Great week, not so great weekend...

I feel like I did really well this past week. I ate tons of whole grains, beans, and my daily green smoothie, not to mention lots of fruit and green salad. My digestive system thanked me and has been working like a well oiled machine! Ok, that's weird to share on the world wide web, but seriously I have been feeling great. I have been strict about not eating sweets and I haven't even eaten any meat and I really cut back on milk and cheese. I exercised really well Mon.-Fri. doing aerobics and some strength training mon., wed., fri. and some yoga and strength training tue. and thur. I have had lots of energy and just felt good. These are the positive side effects.
Now, for the negative side effects. I have felt hungry. I mean like it hits me out of nowhere, where I'm fine and then suddenly I'm starving and very cranky until I get some food. For instance on Wed. night I made my family some dinner and then I had a huge plate full of green salad covered in black beans. It was delicious and surprisingly filling and I felt great. For about an hour. And then it just hit me and suddenly I was starved! I ate a banana and was still hungry, so that night I ended up eating a bowl of cheerios before bed. By Friday night I was tired of eating all this healthy food and feeling so hungry so after the kids went to bed I made up a batch of banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and let me tell you, they were delicious! I ate quite a few, and you know what? I realized that I'm really not missing out on much by not eating so many sweets. The cookies helped me get over my little craving, but then my friend brought me some delicious chocolates today that I devoured, and then we had dinner with some friends tonight and I ate ice cream and cookies, and my body is screaming WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME??? We were doing so well! Ok, so I don't feel too bad because today is my day of rest and tomorrow we will start again and it's all good. It's good to see how the junk food makes me feel after doing so well, because it makes me want to keep doing well, and it also shows me that in moderation, it was fine to eat some sweets. I just need to control myself!
The other negative I'm experiencing is my hip pain. The exercise has really irritated it to the point that I could hardly walk yesterday. It's feeling a lot better after resting it for two days, but is still very sore. This is really discouraging for me and part of the reason I have felt the need to eat a lot of sweets this weekend. It's frustrating when you love doing something so much, and the something you love doing is a good thing to do (like aerobics, basketball, etc.) but it puts you in so much pain to do it. I'm not trying to complain or get sympathy or anything because I know so many people have it so much worse, so I will move on. I'm glad I am turning to better nutrition because even without exercise it really helps me feel a lot better to be fueling my body with good stuff.
So, as if this post isn't already long enough, my goals for this coming week are to pretty much keep up what I already did this past week. Eat pretty much only whole grains, have some beans every day, continue with the green smoothies, no sweets, and not be afraid to eat lots of fruits and veggies when I'm hungry. Another goal that I made with my family is that we will try at least one new very healthy meal each week. Thank you so much Mom for the wonderful cookbook you sent me. We will be trying a meal from that this week and I'll post about it then.

Another Smoothie

Making smoothies at the Carters: Everyone was willing to try it, except Anthony. That's okay. It was pretty ugly. This one had red grapes and bananas mixed in with the spinach. Talena has high-powered blender that pulverizes everything within seconds.

Worst looking, best tasting

This moring I made the ugliest most vile looking smoothie you ever saw. It was dark greenish brown and I tried to take a picture for you but my camera is acting up. But it tasted awesome! So I wanted to share the ingredients:

Frozen rasberries

a banana

big spoonful of orange juice concentrate

about 1 cup of water

tons of spinach

and some ice cubes

Oh yeah, and some soy protein powder

This is the first time I've been daring enough to make a smoothie with water instead of milk or yogurt, and I actually liked it even more!

Also, yesterday I made some 100% whole wheat pretzels. It's the first time I've made something with all whole wheat before and they turned out very yummy. To me anyway. My kids for some reason won't really touch them. I was hoping they would love them. So the search is still on for a high fiber snack they will love (besides apples). I used this recipe here. If I do happen to make these again, I will use water or almond milk in place of the milk, and olive oil inside them in place of the butter. They weren't exactly super healthy except for being packed with whole wheat.

You would not believe the lengths I went to for tonights dinner!

Holy smokes, I'm exhausted! I told Wayne tonight that if eating healthy takes this much effort for one dinner, we are only having one healthy meal per week!(and of course he's totally cool with that) Ok, so maybe I went a bit overboard tonight, but at least it turned out delicious. I'll explain.

