Lamb & Millet day!

In keeping with making this a manageable task for me, I just going to write down what we're eating when it seems interesting, posting actual recipes as appropriate.

Menu for Thursday 3/5

Breakfast: Blackberry millet scones

Lunch: Potatoes, turnips, parsnips, leeks, beet greens & mushrooms, stewed in lamb stock = instant stew.

Dinner: Braised "BBQ" lamb ribs, kale & leeks, millet & flax flatbread.

Millet Scones

1 1/4 C millet flour
1/4 C potato flour
1/2 C tapioca starch
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C succanat or brown sugar
1/4 C shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg equivalent (we used Ener-G egg replacer)
3/4 C water (or milk)
1/2 cup blackberries

Preheat Oven to 400*F.

Cream shortening & sugar. Add vanilla. Add egg equiv.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients into shortening mixture.

Add water. Gently mix in berries.

Knead and press into an 8in round flat shape on a greased baking pan.

Cut into 8 pieces, but don't separate.

Bake 20 or 25 minutes.

Millet & Flax Flatbread

1 C millet, fresh ground
2 T flaxseed, fresh ground
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
water

Mix dry ingredients. Pour in water until you get a thick gruel. Cook stovetop in small batches like little pancakes.

An update on us and a website re-imagining

Our stint on FAILSAFE proved two things to us:

1. Lily's eczema can clear with dietary modification, thus our issues ARE food related (or at the very least, food-adjacent);

2. Our issues are not necessarily IgX allergies or intolerances (even though we do know Lily for certain has an IgE allergy to dairy).

After some research and investigation, collaboratively with some awesome ladies online, we're exploring the concept of inefficient detoxification of naturally occurring food and environmental chemicals, in conjunction with exposure to toxins (IN OUR CASE, use of antibiotics in birth and early post-partum, and the front-loading of childhood vaccinations - 13 injections by 6m, yikes!)

My new approach is to no longer try to keep her skin pristine by avoidance. I know that her body is having a hard time processing things and I wish to support her body in its natural process. We've realized that we've need to move forward and support the body's functioning, not avoid it's malfunctioning.

Therefore, we went to a four-day rotational diet. We started reintroducing foods one at a time into the rotation, watching for build-up reactions. Corn and peanut butter seemed okay, but seemed to build up. We aren't strictly avoiding them anymore, but aren't purposefully eating them as staples in the rotation.

Finally, on to the re-imagining of this website. I think I'm just going to post what we're eating everyday (recipes as appropriate - mostly sauces and baked goods), and maybe a commentary on possibly "reactions" and what that might mean for our various detox pathways and vitamin & mineral needs at the moment.

As always, feedback is welcome.

Pumpkin Pie

This pie is so good, even my non-allergic extended family enjoyed it.

CRUST
1 1/4 c GF flour(s) - I used 1/2 sorghum; 1/2 rice*
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 T sugar (optional)
1/2 c shortening - I used palm oil from spectrum
1/4 c ice water

1. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Refrigerate the flour(s) & shortening. I did it overnight so I could make the crust first thing in the morning, but I'm sure a few hours would suffice.

2. In a food processor or similar, Mix the flour(s), salt & sugar. Add the shortening broken into small chunks. Mix until crumbly. Pour in water as the mixer is running. The dough will thicken and might ball up.

3. I just used my hands and pressed the dough into two pie pans. Next time (this afternoon, in fact) I will try rolling the dough out between two pieces of wax paper.

4. Prick the crust all over and set aside.

FILLING
2 c fresh pumpkin puree (I actually used butternut squash from my garden)
1/2 c boiled tapioca pearls or pureed, boiled tapioca root **
1/2 cup brown sugar***
3 T gelatin (4 packets of knox gelatin) + 9 T boiling water (~1/2 cup water)****
1/2 tsp sea salt
dash of pumpkin pie spice: cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice

1. Roast or boil pumpkin/squash. puree in food processor or blender.

2. Prepare tapioca pearls or yuca root.

3. In a food processor, blend squash & tapioca. While running, add gelatin mixture.

4. Add sugar, salt & spices.

5. Pour into pie shells.

6. Bake at 350 for 90+ minutes. Set your timer to an hour and then check in 15 minute intervals. I knew it was ready when the outside edge of the filling was browning and the middle felt set to the touch.

