Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Weird, Random Tuesday
This has been a weird Tuesday, because:
Both kids slept in.
I found out the print making class I had signed up for and was supposed to start tonight was canceled. So bummed.
But I got to run to Target by myself this morning, which is weird for a Tuesday, and always fun.
And I wore a maxi dress out of the house for the first time ever and felt way more hip than I actually am or ever will be.
We had a big thunderstorm around lunch time. It got so dark outside that we had to turn all the lights on. I loved it.
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So since it's been such a weird, random Tuesday this is going to be a weird, random post - filled with things I've been finding online that are too good not to share...
I love writing letters to friends and family (you know, the old fashioned way via envelope and postage stamp) and this stationary is so cute.
I have a hard time wearing jewelry most of the time, but I think this pinecone necklace would be easy and so much fun to wear!
Are you a nail biter? I used to be a serious, nervous-nail-biter and I think these tips to breaking the bad habit sound really practical (and fun!)
Week 13 of You Are My Wild is stunning.
I believe we all need some little luxuries once in a while, don't you?
I'm a big fan of American Apparel basics, and these tee-shirt dresses look perfect for spring, (I'd pair them with leggings or ankle length jeans.)
Speaking of spring wearables, this dress would be a great spring/summer staple!
Rifle Paper Co. makes iPhone cases now!!! And of course, they're gorgeous.
I love the colors and creativity behind this photography series.
Maybe you're like me and are always looking for something "inspired" to do with your hair (vs. throwing it into the old standby "mom-ponytail.") I love this blog and have gotten lots of ideas from it!
This modern take on Pride and Prejudice is very clever (and addicting. You've been warned.)
I'm embarrassed to say we made this twice over the weekend. They are that good. I'm trying the brownie recipe next!
Quinoa Tortillas
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I mean, seriously. I am the kind of person who slumps over my kitchen table and sighs, "I can't eat anything on this stupid diet. It's so boooring. I miss carbs. I'd killll for some fajitas right now. Woe. Is. Me."
My husband is the kind of person who says, "We're on a weird, limited diet right now, and we're craving fajitas. Let's consult Google!" And within 5 minutes, he's got a weird recipe for quinoa tortillas.
I mean, who even knew that they made flour out of quinoa? Not me.
Of course, being the brat I am, I was extremely skeptical and sarcastic and basically said "yeah, it's a nice thought dear, but those are going to be disgusting."
Luckily, after 6 years of being stuck with me, my adventurous husband is immune to my negativity and he made these quinoa tortillas, and then he made me some fajitas, and...you guys...they were not bad. In fact, they pretty much hit - the - spot. And we ate them the next day and the next, and we actually ate them again tonight and I don't think I want to eat anything else ever.
Best part? They are ridiculously easy to make. And I'm going to show you how:
1 cup of quinoa flour (that's keen-waaah mind you, NOT quin-oh-ahh. It just took me like, 3 years of saying it wrong before finally figuring it out.)
1 cup of water.
1 teaspoon of salt.
Stir until thin batter forms. (You might need to add in another 1/4 of water to thin it out. You want the consistency of a thin pancake batter.)
Heat up a cast iron skillet on medium-low heat (you don't want your pan getting too hot with these - trust me!) Oil it up lightly with some olive oil.
When the pan's nice and hot, pour 1/2 cup of batter into the pan and immediately (with pot holders!) lift the pan and shake it around to get the roundest, thinnest tortilla you can.
Flip the tortilla when the top looks dry and the edges are starting to brown. Let cook another 2-3 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Mmmm, fajitas...
Now lest you get your hopes up too high, these are not exact replicas of wheat tortillas. They're not as chewy, they're almost more crepe-like. However - they have a really good flavor, they're extremely flexible and they keep nicely (once cool, store in a ziplock in the fridge.) Also, quinoa is a fantastic grain - chock full of protein,and low on the glycemic index.
We love these and will be making them regularly!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Turkeys Are Scary
We had a pretty quiet weekend. We met up with some friends at The Critter Barn in Zeeland on Saturday. It's basically a big petting zoo, with bunnies, cats, baby chicks, sheep and goats. We thought it would be a big hit with the kids. But this was my childrens' feelings about The Critter Barn summed up in one picture...
