Cauliflower Macaroni + Cheese | #Meatfreeweek

My new family table tactic is to place a salad on everyone's plate prior to digging-in into whatever comfort food I have made. It's amazing how no one complains about eating the salad when it's the gateway to the main, mouthwatering event. 

I am inching my family towards filling our plates with more plants. It's so HARD. Really and truly. It's a simple, clear cut goal and one that I know is worth it. I will be chipping away at this mighty task, making baby steps every week at our family table. 

Terri and I brainstormed a list of comfort meals that I will be tweaking to add more prebiotic foods to improve our gut health and reduce the ones that destroy our gut health. I am doing my best to steer clear of foods/crops that are cultivated heavily with pesticides with patented antibiotics like this one.

I am not after as many "new" things in my meal plan this year, nor am I after perfection. Eating out and desserts will still be a lovely part of our lifestyle ratio of 80:20 | real:processed food.

I want to create a meal plan that is somewhat repetitive (Mac, Abbie Tommy, I hope you wax poetic about my home cooked meals someday!!!) and full of gut-healthy plants + comfort food to fuel the trillion + gut microbes that maintain my family's health. 

Cauliflower Macaroni + Cheese

Inspired by Terri Salminen

1 package gluten free elbow macaroni cooked and drained

1/2 block of gruyere shredded (almost 1.5 cups)

1 package of organic shredded mexican cheese (An Italian mix or plain ol cheddar is fine too!)

1 head cauliflower diced to size of macaroni (or smaller)

2 Tbsp organic butter

2 Tbsp gluten free flour

1/2 c organic half n half (or substitute in full fat coconut milk)

1 c organic rice milk (or organic or rBGH free milk)

sea salt and freshly ground pepper (start with a few pinches and adjust to taste)

a pinch of ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta to package directions (Don't forget to salt your water with a 2 T of sea salt). Rough chop up the cauliflower to the size of your macaroni or smaller. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and evenly spread the cauliflower over the sheet. Sprinkle sea salt over the top. Roast for 15 minutes and toss (no oil is needed!). Roast for another 5-8 minutes or until starting to slightly brown. There should not be anymore raw "crunch" to the vege. 

The pasta and the cauliflower hung out for a bit when I started my roux - Watch this "how to make a roux video" - It ROCKS). Melt the butter, add the flour and stir for 3-5 minutes until bubbly. Slowly pour in cream and whisk to incorporate. Lastly add in the rice milk (about 1/4 cup at a time). You should have a nice white sauce mixture at this point (add more liquid to thin out if necessary). Add in 1 cup of the gruyere and all of the Mexican cheese and mix until melted and smooth. 

Remove from heat and mix in the cauliflower and macaroni. Pour mixture into a 9x12 baking dish. Sprinkle remaining gruyere on top. (Parmesan would be awesome on top too... I just didn't haven't any on hand.) Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes. DIG IN.  

Have fun with some 1st course, "gateway" salads and happy weekend everyone!!

To the Mullies we go,

xoxoL

ps

Ever since my family food change worked for Abbie, I have been a geek for anything that increases my understanding of the gut-brain connection. Today, 4.5 years into my journey, this is what I know for sure: There is still so much to learn about our gut microbiome (video link!) and I believe improving Abbie's changed the game for all of us. 

I am crazy about my new library book, Super Genes. It's one Good-Gut-Mind-DNA-Loving read. 

pps

If you want to read some more about prebiotics, check out this great article!

rhubarb lemonade + an evolving mullies = no guts no glory

Part 1

I have this unique ability to not hear anything going on around me when I type or read and when my oldest child Mac told me I was getting "too much screen time", well, I realized something's gotta give.  This lovely little blog was the beginning.  I started it after my sister came in town on Labor Day 2012; Katie gave me a frame with fabric embroidered inside, "to the mullies" giving homage to the make believe land we used to "swing" to after we jumped off our swing set.  She and her family are here now vacationing with us for a lovely looooong week.  Writing here helped get me through our life altering family food change... boy have I learned a lot.  Perhaps I will post again after the Summer, perhaps I will not.  In the meantime, you can find me with my family and friends swinging to the mullies on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and on YouTube.  Most especially, keep up with all of us in the Lake County Food Revolution on Facebook and Twitter cuz food is forever.

I'm having way too much fun smashing it with other ambassadors and foodie friends alike. Turns out I super love making videos cooking with my kids:)  I taught myself how to splice footage and edit videos together on my iphone and taking a break from the blog will give me a chance to see how much trouble we can get into showing how this American FoodRev family is swinging her bat.  Thumbs up, sideways or down... Single, double, triple or a home run... Let's cook tried and true recipes from all over the nation and globe together...  I hope you too will gather a little team and try cooking along with me - that way we won't feel so alone if our busy lives and kids give us the finger to sit the bench.  
The game goes by way.too.fast and I'm only sitting to catch my breath.

