DIY Fruit and Vegetable Wash

I was determined to stop spending almost $10 a bottle on Veggie Wash. Don't get me wrong, the stuff works great, but I am frugal and we are working through the first steps of the Dave Ramsey program. And ten bucks is ten bucks.

So, I started playing around with a few simple things and came up with a great (AND EASY) produce wash.

Here it is:

• 1 Part Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Part Filtered Water
• 10 Drops Young Living Orange Essential Oil
• 10 Drops Young Living Lemon Essential Oil

When I get home from the store I simply put all my fresh fruits and veggies into the sink, rinse them off with water and then spray them thoroughly.  You can rinse off the spray but I usually don't. There isn't anything in there that isn't safe to eat and we have never had any issues with the food tasting like vinegar. 

I used an 8 oz glass bottle from Abundant Health but you could use any bottle you have. I have noticed that this works great on berries and grapes specifically. If I just rinse them and put them in the fridge they always start to go bad much sooner than if I use this veggie wash. Plus having fruit and veggies washed and ready go increases the chances that they will get eaten! 

The Dreaded Vegetable Battle

My sweet, spunky, youngest son is great at eating eggs, bread, dairy, meat, and any fruit. He is not great at eating vegetables, at all. Actually the only vegetable he really eats on a regular basis is raw carrots. So, as we have been doing the Whole30, it has been a struggle to get little man to eat the veggies so here are some of the things we have tried:

1. Hide the vegetables. I put vegetables in everything. Smoothies with kale, scrambled eggs with spinach and zucchini, taco meat with shredded carrots, onions, and potatoes, frittatas with sweet potatoes, spinach, and peppers, spaghetti sauce with butternut squash puree. Anything I can put vegetables in has them in it. Sometimes I tell him they are in there, sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood, and his.

2. Don't hide the veggies. I do hide they veggies, but I also put both new and familiar veggies on his plate and tell him that he has to try them and eat them, Vegetables are a part of life. You can't be healthy without them.

3. Give them choices and control. He has to try everything I put on his plate. But he can always choose to add more or different veggies as well. He has eaten raw carrots at almost every meal since we started the Whole30.

4. Let them play with their food. If we are at a nice restaurant I hold the boys to a different standard, but at home, they can play with their food. Little man often eats standing up. He has all kinds of weird things that he does with his food. If he eats, I don't care how he gets it to his mouth.

5. Watch what they are eating and when. Snacks are important. Children need snacks, but if they are snacking constantly, or are eating junk (even healthy food that doesn't necessarily have all the nutrients they need) they may not eat at meals. We have a stocked snack bucket full of healthy things, but none of them compare to what I make at meal times. And, little man will snack ALL DAY LONG if I let him. So when he says he is hungry sometimes he gets a snack, but I always make sure he has something in his snack that includes protein, for example nuts and a banana, beef jerky, a boiled egg and strawberries, apples and cashew butter. 

6. Take them grocery shopping with you. I always tell the boys that I will let them pick out any vegetables they want. If they will eat it I will buy it. Even if we try it and don't like it, it is good to let them be involved in their food choices. 

7. Make them dinner helper. The boys alternate between dinner helper and table setter. I don't know why they love to peel potatoes and carrots, but they do. And even if little man complains about eating them, I figure that the expose will eventually lead to acceptance, and acceptance to approval. When I was in high school I was a vegetarian. We lived with my grandmother who made steamed vegetables EVERY SINGLE DAY. There wasn't a whole lot of choices so I ate them, EVERY SINGLE DAY. To this day I LOVE steamed cabbage even though I couldn't stand it at first. Same with avocado. As an adult I decided it was healthy and so I should eat it. I didn't really like it at first, but I kept trying it. Now it is one of my favorites. 

8. Don't make a huge deal about it. Eating vegetables is crucial, but the truth is that stressing about isn't going to make them eat them any faster. I could possibly FORCE little man to eat, but it wouldn't turn him into a veggie lover and it wouldn't foster a healthy relationship with food. Plus, I want him to make the decision to do something that is good for his body. 

9. Focus on the healthy things they will eat. If there are healthy foods that your kiddo will eat, feed those food to them! Spinach has vitamin A, which is great, but so does cantaloupe. So get them to try the spinach and then eat the cantaloupe. It's not ideal, but it's better than McDonalds any day!

10. Celebrate their victories! Celebrate the crap out of those victories. We will clap and cheer for a clean plate in our house. We don't ever make them eat everything (because I am not always hungry enough to eat everything on  my plate, so it make sense that they wouldn't always be that hungry) but if they like a new vegetables, or eat all their food, we are excited about that!

