Slow This Ride Down

CSn Stores Review: Honeywell Quietcare Console Humidifier!

2010-12-12T20:57:00.000-06:00

Not only has the furnace been drying out our pocket book but our noses are suffering as well from the constant heat! Ouch!

So I was really excited when CNS Stores since me this humidifier to review!

As always, my item arrived so fast and was packaged wonderfully. It was really easy to use and fill, we plugged it in right away and were really pleased with how quite it was. We've been using it for a few days and are thrilled that our noses are already feeling a lot better and no more itching skin!

If you are still looking for last minute Christmas gifts, be sure to go check out CSN Stores, with over 200 sites you are sure to find just what you need!

~This item was sent to me for review purposes, the opinions written here are mine. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post & was not under any obligation to give a positive review of the product.~

Alex

2010-12-02T08:35:00.001-06:00

Naughty Or Nice Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

House Update!

2010-11-30T18:38:00.000-06:00

For those of you asking how our cheap house project is going...here's a video for ya!

It's pretty much done, just need some curtains for Alex's playroom and a computer desk for the kids.

We moved into this house with nothing and in just a few months, using only freecycle, friends castoffs, yard sales, and thrift stores we turned the house into our HOME!

We spent less than $300 for everything in the house, will it ever be featured in a magazine? Nope, but it serves its purpose!

Sure, it's got some ugly stuff in it coughcouchcough but it does its job perfectly and that's fine with us!

CSN Stores for easy holiday shopping

2010-11-30T12:21:00.001-06:00

I am once again doing all my Christmas shopping online. I hate crowds and wasted driving time and shopping in general so I love being able to get all I need from the comfort of my home, plus I always find awesome bargains and free shipping! CSN stores is a great place to check out because they have over 200 stores with one shopping cart! They offer anything and everything from sling backpacks to massage chairs, and lots of items have free shipping and if you hurry you can take advantage of their Cyber Week Sales!
And I know I've said this before but they have awesome customer service!

I'll be reviewing a product for them so, so stay tuned!

Date Truffles made with my CSN Stores food processor!

2010-11-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

The food processor that CSN Stores sent me to review came in.... and it's awesome!

The first thing I decided to whip up with it was date truffles! If you've never made these you should give them a try, so tasty, easy, AND healthy!

All you do is throw some dates, nuts, and dried fruit in your lovely food processor - no cooking required!

My beautiful processor along with my truffle supplies.

I added whole dates, cashews, and an organic dried fruit mix that had apples, pineapple, pears, and a few more fruits I'm forgetting. I never measure, just add until it looks right. Mine turned out a little dry so I also added a tiny scoop of coconut oil so they would stick together.

Look at how well they blended up! I was so impressed with how easy the processor was to use and fast to clean, it also has suction cups on the bottom so it doesn't slid when you're using it. I used it to make cauliflower "rice" too, worked like a charm!

Then you just roll them into balls and coat with coconut flakes or ground nuts or ground date powder! Yum! The whole family loves these and this is our "candy" of choice. They freeze great too!

Always start with date but then you can add almonds or walnuts or peanuts and then add in chocolate or dried cherries or lemon pulp, be creative!

Computers are taking over

2010-10-16T19:19:00.000-05:00

Ever since our huge laptop crashed last year and I replaced it with a tiny notebook, the kids have been begging for a desktop. "How do you do anything on that itty bitty thing mom? It's soooo lame." (Everything I do is lame to them though so I'm not too worried. Though it did worry me when my four year old called me a n00b yesterday! lol)

My husband knows how to build computers so he asked me to keep an eye on freecycle for old ones so he could put something together for the kids. It's acutally been really fun, for the past few months we've been going out on "computer salvage dates." :-)

He finally found enough parts to build one complete computer for the kids, they are playing on it right now! Of course they are using it on the floor because I forgot that we'd need a computer desk too! That's now next on my freecycle list. lol

Want to know what the aftermaths of a computer salvage operation looks like?
Here's the leftover computer parts in Jason's office.
(But note the game table in the back corner, I loooove the fact the he put that in there just so he could play games with the kids while he works!)

Sooo, what to do with all these useless electronic items?
They can't go in our trash. (It's harmful to the environment.)

And we really don't want to just chuck them into our basement.

Perhaps some crafts?

A cat house?

Or a fish tank?

Or here's an an awesome blog about an e-waste recycler, she's got some amazing computer jewelry!

Or we could recycle them properly, more info HERE.

Ok in other news, I might be shutting down my blog. I started blogging 6 years ago so my large family could stay up to date with us, however I use facebook for that now and like it better because it's private. Plus I've really been struggling to find time to post updates. There's not a lot going on right now anyway, we'll be here for another year at least but when we do move I promise to come back to blog about our next adventure. :-)
I'll be posting a review once in a while but not much more for the time being.

CSN to the resure...again!

2010-10-12T19:34:00.001-05:00

I am very excited to announce that CSN Stores has offered me another opportunity to review one of their products! You remember them of course, they have over 200 stores offering everything from console tables to food processors to adorable espresso cafe play tents!

I love the ease of ordering from CSN Stores and their customer services is amazing. You remember the awesome griddle I received last month? I'd be so lost with out it now, I use it every. single. morning. and for lots of suppers too. At one point I must have gotten a little too excited because I somehow snapped the temperature control dial off! I was a little hesitant to contact customer service at first because sometimes that can be so frustrating. It was so easy, quick, and painless though! All I had to do was log into my account, click on my griddle order, and right there is a form to send in where you explain what the problem is. In a few days I had a new dial on my doorstep! (And yes....I'm being a lot more calm with this one!)

So stayed tuned for another fun review and while you wait go check out CSN Stores, they really do have everything!

Eating Out... Is it worth it?

