Gardening: The hits and misses of The Sunny Patch Garden 2013

We're not completely through the growing season, but things are sort of winding down for us. This was our first garden and it was a big learning experience for our family, me especially. We made our square foot box and it started out wonderfully. However that being said we'll do some things differently next year. Such as:

1) I will have a separate box just for squash and tomatoes. They busted out of our little square foot and tried to take over the whole box. Maybe I should have been pruning more, but these fruits grew massively and they spilled out of the garden box and all over the place. Next time they get their own home away from the other fruits and veggies.
2) I won't plant carrots next year. They just were not all that tasty. Maybe it's the kind I got. We grew baby carrots from seeds, but the fact remains once you pull them up, that's it they're done. And I want plants that keep on giving.
3) No strawberries next year. I know you're thinking WHAT?! No delicious strawberries. Well the ants waged a war on our strawberries and they won, despite our best efforts to kill them they ate way more strawberries than we did.
4) More snap peas and green beans. My green beans are still producing but we barely have enough beans to do anything with. More plants=more beans=more yummy stir-frys.  Same with the snap peas. They are delicious and we need more of them.
5) More Kale. The guinea pigs love it and two plants is not enough. More Kale!!
6) Cantaloupe was a bust this year. They got overwhelmed by the squash. I don't think we'll even harvest one. It's so upsetting. Maybe if we get a better set-up going next year we'll try again but as for this year it was a miss.
7) More bell pepper plants. Not a ton, but another one or two would be nice. I love eating our fresh peppers.
8) I planted marigolds with the veggies. Not sure what they were supposed to do but they are still going strong. Should research their benefit more before I plant again next spring.

Next year I'd like to plant some broccoli and maybe some lettuce as well. I love going outside and picking fresh vegetables from our garden. I'd also like to plant another fruit tree. Maybe a nectarine? Or pluot? Boysenberries would be awesome also. I need to look into how much work they are to grow.

Our healthy little garden was a fun first step into gardening. I am expecting bigger things next year. Until then I'll just keep enjoying the current harvest while thinking of next year's Sunny Patch Garden.

Summer's Bounty

Summer is officially here. I can tell by the sweltering temperatures and the fact that my A/C was working hard by noon. As bad as it seems I have to be happy that I don't live in Death Valley where their temperatures are supposed to hit in the mid-120's and their overnight low is 101. Gah!!

It's been a busy few weeks. The girls are out of school. We've already enjoyed a wonderful camping trip, just me and my hubby. We had a pool party and while I tried to keep it mostly real foods, I did give in and use the packaged ranch mix that I had on hand instead of making my own ranch. The fruit salad I made was to-die-for, although everyone raved about my homemade cookies, but the fruit salad was the bomb diggity in my mind.

We attended a stone fruit jubilee this past Saturday which was amazing! I never would have gone to this before we started our real food journey but now I am so glad that we went. We were able to sample stone fruits from local farmers. They had delicious stone fruit lemonade and we had two large glasses of that. We also tried some organic foods from a local food truck and everything was tasty and fresh.

They gave me some information for local CSA programs which I looked into with my husband. I really love the thought of supporting our local farmers and eating fresh picked food every week. The downside is the cost which is twenty dollars a week for our family of four. I definitely want to try this out but I think we're going to wait until next summer when hopefully our money is more plentiful.

I have found a bunch of healthy recipes on pinterest and I am using that daily to help me come up with food ideas for our family. I make so many things at home now that we used to just buy. I can't do everything yet, but more and more I am relying on homemade instead of store bought junk and that's a good thing.

The cost of real food

Every time I go to the grocery store these days it costs more than it did the last time. My eating habits have definitely changed and it is reflected in the cost of our food. Eating healthy fruits and vegetables is expensive, as is whole grains, and other real food. Whole milk costs more than non-fat milk. Real maple syrup costs more than the fake stuff. The list goes on and on, and for a family who is very careful about our money and trying to live paycheck to paycheck it's rough. I keep saying it's for our health and it's worth it, and I know it is in the long run, but right now the pinch at the store hurts.

On the bright side the kids have stopped asking me to buy Shells & Cheddar or Mac & Cheese. I'm sure when summer vacation starts and they go back to shopping with me they will remember all their old favorites and beg me to buy them, but at least for now the asking has stopped. I'm trying to let us life with the 80/20 principle. 80 percent of the things we eat will be of real food and the other 20 percent can be somewhat unhealthy fake food. Actually I'd prefer the numbers were closer to 90/10, but we're not there yet.