11. Write down what they eat. When I started writing down what the boys were actually eating I was surprised by just how much little man was actually eating. He may not eat everything I want him to, but he is doing just fine!

12. Remember that we don't live on vegetables (I mean bread) alone. Feed their little souls. Vegetables are important, but it isn't the end of the world if they don't like them. There are more important things to focus on!

 

Whole Family on Whole30 - Days 8-16

This post was supposed to be Sunday night, and here it is Tuesday night... It has been a crazy couple of days. One night last week Brandon and I helped out a friend who was moving. She also happened to be getting rid of a cute little couch. So, I thought, that will be great in the homeschool/playroom. I will just organize that real quick. That turned into lets organize every closet in the house, the garage, and the van. (Look for a post later about how what to keep in your car in case of an emergency.)

As of right now, I have reorganized my van, garage, laundry room, homeschool/playroom room, front closet, linen closet, pantry, and bathroom. I didn't have time for this but I have A.D.D. The furniture in my grandmother's house stayed in the same spots for my entire life, I rearrange every six weeks, at least. But look how cute the homeschool/playroom room looks! The boys felt like it was more "preteen", which is very important since the big one is 10 this year!

So, that's my excuse for the delay! Also, just a heads up, I didn't take pictures if the meal was a repeat. Seriously, we love taco salad, and you probably don't want to see the same taco salad ten times.

And before I post all the yummy food pictures, I wanted to say, this is a crazy amount of kitchen work: cooking, food prepping, and oh my goodness the cleaning. So, one about day 3, I switched to paper plates. I know that is terribly lazy but something had to give! :) And hey, I bought the recycled compostable ones and we use cloth napkins. Don't judge me!

Day 8

Breakfast: I made green eggs and ham. The boys LOVED it. They were ecstatic. They didn't even care when I told them there was as much spinach in the eggs as eggs. I threw a few avocados on mine and it was great.

Lunch: This was our first water park picnic. Whole30 is not the most picnic friendly plan but I think we did okay. (There is a close up picture of our packed lunch below.)

Dinner: I had planned on making shish kabobs. When I told the boys they were super excited because they thought I meant fruit kabobs, so we made fruit kabobs. Plus we tried cauliflower rice for the first time. (Not really my favorite vegetable.)


Kid Grub:
Breakfast: Green Eggs and Ham! Plus watermelon and blueberries.
 Lunch: For our water park lunch we had roll ups, boiled eggs, raw veggies, grapes, and homemade trail mix. The trail mix has sunflower seeds, cashews, pecans, chopped dates, raisins, and pistachios. It was pretty good and it was fairly easy to get the boys to shove a small handful in their face.
Dinner: Shish kabobs, fruit kabobs, and cauliflower rice, which Ezra loved and even asked for the leftovers to be saved specifically for him.

The boys had a lot of fun playing horse shoes while the shish kabobs cooked. 

Day 9

Breakfast: Frittata, tomato, avocado, and little smokies. This little sausages were great. They were Applegate Organic Smokey Pork Franks. Everyone loved them and the boys thought they were a special treat because I never buy the conventional ones. 

Lunch: Chef salad with grilled chicken and all kinds of good stuff.

Dinner: Italian Chicken and salad. This was a pre-Whole30 favorite, I just added the sweet potatoes and it was ready to go! Brandon even eat all his green beans. That my friends is a victory!

Kid Grub - Day 9

Breakfast: The same as me, and I made the boys try avocado. They decided it didn't have much taste.

Lunch: Salad two ways. One kid ate a regular salad and one kid ate all the salad parts, just separated.

Dinner: The Italian chicken was pretty well received because it wasn't an abnormal food. The little one hasn't like any of the salad dressings I have made yet but this night he finally decided he could eat the Italian dressing.

Day 10

Breakfast: Frittata (which isn't new) but the homemade breakfast sausage was! It was pretty good if I do say so myself.

Lunch: Tuna Salad and ants on a log. (Because what adult woman doesn't love preschool snacks!)

Dinner: Swordfish, roasted artichoke, asparagus, and yukon potatoes.

 The boys ate the same things we did, but they don't eat tuna so I made them roll-ups for lunch. They also had tilapia instead of swordfish for dinner. 

Day 11

Breakfast: Green Eggs and Ham with pears.

Lunch: Baked Sweet Potato topped with chili, avocado, tomato, and red onion. It was fabulous.

Dinner: Taco Salad, always a winner. 

Day 12

This was another water park day! I love swimming, and I am not buying waterpark food prices so we always pack our lunch. It is harder with Whole30 but not impossible.                             

