We have since finished up with the 21DSD, but I wanted to keep you updated on our journey and how things went. Here are my major observations from week two on the 21 Day Sugar Detox:
So what did we eat this week?
(Unless otherwise noted, the page references are all from the 21 DSD Book.)
I’ll conclude shortly with a post about our third week. Spoiler alert- we don’t make it the whole way to 21 days. Nobody’s perfect! Thanks for following along with our journey!
So let’s get right into it! Here are my major observations from a week on the 21 Day Sugar Detox:
So what did we eat?
(Unless otherwise noted, the page references are all from the 21 DSD Book.)
We are already into the second week of our journey and things are continuing to go well. I’ll be back soon to share more details. Please feel free to comment with any questions you may have, I’d love to share any answers I can.
]]>I have had this idea in my head for so long. Carrot cake baked oatmeal… carrot cake baked oatmeal.. I just couldn’t shake it! I typically make this simple baked oatmeal and we just switch up our toppings, but it was high time I got to experimenting with the recipe.
Before we move on, can we just say “Hello, gorgeous!” to that pour shot up there? I actually had a spare minute to get out my tripod, only to realize it wasn’t really working properly.. but somehow I got a pour shot in the midst of it all. I’m a happy food blogger today!
Food blogging is a funny thing. There’s so much that goes into each post that you guys don’t see! I’d invite you to come hang out with me here for a day to see what goes on, but I never actually know what day I’ll be working on “blog stuff.”
Take this oatmeal for instance.
The idea popped into my head months ago. I wrote it down while I was brainstorming blog ideas back in January. I finally got around to making it earlier this week. I waited until mid-day to make it so that I’d be able to photograph it in the afternoon light.. so we didn’t actually eat it for breakfast that day. I waited until the little one took her nap and the big one started his quiet time to start shooting.
I pulled our coffee table over by the window with the best light, grabbed all the toppings and tiny dishes and utensils and set up my shot. I fumbled with the tripod for a while, gave up, got my shots. I hooked up the camera to download and ate one of the servings of oatmeal from the shot. Then I started to clean up.. and ate the other one, ha! (Because, you know, one for me and one for baby. Totally logical.) I looked through the pictures quickly, then I didn’t actually get around to editing them or writing this post until a few days later. Now here we are!
Sometimes the process isn’t drawn out like that, but there’s usually something around here that gets in the way of productivity. Usually my own laziness.. or lack of natural light.
Anyways, loves, this oatmeal is top notch. I’m so happy to share it with you, even if it took months for me to do it.
It’s not complicated to replicate that classic carrot cake taste. The big players are (of course) carrots, cinnamon, nutmeg if you’re feeling funky, raisins, walnuts and coconut, if you’re into it. I will say right now that I am not into pineapple in my carrot cake.. I think adding pineapple makes it more like hummingbird cake (which is also delicious, but is not carrot cake).
But let’s not forget the most important part- the cream cheese. Oh, you have got to have the cream cheese. The cream cheese makes it perfect. (Unless you are dairy-free, but you can top it with this delicious cashew cream instead!) I didn’t want to slather it with frosting (I mean, I did.. but it IS supposed to be breakfast, people), so I spun up an easy cream cheese topping in the blender and it was the best idea EVER, no joke.
You guys, this cream cheese topping.. it just kills it. The picture below explains perfectly. On the left side, you’ll see an appropriate amount of the cream cheese drizzle and toppings. On the right, the obscene amount I drowned my portion with after I took a bite. Then I took another bite and thought, “WHAT THE WHAT?! This stuff is insane!”
Maybe I’m over-reacting about oatmeal? But really, I’m obsessed. Don’t wait too long to try this one!
P.S. You can make right away, the night before, or days ahead. You can also cut into squares and freeze for later!
Vitamin C! I want to start this off by saying something really important about how essential Vitamin C is for your health, but all I can think about is this Vitamin C. Remember her? That graduation song, man. It gets me every time. Class of 2005, never forget!
Okay, real talk. Vitamin C is necessary/awesome because it
Those are just a few facts I found with the help of my old pal Google- I’m sure there are lots of other benefits, too.
We take these in the mornings along with our flu-fighting gummies (for more about our daily health routine, check out this post). They have a real Creamsicle vibe to them, with just a little bite of acidity at the end. The kids love them and always ask for more.
