Cooked Foods Extravaganza!

     OK, so my husband decided to try to completely detox himself of cooked foods for 2 weeks. Well as of Friday of last week those two weeks were up, so what happened this weekend? A Cooked Foods Extravaganza!!!!


     Friday night we started it off with a Bean Chalupa. I went to Earthfare and bought some Organic Fat Free refried beans, vegan sour cream, vegan shredded cheese, and Corn Tortillas. For the Corn Tortillas I went to the refrigerated section and bought the kind there because if you look at the ingredients all they contain is Corn, Water, and Lime. Seriously...I had some Whole Wheat tortillas in my fridge at home that I was going to use to make my 4 year old a cheesy roll-up but looked at the ingredient list and was appalled, so she had a corn quesadilla/mexican pizza :) I just couldn't bring myself to cook it for her. I mean if you start looking at the ingredients of food you eat every day it may surprise you to see what kind of crap you are eating! But these are super easy to make, just warm beans on stove. Then take tortillas and heat them in the oven. I placed a tortilla on the plate then spread beans over it, and topped it with our toppings. On the toppings, you can really pick whatever you want. Here is a picture of our creation:

     For Saturday night we had boring Spaghetti...but it was delicious as well. We just had noodles and sauce, but OHH so good. We also had some good friends over who we haven't seen in FOREVER to eat with us. It made the dinner more delicious as well :) I mean who doesn't like to spend time with their best friends????


     My husband has been wanting some granola to eat for breakfast. He is allergic to pecans, so its hard to find a raw granola in the store, and when we did find it, it was $4 a bar. So he would eat half at one sitting. Well this weekend we tried to make our own! It does have to dehydrate for around 36 hrs, so this took ALL WEEKEND....but it came out delicious! It has sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sun flower seeds, walnuts, cranberries, dates, and so much more!!!!

     Next weekend I think we are going to try to dehydrate some raw pancakes....We will see....After our Cooked Foods Extravaganza I'm hoping my husband doesn't feel deprived and can go on eating his raw Vegan foods just fine :)

So Far Success in Week 2!

Success on so many levels....Level 1 the youngest child has slept through the night every night this week...This is HUGE!!! When she was a newborn she slept through the night no problem, but starting around Dec my family went into a sickness funk that we could NOT get over...Husband had pneumonia twice. Oldest child had 2 ear infections, and the youngest was on 3 different antibiotics and breathing treatments due to RSV. With all this sickness lets just say her sleep pattern was knocked off its rocker and we have FINALLY gotten it back....So this mommy is one happy mommy!!

Any-whoo......Our delicious dive into more healthy foods?? Success as well! My husband has completely cut out all cooked foods. I mean seriously. If you knew him - he was a meat and potatoes kind of guy.......but right now he is eating fresh fruits and veggies like a champ! We even made this rocking fresh, raw salad dressing. We love it on cucumbers.

Now, I'm not doing 100% raw like him...wouldn't want my sumo baby to loose weight :) But I am trying to eat better foods with him. I made this awesome Sandwich....or as my friends and I like to call them...Salandwich! I used Ezekiel Bread which is a sprouted wheat flourless bread. It is made with ingredients as listed in Ezekiel in the Bible. It is wholesome, it is awesome!! It won't weight you down like regular white bread....You maybe asking well what goes on a salandwich? Well anything you want. I had made some fresh salsa, so I used that as spread on one piece of bread. (I also toast my bread since I keep it in the freezer so it wont go stale.) On the other piece of bread I will either do some mustard or some vegan cream cheese depending on the overall calorie count for the day! I then add a veggie patty usually...I love Gardenburgers, but this time I had bough some Boca veggie patties because this was what was on sale at the time..>LOVE saving that dough! After this add whatever veggies you want. I usually do lettuce, peppers, and onions. Then if the tomatoes look good we can add those. Here is a pick of this awesome salandwich:

This sandwich will not leave you groggy with a bread hangover. It is fresh and delicious and usually leaves me with energy. When you work full time and have a 4year old and 8 1/2 month old you need all the energy you can GET!

Now for a smoothie update. We have been drinking smoothies almost every day. What better way to get a nutritious meal packed with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals...you name it we got it in this shake. Last night I made a Banana Berry Blast. It contained Bananas, Pomegranate, Blueberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Kale, and some Goji Berry Powder. The Goji powder I picked up at Earthfare. it is an easy way to get this powerful little berry into your diet. These berries pack a punch in the nutrional department and I highly recommend anyone adding them to your diet!