2010-10-11T20:10:00.000-05:00

For us, the answer is a very large, flashing "NO".
And now you get to listen to me ramble on about it for awhile.

All three of our kids have some sort of sensitivity or allergy that causes their bodies harm, to recap:

*Rebecca: Avoids Sugar and Carbs (carbs act as sugar in our bodies)
If she eats these types of foods, baked goods, bread, pasta, grains her insulin level sky rockets and she becomes...insane. Grumpy as hell, extremely emotional, and she loses her impulse control and ends up making some really bad decisions.
Last year she begged to eat the school lunches and since we had just moved and it was the middle of the school year and various other reasons we said yes. Biggest mistake ever. Her behavior was so bad we were at our wits end, it was so horrible. As soon as we put her back on packed lunches....she was totally sane and mild again. We were so relieved to get our sweet girl back!
(If I eat sugar my bones ache. If Jason eats it he gets migraines - has since he was a kid.)

*Jarod: Eats only meat, veggies, fruits, and nuts. (Would be a huge list of foods he avoids. lol)
Most of you know it took ten years to figure out what he could and couldn't eat. We finally feel like we perfected his diet with some major changes we made over the summer and he's healthier than ever.
All his life he's had a bloated stomach, tiny arms and legs but big belly and he constantly had tummy issues; diarrhea and cramping all the time. He also had some pretty bad eczema. Last year he missed so many days of school because of tummy problems. (I won't even go into his reactions to food dyes and preservatives - but they cause him to regress back to the level of a toddler.)
This year,with his new "caveman" diet he's has not missed one day nor complained once about his tummy! He's also not had a spot of eczema on his body. Within weeks of switching to only those 5 foods his tummy was flat! He went from having to wear a 14 husky size jeans to a size 10! (He's ten years old so that is a normal size for his age!) He didn't lose much weight, which would have been a concern, just lost his belly!
(I also get tummy aches if I eat grains, not fun.)

*Alex: Avoids dairy and salt
Alex has the same problems I do, inner ear trouble. We both gets motion sickness and are prone to ear infections. I also have tinnitus and a mild hearing disorder. These can all caused by too much fluid in the ears.
Ears require drainage by the eustachian tube, which opens into the back of the throat and is very susceptible to being blocked by inflammation. Anything that causes inflammation can block the eustachian tube, resulting in a warm moist breeding ground for bacteria in the inner ear, which leads to ear infections. Usually this inflammation is caused by a food allergy, most often dairy.
Salt also retains fluid in your ears, which is painful.
Once we took Alex off dairy and salt he never got another ear infection or ear pain. (I don't either!)

OK, back to the eating away from home topic....

We basically eat fresh meat, fruit, veggies, and nuts.
Our meat is pure and cooked in coconut oil, not breaded, coated, processed, or full of nitrates etc.
Can you think of very many restaurants that offer that type of food?
Or even one? (Maybe a heath food store cafe but nothing in small cities.)

So why would we want to pay crazy amounts of money for foods that would make my daughter insane, my son have diarrhea and eczema, and my toddler have an ear infection?

We cook all our meals at home about 99% of the time.
If the kids feel like they really want to have a special day and eat out we might consider it, especially with Alex and Rebecca as we just have to avoid dairy and sugar. In fact I do like to take Rebecca out once in a blue moon so she can learn how to find healthier options at restaurants.
Jarod however is a bit harder... there is not a single place that won't give him a reaction. We can take him to a steak house type place though and let him get a meat and veggie and he usually just has a mild reaction, if we do this on a Friday most of the time he'll be back to normal by school on Monday...but again, is it worth it? Feeding your child something you know will make him sick? He's eaten out once since May.

"What about eating at friends houses or holidays?"

As of right now....we try to avoid it.

For all the same reasons and also because we don't like the concept of food and holidays. We do not teach our kids to stuff themselves but rather offer the "Let's eat to live, not live to eat" concept.
Plus it's just soooo stressful to be at an event with tons of "normal" foods and have to keep telling people "No, he can't have that. No, it's not ok, we brought our own food." and so on. And there is always someone who thinks we are such mean parents and will try to sneak food to our "deprived" kids. (Deprived hah! Our kids eat the best foods known to man, I spend hours each day in the kitchen whipping up gourmet meals for them, we spend more on food than we do on rent. Deprived of sickness and pain - yes.) Or there is someone who thinks they know better than us what our kids can eat and will feed them things thinking it's ok because "I read somewhere that's it's healthy." Or someone doesn't understand that Jarod has lots of disorders, one of which is that his body does not understand common signals...the feeling of being full one of them so he does not stop eating, ever. We have learned to do portion control with him - I make one plate for him containing all the food that he needs at each meal. If he sees food on the table he will beg for it even if he's had enough to feed a small army, so we do not put dishes of food on the table - they stay on the stove. Needless to say, holidays where all this food is all over are really hard on him and to others it can look like we are being mean because he is crying that he wants more food and we saying no, but he will not stop eating and will end up in massive amounts of pain all night long if left to eat on his own.
Because of all his issues we've had to implement a "Do not feed Jarod" rule when ever he goes to play at other houses. Even if it sounds safe, it can end up going horribly wrong. Over the summer he had went over to his grandparents one afternoon and they thought it would be ok for him to eat some watermelon...which if they had just given him one piece would have been fine but they didn't limit what he ate and he ended up eating a tons of slices...the result was that he sat on the toilet for hours screaming.
So as you can see, the "Do Not Feed Jarod" rule saves him a lot of pain.

When we go to friends houses or to holidays we go after dinner, which always turns out to be more enjoyable anyways as the host is not busy and we can all play and talk much better. Or we plan a trip to the park or museum which is better for kids anyways than just sitting around a table, less stressful too.

