happy stuff.

today i went to the co-op and bought more weird foods.  here’s a list of the foods i got today that i’ve never purchased before:

coconut water

agave syrup

baby bok choy

hazelnuts

gluten-free flour

forbidden rice (a short-grained, black rice.  i’m intrigued by this!)

red quinoa

agave/ginger roasted cashews (a splurge, but i got a sample and they are soooooo tasty, and they’re on the “yes” list!)

frozen wild salmon

french green lentils

whole dried figs

wild rice (okay, i’ve probably purchased this at some point in my life, but i don’t think it was from the bulk section before.  probably from a box.  maybe even a mix…)

i did not find:

frozen passion fruit puree

wheat-free buckwheat noodles

i chose not to purchase:

yerba mate (couldn’t remember if it was on the yes or no list)

acai powder

mangosteen syrup

(both of these last two were in the “supplements” area of the store and both were above $15 a container for waaaaay more than i needed.  i’ll poke around for other recipes.)

although it was time-consuming (the store is not that large and it took me over an hour to pick out the ingredients i needed) and a bit overwhelming (so many labels to read!), i found myself excited to have an “excuse” to try out some new foods.  especially from the bulk foods area.  instead of thinking, “forbidden rice?  we’ll never eat that.” i thought, “forbidden rice?  once served only to emperors?  it’s not on the “no” list?  we should definitely try this!”

also, tonight during dinner, mr. happy stuff and i were talking more about what’s actually on these yes/no lists (apparently, i haven’t really gone into detail before.), and he suggested a few recipe ideas to add to the list.  hooray!

a few of my friends have been raving about clean by dr. alejandro junger and i’m seriously considering trying it out.  “clean” is not a diet, it’s a cleanse that you can do for 1, 2 or 3 weeks.  unlike other cleanses i’ve heard about that only allow you to drink juice, tea or water (and eat no solids) for all or part of the duration of the cleanse, this plan includes one solid meal and two smoothies/shakes/pureed soups every day.  if you read too much about it online, it looks like you have to buy a bunch of special powders and supplements, but if you read the book instead, those items are barely mentioned (and then they’re in the context of “if you don’t have time to prep all these veggies, you can boost your smoothies with this powder”) and the book instead focuses on a “yes/no” list of whole foods that participants adhere to.  there’s also a selection of recipes in the back of the book to help you get started if the “no” list scares you (it scares me.  how do you cook without wheat, dairy, eggs or tomatoes?  how do you make smoothies without oranges, strawberries and bananas?).

why am i telling you all this?  i’m thinking of blogging my process.  so i suppose it’s fair warning for anyone who doesn’t care about reading this journey to just skip over any more posts with the word “clean” in the title during the next few weeks.  for those of you willing to stick around and read about it, i’m hoping maybe some of you will post comments encouraging me so that maybe i can last all three weeks.

still with me?  here’s my goals for why i’m doing this cleanse:

1.  i feel like our family is stuck in a food rut.  it seems like we’ve got about 12 recipes that we rotate between, with a few others thrown in for variety occasionally.  without actually checking my list, i’d be willing to gamble that all of these recipes contain either dairy or wheat or eggs or tomatoes (or maybe even all four).  i’m curious to know what will happen if we remove those from our diet.

2.  sometimes, especially after the holidays, or vacations, i come home feeling like i “need to eat salad for a week.” but we never really do.  mostly because i’m fairly certain i’d get sick of salad after two days.  i’m hoping to learn some quick tricks to “reset” the gluttony whenever it rears its ugly head.  as a side effect, maybe this will make me feel so good that i won’t be as tempted by the gluttony?  i have doubts.  my relationship with bread goes back a long way.

3.  my friends all experienced weight loss and increased energy after this cleanse.  i could use both of those!

here are my fears about this cleanse:

1.  i’ll hate the food.

2.  i won’t be able to resist temptation when making meals for the happy toddler (he’ll still be getting dairy and we’ll probably break down and give him eggs or pasta if he hasn’t eaten well for a day or two).

3.  mr. happy stuff is still debating whether or not to join me on this journey.  he will sorely miss caffeine (and i will sorely miss my helpful husband if he is grumpy and headache-y from lack of caffeine!) and many of the foods on the “yes” list are not his favorites.  it’s totally up to him whether (and to what extent) he participates, but i’m not sure i’ll be able to withstand temptation if both my boys are eating quesadillas and ice cream!

4.  this will be more of a time commitment than i’m realizing and i’ll kick myself some night because it would be so much easier to just throw together a pot of chili.

