Then I started getting more and more into nutrition and how it works with your body. Fast forward to about Christmas of this past year and how incredibly exhausted I was all the time, how there were times that I seriously thought I had an early onset of dementia for the brain fog I experienced on a daily basis- (worse than just the normal "blonde moments").
So I decided to cut out gluten for the most part (after a long talk with a long time friend who is gluten intolerant). The first two weeks were ROUGH. The struggle was REAL here people. But, after the first couple weeks I started noticing I had a phenomenal amount of energy, no more brain fog, and enough motivation that I could actually do P90X or a HIIT workout every night after getting home from work. Keep in mind I get up at 5 AM, drive an hour to work, work 7:15-5, pick up M, drive an hour or more depending on traffic, feed him, play with him, bathe him, get him in bed and then I was doing a a very long workout! Also keep in mind I may have been somewhat psychotic at this point and have backed off a little on the workouts by either shortening them or only working out a couple times a week and hard on the weekends.
Anyway, so some of the recipes I've discovered in this time are actually quite delicious and can be enjoyed by all! I'll share them with you all as I get the time to blog.
The first one I've fallen in love with is homemade fruit roll-ups. It's 3 ingredients and TOTALLY worth the wait. :) I've tried it with strawberries and pineapple so far. The pineapple is absolutely amazing.
So here's how you do it:
Fruit (here you can use any kind you want. I use fruit that is still good but maybe not so fresh that you'd serve it on a silver platter to your grandma or mother-in-law- yeah, because I know you all do that.)
1 TBSP lemon juice
Powdered sugar (to taste- start with 1/4 cup)
Put your fruit in a food processor or blend until it's liquid
Add the lemon juice and blend a little more until it's good and mixed.
If the fruit isn't already a really sweet one (like pineapple) you'll need to add a little of the sugar to sweeten it up but the point here is to keep the nutritional value so let's not overdo it and mix again.
Pour it out onto a parchment covered jelly roll pan. The bigger the pan, the better because you'll want it to be pretty thin.
Put it into your oven and bake at 200 degrees for about 8 hours. If the center of the mixture is thicker, you'll need to bake longer but the idea is that it'll dehydrate to the point where it's a little gummy but not mushy. Think of what a pre-packaged fruit roll-up feels like.
When it's done, take it out of the oven and peel it off the parchment paper. Voila! Homemade Becky-home-ecky like snacks!! :) They'll go fast. And don't worry if you over dehydrate it. It's just like having dehydrated fruit chips. Crunchy but still a powerfully delicious taste.
And for those of you who read this only for the Masonism....last weekend I cleaned carpets and spring cleaned the apartment- it was getting pretty bad so it was time. He helped for the most part and did a great job. So Sunday, as I was preparing all of my food for the week so that I didn't have to cook as much during the week, I come out of "my zone" and realize that it looks like a Lego bomb went off in my living room. We're talking 4,246 legos spread EVER-Y-WHERE! Surprisingly, I laughed it off but told Mason that he needed to clean it up and and instead of making enormous messes, clean things up as he goes along and be more responsible about helping out. This is his response "Mom, I'm just 4. I can't BE anymore RESPONSIBLE." - Umm, the fact that you just used that retort on your mother at the age of 4 tells me you can. Either way, it was good for a laugh.
