day 8

sunday fun day update:

oh man do i feel better about everything.  i woke up this morning feeling really settled and just plain good.  here is where we have landed in our milk decision - as far as mac goes, he is off dairy & eggs at our house.  as for the rest of the gang, we're gonna try and follow the primal pyramid shown above.  it's the one from mark's daily apple that i've been following for a year or so.  the only thing i have been cheating on is my high fat diary (i was drinking and eating a lot)...so in the grand scheme of "primalness", i am super super happy about cutting back.

i just reread a great "decide for yourself" dairy post here that is very well written.  and btw, i have not had an ounce of milk for the past two days and i feel like a million bucks:)  today i used almond milk for my morning latte...and you know what?!  i got it to FROTH with my aerolatte!!!  that thing really rocks the hizouse.  i will be trying rice milk next:)

it'll will be interesting to see if we miss milk-milk.

in flats on day 7

i went to bed early last night.  really early.  the mullies sucked the air out of me.  i was anticipating this though, i knew i would break a heel on my stilettos at some point and ask myself, what the f was i doing.  so, instead of wallowing in my yucks, i just went to bed.  and woke up just now.

yesterday we went to seek some advice, to see if we are on track.  the good news is that we are.  yea!  we added a kids' probiotic.

we also need to do more.  mac is (not was) allergic to dairy and eggs and we believed he "grew out of it" because he doesn't have anymore physical symptoms.  no puking, peeing out the butt or hives.  however, once allergic, always allergic.  some say the symptoms can evolve into inattention, hyperactivity and focusing problems among many other things.  sold.  i told mac last night and he was happy.  he said he hates cow's cheese anyways:)

ready for the next part?  i honestly don't know if i want to write it.  this soooooo kicks me off the highway even more....this highway i been on forever.  we have decided to get rid of milk.  cringe.  oh god.  really.  oh i don't know.  big sigh.  i don't even want to talk about it yet.  make it reality, so give me a little space with that.  i'll get back to you on everything we need to change.  hot fuuuuuudge.

 

i just want to love and squeeze my cheese.  

spoiled by a sulfiting agent

i'm so dumb.  last night, i seasoned my bare brand chicken with this montreal chicken seasoning that i love and ALWAYS use... i didn't even think, "what's in this?"...i googled the last ingredient: sulfiting agents.

i was so mad i could spit.  a sneaky preservative.  gotta go through my spices now.  mother fudgers.

so the adults took one for the team and i made some of the purdue simply - lightly breaded chicken chunks for the kids.  i don't know what i was more mad about, the fact that i couldn't give the kids the bare chicken tenders or that i got two pans dirty.

last night's dinner:

avocado chunks w/ cut up nuggets seasoned with s&p and organic ketchup for dipping.

go go squeeze berry applesauce pouches.

lays potato chips and veggie chips.

dessert:

1/2 ciao bella ice cream sandwich squares

i gave them little cups with ketchup and did not refill them.  they are slowly getting used to my ketchup rationing (about a tablespoon).  i swear abbie would have gone through a cup of ketchup by herself.

this dinner is not magical by any means.  it was very simple & easy.  and hello, we had the bears vs packers game to watch in our neighbor's garage.

this is real life people.

challenge:  what the heck do i do when we go to a party and there is food available to the kids on my crazy shitlist?  food that i served less than a week ago, and that the kids know and love!?  good luck with that.  here is what i did:  i told the kids what they could have, went home and got them dessert.  i let them have a capri sun and more potato chips which were a-ok with ingredients.  no problem.  then, when we got home we reminded them about our little experiment.  they got it.  i think.

what should YOU do if my kids come over to your house?  nothing.  nada.  zilch.  i will bring stuff for them:)

my head hurts thinking about this stuff.  i think it's this whole looking crazy thing.  and wanting my kids to enjoy being kids.  they had more sugar tonight than i would have liked.  it's ok.  i think i'll relax more once this month is over, gotta sort it all out...find balance.

feel the force luke.

day 7 fertilizing french toast

i went to grab the boxed french toast from the freezer this morning for mac (abbie doesn't like it),  and i thought, well hell, i better really check this label so i don't get caught again like last night.

hmmmm, what is this little ingredient?

ammonium sulfate

what what what what WHAT!!?!?!?!?  here is a quote from the link above:

