A Week Full of Lunches

I often get asked about what I eat... and how much of it I eat. As far as "cheat day" is concerned, don't ask, I don't keep track of that and frankly, you don't want to know. BUT on every other day of the week, I tend to be pretty strict so I decided to write a post about a week full of my lunches. What I'm eating, WHY, and the WW points calculated for each lunch.

Since I'm working out hard, I want to be refueling my body with some good protein. I opt for natural food sources of protein rather than supplements. That's just me, I have an opinion about it, but I know many others that swear by their protein powder, so to each their own:). I also am really watching my grain intake. Grains are good for most, serve a wonderful purpose, but need to be eaten sparingly. We Americans tend to overindulge in the grain area... bread, granola, crackers, rice etc. Lastly, nothing replaces FRESH fruits and veggies of which I eat alot of, so, I shape my lunches around those principles.

It's no surprise that I'm on WW. Although I know what I need to be eating and how much of it, the whole tracking thing and points thing just really works for me. WW isn't for everyone, so FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. So with that said, I give you... a week's worth of lunches... in no particular order.

MONDAY

 1/2 c black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 T organic peanut butter
1 T roasted red pepper hummus
Handful of cucumbers
1 c of strawberries & blueberries mixed

TOTAL WW P+ : 6

TUESDAY

1 c vanilla lowfat yogurt

2 T grape nuts

1/4 c dried fruit

TOTAL WW P+ : 9

WEDNESDAY

1 piece of toasted homemade whole wheat bread

1 T roasted red pepper hummus

Cucumber slices and a handful of spinach

1 apple sliced

1 oz of sharp white cheddar cheese

TOTAL WW P+ : 6

THURSDAY

1/2 container of coconut yogurt (this stuff is GOOD and rich)

Banana

1 T organic peanut butter 

TOTAL WW P+ : 6

FRIDAY

1 apple

2 oz. lean deli turkey

1/2 red pepper

9 dry almonds

TOTAL WW P+ : 5

I normally try to separate my points out like this: heavier for breakfast, smaller for lunch and a little heavier for dinner. And I'm constantly eating between meals, an apple and banana between breakfast and lunch, cucumbers or strawberries between lunch and dinner. 

So there you have it, nothing fancy or complicated, but something very effective in keeping you full and FUELED for until your next meal. 

Crafty McCrafterson

I regret that the next blog post took so long to post. With a husband out of town, for a full week, it literally took me three days to take pictures of my finished product. Seriously, some days go by and I have no idea what I did all day long but I know I had no time to do anything. Sound familiar?

Anyway, while I don't consider myself homemaker-ly, I definitely can't sew or knit, I have finally come into my own craftiness. I'm proud to say that I'm a whizz with a glue gun, although you must note: no craft of mine will stand up to hurricane force gales. It's held together by hot glue and a little "here's to hopin". All of my ideas have been stolen from Pinterest. I am not an original and when I do go out on originality it almost always crashes and burns and once it has stopped smoking, gets thrown in the trash.

So I have always experimented with the easy/non-expensive end of crafting, a little wreath here...

A felt nativity there...

Fun cake decorations over there...

 

Nothing monumental or risky. 

So a few weekends ago when I stumbled upon these beauties:

I decided to take the plunge and try out something a little larger and that couldn't get thrown in the trash if it goes south. 

They had a price tag of $15 and $25 respectively and when I asked the lady if she was serious and did the mirror come with the $25 price tag, her response was, "Do you want it to??" I went all Napoleon Dynamite on her and answered, "HECK YES!" So $40 later, these two were sitting in my back yard ready to get chalk painted.

So, as it is with any of my craftiness these days, nothing takes a short amount of time to do. Which is totally fine, as is life right now. It's a start...stop... put away...almost start again...don't touch that...rush...finish... sort of process. So when I had a free moment, Rory and I hopped on down to Rule 42 and talked to the girl there who helped me choose two fun chalk paint colors for these bad boys. Teal (eek!) and a yellow for the inside of the drawers. Although I love bright colors and wish I decorated with them more, I'm a little scared it's going to turn out looking like a carnival, so I have traditionally stayed away from anything other than browns, soft blues or greens. So this teal and yellow thing is huge for me.

