Day 31

Mini date cake

Well we now have less than 10 days left for our challenge! Jason and I both feel great eating extra healthy. We have lots of energy and never have that "stuffed" or "sick" feeling after eating. We have now added back whole grain bread. I had a slice yesterday with almond butter. It was good but I don't plan on eating bread every day or anything. The idea of this challenge is to eat the majority of your food from phase one: fresh fruit, fresh and cooked veggies, raw nuts, beans, lentils and eggs. Then smaller amounts of phase two: brown rice, wild caught fish, oatmeal, rice milk, free range organic chicken, free range bison. And finally a little here and there from phase three: yogurt, kefir (raw), whole grain bread, honey, maple syrup, butter (grassfed). So we plan on keeping the main thing the main thing and that is FRUITS & VEGGIES!
The baby is also doing our 40 day health challenge - except he has been drinking fresh breast milk from day 1 :) He really likes food and eats anything I give him. He loves our banana almond butter smoothies... when the blender is on he gets really excited because he knows a smoothie is coming! I try to make his food interesting and yummy and of course healthy. He loves yellow squash and basil, rice cereal with coconut milk, applesauce with blueberries or cinnamon, papaya, oatmeal with rice milk... pretty much anything. He does his scooting exercises everyday, treads water in the pool, prays before meals and has slimmed down in the waist and gained 1lb of pure muscle in the past 31 days. He is doing a wonderful job on the 40 day challenge! I'm posting the recipe for the little (it's actually really big to a baby) date cake I made him - it's yummy but keep in mind we have been eating really healthy for a while now so healthy food tastes really good. I made the cake in a little 6" pan.
12 dates soaked in 1/3 C boiling water
1/3 C applesauce
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
put these ingredients in blender and blend until smooth
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 C rice flour
1/3 C buckwheat flour
1/3 C unsweetened coconut
mix together and then mix in the wet ingredients, pour into pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 min or so - cool a little then remove from pan and cool. Tear up tiny pieces and serve. Or just slice and eat if you are not a baby anymore. I put the leftovers in the fridge because the weather is so warm it will spoil fast.

Day 29

Last nights dinner - a modest piece of Albacore, sauteed asparagus with Braggs, and a salad topped with a creamy dressing made out of white beans. I got the recipe off of a blog: http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/ it turned out yummy. I wouldn't say it tasted like regular ranch dressing at all but it was a good dressing and a nice change from oil and vinegar.

This is a fun melon we got - orange flesh - it looks like a honeydew on the outside and a cantaloupe on the inside but it tastes more like honeydew. It was super sweet - I will definitely buy this type of melon again.

Jason's favorite salad right now is very simple:

Purple cabbage, green onion, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, lots of cashews and seasoned with either sea salt & pepper, herbamare or Braggs - http://www.bragg.com/ he asks for this salad almost everyday!

We have decided cashews are our favorite nut! They are just so good, creamy, crunchy, nutty, delicious. Cashews are a super nutritious food they are high in magnesium and antioxidants. Did you know unlike many other nuts the cashew actually grows on the bottom of a cashew fruit called a marañon. It clings to the bottom of the cashew apple. The fruit is also edible but it is extremely perishable so we probably will not see it here in the US. I wonder what it tastes like.

Watermelon

Nothing spells summer like a big cold slice of sweet red watermelon. Well I brought home a winner... at the farmer's market last night I bought a watermelon from a small farm booth. It was $6.00 so not cheap but I keep buying watermelon from the market and it just tastes blah. So I figured if I had to spend a little more and get a melon that was good it was worth it. I had the farmer pick a "good" one for me and I also found the bee sting marks on the skin. Supposedly if you find these brownish marks left by bees the melon is sweet - well in this case it was true. I opened the melon to to find nice firm red flesh with a wonderful watermelon taste and a yummy sweetness... just writing about it makes me want to go have another slice!

Day 26

Caprese salad with cashews


Eggplant and asparagus with olive oil and soysauce


Today we started out the day with a warm bowl of oatmeal topped with strawberries and raisins. This is the first time we have had raisins in our oatmeal since we started. Because dried fruit was only added in this last phase we have been putting fresh fruit on our oatmeal instead - and you know what I think I like it better. It is interesting how your taste can change in a short number of days. Today was warm and sunny leaving a warm evening. The baby took an exceptionally late afternoon nap so we were able to venture out to the Redlands farmer's market. We walked among the stands of fresh produce as the farmers called out their produce. I ended up bringing home a bagful of produce - asparagus - eggplant - cherries - watermelon - yellow tomatoes. We also stopped by an amazing booth... Palmer Chiropractic... where we visited with a very handsome chiropractor. We took our produce home put the baby in bed and I made myself a fresh veggie dinner. Since Jason wasn't dining with me I made a plate piled with sauteed asparagus and eggplant (not his two favorites) and on the side I had a caprese salad substituting cashews for the mozzarella. It was great the cashews added a richness and crunch to the sweet flesh of the tomato. For dessert a fresh slice of watermelon and a handful of cherries.

