Superfood Girl

Chocolate Doula!

A couple of days ago, (November 28th) I was blessed to witness my good friend Amy giving birth at her home, in the birthing tub that I had lent her.  I have a lot to say about witnessing this incredible event, but that story is for another time.  I have another story to tell today.

So, I came to Amy's house bearing a few small gifts; gifts that I thought would assist her in her laboring/birth/recovery; I have done this before; I birthed my twins at home, and know what I might like someone to bring for me if I didn't already have it myself.

In my "doula supply" bag were a bunch of fresh, organic, whole vanilla beans...red-raspberry leaf tea, a package of cacao nibs, a quart of fresh raw goats milk, a bottle of rescue remedy tincture, and a small zip-loc bag full of our Love-N-Cacao (Goji) bars (name soon to change).

I also managed to remember to bring my best digital camera to this sacred event (phew!), and although I didn't take pictures of the laboring and birth itself...I started "snapping away" about 2 minutes after this beautiful little boy slipped into this world.

I spent a few hours at Amy's house that day, before heading home to meet with my sister-in-law, Sonya and her husband, Jeff who had flown in from Missouri that morning to visit us for a week.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from proud new (again) daddy, Berney.  He thanked me for the use of the birthing tub, and the photos...and he had the funniest story about the chocolate bars that I left in their fridge:

"...I also wanted to tell you about my experience with the chocolate bars you left Amy.  I saw Amy eating one of the bars and decided I would give it a try.  I was surprised by how hard it was and when I did bite into eat and started eating it I have to say it was the most god awful stuff I ever tasted.  It kind of reminded me of chewing tobacco.  I was going to spit it out but decided to finish it anyway.  As I ate it I was thinking less and less of it.  Shortly after I finally got it all swallowed I began to notice a compulsion to eat some more.  Why, I have no idea as the taste of it was not something I cared for.  None the less, I felt drawn to eating another bite.   Finally I gave into the desire and had another bite.  This time it tasted less harsh.  So I had another bite, and before I knew it I had eaten the whole bar.  Today I found myself drawn to it again and ended up eating another bar.  It is so weird because it is not even slightly sweet to me.  I prefer sweet to any other taste so it doesn't make sense to my mind.  All I know is that I feel almost addicted to it.  So now my question is what other kind of bars do you guys make?  I think I might find myself really liking this stuff.  If you wouldn't mind, on your next trip down, bringing some of the other kinds you have so I can find which one I like the best.  I am sure I will become a customer and I will also promote it to those around me.  So that is my story.  Interesting, huh?  Who would have believed it..."

We have had a few really great stories about our chocolate; I've decided I am going to start collecting them and blogging about them because they are sometimes so unusual, amazing, and/or funny.

It's a Tahini Miracle!

Ok, so that is what I call QUICK manifesting!  Just 2 nights ago, I was blogging on about missing MaraNatha Sesame Tahini, and wanting to birth it back to existence.  I kid you NOT, the very next day (yesterday) I was at Jimbo's Naturally (local health food store) checking the nut butter shelf (like I always do, hoping that the tahini fairy has blessed the re-manifestation of my long awaited jar of tahini)...and there it was in it's glowing glory; the goddess of all seed-butters...TAHINI!!!  They have multiple jars, in fact (I'm surprised I stopped at only buying 2).

I brought them home...my twin babies (the jars of tahini).  So cookie dough was definitely on the menu for the evening; that was obvious.  We were having a house guest for dinner too, PERFECT.  I had my "go" at making my long-lost-friend, cookie dough...and apparently I've lost my touch (because I don't measure with measuring spoons/cups...I measure by "feel").  It ended up being good apple dip anyway, but as far as tasting like cookie dough...it just wasn't it.

I'm so used to making things without measuring...I get used to going "by feel" when I am making a dish I'm familiar with, which makes it hard for me to convey to other people how to re-create it on their own.  But I'm darn determined to get used to using measurements because I want to be passing on my recipes, and I don't expect anyone to understand "a couple shakes of this" or "there's enough liquid in the blender when it looks like this".  [Hmmm...maybe you-tube is perfect for me]

Probably needless to say, I may be needing to re-edit the post with my "cookie dough" recipe...and I'll surely let you know when I have.  Hopefully before you get a hold of the new shipment of tahini yourself!

By the way, thanks for the great collective effort on thought-forming the tahini back into the store; we are FAST! ;-)

Urban Foraging

Free food is great!  It's an abundant season for fruit; find local fruit trees, and remember where they are at so you can come back again (if the tree resides on someone's property, be sure to ask first)!

Right now, we are regularly visiting a fig tree, a sapote tree, and just the other day my 3-year-old son found some wild grapes; I think his words were, "that's good food" while pointing over to some wild grape vines near our home...good eye!

It's a good practice to get into, while in the car (but not the driver)...look around and get a "feel" for what fruit trees look like.  It's a skill that takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, you may start seeing fruit all over the place out of the corner of your eye.

Foraging isn't limited to fruit, either.  When you're in an area with a little less concrete, look for wild greens.  It might help to make friends with someone who knows a bit about wild food...they can help teach you what to look for.

There is no food so amazing as "just picked" from the Earth.

What to do with flax seeds...

Flax seeds are best when they are ground fresh before putting them into your food (this is called flax-meal)...you can do this in a coffee grinder; or even better if you have a good quality blender such as a Vita-Mix, or Champ Blender...you can grind flax seeds in this. (I love my Vita-Mix, by the way...it’s one of the best investments I have made, as far as nutritional food-prep is concerned).

Once the flax seed is ground up, you can pretty much do anything with it. My kids LOVE flax-meal. Sprinkle it onto food. It’s great in smoothies.

Flax crackers seem to be the preferred method of "eating flax." A lot of raw-food manufacturers are making flax crackers now...most of them are doing this with the flax un-ground. I like to make my flax crackers with flax-meal instead of seeds (I grind up the flax seeds before mixing with water and seasonings).

Flax crackers are generally made in a dehydrator...low temperatures are better for maintaining the integrity of nutrients.

Flax seeds are quite an interesting food...when you add water to them (ground or un-ground), they get very gelatinous. This makes flax-meal a great thickener for food. Making flax crackers is really fun, and you don’t NEED to grind the seeds for making crackers...it’s just my preferred method.

If you aren’t ready to tackle the seeds, try flax oil. This is a staple item for us; I almost always keep a large bottle of flax oil in the fridge. It makes smoothies very creamy, especially when you couple it with a good quality coconut oil...yum!