LONG WEEKEND!

We survived the weekend! Stay-at-home moms, are you more exhausted on Sunday nights (after getting 24 hour help from your hubby all weekend) then you are when you are on your own during the week? I know I am. For the longest time, this was perplexing to me, but I believe I know why now. I think it is because on a week day when your husband gets home, he relieves you. Just cleaning the dishes after dinner by yourself seems like a break at this point. But on the weekends, you both are so exhausted from a fun filled day with the kids and there is no one to relieve you, come 6:00. Anyway, we are both cashed!!! It was a nice weekend. We played outside a lot, as you can see from a few of my pictures. It is so fun seeing the joy a simple leaf pile can bring to a small child. It makes you appreciate the simple things in life.

We are in the process of renovating our laundry room which I thought would be a simple project, but has turned into a dusty, disorganized, chaotic mess. Hopefully, the end results will make this all worth it. We took the kids five million different places this weekend. I think we visited every tile store in Michigan. Other then Lukey thinking it was funny to lick the Home Depot race car cart (yay...time to bust out the elderberry syrup! :)) and Lana wanting to stand in the cart, it went pretty smooth. We are for sure the biggest freak show every where we go. The usual comments are "ohhhh you have triplets!" and "are they all yours?" I am glad we can provide entertainment to others. :)

Soooo yes, we are winding down after playing "spider man" about one hundred times today. By the way, is anyone else's kids obsessed with spider man? We have never even watched one spider man show...I don't know where this obsession came from. Even little Lana thinks she is spider man and makes the gesture of webs come out of her fingers. Now it is time for a glass of wine and some trash T.V. I hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather and had some fun of your own.

Good night!
Danielle

Pesto Crusted Beef Roast in the Crock Pot!

Just for the record, this recipe is not mine! I usually beg, borrow and steal my recipes. I am not the most creative cook. This recipe comes from Chef Jackie from www.nourish.md.com. This is my favorite website. I urge you to check it out and try some of their amazingly healthy recipes. Angelle gave a few of us a very informative shopping tour. For five of us to do a one hour tour, it was $125.oo total. Angelle was so kind to spend way more then an hour with us, free of charge...we had so many questions! It was worth every penny.

*3 lbs of chuck roast
*2 T. of butter or coconut oil
*Celtic sea salt and pepper, enough to generously rub the meat
*1/2 to 1 cup of pesto
*6 cloves of garlic
*1 cup balsamic vinegar
*8 ounces of portabella mushroom caps
*1 large onion, sliced

1. Heat oil or butter in a large skillet. Meanwhile, rub meat on all sides with salt, pepper and pesto.
2. Over medium heat, sear beef in hot oil unitl dark golden brown on all sides.
3. Place mushrooms, onion and garlic on the bottom of your crock pot. Place beef on top and then pour balsamic over the beef.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 10 hours or until the internal temp. is 160 degrees.
5. Remove beef and place on a cutting board and let sit for 10 minutes.


I served the beef and sauce over basmait rice with green beans. It was sooooooooo good. The best part is, it took about five minutes to prepare. Chef Jackie suggest serving the left overs on crusty whole grain bread with the au juis as a French Dip or make Philly Steak and cheese sandwiches.

Is your child taking a Vitamin D Supplement?

Sue, my mother-in-law has done a ton of research on Vitamin D. Just to give you a little background, Sue is an RN and a certified massage therapist. She also is constantly self-educating and I trust her recommendations 150%. Our entire family is now taking Vitamin D supplements. Please watch this quick video on how important it is to have your child (especially 0-5 years old) on a supplement.

http://www.refresheverything.com/grassrootshealthvitamind

Baked Mac & Cheese

Kids are obsessed with Mac and Cheese!! Lukey especially loves this dish. :) I like to make this dish on a Sunday and serve it for lunches for the upcoming week. Enjoy!

