just do it

honey whole wheat bread

go to your basement, reach deep in your cupboard, crawl in that closet - go find your bread machine. most of you have one. go dig it out, dust it off and make THIS BREAD. just do it gosh darnnit. it's easy, it's good, it's healthy. my 4yo knows the ingredient list, makes it with me, and gobbles it down. the recipe is from my BFF lisa over at 100 days of real food. recipes like this make it easy to choose real food over the processed stuff. this bread has 6 ingredients. six. and i bet you have most of the stuff in your kitchen pantry already. go grab the bread you bought at the grocery store. how many ingredients does that have? just sayin'.

thanks for reading. and, make the bread.
amy~

label obsession

i was just tryin' to make some dinner. and then it happened. it never used to matter. i never cared to look. but now, every thing i touch, when i take it out of the cupboard or before it goes in my shopping cart, i have to read the label. what's in it? how many ingredients? can i pronounce the words? a meal i've made before, lots of times actually, turned into an eye opening experience. chicken nuggets, garlic smashed potatoes and tossed salad. seems easy enough, pretty straight forward. let's start with the chicken. i used a recipe for homemade chicken nuggets from lisa over at 100 days of real food. i was out of homemade whole wheat bread crumbs so i grabbed some packaged stuff i had in the fridge. big difference in ingredients in plain breadcrumbs vs. panko. check it out. i really need to re-up my supply of the homemade stuff.

next up was grated cheese. my dad is pretty awesome and surprised me with a big bag of freshly grated parmesan cheese he picked up at the italian market.

i'd much rather have that than this!

yikes!

next is the garlic smashed potatoes. my husbands favorite. i use parmesan cheese, butter, half & half and a boatload of garlic. check out the ingredients in the half & half. the container on the left is a major grocery store brand. on the right is stuff from a local farm. it's called half & half cause its half milk and half cream. what the heck is disodium phosphate?

(it's a anti-caking additive, um, no thanks!)

  

moving on to the salad...we love love love good seasons dressing. but now we like to make our own with oil, vinegar, herbs from my spice cabinet and we leave out the xanthan gum, maltodextrin, guar gum and citric acid.

so there ya have it folks, check your labels. why eat all this nonsense when it's just as easy to eat real foods! thanks for reading.

amy~

fiesty fajitas

made flank steak fajitas in the crock pot yesterday for dinner. you all know how much i love some crock potin' on a sunday. just had the leftovers for dinner tonight. what i love more than a crock pot meal on a sunday is not having to cook on a monday. my husband and i love these, our 4yo, not so much. she had leftover chicken nuggets from saturday. click here for the slow cooker flank steak fajitas recipe from lisa over at 100 days of real food.

thanks for reading.
amy~

it's like the energizer bunny

i love to take a hunk of meat, rub it down with some tasty spices and throw it in a crock it. especially on a sunday. you can do all your dirty work in the morning and then go about your day. the best is coming home from running errands with the family and the delicious aroma slaps ya in the face before you can even get through the door. this past weekend i did a whole chicken and let me tell you, it's like a gift that keeps on giving. that night we had chicken, brown rice and tossed salads for dinner. the chicken was super moist and we couldn't stop nibbling at it. i kept the juices and carcass in the crock pot and after dinner i added water, threw in a few spices, a couple carrots and let it simmer, all night. i woke up the next morning to homemade chicken stock. i jarred some up for the fridge and also froze some in an ice cube tray. why get it from a can or carton when it's that easy to make? monday night we had pulled chicken tacos. i'm not brave enough to attempt the homemade tortillas that my cousin lisa tried but i do make a mean taco seasoning, no packets for us. tuesday night, more shredded chicken. this time i threw it in a vodka cream sauce i whipped up and served it with whole wheat penne. this meal made enough for wednesday night too. one chicken = 4 nights of dinners & a boatload of chicken stock. it just kept going and going and going.

thanks for reading.
amy~

click here for the 'best whole chicken in a crock pot' recipe. there's a link for the chicken stock as well. this is from my bff lisa over at 100 days of real food.

click here for the vodka cream sauce recipe from allrecipes. i used 1/2 & 1/2 in place of the heavy cream and used less than half a pint.

beaver butt what?!?!?!

yeah you read that right! BEAVER BUTT!!! amy was telling me about this blog her and husband found and it put how bad some processed foods are in terms "everyday"people can understand.  i read it last night and i have to share some of it with you.  first off do you remember the tv show that was on friday night's with jaime oliver? i loved that show! that is were the post from this blog all started from.  jamie oliver!!

http://www.restlesschipotle.com/2011/04/all-the-stuff-you-dont-want-to-eat-but-you-do-anyway/

ok, you might want to sit sit down for this....

i never heard of this...there is a gland in the tush of a beaver that enhances the sweetness of vanilla ice cream!  who wants to go out for ice cream? NOT me.

how many of us have had dinner in the car?  chances are if you have kids the meal of choice was chicken (if we can call it that) nuggets and french fries. well guess what else is in the chicken (and no not pink slim that was the hamburgers) dimethyloplysiloxane.... what is that you ask???  it is an anti cracking agent used in chalk , shampoo, lubricant, heat resistant tiles...oh yeah it is in powdered diet drinks.

do you want to throw up?  there is more!!!

my son drinks whole milk and i recently found out it is  processed less then skim milk, so i switch myself and daughter from skim to whole...and after reading this next one i think my husband will be switching too!

titanium dioxide..ever heard of it?? i did not.  well it is in paint. that is right! like the paint you paint your walls!  this is why...to make skim milk WHITE AGAIN becuase it turns blue!!!!

