Final CFC Thoughts

It's officially over, and I officially did it.  Because I spent all of Monday feeling like I'd accomplished the task, I did find myself licking the jelly knife and even made my tempeh stew, which had about 1/2 cup of flour in a large saucepot.  I use a modified beef stew recipe: start with the onions, celery, and garlic (sautee until transparent), then add the tempeh (brown slightly then flour and a splash of water to the mixture), before the stock, potatoes and turnip (simmer for about an hour).  I thought about making the stew with no flour, but it was really unappealing.  Admittedly, when I woke up from sleeping with Lucy at 2 am, I also had an oreo and a handful of doritos.  It wasn't the fabulous feeling I'd hoped to get from the snacks ... perhaps I should have had a beer instead?

I never achieved sparkly, but held steady at five pounds lighter than my pre-CFC self, so I'm certainly not complaining.  And as I told a friend tonight, sparkly feelings aside, this challenge really opened my eyes to how much I eat in any day that is unnecessary, snacking, empty calorie type of food.  I wasn't able to have a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast here, a slice of bread and butter there, finish whatever Lucy left on her plate, or grab a granola bar between meals.  It also left me actually hungry, something I don't usually allow myself to get, snacking during the day so much.  As I was explaining all this to Stacy, I noticed some batter from the chocolate cake we baked for our neighbor's birthday on the door of the microwave and licked it off.  That was not clean on so many levels.

My new post-CFC me has grocery shopped with a new benevolence, turning past aisles of dirty food and opting to continue some of my new, healthy habits.  As I scarf the leftover frozen pizza from Lucy's dinner the other night while writing this at two am (what?  I'm hungry - dinner was almost 7 hours ago!), we'll see how long the benevolence lasts.  I certainly didn't eat clean today, but I didn't go on a dirty binge either.  Eric thinks I'll bounce those five pounds right back on, so I'll once again be working hard to prove him wrong, even if it means a little self-sacrifice.  Thanks to Emilie at One Mom in Maine and to Joanna at the High Raw Nourished Kitchen as well as to my friends and family who cheered me on and the other Emilie-inspired CFC bloggers who provided comic relief and great recipes.  And who knows?  This is Emilie's second Clean Food Challenge - maybe some of my friends (you know who you are!) will join me for her third ....

I'll leave you with a picture of our decidedly not-clean chocolate cake that I barely sampled (but from the photo you can probably guess who licked the bowl):

CFC day 6

Tonight, I stared down a frozen pizza and won.  Though day four was the hump day in time, today was the hump day in feeling.  I didn't wake up starving and haven't had the general feeling of dissatisfaction all day either.  In fact, I felt pretty good with the food I had (though I did almost grab a gooey lump of cheese off the pan while serving slices to Lucy).  I've also lost about five pounds, so I'll take skinny without sparkly. 

This morning I only had about 3/4 cup of oatmeal left, so I decided to use it to make a sort of cobbler.  I used apples, peaches, and frozen blueberries mixed with maple syrup.  I mixed the oatmeal with a couple of tablespoons of oil, which was inadequate.  If I were to do this again with no butter and brown sugar, I'd probably pre-cook the oatmeal and mix it with honey to achieve a better topping.  Out of the oven the oatmeal was still dry, not at all crispy or cobbler-y.  After cooking, there was enough liquid at the bottom of the pan between the syrup and blueberries that I just mixed it all together and it turned out pretty good.

 

In fact, this is what fed me most of the day, I ate a little more than half of it for breakfast and my first lunch.  Around two I had some leftover rice and dal, and was finally going to get around to making dinner for myself (the black bean and quinoa salad everyone's been raving about) after seven.  It was a really good salad, though could probably have reached the phenomenal mark if I had all of the ingredients.  No green peppers, no chiles, no corriander, and I used one juiced fresh lemon with a couple of tablespoons of the lime juice from a plastic lime, which got a little overpowering.  Oh yeah, and balsamic instead of red wine vinegar.  I'll have to try it again in the future when I actually buy everything to make it, but it was good enough as stands that I brought a tupperware full over to my neighbors.