12 ounces of Gruyere cheese
8 ounces of extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 lb. of Barilla whole grain macaroni (to make this even healthier use EZEKIEL 4:9 Sprouted Whole grain elbow macaroni)
1/2 t. pepper
1 T. Celtic sea salt
4 cups of organic whole milk (to make this even healthier use Farmer's Creamery organic whole milk)
1/2 t. nutmeg
8 T. organic butter, divided
1/2 cup flour (to make this even healthier, grind your own flour from large rolled oats)
1 1/2 cup of gluten free bread crumbs or organic Panko bread crumbs

1. Pre-heat oven to 375
2. Drizzle oil in large pot of boiling water. Add noodles and boil according to directions.
3. Heat milk in sauce pan and be sure not to boil.
4. Melt 6 T. of butter in pot and add flour.
5.Cook butter/flour mixture over low heat for 2 minutes, while stirring with a whisk.
6. While whisking, add milk and cook for two more minutes until thick and smooth.
7. Take it off the heat and gradually add gruyere cheese, cheddar cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add cooked macaroni and stir well.
8. Pour into 9x13 dish and cover with bread crumbs that have been mixed with melted butter.
9. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to and hour.

I think the key to getting the cheese sauce creamy is to make sure the milk is really warm. Again, be sure not to boil the milk. I think this is a fun dish because you can add veggies, bacon, chicken, etc and make your own variation.

I will also post this on the recipe page. Hope your kids like it as much as mine! :)

Yes, we are nerds! Today, my good friend (MARIA) and I decided to go on a shopping tour at Whole Foods and grocery shop together. It was fun to share some of our favorite buys. Sweet Ruby joined us for our shopping extravaganza. She was sooooooooooo good! :) Maria was so kind to take pictures of our favorite finds. Check out my "Must Have Grocery" page for our favorites. I will be updating it sporadically throughout the next few weeks. Send me your healthy favs if you get some time. :)

One More Thing About Bone Broth

If you can, get your little ones to start drinking the broth out of a sippy cup. Maria's wise mama did this when Ruby was sick...BRILLIANT! I have to work on this with my older ones. I think it is a great thing to start when they are little so it doesn't seem so foreign to them as toddlers. Ohh and do not heat the left over broth in the microwave. Bone broth must be reheated on the stove.

Stay healthy, friends! :)

Bone Broths

Today is the perfect day to cook some yummy chicken stock. It’s so cold outside and the smell of chicken soup warms you up inside. I have been making my own broths for about a year but typically only make them in the colder months. However, this very cool group I recently joined makes their broths all year round…even on 90 degree days in August. They see so much value in making broths, they don’t care about the temperature outside. I recently went to one of their cooking classes on bone broths. The class was put on by the Healthy Traditions Network. I wanted to share the cool things I learned. Here are my notes:

v Bone broths are high in calcium, magnesium, potassium, and many other trace minerals lacking in the American diet. Fish broths can be high in Iodine…vital for thyroid and breast tissue.

v Animal bones have gelatin. When you add apple cider vinegar (a fermented acid) to your broths, it extracts the minerals from the bone/gelatin. Gelatin helps with digestive issues such as chrons, IBS, anemia, arthritis, cancer. Gelatin has glucosamine in it…which is in arthritis meds.

v Chicken stock used to be considered the Jewish Penicillin.

v Beef Stock has been documented to aid in curing cancer.

v Pregnant woman should consume bone broth weekly. The minerals found in broth are essential for a developing fetus.

v If you are ill, drink bone broth. It is very healing.

v When making chicken broth, necks, backs and feet have the highest amount of gelatin. I order my necks and backs through Creswick Farms. Maria recently found out that the organic meat store in Plymouth carries chicken feet for broths. On the other side of town, Auto’s Chicken at Royal Oak Farmer’s market sells backs and necks of chicken. You need 4 backs and 4 necks for one pot. Whole Foods also carries necks and backs, but they are more expensive.

Chicken Broth:

2-3 lbs. free-range chicken bones to 1-1.5 gallons of water, 8 ounces of onion, 4 ounces of celery, 4 ounces of carrots, a few garlic cloves, 1 T. thyme, 1 bunch of parsley, 2 T. of apple cider vinegar, a bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste.