I was thinking I would make some enchiladas tonight so I started last night by putting some black beans in a bowl to soak. Then this morning I put them in the crock pot and had them going on low all day. I wish I would have thought to season them, but that's ok maybe next time. Anyway, then this afternoon I made some homemade whole wheat tortilla's that turned out wonderfully! I have tried whole wheat tortilla's before using a recipe that called for shortening, and they came out tasting like pie crust and crumbling to bits. Well, who knew that making them a bit healthier (with olive oil) would actually make them tastier too!? This recipe I found today uses olive oil and they turned out fabulously and were seriously easy to make, I think you all should try it! I'll put the recipe here too:

2 cups whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground hard white wheat)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 T olive oil

1/2 cup warm water

mix dry ingredients, then mix in the olive oil. Add the warm water a little at a time and mix into a kind of sticky ball and knead a little bit. Put it back in your bowl and cover with a cloth and let it rest for 15 min. Separate into 6 balls and roll out as thin as you can (on a very lightly floured surface). Grill on high heat until bubbles start to show, then flip over and do the other side for a little bit. The only problem with this recipe is that it makes only 6! Next time I will be doubling.

Ok, so my next step in my dinner process was to put some brown rice in the rice cooker. I also added a spoonful of vegetable broth powder to the water for some flavor (and I'm so glad I did. It was awesome!) Then, for the enchilada sauce I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was thinking of just using a can of cream of chicken soup mixed with salsa, but after scanning the ingredients on the cream of chicken soup I changed my mind. It's full of all kinds of yucky stuff, including msg. So, I went for this recipe from simple. healthy. tasty. only I didn't have any rice milk on hand. I did however have homemade almond milk on hand (crazy, I know) So I used up that. Then I mixed some salsa into the cream of something soup and called it enchilada sauce. So, using a homemade whole wheat tortilla I put on some rice, beans, and cheezy sauce then rolled them up and put them in my baking dish. Then I poured the sauce over the top and added more cheezy sauce on top of that as well as some green chile's. Then I baked it for a bit and can I just say these were hearty and filling not to mention tasty! I was so relieved they tasted good or else after all that work I might have cried.

I knew my family would not appreciate all that good stuff so I made a separate batch of enchilada's for them. I used the rice, then chicken, then cheese inside of theirs but they got my sauce poured over the top and they got real cheese sprinkled on top. Wayne seemed to like it (he ate 2, so that's always a good sign) and I will just say again that it was a relief it all turned out to be edible!

Now, for your viewing pleasure I actually took a couple pictures of the food:

Now I realize you can make healthy dinners without going through all that, but once I get my mind on something I just keep going. I realized that it's best to prepare ahead if you really are going to make everything from scratch like this. I was glad I had the vegetable broth powder, almond milk, and cheezy sause on hand for this so I could at least try an animal/animal product free meal. I still have a lot to learn but I'm feeling good and moving forward!

My Goal This Week

Okay, I think I'd better set a goal this week as well. My goal is to keep on planning my meals the night before, as far as when and what I'm going to eat. I was reminded this morning that when I don't do that, I suffer. I ate breakfast around 7 a.m., and then went off to choir practice from 10 to 11:30 or so, and realized that I should have had a snack before I left. In our efforts to eat before church, I just didn't eat enough, and halfway through sacrament meeting I actually left and went home and had a second lunch, and came back in time for Primary. I knew if I didn't eat something, I was going to be feeling weak and tired by the time the three-hour block was over. And I don't like feeling that way. It seems like on the weekend our routines get changed up, and we may forget to do what works. And I believe that a big reason why I've felt as good as I have this past week is simply because I've been eating often and regularly. This coming week is a potential challenge because I won't be in my own home, so I need to take extra care to plan what and when I'm going to eat ahead of time, so I don't get stuck hungry, weak and tired.