ENJOY!


* i imagine millet and potato flours would work well here too. or just all sorghum
** also known as cassava or yuca. I got mine at Tom's. I get my small pearl tapioca at Oryana. I think if you used the small pearl tapioca, you'd want to make it a 1:1 ratio, like 1/4 cup tapioca to a 1/4 cup water, instead of the directions for "pudding" on the box. i used this in place of cream.
*** i was out, so i used 1/2 c white sugar + 1 T molasses; i bet honey or maple syrup would taste great here, too
**** pour boiling water over the powdered gelatin, stirring until dissolved. throw into the freezer for 5 or so minutes, to cool. mix until frothy after you take it out. i used this in place of eggs.

FAILSAFE resources

Here is another page that outlines the salicylate and amine content in various foods. I was surprised to find that fruit & veggie staples of our diet (plus some we're avoiding due to a potential reaction) were all high to very high in both amines and salicylates. Hmmm. 

Yesterday (day three), we had some potato chips fried in canola oil - ostensibly FAILSAFE. However, within a few hours (two and a half, to be exact) Lily threw a MONSTER fit. She was just raging and raging at me, sobbing, rolling around on the floor and itching every square inch of her body. It lasted around 20-30 minutes and then she settled down, asked to nurse and then we read a ton of books. It was surreal. I realized after I'd already given us a big bowl of the chips that they had the peel on them. Potato peels are moderate in salicylates. After being fully free of salicylates for almost 72 hrs, she had a clear reaction to those chips (which she'd had before with seemingly no obvious correlated reaction).

We will see how things progress. I am hopeful that we are just sensitive to salicylates and not amines as well. I want chocolate and bananas!!

Buckwheat Pancakes - FAILSAFE

My kids are eating food! A lot of it and they're not complaining. Lily is going to sleep like a dream. There is less itching and her rash is going away. She is not whining and yelling constantly. She woke up happy and took herself to the bathroom this morning. I need to send a personal thank you note to those researchers in Australia if this keeps up. 

I think we are seeing results so quickly (only day 3 here) because we have been preservative and dye/coloring free for nearly a year. We've also been dairy free for 17m and wheat and soy free for nearly a year. I think the fact that our bodies don't have to detox all of that junk helps. So really, we just need to get the salicylates, amines and glutamates out. If we're not too terribly sensitive, that could take not very long at all, given the lack of other confounding factors. I've heard days 4 & 5 are the worst because that's the last of the detox reaction, so we'll see how I'm feeling in the coming days. 

Yesterday for breakfast we had fluffy buckwheat pancakes with pear puree. 

• 2 cups buckwheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp arrowroot starch/flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil - safflower or organic canola
• 1 cup or so water or rice milk

Mix dry ingredients. Gentrly stir in oil & water. Add as much water as you need to get a thin batter consistency. Pour batter a bit at a time onto a LIGHTLY oiled (non-stick) skillet. Cook as you would a regular pancake. 

Pear puree: peel and core two soft, ripe pears. Cube and put in a sauce pan, cover with water. Boil until most water is absorbed. Blend in food processor. 

Spoon pear puree over pancakes. Or on top of pancakes like jam on toast. So good!

Chicken Noodle Stew & rutabaga fries - FAILSAFE

While FAILSAFE is proving to be boring, my experience with alternative and limited cooking is serving us well. 

Chicken Noodle Stew

• 1 lb chicken, boneless (save bones for broth)
  
• 2 stalks celery
  
• 3-5 green onions
  
• several tablespoons parsley
• 2 cups chopped brussel sprouts
• 1 pint chicken bone broth (homemade)
• 2 tsps arrowroot powder
• 1lb bag rice noodles (we like fusili or penne)
• sea salt
• 1-2T organic canola or safflower oil (or rendered chicken fat)

While boiling water for noodles, saute parsley, green onions & celery in oil. Add chopped up brussel sprout and chicken stock and sea salt. When soft and bright green, spoon into food processor. Fry chicken with a little bit of chicken stock. When cooked, place on cutting board to rest. Heat remaining chicken stock and whisk the arrowroot into it. Cook on low, stiring, until it starts to thicken. Pour into food processor with veggies and blend. When noodles have been cooked and rinsed, pour over noodles. You can pour the veggies over the noodles in a casserole dish and bake for 10-20 minutes for that gooey casserole feeling. 

