The Pressure is On!

I have followers now. I guess this means I'll have to be a bit more diligent in my postings from now on. Sooo....now it's catch-up time yet again.

I'm pretty darn proud of how well we've been doing. I have been spending a bit more on food, but mainly in order to try newer and healthier options that also cater to a 6-year-old's taste. We've had more hits than misses and I'm grateful for that.

One HUGE hit was finding a hydroponic farm right down the road from our house. I'd bought strawberries from their stand at the last farmer's market and they were fabulous! Upon talking with the lady, I found out that they run a u-pick three days a week at the farm. So, Saturday morning, Munchkin and I headed over there and picked a basket full of fresh, ripe strawberries, along with tomatoes and a head of lettuce.

Another hit was Quorn Nuggets....which served as my first Lunchables substitute for Vanessa's school lunch. She loved them! Yay!

We did pretty well at Easter too. Our relatives have potluck dinner, and there's no bad cooks in the family, so everything was delicious and even if not always healthy, at least it wasn't something from a box. Well, except the lemon bars I made, but even those were from an all-natural mix. I managed to eat vegetarian, amazingly enough, though it was ovo-lacto vegetarian since I couldn't resist the deviled eggs. This was the first holiday dinner that I didn't get up from the table feeling miserably bloated. Vanessa even polished off everything on her plate and barely touched dessert...though she did munch on a Peep on the way home. Ick! I hate that most holidays have to be laden with candy. But, I try to limit her intake, and it's hard to say no when it's been given to her in a gift bag and all the other kids are noshing.

Yesterday, I made another pot of homemade chicken soup. One thing to note, if using low-sodium broth, make sure you have enough seasoning to give it some taste. I didn't notice until I went to season it, that there was only a pinch of Emeril's Essence left in the bottle...so it turned out pretty bland. Vanessa didn't seem to mind, but I had to shake a bit of salt in to make it edible.

Oh, and I whipped together a super-yummy breakfast creation: a chocolate strawberry yogurt parfait. While we were out shopping Friday, we stopped at Earthfare for a snack and Vanessa got a vegan brownie. Well, it was huge and she didn't eat all of it, so for breakfast, I've been pinching off a bit and crumbling it in the bottom of a container, then spooning vanilla yogurt on top, then topping that off with sliced strawberries. Heavenly! It's like dessert for breakfast!

Tonight's dinner is roasted eggplant and squash...for me anyway. I still haven't managed to convert Vanessa over to my love of squash, so she had shrimp tempura (one more Schwan's product that I need to do a healthy makeover on). I experimented with various combinations of "marinade": Olive oil and basalmic vinegar on some, tahini and sesame oil on a few eggplant cubes, and olive oil and garlic powder on the rest. The jury's still out on the tahini...it's different. I think I should've used more sesame oil and less tahini. It left a powdery residue.

I almost forget to mention that I've lost 3 pounds since I've started this healthy eating journey! And that's without exercising! Woo hoo!