The First Trimester Of Dietary Change

January 17, 2025 Sarah

In late October, Kirk asked if we’d change how we ate. I am not going to lie and say it has been easy. With teens at home, I have to work around them as well. But as we enter the Second Trimester, I have learned a lot this time about what works for us and what doesn’t.

When we started in earnest in November, I was committed to making high-protein/low-carb dinners but wasn’t quite ready to give up carbs. I made bread and rolls quite often and made a carb side for the boys with dinner. I started to see results, which made me realize we could go further.

That we went pretty hardcore at it this time:

High-protein
Low-Carb
Lots of vegetables
Fresh fruit
No seed oils
No processed food
No added sugar/sweetener
All cooking is done from scratch with base ingredients

I saw this comment a while back, and it hit home about my daily decisions. I don’t always have to remove “x” from my diet, but I must be mindful. Sugar is one area I have real issues with, though. Consuming it awakens something profound in my body, and I cannot stop my craving for it. So if I go without, it is that much better.

I took my middle son to Mexican the other week, and I had my meal without tortillas and avoided the tortilla chips. I realized I have little self-control once I start noshing on salty snacks. One chip becomes 40 chips. I enjoyed the carb with lunch, which was rice, and I felt no guilt over that because I had made a choice. I didn’t feel bloated and tired after lunch, so it was worth it—one carb, not three separate ones.

The first trimester is always one of change. You have to see what works for everyone, and it is more complicated with children involved, especially if they are teenagers. I still make them bread for their lunches, but I have noticed that one of them is becoming interested in increasing his protein/lower carbs so that he gains muscle (he is built like his Dad, so he will have no issues putting on muscle). I have watched them get excited about vegetables, which they always ate, but now are happy to see them. I prepare them in different ways, and this makes them eat more.

The other is I forced myself to get on the scale and see where I was about 2 weeks back. I do not have a positive relationship with weight scales, going back to being a child. When I was in 6th grade, our teacher had public weigh-ins weekly, where the popular girls did the weighing – and loudly called out their weight to embarrass the bigger girls. I had hit puberty in 5th grade, far ahead of most of the girls. I’ve always been “bigger,” even at my skinniest in college. The number wasn’t as bad as I feared, and I was only 5 pounds over the weight I would claim on the paperwork medically. I could deal with that. I am now down to that number. It’s not a specific goal; I have to be a certain number. But it does help to know where I am and where I need to get to. For now, it’s weekly weigh-ins to monitor whether our eating is helping.

Solidly in the second trimester, I am learning more about what to eat and when, and I am experiencing the feeling of hunger. I realized I used to feel hungry rarely. Eating on a schedule, true hunger didn’t have time to show up. I also find I get full faster, as our food is denser.

~Sarah

Protein Egg Bites

January 16, 2025 Sarah

I revisited Kirk’s daily egg bites by adding Greek yogurt for more protein. The bites are low-carb and -high-protein, with an egg souffle texture.

These bites are vegetarian as prepared; feel free to use them as a base and sprinkle them on the top before baking finely chopped cooked meats or roasted vegetables for more depth.

Protein Egg Bites

Ingredients:

6 large eggs
1 cup egg whites
½ cup nonfat Greek yogurt
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly oil a 12-count muffin tin with avocado oil.

Add all ingredients to a blender and process until smooth.

Divide between the cups.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

Let cool a bit before sliding out with a thin spatula.

Keep refrigerated and reheat for about a minute in the microwave.

Makes 12 egg bites.

Nutritional Stats, based on three egg bites as a serving:

193 Calories / 14 grams Fat / 21 grams Protein / .5 gram Sugar

~Sarah

Clean Living · MAHA

Make America Healthy Again: The FDA Bans Red Dye 3

January 15, 2025 Sarah

There’s still so much work to do in Making America Healthy Again, but the FDA’s announcement that Red Dye 3 will be banned in food production by January 2027 and medicine by January 2028 makes me so happy.

Even if it is a ploy by the FDA to show their soon-to-be-leaders that they shouldn’t get fired.

