Real Food: Day 5

Today I felt like I was on Top Chef...not because I was using a blast chiller or searing foie gras, but because just when I thought things were getting easy, someone through a wrench in things.

That someone is two feet tall and very chubby.

Who me?

I walk into the kitchen tonight and Padma Lakshmi greets me.

Oh no! Not Tom too!

Hello, chefs. Tonight you will be cooking a very easy dinner. One you have prepared many times before. However, tonight you will have to prepare dinner with only ONE HAND. You will have to prepare homemade chicken nuggets while holding a 20 lb. baby in one arm. You must use your body as a human shield, protecting the baby from oil splatters. If you burn the baby or drop the baby, you will be sent home.

Teething baby screamed his bald little head off the second I put him down, so he was my sous chef tonight. Except he didn't exactly make my life easier.

Chompers.

So what should have been an easy ending to an easy day became a monumental pain...quite literally as my left arm was shaking from holding my little bowling ball throughout dinner prep. I had to put him down while I chopped the chicken and scraped the carrots, but the blood-curdling screams even got his siblings' attention as they came running in asking what on earth I was doing to the poor boy.

DINNER: Kyle plays golf on Thursdays, so I usually make a kid-friendly meal that night (read: I usually order pizza). So tonight  it was one-handed chicken nuggets with homemade honey mustard to dip, fresh carrots from our Visser Farms CSA with guacamole to dip, and leftover watermelon from last night. It may have taken an hour to make, but it was tasty.

Tom would mark me down for presentation, but my flavor profiles were spot on.

BREAKFAST: Go-to oatmeal with cinnamon, honey, banana, raisins, and a splash of whole milk. I had friends in town overnight, and everyone had the same thing. Kids had OJ, adults had coffee and tea.

Cherry tea from Up North. Felt like a Pure Michigan commercial.

SNACK: I had some leftover oatmeal from feeding the masses at breakfast, so we made some whole wheat blueberry and oatmeal muffins. I make these all the time, but I had to make a couple small adjustments in the recipe to make it Real Food approved: used all whole wheat flour and substituted coconut oil for the canola oil. Couldn't tell a difference. The original recipe calls for steel cut oatmeal, but you can use old-fashioned rolled oats, which is what I used here.

LUNCH: It was Leftoverpalooza for lunch today. Charlie took oatmeal from breakfast, PB on a brown rice cake, raisins (to add some bling to his rice cake), watermelon, and a plum. Somehow I forgot to take a pic.

Kyle took leftover spaghetti, broccoli, and garlic bread from last night. Soph had the same. Again, fell down on picture duty.

I polished off the salmon from Thursday as I figured it was on its way out.

SNACK: Blueberry muffin binge.

Brain food.

A couple notes about dinner:

BREADCRUMBS: Made these yesterday out of the last few slices of whole wheat bread Jill made for last week. I am ashamed I've bought breadcrumbs all my life. So. Easy. Throw them in the freezer and they last foreva.

DIPPING SAUCE: We have had outright riots in our house when chicken nuggets have been served without sweet and sour sauce. McDonald's, Wendy's, La Choy—doesn't matter as long as it was sweet, sour, and stained the shorties' little mouths with red food dye. I tried a homemade honey mustard sauce tonight—equal parts honey, mustard, and mayo (I'll save the mayo saga for another post). Anyway, I went a little heavy on the honey and the shorties ate it...a little reluctantly, but no one even ASKED for sweet and sour, so I will count it as a victory.

GUACAMOLE: It's the utility man of the dinner table. So easy, so versatile, so tasty. I think we've had it every day. Evidently, I didn't bring my guac-making A-game tonight because Charlie said to me as he cleared off his dinner plate, "Mom, you made good guacamole tonight, but I think you can do better." Everyone's a critic.

CHICKEN: As I said, I've made my own chicken nuggets in the past, but been underwhelmed by the results. The combination of the homemade breadcrumbs and the local chicken tonight convinced me this is worth adding to the regular rotation. I can't say enough about how juicy and tender the chicken from Kapenga Farms is.

We've half way there!

Real Food: Day 4

I feel like I’m starting to hit my stride with this RealFood thing. The panic and shakes have subsided.

BREAKFAST: Had some chicken and apple sausage leftover from Monday, so we had that along with some whole wheat banana pancakes I had frozen.

I opted for whole wheat mini banana muffins instead of pancakes. Milk for the kids, coffee for the adults.

