Before & After: Painted Hutch

September 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Pretty, eh?

Well not too long ago this hutch looked completely different.

 We’ve had this china hutch for a while, along with a matching table and chair set that you can partially see in this picture.  Nothing was particularly wrong with the hutch, but I was growing tired of it.  We have three other black pieces of furniture in our combined living/dining room and everything was feeling too dark.  I spend a lot of time in here and was ready for something different.  Unfortunately, new furniture is neither realistic (our kids are still in their rough and tumble phase – does that ever end?) nor in our budget.  I had to get creative.

I had heard a lot about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on other blogs and how easy it was to work with.  I found a local stockist and went to their shop to check it out.  As soon as I was there, I was hooked.  No sanding?  No priming?  I’m sold.

 I started thinking I was going to make a big statement using the Antibes Green color with a dark wax.  Once I had put the first coat on, I got cold feet.  Fortunately I also had a can of Country Gray.  I was planning on using the Country Gray just for the inside of the hutch, but decided to paint it all over the green using somewhat of a dry brush technique.  The green peeks through here and there giving it a simple rustic look.

 This paint is so easy to use and very forgivable.  I had no idea what I was doing but I couldn’t be more happy with the result.  I started this on a Sunday afternoon and by Monday morning I was done with painting and waxing.  I just had to wait until Tuesday morning to put the piece back together.  I’m sure this could have been done faster, but I could only paint while the kids were napping or sleeping.  One coat of Antibes Green, one coat of Country Grey and finished with a mix of clear and dark wax.

I found some fun knobs at Anthropologie.  I had trouble deciding amongst all the options, so I got two different types.  I also painted our metal elephant lantern that was sitting on top.  The elephant is painted just like my original plan.  I like the pop of color, but I am really happy that I added the country gray to the hutch.

Here is a side by side before & after:

The “new” hutch brings such life into this room and now I have many more redecorating ideas.  We are going to sell our table and chairs and I have a pedestal table from family that will get a coat of paint along with some new chairs.  We are also planning on painting the room to the same neutral gray that is in our kitchen and playroom.

If you have never heard of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, here are some good resources:

Sassy Style gives a tutorial on the basics of chalk paint.

Perfectly Imperfect has video tutorials and sells paint too.

If you are in the Denver area, stop by The Little Black Chair.  The ladies there are so helpful and even offer painting workshops.

So what do you think?  Are you inspired to paint something in your home?

 

P.S. It seems I took a little blogging break this month.  I was relaxing and enjoying the end of summer.  I hope to get back into blogging more frequently now that we are back into our routine.  Stay tuned…

 

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What is Bugging Us? Dairy Elimination {Part 2}

July 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

In my previous post, I talked about some interesting symptoms my family has been having, specifically Ella.  Today I will share what we tried in order to figure it all out.

Finding Help

After seeing a few doctors who seemed to ignore my concerns and suspicions, I contacted a holistic nutritionist to see if she could be of help.  Tracy Stevens of Intuity Wellness works with clients all over the country through phone and web conferencing but, luckily for me, we live in the same area and were able to meet in person.  She instantly put me at ease, understanding my mother’s instinct and need to investigate this further.  I started working with Tracy to not only figure out this situation, but also to further my own health goals of better eating, more energy, etc.

Our Plan

Under Tracy’s guidance, we decided to do a 10 day dairy elimination, since that is what I initially thought might be the problem.  For this elimination to be effective, we had to remove every bit of dairy from our diet.  This meant scrutinizing food labels and asking questions at restaurants.  We became familiar with more obscure sources of dairy, like whey, lactose, caseinate and others.  If we ate dairy during the 10 day period, we would have to start over.  On day 11, we would then add dairy back into our diets for the next few days and note any changes or side effects.  Go Dairy Free has some great information on products and methods that do not use dairy.

How Did We Do?

Initially, the elimination was hardest on Ella.  She loved her bottles and since, in the beginning, she rejected milk alternatives anyway, we decided this was just as good of a time as any to ditch the bottles.  After a few days, she was better and happily drank almond milk from a sippy cup.  I missed my morning yogurt and cheese the most, but was surprised at how much I enjoy almond milk in my latte.  As the elimination went on it was pretty easy to handle at home.  The season certainly helped – we have been cooking simple meals on the grill or roasting vegetables with olive oil.  Winter would have been more difficult, when I typically use more butter  or cheesy sauces.