In the past we've tried to do all the dinners and holidays and and eating out but it always, every single time, ends in someone getting sick or having a reaction. So to us...it's just not worth it at all expect for very rare, special occasions.

How about you? If you're kids have allergies, how do you handle eating out?

Things my kids say

2010-10-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

I'm a mother.
My kids are adorable.
So yes, I will be annoying at times and post the cute things they say. :-)

Me: Jarod aren't you going to get the mail today?
Jarod: Nah
Me: Uh, why not? You get it everyday.
Jarod: It's Thursday.
Me: And....
Jarod: There's never anything good in the box on Thursday. So why bother?

Jarod: I want to be a cop when I grow up.
Me: So you can uphold the law of the land?
Jarod: No....so I can eat donuts everyday. Duh

Alex: *Trying to talk me into the bag of giant marshmallows at the store*
Me: No sweetie, let's put them back. They will just give you a tummy ache.
Alex: But mommy, I will cut them in half and then eat both halves, so they will be smaller and not be too much in my tummy.

Jarod, in a whisper: Here Alex, go give this to mommy.
Alex: Eh no, why does mommy want a dead flower!?
Jarod: It's not dead. It's.....picked.
Alex: You picked it dead.

Alex: *Looking at my list* "How do you buy "huh?"
Me: Buy what?
Alex: huh? huh? You want to buy huh?
Me: I have no idea what you are talking about, silly boy.
Alex: Grabs the list and points to the spot where I had put down "??? for Jason" and says "you want to buy three 'huh?" for daddy but how do you buy "huh?".
(He didn't know it was called a question mark but knew the concept..."huh?" is the sound cartoon characters make when they are confused and question marks float around their head. lol)

Rebecca: After explaining that if we move to the Netherlands the school she would be going to would be taught in Dutch: "But mom, I wouldn't be able to understand them for a FEW DAYS!"
(We've always encouraged her self-confidence but this time we did have to explain that it will probably take her longer than a few days to learn Dutch. lol)

P.S. Jason has another interview with the university on Thursday so stay tuned for that update! :-P

Thrifty Fashion: $1 buys 5 winter outfits!

2010-09-26T18:36:00.000-05:00

I just love the yard sales the church across the street has! They do them about 4 times a year and that's where about 80% of my clothes come from because they do $1 a bag sales!! And I can fit a lot of clothes in one bag!

It got really cold here starting last month, in the 40s, which my southern blood just hates so of course I dug out my winter clothes....clothes I had just put away 2 months ago! How can you only have 2 months of summer?! The good news is all my winter clothes were too big on me....the even better news is that meant I got to run across the street with a dollar in my pocket and get a new winter wardrobe!

Last winter was our first winter here, our first real winter ever though as "winter" in the south is a joke...nothing compared to this! I didn't even own a coat in Arkansas! So it has taken me awhile to get used to wearing so much clothing....not a great fan of it as it makes me feel fat and bulky - sweaters are not very flattering on me, but at least I stay warm!

Anyway, back to the bag sale! I was really excited because I found some great items that matched really well! Lots of pinks and maroons, I guess those are my winter colors. lol I was able to find 5 really great outfits for going places, which I'll post photos of, and 6-7 "really warm for around the house" outfits...which I will not be posting photos of because you don't need to see me looking like a bag lady with 4 millions layers of clothes! (Though...I guess I am a bag lady....a $1 bag lady! hah!)

One buck - 5 Outfits!

Button up w/ maroon stripes

Maroon Cardigan

Jeans

Purple Skirt

Beatles Tee

Maroon Hoodie

I was holding in a sneeze here. When I saw the photo I laughed because I look quite sexy while I'm holding in sneezes! From now on I might walk around, sniffing pepper, and holding in sneezes. :-P

Green tank top

Green and white cardigan

White tank top

Jeans

Floral Skirt

Brown tank top

Pink peasant shirt

Pink Cardigan

(The two pink tops are the same color, the flash messed the photo up though.)

Huge pink sweater

Beige tank top

Jeans

Sadly, it's only in the 40s. In a short while it will be in the NEGATIVE 40s!!!!!!!!

At which point I might be wearing a snowsuit all day long.

But maybe if I hold in sneezes whilst wearing it...I might still look good! :-P

It's part of our family

2010-09-25T18:57:00.000-05:00

I've been getting some emails asking if we still have our ugly couch (the only one we could find at the time, it was that...or the floor!).....and the answer is "Yup, we sure do!".

It's grown on us! :-p

I have added some more "homey" items to the living room though. Curtains, wall art, bookshelves, my awesome antique dresser from freecycle, photos etc.
Only spent a few dollars more, most of it came from freecycle or were items we had in storage. It's still not going to be featured in any magazine out there but it only cost us $55 for everything in it and it's a room....that you can sit in. So we are pleased.

Before:

After:

See how happy Mr. Ugly Couch is to have a family to love him! :-P

Never dull around my girl

2010-09-25T17:05:00.001-05:00

I try to make sure I take Rebecca out every other Saturday for some quality girl time. She's my only daughter so it's nice for both of us to get a break from the boys! (The in-between Saturdays I take my boys out, so I get lots of fun Saturdays!)

Today we were excited because there was a fashion show at a mall in the area. I figured it wouldn't hurt me to acutally take a peak at the latest trends, could help me out when I'm buying my clothes at thrift stores. heh And Rebecca has been getting into fashion as of late so she wanted some new ideas too. I'm also throwing around the idea of putting on a second hand fashion show in our town so wanted ideas for that concept.

The show today was partnered with an animal shelter, which was so cute because they had some of the animals walking down the runway with the models! Rebecca, an avid animal lover, was in heaven and I had a hard time prying her away from the cages when the show started.

