Whole 30 Meatloaf and Plantain Chips

Plantain Chips

Going through my first whole 30 I wanted to make some of my favorite foods! I'm totally obsessed with the Terra vegetable chips so I needed something new to feed my craving for them. I got some trader joe's plantain chips which were heavenly but I couldn't keep buying a ton of those. So…. I decided to make my own! First I tried them in the oven and well… almost all of them came out burnt or partly burnt. So I decided to try them in the dehydrator and it worked amazingly! 

First, I found a great sale on plantains at the store (5 for $2) 

What You'll Need: 
5 or more plantains
Mandolin or sharp knife 
Sea Salt 
Dehydrator

I cut of the ends of each plantain and placed a long slice down one side of the plantain skin and popped the plantain out of the skin! Next, I used my mandolin to evenly cut up the plantains. 

After they were all cut up I placed them in a single layer on the dehydrator plates. Sprinkled them all with salt and I turned the dehydrator on at 155 degrees. It took about 12hrs to completely dry them out.   

Now I have great on the go snacks for the rest of my whole 30! 5 plantains filled a quart size storage bag. It probably would have been more but I have a bad habit of tasting along the way while they dehydrate! oops! 

Whole 30 Meatloaf 

The Loaf: 

2lbs Grassfed Ground Beef

1 Small Sweet Onion 

1/2 Cup Gated Carrots

2 Large Eggs

1Tbsp Ghee 

1/2Tbsp Basil 

1/2Tbsp Thyme 

1/2Tbsp Rosemary 

1/2Tbsp Garlic

1/2Tbsp Pepper 

1tsp Salt 

The Sauce: 

1 Can of Muir Glen Tomato Sauce 

1 1/2Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar 

1/2tsp dry mustard

1/8tsp cayenne pepper 

1/8tsp cinnamon 

I prepped by putting foil over a medium sized baking pan and spread the tablespoon of ghee on the foil then pre heated the oven to 375F. 

First I mixed up the ingredients for the 'ketchup' sauce. Then I took all the ingredients for the loaf and mixed them into a big bowl. Also I added half of the sauce recipe to the mixture. Next I mushed together everything into a log. 

Lastly I spread the rest of the sauce on top of the loaf and popped it into the oven for an hour! 

Before the Oven!

Fresh out of the Oven

I made cauliflower mashed potatoes and asparagus for sides. Can you say comfort food?!?! It was amazing!

Let me know how you guys like it!! 

Week 1 of my Whole 30

Whole 30 Day 1:

Breakfast:
Cube Steak, 2 eggs, sauerkraut, avocado, strawberries
Lunch:
Flank steak, Salad (spring mix, tomato, avocado, bell pepper, and carrot) Tessemae Balsamic Vinegar dressing.
Snack:
Trader joe's sardines, plantain chips, and blueberry larabar
Dinner:
Pork loin, brussels sprouts, and green beans with ghee and a handful of mixed dry roasted nuts.

Day 2:

Breakfast:
diced sweet potato, ground beef, kale, 1 egg cooked in coconut oil, 3 strawberries and a small handful of dry roasted nuts. Also, my morning cup of decaf coffee and bottle of water.

Lunch:

leftovers! Pork, brussels srouts topped with ghee, and baby belly peppers. 

Dinner:

Grilled chicken, cauliflower mashed 'potatoes' with ghee, and collard greens sautéed with onions and mushrooms garlic infused olive oil (seriously soooo delicious!!) 

Snacks: 

watermelon and a handful of dry roasted cashews. Oh and I had a few plantain chips while I was cooking dinner!

Day 3: 

Breakfast: 

(almost the same as yesterday!) cube steak, sautéed kale, sweet potato and mushrooms in coconut oil. 1 large egg, a side of watermelon and of course my cup of decaf coffee! 

Lunch: 

A big ole salad again bell pepper, grape tomato, cucumber, avocado, spring mix and romaine. I put Italian seasoned ground beef on top. 

Dinner: 

Cauliflower mashed potatoes, salmon steak and bagged mixed veggies. 

Snacks: 

banana and almond butter, a handful of carrots, a little bit of pork and leftover brussels sprouts. 

Day 4: 

Breakfast: 

Once again! Sweet potato, mushroom, kale  ground beef sautéed in lard with an egg on top! I had about a cup of watermelon with it as well. With my cup of decaf with some coconut milk in it. 

Lunch: 

2 applegate farms beef hotdogs, sauerkraut, mixed veggies, and half an avocado. 

