Hormones Hit Me Hard- Natural Pregnancy Vlog- Week 8

It's week 8 of the pregnancy, and mama-to-be has been dealing with hormones!

Launching Pregnancy Vlog!

Although I was planning to wait until 12 weeks before starting this pregnancy vlog (after I announced my pregnancy at work), the first trimester has been quite the learning curve for me! This vlog will document our journey to parenthood for the first time, as well as seek to inform others about natural pregnancy and birth.

The video embedded below is an update on weeks 4-6 of this pregnancy.

If you cannot view the video, please click here.

God bless you and keep you,

~Raquel

Priority Parking Until March 2015!

Roasted Vegetables and Chicken

It's delicious. It's tasty. It's a keeper recipe!

Please let me declare this dish's glory to the ends of the blogging spectrum and beyond. This meal was so easy to prepare, required only moderate cooking time, and is very adaptable for the crockpot. You could also take this recipe and make your own version of roasted vegetables and chicken. My husband and I developed this particular recipe together. Which... speaking of that... we also developed a new version of salsa that is so fresh tasting and delicious! I need to post that as soon as possible, too.

But without further ado... 

Preface: You are welcome to add more of any of the ingredients to better feed your family. This recipe follows what I used, but even I could have added more gold potatoes.

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Servings: 8 (or however many pieces of chicken you choose to cook)

Ingredients:

• 3 small-medium gold potatoes
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 2 carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 8 chicken thighs (or another cut of chicken of your choice)
• 1 one-inch sprig of rosemary, plus 8 half-inch rosemary sprigs
• ** coating of organic (brown) sugar for each chicken thigh
• ** liberal amount of Worcestershire sauce for each chicken thigh 
• 1/2 stick butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil spray

** I do not have exact measurements for these ingredients. See the procedures below.

Procedures:

*I've really broken it down. It looks like a lot of steps, but its super easy! Also, please be aware that if you use a smaller or larger cut of chicken (or a whole chicken), your cooking time may differ.

1. Slice onion into half inch pieces.
2. Cut gold potatoes and sweet potatoes into bite-size chunks.
3. Slice carrots into somewhat thin slivers.
4. Mix onion, gold and sweet potatoes, and carrots in casserole dish (of your choice to fit the amount of food you are cooking).
5. Slice a half stick of butter into four sections and strategically place on top of vegetables in pan.
6. Shake salt and pepper to taste on the vegetables.
7. Lightly spray the vegetables with olive oil. (Not much is needed because of the added butter.)
8. Separate the one-inch sprig of rosemary and disperse it randomly on the vegetables.
9. Place the eight chicken thighs on top of the vegetables in the pan.
10. Moderately spray the chicken thighs with olive oil.
11. Spread a coating of brown sugar on each chicken thigh. The brown sugar should sufficiently cover the top of the thigh, but not be stacked in a pile on top of the thigh.
12. Place a half-inch sprig of rosemary on each chicken thigh
13. Pour a liberal amount of Worcestershire sauce on each chicken thigh. The Worcestershire sauce should saturate the brown sugar.
14. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and bake at 400* for 45 minutes.
15. Uncover the dish after 45 minutes, and continue cooking for 15 more minutes.
16. Enjoy!

I hope you try this dish and enjoy it! If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the comments below.

God bless you and keep you,

~Raquel

P.S. Worcestershire sauces can be found less processed and with fewer chemicals. Here is a picture of the ingredients in my Worcestershire sauce. I am sure even better versions are available!

Eating Whole Foods: Grocery Run- June 2014

My husband and I LOVE to eat!! We love to eat GOOD FOOD. We firmly believe that "you are what you eat," "let food be thy medicine," and all those other quotes that mean: we feel good when we eat nutritious foods!

Our Diet

Our ideal diet is one suggested by Weston A. Price, although we cannot accommodate all of our "ideal" dietary guidelines at the moment. For the most part, we eat a natural, whole food diet-- with occasional "cheats" here and there. Our thought is to eat 80-20: 80% of our intake is natural, whole food and 20% is the I-forgot-to-pack-a-lunch-let-me-pick-up-something-super-cheap type food.

A book I recommend for understanding your nutritional needs, as well as hundreds of recipes to accommodate those needs, is Nourshing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

We also are on a very tight budget, although next to gasoline, our grocery budget is the largest bill each month. For two people eating three meals a day, plus snacks, we spend about $250. I will break the cost effectiveness down at the end of this post. 

Although I would love to buy more farm fresh foods, sometimes its not always possible. I do what I can, and we eat well. For cost sake, we eat a much smaller portion of meat in comparison to fruits and vegetables.

A normal grocery run looks somewhat similar to this:

Our Food Priorities

When I buy groceries, I have a general idea of what I will need before I even walk into the store. I do make a grocery list, but only with items that are specific for a meal I am planning to make. I usually just write "vegetables" or "fruit" or "chicken," otherwise. These are the things I buy regularly:

Vegetables

• spinach
• sweet potatoes
• potatoes
• carrots
• zuchinni/squash
• eggplant
• cabbage
• broccoli

Fruit

• apples
• bananas
• strawberries
• mangoes
• lemons/limes
• other seasonal fruits: blueberries, cantaloupe, peaches, oranges, watermelon

Bread- I like to make my own bread OR buy Ezekiel bread. If neither one works for the moment, I spend a few minutes looking at the back of bread packaging, reading ingredients. I usually choose the bread with the least number of ingredients and with ingredients I recognize. I usually buy a smaller loaf to have more natural bread. In the picture of my latest grocery run, you can see I bought a larger loaf (and therefore, less natural bread) this last time.

I also usually buy corn tortillas for tacos, enchiladas, burritos, and the like.

"Dairy"

• Coconut milk (non dairy, but it's in the dairy section)
• Plain yogurt
• Monterrey Jack cheese

As you can see in the picture, I also bought ICE CREAM!!!! Mmmm.... Everyone has a down fall. My darling man and I happen to feed off of each other's down fall,  which means we are voracious ice cream eaters. I do not usually buy ice cream when I go to the store by myself, but when my husband and I do go to the store together-- we cannot resist the ice cream aisle.

Meat

• a whole chicken
• eggs
• grass-fed beef
• ground turkey

Although I did not buy any meat in this picture, I do buy meat about once a month. In another post, I will detail how I use and "stretch" a whole chicken. The chicken and eggs I buy are as "organic" as possible-- cage free, antibiotic free, etc. Less often, and when it is on sale, I will buy grass-fed beef and ground turkey.

Other Items- Of course, I buy other items as the need arises. Such items include:

• local, raw, unfiltered honey
• dry red kidney, black, and pinto beans
• coconut oil and olive oil (as "clean" as I can get them)
• ginger root/crystallized giner

The Cost

I mentioned earlier that I spend about $250 a month on groceries to feed two adults 21 meals and 14 snacks a week. To break that cost down for you, that's:

• $125/adult a month
• $31.25/adult a week
• $0.89/adult per meal or snack (obviously, the snack will be less expensive than the meal)

On Thursday, I will publish a post about five grocery shopping tips that have helped me score whole food groceries for as inexpensive as possible.

Until then, God bless you and keep you,

~Raquel