All the models were adorable, they had a mix of young, old, male, and female in all shapes and sizes! What I saw the most of were "jeggings", cute... but not something my thighs would ever squeeze into. LOL

The un-dull part came next.
The MC started to pull names out of the door prize drawing box....when we first got there Rebecca had seen the box and said she would put our names in, she was over there for an awfully long time too. Anyway, so the MC read off a few names and then the next one was Rebecca's and she ran up there to get her organic treat basket. Then, uh the next name was also Rebecca's... "Oh," said the MC "I must have thrown her name back in by mistake." I slid a look over at Rebecca...who was looking perfectly innocent. But I knew better.... And of course the next name he called out was also Rebecca's! He paused and everyone looked over at us. "Uh, how many times did you put your name in hon?" Rebecca just shruged. And smiled. The MC threw her name out and drew another name....and it was mine! I turned red. And meekly walked up to claim my prize, a gift certificate to the mall. And then walked back past our seats, motioned to Rebecca to met me outside, and headed towards the door so we could chat....as her name was called out AGAIN. "Mom! There was no sign that said you had to only put your name in once...I looked all over! Those prizes are mine you know. They aren't going to give them to me are they? I want to go back and file a complaint."

Those of you who know my way too smart for her own good daughter know she loves and abides in rules, but if there is a loophole she will find it. When she was 7 months old I told her to keep her hands off the houseplant....a few minutes later I found her sitting on the table...touching it with her TOES and a very defiant look on her face while she showed me her hands behind her back!

Like I said...never a dull moment around her. lol

After the show I took her to the nursing home where she volunteers three times a week, they have a huge aviary that she takes care of- she helps clean and feed the birds. I've worked in home health, assisted living, and nursing home settings every since she was a baby so she's used to that atmosphere and she just loves all the birds and has high hopes of taming them.

We also always go to the library so she can load up on books and sometimes check out the local shops or farmer's market. It doesn't matter, just as long as we are out and away from the house we have fun. Oh and thrift stores too! She loves the Goodwill more than I do I think! :-P
She's great at picking out outfits too:

And what do the boys do while the girls are gone??

Make messes for mom to clean up of course. :-P

I only exist when my toddler can see me...

2010-09-22T12:24:00.001-05:00

Whew, the past few weeks have been insane!
For lots of reasons but one being that my 4 year old is going to pre-school two days a week!
And I have never sent a kid off to school so young. (We home schooled our older kids until 2 years ago.)
So, I was a basket case trying to cut that cord!
It's going really well though and he's really enjoying school and being a big boy. He's so proud that he gets to go to school like his older brother and sister. But he still loves his days off with mom. On non-school days he askes to curl up with me and says "I like you too much." We also do a lot of math with him on his off days as he loves numbers and adding, he turns everything in the world into math problems. He'll be past my level in just a few years for sure.

I love it when he gets home from school and throws himself into my arms and tells me all about his day.

He tells me that he loooves Miss Sarah.
That waiting in lines is really, really hard.
That he paints and then puts his picture on the drying rack.
That he doesn't have to take a nap anymore...just a little rest. (He stopped taking naps at 18 months so nap time didn't go over very well at school. heh)
That he has to keep his shoes on all the time. (He hates shoes. lol)
That there is a girl's and a boy's bathroom but there are no bathtubs or showers in the bathrooms.
That he gets tired of all the noise.
That his lunch is different from every one else but it's better.
That it's not fair that he has to play on the little playground when the big one looks so much more fun.
That the sand table it awesome but the other kids spill the sand.
That the puzzles are too easy.
That playing in the gym in fun.
That he's glad he's a big boy because school is fun...but only for 2 days. "Two days is better than five."

Then I made the mistake of asking him "Do you want to hear what I did today?"
He looked confused and said "I know what you did. You waved goodbye to me and then you were there to pick me up."

LOL!

I cease to exist while he's at school of course.

It came!!!

2010-09-17T22:58:00.001-05:00

And it's HUGE!

I mean, I know it was going to be big.... but I was still shocked when I saw the box!

I think I scared the UPS man. "Oh wow, it so big....I've never seen one so large!" Heh. He might never come back...

Of course I was referring to my awesome griddle that CSN Stores sent me to review! Here's our youngest getting all excited over the box, not the griddle mind you... he just wanted the box. "I fit in this box mommy!" (That's our oldest doing her homework in the background, or trying to do it. Kind of hard to concentrate with everyone going crazy over boxes and huge griddles.)

It looked even better out of the box! (The box that out youngest ran off with as soon as it was empty.)
Don't I look happy with my new toy? :-)
I'm trying to decide what to cook on it first!

We used it THREE times the first day and TWO times the next day and three more times today!!
*swoons*

Did I ever tell you that we could not for the life of us find a griddle when we lived in N. Ireland? Not sure if they just don't have them or if they are called something else but I never found one.

Anyway, I used this baby to make ~~pancakes~~, oh I guess they should be called "griddle cakes" (12 AT A TIME!!! My mom could have really used this when she had all us kids running around the house.), and burgers, and chicken patties, and steak, and eggs and even cookies! It has a tilt in it so the grease runs down into a little trap but that means you have to wait for it to be really hot to put your eggs and pancake batter on it they will run. It works perfectly, and is easy to clean, just a wipe down as it's non-stick. In fact the only problem I have with it is that it's too big to fit in my cupboard! We use it so much though, that I found a spot for it on my counter. It's really sturdy so I think it will last for years and years!

It's so perfect for when I stumble into the kitchen in the morning with 3 hungry kids waiting to be fed because I can fit 6 eggs and 6 pancakes on it!! They are done in minutes, saves me so much time in the morning.

You can read all about this griddle HERE.

Oh, and these are the yummy cookies I made on them!

~This griddle was sent to me for review purposes, the opinions written here are mine. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post & was not under any obligation to give a positive review of the product.~

CSN Stores to the rescue!