What I really like about this CFC is the way it has forced me back into actually preparing food, rather than just grabbing whatever's quickest.  The quick options are definitely NOT on the CFC food-approved list.  With two little ones, it's not always easy to cook, but Lucy can be self-sustaining for at least half an hour and Jamie is just so agreeable, that he often hangs out in the baby rocker in the kitchen watching me do dishes or cook.  About a month ago, I heated an afternoon cup of coffee in the microwave, and when it beeped, Lucy looked up at me and said "dinner's ready?"  Whoops.  From boiling lentils, to scraping corn off the cob for the quinoa salad tonight, I've re-invigorated by culinary inclinations.

Clean Me!

Five down, two to go, and though Emilie suggested the clean food participants do a hard workout for maximum sparkle, I'm passing.  The last hard workout I did was in July; I do plan on working out again someday, but not today.  I spent the day with an awful, yucky belly.  Rolling waves of nausea, cramps, and they only time it felt okay was when it was empty.  I didn't eat much, and didn't even come close the gallon of water, but I did make these cabbage rolls with tempeh and diced tomatoes.

The cabbage rolls started with sauteed onions and garlic.  To that I added diced tempeh and diced tomatoes and simmered it for 20 minutes or so, pureeing with an immersion blender.  I mixed it with some cooked brown rice and rolled it up in cabbage leaves (some saved for the top for baking).  I had to call mom for advice on the cabbage leaves, and she said she boils the head until they're partly cooked and easier to peel away.  Worked like a charm.

The yucky belly ... A fluke?  Weird coincidence?  Or should I take this as a sign that I'm meant to live as a cupcake-gobbling, cheese-eating, wine-drinking woman?

In other news, my beautiful baby boy is 3 months old today!

Over the Hump!

So, four days of clean eating, and I am more than half way through this Clean Food Challenge movement started by Emilie at One Mom in Maine.  As I spent today thinking I was just three days in, it was a pleasant surprise when I counted from Tuesday.  Thankfully, it appears that the CFC will not kill me, as I originally thought.  I did, however, still have several moments today where I felt as though I might keel over from hunger.  I also spent the day with a general feeling of dissatisfaction, need to munch, lack of .... something.  Admittedly, I'm a snacker.  As a teenager at home, my parents used to tease me by mooing at me every time I opened the fridge or a cabinet.  (To be fair to my mother, it might have only been my dad that actually did the mooing.) I think I'm missing my gluten - bread, tortillas, animal crackers, etc.  I'm also missing butter.  I love butter.  I feel a little bit like my dog, who also suffers from a general feeling of dissatisfaction with life.  As I write this, she has whined extra dog treats out of me and is now flipping her dog dish around in the kitchen like Snoopy.

 

Maybe Shorty was worn out from her backyard fun today?  We did spend about 20 minutes outside in the sunshine hiding from pretend monsters under our umbrellas.  I might not look like a lot of work but being a prop in an intense imagination game is emotionally draining.

Anyway, I'm hungry and I shouldn't be.  I had a breakfast of oatmeal with strawberries and maple syrup.  Lunch was rice and beans with homemade salsa.  Dinner was a cookout with my neighbors, for which I made the stuffed squash.  (I didn't make it last night because what I thought was a squash in my cabinet was a turnip.)  It came out pretty good, though it would have been helped by a couple of spoonfuls of butter.  Because I changed the recipe from breadcrumb topping to quinoa, I mixed the quinoa with olive oil and honey to give it a little more flavor and help it crisp better under the broiler.  Since I made a boatload of quinoa, I'm looking forward to trying out the lentil salad recipe from www.cookingquinoa.net

My favorite raw mama, Joanna, made a green salad and a delicious lemon/limeade, sweetened with .... coconut milk?  It was just what I needed.  I passed on the minimally processed veggie burger and french fries she and hubby Matt cooked, but did have a 2nd dinner at around nine of napa cabbage and bok choy with soy sauce over basmati.  And another rice cake.  They're actually starting to taste good, with that unsalted almond butter.  I just couldn't take any more fruit - I've had strawberries, a banana, a pear, an apple, and a peach today.  Plus rice cakes and nuts.  And all I see on tv are commercials for pizza.