there is more. . .and more . . check out the blog for yourself!

oh, i know you are saying how can the fda "approve" this well they do.  if there is under a certain amount companies are NOT required to list it on the product. barf!

lisa

beans, beans, beans . . .

well, i did it! i made the re-fried beans! they were yummy and soooo easy!!!  after the beans had been cooking for about 3 hours i called amy in a panic and said, "now what?  what do i do with the re-fried beans?" 

let's just say my easy one recipe turned into all day cooking...however dinner was  AMAZING!!!! and i found yet another great recipe for a processed food that i couldn't find with less then 5 ingredient's, tortilla shells!  we had taco's with homemade taco seasoning, homemade re-fried beans, and homemade whole wheat tortilla shells. all 3 recipes are from http://www.100daysofralfood.com/ .  My mouth is water just thinking about how yummy dinner was!! the re-fried beans made a ton and the best part is it was cheap to make. it only cost $1.63.

I can not wait to make ALL of it again!!!

lisa

i love you like a fat kid loves cake.

everyone loves cake. cake is so good. my favorite is white cake with white frosting. my husbands favorite is white cake, white frosting. my daughter's favorite (gasp) chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. you rarely find someone who will pass up a piece of the stuff at a birthday party. even when you are on a 'diet' (insert eye roll) you always have the cake, just a small piece. only a bite. mmmmcake. when i was pregnant with my second child i became obsessed with red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. obsessed. thank goodness i didn't give in every time i thought about it. but my mom made me cupcakes at a summer bbq and one of my bestest girlfriends made me an awesome double layer cake for a little 'baby' party my friends threw me. i'm so thankful to both of them for taking the time and making them from scratch. knowing where your cake comes from. knowing the ingredients. that's kinda important. i admit it, i never really thought about it. i mean, it's cake. what could be in it, right? ever check out the ingredient lists on the cakes at the grocery store bakery? you will never go near one after reading this article about super market cakes. thanks to food babe for her post on our most favorite blog, 100 days of real food. it's pretty crazy. ever heard of propylene glycol ? me either. click the link, do it. cause it's the main ingredient in anti-freeze and you are probably feeding it to your family. it's in cake and a whole bunch of other stuff like candy, biscuits, salad dressings, soft drinks. we need to be more conscious of what we are buying, eating, giving our children. our bodies cannot break down the chemicals, preservatives, poisons that are in processed foods. 'man up' and start paying attention. and most important, stop buying the crap. if it's not in your house you can't eat it. i've noticed changes in my own family over this past month. every little positive change, every extra veggie or fruit we eat, sip of water we take is improving our bodies. wake up and smell the real food! make a change today and start looking at those food labels. just do it.

so yeah, i do love you like a fat kid loves cake. but a real cake, none of this fake crap. and definitely not the antifreeze cake. thanks for reading.
amy~

yellow and red, what pretty color's? wrong!

not that long ago i read an article about food dye.  something i never really  thought much about. i have heard parents say before "red dye 40 makes my child go crazy" and i thought to myself yeah maybe you are crazy...ok i have to admit i am now one of those parents! not to mention, food dye is terrible for you, and that is an under statement!  after reading a blog about food dye i said to my husband "i know why lovebug (our 5 year old daughter) has her behavior outburst.  once again he looked at me like i was crazy and being the best husband ever he listened and he said "ok honey whatever you want to do i stand behind you!" man i love him!!! well first of all no more yellow food dye!!!!  (and red)  OMG food dye is horrific.  i had no idea how bad it was and what it was made with/from!!!  please, please, please read the article, yes i am begging you.  did you know that food dye in the uk in banned however not here in the united states!

i will leave you with this...

i spoke with lovebug's teacher this week and she commented on how over the last two weeks lovebug has made huge progress in school especially her writing! she would even go to say that she made the most progress in the last two weeks then she had all year! wow what does that tell you?  lovebug is in kindergarten, and has been on grade level all year however the last two weeks has just bloomed!! and that is without any yellow!

lisa

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/03/13/real-food-tips-7-reasons-i-hate-artificial-food-dyes/#more-2352

i wish i could post a smell

Fajitas tonight!! I have them cooking in the crock pot and it smells oh my god delicious. Here is the recipe from my new BFF. Well she has no clue who I am but I love her! http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/12/19/recipe-slow-cooker-flank-steak-fajitas/

i made bread.

here's the story of how i started being healthy, not crazy.

for a few months now I knew my cousin lisa was doing some crazy new diet she found. i didn't put much into it. that is until i heard of the success she was having, then i was all ears (or should i say hips :). turns out she had been introduced to eating real food. and it wasn't a crazy diet. it's a new way of eating. a healthy way of eating. the idea is to cut out processed foods, eating more fruits, vegetables, 'good' meats and grains. i like the idea. i LOVE the results lisa was getting. but could we do it? for the past couple weeks i have made small changes, began reading labels and doing a little planning. and here i am two weeks later, FIVE pounds lighter and making bread. stay tuned for more about the healthy changes i've made for my family.

gotta go, my husband got home with chinese take-out. i said i was being healthy NOT crazy! i can't deprive myself of everything and need to splurge once in awhile. thanks for reading.

amy~

Let's Do This!

Hi- I am Lisa!  A couple months I ago I  started making  healthier choices for my family. I  was so excited when my cousin Amy show interest in our new healthy lifestyle.  Amy and I have talked almost every day for the last week about meal, snack, drink ideas, and  all around how to make easy changes without disrupting our family life! Last night she said to me, "Let's start a blog!" so here we are... Join us as we make healthy choices one meal at a time!!