Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Christina Byard, Co-Leader of Holistic Moms Network.
What’s a Real Foodie?
A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.
We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.
We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.
This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Mom
Always a mom. Christina with her daughter
This week I’m featuring Christina Byard, co-leader of the Holistic Moms Network in Northern California.
Name: Christina Byard, Co-Leader of Holistic Moms Network, Tri-City Area, CA Chapter
Size of Kitchen:About 10 x 14
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: I love the gas range that my handy husband installed for me, despite his nervousness about replacing our electric power source with a gas line. A woodworker by trade, my husband also made my farm-style kitchen table/work space extra tall so that I don’t strain my back kneading dough. Even though he made the table before we were married, I feel like he custom made it for me. I like that the end of the room is a family area that my kids can play in while I cook. The kitchen has views both of the backyard for child supervision and out the front window for natural inspiration. My window looks out onto the gorgeous Mission Peak. Lots of natural light.
Things You Would Change: If money and space were no object, I would bump the kitchen out so that it would be wide enough to have an island with a sink and seating. And I drool over recycled glass countertops. They bring so much color and whimsy to spaces while reusing what would otherwise go into landfills.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Ah, this question is like “Sophie’s Choice!” I am such a gadget junkie for being an overall simplistic person. Kitchen tools are just so inspirational. I love my Vitamix, Excalibur, tortilla press, juicer, kitchenaid mixer, molcajete, pepper grinder, espresso machine, cast iron pans… to much gadget-love to list. My all-time favorite, though, would have to be the Retsel Mil-Rite I bought second-hand off of Craigslist. I love grinding my own sprouted flours for baking (my obsession). We have recently gone gluten-free and being able to sprout and grind fresh gluten-free flours feels so much more nutritious to me than all of the pre-packaged GF products.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Oh, gosh, it would have to be the desire to not constantly be cleaning. I love working in the kitchen, but feel like I am cleaning more than I am cooking there when I have a lot of projects going. Sometimes I don’t start something just because I don’t want to clean up afterwards.
Current Family Favorite Meal: The kids love when we have taco night. They help me mix the masa and press the tortillas. We cook sprouted pinto beans, mash them with lots of pastured lard and butter. Paired with grilled chicken, raw cheddar cheese and veggies from the garden, this meal is a treat for everyone!
Favorite Cookbooks: Nourishing Traditions,
Here are some photos of Christina’s kitchen (with her comments in italics):
Bathing in the warmth of the sunlight
Love all the sun!
My kids are always up to something in the kitchen as I work.
Mission Peak outside the kitchen window.
The greens and a toddler
Not technically in the kitchen, but the front-yard garden plays a huge role in my cooking. I am trying winter gardening for the first time this year after a bizarro California summer growing season that yielded lots of greenery but not much produce.
Oh, wow! You are dedicated! LOL!
The fermentation corner
The fermentation corner. My crock has garlicky sauerkraut fermenting alongside the jars of habanero hot pepper sauce. I also enjoy making my kids’ beloved almond butter and jelly sandwiches as healthy as possible by baking bread from sprouted rice, quinoa and sorghum. Whenever I am feeling stressed out, pounding out some spices and garlic in the molcajete is a great release!
Something's brewing
I know I should cut back in quantity, but I do so LOVE my morning espresso! Also fermenting water kefir for my “grapefruit zippy.”
The gas range my husband installed for me.
Grains and legumes.
Whenever I am at a loss for what to make for dinner, I just stop in front of this wall and let my imagination run wild.
Bestie -- the Retsel Mil-Rite.
Juice them up
I make big batches of fresh veggie juices and freeze them for later drinking or adding cubes to smoothies.
Sunflower
Wonderful fall sunlight in the afternoon
We are getting ready to make our annual batch of applesauce. This year, we scored some free fruit from a neighbor whose tree was overloaded with fruit. It took me a week to build up the courage to ask if we could harvest her tree, but I am so glad I did!
My daughter works hard on the peel-o-matic.
I have one of these, too, and I love it!
Mmmm, cinnamon goodness!
Kitchen stash
A seriously un-beautiful but lovely site of put-up foods.
Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Radically Natural Living
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Amanda Brown
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Pamela Montazeri
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Cracking an Egg with One Hand
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Yolks, Kefir & Gristle
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Okparaeke Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Kid
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Artistta
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Nourished & Nurtured
Real Food Kitchen Tour: May All Seasons Be Sweet to Thee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Horting Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Hybrid Rasta Mama
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Granola Mom 4 God
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Devotee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Forager
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Leftover Queen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Health Home & Happiness
Let Us Tour Your Kitchen
Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?
Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.
Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).
As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.
Some ideas for photos:
- Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
- Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
- Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
- How about a lovely herb garden?
- Kids or pets are always cute!
- Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen
And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.
Photo credit: A warm welcome Project365(3) Day 10 by Keith Williamson, on Flickr and photos by Memories by Michelle
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you so much for sharing your kitchen with us!! I love your sunny window and the beautiful view!! Would you be willing to post your recipe for the sprouted rice, quinoa, sorghum bread? We are newly gluten free as well and healthy bread has been a challenge. We have just stopped eating bread.
Just seeing your kitchen is an encouragement towards healthy eating!!
Thanks, Judy. Yes, I agree that healthy GF bread is a true challenge. I have to admit that I am still struggling with it and fight the urge to give up bread altogether as well. After a two week trial taking my entire family gluten-free (based on my own digestive issues, not theirs), I have decided that it is not a good fit for us after all — my kids especially. My reasoning is that they have never had any obvious reactions to gluten while I seem to have ongoing issues, gluten or no (I have now discovered). I think that I need to address some yeast issues, but that is another discussion
Anyway, I started making all sorts of GF breads and other baked goods. I was feeling better about making them over using mixes because I was grinding flour fresh and using a variety of grains. Many pre-packaged flours will rely on one flour, like white rice or white sorghum as their base. The refined nature of them along with the uniformity of the flours were off-putting to me, although I know from experience that that they produce tasty results. What ended up making me really uncomfortable with even my homemade flours were the starches and gums required to make them rise and have decent mouthfeel. The starches are highly processed (read “not whole”) foods and the gums have seriously questionable origins (industrial fungus, huh?). And there is not a scant amount of these processed ingredients in the recipes; the starches account for 30% or more of the flours.
Here I was, after years of beating the drum of whole foods, feeding my kids super-processed substances in the name of health. Plus, lo and behold, myself and my kids all became ill with sinus infections during this time of experimentation. Alarm bells were ringing for me; I felt that I would need to either live a true, gluten-free lifestyle where I just went without all of those wheat-treats — including their GF immitations — or find a better way to moderate my own gluten intake without making my kids suffer.
Since I love, LOVE baked goods and the ritual of baking, the answer was clear to me
I am becoming what I like to call “gluten-conscious.”
Since I am merely sensitive — not allergic — to gluten, I am just trying to moderate my grain intake and make sure that I use a variety of grains in my baking rather than just sticking to wheat. I feel that my nutrition and immune system will fare better with this approach.
All of that being said about my own experience, I know that it does not apply to anyone but me. We each have unique nutritional needs and have to find our own way to satisfy them. I did find a recipe that I modified that worked very well for GF bread. I am still going to use it as an alternating recipe between other grain breads for the family, just to keep variety. I do wish I could make it without the starch and gums, though. Once I run out of my current stockpile of ingredients, I won’t be ordering them again.
It is the King Arthur Flour website’s GF sandwhich bread recipe. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-sandwich-bread-recipe
Instead of using their flour, I used their recipe in the sidebar for GF all-purpose flour. Instead of using white rice flour, however, I used one part each of sprouted brown rice, white quinoa and whole grain sorghum. Everything else I did according to the recipe. It is a tasty bread that even my kids really like (and they are in super-picky phases right now). I hope your family likes it!
Thank you SO much for your thorough and detailed answer. I hear you about the unhealthiness of a lot of gluten free foods. I have to be gluten free (for life, apparently) due to autoimmune thyroid. This is new to me, but I have had the same experience with gluten free breads…….so much starch…….is that really healthy?
I have found some quick breads that are delicious and healthier, but not a regular bread. Thank you for the recipe, and I will try it. I think I’d love to have slices on hand in the freezer for those times I would really love a piece of toast.
Beautiful kitchen and family!
Thank you, Erica! I take credit for the kitchen, but my three kids are all clones of my husband
Thanks so much for the tour! Very inspiring. I just finished our applesauce for the year. I used orange blossom honey to sweeten it and it is heavenly! I’ve made my own applesauce since my boys were babies. Its incredible how much better it tastes and how much healthier it is. Its so easy too!
