Vegetable diet Day 7

This is the last day of the diet. On the seventh day actually we can eat everything what we eat during the first six days: vegetables, as much as we like, 1 cup of plain yogurt, half of pound fruits, 2 slices of whole wheat bread.
This was too much for me. I ate one slice of whole wheat bread for breakfast. I made broccoli-puree for lunch, and I had a cup of yogurt with strawberries for dinner.
I lost seven pounds during the week but that was not the most important. I feel much better. I have more energy, I get up easier in the morning even when I am up until 1 o'clock in the morning and get up twice during the night because my kids need me. And I do a lot more during the day too. My husband asked me one morning: "When do you sleep?" - because I went to bed when he was already sleeping and got up before him and I still was not tired at all.
And this energy give me the strength to do another week. Only this week on the first two days I put some milk in my coffee because the first week I drank it plain black. It was not too good:D Then on Wednesday I started to put some creamer in it too. But I did the whole week the same way like I did the previous one.

And guess what? My friend wants to do one more week. I don't know what to do. Because I really would like to do it. I just don't know if it is healthy to live for three weeks only on vegetables and stuff. And I don't know what I should eat after three weeks of dieting that I don't gain back all the weight I lost. Or what should I start with?
We already did our weekly grocery shopping today and I bought a lot of vegetables again. So I think I am going to stay with the vegetables and I am going to add a little bit of cheese or meat sometimes and we will see.

Vegetable diet Day 6

My breakfast was only a cup of coffee with milk. That was what the diet description said. It was not too much. So around 10 I had to eat a little bit of broccoli-puree. It was not to much either. So I was really hungry at lunchtime:D

My lunch was broccoli-cauliflower-puree. It was really good. I am sure I am going to have this later too not just during the diet.

In the rest of the day I only ate fruit. First I had some watermelon and for dinner I had a fruit plate of nectarine, plump and strawberry. I was thinking to add some watermelon to it but this was enough.

Vegetable diet Day 5

Yesterday - the 5th day - was a little bit harder than I have tought. In the morning I made pancake for the kids. I was okay with that because I am not into pancakes anyway. And I could have eaten a cup of plain yogurt.

At lunch time I had to feed my friend's baby because I was watching her yesterday and it was a little bit of a challenge not to eat what the kids did (usually when I feed the baby I have to feed my two-year-old too, otherwise she eats by herself).

But I got through lunch time and I ate mine. I made green beans with tomato. It was good. Than in the afternoon came a new challenge my friend bought the kids homemade cookies. Oh I love cookies:D But I survived without them.

For dinner I had the rest of the green beans.

A couple a days ago my friend sent me an e-mail that she does not want to stop on Monday. She wants us to do two more "buttermilk" day (drink only buttermilk and water). I said okay.
Now yesterday she told me that she wants to do the whole seven days again. Well I don't know. I really feel good, I lost a couple a pounds too. I do not miss meat, but I miss my evening oatmeal now and my afternoon yogurt.
But I think she talked me into it anyway. But I told her "NO MORE". Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Green Beans with Tomato
Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen green beans
3 medium tomatoes
half of onion
2 garlic cubes
olive oil
salt
pepper
On the olive oil I simmered the onion for about 5 minutes. I put the peeled and cut tomatoes on the onion. When the tomatoes started to let out some water I just put the green beans on it and salt and pepper to taste. I put the lid on and steamed it for about 20 minutes.

DAY 4 Vegetable Diet

This is getting better and better. I feel so good I can not even tell. Okay I am not going to eat only vegetables and fruit for the rest of my life but I will definitely eat more than before.

Today I was allowed to eat half of pound of fruit so I started out with a nectarine in the morning. For lunch I made mushrooms with green peas and a gave a little bit of onion to it, too and I seasoned with salt and pepper.
In the afternoon my snack was two plumps.
Then I got a good recipe from my friend in the afternoon. I put some onion (about a half) on a little bit of olive oil and then I added a tomato. I cooked them for about 10 minutes and I put some paprika on it. I added one green pepper and 2 zucchinis and some salt and pepper. And there was my dinner.

And I drank more than a half of gallon of water.

Vegetable diet continues

Yesterday I enjoyed my two pounds vegetables:D I steamed two heads of broccoli, 2 zucchinis, 3 mushrooms, 2 carrots, onions and a little bit of garlic. I seasoned them with salt and pepper. It was really good and enough for the whole day. And I drank some vegetable juice and more than half of gallon of water.

This morning I was happy that I could it two slices of whole wheat bread because I felt really weak. So I eat one slice of bread and I felt much better.
My morning snack (around 10) was a bag of steamed green beans with garlic and white pepper. I had some leftover, so I ate it for lunch and I had the other slice of bread. In the afternoon I made some broccoli, carrots (much more than yesterday), zucchini, onion and garlic. I steamed them on olive oil and seasoned them with poultry seasoning. That was my afternoon snack and my dinner two. I drank a lot of water today too and one cup of vegetable juice and two cups of green tea.