"Ammonium sulfate is used most commonly as an artificial fertilizer for alkaline soils. When introduced into damp soil, an ammonium ion is released. This creates a small amount of acid, which lowers the pH balance of the soil. It also contributes nitrogen, which aids in plant growth. It dissolves relatively slowly, which makes it cheaper than some other artificial fertilizers. Ammonium sulfate is also used as an herbicide because it will burn the leaves of plants and either kill them outright or at least weaken them for easy removal."

when mac came down for breakfast, he saw me putting the box in the garbage.

i told him what ingredient i found on the box.  he was totally grossed out.  

and i quickly started making my own damn french toast.  

mac sat at the table and said very matter of factly, 

"you shouldn't eat fertilizer because it will make your throat hairless."  

i need to make a cheat sheet to keep in my kitchen and  in my wallet until i learn all this stuff.  i am getting flashbacks to midterms...

here is a great link i found in two two clicks.  gonna start here for today processed food pitfalls.

jillian michaels wrote it and she is hot.

day 6

time is precious, $$ is even more precious.  and one could go way overboard on all of this...

so, i have decided that my mission in all of this is to find a balance.  to help my kids and keep my sanity.  cuz if i'm not sane, holy hell will breakout.  

in the meantime, i am going to search for doable breakfasts, doable lunches and dinners.  i can't cook like giada EVERY night.  how cool would it be to develop a sane, healthy meal plan that rotates!?  a grocery list that won't bankrupt me.  i am going to try...i've hired myself.  i used to hit a lot of home runs...  i'll settle on some base hits for now.  

my friend laura reminded me today of something i said when abbie was 3 months old:  

"is it bad to give your kids mc'donalds 3 or 4 times a week?" 

no, i did NOT say that!  really?!  oh god, i probably did:)  a week ago i would have said, one time a weeks is fiiiinnnnne.  today, um no, not for a month can you have one f'ing morsel.  

the real world is out there though.  what will happen when they are away from the roost?  i refuse to be a hovering, anxiety-driven helicopter parent.  

i will scare the ever living crap out of them.  brainwashing my mom tells me.  that's what she did to us.  where's a copy of food inc?  i have a copy of forks over knives on hold at the library.  it's a start.  T held my ass to the fire yesterday and made me call the library.  thank you.

this is going to be a forever thing.  i really want it to be.  so i'm typing this in hopes the written words will help me kick ass at it.  it's super fun to be awesome at something.  even better when it's hard and then not so hard anymore.  

i mean i did it for myself, how can i not do it for my kids and hubby too?  such a stupid question. 

an update on juice boxes.  these fruitables only have 6g of sugar vs 14g from the capri sun super v's. sold.

the kids are enjoying the kid cliff z bars.  abbie likes the chocolate brownie the best, mac likes the oatmeal cookie bar too.  

i think abbie's fav looks like a piece of crap.

well hello mr hankie.  

pizza night

tonight i tackled a homemade gluten free, vegetarian pizza crust via kalyn's kitchen - a super fantastic low-sugar blog i follow.

do you have cheese cloth?

my cloth has never been used.  i almost couldn't remember where i put it.  i mean, who has cheese cloth nowadays? 

"to lindsey with love - 1999 love grandma" 

cuz you need it to do this to the cauliflower/zucchini/broccoli:

that's a lot of water you gotta squeeze out.  i also needed it to wipe my sweat off my face.

don't skip this part, if you're gonna tackle this one, go get some cheese cloth. 

tonight's topping: leftover marinara sauce and a combo of mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  

the only mistake i made...i put "grass" on top according to mac.yes, they ate it:)  a lot of whining though and no dessert tonight.  I'm so tired.

day 5

we were singing to the mullies this morning.  i turned on material girl and we danced around the kitchen to it.  me abbie and tommy.  T told me the other day i needed to educate her on madonna;)  so it begins.

pears and peanut butter

kefir

huge monster hit.

we have been eating these vitamins and fish oil packets every morning.  all 3 kids love the vitamins (gluten, artificial preservative/color/flavor free).  but they are not so keen on the orange flavor of the packets.  i tried putting some dark chocolate chips on mac's...he spit it out in the toilet.  tommy refused, fine.  i told abbie she could pick out a warm fuzzy or big rock for her jar (it's this positive reinforcement thing i do and it works ridiculously every time).  magic.  she squeezed that thing into her mouth like it was gold.

