Saturday, May 13, 2017

Restaurant Review: Greenhouse Market & Cafe in Sayre, PA


This morning my husband, DD, and DS decided to take me to breakfast a day early to celebrate Mother's Day. Since MD falls on a Sunday, and hubby has to be at church really early, we have a hard time doing breakfast-y things on that day like we used to when the kids were younger. One of my favorite restaurants is Greenhouse Market & Cafe in Sayre, PA, and that is where we decided to go this morning. Luckily, we made that decision early enough to get there in time for breakfast. Their hours are a bit different than many establishments since they really are a smaller cafe. Their kitchen closes at 11:30 on Saturdays, and store/ cafe closes at noon. DD had never been there before, so we were pretty happy she was able to go with us this morning. She has several food allergies (dairy and wheat), and this is one restaurant that is able to accommodate her needs.


I love that pretty much everything on their menu can be made gluten free, and most things (at least for breakfast) can also be made dairy free. They use local ingredients from local farms. The animal products come from humanely treated animals.


They have their own greenhouse and use non-GMO, organic seed!


Besides all of that, the food is really good!


Hubby got his eggs just like he likes them, over medium, with sausage, whole-grain gf toast with homemade apple butter, a side of home fries, and gf chocolate chip pancakes with real maple syrup. The whole-grain bread gets made there as this place is also a gluten free bakery!


Just look at the beautiful color of the egg yolks! :-)


I got an omelet with kale, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and feta cheese. I also got the gf whole-grain toast with homemade strawberry jelly and coffee. DD and I also split a gf/ df blueberry pancake with maple syrup. (Their pancakes are pretty big.) The kids also got variations of the things Chuck and I ordered. All of the food was really delicious and very REAL! I love that they have homemade jams and apple butter.


Did I mention that this place is also a gluten-free bakery? A lot of the baked goods are also dairy-free, which is really nice. Most restaurants that offer a gluten free dessert don't offer anything that is both gluten and dairy free. I realize that dessert is not really "healthy," but it's nice to have something on special occasions. All the things in this case are gluten free, and mostly dairy free. Since this is a Saturday, there was a little bit smaller selection than usual, and some of the items were almost gone.

There is also another case that usually has gf/ df cookies. That was empty today. I will mention that if you are exceptionally sensitive to gluten, you may not want to get the cookies. The other half of the cookie case usually has regular gluten-filled breads that the bakery also makes. I did ask the waitress what kinds of precautions are made to ensure safety. The gluten-filled bread is baked on a separate day than the gluten free things. The kitchen staff takes special care in cleaning everything in between. Also, there doesn't appear to be any gluten-filled desserts baked there. It looks like most of the items are gluten free, with just some bread baked on a separate day. Obviously you must evaluate your sensitivity level and decide for yourself whether or not to go to this restaurant. I have only ever gotten sick when I've eaten the cookies from the "mixed case." My daughter who gets hives from wheat has never gotten sick when we've brought home baked goods for her. If you have any questions or concerns on this, I would encourage anybody to call. Just click on the link above to find their website, contact info, hours, and menu.


Or, you can find them on Facebook! :-)

I hope all you moms out there have a wonderful weekend and a special day filled with peace, rest, and time spent with family! God bless! <3








Friday, May 12, 2017

Curried Pumpkin Red Lentil Soup

I am clearly not very good at writing regularly! I think Facebook is my biggest downfall to accomplishing what I need and want to. Finding balance in life is an ongoing battle for me.

I wrote last time about my daughter and I starting on the Blood Type Diet for Type A's and promised to update you on how we are doing. Well, I have to admit we have not been 100% following the diet. In fact, there are days that I fail miserably as I have not been good at meal planning. I have continued to notice that digestion, pain, and inflammation levels improve when I stick to the diet, and when I slip and eat things I shouldn't digestive complaints, pain, and inflammation increase again. I never thought potatoes would be as difficult to eliminate as they have been! They have been the hardest thing to get rid of. DD has had a return of dark circles, digestive issues, and generally not feeling well when she cheats. I am still determined to shift all the way to the BTD, but it's a process, I suppose. I have to adjust recipes and find some new ones. Oh! My husband and oldest son both tested themselves, and they are both Type A. That sure keeps things easier for me. Good thing, too! I'm having a hard enough time transitioning to just Type A diet and making some allowances for our one Type O son (mostly he is responsible for feeding himself, as he is an adult), without having to add in Type B like my husband thought. We have one child left to test. Since 5/6 have tested to be Type A, the chances are high our 7th family member is Type A, also.

Today I tried a new recipe. It has been a long time since I have come up with a recipe to share, but this one was really good. Our 4yo son even loved it. He has some sensory issues that cause him to be a picky eater, so I was very surprised when he agreed to try this soup. He insisted on closing his eyes before taking a bite, and he kept his eyes shut while he slowly chewed. Suddenly he popped his eyes open in shock and exclaimed, "This soup is GOOD!" He then insisted on grabbing the bowl and spoon from me and then fed himself 3 bowls of it! I guess this is one recipe I will want to make again. :-)

Please note that I am the kind of person who just throws stuff together and rarely measures anything. I am trying to the best of my ability to change that when I share recipes. I am including some measurements, but some things I did not measure and just added to our individual taste. When I make this recipe again, I will try to pay more attention and measure everything, however this recipe is such that things can be changed whenever you want. Instead of corn, you could add carrots. Instead of curry powder, you could add paprika and cumin. There are many combinations that would be good. Just play around with stuff and learn what flavors you like! Also, all ingredients I used were organic and GMO Free. I used my Instant Pot on the slow cooker setting. Next time I will experiment with making it on the pressure cooker "Manual" setting and will update this when I figure it out. I didn't know I was going to share this recipe until after it was eaten, so I have no pictures tonight. I will take some next time. Also, this gave us enough for about 6-8 adult servings.

Curried Pumpkin Red Lentil Soup

8 cups vegetable broth (Type A compliant)
15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1 cup red lentils
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1/2 cup parboiled brown basmati rice
dehydrated chopped onion (can use fresh)
crushed garlic
curry powder
pink Himalayan salt
dried parsley
paprika
ginger powder
2 bay leaves

I threw everything into my Instant Pot and put it on the "Slow Cooker" setting. It was done after about 3-3 1/2 hours. It could easily be cooked for 4 hours. This would be comparable to cooking in any crock pot on "High" for 4 hours. I would imagine if you set a crock pot on "Low," it would be done around 8 hours.

If you decide to make this with regular brown rice instead of par-boiled, you will need to add a little more broth.

This recipe is good for Type A and is not good for Type O. I mention this because if you've seen my one son is Type O and think that I made this for him, too, you would be mistaken. I didn't really consider him when I made this as he usually doesn't eat the vegetarian dishes I make. He wants beef! Good thing he knows how to cook!