I make this meal quite often for breakfast or as an after CrossFit “power” meal. This serves one and it is sooooo delicious! I also like that it gives me the opportunity to use leeks because they are a favorite of mine and since potatoes (their favorite playmate) and I are not on such good terms these days, I don’t cook with leeks so much anymore. I also love mushrooms and usually go for baby bellas with this recipe but went with plain white buttons on this day. Often times I will chop enough of the veggies and ham to make two frittatas and then store the unused half in the fridge for a super quickie meal the next day.

Enjoy!

Nourishing Mushroom Leek Frittata

1/2 cup chopped leeks (light and white parts only). Use the dark parts for this soup!
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped, precooked ham
3 pastured eggs
2 Tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Saute leeks, mushrooms, and ham on a cast iron skillet until the veggies are soft. Sprinkle with salt and pepper while cooking them. Beat the eggs together with the Parmesan cheese and pour over the cooked veggies and ham. Tilt the skillet so that the egg coats the pan evenly and then put it in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove and eat!

What a week! TGIF!

A had a health hiccup recently that threw me for a loop but I was able to get things under control. Basically my thyroid went wacko and I slipped back into hypothyroid symptoms despite my medication. Once again my hair started falling out and my basal body temperature dipped to 96.2 on average. Panic started to set in and I began to doubt my diet since diet is what threw my thyroid into a tailspin in the first place. I was able to figure out though that my symptoms started right when I joined a CrossFit box. From there it was not hard to figure out that my calorie expenditure went way up and my calories going in, did not. It was accidental calorie restriction and that is well known for causing low body temperatures and thyroid problems due to bodily stress. I didn’t even think about it because I wasn’t losing any weight. In fact I gained some. But yet I know that I have gained an incredible amount of muscle since I started doing CrossFit. I am well on my way to Linda Hamilton’s Terminator arms and Tamilee Webb’s Buns of Steel. Booyah!

So I started eating 500+ calories more than usual each day and my temperatures are steadily going up. 98.3 as of yesterday! I also decided to try and vary my carbs to more greens, veggies, and fruit instead of Lara bars and yogurt. And despite eating way more, I lost a teeny bit of weight this week so I know I am not eating too much. My hair is loss is already slowing greatly too. Things are looking up!

Despite that snafu, I am so very much in love with CrossFit I can not even express it. This video kind of does it justice:

If not maybe this piece of sheer awesomeness does. I got a kettlebell necklace from Flashletics this week. Love, love, love!

I have been spending lots of time outside gardening and just sitting on my beloved Adirondack chair reading a book and earthing. I believe in the concept so much. Any time I have even the slightest ache or pain it is gone within minutes of digging my feels into the dirt. I also decided to visit a chiropractor to work on persistent back pain due to years of working at a desk and that is also improving. Once weekly I get a massage, chiro adjustment, and a session on a traction table. If only I could move my computer desk outside onto the grass I think all my problems would be solved. ;)

So far I have started radish, lettuce, and rainbow chard seeds inside my house in my little greenhouse. I also repotted a red raspberry bush into a bigger pot. It already has lots of leaves and new growth. I also have pink hydrangea starting to get growth and an indoor purple hydrangea blooming. Yay for spring! Can’t wait to get started planting inside our raised bed.

The kids and I also did some crafting outside but I probably won’t share info on that until Screen Free Week, which is from April 30th to May6th. But here is a preview:

Books I have read of late:

The 4-Hour Workweek – In general I really like the ideas and concepts presented here. It encourages you to forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan. It’s all about living your dreams now and not putting off things like world travel, especially in unpredictable economic times.

The Self Sufficient-ish Bible: An Eco-living Guide for the 21st Century - An awesome book to read on a warm spring day outside. It seeks to show you how you can live a more self sufficient, eco-concious lifestyle without drastically altering the way you live now.

Parenting Without Power Struggles: Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids While Staying Cool, Calm, and Connected - Always good to have reminders and tips.

Fever (Chemical Garden) - The sequel to Wither, which I loved. Didn’t like this one as much but still excited for the third book.

The Goddess Test - Kinda liked this book and want to continue the series. Its about a young woman who gets an offer from Hades to marry him and help him run the Underworld if she can pass seven tests.

Other Cool Links: 

Enjoyed this post by Matt Monarch of Raw Food World about his diaper free baby daughter. Really wish I had tried EC with my babes!

Cooks know that as the temperatures outside increases, the desire to cook decreases. It has already hit me full force… I don’t want to heat the kitchen by using my oven at all. And it isn’t due to lack of wanting to cook I just have the need to keep our home as cool as possible. We don’t run our air conditioner willy nilly because we don’t want to be energy hogs.. or spend extra money on energy bills. This is why baking is done mostly in the winter months and cool dishes are served during the summer. Who wants to heat their house up with the oven only to have to pay higher bills to cool it back down again? Not me!

Keeping cool in the kitchen doesn’t automatically mean eating a cold sandwich and watermelon every day… although that’s cool if you want to. We have such a wide variety of cooking appliances to choose from though, we can serve wonderful meals for our families without heating up our homes. Here are just a few of the gadgets you can choose from.

