I chose this recipe because we have lots of bellies at the table that are hard to fill up. My usual strategy is to provide a reasonable amount of quality protein, a really large amount of veggies, and then some kind of starchy carb to fill in the cracks in the tummies. I really liked the idea of having a starchy carb ready to go in the freezer.

At the dinner table everyone smeared thick pats of butter on warm biscuits and were quite content. This recipe gets the thumbs up from everyone.

Cheese Biscuit Mix

Source: Fix, Freeze, Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik

Grocery List

• 2 pounds sharp cheddar cheeseshredded
• 16 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup baking powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs salt
• 2 cups (4 sticks) buttercut into 1″ cubes
• 8 one-gallon freezer bagslabeled
• 3/4 cup milk (on hand for baking each batch)

1. Combine cheese, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter; rub into flour until the butter is in tiny pieces. Divide the mixture evenly among the freezer bags.

I used whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose flour. Our family likes the texture and nuttiness. But if you’re looking for a softer biscuit you’ll want to use all-purpose. I also used coconut sugar in place of the sugar, which seemed to work out just fine.

If you’re not experienced at cutting in butter, it requires a bit of patience, especially with quantities this large. Your hands are the best tools with which to do it. Gently massage the butter pieces into the flour until the mixture is mealy, like cornmeal. It can take a while, so find a friend to talk to, or a radio program to listen to, or something to keep you entertained while you rub and rub and rub. I like to leave a few larger chunks of butter that melt when they bake and make nice little pockets in the biscuits.

2. Seal and freeze.

TO BAKE ONE BATCH:

1. Completely thaw one batch in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

3. Put the mixture in a medium bowl. Add milk and stir to form a dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until dough holds together. Pat into a circle 2 inches thick. Cut into 8 wedges.

4. Place wedges on an ungreased rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown.

I actually do this process slightly different, because I think it goes just a little bit faster and keeps the biscuits a little bit moister. I knead the dough in the bowl until it holds together, then turn it out onto my lined baking sheet where I pat it into a circle. I score the dough deeply to make wedges, but I don’t cut all the way through. After baking, I separate them into wedges.

“To be sure, too much too quickly. I most certainly should have eaten too little too slowly, or too much too slowly, or too little too quickly, or taken all day to eat nothing….”

The thought of taking all day to eat nothing was always amusing to me, in an Seuss-ical nonsensical kind of way. But as I was cooking, and cooking, and cooking this past week, it occurred to me that it’s the perfect phrase to describe my GAPS journey.

GAPS: Take all day to eat nothing!

I’m thinking of having some t-shirts made.

The most exciting addition to my GAPS diet this week? Fresh juice! Oh, how I’ve longed to have a good excuse to buy a fabulous juicer and lots of fresh fruit and veggies that I then turn into piles of pulp and juice. Finally, I got to do it. GAPS encourages consuming fresh juices to deliver loads of nutrients that require no digestion, and to aid in detox.

I spent a lot of time researching and ended up with this one, an auger-style juicer. I love that it does more than just make juice. Plus I wanted to be able to juice greens and wheatgrass, and this style of juicer handles those veggies better.

I was so excited about the juice that I overdid it the first couple of days. How many times does it take me to learn that I need to start small and go slowly? I started off with a full cup of carrot juice and began adding in all sorts of herbs and ginger and lettuce within the first few days. My belly made it very clear that this was too much, and so I had to back off. I’ve spent the time since then only having the juice from two carrots and a small piece of ginger, diluted with water. Some days, I add in a small piece of lettuce. This seems to be going much better.

It’s recommended that you take fresh juice on an empty stomach, so I have mine first thing in the morning. They say that your body is in “detox mode” until about 10:00 a.m. and that it’s perfectly fine (perhaps even helpful) to not eat food until that time. Since starting GAPS, I’ve found that I’m not really hungry in the morning. I start my day with a glass of water with trace minerals and a few supplements, then I have a glass of juice. I’m usually ready for some soup by 9:30 or so.

