What did I do today again?

Quite often, 5PM rolls around and I can't help but think to myself, "What the hell did I do all day??" Each day is such a whirlwind of schedules and errands and activities, I usually don't have more than one hour between tasks. 

This was not the case last Monday. I had 100% irrefutable, irrevocable evidence that I did something that day besides watch an entire season of Downton Abbey on Hulu.

My laundry room at 8:00AM

My laundry room at 4:00PM.

Thank you. Thank you.

You can contact my manager, Liam Adams, for autographs.

Paleasagna

I'm always looking for new and exciting recipes to try that don't have carbs. So I was looking forward to trying this recipe for "Paleasagna" that I found via Pinterest.

 It was interesting to make, especially the Greek yogurt mixed with broccoli, which I'm assuming is a substitute for ricotta.

We aren't exactly doing the "Paleo" diet so I made the executive decision to added shredded mozarella to the top. Could possibly be the best decision I ever made, aside from marrying the Mister.

There you have it. Paleo-ish lasagna with a side salad of spring mix with tomatoes, olives and honey goat cheese. 

It was the bomb. Forrealz. At least, the adults thought so. The kids ate as much zucchini as they could while pinching their noses so that they couldn't taste it. I'll let it slide - the amount of vegetables we are asking them to eat is much more than it used to be. It was also rather funny. But they did eat up every last bit of the meat sauce and were practically licking the plate clean, aside from the pile of zucchini off to one side.

Mostly-real banana bread

We looove banana bread in this house! Actually, we just love bananas, in general. It's rare that bananas sit on our counter long enough to ripen for baking, but when they do, I always make sure to whip up a loaf of our favorite chocolate chip banana bread. I knew I was going to have to come up with some substitutions for our tried and true recipe to better fit into the "real food" criteria.

I admit I cheated a little and added chocolate chips. I couldn't bear to leave them out, it felt like I was profaning the institution of Chocolate Chip Banana Breadery and feared punishment. I decided to take the safe route and not insult the CCBB. I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips, which is as real as I could find. It only has five ingredients, all of which I can pronounce - granted, one is sugar and another soy lecithin, as an emulsifier. 

Thanks to fabulous Google, I learned that I can substitute 3/4 cup of maple syrup for every 1 cup of brown sugar. I also learned that using maple syrup requires a lower cooking temperature because it has a much lower melting point (made sense since it does sit in the pantry as a syrup, whereas brown sugar is solid), so I lowered the oven temp by 25*. 

I also replaced all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. I like to use the King Arthur brand white whole wheat flour. It's made with white spring wheat instead of red wheat, so it has a much lighter texture and breads are less dense. It is still 100% whole wheat and also tastes better to me. Apparently, it also tastes great to the boys because the entire loaf was gone by the following morning. I'd call that a Win!

So those are the changes I made and I'm excited to share our new favorite recipe for "Mostly-Real Chocolate Chip Banana Bread"!

mostly-real banana bread

::ingredients::

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup pure maple syrup

2 eggs

2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

3/4 cup Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

1:: Preheat oven to 325*F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. (I used coconut oil for greasing.)

2:: In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.

3:: In a separate bowl, cream together butter and maple syrup. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.

4:: Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

5:: Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

smoothie and yogurt pops

My boys love "go-gurts". I'm sure you are familiar, but if not, they are those super-convenient tubes of yogurts perfect for lunches and on-the-go snacking. I loved to freeze them and put them in school lunches because they would act as a cold pack to keep their lunch cool, but would also be thawed just in time for lunch at 11:30.

Well, once we started this "real food" journey, I read the ingredients on a tube of our beloved go-gurts and learned that, yes, they have yogurt, but they also have tons and tons of sugar and other preservatives in them. I took the suggestion of the 100 Days of Real Food blog and ordered these reusable ice pop molds from amazon. 

I can make my own "go-gurts" for the boys using plain Greek yogurt, which has one ingredient: cultured Grade A milk. We mix in some honey for a little sweetness.

I also fill these molds with smoothies. Liam, in particular, is loving these in his lunches. He is even doing a great job of bringing the molds home each day.

