Wringing Out My Sponge

Halfway There and a Look Back in Time

2012-02-16T12:32:00.000-06:00

Today I am 20 weeks along in my pregnancy. I really can't believe that it has gone by this fast! I also can't believe how seriously great I have been feeling. I am enjoying this pregnancy and have actually been feeling quite comfortable. I recall, at this point during my pregnancy with the munchkin, that things were not nearly as laid back as they have been this time around. I remember being uncomfortable pretty much all of the time and that thinking being pregnant was a very huge chore (although still worth it) that one had to go through in order to bring a baby into this world.

I started wondering at what point things were going to start getting super uncomfortable. I thought what better reference, then to look back at my old blog posts to see what was going on then. I knew things were going better this time, but I was actually shocked to see just how uncomfortable I already was at this point in my pregnancy before and had actually been feeling that way for some time already. I sure had alot of complaining to do!

I thought it might be fun to share some of the quotes from those posts here, to look back on how things were then and then share how things are now.

Here's an excerpt from a post I wrote at exactly 19 weeks along with the munchkin:
"My throat is on fire!! I have been getting acid reflux. Bad. From what I understand this is one of the most common things that pregnant woman go through, and I had read there was a good chance I would suffer from it as well. But having never experienced acid reflux or heart burn before in my life, I had no idea how awful it could be. I have been getting it since early on in my pregnancy, but the last two days have been just awful. I feel like my entire esophogas is on fire!

I am having ice cream for lunch today because it feels good and the concern for my growing ass is being outweighed by the burning acid in my throat."

Valentine's Day, Some Belly Pics and Maybe a Little TMI...

2012-02-15T11:49:00.000-06:00

I’ve definitely had better Valentine’s Days. I guess I’ve also had worse as well. I’ve been sick for the past week. It has seriously sucked. I haven’t gotten sick much in the last couple of years, but seeing how your immune system is so much less effective while you are pregnant, I haven’t easily fought this one off and it has really dragged out. It started out with a slight sore throat early last week. I thawed out a bunch of homemade chicken broth from the freezer and started drinking it around the clock. Normally, this nips things in the bud immediately. I guess I made the mistake of discontinuing that once I started to feel better on Thursday, because after a good day Friday, it came back even worse Friday night. My throat was so sore, it hurt to swallow my spit. It felt like little pieces of glass were poking around in there. It was awful. I was up throughout the night trying to gargle salt water, just enough to fall back asleep. I didn’t get much sleep that night.

Joe had left town for work Thursday night and wouldn’t be returning until late Saturday night. Saturday morning I was really hurting. I called my mom (thank goodness she lives less then a mile from me) and she so very kindly came and picked up the munchkin to hang out with her for the day. I laid around all day, drinking more chicken broth and eating whatever I could that I thought might help me feel better. I definitely wasn’t up for going to the store, but luckily we had a bunch of oranges in the house so I could try to stock up on some vitamin C. I really wasn’t feeling much better by Sunday morning, so I started googling home remedies for sore throats. Joe was home now too, and was also feeling pretty crappy, so we were a pretty sad pair.

I came across a website that recommended gargling with cayenne pepper. I remembered hearing this once before. I started reading all of the comments in the forum and came up with a concoction based on what other people had had some luck with. In a coffee mug, I put 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp unrefined sea salt, 2 Tb apple cider vinegar, and 1 Tb raw honey. I boiled some water, then poured it into the coffee mug. Once it cooled enough, I started gargling it for about 30 seconds or so. I took a break and then tried again. I kept doing this till it was gone. It took me about and hour or so to finish it. It was pretty nasty, not gonna lie, but it was doable and it did not make me want to gag or anything. By the time I was finished, my throat was feeling considerably better. I was amazed! I did this a few more times throughout the day and by the time I went to bed, I was actually able to get some sleep that night and was feeling better by Monday morning.

My sitter called me bright and early Monday morning to tell me that she had come down with something herself, so she wasn’t going to be able to watch the munchkin. It was snowing pretty badly out and my tires are pretty bald, so it actually worked out. And I got to stay home and snuggle with my favorite little kiddo. Now my throat was less sore, but I was beginning to hack up gross stuff and cough constantly. Yay.

I seriously couldn't believe that throughout the whole ordeal the munchkin didn't get so much as a sniffle! I was so relieved.

So then we came to Tuesday, Valentine’s day. Joe had class anyway, so me and the munchkin were mostly on our own. We all had dinner together, before he headed off to school. I got a hair brained idea and decided that it would be cute and fun and romantic to do something with my nappy hair and maybe put some make up on my face. I was feeling much better, and it was Valentine’s Day, it might be nice to have some “romantic time” with the hubby that night. After I cleaned up a little, I decided to throw on a dress, then one on the munchkin too, so we could take a few fun pics of my baby bump ( I hadn’t done this in a few weeks anyway, and was long overdue). So I got out my tripod and we took a few shots.

Chunky Guacamole A.K.A. The Best Guacamole Ever! (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • gaps)

2012-02-13T13:37:00.003-06:00

I am home today from work with an unexpected day off. My sitter is sick and couldn't watch the little munchkin today. It's snowing outside and my tires are bald, plus I get to spend some bonus time with my favorite little person, so I'd say it all worked out pretty good. For me anyway, not my sick sitter. I hope she feels better soon!

For part of our lunch, I decided to throw together some guacamole. I just absolutely adore chunky guacamole. And nothing is better then the homemade kind. This is my top secret recipe. I guess it won't be much of a secret anymore. I love that it's quick and easy and always gets rave reviews when I bring it to a party. This is delicious served as a dip or as a topping on chicken, burgers, tacos, or all sorts of other things.

As far as the seasonings, I am totally guessing here. I usually just throw the stuff into a bowl and taste it as I go, adjusting accordingly. This should be pretty close though.

This is a party size recipe, so definitely cut the recipe down for a smaller amount. This is best eaten fresh. It will brown easily if it sits around too long.

Why I Am Feeling So Lucky Today...

2012-02-09T12:34:00.000-06:00

I just can't believe how lucky and blessed I am. I get to be the mother of this sweet little girl.

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Someone's Got an Attitude!

2012-02-07T15:27:00.002-06:00

What Have I Been Up To? Well, Let Me Fill You In...

2012-02-06T12:15:00.000-06:00

I have been so busy lately in general, and haven't had much time to blog. Thought maybe I would give an update on what has been going on with me lately....

I have been mostly just hanging in there, trying to get through Joe going to school and working more then usual and not being home near as much. I have been getting read for nice weather and all of the up coming photo shoots! I have a new lens on the way, along with lots of new studio equipment so I can have a better set up indoors. I can not wait to get some of this stuff into action. Hopefully we will be doing some major potty training soon. I soooo want the munchkin out of diapers before the new baby gets here. So I have been planning our attack on that. I have been trying out all kinds of new recipes, not only to make our meal rotations more interesting, but to find some good ones to freeze to build up my frozen meal stock for when the baby arrives. One thing I did make last week that I HIGHLY recommend was a recipe for Cashew Chicken. It was ridiculous. I left out the ginger cuz I didn't have any on hand and added a little arrowroot to the marinade when it was put back into the pan and heated to use as the sauce, but otherwise I pretty much followed the directions.

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The Munchkin's New "Big Girl Room"

2012-02-02T12:07:00.000-06:00

We are pretty much finished with the munchkin's new room. It drives me batty that I can't paint the walls. It seems pointless though, since we don't plan on staying in this house for that long. Thank goodness for removable wall stickers! Atleast I can add some color that way. I decided to do a woodland animals kinda theme... I wanted to throw in lots of bold colors since the walls, her furniture and the awful carpeting are so light.

Sh*t Crunchy Mamas Say

2012-02-01T13:30:00.002-06:00

This was posted in a Natural Mamas group that I am in on facebook. I am not this bad, but I may be guilty of saying some of the same things. This really cracked me up though...

A 16 Week Belly Update and Some Saturday Morning Scenes (My Own Personal Concert)

2012-01-21T23:56:00.002-06:00

It's crazy that it's only been 2 weeks since I posted my last belly pic. I feel like I have grown alot too! I am definitely looking pregnant now. I feel great though. My energy has come back quite a bit and I don't feel like I need as much sleep any more. I have felt alot more motivated lately to get some things done. As far as the pregnancy goes, there really hasn't been many other changes since my last check in. I am doing really good and I am very grateful for that.

I have started to feel more and more excited about the arrival of this new little baby. Not that I wasn't excited before, but it was sometimes a little overshadowed with a bit of anxiety. Things were very hard when the munchkin was born. Ofcourse it's all fleeting and it was totally worth every second, but still, I have fears of having a replay. Every baby is different, just like every pregnancy is different, so I am hopeful and excited that things will be different all around. I guess only time will tell.

We have started talking about baby names alot more, so that's been fun. If we are having a boy, I think we already have a name. It's the same name we have always wanted. You never know though, we could still change our minds.

Only a little over four more weeks till we find out the sex of this little baby boy or girl!

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling (processed sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free options)

2012-01-18T09:32:00.004-06:00

I love most things pumpkin.

This weekend I was on a quest to make a yummy pumpkin muffin. At the last minute, I decided to put a little surprise inside with a cream cheese filling. I was making 24 so I could freeze half for later, but after the cream cheese filling idea, I wasn't sure how well they would fair in the freezer. Anyone know how well cream cheese stuff does in the freezer? So we are eating lots of muffins this week and passing them out to anyone who stops by.

I was pretty proud of how these turned out.

Breaking Out of a Food Rut

2012-01-17T11:50:00.001-06:00

This past weekend was all about food. I was getting really bored with our meals lately. Not that I didn't still enjoy what we were eating, but things were getting a bit redundant. I realized I hadn't tried any new recipes in a while and vowed to start doing much more of that immediately! Friday, I made up a 2 week menu plan and picked out a bunch of new recipes to try! It was a mix of breakfast meals, dinners and treats. Thanks to pinterest, it's so much easier to keep track of this stuff now. Maybe now the poor binder in my kitchen will get a break from me always stuffing it with new recipes, when it's already ruined from having too many in it as it is.

Saturday morning, I made some pumpkin muffins. I pretty much made this one up and I was really happy with how they turned out. I will be posting the recipe in the next couple of days.

Saturday Morning Scenes (Yes I know it's Monday)

2012-01-16T11:14:00.002-06:00

On The weekends, the hubs and I take turns sleeping in. It's awesome to have one morning that I can sleep in as late as I want to (which usually ends up not being that late, but still I CAN if I want to, which is the nice part, especially while I am pregnant and more tired then usual).

The other great thing (maybe even greater really) about this, is that I wake up early with the munchkin on the other morning and we get to have some play time to ourselves. We get up, make breakfast, then we usually end up on the floor in the living room enjoying some kind of activity. The TV is never turned on. I take this time to totally concentrate on her and it's a very special time for me (and I like to think for her too).

These pictures were actually taken 2 Saturdays ago. One of her favorite toys right now is her duplo legos. It's amazing to me the stuff she comes up with. Maybe she will be an architect some day. I just can't believe sometimes how much I love this little girl.

Taco Bowls (Sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

2012-01-11T13:07:00.003-06:00

This is a super quick and easy way to get your taco fix. And if you or someone you are dining with would prefer their taco filling in a shell, this is perfect for that too. Yum!

We make this all the time and today someone asked me for the recipe. I realized I have never added it to my blog! I will add a picture the next time I make these.

Our Gluten Free Update and How this "Experiment" has Impacted our Lives So Far

2012-01-10T11:23:00.004-06:00

A little over a month ago, I decided that the munchkin and I were going to go gluten free. There were some good reasons why I thought it might be a good option for us. HERE is my original post and why I decided to try this.

I started logging updates in the beginning, but then Christmas and the festivities hit and I totally fell off the bandwagon. I was hoping to log some info as I went and then present it all together once we hit the one month mark (oops we missed that too). December 6th was our first day going completely gluten free and it has officially been one month and four days. I thought I would finally post an update. I've got some pretty amazing stuff to share!

Here is what I started to log during the first week...

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Cell Phone Photo Dump Update!

2012-01-09T14:51:00.000-06:00

I don't take pictures very often with my cell phone. They never look very good and I usually have my camera with me, but sometimes, it does come in handy. Here is a collection of pics I just pulled off of my camera dating back to last summer.

Sometimes, if I can't decide what to wear, my sisters might get pictures of me playing dress up so they can tell me what dress looks better. Below are some samples I sent to them right before a wedding. And yes, I do realize I kinda look like a hooker in the 2nd one. I actually ended up wearing the 3rd one to the ceremony which was outside and about 100 degrees. I was a hot sweaty mess by the time they said "I do." Afterwards I went home, freshened up and changed into the first one for the reception, which was thankfully indoors with air conditioning.

My 14 Week Pregnancy Update!

2012-01-06T14:02:00.002-06:00

Wow. 14 weeks. Already. Yesterday actually marked the day and that is when I took these pictures. I seriously can't believe I am already into my second trimester. Things are really flying by. The holidays probably helped with that. But other then not being able to drink any alcohol (and I have definitely noticed and missed the absence of wine) and being more tired then usual, I honestly haven't even felt like I am pregnant. At first as I was actually worried about it. The say that lots of morning sickness is a good sign and some people worry when you feel nothing at all. I was so relieved at that 9 week appointment when everything looked great on the ultrasound and then again at the 13 week appointment, when we could hear that heartbeat nice and strong. Now that I am getting more into the second trimester, I am relaxing more with it and I guess just considering myself extremely lucky. It's quite different then the first time around with the munchkin. She wasn't so easy on me and I could definitely tell for sure that I was pregnant.

The Munchkin is in a Big Girl Bed!

2012-01-05T11:55:00.003-06:00

We hadn't exactly planned on moving the munchkin to her new room yet. In fact, yesterday morning, it was still strictly her play room. We hadn't even purchased anything yet to decorate her new "Big Girl Room", which I still plan on doing in a woodland animals theme. But we have been talking about it for quite a while. We were planning on turning her room into the baby's room, leaving the crib and furniture for the new baby, and making her toy room her new room. My parents still had the twin beds from when we were little kids and we were going to be using one of those beds. The bed was at my dad's friends house and after about 3 months of waiting for it, hearing that we were getting it very soon, over and over again, we were getting a little frustrated.

Stacy, our sitter, messaged me yesterday saying she had been thinking about letting the munchkin sleep in her bed for her nap and no longing using the pack and play. I told her to "Go for it!"and that we had been wanting to move her to a real bed for some time now and that might even make the transition easier once we did. So she decided to go ahead and try it that day. Then I decided to look on Craig's list and see if I couldn't find her a little toddler bed. I didn't want to spend very much money at all. Hopefully we would still be getting the twin bed from my parents and if I found one that was nice enough, I could always resell it after we upgraded her again. I found a really nice one on CL. It was made of real wood and had a little drawer underneath. They were asking $85. I had already set a budget for $50, so I sent them an email and crossed my fingers. We went back and forth a bit and they eventually agreed to the $50.00. Yay!!!

So after dinner, we all climbed in the car. I had told the munchkin we were going to pick up her big girl bed and she couldn't have been more excited. She kept talking about it the whole way there. Once we were at the seller's home, we had to move her car seat to the window side from the middle in order to fold the other seat down to fit the bed inside. As I held the munchkin next to the car while Joe did the rearranging loaded everything up, she kept pointing to the bed, saying "My big girl bed! I'm going to sleep in that!" It was the cutest thing ever.

We originally planned on bringing the bed home and taking some time setting it up. Maybe letting her get used to the idea and try starting her off in it this weekend. We got home about 20 minutes before her bedtime and she just couldn't stop talking about her big girl bed and how she was going to sleep in it. She was just so excited and seemed so ready, that we decided to give it a go. We rearranged some things in her play room and set up the bed. We took the mattress that was already made with the sheets in her crib right off and placed it on the toddler bed. She climbed right in all excited and ready to go. She started saying "Put on my pajamas! Brush my teeth!" She was cracking me up.

Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics...

Notice the little Winnie the Pooh blanket? That was Joe's when he was a baby!

So we put on her PJ's, brushed her teeth and she ran straight to her new room and climbed into bed. About 8:15, I read her a book, tucked her in, shut off the light and left the room. I was still not sure how things were going to go. She sang and talked to herself for a little while. Then seemed to drift off. About 30 minutes in, we heard a loud thump! I ran in there and she was sitting up on her bed quietly crying. She told me she fell off of her bed and hurt her leg. I kissed her leg and tucked her back in and she went right back to sleep. About 9:45 we heard her crying. I think she woke up and forgot where she was. I went back into her room, gave her a hug and kiss and told I loved her and tucked her back in again. She sat back up and asked me for another hug. That pretty much melted my heart. Then she laid back down and went to sleep again. We didn't hear another peep from her all night.

This morning we actually had to wake her up for breakfast. She was sound asleep! So I would say that things went pretty darn good for our first night. I just can't believe what a big girl she is all of a sudden.

Now we just need to actually decorate her new room and get her some furniture in there. That will be a work in progress for the next few weeks. We are waiting to get our taxes back to to help with some of the funds. In the meantime, I think she will be perfectly happy as is.

I have a crush on Edward Edmonds.

2012-01-04T13:12:00.014-06:00

I was reading a post today on a blog that I sometimes follow concerning health and nutrition. The author was pissed off that his opinions and information were being taken out of context to help someone else's agenda. He was blogging about the other blogger's post and what he had written on their blog. I found his comments very amusing, and out of curiousity, I went to read the other blogger's original post that had stirred all of this up. I could see why he was pissed off.

But I won't get into all of that, this is not what this post is about.

I read down through all of the comments left on the page. Then I came across Edward Edmonds. I loved his comments so much that I had to follow the link to his website. It led me to a blank page. Boo. Then, I found a blog he had started about training for the 2016 olympics but never actually posted anything to it yet. I am now his only follower, just incase he does actually post something.

Which also means that if he sees that I am his new and only follower and follows that link to my blog, I am totally busted here. Oh well, I am gonna say it anyway...

I have a crush on Edward Edmonds.

I have no idea who he is really, other then what I have derived from my internet sluething, and yes I am a very happily married woman, BUT I absolutely adored his comments so much that I wish I could meet him. He summed up how I feel about the whole health food and nutrition debate so well, better then I ever could, that I instantly wanted him as my BFF.

I am going to copy and paste his comments below:

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Edward Edmonds said...

“I’ve consulted with Don in the past, I found his advice to be useful in some ways and in other ways not useful. But any advice is context sensitive. Not once did he cram a vegan/vegetarian philosophy down my throat. The fact still remains that you should eat what gives you the best well being. End of story.

