A little treat!

I made 'Morning Glory Muffins' to be had for a quick on-the-go breakfast or a little snack, and for something with no regular old sugar, these are amazing!  I opted to add the 2 tablespoons of honey, but I think it would still be good with no honey or even just 1 tablespoon too.  I about cried scooping out 2.5 cups of the almond flour out of my tiny little $10 package of it, but it was worth it. 

Check out here for the recipe - CLICK HERE FOR DELICIOUS GOODNESS.

It's been a lot of hit-or-miss with the new recipes I've been trying lately.  My oldest picky eater would have eaten a whole pan of these this morning if I'd let him!  And I just smiled inside a big sneaky smile knowing he was eating his carrots and not whining about it! 

I also made a chicken pot pie which was LOADS of work.  I wasn't too fond of it because my gluten-free almond-flour crust did not crust up at all, but my little guy practically licked his bowl clean of all that chicken, brocolli, celery, onion, carrots, mushroom, and onion!  Everyone else liked it too.

I admit!

I admit it, I caved - a tiny little bit!  But I went 5 days with absolutely no processed sugar because giving in AND there was a reason for it!  You see, I got a cold.  A really horrible cold..  And my throat was killing me - I mean, swallowing razor blades killing me!  And there was nothing to drink and I felt awful and I was trying to get stuff done (no, the world does not stop for the busy mom when she's sick..  there is STILL housework to do and groceries to buy..) so I got an icy drink from Costco to put out the fire in my throat.

But other than that..  no more coffee (because what's coffee without flavored creamer?!).  Instead, I've swapped it for herbal teas PLAIN!  Just tea and water!!  I've found that some actually have a sweet after taste (am I desperate for sweetness?).

The boys are doing fairly well with this more-veggie-and-less-junk-snacks too.  Since we've cut out all the crappy snacks, my picky one has been eating very good meals!  He even ate up the Annie's Shells'n'Cheese with cheddar cauliflower and tomatoes mixed in.  Bon Appetit!

Our 30-Day Challenge to Better Eating

Husband and I have decided to challenge ourselves and our family to cut the sugar and eat (and learn to enjoy) more vegetable.  We are a family that like our breads and sweets.  And I mean SERIOUS liking..  I'm the type that uses more creamer than coffee, eats chocolate or ice cream almost daily, and some days, it feels like there's more sweet stuff I've consumed than good, healthy things.  When I cleaned out the pantry of the junk food, I took out probably $150 in junky and processed foods!  What a waste of money!  My hubby and I are both trying to go gluten free as well, but I'm still keeping healthy, simple-ingredient bread and grains in the kids foods.  Hubby, though, stomache issues and also wheat allergies.  We've known this for years about the wheat but have ignored it because it's just too hard to cut the wheat!  But we wonder how he'll feel if he gives his body what it needs, and not just what he wants?  This shall be an interesting journey indeed!!

So this shall be snippets of our 30-day adventure of better eating.  Hopefully by the end we won't want to go back to the garbage food.

It's been 3 days so far.  The first day was pretty tough.  I kept thinking of reasons I'd need to go out to run an errand so I could swing by the local Baskin Robbins and indulge myself!  I shoved this little sugar-devil off my shoulder though and made it through the day.  By the second day, I didn't have much of a desire for sweets.  And day 3, here I am drinking my double spice chai tea with absolutely no sweetener at all! 

We've discovered some interesting things too.

   - Red cabbage is pretty good!  Hubby likes it, even though he'd never have touched it before!  Sliced very thinly and tossed with oranges and red grapes with a little olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and a dash of chili pepper.  Mmm, mmm, good!  And Dr. Fuhrman says to chew your cabbage slowly and completely, trying to crush every cell in it so you'll release all the good nutrients.

  - Hubby actually likes summer squash and zucchini, even though he'd always claimed to hate it!  He especially likes it a little burnt when I've forgotten about it in the frying pan with a little olive oil because I was too worried about the next thing in this list.

  - Baking your own whole chicken is actually surprisingly easy!  Rinsed, dried with a paper towel, and rain some sea salt down over it - toss it all in a pyrex baking dish and let it go at 450 degrees for about an hour or so.  Nice, crispy skin with moist chicken!  The worrisome part, and a bit unappetizing (stop here if you have a weak stomach!) is that my chicken had a little bit of hair on it.  I desparately tried googling to see if this was normal, but apparently, it's either so normal that no one talks about it or it's so not normal that no one's ever had this but my chicken!  I tried to scorch it off after baking by moving the oven shelf up high and turning it on Broil - but nada!  Still there!  I ended up removing all the skin before cutting and eating.

  - And last (for today anyways), my oldest and most pickiest child WILL eat spinach!  He has surprised me for 2 nights in a row with how well he's eaten the food I've placed in front of him.  The hardest thing for my littlest one though is breaking his love affair with Juice..  It shall come though.  In time..  After all, it's not going to hurt him one little bit to not drink juice!  A little water will actually be good for him!