D is for Daylight

The Sunshine Vitamin!  This is a unique vitamin, because as I said before, vitamins are only classified as such if they can’t be synthesized by the body in sufficient amounts and therefore need to be obtained through the diet.  Vitamin D, however, is synthesized by our bodies when we’re exposed to the sun.  That explains why most people feel better in the summer months rather than the winter…

Vitamin D aids the body in the absorption of calcium, therefore it is good for healthy bone and cell development.  It is also great for the immune system and it reduces inflammation.

Vitamin D is under more research as far as how the brain is affected by it, but so far studies have shown that it is beneficial both for children with brain dysfunction as well as elderly suffering from depression.  I can attest – I shared with you my update on how I’ve been doing in my journey from postpartum depression, and I started feeling a lot of changes when Vitamin D was introduced into my diet in larger amounts.

Not only does it benefit your brain, it helps in many other ways as well.  Pregnant women can lessen their chances of pre-eclampsia (a disorder resulting in high blood pressure, edema, and protein in the urine) – according to a study done by the University of Pittsburgh, “A vitamin D deficiency early in gestation is associated with a five-fold increase risk of developing pre-eclampsia”.  Yikes!

Studies have also shown that children who get more vitamin D early in life have less of a risk of developing Type I Diabetes later in life.

Vitamin D also helps protect cells from oxidative stress and keeps cells healthy by fighting the damages of free radicals.  This explains why Vitamin D has been linked to helping with cancer, especially breast and prostate cancer.  It helps suppress the cancer growth and restrict the blood vessels that feed cancer cells.

Vitamin D is also very antimicrobial which helps kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi in your body, thus making it great for cold and flu season!  Not only does it kill those bacteria, viruses, and fungi that can make you sick, it also helps PREVEN T them from getting into your body in the first place!  Some studies have even shown that colds and influenza could actually be a result of vitamin D deficiency…  That’s some exciting news!  I’d much rather increase my vitamin D levels than get a flu shot!  Especially since more and more studies and evidence continues to surface showing that the flu shot is completely ineffective (and not only that, but harmful…).

Spending time in the sunlight is the best way to get Vitamin D.  Studies have shown that 15 minutes of sun exposure is recommended for those with light skin, and around 30 minutes is recommended for those with darker skin.  Obviously that’s hard to do in the winter, so vitamin D can be obtained through the diet as well, mostly from fish or fish products like cod liver oil (which you can take as a supplement), salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines, tuna, and also caviar and oysters.  And for you sushi fans like myself, there’s more vitamin D in raw fish than cooked.  Vitamin D can also be obtained from eggs and mushrooms.

So, if you’re suffering from the common cold way more than you’d like, sounds like Vitamin D might help you out!  Maybe this is why Harlee has been so healthy this winter… sure he’s had his fair share of snot and congestion, but nothing that’s ever progressed into full-blown sickness.  I bought children’s liquid vitamin D, which I drop in his juice every day.  After researching for this article, I definitely won’t be stopping that routine!  Nor will I be eliminating my vitamin D supplement from my daily vitamins as well!

Stay healthy everyone!

http://www.naturalnews.com/023653_Vitamin_D_health_cancer.html#ixzz2M7P2Bles

http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/healthier-alternatives-to-the-seasonal-flu-vaccine-garlic-zinc-and-vitamin-d/

http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/high-vitamin-D-foods.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_d

Guilt-Free *Saturday* : Sweet Potato Brownies

Sorry for a delayed post.  We had a busy day yesterday!  The snow day continued on for another day, all my clients cancelled due to being iced in and I was okay with that since I was more or less iced in as well, so we bundled Harlee up and hopped into Justin's truck and went out to the farm where Justin and a friend worked on knocking down the old silo.  It was really exciting!  I took a video of it, but it's insanely long and I need to figure out how to trim it up before I post it.  I'll get it up here eventually though.  But for now, here's Harlee standing by the remains:

Then we went to the St. Louis Home Show, which was a lot of fun.  There's SOOOOOO much to think about when it comes to building a new house!!  And now, thanks to that show, even MORE to think about!

I know what bathtub I want though:

Who wants to donate to my fund to get this?  It's only $3500...... and I'll invite you over for a pool party in it! :-)

Or I'll just keep looking for something a little less expensive...

Harlee loved this guy... or the fact that he let him play in that water!  And of course Nobbe's tractor display got his attention too.  He's getting pretty good at saying "Tractor"!

 It was pretty late by the time we got home, and I was pooped.  Thus, no recipe for Guilt-Free Friday.  But, not to worry, I'm on it today!

It’s just stupid how good these are.  I still can’t get over it.  This is the third pan I’ve made so far and STILL I can’t believe they’re this good…

I love me some brownies.  I always have.  Now I love them even more.  Because I can eat like 3 or four of these at a time!!  Okay so I probably shouldn’t, but there’s definitely not as much guilt with that as there is eating some of Betty Crocker’s brownies…

I found this recipe in my Paleo Magazine.  Yes I’m a nerd and subscribed to a magazine focusing on the way we eat…  But I’m glad I did because now I know about these brownies!