Breakfast: Frittata, sausage, and apples.

Lunch: Meatballs, homemade trail mix, clementines, olives, and fresh veggies.

Dinner: Pot Roast with potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips. It is great!

The boys ate the same things. Here is the kid version of their meals:

Day 13

Breakfast: Grilled chicken, spinach, avocado, and tomato. It was a great breakfast because everything was basically already done. Who says you have to eat eggs for breakfast!
Lunch: Taco Salad
Dinner: Grilled Chicken, fresh veggies, and canteloupe. I guess I didn't take a picture because it wasn't new or special.

The boys ate the same thing for lunch and dinner, but had the leftover green eggs and ham for breakfast with raw carrots.

Day 14

Breakfast: Boiled eggs, fresh veggies, and a larabar.
Lunch: Turkey burgers, topped with a fried egg and sugar free bacon. I enjoyed mine on a bed of spinach with several yellow tomatoes!
Dinner: LEFTOVERS! My new favorite meal. I claimed a piece of tilapia, topped it with some pico de gallo, and added steamed carrots and avocados.

My Miniature Foodies
Breakfast: Boiled eggs, fresh veggies, and a larabar.
Lunch: Turkey burger with fried egg and bacon. Carrots on the side and fresh blueberries.
Dinner: Yellow watermelon, olives, carrots, and a hot dog. They loved this, and so did Brandon. They were Whole30 approved and so I didn't feel terrible about giving them to the boys, and because they haven't had regular hot dogs in so long they thought they were eating junk food!

Day 15

Breakfast: New mini frittatas with spinach, sweet potatoes, and bacon. They have been my favorite so far. We also had apples and cashew butter, which I liked much better than the sun butter. 

Lunch: Roll ups, with the romaine on the outside instead in of on the inside, because my lunch meat kept falling apart. :)

Dinner: Pork ribs with steamed veggies and chopped avocado.

What the boys ate:

Breakfast: Mini frittatas, apples, blueberries, watermelon, and cashew butter. 

Lunch: Roll ups, carrots, apples, and champagne grapes. 

Dinner: Ribs, sweet potato and potato hash, raw carrots, and clementines. The boys LOVED the ribs!

Day 16

Breakfast: Green Eggs and ham with carrots and apples. This time I added spinach AND zucchini. The boys didn't even notice! Go go sneaky mom!

Lunch: Taco salad. It never gets old.  :)

Dinner: Italian chicken.  

There's no pictures for day 16 because there was nothing new. We are finally getting into a routine and I don't feel like I am struggling as much as I was the first week. One of the things that has really helped me is to make all the breakfasts ahead of time. We are not a big breakfast family, and honestly, I am just not that good at the traditional breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, etc... I feel like I always burn at least one thing when I make it. But I made enough mini frittatas, green eggs, and boiled eggs to get through the week. I made it all ahead of time and froze what we wouldn't eat in the first few days.

In addition to really understand how I need to prep for the week I felt like week two went a lot smoother with the kids. There has been a lot less grumbling and asking about junk food, especially from the oldest. We have had a lot of good talks about nutrition, about how God expects us to treat and take care of our body, and what the food we eat does to our body. We have always worked off the ideas that some foods are everyday foods: meat, fruit, vegetables, (usually dairy was included in this category but hasn't been lately.) Then there are sometimes foods. Usually these are things like bacon, juice, cheese, frozen yogurt. We can eat them often but not daily. Then there are special occasion foods. These are things like cupcakes and potato chips and root beer. I am not going to tell my children they can NEVER have these things but we really had to assess what a special occasion was. I was in the habit of treating lots of ordinary activities like special occasions. 

I mean, my birthday party is a special occasion, but a birthday party is not necessarily a special event. We probably get invited to 30 or 40 birthday parties a year, I can't expect to eat a cupcake at every birthday I go to and be healthy. It is the same thing for my children. Cupcakes aren't bad, but no one needs one a week. I think the boys are understanding this, and understanding where I have failed to teach them healthy habits and now we are learning them.

Brandon is still lamenting the loss of certain foods, beans and bread mostly. Brandon's relationship with food isn't usually as noticeable as mine because he is a lot more active than I am on a daily basis, both at work and play, and so his poor food choices haven't reflected the same in his body. But to see him processing why he wants to eat certain foods, what his motivations are and why he makes the choices he does. He was pretty supportive the first week but he has balked at some of the rules and restrictions the second week. He is still doing great at trying new vegetables and staying on plan. I'm proud of him. His boss even offered him chocolate chip cookies and he had to turn them down. He is doing good.

