Stir It Up! » Blog

Hey all, I hope everyone is having a great summer so far! Quick plug: this Wednesday at 7:00 PM in Brookhaven at Dr. Taz’s office I will be discussing the top allergies out there, possible reasons for the crazy increase in food allergies over the past decade, and how it affects us. Would love to see you there! Please call 404-814-9808 or go to ACHIM more information.

So for dinner/side tonight we had a really yummy Mexican Rice made with cauliflower! It was a simple recipe and I am looking forward to having it for leftovers tomorrow. I think it will be even better once the flavors really have a chance to soak in!!

Here is what you need:

• Large head of cauliflower
• 3/4 cup of tomato sauce
• 1/3 cup of chicken stock
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 medium white onion, chopped (I used TJ’s garlic, onion, shallot mixture)
• 2 bell peppers (any colors work but I like the pre-cut mixture Publix has)
• 2 jalapeno peppers (optional)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne powder (might want to do less for the kids)
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp celtic salt
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Start by cutting up or blending up your uncooked cauliflower until it’s a rice-like consistency.  Next, set that aside and pull out a large pan and heat on high. Then add about a tbsp of coconut oil and the chopped onion (or TJ mixture, see below) and your chopped bell peppers. Sautee for about 5-8 minutes until they start to get soft.

Then add in your cauliflower rice, chicken broth, tomato sauce and paste and spices and cook until the cauliflower is soft. It will probably take about 10-15 minutes depending on how finely cut your cauliflower is.   That’s it! So quick and easy!! Enjoy!!

By the way, I wanted to garnish ours with cilantro but the grocery stores were out by late this afternoon so I went with culantro.  Have you ever heard of it or used it? It’s really great! It lasts longer in the fridge and tastes very similar to cilantro but it’s a little stronger. We really liked it and will use it again for sure.

Add some spicy sausage and you’ve got a great meal! We used one of our favorite sausages called Casual Gourmet Sausage (Roasted Red Pepper and Spinach) that we get regularly from Costco.  It’s also great in salads or the cauliflower soup.

Now that it’s warm out, I am really enjoying eating more salads, but I was in need of some new dressing ideas. I bought some avocado oil the other day (on amazon for a decent price compared to the grocery stores) because it’s one of the few good fats that cooks well on higher heat, but honestly I’m really just enjoying using it on my salads. My new favorite homemade salad dressing consists of avocado oil, fresh lemon juice, (touch of honey is optional) and some celtic salt and pepper. How simple is that? It’s very refreshing.

I also found a nice list of some paleo homemade dressings here. If you make any, you’ll have to let me know what you think.

We also tried a different salad mix and dressing yesterday and it was awesome!! The salad mix was from Organic Girl, Viva La France with the Mache that we love.

Even George wanted some of it…

So our new very favorite salad dressing is called Tessemae’s.  We purchased it at Whole Foods but check out the site to see where else it’s sold.  It’s gluten free, sugar free, dairy free and made with only natural ingredients. It is amazing!!!

This was our family’s dinner with the Organic Girl Viva La France, Tessemae’s Balsamic, and some grass fed beef, cherry tomatoes and avocado…

Alice loved this salad dressing and salad combo SO much, she had 3 helpings for dinner last night and then 2 servings again at lunch today!!! Definitely a winner at our house! Tessemae’s has many other flavors that I am really looking forward to trying but we started with their balsamic. Have you guys tried this brand? If so, what was your favorite??

By the way, so we finally decided to clean out the kids’ sandbox so we could plant our garden.  What a perfect area and it was a fun project to do with the kids. After getting out all of the sand, we took an exciting trip to Farmer D’s to get our organic garden supplies. But when they mentioned that we must get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight on our new garden area, and I realized we got maybe 2 since we have an umbrella of trees covering our backyard, I realized, huh, this isn’t going to work. Very disappointing!! Always do your research first, especially if you’re working on something you know NOTHING about. Duh! Well, hopefully we can revisit this idea in the fall when all of the leaves fall off the trees.

Any ideas on what to do now with a big empty sandbox??? Ugh!

Phew! It’s finally summer here in Atlanta. This May was crazier than Christmas time, wasn’t it?? Anyway, after getting through the first of my nutritional events, and Tate’s preschool graduation (this picture was post-graduation – my big boy!)…

and my kid’s crazy sports schedule and my daughter final day at school yesterday, I finally feel somewhat more relaxed and hope y’all do too! Bring on some pool time!