Changed up the lunches a bit today.  turkey and cheese sandwiches (nitrite free applegate farms).  target now has the turkey fresh at their deli, whoop whooop!  i love their bacon too.  

i really like the capri-sun super V, but i'm going to see if i can find something with lower sugar than 14g today.   

i also tried a new brand of yogurt from target.  those siggi's containers just beg you to buy them, they are so chic looking.  it must be the norwegian in me.  the ingredients rock with only 9g of agave sugar.  i only wish it was full fat...  that's the primal in me though:)  i love fat.  cuz it doesn't make me fat.  

CHEW ON THAT!

day 4 din din

brown rice & broccoli with lots of fresh grated parmesan cheese plus s&p (salt n pepper)

toasted and buttered organic bread

veggie chips

pears

kefir

btw, when i went shopping the other day, i didn't realize that all pre-shredded cheese has preservatives in it (or at least the ones i picked up).  really?  REALLY!?   i'll have to locate my food processor when i make lasagna next.  pain in my arse.

and here is how din din went:

i tried to make it look pretty.  i swear if my kids couldn't see their food, they'd eat everything...

oh, ok, you're gonna take pictures?  i'll pose, sure mom.  i love pictures.

wait, huh huh, are you serious? 

ok, let me get a hold of myself. 

i have to put that in my mouth?!  just one bite?  yea, no.

hell no.

mommy i don't want to do this anymore.  this is going to make me puke.   

chewing the first bite.  (notice glasses are off due to crying)

ok, i can do this!  after getting the first bite down and realizing it wasn't poisonous, she had about 5 good bites.  I told her all she had to do was try one bite.  She took four on her own.  

cinnamon roll rice - look mom, abbie likes it!  and with just a dribble drabble of honey:)  

cereal ponderings on day 4

processed food.  i banished that almost completely from my diet - i do cheat sometimes.  once i went primal/paleo whatever you want to call it, i dramatically cut back on sugar & processed foods.  i made one small change in the kids' diets (i added kefir to their breakfast) to get more protein in their bellies.  but i never thought to really and truly monitor their sugar past not letting them go to town on a bag of candy.

i took baby steps for myself and i'm going to do the same for the kids.  case in point our cereal stash.  i got rid of 5 boxes of pretty much all sugar cereals that i wouldn't dream of eating right now myself.  I whittled it down to two kashi brand boxes and two trader joe's brands.  we finished it this morning.

i am lazy.  i need quick things to feed my kids.  so here is the start of my new breakfast list that i brainstormed with T and i will be adding to it:

*quinoa or brown rice (made ahead) mixed with butter, cinnamon and honey (when T put me on to that a year ago, she swore it tasted like a cinnamon role, and she's right!)

*Yogurt and fruit (moving to full fat and plain...someday)

*apple/pear slices with peanut butter

*homemade waffles and pancakes with maple syrup (i would love to get them on a fruit compote or something...baby steps)

*kefir to drink

this list is loooooooong.  this is what i have to get away from...

football and flashcards

perhaps it's the magic of monday night football, but tonight was so much fun.  abbie received her first spelling list and sight word list today and we went to the mattresses.  we made a little ring of flash cards.  a few hours later, abbie went up to each and everyone (nine family members) and read her cards to them.   she practically attacked them to read to them.  and asked me six times if she could bring them to school to read to her teacher.  football and flashcards.  hot damn.  really!?  3 days.  oh man, i'm gonna sleep good tonight.  cuz on top of seeing my little girl's reading confidence begin, i won my first game in the family's fantasy football league.  booo-ya, it was a very nice night.

RIP uncrustables

so one of the hardest things to get rid of was my coveted pb&j uncrustables.  i love them.  you keep them in the freezer and they are delicious.  mac loves them frozen.  he gets mad at me if i let his thaw.  i would throw a bunch in the cooler for the beach this summer (i miss my ladies!) for lunches and my hubby eats them too. i'll just make a crapload and keep them in the freezer.  the kitchn says they last for 3 months...:)


this link had me at hello.  peanut butter and jelly pockets  i am soooo doing this tonight.  or maybe tomorrow, ok sometime this week.  but, gotta get yeast, don't have yeast.  and i'm going to do a little research and see if i can find a recipe to substitute almond flour and/or brown rice flour, but in the meantime...these will do.  it just got pinned.