I personally have noticed that I have a lot more energy. I am not exhausted in the evenings before bedtime and I feel like I am waking up quicker and feel more refreshed in the mornings. Also, I have often used sleeping pills to help myself stay asleep and I haven't had to take one of those in over a week. And while I know that losing weight is not the main goal of the Whole30 program, and it isn't even my main objective, but it is one of my goals.The boys keep using the "D" word (diet) and I keep reminding them that this isn't a diet, that we are eating healthy, and that we are just resetting our body and giving it a chance to heal from some of the damage we have done.  I have lost some weight this summer, and it is killing me to not to step on the scale and see if I am losing weight. I have some serious body image issues, and whether or not I think I look better, or am losing weight, often has more to do with my emotions than my body. At the end of this process if I don't lose any weight, but my health is improved, I know that it will have been worth it. 

Our Time at Milestone

It was a few weeks before Christmas in 2010. Brandon and I had been looking for a new church. And honestly, we weren't in a great place, church wise. We were struggling  because we couldn't find a place where we both felt like God wanted us to be. We had visited quite a few churches in the span of about six months, and while we visited some really great churches, we never got the word from the Lord that any of them were where He wanted us.

Then, Milestone. We just happened to attend when they were putting on a Christmas production. I must admit that out of the two of us, I am the cynic. I thought to myself, "yeah, it's pretty, and the people seem friendly enough, but you can't just put on a show at church. You have to give people the gospel." Then Pastor Jeff Little got up and gave a straight up, undiluted gospel message. It was that moment that I looked at Brandon and said, I like it here. He agreed.

We have spent the last three and half years serving, attending, giving, meeting new people, and most importantly encountering the Lord at Milestone. This church has been a tremendous blessing to our family in many ways. I feel like I have grown as a wife and mother in my time there, my husband has learned a lot, and my children have been developed in their desire to know God. We are thankful for Milestone!

Early this year both Brandon and I felt that the Lord was telling us that we were about to make a move. We really prayed about it, we sought the Lord, but here is the catch, we loved our Milestone family. We had made some great friends. But by the start of the summer we both felt like the Lord was pressing us to step down from the positions we were serving in and really spend the summer seeking His direction on where He wanted us planted as a family.

Since that time we have visited several great churches, and we have found one where we feel like the Lord wants us to be for this season in our life.

Several people have asked why we left Milestone, and I just wanted to take the opportunity to explain that the Lord was moving our family in a different direction, and that we are so GRATEFUL for what the Lord has done in our lives through Milestone. It has been a great several years and I am so thankful that the friendships we made there will stand the test of time!

One Week Complete

No fancy food pictures here, but since we made it through our first week I thought I would just do a quick update on how everyone was feeling and reacting to the Whole30.

Let my just be transparent for a minute: doing Whole30 with the kids is HARD.

 In some ways it is harder than I thought it was going to be, and in other ways it hasn't been so bad. I think it might have even been harder to not include them. I can't imagine this much prep work and cooking plus having to feed them something different. Plus, who needs the temptation? Do I even like the organic kid cereal that tastes like cardboard? No. Would I have been tempted to take a bite if it had been in front of me? Maybe. 

Speaking of the food choices of my children and the amount of prep work I thought I would just go down the list and talk about how this process has effected each member of the family.

We'll start with the baby.

The jury is still out on him. I said at the beginning of this that he was going to either starve, or eventually get hungry enough to eat. He has a had a few good days, a few really bad days, and a lot of days where he was probably hungrier than he would have preferred. Interesting enough, this is my small kid. He probably shouldn't lose any weight. But I am refusing to feed him junk. There are some things he eats pretty well, most meats, eggs, fruit, olives, and nuts. If it falls into that category, he will usually eat it. Notice what is missing there: vegetables. I have tried everything I can think of to get him excited about vegetables. We haven't reached that point yet. I am going to keep trying though. 

(Side note: This is also my sneaky kid, and being the devious little guy that he is, he has managed to find and eat chips TWICE. Once at a birthday party and once at the swimming pool out of his friend's lunch.)

