Fresh, Healthy and Yummy!

Kirsten and I are always trying to educate ourselves and do our best when it comes to eating healthy, organic and local. This is an ongoing effort in educating ourselves and trying new things. 

My mom was recently in town and on a trip to the always awesome Target, she bought me Jessica Alba's book, The Honest Life. Jessica has a chapter in the book dedicated to healthy eating and I LOVED it! She suggests making friends with your local farmer and finding the nearest farmers market. Well, I wouldn't say that Nevada is the state where your neighbor is a farmer but I knew that someone had to be growing something in this rock hard soil! I knew of a local farmers market and had even walked the isles of it a handful of times but never with a real purpose. This time I wanted to have a list of staple items that I knew I used on weekly basis as well as a list of questions to ask the vendors I would purchase from. Asking face to face questions is one of my favorite ways to learn.

Fresh 52 Farmers and Artisan Market

I woke up early on Sunday morning and gave my local Fresh 52 Farmers Market a try. It was AWESOME! I have nothing else to compare it to but what made it awesome were the vendors. They were extremely kind and answered all of my questions without making me feel like an idiot! 

Hydroponic Micro Greens, Brussels Sprouts & Garlic

My shopping list included: 

Eggs

 Strawberries

 Kale

Spinach

Cauliflower 

Broccoli

Asparagus 

Green Beans

Garlic

 Yes! That is GARLIC pictured above looking oddly like onions. It's so fresh!

Sprouts (Hydro Greens)

These Hydro Greens were not on my list but their health benefits are outstanding and are now included in every smoothie I make. Check out the health benefits on WebMD's link.  

If you are ready and willing, I encourage you to check out your local farmers market. Grab a friend and make a coffee date out of it. Don't be afraid to start small and try just a few things at first. If you try to buy everything you usually eat all at once you will drive yourself crazy! Baby steps are just fine. 

Charred Brussels Sprouts with Fig Glaze

In honor of those beautiful brussels sprouts I purchased, I plan on making the recipe pictured above. I of course forgot the damn fig jam to make the glaze so I am going to just whip up a cheese sauce instead and serve it with some gluten free penne pasta. I say, "whip up" like I know what I am doing. God bless my husband for always eating what I make and pretending to like it! 

Lindsay and Kirsten signing off "Click"

It's POTTY TIME!!!!!

Life got in the way....sorry its been awhile since we have posted anything!  Besides traveling to beautiful Hawaii and California we are both in the midst of POTTY time!  Yup you heard me right our babies are potty training.  As new moms, we wanted to share with you what our experiences have been, what is working, what is NOT working and all the crap we bought because that's what we do right......by a bunch of stuff that we think we will use but realize that it's not about the stuff you buy but the way you approach this wonderful experience.   YES I said wonderful!  Some of you are probably shaking your head saying I'm full of it but, if we embrace the experience with the kids .......they will embrace it with us when we are all in diapers at 90 years old :)  Get where I'm going with this!!!!

Lesson #1 You Don't Have to Buy out the Store!

$60 later which bought me 1 portable potty, bags, 1 fold up potty seat, wipes, 2 potty seats for the bathrooms, piddlepad and lots and lots of stickers and lots panties!

Lesson #2 What items we couldn't do without!

Have to admit we went a little overboard but noone told me what works and what doesn't.  The question always popped up in our minds, "how do we potty train while we are working out?"  Well let me tell you moms out in the world it can work and we are proof!  The items I couldn't do without are the following:  Wipes, portable potty with plastic bags, extra set of panties /clothes and a piddle pad!  Yup that's it...that's all you need!  It might not seem that easy however it is....we have accident's and that's what the piddle pad and extra set of panties / clothes are for!  It's gonna happen and we certainly can't be neive to it, but if we are encouraging and have the potty ready to go while we are working out, driving, at soccer games, park etc then we are 1 step ahead of having an accident.  

The pictures below are of our beautiful daughters and friends who are all in this together!~  It's potty time, they are encouraging each other and they LOVE seeing how much pee each person does....yup it goes that far!

 

Lesson #3 How did we get started and what worked for us!

Well to be honest what worked for me (Kirsten & Ema) is that we started talking about it before we left for Hawaii.  I really got fed up one day and told Ema,  "I'm done with diapers, we're gonna potty train as soon as we get back from Hawaii." (This was a pivotal moment) Ema responded the next 10 days that "when we get back from Hawaii, no more diapers, potty training time!"  My response for 10 days was ok yes that's right we are gonna do this!

As soon as we got home I loaded up on my $60 shopping spree of potty training stuff and started.  I made a potty training chart (1 sticker for Pee, 2 Stickers for Poop and when she reached 20 stickers she earned a SPECIAL PRIZE).  I also set my microwave timer every 30 minutes and loaded Ema up with liquid and off we went.  Every time the pee pee timer went off we headed for the potty and by the 3rd day she was telling me that she had to go potty.  We are over 1 week into this process and she has only had 1 accident.  She's doing great and she is also so proud of herself and that's exactly what I wanted out of this process.  EMBRACE mommy's you will find what works for you and what doesn't!

Kirsten and Lindsay signing off....CLICK