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Easy Chicken Nuggets…Another Way to Use a Roasted Chicken (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

On Sunday I roasted a chicken. I love having all the leftover meat to use in other meals. I had planned to make chicken nuggets this week. I usually use boneless skinless chicken breasts for that. Cut them, bread them, fry them. But when I deboned my chicken this week I had very limited time so most of the meat was still in large chunks. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be easier to use that to make my chicken nuggets? So I tried it last night…AWESOME!! Best chicken nuggets I’ve ever made I think. The meat is already cooked, so you just have to fry it until you have a nice crust. So quick and easy…and much less messy…no raw chicken to deal with. I broke the meat into the size of strips/nuggets I thought looked right. Then I dipped them in egg, rolled them in coconut flour and pan fried them in a combo of lard and palm shortening. Delicious!! I served them with homemade honey mustard. It reminded me of eating chicken strips at Fudruckers when I was younger…the flavor anyway…this meat was far superior 🙂  Rebecca absolutely loved them as well. I don’t know that I’ve seen her eat/chew her food that quickly in a long time 🙂  I can’t wait to have leftovers for lunch today. Dip them in honey mustard with extra egg yolk mixed in…tons of nutrition. I think I know what I’ll be making with leftover roasted chicken in the future 🙂  You could even make a huge batch and freeze them for even easier meals on busy nights. Just warm and serve.

This post is linked to Grain Free Real Food Linky Carnival at Real Food Forager.

Easy Chicken Nuggets

Leftover roasted chicken in large chunks
1 egg, beaten
1/4 – 1/2 cup coconut flour
salt to taste
lard, palm shortening, coconut oil, tallow or butter for frying

Break chicken into strips/chunks. Coat chicken in egg. Then in flour/salt mixture. Fry in hot grease/oil in cast iron skillet, a few minutes on each side until golden and crispy. Serve with honey mustard or fermented ketchup.

Broth or Stock…There’s A Difference?

I’ve been making homemade chicken and beef broth for a while now. It’s very easy and so good for you. It’s the foundation of GAPS, so I eat it a lot. But after doing a little reading yesterday I realized that broth and stock are not the same. And they have different functions. I generally make broth, based on the Nourishing Traditions method…lots of bones, etc. and long cooking. You get all the vitamins, minerals and gelatin out of the bones. It is nourishing, healing and easy to digest. But…it’s not how the GAPS book tells you to make broth. Or should I say stock. Turns out there is a difference between bone broth and stock.

I’ll use chicken as an example while explaining. But it’s the same for all meats. To make stock you put a whole chicken in a pot and cover it with water (and add seasoning). Then simmer for a couple hours. That’s all. Strain the stock and take the meat off the bones. This is about as easy as it gets. And it’s the recipe in the GAPS book.

To make broth you don’t need a whole chicken/chicken meat. You mostly need bones. You put bones/scraps in a pot and add water (you can add vinegar as well to pull more nutrients out) (and seasoning). Then cook this for 24 hours. This will pull all of the nutrients out of the bones. Chicken necks and feet work especially well for this.

They are both very nutritious and healing. And are both important. So, after reading about this yesterday I experimented and realized I can really get my money’s worth out of chicken and make both. I cooked our chicken in the crockpot, mostly filled with water. I strained that and got 2 quarts of stock. Then after deboning the chicken I put all the bones/parts back in the pot and made broth…got another 2 quarts. Not bad.

Coincidentally after writing this post I saw a post on The Nourishing Gourmet about using your bones multiple times. So I guess I could have gotten even more out of my one chicken. I’ll have to try that next time.

Here is what the GAPS site says about the broth and stock:

“In the GAPS book I have described how to make meat stock. There is a difference between meat stock and bone broth. Meat stock is made with raw meat on a bone and it needs to be cooked just long enough to cook the meat thoroughly (2-3 hours), so it can be eaten, and so the bone marrow can be taken out of the bone and consumed. The meat stock made this way is usually clear and delicious, with an excellent nutritional value: it is particularly rich in amino acids. Bone broth is made out of bones which can be raw or cooked or a mixture (many people collect cooked bones from their meals, keep them in the freezer and use them for making the broth). In order to leach minerals out of the bones we add vinegar to the water. It is not necessary to add vinegar to the meat stock unless you need it for a particular taste. Bone broth may have quite a different nutritional composition from the meat stock and a different taste. Both are beneficial and should be used in GAPS diet.”

