I am jumping to Day 9 because I need to get caught up somehow! I WILL go back and detail all the other days - I have notes for them, but just have to make posts. I want to reflect on our first week because I can already look back and see how far we have come in just 1 short week! And we survived it! We didn't starve, we actually had a good week, and we saw benefits pretty quickly! Wow, that's a lot of "!"s. Sorry. I am just excited we are eating eggs and almond butter now. :-)
So here we go, jumping ahead almost a week to get caught up. We are currently in Stage 3!! This makes things SO much easier! We are taking it very slow in this stage, though - especially for our little 1 yr old. But seriously, getting into using cooked eggs makes things so much easier - in cooking and in getting little ones (um...and us big ones) to eat things! And some almond butter doesn't hurt, either :-).
Little man was so happy to eat a pancake!
What we ate:
- 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash diced and boiled in chicken broth, then scooped them out of the broth and onto plates, and we added salt and pepper. Ate those with scrambled eggs (!!!) (1 egg each) cooked in probably 1-2 Tbsp ghee (I use Pure Indian Foods). Then the remaining chicken broth was divided into mugs for each person to drink (little ones drank 1/2 cup each!). This was surprisingly very very good!
Hubby and I both felt like eating the vegetables with the scrambled eggs made it SO much easier to eat them (I believe we were both developing an intolerance, especially my man, before we started GAPS, so sometimes it is hard even just bring myself to eat them). I know that drinking broth and eating the vegetables with the eggs is very important in our healing and being able to eat them.
- Pancakes! Yay, this always makes eating fun and not a battle at all with the littles. I followed this recipe and we all love it. I first made a couple with just squash, egg, and cinnamon for the really little one since we aren't giving him nuts yet. We usually eat them plain at this point or a little honey drizzled on top.
- Hamburger Soup with egg yolk and 1 tsp sauerkraut. We just love this soup. Everyone. Everyone eats it happily and we give the littles straws to drink the broth down - they both just chug the egg yolk-y broth down and then eat the rest happily. Ah, when everyone's happy and eats easily, that makes life so much more peaceful!
- Diced Cooked Apples: peel and dice organic apple, boil in a small amount of water until soft. I usually sprinkle cinnamon on them for fun, but the boys love them plain, too. It's not super filling, but it's a good treat to have for the boys after naps to make them happy and not have to utter the words "if you're hungry you can have more soup..."! I've also been cheating a little (um sad) with little man because he's been so hungry and I had bought some 4oz cups of stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt to use as starter to make our raw milk 24 hr cultured yogurt...so I have caved for about 5 days in a row now and given him between 2-4 oz. But we just made our first batch of 24 hr raw milk yogurt, so now more store-bought for him! :-)
- Chicken Cilantro Soup with egg yolk and 1 tsp sauerkraut (yes, we are doing actual SK now, not just the juice!).
Recipe: 1 quart chicken bone broth, about 1-2 cups of sliced or diced carrots, 1 diced yellow onion. Boil/simmer those until carrots are tender, add 2-3 diced yellow summer squash, 1 bunch of chopped cilantro (I use scissors to cut it right into the pot) and simmer until squash is done. Then add your desired amount of already boiled, diced chicken. We used leftovers from a boiled chicken that had already been a meal for all 4 of us and a meal for the littles. Salt to taste and enjoy! Cilantro is so good and we are so happy to have some fresh herbs now!
- Hubby and I had some hard boiled eggs to snack on. We also had some chamomile tea before bed.
- I guess I can't lie: I had some of the carrot mousse cake that is found in the GAPS guide book. It is also on her website (a great resource! The book is SO valuable, too!). Scroll down a bit and you'll see 'carrot mousse cake' with the recipe. I used about 1/4 c honey and I left out the coconut this time, and it's still enjoyable and I know my boys will eat it. I did like the coconut in it last time I tried it.
How we are feeling:
This is my favorite part now! What a difference a week makes! Here's everything I can ALREADY see progress in (and we've been seeing this for days already).
- We are MUCH less tired. We talk about it all the time. I don't think about coffee very often compared to what it was like just over a week ago!
- We have more energy - physically and mentally. Mental fog is dramatically lifted and keeps getting better every day!
- We definitely notice changes in, well, let's just say...digestion. We feel like our bodies are getting cleaned out.
- Bloating/stomach discomfort is lessening.
