Still gluten free!

Tuesday

The secret to blogging will be to move on if we miss a day, and not try to catch up.  AJ bought lots of groceries today.  I know there were at least three stores involved. Not sure what he spent but the food he made was super tasty.

Krisitn ate
egg
3 cups coffee
leftover chicken wild rice soup
crackers
carrots
diet coke
more crackers
burger patty with cheese stuffed inside
carmelized onions
beets
fries
fudgesicle
red wine

Kristin Spent
$o.oo

Big Day

"Ice out" is always a celebration at our house, even when it's more than five weeks late. To top it off, a Christmas leftover is on the menu, another big deal, especially when it was a lovely gift from two of the boys. Amanda kindly patted us on the head, said you kids have fun and sent us on our way. If we had tea, we could have a tea party on the ceiling!

Kristin ate
3 cups coffee with cream
Scrambled eggs with veg and cream cheese
2 slices bacon
Corn chips and cheese
1/2 cup almonds
Chunk of cheddar
2 diet cokes
Bubble water
3 pieces pizza
Fudgesicle
Sugar free jello and whipped cream
Red wine

Kristin spent $0

Aj ate

Scrambled eggs with veggies cream cheese
3 coffee with cream
2 bacon
1/4 cup trail mix
Corn chips with cheese and salsa and sour cream
Vitamin water
4 pieces pizza
Red wine
Diet root beer

Aj spent
$30.16. Target. Shampoo, deodorant, milk, pudding, raisins, applesauce
Almonds, vitamin water

Loony

Today in my class we had beach day. The kids bought towels for "laying out."  we made sandcastles with blocks and wrote poems and painted pictures.  We did it just for fun.  It felt like we needed to step out of the routine a little bit.  Also, when we had a snow day back in late fall, the snow started falling and didn't really stop until we started planning beach day.  It seemed possible, but a little loony, I'll admit, that our classes snow day made winter start.  Was it really so loony to think that a beach day might have the same effect?  Maybe not.  It turned 70 degrees that same day.

Later, delighted with a visit from Auntie Karen who was down to see her leg doctor and watch the ice go off the lake, we heard and saw the biggest, loudest loons ever.  EVER!  I went outside to take pictures because to my naked eye the loon looked like the size of a large deer.  The camera didn't do it justice, but it was huge.  And loud. Amanda and Thomas took a long canoe ride and saw lots of loons close up.   They looned away all night long, too.

What with our voracious snacking (see below) and Karen's cruel refusal to spend the night in a gluten-free household (just kidding everybody- she's still avoiding stairs and kindly hoped to leave me free to work on my stuff), we didn't get around to eating dinner until around 9:00.  But it was delicious.  Thanks to AJ for cooking (again)

Kristin ate:
scrambled eggs with mushrooms and tomatos
3 cups coffee
sugar free applesauce
gluten-free frozen coconut milk and mango treat
beef tritini
carrots
diet coke
almonds
3 handfuls of crackers
a piece of colby
2 more diet cokes
latte
(I was sooooo sleepy!)
2 amylus chicken sausages
sweet potato fries
brocolli
healthy choice fudgesicle
2 pieces extra dark chocolate

Kristin Spent
$10.19 Nook Book  (Lord Peter Views the Body)

AJ ate
scrambled eggs with mushrooms and tomatoes
2 cups of coffee with cream
diet rootbeer
15 carrots
4 domino sized pieces of cheese
1/2 cup trail mix
burger tritini
latte
sausage
brocolli
sweet potato fries
2 squares chocolate

AJ spent
$0.00
but yesterday neglected to mention a 32 oz diet coke from SA $.75

St Patricks day deliciousness

Long, long day with delicious interludes

Today AJ packed me the best lunch, I guess.  I got the last of the beef tritini, which is a layered spinach, cheese, mushroom and beef business that tasted like lasagne without all of the pesky noodles.  He had a gas station apple.  Dude.  

It was a long day, with the school council meeting that used to include pizza luce deliciousness but now has some volunteer food to tide us over til we get home for dinner.  At 8:30.  

