i'll never forget my first time...

...when i roasted a whole chicken by myself.  

i remember my grandma & mom taking out the innards of birds, especially at thanksgiving and i've just never wanted to deal with all of that.  this organic bird came without the grossies...perfectomondo.

this entire meal came from gwyneth paltrow's my father's daughter cookbook.  i love it so much.

rotisserie style roast chicken

note:  i substituted coconut oil for butter

roasted cauliflower

sauteed greens with onions and soy sauce

look at that HUGE bowl of kale before i added it to the onions.  

it really cooks down in a jiffy...

this chicken was so moist, so yummy, so good that this will be on the menu at least once a month.  

my first time was ahhhhmazing.  

reality check for working mom's and dad's:  this would be a hard weekday meal.  it takes about 1.5 hours to cook...but, a weekend dinner is a sure thing...and hollah...leftovers!  you'll get a minimum of two dinners...that is if it survives the first night's onslaught of hungry savages.

of course they all love fresh pineapple.

i know what you're wondering...did the kids eat that green stuff?!?  i kept to the one bite rule.  no one took more than that ...except for me of course!  but you know what?  they were all surprised at how good it was.  no one yelled "GROOOOOOSSSSS, that is disgusting!" they chewed and chewed and you could see their expression softening ...and i know it will just keep getting better every time i serve it to them.

i didn't get abbie to take her bite until she was running out the door to basketball practice.  

as she stepped into the garage, she looked back at me and said with surprise, "mom, this is really good!" and she was off.

hot mamas - it's "rice" honey!

hello

can you get any cuter?!

my hot mama friend stacey and her crew wanted to share with the mullies today!  

"tried quinoa today for the first time.  told them it was rice and 2 out of the 3 devoured it.  we had it as a side with broccoli and vegetarian fed/hormone free chicken.  i mixed mine all up into a stir fry-yum!"

love it!

thanks so much for spreading the food love stace!!

i am really loving this tribe wellness site i stumbled upon yesterday.  

their suggestions for being budget conscious were really helpful and of course i had to pass them along.  

eating clean on a budget

between my hubbie and i, we were buying take out or going out to dinner at least 2-3 times a week before our family food revolution happened.  that really adds up.  that money alone has paid for the organic box of fruits and veggies we are now getting for $46 a week.  my goal is to get my other food purchases to fall between $100 and $200 a week.  yes, that's a big swing, but some weeks i gotta go to cosco and we all know what happens when you go there....oye.  

if you're still skeptical about the affordability of eating clean, here's a link to the family who did it on less than a food stamp budget.  100 days of managing a $125 weekly food budget.  

now that's impressive. 

i guess we really don't have any excuses now, do we?  HA!

clean budget victory!

must have list

man, i'm on a roll today...posting like a crazy woman...

just found this blogpost  through 100 days of real food.

on my favorite list and i am making a permanent note in my purse so i never forget!

top ten food additives to avoid

ok, i gotta get off the computer already...

neurodevelopmental disorders and gut health going mainstream

this is truly exciting...

i mean, singing to the mullies exciting.

mainstream pediatrics is now officially addressing the real link between the "gut-brain" connection in the november 2012 issue of the American Academy of Pediatrics' monthly magazine Pediatrics.  

research is finally catching up!

the autistic spectrum and children's digestive health

thanksgiving ponderings with the food babe

thanksgiving toxins vs traditions

the food babe does it again, oh how she just bursts our bubbles...

steak and mushroom gravy train

this dreamy dinner started with trader joe's organic sirloin steak.

giada's steak and mushroom gravy wonderfulness

notes:

i did not have shallots so i used a half of an onion...  use whatever red wine you have on hand.  i added about 7 shakes of worcestershire sauce and i substituted gluten free all purpose flour and organic coconut oil for the butter.

 i was able to capture a very typical "tommy reaction" to new food.  

if you look hard enough you can hear him whining...lean in....

noooooooooooo mommy.

this dish is seriously ridonculous.

it was really hard not to just say,

oh, what?  no!?