This weeks goal: Eat more whole grains

I know this isn't necessarily the next goal in the 8 steps from that blog, but it's our next goal around here. For the past 4 years, and especially for the past week I have felt like a failure as a mom. I have a very constipated child and it's only getting worse. I used to fool myself into thinking that I have tried everything I know how, but I know that isn't true. Her favorite things to eat are bagels with cream cheese, and cheese quesadilla's (I still don't know how to spell that!) on white tortilla's of course. I have just been kicking myself wondering why I didn't do better at only offering her whole grains at a very early age, then maybe we wouldn't be where we are now. And where we are now isn't good. Her poops are the size of my forearm, not to mention bloody and painful. She is taking prescription miralax and that's what makes me feel like a complete failure.
So, that is what brings me in desperation to trying to improve my family's diet. And that is why this week I am throwing out all the bagels, white tortilla's, and cream cheese. I found some recipes I plan to try so I'll post about them if/when I use them. In the meantime if you have any super high fiber recipes that you think might appeal to a picky almost 5 year old, please send them my way. Like I said, I'm desperate here. This has been a discouraging week, so hopefully this next week I can find at least one high fiber food my daughter will gobble down willingly and beg for more.
As for my goal for myself, I just plan to keep up the green smoothie drinking this week. I did very well last week, only missing 1 day. I didn't do so well on the exercise but I think I am completely over my cough now so without that excuse I hope to exercise 5 days this week. So, exercise, smoothies, and whole grains. What's are your goals?

Homemade Granola Bars

Here's a recipe for homemade granola bars that I just tried:

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup coconut oil or other oil

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup combination of things like coconut, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, dried fruit, and maybe even chocolate chips

Melt peanut butter, honey and oil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add the oatmeal, then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Spread in an 8x8 pan and refrigerate for 2 hours or more, then cut into bars.

I just put it together, and it is quite tasty. For the 1-cup combination of other ingredients, I used coconut, sunflower seeds, raisins and wheat germ. Some of my ingredients have been in the cupboard for a while and taste a little old, but it is still good. Oh, and I stirred in a few chocolate chips as well. It works for me!

Ellen

Another small baby step

Well, the day before yesterday I made the recipe from Simple. Healthy. Tasty. for vegetable broth powder. It was super simple to make, as well as cheap. I found all the ingredients (except the turmeric, I can't seem to find that anywhere so I just left it out) in the bulk section at WINCO including the nutritional yeast, all for quite cheap. The broth powder smelled delicious and I used it in our sweet and sour chicken recipe for hawaiin haystacks the other night and couldn't even taste the difference between it and the usual chicken broth powder I use. Now, you might think it's weird that I used vegetable broth in a recipe that called for chicken. That's why this post has baby steps in the title. I wasn't ready to cut out the chicken (although I only used 2 small tenders for our whole family) but I was ready to cut out the msg filled chicken broth powder. I'm so excited to have found a tasty substitute! It feels empowering when you are able to make your own things from scratch and know exactly what went in them!
I am still doing quite well at drinking my green smoothies, although I haven't made the time to exercise. I will do that today though. Oh, and I wanted to say that left over green smoothie+left in the refrigerator=DISGUSTING! So I wanted to share what I did yesterday, although it's nothing original. I poured my leftover smoothie into popsicle freezing molds and made green popsicle's. They tasted quite good, and even Rylen walked around eating them. As some of you know he is addicted to popsicles and it's so nice to see him walking around eating a spinach popsicle in place of colorful sugar water!

Spinach on Steroids

I ran out of spinach today, so I stopped at the store to get more, and decided to try chard instead. This bunch of chard costs the same as a bunch of spinach, only there's about four times more of it, I think. Tomorrow after I try it I'll let you know if I notice any difference in flavor. Hopefully any flavor will be masked by whatever I put with it, just like with the spinach.

Ellen

My daily serving of leafy greens never tasted sooo good!!!

I have found my very favorite smoothie combination. Frozen banana, milk, peanut butter, honey, ice cubes, and of course tons of spinach. No one in my family cares for it much but I LOVE it! For me it tastes like a peanut butter milk shake. My favorite! Anyway, I had that for breakfast along with a half of a whole wheat english muffin. Mmmm!
I also wanted to report that last night I used some of Simple. Healthy. Tasty's cheezy sauce on my cassadilla in place of cheese. It was very good. I used some mashed white beans, and some cheezy sauce and grilled them on a tortilla. Then of course I smothered it in sour cream and salsa. I honestly didn't even miss my cheese though and I was a bit surprised because that's my favorite part. I think I might be able to give up dairy for a bit after all.
So, I feel like I am doing pretty well with my goals this week. I bought us a new Brita water jug and I have been drinking more water than ever. I went roller skating yesterday and I am counting that as a workout because I feel sore today. And I have drank a green smoothie every day but yesterday. But my goal was to get at least 3, so I am ok with having missed one day. I still have my awful persistent cough though, and even drinking a cold green smoothie sets me into a coughing fit. Hopefully by next week I'll be past it...

