Week 1 of Real Food = Real Changes

As you may recall, this was our first week of "Real Food" changes.  It's been an adjustment but I would have to say that this week qualifies as a SUCCESS! I used Lisa's free menu/grocery list/recipe list to give us a good starting point.  Please note: she feeds a family of 4 which includes her two daughters.  I don't know how much they eat, but my 2 year old son ate 12 shrimp for the main course of his dinner tonight... 3 courses (as she usually suggests for her meals) do not fill my boys so I added a few all-veggie sides as needed.

I cannot believe that in one month Everett will be ready (if I am...) to begin solids.  SO. MUCH. FOOD.  I digress... 

So, her meal plans (found upon "liking" on her facebook page) included links to everything we needed for the week.   I've linked each recipe so you can try it out yourself!  Here's my personal opinion on some of the things we tried:

Granola - 

We didn't actually try this...  I so wanted to and got everything off of her grocery list but when I got home to look at the recipe I was missing ingredients???  So we didn't get to try it but it's on my list of things to try this week.  With all the ingredients ;)

Whole Wheat Muffins - 

Whole wheat is a shock to us.  It is definitely an "acquired" taste.  I wish I would have used a pastry whole-wheat flour instead of your regular, hearty, whole wheat flour.  I think my muffins were a little tough but I can't wait to try them again.  Here's what I love about them:  Mix in pretty much whatever filling you'd like to make a variety for the week.  THEN, freeze 1/2 of them to keep for another week.  Our varieties included 1) apple butter, 2) strawberry and 3) cinnamon/raisin/walnut.  I think it was a fun mix-up.  The bittersweet thing about making everything home-made with no preservatives is that they don't keep as long.  Good: you know your ingredients are fresh and real.  Bad: they spoil much more quickly.  I made the muffins Sunday and on Wednesday there was one molding next to the muffins we purchased at Kroger 2 weeks earlier that were still perfectly in tact.  Yikes.  Note to self: store them in the fridge for the week.  

(Muffins getting ready to go in the oven)

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes-

I should have known better going into this recipe.  Luke loves bananas but doesn't really like them cooked in anything.  This is also true of these pancakes.  I thought they were really yummy and very filling.  They cooked a little differently but after the first few we had the hang of it.  We even used real maple syrup and while it tasted vastly different than what we were previously using - we looked at the label and it said, "Less than 2% maple syrup."  You can guess what other syrups made up the other 98%......... - we loved the taste.

Vegetarian Fajitas - 

I love the phrase she uses, "Flexitarian," to describe their family's eating habits.  They're not vegetarians but they also don't eat meat every night.  This recipe didn't call for any meat but I had a leftover chicken breast that needed to be used so I threw it in there to add extra protein for the boys.  These were DELISH and actually called for HOMEMADE WHOLE WHEAT TORTILLAS.  Sounds crazy, a little.  But since whole wheat is a little hard to get used to I figured homemade is always better anyways so why not go for it?  The recipe was super easy and Luke loved "helping" me roll out each tortilla.  They were de-lish!  Billy actually liked them as well and we all had plenty to eat.  Winner!

Egg Salad - 

This is your pretty standard egg salad recipe.  Unfortunately Everett's belly still can't handle eggs like this so this was just for Billy's lunches a couple times.  

Jambalaya - 

Again, pretty standard but SO delicious!  I forgot to buy shrimp earlier in the week so I quickly ran out with both babies in tow and picked up some frozen shrimp (big no no in Lisa's challenge) but it worked for us and it was oh so yummy.  It made plenty to freeze and use for another meal.  This is a huge win in my book.  

ICE CREAM!!!!!!-

Excited much?  Coming from the girl who has had to give up her main food group for 12 months, this was beyond the highlight of my week.  Maybe not.  But it is pretty high up there.  As I was browsing on the 100daysofrealfood.com website I stumbled across her recommendation of deliciouslyorganic.com who HAPPENED to have a recipe on the front page of the website for DAIRY FREE CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM.  Hot diggity dog!  You better believe I went out that day and picked up all (FOUR) ingredients to make this.  And boy did it deliver.  SO easy to make, only 4 ingredients and heaaaaaaavenly.  

Power Balls -

I have been racking my brain to try and come up with a more delicious name for these delightful treats but I'm not much for creativity with words.  Again, another incredibly easy recipe with only 5 ingredients and took maybe 20 minutes to whip up.  We rolled ours in coconut and they were like eating a Mound or Almond Joy.  Yummmmmm-oooo.