FOOD!! Now that I have your attention...

I know previously, I discussed the fact that we were kosher, and though I wasn't very strict about it with Banana and Squish and The Hubs, I was stricter with myself.  I didn't have a problem being kosher, but not having the support of The Hubs, and the rest of my family, I soon realized it was just not a lifestyle I could keep up alone.  So even though we still have "meat plates" and "dairy plates", we are back to eating bacon, pork, milk mixed with meat.  I no longer cover my hair or wear long skirts as the foundation of my wardrobe anymore (though it's summer and it's getting hot and flowy skirts are looking more and more attractive over pants - though I get to wear capris, too.  My new workplace is pretty casual, which is good - I can buy nice t-shirts, and sweaters, but I don't have to wear suits.  I need nicer stuff for when I go "out into the world", as my boss says, I suppose, but in the office, we're pretty casual.  Clean clothes, not sweats. So I'm living in my jeggings, capris, and I'll probably wear skirts.

Image by Kimberley Hasselbrink and
originally posted on Nom Nom Paleo

But I digress, because I wanted this blog post to be about food and the food changes we've made in the house - much more sustainable, much less confusion, much lest fighting with the kids.

We've gone Paleo.  Well, okay, I've been calling it "modified Paleo".  True hard core Paleo followers don't consume dairy or rice.  I can't have coffee without cream, and my kids won't give up pasta AND rice.  Which I found out is not entirely NOT Paleo, anyway.  Pasta isn't completely off the menu, either.

So what do I mean by Modified Paleo, then?

Paleo diets don't generally include dairy (as I mentioned), legumes (like lentils, peas, peanuts), refined sugar, wheat, coffee (aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!), alcohol (double AAAAAHHHHHH) processed foods, corn, potatoes and a myriad of other things.  We aren't that strict.  I'm moving away from peanut butter and peanuts because the kids can't take them to school anyway, so if they like almond or cashew butter (and they loved the pecan/cashew butter I made a few months ago - need to make more). Then I'm  happy to buy or make that.

My kids are Carboholics.  So getting them to quit eating bread and pasta is similar to getting an alcoholic to go cold turkey.  So I'm weaning them.  I make chicken nuggets, but they're dredged in tapioca or arrowroot flour, not wheat.  And the kids LOVE them. I try new veggies - like Jicama - which looks like a turnip, peels like an apple and has the same consistency, and bakes up like a nice soft potato when you cut it into fries.

We eat A LOT more fresh fruit, fresh veggies (and yes, frozen veggies count, as often they are picked and frozen at the height of ripeness).  I'm learning new ways of preparing foods and we eat a lot of meat - chicken, beef, pork, fish.

But then doesn't that make eating out and meal  planing difficult?

No.  Not really.  It takes some planning, but I have a few Paleo cook books, and let's face it - salt, pepper on a steak with a side of veggies and your meal is Paleo.  Add Jicama fries, and you're golden (and so are they, if you bake them right).  I have learned some sauces that I never thought of.  As a matter of fact, last night, we had chicken drumsticks marinated in a "green sauce".  The sauce?  Fish sauce, an onion, basil and mint, a little bit of salt, pepper and red pepper flakes for kick.  Blend it all up in the cuisinart and marinate.  The family loved it.  And the few leftovers we have - they could have been breakfast had I not buried them under the pork roast I pulled last night, and the salad I packed for lunch today.

That's the other thing.  I try to spend one day in the weekend planning meals, so that I can get my shopping done and meals prepped.  I didn't get a chance this weekend, so I did it on Monday night after work.  I went to Costco (my butcher was closed on Monday and I wanted to get this meal planing done and ready to go).  I bought (are you ready for this?):

A pork roast (it was huge)
A package of boneless chicken breasts
A package of boneless chicken thighs
A package of bone-in chicken thighs
A package of drumsticks
A package of ground beef.
A 3 Pack of whole chickens.
A Costco package of Bacon (so 4 packs)

That was just the meat.

I had to go to another grocery store for a few other things that I either couldn't find at Costco or didn't need the size they sell (I couldn't find capers there, for a sauce I want to make, but I also know that capers at Costco are going to be in a size WAY TOO BIG for me to ever use up).

Once I had all my groceries, I went home, had a bite to eat and started prepping. I knew I wanted to make Fiona's Green Chicken from Nom Nom Paleo (www.nomnompaleo.com), so I got Banana involved and had her split the package of drumsticks.  One half (14 drumsticks) went into a freezer bag for Green Chicken, the other is sitting in my freezer in a ziplock bag in a Peruvian marinade also from Nom Nom Paleo.  I have to check the recipe for the sauce that goes with it.

