Blueberry Crumble, optional plus

Mmmmmmmmmmm- looks good, huh?

I love making up recipes that can double as a full meal. This blueberry perfection can be a snack or dessert, but with the optional plusses I can actually serve it as a meal. Quite a fun change for us from the usual.


Blueberry Crumble, optional plus

5c frozen blueberries
1c apple juice
14-1/2c lemon juice
optional: put your juice in the blender with 4 Tablespoons green powder or 2c spinach, add stevia to taste

Combine the above in your casserole.

Make your crumble:

2c whole wheat flour
2c rolled oats
2t cinnamon
2c pecans or walnuts
olive oil or coconut oil to combine, about 1/2c (you want it crumbly, but not overly oil-saturated)
optional: 1/2c ground almonds

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until your topping is nice and crispy.

Then, enjoy!


"It is better to stir up a question without deciding it, than to decide it without stirring it up."
~Joseph Joubert

Home is where the

SPIDERS are.

Killed a black widow inside last night.

Keep finding dead wolf spider carcasses everywhere.

Are the black widows killing them off?

Is it a conspiracy?

The elk and deer aren't moving through the canyon right now, but the spiders are moving in.... I'm not feeling like doing a unit on spider study.

No, siree, I just want 'em dead.

Apparently, Pope St. Felix is the patron saint of spiders. I can't find a patron saint for protection against spiders, though.


"Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today."
~Ogden Nash

Sick Kid Shake

I decided to knit a scarf today. Isaiah begged to be taught to knit. So, with great trepidation, I agreed to give him a lesson. We’ve tried many times before with disastrous results, but today he chose some blue yarn to make a scarf as a Christmas gift for his little brother, watched very carefully and then, flawlessly, executed 3 rows of stitches. Phew.

Then we made a big, green shake. It’s a variation I like to call Sick Kid Shake.

Sick Kid Shake
2 very ripe bananas
2c spinach or 2 heaping Tablespoons green powder
1 ounce black cherry concentrate
1 ounce elderberry syrup
3 heaping Tablespoons protein powder
3c frozen fruits
4 droppersful Echinacea tincture
Water enough to thin
Stevia to taste

Everyone drank a nice, big glass. I’ve recently discovered a new protein powder. It’s called “fermented soy powder.” Regular soy is controversial and is definitely a thyroid interruptor, so I try to avoid it. But fermented soy- tempeh, miso, soy yogurt- doesn’t cause the same problems. Of course, most fermented soy isn’t particularly delicious, so I was a little nervous about it. But this NOW Foods Fermented Soy Powder is very mild-tasting. So much so that I can stir it into a bowl of oatmeal and no one minds.

It’s nice to kill 2 birds with one stone in a shake- fruits and veggies plus protein. I haven’t used protein powder since we went dairy-free because most non-dairy protein tastes… well, bad. And most protein powders of any sort are full of junk ingredients and fillers. This NOW powder is very clean, and like I said, very delicious. It will be nice for my next pregnancy to have a ‘legal’ protein powder for my shakes; blood sugar can be very sensitive to such a big sugar rush- even if it is from fruit- during pregnancy, so adding a protein element to a pregnancy shake is helpful for me.

My kids have fevers and I have baby fever….

Hope your weekend is great!


"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."
~Edith Sitwell

Sick kids

Kids are getting a cold.

Had to break into my immature Echinacea Tincture.

Have used up a LOT of that double-strength Elderberry Syrup JP and I made.

Got an order in the mail today of 8 pairs wool socks (made in the USA, even!), 3 hats, and 3 pairs waterproof gloves.

Everything fits- phew.

I took a stroll tonight; it was 30 degrees. I was almost warm after trotting 2 miles.

Shaping up to be a great five months of winter.


"Brew me a cup for a winter's night.
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I'll toast our bright eyes,
my sweetheart fair."
~Minna Thomas Antrim

A Christmas Story

So we're talking about stories that enrich our children's experience of the holidays. When we read one of our books, we're often inspired to do. Not that I plan out a schedule of 'activities to accompany stories read.' Hardly. But I know every year when we read the 'Legend of the Birds' from Hark! A Christmas Sampler, I'd better have peanut butter and millet on hand so we can make bird feeders right then! Nothing spoils a special "let's do it" moment like a trip to the store.

Of course, we might be inspired to do something simple, like trace a favorite picture from a book to make a Christmas card, or 'sweep the house from top to bottom' (mum sure likes that one, Strega Nona !)