Now on to my older son. Oh boy. He is my good eater. He usually eats anything I tell him too. And he has continued to do so. Most new stuff we have tried, he has like. He has enjoyed the food (with the exception of the eggplant) and hasn't complained at meals times much. Now, full disclosure: I knew the kid like junk food as much as he liked everything I served him. But I did not realize how much of a sugar addict he was. Good gracious. I don't buy junk food for the house, we don't have it here. But I have never really forbidden it when we are out. Snow cones and Dippin Dots at the zoo and the occasional root beer float or shake from Sonic have been permanent fixtures in his life for as long as he can remember. And, during one week we were invited to three birthday parties. The first one was the night before we started so I let the boys each have cupcake. The second we were able to make it to, unfortunately. But the third... oh man. The Whole30 was in full swing, so we took our own treats (apples, larabars, and olives) and I told them that they could have any of the fruit and veggies that were being served. This kid whined the entire time about not getting a cupcake. So much so that we had to have a serious talk about it in the car. As far as kids with food issues he doesn't have it nearly as bad as some children. And I reminded him of that. His complaining turned into a fruitful conversation about being grateful regardless of our circumstances, about seeing the positive instead of the negative, and the simple fact that sometimes we have to deny ourselves pleasure for a time or for a reason. 

As for my handsome hubby.... this guy has knocked my socks off! He wasn't feed a very nutritious diet growing up, and he certainly was never made to eat a vegetable. He has always identified himself as a kind of meat and potatoes (and junk food) type of guy. He has tried so many new things and actually like a good chunk of them. He is still lamenting and a little bitter that he can't have beans for the Whole30 but he is actually doing great. I am so proud of him. In all honestly, I kind of thought he would get halfway through day one and go "screw it, I am going to go buy a hot dog." He is missing grains, dairy, but mostly legumes. But I have made sure to include lots of things I know he likes and he's taking it like a champ.  And I have noticed that he has much more energy in the morning. Usually it is a process to wake him up but it has been an easier, more pleasurable, experience getting him out of bed in the morning. I'm stoked about that!

We have one other person in our household that I don't write about much, but my grandmother lives with us. She isn't doing Whole30 (though I think she should) but she is enjoying that I am cooking every meal for her, that we are including lots of new veggies. But then she is going to back to her room after dinner and eats her vanilla wafers. Bur you can't win them all.  I have thanked her though that she has saved the satisfying of  her Blue Bell habit until after we (or at least the kids) go to bed, and PRAISE JESUS that we have two freezers and the children don't venture into the second one. 

And me. I have really enjoyed learning about my body. I have enjoyed trying new foods, and I have LOVED knowing that I am feeding my body and my family things that are great for us. What I have not loved is all the prep work. There is only so much you can do ahead of time, and I feel like I have been cooking for the past week straight. I will admit that I didn't do nearly enough prep work before we started and I probably did too much this past week. There were several things that I prepped and froze for this week and next week. I cut my thumb pretty bad. (Those sweet potatoes are beasts.) I burned my finger rushing to get something out of the oven. I have overcooked both weekly batches of frittata. I got the tiniest most painfully annoying little cute on one of my fingers from my food processor blade. I have yelled at my children about dishes. I had to ask for a redo. But for the most part I have enjoyed the journey. I don't miss dairy (I didn't eat a lot of it to begin with) and I didn't eat a lot of grains. My favorite food ever is roasted corn, so I will be avoiding street fairs like the plague. The only thing I am really still struggling with is diet soda. When I say am WAS an addict I am not kidding. If I had to chose between food and soda, and I knew that I get my nutritional needs from drinking the fizzy goodness, it wouldn't be a tough decision. I am hoping that by the end of the Whole30 I can remain diet coke free for good. Umm, I mean that I WILL remain diet coke free. I was actually in a terrible mood the other day. I was grumping at everyone. I cried because I got stuck by the train (not that I had anywhere I needed to be a certain time.) I even sat down and decided that since I was in a bad mood I was going to shop online. I know, stupid. But when I sat down and thought about why I was upset it was because I could only drink water. Then I promptly felt like a hag, because how many people would die that day because they lacked cleaned water. Like I said: addiction. But when I think about it, it isn't the caffeine that I am addicted too. Caffeine free hits the spot just as well. I don't even think it is the flavor. It's the burn. I love the bubbles. And that brings us to today... Today, when I was looking up teas for my husband on the Whole30 website I saw something about sparkling water. My first thought was, that can't be good. Isn't the carbonation bad for you? So I go to the source of all knowledge, Google, and start searching. Turns out it isn't bad for you! Want to know more? Read this. As for the feeling: AMAZING. All the burn, all the bubbles, no bad stuff. I may just make it through the rest of my life. Okay, yes, I am being a little dramatic but I am excited.

So, there you go, how I feel, how the kids feel, what has been good and what has been not so good. 

A Whole Family on Whole30 - Days 3-7

I can't believe we are finished with our first week of Whole30. It's been interesting. The ones who I thought would struggle have done pretty well, and the one who have thought would do the best is having some major sugar withdrawals. 

