Dance Break!

 Things are a little overhwelming (in good and bad ways!) over here. Luckily I have this girl to make me take dance breaks in the middle of all the chaos!

Real Food Challenge: Day 10... the end!

Ah the last day.  Breakfast and lunch were simple (yogurt and sandwich variety of things), but here's where you find out that I really am fighting against my terribly picky childhood self.

See, I hate fish.  Before I married Daniel, I had had the occasional fish stick or popcorn shrimp in childhood, but had pretty much sworn off all fishy things since then.  Daniel; however, really enjoys sea food, and when Anni was struggling to gain any weight, a medical professional suggested we add some fish to our diet every once in awhile.  So, I have, on occasion, done alright with the fishy variety.  The one time we made it during pregnancy, I ended up hunched over the toilet (not that that was exclusive to fish), so my last experience left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.  Hooooowever; apparently I was in a mood on Friday, and despite the fact that my dear, sweet, hubby made a lovely dinner while I worked, I couldn't bring myself to eat it.  Yep, I admit it.  That being said, Daniel and Anni both ate a beautiful meal of salmon, quinoa and corn.  The end!

Things we learned during the challenge:

1) Real food can get kind of expensive... especially we you eat lots and lots and lots of fruit.  I think the most expensive part was the local meat.  Here's hoping for a big ole' deep freezer in our future home for a half of a cow or something exciting like that!

2) It wasn't a huge departure from what we usually eat... it just meant pooling the real food recipes I was already using and throwing in a few extras for fun.  The biggest difference was having to make the conscious decision to *not* get take-out just because we were tired or it had been a long day or the baby ate all afternoon and I didn't get a chance to get the dough started.  It was really good for me to make myself figure out a meal even when I didn't want to... definitely a little kick in the pants for me as a homemaker.  It helped quite a bit that we have been slowly introducing a lot of baby steps toward a less processed diet for a long time.  

3) I couldn't tell you if eating real food changed how I felt in terms of energy, etc, as I've been working late into the night to stay caught up with things and, well, I do have a three year old and a newborn.  However, I did actually lose a few pounds... which was kind of a big deal as I haven't been able to lose anything since Lettie was two weeks old.

4) While there was definitely some extra prep time in there, I got a lot of satisfaction out of making more of our food from scratch.  Sure, I was tempted to put it off, knowing that it was hard work (I am a world class procrastinator), but the reminder that I couldn't take the easy way out and still have dinner for my family usually spurred me along.  In the end, I generally enjoyed that time in the kitchen.  It did mean a lot more dishes (Daniel usually tries to do them all for me, but I did a lot more clearing out the sink during the day just so we could stay on top of them... those mixing bowls take up a lot of space, and mine can only be hand washed).

In the end, I'm really glad we did this.  We saw that it's really not impossible, and definitely something we can do more than a majority of the time.  I'm excited to see how it will shape our eating in the weeks to come!

For more info on the 10 Day Pledge, head over to 100 Days of Real Food!  My other favorite "Real Food source" is over at Kitchen Stewardship if you're on the hunt for more yummy recipes and ideas!

PS I admit to eating breakfast burritos (just one, but we all had one) the morning after we finished... at least they were from an authentic restaurant and not McDonald's.  On that note, just don't try to eat McDonald's breakfast burritos, or really any of their food... not worth it. 

Real Food Challenge: Days 8 & 9

As Day 8 dawned, it became painfully obvious that the depths of our fridge and pantry were becoming rather bare.  We scraped by to the best of our ability (I would have gone to the trip if we absolutely had to, but with a certain little girl's nose dripping green... well, not exactly something I want to expose the public to), and that evening I took serious stock of what we had to make Day 9 feel a little less desperate.  I didn't actually get any photos on Day 8 between the random meals and tired, cranky babies.  Such is life.

Day 8

Breakfast

We finished off the yogurt, berries and granola for breakfast.

Lunch

My memory is starting to fail me here, but I think I had some leftover pasta with a whole mess of frozen veggies just sauteed up.  I'm pretty sure Anni had a pb sandwich and a banana, but I'm honestly not positive on that one.

Dinner

Ah, a copout meal.  We totally pulled the organic ww mac n' cheese out, warmed up some veggies and chicken and dealt with it.  It was tasty, even if it was kind of lame.


Day 9

Breakfast 

Day 9 went a lot better, as I actually thought things through the night before and stayed up late doing a little baking.  I chopped up our last, lonely little apple, and made lovely apple mini muffins (and proceeded to eat several as I worked late into the night... don't worry, I left plenty for breakfast!)  Anni loved the mini-ness of these muffins... and I felt like she ate them with more ease than bigger ones that usually ended up mostly on the floor before she had the energy to get through them all.  Thank goodness for my random purchase of a mini-muffin pan a few weeks ago!

Lunch

This was truly a conglomerate of leftovers.  I had made sure there was something for Daniel to take (I can't just send him out to the Qdoba near his office when we're on this challenge!), so he took a chicken salad with him to work.  He left enough chicken that Anni and I were able to throw some on top of our spaghetti (the last bit left in the box... catching the theme of this lunch?).  I sauteed up the last of the grape tomatoes with some spices (I usually like to use fresh onion and garlic when I do this... but, alas, all out!), threw in some parmesan and, we had a lovely lunch!  Anni ate most of hers, so it was deemed a success!