Science at it’s present state can’t give us a definitive answer. If anything the only thing we’ve learned is that if you eat real fucking food that’s a good start. Whatever our thresholds are for shitty food varies from person to person. There is no getting around that, we are not blackboxes. Our self-preserving nature is inevitable, but if we spent time eating real food for the time being we could focus on doing cooler things with our intelligence like exploring space. Then when we actually know something about the human body we could start discussing whether or not eating this particular food or that is the fountain of youth. That’s a long way off. First we must preserve the future, once we do that we can preserve youth.

We forget in the detailed darkness of science that around the world diets are varied. There are some cultures that tend to be disease free and others that tend to suffer. Sometimes it seems the controlling factor is diet sometimes it doesn’t. But Price proved beyond a reasonable doubt (at least in my mind) that good health is beyond the realm of picking starch over fat. Price proved that it’s what’s in what you’re eating that is the governing paradigm.

A head start is to adopt the philosophy that if you eat a clean mixed including food from all sources your on the right track. If you adopt a philosophy of chugging cream all day long or eating spinach all day long is it not reasonable to suggest that some problems are going to arise? Good health rarely arises out of extremes. And even when a culture is able to thrive on an extreme diet, we have to remember that it might not necessarily represent the optimal solution, it might just be that it’s the optimal solution for the particular environment which allows sufficient reproduction. The idea of an “optimal solution” is negated by the fact that again around the world cultures eat diets of varying extremes and exhibit similar life expectancies.

Dr. Harris has a sensible approach to eating. No bullshit attached, sure his views on carbohydrate have changed over time, but so what, everybody’s views change over time as we search for some type of optimal solution and optimal advice. Duh.

What we do know is humans are dynamic creatures. I think it’s reasonable to suggest that at one point in time our diets were dynamic as well--their is no reason not to think so just like our environments were dynamic. I’m certain there were times where we had to survive eating vegetation and tubers just as I’m certain there were times that all that was available was animals. It was the act of survival that brought about the balance. Something we no longer have to do anymore, so we search for that balance, going from one way of eating to another way of eating. Don’t you think there is a reason for that? Don’t you think that there is a reason why as soon as us humans started settling down and getting habitual that disease started becoming a problem? We evolved for a dynamic changing environment, it’s clear, look how we populated the entire world like a goddamn virus. Look around is there any single multicelular species quite as successful as us? We humans as animals are a fucking evolutionary masterpiece. Now look at us. We are dropping dead because we are getting too clever for our own good. Our adaptability to varying environments that gave us the edge is changing, we are now a lazy sophisticated brainy species we adopt the environment to our needs now, and we’ve done it all so cleverly but we’ve forgotten the environment were we came from, now we must adapt to the clever environment we’ve created for ourselves or face destruction. Pretty simple shit. Don’t know how anybody reasonable person could miss that. Pass me two sticks, no pass me the lighter.

Would you pour fucking diesel into your gasoline engine? So why would you eat anything but real food? If you mixed a little bit of diesel into your gasoline would the car start. Sure would. Would it get you from point A to B? Sure would. Would your car last as long as if you just used gasoline? No. We are products of the environment. And unless Twinkies grow on trees then all we’ve ever eaten is real food. You eat real food you’ll be fine most of the time. Sure shit goes down. You’re an idiot if you think any one way of eating (besides eating real food and in a sensible way) is going to give you a 100% confidence level that you live a long healthy normal life. That’s life, it’s the lottery, some people hit the jackpot, eat shit all their lives and live to 110 years old. And some people get the shaft, eat seemingly well throughout their lives and drop dead. That’s life. There is no such thing as rocket fuel for humans. What is optimal is individual, you might fit into certain paradigms but you aren’t a machine where all you need is regular oil changes and gasoline. We aren’t “designed” that way. Would be pretty limiting.

I’m so sick of these stupid debates it does nothing for progress but highlight how incredibly fucktarded people are, real food isn’t going to kill you. And if you eat something and it gives you a headache, WTF? Don’t eat it. If you eat a peanut and you break out in lepersy... use your head.

Instead we should be looking at prime suspects like soy feeding your baby and eating Twinkies and jelly beans but instead we are fucking worried about eating green beans and rice. Perhaps if we learn those mechanisms that make eating 20 pounds of Twinkies and jelly beans a day kill us (besides the common sense part) it will give us some insight into how the human body works and down the road to finding something useful and practical to apply to our lives. Standard reverse engineering. In the end if that means for each green bean pod you eat shaves 1 second off your life, than so be it, we won’t eat green beans.

Back to Don. Don is a nice guy, if you read his wife’s blog you know that he cares and he works diligently in his own way to help at least those who he loves or care about. He’s got a degree in philosophy so of course he is dense. He does over analyze grammar and it often seems dishonest the way in which he does it. I see this often in people who’s blogs I’ve read for long periods of time where they are paradigm shifting. It’s classic of people who can never settle for “Well, that’s just the way it is.” People who are constantly searching and want to give the right answer to everybody. I’m sure that one day through his experiences of different extremes he’ll find the right balance. But I just wish Don, for the sake of his own dignity would be more honest about that search and what he is thinking.

If there is anything that we in this community have learned in the past few years is that eating real goddamn food will make the biggest difference for the most. Instead we are worried about legumes and “safe starches”... give me a fucking break. Is there anybody left on this goddamn planet with common sense?”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

REAL FOOD. That's what it's all about. My philosophy is if it comes from an animal or grows out of the ground (and in a NATURAL way), and doesn't have anything added to it that also doesn't come from an animal or grows out of the ground (and in a NATURAL way), then it's probably good for you. Otherwise, try to avoid it.

Incase you are super bored and really want to know, the original article I was reading can be round HERE. I then was curious about the blog he was referring to so I went to go read that article HERE, and that is where I found the above comments.

I also found THIS article about Edward with an interview on his views of barefoot funning and his training for the upcoming olympic trials.

Anyway, I just loved his comments and wanted to share. It's all about common sense and it's not near as difficult as some people make it out to be.

Our Visit to see Santa and Getting Ready for Christmas!

2011-12-16T14:06:00.001-06:00

Wednesday night, my sister Amy and her family joined us for a trip to see Santa! I actually wasn't going to take the Munchkin to see Santa this year at first. I figured she was too young to even care. We talk about Santa and everything coming up, but it's not like she really is that interested in him yet. Plus I absolutely hate the mall at christmas time. I try not to step foot in it at all any time after Thanksgiving. But then, Joe's brother told us about their trip to see Santa at Bass Pro and how nice it was. Alot less people and much more low key. Plus it was totally free, picture and all and they let you take pictures with your own camera! Yay!!

As soon as we walked into the store and over to the North Pole area, the girls were in awe. We all kinda were actually. Everything was so pretty. There were tons of decorations everywhere and they even had blue lights all over the ceiling to make it feel like we were at the North Pole (well sorta). As cool as all the lighting was, it made things a bit tricky for taking pictures.

Jeremy, Q, The Munchkin and Joe waiting in line to see Santa!

They had all sorts of games and things for the kids to do. There was a skee ball game, a shooting range game and big train set up. They also had lots of picnic tables set up through out the store with craft projects for the kids to do.

Me and the Munchkin getting ready to see Santa.

This was the top of the little house Santa was sitting infront of.

A kind stranger offered to take a pic of all of us.

The ceiling was really cool looking.

We had no idea how the girls were going to react to us putting them on Santa's lap. We kinda anticipated them freaking out a little bit. The loved him though! As we got closer to him in line they kept reaching out to him and calling his name. It was pretty funny.

The Munchkin sitting with Santa.

The Munchkin and Q with Santa

Here she must be telling Santa what she wants for Christmas.

They had a really nice carousel there too. The girls loved it!

Joe and the Munchkin

Amy and Q

I'm so glad we ended up taking her this year after all. She had so much fun. I am glad we had another option other then the mall as well.

Amy, Jeremy and Q came by my house right before we left to see Santa. We had been trying for a couple of weeks to get a decent family photo of us for our Christmas card and we weren't having any luck. So I set up the camera on the tripod and asked her to snap a few shots for us. She kept telling us that our feet were getting cut off... we thought she meant from the sides so we kept bringing our legs in closer. Really she meant from the bottom, and I guess she didn't realize all she had to do was tilt the camera down. We were in a huge hurry, so we just needed to get through it. Anyway, we ended up with a decent one, but Joe's positioning is super awkward. I also wish we had been more infront of the tree with less of my desk in the background.

I know I am being way too picky and no one gives a crap but me.

We took the pic Wednesday night. I needed the Christmas cards done and printed on Thursday so I could stuff the envelopes and address them all Thursday night, then mail them out today. I tried ordering them from an online place that I could pick them up in an hour, but I didn't like any of the templates. I wanted to crop off Joe's leg and the desk somehow in the background but leave the tree.... so I ended up having to design something for that, even though I had absolutely zero time to do it. I am not inlove with it, but under the circumstances, I am at peace with it. I printed them off at my work and they went in the mail today. Finally done with that... Yay!!

And the real ones do not say "the Munchkin", by the way.

This weekend, I hope to wrap all of the presents and finish up any last minute shopping. I still have so much to do. I have to make cookies, figure out what dishes I am making for Christmas Eve at my uncle's and Christmas day at my parents and then get all of the supplies for that, plus all of the other things I don't want to bore you with. I can't believe christmas is only 9 days away! So excited!!

Does anyone else get so silly about their Christmas cards or am I just a wierdo?

Homemade Pizza with Almond Flour Pizza Crust (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • GAPS)

2011-12-12T14:26:00.006-06:00

Who doesn't love pizza? Pizza definitely used to be one of the foods I ate the most. Plus, there isn't too many things you can order and have it delivered to your door in about an hour to eat for dinner. Talk about convenient. Once I did an overhaul on my diet though, commercial pizza had to go. I was so sad about it. For a long time, I just figured pizza was one of those things I just wouldn't be eating any more (Aside from that rare once in a while if I was not at home and gave in, but I would inevitably regret it, as my stomach wasn't used to it). Then I started to experiment a little with different types of crusts. You can find my flax seed version HERE from about a year and a half ago. It's pretty good (I actually loved it at the time, having not had pizza in forever), but it definitely wasn't anywhere close to the pizza I missed and my husband really wanted nothing to do with it. So for a long time, I had given up and just considered pizza to be something I would just have to miss. Boo.

I've learned a few tricks since then though. I decided to give it another go and started experimenting with it again. I looked up a few recipes for pizza crust and found some that I liked. I tried out a couple of them and with some minor alterations I came up with a crust that I love. What was even more shocking was that my husband likes it too. Infact, when I told him I was making it again tonight, he was pretty pumped about it. When I added that I would be making it with pepperoni and homemade sausage, he got even more excited!

In a bowl, I whisked together some almond flour, parmesan cheese, salt, baking soda, parsley and garlic powder.

In another bowl, I whisked together an egg with a cup of sour cream (you would use yogurt here to make it gaps friendly).

Then I poured my wet ingredients into my bowl with my dry ingredients and mixed them together.

I mixed them together until it formed a dough (kinda). This is some sticky stuff.

Divide your dough in half and spread it out onto parchment paper on two cookie sheets. I'm gonna be honest here, this "dough" is not really all that fun to work with. With the advice of the original recipe, I used a spatula to spread it around. If you try to use your fingers or anything else, it just gets all globby and sticky and if you try to use wax paper or anything else on the top of it so you can roll it out, then it just clings to it when you try to pull it off. With a little patience though, you can use the spatula to spread it around. It won't be perfect. I popped it into the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Then I whipped up some pizza sauce. You can make your sauce however you want or use some pre-made sauce. To make mine, I used Eden Organic Crushed Tomatoes, and added some garlic, minced onion, salt, pepper, oregano and parsley. I just dumped it all in until I liked how it tasted.

I then chopped up all my veggies. I used black olives, white onions, green peppers and mushrooms.

I sauteed my mushrooms in some butter and then set them aside to cool.

I found some uncured pepperoni at the grocery store the other day. I was pretty excited. We have been eating Applegate's lunch meats for quite some time now, but I never even knew they made pepperoni. No preservatives or nitrates added, no antibiotics used and the animals are raised humanely. I really like this company. The pepperoni circles are really big though, so I cut them up into fourths.

Once my pizza crusts were nice and toasty, I pulled them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

Then I added the sauce.

Then I added some cheese. I used a mix of parmesan, romano, fontina and provolone cheeses.

Then I piled on my ingredients. One pizza was half veggie and half pepperoni and sausage. The other pizza was a supreme with meats and veggies.

I had made sausage earlier that day. I made about 4 lbs worth and put most of it in the freezer to use as needed. I cooked up a few patties to crumble and use on top of our pizza. If you have ever considered making your own sausage, you should try this recipe. It's honestly some of the best sausage I have ever tried and it's so much cheaper (and healthier) then buying the pre-made stuff. Plus it's pretty awesome to have it on hand. You just pull out a few and can throw them on the stove top while still frozen and cook them in about ten minutes.

Another look at the pile of yummy ingredients...

Then I added another layer of cheese.

I put them back in the oven for about 10 minutes until everything was all hot and melty.

I am just so excited to have figured out a pizza recipe that I really like AND that the munchkin and my super picky husband enjoys.

Here's a close up so you can see how the crust turned out. The thinner you spread it, the better. It has kind of a mealy texture, like a chef boyardee pizza (if you ever made one of those). My mom used to make them all the time when we were kids. The crust holds together fantastically and crisps up really nice.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb • GAPS)

Pizza Crust Ingredients:

3 C Almond Flour
1/2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (omit for GAPS)
1 C Sour Cream (or 1 C yogurt for GAPS friendly version)
1 Egg

Toppings (Ideas)

Pizza Sauce (tomato sauce, garlic powder, minced onion, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley)
Shredded Cheese of your choice
Sausage
Pepperoni
Onions
Black olives
Green peppers
Mushrooms
Oregano
Parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together Dry Ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream (or yogurt) with an egg.
Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix together with a hand mixer until well combined.
Spread two pieces of parchment paper out onto two cookie sheets.
Divide dough in half and put one half on each cookie sheet.
Spread dough carefully with spatula. Its very sticky and more like a batter, so just take your time and spread a thin, even layer out over the cookie sheet.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until it has turned very light brown all over and the edges are nice and crispy.
Spread tomato sauce over crusts.
Add thin layer of cheese.
Layer desired toppings over cheese.
Add another layer of cheese.
Sprinkle with any additional seasonings you may like, I like to add more oregano and parsley.
Return to oven and cook for another 10 minutes or so until everything is melted and hot.
Enjoy!

If you do make this pizza, please let me know how it turned out and what you think!

I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite topping combinations??

This is a part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday and the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania Carnival and Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday.

Silent Sundays: Play-Doh Edition

2011-12-11T20:09:00.001-06:00

Bring on the Pregnancy Symptoms and Let the Bitching Commence

2011-12-09T13:23:00.005-06:00

I am going to start right off the bat with a little bitching today.... just to get it out of the way. Besides, I haven't bitched enough in a while on here, so I am probably long overdue anyway.

How can my boobs be so much bigger already?! I am only 10 wks along and have already gained 5 lbs and I swear, I think it's all in my boobs. They are sore and heavy and much much fuller. I wasn't quite ready for that yet.

With the munchkin, my boobs became insanely out of control. When I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant, they started leaking already. When I was nursing, they were so full of milk that they were constantly leaking all over everything. My husband called them machine guns because they would spray my poor baby all over her face whenever she would pull away. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't ever get them to calm down either. I didn't want to complain too much, because I think that having an under supply would be even worse. Maybe not though. But seriously, I was changing my nursing pads every couple of hours on some days. And this was the entire time I was nursing. So I guess it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, that as soon as I became pregnant again, my boobies immediately sprang into action!

I think the exhaustion is my least favorite part. I will sit at my desk and stare at my computer screen, then waves will wash over me, where I actually think I fall asleep for a second. It takes everything I can to stay awake and aware of what is going on. All I want to do when I get home from work is take a nap. Ofcourse, I have to make dinner before Joe leaves for school and then once he's gone, it probably wouldn't be the best idea to pass out and leave a two year old to wander the house oh her own.

I do know people that, while pregnant, have closed off a room, baby proofed it, then fallen asleep while their toddler plays around them. Not that I agree or disagree with this practice, but no way would the munchkin let me get away with that anyway. If I even close my eyes for a second, just to "rest" them, she is literally in my face yelling "wake up"! Even if she's in another room, she knows instantly, and it's her mission to make sure that I don't catch any sleep while on the job.

And ofcourse, there is the famous "Preggo Brain". That has kicked in full force. We actually had our Parents as Teachers lady come to our house on Wednesday evening and I had completely forgotten we had an appointment with her, even though I had just seen it on the calendar a few days prior. Thank goodness we just so happened to be just sitting around doing absolutely nothing. I heard the knock on the door and opened it up. We had only actually met with this lady one time before, so when I first opened the door I had no idea who she was. I just said "Hi" and stood there (looking confused I'm sure). She said, "Oh no, did you forget that I am coming?". Suddenly it hit me and I responded, "No ofcourse not, we are all ready for you". I am not sure if she was buying it or not, I gave Joe the "Holy effing oops" look as she walked into the kitchen.

Other then my boob situation and feeling like I am sleep walking all day, I actually feel pretty amazing really. I think it has alot to do with my diet and my pregnancy supplements. Getting the right nutrients and everything you need will help alot with general nausea and how you feel while pregnant, or so I've read. It makes sense, so I have a pretty good feeling that that is the difference between this time and the last time. Or maybe its pure coincidence.

If anyone is curious, here are the pills I am currently popping...

Prenatal Vitamins - I like that these are organic and from whole foods and have no wierd additives like some other prenatals (artificial flavors, colors or preservatives).
Wholemega Prenatal - For DHA, EPA and AA and other helpful omegas.
Probiotics - To keep that digestive system running smoothly, which benefits your whole system. This also really helps with that pesky constipation situation that pregnancy can cause for many woman.

And I also found this stuff, which I love!
Ginger Honey Tonic - I've been adding this to my water here and there for a quick pick me up. I also like to lick it right off the spoon. It's yum!

So that is what I have been taking and it seems to be keeping the general feelings of crappiness at bay. And as much as I complain about being tired, I think I was actually more tired when pregnant with the munchkin, but who knows for sure, that was a while ago. I do recall almost falling asleep at the wheel driving home from work in my first pregnancy. And more then once. It was scary! I would also get car sick all the time. I have none of that yet. Knock on wood.

Tonight, Joe is taking the munchkin to his mom's house for dinner. I am going straight home from work and taking a LONG nap. Then after the munchkin gets home, we hang out for a while and then after she goes to bed, I am going to see Breaking Dawn with my girl Michele. I am so excited about it too and I don't care how dorky that may or may not be!

