Focusing on Core Competencies: Minimizing Breakfast

I've recently been listening to the book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think on audiobook and, although it is geared toward the career woman, I've found some things that the author states to be highly practical advice.  After all, while I may not get paid for my work, with homeschooling and taking care of a very large household, my hours are definitely not a 9 to 5 job.

One of the things that the author stresses is finding your 'core competencies'.  The things that one does best that no one else could quite do as good of a job, and then focusing the main working hours on these things.  That means that things that are not core competency need to be outsourced, minimized or ignored.

So, as I'm revamping my daily schedule I'm working on outsourcing, minimizing or ignoring the things that someone else can do and that do not lead me closer to my goals.

Here is one thing I've come up with:

While I love cooking, breakfasts and lunches are not my favorite things to make.  So, my first step was to minimize breakfast, both the cooking and the clean up.

Breakfast needs to be over fast so we can start our homeschooling day and lunch comes right in the middle of schooling.  I really don't like taking the time to cook these meals.  However, on a real food diet, buying boxes of cold cereal is not an option for us.  And I like the children to go low on the carbs and high on protein for most breakfasts.

My solution (and remember, I'm feeding 13 people!):

• Cook up 3 dozen hard boiled eggs on the weekend.  That gives me two mornings of eggs and fruit.  It's an easy prep and an easy cleanup.  
• Also, baking 4 pans of soaked granola at one time will give me two more mornings of easy breakfast.  
• A couple bags of make ahead frozen smoothies are a special treat.  
• And then 4 dozen soaked muffins will round off the week.  

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting more ways to minimize, outsource or ignore the things that need to get done, but aren't my core competencies thus freeing up the set hours I have to be able to concentrate on other things.  Like my real food cooking or spending quality time with my children.

If you have any ways that you minimize the tedious to find more time in your day, please post them in the comment section.  I'd love to hear your ideas!


And if you want to check out the book I mentioned, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, I think any mom, those who work for pay and those who don't, would appreciate some of the advice.

What is NOT real food?

In case you are new to real food and don't quite understand what it is, let me begin by telling you what it is not.

• If a fifth grader could not pronounce the ingredients or it has more than five ingredients, then the product probably is NOT real food.
• Look at the labels on some of the products that you regularly purchase.  Here are the ingredients for Utz Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips.  How many would a fifth grader not be able to pronounce?  What ARE those things that you would be putting into your body?


• Potatoes, Cottonseed Oil, Dehydrated Whey, Dextrose, Salt, Shortening Powder (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Corn Syrup Solids, Sodium Caseinate (Milk Derivative)), Dehydrated Sour Cream (Sour Cream (Cream, Nonfat Milk, Cultures), Cultured Nonfat Milk.


• Refined sugars are NOT real food.  This includes white sugar, cane juice, corn syrup, and any artificial sweeteners.  There are some wonderful real food alternatives to using refined sugars in cooking.  


• Refined grains are NOT real food.  This includes white flour and white rice.  Items that you buy that contain flour must state whole wheat, not just wheat.


• CAFO produced meats and eggs are NOT real food.  

Florida chicken CAFO

• If you don't know what a CAFO is, it's time you found out! CAFO stands for Confined Animal Feeding Operation.  As you can see from the photo, CAFOs are more of a factory than a farm.  Not only is too much manure concentrated into one area which leads to the necessity of using antibiotics, but to increase and quicken weight gain, the animals are fed growth hormones, some of which are genetically modified.


• Foods that don't eventually rot are NOT real food.

• When I first began going to my wellness doctor, he had a loaf of white bread on the counter where I checked out.  Next to it was a sheet of paper tallying how many weeks it had been sitting there.  I remember looking at it at 8 weeks and it still looked the same!  It never rotted.  The bugs and organisms that cause decay wouldn't even eat it!

Switching to a real food diet can be difficult for some people.  Knowing where to start by knowing what to avoid can make the transition a little smoother.

This post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday.

Why I Love to Make Muffins

When I realized how non-nutritious even organic cold cereal is, and I tossed it aside for our family, I lamented the loss of ease in preparing breakfast for this large brood.  It was so easy to have one of the older children just pull out a box and serve all 11 of the children (infant not included).  While we didn't have cold cereal every day due to the expense (usually 3 large boxes to feed everyone), it was still my go-to plan for rushed mornings.