I now try to make and use both. I like to use the broth in addition to the stock since I generally do not eat the marrow out of the bone. That’s why the broth is important. So, what do you usually consume…broth or stock? I think I’ll be trying to do both now.

The Letter C

This week I added on some Bible memory work. We try to do Bible story time every Monday (at a minimum). And now we’re working on memorizing a passage. We are currently working on Psalm 100. This week Rebecca learned the first verse. We also started MOPS. Rebecca will be in a class there and have crafts, stories, etc. and more social time.

Writing letters and numbers.
Eating Cherry Chip Cookies.
 Decorate/cut out a crown.
 Gluing shapes/decorating a castle.

The Letter C

Art/Project – Carson’s Caring Card (made a card for her cousin and bought some stickers for him), cutting/decorating/gluing Crowns and Castles, Card for Daddy
Science/Nature – learned about Caterpillars; made one with pom poms, made an accordian caterpillar; Saw Cows on the farm where we get our beef
Character – Caring
Baking project – Cherry Chip Cookies (give some away as a thank you…example of caring)
Number – 4
Left/Right
Bible Memory – Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Cooking – Rebecca helped make her caterpillar lunch (out of hot dogs)
Kindermusik assignment – exploration with balls

Meal Plans Week of 9-25-11

Is it really the end of September and the start of fall? It sure has been a busy month. Although last week I intentionally cut back a bit and didn’t do too much in the kitchen. So glad late summer produce preservation has slowed down. I still have to do applesauce at some point, but I think that’s it. By taking it a bit easier I was able to focus on the kids and Rebecca’s schooling more. And we had a couple fabulous days at home with projects, crafts, good naps, great attitudes, no stress, etc. It was wonderful. It was especially nice to have my happy baby back. I can tell that he does so much better when he gets a good morning nap. On days where we have to run errands, go to KM, etc. he just gets cat naps and is so grumpy. We’ve really been enjoying having our happy, playful boy back. So I want to do my best to make sure he gets his regular naps. Thankfully he was able to get good naps when we went to MOPS and when we visited the farm (as you can see in the picture below…snuggled up in the Moby).

Anyway, we did do a few things around here. Rebecca and I baked cherry chocolate chip cookies for our C baking project. I made sauerkraut, pesto, mayo and broth. And I did my one day intro experiment. We also had our first day of MOPS (so fun!! can’t wait to get to know the ladies at my table better) and visit Grassfields – the farm where we get our beef. It was so nice to see where we get our meat and see how the farm is run. They are such nice people. And the farm is very well run. We got to see all the pigs…one of which we’ll be getting later this year. We saw them making cheese and got to taste a bunch. They even made quiche for us using eggs, milk, pork sausage and cheese right from their farm. Now that we’ve made the drive I see that it’s not quite as far as I had thought. So it is still possible we could get a cow share from them in the future. And I just found out that one of the ladies at my MOPS table gets milk there and would like to share pick up. So we’ll see. At the moment I think we’re still hoping to do Lubbers for the winter (should start soon as long as they have open winter shares again). Then maybe Grassfields in the spring. The other exciting thing here is that Abram rolled over! Justin and I were both sitting there, so we both got to see it. He’s been so close for so long but finally put all the steps together yesterday. Aside from the rolling he is already on the move. When he’s on his tummy he does not stay in one spot. He is creeping around, going in circles. He looks like he’s swimming on the ground. He’ll be mobile before we know it.

My status has been up and down. I started out the week well. But by the end I was not doing so well. Two factors I think. Probably some die off from one day of intro. And too many apples 😛  I have not eaten apples in so long. And I LOVE them. But I know they don’t work well with my tummy. But after trying a couple and doing ok the week before I think I went a bit overboard this week. And am paying for it 🙁  Hoping to get back on track and bump up the chicken broth this week.

