Crockin...Potato Soup Version

Hi my name is Jules and I love to eat....especially anything that contains cream...hmmm creamy goodness... I have to snap out of that thought and drown myself in a slightly healthier yet still super creamy potato soup.

I have been on a mission to make everything a little healthier for my family and in that mission I never dreamt of potato soup because all the cream combined with potatoes is never a good combination. Until I was flipping through the recipe book that came with my newest crock and ran across a recipe for potato onion chowder and thought I have a ton of potatoes and some fresh mushrooms that need to be used so I began testing out ways that I could use the base recipe for the chowder and end up with a creamy potato soup using everyday items found in most kitchens and no cream so I could enjoy it without feeling too terribly guilty!



Chop a small onions, 2 celery stalks and 2 cloves garlic and sauté them in olive oil until the onions are cooked through. As you can see I like the onions and garlic to be a little more on the brown side.
I typically have garlic, celery and onions on hand at all times, but if you don't no worries this will still come out amazing if you leave these out. You can also substitute fennel, carrots, or any other veggies that you like as this just adds a kick of flavor to the soup.

I used a 6 quart smart pot and basically just about filled the bottom with the garlic, onion, and celery mixture. If you like more veggies add them in as I haven't found a way that this can be a mess yet! I must add that I have tried hard to mess this up and have quite a few quarts of super yummy potato soup to vouch for it in my freezer.

I used the mix of gold potatoes I had on hand when I was photographing, but have used a mix of white and reds as well. Just use what you have and aim for about 10-12 small to medium large potatoes.

I make a mixture of larger and smaller chunks of potatoes as I want some to turn to mush and mix into the base and others to remain firmer so there are some chunks in my soup. This is completely my preference, but if you want perfectly smooth soup make all your chunks uniform and on the smaller side. If you are adding fresh mushrooms, slice and add them here as well. I have added up to a pound of sliced mushrooms here without changing anything.

 Once the potatoes are in I open my very messy spice/random kitchen stuff cabinet and wanted to share this picture since I was recently told that my house is always spotless! Hello I have kids...there is always kid stuff everywhere and I am terrible at organization..see pic to right if you need confirmation of that.

Please note that I do not endorse any specific brand of spices or herbs..these are just what is readily available and non budget breaking in my area.

Since I already had the garlic and onion I added the Herb Provence mix..this is not an everyday spice mix I buy but a nice size container under 5 bucks how could I pass and it is primarily Rosemary, Marjoram, and Thyme..and some Sea Salt. If you didn't have any garlic or onion and have some powder feel free to add generous amounts of both here. This is 2 heaping tablespoons of the herb mix and 1 teaspoon of the Sea Salt. When I am not documenting the recipe I shake away until my heart is content then give and extra shake for good measure and that works too!

Once you have your spices added you need to add water until you cover your potatoes. Using the same amount of potatoes that I used it comes to 6 cups of water. This is where you might go awry....make sure the potatoes are covered by the water but don't get too upset if the spices collect on the sides of your crock. I use a wooden spoon and push them down into the water but there is no need to stir at all. Maybe you are a better water pourer than I am and don't make an herb mess on the side and I say woohoo you rock....I aim to get the water in the crock and not on the floor!

 I usually mix up everything at night and put it in the fridge so in the morning there is minimal time needed to get dinner going. So if you have your soup chilling in the fridge put it straight into the base and turn your time to low 10 hours and forget about it while you are working. No stirring or worry needed.....right up my alley.

 When you get home, if you have a stick blender get after the soup with it. If not a blender of food processor also work amazingly well. I used a gift card to get my stick blender at an amazing price online, but I am addicted to buying kitchen gadgets!

 I added 1/2 cup sour cream to the mix to get the creaminess that I crave. Here is where if you have food sensitivities especially to gluten to watch your sour cream to ensure that it is gluten free as not all are gluten free. I know this as a friend has recently had to go gluten free for her daughter's health, so as part of her support net I am trying to get educated.

 Once it's all mixed this is what it is going to look like. It is thick like the potato soup my Grandma made and just as flavorful as I recall.
I do have a confession to make here that at first I was also adding cheese to the soup and mixing it in......oh so good but I ultimately cut out the cheese in the soup to save on a few calories....but I won't tell if you walk on the wild side and add it in!

I, of course, add cheese to the top of the soup once I get it into my bowl, but would be good with anything you like to add to the top.










I hope that this is a super easy soup that can help you through the long winter without breaking the bank or your calorie count if you are counting them. As I mentioned this soup freezes like a dream and is super thick when it is cold but once you reheat it goes back to the same consistency as the day you made it.


For printable recipe visit here.

Thanksgiving is all about stuffed birds....and my family is no different

So maybe Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, but after years of dried out terrible turkey growing up I cannot bring myself to buy one, so if your looking for turkey advice I sadly have very little. My family loves all things bread so stuffing is a requirement for all holiday gatherings if you want to make it through dinner without too many complaints. So this year I set out to infuse the horrific stuffing dish that stuffs our waistlines with some veggies. Please don't get me wrong stuffing is a far cry from a healthy dish, but if your family must have it sneak in some veggies.

