At first when thinking about eating liquids for two weeks you can feel like your going to go crazy with the cravings and lack of variety. So far I have to say it hasn’t been bad! So I wanted to share some of the things I’ve eaten and some of the things still in my pantry to start eating.

Protein Shakes

Premier Protein Shakes (Vanilla) – This is a premixed protein shake that I got a large box at Costco. These are okay, my favorite is still Muscle Milk Light, tastes great and the low calories with the high protein is great. I will probably get more Muscle Milk when I’m out of the Premier shake. But the premier was great for when I wasn’t up to blend up a shake. Try adding a little cinnamon or Torani Sugar Free Caramel Syrup.

Muscle Milk Light, Vanilla Creme – Since I liked the premix of the Muscle Milk I thought I would try this also. I was a little disappointed you can taste the protein in this powder, but this is what I’ve had in my house and I want to use it up. So I have been making up shake recipes to use this powder in.

GNC Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60 Cookies and Cream 1.22 LB – Loving this protein powder! What I love the most is that they haven’t over sweetened the mix to try and hide a flavor. Plus the flavor is very subtle which I like. After drinking sweet stuff for a few days not having something sickeningly sweet is great! I’ve also tried the Chocolate
and Vanilla.

Greek Yogurt

Chobani Vanilla Greek Yogurt – This is an absolute post op must! Having something with just a little consistency has been so nice. I got the large container to easily serve out 4 oz at a time. This is also great to add to shakes to thicken them up and add some more protein.

Try using 4-Ounce Containersand freeze some of the yogurt for a quick ice cream replacement!

Soups

I make soups with milk or add milk to them to raise their protein content.

Chicken Broth - This is really nice just after surgery. Just something comforting and so easy to digest to enjoy.

Pacific Natural Foods Butternut Squash Soup – This is a sweeter soup, so if you like sweet soups you will like this. I found with all the other sweetness with the shakes that I looked forward to a salty treat which this soup didn’t provide.

V8 Tomato Herb Soup – This was a great soup! I loved the herbs in it. I didn’t blend it the first few times I ate it, I just used a straw and left the chunks in the bottom of my cup. But now that I have my Handy Dandy Hand Blender I will blending it up to get all the yummies.

V8 Garden Broccoli Soup – This is a great option for a creamy soup! Again this has a few chunks in it, so it needs to

Bean With Bacon Soup – I just had this last night and I made it with milk. It was sooo yummy and creamy. It’s rich and definitely helps with my salty craving.

Treats

I let myself have one of these per day. These are things that were not specifically on my doctors list but that I have for pick me ups and as a break from the routine.

Fudgesicles – I haven’t even had one of these yet, but I figured they will be a good treat when I’m feeling a real need of something “chewable” or something with more consistency

Ice Cream – The other night my hubby really wanted a treat from the store so he got me a little one serving of chocolate ice cream. This was perfect as I only had the one serving in my house so no more temptation once it was gone. This was the day after my surgery so it was also a mood pick me up which was nice.

Light Eggnog – Tis the season. This is one of my favorite treats and even when I drank it before I would count it as a snack, not as a drink. I am using this more as a twist on something to mix up with my protein mixes instead of milk.

Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding – SF Caramel – Yummy! I had this as my treat today and loved it. I wouldn’t even share it with my boys – I know I am a terrible mommy. But this was a nice treat as the consistency is a little different than anything else I’ve had this week. And when you are limited to liquids you start being able to really tell that everything is the same consistency.

Drinks

MIO Mango Peach – I’ve talked about Mio’s before, but I have to say they are the greatest. I will drink crystal light, but I find it too strong and too sweet. I love how with Mio you can make the sweetness just how you want with small little squeezes. My boys absolutely love this for their drinks also and since it is sugar free I don’t feel bad about giving them a tiny squeeze. I also have Berry Pomegranate and Fruit Punch available for me to mix it up (oh yes try mixing the flavors too!). I also have enjoyed Strawberry Watermelon.

True Lemon, Lime & Orange – I love these. While I was pregnant I was avoiding too much of artificial sweeteners, but I also could not drink straight water without getting sick. If you are finding that you can’t drink straight water or if you are like me and tend to drink more when your water has flavor definitely get yourself some of these. I also use these in my recipes for muffins, chicken and more!

