12 Step Program Blog

Does anyone make their own pasta?  I am looking for a good whole what pasta recipe.  I recently talked the husband into getting me the pasta roller attachment for my kitchen aid mixer and so I would like to experiment with any pasta recipes you might have.

I am concerned, this morning, I made coffe, made the smoothies, cleaned up the kitchen, swept the kitchen floor, cleaned the dining table, emptied the dishwasher, wiped all the counters, and dusted the living room. And I WANTED to do it.

Now I have always believed (as I think it was Phyllis Diller who said) Housework won’t kill you but why take the chance?  LOL   Seriously, I not only have the energy to do what needs to be done, but the desire to do it.I always thought I didn’t want to do it because I hated doing any of it, and now I realize I didn’t feel good enough to do it, and now I feel good enough to do more and more of what needs to be done and to do what I want to do.  This is a miracle.  Truly a miracle.   At a demo at Costco of the Blentec Blender a person took me aside as I was getting ready to lleave and whispered to me about the GSGirl web site.  One never knows where and how one’s prayers are answered.  Oh yes and I bought the blender and I love it.

I

okay, I found that recipe online and i LOOVE pumpkin, so I’m going to share it, in case anyone is interested-i’m not sure how much nutritional value pumpkin has, but I’ll make it for my dessert tonight! :)

So here’s a wierd dilemma–my darn fridge froze a huge 5lb bag of organic baby carrots!  I’ve been trying to use them in my vitamix, but they are gross!  For some reason, they won’t blend up smooth?  I’m just wondering if it’s because they were frozen, which doesn’t make sense because all my other fruit is frozen…?  Any other things I shouldn’t try to blend in there?

Okay here’s the biggest problem right now:

My 3 year old used to drink her GS just fine, until all the blenders made it kinda gross-now with the Vitamix, they’re infinitley better and she’s sort of done better-but all of a sudden, she’s just done-she won’t drink it unless i sit there and FORCE her to, i mean to the point that the last time i had to make her open her mouth and drink it, me holding the cup, her half-crying the whole time–IT”S EXHAUSTING!  The worst part is that of all of us, she needs it the most-she’s started having her constipation again, she’ll be on the toilet and I say “why do you think your poopoo hurts?” “because i didn’t drink my smoovie” with a pitiful look-so she knows she should drink it.  I don’t know, all I need is advice on HOW to get it down now-because waiting all day is horrible for me–she has now gone 2 days in a row without eating anything until 2pm or so-then she’ll finally give in, and it will still take over an hour for her to drink it, fighting and being naughty the whole time-she’ll try to spill it on purpose, etc.  On those days, i also had to follow her around all day because all she tried doing was sneaking into the fridge/cupboards for something else to eat (not that i blame her, i feel horrible doing it!)  I really don’t have the time/ability to do that!  I’ve stopped trying to force it because it ends up just a power struggle-i’ve tried rewards, time-outs, no food, etc-i’ve always praised her when she finished it, but it’s been 3 days now!!  Should I stop making her drink it? I mean, i try to give her coconut oil on her bread and stuff, but she doesn’t like coconut, so i know i need to go get the unrefined stuff (but is that even worth it because it’s not that good for us?!)  (Oh, and i put a little more fruit in hers-so i don’t really think it’s a taste thing…)

somebody help me, lol!!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m being tormented by a preschooler!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just thought I would share some no cook recipes that we are having for lunches here in the heat of the Midwest. They are Fred’s Mom’s Salad, Papaya Mango Pudding, Cream of Celery Soup and Tomato Sandwiches.  Enjoy.

 A couple of years ago I wanted to try all raw. I joined a 30 day “support” group by Frederic Patenaude and Tera Warner.   It is the same group that is now called ‘The Raw Divas’.   Fred’s Mom’s Salad and Papaya Mango Pudding were favorites from those 30 days.

Fred’s Mom’s Salad

Frederick Patenaude’s mom

Total Calories: 400-550

Ingredients:

3 mangos, peeled, seeded, and chopped (about 3-4 cups of fruit)

2 tomatoes, diced

1 handful cilantro, chopped

½ small sweet red onion, chopped (when mixed with the other ingredients, the “spiciness” goes away)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, and enjoy this unusual combo!

Julia’s Tomato Sandwich

Ezekiel Bread, toasted

Lemon Dill Spread

Sprouts

Tomatoes, thickly sliced

Lemon Dill Spread

½ cup veganaise

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 Tb lemon juice

½ tsp dillweed

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp Tabasco

 Serve with

• Carrots/celery sticks and hummus
• Papaya Mango Pudding

Papaya Mango Pudding

2 cups papaya

2 cups of mango

3 dates

3 cups of baby spinach or other greens  ( I use a whole 9oz bag)

Blend in VitaMix

 Makes 3 servings

Cold Cream of Celery Soup

By Julia Valentine (NutriMom)

Serves one

 1 cup cold purified water

1 Tbl freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ medjool date

3 stalks of organic celery

½ avocado

 ¼ tomato (diced)

  Blend everything but the tomato until creamy. Top with diced tomato.  Season as desired. I like sea salt, kelp flakes or spicy seasoning mix.  Try Mrs. Dash also.

I shop at Farmer’s Market along with my own square foot garden and this time of year, corn, green beans, tomatoes and zucchini are prolific.  (I forgot, peaches, blackberries are ending and okra is beginning.)

Do you all have some great recipes using your garden produce?

We had a great raw corn and black bean salad very similar to Robyn’s last week and my son devoured the whole bowl.  I have a recipe for Cream of Tomato Soup and Cream of Zucchini Soup from Jennifer Cornbleet that look very similar to my Cream of Celery Soup that I will try this week.  Gazpacho is always great.  I also plan to try a new black bean rice salad that I will adapt from the new Southern Living Magazine.