A side note on carrots: Today I used baby carrots because I had them in the fridge left over from a party this weekend. However, I usually peel organic whole carrots. You should try to use vegetables in their natural state. My MIL went to a raw seminar and they advised her to not even peel the carrots, just wash them really well. The skin holds lots of nutrition.

Add all of the items to the pot and fill with water. Do not add the parsley leaves until the last ten minutes. Let stand on stove for one hour. Then, bring items to a boil. Scoop off scum and reduce to simmer. Cover and let stand for 6-24 hours. Strain all items and from broth. When broth cools for a little bit, add to storage containers. Discard bones and veggies. Veggies have no nutritional value at this point. The nutrition has been absorbed into the broth. You can use the chicken for chicken salad, enchiladas, sandwiches, etc.

Storing:

Buy Ball jars specifically for freezing. You can get them at Meijer. Broth is only good for three days in the fridge. Try not to store in plastic…leaks in to broth. Leave an inch at the top when freezing. My cousin Kelly freezes her broth in ice cube trays and then pops them out and puts them in a freezer bag, just like you do when you make baby food. One tray equals one cup. One Ball jar is a little more than a cup. Thaw in refrigerator overnight.

Use broth for making sauces, stews and soups. I have been adding the broth to various recipes and for cooking rice. It gives the rice so much more flavor and is sooo nutritious.

REAL Beef Eat Grass -- Not Grains

"The fat content of beef is the primary reason it has lost ground as a respectable entrée on America's dinner table. Not only do most beef cuts have a high fat content, ranging from 35-75%, but the majority of it is saturated.

"Grain fed beef can have an omega 6:3 ratio higher than 20:1"
-- J. Anim. Sci. 2000. 78:2849-2855

This well exceeds the 4:1 ratio where health problems begin to show up because of the essential fat imbalance. Also grain fed beef can have over 50% of the total fat as the far less healthy saturated fat.

Grass fed beef has an omega 6:3 ratio of 0.16 to 1

This is the ratio science suggests is ideal for our diet. This is about the same ratio that fish has. Grass fed beef usually has less than 10% of its fat as saturated. If you are a pregnant or breastfeeding mom, the extra omega 3 from the grass fed beef will provide incredible nutritional benefits for your child" Dr. Mercola

I have been purchasing my beef, chicken, pork and eggs from Creswick Farms for about two years. Their animals are grass-fed. Grass-fed meat is even healthier then the organic grain-fed meat you can purchase at the grocery store. Their meat is not certified organic. However, the farmer explained to me that it is very expensive to get certified and a lot of local farmers bypass this process so that they don't have to charge their customers more money for their meat. Even though they are not certified, they still follow the organic guidelines. I usually order 3-4 times a year and stock up for 3-4 months at a time. I order 6 dozen eggs each time, as well. Their eggs are wonderful. They are only $1.25 a dozen, opposed to the $5.00 organic eggs you buy at the grocery store. Here is their website and some more information about grass-fed meat.
http://www.creswickfarms.com/

Additional Information About Health Benefits

"Products from pastured animals have an ideal balance of essential fatty acids or EFAs. There are two families of EFAs-omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. According to a new French study, when women eat food that is relatively rich in omega-3s and low in omega-6s, they have a 76 percent reduction in their risk of breast cancer. Products from grass fed (also known as grassfed or grass-fed) animals and wild game have this ideal ratio of EFAs."

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Another Pumpkin Seed Recipe: Salad Dressing!

This recipe comes from one of my health mentors, my mommy-in-law! She has taught me a lot over the years about good health and I am grateful for her wisdom. And get this girls.....she doesn't buy the kids tons of candy for Halloween! The kid's Halloween gifts were cute clothes, little Halloween trinkets, and other non-candy gifts. Such a refreshing, practical gift! :)

From Sue: "One cup of raw pumpkin seeds, lightly roasted on the stove top, 2 umbushi plums (they have little pits in there that have to be removed), or 1 1/2 Tbsp umbushi vinegar or 1 1/2 Tbsp of umbushi paste (found at health food stores, Whole Foods, etc)

Just rinse the seeds, pick up the broken or messed up looking ones, cool, throw into VitaMix, grind, add the umbushi and at least 1-2 cups water for the desired thickness (it does get thicker in the frig too) and you can always add more water to thin. Tastes great and so good for you!!!! ENJOY!!!"