In addition to the fresh juice, I added small amounts of raw veg this week. It’s lovely to eat a salad again! I began with small amounts of cucumber, peeled and de-seeded. I drizzled olive oil and lemon juice all over it. Over the next few days I added raw avocado, and then some small pieces of butter lettuce to the mix. I’ve arrived at a pretty delicious salad dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and chopped fresh dill. If I don’t feel like squeezing a lemon I use some raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. I look forward to eating this salad every day.

The last thing I added this week was fresh, homemade applesauce. This is my “dessert” at the end of the day. It’s quite delicious, but I’m not going to try to convince you that it’s as tasty as a big dish of creme brulee. I like to mix my apples, using some tart and some sweet. And I use a lot of coconut oil. I was going to give you a recipe for it, but honestly I don’t measure any of it. I peel, core and chunk several apples and saute them in a heavy pan with lots of coconut oil and a pinch of cinnamon or other sweet spices (I particularly like to use Chinese five spice powder). Once they’re soft, I add some water, cover the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes (maybe 5-10). Then I send all of it through my juicer, which also acts as a food mill. You could also use a hand-blender or even a potato masher. I like to divide it up between small ramekins so that after dinner I can just pop one of them into the toaster oven and have a ready-made treat.

Here’s what I was eating during week 6 (Stages 4-5 of Introduction Diet):

• continued all previous foods from Stages 1-3 (soups, stews, roasted meat, ginger-lemon tea, egg yolks, fermented fish, avocado, and pancakes)
• fermented veggies (sauerkraut, carrots, etc.), 1/2 tsp with every meal
• fresh, homemade applesauce
• small amounts of raw veggies, peeled and seeded

My supplements are all still the same:

• Hydrochloric acid (2 capsules) before meals, to aid in digestion
• Probiotic–half dose in the morning and a half dose in the evening
• Prescription meds for ulcerative colitis
• Trace minerals, added to a cup of water every morning
• 1 spoonful cod liver oil, every morning

Detox routines for week 6 included:

• (almost) daily detox bath, alternating Epsom salt and baking soda
• daily, fresh-pressed carrot juice with ginger

I can definitely say that my symptoms are better than what they were a few months ago. What’s hard to determine is whether this is because I’m actually healing my gut, or because I’m not eating anything challenging. I still can’t eat any of the things that I couldn’t eat previously, and my diet now is actually the most restricted it’s ever been. I think I’ll feel like I’m making definite progress once I can tolerate something that I haven’t been able to eat for years–nuts? dairy? egg whites? For now, I still feel like I’m plodding along slowly.

I’m still waiting to gain back some weight. For the first few weeks I lost weight steadily. I’m teetering close to, but not below, my self-determined weight-at-which-to-start-freaking-out. I had expected to be gaining back some pounds by now, but I’m not, which is a little discouraging.

And I find it hard to determine if I actually have more energy than in those early weeks, or if I’ve just gotten used to the amount of energy I have and have learned to ration it better. Perhaps a little of both.

At the end of this last week I felt like I had sort of plateaued. I think I’m going to be stuck in this stage for quite a while, tweaking this and that and still trying to bring in the egg whites and nuts every few weeks. I think it’s going to be quite boring to write about every week. So I thought I’d scale back these journalistic posts, checking in only once a month or so as I see progress. In the other weeks, I’ll be offering you some yummy GAPS recipes that I discover or develop along the way–recipes that you’ll love even if you’re not on GAPS. And perhaps some product reviews every once in a while, of things that I’ve found useful on my GAPS journey.

Coming along? Quite frankly I can’t believe you’ve all stuck by me this long. Thanks for being on my journey with me.

Originally from the far north of the U.S., I am a southern transplant. I grew up in the land of the casserole, where if you ate beans it was from a can, most likely dumped into chili or a hotdish, and often with the words “pork ‘n” in front. I didn’t even know there were beans that weren’t named after a human organ until I moved away from home.

I know, wow.

And now, here we are, in central Texas and wouldn’t you know one of the plants most thriving and most likely to be grown by yours truly is beans – from cowpeas to a blue speckled heirloom to lima. I have come a long way in my bean journey.