 

So I took the requisite bag of processed bread chunks and set it on the counter a few weeks ago for inspiration. Let me tell you while standing at my juicer half awake and seeing the processed chunks taunting me is something that I will not miss. So let’s talk about how I managed to take a dish that I dread watching my family eat no stuff into their faces and make it a little less cringe worthy.

 

Ingredients:

1 bag of prepared herb bread chunks

1 bunch of celery (mine had 8-10 ribs on it)

1 medium yellow onion

3 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary

1 bag of fresh cranberries (remove any hard or super soft cranberries)

8-10 sprigs of parsley

2 apples (I used Fuji as they were getting to the end of their usability)

First I chopped the celery, onion, and apples into bite size chunks and placed them into a mixing bowl. I pinched the leaves off parsley sprigs until I had about a cup, add in the rosemary leaves (I don’t use the stalk but pull the leaves off by running my nail against the growth pattern) and rough chop them. Add the chopped parsley and rosemary to the mixing bowl, then work on the sage. My thyme leaves were pretty small so I just added them directly to the bowl after I pulled them off the stalk the same way I pulled the rosemary off the stalk. Then I added the cranberries to the vegetable mix and let the flavors meld. Truth be told I pre-cut the veggies in the morning, added in the cranberries, and stored the mix for several hours in an airtight container to make my dinner preparations that much easier.

 

When it was time to make dinner all I had to do was mix the vegetables mix into the bread crumbs, add 4 tablespoons of melted butter (I use hormone free butter over the fake margarine but I am pretty certain margarine will work as well.) and 5 cups of boiling water to the mix and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 325 degrees or until the cranberries burst. I cooked this the same time that I heated up the pre-made cinnamon sweet potatoes. Please forgive the awful cell phone pic of the finished stuffing, even my bread loving don't make me touch salad family approved of the additional veggies added in and have asked for it again on Christmas.

 

 

Happy Fall

As the Fall settled in very abruptly in my neck of the woods in the past few days I have found myself very thankful for the reprieve I have also found myself having. I have been extremely busy with a few things that I wanted to share with everyone:
First I have a post coming about updating my front door and porch.

I am working on finishing up a post about my ruffle wreath which I hope will be gracing my front door this weekend.

I have also found myself extremely busy preserving the fall bounty that I have been able to pick up at the produce co-op that we participate in. I am thinking of sharing some of my tips for making apple butter with everyone, but may opt for sharing my new favorite kitchen appliance instead. Hint this has made my preserving much easier and I wish I would have spent the money long ago.

Speaking of the co-op, I decided that my community needed a site as well and have been working to bring a site to my hometown. Which is where a lot of my time has been spent.

As a side note, I have had a few people approach me about various diets and I wanted to share some changes I have made for my family that really has made all of us feel better almost instantly. This is not a diet but is more a lifestyle change. Also there is a yummy "helper" recipe that I want to share with everyone because it was out of this world amazing! Shhh....I may just have to move this post to the top of my priority list.


I hope that everyone is just as excited about the holidays as I am and this year I am trying to maintain a sugar free....as in refined sugars...holiday season. I hope that you will take the challenge with me! I am going to take one day at a time on that one.

Happy Fall everyone!

Hello Georgeeeeous...let's be bold together

Well if you couldn't tell my all time favorite past time is treasure hunting. Some people call this thrifting, junkin, antiquing, or any other term that you can think of; basically this is searching for great items that may or may not be on the curb for the garbage man. This is treasure hunting at its finest, there was a time when I was appalled at the thought of loading someone's cast asides into my vehicle......good thing at that time I drove a small car. Now I have a much larger SUV that I definitely treat as a truck and have been known to load stuff into possibly in heels and a skirt.

Regardless of what you call it, many people overlook some really great finds. So while I was at an auction there was an overlooked gold mirror. I have to admit it was gold 70's style but there was a charm about it. Because we all love an ugly duckling story here is the before picture taken on my kitchen floor the night I brought it home.


The truth is I loved the swirls and the curved edges....I was hypnotized by its beauty. How could you pass up this exceptionally drab gold plastic mirror on a Saturday evening when dinner with great friends would be so much more fun. I was shocked that no one bid against me on this beauty and carried it out with a great vision.






When I first envisioned the mirror it was a glossy white finish but then I got a twinge of possibly making it a turquoise color. I may need a treasure hunting intervention as I have filled my garage with treasures and possibly enough furniture for an entire house.

I was hunting for the turquoise color spray paint....yes I said spray paint....and happened upon a great color called Lagoon and knew that was the perfect color.

I took the mirror out so I could spray without abandon. Which I did on my no longer white patio railing. I do have to say I am glad that I went bold on the color and love the mirror.



I have the perfect place to hang this beauty where it will bring great joy into my mornings. Right now I must make the wall as fabulous as the mirror!

My thought of the day is go bold and don't be afraid to take a chance on something that has been overlooked by everyone!

To Pancake or not to pancake now that is the question

Pancakes how I love thee.....warm and delicious covered in syrup....add a side of sausage and oh how my morning or afternoon is all that much better. Hmmm....

Now back to reality I must go, I love pancakes and sausage with a big glass of milk. This is not a healthy meal at all and feel like I have to point out that although this is what my family had for dinner so I could get some photos, we have not had pancakes in many months and actually had to buy syrup in order to take photos.