Day 25

Today is the first day of PHASE THREE!! That means we added dried fruit, low sugar dark chocolate (in moderation), plain yogurt and kefir. I made oat/rice pancakes topped with those yummy local strawberries and nut "cream". You make the nut "cream" by blending almonds with the skin removed, water, and dates. It blends into a thick white sorta stuff that actually tastes really good on strawberries. By the way it tastes nothing like cream but you can use it as you would whipcream. The first few bites I really wasn't sure if I liked it but I'm actually pretty hooked on it. I liked it on the berries better than yogurt. Of course I had a couple squares of dark chocolate too :) Our salad for lunch was good with a combo of green leaf lettuce, purple cabbage, avocado and cashews. I also did pilates today too - nice to get back to that... it's been awhile.

Day 22

chipotle chicken and rice


stuffed yellow squash


First of all Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband Jason and all the other dads out there. We had a yummy lunch today at my sister's - grilled bison, fish and veggies, potato salad (made with olive oil), green salad, brown rice and fruit salad. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch outside listening to the children play as a cool breeze floated in the air. We didn't want a big dinner tonight so I steamed yellow squash and stuffed it with sauteed onion, garlic, celery, purple cabbage, walnuts and oatmeal. The oatmeal was "recycled" - the baby had a little rash tonight so I made him a moisturizing oatmeal bath. Well I soaked the oats in very hot water for a few minutes and then strained the "milk" into his bath. I was left with soft oatmeal but not really cooked. So I decided to toss it into dinner and it turned out great. Oh and I drizzled the squash with olive oil and soy sauce. I am going to try different combos as we will have yellow squash all summer long. Last week we also made chipotle chicken and rice a Martha Stewart recipe... it had a lot of kick from the chilies but it was worth the heat!

Afternoon pick-me-up

This afternoon I wanted a sweet treat and needed a little extra energy. So I made a banana smoothie "ice cream" thing. I always buy extra bananas and then when they get really ripe I peel them and freeze them for smoothies and baking. For my banana treat of the day I blended 2 bananas, 1/3 packet of stevia, 1TBS almond butter and enough rice milk to blend. Then drizzled it with almond butter and topped it with homeade granola. It was the perfect treat for a hot day and today was HOT!

Costco Lettuce

I am SO over this Costco lettuce! I bought this lettuce on Monday and two days later part of it was already rotten. This isn't the first time I have had their lettuce go bad so fast either. I keep buying their lettuce again but this time I'm done... no more Spring Mix from Costco! I have bought the same type of lettuce from Washington Produce and it lasts a week or more. We eat up all our produce in a couple days so if something goes bad you know it was old when we bought it! I don't have as much time to garden this year but usually we grow some of our own lettuce so you know that it's fresh. This year we are growing tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, artichokes, blackberries, raspberries and nectarines. It is great to have homegrown produce. If you are not big on yellow squash try it drizzled with coconut oil and roasted under the broiler until golden brown and sprinkled with sea salt - yum!

Stevia

Stevia is a plant native to South America and Central America. The leaves are harvested and the extremely sweet extract is packaged and sold here in the US at many health food stores. My favorite grocery store - Trader Joe's - sells the powder in a small bottle and packets of stevia as well. The packets also contain a filler so you use a larger amount of power compared with pure stevia in a bottle. One thing I have found is that you want to make sure you completely incorporate stevia into your food. If you sprinkle it on something it will have a strong after taste. Stevia works great for sweetening smoothies, oatmeal, fruit that is not very sweet, salad dressings and baked goods. The paragraph below has info on baking with stevia:

"The most important thing to remember is not to use too much, which can result in excessive sweetness and an aftertaste. Always start with the exact amount called for in a recipe, or even a little less, then taste before you add any more. Stevia is delicious in almost any recipe using fruit or dairy products, but does present a bit of a challenge when used for baking, since it lacks sugar's abilities to add texture, help soften batter, caramelize, enhance the browning process, and feed the fermentation of yeast. On the other hand, one of the excellent facets of stevia is that high temperatures do not affect its sweetening properties." http://www.stevia.net/

I also want to try growing my own stevia plant and harvest the leaves for next year. The process looks fairly easy and it would be fun to actually grow this plant myself.