Tonight's Dinner and a Salad Dressing Recipe

Okay, just ignore all the pepperoni. I should have taken the picture before I added that. This here pizza has on it a chopped onion, chopped red bell pepper, a can of mushrooms, some pineapple tidbits, and the leftover carrots-broccoli-cauliflower from last night's dinner. That is, it has all that in addition to the pepperoni (which someone left in our fridge when they moved to Texas, so I figured this is a good time to use it).

Side dishes: green salad with lettuces and spinach (yum!), and a fruit salad with grapes, an apple and an orange. Oh, and the best dressing for a basic fruit salad is....a little sugar!

What can I say? I'm a hypocrite? Maybe. Oh, I know, I'm trying to make sure that we have something planned and ready to eat each and every meal of each and every day. Does that make it okay?

Oh, wait. Here's the best salad dressing recipe ever. It's from Neva. This is what we'll have on our green salad tonight:

Italian Dressing

1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or Balsamic)

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons Mrs. Dash seasoning

3 tablespoons sugar

1-2 tsp. prepared mustard (not powdered mustard) (mustard is the secret ingredient that helps the oil and vinegar to bind together and not separate)

2/3 cup vegetable oil (1/2 extra virgin olive oil, half safflower or canola)

Whisk or shake it all together and serve over your green salad.

Ellen

Sugar craving

Very good article, Josie. Thanks for sharing. When I was a girl growing up in California, our next-door neighbors were survivors of World War II from Holland. I remember Sister Snel telling us that when sugar rationings were let up, and people could once again have as much sugar as they wanted, there were people in the streets sick as dogs and throwing up due to the overdose of sugar that they allowed themselves. I think that our bodies nowadays would have a similar reaction, if they were to experience the sudden shock of going from practically no sugar to overload sugar. As it is, our bodies are pretty amazing with their ability to adapt to all the sugar we throw at them.

This quote from the article hit me as being particularly interesting: "Sugar is basically a socially acceptable, legal, recreational drug, with deadly consequences." I'd like to add that not only is sugar socially acceptable and legal, it is also, just like other recreational drugs, pushed upon us. And not only are our peers urging us to partake at every church social or family gathering we go to, the marketing of it nets huge profits for businesses and our government, and they have every interest in keeping us hooked. Also very similar, in my mind, to other recreational drugs.

Now that sounds pretty extreme, maybe, but I think it is not too far off. In today's Deseret News there was an article about how schools are trying to offer more nutritious foods to our children, but our kids prefer energy drinks. Duh. Who wouldn't? Just like those rats in the experiment talked about in the article. If you can feel good by swallowing some sugar water with stimulants in it, why take the time to eat an apple or sit down to a real meal? And it's not like the makers of those energy drinks are sitting back and saying, "Oh, maybe we shouldn't be marketing this to those poor vulnerable kids. They might get hooked." Oh, no. They know where the source of padding for their pockets comes.

Well, that's my opinion. The article Josie suggested reading is not so emotionally charged as are my opinions. I think it is a good source of advice for those who are trying to improve their diets. The only thing in it I disagree with is the cleansing diet. I think that, as members of the LDS church, our monthly fasting may provide the same benefits, and possibly more so. What little research I've done about cleansing diets does not make me want to try one. On that one, I'll trust that our Father in Heaven has told his prophets the best way to go, and I'll try to follow that counsel instead.

Interesting Article

I found this intereting article on sugar addiction and overcoming it. My friend Meagan posted a link to Gwyneth Paltrow's website called goop.com and in randomly browsing I found this article. Let me know what you think.

Dessert

My picture, here in the shadows, is not very bright. But I wanted to share this recipe for an apple cake that we had for dinner tonight. It was very good. It comes from Dana Thornock's Lean and Free 2,000 Plus book.

