Making Progress

Last week, I listed the foods that we are not eating or trying to stay away from.  Many people, Jolly Green Daddy included, see that list and can't imagine what we area actually eating.

The most overwhelming part of this for me was to try to create a schedule that rotated the "mild foods" in and out of our diet.  For right now, we are trying to avoid them for the most part and 1 meal a week has had one peanuts, wheat, or dairy.  Last night Small Fry broke out in a rash, that looked like a burn, around his face as we ate Mario Batali's Penne with Cauliflower.  Honestly, I have no idea what caused the reaction, but for right now I'm thinking we will stay away from wheat products and see how things go.

We have been eating Gluten Free Pancakes, Green Smoothies, a lot of vegan/nearly vegan meals, goat's milk, sheep's yogurt, goat cheeses, lots of fruit, rice/nut crackers, and apple butter.  As I told you, I will try to give you an idea of what we are eating and include recipes.

Stir Fry

Stuffed portobello mushroom with brown rice, spinach, cranberries and goat cheese

Gluten Free Pancakes 

 I will share some more of what we are eating and recipes in future posts.

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

I've seen commercials for the online documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  As someone who has always paid attention to what she (and her children) eats (JGD makes his own choices),  this peaked my interest.  I was then talking with a friend who said that it was a worthwhile documentary to watch.  So tonight I decided to watch it.

 It's a documentary about Australian, Joe Cross.  He was overweight and suffered from an autoimmune disease that would cause him to break out in itchy blotches all over his body.  In order to regain control over his body, he did a 60-day juice fast followed by a fruit and vegetable heavy diet.  During this time,  he met a truck driver named, Phil, who suffered from the same the disease.  He then helped Phil go through the same juice fast and change his diet and life to conquer his morbid obesity and the physical ailments that went along with it.

I am not planning to have a juice fast any time time soon, but the documentary did make me more cognizant (if that's possible right now) of what I'm eating and how I feed my family.

You can join this health revolution and reboot your own system at Reboot Your Life.

Thank you to Joe Cross for creating such a thought provoking documentary and sharing it with us for free on his website.

Dinner at our House

While, I would love to invite you all to share a meal at our house, I know that really isn't possible.  I did want to tell you more about how we eat.  It might help when trying to understand our Meal Plans or why I have a tough time staying in budget the way I do.

We have a kosher home.  This means that we do not eat pork, bacon, sausage, shellfish or any other fish that don't have scales.  In fact we just learned that catfish isn't kosher because it doesn't have scales.  It also means that we do not mix milk and meat.  Yup, that's right no cheeseburgers for us.  We buy special meat from one of our local Kosher markets.  It's actually less to get it there than the supermarket.  Winn Dixie doesn't carry any Kosher meat, Publix is 8.99/lb for chicken breast and I don't remember Whole Foods' price, but you can just imagine...  This does limit the amount of meat eaten in our home.

Kosher Symbol

The other limit to the amount of meat eaten here is that the main cook, me, doesn't eat meat.  I'm a vegetarian.  Well, I guess, I'm technically a pescitarian.  I eat fish, but nothing with legs.  It used to be that my husband would eat meat when we went out.  He believes in keeping "Americanized Kosher."  The meat at the restaurants doesn't have to be Kosher, but he won't eat anything that is outright not Kosher (ie pork or a cheeseburger).  Since we are trying to limit how often we go out, I am trying to serve more meat to appease Jolly Green Daddy's inner carnivore.  It also helps that our local Kosher Market had a living social deal.  We got 2 certificates each for $20 worth of food for $10.  That means $80 of food (mostly meat) for $40, and being that we bought the certificates a couple months ago, it's not coming out of my current budget.  Anyway, I digress...

I am trying to break my meat and potato husband of this desire and broaden his horizons.  The organic buying club we belong to has helped a lot.  This has helped us to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables than ever before.  Which works well because Jolly Green Daddy is not a fan of frozen veggies.  He grew up on canned and if it's not fresh that is what he prefers.  Being that the salt content is through the roof on these and, oh yeah, the green beans are brown, I won't buy them, serve them, go near them.  I volunteer to coordinate my local group every other week, which means that I get my food for my time.  This is a great help to our budget!