And as you can see from the photos, popsicles are an equally delicious substitute for ice cream on a hot summer day. ;o)

I was nervous about removing such a major source of calcium and protein from our diets.  Mark Bittman recently wrote an article on milk and why we don’t really need it in our diets.  Perfect timing for me.  The article caught some controversy, but it was helpful for me to hear how we don’t actually need to drink milk for good nutrition, something that has been ingrained into our thought by the USDA and dairy industry.  I’ve added a lot of calcium rich foods to our diet, like kale, beans, salmon and sesame seeds.

Eating out was the most difficult.  Apparently restaurants like to put butter on everything (and I totally get it – it makes a sandwich taste so much better!).  We had to be diligent in asking about everything.  Not just removing cheese from a sandwich, but making sure there was no dairy in the bread (which I found in almost all sandwich bread).

Our Results

We completed the elimination almost perfectly.  Jackson had some crackers on Day 5 that we didn’t realize had “natural cheese flavoring” in them.  After that, we still kept to our dairy free diet to see if by Day 10 we could still see anything.  On Day 11 we added dairy back in and I noted some changes and side effects.  Officially, however, our results were inconclusive.  There was nothing so drastic or obvious to say that dairy was an issue, which is great!  Could some of our symptoms be because of dairy or maybe it was a placebo effect?  To find out for sure we are going to try it again, especially since Jackson wasn’t fully complaint the first time.

Ella’s diaper rash went away completely during the elimination.  When we added dairy back in she got a slight rash, but not as awful as it had been.  For me, I noticed changes in my energy level, mental clarity and digestion.  These were all slight.  If I get the same results from the next elimination, I will have to decide how diligent I will be in my dairy consumption.  Should I eliminate it forever?  Or maybe just have some once in a while.  We shall see.  In the next few weeks I will have more information to share with you.

Until then, I have been working on some dairy-free recipes that I will post soon…

 

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What is Bugging Us? Could It Be Food? {Part 1}

July 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It has been a little quiet here on the blog the past few weeks.  I’ve been a little lazy with the heat of the summer, but I’ve also been thinking about some issues and I wasn’t sure how to share them.  Well, I’m finally ready to talk about it since I feel I have a good plan.

One of the major reasons why I started this blog was to focus more on how I feed my children.  I wanted to make sure they grew up eating healthy, flavorful food that would give them a good foundation of eating habits throughout their lives.  All summer we have been working on eating a real food diet, with natural ingredients and fresh, unprocessed foods.  So far I’ve enjoyed this transition and I do not see going back to processed food at all.  My taste buds have evolved and I prefer homemade foods.  I found that convenience is not enough of a benefit to sacrifice taste and health.

No one in my family has any history of problems with food, and I never thought my children would have any issues… until this spring, just after Ella turned one.

The Backstory

During the week of Ella’s birthday, I started transitioning her from formula to cow’s milk.  I mixed it in gradually in each bottle, each day using more milk and less formula.  She did fine with the transition and really enjoyed her new milk.  She had already been eating table food for a few months, which included other dairy like cheese and yogurt.  About three weeks after her birthday, I started noticing some annoying issues.  She was spitting up again after her bottles, something she hadn’t done in months.  She developed a diaper rash that wouldn’t go away.  This was worrisome, since she never had diaper rashes, only having a few as an infant.  And I also noticed more rashes on her body.  Rough patches on the back of her arms, red itchy dots on her neck.

Something wasn’t right, but I didn’t really know what.  Separately, all of these issues are common in babies.  But all at once?  The diaper rash was the most concerning, since it was itchy, red, angry and blistering.  Looking at all of the changes that had happened along with the timing, I had a hunch it was the milk.  And it clicked for me a little more when I remembered her reflux diagnosis as an infant that wasn’t helped by medication.  It wasn’t until I put her on a low lactose formula that she seemed better, which also worked well for her older brother.