And for fun, I went back and read some blogs from when I was about this far along with the munchkin. This HERE is the second post I ever wrote on this blog! I am pretty much bitching about the same stuff as far as how I felt. Funny how so many other things have changed since then.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Almond Flour Tortillas / Crepes (processed sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • GAPS)

2011-12-08T09:59:00.004-06:00

Last night for dinner, I made chicken enchiladas. I had pre-made a bunch of filling ahead of time and taken out a bag to thaw in the morning. When I got home from work, I started making the tortillas. They are actually more like crepes, but they work just fine for either purpose. After I finished assembling all of the enchiladas, I had two tortillas/crepes left. I hate wasting anything, so this morning for breakfast, I made these. Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics...

I whipped up some heavy cream with vanilla extract and stevia and sliced some strawberries for the filling and for the top. Oh ma gosh. They were delicious. Maybe a little too sweet for breakfast, as I am more of a savory type in the morning. I think they would have been even better with bacon in them or crumbled over the type. Or maybe if I had only eaten one as a companion to something else, like sausage or something. I do not have much experience with crepes for breakfast, plus I had to work with what I had. Any suggestions for fillings so I could have made these even better? As is, they were yum and made me feel a little naughty this morning like I was having dessert for my breakfast.

Almond Flour Tortillas / Crepes

processed sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • GAPS

Ingredients

5 whole eggs, beaten
1/2 C Almond Flour
Pinch of Sea Salt
2 tsp Raw Honey for sweeter crepes (optional)
Herbs and Seasonings for a more savory tortilla (optional)
Butter or Coconut oil for pan

Directions

In a medium bowl, scramble eggs, then add almond flour, and additional ingredients of choice.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium low heat. Butter skillet (or use coconut oil).
Pour 1/4 Cup of the batter into the center of the skillet and immediately tilt and swirl the skillet around to spread a thin, even layer.
Cook 2-3 minutes on each side until lightly browned.

Makes 6-7 crepes

You can find the original recipe that I used here. I changed it up a little bit, and the original measurements have to be off, cuz if you used 1/3 cup of the batter, no way are you gonna get 6-8 crepes. Or maybe I am crazy. Also, I think switching it to 1/4 cup of the batter works better for tortillas as they taste less eggy and are thinner so your enchiladas don’t taste like tex mex omelettes (Joe’s description of an earlier batch). Also, add the honey for crepes, or they can be more savory and you can add in some herbs and spices for tortillas.

And while we are sharing crappy cell phone pics, here’s a pic of my lunch. I found this on my phone from a couple of weeks ago while I was pulling off the pics I took this morning of the crepes. Half eaten, leftover chicken enchiladas heated up in my toaster oven at work. YUM.

Here’s the recipe I usually start with and use for the filling. I leave out the corn though and use precooked, shredded chicken (they say you can use it from a can, I don’t think that is so much a good idea). The recipe is pretty versatile and you can add or remove whatever you want. I also like to atleast double it and freeze some for later. Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

A More In Depth View of the Little Munchkin and Why We Eat the Way We Do.

2011-12-06T14:56:00.000-06:00

This post is going to be long. I haven't talked much about any of this on my blog before, and am getting ready to try something new out, so I'd like to have it chronicled a little more here. For myself, but also for anyone else that it might in some way help. Or even maybe it will sound familiar to someone else and they could offer me some insight too.

Since the munchkin was born, I have always noticed that there were things that she did that were a little out of the ordinary. There was the obvious acid reflux issues that my poor baby suffered from since she was an infant up until I started making all of her food from scratch and being super picky about every single thing that went into her mouth.

The first 6 months after the munchkin was born was very isolating. I didn't feel like anyone else could understand or relate to what we were going through. If she was awake, she was usually screaming. I was sleep deprived and so was she and my husband. We also had lost our home and were living in a tiny, claustrophobic condo, farther away from our friends and family then we were used to. We never wanted to go anywhere, because we knew we would have to turn around and leave anyway. Everyone always asked why we didn't want to come, why we couldn't miss her nap, why we couldn't keep her up later past her bed time. It was frustrating to say the least. Even when we tried to explain, no one ever really understood. Our marriage definitely took a beating and even a couple of my friends turned their back on me.

If only I knew then what I know now. I truly believe that all over her reflux issues were directly related to my diet while I was pregnant and while I was nursing. Clearly the same diet might not cause issues for other people's babies. But it did for mine. I knew nothing about health or nutrition and it wasn't anything I was concerned about. It wasn't until I was forced to learn more, that I realized how important it really was. She had already been eating solids for a while now, when I really started to get a grasp on how important of a role diet could be playing with her reflux and mood issues. I started making all of her food from scratch. Nothing from boxes or cans, nothing with preservatives. Mostly everything was organic and all of our beef was now from pastured, grassfed cows. I cut out all sugar completely, with the exception of raw honey. The only foods she ate for the most part, either came from an animal or grew out of the ground.

Immediately, her reflux issues got better. Then quickly, they were completely gone. We could finally take her off of her medicine. She was sleeping better through the night. She was napping better. She was calmer in general and happier. It was such a huge relief. I was feeling better too. The weight I had worked really hard to finally lose was staying off easily (for the first time in my life), my joint and back problems started to go away and my digestive system was working alot better too.

I could go on and on, but since making such a huge transformation in my family's eating habits and having it go on for almost two years now, it is by far the best decision I have ever made for us. It's frustrating sometimes, in today's society, and having to explain to people all of the time why we eat the way we do. It also requires more work and preparation, but the pros (for us) clearly outweigh the cons.

Then we started noticing other things, like the munchkin's sensitivity towards other peoples feelings (even people on tv). We had to be careful how we would inform her that she was doing something wrong. If we were too harsh she would get so upset. Big crocodile tears would start rolling down her face and you could really tell that her feelings were deeply hurt. If she saw other people upset, she would immediately become upset herself. I remember once we were watching fantasia together and once Mickey was put into jail and started crying, she just about lost her mind. She turned to me, huge tears rolling down her face, and said, "Mickey is crying, why is he sad?"

She can also become overstimulated very easily. After her 2nd birthday party, we decided that we were no longer going to have large parties to celebrate her birthday. We invited all of our close friends, family and everyone's children. She was such a nervous wreck the entire time. She wanted either Joe or I to hold her constantly or else she would be crying. I think it was more having all of the other kids over and playing with her toys and touching all of her stuff. Especially the boys. They were pretty aggressive with her things, throwing them on the floor and pulling things apart. I think this really stressed her out and made her pretty upset.

She is really particular about her stuff. She likes certain things in their place and when they are moved, she notices write away. And until they are returned, she is not a happy camper. When she saw her new kitchen set that we had gotten her for her birthday for the first time, Joe had placed a spatula, a spoon and an oven mitt from the little hooks above the stove. When she walked into her play room the next day, she immediately noticed they were in a different spot and had to put them back right away.

She also likes her routine and things to stay in the same order. Each night, we put on our PJ's, brush her teeth, read a book then go to bed. If we even attempt to do any of these things out of order, she will let you know. And not very calmly. Probably alot of kids like to keep things in order at their bed time routines, but this is with every thing else too. If we are heading out the door and Joe grabs our diaper bag instead of me, she will notice immediately and say, "No! Mommy do it!", because I am the one who usually carries it. She needs to know that things change and we sometimes do things differently, so we will say something along the lines of, "Daddy is helping mommy and is going to carry it for me this time".

Usually Joe takes her to the sitter in the mornings, but every rare once in a while (like today), I will take her. I have to prep her ahead of time, so there are no surprises and she doesn't get upset about the break in the routine. As soon as I walked into her room this morning to get her out of bed, I told her good morning, and then started talking about how daddy was out of town still and that I would be taking her to Stacy's house today. If we talk to her about everything and let her know what's going on and what is changing ahead of time, then she is adjusts a little easier. It's the surprises she doesn't like at all.

When I pick her up from the sitter, she is usually in their family room and waves to me through the window as I walk up to the front door. If she is in the living room, and doesn't see me coming, and I walk into the front door, then she will get really upset and start crying and pointing to the window because she didn't see me coming and wave to me first.

The munchkin is an amazing child. I would hate to make her out like she has all of these issues or want to sound like I am complaining about her. She is amazingly smart. Her speech, along with many other things, are actually advanced for her age. She is loving and sweet and so much fun. She melts my heart and makes me feel like the luckiest person alive every single day. I also realize that in the grand scheme of things, none of this is awful.

But still, there are some things that give me pause. You might remember our bathing routine situation a while back when she suddenly became deathly afraid of taking baths. Thank goodness that has gotten better, but it definitely took some time and some convincing. She will still look at the drain occasionally and start to say the word "scared" and tremble a little.

I found a website called The Highly Sensitive Person. It had some really interesting information. The author actually wrote a book, called the Highly Sensitive Child. I ordered it. Alot of it sounded like the munchkin actually, but alot of it didn't. Still some of the advice given in the book I have actually implemented with some success. Alot of it, I think could be implemented though for any child with some success. Although I do consider the munchkin to be very sensitive, I am not quite sure that she is "highly sensitive" according to their definition.

Of course some days are better then others. Some days you would never even know she has any of these reactions on other days. Something will happen, I will wait for it, then nothing.... she will brush it right off, like its no big deal at all. Then there are days like yesterday. When I picked her up from the sitter she was still sleeping. I went in to wake her up and she became immediately upset. I scooped her up and gave her extra hugs and kisses. She just kept sobbing and looking at me with big tears in her eyes. She was so sad, but she had no idea why. She was like that all the way home.

Once we got home I asked her if she wanted to make some cupcakes and she started to lighten up a little. She would give me some heavy sighs here and there, but she was distracted enough by making the cupcakes to be able to move on eventually. By the time we got them into the oven she was feeling a little better. Once they were out and cooling, I packed her into the car so we could go pick up some dinner from Moe's Southwest Grill.

On a side note, this place is awesome! Their steak is from grassfed cows. I get the steak fajita (hold the tortilla), then an extra side of steak. The munchkin and I will split up the steak and veggies and put some cheese and sour cream on the top and its a fantastic easy meal for us when we are in a pinch.

So while we were at Moe's, we ordered our food and as we were leaving, she had another pretty bad melt down because she wanted to stay and eat her food there. I really don't think it was so much that she would rather eat there, but that she thought we were, and didn't like not knowing what was going on. I told her we had to go home and eat because they didn't have any milk there. She thought about that for a minute and then decided to let it go. Whew.

It was one thing after another the entire evening. Anything and everything was setting her off. And in a big way.

After I put her to bed, I started thinking about it alot. Over Thanksgiving weekend she was a madwoman as well. Lots of breaks in her routine, missing a nap on Saturday and all of the foods she wasn't used to eating could have all been contributing culprits. But I have been noticing more and more lately, that when she does eat certain meals out of the ordinary, she can have some pretty crazy behavior issues result from it. Yesterday for lunch, I had sent spaghetti with whole wheat pasta. We rarely ever have any wheat. We usually stick to proteins, veggies, fruits and healthy fats. But it's not something that I was cutting out all the time. I didn't feel that it had any health benefit and I knew it caused me to gain weight, so it just wasn't something I usually incorporated.

I realize that kids are not going to behave perfectly all of the time, nor do I expect the munchkin too. But when she is looking at me with confusion and panic and is crying and sobbing and can not even talk to me about what is going on, because she has no idea herself, then something is wrong. When she can't seem to control her reactions to things or calm herself down, this just doesn't seem right to me.

I have been doing alot more research lately on gluten and the problems it can cause, with a focus on children. I am going to try to cut out all gluten and processed sugar from her diet completely and strictly for 6 months and see what effect, if any, it will have on her. This also means, I will be cutting it completely out of mine as well. If she does have a sensitivity to gluten, it might be really hard to tell with her since we so rarely give it to her. But they say even small amounts can cause problems in many kids (studies show 40% or more of the population is suffering from gluten problems and some say much more then that) It will be interesting to see if it plays any role in the things we have been having trouble with. It will also be interesting to see if makes any difference for me as well (I have a pretty strong feeling that I have some acne related issues for sure).

Luckily this isn't going to affect our daily routine in an extreme way. I already bake gluten free, using mostly almond or coconut flour, and use only raw honey and stevia as a sweetener, but we do have exceptions here and there. And, I am usually more lenient when we are at a friend or family members house. I do make spaghetti every few weeks or so with whole wheat pasta. These are the things we will be eliminating completely. I am also going to really miss my Trader Joe's sprouted whole wheat bread in the morning with breakfast.

It will be an interesting experiment though and at least I will know either way if it is having any effects on us.

Wish me luck!

Does anyone else have any other thoughts or stories to share that might relate?

A Long Overdue Update and Some Exciting News!!

2011-12-05T10:04:00.006-06:00

I've been completely MIA from my blog. Alot has happened in the past few months and unfortunately, my blog always ends up taking the back seat when the rest of my life is crazy. Which is really unfortunate, because that is when I have the most to talk about. Then, by the time I have a chance to even think about posting an update, so much has happened, that I have no idea where to begin.

Before my disappearance, you may have noticed I was posting more pictures that I had taken for friends and family members. So many people were passing my name along and asking me to take their pictures, I decided to go ahead and officially start up a photography business. The plan was already in place to start up one eventually, but I hadn't planned on starting one quite yet. It all happened really fast, and was keeping my extremely busy. Especially for the month of October, when I was offering a special that was pretty much half of what I would normally charge. It was great for building up my portfolio, getting more experience and getting my name out there, but it sure was alot of work! It was really great to make some extra money too, even if it was all going towards paying for my equipment. You gotta start somewhere though! Not only was I super busy with the sessions, but I was also working really hard to get my website up and running, all of my forms and documents complete, along with all of my paperwork for starting a new business and getting your taxes set up. That was quite a project in itself.

Joe and I have also been working on baby number #2. I have referenced here and there that we were hoping to add another member to our family some time in the near future. We actually started "trying" during the summer. We were very lucky when we decided we wanted to get pregnant with the munchkin. It only took us the first month and even though I knew that wasn't typical, I was really hoping the same thing would happen for us again this time. I was even naive enough to plan out exactly when I wanted the baby's birthday to be and start the process exactly 10 mos before that. As if all of the stars were going to align and fall into place perfectly not only once, but twice.

Things didn't go exactly as we had hoped. After the first month, I decided to try to pay attention to when I might be ovulating. I was using Baby Center's Ovulation Calculater. You know, super scientific stuff. That didn't seem to be doing much good either, but I wasn't quite ready to start with the ovulation test kits and all that stuff. We decided that we would wait till we had been trying for atleast 6 months before we started going there.

Then in October, we had a little bump in the road when I somehow ended up getting.... wait for it... Toxic Shock Syndrome! I am not quite sure how it happened. I have a theory and it does involve a tampon, but if I knew for sure how it had happened then most likely it wouldn't have happened in the first place. I won't go into all of the details, but luckily, I was aware of it and was already concerned about the possibility, so when the symptoms came on, I took them seriously.

I woke up that morning with an achy feeling all over my body. Almost like I was getting the flu. My muscles were really sore and my whole body was exhausted and tender. I went to work, hoping things would get better. Around lunch time, I started getting all itchy and then realized I was breaking out in hives or some kind of rash on my stomach and my arms. I started to get a headache. As I was leaving work to pick up the munchkin, I started feeling even worse. I called my sister and told her to look up the symptoms of toxic shock syndrome. She googled it while I was on the phone. Sure enough, they were very similar to what was going on with me. I hadn't developed a fever yet, which was one of the big ones, so I decided to not get too freaked out yet. Of course, that was easier said then done.

After we got home, I headed straight for the couch. Luckily Joe didn't have class that night, so he took over with dinner and everything else while I laid around. I was so exhausted and couldn't do anything. Then I started to feel really hot and I had Joe take my temperature. Sure enough I was developing a fever. I officially started freaking out. We called my dad and he came up to hang out while the munchkin was sleeping so that Joe could take me to the ER. Anyway, long story short, it was too early for any of the tests to prove that I did, in fact, have TSS, but they did show that it wasn't anything else that they tested for, including the flu. I was showing all of the developing signs and luckily it was so early that if I did in fact have it, it hadn't spread to my organs and started causing them to fail yet. The ER doc gave me a prescription for some really strong antibiotics specifically for TSS and sent me home. I started on them right away and for the next few days I was pretty much a zombie. It was awful!

I started feeling much better after a couple of days. I hate taking antibiotics though, and for good reason. They always seem to cause another problem somewhere else, and if your not careful, they can almost start a domino effect, causing you to have to take meds for something else, and so on. As much as I hate taking them though, there are instances where they are necessary. I would consider TSS to be one of those times. Instead of heading back to a doctor for more meds for another problem, I just doubled up on my probiotics and yogurt and crossed my fingers. After about a week, everything seemed to be back to normal. Whew.

Ofcourse, all of this took place while I was ovulating, so we had no hopes for getting pregnant that month either. As we were nearing the end of October, and the halloween parties that would take place that weekend, I woke up on a Friday morning and something told me to take a test. I wasn't sure why. I wasn't late yet, but for some reason I had a really strong feeling that I should take one. So I headed into the bathroom, unwrapped a test and took it. Within a few seconds, a second line appeared.

I was pregnant!

I ran over to wake up Joe. I shook him around and said, "Joe! Joe, we're pregnant!" His eyes flew open. "What?! Are you sure? How??" He was pretty surprised too. And I am still not quite sure how it happened. Obviously I was ovulating much earlier then the Baby Center predicted.

November has been kind of a fog. Just like when I was pregnant with the munchkin, my first trimester is proving to be just as exhausting. I am very fortunate to not have any morning sickness or nausea, but the simple task of keeping my eyes open is proving to be extremely difficult. Atleast when I was pregnant with the munchkin, I could come home and take a nap whenever I wanted. You just can't do this when you are pregnant with a toddler. And with Joe going to school in the evenings, it makes it even more impossible to catch some zzzz's. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I will get some energy back, as I enter my second trimester.

I will be 10 weeks along this Thursday and my due date is July 5th! I realize that many people choose to wait atleast 12 or 13 weeks before they announce their pregnancy. I have already told my closest friends and family and these people read my blog. And for everyone else that reads my blog, well if anything were to happen, I'd be talking about that here too. If you have been reading my blog for a long time, then you may know that my first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. It was a very dark and sad time for me, and having the love and support of those around me was what I needed the most. Its a very personal decision, but for me, it doesn't make sense to keep everything top secret until after the first trimester.

We had our first ultrasound last Wednesday. Our little nugget had a heart rate of 182 and everything looked wonderful.

I originally started this blog (even though it has gone in many different directions as well) to journal my life as a mother. So that my children could one day look back and see, from their mother's point of view, how much they were loved and how life unfolded for them and our family in the beginning. I am so excited to start the next chapter!

