A little Primal update

The last two weeks have been pretty crazy.  Moving across the state can turn your world up-side-down and give it a good shake.  But in all honesty, remaining in my Primal path was pretty darn easy. 

Oh, and I found my scale.  It says I lost weight.  Over THIRTY POUNDS since around this time last year.  Granted, I was not on my primal path this time last year, but there was a spot in there where I lost about fifteen pounds.  And then I probably gained most of it back. Then sometime the end of June I packed up my scale and put it in storage. So I'm thinking that since going Primal, I've lost over 20 pounds. 

And I feel great. 

Did I mention that I took the whole family with me?  I decided it needed to happen.  And aside from Grace asking if we have toast for breakfast and Calla wondering if she'll ever have macaroni and cheese from a box again (which was rare to begin with), there have been few complaints from that section.  Even the complaints I get are not really that passionate.  More of a passing, wondering comment.

We did realize last Friday that we didn't have any fruit or vegetables in the house.  And the kids were hungry.  So we told them we'd go to the store and get some.  You would have thought we had given them a free lifetime pass to Disneyland or something.  Seriously, I'd say kids in a candy store, but it was the produce section!  They were really that excited.  They picked out apples and oranges and grapes and carrots and cucumbers and orange peppers and green peppers and purple cabbage and green cabbage and pomegranates.  And they came home and ate them.  My kids are weird by many standards and I love it.

Now for the last three days Grace has been asking for turkey pizza.  It's a white sauce pizza I make with garlic and cheese and such.  It's an after Thanksgiving tradition we have.  And we had a package of turkey in the freezer.  So I went to work figuring out how to make it without the crust. 

I found this recipe for flourless pizza.  The crust is made out of eggs.  You whip up the whites, fold in the yokes and bake it for a few minutes.  I forgot to add the salt, but it turned out beautifully.

It kind of reminds me of Dutch Babies, only without the flour.  And it was SUPER easy!  Easier than making a bread dough crust.  And faster, and with way less mess, too! I count a triple bonus there!

Here's the pizza all ready to eat. 

One excited.

Two excited.

 Three excited

Four!

And there was not a single complaint from the complaint department!  In fact, they all ate more than one piece. 

Hey mom, are you done yet?  I'm trying to eat here.

Sorry little dude.  Carry on.

The husband didn't have any complaints either.  So I declared dinner a success.  Then they had yogurt for dessert.  Plain yogurt with some jam stirred into it.

Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while will recall a journey I went on a few years ago to make my own sourdough starter.  I baked my own sourdough bread for over two years and it was delicious.  But I will honestly say that I don't miss it.  I don't miss making it every other day (and the mess).  I don't miss the inflammation in my hands that I have since learned was caused by grains.  I don't miss the bread, either.  I'll admit that it is a little sad, but I feel roughly THIRTY pounds lighter and roughly a MILLION times better.  I've noticed that my kids are thoroughly enjoying good food and I am putting forth a lot less effort to feed them. 

And I feel like my journey has just begun.

The book claims that weightloss the Primal way is effortless.  I find that to be true.  It's taking a lot less effort to both lose weight, do the recommended exercises (which is a wagon I need to jump back on here soon) and prepare the food than I think most folks put forth in their non-primal ways.  It's quite incredible.

It all makes me very happy.

Some things are just universal

After our hike we actually got back to camp early enough that we felt like we could really sit and enjoy the evening. We made a fire and then made dinner while the girls played Bison farmer.



The bison was greenish and kind of weirded me out.



We were looking forward to sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows and melting chocolate on graham crackers. And we were tired, so we were planning to take advantage of that and go to bed early.

While we were eating dinner, an RV with obviously European license plates pulled into the spot next to us. Later a little blond head popped out. And it kept popping out. And getting called back in. And popping out. And getting called back in.

We cleaned up dinner and started our roasting preparations. Daddy asked Grace if she wanted a pink marshmallow (the strawberry ones roast up quite nicely, actually), or a white one.