Tomorrow I can eat one pound fruit and as much as vegetable I like. But I need something new because I had enough broccoli already.

Toys

Since my kids were born I am constantly wondering what kind of toys and how many do they need.
My husband likes to buy toys that the kids like. They go into the store and he asks them what they like and if he thinks that the price is fine than he buys it.
I usually buy them educational toys, puzzles, board games, books. I do my research on the toy and if I think that it is going to be a good learning toy for them then I buy it for them.
We never buy expensive toys though but I think our kids have way too much toys. Sometimes I really like to get rid of some but on the next day they are going to look for them. But at one point we really have to give a couple of them to other kids who still can use them.

Vegetable diet

I just started my one week long vegetable diet today. My friend have talked me into it. She just finished breastfeeding her baby, and she was always on a diet before her baby was born. Even during her pregnancy she did some dieting. She convinced me to do it with her.
On the first day we were supposed to drink almost a gallon vegetable juice and half of gallon water. So far I am doing really good. I do not have a fruit and vegetable juicer (yet) so I bought my juice in the store. But I think it's still going to work. Actually I do this quite often - like once a week. I only drink water and a half of gallon buttermilk.
Tomorrow we can eat 3 pounds of vegetables raw or cooked, we can use some spices and olive oil.
I am really excited and I am looking forward to the week. I just want to try myself:D

Pizza, pizza, pizza....

Every single time when my 2-year-old daughter sees a pizza commercial on TV - so like hundred times a day - she tells me: "Mommy I want pizza!" So I was on a mission to find a really good pizza dough recipe. I looked at hundreds of recipes because first I was looking for something that I can make in my bread machine. I'm not a big dough maker so I needed some "help" from my machine. I only found a recipe which was not for the machine but I still put the ingredients into the machine. Of course it did not come out right. So at the end I still had to knead the dough by hand. And it came out perfect. Since then my bread machine just sits on the shelf because I do all my doughs by hand. It's not that hard at all.

The other day I was making pizza again for my kids because my daughter begged me all week long. And I made little faces of the pizza. I put half-cut peperoni for the eyes, a little piece of green pepper for the eyes, end a little piece of ham for the mouth. The kids loved it.

Pizza dough recipe:
Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar

First I dissolve yeast in warm water and I let it stand for about 10 minutes or until it's creamy.
Then I combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and yeast mixture in a large bowl and I knead it until a stiff dough has formed. I cover it and let it rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile I preheat oven to 350 degrees.
I turn dough out onto a well floured surface and form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. I cover it with pizza sauce, toppings, cheese and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Refrigerator magnets of clothes pins

I really didn't like magnets for the fridge. Probably because I have to take them down every time when I clean the fridge doors and put them back on. But Daddy like them and started to collect them. He got quite a few, but we were always short of them.
So I came up with the idea that I paint some clothes pins, put some magnets on the back and we are going to have great magnets. Now we can hold up all my son's paper from school or anything we want. And they look really good too.

Preschool and homework?

When two weeks ago my son's new teacher told us that they are going to get homework I was a little bit in a shock... I thought he is only 4 and a half years old, he spends seven hours a day in school. When he comes home he needs to play, be with his sister, mommy and daddy who he misses all day. He does not need to learn at home too.
In the first two weeks I realized that these homeworks are not such a big deal, the most of them are coloring pages, line tracing, but we had to found words with "i" in a rhyme yesterday - that was little bit of a challenge.
I do not really know what to think. The first two times it was hard for him - and hard for us too - to get him do it. But today we really had fun. But I still don't know if he really needs it?
When I went to first grade - I was 6 - I didn't know any letters, I didn't know how to read. I know it was almost three decades ago, but it was all right. Nobody expected me to do such things at that early age.
I know that kids these days are smarter than we were at this age. They've got so much more impulse that they just learn faster and more. But does he really need to have homework?

Crayon holder - using oatmeal box and papertowel rolls

I was thinking for weeks now how to make a good crayon holder for my kids. Then last night when I couldn’t go to sleep for a long time came the BIG idea – with two others...

First I thought I was going to use an empty Gold Fish box but in the morning I came across the better solution: Quaker’s Old Fashioned Oatmeal box – round, big, perfect size. But I knew I needed something inside, too to hold the crayons because I didn’t want them just to lay around in the box. I could use any kind of box if it would be good enough for me. But NO, I always need something more organized just like a regular box...

So I came up with the idea to use toilet paper rolls. (I just have to collect them:D) When I was making the project I realized that paper towel rolls are much better for this idea. They are harder, so they are more easier to be cut.

My kids were so happy when I finished it and my preschooler son was much happier to do his homework using crayons out of the "mommy's made crayon holder"...

The cost of this project is closed to nothing... the only thing we need is a little paint, glue and paper... the other things can be found in every household...