I'm excited that school is almost out meaning I can stop worrying so much about having freshly made bread for sandwiches. I am excited to not have to pack lunches for a couple of months. The downside is having the kids home with me every day of the week and trying to help them stay entertained. They are not as creative as kids were back in my day.

The Sunny Patch Garden delivers!

We are finally beginning to reap the fruits of our labor now that the produce in our garden is finally ready to pick, and eat! Today I was able to harvest four yellow crook neck squash from our garden. YUM! I cannot wait to drizzle them with a little olive oil, sprinkle them with some spices, cook them up, and eat them! We have tomatoes galore and two of them are actually turning red. I am not a fan of eating raw tomatoes, but my hubby and daughter are. Healthy, fresh grown produce from our own backyard. Love it!

Our family has been steadily making positive changes to our lives. We now go on a family walk a few nights a week. We eat as much real food as possible on a daily basis. I think my husband still has a ways to go in changing his eating habits when he's out of the house (he opts for fast food a couple of days a week) and he has an addiction to diet soda. Even I need to break the soda habit. It will be better for our health and our finances. Water and tea please.

The kids are almost out of school and we have some summer activities planned. We'll be hosting both a game night and a swim/bbq party in the next month. I am trying to build a menu that appeals to both young and old, while still being healthy. The kids are my issue. We usually do hot dogs. But hot dogs are full of nitrates and garbage. I need to do some research and see if I can find a "healthy" hot dog, or else abandon that idea for something else kid-friendly.

The good news about school being almost out means that I no longer will have to struggle with what to feed my kids for lunch every day. Always making sure they have homemade bread of some sort has been a challenge. I will still need to make bread but not with the same frequency.

We're making small changes every day to live a healthier lifestyle. It isn't happening overnight but by the end of the year I have a feeling that we will be amazed by how far we've come.

Let's be honest

Let's be honest here. Eating real food is hard. You have to plan ahead. You have to figure out what you're going to cook every day and not only that but finding recipes for food that isn't full of preservatives and junk isn't easy. Then you head to the grocery store and there are hundreds and hundreds of easy prepackaged foods ready to go, but no you don't want that. So you stop and scrutinize, and put things back once you realize that the Prego sauce you wanted is full of crap food, as well as the "real fruit" popsicles. It can get downright discouraging. Some days you want to say "Screw all this work, I'm going back to the easy way of doing dinner". But then you'll have a moment that makes you remember why you started down this path in the first place. I had one of those moments tonight with my nine year old.

I did the grocery shopping thing today and it was long and arduous. Gone are the days when I can just breeze down the aisles and put anything I want into my cart with no regard to what it's made of. I came home and put our food away, mainly vegetables, meat, and dairy. Tonight my hubby works late so I planned to make whole wheat pancakes for the kids. and we were going to try out the brand new, expensive as hell, real maple syrup.

I made a ton of whole wheat pancakes and I asked  the girls what they'd like on them. My nine year old asked for chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Now I am trying to get rid of the chocolate syrup because I just got a good recipe for homemade chocolate syrup that I want to try, but we are not so rich that I can just throw the old stuff away, so the kids are using it up, and then it won't be bought again.

Anyways I fix her pancake and she eats it with gusto and then she asks for another pancake. I ask her what she wants on this pancake and she says she'd like to try it with butter and the real maple syrup. So I fix it up as she requested and hand it over to her. I expected her to grumble and complain that it doesn't taste like the normal syrup. We've had issues with this in the past in regards to macaroni and cheese, and shells and cheddar. However to my surprise she tells me that she LOVES it. She scarfs it down in no time flat. I was amazed by how quickly she ate it, and before I knew it she was asking for another because butter and real syrup has suddenly become her new favorite way to top her pancakes. WOO HOO! Small steps people, small steps.

Yeah some days are going to suck and you'll feel like your busting your ass making everything by scratch for very little praise or acknowledgement. But sometimes you get a winner and you realize that even a small step in the right direction is a victory!

Back-in-time

It's been a busy week around here. I haven't forgotten my blog, I've just been so busy I haven't had time to blog much. Busy doing what you may ask? Busy making things from scratch.

I started off the week making homemade ice cream. This is a delicious creation I had forgotten the taste of until I had my first bite of homemade again. Why do we buy that store ice cream at all when it is clearly inferior? I also made orange dreamsicle popsicles. They were super easy to make and I had one last night and it was delicious! It reminded me of being a kid again.

I also made my first batch of whole wheat bread in the bread maker. It turned out great! Everyone loved it. Sure it takes five hours to cook but it's worth it. Just the smell alone was enough to make my mouth water. I also made some Iced Oatmeal cookies. My husband told me last night that they taste better than the Mother's brand Iced Oatmeal cookies. That made me feel great! The recipe made a ton, so I froze a bunch. Lastly yesterday I made two loaves of cinnamon bread. This bread didn't require the bread maker, and boy what a treat it is! YUM!

