Real Food Challenge: Days 3, 4 & 5

Well, things got a little bit messy this weekend.  We stuck to the real food, but I didn't rock at updating and missed photos a few times.  Our colds are still plaguing us and Miss Anni's coughing kept us all a little sleepless... here's hoping we're on the upswing!

Day 3

Breakfast

You guessed it... yogurt and fruit (and flaxseed)!  We don't eat meat on Fridays... so I had to keep that in mind as I planned our day (as much as I wanted to eat the leftover pasta from the night before!)

Lunch



Some leftover homemade ww bread, shells and cheese (kind of a cop-out, but it still fits within the rules... just not something we should do for every meal!) and peas.

Snack

We eat plenty of snacks that I don't document (usually handfuls of fruits and veggies), but apparently I was inspired by this one!  Ak-mak ww crackers (check them out... they're yummy!) with peanut butter.

Dinner

This is Anni's plate, hence the super tiny piece of pizza... it's always hard to know what her appetite will be doing, so we start small and have more on hand if she wants more!

We made some homemade pizza!  I had made the dough before, but had never made my own pizza sauce, so it was a little more of an adventure than usual, but still pretty simple.  Luckily, the girls took good naps while I made the dough (and Lettie woke up just in time to watch me knead it, but she was content to just hang out), so everything was pretty timely despite the extra work (plus, Daniel grated the cheese for me while I baked the crust... we like it extra crispy, so that gets a little while in the oven before we load our toppings on).


Day 4

Breakfast

Yaaaay, weekend!  We get a little overly giddy around here when we get Daddy all to ourselves... and oftentimes that means Anni and Daddy make waffles!  We love these whole wheat waffles even more than we loved our sugary ones... seriously, even if you think you don't like whole wheat things, check them out.  The cinnamon is what makes them I think... we ate them plain the rest of the weekend as snacks, they're that good :). 

Lunch

Lunch was leftover in general, but since both Anni and I had chicken salads, I figured it was worthy of a picture (and so pretty!)  I am continually amazed at Anni's willingness to scarf down a salad (at first she claimed she didn't like the tomatoes, but finally tried one after Daniel started stealing them out of her bowl, and declared "I like them!")

Dinner

ha... in comes me stealing my husbands phone to grab a mess of a photo.  I cooked the beans from scratch and under-estimated cooking time on them... so Anni actually had other random leftovers for dinner (a peanut butter and strawberry waffle sandwich I think?) as the beans weren't even nearly edible until 8 or later.  I had some leftover corn muffins from right before we started the challenge (luckily, I had known we were going to start and made sure to replace the sugar with honey) and that rounded it out nicely :).

Day 5
 
Alright, I totally failed photos today.  Anni's cough was so rough we ended up going to separate Masses so one of us could stay home with the babies at all times (poor girl hates missing Mass!)  For breakfast I ate part of a leftover waffle plain and a handful of blueberries.  I'm not entirely sure about what everyone else had, but I know part of Anni's meal included yogurt and applesauce.  We all ate leftover chili for lunch, and we had spaghetti carbonara, veggies and leftover ww baguette bread for dinner.  

Welcome to a new week... 5 days to go of the challenge!

Real Food Pledge: Day 2

Breakfast Brunch

Due to our lingering colds (and Anni developing her signature nasty cough), Miss Anni slept waaaay in yesterday morning, so our breakfast turned into more of a brunch.  I cut up pineapple (fresh pineapple = obsession), cooked up some eggs and onion (there was supposed to be leftover bell pepper in it as well, but Anni ate the leftovers as I cooked the stir-fry the night before) and, you know, toasted some toast.  Anni and I can finish off an entire pineapple by ourselves and, well, it may have happened before Daniel got home from work (sorry, honey!)

We didn't really have lunch since that was so late, but we both ate some random fruits and veggies as snacks throughout the afternoon.  Oh, and when I made the ww baguette bread for dinner, I told Anni she needed to wait to eat any until it was time... and at one point I walked out of the bedroom to see her chowing down on a chunk.  "Look, mommy!  I got myself a piece!"  I just laughed... this was not a battle I was going to pick!

