Whole30 Challenge Meal Ideas Weeks 2-3

Tomorrow will mark the end of week 3 of my Whole30 Challenge. I am surprised it has gone by so quickly. I am completely thrilled with the place I have arrived in just three short weeks. I have found there is an initial knee jerk reaction when discussing food choices with people and my opportunity for discussion is limited because of that knee jerk reaction. Food is linked to lots of emotions and holding onto, which I very easily relate to. Right now I am in the WOW THIS IS AMAZING LET'S TALK ABOUT FOOD stage of Whole30 and I love when I find others who want to openly talk about how they eat.

So what have I been eating? Fresh food is the simplest answer. If it comes in a package (other than say, berries) I'm not eating it. Packaged and processed foods haven't touched my lips in 20 days.

 BREAKFAST Aka Meal1:

 Yes salad for breakfast. That's one of the biggest changes I've made, craving greens at Meal1 (saying Meal1 helps avoid the common pitfalls of what your brain thinks the first meal of the day should be). Arugula, avocado, sliced almonds, raspberries, blackberries, coconut shreds. Olive oil and balsamic drizzle. My absolute favorite! 

 Greens in with my eggs, fresh salsa, avocado, and sweet potatoes. 

 Baked grapefruit, simply sprinkle with cinnamon, almonds, and shredded coconut. 400 degrees, 20 mins. Absolutely divine, I've also enjoyed it for dessert.

Simple enough, sweet pots, greens, and fresh salsa. Makes me content. 

LUNCH OR DINNER Aka Meals 2 or 3:

 Uncured ham, turkey, olives, artichokes, roasted peppers, rested on a bed of lettuce. 

Turkey meatloaf baked in cabbage leaves! My brilliant idea. 

The turkey meatloaf, green beans, salad. Notice proportion here, ALL THE VEGES, some protein. That's my favorite style. 

The Green and Grains bar from Whole Foods, the slamming deal of $4.99. I chose spinach and kale and skipped the beans and grains! Tons of veges and my favorite, cashew cream sauce. A real treat.  

 Arugula, tuna, Bubbies pickle, olives, tomato, cucumbers, olive oil, and vinegar. 

This was a left over lunch, broccoli, sweet potatoes, spinach, zucchini. Watermelon and uncured turkey. 

 Spaghetti squash, local grass fed beef meatballs, tomato sauce, fresh made slaw with avocado. I've really come to dig spaghetti squash, we used it this past week in a curry as well instead of noodles. I don't miss the real thing at all. 

This was a dinner at LarkBurger in Boulder. We ordered ours bunless, with the truffle aioli as it didn't contain any dairy or things from our avoid list. Side salad, I opted for no dressing because it was either ranch or soy based (I'm not eating soy right now). 

That's a pretty good look at how I've been eating. My body has responded incredibly.

Here's a glimpse into Week 1 with more Whole30 information. 

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Eat Play Love's GMO Roundup: Debunking Common Pro-GMO Myths

The Alarming Truths About GMO video is a part of the Label It Washington Proposition I-522 which is going to vote in November 2013! I personally enjoy how many of the pro-GMO bullet points are directly addressed and debunked. This is the first in a weekly post series summarizing and linking through to articles I read on GMO crops and labeling initiatives happening around the country!



Accompanying article for more information:
Research Reveals Previously Unknown Pathway By Which Glyphosate Wrecks Health

Let Me Count The Ways, Mom

Mother's Day always seems to pry open the floodgates into the memories I keep tucked away from my childhood. My mother gave birth to 3 boys in 4 years and I came along much later, when the youngest of my brothers was five and a half years old. In the majority of my childhood memories, I find myself by my mother's side. My brothers were school age when I was a baby and as the reel plays over and over in my mind, I am always my mother's sidekick.