I am trying to serve my family as much whole food as possible and get rid of the processed foods.  I have finally been able to make a tuna casserole without the cream of mushroom soup that my family  Jolly Green Daddy will eat.  This was the hardest for me to master.  We do still have some Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese in the pantry, though I'm not sure if I'm buying any more after we finish what we have.  And there is some Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese in the freezer for JGD.  I am also trying to lessen my processed soy.  I know that there is a lot of debate over soy and its benefits or harm.  I'm not going to get into that here.  I'm just going to say that I am trying to lessen the amount of meat substitutes I eat.  I am eating Tofu and we do have Soy Milk in the house (mostly for use with meat meals or making bread).

We are also wondering if we might want to try some other diet changes to see that can improve our general health (Sorry, Mom!).  But for now (at least through Small Fry's birthday) we will stick with our regular diet and decide what we want to do come March.  I'm also leery to change my children's diets without talking with their pediatrician or a nutritionist to make sure that I really am doing what is best for them.

I bake most of the bread we eat, and am trying to make whatever I can.  I have made some strawberry preserves and tomato sauce for fruit that we picked at a local farm.

I think that about sums things up.  I hope that helps you to understand why we do what we do around here.

Anyone else have a house like this, either Kosher or mixed diets?  I'd love to hear what you do.

Menu Plan Monday

Welcome to week 2 of 2012.  Here's hoping that this week's Menu Plan is better than the last.


My plan is to get to the grocery store today to pick up some items that we need.  This week I'm going to list what we are eating, but not give it a specific day.  We had spaghetti with "meat"balls for dinner last night.  I hope to get my version of what we ate sometime this week.


This week we are getting a box of produce (yum!), and it is Jolly Green Daddy's birthday.




Breakfasts:
Waffles (need to make more)
Cereal & Yogurt
Cranberry Orange Breakfast Cake
Cinnamon Rolls


Lunches:
Pizza puffs (No pepperoni)
Sandwiches
Leftovers


Dinners:
Caprese Tart & Leek Potato Soup
Quiche (something with the frozen spinach Jolly Green Daddy refuses to eat)
Green Bean and Potato Curry
White Pizza with Broccoli and Mushrooms
Some kind of meat


Treats:
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies


Basics:
2 Loaves of Bread (At least one with be Honey of an Oatmeal Bread)
Rolls?
Pizza Dough 
Pie Dough 


If you want to join us and share your menu plans for the week, you can do so here.  Thank's Organizing Junkie.

The Food Recap - Jan 1

Well, I had the best of intentions when I created my menu plan last week.  What is it "they" say about the best of intentions?  Yup, it all blew up in my face, but for the most part I was able to recover.

So what did we eat last week?

Sunday:

Well, I did the post on Monday, so I knew what we ate Sunday.  Yeah, I cheated a little.  But at least that plan worked.

Monday:

The plan was to have Lettuce Wraps for dinner.  The chicken wasn't defrosted, so I had to come up with something else.  I though about making the lasagna, until I realized that I didn't have the ingredients.  Oops!  So I made a Marinara Sauce and we had it over spaghetti with garlic bread.  It was a Giada recipe, and was really easy and came out great.  I cut in half as I only needed enough for dinner.  Next time, I will have to double it and freeze some for future use.

Tuesday:

Thought about making the lettuce wraps, but it was cold for Florida and I couldn't really wrap my head around the whole idea.  And I think we needed lettuce. What we had left wasn't going to work.  I made mini veggie pot pies.  I wish I had a recipe to share with you, but I kind of made it off the top of my head. I used purple potatoes, carrots, peas and chard.  I also used the Puff Pastry cups, as I had them in my freezer.  It was a great change for this classic dish.

Wednesday:

I was already to make a chicken stir fry (I gave up on the lettuce wraps).  That was until I opened the chicken and it smelled funny.  Ugh!  I had exhausted all of my last minute ideas, and was stuck.  We ended up going out for dinner. :-(  I was really bummed and felt like I was failing my family 4 days into the new year.

Thursday:

I worked hard to recover from the night before.  We had lasagna.  Jolly Green Daddy's request, so he went to the store and bough what we needed.  He was very happy that he saved $3.40.  I am too, but he spent more on some items than I would have.  But I knew what I was getting into when I sent him to the store.  So, that trip to the grocery store took another $14.54 out of our grocery budget.

