Moving

I'm back!  Well, sort of.  Things have been in a state of chaos for the past couple months.  First we pack up to move.  Then we unload.  Then we live in chaos.  Most people pack in an organized way.  You know, dishes in one box labeled "dishes", keepsakes labeled "keepsakes"... you get the idea.  In our case, we shoved, crammed and tossed whatever fit into whatever container was available with no label thus creating chaos.  In retrospect, we should have packed the first way.  It took 2 weeks to find my knives.  Do you know how hard it is to cut chicken with a butter knife?  I still haven't found the lid to my large cooking pot, nor have I found my daughter's swim suit, the chip clips or the soy sauce.  Every time I get an area "set up", it winds up cluttered again in order to "set up" another area.  I'm hoping things will find their place by Christmas.  I think that might be wishful thinking, simply because life doesn't stop due to a move or any other crisis in life.  The dishes and laundry still need to be done.  Lice, diarrhea and dirt still happen.  Yet somehow the rooms need to be painted, boxes unpacked and put away and areas set up to look like a home and not a dorm room.  I suppose my next 30 day challenge could be to have things "pretty" by Christmas.  We'll see what life throws my way and I'll try to keep you posted!

Magnitude

I am overwhelmed at the magnitude this task has been.  I walked to the basement on at least 3 occasions in the past few weeks only to turn around and run back upstairs.  Up until about an hour ago you couldn't see the floor.  Piles and piles of clothes, dress-up, toys, trash, totes up the wazoo and more clothes.  I went down there about an hour ago with high hopes of finding my jeans as the weather is chilly these days.  I picked up the floor (clarification- I cleared a path on the floor.  You can actually see the floor, but it is still just a path.)  I made a pile of clothes I think my girls might like.  I bagged another bag of clothes I don't want anymore and clothes I know the girls don't want.  I moved on to my clothing bins.  I managed to downsize from 3 totes to 1, bagging the items I no longer want or need.  STILL NO JEANS!  I have no idea where I put them.  I did find a pair of brown pants that fit so I guess that's what I'll wear til I locate my missing pants. 
I'm also overwhelmed because my little decluttering challenge has turned into an urgent-I-don't-have-a-choice-anymore task.  I was informed recently that we are losing our house.  I don't care to go into all the details but I do know this:  WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!  So now not only do I have to declutter, I have to pack as well.  Good grief, we cant go camping for 2 days without bringing 2 cars full of stuff, how am I going to pack to move? 
So, if you don't hear from me in the next couple months you can be sure I'm either bagging, boxing or passed out! 

9-10-11

Today is Riley's birthday!  After cleaning up after her sleepover party I tackled the living room.  I went through Tobin's clothes and blankets eliminating 2 totes worth.  I also bagged a bunch of clothes from our yard sale this summer.  I rearranged the living room a bit to make a bit more room.  I still need to go through Tobin's toys (it's amazing how many he has after only one year of life!)  We then went to the Renaissance Festival for the rest of the day.  I'm tired!  Tonight I will relax and drink a glass of wine!

September 7

It turns out one bag a day is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  The first hurdle is time, I have had very little extra the past week.  Emotions would also be a huge problem.  Why do we tie emotions to things?  They are just that, things.  They do not feel, they do not care and they don't hold the spirit of the person who gave it, played with it or looked at it.  I shouldn't care if that toy was once played with by one of my kids.  It doesn't make the toy worthy of taking up valuable space and time in my life.  Yet....it's still hard to part with things.  Tonight it is late and I still have to make lunches for my girls.  Tomorrow night we need to get ready for Riley's golden birthday party on 9-10-11.  I think I will try to get together a bunch of stuff for Savers on Saturday (I hope!) 
Some day it's all going to be gone anyway, why not get rid of it now?!

Getting rid of.....days 1-4

I kind of cheated for these first few days of September I brought 4 bags to Savers last weekend .  I have cleaning, lesson planning and school stuff to do this weekend so I probably won't be getting to any new bags of junk until next week.  I have 6-8 boxes on the deck that just need to be loaded up and brought somewhere.  I will try to get a bag of junk together this evening if I have the energy, otherwise I'm going to shoot for tomorrow after I clean the much neglected house. 

New 30 day challenge!

My house is a mess.  We are drowning in clutter.  Too much is what we have.  I have tried to declutter in the past to no avail.  It seems the harder I try, the deeper I fall into the clutter hole.  If I get rid of one bag per day I think I will accomplish several things.  First I will be putting very little energy into the project and thus not be as exhausted as I would be if I had spent 8 hours bagging and boxing up stuff.  Second I will be able to enlist the help of my fabulous daughters, either to help with the baby or to help purge (they also feel overwhelmed when we ask them to declutter).  Third I will be able to feel like I'm at least doing something and therefore not feel guilty about passing the piles of junk everyday.  And last but not least (I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons I just am tired and need to go to bed!)  I'm hoping the end result will be a more organized home with more usable space.  The plan will be to start September 1st.
PS.  I also plan to get back into eating healthier once school starts.

Trust

God is my help, my deliverer, my stronghold, my rock and my shield.  Psalms 46:1 and 18:2

It's easy to say, it isn't always easy to do.  I know God will take care of us during hard times.  Sometimes I have a hard time remembering to trust Him.  I place too much of my emotions and energy stewing and fretting about what people do when I should be placing my ALL in God. 

I haven't been eating very healthy lately.  I keep hoping I will wake up and suddenly desire to be healthy.  I also keep hoping I'll wake up one day and be the perfect Christian, wife, Mom etc.  I'm just so tired and spread so thin and issues arise and I just want to curl up in a little ball and go to sleep for a week and when I wake up I want the nightmare to be over.  DRAMA! 

I am blessed to have food in the fridge, 3 beautiful kids, a husband who has a full time job and much, much more.

I am thankful, I am grateful, I am blessed and I am learning to trust. 

Rhubarb crisp

I am excited to say I was able to make really yummy NO sugar rhubarb crisp.  Here's the recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax
3/4 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 T ground cinnamon
Mix the above ingredients until moistened and crumbly.  Press 1/2 in the bottom of a glass baking dish (8"/10")

Mix 1 cup cold water with 2 T corn starch until blended.  Add 3/4-1 cup honey and 1 tsp. vanilla and boil until thick (stir often so it doesn't burn.)

Place 4 cups diced fresh rhubarb (aprox. 1" chunks) on top of the oatmeal crust mixture.  Pour honey mixture over the rhubarb and top with the remaining crumb topping. 

Bake in a 350° oven for 45 minutes to an hour.  (When the crust is golden and the rhubarb is bubbly it's done!)

Enjoy warm with Purely Decadent Vanilla Bean ice cream- So yummy!!!!!

Too much

There's been too much in my life.  Too much sugar.  Too much junk food.  Too much not enough sleep.  Too much yelling.  Too much junk.  Too much laziness.  Too much.  I'm drowning in too much.  I'd like to remedy some of these too muches but am not sure how.  Suggestions?

Moderation

So far, I'm not doing very well in the moderation department.  I tried to declutter the porch today, to no avail.  We want to have a garage sale to help get rid of the "too much stuff and not enough storage space" problem we have.  The problem is we have no where to put the too much stuff in the mean time.  Trying to do all this while Tobin is crying or getting into things also makes for frustration.  I even didn't cook anything except pancakes this morning, and there is still a heap of dishes waiting for me, not to mention laundry and dirt.  How does a family of 5 downsize after 11 years of build up?  I just need to keep reminding myself that in 100 years, most of our stuff won't matter a hill of beans to anyone.  It will make everyone's life easier just to get rid of it now. 

Sorry today's blog has nothing to do with no sugar.  I did ok today, I had a couple leftover cupcakes in the middle of the day otherwise I didn't have sugar.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Reflections, struggles, thoughts and perspectives

