Primal Catholic: Paleo Meatless Fridays

Since going Paleo, I've been cruising around trying to find some good Meatless Friday dishes that are Paleo friendly. Not that Paleo is completely "meat centered", but it can be a challenge to find meatless dishes that don't overcompensate for the lack of meat by featuring some sort of grain as it's star ingredient. 

I obviously can't resort to the good ole Tuna Casserole, so I thought maybe I'd start a series on here for Paleo Meatless Friday ideas and recipes. 

For my first dish, I'm going with something easy that's not the traditional FISH dish for a Friday meal. Frittatas! 

MEATLESS FRIDAY FRITTATAS

Ingredients:

6 Eggs

Dash of Non-Dairy Milk (I use unsweetened Almond)

1 Tablespoon coconut oil

3/4 cup chopped bell peppers

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1 tomato, sliced

Grab your handy dandy OVEN SAFE skillet (like a cast iron one) and start out on the stove top, medium heat. Oven safe is important here, because in a minute, we're going to stick that baby under the broiler. 

Melt the tablespoon of coconut oil in it, and proceed to drop all your chopped veggies in there, minus the tomatoes! (Feel free to get creative and put other types of veggies in besides the ones I suggested- zucchini, shredded sweet potato, mushrooms, etc. The possibilities are ENDLESS!)

Saute those veggies up until they get a little softer and browner- for say, 5 minutes. 

While you are sauteing those, turn your oven to Broil, and set your rack to the closer but not "too close" setting. 

Then whip those eggs up with the dash of "non-milk"...I use unsweetened almond milk. Whip them good. I've found that the more you whip 'em, the fluffier your eggs get. 

Now pour that all over the sauteed veggies, in the same skillet. Try to pour it evenly throughout. Place the tomato slices on the uncooked eggs. Let the bottom of the eggs/veggie mixture cook for another minute or two and then pop the whole shebang in the oven, under the broiler. 

Set your timer for about 5 minutes but keep an eye on it. I am kind of infamous for burning things under the broiler, so beware. 

When you think it's done, pull it out, and cut through the center to ensure the egg is cooked all the way through. If it's still runny on the inside, put it back in for a minute or two and check again. 

Voila! You can slice that baby and slap it on plates and you've got a delicious, hearty meal. For larger families (ahem, like mine) you might want to make enough for two skillets. 

If you feel like this alone isn't enough to fill your family, you could go all out with a Dinner Time Breakfast Theme and serve up Sweet Potato Hash Browns or Paleo waffles, too. My kids LOVE having "breakfast" for dinner. 

How "The Little Way" Made Me A Better Wife and Mother

We live in a culture in which we often ask questions like "How can I benefit from this?" or "What do I get out of it?" The concept of "serving" people has a negative connotation in our society. We want to BE served, not serve others. I know that I have been guilty of feeling this way, or asking these very questions in my life. 

One day, I was browsing an Etsy site, looking to purchase a simple chain bracelet for my Consecration to Mary (more about that in another post.) While on the site, I came across something called Sacrifice Beads. I had never heard of them, and my interest was piqued. After a quick Google, I discovered that St. Therese would carry around beads in her pocket, which she called her Chaplet of Practices, in which she would count her sacrifices or acts done out of Love for God. You can read more about this here. 

I was so interested in the story and the beads, I decided to order myself a set. I thought if anything, I could instill it in our home school lessons somehow. When they arrived, I first started thinking about ways I could do acts of love for strangers, and people "out in the world." Then a series of events happened to me to make me realize I should be doing acts of love right here in my very home to the very people who share this roof with me. 

It all started on a Saturday, which was a particularly bad day. Nothing went right. I had big plans to do this or that, but things kept coming up to stand in my way. And all the things I did manage to accomplish felt like they were just kind of falling apart. It was one of those days where half way through, you seriously just want to go back to bed and force some kind of do-over. And the worse it got, the more troubled I felt, and the more angry I got with my family. I started ruminating on how much of a huge mess they all make, how ungrateful they all are for everything I do, and thinking I must have the WORSE behaved children in the lower 48, and just WHY, for pete's sake, does my husband have to take his shoes off and leave them RIGHT in the walk way?! I got myself into such a lather that the entire world looked black and hopeless and I lived with a band of rude, lazy, ingrates who treated me like an indentured servant. (I can uh, be a little dramatic sometimes...)