Dinner: 

Chicken from the whole chicken I made in the crockpot, sweet potato, and collard greens and mushrooms sautéed in garlic olive oil.

Snacks:

 trader joes sardines, some baby carrots, 3 strawberries and a handful of mixed dry roasted nuts. 

Day 5: 

Breakfast: 

cube steak and 1 egg cooked in lard, green beans, sweet potato with cinnamon, and a small gala apple. Also, as always, my cup of coffee with some coconut milk in it.

Lunch: 

(whole 30 fail... The tots I'm pretty sure had some ingredients I shouldn't have) we went out to lunch in Baltimore so I tired my best... A chicken sandwhich with no bun and extra lettuce. Had the chicken topped with old bay seasoning and then a side of sweet potato tots and lastly a side of avocado which isn't pictured.

Dinner: 

Another big salad! Avocado, tomato, bell pepper, spring mix, romaine, and tessemae balsamic vinegarette. A side of chicken with paprika, salt, and pepper. 

Snacks: 

Trader joes sardines, a handful of carrots, a handful of dry roasted cashews 

Day 6: 

Breakfast:

 Cube steak, one egg, sautéed sweet potato, kale, beets in lard. Also had a side of black grapes with my coffee and coconut milk.  

Lunch: 

Homemade salmon cakes, mixed stir fry vegetables cooked with ginger. Snacked on some carrots and a banana with cashews as I did meal prep. 

Dinner: 

Lamb steak, sweet potato with ghee, and roasted asparagus. 

Snacks: 

made some plantain chips and tried a few of those, 3 baby peppers and 3 strawberries and some macadamia nuts.

Day 7: 

Breakfast: 

2 eggs cooked in coconut oil, Italian seasoned ground beef, green beans, half an avocado and strawberries. Also my cup of coffee with coconut milk.

Lunch: 

shredded chicken, spaghetti squash with ghee, and beets roasted with coconut oil. 

Dinner: Beef pot roast, sweet potato, spaghetti squash, broccoli all covered with ghee. 

Snacks: 

Trader joes smoked sardines and a blueberry larabar. Also after my workout I had a handful of homemade plantain chips. 

There were a lot of ups and downs to this week. The first 3 days were for sure the worst. Even the night of day 3 I had dreams about eating dark chocolate and pizza and having wine. It was crazy for sure. I think I have now 'killed the sugar dragon' though which feels amazing. If you read It Starts With Food before you start your whole 30 journey it helps a lot. It helped me get more of an idea of the things I would go through mentally and all the recipes in the book are awesome too!  

I have been sleeping better and for sure have more energy. Also, Olivia no longer spits up at all and has so much less gas. Knowing this it gives me that much more motivation to keep this journey going as long as possible. 

The first 3 days I also felt so hungry and felt like I could never get enough food. At day 7 though I finally feel satisfied and I'm actually eating less. It's crazy how fast your hormones level out when you are eating the right things.

I did have a little bit of a cheat and had sweet potato tots which probably had some kind of starch in them and bad oils but I will make sure not to make that mistake again. You can't obsess about the mess up, just move on and that's just what I'm doing! 

Overall I'm really enjoying this experience and it's really helping me get back into the paleo mindset which I needed. I started my workout plan today as well so next week I will be able to write more about what I'm doing and how I'm feeling.

Troubleshooting Breastfeeding

To say the least breastfeeding has been by far the hardest thing I have EVER done. I thought it would come easy to me and after all the encouraging things my midwife told me I had some high hopes.

The first week was just miserable. We were figuring out her latch and also finding a feeding position that worked for both of us. Through this journey I got blistered nipples and a slight case of mastitis. On top of this we had a really sleepy baby on our hands and I would have to wake her and make her feed which was hard on both of us. Also, I had to pump multiple times a day because I was so engorged it wasn't even funny. With my nipples being so messed up pumping was so uncomfortable and I remember cringing every time I even thought about pumping. In the end we made it through the first week.

Week two was better. Olivia was still having problems with finding a good latch. She started gulping a lot during feedings and swallowing a lot of air. This is when our 'colic' problems started. She would eat, eat, eat like crazy and then cry so hard that her lips would start turning blue. We were blessed with a girl with some lungs on her. The first couple of nights we used gripe water to help her stomach. Within minutes after giving her the medicine she would be fast asleep. We still use the gripe water maybe once a day when she randomly gets a big bubble in her tummy...