One of the whole chickens was put into a freezer bag and coated with poultry seasoning.  It will go into the crockpot for Roasted Chicken a la Nom Nom Paleo.  The other two I froze together in one freezer bag.  I'll cook them together at some point.

With the chicken thighs - the boneless ones will be thawed and used to make Paleo chicken Cacciatore in the slow cooker - probably next week.  It's a busy week this week.

The bone-in ones will be made into Cracklin' Chicken, again from Nom Nom Paleo (actually, all the recipes are from Nom Nom Paleo, so I'm going to stop saying that).  I split them into 3 bags of 8 thighs.

The pork roast... OOooh.  Was that fun!!  I lined the bottom of my crockpot with bacon, rubbed the roast with pink Himalayan salt (because I didn't have the Hawaiian Salt Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo suggests, and I suspect it's expensive) and then put some garlic in the space where I presume the bone was cut out.  Put that on top of the bed of bacon and cooked it on low for - are you ready for this....?  16 HOURS!!  I had the girls unplug the crockpot when they got home from school, and The Hubs started to pull it.  Since I work part-time for a caterer doing her grocery shopping - and this week's order included 2 cases of water and 32 2L bottles of pop, my very tired arms didn't let me finish pulling it, but I pulled a lot of it and it's in the fridge in a Pyrex.  So what to do with it? The Hubs looked in the cookbook where I got the recipe.  I'm having it on a salad for lunch today with a dressing I made of lime flavoured olive oil, mustard and coconut vinegar.  It can go in lettuce cups with julienned veggies.  It can be made into hand rolls with roasted Nori sheets (seaweed).  I can be fried up to crisp it a bit and served with scrambled eggs.  It can be put into an omelette.  Toss a dressing on it and make it a sandwich of some sort.  There's so much that can be done with it.  And considering how busy our week is this week - Banana and Squish have their final concert with the York Region Children's Chorus tonight, tomorrow is Banana's last karate lesson before her grading test next week and ranking ceremony the following week.  So having some protein ready for them to pull out of the fridge and eat without worrying about how they're going to get a good dinner, is a load off my mind.

I bought broccoli, and I will roast it as we need it in the toaster.  It's perfect.  I can make a broccoli salad with Paleo mayonnaise and whatever I want in it, and because I bought the bag at Costco, well, it's huge.  So we'll have roasted broccoli with dinner one night, and I'll also make cauliflower "rice" because I like it, it's low carb, and the kids will have to choose what veggie they want - broccoli, cauliflower rice, or both.

I'm trying to move away from potatoes and rice, but I'll still let the kids have it from time to time.  It's a lot easier than trying to 'force' them to be kosher.  And since I can't eliminate dairy (it's just too good), then the kids don't argue.  I could probably figure out a way to make cauliflower "macaroni and cheese" and they MIGHT like it.  I'll have to experiment on a weekend when I have nothing else to do, really.

As for eating out - I just don't stress about it.  It's not like it's an allergy.  I'm a carbaholic, too, so sometimes I'll have a baked potato or fries.  But generally I try to have a protein and veggies, and skip the carbs.  But there are places that I just can't resist.  Like the fries at Swiss Chalet (or the baked potato).  Or sushi.  I like sashimi, but I like sushi better.  Squish likes noodles when we go for sushi, and I'm not going to tell her she can't have them because then she won't have that much to eat. She eats beef noodle soup - without the soup - the sushi restaurant we go to makes it for her.  It helps to be regulars!!.  And she's starting to like salmon sashimi.  So since that's about all she'll eat, I can't say she can't have noodles!!

We were in Buffalo at the weekend and we ate at Olive Garden and Outback.  Yes.  I ate an Olive Garden breadstick, but I ordered chicken that came with veggies and no pasta, and at Outback, I shared a 12 ounce steak with Squish and we shared a baked potato covered in sour cream (mine) green onions, bacon bits, butter and cheese.  Mmmm.  See? Dairy.  So good.

Banana is a bit more adventurous and recently told me that she actually likes my zucchini noodles, so it looks like maybe this weekend or next, we'll have Zoodles and Meatballs!! (I'll make regular pasta for Squish.  I don't have the energy to fight her. And it's not like it's going to kill her).

My main aim for following our "Modified Paleo" diet is to make sure we have more whole foods, and for me, to eat fewer carbs to keep my blood sugar in check.  And it's working.  My blood sugars are staying in the normal range, even when I eat, and not spiking as high when I eat carbs. So I'm doing something right!!

I also don't make a big deal about it - I still eat pizza occasionally (though I'd rather not, really), and when we went to my mom's for dinner and she told me she was going to be ordering pizza, I brought my own dinner.  I didn't want to make a big deal about it, and I didn't want her to stress or think she had to get something special for me.  I was there for the company.  Not the food.