The dosage of Vitamin C in each gummy will depend on the strength of your Vitamin C powder and the size of your gummies. A little math can tell you how much is in each gummy after you make them. We take 2 gummies a day.
I found my Vitamin C powder at Trader Joe’s, but you should be able to find it at any health food store or online. This is the easiest way (other than whole foods) to incorporate extra Vitamin C into our diet that I have found. Though my friend just told me about something called lipsomal Vitamin C, which is supposed to be better absorbed by the body, but I haven’t done any research on that yet. So for now, we’ll continue on with the gummies. If anyone has any experience with lipsomal Vitamin C, please hit me up in the comments or email me, I’d love to know more.
Don’t they just look so bright and yummy and cheery?
P.S. Congratulations to Samantha B. on winning the Beyond Bacon giveaway!
This weekend, my little girl turned 2. I just love that little peanut and her growing personality. I would say I’m excited to be moving out of the baby stage.. but it’s only a few months before we move back into it.
This was her birthday cake!
I know it’s not the typical two-year-old birthday cake (what, no Dora?!), but my girl loves berries. So berries we had.. and lots of them.
But let’s back up a second.
This recipe is called Yellow LARD Cake. Say what!?!
A few years ago, I would not have been caught dead eating anything with lard in it, let alone a dessert. I grew up on the idea that lard and shortening (which are NOT the same, by the way) would make you super fat and you should avoid them at all costs. Pass the butter spray, please! (Can’t believe that’s still a thing.)
After lots of time spent learning about real food, my mind began to change. Maybe animal fats really were the way to go! I think the idea was really cemented in my brain when I took on the GAPS Diet, since the first stages of Intro included only tallow as the only fat (the beef or lamb equivalent for lard). For more reading about lard and it’s place in a nourishing diet, check out this post at Weed ‘Em and Reap.
The recipe for the cake comes from a book that everyone in the Paleo community has been talking about, Beyond Bacon. The cookbook is the brainchild of Matt and Stacy from Paleo Parents, one of the best Paleo resources out there. The book is all about how to take advantage the whole pig, scary bits and all. Matt and Stacy explain how to find quality pork and walk you through all of their preparations in a way that takes intimidating projects (like rendering your own lard) seem very doable.
The book is stuffed full of quality recipes. I’ve got my eye on the Smoked Pork Belly, Asian Short Ribs, Cucumber Dill Quiche, “Corn” Dogs, Fried Yuca, Savory Bacon Jam, Caramel Praline Lard Fudge, The Best Brownies.. so, like I said. A LOT of quality recipes in here.
Matt and Stacy recommend their chocolate frosting to top the yellow cake, but I opted for whipped cream and fresh fruit in honor of my little berry lover. I used real cream, but you can use whipped coconut cream interchangeably. (You may also notice some powdered sugar on the cake. That is NOT paleo, I just think it looks so lovely for photographs!)
I followed the directions in the book for two layers of cake, but unfortunately, one of my layers broke as I was removing it from the pan. My advice would be to chill the layers in the fridge completely and then flip the pans and tap the cakes free only when you’re ready to assemble the cake. Be sure to line the pans with parchment paper, too- that makes a huge difference with these dense paleo cakes!
As for the taste, we can’t get enough! No complaints there. The cake was a great base for berries and cream, but I’d love to try the chocolate frosting on it, too. Can’t go wrong with any kind of cake, if you ask me.
So, in honor of my little girl and her 2nd birthday, I’m giving away a copy of Beyond Bacon to one of you! I have pretty much dropped the ball on giveaways around here, so I’m very happy to be bringing you one today. Makes the heart full to be able to give things away. Just follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below, my darlings, and the winner will be announced at the end of the week!
]]>I have the sniffles.
And my little girl has a runny nose.
We haven’t had any sickness around here all winter, so I got to thinking about what might have changed in our habits in the past few weeks. Then it hit me- we were out of gummies!
It may seem trivial, but these gummies really make a difference for us. They are part of our daily routine during cold and flu season. Each morning, we all take:
We also use essential oils at bath time (usually lavender, citrus or eucalyptus) and for evening foot rubs (we use Thieves in a carrier oil). Might be silly, but it’s part of our routine now and it’s been working!
