Category — FOOD

As always, I’m on the lookout for non-GMO foods, when I read this article I jumped for joy, finally a mainstream (at least as far as I’m concerned) food industry is going non-GMO, I am thrilled beyond words! Here is what I found on this: (more…)

I read just the other day about some study “they” did that says people who take pictures of their food and post the pictures on social media MAY have a mental problem… well I am about to prove that I MAY have this problem, dinner tonight was special, something I haven’t made since we moved off grid over 5 years ago now. Eggs Benedict. I used to make this at least once a month. I wondered if the altitude might be a problem, it sometimes works against me, and sometimes a dish does not work out at all.
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Little by little I have been actively working on removing GMO foods from my pantry, to make it more painless I focus on one food or one food group at a time.

I have always been an avid label reader, when my (now grown) son was a child, he had been diagnosed with ADHD, something that is unfortunately all too common, especially in boys. One of the things we did was to modify his diet by removing everything, and I do mean everything that was any sort of sugar, that meant every ingredient that ended in “ose”, the only exception to that was lactose, fortunately that didn’t seem to bother him. Some of the items removed from his diet was sucrose (table sugar), glucose, sucrose, dextrose, fructose, the hardest one was dextrose, that can even be found in table salt! As long as we kept his diet going, he behaved so much better, fortunately I was a prolific and adventurous cook, I had no problems making anything he wanted or needed, my son and the rest of us ate quite well. It’s my son’s birthday today, happy birthday Josh! (more…)

Here’s a scenario, you are working hard, say chopping wood for winter, or perhaps you are starting your garden this spring, you have been working hard for hours, you realize it’s lunchtime, your stomach is growling, you need to refuel. Now you have some options, what to eat for lunch… often times after eating our bodies (and mind) slows down, instead of wanting to go back to work, you are looking at the recliner, or even the bed (that’s me, raising hand!)… how many times have you eaten and right afterward all you wanted to do was sleep? That is not what you want to have happen, you need to refuel and go back to work. What if I told you that what you eat can have an effect on whether you are ready to go back to work or you are ready to go to sleep? (more…)

Another great recipe from Corey Naughton

Pasta is a wonderful thing to us off-gridders. Long storage life, high in carbs, you can make it at home, and you can add just about whatever is handy to have a delicious meal in no time.

There is a dark side to pasta however … That dark side … is ENERGY.

Pasta requires a long period of boiling in order to turn it from an inedible stick into a tender slippery string. That sustained boiling requires large amounts of energy. You may be using energy from your solar panels … You may be using energy from burning wood or propane … But, at the end of the day you are expending your valuable resources. Resources that cost money to initially procure and replenish. Resources that could be better spent on making dessert ;-)

What if I told you there’s another way? (more…)

I may have found out why the apples Corey tossed to his deer were rejected by the deer, scary but true, it would seem that our so called organic fruit may be sprayed with antibiotics. I ran across this article all about it… (more…)

With the tragedy of the bombing in Boston, this is just one more reminder that we need to be prepared for as many different situations as possible. First I want to say how saddened I am by the actions of whoever is responsible, this is an unspeakable tragedy to those who were injured, killed and traumatized by this bombing, to all their friends and families. (more…)

Food is so important, unless you were raised on a working farm, most of us have no idea where our food comes from, during the last Great Depression many people survived because they were less than one generation out from the farm, many had gardens, chickens, a milk cow… now people live crammed into cities with postage stamp sized yards with HOA’s and city ordinances that keep them from growing anything but grass, and Heaven forbid they have more than a dog or cat…

There is a lost art, the art of cooking, specifically from scratch, given a kitchen from our grandmother’s time, how many of us would be able to whip up a meal? Without microwaves, without box mixes, without the frozen conveniences in pre-packaged plastic… Fortunately I’m not the only person who thinks this way, who wonders about these things.

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From regular contributor Corey Naughton

Like many of those who live off grid I like to eat healthy. There comes a point when one must define what “healthy” is exactly. At the very least, we must personally define what is NOT healthy and avoid those items with the small exception of occasional indulgences (can you say “bacon”). Many will be surprised to learn that things they think are healthy are in fact not. For those of you who have not yet discovered the dangers of pesticide laden and GMO foods … This might be a wake up call. This quick story very clearly helped me add yet another “healthy” item to my list of things to avoid. (more…)