Lots of our favorite stories, like Jingle the Christmas Clown inspire cooking! Unfortunately, many- ok maybe ALL- holiday treats are, simply put, bad. for. you.

What's a mum to do in a dairy-free, sugar-free house?

But you know breadwithHoney, and what we do here! Jingle's star cookies? Yup, we've hacked them! Seriously- can you make sugar cookies without... sugar?

Absolutely! And ginger bread cookies, and pumpkin pie, and cinnamon coffee cake. I'll be pulling out the big guns this month, sharing all my sweet secrets....

Food and stories; stories and food. Christmas, and my personal Heaven, in a (raw-honey-saturated) nutshell.


"Mankind is a great, an immense family. This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas."
~Pope John XXIII

Christmas is Coming...

The goose is getting fat!
Please put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny
Then a ha'penny will do-
If you haven't got a ha'penny
Then God bless YOU!

In our consumer-driven, sugar-saturated culture, it can be difficult to develop one's own healthy, spiritually meaninglful holiday traditions.

I've been waxing long on nutrition and food- man, that series of 11 posts was a lot! It burned me out a bit. What do you do to celebrate the Holiday of holidays when you choose not to resort to gingerbread houses, a bottomless candy dish, piles of presents, and all the other typical Christmas trappings?

Well, at our house, we don't decorate for Christmas till Christmas Eve.
We mark the passing of December, Advent, with stories. The stories start with a big, red book on the purple-clad buffet in the dining room. (Purple is the traditional color for penance and waiting.) An Advent wreath sits on the dining room table. And on the first night, we begin.

Every night we hear a story from The Jesse Tree and each child makes a tree decoration with a picture of the story. For years I've been working on a fancy-shmancy embroidered set of Jesse Tree decorations, but this year I officially give up. I don't think it would mean as much to take turns hanging up a pretty bauble mommy made- they take so much pride in creating their own tagboard picture, tying on a ribbon, and hanging their story on the tree. And there's no fighting over who's turn it is to hang up the decoration!

In addition to reading through the history of the Poeple of God from Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to Jesus, we revisit all our favorite Advent and Christmas stories. For 28 days, we will read and bake; play and plan. We usually start with Merry Christmas, Strega Nona becasue of the emphasis on preparation and waiting. Then come all our favorite St. Francis books- Merry Christmas, Strega Nona being our favorite! We talk about how different Christmas would have been without St. Francis' gift- the nativity scene.

The stories build to Christmas Eve, when, before Mass, we listen to the story of Christmas from the Word Itself (the Bible), and we place our Baby in His waiting manger. (Our nativity is great- Mary can hold the Baby, so He's usually there- "Where He belongs, Mommy!" the children say.)

Can tales and really mean as much to children as Christmas wishlists, 'Toy Boy' (remember him?), and cookies for Santa? I certainly think so! After all, what is Christmas but the beginning of the greatest Tale ever told? And even in a family that celebrates a more mainstream presents- cookies- Santa Christmas, making the telling of stories of the real meaning of Christmas part of your family traditions adds a layer of richness to the experience of the season.

Here are a few more of our must-read, Christmas-wouldn't-be-the-same-without-it story books:

The Real Santa Claus: Legends of Saint Nicholas

Hark! A Christmas Sampler

An Early American Christmas

The Night of Las Posadas
(This year we will actually get to go to the "Posadas" in this book, in Santa Fe, New Mexico- we are very excited!)

Baboushka and the Three Kings

Do you have any special books that mean "Christmas" to your family?


"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas."
~Peg Bracken

Once Upon a (Christmas) Time...

Do you remember the stories you loved as a child? If you close your eyes, maybe you can see the text, or your favorite pictures on the page. Maybe you can still recite "Peter Rabbit" from memory?

"The stories of childhood leave an indelible impression, and their author always has a niche in the temple of memory from which the image is never cast out to be thrown on the rubbish heap of things that are outgrown and outlived."
~Howard Pyle

Now Christmas is, itself, a story within a story. (And, of course, this is true of whichever winter holiday you celebrate.) Whether you celebrate a secular or a religious Christmas, stories go before, behind, and utterly envelop the day, the traditions, and the decorations.

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
~Dr Seuss

How lucky the child who is given the gift of Christmas stories! Stories of mother and father's Christmases past, of why-we-do-this, and why-we-eat-that.