It's time to reflect on what I've learned, my struggles and a few things to think about.
When we were doing the no-sugar challenge, people asked if I could feel any difference.  At the time I really didn't.  I think I am feeling differences now.  I feel crabbier/PMSier this month.  I seem to have more zits (seriously, I'm 42, could I be done already?)  among other issues.  While these could be caused by a general disregard for my diet, I do feel a large part of it has to do with my eating sugar again.
I did learn about and how I like to use the alternative sweeteners.  I like to bake cakes, muffins and cookies with honey.  I like baking bread with rice syrup.  My initial excitement over the coconut sugar quickly fizzled when it didn't produce baked goods to my liking.  We now use either maple syrup or agave nectar on our pancakes and waffles.  (Agave is a little cheaper.)  I love the grain sweetened chocolate chips and coconut ice cream we discovered.  While we esp. loved the agave sweetened gummy bears they seem to be unavailable.  Every co-op we go to says they are "temporarily unavailable" (this has been since before Easter, I'm not sure they're coming back-bummer.)  I bake bread each week so I can control the ingredients.  I never use sugar in any of my home baking or cooking.  (Unless someone orders a cake.) 
I am struggling with maintaining the no sugar challenge.  I'm not sure if it's laziness, weakness or giving up.  I think depending on the day it could be any of those and probably more.  For example, tonight my dog decided to chase after another dog across the street and came within inches of getting hit by a car.  I ended up going for a walk and bought a 1/2 gallon of Walgreens ice cream and fed the whole thing to my family (I think I was possessed by the sugar demon.)  So, apparently I need to go the extreme opposite of no sugar and just pour it directly into our mouths after I experience a traumatic event.  Ug!  Most days though, I just end up falling into old habits and patterns and end up eating mindlessly.  (Mindless Eating is a great eye-opening book by the way.) 
I've also been thinking about all I've read and learned and come to some conclusions.  Adam and Eve had it perfect.  They had the perfect vegetarian diet, the perfect amount of sun, the perfect appetite, exercise, relationships.......you get the idea.  Then it all changed when they chose to put their focus on themselves rather than God or each other.  It's been that way ever since.  Yes Jesus has redeemed us, but we still live in a fallen world.  Things will not be perfect again until there is a new Heaven and a new earth (and only God knows when that is.)  In the mean time we try to achieve "perfect".  This Dr. says "don't eat soy", that TV personality says "don't eat dairy, the other health guru says "eat vegan".......and on and on it goes.  I believe  there is truth to all of it but the Devil is a good liar and will distort the truth any time he can.  If you aren't careful you will end up being afraid to go to the grocery store for fear of a new conspiracy around every corner.  Which brings me to my perspectives.  
My Mom brought up a good point several years ago.  We have available foods that are better than much of the world.  We don't have to dig in trash cans for our next meal.  Our water is clean and even if money is tight there are still good food options available to us.  I feel like sometimes we get so fixated on what we can't or shouldn't have that we forget about the bounty available to us.  I do believe it is very important to eat the foods God intended for us to eat (which do not include fruit loops, processed-beyond-recognition meats etc.)  I believe God wants us to be healthy so we can do what it is He has planned for us to do.  I don't think getting fixated on the negative and bad aspects of food is the way to go about things.  I believe I can only do the best that I can do and the rest I will leave up to my Lord and Savior, Protector and Creator, Help and Comfort, God of the universe.  I'm certain He can handle it!
Hopefully some of my rantings made sense.  I am going to try once again to eat healthier.  I think I will have more success if I focus on that rather than restricting.  Moderation seems like a good challenge.  I could use moderation in several areas of my life.  I'll get back to you on that!

Memorial day

I tried a new waffle recipe today.  SO YUMMY!!!!  It's from passionatehomemaking.com.
You can find the recipe in the recipe index under blender waffles or pancakes.
This recipe was so simple and was met with many "These waffles are SO good!"  I used all brown rice and unsweetened almond milk.  I will for sure make these again!

Spinach artichoke dip

I got this recipe from June 2011 Clean Eating.

Preheat oven to 350°
1 1/2 Cups frozen cauliflower
4 oz less fat cream cheese
9-11 T low-fat milk, divided
Olive oil cooking spray
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 10 oz box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess water
1 8 oz box frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and chopped
1/4 packed cup fresh dill sprigs, thick stems removed
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper, or to taste
5 scallions, chopped
2 oz reduced fat Monterey Jack or Mozzarella cheese, shredded (1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp salt

Cook cauliflower.  Process in a food processor the cauliflower, cream cheese and half the milk.  Puree until smooth.  Put mixture in a bowl.  Cook onions and garlic and process.  Add spinach, artichokes, dill salt, cayenne and milk.  Puree until mixture is spreadable.  Add this mixture to the cheese mixture add chopped scallions and stir until combined.  Put the mixture in an oven proof dish, top with the cheese cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.  (Check out the actual recipe in the magazine.  I skipped a lot of their steps.)


I used a whole brick of cream cheese so the leftover half wouldn't get wasted.  I also used chives instead of scallions and added about 1/2 tsp. more cayenne.  (I probably could have used more.)  I used cheddar and parmesan.  I would like to try it with pepperjack or the monterey jack.  We used tortilla chips to dip, it would be really good with pita chips.

Day blah

Today I am venting.  I did have some sugar today.  I ate lunch at work which was a meatball sub (sugar in the bread and sauce.) It was good!  I also had an ice cream sandwich. 
I don't feel very motivated to be completely sugar free.  I don't have anyone doing it with me so I'm not accountable to anyone but this blog and I'm not sure anyone reads it anymore.  The novelty of having a blog has worn off I guess.  I need to figure out how to load photos and spice my page up a bit, then maybe I'll be more motivated.  I have been reading all kinds of healthy eating information lately and it seems like nothing is good for you anymore.  I know this is an exaggeration but it seems hopeless at times.  My latest frustration is lack of money.  It's hard to eat healthy without extra money.  It seems very unfair that the only people that can eat completely healthy, clean, organic etc. are people with lots of money to spend on good food.  Our society is so unhealthy but healthy is such an unrealistic goal for most people.  I do try to buy as much organic as I can (potatoes always, milk almost always, fruit and veg. sometimes...)  I'm now reading that wheat may not be so good for you.  What am I supposed to do with that information?  I bake!  I bake ALL the time, muffins, cake, bread.....  Grrrrr!  I have decided that all we can do is the best we can do and trust that our Maker and Creator is able to do great things despite our humanity! 
Today I foolishly allowed that little voice of doubt whisper in my ear "you're not good enough".  I wasted the better part of the day being upset about it instead of giving it to God to handle.  I suppose I still haven't completely given it to Him if I'm venting about it now.  I often feel this way and lately esp. with the no sugar thing.  I find myself feeling so unable to catch up with the things of life that I just give up trying regarding food.  It's just easier to eat whatever I can get my hands on than to eat mindfully.  I so desperately want to regain some semblance of control that I sabotage my efforts to eat healthier by "controlling" my food by losing control of what I'm eating.  I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but I know what I mean :)

I think my best bet right now is to pray!  Here's to a better day tomorrow!

do over 7

Breakfast- Chocolate, chocolate chip waffles (no sugar)

Lunch- Chicken stir fry with brown rice noodles

Snack-  Banana, (I had something else, I just can't remember)

Dinner- Brown rice cooked in chicken broth (the rice didn't cook long enough but still tasted good.)

Snack- Girl's event at church.  Mini cheese cake, cheese and crackers, strawberries and grapes

Overall, not a bad day but not completely sugar free.

Do over 4-6

I have not done very well the past 3 days.  Thursday I attended a jewelry party in which the hostess made her yummy Special K. bars (chocolate and peanut butter- hard to pass up!).  Friday we were invited to a friend's for uffda tacos (fry bread tacos).  She only makes them once a year or so, so I couldn't pass them up.  Today we attended a Mother Daughter tea/brunch.  The food was delicious and NOT sugar free.  This afternoon/evening we went to my aunt's house to celebrate my Grandma's birthday.  Lots of goodies (potluck).  Back on track tomorrow!

Do over 3

Breakfast- Cinnamon whole wheat pancakes with oats and flax.

Snack- Grapes and canteloupe

Lunch- Leftover tortilini with beans and corn

Snack- Dried fruit and nuts.  Apple and cinnamon/honey

Dinner- Egg roll and chicken fried rice from David Fongs

Snack- Mango and Coconut ice cream

Pete is doing a cleanse which means he will be eating only certain foods.  I'll try to blog a bit about things I am able to cook.  It's a little daunting thinking about me with no sugar, Pete with only rice veg., meat and eggs (a few other things, Riley not liking any food and Kendra who eats pretty much anything I cook.  Well, here's to new food adventures.

Do over 2

It's my husband and my 14th anniversary today.  He woke up before we did and picked up Brueggers for breakfast so I wouldn't have to make breakfast (how sweet!)  I had coffee with honey and 1/2 of a spinach, egg and cheese on a rosemary olive oil bagel (yum!)

Snack- Bowl of cereal.

Lunch- PB and banana on homemade bread,  homemade cookie and my new fav. ice cream (I ran some errands before lunch and it was kind of melty, I HAD to eat some!)

Snack-  Veg., cracker with honey hummus.

Dinner- Tortillini and brussels sprouts

Snack- Nuts, raisins and string cheese

It wasn't a perfect no sugar day, but it was a good day (despite the awful heat and humidity!)

Do over 1

Here we go again!
Breakfast- Homemade bread with butter and cold cereal.

Snack-  Dried fruit and nuts and a homemade no sugar oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie.

Lunch- Macaroni and cheese, mixed vegetables and leftover green pasta.

Snack- Chips and salsa, cucumber

Dinner- Chicken tacos

Certainly not a perfect day by any means, but getting back on track.

Do over

I'd like to request a do-over.  It was hard going back to no sugar after eating w/o worrying about it for a week or so.  This second time around I was alone, my girls didn't realize I was starting back when I did.  Once I allowed myself one sugar item I felt I could have just one more or I will start later or....the excuses just keep coming.  I will start up again tomorrow and hopefully not fall off the bandwagon this time!

5

Breakfast- Bowl of cereal with coconut milk

Lunch- We are heading to the Festival of Nations with my sister.  I am so excited to eat Samosas from India!  I don't think there would be any sugar in the ingredients but if there is, I don't care.  They are that yummy.  I would love to get my hands on a good recipe so I could make them at home.  Either that or I need to find a good restaurant that I can get them at during the rest of the year.  I will try to resist desserts today.

I did not resist.  I'm not doing very well this time around.  I will try better!

Dinner- Chicken and potato soup.

I ate way too much garbage for snack-UG!

4

Today will not be a no sugar day :(  We have a field trip to DQ.  I can resist the food, but probably not the ice cream.  I'm ok with that :)

Breakfast- Oatmeal with maple sugar and cinnamon

Snack- Scrambled eggs with ketchup, cantaloupe

From here on out the day was NOT sugar free :(
DQ for lunch with ice cream for dessert,  Snack was veg.,  Dinner was frozen pizza white ch. macadamia nut cookies and 2 sips of wine (Tobin wouldn't stay sleeping and fought with me for 2 hours- ug!)