My mother had a very natural way of making me feel special as a child. When I recall the simplest of gestures, they always bring a smile to my face. Sometimes it was how she'd press a penny into the palm of my hand and nod to get a handful of Chiclets gum from the machine on our way out of the Italian Market. Or how she'd always leave a bowl of rice aside for me when she made stuffed peppers, so I could enjoy it with sugar and milk. Every birthday cake came from her oven. I don't believe one night passed when my mother wasn't there to tuck me into bed. There were countless times she did without something, so she could use the money to provide for us. Every school performance my eyes nervously searched the crowd to find my mother, who was always smiling back in a reassuring way, basking in the glow of our achievements. I'll never forget the moment she buttoned me into her wedding dress, on my wedding day, 35 years after she gracefully wore it when marrying my father. Even into adulthood and 1,800 miles between us, she has remained by my side.

And now? My memories have transformed in ways I never quite imagined, as I experience my mother become Nana to my girls. The greatest gift I have given my parents is the gift of being grandparents. Their spirits are so vibrant in the girls' presence. I have the joy and great fortune to watch my mother give unto my girls those small moments that I know will leave an everlasting impression upon their childhood.

On this day, home in Colorado basking in the joy of being a mother, I know my mother is right by my side. Thank you mom, I wouldn't be half the woman I am today without you.

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Enough is Enough! Whole30 Challenge, Week 1

Sometimes the ball starts rolling with a pair of jeans that don't easily button. My mind quickly reasons that they must have accidentally been placed in the dryer, of course shrinking them a bit. Truthfully the dryer excuse doesn't quite answer why my shirts, heck even my underwear, aren't quite fitting the same either. I go through weeks of mental torture, avoiding mirrors, wearing leggings and dresses, or the Boulder staple stretchy yoga pants. I am well versed in the typical avoid, avoid, avoid behaviors until one day, I pulled the scale out from under my bed. I dropped all of my clothes to the floor and stepped on with my eyes closed. My right eye opened first, peaking at the number just above the tips of my toes.

A number, I was finally ready to digest. I wrote the number down on a piece of paper, knowing there was no way I would allow it to grow any larger. I will admit, it made me sad, but it also was the swift kick in the ass I needed to motivate myself to change my bad habits. 

I started trying small ways to change my habits, like only putting one tablespoon of Torani Vanilla Syrup in my coffee in the morning, instead of two. Or eating an egg sandwich with one slice of bread, instead of two. Huge effort, huh? The numbers on the scale weren't budging. I think one day I lost 1/2 a pound and stepped on the scale two days later to find it back to the original number. 

A few days after my half hearted attempts at changing my diet, a friend mentioned to me the name Whole30 and the book associated with the website, called It Starts With Food. So I went home, put the book on hold at the library and start poking around on the website, which happens to be full of tons of great information. I have a conversation with Josh, share some of the basics of Whole30 with him and he quickly agrees to jump on board. 

We started the program on Saturday and haven't looked back! So what is Whole30? Basically it's committing to 30 days of eating whole foods, it has also been associated with the Paleo Diet.      

No grains

No sugar

No legumes

No alcohol

No dairy

No white potatoes

No processed foods

If you were to look at my plate for a meal, 1/2 would be vegetables, there would be small serving of fruit, a small serving of healthy fat (like avocado), and then about a palm sized amount of lean protein. Boom! That's it. I've had an incredibly successful week on Whole30. I've attended a birthday party, book club, celebrating a soccer goal with my girls at an ice cream shop, and not once did I break from my commitment to Whole30. If you do have a slip up, the calendar resets and day 1 starts the very next day. Even though it is NOT encouraged by the creators of Whole30, I've been weighing myself. I needed some reinforcement, coming from such a defeated space. 

The Whole30 program agrees with my body very well. I don't feel hungry at all, I am not craving sugar (which is very out of the ordinary for me), and I have tons of energy. I started riding my bicycle again when the weather warmed up and I've been averaging about 10 miles a day in the saddle. Two weeks ago, I didn't get out of bed until 10 am. Day 3 of Whole30, I was out of bed and cycled 10 miles before 10am. The difference is that dramatic. 

Going into week two, my energy level is up. I remember this feeling clearly from doing my annual Whole Foods cleanse in January. I will be posting photos of my meals in the next couple of days, if you are interested in seeing what amazing foods I've been eating. 

I feel like this experience may just be a game changer, opening up a new way of eating for me! 

