pint, Quart, 1/2 gallon.

2. They are great for storage. I store all my dry goods in them. They keep food fresh longer and there are sized for all of your needs.

3. They make great drinking glasses.

4. They are great for smoothies and large drinks. Drill a whole in a plastic lid and you have a great glass.
5. You can get plastic lids that are all once piece. These are nice for the things you use everyday. It is just easier to open instead of the ring and lid that are separate. They don't seal quite as well, so for long term storage I recommend the metal lids.  You can write in sharpie on any of the lids and then scrub it off later or print cute labels if they are out in the open.
6. There are 2 types of jars. Wide Mouth and Traditional. All jars come with the wide mouth version now. The 1/2 gallon jars only come wide mouth now. If you are starting from scratch I suggest only using wide mouth in all of your jars. They are easier to clean and you will only need to have one size lid for all of your jars.

Wide Mouth, Regular Mouth

7. I store my Homeade Deoderant, Toothpaste, and Lotion in them. 

8. They make great craft/toy organizers. Think Buttons/Legos

Get yourself a funnel. It fits into the mouth of any size canning jar and keeps things from spilling. This is one of the most used items in my home. I use it when pouring smoothies in the morning, when storing leftovers, when pouring dry goods that I buy in bulk. For the $2 that it costs it is very worth it. 

OK Now you are thinking they are glass and will break easily. Actually they are very sturdy. The are more likely to break when empty than when full. 

I have a dream of a Wine Rack type unit that will store all of my jars lids facing out. This will store a lot of jars in a small vertical space and make them even easier to use. I will of course have cute labels to put on the lids. 

If you want jars but don't have spare change, send out an email to your church, school, or any other organization you belong to. I did this and got 150 jar out of it in all sizes. 

If you are like my friend Katie and everything needs to be white go with the plastic lids. If you are like my friend Jeannie and don't want any design on your jars special order them online. If not and plain jars are right for you they sell them just about everywhere, you probably have just never noticed them before. Here in Goleta the best price and selection is at OSH. 

Life

So an update on life. Eric will be staying at UCSB again for one more year. We are packing up and putting everything in storage and will be out of our house by July 6th. Eric has a place to stay in town so he can keep working. The kids and I will be visiting family for most of July. We are on a wait list for an apartment that we can afford. If we don't get in by August we will then look for another place to live. This sounds crazy but I am looking forward to the adventure. We have a lot of things packed and in storage already and this weekend we will be moving much of our furniture. This is the last weekend in the house that Eric and I will both be home. He has a conference next weekend and I am taking Chandler to Anime Expo the weekend after that. There has been much that has happened lately. Dylan turned 12 and was ordained a Deacon. Family members have had brain surgeries, and baby's. If you want to read the updates on my nieces born at 26 weeks
As crazy as it is I feel strangely calm. Giving myself 4 full weeks to load into storage has allowed me the freedom to do a little every day. I am sure I will be pulling my hair out the last week. If you have any other questions let me know. Off to pack some more!
P.S. does trash and the amount of stuff in a room multiply every time you fill a box!

Sisters Weekend 2012

Once a year for the past 6 years my Sisters, Mom and Niece get together for a Sisters Weekend. We all take a turn hosting. We have been to Texas, Idaho, Utah twice and California twice. Every year it seems to get longer than the one before. This year my mom and I went for a full week so we could see other friends without it interfering with our sister time. We had so much fun. We stayed up after 2am every night. Slept in, ate ice cream, talked, gossiped, laughed, told dirty jokes and plain had a great time. I am not ready to be back into the swing and stresses of normal life but I know that I have this to look forward to again next year. 

Gluten Free and other Food Oddities.

(This is going to be long, if food is an issue please continue to the end and don't be scared by anything up front. Give me a chance.)
So I was asked again today to talk to someone, who was like many, diagnosed with celiacs disease. It is a confusing time when you are told don't eat gluten or the long list of items including gluten but are not given a way to eat so you feel hungry all the time. To top that off you get cranky, go through withdrawals and want to kill the world for one simple piece of toast. I won't even mention what I was willing to do to eat a cinnamon roll. This being said after over 2 years of my food journey how I look at food now is drastically different than how it was then. I have said this before but if myself 5 years ago saw myself today I would never have believed it and thought I was completely crazy and had fallen off the deep end.

To start off please read my previous posts
 http://nebeker-jo.blogspot.com/search?q=ultrametabolism this has the story of how I started my food journey. Then please read http://nebeker-jo.blogspot.com/2011/09/12-steps-to-whole-foods.html this post talks about the book I wish I had had when I started.
Finally please read http://nebeker-jo.blogspot.com/2011/09/stake-food-demo-table.html
This has book, blog, and shopping recommendations to make it easier and more affordable.

