Kiddies - Lunch - Snack - Turn Around

I did a complete turn around this school year.  I didn't indulge the kids in a lot of junk this summer, they had, but not as much as I used to allow.

Then I wrote up a basic menu outline for lunch and snack and this week is going good so far.  I know it's only two days in, but they are bringing home the popcorn and not the fruits and veggies!  Yay!  I cut out the chips and juice.  I bought juice bottles with the intention of making switcha or something, but they haven't noticed that they are only carrying water to school, lol. Yay again!

So, their bags have looked like this:

Monday -
Cukes and tomatoes (baby girl only had cukes - doesn't like tomatoes)
Popcorn
Grapes
Pasta salad with tuna, shredded cheese and homemade oil/vinegar dressing
Water

Today -
Orange wedges
Pasta salad with cole slaw tossed in and oil/vinegar dressing
Popcorn
Kiwi, cantaloupe, mango medley (for baby boy)
Apple (for baby girl)
Water

Tomorrow-
Mixed Veg & Rice with egg rolls (an interesting recipe I found on a Chinese youtube cooking channel - it's actually eggs cooked and rolled in layers)
Kiwi etc medley (for baby boy)
Cukes & Tomatoes (baby boy)
Plum & grapes (baby girl)
Popcorn
Water

Then I got loads of carrots to make carrot sticks and dip.  There's peanut butter and what not to go with that.  Then I got advice on how to grow my own alfalfa and bean sprouts!  I hope I can keep this up.  It's the finances that often hit, but I am going to do a review of this week and crunch the numbers.  It helps that I bought stuff from the discount cart as I usually do.  And it's a pretty consistent possibility to keep THAT up, so I will do a processed bagged shit vs the healthy stuff price comparison Friday night and weigh things.

Chips have gone up anyways, and a cucumber is less than two dollars, and it fed my son for two days, the chips usually last a week and are about five dollars.  It's looking good...YAY ME!
               

If at first...fricassee...

Today I googled some recipes to get me back in the swing.  In my refrigerator - FINALLY - sit a zuccini and a cucumber.  There are apples and oranges and plantains, and chickpeas, pintos, split peas and I could go on, but you get the idea.

We are having turkey chili tonight.  This is to get the beans into the hollow bellies I call my children.  Tomorrow, I plan chickpea patties.  My darling crockpot is going into overdrive.  Today it was the pintos, tonight when I get home, the chickpeas.

Then maybe I will see what's going to happen with the split peas.  The weather can't make up its doggone mind, so I guess a soup won't be happening.  I have cabbage and carrots and vinegar, so my darling daughter can go on her cole slaw kick again.  I also got tomatoes.  My new list, I sat and painstakingly made also had tofu on it, but I had to juggle some things around and that along with other things got left out.  But - I have made a damn start and that's all that matters.

He's mentioned he wants to drop some weight as well, he's got a beautiful "married belly" and he's concerned about my weight.  So we're about to embark on a journey of feeling better and getting lighter.  I wonder if this lap will be a bit more successful because he understands where I am coming from...

I am excited again about changing the food we are eating.  I always welcome it and hope I notice this time when the grocery list gets encumbered with ridiculously processed garbage and other things...sometimes I even have the raw debate in my head for some things...but then I say no.

One baby step at a time... :)

Lost

Gah!  Here I am.  Lost.  Back in the world of meat and other things I tried to cut out.  But, still trying to find my way back.  I grocery shop soon, so I am working on my list.  Trying.

New guy, new life, and he has no problem with my vegetarian thing, he's a meat eater, monster meat eater and I can respect that because he respects me.  He will compromise for me, so compromising for him will not be a problem for me regardless of how I feel.

I feel a new outlook, like some type of toxicity has been removed.  I feel able to do this.  However, I dread getting my kids back on track, so I am thinking of starting fun.  Like burgers, chickpea patties or black bean ones.  Sweet potato fries.  I wish I had an oven, so that I can bake them and really dive in.  But I will work with what I have.

It's missed, that good feeling of eating good food.  Real good food, not food that's good because the shit's been cooked out of it, or because it's loaded with stuff it shouldn't have.

Walking has become somewhat of something that I noticed I push myself to do a bit more than required.  My car is down, so to save on cash, I will catch one bus instead of two and walk the rest of the way to work.  I walk my daughter to school, and then sometimes while waiting on a bus, I will walk back down to my son's school.  These are not short distances.   But I have lost about fifteen pounds since August.

I will keep on, I am back.  With a vengeance, maybe?  But I am crawling back...