Rutabaga Fries

• sea salt
• rutabaga
• canola or safflower oil

Preheat oven to 400*F. Peel rutabaga and cut into shoe-string sized fries. Coat two cookie sheets with oil. Spread fries evenly over pan in a single layer. Bake at 400*F for 15-20 minutes. Flip and cook at a lower temperature (325/350) for another 5-10 minutes until soft. These weren't crispy like I wanted - I think I used too much oil. Food for thought. The kids loved them, however.

Chicken, potato & brussel sprouts - for breakfast

We find that breakfast is one of the hardest meals of the day for us. Lily would prefer to just eat grains all morning long and Aevryn would prefer to chew things up and spit them out. I would prefer to not feel starving 45 minutes after I eat.

Dave suggested that we should start eating more protein with breakfast. This snowballed into my idea of lunch for breakfast. So this morning, I made up a pretty tasty hash.

• 1/2 pound chicken thighs
• whole shallot
• two stalks of celery
• couple tablespoons of chopped, fresh parsley
  
• 2 medium potatoes, thickly peeleda
• two-handed scoop full of brussel sprouts (I literally scooped up brussel sprouts out of a bowl, bringing my two hands together like a bowl)
• drizzle of organic canola oil (I'd prefer safflower, but canola was all the store I was at had)
• sea salt

I warmed the oil in a skillet and added the shallots, parsley and celery, letting them saute for a few minutes. Then I added the chicken thighs whole and let them brown on each side a few minutes. While they were browning, I cut up the potatoes into small cubes. I took the chicken out and let it rest on the cutting board while I fried the potatoes and chopped the brussel sprouts. After the potatoes had been frying for a few minutes, I added the chicken, chopped into small pieces, mixing them with the potatoes. I added the brussel sprouts on top and put the lid on for a few minutes to steam them. I opened the lid, stirred in some sea salt and simmered on low with the lid back on for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Aevryn and I loved it. Lily has been throwing random tantrums all day and has told me both that she likes and and that it tastes awful. She is holding out for grains.

FAILSAFE

After much research and reflection, we have decided to embark on the FAILSAFE diet that is seeing great results in families in Australia. It was created by researchers at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia.

The basic gist is that modern food is chock full of colors, dyes, and artificial preservatives. In minute amounts, our bodies are probably okay with processing them, but in the deluge of "modern" and "convenient" foods, we are getting way too much. On top of these artificial chemicals, food naturally has various chemicals - salicylates and amines in particular. Salicylates are compounds similar to what's found in aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). Individuals can react to high levels of salicylates in their food just as they might to asprin. Additionally, there are chemicals known collectively as amines - for example histamine. There are foods that are naturally higher in histamines than others, than can mimic allergic response.

So, we are going to set out to detox from these food chemicals. It's a 2-4 week initial program, that assuming positive progress, you can start to add in other foods and isolate whether you are sensitive to salicylates, amines or both, and to what degree (i.e. what is your threshhold). People report their chronic headaches, rashes, sleep and concentration problems are greatly reduced or disappear all together once they are no longer ingesting high levels of these food chemicals.

Here is a good site explaining how to do the elimination diet.

Wish us luck.

Chicken Pot Pie*

Best. Ever. So, so, so good. 

*Ammendment: I have been informed that Chicken Pot Pie has a crust. What I have outlined here is in fact "Shepherd's Pie." Regardless: insanely good. I have eaten it for three meals in a row now. 

Ingredients: 

• 1lb organic, free-range chicken thighs
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 3 medium carrots
• 1 medium turnip
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1 head broccoli florets
• salt & pepper
• 1 pint chicken bone broth

1. Saute salted & peppered chicken thighs, remove from pan
2. Saute onions & mushrooms in the same pan as chicken, return chicken thighs and add some stock to cover, simmer with lid on
3. Boil peeled and cubed carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes and broccoli florets
4. Strain veggies and reserve water
5. Peel and cube potatoes, boil in reserved veggie water (add stock to cover potatoes). 
6. Puree potatoes and their water in a food processor (add salt as it's running)
7. Layer ingredients in a large casserole pan (I used a 9x13 pan) as follows: chicken cut into bite-sized pieces; onions, mushrooms & stock; broccoli, carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes; pureed potatoes
8. Bake at 350*F for 20-30 minutes (until bubbling around edges)

Squash Brownies

No really, they're fabulous.