I also have to admit that I have a box of pancake and baking mix that I used as the base for this recipe as I have not perfected my own mix, but as soon as I get the mix perfected I will share it.

The first thing I do is get my trusty griddle fired up and get the sausage going because pancakes without sausage is just so so. I would love to say I make my own sausage but our local meat locker has some amazing sausage patties and I love them with or without pancakes.

 Once that is going I mix up the batter by mixing the dry mix, 1 tablespoon of sugar (yes I use sugar here but this is an exception to our daily routine), and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. I then add in the milk, and eggs. Before adding the eggs into the batter I lightly beat them with my wire whisk. Once that is all mixed up I add in 2 teaspoons of real vanilla...if you haven't ever tried it watch for the post as I am making my own because it is so expensive in the store.

Once everything is all mixed up, I pour the batter onto a hot griddle and wait for it to begin bubbling. There will be a few at first them the pancake will begin to get some height to it and that is the making of success. If your batter is flattened out at this stage add some more of your pancake mix as you most likely added too much milk as I frequently do...I always do a test pancake....just to make sure they are edible you know.

Once the edges begin to dry you can carefully lift the edges to see if the bottom is ready to brown and then flip it over at which time it will look like this. Here you can see the edges are nice and tall with some nice air bubbles.









Once you have a few made up stack them up and add some...or a lot of syrup because you know you want to and a few sausage patties and enjoy every bite. You know you want to!








So I know that you think wow this is super easy and it is super easy that anyone can do this. Let me tell you it took me years of horrific crimes against pancakes in order to make even a single pancake that was edible. I, Jules, am a dog lover and even though I know it is wrong I will let my beloved pups eat my cooking mishaps and they almost always oblige happily, but there have been many times even my most voracious pup would not eat my pancakes. So I tell you even if your pancakes could double for Frisbees and even if the dogs would rather go hungry than eat them you cannot go wrong with this recipe.

One last thing....I will share my secret to perfectly browned pancakes.....shh....during one years black Friday madness I bought an electric griddle. You know the ones that are over priced all year long and then go on sale with a rebate the day after Thanksgiving....yeah that's the one and I love it to the moon and back! This is not another kitchen item that lives on top of the cabinets under an inch of dust....if yours is there get it out and set it to 325 degrees and whip up some batter and make you some pancakes. Eat one or two now and freeze the rest in friendly portions these do great in the freezer and are a nice treat after a long work week!

Busy happens....then before you know it you have a shameful secret

So the last month has been a whirl of church camp, band camp, tile scraping, air conditioner repairs, and some light plumbing work. To say the least I have been super busy....then add on to that the fact that my day job has been ramping up into insanely busy and an entire month has slipped by when it seems like just yesterday I was playing Russian roulette with my herb cubes in the kitchen.

So what has been happening in Jules kitchen....not much I hate to admit. We have continued our day to day attempt at clean eating, and I haven't been super great at planning ahead so when it comes time for the family to eat Grandma has been in charge. Here comes the ghastly confession which has me doing the walk of shame of so often.....I feel like there is a huge blinking arrow above me that says doing the walk of shame...so here goes my confession. Grandma loves a certain large pizza chain and they opened one up here...you can see where this is going can't you....well when it comes time for dinner should I be at the day job still, out mowing the yard, folding laundry, or they just don't like what I am cooking for dinner.....my mother can easily sway my children into ordering pizza from this certain chain store before I get home and have me pick it up. There it is I Jules, advocate for preservative free living, is picking up pizza and I have been so busy that I didn't even mind the occasional break until the girl who answers the phone said you order so often and always get the same thing that I know what you want when I hear your voice thinking I was my mother. Man oh man this is a huge issue for our preservative free way of eating and a huge sign that I need to get my mother through preservative detox as she is a bad influence on my children and I need to do a better job of planning ahead. Well I have picked up the pizza so often that I now have rewards card for said pizza joint in the dash cubby of my truck. It makes me want to barf every time I see it, but some days I choose to pick my battles, eat the preservatives, and enjoy a slight break. There it is folks I am not Supermom, just a busy Mom trying to balance life.

Not everyday is perfect, well most days aren't perfect and that I am ok with because it is the best I can do and tomorrow is a new day which means I get to start over and try to do better.

In my effort to meet in the middle I have tried to mingle the convenience foods my family loves with fresh veggies. So when everyone was complaining about what I was planning for dinner, I knew it was time to pull out something just as amazing as the green box preservative laden pizza, which also means less walk of shame walking for me!

So I would like to share my quick go to snack and although not technically preservative free it is better than the chain stores pizza. I love this as a quick evening dinner or even a Saturday afternoon snack.  When buying the ingredients be sure to check the ingredient labels carefully.....I just looked at the brand of crescent rolls I buy most often and low and behold they have snuck red 40 and yellow 5 plus the host of other unsavory ingredients that you need to be a scientist in order to pronounce. I used them here (only because I am cheap) and loved it but will no longer be buying this brand. The bonus is this has gotten me back to looking at every ingredient list on every manufactured item I purchase and have found some ghastly ingredients in things that have been "improved" or marketed as healthy and natural (warning sirens should have sounded but I must have been sleep purchasing that day...I just call this item my antifreeze ice cream).

