Sunday Week in Review - Following My Own Advice

So once in a while when I don't feel like sharing a recipe I blog about helpful healthful tips. Things I have done to cure my leaky gut, adrenal fatigue, detox, whatever.

I recently did one post on curing insomnia and another one on curing my adrenal fatigue. And then given the time of year, social commitments, etc, etc, excuse, excuse........I broke a bunch of my own rules. I didn't follow my own advice.

Result - Candida flare up. Fierce. Sugar cravings like crazy. Not sleeping. Moody. Either that or my kids are really very bad and annoying. And I know they aren't. It's me.

I have not been getting to bed on time. Strike one.

I have been eating WAY more carbohydrates (in the form of grains usually covered in some type of "natural sugar") than usual. Nothing overt. No "real" cheats. Just bites of cereal, granola or corn chips as I'm filling my kids plates. All gluten-free but not grain free or sugar free. Enough that I was getting way more sugar than I should be given my Candida and grains that I'm not used to. Enough to feed my Candida and slow down my system. Strike two.

Its actually interesting that my IGG tests don't show that I have a severe sensitivity to grains.  But after you do a detox (for me basically the Candida diet) and reintroduce or try to reintroduce foods, you figure out that although your system might not be having an immune response to something it doesn't mean it likes you eating it. And for me that is grains. I have tried and retried several non-glutenous grains - quinoa, rice, corn and oats to name a few. My system does not like them. It doesn't matter than my IGG tests say they are okay. They are not. I need to accept this and move on. And start having some better willpower when I'm serving them up to my kids. I feel like I give a false impression of how much willpower I have sometimes - trust me - there are LOTS of meals and cheats that don't make my Sunday week in review. I don't take pictures of those.

So enough beating around the bush. Long story short is that I have decided one of my critical pieces of advice is to SLOW DOWN. And I have not been doing that. I have been going full speed ahead. I always will. That's how I roll.

But I'm reaching a point where I have lots of things that need to be dealt with before I go back to work. And I want to have lots of fun in the summer with my kids. So I have decided to start blogging one less day a week. I know. You must be devastated. Ha, ha, ha!

It actually happened accidentally when I missed my Wednesday post and totally didn't realize it until after I posted it Thursday. I completely lost an entire day of my week. I think it was a sign. Time to slow it down.

So I have decided to share recipes on Tuesdays and Fridays and keep doing my Sunday week in review. I actually do WAY more than two new recipes a week so I might just start posting some directly to my RECIPAGE without a blog post. So make sure you follow me on FACEBOOK (upper left hand side), PINTEREST (upper left hand side) or subscribe to my blog by email (right hand side). That way you won't miss any new recipes even if I don't do a full blog post. I won't be slowing down on the experimenting - just all the writing.

I wish I had time to post every night. I love it. I find it therapeutic. I have lots to say.

But my family and my health have to come first. So I'm cutting myself some slack.

And I actually ate tons of great clean food this week in between cheats.................hope this gives you some ideas for some recipes you can try! Enjoy and have a good, clean, SLOW week.

Quinoa puffs balls I made for the kids. I'll post the recipe sometime soon. They were good. Too good. One of the grain-full temptations that caused my flare up. They kept falling in my mouth. 

Sweet onion poppy-seed dressing.  I REALLY enjoyed this. On  everything this week. Yum.

A salad topped with grilled steak and green beans. Topped with sweet onion dressing of course. 

How did those get in here again? Maybe as a point that I ate too many. And they are on the banned list as far as Candida goes so I better get control or stop making them. 

Some of my farmer's market finds. We are loving the kohlrabi. Even the kids like it with Ranch dip. And I made an awesome rhubarb, kohlrabi and cucumber salad. And did you know purple beans turn green. Magic. Mystery. Mom of the year. Kids love that kind of thing. 

In an attempt to make it through the afternoon without a cheat I made some clean snacks like this. Really good. Clean. Satisfying. Just need to remember this instead of grabbing for the sweet stuff.

I made an avocado "salsa" with an egg fritata and some nitrate free turkey breakfast sausages. So clean. So good.