Friday:

I pulled some meat out of the freezer.  I thought it was a roast.  There was something on the label to give me that idea.  So, I planned on making Momma Neely's Pot Roast.  When I started cooking the meat, I found out that it was not a solid roast, but some kind of flat piece of meat that was tied up like a roast.  I cooked it as I had planned.  By the time it was done, it was falling apart.  I've heard that's a good thing with meat, right???  Jolly Green Daddy and Sprout enjoyed it.

I made Delicata Squash and Kale Minestrone in the crockpot.  I used this recipe from The Sweets Life as my base.  She used butternut squash, but I had the delicata in the fridge, so that was what I used.  My only other comment.  Is that I did add the elbows at the end of the cooking process.  When I went back for seconds it was clear that they were continuing to absorb the soup and by the time I got to the leftovers for lunch there was no liquid and it was pretty much mush.  Such a bummer for such a great soup.  Next time, I think I will make the elbows separately and add them to the bowls, so that they don't get mushy.  Sprout liked it, Small Fry ate some (though he was quite fussy and didn't really want anything) and Jolly Green Daddy said it was good except for the squash, but he doesn't like squash so I wasn't surprised.

The final part of our meal was Challah (I'll have to type up my recipe at some point).  The only problem was that the oven was being used to make the Pot Roast.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I decided to hedge my bets and try making it in the toaster over.  Yes, I baked my challah in the toaster.

Saturday:

On the positive side, we had very little food left in our fridge this morning.  Sprout was asking for fruit, and I had nothing to give her.  So I thought we would go check out our local farmers' market.  (One of the plusses to living in Florida is that we can get fresh local food in the winter.  The summer is questionable, but the winter no problem.)  So $50 later we had brussels sprouts, the biggest portobello mushrooms I have ever seen, strawberries, grapes, leeks, a red pepper, local honey, smoked white fish dip, smoke salmon dip, fresh local mozzarella and kettle corn (that was for Jolly Green Daddy).  That should keep us going for a while.

Tonight we had portobello mushrooms stuffed with spinach and artichokes.  Wish I took a picture.  I used this recipe from The Savory Sweet Life, added frozen artichoke hearts and used whatever fresh spinach we had left.  Jolly Green Daddy and I really liked it.  Small Fry ate every bite I gave him, and Sprout was being persnickety, though she did eat (and ask for more) all of her brussels sprouts.

Budget:

Starting Amount: $300
Amount as of 1/4: $291

Amount as of 1/5: $276.46

Amount as of 1/6: $227. 48 (found a really good deal on Brother's All Natural, both kids eat these so they're good to have on hand and tough to find a good price on)

Amount as of 1/7: $182.08 (kettle corn not included)

 I will make this work!

Disney Trip - Raglan Road

Again, I apologize that there are no pictures.  I think I was too busy keeping Sprout and Squeaker entertained (no naps) to take pictures.

I was looking forward to trying Raglan Road.  I had asked Jolly Green Daddy to try a few times, and he was reluctant.  On this trip, he agreed.  I think it was the best meal we had the entire week.

We loved the atmosphere.  The step dancers were a great way to enhance the environment.  They were great.  We also had a fabulous waiter.  When I asked if the soups he mentioned were vegetarian, he said that he thought so, but would double check, and then told me the dishes on the menu that I could eat.  This was very helpful, as I normally have to ask if menu items have any meat in them.

Before we ordered the waiter brought us their Irish Soda Bread.  I have had Irish Soda Bread before (I think I even made it for a project in school), and have never been a fan.  Raglan Road's bread was great.  It was also a great filler for Sprout as I fed Squeaker and we tried to decide what to eat.  If you would like to see our options, you can see the menu, at AllEars.com.

I started with a Butternut Squash Bisque.  JGD (who doesn't like Butternut Squash) thought it was great.  Sprout loved it too.  I thought it was a good soup, but was disappointed as a Butternut Squash soup, as it didn't taste like squash.  However, I had no problem in finishing it all.  I then shared the Raglan Risotto with Sprout.  It was a basic risotto with shitake mushrooms and peas.  This was a real treat for me as most restaurants use chicken broth in their risotto.