Here's our latest, just in time for your 4th of July picnics and barbecues!!!

An Ambassador Smash - Rhubarb Lemonade

Recipe sent with love from Food Rev Haarlem, Netherlands by Food Rev Ambassador Terri Salminen. She and I are having a blast communicating over the ocean and getting to know each other "on the line".  We have become fast friends and I feel so lucky to be connected with her!  I cannot wait to see what we smash up next:)  I decided to post her recipe as she wrote it to me, as it's so terribly simple and delicious and I want her voice to be here with me.  I had enough to make three last cocktails yesterday for the arrival of my sis and bro-in-law.  I added some vodka, cut strawberries and stirred it up in some gorgeous copper mugs.  Oh I'll be making this one again and again:)

Hello there Lindsey -- This is what I did: cut three large stalks of rhubarb into chunks and put them in a sauce pan, just covering them with water (about 1 liter). Squeeze the juice of one lemon, and drop the lemons in the pan with a whole vanilla pod. Bring the ingredients to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Let the rhubarb cook 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and strain the rhubarb through a sieve. Return the juices and the vanilla pod into the pan, removing the cut lemons. Now -- this is the fun part. Simmer the rhubarb juice to half its original quantity (about 20 minutes) on low heat. When cooked down and turning dark pink, add two to three tablespoons of honey -- sweetening it to taste. Let the rhubarb juice cool -- keeping the vanilla pod in for flavor. It's wonderfully tart and delicious -- especially with a splash of San Pellegrino mineral water, some cut strawberries and fresh mint leaves. xxxxxxTerri

Part 2

So with that, here's my parting thoughts on this glorious 4th of July week.  I'm thinking about my beloved America, about becoming a Food Patriot and it's such perfect timing.

I started this blog with a question:  Will this family food change help improve Abbie's symptoms and avoid an ADHD diagnosis with subsequent medication?  I'm signing off this Summer with my theory on why our family food change helped Abbie shed the ADHD and sensory processing symptoms. Was it the reduction in refined sugar?  The elimination of artificial color and preservatives?  The removal of gluten?  Or was it something else that connected these elements?  Today I'm going to talk about GUTS and connect some dots.

Here we go...

Antibiotics (ABX)
The effects of ABX on our gut bacteria are known by most of us.  Use them too often and they kill off the good AND bad guys in our guts; Think Vietnam agent orange carpet bombing.  Throughout our lives (starting in the womb), we get numerous, sometimes unnecessary (sometimes life saving) doses of ABX.  In addition, our factory farmed animal meat is loaded with it.  ABX make animals big and fat fast and they help animals survive the unnatural conditions of crowded factory farm barns.  How much ABX is left in the meat when we eat it?  More than we think.

Filtering the GMO debate

GMOs have really come into the limelight over the past two years.  I certainly had no idea about them when I started looking into our food.  One must separate genetically engineered organisms (GEOs) and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) first so that we can talk about our guts.  Think of what humans do in GEO's as forced plant sex... we've been doing it by hand in fields and in laboratories for centuries.  On the other hand, GMO's are created when scientists splice a class of herbicides such as glyphosate (the active ingredient in the popular weed killer "Roundup") with the plant seed's own DNA so that every cell of the plant gives off the neurotoxin.  These crops are classified as systemic neoniconitoids (SN-GMOs) and were approved in the glorious 1980's.  Because they are cheap, these crops overwhelm the ingredient lists of our processed food and new research is showing these crops have put the world food supply at risk.  But how could they have been approved in the first place?!  Here's what happened: These herbicides cause a fatal neurological pathway disruption (the shikimate pathway) in plant and bacteria cells which kills them.  This pathway does not even exist in our human cells so it was deemed safe back in the 80's because industry scientists and the FDA were not paying attention to the bacteria in our guts.  Like the tobacco industry, SN-GMO safety has been determined by its own GMO seed industry research, not by independent research = big red flag.  Also, their testing trial length is 90 days = not an appropriate length for human safety standards.

Are you still with me?:)

Enter in the science of Microbiology and the Human Microbiome Project.
Since the 1980s, we have learned much about the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies.  To this day, we have only scraped the surface on the association between our gut bacteria in both healthy and diseased individuals.  Here's the nitty gritty (and read more in this book): Our gut bacteria outnumber our human cells 10-1 in our digestive track.  The loss or weakening of our gut bacteria lining in our intestines = Dysbiosis or "leaky gut syndrome".  Food proteins can then sneak into the blood and these foreign proteins stimulate an immune response in our body = food sensitivities & allergies.  In addition to digestion, we are learning that gut bacteria handles mood regulation, neurotransmitter production (the ADHD brain?) and immune function.  The gut-brain relationship is a glorious new scientific frontier.  Bottom line: Bacteria = the building blocks of earthly life.  Bees, farm animals and humans all have gut bacteria and these little buggers keep us alive.

