I confess…I was scrambling to come up with this week’s meals at 9pm last night. I’m normally very on top of it, but last week was CRAZY busy. It was kind of a blur. I felt bad for Abram in and out of the car seat all day. Especially since he hates being in it. He was a good sport for the most part. But Rebecca sure enjoyed our week. We got a little taste of what it will be like when she starts school…much busier. I’ll have to be more organized with lunches and maybe cut back sometimes on some of the extras I do to lessen the chaos/mess. And hopefully we can continue working on getting meal times for Rebecca to be more efficient.

That being said Rebecca had so much fun. She went to two days of arts and crafts camp (M/T afternoon) and two days of gymnastics camp (Th/F morning). One thing we confirmed through this…Rebecca NEEDS her downtime/alone time. After camp she was on overdrive/in a state of hyperstimulation until she had some quiet time. By Friday afternoon she didn’t even want to play with anyone…for pretty much the rest of the day. She was in quiet time for two hours. When I told her it was over she said she was still playing. I asked if she wanted to help make ice cream…”Not today.” I let her stay in her room for a while longer. Every time I asked if she wanted to clean up and come down she said no. We had to force her to clean up and come down for dinner…after over 4 hours alone in her room! I think she played with practically every toy she has 😛  Life could get interesting once school starts.

We also had so much fun yesterday on our Mommy/daughter day. We got our hair cut. Rebecca’s hair looks so cute…although it’s a bit shorter than I expected. In the afternoon we had so much fun shopping with Grandma. Rebecca gave her a little fashion show in the dressing room. She picked out a few really cute things for school. Dinner out was the usual…Rebecca and I shared chicken strips, salad, beans and of course a milkshake 🙂  I’m sure I’ll be paying for that meal today.

I had a good appt. with my psychologist last week. I go back again next week…and Rebecca will be coming with me. We’ll see how it goes.

Abram had a good 15m check up, and Rebecca did well at the dentist.

Last week was too busy (for my taste). We even added on a trip to a second hand sale that I had forgotten about…until Thursday. This week…hardly anything going on 😛  Today is church. After lunch Justin and Rebecca are going to a Whitecaps baseball game. Rebecca got a free ticket from her library summer reading club prize. Tuesday is farmer’s market. Friday I’m going to yoga. My teacher is having a free community class! That’s it. Really. That’s all we have. Maybe we’ll try to go to the zoo this week. We had intended to go on Friday, but as I mentioned, by Friday afternoon we were all ready for some time at home. I think Rebecca might have burst from excitement/stimulation if we had tried to do the zoo in the afternoon.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in the kitchen this week. Like I said I didn’t have time to plan thoroughly. I just have a list of possibilities. I’ll try to fill them in on my schedule as I have time/as the week goes on. I could make cheesecake, sourdough blondies, sourdough cookies, sourdough brownies, chocolate swirl bread, fermented punch, pesto, ice cream and caramel. I’m not sure what preservation, if any, I’ll be doing this week.

We found out last week that the person we get our chickens from…and had already placed an order with…has NO chickens. So now I need to figure out when/where we can get some good chickens.

I’m in test/experiment mode right now. I’ve been taking my pituitary supplement for a couple weeks now. And I just got my gall bladder supplement on Friday. We’ll see if I notice any difference. So far nothing profound. I have been trying to cut back on miralax again…and again I’m now in quite a bit of pan 🙁  I’m already regretting eating salad last night. I know that won’t help. Back to strictly soft foods I guess.

I did make a batch of beet kvass last week. I tried it for a couple days. But then the next morning I had some major stomach pain. So I stopped drinking it. It is pretty strong stuff and helps with liver detox. So maybe I had too much to start. Maybe tonight or tomorrow I’ll try again…and start with less.

So, not doing my best right now. I’m waiting to see how this week goes/how the supplements help, if at all. I still think I would like to find a good magnesium supplement. Hopefully I can do that soon.

On a personal note, I got my first two paychecks for my writing last week! Pretty exciting. I guess I can  officially call myself a writer now.

On to the menu. I did it in a rush last night, so it could change as the week goes on.
———————–
S (prep lunch, clean kitchen, church, baseball game, prep smoothies)
  B – granola w/ milk, banana
  L – cp meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli
  D – hot dogs, sweet potato fries, watermelon

M (freeze beans, make punch, roast beets, organize office, make sd blondies)
  B – smoothie, soaked cereal bars
  D – hot taco rice (w/ ground turkey), fruit

T (skim cream, make “oreos”, FM, soak beans, make ice cream)
  B – peach w/ yogurt, honey and nuts
  D – zucchini cakes, roasted brussels sprouts, watermelon

W (prep dinner, soak lentils, zoo, Dr. V., co-op pick up)
  B – smoothie, zucchini bars
  D – cp pork and beans, roasted brussels sprouts, fruit

Th (make bread, bake squash, freeze broccoli, cook lentils, zoo)
  B – cookies n cream yogurt, banana
  D – lentil burgers, fresh beans, fruit squash soup, chocolate swirl bread, cinnamon swirl bread

