Day in the Life | Week 8

School has begun and with that comes a whole new set of nutritional challenges. As you probably have witnessed, so many of the treats given at school are sugar packed and not much nutritional content.  Many ask what I do.  At the beginning of the year I pack a bag of snacks that are still quite special cuz we don't have them often at home, I send this bag of goodies to my childs teacher.  If someone brings a snack with wheat in it I ask that the teacher share one of the options I packed.  I pack things like, organic rice peanut butter bars or Kids Cliff fruit ropes.  Like I said, not things I typically give my kids so it's still a special treat for them and I know they may be getting more sugar than normal but at least it's not high fructose corn syrup or a bunch of dyes etc.  Because wheat is such a huge health issue with them that I tell people to please just make sure and give them "gluten free".  So occasionally my family does get a gluten free pizza from a pizza joint, or has a box of rice pasta organic mac -n- cheese.  These are once in a blue moon treats and not something that is fed to them often!!  It's amazing how conditioned kids are though. I used to give my kids Kraft mac-n-cheese multiple times a week.  A few weeks ago I went totally outside my nutrition box and purchased a box of rice pasta mac-n-cheese I served it to all three boys.  Isaac spit it out and was totally grossed out by it.  He has never had mac-n-cheese so the texture and flavor was just yuck to him.  The other boys were pretty excited to have it because my attempts at grain free mac-n-cheese have been anything but successful. I bought the Annie's brand that seemed pretty benign other than the high carbs. I won't be serving it often but once in awhile it would be an ok substitute.
 I do not take for granted that my children are young and have pretty easily adapted to this lifestyle.  I know those of you with older children get a lot more push back.  Baby steps and education.  You will get there.  Don't beat yourself up on not doing everything perfectly.  If you have young kids, start now.  I can't tell you how great it feels to have my youngest child want nothing to do with something that comes out of a box! Another reason he will not see these boxes on my shelves at home :-)

Thank you to all of you that entered to win the Weber grill and Swerve. Congrats to Christa Edin Blaser!   A super fun contest and great feedback.  P.S. Swerve Confectioners is FINALLY back in stock and on sale!  Use code JOY10 for an additional 10% off your order.

Day in the Life

 

9 am

Here is where prep work pays off on school mornings.  On the weekend I make a double batch of muffins so that eggs and muffins can be a staple on rush mornings.  I love to do pancakes and waffles when I have a little more time.  I apologize I haven't tried freezing our favorite waffles yet to see how they hold up.  I got a lot of great feedback on the waffles I posted a couple weeks ago.  They are a must make! 

12 pm
I make lunches at night because it is just easier.  I have told you about Planet Box's and I can't stress enough how great they are and that they truly make lunch packing more enjoyable.  They are not cheap but they last forever and no more plastic bags or containers.  I pack a thermos with homemade lemonade (water, ice, liquid stevia and fresh lemon juice) or farm fresh milk and we are good to go.  Looking over the school menu made me pretty glad I pack my kids lunches every day.  Ugh!  Here are a couple great resources for lunch ideas for your kiddos. 

3 pm
So I am really big on listening to hunger cues.  This means that sometimes I don't eat till 3pm in the afternoon.  Since my family has switched to this way of eating they too have relied on hunger cues and my boys don't snack as often as they used to (unless they are at grandparents, what is with that?).  Take out the addictive opiate stimulator in wheat and it's amazing that your constant desire to eat goes away.
My friend Nichole sent this article to me this week about 80% of the worlds population will soon stop eating wheat.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing.  Watching those around me struggle with all the negative side effects of consuming it is hard.  It's not a fad!!!  It's being recognized by top medical professionals in this country but more important than that are the people with real life stories about how cutting it out has transformed their health.  Please share with me your testimonies big and small, they encourage people. 
  So, as I said at the beginning of the blog, new challenges arise with school starting.  Sam goes to preschool for 6 hrs a day.  Within this 6 hour window he is required by nutritional program to be fed 2 snacks and a meal.  That is a lot of eating in my opinion.  It's not a habit I want my kids getting into but when you utilize outside education there are some things that you just have to accept.  I am not ready to take on educating my kids at home at this point in my life :-)  God bless those of you that do!
We have instructed him that he can skip snacks whenever he wants to.  I'm telling you if, you feed your kids a protein, fat rich, breakfast the chance that they will want anything to eat before lunch time is pretty slim.  So when people talk about how expensive it is to eat this way, I respond with how much money they will save by cutting down on all the snack stuff you buy. 

6 pm

Dinner is all about dessert tonight friends.  I had some time while Isaac napped today to make this delicious peanut butter pie.  It did not disappoint, but I would let set overnight next time.  It was even better the next day.  This is a dessert you could easily bring to a get together and please even the pickiest of eaters.  Next was on to homework.  Jon is in first grade this year and with that comes homework.  This may be the death of me.  I'm not big on rewarding with food but I wish I would have waited to serve the pie till after he was done with the homework.  Maybe would have been some motivation. The picture of the fries below is a weekly treat at our house. If you can tolerate the extra carbs and weight loss is not a goal then I think that these organic sweet and white potato fries are an extra special treat :-)

 Worst and Best

 

Worst was having a total recipe flop.  I made "gummy worms" for kiddos and they were really yucky.  Worst part is I wasted expensive ingredients.  I love my Great Lakes gelatin and I ended up throwing this entire recipe out.  Thumbs down from everyone. Within that same breath, I am so grateful for all the grain/sugar free recipe creators.  This is not my forte. Ill make them and pass onto you the winners, I can handle that but creating, ill leave up to the experts. 

Best was Sam coming home from preschool and saying he didn't miss me, two minutes later I hear "hey Mom, I think I just need to sit in your lap for a few minutes." Yes, honey I think you do. 

 Have a blessed week and thanks for doing this journey with me!