2010-09-07T12:59:00.000-05:00

Have you been to CSN Stores yet? Man, they have everything from Dinnerware Sets to Safes! (I've wanted a safe since I was a child, probably because I thought the money came with it!) They have over 200 stores, filled with everything and anything.

I admit that I have been drooling over their electric griddles! I spend far too much time flipping one pancake or burger at a time, today was the worst because it was the kids first day back at school and they were in a hurry and hungry and not happy that they had to wait so long for their pancakes to get done in my tiny skillet!

So, I was over the moon when CSN Stores contacted me and asked if I would do a review of one of their products! "Ship me a GRIDDLE!" I screamed while jumping up and down. (Ok, maybe not...but only because I didn't want to scare them away.)

You'd be excited too though, look at this baby!

I can't wait for it to get here so I can tell you all about it! So stay tuned!

Caveman (ish) Cafe: Kid's Lunches

2010-09-06T23:38:00.000-05:00

As I said, we switched to a caveman diet at the beginning of summer for our older son's health as he's allergic to so many foods (wheat, additives, and dairy being the worst). We quickly found however, that we all felt better on the diet. Summer was easy because we were all home for every meal and I only kept paleo foods in the house. I let the kids help cook and go on trips to the store with me so we all had fun "hunting and gathering".

Summer came to an end though and I really started to worry about the kids school lunches. Not my older son so much, as he will eat anything I give him with no complaint, but my tween daughter is really picky. So, I started having long talks with her about food and what she felt we should do about her lunches and I asked her to make a list of foods that she would eat at school. She's not allergic to anything really, just has huge meltdowns if she eats sugar. Everything on her list was Paleo except for bread, tortilla chips and hummus. So we decided the chips and hummus were fine and that I would find her some spouted grain bread. (Sprouted grains have less anti-nutrients than whole grains) I took her to the store and let her pick out a cool lunchbag and had her pick out a few grocery's for her first week. And told her that each night she can help me pack her lunch and that she has veto power. I also told her that if she will take and eat her healthy lunch everyday, that she is free to eat the horrible foods at the occasional school party and that I won't say a word. (We've always tried to eat healthy so we've never had processed foods in our home, last year was her first year in a public school (we homeschooled before that) and I about had a heart attack when I saw what they had at the school parties! Little Debbies, and Mountain Dew and Cupcakes and Cookies and Doritos and Donuts and Candy....all eaten in one hour!!! My god. I said a lot of words last year. lol ) Anyways, she was really respectful and seemed content with this, so we'll see.

I also had to figure out what to do about my older son for parties. The holidays I can plan ahead for and I can send baked treats and smoothies the day of, but the teacher asked me to leave a bag of snacks with her for when it's a student's birthday and they bring in treats for the whole class out of the blue. (Jarod can't have wheat, dairy, or food additives like dye and preservatives.) I can't leave a bag of my homemade treats because they go bad in a few days but I was able to find some really yummy macaroons that only have egg whites, honey, and coconut as the ingredients! I also included some organic juice boxes and some Organic Trail Mix. He doens't do to well with juice though, so I'm going to try to find some coconut water for him soon.

And I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing for my youngest son, who will be going to headstart two days a week, they serve lunch and two snacks a day. I'll be talking with his teacher this week to see what the other kids will be eating at snack time so I'll have a better idea of what to send. He is allergic to dairy and is even more picky than my daughter so that will be fun. hah He goes through stages where he will only eat one food items for weeks at a time, so it's frustrating. At least it's only two days a week though.

Anyways, tomorrow is the first day of school so tonight the kids helped me pack their lunches!
They both wanted a main item, a fruit, a veggie, and a treat.

So, my son got a nitrate-free, all natural hot dog topped with our homemade chili, pineapple, raw carrots, my caveman banana cake, and some True Raspberry Lemonade.

And my daughter has the same sides but instead of chili she made a sandwich on her spouted grain bread. She filled it with hummus, guacamole, greens, tomatoes, and cucumber.(I do admit that she loves her veggies!)

As for myself and my husband, he'll be taking his homemade jerky, some organic trail mix, and a hard boiled egg to work for lunch. And I'll probably make myself a green smoothie and chow down on a handful of nuts while I blend it up.

Oh and the kids asked if they could have pancakes for breakfast, so I just mixed up a batch of Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes and will fry those up in the morning!

Whew! :-P

Caveman Cafe: Paleo Pizza with Cashew Cheese

2010-09-04T18:32:00.000-05:00

First I just wanted to say that we don't eat comfort foods everyday!
With school starting though, I'm just trying out some new recipes to have on hand for the kids.
Normally we eat tons of veggies with tiny sides of chicken or fish. I promise! lol
But it's nice to know I can fix some "normal" foods for the kids, foods they miss but won't give them all reactions.

OK, first off the "cheese". I learned how to make this when I was a vegan, it's pretty crazy but works so well!
Does it taste like cheese?
Well, no. But it is the same texture and looks similar so it substitutes well.
And the taste it does have is very yummy, different...but delicious!

I don't have the cookbook where I learned this from, but I kinda remembered how to make it as I never followed her recipes exact anyway (hers always called for lemon juice and mustard and things I didn't like). The cookbook was, The Uncheese Cookbook by, Jo Stepaniak

Anyway, the one that I remember how to make calls for carrots, to give it an orange tint. So, after I had made the cheese the kids said "Hey, we are making pizza....it should be white!" I hadn't even thought of that...my cheese did look like "cheddar". Next time I will try adding cauliflower instead of carrots so it can be white, and make this cheese for taco salad!

You have to make this the day before you need it as it has to set for quite a while.

