Today, we’ll be making the marathon 10 hour drive from GA to OH (make that 14 with the kids?). I’m glad to be on our way to getting settled in our new home, but it will be a long and bittersweet day, for sure. While I’m listening to my “Leaving GA” playlist and sobbing on the road, you get the treat of meeting Allison from The Sprouting Seed!

Allison is a nutritionist with a B.S. in Nutritional Science and a full-time mom. She got her start as a nutritionist and breastfeeding counselor at WIC. This was before she moved half way across the world to live in Central Europe, where she learned about real food, vibrant health, and traditional methods of preparation. Allison has found a way to make friends with little old ladies around the world and loves to share their time-tested secrets of life.

So glad to have her here on the blog today. And with a dynamite recipe for broccoli salad, no less! I am normally not a mayo fan.. but I think I will have to try her homemade mayo recipe– it looks amazing.

Broccoli is my favorite veggie. But I’ll be honest, I usually like it one way and one way only: lightly steamed, then sautéed with garlic. It’s simple, delicious, and I rarely feel the need to broaden my broccoli repertoire.

Lately, however, things have changed. I’ve been jazzing up all my vegetable dishes and not even broccoli could escape my creative streak. I started by frying zucchini fritters and grating cauliflower into “rice”. Then, I broke away from the well-beaten path of my broccoli recipe and ventured into new terrain. What did I make? Well, Broccoli Salad, of course!

This salad is hearty and delicious. It features raw broccoli, a homemade mayonnaise dressing and, you guessed it, bacon! I originally made it as a side dish, but lately I’ve been loving a big bowl of Broccoli Salad for dinner. It’s easy to whip up and sure to please. As an added bonus–using homemade mayonnaise instead of the store-bought version turns this dish into a powerhouse of nutrients. Bon Appetite!

Broccoli Salad with Homemade Mayo (Guest Post)

 

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Author: Allison Jordan

Recipe type: SIde Dish, Salad

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 heads of broccoli, stalks removed, cut into small florets
• 6-8 slices of bacon
• ¼ purple onion, finely diced
• ½ cup crispy pecans, chopped
• ¼ cup dried cranberries or raisins
• ¾ cup homemade mayonnaise (recipe found here: http://thesproutingseed.com/homemade-mayonnaise/)
• 3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp raw, local honey

Instructions

1. In a skillet, fry bacon over medium high heat until evenly crisp. Remove the bacon, drain excess grease and crumble the bacon into small pieces.
2. In medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar and honey and whisk until combined. Mix in broccoli florets, cranberries, and onion. Toss ingredients until the broccoli is thoroughly coated with the mayonnaise dressing.Just before serving, add the bacon and crispy pecans.

#version#

You guys. That bowl of yogurt is my new obsesh. Yogurt, peaches, honey, toasted pine nuts. So glad I found that random half bag of pine nuts when I was cleaning out the pantry. Gold, I tell ya.

As you know, we’re in the thick of the moving process. While I’m eating random bowls of delicious yogurt and taping boxes shut/ripping them open again, you’ll get to enjoy more guest posts by my food blogging pals. I’m looking forward to getting settled and working on new content.

Until then, some Thursday things.

Corn and Cotija Guacamole. Already amazing, and then he went ahead and added bacon.

Jenni went ahead and did it again with Lemony Carrot Apple Bombs.

Beet lemonade sounds crazy and awful and awesome all the same time.

I have seriously got my eye on Tina’s crispy shallot, bacon and brie burger. Yes and yes.

This ice cream kombucha float seems like the most logical way to drink our booch.

I’ll have a melon gin and tonic in each hand, please.

This is how I hard-boil my eggs, too. Works every time!

Oh, yeah- I’m at MPMK today sharing 16 drool-worthy stone fruit recipes. Go get you some.

Also, I’m a little teeny bit obsessed with Twitter again, so come find me @natalieherr and say hello!

Jody Engstrom has been a personal chef for special needs clients such as cancer and diabetes patients and has also teaches food preparation classes. She has prepared raw/vegan, grain-free and paleo diet foods for health food stores, crossfitters, and bodybuilding clients as well. Currently she is a  mother of 1 darling and energetic little girl, prepares healthy delightful meals for her family and cooks, photographs, and posts to her health diet related blog, Living Nutrition @ mylivingnutrition.com. Jody writes:

These little morsels are a new family favorite. They have become commonly requested for tea and dinner parties as well!

The first time I made them was during naptime about 6 months ago, at an especially defiant stage of the munchkin’s life. I needed a “meditative moment”, so I decided to make these while she was sleeping, in hopes that we could have a relaxing tea party with Lily doll, Pooh Bear and Mr. Moose when she woke up.

The cookies were surprisingly easy to make and I had plenty of time to photograph my creation, when my husband came upstairs from working.I had him try one and he didn’t stop. Between every click of the camera, there was another cookie stolen. I managed to get the photo I wanted, but at the tea party in the aftermath, Lily, Pooh Bear, and Mr. Moose looked somber as Ariana and I chomped down on the last 2 cookies daddy was forced to save for us.