Organic Gripe Water We Used

At the same time the gas was happening she started projectile vomiting 2-3 times a day. We both got wardrobe changes multiple times a day because of this. I ended up having to cut out dairy because we found that was part of the problem. We used Nat Phos 6x (a homeopathic remedy) after every other feeding, by day 2 she stopped vomiting and spitting up. Nat Phos was literally a God sent for us and I recommend it to anyone having acid reflux problems both child and adults. Within 6 days we went from giving her the medicine 5-8 times a day to giving it to her only once a day. Since then we haven't had any problems. The great thing about homeopathy is that is cures the problem not just the symptoms which makes it work so well. We bought it from Vitamin Shoppe but you can get it pretty much anywhere, Amazon, Iherb, Swanson, etc.

Nat Phos 6x By Hyland's

Week three I would say was the best/worst week of it all. My nipples were still trashed but not blistering which is sadly a positive. Also, my milk finally regulated so I don't feel engorged all day long. I'm still pumping 1-2 times a day to get a good stash of milk in the freezer though.
We started bottle feeding her the last feeding before we go to bed which has helped her sleep with no extra gas on her stomach. The last thing I wanted to do was introduce the bottle too early. I wanted to make sure she didn't have any nipple confusion problems but that went out the window when the pain of feeding her became pretty much unbearable.
 We went to her check up appointment and I told the doctor about how hard it has been to breastfeed and how I am still really sore all the time. He didn't really lend any advice just told me to call the lactation consultant and get an appointment. He said since she was gaining weight that I shouldn't be concerned and that I was just adjusting to breastfeeding. Him saying that really set me off so when I got home I started doing some research.

This is when I learned about lip ties. I looked at pictures and then checked out Olivia's upper lip. There was no doubt about it… She has a major lip tie. I found out that having one causes a bad latch which causes pain during breastfeeding. Also, this lip tie could cause a million other problems down the road for her. We went and saw the lactation consultant and she helped us so much. She fixed her latch as much as possible and did say that her upper lip for sure had a tie and within a couple months it will get tight and we will have to probably get it clipped.

After getting fixed up by the lactation consultant things got so much better! We were finally feeding without any pain and Olivia's gas problems went away which was awesome. Then around week five is when we once again had a problem. Thrush decided to show up and ruin our now great breastfeeding relationship. I couldn't figure out why my nipples started to hurt again but then I figured it out when Olivia's tongue started to turn white.

Thrush is a form of a yeast which can be passed back and forth between mom and baby. The best way to fix the problem is to treat the mom first. So this is what I did…
I doubled my probiotic intake, started taking more vitamin C and zinc, bought myself some grapefruit seed extract, and started swallowing 2 cloves of raw garlic a day. All of these things boost your immune system to help balance the yeast in your body. Also, I cut out all sugars even down to just one piece of fruit a day and cut out gluten and dairy (which I already did prior) altogether. Yeast feeds on sugar and gluten so cutting those out can help so much. Within 3 days the pain in my nipples was gone so I swear by the home remedies I used.
The doctor gave me Nystatin (the oral form) to give to Olivia 3 times a day after she eats. We used it once… She got horrible gas from it and did not like the taste at all of it. I hated seeing her in pain so I decided it wasn't worth it. It has now been about 2 weeks, I haven't had any problems since day 3 but she still has a small patch of white on her tongue. It doesn't bother her at all so I decided I'm just going to keep treating myself until it totally clears up. Fingers crossed it works!

In the end I have learned breastfeeding can be a crazy journey. I know most people don't have any problems at all and I hope that for all new moms. I was the opposite, whatever could happen did happen. I think it has been all worth it though. I love being able to provide for Olivia and give her what God intended her to get.

I know every mom is different and formula is a great option or the only option for some families. I don't see it as a bad thing to formula feed it all,  it's all personal preference. My personal preference is to breastfeed and I LOVE IT!! Between the bonding during feedings and knowing I'm the one that can provide all she needs just warms my heart!

Birth Story

**This post I wrote more for myself and has all the gross details about what happened during my natural birth experience. If you get grossed out easily then just don't read it.**

- Also, I know women love to hear inspiring birth stories so that is why I chose to share mine. Birth stories helped me so I wanted to do the same for other. It's a long drawn out story but I hope you enjoy! -


It all started when I woke up to some uncomfortable belly pains at 6:30am on Feburuary 26th. The first thing I thought was this isn't anything special our peanut showed no signs the day before of coming. I was one day over my due date and the day prior I was scheduled for an induction on March 10th if she didn't come on her own... I think it scared the peanut and she decided to come the next day. 

