Feeding kids on a special diet is hard

Sometimes it is really hard to think of things to make for dinner that will make my kids happy.  I can eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and not complain too much, but the lovlies that I cook for won't let that fly.  So a few days ago I saw a recipe on Good Things Utah and I thought I can change that up and add it to our gluten free, soy free, dairy free, sweetener free diet recipe box. Well Parker moaned that this is what was on the menu for the night, but then after trying it he not only had seconds, but thirds.  
Here is the real recipe for Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Here is my recipe:

Creamy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 6.

• 1 Butternut Squash
• 1 1/2 C Water
• 1 Slice Onion (1-2 Tbsp)
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 1 small Sprig Rosemary (1/8 tsp dried)
• 1 small Sprig Thyme (1/8 tsp dried)
• 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Chicken Stock (May be substituted for Vegetable Stock)
• 1 can full fat Coconut Milk
• 1 Tb of Coconut Oil
• Black Pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Slice butternut squash lengthwise and remove seeds. Set seeds aside. Line cooking sheet with foil and place the squash flesh side down. Bake for 2 hours until the squash can easily be punctured with a fork.

While the squash is roasting, remove remaining flesh from seeds. Place seeds along with 1 Tbsp Olive Oil on a small baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes or until golden brown at 400 F. Sprinkle with salt.

Spoon squash away from rind. Discard rind and place squash in food processor or blender along with water, onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and chicken stock. Puree until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to move contents to a pot. Simmer on medium-low heat. Stir-in coconut milk, and oil. Add pepper to taste. Top with roasted seeds. 

Best if served with French bread and a fresh salad.

The kids asked if we could please put Ham in it next time. 

I'm Hungry

Some days I am really hungry, even though I am eating all the meals and snacks I am suppose to. So after I have eaten everything in the house I remember that this means that my body would like me to eat more healthy fats, and I have just the recipe for that, well I have adapted just the recipe.

This started out as Chicken with Lemon Butter Sauce, and became Chicken with Lemon Coconut Oil Sauce
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup White Wine (if you don't like wine you can use chicken stock)
2 tsp Minced Garlic
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
1/2  Cup Full Fat Coconut Milk
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Lemon

Chicken
2 Skinless Breast Filets, pounded to 1/ 4 inch and cut in half
Salt and Pepper
1/3 Cup Gluten Free Flour Mixture (the one I used today tasted like sand!  Yum The search continues...)
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Tbs Capers
2 Tbs Sun Dried Tomatoes
Parsley for Garnish
T
1. In a small saucepan, combine wine and garlic over medium heat.  Bring wine to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer until wine is reduced in half, about 3 or 4 minutes. Pour through a strainer into a bowl to remove garlic.
2. Rinse out saucepan, add butter and place over medium heat. When butter has melted return wine to pan along with Coconut Milk and Salt.
3. Cut Lemon in half and squeeze half into the sauce, add Sun Dried Tomatoes.  Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes, cover and remove from heat.
4.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
5. Coat each piece of chicken in Flour with Salt & Pepper.  Place in skillet and saute about 4 minutes on each side.
6.  Arrange chicken on platter.  Sprinkle with capers and spoon sauce over the top.  Garnish with Parsley and lemons.

Menu:
Breakfast:  Beef Jerky and Cucumbers
Snack: Pistachios
Snack: Watermelon
Lunch:  Red Lentil Penne Pasta, Tomato, olive oil, maranaited artichoke hearts, salt & pepper.
Snack:  Pickles
Snack:  Grapes, Kalamenti Olives and Plantain Chips
Dinner:  Chicken with Lemon Coconut Oil Sauce, green beans, olives, and brown rice pasta.  Ahh finally full!

I'm a Cheater

Okay so I am a cheater; a cheater, cheater M&M eater!

I just didn't know I was being filmed.
                  
