The Perfect Margarita

Who doesn't just love the taste of a cool, crisp margarita on a warm summer day? Doing one sugar detox after another for the past few years has left me craving for some good ol' tequila and lime. After reviewing plenty of ideas on how to satisfy this primal craving and stay relatively clean, I've come up with what I believe is THE PERFECT MARGARITA!

I've been making this margarita recipe for just over a year and was inspired to share it when you when I read an article today about red Solo® cups. While I didn't use a Solo®cup, I sure enjoyed my margaritas this past 4th of July!

Kabobs with Thai Sunbutter Sauce

Who doesn't love kabobs?? I know my kids sure do. Must be the small chunks of meat or maybe that it's on a skewer (read: sword for young boys!) ... I don't know why but when we do kabobs, they disappear.

Have I told you how much I hate to cut up raw meat? I do! Particularly chicken. I can chop veggies until the day is done but meat. Yuck! And don't get me started on mixing meatloaf with my hands. EW!

Luckily, I have a sous chef (er, husband) who enjoys the chopping of raw meat to help. Otherwise, I just end up paying more at the store for premium cuts or ask for the butcher to do it for me. Lazy? Nah ... Just efficient!

So, I digress... as usual

Grain-free Waffles

My Grandma had the BEST recipe for waffles. They were amazing!! When I was about 12-14 years old or so, I found the recipe in my mom's recipe box, I dug out this ancient-looking waffle iron (which, now I refer to as "vintage") and tried whipping up a batch. My brother was my taste-tester at time and just fell in love.

These waffles became my signature item for years to come. (Thanks Grandma!) They were SO GOOD that they didn't even need syrup. Nope ... just butter!

100 Days of No Sugar

Today is tax day and it's been 100 days since I pledged to go through a "Whole100"  or 100 day sugar detox (100 day version of Whole30 or 21 Day Sugar Detox programs). Whatever you want to call it, I made a pledge to myself that I would eliminate all sugars from my diet. April 15th was the magic date.

So, how have I done?

I've abstained from consuming all alcohol for the 100 days. A sip here or there...yes, but I have not had any alcoholic beverages since January 1, 2015.

I soared through January doing a 21 Day Sugar Detox. Dropped a few pounds that I had found again over the Christmas holiday.

I blasted through February on a Whole28 (do the math!). Dropped even more pounds. Made it to my lowest mark yet ... Reached the 87 pound mark in my weight loss journey!

March started and I got cocky... arrogant ... busy... stressed...

I refuse to say that I failed but, if I'm going to be black and white about it: I failed. Miserably.

 

How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel and Still Eat Real Food - The Destruction

We are just starting our second week of our kitchen remodel. And yes - we're still eating real food! In case you want to catch up on what we're doing, you can check out my first two posts here and here on our project.

There has been a ton of PROGRESS in just the first week!! The dust as a result of the destruction is starting to drive me a bit crazy. There, I said it!! Of course, I've been taking pictures everyday to keep track of progress.

So, here's the first week run-down and the destruction which ensued.

How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel and Still Eat Real Food - Part 2: Temporary Kitchen

One of the reasons I was hesitant on starting this project is FOOD! When we remodeled our kitchen at our old house, it was pre-kids and we could go out to eat whenever. To be perfectly honest, I didn't have much worries about what I ate. But now, we have two kids - one with a life-threatening food allergy to peanuts - and we are very picky about what food we eat. Not to mention my goals for weight loss and health improvements. Eating out or highly processed crap just isn't an option. Don't get me wrong: We do go out to eat plenty and there are many safe alternatives for us (even in our small town). But, relying on fast, cheap food is not going to make us happy. And we knew that going into in.

Today, I'm sharing with you my temporary kitchen setup for this project. This is my second part in my "How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel" series. In case you missed my first installment, you can read about our initial planning phase here.

How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel and Still Eat Real Food - Part 1: Planning

For the past decade, I've been dreaming about remodeling our kitchen. When we moved into this home, it had been just two years after doing a massive remodel of our kitchen in our old farmhouse. It turned out gorgeous, too. I'd share pictures if I could but they're stuck on an old external hard drive that won't boot up anymore.

Last year we took some steps for financing this project when our home equity line of credit came up for renewal. We decided to go with a full home appraisal with the expectation that we had enough equity built up to be able to fund our project. Sure enough, that was fine. But we just weren't ready to pull the trigger on the project.

After Christmas, we decided it's time to think about our budget, start coming up with design ideas and begin our contractor search. It really helped having done this before because we knew what to expect AND we could build upon lessons learned before.

I decided to document our journey - our survival, that is - of this project. Not only because it's fun to see how kitchen remodels turn out but mainly because I want to share how I'm doing to do this AND STILL EAT REAL FOOD!!

Changing Behavior is Hard Work

Yeah, I know ... I haven't been around much. Honestly - I've been busy. Life - you know - it just gets in the way sometimes! And, I'm just not sure what I want to write about lately. I have a gazillion thoughts in my head lately but 1) getting them down on "paper" just hasn't been easy, and 2) I'm not convinced that the subject is very read-worthy.

But, there is something that I've been thinking about ... a lot actually ... that I figured it's time to just get typing and see what comes out!

So, I'm on this 100 day sugar detox: sort of a 21 Day Sugar Detox Meets Whole30 but for 100 days!! I started it on January 5th and it goes through April 15th. I've been very strict on my sugar detox for the past 16 days. Doing the 3rd (aka, "most restrictive") level which, to me, is more like squeaky clean Paleo eating. In the past, I've lost upwards of 10 pounds in the course of the month when I do this.

But, I'm not this time around. (Yes, I'm weighing myself frequently. Stop the lecture!)

And, while I feel great not having sugar in my diet, it's a little disheartening to not see some of the typical results that I've experienced before. I have to take a closer look at myself in the mirror.

Which leads me to this:

New Year Resolutions

Happy 2015!!

How did you ring in the new year? Did you make any new year resolutions?

We had our typical subdued celebration... It's just the four of us in our pajamas, feasting on seafood and being goofy (silly string fight in the garage!). This year, my kids (ages 8 and 10) asked if they could stay up until midnight. Sure, why not? We have a few more days before we need to get our schedules back in order when school starts. One night up late won't kill us!

As the ball was dropping in New York, my 10 year old asked what resolutions we want to make for 2015. Of course, they don't quite grasp the concept of what a resolution is. And, I know this because they both talked about resolving to get more Skylanders and games for their new handheld gaming systems! Oh boy...