JERF kids!

Tonights dinner was chicken salad wraps. I made a chicken salad with rotisserie chicken breast, relish, grapes, and walnuts, and then stuffed that in a lettuce leaf. I asked Em if she would try it again since she insisted that she HATES chicken salad. After tasting it again she said she would like that in lieu of a pb&j. whew!

I know all kids are different and what works for one may not work for the other, but I also know that sometimes we don't give our children and chance to Just Eat Real Food (JERF). Don't get me wrong my children will still eat chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese when we go out, but at home it is 100% real food. I have control of what goes in my fridge and pantry and I have control of what goes in their mouths. And guess what moms, our kids will sometimes surprise us. I know my kids will ask for fruit and nuts more than anything else for a snack during the day. They will eat every gluten/dairy/soy/grain free treat that I make and love it just as much as an oreo. And sometimes they like things that you would think they would despise. I mean my 4 yr old will ask for eggs and brussel sprouts for breakfast. c'mon! But you know what? She would never know she loves them if I hadn't first given her the opportunity to try them.

So parents, if you are interested, here are a few tips to get your kids used to eating real unprocessed foods.

1. Give them a chance - You HAVE to let them try new fruits and veggies. Don't skip by them in the grocery store just because you don't like them or THINK they won't.

2. Let them pick out a new fruit or veggie to try - We do this ALL the time! My 4 yr old LOVES it and my 2 yr old is starting to get in on the fun now. It was through this process that my daughters found out they love those little furry fruits called kiwi. When they picked it up they thought it was strange and had no idea what was on the inside, but felt they would be very brave that day and pick it out! :) This week they picked out a Japanese sweet potato. "Ooooh, It is purple on the outside!!! : )

3. Try things more than once and more than one way - A prime example of this goes back to the brussel sprouts. We tried them three different ways before we found a way that my 4 yr old liked. We blanched and shredded the leaves and that was yucky. We steamed them and that was yucky. And finally we roasted them in the oven until they got a tiny bit crispy on the edges and those were YUMMY. The same kind of thing with my 2 yr. old. I tried baby carrots, and carrot sticks and carrots sliced in to rounds and she wouldn't have it at all. But one day as I shredded some carrots I figured I'd give it another shot. Sure enough she will eat carrots if they are shredded.

4. Try the "not my favorite veggie" with a healthy dip - My kids don't like celery on it's own but with a dap of almond butter they will munch it up. Or cucumbers for example (not my 2 yr olds favorite) but she loves it if she can dip it in baba ganoush (roasted eggplant dip)

5. Let them help you cook - Oh my, this is huge in this house!! Both of my girls help me cook. It makes them so excited to eat a meal that they helped prepare. Also, tell them about how each food nourishes their body. For example, how does this broccoli help our bodies?? Or what's so great about kale? We also talk about which food is a protein, carb, and a healthy fat.

6. Be prepared - Step away from the cookie jar, and have some nuts and fruit washed and ready for when those little tummies get to rumbling and they need a snack ASAP!

Those are just a few things that have helped me along the way. I hope it gives you a bit of help too!! :)

BTW - here is my favorite recipe for baba ganoush from one of my favorite bloggers Melissa Joulwan @ www.theclothesmakethegirl.com

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/07/17/eat-your-vegetables-eggplant/

Prep time

Today is grocery day. I have made my menu for the next couple weeks and I have gotten every thing ready. I spent about 2 hours today prepping for snacks and meals for next week. I would say that I am about 98% prepped. I'm hoping that this will make meal times go much smoother for me and I won't be dreading cooking cause I have to spend so much time washing and chopping veggies.

So what we have here is 3 heads of cleaned and chopped romaine, peeled/seeded/sliced cucumber, and cleaned and sliced radishes for salads. 3 huge chopped onions, 1 lb. of cleaned and sliced mushrooms, 1 lb of cleaned and trimmed asparagus, 1lb of washed and chopped broccoli, and 1 lb of picked and washed grapes. I also peeled and sliced up a pound of carrots and an acorn squash so that it is ready for roasting. On the meat side I diced up some chicken that will go into a soup, and sliced up a pound of chicken and placed it in a marinade ready for fajita lettuce wraps. I also filleted a couple of pounds of chicken - one for lemon pepper chicken and one for bbq chicken. Don't worry....chicken is NOT the only thing we will be eating. I've also got 4 lbs of grass fed beef divided in the freezer, a pound of shrimp, and some apple chicken sausage. I bought some ground turkey breast for my first attempt at turkey breakfast sausage, and this week will also be my first attempt at zucchini fritters. (made with coconut flour) Hopefully I will get some yummy looking food to take pics of!!

P.S. I'll say it again...the BEST fajita marinade I've had.....EVER!

http://www.primal-palate.com/2011/06/skirt-steak-fajitas.html

SICKO!!