What made the whole thing was workable was my delicious beef tritini lunch (there probably is no such thing as beef tritini.)  And a side trip to Kawalski's to get a nice little handcrafted salad.  With crab.  And pickled beets.  Oh baby, oh baby.

Kristin ate:

egg

3 cups coffee with cream

beef tritini

diet coke

1/2 cup almonds

a protien bar from Dawn's snack box.  gluten free.

A lovely salad with spinach, beets, crab, chicken, steak, egg, and peppercorn ranch.

diet coke.

cheese and crackers

sugar free chocolate pudding

I might eat a fudgesicle in a little while.  Healthy choice.

Kristin spent-

$11.48  2 salads, 2 cokes from Kowalski's.

Long day little lunch = bad

Did not have much to Pack for lunch today so stopped at about 2:30 and bought an apple. So far not so bad then stopped at fleet farm to buy chicken supplies at about 4:30 still pretty starving and decided to buy some trail mix for a little snack. Once on the road had a small handful but then traffic slowed to 10 mph for about 15 minutes then came to a stand still. Hour and half later got home with and a quarter of the 24 oz bag of Trail mix gone ( 550 cal). So here is what AJ eat today;

Egg
2 cups coffee
20 gf cracker
Ounce of cheese
Bottle of squirt
6 cherry tomatoes
A baby belle cheese
Protein bar
Apple
Cup of trail mix
Burger tritini


Need to cut the junk out so I don't feel like I'm starving. Lesson learned? Tomorrow is another day time to get back on track

AJ spent

0.55 apple
$35 chicken feed
$7 grow light
$5.78 trail mix

Ice is looking pretty mushy tonight may be gone after tomorrow.

More than a month of eating and spending later...

Today my lovely Amy Sonquist sent me a facebook message that said "Remember when you used to blog?  I miss it!"  I miss it too.  I can't explain why we suddenly stopped, except that the week before spring break was gruelingly busy and I lost my groove.  I'm totally a groove person.  It also has to be Kristin initiated, because AJ will happily ride along, but he is not going to be the driver of the writing part.  And even though he is back at work, the mighty hunter has been the menu-driver for the family.
So here's what the blog did for us so far.

We are now totally wheat free and have been for... about 6 weeks, with a tiny scalloped potato and shortcake backslide on Easter.  We are also sugar free, mostly, and mostly junky carb free.  AJ has had the best result health-and-weight wise.  He is off allergy medicine, has no itchy skin, no tummy trouble, or achy bones.  Twelve pounds down.  This is the first time EVER AJ has in ANY WAY moderated his diet.  So, yeah.  Amanda and I are feeling great too.  Her pants slid off today.

The no spending groove continues, although I have relaxed a bit, have bought a bunch of nook books and some itunes songs.  Not so much else though.  Being a double income family again has been nice, but we are trying to be careful.  Planted seeds indoors for the garden.  Still little-to-no eating out.

The writing groove continued for me; probably the real reason I neglected the blog is that I was working hard on my thesis and thank god, have sent chapters 1-6 to my advisor.  Now in the midst of revisions.  I have ordered my cap and gown and will graduate in June.  Boom.  Tonight, not working on anything but this.  AJ is at the boy's Awana's musical, and I hope is filming it.   I got home late from my afterschool job and decided to stay in the chair, watch the sopranos, and ...yeah.  That's about enough.

Here's what I ate:
egg
3 cups coffee with cream
1/2 cup almonds
green salad
tater tot hot dish (homemade mushroom soup)
diet coke
diet rootbeer
a delicious beef, spinach and cheese casserole
healthy choice fudgesicle

I spent
$0.00

I'm hoping AJ will post after he's done at church.