Ingredients
1 tube of crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese the soy cheese also works really really well here
An assortment of fresh veggies I like to use the leftover veggies in my fridge


Here I used spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and some bacon leftover from breakfast. I have also used asparagus and turkey bacon which was also just as amazing.

I begin by using my favorite kitchen essential....my mister to spray some olive oil on a cookie sheet. These are the little droplets on the sheet to the right. I unrolled the crescent rolls and push the seams together the best I can. The crescent rolls will not cover the entire sheet and I don't get too excited about it. I then slice the veggies and layer them onto the "crust".

I sure don't mind the sparse amount of cheese on this compared to the chain stores. I am a pizza girl from growing up in the windy city part of the country and for me the sauce has always been a huge part of the pizza experience...yes pizza is an experience. I prefer to use sliced tomatoes in place of sauce to help keep preservatives to a minimum.

After the veggies cover the entire crust I sprinkle the cheese on top of them and then bake the pizza at 325 until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted. Once the pizza is done I slide it off the cookie sheet onto my wooden cutting board to cut the squares. I am very methodical in cutting and make 8 squares but this can easily be cut into smaller sizes for bite sized snacks.

Here is my piece of the final pizza and it is just as fresh tasting and amazing as it looks.

I hope that this serves as a springboard for your own combination of fresh veggies in a super quick meal that may just keep you from sporting the preservative laden pizza chain reward card and doing your own version of the walk of shame!

Epic fail and some Russeeean Roulette is in my future

I am always trying out some new things that seem like a great idea at the time. My downfall is that I usually give myself more credit than I should. Well here it is my fail.....or at least one of them...I have herbs hanging by dental floss in my pantry and then ordered 750 meters of bakers twine....I didn't think to read the length of the rolls just saw all the great colors and thought why not get one of each. I was definitely inspired by all the great herbed olive oils all over pinterest. Man oh man I have got to get my pindiction under control!



Well here is the outcome...a bunch of rock solid frozen chunks of coconut oil with mystery herbs in them. Well not so much mystery herbs as much as I know what I had just not which is which because I sure forgot to label the trays.







What I did to make these great little cubes was cut up fresh herbs and place a few pieces..ok its quite a few pieces into my ice cube trays. Yes these are the same ones I use for my fruit cubes that you can read about here. Once I had the herbs in the trays, I melted some coconut oil; I have really bought into using this in place of butter for so many things, but I still do love my butter.....shh don't tell my doctor he says I have high cholesterol and need to cut out the butter for good.

I would say that the cut up herbs fill about the bottom 1/3 of each cube. Once the herbs are in the trays I melted some coconut oil in a glass jar in the microwave and filled each cube only enough to cover the herbs. Once I had the coconut oil in there I just slid the trays into the freezer. Here is where I caution you to use some tape or make a note of what herbs are in each tray. If not you will have a ton of cubes and not know what is inside them. So right now I have a baggie full of cubes with unknown herbs, so I just grab a few and hope for the best. Note to self label the trays because you can't tell until you begin cooking and I really don't like dill on my beef!

I may like to think that I am supermom but this is a time when I was not on my game but just trying to keep things from going bad, because it isn't a great deal if you don't use it is my food motto!

The Monster that stole my child.....ADHD

I definitely did not plan to write about something so personal, but tonight when I stopped in to visit my mother at work she asked me to talk to her co-worker about his son. As he relayed the frustrations that he has in regards to his son a flood of emotions came roaring back to me, and at that point I realized that people need to know they aren't the only ones fighting this battle, there are people who have been through it, and they want to support and encourage you. There are so many aspects to ADHD and each child is so very different. I cannot stress enough how important it is to find a pediatrician who supports you as the parent and your goals for your child, even if that means you have to "shop" around for the best fit. I want to share what we as a family have endured and learned living life with a very active short attention spanned boy who also has minimal long term memory.

We all remember the sweet baby we bring home from the hospital. The perfect toes, the little smiles, the laughs and your marveling in the bliss. With my sweet boy as he got older the perfection was slowly worn away until one day I no longer knew what had happened it was like someone stole my child and left this wild uncontrollable monster in place. I wanted the perfect little boy back, I had done everything right and felt I deserved a perfect child without any disabilities or imperfections. So when my sweet little boy was first diagnosed with ADHD and put on medication I was blissfully ignorant what that meant; but the medication brought back most of my sweet little boy or at least enough of him that I no longer felt like this child was not mine. The doctor explained to me that the medication would help some of the uncontrollable undesirable behavior, at the time he was 4 years old and in pre-k as an early intervention since there was already something noticeably different about his learning. As the months wore on the ups and the downs were devastating and the behavior didn't stop or even slow down. Dozens of medications, doctor visits, parent conferences, and nasty notes later a "best" medication was settled on and we continued to go about life blissfully unaware. Eventually we were forced to switch doctors due to in-network reasons and the new one was mortified as he hadn't ever seen a case with ADHD as severe as I was dealing with; we were way over the recommended limit for medication based on weight, had a heart condition, and were in a constant up and down cycle. By this time I no longer craved my perfect baby back but had accepted I had a wild child that needed heavily medicated just so he could sit still long enough in school to absorb something. Pretty quickly the doctor told me that we were going to work on a few things to help lessen the hyperactivity without increasing the medication. This is the first time I even thought about medication not being the only treatment, and our journey began.