Two coats of the teal, and two coats of the yellow.... Next two coats of the gloss finish... and viola!

Now the dilemma was the drawer pulls. While they were ok, I wanted some fancy ones. Nothing seemed to work. So I spray painted them with a hammered blackish and I think they look decent-ish.

Once all settled in their new home in our bedroom, I got a little nervous, because, well, ya'll, they're TEAL. But now that I'm used to them, I love them. Now onto the rest of the bedroom makeover! Who wants to go to World Market with me?

Bread: Part Uno

So let's talk about bread. I had a request about writing a post about it, and funnily enough it was already a thought in my head. While many people have chosen to go gluten free / grain free for various health reasons. We have not... yet... or ever. I'm not sure. Never say never. BUT, if that has been your choice then unfortunately portions of this post won't be so helpful to you, but yay for you! :)

As I started to write this post, it started to get VERY VERY long so I decided to split it up into two different posts. ONE about making your own bread (because I do!) and one about what sorts of bread to buy in the stores. So part one is about buying the best bread. Once again, I'm not scientist or dietitian but I do try to make the best informed decisions and have the most accurate information, but sometimes I could get it wrong, so with that disclaimer, don't you want to read more?

When I went to do some research I got a whole lot of articles about the best bread to buy, but it really didn't address ingredients as much as it did nutrition facts. Now, while nutrition facts are important, they aren't the only thing to look for. Sometimes seemingly "good for you" really isn't good for you at all. So in my research, amazingly enough, Spark People had a great article about the ingredients in bread and what means what. Check it out HERE. While it's good information, I don't completely agree with all the breads that they recommend. For example, one of the breads they recommend is Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread. This is the ingredients list:

So we get an idea of why it's probably not so good, let's dissect a few ingredients:

Calcium Carbonate - this is stuff found in calcium supplements and things like TUMS, ok in small doses, harmful if alot is consumed. You'll see it lists it as less than 2% in the ingredients list, which YAY for a small amount of it, but think if you buy that bread for a lifetime, that'll add up.

Yeast Extract - we all know that yeast is used as an leavening agent to get the bread to rise, but why yeast EXTRACT and not yeast? Yeast extract is CHEAPER.Yeast extract is a is used as a flavor enhancer and also is a hidden form of MSG. See a good article about it HERE and HERE. It's got so much hulla-ba-loo that whoever manufactures (that should be a tip off right there) yeast extract has made their own website to defend this product. HERE they are.

Azodicarbonamide - ahhhh this is the "yoga mat" compound. You know the same ingredient that Food Babe revealed Subway sandwich bread is/was made with? Gives foods a fluffier texture as well as spongy-ness to yoga mats. Yep, it's in this bread as well. 

So delving deeper into some research, it's Food Babe for the win again. I'm sorry guys, she really does the hard work for me. I do believe a friend posted this article on Facebook a few weeks ago and it's good! I was even going to go into the whole, what's-wrong-with-our-culture-and-our-grain-dependence, but she does here in this article as well. So, frankly, I don't have much else to write about.  Read the article HERE.

Did you read it? Because if you didn't the rest of this post won't make much sense.

Ezekiel Bread, that Food Babe (and Snack Girl and a host of other online food bloggers and reviews) lists as a good go-to bread, won't be found in the bread isle... it will be found in the freezer section. Just an FYI.

So that's sandwich bread, what about buns or rolls or baguettes? Looking in the store, Ezekiel makes sprouted whole wheat buns. So, sorry, I just can't find a good mainstream white roll/bun on the shelf that's not full of stuff not good for you. So use the same guidelines as you would sandwich bread... unless you buy local.... which leads me to artisan breads.

Artisan breads...this one is easy. Local. Local. Local. Meaning buy those things from a local shop or bakery that you know makes quality breads with quality ingredients. Newtown Bakery in Staunton is one of those shops that has some of the best artisan breads around!! Organic top notch ingredients. Sometimes local bakeries do not use the best ingredients, so it's important to ask and to buy from one that not only tastes good, but that also puts quality ingredients into their products.

