Detox update: It’s been 1 1/2 weeks since we’ve started and honestly I’m a little surprised I’ve survived to tell the tale. ha! Only 3 more days til FRUIT!! How I’ve missed fruit! Things will get easier then, we can drink smoothies all the time :) Yum.

I don’t crave sugar anymore but it’s things like being able to veg on popcorn or chips and salsa at night while chillaxing with Hubby is what I miss most. Oh, and Pizza. mmmm mmmmm That’s the first thing I’m eating when off this cleanse Ha!

Weight? I’ve lost more (as this is not the reason I’m doing the detox this is not a concern to me- more like I feel i’m getting too skinny… I know, woe is me, poor Laura ;) But for those of you who are curious how effective this regimen is, you definitely lose weight, but not only that, you feel healthier and have more energy! At least we do. I go in for checkup with physician soon as I start adding more foods, making it easier to detect any allergies. I notice I’m losing weight everywhere but my stomach which makes me wonder what’s going on… or if it’s just my normal pillsbury-doughboy-stomach-caused-by-3-babies that I will never get rid of.

On to the food… We just grilled some salmon seasoned with Lemon Pepper seasoning (one of our favorite spices), set on top of a lettuce leaf, top with salsa (no sugar! we used Herdez brand), kale leaves and lemon slices. Pretty good with the seasonings and lemon squeezed over it! We like to fold it in half, hotdog-wise, and eat it like a taco :)

Wash Kale.

Shake and get most water off.

Arrange on baking sheet.

Drizzle with little bit Olive Oil and sprinkle with a little salt- you don’t want it to be overly salty tasting, it already has a bitter flavor to it remember…

Bake @ 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Crunch crunch :)

Healthy Fudge

{Recipe by: Rose alamode}

3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder

1/4 Cup Coconut Oil

1/2 Cup Honey

1/3 Cup Peanut Butter or Almond Butter

1 Tbsp Vanilla

• Mix all the ingredients into a pan on your stove over medium-low heat.
• Once melted and mixed well, pour it into a pyrex dish over parchment paper on the bottom and sides.
• Place the dish in the fridge (or freezer!) until cool.
• Chop into pieces and enjoy!

Seems like a lot of people are hopping in the healthy bandwagon, even more so recently. More people are becoming aware of the effects food has on our bodies. Our western diet is one of the worst around, it’s no wonder so many have health issues.

Last year hubby got diagnosed with Celiac disease- gluten allergy (on top of his milk allergy) and went from pretty much his deathbed to now living a healthy life with only an occasional puff of inhaler (whereas before it was about 6 diff meds each day and he STILL wasn’t breathing well).
It’s become easier to just eat the same thing so grocery bill wouldn’t be doubled by doing 2 different meals. I’ve found myself feeling better and especially more now by cleaning up my diet even more.

For a while i’ve been eating all whole wheat, no white/refined food/processed food. But Last year, a couple months before done with nursing baby, I decided to lay off dairy to see it if would help with my stuffiness, then brought consumption of pastas way down, bread and potatoes and completely stopped with refined sugars.
My stuffiness remained but I felt so much better AND I lost weight like crazy. Stress may have had a part to play in weight loss too. So I’ve totally adapted to this new way of healthy eating and loving it.

Along withHubby and I, I know many people who have made this a way of life rather than just a diet. And all of us have had much more success at being healthy and fit this way than following any other fad diet out there or even trying out the ‘healthy diet’ to lose weight. It shouldn’t be just a one time, short lived thing but a Way of Life. My amazing cousin started a healthy food blog after finding out that Vegan has helped her and her whole family feel better. She has some GREAT recipes. Go Plant Yourself.

Some may think, like I did, “well that sounds not very exciting.” Ok, define exciting… To me it’s feeling and looking good inside and out. There’s so many amazingly great recipes out there for healthy eating that are easy and so tasty you’d think it wasn’t supposed to be healthy. Healthy eating can be fun if you make it. You can still be really creative and come up with some amazing stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I will still bake up something Oreo or drop by for a juicy burger once in a while, it’s not like I’m so overzealous about my diet that I don’t allow myself to splurge here and there. But for the most part I am more cautious and aware of what goes in my body.

On Sunday Hubby and I started a detox cleanse. My doctor told me to do it way back in January but we got sick, then went on vacation then this came up and that came up and here we are with the year almost half over…. I realized there is no perfect time to start it, so we just decided now is the time.

