Smells like Strawberries!

I love our dentist. He's got 4 kids with one on the way, so he is really understanding of them. We took Nathan in to get his 2 small cavities filled this morning, and they offered him the nitrous oxide "laughing gas". They have it scented like strawberries! How cool is that! Nathan was just a little scared when they were doing the filling, because there were a lot of things in his mouth like gauze pads and whatnot. But he did fantastic. The office has a two story playhouse with a slide in the waiting room. Where were the dentist offices like this when I was growing up?

I am enjoying discovering new recipes lately. The first week I followed the meal plan in the book, but I decided to branch out a little while still following the rules of what I can and can't eat this week. Next week I can start to add in the fruits and whole grain/high fiber carbs slowly... with the goal of getting my diet back to what it was when I was pregnant. If I hadn't been so hormonal from the nursing and lack of medications I could have kept eating that way quite easily so it seems a good way to go.

With an abundance of cauliflower in my fridge thanks to a great sale I found a delicious cream of cauliflower soup. You can make it with cauliflower, carrots, broccoli... Yumm! I didn't think a 1 cup serving would be enough, but I savored it and was pleasantly suprised to find I was nearly full, and couldn't finish my meat! Wow! I'll have to post the recipe...

With no sweets in the house, unless you count sugar-free jello or ricotta cheese sweetened with splenda, I was craving peanut butter cookies yesterday. Not sure why, but I LOVE peanut butter! I found a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe and made them. Not your normal cookie, but 1 has nearly 7 grams of protein! It's peanut butter, splenda, and an egg. That's it. More crumbly than you'd expect, but divine when eaten from the freezer. One hits the spot too, because it's still somewhat creamier and thick in the middle. I'm also learning how to think before I eat. Am I really hungry? Or am I just bored?

The boys still need a balanced diet, so I've been trying to cook healthy meals that I can just have extra vegetables instead of the rice for example, that way I'm sneaky and Mark can lose a little too, he's been complaining about his pants fitting. It's been challenging, but if I can carry on and really get down to a healthy size it will be worth the work.