We tracked the ingredients in everything we ate in order to pinpoint the worst offenders that caused the hyperactivity. This is a long drawn out process and pinpointing the culprits can be tricky, but look for repeat ingredients on the worst days and begin there because good chance these are your problem foods. It is key to have your medical provider's support throughout the process and know that this takes time. For us the worst culprits early on were red food dyes and refined sugar; cutting these out you would think would be easy but it is far from easy. What I learned is that these items are highly addictive and my sweet boy was addicted to them and would go to great lengths to get them. He was not deterred by what was socially acceptable and would eat food off the floor or out of garbage cans in order to get his sugar high. This is what I like to call sugar detox.....it's awful and there is no nice way of saying it. IT STINKS! It is a dark time and you feel like the worst parent on the earth; and people will look at you like you are but you are not the worst you are the best because you truly care about your child enough to make a huge sacrifice for them. You will be emotionally and physically exhausted but the light at the end of the tunnel will come you just have to stick it out.

Eventually we were forced to change doctors again, and by this time I was much better about doing my homework. When your child is 10 years old, 48 pounds and has a list of medical and learning issues it's best to get a doctor who is going to be understanding yet still firm and willing to listen to you as a parent. So I went down the list of medical providers and didn't have to go far because one of the first ones on the list specialized in ADHD, learning disabilities, and nutrition.....everything that I needed wrapped up into a single doctor!

Almost immediately she encouraged a wider spread of items that I limit in the diet including almost all preservatives, sugar alcohols and sugar substitutes, caffeine in all forms, as well as limit the white flour products. So we were off to making more limitations and eating out less. This lead to days upon days of blah food because even spice mixes if you don't watch closely have those pesky preservatives in them.

I have a few confessions: I love sugar! I hate not being able to go out to eat like "normal" people do and I would prefer my child is not running crazy down the street screaming.

So now onto my words of encouragement and advice. My disclaimer here is I am far from an expert on nutrition, please find a medical provider for your child that is a good fit as any changes in diet while on ADHD medication needs to be strictly overseen by a medical professional.

First everyday is an adventure and people will stare and judge you as a parent. You can't change their behavior, you have to move forward.

Don't let people's stares or ignorance stop you, hyperactive children need to get out, experience life, and be active. We love to go to the park and bike ride, but we also have a deep love of the arts and frequent museums. I encourage you to go and take even the worst of hyperactive kids, but find a way that they can be engaged and not completely disruptive to other patrons. We love to go to the Nasher Sculpture Center and always get the guided tour speaker tour if its available; this helps focus my sweet boy where he would otherwise be running wild. We love to go to opening weekend for the exhibits, but this isn't a great idea where there will be throngs of people all wanting to view the exhibit in a serene environment...this doesn't involve running screaming kids. Save yourself the headache and stress and don't go when there will be tons of people there if you can help it. If you do go to an exhibit where there are tons of people don't leave do your best to engage and discuss each piece with your hyperactive child and get them to look for their favorite pieces....it's best here to look up a few pieces on the web before going and let your hyperactive child choose their favorite and then take the image with so they can talk about if they still like their "favorite"  or have a new favorite.

If you are a schedule maker, get past it schedules are out the window! Schedules and routines are not the same. We have a routine where each day is very much like the previous day, but I like to schedule out the weekends all the way down to the time my laundry will be complete. When on road trips I will plan the estimated time we will be at major landmarks...this is good when you want to avoid crossing the Mississippi River during rush hour but the rest of the time you have to let it go. I still like to schedule only 10 minutes at gas stations and don't like to stop for unscheduled bathroom breaks, but I have to crush the schedule at times and just go with it. This could be the hardest part for me!

ADHD children are not bad, they just need to learn some techniques to help control their impulses. Yes you may have to endure screaming in the car during gridlock or the noise level in your house may cause you to wear shooter's muffs; take it from this Mama get the ones with volume control you will thank me later. It breaks my heart when I hear people hospitalizing....well sending them to a residential treatment facility...children because they have ADHD.  Some children need this and it's quite beneficial for them, but if your sending them away because you don't want to deal with it that is just wrong in my very honest opinion.

Diet is your best friend and your worst enemy. Whether we like it or not what we give our ADHD children will affect them in ways we have no clue until we find them standing on the roof of the house. Standing on the roof of the house sure seems like a fun thing to do, and the impulse wins out every single time....until they learn to control it. When you find a diet that works, get everywhere your child will be eating on board because just one person not on board will send you right back to sugar detox. Even years into the diet my sweet boy does things that he shouldn't. You know I have an example for you here. Yesterday while I was not looking it sure seemed like a bowl of sugar with a strawberry (yes just 1) and whipped cream sure would be a great snack to my sweet boy. Yes I still have sugar in my home, I admit I love my sweet tea! So it was a long evening of hyperactivity and what goes up must come down; and down he came crashing into full blown sugar detox mode. There was screaming, kicking, crying, bad attitude and a horrific headache all before getting out of bed; you have to be strong here and get  them out of bed and moving around.