3

Breakfast-Banana chocolate chip muffins

Snack- dried fruit

Lunch- Turkey tacos at work. I had a tortilla- it had brown sugar in it :(  I also had chips and queso from Don Pablos.

Snack- Fresh Veggies, homemade hummus and chips

Dinner- Chicken and couscous

Dessert- No sugar chocolate cupcakes

Yummus Hummus! (Moroccan Spiced Honey Hummus)

I got this recipe from www.nationalhoneyboard.com

2 15 oz. cans of garbanzo beans drained and rinsed

1/3 cup honey (I used a touch more)

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. salt

a dasy of cayenne pepper

1/4 cup lemon juice (I used lime since I had no lemon)

1 tsp. minced garlic (I used 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)

2-3 Tb. fresh cilantro or parsley chopped (I skipped this.  I didn't like how bitter the cilantro tasted.)

Combine all ingredients except the cilantro in a food processor and process until smooth.  Put in a serving bowl and mix in the cilantro.  Eat with pita chips.  (I used tortilla since I had no pita, but pita would be way better!)

2

Breakfast- Chocolate & coconut pancake

Snack- Ez. 4:9 cereal and milk

Lunch- Spinach pasta and carrots

Snack- Pear, dried fruit

Dinner- Taco salad @ church.  I grabbed a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie to possibly eat during class.  I ended up resisting and gave the cookie to Pete.

Snack-  I had some pea  pods, carrots and celery.  I also made some homemade hummus and tried some.  I've dubbed it "Yummus hummus!".  I will post the recipe!

1

Breakfast- Chocolate chip pancakes (no sugar c. chips)

Snack- Dried fruit

Lunch- Leftover chili

Snack- Honey decaf latte, carrots and a sliver of a brownie (I savored all 3 bites)

Dinner- Wheat couscous, corn, leftover Buca and black bean "burgers"

Snack- Coconut milk chocolate ice cream

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on track with Planet Fitness.

Day -1

I will start another 30 day no sugar challenge tomorrow.  I was not even close to being a good eater today.  I started the day with chocolate cake for breakfast-enough said.

Here's the totals for our first 30 day challenge (as best as I can figure):

I had 11 out of 30 complete no sugar days, 16 minimal sugar days (ie. white bread for burgers, ketchup etc.) and 3 days with a full sugar item.

Kendra and Riley had 11 out of 27 (they ended the challenge earlier than me due to Easter.) complete no sugar days.  11 out of 27 minimal sugar days and 5 days that had a full sugar food item of some sort (ie. dessert at Buca's).

All in all we learned a lot about what we are eating.  I have also learned during this past week "off" how easy it is to slip back into bad eating habits and how important it is that I blog (I need that accountability!)  I will say there is a certain freedom that comes with eating whatever you want, but you end up paying the price later on.  I would much rather be mindful of what I am eating and feeding my children than taking the easy/unhealthy road out.  Tomorrow I plan to get back on to the road of healthy eating.

A note about going vegetarian for 30 days.  Riley has decided she wants to eat only chicken.  No beef or pork.  I think I will try to cook more vegetarian meals simply because it is cheaper and I kind of wanted to try some vegetarian meals!  (I made black bean "burgers" Sat. night to be the veg. alt. to homemade chicken nuggets.  Riley ended up eating chicken nuggets and Kendra and Pete inhaled the black bean nuggets.  Go figure!)

It's 9:00 and Tobin is sleeping.  I am going to clean the kitchen and get things ready for tomorrow and hopefully go to bed early.  I didn't post the rhubarb syrup, golden angel food cake, chocolate chip cookies or my sister's yummy bread recipes.  Since I don't seem to have the time, I will post the recipes per request.  Thanks for understanding!

I will catch up next week

To anyone out there that reads my blog, I do plan to blog again.  I have been crazy busy lately!  The next 3 days will be just as crazy.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track next week with a summary of our no sugar month, what I am still doing and what I plan to do for the next challenge.  I will post those recipes that I promised next week.  I still haven't figured out how to post photos though (anyone out there want to teach me?)
Anyway...TTFN

Day 30!!!!!

Well, I made it to day 30, sort of.  I had a few sugar filled days but for the most part I think I did pretty good.  I'll have to go back and tally to see how all of us did overall.

I think the next 30 day challenge will be to go vegetarian.  Riley has decided (for reasons not fully understood) to be a vegetarian.  I think to test it out to see if she will like veg. proteins I will do it with her and try different products and meals.  I will still cook meat for Pete and Kendra and I will probably not stick to a completely meat free diet but I will try.

Breakfast-  Golden angel food cake muffins (sweetened with pineapple juice, banana, coconut and coconut sugar.)

Snack-  Fresh fruit, one peanut m-n-m

Lunch-  Leftover green pasta and turkey.

Snack- Dried fruit, chips and salsa.

Dinner- Leftover turkey and stuffing.

Dessert- Chocolate cupcakes, 4 jelly beans and one peep-too much sugar for my "last" day :(

Day 29

So close to the goal and I bombed :(

Breakfast- I made a butter braid for the girls at their request.  It didn't cook all the way though so it was really gooey in the center (bummer.)  I had a nibble then I had a slice of  homemade bread.  At Church they had fresh fruit, pastries and juice.  I had some of a granola bar and lots of fruit.

Lunch-  We went to Baker's Square with my sister and nephew.  I had a couple bites of Kendra's burger, a chicken strip from my nephew, and a few fries.  I also broke down and ate a strawberry and cream filled crepe (yummy!) 

Snack-  I had a dried pineapple from my Easter basket (pineapple with sugar.  I've decided that is one food item I feel needs sugar or it just isn't even close to the same.)

Dinner-  We went to Grandma and Grandpa McG.'s for dinner.  We had turkey and all the fixings.  Dessert was angel food cake, whip cream and berries.  I brought cupcakes w/o sugar.  We were full so most of them came back home with us.

I'm going to top the bad weekend off with some jellybeans from my Easter basket.  They are my favorite candy and I've resisted all season.  Tomorrow it will be back to no sugar for me.  I will try to control the girl's intake of sugar as best as I can.  Hopefully they won't crave candy etc. quite as much now.  TTFN!

Day 28

Breakfast- Pancakes with Agave syrup and rhubarb syrup.

Riley "Even though we're done with the no sugar can we still get no sugar treats and desserts since we like them so much?"  I'd say the no sugar challenge was a success!!!

Up north for Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's.  I munched on freeze dried bananas in the car.  ( they are really good but get gooey in your teeth.  They'd be really good in cereal, or I was going ti try a pb and crunchy banana sandwich.)  Riley took her no more "no sugar" day seriously and had a donut.  Kendra had some of Pete's KFC.

At Grandma's we ate pretty much all afternoon.  Here's what I ate:  Cheese pizza, raw vegetables, fresh fruit, a slice of pumpkin bread (sugar in it), honey angel food cake (I'll post the recipe later.).  I drank 100% apple juice.  The girls had pop pizza veg and fruit.
Dinner was more of lunch plus chili, fresh bread (my sister made it-yum!  I'll get that recipe too.)  and fresh cookies (I made them with the sugar free ch. chips-  They disappeared as soon as they were out of the oven.

I snacked on lara bars and dried mango on the way home.

Day 27

Breakfast- Another crazy morning at my house today.  We had chocolate cupcakes for breakfast.  I ended up giving most of mine to Riley.  I later had a lara bar and some dried fruit.  Riley also had cereal.

Snack- Dried fruit

Lunch-  Leftover turkey and watermelon.  The girl's had homemade pretzels (they make them every year after the good Friday service at the daycare.  They were from frozen bread dough which probably had sugar in it.)  They also had sandwiches and watermelon.

Snack-  I had a cupcake and veggie chips.

Dinner-  I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the whole foods market and also made spinach pasta.

Snack-  Riley had the hiccups so she had a spoonful of pb.  I made carrot cake for an order and also made some sugar free cupcakes.  I tried to make a sugar free frosting recipe but it didn't turn out at all.  I ended up trying a nibble of the sugar free cake with regular cream cheese frosting, it was nice to taste "real" frosting!  I will keep trying though.  I'm having a bowl of sugar free ice cream (same as last night.)  yummy.  I also made some healthy pb cups.  They are in the freezer right now, I hope they turn out.

Day 26

Breakfast- Pancakes sweetened with date sugar.

Crazy morning, we barely made it out the door with our heads on straight let alone food for the day.  I'm going to have to improvise I guess.

Snack-  Yogurt with strawberry all fruit

Lunch-  Rice cake with almond butter and honey.  I tried a couple meatballs before I realized there was sugar in the ingredients :( they were pretty good too.  I nibbled on some vegetables and had a chocolate cupcake.  The kids for the most part liked the cupcakes.  No one commented on a different taste or anything.  The ones that said "I don't like the cupcake" are the same ones who would say that about anything they don't want to eat.  I felt kind of sneaky knowing I was feeding them a sweet treat w/o the potential for a sugar crash- Yay Me!

Snack-  String cheese and another rice cake with almond butter

Dinner- Pulled turkey sandwiches on homemade bread.  I was so bummed last night when I looked at the package from the turkey and saw sugar in the ingredients.  It was thawed and too late so I had to cook it.  It was very good despite the sugar.  Oh well, I'll have to be more vigilant about reading ingredients next time.