Cheddar Cashew "Cheese"

1 3/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped carrots
5 tablespoons agar agar or 4 tablespoons gelatin

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons tahini
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon parpirka

Bring the carrots in the water to a boil and then simmer for around 15 minutes or so.
Add the agar agar or gelatin and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add everything else to the blender. Then add the carrot mixture, after it cools down a bit.

Pour into a greased mold of your choice, I just used a rectangular Tupperware container.

Pop in the fridge until morning.

And it will look like this!

The cool thing is that this stuff slices, shreds, and melts! Here is mine shredded and ready for the pizza!

Ok, so next we needed a crust. I looked around at quite a few different paleo blogs and combined a few recipes and came up with this for my crust.

Coconut Flour Pizza Crust

6 eggs
2 cups coconut milk

1 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

I beat the eggs, beat in the milk.
Mixed up the dry in another bowl. Then added the dry to the wet.
It was like a thick pancake batter.

I put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, one small and one medium, smeared olive oil all over the paper, and then spooned the batter on top and smoothed it out.
They looked like this:

Into the 375 degree oven they went for 20-25 minutes. They shrunk up quite a bit! But looked very yummy!
Here they are after I took off the paper.

Ok, so then I put on some sauce, the cheese, and our toppings! On one pizza we put nitrate-free ham and pineapple. And on the other we put beef, mushroom, tomatoes, olives, and green onion.
Here they are before I popped them back in the oven, just until everything was hot:

And here they are...all done!

Now, the kids have been missing chocolate milk so I have been trying to find a replacement. We can't do rice or soy but we can do nuts.... so I was soooo excited to find Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Milk!!! It's just almonds and cocoa but it's not bitter at all, really smooth and creamy, they loved it! It's a bit pricey though, but will be a nice treat for once in a while. The plain flavor is awesome too and will be good for Alex to take to headstart in his lunches.

Pizza and chocolate milk!

I'm so stuffed right now! It was very, very good! My tummy is very content. lol

Last Day of Summer

2010-09-04T16:12:00.000-05:00

"Kids, school time is HERE!!! Arrrghhhh, what should we do on our last day of summer!?"

Go swimming!

"Oh, sorry. 50 degrees outside....too cold."

Go to the library or the children's museum or the forest museum!

"Ach, sorry.... holiday weekend, they are closed."

Go on a drive and find something awesome....and then eat pizza and chocolate milk!!!

"Uh, ok.... we'll try!!!"

And succeed we did.

Turns out there is an old, abandoned school 30 miles away, with an awesome playground!

It's huge, this is jsut one corner of it.

The boys turned me into a dragon and ran around protecting their fort whilst dancing and climbing and jumping and begging to stay forever and a day. Rebecca found a nook to hide from her brothers and read.

And when we got home we had paleo pizza and chocolate almond milk!

(Next post will show how I made the pizza!)

Now....it's time for me to cry because our beautiful summer is over and I have to miss the kids...even Alex who will be going two days a week to head start!!!! :-(

Dress spruce up!

2010-09-04T00:55:00.002-05:00

You know that little black dress I mentioned yesterday?
The one that cost me less 10 cents? (dollar grab bag)

Well, I like it ok. But I don't love it.

I thought I could take the buttons off and tolerate it, (I have some weird button phobia) but the buttons are not just decorative...they acutally hold the dress together so those suckers are not coming off. So I was all "meh" about the dress and was going to just put it in my "to donate" pile but as I tossing it in the pile I saw another dress I had thrown in there last week. It's a white lace sundress that I got while we were in N. Ireland but with my recent weight loss it doesn't fit me anymore. "It kind of looks like a petticoat though." I said to myself. (Yes, I talk to myself...) "And my black dress has a sort of 1950s feel to it..." I decided to see if I could put the two together and come up with something that would make me happy.

* I put on the white dress and layered the black one over it.
*I used my grandmas brooch to pin up one side of the black dress to show off the white a little more.
* I dug out my pearls that I won off a website years and years ago.
* I shined my black flats. (I do NOT wear heels...have never been able to stand them. A wedge heel once in a while but never those sharp, pointy things. Come on guys, you know how clumsy I am....I'd kill myself in seconds in those things.)

And......voila! Success! I'm very happy with the look! And the best part is, if I change my mind all I have to do is unpin the black dress, take off the white dress, and it's back to normal in seconds.

Before (Toddler sold separately.)

After:

Anywho, kept me busy for awhile so I didn't have to think about all the kids going back to school next week!!! :-(

.

Caveman Cafe: Yesterday and Today

2010-09-02T18:50:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to blog each meal we have to make is easier for me in a few months when I plan on typing up a list of all the meals we had, to make meal planning easier.

Yesterday we had meatloaf muffins, meatloaf made in muffin pans. They freeze really well so are great for lunches too! Also had a side salad and mashed cauliflower.(You can tell we like our comfort foods. hah)

Today Jason made dinner! Now, I wouldn't label it as healthy but....it sure was good and he stuck with all the food on our "approved" list. He made battered fish, hush puppies, and coleslaw. He used coconut flour to coat the fish, coconut oil to cook them, and added egg and coconut milk to the batter to make the hush puppies. It was REALLY awesome and even Rebecca, who hates fish, ate a ton!

I decided we needed to treat ourselves to some dessert, rare in our house, and made pumpkin pudding! It's so easy and the kids just love it! All you do is open a can of pure pumpkin, pour it in a bowl and add cinnamon, coconut milk, and your choice of sweetener. Not a lot of milk, just until it's smooth and creamy. Mix it all up and eat, unless you want it hot, then just heat it up. The kids call it pumpkin pie in a bowl. lol If it is hot outside you can throw it in a blender with some ice or frozen bananas for a very yummy pumpkin smoothie!

I'm thinking about seeing if I can make pumpkin jello soon.... should be interesting!