Then, late in the afternoon, tears already having been shed to some extent- I was cleaning the upstairs, picking up random toys in the hall, etc. when I came across a prayer card for Divine Mercy just lying on the floor. Ok, yes, we're Catholic. The chances of having a random prayer card lying on the floor are pretty good, so I'm not saying it was a miracle or anything. But it just happened to be lying there RIGHT when I needed it most. I picked up the card and looked at Jesus' glowing face, and read the words at the bottom of the card. Jesus, I trust in You. 

And with that, I spent the rest of the afternoon ruminating over the mercy of God and God's infinite Love for us. How God loves us regardless of how ungrateful we are. God loves us regardless of how much of a mess we make of our lives and the lives of others. God loves us regardless of our rudeness and our slothfulness. 

And this brought me right back to St. Therese and her Little Way. St. Therese once wrote, "It seems to me that there will be no judgement for victims of love, or rather, the good God will hasten to reward, with eternal delights, His own love which He will see burning in their hearts." 

She had complete confidence in God's Love and infinite Mercy. And thus she spent her life doing small acts of charity and love for those around her. Not to benefit herself in any way, but instead to be a conduit of God's Love. 

The next day, the homily our priest gave completely hit it home for me. It was about our vocations in life, and our duty to serve others within those vocations. My vocation is motherhood and marriage. It is my ultimate duty to serve. Just as ordained people have given an oath of obedience, so had I when I entered into the sacrament of marriage. 

I went home from church realizing that since it is my duty to serve these people ("these people" being my lovely, loud family) I would attempt to do so with the intention to be a conduit for God's Love, like St. Therese. I need to do as many daily sacrifices and acts of love on my family as I possible can. And while I don't necessarily remember to use the actual sacrifice beads, they hang on a little hook above our white board and whenever I look over at them, it reminds me of my commitment to this. 

I have made a conscious effort to stop what I'm doing to get something for one of the kids. Instead of making the kids hustle to bed so I can have an hour of peace and quiet to read, I'll go up with them and read a chapter of Little House on the Prairie out loud. I've baked my husband pie for dessert "just because" and I've picked up his shoes from the middle of the walkway over a hundred times, because I realize he is just a fallible man, and I am just a fallible woman. And God loves us any way. 

 

Part Two

 

 

 

I'm pretty new to cloth diapers, as I've mentioned before. I had a couple previous attempts that were short lived. But the reason I was unsuccessful before was mainly due to making it harder on myself than I needed it to be. Being the cheap skate that I am, I started out using the flat, white cloth diapers with pins like my mother did before me. These require a diaper cover, and while I am sure there are plenty of people who use this type of cloth diaper and love it, it really just wasn't for me. I was constantly afraid to go anywhere with the baby for fear we'd have a major blow out and there would be a terrible mess at an inopportune time/place. The whole system just seems more cumbersome. I ended up putting the baby in disposable whenever we left the house or I laid her down for a nap, which led to me just putting her in disposable all the time.

 

Then I bit the bullet and invested in some pocket diapers. Hallelujah! All I can ask myself is "Seriously? What took me so long?!" I found some really affordable brands on Amazon and bought them in bundles.

 

The best brand I purchased is from Jack Jill Baby. They are made with Charcoal Bamboo Fleece, and the color inside is Dark Grey, which is terrific because no matter what anyone has ever told me, I still have trouble keeping the whites white when poo is involved. I rinse immediately with cold water, trying to scrub out the ickies, but it never fails. I have stains. They fade with a couple washings, and I tend to line dry them to let the sun bleach them out... But all that is an unnecessary worry with the dark grey lining of these diapers. I also found that I am in love with the inserts that come with these diapers. They are sturdier and thicker than the other inserts I have. These are my top choice. I got 5 diapers for $45.

 

 



 

The interior of Jack Jill Baby Pocket Diapers

 

 

A demonstration of the insert into the pocket. (I used a white insert in this picture so you can see the insert sticking out of the pocket...)

 

 

 

The thickness of the inserts. I love this extra stitching in the middle.

 

 

 

The other brand I purchased was a company called LBB (although on Amazon they are also listed as Fervent Love so maybe that's the company name?) These are also pocket diapers, and although I like these too, they rate second to the ones I mentioned just above. The interior is white and the inserts aren't sewn together quite as sturdy as the Jack Jill Baby brand.