I ran to the Mississippi Market in St. Paul this evening to get agave gummy bears for the girl's Easter baskets.  Alas, no gummy bears in stock (none at the other Miss. Market store either.)  I ended up getting some more dried fruit (I tried the papaya, it was pretty good.)  I also bought 3 bags of chocolate chips (might as well stock up right?)  At the girl's request I picked up more coconut milk ice cream.  I got coconut and chocolate flavors.  I forgot about them in my bag when I got home (oops!)  By the time I realized it they were kind of melty so of course I had to taste them.  OH MY!  The chocolate was so good.  I really liked the coconut too.  Nice bedtime treat w/o the sugar.  (If you read my previous posts you will remember they are sweetened with agave and chicory root.  Not all the flavors are sugar free but the one's we've tried are.)  I think tomorrow will be the girl's last "sugar free" day since we will be having Easter at my parent's house on Sat. and there's bound to be Easter candy etc.  And of course Easter Sunday and Easter baskets.  I did buy some candy at the Co-op that has sugar, but it's pure cane sugar which is not as processed.  The candys also have more natural ingredients (actual fruits).  I plan to make the sugar free peanut butter cups and add a few non eatable items (maybe new colored pencils, purses, jewelry or something.  We'll see what I end up having time for.)
It's 10:00 and everyone is sleeping but me.  I think I'm going to go to bed early! 

Day 25

Breakfast- Fresh, warm, homemade bread and honey.

Snack/breakfast- Bowl of cereal with coconut milk and scrambled eggs.

Lunch-  Leftover beef stir fry and a pear.  The girls have the usual.

Snack- I had another decaf. latte with honey (yep, I'm addicted!) Kendra had crackers and hummus (I nibbled on some too.)  Riley had vanilla pudding and Nilla wafers.

Dinner-  Leftover tortillini from the other night.  (The girls didn't leave me much.)

Snack-  Kendra had a cupcake and some sprite.  Riley had popcorn.  I had a pb and banana sandwich on homemade bread.

I made chocolate cupcakes and chocolate frosting for Teigen's birthday tomorrow.  We'll see how no sugar cupcakes go over with the kids.

Day 24

Breakfast-  I had pb and honey.  Kendra and Riley had grilled cheese.  I later had a bowl of cereal and coconut milk and some oj.

I feel the need to explain why I tend to eat so much breakfast.  I wake up between 6 and 6:30 and get ready for the day (pack lunches, make breakfast, pump, get out the door...).   We are out the door by 7:15 eating in the car.  I drop Kendra at school at 7:30 and Tobin and Riley at 7:45.  Then I dash out the door to walk on the tread mill at Planet Fitness for 15-20 minutes before running back to work and driving the short bus with a load of kids to one of the schools.  I then get back to work and hang with Tobin for 15 minutes before going to work at 9.  I'm hungry by then so I have a "second" breakfast.  Then I have snack around 11 since I don't eat lunch until 12:30.

Lunch- Turkey burger, American cheese and homemade wheat bread.

Snack- 2 Lara bars (I think I like Key Lime the best.)  Veg. and hummus.

Dinner-  I had a meeting at work and ate what they provided.  Scalloped potatoes (I think they were real, not box.), fresh fruit and a bite of cole slaw (someone said it was really good.  It was ok, it didn't taste sweet.)

Kendra and Riley had homemade pigs in a blanket (Daddy cooked!)

Snack- String cheese

Day 23 and New China

Breakfast- Scrambled eggs with cheese.  Cinnamon raisin bread

Snack-  Plain yogurt with All-fruit.  Dried fruit.

Lunch-  The girls had pepperoni rolls, a sugar free cookie, cucumbers, string cheese, mixed nuts, tortilla chips and V8 Fusion.

Snack-  I had hummus, Sticks-n-Twigs, cheese and Triscuit.  The girls had fresh strawberries and pears.

Dinner-  Beef stir fry & rice on my new china. Grape juice concentrate with sparkling water. Warm cinnamon chocolate cake for dessert.  (Yummy esp. warm!  I just added 1+ tsp. cinnamon to my whacky chocolate cake recipe.  I used coconut sugar for the sweetener.)

The New China Story

I took a class at Church based on Devi Titus's book "The Table Experience".  (Which is how I got connected with "Healthy Families For God" and how I wound up doing this whole 30 day no sugar challenge in the first place!)  Anyway!  In one of the classes as we were talking about making the table look nice and inviting so your family and/or guests feel welcome and special.  The conversation turned to China and how girls don't register for China anymore.  I said "I only got one place setting of my China.  I pull it out for birthdays and the birthday person gets to use the China."  One of the ladies in class felt led to get me the rest of my China.  Everyone pitched in and they surprised me with 7 place settings last night at a Women's event at Church.  I was in awe that anyone would do something like that for me (esp. with my crabby attitude lately.)  If I can figure out how to post a photo I will show a picture of our dinner tonight on our new China.  I am truely blessed.  It just goes to show that even though I am feeling crabby and undeserving, God loves me enough to bless me with pretty dishes!!!
Nothing about our lives is insignificant to God.

Day 22

Here's a lowdown on the girl's weekend:

Friday- Kendra had Panda Express at the Mall of America (Orange chicken, chow mein and an Izzy.  A couple bites of a McD's ice cream cone.

Dinner at their cousin's house- Spaghetti, cheese bread sticks and pink lemonade.

Saturday- Breakfast-  Eggs with cheese.

Lunch-  Burgers and chips.  Carrot cake and ice cream.  Sparkling juicy juice.

Dinner- I had pb, banana and honey on wheat, I also had roasted red pepper hummus with chips. 

Snack-  I had vegetables at an event at Church tonight.


Sunday-  Back to "normal" for the girls.

Breakfast-  I made oatmeal sweetened with honey and cinnamon.  Riley ate a butter sandwich and dry cereal.

I had a latte with honey after church (Yum!  I better be careful or I'll  become addicted to lattes.)

Lunch-  I made tortellini  with alfredo sauce (it was Ragu brand, the classic flavor was the only one out of all the brands that didn't have sugar in the ingredients.) I added a little coconut milk to thin it out a bit and I added some curly pasta and mixed veg. to make the tortellini go farther (I only bought one package since it was $6 for a pound.)  Kendra had a banana and Riley had an apple.

Snack-  Kendra is having cheese and rice. Riley is having a banana and puffs.  I am taking a nap :)

Day 21

I woke to a very quiet house.  It was just me and Tobin.

Breakfast-  I had a bowl of cereal with coconut milk and a slice of raisin bread.

Lunch-  I had 1/2 a sweet potato and a whole wheat roll.

Snack-  Hummus chips (from Target), a Lara bar and a pb and honey sandwich (Late snack/dinner.)

I'm not sure what time the girls will be home and if they will need dinner or not.  I'll probably just make some spinach pasta.

Day 20

20 days down, 10+ to go.  Whew!  I think we've done pretty good.  The girls used to ask for dessert or candy every night and now it's not as often or some nights  not at all.  I still crave junk but am making better choices to snack on.

Big weekend for Kendra and Riley.  Kendra has a field trip to MOA today for science.  (They have been learning about roller coasters.)  She has $ to spend on lunch in the food court.  I'm curious to see what choices she makes.  They both are going to their cousin's for a sleepover/birthday party.  My sister-in-law told me what she was planning to make for meals and they sound good.  There will be white pasta and white bread and of course cake and ice cream.  I made the birthday cake (not sugar free) but also made sugar free cupcakes to send along.  I'm also sending bread and Izzys (so they can feel like they are drinking "pop" too.)  We'll see how it goes.  They were very worried about it.  I assured them it would be ok.  The challenge is to see if we can do it and we've had many sugar free days so we know we are able.  I think a couple days with sugar now and then will be ok.

Breakfast- Cinn. raisin bread.

Lunch-  Riley had pb &j on the last white bun.  She also had a homemade vanilla cupcake,  a Lara bar (she did not like the cherry at all.), mango, triscuts and V 8 fusion.  I had leftover pasty with a little ketchup (the bad kind ), corn & peas and a whole wheat roll (homemade.)

Snack-  I had 1/2 fresh mango (yum!), cheese and crackers and a Lara bar.

Dinner-  It was my work staff dinner tonight.  We had it at Cowboy Jack's in Bloomington.  We had a taco and BBQ buffet.  I had taco salad.  I think unless they made the taco meat from scratch there was some sugar in the seasoning.  I also tried a bite of BBQ, cole slaw and had a couple tater tots.  I almost had a brownie but my coworkers said they were good but not good enough to cheat.  I ended the evening with a half glass of white wine.

Day 19

Breakfast- Riley had dry cereal.  Kendra had rice and cheese.  I had a muffin and a bowl of cereal with coconut milk.

Snack- I had a lovely decaf. latte with honey and a clementine.

Lunch- I had a leftover pastie, cheese and crackers and green beans.  Kendra and Riley had clementines, carrots, a 100% fruit roll up, Tings and V8 Fusion.

Snack- Cucumbers and cauliflower.  I also had dried fruit and granola.  (Kendra had nothing.)

Second Snack :)  We stopped at Cub on the way home.  As recommended by Healthy Families by God , we picked up some Lara bars (on sale 10 for $10) and just had to try them.  Yummy!  I think I can make them myself when they aren't 1.00 each.