Is This Clean Food?

Lucy gave Jamie a bottle today (sort of).  She wasn't very good at keeping it at an angle he could suck, and then got bored and dumped him after about 5 minutes, but what can you expect from someone who's under 3?  As I've been reading and thinking about the ingredients of everything since signing on to the CFC, I made the mistake of re-reading what's actually in baby formula, galactooligosaccharides and all.  I wouldn't touch this stuff with a 10-foot pole, and on top of that it smells awful.  However, after making the fatal error of not being consistent enough with a bottle with Lucy, then going back to work where at the sitter she NEVER took a bottle (sorry Kimmie) .... I won't make that mistake again. 

In other news, I'm two days in to the CFC, and I know, I know, Emilie, sparkly doesn't come for a while.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty much the exact opposite of sparkly.  I feel sick and yucky.  I'm basically a sugar-free, gluten-free vegan, and thinking back to my vegan days (definitely NOT sugar or gluten-free), they weren't great-feeling days at the end, either.  I haven't yet eaten anything that's on the no-no list, but unless something changes, I might have to before the week's over.  I even had a good friend ask, "Are you ok?  You don't look like you feel well."  Sometimes people say that when I forget to put some make-up on, but yesterday that wasn't the case.  My neighbors think it's just a total sugar crash (I'm known to inundate them with baked goods) and say it should get better after the first two days.  It certainly isn't because I'm not eating enough.  Yesterday I had a pile of snacks first thing in the morning, banana, nuts, rice cake with almond butter, a big bowl of oatmeal with strawberries and honey for breakfast, soup for lunch, and a huge salad plus brown rice and dal for dinner.  Then an apple, strawberries, more nuts, another rice cake with almond butter for snacks.  Today, I think I'm going to try to do baked tempeh with sweet potatoes and onions (a recipe from Maria) and stuffed squash (from Joanna).

Stuffed Squash:

     2+ lb butternut squash, baked and scooped
     about 3 T. oil
     8 scallions, minced
     3 garlic cloves, minced
     1/2 T. minced ginger
     salt and pepper to taste.
     1/2 C. breadcrumbs (I'll be substituting quinoa)

Sautee scallions, garlic and ginger.
Mix squash flesh well until it's chunky.  Add scallion mixture.
Place in baking dish.
Lightly mix breadcrumbs (or quinoa) with oil and top squash mix.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, broil to brown top if necessary.

Not sure how this is going to turn out with the quinoa, so we'll see.  Also, my kale chips were the pits.  I followed a recipe I found on the internet and they were awful.  I couldn't decide if I screwed them up or if it was simply an acquired taste.  My neighbors tried them and said not only did it seem I did something wrong, but the kale had a strong broccoli taste too.  So, no salty chip-like snacks for me.  Today, I am going to make a hummus in which I will dip .... carrot sticks?  Bean city.

CFC day 1

This is my white bean and kale soup; it turned out really well.  Instead of pureeing a batch of beans and broth to thicken the soup I used my immersion blender to kind of puree up the whole thing.  This made the kale a little less kale-y and easier to chew.  Also, if anyone is expecting a tomato kick, I'd add more. 

Day one of my clean food challenge is done, though I'm waiting for sparkly.  Oatmeal for breakfast (forgot how much I really don't like oatmeal), salad, soup, plenty of fruit, some rice cakes with almond butter, and some nuts.  I was doing fine until about 2 hours after I ate the soup for dinner when I got ravenously hungry, something that happens to me on a pretty regular basis.  So I made a 2nd dinner of brown rice, black beans, and homemade salsa.  Better.  I came pretty close to the gallon of water.

