A Day in the Life: Juice Cleanse Edition (Day 2)

5:30AM Little man is making noise. Way. Too. Early. Luckily he falls back asleep.

6:45AM Parker starts to stir so I jump out of bed to get a head start on him. I wake up super thirsty, curious as I did nothing but drink the day before. I skip to the kitchen and pull out all of my Day 2 drinks and line them up for a photo. This is the day I have my friend juicing with me, and I'm so excited! Plus, it's a much easier lineup of juices today.

I snap a photo of my Turmeric Flush (diluted once again) to send to my buddy, and get one back from her! I think in my head that we are too cute. 

7:00AM I greet Baby Boy. One of the best parts of the day is walking in to get him in the morning! I love snuggling and reading in his nursery. 

8:00AM I open the Keri - yum! The overall taste is more apple, compared to a celery taste from the greens the day before. 

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A Day in the Life: Juice Cleanse Edition (Day 1)

Have you ever wondered what it's like to do a juice cleanse? Well, step into my shoes for my two-day juice fast from Kaleidoscope Juice! Max was out of town for work these days, and I made sure our schedule was open and easy with no commitments since I didn't really know how the cleanse would go. Read on for Day One! 

Day 1

6:30AM I wake to little man babbling to himself. This is a bit early for him (and mamma) so I mentally will him back to sleep, but alas he is up for the day, so I am too! I know it’s Juice Cleanse Day, and time to start juicing, however I feel not an ounce of hunger. I’m not much of a breakfast person (except for coffee right when I wake up), plus I had a big dinner the night before (a girls night out for awesome sushi at Roka Akor, yum!). I head to the kitchen anyway for my first drink of the day, the Turmeric Flush. This is the first drink for any Juice Cleanse at Kaleidoscope, and they suggest diluting it with spring water if it’s too strong. I go right to the diluting, pouring half water and half Tumeric Flush in my ginormous mason jar mug (I throw in some heart shaped ice for good measure).  I wince before taking my first sip, having no idea what to expect. What I got was mostly watered down ginger. Not bad at all. 

By this time, little man has decided to stand in his crib and is shouting “ah, ah!” so I run upstairs with my drink to greet my baby boy. He is very interested in my beverage. 

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PCK 16 Months

Our sweet Parker Campbell Klein is 16 months old today! He is tipping the scales at almost 22 pounds and is outgrowing clothes and jams left and right!

Hair: Our littlest man had his very first haircut! Not too much off, though mamma did snag a curl for the baby book.

Diapers: Still Huggies Little Movers Size 3, but not much longer!

Clothes: Some 12-month and mostly 18-month now

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Clean Eating + Juice Cleansing

Max had been out of town for work for a while, and without the obligation to cook for him, I kept finding myself eating ice cream for dinner... or polishing off a whole loaf of French bread by myself (please tell me someone else has done this while home alone??). I would prepare lots of fruits and veggies for all of Parker’s meals, but by the time I fed him and cleaned up, I just wanted to inhale whatever was easy and in sight. SO, I challenged myself to clean eating. No processed foods, no wheat, no dairy. Basically all of my favorites would be off limits in hopes I would make better choices and eat healthy. I was eating semi-vegan and gluten free, and quickly learned I had to be very creative to get filling (and fulfilling) meals.

One of my first attempts was this Roasted Shrimp & Broccoli from Cooking Light. I added crushed garlic to the shrimp, which turned out soooo delicious. And super super easy. While the meal fell under "clean eating" I felt that it was missing a nice pasta or garlic bread. Sigh. 

One of my favorite clean eating meals was making quinoa bowls. I cooked up a bunch of quinoa and kept it in the fridge, and added random veggies to each one. This one has mushrooms and zucchini, plus a poached egg on top. Yum! Once it's broken the poached egg gives the whole bowl awesome yolky creaminess! And what's on top of the egg you ask? Oh, it's shallot gold! (aka caramelized shallot.) I saw Carmeron Diaz talking about it on The Tonight Show months ago and just decided to try making it!

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Semi-Homemade Pastries

One of the yummy Patriotic treats I made for the 4th were these Red White & Blue Pastries. I found the idea here via Pinterest. The recipe uses puffed pastry sheets that don't even need to be rolled out! Rolling dough is my least favorite part of baking, so I was super on-board with this easy treat! 

I made each component just like the recipe, but instead of combining it all together as the recipe called for, I kept the cream cheese filling as a dipper and put the blueberries on the side. I thought the pastries were so pretty just as they were! 

Pretty and delicious. Max and I polished off the entire batch over the holiday weekend. Check out the easy steps for making your own here! I think swapping out the stars for hearts would make them perfect for Valentine's Day! I'll definitely be making them again come February! 

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A Family Fourth

Our little family of three soaked up every minute of the three-day holiday weekend with lots of sun and fun, playing, swimming, napping, relaxing, and eating lots of yummy patriotic themed foods! We even fit in this darling 'Merica photo shoot on our nation's birthday...

Parker stayed up way past his bedtime to watch the fireworks shows from our balcony (we can see the Scottsdale fireworks and the Phoenix ones from a distance). He loved them like his Dada and was very excited for sparklers and the little fireworks Max set off in the yard (though little man preferred to watch them from Mamma's lap). We did have some tears when the home fireworks made the loud whistling sound, but other than that Parker was all about the light and sparks and booms! Happy birthday, USA! 

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Happy July!

We are kicking off July with four days of Stars and Stripes festiveness! 

I introduced Parker to Redi Whip while I was putting together this yummy waffle parfait yesterday morning. Little man looooved the whip cream and kept signing  that he wanted "more" until I put back in the refrigerator. It was super fun to put a pretty spin on a regular breakfast. I just cut up my normal toaster waffles into bite-sized pieces and layered them with the Redi Whip and berries. 

Next I busted out the star shaped cookie cutter to make these pineapple stars. They so dress up otherwise normal glasses of champagne! 

And I had to try my hand at the cute berry toast I've been seeing all over Pinterest. Here's how mine turned out! 

 Of course, Parker has been rocking his red, white and blue. 

Happy July, y'all!

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