So, this week. I’m still not planning any major kitchen work. At some point we need to make a trip to the orchard to stock up on apples for applesauce. But not this week. Justin would like to go apple picking, but we have to find an orchard around us that does it. The one we normally get our apples from does not. I am planning to make chicken broth this week (got a nice little roasting chicken at the farm yesterday…and even saw them butchering fresh chickens!). And some soups with it. I would like to make a new batch of pesto. Rebecca and I will probably do some kind of D baking project. I need to look into making sour cream. It’s the first dairy recommended on GAPS…even during intro. So I’ll have to see if it’s something I can do or not. The intro challenge starts next week, so I need to get things ready! We’ll see if I do another intro day this week or not. I would also like to try liverwurst. I’ve had some (locally made) in the freezer for a long time. But was scared of it after trying liver. But I’m going to be brave this week. I just have to figure out how to eat it.

A couple things for Rebecca this week. Our letter is D, so I’m working on our activities for the week. Not as many ideas as I had for C (post on that to come), but I’m still brainstorming. The other thing is I’m trying to make food she likes this week. It’s no secret that we have eating/chewing battles with her. Sometimes she does fine. Other times it takes her an hour to eat 3 bites and we are constantly reminding her/telling her to chew. I know this can be normal…she’s 3. But it could also be GAPS related. There is a whole chapter about this in the GAPS book. It is very common for GAPS children to have eating/chewing/texture issues. So I want to keep working on giving Rebecca mostly GAPS food, feeding her healthy food that I know she likes, and taking steps towards overcoming her eating issues (there are suggestions in the book). And hopefully we can get past this. I am learning tricks at least. We had scrambled eggs on Friday…which she won’t touch (she gags on them). But I’ve learned that she will eat a thin egg tortilla (same food, just cooked a little differently…flat instead of scrambled). And I’m getting her to try bites of things here and there of food she thinks she doesn’t like. Last night she ate a tiny bite of squash and said she liked it. She would only eat that bite, but it’s still a step in the right direction. So we’ll keep working on it.

Today is church. Monday is Meijer. Tuesday is farmer’s market and Kindermusik. Although I’m not sure if we’ll go to the fm or not…not sure I need anything this week. Nothing really planned the rest of the week. But it’s likely my parents will visit one day (that could change our meal plans depending on whether or not they come for dinner). And we might do something fun…maybe go to the zoo. And we could have a playdate on Wed. Still TBD. We’ll just see how the week goes. Other than that we’ll be focusing on regular routines, relaxing and school work. Here’s what’s on the menu. It’s subject to change depending on my parents’ visit and our leftover situation. I’m only listing dinners this week since breakfast is pretty much the same as last week, and I’ll hopefully be having broth/soup every morning.

This post is linked to Plan It – Don’t Panic at Keeper of the Home.
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S (church, make broth)
  L – roast chicken and veggies in cp
  D – chicken veggie soup

M (make pesto, Meijer)
  Chicken nuggets w/ homemade honey mustard and fermented ketchup, buttercup squash, peas

T (FM, KM)
  Fresh pea soup

W (make mayo, soak lentils, D baking project)
  Salmon cakes, peas

Th (cook lentils, parents?)
  Lentil burgers w/ fermented ketchup, veg

F (clean, feed sd?, library?, parents?)
  Leftovers

S (laundry, D baking project, make sd bread?/coconut flour bread?)
  Split pea soup, pumpkin bread

Easy GAPS Snack Ideas

At the beginning of the month I said I wanted to make a snack list so that I wouldn’t run out of ideas (meals are easy…snacks are tough). It seems I’m always wondering what to eat between meals when I just need a little something. So here are some GAPS legal snacks. I can’t eat all of them at the moment (the ones with dairy). But they are still good options for a healthy snack for our family. I’ll keep adding to the list as I think of things. And I’ll add links to recipes as I have time.