Planning on making a Indian Lentil Puree (Dal) tomorrow.  Going to try my hand at some lentils.  And I've got to make some kale chips for snacking.  Everyone says they're actually good.

Good Clean Fun

So, I'm taking on a new challenge - a Clean Food Challenge, to be specific.  It lasts just one week, and is organized by a friend and former colleague, Emilie, who is turning into quite the world-class blogger at One Mom in Maine.  Actually, Emilie was one of the reasons I started this blog, because I so enjoyed reading about her kids and adventures.  It's funny, too, because now I've had friends use terms like "blog-stalking" when talking something I post, which is exactly how I used to feel about reading her blog.  It's odd to talk to someone about something they didn't specifically tell you.  It feels like an intrusion, but as Emilie said to me once: I don't put it on the internet to keep it private.   I digress.

This Clean Food Challenge ...

Rules:    no processed food
              no dairy
              no sugar
              no alcohol
              no gluten
              no meat (no problem!)
              ONLY vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, and fresh pressed juices
              one gallon of water per day (yikes)

Part clean food, part cleanse, and for me no top-form, feeling-good, sparkly reason for joining in.  It's totally selfish: my post-baby weight loss has stalled about 15 lbs up from my pre-pregnancy weight and I'm almost 25 lbs more than I weighed when Lucy was 3 months old.  Normally I'm not much of a weight obsessor, but I don't really fit into my clothes and can't afford a new, larger-sized wardrobe.  Thus, I join in the challenge.

I'm starting tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.  When I explained to my loving husband my plan, he laughed at me, so there is NO WAY I'm letting him have the last word on this one, even if I survive on watermelon and brown rice for the week.  I also have the added incentive this blog - it's public, success or fail.  So I've got to do it, right?  Thankfully, I have a great resource in my neighbor, Joanna Steven, who is a raw-foodie with a ton of recipes, advice, and is even lending me her extra juicer for the week.  And cooking 3 different meals, no problem.  We basically do that anyway!

On the menu to start is a recipe from Joanna:

White Beans and Kale Soup

   1-1/2 t. olive oil
   4 large garlic cloves, minced
   1/2 med onion, chopped
   2 C. raw kale, chopped
   2 C. vegetable broth
   1 can (15 oz) white beans, cannellini or navy, drained
   2 plum tomatoes, chopped
   1 t. dried italian seasoning
   salt and pepper

   Sautee garlic and onion until soft.
   Add kale, stir until wilted.
   Add 1/2 of broth, 1/2 of the beans, tomato, and herbs.  Simmer 5 min.
   In a blender, mix the remaining beans and broth until smooth.  Stir into soup.
   Simmer 15 minutes more.

So I'm interested if anyone wants to weigh in on some questions I have:
    
     Canned foods?  Beans?  Tomatoes?  They're processed, but whole food.
     Vegetable broth?  I suppose I could make my own, but let's get real.
     If my milk is local, organic, and minimally processed, could it be considered clean?
     What about tea for caffeine?  Some are still drinking coffee but no cream? No way.

St. Louis part 2 (Magic House)

In addition to the arch, Ashlynn and Caroline really were talking up the "Magic House" for Lucy.  There was a lot of mention of Alice in Wonderland, but I didn't really have a good idea of what the Magic House was.  Indoor playground?  Kid's cafe?  It turned out to be a huge and amazing children's museum, which was FANTASTIC.  Though the Science Center of Des Moines was fun, it doesn't even begin to compare to this Magic House.

Surprised?  Believe it or not, Jamie did wake up for a few minutes, in which I turned him around in the carrier to get a better look at the events.  I didn't realize he'd gone back to sleep facing out until a woman said "What an adorable sleeping baby!" 

