Naturally Optimistic

I thought since I'm trying this Whole30 thing, and I REALLY want to commit to it...I am going to start blogging about it. I am nervous & excited. I have never stuck with anything for 30 days...I don't know why this time is any different, but I need to reset my body. I've had terrible tummy troubles lately and really throughout different periods of my life. I have bad habits. I love cheese. I just want to reset things. I'm not saying I'm never going to get another slice of cheese or bowl of yogurt or rice or pasta or drink another diet coke...but I *do* want to give this a fair shake. So - Day 1 Over the weekend I did a fair amount of research on the Whole30, read the rules, made lists, pinned a bunch of recipes to my Whole30 board and yesterday I set off to the grocery store to stock up. Boy did I stock up! Our fridge is packed with fresh veggies, fruits & lean meats. The pantry is stocked with crushed tomatoes, canned pumpkin and Larabars.  To...

Ugh - been failing at the whole feeding my family well thing since the first post. Last night I had a birthday dinner with some girlfriends that I went to. I made the kids some Star Wars Mac & Cheese (I always add a little greek yogurt these days for extra creaminess) and green beans. I'm not sure what Steve ate. I had a delicious bacon-cheeseburger with fries. I don't often eat red meat so when I actually want it, I indulge. It was good. Tonight I worked late; I had a soup on the meal plan and it was 80+ degrees all day so in no way did I want to consume, nor make soup. I suggested spinach strawberry salads - that got no one excited, except for me. Steve ended up eating up frozen leftover Chinese (yes, he reported that it tasted as good as that sounds....blech) and the kids had leftover dinner from last night. I never did get around to making that salad....I ate what was left on August's plate after he magically disappeared from the dinner table, and reappeared on...

Last autumn a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was looking for people, parents in particular, who were willing to read Karen Le Billon's books about getting your kids to eat & have a healthy attitude about doing so. Not just to "eat" but to eat things that are GOOD for you; that have layers of tastes & textures. Having a well-rounded palette and not being expected to be catered to. Hi, my name is Carrie and I have two small children. ONE who is particularly challenging when it comes to eating anything other than "Creamy Macaroni" or frozen nuggets & fries. *sigh* The other one isn't far from that mark either but at least gives an effort and occasionally finds something new that he loves. YES! I want to take this challenge. I want to read these books, implement ideas, try new things, blog about it - perhaps correspond with the author? Sure! Sign me up. And then...the holidays. And then....randomly, suddenly and unexpectedly w...

I've been getting a little carried away on Pinterest looking at all the fabulous ideas for school lunches (amongst other things...of course). I am totally hooked on the BENTO style of packing lunches! I have to admit, I didn't know what it was & had to look it up on Wikipedia but there ya go. You learn something new every day. Basically it's a style/concept from Japan about takeaway food or packed lunches that are in one container, look aesthetically pleasing and well...you can read the rest . I love the concept of a) no waste...no plastic bags or things to throw away (although I have purchased fruit cups for Dahlia. I would gladly reuse them, but she keeps throwing them away!) and b) making lunch a little *fun* or *cute* for my sweet girl. I LOVE making her lunches. I love tucking a surprise or two in there. Granted, we've only just completed day 5 so I'll let you know if the passion still exists in April. Most of the Bentos I've seen online are WAY way...

On my first visit to the WIC office last month they let me know about a new program in Duluth called ' Ruby's Pantry . Its a food share program. You pay $15 and get over $100 in groceries. There are no income guidelines. Everyone is welcome. This was the 2nd time it was offered in Duluth. Last month they had 400 people. This month there were expecting between 700-800. I decided to check it out. The road in front of the church was backed waaaay up. I ended up parking quite a ways away & grabbed by empty 'Click-n-Go' stroller (they tell you to bring totes, laundry baskets, boxes, etc. There was a huge line when I got there & I waited outside (it was chilly!) for probably an hour. It was interesting though to chat with the others in line & find out how they'd heard about it, etc. Finally moved inside. Paid my $15 & waited. (This is why I have a book with me at all times...). It was probably another 45 minutes or so but I didn't mind. Once your numbe...

So I've been corresponding quite a bit with Steve's cousin's wife Michelle (hi Michelle!) via Facebook lately. We have children of similar ages & she's about to have her 2nd baby in June...so we have a fair amount in common right there. Plus I think she's smart & funny & cool & I enjoy getting to know her more (okay, now I sound like a complete weirdo but, ah well...most of you probably knew that already). Anyway -a couple weeks ago she said that she & David would like to have dinner brought in for us so our sleep-deprived brains could take a night off - at least from cooking! What they delivered was amazing! First of all, they managed to find one of our favorite local restaurants - At Sara's Table/Chester Creek Cafe. The menu was incredible... We had: Some delicious garlicky mushrooms & smoked salmon with veggies as an appetizer. Two entrees - a lamb/bison burger with sweet potato fries (super yum)... ...Roaster duck with some shredded...