I'm changing my mindset about food on the whole. I've been reading anything Real Food that I can get my hands on, as well as hitting up my favorite Real Food blogs. I'm much more likely to stay home and cook a meal, instead of us going out to eat now. My husband and I have both started losing weight because we're no longer eating the processed garbage. We're also just being healthier on the whole as a family, by taking long walks in the evening together, or hikes in the mountains when we can. It feels great to make such a good change for our family. I can see us sticking to this for a very long time.

Here are a few of the recipes I used this week to make these delicious foods.

Iced Oatmeal Cookies:

Cookie Dough:
(This recipe made about 22 fairly large cookies)

2 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and generously grease your cookie sheet (use butter or a good amount of cooking spray to help the cookies spread).

In a chopper, food processor or even your coffee grinder (cleaned of course) pulse the 2 cups of oats to a coarse meal, you do not want to go as far as a fine powder. Dump into a large bowl and add the flour, baking powder/soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix and set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat on medium until the sugars are combined and the mixture is creamy. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Next, drop your oat/flour mix into the butter mixture and beat until thoroughly combined.

Place heaping Tablespoon fulls onto your prepared cookie sheets and bake, for 14 minutes or until golden, turning the pan half way through baking.

Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheets before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.

Mix your frosting ingredients together in a small bowl. Take the cooled cookies and dunk the tops into the frosting. Continue until all of the cookies are frosted and set aside to harden.

Orange Julius Popsicles

 

Ingredients

• 6 oz thawed orange juice concentrate
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

1. In a bowl, stir together orange juice concentrate, milk, water, sugar and vanilla until well mixed.
2. Pour orange mixture into Popsicle molds and wait until frozen.
3. Eat and enjoy!

CINNAMON BREAD

(makes 2 loaves)

 

 

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk or 2 cups milk plus 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

Cinnamon/sugar mixture:

2/3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

Cream together butter, 2 cups of sugar, and eggs.  Add milk, flour, and baking soda.  Put 1/2 of batter (or a little less) into greased loaf pans (1/4 in each pan).  Mix in separate bowl the 2/3 c sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle 3/4 of cinnamon mixture on top of the 1/2 batter in each pan.  Add remaining batter to pans; sprinkle with last of cinnamon topping.  Swirl with a knife.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 min.  or until toothpick tester come clean.  

Cool in pan for 20 minutes before removing from pan.

It's been a while

Hello all. My hard drive on my computer died and I've been unable to use my computer for a while. My sweet husband is letting me borrow his computer until he can build my new system and get me up and running again. I am not used to his keyboard so if I make a lot of typos it's because of the new keyboard.

Things have been going smoothly here at home. More and more I am seeing foods that we eat are filled with perservatives and dyes that I do not want in my body, nor my families bodies. I just found out today that Yellow 6 is in Eggo Waffles. Now I knew they were not a healthy breakfast by sny stretch but I didn't know they were sneaking dyes in them too. My kids love their Eggo's, but now they are going to enjoy my whole wheat homemade waffles instead.

In fact I am going to be making a lot of things homemade from now on. My part-time job as a preschool teacher ends in May and before I was wondering what I'd do with myself. Now I know. I am going to take that extra time to prepare homemade, healthy foods for my family. Like a housewife from the past I am going to stop relying on prepackaged meals, and things in boxes, but instead we're going to eat at home fresh food.

Today I made homemade granola bars. They are tasty, easy, and the kids love them. It just took me a little bit of time to prep and prepare them this morning but it felt good having a healthy snack for the kids when they came home from school today.

My mother-in-law lent me her bread maker so I plan to start making some fresh breads in the near future. As well as homemade muffins too. It's just the beginning of a whole new way of eating but I think we're ready, even if the kids are a little hesitant to try new treats and snacks that Mommy made. They'll get used to it. =P

Have a wonderful day!

Another day, another chance to eat clean

The garden is doing great! Today we noticed that not only are the garlic chives popping up, but hubby thinks he saw the beginnings of our Kale popping up as well. I'm so excited!! I plan on taking pictures tomorrow to show the progress the garden has made in just two short weeks. The kids are enjoying this garden project just as much as we are. We have one strawberry that is big and getting redder with each passing day. Can't wait to eat it!!!

Tonight I made homemade chicken soft tacos. My eldest was skeptical but she ended up scarfing them down and asking for more. That makes me feel good because a lot of times my homemade creations do not go over too well with the kiddos. I just keep trying and trying, hoping that our healthy eating will start to taste better and better to them as their taste buds adjust to less sugar and processed garbage.