GAPS Snacks

pesto
navy bean hummus
crispy nuts
hard boiled eggs
leftover roasted veggies
raw veggies
coconut milk ice cream
kefir smoothies
nut milk smoothies
zucchini cakes
nut butter pancakes
nut butter w/ fruit or on pancakes
gf granola
frozen fruit
fresh fruit
honey butter or honey coconut oil
roasted beets
olives
cheese crisps
leftovers
gf baked goods – scones, breakfast cookies, muffins, bread
chicken, salmon, tuna or egg salad
salmon cakes
broth
apple raisin bars

The Letter B

The Letter B

Character – Brave
Baking project – peanut butter Brownies
Play time – Building with Blocks
B animals – bear, bunny, baboon, beaver, bug, bee, beetle, bird
Art project – painting pictures of things that start with B (balloons, birds, balls, boxes)
Birthday – she now knows her birthday
Number – 3
Kindermusik assignment – glisando (record Rebecca doing some form of glisando…she did it on her slide whistle)

The Letter A

As part of Rebecca’s homeschool preschool this year we’re working on a new letter each week and basing a lot of our activities on that letter. So I thought I’d start making a post for each letter as a way to remember what we did/look back if we need ideas to review letters. I’ll try to post all the things we learned that week (a few won’t be related to the letter, but most will). Our first week we didn’t do too much since we were just getting started/trying to figure things out. Hopefully as the weeks go on we’ll get more creative and have lots of fun. I try to do a new character trait each week (didn’t start until B week) and focus on how we have in the past and can now live it out. I also try to do some kind of craft/project and often a baking project. Plus other misc. stuff. And we always work on writing our letters, learning what sounds they make and thinking of words that start with the letter. We also do a new number each week and work on counting/math. Sometimes we do outings and scince projects as well. And every Tuesday we have social/music time in Kindermusik. We get an assignment each week that I’ll add to our list. And every other Friday is MOPS. Rebecca has a class there as well for social time, crafts and stories.

The Letter A

Baking project – Apple pear crisp
Name recognition – she can recognize her whole name when she sees it written
Number – 1, 2
Kindermusik assignment – story telling

Stuffed Squash (egg free, dairy free, grain free, GAPS-legal)

Last night for dinner I made stuffed squash. This isn’t totally a new recipe. I made stuffed squash before (and it was awesome!). But I made a grain free version yesterday. So I figured I’d do a new post for it. Same concept, though. Just bake the squash and stuff it with what you like, really. I made ours very filling with lentils, cut up green beans, peas, homemade chicken sausage and bacon. And I topped Justin’s with parmesan cheese. I love that these are a whole meal in one (although I did serve other stuff with them). They do take a bit of work to prep all of the components before assembling. But it’s worth the effort 🙂  I did not add any nuts this time, but pine nuts, pistachios or some other chopped nuts add a nice crunch to it.

This post is linked to Grain Free Real Food Linky Carnival at Real Food Forager.

Stuffed Squash

1 small squash of choice (Buttercup works well)
3 slices bacon, cooked
1/3 cup cooked sausage
1/2 cup cooked lentils
cooked, chopped veggies (I just used some leftovers we had in the fridge. If you are using fresh you can saute them first. Peppers, onions, carrots, mushrooms and celery would all be good).
Seasoning to taste (I used sea salt and garlic powder)
cheese (optional…you can mix it into the fill and/or grate it on top)
nuts (optional)

Cut squash in half. Scoop out seeds. Place on baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Cover with foil. Fill bottom of pan with water. Bake at 400 until fully cooked (1 – 11/2 hours). Mix remaining ingredients. Stuff each half of the squash with the filling. Top with cheese if desired. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Meal Plans Week of 9-18-11

Over half way through September already? Wait, slow down 😛  I guess it means we’re keeping busy.

Last week we did our family GAPS challenge. I was glad I was able to come up with a full GAPS menu so easily. And nobody starved and nobody complained about the food 🙂  I have yet to ask Justin if he noticed any difference in how he felt. I’m guessing not since his diet is normally a whole foods diet, largely GAPS anyway. But you never know. I won’t always serve all GAPS meals, but this was a fun experiment. It also helped me get in the GAPS mindset. And give me more direction. I have been talking about starting intro this fall. And wouldn’t you know it Health, Home and Happiness is having a 30 day GAPS intro challenge in October! So I signed up for it. But I will probably modify it a bit since I am breastfeeding. I don’t want to mess with my milk supply. I’ve always been so scared of intro. Can I really do it? It is so limited. But I have put a lot of effort into making slow changes to lead up to it. And yesterday I re-read the intro diet and the different steps. I’m actually not that far off from intro already! The intro foods are already a bulk of what I eat daily. And since I’ve already been doing this a while and have experienced a fair amount of healing it’s likely that I’ll be able to move through the first few stages pretty quickly. So I could get back to the diet I’m at now pretty quickly it seems. It doesn’t sound so difficult anymore. And I’m hoping to do one day of GAPS intro this week as another way to prep for real intro…see what it’s really like. I’m actually getting pretty excited.