F (prep dinner, make pesto, make mayo, soak lentils, nutr. testing, Meijer, yoga)
  B – cinnamon swirl bread, banana
  D – french toast bake, fresh fruit

S (cook lentils, clean)
  B – french toast bake
  D – TBD whitefish (RR?), lentils burgers

Brrr. It’s chilly this morning. We have finally gotten a break from the extreme summer heat. Now it’s really feeling like fall is on the way. It will be here before we know it. In the mean time, we’ve got a few weeks of summer fun and produce preservation to get through 🙂

Last week was pretty busy. I froze my last batch of corn (I ended up with 6 gallons this year!). Rebecca and I also made two batches of ice cream (chocolate and honey cinnamon), “oat honey milk cereal” (Rebecca’s recipe…basically granola), blueberry, peach, plum cobbler and blueberry zucchini bread. Plus a few other things. We were out and about plenty as well. We finally made it back to the library to stock up on books for Rebecca. Yesterday we read well over 100 pages! We read an entire 100+ page chapter book and the end of another chapter book. This girl loves to read 🙂  We had a blast with my SIL, nephew and niece at a science center. Justin and Rebecca also went raspberry picking yesterday…so dealing with raspberries is on my to-do list this week 🙂

This week will be a bit chaotic. I’m not sure how everything ended up in the same week, but it’ll be busy. Today is church. We are also going to the zoo in the afternoon and having a picnic dinner. Monday is milk pick up. Rebecca will be doing an arts and crafts camp all afternoon. I also have an appointment with my psychologist. Tuesday we have the farmer’s market. We’ll see how Rebecca likes camp on Monday. If she really enjoyed it will do another day on Tuesday (the camp is all week, but you can do just certain days). Wednesday morning Abram has his 15m check up. We might possibly do a gymnastics camp in the morning as well (Rebecca’s friend/our former neighbor will be in it). In the afternoon Rebecca and I both have dentist appts. Justin has a meeting at church in the evening. Thursday I will be bringing a meal to a MOPS friend that just had a baby. We also have to grocery shop, and I’ll be doing yoga. We don’t have anything set in stone for Friday. I was planning to go to the zoo, but now we’re going today. So we’ll see. We might just need a day to stay home and take it easy. Saturday morning Rebecca and I are getting our hair cut. In the afternoon my parents will be visiting. Rebecca, my mom and I will be going shopping for some school clothes for Rebecca. Then all of us will go out for dinner. I’m feeling worn out just seeing what we have going on 😛

In the kitchen I’ll be freezing more beans (I did one batch this morning). I have to freeze raspberries. I want to make something with them as well, but I’m not sure what yet. I will need to make more yogurt. I want to finally actually make a batch of sd breakfast cookies. I might make wheat crackers. I’ll probably make more ice cream. I would also like to try making beet kvaas (more on that to follow). Plus I need to make a meal for my friend.

Last week I went to a chiropractor for some nutritional testing. It’s muscle testing to see what parts of your body aren’t functioning well. It showed that I have issues with my pituitary gland and my gall bladder. Both make a lot of sense…but are two things I’ve never worked on. Pituitary controls things like fertility, thyroid, mood/mind…all things I struggle with. And the gall bladder deals with digestion, especially fats…which make up half of my diet! My mom has problems with her gall bladder, and my dad just had his removed. So it makes sense that I might have problems with mine. I have some supplements to help both systems. So far I’ve just started the pituitary supplement (which has magnesium in it :). They were out of the gall bladder ones (which contain some potassium). Hopefully I’ll get them this week…although I’m not sure when I’ll have time to get over there. My friend (the doctor) has really high hopes that they will help with  my digestion. I hope she’s right!! I can’t wait to start them. She also said that beet kvaas could be very helpful. I’ve heard it’s easy to make, so I’m hoping to try this week after I pick up some beets at the farmer’s market.

On to our busy week. Here’s what’s on the menu for now.
—————–
S (freeze beans, prep lunch, boil eggs, church, zoo, prep smoothies, freeze raspberries)
  B – zucchini bread, raspberry yogurt
  L – beef and veg in cp
  D – picnic – egg salad sandwich, fresh fruit, chips, cucumber slices, avocado

M (make raspberry topping, make breakfast cookies, milk, camp, Dr. V.)
  B – sd breakfast cookie, smoothie
  D – (light/early/easy clean up) – BLAT, broccoli, fruit

T (skim cream, make hot fudge, fm, camp)
  B – hard boiled egg, toast, fruit
  D – zucchini casserole, beans, fruit
W (prep dinner, chop fruit, bake squash, make hot fudge, Dr. S., dentist, music mtg)
  B – sd breakfast cookie, smoothie
  D – (prep ahead) – TBD cp chicken

Th (pre meal, make zucchini bread, make yogurt, make beet kvaas, bring meal, camp?, Meijer, yoga)
  B – apple w/ almond butter, yogurt
  D – (separate) – RR – TBD pasta

F (chop veggies, zoo?, make ice cream)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – fried eggs, toast, roasted brussels sprouts

S (hair cut, shopping w/ grandma, dinner)
  B – tbd
  D – out to eat – Russ’s?