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup palm oil shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup, etc)
1/2 cup pureed squash/pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 tsp sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Melt shortening
3. Stir in cocoa until well mixed
4. Stir in sugar/sweetener
5. Stir in squash & vanilla
6. In a separate dish, mix rice flour, tapioca starch and sea salt
7. Add flour mixture to cocoa mixture, stirring just until all dry ingredients are wet
8. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 glass pan
9. Bake for 30 or so minutes at 350*F (you will know it's done when a knife or toothpick poked into the center comes out clean)
10. Enjoy

Tuna Noodle Casserole - An American "Classic" hypo-allergenicized

(If you can't do fish, sub in your favorite cooked and shredded meat...)

1lb rice noodles - we like the brown rice fusilli
2 cans (6oz each) of safe tuna (JUST water packed)
1 1/2 cups diced mushrooms
6 Tbsp rice flour
6 Tbsp palm oil shortening (or other safe oil)
1/2 tsp sea salt
pinch pepper
2 1/2 cups rice milk, water or fish stock (or other stock to match your meat choice)
a couple handfuls of safe rice crisp cereal - we like erewhon
a few handfuls of nutritional yeast, if you can have it.

1. Start water boiling for noodles.
2. In a med saucepan, melt oil, add flour, salt & pepper, stirring. simmer until bubbling.
3. add mushrooms & water/stock. simmer until it has thickened to your desired thickness.
4. prepare noodles according to directions, drain & rinse.
5. preheat oven for 350*F
6. put noodles in two large casserole dishes.
7. mix one can of tuna into each dish.
8. mix in half of flour mixture over each dish.
9. sprinkle top with crushed cereal & nutritional yeast. salt to taste.
10. bake in oven for roughly 20 minutes - until the sauce is bubbly and the top is crispy.

(If you can do potatoes, crumbled up chips instead of nutritional yeast/rice cereal is more "authentic".)

Still Here!

Sorry for the down time. Life has been super intense with Lily's reactions.

In brief, we started seeing a shiatsu Chinese Medicine Practitioner a week ago. He showed us some accupressure for Lily. He also gave her some herbs to help with detox and healing and to lessen inflammation. In reviewing our history, he really focused on the months surrounding when Lily's major eczema first appeared. In talking with him, it became apparent that the croup, the random vomiting, the mystery fever and the lingering eczema/rashes are signs that her body was trying to fight something off and didn't win. He says that childhood rashes can be mysterious but he is confident we will figure it out together. I am willing to embark on this journey with him. He comes very highly recommended by several people I know.

When you see it in print like that, it sounds so stupidly obvious. But the eczema came and then a few weeks later the croup. And then that healed and then a few weeks later she got a high fever. And just thrown in there intermittently she had a few sporadic days of vomiting. So, we were just in survival mode, getting through each malady as it occurred. Also Dave was in his last semester at school and I was 5 or 6 months pregnant with Aevryn at the time, so there was a lot going on. If everything had come on, all at once, presenting together, I think we would have thought things were very seriously wrong and perhaps we would have responded more critically. I don't know. We're here now, though, and that's what matters.

We have a referral to an allergist on Oct 8. It will be very interesting to see what he has to say. Our holistic pediatrician recommends him and says he's very open-minded. Hey, I will always talk to a new person about Lily. Everyone's perspective is welcome.

And finally, we are on the schedule for a new patient appointment for the dermatologist for -- get this -- February 17. Yikes. Our nurse practitioner says she will send our file with a note and hopefully the doctor will review it and bump us up to an earlier slot.

This is all on top of Lily having her third occurrence of a strangely cyclical full body rash. At first, we thought it was swimmer's itch or maybe hand-foot-mouth, especially since she had a low fever for a day or two. The second time we were concerned, so went to the doctor's, only to be told she was just as stumped as we were. This third time seemed to be triggered by a trip downstate to my aunt's house (she also had a hive-y allergic reaction to my aunt's tiny dog). Unlike the previous two cycles, this one is not getting better on its own. We treated her, Friday, with a topical insecticide in case it was mites. That seemed to help, but as of yesterday evening (Tuesday) little bumps were back (on top of the full body scabs since she'd rubbed herself raw itching).

