Morning Mush

Even during the darkest times in my quest to feed my Music Man, he usually was a champion breakfast eater. This never shocked me since he would barely eat anything for lunch or dinner. My best shot at getting quality food into his belly was when he woke up starving. He absolutely LOVED oatmeal and millet. I would cook up both of these grains in huge batches and add bananas, cinnamon, peanut butter, honey, and milk. Some mornings he would inhale three huge bowls. On the weekend the Hubs would keep track and some Saturdays our Music Man ate more than his 200 lb dad!

So when I decided to remove all grains from our diet, I was nervous about breakfast. But I can honestly say, it really hasn't been an issue. For awhile, my little guy was totally content eating grain-free pancakes, sausage, bacon and just recently he's been digging scrambled eggs. But I always felt a little bad taking away his beloved "porridge" type meal so I went searching for an alternative. What I'm about to describe down here may sound odd and like it has 4 too many ingredients, but I promise it actually tastes good. And my son eats it by the bowlfuls a few times a week.

I found two recipes through Paleo sites and cookbooks for grain-free porridges. I basically combined the two and then added a few other ingredients to make my own. We'll call this:

Music Man's Morning Mush!

Ok, so you start with an almond meal based porridge that I got from Paleo Parents. I forget the exact recipe but I think it's pretty close to this:

3 cups almond meal

3 cups water

2 T cinnamon

2 apples (grated)

Mix all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Set on LOW for about 6 hours, or until a porridge consistency is created.

This is the base for the Morning Mush. Put a few big scoops into a saucepan. To this add:

1/4 c shredded coconut

2 T almond butter

a few splashes of coconut milk or raw milk

a few sprinkles of cinnamon

spoonful of honey (optional)

Mix together over low heat and you've got a coconutty porridge that my little guy loves!

But that's not all! So one aspect of the Paleo diet I am very conscious about is just how many carbs my kids are getting. I clearly don't limit this at all for growing kids, so I am always looking for ways to get high carb root vegetables into their bellies. To this porridge I add a huge scoop of either mashed up butternut squash or sweet potato. If I don't have any on hand, I use the butternut squash or sweet potato pouches put out by Plum Organics.

And then there's one last ingredient. I know, it's sounding ridiculous but all the flavors blend together. Sometimes the Music Man needs a little motivation with his meals. And breakfast is no longer the exception since he's actually eating lunch and dinner now so he's not always starving first thing in the morning. He likes to "find" bananas in his porridge so we cut up some bananas, stir them in, and he happily searches for them while he eats up his mush.

So with this breakfast you get:

FAT - almond butter, coconut

PROTEIN - almond butter, coconut

CARBS - apples, bananas, squash/sweet potato

FIBER - apples, bananas

Add a scrambled egg to this for an extra punch of protein and I promise this will fill your little one's bellies for the morning!

Finding Motivation in a Closet

There's something about going into your closet and trying on clothes that gives you a bit of motivation to take better care of yourself! I have a bunch of weddings and a few trips coming up this summer that require clothes a notch above my normal shorts and T-shirt wardrobe. So last week I rummaged through the closet and took out some old dresses. I really try not to get too caught up in my image and to love myself at whatever size I am, but it is difficult. Especially when you have fairly recent memories of yourself looking a lot different in a particular piece of clothing. 

I do believe good food is the backbone of a health, but I can't dismiss the importance of exercise. Flexibility, strength and a good metabolism are very important tools to a long, enjoyable life. This past week I have started working on getting my butt moving. Nothing hard-core (I have some issues with my knee and hips that I will some day write about) but I am getting out for 25-30 minute walks. I take them at a fairly brisk pace and oh my goodness I am out of shape. It's amazing what happens when you essentially take two years off from any cardiovascular activity. I also popped a Pilates DVD in for the first time and am actively trying to get a few yoga stretches in every day. The key is consistency. I am trying to not get too wrapped up in my progress or just how well I am doing things. I'm aiming to do something as often as I possibly can. Small goals, baby steps.

It's amazing how much I miss the simple act of moving around and using my body. My entire childhood and all through my teens and early 20s I was an athlete. This was a huge part of my identity and I don't think i ever really appreciated or understood that until a few years back. In 2006 I realized something was missing from my life so I started road races. I absolutely LOVED them. I worked up to running a half marathon and was amazed how much happier I was in my life and thoroughly enjoyed this new sense of purpose. Then I started having some troubles with my knee and soon after I started a family and that part of my life went missing yet again. As I walked yesterday morning watching the sun rise, I felt joy that I haven't felt in a really long time. It felt like saying hello to an old friend.

Birthday Brunch Menu

This past weekend was a big one in the Smith household. My Music Man turned 3 years old yesterday and my Peanut turns 1 tomorrow so we had a joint birthday celebration. I decided to take on the exhausting task of cooking all of the food for a birthday brunch. While I love cooking and sharing my Paleo-inspired dishes with friends, I will not lie and say I enjoy cooking non-stop for three days! This was not the original plan, but the hefty back spasm I endured last weekend threw a wrench in my preparation plans and so I was pulling the graveyard shift on Thursday and Friday getting everything accomplished.