We spent a lot of time in the section for kids under 6, which was just perfect for Lucy.  Fun slides and places to climb, tunnels, interactive art and music, plus sand and water tables (wow!).

 

 

The bubble room.  Admittedly, this is the one display that I liked better at the science center as the kids got to use bubble wands themselves and this was more about how bubbles form, etc.  A & C were in the tube that was supposed to raise a bubble around you, trying to skinny up so the bubble didn't pop on anyone's clothes.  It didn't work but it's always nice to get a hug from your favorite sister.

And the tea room, one of the places we had to see at the Magic House.  It's tucked into an attic nook that's a perfect size for little ones with mirrors, old pictures, and this great little table with the tea set.  Lucy enjoyed her tea party with the girls and put her mouth all over those little cups, yum.  Who doesn't like some pretend tea with a generous helping of germs?

Even baby J got in on the action here with some tea from Ash.

Then on to the electrically charged ball.  I don't think Lucy was quite as unimpressed as she looks here;  Brandy is a great sport.

Some discovery fun before riding the 3-story slide.  I didn't get any good pictures of the girls on the slide - by the time we got there my camera batteries were almost dead, and it was taking so long to snap a picture that I was never going to get a cutie flying down the slide.  It was funny waiting at the bottom for the kids to come down, though, because Lucy would start yelling at the top and I could hear her voice get louder and louder as she wound down toward the end.

The last peek at Goodnight Moon before we left the museum.  Think pink.

And yes, on the way out the door, both Brandy and I found ourselves saying "Stop reading!" to try and get our crew on the move.  What a fabulous day and what a fabulous trip.  We're looking forward to going back to St. Louis really soon, by way of the most direct route this time.  Thanks cousins!

St. Louis part 1 (the arch)

Since we now live so stinking far away from our Maine family and friends, having Missouri cousins a mere 400 miles away seems like it's practically next door.  So this weekend, kids and I hopped in the car and drove to St. Louis.  Unfortunately, we took a bit of a detour (about 80 miles) to see the sights of western Illinois, but we made it.

While there, of course we needed to see the arch.  I didn't really know too much about it, except for having seen all the pictures.  It's one of those thing I had to see, even if it was going to disappoint.  I'm thinking back to Mount Rushmore - we got out of the car and, yup, it looked like Mount Rushmore.  Thankfully, the arch was way more impressive in person than in pictures.  It's was bigger than I thought it would be, and had a great museum to visit underneath.  I also love the equations I came across that represent the structure.  Almost makes me wish I'd kept up on my geometry.  Who am I kidding, really, I didn't get far enough in math to make sense of this.

with the constants



Lu wanted to ride with the big girls.  The last time we saw Ashlynn & Caroline was Thanksgiving.  Lucy has grown up so much since then; there is a huge difference between just 2 and 5 but much less between almost 3 and 6.  It's always cooler to hang with the big girls than with your mom and baby J.

 Mama Ash here, taking care of my kids.  She desperately wants to be a big sister, and played with and helped Lucy and Jamie all weekend.  I think it's possible that Lucy could cure her of that ambition.

Aaannnnddd .... asleep.  Again.  Brandy kept on saying "is this baby for real?"  1st time in the pack-n-play and he had no problems.  Just wait until he's sleepy and put him down and he's out.  It's magic.

The big girls riding the metro.  Pretty exciting!

This is the arch from the metro station.  It's the historic section of St. Louis and there's some pretty neat brick and cobblestone work around the area.

Who knew Rob would be such a ladies man?

And here it is.  Like I said, really, really impressive.  Also impressive, the Sponge Bob ice pop that Lucy ate, or at least tried to eat.  A portion ended up in her belly, a portion in mine, some on the ground, and a good quantity landed on Jamie's head and dripped down his face and onto his shirt.  Did he scream?  Cry?  Fuss?  No, just licked his lips.

