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…

So I spent a little time in the kitchen.  I made Peach & Plum Chutey, Peach & Plum Bourbon Barbecue Sauce, Peach and Plum Crisp and Peach Jam.  And we still had peaches and plums.  This fruit box was never-ending.

I was also cooking up some Beef Barbacoa in the crockpot for dinner, and realized we needed some salsa.  Inspired by a few recent fruit salsa recipes (here and here) I attempted my own version.  It’s a simple recipe and I used what I had on hand.  It was fabulous with our barbacoa and equally delicious on my eggs the next morning.

You could easily adapt this to use any stone fruit, like nectarines or apricots.  And definitely add another jalapeño if you can stand it.  Enjoy!

This is so quick to put together and while it is cooking on the grill, you can easily cook your other side dishes right next to it.  We’ve been enjoying this with grilled potatoes and onions and fresh tomatoes from our CSA.  I’ve made this many times this summer and always have trouble getting a good picture.  We’re usually so hungry, we gobble it right up – which I think means that I have to share this recipe with you right away.

One tenderloin provides plenty for our family of 3.5 (a .5 deduction since Ella eats so little still) with enough leftovers for my lunch the next day.  Sometimes pork tenderloins come  two to a package.  If you are serving a group, double the recipe and grill both, or split the doubled marinade into 2 bags and freeze the extra for another day.

When we started our dairy elimination challenge, I knew that breakfast would be the most difficult for us.  Yogurt was a staple at our table.  The kids loved it, and I loved that it was easy and quick.  I’ve been transitioning our favorite breakfast recipes so they can be both dairy-free and quick to prepare.  This recipe meets those requirements.

My children aren’t big cereal eaters.  They’re still working on their skills with spoons, so I wanted an oatmeal that was easier for them to eat, though not too messy.  Once this is baked, it slices easily and can be eaten by hand, though it isn’t as portable as a granola bar.  We eat it as is, with a side of sausage and fruit.  But it would also be delicious in a bowl with milk or milk alternative poured on top.

]]> http://feedingmysunshine.com/fruit-nut-baked-oatmeal-dairy-free/feed/ 0 http://feedingmysunshine.com/what-is-bugging-us-dairy-elimination-part-2/ http://feedingmysunshine.com/what-is-bugging-us-dairy-elimination-part-2/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2012 21:52:28 +0000 Alexis http://feedingmysunshine.com/?p=719 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…

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.

Is it me, or is summer flying by?  I am amazed when I look behind our house and see these 4 patches of lush green garden.  Not so long ago it wasn’t much to look at.

My husband is the garden man.  He is the one to credit for our beautiful backyard.  My thumb is far from green…more like brown.  Unfortunately any plant that ends up in my care usually doesn’t last long.  I have been very little help with the actual planting of our garden.  But if he grows it, I will cook it.

Our gardening history goes way back to our first apartment together, 9 years ago.  Our balcony had the worst view of the alley and our neighbor’s garage (I cried when I saw our view – fortunately we didn’t stay there long).  We grew tomato plants in plants in pots on the balcony.  So cute and domestic, I thought.  Soon after we moved to our now home, newly remodeled with a completely bare backyard.  It had one tree and a whole lot of dirt.  We spent years working on the landscaping, and 3 years ago graduated from pots and built two 4′x4′ square garden beds.  Last year we added two more.

This year we started early in the spring with seed selection and one square planted with early crops and tented to protect them from the frost.  Everything seemed to grow so slowly, then all of the sudden there it was.  So far we have harvested peas, spinach and lettuce.  We have also been giving away tomato plants to our neighbors.

When we signed up for our CSA this year, I chose only a single share for our family of 4.  Not only did I  want to make sure we would eat it all, but I knew we would be supplementing with our own garden.  So far, this has worked out really well.

What we are growing:

• Tomato: Roma, Cherry, Beefsteak, and one other we can’t remember (King something)
• Jalepeno
• Green Bell Pepper
• Peas
• Herbs: Cilantro, Basil, Mint, Chives, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme
• Spinach
• Mesculin Mix
• Summer squash: Straight Neck and Zucchini
• Canteloupe
• Cucumber
• Corn (seeds Jackson’s grew from a preschool craft)
• Sunflower

Jackson is a natural in the garden, just like his dad.  His favorite task is watering, which we do daily.  He is always reminding me that “the plants are thirsty.”  With Jackson’s help, I think my brown thumb might be turning just a little bit green.

I can’t wait to see how our plants turn out this year.  What is your favorite vegetable to grow?

A few months ago, I was looking at my dreary backyard, so ready for spring to get here.  I wanted some life and color back there, and I knew it would be a while before our blooms and plants were in full swing.  My eyes rested on a little conversation area I had created the year before.  Two old, worn plastic adirondack chairs, a rusty and faded metal table (complete with imprints of all signs of the zodiac) and then two cute kid-sized plastic chairs.