The powerhouse ingredient in the gummies is the Elderberry Syrup, known for strengthening the immune system. You can buy it pre-made or make it yourself. I inherited some homemade syrup from my sister-in-law, so I haven’t had to make it myself yet (thanks, Steph!). The tart cherry juice helps with sleep and the gelatin strengthens the gut lining. If you don’t like the tart cherry flavor or you can’t find it, you can substitute pomegranate juice, which is full of antioxidants. The raw honey and vanilla extract are optional, but I think they enhance the flavor and make the gummies more appealing for the little ones.
One batch poured into a loaf pan makes about 70-80 gummies for me, which lasts us quite a while, especially when we have other gummies to go along with them. I’d love to pick up some of those super cute silicon molds that I keep seeing on the internet, but I haven’t pulled the trigger.. I love these robot and dinosaur ones!
I know these gummies aren’t the key to health or a 100% guarantee to not getting sick this season, but every little step toward health can help. They’re yummy and my kids take them gladly, so I think we’ll be keeping them in the rotation for a while.
What about you? How do you prevent cold and flu from coming into your home? I’d love to hear your tips!
Oh hey, 2014!
How’s week one of the new year going for everyone? We are in hibernation mode here in Ohio, which has given me lots of time to reflect on what to do with my time in the next 12 months (or rather the next 5 months, since new babies have a way of shifting your priorities).
To help me get my head on straight, I have been going through Lara Casey‘s Make It Happen series; it’s a goal-setting series that I absolutely recommend. Especially if you’re like me, AKA you have a huge desire to get your act together for the new year but have no idea where to start. I’ve got a lot of ideas swimming around in this head and Make It Happen has helped me to organize it all. So, yay, new year! And hooray for a new recipe today! Finally got off my duff and picked up my camera.
This soup was inspired by a lovely lunch I had with my friend Jillian (see how awesome she is below) at Wheat Penny here in Dayton. We sampled a little cup of their curried carrot soup to start our meal; it was grand. I love that curry powder gives such a distinct, comforting taste but doesn’t make things too spicy. For my at-home version, I used all the orange veggies we had on hand- carrots, butternut squash and sweet potato. Pumpkin would also work well; you can use what you have in any combination.
This soup works for a whole variety of diets and is almost impossible to mess up. It would be great with some crumbled bacon on top, or even some homemade croutons. You could kick up the spice by adding some thai red curry paste, too.
And beyond tasting good, this soup has great nutritional benefits:
A special thanks to my sweet friends Jillian and Megan for making this post happen- they came over to my house today and did all my dishes PLUS cleaned my fridge! It was amazing, and it motivated me to pull out the camera and get this post up. A clean kitchen = no excuses for this lady. Thanks, girls- you are such a blessing to me! I am ready to re-pay you in soup.
I miss you guys! What’s happening? What’s new? How’s your pumpkin carving/Halloween costuming/PSL consumption going this year?
We are a bit of a Halloween-neutral family. We will dress up if there’s a party to go to, take the kids trick-or-treating, buy a few pumpkins and hit the fall festival scene, but we don’t love Halloween. We like it just fine, but it’s not our favorite holiday. I am always last minute with the costumes and the candy and what not. This year E had planned on being a ghost (BEST DIY COSTUME EVER, SCORE!) but changed his mind and now wants to be a plane (!!?!?! How do I make that!?!) So now the plan is make a cardboard plane, and then little L can go along and dress as a cloud. We’ll see if this plan actually goes forward.
Making these cheesecake bites provided me the perfect opportunity to continue procrastinating on the costumes this week. There was a last minute opportunity to bring a dessert to our house church and I wanted to make something pumpkin-y, but not TOO pumpkin-y, if you know what I mean. Dessert spreads can really be pumpkin overkill this time of year.
The first thing that came to mind was to pumpkin-ize this old recipe for chocolate-covered cheesecake bites. I remember really loving them the first time around and I thought they’d be a great bite-size party treat. I tweaked the recipe a bit and everything turned out perfectly. I love when that happens!
If you are grain-free or gluten-free, you can still make this recipe. Try Carrie’s grain-free graham crackers or Shauna’s gluten-free graham crackers. If you are dairy-free/vegan/paleo, I feel for you, I love you, but this one’s not gonna work for you. BUT, behold these amazing-looking vegan pumpkin cheesecake pops! They look very similar and would totally work for you, yay! Everyone’s tummies are happy.