Okay so not me, my hair never looks that good, but Jer has come home to find me cheating on my diet.
When you have hashimoto's you are suppose to keep your blood sugar level, that's why I do all this eating when I am not even hungry, to the point where it is a chore to eat. When my blood sugar goes up I am more likely to have an attack.  I am allowed one sweetener, xylitol.  But I don't like it, it doesn't bake well and well I am just plain sick of ruining all our food, by trying to create some sweet-free, gluten-free, dairy-free eatable substance.   So one time I ate some M&M's and when I say one time I mean the whole month of our our vacation and the weeks following, but I am weaning myself off of them now.  Like I told Jer I can't be completely perfect!
So yes I do cheat and yes I do weigh heavy some days, have I died, No!  Do I feel better when I don't cheat? YES!  So when I am going to go to a party or something here is what I do.  I eat a lot of good food, then I am not starving and I can think more rationally and steer clear of the goody table.  I also am very good at just having 1 bite of what Jer is having and he is usually nice enough to share.   I also drink lots and lots of water, I find that this leaves little time to cheat as I am already busy using the restroom.

Breakfast:  Hard Boilded Egg & Cauliflower
Snack:  Almond
Lunch:  Leftover tinfoil dinner
Snack: Watermelon
Dinner:  Salmon wild rice with veggies and chicken stock.  
  

I Eat Foods I Don't Like

I eat foods I don't like in meals I don't want to eat.  I hate breakfast!  I don't like eating early in the morning and I'm usually not hungry until 2pm.  I don't really like breakfast foods unless you are talking Lucky Charms, I could totally spend the rest of my life eating lucky charms!  I mean they are totally magically delicious, and include some of my favorite food groups like stars, hearts, horseshoes, moons, etc.. But I digress.  My Doctor told me that I need to eat within 30 minutes of waking up, and I need a veggie and protein, so I eat a lot of meals when I am not hungry.  I kind of equate this to doing chores I don't love, I mean I don't really love to mop the kitchen floor but I get the job done.
So here is my typical breakfast, I don't love it I just eat it. 

 Breakfast Roasted Turkey, Cucumber, Carrots, and Radishes.  I don't like radishes
Snack:  Roasted Chickpeas, GROSS
Lunch:  Lettuce, Black Beans, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Corn, Avacodo, Radishes, Carrots and Salsa
Snack: Watermelon
Dinner: Beef Burritos wrapped in lettuce, sauteed zucchini and squash. 

Keep Calm New Body Under Construction

With my lifestyle changes I have been able to get a whole new body.  Well not really but it feels like it.
Let me list some symptoms that I was having that are now either gone, or under control.

• I was taking high blood pressure medicine, and they wanted to up my dose.
• I was taking high cholesterol medicine and it made my joints ache.
• I had to pee at least 23 times a day, I am not kidding I was keeping track. Turns out I had a urinary track infection.
• I had hot hands and feet.  Like burning scalding hot I would wake Jer up with them in the middle of the night and he would scream like a little girl!
• I was swollen. Even though I was exercising every single day.  My arms looked like sausages bursting out of their casing.  My face was also very puffy. 
• My eyes hurt, and it hurt to focus them, and I wanted to wear sunglasses all the time. 
• I was exhausted, but could not sleep.  I had a hard time waking up in the morning to get the kids to school, and then I would fall asleep every afternoon as soon as my kids got home from school and would sleep for a few hours get up cook dinner and then go back to bed.  Then at 12 am I would lay wide awake.  So frustrating especially because I couldn't take a sleeping pill due to Jer being gone.  
• Fibroids in my breast, uterus, and on my ovaries, resulting in a hysterectomy, sonogram, and mammogram. 
• Brain fog, I couldn't remember anything, I would talk to people during the day, and not even remember.  I couldn't help the kids with their school work because I couldn't grasp new concepts.  
• I had a headache, yep not multiple headaches, just one that went on and on and on.  Sometimes it would get worse and I would have to lay in a quiet, cold, dark room until I threw up and then I wold get back to my regular headache.  This got slightly better after my hysterectomy, but came back after a few months.  
• HOT FLASHES, and intolerance to the cold, yep I had them both, talk about being a pain.  

Working with Dr Jeremy Swindlehurst (yes that is a very unfortunate last name) at Red River Health and Wellness I was able to change my diet and add supplements that have helped me to feel so much better.  I am still working on some things, like I make iron like a super hero, but I feel so much better.  I am off of my high blood pressure and high cholesterol medicine and I have lost 24 lbs.

Top Picture take on 12-25-15 bottom picture taken a month later after being on the anti-inflammatory diet. 