Pink, please.

I thought so. You are a pink girl.

And you want white. Because you are a white boy.

I thought Brent might split a gut.

Mean time, this cute little blond head kept popping out of the RV next door. I think mom finally gave up trying to get her to eat her dinner and they came over for a visit.

So we met Jule (pronounced You-la) and her mom and dad. Jule is about Calla's age. And she's been on holiday for nearly 5 months with her mom and dad. They started in Eastern Canada, drove to Alaska, worked their way down the coast, and now were headed back east. With six weeks left of their trip, they admitted it was time for them to go home.

Since we were roasting marshmallows, we offered to share. "Pink or white?" Brent asked.

PINK!

Apparently pink is a universal favorite of little girls.



Chocolate, however, is not. Because Jule didn't want to have anything to do with the chocolate.

Violet on the other hand just wanted the chocolate and probably ate enough for both of them.



If you are wondering, she is covered in camping. Chocolate, dirt, dinner, and boogers. Good times!

So we watched the four girls eat and/or burn marshmallows and play while we visited with Jule's parents. Such nice people. I think they have the right idea. She told me they work hard for a few years and then take several months off and travel the world. They've done this for over 20 years and it suits them well. And we're the typical American family--three kids, a big RV and weekend warriors.

Jule understands quite a lot of English, but other than "pink" and "thank you," she didn't speak much of it. However, it was obvious that fun is a universal language among kids. The next morning after breakfast, they were at it again.



Taking turns and everything.



There's something about giggling girls. It makes my insides swell with happy. I think that's universal, too.

Dirt might make the list as well. And boogers. though I have no proof of that from the trip because my kid was the only one with boogers. You'd never know that Violet did in fact have a bath the night before.



When we got home, Calla kept telling me that she wanted Jule to come live at our house when we move again. I'm not sure how to explain that to a 3-year-old. That and why we aren't planning to move again for many, many years. She has it in her head now that when we move again she wants to move to Montana. I suspect she's expecting it any day now.

We may have scarred her for life.

Idaho spuds

Living next to a potato field means fresh potatoes.

Yes, we have permission to dig some.

The girls thought it was great fun.



And all three of them got in on the washing action.



Really, Violet just wanted to play in the water.

The bounty.



The dish.



The verdict.



Yes, she's licking her plate.

I think she likes Idaho, too.

Did you know . . . ?? Part 1

We went to Yellowstone last weekend with my parents. It was trip number three of four for us. So instead of telling you all about it, we'll do a little Yellowstone version of "Did you know . . . ?" Yes, I'm making this up as I go along.

So, here goes.

Did you know that melted Hershey chocolate on a Triscuit will keep a one-year-old who is tired of riding in the car entertained for a good 15 minutes?



And did you know that after said 15 minutes, said one-year-old is covered in melted Hershey chocolate?



Did you know that a Scootababy makes a fabulous hip carrier for the ring-sling challenged?



(Said Scootababy was sent with us with above assignment by Idaho Babywearers. Did you know Idaho Babywearers will be hosting the International Babywearing Conference in 2010?)

Did you know that daddies are even more handsome when they wear their kids?



Did you know that grandpas wearing babies while waiting in line to buy his grandkids ice cream are pretty darn handsome, too?



Did you know that the sky is incredible around here?

Quote of the day

Mmmmmmmmmmm . . . !

Taste the Rainbow!

After their successful fishing trip the other evening, Grace announced that she hoped the rainbow trout tasted like rainbows. Today she got a chance to taste them.



But she's somewhat like her mother and thinks trout doesn't taste much like rainbows, as she was hoping.




Calla prefers watermelon, too.



Didn't help that they tasted a different rainbow on the way to grandma's house!



Kids are so fun. And I'm sure fishing will be just as much fun whether they eat the fish or not.

Where are your manners, girl???

But she's so darn cute eating her lunch like that.

Maybe I'll wait to tell her you shouldn't have your feet on the table while you eat. Maybe at least until her feet aren't cute anymore.