The food I've made this week has been pretty good, if I do say so myself, but everything hasn't been greatly appreciated by everyone, although everyone has found something new they like. So, here's what we've eaten the last few days:

Day 3

Breakfast: Fried Egg, Sweet Potato Home Fries, Canadian Bacon

Lunch: Fresh Veggies, Roll Ups, and Pineapple

Dinner: Tilapia, Sautéed Radishes, Green Beans, Mushrooms

 (The sautéed radishes we really good, they taste nothing like fresh radishes.)

And here's what the kids ate:

Not sure where the breakfast picture went. They had the same thing I did, sans the chives. 

Lunch: Roll Ups, LaraBar, Boiled Egg, Blueberries, Pineapples, Carrot Sticks

Dinner: Cubed Chicken, Tilapia, Salad, Mushrooms and Radiahes 

I put the chicken on there because I wasn't sure the boys would eat the fish, but they both liked it. Elisha loved it!

Day 4

No breakfast picture, same frittata as before. 

Lunch: Chicken Salad, Broccoli, Grape Tomatoes

Dinner: Taco Salad, Roasted Pattypan Squash, Baked Plantains

Taco salad was delish!

And the boys ate:

Lunch: Chicken Salad, Veggies, Pears and Olives

Dinner: Taco Salad, Plantain Chips, Blueberries

The chicken salad wasn't a big hit with the boys, Elisha didn't eat much for lunch, but he loved the taco salad. 

Day 5

Breakfast: Frittata 

Lunch: Leftovers (I've never been so happy for leftovers!)

Dinner: Steak, Romanesco, Roasted Red Potatoes, Squash

Kids:

Lunch: Grilled Chicken, Veggies, Watermelon

Dinner: Steak. Red Potatoes, Berries, Oranges, Romanesco

Update: On the Whole30 page they announced that white potatoes would now be considered Whole30 approved. The hubs was thrilled, I thought they boys would be ecstatic too, but it turned out that neither of them were really interested in them. 

Day 6

Breakfast: Fried Eggs, Spinach, Grilled Italian Chicken Sausage (The Sausage was fabulous!)

Lunch: BBQ Chicken Drumsticks (I used the BBQ Sauce recipe from Well Fed 2), Broccolini, Sweet Potato and Japanese Sweet Potato Hash

Dinner: Salad, Spaghetti Squash with Puttanesca Sauce and Meatballs, Roasted White and Purple Egg Plant. The sauce on the egg plant tasted like eggplant Parmesan. It was really good. 

The kids ate the same things I did, just in smaller quantities. The spaghetti squash was a hit for one, but not the other. Both boys loved making and eating the meatballs. 

Day 7

Breakfast: Because it was Sunday, we in a rush to get out of the hose and my breakfast picture didn't turn out. But, I had two boiled eggs, half an avocado, pic ode gallo, and a banana. 

Lunch: Taco Salad. (Can you see a pattern here, we l e taco salad.)

Dinner: Chicken Breast, Salad, Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli

Kid Grub:

Breakfast: Boiled Eggs, Fruit, Carrot Sticks

Lunch: Taco Salad, Plantains, Watermelon

Dinner: Chicken, Olives, Carrot Sticks, Apples

Tomorrow (or in a few days) I plan to write a quick post on children and the dreaded V word! If your kids are great at eating their veggies, then I'm going to ask you to come anoint my children and pray for me! If not, stay tuned. :)

Would You Like a Redo?

Often times my children need an adjustment. No, not a chiropratic one, although I am sure they could both use one of those too. Grumpiness, grouchiness, whining, and general pig headedness sometimes abounds in our home.

(And I would be lying if I said that it only came from my children.)

A few months ago I came across an idea. I am not the one who came up with this, but I have no idea where I got it from. I read so many parenting blogs, FB posts, and pins that sometimes I lose track. 

But here is the basic premise: when my children respond to a request from me with a bad attitude or in a disrespectful manner I will respond with this:

"Would you like consequence or would you like a chance to redo that?"

 The vast majority of the time they will ask for a redo. Then I ask my question or make my request again, just like I said it the first time, and they have the opportunity to respond with respect and kindness. 

I have found that this, more than any other discipline or parenting technique I have tried, helps with their attitude. I also think that it makes them more conscious throughout the day of the way that they are speaking to me, their dad, and even each other. (I have asked them to "redo" the way they have spoken to each other.)

Now, let me tell you why I think this works, and how to quickly make it completely ineffective. 