Crockpot – They aren’t just for soups and stews.. although those are so easy why not? Slow cookers or crockpots are wonderful for recipes which typically take a long time to prepare. You can cook anything from lasagna to bake potatoes in a crockpot. I personally like to use up our local produce by throwing them in a crockpot with some beans. Sometimes I have some pretty wild creations but they are all yum. Slow cooked goodness without heating the house and you can keep it green and safe by using a clay crockpot. I have a VitaClay and LOVE it.

If meatless meals are your thing but you are not a pro with veg based slow cooker recipes try: Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World. Going meatless saves money too!

Microwave – If getting in and out of the kitchen quickly is important to you, there’s always the microwave. I personally don’t use one or own one because I think their safety is in question. But for those that like them you can cook nearly anything in a microwave in much less time than conventional cooking.

Wok – Oriental cooking is prepared at high temperatures in the wok but the foods cook quickly. If you don’t have a wok, you can make similar meals using a normal skillet. Just toss some veggies and sprouts in there and mix with some Asian sauce and you are good to go.

Pressure Cooker – The pressure cooker was once a staple in every country kitchen. They aren’t used quite as often any longer but they can still be used to cook a meal in less time, and therefore less heat, than other methods. A meal that might cook 4-5 hours in your dutch oven might take only an 1 hour in a pressure cooker.

Another way you can keep the kitchen cool this summer is to begin preparing meals earlier in the day. Plan the major part of your cooking early in the day while it is still cool. Once the cooked items are prepared, you can allow them to cool and place them in the refrigerator to add other items to when it’s time to get the meal on the table.

Offer your family plenty of cold foods when the temperatures soar. Cold fruit salads, tossed green salads, green smoothies, vegetable trays and homemade ice cream are sure to keep the kitchen and your family cool when it is hot outside. During the summer months my hubby and I will often take the kids and go to our local artisan ice cream shop for our evening “meal”. Rhubarb and Lime Cardamom Yogurt for dinner… heck yes!

Finally, if you want to keep your kitchen cool but aren’t afraid of a little heat, strike a match and get to grilling! You don’t have to stand in front of the grill while the food is cooking and the taste will be out of this world. Grill some veggie kabobs, corn on the cob, and Portabella mushrooms. Best of all, you will see keeping cool in the kitchen when it is hot outside is not only possible, it can also be delicious!

I just finished up an awesome new book last night. Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It! by Kris Carr. I was looking forward to this book for a long time because Kris Carr and her ideas have a lot of personal significance to me. Kris’s first book, Crazy Sexy Cancer, was the first one I read after my cancer diagnosis and it was amazing to read about her journey with cancer just as I was beginning my own. Kris was diagnosed with a rare and deadly cancer at age 31. She had lesions or tumors all over her liver and lungs and was told there was nada anyone could do about it. So she decided to find her own treatment which began with macrobiotics but ended with what you read about in Crazy Sexy Diet… “a low fat, vegetarian (or vegan) program that reduces inflammation and balances the pH of the body with lush whole foods, low-glycemic fruits, raw veggies, alkalizing green drinks, and superpowered smoothies”. It is not a diet book as in lose weight either… it is a diet book in the sense that it highlights how to create a lifestyle change.

Kris’s cancer went dormant and has been that way for a few years now. She is gorgeous, vibrant, and inspirational.

I appreciate this book and its ideas because they are soooo similar to mine.. although I am sure her earlier works and her website helped me to form some of these ideas. I eat vegetarian, I try to avoid grains and gluten as much as possible, I love to eat high raw and I am mindful of the pH of certain foods which is why meat is a no-no and dairy is not front and center. I am a mix of Crazy Sexy Diet, Nourishing Traditions, and The Kind Diet but the emphasis is usually on the first one and after reading this book is likely to remain so.

Nourishing Traditions folks eat too much meat for my liking and not enough veggies. The macrobiotic diet (Kind Diet) emphasizes too many grains… Crazy, Sexy Diet is “just right” when I add some pastured eggs, and small amounts of grass fed dairy. The only thing I saw in CSD that I did not care for was recipes with tofu… yeah soy is not a health food IMO. It is easy to just add double the veggies and get rid of soy though.

The book has a 21 day cleanse for those wanting to get started right away. It is a detox really. There are also recipes in the back for the cleanse and advice on doing a juice fast one day a week. Fasting one day a week is something I am now really considering.

But the book does not stop at eating. It also has advice on dry brushing (which I also plan to start), supplements (gotta buy some E3Live), meditation, exercise, positive thinking, bathing, a healthy home, ect. Spirituality too. I got a kick out of seeing an alter of sorts in the book (I assume it is Kris’s) that had a mish mesh of different deities/religious ideas.. aka Jesus on the cross right next to the Goddess Lakshmi. I have a mix of sorts like that as well. But if you are staunchly in one camp have no fear because it does not preach, just encourages spirituality in whatever form you wish.

It is really a powerhouse book with so much good information I could not put it down. I recommend it to all: Crazy Sexy Diet. As a side note it has already achieved best seller status and it has been selling out in stores and even Amazon. It’s THAT good!

Farmer’s market produce, herbs and veggies from our own garden, grass fed butter, apple pie, Amish egg noodles, and homemade blueberry or peach frozen yogurt. Can summer be any more delicious??? Ask me again in Fall when I may just be singing the praises of apple butter, cider, and pumpkin pie… but for now summer is the yummiest season ever.

What are you eating this summer?