In the beginning....

September 18th, 2013
This is my first entry and my exposure to the blog world. I have opined in handwritten journals to either lament or vent. My techy hubby decided to get me into the 21st Century and make me set this up.
So why did I call it the Wistful Pioneer...It was a journey I began last year. My youngest was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten. We were given the usual route of you should try meds, but I am in clinical research myself and am a bit leery of pharmaceuticals used for the wrong reasons. Don't get me wrong, medicines are great in the right moment, but we live in an age that instead of facing our issues we just decide to take a pill and hope for the best instead of getting to the root of the problem.
So, back to my daughter (whom I shall refer to as Monkey)...we had a wonderful 1st grade teacher who herself was ADD and understood my child and helped her adapt and learn as best as possible. Monkey did ok with this teacher and managed to learn at an ok pace. The teacher did warn me that not every teacher would be so willing to adapt. I shook my head in ignorance and said, "un huh" and wandered off in my usual fog. Then second grade happened. I call it OCD meets ADD and all hell broke loose with me in the middle. It affected my marriage, my job, and my other daughter. It took all of one month in school before this teacher told me that she had 25 years of teaching and she knew when it was time for the children to be on ADD meds and now was Monkey's time. I cried. I got mad. And then I obeyed.
 After much research and debate, I asked to start on Ritalin. We did 10mg. Of course for about 3 weeks she was wonderful...until the non eating zombie appeared. Oh the teacher was ecstatic! She had a well behaved zombie, er I mean child now. I lasted until the Dec break. I was miserable and she was not my happy go lucky, adventurous eating child anymore. I began to read any book I could lay my hands on. I have read over 10 books, as I look over at my book shelf, on ADD/ADHD. I landed on some interesting things. This blog is about where I was, where I went, and where I am going. This is about ADD, food, and just random crap. :) If you are still with me by this point, you are either bored...or interested and possibly even desperate like me for answers.

The 2 books I found the most fascinating were about nutrition and vitamins. My hubby is gluten sensitive so I began reading about food and learning to cook gluten free and have it not taste like Styrofoam. I read about wheat and how it has changed since the 70s and all the new diseases we have that are caused by food. I have found some wonderful websites, Sarahbakesglutenfree.com that have been a life saver. The most interesting thing I found is that if you read labels, and really think about what you are putting in your body, things happen. Good things. So hence my title of my blog, whistful pioneer...I began to think like a pioneer on cooking and food in general like how my grandparents would have cooked. I found that if I cut out as much processed food as possible that I might lose weight and my kids would develop healthy eating habits. While my hubby and I are not horrible eaters or overweight, we could both stand to tighten up and eat better. So back to the good things that happen.....after I began shopping the perimeter of the store buying healthier chips, organic where sensible, and balancing fast carbs with slow carbs and protein...my hubby commented that he could actually think more clearly. I too began to feel better and not be so fog brained. (I can't help the dingy that is natural). I had also made sure that where we were not getting natural vitamins in our food we were taking supplements. I began to notice a difference in Monkey and so did others around her which was encouraging.

So who has time in this world to cook like our grandmas did? Well I am thankful that I work from home at an awesome job that allows me to be able to prep dinners but I have a friend who works late and she is able to cook for her kids in the  am and on weekends to give them fresh food so anyone can do it, if you want to change bad enough. I used to be a horrible planner and if I had to plan..I went blank usually. So what has helped me recently was to clean out my pantry. Ever notice you buy junk either b/c it was on sale, you were hungry, or it looked like a good idea for a dinner....for another day. Only to shove it in the back of the pantry/fridge/freezer and forget. I hated how much money I threw away. Especially after hubby and I decided to "straighten" the pantry and found an expired can from 2007! Gross. So I looked at the beans I had (slow carb) found a fast carb (potatoes), and used, or bought, meat to make a meal. It became easier b/c I had a stocked pantry. When I managed to wean down my pantry to bare bones is when it became hard. Then I had to use my little pea brain to...to...it is painful to say still....PLAN. I managed to do it and survived. How you say? I will tell you.

You know all of those stupid half used notebooks your kids bring home at the end of the school year? Yeah I collect them and those are my pads I use to jot down food ideas. I watch cooking shows, I check out my mags that always have some great meal idea that I can use or adapt to my picky family. I have managed to get us to eat our meals together too which I enjoy so I want to plan a meal where we can sit together. We turn off the TV and no one is allowed any electronics at the table...which includes me, my iPad and my Hayday addiction....yeah it is bad. So the trick was to get the kids involved in cooking which is fun sometimes other times not so much b/c I can't hide ingredients or modify...if they are watching. So that is a balancing act but they love to help and get excited they had a hand in the meal. I have branched out  my oldest, I shall call her....the lawyer...food choices. This is the kid that if ever they have a Peanut Butter or Tyson Chicken Sticks shortage...she will starve. She does like my take on my own version of a the golden arches burger.With less embalming fluids and more things like...um...real meat.
So for instance last night I squished as flat as my arms could squish two patties. I season them with my own concoction and then I either grill or pan fry in olive oil. Don't hate on me, I am from the south and I can't talk with out the word "fried" or "fixin" mixed in at some point in the conversation! So I fried the burgers with some organic onion slices, actually I steamed them b/c I covered them in a skillet. I also sauteed some yellow squash, and made garlic roasted red potatoes in the oven. We had a side salad of sliced cucumbers with a drizzle of Italian bruschetta dressing. Kids loved it, well lawyer hated the squash and cukes but that is better eating than sticks that are basically breading with some chicken flavor!

Back to the title and my story....I thought if I cooked like a pioneer or ate what was in season like my ancestors did, I might feel better and Monkey might calm down and not climb the walls. I began to buy local organic foods thru a coop or organic items at my grocery chain. I began to balance by making sure I had a slow carb/fastcarb/protein so we felt full and I lost some weight! (fyi, while the pounds are not dropping like flies, I am losing slow and it is staying off and I feel better...might work better if I laid off the homemade muffins and cakes..but that is another confession..uh I mean blog post for another time). We also either cut out bread or eat whole wheat (don't tell my kids!) So far so good.
Oh, and if you haven't followed well or I jumped around too much...I too am ADD and I get distracted and go off on tangents so hang with me...I usually get back to my thoughts...usually being the operative word. If you are still reading, wow. You are REALLY bored.