First full week in August. We still have a month before school, but I’m already getting nervous 😛  I’m not ready for my baby to be in school! Thankfully she is 🙂

Last week we kept busy…especially in the kitchen. I think I had baking withdrawal on vacation or something. Or I was just in the mood to be creative. Thanks to my husband for putting up with so many extra dishes 🙂

This week we have plenty going on. Today is church. Monday we need to go to Target and Heffron Farms. I realized yesterday we are almost out of meat! Aside from some beef we don’t have much in the freezer. I’ll get some at Heffron and order some from the co-op. Tuesday is farmer’s market and voting. I’m also going to do some nutritional testing. My friend Amy is a chiropractor. She told me they do some simple nutritional testing and can help me get the supplements my body needs. I’m so excited!! Wednesday and Friday we don’t have any set plans. We could go to the zoo or the library. Thursday we will probably meet my SIL and niece and nephew in Lansing. And we could potentially see them again on Saturday since they will be in town.

I’m not sure yet what all I’ll be doing in the kitchen. I’m sure there will be beans to freeze. I have to decide if I want to do one more round of corn or not. Maybe more zucchini. Soon I’ll start thinking about canning, starting with spaghetti sauce. I’ll need to make a new batch of pesto. I might make sd breakfast cookies. I also need to make a new batch of broth. I have my last jar in the fridge right now. Hopefully I can get some decent chicken tomorrow for that. Rebecca has some ideas of things she’d like to make as well. One of them being “blueberry bread cereal.” We’ll see if we can create something. She said we need to have it for breakfast 3 days this week…no more, no less 🙂

I’m doing ok. I’ve been craving salad lately…so I’ve been eating it. I normally eat mostly soft/easily digested foods. But sometimes my body tells me I need to change it up. I’ve been eating the same things over and over again lately…which leads to deficiencies. So I needed some variety. As long as I don’t go overboard. I’m a big fan of listening to your body. It really is quite a marvelous creation of God…and it knows just what it needs.

I’ve been having major issues with a tingling/burning tongue lately. I’ve read that it can be related to mineral deficiency, particularly magnesium. I get it periodically, but it’s been bad the last week, every day for a good portion of the day. I can’t pinpoint it to a certain food. So I don’t know if it’s a particular food that causes it, a deficiency, an allergy, hormones, yeast/thrush or what. As far as I know I have no allergies at all (food, seasonal, etc.). So I don’t think it’s that. We’ll see if adding some good vitamin/mineral supplements makes it go away. Whatever the case my body is definitely trying to tell me something.

I’m keeping a log of what Rebecca eats every day to see if I notice any correlation between food and behavior. So I might try to do some gluten free days here and there for her. We’ll see how it goes.

On to the menu.
—————–
S (prep lunch, prep smoothies, church, grind flour)
  B – breakfast bars, fruit
  L – cp pork chops, potatoes and carrots
  D – grilled brats, grilled mushrooms, sweet potato fries, beans

M (freeze beans, Target/Heffron)
  B – smoothie, sd blueberry muffins
  D – cheeseburger zucchini boats, fresh beans, applesauce

T (make pesto, freeze butter, skim cream, fm, vote, make ice cream, nutr. testing, freeze zucchini, cut up watermelon)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – tacos, peas, applesauce

W (freeze corn, prep dinner, chop veggies, bake squash, make “cereal,” make ice cream, library, make broth)
  B – smoothie, english muffin
  D – cp roasted chicken, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted potatoes
Th (strain/freeze broth, boil eggs, Lansing)
  B – hard boiled egg, toast
  D – squash and sausage soup, cornbread

F (make breakfast cookies)
  B – sd breakfast cookie, smoothie
  D – cornbread french toast, fruit topping, mixed fruit, sausage

S (clean)
  B – leftovers or tbd
  D – fried fish, fresh beans, sweet potato fries

Good morning. It sure feels good to be home!! We were in Chicago all last week. It was fun, but nothing beats coming home to your own bed and good food 🙂  We did so much fun stuff including Lego Land, Shedd Aquarium, the American Girl store, Navy Pier, Chicago Children’s Museum, a live performance of Beauty and the Beast, the Lincoln Park Zoo, a Chicago Cubs game, swimming at the hotel pool and celebrating our 9th anniversary! I think I need a vacation from my vacation 🙂

This week it’s back to normal. Today we are just taking a day of rest and getting ready for the week. Monday is milk pick up and our last day of dance. Tuesday is farmer’s market. I also set up an appt. with my psychologist. I haven’t seen her in over a year…but I have some things I want to talk about with her. Wednesday is grocery shopping. After a week away our fridge is so empty right now. I really need to get some food 😛  Thursday I might do yoga. No set plans for Friday yet. We’ll see how we’re doing if we want to go to the zoo, the park or the library. I have to decide which naturopath to call and set up an appt. Rebecca and I didn’t get around to doing a Mommy/daughter date in July. We’ll see if we squeeze anything in this week or not (school shopping?, cone world?). We’ve got a couple ideas for August already.

