Feeling adventurous...

I was adventurous today and tried out a recipe from Adam Hart's Power of Food. He has a lot of great videos on how to make raw & healthy foods.

I had all but one ingredient on hand already to make his energy bars so while out I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some hemp seeds.



The ingredients are dates, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and ground flax. They turned out ok. I'll eat them and I'm sure Brian will. The kids aren't too sure yet but I'll keep encouraging them to try them! I added too much water and it made them a little too sticky.

He also had a video for how to dry mangoes. Since I had bought mangoes from Bountiful Baskets last week and had not gotten through all of them I decided to dehydrate some of them. Cutting mangoes is a lot harder than it appears! Hopefully they'll turn out as good as our dehydrated apples did.

Food Demo

Tonight I attended a food demo put on by the Vegetarian Society of Utah.  As I've said before I'm not planning on becoming a complete vegan or vegetarian but I'm trying to feed my family more raw, whole foods so it seemed like a good place to get some ideas.

They demonstrated 7 different recipes - 5 of which were edible - 1 which I could have eaten if I was really hungry and 1 that would have taken a lot of effort to gag down. (Untuna Casserole is just not that appealing to me). 3 of the recipes are ones that I will probably make here at home because I think I can get the kids to eat them.  One was a potato salad, one was for unchicken nuggests and the other for a non-dairy frosty type dessert.

Currently our diet is consisting of a lot of soup and stir fry.  I'm amazed at how many vegetables I can get everyone to eat by making vegetable soup or stir fry.  The only problem is I feel like all I do is cook and the dishes rarely get completely done...

Probably best of all was the lady I sat next to who was full of information and resources.  I also signed up for a health for life cooking class.  It is not food I would usually eat - but I'm hoping to learn a few new recipes and try some new foods that hopefully my family will eat.

It's always fun when Grandpa comes!

My dad came into town for my cousin Shannon's wedding.  While here he replaced our water heater, fixed our bathroom door and did some elecrtical fixes.  Seriously there is no better dad on this planet.  He is so good to us!  We love having enough hot water for everyone to shower.

Kylie insisted that she needed her hair curled because grandpa was coming.  She's sure growing up on us.

I can so relate...

This made me laugh! It started playing on a book blog I was visiting and I didn't even realize the song was "messed up" until Kim asked me who was singing because it wasn't Taylor Swift. Sorry I don't know how to get it to play without the advertisement to start - it's only 19 seconds...

Searching for healthy food

Since I was out of town on Monday I didn't order my Bountiful Baskets for today. So I decided to check out the Farmer's Market & Fruit Stand in town.

Unfortunately both were a disappointment :(

I guess I just had too high of expectations. The last Farmer's Market I went to was years ago when we lived in Olympia, WA. There were tons of vendors and tons of selection. There were not many vendors at our farmer's market and not much selection. I did get a few things - cherries, tomatoes, onions & eggs so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

I remember stopping at Frei's Fruit Stand as a child when we were on vacation. I had high expectations and was expecting a lot more locally grown and organic produce. It was mainly the exact stuff you'd find in the grocery store shipped in from other states. There were a few locally grown items but not many. The prices were ok and the produce looked good. Perhaps I'll make a trip back when the fresh locally grown peaches are in stock.

Love Dr. Schneider!!

Brett & I took a road trip this past week to Arizona for an appointment with Dr. Cindy Schneider.

From some of Brett's blood work that we've had done we had no doubt that there were some definite nutritional deficiencies & metabolic abnormalities. St. George is growing but is still a small town and I've been frustrated by the lack of answers & alternatives that have been available.  I've been doing my best based on the research I've done to help Brett but as he is always telling me I'm not a doctor and I don't know everything.  Although I knew we were headed in the right direction I was still shooting in the dark.

A friend of Heidi's recommended we make an appointment with Dr. Schneider. I figured we didn't have anything to loose other than the cost of the trip and appointment and had much to gain. Although her practice focuses mainly on children with Autism she practices Nutritional Intervention which is what I was looking for.

I absolutely loved Dr. Schneider. She was fabulous and so knowledgeable. While I love our current pediatrician, he was clueless as to what some of the abnormalities in lab work meant. Dr. Schneider on the other hand knew exactly what it meant and how to help, it's after all her specialty.

The 2 hour appointment went by way too quickly but we left armed with new information and knowledge.  There are 2 more labs we're waiting on results and then we have a follow up in a couple weeks.  For now he's got some diet restrictions & daily supplements to take.

Seriously we've been so blessed!  Brett is doing fabulous!!

Road Trip - AZ here we come

Brett & I are making a quick trip to AZ tomorrow.  We'll drive down, go to a doctor's appointment, visit his long lost friend Hayden.  Then Tuesday he's having blood work done and then we're driving back home.  If all goes well we'll only be gone 36 hours total.

Brett is doing so well we've debated cancelling the appointment but we have to know we have done everything we possible can so we are going anyway.  As Brett is always telling me I'm not a doctor and I don't know everything.  He's right I don't know what I'm doing so it is worth it to us to go to a specialist who is well know for what she does.

Happy Birthday Brian

It's tough to celebrate a birthday with cake when we are not eating sugar. Instead Brian opted for homemade crepes. That way everyone could eat and enjoy them. The whipped cream was made with stevia instead of sugar and everyone thought it was the best whipped cream we had ever had.

Happy 43rd Birthday Brian!

If we only had 3 kids....

It is so quiet around here. Brett is at EFY this week and Bryce is at scout camp.  I can't believe how quiet and calm things are. Less laundry, less cooking, less noise.

I wouldn't trade them or give them up for anything but is sure makes a difference to only have 3 kids home.

If man made it...

If Man Made It, Don't Eat It! 
~Jack LaLanne

That is my new motto.  I think I'll print it out and put it on my fridge.

Today I read the book Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman.  There was a PBS special 3 Steps to Incredible Health that I wanted to watch today.  I attempted to get our TV to work but didn't have any luck so I read his book instead.  I must say of all the books I've read I think his is one I can agree with almost completely.  I'm adding his food pyramid to my fridge too...