The recipe was submitted by a blogger I follow, and I’ve mentioned it on here before – PaleOMG.com – and she’s always had some great recipes to share.  Well she’s done it again, and I have to pass this along to you all, because it’s just plain ol’ amazing.  I added pecans to mine though.  So they’re even more amazing.  They're moist and gooey and fudgy and everything I want a brownie to be.

Sorry, again, for the phone picture...

 Alright.  You need this recipe.  Here it is:

1 sweet potato

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (melt it in your dish in the preheated oven - then your dish is greased and ready to go too!)

1/3 cup honey (or liquid sweetener)

1/4 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp coconut flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Bake the sweet potato at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes - whole thing, skin and all, just toss it in the oven as-is and gather up your other supplies while you wait.

Peel off the sweet potato's skin and mash it, and turn your oven down to 350.  Mix it with your wet ingredients.  Then add the dry ingredients and mix well.  Add the chocolate chips and the pecans and stir until incorporated.  Pour into an 8x8 baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Let set and cool, then dig in.  And then make some more because that pan won't last very long :)

Potato Stamp Party!

It's a Snow Day!!  So I decided to take a snow day from my Vitamin Series and write a more playful post.

Justin's buzzing around like a good housewife and cleaning the house - he made us breakfast while I got on the phone to reschedule my clients, and went on to tidy up the laundry room and the kitchen while I... played with Harlee and watched the snow and sleet come down.  And then he went on to tidy up the hunting room while I... played with Harlee some more.  Then I decided I felt bad for not helping him, so I looked around the kitchen.  "Hmmm..." I thought, "these potatoes have been sitting here since the last co-op.  We should get rid of them, we don't eat potatoes..."  But I felt bad for just wasting them.

Let's turn them into stamps and paint!

Obviously I'd just rather spend the snow day playing with Harlee than cleaning the house with Justin.  That's okay.  There's plenty of time to clean house when Harlee goes off to college!

Harlee sat up on the counter with me while I halved the potatoes.  I love that he's so aware of his surroundings - ever since he learned to crawl he's always been very aware of how high he is on something, like our bed or the couch, and he knows to stay away from the edge.  He sits on the counter every morning while we cook breakfast and every evening for supper, and anytime in between.  It's nice to have him right there with me so I don't have to worry about him if I'm in the middle of cooking, and he gets to be a part of the process.  This time he tried to eat the chunks of potato as I trimmed the halves into shapes.  I don't think he liked them too much.

Then we laid out newspapers all over the floor and changed our clothes, I squirted some acrylic paint on paper plates and we got to work!  He caught on quick and made a huge mess.  It was fun!


 Sorry I didn't take pictures of the process of creating the actual stamps.  I didn't want to interrupt Justin's cleaning progress to come take pictures!  But it's pretty self-explanatory, really.  Just cut the potato in half, and then trace out your design with a knife.  Cut around the design about a quarter inch to a half inch deep into the potato, and trim out the edges leaving just the design sticking out from the potato.  Then dunk it in paint and off you go!



Oh, but if you're doing letters, make sure you cut them out backwards... I made Harlee's name, and the H and A were fine, then I got to the R and realized... whoops... So I had to remake it and the L.  Luckily E could just be turned upside-down and it was still fine.  Wasn't thinking there!

Make sure you're wearing paint clothes!  Harlee's got several stamp imprints all over his pants now, and fingerprints all over his shirt.

We decided to make some keepsakes for the grandparents.  This is technically Harlee's first time unleashing his inner artist with paint.  He's no stranger to bath tub crayons and ink pens, but they don't make quite the mess paint does - that's way more fun!!





 And that concludes our adventures.  We snatched Harlee up as soon as he trotted his little painted body off into the living room, cluing us in that he lost interest in our projects, and dunked him in the tub.  He's now napping away in sleepy-town, and... I guess I should probably go help Justin finish cleaning the house...

Happy snow day everyone!

Guilt-Free Friday: Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

Happy Birthday to Me!  Well, this past Saturday anyway, so happy 27 & 1 week birthday to me today!  I was up late Friday night last week baking myself a cake, and I think it turned out great if I do say so myself!  Justin was out at my aunt and uncle’s house making deer sausage and wound up staying there until about 1am Saturday morning, so I got a rather amusing phone call at 12:04am from him and everyone else there singing Happy Birthday to me.  Good thing I was up anyway with that cake!  Then he came home and got out two boxes – one little one and one very big one.  The little one was a new tea kettle (so I can quit using his coffee maker for my tea, I guess…) and the big one was a new jewelry armoire.  Yay!  Harlee loves the big box, too, it’s still looking fancy in our living room floor, full of pillows and toys and whatever other random odds and ends he decided to throw in it.  There’s just something about a big ol’ cardboard box that just puts a kid in heaven…

Have you ever hit an age where you feel like you’ve crossed over into something?  Not like you’re getting older or anything, but like you’ve turned a page to a new chapter…  27 is that number for me.  I haven’t quite figured it out, but it has nothing to do with 30 coming up around the corner, because that number doesn’t bug me for some reason…  Maybe I’m just weird?  Well, okay, so I AM weird anyway.  But it’s true this has been a transformational year in just a month and a half’s time, so maybe there’s just some kind of energy around this 27^th year for me that I’m picking up on.  That is totally okay with me!