I learned from this “cookie massacre” that if I want any saved for us, I have to wrap a few in aluminum foil and hide them behind the frozen peas in the freezer. It’s sneaky…but it works.

Coconut Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free. Originally posted on livingnutrition.com.

Author: Jody Engstrom

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 8-12

Ingredients

• for the cookies:
• 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 3 TBS coconut nectar, honey or maple syrup
• 2 TBS softened coconut oil or butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
• for the chocolate ganache:
• 2 TBS coconut oil, melted
• 1 TBS raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
• 1 TBS coconut nectar, honey or maple syrup
• a few grains of salt

Instructions

1. Put all of the cookie ingredients in the food processor and process until mixture sticks together. Scoop into 1 TBS sized balls. Place in the fridge for 5 minutes while you prepare the chocolate filling.Mix everything for the filling, in a shaker bottle or small blender until emulsified. Set aside.
2. Remove the coconut balls from the fridge and flatten them into more of a cookie shape. Create an indentation in the middle of each cookie for your chocolate ganache.
3. Carefully spoon the chocolate ganache into each indentation. Return to the fridge for 5 min for the ganache to set.
4. Enjoy! No Baking Required!

3.1.09

The countdown is on, people!

We move out of this house in four weeks. Unbelievable.

I’m at the point where I start thinking sappy thoughts about my friends and my town, and then I have to snap myself out of it and try to remember my best sappy stuff for future moments when I’m writing thank-you notes or trying to say goodbye/sobbing at our going-away party. Get it together, sister!

Aside from cleaning things up to show our house, we haven’t done much packing or anything yet. My main focus has been eating all the food in the chest freezer because I can’t bear to think about all the other stuff I should actually be doing. I made a list of all the stuff that needs to be eaten, posted it on the fridge and we are working our way through it. Bring on the awkward (I mean, creative?) meals made of random freezer and pantry ingredients, hooray!

Since the whole thing was consuming my thoughts, I wrote more about it over at MPMK. The focus of the post is how to eat healthily while you’re moving or traveling. I am a little scared that I won’t be able to stay on the GAPS wagon during this transition, but I am darn well going to try! The snacks pictured above are some of my favorite on-the-go foods that hold up well during travel (love me some pistachios on a road trip!)

Tell me how you stay healthy when things get stressful or you’re on the go. I want to know your secrets!

The drinks pictured above are Quick Blackberry Thyme Lemonade, Sweet Summer Cooler, Pineapple Grapefruit Spritzer and Cherry Cucumber Melon Cocktail. Get the last two recipes here and get sipping!

Head over to MPMK today for some easy dishes the kids can prepare in the kitchen (with minimal help from Dad). The kids in my house (even the baby!) love helping with the cooking. It can get a little messy, though- I make no promises about them staying clean. Forward it to your hubby or your best friend’s hubby today!

Are you guys feeling neglected? I know I’ve been doing a lot of work over on Modern Parents Messy Kids lately- it just ended up that a bunch of my posts were happening around the same time of the month. I’m sharing the links for all the salad recipes pictured above over there today, so if you’re in need of some salad inspiration- click on over.

If you’re wondering what’s new with me, I am waist-deep in preparation to begin the GAPS Intro Diet to begin healing my stomach. I have been stockpiling meat, chopping and freezing veggies and making broth like nobody’s business. I am just waiting on a few more things (mainly beef tallow from a local farmer) and then I’ll be ready to begin. I plan on sharing my journey, tips and any recipes I find useful along the way. I think it will be essential for my healing process to document things here, and maybe it will be helpful to some of you as well.

Any encouragement you have to share about healing through diet is welcomed! I will surely be drawing strength from the Lord to get through the introduction stages- it will be nothing short of a miracle if I make it through without sabotaging myself (i.e. eating handfuls of chocolate chips during nap time). Thanks for sticking with me while I work through this health issue- it means a lot to know that I am not alone!

Oh, and also- check out my two newest sponsors on the right sidebar- Jessica Lynn Writes (she has a yummy new baby, go see!) and All Natural Me.

We have been struggling a bit around here with keeping the peace during dinner time. The baby typically spends her dinner throwing all her food on the floor, climbing onto the table and screaming for no reason. The toddler has ants in his pants, bosses his sister around and fights us about eating his food (until he actually takes a bite and remembers he’s hungry). This topic has been on my mind a lot and so I tried to come up with some ways that we could work on keeping the peace. I’m sharing 10 of my tips at MPMK today (and it is absolutely a post written for me, I am not doing these things successfully, believe me!). Thankfully, I have the Holy Spirit working to give me patience- I know I could not handle the task of parenting without God’s help. I pray that He would help us as parents to discipline and instruct our children in love (and I know He will!) I hope the tips are helpful to other parents out there looking for a few moments of peace at the table.