Dinner:

I'm pretty proud of this dinner.  I made the sauce from scratch (it was quite yummy!), baked up some whole wheat baguette bread, and then threw together a salad and some whole wheat pasta: oi-la!  We all quite enjoyed the meal (and Daddy pulled out some wine... quite lovely!)

Real Food Pledge: Prep & Day 1

Daniel and I have been considering taking the 10-Day Real Food Pledge for a little while now, but weren't quite ready to commit with trips and stress and the fact that I've only barely got my cooking steam back since Miss Lettie's arrival.  We started our planning stages in-between our recent trips with the plan that we'd start as soon as we got back (well, with one day of recovery/grocery shopping first).  I will say, it took a little prep to think through the little things, like "This usually has sugar in it... will honey taste weird as a replacement sweetener?" and "I eat my feelings.  We know this, what can I eat instead of entire bags of chocolate chips?"  You know, the usual. 

So.  (I had a writing teacher in college who hated when we started sentences with "so".  I still do it, but have serious twinges of guilt every time I do so.)

So.

We got home, realized we were all super allergic or coming down with terrible colds (still not sure which wins, we're feeling awful either way), and decided to forge ahead anyway, because something will always be inconvenient... just the way it is.

Now, please keep in mind

1) I am not a good food photographer.  It's just not something I've practiced enough, so, don't expect much there ;-).

2) Just because the meals are real food does not make them perfectly balanced or, by any stretch of the imagination, fancy.  I am still learning to balance work and spending time with two sweet babies, so, I fully expect to struggle with some of the extra work entailed in these meals.

3) I'm not going to get photos of snacks unless it's something super exciting... we'll pretty much be sticking to fruits and veggies.  Also, Daniel's breakfasts and lunches may be what we eat at home, but they'll probably vary some (though they will still be real food).



After I had my over-detailed menu and list ready, Daniel headed to the meat market (locally-sourced meat is one of the rules... probably one of the more expensive ones!) and the bakery (Great Harvest Bread Co. has a honey whole wheat sandwich bread that has very few ingredients and tastes great)  It was a bit expensive, due in part to the meat not being the cheap supermarket stuff and partly because I had him pick up a little more than we need so I can double a couple meals to freeze for later.

Then, I headed to the grocery store and spent extra time reading labels on anything that came in packages, and spent most of my time and money in the produce section, trying to make sure to cover all my bases.  There you have it.

And, without further ado,

Day 1:

Breakfast

I had actually planned a bigger breakfast here, but, as our colds set in with serious fervor, we went with simple (and something I knew Anni would love and eat!)  Plain yogurt (in lieu of my former buy of vanilla yogurt... which unfortunately has sugar in it) with a drizzle of local, raw honey (my first time trying it... so far so good!), nectarine, banana and strawberries and some flax seed (Anni's had way more flax... she is far less picky than I am... I'm working on it). 

Lunch

Oh, man, can it get any simpler?  We'll start off with the chips, because I'm sure you are thinking I already messed up.  We actually discovered these through the 100 Days of Real Food website as they only have three ingredients.  They are definitely still junk food, but real food junk food.  Then we just have some pb (one ingredient: peanuts!  Who knew that would be so hard to find?!) & honey on ww bread and carrots (which Anni requested "big").  I'm pretty sure we shared a nectarine or some other kind of fruit later for a snack, but I don't remember for sure.
  
Dinner

 
Stirfry!  We have brown rice (I had to ditch my usual "Seasoning Salt" and all of it's extra-chemically ingredients and throw in some other fun things), chicken, onions, red pepper and a few cashews.  Yum.  I think I may have made some ww toast with this... but it's possible I just considered it and didn't follow through.  This tired brain doesn't remember.

Daniel and I also made a bit of a treat later that night.  There you have it.  Super simple day of food, but we made it through.  

Road Trip!

We decided to go a little crazy this past weekend and spent over 30 hours on a massive road trip so we could be where we needed to be (really specific writing there, eh?)