SNACK: Our nanny Jill (who is also doing the 10 Day Real Food Challenge), shared some amazing roasted sweet potato hummus with Sophie and I. 

You need to try this.

Dipped some 5-ingredient whole wheat pita chips (another Aldi's find).

Can't find 5-ingredient pitas, but can find 5-ingredient pita chips. Go figure.

LUNCH: I let Charlie pick his main course and, shocker, he picked PB&J. Loaded him up with some fruit, a few mini banana muffins, and a little chocolate torte balls because, let’s face it, he deserves it.

Charlie's review of the chocolate tort ball: "I'm not such a fan...it has a lot of nuts."

Kyle took leftover huevos rancheros. I threw in some left over roasted chicken from Sunday’s dinner. He took a load of guacamole and a few banana muffins too.

I killed the rest of the huevos with chicken.

SNACK: Basically a repeat of yesterday. Smoothies with plain yogurt, frozen blueberries, strawberries, spinach, a couple bananas, and cinnamon. Sophie’s Wasa/provolone/PB sandwich was such a hit that Charlie gave it a try today. Still sounds disgusting to me.

DINNER: Pretty simple tonight. Whole wheat spaghetti with a homemade tomato sauce. I chopped up a bunch of veg I had on hand. (I call it “veg” because that’s what Jamie Oliver says and it sounds so cute with his British accent.) Threw in onion, green pepper, ‘shrooms, zucchini, and some fresh garlic, sautéed them in EVOO, added a can of organic crushed tomatoes and simmered while I had a very unsuccessful happy hour with a couple friends and all of our kids. (When am I going to learn that “happy hour” and “kids” cannot coexist?)

 We also had some leftover steamed broccoli from last night, a truckload of watermelon, and some homemade garlic bread.

I wanted to bury my face in this watermelon it was so tasty.

On the subject of bread, my first attempt at making 5-ingredient whole wheat bread in my breadmaker I scored on craigslist. The bread was a complete failure. Inedible. Jill gave it another shot in our breadmaker. Better results this time, but still not as good as hers.

Craigslist breadmaker from the 90s...you get what you pay for.

Tonight I had my monthly wine club meeting. This was the first time I have eaten with others during the Challenge. I could drink all the wine, of course, but passing on the crackers and chocolates and yogurt covered pretzels wasn’t easy. Luckily I could nosh on almonds, grapes, and cheese, so the wine didn’t go completely to my head. It was interesting how different it feels to be so aware of what I am eating. Normally I would have just mindlessly kept shoveling into my mouth everything that was passed in front of me. Having to think about everything I put in my mouth was a much-needed exercise in self-control.

Wine club. If only it met nightly instead of monthly.

Speaking of self-control. A good friend visited from out of town last night (which is why this post is late...blame Lynn). She arrived bearing gifts—including a pile of chocolate bark and a volleyball-size chocolate and caramel covered apple. (She’s known me for a long time and clearly knows me and my chocolate obsession well…). I didn’t cheat, but you can bet I’ll be tearing into that chocolate for breakfast on Day 11.

I will see you in seven days, my friend.

OBSERVATIONS:

-Self-control and sugar cravings were less today. My body must be starting to adjust…or maybe it’s just giving up.

-I would have died on the Oregon Trail. I simply cannot make bread…even with the help of a BREADMAKER! A trained monkey can make bread in a breadmaker. I just don’t get it.

-Eating outside the confines of my house is daunting. I am nervous there won’t be anything I can eat, I’m nervous I will offend the host if I don’t eat what’s served, and I don’t want to draw attention or be “that person.”

-I am really thankful my husband is so whole-heartedly into this Challenge and not just coming along kicking and screaming, but going all and doing it enthusiastically. This also helps Charlie and Sophie to see BOTH of us doing this with them. This isn’t meant as a public ego stroke for him (though that never hurts), but it has truly made a big difference in how successful the first few days of this Challenge have been.

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.

Real Food: Day 2

It was a day of firsts on Day 2 of our 10 Day Real Food Challenge.

Charlie's first day of kindergarten.

The first time I have ever gotten the shorties to eat eggs.

And the first food-related meltdown of the Challenge.

Though I had many reasons to be the one to meltdown (and I did, just for other reasons), it was Charlie who broke. And when one kid goes, the others usually fall like dominoes.

We were at Zeelmania tonight (um, yeah, you know you want to live in a town where you party in the street every Monday night), and after completing some sort of obstacle course, the kids each got a Starburst candy.

I cringed. I knew what was coming.