V8 Vegetable Juice – You won’t be getting a lot of veggies in your diet right now so think about getting yourself some V8 juice. Plus it is one more thing that is easy to swallow and satisfies your salty cravings. I’ve been having about 1 4 ounce serving a day.

V8 Fusion Juice – Juice is one option I’m allowed to drink on my diet, but I’ve been really cautious about juice in my diet for years now. But I did get myself a bottle of the V8 fusion juice as this can be one more serving of veggies for me a day. Plus I know that with as little food as I’m taking in a little juice would be good to get nutrients into me.

Low Calorie Cocoa Mix – Again this was on my list of items I could have from my doctors office, but I haven’t had any. I did buy a box last night just in case I wanted to have some. It is a nice comfort food and I think having a few things in the house I haven’t tried yet, will not make me feel like I’m being too restricted.

Tea – Again I haven’t had any tea yet, but this is something I always have in my house and like to have available. If you are shopping for your post op diet I would considering getting a few kinds to try. I would recommend a minty tea like the Tazo linked because mint really helps with nausea and upset stomachs, so this may be a nice soothing drink option for you.

Tools

Immersion Hand Blender – I actually borrowed the one I’m using this week from my sister-in-law as I wasn’t sure if this was what I wanted. But I’m sooo in love! What a great little tool and so much easier to clean up than the blender. Plus I don’t have to have special cups like I will need for a personal sized blender. This is on the top of my Christmas List this year!

Double Wall Tumbler with Lid and Straw – Got to have at least a few of these. I find if I have these filled with my water for the day I can watch more closely how much I’m drinking. Also when you are going out and about it’s fun to have a cute cup for your drink or meal. Plus the doubled wall is nice as you don’t leave water rings wherever you go!

Bendy Straws – I have a lot of these from parties I have hosted in the past and I actually have to say if you are having surgery, buy yourself a pack or two. It made my drinks a little more fun and festive and much easier to drink. Plus with things like soups that may have chunks I knew if it didn’t go through the straw to not eat it!

4-Ounce Containers – I just picked up some more of these as it was frustrating to see my glasses all get dirty when I was only putting 4 ounces of liquid in them. Also having something like these cups is great so you don’t have to measure out what your are serving, you know if you fill the container it is 4 ounces. Plus you take a little more time to go back for seconds if you think you can handle a couple more ounces and this bit of time may make you realize no you are full.

Black & Decker Food Processor – This food processor has the best reviews and the best price I have found and I did a lot of research. This is a great little tool to have before hand.

Premake soups. Then using your Food Processor bring them to a liquid consistency. Spray a 12-Cup Muffin Pan with Pam. Then pour the soup into the pan and freeze them. After a day in the freezer I popped them out and place them in a freezer bag. You now have single servings of soups ready to microwave in the freezer!

Black & Decker Blender – If you are making a shake filled with peanut butter and banana you may want to pull out your blender for the job. So before surgery make sure you have a good one!

My Wishlist

This is my quick wishlist of things to have as I continue on my adventure with my lap band:

• Laptop Lunch Bento in Black And Magenta
• Bento Buddies Set of 4
• BlenderBottle with Blenderball, Pink
• Nonstick Mini Donut Pan
• Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker
• Black & Decker 1-1/2-Cup Electric Chopper
• Just the Cheese Mini Round Snacks
• CLICK Espresso Protein Drink, Vanilla Latte
• PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter
• Torani Variety Pack, Sugar Free

Hope this Helps

To Be Continued…

After the two weeks of liquids I will be going onto two weeks of mushy foods. Which I’m very excited that Thanksgiving is landing on mushy foods and not liquids! So I hope to share with you some pantry ideas and recipe ideas for a mushy diet. But also I will probably share with you a Mushy Thanksgiving Menu! I hope you will stay tuned to my adventure!

What a way to start October! This week was all about monsters, of course all our monsters were fun and cute!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day gives you five activities that you can enjoy with your kids, one for each day of the week.  Most of these activities work well for preschoolers, but you may be able to adapt them for your toddler.

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a letter you can find it here.

