Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Healthy Habit Coach

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Tara Rayburn of The Healthy Habit Coach Blog who lives with her family in Las Vegas.

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: The Healthy Habit Coach

I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Tara Rayburn and her family since we moved to Las Vegas last fall. She’s the mother of two beautiful children and wife to a professional speaker/performer. She’s also a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

We’ve had some wonderful dinner parties, done a bunch of playdates, and in the process, Tara has become a very good friend of mine. We are really going to miss the Rayburn family when we move back to LA.

Tara during one of her book signing events

Blog Name: The Healthy Habit Coach Blog
Blog Author: Tara Rayburn
How Long Blogging: About 3 years
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
House or Apartment: We have a house which is our “Oasis” in this crazy town
Size of Kitchen: It’s a big honking kitchen; I’ll measure it for you if I have to. 😉
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: We have an amazing view while washing dishes. There is a lot of counter space for the constant flow of friends, kids and farm fresh foods. This is great for having multiple projects going, and I have a place for my quiet morning time too. It’s bright, cheerful and always ends up being where everyone gathers in our home.
Things You Would Change: I have a sink curse! Every house I’ve lived in over the last 5 years has had an issue with the kitchen sink. Our sink is big and wonderful, great for washing all the stock pots, pans and serving dishes, but it is rock hard ceramic and has broken a ton of dishes and glasses. Notice: it is the sink’s fault, not ours 😉 Also, we haven’t yet figured out where to put a kitchen table so we either eat on the island which is not very well suited for 4 of us or in the dining room, which is a pain for everyday eating. I’d like to do a built in or find the right shape for seating 6 to 8 together at one table in the kitchen. I also have never quite found the place for “where things should go.” In other homes we created a flow that made sense. We haven’t quite found that rhythm here. I keep threatening to hire a “home organizer” to help.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Everything but the kitchen sink! 😉 Seriously, I love my titanium pans, glass steamer, bamboo steamers, kitchen scissors, glass blender, Excalibur 10 tray dehydrator, ice cream maker, Crock pot, food processor and the wonderful kitchen knives my husband got us a few years ago.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: I find it challenging to keep coming up with recipes that accommodate and please everyone in the family. When I’m in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or buying at a farmers market trying to make meals before food spoils gets tricky. I HATE throwing away food. Also, my daughter is 11 going on 30. She is at a real picky age and is sick of hearing about “healthy” foods. It’s a challenge to balance her peer pressure (perceived or real) and creating fun, uplifting meals she feels good about eating around friends.
Current Family Favorite Meal: My Chicken Soup (Here’s the video for Chicken Broth) is in a neck in neck race with Turkey Tacos and Mountain Sorrel. (Neck and neck, get it?)
Favorite Cookbooks:[easyazon-link asin=”0967089735″ locale=”us”]Nourishing Traditions[/easyazon-link] by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig started it all for me. However, because of food allergies/sensitivities I had to constantly substitute items which is why Mary Vars and I created “[easyazon-link asin=”B005I6FCKY” locale=”us”]Essential Gluten-Free Recipes[/easyazon-link].” Those recipes have been our household regulars. Honestly, I’m not much of a recipe follower, I look in the fridge and see what we have, or what’s available at the Farmer’s Market and consider what we’ve been eating lately and simply just create! We are ready for new some new tastes and I’m actually thinking about taking some cooking classes this year.

Kitchen with a view

Here it is, our kitchen in our home right in view of The Strip. Yes, there are neighborhoods and families in Vegas.

Kitchen opposite view

This view shows you the open area between kitchen and family room — a must in a house for us. Notice the little bookcase with my most used resources. Yep, that is a copy of Nourishing Traditions

Kitchen stove and island

I love my titanium pans and glass steamer. Although our house has a microwave, nobody in my house uses it. Between glass & bamboo steamers and toaster oven we are good.

Kitchen island and breakfast area aka: my office

We have a second fridge and my “office” where I do my early morning devotions, goals and planning. This opens into a courtyard where I take a bunch of my photos for my blogs, books and presentations.

Snacks

My daughter notices little plates of nice snacks at our neighbors house and has decided to do this at our house. It’s all about what we choose.

Homemade Cleaning Products

We make most of our cleaning products with vinegar, essential oils and other natural non-toxic choices. Vinegar and peppermint or lavender is amazing for cleaning all surfaces.

Fridge #1

This fridge keeps most of our immediate needs and has a freezer.

Fridge #2

This fridge is for extra farm fresh products, broth, farmer’s market treasure and leftovers. Notice my coolmist essential oil diffuser. Priceless in the spring with all the dust/pollen flying.

Home Apothecary and Pantry

Essential oils, herbs, and kefir staging area

My Morning Retreat and Office

This is my early morning area for devotions, goals and planning before the troops get up. Complete with beta fish

Chicken Broth

OMG look how thick my broth came out…lot’s of chicken feet, necks and backs. Best thing for your bone and joint health.

Nasturtiums with Hummus

They have a pepper flavor perfect for hummus

View after a Chicken Broth and Soupfest

Labels make life easier

Note Kefir Label: “Kefir Grains. Please Don’t Eat me!”

On Air Sign

When I do radio interviews & recordings I retreat to my bedroom. My daughter made me a great sign to let everyone know when we are live!

Bison Jerky with essential oils. Amazing!

Kefir from Farm Fresh Milk

Attack of the Killer Cultured Cream!

I came down the next morning and it was monstrous!

Ahh, Got Milk?

Broth, Extra Farm Fresh Eggs

Farm Fresh Milk, Grass-Fed Beef, Kefir/Whey

Dishwashing with a View

Dishwashing with a View…wait for it…

Dishwashing with a View...Nice

A perk of the job

Kefir is the smoothie staple in our home

Essential Oils Lazy Susan alongside Herbs

Putting this little essential oils caddy in the herb cabinet has increased all of our use of oils in our meals and led to my book “Essential Gluten-Free Recipes”

Homemade Butter. So easy a child can do it!

Dinner a la Seneca

Ummm, not sure what Seneca called it, but it sure was fabulous with turkey meatballs, sprouted quinoa cooked in broth and steamed green beans

I love my Excalibur Dehydrator

10 tray dehydrator is great, but 2 to 5 trays is really what I normally use.

Eggnog

Zach slurping up coconut milk eggnog through a cinnamon stick – Yum!

Now for what happens in the kitchen...Deviled Egg fun

Basil Flower

Our basil did really well. Key was using timer for drip sprinklers.

Squash for Muffins and such

I put a lot of squash in my baked goods because my family has never been crazy about eating them straight up.

Zach making Coconut Water Kefir

Fermented Radishes

Love all the places I can take photos for my books, blogs and presentations.

Cucumber flower from our garden

Although it flowered, missed a couple days of watering and never got any cukes.. Ah, gardening in the desert.

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

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.