Olive was scared of everything (granted, those turkeys were pretty scary looking. And aggressive!) And Silas wanted to be put down the whole time, which we didn't feel safe doing with scary turkeys running around. Oh well, maybe next time Critter Barn. I thought you and your animals were pretty darn cute.
Friday, April 5, 2013
45 Days (A Long Boring Post.)
I never really posted a final "wrap up" about my experience doing the Whole 30 last month - becaaaause, I kind of never stopped doing it. Well, I've made a few tweaks here and there...but let's go back a few weeks...
I started the Whole 30 in February with one goal in mind - to reduce inflammation. Since last October I had been having asthma attacks, severe allergy symptoms, fatigue and weird swelling in my mouth. I was also experiencing heightened anxiety and had frequent panic attacks. I felt ill in one form or another all the time. The swelling in my mouth was literally driving me insane. I was seen by a dentist and three doctors, all of them prescribed different medicines and treatments - none of their prescriptions worked.
I bought "It Starts With Food" because it was the first book to come up in my online search for "anti-inflammation diet." The book convinced me that I had systemic inflammation, and I decided to try the strict 30 day elimination diet to see if it would help relieve my symptoms.
The diet was not easy. The first 3 weeks were miserable, and I don't think I could have gotten through them successfully if Matt had not generously decided to do the diet with me. (I'm sure it also helped that we were in a new area, we hardly know anyone here, and we don't have much of a social life.)
The results of this experiment on myself: I don't want to sound like an annoying health-nut-preachy-person, b-b-b-b-b-but! I could seriously go on all day about the amazing things the Whole 30 diet has done for my health. My asthma totally disappeared. The swelling in my mouth was reduced to almost nothing. My energy shot up. I started sleeping better than I have since before I got pregnant with Olive. My acne and skin redness disappeared. The cherry on top, and biggest surprise to me, was that (to date) I've lost over 15 lbs. And that's without counting a single calorie, and exercising very very gently. All this in less than 2 months! My body loves eating paleo, obviously.
Right as our 30 days were getting close to being over, I visited a local allergist because even though I was feeling great, the swelling in my mouth was not healing completely. He did a series of blood and skin tests and the results were a bit bizarre. According to the tests, in addition to being allergic to gluten, wheat and rye I am also allergic to all dairy, eggs and chicken.
When the allergist told me I needed to go on an even stricter elimination diet, (cutting out eggs and chicken - 2 of the staples of my diet that I eat almost every day) I cried in his office. It was the most depressing news I could have received. My mood lightened up a little bit when he told me I could add back in beans, white potatoes and quinoa. That makes it bearable.
The goal of messing around so much with my diet is to give my body a break and time to heal. At some point after fasting from all these foods, my body will most likely be able to tolerate some of them again on a rotational basis. So there is hope for a more normal life in the future.
But for now, my diet is pretty limited. And weird. (I have turned into a sweet potato junkie.)
The crazy thing is, though - I feel amazing. Since cutting out eggs, my mouth is feeling much better already. I also feel more energized and calm and happy. It blows my mind that what we eat has such impact on our health and well being, physically and mentally! And I'm starting to realize that for me, the joy of feeling healthy and happy far outweighs any pleasure I might receive from food that isn't healthy for me.
My kids both celebrated their birthdays this week, and I made them a beautiful flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting. My allergist gave me the green light to "cheat" and have a piece of cake with my family. I was nervous about eating some sugar after being off of it for over a month - I wondered if I would feel really sick, or if I would immediately start craving MORE sugar. The whole experience ended up being very underwhelming. The cake was pleasant but I ended up being satisfied with just half a piece and didn't crave anymore.
It was in that moment that I realized that as corny as it sounds, the Whole 30 has changed my life. Forever. It's changed my health, it's changed my body, and it's forever changed my relationship with food.
I started the Whole 30 in February with one goal in mind - to reduce inflammation. Since last October I had been having asthma attacks, severe allergy symptoms, fatigue and weird swelling in my mouth. I was also experiencing heightened anxiety and had frequent panic attacks. I felt ill in one form or another all the time. The swelling in my mouth was literally driving me insane. I was seen by a dentist and three doctors, all of them prescribed different medicines and treatments - none of their prescriptions worked.