Now that we are back from vacation it’s time to get busy in the kitchen again. I’ve already made yogurt and hot fudge this morning. This week I’d also like to preserve lots of food. I’m hoping I can still get blueberries. I also want to freeze more beans, corn and zucchini. I need to make a new batch of soaked grahams. I want to make butterscotch, ice cream, some kind of peach/blueberry dessert, a Strawberry Shortcake inspired cake with Rebecca, zucchini bars or cookies and maybe something sourdough.

The meal plans I posted last week were actually mostly this week’s plans 🙂  So planning was simple. I want easy, light, nutritious meals after a week of eating out. I also want to start eating a little more seafood. So I’ve included more this week. That was one good thing I did eat on vacation at least.
No big updates on me. Still just trying to manage right now until I can get to the doctor and hopefully get some quality supplements and get my body’s vitamins and minerals restored.

On to the menu.
——————————————————————-
S (laundry, make yogurt, make hot fudge, strain kefir, grind flour)
B – fruit, granola w/ milk
L – vegetable cheese egg bake, fresh fruit, fresh beans leftover tomato soup, crackers w/ cheese, fruit
D – zucchini avocado tuna salad, leftover tomato soup, crackers w/ cheese, milkshakes cheese and egg bake w/ pureed veggies mix in, fresh beans, toast, fruit
M (soak flour, prep dinner, milk, dance, prep smoothies)
B – breakfast cookies, grapes
D – salmon tuna cakes (w/ zucchini), broccoli, butter and garlic egg noodles

T (make soaked grahams, skim cream, fm, make sd graham crackers, prep dinner, make pesto, Dr. V.)
B – smoothie, chewy granola bars
D – (prep meat sauce ahead) – spaghetti, corn, garlic toast

W (freeze blueberries, corn, zucchini, bake zucchini bars, Meijer)
B – fruit, zucchini bar
D – RR – “chicken and rice lasagna” (with rice, chicken, cheese and avocado), corn on the cob, grapes

Th (make butterscotch, freeze beans, make mayo, make granola bars, bake cake, make ic, yoga)
B – zucchini bar, fruit
D – (separate) – cp broccoli cheese soup, sd tbd leftover chicken lasagna, broccoli

F (Target, Heffron Farms, soak flour)
B – granola w/ milk, banana
D – fried egg, toast, cheesecake cups, fresh fruit

S (make breakfast cookies, clean)
B – sd breakfast cookies
D – beer battered fish, zucchini fries, sweet potato fries

Good morning. As I’m writing I’m listening to my friend and local blogger and creator of Grand Rapids Natural Living Donielle Baker talk about natural fertility at the Real Food Summit. I’ve been listening to great presentations all week. I hope I have time to listen to all three presentations today. Matt Stone is also going to talk. I really want to hear him. I’m also enjoying one of my frozen cheesecake cups. So good! And it’s mostly homemade yogurt and sour cream…lots of great probiotics.

Last week was pretty busy with lots of fun activities like Michigan’s Adventure. But Abram made it even “busier” for me…by which I mean he didn’t give me time to get much done. So if I did have a few free minutes I had to cram in as much as I could. He is teething so badly right now. I’ve hardly slept in my bed all week. I sleep half of the night in the rocking chair with him. But on top of that he is so clingy to me because he is in pain. He has gotten to the point where he won’t even let Justin watch him or hold him most of the time. If Justin is around Abram just clings to my legs and cries to be held. So I basically have no way of getting a break since nobody else can take care of him. It’s tiring.

There aren’t too many things going on this week. Hopefully we’ll have lots of time to relax and just enjoy the summer. Today is church. Monday is milk pick up and dance. Tuesday is farmer’s market. Wednesday is grocery shopping. There is a chance I will go to yoga on Friday. My teacher is offering a free class! But considering that Abram cried for 45 minutes and wouldn’t eat dinner when I went to yoga last week I’m not really counting on it.

I managed to get a few things done in the kitchen last week, including freezing some corn and beans and making mayo, soaked grahams, sd muffins, cheesecake popsicles, yogurt, sour cream, s’mores ice cream and kefir. This week I hope I can get lots of blueberries frozen (they still didn’t have many at the market last week). I want to freeze more corn, beans and zucchini as well. I didn’t get around to doing any ferments last week. We’ll see if I do this week or not. I would like to work on some vacation breakfast and snack foods. In addition to work in the kitchen I’ve been working on Rebecca’s dress any chance I get. I have quite a bit of it done. But I still have a bit to go. I hope I can finish it this week.

