Non GMO Awareness month 2012

It's October, which brings us upon Non GMO Awareness month. What better time to educate or re-educate yourself about GMO's. Here is a great shopping guide for avoiding GMO's. Reading labels on packaged foods is essential in this day and age. If you want to avoid GMO's and still insist on buying packaged food, you most definitely should only buy 100% organic food. Especially considering the recent announcement that now wheat products now contain GMO's, which probably means they have for awhile and just decided to tell us. I saw this great chart, if you're going to buy packaged foods, these are great organic/non-gmo options:

 Some tips to avoid GMO foods: But organic, look for non-gmo labels, avoid non-organic corn, soy, canola, and cotton, buy organic meats (though gmo meats are not approved for human consumption, gm crops most definitely are being fed to non organic raised animals).

The only real defense again genetically modified foods is to buy organic whole foods and cooking them yourself. Make your own crackers, or graham crackers,or these  crackers, or make your own tortillas and turn them into chips, slice organic potatoes and coat them in organic oil and bake for some great baked chips.

Every time I hear the name Monsanto it makes my blood boil. They are purposely poisoning the world....well the parts of the world that actually let their citizens (and encourage them to) eat gmo food. Then my hubby read this blog post to me. What a great perspective on an awful situation. Seriously, thank you Monsanto for opening more and more peoples eyes everyday to what food they fuel their body with. Sure, there are tons of people out there that really just don't care, but it's OUR jobs to HELP them care! Why is cancer increasing every year? Why is heart disease? Why are younger and younger kids being treated for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and hosts of other terrible diseases at such a young age? It's the food their eating, the environment they are being exposed to, the air they are breathing. But we are finding out more and more that GMO's have a HUGE part in why so many people are sick. On a side note, we have been searching for a house to buy for years now. Last weekend I was driving through a town that we've hoped to find a house in and was seriously disturbed by the amount of GMO farms there. Yeah, we won't be buying a house there. Contaminated air, water, bugs, etc...no thank you.

In honor of Non GMO month, I challenge you all to go out there and share the dangers of GMO's with friends, family, neighbors, and strangers. Even if you don't live in California, do whatever you can to support Prop 37. If California can pass that law it will be a huge step for this whole country.

If you don't know much about GMO foods, Mercola has a whole page set up dedicated to GMO's. Check it out here for more information.

Homemade cough syrup

This stuff is amazing! I believe this idea originates in Korean culture and boy does it work. Make up a jar of this and put it in the fridge for when you need it, you'll be glad you did. I usually use a spoonful of this in tea, or just mixed with hot water itself, but I also give small spoonfuls straight up. I've found this is really good for those "in the middle of the night coughing attacks". I'll give the cough-er a small spoonful and it generally will stop the coughing and they can get back to sleep. It's very soothing.


Homemade cough syrup
by Amanda @ Natural and Organic Lifestyle

Mix up in a pint jar:
Raw honey
a couple slices of lemon
a one inch sized piece of ginger chopped

That's it. Just throw it in the fridge and use as needed.

Sauteed Bok Choy

Bok Choy was another veggie we have received from our CSA Farm this summer/fall. I don't think I'd ever seen bok choy before, nor had I eaten it. Ha, funny story, so the first week we were able to pick up veggies from the CSA last spring we happened to be out of town. I told them we wouldn't be there but not to worry about our veggies. Well the super-nice-people that they are, they delivered them to our neighbor to give to us when we got back. So we came home to a surprise bag of veggies, always a good thing in my book! Most of it was pretty straightforward, a lot of greens, some turnips, radishes....and this other thing, no idea what it was. But it kind of looked like a green. So, the next morning, since I had so many greens, I decided to make veggie juice, which of course included "the other thing". Now, I can generally tolerate any veggie juice, no matter how awful...uh, not this time. It was awful! Lesson learned, "the other thing" was bok choy, and don't EVER juice bok choy!

But here is a great recipe for sauteed bok choy, which is excellent!

Sauteed Bok Choy
by Amanda @ Natural and Organic Lifestyle

1 organic bok choy
1 organic onion
2 organic cloves garlic

Using the entire bok choi, including the stalk, chop it into pieces. Saute garlic and onions in a pan with a little oil until soft. Add bok choi and cook until just softened. Add some organic soy sauce or coconut aminos, salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!