 

 

 

This is the white inserts that come with the LBB diapers (shown here on top of a Jack Jill Baby diaper.) They are absorbable, but seem to be of cheaper quality than the inserts of Jack Jill Baby.

 

From time to time, I still use the Diaper Cover method with prefolds (those white rectangles with a thicker, more absorbent strip down the middle.) I have a tendency to use these as a last resort however, usually when my pocket diapers are all in the wash and I need to do a load. I've tossed the diaper pins altogether, so here is how I use them:

 

 

I bought these diaper covers off an Etsy sight, Mommy Soup. I really like her covers and I have used both snap and Velcro.

 

 

 

 

The Velcro has an interior square of Velcro as well, so you can attach it to itself to avoid snags in the wash.

 

 

I generally stick a prefold in like this, folding the two sides over the absorbent center section. Then I just close the snaps or attach the Velcro- no pins necessary.

 

 

I will sometimes fold them like this and layer two prefolds on top of each other for extra absorbency when it's naptime. It's a bit bulkier, so I don't do it like this if she's going to be crawling around but it works well for sleeping.

 

I did splurge on a couple Cloth Diaper Bags for when we're out and about and I need a place to stick my dirty diapers. I held off buying this at first because as I mentioned before, I'm kind of frugal, but after carrying around a plastic shopping bag I decided it was probably worth it. I bought these:

 

 

 

 

When washing my diapers, I use Molly Suds Cloth Diaper Laundry Powder because its all natural, Earth derived ingredients.

 

 

 

All in all, I've spent about $150 worth of Cloth Diapering supplies, which might seem like a lot but honestly I was spending about $60 a month at Costco buying a box of diapers and wipes so these have paid for themselves within 3 months. I will probably purchase a few more (I'm really interested in trying new brands!) so the cost will be a bit higher in the end but still no comparison to the cost of disposable. One could argue that using a wash machine and dryer does cost money, but I think the cost is pretty minimal compared to all the other added benefits of cloth diapering like keeping disposable diapers out of the landfills, less diaper rash issues, etc. I do line dry my diapers on hot, sunny days too which helps reduce resources.

 

I guess you could say that I'm a Cloth Diaper Convert. :)

 

 

 

First things first. Cloth Wipes. 

 

 Back in the days of disposable diapers, I'd use wipes and then just put them in the diaper and roll it all up and toss it in the garbage. But when I started out with cloth diapering, I was sort of at a loss as to what to do with the wipes. I mean, obviously I was going to toss them in the garbage. But now I couldn't roll them all up in the old diaper and toss the whole shebang. And there is a real art to changing diapers. After having so many children, I'd like to say I have a system down, and that system included dropping yucky wipes in a yucky diaper.

 

The other thing that kind of bugged me about using disposable wipes with cloth diapers was the fact that it seemed kind of silly to be spending money on wipes when I was trying to save money on diapers. There really is no "cents" in paying for wipes, amirite? (I can't resist the occasional bad joke...)

 

So, being the newbie that I am, I purchased this from Amazon.

 

 

It comes in a box, and inside is a bag full of little soapy bits of coconut oil glycerin soap with essential oils to inhibit bacterial growth and aide in skin protection. Once I bought these, I found a recipe for making your own wipe solution, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll have to give it a go in the near future and let you know how that works. But for now, here's how I've been using these:

 

 

The key to this is HOT water. It makes the soapy bits dissolve faster. I let them sit in there and then after a while, I stir it up and try to break down the chunks.

 

 

I don't know about you, but I usually saved these little plastic wipes containers. They are great for organizing little things around the house like Barbie clothes, hair ponies, etc. So I have a few of these lying around. (You can see in my picture that I don't have the soapy bits completely dissolved...I lose patience quickly.)

 

 

I purchased two bundles of flannel wipes from Amazon (link below) and they fit PERFECTLY in the plastic wipes containers when you fold them in half.

 

 

I push my stack down a little to start soaking up some of that water in the bottom layers.

 

 

Then I flip the stack over, and the bottom wipes will eventually soak up any remaining liquid. Then I have a stack of wet wipes for the day!

 

I find I use only one wipe for a wet diaper, and at most two for a yucky diaper. So they last throughout the day pretty easily.

 

I'm going to post some Amazon affiliate links here to show you what I bought, in case you want an easy and quick look up:

 

 

 

 



Stay tuned...tomorrow I'm reviewing my favorite cloth diapers!