If you are worried you wont' like smoothies, Experiment!!!! My 4-year old LOVES these. And who else can say Ohh yes my 4 year old eats Kale and spinach every day? I don't have to hold her in a headlock and force it through her mouth with a spoon. Just give her a cup and she drinks it through a straw ON HER OWN. :) This makes mommy's day easier. This way when at supper if she won't eat her peas and broccoli I dont' sweat it because I know she has already received the vitamins and minerals she needs from her smoothie! No preservatives, extra sugar, hidden harmful ingredients in here!!!! Here is a pic of this delicious goodness!!!!

If you want help making smoothies please let me know. Send me a message at lauren_woodfin@yahoo.com and I will help in any way I can. These things are delicious and I feel good feeding them to my family...I know I know, I'm a dork, but I just can't help wanting to feed my family food that doesn't contain butane....See link below for further enlightenment on how some of our fav foods contain harmful ingredients - seriously made me glad we are eating better....b/c seriously who wants to eat beaver butt???????

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/03/14/6-scary-things-hiding-your-food

Day 1 with Cookie Cutter Family

On the outside we look like a cookie cutter family I guess :) I mean 2 parents, 2 kids and a dog....we had a goldfish, but my 4 year old claims the fish commited suicide by jumping out of the fish tank........We can be quite normal (ha!) but we go through struggles and triumphs with everyone!! I'm hoping this blog sheds light on what we do...and WHY we do what we do...also, if our healthy lifestyle change, and our struggles help someone else......Woot Woot!!!

Well, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl 8 and a half months ago and have just now relinquished my maternity pants. I mean really.....I LOVE those things. my husband kept making fun of me and really he should I mean they were giving me saggy butt syndrome. :) SO they are still in my closet but I prefer to call them..."The pants who must not be named." I mean we all have them right? The pants that look horrible but are the most comfortable pants in the world. I'm guessing this is the case otherwise why would people wear mom jeans? I mean if they looked bad AND were uncomfortable there is no way anyone in their right mind would have wore those God-Awful things! :) Any-who getting off topic....I have been loosing weight and a pretty good amount of weight too. I have lost over 40 lbs since I had the baby using Weight Watchers, so I'm starting to look pretty awesome....or at least my husband says that because he has too and because love is blind, but that is why I love him right?.....So with me and all my awesomeness my husband decides he is going to eat better as well - only he can't just do weightwatchers with me?? NO he is going to go Raw-Vegan. Which I have done this before. It is AWESOME, you feel GREAT, but its so hard to stick with it...But I'm going to help. And hopefully this blog will help you understand what all we are doing to make my family healthier!!!

SO...first things first, my husband must to a full body detox so he gets his body "ready"....I guess.....this is his reasoning, I think its b/c he wants to eat those chicken wings :) But, moving along....So we go buy this one.....He started it Sat night and so far no ill-effects...And he lost 4 lbs(really why can men loose weight so quick?). This one we picked up at Earthfare(LOVE THAT STORE) and its supposedly - raw, vegan friendly. We will see. I'll keep you posted on this one.

Now you may ask...what exactly does a raw vegan eat?? well Lots of veggies, fruits, and nuts....Not get all blah on me, the food can be delicious you just have to prepare it correctly AND it is awesome for your body. This is how food is supposed to be eaten and how your body is made to digest it.

SO we went ahead and eased into this lifestyle by doing a few smoothie breakfasts...These are an AWESOME way to get loads of fruit all at once. I love them for breakfast too b/c what a better way to start your day than with something Healthy! So last night we threw our smoothie together b/c who else is dead at 6 am??? ME! My husband loved his yesterday! And I mean this is HUGE b/c his idea of eating something green is a green bean...thats it. SO here is the smoothie.

Ingredients for 2 smoothies - 2 Bananas, Pint of strawberries(greens removed), 1/2 pint of blackberries, 2 servings of dried goji berries(soaked in water for an hour before hand), 4-5 kale leaves, 2 cups of water, splash of green juice to help get the desired consistency. Really all we have to do is blend this stuff up and Voila! Done :)

I'll hopefully post more tomorrow on how we did and how we are feeling and his overall weightloss so far!