Red Dye 3 isn’t an easy chemical. None of us need it. When you realize it has been banned in cosmetics for nearly 4 decades, you have to ponder…how was it still allowed in food and drugs? Think how many pain meds, cold meds, and children’s medications contain it. When people are sick, they end up taking toxins into their bodies. If you are of a certain age, you might remember chewing on red pills that showed plaque on your teeth when in elementary school. It’s still used in that. It’s also the dye choice for red pistachios.

Red Dye 3 is erythrosine, along with petroleum.

Having said all this, there is a bigger target, and we must push for it.

Red Dye 40 is the most commonly used artificial coloring in the United States.

We are getting there, but we have so much to do.

~Sarah

Clean Living · Prepping · Preserving

Why We Freeze-Dry: The Insane Egg Prices

January 10, 2025 Sarah

Egg prices were terrible enough a couple of years back when the last “scare” occurred, but nowhere as bad as this January in the PNW.We already have higher prices for eggs in Washington, Oregon, and California due to state laws on chicken eggs, which mostly went into action in January of 2023, that require all hens be cage-free (not a bad thing, but most large growers had to invest more money into their productions).

That being said, you can even find eggs in stock. It depends on the store, whether it is a chain, and who its supplier is. The small stores had eggs this week, but as soon as they sold out, they’d not have anymore.

I took these photos on Monday this week at a local independent store. Most of their eggs were sold out, but this is what they had on hand. They were not able to order anymore at that point from their distributor.

$11.99 for 12 eggs from a mid-level grower. Nothing fancy here. On average I use 6 eggs every morning for the two younger boys and me, every morning. That is $6 just for that, if I were buying eggs.

$17.99 for 18 eggs. There is no savings in buying 18 versus 12 either.

Even 5 dozen boxes of eggs were not a bargain, ranging from $26 to 30, or even more. Costco stores range from having no eggs to having some. But the prices have gone up quickly.

All it takes is a county, a state, or the Fed to say chickens must be culled to “prevent disease,” and suddenly, 100,000 hens are dead in a region with no new eggs coming. Once hatched, it takes 12 to 16 weeks for new hens to produce their first eggs, which takes 3 to 4 months, and hatching takes 3 weeks on top of that.

Since we got our Harvest Right freeze-dryer, one of the things we have dried a lot of was our hens’ eggs in the summer flow. When you cannot keep up with fresh eggs. We did it so we’d have eggs in winter to enjoy, when we only get 1 to 2 eggs (if lucky) till February.

We wrote a tutorial on freeze-drying eggs, which will get you going.

A freeze-dryer is a real investment and a major appliance, but it can help you reach prepping goals for long-term food storage. Even if you don’t have chickens on your land, the key is to buy eggs when they are affordable and process them. At this point, it seems that every two or so years, we are having an egg crisis.

Just knowing you have eggs you can open up, rehydrate, and use is a relief. We’ve actually gotten into ours this winter, and the boys had no idea they were not fresh. Freeze-dried raw eggs are not like the awful dehydrated egg powder you would get at hotels and hospitals, for they look and taste just like they did when you freeze-dried them.

~Sarah

Clean Living · Recipes

High-protein Poblano Pepper and Ham Scramble

January 6, 2025 Sarah

Eating eggs is simple when trying to eat low-carb/high-protein, but it can get rather boring quickly. I came up with this tasty scramble, where it’s got just a pinch of heat from the poblano pepper. If you find those too spicy, just use a green bell pepper.

The pepper also gives it bulk for only a few calories, so you feel like you are eating a proper meal, not just a couple of eggs.

High-protein Poblano Pepper and Ham Scramble

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
2 slices uncured Canadian bacon, chopped
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a small frypan, heat over medium-low and saute the peppers until tender. Add the ham and heat through.

Whisk the eggs, pour over, and gently scramble till done.

Add the cheese and enjoy.

Serves 1.

Nutritional Stats:

469 Calories / 34 grams Fat / 5 grams Carbs / 2 grams Fiber / 33 grams Protein

~Sarah