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

what i'm spending money on.

"isn't eating healthy expensive?" i get this question a lot when i tell friends that i'm choosing to serve healthier options to my family. yeah, our produce total is high. but my 'crap' total is low. i'm not buying all those snacks we used to eat. like granola bars, fruit snacks, little paks of cookies and even worse, those paks of crackers with the weird orange cheese that you spread on with a little red spreader thing-y. yes, my daughter was eating those. but only because i was buying them. so i stopped buying them and guess what? she survived. she's snacking on fruits, yogurt, cheese, more fruit, dried fruit, freeze dried fruit, peanuts, chocolate chips if she needs a little chocolate, cause who doesn't? we have not kicked the goldfish habit though. those are like crack for kids. for real. the other day new friends came over for a play date and i offered berries and bananas for a snack and the 2yo looks at me and says "goldfish please" in the cutest darn voice. i have a recipe for cheese crackers that we need to try. it uses three ingredients compared to like 18 on this bag of goldfish i'm holding. and some of those ingredients, eeeek, i don't even want to tell you what they are. (i'll post about all that craziness later) other items i'm spending money on are spices. instead of buying bottles of marinades and sauces i'm making them. we were die-hard good seasons salad dressing fans. we make dressing now using oil, vinegar and spices. same with ranch dressing, you can easily make it at home. so yeah eating real food, healthy food, good, tasty food is expensive BUT we're saving tons by not buying all that crappy stuff. it's working for us. i'm going to keep it up. i see that scale going down. that's the type of motivation i like! thanks for reading.
amy~

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

ugh...my belly

easter dinner has ALWAYS been my favorite holiday dinner!! ham, stuff artichokes, pineapple stuffing, ambrosia, kielbasi, homemade mac and cheese are just a few of my old favorites...whats not to love..(my belly is turning just writing this)  i host easter and everyone brings something. what a big help and time saver! ( i think)

the few day's leading up to easter are always busy.  especially this year, my sister had emergency surgery, we had an easter party, my daughter had a birthday party on saturday and we did egg dyeing with my parents and ordered pizza for dinner. oh yeah lets not forget i had to get ready for 24 friends and family coming over for dinner!  somewhere in there our eating went down the drain along with our bellies... not just mine, the whole families!!! it took several day's for our belly's to get regular again. i knew what we were doing by giving up processed foods was the right thing, however this past week-end validated how it effect our bodies. well, i have one year to re-vamp and play with the easter menu and recipes.  real food is the way to go for my family and  belly!!! 

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~

like we needed another reason to love target

i needed snacks. i was getting close to reverting to not so healthy options merely because i lacked the healthy stuff. i needed help. i needed help fast. enter target. me and the girls headed over after pre-school today. i opted to bring the double stoller instead of pushing a cart and boy did i regret that. it was a balancing act on the way to the check-outs. laundry baskets were on clearance, so i had to get two, and proceed to fill them. i had them on top of the stroller, i couldn't even see over the top. and the stoller itself is a freakin' tractor trailer. anyways, back to healthy. they have a fantastic selection of healthy snack options. their archer farms line is pretty awesome. the freeze dried strawberries are tart, yummy and a little addicting. i also got the freeze dried apples which are super delicious. sadly though, the apples have preservatives added. but still under five ingredients. i've been looking for chocolate covered almonds since lisa mentioned them in an earlier post. and guess what, target has dark chocolate covered almonds in this cute little round canister. y.u.m. thank you target for saving me. i plan to go back and check out the other freeze dried fruit. mango was calling me but i wanted to play it safe today. next time you're in target check it out. there was an aisle with nuts, trail mix, the fruit. archer farms. good stuff.

thanks for reading.
amy~

breaking out of your comfort zone

over this past week-end we celebrated my dads birthday. happy birthday dad!! the food was so yummy...we had a mexican theme! i love mexian all food.  my mom had made a seven layer dip and it was amazing!! i never really tried her seven layer dip, until this past week-end.  well after eating it i thought, how can i make it healthier without effecting the taste, well the answer is simple...i am going to try my hand at homemade re-fried beans.

stay tuned and i will keep you up-dated for i will be cooking them over night in the crock pot...

lisa