Real Food: Snacks

When you have little ones, snacks are extremely important. My kids need a snack two hours after eating breakfast, two hours after eating lunch and sometimes 2 hours after eating dinner and usually those morning or mid-day snacks are when we're on the go so I need an arsenal of relatively non-messy snacks.

I try to always have a basket of ready-to-eat fruit in the pantry where they can reach. This usually consists of bananas, cutie oranges, and apples. I also keep a basket or tray of pre-chopped fruit and vegetables in the fridge that they can munch on whenever they get hungry. Things like cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, carrots, red peppers, etc... I usually try to offer three different varieties of foods. Saturday, after picking up my bountiful basket, is my prep day when I get this all prepared for the upcoming week.

The great thing is that most of these foods are also great on the go. I used to think goldfish and animal crackers were the best portable snacks, but nature really provides the best portable snacks- grapes, bananas, apples- no packaging required.

Once a week I will make a special snack like fruit bars (larabars), brown rice crispy treats, no bake cookie bars, muffins etc... (I am constantly adding lots more healthy snacks to my food blog so be sure to check back!) and I usually supplement the fruits & veggie snacks once per day with cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt.

Here are a few of our favorite "special" snacks:

Larabars

Brown Rice Crispy Treats

No Bake Oatmeal Cookie Bites

Veggie Chips (aka chard chips/kale chips)

No Bake Cookie Bars

Fruit & Nut platter

Taking a break...

This is what we've been up to the last two days:

Heaven.

We're headed to California for the next two weeks, but I've got several posts scheduled while I'm gone, so be sure to check in!

Bountiful, Utah LDS Temple Free Artwork

I finally made it to Bountiful to photograph the temple there and the gates were locked! It's the only temple I've ever been to that was locked up and I was pretty disappointed. So, wearing flipflops, I sacrified my freshly manicured toes to hike up a steep rocky hill across the street to get these images. I have had a ton of requests for the Bountiful temple, and hope that you will like them despite the lack of flowers.

You can download these and other free images of the Bountiful, Utah LDS temple on my free temple art website.

The problem with learning...

is that it entails change.

As I started learning more about what is really in the food at the grocery store, actually reading the ingredients, not just how many calories or fat grams, it caused me to change. I remember my first grocery trip after learning to really decode ingredient labels, I felt like an alien. Like I was in a movie where everyone was walking around like zombies mindlessly putting things in their cart and I managed to break free of the trance. Only problem was I walked out of the store with less than 10 items because I couldn't bring myself to buy anything that had ingredients I now knew were not good for me (or more importantly, my children).

(Fortunately I soon discovered Harmon's just down the street- where organic food has it's very own section, so now shopping is relatively blissful- well minus the three rambunctious boys).

As I discovered other "weirdo's" I started to learn more about how our man-made environment is causing our health problems such as ADHD, Austism and Cancer. It seems that most of the wonderful things scientists have created were implemented quickly and now the negative effects are starting to emerge. Now that I know more, I must change more. Change is not only often unpleasant, it's expensive.

Here are a few things I've started changing or plan to change (most of these things I won't start until we move in 6 months). {warning} if you don't like change, you should stop reading now.

If you like change, then keep reading because I have a great list of articles that outline the specific chemicals that are in our food and home and what you can replace them with.

Sunscreen: I am a believer in sunscreen. I come from a long line of redheads who never wore sunscreen and who have skin cancer. I do not want my kids to have skin cancer. I use sunscreen religiously. However...I have read some disturbing things like this and this which have caused me to change and use a more natural sunscreen now. I will be ordering this Kabana organic sunscreen to protect my family.

Plastics: YIKES. 80% of my house is plastic and after reading some disturbing things about the chemicals leaching out of plastics, I plan on tossing it all when we move and storing my food in mason jars, purchasing a bunch of glass tupperware and these for food on the go. I ordered some Kleen Kanteen's for our water bottles and are tossing the old nalgene's and plastic straw cups.