Apple Cake

Mix together:

1/2 to 2/3 cup honey or brown sugar (I used honey)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)

1 egg

Add:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

dash nutmeg

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups chopped apple (about 2 medium apples)

topping to be added before baking:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional (I used almonds because they were already chopped from last night's dinner. Otherwise I would have used walnuts)

Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees in 6" x 8" pan. (I don't own a 6x8 pan. I used a pie tin. I think I overbaked it, because I had the oven at 375. But it was still good. Warm with a glass of milk. Mm-mm!)

Ellen

Porcupine Meatballs

Tonight's dinner was mostly vegetables, and it was very satisfying to me. We had mashed potatoes with meatballs and gravy over the top, carrots-broccoli-cauliflower, and some mixed lettuce greens with a little ranch dressing. (There are more nutritious choices of dressing available, but, you know, comfort food counts for a lot.)

Porcupine Meatballs

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1 cup cooked brown rice, loosely packed, or 1/2 cup packed

1/2 cup green pepper, chopped (I used a whole red pepper. They were on sale this week.)

1/2 cup onion, chopped (I used a whole medium onion)

2 egg whites (I used two whole eggs)

1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper each

6 oz. tomato paste (I used a can of cream of mushroom soup. If you want the tomato-y-type sauce, it's easy to just use a can of tomato soup)

3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (omit if you're doing the tomato soup)

Mix all ingredients except water and tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce. Shape into 18 meatballs (I got about 24). Place in 9x9 baking dish (I lined a 9x13 with foil (easier clean-up!).) Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Pour tomato paste, Worcestershire Sauce and water mixture over meatballs and bake 30 minutes more.

Ellen

Tonight's dinner

Stir fry.
A can of chicken, drained, reserving broth.
2 1-lb packages frozen stir fry veggies (I couldn't decide which kind to buy so I got both of these)

Place broth from can of chicken in a measuring cup and add enough water to make 1 cup of liquid. Whisk in 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 2 tablespoons soy sauce.

Heat large pan (I started with my big frying pan and switched to the big pot), then stir in the chicken chunks. Add the vegetables and stir around till veggies are getting soft. Then add the cornstarch-soysauce-chickenbroth paste. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are cooked and sauce is thickened.

Serve over brown rice with some slivered or chopped almonds on top.

Dessert: smoothie made from frozen raspberries, an apple (cored and cut up), a little frozen juice concentrate, and some milk to bring it to a nice consistency (no spinach this time). Oh, and some chocolate chip cookies as well.

Today's smoothie

Had spinach, half a banana, some peach yogurt, and some apple-cherry juice concentrate, along with a few ice cubes and a little water. It was very sweet (probably due to the juice concentrate, and very good. Dad enjoyed it, too, although his first sip was taken with closed eyes and a scrunched-up nose "just incase."

Ellen

A green smoothie a day

This is my goal for the coming week: to drink a green smoothie each day. Here is a picture of my first one, made today. This past week I have been working on planning what I'll eat each day. I want to eat six small meals a day. I run out of ideas. Some people drink protein shakes as meal substitutes. I don't think I need any more protein. I do think I need more raw green leafy vegetables. So the green smoothie will be my new snack of choice.

Ellen

Cheezy Sauce Review and Goals for this Week

Ok, I tried the cheezy sauce and I wish I could say I fell in love, but I did not. It was not aweful and I brought some to my neighbor and she loved it. I think the main problem is I was hoping for more of a cheesy taste, but I need to get used to the fact that it is not really cheese. Also, 2 cloves of garlic was way too overpowering for me so next time I think I will just use maybe 1/2 a clove and work my way up. So yes, I will be trying it again because it really does make a fantastic dip.
Now onto goals. I have three of them. My goals for next week are to exercise at least three days, make a point of drinking more water (I know I don't drink enough) as well as drinking a green smoothie at least three times. Hopefully I do better than all that but that is what sounds doable to me at this point. I did a good aerobic video (my favorite video ever that I'm so excited I found at the D.I.!) today that felt great but now I can't stop coughing. I guess I need to just keep doing yoga and light exercise until I am fully over this sickness (which will hopefully be soon!)
So what are your goals? What recipes/tips/motivation can you share? I really feel good about this journey Mom and I think we can really do this thing! Lets get feeling great!