Being of primarily German & Swedish descent in our household, one might find it strange for us to celebrate St. Patrick's Day - BUT - really, I'm just looking for any kind of excuse to make an ordinary day of the week into something special. I love 'special' days, always have - and I'm excited to do fun special things with & for my family. We had guests, thankfully, help us consume the rather large corned beef brisket I purchased (it was the smallest I could find) & I put my new crockpot to good use. Onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, cabbage and of course the meat. All making my house smell delicious while I was away at work! I love the crockpot! For dessert the pistachio "Watergate" recipe...Light, fluffy & most importantly, green. Miss Dahlia LOVED being the center of attention & put on quite a show during & after dinner. She was also remarkably well behaved...even though she had a bath & went to bed LATE. Needless to say I *...

The corned beef, cabbage & potatoes have been cooking all day in the crock pot. The beer bread is being mixed up. The pistachio cake is baking & the frosting is setting up. Photos tomorrow! :)

New meal plan over here . The idea is to go to the grocery store only every other week instead of EVERY week because inevitably I spend more money when I go to the store weekly...and that has to stop. I read somewhere, sometime...(great reference, huh?) that if you plan meals for 2 weeks you can cut your grocery bill by something like 40-50%! I don't know if that's true, but it's worth a try. It also suggested eating fresh veggies & produce the first week, and frozen or canned the 2nd week...that way you're not tempted to run to the store when you run out of something 'fresh.' You still have options! Of course we'll need to make pit stops for things like lunchmeat & milk but other than that I'm going to really try to stick to this plan. We'll see how it goes.

I have been eating solidly for 3 days straight. It's great. I do not seem to get full. Well, and if I DO get full, within 30-45 minutes I'm ready for more! Turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, sweet potatoes, rolls, pie, leftovers, pizza, popcorn, more leftovers, ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, salads, more pie, more leftovers - I'm in heaven! And very thankful for no gestational diabetes (at least not yet!)

Okay - I just ate an entire can of chicken noodle soup, some kettle chips, a bunch of baby carrots and a corn muffin and I'm absolutely still hungry. As in I feel WEAK with hunger. Now I'm going to eat a banana & a pudding cup to see if that sates me...if not I will move on to dry-roasted peanuts with candy corn..hmmm...I may have that anyway!

At least they do when the dinner is catered by this place . (they also have an awesome wine list - check it out sometime!!)

Well, I finally did it. I started that food/recipe blog. I needed to make a list of all the recipes we eat on a regular basis, was considering doing that in excel, and then when Anonymous suggested a food blog, it all clicked. I can have all my favorite recipes in one place. That way when Steve and I are disgruntled about dinner, at least we have a list we can consult. So I present to you: What's Carrie Cooking? Soon to be filled with more recipes for main courses, beverages, desserts, etc...but I'm just getting started so don't be too harsh on me yet. If I use a recipe you've posted on your site, I will credit you. If I don't, please let me know so I can rectify the situation! Bon Appetit!

I've done pretty good this week on the whole cooking front - at least that's something. I'm trying to make things that have a lot of leftovers that freeze well so I can stock my freezer up for the following weeks. I have a feeling that I won't feel much like cooking then. So we've had chili, creamy italian chicken (not so much for the freezing), lasagna and tonight split pea soup. I'm thinking of turkey meat loaf for tomorrow and then I'm trying to convince Steve to take me on a date (pizza & a movie) on Saturday. And then another week starts and I have to think of new things again. *sigh* Sometimes it is tough - especially when I can't resort to my early-20's when "white rice" or "noodles" was sufficient to call a MEAL.

I made chicken curry last night for dinner. Steve had been requesting it so I finally acquiesed. I'm not a huge curry fan (I'm more of a bland girl) but decided to give it a shot. I used a crock pot recipe. It turned out - okay. It had sweet potatoes in it which I really liked but Steve didn't care for. He really liked the chicken, but I thought it was dry and too spicy (figures). There was also not much sauce...and when I tried to make more (ala water & corn starch) it got too corn starchy and had that icky texture. Then Steve re-heated & added more water to make it more saucy and less starchy but then it lost it's "good" flavor. I think we were both kind of 'eh' about it. I do love jasmine rice and probably ate too much (even though I only had 2 1/2 cup servings which fit into my meal for the night). I ended up way over on my BG levels which leads me to believe I will be on insulin before dinner before too long. *sigh* And I smelled like curr...

Although I'm not a SUPER huge fan of Jello I don't mind it and thank god for that because it's about the only sweet thing I can eat with wild abandon. No, it IS the only sweet thing I can eat with wild abandon. I am averaging about a box a day right now. Sad, but true. Unfortunately they don't make the 0g carb sugar-free Jello in as many flavors as they do with the regular but ah well. At this point I will take what I can get! I also picked up a few boxes of different flavors as sugar-free pudding. Although the puddings contain a few carbs, every once in a while you've just got to mix things up a bit. In other news, I went to the OB today and it looks like I'll be going every week now (w/ultrasound) until Baby B comes! Yay! More doctor's appointments! My OB also said that if we get the blood sugar numbers under control, we won't go past 39 weeks (!) (crap that's only 7 weeks away!) and if we DON't get the numbers under control, I'll be induce...

I just ate a bowl of oatmeal (27g of carbs) for my before bed snack and I'm STILL hungry. Hmph.

Does anyone have any donut holes? Seriously....