So back to the story... I got up and used the bathroom and this is when I knew something was happening. I got more cramps aka baby contractions and realized today was the day! Being my normal self the first thing I thought was that I needed food and I needed it before they wouldn't let me at the hospital! So I made myself a massive breakfast and let my contractions take over. Around 8am I called Ken and told him it was time to come home so he could be ready to take me to the hospital. Once he got here we just hung out because I knew I didn't want to go in too early and be uncomfortable. I took a shower and he drank a beer and watched Top Gear (I told him to do something to help him relax lol).

 My contractions went from being about 5-7mins apart to 2-4mins apart in no time while I was sitting on my birth ball and watching tv with Ken. We decided it was time to go when my contractions were 2mins apart and when one brought me to my knees. We left the house around 10:30am, Ken drove like a maniac to the hospital and I remember yelling at him to slow down because I would like to get there alive to have this child! It was an interesting car ride to say the least. 

We got to the hospital right around 11am and of course the triage room was closed for lunch time clean up so we had to wait 30mins before they took us back. We hung out in the waiting room and Ken would rub my back every time I had a contraction, he did an amazing job supporting me. Once I got admitted is when things went south. 

They had to do a 20min monitor on me before they would get me a room, not being able to move from the bed and laying on my back was the worst ever. It made the contractions feel a million times worse then they were. After a long 20mins (more like 35mins) of waiting the nurse came back and had me change into a hopital gown so she would check my progress. She came back quickly and I was 5cm dilated, she said my water would naturally break at any time. We gave her our brith plan and brought our midwife Brooke to us. She and Brooke were so supportive of our plan and told me she would never ask if I wanted drugs which was awesome for a hospital setting. At 12:40pm my water broke... I have never peed myself before but now I know what I feels like... Disgusting!! 

Water breaking I guess gives you a free pass to your own labor room which is awesome because I never thought they were going to let me leave the monotoringn room! They had Ken pack up our stuff and they took us across the hall to our room. It was like 10 degrees warmer in there and felt really cozy for a hospital. Later I hated how hot it was but at the time it was so nice. Since I still wasn't hooked up to any IV (just has the IV lock in my arm) I was able to move around the room more freely which I loved. I spent most of my contractions either leaning over the side of the bed or sitting at the end of the bed with my legs crossed Indian style so I could sit up really straight. Ken would rub my back or just apply pressure when I needed it but sometimes I just didn't want to be touched. I noticed by this point I didn't care who saw my parts and I think my open hospital gown bugged Ken more then it bothered me. I guess that's just what happens when you are trying to focus. 

The one thing I learned from my childbirth book by Ina May was that you need to find something to focus on or a saying to repeat to encourage yourself. In the moment mine was made. "I'm strong, I'm open, I'm calm." I repeated it over and over through my whole labor. It kept me calm and focused on the goal of meeting our new baby girl! I also kept in mind that my body was made to do this and women have been doing this naturally for millions of years so I could do it too. Truthfully I think as much as labor is a physical challenge it is even more of a mental challenge and once you are centered mentally you can make it happen! 
Things progressed quickly in the labor room, in about an hour and 45 mins I went from 5cm dilated to 9cm dilated. I was in the zone besides the fact that both my monitoring belt and my blood pressure band would not stay on and the nurse seemed pretty annoyed by it I didn't care. I those were the least of my worries. I tried to get rid of my blood pressure band but they wouldn't let me, it gave me the worst blood blisters in the world after it was over with which I was not thrilled about. 
Once I hit the transition phase is when things got rough. I was sitting at the edge of the bed with my legs crossed when I felt another gush of water. I told the nurse that my water felt like it broke again, she didn't say anything aloud but her face looked concerned. She brought the midwife in again and she informed me that the baby had already passed her meconium which isn't a good thing because it can cause meconium aspiration. That is when the baby swallows and inhales meconium and amniotic fluid. The midwife told me that she has to call the NICU staff so they can be there for the birth incase something does go wrong. I went from having 2 people in my room to 10+ people which was not the funniest experience. 
The midwife then checked my progress because I was getting really uncomfortable she said I was at 9cm which was music to my ears! I remember I had 4 really hard contractions and I started repeating over and over to my nurse that I felt like I needed to poop so bad. (I had no shame at this point because things were so intense.) They said thats normal and just means its time to push. She checked me again and I was fully dilated and ready to go. 
They moved my bed around to get me into a good pushing position, my new nurse came in when this was happening. Her name was Caitlin and she was amazing. It was right around 2:30pm when I started pushing. They had me push 3 times for 10 seconds during each contraction. I first started pushing on my back like any normal hospital birth, I was still trying to get the hang of this whole pushing thing so I wasn't very productive. They moved me onto my left side and had me push that way which was much more productive and I felt like I could get some work done. My midwife made sure I tried every position she could think of to see what worked best for me. She brought out the squat bar and hooked it up to my bed. Most women that have natural births say that this is their favorite position and get the most productive pushes this way so I was excited to try. Unfortunately it was the complete opposite for me, I went through 3 contractions and didn't get anywhere. Brooke told me to just lay back down and decide what felt best to me, I did just that. She went and grabbed a long sheet from the closet and wrapped it around the squat bar. This is when things started to get productive. I leaned more onto my left side and anchored my feet on each side of the squat bar and held onto that sheet for dear life. The nurse kept saying that they couldn't get a heart rate on the baby because my monitor kept coming off so they put a monitor on the top of the baby's head which was also a no no in our birth plan but I let them do what they wanted in the moment. (remember birth plans are flexible and things can change in an instant.)  I was able to push twice as hard when I started pulling on the towel. After 2 contractions and some really good pushes I could feel that her head was starting to show. Brooke asked if I wanted to feel the head between contractions but for some reason the idea grossed me out so that never happened! lol I had about 6 more contractions and with every contraction I could feel her getting closer and closer. I buried my head into the sheet as I pulled on it and pushed hard. My last contraction I had I pushed 4 times during the contraction. Her head came out during the first 2 pushes and then her shoulders the next and lastly her legs and butt came out during the last push. Brooke told us that she came out with her eyes wide open and we could hear her crying. Our Olivia Jane Vaillancourt was born. February 26 2014 at 3:25pm is when she made her appearance.