Jolly Green Daddy took advantage of the fact that we were at an Irish pub and had a Guiness.  He started with a Caesar Salad, which he really enjoyed.  And then had the Lambo.  This was a lamb shank that was braised to the point where the meat was falling off the bone.  JGD loved this!

We then finished our meal with the Strawberry & Apple Crumble.  This was enjoyed by all of us.

We would go back to Raglan Road in a heartbeat.  I reiterate that I believe it was the best meal we had all week.

Tot School - Week 4

Sprout is 20 Months

This week we focused on colors and shapes. We spent most of our time focusing on colors, but we played games that were both colors and shapes.

We had a pretty laid back week around here. As Sprout and I caught the cold that JGD brought home from Alaska. So most of our time was spent taking it easy.

Tot Trays

Our Tot Trays this week include 

• Shape "Pattern Blocks" activity
• Cutting, Gluing and Stickers
• Playdough - with circles and heart shaped cookie cutters
• Lacing beads
• Bingo Markers
• A Transferring Activity from Tot Trays

Sprout enjoyed using her lacing beads this week.  She understands the whole idea of putting the string in the bead, but from there we need more guidance.  We will continue working with this one next week.

Sprout really enjoys using these dot markers in a 6 pack at Michael's. Maybe the whole "scented" idea wasn't the greatest idea, but we love them anyway! We found the printables for Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? and some other great Brown Bear activities at Making Learning Fun.

Sprout was able to match up the bigger pieces of this "puzzle." She really enjoyed walking around with the shapes though, which gave of us several opportunities to talk about the shapes she was holding.

Sprout hasn't used scissors before so this was completely new for her. We have these scissors so all she has to do is squeeze to cut. This is still tough for her but she really enjoyed trying. We will probably try these out too.

Now for the stickers, Sprout loved playing with her Mickey and friends stickers. She chose to put Donald on the paper, and then take him off!

Projects

This week our only real project was our stART project for this week. This project was based on My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. See my post for more about this project.

Tot Books

We use the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1 a lot this week. Sprout didn't necessarily understand all of the components, but she had fun checking everything out. Her favorite activity from this pack was the Shadow Match from Making Learning Fun. I was really impressed with how well she did this, since she shows absolutely no interest in the traditionally matching activities we try. In the beginning, she needed a hint here or there to find the right shadow, but by the end of the week, she didn't need any help at all. I also think she loved playing with velcro that attached the pieces to their shadows.

Sprout also played with her Little Einsteins Tot Book a lot this week. For the most part she was just pulling out the matching cards and walking around with them, or pulling out the accordion activity, but I'm glad that she is getting more familiar with this type of activity.

Practical Play

Because we weren't feeling all that great this week, our practical play this week was mostly trying to get better (we're getting there slowly).  This meant we spent a lot of time trying to get liquids into Sprout.  She really enjoyed JGM's "Lemon Tea."  

Towards the end of the week Sprout decided she needed some exercise and started running laps around the island in our kitchen.  

She also decided that she needed to practice her stunt falls.  

We thought that some fresh air might do us some good so we went to the Florida Renaissance Festival.

Next Week

Next week's theme is All About Me.  I plan on focusing on body parts, clothes, home and family.  We are getting ready to get together with JGD's family for Passover, and they would be thrilled if Sprout could say their names.  Though I don't really think this is going to happen, we'll give it a try.  I made a book with all of Sprout's family members in it, and I'm looking forward to going through it with her.  She loves looking at pictures of people so this should be a lot of fun for us.

To see what other tots were doing this week go to Tot School.

Hamantaschen

So after reading our book for our stART project this week, D made a craft hamantaschen and then we made the dough for real ones.  We finished up our real ones yesterday afternoon.  D was not so into it at first, and had more fun playing with Jolly Green Dad.  Which I can't be upset about because normally when I'm cooking dinner, this is favorable to having a munchkin underfoot in the kitchen.

When we first put her into her high chair to play with the dough, she really wasn't interested.  We have played with playdough a few times, but it's not always her favorite thing to do (though I definitely like the benefits for manual dexterity).  Then again, maybe getting her hair out of her face would have been good too!

I showed her how to use the cookie cutters on her dough like JGM was on the counter, which definitely helped.

I will say that even if she wasn't into rolling out the dough and cutting out the circles, she was more than happy to eat the final product.