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Good morning, hello, how are you?
I made you some pie.
But first, let’s talk about blogging for a minute.
Food blogging is a funny little part of my life. Most people I come in contact with in “real life” don’t even know I do it; whereas you guys only know about what gets posted here, only this little shared piece of me. Sometimes I feel like my head is bursting with ideas and all I want to do is camp out in the kitchen, test things out and share them with you. Other times, blogging is just off my radar completely. We just go about our business as a family for a while and suddenly (usually during a bang-up meal) I realize that I haven’t been blogging.
Blogging has changed a lot in the past five years. Heck, my life has changed a lot in the past five years. When I first started blogging, I did it because I really enjoyed baking and cooking and documenting what was going on in my kitchen. I had no kids, I had plenty of time. Then the blog grew a little bit and I started to put more importance on posting however-many-times a week, making sure I was hitting up social media and doing all the “right stuff” as a blogger. And I went through a period where I felt really guilty if I wasn’t keeping all of those things going. Spoiler Alert: I can not keep all that stuff going. haha
Now, I’m a mom of two, working on putting together a new house and making it a home. You better believe I have been churning out some great meals for my family that I’d love to share, but I just got out of the groove of setting up photos. Lots of good meals have gone undocumented. Sometimes I still feel guilty for not sharing all of that good stuff with you guys, but realistically, I know that you understand that I have a real life to live outside this slice of the web. So, just thanks for being awesome and going with the flow.
I’ll start talking about the pie now.
This Shepherd’s Pie wasn’t some long-thought-out plan to reduce potato consumption or GAPS-ify a classic recipe. I just had a head of cauliflower and some ground beef that needed using and this is what happened. I saw it coming out of the oven all bubbly and brown and my brain said, “Take a picture, fast, and then let’s eat this thing!”
Cauliflower is like the classic nerd-that-turns-popular story, am I right? People never really gave it much thought before, but now it is everywhere! Cauliflower pizza crusts and faux-tatoes and cauli-rice galore. Good for you, cauliflower. Enjoy your 15 minutes of vegetable fame. You and your versatility deserve it.
This is similar to a classic Shepherd’s Pie, just with the potatoes swapped for cauliflower. I did add cheese on the top, but you can leave it off if you must. If you’re on the fence, though, definitely leave it on- it’s awesome. I used extra sharp cheddar. Treat Yo’ Self.
Perfect meal for fall, you guys! Dinner on the table in about an hour. What’s not to love?
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I made a real dinner, you guys.
I actually semi-meal-planned it and put thought into it and everything (say what??). Mom/wife of the year!
It’s tough for me to get my head on straight and focus on my every day responsibilities at the moment. The new house is just crazy and it’s consuming my thoughts. I sat down to write my market/grocery list and I reeeeally had to focus, but I got it done. And I actually bought the things on my list at the market without buying any extra stuff (except a strawberry popsicle for my little helper, couldn’t resist). Although.. we did go to Trader Joe’s afterwards and we have about 0.0% self control in that place.. so mission only semi-accomplished. Oops.
We will have to do a whole run down of our Trader Joe’s favorites soon.. I could talk about it all day. Love/hate relationship.
Okay, so these are mini taco-stuffed zucchini boats. Cute, right? I made them smaller so they’d work nicely for kid portions. I actually thought about making them even smaller, but I thought the filling might fall out. After cooking them, I can say that they’d be perfect bite-sized appetizers if you cut them into 1-inch portions. I’d love to serve teeny tiny ones with some margs- GIANT margs.
If you are paleo or dairy-free, I still think these would be tasty without the cheese. We had some extra filling and we fried it up like a little taco burger, and it tasted great. Cheese not necessary.
These little boats are a nice way to switch things up if you like tacos, but you’re getting tired of your typical tortilla or lettuce wrap. The zucchini is basically just another vehicle for getting that taco goodness in your mouth. It’s really all about the filling, isn’t it? It takes a little extra time, but it’s not as messy as a taco if you’re feeding them to your child. This is important at my house, since my daughter has crazy-dinner-mess-face every time she eats. Girl is serious about her food.
Hopefully, I can keep up this meal-planning streak for another few days. I think you probably know how that’s going to end..
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