Stir It Up! » Blog

I’m still working on my low iron issue (see this post) I think, and after doing more research, I may have figured out some of the problem.  I love my seeds and nuts (nut butters, nut-based paleo treats, etc.) probably a little too much. I know I shouldn’t eat them in large quantities because, well, they are quite calorie dense, yet I can’t seem to help myself. They are just so satisfying! But, I realized I need to pay more attention to the quantity I eat because they contain something called phytic acid. I had heard about phytic acid for years, and that we should soak seeds and nuts to reduce the level of phytic acid, but thought, I just don’t have time to do one extra thing.   I guess I didn’t really understand the effects of phytic acid.

According to Chris Kresser, an renown Integrative Medicine Practitioner, “Phytic acid strongly inhibits mineral absorption in adults – especially iron and zinc”.  AH-HA!….wait…shoooot! That could explain a lot!! Kresser has a great detailed article on here on phytic acid and nuts/seeds.

Fortunately, the phytic acid can be reduced or nullified by soaking your nuts or seeds. Click here to read what Mark Sisson, author of Primal Blueprint and his fabulous Mark’s Daily Apply blog, had to say on the subject.

Okay, so after learning about phytic acid, I had to try soaking some nuts/seeds and it turns out, it’s ridiculously easy to do!

Grab a bag of some raw nuts/seeds, a medium bowl and some salt and let’s get started…

Begin by dissolving some salt in warm water in a medium size bowl. Then, pour your raw nuts or seeds in the bowl (I’ll use the whole bag) with enough water to cover. Then set them aside for least 6 hours. I will typically start the process at night or earlier in the day and then let them sit overnight and begin roasting them the next morning.

When you are ready to roast them, pour them in a colander and rinse well. Then, I’ll add my seasonings/salt to the seeds or nuts in the colander . I’ve been using this recipe lately because pepitas are high in iron. I will use a little less maple syrup though since I still seem to be snacking on these seeds a good bit. I can rationalize anything! My thought process: I need my iron, and maybe a little more, and well, heck, maybe just a little more. They are  addictive…

Next, add your salt (or any other spices) and spread out seeds on cookie sheet that is covered with parchment paper.

Place in a warm oven (no warmer than 170 degrees) for 4-5 hours, turning occasionally, until thoroughly dry and crisp. Really make sure they are all the way dry! If not, they could mold and won’t have that crispy wonderful texture. 

I think soaking and roasting nuts/seeds actually enhances the flavor. So aside from it being better for us, it also makes them taste even better!

Oh and while my stove is on that long anyway, I figured I might as well throw something else in to cook slowly, so of course I cooked our family favorite kale chips.  I just did my regular with kale, about 2 or so tbsp EVOO or coconut oil, some salt, ground cashews (soaked of course!), and plenty of nutritional yeast.

The kids said these were “your best kale chips mom!!”. They are so yummy, crispy and yet still thick (sometimes cooking them on high will thin the chip out a little) AND they have even more nutrients because they were cooked on low.  Ideally, dehydrating seeds, nuts, and veggies would be great, but, when you don’t have one (hint, hint to my lovely husband!), an oven on low will have do!

Besides the squash chips, this is her favorite snacks! It’s mine too!!

Hope y’all are having a great weekend!

When I go grocery shopping, I don’t always have a plan on what I’m going to cook, so sometimes I’ll just buy some beef and/or chicken, some veggies and I’ll figure out the rest later. Unfortunately that poor lack of planning can cause me some more unnecessary trips to the grocery store, or calls to my sweet neighbors to see if I can borrow something. Maybe I’ll get more organized in the new year!

Anyway, I asked a group of friends what to do with my chicken legs and one who always has great ideas said this was one of her family’s favorites so we had to try it.  I have to say the kids liked it so much, Alice ate it for breakfast all week.  This is definitely a new staple for us too.

Here is what you need to make what we call Midori’s Chicken:

• 4 whole chicken leg quarter
• 2 tbsp ghee or butter
• 5 cloves garlic, minced (I used TJ’s pre-peeled)
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger root, minced
• 1/4 cup Raw Coconut Aminos or Tamari gluten free soy (both at Whole Foods and the soy is also at Publix)
• 1/4 tsp Fish Sauce (optional)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp celtic salt

Here is what you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to bake at 425.
2. In a small sauce pan, melt butter on low heat.
3. Turn heat to medium and add the ginger, garlic, fish sauce, and coconut aminos to the butter.
4. Allow mixture to come to a bubble, and allow to bubble while stirring for a minute or two, then remove from heat.
5. Place chicken legs in an oven save baking dish.
6. Pour sauce over each chicken leg.
7. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
8. Bake chicken at 425 for 45 minutes.
9. Allow chicken to cool and then enjoy!

This went really well with sesame asparagus and some cauliflower stir fry.

Hope y’all are having a great week and enjoying this beautiful weather.  Life is good.