For meals this week I think I’m going to do mostly breakfast foods. We had to get a bunch of our eggs early since our farmer is on vacation. So I have about 7 dozen eggs to work through right now 🙂

I don’t have too many updates on myself. I did not get around to calling my doctor yet. I hope to this week so I can get some testing done. I think vitamin/mineral deficiency is a big problem for me. I don’t think my body is absorbing much of the nutrients I eat. I feel like I eat the “right” way most of the time. I eat so many nourishing foods. And yet I have hormonal problems, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, etc. I’m trying so hard to take care of my body, but something in the process is not working…something internal. So I want to get to the bottom of it. I’d like to get back to cutting out the miralax (which is likely causing my body to not absorb nutrients) and find a more natural way to help my digestion. A reader suggested Natural Calm magnesium supplement. I’ve heard of that before. So I’m looking into it. And I have taken some magnesium supplements the last few days again.

I am also realizing that I need to work on strengthening my core. I only make it to yoga about once every two weeks. But we always focus on core strength in class. And I’m realizing how weak my core is…and how much that impacts my whole body, including digestion.

One other thing I’ve had in the back of my head for a while is the olive oil we use. Sadly the majority of the olive oil in stores is not really as good as you’d think. Some are refined. Some even add other vegetable oils to them. I do buy first cold pressed organic EVOO. But I still don’t think it’s the best. I consume a lot of it in my pesto that I eat daily and in our homemade mayo. I’m wondering if it’s contributing to my inflammation/pufa intake. I need to look into better sources for olive oil. And in the mean time not eat so much of it. I have over the past week brought my evoo consumption down and my butter consumption back up again. I think that is helping. I’m trying to focus mostly on coconut oil and butter for added fat sources/cooking fats right now.

On to the menu.
—————————————————–
S (prep lunch, sewing, church, prep smoothies, grind flour)
  B – ww bagels, fresh fruit
  L – cp honey mustard chicken and vegetables over rice
  D – avocado cheddar sausage omelet, broccoli, blueberry milkshakes

M (sewing, milk, dance)
  B – smoothie, TBD
  D – (prep ahead) – avocado chicken salad sandwiches, fresh beans, fresh fruit

T (skim cream, sewing, fm)
  B – smoothie, TBD
  D – zucchini cheese quiche w/ soaked crust, peas, fresh fruit

W (make zucchini bread, freeze corn, freeze blueberries, Meijer, make ic, strain kefir)
  B – quiche, zucchini bread
  D – zucchini bread french toast, fresh blueberries, broccoli, peach yogurt

Th (roast beets, freeze zucchini, make blueberry muffins)
  B – french toast
  D – scrambled eggs, blueberry bread pudding, sauteed corn, beets

F (make pesto, freeze beans)
  B – bread pudding, fruit
  D – Cinnamon quinoa (using white rice), custard, bananas and blueberries in milk, fresh beans
S (clean, make yogurt, make cheesecake cups)
  B – pancake and sausage muffins, fruit
  D – fried eggs, cheesecake cups, corn on the cob

Good morning. So thankful today for a little break from the extreme heat. We had multiple days with temps in the 100’s! Finally last night we were able to open the windows…the house is back into the 70’s again. It feels wonderful. Highs only in the 80’s at least for the next few days. I never thought that mid 80’s would feel “cool.”

Last week was quite busy with swimming, dance, farmer’s market, milk pick up, groceries, holiday events, children’s museum, library, out to eat, etc., but we made it 🙂  I even got to go shopping by myself on Friday. Justin watched the kids while I did some sprint shopping…do as much as possible in two hours 😛  I could seriously use an entire new wardrobe. So I had a lot I wanted to get. I only made it to two stores, but I actually got quite a bit. It’s tiring to try on so many clothes so quickly 😛  I’m excited now to have clothes that fit and are in style! This week should be a little less chaotic now that swimming is done. Today is church. We are also planning to visit my grandparents and my parents this afternoon. Monday is dance. Tuesday is farmer’s market. Wednesday we are probably going to Michigan’s Adventure. We’ll see how the kids are doing and what the weather is like. Thursday there is a kids event at a local Christian bookstore. We might stop by. I am also going to yoga. No big plans for Friday. If it’s a nice day, maybe we’ll go to the zoo. Else we’ll just have fun at home.

My kitchen work for this week could be a lot or could be a little. It just depends what produce is ready. I think the good blueberries might be at the market this week. If so I’ll stock up and freeze them. I’d like to freeze about 40 lbs. this year. I might have to have Rebecca walk home from the market this week to fit all the produce in the wagon 🙂  I froze some zucchini last week. I’d like to do more this week. Our beans are just getting started. Once they pick up I’ll be freezing lots of beans. I’d like to make a new batch of soaked graham crackers and a batch of vanilla cookies. Abram really seems to like those. I also need to make sour cream, yogurt and ice cream. Vacation will sneak up on me soon too, so I need to start planning and work on any prep ahead food items like breakfasts and snacks. I might make some soaked bread and buns as well. And possibly some fermented ketchup and fermented lemon punch. It’s been a while since I’ve done any ferments.

I finally got the fabric for Rebecca’s dress cut out yesterday. And started sewing this morning. I’m so excited to make her dress. I hope I can find time this week to work on it.