What are you all eating this week?

NutriMom

Hello

 My husband and 14 year old son are at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, in the wilderness for two weeks so I have some extra time to do projects, read Robyn’s book and freeze the case of peaches I just bought from Farmer’s Market.

I absolutely am so excited about Robyns 12 Steps to Whole Foods. 

I found Robyn’s site by googling ‘Green smoothie videos’.  I had a friend call out of desperation the other day.  We have been out of touch for the last nine years.  She googled, found our phone number and made her plea.  She is a very busy mom wanting to change her families diet and needed advice and recipes.   So I told her the best place to start would be with Green Smoothies and then take baby steps over time.  I then was trying to find a ‘Normal’ Green Smoothie video that I thought she could respect. I found three that I could recommend.  I was looking for the new one I had just seen by VitaMix as it had a normal busy mom.  I quickly scanned the YouTube and found Robyn and also Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo had good info coming from her background. Dr. Loscalzo says that in her 22 years of practice, the most dramatic change in people with health challenges comes from incorporating Green Smoothies. 

After I sent my friend these links I started researching GreenSmoothieGirl.com.  It was so wonderful.  It seemed like my voice/ my conversation with my friend in print. So I ordered the 12 Steps to Whole Foods as I am always looking for something to recommend to people. This is absolutely wonderful.  I have only dabbled in fermenting and dehydrating for a season but it is not a regular in our household so I am excited to add these back in.  

We changed to whole foods over 13 years ago but in the last few years junk food and our outside choices have entered in a bad way.  I have allowed the 14 year old to make his own choices but after reading the RAVE Diet last month he wants desperately out of his sugar prison.  I am a size 8 person now wearing size 10’s and I am ready to tighten the reigns. I have slid into a place that I do not want to be in my mid forties.  I am so glad to join you all.

NutriMom

Hi,

I recently fractured a bone in my head and was hospitalized for 5 days. I was on very strong pain medication and am still taking tylenol. I have not pooped but twice since I hurt myself more than a week ago. can someone help me?

Hi, I just “got on the bandwagon” on Monday, so I am super new at all this.  My question is; is it okay for me to give my 9 month old son “tastes” of my green smoothie?  He always wants to try what I am eating, and I imagine it would be okay, but I am a first time mother, so I am not sure what is really good for him to have if it deviates from the doctor’s list.
Also, how do you do food storage?  We only have a small freezer attached to our refrigerator, so freezing things isn’t the easiest, and we have virtually no room for storage aside from a small closet.   What are some food storage ideas?

Amy

I am about a month into the program now. I have been feeling a lot of what Robyn has described in her blog as cleansing symptoms. I use to have gas all the time when I ate dairy products but now I have gas sometimes because of my digestive system. Did any of you go through this? Maybe I am missing something in my diet-?

I have been wanting to do more with the live foods now but here is a question for whoever:

If you sprout or soak seeds, do they have to have visible sprouts for them to be live? I bought a sprouter online since I couldn’t find a store that has them. I am excited to try this out.

Also, about co-ops- I live in a new area where I don’t know anybody. But I ordered a catalog from Azure standard. It seems like a lot of food items I would need are not in that catalog. Are there other places to order from? How many people need to be in a co-op anyways?

I’m looking for the orzo salad recipe that, I think, was posted here within the past few months.  It has spinach, olives, and was a re-creation of a salad at Macaroni Grill.  It is delicious, and I’d love the recipe!  Thanks!

Somebody just insert the Hallelujah Chorus as you read:

I BOUGHT A VITAMIX PROFESSIONAL SERIES!!!! okay, I know you are all about the Blendtec Robyn, but I have an engineering/finance minded DH and he prefers the 7 year warranty…at this point, I’m willing to take what I can get.  That said, I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOOVVVE IT!!!!

Yesterday, we had our typical GS, only it was really GOOD–i don’t know if this makes sense, but it had more greens and water, and less fruit than normal, and it actually was just fine-like, it seems like the greens don’t taste as “green”?  Anyway, I also made Honey Almond Butter with some cinnamon yummmmm, and for lunch, I made SOUP in my blender-organic carrots, tomatoes, garlic and chicken stock-when it was done i tossed in some black beans. (i know the chicken stock is a no-no, lol)

It’s been years since I’ve struggled to actually LOSE weight, and after about 6 weeks and losing 22lbs, I told DH “this is really important to me and our family…is there some way we can do it?”-i’m guessing that the 4th blender dying helped him realize what a hassle a cheap blender can be.  So, he sold some of his time-off at work back to the company (he has a bunch saved up and was thinking of doing it anyway) to pay for my VitaMix.  What a nice man, huh? :)

Anyway, I have to just say that it’s totally worth it, if you can afford it.  I think the best part for me, is that I hadn’t really committed myself because having a good blender is important if you’re doing whole foods, or at least for GS, which leads you to more whole foods-but there were so many recipes that i thought “that would kill my blender in two seconds flat”, where now I can actually try them, plus there are a million raw recipes in the book that came with the blender.

I’m just so excited, and I have to say that i’m still losing weight-i think i lost another 2lbs this week-as for the 2 kiddos-3yr old rebel took a while to try this new GS, but once she started, she downed it in about a minute, which hasn’t happened in about ummmmm 2 months!!  And almost 2yr old-he cried at the fridge everytime we came upstairs;  he wanted it for every meal! “wiiiinnnnnn”  lol-DH put him to bed last night and I found them up in the shower, next to a pile of …uh “messy” clothes-he took one look at me and said “go easy on the smoothies with him, okay?” haaaahhaahaahaa