Find or create your support group. I went through a good portion of the sugar detox with only the support of the doctor. My family thought I was being too radical, they have since gotten on board when they saw for themselves the affect of sugar. Sugar detox is terrible and when you have no one to turn to when you are exhausted and just want to give up, yes there will be those times.....a lot of those times, the world will be a very lonely empty place.

Finally realize magazine cover perfect isn't perfect or even reality! Embrace all the things that make your sweet child them including the ADHD. I know this is a lot of words and I am going to give you a perfect example. Back in 2010 after several tries and Frankenstein smile pictures I decided I would take pictures of my children myself, this is a big undertaking with an ADHD child when there are so many stimuli and distractions in public. I was determined to get a great image and after several hours and attempts I had hundreds of images most of which looked like this one. Crazy hair, missing teeth, and running at least he was running toward me and not toward the duck pond that I took this image by. 

Fast forward three years and I have learned that nearby duck ponds and roads are not the best place to take pictures as you never quite know what is going to happen. I had my sweet boy standing by a rock wall and figured I would snap a quick pic before he could move because I sure would love a picture with his amazing blue eyes gleaming. So I ran to where I needed to be and turned and quickly snapped only to get something not very different from before....running once again. I was not pleased but that was it the chance was blown for the day. I had hoped that I would get a great spring picture to replace the one that has been in my hallway for the last 3 years, and at first thought this was a fail. But after awhile I realized this isn't a fail but a huge success he is smiling and enjoying the sun on his face. I may not have gotten the magazine cover sparkly eye photo I wanted but I captured pure spur of the moment joy.

I hope that a bit of history of our personal journey has helped you realize that ADHD isn't the end of the road but the start of a new beginning.

Full circle is where I am at and now a ton of hard work is ahead of me!

When I bought my house in late 2007 there were a bunch of canning jars left behind by the previous owner and I was mortified that I would have to deal with them. So in true Jules style I stuck them in a garage closet and then proceeded to stack crap on them until I essentially forgot they were there. Fast forward five years and my house is a whirling canning factory….well not really a factory but if you are afraid that the olden ways are going to rub off on you if you touch a canning jar I would stay away from my house. I remember canning tomatoes with my mother when I was younger and hated every minute of it…..probably because it was hot in the house and the stove was even hotter and we had no air conditioning so I was a hot miserable whiny mess, not unlike my own children.

So what changed to take me from hating this to embracing and expanding it? I told you I need a pintervention…here is the pin that started it all. Not only is this cheesecake amazingly delicious it last a lot longer once it’s sealed in the jars. This also spurred an interest in going back to the days in my mother’s hot kitchen; well everything but the hot part because I still don’t do intense heat well. So I proceeded to experiment with ways to get all types of food to seal in the jars so I could cook when I had time and still eat really well even when my family is crazy busy.

If the 2 dedicated cabinets aren’t proof enough that I have fully embraced canning then the 300+ canning jars I conned my mother into buying at an estate sale for me while I was working sure has to be some type of proof for you.

This is a very small portion of the jars..there is
 still another box and 3 brown shopping bags full!

 

My vow is to experiment with and share the adventures along the way while I break away from the ho-hum flavors of canning from days gone by. There will be very few shriveled up tomatoes in jars at my house, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try my hand at all kinds of sauces and pastes that I can use well into the winter months and keep my family from consuming the center aisle stuff from the grocery store!

 

 Also since I wrote this 2 days ago during my lunch break just didn't get it online I also purchased an entire root cellar full of jars....but they have food in them that has been there for quite some time. The food is going to definitely go back to the earth in the form of compost. The jars will then all have to be soaked, high heat washed and boiled before I will feel comfortable putting food in them.

Procrastination at it's best...let's improve that last minute budget friendly gift

If you have known me awhile or if you stay awhile you know that I include my parents in my child count….too bad I can’t take them as a tax deduction. My children do like to run wild, yes all four of them….and as most Mothers and Fathers know especially single parents the last thing we are thinking about are special holidays except the really big ones that we can’t avoid. Yes I am talking about Christmas, really how can we forget that day when beginning in July any type of craft store or department will have Christmas decorations out. I am sorry when it’s 100 degrees outside I am really not thinking about Christmas but the fact that it’s coming and I will be required to have the house spotless, fully decorated in and out, a spread of food that will knock your socks off, goodie bags of homemade baked goodies for everyone who visits, and presents for my children is duly noted. Wow typing that was exhausting! So there are always little things that pop up on me that I have to pull out an amazing little something usually on very short notice.

 

So when a friend called me and said I need an amazing budget friendly gift for my Mother’s birthday in a few days, I instantly knew exactly what was in order. So I suggested that his children put their hand prints on a flowerpot and plant some great flowers in it. We have all seen these and most people know how to dip kids in paint and stick them on the side of a flower pot, but I want to show you a few little things that will make it extra special.

 

 After messy hands have made their imprint on the outside of the pot add a few to the inside so whenever anything is planted in the pot there is a constant reminder of sweet little hands.