Bedding: I have not made this change yet, but since we will be moving soon and will need new things, I plan on ordering new pillows and this organic cotton fabric and making my boys' bedding.

TV: We tossed our old tv and will be in need of a new one. Who would have thought the dust your tv produced would be harmful to your health? Our next tv will be PBDE free.

Cleaning: I've replaced my lysol with organic cleaners (although I do sometimes use lysol to kill bugs- it works great and is hopefully less toxic than bug spray...)

Plants: I've never been a fan of houseplants. I plant herbs outside but most houseplants are dusty and dirty and if I had one now my two year old would be digging in it and spreading dirt all over the carpet. Not to mention the fact that I can't remember to water anything that doesn't cry. However after reading this, I will be reforming my ways and hope to *try* my hand at a houseplant when we move.

Ditched the Gum: After reading this slightly disturbing article and this I've switched from gum to fennel seeds...strange, but safe.

Toothpaste: I am a firm believer in good dental hygiene, but I don't think I need things like propylene glycol or titanium dioxide in my toothpaste. Fortunately, there are several more natural toothpaste options available, especially for the little guy who regularly tries to eat toothpaste. And, since we're no longer eating corn syrup for every meal, we shouldn't be as cavity prone...

Deoderant: I've stopped using antiperspirant deoderant which is thought to be linked to breast cancer and since my underarms were wet even when using clinical strength antiperspirant, I figured I'd avoid the risk and stop ruing my shirts with yellow underarm circles. Instead, (after attempting to go au natural) I ordered a strange thing called Crystal.

Cosmetics: While I haven't made any of these changes yet, I'm definitely going to be re-evaluating what I have and what needs to go. Anything that crosses the red zone I'm tossing, but the others I'm still on the fence with. See the links below for toxins in your shampoo, hairspray and makeup.

Obviously you can't be paranoid about everything and to overhaul our life of man-made creations in a day would be quite expensive, but taking baby steps will help reverse the effects of many of these chemicals. And continuing to learn even when it may be scary and downright weird.

If you've read this far, it means you're interested in learning more. Here are a few resources to get you thinking. And maybe even the dreaded word {change}...

Food:

What is Real Food?

How Ultra Processed Foods are Killing Us

Is Sugar Toxic? 60 Minutes Video

Processed Meats Cause Cancer

Dangers of Modern Vegetable Oils

Decoding "All Natural" Claims: 9 Deceptive claims, Ridiculous Food Labels, Decode Food Packaging, Food Renegade Decodes Labels

Why Artificial Sweeteners are Bad for You

Why Genetically Modified Organisms are Bad For You

Hidden Sources of MSG

Dangers of Food Dyes


House & Home:

How Chemicals Change Us & Chemicals and our Health

Keeping your Children Safe Interactive home hazards tour & compelling video

Dangers of Plastics

Safe Bedding

Clean the Dust

Toxic America CNN series

Toxins in your Cosmetics, Dirty Dozen Chemicals to Avoid and Safe Cosmetics Database



Real Food/Organic lifestyle websites

Food Renegade

100 Days of Real Food  

Deliciously Organic

Food Babe

Organic Authority

Natural News

Jamie Oliver


Must Watch/Read

Food Inc

In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan

Jamie Oliver

A Wake up Story

Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser

Spoiled

There are a couple things I'm really going to miss about Utah. One, is living so close to so many temples. Another is pedicures with sisters.

I feel like I have been so spoiled since my husband's been gone. I have been going to the temple at least twice a month and my sister in law invites me to get pedicures every month.

My goal is to get away once a week to regroup and rejuvenate, but this week I thought I'd try to "handle things" on my own and not get a sitter...by Friday I was about to lose it. Saturday went out for pedi's- it's amazing what an hour or two without little criers and screamers can do for a person!

I sure hope I can find a pedi buddy and a good babysitter when we move because I am not giving these up!