Saintly Books for Kids

 

 

 

I wanted to throw out some great suggestions for books on the lives of Saints for Children. I have a couple of tried and true ones that I read when I was a child, and still read to my children today. But we also like to cruise around the library and check out new books from time to time, and occasionally we get a handful on various Saints. I feel like it's really important to provide my children with these types of stories. They are exposed to so many different faces of "morality" in our society, introducing them to stories of people who have struggled for goodness, gave everything to help others, and held fast to their beliefs really gives them a tool to better differentiate right from wrong/good from evil.   

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Picture Book of Saints by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D.

I've had this book since I was a child. It's probably my favorite book on the Saints. The Table of Contents lists all the Saints in Alphabetical Order, and it has an initial page with ornate illustration with the words "Presented To..." that gives you the option to write in the recipients name (perfect for baptism or first communion gifts). There are over 100 Saints in the book (something like 115, I believe) and each Saint has one page dedicated to their biography- so it's brief enough to hold the attention of smaller children with short attention spans. The illustrations are beautiful. Each Saint's page also comes with a little prayer you can say that is pertinent to that particular Saint, along with their feast date.

The Children's Book of Saints by Louis M. Savary, S.T.D.

It's a bit of a smaller book, containing the stories of 52 Saints. Each Saint takes up 2 pages, but one page is a large illustration, so again- one page per story. Great for inattentive preschoolers. This is another book I have had since childhood, so it's a classic. Also contains a prayer for each Saint.

Clare and Francis by Guido Visconti and Bimba Landmann (Illustrations)

My six year old LOVES St. Francis. So she adores this book. I love the artwork, and there is a lot of gold tones in the illustrations that are done with a shiny gold tinted paint. Very beautiful. It doesn't hold the attention of my four year old or two year old, but that's not to say most four year olds/two year olds aren't going to be interested. It took a good 20 minutes to read through this book, so the story is more in depth, and a lot of the vocabulary is going to be geared more towards a grade school kiddo, in my opinion.

The Holy Twins Benedict and Scholastica by Kathleen Norris and Tomie de Paola

I don't know if you've ever seen any of Tomie de Paola's illustrations, but they are awesome! I love this book for that reason- the kids also love this book and it keeps most of them engaged throughout the story. (I say most of them because Emma, my two year old, doesn't stay engaged for ANY book past page 3.)

 

Lives and Legends of the Saints by Carole Armstrong

This book contains the story of 20 different Saints- but what I love the most about this book is the artwork. The images are paintings from the great art museums of the world. So you're kind of adding a little culture to your kiddos lives as an added benefit. And who doesn't love medieval paintings?

Martin de Porres the Rose in the Desert by Gary D. Schmidt

Kaisa, my four year old, LOVES this book. She's very into vibrant, colorful illustrations so I think that is what captures her the most. It's a quick and easy read, which is perfect for bedtime reading.

Saints Lives & Illuminations by Ruth Sanderson

There is something really special about this particular book. It has a bunch of stories of Saints I've never even heard of! The reason I like that is that most children's books about Saints cover the best known ones. So you get lots of stories about St. Therese, St. Dominic, St. Anne, St. Francis of Assisi, etc. But do many of you know anything about St. Spyridon? Or St. Nina? There is even a St. Moses who was an Ethiopian slave! (Ok, maybe YOU all already know these Saints, and I am just a little less educated, I dunno.)

On a side note:

I consider myself a bit of a romantic when in comes to fantasizing about "old fashioned" living. You know, homesteading, back to the land, canning your own food, baking bread early in the morning before the sun rises (Disclaimer: I am NOT a morning person). However, this week has really been a big, wet slap in the face from reality. My dryer broke. My wonderful, amazing, huge dryer BROKE. (I know, First World Problems, amirite?) But now, I have resorted to THIS:

 

The Dreaded Laundry

 



Do you have any idea how long it takes laundry to dry on the line? Or how long it takes to actually PUT said laundry on the line? Or what happens when it rains 3 days in a row, and you have 6 people's laundry to wash on a regular basis? It's pretty much the makings of a HUGE pile of laundry, incessantly growing in my laundry room like a fungus that is going to take over my house any day now. My husband has a part "on order" and I am currently crossing my fingers that it will arrive today.

This has really made me develop a WHOLE new level of respect for people who lived pre-washing maching/dryer days.

