I bought a Magic Bullet a couple weeks ago, because I just wasn't eager to use my blender to make smoothies. I've found it to be pretty cool for us, since we all can or should eat different things. It comes with 4 mugs you can fill up separately, the put the base/blade onto them and blend them up. I can put rice milk in the O's mugs, soymilk for the As, specific supplements as needed, different sweeteners, etc. My little O likes a blueberry and banana smoothie for breakfast, and doesn't mind if I put some calcium or protein powder in. My A likes just blueberries, and will go along with the calcium but won't touch it if I put a protein powder in it. I can make a nice green tea smoothie for myself with bancha powder, ice, rice milk and agave...it's better than all the juice bar's versions, and without any avoids! I also like a basic banana smoothie. There may be better blenders out there for smoothies, but I do love how easy it is to individualize our smoothies with this one. That has upped our fruit consumption quite nicely.

I also recently discovered Tulsi Ginger tea, it's holy basil, a great adaptogen especially for As if memory serves correctly, but this O loves it and with the anti-inflammatory ginger in it, it has great flavor. It's one of my all time favorite herbal teas.

I started up my rice milk maker again, inspired by the smoothie maker, so I could make compliant smoothies instead of using storebought avoid-filled rice milks or - even worse for me - soymilk.

I tried buying a mandoline slicer from Costco. It was too cheap, I should have known by the price, so it may do fine with potatoes and cucumbers, but it wasn't sharp enough for kohlrabi, and the teeth on the finger protector sliding thing chewed up zucchini faster than the blade sliced it...so I returned that one. I kind of enjoy slicing things manually anyway, and there's always the food processor to handle the jobs I don't like using a knife for.

Cooking, planning, and grocery shopping are going pretty well so far this week. I made a chicken and rice casserole on Sunday and even invited the in-laws over (that's a first for me in a long time!). My mother-in-law broke her elbow and had surgery last week, so I figured this was a good time to take the plunge and help out. It turned out great. I also sliced up a watermelon, and made a green salad with more than just lettuce in it. I have to admit that I do suffer somewhat from CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome*), and it's still an issue with the renovations and reorganizing we've done lately with our house. The evening worked out nicely though, with everyone's help. The renovations are mostly done, but everything got moved into the garage for the flooring adventure, and it has slowly been making its way back into the house, hopefully more organized this time around. Getting all your floors redone is almost harder than moving to a whole new house, because you have to move the furniture and most everything twice. I'm glad that one's behind me.

I must be doing better with my diet, because I've been very hungry, as I always am when I first start it. I need more beneficials, but have been focusing on dinner for As and Os both, and different tastes. Next week I'll do more for lunch than just leftovers, and should be able to fit in some nice beneficials in there.

Other than the casserole, I've made andouille smothered northern beans, with wellshire's turkey andouille. Tonight I'm going to attempt turning the leftovers from that into a gumbo-like stew. That may be interesting...hopefully not too interesting. It doesn't taste so great after being refrigerated, so I hope making it into a soup will wake it up a little. I've also gone back to cooking up a whole stockpot of steamed broccoli to use liberally in meals.

I wish I could say I am totally avoid-free, but stress comes along and I do still make poor decisions, though to a much smaller extent and much less often. I'm trying to incorporate the motto on Enjoy Life Food's products: "Eat Freely" My diet is free of quite a few things, but saying it that way makes it sound more positive. I eat freely of those foods that are right for me. It also speaks somewhat to how little counting calories or portions matters for my health, if I eat beneficials and avoid the avoids, then my weight goes down and my health improves, even if I eat quite a bit, because I am satisfied by what I eat.

*www.flylady.net