Healthy Meals Kids Will LOVE

If your kids are anything like mine then you've got some pretty picky eaters on your hands. So frustrating sometimes. I try so hard to make nice healthy meals for my family only to find out it was all in vain. Oliver has been especially hard. His diet consists of about 5 things and thats IT. He won't even try anything new. Even stuff that most kids love. We feed them their vitamins daily, but I still can't help but worry about his health, mostly long term I guess. He LOOKS healthy but I just hope he's getting the nutrients he needs for his brain and other organs to develop properly.

So I've finally decided to try the "sneaking" it in method. I'm sure most of you have heard of the cook books Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef. I looked into both books, read reviews and decided to go with the Deceptively Delicious book (although the reviews were leaning more towards The Sneaky Chef). The thing that sold me on DD was the fact that it had pictures. I'm a pretty visual person so when I read that the SC didn't have pictures but the food tastes better, I still chose DD... simply because it has pictures... Is that a good enough reason?

So basically the whole idea is to add pureed vegetables in where ever possible. I've been pleasantly surprised that it's been WORKING!!! We started by pureeing a bunch of veggies and storing them in the freezer. The cook book says to steam them before blending, but I just blend them up raw in the Vitamix wich helps preserve the nutrients a little.

We've got carrots, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, broccoli, and white beans.

We started with the French Toast but I changed it up a bit to make it even healthier.

Instead of regular milk I used the new Silk Pure Coconut (we LOVE this stuff, and coconut milk is extremely healthy), and I added flaxseed to it as well. I watched with with biggest smile on my face as Oliver ate up his breakfast. Not only did he eat it, but he LOVED it. I made a bunch and froze the extras to make for a quick breakfast later that week.

Look at it! You can't even tell that there are carrots cooked onto it!

So far I've made chocolate chip cookies using white beans instead of butter or oil. Chicken nuggets dipped in spinach before coating them in whole wheat bread crumbs and flaxseed then frying them up using coconut oil. We made scrambled eggs that had cauliflower mixed in. Then, one day I came up with my own idea and added freshly pureed sweet potatoes into their mac & cheese. We buy the Annie's brand (it's organic) and I just stirred in the sweet potatoes along with the butter and my kids actually ate it!!! The sweet potatoes hadn't even been cooked which we all know is the best way to consume produce. So I was pretty proud of that one :)

I know what you're thinking... Well sounds great, but who has the time for this? The key is to spend a day pureeing veggies so you have all kinds on hand when you're ready to make something. Then when you do make something, then double or triple the recipe so you can freeze the extras for quick and easy meals in the future.

One of my favorite quotes my husband always recites is:

"Do what is hard and your life will be easy, do what is easy and your life will be hard"

-Les Brown

Nursery

Here's a sneak peak on what I've got goin on in the St. George nursery. It's been a lot of fun working on it. Here are the colors I'm going with. Yellow, gray and blue.

I had my mom make me these pillows. They turned out so cute don't you think!!!

I also started painting a tree on the wall and WOW, I had no idea painting a simple tree could be so difficult AND time consuming. Here's what I've got so far...

Can't wait to show you when it's all finished!!!

Homemade Weightloss/ Energy Drink

This is a very tasty and extremely healthy drink I concocted. Drink this throughout the day and you'll notice increased energy and weight loss. I've been drinking this almost every day and can really tell a difference in how I feel ( totally safe for nursing mothers, you might want to be careful about the green tea though, just depends on if it affects your baby or not, for me Brooklyn is sleeping great and happy as ever so I know that it's okay for us).

Here's how to make a 16 oz. size drink.

First add the water (8 oz.) double or triple the recipe if you want to store it in the fridge to have it on hand. Drink 16 oz. at least twice a day.

8 oz. of freshly brewed green tea (try the berry flavored kind for more flavor) Green tea is full of antioxidants, helps burn fat, improves heart health, and increases energy.

1 scoop of Cleanse For Life powder or 2 oz. of liquid Cleanse For Life. Everyday we’re exposed to hundreds of toxins–from the food we eat, to the air we breathe, to the water we drink, to the items we touch. Without proper cleansing of impurities, the body struggles to maintain good health. Cleanse for Life helps give your body the nutrition it needs to cleanse itself naturally, and unlike other “cleanses,” laxatives or diuretics that can deplete your body, Cleanse for Life nourishes and feeds your whole body with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and botanicals. Deep and daily cleansing with either our powder or liquid forms of Cleanse for Life, supports your mental and physical performance, resistance to stress and digestive health. It can also help protect your body from the cumulative damage of environmental toxins and oxidative stress and encourages safe and effective weight loss by gently removing impurities.