My Little Pumpkin!

Lana eating a healthy treat before we dive into the goodies at our Halloween party tonight. :)

A Healthy Halloween Treat: Pumpkin Seeds

I had no idea that pumpkin seeds were such a healthy snack. This year I decided to take this traditional holiday snack one step further, by germinating the seeds. This was very simple, but did take some time. My thought is, it is time well spent. Plus we have been enjoying this healthy treat all week! :)

Here is the recipe and some info.:

"If you eat substantial quantities of raw pecans, walnuts, Brazil nuts, filberts or others, you have a choice of swallowing enzymes capsules with them to neutralize their enzyme inhibitors or first germinating the nuts and letting nature do the job through increased enzyme activity resulting from germination..." Sally Fallon

4 cups of raw, hulled pumpkin seeds
2 T. unrefined sea salt
1 t. cayenne pepper (optional)
filtered water

Dissolve salt in water and add seeds and cayenne. Leave in a warm place for 7 hours or overnight. Drain in a colander and spread on a stainless steel baking pan. Place in warm oven (no more then 150 degrees) for about 12 hours or overnight. Turn occasionally, until thoroughly dry and crisp. Store in an air tight container.

*My oven only went down to 170 degrees and that still worked well. I cooked them for 12 hours.

Does Halloween Stress You Out?
















































It seems like we have had a Halloween party everyday this week. I am all for special treats, in moderation. I really like the 90/10 rule. 90% of the time, under my roof, I will do my best to give my kids healthy nutritious foods. 10% of the time, I am going to let my kids enjoy life's guilty pleasures. However,this week we are enjoying those guilty pleasures way more then 10% of the time! :) So when I was asked to bring in a special treat for Halloween, I searched the internet for a "HEALTHY" Halloween treat. These cute little pumpkins were super easy and fun to make. I used a pumkin carving kit to carve the orange. Baically, you just hollow out the pulp and stuff some small pieces of fruit inside. The kids didn't seem to be sad about not having a treat that was riddled with high fructose corn syrup and food coloring. :)

How do you survive the Halloween madness? My kids are obsessed with candy right now. It is certainly a battle to deal with this sugar obsessed little ones. My girlfriend Amy has a good rule for her candy crazed little ones. She allows one piece of candy a day. The rule is you can have it anytime of the day, but once it's gone, its gone. I think I may adopt this rule as well.

Good Luck, Moms! :)

HALLOWEEN 2007

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kevin and I have been blessed with a third boy! We are so excited!!! All day we have been talking about how much fun it is going to be the parents to three boys. Kevin keeps telling me how cool it is that he will have his foursome in golf! :) Our new little guy is in the 70th percentile and growing very well. It was so nice to have a fun ultrasound with all good news. Thanks for your continued prayers. XOXOXO

Happy Birthday Jake & Ben!!!

"STANDING" in the crib is much more

fun than "SLEEPING" in the crib!

Quick Update

Ben: He had an ecocardiogram and a chest x-ray this week and so far we just have the results of the x-ray back. The pulmonologist said everything looked perfect. The doctor wants to make sure he is doing OK with out his medication and so far, so good!

Jake: Poor Jake was in the ER this weekend with his first real sickness. He had croup! It was just awful. I have never heard such a noise come out of a human being before. It broke our heart to see him so sick. We were up North for the weekend so we had to take him to a foreign ER. Luckily, we were in good hands and they were great with Jake. After several late nights of steamy bathrooms and coughing attacks, he is doing much better. Luckily, Ben did not get sick.

Baby K.: We find out what we are having on Sept. 25th. I have no feeling either way. I actually did have a feeling with the boys that there was at least one boy in there. We are anxiously awaiting the big appointment! :)

If you get a minute, check out my new project. Some of my girlfriends and I started a mom's group. We even created a blog.

ninemonthsandforver.blogspot.com

:) Danielle

Our first visit to a restaurant with the boys!

(Jake and Ben's first "chaperoned" double date!)

