Look to the right (you can't miss it!)

I'm going to use this new feature to the right as the reason I have not finished blogging my 10 day challenge.  I finally got all my pictures digitized and put in a scrapbook from my trip to Tanzania, Africa in 2001.  Yes, I know its a long time coming.  However, I must say I LOVE Mixbook for doing this kind of thing, and I'm pretty sure it didn't exist in 2001....So I was just waiting for the someone to invent it.....REALLY!

Day 3 - 10 Days of Real Food

Back already!  I know! 

Day 3 Menu: Breakfast - Oatmeal with honey and raisins; Lunch - PB&J with grapes and apples; Dinner - Slow Cooker Chicken with mashed potatoes and salad.
     Thoughts:  Another successful day.  Ben and I enjoyed the oatmeal this morning along with some granola.  Then we headed to a friend's house to play with lunch in tow.  Worked out great.  One of her kiddos even liked the granola I had packed for a snack.  The "big" boys did fine with breakfast and lunch. Dinner was very good.  The slow cooker chicken was easy to make and turned out great.  Spices could have been ramped up a bit.  I looked forward the the mashed potatoes ALL DAY and they were worth it.  Quite good if I say so myself.  (In fact, I'm thinking about sneaking the leftovers right now!)  I'll say what I'm missing most is the sweets.  I need to get some whole foods dessert recipes!

1 week to go!

10 days of real food - days 1 and 2

So my wonderful friend Sally wrote to me that her family was going to take on a challenge called "10 Days of Real Food."  Curious, I looked into it (100 Days of Real Food) and thought "We could NEVER do that!"  Several days later, David told me he was curious about eating fewer processed foods and getting healthier.  "Hmmmm......I just saw this thing online about exactly that!"  And the journey began..... 

We had this whole discussion pre-Christmas, so we COULDN"T start then.....  But just after New Year's we renewed the discussion, planned a menu, and I struck out to shop at the healthy food store last weekend.  New territory for me - and it kinda smelled funny in there........anyway, groceries bought and stocked, we started the 10 day challenge Monday.

Day 1: Breakfast - Homemade granola cereal; Lunch - Organic PB and all fruit jelly on organic whole wheat bread, banana, raisins; Snack - Apple and popcorn; Dinner - Steamed wild caught salmon, steamed green beans, sweet potatoes
      Thoughts:  I'm impressed that the whole family ate the "real" food for 1 whole day!  Wow!  Ben loved the granola cereal and PB&J.  He wasn't so big on the fish, but I covered it up with sweet potato, and down it went.  Matt did ok on granola cereal.  This is his first time to take a lunch to school instead of purchasing school lunch, but he was excited to carry a lunchbox! Ha!  Everything went swimmingly until snack time when there was some sort of misunderstanding.....the story I got from him was that they (meaning whomever is in charge of snacks) told him what he had for snack was "inappropriate" (his words).  Their alternative......PUDDING!  Yep!  Pudding!!!  That cracked me up!  Organic apple slices and organic popcorn weren't appropriate, but PUDDING was ok!  (Still LOL about that.  And, if I weren't the principal's wife, I might have said something.....)  We adults did just fine on day 1.  If nothing else, I felt great that EVERYTHING I ate on Monday was real food - not filled with preservatives, fillers, and sugar.  And, I remembered to drink more water just because I was focused on things I could ingest without guilt.  1 day down.

Day 2: Breakfast - Whole wheat banana pancakes with 100% pure maple syrup; Lunch - Fruit Smoothie and Triscuits; Snack: Yogurt with honey, frozen blueberries, and granola; Dinner - Chicken fajitas on homemade whole wheat tortillas with cheese, sour cream, and homemade salsa
     Thoughts:  Everything went over great again today.  The smoothie was a little tricky for Matt's lunch, but he loved it.  The website has more suggestions for kids lunches, but I just bought what was on meal plan 1 for the challenge.  Ben indulged in another PB&J for lunch because he enjoyed it so much yesterday.  Dinner was FABULOUS!!!  Even if you aren't into the real food diet, you must look up their recipe for fajitas and homemade tortillas.  Yep - my first time ever making tortillas and they were fab! (And I got stunning compliments from the fam!)  And the veggies were SOOO good too.  Love the suggested seasoning!  Made David's favorite salsa to go with the fajitas.  This is kinda fun......Day 2 check.

 (Now we'll see if I get days 3-10 journaled within the next year.....wish me luck!)