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No Meat or Bread in the store? No problem!

/ Erin Castillo | Grow Your Health Gardening Owner & Certified Hydroponic Grower / Leave a comment

 

I was a little taken aback at how the meat section and paper aisles were just stripped bare at only 10 am on a Tuesday morning at our local grocery store as part of the CoronaVirus Crisis. Our store was limiting all purchases to only two items of each. That’s a bit difficult to say the least when you’re responsible for feeding seven people! Thankfully, this store run was to get some meds for my husband and as I waited for it to be ready I figured I’d grab some fresh produce for these yummy Mushroom-Cucumber-Lettuce-Carrot-Bell Pepper Rolls. For the first time, I actually felt relief about my decision to eat more veggies because that meant the produce section was more full for me and my family to shop from!

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If you haven’t checked out the Forks Over Knives Recipes, you may want to take a gander online. There’s a movie documentary (watch online/rent/buy) that you can watch, a cookbook or can purchase as a reference for your kitchen library, and these great seasonal magazines (Spring 2020, Winter 2020) full of recipes as well as stories of those who have forever changed their lives by eating whole-based greens, fruits, and veggies while ditching gluten, dairy and sugar.

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I made the Cucumber-Mushroom Rolls without the dry brown rice Mai Fun Noodles and added some sweet bell peppers I had on hand.  This is the first time I’ve ever played around with these round rice papers. Couple of first-timer tips if I may… dip it for about 7-10 seconds and take it out while it’s still slightly stiff. I diced up the lettuce (from a medley kit because my Tower Garden romaine wasn’t quite ready — but will be soon!) and put all the components each in a small bowl and just sat there and did assembly-line style. The thing that took the longest was simply cutting the veggies. This is a seriously easy thing to make in my opinion.

When folding your rice paper, fold sides first (left, then right) and then fold the bottom flap up to seal the corner before rolling the goods into the rice paper. There is a little bit of stretch. I used the peanut dipping sauce recipe on the back of my rice paper because it was free of any gluten and sugar. (I drizzled onto the top as I ate instead of dipping.)

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This is definitely going to go into my spring/summer meal plan wheel-house, because it won’t heat up my kitchen by turning on the stove. I do encourage you to pick up a copy of the Forks Over Knives Summer 2019 Edition as it contains many more great recipes like this one!

Enjoy!

— Erin

Two of my favorite almond butters

/ Erin Castillo | Grow Your Health Gardening Owner & Certified Hydroponic Grower / Leave a comment

I was a latch-key kid. My mom worked until 5 pm each day, so my brothers and I came home to an empty house. And when you’ve got older brothers, there’s no one to baby you or provide for your needs – at least not my brothers. It was survival when it came to scrounging for snacks out of the pantry.

As a Kindergartner, I would grab the peanut butter jar and a spoon and plop down infront of the TV and eat scoop after scoop. I was a skinny, active little girl and this was probably my largest caloric meal of the day.

When I learned that peanuts were not good for me this past month, I began to look at almonds more seriously. In a short time, almond butter has become a staple in our home.  But for now, my two favorites have been the NaturAlmond brand (I particularly like the honey roasted) and I am in love with Kalot’s Fruit and Almond Butter with blueberries, cinnamon and walnuts – all of which are on my beneficial list! Whoop whoop!

Next step is to make my own Fruit and Almond Butter in hopes of saving some dinero.

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How a Chick-fil-a salad saved the day…

/ Erin Castillo | Grow Your Health Gardening Owner & Certified Hydroponic Grower / Leave a comment

I was struggling with my day of not being able to have the foods that I was use to eating. I had been strong for two weeks and on this particular day, I was still eating what I should and studying recipes, but I did so begrudgingly.

My husband had planned to take me out that evening to meet at a Starbucks to purchase some old doorknobs we needed for a home project and I just became more surly as I declined having him get anything from Starbucks for me. So, he got his door knobs and coffee and I sat there feeling hungry. Again.

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Saw this funny Instagram photo from the Rosepepper and it fit the way the day had been going that I had to laugh!  Laughing is good for the soul!

So, I asked if we could grab something to eat – that I needed to get a salad because I needed more vegetables to log for my day. We decided to try Chick-fil-A and as I stood and looked at the menu screens, I quickly realized that I couldn’t eat some things in many of the salads. “Your salads are probably homemade, aren’t they?” I asked the Clark who stood at the register. “Yes, Ma’am.” I turned to my husband and I said, “Well, I can’t have the cabbage, (because of how the lectins will react in my body.) I can’t have the bacon (because that’s pork.) And I can’t have the corn, (because I’m allergic to corn.)” So, Clark, quickly responded saying, “Oh, we can make the salad however you’d like!” I thanked him and he responded, “My pleasure.”Music to my ears!

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So, I waited a few short moments for my salad to be made and chose a dressing that fit my eating profile and gobbled it up. And I felt better. Something about having a salad made that I didn’t have to pick apart felt great. And it did fill me up.

We decided to stop at a grocery store on the way home and check out their gluten free section (yeah, we’re pretty wild on our date nights – haha) and after a 40 minute shopping trip putting great stuff in our cart, we pull up behind the coupon lady. She was dressed in blue scrubs and it was evident she was a health professional who had recently gotten off work. She was ringing multiple like items together and paying only 11 cents and 10 cents for 6 Minute-Maids and other radome sugar-laden foods. (Her last purchase, they paid her 65 cents!)  My cart rang up for $165.  It became quickly evident that there was a disconnect between good food and junk food. The manufacturers are to blame for this as they are willing to give away their free sugar-laden foods in hopes of getting someone hooked on their sweet treat. They are sugar-crack dealers. And I just thought it was a bit of irony that the coupon clipping “health” professional was feeding her family JUNK and the obese woman with the expensive cart was buying the healthy food!

On the way home, I thought about my choices and how the day had gone. I was thankful for my supportive husband. I was thankful I had money to buy the foods I needed to eat. and I realized that my attitude had improved. It was a great reminder to me that at any time, we can hit the reset button with our attitude. Change is a daily choice to make even just one area of our lives better. When we are trying to make changes for ourself as well as our family, that’s a lot. It’s a reminder that I have a relationship with sugar-laden food and we are breaking up. And that’s OK. There are other better choices out there (like my Chick-fil-A salad) that I can make and feel GREAT!