Real Food Update and Drink Recipes

My sweet baby bear helping me unpack our goodies from the Farmer's Market last weekend

You've heard me talk a lot about real food lately, but I have to admit that my commitment to the cause waxes and wanes depending on how crazy life is. In general, I'd like to think we've made a lot of progress. We haven't purchased milk or eggs that weren't local in a long time and have far fewer processed junk foods in the house. My husband and kid are still consumers of processed beverages, but I've cut down my Diet Pepsi consumption from 2 (or more!) cans per day to a can or two per week and replaced it with home brewed iced teas and carbonated water that I make with my SodaStream. Our dinners have been well rounded and include lots of fresh local fruits and veggies.

BUT, we still aren't there yet. We tend to fall short during all the in-between times. When the girls and I are out running errands and it's close to meal time...when I miss lunch and am starving as I drive home...when we're all stressed and craving comfort food. It's SO easy to give in and stop at a drive-thru. I pretended I'm still doing a good job by avoiding McDonald's/Taco Bell/Wendy's and only giving in to Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. Today I'm publicly calling myself out; it's not good enough! 

For the next month (until my Mud Run on October 5th!) I am pledging myself to avoid all fast food. No more iced coffee. No more wake-up wraps. No more cake pops. None of it. I'll let you know how it goes...

If anyone else wants to join me on the real food journey, here are a few simple real food drink recipes you should definitely try out!

Watermelon Mint infused Water

Add 6 oz cubed watermelon and one sprig of mint to a pitcher and fill with water.
Allow to infuse in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Brewed Peach Iced Tea

Slice 4 very ripe peaches. 

Boil 6 cups of water in a saucepan. 

Remove from the heat and add 6 black tea bags. Infuse covered for 5 minutes.

Take out the tea bags and add the sliced peaches. Allow to infuse for 10-15 minutes.

Using a potato masher, squash the the peaches into pulp.

Rest the mixture for 5 minutes.

Strain the tea through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher and chill.

*If it is too strong for you, add a little bit more water to the pitcher*

Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies filled with Nutella

Brown butter is, in a single word, amazing. It's my new obsession. I am in love with everything from the mild, nutty scent that wafts from the saucepan as it cooks to the rich, almost caramel flavor it lends to a cookie baked with it. I am featuring the recipe for nutella stuffed cookies in this post, but these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with brown butter that I made for dessert last week got rave reviews as well.

If you've never had a cookie made with brown butter you can't possibly understand what you are missing. Please, do yourself a favor and make a batch (or two) of these cookies...

I'm not going to over-complicate this post and distract you from the task at hand (baking these cookies ASAP). Go visit Ambitious Kitchen for the full recipe and a great photo pictorial on how to add the nutella.

Disclaimer: My cookies spread a lot more than her's did. I definitely did the full two hours (a little longer) chill time in the fridge and even froze the stuffed dough disks for an extra 10 minutes after the first batch spread and it didn't make a difference. They might have spread because I used white whole wheat flour (I no longer purchase refined white flour) or replaced the white sugar with raw turbinado sugar. Honestly, this whole discussion can be ignored because it did not matter one teeny, tiny bit that they spread. They still were so delicious I wish I was eating one right now...but I can't...because my husband ate the last three hours ago...

If you give a mom a blog...

...she's going to write about her kids and her crazy life.

It's now 9 am. I've been up for over three hours. That's the downside when the baby bear decides to sleep through the night; she wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30 am and is UP for the day. This morning was particularly fabulous because the bug heard me come in to get the baby and was up as well.

The first chore of the day is always nursing and changing the baby. Today I had to do everything with the bug thisclosetome because she was still tired. They were both in a good enough mood though, so I won't complain. I dumped out a bunch of blocks and they built towers while I made their beds and attempted to make myself a cup of coffee (I say attempted because it was at least an hour later before I drank any of it...). This only lasted for about 15 minutes until the bear started roaring for breakfast.

Around this time Daddy decided to make an appearance (I'm pretty sure he was awake listening to us and deciding how long he could use his i-phone and pretend to be asleep...). The next 40 minutes was spent trying to cook breakfast while simultaneously keeping something on the bear's highchair tray so she didn't LOSE HER MIND waiting for the scrambled eggs I was attempting to make. We went through at least a half dozen clementines, a handful of puffed rice cereal, two slices of baked ham, and a few small slices of organic multi-grain bread before the "real" breakfast made it to the table.

By the time I fixed my coffee (now on ice) and a poached egg for myself, the baby bear was LOSING HER MIND because she was bored with eating a little bit of everything in the kitchen and wanted OUT of the highchair. Daddy and the bug were sitting among the breakfast wreckage looking at pictures of ridiculous animals on the computer and the bug was laughing maniacally and declaring, "Show it to Mommy!" every ten seconds or so.

My breakfast view. Not pictured: bear throwing scrambled eggs into the air by the fistful to my left

Then we cleaned the kitchen (Daddy helped!) and I dressed the bear while the bug went upstairs to play. The bug is still in her jammies, but I'm not ready for that fight yet. Then, a miracle occurred. Both kids went into the playroom and are having fun WITHOUT crying or asking for anything! The bear is in her jumper and squealing delightedly at her sister while the bug is setting up all sorts of crazy make-believe scenarios. I know I am going to have a massive mess to clean later, but I do not care in the slightest. It's quiet and I am enjoying it!

And now I get to the point of this post and where the title came from. I'm planning to throw the bear an "If you give a mouse a cookie..." first birthday party. When I was browsing the internet looking for inspiration I found this silly and appropriate poem another blogger wrote called "If You Give A Mom A Muffin." I told my husband I was going to write "If You Give A Dad A Donut." And this is what we came up with...

If you give a dad a donut,

he'll sit down at the computer and eat it.

He won't notice the baby's stinky diaper,

or the four year old emptying mommy's purse,

or mommy trying to cook breakfast and do laundry and make the beds.

Instead, he'll find a thread about donuts on Reddit.

And chances are,

if he sees a thread about donuts,

he's going to eat another donut.