Today we used a set of our passes we got from www.kidsbowlfree.com. You can go to that site, sign your children up for FREE bowling (2 games per day throughout the summer!

Hubby mentioned some folks he knows just purchased an ice cream machine, and I lit up because I remembered, I HAVE ONE! Its easy to forget about this appliance as it's stored under the cabinet, but I had to bring it out and make some of our own Healthy Protein Ice Cream once I remembered I had the appliance! 

We do not make traditional ice cream in our home for many reasons, but the predominant ones are High Fat, and High Sugar. I have figured out a way around this however, and can make some pretty awesome Ice Cream that my friends are always surprised to learn, is goof for them!

Ill try to post photos and recipes each time we make some so that you too, can make a healthy treat for your family! 
This particular ice cream we made today was made the following way:

2 cups Borden's Hi-Protein 2% Milk
2 scoops Click Protein Powder (coffee flavored protein)
2 scoops Designer Whey Chocolate Protein Powder

*Freeze the inner compartment of your ice cream maker (unless you are going old school and need ice and salt, in which case, follow your maker's instructions)
*froth all the ingredients together until they just about double in size. 
*Turn on the machine (important, if you just pour it quickly without it turned on, it will freeze up in a bad way), and pour mixture in very slowly. 
*About 3 minutes before you are done, add your mix-in's if you have any)

This ice cream was at soft-serve status in about 10 minutes. We then scooped it into a freezer container to firm it up a bit. This took about an hour. Then we scooped into bowls/glasses and topped with frozen Raspberries. YUM! 

So far in the 6 days my daughter has been out of school we have been to the Water Park 3 times, attended my family's game night, hosted a BBQ and practiced running from Zombies! LOL! Here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure! If you click on each one it will explain the photo but the foods Ill talk about here for you since this is primarily a food blog! 

First you will see the Banana and Greek Yogurt with Flax and Splenda Popsicle we made! Healthy and delicious! Then we grilled out and had Turkey Filet Mignon - while this is a lower fat item due to it being foul, I must also inform you that the bacon ups the fat a bit and heightens the sodium so be careful!
Then you will see the funnel cake for which I take zero responsibility for.
Then lastly you will see the appetizers we made for our BBQ! Mainly stuffed strawberries with ricotta cream and cinnamon or walnuts to top them. And the garlic/olive sticks which you can find out more about if you scroll down to previous posts! 
I surely hope everyone else has even half the summer we seem to be having at my house! We are truly enjoying ourselves and look forward to our play date at the Waterpark next Thursday with a friend and her daughter, as well as my girly's sleepover, and other things. 
I will still try to get some healthy food options and recipes posted, especially as we continue cooking. We are cooking more now since Im back to my boring old 17 day diet, combined with climbing a billion stairs to get to water slides and Dancing to Black Eye'd Peas on Kinect for XBOX360.

So summer is up on us at last! My daughter's last day of school is this morning, we will go to an awards ceremony and then it's done until August! 
We have already planned so much fun for the summer! We are getting season passes to our local-ish Water-park (thanks to a family member purchasing them for us), and we got 2 games of FREE bowling for our daughter EVERY SINGLE DAY this summer, and it only cost me $25 to get a season pass for myself to go with her. So we plan to do water park on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Bowling on the days between! We will be taking our lunches with us to every event so Ill be posting some hopefully healthy, kid friendly lunch ideas a couple times a week!
I hope your summer will be as awesome as ours! 

We (The Hubby and Myself) are also going to be running a 5k Obstacle Course in December! It's called Run For Your Lives, and basically we will be running from Zombies! It's going to rock! While we are running we will be running through water, mud, climbing fences etc, and wearing flag football belts. Zombies will be chasing us and trying to get the flags, if we make it to the finish line with any health flags, we are Alive! But if not, we are transformed into Zombies! It's gonna be a great event to grow a little closer to the hubs and we are looking forward to our training for it starting next week! Ill keep yall updated on the progress but in case any of you want to find this race in YOUR home town, go to www.runforyourlives.com. And keep an eye out when the time draws near as I will be trying to make some cute ZOMBIE foods to eat on our trip to Austin!

SHE ATE IT AND LOVED IT!!!! She was very tickled with the thought that she was having "dessert" for dinner!

Another attempt (as yet, untested) at getting decent food into my daughter. I made Turkey Meatloaf (1lb 93% LEAN Ground Turkey, 1 Egg, 2tbsp Minced Onion, 1 Cup Shredded Carrot, 1 tsp Salt, 1/4 cup Ketchup (I used low sodium), 1/2 cup Quick Oats - Mix with your hands until well combined, then press into well olive oiled cupcake pan, put into oven at 350 for 20 minutes). 
Then I whipped up some mashed potatoes, placed them into a piping bag and used a star tip to decorate the top like icing. On hubby's and mine, I topped with some chives, hers I left plain. I just ate one and LOVED it!:) Ill let you know what she says!