Now that you have read my 3 posts we can continue. I should make this clear I absolutely believe that a plant based diet is key to health. However I also understand how hard transitioning with food is, so if you already know a specific item that needs to be eliminated IE Gluten start with that and then after you have a handle on it move on from there. Most people that have an intolerance to one food often have an intolerance to another. There is a difference between an intolerance and an allergy. Tests do not show intolerance's but they can be just as harming and debilitating as allergies. After 3- 6 months of removing the food that is the problem I highly recommend doing a detox the way Dr.Hyman instructs. To make that detox easier I would combine it with Green Smoothies Girls detox. Green Smoothies to me are easier than many of Dr. Hymans recipes so it is just a convenience thing. Dr. Hyman had many wonderful recipes that I still use all the time. I am happy to help with more detail on how to combine these. Contact me if interested.

When many people first go gluten free etc. they lose a bunch of weight. Then they find all the alternatives out there and the weight starts to come back on. There is a reason for this. Sugar, most Gluten free packaged foods are packed with sugar, that is what makes it taste so good. Beware, prepare your own foods as often as possible but be glad they are there when you need them.

I know what you are saying now, I hate to cook, Healthy food is so expensive, How can I possibly pull this off. Yes at first things seemed pricey and I was unfamiliar with what to buy. Once I got the hang of it I found my grocery budget was about the same as before. I buy less of some things and buy many other things in bulk. (Azure Standard is mentioned in the above posts) I have really started to enjoy cooking. As long as I am willing to make it I can have anything I want. Here are some basic thoughts on how to transition Gluten Free. First off Read Labels. I avoid packaged foods whenever I can. Have some Gluten Free Flours on Hand. My favorites are Pamelas Bread Mix, Pamelas Pancake Mix. With these two I can make  just about anything, Pancakes, bread, pizza, cookies, pie crust, ding dongs, cake, you name it. When I have a recipe that calls for flour I just use this instead. Buying in bulk will save a lot. At whole foods these are about $15 per bag. Amazon and Azure Standard you can get 3 bags for about $30. There are many other brands out there find one that works for you and have it on hand. Bread, Gluten free bread is not the same and will never be the same as regular bread. Once you go off gluten for a short period of time you will learn to appreciate GF bread. Fresh bread made with Pamelas is really good and the closest I can find/make to regular bread. For Daily things like toast, sandwiches, etc I buy the bread and keep it in the freezer. The consistency if different but toasted I like it. It takes about twice as long to toast but I just pop it in frozen. I like Food for Life brown rice bread because it is also egg free. Most stores have different types. Buy a few try them, find your favorite and order it in bulk if you can. Food for life also has an amazing English muffin. We love these. If you have a grinder or a good blender like Blendtec you can make your own flours using almonds, coconuts, oats, you name it. The key to baking with GF flours is to use more than one. They all have a strong flavor so using small amounts of a few will have a better outcome. Example if you need 3 cups of flour use 1 cup almond flour, 1 cup coconut flour, 1 cup rice flour.
Dining out- Most restaurants have menus posted online, check before you go out, there is nothing more frustrating than eating lettuce while your friends are eating onion rings because you didn't check ahead of time. Chipotle, Chili's, Outback all have gluten free menus and are happy to help. With so many people suffering from this many restaurants are understanding and helpful. Tortillas, just switch to Corn tortillas preferably natural ones that are just corn, water, oil, salt. Homemade ones are easy and fast to make. I got a tortilla press for Christmas and we use it all the time. Fresh tortillas are so good. You can make them with Pamelas as well. For a dessert you can cook them with a little coconut oil, agave and cinnamon. Corn chips, we probably eat more of these than we should but chips, salsa, guacamole make us happy. When you get the urge for something different these can often fill that need. Brown rice cakes are good too. Top with Peanut Butter, hummus, and you will be satisfied. Ice Cream many brands have Gluten or items that have gluten. Luckily there are many really good ones that don't. Make your own instructions in this post. If want it now here are some good brands coconutbliss.com,  so delicious there are many others but these are great. One brand everything is coconut milk the other does coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk and expands all the time. Read labels even on these brands. They make things to work with all allergy types so some are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Nut Free, Egg Free. Some will just say Dairy Free, Soy Free. Don't Assume. Many headaches and long nights have been spent by assuming something about a brand.
There is a bit more planning and preparation involved but once you get in a routine you will have lots of good and hopefully healthy meals to eat.
Pinterest- I have had great success with pinterest and finding healthy wonderful recipes. You can follow my pinterest boards. Jo Joanna Nebeker is the name I am under. I have 2 food boards now and will make them more itemized soon. One board is recipes food info, the other is recipes I have tried and loved. The place I get most of my recipes from is 12 steps to whole foods. A few of the recipes call for flour but with Pamelas or the many other possibilities I just substitute and the recipes are great. There will be some trial and error at the begining with being gluten free but soon you will be able to eat very yummy foods with little preparation.

Eggs- I also can't eat eggs. There are many ways to cook, bake without eggs. The easiest is with EnerG Egg replacer this is GF. Mix with water and it does the trick. You can also use Guar Gum, Xantham Gum, or Ground Chia seeds. These all work well as thickeners.
I try not to use Refined sugar so in baking I use Agave or Pure maple syrup often I can just skip the egg part if these are what I am using.

Dairy- as hard as it was at first I have found that I am fine without dairy for most things. Coconut oil works well instead of butter, Mexican food which I would eat every day is good without  dairy. Coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk can all substitute cow milk in almost anything.  I think most people need to cut there dairy down for health. When I do use dairy I have raw goat cheese. I tolerate this fine. I try not to use it more than once a week.