Dinner

There's a photo hiding in my dearest's iPhone, but he's sleeping, so you'll just have to imagine this one.  I defrosted some leftover chili, added a little cinnamon (the secret!) and cooked up the tiniest bit of pasta (it was the dregs of what was left in the box... not really full servings, but just enough to add some interest) for some Cincinnati Chili.  We made it!  One more day to go!  


Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, I totally had Daniel pick up some dark, dark chocolate.  It's 70 or 80%, so pretty close to real food, but there is a little sugar in it, so we may have kind of cheated.  I don't know if that disqualifies us from being awesome completers of this challenge... but, I'm okay with the decision.  

I'm also realizing that we eat a lot of pasta.  Tomorrow I'm mixing it up and trying quinoa for the first time... if we're going to eat grains, might as well make it interesting, right?!

Life outside the challenge.

Well.

You've seen a lot of our meals over the past week, but...

we do more than eat.  Honestly.  Not much more sometimes, but still, more.

This cold is still kicking our tushies... well, mostly Miss Anni's.  I have only left the house for Mass, one grocery trip and a few desperate walks to the mailbox since we got home from the trip to try to help contain Miss Anni's germs and help her heal a little quicker.  Our version of "going outside" right now, is letting her sit on the porch with a book.  I can't wait for this round of colds to be over!

We've spent a lot of time trying all our favorite tricks out on Miss Anni's cough (steamy bathroom for her to play in is always fun... especially when I just scrubbed it down so she can hang out on the almost-never-clear counter to get more of the steam). 

I've been watching my little Miss Lettie take it all in... and all of the sudden, we're starting to see her reach for toys and trying desperately to roll her cute little self over.  Soooo close!  When she's propped up on her elbows (on her tummy), she has figured out how to propel herself with her elbow back to her back, but hasn't figured out either way all on her own yet.  It's pretty darn cute to watch her try, though!  I am amazed (and loving), that it's just as much fun the second time getting to see my little one learn and grow!

I've been staying up late at night to get work done, so I'm kind of grateful that Anni's favorite afternoon activity lately has been asking me to read a chapter out of Little House in the Big Woods (and her favorite part of that is getting to turn the page).

In reality, I'm just tired... but, I have to remember that that's just how things are for a little while, and I shouldn't let that get in the way of life.  With that being said, Anni is currently snoozing off her cold, so I'm going to go snuggle with my Colette and try to chip away at the exhaustion a little.   

Real Food Challenge: Days 6 & 7

Day 6

Breakfast

Things started to get a little hairy when Monday morning rolled around and I realized our fresh food supply (aka fruit and most of the veggies) were pretty much gone.  oops!  So... Anni and I shared the last waffle (it's pretty sad looking) plain, because yep, we're out of maple syrup (and real maple syrup is expensive, baby!).  Luckily, the cinnamon in these waffles makes them delicious plain!  Anni finished up the yogurt (and I immediately called Daniel to see if he could make a stop on the way home for essentials... yogurt and berries).

Lunch

Lunch was leftover pasta and sauce (yay for the extra veggies I cooked into that sauce... helped make up for the lack of fresh ones around here) and a beautiful array of play food cooked up for me by my personal little chef.  Her combinations are creative, but quite tasty.

Dinner

 

Then, dinner rolled around.  I had used the meal planned for Monday evening on Sunday when we ended up having my father-in-law to dinner, and I definitely wasn't attempting to defrost and roast the chicken in the freezer, so it was improvise night.  This was definitely a night where I missed the ole' fallback: ordering food (pizza or sandwiches would be our usual plan of attack) or picking up a frozen pizza from the store.  It was good to have to think past the junk food despite the having a "case of the Mondays".  I had made some homemade granola (suuuuuper addictive and delicious!), so we had some breakfast for dinner: yogurt with granola and fruit, eggs, and ww toast.  I know, we have a ton of yogurt in my house... a lot of that is because it's easy and, well, Anni loves it.  Anni's clothes do not love it, but, such is the sacrifice we make.

Day 7

Breakfast: Yogurt, fruit and granola.  Just wasn't interesting enough to photograph since we had it the night before. 

Lunch

Peanut butter and honey sandwiches, carrot sticks, strawberries and, for my little Anni, the last few of those chips (real food junk food at its best, people).  It's always a guessing game as to whether Anni will eat an entire meal or only a few bites, but, we went picnic style on this one (she desperately wanted to sit next to her baby sister on the floor), and she finished every last bite (minus a carrot stick or two I stole from her... they're addictive and I ate mine fast!) 

Dinner

Miss Lettie had an extremely fussy afternoon, so I was definitely looking for easy this evening (heck, when am I not looking for easy?!).  Boil up some chicken, wash some lettuce and fruits and veggies annnnd oi-la, dinner!  Anni, the  lover of all things salad, informed us she "doesn't like salad", and so ate "squirty" tomatoes, chicken chunks and strawberries for dinner (wrapping up with half a banana on her way to bed)... it works!  This was super tasty, fresh, and easy... all lovely things :).