An Ode to Ulcerative Colitis

Wow, sorry for my lengthy retreat from Blog Land. I have this pesky disease called Ulcerative Colitis and I have been recovering from a pretty bad flare. The positive of this is that I've had a little time to read an amazing, very lengthy book that I'm excited to tell you about. Also, I've been doing a lot of baking, which is always top on my "ideas of a good time" list. Since my recent flare, I've been doing some research on UC and diets that might help me stay in remission. I found the holy grail of diet blogs, written by Danielle Walker. It's basically Paleo, and a lot of her recipes are SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) friendly. If you have no clue what I'm talking about as I throw out these terms like "SCD" and "Paleo", consider yourself lucky. Having a severely restrictive diet is, well, I'm not going to sugar coat it- it sucks. 😆 For now, I can not partake in what I consider to be some of the yummiest things in existence. Thank goodness I can still eat seafood!

Some days I would honestly trade my left foot for a hot, steamy cup of coffee with a gigantic dollop of cream in it and tons of sugar. But enough complaints out of me. Instead, check out these delicious muffins I made today, recipe here.

Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Onto the book:

I just finished a lovely book called In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Soooooo good. A little backstory: When I was a little girl, I decided I wanted to be a nun. I was pretty convinced of this until my teenage years. I was completely fascinated with stories of the lives of saints, and they had a major effect on me. Any time my brother and I got into a tussle, a little guilt would pop up in the back recesses of my mind, because someday when they wrote my saintly biography, fighting with my brother wasn't going to be considered a "saintly act." However, I admit I still fought with my brother on a regular basis.

 Clearly, God had other vocational plans for me in life, but I still have a serious fascination with nuns. While reading this book, I felt like I got to peep into the lives of a bunch of cloistered nuns, regardless of the fact that they were fictional characters. There were so many important areas touched on in the book- the spiritual battles certain nuns had to go through, lessons about trusting that God will provide, forgiveness, and overcoming pride, just to name a few. The book is over 600 pages long, but I breezed through it because I couldn't put it down. I loved all of the characters, esp. Abbess Catherine. The plot was so well written. When I started the book, I was sort of afraid it was going to be something I had trouble "getting into" but after the first 20 pages, I was hooked. Highly, highly recommend it.

The Extraordinary Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux....and laundry. :(

Ok, wow. I seriously wasn't even kidding about how much of a flake I am! My second post is a week after my first! I know this isn't an excuse but I'd really like everyone to feel super sorry for me because of all this laundry that's been holding me back from being a more productive person:

And this isn't even the half of it (or the third, for that matter.) If you want to do a really complicated math problem that unlocks the secrets of the Universe, try figuring out why I end up doing three to four loads of laundry a day when only 6 people live in this house? Ok, I know 6 sounds like a lot, but I have a seriously huge front load washer. I think some homeless people may be camping out in the basement and slipping some extra clothes in there...

I don't normally fold my laundry on the dining room table, but when your rolling up your sleeves to do some serious damage to the massive pile growing in your laundry room, the table seems like an easy place to set it all. (This also forces me to put it away by dinner time...I've been known to run out of time in a day and shove it in a basket and put it in the corner of my bedroom for two weeks.) All laundry aside, my house generally looks like this:

So, I guess I really shouldn't use laundry as an excuse. But stick with me- I'm determined to actually make a habit of writing a blog. It's pretty much top of my list for 2016 Goals.

Now then, to the topic at hand. My latest book. I just finished reading The Extraordinary Parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux by Hélène Mongin. Ah, the French. I seriously LOVE their accent marks. And this book- wow, this book. So good! Get out and read it!

I have a special place in my heart for St. Zélie Martin- I feel a real affinity with her. She was a working mother to five daughters (Nine children altogether, but five surviving daughters- all became nuns, to say the least)  and she really valued her faith life, fitting it into every available nook and cranny of each busy day. After reading this book, I find myself inspired to try harder to say the rosary daily or to incorporate new prayers into my day. She also made me want to make a better effort to go to a weekday mass once in awhile. I think if I ever have another girl, I'm going to name her Zélie. What an amazing woman! 

And I really don't want to leave out St. Louis. Such a gentle and loving father! And I thought MY 

husband was a great father. 😊 After I finished reading this book, I have to say, felt a little sad I was done.

The book I'm currently reading was suggested to me by my Godmother and I can already tell you it's amazing. Jesus and The Jewish Roots of The Eucharist by Brant Pitre. 

Stay tuned for my take on it...