Traditional Cooking  

What do I mean by “traditional cooking”?  Well . . . some years ago I began to realize the value of the Bible as God's instruction for our whole lives - not just our spiritual lives or our values, but how we live every part of life - even how we eat.  After study and prayer I decided on 5 principles that would guide the way that I feed our family.  The first 3 are addressed in What the Bible Says About Healthy Living as well as many other books that I have read.  The last two are necessary for me to live in this manner.

What does this mean in real life?  We try to eat only real food - not chemicals or processed foods, but real foods in their real form.  We try to stay away from processed additives.  That does mean that basically everything is "from scratch".  But it does not mean that it has to take a lot of time or money.  It can actually be a very frugal way of cooking.  I try to optimize the nutrition in everything we eat by preparing it in a way that makes all the nutrients available for absorption by the body.  I would like everything to be organic, but that is not realistic for us - so we grow our own of what we can and we purchase the best we can afford of real foods.  We limit addictive foods - all forms of sugar to a great degree and I try to limit my coffee and tea.  We also limit eating out and "fast foods", although I cannot say we never eat out.  We rarely consume soda - Mitchel and the kids like it on occasion, but I am mostly content with a glass of lemon water or iced tea.  I do NOT keep it at our house.

How do we accomplish this?  Well it basically requires 2 hours each day at my house - except on Sunday.  I spend from 7am to 9am in the kitchen preparing foods in a traditional manner - baking bread (usually sourdough); soaking nuts, beans or grains; preparing and/or preserving fruits and vegetables;  preparing the needed meats; and making raw milk products.  These activities make meal preparation quick and easy - usually requiring only about 15 minutes to get a meal on the table.  It takes a bit of planning, but a routine develops over time and I add new techniques slowly as I learn how to do them.  It is becoming a comfortable way to manage our food needs.

Why do I do this?  Mainly, it just makes sense to me that many health issues that we have currently, we did not have in great degree in previous generations.  I am mostly referring to remote and ancient peoples that ate the foods that grew around them.  While lack of health care and poor sanitation contributed to many deaths in our recent past, even these deaths were not in large degree from heart disease or cancer.  The occurrence of those diseases has risen despite modern nutrition's best advice.  And while people were alive in ages past - they were healthy - not suffering from so many allergies and digestive issues and chronic problems that plague our nation today.  It also makes sense to me that many of these current problems could be prevented or reduced if we ate traditional foods prepared in traditional ways.  It is also biblical.  Many preparation techniques used in traditional foods were first mentioned in the Bible.

I am not a nutritionist or a doctor.  I am just a mom that wants the very best for my family.  I have studied the work of Dr. Weston Price and read books about traditional food prerparation methods and it makes sense to me.  I do not believe it is a cure-all and I do not believe that my family will never get sick.  But I know that I am doing my best to make sure they have the very best nutrition through real foods made by God and prepared with loving hands.

The pages in this section will contain information, recipes, meal plans, and shopping tips for old fashioned cooking in this modern world.  Let me also add that I try not to stress about this.  Learning how to cook differently is hard.  You can do it, but change takes effort.  So do the best you can – making small changes consistently over time.

  Nutritional Resources

Listed below are blogs, websites, and books that have influenced my food choices, preparation and consumption.  I still refer to these regularly for information and inspiration.

Websites and Blogs:

Annes Health Place is an excellent resource for those who are just getting started.  She has an online health class that was very helpful to me as I was learning new ways of preparing our foods.  Her goals for nutrition are so very similar to mine that almost everything that she teaches falls in line with my five principles.  Her website is a wealth of information for those who are trying to get started with a nourishing diet.

The Nourishing Gourmet is a well respected resource for whole foods cooking and nourishing recipes.  Be sure to check out her recipe index.  It goes on and on.  There are many gluten free recipes here as well.

Gnowfglins is God's Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, IN Season.  Many of her recipes are gluten, dairy, and/or egg free.  Her recipe list is extensive.  She is starting a traditional foods preparation e-course on February 23, 2010.  It is a 5 month class.  If you are interested you must register by February 22 for simple plans for cooking healthy foods.

Keeper of the Home - an outstanding blog with many recipes and lots of information.  She is a Christian mom of young children.  her blog post this week is on training children to help in the kitchen.

Books:

What the Bible Says About Healthy Living by Dr. Rex Russell, M.D. was the first book I read as I began to realize that the Bible was the best source for all information about health - not just spiritual health.   This is probably my favorite book and the one I always recommend first.  It is great basic information, all backed with scripture and not too scientific.  Very practical!!

Books by Jordan Rubin:  The Great Physician's Rx for Health and Wellness and The Maker's Diet.  Rubin's situation is truly nothing short of miraculous.  His books are excellent and very practical as well as inspiring.  The limitation of his teaching is in adopting his plan within a limited budget.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price.  This book is available free through Project Gutenburg to view online or you can cut and paste it onto a document.  It can also be purchased from Amazon.  It was written in the 1930's and it investigates the effects of a traditional diet on physical health and development.  It is not biblical, but provides evidence of the value of traditional foods prepared in traditional manners.  A very interesting book.

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon:  This is really more than a cookbook.  It is a work of research made practical with recipes and ways of food preparation that has been lost to so much of modern culture.  I highly recommend this book.  It is based on the work of Dr. Price in the book above.