Banana Bread

So, the banana bread was kind of a success.  Eli LOVED it and ate I think three pieces at Nanny's house.  I tasted it and it was okay, but had some weird texture that I don't remember it having the last time, so maybe no Xanthan Gum?  Hmmm...might have to keep trying :)  
It was moist and smelled good, was allergy friendly and Eli liked it though, so definately not a waste of time.
:)

Banana Bread

So it's been a long time since I've tried to make an Eli friendly banana bread, but last time it turned out okay.  I've been saving bananas in the freezer since I haven't had bread for Lent, so I have enough to make 2 loafs of bread today (since I can't sleep but I should) and I'm going to make one with my regular recipe, and one that's "Eli friendly" and modified from the last time.  This time I used...

3 smashed bananas
1 cup of sugar
1 and 1/4 King Author All Purpose Flour
Ener-G Egg Replacer- 1 egg per box directions
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 3 TBS hot water
pinch of salt
Just under a 1/4 cup of canola oil
2 Tablespoons of applesauce
Pinch of Xanthan Gum

So we'll see if this is better or worse than last time....it's baking now!

Healthy Snacks

So a few healthy snacks for people of all ages!
The first is dried fruit.  We've bought banana chips for awhile but we know how much extra sugar and chemicals are put on it, so we decided to invest in a cheaper food dehydrator to see if we like it.  Well, we do like it but it takes a lot of work for some fruits because you have to slice them uniform and soak them in lemon juice if you don't want them browning.  The one exception is Pineapple!  Pineapple juice is a juice you can use for perserving the color, so no soaking needed and I just buy sliced pineapple from the store and throw it on the dehydrator.  No prep work!  They take over a day and a half to dry, can be stored in an airtight container for several days and the kids eat them like candy!  Actually, I think they prefer them to candy!

The second snack is one from Ella's cookbook from school.  They are fruit kabobs.  Just get some kabob sticks, an assortment of fruit, marshmellows if you want some sweetness and cover in vanilla yogurt.  Pretty tasty!  We had grapes, strawberries, mandarine oranges, apples, and rasberries.

This can be Eli friendly by omitting the yogurt!  Easy! If you're allergic to certain fruits (I know strawberries are common) just pick your favorite!

Chicken experiment

So today I'm going to try something I haven't done before.  I'm going to take frozen chicken, thaw it, throw some marinade on it and refreeze it.  In a month or so I want to see if it's freezer burnt.  It's 20 cents cheaper a pound to buy the prefrozen breasts, so I'm hoping there is no freezer burn and I can do this consistantly to make dinner planning easier.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Also today, I should be able to finish the manners book I was reading: Emily Post's The Gift of Good Manners: A parent's guide to raising respectful, kind, considerate children by Peggy Post and Cindy Post Senning.  Well, really I have only read to the teen years, but since neither of my kids are there yet I need to get through the younger years first!  I hope to take all the information I've gathered and make a game plan for both of the kids, but especially Ella.  Eli looks up to her so much I think if I can really get the rest of us on board he'll follow suit. 
Then it'll be Ella's turn to really read her manners book and talk through the information she is reading about with me to make sure she understands.  But just the last two weeks of starting with little things such as the magic words and dinner time manners things have improved.  Or maybe that's just my attitude!  :)  Time will tell!

Spaghetti and Manners

So last night for dinner, we all had spaghetti and meatballs.  How was this accomplished?  Well, we had two different kinds of spaghetti but I probably could have done with just one sauce.  There is a Barilla pasta sauce that Eli can have and doesn't bother him.  It's just a basic red sauce.  I made meatballs out of salt and pepper sausage and added to his favorite noodles and presto!  The rest of us had frozen meatballs in sauce that didn't have much flavor (I bought those meatballs for a difference recipe and had leftovers).  Eli's was probably more flavorful.  We also all started with a salad.  Eli likes just lettuce, but for my salad I had walnuts, garganzola cheese, and dried cranberries with a vinegarette dressing.  Yum Yum!