It is not that huge of a shock to do this cleanse, as we eat all of it most the time, the difference is the foods are limited. First 2 weeks is veggies, chicken, fish, nuts, sweet potatoes, water…. that’s pretty much it. We eat this along with the supplements we got from doc (DO NOT try this diet without appropriate advising from doctor and you need supplements). These first 2 weeks really help to get rid of any fungal/yeast and to break sugar addictions. It’s a low glycemic diet, so it starves off all that bad stuff. :) These are also the hardest weeks… of course, the beginning of anything is usually the hardest, but it becomes habit and gets easier.

Week 3-4 you add in fruits, and week 5 you start adding in one grain per week from then on. This helps with narrowing in on any allergies. I’m not doing this detox/cleanse to lose weight, though, whether you want to or not, you do lose weight on this. I’m doing it cuz my doc and I are suspicious of a gluten allergy/sensitivity and because everyone should do a detox at least once a year, it was about time for me.

I want to make this detox a bit easier and more fun by being creative with the limited foods we’re allowed and create some tasty meals and snacks. I’m going to post the ones we like best to share with ya’ll.

Dear hubby turned 31. Since he was gone to Europe last year for his big 3-0, I didn’t get to do anything big…. not like Europe wasn’t big enough. I didn’t feel too bad for him ;)

Ever heard of Minecraft? Hubby got me sucked into it.. so now him, me and Faith play together some nights… it’s pretty fun to do together :) Yes we are a family of Nerds and proud of it ;) Since this is one of his favorite games I thought it would be fun to throw together a Minecraft party. Of course I started thinking about things the week prior and didn’t do as much as I woulda liked buuuuuut it turned out great to him and he LOVED it! His reaction made it all worth it. :)

Birthday breakfast: Banana Pancakes with Coconut Cream syrup and sprinkles :) we ran out of syrup and so I just improvised with a can of coconut milk and it actually turned out super good.

My gift to him: “All about YOU” basket. I wrote a list of 31 things I love about him, then for most of them I found something at the store to go along with it… i.e. “Style” with AE giftcard, “Know how to have fun” with board game (walking dead happens to be his favorite- the game is as close to the movie I’ll get ;), “good lookin’” with mirror, “Sensitive to my feelings” with tissue, “love to date me” with package of dates, “great cook” with wooden spoons….. etc..  He absolutely loved it, it was so fun to see his face as he made the connections with things :)

These glasses went with “Joking around together”. Good look eh :)

“problem solver” with Rubik’s cube (he’s always wanted one) He’s very good at it but I hate the darn thing, so frustrating.

This shirt was super easy to make with $3 shirt from Wally World, fabric paint and freezer paper. He’s now a proud owner of a Minecraft Creeper shirt. When he put that on, Faith said, “Hey dad, you’re a creeper!” hahah We all laughed cuz that just doesn’t sound right….

The setup

Mr. Creeper backdrop and birthday sign Minecraft style

Just a few known things from the game that I incorporated in the food…. TNT Licorice, “Sticks”

“Creeper Corn”

“Bread” pita bread with Carrots and hummus, Potato Salad… I had signs for those too but somehow misplaced them :/.

“Dirt Cube” Fudge. Recipe for another post.

Foldable paper blocks made a fun, cheap, easy decoration…. THIS site has a lot of Minecraft paper crafts.

Fun Printables… Even though these signs started bugging me not too long after seeing them online…everywhere, I couldn’t resist to make them for this party :)

Yes two desserts. On his birthday we had a party with my fam (which was the surprise) and that’s where I made the one on the right (Which I’m doing a separate post for recipe… and a better picture) and the Oreo Ice cream cake I made for Sunday for party with Tim’s family! It was all so very good!

And of course, a birthday wouldn’t be official without Silly String!! We got him like 3 times hahah

Happy Birthday Handsome! :)

Cookies are good, but cinnamon rolls are the bomb. Did you get that yet? They are the BOMB! ;) These cookies are very delicious and it’s fun that they look swirly (I’m all about swirlies and fun stuff like that… this post is turning out very redundant); one recommendation I would give after making these for the first time is don’t go light with the sugar/butter mix you spread on it, glop it on! Just like cinnamon rolls… the more the filling and frosting, the better! ooh yea! 

Mmmmm chewy goodness. Ya gotta try these out! If not… go make some cinnamon rolls! :)