5.  i’ll feel hungry all the time.  and grumpy.

6.  i’ll do all this work and won’t feel any different or see any noticeable results.

7.  i’ll regret choosing to do this in winter instead of waiting for summer when grilling and fresh veggies would be so much easier to acquire.

here are my goals during the cleanse:

1.  follow the menu guidelines (liquid breakfast and dinner, solid lunch, snacks as needed, but don’t eat for at least 12 hours between supper and breakfast, eat only from the “yes” list).

2.  try to find time for exercise (this may fall by the wayside if my homework load is heavy at the beginning of the semester).

3.  try to be mostly tv-free (we’ve gotten in a rut lately and i want to try spending more time blogging, cooking, and maybe doing yoga?  sewing?  making art? reading?? see parenthetical note above.)

here’s what i plan to blog:

1.  what i ate each day

2.  how i’m feeling / thoughts and reflections about the process

3.  before/after pictures (maybe…)

ridiculously ambitious?  perhaps.  anyone else want to play along?  at this point, i’m thinking of starting on friday, january 27.  i’ve got menu plans somewhat sketched out and i bought my first round of “weird” winter foods (celeriac?  white winter radishes that look like turnips?  parsnips?  lamb chops?) at the farmer’s market this morning.  Deep breaths…. getting ready to dive into the unknown.

i found some cute new little toy pots and pans last weekend and realized that it might be nice to have a stove to use them on. today, i sewed up this stovetop in about 10 minutes (the longest part was figuring out how to cut that spiral!). whee!

still haven’t figured out a good way to add knobs that will actually turn.  any suggestions?  currently, the whole contraption is wool & acrylic felt.

okay, back to regularly-scheduled programming.  here’s a little movie to give you a small taste of what our christmas was like:

i think my favorite gift for the happy baby this year came from my dad.  i casually e-mailed him one day to ask if he could make a house similar to this awesome one made by joel and he took my request quite literally and built this:

he even made it to scale (despite the fact that joel didn’t list dimensions in his post) by using a ruler on his computer screen to calculate the thickness of the wood joel had used and extrapolating the rest of the measurements from there!  above and beyond, dad.

he also made some furniture (cushions made by me, carpets are leftover samples from flor) and i bought some people with no loose parts to go missing.

yesterday we worked on a bit of decorating.  i added a scrap of chalkboard cloth and the happy baby created the chalk art and then also added an art installation on the ceiling made from clear tape.

i can’t wait to add more art, some pieces of nature and maybe try my hand at wire furniture.  i love the simplicity of this  house design and i’m totally thrilled with my dad’s interpretation!

i’m so excited about a few of the gifts from this christmas that i just had to share them with you!  i’ll start with a gift mr. happy stuff and i gave the happy baby:  an art cabinet!  granted, this gift is probably more exciting to me than him at the moment, but that’s just because he doesn’t realize what it’s all about yet.

i decided to convert a cabinet in our dining room that had been filled with rarely-used table linens.  i also wanted to stock it pretty well, but leave room for growth.  i wanted the art supplies to be visible and sort of accessible to him, but not so accessible that he’ll just dump them all out onto the ground.  in invested in a variety of plastic containers and i love the way they all look, stacked up and tidy and ready for fun.  he can easily find the one he’s looking for and bring it to me and ask to do that kind of art, but so far he can’t open any of them on his own.  i think the container find that i’m most excited about is the one labeled “more art supplies” above–here’s a close-up:

this was originally a container to organize photos for scrapbooking (or something…) but it’s essentially a box full of boxes and the smaller boxes are just the right size for:  sidewalk chalk, “pipsqueak” markers, dry erase crayons, a stamp pad and a few homemade stamps and (for now) some of the “slick stix” from crayola (these are actually a bit too big for the containers so i had to use two of the small containers–i’m looking for alternatives, but it will do for now).

i love being able to pull out one art supply at a time, play with it, and when we’re done we tuck it back into the container and put it away.  i have no idea how long this illusion of order will remain, but i’m loving it for now and every time i pull out a new art supply to try, the happy baby is thrilled to discover it with me.  even if that means insisting on eating the homemade play clay (yes, it’s the super-salty kind.  i think that’s why he likes it.  he’ll just sit there and lick it and lick it and keep an eye on me because he knows i don’t really like for him to do that, but i’ve sort of given up fighting it.  eventually it will lose its thrill, right?  or does anyone know of any disgusting-tasting but kid-safe flavors i could add to the dough?).  oh well, i suppose that’s just another way to experience art through all of his senses!