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Our Nintendo Wii U Commercial Experience

Back in March I was contacted by an ad agency that works with Nintendo. What felt like moments later,  my entire family was on a conference call with the creative folks behind an ad campaign they had in mind for the Wii U. A few days later I received an email asking us if we wanted to fly out to Seattle to shoot a commercial for Nintendo. We happily agreed. Our entire family was flown to Seattle and we spent a day filming and getting a red carpet tour of Nintendo of North America's headquarters. To say I was giddy about this experience would be an understatement. I've always been a Nintendo fan girl and it all started when I was 12 years old. If someone told me decades later I would be standing in Nintendo, as a special guest, to film a commercial I probably would have laughed off the notion!

I soaked in the entire experience and realized how incredibly lucky and special it was for us to have this as a part of our family's history. When we walked in the doors, all of our names were displayed in the lobby on a huge screen, welcoming us. During part of our tour, we were allowed to shop at the Nintendo employee store, it was amazing like a small version of Nintendo World in NYC, our names were even displayed in there! We ate at the Mario Cafe, rubbed elbows with the creative geniuses behind Nintendo (hello, even more amazing). I must confess, when they were filming us leaving, Mario was there holding the door for us, waving goodbye and I was brought to tears. Those were tears of gratitude and happiness.

A couple of weeks later, we were contacted once again and told our footage was selected to be used in a commercial campaign!!! After I got over the initial shock of that news, I couldn't wait to see the commercials. Not more than a week later I started getting texts, messages on Facebook and Twitter from friends so excited that they saw our family in a Nintendo commercial while watching Hulu!!! One was even during Jon Stewart and that almost made me faint!  I also love to play Words With Friends and apparently the commercial is playing on there as well. I never did get to catch the commercial "live". I tried for quite sometime to see it on HULU, but it was a real life needle in a haystack scenarios. So many friends were happy for us, it made me happy. We've had an overwhelming positive response to the campaign. The number of times people took time out of their day to tell me I had a beautiful smile brought me to tears. They loved the girls and how truly excited they were for the experience.

Being a part of Nintendo's history, made me proud as well. Even though we aren't considered gamers in that community, we most certainly are casuals. Nintendo is a part of our family's experience and I love experiencing the Wii U with my daughters! I truly wouldn't have it any other way, the WiiU brings us together for special family time, we learn how to work as a team, work how to embrace our competitive nature, and laugh a ton.

Nintendo has truly changed our lives, I am forever indebted.

Here's the 30 second commercial:



Nintendo also produced a 2 minute 30 second video for their website. It is hosted on their site, so you have to click through and watch it there. I hope you enjoy!

Wii U Videos, The Haskins Family 

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Disclosure, I was not paid by Nintendo to write this blog post, nor asked to do so. We were compensated for our trip to Seattle and for our work filming the commercial. This post is simply to share our experience! 

Fresh Thymes Eatery, Join Boulder's Community Supported Restaurant!

Countless times a month I find myself at 4pm in the center of Boulder, wishing there was a healthy marketplace to quickly run in and grab a meal for my family. We are all well versed into the overwhelming feeling of running into Whole Foods becoming way more effort than one can muster, but the take out options at restaurants just leave us feeling disappointed. Granted Boulder has a such a bountiful restaurant scene, but there's truly a huge gap between the casual dining market and us health conscious consumers. Finally, a new culinary concept is about to shake up the food scene in Boulder.

Enter Fresh Thymes Eatery!

Christine Ruch is an amazing chef that has dedicated her life to creating nourishing meals that seamlessly combines bright and delectable flavors with high quality ingredients (cue: GMO free, organic, sustainable, allergy friendly). Christine is not only a chef, but a teacher of whole food nutrition and food allergy awareness, which has given her this incredible depth and wisdom into how food affects our body. To top off that knowledge, Christine has a chef's palate like no other I've ever experienced. To describe her cooking as full of flavor is truly an understatement. Christine combines the freshest ingredients with flavors that easily entices our taste buds! I have no hesitation in telling Christine that what she does in the kitchen is true brilliance.

Can you feel the clouds parting and the suns rays shining down? I can.