you don't want it tommy?

ok, mommy will eat it:)

and i'm not sure if anything can beat this kid friendly green bean recipe.  

honey balsamic green beans

hot mamas lunch inspo

how awesome is this!?!?  

my uber great friends meg and stace are revolutionizing lunchables baby.

thank you so much you hot mamas!!!  i can't wait to do this for my kids too!!!

the mullies' mouth is watering:)

the food revolution is spreading.

my eyes are a little crossed, but i sat my tushy on the couch, 

put on umizoomi for tommy and launched....drum roll....

mundelein food revolution facebook page

whew, i'm hungry...let's eat some lunch.

abbie update - day 61

yesterday, i went to abbie's school to have our last team meeting.  never in my wildest dreams did i think the crazy train i started two months ago would land us here today on day 61.  i felt like pinching myself a few times in my chair, is this really happening!?  OMG, this really really worked!!!  to think, our last meeting was on sept 19 and we were all sitting together in the danger zone, red flag, hello, this little girl needs major help and we gotta stop dicking around (my words, not theirs:).

the meeting was one BIG celebration with her classroom teacher, social worker, reading teacher, psychologist and two other resource teachers.  abbie will no longer be needing to meet with the social worker and she will continue to get reading resource help in tier 2 (no longer tier 3!).  looking back, the inappropriate social behavior abbie was showing since kindergarten was probably the most shocking for chris and i to hear about.   what do you mean she isn't making friends?!  what do you mean she is not responding appropriately?!  for over a month now, she has been behaving and responding like a normal 1st grader...the news is just music to our ears.  she is making progress with her reading and staying on task...sometimes, it's hard to even break her out of her concentration!  holy wow batman.

her classroom teacher put it perfectly, 

"the abbie that we all knew was inside of her is finally out there for us all to see".  

i am forever changed with food.  all the magazine articles, books, movies, utube, tv spots of information...it was all there in front of me before our day 1.  all of it.  they were all just little voices & flashes that would come and go...all saying, "yada yada yada" and i just went on my merry way.  

i would respond a number of ways to the food information out there, dr oz, food inc, jamie oliver, supersize me, etc:  oh, that would be too hard and too expensive.  my kids like the food i give them.  i like the food i eat...don't touch my food or judge me, how dare you, you food SNOB!?!  that just doesn't apply to me or my kids.  we are normal.  why would the food companies want to hurt us?  ...stay away from processed food?  what?  yea right, where did i put my cheetos...mmmm.  let's go to mcdonalds!!!  maybe next month i'll change when my f'ing life slows down.  i don't have the time and i do not feel like cooking tonight...tomorrow, yea tomorrow.  chicken nuggets again anyone?  wait, or even better little ceasars!!!!!  maybe i'll make a salad for myself.

hahahahahahahaha, oh man...i did love, and still crave those mcdonald's fries....it is possible you could find me huddled in a corner someday, stuffing myself with fries yelling "don't touch me!!!!".

i would never have done this if not for my panicked moment 61 days ago: "i have to do something, anything... before we start pharmaceuticals".  after all of this, i truly believe that abbie could have come out of this needing something more... and hello dr, i'd be calling you yesterday:)  i'm a research girl.  if it's not proven, well, it's not broke so don't fix it.

so now that our little experiment is "over" and my hypothesis has been proven, i am left asking myself: 

"so what the hell-holio are you going to do with this amazing, life altering experience/information?"  

well, here's my plan:  

1. keep blogging..perhaps a little less frequently though:)

2. take baby steps into being one of the best volunteer food revolution ambassadors out there (that's right folks, my application was accepted by the jamie oliver team!).

3. try to be sane, realistic & down to earth while spreading the word about how food changed abbie's life and our family's life forever.   