Provo, Utah LDS Temple Artwork

You can download free images of the Provo, UT temple on my free temple pictures website. Next up, Bountiful!

Bingham Copper Mine

I've been wanting to take the boys to see the copper mine ever since we moved to Utah. Yesterday I saw a facebook post from Dresses & Messes that the mine is offering free admission for the month of May, so we loaded up and drove on over. It really is quite an impressive sight even from miles away.

The wind was blowing so hard at the top it about knocked us over, so I was lucky to get the few pictures I did.

They say it is larger than two Sears/Willis Tower's stacked on top of one another. Having stood on the skydeck of the Willis Tower just two years ago and feeling like I would pass out as I looked down on the city, I can appreciate just how deep the mine really is. It was dizzying just standing there to take pictures (especially with the wind blowing).

Of course the favorite were the ginormous trucks the size of a 2 story house which look like tiny toys from up here.



The museum inside has a lot of rock specimens, replica's of the mine, a movie about how it all works, and of course a lot of little trucks and tractors (Grant was really upset that he couldn't play with the trucks, he kept saying "get trucks out!")

And as a bonus the road we took to get there went right past the Up house...

If you live in Utah, go print off your free coupon and head on over, it's a fun experience and you can't beat the price! Plus the gift shop has awesome copper postcards and a great selection of copper bracelets for under $10 (a great gift for out-of-towners).

Real food: Real costs

My first "real food" shopping trip was February 25. I am happy to report that the first month I only went to the store 3 times and spent a total of $320. I also purchased two bountiful baskets $30 and $35 at Winder Dairy for a monthly total of $385, less than the $400 I used to spend per month.

However, from the end of March through the end of April I wasn't quite so thrifty. I spent $150 at Sunflower Farms on fresh produce, honey, nuts and dried fruits, a month's worth of chicken, puffed whole grain cereals (enough to last several months), maple syrup and spices. I purchased 4 bountiful baskets for $135 which included a lot of bread, granola and strawberries (I've gotten too lazy to make bread & granola lately) and $170 of winder farms dairy and meat products. I also had to make a few regular grocery store trips for additional bananas, grapes, strawberries, nuts and apricots- spending another $40. for a total monthly amount of $495- quite a jump from the previous month.

Most of that extra was spent on dried fruits and nuts- we have been eating them like candy. My favorites are dried apricots and almonds, but we also buy a ton of dates, raisins and pecans so we can make larabars- which go really fast around our house! And the extra expense of bread and granola that I've been too lazy to make. Could I eat real foods less expensively? Yes! And during some months I will...but I LOVE food, and love cooking and am having fun experimenting right now. We eat pretty darn good for $400 to $500 a month for a family of five, which I think for organic food, is pretty reasonable. Overall, I feel that I'm not spending much more yet I'm feeding our family much better.

And I am amazed at how much better I feel focusing more on fruits and veggies. As a bonus, I'm back into a size 2 without much exercising (of course I wish I were still running- I crave running, it's just not possible on a consistent basis right now, and pushing a stroller is only fun for about 2 miles...). And I'm still eating so-called "fattening" foods like peanut butter, regular butter, yogurt, cheese, bacon, nuts and avocado. My boys are super happy about being able to eat so many fruits and veggies and I'm having fun trying to "healthify" my old recipes.

Now when I do eat something that comes from a box, it just tastes fake and isn't appealing to me at all. I love that the human body naturally craves what it needs. When you eat healthy, your body craves healthy food, which makes you crave exercise, which in turn makes you crave healthy food. On the other hand when you eat junk, your body feels like junk and you don't want to do anything, which makes you crave more junk. I'm so glad I got out of the junk cycle and onto the feelin' good cycle!

Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple Photos

I've just posted images of the Mount Timpanogos, Utah temple. You can purchase prints or download the digital file from my free temple pictures site. These are a few of my favorites.