Tomorrow we'll have homemade smoothies for breakfast. I'm going to try a peach one this time. I hope it comes out well. I like everything that goes into it, so I can't see how we can go wrong. It'll be interesting to see if the kids and hubby like it too.

Started a new exercise program. It's P90X and Insanity hybrid. We've done P90X three times in the past two years, and we've done some of Insanity. This should be the best of both workouts with the muscle building from P90X and the cardio from Insanity. We're on our third day and my body is sore!! I know that the first week is the hardest so we'll just keep pushing through, but OWIE!

Have a sweet night.

Changing my mindset

Once upon a time I used to live on Weight Watchers Smart Ones. I would eat them for lunch every day. I liked that all I had to do was pop them in the microwave and they were done in three to four minutes, and I knew their calories exactly. Those days are over.

Tuesday and Thursday nights my hubby works late, really late. So the kids and I eat dinner without him. I got the girls their meals but I didn't want what they were having. As I searched the freezer I spied a lone Smart One sitting there. I pulled it out and threw it in the microwave. And then as is my habit these days I flipped the box over to see the ingredients. A lenghtly list greeted me, with the normal stuff highlighted. In a jumble of words of things I didn't always understand they highlighted the beans, rice, corn, etc. And then I took that microwave dinner from the microwave and I chucked it in the trash. I can do better than this. I can eat better than this. I do not have to stoop to eating boxed perservative laden garbage anymore.

I have yet to make my dinner but whatever I decide on it will be fresh, natural, and full of things I can understand. I'm thinking eggs, with a little cheese and homemade salsa. I am worth more than some cheapy processed Weight Watchers Smart One. My body is something I want to take care of, not slowly destroy.

A fresh cart of food.

I just got back from grocery shopping and this time it was without the kids. It's so much easier to shop kid-free. This time I was able to get everything on my list without my kiddo's begging me for extra processed garbage. I did try and keep them in mind though and I got them each a box of Annie's mac & cheese and shells & cheddar. They might hate it, but I am still trying to find a healthier version they may like. My homemade versions haven't won them over. =(

I got just about every kind of vegetable that our family will happily consume. Lots of fruits too! And some whole grain pasta and snacks for their lunches. It is not easy always walking past the easy processed stuff, but the more I live this new lifestyle the easier, and easier is becomes. One quick flip to the back of a box makes me put the item down and walk away.

The hardest part has been the extra expense, but overall our health is more important than saving a few dimes here and there. Once our garden is producing we'll start saving a little money. Right now the tomatoes are thriving, and we have green beans and pea's from seeds that are sprouting. This is such a neat experience for our family. The girls are really loving it, especially my youngest.

Smoothie making has been going well. I am trying to recreate one of my favorite smoothies that Jamba Juice makes. I want something similar at least.

I feel good about eating healthy, and mindfully. I just wish we could do better on the weekends. We're so busy rushing around that noone wants to cook dinner and we end up eating out too much. We need to remedy this. Something to work on.

Enjoy your Monday!

Starting with smoothies

Good morning wonderful friends. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday with your family or friends. We had a lovely, relaxing vacation and we enjoyed ourselves fully, but I am happy to be back to our normal routine starting with school for the kids and work for me today.

Over the break we did purchase a new blender it's a Ninja. I tried making a green smoothie over the break with our thirteen year old blender and needless to say it wasn't up to the job. Costco had a rockin' deal on the Ninja blender so we went for it.

This morning I made us a berry/banana smoothie made with greek yogurt, protein powder and orange juice. It is a little tart but otherwise delicious!!

Gotta run have a fruitastic day!

The Sunny Patch Garden is in!

Yesterday afternoon and evening I took the family out to buy the plants and seeds we wanted to plant in our garden. Our area didn't have a huge selection of plants, but we got the basics tomatoes, squash, bell peppers, cantaloupe, and strawberries. Then we also got some seeds such as Bush Beans, Kale, Carrots, spinach, garlic chives, and peas. I planted them all in our garden and I even had two strawberry plants left over so they went in the front yard too. I'm so excited to see how my plants do and to watch them grow! Most of all I can't wait to taste the fruits of my labor!!

This morning I got up early and made me and the kids a smoothie. I got the Jamba Juice prepackaged ones because they sounded good and easy. Once I know which ones I like I will try and make them on my own. Today I tried the orange madness one and it was delicious! Even my eldest who can be picky really loved it. Win-win.