Chili (sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

2011-11-29T13:32:00.000-06:00

Winter is almost here. Fall seems to barely be hanging in there. Sigh. One of my favorite meals when the weather turns cold is chili. I made up my first batch of the season when I did my freezer cooking for the month a couple of months ago and now I am going to share the recipe with you.

Please make this chili! I promise you won't regret it. I found a chili recipe online a while back that I had started from. I swapped out all of the canned items for fresh and changed around a few other things to suit our tastes.

I am in love. My husband and the munchkin both give it a BIG thumbs up. I really hope you do too!

CHILI

( sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

Ingredients:

1 lb Grassfed Ground Beef
2 White Onions, diced
1 Green Pepper, diced
1 Aneheim Pepper, diced
1/2 Jalapeno Pepper, finely chopped
14 oz Chopped Tomatoes, I use 1/2 of a carton of Pomi chopped tomatoes
16 oz Tomato Sauce, I use Eden Crushed Tomatoes in a Jar
2 Tb Cumin
2 Tb Chili Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 C Water
14 oz Kidney Beans (you can use canned, but preferably dry beans soaked overnight)
14 oz Black Beans (you can use canned, but preferably dry beans soaked overnight)

Directions:

In a medium stock pot, brown beef with onions and peppers.
Once cooked, strain the juices.
Return to pot, add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasonings and water.
Add the beans and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Topping Ideas:

Shredded Cheese
Avocado
Diced Red or White Onions
Green Onions
Sour Cream

You can serve immediately with toppings or save in a freezer proof ziploc bag or container in the freezer. It's perfect for reheating later and serving. I like to get out the giant stock pot and make lots of extra so we can eat some right away and freeze the rest for more meals later.

If you try it, please let me know what you think!

Monica and Shaun's Maternity Shoot

2011-10-02T16:24:00.001-05:00

This weekend I had the honor of shooting some maternity photos for Monica and Shaun and their little mister. When I met my husband, Shaun was actually one of his roommates. After I moved in, the three of us all lived together for a while, before Joe sold the house so that we could buy a new one together. A couple years after I met Joe, Shaun met Monica and I loved her instantly. She's a very sweet and beautiful woman and I think you can really see that in the pictures.

It was an amazing fall day. We headed to a local park where there were plenty of great spots to shoot. I had such a great time taking these pictures! Here are some of my favorites.

Mashed Cauliflower - Revisited (sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

2011-09-28T10:24:00.000-05:00

I actually posted my original version of this recipe HERE a while back. And although it still turns out great this way, I have actually figured out an easier and quicker way to make it that I like even more.

Lately, more of my family members and friends are starting to eat healthier. This is awesome because it makes it so much easier when you have other people to talk to and share food, ideas and recipes with. One friend in particular, actually my husbands BFF, has really jumped on the band wagon with me. He's lost a ton of weight and is feeling so much better. He's been making all of the meals for his wife and two children. It's been so great, because he has started to give me some ideas and share some of his recipes with me. He's tried quite a few of my recipes and have found ways to tweak some of them to better suit his tastes. It's been awesome!

He took my previous mashed cauliflower recipe and ran it through his blender and skipped the baking part. He said it looked and tasted more like real mashed potatoes. I have been using my new immersion blender for everything, so I thought, why not try it with that? So I did, and I LOVED the results. They really looked and had the same consistency of mashed potatoes! My husband really really enjoyed them, and he is usually just so-so about them. Ofcourse the munchkin tore them up having three helpings. I will definitely make them this way from now on. Plus you cut out the cooking time in the oven and you get to enjoy them faster!

Mashed Cauliflower
sugar free • gluten free • low carb

Ingredients

2 Large Heads of Cauliflower
1/2 C Fresh Grated Cheese of choice (I like cheddar best, but you can mix them up)
4 oz cream cheese
4 Tb butter
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder (or more)
1/2 tsp Onion Powder (or more)
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp mustard
Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste
Sea Salt, to taste

The amounts for seasonings are just estimates. I just take everything and dump it in, to be honest, but this should be pretty close and you can play around with what you like)

Directions

Steam Cauliflower (either in a steamer or on the stove in a large stock pot with about an inch of simmering water on the bottom of the pot) for about 25-35 minutes until they are VERY soft.
Drain water in a strainer over the sink, shake to release as much water as you can.
Place in large mixing bowl with cheese, cream cheese, butter and seasonings and mix until very well combined with a hand mixer. It should resemble mashed potatoes.
Once you have everything mixed pretty well, use an immersion blender and mix until everything is really creamy like mashed potatoes.
Taste and add seasonings as desired. I usually ad more salt and garlic powder.
Enjoy!

My New Pots and Pans!

2011-09-26T13:34:00.001-05:00

My husband is so awesomely wonderful.

I came home from work last Thursday and saw this sitting on the counter.

Joe earns points through his job for growth and different things, which he can use to acquire cool fun stuff. A couple of months ago, he got himself an ipod touch. It's one of the few perks of his job. He works alot of hours and does alot of extra stuff and for not alot of compensation. They send him out of town now and then too and he doesn't even get paid for it! The ipod was the first and only thing he had gotten so far with his points. He has been there for over five years and it took forever to build up enough points to get anything really cool.

But I digress....

I have been wanting and drooling over a new stainless steel pots and pans set for forever. The set I had was a calphalon nonstick set that I had gotten many many moons ago. It was still working for me though, and as much as I wanted a stainless steel set, it was definitely not something we had room for in the budget.

But then my husband found out that he could get me a set through his company points! He still had alot left over after the ipod and waited a couple of months to have enough more for the pots and pans.

He also ordered me a large stainless steel 4 piece pot/steamer/pasta set that comes with a 8 quart stock pot that arrived over the weekend.

Oh how I adore that man.

I took them all out of the package and admired them. I thought they were beautiful! I couldn't believe I was so excited over pots and pans. I was smitten.

Since then I have cooked burgers, eggs and reheated chili. They are amazing and I am giddy.

My Toddler Suddenly Screams and is Scared of the Bath!

2011-09-23T12:52:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Joe was giving the munchkin a bath. Towards the end of the bath, he said she looked down towards the deep end, and then suddenly became really scared. She leaped out of the bathtub, totally freaking out and jumped into Joe's arms. Kids do wierd stuff sometimes, so Joe didn't think too much of it. She was already cleaned and rinsed, so he just dried her off and moved on.

Two night lights later, we were giving her another bath. As soon as she got in, she started crying and and getting really upset, saying "I don't want this, I don't want this!" I stripped down and got into the tub with her. She was still crying and very upset, but it was somewhat better. We quickly cleaned her up and got her out. Maybe she was just really tired and crabby?

Then came the next bath night. As soon as Joe said the word bath, she started shaking and crying and yelling "I don't want this!", over and over again. I took her into her bedroom and started to strip her down. She was crying harder and harder. I told her it was going to be okay and gave her reassuring hugs and started to carry her into the bathroom. I set her down on the floor and got down with her, trying to talk to her and figure out what was going on. I took a couple of her toys and dropped them into the water to play with them and try to entice her. She started crying and grabbing at the toys, trying to rescue them and get them out of the water.

She suddenly started shaking and crying and screaming. She started pointing at the tup and screaming. She was absolutely terrified. This wasn't just throwing a fit over something she didn't want. The was absolute, genuine terror! It was like she was watching someone murder me. No lie. I quickly scooped her up and took her out of the bathroom and into the other room to calm her down. There was no way I was even going to try to go any further at that point. It honestly would have felt like child abuse.

I was freaking out myself. Why was she so scared of the bath? Normally she can explain things to me somewhat, but there was no way she could verbalize this. Any time I even tried to talk to her about what was going on, she would panic and all communication broke down.

Once she was calmed down, I decided to strip myself down and just take her into the shower with me. She needed to be cleaned, but there was no way I was attempting another bath tonight. She definitely didn't want to get into the shower either, but her reaction was nothing compared to the bath. Plus I was holding her in my arms, so I am sure that was somewhat reassuring.

Joe helped me out and then we dried her off and snuggled up in our reading chair. I gave her some extra hugs and snuggles and just read to her and talked to her until she was back to her old self again. I tucked her into bed and left the room.

What the eff was up with that?!

This girl had absolutely loved baths. LOVED them! She would lay on her belly and swim and play with all her toys and sing and laugh.. ya know all the stuff most kids do in the bath cuz they are one of the most fun things for kids to do!

I was seriously freaking out. I didn't know what to think. Had something happened to suddenly make her so terrified of the bath? As far as I knew, no one else had bathed her recently besides me or Joe. Was something wrong with her? The way she was acting was so crazy and out of character for her. I had absolutely no idea what to think or make of it.

So what does one do, when something like this happens??

Ya google it.

And so I did. The first thing that popped up was an article on babycenter written by a child psychologist. Here is an excerpt:

"We don't know what scared her away from the baths she used to love (it's common for babies and toddlers to be scared that they might be swept down the drain with the water because their sense of scale isn't developed enough for them to realize that's impossible), but whenever a child develops a fear, it's crucial to accept it. It may not seem reasonable to you, but what does reason have to do with fear? You may not share her fear, but you're not the one who's feeling it.

If you're tempted to scoff at her aversion to baths, think about your own fears and ask yourself whether they're all "reasonable" and how you'd feel if you were forced to confront the things that scare you. Do you, for example, like large spiders? If not, how would you feel if someone made you hold one?"

The article was helpful and I am so glad I didn't try to push the issue too much or try harder to get her into the tub. What really made me feel better though, were the hundreds of member comments below the article, that were posted by parents that had gone through the same thing with their child. One mother's recap over the situation even sounded exactly like ours! Most of these kids were all around the same age as the munchkin.

I can't tell you what a relief it was to find this information and to also find out that it was actually quite common. I had no idea. I had certainly never heard of it happening to anyone I knew.

It kinda made sense too. When she had leaped out of the tub the first time, it was right after looking down at the drain. Maybe she was afraid it would suck her down too. She got so upset about her toys even being in there, maybe she was afraid they would get sucked down as well.

Also, I read in a couple of articles that you should never drain the water while your child is still in the tub. This will help to avoid this ever happening. Dang. Wish I had known that.

So now I know its not that uncommon after all and I didn't need to worry about it too much. But now what? The girl needed to be cleaned. I didn't want to have to take a shower every night at 7:30 just to get her clean either. So, I read through the comments and considered what worked for other parents. I got on amazon and ordered some new supplies.

California Baby, Calming Bubbles
Foam Letters and Numbers
Foam Yo Gabba Gabba Characters (she never even watches this show, but I thought she would still have fun with them anyway)
A Long bath mat to go most of the length of the tub and cover the drain so she couldn't see it.
A tray to store all her new stuff in.

I spent way too much money. Mostly because I am sometimes over cautious and paranoid and do not like anything possibly toxic to be in the tub with her and her naked private parts. I read too much, and some of the things I read cause me to err on the side of caution. Hence, why she has never had bubbles in the bath tub before. Nontoxic bubbles are not cheap. But, I just wanted her to like baths again! It would be worth it, if they would distract her enough to make her want to get into that tub again.

So two days later, the items arrived. I removed everything, including all of her old toys, from the bathroom and cleaned everything out really well. I laid the mat down, covering the drain and put all of her new toys in their place. When it was time, I distracted the munchkin in the play room while Joe started the water with the bubbles. Once the tub was filled up, I started talking about daddy playing with the bubbles and all her new toys and talking in a really excited and fun voice. We started walking towards the bathroom. She was slow and apprehensive but wanted to know what was going on.

As we got closer to the tub she could see the bubbles and the new toys. You could tell she was very nervous as she got closer, but she was still very curious about the new stuff. Joe and I started talking about the bubbles and all the new toys and how much fun they were as I slowly started removing her clothes and diaper. I picked her up and set her in the tub. She started to whimper and look around, and started to look like she was going to cry. I started picking up the foam characters and letters and showing her how they stuck on the wall and talking to her about them and how much fun they were as Joe started washing her.

We made it (very quickly) through the bath without her totally freaking out. She didn't like it, but she didn't seem terrified either.

The next bath went pretty much the same way, and maybe not quite as well. The newness of the bubbles and toys had worn off I guess, and weren't distracting her enough from her fears of the tub. We hurried through it as fast as we could.

For the next bath (and her most recent one), I thought I might take a new approach. About thirty minutes before her bath, I got out a "bath time doll" she had gotten for her birthday. It came with a little duck and a puppy and a towel. We gave them all baths and talked about how much fun they were having and how much they loved the bubbles. She was really having fun "washing" them and then "drying" them all off. She kept saying how much the baby loved the bubbles and then how much she loved the bubbles. It seemed to help a little bit, because after we put her in the tub, we even got a few laughs and squeels from her as I blew on the bubbles and stuck them to us. I picked up bubbles and put them on my arm, then daddy's arm, then her belly and talked about how silly it was and how funny it was daddy had bubbles on his arm.

It didn't last too long though, cuz after a while she started crying again. I told her we were almost done and she started pointing to her towel, crying and sobbing "almost done! almost done!" We finished up quickly and pulled her out.

So that is where we are now. There is definitely some progress, but it doesn't look like she is going to be enjoying baths again any time soon. I am hoping things will just keep getting better and eventually she will get back to loving her baths again.

But seriously, kids are crazy little people.

Maybe I should order her some of this??

They sell it HERE!

Anyone else ever go through anything like this?? What did you do? How did it turn out?

Homemade Mayonnaise - Coconut Oil and Olive Oil (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

2011-09-23T11:37:00.000-05:00

My original posted recipe is from the book Nourishing Traditions. I changed things up a bit to meet my tastes and needs a little better, and this is what I came up with. I love it!

Please make sure that you always use pastured eggs from a reliable source when eating them raw, like in mayonnaise. Please do not use conventional eggs from the grocery store! If you have a Whole Foods near you, they sell pastured eggs from Vital Farms and that would be a good choice if you don't have access to a local farm.

HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE - Coconut Oil and Olive Oil

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

Equipment:
Immersion Blender (stick blender)

Ingredients:

1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 Tb Dijon Mustard
1 Tb Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 tsp White Pepper
1 Tb Homemade Whey (optional, but will last much longer in fridge)
1/2 C Organic, Unrefined, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1/2 C Organic, Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

Bring all ingredients to room Temperature (or at least really close, don't pull it all out of the fridge and try to whip it up right away).
In a tall glass, a couple inches wider then the end of your immersion blender, add the eggs, mustard, lemon juice, sea salt, pepper, and whey. Combine ingredients for about 30 seconds with blender.
Add coconut oil and mix for about 30 more seconds or until very well combined.
Slowly add in olive oil with a thin stream as you run the immersion blender. Blend until mixture becomes thick and creamy, about a minute, maybe a little longer.
If you used whey to ferment it, seal mayonnaise in an airtight glass jar and leave on counter top for 7-12 hours, then move to fridge where it will last for 2-3 months.
If you did not use whey, move to the fridge immediately, mayo will last about two weeks.

Normally this doesn't happen, but the last time I made this, it started to separate after sitting on the counter for an hour. I think my problem was that I didn't let the ingredients warm up enough after taking them out of the fridge. I grabbed my immersion blender, stuck it in the jar and blended it for another minute or two to combine it all again. I didn't have much hope, but It worked great!!

Creamy Red Pepper Sauce (sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

2011-09-20T16:58:00.006-05:00

I am a big fan of red peppers. I will eat them plain, no problem. I love adding it to the blender when I am making hummus. My new obsession is in this creamy sauce that can be enjoyed in lots of different ways. On Sunday, when I did my freezer cooking for the month, I multiplied this recipe by four so I could save some to enjoy throughout the month. The following recipe yields around 2 cups.

I forgot to take a picture until after I had already packed it up to store. But you can see what a pretty color it is!

CREAMY RED PEPPER SAUCE

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

Ingredients:

3 Tb Butter
2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
2 Tb onions, chopped
2 Large Red Peppers
1 Tb Tomatoe Paste
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/2 C Dry White Wine, like sauvignon blanc
1 C Homemade Chicken Broth
1 C Heavy Cream
Salt to Taste
Cracked Black Pepper to Taste

Directions:

Mince garlic cloves and onion and saute in butter in a pan over medium heat until soft and translucent.
Clean Red Peppers, remove seeds and stem and dice, then add to pan.
Add tomato paste, thyme and parsley.
Stir for about 5-10 minutes until peppers are softened.
Add 1/2 C white wine and bring to a boil.
Add 1 C chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer until reduced, about 15-20 minutes.
Add 1 C Cream and bring to boil. Simmer until reduced, about 15-20 minutes.
Let sauce cool and add some salt and pepper.
The sauce will not be completely mixed and the ingredients will be somewhat separated. Use Immersion blender to liquefy the sauce and make it creamy.
Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
Makes about 2 Cups.

If you don't have an immersion blender, you can put the sauce in a regular blender, but it won't be as smooth and creamy. It will still taste yummy though! Enjoy over grilled chicken, seafood or pasta. Or anything else you might like to add it to. It is very versatile and can be used on many things.

Preparing a Month's Worth of Food in One Day

2011-09-19T12:07:00.023-05:00

You may have heard of "Once a Month Cooking" or "OAMC" as it is often referred to. It always seemed like a great idea, but I never really took the plunge. I knew it was something I definitely wanted to do the next time we were pregnant and I was going to be going on maternity leave. How nice would be to have 2-3 mos worth of meals in the freezer, ready to thaw and cook or heat up? I have been gathering all of the recipes I wanted to use for when that time came and never really thought much about doing it before then.

Lately though, I have been getting really frustrated with my evening schedule and have felt kinda stuck. After work, I pick up the munchkin, then we go home. We hang out for a little while, but then soon I have to start on dinner. I spend anywhere from 15 min to an hour preparing dinner. I try to involve her if I can, sitting her on the counter, letting her "help" me, but there usually isn't a whole lot she can do yet and she gets bored. There's no time to stop anywhere or run errands after work because dinner really needs to be made before Joe leaves for school. After eating, I pack up our lunches, usually with the extra I made of dinner, and then clean the kitchen. Sometimes it's 7:00 by the time we are finished (or even later) and depending on if it's bath night or not, I don't have much time left to just hang out and play before bedtime at 8:00. Seeing as how this goes on 5 nights a week, I really feel like I am missing out on alot of time I could be spending with her.

So last week, I started really thinking about spending a whole day making our meals for the month. I figured if I could do that, I would have alot more time in the evening to do what I wanted. We take all of our grocery money for the month out of one of Joe's paychecks, and it just so happened that paycheck was last week. I figured it was as good a time as any to give it a go. I also purchased a book online called "Don't Panic - Dinner's in the freezer". And although most of the recipes were not very useful to me, there were alot of tips in there. Like how to prep and wrap the food for storage in the freezer, how long things would stay good for and conversion charts for making large batches of things. Since the book was so cheap, it was worth the price just to have all of that info. I did make the Orange Teryiake Chicken and I may try more of the recipes in there at some point, changing them up a bit, but I already had most of what I wanted to make picked out for this weekend.