• Moon Phases – I thought this still worked since the moon is often associated with monsters. I did this with pepperoni instead of oreos, since I was unable to get to the store. I also had seen it done with cheese. As a bonus food craft I found a recipe for a Jelly Swamp Monster!

• Mini Monsters – I thought these were adorable and I had everything I needed to create these cute little guys. We tried it with regular yarn and with fun yarn, both turned out great! We used a piece of cardboard instead of the embroidery ring. We also used pompoms on the purple monster for feet.

• Shape Monsters – This was so much fun! Plus with a toddler you could work with them learning their shapes. I cut out all the shapes beforehand and gave them to Zane to create his monsters! I used craft foam, but you could use constructions paper.

• Blow Painting Monsters - I loved her trick on how to use the straws without getting your kids to slurp up the paint! I’ve done bubble artwork with Zane before but he slurped up the water and we were done!
• Sandwich Box Monsters! – I’ve seen these done with tissue boxes also, but I think they are so cute!! Make your own monster and recycle at the same time. I wonder what you could store in these cuties!

The Crafts:

Supplies: oreos, round cookie cutter, lime jello, marshmallows, chocolate chips, pink icing – optional, yarn, buttons or googly eyes, scissors, glue or glue dots, embroidery ring or cardboard, pompoms, bright coloured paper or craft foam, straws, thinned non-toxic paint or food color and water, white construction paper, black pen, straws, 2 cups from a cardboard egg carton, black paper, white and black paint, empty sandwich bag box

Are you Supermom?

Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy. Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child. I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!

Be Featured

If you do any of these crafts and happen to take a picture or write a blog post about it please make sure and share your link in the comments. Also don’t forget to link the original crafter! I may feature you and your blog  on the following weeks post!

Haha the first time I posted this I forgot to change the intro. Oh well, that is how it goes sometimes. Zane loves lions, his lovey from when he was little was a lion named Judah. This week you can see my failed attempt at a bento gone bad, but also you can see my own craft I created to work with Zane with scissor skills.

If you are new to A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day gives you five activities that you can enjoy with your kids, one for each day of the week.  Most of these activities work well for preschoolers, but you may be able to adapt them for your toddler.

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a letter you can find it here.

The Crafts:

• Lion Bento Lunch Box - I made this and it turned out okay I will share the photo just so you can see one of my project fails. LOL This must have been done with cold mac n cheese.

• Lion & Lamb Mask – This was great you got two L words in one! Plus this worked well for a bible theme also.
• Macoroni Lion – We have actually never done a pasta project before and I thought this was a pretty cute one.
• Crunchy Leaf Lion – Again a two L project here. I actually believe I have featured this project in the past. But what is great is you can find any image you want trace it with glue and add the crushed leaves. I wanted to use this lion picture and outline the main in glue. But we didn’t make it out to get leaves. Two outings outside, one Zarek fell off a wall and two Zane had an accident. I gave up.
• Clothes Pin Lion – I created this craft after learning that clothes pins can help your preschooler with scissor skills. Zane and Zarek were both able to participate in this activity.

Supplies:  cheese, carrot, celery, white cheese, macaroni, paper plate or card stock, elmer’s glue, black pen, google eyes, clothes pens, markers, collected leaves, glue, craft paper, paper plate, yarn, glue, craft paper

Are you Supermom?

Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy. Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child. I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!

Be Featured

If you do any of these crafts and happen to take a picture or write a blog post about it please make sure and share your link in the comments. Also don’t forget to link the original crafter! I may feature you and your blog  on the following weeks post!

I was really productive today even though all day long I kept grumbling to myself I wasn’t doing anything. Maybe it’s because I have too much on my to do list right now.

I was able to bake over three dozen muffins. Banana and Sweet Potato Muffins that I made from some produce I got at the discount grocery store for $1.50. I am freezing most of them and now I won’t have to make muffins for probably a month. Which is good because I need to start working on my holiday crafting and such.

I made dinner for Zane and I, took me an hour to cook my dinner and keep the boys entertained. Zarek even got fresh mashed sweet potato for his dinner. I tried getting Zane to feed Zarek a little bit so I could try and work on my dinner. He did pretty good until he got bored with doing it. But it gave me a few minutes. This was also my first time cooking tofu. I actually really liked it fresh.

