Real Food-Day 6

Well here we are, half way through the 10 day challenge.  In the beginning I was feeling discouraged but we are learning and discovering a lot.  I think I mentioned before but it is crazy how many foods have added stuff in it.  Saturday I took some time (by myself) and went to Fareway to compare products and prices.  I went armed with my HyVee receipt and was pleasantly surprised to find that Fareway had most of the products I purchased at HyVee and were either the same price or even cheaper!  I prefer shopping at Fareway so this made me very happy!  Of course, there wasn't as much organic produce to choose from but I am excited because we start receiving our CSA shares this week!

Also by no means are we starving ourselves or really, limiting ourselves on the amount of food we eat.  Friday we grilled out with some friends who were gracious enough to take into consideration our little challenge.  We enjoyed grilled chicken, roasted onions and potatoes, zucchini and cheese, fruit and a salad.  I was stuffed!  For salad we are making our own dressing which is SUPER easy.  For Christmas John gave me this bottle.  I just love it because it has the recipes right on the bottle with lines to say how much to fill so there is not measuring to be done.  On Saturday we grilled again, this time with our homegrown steak and veggie kabobs.  

On Sunday I spent some time in the kitchen trying to find a bread recipe that we enjoy.  Our bread machine makes the most dense, dry wheat bread ever.  It is delicious right out of the machine when it is warm and slathered in butter but then it goes downhill fast.  So I used our new food processor and made the recipe that came in the book.  It turned out much better than the bread machine but not the soft doughy bread from the store that we are used to eating.  We also made some cheddar crackers.  This was my third attempt and I screwed it up again but they still ended up tasting pretty good.  They were Elsie approved.  I used the food processor this time but had in the dough blade and it just wasn't mixing up quite right so I thought maybe it needed water.  Then I figured out that I just needed to use the metal blade so in the end they were a little wet to handle but still turned out okay.  If I hadn't added the little bit of water

Two of my favorite recipes so far:
Tzatziki Sauce - I made this last night and it is sooooo good!  I used it to dip my carrots/veggies in for lunch and last night I tried it with Triscuits (which are approved-only three ingredients:  Whole Wheat, Oil, and Salt).  It would be really good on a whole wheat pita with chicken or in a wrap.
Easy Cheesy Crakcers - I rolled them out and used a little circle to cut them out into little bite size circles.

All in all I would say things are going pretty good.  I am not missing all the added sugar at all.  I do miss some savory/salty items like tortilla chips to go with salsa.  I miss some convenience items like tortillas and lunch meat.  Actually it is John who is really missing the lunch meat.  And I miss being able to just go out to eat and order whatever we want.  I feel like I am spending so much time in the kitchen prepping, preparing and then cleaning up from meals and snacks.  But I feel good about what I am eating.  I do know that I couldn't keep this up 100% no matter how much I wanted to...it just takes so much time-which I don't have a lot of with a two year old running around :).

Week in Review-6.7.13

Well we are all back to feeling 100% and are ready for some summer fun!  I got to spend three whole days this week with Elsie because JoJo was off Wed-Fri!  I love every minute with her (I guess I could do without the little tantrums),

1.  Wonderful, Wonderful weekend!  Great dinner with friends on Friday night and then the Dam to Dam  event on Saturday morning.  I had so much fun with Elsie and her first little "race" complete with t-shirt and bib.  After the race we checked out a new camper...not what we wanted and then headed home to shower and change and head our for our monthly "date night".  This time it was during the day...more on this to come in a later post.  Wonderful day and a wonderful night out to dinner with friends.

2.  Sunday we headed out to Lowes to pick up some supplies for a few projects-the biggest being as sandbox John is making for Elsie.  It took up most of the day and is not quite done but it is turning out so nice!  I can't wait to show off his finished project :)

3.  I have been obsessed with a new salad these past few weeks and I thought I would share.  I follow the blog Iowa Girl Eats.  I enjoy reading her blog because it isn't all about food but she always includes a recipe.  And the ones I have tried are so yummy.  The salad is Triple Berry Summer Salad.  I have altered it a little by removing the avocado and basil and use a raspberry vinaigarette for the dressing.  YUM!  I eat it at least 3 times each week for the past two weeks.  Perfect for lunch.  I have also added roasted chicken to it also.  The other recipe I love is the Springtime Pasta Primavera.  I made it for dinner one night this week and Elsie ate every last thing.  I could have done without the tomatoes and I didn't add any asparagus because I didn't have any but added extra brocolli.  I even used our own basil we have growing out on our patio.  It was delicious! I definitely recommend both these recipes.  Easy and delcious!

4.  I have been eyeing this toy for the past few months and when I saw it on amazon.com for a five dollars off ($14.97) I had to finally buy it for Elsie and she LOVES it!  The good old Fisher Price Bubble Mower.  Everytime we walk outside she says "mow" and points to the garage where her mower is.

5.  We are so so so lucky that we have other girls in our family that are willing to pass their clothes down to Elsie.  On Wednesday I picked up pizza for dinner and headed over to Brandi and Todds to sort through some bins of clothes.  I ended up going home with 5 tubs of clothes and am only sending back 1.5 tubs-mainly because the girls are twins and there were quite a few duplicates.  Thank You Thank You Thank You!

6.  In addition to clothes, Elsie gets some toys from the girls too.  This time she got this really cute little camper and car.  She spent so much time on Thursday driving the little car around the house-the whole time going "vroom vroom".

7.  So the other morning Elsie and I were eating our cheerios and when she finished I looked over and she was drinking her milk our of her bowl...Silly girl!

I say this every week but it was another wonderful week!