I lay in bed at night with so much to say...

I lay in bed at night and think of a million things I want to write about on here and then my motivation is gone by morning.  Ugh. 

Not a whole lot new here.  I did find a great website for you to try out for some great sugar and grain free items.  Chocoperfection bars, and Nature's Hallow products at 1/2 the price of Amazon.
www.netrition.com
Ordered some new gum and mints sweetened with Xylitol so I'll let you know how we like those.  $4.95 flat shipping and if you have a $200 order the prices go down quite a bit.  Find a grain/sugar free friend and combine your orders.They have great prices on supplements as well. O.k. now you are going to ask my what I take for supplements. Well I will start off by telling you that you should be taking Vitamin D3, Vitamin K and Fish Oil. I get at Costco or online. I take a few others but they are tailored to my particular needs. I can try to help you figure out yours if you want to send me a message. I'm no expert, Dr. or nutritionist but have learned and researched a lot in the past few months. Most of it being from my mentor Maria Emmerich. She also offers very tailored consultations that are excellent! www.marianutrition.com
More talk about shopping....
 I placed a 22 lb bulk order of Swerve.  It averages $8.10 per pound opposed to the $12 if ordering individually.  I told you I am not willing to sacrifice taste when switching my family to sugar free.  It's hands down our favorite, and safe for my kiddos.  I like the confectioners best.  You can order at Swerve.comhttp://www.swervesweetener.com/116.html I had to laugh because I got an email from them asking me if I baked commercially and if so they could give me a discount.  I said no, but I blog :-) You can save even more and enter the code JOY10 for an additional 10% off your order :-)  More savings!
I'm all about doing this lifestyle as cheap as possible.  I have still had a hard time getting my head around our family food budget.  I buy things in bulk and it throws me off a bit.  I will say that I was pleasantly surprised with my Aldi trip this week.  I found a ton of organic fruits and veggies at great prices as well as organic and grass fed dairy!  Oh and dry roasted, salted almonds, a guilty indulgence for me, and 85% cocoa dark chocolate! It's good too! As some of you know I used to be a salesmen for Aldi and instead of being impressed as I walked down the aisles last week I had to ask myself for forgiveness for all the crap I used to purchase for my family there.  Cheap, yes, full of dangerous, unhealthy crap YES!!!  I could rant again this week about how disgusting it is that we have to spend sooo much in this country to get REAL food but now that you have been eating this way you know for yourself. Did, I just type that?  Wow, does God put us on such unique, changing journeys.  I am so grateful for the learning I have been doing about taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit.  As you all know I'm a spiritual person and remembering that this is His temple really makes it easy to make good food choices.  I want to take care of this body he gave me and be able to glorify Him in all I do. 
My journey to health started about 3 years ago when my father passed away quite suddenly of Pancreatic cancer.  I made a promise to him that I would take care of my health and he didn't need to worry about me.  I started at the gym and did my grief homework on the elliptical and with weights.  I bought into the whole calories in and calories out science and yes, I lost.  About 40 lbs.  Then I got pregnant, put some weight back on and after having Isaac I had such bad hip pain that I was desperate to get the weight off.  Through a journey of many different nutrition/diet sources I discovered the benefits of this grain and sugar free lifestyle and the rest is history.  Basically, it took my Dad dying to decide to make a life change.  That is soo sad, but, i will forever be grateful for this journey God has taken me on.  I know He uses all things for good. I am glad to be typing to you, to hopefully be an encouragement to you, that through education of this lifestyle, you too, can be free from counting calories and diets forever.  Liberating!!!
Here comes the plug for Maria Emmerich's book Secrets of a Healthy Metabolism.  I used to recommend Wheat Belly but I'm changing my tune after reading this and telling you this is a much easier read and really makes so much sense and confirms this way of life and the science behind it in elementary terms :-)
 Some of you aren't following this for weight loss, you instead have gained tremendous health from this lifestyle. Eczema gone, diabetes gone, high blood pressure gone, ADHD and autism signs gone, allergies eliminated, depression and anxiety gone, asthma gone etc.  Sucess like my kiddos have seen.  Story:  My poor Jon got "wheated" (when you unknowingly consume wheat) recently at a friends house.  I had given a free pass for sugar cuz it was a special occasion but absolutely no wheat to be given to him.  There was a misunderstanding with the mother and Jon was given some cookies.  I was not aware of this occurrence immediately.  Well, Jon came home from the friends house in a crabby, tense mood (pre-wheat, he would have this moodiness and as he says, would feel just angry and tense inside).  I chalked it up to him being tired from sleepover at grandparents the night before.  He had 3 time outs within a matter of hours due to the bad behavior.  Put him to bed only to be awoken with him crying because of horrible tummy cramps.  The poor kid was miserable.  I had no idea what was wrong and just soothed him through the night.  I found out the next morning from the mom that she accidentally gave him cookies.  Explained it all!  This brings me to the point that sure, you could go spend a bunch of money on tests to see if you have wheat or sugar intolerance and still not have any firm conclusions, or you can cut it out for 30 days and see your results. 
I get, that some people look at you like you are crazy and why would you "choose" to take out grains and sugar (hence the title of my blog).  Sometimes you can feel like you are on an island.  Take heart my friends I believe that more and more people are finding this truth. I hope that I someday live to see the warnings on packages about the crap or a t.v. commercial warning America in the dangers of consumption. 
Onto some tried and true recipes made at the Chrest house the last week....

For all my Catholic friends looking for a meat free option on Fridays this Clam Chowder is amazing!  I added heavy whipping cream to mine to thicken it instead of the psyllium husk. 

As you know, I make my own cereals and because I do them so often they are easy peasy but I'm telling you, this granola was super easy and makse a huge batch. 
Because of copyright rules I can't post the Wheat Belly Orange Cream cookie recipe but a lot of you have the book, so I say "Make IT".  We had it at my friend Jenna's this weekend and we all loved them.  I made another batch today. 
And finally, mine and the boys favorite new creation....Bacon Cupcakes! 

All recipes (except the Wheat Belly cookies) below.
Blessings my friends!

P.S. could you please subscribe to this blog so I know you are reading.  And could you also email me your success stories so that I can compile them.  I will leave your names anonymous :-) radiojoy@msn.com  Oh, and I want to thank you for not being too critical of my horrible punctuation and grammar. If I had to spend time perfecting that, I wouldn't be here :-)

Maria Emmerich's www.marianutrition.com
 Clam Chowder ( I don't think the bacon should be optional! Oh and I do not like cauliflower but with all the cream, butter and bacon you can't taste it in this recipe :-)

 

Bacon Cupcakes (adapted by me from Maria's cupcake recipe)

1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 cup Jay Robb vanilla
3/4 cup Swerve
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 TBS butter
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
5 eggs, separated
2 tsp baking powder
12 slices of cooked crisp bacon

Preheat oven to 325. Whip egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff. In separate bowl, using electric mixer, cream butter with egg yolks until yellow and fluffy. Add extract and sweetener. Beat until well mixed. Fold the yolk mixture into the whipped egg whites and fold lightly. In a separate bowl, mix the almond flour, whey protein, and baking powder, then fold gently into the egg mixture; being careful not to break down whites. Carefully fold in 7 slices of cooked, crumbed bacon Fill paper muffin cups in muffin tin about half full. Bake 325 for about 15 to 20 minutes until cracked on top.

FROSTING:
3 TBS Butter or coconut oil
3 TBS Cream Cheese
4 TBS Swerve
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
Crumble the remaining 5 slices of bacon and top the cupcakes.  MMMMMM BACON! :-)

 Makes 12 cupcakes.