Let's see, oh for lunch yesterday the kids helped me make a chicken and vegetable stew. Tons of veggies from the garden, a bit of leftover chicken, and herbs and spices. Very good, in fact we ate it all before I thought to take a photo. hah!

The kids want pizza tomorrow so I'm going to try to make a crust and some cashew cheese. Yup, cheese from a cashew. I've had it before...not bad at all in fact.

But for now I've got to go clean up the mess Jason's fish fry left in my kitchen. lol

What can you do with $1?

2010-09-01T20:31:00.000-05:00

Why, buy a wardrobe of course! :-)

The local thrift stores and lots of the yard sales around here offer "Fill a bag for $1" and I LOVE them so much!

I can usually find clothes for the kids, sometimes really nice things but if not I'm still able to find lots of play clothes for them. I also see a lot of ladies buying the clothes to tear apart for quilts and other craft projects. I love when items that would otherwise be thrown away get re-used!

Here's what I was able to fit in one bag: jeans, tank top, casual shirt, flip flops, slacks, dressy shirt, dress, and heels. (If you wear jewelry you would have room to toss those in too, It's rare that I accessorize though. I like things simple. )

3 outfits. $1.

(Toddler not included.)

I will be removing those big white buttons from the dress though, yech.

So, if you ever see a place advertising $1 grab bags...run inside!!!! :-)

Caveman Cafe: Sweet & Sour Pork w/ Cauliflower Rice

2010-08-31T18:31:00.001-05:00

I love Tuesdays.
On Tuesday the sale papers come out!
Today pork, pineapple, and green peppers were on sale....so you know what that means!

Sweet and Sour Pork! (Can also be made with chicken, which I like even better but alas, chicken was not on sale this week.)

I also decided to try something I've been reading about on random Paleo blogs....making rice from a cauliflower! It was soooo easy! Just grate a cauliflower until it looks like rice and either steam or microwave it! I loved it! Rice really has no flavor and neither does cauliflower so it works perfect!

Jason cooked the meat while I did the veggies. I think he diced it, coated it in egg and coconut flour, and cooked it in a skillet. I made the rice and cooked pineapple, green pepper, green onion, carrots, and celery in the wok.

It's easy to make your own sweet and sour sauce (just google it), and I usually do, but tonight I had a jar of an all natural, locally bottled Vietnamese sauce! Boy howdy was it spicy! But I loved it! For some reason (old age perhaps?) I can eat spicy foods now. I have NEVER been able to, hated even most mild spiced foods but within the last month I adore the spice!

It was one of the best meals we've had recently and tasted just like it came right out of a restaurant!
My kitchen is a mess right now though...but it was so worth it. Well maybe I won't think that in a minute when I drag myself back in there to clean it up. haha

Why we Paleo

2010-08-31T01:02:00.002-05:00

We've eaten a lot of different ways over the years as we tried to find what worked best for our family, we wanted to be healthy and our kids, especially our special needs son, to have the best start in life. Through the years we've been vegan, vegetarian, raw foodies, low-carb, no-carb, specific carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, Feingold...and more. We learned soooo much about foods along the way and how it affected our bodies differently. We did tons of research. Read books from all sides.

The most important thing we learned is that there is no right or wrong way of eating as a whole, no one type that it best for everyone. Actually that's something I've applied to every aspect of my life. What's best for me isn't best for you. Diet, religion, clothes, schooling, job, parenting, relationships...everything. You have to research everything, question everything, and find what's best for you and your lifestyle.

I have no idea what or how you should eat, only you can know that.

But boy did I learn what my body can take and my kids, until they are old enough to take over for themselves, by charting reactions. Pretty interesting stuff.

AND I learned how to cook no matter what "restrictions" we have. Jason teases me that I can find a way to make a cake no matter what is going on. lol

Being vegan showed us that we don't handle grains or sugar well.

Being vegetarian showed us that dairy hates our tummies.

Feingold showed us that processed foods cause us all kinds of problems.

Raw foodies showed us that our bodies love whole foods and everything made from scratch.

And so on.

One day I listed all the foods we can't handle (grains, dairy, sugar, beans, starches,additives) and the foods we do ok with (meat, some veggies, nuts, seed, and berries) and did some research and found that...it was pretty much a paleo diet, also called a Caveman Diet, Stone Age Diet, Hunter-Gatherer Diet or Primal Diet. Pretty much anything your ancestors picked or hunted. Tons of info on google - I'm not gonna put it all here.

We got serious about the switch after our son had his worst tummy issue ever, 2 weeks of non-stop diarrhea, I had taken him in to see about getting some bloodwork done to try to figure out how to help him as he was just getting worse, he's always had tummy issues but this was horrible. His doctor asked me if I had tried a caveman diet, I was so shocked because I had just been researching it! So, we told our son we were going to be caveman and he was pretty excited. lol

He's always had a enlarged tummy, not fat as his legs and arms were small though. In just ONE week his tummy was perfectly flat! For the first time he was proportioned right! And no more tummy issues or eczema!

All of us felt better in fact, both Jason and I lost a bunch of weight and we all have more energy. And our son, well his mental and behavior issues also improved tons - lots of progress!

The downside is it costs a lot. A whole lot. Organic, grass-fed, humanly raised foods are not cheap. We would LOVE to relocated to where we could have a tiny farm and year-round garden. When we were eating lots of grains, pasta, bread, and potatoes...our grocery bill was so low. But of course our bodies were not happy. And our son was miserable.

Some sites I like:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/ (The movie is really good also and worth a watching. He's really smart and uses logic and/or math to make his points, plus he's funny. )

http://www.elanaspantry.com/recipes/ (Love her recipes as they are all wholesome, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and yummy!)

http://www.livingpaleo.com/

Some books I read that were helpful.