I'm happy to report that I've found something BETTER.... muffins!

1.  Muffins can be made ahead in large batches and frozen (very easy mornings)

2.  Muffins can be made in all sorts of varieties.  I have a basic muffin recipe that I just add ingredients to to make different types (see below).

3.  Muffins lend themselves very easily to the soaking of grains which enhances the absorption of nutrients and is much easier on the gut.

So, why are they BETTER than cold cereal?!

4.  NO DISHES TO WASH!!!

As you can imagine, breakfast alone, 13 cereal bowls filled our dishwasher.  With muffins, I simply hand the children a napkin, their muffin and a fruit and breakfast is served and cleaned up in no time.

Here is my basic muffin recipe.  Usually the grains get soaked the night before in the buttermilk, but if you don't have time or forget, then they are still better than store-bought boxed cereal.

This recipe makes almost 2 1/2 dozen muffins depending on the size and the add-ins you use.  It can be cut in half or doubled.  But, I suggest always making at least this size and freezing your extras if you don't have a mega-sized family.

4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 
( I like to use half hard red and half hard white, but anything will work)

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

2 cups buttermilk (or sour milk if you don't have buttermilk on hand)

2 eggs

1 cup lightly melted butter (or oil)

1 cup honey

With a whisk mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  (If you are soaking overnight, just add the buttermilk to the flour and let it sit overnight.)  Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients.  Begin by whisking the wet ingredients and slowly incorporating the dry ingredients, this help to not overmix.  (If your flour has been soaked then you may need a wooden spoon to break up the flour and incorporate into the mixture.)

Drop by spoonfuls into a prepared muffin tin and back for 12 - 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks.  Cool completely before freezing.

Some add in ideas:

2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of nutmeg for a spice muffin

2 peeled and diced apples

2 mashed bananas

chopped nuts

2 cups fresh or frozen berries

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday and Pennywise Platter.

Clarified Butter

When gourmet cooking the 'real food' way, it comes in handy to know some traditional techniques that are often overlooked these days, but are important to consistent, quality cooking.  Being able to clarify your own butter is one of these techniques that lends the professional taste to everyday cookery.

Clarified butter is called by many names in various cultures (ghee, samna, brown butter), but it is essentially the same substance.  After being slowly simmered, the milk fat and the water are separated from the golden, buttery goodness to produce a product that has a very high smoke point (485 degrees F) which allows the home chef to cook delicate items, such as chicken breasts, in butter without the butter burning into an icky brown mess. It also acts a preservative.  The milk fat particles are what spoil in butter.  Clarified butter can last quite a long time.  Ours is usually completely used up before we ever get to a spoiling point.

The technique is quite simple, but takes a little bit of time.  Begin by starting with quality butter from grass-fed cows.  While not absolutely necessary, this increases the nutritional content of the final product. Cut the butter into small pieces and put in a saucepan over a very low heat source.  You are aiming for a very low simmer.

The butter will separate into three layers.  At the top will be some foam.  At the bottom is a the layer of sediment, or the milk fat.  The water will be boiling off.  In the middle will be the golden clarified butter goodness.

Keep the butter at a low simmer until you can no longer hear any sizzling.  The sizzling means that the water is still being evaporated.  You want to completely get rid of the water.  Once the sizzling stops, skim the foam from the top.  Set up a glass mason jar with a funnel lined with cheesecloth, a yogurt cheese bag or even a pillowcase.

Slowly pour the butter through the funnel trying to keep the sediment in the pan as it can clog your cloth.

If your cloth does get a little clogged, it's alright, but move it around for the liquid to drip through another spot on the cloth.

Your clarified butter is now ready to use in recipes.  While liquid when it is first strained, the clarified butter will become solid when left a low enough temperatures.  I store mine in the refrigerator.

Use your clarified butter for any recipe that calls for sauteing in butter.  It is also great all by itself and full of wonderful nutrients.


This post is linked to Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

FREE E-book: Design a Dish

I recently downloaded free e-book from Real Food for Less Money called Design a Dish and I'm quite impressed with the simplicity, yet usefulness of the recipes.

It is a real dinner-saver when you have a refrigerator of food, but no idea what to cook.  The author walks you through creating your own meals with the ingredients you have on hand.  Definitely worth signing up for the newsletter to get this free e-book.