Drying herbs and Freezing pesto

Everyday it feels more and more like fall. We are getting the occasional frost at night and mornings are crisp. This is the time of year to harvest the remainder of summer crops. Especially herbs. In some gardens they are still flourishing, but as it gets colder, the plants will die off for the season. Go pick those herbs now! Our CSA farm still has a ton of herbs. Every week we pick a good amount to bring home. It's a great time to stock up on fresh herbs for drying. Stick them in the dehydrator at 105 degrees for a day. You can store them whole to crush later....I hear that makes for the best flavor. Personally, I like to make less work for myself later, so I crush them first and then store them. They still have a superior flavor compared to store bought dried herbs, plus they are MUCH cheaper!

I'm obsessed with pesto. My kids, not so much. So I really can't base meals on it. So I like to have smaller amounts of it at a time for my husband and myself. I use it as a dip with seed crackers and raw cheese. It's amazing how good that is! Knowing that soon enough I won't have access to fresh basil (Yes I know very well you CAN grow herbs inside in the winter....but my brown thumb prevents that...sigh...any plant that gets within 10 feet of me dies) So I had this vision of freezing a bunch of small portions of pesto. I in no way wanted to freeze it in bags by itself or other plastic containers. I suddenly realized that muffin cups were the perfect size! I scooped pesto into muffin cups, put them on a plate and stuck them in the freezer overnight. The next day I pulled them out of the freezer and tossed them into freezer bags. I thought it was genius =) Plus, think how much money you save compared to pesto at the store!

Read with caution...haha (female content)

Men: you may not want to read any further, this is a female issue. Yes we're talking menstruation, lol. Any women that don't want to read about it, run away. Seriously...

Okay, you've been warned.


You might have seen earlier in the year that we got a puppy. Well, we haven't spayed her because my hubby really really really wants her to have puppies. She was a handful enough as a puppy that I cannot even imagine dealing with a litter of puppies, even for 8 weeks. Yes, I know darn well it was my stupid idea to get a puppy. I begged for a year or so. BIG mistake. Should have just had another baby...

Anyway, so early this week she starts menstruating (and yes I'm fully aware it's not called "menstruating" in dogs, it's in "heat", but I'm not positive if they are in heat before the bleed and the bleeding is just called bleeding, so I'll call it menstruating, I apologize to all the doggy experts out there). So, she started bleeding, and then I did too. What the heck?!? I know women who spend a lot of time together are known to get on the same schedule, but does it work with dogs too??? Now, I wouldn't think anything of it, but I'm  early and I'm never early! Now, last night my hubby pointed out that dogs only menstruate twice a year or so and wouldn't it be great if I did too!!! Hahahaha! That would be awesome. With my luck though I would make her menstruate every month. We really need to spay her....

While we are on the subject, I'm very often asked what I use during this time being all natural and organic and everything. For a long time I used Natracare products, which are organic cotton. It felt really wasteful though so I few years ago I switched to using the DivaCup. My only concern is whether or not the silicone is safe or if you absorb anything from it. I haven't found any information on that at this time. If you aren't on a really heavy day you can 12 hours between changing it, that in my book is really awesome. I still use the Natracare pads as back up on those really heavy days. So that's that.

I'm off to have a corn husking party with my kids. Literally husking corn, 5 dozen of them...

Apple Cinnamon Bread

This bread is a HUGE hit with my kids. What better time to make it than fall, when organic apples are around. Yeah, except for this year, they're around, but you have to search for them. Stupid late frost. Cozy up with this bread and a nice warm mug of cider.

Apple Cinnamon Bread
by Amanda @ Natural and Organic Lifestyle

The dough itself makes two loaves. The ingredients below make one loaf. I make one plain and one apple cinnamon at a time. If you'd like two apple cinnamon, double up on the ingredients (apple, cinnamon, sucanat)

Dough from Easy Sandwich Bread 
(optional: when making the dough above, substitute apple sauce for the oil)
1 organic apple, chopped small
1 ts organic cinnamon
1 TB Sucanat (or other organic raw sugar) plus extra for sprinkling on top

Prepare dough and let it rise the first time. After you punch down the dough and split it into two loaves, sprinkle flour on a flat surface and roll out one dough to about a half an inch thick. Sprinkle cinnamon, sucanat, and apple all over the dough. Roll up, pinch ends, and place in greased loaf pan to rise again. Optional: brush with a little butter and sprinkle sucanat on top. Once the dough has risen above the rim of the pan, bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool, slice, and enjoy!