I am consumed with this. I don't even know what to do anymore. We're back to giving her one nightly dose of benadryl when the itch gets to be too much, just so she can get some sleep. This is not where I want to be.

Coconut Ice Cream

Here is a link to a fabulous ice cream recipe. We made it just by putting it in a bowl in the freezer and stirring intermittently. We just got an ice cream maker (brand new from a thrift store for $5!!) so we will try that tomorrow. After 10 months of no ice cream of any kind, it was heavenly. Even Dave, who has had ice cream in recent times, said it was really good. Time to experiment. I will report back.

New Breakfast Cereal

Aevryn won't eat breakfast. Well, Aevryn won't eat most food. But breakfast is particularly bad. Her willingness to actually ingest food increases as the day wears on. She likes to have access to everything, and she will put anything in her mouth (including dirt, rocks, leaves, bugs, etc). The problem is, she will not swallow most things. Right now her list of "acceptable" food stuffs includes: rice; avocados; rice pasta; brown rice chips; potato chips; raspberries; blackberries; blueberries, only if they are frozen; tapioca pudding; pate on rice cracker. Everything else gets spit out, all chewed and mangled.

However, the last time we were at the health food store, we picked up a box of Perky O's. They are made by our friends at Enjoy Life Natural Brands. This morning she actually ate an entire handfull and asked for seconds. Yay!

Homemade chips.

Since the eggplant chips were such a success, we tried the recipe again with sweet potatoes. Very good. Very, very good. Ever since we got our mandolin slicer our batches of homemade chips and fries have turned out so much better - way more consistent.

We've also (in the past) made chips out of eggplants, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, regular potatoes, squash, and zucchini. The only ones that didn't turn out well were turnips. Thinking about root veggies, the law of completion says I need to try parsnip chips when they come available. Oooh, and beet chips, those would be great (and are currently in season, locally).

We've tried deep frying in oil (in our cast iron skillet) and roasting in a 400*F oven. By far, the best results have been obtained from the oven. I just can't control the frying in the same way. With the oven, I find rubbing oil and salting each side prior to baking and then flipping over each piece after five or so minutes is the best (and easiest) approach for our crazy house hold.

I've considered getting a deep fryer for making chips, fries and chicken tenders, fried zucchini, etc. Now that I've written it out, I don't know why I haven't yet. Heh. But, in reality, we really don't eat fried foods all that often enough to warrant an entire machine devoted to their production. Although, if we had the deep fryer we'd eat fried foods more often, I'm sure. Yet another good reason not to get one, I suppose.

Eggplant chips

Since Dave's parents are out of state for the week, we got their CSA box. It was full of lots of yummy veggies. We've eaten the tomatoes and the zucchini (see the Turkey Tacos from a few nights ago). I'm going to make arugula pesto (recipe to be posted upon its completion in a few days). We've had salads. We, sadly, had to give away the beans (we're off all legumes for the time being). Yesterday we had eggplant chips made from the outline of the recipe provided by the farm. Here is my implementation of that recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• eggplants
• olive oil
• sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. thinly slice eggplants.
2. arrange in a single layer on ungreased cookie trays.
3. rub tops of slices with olive oil. sprinkle with salt.
   
4. turn over and rub other side with olive oil. sprinkle with salt.
   
5. place both trays into a preheated 300*F oven.
6. bake for five minutes on one side.
   
7. turn them over.
   
8. bake for another 5-10 minutes on the other side.

You will know they are done when they are browned and crisp and wrinkly, edges up off the tray.

Yield: we only had two small eggplants from the farm, so it only produced two cookie trays full of eggplant slices. it was a nice little snack for the girls and I. Next time, I will make it with way more eggplant for a larger yield.

ALTERNATIVES:

• experiment with different oils.
• experiment with different spice blends.
  

