Memorial Day and a New Challenge

Happy Memorial Day.

"They gave their tomorrows for our todays"  -- the quote on our float today.  One day a year is not often enough to remember the sacrifices made so we can live in freedom. 

 The goslings and I walked with our Christian school's float in the local parade.  Lovely time.  Hot.  Sunny.  Good company.  Candy...which I did not eat!

My "10 days of real food" eating challenge went very well.  I finished that a week or so ago and then took a few days "off" before beginning the biggie...100 days of real food.  Ack!  What have I done?!  Actually, it's going well so far, three days in, and I am enjoying the renewed commitment to eating healthier.

Today has been an interesting eating day, one of many that I am sure to come across between now and September 3rd-ish (97 days (or so) away and coincidentally my daughter's 11th birthday).  I packed myself almonds and dried fruit to eat for a light lunch but come lunch time...it was not very appealing.  Thankfully, we were at my dear sister's apartment and she had some plain Greek yogurt, maple syrup, and fresh fruit!  Yum!!  So refreshing.  Thanks, L.

I am looking forward to the challenges ahead...birthday parties, the Fourth, Goodies', camping.

I am also planning to make a few recipes for things I love that I want to eat, such as Barbecue Sauce!  Just have to make it myself so I can control the ingredients.  Also hoping to try making yogurt cheese so I can make a fantastic herb-garlic spread to enjoy with veggies. 

A normal day tomorrow, hooray, life has been extremely busy lately.....only four and a half more days til the goslings are set free for the summer!!   Crazy!! 
 

"10 Days of Real Food"

I was recently directed to check out a website called "100 Days of Real Food". (Thanks, Erin!!) I have since spent a fair amount of time on the site, reading recipes and posts.   In short, a family of four made a pledge to stop eating processed foods for 100 days.  This website tells their story and then goes on to offer lots more info and resources and also issues a challenge to take a 10 day pledge to eat only real food.

I took the pledge and am currently on day 5.  It has gone well.  My eating was already fairly cleaned up thanks to my visits with Kim and her encouragement to eat better.  So this was not a huge leap.  There have been a few things that I have said no to and also a recipe or two that I have laid aside for now.

I am leaning towards taking a 100 day pledge, I think that would present more of a challenge as that would take me through a number of holidays; Memorial Day, the Fourth, two family birthdays and some camping. (Kell - I will find a way to make "clean" hobo pies!!)  I really want clean-er eating to become normal, not just something I dabble in from time to time and I believe this pledge would really help cement that. 

As I keep playing with recipes I am finding that maple syrup really does an excellent job of sweetening things without changing the flavor drastically.  Yesterday and today I have been playing with chocolate no-bakes and have been really pleased with the results of making them with syrup instead of sugar!  Yum!

And strawberry rhubarb crisp with maple whipped cream ..... fantastic!!!   Can't wait to make it again, even my husband loved it!  I want to attempt to modify our favorite rhubarb pie recipe, but I'm not sure I am brave enough yet!

On a side note, I am reading an excellent book right now, "Gray Matter" by David Levy, MD and Joel Kirkpatrick.  If you can get your hands on it, read it! 

Experiments in Clean Cooking

Cooking clean.  My latest interest.  Simply stated it means cooking with ingredients that are natural, not processed.  Fruits, veggies, whole grains, natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. 

The biggest hurdle for me has been not using white (or brown) sugar and white flour.  These have been staples in our house for so long!  I love to bake and would use up copious amounts of both.  So to find and create and enjoy recipes that use neither has been a fun challenge.  

Here are a few of my latest experiments:

Coconut Balls

These little balls are so yummy!  And so simple.  I changed the recipe a bit, using some oat flour (ground up oats) to replace some of the ground almonds.  No baking, just toss the ingredients together and form into little balls.  Easy!


Date Squares

After doing some searching online I didn't quite find a recipe I wanted to try, so I made up my own.  These squares are not baked.  The date filling is cooked but the crumbly mixture is raw.
I loved the crumb part but the date filling was very bland.  I need to experiment a little more to give it some tang to balance out the sweet crumb part.  I remember my mom's date squares being quite tasty and these just didn't quite measure up.  I think she cooked her dates in orange juice....
The crumb mixture was oat flour, oats, a little unsweetened coconut, maple syrup and coconut oil.  And a pinch of salt.

my snack corner

I just invested in these cute glass containers (thanks for the idea, Kim!) and filled them with healthy snacks.  The kids love the pistachios and trail mix!  

Today's project was Clean Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  No pictures because it is all gone already!  The filling recipe came from here, and I made up the crisp part.    The filling smelled fantastic as it cooked but was super-duper tart!  So I added a little maple syrup which sweetened it nicely without changing the flavor.
The crisp was similar to the crumbly mixture in the date squares.  But I wasn't completely wild about it.  So I will have to fiddle with it a little more.  I did bake it and it was a tasty, warm treat!! 

I want to try out some recipes with quinoa and wheat berries soon, I'll let you know how that goes.