So in a nutshell our day looks like this:

Breakfast: Eggs scrambled with some veggies
Lunch: Huge veggie salad with diced chicken and sunflower seeds
Snack: Fruit
Supper: Meat, veggies

Other:
Almond milk
Smoothies made with coconut milk, fruit, and stevia.
Dried fruit and beef jerky made in our dehydrater
Moderated uses of coconut flour or almond flour to make breads and desserts.
Tons of water and daily vitamins and supplements such as trace minerals, fish oils etc.

Should you eat like this?
I have NO IDEA!
Do your own research and find out what's best for you.
I don't even know if we'll still be eating like this years from now. I just know it working for the moment. But if I ever find a better way, one that helps us even more - you can bet I'll be switching.

In the meantime, enjoy my yummy photos. :-)

Caveman Cafe: Paleo Taco Salad

2010-08-30T17:54:00.000-05:00

Very, very easy!

I found some noodle squash, finally! (They didn't have it over in the UK so I've been without it for sooo long!) It's also called spaghetti squash and I love it. After you cook it, the insides turn into strands or noodles! It's awesome covered in marinara sauce and meatballs, which is what we had the other day for dinner. And we ended up with tons of leftover "noodles". While I was staring at them, pondering what to do with them....I thought, "Hey, it kinda looks like cheese too!"

I decided to add them to our paleo taco salad, but first I stirred in some nutritional yeast to give it more of a cheesy flavor. (Nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes.)

I also made some cashew sour "cream"! It rocked!
Just blended some cashews and tiny bits of lemon juice, vinegar, and almond milk together. The kids loved it.

They both made our taco salad awesome. It would have been spectacular but I forgot to buy avocados. :-(
I ADORE guacamole, worship it and would eat it non-stop if it was cheaper.
I always put it on my tacos!
But not today. I wanted to cry. I even thought about photoshopping some guacmole into my photo to make myself feel better.
Yes, I am that pathetic.

Anyway, lettuce, "cheese", taco meat, salsa, sour "cream", olives, tomatoes, and green onion!
But no avocados. :-(
So, just imagine they are there.

Freecycle Score - Boys Loft Bed!

2010-08-25T20:41:00.002-05:00

Jarod has been BEGGING for a bunk bed since April, when we moved in. He tried to talk me into just buying him one pretty much all. the. time. "Common mom, how hard would it be to just pay for one?" (If you know me...really hard. lol)

But I knew there was the perfect bed out there for my boys. One that wouldn't cost me hundreds of dollars or make me give in to consumerism. We kept getting our hopes up and then dashed though, which just drove Jarod nuts.

* I saw an ad in the paper for a yard sale that mentioned a bunk bed. But when we got there is was a DOG bunk bed. (What? Why?) Jarod said he thought he could curl up inside just fine.

* There was an ad in the paper for a bunk bed but when I called it was 2 hours away. Jarod was up for the drive of course but I had to explain how with the gas it wouldn't be saving us any money. He said we could walk.

* There was a free bunk bed on craigslist but when I emailed it was already taken. Jarod asked me why didn't I type faster?

FINALLY, today a loftbed was listed on Freecycle. I wasn't sure what it was exactly but figured it would do. Problem was we had to pick it up....and we have a car. The man was kind enough to take it apart for us and Jason took out our back seat so we could push the pieces all the way from the trunk to the front seats. (I didn't know you could do that but now if I'm ever locked in a trunk I know how to get out! hah) I still didn't think we could fit a whole bunk bed in our trunk but we did! It' a really nice and made of solid wood!

We got it home and Jarod was so excited! He kept saying he must be dreaming and rushed us along as we tried to put it together. Of course we put it together wrong the first time, had to take it apart and redo it but one sliced up arm later (mine, ouch) and a few trips to the hardware store...and it was done! Jarod climbed up there and I haven't seen him since. lol

We put Alex's toddler bed (also from freecycle), chair (gift), and dresser (borrowing) underneath and he is now calling it his "cave".

I asked Jarod if it was worth the wait.

"Well. Maybe. But I could have fit in that dog bed."

Slow This Ride Down

CSn Stores Review: Honeywell Quietcare Console Humidifier!

Alex

House Update!

For those of you asking how our cheap house project is going...here's a video for ya!

It's pretty much done, just need some curtains for Alex's playroom and a computer desk for the kids.

We moved into this house with nothing and in just a few months, using only freecycle, friends castoffs, yard sales, and thrift stores we turned the house into our HOME! We spent less than $300 for everything in the house, will it ever be featured in a magazine? Nope, but it serves its purpose!

Sure, it's got some ugly stuff in it *coughcouchcough* but it does its job perfectly and that's fine with us!

CSN Stores for easy holiday shopping

Date Truffles made with my CSN Stores food processor!

Computers are taking over

CSN to the resure...again!

Eating Out... Is it worth it?

Things my kids say

Thrifty Fashion: $1 buys 5 winter outfits!

It's part of our family

Never dull around my girl

I only exist when my toddler can see me...

It came!!!

CSN Stores to the rescue!

Caveman (ish) Cafe: Kid's Lunches

Caveman Cafe: Paleo Pizza with Cashew Cheese

Last Day of Summer

Dress spruce up!

Caveman Cafe: Yesterday and Today

What can you do with $1?

Caveman Cafe: Sweet & Sour Pork w/ Cauliflower Rice

Why we Paleo

Caveman Cafe: Paleo Taco Salad

Freecycle Score - Boys Loft Bed!

We moved into this house with nothing and in just a few months, using only freecycle, friends castoffs, yard sales, and thrift stores we turned the house into our HOME!

We spent less than $300 for everything in the house, will it ever be featured in a magazine? Nope, but it serves its purpose!

Sure, it's got some ugly stuff in it coughcouchcough but it does its job perfectly and that's fine with us!