Dinner- Leftovers.  Kendra had a pepperoni and cheese quesadilla on a whole wheat/no sugar tortilla.  Riley had pepperoni roll.  I had PB and J on a white bun.

Snack- No sugar whole wheat cupcake V8 Fusion and pb ball.  (I hate being hormonal!)

No de-cluttering as of late.  I have no time for much of anything it seems.  On a positive note, I think Tobin is finally in a bedtime routine!

Day 18

Breakfast- Cinnamon raisin bread

Snack- A really yummy pear!

Lunch- The girls have the usual.  I brought stir fry again.  I also had another pear.  (Seriously, they were really good.)

Dinner- My original plan was to cook some noodles at work and reheat some pasties for dinner....I decided to go to Chipotle instead.  I know, not super healthy but I needed a break.  I think the only sugar there was, was in Riley's quesadilla (I assume the tortilla has sugar.)  I had chicken in my burrito bowl which was marinated so I assume there was sugar in that as well.  Kendra had a veg. bowl.  Unless there's sugar in the corn or guac. I think she did the best.  We all had Izzys.  (I am grateful for Izzys.  Pretty much juice and sparkling water.  Has been a great sub. for pop.  We didn't allow a lot of pop anyway, but when eating out we sometimes did.  It's been nice to have it as a choice.

Snack-  Wed. night church is proving too hard for the  girl's to resist.  Kendra had Pirrouine (You know, the hazelnut chocolate filled cookie tube things?)  those are pretty hard to resist.  She did ask before she ate them.  I told her it was up to her if she wanted to fudge or not.  Riley confessed ("I'm sorry Mom!") to having pretzel chips.  ("I had seconds :( I;m sorry." )  I had decaf coffee in my class.  Later at home I had a slice of raisin bread and 2 almond balls.

Day 17

Breakfast-  Today was the Family Breakfast at the daycare for Week of the Young Child.  They had egg bake, cantaloupe, blueberries and strawberries.  The egg bake had hash browns (dextrose is in the ingredients), sausage, peppers and mushrooms.  I had the veg. one, Kendra had the sausage one and Riley had cheese.  I also had some ketchup on mine, no commercial ketchup is sugar free :( but I figured since I already fudged with the hash browns I may as well have a little ketchup too.

Snack- My homemade cookies, dried fruit and granola.

Lunch- I had leftover stir fry.  The girls had the usual.  Kendra had a soft pretzel at school for her one treat of the day.

Snack- We had string cheese.  I also had rice cakes with almond butter.

Dinner-  I made salmon cakes and brown rice.  Riley doesn't like fish so she had pb and all-fruit on a leftover bun from our burgers.  I usually don't make her something different from the rest of us, but she really dislikes fish.  I remember feeling the same way as a kid.  I've had her try it numerous times and feel she can wait a while before having to try it again. 

Snack-  I am feeling very hormonal tonight and wanted sugar BAD!  I had a frozen banana with chocolate chips (the non sugar ones) and peanut butter.  I feel better! 

Day 16

Breakfast-  We had cinn. raisin/dried plum bread with butter.

Snack- Mango smoothie.  Dried fruit and granola.

It's the Week of The Young Child this week (a week to celebrate children and those who care for them.)  I walked into the office today and groaned, there on the counter were caramel rolls, chocolates and cookies.  I resisted all day though!  I think I'll bake some sugar free cookies to share tomorrow!

Lunch-  For the girls I packed:  Pepperoni roll, string cheese, freeze dried veg. (they are very good, not what I was expecting at all.), dried fruit, pretzels, 100% juice & a vanilla cupcake.  For myself I have salad, a pastie, dried fruit & veg.  Riley had an apple too.

Snack-   I had a grapefruit and 2 rice cakes with almond butter.

Dinner- Rice noodles and chicken stir fry.  It turned out really good.  I pretty much raided my fridge for veg. to cook.  I used: purple cabbage, carrots, sugar snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, green pepper, jicima (it cooked up like water chestnuts!), onion and frozen corn.  I used olive oil, water and Bragg's Aminos (tastes like soy sauce.) to cook everything in.

Dessert/snack- The girls ate frozen fruit. I had some raisin bread. 

I baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with my new chocolate chips.  I used a basic oatmeal raisin cookie recipe but used coconut sugar and molasses instead of sugar.  They turned out dark, both in flavor and color.  Pretty good though. 

Day 15

We're halfway through the challenge.  It's starting to feel normal to avoid sugar.

Breakfast- Kendra and Riley ate matzo and cheese.  I had raisin bread, toasted with pb and blueberry preserves.  I also had a bowl of cereal with coconut milk.

After church today we checked out another co-op.  (It was the Mississippi Market in St. Paul.)  We found lots of sugar free goodies!  Dried pears and peaches.  More coconut sugar (slightly cheaper at Valley Natural.)  The biggest score of the day was a bag of chocolate chips and GUMMY BEARS!  You heard me, sugar free gummy bears.  They were sweetened with agave nectar. The surprising thing is, they taste like gummy bears!  The chocolate chips are sweetened with malted barley and corn.  They taste like semi-sweet chocolate chips.  They were only 4.59 for a bag.  Not bad when I usually make a bag last for 3 or 4 recipes.  The gummy bears were only 4.99 a pound.  We also found a sugar free ice cream.  "Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Passionate Mango".  It was sweetened with agave syrup.  That was expensive (5.99 for a pint, but worth it.  It was yummy AND sugar free!)

Lupper- (That would be late lunch, early dinner.)  We had "goober" burgers.  Kendra and Riley have been watching Andrew Zimmerman on Netflix.  He travels the world eating the most bizarre foods (brains, blood, bugs...you get the idea.)  He did a MN episode and ate at a burger joint up North.  The strange burger was a burger with peanut butter and mayo on it.  We thought it looked kind of good so we tried it.  It was really good!  Riley actually ate more than one bite AND said it was good (she's not a big meat lover).   The burgers were on white buns from the co-op.  I didn't plan ahead and make my own buns which I would normally do.  The buns were white with sugar in them, but they were form a local bakery and only had basic ingredients in them (flour, water, egg, yeast, sugar.)  They were perfect for the burgers.  We also had salad.
My sister came over shortly after lupper and brought us honey cake.  They were super yummy.  I need to get the recipe from her.  It was dense like a banana bread.  We decided it would be great for breakfast in muffin tins.  She made one with almonds and one plain.  Pete came in from working in the garage looking for seconds but there wasn't any left, the kids gobbled it all!!

Late supper/snack- We had spinach pasta with parmesan and butter.  Riley also had sesame sticks.  They both had a sucker for a reward.

I'm making homemade pepperoni roll again since the girls liked it so much last week.  I found some pepperoni at the co-op that had healthier ingredients than conventional but it still has some sugar.  Not a ton and each roll only has a couple slices.  I'm also making more cinnamon raisin bread but with dried plums (I didn't have enough raisins) and date sugar this time.

Snack- I had sesame sticks and sugar snap peas for my late night snack attack.

Muffins

Oven 400°
Mini muffins 10 minutes.  Regular size 20 minutes.
1 3/4 cups flour (I often do half wheat and half white.)
1/3 c. sugar or sugar substitute
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 c. milk

I usually add ground flax and oats.  I also add 2 mashed bananas.  I adjust the milk or dry ingredients as needed.

Day 14

Wow!  We've made it 2 weeks.  I am thinking this is something I want to continue doing for longer than the challenge.  I've lost weight and I feel better knowing the girls are eating healthier.  I can't say if I necessarily "feel" better one way or the other (it's hard to feel better when one is sleep deprived due to a baby in the house.)  Mentally I do feel better knowing that I am not overloading my system with unnecessary sugar.

Breakfast-  Pancakes.  Kendra had a cupcake too.  Homemade rhubarb syrup (SO YUMMY!!!)  I found the recipe in this month's Rachael Ray magazine.  I'll post my twist on it later.

We took a walk to Brueggers for some coffee for me and Izzys for the girls.  We went to the park too!

Lunch-  Kendra and Riley made a matzo and cheese "pizza".  I made spinach noodles with butter and parmesan cheese.  Kendra and I had those.  I also had a pb ball.

Snack- The girls had sunflower seeds.

Dinner- Pasties!  Yummy!  I made homemade ketchup (I found the recipe online healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com) to go along with them.  The Pastie recipe I found in my hometown community cookbook.  I'll post the recipe.

Dessert- White cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  The frosting was another experiment.  I started with butter and cream cheese (I wanted to use just butter but I had some leftover cream cheese softened from a cupcake order I had.)  I added 1 T. of vanilla, 2T. of honey and powdered milk (it was super fine from the whole foods store.  It is as fine as baby formula.)  It was pretty good but not super sweet.  I tried adding maple sugar for a maple flavor but the sugar wasn't fine and left grains in the frosting.  It didn't add the maple flavor either.  I then added a bit more honey which made it runnier so I added more pwd. milk.  I added a T of corn starch to thicken it a bit.  It still turned out runny, but tasty.  The cupcakes  turned out surprisingly good.  I meant to use white flour but used wheat flour instead.  The girls loved them!  I'll note the changes with the chocolate cake recipe.

Another successful day!

I didn't de-clutter anything today, but I did do all my dishes.  I made 4 dozen cupcakes, lots of frosting and dinner.  I washed all the pans right away so I avoided clutter, which should count for something!

Day 13

Breakfast- Banana muffins.  I made them with the coconut sugar.  I also added dehydrated coconut flakes and some flax.  They turned out pretty good.  I'll post my basic recipe tonight.

