Real Food: Day 3

Like a heroin addict desperate for a fix, I went on a rampage to find SOMETHING to satisfy my chocolate craving.

I found it.

Finally...chocolate...and the angels rejoiced.

This pair got me through day 3 of the 10 Days of Real Food Challenge.

It just tastes so good when it hits my lips.

The recipe for these lumps of chocolate amazingness is so simple. I whipped them  up in 10 minutes...and could have easily put them all down in 10 minutes. Restraint, Alison, show some restraint!

I used Medjool dates. I looked at every grocery and health food store in the area and couldn't find them.

Picked these up at a grocery store during a trip to Ann Arbor a few weeks ago. Ahh...to live in a city with specialty foods...

Then our nanny Jill tells me she found them at Meijer. They are just sold under the "Sunkist" label there. Good sleuthing, Jill.

Jill's beautifully manicured finger nail makes a cameo appearance.

Gotta pit the dates, but that was simple.

Bye bye, pit.

I'm going to have to reload on dates tomorrow, because I can see where these will probably be my crutch for the remaining 7 days of our Challenge.

Only one other food-related incident today. I was doing some stranger danger role playing our 3-year-old daughter who wanted to ride her bike outside in our driveway while I was inside making dinner.

Me: Soph, what do you do is a stranger comes up to you and says, "Hey, come with me and I'll give you some candy!"

Soph: I say no and run inside and tell Mommy.

Me: But what if he says, "Come on! Have some of my candy! Why don't you want some candy?"

Soph: I tell him it's too sugary for me to eat.

I think she may have missed the point of our little exercise.

Honestly, though, my intent in this Real Food Challenge is not to make my kids scared of sugar. I don't think that's healthy. I simply want to expose them to a broader range of tastes and give them information to help them make their own decisions about food. Obviously now they eat whatever I put in front of them. But the day will come when they have to figure things out on their own. I don't want them to overcompensate for being deprived of sugary treats by binging later in life.

Ok, on to what we put in our mouths today.

BREAKFAST: Oatmeal with honey, banana slices, and whole milk. Milk and water to drink for the shorties.

I am such an oatmeal geek that I have memorized the water to oatmeal ratios (I always use old fashioned rolled oats), so I don't even have to look at the canister. You moms out there will appreciate this. I always pre-measure the water in the pot the night before and get out the oats and the measuring cup so I can just walk into the kitchen, bleary-eyed, in the morning and turn on the stove to get the show on the road. Geeky, I know, but it does allow me the few extra minutes I need to make my cappuccino.

SNACK: Found this popcorn at Harvest Health.

I'm a sucker for cute names and slick packaging.

Three ingredients: popcorn, sunflower oil, sea salt.
One word: Nom.

LUNCH: For Charlie I packed cantaloupe, grapes, and leftover huevos rancheros from last night. I didn't know how to pack the guacamole. I didn't have any tiny containers and I didn't want it to sit on top of the warm huevos all morning. So I popped some into one of the little ring pop molds we have. Worked like a charm.

Charlie's lunch

Sophie and Kyle ate the same lunch: PB&J on whole wheat with cantaloupe and grapes. Kyle also swiped about a half dozen mini banana muffins.

Simple but tasty.

I had a bowl three bowls of plain yogurt with homemade granola and a cappuccino.

I have a back log of yogurt from the batch I made Sunday. Not to bore you with details (hey, you're the one reading a tedious blog about what I'm shoveling in my mouth) but if you eat a decent amount of yogurt (or an obscene amount like we do), it really pays to make your own. And if you like the thickness of Greek yogurt, it's easy to strain it to the thickness you like.

SNACK: Smoothies with aforementioned yogurt, bananas, frozen blueberries, spinach, and cinnamon, plus whole wheat Wasa crackers with peanut butter or provolone cheese.

Or if you are Sophie, "or" becomes "and" and you have a PB and cheese sandwich.

PB and cheese sandwich. Really?

Sophie also managed to phenagel a yogurt/strawberry/banana popsicle out of me. She worked up a sweat with all that biking and stranger talk.

I am as tasty as I look.

DINNER: Like last night's huevos rancheros (my apologies to Rick Bayless), tonight's dinner was another one I cook a lot. But I had to make a few more alterations tonight.
We had baked salmon (from Lake Michigan thanks to my friend, Miranda!), steamed broccoli, whole wheat couscous and some fresh fruit.

I normally bake my salmon with just EVOO, salt, pepper and a splash of orange juice. I was out of OJ, but my neighbor Sheri came through in a pinch with four beautiful clementines, so I baked the salmon in clementine juice.

Clementines to the rescue.

I usually make the Far East brand couscous that has a spice packet with God knows what in it. So this time I had to go with plain, whole wheat couscous. I added some garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and EVOO, and finished it with a handful of Parmesan cheese. I thought it was pretty good, and the kids devoured it., but Kyle thought it was bland. I would probably double the spices next time. Too bad I didn't measure this time to know what to double...

OBSERVATIONS:
Again, a geeky admission, but I am really enjoying the challenge of the Challenge (yeah, I just said that). Sure, it's tiring, and a bit maddening, but it's forcing me out of my comfort zone and stretching my creativity and planning skillz.

And in my next breath, my other observation for today is that I'm so thankful we're only committed to 10 days of this.