Conflictedli

So AJ has embraced the wheat free life style.  He has been to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Cub, Costco and Linden Hills Coop looking for ingredients like coconut oil, xanthum gum and shiritaki noodles.  He made a chocolate pie (that might as well be a coconut chocolate pie) from the wheat belly cookbook that was delicious, but coconutty, which I am trying to learn to love  The problem is that each portion of the pie is 438 calories.  I mean, come on!  That's quite a piece of pie.  There are no ingredients that are supposed to cause a glycemic spike, and no carbs that aren't nuts, but geez!  That's a lot of calories!  Tonight I decided to leave the pie to AJ and just have my regular 100 calorie fudgesicle.
I'm conflicted.  It's hard for me to believe that a 400 calorie piece of pie can really be ok to eat.  I'm pretty sure the no wheat thing is a good idea, but wondering why no one is losing any weight.  Wouldn't it be better to skip the xanthum gum and cococut flour and just eat delicious meat and vegetables?

Kristin Ate
irish cheese ( 3 small slices_
handful almonds
3 coffees with cream
salad with pickles, olives, salami, celery
2 diet cokes
2 leek and morel cheese pieces
handful almonds
celery with peanut butter
corned beef
cabbage
1 tiny potato
asparagus
carrots
red wine

Kristin Spent 
$0.00

AJ ate

1/2 grapefruit
slice of German pancake
celery
olives pickles
2 slices almond crust pizza ( That finishes it off)
32 oz diet coke
piece of cheese
corned beef
cabbage
small piece of potato
carrots
asparagus
red wine
slice  of choc cream pie

AJ Spent
$0.75 diet coke
$11.28 small bags of xyilitol, coffee, xanthum gum, coconut flour

Meat and Vegetables

It's the day after St. Patrick's, but as a non irish family, we feel obligated to celebrate out of respect.  No wheat-based green beer this year-  We stuck to baily's irish cream.

Weekend News

The best thing about Friday night pizza is the leftovers it provides to enhance my Saturday eggs!  We also went mall walking and to trader joes, whole foods and cub and costco looking for the magic ingredients that will let us eat low carb, wheat free bread and pizza crust. And chocolate pie.  My thinking is that those things are a big distraction and we need to eat meat and vegetables, and that's it.  AJ agrees with me, and then bakes a wheat free chocolate pie to seal the bargain.  So far, little to no weight has been lost.  Aj has lost a solid 5 pounds

Saturday Kristin Ate
scrambled eggs with carmelized onions and mushrooms
3 cups coffee with cream
cottage cheese
carrots
celery
diet coke
handful raw almonds
tuna with egg and mayo
fudgesicle

Saturday Kristin Spent
$10.00 Nook Book

Sunday Kristin Ate
Wheat Free German Pancake (really good)
St. Joseph's syrup (sugar free)
3 pieces bacon
handful almonds
slice cheese pizza no wheat
diet coke
bubble and squeak (mashed potatoes and cabbage)
boiled cabbage
roasted carrots
1 amy's chicken sausage
salad
no wheat, no sugar chocolate cream pie with whipped cream
bailey's irish cream on ice.  (yum)

Kristin Spent 
$0.00

Saturday AJ ate

scrambled eggs with carmelized onions and mushrooms

3 cups coffee with cream

mixed berries with cream

2 slices almond crust pizza

tuna with egg and mayo

1/4 almonds

Saturday AJ spent

$21 Sheets for amanda's bed JCP credit

$28.44 Trader Joes  liq stevia, shamrock plant, almonds, coconut oil, coconut milk, can of coconut milk

$16 whole foods 2 bags of shihtoki noodles, can of zenia, organic coconut, St josephs syrup

Sunday AJ ate
3 strips bacon
1/2 grapefruit
german pancake, wheat free st joseph's syrup
3 cups coffee
slice of pizza with goat cheese and onions
Bailey's on ice
diet coke
handfull almonds
amy's sausage 1 1/2
2 servings bubble and squeak
roasted carrots
salad
chocolate pie, wheat free
small coffee