By far, the most relaxing part of the trip was the time we spent staying in the country on my sister's land.  Babies were held, toddlers ran around outside with their cousins all day long, and I got to chat with my sister in person and marvel at all of the amazing things they are doing.

The girls wore jammies for the 10 hour drive... and as soon as we got to my sister's, we just hopped out and started playing.

On Saturday, we were privileged and blessed to be able to attend a dear friend's ordination to the priesthood.  Rickey was actually a groomsman in our wedding, so it was wonderful to be there for his "big day" as well!  I also saw a lot of former teachers as well as grade school and high school friends (Rickey and I went to school together from 1st grade until he entered the seminary after our sophomore year of college).      

Receiving a first blessing!  We both felt those graces, for sure!

 Then there was more cousin time, and repacking everything up from my sister's home to get ready for a very early morning drive to Nebraska.

We rose and shone a little after five in the morning, and were on the road by 6:15.  A little over five hours later, one upset baby vomit, and some cruddy drive-thru breakfast, we were officially at the family reunion (or "communion" as Anni calls it).  

Babies were snuggled by aunts, uncles and cousins, we met all of the cousin's babies that we hadn't gotten to marvel over in the past few years, and just soaked in the general family craziness.  

There we all are!  Not only was it great to catch up with cousins I haven't seen in forever... but I was able to see some of my siblings who hadn't even met the baby yet (ahem, especially that mister getting his doctorate several states away).  

It was a wonderful, crazy, humid (have I mentioned I love that Colorado is so not humid), hug-filled afternoon.  Afterwards, we all crashed for a few minutes in our hotel rooms and then went on to fill a few tables at the local Mexican restaurant, where Anni promptly passed out and spent the rest of the meal sleeping in Daddy's arms.  The next morning, a sweet friend made us a delicious breakfast, we visited my wonderful godmother in Omaha and then, after a meal at the Bohemian Cafe to bolster our spirits, we headed out on our drive back.  The drive back was definitely not as smooth as our first drive... Miss Lettie was d-o-n-e.  We did the first three hour stretch and then stopped six times in the next couple (several times just pulling over to the side of the road) to calm our poor baby.  Finally, a little over 10 hours later, we made it home, started a load of laundry and passed out, waking up to massive colds and a whole lot of preparation for our 10 day challenge (more on that later).  Whew.  We both determined we don't want to drive again for a verrrry long time.  Totally worth it though: family and all of that stuff.

Lil' Bit at Three Months

My joyful little Lettie.  Unless her tummy is seriously empty or she's hit that exhaustion wall, this girl is all smiles.  All she really wants is to lock eyes and grin you into a pile of mushy happiness.  She's working on head control, and while I don't worry a ton about tummy time (we do a lot of baby wearing, which is supposed to work the same muscles), she's totally showing off every time we do practice.

She has definitely discovered those dimpled little hands, as well!  Most of her happy time is spent clutching them together as tightly as she possibly can hold them, and otherwise, you will probably find them over her eyes when asleep, or sucking on them furiously if she's managed to get them as far as her mouth.  Oh, this girl loves to chew/suck on things, and she definitely hits a point where she wants to suck, but doesn't want to nurse, so we've introduced a pacifier for times when that happens, especially in the car (she is not a lover of that carseat, that's for sure... which is funny, since we're about to head on a massive road trip). 

She has most definitely turned around her opinion on baths.  While her first few baths were very much "get her clean and get out", she is all smiles in her warm water (and I am still madly in love with her post-bath crazy fluffy hairdo).

Her big sister is crazy in love with her, and while affection can get a little rough for our little Lettie, she generally showers Anni with the same sweet smiles she has for everyone else.  I love their little powwows on the floor, I'm just in love with our darlings!

Oh, this girl.  I'm so glad she's joined our family.  The first month felt like it moved really quickly, but this last month has been a little more leisurely.  I've felt like I've had a little more time to just look in those sweet eyes and soak in that sweet smile that just lights up her entire face.  I am thrilled to keep learning who this little girl is and who she'll grow up to be, but I'm happy to live out the moments as that happens, no hurry here!  Happy three months, my girl.