At the Museum of Westward Expansion.  I didn't (can you believe it?) get to enjoy this one at a leisurely pace and read all the exhibits, but Rob said they do a decent job of incorporating the native history and talking about the treatment of American Indians, etc.  Sometime I'd love to come back to the arch and go through the museum and look at everything plus take the egg to the top to see.  And no, mom, you will not scare me away from this one!

On the train on the way home this is Ashlynn teaching Lucy how to meditate.  It was hysterical to see the two of them bobbing around on the train with palms together and eyes closed.  Also, every person around us told me how much my daughter looked like me.  Problem is, they were referring to Ash.  Um, no, the one who doesn't look like me is actually mine!

The meditation must have worked.

And .... awake!  Just as our excursion ended, baby J woke up and was all smiles.  (Here's where you can see the red ice pop all over his shirt).  Always nice to be so happy at the end of a trip!

Who?

We're working on it.  This was totally independent, so I'm pretty proud.

Introducing my beautiful prodigy, Cyul.  (In addition to the shower cap she is also wearing crocs here.)  She's not Hollywood, so it's good we've got writing to fall back on.

The Gardens

This week we got a chance to finally visit Reiman Gardens, a beautiful indoor and outdoor botanical garden that boasts a fabulous butterfly wing (my favorite) and a current "big bugs" outdoor art exhibit.  We went with our friends Ann, Carson (3) and Hayden (6 mo) and had a great time.  Carson is a new playmate for Lucy, expanding her pool of eligible bachelors, and is as loving and huggy as Lucy is.  Though we love playing with Silas and Gabe, they often refuse her advances of hugs and love pats, but not Carson.  Actually, I think my little lover might have even brushed him off once or twice.  Ann and I spotted them holding hands walking and in several spontaneous hugs.  It's adorable now, but talk to me again in 10 years.

Warning, there are approximately one million pictures here.

 Part of the Big Bugs exhibit was indoors, these stone-and-metal picnic ants.  The kids were SO excited when they spotted a real ant crawling on the conservatory floor.

 Some of the outdoor Big Bugs.  These sculptures (?) were a little different, mostly wood, and really interesting to see.  You can get an idea of the size of some of them by the picture of the kids by the giant ant.  I'd like to know how one starts on being the creator of giant bugs.  And how I can get one for my front lawn.

 Watch out Lucy!  You're about to be bitten by the world's largest mosquito!

 Us by the spider web.  Per usual, Baby J's sleeping in the sling.  We were both pretty sweaty when I took him out of there at the end of the afternoon, but he didn't seem to mind, even when I kept a little blanket wrapped around us to block his poor little arms and legs from the sun.

 The kids had a great time smelling flowers ...

 ... running around ...

 ... stopping to relax with a beverage ...

 ... and even got a chance to cool off in the pool.

 Sorry Ann, I'm a picture sneaker.  Lucy and Carson shared the footrest of Ann's double stroller.  If you look closely, you can see baby Hayden peeking out from behind Lucy.  He also was a great sport.  What you can't see here is that Lu's not wearing any shoes.  She wore pair of sandals that are now in the "hurts-me" pile.  She has requested socks with these sandals a number of times, and now I know it's because they're not comfortable, not because she has no fashion sense.

 And finally, though we had already gone through the Butterfly Wing on our way into the gardens, it made impression enough on the kids that they asked to go through again on our way out.  It's an amazing place, with hundreds of species of butterflies.  We had visited the Butterfly Kingdom at the York Zoo when we went last summer, and sorry Aunt Grace, but the BK doesn't hold a candle to this place.  It's a much smaller room, probably has tons more money, and definitely doesn't have the crowds of sweaty kids that the zoo does.

 Lucy and Carson checking out the butterfly on Ann's shoe.  He probably liked her pink laces.

 The volunteer who gave Lucy the magnifying glass to use tried also to show her how to use it with no luck.

 The close up look at these butterflies was just amazing.

 It was a wonderful day!