Meat- I really feel like most people need to cut out meat. I have an issue with most meat so with the exception of Fish about once a month I don't eat it at all. I never ever thought this would be possible for me. I LOVE STEAK! Guess what it gives me migraines. Most meats do. What I was surprised about was how easy it was to give up after the first 2 weeks. Beans, lentils, flavored correctly can substitute for many recipes. With 12 Steps to whole foods and many other recipes I have just learned how to cook without meat. The ironic thing is I BBQ now more that  I am a vegetarian than I ever did before.

Sugar- I don't eat refined sugar. There are so many other options out there that I just don't need to. I use Dates, Stevia, Agave Necter, Maple Syrup, Molasses and in rare cases unrefined sugar.

Watch the movies Forks Over Knives it will help you understand why Dr. Hyman, Green Smoothie Girl, myself and thousands of others recommend a whole foods plant based diet.

That is the end to the main post. Please let me know if you have any questions. I hope I covered what needed to be. Below is an answer to questions I get from church friends Latter Day Saints or Mormons about the Word Of Wisdom. Mormon or not you might find it interesting.

Word Of Wisdom (council given to the Latter Day Saints on what to eat, drink, etc.)
In my food journey I have had to study the word of wisdom A LOT. I have learned things I never really new before. I realized that what I thought the Word of Wisdom was was more of a cultural belief among Latter Day Saints than what was really written. I am only going to talk about some of it. There is more to the Word of Wisdom but this post is already long enough.(I am not an expert or a scriptorian. These are just my personal opinions). Here some some thoughts.
Doctrine and Covenants 89
4 Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of^aevils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of^bconspiring men in the last days, I have ^cwarned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—
This verse really struck a cord with me. So much of what is wrong with our food/health is because of the evils of man. If we eat our food as close to the way God intended it for us we would/will be kept safe from the evils of man.

10 And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome ^aherbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—

 11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with ^aprudence and ^bthanksgiving.

Verses 10-11 really hit home. With my love of essential oils and belief that they have amazing healing abilities verse 10 was right on. Wholesome herbs and nature have the ability to heal and cure most things. There is a famous quote by Socrates that goes something like "let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food." Fruits, herbs, natural foods are good for us.

12 Yea, ^aflesh also of ^bbeasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used ^csparingly;
 13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be ^aused, only in times of winter, or of cold, or ^bfamine.
 Verse 12-13 what is your idea of sparingly? This is the big question. Personally, I do not feel that sparingly is 2-3 times a day. I feel that it is on a rare occasion and only with healthy animals. Meat should be used in times of winter, or of cold, or famine. How many of us really live in times like those. The evils of man have taken our meat and made it much more dangerous to our health than it would have been if animals lived in their natural state, eating their natural foods. I do not feel that eating animals is cruel but I do feel that the way many animals are raised and live are cruel as well as bad for the outcome of the product.

 14 All ^agrain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;

 15 And ^athese hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.

 16 All grain is good for the ^afood of man; as also the ^bfruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—

Verses 14-16 make me laugh.
They make me laugh because so many people say "how to you eat" when they find out about my food restrictions. There are so many other grains out there besides wheat. Most of which have not been Genetically modified like wheat so there are not the same problems. Grain should be the staff of life. Fruit of any kind (Vegetable too) are good and should be a main part of our diet.

18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, ^ashall receive ^bhealthin their navel and marrow to their bones;
Verse 18-
Myself and many friends and family by eating a plant based diet recomended by the Word of Wisdom have be cured and relieved of more ailments than I could list.

20 And shall ^arun and not be ^bweary, and shall walk and not faint.
I can testify to verse 20. I have more energy when I eat this way and am my health and my family's health is better than I ever thought it could be.

Elliot's Valentines.

This year we were going to make an idea we saw on Pinterest. It was a heart that says something like "you light up my life" with a glow stick through it. This morning I got on the computer to print these out and checked Face Book first. My friend liz posted a picture of a light saber with a glow stick through that. I loved it. I knew Elliot would love it. I remembered about a picture we took for his star wars party. I pulled it up and thought it would be perfect for his valentine. Did I mention I love Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories for Digital Scrapbooking and anything else. I designed the Valentine and then ordered them from Costco. Cut some slits and put in a glow stick. They turned out pretty cut if I do say so myself. Now the hard part. Elliot writing by hand everyone's names on the envelopes. Wish me luck!
This is what the card looked like before the glow stick.

This is what it looks like with the glow stick.
(the light of the stick made it hard to get a good picture)

Happy Valentines Day!

Elliot's School Scrapbook!

As a scrapbooker there is much thought and deliberation put into starting a new scrapbook. Elliot is in 1st grade now and it is time to get his book going. Digital, Traditional, Hybrid, what should I do. I decided to do hybrid. This will allow the pages to be done Digitally or Traditionally and I can add in his artwork and pages he brings home. Here is the first layout. Our PreSchool FT to Lane Farms. If you look closely you or your children may be on these pages as well. Many more will be added soon.