One of the reasons beans are so plentiful in the south is because, well, they are cheap. But this is only sustainable in a climate that beans love (it’s hot here), and a culture that has passed down their bean-cooking know how so as to avoid those bland I-don’t-ever-want-to-eat-these-crunchy-boring-things-again.

So for those of you who may be interested I thought I’d post a very basic how-to cook beans tutorial. Whether you’re buying them super cheap and in bulk from the store or you’re harvesting your own crop, knowing how to cook good beans can go a long way in your kitchen.

If you’re worried about the hard-to-digest quality of beans see this post in which I share eight tips for cooking beans that are easier on the tummy.

How-To Cook Dried Beans

1. Start with good beans. You want to get them from a source that has a good turnover so that you’re getting the freshest beans available. It is true that beans keep really well, but if they are too old they will never really soften up when you cook them.
2. Start at least a day ahead of time. I know this sounds like a pain, but if you are menu planning anyways, just take a peak at the menu and see which days require some bean soaking.
3. Sort and soak your beans. The day before you wish to eat them, you’ll want to dump your beans in a large pot, run your hands through them in search of the off bean or random pebble. Then cover then with at least twice as much water as beans, put a lid on the pot, and let them sit at least overnight.
4. Drain and rinse. The next morning you’ll want to drain off the soaking water, rinse with fresh water, and either soak the rest of the morning or cook in fresh water or stock.
5. Bring to a boil and skim. Once your beans are ready to cook cover them with water and put them over a high heat. Bring them to a boil and skim off any foam that rises to the top.
6. Season and simmer for a long time. Once your beans are boiling and have been skimmed, turn the heat down to a simmer. Now it is time to flavor your beans. Any type of cured or smoked pork (or other animal) product is welcome here. Pieces of bacon, a ham hock, leftover ham, smoked turkey wings, and more will all give your beans a nice meaty, smoky flavor. Allumes such as onions and garlic are also great additions, as is a good amount of sea salt and any spices, like cumin and oregano for a Mexican flare. Once properly seasoned simmer those beans away for at least an hour or two, or until desired tenderness is reached.

Many traditional kitchens have had a pot of beans on the back burner of the stove most days of the week – whether the Mexican Grandmother or the Scandinavian housewife.

You can add them to soups or stews, serve them as a side dish to tacos or other Mexican food, eat for lunch in a tortilla or over rice along with sour cream and salsa, or eat them straight up with whatever you like. Beans are a great, nourishing, and inexpensive way to stretch quality meat and vegetables and fill little (and big) tummies.

In our house, breakfast is typically a bowl of oatmeal. It’s quick, it’s affordable, it’s easy to make a big batch that will feed a table-full of bellies. In order to keep things interesting, the Sweetie Pie likes to top the oatmeal with different tasty morsels. One of the things he likes to use is granola. It’s hard to find affordable store-bought granola made without refined sugar, so I’m accustomed to making my own granola. But somehow it had never occurred to me that I could freeze it. When I saw this recipe, I thought it was brilliant and knew I had to try it.

The Sweetie Pie and all the kiddos agree that this granola is delicious. I like that it’s easy to pull together, and that I have more of it in the freezer when this batch runs out. And of course, I like that it’s free of refined sugars. Everyone’s happy at the breakfast table.

Granola

Source: Fix, Freeze, Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik

Grocery List

• 12 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups almondschopped
• 2 cups sesame seedsuntoasted
• 2 cups sunflower seedsraw and hulled
• 2 cups shredded coconutunsweetened
• 2 cups wheat germ
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbs ground cinnamon
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups honey
• 2/3 cups water
• 2 Tbs vanilla extract
• 2 tsp salt
• 8 one-quart freezer bagslabeled

1. Mix oats, almonds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, wheat germ, raisins, cranberries, flour, and cinnamon in a large bowl.

You can find most of these ingredients at a warehouse store, but I find that they are even more affordable (and fresher) in the bulk section of my natural grocer’s. There I can even find dried fruit that is sweetened with apple juice and not sugar. Most of these ingredients I already had on hand. I didn’t have any sesame seeds though, so I substituted chia seeds which my kids don’t really notice. They get lots of nutrition without really realizing it– so sneaky. You can experiment with different fruits, nuts, seeds, spices, etc. to come up with endless combinations.