Sunday AJ Spent
$12.38 Cub for 2 cans coconut milk
yogurt
green pepper
tomatoes

Another Try at Pizza

In our quest for better health, and with the promise that extra weight would just, you know, fall off suddenly, we have embraced the Wheat Belly lifestyle.  Also, it's a great way to save money.  No donuts, no bagels, no way to eat out much,
Well, last week AJ made the wheat belly pizza, which was pretty tasty, but not exactly pizza.  Amanda almost cried.  There was a bunch of mushy cauliflower under the pizza toppings.  Kind of like expecting pizza and getting ...I don't even know how to describe it.  It's just that we had gotten used to such wonderful pizza.  Sigh.
So  tonight, I stopped at Barnes and Noble and bought the Wheat Belly Cookbook, which was attractive and full of really wonderful sounding recipes, two for pizza crust.  We chose the one with yeast, for that "yeasty flavor that some miss." AJ stirred it up, and put it to rise, but as far as we could tell, there was no rising.  He made a double batch out of habit, but we all only at a piece, or a little more.  It was tasty, but like everything else, super nutty.  And very rich.  The crust was like a big nutty cookie.  Trying to avoid the junky carbs, but we may have to break down and go for a pizza crust that is more like, well, pizza crust. And doesn't make me feel like I just ate a big load of nuts.
At least this time Amanda didn't cry.

Kristin Ate
Cheese
almonds
2 coffees with cream
lovely salad with more cheese
handful almonds
more cheese
salad
1 piece pizza with nutty crust that overwhelmed the goat cheese, mushrooms and caramelized onions.
white wine
fudgesicle

Kristin Spend
$45.00 at BN on books, Wheat Belly and a Marzano book about translating research into practice.

Thursday Kristin Ate
Basted egg
2 coffees with cream
stir fry left overs
carrots. lots of carrots
diet coke
burger patty
brocolli
potato chips
diet coke
fudgesicle

Kristin Spent
$o

Wednesday Kristin Ate
1/2 bowl flax cereal with milk
2 coffees with cream
salad with cheese
avocado
carrots
chicken stir fry with asparagus and ginger
a little fried rice
fudgesicle

Kristin Spent
$0.00

Traditional Anniversary Tummy Ache!

Every since I went into labor on our anniversary and eventually produced Ben Sonquist, 10 lbs, 2 oz., we have set the bar pretty low for anniversary fun.  Always a birthday party to make it festive, and to take away the pressure to have a perfect, romantic and thoughtful anniversary.  So we've enjoyed our anniversaries more than most people, I bet.
This year's tummy ache came courtesy of Benihana, where you can get a whole lot of meat and vegetables, stay wheat free, and even have a moderate amount of starch if you love fried rice.  Which we do.  We did enjoy the complimentary Haagen Daas as well, which netted  way too many carbs for the day, but what the heck.  It's our anniversary!  And Ben's birthday.  So, happy, happy, happy!  Burp.

Kristin Ate
Scrambled Eggs with cheese and mushrooms
3 cups of coffee (including a surprise latte from Kathy Shipp!)
leftover cabbage and sausage
cheese and celery (left over steak was too tough)
diet coke
handful raw almonds
The Teppenyaki Trio (steak, chicken, shrimp)
fried rice
salad
clear soup
zucchini
onions formerly in the shape of a volcano
a scoop of vanilla haagen das
green tea
red wine

Kristin Spent
$ 39.00 (Two birthday presents)
$ 126.02  (Benihana for 3.)

AJ eat
Scrambled Eggs with cheese and mushrooms

cheese, celery and steak

2 coffee with cream

diet coke

Tuni Hibachi fried rice salad clear soup zucchini and mushrooms

choc ice cream

AJ spent

13.14 wine

4.24 flowers

Note skinniness!

Party Food!

Saturday steak

Fancy anniversary eggs

Dreaming of Benihana

We've been eating such amazing food.  Really.  I don't use that word lightly.  But the eggplant casserole.  The tender steak.  The flavorful asparagus.  The succulent cabbage.  It's hard to complain about missing a little starch, a little bread, a pizza crust that is not made of cauliflower. #mushy.

Still, tomorrow we go to Benihana, to celebrate our anniversary and Ben's birthday.  I can't wait to eat that rice.  Oh baby.  I'm going to have shrimp, scallops, and fillet, not the regular steak.  I won't regret the food OR spending the money.  I am dreaming of Benihana, and my dreams come true tomorrow.


