Sunday Week in Review - The end of one project......the continuation of another!

What a busy week (well three weeks really). Hubby and I have been working on a big landscaping project. Lots of "functional fitness" going on. Hauling rock, stones, brick, dirt. Spreading, shoveling, hammering. Thinking, figuring, bickering (a couple of times). But we finally got to the end of it. Our front yard is now presentable - or it will be when the grass starts to grow in.

It was a HUGE amount of work but we did it. I'm quite proud of it. I provided a little sample of what we did.

Needless to say I am happy to report that we are done and now we can focus on our kids again, cooking, finding a daycare for my son and summer fun.

So we pulled out our bikes, hooked up the bike trailer and took the kids for a ride. More functional (and fun) fitness. What a blast. I haven't been on my bike for 7 years. I thought I might need to borrow some training wheels but I managed to stay upright. My daughter said my helmet was pretty and I looked like I was in 8th grade - I love that girl.

And we're were able to celebrate all our hard work (functional fitness) with more functional fitness because I feel great. I don't need to celebrate with rest. I have lots of energy.

After a faithful month on the Candida diet I had been totally derailed - slow digestion, mood swings and general fatigue. Not because I cheated but because my body can not handle the slightest bit of "healthy" cheating. Nope - lots of things allowed on the diet, even in moderation, were not working for me. So..........no more oats, no more Xylitol, cut back on the unsweetened chocolate, no more small portions of high-carb veggies and no more decaf coffee. Nothing that might slow my system down and let those little Candida beasts have a feast.

So I have been really careful and after a couple days of feeling withdrawal I started to feel great again. Energetic. Less moody. Less hungry (or a little less). Less cravings.

So I will be continuing on my journey. And I will be staying on, as best as I can, the strict phase of the Candida diet for another month (at least).  And I started some of the hard core anti-fungals - I think I need more than just diet to get rid of it. So here is a recap of my week......lots of extremely clean food - lots of it even tasted great. Hope you can find some inspiration to clean it up this week as well.................

Yep - the street view of our house was two hideous AC units. But hubby built me this gorgeous fence to cover them up. Why didn't we do that sooner. Sometimes you don't see what's right in front of you until someone points it out. Like when people don't notice that the food they are putting in their months is making them sick, tired, moody, etc, etc, etc. So I'm pointing it out. Food can make you sick. Clean eating can make you better.

A grass fed beef burger on butter lettuce. I have really been missing condiments so I made a sauce from tomato paste, sun dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning and coconut milk. It took it from ho-hum to oh-yum!

An evening snack. Can't remember exactly but looks like ice, coconut milk, coconut, Stevia and vanilla. Just something to nibble on while I'm blogging.

I was trying to cut back on the Chocolate Vega One this week - in case the caffeine had any part in my Candida flaring back up. So I switched over to the Berry and French Vanilla flavors for a few days. Not nearly as good as my Vega One Chocolate Chia Smoothie!

This gluten-free beef schnitzel  was SERIOUSLY good. I served it with twice baked mashed cauliflower (sans the bacon) and a sun-dried tomato broccoli slaw. That was a great low-carb meal. No suffering  or deprivation going on at that meal. 

A little salad with Chicken. I think we had two rotisserie chickens this week. Not the cleanest most Candida friendly thing to eat (sugar and yeast in the ingredients) but I generally don't eat the skin and since this as close to eating out at it gets these days I think its okay.

This was a batch of Chocolate Vega One Hemp, Sweet potato and pecan protein bars I whipped up. Some banned ingredients but in such limited quantities they shouldn't feed the beasts. These are raw and I eat them straight out of the freezer. I eat a LOT of these. I need calories to fill me up. My hunger isn't as bad this week but I'm still a hungry girl and these make a tasty snack.

Okay - when I'm desperately hungry and/or craving dessert but very low on time I usually just mix 1 Tbsp of full fat coconut milk, 1 Tbsp almond butter, a couple drops of liquid Stevia and some vanilla. Sometimes I add coconut or cacao nibs. Its also good drizzled or spread on pancakes/muffins. Whatever. Good to make in a pinch so you don't reach for a cheat out of desperation.

No idea what this is but I think it was my 1/4 cup of blueberries for the week. I've pretty much eliminated fruit except a couple bites here and there. 