- We both know for sure that we are thinking much more clearly, are doing our jobs better, and aren't feeling anxiety or stress as much.
- Our cravings for sweets have diminished GREATLY. HUGE. We feel satisfied and don't have the same urge for dessert at night. This is a huge change.
- We don't have any blood sugar swings or crashes. We don't get shaky, just hungry, if we haven't eaten in a while. This makes it much easier to think clearly about food choices.
- We have been noticing die-off symptoms all week, and that is so encouraging to me because it tells us that things are working and good things are happening inside us!
- The little boys: little man (3) has been calmer, gentler with baby brother, and much better at obeying this week! Now, how much of that is GAPS related and how much is just him being 3 and having a sinful nature has yet to be seen. We'll see how the coming weeks go (and how he reacts to some compromises we are going to have to make in 2 weeks). But truly, we have seen changes in his reaction to correction, his readiness to obey, his behavior towards others (not perfect by any means, but there was a lot less baby crying because of big brother this week!). The bumps all over his arms seem to be getting better, too! Little baby boy (1): his skin seems clearer to me, his stools have gone from a range of very loose/liquidy 6+ times in an afternoon (die-off I believe!) to 2-3 a day for the past few days and much better consistency. I can't believe I talk about poop so easily now...should I be embarrassed? :-)
- This is HUGE and I think would be huge to most parents: my boys are already becoming 'better' eaters. They definitely knew what soups and meat and veggies were prior to starting this, but in the first few days, little man would have to be worked on a lot to eat his soup. Now he just accepts it and eats it really well for the most part. He even gladly ate his squash and zucchini this morning with his egg. He drinks broth much better, too. Really, kids eating this kind of stuff gladly is such a blessed and it really is getting easier!
It is so great to look back a week and see how much better we feel and know that this IS worth it and it is SO beneficial. There is a lot that God is teaching us through this, and I will share more of that later. This post is too long anyway... :-) God bless your week!
Thanks for all the great recipes! I want to try the hamburger soup since you guys loved it! Do you use beef broth like recipe calls for (or do you think you could use chicken broth)? I haven't made beef broth yet, but was reading you can use a bag of beef bones (http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2008/01/homemade-soup-broth-an-essential-element-in-any-healthy-frugal-kitchen.html). Do you buy these from Yonder Way to make beef broth? Thanks so much for sharing your journey! :-)
ReplyDeleteHey Melissa!! Yes, we use beef broth (I LOVE homemade beef broth - it is so much better than what you can get at a store!). I bet you could try chicken broth - I've made a soup with chicken broth and ground beef before, and it tasted good!
ReplyDeleteTo make beef broth, I follow the recipe/method in Nourishing Traditions but I simplify (I don't add veggies if I don't have them on hand) and it always turns out great!
From Yonder Way, you will want 3-4 lbs of 'meat soup bones' and 4 lbs of what they have labeled as 'dog bones' (comes in an 8 lb bag, so 1 bag will make 2 huge batches of beef broth!). You thaw the meat soup bones and roast them in the oven on 350 (I just place in a 9x13 glass dish) until they are browned (maybe about 45 min - 1hr or just until they look browned). Meanwhile, put 4lbs of the dog bones (about 1/2 the bag) in a giant pot, cover with cold filtered water, add about 1/4 c raw apple cider vinegar (Bragg's brand is great) and let that sit for about an hour. Then, when the meat soup bones are done, add them into the pot, scrape any bits and juices off the bottom of the roasting dish into the pot as well. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, and then simmer for 12-24 hours.
I often break it into 2 days - simmer until night and then put the pot in the fridge and do it again the next day.
If you are going to use your crock pot, you will (unless you have a giant crock pot!) need to halve the recipe (2 lbs meat bones, 2 lbs dog bones) to get it to fit in the crock pot.
Then just strain the broth with cheesecloth or a sieve and put in containers! It is so good!! (Obviously, it isn't the greatest completely plain because you will need to add plenty of salt!)
Hope that helps!
Thanks so much! We had the hamburger soup with homemade beef broth tonight and it was DELICIOUS! My hubby even loved it, and he's very picky about soups. I think I may look into getting a bigger pot to cook broths in so I can make more at a time. I used my crockpot which is 6 quarts I think, but I halved your recipe so used 2 lbs of soup bones and 2 lbs of dog bones. What kind of stock pot do you have? Saw you across the way in HA tonight!Thanks!
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