Connecting Roundup,  SN-GMOs and ABX
Common non-SN-GMO crops such as wheat and sugar are doused with Roundup to kill the crop and hasten the harvest.  Remember that Oregon Farmer who discovered illegal SN-GMO wheat in his fields a few years back? (Monsanto had planted and tested SN-GMO wheat in OR, but alas it was never approved by the FDA).  Imagine the farmer's shock when he sprayed his crop with Roundup and the wheat didn't die... So, not only do we have Roundup and other harmful herbicides INSIDE the DNA of our food protein, but we also have it sprayed all over the OUTSIDE of super common conventional food crops + we may not be able to STOP this crap from spreading in the wild. Yum.  The combination of toxic herbicide load, SN-GMO foreign food proteins and ABX overuse is altering and wiping out our gut bacteria which is leading to a wide range of unintended physical and mental health issues, unique to each person's own DNA.

Our food change worked.  Eating and cooking with real food (and choosing cleaner, organically processed food) helped repair Abbie's guts... all of our guts.   We will continue to avoid fake foods - artificial color and preservatives, SN-GMOs and heavily herbicide ridden foods like the dirty dozen, wheat and refined sugar.  Abbie has food sensitivities to these foods which was causing her symptoms.  We do cheat and symptoms come back, though never as severe.  Turns out we all feel better when we eat clean, and we're certainly slimmer (Me, Chris and my parents have lost a grand total of 75+ pounds with no "dieting").  It's the key to our continued, imperfect success and it's the common thread connecting all of the amazing health success stories I read about every day.  Each of our food maps look different and I'm hoping to give my Abbie, Mac and Tommy a foodie pen so they can write without me someday.  

So where do we go from here?

Spread the word birds: Russia just completely banned GMOs.  And Europe has always either labeled them or banned them (Europe also puts labels on food with artificial color explaining it causes hyperactivity in children).  Americans are unknowingly stuffing our faces with SN-GMOs & fake food because we have no labeling laws and we innocently trust our pisspoor FDA regulated food industry standards.  Read about how the famous Seralini Study has been republished after three rounds of rigorous scientific peer review (after being retracted by an editor who was a former Monsanto employee).  I hope we continue to reach out and hold the hands with the rest of the gathering world on GMOs and labeling laws.  You know what they say, "open hands are hard to hold on to anyway"...  I super hate the ending of Titanic.

I hope you enjoyed and were able to follow my somewhat simple, geeky synopsis.  We have a light on the path that is much brighter than when I started two years ago.  I'm so glad I didn't wait to try cleaning up our food and I'm here to cheer you on.  

Go balls out for real food with me.  You.have.nothing.to.lose.

Don't let the torch go out.  Find your inner nerd.  Read and google about how to achieve strong, stellar gut... 

Find your inner athlete and start practicing in the kitchen.  Don't give up on your meal planning and bring your kids along on some fun cooking runs...  

Become a Food Patriot and start changing the marketplace with every purchase towards food companies you can trust.  YOU make a difference no matter how small a change you are making...  

Join our Food Revolution and help Jamie Oliver, me and the other 1000+ global Food Ambassadors get compulsory food education back into our schools... 

Come on America, let's have a big Food Day together and make our mark on the world as the generation who turned this mother ship around.

No guts no glory.  

Happy Happy Birthday America,

xxooLindsey



ps

I hope you enjoy this lovely Summer song;)  

"Should this be the last thing I see? 

I want you to know it's enough for me.  

Cause all that you are is all that I'll ever need... 

Lumiére darlin over me.

...so in love"

to the mullies... 

i'll be seeing you and your grass stains.

be a food patriot this memorial day

i'm singing this video and today's chicago tribune article to the mullies on food revolution mundelein's facebook & twitter pages, my facebook page... it's that important.  finally, the gmo conversation has some more research and a little doctor clout to boot.  take some time out this weekend and watch it.  yes please.  this is it my friends, IT IT IT IT... and don't forget to share these babies far and wide.  

jeffery smith interviews dr stephanie seneff about glyphosate (monsanto's roundup) and GMO's  

here is the link to the actual published research paper - pocket protector needed: 

Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases

let's become food patriots.  doesn't that have a nice ring to it for memorial day?  start making small changes or big changes, whatever you can handle.  we all can make a 10% change with our grocery store dollar.  if we build it, they will come.  the spitz family almost lost their son to a raging bacterial infection that wouldn't quit.  they started the food patriot movement and have a fabulous documentary that i'm hoping to bring to our school district next year.  here is the spitz family's story in today's chicago tribune: antibiotics in livestock raising concern up the food chain.  

might this be all connected? gmo's - sick food - sick animals - sick humans - superbugs - superweeds = super bad (i do so love that movie).  oh boy oh boy.  i love it when the dots start to connect.  i just hope we haven't woken up to late.  pry the fingers out of your ears - no more la la la nappy time allowed.  

here we go baby, here.we.go.  

day 137 - ABBIE'S CELEBRATION DAY

this little lady is going to get a surprise celebration tonight when she gets home.

are you ready for this one?  did you hit play yet?!?!?!?!?

this morning, i received an unexpected conference call with some very special teachers and administrators at abbie's school.  they had crazy exciting news to share:  abbie's records were taken last week and she is currently reading at level g independently.  