4.  i'm pretty good with social cues... hopefully i'll know when to shut up.  

i am now one of the "yada yada yada's".

hang on to your butts, 

this is gonna be fun.

should we be eating gmo's? - genetically modified food

a must watch tonight

let's stop eating GMO's people

the rabbit hole is just getting bigger for me!!!!

check out this list from the feingold organization.  it will make you nauseous.

food companies actually pay to keep this information away from us.  check out how much

here

i just discovered the real food channel and i'm loving it.

the video is shown on either link i have posted:)

halloween for us went great.  the candy magically disappeared the next day and the grandparents took the kiddos out for a little shopping over the weekend while we were away on a weekend getaway. 

the plan worked like a charm! 

we counted about 350 pieces of candy

whoa 

now that's a haul

and so happy it's not sitting in the tummies!!!

a halloween treat

halloween hazelnut brown rice cakes

organic brown rice cakes

justin's chocolate hazelnut butter blend (found at target or fresh market so far)

carrots & celery

i'm the party mom today for abbie cadabbie... pretty fun, huh?

i licked the knife clean.

ps

i made the babycakes sugar & cinnamon gluten/diary free donuts again for the party & they turned out even better since i measured the flour oh so carefully!!!

pps

thanks lisa for cutting all the veggies!!!  xoxo

happy halloween!! it's my working grocery list part duex

wish us luck on our first annual candy for moullah trade-in tonight...:)

it's funny how much easier it was to make this list this time around.

trader joe's
udi's whole grain sandwich bread & bagels
organic spelt sandwich bread
jams
nuts
parmesan & gruyere cheese
frozen fish
italian meatballs (frozen)
organic frozen strawberries
lollypops (no artificial colors!)
kind bars (i buy an entire box or two)
cliff kid z bars (i buy an entire box or two)
bolognese sauce
organic coconut oil
canned light coconut milk
olive oil
organic ketchup
organic pickles
spices
organic popcorn
organic/free range/grass fed meats and poultry when available
organic beef/vegetable/chicken stock
organic beans (black, garbanzo, great northern)
salsa
polenta
agave/maple syrup
calcium enriched oj
applegate farms prepackaged deli meat & bacon (i usually buy at target though)
uncured sliced black forest ham
sliced prosciutto
kale chips
dark chocolate

target
applegate farms deli meat by the pound, prepackaged bacon, salametti log
thousand hills organic grass fed meat
bare brand chicken
wholly guacamole
go go squeeze applesauce pouches
"natural" peanut butter (skippy, jiff or jason's)
tinkyada pasta joy brown rice pasta (elbow and spirals are the best!)
thai brand canned whole coconut milk
kettle potato chips
tortilla chips
earth's best natural buttery spread soy free
simply orange juice calcium enriched
silk brand unsweetened almond milk & dark chocolate almond milk
organic cage free eggs

cosco
organic ground beef
packaged dried fruit
organic sugar
nuts
maple syrup
marathana all natural almond butter
that pickle guy classic olive muffalata
organic quinoa
spices
skinny popcorn
kettle popcorn
kettle chips
veggie chips
organic diced tomatoes
hemp seed
organic frozen berries mix
jone's all natural frozen sausage links
organic rice milk
fruitables juice boxes

all ways healthy natural food store
large mixed (fruit & veggies) organic produce box
probiotics and vitamins
goji berries
chia seeds
gluten free & vegan baking items
sweet leaf stevia sweetener (i bought the chocolate and berry flavor.  less sugar to sweeten up plain almond milk and sparkling water or a smoothie!  my plan is to ditch the dark chocolate milk boxes eventually and send a thermos of my homemade almond chocolate milk.)

vitacost & amazon
sucanat
gluten free flours
spelt flour
dark chocolate almond milk lunch boxes

the fam's favorite dinner yet

well, there is one thing you can expect from the mullies...pictures of food in reality time.  

no staged, pretty martha stewart action here.  can you tell i snap and go?

i was looking at that above picture pondering, jeesh, does that even look appetizing??  

hahahahahahahaha

i guess you'll just have to trust me and hopefully i'll get better at this:)

tonight's dinner inspo:

beef and broccoli casserole

sometimes i follow a recipe.

sometimes i google ingredients to get inspiration and then turn it into something else.  

