Sunday Week In Review - Father's Are Special - And so are Ice Cream Makers!

In honor of this very special day I am going to keep this quick. Because today's is not about me. Its about my awesome husband. And my awesome husband wants us to spend quality family time..........which doesn't involve me typing or pinning. 

Here a just a couple of reasons why my husband is awesome:

• He doesn't mind that I spend LOTS of my free time blogging - even if the house starts getting disorganized;
• He doesn't get stomach aches, have Candida or Adrenal fatigue, food sensitivities, etc - yet he willingly came along on my clean eating journey without a hesitation;  
• He is totally open-minded to trying out my new recipes and never asks for any of his old pre-clean favorites or complains about the menu;
• He never tells me something is gross. And let me tell you, there have been some barely edible meals when I'm "experimenting";
• He skips dessert, ice cream, chocolate, whatever - if we are out and he sees I am struggling with my sugar-free status - as a show of support. Sweet. No pun intended. Ha, ha, ha. Those jokes never get old;
• Even though he hates my "no pun intended jokes" he still laughs. And he thinks I'm funny 
• He built me a beautiful new cedar fence for our front yard........he is so handy.......and handsome;
• When my daughter just got her IGG tests back he took them to work and shrunk and photocopied them onto one page so I could keep it in my purse. He is accepting/supporting/buying in to this Naturopath thing. Yeah. That is progress.  
• He's an awesome dad. 

So yeah - he's a keeper. I really love my husband. Aren't I lucky!

Anyway, my posts this week have kind of been updates so don't need to do a full Sunday week in review. 

Let's just say that I think I might currently be winning the battle against my Candida. I am sticking to the diet faithfully and turned a corner this week. I'm having some spacey moments which I think are due to the anti-fungals but I feel pretty darn good. And my Candida flare up symptoms - especially the late afternoon anger and hunger - have gotten significantly better.

So I am feeling energetic and positive and hopeful. 

Oh yeah, and one more thing......................

I GOT AN ICE CREAM MAKER. This could be one of the most exciting things to ever happen to me. It deserves a full post because it is that exciting. So watch for an I LOVE MY NEW ICE CREAM MAKER POST in the near future. 

Let's just say I'm in soft serve heaven. 

Have a great week and try to eat clean when you can!

My eggplant french toast with almond maple glaze. This seems weird - I know that. But it is good.

And avocado chipolte salad dressing.  I had many salads this week.  And very few ingredients allowed to make salad dressings - so I'm experimenting to try and find some good combinations. This was one good.

I probably made 5 or 6 batches of muffins this week. Trying to find something my now dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free daughter might like. She's a tough audience. Much tougher than my awesome husband. These blueberry ones were delish.

Egg plant lasagna. This recipe was quite involved. I pre-baked the egglant in egg wash and almond flour coating. Then I made a cauliflower "white sauce" and  a meat sauce layer. It took quite some time but it was really good. 

My egg plant lasagna. Wow - that was GOOD. My baby loved this recipe. 

As usual - my weekly batch of chicken chipolte soup. This time I added some zucchini and coconut to change it up. Crazy aren't I?

Some eggs fried up in spinach with sun-dried tomato.

Lunch. Salad. Need I say more. 

These were DISGUSTING. I tried making a gluten-free "corndog" muffin. I could not even stand the smell of these things. Of course 2 of 3 of my kids loved them. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Even though they liked them I can't let them eat it. 

Roasted cabbage (done on the grill) and some rotisserie chicken on the bbq. I'm still relying on these chickens to get through the week. 

One piece of turkey bacon (limited because it wasn't nitrate free), 2 hard boiled eggs and a wheat belly biscuit. Those biscuits are awesome. Note to self: the kids like them - make again!

I bought a gluten-free pizza crust from a gourmet pizza shop in Winnipeg. I was making this for the girls. I did not turn out well. Strike one. I will have to try again.

However, I made another batch of my Insanely good Spaghetti squash pizza crust this time with chicken, turkey bacon, spinach and tomato. It was insanely good. Again.

I made two batches of these sweet potato pecan protein bars this week. The first batch was out of this world good - hubby thought it was a brownie. Second batch wasn't as good. But still good for a protein bar. I'm trying to make one that doesn't have to stay refrigerated because that's not going to work all summer when I need to take a snack on the go.

Another batch of muffins for the girls. Hubby loved them. Girls didn't. Strike 2 or 3? Hard to please those two.

I retried my Candida diet friendly chocolate muffins - this time with Stevia instead of Xylitol. The Xylitol didn't agree with me but these did. 

In an attempt to limit my daughter's gluten consumption I started making these roll ups when we go for picnics. They love them. I'm also trying to limit dairy so I kept the pieces of cheese quite small. And I bought nitrate free turkey breast. 

Picnic salad. We had several picnics meals this week. Its like I don't trust this nice weather will stay so I keep taking us on picnics everyday. The kids LOVE it. And they don't mess up the house if we are at the park until bed time. Win, Win, Win! But its a lot of work packing food all the time - a lot more than pulling through a drive thru.

OMG - I bought some hazelnut cream flavoured Stevia for my "coffee". Roasted chicory root with Stevia and some almond milk - no need to miss my latte.

Costco is now carrying the Silver Hills brand of breads. They have sprouted and gluten free options.  Thanks for the tip off Sara. The sprouted option is not gluten free but should be easier to digest if you just have a sluggish/sensitive system. The gluten-free is obviously good if you have a gluten intolerance of any kind.  I don't eat grains so I didn't taste them but both my daughters love this bread as toast. It weighs a ton and the pieces are super small. We call it "baby bread" and for some reason my 4 year old who refuses to eat crust believes the crust on baby bread has to stay on and be eaten. I don't know where they come up with some of this stuff but when it works in my favor I am all for it.

Candida diet friendly grass fed beef meatballs, with a small scoop of brown long grain rice and some green beans. The kids loved these meatballs. I made them egg, dairy and gluten free. I mixed 1 1/2 lbs of organic ground beef with 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup minced onion, 2 tbsp light buckwheat flour, 1 tbsp arrowroot, 2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk and 1 tbsp ground chia. Plus some spices. I baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes at 350. Then I topped with sauce and baked again until bubbling. 

Two birthday parties last weekend sent home awesome and thoughtful "goodie" bags with the kids. What a great idea - if you WANT TO TORTURE SOMEONE ON THE CANDIDA DIET. That looks too good.

The new love of my life. Yes. My ice cream maker. Heart. 

My first batch of dairy free, gluten free, egg free, Candida friendly ice cream. I think this is a monumental occasions in my life. Ice cream that is healthy enough to eat for breakfast. And delicious. I could cry I'm so happy.

Even my picky little eater couldn't disagree - ice cream makers rock. Even if the ice cream is healthy.

I apologize in advance for all the ice cream recipes that are going to be coming.

And I will be thinking of my Dad today - you would have been appalled by my new diet but you would have loved my new ice cream maker. I miss him everyday. But my sweet tooth is a constant reminder of a sweet and quirky Dad that loved sweets as much as I do.