It was hot, it was late, no one has had high fructose corn syrup in almost 48 hours. Charlie just lost it. It was enough to break any man.

"I just NEED something sweet!" he sobbed. "Something really, really sweet!!"

Then Sophie followed up with the sympathy tears and in a matter of seconds I had two kids doing the ugly cry on Main Street.

Mom of the Year.

I shushed and calmed and promised them gallons of honey delivered straight to their mouths when we got home. Nothing mattered.

To their credit they did not eat the candy and eventually calmed down. And yes, they did have whole wheat Wasa crackers drenched in honey when we got home.

So that was fun.

The rest of today's meals were pretty routine. Stuff we normally have.

BREAKFAST: Whole wheat banana pancakes with maple syrup and chicken and apple sausage. Milk for the shorties, coffee for Kyle, cappuccino for me. No pictures. I was too busy trying to get Charlie to school on time.

SNACK: Whole wheat mini banana muffins

LUNCH: Charlie has to take his lunch to school. He had a PB&J on whole wheat bread, grapes, popcorn, and a couple mini banana muffins. He swore he didn't trade anything.

Charlie's first school lunch. He took care of business.

Kyle took his lunch to work since he cannot eat his usually fast food lunch or giant gyro from Kozak's. He had virtually the same lunch as Charlie. Cute.

Soph also had a PB&J, plain yogurt with cinnamon and honey, and some fruit. I had the same as her.

Sophie's lunch

Oliver had banana and squash and, evidently it was exhausting.

Keeping up these fat rolls takes a lot out of you.

SNACK: Smoothies (or "smoovies" as Sophie calls them) with plain yogurt, bananas, strawberries, and spinach. Since school took so much energy we added a Wasa whole wheat cracker with some PB.

After school snack.

DINNER: This is one of my favorite dinners. It's my rip off of huevos rancheros. I use whatever we have on hand. Tonight it was brown rice, shredded cheddar cheese (shredding my own brought me back to the 80s), black beans, corn (leftover from last night's dinner), sauteed onions, green pepper, and red pepper, topped with a couple of eggs over easy (eggs from our Visser Farms CSA). I threw on some homemade guacamole and some store bought salsa (the ingredients number a few more than five, but they were all natural, whole foods, so I let it slide). Then I completely inhaled it all.

Mi huevos rancheros son muy bien.

Kids ate everything except for the peppers. Oh, and we had some fresh strawberries as well. Water and wine for the adults. Milk for the kiddos.

OBSERVATIONS:

I am cranky. I mean more so than usual. I think it's because I am not just addicted to chocolate, I am addicted to anything and everything sweet. I don't want to talk about it anymore because it makes me more cranky.

I am over the panic stage of this challenge. I know we will live, but how much my family will like me at the end of this is up in the air.

Real Food: Day 1

We survived.

Well, actually we're still two hours and five minutes from officially surviving our first day of the 10 Days of Real Food Challenge, and I'm literally shaking from chocolate withdrawal as I type this, but I think we're gonna make it.

HIGHLIGHT: Minimal complaining from the shorties.

LOWLIGHT: I had no idea how addicted I am to chocolate.

BREAKFAST: Sophie had the table set for breakfast when we came downstairs, and she had set out bowls, so I went with it. We tried a new cereal I got at Harvest Health. Puffed corn is the only ingedient.

not a hit

Sugarless cereal received lukewarm reviews. Anticipating that, I made oatmeal for everyone.

oatmeal to the rescue

I add copious amounts of cinnamon, a drizzle of honey, and golden raisins or banana slices. Add a little whole milk and it was a tasty breakfast. Eating something familiar was a good start. We have oatmeal several times a week, so no one felt out of their comfort zone. Soph had a glass of OJ, Charlie had a glass of milk, Kyle had a cup of hot black coffee (I know we're all thinking of the same joke here), and I had a cappuccino with whole milk. It was glorious. Good start to the day.

SNACK: Sophie had a banana. Charlie had some cantaloupe. I had a plum. I had a mild freak out on Kyle. I came downstairs and saw an empty cereal bowl sitting on the counter. I asked him what he ate and he said, "Oh, just a bowl of the Kashi cereal in the cupboard." After a momentary look of horror on my face, he told me he was kidding...it was just a bowl of my homemade granola with milk. Not cool, dude.

If today is any indication, I am going to be VERY busy for the next nine days. I barely left the kitchen today.

 I made a batch of granola.

best. granola. ever.

It's a recipe I've been tweaking for the last six months. I had to leave out the dried cherries I usually add because the ones I had have sugar.