Doctors Visits and Nutrition

So I made an appointment with our pediatrician’s office.  After presenting all of the information and my thoughts, the doctor prescribed a steroid cream for her diaper rash, said her skin rash was manageable  and to keep an eye on it and then tried to send me on my way.  The doctor didn’t think milk was an issue, but agreed to order an allergy test at my insistence.  While I waited for the results, I turned to the internet and my local library to try to find more information on what was going on.  I found many resources on symptoms of food intolerances or sensitivities versus food allergies.  By the time I received results of the allergy test 10 days later, I wasn’t surprised that it was negative.  Thankfully, she had no allergies, but it is still possible to have a sensitivity.  Meanwhile, Ella’s diaper rash went away the steroid cream.  As soon as we stopped using it, the rash returned.  We used all of the cream that was prescribed and the rash still returned.  We were advised to return to get another steroid prescription.  I was frustrated that the doctor only seemed to want to treat the symptom, and not look for the cause.

From my own research, I learned that sometimes goat milk is easier to digest than cow’s milk and could help.  I was excited since it was similar in nutrition to cow’s milk.  I immediately started serving Ella the goat milk in her bottles and removed all sources of dairy from her diet otherwise.  And guess what?  Her rashes and spit up went away!  I was thrilled, but a few weeks later… her symptoms returned.

Was she finally reacting to the goat’s milk, or could it be something else?

Stay tuned for the rest of this story…where I turned for help and how a little detective work and an experiment can hopefully give us an answer.

 

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On Our Table: Cutting Out Refined Sugar

June 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Oh, sugar… how I love thee.  We’ve had some fun times.  Like the years I stuffed candy in an empty pillowcase and ran from house to house every Halloween.  And the time I had ice cream delivered to my door in college when I had the flu.  And every road trip that was made perfect by a Cherry Limeade with the ice that never melts.  Not to mention our daily visits… in my coffee, a sweet afternoon treat or something to nibble on with my nightly tea.

My whole life, your were there in the good times and the bad.  You helped comfort me when I needed it most.  But I’m starting to see your evil ways.  This relationship isn’t working out anymore.  And this time it’s not me, it’s you.

© Olga Kriger | Dreamstime.com

Does this sound familiar to anyone?  I’ve known for a long time that sugar has a hold on me like no other.  I seek it out, enjoy it, and then hit a huge slump.  Cycle, rinse, repeat.

So sugar and I are breaking up.  Probably not forever, but at least for the month of June, where I am joining Mandi’s Break the Sugar Habit Challenge over at Life Your Way.

For the specifics, I am planning on removing refined sugar from my diet while still allowing natural sugars – mainly honey and maple syrup.  This goes along with my “baby-steps” attitude and will be easier for me to stick with.  Also, though honey and maple syrup still have calories like sugar, they are both lower on the Glycemic Index, which will result in not as much blood sugar variation as refined sugar.

This weekend I’ve done  some preparation for the change.  I thought about where I am currently adding refined sugar in my diet and ways to replace them.  My biggest sources of refined sugar are:

  • Desserts (Chocolate, Ice Cream, etc): This will be difficult, since their main purpose is to be sweet.  I will abstain mostly and think of ways to adapt recipes using only natural sugars.  I’ll probably be eating mostly fresh fruit but maybe some Baklava too!
  • Ketchup:  We already use a natural ketchup with no HFCS, but that still has regular sugar in it.  I did find a bottled ketchup with no added sweetener and I’m interested to see how it tastes. (I also found sugar-free ketchup and ketchup sweetened with agave at my natural food store).  I would like to attempt a homemade ketchup this month too.
  • Barbecue Sauce: I don’t eat barbecue often, but it is June.  Prime time for backyard barbecues.  Most of my recipes include brown sugar, which is not on the plan.  I’ll probably tinker with my recipe to include honey.  All of bottled bbq sauces at my grocery store had either refined sugars or artificial sweeteners, even those labeled “Honey.”
  • Sandwich Bread:  Most of the 100% Whole Wheat store bought bread that I saw included sugar, but I found one without.  I’ll also be breaking out the yeast this month to get into making my own.
  • My morning latte: Oh, this one is going to be hard.  I used to be a Starbuck’s addict.  Spending way too much money and consuming way too many empty calories.  I’ve toned it down over the past few years, and now all I have is one homemade vanilla latte per day.  Decaffeinated and made with my own vanilla syrup (a blend of white and brown sugars with high quality vanilla extract).  I’m hoping a latte made with maple syrup and some vanilla is equally as good.