Day 17

(by the way Jason and I shared this plateful)

Today we added Free Range Organic Chicken to our diet. We are adding chicken in a moderate amount, not as the main attraction on the plate. I cooked the chicken off to the side of a skillet and cooked the onions, broccoli, and yellow squash next to it one type at a time - worked out great by the time I finished the veggies the chicken was done. I steamed the potatoes then tossed with olive oil and fresh basil. I also drizzled balsalmic on the broccoli. The dinner turned out great. This is the first time I have had that brand of chicken from Trader Joe's and it really was good... sometimes chicken has a weird (yucky) taste to it and this was good - no odd flavor. It costs more than regular chicken but Jason and I split a breast so it cost less than $1.50 per serving!

I also cut up lots of fruit today and put it in containers in the fridge. It makes it much easier to grab some when you are hungry without all the mess and time. I do the same thing with vegetables - easy snacks.

Day 15

I wanted to try something different so I made these veggie patties. I grated and chopped lots of different vegetables and mixed them with 2 eggs, salt, pepper, garlic and ginger. Shaped them into patties on a hot skillet with coconut oil flip and brown on both sides. I served them with grilled fish. It's a nice way to change up your vegetables.

Today is day 15 the days are actually going really fast and I am really enjoying all the healthy yummy stuff we are eating. I am a HUGE dessert girl normally but I haven't been craving them this time... maybe because I'm eating lots of ripe fresh fruit. Melons are really good right now and they hit the spot.

Day 12

We got really YUMMY local strawberries today in Redlands. They are much better than any I have had this year - worth the extra money for sure. I ate over a pint myself :) I made a minestrone soup tonight and topped it with fresh pesto. I don't really crave bread anymore for a while when we would have soup I felt like I "needed" bread - not now. Jason is really looking forward to adding oatmeal tomorrow. We are going to put mango and strawberries to sweeten it. I fit into my smaller jeans!!! As you can tell pretty excited about that.

What are we doing exactly?

A small group of us decided to do a 40 health callenge. Jason and I took info from 5 different books and put together 40 days starting with a 8 day cleanse. The first day we had only fruit - the next day we added raw vegetables - then cooked veggies - then nuts -then beans/lentils - then eggs. Now we added back salmon and brown rice. We are only drinking fresh juices, water and herbal teas. We are also exersising more and doing personal Bible study time. Just a fun way to get healthy in all areas and keep eachother accountable.

We made salmon patties tonight and they were awesome!

Day 10

We are a quarter of the way there! Well this first 10 days actually have gone by pretty fast. I'm really enjoying almond butter today. I put it on bananas, carrots and apples. We also got some humus from Trader Joes to dip veggies in - Jacob even likes it :) I'm going to make salmon patties for dinner tonight and serve them with swiss chard and salad.
Stater Bros is selling wild caught salmon right now for only $2.49lb that's a REALLY good price. It is labeled Salmon Keta Roast - it is a whole piece with skin on both sides so you can ask the butcher to cut it into filets for you and then you get nice individual pieces without many bones and skin on one side - perfect for grilling. (start with the skin side down about 6min flip 6 more min)

One week down!

Well I'm finding this a bit more of a challenge now. I gotta stop thinking about stuff I can't eat! We had a really yummy spinach and pecan salad for lunch and cherries so life is good for now. We got a fresh coconut and busted it open and have been eating it. It's fun to get different fruits and veggies. I'm going to make lentils for dinner. On a different note I have been reading Romans and I really enjoy that book - so much practical stuff. I have been enjoying spending more time in the word it helps to have a goal. I'm going to increase my prayer time this next week and really spend more time with the Lord.
Jason: I have been craving coffee now - hang in there Sandy - we can do anything for 40 days! Thinking about having a cup of 100% Kona afterwards (got to fly to Kauai Johnsons).

Cider

I was craving something sweet after dinner but not just fruit - so I made fresh apple juice and then heated it up with a dash of cinnamon and it hit the spot. Perfect for a cool night! Four medium size apples made one mug full.

Philippians 3:19 "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."
This is a verse about non-believers, let's make sure we are immitators of Christ with discipline and be good stewards of our body! (Jason)

Yuck!

We made one of the veggie cleansing juices... well lets just say it wasn't the best thing I have ever tried. It looked good with the beet color but it just didn't taste good. After I drank it I felt blahhh so I ate some fruit to cover up the taste. I'm sure it did some good for us.

Day 4

Well today is day four... this was a great day for me because I REALLY enjoyed the weather with all our thunder storms and the smell of rain. It made no difference to me what I was eating I loved the day. The baby even took a 3 hour nap - wow! Because it is cool out I made a hot soup for J and I. I used lots of veggies and seasoned it with salt, pepper, cumin, basil and bay leaves. If you put enough seasonings you can just use water as the base.

Day 1

Day ONE - kind of exciting to start something new but man was I hungry. I realized I needed to eat way more frequently than normal to feel good. I really enjoyed all the fruit - yum!