Eli's spaghetti and meatballs

Now, on the manner's front this whole week we have set down as a family and had our evening meal together. No music, no TV, no separate dining times.  We all pray together and start eating together and when someone is excused they go to another room to not distract each other.  Even tonight when we had carry-out (Eli had cold ham, potato chips and lettuce) we all sat together.  We have been following meal time 101 from the book I have been reading from the library where basic diner things are covered: eat with utensils not fingers (Don't notice Eli ate his spaghetti with his hands above!), thank the cook for the meal, etc.  It has been nice.

One thing that I have realized with paying closer attention to the kids, is that in the last few years I have lost my patience and manners.  How do I expect my children to say please and thank you when I ask once nicely the lose the cool and start demanding they listen?  So I have also started working hard on MY manners and hoping some of it rubs off along with prompting them to behave and be polite.

Preparation

So I'm officially a distributor for Advocare now!  Here's the website if you want to order! 

www.advocare.com/130346245

Feel free to message or e-mail for questions or diet information.

I'm excited to be getting ready to do a 24 day challenge this time instead of just the cleanse.  The challenge includes the 10 day cleanse that I have done before, plus another 14 days of vitamins that are designed to help control appetite and help rev up my metabolism.

For exercise I'm keeping up with my trusty treadmill but going to try a few new things. I have the May AB calender to do, but I also had a friend on facebook share a link about a condition called diastasis recti which is a common condition women develop after pregnancies where the abdominal muscles don't come back together and allow the common tummy pooch.  There are 6 abdominal exercises aimed at correcting this condition that I plan on doing at least 3 times a week in April to get me ready for the AB calender in May.  The website this information is from is http://inspiredrd.com/2012/06/dear-diastasis-recti-im-so-over-you.html.   They say that you can do all the crunches in the world and if you have diastasis recti then it won't help get a flat tummy.  The website also says how to tell if you have diastasis recti and is written by a physical therapist.

Another thing for exercise I'm trying is the Advocare 24 DVD set, that is supposed to be a good exercise DVD that has beginner, intermediate and advanced.  I hope that a combination of these things will help me stay motivated to exercise because I'm getting a little tired of the "same-old same-old".  I've been just doing the treadmill for a year now and getting a little burnt out!

I'll stay in touch!  Let me know what you think!

I'm back!

I'm back and at it again!  School has been going good, and life has been hectic but I've got some new life resolutions to get to.
Number one is weight loss and being healthy.  I have maintained what I have lost and looking at my before and after pictures are like WOW!  Here they are:

 April 2012

August 2012

I want to keep maintaining and maybe loose a little more which means getting back on my diet and exercise routine.

Also, I have been such a fan on Advocare that I'm going to be an independent distributor to get a discount on products and start a 24 day challenge in May.  Also in May I'm going to do an AB workout routine called Marvelous Ab May to put a little extra in my workout! 

I also have new diet ideas to get out of the funk we've been in with eating unhealthy or the same old boring foods.  We're going to buy a bunch of chicken breasts and fish and put them with marinade in baggies and freeze to save a little time and add a lot of flavor!  It's also getting to the time of year that we'll be able to find better fresh fruits and veggies, because we've resorted to more frozen and canned this winter because of poor produce.  This will also be better for Eli because we'll be back to family meals instead of Eli's meal/our meal.

Another resolution is manners and behaviors for the kiddos.  Ella has been getting in trouble at school and dance class more, which seems to kind of be this time of year but I noticed that with the attitude she is using less pleases and thank yous so my idea is if she's more polite then maybe she'll just be better behaved with it.  It's an idea.  Lyle and I also noticed that we have had less patience because of the kids misbehaving and have less manners ourselves, so I'm reading a book about raising kids with good manners and Ella has her own kids age book for manners, so we'll see how this goes!  The first lesson has been table manners which she and I went out for dinner one night and practiced and we're practicing at home with the idea once she has it down she can get dressed up and go on a date night with her dad to show off her skills!