For meals this week I decided to do a theme. This is burger week! Perfect for the middle of summer. I’m doing all different kinds of burgers. Some with meat, some without. Some with buns, some without. Some with typical burger ingredients, some with breakfast foods. Some grilled, some cooked in a pan. A wide range. I’m even considering creating some kind of dessert burger 🙂  I’m doing Rebecca’s recipe for our dinner tonight. She said we should make “pancake waffles.” We’ll see how that turns out 🙂  I also might make one of Rebecca’s recipes for her for lunch one day – “burger buns.” She likes cheeseburgers…without the burger. Just the bun, cheese, ketchup and mustard.

No major updates for me. One thing I did run into in the last few days…more die off 🙁  I stopped taking my probiotic and started eating cultured dairy daily about 2 weeks ago. That’s my grace period of feeling pretty good when I make a big change. Then the die off kicks in and the headaches, acne and slowed digestion start. Hopefully it will be short lived. Maybe I should do a major diet change every two weeks…maybe that would keep my body guessing and working well 😛

I made my meal plans before we made our plans for Michigan’s Adventure. So my menu might shift a bit. But here’s what’s planned for now.
———————————————-
S (food prep, sewing, church, visit family, prep smoothies, grind flour, soak flour, make ketchup?)
  B – toast w/ almond butter, banana yogurt
  L – grill hamburgers, chips, fruit salad, peas
  D – “pancake waffles” w/ cherry topping and whipped cream, bacon, fresh fruit

M (make buns?, soak grahams, dinner prep, sewing, dance)
  B – waffles w/ fresh peaches, fruit salad
  D – bacon avocado pesto chicken burger in lettuce wrap, zucchini fries, peas

T (make grahams, make yogurt, skim cream, make sc, strain kefir, make punch, FM, make cookies?, make ic)
  B – smoothies, breakfast cookies
  D – salmon burgers, fresh corn on the cob, fresh beans

W (prep dinner, freeze corn, prep breakfast, pack, MA)
  B – toast w/ almond butter, banana yogurt
  L – picnic at park
  D – gf double cheeseburgers (bunless), zucchini fries, strawberry or blueberry milkshakes OR beef roast w/ veggies (in cp)

Th (make cookies?, make punch?, make ketchup?, make sd muffins, feed sd, sewing, Bookstore, make cheesecake popsicles, yoga)
  B – smoothies, sd muffins
  D – (separate) – leftover beef roast and veggies

F (sewing, zoo?, training, soak lentils)
  B – sd muffins, fresh fruit
  D – “breakfast burger” – sausage patties w/ egg, bacon and cheese on toast, fresh beans, banana yogurt, fresh fruit
S (clean, cook lentils, sewing, freeze benas, make buns, make snack/breakfast foods?)
  B – sausage, toast
  D – lentil burgers gf double cheeseburgers on squash “buns“, squash, fruit

Another steamy morning here to start off the holiday week. Our schedule will be a bit crazy to start the week as well. I hope we’re up for the heat and the chaos 😛

A few updates from last week…I finally got around to sewing Rebecca’s doll dress. I’ve had the fabric since February! I finally made time to work on it this week. I started on Thursday…and finished it on Saturday. Not bad. Hopefully I can get started on Rebecca’s matching dress right away instead waiting 4 months 😛  Rebecca and I also finally had another Mommy/daughter date. We went mini golfing, stopped at a Christian bookstore to pick out a new book and went to dinner. We shared our dinner, had our usual butterscotch milkshake and read part of her new book. We had a great time. But note to self – never again order the fried fish at the Rainbow Grill. I don’t think I’ve ever reacted that strongly that quickly to food. It took an hour or so for the nausea and stomach cramps to subside. I’m guessing most of the food I ate had soybean oil. Anything with soy, even small amounts, are killer on my stomach. Hopefully today won’t be too rough. Just goes to show that vegetable oils are NOT good. We had a playdate and went to the park twice. Plus we had swimming four mornings and dance one day. We tried to go to the library twice, but it was closed both times (once due to building problems, once b/c we were too late). I made it to one yoga class…I sure needed that! In the kitchen last week I made pesto, strawberry ice cream, strawberry banana ice cream sandwiches, chicken broth, kefir, yogurt, sour cream, sd banana bread and soaked grahams. Whew. I guess we were busy.

On to this week. Today is church. Monday will be a doozy. We have swimming. Right from there we’ll go get milk. In the afternoon we have dance. We’ll get home, have dinner and then someone is visiting right after dinner. Tuesday morning we have farmer’s market and swimming. Wednesday we’ll go to the 4th of July parade and the craft show. We’ll watch fireworks from our porch like always. Rebecca says she wants to hear them from in the house. We’ll see if we just put her to bed or try to get her to watch. Thursday will be grocery shopping. Friday Justin has vacation. Not sure if we’ll do anything. I’m hoping we can make it to the library this week too. And possibly another yoga class.

