Halloween can be TRICKY!

Our idea of Halloween pre-GAPS, was candy, candy, and more candy. Since we can't have sugar or processed foods, (and have learned the detrimental effects of both), I needed to come up with other ideas of how to spend Halloween.

Can I tell you how much I love Google?? Mom's all across the world post there ideas on having a healthier Halloween. Here are a few ideas we are going to adopt!

First, we will trick or treat for a little bit. My kids still enjoy dressing up and going out!

The "Switchy Witch" is coming to switch out there bag of candy, for some "GAPS-approved" treats and money.

Then, we have invited family and neighbors to come over for a hot dog roast (in our driveway) over our fire-pit, Coconut-Pumpkin soup, Cauliflower Potatoe-Sausage soup, and some carrot cake cupcakes and pumpkin cupcakes.

We will sit out on our front driveway and pass out "Halloween toys" while the kids play in my parents blow up haunted house.

I'm hoping for success!

Hope you all have a fun Halloween!!

Cody and I attended an Adult costume party. The theme was commercials. Cody was the "Orkin Man", and I was the cockroach. (Dippin' Skinny anyone??)

Ferments

Fermented foods are SUPER FOODS, and a BIG part of the GAPS Diet. Fermented foods are alive foods, full of enzymes, beneficial bacteria, and they help to detoxify the body. Most GAPS people have an imbalance of bacteria in there bodies.  The bad bacteria has taken over, and has caused many issues. In order to restore balance again, fermented foods are eaten to dump good bacteria back into the body.

Countries that have been around since the dawn of time, still eat fermented food with every meal. We do not see it much in the United States. The goal is to be able to eat about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of a fermented food with every meal.  A popular ferment in the United States is Sauerkraut. But, essentially u can ferment almost anything. I am just testing my skills at this, but I have so far been successful with sauerkraut and pickles.

When we started the diet 9 months ago, we were struggling with way to much die-off, so we cut back the fermented foods. When you start adding the good bacteria to your body, the bad bacteria comes out of it's hiding place to fight, and so all your symptoms come to the surface, sometimes even times 10, and then are flushed out.

We started with just one tsp. of sauerkraut juice, a few weeks ago. Everyone seemed to be doing fine, so I rapidly upped our dosage to 3 tsp. or some of us were actually taking a bite of the sauerkraut. WOW, did we all have some die-off. My husbands allergies came back 10 fold. It sounded like he had a huge sinus infection. ( He stopped taking the juice, and 2 days later, his allergies were gone.)  I was exhausted and achy, my oldest son's allergies and stimming flared, and my two youngest kids got a red rash all over there face. What did all of this mean?? We definitely have some healing to do, but I need to introduce this much slower. So, I dropped everyone back down to 1 tsp. of the juice, and it got a lot better. Now, a few weeks later, and we are currently on two tsp. of juice, and everyone is managing quite well.  We have a long way to go to get to 1/2 a cup of the actual food per meal, but we will get there!

How to make Sauerkraut:

Shred or chop up a cabbage.
Shred up about 3 carrots.
Mix the two in a bowl with about a  Tb. of salt and some fresh cracked pepper.
Pound or squeeze the cabbage til' juice starts to come out of it.
Push it down into a glass jar until juice is covering the top of it.  (If there is not enough juice, you can add salt water to the top, just make sure the cabbage is submerged in the water, leaving two inches at the top of your glass jar for expansion.)
Put the lid on and leave on your counter for about two weeks covered with a towel.
When it's done, put it in your fridge. It will keep for months. ( If you haven't totally stripped your system down with the GAPS diet, you can probably eat a 1/4 of a cup and be fine. Just see how you feel!)

Fermented foods are more powerful then raw fruits and veggies, because it ups the amount of enzymes, vitamins and minerals!! It's a SUPER food! (Also, sauerkraut is packed with Vitamin C, so great during colds and flu season!)

Here are some pics: ( I usually just use green cabbage, but I added a couple purple ones this time. My kids thought that was fun. Very colorful!)

Shred your cabbage

Shred your carrots, add pepper, salt and pound the juices out!

Stuff the cabbage down in the jars. (I took a shot far away, so you could see the mess too!)

Viola! I should have left a little more room on top for expansion (note to self). 

Cover with a towel, and let it sit out for a couple of weeks.

You can google fermented foods too, there are so many success stories of healing with ferments!

Keep eatin' fat (and ferments)!

Britt

The Incredible Edible EGG

We just got Chickens! It's so exciting! On the GAPS diet, you eat a lot of eggs. We consume about 15 a day. They are a good source of natural fat and protein, and they are loaded with all the good stuff. I had no idea there was such a big difference between eggs. The egg on the left is an organic egg bought at the grocery store. The two yolks on the right are from free-ranging, organic chickens who get to eat bugs, grass, weeds, and who get plenty of sunshine in someone's own backyard. It's crazy the nutrients that are lost from the regular grocery store eggs. 

Eggs were a problem at our house. My oldest son was allergic to both the yolk and the egg white before we started the diet.  After about one month on the diet, we were successfully able to introduce the egg yolk back into his diet. Yeah! It was such an exciting day. Then, a few weeks later, we tried the egg white. Unfortunatly, he had a reaction. The egg white is typically harder to digest, because of the protein, so we took it back out. For the last 8 months, I think I tried to re-introduce it two more times. Both times, a reaction. Just last week, I slowly added a little more egg white to his morning yolks, and yesterday, he had two whole fried eggs without any reactions. I may be jumping the gun here, I will have to see how the next couple of days go, but so exciting! Eggs are really hard to substitute, and are so nourishing, so I am hoping this is a success! 

 I had thought I never had any problems with any foods prior to this diet. For 4 months after we started, I had some pretty bad die-off which included, nausea, back and neck pain, brain fog, headaches etc. I realized, that I was the sickest in the morning, and then it would go away during the day. (Yes, I even took a pregnancy test to rule that one out!) I realized all I was eating in the morning, were eggs and vegetables. Since I ate vegetables all day long, I thought, maybe it was the eggs. I took the eggs out one morning, and I was instantly better! I had energy, no pain, no headaches, I could think clearly etc. I was kind of shocked. Really? Am I sensitive to eggs? I kept them out for 3 days and felt fabulous! I then thought I would just try the yolk on the 4th morning. All the previous sickness came flooding back. Ugh! I did not want to feel that way at all, so I decided to be off of eggs for a while. I concentrated on eating a lot of fat and drinking a lot of broth, in order to heal and seal my gut lining, so I could handle eggs again. 2 months later, I gradually added the eggs back in, and viola, no more problems with eggs! Success!

When you are on this diet, your body gets a brand new clean start by eliminating foods, and slowly adding them back in. I may have been sensitive to eggs for a long time, but our bodies are so inundated with so many things (sugar, white flour, chocolate, stress, foods we are allergic to) etc., our bodies don't even know how to scream at us any more. Instead, you have headaches once in a while, you have trouble sleeping, your face breaks out, you have asthma, whatever your issues are. 

I am grateful for this mighty change with the eggs, and hope for many more successes! The chickens have been the BEST babysitters! My kids will hang out with them forever!:)

(One is named Red Rosie, and the rest are named Dinner.)

(Ye haw! Our first egg!)