My husband’s birthday was the other weekend and after making him waffles for breakfast on Sat, his favorite muffins (cinnamon bun muffins) on Sunday, chocolate chip cookies for a dessert, (it was a paleo treat weekend galore!), and a great dinner on Sat, I thought we’d go with a lighter, and quicker treat (thanks for the ideal from primallyinspired.com) for his actual birthday dinner and he loved it! He tried to not share with Tate, but that just wasn’t possible.  I would have posted a picture of him eating this, but he absolutely refused to be in a picture with him eating a chocolate covered banana. Fair enough.

Here is what you need:

• 2 bananas 
• 1/3 cup almond (or sunflower butter)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (I used 70% cacao fromWFs)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

 1. In a small bowl, mix together your almond butter, vanilla, and cinnamon together. Then, peel and cut bananas in half. Be sure to slice them vertically.

2. Spread the almond butter mixture over half of the two banana slices, press your chop stick, popsicle stick or kabob skewer. Put the other half of the banana back on top and then put them in the freezer until firm.

3. When your banana pops are all the way frozen, melt your dark chocolate and coconut oil over low heat.  Stir until melted and smooth.

4. Lastly. dip each banana pop (or just get messy with it and smear it with your hands) in the dark chocolate and place on parchment paper. Place back in the freezer for a few minutes until chocolate is hardened and cold.  Enjoy!

He’s so amazingly messy…and goofy!

With the holidays behind us and the new year here, it seems many people are making resolutions of trying to get healthier and/or loose weight.  I am by no means a weight loss expert, but I’ve come across some interesting tidbits on weight loss that I thought I’d share.

I’m not going to dive some of the cliches that you probably already know (i.e. eat healthy fats, avoid gluten and sugar, eat a good protein breakfast, etc.) because well, that would just be boring.  But, here are just a few interesting things I came across this past year that I can remember off the top of my head…

-Start your day with a huge glass of water (add some lemon to it if you can) and drink it first thing to wake you up, get your body awake, flowing (if you know what I mean), and ready for digesting that first meal of the day. You don’t want to drink a lot of water during meals so try to do it before or 30 minutes after.  I drink a full glass of water with this cup every single morning before I do anything else…

-Eat more grass fed meat! It has five times the CLA (congulated lipic acid) of grain fed beef, which aids in fat burning, especially in the gut area. Woohoo to that one!

-When you’re working out, do some intervals to speed up fat burning. Run 30 seconds run as fast as you can, then take 90 seconds off. Repeat many times for about 30 minutes. It goes by faster than you’d think!

-Add some coconut oil to your diet to rev up your metabolism, if you’re not already using it.

-Leave out any possible foods that can cause allergies (i.e. gluten, corn, dairy, egg, soy) you may have. Allergies = inflammation = no weight loss (not to mention a whole host of health health issues you might already have and not realize it’s from food like headaches, bloating, acne, joint aches, etc).  Leave them out for 3 weeks and see how you feel. When (if) you re-introduce them into your diet, you’ll know pretty quickly if you’re body isn’t happy with what you’re eating.

-Eat 3 good solid meals a day. If you’re getting hungry in between (excluding PMS sometimes of course), especially between breakfast and lunch, you’re not eating enough protein or fat. No need to snack like we use to think.

-And last thought of the day — don’t eat anything after dinner (and don’t eat too late). I think we already knew this one but maybe not the reasoning behind it. Apparently your body starts to burn fat after after a certain number of hours of not eating, including from dinner to breakfast time.  So allowing your body to go without food from say 7pm-7am (which is why the word breakfast is derived from “breaking the fast”) counts  as fasting, and if you interrupt it with food, you’re interfering with that fat burning process.  That is a process I do NOT want to interrupt! So go drink some warm water with fresh squeezed lemon if you feel like you need something. You’d be surprise how much that can help!

So to kick off any weight loss goals, let’s eat some grass fed beef!  We eat burgers almost once a week because well, they’re easy to make, healthy, and everyone loves them.  But after awhile, we need to mix things up a little so I added some fun flavors to our burger the other night to make teriyaki burgers without the added sugars, MSGs and other things processed teriyaki sauces contain. I hope you like them!

Here is what you need:

• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 2 tbsp Tamari
• 1 tbsp sesame
• 1 1/2 tsp seeds
• 1/2 tsp onion
• 1/4 tsp Ginger
• few drops of stevia
• some pineapple for garnish

Mix everything together by hand in a medium bowl, shape into patties and cook on your grill (I used our cast iron skillet) until desired wellness and enjoy!

By the way, do you know how dark it is for a natural light photographer to take pictures when it’s almost completely dark outside?? I could hardly get the camera to focus on the burger. I know the image isn’t great but it was all I could get at the slowest shudder speed and lowest  aperture possible.

While it might not look super appealing, it really was delicious! And, I especially enjoyed it knowing I was burning belly fat!!