Beyond her wisdom in the kitchen, Christine wants to make her food available to a diverse customer base. When coming up with the Fresh Thymes Eatery concept, she decided to venture into the Community Supported Restaurant (CSR) model which is similar to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) which has flourished in the past decade. A CSR gives consumers the opportunity to invest in what we value. We truly want to know where our food is coming from and we want to trust what is in our food, which is hard to find even in a town like Boulder. We now have an opportunity to invest in the person that wants to be a pillar in our community. Not only is Christine a chef, a teacher, and a mother, she's also an incredible source of knowledge for the changing landscape of our food culture. With allergies and food intolerances on the rise, trust is one of the most precious commodities that is missing today when we spend money on prepared foods. Please understand that Fresh Thymes Eatery is not exclusively a CSR, but rather a wonderful and progressive option!

The short on a CSR:
Invest upfront for a one year membership (beginning at $250 and up).
Stop into Fresh Thymes Eatery and cash in on your investment, monthly.
Reap the rewards of supporting something you believe in, clean and healthy food.
Join via Christine's restaurant website (secure paypal of course).

I have to end with some personal insight about Christine. I had the good fortune to meet Christine in the Fall through our daughters. It quickly became clear that Christine was not only talented, but has this incredibly beautiful way about her in the kitchen. When Christine would generously offer to cook for a gathering, I would sit back and watch our children and of course the adults immediately empty the dishes Christine prepared. There is a ground swell of fabulous people encouraging Christine to follow her dreams and cook for our community (some of us may have begged). Once you meet her, you'll understand that there is truly no one like her in the retail culinary world of Boulder. I am grateful she is here and I've donned her Boulder's very own Organic Barefoot Contessa.

Fresh Thymes Eatery is slated to open in June, in the SteelYards on 30th Street in Boulder! Stay tuned for the Grand Opening announcement. I'm counting the days.


Learn More:



Denver Post's Colorado Table article

Fresh Thymes Eatery's Plan

A Recap of All The Mundane Things You Haven't Missed In The Past Month...

Did you ever play Don't Break The Ice as a child? I remember sitting at the far end of our wooden laminate kitchen table simply observing my three older brothers all hunched over the brightly colored plastic game. During the action they would hoot and holler, elbows were thrown, all in attempt to keep the little red man safe in the plastic ring, trying most to avoid falling through the ice. I most fondly remember pulling the game out of the closet when my big brothers were off to school. I'd carefully set up the white chunky ice blocks and have at it, all on my own, imagining I would be the reigning family champion!

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That story has nothing to do with what I wanted to post about, but it just came out. There may have been an appropriate segue, but that was fleeting obviously. I've been questioned lately about my presence or lack of presence here and while I wish there was a simple answer, but there isn't. My blog has suffered because my laptop's logic board failed back in January. It was a hand me down laptop, older and failing in many ways. The bottom line it wasn't worth the $400 to put into it to bring it back, I feared the occasional sticking space key would permanently start to fail, whichwouldleadtomywritinglookinglikethis, or many other maladies would consume 5 year old macbook. Even though the laptop was a bonus computer to me, we have another family computer that stays on a desk at the opposite end of our great room. What I didn't anticipate was the mental crevasse that exists between me and a walk across the room to my desk.

Don't fret, here's a recap of the last 6 weeks:
My laptop died.
My brother and his baby, I mean chocolate lab, came to visit for 5 weeks.
We started to majorly overhaul my backyard, pass the advil.
My parents came to visit for a week.
My husband was working Iceland for almost two weeks.
Spring Break!
A huge spur of the moment, whirlwind, family trip to Seattle to work with Nintendo.
I'm now a member of the Screen Actor's Guild!
I didn't blog.
I proctored our state standardized test at the school I work in part time.
I made a list of all the things I want to write about.
The Monsanto Protection Act passed, slipped in a Veteran's Bill.
I finally did the taxes (I love doing our taxes).
G had a Kindergarten performance and my parents were here to attend!
I'm planning a summer vacation and it does not involve NY.

I'll stop there. I'm back, I've got a lot to say, so stay tuned. I need to figure out Feedly. Boo Google killing reader!