i got lucky tonight with the latter and everybody l.o.v.e.d it.  

tommy likes it.  no feeding, no cajoling...he's like french or something. 

the mullies italian ground beef and quinoa

1 lb grass fed organic ground beef

1 large organic onion chopped

(cook together and drain fat)

1 T worcestershire sauce (i found a bottle with no artificial ingredients at williams sonoma)

1 t dried basil

1 t dried oregano

1 t dried parsley

1 c coconut milk

1 c organic beef stock

1 cube vegan bouillon

1 c leftover cooked quinoa (if you add uncooked quinoa...  cook at least 20 minutes or until tender)

(add above ingredients to meat and onions.  bring to boil and simmer until ready to serve).

sides:

christina's broccoli

sliced organic pears

gluten free garlic bread - i saved the frozen "butts" of the udi's sandwich bread, spread earth's best natural buttery spread & garlic salt over one side and baked them with the broccoli for about 5 minutes.

it's the first 100% happy family eating dinner since we started 52 days ago...

everybody noticed, it was a celebration...i want more of these!!

tommy's bake sale adventure

oh my lord, who doesn't like donuts?  i have not chowed on them for quite a while, but i am known to cheat on my primal-ness from time to time:)  tommy's preschool held a bake sale fundraiser last week and i decided to tackle the babycakes plain cake donut. 

here is my donut adventure.

just look at the difference in color between organic sugar and regular refined sugar.  no bleach or chemicals sure makes a difference...

round 1

babycakes plain cake donut recipe

i substituted cup 4 cup flour which has milk powder in it for the various flours on my first try.  it worked well, as it is a wonderful mix.   i am not sure if i will be buying it again, it's just really expensive.  

they turned out moist and yummy, not bad for the first round!

i made my frosting and had to throw it out because i (AGAIN DARNIT!!!) forgot to check my lemon juice...sodium bisulfate & benzoate strikes again.

mother in the truckers.

that is definitely poo poo.

needless to say, the first round donuts remained un-iced and they were still gobbled up by the family.

round 2

i followed the recipe to a T this time around and used all of the various gluten free/diary free flours.  

note:  wipe the little donut middle/top from batter!

i am learning that i have never really have been miss precise with my baking measurements.  

normal flour really doesn't mind so much...and oh boy does gluten free stuff.  

i decided to tap the measuring cups to get the flour to settle down and use a knife (like the author suggests!) to also level off the flour.  what a pain, but wow does it work!  this was a much looser mix compared to the first round.  

notice a little concave action!?!?  initially, i did not tap and carefully measure the brown rice flour.  it was the first flour i measured and was much more careful for the rest of the flours.  i can't wait to make these again because now i have my measuring groove on.

i added a little more rice flour to my last batch and they turned out great.  my little 1 inch ice cream scooper is a freakin dream.  i will never make cookies or donuts without them.  

e.v.e.r.

i filled a few donuts too high, got a little crazy with my scooper:)

note:

to get the donuts out without sticking, i just twisted them a bit in the pan before i scooped them out. worked like a charm.  

so i just trimmed the fat a little...

haha, the big guys didn't make it too well...the missing flour was the culprit!  see what i mean?  gluten free baking is kinda bitchy:)  but oh so worth it.

ta dah!!!!!!

and here are the finished little packages:

i covered them with an organic sugar/cinnamon mix, stacked them 3 high and stuck the halloween themed toothpicks down the middle.  the toothpicks and cupcake papers came as a set from target.

they sold out in an hour at the ymca.  

oh happy day!

day 51 - lunchie munchie

I'm getting more creative!

did those little buggers eat the peas?  no...maybe i should add some salt?

i must find some veggies that they will eat for lunch!!

the chocolate almond milk is double d'ness for dessert and drink:)

how in the world do i start? - help from 100 days of real food

i think i have gotten asked everyone of these questions from this wonderful post.

i just had to pass this along!

the most commonly asked questions when going for a food revolution

i have taken this a step further and combined:

the feingold diet 

(no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors)