A rotisserie chicken from Costco (oh yeah - a bit of a cheat but I don't eat the skin). Fresh beet tops from a family friends garden. So delicious with a bit of butter, s & p and garlic powder. Who knew.

I tried to make a black bean zucchini loaf. Flop. It didn't work. So I turned it into french toast. That worked okay. I ate it.

Beet soup (borscht) without cream. Fresh garden beets. Fresh dill. Hell yeah. 

Salad. The usual.

A snack I made for the kiddies. Gluten free chips. Nitrate free ham. Dairy free cheese, Tomatoes. They loved it. Must remember this one.

Another snack. Turkey and chicken sausage from Costco. Not nitrate free. It is hard to find non-pork and nitrate free at the same time. So I cheated a wee bit. 

One of my kids lunches. Just to show an example of how I feed my little sensitive one. That's gluten free bread with a bit of melted dairy free cheese. She's getting used to the taste/texture and seems to really enjoy it. Expensive so we try and stretch it out.

I grilled a ton of veggies on the bbq this week. Why not. This time I did it on a pan with some leftover chicken. Hubby loved it.

Farmer's market. Yep. That was fun.

I took every single toy in the whole house and put it in the living room. And sorted, purged, cleaned until they made sense. It was OUT OF CONTROL. I couldn't even clean up anymore because nothing had a place. Now it all has a place. Well, what I kept. And I think that's why I missed my Wednesday post. I was on a cleaning and sorting mission. I'm feeling the need to get the house organized before I go back to work. 

Turkey burgers with rhubarb salsa. Beet greens on the side. 

Another treat. Black bean brownies with some chia/almond milk/maple extract/Stevia topping. So yummy. So busted. I literally ate about 6 pieces one day when my Candida was flaring. I was out of control. 

My rhubarb salsa on turkey burgers (leftovers) with the magic purple beans. Awesome.

I was getting sick and tired of snacking on plain/raw nuts. So I blended almond, walnut, pecan, sunflower and golden flax with some cocoa, Stevia and coconut oil. Then I roasted it for about 20 minutes at 325. And I topped it with about 12 dark chocolate chips. And some salt. A nice little change.

Another "treat". I eat lots of icy/blender/smoothie type things. This one topped with toasted coconut.

Another one of my many "treats". This is some kind of almond milk, cocoa, cacao smoothie. I topped with some of my roasted nut mixture. I'm getting lots of use out of my new Magic Bullet.

Some zucchini "noodles" with grass fed meat sauce. 

I made a coconut cream and rhubarb pie. No sugar. It was pretty tart. But hubby topped his with some strawberry/rhubarb/apple jam and sliced strawberries. Looks pretty good if not Candida diet friendly.

My first attempt at making egg free, gluten free, dairy free pancakes for my girls. I bought some Robin Hood All Purpose Gluten free Flour from London Drugs (FYI - they sell lots of gluten free products at good prices). I used Chia gel instead of eggs. I didn't eat them because they aren't grain free. Verdict from the two girls - they LOVED them. Recipe to come because I need to get this in writing. They each ate four. Success.

Egg salad. I made this concoction with a little of this and a little of that - never to be recreated. Too bad because it was soooo good. My baby really loved it. Avocado, curry, kohlrabi. Kind of a kitchen sink egg salad. 

I have been craving pickerel for weeks. Hubby went to the fish market and got me some today. Love. What a great guy. I breaded it with a combination of coconut flour, ground golden flax and almond flour. Even both girls loved it. WHAT. NO. Seriously. Hello - a new family dinner we can all eat. Happy dance.

Yep. I've been baking again. On the left - my blueberry crumble. That's a good recipe. On the right - blow your mind black bean brownies. I tried making it with Chia gel instead of eggs so my daughter could have some. It didn't work perfectly. I'll have to try it again. Maybe in muffin liners. 

So there you have it. Another week of some great meals. Not all shown. A Candida flare up but its back under control. Just have to keep working at it and not beat myself up when I slip up. And NO MORE GRAINS.