Creative Counterpart

Only God knows the glorious surprises and plans he has for us in the coming year; But I can tell you one thing, we’re excited!

Since picking up our foreign exchange student last week, we have been learning so much about Nigerian culture. Things that you just can’t understand from a textbook.

Here is a glimpse of a few things we’ve learned form our foreign exchange student (new son) :

“Everything is Easy Here” -

People from other countries (and yes even Nigeria) comment on how hard working American’s are. But, I wouldn’t necessarily say that from what I’ve learned from our student.

We may have busier schedules in America; More places to go and more things to do. But, we have the priviledge of doing all of those things because of the ease of our modern machines and appliances.

In Nigeria they…

• Wash clothes by hand
• Cut grass by hand
• Don’t have electricity constantly (The government can turn it off whenever they like.)
• Sometimes must fetch water if their tap is not working.

But.. They don’t live in the stone age. They…

• Have disposable diapers
• Use computers & email, mp3 players, and cell phones (depending on income and resources)

Keep a lookout for more posts about what we’re learning from our new family member. We are learning so much I couldn’t possibly put it in one post.

First picture on google images under 'wisdom teeth enchiladas'

I love wordpress. It lets me see just what search terms people are typing in to land on my blog. But I was cracking up this evening when I saw how one unsuspecting individual came across my little place on the web.

‘Wisdom Teeth Enchiladas’ – kinda intriquing isn’t it? I wonder if this person is really contemplating eating some enchiladas after they just had their wisdom teeth extracted. If so, DON’T DO IT! PLEASE? It won’t be pleasant.

At any rate, I know why that search term brought them here. You see, I have one post about getting my wisdom teeth removed, and another completely unrelated post about making the BEST enchiladas. Google couldn’t find anything on that poor person’s search topic, and didn’t have the heart to tell them, so Google mashed my lovely posts together. Voila! We have Wisdom Teeth Enchiladas…

On second thought, I really hope there isn’t some strange recipes lying around….

~

Moms! Do You Want to Earn Money With Your Blog?

So, I wanted to share with you all what changes my family has been making in our diet to aid in our new whole foods approach to eating. I think that more than anyone in our household, I have felt the biggest difference physically and emotionally of our new way of eating.

Last week we had gotten sloppy and ate a lot of fast food. I felt yucky almost all week, and I knew it was because we had been eating heatlhy and slipped back into this habit of eating junk. I felt physically drained and couldn’t step off of the emotional roller coaster. I was just plain cranky.

This week I just sat down and wrote out a list of enough breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack ideas for 14 days that only included healthy options. No high fructose corn syrup, no highly processed junk. I shared before some of the changes we had made. For example, we eat as many whole grains as possible. We only use real butter now. But I wanted to share some specific meals we have been eating and some of the options that I have found to be an easy switch for our family.

Most things we eat only needed to be adapted in a healthier way. This includes what types of meats, oils, grains, etc we buy. We try to buy as natural of meats as we can afford, we only use peanut or olive oil for baking and frying, and we buy as many whole grains as possible.

Specifically, I wanted to share some of our new favorite products. For something quick and easy, Annie’s homegrown organic macaroni and cheese is great for the kids at lunchtime. It doesn’t inlclude junk colorings and preservatives, and it’s really good! It’s also highly affordable at my walmart. They also make a range of other products such as crackers and cereal.

We also love Nature’s Pride bread. I had been searching for a bread without high fructose corn syrup and tons of additives, and finally found this brand at Hyvee.

We’ve incorporated as much fresh fruits and vegetables into our diet as possible. I’ve also been making most of our baked goods at home, including cookies, muffins, brownies, etc. I can throw in all of the fresh fruits and vegetables I want into them, and I also mix in whole wheat flour and flax seed, making for a much more nutritious alternative to highly processed store-bought baked goods.

We’ve been making a lot of stir fry here lately with all of the fresh veggies. I found that Kikkoman soy sauce is a great choice because it is also free of all of the extra preservatives and  garbage in other brands.

And just to throw out some ideas to others on this journey, I’ll list some typical foods we’ve been eating daily.

Breakfast: Bananas, eggs and cheese, cheerios (plain) with milk, toast (nature’s pride bread).

Snacks: Fresh fruit (kiwi, peaches, bananas, etc), cheerios, raisins, popcorn (plain kernels popped on the stove in peanut or olive oil)

Lunch: Annie’s mac & chz, tortilla chips, sandwiches w/ butter

Supper: stir fry, nachos w/ homemade cheese sauce, runza casserole (with homemade biscuit crust), spaghetti, tacos, pizza, etc.