i wonder if the kids will even like them.

food log numero uno

ok rap stars sings along, here we go now...here we go now, here we go here we go here we go now...

hello my little food diary.

my oldest, mac, liked the french toast.  he gets off to school first.  for abbie, it was a no go.  she didn't like the looks of it, but then if it's new, that's usually the case.  which makes me crazy.  The kefir has replaced the oj, which i actually have been doing for a while.  i was looking for some more protein in their breakfast and this was the ticket.  after trying a bite of the french toast, she chose one of the new cereals i bought and she liked it.

for snack, i usually pack a apple sauce squeeze pack and a granola bar or something.  Today, i just gave them a clif kid z bar with their water bottles to bring the sugar total to 11g vs 23g.  plus, the nutrition is crazy bad ass in those bars.  way better than some bread sticks and cheese wiz...:)

happy 1st monday.

tonight at my lover store

i have n.e.v.e.r been in and out of target so fast in my life.  you know how many times i have read, "stick to the outside of the store cuz it's healthier".  i pretty much did that.  ok, so there are a few items in my cart that i got from the inner "kill you" isles, but cut me some slack jack.  it is my first time doing this at my crack store and i love chips.

i spent $160 today at target.  about $170 yesterday at trader joes.  now i am not even going to think about the $$$ i just donated and threw out, that is just silly.

my cart tonight.  kinda makes me slap happy.

 

the pears are so pretty aren't they?  i haven't bought them in over a year.  supposedly, they are low in salicylat which is linked to ants in the pants and found in many common fruits like apples, cherries, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers.  am i going to cut those fruits out?  no way, but i thought, why not add in a fruit that doesn't have it?!  and i'm going to cool it with the oj in the morning for a month:)

my kids were surprisingly cool about this whole thing that i have done for A DAY.  this is what catherine told me to say to them and it worked: "food coloring = petroleum = gas/oil we put in our cars = poison for our bodies.  it's not healthy to eat it and mother dearest did her homework.  some of us have worse reactions than others, so we're gonna be healthy and not eat anymore wire hangers, kapeesh?"

yea yea, i can hear you thinking...what the WHAT is that perdue chicken doing in there?  (cuz i am thinking that myself).  baby steps, baby steps.  it was the best of the bunch and i can't let the lazy mom dinner go byebye yet, kay!?  and yes, tiffany, i will be going to the library this week and renting forks over knives.  after that, who knows what i'll do to my food next:)

day 1

technically, it's day 2 of the change.  I woke up yesterday, called my neighbor catherine and asked, "what did you do!?"

so she told me, outlined our new plan.  i shopped at trader joes with my new little list.  and with gusto i cleaned out my fridge & pantry.  i donated or threw out anything with artificial colors, preservatives or flavors.  did my husband freak out?  yes, a little.  now he's ok, at least for now. it's sunday fun day.

does my daughter have adhd?  probably.  my plan was to call the doctor tomorrow and get the whole diagnostic procedures set up.  instead, i'm going to try this for a month.  and we'll just see.  I heard and read of so much success from families who have made this simple, but not so simple change.  catherine's experience was a slam dunk.  so i have laced up my high tops, pulled on my sweatbands and am in the damn game.

will it make a difference for my kids?  i hope so.  i have decided to share our adventure for a variety of reasons.  one of my very best friends in the whole world, tiffany has a blog and i love it.  to death.  will i love it?  not sure.  i never really had a desire to write about anything.  she is my inspiration in starting this, for i never followed a blog before hers.  no one knows i'm doing this today, no one.  not even my hubby.  i just decided 30 minutes ago.  literally.  and here i am.  i like to jump in without any clothes on baby.  i also like to dance and accidentally drop wine glasses on the floor because i groove with utter & complete abandon.  i have done it twice now.  oops.

i'm not sure what all this will turn into.  even if i will make it past day 1.  maybe i will post about other things someday.  maybe.

to the mullies i say.  the mullies is any place you want it to be.  it is a place my sister and i would shout to while swinging and jumping on our swingset.  i don't know where it came from. we just made it up one day.  all i know is that we would follow each other to the mullies every time and got a lot of grass stains.  this is me and her on our swing set...  "TO THE MULLIES!"   i really love to jump and i really love my mullies.  my life.  to the mullies i say.