We have a busy weekend planned with Easter festivities and fun so I may not get back here for a few days. Until then stay fruity and fresh!

Spring break madness

The kids have been out of school this week which is why I haven't been posting as much. Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day going to a genetic specialist at our local children's hospital, getting my daughter's blood drawn again, and all of that because she has some rare and unique thing called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. Which really has no cure, and the other way to possibly prevent it from happening is to give her anti-depressants, or Migraine medicine. Oh boy, because I want to medicate my daughter all the time for this weird vomiting thing that happens out of the blue. Not.

Anyway on Tuesday we managed to finished our square foot garden box. Hubby set up the sprinklers and it is good to go. Woo hoo! Now I just need to get my veggies which I may do in a little while. I can't wait to get the veggies in the ground so they can start maturing.

This morning I had to go to the grocery store and I took the girls with me which made for a hard trip. I used to let them pick out bunches of processed crap, as long as it was reasonably priced, but those days are gone. I didn't say no to everything they wanted, but I dd manage to leave most of the processed crap at the store. Once I nail down a good homemade tuna helper recipe then I can get my eldest off of my back about wanted the box kind. And I am still trying to get a mac & cheese recipe that the kids like better than kraft. It's a battle let me tell you.

On the bright side our veggie drawer is overflowing. I bought fresh fruits too, whole grain pasta, and 100% juice to make some smoothies. Overall I feel like I am slowly winning the war on cutting out processed foods and replacing them with real food and that makes me feel great. =)

Baking from scratch

I find that I am lucky that during the week my schedule is usually open enough that I can find the time to cook from scratch. I enjoy trying out new recipes on my family, and I like it even more when the recipes are a success. I have a hard time finding good baking recipes. Maybe I am a baked goods snob, but I rarely think the healthy version of baked goods compares to the refined sugars and processed junk food goods. Today however I made something good.

I went to that 100 Days of Whole Foods blog and found a recipe for zucchini bread. I checked out the ingredients and made one small substitution. I used 3/4 cup applesauce instead of the oil. As the bread was baking the house smelled delicious and when it came out of the oven it tasted wonderful. It is not nearly as sweet as most zucchini bread recipes but my girls ate it right up without any complaints. My eldest even asked for seconds.

Now I'm on the hunt for a tuna noodle casserole recipe. My eldest loves the tuna helper but it's so overprocessed, I need to find an alternative that she will like. I also need to find an alternative for the kraft mac & cheese but so far every homemade mac & cheese I've made the kids have shot down. This would be a little easier if I didn't have two super picky eaters in our house. lol.

Enjoy Monday!

The Sunny Patch

This has been such a productive weekend. Yesterday we decided to do a little gardening. We transplanted a Heavenly Bamboo from the front of our house, over to near our garage. This started a chain reaction and we decided to buy three more baby heavenly bamboo plants and some Irish Moss ground cover. We're trying to make the area between our yard and our neighbors yard look better and keep the weeds at bay. We're hoping the Irish moss does its thing and spreads like crazy, and that the bamboo grows fast and hides our garbage cans.

Then this morning we decide it's finally time to fix our sprinklers. Our dogs like to chew up all of our drip and we have some large normal bamboo that needs the water and they are starting to yellow and look sick because they are not getting enough water. The plan was to just fence them off so we could lay down the drip and the dogs couldn't get into it. but then hubby suggests making the enclosure larger so I can plant a garden!!! I am so psyched!! I have been wanting my own garden forever but we could never figure out how to do it without the dogs eating it up.

This morning and into the afternoon we put down fencing. We replaced drip and sprinklers, and we got areas ready for the new square foot garden which I am calling The Sunny Patch. We also fenced off some trees that we had and now we can even plant a new cherry tree and it will be safe from the jaws of our two dogs!

The wheels in my head are spinning. I know what veggies and fruits I want to plant. We still need to build the raised beds but I am hoping we can work on that over the week. I just need some wood, some compost and mulch stuff, and the plants of course!!

I cannot wait to feed my family fresh grown veggies and fruits from our own garden. It's been years of me wanting to do this and finally it's going to happen!

Smoothies or Juices?

This is the current topic in our house right now. Hubby and I watched a documentary called Fat, sick, and nearly dead and it's about a guy named Joe who drank nothing but juice for 60 days and he totally turned his life around and he started a movement to help others do the same thing with their lives. The documentary really hit home with hubby and me. We'd like to do something similar but we're unsure if we can commit to the juicer for a few reasons.

One reason is that juicing requires a juicer and the prices range from around one hundered dollars up to nearly two hundred. Unlike a blender really the only use for a juicer is juicing, and if we fail hard at this well then we have bought ourselves a very expensive paperweight.

