A Snow Day

One of my favorite parts about living in Southern California is that the beach and snow are all so close.  I seriously don't think I could ever leave based just on those two things.  Yesterday we all got bundled up and headed up to Big Bear for a day of snow play and a little meandering around the town.  We went to this seriously high tech sledding park where you are brought up to the top of the sledding hill on a conveyer belt.  I guess we are no longer walking our butts up the hill like I remember doing when I was little.  

We all had a blast! And Max was so excited to see and play in the snow.  He kept asking us "Why are there Christmas trees in the ground, since Christmas was over?" Haha I love the way his little mind thinks. I need to get one of those books where you write down funny things your kids say.

My little butter ball was not being cooperative and smiling for the camera, but he was such a trooper the whole day. 

A Few Valentine's Day Past Favorites

Today I am doing a "cheat" post. I originally had this really fun polymer clay tutorial planned but I got distracted last night and before I knew it the Bachelor was on and I was not about to miss the crazy ladies battling it out over Sean (who is not a bad lookin dude).  Are you watching the Bachelor?  I ALWAYS tell myself I am not watching it again and somehow I get sucked into it all over again each and every season. 

So today I am sharing a few past Valentine's Day DIYs as well as some things that really have nothing to do with Valentine's Day but they are yummy and Valentines Day is a great day (excuse) to eat something yummy so here ya go...

 DIY Polymer Clay Candy Heart Bracelet 

 DIY Heart Glitter Nail Polish

This is one of my family's favorite desserts!  And I am sure they would love it on Valentine's Day or any day.  Dairy Free Strawberry Lime Ice Cream

One of the most annoying things when you are single is watching and reading all about Valentine's Day.  Right?  I have been there.  So this is perfect if you just want to forget all about Valentine's Day but still want to make a single serving of a delicious flourless 3 minute mug cake for one! 

"Cheesy" Baked Cauliflower Poppers (Dairy Free)

So how are these "cheesy" but dairy free you may be wondering?  No I did not use fake or imitation cheese (yucky).  I used nutritional yeast, which is a healthy alternative to cheese that has a delicious nutty cheese flavor that will blow your mind, cheese lover or not.  These are by far my favorite munchy crunchy salty snack.  Sounds crazy but two heads of cauliflower is almost not enough, at least it wasn't for Max and I.  These are a spin off of these cauliflower poppers that I posted about a while back but with a little bit more attitude and flavor.

What you will need:

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 tsp of garlic salt
• 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast.  *You can add a little more if you want them extra "cheesy" 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash and clean the cauliflower. Cut off and discard the stem. Cut the cauliflower up into small pieces.
3. In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, garlic salt and nutritional yeast. Add the cauliflower pieces and thoroughly coat each piece.
4. Place cauliflower pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  If you want to add a little more "cheese" sprinkle it on top at this time.  Bake for one hour and turn 3 times during cooking until each piece has a nice brown coloring. The browner and more caramelized they are the better.
5. Remove from oven and enjoy!

These are so so good!  Please come back and let me know what you think if you make them.
   
*Carb count for one batch (one head) of "cheesy" baked cauliflower poppers is 16 grams.

Flaming Hot Toilet Seats + Potty Training Adventures

Here we were over the weekend (lookin a little crazy) buying our first package of big boy undies and the last box of "back up diapers"...or so I hoped.

Mom life has been crazy this week and I am pretty sure (very sure) that I have lived in my gym clothes for the past three days.  I attempted to start potty training Max, which has been a nightmare and disaster all wrapped up in one.  I am almost positive the whole 2 1/2 day production gave me a few wrinkles.

He acted like I was making him sit on a flaming hot toilet seat with venomous snakes in the toilet that were going to attack his butt at any moment.  I even bought bribery goodies like good ole fashioned Jelly Beans.  Nope he didn't care.  What kid doesn't like Jelly Beans?!  Then I told him he could have a quarter every time he went potty so he could start filling up his new Spider Man piggy bank.  I told him when it was full we would go to the toy store and he could buy a new toy.  Well, he is too smart and decided when I wasn't looking to go in the drawer where all the change in and fill his piggy bank up himself.  HA!  Then I got irritated and told him he is NOT getting any more diapers and he has to go on the potty...or else...and he freakin lost it and peed on the carpet.  So I gave in two and 1/2 (the half counts) days later and put a diaper back on.

He knows what he is supposed to do.  I mean if he can sing the full on ABC's and have complete conversations with me about pretty much anything then he can go on the freakin potty.  But he wont.  Pretty sure he would rather go shopping with me to "Mommy Stores" aka Forever 21 (and he hates shopping--I mean really hates it) than go on the big potty.