And that's what it's about.  Enjoying time with people and enjoying healthy food.  Even The Hubs has said that on days he eats more Paleo than not, he sleeps better and feels better during the day.  So there's that.

10 Questions Parents of Twins Get Asked, and How to Answer Them.

It has taken me nearly twelve years to have the strength to write this post.

For those of you who don't already know this, Banana and Squish are twins.  They came into our lives five weeks early at 35 weeks gestation, on July 10, 2003.  They spent three weeks in the NICU (Special Care Unit, actually) and were not in incubators for more than 24 hours after birth.  Except for Banana, who has always played to the beat of her own drummer.  She had some jaundice so went into an incubator for another 24 hours for phototherapy.  But other than that, both girls were breathing just fine on their own and though they were five weeks early and needed to learn how to suck properly, they were pretty healthy (if you consider Squish's constant projectile vomiting of every feed 'healthy').

When we finally got to bring them home (three weeks after they made their entrance into the world), we began to get inundated with the multitudes of questions that people seem to feel they have the right to ask.

You see, having twins is like instant celebrity.  People seem to notice twins and they just have to stop and ask as many questions, as they can.  Not as many as they feel is appropriate, because apparently nothing is off limits when you're asking a mom of twins about her twins, her pregnancy, her fertility, her feeding procedures, and her justification for said everything-related-to-babies.

God help the people who got to me before I'd had my morning coffee (just ask my sister-in-law.  She was often present when this happened)

Some of the answers I'm going to post I wish I had thought of (I'll qualify those ones).  And the ones I actually did.

1.  Q: "Are they twins?"
 My Answer: (with confusion on my face): Yes (while thinking 'Why on earth do you think there are two of them?!')
What I wish I'd answered: "No.  I found one in a parking lot and figured 'Meh, why not?'"

2: Q: "Are they natural?"
My answer: "Ummmmm? Yes?" (while thinking "WTF does that mean?!")
What I wish I'd answered:  No.  We commissioned them.  They are made totally of recycled parts.

3. Q: "Did you use fertility treatments?"
My answer: "Ummmmm?" (while thinking "And this is your business because?")
What I wish I'd answered: "Do you want the name of my doctor?  Shall I have my medical records forwarded to you?"

4. Q: "How do you tell them apart?"
My answer:  "I'm their mom.  I don't really have a problem telling them apart.  They don't even look the same."
What I wish I'd answered: Well, my answer above is pretty much it.

5. Q: "Are they boys?"
My answer (usually): No.  They're girls (usually while thinking "did the pink blanket, pink shirt and flowery pants throw you?"
What I wish I'd answered: Oh, did the pink blankets, pink shirt, flowery pants throw you?
My husband liked to answer: "Why?  Are you going to buy them a present?"

6. Q: "Are you breastfeeding or bottle feeding?"
My answer: "Bottles"
What I wish I'd answered:  "I can't really see how that's any of your business, but since you asked, based on how they eat and the fact that one likes to throw up every time I feed her, I wasn't in the mood to be a cow and be feeding 24/7 since they don't eat at the same time."

7. Q: "Which one is the evil twin?"
My answer: Blank stare
What I wished I'd answered: Blank stare pretty much covers it I think.

8.: Q: "How do you manage with two?"
My answer: It's not that I have much of a choice.
What I wish I'd answered: "I pick the one I like best that day and take care of that one." or "How do you manage to get up everyday?"

9. Q: "You must have your hands full!!" (Okay, not really a question)
My answer: Yep.,.  both of them.  And my heart, too.
What I wish I'd answered: See above.

10: Q: "Are they identical or fraternal?"
My answer: Fraternal
What I wish I'd answered: "Sororal. Get it? Cause they're girls."

It has never failed to amaze me, even now, how much people think they deserve to know about you, your children and your medical history when it comes to twins.  I swear, it makes me want to go up to them and say "is that your child?  Is it a boy or a girl? Did you have it naturally or did you need fertility? or did you adopt it?" Noone ever goes up to the parent of a singleton and ask any of the above.  And if the kid doesn't look like the parents?  Well that's a whole 'nother ball o' wax (such as Asian children adopted by North American parents - my friends adopted their daughters and I have heard that people ask white couples of Asian children how much their children "cost".  WTF!?)

One thing I will say: I would never ever change the experience of having my children the way I did.  Everything was new, and even though we spent 3 weeks in the Special Care Nursery, I still wouldn't trade our experiences there for anything.  We learned so much, met some incredibly fantastic (and one or two not so great) nurses and doctors.