I’ve been seriously considering a grain mill. I know its more nutricious to mill fresh grain but I can’t figure out where to find grain let alone how to sprout it.
I have nourishing traditions, love it! I’ve yet to tackle it cover to cover.
The orange blossom honey in the applesauce sounds amazing, Cat. Nothing beats homemade applesauce. My youngest daughter wanted some to be “purple applesauce” like they have at Trader Joe’s, so I boiled down some frozen blueberries with a little cinnamon and maple syrup to add to the batch when it was ready to can. It was perfectly purple with really delicious flavor. What a great idea from a three year old!
I cannot recommend a grain mill highly enough. I just love mine. I had a hand-powered wondermill junior before that was also great. I just was to tired when pregnant to turn that crank on a daily basis. I happened upon a craigslist post for my Retsel and totally lucked out. If I had not found the retsel cheaply, I would have gone with a Nutrimill or Wondermill micronizing mill. They are under $300 and will pay for themselves so quickly if you have a good source for grains. If you are west of the Mississippi, check out http://www.Azurestandard.com. I get all of my whole, organic grains from them for an absolute steal and store them in food-grade buckets in the garage. Sprouting grains is super easy. Many of the realfoodmedia blogs have written about it. I have learned so much from these ladies!
Love these kitchen tours! I also would love to have your recipe for your bread… thanks
I don’t have cats, but your raw cat food is interesting…I feed my dogs raw meat and bones and they love it!
Yes — biologically appropriate raw food (also known as BARF) has been an amazing gift for my previously kibble-fed kitties. I am sure you can attest to its benefits with your dog. My aging 11 year old had chronic lower urinary tract infections, was straining to urinate, had blood in her urine along with crystals — I thought she was on her way out. I looked into BARF, found the Holisticat website, and have seen incredible results. I think she will be with us for years to come. The best part, in my husband’s opinion, is the fact that the litter box is SO much less stinky and voluminous in its waste. Much nicer to clean.
Christina,
I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Real Food Kitchen Tours!!! Keep ‘em coming Ann Marie – PLEASE!! I wanted to see if you would not mind sharing your raw cat food recipe. We feed our 2 cats and 1 dog raw food only that we buy, but I am always curious about making our own and the possible cost-savings that could be involved with this. Thank you!!
YAY for your kitchen
Also Christina,
What all do you juice? We have a juicer (similar to your – same brand I think) and while i was juicing very regularly about a year and half ago, I have not been so regular about it since. I know you hear all sorts of things about what is good or not good to juice (raw), I am curious as to what you like to juice. Thanks again!!
Yes, I have heard not to juice the cruciferous veggies and to only drink as much carrot juice in one sitting as you would actually eat in carrots. I made the mistake of overdosing on carrot juice — it was just so yummy — and paid the price. Serious sugar crash, let me tell you. I juice in bursts, so I freeze much of it for my more frequent smoothies. I do this because I just don’t have room in my fridge for all of the fresh veggies I would like to have on-hand at all times. I juice apples, carrots, celery, melons and citrus mainly. Since I do not have a masticating juicer, I am not able to juice greens the way I would like. I make smoothies with greens instead. I use kale and chard from the garden along with frozen berries and juice cubes. I mix up my own “smoothie supplement blend” with bee pollen, goji berries, flax seeds, chia seeds and maca powder. I add a couple of tablespoons of this mix along with spirulina to the vitamix. It is pretty tasty and VERY green. I freeze my greens and mix them up in big square bins for the freezer when it is off-season in the garden. Our farmers’ market here in Northern California tends to have something green and delicious year-round, so I don’t have to store too much. It is just for my convenience. I would love to be able to use my juicer more frequently, but time and space limit me. Overall, I like getting the fiber from the veggies as well. I can do that using the vitamix to make smoothies, but it is not a smooth, clean glass of juice, for sure.
A tip for using the pulp from your juicer is to use it in muffins, ravioli filling or add it to cracker recipes for your dehydrator. Another thing that bothers me about juicing is the waste of all that cellulose!