&

the flexitarian diet

so that's where we have landed folks.

no cheating on the feingold diet, but we do cheat sometimes with the primal stuff:)  i do like to bake!

for example, i will continue to cook gluten free and i am going to start experimenting with spelt flour which is also used in wheat free cooking.  I just found out that even some celiac's can tolerate this type of medeval cereal grain.

this has been a LONG journey, but the best one i have ever taken and i am just finding my stride...whoop whooop!

pour some unrefined organic sugar on me - i just got home from parent teacher conferences

this song just came on as i finished making something (the next post which i'm super sweet on)

...and i'm a little manic right now (can you tell?) so, i decided to just write this post and dance along as i type... sticky sweet to my head to my feet yea!!!  (this one's for you stacey and meg)

listen

so this here crazy woman just went to both parent teacher conferences and i'm singing to the mullies.

mac's teacher has seen improvement in a variety of areas (not expected!) and boy oh boy do we have a great update on abbie.

we do not have to officially meet in a month for a team meeting - hurray!!!

for those teachers & parents out there who are familiar, here's some AIMS Web data.

(if you are wondering about the spanish...here's the deal:

she is in a dual language program 

- i love our school district!! - 

...that i was considering taking her out of...well, not anymore:)

hollah

we're talking ONE MONTH PROGRESS HERE BABYCAKES

don't forget, reading levels start at the "a" level (kindergarten) and progress through the alphabet with difficulty.

a lightbulb has indeed turned on.

somebody take me out dancing!!!!!

school lunch inspo

i am about to hit the grocery store and this link has given me a ton of inspiration for the kids' school lunches!

100daysofrealfood school lunch roundup with pictures and descriptions

the below link really re-enforced my tactics in dealing with my picky eaters!!!!

real food and children

isn't this pretty!?  i am not about recreating the wheel... it's so awesome that we can find this stuff!!!

primal chicken curry, gwen's fries, kale chips & celebratory homemade icecream

an update from abbie's reading teacher:

Hi Lindsey,

I have some exciting news. . . Abbie is doing such a great job in my reading group and making great gains in reading, that we believe she does not need to be in tier 3 (the most intensive intervention) any longer.  Today she read a level D (end of kindergarten level) book with me.  I discussed her progress with the classroom teacher and the other reading specialists, and we decided that Abbie can move into a tier 2 group with children from her class at her same level on Monday.  I will let Abbie know about this change tomorrow.  I am sad that Abbie won't be in my group anymore, but am so excited that she is making progress!  Thanks to you and Chris for working with her at home and making so many changes that are helping her at school.

***

we had eaten all of the last batch of ice cream so of course, it was time to make some more!!!!

nutty strawberry chocolate ice cream

inspired by peanut butter dark chocolate ice cream & strawberry walnut chocolate chip ice cream

1 can trader joe's light coconut milk

3/4 c sucanat

1 T coconut oil (melted)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c almond butter

1/4 tsp xanthum gum

6-8 organic strawberries (i pureed them in my magic bullet...probably got about a cup of red)

mix all the above in a blender

4 T enjoy life semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (add when mixture goes into ice cream maker)

mix in your ice cream maker for 25 minutes.  transfer to another container and add it to the freezer.  

hollah my dollar and the tastebuds.  you only need a little of this stuff too by the way...it's rich and creamy and your done in one scoop:)

primal chicken curry

notes:

didn't have tumeric or cauliflower so didn't use it.

also did not use much cayenne pepper, but will definitely use hot sauce on my plate next time!

gwyn paltrow's super easy no fry fries

notes:

followed recipe to a T.

kale chippies that melt in your mouth

notes:

added sesame seeds, course salt and a garlic seasoning blend to taste.

"mommy i love dinner tonight!!!!"

it's mac's most excellent adventure...

even tommy likes it!  thought he still eats the least:)  oh well, 3 yrs olds...

i ate all of the kale chips:)  

got abbie and mac to try them though!  they didn't want anymore, but didn't say that they were disgusting or anything - yea baby.

we had such a good night!!!