Another reason we're wary is that juicing is mostly vegetables and hubby, nor I, really like to eat that many vegetables, let alone drink their juices. We're more fruit juice kind of people.

Lastly they quoated the cost of juicing to be around fourteen dollars a day, per person. Ouch!! That's a lot of money, more than we spend on us per day for food that's for sure.

So that leads us to smoothies. Smoothies are made with mostly fruit and some veggies. They require only a blender and we have one of those already. Smoothies may still be costly though, but hopefully they taste better than straight vegetable juice,

Right now we're waiting. My eldest needs to meet with a metabolism specialist sometime soon, and depending on what her doctor tells her that may determine with route we go, if any at all.

Feel free to weigh in on the discussion of what you prefer a smoothie or fresh juice?

Fabulous Friday!

Hi all! I'm so happy it's Friday. After two days of dealing with my sweet sick kid she was finally well enough to go back to school. I got some eraands done this morning around town, then I came home and mowed most of our back lawn (we have a HUGE lawn so I am stretching it out). Breakast was my usual Frosted Mini-wheats with milk. Lunch was also my normal turkey meat, string cheese, and cashew clusters. Tonight I am using a new recipe for Italian sloppy joes in the crock pot. It uses sausage, onion, red and green peppers, garlic, and crushed tomatoes. They are simmering in my crock pot right now and when it's done I'm going to throw it on a roll with a little swiss cheese and romaine lettuce and call it good. YUM!

Yesterday I did manage to be somewhat productive. I washed a bunch of red grapes and put them in an easy to grab tupperware container. I took some grapes and froze them because I heard they kind of taste like candy. I don't agree but my youngest thought they did so yay for that! I think we ate our last box of Kraft macaroni and cheese last night. I wanted to stop giving them processed convience foods anyway, and then I read about the dyes that put in the mac and cheese that have been banned in other countries and that was the final straw. No more kraft mac and cheese in this house. I can find a healthy alternative, I am going to start paying more attention to what I am feeding my kids. I want healthy, fresh, and fruity, not processed, harmful, and quick.

This weekend is going to be fun. Hubby and I have a date night planned. I love spending time with my husband alone. He and I just have so much fun together. I'm looking forward to going out to dinner with him and then watching a movie together. Plus I get to sleep in on Sunday morning, bliss!

Okay have a fantastic weekend everyone. I'll post again on monday!

A whirlwind of a day

Yesterday was a doozy of a day. It started out with my eldest child complaining that her stomach hurt. This has happened many, many times before. We call it sour stomach and it usually leads to her vomiting once or twice and then being right as rain for the rest of the day. Sure enough she threw up once before we left for school. Almost everytime she has had a sour stomach the issue resolves itself and she can have a normal day at school. But not yesterday.

I dropped her off and headed to the grocery store to shop. After getting the groceries I left the store only to get a call on my cell saying that my daughter had thrown up at school. The school nurse wanted me to explain the sour stomach thing, which I did, and then she recommended we take her to the doctor over it. Since the frequency of the sour stomach has increased over the past year, (She's had this since she was a young child but the episodes were much farther apart before) I decided to make an appointment to the doctor.

Hours later and all we know is her ketone levels were very high. They tested her urine to find that out and then ordered a ton of blood tests. She had her finger pricked once, her blood drawn once, and she threw up eight times. She had no fever, and no other symtoms. All in all it was a long, hard day. I kept her home from school today because she's still not feeling great. Hopefully she'll be o.k. to go to school tomorrow, and they will call us with some results from the blood tests. It's scary when your kids are sick, and then you google stuff and that makes it all 100 times worse. Don't google medical stuff.

Here's the good from yesterday. While I did initially skip breakfast I did grab two lara bars from the grocery store Around 10 I ate the Lara bar and that little bar kept me full and satified until 2 p.m. when we finally got home from the doctors. The ingredients were just three good one, it actually tasted pretty darn good, and it kept me full. The downside was the price, but as an occasional thing I think I am going to buy a box or two from Target soon.

The other good from yesterday is that we now have groceries! Lots of them. My veggie drawer is overflowing with goodness. I bought tons of veggies, multiple fruits, and very little of anything else. It feels great to be eating fresh food, and not the processed crap of before. We're not perfect, but we're getting better and better. Food can be good with just fresh ingredients and a little (sometimes a lot) of time.

Have a fresh and fruity day!

It's beginning to feel like Spring

Good afternoon! The weather today was in the eighties where I live and that made for a beautiful day. The flowers are blooming, and the bees are busy working hard, and I have been in a great mood all day.