Olivia Jane Vaillancourt <3

They were unable to delay cord clamping like we wanted because they had to rush her over to the NICU staff on the other side of the room because of her passing meconium in utero. Since she cried when she came out they said she was just fine, they checked her out really fast as a precaution and Ken got to cut the cord down which he was so excited about. They wrapped her up and gave her to Ken. He then brought her over to me and unwrapped her and we got to do skin to skin like requested. One of the NICU nurses then came over and helped her latch so she could breastfeed right away. She took to it like a champ, the nurse even commented on her lovely milk mustache she had. 
We got to do 30 minutes of skin to skin while Brooke hooked me up to some pitocin so I could deliver the placenta. It took a little for my placenta to come, I had to push 2 times to get it out. Brooke even commented on how big it was. We told everyone in advance that we wanted to keep the placenta so they put it in a bag for us right away. I then had Ken text the placenta encapsulator letting her know that the placenta was ready for pick up. She by our surprise said she would be there in 20 minutes to come get it. Ken was able to run it down to her and it was easy as that! 

Over the Moon With emotions. She is perfect.

After I delivered the placenta they checked me out for any tears. I ended up having a very small tear inside my vagina which needed one stitch and then I long tear outside that was very minor but they stitched up anyways so "it wouldn't burn when I peed" according to Brooke! I was all numbed up and stitched up when the worst part came. I swear I would go through labor twice if I didn't have to go through it again. The nurse has to push down on your belly to get the extra clots and junk out to help your uterus shrink back down. She did it every 15 minutes for an hour. Having someone put all their weight into pushing down on your belly is the worst experience ever, I even had a bruise to prove it. 
Our nurse Caitlin after the first round of pushing on my stomach commented on how I was losing a lot of blood which wasn't a good thing. This made her have to push harder then she normally would to make sure she could get out all the clots to stop the bleeding. After an hour of torture she told me that if I peed then I would be able to get transferred to the mother baby unit and get to relax. 
Right away I told her I wanted to go pee. We went to the toilet and I was able to pee right away. She helped me into my super awesome depends undies and washed my legs and feet up with some soap and water while I sat on the toilet. She was awesome and even put some grippy fuzzy socks on me. I told her I felt really dizzy and she told the other nurse to go grab me a couple juice boxes. 
I got one of my apple juices down and then things went sideways… Caitlin left the room to get me a water cup and a wet rag for my forehead so it was just Ken with Olivia in his arms and I. Thats when I went down. Totally passed out hard. Ken told me that I started twitching like crazy and then he had to grab the back of my hospital gown to keep me from falling forward off the toilet. Personally I don't remember even passing out. I just remember dropping my juice box and then seeing Brooke in the bathroom with me and Ken was gone. I only passed out for a second but it was because I lost so much blood and I was so little according to Brooke. So she told me she suggests that I get some IV fluids hooked up so I feel better. I agreed to it. They got me back to my bed and I got 2 bags of IV fluids and downed 32oz of coconut water. I hung out in the labor room for about another half hour. During that time they took Olivia over and cleaned her off a little (we requested no bath) and measured and weighed her. She was exactly 7lbs and 20 inches long. We also declined the vitamin K shot, hepatitis B shot, and the eye ointment. We didn't want our little pure peanut filled with those foreign substances. (Just our personal opinion, I know everyone has different views on it.) 
They brought my a boxed lunch and they had me eat it all before I got to move again. I got 2 more juices, an orange, a turkey sandwich and some cookies. As I ate and Brooke joked with me about how I had such a simple and easy labor that something had to go a little wrong in the end. I loved how no matter what she kept my spirits up and made me feel like everything that happened was totally normal. 