 

I love smoothies for so many reasons, but mostly because I can sneak in all kinds of good-for-them things and they have no idea. Nothing but fruits and vegetables in there....

I'm still working on them drinking carrot juice straight from the juicer. So far, Mikey has been ok with carrots and oranges and I'm happy with that - baby steps!

The official Adams Boys seal of approval..

{our} real food pledge

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the mister and i have been consciously trying eat healthier - we juice daily and drink about 48-64 oz of fresh juice each morning. we've cut back on carbs and refined grain and avoid frying our foods. in general, we are trying to eat as much "real" food as possible. we feel great and the mister is down 15 pounds. our biggest, immediate goal is for him to lose weight to ease recovery from a surgery planned for may/june this year. starting a 100 day pledge to eat only real food now will bring us pretty close to that time and should have him in better health for surgery.

i'm not down a single pound, BUT i do feel better, have more energy and my pants fit better. that's really all that matters to me. where i'm at seems to be my body's happy weight {it won't budge no matter how much i diet and exercise, or how many kids i give birth to!} and my BMI is in the center of the healthy range for my height, so i'm cool with it. from this pledge, my personal goal is to feel more energized, sleep better at night, and have less need for naps in the middle of the day. not that i ever actually get to nap, but geez, i feel like i NEED one by 2pm every day!

we are pretty happy with everything we have been doing but it still feels like it's not enough. we aren't as completely committed as we should be when it comes to our health, and also to our boys' health. our biggest fault right now is that we are not including our boys in our commitment to eat healthy. they are still eating convenience foods daily and we still resort to fast food pretty often, especially on the weekends. the mister and i decided that this needs to stop and the boys need to be part of this lifestyle change.

we are going to do a complete overhaul of our pantry and replace the convenience foods with real food. we are going to change the boys' eating habits for the better and i know they won't appreciate the process. the mister saw his nutritionist this morning and he stressed the importance of instilling healthy eating habits in our kids. he said to let them kick and scream when served healthy foods and, eventually, they will get hungry and eat whatever we feed them. so that, we shall do.

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i am basing our pledge on the 100 Days of Real Food Pledge, with a few exceptions and changes. i don't want to make such drastic changes that everyone gets burnt out from it and hates it. we have to remember that this is not a short-term diet plan, it's a lifestyle change. we are committing to making a permanent lifestyle change and i need to be sure it sticks. and they way i see it, any change we make right now is better than what have already been doing!

so here are our rules.

what we CAN eat:

1. whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry

2. lots of fruits and vegetables

3. dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs, and cheese

4. 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains

5. seafood

6. chicken

7. pork and beef in moderation

8. snacks like dried fruit, seeds, nuts and popcorn

9. all natural sweeteners including honey and 100% maple syrup

what we CANNOT eat:

1. no refined grains such as white flour or white rice (items containing wheat must say WHOLE wheat)

2. no corn syrup or cane juice

3. nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label (or an ingredient i cannot pronounce)

4. no deep fried foods

5. no "fast foods"

i did not adapt beverage limitations for our pledge. the boys already drink mostly milk, water and 100% juices. really, the lack of beverage limitations is for me.  i'm sorry, but i cannot give up my diet coke at this time! but i will start sweetening my coffee with honey instead of splenda. it's all about compromise! ;)

we will surely have to loosen up on the kids about what they can eat when they go to birthday parties and other places where they will be served food. in those situations, we have no control over what is served and i'm not comfortable packing food for them to bring to those events, as i've read some families on the real food pledge do. and if we are out and about and need to grab a bite, we will, but we will try to find the most "real" food we can. if grabbing a sandwich means consuming some processed lunch meat, so be it. this journey won't be perfect or easy (i'd say that's impossible with four young children), but we will keep going.

i'm preparing our pantry and kitchen with all of the necessary items and tools this weekend and we will begin our 100 days on monday! join us on our journey to good health and visit often as i post about our progress and recipes that the kids love, as well as those they didn't. that's just as important!

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