I haven’t made a granola recipe with wheat germ and wheat flour in it. I was a little curious about how that would work. Once I added the liquid, the flour and the germ kinda stuck together to form crunchy little nuggets. I thought it was a nice addition.

If you’re wanting to make this gluten-free, I’m thinking it could be done. Use gluten-free oats, and simply leave out the wheat germ and flour. You may need to adjust the liquid quantities in the next step, since you’ll have less dry ingredients. If anyone tries it, leave a comment to let us know how it works out.

2. Combine oil, honey, water, vanilla, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until sauce begins to boil. Remove from heat. Pour sauce over the oat mixture and mix well.

I swapped out a few ingredients simply to suit our family’s preferences. I used butter instead of vegetable oil. I’ve been reading a lot of information lately about stable fats (suitable for heating) and unstable fats (suitable for consuming cold). Vegetable oils are among the unstable fats, and heating them alters the chemical structure of the oil, creating potential toxins.

I also used agave nectar for half of the honey. The honey I have in the cupboard is raw, unfiltered (and quite expensive). I wanted the honey flavor, but without using two whole cups of the honey. Using half and half worked out really well. Our family doesn’t have a big sweet tooth, and the Sweetie Pie said that for the next batch I could probably cut the sweetener in half all together. So next time I’ll try using 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup agave.

This syrup smelled divine while it was simmering. It smelled like caramel, which I guess it basically was caramel. It was really hard for me to not lick the spoon.

3. Divide granola evenly among the freezer bags. Seal and freeze.

We go through granola pretty quickly, so I opted to divide mine into 3 big batches, instead of 8 small ones. I baked one batch right away, and put the other two into gallon-sized storage bags.

TO COOK:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

2. Place frozen granola on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Because my batch was larger, I had to use two cookie sheets and I baked it longer. Regrettably, I didn’t time it, but I think it was more like 45-60 minutes. I stirred every 10-15 minutes.

When baking granola you want to remove it once it turns brown. It will still be kind of soft and you’ll think it’s not done. But it’ll crisp up as it cools. If you leave it in longer it’s going to start to burn.

Last week I definitely had a bit more energy. Of course, most of it went right back into cooking soup, stew, ghee, and pancakes, but the energy was there. And I also managed an afternoon at the zoo with my family. I did a lot of sitting, but I was there. Additionally, I noticed that my persistent bloating and abdominal distension has actually reduced. It’s still there, but is certainly lessening the longer I’m on GAPS.

I spent week 5 finishing up Stage 3 of the GAPS Introduction Diet, and I even made it most of the way through Stage 4. The next thing that I ought to have introduced after the pancakes (since I failed with the egg whites last week) was cooked onions. Onions and I do not have a friendly history. They have traditionally been a source of digestive trouble for me. I decided I preferred to keep it safe and skip them for now. I plan to introduce them at a later date.

The last item in Stage 3 is to introduce fermented vegetables. I began Intro with the juice from the fermented vegetables, gradually increasing the amount I was taking. At this point in Stage 3, I was having 4 tablespoons of juice every day. Since I was tolerating that amount, I decided it would be okay to begin with a full tablespoon of the fermented veggies. This was a major error on my part. After an evening spent in great discomfort, I backed my dosage down to 1/4 teaspoon per day. I increased this amount (veeeeeeery sloooooooowly) over the course of the week and by the end of the week I was having 1/4 teaspoon of fermented veggies with every meal.

Just when I was ready to move on to Stage 4–oh, the excitement!–my store-bought jar of ghee ran out. I had to put aside my cooking plans to whip out some ghee. I thought I’d just buy some more, but as it turns out the ready-made stuff costs twice as much as making it myself. Thankfully, once I did the research to find out what to do, it was fairly easy. Here’s how I did it:

• start with one pound of organic butter. A lot of toxins end up in animal fat, so it’s always a good idea to afford organic fats if you possibly can. However, I wouldn’t use raw or cultured butter. I mean, you can use them, but they’re expensive and all the nutrition that you’re paying for is going to be lost through heating it. Save those butters to spread on your pancakes.
• place the butter in a glass baking dish and cook on a low heat, about 275 degrees. I had read to use a very low heat and started out at 200 degrees, but my butter never browned. It wasn’t until I turned up the heat that I began to see some results.