Camping in the rain and snow

When my husband was growing up his family went camping quite a lot. They had a 5th wheel travel trailer and from the sound of it, they may have just about worn it out they used it so much. He talks about how much fun they had with it and when I saw that look in his eye when he started talking about us getting one, I coudn't say no. So a few weeks ago we got one. It's older, but it's beautiful. And this past weekend we took it on its maiden voyage.

We went basically down the road to a hot springs that had a camp ground and a pool. Didn't leave until 4 o'clock on Saturday, but that was okay because, well, we were just going down the road.

We got there and while we were getting all settled and leveled and such, it started to rain. But, not to fear! We had a trailer! And a swimming pool for after dinner.

But first dinner. Spagetti is always a great camping meal. But when I went to toast the bread, I had no butter. So, what do you do when you have no butter and you are camping? You do without . . . or you set your five-year-old to work.

I always have cream because it is VERY important in my coffee. And when I was in college I worked at a daycare and as an activity one day we made butter. Did you know that a tablespoon of cream in a small babyfood jar makes one serving of butter? All you do is shake and shake and shake.

Except I didn't have a baby food jar. But I had a sippy cup.



And she's a good shaker.



I even salted the butter some. It was yummy.



After dinner we crashed the pool. The kids loved it. And I must admit, it was pretty fun.

Now since it was raining, there was no fire. And no fire put the eternal camping tradition in danger--s'mores! But, the gas stove is super helpful in that area.



You can even melt the chocolate in the oven, because melting chocolate is VERY important to making the perfect s'more.



Beautiful.



It rained all night and into the morning. But we were in our camp trailer warm and dry. And warm and dry with three kids (or even without three kids) is fabulous!

In the morning, it started to snow. Big fat wet flakes. Grace loved it.



And we packed up and headed home. In the snow.



Next weekend we're pulling out again. This time to Yellowstone. This should be a fun summer.

A lesson in sharing

Some of you have been following my sourdough adventure. And I must say, it's been an adventure. I've had all sorts of fun and all sorts of results.

If you haven't been following, I'll give you a brief rundown.

Making my own starter:



Edible failure:



My first fabulous loaf:



And yesterday's gorgeous loaf:



It's really been coming along. And it's getting easier and easier and I'm getting braver and braver, branching out and trying new sourdough strategies and looking for new recipes. My starter has been fabulous lately. I don't know if it just matured into a lovely starter or the weather changed and made it happier.

But today I went to make another loaf and ended up nearly crying. If you aren't familiar with sourdough (and I'm no expert, really), you have a starter that you "proof" to make a "sponge" and then make your bread. After you proof your sponge you keep out a bit of it for starter for you next loaf.

This morning I opened the fridge to get my starter AND IT WASN'T THERE! BECAUSE I FORGOT TO KEEP SOME BACK AND BAKED IT ALL INTO THE BREAD!

I felt like I was going to cry.

And like I'd been punched in the stomach.

I called my mom. But she wasn't answering. I tried her three times.

Then I gave up and called Kimber. I had given her some starter a while ago.

Wassup!! (That's how she answers the phone.)

I think I'm going to cry.

Why?

Because I didn't save any starter from my last batch of sourdough."

GASP!

That was my baby!

You ate your baby!!

And I fed it to my friends!

HAHA!

Thanks Kimber. :p But seriously, I need some of my starter back.

I had given my mom some starter, too. So I tried her again. She was much more sympathetic. And she told me I might want to change my strategy when I proof the sponge and just keep some back even before I proof it. Or have a couple rotating starter containers. She also was making sourdough pancakes when I called. Now I had two options of getting some of my sourdough starter back.

Thanks mom. I love you.

There are a few lessons from my experience. Some of them I have learned over and over.

1. Don't call Kimber when you need a shoulder to cry on.
2. Always call your mom. She is always helpful and empathetic.
3. I need a new sourdough strategy.
4. Always share the good things in your life. It will come back to you.

PHEW!!!