Another lunch. Another salad. More chicken. Exciting. Actually I do like salads so its all good.

Some quick  sugar-free, gluten-free, chocolate pancakes I threw together. I was so busy trying to choke them down I didn't get a good picture. They weren't very good. Not all my recipes turn out.

Eggplant crust pizza. Damn I'm impressed with this recipe. Its awesome.  Almost as good as the spaghetti squash pizza crust.  Not quite but this one was quicker to throw together and has less carbs so its a draw.

Egg plant crust pizza with toppings - chicken, spinach, onion and a bit of cheese. So delish.

These are my Paleo Kid Friendly Chicken Fingers. My kids seriously LOVE these things - all three of them. They even ate them for snacks. No nagging necessary. That makes mama happy.

Okay - since I'm taking this Candida diet VERY seriously now.....no more decaf coffee. Ever. But I discovered roasted Chicory Root. I make it in the French Press. I let 1 Tbsp steep with vanilla and cinnamon  for about 5 minutes before I press it. Then I drink it with warmed almond milk and a couple drops of Stevia. I am really enjoying it. I missed my coffee - its a comfort thing. And something to do instead of eating.

Egg plant. My new veggie of the week. Never bought one in my life until this week. I made it into pizza crust. I made it into french toast. Next I'm going to make it into some type of turkey lasagna.

More salad. More chicken. More almonds. I'm too predictable. 

Here is our second rotisserie chicken (Costco - so good) with grilled cauliflower and broccoli slaw with a bit of brown rice noodles. I picked up the chicken and hubby was in charge of the rest of lunch. He just made cauliflower. So I had to dip into the kids food. 

This is sad but one of the highlights of my week was finding out THAT COSTCO FINALLY GOT ORGANIC GROUND BEEF. Yay - way to go Costco. I was standing there just smiling at it for a few minutes. Some guy actually stopped and asked me what was going on. I'm a freak. Its official. And FYI it was about $18.99 for 1.8 kg or about $4.75 a pound. That's not bad for NO ANTIBIOTICS OR HORMONES. Switch over people. No more excuses.

Baby eggplants from Costco. Even if you don't like eating them they are sure nice to look at. The color is amazing. 

I was going to make a salad for lunch. Again. But I decided I needed to shake things up. I make a stir fry instead. Lots of veggies, chicken and shrimp. I kept it Candida diet friendly by using coconut amino's, homemade chicken broth, ginger, garlic, s & p and arrowroot powder to make the sauce. It was good. A little heavy on the ginger but that's okay.

This is me experimenting with some muffins for my daughter - they were low-sugar, gluten-free, dairy free and egg-free. Why all the restrictions you ask? See next picture.

If the Costco organic beef was the highlight of the week then this was the lowlight. Got my daughters IGG food panels back. They are really bad - she has severe leaky gut and a multitude of food sensitivities. I was in shock because they were bad before but they are even worse now. I didn't know anyone could react to that many foods. She basically can eat meat, a few grains and seeds and some fruits. Its brutal. I'm still taking it all in. I'll do a full post on this when I digest the news and start figuring out how to deal with it all. As parents we have an awesome responsibility in feeding our kids healthy food and an even more awesome responsibility of teaching them how to make healthy choices themselves. This is going to be tough. 

Okay - another highlight of my week. I started a vegetable container garden. I'm a farm girl at heart without a farm for 19 years now. So this is my new farm. I've got two kinds of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and spinach in there. Fun.

And this is my small but happy little garden bed. I'm growing beans and cucumbers - hopefully up the lattice. I also planted lettuce, spinach, radish, pumpkin and zucchini. The girls had a blast helping me plant and the baby had a blast eating dirt.

Egg plant french toast. Seriously. If I would have told myself a year ago this is what I would be eating for breakfast I would have LAUGHED MY ASS OFF. NO WAY. Yes way. It was good. I tried it a second time and I think I nailed it so I will be sharing this recipe soon.


So that's my week. My landscaping project and spring flower planting is done. I'm a farmer again. My Candida is under control if I stick to the most strict phase of the diet 100% of the time. My daughter has extreme food sensitivities that I need to deal with. And I have to go back to work soon. And I am feeling extremely blessed to have lots of energy again to enjoy my kids, the weather and my awesome fence. And lots of great food!