Simple things: lilacs & snails

I was sitting on the grass of my in-law's backyard talking with my husband on skype when I noticed these beautiful lilac trees in bloom. I had to grab my camera and take a few shots. 

It's so nice to see everything start to bloom and turn green again!

The boys enjoyed playing with snail shells. I took them to see the Lorax last week, so Ethan ran up excited and said "I found the shell of a great-grandfather snail!" The other one had a live snail inside and they watched it slowly creep along the patio but were really sad when they came to check on him a while later and he'd disappeared.

2011 Scrapbook

I finally finished our scrapbook for 2011! I got really lazy towards the end, like always...but it's DONE. Now I can begin working on 2012, before it's over...

Create your own Photobooks with Inkubook.com!

Tracy Aviary

After the boys were troopers tagging along with me to Temple Square so I could take pictures, I promised them a trip to the aviary. We've been meaning to go ever since we moved here and I'm so glad we finally made it (especially since our zoo pass expires next week). They had a lot of fun. We've been studying birds as a main focus of school this year, so they were excited to get to see them up close. The zoo here is kind of pathetic compared to the Louisville zoo, but I may just renew our pass just so we can come to the aviary again...

New Salt Lake Temple Artwork!

Spring is finally here! Actually it feels more like summer- I wish it felt more like spring, BUT the trees have finally bloomed! So now I'm frantically trying to photograph all the temples in the area before we leave for our vacation.

I added a lot of new photos to the Salt Lake Temple album, so those of you who were wanting to print large images, you can now! I'll be posting the other Utah temples soon (so many requests for Bountiful, Timpanogos and Provo- I hope to get them up next week!) Here are a few of my favorites from Salt Lake.

As always, these temple pictures are absolutely free for personal or church use and you can download them from my free temple pictures website at http://www.freeldstemplepictures.com

*The bottom one would be perfect in the three picture frames sold at IKEA for $9.99, simply print each of these images and insert in frame. Great wedding gift!

An Intentional Life

You may have noticed the new blog design and title. When I began this blog more than 5 years ago, it was a private blog to share photos with our family who lived 2,000 miles away. After making the decision to go "public" I was at a loss trying to come up with a name since I still blog mostly for me, for a family record and to share things that I'm learning in life, thus I blog about a million unrelated things...However the time has come for me to remove our last name from the blog, forcing me to choose a new name. The url remains the same, just the name has changed- although if you grabbed a button that will need to be updated (sorry! But it was either name change or go private again!)

"An Intentional Life" kind of sums up the kind of life we try to live. We try to make each day count; not to just wander this earth mindlessly seeking fleeting pleasures or living from one crisis to the next, but to plan out our future and work towards specific goals that will get us there.

One example of intentional living is our change to real foods and avoiding processed foods. We could wait for cancer or diabetes to inflict us, but we choose to take measures to prevent rather than deal with a future problem. Or our choice to invest for our children's education and our future missions. We make sacrifices today to save for a future that is relatively uncertain, but that we hope will provide a secure financial future for our children and a life of service for us. Intentional living is acting, not being acted upon. Choosing to obey God's laws and enjoy blessings rather than suffering consequences that occur when we disobey them.

Certainly our specific goals change over time and in the end we may have a completely different destination than when we started, but we have something to shoot for and we work for it each day, but the eternal destination never changes.

I love Joel Osteen, one my favorite quotes by him is "God wants us to live consistently, He wants us to enjoy every single day of our lives." Happiness is not something that we have to wait until the next life to obtain, we can experience joy NOW through the choices we make each day!

That is what I want the purpose of this blog to be. To share joy in the simple things of life, the pitter-patter of little feet, the hysterical belly laughs shared by brothers, the excitement of learning and the beauty of life. I want to live an intentional life, to align my future with the future that God has planned for me and enjoy, not just survive, life's journey.

The Winner of Parley Ray Boutique...

Congratulations Krystal (entry #57)! I will contact you to claim your prize. Thanks to everyone who entered!