I bought "It Starts With Food" because it was the first book to come up in my online search for "anti-inflammation diet." The book convinced me that I had systemic inflammation, and I decided to try the strict 30 day elimination diet to see if it would help relieve my symptoms.
The diet was not easy. The first 3 weeks were miserable, and I don't think I could have gotten through them successfully if Matt had not generously decided to do the diet with me. (I'm sure it also helped that we were in a new area, we hardly know anyone here, and we don't have much of a social life.)
The results of this experiment on myself: I don't want to sound like an annoying health-nut-preachy-person, b-b-b-b-b-but! I could seriously go on all day about the amazing things the Whole 30 diet has done for my health. My asthma totally disappeared. The swelling in my mouth was reduced to almost nothing. My energy shot up. I started sleeping better than I have since before I got pregnant with Olive. My acne and skin redness disappeared. The cherry on top, and biggest surprise to me, was that (to date) I've lost over 15 lbs. And that's without counting a single calorie, and exercising very very gently. All this in less than 2 months! My body loves eating paleo, obviously.
Right as our 30 days were getting close to being over, I visited a local allergist because even though I was feeling great, the swelling in my mouth was not healing completely. He did a series of blood and skin tests and the results were a bit bizarre. According to the tests, in addition to being allergic to gluten, wheat and rye I am also allergic to all dairy, eggs and chicken.
When the allergist told me I needed to go on an even stricter elimination diet, (cutting out eggs and chicken - 2 of the staples of my diet that I eat almost every day) I cried in his office. It was the most depressing news I could have received. My mood lightened up a little bit when he told me I could add back in beans, white potatoes and quinoa. That makes it bearable.
The goal of messing around so much with my diet is to give my body a break and time to heal. At some point after fasting from all these foods, my body will most likely be able to tolerate some of them again on a rotational basis. So there is hope for a more normal life in the future.
But for now, my diet is pretty limited. And weird. (I have turned into a sweet potato junkie.)
The crazy thing is, though - I feel amazing. Since cutting out eggs, my mouth is feeling much better already. I also feel more energized and calm and happy. It blows my mind that what we eat has such impact on our health and well being, physically and mentally! And I'm starting to realize that for me, the joy of feeling healthy and happy far outweighs any pleasure I might receive from food that isn't healthy for me.
My kids both celebrated their birthdays this week, and I made them a beautiful flourless chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting. My allergist gave me the green light to "cheat" and have a piece of cake with my family. I was nervous about eating some sugar after being off of it for over a month - I wondered if I would feel really sick, or if I would immediately start craving MORE sugar. The whole experience ended up being very underwhelming. The cake was pleasant but I ended up being satisfied with just half a piece and didn't crave anymore.
It was in that moment that I realized that as corny as it sounds, the Whole 30 has changed my life. Forever. It's changed my health, it's changed my body, and it's forever changed my relationship with food.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Two Birthdays In One Week
Olive turned 4 on April 1st, and Silas turned 1 today! We never "planned" having their birthdays so close together, and it's turned out to be just a little bit awkward.
We had so much fun making a big deal out of Olive's first birthday when she was little, and I feel like Silas was a little bit cheated with his since Olive was sooo excited about her birthday this year and thought all the celebrating was just for her (even though we kept reminding her Silas had a birthday too!) Poor little guy didn't know what was going on, and can't blow out his own candles or open his own presents very well. I guess he's just "lucky" he has a big sister who knows how to do those jobs really well and doesn't mind doing them for him. *Wink.*
All in all I think they had a good time, though. They got to open presents with both sets of grandparents via Skype, and I made this cake (which is a lot of work, but very worth it!)
Monday, April 1, 2013
The Next Big Thing??
Urban Outfitters totally got me on this one. I laughed so hard once I (way too late) remembered it was April Fool's Day. (Hey, when your daughter has an April Fool's birthday, you kind of forget about that prank-fest side of April 1st.) Seriously, I almost wrote a blog post titled "WTH is the World Coming To?!?" or something of that sort. Can you imagine wearing something like this? Too funny.
Here's the accompanying interview. :)
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