We had a great time with friends and cousins Saturday night – stayed local and enjoyed dinner and drinks at the Mexican restaurant, went to a bar and then to the new microbrewery in town, which is a great little establishment.  It was definitely an enjoyable night!  I shared that chocolate cake I made with everyone too, and it was met with approval, yay!  I’m glad I made it the night before (or, technically that morning, but you know what I mean).  I’ve found that desserts made with almond or coconut flour taste better the next day.  Keep that in mind when you embark on your dessert-making adventure!

 This cake was basically an alteration of the amaretto cake that I made for Justin’s birthday, and the frosting was pretty similar too.  Here’s how it goes:

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup palm sugar

½ cup coconut flour

½ cup almond flour

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla, and sugar.  Add the flours, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.  Mix together until a batter forms.  Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan and pour in the batter.  Bake for 20-30 minutes until a knife or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Once it’s cool you can frost it:

Icing:

1 cup peanut butter

1 packet of stevia if using natural unsweetened peanut butter, otherwise omit

1 cup coconut butter

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth.

I doubled the cake recipe for a layered cake and the icing recipe made plenty for the two of them.  I chopped up some peanuts and mixed them with chocolate chips to sprinkle on top of the cake.  Peanut butter and chocolate… what a wonderful combo… and made it for a wonderful birthday cake!

C is for Combat

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  I considered taking a break from my vitamin series to post something about the benefits of love or something cute and quirky like that, but I had a busy week and went on a nice date with the hubby today so I didn't get a chance.  So, looks like it's on with the vitamins!  Stay tuned tomorrow for some chocolate birthday cake, though :).

Anway.  C is for Combat.

Which is what your immune system does against viruses, bad bacteria, and other types of illnesses or ailments.  Vitamin C is for your immune system!  It gives your body’s immunity an extra boost to help it fight off infections, illnesses, and disease and prevent further problems from arising.  It can also lessen the symptoms of the common cold, relieving aches, congestion, runny nose, etc.  It helps strengthen collagen as well, which is the main element of connective tissue, and this in turn helps maintain healthy bones and teeth and also helps your body to heal wounds faster.  Vitamin C helps support the good bacteria in your digestive system too (I talked about that in my post about antibiotics and probiotics), which is super important for a healthy immune system!  While it’s supporting the good bacteria, it also destroys bad bacteria as well as viruses, and also neutralizes free radicals and protects us from toxins.  What a handy vitamin to have in our systems!

An interesting thing about vitamin C, though, is that we’re one of a handful of species that can’t create vitamin C on our own – we rely solely on our diets to make sure we’re getting enough.  And sadly, we’re just not getting enough…  When we look at the other animals that are able to make their own vitamin C, the majority of them are making about 2 grams per 150lbs of body weight.  When these animals are in stressful situations or are injured or sick, their vitamin C production jumps up to around ten times more than average!  Definitely gives a good idea of how beneficial vitamin C is to a healthy immune system.  I know we’re not those kinds of animals though, and in our category of creatures who can’t create our own vitamin C we’re joined by our closest living relatives, the great apes, who require about 2000-6000 mg of vitamin C a day (under normal healthy circumstances).

So what does the USDA say our recommended daily average is?  90mg.  Sounds kinda pathetic, doesn’t it?  I think so…  Fortunately this is a water-soluble vitamin, making it difficult to overdo it when taking it.  A better average for vitamin C intake is more like 1000-4000 mg per day, and even more when you’re feeling under the weather.  I remember once seeing a naturopathic doctor who recommended I take 10,000 mg a day while I was battling a particularly nasty cold.  Ten THOUSAND??  I thought that was crazy, but after discussing it with him further and feeling a bit more comfortable about it, I followed his advice and sure enough, I noticed a decrease in my symptoms and an increase in my health.  He did warn me to wean my way back off of it though, as while getting that much into your system is beneficial, it can be a bit of a shock to stop cold-turkey.  So as soon as my symptoms were gone I cut back to 8,000 mg for a couple days, then 5,000, then 1,000, which is where I stayed for a basic maintenance dose.  I felt great!  It’s something I’ve continued to do when I feel I’ve caught “the common cold” – I amp up my vitamin C intake (along with all the other immune-boosting natural medicines like olive leaf extract, Echinacea, and goldenseal).

What are some great sources of vitamin C other than taking a supplement? Oranges, strawberries, kiwi, lemon juice, parsley, broccoli, bell peppers, papaya, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens and Brussels sprouts are all great sources.  But, unfortunately, cutting, cooking, storing, and most forms of processing can destroy the vitamin C, which is something we all do to our vegetables (not many people eat enough raw produce, myself included!), making it that much more necessary to get our vitamin C in a supplement.

That about sums up what I have to say about vitamin C.  Now stock up, cold and flu season isn’t over yet!

http://www.naturalnews.com/032027_vitamin_C_immune_system.html

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/7-health-benefits-of-vitamin-c.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/007434_vitamin_C_immune_system.html