I was also doing things a little differently then the more common OAMC method. I didn't want to have everything pre-cooked as I think this would make it lose some of it's nutritional value. I also don't use a microwave, so it all would have to be in the oven for a while either way. Other then the chili and the red pepper sauce, most of the food was just being prepped and assembled, then frozen to be cooked later. I am fine with the cooking time in most situations anyway. I can do other things while that's going on. It's all the prep work that keeps me in the kitchen for so long, along with all of the dishes it dirties.

I warned Joe that Sunday, I would need him to be free to help out. Mostly to hang out with the munchkin and to assist me some. Some of the stuff I was making required chicken stock and mayo, both of which I was running low on, so Friday night I did a little prep work. I boiled a chicken for a couple of hours with some veggies and herbs. I then pulled all of the meat off and shredded it. I put the bones, skins and other parts back in the pot and set it to simmer overnight. I packed the shredded chicken up in half pound increments to be frozen and stored for later use.

Then, I made some mayonnaise and let it sit out on the counter overnight to ferment. I have a new recipe!!

Joe also helped me to patty and season 4 lbs of hamburger meat to put in the fridge for burger nights. Everything is labeled with the name of the food, the date and any cooking instructions.

Saturday morning, I turned of the stove and let the stock cool for a couple of hours. Joe slept in and I had breakfast with the munchkin. Anytime I pick up my phone, she usually wants me to take a picture of her. I still can't believe this little girl is two years old!

We went to visit my mom, then I needed a couple of things from the grocery store. After we got back home and I put the munchkin down for a nap, I strained the stock through a cheesecloth and put it into mason jars to be stored in the freezer. I would have rather stored them all in smaller mason jars, 2 cups each, but I had to work with what I had. I decided to put 3 cups into quart jars (you need to leave room for expanding when freezing) and then make little 1 cup ones in tupperware for supplementing. I am slowly turning all of my storage containers over to glass ones, but it's expensive so it's taking a while. I filled one mason jar with 4 Cups and set it in the fridge for sunday.

Then Sunday was everything else. I think I may have gotten a little overzealous, and will probably not take on so much in the future, but with Joe's help we still got everything done. It also would have helped if I had started before noon, but whatever. I may have stayed out a little too late the night before hanging out with my girl Stacy and her hubby Allen. She just had her baby a month ago and it was their anniversary, so obviously we haven't been out together in a very long time! We had a blast!

Back to Sunday morning.... I was multiplying each of the recipes to make at least 4 meals for us, with enough to have leftovers for our lunches the next day. Plus I had just made the shredded chicken Friday night and pattied all the hamburgers. This all together makes a total of atleast 28 meals with leftovers for lunches... thats atleast 56 meals! The sides will be whipped up that evening, usually a steamed veggie or a salad. On the evenings we want to have something different, I plan on making extra batches to freeze for another night's meal. This way I will have a constant stock of food going in as we take food out.

My list of things to make Sunday:

Chili - Recipe later this week
Meatloaf
Creamy Red Pepper Sauce (awesome topping for grilled chicken, seafood or as a pasta sauce)
Orange Teriyaki Chicken (recipe from Don't Panic - Dinners in the Freezer)
Salmon Patties - I made a few minor changes from the original recipe and pattied them out to be fried in grassfed butter on the stove instead of wrapped in bacon and cooked in the oven. Although that way is amazingly delicious too! Thanks again Sarah for sharing this yummy recipe, we love it!
Tartar Sauce
Ranch Dressing

I never made it to the tartar sauce and ranch dressing, but these are easy things to whip up now that I have a bunch of homemade mayo made up.

First I got all of the non-refrigerated items out and lined them up on the counter.

I had mapped out my plan that morning, making a list of everything I was going to do in order. First on the list was to chop and prep all of the vegetables. I divided them up as I went into bowls for each recipe.

Then I threw 4 pounds of hamburger meat into a big stock pot, along with onions and peppers to start them cooking. I put onions and garlic in another pot to start my red pepper sauce. Then some onions and garlic in another pan for my salmon patties.

Seems like so many good things start with onions and garlic sauteed in butter!

At this point, the munchkin went down for her nap and Joe came in to help me out. He ended up pretty much taking over the chili, which was awesome. I had marked up my recipe, multiplying everything by 4 to make it super easy for him.

While the chili and pepper sauce were cooking, and after my onion and garlic mix cooled, I threw that in with the other ingredients to make the salmon patties, I assembled them all and put them in ziploc bags, trying to press out as much air as possible. These will be thawed, thrown on the stove top to be fried in butter, and eaten with homemade tartar sauce.

Next I started on the meatloaves. I was making 4 of them, so this required 8 lbs of hamburger meat. I was going to divide it all up into 2 bowls since they couldn't all fit into one, and then make 2 loaves from each bowl of ingredients. I wasn't thinking straight and took out a 4 lb package and divided it in half for each bowl. Uh oh...

It was about dinner time, so Joe cleaned and trimmed 20 boneless, skinless chicken breasts for me. Four for dinner (and me and the munchkin's lunch the next day) and the rest for the orange teriyaki chicken. He threw the chicken on the grill and I made some sweet peas. We covered the chicken with some of the red pepper sauce. It was so good! I am glad I made so much of it... about 8 cups.

After dinner was done, I finished assembling the meatloaves and thought they were a little smaller then usual, but didn't think too much of it. I then made the Orange Teriyaki sauce and poured it over the chicken in ziploc bags separated for four meals. When we pull them out later, they will thaw and then we will just toss the marinade and throw then on the grill or into the oven.

At this point it was time for the munchkin's bath. Since it now takes two of us to give her a bath, because of her new fear of them (I am still going to post about this later), we had to put a halt to everything. After her bath, I read her a book and put her to bed. As I was reading her a book, I suddenly realized why there was still 4 lbs of ground beef left in the fridge. I had only used half of the amount I was suppposed to in the meatloaves. ARGH!!!

After tucking her in, I went to the kitchen, pulled out all the meatloaves from the freezer, dumped 2 in each big bowl and added 2 lbs of meat to each bowl. I mixed them all together and reassembled my loaves all over again. That sucked. Plus the cheese wasn't rolled up neatly in the middle anymore. It was more crumbled and mixed in throughout. Atleast I realized it before they were frozen. Or before we went to cook them. It's still super annoying to have wasted so much time on an already jam packed day.

Then I packed up the rest of the red pepper sauce to go into the freezer. Isn't it a pretty color?

The chili was still way too hot (it had simmered for several hours), so I left that for right before bed. I had tried to clean as much as I could throughout the day as I went, but there was still a pretty big mess. I cleaned it all up and hopped into the shower. Actually, there wasn't much hopping going on. I was pretty exhausted! My back was also a little sore from standing in the kitchen all day. After my shower, it was already 9:30. I hung out with Joe for a little while, finished packing up our lunches for the next day and then the chili was finally cooled.

We put 8 cups into each ziploc bag and set out enough for dinner the next night. I laid the ziploc bags into cake pans to freeze them flat. After they are frozen, I can stack them all in the freezer and save more space.

I felt good about the day. Although It was alot of work and very tiring, I am really looking forward to having more time in the evenings to hang out with the munchkin. With no prep work for the meal, we will have alot less dishes to do too. I will still be making some non-frozen meals throughout the week and I am going to double or triple some of them and freeze the rest to add to my stockpile. This way I won't have to make as much all in one day again.

Here's a peak into the middle part of my freezer on my side by side refrigerator. Above this is one shelf that I am using to store all of the one cup chicken stock dishes. On the top shelf in the pic, you can see two of the meatloaves and the bags of chicken in the orange teriyaki marinade. Below that is the hamburgers and salmon patties, along with my ice cream maker bowl. I have saved some room for the chili once its frozen flat in the cake pans in the deep freezer downstairs.

My goal is to eventually have all glass containers to store everything in. Right now, I only have enough to rotate for our lunches so that we can heat them up in the toaster oven to eat and to store leftovers in the fridge. I will have to start stockpiling more of them for storing food in the freezer.

On the bottom half of the freezer, I have my chicken stock lined up on the left, the shredded chicken and the red pepper sauce. Below that are some of my baking supplies, and on the bottom is a big drawer where I keep any frozen vegetables or fruit and there's usually a loaf of the Trader Joe's Sprouted Whole Wheat bread in there too.

I did put two of the meatloaves in the deep freezer downstairs. I think I could have made everything fit in here if I had wanted to, but I am glad I didn't have to. This is totally possible without a deep freezer or extra freezer space somewhere. You just have to pack everything up in space saving ways and the heavy duty ziploc freezer bags help out alot with that.

Honestly, I am not sure why I didn't do this sooner. I am thinking this is the way I am going to be doing things from now one. I am really looking forward to more relaxed evenings now!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, The Pennywise Platter, Monday Mania and Fight Back Friday.

The Munchkin Turns Two!

2011-09-15T14:39:00.000-05:00

The last week has been kinda crazy and a bit stressful for me. The munchkin turned two last friday. I still can't believe that. We had her party on Saturday. The weather turned out beautiful and despite me putting off everything until the day of, things actually went pretty smoothly.

Last Wednesday night, I started feeling a sore throat. I hoped it would go away but it progressively got worse the next day and by Thursday night it was so painful to swallow that I was certain I had strep. I reluctantly made a doctor's appointment Friday morning and headed in. Thankfully, there was no strep, but there was some other sort of bacterial infection and he assured me that once I started the antibiotics, I wouldn't be contagious by the time the party rolled around at 4:00 the next day.

I hate taking antibiotics. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it though. I had lots of people coming to my house the next day, including little childrent, and I didn't want to get anyone else sick. So I doubled up on my probiotics and cracked open the Z-Pack. I laid in bed all day, got some rest and hoped I would still be able to get everything done for the party in time.

Late Friday night, I started feeling a little better and went ahead and made some of the food. I whipped up the cheese ball, the roasted red pepper hummus and cut up all the veggies. Joe decorated the kitchen. I really wish I had taken a pic. It was really cute. He hung streamers and curled ribbons to hang around the lights in the kitchen. He really stepped up and did alot since I wasn't feeling so good. I decided to put off the cupcakes and the rest of the food until the next day.

Never put off baking and decorating your cupcakes or cake until the day of the party.

Talk about stressful! The party was at 4:00am. I started making my cupcakes at 10:30am. I was making alot of cupcakes, plus a double layer 6" cake to sit on the top of the cupcake tower. The batter had to be mixed, then everything baked, then cooled, iced and decorated. Luckily I had already made the cream cheese icing the night before. That helped a little, but not much. I ran out of cupcake liners since I had ruined the first batch. I made Joe drive to my mom's (less then a mile away) to pick up more. Then as soon as he pulled into the driveway, I sent him right back to pick up some extra pans so I could rotate the baking more quickly. I ended up undercooking the first batch and all of them fell in the middle. I should have did one last practice run to perfect the cooking temp and time. The muffins were still very warm when I was putting them on the cupcake tower and the icing wasn't as fluffy as it should have been because of it.

Oh well, atleast they tasted good, even if they looked a little sad. Luckily I was putting a little Care Bear on each one, so it almost looked like they were supposed to be sitting down in the cupcake. Almost.

I also had Joe pick up the munchkin from my moms, pick up one of her gifts from a coworker's house that had brought him home to her house because it had been delivered on Friday while I was gone. I also sent him to the store to pick up all of the stuff I remembered at the last minute, like drinks for everyone. That would have sucked if no one had anything to drink.

About an hour before everyone was supposed to arrive, I finally had the food all ready to go and could finally get myself ready. I managed to get almost everything done in time, and anything that I didn't, no one knew any better anyway.

It had been raining all morning and the sun came out and started shining right before the party. The temperature was perfect, which was awesome since the kids could run around outside. I realized after everyone started arriving that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast right when I woke up. I started shoving food into my mouth immediately before I got the shakes.

The munchkin was a hot mess for most of her party. She was crabby and on edge and most of it was due to all of the other kids running around and playing with her toys. Especially the boys. I had a couple people come up to me and tell me that it looked like one of the boys was purposely trying to pull the cabinets off of her new kitchen. She was probably about to break down from an anxiety attack. That girl is very particular about her toys!

She perked up some after her she opened up some new gifts though. Notice the look of concern on her face though in most of these pictures below. I wonder if she is already concerned about the boys playing with her new toys.

Then we went on to sing Happy Birthday and blow out her candle.

Afterwards we all hung outside and let the kids run around. Nothing cheers her up and lifts her spirits like being outside. She had blast.

She was definitely worn out by the end of the evening. She reached for my dad and snuggled up to his shoulder.

I don't think anyone was as exhausted as me though. It was a fun party though, and it was great to see everyone and visit. The munchkin has some new awesome toys to play with and lots of new zippered and footed PJs!

My little girl is two years old now. Two years old! She really is becoming more and more like a little girl and further and further away from being a baby. She talks so much and we can even have little conversations now. I just can't believe how quickly she learns things and picks up on stuff. It is so amazing watching a little person grow up. She is so sweet and polite (most days), saying thank you and you're welcome. She is great with other kids and loves to share. She has been really into pretend play and LOVES the new kitchen set we got her. I also bought her little wooden fruits and vegetables that she can "slice" in half with a little wooden knife. She spends forever cutting them up and putting them back together again.

She is also becoming very independent and wants to do more and more things on her own. This can sometimes lead to tears and fits when she can't always have her way. She definitely doesn't like to be told she can't do something! She bounces back fairly quickly though and usually doesn't think much about it after that. She HAS to buckle her own seat belt now in the car seat. If I buckle it before she has a chance to, she gets soooooo upset about it. It's pretty funny.

Sunday was spent recovering and running some errands. Sunday night the munchkin decided she was deathly afraid of taking baths, so we have been having fun with that one. More on that later. She also has been backed up for most of the past week and that also has her crabby and not feeling so good. I found out Joe was giving her too many cheese sticks and those, along with other servings of dairy throughout the day, I'm pretty sure are the culprits.

Tuesday, however things finally seemed to be getting back to normal. After a week of a crazy crabby toddler and being sick and stressed, we had an amazing day. The munchkin was back to her sweet lovey self and I was feeling so much better too.

Our bath situation seems to be getting somewhat better too, but that is an entire post of its own, so more on that later.

In the meantime, I am going to try to figure out how the heck I have a two year old all of a sudden!!

Problems Solved and an Upcoming Partay!!

2011-08-30T11:21:00.000-05:00

The verdict is in. It was definitely the footed pajamas causing everyone so much stress! When the idea struck me, somehow it made sense considering her cues and signs, but I was also desperate to figure it out and could have been grasping at straws. We are going on 5 nights since we switched her back to her little footed jammies, and our little girl is back to her old sweet self!

Thank effing goodness, I was about to lose my mind.

And thank goodness Children's Place sells footed jammies all year round and in every size there is!

She was like an entirely different kid. Joe and I started to wonder if this was the "terrible twos" people warn about. Obviously she had her moments before, but this was different. This was a whole new bag. She was whiny all day long. Everything was so dramatic. She would get so upset about the smallest things. I missed my smiley little girl. She was usually so sweet and playful, but also completely fine with entertaining herself if I needed to get something done in the kitchen that she couldn't really help me with. These last few weeks, it was so hard to do anything without her. She wanted me to hold her constantly.

I don't really want to complain about holding her. I love holding her. Some tasks, however, are just easier to get done with both arms. And when she wants me to hold her that much, something is wrong, she's not a happy camper.

That girl needs her sleep. And her schedule. She was a hot mess.

So after 5 nights of footed pjs, peaceful sleep, and days well rested and in a good mood, I think I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Atleast until the next incident arises.

****************

I can't believe we only have 10 days left until the munchkin turns two! Seriously, how did this happen?! I know everyone always says this about their kids on their birthdays, and I have been known to say it myself, but wow..... two years old! She's become such a big girl. It's so bittersweet.

I have so much to do for her party! I have been working out the recipe for the carrot cake cupcakes I am going to serve. Not to toot my own horn, but they are pretty amazing. I used organic sprouted whole wheat flour and lots of other goodies. They are good for you and healthy. And no one will be the wiser. I have had my trusted taste testers assure me they can't even tell they are healthy. This was my goal, and by golly, I think I achieved it!

I will share the recipe after the party incase anyone is dying to know what it is.

We are doing a care bear theme, so I ordered little care bear figurines to go on top of the cupcakes. I am borrowing a cupcake tower from my awesome cake maker friend Sarah to arrange them all on. So yeah, I have the dessert all planned.

And that's about it.

I haven't even figured out her dress yet. Or the menu. Although we did decide we are only doing snacks and appetizers, not a full blown meal. It's just not in the budget.

So yeah thats about it. Eleven days till her party. Crap.

"I have about 100 pairs of pajamas. I like to see people dressed comfortably." ~ Hugh Hefner

2011-08-25T21:33:00.002-05:00

The munchkin's sleeping has left much to be desired the last couple of weeks. She has not been going to bed very good and waking up in the middle of the night. I thought it was because she was going to a new sitter and kept hoping it would improve. Her sleeping hasn't been terribly awful, but it hasn't been near as good as usual, and I could definitely tell something was wrong.

We would have to go in her room several times after we initially put her to bed, before she would finally drift off to sleep. She would cry (not really hard, but enough I needed to go in there) or call for us, or she would throw everything out of her crib and want us to put it all back in. She would want her socks on, then off, then back on.... We'd go in there, she'd calm right down and lay back down like she was going to go to sleep and then she would start it all over again after 10 minutes or so. She would usually only do it once or twice, but sometimes it would be more. And then randomly she would wake up and cry in the middle of the night. As soon as I went in there, she would lay right back down and go back to sleep.

Then last night, I started realizing that alot of times when she doesn't want to go to bed or is crying for me to go in there, it's because she pulls her socks off and wants me to put them back on, or she'll say her feet hurt and wants me to kiss them... just weird stuff she never does and alot of it revolved around her feet and legs and stuff. Then it also dawned on me that we had recently bought her a bunch of new pajamas, the pants and separate top ones instead of her usual footed zipper ones....

It all suddenly clicked that that might have something to do with it!

So, last might while I was getting her ready for bed, I put a pair of her footed pj's on her. She fell asleep immediately, and I didn't have to go in there once. She didn't make a peep the whole night and she slept in extra late!

It could be coincidence, but I guess we will see after the next few days cuz I will definitely be putting her to bed in footed PJs to test out my theory! I am hoping she will get better sleep and then be less crabby during the day. When her sleep is effed up she gets insane.