Just for reference he will be 3 in July.  Have you been though this yet?  At what age did your child finally get it? 

Flourless Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Some ingredients are baking best friends. For example... avocado and chocolate, coconut and almond, lemon and poppy seeds and cinnamon and apples.  They just go and it makes sense and feels right when you eat them together. 

These muffins contain one of my favorite food combinations.  Apples + cinnamon.  One of my friends recently asked me if my husband really likes all the recipes that I post about and the answer is no...ha!  If my man does not like a recipe it must really suck so I do not post about it :)  I have made quite a few flourless muffin recipes where he has said, "Hmm.."  and they sit in the tupperware for a week untouched.  Translation: Yuck and I take the hint and do not post about them.  He did not say that about these.  In fact my husband and two year old finished off the whole batch of muffins within 2 days. Yep. These are good.  Really good.  This recipe is slightly adapted from here. 

 What you will need:

• 2 cups of almond meal 
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce 
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• 1 tbs of cinnamon 
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend the eggs together in a separate small bowl.
3. Mix together all the above ingredients and slowly stir in the blended eggs.
4. Pour the batter evenly into 12 muffin baking cups.  
5. Cook 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden brown. 

Makes 12 muffins and each muffin has only 5.5 grams of effective carbohydrate. Pretty awesome news for you carb counters!

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

Max enjoying some fresh made carrot/orange/ginger/beet juice.  The kid seriously loved every juice I made, even the really (grassy tasting) green ones. 

Trying a new delicious snack...roasted okra with sea salt.  Okra is a highly nutritious edible pod vegetable and up until yesterday I had never heard of it or tried it.  I was missing out.

The most fragrant, sweet smelling flowers.  Does anyone know what these are called?

A demonstration courtesy of my husband showing us how fast a crispy dried up Christmas tree can go up in flames.  Plus we were out of logs and the only thing we had was our dead Christmas tree in the green garbage bin.  It was pretty intense and Max thought it was the coolest and scariest thing all at once.

Max testing out his new scooter from Santa at the park.  The kid is a scooter natural :) This picture was taken with my iPhone.  Sometimes I try to remember what it was like before we had phones and were able to capture special moments with just the click of your thumb...and I seriously cant remember. 

Have a great weekend!

Juice Cleanse Conclusion + Your Questions Answered

Well yesterday wrapped up the end of my juice cleanse.  I originally was shooting for a four day cleanse but I concluded that two was my limit (for now).  I did end it with a bang though and made the most delicious juice yet.  I woke up this morning and decided I needed a friggin cup of coffee.  Plus I am starting to feel cranky from not running for two days now and no one likes a cranky Momma.  I also started noticing Ronin was not diggin the new "juicy" breast milk.  Even though his Pediatrician okay-ed the modified juice cleanse (eating was involved) he began to act like I was  sabotaging his milk. So that was the end of that.

I really do think juicing is awesome and is such an amazing and quick way to re-boot your body but I do think it's an individual journey for each person.  No one plan or system is right for everyone.

My best advice for anyone who wants to juice is do what you think is do-able. If do-able means you juice one meal or three meals a day.  If you want to juice and then eat lunch do it. Listen to your body and most likely you will figure out what will work best for you.

I still plan on juicing but I will not be making it my main meal source.  Instead, I will be incorporating it into my diet as a supplement.  I realized I need more fuel for all the exercising and the chasing around of my kids that I do.  I also need coffee.  Like can't live without it.

I have also concluded through this very short juicing experience that everything is great in moderation.  That includes juicing, wine, coffee, running and watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (ha).

 Carrot Beet Juice:

• 4-5 large carrots
• 1 beet
• 1 inch slice of ginger
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange

 I still wanted to answer your questions that you left on my first juice post so here they are.

What kind of juicer do you have? 
I have a Breville Juice Fountain Elite.

How do you figure out carbs for insulin on this juice cleanse?
I boulsed for the carbs in the juice such as the carrots, apples, beets, oranges etc.  If I was unsure about carb count I just looked it up online.  I also had to lower my overall basal rate for the two days of the cleanse. 

Do you have snacks in between "juice meals"?
Yes!  I ate raw foods like almonds, apples, avocados and bananas.  I would have been starving if I didn't.  I also made a ton of juice throughout the day and did not only drink it at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I drank it whenever I felt hungry.