• keep a close eye on your butter. The milk solids will sink to the bottom and it will start foaming on top. When the foam on top is a golden brown, remove the butter.

• set up a strainer over a glass bowl. I used a fine-meshed colander lined with a (very clean) burp rag. You could also use a few layers of cheesecloth or muslin–whatever you have that will strain out the solids, but let the liquid through. Pour the butter through the strainer and let all the liquid drain.
• discard the solids. Pour the ghee into a glass storage jar. Let cool completely, cover and store. You can keep ghee at room temperature or in the fridge.

I was a little disappointed that a pound of butter didn’t yield more ghee. The amount I have will probably last me a week or two. In the future, I will probably try to cook two batches at once so that I don’t have to make it as often.

Ghee taken care of, I was eagerly rubbing my hands together to start Stage 4. Do you know what the first thing on Stage 4 is? Baked and grilled meat! I got to eat dinner off of a plate! What a delight! I made my first batch of roasted meat by adapting a favorite Barefoot Contessa recipe. Oh, this turned out delicious! And it’s super-simple. Please add it to your menu-plan for the coming weeks, whether you’re on GAPS or not. I’m giving you the recipe below (you’re so welcome!)

After the pleasure of dinner on a plate came the pleasure of drizzling delicious olive oil all over every meal. In addition to all of those animal fats (ghee, tallow, etc.) a GAPS body also needs a lot of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Dr. Campbell-McBride goes into great depth on this topic in her book. It’s beyond the scope of this post to try to explain the in’s and out’s of the various fats and why all of them are needed. Suffice it to say that you get good things from animal fats, and you get different good things from high-quality olive oil. GAPS patients should be consuming both.

Make sure to buy the best quality olive oil you can afford. Ideally, this means you would buy organic, unrefined, extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil. Unfortunately, olive oil labeling is a bit lax and it can be hard to determine exactly what you’re getting. I recommend doing some research on a company’s website to find out more about their processing. An olive oil that has been refined and processed at high temperatures will only give you a fraction of the benefits of its unrefined, cold-pressed cousin.

Here’s what I was eating during week 5 (Stages 3 and 4 of Introduction Diet):

• continued all previous foods from Stages 1-3 (soups, stews, ginger-lemon tea, egg yolks, fermented fish, avocado, and pancakes)
• fermented veggies (sauerkraut, carrots, etc.) beginning with 1/4 tsp per day and increasing slowly to 1/4 tsp with every meal
• organic meat cooked by roasting/baking and grilling
• organic, unrefined, cold-pressed olive oil, starting with 1/4 tsp per meal and increasing to 1 Tbs per meal

My supplements all remained the same as week 4:

• Hydrochloric acid (2 capsules) before meals, to aid in digestion
• Probiotic–half dose in the morning and a half dose in the evening
• Prescription meds for ulcerative colitis
• Trace minerals, added to a cup of water every morning
• 1 spoonful cod liver oil, every morning

Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends taking a high-quality fish oil supplement with the cod liver oil, but I couldn’t find a clear reason for doing this. Cod liver oil provides EPA, DHA, Vitamin A, and Vitamin D. Fish oil provides EPA and DHA. I think the goal is to provide large amounts of EPA and DHA, without overdosing on the Vitamin A and D. The few people whom I asked for opinions on this matter felt that the large amounts of EPA and DHA were beneficial to those GAPS patients seeking healing from mental or developmental disorders. But perhaps for those seeking digestive healing only, the cod liver oil would be enough. So this is where I landed with it, not wanting to take another pill if I could possibly avoid it. If anyone has any other information that might convince me otherwise, do feel free to share in the comments.

My detox in week 5 still consisted of a daily bath, with either epsom salts or baking soda. (Next week I begin adding freshly pressed juices. I can’t wait to get my new juicer cranking!)

Between the more-varied diet and the slight energy-boost, week 5 left me feeling pretty warm and fuzzy towards GAPS. Perhaps we’ll be friends after all.