Absolutely can attest to the benefits of BARF….(kind of a disgusting name
)and also my boys love the fact that they no longer have to clean up the yard from doggie doo….it just turns to powder…another great benefit…no getting poo on the shoes accidentally!
Wonderful news about your cat…makes you feel good to know you are also taking care of your pets as well!
So, the “recipe” I use is constantly fluctuating. At first, I had a turkey, chicken, sardine blend but then I found out that cats shouldn’t eat much fish due to its ability to deplete the cats of nutrients. I then made a huge batch with turkey necks, chicken wings and turkey meat that I put through the meat grinder. I added salmon oil, taurine, psyllium powder, vitamin c powder and diatomaceous earth. I mixed it all together and bagged it in 1.5 lb. portions for a three day supply each. I freeze the bags and defrost them as needed. I have used Bravo as well and added supplements to make it complete. My Bravo supply has been hit or miss, so I make my own when I need to. Check the internet to see if there is a BARF buying co-op in your area. I use a co-op that gives me access to all sorts of pastured, human grade meats and bones for affordable prices. Making it myself or buying the Bravo through them averages about $2.75 a pound for food. My three kitties eat a pound a day combined, so it is about $70 a month in cat food for the three of them. I was spending $45 on kibble before, so I feel that this is a great investment in their health for very little money.
Oh, and about 10 percent of the meat and bone mix needs to be organ meat. I forgot to list that. I got the base of my recipe online somewhere but I cannot remember where.
Thanks, Alicia. See the above reply for the bread recipe. For whole, sprouted wheat bread, I love this recipe I developed:
http://hmnsanjose.blogspot.com/2010/04/kid-conscious-recipe-of-week.html
Wow! This recipe looks amazing!! Thanks so much!! I really enjoyed your take on gluten free bread, this is something that I have been pondering myself….I am not allergic to gluten, but do want to watch how much I eat.
I want to find a awesome healthy recipe for bread for my family and this looks amazing!! Thank you!!!!
Love all the light!!
I have one of those apple corers – THE BEST. Makes me eat too many apples in one sitting though
I really liked your comment “Sometimes I don’t start something just because I don’t want to clean up afterwards” — I feel the same way!!
Love your floor and the light in your kitchen! Makes me miss my CA home! And, LOL, we had the same exact tile countertop! (Didn’t love, that one, though….:)) Kids love peeling apples, don’t they? So great to see your little ones enjoying your real food kitchen! Cheers!
Ha! Yes, the countertop, I admit, is not my favorite. The cabinets and countertops are all original to 1963. You should have seen the original oven we replaced last year! It was a relic.
Christina,
I’m interested in hearing what’s in ghe “grapefruit zippy”. I feel like I could use a glass of that right now.
Wow, I love you kitchen! Just out of curiosity, can you (or anybody reading this) recommend something tasty to give a new mom? My friend just gave birth yesterday and she eats “sort of” healthy, but I’m a total Raw Foodie…I would love to bring her some “recovery food” in the disguise of something tasty looking that she’ll eat…hopefully so she can replenish the nutrients she lost during pregnancy and will continue to lose. Her first baby is almost 3 years old so she spaced her children ok…Thanks!
Chicken soup! Its so filling and fresh when you use good veggies…..and great for post birth with all the minerals…..hope that helps!
My first thought was chicken soup as well. Good thinking, Alison! If you are raw, you might not be comfortable making fresh bone broth, though. That is the ingredient that makes it especially nourishing. I remember that following birth I CRAVED red meat like nobody’s business. I think I would have kissed anyone who brought me boef bourgignon — especially during this time of year.
Mmm, I meant real foodie, not raw! Haha, tired brain just moved two days ago and have been unpacking since. Do you have a recipe for chicken soup? That’s what I thought about as well, especially since it just snowed here and is really cold! I have made real chicken soup before, but that was ten years ago!
Grapefruit zippy is just my name for grapefruit kefir. Anything fizzy in my house we call “zippy.”
Wow! Gorgeous kitchen, with some nice gadgets! Jealous of the gas range. Awesome you make cat food! What’s your recipe?
that was a nice kitchen tour!i had a kitchen tour when i went to KFC, this was more clean and hygienic than that . thank you for that and its very inspiring. I just finished our applesauce for the year.This recipe ingredients looks remarkable,Adore your floor as well as the light within your kitchen! Makes me miss my CA home!
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