137 days ago, she was reading a grade level behind at level a.  

where are the smelling salts!? 

she is now a tad above grade level expectations and has been officially released from reading intervention.  abbie will be spending her entire day in the classroom.  NO MORE PULLOUT. 

YYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

(this also could be a picture for when i screw up a recipe)

i think we all started crying.  this we did not expect.  to all of abbie's teachers and staff at fairhaven school:  thank you so very very much for supporting abbie, for supporting this food change as a viable intervention, for cheering us on and for giving me the courage to stick with a food change and not give up too soon.  

thank you for never making me feel like i was jumping off the plank.  the sharks never got her.  

to catherine, without you doing the research so many years ago, trying it first and telling me about it all...it never would have happened.  you were the first drop.  thank you.

we did it!

every tear is a wate... ok, ok, ok i hear you loud and clear...THERE'S A PARTY GOING ON IN HERE...

ps

some articles for your reading pleasure:

abc news: more fake food than real food on our grocery shelves

ADHD rate on the rise in california

the importance of gut health in the treatment of ADHD and sensory processing disorders

treating ADHD & sensory processing disorders


pps



did you know that certain everyday foods can trip your brain out?  foods that make you hallucinate.  yikes!  well that story got my wheels turning and i found a bunch of stuff that relates to the gut-brain connection.  here are some links to help connect the dots...  if you believe in all this hocus pocus:)

5 foods to eat if your feeling blue

sweet soda drink & depression

oh snap! eating fastfood can make you sad...really.

anxious are you? try cutting out these foods.

panic attacks vs real food

7 foods to make you happy baby

ADHD and our guts

here are some great links that discuss how food allergens can be the cause ADHD symptoms in individuals and how we can reverse this by changing our diet.  

confirmed research link between ADHD and food

ADHD and the importance of gut health

gut and psychology syndrome (GAPS)

neurodevelopmental disorders and gut health going mainstream

this is truly exciting...

i mean, singing to the mullies exciting.

mainstream pediatrics is now officially addressing the real link between the "gut-brain" connection in the november 2012 issue of the American Academy of Pediatrics' monthly magazine Pediatrics.  

research is finally catching up!

the autistic spectrum and children's digestive health

SMACK MY FACE it's day 9

i wasn't going to post tonight, but i have to tell you what just happened (well about an hour ago...:)

the tv is on, we're watching some monday night fooooootbaaaaaalllll.  the kids are tucked in bed.  all of a sudden we hear abbie (who usually comes to the railing to ask for a drink or something lame).  she is above us, hanging over the railing, but this time with a book in her hand.  she asks us, "mommy, daddy, what is this word?  P-O-L-E?"  ...she asked us so nonchalantly, as if it's 4pm and she can be up.

chris and i looked at each other, jaws to the freaking floor, this has never ever in-the-history-of-man happened before:  abbie reading ON HER OWN.  how could we be mad that she wasn't in bed!?!?  well, flip me over, smack my sass and call me janet.  holy ballz.  and he went right up to read with her.  AGAIN.

she and i had already read for 30 minutes...and she wanted more.

screamin to the mullies tonight:)  it's working, it's working, it's working.

here's what we had for dinner tonight: let's call it, 

lindsey's brown rice surprise

(i was rachel ray and just eye balled this stuff)

1 chopped onion cooked in evoo with s&p

1 lb grass fed ground beef (thousand hills from target)

...that looked really boring...so after i drained the fat i added:

about 1 tbsp of herbes de provence

...hmmmmm, i should probably add a vegetable...so then i added

about a cup of frozen peas

1/2 cup of white wine for some flavor flav

....threw the lid on and let it simmer for about 10 min's.

BAM

Here were the kids reactions.

Mac cleaned his plate and had another helping before bed because he was still hungry.  

it was good mom.

Yea, that's about all she ate.  she likes to get her picture taken.  she took four bites with some drama.

don't i look good in my picture day outfit?!  

the sides were veggie chips and some banana slices.  

hello hamburger helper!  but it tasted sooo much better:)

here are some links i found tonight.  bookmarked baby.

a fab guide to feeding healthy kids

kids allergies and their brains

emotional, behavioral and mental allergy symptoms