When my first child was born, I thought about the traditions and the memories I wanted to make a part of his "Christmases past."

"When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness."
~Bob Hope

I noticed that lots of the traditions I saw in families around me weren't all necessarily conducive to peace and joy... but many seemed conducive to temper-tantrums and the production of good "future consumers."

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." ~Roy L. Smith

My husband and I wanted something different for our children. We wanted to infuse our family with traditions that would keep the wonder in their eyes and the joy in their hearts. We wanted a credit-card-free kind of celebration. And that's when we started telling stories.

Tomorrow I'd like to share our familiy's favorite stories with you. Do come back and "see us."

"You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be -
I had a mother who read to me.
~Strickland Gillilan

Baby Step #10: To Supplement or Not To Supplement: That is the Question

Everyone has an opinion. Of course, the ideal is to get all the vitamins and minerals one needs from one’s food, every day.

But the argument is that our food isn’t as nutrient-dense as it was even a hundred years ago. Our produce and grains are grown in depleted soil; our animals are full of synthetic hormones and antibiotics and who-knows-what-else. No one really knows if, even on a 100% organic diet, it is even possible to get the necessary nutrients for good health from food alone.

Then again, just like pharmaceuticals, vitamins are Big Business. Someone stands to gain by convincing you that popping pills (‘natural’ pills, this time…) is the solution to a poor modern food supply.

So- to supplement or not to supplement, that is the question.

Do you have plenty of energy for the things you want to do? Do you sleep well and feel fine once you drag yourself out of bed? Do you bounce back quickly from a bad day? Do you rarely experience cravings for junk food, candy, or coffee? Do you eat a wide variety of foods in as close to their natural state as possible? Do you get sick once a year or less and recover easily? Do your bowels move easily and regularly?

If you said yes to all of the above, then you may not need supplements. The main reason people supplement, and stick with it, is that they feel better with the supplements, and worse when they stop taking them. I, personally, will not go without my high-potency multi-vitamin. I have a (medically confirmed) chronic zinc deficiency, and I could never eat enough green peas to provide the zinc my body needs. So I have no qualms taking it in pill form. If you are against vitamins, and you feel good, that’s wonderful. I hope you are extremely careful to eat a balanced diet high in fruits and vegetables, and that you studiously avoid foods that rob your body of vitamins and minerals- caffeine, white sugar, and white flour.

If you answered ‘no’ to several of those questions and suspect that you could be helped by supplements, I suggest that you gather lots of information before buying a single bottle of anything. My most trusted source for supplement facts, what to take, and safe ceilings (maximum amounts) for all different vitamins and minerals, is Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition 4th Editionby Marilyn Shannon. The newest edition also contains safety data on many herbs and other ‘natural’ supplements. It is also the best source for safe supplementation during pregnancy and lactation.

Other resources I have used in designing my own safe, energy and health-promoting supplement regime are:

Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, this book is especially useful for people who are against all synthetic vitamins and want to enhance their health or overcome health issues using only nutrition and herbs. Rosemary Gladstar, depite being one of the most famous herbalists of our time, is very balanced in her approach, never an extremist, and has a lot to say about combining natural and allopathic (mainstream medical) therapies. And her teas and other recipes will give you whole-foods, all-natural solutions at a FRACTION of the price of the “alive” vitamins and supplements on the shelves at the health food store!

Another source I use is Let's Have Healthy Children -please note that a portion of the information in this book is quite out of date. However, there are so many useful suggestions in this book for pregnancy and more, that I hate not to mention it. ****************Just be sure, as with any self-help book, that you cross-reference any nutritional, herbal, or other type of treatment in at least 3 published (i.e. NOT internet-only) sources. (This is, in fact, the herbalist’s rule of thumb- never use a remedy with finding it in at least 3 trustworthy places!)******************

Marilyn Shannon does suggest that supplementing the adult(s) in a household is far more important than supplementing children, provided the children’s diet is high-quality whole foods. I agree. It is very hard to find an all-natural, sugar-free, iron-free vitamin for kids. And if sugar and white flour are mostly avoided, children’s systems tend to absorb nutrition from their food far better than adults’ systems do.

One more note: regular grocery stores and drug stores are no place to buy supplements. The iron in drug-store variety vitamins, and ESPECIALLY in prescription pre-natals, is particularly damaging to the body’s intestinal flora. Most drug store-type vitamins are difficult or impossible to digest. One chiropractor I know suggests that people who feel they can’t afford good-quality health food store vitamins should buy an iron-free multi-vitamin and ***chew the tablets.*** This, at least, helps with their digestion. It’s really gross, though.