Roasted Baby Turnips with Parsley Mustard Vinaigrette

This year we joined a CSA (community sponsored agriculture), which means we get to go pick up veggies from them every week. What's been great about it, is that we are ending up with veggies we've never had, or never cooked, or even thought about cooking. We are all trying new things, and really liking them! Something we've had a lot of this summer is turnips. Honestly, I don't think I'd ever even seen a turnip before. The recipe below is a recipe the CSA gave us to try with the turnips. We love it! 


Roasted Baby Turnips with Parsley Mustard Vinaigrette
1 TB organic white wine vinegar

1 1/2 ts organic whole-grain mustard

1 green onion, minced

1 1/2 TB chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

24 baby turnips (2 pounds) (could be done with large turnips too, just chop them)

1. Preheat the oven to 425°. In a bowl, whisk the vinegar with the mustard, scallion, parsley and 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a rimmed baking sheet in the oven. Cut the turnips in half through the stems; quarter them if large. In a large bowl, toss the turnips with the remaining 1/4 cup of oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread the turnips on the  baking sheet and roast for about 18 minutes, until tender. Transfer the turnips to a platter and let cool. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve.

Easy Sandwich Bread

This is a great versatile bread. It makes great sandwich bread. Which is awesome since store bought bread is laden with high fructose corn syrup, soy, pesticides and gmo ingredients, not to mention additives, and preservatives. This bread is so easy to make, there's no reason to buy store bought bread again! You can do other fun things with the dough too...more to come in future posts!

Easy Sandwich Bread
by Amanda @ Natural and Organic Lifestyle

Makes 2 loaves

2 cups warm water
1 TB yeast
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil (I use light olive oil)
1 1/2 ts good salt
6-7 cups bread flour*

*The loaf in the picture above was made with unbleached white whole wheat bread flour. You can use straight whole wheat bread flour but you'll want to mix it with another flour. You can also add ground flax as well as other flours.

I use my food processor with a dough blade to mix up this dough. You could also use a stand mixer. My directions, though, will be for doing it by hand for those that don't have either. I have to say, my food processor makes it so easy. I just add all the ingredients and mix until the dough forms.

Add water, yeast, and honey to a large bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients in order. Kneed until smooth and it pulls away from the bowl. Cover and let it rise until doubled. Punch the dough down and divide into two pieces. Grease two loaf pans and place dough in each. Let the dough rise until it is just over the rim of the pans. Optional: Brush butter or olive oil over the top and sprinkle with good salt. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Nothing says yummy like roasted potatoes! Great side dish for so many meals!

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
by Amanda @ Natural Organic Lifestyle

6 organic medium red potatoes
4 TB organic evoo
1/2 ts real salt, or to taste
Ground pepper to taste
1/4 ts dried organic thyme
1/4 cup organic shredded parmesan

Slice potatoes into 1inch size pieces. Toss all ingredients together in large bowl. Spread into a greased baking dish or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender.

Creamsicle Popsicles

Creamsicles are a huge fav from my childhood. I haven't had one in a looonnnggg time. Though I can still remember that taste like it was yesterday. This is a great organic and all natural alternative to the classic which is laden with sugar (though I know they have a sugar free one, which is worse with artificial sweeteners), antibiotics and hormones, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin (msg), propylene glycol(anti-freeze). Anyway, you get the point. Don't expect the creamy yumminess of the "ice-cream in the middle" pop, which you could probably do, but I've never tried it, but this is still creamy and super yummy! Why does my spell check always tell me "yumminess" is not a word, silly thing. I may just have to add it to my dictionary ;)
So in the spirit of summer, here is another yummy popsicle recipe!

Organic Creamsicle Popsicles
by Amanda @ Natural and Organic Lifestyle

1 cup fresh squeezed organic orange juice (I used 2 oranges)
1 cup organic milk or cream (I use organic raw cows milk and it's very creamy. Organic raw cream would be MORE creamy. I've also used coconut milk which was still very good but not as creamy, my kids LOVED it but they've never had a "real" Creamsicle.)
1/2 ts organic vanilla extract
2 TB honey or to taste (You can use other sweeteners or none at all, this is to taste)
Optional: 1/2 ts orange extract (This will make it very organge-y. I think it's fine without it, but it's an option if you have it in the pantry)

Whisk all ingredients together and make sure honey or other sweetener is dissolved and mixed in well. Pour into your popsicle molds and freeze. I usually make them in the morning and they are frozen by dinnertime, or freeze overnight. Enjoy!