these are two of my current favorite things

This cereal is awesome!! I eat it with hemp milk in the morning lately. I am usually a "no cereal" kind of lady. Generally cereal is packed with sugar and simple carbohydrates and I am a huge advocate for a more protein based breakfast but for some reason during this pregnancy, and actually all of them, I want cold cereal and milk. So, this is what I give myself. And it's good. It hits the spot, it is low in sugar and a good source of protein. The hemp milk, which is not new, I always use hemp milk, is a good source of Omega 3, so I feel satisfied with this breakfast option for now.
It's not an everyday thing, but in rotation with poached eggs on toast and coconut quinoa (just quinoa that I cook in part water, part coconut milk, with a bit of cinnamon.

The salad dressing is amazing!! This is what I have been putting on my massaged kale and it's oh so good! Jeff likes it too. I massage my kale, then I add grape tomatoes, cucumber, some bell pepper, and this dressing. Let it sit for a while at room temperature and eat. Yum. Oh, and sunflower seeds too.
This dressing is created by nutritionists and the first ingredient is apple cider vinegar. There are so many health benefits to this stuff and I have been basically drinking it up.

My hormones are doing crazy/amazing things to my body but I am trying to continue to eat healthy in the ways that I can stand. It's not easy, which is probably why I devoured the old fashioned doughnut my husband brought home for me today. Thanks sweetheart.

Do you massage your kale?

You should!!!

I made this Massaged Kale Salad this morning and I already took a taste. Delicious!! Actually, I didn't really follow the recipe.... but I did massage the kale in the lemon juice and I did use the olive oil and honey.... I guess I followed it except I didn't use mango. I don't have any. So instead I used a bunch of orange and yellow bell pepper, some grape tomatoes, and sunflower seeds. Can't wait to eat this fresh lunch later!

The whole Kale thing is love/hate for me. I love that it is so nutrient packed but I still can't really get myself to say I like the taste of it..... that is until now. Massaging it in lemon juice makes all the difference. It takes out the bitter and adds a little zing and it's seriously delicious!

Lot's of stuff going on around here. Can that be my excuse for not blogging much??? Here is my table as of now to prove it! Waffles for the sleepy head who wakes up when she has to because her brother goes in to get dressed for school. She is lucky we saved her some breakfast. Homemade cards and treats for Teacher Appreciation Week. Braxton is a champ and likes to do it all himself. We love his teachers!! The rest is pretty self explanatory. I am going to go clean up now.

Happy Sunny Wednesday!

Pregnancy Cocktail

So this is what I have been drinking, pretty regularly for the past 17 weeks. I can handle water better now but at first the thought of drinking water really was unappetizing. So I settled for this. A glass with crushed ice, filled with sparkling water, and then topped off with just like 1/4 cup unsweetened cranberry juice. This may just be my most favorite, "healthy" drink, ever. Try it!

"i yike dis mom!!"

We have snack time every day after we pick up Braxton from school. It's a special time of day for us.

I don't give my kids a snack whenever they ask. I don't think it's good for their systems to constantly be digesting food. So we have designated times, and it works for us. If they ask for a snack during a not snack time it usually just means they are bored. I don't starve my kids, promise.

Sometimes we have homemade pie for after school snack. This is a special treat and the whole time they eat it I hear them saying how good it is and M repeats, "i yike dis, mom!"
Pie is one of my weaknesses. I love pie!! This is probably why I make it and let my kids eat it for snack. It was either share with them or eat the whole thing myself, so I shared!

If you are wondering if I think pie is healthy the answer is yes, in moderation. I make it myself using good ingredients. There are not any preservatives or additives. Just good old pie. Nothing wrong with that once in a while in my book. Obviously I don't think white flour and sugar are good for you, but once in a while if that's the worst thing you eat I think you are in good shape. It's all the artificial coloring's and preservatives that I have issues with.

Another snack that we've had this week as the sun has shown is smoothies. Yum! These are a favorite too and super fast, easy to make. Here is what I had, so here is what they got, all blended together to perfection....
1 banana
1 Tbs. orange juice concentrate
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup spinach
1 cup plain kefir
touch of water

This was super refreshing and after I poured their's I was stoked that there was plenty left for the momma. Now I will go sip with my lil sippers.