As the rest of the garden springing to life, I knew something had to be done with those chairs.  Given they were almost 10 years old, I knew I could have easily donated them and purchased some new ones.  But I was up for a challenge and went and purchased a few cans of spray paint that would work on plastic (Krylon Fusion is the brand I used).

To prep the chairs, I just hosed them off with my nozzle set on jet, wiped them dry and allowed them to finish drying in the sun for about 20 minutes.  I completely ignored the specific prepping instructions on the can – I figured the worst that could happen is I would have to buy new chairs.

 I used 3 cans of paint per chair, and just a half can for the table.  A lot of paint was wasted with the chairs due to the spaces in between the slats.  My plastic tarp (and my toes) were covered in red when I was done.  Krylon now has a brush-on version of their Fusion line in a can, but every store I went to only had the spray paint.  In retrospect, I might have saved some money and paint if I had searched for the brush-on version, but oh well!  I wanted to test them out right away, but I kept everything on my porch for a full week to allow the paint to cure (yes, I followed that part of the instructions!).

The chairs now sit in our back bed, right next to the trampoline and water table.  It is the perfect spot to relax and watch the kiddos at play.  Overall, it was a pretty easy project.  I had a sore forefinger for a few days, but that is to be expected.  It probably would have been easier (and even cheaper) to just buy new chairs, but I’m glad I didn’t.  The end result is exactly what I wanted.

The first week, my sugar cravings were pretty consistent.  Every afternoon around 3 pm they would arrive.  I would try to keep them at bay with some red peppers and hummus or crackers and cheese. Staying hydrated was pretty key too.

But after that first weekend, I was one tired mama with my husband out of town.  While searching for something in our pantry, I came across a half eaten box of Raisinettes from a movie we went to recently.  Those were gone in seconds,without another thought.

I also had a handful of Annie’s Party Mix (leftover from Jackson & Ella’s birthday party) before I looked at the ingredients and, low and behold, there was sugar.  And then at book club, I just had to try my friend’s pudding pie.  (It was fantastic!)

So for a while I was a bit hard on myself for “cheating.”  But that’s not a good way to feel.  Still, I kept on the challenge and tried to avoid refined sugar as much as possible.  Along the way, I realized that what I thought of as “cheating” wasn’t really important.  Overall, I have drastically reduced my refined sugar consumption.  And isn’t that the purpose of this whole challenge?

Here is what I have learned so far:

• Unsweetened ketchup is pretty good.  By itself, it tastes like concentrated tomato juice but when you add it to a hamburger or baked potato wedges, I love it!  I’ve been using Westbrae Natural’s Unsweetened Ketchup and it’s a keeper.
• With natural sweeteners, a little goes a long way.  I’m really enjoying maple syrup in my morning coffee.  I have found that since maple syrup and honey have more flavor than white sugar, I don’t need to use as much.  Better flavor, less calories… win-win!
• Many other ingredients can provide a sweeter taste, not just sugar.  I made this recipe for Baked Oatmeal Cups, and the applesauce and banana give it a nice hint of sweet.  Also, if you want to reduce sugar content in a baked good, try adding a little more cinnamon or vanilla extract.  Those flavors go so well with sugar, they can trick you into thinking there is more sweetener than there really is.

I’ve already passed the halfway mark this challenge.  I’m sticking with it and will be mindful of what I am eating, but if I slip…I’ll get right back up again!

Over the past month, I have a had a few nights (ok, more than a few) where I had absolutely nothing planned for dinner.  A fridge full of food, yes.  Random vegetables, hunks of cheese…but bits and pieces here and there does not always make a meal.  Oh, but there are those eggs we bought from the farm.  One night I started grabbing all of the random food out of my fridge and began to build this simple and quick dinner frittata.

A frittata is basically just scrambled eggs with some added veggies/meat/cheese and finished off in the oven.  Simple really, but calling it a frittata makes it easier for my husband to have breakfast for dinner.  He prefers to save breakfast for the weekends only.  Poor guy, barely even eats lunch during the week.

My first frittata attempt included the following:

• Vegetables: Asparagus, Corn, Tomato
• Cheese: Monterey Jack, Parmesan, Goat Cheese
• Herbs & Spices: fresh Basil, Paprika

My second test included these ingredients:

• Vegetables: Broccoli and fresh peas
• Cheese: Gruyere, Mozzerella, Parmesan and Smoked Gouda
• Herbs and Spices: Dried Basil

Here is a quick tip:

When I first created this recipe, I was in a rush to make dinner for the family before I had to leave for an evening appointment.  After pulling the frittata out of the oven, I wasn’t thinking and grabbed the handle with my bare hand.

!@%#$!!!  

It immediately swelled and blistered, and I was annoyed that I hadn’t been paying attention.  To keep from making my  silly mistake, slide an oven mitt over the handle (see the picture above) after the frittata is done so you won’t get hurt if you forget the handle is hot.

This recipe makes a large amount, feeding around 8 full servings.  I was happy to keep the leftovers in the fridge and heat up for a quick breakfast or lunch.  What is your favorite recipe for cleaning out the fridge?