So, let's talk realistically. Do I buy all the best breads all the time? No, but as with everything it's baby steps. We first started out with our sandwich breads, which I make my own, and we're slowly converting all of our artisan breads (we love those baguettes). So I hope that helps, and gives you better knowledge of what to look for when you read ingredient labels and look at that long bread shelf. Stay tuned for Part Dos on why I started making my own bread and a guest post of why it might just be for you!

They's a-Growin'!

So since I know you are so riveted by our life... *enter sarcastic eye roll here*... I thought I'd give you a little update on our straw bale venture.

It's working.....!!!!!!!!!!

 Green Beans...

Tomatoes...

Squash, Zucchini, Peppers...

Peas, Kale, Cucumbers

Cabbage... (Can you see them??)

Herbs, Kale, Peas, Lettuce and Onions....

Can you tell I'm a little excited?? Things are popping up all over the place and we're gonna have some good food in just a little while!

What have we been doing to maintain? Weeding? NOPE!

Watering? YES.

We've had some good rain here over the last few weeks and I used that as an excuse to not water, but apparently, straw doesn't absorb and keep water like the ground would. It dries out much easier so it really is a water-almost-everyday type of venture. Hence, the soaker hoses buried under the dirt and the downside for those of us who live in town and not on well water anymore, a higher water bill.

So you take the good with the bad, I think I'm just excited about not buying produce at the store for awhile.

How does YOUR garden grow?

My Peanut Butter

Ya'll, we go through some peanut butter. It basically goes on or in everything and pretty much every grocery store list has peanut butter. I love it. I take it for a quick pre-workout protein shot, for breakfast on some bananas, Colt loves it with honey on "sammiches", to dip apples in and my new favorite: strawberries and peanut butter... I really could go on and on. So when we really started to check to see what was in what we were eating, the peanut butter was the first to get a quick look-see. Now, according to Food Babe, almond butter is really better for your health (check the links). BUT we haven't made that switch yet, remember baby steps... Anyway, once I saw the ingredients, I knew it wasn't so good for us. SUGAR is the second ingredient. Why I didn't notice it before...? I blame denial. 

 

So a quick 101 on reading food labels.... If you didn't know, ingredients are listed in order of how much are contained in the package. This PB consists mostly of PEANUTS, then SUGAR, THEN OILS etc. While I have a basic knowledge of what to look for, I am, again, no expert, so to learn from an expert go HERE. This link give a quick video on what to look for in ingredients list. This is the "100 Days of Real Food" blogger gal! Great resource.

So we switched from the Peter Pan creamy to this:

Now, some of you reading this really think this isn't a big change and it's really a no-brainer. But for us...it was HUGE. We are peanut butter FREAKS or maybe we're not and it's only me... but seriously, this was a big shake up. My Dad tried it and promptly put it back. I switched it up on the Little Dude and he didn't skip a beat... shows just how kids adapt :). For me, it took some getting used to. Now, I can't get enough. I must remind you that although PB is a great source of protein, it is also pretty high in fat, so really guys, a little goes a long way. I stick with a tablespoon... I'm not kidding, I use a tablespoon to scoop out my portion and I try to stick to only one portion a day, and maybe a finger lick. 

So we've been eating organic natural peanut butter for about 6 months now and the other day I tried the old stuff (because remember my Dad won't eat the organic PB so he has his own jar and we live with my parents) and I couldn't even take a second bite. It. was. nasty. It didn't even taste like peanuts. I am not exaggerating. Just you wait. Make the switch and see. These changes aren't about being that "organic" family, it's about taking charge of our health and the health of our families, one step at a time. Cutting back on disease and sickness and living a full life as free from preventable diseases and disorders as possible. We can take charge of our health and funnily enough, much of it starts in what we consume. Such deep thoughts when we're just talking about peanut butter, eh? I swear though, peanut butter is some people's religion.

One last thing about organic peanut butter.... many people are turned off by the "stir factor". I found a trick on Pinterest (and all the men groan) that basically eliminates the awful stirring-get-peanut-butter-oil-all-over-yourself-and-the-counter process. Store the PB jar upside down. Now, you'll have to stir it when you first open it, but after that, upside down it goes and you'll never have to stir it again. GENIUS.