It could be just coincidence and a crazy fluke.... but what if it isn't? What if she really slept great last night because I put her back in her old PJs? What if her really crazy behavior lately is all because of some friggin pajamas?!?!?!?!

She has always loved her footed, zippered pjs, I just thought maybe she was getting too old for them. The ones she wears now are all starting to get tight on her, so I thought maybe for the next ones we would go with something different.

I am sure you are on the edge of your seat, so don't worry, I will update and keep you posted as this riveting story unfolds.

If it is really her pajamas that have been causing all this stress, I will be so relieved that we figured it out! And I won't be too upset to have to buy some more and keep her in her footed jammies longer. They do look pretty cute on her....

Any other mommies have weird sleeping situations come out of nowhere for a really strange reason?

My Dirty Little Confession

2011-08-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. Apparently I am a dirty dirty girl. And not in a good way.

I recently realized that I have been mopping my floor with nothing but water to get it clean! No soap or cleaner, whatsoever, of any kind.

Gasp!

I am all about going green and all natural, but this is going a little too far.

And for anyone who knows me well, they know I am a clean FREAK. Like seriously OCD about it. Every night before I go to bed, I make sure everything is picked up and put away. I walk around the house picking up all the toys, making sure all the dishes are in the dishwasher, the counters wiped down, and so on.

I have to or I seriously can't fall asleep.

This does have it's advantages. Yes, my house is usually pretty clean. Straightening it up every night before I go to bed, means I never have to clean up a big huge mess from letting it build up.

But I also know I also go too far with it sometimes.

I wipe down the counters 5 times a day. The kitchen is cleaned up from dinner, before dinner is done cooking. I do the dishes immediately, even Joe's glass that he is still drinking out of. Poor guy, he's so used to it now, he just sees it missing and says, "so I guess you put my glass in the dishwasher, huh?" I seriously won't even remember doing it. It's like robot mode or something.

I think vacuuming is therapeutic.

If you think I am trying to brag on my cleanliness... I am really not. This definitely has it's major drawbacks. First of all, my sanity and zen rely heavily upon it. So even if I am exhausted and all I want to do is crawl into bed, I can't! I have tried. Unless I am under the influence, I can not fall asleep if the house is a mess. It's the same at work. If my desk is a mess, my brain is a mess, and all my creativity flies out the window.

Since the munchkin's birth, I have actually gotten better about it. I am working on it. Baby steps.

I could care less about other people's houses though. I really truly am only that way with my house and anything that I am in charge of. Infact, I often envy someone with a slightly messy home and a relaxed look on their face... no hint of crazies in their eyes at all. It's only my own home that messes with my zen state.

So there, the cat is out of the bag. I'm a clean freak wierdo. Whatever.

So surely you can now understand my shock and horror when I realized what I had done.

Okay, maybe it's not quite that dramatic, but still....

I usually mop the whole floor once a week (aside from the immediate spill clean up here and there). I vacuum the floor and then go over it with my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser mop. I bought the mop a while back. I followed the directions. Simply get the sponge wet, scrub the floor with it, squeeze it out, rinse, repeat and then I would go over it all with a towel to dry it. Once the mop was dirty looking enough, I would replace it. It seemed to do a really good job. It scrubbed up spots really good and was super easy to use.

And the floor looked clean after I mopped it.

Then a a couple weeks ago, Joe and I started realizing that after walking around the house barefoot, our feet would get really dirty. Like really dirty. Like you would see black on our feet. I started wearing socks or sandals around the house at all times. You can imagine my unrest.

What the hell?

I started to question my mop, then after some reading of the fine print on their website, I saw this:

"For best results, use it with your favorite Mr. Clean all-purpose cleaner."

Ooops.

I seriously thought there was cleaner in the sponge already. This whole time I thought I was actually cleaning my floors, instead of just getting the dirt wet, pushing it around and then letting it dry again. I felt like such an idiot!

This has been going on for months. What a dummie!

So last week, Joe went to the store and brought me back a Swiffer Wet Jet. When I was done, the pad was black. Black!!

Oh the shame!

And shame on you Mr. Clean!

I have cleaned the kitchen floor with it twice now and it definitely gets it clean. I HATE the strong chemical smell though and don't like using it on the floor. I am definitely going to have to switch to something else. I have tried Seventh Generation and didn't think it worked that great on the floors.

Any ideas or suggestions? How do you ladies clean your floors?

Can Television Turn You into a Zombie??

2011-08-23T19:11:00.000-05:00

I hope not!

Saturday Morning Scenes

2011-08-20T20:35:00.003-05:00

The munchkin had some friends over to play this morning.

They tested out the new awesome wagon we rescued from someone's trash they had left out to be picked up. Joe cleaned it up and it was good as new! You gotta love free stuff.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!

Anna's "Welcome Baby!" Dinner

2011-08-18T10:55:00.007-05:00

My friend Anna is pregnant with her second little baby boy and is due in the next couple of weeks!! So a a while back I asked her about having a little shower or party or something to celebrate the arrival of the new baby. After going back and forth and throwing some ideas around we decided to have an evening out and dinner with some of her girlfriends.

I hope I look and feel as good as Anna my second time around. The baby is due in less then two weeks and she is feeling fantastic!

Here we are waiting outside for everyone to arrive. Doesn't she look amazing?

She's the one in the middle if you can't tell.

I had emailed all of the other girls secretly and we wanted to put together something special. Anna had requested no gifts for the baby, as she already had everything she needed. She never said we couldn't do anything for her though!

Most of the girls signed up for a service of some kind, babysitting or cooking a meal, one of our resident artists signed up for a custom designed piece of artwork, and I made coupons for each one. I put them all together in an envelope, along with a gift certificate for an in-home massage that a few of us all pitched in for. I put them all in a basket with a couple of little tiny goodies for the baby that I just couldn't resist, and we presented it to her at dinner. One girl even brought a home cooked meal for Anna to freeze and cook later. I had brought a cooler with ice for Anna to take it home in. I think it was a fun way to show her how much we all loved her and were there for her for those first few months when things can be VERY challenging!

Brooke, our "resident artist", is AMAZING btw, check out her work HERE! She is just starting to make onesies and bibs that are o-so-adorable. Pics coming for those very soon!

Anna's mother, who lives very far away, shipped me a blanket that she had made for the baby so that I could give it to her at dinner. It was a great surprise, she didn't even think the blanket would be finished until after the baby was born. And it was absolutely gorgeous! That woman can sew! I really really really wish I would have taken a picture of it. She made the munchkin's baby blanket too, along with an adorable little outfit. She also makes beautiful hand smocked dresses, bonnets, rompers and christening outfits made to order. She also makes other custom items and is the sweetest lady you'll ever meet. You should check out her Etsy shop, Bunny Luv Creations!

Here's our great group of ladies. From Anna, moving to the right, there's me and then the next two girls are Toni and Brooke. All four of us have know each other since we were 15, and if you take myself out of the equation, the other three have known each other since grade school!

I sure wish our waiter had a more steady hand. He took two pictures and the other was even worse.

Here's me and Anna... I am so lucky to have such an amazing friend!! I just love her.

There seems to be a growing trend for people having baby showers for their second or even third babies. I am on the fence about it myself, and can't really make up my mind. I do think that every baby deserves a celebration, but maybe not necessarily a traditional shower where everyone comes and brings lots of gifts for the baby.

I think if your first child and your second are 10 years apart, then yes, by all means, have a baby shower. Or if your house burnt down and all of your possessions were lost between having babies.... girl, have yourself a shower!

If your first baby is a girl and two years later you are pregnant with another girl... I'm just not so sure that's appropriate or not. Personally, for myself though, I don't know if I would feel comfortable doing that. I would just feel weird inviting everyone to another shower in that situation. Of course, if a friend was having one, I would still be there, happy to support her, present in tow.

I did however put my foot down, when an invitation arrived in the mail to attend a shower for a friend's 4th child. I admit, I didn't even rsvp.

I have heard of people having diaper parties for consecutive kids. Where someone throws them a little party and everyone brings a package of diapers to get the new mamma-to-be stocked up for a while. I think ideas like that are cute and fun and just make more sense to me. I guess it's all about your personal opinion and perspective though.

Any thoughts??

Introducing.... Lily Emerson!!

2011-08-17T08:58:00.000-05:00

Monday, my friend Stacy gave birth to her little baby girl Lily. Stacy is the munchkin's sitter and is on maternity leave right now. I went to visit her in the hospital yesterday and snapped a few shots of her precious little bundle. She is so absolutely beautiful and it was amazing holding a little one day old baby. I can't believe the munchkin was ever this small. It's crazy how fast they grow!

Talk about giving me baby fever!!

She was so awake and alert while I was there. She just kept staring at me the whole time I was holding her. I totally fell inlove with this little girl...

I get to see her again on Thursday!!

Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce (sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

2011-08-16T12:46:00.010-05:00

This is comfort food to me. This is an easy recipe that you can whip up quickly and will taste like you worked much harder on it. It's great for company too. The sauce doesn't get quite as thick as if it had flour in it, but it's nice and creamy and tastes delicious. You won't miss the flour at all!

Start off heating up 1/2 stick of butter. Toss in a chopped up yellow onion and saute for a few minutes.

Add about 10 oz off sliced baby bella mushrooms, parsley, oregano and basil and continue to saute for another 10 minutes, until the mushrooms are nice and browned. Feel free to add butter if your mushrooms are soaking it all up.

Then deglaze your pan with either a dry white wine or apple cider vinegar. I prefer the dry white wine, but either works... Add in your cream and turn up the heat to bring to boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Heat up butter in another skillet and drop in your chicken.

Once sauce comes to a boil, reduce hit and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook up those chickens nice and browned.

Once your sauce is thick enough to stick well to your spoon, it's ready!

Plate chicken, and cover with sauce.

CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOM CREAM SAUCE

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb)

Ingredients:

1/4 C (1/2 stick) Butter
1 small to medium Yellow Onion, chopped small
10 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms
1 tsp chopped fresh Parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh Oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh Basil
1 C Heavy Cream
3/4 C Dry White Wine (or Apple Cider Vinegar, but it will have a stronger taste)
4 Chicken Breasts, pounded down and flattened
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat Butter in skillet and add chopped onion, saute for a few minutes.
Add Sliced mushrooms, parsley, oregano and basil to pan. Continue to saute for another 10 minutes, or until mushrooms are nice and browned.
Add in the Wine or Vinegar and stir to deglaze pan.
Slow stir in cream.
Add Salt and Pepper to taste.
Turn up heat to bring to a boil.
Heat up more butter over medium high in another skillet for chicken.
Once sauce is boiling, reduce heat to bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce is creamy and sticks to your spoon.
Salt and pepper chicken and add to skillet, cook till browned on both sides and cooked through. This usually takes me 6-7 minutes per side.
Once chicken and sauce are finished, plate your chicken and spoon the sauce over the top.
Enjoy!

This sauce is also delicious served over grilled chicken! I like making extra and bringing it to work for lunch the next day heated up in my toaster oven.

This post is part of the Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter, Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday, the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania and Real Food Forager's Fat Tuesday.

An Awesome Chick, Some Crazy Good Sushi and a Few Glasses of Wine....

2011-08-15T12:38:00.002-05:00

I recently met up with my girl Brenda for some sushi and wine. I don't get enough girly time in, but I guess that's what happens when you grow up, become an adult, get married and start having babies.

Totally worth it, don't get me wrong! But I definitely still miss a few things.

Our girls night out was so much fun. The wine and juicy gossip was flowing. We mostly gossiped about ourselves. Nothing better then a dear friend and a little wine to make you share all your little secrets. Sometimes it feels so good to get some things off your chest!

We didn't even mind that they gave all of our food to another table (well maybe a little). The other table definitely didn't mind, considering they just received the three most expensive rolls on the menu for free.

The sushi chef came to our table, apologized profusely and handed us a free appetizer. We just shrugged it off, laughed and asked for more wine.

We were starving though, and after quite some more time had passed, we started to get a little frustrated.

But then finally, they brought us these....

Am I making you drool?? They were so very very delicious!!

A few more glasses, another roll, and we were outside on the patio having another photoshoot. Although we thought we looked fabulous at the time, I won't share those pictures.

On the way outside, Brenda stole the candle that was burning away on the bar. Just straight up picked it up and took it outside with us. I watched the bartender girl's face turn from pleasant to "wtf"?!

Brenda thought the candle smelled like fall.

A couple of employees came out to chat and hang out with us. The place was pretty slow. It was a weeknight.

Sometimes it feels good to head out in the middle of the week, meet up with a bestie, and pretend you don't have a care in the world.

It was an awesome evening!!

Thank you to my girl for taking me out for such a wonderful evening and to my wonderful husband for making it so I can do that every once in a while!!

Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Eyes

2011-08-14T23:37:00.002-05:00

Link up below and add your own photo!

The Paper Mama Photo Challenge

G's One Year Photoshoot

2011-08-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

Today I met up with my friend Gina over at Namaste By Day and we had a little one year photoshoot for her little boy G. I gotta say, this little guy is sooooooo friggin cute!! He is so smiley and awesome and cute and fun. I loved taking his pictures!

And for the story of how Gina and I met, go HERE! Love this girl :)

Saturday Morning Scenes

2011-08-13T16:22:00.001-05:00

We packed up the munchkin and headed to a friend's neighborhood pool this morning. She gets so excited when we tell her we are going to go swimming, but then once we get there she gets mad half the time. Don't get me wrong, she does have lots of fun too, but she gets so frustrated with everything.

She doesn't want us to hold her in 5' deep water. Then again she doesn't want to drown either. There's just no winning there. She wants to run as fast as she can around the edge of the pool and she gets mad at us when we tell her to slow down.

I love that the pool has a great walk-in area that is really shallow for quite a while before it gets deep. She loves walking around in this area, but then she starts going too deep, we save her from drowning and then she gets mad at us.

We tried putting her in the little floaty thing that our friends brought. It made her happy for a while, but then she yells "stuck!" and wants out.

Here she is pouting.

Our friends had brought some animal crackers. She has never had them before, so this made her pretty happy and was actually a nice distraction for a while.

Here's her little friend Mya. She's always scheming something.

Other then a few mini tantrums, we actually had a great time. The weather was beautiful today.... so much nicer then being almost 100 degrees all the time.

Tonight I am heading out for my girl Anna's baby shower dinner. Ten of us girls are meeting up to have dinner and celebrate the arrival of Anna's second little baby boy.

I hope everyone else is having a fantastic weekend!

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • gaps)

2011-08-12T09:19:00.006-05:00

This recipe has been revisited and revised. It's new and IMPROVED!!

One of my favorite cookies is a shortbread cookie. I just love that buttery sweet flavor that melts in your mouth. Here, I have attempted to make a healthy, sugar free version. I am pretty darn happy with them too. This recipe is also really easy and can be whipped up super quick!

I find that Almond Flour is better for cakes and cupcakes, but the almond meal also works great for most cookie recipes and muffins (plus it's often cheaper). Mixing half of each works well too. Almond flour is almonds ground up with the skins removed, almond meal leaves the skins on.

The secret to good shortbread is the quality of the butter and vanilla extract. Don't skimp on these and you will have a fantastic cookie on your hands!

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
gluten free, sugar free, dairy free options, GAPS options

For a delicious variation, and to make them GAPS legal, use 1/4 C raw honey, omit the applesauce and stevia, and reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes!

Ingredients:

1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted room temperature Butter, Ghee or Coconut Oil
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 C Organic Unsweetened Applesauce, bring close to room temperature
2 C Almond Flour or Meal (or a mix of both)
3 Tb Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp Pure Stevia Extract Powder
1/2 tsp Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Blend together softened butter, applesauce and vanilla extract until smooth.
Whisk together almond meal, cocoa powder, stevia and salt.
Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and blend till everything is well combined. I usually have to hold my mixer up while still spinning to fling the extra batter off.
Let dough chill in the refrigerator for atleast one hour.
Spoon out a rounded Tablespoon of batter, roll into balls, and place 2" apart onto a cookie sheet covered with a silicone baking sheet (or you could use parchment paper). Us a fork to flatten cookie in a cross pattern.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. You want them to be a little soft still, but then cool harder.
Cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool.
Enjoy!

Makes about 20 cookies.

I store these on the counter in an airtight container. I am not sure how long they should be good for cuz we usually eat them up within a few days.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade and the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania.

They Grow up Way Too Fast.

2011-08-10T15:16:00.000-05:00

Spicy Barbecue Sauce (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

2011-08-10T10:18:00.002-05:00

This sauce is good stuff. Not to mention it's easy to whip together and you can save yourself the high fructose corn syrup and soy crap found in most commercial barbecue sauces.

SPICY HOMEMADE BARBECUE SAUCE

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free)

Ingredients:

1 Clove Garlic, finely minced
1 Small Onion, finely minced
1/4 Cup butter (or coconut oil for dairy free option)
1/16 tsp Stevia Extract Powder (or sweetener of choice)
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Dry Mustard
1 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
2 tsp Blackstrap Molasses
1 1/2 C Water
1/4 C Apple Cider Vinegar
6 oz Tomato Paste

Directions:

Melt butter in sauce pan and cook garlic and onions for 5 - 7 minutes.
Add stevia, salt, mustard, paprika, chili powder and pepper, stir.
Add blackstrap molasses, water and apple cider vinegar, stir.
Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add tomato paste, simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve immediately or let cool and transfer to a glass jar to store in fridge.
It tastes even better after it a day or so.

This post is part of Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday.

"Insanity may bring scattered thoughts, but it's my scattered thoughts that keep me sane." ~ Author Unknown

2011-08-09T13:23:00.001-05:00

The temperatures are in the 80's this week!! I think this is about the most exciting thing to happen to me in quite some time. I was seriously about to lose my marbles. I am so not a hot temp type of gal. If I am working out, I want to sweat. If I am just sitting at my desk, and sweat is dripping down my back, something is not right. Plus, I work in a really old building that isn't well insulated. I haven't worn anything other then a tank top and shorts to work in weeks. Honestly, I think the 80's are even too warm (I prefer the 70's), but when it has been right around 100 degrees for weeks, the 80's are feeling pretty amazing. It's actually supposed to be a high of 77 tomorrow!!

I have a date with my girl Brenda tomorrow evening. We are meeting up for some wine and sushi (my favorite dinner combo), and I am hoping it's nice enough to sit outside! I could use some sun on my face and wind in my hair. And sushi in my belly. And wine in my belly.

I am already looking forward to fall. The crisp, cool air. The leaves changing. The munchkin's birthday. Halloween. Thanksgiving. It is my favorite time of year by far. Ofcourse, after going through a cold winter, I will change my mind and say that spring is my favorite. I am pretty sure it's fall though.