Snack- Dried fruit and granola.

Lunch- The girls have the last of the pepperoni roll for lunch.  (I'm not sure what to do next week since I couldn't find ANY pepperoni without sugar.  I'll see if the girls have any ideas for a good substitute.  Usually they don't finish all of their sandwich for lunch but they have been finishing the pepperoni rolls, so I may just use pepperoni from the health food store anyway  so I know they will have food in them at school.)  apples, "Original Tings" (kind of like cheetos only no cheese and not bright orange.), carrots & "SoBe" water.  For dessert I'll pack a sugar free chocolate cupcake.  I'm going to make vegetable rice soup (I found a mix in the bulk bins at the natural food store that sounded good.)

The soup wasn't done so I had a salad, cheese and triscuts and a chocolate cupcake (sugar free of course).  I'll have the soup for snack.  The soup wasn't seasoned at all so I'm going to have to do some serious doctoring later to make it not so bland.

I had the soup for snack.  It was pretty good.  I added garlic salt, onion powder, celery salt and poultry seasoning.  I also had rice cakes with almond butter and buckwheat honey.  The girls had tortilla chips.

Dinner- Leftovers!  Kendra had nachos.  Riley had  matzo cheese pizza.  I had couscous and tuna salad.  I had a pb ball for dessert.

Late night sugar craving- Chocolate cupcake!  (No sugar of course.)

Day 12

Breakfast- Cinnamon raisin bread. I also had 2 rice cakes with almond butter and a bunch of strawberries.

Snack- I had dried fruit.

Lunch-The girls have pretty much the same thing as yesterday except, no strawberries, and along with dried mango I added dried plums and apricots, and kohlrabi with the tomatoes.  I also gave Riley only cheese puffs and Kendra only crackers since they don't like the other.  They each had a pb ball. Riley did not eat her pb ball.  Kendra did not eat her veg. I had cheese and triscuits and a mango smoothie.  I've also snacked on some of my co-op finds.

I went to Valley Natural Foods in Apple Valley today during break and spent too much $ but had fun buying sugar-free items.  I found Sticks and Twigs (wheat and gluten free pretzels) loaded with cool grains.  I also found coconut palm sugar.   It tastes like brown sugar, kind of a molasses taste, yum!  I bought some maple sugar and superfine powdered milk to try to make frosting with.  I'll keep you posted on how things turn out.  I also "made" my own almond butter.  That was a new and fun experience for me.  I'm also excited because I can have it at work.  (We can't have peanut butter or things with peanut/nut warnings on them and all almond butters I've found have a warning on them.  The make your own just had almonds as the ingredients-yay!

Dinner- We are going to Buca with the in-laws for my birthday.  I'm hoping there isn't too much sugar in their food.  I tried to google their ingredients but no luck.  The only other option would be to call and I just haven't had the time.  I figure if I skip the bread and eat only a bite or two of dessert I should be ok.

Buca- I passed on the bread the first time it was offered but ended up eating a small piece with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil the second time it was offered.  I tried a fried calamari, I wasn't a fan.  We ordered salad, fettucini alfredo, baked ziti, parmesan chicken and garlic mashed potatoes.  We ate it all!  I figure there was probably sugar in the breading on the chicken (which was so good by the way!).  I'm not sure about anything else.  I'd like to hope there wasn't but without actually reading the ingredients or recipes I don't know for sure.
Since my in-laws were in charge of the evening and told the staff it was my birthday and the staff sang to me in front of the WHOLE restaurant, I kind of HAD to eat some of the brownie and ice cream topped with whipped cream or I would probably insult them :) Plus the cannoli had to be eaten fresh or it would have been wasted.  UG I AM SO FULL!!!  All in all it was a fun evening with good food and  good company!


I did feel a little bummed at all the sugar I had tonight but at the same time I knew this was a one day thing and I will get back on track tomorrow and stick with it!  I have been happy with the progress we have made so far.  I am proud of Kendra and Riley making better food choices!  In the end  that's all that matters!

Day 11

Happy birthday to me.

Breakfast- Cinnamon raisin bread.  I also had scrambled eggs at work and one of the kids in my class gave me an orange for a present (how sweet!)

Lunch- Spring break is over for Kendra and Riley so back to bag lunches we go.  Today I packed:
Pepperoni rolls, string cheese, dried mango, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, applesauce, cheddar puff corn, pita bite crackers (from Trader Joe's.  They taste just like saltines.) and a 100% juice box.  I usually pack water but have a couple juice boxes left from the Zoo.  The lunches seem big but I only pack about 6 cherry tomatoes, 2 or 3 strawberries, 5 crackers...you get the idea.  The kids don't have loads of time to eat so I try to give them a variety so I know they will be getting something healthy in them.  (Kendra did not eat her strawberries, tomatoes, cheese puffs or applesauce.   Riley did not like the crackers.  She also did not eat her tomatoes-strange, she loves those things.)  Riley also has an apple for snack.  I forgot to pack myself a lunch.  Lucky for me I had some soup left from last week.  I had Amy's Pasta and 3 Bean.  It was very good.  I also had some green beans, triscuits and cheddar cheese.

Snack- We had pears, triscuits and cream cheese.

Dinner- Pete wanted to take me out for my birthday and of course I couldn't say "I'm sorry honey, I'm on a diet."  I picked Q-cumbers.  I told the girls they could eat whatever they wanted but to be wise in their decision making.  Kendra tried their egg roll (I had a bite-not worth fudging), bread stick, pasta with cheese and a salad.  She made a small sundae for dessert.  Riley had salad and fruit.  She tried a bread stick but didn't like it.  She also had a small sundae.  I had a huge salad (spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, green peppers, edamame, sunflower seeds and 1-2 Tablespoons of their buttermilk ranch (I looked at the oils and vinaigrettes and decided I was going to choose buttermilk ranch for my "treat" of the day-yummy!) I also had some stir fry.  I had watermelon and grapes for dessert.

Snack- Kendra was in charge of snack for her class at church tonight.  She brought cheese and crackers and dried mango.  They made cookies as an activity. She said they smelled SO GOOD, and were warm, but she only had a nibble.  That's dedication!  Riley had giant pretzels and cheese-its.  I am certain those have sugar of some sort in them, but at least snack wasn't cookies or some other sugar loaded snack.

When we got home we had my birthday cupcakes with a little of each frosting on them.  I don't know if I was craving a sweet treat or if sitting overnight helped, but the frosting tasted better than last night.  Kendra loved it and didn't think it was weird or anything-hurrah!  I also had some raisin bread.

Whacky Chocolate Cake

Oven 350°  Bake for 15-25 minutes (less for cupcakes, more for cake), makes 12 cupcakes or 1 8" round.

Read this recipe several times before you start.  There are alternate ways to make this cake that may be confusing.  For sugar free, pay attention to the underlined notes.  For vanilla pay attention to the italicized notes.  Frosting ideas follow at the end.  Feel free to post any questions you may have.

Sift dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour (for vanilla cupcakes use 1 3/4 cups flour)
3/4 cup sugar (for sugar free use alternate sugar, see below)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder (for vanilla cupcakes skip the cocoa powder)
Add wet ingredients to dry and stir just until it is mixed.
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (for vanilla add 1 Tablespoon)
1/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup cold water (to use honey as your alt. sugar only use 3/4 cup water)

For sugar free cake use 1/2-3/4 cup of honey or 3/4 cup coconut sugar.

This cake is really good with the frosting recipe on the can of Hershey's cocoa powder.  I've also made it with cream cheese frosting which is also super yummy.
Cream Cheese frosting
1 stick of butter soft
1 brick of cream cheese soft
1 teaspoon of vanilla
powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached

For my sugar free experiments I followed my cream cheese frosting recipe but used the agave powder and honey (with some corn starch added).  For the chocolate frosting I started out the same but added cocoa powder and honey.  I also tried using super fine powdered milk to thicken the frosting.  I'm not happy with any of my sugar free experiments, but they are doable.

Day 10

Wow!  We're 1/3 done.  Overall I'd say it's been fairly easy.  We already ate pretty healthy so mostly we've cut out candy and unhealthy snacks.  I think I've lost 3 pounds so obviously we were eating more than I thought.

Breakfast- Kendra and Riley tried the pepperoni roll, they said it turned out good.  I also made pancakes which we topped with blackberries (the girls had butter and I had maple syrup.)

Lunch- Kendra and Riley had bag lunches today (Field trip to the Zoo).  They had pepperoni rolls, strawberries, carrots, string cheese and almond balls.  They also had Original Lays potato chips and 100% juice boxes.
Turns out I was scheduled to go to the Zoo too. I'm glad I brought my own lunch too.  I had tuna pasta salad, a yellow pepper, carrots, strawberries, coffee (black) and a dried mango slice.  Later Riley had an apple and I had dried fruit, sesame sticks and cashews.  The girls had another bag of Lays and both had more carrots.  It was hard to be on a field trip and not munch on the leftover bag lunches that were packed for the kids, esp. the Oreos (they even had the white Oreos, sigh, I love those kind.)  I resisted though.  Kendra and Riley are already not big fans of Oreos so it was no biggie to them.

Dinner-  I made homemade chicken soup with dumplings.  The dumplings turned out very soft.  The only thing I did different was add some garlic powder and I used coconut milk instead of regular milk.  I'm beginning to suspect coconut milk may not work the same as regular milk?  The thing is I've used it before for baking with no adverse affects so I'm not sure what the deal is.  We also had sparkling water with some juice added. 