No big kitchen plans. We’ll see what produce is available/if I need to preserve anything. Maybe I’ll freeze some zucchini. I might make a dessert for the 4th. We could use new batches of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, butterscotch and/or caramel. And I hope to do some sewing.
No major updates on me. I have been doing some research on minerals. I’m wondering if I’m deficient in potassium. So I’ve been trying to increase my potassium through food over the last week. I think it is also related to magnesium. I haven’t been taking extra magnesium for a while. I still need to research more. And I might try to get some testing done so I can stop guessing and really see if my body is lacking anything.
Here’s what’s on the menu for now.
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S (prep lunch, roast beets, church, prep smoothies)
  B – soaked pancakes, cherries
  L – cp applesauce chicken, scalloped potatoes, peas
  D – leftover pork w/ rice and apples, salad, milkshake (Justin) / restaurant leftovers, salad, milkshake (Rebecca) / salad, smoothie (me)

M (make hot fudge, swimming, milk, dance, visitor)
  B – smoothie, chewy granola bar
  D – (prep/clean up ahead) – chicken lentil soup and sd bread (from freezer)
T (skim cream, make butterscotch, sewing, FM, swimming, library?)
  B – yogurt, TBD from freezer
  D – pan grilled salmon, grilled zucchini, fried potatoes

W (freeze zucchini, make dessert?, parade, craft show, fireworks)
  B – smoothie, TBD from freezer
  D – grill bbq sausage and vegetable skewers, smores?, blueberry dessert?

Th (sewing, Meijer, yoga?, make ice cream)
  B – baked oatmeal
  D – RR – some spin on mac ‘n’ cheese

F (sewing, library?, shopping?)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – zucchinin waffles w/ blueberry topping and whipped cream, fresh fruit

S (clean)
  B – waffles
  D – BLA salad or zucchini avocado shrimp salad or a combo of the two

Happy Sunday. It’s the start of another hot week here. It’ll be a busy one, too.

Last week we had quite a bit of down time. It was nice. Yesterday we made a trip east to meet our new niece, Bristol. Such a precious little baby! Seeing her, my “baby” definitely doesn’t look anything like a baby 😛  Congratulations, Kevin and Sara and big brother Carson!!!

We have something going on every day this week. Last week Rebecca started dance/gymnastics (which she loves!). This week she also starts swimming. So that will keep us busy. Today is church. Monday is swimming in the morning and dance in the afternoon. Tuesday is swimming and farmer’s market. Wednesday is swimming. Thursday is swimming, and I’m taking a yoga class. Friday we have someone coming to fix one of our basement windows/put in glass block. Saturday I think Rebecca and I will finally have time for our Mommy/daughter date…just squeezing it in this month. We’re going to play mini golf. We’ll stop back home to feed Abram/get dinner ready for the boys. Then Rebecca and I will go out for dinner. That’s it for now. We might go to the library one afternoon. Rebecca is really taking off with her reading, so I’d like to get some early reader books for her. There is also a chance we could have a park playdate one afternoon.

It doesn’t look like we’ll have as much time in the kitchen this week. Last week I made two kinds of pesto, kefir, butterscotch ice cream, strawberry raspberry freezer jam, brownies, two salads for our get-together, a meal for my brother/SIL and froze strawberries. This week I need to use my sourdough. I might make banana or zucchini bread with it. I just finished my soaked graham crackers, so I might make another batch. I want to make more sour cream. And possibly butterscotch sauce and/or ice cream. I might make a batch of homemade noodles. And we’ll see what produce the market has this week. Last week cherries were $8 a quart! So I don’t plan to freeze cherries this year 🙁  I think that’s about it.

No big updates on me. Just taking things one day at a time. I did stop taking my probiotic again. Always experimenting 🙂  Like I’ve said before…if something isn’t working, try something else. At the moment I can’t tell that the probiotic is having any significant impact. I have committed to eating some cultured food daily instead. See how it goes. And I’m still enjoying ice cream for breakfast once in a while in this hot weather 🙂  Here’s what’s on the menu.
——————
S (church, make broth, make kefir)
  B – maple pecan scones, fruit salad
  L – cp roast chicken, baked potatoes, beans
  D – sloppy joes, quinoa salad, fruit salad, milkshakes

M (strain/freeze broth, swimming, dance, strain kefir, prep smoothies)
  B – yogurt, maple pecan scone
  D – (prep ahead) – pasta fagioli soup w/ sloppy corn muffins (from freezer)

T (skim cream, make sc, soak flour, make kefir, swimming, FM, make ic)
  B – smoothie, baked oatmeal
  D – chicken pesto paninis or avocado chicken salad sandwiches, zucchini fries, chips

W (make sd banana bread, make soaked grahams, strain kefir, swimming, playdate)
  B – sd banana bread, fruit
  D – RR – rice balls, beans, tbd

Th (make pesto, sewing, preserve produce?, swimming, library?, yoga)
  B – smoothie, TBD from freezer
  D – (separate) – pulled bbq chicken sandwiches, roasted potatoes and carrots

F (sewing, make yogurt, glass block, library?)
  B – sd english muffin w/ jam and pb
  D – salmon egg cups, sd banana bread, squash

S (mini golf/out to eat)
  B – TBD
  D – leftovers or TBD / Rainbow Grill

Happy Father’s Day! I am blessed to have a wonderful father, a loving husband, a great FIL and a caring grandfather. Happy Father’s Day to all of you. We have a little Father’s Day gift today…some much needed rain 🙂  Hopefully it will bring a little break from the heat. We will also (hopefully) have another little gift tomorrow…a new niece! Praying all goes smoothly for my SIL!

