Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Recipe Review: Green Powerhouse Pesto Plate & Raw Lemon Bars

One of my favorite flavors is fresh basil.  Too bad I can't make it grow.  I eat the heck out of basil.

RIP Basil.  I didn't even get it into the ground before it died this time.

So I was excited to see the Green Powerhouse Pesto Plate on Oh She Glows.  Doesn't it look yummy?

greengoddessbowl 2638 thumb2   Green Powerhouse Pesto Plate

Yum, right?

What I liked about the meal was that it uses millet!  I don't often get to use millet, and when I do use it, it is ground up as flour and baked.   Also:  basil!  The dressing was a pesto-type dressing made with avocado and basil.  Yum!

Dave and I loved this meal.  So good!  I thought the dressing was a bit too lemony, so I ended up adding a handful of pine nuts in the blender with the dressing to mellow it out a bit.  I will add only one tablespoon of lemon when I make this in the future.  And I will make this again when my zucchini is producing like crazy!

I like to make desserts on Mondays (for Family Home Evening, our family night).  I found this recipe on Whole New Mom which linked me back to Oatmeal With a Fork where I found this recipe for Lemon Bars.  These aren't just any lemon bars- they are grain-free, vegan and raw.  WHAT?  Oh my goodness!  I can feed that to everyone in my family!  Not only am I vegan, but my husband is allergic to wheat and several other foods, and all three kids are allergic to eggs and a few other things (and we have hens.  So Dave eats the eggs by himself).  So life gets a bit complicated around here.  I get super excited when I find a food that is safe, or easily adaptable, for my family.  And even this had to be slightly adapted for my family's allergy needs.

I saw this picture and I had to make it.

bar111

Normally I like making things fat free.  It's part of the whole Eat to Live philosophy.  These are not fat free.  Nor can they be adaptable to be fat free.  The delicious lemony topping?  Made from mostly coconut oil.

But boy, are they good!  I think I can splurge once in a while on something so delicious.  Especially since it's become necessary to hike up my pants lately.  I think I need to add a belt.  But I'm not buying new pants until I've lost the 40 pounds I intend to lose.  Well, I might buy them when I have lost 30 pounds.

Anyway, I ended up having to use hazelnuts because my husband is allergic to walnuts and my daughter is allergic to pecans, which is the substitute I used to use when recipes called for walnuts.  Hazelnuts were a good substitute and they turned out great.  I added a couple pinches of turmeric so my lemon bars were quite a bit more yellow.  Actually I added what I needed and the 3 year old decided he really would be disappointed if he didn't get to help, and I'm a sucker for his cute face so we added extra.

They were rich, to be sure, and not one of my kids could finish their entire bar.  So instead of having my own bar, I just finished up theirs.  I'll make this again when I have lemons. Well, maybe I'll wait until I drop another 10 pounds before making this again!  Indulgent?  Yes.  But worth it for a little bit of bliss! And certainly healthier than ice cream, right?

Monday, April 29, 2013

Full Circle


First off a picture of my kids, because I know nobody comes to this blog to see pictures of me.  Seriously, they are adorable.  You can't see this, but their personalities are their cutest parts!



This was me on Easter.  Lacy, my 8 year old, took this picture.

And this is my cute son's behind

This is the picture that started it all.  I didn't realize I had gained weight.  I had no idea I was overweight.  Not by a lot, but enough to put my BMI in the 28ish range.  And I'm no athlete, so the added weight wasn't from muscle mass.  No, it was from ice cream and brownies.  I didn't realize I was 40 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight.  And my baby is 3.  In fact, I had lost about 20 or so pounds of my baby weight and gained it all back.  I was close to the top of my weight gain when I was 9 months pregnant!

At that moment, I changed my eating habits.  Correction- I dedicated myself to changing my eating habits.  It was Easter Sunday and I wanted one last hurrah before I dived in to a new way of eating.  But not just because I'm overweight.  It's because I want to be healthy.  I don't want my children to see me dieting to be more attractive- I want them to see me changing my eating habits so that I will be healthier so I can be a better mom.  

I chose to follow the Eat To Live philosophy on eating.  That basically means a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, and low in sugars, fats and white flour.  And no meat, dairy or eggs.  So, basically, I'm vegan.  This brings me full circle.  I was vegetarian and sometimes vegan for about 7 years during my high school and college years.  I got married and was no longer a vegetarian.  We've been married over 12 years now, so it's been a while since I've been vegetarian.  In an effort to eat more healthfully, I had recently decided to dedicate one meal per week toward vegan cooking.  Soon that became twice weekly.  Once again, this has changed.  Now if anybody wants meat, they get to prepare it themselves!

My husband is very supportive of my dietary changes and he loves the foods I've been cooking. Mostly, my kids love them too.  My plan is to log the different recipes I've tried while on this diet and review them for you here.  

I started eating this way on April 1 and as of last week I have already lost 8 pounds.  I've also noticed some other surprising health benefits to eating this way that I never expected.  I'm feeling better than ever and my clothes are fitting better, too!

In addition to dietary changes, I've been trying to work exercise into my life.  I've never liked to exercise, so this is a challenge for me.  I'm liking the workouts on my On Demand that are around 10-20 minutes long.  Not too much that I feel like I can't keep up with it.  I'm aiming for 4 days per week.



Tuesday, April 02, 2013

A little late on Uriah's birthday post. Whoops.

This post is dedicated to Aunt Lynne, who wants me to blog more :)  I've been really bad at blogging because I can't upload pictures to my computer right now.



Here is Uriah's birthday interview.

My name is: Uriah
I am 3 years old.
I am 39 inches tall and I weigh 37 pounds.  
My favorite color is green
My favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar
My favorite show Diego
My favorite food is spaghetti
I want to be a fish when I grow up.
The music I like best is violin music
My favorite thing I did last year was going to the Hands On Museum
This year I hope I will go to Arizona
My favorite place to go is Arizona
My favorite thing to do is going to Arizona
My favorite animal is a chicken
My favorite thing to do with Lacy is play with her in the clubhouse
My favorite thing to do with Rose is play with her in the clubhosue
My favorite thing to do with daddy is help him build stuff
My favorite thing to do with mommy is help her cook