Happy New Daddy!!

I called my dad and let him know that he was officially a grandpa while Ken called his mom to let her know too. My mom was on a plane on her way to see us. She thought she was going to make it in time for the birth but not quite. In the end she said she was glad it was just Ken and I there and that she wasn't. 
After all the phone calls we got to go to the mother baby unit which was down the hall. The nurse put me in the wheelchair and Ken got to wheel Olivia. We went so slow, Ken didn't want to hit any bumps in the hallways too hard since he had his brand new package with him. It was the cutest thing ever to see. 
FINALLY we made it to our room and Ken went down to the car to get the rest of our stuff. We got to settle in and let everyone know that Olivia was here and that our nameless baby finally had a name. 
Overall I was so pleased with how things went, I felt things couldn't have gone any more as planned. I felt so lucky and blessed about the experience I had. Our midwife and nurses were amazing, we got so lucky with the people that God had present for us that day. It's a day none of us will forget. Ken and I are so lucky to have such a perfect little girl in our lives. 

 Happy New parents!!

My Beautiful Placenta Print!

Proud Grandma Meeting Her First Grandchild

Eggshell Calcium and being sick...

A couple weeks ago I made some eggshell calcium from the farm fresh eggs that we get. I thought it would be easy to add it to smoothies or oatmeal but I was soooo wrong. It's gritty and tastes like tiny rocks, not my kind of fun if you ask me! I would much rather find a different way to take this awesome form of calcium... 

I decided capsules are the best idea! 1 tsp is about 1,000mg of calcium, I fit 1/4 tsp in each capsule. I plan on taking 4 a day at separate times to make sure I get enough calcium. I will take less if I know I'm getting plenty from my food. 

I made this awesome stuff like I said from cage free, locally raised eggs that we get from a friend. I took an 18 pack of eggshells and made sure they were all washed out from the extra egg whites that sometimes get left behind but I made sure not to wash out the membrane of the shell. I then I boiled the shells for about 10mins to make sure they were really clean and then let them dry for 48 hours because you don't want any liquid in your powder. 

After 48 hours I put the eggshells into my food processor, that didn't work out too well... It was still very chunky. So I put them in the coffee grinder and that did the trick! I got a fine powder! I put that in a little container and I was done! 

When filling the capsules today I got about 100 or so of them from the 18 eggshells which is pretty dang good in my eyes! Now I can actually take these things without feeling like I have rocks in my teeth! 

Why eggshell calcium!? 

Because it's from a natural source the body can absorb is so much better. Also, what is more paleo then eggshells? You don't have to worry about all the added ingredients you find in store bought brands. Mostly all store bought brands are also not from a natural source let alone organic so I feel so much better about taking eggshells. 

*Don't forget to get good quality eggs if you are planning on doing this because the better the quality the less pollutants the shell is likely to have. Try to seek out cage free, local eggs versus generic store  brand eggs, there is a big difference!*

Now on to other subjects... This girl is sick again... 

3rd time this pregnancy and every time has been equally crappy!! 

Some natural remedies I always go to are... Apple cider vinegar, raw garlic, raw honey, extra vitamin D, and elderberry syrup. My new additions have been Theives oil and bone broth. 

My routine usually consists of... Warming up some water and making an apple cider vinegar (about 1tbs or more) tea with raw honey in it, it makes it taste so much better instead of just shooting vinegar by itself! Then with the garlic I just chop a clove or 2 into small pieces and swallow them which is disgusting but very worth it! I add extra D to my daily vitamins, I usually take 6,000iu every other day but while I'm sick I take it daily! Lastly I take a shot of elderberry syrup twice a day with juice, elderberry is a natural form of vitamin c so it always seems to do the trick! 

