Day 8 Expanding the Taste Buds

Here I am at Day 8 of my new way of living (at least for now) and it hasn't been without it's ups and downs.  We went to a marriage banquet and I thought I had communicated my food needs and I guess I didn't because the only thing for me to eat was broccoli and cauliflower!  After getting over the disappointment I was fine because I actually wasn't that hungry anyway.  And it was comforting to know that I wasn't taking in all those extra calories anyway...well sort of.

I also thought I was doing so well adding pesto to some of my dishes but when I looked at the label I realized it had romano cheese and soybean oil...oops, both things I can't have.  Guess I'll have to learn to make my own from now on. 

Needless to say I have been learning to expand my tastebuds these day.  Lunch today for example:

This little duo is a broiled portabello mushroom with spinach, green onions and goat cheese (with a splash of white wine vinegar and oil) and some cumin spiced sweet potatoes and yams.  This meal was 95% vegetable!  If you are lucky enough to be able to eat peppers and tomatoes, this addition to the mushroom would be fabulous.  Just broil your mushroom with a little olive oil for 4-5 minutes, add your toppings and put it back in for another 5.  Delish and quite a healthy meal!

With a little encouragement from Our Best Bites blog today I decided to try my hand once again at making my own stock seeing how I cannot buy it any longer because they ALL have MSG in some form or another.  Those of you who have read past blogs have known that my track record is not that good.  I decided to give it one more go.  I pulled out the Christmas Turkey carcass that I'd been saving from the freezer and went at it. 

It's simmering on the stove right now and I hope to have enough to go in the freezer as well.  I'm going to make Italian Wedding Soup tonight with mini turkey meatballs and brown rice instead of the orzo pasta.  It's starting to smell good in here so here's to hoping it turns out!

Another great idea from the ladies at Best Bites to add a little fun into feeding your kids was this:

Serve your kids their lunch in muffin cups.  I don't have any six piece ones so I used individual ones and tried to put lots of colour into it.  Look how happy this boy looks to eat his fruits and veggies!  It's fun to change things up every now and again and let them have fun eating their food. 

Well, that's it for now, happy eating!