First off, a bit about my boys. I have two wonderful, sweet, HANDSOME, wild, rowdy, all boy, little men. In many ways they are a lot alike, but in others they couldn't be further apart. One of those ways is their general attitude towards being asked or made to something they don't really want to do. I have one that will do what I tell him to do, 99% of the time, BUT it usually comes with a hearty dose of whining and complaining. The other one is obedient less often, but when he isn't obedient it is because he has made a decision to chose his way over what Mom and Dad have asked of him, to him, the crime is worth the punishment. We have even heard him ask "Exactly how many spankings will I get?" "A spanking from you or from Dad?" (Note: for whatever reasons spankings from Mom are on the bottom of the punishment totem pole. No one seems to be bothered by them.) 

With my always compliant, not always positive child a redo allows him the opportunity to really think about the way he spoke and how he should have responded. He is much more emotionally driven and tends to need a moment to process what he is feeling and whether or not those feelings are worth getting him in trouble. 

With my logical, analytically minded child, he needs to be reminded that Mom and Dad have to be respected, whether or not he feels like that is the best choice for him at that moment. He needs to be reminded that even when he feels like he is capable of making all his decisions, that Mom and Dad are still in change.

The majority of the time when I use this, it works well. And it usually takes care of any grumpiness. It is amazing how a moment to think, a chance to make the right decision, when they thought we had lost that opportunity gives them new perspective. I must admit that I have also asked them for a redo when I have lost my cool with them or realized that I was being grouchy. So far, this has been a great tool in my parenting belt. 

But I have also quickly learned how to make it completely ineffective. When I use a harsh tone with my boys, I lose all footing I have to correct, discipline, and train them. If I have a bad attitude there is no way that I can improve theirs.

The more I respond to them with mercy, grace, and patience, the more I give them the opportunity to respond the same way

Whole30 - The First Days

I am two and half days into the Whole30. For me personally the food has not been that big of a change from what I was eating, just a little bit cleaner, and NO DIET COKE. Which still hurts my heart a little bit, but breaking my diet coke addiction is one of the things I am hoping to accomplish this month. I mentioned in my first Whole30 blog that I would share with your what I was eating. (Let's face it, meal planning can be one of the more difficult aspects of preparing for the program.)

As far as breakfasts and lunches, the plan is to have the same thing each week. I came up with several breakfasts and six or seven lunches and I will repeat them each week. The dinners I am going to try not to repeat more than once or twice each month.

I do have to say that I have cooked more in the last three days than I have in a long time. Everything fresh equals lots of kitchen time. But the meals have been great so far.

 Day one was great. Breakfast was a fried egg with sweet potato and spinach hash, topped with chopped tomatoes and chives. I also had berries on the side. Lunch was Mexican shrimp cocktail. It was amazing! (The recipe is at the bottom, lucky you!)  For dinner, I made marinated skirt steak, green beans, mashed sweet potatoes with ghee, and roasted squash (zucchini and butternut). Everything was great and even better everyone tried something new. Brandon, who usually isn't a big veggie person, even like the mashed sweet potatoes and the zucchini.

On day two I had the same breakfast as the kiddos, so I didn't take a picture of. The frittata I made wasn't fabulous, if I am being honest. I usually make frittatas for myself, but I usually use egg whites instead of whole eggs. I used whole eggs (because that is what Brandon and the boys like) and I couldn't get over the yolk flavor. It was good, just not great. Next week I am going to tweak my recipe. For lunch I made roll ups. These were fabulous. We have these often, but of course usually they have cheese on them. For mine I used roast beef, spinach, bell pepper, apple, bacon, and avocado. These were great and filling. I added two sliced beets to my plate and it was a great lunch. For dinner I made beef stew. This was great and was a hit with Granny, Brandon, and Ezra. I loved it too, but Elisha needs a little more convincing.

Little Men Food - Day 1 and 2

We started the Whole30 on Monday. Hello healthy food, goodbye diet coke! We had a fairly healthy diet before starting this but there were a lot of things that I let slide. Especially since it is summer, and we live in the land of snow cones, dippin dots at the water park, and goldfish crackers at church.

As we have changed the meals we are eating the last few days there has been some resistance, especially from my littlest one. But I am confident that by the end of this he will either be a better eater, or have starved to death. Only time will tell. He has not been super open to trying new things so I am trying to fill his little belly with as much Whole30 approved food as possible while also trying to broaden his horizons and encourage him to eat vegetables. 

