We’re well into the food challenge and definitely eating well. Everyone appears to be enjoying it thus far because traditional foods are incredibly tasty!
I haven’t noticed much difference in how I feel physically other than I find I tend to have a pleasantly full tummy most of the day. Moving from breakfast to the mid-morning snack is my hungriest time. Other than that I tend to be pretty full unless I sit around reading about food (I do that a lot right now :p) I’ve also been nice and regular going to the bathroom which has been a problem for me so I’m pleased.
So Much Soaking
The biggest part of the challenge has been all the soaking. Going from mostly canned beans to dried beans means remembering a lot of soaking. Pair that with oatmeal that needs to be soaked every night, several nights of rice, and nuts and I feel like I’m doing a lot of soaking.
I read a tip today to put soaked beans in the fridge – I may start soaking all of my beans on Saturday or Sunday night, then putting them in the fridge the next morning to be ready for the week. It seems like it will be easier for me time-wise to do all the prep for soaking at once. I could probably do the same with oatmeal for the week, actually.
Dry Bean Tip
A bean idea (Scott actually thought of it) that’s been working well for me is to have my beans soaked one night, then put them in the crock pot on low the next night. By morning I have great beans. I’ve been bringing them to a boil on the stove, then pouring them into the crock pot; I may try a batch without that first step.
Dishes that Never End!
Another challenge that’s come up is dishes – I’m preparing food so often, and so much food to fill the family up, that there are always dishes. Cassidy washes our eating dishes (plates, cups, silverware) – but I do the pots and pans, and on nights when we’re running behind, I have everything because Cassidy goes to bed. Scott has a project going at work right now and has been late some which means supper is late. I don’t mind that (it gives me more time to have everything ready!!) – but the dishes are getting overwhelming.
We generally hand wash though we have a dishwasher. I feel it’s important for kids to have responsibility and the dishes are a good one (plus we’d go through all of our dishes before we got to supper if we didn’t hand wash between meals.)
I’ve begun to try and make sure I wash pots/pans/cooking utensils as soon as I’m done with them. It’s hard though, because as soon as it’s done it needs to be on the table, and then we’re sitting to eat. Maybe I should fill the sink with hot soapy water and dump the pots and pans in as soon as the food is served, then do a load quickly after we eat and before Cassidy does dishes. I could put them on the dishwasher racks to dry. Then it would be being used for something…
How the Kids are Doing With It
I have noticed that the kids, especially Cassidy, have had mostly cheerful dispositions the past few days. They’ve also been willing to go and play outside – Cassidy and Asher for long periods. This is really nice, especially since we’ve been having weather down into the tens and under during the day. They come back in happy and warm. I really think good food helps to make a cheerful and calm child (other things help too, mind you!).
I’m still hoping that this 30 days will see Cassidy gaining some weight. I’m also hoping all the good fats and warm foods will help the kids’ hands to be a little warmer. They tend to have cold hands and that’s always bugged me. I feel like they should have warm hands, because it seems if their hands are cold, they must be cold.
Scott
We’ve been trying Scott on properly soaked oatmeal this week and thus far that seems to be going well. I load our oatmeal down with butter and a bit of coconut oil, which I suspect probably helps. I’m also trying to make sure he gets plenty of good snacks to help him stay away from the carbohydrate-full snacks, we’ll have to see how content that keeps him, or if he’d prefer me to stock his normal snacky stuff (chips and salsa… which I’d like to make for him once I can get some corn!)
Trying New Things
We tried kombucha for the first time last night and it was pretty good. Definitely fizzy. I may try making it here at some point. It seems like it might be a nice refreshing drink in the summer. Since I haven’t had soda in years the “fizzy” feeling isn’t something I miss or long for. But kombucha is a nice probiotic drink and I can see benefits to having it around, especially when it’s hot. Which it isn’t at all right now :p
A Couple More Tips
So thus far my major challenges are in planning/executing traditional meals because there is extra preparation involved. I’ve already found the beans in the crockpot idea, and making a huge salad to last through three dinners works well.
Another thing I’ve found is I can usually steam a veggie over something I’m already cooking – last night I steamed over the red potatoes I was boiling. Tonight I steamed over the beef stock I have going on the back burner. It’s easy to pop the food in a steamer basket and set it over the pot. I successfully avoided microwave steaming because of this! I’ve also found I can place a double-boiler pan over a pot that’s already cooking to melt butter for a sauce if I need to.
Thoughts for the Coming Days
Next week I’m hoping to get a raw meat dish in at least for a snack for the kids and I (not sure how keen on the raw dishes Scott is yet). I’d also like to finally get around to sprouting some nuts. I’ll continue to work on streamlining my kitchen time and hopefully will continue to see cheerful dispositions and full bellies with the children!
I’m also hoping to see that I stay regular in bathroom endeavors :p And that Galen of course continues to grow and remains the relatively laid-back little fellow that he is. Feeling a bit less fatigue would also be great – though I’m not sure I’m going to get that because I think being a homeschooling mother of four, running a business, and being wife to one great hubby kinda means I’m going to be tired some of the time!