If I work away from home, can I make juice ahead of time and bring it with me?
Yes.  My husband did the two day cleanse with me and he made all of his juice the night before and brought it to work with him in a little jug.  That worked out great for him and that way he was still able to do it.

Is a cleanse safe to do if you are breastfeeding? 
I made sure to ask Ronin's pediatrician before starting and she said it was okay as long as I was still eating food and making sure I was getting enough calories.  If you are breastfeeding, make sure you talk to your child's pediatrician before starting since everyone reacts differently.

Do you have a preference on juicing versus whole foods blending via a blendtech or vitamix? I have been making "green" smoothies with a blendtech for over a year now, but now I'm debating switching over to juicing, however, I dont really know the pros and cons between the two. Which one do you think is better? 
I think both blending and juicing are great!  I love smoothies and I love fresh juice.  When you blend you get the entire vegetable or fruit (skin and all), so if you are trying to purely "cleanse," juicing may be a better option because the skin of the fruit and vegetables is not included (only the juice) and your body is able to absorb and digest the minerals and vitamins quicker.  If you are looking for the fastest way to get nutrition into your body I would suggest juicing over blending.

And there you have it!  If you end up doing a juice cleanse best of luck!

Day 1 of Juice Cleanse + Kiwi Kale Juice Recipe

Today is day one of my very first juice cleanse.  I did some pre-juicing shopping this past weekend at the farmer's market and I am so excited to get started.

This is not a crazy lemonade only/starve myself kind of juice cleanse.  I did one of those back in the day called the Master Cleanse (hello pre wedding days) where you drink lemon water cayenne pepper and maple syrup for 7 days and I wanted to literally kill someone after day 2 and that's where that ended.  So no thank you to that.  This is going to be the kind of cleanse where I fill my body with nutritious, organic fruits and vegetables that are juiced.  I am going to take it one day at a time and listen to my body.  I am not following a specific plan or program I am just wingin it....like I do with almost everything.

I am hoping this makes me feel more focused, clear headed and energized, which are some of the benefits that I am most interested in.  I believe sometimes you just need to start fresh and I can not think of a better way. 

My plan is to replace three meals a day with a fresh pressed green juice for 4 days.  I do not think I could go any longer.  I will be cutting out alcohol, baby food (haha kidding! But seriously why is baby rice so good?) and swapping green tea for coffee.  If anyone tells me to cut caffeine out completely you are nuts.  Not gonna happen.  So call me a juicer cheater but that's the plan.  Since I am Type 1 diabetic sometimes things arise like low blood sugar so I will be making tiny modifications if needed.   

This week on the blog I will be sharing my updates for the 4 days of my cleanse.  Each day I will share what juice (worth sharing) was good and how I feel. 

Delicious!  And I promise it does not taste like fresh cut grass.  Unfortunately I have to give full credit to my husband (kidding) since he is the one that came up with it.  Lets just say that the one I made right before might have been the worst thing to ever come out of a juicer. 

Kiwi Kale Juice:

• 6 kale leaves
• 1 apple
• 1 kiwi
• 1 inch slice of ginger
• 2 large carrots

Have you ever done a juice cleanse?  If you have a favorite juiced concoction please share! I would love to try one of your recipes and include it in my cleanse this week.

*Update  For those of you asked, I have a Breville Juice Fountain Elite juicer.   If you have any questions regarding the cleanse please leave them below and I will answer in tomorrow's post. 

These Are The Good Ole Days

 

Yesterday my husband and I drove down to LA to spend the day with family and to celebrate his Great Grandma's 91st Birthday. On the car ride down there both boys were fast asleep and snoring away.  I am the (annoying) type who likes to fill silence with talking so I began to talk.  We started talking about our upcoming anniversary (it will be 6 years in June) and began reminiscing about "The Good Ole Days."  We were talking about before we had kids and had no real responsibilities. We were bringing up memories like the time when I lived in Huntington Beach and we bought a cheap bottle of vodka (cheap vodka sucks by the way), got a nice buzz on, and then rode our bikes (I do not recommend this ha) to the beach and laid out in the sun all day just talking about whatever we wanted, without any interruptions...or diaper changes. 

I looked backed at my kids to check on them and I realized that right now and at that exact moment are the good ole days.  I would not want to be anywhere else except in my car with my husband, my 7 month old and my two year old.  I realized that one day, not too far away I will look back and ask my husband, "Remember when we had those two little monkeys sitting in the backseat sleeping in their car seats?  Those were the good ole days."