Wow, it has been along time since I blogged. I headed back to CFN today...first time in a week. I was sick and down for the count all last week. And then when I felt the cough had died down enough for me to return, I popped a rib out of place. Kinda hard to cross fit with an out of place rib.... ANYHOO!!

Diet has been fine. I am reading on veggies that have a negative effect on AI diseases. I'm probably going to be cutting out eggs, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli here in the near future and see if that makes a difference to my body. I'm also cutting out all sugar for the next month. The hubs said he would give me 20 dollars if I can do it. So far I have gone a half a day. Is it sad that the first thing I thought when he said 20 dollars was..."I could get 6 iced coffees for that!" That is probably gonna be the hardest thing to cut out, and the dark chocolate. Although I could have 100% dark but that is just too strong for me. I also started the couch to 5k treadmill program. I have GOT to get better in my running. NO long distances in my future (it is just too hard on the body) but 800 meters is not that far to run and I can't even make it 400 without getting out of breath. Anyway, I'm on day 3 of C25k and day 1 of sugar free.

Today's workout:

Strength

Backsquats

1 X 10 @ 65lbs

1 X 8 @ 75 lbs

1X 6 @ 75lbs

1 X 6 @ 75lbs

1 X 6 @75 lbs

I know that 75 is not my max rep. I could do more weight for a single squat but I couldn't do more for multiple squats.

We did a bit of mobility and then onto the WOD:

21:15:9

kettlebell swings 20lbs

shoulder presses 15 lbs

toes to bar ( I could only do knee raises)

Time: 11:30

bonus awesomness for today....my fortune cookie..

WOD

SO It was my first day back at CFN in over a week. Boy, did I pick a day! The warm up was a 400 meter run, butt kickers, high knees, lunges, and inch worms. Then we had some double under training. I was worn out and the WOD had not even started yet! The WOD was as follows..

Team Workout
100 kettle bell swings (I used 16lb kb)
800 meter run with 25lb plate held overhead
100 wall balls ( I used 10 lb ball)
100 pull ups ( I did body rows)
200 double unders or 400 jump ropes

Time: 26:20

I really don't like team work outs. I don't want to disappoint other people or hurt their time or jip their workout. I did have an awesome partner today. If I'm not mistaken, his name was Jeremy. I'm SO HORRIBLE at remembering names. I'm so nervous when I meet new people that it is hard to remember things. I tried to look for him on the site to make sure I got his name right but he wasn't on there. He was a great athlete and a great encourager so it made my first actual team experience quite pleasant.

I thought I wasn't gonna make it through this work out but I did and felt awesome AFTER it was all over! :)

I made a pretty awesome breakfast after I got home too. I'm thinking I made this up since I haven't seen a recipe for this before, but who knows....I opened the fridge and spied 2 hard boiled eggs and some individual packs of wholly guacamole......

I halved the eggs and emptied out the yolk
mixed in the pack of guac, a little bit of diced jalapeno, and a chopped up piece of bacon
then stuffed the eggs with that mixture and consumed! It.was.YUMMY.

What happened?

So I feel a little off kilter since I didn't make it to CFN ANY last week. We were on the road with my hubby. So that mean long hours in a car, food on the road and no CFN. Recipe for disaster I would say. Oh well, we have slowed back down and all is well. Back to CFN tomorrow. I've had other work outs that I haven't posted but I will try to be better about keeping up with that. I have tried lots of new recipes and even made up a few of my own!! La-ti-da! I'm very proud of them actually. Some friends actually even made my recipe and LOVED it so I was very happy. Now I just need to find out how to post pics here ( I know I'm awful with technical stuff) and we will be set.

I think I've got it! forgive me if it is weird....Here is a shot (albeit crappy iPhone shot) of Caveman Crunch. Got the recipe from here.... http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/caveman-crunch/

www.civilizedcavemancooking.com is an awesome blog by an awesome dude. I've made MANY of his recipes and none of them have failed me. I added pecans to this recipe and used coconut oil instead of grape seed and let me just say it was dangerous to have this around the house. I wanted to munch on it all the time. The girls ate it for breakfast with some coconut milk. YUMMY!

This is paleo dirty rice... I got this recipe from http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-dirty-rice/ www.elanaspantry.com was a God send for me when I started out on this journey. Let me tell you.. I don't like cauliflower but I LOVE this dish.

This is one of my FAVORITE go to dishes!! I make this every week if not twice a week and I LOVE it! All it is is some grass fed beef browned and drained. Then I sautee up some broccoli, mushroom, asparagus, zucchini, and napa cabbage and mix it all together. I add some salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and coconut amines to taste. My hubby likes this with Thai hot sauce.

Well it is getting late and I have to be up at 4:50 for CFN in the morning. I will try to get caught up tomorrow. Night!