5 minute quinoa veggie soup

Everytime I roast a chicken or cook any chicken cuts with bones, I make homemade bone broth. I have 2 quart- and 6 pint-sized jars of stock in my freezer currently. And a chicken carcass in the fridge waiting to be turned into broth (should yield roughly 3 quarts, total). I put bone broth in everything I can, since it is such an easily assimilated source of calcium, gelatin and protein. It's great for healing a damaged gut, as well. Therefore, at any given moment, I have soup ingredients on hand. The other day, the kids were hungry and ready to mutiny. I felt like I had "nothing" in the house for lunch (translation: no left overs, or anything easy or ready-made). I pulled a jar of bone broth, grabbed some veggies & quinoa flakes and we had a lunch in 5 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pint of bone broth
• veggies - we had broccoli & cauliflower
• sea salt
• coconut oil
• 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
• juice of 1/2 lime
• fresh cilantro
• fresh minced ginger, about 1 tsp
• thinly sliced onion stalks
  
• coconut milk, a few tsps in each bowl

DIRECTIONS:

1. in a saute pan, saute ginger & veggies in coconut oil with sea salt.
2. add bone broth, bring to boil.
3. add cilantro leaves and steams.
4. add quinoa flakes, turn down heat and simmer for several minutes - quinoa will thicken.
5. add sliced onion stalks.
   
6. remove from heat and allow to cool.
7. pour in a little bit of coconut milk into each bowl and stir.
   

Yield: lunch for two hungry kiddos and their mama. obviously, very easy to double, triple, etc.

ALTERNATIVES:

• try onions or other aromatics in addition to or in place of ginger.
• add chicken meat.
  
• use pre-cooked grains (buckwheat, quinoa, millet, rice, etc) instaed of quinoa flakes.
• use pre-cooked rice noodles instead of quinoa flakes.
  
• try various veggie combinations.
• spice it up with cayenne pepper or minced hot peppers.
  

Tortillas & turkey taco filling

In the past, I've made buckwheat tortillas with moderate success. I've both fried them and baked them. I think the baking turned out the best, I think, but I was totally winging it. I had just mixed buckwheat flour, oil and water together and went for it. That's the basic recipe, I do believe for genuine tortillas. I did find this link for authentic corn tortillas and I'm going to follow it with buckwheat flour (or possibly a half and half of buckwheat and sorghum).

I will try them this afternoon and then post an update this evening or tomorrow. Wish me luck.

UPDATE: I used Bob's Red Mill buckwheat flour - it's dark and very finely ground. It is not my favorite buckwheat flour, but it was what we have available to us, since we are trying to avoid bulk-bins (i.e. gluten contamination). I've heard there is a pre-packaged "light" buckwheat flour, so I will have to look into it. My point is, when I started making the dough based on the corn recipe, the dough was way too sticky. I added probably another cup of flour and it was still too sticky. So, I added some tapioca flour. That helped at first, but then it made it sticky in a different way. Good for holding the tortillas together; bad for allowing them to transfer from wax paper to frying pan easily. Adding even more buckwheat flour as I was flatening then (with my hands and fingers, not a roller) seemed to help. I fried them on high heat in palm oil shortening. The dash of baking soda I added to the flour helped them bubble and rise.

They were chewy and fabulous. But also very time consuming. I think it took me an hour to make a dozen. [Dave had 4; I had 4; Aevryn had 1; Lily had 3. That alone tells you how good they were.] I knew it was going to take awhile, so I had pre-chopped my veggies so I was able to just let the filling simmer while I did the tortillas. I'm not sure how these would be if I made them ahead of time, put them in the fridge or freezer and then warmed them for dinner. I wonder if I'd lose a lot of the flexibility these had.

For the sake of completeness, here is what we had for dinner last night, to go with our tortillas.

Turkey Taco Filling:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 green pepper
• 4-5 tomatoes
• 1 lg zucchini
• bone broth
• fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime
• sea salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander, allspice, clove
  

1. Brown turkey.
2. Add 1 cup bone broth & spices. Let simmer for a few minutes.
3. Add finely chopped veggies. Simmer some more until veggies are soft.
   

Yield: enough filling for 12 small tortillas, plus lettuce cups. roughly 6-8 servings.

Taco Toppings:

• avocado
• green salsa
• lettuce
• black olives

We're back!

Okay, so we didn't *go* anywhere. Whatever. I needed some time to devote to kids, family, the house, etc. I will hopefully get back to once-a-day recipes starting with my next post. Also, consider this an invitation to comment on recipes or to share what has worked for your family. My email address is on the sidebar to the right and I'd love to hear from you. Reader submissions are always welcome.

Vacation

I need a break for a few days. I'm working on some new recipes and will post again next week. Meanwhile, check out my 2 dozen or so recipes already on the site.