We spent the rest of the day at my husband's beautiful Aunt's house (complete with a bird aviary)  and I soaked up every moment and decided to never "wish" for the good ole days again...because they are here.  Diaper changes and all. 

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

A smoothie date with my little man.  He always gets super excited, drinks it way too fast, gets brain freeze and then starts screaming.  Happens every time.  Pavlov's Law must not apply to my child.

Saturday morning tradition.  My husband makes a giant batch of scrabbled eggs and we all sit down together and eat breakfast while we plan out our weekend.  It is such a simple pleasure that I look forward to every single Friday night.

The softest kabuki face brush!  It is from the ELF line found at Target and it was only $6.  It makes your loose powder look flawless and makes such a difference with makeup application.  P.S... My thumb needs lotion.  It looks a little wrinkly.
 

Cute packaging plus creative marketing on this delicious blend of coffee.  One of my husband's employees sent us a bunch of samples from his wife's coffee shop in Rhode Island.  I will be ordering more for sure.

My two men looking quite dapper (the bigger one looking pretty hot if I don't say so myself).  This was taken at my little sister's wedding a few weeks ago.  Max was doing a little hop + a skip at this exact moment. 

Have a wonderful weekend!  Do you have any fun plans?  We are heading to the farmer's market tomorrow to stock up on fresh veggies for our very first juice cleanse next week.  Actually, the husband just informed me (as he glanced over at my blog post) that he does not want to go the the Farmer's Market (lame) so it looks like Ronin and I have a date! 

Please Do Not Feed The Fears + Comment Moderation

I remember when I first started blogging I would visit and leave comments on blogs that I admired.  Some of the blogs had over 200+ comments on every single post.  Sometimes I wondered if they really read my comments, but I left them anyway.

I recently decided to start moderating comments, which means I have to read them before they are approved and published on my blog.  I did this for a couple of reasons...

1) I was getting SO many spam comments it was outta control.  So how much you ask?  Like 20-30 comments per day that were purely spam.  That seems like a lot.  The funny thing is the spam comments were for links to things like, "How to remove man boobs" and "Where to buy Viagra cheap."  I mean if you are a real spammer you obviously are targeting the wrong crowd here.

2) I wanted to really read each and every comment.  I understand that we live in a world where everyone is busy and when someone takes time out of their day to comment and leave their opinion or thoughts I want to really read it.  Plus, if it wasn't for my readers I wouldn't have much of a blog.

On a recent post I received a comment that was too good not to share.  

Here is the comment (she is talking about her tattoos):

"I have my husband's name, exactly as he wrote it on 2/14/11 - my last valentines day with him - on my inner right arm. He passed away 12 days later. I also have a dragonfly on my right shoulder. The dragonfly story was very meaningful to us as we were going through his illness. Do I regret them? Not for one second. I would like to get another that says "Feed the right wolf". An old Indian was sitting with his little grandson. He told the boy he didn't feel well. The boy asked, "Why?" The old grandpa said he had two wolves fighting inside him. One was good; one was evil. The little boy asked, "Which one will win?" The old Indian looked at his little grandson and said, "The one that you feed." That story was told by my pastor after my husband passed away, and it changed my life. I always try to remember to feed the right wolf."

Even reading this again for the 20th time my stomach still gets those little nervous butterflies.  Such a powerful reminder and I want to thank this person for taking the time to share such a wonderful message.  

DIY Rejuvenating Green Tea Matcha Mask

A new year means a fresh start.  A fresh start not only to your health but also to the way you take care of your skin.  Incorporating a mask into your skin care regime is a great place to start.  Maybe your skin needs a New Year's boost.  This incredible mask will do just that.

Matcha powder is a powerful antioxidant that will stimulate dead skin cells and improve tired, dull skin.  This is one of my favorite "secret" (not so secret anymore) masks.  It makes your skin feel and look like silk.

What you will need:

• Matcha green tea powder -- I purchase mine from a local Asian Market.  You can also find at a specialty health food store or online here. 
• Water

* You can use aloe vera gel instead of water if your skin is dry.

  Directions:

1. Mix one tsp of matcha powder with a few drops of either water or aloe vera gel until you have a paste.  If your mask is too watery add more powder.  If it is too sticky add more water.
2. Apply the mask to your face with a soft facial brush.
3. Leave on for 20 minutes and then remove with warm water and a soft washcloth. 
4. Follow up with a moisturizer.

For optimal results, this mask should be done 2-3 times per week .

Please come back and let me know what you think if you try this!  If you have any questions pertaining to this post please leave them below and I will do my best to answer.