A week of transitioning

It's been a week of transition. The goldfish crackers are gone. The gogurts are almost gone. We are on our last loaf of commercially made bread. There are two more Eggo waffles in the box. There are no more jars of spaghetti sauce left. There is no more hazelnut creamer. 

I have to admit, the fridge looks sparse. At least the two shelves where I normally keep a bunch of convenience foods looks empty. It scares me a little. 

The counter is a bit more full. The bowl of fruit is full, as is the basket of squash, onions, shallots and potatoes. 

There is a loaf of banana bread baked this morning and the homemade loaf of whole wheat is in the bread maker rising as we speak.

I made "go-gurts" myself. I used organic vanilla yogurt (Stonyfield), tart cherry juice (loaded with antioxidants) and dark sweet cherries (frozen from the grocery store but with no additives) and made smoothies that I froze in silicone freezer pops. 

The end result was delicious. It is sweet enough, it is healthy and I feel good about it. I wish I had more of the ice pop holders to do a second batch with a different flavor. I will order more. 

The kids were questioning why I am making so much stuff and what this means for some of their favorite snacks. I explained about chemicals and some of the things used to make the food we eat. I explained that if we keep eating foods with these chemicals or unhealthy additives it may have an impact on how we get old.  I also explained that maybe we will all get sick less. They seemed to get the concepts and are excited about some of the foods. They are less excited about the addition of more vegetables to our diet. I tried hard to get them ramped up about acorn squash. Needless to say, they aren't buying it yet. 

I anticipate issues around syrup and bbq sauce. I love real maple syrup. I don't understand why everyone doesn't. But I figure we will have to have a funeral and the equivalent of mourning for Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth because they have died in our house. So has sweet baby Ray. And he is my fav.  I just need to perfect a replacement recipe. 

This weeks menu includes slow cooker pork chops with apples, honey glazed carrots, acorn squash and marinated chicken, black bean pasta with a roasted red pepper pesto. Stewed tofu for me. And of course, bread! 

Weekend and Random Stuff

T.G.I.F!!! I swear, since Monday I have been waiting for today! I took the Metro North today for the first time ever and because of the nice weather, the 20 minute walk was really enjoyable. If I could transfer Gavin to a closer school and not have to drive him to school everyday I could see myself doing that often or as often as the weather is mild. It was really nice though having someone drive me to work and not getting livid at all the idiot drivers on the F.D.R. But I digress, I am really looking forward to the weekend. Our exciting Friday night will involve a trip to Home Depot for some plants and grass seed. Its a family affair since my sister Carla will be joining us. Tomorrow should be great with 80 + degree weather. We have t-ball in the AM and the plan to finish up the landscaping in the backyard. We are planting a really big garden this year. Nick says he is growing all our vegetables for the summer, but I will believe that when I see it. Not to mention, a lot of the veggies are being grown from seeds, whereas normally we plant plants. I imagine this will prove to be harder. We are planting tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, lettuce, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin and all my herbs. Saturday night we may have plans for drinks with friends. I reminded Nick today that we don't have a sitter, so it may end up being margaritas on the patio, but we shall see. And Sunday is a birthday party in a park nearby. I look forward to that only because I get to be outside in the sun all day.



On a different note, we have being trying to get "healthy". I say "healthy" because for me the word "diet" inevitably means I will quit at some point and go through this whole process of self-defeat and really that is counter productive. So we are getting healthy. It means that we eat much less, much lighter and not many fun things. I have really tried this week to make tasty low fat, low calorie dinners that do not in anyway include my nemisis - cheese. But I am a little cranky and definitely craving any and everything that is not good for me. Mainly, chocolate and cheese. So I decided that one night a week we can have a "cheat" meal. Anything we want. Just one meal and preferably on the weekend. I think it will give us something to look forward to. As Nick was proclaiming his love for lasagne the other night, I realized I don't want to never have the things I love, just not as often as I have been having them. Which has been often, as I eat for my emotional well-being. Healthy has also included exercising and its been hard. My goal is cardio 4 times a week. Its Friday and so far I have done cardio twice and weights once. That means I will be doing cardio twice over the weekend and weights once. The lesson I have learned here is that I need to front load the week with exercise. Anyway, I am going to post a before pic and hopefully as these weeks move on, I can post pics that show a difference. I hope.



Have a wonderful weekend!