My sisters and I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love last week. I really enjoyed it. Especially the parts where Ryan Gosling took his shirt off. Sigh. Sigh again.

About five years ago, we bought a white vinyl picnic table at a garage sale for $15.00. When we moved, we gave it away to a friend and asked them to return it back to us if they ever decided they didn't want it anymore. Last Thursday, they informed me they were returning it if we wanted it back. Having no where to put it, I immediately listed it on Craig's list and it was picked up and sold for $150.00 by Sunday night! Now that's a good investment! It couldn't have come at a better time either, with all the extra expenses last month, between the wedding and the 2 float trips, our budget was all outta whack and my grocery fund was seriously suffering. I kinda freak out when I don't have enough money for groceries!

Regarding our switch to a new sitter this week, I clearly worried over nothing. The munchkin handles change pretty well. Better then me, obviously. I went to pick her up from her new sitter's house yesterday. I found them all playing in the back yard when I arrived. She took one look at me and literally started running the other way towards the swing set. I went to pick her up and give her a hug and she started crying, saying "I don't want it!". Meaning she didn't want to leave, she wanted to stay and play! Trisha informed me they had only been outside for about 15 minutes. She had woken up from her nap and had just finished up her snack when they went out. It's been so hot out lately that we haven't had much outdoor play time. It was in the 80's yesterday so Trisha took advantage of the nice weather and took them all outdoors.

She also informed me that the munchkin had done amazingly well adjusting on her first day. She went down for her nap without any fuss at all and slept for 2.5 hours! She played really well with the other children and had had a great day! I was so relieved. It's not like I expected things to go horribly, but I just had no idea what to expect really. On the way to her house this morning, the munchkin kept saying "Trishy's house! Trishy's house!" over and over again. I am taking that as a good sign. Hopefully it will just continue to go well. I know she is going to be so happy to see Stacy when we go visit her and when she eventually returns, but atleast she is in good hands in the meantime.

Joe has been on a break from school between summer classes and fall. It's only 3 weeks and I am trying to relish it. I love having him home every evening. He still has to go downstairs to his office and do some of his paperwork for work, but since he's not in school, he gets to spend more time upstairs with us. Plus I have more help around the house, and that's always much appreciated.

It's nice because we can do more stuff as a family and he gets to hang out with the munchkin more and witness some of her antics. Case in point: On our way to the store yesterday evening, she picked up a little stuffed dog that was in the car and said, "hold it mommy". I took the dog from her, she then said, "kiss it mommy", so I gave the dog a kiss. Then she said, "kiss it daddy", so I reached the dog towards Joe, so he could give it a kiss. She got the biggest smile on her face, and said (super excitedly), "Thank you Daddy!!". To us, it was really cute because we are having more and more "conversations" with her as her speech develops. She gets really excited that she can tell us things and express things to us that we can understand more and interact with us more verbally. She loves walking around and pointing to things and saying what they are. "Clouds!" "Sky!" "Bird!" It's pretty funny. This really is such a fun age!

All in all, I can't complain too much right now.

"Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts". ~ Arnold Bennett

2011-08-08T10:18:00.001-05:00

The munchkin is starting at a new sitter today. Her name is Trisha. It's only for 6 weeks (more or less) while her regular sitter takes a maternity leave. I am so nervous about it!! I didn't realize just how nervous I was until this morning when I left the house and said goodbye to her. Joe will be taking her over there and I will be picking her up. Our usual routine. I know I shouldn't be nervous.

I really like the girl that is going to be watching her. I met her years ago through mutual friends, and even the first night I met her, she talked about how she ran a daycare from her home. It was really obvious how much she loved it and how much she loved little kids. She was never an option before, because she lived too far away, but last year she moved right about the same time as us and it takes about 4 minutes to drive to her house from ours! I called her up months ago and asked her if she would watch her while Stacy was on maternity leave. I was so relieved when she said she would love to.

We went over there yesterday to hang out for a while and visit with her. She showed us around, we hung out, the munchkin checked out her toys. I love that she has lots of stuff for the kids to do and that she does so many arts and craft projects and structured activities for learning and development. She fills out a notebook each day letting me know what all they did and how everything went. (I think this is especially cool. I really miss her during the day and wonder what she's doing. I am kinda excited about the updates.) All the kids eat around the same time and all take naps together. There are a couple of little girls there pretty much the same exact age as her, so I am sure she will have fun playing with them.

So why am I so freaking nervous about it? She has been going to Stacy, our regular sitter, since she was 6 months old and she absolutely adores her. She also adores her husband and their little (almost) 3 year old boy, Grayson, who she plays with all day long. I think that might be why I am so nervous. They are like a second little family to her, and Stacy doesn't watch any other children besides the munchkin and her son. Trisha, our new sitter, watches 8-10 kids depending on the day.

As an aside, can you imagine watching 8-10 kids all by yourself every day?! I think I would rip every single hair out of my head.

She may end up loving the new environment and playing with all the other kids. It's just a different situation, and will take some adjustment for sure.

This morning while her and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating our breakfast, I asked her if she had fun playing with Trisha and all of her toys yesterday. She replied, "yes" with a big smile on her face. I then asked if she wanted to go over to play with her again today and she said, simply, "no". Ruh Roh.

I kissed her a million times before I left the house and told her to have lots of fun playing at Trisha's.

Joe called me after he dropped her off and told me that things went pretty well. She was nervous at first, giving his leg the death grip. I think all the new kids made her nervous. Joe told her to say hi to the other kids, so she waved at them all and shyly said "hi". Then she went over to a little one year old boy and started handing him toys and talking to him (she loves younger kids).

So far so good. I am looking forward to picking her up today and getting a better gauge of how she does. I bet she will be exhausted.

*****

Last night, Joe and I were sitting at the table with her and we were all playing with this little activity set. She had gotten her foot stuck between the slats of the back of the chair and started crying and freaking out, yelling, "Foot stuck! Foot stuck!" Joe held her still while I took her foot and slid it back down to the wider area and slid her foot out. She promptly turned to each of us and said in a very serious voice, "Thank you mommy. Thank you daddy." That little chick really cracks me up.

Tickle Monster

2011-08-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

Broiled Lemon Butter Salmon (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • gaps)

2011-08-04T22:50:00.001-05:00

Wild Salmon is so good for you! I try to incorporate it into our meals atleast once every other week, although I could totally eat it more often. My favorite is grilled with a teriyaki glaze. Yum! The following recipe is actually one of the easiest ones and always turns out delicious.

Unless me and the munchkin are on our own for dinner, I have to be very careful how I make the salmon, or Joe won't eat it. He's not salmon's biggest fan, but I have found if I use LOTS and LOTS of butter, and garlic and brown the edges, he'll eat it without complaining too much. Here's one of those recipes.

First, I melt about a 1/4 C of butter.

Then I take a few garlic cloves and chop them up real small.

Chop up some fresh parsley.

Toss it all in with the butter, along with some lemon juice, dried rosemary, salt and pepper.

Set the oven to broil on high. Brush a broiling pan with some butter, then line with your salmon. Generously brush the butter mixture all over the salmon.

Place in oven a few inches from the top. This is the highest level in my oven.

Let cook for about 4 minutes.

Remove and generously coat the salmon again with the butter mixture.

Cook for another 4 minutes, remove and reapply butter mixture again.

Move the oven shelf down one level, and return salmon. Finish Cooking.

These look pretty good to me!

For a quick side, I threw a head of broccoli in the steamer, when it's finished I pour melted butter

all over it and salt it generously with some unrefined sea salt.

Broiled Lemon Butter Salmon

(sugar free • gluten free • low carb • gaps)

Ingredients:

2 lbs (4-5) Salmon Filets
1/4 C Butter, Melted (plus extra for greasing pan)
2 Tb Fresh Lemon Juice
3 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp Fresh Parsley
1/2 tsp Dried Rosemary (I didn't have any fresh)
Unrefined Sea Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Melt butter on stove top.
Add Lemon juice, garlic, parsley, rosemary, salt and pepper to melted butter.
Grease Broiling Pan.
Place oven shelf on highest setting or about 4 inches from the top.
Set oven to Broil on High.
Line up Salmon on pan and brush liberally with about 1/3 of butter mixture.
Place Salmon in the oven and cook for 4 minutes.
Remove from oven and generously brush with more of the butter mixture.
Return to oven for another 4 minutes.
Remove from oven and reapply the rest of the butter mixture.
Move oven shelf down one level and return Salmon to the oven.
Cook for another couple of minutes or until salmon is nice and brown and a little crispy without turning black.
Remove from oven, Serve and Enjoy!

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

Broken Jaws and Sexy Heels

2011-08-04T14:39:00.003-05:00

Is this disgusting or what?

If you can't tell, it's a picture of someones broken jaw. This is our friend's brother, Cort. It's a crappy picture, my husband sent it to me on my cell phone. Remember the wedding we went to last weekend? Well this guy, who was supposed to be an usher at the wedding, never quite made it there. Apparently on the way to the wedding, he cut someone off on the highway and unfortunately, it turned out that the person he did this too was bat shit crazy. The dude followed him for about five miles, all the way to the wedding. He then proceeded to jump out of his car, pull our friend Cort out of his vehicle (tux and all) and beat him about the face repeatedly. This crazy asshole was also in his company van with a child strapped into a carseat in the back.

By the time anyone realized what was going on, the guy jumped into his van and sped away. Luckily, someone got his license plate number and called the police. They also called an ambulance and he was rushed off to the hospital. Cort's jaw was broken in two different places, once on each side, and he was beat up pretty badly.

Turns out the police are very familiar with this cat. So familiar with him, that they have now put Cort into protective custody because they are afraid of what this guy's friends might do to him.

Seriously, how messed up in the head can someone be?!

Note to self: Never cut anyone off, ever again.

* * * * * * *

On to happier subjects.

I went shoe shopping last week to find something perfect to go with my dress. I found these....

I am in love with these shoes. I brought them home and upon trying them on with my dress, I realized it just wasn't a good match. That didn't mean I had to take them back though. Besides, I was already way too attached. And they are going to look amazing with something else... like some skinny jeans...

I also like how they almost look like they are wearing little shirts with ruffles down the front.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011-08-03T14:21:00.000-05:00

Sunday was my mom's birthday. My sisters and I all found sitters for the kiddos so that we could join my mom and dad at her favorite restaurant. It has been years since we have all been out to eat together. With all the little kids and all of our crazy schedules, it's just not that easy to accomplish.

We headed down to the old, historic part of town. It's a beautiful area where they have maintained and restored the history of the neighborhood. The street is lined with restaurants and bars and little shops. Dinner was delicious and the conversation and company was even better.

Afterwards, we headed outside and took a few photos.

My Parents

Sister Erin and Man Chad

Erin and Mom

Mom and Me

Mom and Sister Amy

The Girls

Striking Some Poses

I am mad I didn't get a pic of me and Joe!

It was a great time. I think my mom really enjoyed getting our undivided attention, which is something that pretty much never happens.

I am so lucky to be blessed with such an amazing mom (and family).

Ingredient Resources... Where do I get my stuff?

2011-08-01T14:22:00.006-05:00

Trying to cook and bake using healthy, wholesome ingredients can be expensive if you don't know where to buy your ingredients at cheaper prices. I try to be a bargain hunter and will shop around until I find a good deal. I realized quickly after changing my eating habits that if I was going to be able to stick within our grocery budget, there was no way I could afford what I wanted to get if my only options were local health food stores. I thought it might be helpful to anyone interested in making some of the recipes I post, to dedicate a post for links to my resources for some of the things I use the most, along with a reference for myself. I have ordered from these trusted sites time and time again with no problems.

There is a common misconception that I spend alot of money on groceries, but really, I don't spend any more money then I did before I started eating this way. In fact, we spend less money on food in general now because we don't go out to eat as often and cook most meals at home. We also eat lots of leftovers. I try not to waste anything and find uses for everything. For example, after roasting a chicken, I save the carcass, along with other bones and scraps in the freezer. I collect all of the bones, along with other veggies in the fridge that I might not be able to use up otherwise and throw them all in a pot for some chicken broth. I can then use the chicken broth as a base for soups and stews and lots of other things. Most days, I have leftovers for lunch from the previous night's dinner.

Think about this, a value meal at McDonald's is around $5. I can get a lb of grass fed beef and feed my whole family with it for less then that. McDonald's for a family of 4 is going to cost you around $20. I can easily feed my whole family dinner, complete with sides and drinks, along with dessert for way less then $20 and even have leftovers. I am not only saving money, I am also using healthy ingredients that are good for us.

We also buy our beef in bulk and purchase half a grass fed cow from a local farm. We get steaks, roasts, soup bones, lots of ground beef, well ya know, everything that comes from a cow. After all the processing and delivery to my doorstep from this really nice guy named Jeremy, it comes to around $4.00 a pound. We keep it all in our deep freezer and always have beef on hand.

I am posting the links to where I have found things for the cheapest (although it could be cheaper somewhere else), but sometimes its better to spend the extra dollar and add something to another order to save on shipping. For example, when you spend over $40 at iherb.com you get free shipping (at both iherb and netrition it's around $5 shipping no matter how much you spend). I usually always order a bunch of supplies at once to save on shipping and have my supplies stocked up for a few months. With my amazon prime account and by using subscribe and save I get free 2 day shipping and discounts on most of my grocery items.

So here is a rundown of some of the basics that I use. I am also including some basic info with those that may be less familiar. I will add to this as I come up with more stuff. I will also try to keep the links updated with the best deals as I run across them. If anyone knows of any better deals, please let me know, I would really appreciate it as I am always trying to stretch my dollars!

Also, if you click on an outdated link, please let me know and I will be sure to update it right away!

Coconut Oil
I usually buy the 54 oz jar. This jar is huge and it lasts me a while. I try to incorporate coconut oil into my diet daily. Whether it's used to fry chicken or fish in, a smoothie, subbed for butter in baking or made into some kind of chocolate candy concoction, its very good for you. Not only does it have lots of healthy attributes, it can also help you lose weight!

Coconut Flour
I love using coconut flour in baked goods. You usually need to use alot of eggs to offset its moisture sucking effects, but it can make some delicious cakes, muffins and breads. I also use it to bread my chicken, fish or pork with for frying in coconut oil. Save even more money with the subscribe and save option from Amazon.

Almond Flour
I've had a hard time finding a good deal on almond flour. I try to sub almond meal from Trader Joe's where I can, but sometimes you really need the fine texture of the blanched almond flour to pull off cakes and cupcakes. I buy it in bulk to save money and it lasts me forever in the freezer. Save even more money with the subscribe and save option from Amazon.

Almond Meal
I buy my almond meal at Trader Joe's. They sell a 16 oz bag of it for $3.99. If you don't have a Trader Joe's near you, your best bet would probably be checking out amazon.com, iherb.com or netrition.com and shopping around.

Flax Meal
I prefer to use golden flax because, to me, it has a lighter taste and texture. It works better in my blueberry flax muffin recipe and all around I find that I prefer it in most other recipes as well that call for flax. You can also buy it in whole seed form and grind it yourself. It will last longer that way too. I am too lazy for that and it stores just fine in my freezer. Save even more money with the subscribe and save option from Amazon.

Pure Stevia Extract Powder
This may seem expensive for such a tiny little bottle, but when you consider how far you can stretch it, it's actually not bad at all. 3/4 of a teaspoon tastes as sweet as 1 cup of sugar!! I have been getting pretty good at using stevia as the only sweetener in alot of my baking and it has been working pretty well. A tiny bit goes a long way with this stuff. Alot of different stevia products will have a bitter after taste. This one has none of that at all and prefer it by far over every other one I have tried. This tiny little bottle will last me up to 6 months!

Erythritol
Erythritol is usually made from plant sugars. Sugar is mixed with water and then fermented with a natural culture into erythritol. It is then filtered, allowed to crystallize, and then dried. The finished product is white granules or powder that resembles sugar. It is about 60 - 70% as sweet as table sugar, almost zero calories, it doesn't cause tooth decay like sugar, does not affect blood sugar and is absorbed by the body and excreted, unchanged, through the urine.

I use to buy granulated erythritol and powdered it myself in my coffee grinder because it seemed to work much better in baked goods this way. Then I discovered you could buy it pre-powdered and haven't bought the granular version since. I always use it powdered now and it always seems to work out perfectly. I started out trying to use stevia for everything, but it just doesn't take the place alone of sugar as a bulking agent. When subbing sugar in baked goods, I use erythitol cup for cup then add just a pinch of stevia extract to bring up the sweetness. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get it right. When adding something sweet to things other then baked goods and desserts I just use stevia by itself. I usually try to get away with using only stevia extract as much as I can.

Update: I no longer have much use for erythritol, and have tried to use stevia or honey as my only sweeteners, but I am keeping the info and link here for some of my older recipes.

Beef Tallow
Beef tallow is rendered from beef fat. You can render it yourself or order it from this site. I think its much easier to just order it and doesn't cost any more then making it yourself (depending on how much you can buy pastured beef fat for). This is such a stable fat for cooking and frying and imparts such a great flavor. You can fry delicious french fries in it that are actually good for you. An excerpt from THIS article:

Why beef tallow for cooking? Apart from the above reasons, beef tallow has been in use from time immemorial. The traditional French fies made in tallow oil could prevent cavities and osteoporosis (since Vitamin K2 is great for bones and teeth). When people cooked with lard or tallow, cancer and heart attacks were unknown. The recent studies too prove that even the so-called fatty foods can be nourishing and healthy if cooked with the right kind of fat. This is why beef tallow is always much better for cooking than the highly-processed, nutrient-less empty vegetable oil.

Laura's Recipes

2011-08-01T13:13:00.061-05:00

Here you will find quick links to the recipes I have posted on my blog. I will be updating this page as I add new recipes and will be adding a link at the top right hand area of my page to direct you to this post.

I am also giving diet hints under each one. My dad follows the GAPS diet to help him heal his gut and digestive issues. I wanted my parents to have an easy reference to find the recipes that he can eat.

Please let me know if you try any of them and what you think. I hope you enjoy!