Dessert- Kendra and Riley had almond/pb balls.  I had a cupcake with experimental frosting.

Baking adventures and experiments-
Tomorrow is my birthday so I figured I ought to see if  I could make cupcakes without sugar.  My conclusions are as follows:  Cake-YES, Frosting-NO

Here's what I did:
I made my Whacky Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe I found online last year and substituted honey for the sugar.  Not as sweet (I'll add more honey next time.)  but still tastes like chocolate cake.
I then tried to make frosting using Agave powder.  Not only is it not as sweet as sugar but it does not work the same way or is even close to powdered sugar (proof that it's not how something or someone looks on the outside, but what's on the inside that counts.)  I ended up having to add honey to sweeten it.  By itself the frosting was kind of eh, but surprisingly I liked it on the cupcakes.  I also tried to make frosting with honey and cocoa powder.  By itself it wasn't too bad, but I didn't love it on the cupcakes.  I'll post the recipes.
Something I discovered  that made me a little bummed.  Some artificial vanilla has invert sugar in it.  Grrrrr!  I guess I have to read EVERY label.  (I know, I should be baking with the real stuff.  I just go through it so fast making cakes all the time that I buy the cheap stuff.  I guess now I know better.  As soon as I use up the industrial sized jug of imitation stuff I just bought I'll be sure to replace it with the real stuff.  The jug by the way does not have that invert sugar junk in it- WHEW!)

In addition to making cupcakes I made some cinnamon raisin bread for breakfast etc. this week.  I had a piece for a bedtime snack.  Warm and yummy!  I also had some tea.

Decluttering for the day started out trying to find my kitchen sink. Anything that doesn't fit in the dishwasher winds up in the sink to do "later". (We all know how that goes.)  I was doing ok, making dinner, doing dishes, feeding Tobin....Then I decided to bake.  Let's just say any progress I made is now long gone and replaced by an even bigger mess.  I think if I found someone who loved to clean as much as I love to bake...?  Who am I kidding, we don't live in a perfect world yet.

Day 9

Tobin slept 5 hours straight last night!!!!  I feel like a new woman!

Breakfast- Kendra had matzo and cheese and a banana.  We all had oatmeal.  Riley and Kendra sweetened theirs with honey and cinnamon.  I sweetened mine with a banana and a touch of honey.

Snack-We went for a walk and picked up Ambrosia Apples at Kowalskis (yum!), dried mango.

Lunch- I had a pb and honey sandwich on Ez. bread, tuna pasta salad and a pb ball.  Kendra had tuna pasta salad a butter sand. on Ez bread, string cheese and a pb  ball.  Riley had a butter and honey sandwich on Ez. bread string cheese and a pb ball.

Dinner- Tacos!  I seasoned the ground beef myself with onions, tomato sauce, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano and salt & pepper.  I warmed up a can or organic re-fried beans, made some brown rice, salsa and grated some cheese.  We ate it with taco shells and organic tortilla chips.  We drank sparkling blueberry juice (Trader Joe's-yum!)

Dessert- Kendra and Riley made peanut butter balls and almond butter balls.  They rolled some of each in chia seeds, unsweetened coconut and sunflower seeds.  We should be good in the chocolate-peanut butter "candy" department for a while.

I'm making homemade bread for lunches this week.  Kendra requested pepperoni rolls (she tried a sample at the bread shop one time and has been asking for them ever since.)  (The pepperoni I have unfortunately has dextrose in it.  I need to use it up then I'll search for some at the Whole Foods store to see if there are any sugar free options.)  Hopefully the bread turns out.

Peanut butter balls

For a decent peanut butter/chocolate candy substitute:

1 part peanut butter or almond butter or combine both
1 part powdered milk
1/2 part honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together, form into balls.  Chill

For a chocolaty taste add 1/4 part cocoa powder.
Roll in coconut, chia seeds, sunflower seeds etc.
Add whatever, dip in chocolate....have fun!  Yum!

Day 8

Too much TV this weekend, crabby kids.  I think Tobin has teeth coming in, he was up every 2 hours last night.  I managed to de-clutter his toys (I found a cute basket/toy box today.) and the rocking chair.  Ok, on to food:

Breakfast-Riley ate cold cereal.  Kendra ate grilled cheese on homemade bread.  I had cold cereal with coconut milk and coffee at church.

Snack- Kendra and Riley found the wolf at Trader Joe's and got a treat.  It was a fruit bar of some sort.  The ingredients were not on the packages, I'm sure there was some sugar.  I had granola which had some craisins and dried pineapple.  I was driving and opted to eat the contraband rather than pick them out and cause an accident.

Lunch- Tuna pasta salad.  The spice blend I mixed in with the mayo had some malto-dextrin in it, but I felt it was better than using straight Thousand Island dressing that would have had high fructose corn syrup in it.  I also had an almond butter and blueberry preserve sandwich.  Riley ate a bunch of cherry tomatoes, sesame seeds (I think she's addicted), puff-corn and a bite of pasta salad.

Snack-We all munched on dried fruit, nuts and sesame sticks (shoot!  I forgot to buy more of these at Trader Joes today.)

Dinner- Matzo pizzas and orange-scented couscous.  Kendra had sun-dried tomatoes, pepperoni, sauce and cheese.  Riley had cheese, pepperoni and sauce.  I had cheese and sauce.  The pepperoni has dextrose in it.  The sauce was purreed tomatoes with Tastefully Simple's Seasoned Salt.  We used cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  (I discovered Matzo makes great thin cracker/crust pizzas.  They only contain wheat and water.  Just top with your favorite toppings and put under the broiler for 2-3 minutes.)

Dessert-Frozen strawberry and banana.

I am so tired and cranky and the pb m-n-m's are screaming to me from the cupboard.  I'm going to try really hard not to cave.  I'm thinking a pb ball, ya!  I haven't had those in forever.  Ok, now to remember the recipe....


I found a recipe.  In fact I found several recipes. I'm going to try them and if it's good I'll post the recipe.  I also found a chart for baking with sugar substitutes.  I'm hoping I'll have more sugar free baking success than I have been.

Day 7

Breakfast- Kendra had biscuits, I had toast with pb and honey.  Riley had toast and scrambled eggs.
Lunch- Kendra and I had noodles with cheese, broccoli and apples.  I had a couple homemade oatmeal cookies and a clementine. Riley had mac-n-cheese.
Snack-I had dried fruit and almonds and a homemade cookie.  Kendra and Riley had dried fruit and applesauce.
Dinner-We all ate "clean-out-the-freezer" soup with rice.  It turned out pretty good.
Dessert-Kendra and Riley had frozen banana and strawberry "ice cream".  I had a pb and honey sandwich on Ez. bread.

Snack-Kendra and Riley had cold cereal and puffs, Riley also had an apple.

It was hard to curb the munchies being at home all day.  I wanted to go into the kitchen to  grab something all day, but knowing I had to post whatever I grabbed made me skip it.  I filled my water bottle or made myself some tea instead.

Day 6

Breakfast- Kendra, leftover pigs and a blanket.  Riley, cold cereal.  Me, cereal with coconut milk.

Lunch- Kendra had a cheeseburger with homemade bread and mustard, vegetables and leftover homemade fries.  Riley had a butter and raw honey sandwich on homemade bread, tortilla chips and vegetables.  I had a cheeseburger on homemade bread with mustard and ketchup (I need to make homemade ketchup since I seem to be needing to eat it on stuff.), salad (same as last night) and homemade oatmeal raisin cookies (I had to test them!)
Leslie and I had to shop for our afternoon activity so I picked up a few items for home.  I knew I needed more brown rice syrup and thought I'd get some more honey too.  What did we find upon entering the store?  A display with local honey for sale!  Not only that but if you bought the big jug or the spun honey you got a cute little bottle of honey for free (in the shape of a bear, how cute!) 

Snack was our downfall today.  The activity at TLC was "Iron Chef".  It was a ton of fun.  There were 2 teams of 10 kids cooking 3 dishes with the secret ingredient, oranges.  When all the dishes were finished and presented everyone got to taste and "judge" (the kids had great positive feedback for each other.)  Kendra, Riley and I tried most all of the dishes and some did contain sugar.  It was a great activity and only now am I realizing we forgot to take pictures, bummer!  The recipes the kids chose and made were:
Orange-Apricot Crescent rolls
Orange Frosts (similar to an Orange Julius)
Orange Citrus Bars (too much sugar but really good, I'm going to try to "healthify" this recipe)
Orange-Scented Couscous (Surprisingly very good.)
Citrus-Yogurt Sundaes

Dinner- Riley went to a friend's house for the night and had DQ for dinner.  Kendra and I stopped at the bookstore coffee shop for some Mother Daughter time and had an "Izzy" and one Godiva strawberry truffle each (very yummy, but I sure feel guilty for eating so much sugar today.)  I had a butter and spun honey sandwich for dinner.  Kendra wasn't hungry after trying all the Iron Chef food she opted to not eat any dinner.

Snack-Me, another cookie a banana and some carrots.  Kendra, carrots.
I'm hoping to be completely sugar free tomorrow!
On a side note, I'm pondering a second challenge for this month.  De-cluttering a little bit every day.  We'll see what tomorrow brings I guess!

