Update on Pumpkin Powder

Liam has been on the Seed Oil Company's pumpkin powder since October and is doing FANTASTIC!!!! I started with a teaspoon in his smoothies every other morning. I watched and waited for something to happen. The good news was nothing did. He did not get a tummy ache or have a loose bowel movement. His little body accepted the pumpkin powder with no problem.

Because he was doing so well I decided to add a tablespoon to his smoothie. Again all was okay. I am so relieved that I can give him a protein powder that is dairy and soy free. I notice on the days I don't put the powder in his smoothie he gets hungrier faster which is amazing. This was by far the best find I found for him. What I love most is that it does not change the taste, color or consistency of the smoothie.
Now that I know he can handle the Pumpkin Powder I throw it into cookies, muffins, and sauces. The kids have no idea and I feel good knowing I am giving them extra  Magnesium, Zinc, Iron and Phosphorus and vitamin K.

Here is his favorite recipe:

1/2 cup coconut water
1/2 cup pineapple juice
Frozen pineapple
Frozen mango
1 banana
1 Tbl Chia seeds
1 Tbl Pumpkin Powder
Little bit of ice
Blend up and serve!

Typical Dinners for us!

A lot of friends ask me what I fix for dinner all the time? Do I follow one Paleo book over another? Honestly I have adapted lots of my recipes to fit a Paleo lifestyle. I will have to do more post on individual recipes, but for now here is an idea of what we eat on a weekly basis. The key to dinners I always say is plan your week out. On busy days try to make a meal in the crock pot so its ready for you. Or prep ahead of time so you can just throw it together and eat right away. I am going to give you two ideas of meals on a given day. That way essentially you will see that there are two weeks of meals in this post. You could arrange them on any day or in any order.

Monday:  

1. BLT's without the bread and Sweet Potato Fries: Bacon wrapped in lettuce with tomato, possibly avocado. For Liam because he can't digest lettuce I just give him bacon with cherry tomatoes with some other veggie like bell pepper or cucumber. He also has a generous portion of Sweet Potato Fries. For the fries I leave the skins on so they some of it is crunchy.

2. Turkey and Beef Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries. I will have to post the recipe I came up with for my Turkey Burgers soon. They are amazing. Even my husband prefers them to beef.

Tuesday:

1. Crock pot Marinara with Sausage or Meatballs served on Spaghetti Squash, Zucchini or Rice Noodles. Rice Noodles are not Paleo, but my kids really prefer them. Its a balancing act and since they don't upset Liam's tummy I tend to be a little lenient with them. With the Main course we will have a mixed Salad and sauted Green Beans or roasted Asparagus.

2. Crock Pot: BBQ Chicken ( Put Chicken in Crock Pot and put Barbecue sauce on top, let cook all day) side note make your own sauce or in a pinch I use one from Trader Joes that does not have a bunch of nasty ingredients in it. Side dishes with this meal are coleslaw and cut up pineapple along with green beans or another veggie

Wednesday:

1. Herb Roasted Whole Chicken baked with roasted Sweet Potatoes. We usually have roasted cauliflower, roasted Brussels Sprouts or a salad with it. After we eat the whole Chicken I then put it in the crock pot over night and make broth.

Thursday:

1. Taco's: Taco meat (turkey and beef) with sauted bell pepper and onions. We cut up avocado, cherry tomatoes, limes, and cilantro. I use lettuce leaves in place of taco shells. Usually serve with fruit

2. Carnitas (click on it for the best recipe) and shredded salsa Chicken (throw chicken in crock pot and dump favorite jar salsa on top and let cook all day)  have the same ingredients as taco night.

Friday:

1. Lemon Chicken (Barefoot Contessa recipe is amazing) serve with favorite vegetable and Salad.

2. Dairy Free Chicken Piccata served with steamed Artichokes and Lemon Kale Salad

Saturday:

1. Cobb Salad: I put everything in separate bowls and let my kids make it themselves. Liam eats everything but the lettuce. Our Salad consist of Mixed greens, hard boiled eggs, bacon, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, grilled chicken, mushrooms, bell pepper, almonds and cranberries. I make my own balsamic dressing for all my salads.

2. Asian Salad: Chicken fingers, butter lettuce and romaine lettuce, carrots, green onion, cucumber, red bell pepper, almonds and Asian dressing.

Sunday:

1. Leftover night

2. Breakfast: Eggs, Bacon, Canadian bacon or Sausage, Fruit, and Grain Free pancakes

Hope this helps give you some ideas!

Liam's Progress with Vision Therapy Week 12

Liam just completed week 12 of Vision Therapy. He is improving everyday, which is so exciting. Little by little something will become easier to him. This week we had to continue an exercise called Michigan Tracking. This exercise is timed and Liam has to circle letters in alphabetical order within a paragraph of words that make no sense. In the beginning he had to do this with pretty big font and one eye patched. It would take him anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 minutes depending on which eye and how tired his eyes were. It was hard for him, especially with his letter reversal. This week he was able to do the exercise with both eyes at the same time as well as the font size was two sizes smaller.  I am happy to say he completed them in 2 1/2 minutes. At the beginning he would not have been able to complete the taste with such small font. Here are some examples:

Biggest font and he was patched

One font size smaller not patched

Smaller font not patched

This was pretty exciting results for us. He also started reading BOB books to me this week. He still has trouble but instead of guessing what the word is he is trying to sound out each letter. This is because he can finally start to see each letter clearly. AMAZING!!!!

Dr. Anna Griffith: Strengthening Eyes for Learning

Click on the link below to read a great article about a fantastic Optometrist in Chico, CA who specializes in Vision Therapy! Liam goes to her as well as many other kids we know. She is amazing and such a blessing to Liam. Can't praise her enough.