But I pulled it off! Here was my menu:

Sausage, Mushroom and Egg Casserole (I used raw milk in place of the cottage cheese and did use some shredded cheese so this was my one non-Paleo dish)

French Toast Bread Pudding (I made this for Easter as well…I think it will become a staple in our house for holiday breakfast/brunch meals because the Hubs is a BIG fan)

Zucchini Banana Muffins

Pulled Pork with "home-made" BBQ Sauce

Grilled Veggies 

Fruit Salad

And for dessert I made two cupcakes with two home-made icings:

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

"Reese's" Cupcakes

All in all I think everyone enjoyed the food. And I made WAY too much but most of the food can be easily frozen so we'll have these tasty dishes to enjoy the next time I'm entertaining during the morning hours.

My back is feeling better, thanks in large part to my craniosacral therapist. I'll have to write about this alternative therapy another time because I'm sure most reading this don't even know what craniosacral is! 

Hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day weekend!

Planning, prepping, cooking, cleaning...

I wanted to write a post yesterday about my preparations for my Paleo-inspired birthday brunch but there just isn't any time! Plus, the forecast is calling for rain tomorrow which is putting a major snag in my plans. Will post later this weekend about the menu and all things birthday. Hopefully everything turns out OK! And if it doesn't, whatever!

Mama's Health is #1

As a mother, you learn right away about sacrifice and putting others in front of you. From the moment you get a positive pregnancy your choices impact another person, and the impact on them becomes far more important than the impact on you. You change your diet, lifestyle choices, clothing and schedule your entire world around doctor's appointments and your due date.

Then the baby arrives and now ALL of your choices are about someone else. When you sleep, when you eat (if you're nursing, what you eat), when you go to the bathroom, when you sit down, when you stand up...all of this is first run by the baby, and he or she dictates the consequences you will face if you choose yourself. Don't feel like wearing your baby in a wrap while you pop a squat? That's fine, but you very well could hear a screaming child while you're in there, or worse yet, wake a sleeping child. And depending on how well your past 24 hours have gone (or even 24 minutes), you'd be surprised how often you will pick having your baby up in your grill while you reach for the toilet paper.

Now all of this obviously gets better as the baby grows and gains more independence. But even with young children our choices as parents have consequences. Altering the day so that your child misses a nap, or deciding to relax and take some time for yourself during nap time instead of preparing dinner. There is a give and take that never seems to end (at least for this mother of an almost 3 and 1 year old!).

So whenever I would hear people saying I had to take care of myself because my health is the most important thing for our household, I sort of shrugged my shoulders and said that was impossible. I do my best to eat well, but that's mostly because I take the same time to prepare my kids food and I think it's a cornerstone of my work as mother. But exercise? Stretching? A massage?!?!?! Yeah, right. When was I to fit that into my schedule? Was I going to take the fifteen minutes in the morning to do a couple of yoga sequences or use that time to get breakfast ready so that I wasn't trying to do that when the kids were up and the Peanut was hanging on my leg and the Music Man was screaming from the breakfast table for his porridge. Am I going to do some stretching and ab work during nap, instead of preparing dinner, doing laundry or just sitting on the couch relishing in the quiet and staring at a wall?

These choices seemed simple to me for quite some time. But in my sleep deprivation and overwhelmed state, I had forgotten something that happened to me two years ago. I threw my back out when the Music Man was about 9 months old. I've always had lower back problems. My lower vertebrate are close together, my right hip is slightly higher than my left, my pelvis is slightly tilted, I have a natural sway back and the entire region from my hamstrings to my shoulders is so tight that anytime someone has tried to give me a massage they just touch me and say, "Whoa, stressed much?" So add a pregnancy and a 20 pound baby that I lug around 24/7 and you've got a mother collapsed on the floor unable to move. And I was laid up for a solid week, and couldn't do much for an addition week or two. I swore that when that happened I would take better care of myself, and I did for a bit. But then I got pregnant again and my choices went right back to being the baby's choices.

Until this past Saturday. The Peanut was crawling up the stairs and I leaned over to pick her up and BAM, back in major spasm again. Luckily the Hubs was home and could come retrieve my precious cargo. It took me about 5 minutes to make my way down the four steps, another 10 to get myself on my back and I spent the next hour on my back on the floor below my steps. Just horrible.

So the lesson here is that even though I didn't think I had 20 minutes a day to devote to myself, I have to find them. Because it's either 20 minutes a day helping my body, or it's days not being able to do anything for anyone. I've got to find some time to carve out for myself and let some other things slide. But not good food! Maybe we'll just all have to wear our clothes twice (shouldn't be an issue during the Charlotte summers that average about 90 degrees a day) or stop vacuuming the dog's hairs off the carpet, or stop watching so much Bravo. Hmmm....I feel like one of these is the obvious choice but I'm having a hard time seeing it.