Biscuits

Oven 450° (10-12 minutes)
2 c. flour (I sometimes do half white and half wheat)
1 TB baking powder
2 tsp. sugar (this month I am skipping the sugar and either using none or adding rice syrup)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold butter cut in until the size of peas
2/3 c. milk or plain yogurt & water (enough to make the dough not stiff)
For the cheddar biscuits I added 1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.  I should have added a tsp of garlic, that would have been really good :)
For breakfast biscuits I add 1-2 tsp. of cinnamon (be sure to add sweetener with this one.)
I also add flax sometimes for added brain power!

Day 5

Almost a week under our belts!  Lots of learning that's for sure!
Breakfast- Homemade pancakes made with coconut milk (they turned out squishy, not sure why.), fresh strawberries.
Lunch- Me- salad (same as yesterday plus tomatoes), I added cheese, turkey taco meat (the seasoning did contain sugar.) and tortilla chips.  I used salsa for dressing.  The girls had hard shell tacos with turkey taco meat, cheese and sour cream.

Snack-Me- Cashews, sesame sticks, sunflower seeds and 2 clementines.  Kendra- dried apricots, a couple strawberries, string cheese and a few almonds. Riley- Veggie Chips, strawberries, string cheese and cheddar puff-corn.

Dinner-Homemade fries (olive oil and whole grain Italian Seasoned bread crumbs.  I do the "shake and bake method to coat the potatoes in oil then crumbs.  Bake 450 until crisp and tender), pigs in a blanket (I made homemade cheddar biscuits instead of crescent rolls since they probably contain sugar. I wrapped Hebrew National hot dogs with the biscuits. (The biscuits turned out really good!  Kendra said we should make them like that all the time), salad (the same), "Trader Joe's sparkling pomegranate flavored juice beverage" (Ingredients: sparkling water and juice concentrates.)

The girls reward for another good day was a sucker.  I had a dried mango (I think I may be addicted to them!) and another clementine.  Later I had some tea with buckwheat honey.

Not a bad day overall!

Day 4

Breakfast- We ended up skipping our dessert last night and had the smoothies this morning (banana, frozen- mango, blueberries and pineapple with cranberry apple juice.  Girls- cereal, Me- PB and raw honey on Ez. 4:9 bread (I had Kendra and Riley try some and they actually liked it, I was very surprised as the bread is very dry.)

I think lunch will be the death of me today.  The soup for lunch at TLC has sugar in it, in fact just about ALL canned soup has sugar of some sort in it.  GRRRRR!  We walked to Cub and discovered "Amy's" brand soups don't have sugar in them.  WOO HOO!

Lunch-The girls and I had Amy's Vegetable Barley soup (It was really good!)  The girls had tortilla chips instead of saltines.  I had a salad (mixed greens, cucumber, red pepper, purple cabbage, kohlrabi &  jicama), with "Braggberry" (a berry vinagrette I found at the Whole Foods store, very good) dressing. Peas and carrots.  Kendra & Ry also had  a cheese sandwich (on homemade bread), peas and carrots. 
Snack- Me-apple and no sugar brownie.  Kendra and Riley-popcorn, dried mango & apricots and  Odwalla berries GoMega smoothie.

Dinner- We ate at Church tonight.  The meal was sub sandwiches, toppings, chips and ice cream for dessert.
I brought our own bread.  We all had turkey, (which probably had sugar in it, I did not hunt down the cook to find out.), cojack cheese & lettuce.  Riley and I had tomatoes.  I had pickles, black olives and mayo.  The chips had no sugar listed, neither did the mayo.  I didn't check the olives.  The girls couldn't resist the fudge ice cream bars and Riley had Smarties in her class (She was so cute, she apologized and confessed as soon as she got out of class.)  The hardest to resist was the Coke that was included with dinner.  I put my foot down and said "no" but compromised by allowing them to save them for when the challenge is over.  
Snack- Riley had a bag of "Pirate's booty" cheddar puffcorn for snack (one of the few snack items I found w/o sugar.)  Me, I'm having a bowl of "Barbara's" shredded spoonfuls (very good cereal, sweetened with molasses) with coconut milk (plain this time, it's not bad in cereal.)

The most frustrating thing about the challenge today was finding non-sugar equivalent foods.  Saltines? Do they really need sugar?  When I was at Cub I was going to just get chicken broth and canned veg. and make my own soup but even the organic chicken broth had sugar in the ingredients.  I must say I was very happy to find out "Amy's" didn't have sugar.  (I did not look at All Amy's brand soups or other items so double check.)

I am grateful for this blog-log I have going.  Not only are my girls helping me stay on track but knowing I have to put everything here and you will be reading it has been a huge motivator to stay away from the unhealthy choices and eating habits I had been keeping.  Thank you!

Granola

The basic recipe I found was in the magazine Everyday Food (April, page 39)
Oven 300°
3 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1 cup pistachios (I didn't have these so I filled a cup with whole raw almonds, flax, chia seeds, wheat germ, unsweetened coconut and raw sunflower seeds.  It probably ended up being more than 1 cup after I dumped everything into the bowl.)
1/4 cup butter melted with 1/3 cup honey.  (I also poured a glug or two of maple syrup for flavor.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cardamom (I don't have this so I threw in some cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.)

Mix and bake the above for 30 minutes, stirring every 10.
Add 1 cup dried apricots (I used dried pineapple pieces, craisins and raisins.)

Since the challenge I have to pick out the craisins and pineapple as they are sweetened with sugar.  Next time I will add unsweetened dried mango (so yummy) from Trader Joe's

Day 3

Breakfast- Homemade biscuits (white flour, butter, plain yogurt, agave), Me-strawberries
Snack-Me- dried unsweetened mango (SO YUMMY!), dried pineapple (unsweetened dried pineapple isn't as juicy/sweet as sweetened, that and it's flat?  Not sure why.)
Lunch-Me-leftover spaghetti and meatballs, carrots, cherry tomatoes & blackberries.  Kendra-Tater tot hotdish (turns out there is only 1 gram of sugar in 9 tater tots and no sugar was listed in the ingredients for the cream of mushroom soup.  I was surprised at that one.), mixed veg., strawberries.  Riley-Half of her homemade wheat bread and butter sandwich, mixed veg., strawberries, cherry tomatoes & blackberries.
Snack-Me-cashews, sesame sticks, dried fruit.  Kendra and Riley- dried mango, tortilla chips
Dinner- Five Guys Fries!  Me- I had a cheeseburger with mustard and pickles on my homemade bread (I also had the rest of Riley's cheeseburger and tomatoes w/o the bun.)  Kendra had the works on their bun.  Riley had a couple bites of her burger on their bun.  We all had fries.  I know there is sugar in the ketchup and buns.  I'm not sure about the cajun seasoning on the fries.  I wasn't sure how processed the mushrooms, onions etc were so I skipped them this time.
Over all I would have to say the third day didn't go as well as the first two.  Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get back on track.
Riley seems to be in the lead.  She had NO sugar at all the first two days.  The amount she consumed in her burger tonight was not much.
Snack- frozen strawberries and blueberries blended with banana and a bit of juice (pretty much a thick smoothie.)
I will probably skip snack tonight as I ate way to much burger and fries!

Tobin tried avocado tonight and liked it :)

Now to make white sub bread to bring to church tomorrow night for sub sandwiches.

Day 2

Breakfast- Cereal-  the girls ate it dry, I had Vanilla Coconut milk to use up it has sugar in it (that's my "sugar treat" for the day.)
Snack- grape tomatoes
Lunch- Girls- chicken, mashed potatoes, mixed veg.  Me- PB and raw honey on Ezekiel bread, salad with olive oil and vinegar, sesame sticks
Snack-Me- cantaloupe, chips and salsa. Kendra- Cantaloupe. Riley- nothing
Dinner-Black spaghetti, homemade red sauce, beef and black bean meatballs, brussel sprouts.

Brownies for dessert.   Mix. 1/2 c .wheat flour, 1/8 c. flax, 1/8 c. chia, 1/8 c. oats 1 tsp baking pwdr, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/8 tsp. salt.  Melt 1/4c. butter, 1/4c. coconut oil, 1/2 c. cocoa pwdr. add 1tsp vanilla and 2 eggs.  Mix dry with wet.  Bake in a greased pan 350 for 15-20 minutes.  (Not super sweet, very chocolaty.  Next time I will try adding a ripe banana for extra sweetness and use less cocoa pwdr.)

Reward: Kendra-1 small piece of candy, Riley-puffed corn, Tracy- another brownie :)
Day 2 is almost over, so far so good.  It was tough hanging in there at work this afternoon as there was a yummy looking chocolate cake in the kitchen.  Kendra really wants tater tot hot dish (lunch at TLC) tomorrow but has decided she can wait until another time.  Her steadfastness is a great motivator.
This whole experience hopefully will help us to be aware of how much sugar we consume.  It will also be a great test of our willpower.

Day 1

Pancakes (Half wheat, half white, flax, chia, oat, date sugar.) with frozen wild blueberries and fresh mango.
Snack- Homemade granola
Lunch- Organic mac-n-cheese and  green beans.
Pancakes (Half wheat, half white, flax, chia, oat, date sugar.) with frozen wild blueberries and fresh mango.

Snack- Me, a handful of cashews and a clementine.

Dinner- Chicken stir fry with vegetables and noodles
Dessert-  Frozen banana (pureed) with frozen pineapple, mango and coconut flakes.
Snack- Kendra & Riley, pistachios