Picture provided by North State Parenting

http://northstateparent.com/2013/11/dr-anna-griffith-strengthening-eyes-for-learning/

20/20 Isn't Everything - A Child's vision is critical to learning

This is the best video to show how Liam and kids like Liam see. I wish all teachers could experience this so they could better help their students.

Vision Therapy Update

Its been a few weeks since I have updated. Between all of us getting sick, going on vacation then me having surgery I am a bit behind. Liam's Vision Therapy is going really well. He isn't fighting me nearly as much and I am grateful for the days just gets down to business and does it. It's not everyday, but I will take those days and appreciate the progress. We are on week 8 and the improvements are showing.

The first BIG improvement both Mike and I saw was when we went to Disneyland last week. Disneyland has been our only family vacations for the past three years. Our kids love it as do Mike and I. My kids were the perfect ages when we have gone. They were little enough to take in the magic and light up when they saw the characters. They loved all the kiddie rides and thought Disneyland was the happiest place on earth. Then they became a little older and loved all the thrill rides for the most part. Savy still hates Tower of Terror, but this last trip Liam was tall enough for California Screaming. He loved it and wanted to ride it several times. It was awesome being able to experience every stage with them. Okay so back to my main point. 

Over the years Liam hated the Toy Story Mania ride. If you are not familiar with the ride, its a 3-D ride that you shoot at different objects. Liam never wore the glasses and the most points he ever got was 4,000. I was super excited to see if he would like this ride after starting vision therapy. This trip he LOVED it. In fact we went on it 6 times. The fist time we went on it, he wore his glasses the whole time and scored 44,000 points. The third time his score was 55,800 and the last time he went on it he got 64,800 points. By far this was one of the biggest highlights of the trip. It was so awesome to hear him tell Mike and I that army men were jumping out at him, or that a ball flew at him. He spent so much time telling me what he could see that I could barely played myself. After the fist time riding it I immediately had to email Dr. G with my excitement. This was HUGE!!!!!

Wearing his 3-D glasses

Liam's score was the blue 55,800, mine was in the red

 The next amazing thing for Mike and I was Liam's interest in Lego's all of a sudden. He has never had any interest in them. He did not even like the bigger size Lego's for little ones. We have a ton and he has never played with them. While on our trip we bought him a set at the Lego store. He spent easily 45 minutes looking for the perfect set to build with dad. He finally decided to buy the Grand Prix Truck with Race Car. It had 315 pieces and was rated for ages 5-12. That night he sat with Mike is my parents Motor home and built the entire thing. He went step by step looking at the manual with pictures, then finding the pieces and putting it together. Mike assisted, but for the most part Liam did it all on his own. I wish I had taken a picture of them assembling it and even the finish product. Mike had been waiting for a long time for this moment with him. A memory he will never forget.

This is the set he built

He still has a ways to go, but these BIG milestones are what keep us going. Vision Therapy is not easy. Liam works so hard everyday. He still gets headaches and gets frustrated. I still get frustrated and stress over if I am doing it right with him. But then we get experiences like these and it makes us realize all of his hard work is paying off. I cannot wait for the day that he picks up a book and sounds out the sounds and reads to me. Someday he will not flip his b,d,p,q,n,h's or think that X's are T's and H's are N's. I am so grateful for Vision Therapy and Dr. G. Liam's world is changing and is so exciting to watch!

Pumpkin Protein and Pumpkin Butter

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

If you love pumpkin then look no more. There is a a company that sells Pumpkin Seed oil, Pumpkin Powder and Pumpkin Butter. If you want more info on how to buy the product from Seed Oil Company click here.

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

Pumpkin Powder can:

• Relieves chronic weariness and stress 
• Has Amino acids required for muscle protein
• Great for Bone density
• Improvement of the liver and prostate
• Improvement of metabolism
• Rich in Magnesium, Zinc, Iron and Phosphorus.
• High Vitamin K 
• Great source of Vegan Protein
• Perfect for high protein, low fat, low carbohydrate diets
• Gluten Free , Soy Free, Non GMO and Dairy Free

If you are Paleo and want to add protein to your smoothies, baking and everyday life look no further. This is amazing product that can be used in many ways. 

Pumpkin Seed Butter is another great product. 

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

Benefits of Pumpkin Seed Butter are:

• Vegetable Protein
• Bladder strengthening
• Prostate (BPH) relief
• Anti inflammatory
• Relieve IBS
• Prevent urinary and prostate problems
• Prevents formation of kidney stones
• Relieve muscle fatigue 
• Provides nutrients, essential for muscle growth
• Ease the symptoms of arthritis

Pumpkin Seed Oil is great too! It can be used Pumpkin seed oil is used as a salad dressing
mixed with fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. You can add flavor and nutrition to soups, sauces and many other recipes.

Photo Courtesy of Seed Oil Company

Benefits of Pumpkin Seed Oil

• Bladder strengthening
• Prostate (BPH) relief
• Anti inflammatory
• Relieve IBS
• Prevent urinary and prostate problems
• Prevents formation of kidney stones
• Relieve muscle fatigue 
• Stimulate muscle growth
• Maintain the body's cholesterol levels
• Ease the symptoms of arthritis.
• Boost metabolic rate

For more info on this product you can watch this:

http://www.kdrv.com/sustainable-table-pumpkin-power/

• Liam is doing so well with his U.C. that I am super excited to try him out on the Seed Oil's products. I have wanted to get his gut stable before introducing something with more fiber than he is use to. The Seed Oil Company has an even finer pumpkin powder this year, so we are super excited to try it out. I will let you know how it goes.