My back is nowhere as bad as it was last time, thank goodness. But I've brought in some extra help today and tomorrow to let me rest. And I'm also in the midst or planning the kids' birthday party for this weekend. I'm cooking a Paleo-inspired brunch. I'll post the recipes throughout the week and let you know how it goes!

Picky Peanut

When you become a mother, you learn about this interesting phenomena. I've been trying to come up with a catchy phrase to define it the past 3 years but still haven't found something that sticks. But basically, when you become a mother your child(ren) seem to always know just how far to push you before you snap. They also can feel when you think you're actually figuring out motherhood and start to believe you can handle it all. Then they take you down a few notches to remind you of who is really in charge.

When my son was young, I joke how he used to read my mind. At first, after a few days of good naps and some predictable behavior, I would find myself on the phone with someone saying, "Things are actually going good. I think I'm finally setting into a nice routine with him. I can do this." The second the words came out of my mouth...BAM! Early morning wake ups, screaming through naps, cranky for no reason whatsoever, needing to be held constantly, and a whole slew of unpredictable, exhausting behaviors would knock me over for a few days. But again, I would fall into the same trap. After another "easy" period I'd utter those words, "I got this" and the whole charade would happen again. It got so eerie that I couldn't even THINK I had it under control, he seriously read my mind!

Then my daughter was born and it's unbelievable but I swear the two of them immediately started to communicate with each other. Even when she was just 6 weeks old and the only thing she could do was barely hold her own head up, they somehow knew when to crack the whip. Now for the two of them to be a mess simultaneously, well that would just be cruel. So they take turns. Maybe my son has a rough week and really needs my attention, well then the Peanut will be good as gold. Then Music Man will start calming down and be really cooperative, and I'd get a half day of two well-behaved, somewhat predictable, happy kids and think to myself "I think I've got this...?" and BOOM, Peanut will stop napping well and I have to attend to her needs for a week.

So it comes as no shock to me that as I finally start to figure out the Music Man and his eating habits that my normally fantastic eating Peanut would begin throwing her food, eating nothing but blueberries, and screaming at me throughout meals. Last weekend I was feeling like Mom of the Year as I watched my son eat fish, carrots, avocado and some beets for dinner. And with that meal, his sister started refusing everything.

Now the difference this time around is that I'm not stressing. I know she'll eat eventually, and I am not jumping through hoops of fire to appease her. She seems to want to eat while she is crawling around (I experimented and put the same pancake she had rejected in her high chair on my coffee table and she gobbled it up faster than my dog could have). She also demands to have a spoon and/or plate on her tray so she can eat the food off of something (or just have another item to chuck). Basically, she's getting opinionated but I'm not gonna let her get to me! I know she'll eat eventually, it's just a matter of time.

And with that final sentence, she is up a solid 45 minutes early from her nap. Her brother is at school so they clearly sent signals and decided I'm getting too comfortable with my 90 minute break for the week...

Real Food on a Budget

I think one of the biggest reasons people avoid eating good, real food is that it is too expensive.

Food is expensive, that is a fact and I totally understand how someone on a budget (basically all of us!) has a tough time spending that extra couple of dollars for organic produce, or an extra few dollars for the best meat or dairy in the store. But hopefully, you understand the long-term benefits of eating healthier. Less trips to the doctor, a happier mood, and spending less money buying clothes that fit you as your weight constantly fluctuates are just a few realities I look at when weighing where I spend my dollar.

And good, whole food doesn't have to be super expensive. Hopefully I can shed some light onto how to soften the hit your wallet takes at the register.

Tip #1: Purchase cheap cuts of meat.

A "lower quality" cut does not mean lower quality meat. You can get some really high quality meat for a lot cheaper if you opt for less fancy cuts. Instead of spending an arm and a leg on a filet from a local farm, buy the ground beef. Instead of individually packaged organic chicken breasts, buy the whole chicken. Better yet, get some beef jerky to snack on or have at lunchtime with some veggies. It has all the nutrients of beef at a fraction of the cost.

I have recently stumbled upon the chicken thigh as my new go-to option for dinner. Chicken thighs are so much cheaper than breasts. Plus, the thigh has so much more flavor!

I bought some bone-in chicken thighs from U.S. Wellness Meats and cooked them last night. They were absolutely delicious, and super simple. Here's the recipe I used:

Mustard Glazed Chicken Thighs

Simple and delicious. And the nice thing about the bone-in thighs is that you can use the bones to make homemade chicken stock (yet another way to help your budget!). And when you buy your meat from a really great place like U.S.Wellness, you don't have to waste so much time trimming all of the thigh fat (which was one reason why I used to steer away from thighs...too much prep work). The bone-in thighs had plenty of meat and I did nothing to prepare them. I just put them on a baking sheet covered with foil and brushed them with the mustard glaze. The whole family approved!

Do a little price comparing and see what the real difference is when you use the cheaper cuts of meat. If it's only a buck or two, it may be worth your while to make the switch.