Eating Healthy Can Be Painful?

 Hello fellow health eaters!  I hope this week found you happy, healthy and satisfied.  Last weekend I had to put my self control to the test as it was my sister in law's wedding and all that was served was hot chocolate and a smore's bar.  I won't even go in to the details of each morsel that was served...but I did it, I passed it all up.  Seems as though, once I had already made up my mind before the reception even started, It wasn't all that hard to avoid the table of refreshments all together.  My 5 and 2 year old on the other hand...?? Each time I saw them they were in the presence of someone new, eating more chocolate.  What are you going to do? It was a night of feasting on treats for them, once in a while can slide I suppose.
     Last week we invested in some new kitchen gadgets.  If your family is anything like mine, they snack and snack and snack until the cows come home.  I'm tired of feeding my kids the high fructose versions of fruit snacks and frankly haven't found any home-made version of them on pinterest that have worked.  Buying dried fruits are expensive, so we decided to by a dehydrator and do it ourselves.  Our first go at it, I was suppose to slice everything in perfect uniform slices but failed to do so.  It wasn't too big of a deal, I had to keep taking pieces out as they were done while leaving the other fatter sliced items in to dry a little longer...

(Notice my little Stella's art piece in the background? It's my new favorite, It makes me so happy when I see it, so in the kitchen it'll stay.)

So we decided to get one of these as well.  Pretty nifty, especially since it tells me what thickness I'm slicing exactly.  And I can also make my zucchini noodles and David's favorite baked sweet potato fries!

Unfortunately, my first use with my first veggie, I learned my first very important lesson.  Use the veggie holder, not your hand to hold the food!  (This picture was taken 2 days after the incident, it's looking quite a bit better) Side story:  Picture me in the kitchen late Saturday night, slicing sweet potatoes, sprinkling them with cinnamon and dreaming about how delicious they would be coming out of the dehydrator the next morning.   And then, slice! Me (calmly to David watching the soccer game) "And there goes my finger"  He honestly didn't believe me.  Then he saw the amount of blood dripping down my hand, arm, kitchen counter and floor...then he believed me:) How much did I slice off? 3/16 of an inch, aren't I glad I have the nifty dial on the mandolin to tell me so? David found the slice of finger, so don't worry, no one digested it.  I wasn't so smart in wrapping it that night.  I just stuck cotton on it and wrapped it in co flex.  The next morning I tried pulling off the cotton to change the dressing and the wound scabbed right on to the cotton.  I soaked it and tried peeling it off but it hurt so bad!  I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but the ordeal made me so sick to my stomach, I started blacking out, knew I was going to pass out, and laid on the ground to do so.  When I lost consciousness, Stella was telling me a story, when I regained, she was still telling me a story so I know I wasn't out for too long ...or was I? Her stories can go both ways. Anyway, wimpy I know, especially coming from a gal who worked in nursing homes and hospitals all those years.  And some of those years as a phlebotomist!  Not my finest hour.  I've been a little funny in the kitchen this weekend,  knives and graters make me cringe.  I'm just a little more cautious to say the least.  Also, David follows me around the house saying "chop chop"

Now that I have burned that image in your head, let me share some of the food we've enjoyed.  This is what we've been eating for breakfasts.  My rendition of green eggs and ham!  I buy turkey ham, dice it and grill it in the the pan until it starts to crisp on some of the sides.  I add the scrambled eggs to the pan along with some thawed out frozen spinach from a box.  I add a lot, because honestly? You can't taste it...at all.  Scramble until cooked through.  We enjoy ours with pico de gallo on top but any salsa would work great. 

Rogan Josh From Well Fed with Cauliflower mashed taters, tomatoes and pineapple. 

Pizza Frittata.  Go nuts here.  Start by scrambling a lot of eggs and poor into a pan.  I let mine cook until set about halfway.  I added Italian flavored sausage, mushrooms, olives, onions, sun dried tomatoes and anything else I needed to use up.  Finish cooking by placing in the oven set at 350 for at least 20 minutes.  There are so many variations to fritatta's, and they're easy, so give them a try.

My pomegranate guacamole!  In this particular dish I added the following:  2 large ripe avocados, 1 cup pico de gallo, 1 cup of pomegranate seeds and salt to taste.  That's it! We wolfed it down in 10 minutes...maybe less.  You don't want to eat it by the spoon fulls? Sweet potato or zucchini chips work great:)

A little added energy.  It wasn't recommended in my Whole30 book to drink a lot of juice, even if extracted on my own.  So I don't use it to replace meals, however, I do use it when I feel a cold coming on, or if I feel a little tired and need an extra boost.  My favorite combo's are orange carrot ginger and apple beet lemon.  Again with the combinations, endless!

 That's all the excitement for this post.  It seems like I mentioned a lot of  kitchen appliances that may not be in most kitchens.  Don't let that stop you from eating well.  Eating healthy has to start somewhere, let it start in your kitchen, fill your fridge with fresh fruits and veggies and learn to incorporate them into every meal.  It's easy to over consume on carbs, sugars and dairies... but you can never have too many greens!