We finally got the green light to take the boys out to a restaurant from our pulmonologist! It was so much fun. It was definitely hard work though. We went with friends so fortunately, we had extra hands to help us! We really cherish these little things that we get to do with the boys. Every new adventure is soo exciting!

Mom trying to entertain Jake at the restaurant!

Ben's first kiss, other then from mommy! :)

THANK YOU!!!

Kevin and I have been contemplating stopping the blog on the boy's 1st birthday. We were starting to feel like it is pretty boring for most of our awesome readers. Which is a good thing...we like boring. Boring means uneventful!!! :) However, when I read the comment from KH under the comments section of our last post...I felt a change of heart. KH, I will say lots of prayers for your little guy. Ben was in the 3rd percentile for most of the pregnancy and look him now!! He is small, but mighty!!! He is actually ahead in development and soooo active! My thought is, that babies who struggle in utero are born fighters!!! I can see it in Ben!! He is on a mission!! Both of my boys are fighters!! They are going to make their mark in this world...there is no doubt in my mind. Ok...I am bias!! I really believe that their strong will, will take them great places...as it will with your little fighter!! Please keep us posted! Like I mentioned earlier, reading your comment inspires me to continue the blog. While on bedrest, I inundated myself with positive stories that I read on the TTTS message board or other blogs. I loved reading success stories. Jake and Ben are now the ones to pass on this wonderful gift...the gift of HOPE!! :)

Update on our 3rd little peanut: He/she is doing really well! I am currently 13 weeks and feeling great. The endocrinologist is hopeful I will be able to lower my medication dosage soon. I am anxious to stop taking all of these drugs. I don't even like to take Tylenol while pregnant...let alone PTUS!!

We are starting to plan Jake & Ben's 1st birthday party. We are really excited! We are doing a baseball theme. Go figure!! We just can't believe this day is approaching soo0 fast! The boys are growing like weeds and taking off in development. They both are crawling (Jake does an army crawl thing still) and Ben is pulling to standing. They are doing lots of self-feeding and talking (babbling) up a storm! They talk to each other a lot too. It is really sweet.

Thanks again for being a part of our life and lending your support!

Danielle, Kevin, Jake, Ben & Baby K.!

Jake & Ben, 10 Months Old

Doesn't Ben look like he is catching up! He has been off of his diuretics for over a month and is doing great!! Jake continues to grow, grow, grow!! Ben is 17 pounds and Jake is 21 pounds!

Overall, the boys are doing great! I have been feeling a little under the weather...I guess that is what happens when you are 11 weeks pregnant! YEA, you heard me...PREGNANT! We are very excited and a bit nervous. We were planning on waiting another year or two before trying but God has a different plan for us! We feel very blessed! Other then a random diagnosis of hyperthyroidism, the pregnancy seems to be going very well. Ohh and there is just ONE little peanut this time! :) I am not too happy about being on meds for the hyperthyroidism but my doctor keeps reassuring me that once the condition is under control, everything should be fine. Please keep baby K in your prayers!!

Hope you are enjoying your summer! XOXO

Danielle & Kevin

Jake watching daddy play baseball and wishing he could play!

Grandma and Ben watching Daddy play baseball!

Poor Jake did not warm up to

the sandy beach right away!

Ben loving the sandy beach!!

This is one of our wonderful nurses...Michelle!

She had the boys on the day they were born and the day

they left the NICU- both very special days! :)

NICU Graduation Party!

We were so excited to see baby Ava!! She was born at 25 weeks weighing one pound, 4 ounces! The four of us spent a lot of time together in the NICU! She is doing great and is so adorable!!

Jake & Ben's Baptism

What a special day!! The weather, the ceremony, the food and the company were perfect! We had about 35 people to the house for a luncheon after the ceremony. I was a little nervous about how the boys would do with all of the people... seeing as how we have not taken them out at all! I realized today that I have two social butterflies on our hands!!! They had so much fun with the big crowd! They interacted and embaraced the family!

They had the time of their life and so did we!

The boy's God Parents

Bryan, Kim, Jake, Nicole, Josh & Ben

Aunt Ann Marie, Ben, Cousin Erin and Jake