Fortunately for us, summer is filled with swim meets and some beach time.  This time of year, I get  a lot of questions about snacks. We can’t always have good homemade snacks or treats, so there is something to be said about packaged and convenient foods. I just like to be sure we pick some snacks/treats that are the best options for my family, while at the same time, letting them enjoy something different and fun.

Here are some of the beach/pool snacks or treats that my kids enjoy…

1. Nutty Bites from Trader Joe’s – Dark chocolate covered nuts. This yummy treat taste like See’s candy!

2. Kale Krunch from Whole Foods – Our favorite kale chips. Many times you can find these for $1 off. Every little bit helps, especially when it comes to kale chips as they are not cheap!

3. Way Better Snacks from Whole Foods – Our kids love these Doritos imitators, but as the name says they have”way better” ingredients.

4. Beanitos from Whole Foods – My son calls these “Cheese its”. As far as chips go, I am really happy with these ingredients and the fact that they are actually certified “low glycemic”. They have a very simple black bean or pinto bean chip with sea salt, as well as a spicy chip and cheese one.

5. Macaroon’s Omega-3s from Whole Foods. These guys do a horrible job marketing per the label (as you can see) but these are a staple dessert in our house year-round. The few ingredients in these are simple and with pretty low sugar at 4 grams per macaroon.

6. Smooze popsciles from Whole Foods. With 9-12 grams of sugar and coconut milk as one of the few ingredients, this one is a winner too.

These chocolate nutty treats are addictive so be careful!

Some other treats from Whole Foods (or online) include:

• Honest Kids drinks for the beach some times
• Love Crunch Granola (since it has more sugar with 9 grams per serving)
• Envirokidz Organic Crispy Rice Bars (with 6-8 grams of sugar) for a treat
• Wholly Granolly 
• or even just some organic 100% blue corn tortilla chips.

While we do more of the packaged fun treats during the summer, we also make sure that we are also drinking plenty of water and snacking on plenty of fruit, veggies and nuts. It’s all about a balance for me and this time of year, and while my scale may lean a little differently now then during the school year, I’m okay with that. I’d much rather try to balance these snacks versus a red Iccee full of chemicals and sugars!

What are some of your favorite pool time treats?

By the way, speaking of kid’s snacks, for June/July, I am going to host some nutritional events about and for kids at ACHIM. I am really excited about this! As we will have one meeting for parents and the other for kids so they can come and sample some fun healthy foods!! Anyway, we are thinking about having them around 4:00 on a weekday. Does that sound like a good time for everyone? Any other suggestions? Will let you guys know the details once we have a schedule. Stay tuned…

And Happy Memorial Day!!

Hey guys! I am so sorry I’ve been MIA but as you all know, this is SUCH a crazy time of year!! And, in case you want to add to your incredibly busy schedule (thank goodness summer is almost here!) I did want to let y’all know about the next few Wednesday night meetings from 7:00-8:00pm at the Atlanta Center for Holistic and Integrative Medicine.

This Wednesday 22nd – I will be bringing in and discussing the main things I cook with, bake with, season with, as well as substitutions (e.g. arrow root for flour). I will educate on what and why I use what I use so you will be able to fill your pantry and be ready to cook just about any healthy meal (at least most of the ones on this blog 🙂 ).

Next Wednesday 29th – We’ll cover a range of topics.  How to order healthy when eating out.  Some of my favorite resturants. How to deal with pressure at social events. I will also talk about other health issues like being alkaline versus acidic and will also touch on our stress hormones and how they affect us.

Lastly, Wednesday June 5th – This will be a make-up from last Wednesday’s class. I will be going into more depth regarding allergies, intolerances and how it’s affecting our country and our families. It should be very educational!

Please call 404-814-9808 to register. The cost is $50 per event. 

Next month we will focus on kids! I am excited about those and will be sure to give y’all details in case you want to attend.

Okay, on to the food!! By the way, did anyone make those paleo Reece’s cups? Oh my goodness they are amazing, aren’t they?

So for dinner the other night we had Lamb meatballs with Lemon Cumin yogurt and they were really good! Honestly though, I’m still not sure where on land on the lamb side of things. Some people love it and claim it’s their favorite piece of meat, and well, others can’t stand it.  I go back and forth. While I’m really starting to enjoy it more, I do think it might be a bit of an acquired taste. Regardless of whether you like it or not, you could make these meatballs using ground lamb, or beef and I think they would be good either way. I’m not sure if the yogurt would go as well with the beef but it did make these meatballs. They wouldn’t have been the same without it!

It was certainly different from our every day meals but I enjoyed the change thoroughly. I hope you like it too!