On Monday we started our day with eggs, scrambled for the little guy and fried eggs for the big guy, with sweet potato hash, and mixed berries. For lunch I made shrimp. Elisha doesn't like shrimp so I gave him some grilled chicken. They also had salads and pears. There was a little hesitation about both breakfast and lunch, none of this was even new food, but it wasn't the food they would have chosen. As far as dinner goes, I am going to count that as a success both boys tried something new. Anytime I can get Elisha to swallow a vegetable that is a victory. He will eat any kind of fruit, and most grains, but most meats and vegetables are out. Every night one of the boys helps makes dinner and one of the boys sets the tables. Elisha was dinner helper that night so helping make the vegetables might have been some incentive to eat them. We had skirt steak, green beans, mashed sweet potatoes with ghee, and roasted squashes (zucchini and butternut). 

Day two breakfast was frittatas, pineapple, berries, and pears for boys.

For lunch I made them roll ups with ham, spinach, apples, and paleo mayonnaise. I also made them apple 'sandwiches'. Apple slices with sunbutter and raisins in between. 

For dinner the boys had fruit (grapes and pears), black olives, and beef stew. The stew was delicious but both boys were hesitant. Ezra ate it without any problems, but Elisha was definitely more reluctant but he did eat three bites of the meat, one bite of parsnip, and two bites of carrots. It wasn't much but you have to celebrate the small victories!

 I have found that the more the boys are involved in making, playing with, preparing, and shopping for the foods we are eating, the more receptive they have been to eating it. I guess your mom was wrong when she said not to play with your food!

Elisha in Sprouts, proudly displaying his ginger antlers. 

It Starts with Food - Our Whole 30 Journey

I have spent the last year or so exploring several natural or alternative treatments that God put on this wonderful planet to heal our bodies. My family has several issues that we've been dealing with. One of the things I have found that has helped us immensely is Young Living Essential Oils, but I'll save that for another post. 

Two hours into reading this and I was already sharing it. 

Several weeks ago I bought a book, It Starts With Food, and set it on the book shelf, where it sat for a while. But then I picked it up last week after being totally inspired by a friend from church who just completed her own Whole 30 journey. She also shared her journey here, which motivated me to finally pick up the book. 

It was revolutionary. Sometimes the same information presented in a new way can illuminate everything. 

"Everything you eat is either making you more healthy or less healthy." Did I know this before reading the book? Well yes, if I had really thought about it, but the way the body and all of its wonderful functions were explained left me feeling two things: amazed at complexity of God's creation and convicted about what I was eating and feeding my family. 

I have lost 22 pounds this summer. Which is fabulous. But I'm not only interested in losing weight. I'm interested in healing my body, and my family. All four of us have things that have gone awry in our bodies and I'm hoping that this journey can help us understand how food relates to those things. (I'll share more in a later post about what's been ailing us.)

So today, we are starting a 30 day nutritional reset called the Whole 30. If you have never heard of it I encourage you to research it. Get the book, and follow along as I go through this journey with my handsome husband my two wild little men. 

There's not a lot of information out there about doing the Whole 30 with kids, so I'm going to try my best to not only share what I'm eating but also what my boys are chowing down on. And because I have one kid that is a little foodie and one kid that be perfectly content not to eat, ever, this should be interesting. 

Snacks for the boys. 

Let me start with what I did this weekend: PREP WORK. Holy guacamole (which is Whole 30 approved!) this takes a lot of prep work. I spent all day Saturday shopping. We started our Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market. We got some great veggies and some organic bacon but really this was about getting the boys excited about trying new things. I told them any new vegetable that they would try, I would buy. We also went to the bookstore where Mama got a new cookbook, Well Fed 2. I then headed to Central Market, and Sprouts. I am a label reader anyways but Whole 30 is strict, I probably read the labels on 15 jars of salsa alone. 

Check out the mini frittatas on the top shelf!  

Then Sunday rolls around. I had 174842 things to do, plus church, and a birthday party that was an hour away to attend. But I cranked it out, did a ridiculous amount of prep work and finally sat down at midnight to drink my last diet coke ever. (I have a problem, don't judge me.)

I made taco meat, grilled chicken, chopped fruit and veggies, and a few other things to help start this off right, but I think two of the more crucial things I made were mini frittatas and a snack bucket. Whole 30 recommends three meals a day and only snacking if you must, but with kids, snacks are essential. Brandon and I may be able to make it five or six hours between lunch and dinner, but not the boys. Having snacks, pre-portioned out, and all Whole 30 approved is going to make my life easier. 

Because I was up way later than I should have been last night this morning was a little rough, but by this afternoon I finally feel like we are off to a good start.

I'll check back in a few days with what we've been eating, a meal plan, and how everything is going. Until then, buy the book and read. I promise it will be worth if!