Also bagged and frozen 15 lbs. of fresh blueberries.

LUNCH: We had whole wheat macaroni and cheese with these awesome Applegate hot dogs and peas. For the cheese sauce, I melted 8 oz of Vermont cheddar with 1/2 cup of plain yogurt. Added a little reserved pasta water (would use milk next time), and a little salt and pepper. The cheese didn't melt as well as it did when I used American cheese, so I need to keep experimenting with it.

only Charlie could find reason to complain: "too cheesy"

We also plowed through an entire cantaloupe and a couple bowls of cherries.

gone within minutes

By the way, this cherry pitter is the best thing I never knew I needed until I got one. Also works to pit olives.

the cherry pitter: landmark achievement of Western Civilization

SNACK: Sophie had a homemade popsicle (plain yogurt, banana, strawberry, and cinnamon) for afternoon snack. The rest of us survived sans snack.

DINNER: Sunday means dinner with family. Specifically, my brother and sister-in-law and their two kids who live down the street. They graciously played along with our pledge tonight. My SIL and I usually split up the duties for Sunday dinner. I made roasted chicken (locally raised, no druggy chicken from Kapenga Farms) topped with homemade breadcrumbs, corn on the cob, and sweet potato fries (roasted in the oven with EVOO, salt, and pepper). SIL brought fresh cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries, and a homemade black bean and corn salsa. Nom, nom, nom. I did find some organic blue corn chips that qualify for our challenge. They are pretty tasty AND they are at Aldi's of all places! Kids had more homemade popsicles for dessert.

CHEATER, CHEATER, PUMPKIN EATER: I decided to cheat on the kids' vitamins. They have all sorts of added sugar and sugar-like substances, but I think the good outweighs the bad here. I also made an executive decision that if water is listed as a ingredient in a pre-packaged food, I'm not counting it against my the five ingredients I'm allowed. And if something is borderline, I'm trying to make a good-faith decision that keeps with the spirit of the challenge.

OBSERVATIONS:

Dinner isn't difficult. In fact, it's the easiest part of the day. I grew up with a mother who made us three meals a day. Every. Single. Day. They were always healthy and well-balanced. At dinner we always had a main dish (protein), a starch (nothing ever fried), and at least one fresh vegetable (often two). I know how to prepare fresh vegetables and fruit because I watched my mom do it growing up. I still can't get dinner on the table in 22 minutes flat like she can, but I do follow the model of simple, fresh, well-balanced dinners she gave us growing up. So what I grew up eating and what I usually make for my family at dinner time is pretty close to the Real Food Challenge already. Just a few minor adjustments (tonight it was just making the breadcrumbs instead of using the store-bought variety). What's difficult is the convenience food—ketchup, mayo, dry onion soup mix, etc.)

I really love chocolate. I don't mean to harp on this, but I am really blown away by how much I have been craving a square of dark chocolate all day.

I am exhausted. This is a lot of work. On that note, I need to go bottle the batch of yogurt I made today.

Real Food Eve

Tonight at dinner we were talking with the kids about starting the 10 Day Challenge tomorrow and Charlie said, “I’m kind of nervous.”

I’m right there with ya, kid.

As the clock ticks down towards midnight and the start of our 10 days of eating real food and ONLY real food, nervous is the only word to describe how I’m feeling. It’s not that I am nervous that I, personally, can handle the challenge. I’ve been through much longer and rougher stretches of self-deprevation (surviving four pregnancies without wine makes this look like child’s play). I’m nervous because I am largely responsible for helping my family successfully complete this challenge.

We’re all in this together—Kyle, Charlie, Sophie, Oliver (didn’t think he’d get off the hook, did you?), and I. 

gratuitous baby photo...couldn't resist

But I’m worried that I’ll panic when it’s 4 p.m. and I haven’t figured out what we’re having for dinner and raid the freezer for a frozen pizza, or Sophie’s pleas for Goldfish for an afternoon snack will get so desperate that I’ll give in, or that I’ll just flat run out of ideas of what we can eat. Turns out that was exactly what Charlie was worried about. When I asked him what, exactly, he was nervous about he said, “I’m nervous that we won’t know what to eat for breakfast and lunch.”