 

Pots are heavy especially once they are loaded with potting soil and plants. Make these a little lighter by filling the bottom 1/3 (for the traditional tall inverted pyramid shaped pots) with styrofoam. Yes you get bonus points for using the packing peanuts from your latest online shopping spree!

 

 

 

 

 

 




Actually take the time to get a variety of plants for the pot. For years I had blah pots and would drool over my neighbors’ planters which were all amazing. The trick here is to get 3 varieties of plants one of which will be the tallest for the pot, a filler plant, and then a trailing plant. In my example I chose purple and yellow flowers mostly because they are pretty universal and really pop when planted next to one another, thank you color theory classes from my art major days. The yellow flowered plant is the height, the purple flowers are my filler, and then I chose variegated ivy for the trailing plants. Because I always have a problem gauging how many plants are actually in a pot, I used 1 height plant (yellow flowers), 2 filler plants (purple flowers), and 2 trailing (variegated ivy).

 

 

When it finally hits you that Mother’s Day is only 5 days away and you better have a fabulous well thought out present grab your kiddos or the neighbors…shh….I won’t tell and get crafty to make the day extra special for the Mother in your life.

 

Fruit Fly's and how I deal with them

We spend hours and hours searching for the perfect produce for our family, get it home wash it, and put it in pretty bowls and feel like Supermom or maybe just I feel like Supermom. Then within a few days the fruit flies are swarming the kitchen. Not only do these little things annoy the crap out of me, in my mind they are little dollar signs swarming around.....this is worse than sweating because I am too cheap to run the air conditioning in Texas when it's 80 degrees in April. Talking about Texas heat how about this for refreshing!







I don't really deal with fruit flies, I just prevent them from attacking my kitchen. 

So how I do this is basically gather up all my not so fresh produce, in this case strawberries that are too far gone to even freeze for smoothies. I cut off the greenery and depending on how much time I have, with strawberries I will cut out the hard white center, only because my sad personal blender doesn't chop these up at all. I load up as many berries as I can get into the cup and then add a little water to help everything blend well.

I have used this technique for all kinds of berries, and have been known to make combo's like strawberry-mint, raspberry-basil, straight up strawberry, straight up banana...I guess these are my favorites and the ones most commonly found at my house.

Next I just blend away until there are tiny bits of fruit and everything is basically pureed. If your blender is like mine, it doesn't like too thick puree so you may need to add a little more water.

This is the consistency that I typically aim for but if it's thinner I don't get too upset. Just go with it and it will still work out great.

Everyone who thought I was crazy at the last hoarder's sale as I was scooping up the ice cube trays.....who's wishing they had grabbed a few up now.

I pour the pureed combination into ice cube trays trying my best not to over fill any of the individual cubes. I did poorly at this because I had a big chunk of strawberry fall right into the one as I was about to call it full enough. But it's perfect enough. You can see I only had enough to fill 11 cubes, so I just put some water in the blender cup swirled it around and poured it in the last cube (top right if you are having trouble..I can never find the obvious so I figured I would tell the other obvious challenged folks like myself).

Put the tray, or trays in the freezer until they are frozen. Once frozen you can pop them out and store in freezer bags, labeled of course...or you could just walk on the wild side and choose to not label any.

I like to take these out and add them to water on a hot day. I have also been known to throw these into the blender when I am short on fruit for my smoothie. This is a great way to flavor your water without any of those little stick packets...I admit I do have a glass of those little sticks on my counter lingering from before I was trying to be more aware of what I was feeding my family. I can't bring myself to waste these and will use them eventually because you know they never expire, there is a best by date but they are still good by my taste after that date. That should have been the dead giveaway that these should not be consumed by my family that I love, but did I mention I was obviously challenged.


I didn't think this needed a printable recipe link, but if you would like one I will be happy to create one. Just drop me a line and let me know you would like one. I also want to hear your favorite combos to battle the heat, I am going to wait as long as possible before turning on my air conditioning this year!

Small Changes make for some big changes in your life…a collection of some of my favorite “healthy” recipes

In my world there is an unwritten rule that you come when your friends need. So after I picked myself up off the floor and quick laughing after a great friend texted that bread “It’s the friend that likes to get you in trouble and lead you astray!” which kinda sounds a lot like me. Well only when my friends are under a strict no buying rule and I drag them to warehouse sales and other random junk type sales. So she mentioned that she needed to get healthy and I thought oh let me make a list of my favorite things I would like to text her; it's a lot to text so now she gets an entire post! I am not the authority on healthy eating because I am far from skinny, but I do make a concerted effort on most days to keep the preservatives and junk food out of both my own and my family’s diet. I have found that small changes in our food has allowed my son to get from and entire shelf of medication to just a single medication each day. I am far from perfect and will take the easy route if there isn't a fall back plan when life gets rough which means processed food and a backsliding effect or cereal; just because I can eat yellow box cheerios and bananas everyday doesn't mean this is a healthy choice or something my family could stand. So long story short these are some of my favorite go to recipes that keep me from backsliding too often. I apologize in advance for some not so great photos that I took with my iphone, but I wanted to share a lot of recipes at once and already had these photos for my own use, well maybe a lot are from Instagram.

