October Unprocessed: Meal Plan 2

Welp, we're one week into the October Unprocessed Challenge, yahoo! J (the hubs) and I are down 4lbs each, feeling more energetic and getting into this whole "homemade" business. Sadly, though, I am soo tired of cleaning pans ~ where the heck is the dish fairy?!

This past week hasn't been without it's struggles, though. I hit a wall Saturday evening with all-over spastic muscle aches and feeling like I was going to pass out. From what others have said, it sounds like my body was going through a detox phase, which supposedly happens in the first week. All I know is that I felt like human crap. A pounding head and an energetic toddler do not mix well!

But today? Today I feel amazing. All day I've been thinking how wonderful to finally feel like my head isn't in a fog like usual. Hubs said the same thing at dinner tonight. And I thought I would miss my daily Diet Dr. Pepper, but I haven't... yet.  Starting to think it was more habit than something I actually enjoyed drinking.

The hardest part of the day is definitely breakfast. I've found if I don't plan well enough ahead ~ or get going early enough ~ then it's a scramble in the mornings between J trying to eat breakfast before work and me trying to get munchkin fed while fixing my own. I think baking homemade pancakes and stuff beforehand and freezing is going to be the best bet. Or making homemade granola on Sundays and eating during the week. Just not there quite yet!

Here's my plan for the week:

Again, I'll probably tweak it as we go along, but this is what I'm shooting for anyway. This challenge is definitely made easier with all of the Facebook support, Pinterest and the awesome whole food blogs out there. I have some recipes that I'll share too, some from my own mind and some from cookbooks I already had.

Happy Week 2!

Because We Need More Channels

The hubs has been wanting to add an outdoor sports package to our cable for awhile now, but I hated the idea of paying for more channels when we don't watch most of the ones we have. So last night, when I wasn't feeling well and went to bed early, he added it. He told me this morning and, before I could protest, he says: "But you were incoherent or I would have asked."

Well played, my friend.

October Unprocessed: Meal Plan 1

Yesterday was the official first day of the October Unprocessed Challenge. Because I didn't make it to the store until after lunch, we didn't really start until dinner. But that's okay, baby steps!

Sat down yesterday and started our meal plans for the month. They'll definitely need some tweaking as we go along and get better with this whole unprocessed concept, but it's a great start. I pulled inspiration from many sources, including various Pinterest pins, 100DaysofRealFood, friends and others. If there's a recipe, it's pinned to my Pinterest board.

As I said before, we were already working toward eating cleaner at home, so I had the right baking goods, oatmeal, and some other things at home already. Made it soo much easier (and cheaper) when I went to Sprouts yesterday to stock up for the week. Interestingly, it only cost me less than $60 to get everything I needed! But we didn't need any meat or paper products, so that helps a ton. And, I bought from the bulk bins where I could, and it's soo much cheaper than buying prepackaged.

I did get a major headache at the store, though, trying to find everything I needed and reading every label for packaged stuff. I usually shop at Target, but figured I'd stay away from all the beautiful temptations this time around and focus on my list. If I couldn't find organic, I tried to at least buy local.

And the hubs is a total meateater, but didn't freak out too much at the veggie fajitas. I thought I'd wait to get meat until I can do a little research on the best kinds or get out to our farmer's market. Will be a fun outing for the toddler, too :)

Maybe this challenge isn't as crazy as it sounds after all!

October Unprocessed Challenge!

So tomorrow starts the big challenge, eating unprocessed throughout the month of October. {Want to join the pledge? Check out Andrew at EatingRules!}

As excited as I am, I'm feeling a bit over-whelmed... or maybe confused... in some areas. After my son was born two years ago, and reading more info on food and preservatives than I ever thought possible, I slowly started the journey to better eating. In the last year, we've tried to cook "clean" at the house using more whole foods (eating out, however, is a completely different story!). And I read just about every label at the grocery store now. So I thought this challenge would just be going another layer deeper with what we're already been doing and provide some much-needed recipe ideas.

But, somehow, I feel like maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew. Homemade tortillas? Making our own almond milk? Pasta from scratch?! Oh my. I know you can use your own discretion when it comes to certain items, but I whole-heartedly want to give it my best shot.  I mean, if I have to give up Rosa's, then I'll be darned if I cheat with something as simple as store-bought bread.

At least my hubs is on board. He's huge into healthy eating... or, at least, was up until he married me, ha!... but his support will truly be helpful. And my toddler, age two, will hopefully adjust with minimal effort. Thank goodness for homemade cheesy cracker recipes!

I won't blog about our journey everyday, but I will post our meal plans, favorite recipes, etc. You can also follow my board on Pinterest. Did you pledge? Would love to follow you, too!

Countdown to tomorrow begins now... guess I better chug one last Dr. Pepper!

Finding Balance

Balance is an interesting thing. What, exactly, are we trying to balance? Our own expectations? Expectations of others? And everything in between?

I like to think of "balance" as that wide ledge between everything slipping between your fingers and udder boredom. And I say wide ledge because, well, I guess falling off either way is not really a surprise, right? I mean, you can always feel it coming: a sense of overwhelming anxiety when things move too fast to count, or that numbing feeling of wasting life away by choosing to remove yourself from daily life. 

I always tend to over-compensate for one or the other. Life moving too fast? I shutdown the computer, the laundry, and the stove. I resort to fast food over cooking, Pinterest over blogging, mind-numbing TV over running. No fuss, no effort. Just ho-hum.

Life moving to slow? I dial up old friends, take on work projects, house projects, craft projects and me projects. Dust baseboards, over-fix my hair, host playdate after playdate, all while sampling life's zestiness in any way possible while running a hundred miles a minute. 

It's exhausting. 

And confusing.

But if I had a wine cup in my hand right now, I'd toast to fine-tuning balance. Because the ledge? Is fun and interesting, and where carpe diem lives. 

Or so I hope.

Cool Tub

Love this tub. Would look amazing in my beach house... if I, uh, had a beach house...

{via The Water Monopoly}

Hello

I'm not going to call this a comeback. I won't even say that I'm back. Ha! But I hope that I am. Life seems to be humming along nicely. Maybe I actually have time... wait. I guess I always had time. But maybe now I'll spend less time being lazy and procrastinating. In between scraping squished raisins off the floor (compliments of my 19-month old) and catching up on my shows (thanks Hulu), maybe I'll squeeze in a post or three. Probably more about toddlerhood and less about crafting, but a post nonetheless.

Catch ya on the flip side!