I’m the only one in my family that will be fully participating.  The rest of the family will certainly gain the benefits, but I’m not going to be a stickler.  I’m looking forward to this little experiment and will make sure to give updates on my progress throughout the month.

I’ll be updating more frequently on Facebook.  Head over there and “like” my page for updates on how cutting out sugar is working for me.

 

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Removing HFCS and Other Additives from our Kitchen

May 10, 2012 By 2 Comments

Moving one more step forward with our goal to eat Real Food, I decided to fully remove high fructose corn syrup(HFCS) from our kitchen.  There has been a lot of debate in recent years, with one side arguing that HFCS contributes to obesity and the other side claiming that it is just the same as table sugar.  The information out there is overwhelming, and while I know I don’t want to eat it anymore, I’ve been doing a bit of research to figure out why I don’t want to eat it anymore.

 HFCS is a sweetener that is made from corn and is used in a large amount of processed foods on the market.  While table sugar is comprised of 50% fructose and 50% glucose, HFCS is made up of approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose, plus some other sugars.  Science is not a strength for me, so I understood little of what I was reading on Wikipedia.  Basically HFCS is close to table sugar, but not quite the same chemically.

Opponents to HFCS say that while sugar is bad in any form, HFCS has contributed to a rise in obesity over the years, and can also contribute to heart disease, diabetes and chronic disease.  On the Corn Refiners Association website Sweet Surprise, an abundant amount of information is included advocating the use of HFCS.  After reading their list of the benefits of HFCS, I realized my stance on this debate.  Most of the benefits listed are not actual benefits at all, to me at least.  Many of the benefits would be the same with sugar, like better taste and increased flavor.  The other benefits they included were a reason why I’m moving to a Real Food diet.  Things like “moisture control,” “retards spoiling,” “stability” and “extends product freshness” are all creative ways for saying this can sit on your shelf for a long time.  Longer that it really should, which is great for food manufacturers, but probably not so good for me.

 So the other day I set out to remove HFCS from my kitchen.  I didn’t think this would be too bad, since I had done the same thing about 2 years ago.  Back then, I was able to do it pretty easily with the exception of a few items.  I haven’t been paying too close attention to food labels for a while, so I was interested to see what I would find.  As I started reading labels, I found some other food additives that I was wary of and I pulled those out too.  So the pictures throughout this post are of food that I removed that includes:

Most of it I was actually glad to see go.  The ramen, chicken noodle soup (both MSG) and the fruit bars (food dye) were from when my tonsils were removed and, honestly, I never want to revisit that stage of eating again.  The ranch dressing (MSG), Nilla Wafers and Hershey’s syrup (both HFCS) were for special events and we didn’t really eat them again.  The rest was a mix of random items that we never used and other items that were staples for us.  We use a lot of panko bread crumbs (partially hydrogenated oil) on chicken and fish, but it seems I can easily make my own version at home.

I don’t think I will miss these items, since I know I can either make my own version, or we weren’t really eating them to begin with.  You can also find products that don’t contain these ingredients, as long as you do a bit of reading at the grocery store.  I have found it easy to find bread and ketchup made without HFCS at conventional grocery stores, but it is harder for pickles and relish.  Some pickle brands were labeled “no sugar added” but that just meant they had artificial sweeteners.  I finally found some at a natural food store, and then recently found some in a conventional store in the organic section.

My husband wasn’t very happy to see all this food going to waste, but I wasn’t really interested in eating it anymore.  Any food that was unopened was set aside for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive this weekend, where you can leave non-perishable food items by your mailbox for your letter carrier to collect.

This didn’t remove all of the processed food in our home, but it’s a good start.  What foods do you have in your kitchen that could be switched out?

 

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