2 scoops Want More Energy powder. Want more energy is a refreshing drink powder containing Vitamins A, C and B complex, electrolytes and nutrients that are lost during stress and exercise.

Lemon juice, squeeze one full lemon. Lemon juice promotes healthy digestion, and weight loss.

2 Tablespoons of Chia seeds. Because of the unique gelling action of the chia seeds, they will keep you feeling full for hours. They also help balance blood sugar levels, adds healthy omega 3 to your diet, and will keep you feeling energized all day because of it's complete protein. It also has antioxidants and will help cut the food cravings.

Sliced Cucumbers (about 5 or 6 slices). Cucumbers are a great source of vitamin C and also help improve the health of your skin.

Fresh Mint leaves. For added flavor.

New Outfit

I just quickly wanted to post a picture of my new outfit from The Sweetest Thingz. Pretty much everything I'm wearing is from there. The dress, the sweater cardigan, belt, under T, necklace, and slip skirt. Don't you love how the slip skirt adds so much to the dress. I love this thing because you can wear it under any dress to add a little frill to it :)

Valentines Day Dinner

Today Lily and I went all out and prepared a really fun Valentines Day dinner. We started by setting up the table with as much red, pink, flowers and hearts as possible.









Then we did a little craft together. We got this idea from the family fun magazine. It was actually a Halloween one, but we made them to fit Valentines Day. You just paint some mason jars with acrylic paint, first add some tape cut into the shape of your choice (we used duck tape). Then once it's all dry you can remove the tape. Makes fun little candle holders.







Then we made some menus.



Drinks:

Sweetheart Strawberry Milk (we used licorice cut on both ends for straws)

Rainbow Love Potion (put a scoop of Rainbow Sherbet into the glass, then pour in some Sparkling Cider)

Appetizers:

Hearty Chips and Salsa (we cut tortillas into hearts, sprinkled a little cheese on them and baked in the oven for about 5-7 minutes)



Flower Fruit Plate





Entree:

Sweetheart Soup and Sandwich (grilled cheese sandwiches cut into hearts using cookie cutters, and tomato soup)



Lily got to be the waitress. She LOVED it!!!

Passion Pepperoni Pizza

Dessert:

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Yummy Appetizer

Today we had everyone over to celebrate Brooklyn's baby blessing. Just wanted to show you one of my favorite appetizers that always seems to be a hit. Very simple to make too.

It's just pickles with cream cheese and ham. Lily calls them Picklens :)

Just spread some cream cheese onto the ham, stick a pickle on it, roll it up and slice into bite size pieces. Be sure to dry the ham and the pickle with a paper towel so it all sticks together better. It's a great low carb snack too for those of you who are watching your carb intake.

And here's a picture of my two sweeties :)

I made her little headband. Isn't it fun? It's available in the Lil' Star Boutique. I can make it in most any color.

Weather Week

With homeschool I've been trying to plan different themes for each week. It doesn't always happen, but I'm trying :). Recently we had a weather week. We went to the library and checked out a bunch of books on the subject then searched the internet for fun crafts to help make it a little more fun and interesting. We also watched a bunch of youtube videos which was kind of fun. I tell ya, homeschool is so easy when you've got all these great resources online. There were a few videos that gave quick little lessons on how rain works. That was very helpful. Then we watched a bunch of videos on hail storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, ect.



Here are a few fun crafts we did.

This one is simple. Just fill a glass half full with water, top with a little shaving cream, then drop a little food coloring in. You might need to use your finger to create a little whole so the food coloring can drop through. Then watch as the blue food coloring drops down through the water making little rain drops. I got this idea from Mrs.karensclass.com

Then we make rainbows of fruit loops and cotton balls.

Then we made snowmen with puffy paint.

We just mixed shaving cream and tacky glue (you can use elmers glue too) together.

It was really cool how these turned out. The paint actually dried all puffy with a really cool smooth texture. We got this idea from Momendeavors.com

Then we made our own tornados. We just filled up a bottle with water, glitter, tinsel, confetti and a couple drops of dish soap. You can also add a marble in there to help shake things around in there. Then shake it up and watch it twirl around. We got this idea from Tundstallsteachingtidbits.com

Here's another cool idea but we didn't actually get around to doing it. We found it on Naturewatch.com