~ Snacks ~

Chunky Guacamole

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE • GAPS)
Low Carb Parmesan Crackers

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Strawberry Smoothies

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

~ Breakfast ~

Blueberry Flax Muffins

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

Banana Bread Muffins

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)
Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

(PROCESSED SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE OPTIONS)

Coconut Flour Pancakes

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

Almond Flour Crepes

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE • GAPS)

~ Side Dishes ~

Chicken Fried (Mock) Rice

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

Roasted Sunchokes, Brussel Sprouts and Carrots

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Roasted Butternut Squash with Smoked Paprika

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

Mashed Cauliflower

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

~ Soups and Sauces ~

Creamy Red Pepper Sauce

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Chili

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

~ Main Dishes ~

Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Healthy Battered and Fried Chicken Strips

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE • GAPS)

Chicken Parmesan

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Easy Cheesy Chicken Bake

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Healthy Fried Chicken

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE • GAPS)

Cheesy Meat Roll Up, a.k.a. Meatloaf

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Taco Bowls

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Broiled Lemon Butter Salmon

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Healthy Fried Fish

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE • GAPS)

Homemade Pizza with Almond Flour Pizza Crust

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Flax Seed Pizza Crust

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

Almond Flour Tortillas

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE • GAPS)

~ Desserts ~

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

Healthy Peanut Butter Pie

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Cheesecake Muffins with Fruit Topping

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Healthy Cake Pops

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • DAIRY FREE)

~ Condiments ~

Homemade Ranch Dressing

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Homemade Mayonnaise - Olive Oil and Sunflower Oil

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB• DAIRY FREE • GAPS)
Homemade Mayonnaise - Coconut Oil and Olive Oil, version 2

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB• DAIRY FREE • GAPS)

Homemade Whey

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Steak Butter

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB • GAPS)

Spicy Homemade Barbecue Sauce

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB• DAIRY FREE)

Ghee

(Clarified Butter)

~ Drinks ~

Strawberry Smoothies

(SUGAR FREE • GLUTEN FREE • LOW CARB)

Healthy Battered and Fried Chicken Strips (sugar free • gluten free • low carb • dairy free • gaps)

2011-08-01T11:27:00.011-05:00

Who says fried chicken strips can't be healthy?

Cut up boneless Chicken Breasts into strips. Season with Salt & Pepper.

Scramble up a few eggs.

Mix together 2 parts almond flour with 1 part coconut flour.
Add lots of herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Heat up some coconut oil in a pan.

Dredge your chicken strips in the flour mix, then in the eggs,
then coat them again with the flour mix.
Fry them up to a crispy golden brown color.

Mmmmmmm.

Serve with homemade honey mustard sauce and some green beans
(or whatever yummy veggie you would like).

Honey mustard is made with equal parts organic extra virgin olive oil, dijon mustard and raw honey.

The kids go crazy for these. Enjoy!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet, the Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania and the Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday.

Summer Update

2011-08-01T11:09:00.003-05:00

Summers are always so incredibly busy. This summer has been no exception. In fact, it's been one of my busiest ever. I haven't had a single free weekend yet. We keep trying to get some things done around the house (like cleaning our basement, which has become a dumping ground), but every time we try to find some time on the weekends, it ends up booking up from Friday till Sunday before we know it. I even wrote "Clean Basement!" in the calendar for this coming up weekend, but it has since been marked up with a child's birthday party, a swimming date with some friends and their kids and a meeting on Sunday with our new sitter who will be watching the munchkin while our current sitter is on maternity leave. So naturally, blogging has been on the back burner. Which sucks, because then I get behind and don't even know where to begin.

This past weekend was super crazy with a friend's wedding, in which Joe was a groomsman. I have some pics to post of that later. In the meantime, I have some pics I have had accumulating in a folder for posts that I might eventually get around to. I figured I might as well throw them all together for an update or they may never make it on the blog.

I can't believe I haven't posted much this summer other then a few recipes! Here's my mom hanging out with the girls on Father's Day. The were swimming in her little baby pool and playing with the "fishing poles".

This little bikini just cracks me up.

We had some friends over for Joe's birthday party near the end of June. Usually it's always hot for his birthday. We got lucky this year. It was beautiful outside. In fact, I think it was the last nice weekend we have had. It's been pretty much scorching hot ever since. We hung out with some friends, drank some wine and even enjoyed a fire in the fire pit.

Here's me and my oldest and dearest friend Anna chillin in my garage.
Her baby is due in about a month!!

My sis Amy and I.

My friend Gina breastfeeding her beautiful baby boy.
I just love this shot.

I have had great luck with my herbs this summer! It's been so nice walking right out to the back deck to grab what I need to toss in with dinner. I had been waiting until we moved again and could have an actual garden, but who knows when that will be. Container herbs work just as well!!

Currently, I am growing basil, parsley, thyme, oregano and cilantro.

This little dude has been hanging out on our little deck for weeks now. He's super cute and tiny (only about 3/4" long). The munchkin points and yells "Froggy!! Ribbit! Ribbit!!" She then proceeds to squat down and hop around like a frog. It was so hard to get a decent pic, but I'll share anyway.

I just really can't believe it's August already. I have started planning the Munchkin's 2 year birthday party with will be on Sept 10th. Two Years! I just can't believe it's been that long already.

She picks up so much new stuff all the time. She's been talking in sentences now and uses words to describe things instead of only sticking to mostly nouns. She can point out letters of the alphabet, colors, shapes, and can count to 12 all on her own. I am sure this is all typical for her age, but to me she's a super genius! Only a year ago, she could barely talk at all! It's just so crazy.

When she does something she wasn't supposed to, she'll say "sorry guys!", even if it's only me. She loves pointing to the food on my plate and saying things like "those are mommy's eggs" or to my seat, "that's mommy's seat". Some parents count how many words their kids have, but I am too lazy for that. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Her vocabulary exploded so fast, I don't know if I could even guess within a decent range at this point. She's definitely a talker. She LOVES puzzles. It's one of her favorite things to do. She'll ask me to get them down for her and we'll sit at the kitchen table and put them all together. She likes to hold up her cup and say "cheers" until you clank your drink with hers. She is still only drinking water and milk and loves them both dearly. She is a cheese freak, just like her momma. She also loves her eggs. Her other faves are, salmon, tacos (which is really just a bowl of seasoned grassfed ground beef, cheese, avocado, tomatoes and some sour cream), avocado, broccoli, pretty much any green vegetable, carrots, mushrooms, any she especially loves berries. We got pretty lucky with this one actually, she'll eat just about anything I give to her.

I feel like she gets cuter and cuter every day. How is that even possible?

I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer so far!

Float Trip!

2011-07-21T22:16:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we went camping and saturday we did a 6 mile float on the Huzzah River. We haven't been floating since before I was pregnant with the Munchkin and this was long overdue. I am not much of a pool person (mostly public pools), but give me and river or a lake and I will hang out all day. It always brings back so many fond memories of when we were kids. We would pack up all of our stuff and head out to either my mom's parents property or my dad's parents to camp for the weekend. We roughed it too. We always stayed in tents and brought everything to cook our meals. It was so much fun. I am looking forward to taking the munchkin camping and bringing her up with the same traditions. I will wait till she's a little older though.

So a few months ago, I sent out an evite, rounded up the troups and planned our adventure. We headed out Friday around 1:00 to embark on our 1.5 hour drive to our destination. We were so excited when we got to our campsite. It was literally right on the river!

Our Campsite right on the river!

Which was fantastic, since it was nearly 100 degrees. We headed down earlier then everyone else with another couple, Kurt and Amber. We set up our tents pretty quick, they set up theirs, then we wrestled with my sister and her husband's tent for about an hour. This was the most ridiculous tent. The instructions made no sense at all and we were all getting pretty frustrated with it. Since they weren't coming down until after dark, she had asked if we would set it up for them. She's so lucky she's my sister. And you better believe we gave them some crap about it!

After we had everything set up, we were all pretty sweaty, so we changed into our suits and jumped into the river. The water was crystal clear and felt so refreshing. We hung out in the water for a couple of hours until other people started to show up. We had an awesome group for the weekend, about 18 people and everyone got along fantastically. Once everyone started arriving, we started to help some of them put up their tents and get settled.

For dinner we had steak kabobs. Oh how I wish I had taken pictures of our food this weekend. It was amazing. Thursday night before we left, I marinated steaks in one bag and veggies (onions, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms) in another bag. Friday night, I assembled everything onto the skewers and we cooked them on the grill. It was amazing!!

It was a little hot for a fire, but we made one anyway. What is camping without a fire? Ofcourse, no one sat around it. But we had a fire damnit. We didn't stay up too late since we knew we would be up at the butt crack of dawn when the sun started beating down on our tent.

I think it was about 7:00am when we finally got out of bed. I forgot my glasses and needed to wash my hands before I could put my contacts in so I woke up Joe and begged him to drive us down to the bathrooms since I couldn't see well enough to drive. Not a good idea to drive when all you see is really fuzzy shapes infront of you. One of these days I am totally getting lasik. Figures the one thing I forgot is the one thing I couldn't buy while we were there.

For breakfast, I fried up some bacon and then made some scrambled eggs in the grease. Yum! Gotta stock up on that protein and healthy fats for a long day on the river! Then we headed out about 10am.

My sister and me ready to head out!

I am not a big fan of beer and I wanted something refreshing and delicious for my beverage of the day. I also wanted to stay plenty hydrated, so I came up with the perfect plan. I took a huge 2 gallon jug, filled it with ice, raspberry vodka, water and lemon juice and brought it with me for the float. It was fantastic! Maybe too delicious and refreshing, because that jug was almost gone by the end of the float. In my defense, I was sharing it with plenty of other people. Especially towards the end. Our float took 7 hours, longer then expected, and everyone else ran out of beer.

My girl Amber and me.

My sister Amy and her hubby Jeremy.


John and Jessica and their dogs, Sadie and Kenya.

Erin with her boombox, I can't believe it survived the entire float.

Me and my sisters!

We met some of the most interesting characters along the way. I kid you not, it was like spring break. There was an insane amount of people floating on the river that day. Probably more then I have ever seen on a float before. Floating is a pretty popular summer event in Missouri. The rivers are beautiful and there are so many of them. One guy was running around in his pink underwear. It was pretty funny and really gross at the same time. We kept seeing him and he was always standing up and waving his junk around. As far as I know he kept it covered up. But still. Ewe.

A shot of the crazy amount of people on the river.

We picked up a couple of stragglers along the way. These were people that had somehow lost their group and needed a ride. I am not sure how we kept ending up with them. They were all completely wasted and it wasn't too hard to figure out how they got lost. We picked up one guy named Joe, who looked so much like my sister's ex-boyfriend, it was scary. He completely freaked us out. My sister's husband knew her ex-boyfriend too, so I am sure he loved having his look alike in our boat.

Joe, one of the stragglers we picked up along the way.

My youngest sister Erin's boyfriend, Chad, earned the nickname that day of super athlete. It was nice having him along. He was pretty much in charge of steering the boat and he would jump up into trees or leap out of the raft to get us unstuck and push us in the right direction. Thanks to him, the other guys got to be a little bit lazy.

Chad, our super athlete, and Erin

We lost half of our group about half way through the float. We had 8 people in our raft, two (and two dogs) were in a canoe, and the rest in another raft. We kept stopping and waiting for them. After a while, we wondered if they were actually ahead of us, since we had spent so much time waiting. By the time we finished, they were still an hour behind us!

My favorite sisters.

This was a tricky bend in the river where rafts would pile up.

Our Baywatch photo shoot.

Amber and me.

At the end of the float, right before we got off the river, there was a big cliff that people were climbing up and jumping off of. We watched a few guys in our group jump off and I wanted to sooo bad! There was a time when I would have done it in a heart beat. For some reason, ever since I had a child, I am so much more careful about that kind of stuff. Being a parent is the most wonderful thing in the world, but I definitely miss being reckless sometimes.

We dragged all of our stuff out of the river and onto shore to load onto the bus to head back to camp. Our raft was absolutely disgusting. There was piles of trash and who-knows-what all over the floor. We had to clean it all up and put everything in trash cans. After we climbed onto the bus, I sat down and left some room for Joe. Right before he got to our seat, a woman sat right down next to me. I tried to tell her that my husband was just getting ready to sit there, but she was actually deaf, so she couldn't hear me. So whatda gonna do? Joe found another spot and it was no big deal. What did suck though, was that she smelled absolutely AWFUL and she was facing the isle, while I was crammed up against the window. She kept leaning back into me and rubbing her back on me. She was pretty drunk and I couldn't help wondering who was in charge of this poor woman. Not cool.

We arrived back at our site and Joe and I headed immediately for the showers. Being on the river all day and drinking somehow left me with a headache. After the shower, I took some aspirin and laid down for about an hour. Then I was good to go again.

For dinner I had made chicken hobos. In foil, I wrapped up some marinated red potatoes, onions, carrots, I laid a chicken breast over that, then topped that with pats of butter, seasonings and crumbled bacon (which I had already cooked). It was so easy and always makes the perfect camping meal. I pre-assembled them the Thursday night before we left, so all we had to do was take them out, throw them on the grill and eat them up. They were delicious! Joe and I couldn't finish them, so we gave our leftovers to Chad, my sister's boyfriend. He was so funny, he kept thanking me and telling me how awesome I was. He was pretty drunk.

After dinner, we stayed up and hung out for a while. I tried to hang as long as I could, but after getting up so early, and such a LONG day on the river, I was exhausted. We ended up going to bed around 11:30pm. About 5:00am I woke up to the sound of people yelling at their children. I couldn't believe it! They were literally cussing their children out, telling them to shut the f%#$ up. Classy. Didn't they know it was friggin 5 am! I felt worse for the kids though then I did myself. They didn't stop either and eventually we gave up and got out of bed around 6am. We were eager to get packed up and get back home anyway. I whipped up some coffee, made some more bacon and eggs, then we got to packin. We always bring alot of shit. It's awesome to have it all, but when it comes time to pack up and leave, we usually start first and finish last. Which is fine, I like to take a walk around the site after everyone leaves and make sure that all the trash is picked up and everything is back to how we found it. I can't help it, I feel bad leaving behind a bunch of our trash out in the wilderness.

So we headed out and headed home. One thing is for sure, I missed the munchkin soooo bad! This was the first time she had ever stayed the night away from both of us. She stayed with my mom and apparently she had a blast and barely noticed we were gone. My mom kept sending my pictures to my phone all weekend and updates, which helped, but I couldn't wait to get back home to see her! It was an awesome weekend and it was alot of fun to get away for the weekend, but it was so good to get back home!

I bought a kodak mini video camera for the trip. I wanted something besides my nice camera, to take on adventures like these and to take video of the munchkin here and there. It worked out good for the float since it was waterproof, but the pictures were pretty crappy (as you can see) and I ended up returning it. Anyone know of a really cheap video/camera that still takes decent pics?!

Eggs: The Perfect Food. Feel free to eat them. Every. Single. Day.

2011-07-14T13:06:00.013-05:00

Yep, I said it. Every. Single. Day.

So I was doing a little research on eggs and their benefits this morning. I know, I know, I'm a big nerd. It actually all stemmed from a conversation I was having with a girlfriend who was talking to me about her egg-whites-only breakfast. I just couldn't imagine throwing out the yolks!! It's the most delicious part, not to mention it gives us the most health benefits. I googled some quick info for her. She's actually a super healthy person and turns out, she knows the yolks are healthy, they just gross her out and she doesn't like them. Oh the shame.

But I wanted to share this study I found....

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19369056

Basically, it is saying that the subjects all did a carbohydrate restricted diet and some of them also ate lots of eggs. They all saw healthy benefits, but the subjects eating eggs everyday had even more positive results! Not only did the low carb eaters lower the very small particle LDL (the worst kind) for all of the subjects, the egg eaters also raised the HDL (the good) and the larger LDL, which also raised the plasma lutein and zeaxanthin in their blood!! That's amazing! Plasma lutein and zeaxanthin helps in the prevention and improvement of visual disorders such as macular degeneration and helps to support healthy eyesight!

It's also interesting to note that the study I posted is from a government website. Funny how most of their own studies contradict what they say we should be eating.

Eggs are especially good for growing children and egg yolks are the perfect first food for babies!

BTW, most of the health nutrients are found in the yolk!! Just check out this awesome article all about eggs!

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html

And it's a good thing too.... Eggs are pretty much the only food I can eat every single day and not get sick of.

Okay, I could probably eat bacon every day too.

And chocolate.

Chocolate covered bacon anyone?

Have You Been Considering a Water Filtration System?

2011-07-05T11:24:00.002-05:00

I have been looking into getting a new water filtration system for our kitchen sink. We gave up the water bottles a while back. Not only to save some bottles from ending up in the land fill, but we are trying to get away from as much plastic as possible. In the meantime, we have been relying on the filter on our refrigerator until we figured something else out.

There are several different types of filtration systems out there. I wanted one that removed as many chemicals and heavy metals as possible, but also leaving the natural minerals that make water important for drinking. For example, a reverse osmosis system removes pretty much anything harmful, but it also removes everything beneficial, like calcium and magnesium. Unless you add them back in yourself, it just doesn't seem like the best option to me.

I have been researching them for a while and had settled on one that I really liked. Here's an excerpt from their site:

"The winner of Health Magazine's "Healthiest Product" award for 2010, this water filter uses Aquasana's unique selective filtration process: a combination of carbon filtration, ion-exchange and sub-micron filtration to produce clean, healthy water. Our drinking water filter products install in minutes and are certified to NSF standards 42 & 53 to reduce sediment, chlorine, lead, herbicides, pesticides, cysts, VOCs, SOCs, THMs and bad taste & odor. Our unique filter also leaves in healthy minerals for optimum hydration. Since Aquasana filter cartridges last 6 months or 500 gallons, you're getting the healthiest water and the best value."

http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=1

I was also wanting a system that removes flouride, but without getting something like reverse osmosis, i wasn't having much luck finding something that would remove it all. The Aquasana system removes anywhere from 40-60% of the flouride in the water. What I do like, is that it removes all of the chemically added flouride, and only leaves the naturally occurring flouride. That's definitely something.

I found several comparison charts on other websites that helped me to decide as well, along with reviews from other bloggers. Here are some of the sites that I found to be the most helpful in my decision.

http://www.waterfilterresearch.com/

http://reviews-results.com/aquasana-water-filters/

http://aquasanareview.newhealthmedia.com/

http://www.aquasanareviews.com/

http://www.prissygreen.com/2009/08/aqusana-water-filters-review.html

http://www.homeinnovation.com/review/index2.php?item_id=72

I also love that it has a lifetime warranty offer and a no questions asked, 60 day money back guarantee.

So anyway, I have been wanting to take the plunge and order the system for some time, but with the upfront cost of $125, I have been waiting. Today, though I saw that they are running a special in July. If you order their system and sign up for their filters for life you get 50% off plus free shipping. They will ship you the new replacement filters every 6 months automatically (which you need to do anyway and costs only $48 when you autoship) and you get a complete lifetime warranty on the system as well. You can also cancel the auto shipping at any time, as there is no contract. This brings the water filtration system down to about $63! That is a really good deal (Amazon currently sells the system for $99). You also get a free glass water bottle thrown in. So yeah, I ordered it right away.

This deal also extends to their other filtration systems.

I will give my full review on how much I actually like it after I have used it for a while. I wanted to share with everyone the special though, since it's only through July, incase anyone else had been considering getting a water filtration system as well.