Since I’m on the topic I’ll update on my health last week. I actually felt really good most of the week. I started each day with awesome soup made with rich chicken stock and pureed veggies. I think that really helps. I ate 3 raw egg yolks almost every day. Plus lots of other healthy food. I felt so good that I decided to experiment a bit. I have been avoiding coconut flour for a while, but I made coconut bread last week. And both Abram and I seemed to do ok with it. Very exciting! I didn’t eat a lot since I was expperimenting. But even tolerating a small amount was a big success. I also ate 2 whole apples!!! And seemed to do ok with those too. You have no idea how exciting this is (especially since it’s apple season). I LOVE apples. But have not been eating them for quite a while now because they seem to bug me. But I did ok with them. This doesn’t mean I’ll be eating apples every day now. But it is so nice I can treat myself to a crispy, fresh apple once in a while. And not have to worry about avoiding pieces of them in things like fruit salads. On the down side, I confirmed that I can’t eat too many nuts. Thursday we did a lot of baking…which includes lots of nuts when you’re on GAPS. I made cinnamon bun muffins in the morning (almond flour and coconut flour). I didn’t actually eat a whole muffin, but I ate a few bites of Rebecca’s. Then we made peanut butter brownies…definitely took a few too many tastes of those. And then we had muesli scones for dinner (almond flour). Plus that was the first day all week I didn’t start with soup/broth. And I had a little dairy in my dinner (quiche with kefir and a small amount of parmesan cheese). So the last few days have not been quite as good. Although not as bad as I would have expected. It’s very encouraging to see progress. Hopefully I’ll get back on track with lots of broth this week to help seal my gut.

I spent plenty of time in the kitchen last week. I made gf muesli, fermented ketchup, toothpaste, coconut flour bread, egg muffins, kefir, lots of smoothies, cinnamon bun muffins, gf muesli scones, peanut butter brownies and sauerkraut. I also canned one more batch of spaghetti sauce (last one for the season I think), pear slices and pearsaue. I bought a 1/2 bushel of pears last week. And Friday I canned 3 batches of pear slices (9 qts. and 12 pts.). I am experimenting this year…I did them all with the skin on! We’ll see how they turn out. I used the last of our pears to make pearsauce (5 pts.). So glad to have that done. I might do more pearsauce yet this year. But no more pear slices. My pantry is really filling! I’ve already run out of quart jars. Thankfully a friend from church is giving me 15 jars today. I’ll need those for applesauce. One other thing in our kitchen was our new sink faucet. I love it!

And outside of the kitchen I was FINALLY able to get the kids drawers organized yesterday (thanks to my wonderful husband for playing with the kids so I could have 2 free hands for a little while). We are so blessed to be able to borrow so much clothes from my sister…but it is a lot of clothes…and a lot of work to go through it all and get it put away. I’ve had baskets of clothes sitting all over the place upstairs for weeks now. And piles of stuff just sitting on the floor. So I’m happy to have clothes put away and finally know what the kids have/don’t have. I don’t think we’ll need to buy  much for either of them for the fall/winter. I feel much more relaxed now that my house doesn’t look so chaotic and I don’t have that hanging over my head/I’m not digging through piles to get the kids dressed every day.

Ok. Was that enough about last week? ;P  On to this week. Today is church…for Justin. Rebecca already has her first cold of the season. So we’ll be staying home. I’m praying it’s short lived and that Abram doesn’t catch it. Monday is Meijer and I have a nursery cmt meeting in the evening. Tuesday is farmer’s market and Kindermusik. Wednesday I might go to Harvest Health. Just depends how we’re doing on milk. And it is co-op pick up. Maybe Thursday we’ll do some kind of fun outing. Friday is our first MOPS meeting!! I’m so excited for that. Rebecca is too. And Saturday we’re going to a farm tour at Grassfields (where we get our beef). Not sure yet who all is going. Could just be me with the kids. Justin might come. And my SIL and nephew might come.