Last week we didn’t go many places, but we stayed plenty busy. I ended up making hot fudge, vanilla ice cream (with friends that came for a playdate), butterscotch, graham crackers/homemade deluxe grahams, chocolate ganache cake, strawberry rhubarb pie, mayo, strawberry cream pops, yogurt and froze 5 gallons of strawberries. We also had a fun extended family gathering yesterday.

This week we’ll keep busy. Today is church and celebrating Father’s Day. We might go to Cone World as part of dinner since we got a Living Social Deal for $10 worth of food for $5. A special FD treat…if it’s not too rainy this evening. Monday is milk pick up. And we also got Rebecca signed up for a new dance class. It’s the same class she was supposed to have, but at a different day/time. She’s pretty excited. Tuesday is Farmer’s Market. Wednesday Meijer and co-op pick up. Saturday we will most likely be heading East to meet our new niece and hang out with  my brother and his family. Not sure if we’ll add any other activities like the zoo, library or park.

Last week I did not get enough sleep. Abram is teething like crazy. He’s up 2 or 3 times a night and nursing a lot. I also think he’s going through a growth spurt both physically and mentally. Plus I got to bed late some nights trying to deal with all of the strawberries we picked. I can tell it really took its toll on me. Lack of sleep means the body can’t rest/recover over night (especially when the sleep I do get is broken into little chunks). It also leads to craving carbs/sugar for energy…which leads to eating “junk” food (especially when we have so much of it around!). It’s all homemade food, but I still overdo when I’m overtired and stressed. It also means lack of really nourishing food since I’m eating the sweet stuff instead. The end result? Major flare of inflammation, moody/impatient, acne flare, bloating/puffy, poor digestion, crave sugar. It is also not conducive to keeping up with a little boy that climbs on everything (learned how to climb onto the dining room chairs this week) and gets into everything and keeping Rebecca busy and stimulated enough. She needs new, exciting challenges every day (she’s barely 4 and started reading full sentences last week!! She’s learning how to spell so many words too.)  It’s also tough to make good food choices right now with all of the delicious fresh produce available. I know it sounds strange to have that as a problem, but my body can only handle a small amount of fiber. I have a weakness for fresh sugar snap peas…and they were awesome this week! Sadly strawberries are one of the foods on my eat sparingly list. Any fruit or vegetable with edible seeds is very tough for me. Strawberries, especially, seem to cause me problems. And of course I’ve been eating them with 25 lbs. of freshly picked strawberries in the house! I need to get back on track, keep eating broth (I at least have been good about having that at least once a day), get better about taking my CLO (that seems to help reduce inflammation) and do what I can to get more sleep. I can’t control how much Abram is up. But I will do my best to not make my life so busy that I can’t get to bed on time. I’m hoping to do a bigger diet post update soon where I’ll update the results (that even surprised me!) of my experiment from last week.

That being said, here’s my tentative plan for kitchen work this week. If there is still rhubarb available I’d like to make strawberry rhubarb jam. I want to freeze a few more strawberries yet. Any other preserving will depend on what’s at the market…maybe broccoli? I need to use my sourdough. I want to make a batch of basil pesto since we have lots of basil growing in our window box. We have lots of lettuce, so maybe we’ll be eating some salads. I made a regular batch of pesto this morning. And if time allows I want to work on sewing. I finally got fabric cut out last week. And we’ll be eating another Rebecca recipe this week. I will also likely be making food to bring to my brother/SIL this weekend. Here’s what’s on the menu for now.
—————
S (prep potato salad, make pesto, church, Father’s Day, prep smoothies, make kefir)
  B – bread pudding, fruit salad
  L – grilled pork chops, potato salad, beans
  D – salad/fruit, Cone World? else TBD
M (prep dinner, clean, milk, dance, strain kefir)
  B – smoothies, TBD from freezer
  D – sweet and sour chicken meatballs and veg in the cp over zucchini ribbons

T (make basil pesto, skim cream, fm)
  B – pancakes
  D – pesto chicken over rice, peas

W (freeze strawberries, prep dinner, Meijer, co-op, make ice cream)
  B – smoothies, TBD from freezer
  D – (separate) – beef roast in cp w/ veggies

Th (make/can jam)
  B – sd english muffin w/ strawberry rhubarb jam and pb
  D – RR – pesto salad (“broccoli, carrots, beans and peas topped with basil pesto w/ cheese mixed in, topped with lettuce”), garlic toast, russian custard

F (make food for Sat.?)
  B – yogurt, granola, fruit
  D – scrambled or fried eggs, toast w/ strawberry rhubarb jam, TBD veg, strawberry milkshakes

S (clean, Flint?)
  B – tbd
  D – tbd