This morning I grabbed a quick granola bar with some orange juice as I headed out the door since Tuesdays I teach preschool after I drop my kids off at school. I did make my kids some scrambled eggs with cheese and orange juice. I admit I am not much of a morning person so I often rely on the quick and easy breakfasts, but they are not always the healthiest. This morning I felt proud of myself for actually making something. I need to do this more often and not just on the weekends.

Lunch today was my normal, turkey slices, string cheese, and cashew clusters. I also had a piece of dark chocolate as a treat. I just finished making lemon poppyseed muffins. The house smells great and they tasted pretty darn good too! I am going to freeze some since I don't think we can go through 20 plus muffins all by ourselves. I also gave some to my friend and her family.

Tonight is kids choice for dinner. I am not sure what I'll have. Maybe a salad with egg on it again. That was tasty and pretty healthy. Tomorrow I'm going grocery shopping. I'm going to be mindful of what I put into my cart and try hard to stick to the rules of fresh ingredients and very little to no processed food. Wish me luck!!

Have a happy day!

Spring forward

Good Afternoon! I am not sure how everyone else is feeling today, but I can tell you I am feeling sleepy right about now. Getting up an extra hour earlier is taking its toll on me. Hopefully my body will adjust soon and I can avoid taking afternoon naps to compensate.

This weekend was great! We took the kids up to the mountains to play in the snow. Most likely it's the last snow of the season and we won't see snow again until November or December. It was a lot of fun but now the sun is out again and it's supposed to get hot! I am not ready for summer just yet.

Eating over the weekend was hit and miss. We did some good eating, and some naughty eating. I'm regretting the bad eating now, but all I can do is try and be better.

Tonight I am making whole wheat pasta with a green salad. It should be tasty and healthy too. The rest of the week I am not sure what we'll be having since I need to go grocery shopping. I plan on doing that on Thursday. This isn't a super busy week so that's good at least.

Have a sunny day!

If only money grew on trees

Lately I've been reading this new blog:  http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ One day I strive to take the 100 day challenge. I am not there yet, but I'm working on it. I've been especially impressed with the lunches she fixes for her children. I see the homemade Go-gurts and I think "I can do that!". Only I can't because I don't have those smoothie holders that she has. I also like a lot of the lunch things that she uses for her kids lunches, but I don't have the things and I checked on Amazon and buying the stuff is expensive.

What I do have is good intentions and the little tupperware containers she shows on the blog. Mine are not ziplock, but otherwise they are the same. So yeah I do my part by packing my kids their lunch in little tupperware containers. I also encourage fresh fruits every day. The problem is my kids are picky and they eat the same stuff day after day. Blarg. I would be SO bored, but they are happy. DD1 eats a bagel with strawberry creamcheese every day. I'd like to say homemade strawberry creamcheese, but no, it's the prepared stuff. (shame) And DD2 eats a peanut butter and honey sandwich every day. And no it's normal peanut butter, not organic, or almond butter. I want to switch things up on them but I need to do it gradually, or else my plans will fail and they will be throwing their lunches away every day and then no one will be happy, or satisfied.

I've made the switch where they will eat whole grain fresh baked bread. The next step is maybe saving up some money to buy those smoothie holders? I think I can make a go-gurt better than yoplait. We shall see.

We're going out of town this weekend. Have a fruity and fresh weekend and I know I'll try and do the same.

Planning ahead

Good morning! It's another rainy day here where I live, but still a good day none-the-less. I started my morning off with a nice bowl of frosted mini-wheats with milk. Usually this breakfast does the trick but today I am still hungry. Hurm. It's only an hour until lunch so I think I'll be o.k but I am curious why today I am so hungry. Oh wait I think I might know my period is coming in a few days. Now it makes perfect sense. lol.

The plan for today is to hang out with my little brother. I use the term little loosely since he is well over 6 feet tall and he weighs a LOT more than I do. He's nine years younger than me so he'll always be little to me. Anyway he's coming over and we're going to watch Breaking Bad, and play games with the kids when they get home from school, fun stuff like that.

Dinner tonight is going to be Sweet & Sour chicken. My brother is looking forward to it, so hopefully he actually likes it. Tomorrow night we'll head to Costco and stock up on some staples, but today we're making due with what we have in the panty.

Have a gorgeous day!!

Adjusting

The first few days of adjusting to a new eating pattern are hard. Last night I was pretty hungry right before bed. My husband helped me see that having a small snack of whole grain tortilla's and fresh salsa would be a good thing for me, so I went ahead and had that. The chips could have been healthier, but I couldn't think of what else I could put the salsa on. Hmm. something to think about. I guess maybe some sort of veggies could take the place of chips and salsa.