So today's menu is:
Breakfast:  Fried egg in coconut oil, gluten free toast and broccoli

Snack:  Peas out of the garden
Lunch:  Cottage cheese, Lentil Crackers, radishes, carrots, cucumber, and tomatoes.

Snack: Watermelon
Dinner:  Tinfoil dinners with ground beef,  carrots, celery, broccoli, crookneck squash, onions and potatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper, sage, and parsley. 

If you have a hard time sleeping at night eat a snack before bed.  With this diet you don't want to be hungry and you don't want your blood sugar to get too low or to spike.

So you have Quasimotos's? Oh you mean Hashimoto's, what's that?

In December I found out that I have Hashimoto's, I have had Hypothyroidism since 1999, and so at some time my body decided that it should start attacking itself.  So what now?

• Pay a chiropractor a large amount of money to diagnose me and read my labs, and put me on a rude diet that I hate!
• Pay a prescribing doctor to fight with me about how to feel better.
• Spend a lot of money on foods that I will find out I can't eat.
• Find out that by changing my diet I all the sudden burn the hell out of everything I cook.  
• Give up my joys in life, PEPSI, WHEAT & DAIRY.
• Then be super sad that I have a super great family, a fun place to live, and the greatest friends, but my greatest joys in life are were, PEPSI, WHEAT & DAIRY.

 On the 28th of December 2014 I went on an anti-inflammatory diet.  I cut out wheat, dairy, soy, artificial & natural sweeteners, and somewhere along the my happiness!  So I am working on finding a new happiness.  So while I work on a new happiness I will share my diet with everyone.

Picture taken in Oct 2014 (notice my chipmunk cheeks, they make me sad)

Picture take July 2015 (that's right folks I didn't lose an ounce between my collar bone and rib cage.This too makes me sad, my dream in life is buy a $19 bra at Target instead of $91 bra at Nordstrom.)

Okay now on to the diet, I eat at least 5 times a day, starting by eating 30 minutes after I wake up.   Breakfast, lunch and dinner always include at least one veggie, and one protein.  At least 2 snacks, usually seeds or nuts, and don't forget the water!!!  You will need to drink at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water, I really struggle with this!

So here is the list of what I avoid:

Anything that causes an allergic reaction

Dairy

Eggs

Gluten:  Wheat, barley, oats & rye

Tomatoes

Dehydrated fruit

Rice, Corn, Potatoes

Alcohol

Coffee, black tea, green tea, and soda

Fruit Juice

Iodized Salt

Sugar, natural & artificial

Soy

Peanuts

Beef, pork, shellfish, cold cut, bacon, hot dogs, canned meat, sausage

Okay now on to foods to eat:

Herbal tea

Quinoa, buckwheat 

Sweet Potatoes

Fresh fruits and vegetables

Sea Salt

Spices with no additives

Peas

Beans, navy, garbanzo, kidney, black, etc.

Fish 

Chicken, Fish, Turkey Lamb and wild game

Olive oil, coconut oil, flax seed oil, sesame oil

Unsweetened almond milk

Raw nuts:  cashews, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds. pumpkin seeds, chia seeds  

 

I did this diet for 21 days and then slowly added one thing back in at a time.  I found out what foods made me feel bad, like Kale, avocados, pineapples, pomegranate, oranges and quinoa.  First was beef, for the first day you eat it for one meal and then on day two you eat it for two meals, and then go two days without it to see how you are feeling. 

So here is what I ate today.  

Breakfast: hard boiled egg, and peas out of the garden.

Snack:  pumpkin seeds
Lunch: lettuce and roasted turkey roll with mustard
Snack:  Watermelon
Dinner: Grilled Chicken with olive oil, and from the garden, basil, cucumber, radishes, carrots, and lettuce. 

If you have any questions let me know.  I would love to help others because I never thought I could feel so much better. 

Finally!!!

Miss Payton has been saying that she would like to get her ears pierced for a while now, but every time Jer and I take her to to get it done, she chickens out.  To her credit though, the last time we went in there was a little girl in the chair bawling her eyes out.  So this time we had Grandma Stephanie in tow and Payton promised that she wouldn't wuss out. 

She didn't cry and Jer and I were more nervous than her!!!!  She picked some nice white gold emeralds that is her birth stone.  They look very classy on her, and she has been taking very good care of them.