Healthy Eating

Hope everyone is having a great Friday and yay for the weekend! I have been so busy with the kids after school activities,doctors appointments,laundry,cooking,yoga,taking care of the dogs, cleaning the house(I know story of our lives,right!) I have been eating junk food lately and not that it's a bad thing I actually think it's great to indulge once in a while maybe even a few times a week. Ultimately I always try to eat healthy because it really makes me feel energized. If I start eating junk food on a regular basis I will feel groggy in the morning and it just sucks trying to get up. When I started eating REALLY healthy a few years back I never wanted to get back in eating bad food regularly because it's just not worth it to feel tired all day long, drinking coffee after coffee and taking care of three boys. I know a lot of mother's feel like this and I promise you if you change your eating habits it is so worth it!
I posted a sauerkraut recipe a few weeks ago you can see here. I made another batch with purple cabbage that came out amazing. I let this one sit longer, about four days and oooohh was it so good. I made a salmon steak the other night with some quinoa,steamed vegetables,sauerkraut on the side and some fresh basil and cilantro on top. This was so good and the only seasoning I used was the Himalayan Salt from the sauerkraut and olive oil from the salmon. I ate half this and saved the rest for another meal.

My Favorite Weight Loss Foods

I wanted to share my absolute favorite foods I ate for weight loss. There are many different ways to loose weight and everyone needs to find what works for them but these are what really made me loose weight.
I posted below spring rolls and hand rolls. Now I know these are typical oriental foods and people always tend to match them with oriental spices but I don't. I mixed them with anything and everything possible. There are two ingredients I always use, a type of protein and a type of vegetable. I stayed away from foods high in carbohydrates like rice, bread and noodles. The rice paper and seaweed are great substitutes for those. If I made tacos for my family I would replace my tacos with rice paper. I have also made mediterranean spring rolls with a greek yogurt sauce that were great also. What ever protein I cooked for my family whether it is steak, chicken, shrimp, beans, etc the list can go on and on I mixed with whatever veggies I have. These are really healthy and nutritious for you and are low calorie. They taste amazing also!

Another reason why I also recommend cutting out foods high in carbohydrates is because I don't feel tired everyday. I use to feel so sluggish and exhausted all the time I could barely get house work done. I feel full of energy now and I love it. I also don't feel bloated and full which is really nice.

Quick tip for seaweed rolls. Make sure whatever you put on the seaweed first is warm. I heat up my hummas then spread on the seaweed. The heat softens the seaweed so it won't break.

Roasted Seaweed handroll with hummas, clover sprouts, cilantro, red onions, cucumbers and mint. 

Spring roll with hummas, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, carrots, green bell peppers and red onion

Roasted Pine Nut Hummas

Laugh and Love

Christine

For more Spring Roll recipes you can use the search box to the left of my blog page. Type in the word spring roll. Thanks!! ;)

My Garden Renovation

A few weeks ago we started clearing out our back yard for my vegetable and fruit garden. My garden is my favorite hobby to do out of anything. I not only like it for the organic food but because I absolutely love flowers and plants. My passion for flowers begin when I took floral design in high school. I ended up interning at a flower shop and landed a job. I ended up be a floral designer for about 5 years and I have never loved a job as much, we'll besides be a mom.
Since I am a mother of three gardening is a great way for me to teach my kids about taking care of their own food and maintaining a home. It is also something we can do together and have fun. My kids love picking fruits and vegetables. It also teaches them about photosynthesis right in heir backyard. I also am a little old school. If it were up to me I would have a farm and make everything from scratch so I wouldn't have to go to a market and buy processed foods but I know that is a little extreme.
This year we started out with seeds. We normally buy small plants but I wanted to go all out this year with tons of plants and that can get pricey if they are already grown. I bought containers at lowes, (pictures below) and planted my seeds inside my house next to a window. Within a week they started sprouting. Two more weeks til the last frost and I will be transplanting them outside!
I also put below what I want to do with the rest of my yard. It looks so small in a picture but when your down there chopping all the brush down it feels like forrreevvveer! Our lot size is 1.5 acres and we are planning to clear out a little less then acre. I can't wait til it's all done and let's hope it doesn't take all summer!

 A trip to the local Nursery

 

Feb 7th when we first started clearing out the yard

 

 Feb 17th, hard to tell the difference because we cleared more in the back. We still have the whole right side to do.

 

 Here is my plan.The patio I want in the back because there is a nice view and it is next to the water so we can watch the kids. For the play set I want to put mulch down in a circle so it is nice and soft. My husband wants to put up a fence but I don't want to because I love how open and natural it looks. We still have to burn all the wood and brush!

 

 

Here is me getting some man work done :)

I posted this picture because I wanted to show how beautifully green it gets here :)

  Here are the seeds we planted, we are planning on planting anything we eat so our garden will be HUGE! I want to freeze what I have for the winter. I really recommend this little greenhouse containers for keeping the moisture consistent.

  

Can you guess what these are?

 

Are you all planting anything this year?

Laugh and Love

 Christine