I think I’m going to take it a bit easier in the kitchen this week. I don’t have any canning planned (a nice break!!). And no major projects. I’m sure stuff will come up, but it will be nice not to have such a crazy week. Our letter this week is C, so who knows what we might bake…cookies, cake, chocolate…the possibilities are endless 🙂  I do plan to make pesto and beef broth. But that’s all that’s planned at the moment. I have some food experimenting to do today too. I’ll update on that tomorrow. Here’s what’s on the menu.
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S (prep lunch, make sauerkraut, church, make broth)
  B – leftover stuffed squash and leftover steak (me), sausage, muesli scones, fruit (Justin)
  L – rump roast w/ carrots, peppers and summer squash in cp
  D – zucchini sushi w/ cucumber, avocado, beets and beef (me), mini bacon meatloafs, broccoli, french fries (Justin)

M (make pesto, Meijer, nursery cmt)
  B – broth, ground beef, lentils, beans (me), yogurt, fruit, gf muesli parfait (Justin)
  D – (early, separate) – squash and sausage soup, crackers w/ cheese

T (boil eggs, KM, FM, prep smoothie)
  B – soup (me), hard boiled egg, toast (Justin)
  D – pan fried salmon filets, carrot and squash fries w/ fermented ketchup, peas, fruit

W (make mayo, C baking project, grind flour, co-op, put away laundry)
  B – kefir smoothie, sd peach muffins (Justin), broth w/ salmon, peas, squash and lentils (me)
  D – corn dog muffins w/ fermented ketchup, corn, applesauce (Justin), salmon, avocado, beets (me)

Th (clean office, GAPS intro day, C baking project?, outing?)
  B – broth/soup (me), hard boiled egg, toast (Justin)
  D – broth/soup (me), pork chops, sweet potato fries, broccoli (Justin)

F (clean, MOPS)
  B – broth w/ avcado (me), apple slices w/ almond butter, yogurt (Justin)
  D – scrambled eggs, toast, roasted veggies, fruit

S (laundry, GF tour)
  B – broth/soup (me), yogurt, fruit, granola parfait (Justin)
  D – cashew avocado chicken salad, squash

Ketchup

We eat quite a bit of ketchup. I was making fermented ketchup for a while. Then I got out of the habit when I got pregnant and couldn’t handle anything fermented. Recently I saw a recipe for fermented ketchup on Nourished and Nurtured and thought I should get back into the habit and give a new recipe a try. So I made this at the beginning of the week and let it set on the counter for a few days. We gave it a try yesterday. At first Rebecca said she liked it. Then she seemed unsure. It is good, but I think I will have to still modify it a bit more to our liking. I did adjust as I was making it, so I didn’t follow the recipe 100%. The thing I have a hard time with when making homemade ketchup is the texture. Maybe I’ll try making it in the blender next time. Yesterday I used my immersion blender on this batch. It helped smooth it out a little, but it’s still thicker than boughten ketchup. I think maybe I need a little more liquid and then I can blend it. Anyway, I’m glad I tried it. I’m glad we have a fermented condiment for dipping again. I’ll have to keep experimenting. But this is a good base recipe. I’ll post the original recipe. I didn’t make a full recipe. Just enough to fit in one pint jar. I’ll update later if I come up with some mods.

Fermented Ketchup

three 7-oz jars of tomato paste, preferably in glass jars to avoid BPA

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. raw honey
3 Tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
3 small garlic cloves, pressed (I just used garlic powder)
6 Tbsp. whey
2 1/4 tsp finely ground celtic sea salt
pinch cayenne pepper (I didn’t add this)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl (if using a quart mason jar, you can save on dirty dishes by mixing this up directly in the jar). Stir well to combine. If using pint mason jars, pour the ketchup into the jars.

Ensure that the top of the ketchup is at least 1-inch below the top of the jar(s).

Using a clean cloth or paper towel, wipe the top of the jar above the ketchup clean.

Put lid on jar and leave at room temperature for 3 days; then transfer to the refrigerator.