"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."
~J.R.R. Tolkien, "Three Is Company," The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954

Baby Step #9: Sugar Season Strategies

My husband thinks Baby Step #9 should be "Listen to Your Husband 100% of the Time"; at least, listen to him, my husband, because he's always telling me not to worry about anything. Ever. And relaxing, in his opinion, is just as important as nutrition for good health. I told him he's right. And if God would just transplant our personalities for a single day....

Sugar Season is that season that comes this time of year. Starting shortly before Halloween and lasting until, say, January 15. Have you noticed that flu season revvvvs up just as Sugar Season (thank goodness) fizzles to a close? Hmmm. And that everyone in sneezing distance has a cold in January and February? Hmmmmmm. And Seasonal Affective Disorder starts to bother people late in January? Hmmmmmmmmm.

I realize that there are many factors involved in these winter plagues. But who can argue that the sugar orgy of late fall and early winter is certainly not helping your body fend them off?

Nobody ever mentions these things- doctors, the media, pharmeceutical companies... but your body is exposed to germs all the time. You would die without germs. Your body's immune system constantly fights off unfriendly germs. Doing so keeps your immune system strong, in fact. You get sick when your body's defenses get overwhelmed. That's why when 2 people who get exposed to the same germ, one might be unaffected and the other might be in bed for 9 days. It's why some kids catch everything that goes around, while other kids run a fever for an afternoon then hit the ground running.

Genes affect your body's defenses, too. But good nutrition will keep your immunities functioning your personal best.

Avoiding sugar and junk food is my #1 strategy for surviving Sugar Season without contracting the plague. Excercising regularly despite the bad weather is good, too. This is easier said than done, of course, with dozens of invitations to parties, which means lots of party food and late hours. Present wrapping, celebrations to plan, cards to write, songs to sing, books to read, decorations to make, lights to hang, not to mention the usual 3 meals a day to cook, noses to wipe, baths to give-

Ya, sure, plus excercise and eat properly, too! What's the big deal? You're super-woman, right?

Sigh. No. At least, I'm not. So what's a mom to do?

Christians have a good excuse to give up sugar for Advent (the 4 weeks before Christmas), since it is traditionally a penitential season. That's what I do. I explain to the children, every year, why we are doing it. I've found that it is easier on all of us if there are no exceptions to this rule, otherwise every day seems to be the occasion for an exception.

Halloween just ended. My 2 older kids each ate 1 piece of candy after lunch knowing that we'll have no sweets (no white sugar) till Thanksgiving. They know that on Thanksgiving they can eat as much of their grandmother's famous apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake as they want (after a big plate of turkey and green beans and salad, of course). The holiday seems very special that way. Then it's a fast again till Christmas Mass. After which I pretty much drop the reins till New Year's.

I always take a big sugarless apple crisp to holiday parties so my children have something yummy to enjoy, and to prevent them from resenting our no-sugar fast. I also feed my kids before parties. It sucks.

Parties used to mean "Woo-hoo, I don't have to cook dinner!" but it always ends up badly. Half the time the food will be covered in cheese (Isaiah gets much more messed up by dairy in the winter than in the summer), or else there will be no protein in sight. So I've learned: if I want to enjoy the party, feed the brood beforehand.

On the days I know we'll be eating unhealthier-than-usual fare, I try to give the kids acidophilus- the friendly bacteria your intestines need to keep candida- yeast- at bay, and to keep things, uh, moving smoothly. We also take our elderberry syrup and echinacea tincture sporadically (that is, whenever I remember) during Sugar Season.

The other thing we do regularly when the temperature drops is to bring out the neti pot. This: is the neti pot I gave several people for Christmas last year. We have one that I sterilize between uses. (Everybody is supposed to have their own, but I thought 3 neti pots was just too much in my cabinet!) My 7 year old does his own nose himself with it. My 4 year old uses an eye dropper on her own nose because she won't let me use the neti pot on her. John Paul, our baby, gets his nose washes with saline in an eye dropper, too. And I use a teeny pinch of baking soda and a teeny pinch of Himalayan Pink Sea Salt in warm water. It's a winter ritual, really, and we usually giggle a lot watching each other's funny faces while 'neti-potting.'