Kristin Ate
basted egg, right out of the pan.  (it was not a yard egg, and I could tell)
2 cups of coffee with cream
salad with steak, great veggies, 1/2 avocado and delicious cheeses
1/2 cup almonds
more almonds
diet coke
amy's chicken gouda sausage and cabbage
(it was cut up, I probably ate 2 sausages total)
cottage cheese
fudgesicle

Kristin Spent
$0.00

AJ eat

basted egg on gf bread

2 cups of coffee with cream

 steak, veggies, 1/2 avocado and delicious cheeses

power bar

Amy's chicken Gouda sausage and cabbage

cottage cheese

yogurt with choc yogurt sauce

almonds

coke

Weekend News

How does it happen that we don't post every day?  It's one of my favorite things to do, and I think it really helps us to write down what we eat and spend.  Well, on Friday I slept in my chair until I went to bed at 9:10.  Saturday was a big day; studying, writing, shopping, and a fundraiser in uptown.  Was that ever fun!  The Emerson school fifth graders are getting ready to go to Puerto Rico, and had a sweet silent auction with free wine and food.  It was a treat to see Amy, Ben, Ted, Stephanie and all of their boys.  My girl looked super-beautiful.  We bid on lots of stuff but we only won one thing- a gift card for Common Roots.  We paid less than it was worth.  I bid on way too many things, and it scared me a ltttle bit.  If I had won everything, that would have cost me about a hundred bucks.  Naughty, but for a good cause.  As it was, some lady swooped in and outbid me by a buck on all but one item.  What a cheapskate.  If I had known, I woulda done the same thing to her, and then I coulda had my bowling night at Elsie's and my nesting Russian doll.  Oh well.  It's for the best.

Friday

Kristin Ate
flax cereal with milk, stevia and cinnamon (holy cow!  yummy!)
2 cups coffee
eggplant casserole
carrots
cauliflower crust pizza (crust ick, the rest mushy)
fudgesicle
lots of almonds
red wine

Kristin Spent
$0.00

AJ eat
2 slices gf toast
3 cups coffee with cream
power bar
fuze
chicken breast
cashews
almonds
dark choc yogurt pudding
glass of wine

carrots

cauliflower crust pizza 

fudgesicle

lots of almonds

red wine

Saturday

Kristin Ate
2 cups coffee
bacon
eggs
tomato
spinach
tuna bowl (tuna with mayo and veg, heated, with cheese)
diet coke
almonds
7 carrots
3 cheddar cheese
fudgesicle
red wine

Kristin Spent
$20.00 gift card common roots (fundraiser)

Sunday

Kristin Ate
2 cups coffee
eggplant casserole with an added egg
almonds- 1/2 cup
diet coke
steak
asparagus
salad
fudgesicle

Kristin Spent
$0.00

eggplant and accidental agave

So a lovely friend brought some almond-based gluten free cupcakes for me, Amanda and Adam.  She said they were almond flour, chocoate, agave, dairy free, etc.  I ate it right up, and then I thought, oh, agave.  That's sugar.  I guess I was thinking "aloe." Which my dad used to drink.  But it was an accident, and a tiny but exceedingly delicious cupcake.  With no wheat.  So, yeah.
For dinner, AJ made the three-cheese eggplant casserole from the wheat-belly cookbook.  Oh em gee.
It was really good.  I mean really.

Kristin Ate
scrambled egg with spinach and cottage cheese
2 coffees with cream
emergen- c
beef and cabbage
carrots
3 handfuls of almonds
diet coke
three cheese eggplant casserole
brussel's sprouts
avocado
1 square dark chocolate
healthy choice fudgesicle

Kristin Spent
$35.some odd cents, Target, 10.00 on balloons and tissue at target (about- all on clearance), notebooks for AJ's pocket, 2 boxes hair dye so we could get the $5.00 gift card.
$2.36  2 diet cokes MacDonald's

AJ ate
egg with spinach and cottage cheese
3 coffees with cream
apple
2 handsfull cashews
3 cheese eggplant casserole
brussel's sprouts
avocado
fudgesicle

AJ spent
$48.89 gas
$200 TCFU Visa
$21.-- costco, eggplant, cream, almonds