Lastly, now I make soup out of bone broth to help with recovery and when I don't want to eat, soup is always nice. This is the kind of chicken noodle soup your mom talks about that will make you better when you are sick because it has all the nutrients in it from the bones! Then comes the Theives oil! This stuff is awesome, it's naturally antibacterial and antifungal. It can pretty much kill anything. I put 2 drops on each foot before bed to help my immune system while I sleep! It seems to do the trick! 

Are there any natural remedies that you use in your house? Anything I'm missing? 

Tell me what you think! 

Ask me some questions I would love to answer them! 

Week 35 Update and What's Inside my Hospital Bag

Today marks 35 weeks pregnant for me. Only 35 days left and our little peanut will be here!

Truthfully I can not wait to get this baby out of me!! I have had an awesome pregnancy so far, I have stayed active and have had great energy so I can't complain too much. I am just ready now because all the problems that I never had before seem to be happening to me now! 

Some of those bad things are… heartburn, swollen ankles, fatigue, and backaches. These have all popped up in the last week, it's so crazy how fast things can change! No matter what I eat, it seems to give me heartburn now, ginger tea and braggs apple cider vinegar have been my best friends. I'm used to having a go, go, go lifestyle so the fatigue, swollen ankles and backaches are driving me so crazy. I just want to get things done and I have noticed that it now takes me two days to do the things I was doing in one day before. 

My workouts have changed and slowed down considerably this last week as well. My usual workout would be some kind of strength training along with 40mins of cardio either on the stair master or on the treadmill. This last week I have dropped my weights during strength training and my cardio has slowed down. Went from always being at 3+mph and doing intervals at 10 and 5 inclines to 2.5mph and doing intervals at 5 and 0 inclines and maybe going to 10 once or twice. I miss working out hard and I can't wait to get back to my normal routine once the baby gets here. At the same time though I'm so thankful that I have been able to stay active and my body has allowed it. 

One of the most important things I have learned through this process is adapting. My body is making a tiny person and that takes some energy for sure, realizing that and adapting to that keeps me sane and positive. In only 35 weeks my body has grown hips I never had and gained around 17lbs.  My body doing that on top of all my every day activities is purely amazing which I need to keep in mind. Any pregnant lady should keep that in mind, you may not be able to do what you once did before but your body is doing amazing things, TAKE IT IN!

Now for the exciting part of my post!!

MY HOSPITAL BAG! 

I have been told by a million different moms that you should keep your hospital bag as simple as possible so thats just what I did…

My Bag, Showing off the Basics

Here is the list of what's inside:

• 1 comfy going home outfit 
• 2 nursing bras
• 1 nursing tank top
• 1 loose shirt
• 1 button up shirt 
• 1 pair of sweatpants 
• 1 pair of PJ pants
• 3 pairs of ugly undies
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 zip up sweatshirt
• 1 pair of super fuzzy socks
• Nursing pads 
• Breastfeeding Pillow
• Pads/depends 
• iPod with soothing music on it/ headphones
• Camera and charger
• Phone and charger
• Birth plan on notecards 
• 3 Print outs of birth plan
• Toiletry bag- shampoo, soap, lotion, contact solution, etc. 
• Earth Mama Bottom Spray (I heard it's amazing!)
• Hair ties and bobby pins
• Slippers
• Lacrosse ball for massaging
• Coconut oil for massage oil 
• Lavender essential oil for relaxation
• Snacks (larabars, mixed nuts, squeezable pouch baby food)
• Gum
• Coconut Water
• Fluffy pillow 
• Birth ball aka exercise ball from walmart! 

For Dad: 

(he is an easy pleaser and doesn't need much!)

• Comfy pants
• T-shirt
• Sweatshirt
• Toothbrush
• iPod (for his own entertainment)
• Phone and charger

Feeding Pillow and Snacks

For the baby:

I'm bringing both newborn and 0-3month clothing for the baby since we have no idea how big or small she will be! That's why there seems to be so many outfits!

• 2 short sleeve onesies
• 1 long sleeve onesie 
• 2 sleepers 
• 3 pairs of socks
• 2 matching hats
• 1 going home outfit (footie pants and zip up coat over onesie) 
• 8 newborn size diapers (incase the size 1 in the hospital don't fit)
• Seventh Generations wipes (love these because of the non toxic ingredients)
• 1 swaddle blanket
• 1 large fuzzy blanket 
• Coconut oil for dry delicate skin
• Vitamin K drops (we are opting out of the vitamin k shot for personal reasons)
• Carseat

The babies bag. Can you tell we have an owl theme?