Struggling

Still in the game barely. Not as much veggies going on as I would like as hectic schedules makes us so exhausted that I scrape together what I could and flop into bed. Tonight wasn't too bad, we had veggie burgers and chips with apples and grilled plaintain. No complaints from hubby, yay! We been eating a lot of chili, various ways, curried, chili powdered, tomato sauced, and on and on. TVP and black bean chili, tvp and pinto beans. Brown rice, spelt elbows, tricolour pasta, but not as much salad as I would like. The thought of standing up to make a fresh salad would bring me almost to tears somehow. I don't know. The joys of being a women, ey? I miss how I was feeling though. The veggies made a difference, I always made sure, they took up at least half the plate for me. Siiiiigh...still pushing on though. :)

Grrrrrrrrr...:)

Here I am! Where do I start? My tablet is doing the freakout thing and not letting me post since blog-spot updated its look. Grrrr. It's been a frustrating past week with complaints about quinoa from hubby (to be expected) but from the kids who ate their full of it at the veggie class. That pissed me off severely, needless to say. Tonight was good. Last night relatively okay. Last night was tuna egg patties with brown rice, zucchini and tomato strips on romaine with homemade vinaigrette. Hubby ate two plates. Said it was different and he liked it, somehow he does not remember I have made those patties before. Always to the reaction from people, "Tuna and egg?" Yeah, boil the egg, mash, add to the tuna, crack a raw egg in, pour in a heavy dose of flaxseed, mix and use an icecream scoop to lay em on the grill. Yes, me and flax are still fierce friends, teehee. Tonight was cheesy peasy couscous. Homemade vegetarian cheese with sweet peas in couscous, yum. Also, we had coleslaw with zucchini in it and I did turkey with kidney beans. The bag of beans I did in the crock-pot last night got left on the dinner table today when I left for work, and were slimy when I got home. :( Can you say pissed off. I didn't even blink, I went to a plan B I didn't even know I had. Turkey. I bought the turkey, as I usually do these past weeks with meat, to "soften the blow" of my complete vegetarian/vegan/raw rage. So Sunday evening I cooked parboiled rice and a steak. I ended up with that rice because Friday, no money, no grocery, my cousin hands me two humungous chicken legs/thighs with a bag of rice, happy was she to help. So I took it. I had to feed my family. I used one leg to feed them three, and I just ate everything else. Then the other leg got cooked Sunday afternoon to go with the quinoa cause I knew, quinoa is new, there ga be a fight. Just wasn't expecting the kids to kick off over it. smh So steak and rice it was Sunday night, but I got 'em, they had tvp with their rice, not steak. Hubby had the steak. So I have been noting mentally how I feel. I feel freer, I feel more intrigued. I had literally started coming home and be almost in tears because I had to make rice and some type meat "new again". I was just plain exhausted. I am not on this new kick just for something new, but because I feel so good when I eat the way I am eating. When I look out for new recipes, I discover that the world of vegetarianism seems boundless, more creative and more intriguing than the meat eating world. There seems to be less limits, and almost in a bid to prove that eating healthy can be just as tasty, if not tastier, recipes are coming at me faster than I can try them. And I love this. And tonight I sat and told him he is supposed to wake up hungry. That's what the argument was this morning, he woke up hungry, and he doesn't usually. *rolling my eyes* Your body is responding to my healthy assault on it. He will eat his raw oats in the morning with almond milk and and a bit of honey. Honey I proudly scored from Andros. And he was asking about the raw palm sugar I bought. There is hope yet... :)

Links & Recipes (check back often)

Here are a couple of recipes/blogs/links that I am using and picking up along the way: Oatmeal Cookies Two Bean Meatless Meatloaf Zucchini Quiche Tofu Spinach Lasagna Vegetable Tagine with Yellow Split Peas http://gozamos.com/2012/01/fat-happy-crispy-microwave-potato-and-turnip-chips/ http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2010/08/homemade-vegan-yogurt-in-the-crock-pot/ http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2010/10/playing-with-pumpkin-raw-pumpkin-pie-raw-pumpkin-breakfast-smoothie/

Up and Down

So, yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday. And the usual spread was served, grilled various meats, peas n rice, corn and crab salad. And birthday cake. And I sat there, with the kids, held hostage, because dinner wasn't done at home and my eager puppy eyed hubby thought that he was doing a good thing by giving me a night off from cooking. *roll eyes in impossible directions* Anyhow, back on track tonight. Zucchini quiche. Mashed sweet potatoes with coconut milk. Julienned zucchini and bell pepper on lettuce with homemade vinaigrette. Colorful plate of food. Real good. My kids? Once again, surprising. My son kills the quiche and bell peppers with zucchini. Pitches a holy fit at the potatoes. My daughter pitches a fit at the quiche (yes, she at the quiche last time when HE DIDN'T - go figure). But she eats plain zucchini with vinaigrette, announces the potatoes taste bad but eats them under my watchful eye, lol. Hubby ate two plates of food, heh heh heh. He had no quiche. In an effort to finish up the meat left in here, which includes two steaks, one porkchop and some shrimp - I did shrimp for him tonight. So that's done, shrimps- all gone. Now the steaks will be by weekend.