I want to preface this post by saying a lot of my prep has to do with my kids and changing up the way they are eating as well as mine. I also have done this before, and I knew some tricks and processes for myself to eat. If I needed to figure out my diet, I would have likely left my kids’ diet alone for a while yet. My mom pointed out that yesterday’s post was A LOT. And it was, and I am sorry if it seemed overwhelming. Realistically, it would only be a batch-cooked dinner on a free day or evening, a salad that would also be pre-prepped and just throw it together in a couple of minutes, and, realistically, a premade breakfast or a smoothie that takes like 2 minutes to put into the blender depending on if you need to chop anything. I may have to time myself on making one of my chocolate cherry smoothies.

Some of the things I am doing are partly because my husband has travel coming up, and also because I just want to have some easy go-to things in the freezer. I am also feeling more energized overall and have the energy to do it all, which I am actually surprised by. Today was a pretty darn good day. I was up and moving most of the day, and it felt good. I am tired, but it will help me fall asleep at bedtime, and I have been feeling a bit more awake in the morning. In combination with being aware that I have either ADHD or at least some of the tendencies since I haven’t been diagnosed. The doctor wanted to medicate me on anxiety meds to try to eliminate the anxiousness to see which one was left standing in case the ADHD was from the anxiety. I chose no medication but to work on myself and health overall. So, in short, today was a good day, and I hope they keep getting better.

I wanted to take a minute to note something about my smoothies. I almost did yesterday, but it was so chock-full, I skipped it. Anywho, I used to pack spinach into them like crazy, but I learned recently that there is something called oxalates, and apparently, they block the absorption of calcium, so keeping to 1 cup of raw spinach per day is best. So, I have been mixing up what I add into my smoothie. Today there were frozen cherries, a banana, cocoa powder, almond milk, flax, hemp, and chia seeds, a handful of spinach, and pre-shredded green cabbage. I am getting used to the texture of the green cabbage, but it still tasted great. My Vitamix is invaluable. I don’t know what I would do without it. I bought it back in about 2016 when I first was Nutritarian, and the difference it made in my smoothies was amazing. I was always chewing my smoothies before with my cheap Walmart one. Back then, Ninja was barely a name, and I didn’t think it would do the job, but I have heard good things. My Vitamix is actually a refurbished one as well.

Lunch was rushed while I was making some other things for my kids, so I threw in the last of the cabbage-broccoli mix with the leftovers from my salad from yesterday. I count my smoothie as raw greens, so I felt okay about it. It was an interesting combination, and I actually enjoyed the meaty pieces of tofu in there.

Dinner was my prepped soup from yesterday. The dinner I made my kiddos had some noodles from yesterday in it, so I had more than I needed, so I actually added some of my bean-based noodles to my soup. I wouldn’t say it was the best-tasting soup I have ever had, but it checked the box, and I will be eating it all week, and freezing some as well, since I had 9 mason jars full. I also had too many strawberries to fit in my giant mason jar, so I had a couple of berries as well. They tasted great. For dessert, I made the kids these banana-chocolate with raspberry things. They went in the freezer during lunch and were ready after dinner. They were delicious. They were also extremely cold and I struggled to eat it until it warmed up in my mouth a bit. All of us seemed to have the same issue! HA!

Some of my prep was making the above treats, but also, I made some jam. It took almost no effort. I took some frozen strawberries and tossed them in a pan on medium. Once they started to get squishy, I mashed them for like 30 seconds with my potato masher, added some lemon juice, then some chia seeds. I let it set and cool in a jar while I went to get some groceries. When I got home, I made the kids a sandwich for their lunch with it, and they loved it. Even my girl, who doesn’t love PB&Js, loved them and asked for a whole one tomorrow for school. I ended up making sandwiches with the bread that was out and then pulled some out of the freezer and made some more! My friend this weekend said she does this with her kids’ sandwiches. However, I forgot to put the nut butter on both sides of the bread, so hopefully, they don’t have horribly soggy sandwiches tomorrow. So yes, this is work I did, but this doesn’t mean you have to do this. I am taking extra time now to avoid week-day work.

I wanted to show my fridge. It’s been a work in progress, and I am getting better and better. Hopefully it will be even better in the future, or maybe the freezer picture will be next. One thing I adjusted this week, was I put my lettuce in a gallon Ziploc bag and squished the air out so I could save some space from my giant lettuce bin. It helped a ton. If you had today off, happy “Sunday”. Otherwise, I suppose sorry? 🙂

One last note: Scale was 168.0, even. Suppose I will be in the 167’s tomorrow?