Not everything we are packing made it in the pictures but I figured they would help with perspective. The hospital were I'm delivering told us our stay could be between 1-3 days so we prepared for the worse, you could always get away with bringing even less! 

Any Questions? Just ask! 

Anything you think I'm missing? Please let me know, I love the input! 

Freezer Meals and Catching up…

I decided back in June that it would be a great idea to start a blog now that I had extra time on my hands. As you guys can see it worked really well… I got one whole post and then got distracted! Well this is going to be try number 2 for this girl! I have a feeling this time I'm going to make it happen!

First off, a lot has happened since I last wrote. I still have many food allergies and digestion issues like normal. I still workout and love being healthy. Now I just have more of a reason to stay fit and be healthy, I have a baby on the way. Just about a week after my June post I found out I was pregnant, no wonder I was having so many digestion issues, my body was trying to figure out how to brew up a baby! Since then I have become even more conscious about what I eat and how well I take care of myself.

I have 5 weeks left of this pregnancy and then a whole new world of motherhood awaits me. Since I'm so close to D day I figured this weekend I would make some freezer meals. I have heard from many new moms that finding time to cook is the hardest part of having a new baby. I decided to get ahead of the curve and make sure our little family is ready for its new addition and has food to power us through the feeding, crying, pooping machine that is about to grace us with her presence.

So far I have made 14 different meals. I'm still planning on making about 5 different breakfast meals to go along with those too. I feel like it's a good start to a good collection of meals.

I spent 2 days making all of these things. Found most of the recipes on pinterest and things I found on other google searches. I noticed as I started making them though I adapted them to things my husband and I like more so I guess you could say I made them my own… I'm not taking any credit for it though.  Most of the meals are paleo, all of them are gluten and dairy free because my body is just not liking those things right now and I don't think they ever will. When I made these things I just kept in my mind "just eat real food" that being said I got some really healthy meals in my freezer.

Now it's time to look at the mess I made and I will kinda go through the process with you to how I made this happen…

First off, I made some overnight bone broth. We had a whole chicken for dinner and I used the bones from that to make some delicious broth as we slept that night. 

If you have never read about the benefits of homemade bone broth you should… it can heal your gut make your skin amazing (collagen) and is full of healthy vitamins and minerals. 

After learning the facts about it I will never buy store bought broth/stock again. 

Then the madness started… 

I started by cutting up everything I needed. I did all the veggies first and then all the meat. 

You will not believe how many onions and carrots I went through… 

Most of the recipes I just had to throw raw ingredients in bags (both veggies and meat) which was super easy but then I also made some soups that are already all made that we just have to thaw.

… and this is the soup mess I made. 

I used the stock I made above in both these recipes. 

Some chicken and quinoa soup and creamy chicken cauliflower mushroom soup is what you can see. They both tasted amazing and I can't wait to have them. 

Lastly… the aftermath… 

I love cooking but I wish I could hire someone to clean up after me… 

Some pictures of the results! It was all well worth it. 

Some of the things I made were… 

Beef Stew, beef stir fry, hawaiian chicken, cilantro lime chicken, bbq chicken, chicken and quinoa soup, creamy cauliflower mushroom soup, pizza soup, sausage and peppers, taco chili, and a large sweet potato cottage pie. 

All of these we can either just warm up or put straight into the crockpot and let cook. 

TOO EASY!!!

Side note:

I didn't use all fresh ingredients, I like to try and keep it fresh but some things are totally ok to me in cans. In these recipes I used canned tomatoes and tomato sauce ( I always use muir glen brand) , pineapple chunks for the hawaiian chicken, salsa (I love muir glen again) and lastly, low sodium black beans (Eden Organic brand). Sometimes canned foods just make life a little easier which is always nice…

Ps. I also bought mostly all the fresh ingredients and other things I needed at Aldi… If you haven't gone to an Aldi before, you need to make a trip like umm… TODAY! It's a life saver for the budget. Just remember… bring a quarter so you can get a cart and bring your own bags, otherwise you will have to buy some at checkout!   

I hope all this can help a person or two with making some awesome freezer meals!   

Recipes:

Sweet potato cottage pie

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Hawaiian Chicken and Chicken Soup

Taco Chili and Sausage and peppers

The rest of the recipes I got from THIS WEBSITE