 

My favorite quick breakfast food:

No Cook Oatmeal

½ cup quick oats

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon brown sugar


¾ cup milk

 

Put everything into a glass jar or microwave safe container (if you want it hot) and shake until well mixed and put in refrigerator overnight. In the morning microwave for 30-60 seconds for children and 90 seconds for adults. My secret is I make up a bunch of jars with the oats, chia seeds, and brown sugar in advance then add the milk and any add ins at night.

 

You can make this Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal by adding 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ medium apple cut into chunks.

We also like to add a handful of blueberries or a few fresh strawberries before putting it in the refrigerator.

You can see on the right that there are 5 whole strawberries in the larger jar and none in the smaller. This image is from early on in our kitchen overhaul and you can see how much processed foods I had in my fridge at the time this photo was taken. Remember small changes!

 

My favorite Smoothie:

Adapted from this green smoothie recipe.

Tropical Green Smoothie



1 cup coconut milk
1/2 to 1 cup of yogurt vanilla or plain (I like to use homemade greek yogurt as its thicker and less sugar but any vanilla variety greek or regular is still really good)
3/4 cup pineapple (this works out to 1/2 can of cubed pineapple so I eyball it)
1-2 fresh or frozen bananas (I buy the ones that are reduced then peel them and freeze them)
2 cups spinach
2 tbsp sweetened coconut
2 cups ice
1 tbsp chia seeds (only if fiber has been an issue)

 

 

After several trials with coconut milk we have come to rest on our favorite brand is So Delicious (certified organic); some of the others we have tried are super sweet which the kids love but I just don’t like the sticky sweet smell. Word to the wise put the ingredients in this order in a traditional blender and opposite order in a magic bullet type blender or its difficult to get it blended well!

 

What I do is pour ½ into a glass, then split the other half into glasses for my kids when we are pairing this with a protein source, typically nut butter on some type of whole wheat bread (not the kind you buy in the store but the kind where you see real nuts and grain pieces in it). If I am using this as a meal, I don’t share but drink it all myself.

 

You do get bonus points for drinking this out of a jar using a fun straw which just makes the day oh so much better. No this wasn't Easter time, but I love the bunny straw so much. Don't judge my massive collection of books in the background this is where the magic happens!


 

Our favorite indulgent snack mix:

You know I prefer to make my own cereal, but there are a few varieties that I buy just because they are yummy and I like them…..yellow box cheerios and bananas are calling my name....YUM!

Tyler’s favorite...Sweet & Salty Trail Mix

2 cups rice chex
2 cups peanut butter cheerios
1 cup banana chips

1 cup dried pineapple (I cut these into small pieces before measuring)
1 bag pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower kernels (optional we don’t always add these and it’s just as yummy)

Mix everything together in a large bowl. I then bag this into 1/4 cup snack size baggies as its super easy to over eat this!

 

 

My favorite Chicken Salad:

 

I literally threw this together in my kitchen while looking for an alternative to salad dressing because my daughter loves to drown her leafy greens in ranch dressing.
1 16 oz can chicken breast (I also like to use shredded chicken that I have made, it’s about 1 ½ cups chicken)

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 small fuji apple, chopped
3 stalks of dill, chopped
¼ cup greek yogurt, start with vanilla while you get use to it then switch to plain

Mix everything together and put on top of a large bowl of greens and you will think you are having dessert first when the apples and yogurt flavors co-mingle. You can also use this in a wrap for a great lunchbox treat.

 

This is super easy to vary if you are out of something or have something that is getting to the end of its usability. Remember that it's better to use it than throw it away.

 

I actually made this for dinner tonight using Chobani vanilla yogurt and even my veggie resistant daughter ate it without any griping and even packed some up for her lunch tomorrow. I call that a win!

 

My favorite Salad:

This is a tossup between a couple so I will give you both, neither of which have a catchy name but are high in the flavor department. 

The first I am not sure is actually a salad and is an adaptation from one of my main source for juicing inspiration when I began. The original can be found here.

 

Black Bean Salad





1-2 cups mixed greens (I like this at the office and will use the bagged salad variety that is typically kicking around the office fridge)

1 serving of refried black beans (check your can and be sure you stop at 1 serving)
1 serving of canned or frozen sweet corn (check to make sure you limit yourself to 1 serving and there is no added sugar. Yes I did say no added sugar, trust me it’s there more often than its not)
1 tablespoon shredded cheese (optional but I almost always opt YES)
2 tablespoons salsa


In this the only thing that I have to heat up is the refried beans, the rest I like cold. The mix of warm and cold makes this seem like it’s not a salad.

Strawberry Salad

1-2 cups mixed greens (I like this at the office and will use the bagged salad variety that is typically kicking around the office fridge, see the theme here)

4 ripe strawberries sliced
1 tablespoon shredded cheese (optional but I almost always opt YES)
2 tablespoons poppy seed dressing

I layer the salad, cheese, strawberries, then drizzle the dressing on top in this order everytime…it is an obsession.

 

 

Remember small changes!



For printable recipes click on the name below:

No Cook Oatmeal
Tropical Green Smoothie
Sweet & Salty Trail Mix
Healthy Chicken Salad
Black Bean Salad
Strawberry Salad