We had a big discussion about what foods are real and what aren’t real. They were both very relieved to find out that most of their favorites made the list—grapes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrots, sushi (yes, Charlie made sure that was on the dinner list for at least one of the 10 days). They even had a pretty good idea what was NOT on the list—pretty much every dessert, Goldfish, flavored cream cheese, and the crackers and “cheese” Grandma Perkins sends them in the mail…

So their nerves were calmed a bit after our discussion, but I’m still a little on edge. I know how much work this is going to be and how much time and planning it will take. But I’m competitive and I don’t like to fail. So I’ve been doing some prep work to try to maximize our chance at success.

SNACKS: This is a big weak spot for Team Reese when it comes to real food. It’s not like we eat pork rinds and Little Debbie Nutty Bars (at least not most days), but the “healthy” pre-packaged snacks we eat don’t qualify as real food. So long, veggie chips, honey wheat pretzel sticks, and Wheat Thins. We’ll see you on the other side. I made about 6 dozen whole wheat banana mini muffins to pack for Charlie’s lunch and to eat as snacks. Also made some regular size banana muffins for my regular size husband. I’m planning on making some mini zucchini muffins tomorrow, as well as some Larabars and granola. Again, these will help ease the panic when I’m starving and multiple kids are screaming.

PEANUT BUTTER: This is a staple for us. We don’t eat cold cuts, so PB&J is our go-to sandwich. Even the Natural Jif peanut butter I use is off limits because of the added sugar. I found a super simple and yummy recipe for homemade peanut butter which I made today. 

sous chef Sophie supervising the peanut butter makin'

Simple ground up a 16 oz jar of peanuts for four minutes in the food processor. Added a tablespoon of local honey and voila! A beautiful 16 oz jar of yummy real peanut butter. 

a pint of peanut buttery deliciousness

I keep it in the fridge. I have never tried this before because A1.) I HATE stirring peanut butter and B2.) I HATE gritty peanut butter. This stuff is very smooth and it doesn’t separate at all in the fridge. Is my excitement over this discovery coming through the computer screen? I’m practically giddy about this one.

 BREAD: This is the trickiest issue for me so far. Our wonderful nanny Jill is doing the 10 Day Challenge with us (misery loves company!). She is perfecting a 5-ingredient whole wheat bread recipe, and she was nice enough to let us in on a loaf. It was yummy. So, Jill, you’re my fall back. But I did find a bread that will work today at Harvest Health Food Store in Hudsonville (I don’t want to burn out Jill on the bread making). It’s from Little Rooster Bread Company, which happens to be the bakery at the farm where we get our grass-fed beef and pork, Lubbers Farms. Love that place! 

hallelujah, we found bread

Haven’t tasted the bread, but it looks yummy. Unfortunately, after perusing the shelves at Harvest Health (with three kids in tow), I wasn’t able to find any tortillas or bagels or pitas that will work. Ugh. This really stinks. We eat quesadillas at least twice a week. And bagels and pita bread are staples too. I can get through 10 days without them, but it won’t be pretty.

DAIRY: Only full-fat dairy products in the challenge…darn. I’m embarrassed how pumped I am about a whole-milk cappuccino tomorrow morning. We’ve been eating full-fat plain yogurt for a while now. I’m planning on making a big batch of my yogurt tomorrow so we’ll have plenty on hand. I'm beginning to sound like one of those doomsday preppers, aren't I?

DESSERT: The only sweeteners we can use are honey and pure maple syrup, so most desserts are out. I’ve got some homemade yogurt and fruit popsicles in the freezer for the kids, and there are a few good looking desserts on the 100 Days site I’m going to try. Charlie insisted on dinner tonight because, “I have to go a whole 10 days without it!” Oh, the injustice!

CHOCOLATE: Let’s not talk about it.

JUICE: I’m still a little unclear about what is ok here, but from everything I’ve read, I think 100% real fruit juice is acceptable as long as there are no additives. So, we’ll keep drinking OJ at breakfast in moderation.

So we’re wrapping up our last day before we start the 10 Day Challenge. You’d think we were a family on death row—ordered pizza for dinner tonight, but only ordered a medium instead of a large since we knew we couldn’t eat the leftovers tomorrow. Stuffed our faces with chocolate afterwards to the point that I have a stomachache. No apologies. 

At the end of the the next 10 days, I'm hoping for several things:

A1.) I hope that my husband still likes me.

B2.) I hope I still like my kids and they still like me.

C3.) I hope I am more mindful of the food I put in my body and the food I give my family.

D4.) I hope my kids will understand better what is real food and what is not.

E5.) I hope we will eat more real food and less processed food from day 11 forward.

F6.) I wouldn't mind shedding a pound or two for all this effort...

Here we go…