Go ahead! Look and be amazed! (or not) Hey, even my Hubs was like, "WOW!" lol, Girly actually ate it which made me about jump for joy! It wasn't too hard either! Now if I can carve a chicken breast into a swan, I wonder if she will eat that too???

Lookie what I did! I made a rose out of a strawberry! It was the sweetest strawberry I've ever tasted too! Super simple to make - I found a video on YouTube detailing it and it took only a minute to get it done! Im thinking Ill make some painted with chocolate as a Mother's Day Yummy next year! 

So I got up early this morning and took advantage of daddy being home, and let him keep the girly entertained while I slaved (and I mean this quite literally) in the kitchen for about 1.5 hours including cleanup, to create this! 
I did boiled eggs which I molded into bunny and bear shapes. I did brown rice which was molded into heart and star shapes. I did a hotdog octopus with turkey dog. And I shredded some part skim mozzerella cheese and placed some carrots to take up some space. 
Hubby left to visit with his kids and I was left with girly whom happily viewed the "masterpiece" (okay so I need to work on this a bit more, Im not fantastic...yet). She sat down and quickly informed me of everything she was NOT going to eat. Which ended up being everything but the egg. I wont lie, I fought back tears. Seriously??? I spent this much time trying to make your food appeal to you and you have the nerve to sit there and tell me you wont even TASTE a couple bites of each thing? 
I am torn between making another one for her and tempting her and throwing my hands into the air, and screaming. 

So here is the deal, I've been dealing with a lot this last week with my child regarding her eating. She is underweight and refuses to eat just about anything and everything offered to her that has any sort of nutritional value whatsoever. It's gotten to the extent that a feeding tube (ng) will be placed in July if she can't get past her little behavioral strike and EAT. 
Ive been stressed to the max over her lack of eating as of course I love her and don't want to see her having to rely on a tube to get nutrition. I understand (with the help of a doc) that kids her age tend to pick something and latch onto it in order to assert themselves and have some control, and while many may choose wearing a particular pair of shoes EVERY DAY, or fight over clothes, or wearing make up etc - Mine has chosen food (likely because her clothes are a uniform so there is no point in fighting there). It's not that she CAN'T eat, it's that she WONT. 
I am a firm believer in picking your battles, but honestly my child is pretty much perfectly behaved and respectful in every single other aspect of her life so this is the ONLY battle, and it's a battle over a basic function. 

Her big complaint is she doesn't like veggies. She doesn't like them cooked, steamed, roasted, raw, grilled etc. She will eat chicken but it has to be just exactly seasoned how she likes. If anything looks like a spice on it she wont eat it. She will tell me she is starving all day long but when offered food (between meals she is open to have as many cheese sticks, apples, bananas, oranges, carrots that she wants) she doesn't want it. She'd rather starve than eat something she doesn't want. 

We have pediasure as backup but Im extremely hesitant to give it to her because I know that she would gladly survive off those alone and I know she needs to learn to EAT. 

We dont discuss weight, weightloss, etc around her. I dont do this because I dont want her to get the idea that she needs to worry about any of those things. I also don't weigh in front of her. The only "weight" discussions we have is that she has got to put some on. 

She is healthy, and very happy otherwise, just need to move past this hurdle which brings me to why tomorrow Ill post. 
I am trying as many things as I can to get her to eat on her own before resorting to pediasures and eventually ng tube. Tomorrow I will be trying my hand at Bento Box Making. I will attempt to make her lunches and dinners look cute, in hopes that it's cuteness will get her to eat. I'd be incredibly happy to just see her take a bite of everything the first day. 
I plan to try making Turkey Hotdog Octopus, Flower Rice Ball (brown rice). For dessert I will be giving her 2 mini chocolate muffins that I made using the recipe from The Sneaky Chef (basically, we used spinach and blueberry puree instead of the other liquids to give it a nutritional punch without a battle).

Before you ask - NO, we have NEVER let her eat a ton of junk food. Even before I started eating healthy we have always given her healthy foods. She did get cotton candy on special occasions, chocolate covered raisins, etc but never daily. She didn't know what candy was until she was 2 because we referred to her fruit as her candy. It's not like we let her eat crappy food for 8 yrs and then suddenly are forcing veggies on her. 

Anyway - so my food blog will morph into a "please god let her eat" blog for a while. So if you too have a picky eater, maybe you can get some ideas that even if they don't work for us, maybe you will be blessed and they will for you! First post will be tomorrow! 

Until then - my hubby is home and brought me flowers cause he's the best! Please excuse that I have zero make up on and therefore look like I have no eyelashes at all and am ridiculously pale (I also just woke from a nap, cause the hubs tucked me in and took over for the day with girly! After a month of single parenting it's been nice!)