Happy Friday!

Yum Yum Lunch

I know, I'm a lousy blogger lately. I have some excuses but I will get into those later... or maybe I won't but either way.

Here is a quickie lunch recipe that I came up with.
Organic corn tortilla
Spread with hummus
topped with veggies (I used peppers, tomatoes, and cabbage this time!)
Roll up.
Eat it!

Crunchy Quinoa Salad

My good friend Andrea inspired this recipe. I saw the recipe she posted yesterday here and improvised it to what I had and what I wanted the salad to be. It worked!

So I am soaking my brown rice now. I rinse my rice and then drain it and put it in my crockpot. Then I cover it with an extra 2 inches of boiling water and put the lid on. There it sits overnight. Not on, just soaking in what I tell myself is hot water, at least part of the time. In the morning I turn the crockpot on high and add some coconut milk to cook it in. You cook rice in a 1:2 ratio, rice to liquid so I follow that and it cooks in my crockpot, after soaking all night, on high for about 2 hours. It's yummy and supposed to be better for the digestive tract this way.

Ok, that being said.... I had cooked brown rice in my fridge so this recipe came about in less than a half hour. Sweet.

I cooked the Quinoa following the package directions but I used light coconut milk instead of water to cook it in. (light coconut milk is just coconut milk and water, no fake sugar or anything). While the Quinoa was cooking I chopped up the following:

1 green apple

2 stalks celery

1/4 fresh pineapple

I added this to the Quinoa when it was fluffy and stirred it right in with some fresh lemon juice. Then I added 1/3 cup raw sunflower and a handful of dried cherries (no added sugar. I dried them myself last summer and they were hard and brittle but the hot quinoa took care of that nicely.)

Last I added some leftover rice from my fridge. It was cold but when I mixed it in everything was about the same temperature.

Super Yummy! Refreshing and filling and (you know me) PROTEIN PACKED!

I didn't add any sweetener so it wasn't super sweet but the coconut milk added the flavor it needed and the lemon juice added some sour along with the green apples. The pineapple also sweetened but the unsalted raw seeds added the perfect crunch and texture. And I love celery, I think every salad deserves that crispness that celery brings. The cherries, more sweet but I didn't add a ton and this is how I got my little girl to taste it. Adelle loved this salad, she ate 3 helpings and that was worth the cherries for me ;) She will not be my picky eater forever!

pumpkin pancakes/pudding

Well this was a total experiment that turned out fantastic. I love it when that happens. My kids are usually my guinea pigs and this breakfast today was a favorite. There wasn't even enough when they all wanted more!

Last night we attempted to have oven roasted butternut squash (I bought it pre-cut in a package for convenience). BUT, it was totally pumpkin. It was stringy and we couldn't quite down it with dinner. Who wants to eat pumpkin when you are expecting to eat squash? Not us, at least not last night.

Of course I didn't throw it away. I put it in the fridge and this morning I threw it in my blender to make breakfast.

Here are the steps:

Preheat oven to 350

In the blender blend:

1 cup pumpkin (mine was fresh but you could used canned)

1/3 cup light coconut milk (it's part coconut milk, part water)

1 1/2 cups almond meal

vanilla (Emmett did this part and he got a little carried away, maybe thats why they were so good. I'm sure there was a good 2 Tbs. in there)

salt (just a dash)

cinnamon (to your liking)

1 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

1 Tbs. softened butter or coconut oil (I used butter today)

Blend it all up and pour.

So the reason I didn't fry these is because they don't flip well. I have failed at this in the past, they are too soft. So at first attempt this morning I poured the batter in circles on my pizza stone and baked for 12ish minutes. This worked great but then they were gone and who wants to wait 12 more minutes.

So my second attempt I poured the rest in a pie pan and baked it for 15ish minutes. Then I brought it out and served it up that way. Much better.

The consistency was like a thick, warm, pudding. It was so yummy. I put some coconut oil on top and let it melt and seep in there.

The kids loved this breakfast. We will be doing this again but I will skip the little pancakes and go straight for the pie pan. Yes!

No Sugar !

No dairy !

No flour !