I put together my breakfast, lunch, and snack for tomorrow. I also cooked the chicken for my dinner. I made Zane a bento for lunch and one for snack. I’m hoping he will eat them they are filled with fruits and veggies and a pb&j sandwich cut into a pumpkin. I wish I had a turkey cookie cutter.

I also cleaned out my email box today. Got through over 300 emails. I need to try and keep on top of this. I added some more labels so that should help.

On top of that I also got my workout in and got my devotional time in. So I feel pretty good about the day. How was your day?

There are so many things I should be doing right now, but no I am busy making egg pigs. I saw them here and had to make them for Zane’s lunch!!! So this is going to be a boring post because one of the things I should be doing is working on a super interesting blog post for you to read.

Some of the million other things I should be doing. Cleaning my house before my mother in law comes over in the morning. Get ready to go to work tomorrow, find clothes and make my lunch. Work on my calendar for the holidays. Work on my Thankful Thursday posts. Work on an ad for my $2 custom Christmas photo card designs. Play Facebook games, I have people to put into my HomeInn and dishes to serve at my CafeWorld Cafe.

Ooo, eggs started boiling, BRB, have to turn burner down to simmer and turn the timer on 12min.

Other things I should be doing hmm, reading the blog posts in my google reader. Follow people on twitter. Add my photo card designs offer onto my design site, Uniquehorn Designs.

Make my Christmas gift list. Decide what kind of ornament I am going to make people this year. Make my presents for our friends. Push TJ on what he is going to make for our friends.  Decide on a gift for the neighbors to make.

Oh I’m supposed to be writing a monthly update letter about the boys and sending the pictures out of them for the month of October.  Loved the pictures I got this year.

So many things to do so little time and I am making pig eggs. LOL

I need to go cut noses and ears now. Sorry for the boring post but at least I posted for today. LOL

Here is my little picky eater and my first attempt at a bento. It’s not perfect and not beautiful but he ate the whole thing. Which for Zane is amazing! And he got some good nutrition.

I made him a peanut butter and banana sandwich cut it into triangles and placed some cheese stars on top. I added some Pirate’s Booty and almonds in little muffin papers. And in the side compartment I added carrot sticks and the rest of the banana.

I have been seeing a few different moms making these little “boxed meals” of cuteness and nutrition. It’s fun to see how creative these women are with food. (It’s also nice to see sometimes they don’t worry about it being perfect that their lives are busy too.)

Why I’m doing this? There are a few reasons I am doing this.

Visual Meal Planning – I’m a visual person, looking at my son’s food in a logical way always seemed overwhelming. I would stare at his plate and say how do I get him to eat these veggies. Now I’m looking  his plate and saying how can I make this more colorful, how can I add a different texture, how can I make this look cute. And I get excited about making his meals.

Balanced Diet – I’m able to look at his plate and say we need more color and I add more veggies or fruits. He is getting more variety in his food. I was starting to get a rut. All he was eating was PB&J and Mac N Cheese. Now I put his sandwich or pasta on the plate and surround it with colorful, nutritious food.

At the moment I am just using some of my regular everyday Tupperware to do Zane’s bentos. I’m also just making up some of his meals in the bento style but putting them on his sectioned plates. I’m hoping to slowly be able to buy some of the fun and cute boxes, but money is tight right now so we will make due with what we have. I also have tons of cookie cutter to cut things into fun shapes.

What about all the Asian food? I’m just going to start out simple and easy. I may sometime try some of the Asian food I have been seeing on these blogs. At this time I want to get used to filling Zane’s boxes with our everyday food and things I am used to having in my pantry before I start trying to experiment with a new kind of food.

I’m not doing it everyday. It takes me a few extra minutes to get everything put together, so I don’t want to try and burn myself out by making a goal of doing it every day. But I am hoping that by the time Zane starts preschool I will be pretty used to it and be able to make his lunch for him each day.

Here are some of my favorite bento mommy sites so far:

Wendolonia – The first site I found posting her lovely creations for her son. And she has a great Bento FAQ on her site.

The Sublurbs – She is making bentos to help with her son with eating gluten free.

Adventures in Bento Making – I just found this site and I think her bentos are lovely! She puts a lot of work into her bentos.

So, who else wants to bento? How do you make your childrens’ meals nutritious? Do you have any Bento sites that you like?