Today the weather is overcast and it's supposed to rain. That may get in the way of my plans to walk. I'll see how it looks later when I get home from dropping my kids off at school and go from there. I started the morning with a bowl of cereal and milk, and lunch should be pretty much the same thing that I ate yesterday. Dinner will be homemade crock-pot salsibury steak, fresh made mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus. Yum!

I made hard boiled eggs last night and my kids ate them up! They don't really like the yolks thought so that is a bummer, maybe over time their tastes will change. My eldest who is nine and I were talking last night about how we need to exercise to stay healthy, and eat healthy foods. She's right on board with the family eating right and being active. She wants us to live for a long, long time and so she knows that we need to be a healthy family for that to happen. As yet another news story comes out that Mary Tyler Moore has terminal brain cancer. Cancer seems to be everywhere and there doesn't seem to be any real cures yet. How many more people will we lose to this dreaded disease?

And on that sad note, live your best today, you never know what tomorrow will be.

A Fresh Start

It's officially March and that means it's time to get serious about my health. I am done stalling, done waiting for the birthdays to be over (which now they are), I am done making excuses. The plan is to eat healthy as much as possible, fresh ingredients, whole foods, and less processed crap. I am also planning on taking a walk with one of our two dogs every weekday, on top of some other exercise. It's not going to be easy, but the results will be worth the effort.

This morning I started the day with a cold shower, which is supposed to speed up your metabalism. I had Wheat Thins for breakfast with milk, and I am going to grab a quick glass of green tea. I work today so fitting the walk in somewhere might be tough, but I'll get it done.

Update:


Well the morning wizzed by and I managed to take my Saint Bernard for a short walk around the neighborhood. I'm glad I was able to find the time to fit that in. I just finished eating my lunch which was turkey meat, string cheese, pickle, and some cashew crunch. Delicious. Tonight for dinner I am not sure what I'll have. Maybe I'll make myself a nice salad to eat. I can hard boil some eggs to put on it for protein, and I have various other veggies to go on top as well.

I drank some green tea this morning, I didn't finish the glass but I at least got some of it in my system. I should probably finish the rest off now since I just finished lunch.

Have a fresh and fruity day!

Real food healthy eating takes time and money

The real food eating plan has been stalled because of a lack of food in our house. Overall we're still doing o.k., but not as well as I would like. Over the weekend we had chicken fajita's one night and they were tasty. My husband cooks on the weekends so it was his meal. Yesterday though we didn't do as well, with a lack of food we ended up eating canned chili for dinner.

The plan is for me to go grocery shopping this Friday. I am going to work on some healthy real food dinner ideas, and lunch ideas for my girls. They are picky so they'll give me some grief until they (hopefully) get into the habit of eating better non-processed foods.

I can't change my family overnight. It's going to take time, a lot of planning on my part, and I'm hoping not too much money. I am ready for a change.

Tonight's dinner was a success. I got two new recipes off of Pintrest. The first was for something called Perfect Chicken, which it was. My chicken was perfectly seasoned, and it tasted juicy and flavorful. My girls kept asking me what smelled so good while it was cooking in the oven. It was a hit! I also roasted some asparagus and unlike my failed roasted Kale recipe, my asparagus came out just right. I added a small cup of fresh fruit to the plate and dinner was complete.

This was a great start to our healthy eating lifestyle. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

The Reason

I have decided to adopt a healthier eating lifestyle for me and my family. My eyes are open to how little real food we eat, and how much processed crap we put into our mouths and our stomachs on a weekly basis. I was like most average Americans just trying to get by, and raise a family. I didn't spend much time thinking about what we ate other than will my kids eat this dor dinner? Then our family got a wake-up call of the worst kind.

My father-in-law was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer. I immediately began researching cancer, and the causes of it etc. All my research kept leading me back to what we eat and the chemicals we put into our bodies within those things we eat.

I started reading labels only to realize that half of the things on the label I didn't know what they were and couldn't even pronounce them. What happened to the basics, a few wholesome ingredients that taste good? It is time to make a change I thought, for myself, and my family.

The first step was going to my doctor and getting a full physical. Everything came back normal except for a low vitamin D count. However I can fix that by take a supplement, and even better. by eating food with vitamin D in them.

I'm new to this process of "real food." I've read Michael Pollan's book and I feel like I understand what he was saying, now I need to live it in my own life. My kids are not going to be happy to be without their Kraft Mac & cheese, and their frozen waffles, but I hope that instead of junk food I'll give them the tools for a healthy lifestyle and parents who will be around a long, long time to watch them grow and turn into healthy, active adults.