Dinner at the Chrest house tonight was spaghetti with noodles that all kids would want...super long and green. Zucchini noodles, but shhhh don't tell my kids. They absolutely gobbled them up. I think it was all in the presentation. I purchased this gadget and it was awesome! My middle son is not such a great veggie eater so this will be something I am adding to the lunch and dinner menu. They tasted amazing!
I used
- Zucchini Noodles
- Mario Batali sauce
- grass fed beef
- mushrooms
- I also snuck in some green olives (oh, speaking of olives, I found some, stuffed with blue cheese today at Aldi).
Here is where you can get this bad boy http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007Y9WHQ/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
SUCCESS
I love to share little success's...we had Isaac's 18 month well baby check today. Isaac has always fallen in the 20th percentile for height. Through research I have read that gluten can prevent growth in children. I wondered if Isaac just had the genetics to be a short kid or if it could have anything to do with his diet. Well today he was in the 69 percentile! I told my super supportive pediatrician about reading about the correlation and he was very interested because as he stated they don't normally have that kind of jump in height when trending consistently. Woot Woot! Here is just one of many articles on the subject http://www.glutenfreesociety.org/gluten-free-society-blog/new-study-shows-how-gluten-stunts-growth-in-children/
DOUBLING UP
I was a machine in the kitchen today. I hammered out two batches of goldfish crackers (I did not cut out into goldfish shapes, I'm not crazy), two batches of graham crackers and a 9x batch of cereal. I wish I had a commercial oven. I have told you this before but DOUBLE your recipes. It saves sooo much time. Invest in a Food Saver. For instance, you have to grate all the cheese for the crackers. Well, I grated a huge block from Costco and then measured it out and put in bags to save myself that step next time. Same with the mixed nuts for the cereal. I ground up a large bag from Costco of Almonds, Walnuts and Pecans (that is a lot of nuts) but now, throwing my cereal together every two weeks is easy peasy cuz that was always a lengthy step. The longer you follow this way of life the wiser you get with prep. If you are going to stay on track you have to be prepared. You have to have the good food in your house otherwise you reach for the crap. However if I had my way your cupboards would be completely empty of any nasty food :-) My babysitters no longer love to babysit at the Chrest's. However my last sitter totally dug my chocolate chip cookies. Woohoo, success with a sugar and wheat eater.
EASTER FOR US
I hope you had a blessed Easter. We ended up going out for brunch so no one had to cook. One question I get asked a lot is "how do you go out to eat eating this way". Super easy my friends. Most restaurants have a gluten free menu. I know, you are saying, "but Joy, you said we are not supposed to fall into the gluten-free trap". Yes, that is true but you know what products those are (breads, pastas, starchy veggies). So with that being said when an item that doesn't fall into those categories shows up on the gluten free menu they are a safe bet. It just means that you don't have to fear having wheat put in your dinner. Seasoning they use etc. doesn't contain wheat.
Example: Orchard gluten free menu was this: Made to order omelets, eggs, bacon, sausage, broccoli salad, green beans, fresh fruit, hash browns, chocolate covered strawberries. Great choices.
I had a huge everything omelet, loads of bacon, a little fresh fruit, green beans, and a small portion of broccoli salad (however it tasted crazy sweet, so def sugar in that bad boy). I didn't miss the other choices one bit. I now see that other food, (rolls, French toast etc.) for what it is. I know I can make those things the right, healthy way at home if I want them. Going to a brunch and not feeling deprived is liberating. Not craving the junk is life changing.
On Weight Watchers I would have been figuring every little point and end up pissed that I couldn't have cheese in my omelet cuz that might push me over the point level. I on the other hand have no idea how many calories I consumed on Sunday and I DON'T CARE!!!!! I also know that the scale won't go up the next day. It remains stable, other than hormone fluctuations throughout the month.
WORLD'S BEST PEANUT BUTTER EGGS!
I know there is a lot of candy at Easter but I was super mommy and got my kid packs of xylitol sweetened gum for the baskets and then I made the WORLD'S BEST PEANUT BUTTER EGGS! They deserve all caps. They were simply amazing. Do not save these for a holiday. Make them soon! My kids adored them and so did everyone else that I shared with. Mega peanut butter and just pure goodness. It felt amazing not stuffing my kids baskets with high fructose corn syrup and nasty dyes. If this sounds radical, don't worry through this health journey you are on you will continue to learn what gets put into our food and knowledge will be your power to not want people you love to consume this stuff.
So mine aren't gorgeous but really, it didn't matter. The picture below the eggs is my chocolate that slipped out of my hands. I'm so glad they were totally worth it.
Recipes to this weeks favs below:
Blessings to you all and spend the $27 on the noodle thingy. Amazing!!!
POST RECIPES
Gold Fish Crackers by Maria Emmerich
"Healthified" Peanut Butter Eggs:
Thanks for the tips about shredding and grinding and freezing.... makes perfect sense!!!! I bought the zucchini pasta thingy too! Will make the PB eggs! Thanks for the great read!
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