Sunday, June 28, 2009

Update on the pregnancy...

I posted a few weeks back about how diet mattered- even the small stuff like sprouted grains vs. whole grains that are not sprouted. I am now 27 weeks pregnant. I am STILL WALKING. I am not waddling. In fact I just passed my karate exam for my 2nd level brown belt. That was hard work! Yes, I have slowed down and I am getting more tired more easily and I am a lot slower, but I can still walk, carry my 30 pound almost 3 yr old up the stairs, and function. I just have a belly that is getting a bit in my way these days. Diet does matter.


I am so grateful for the knowledge I gained at the School of Natural Healing. My midwives and chiropractors and anyone else I talked to had no idea how to help me, but the knowledge I learned there taught me so much. I am headed to the Centennial Celebration in August. Who wants to join me!? Also, I don't know how much longer the School of Natural Healing will be offering their Family Herbalist course for $100 but now is the time to sign up because it won't be much longer.

Vegan Ice Cream

Most vegan ice creams contain soy or other ingredients that might not be so great... anyway, I have used the book Vice Cream before for making vegan ice cream at home. However, most of the recipes call for cashews and cashews can be expensive. I calculated the cost of the soy ice cream at the store vs. my homemade and it was more expensive to make homemade because of the cashews...

Then I found this blog. I don't use soy milk or soy creamer, but I did modify her cherry ice cream recipe and it was quite delicious...


I started by making my own almond milk. The first time I made ice cream, I used my regular almond milk recipe which is 1 LARGE handful almonds to 4-5 cups of water in the blender and strain. The ice cream was good. The second time I made it, I used half the water to have a higher fat to water content. Much better. I did use rapidura instead of sugar. Ordinarily I use honey in my ice creams, but this time, since I wasn't starting with a nut base, I was worried about too much liquid. I will fiddle and see what I come up with using honey. For now, this is what I did- not entirely healthy due to the sugar- but FAR FAR FAR better than store bought or dairy ice cream and quite tasty too!

2 c. pitted cherries
½ c. sugar (my cherries were super sweet organic cherries that I froze last year but fresh would work too)
2 c. almond milk
2 T. arrowroot powder
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 c cacoa nibs
1/2- 3/4 c pitted cherries chopped and frozen

Reserve 1/4 c almond milk and add arrowroot to it to make a slurry. Pour remaining milk and sugar into a sauce pan with cherries. Heat until sugar begins to melt. Blend and return to pot. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the arrowroot slurry. Stir until thickened a little. Then add the vanilla. Let cool completely (ideally cool until at least refrigerator temperature so it spends less time in the ice cream maker). Pour in ice cream maker according to the ice cream maker directions. Stir in cacoa nibs and cherry chunks. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Yummy Zucchini Carrot Bread

I modified a vegan Zucchini bread recipe which I found on another blog here.

Zucchini Bread


6 tbsp ground flax seeds whisked into ½ c + 1 tbsp warm water
½ c oil
3/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups rapadura
1 tsp vanilla
2½ packed cups mixed grated zucchini and carrots and yellow squash in whatever combo you have
3 c sprouted whole wheat flour (see early blog entry about how to make this)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 T pumpkin pie spice from Penzey's


Grease 2 loaf pans and preheat the oven to 350. Mix together wet ingredients, including the zucchini and carrot mixture in one bowl. Mix together dry ingredients in another bowl. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet just until moistened. (I ended up using my hands to mix this because my bowl was kind of small and it was not mixing well)

Divide into 2 loaf pans. Bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I found that I needed to put a tinfoil tent over one of the loaves for the last few minutes to prevent burning.



This was a little too sweet when warm. Next time I will use less sweetener.