What's the point? Well, the saltwater washes the "bad germs" off your mucus membranes, where they lodge and multiply. Plus, the salt hydrates your mucus membranes. Winter weather tends to dry them out and leave them even more susceptible to germ invasion. Drinking hot tea and gargling salt water also help keep your mucus membranes clean and happy.

Is there something you do to survive Sugar Season healthily? I'd love to hear about it!


"Things sweet the taste prove in digestion sour."
~William Shakespeare, King Richard the Second, 1595

Baby Steps #7 & #8: EAT ME! DRINK ME!

I’m getting sick of these baby steps! I have so many other things to tell you.

So tonight I’m condensing 7 and 8, EAT ME! And DRINK ME! (I just got a copy of Alice in Wonderland (full of vintage illustrations!) for 50 cents so I’m feeling very Wonderlandish. I’ll just assume you caught the allusion.)

Even if you couldn’t do any of the other steps, these 2 would cover a multitude of evils. And they are so simple.

EAT more fruits and veggies and DRINK more water.

Wow- do they pay me to come up with this brilliant stuff?

Well, no. They don’t.

But we all need to hear it more often than we do.

What if you decided you’d eat a fruit and a vegetable at every meal and every snack for the next week? Or that after breakfast you were going to eat nothing else till you’d eaten 10 (Ok, maybe 5) servings of fruits and veggies? For starters, if you’re trying to lose weight, you’d add a lot of fiber to your diet and that would help you feel less hungry all day. You’d also be less likely to feel those sugar-coffe-pop cravings in the afternoon and evening.

I don’t have much advice for people who think vegetables are gross. Except maybe, wake up and smell the cancer, and, for heaven’s sake get creative!!! And if you need help eating fruit then you may, in fact, be beyond hope in the nutrition department….

And what if you decided that after breakfast you’d drink only water for the rest of the day? Did you know that even mild dehydration can contribute to headaches, fuzzy brain, cravings, and overeating? Did you know that studies have shown that an apple and a glass of water decrease afternoon sleepiness better than a cup of coffee? Did you know that lots of people don’t drink water till they feel thirsty, when they are already quite dehydrated? There’s a great book called Water: For Health, for Healing, for Life: You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty!. I highly recommend it if you think I’m being silly on this water thing.

If you don’t like to drink water, then I’ll give you a big AMEN! I think tap water, in the dozens of cities and farms where I’ve drunk it, is super-yuck. Water should taste sweet and smooth. Most tap water is so riddled with impurities that it hardly goes down without a lot of doctoring up. There are lots of ways to doctor up plain water- lemon, cucumber, even cantaloupe chunks, frozen, for ice cubes (really good in the summertime). But you could also just drink water that tastes good. Many folks think a home-purification system is a luxury. But if you buy soda pop, juice, milk, coffee, tea, and whatever else people drink these days, you’re mistaken. A good-quality reverse-osmosis or steam distillation system costs between $300 and $1,500. And over the years, you will spend that much and more on drinks. Shoot, I have a friend who buys 2 Tropicana jugs a week at $6. In 1 to 3 years she could have a very nice drinking water system paid for, save her body a ton of empty calories, and prevent a lot of waste in the landfill.

The other reason to filter your water is for you (if you’re a woman) and your daughters. LOTS of people flush birth control down the toilet. Some on purpose, others because they don’t fully digest it and out it comes. Your municipality DOES NOT filter out pharmaceutical agents. You get antibiotics, hormones, and anything else people flush or don’t fully digest. Yum. And studies point to these agents as potent factors in many cases of infertility and hormone imbalance.

So, again, even though these Baby Steps are pretty simple, sometimes just hearing common sense for the zillionth time is refreshing and inspiring. It’s refreshing to me just to write it down.

And yes, we had a sugared Halloween, for those of you dying to know. We went to Halloween story time and trick-or-treated (two different times, in fact!). We survived and today there is NO CANDY in my house. Because otherwise I would eat it. All of it. Even the stuff I don’t ‘like’.


"Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong."
~Dandemis


Please note that since this is my blog, and I am the editor, and no one really cares, I’m not footnoting these posts. If you want to find the studies to which I refer, Google is your friend. If you still can’t find them, you can email me, and, eventually, I will reply with the info that I will have to go find. I read constantly and sometimes I forget where I found something. I am an abysmal note-taker. Cheers!