{Photo By: Maria Alexandra Photography}

I'm not a picky eater... really... I'll eat just about anything you put in front of me and go back for seconds. One time while I was living in Chile, we were camping in the foothills of the Andes ... and not wanting to be seen as the wimpy "gringa" I ate the coagulated sheep's blood with lemon and cilantro (a chilean delicacy I guess or... a cruel joke to initiate the naive foreigner:):) ) Anyway, I sucked that blood jiggler down with pride... consequently I also spent the following 3 months knowing what it actually feels like to have your guts turned inside out ... it wasn't pretty... at all! While I lost a ton of weight, it's definitely not a diet plan approved by the FDA, and proof that you shouldn't just eat anything someone puts in front of you.



My boys... (including my husband)... are just the opposite. Picky isn't even a strong enough word to describe whatever it is they are. Sawyer has to sniff everything and has turned down cakes, and cookies and candy many times because he's not sure about how it feels on his fingers. I realize autism has a huge role to play in the pickiness of two of my men... but what's my hubby's excuse? And why in the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks won't my youngest eat anything but fruit roll ups and pretzels? That's rhetorical... I don't really want your advice:) I know what you're thinking... be the boss!!! make him!!! But I'm lazy and don't want a fight and have about 15 other excuses if you want to check back with me later:):)



Here's the thing, along with loving a hot loaf of "fresh at 5" from safeway, or anything with butter or heavy whipping cream in it... I do in fact also LOVE veggies.. I love salads and chicken and beats and chard and leeks and so many other really heathy foods... BUT... I HATE ... I mean I HATE(!!!) making them just for myself. My husband won't eat green and never has to my knowledge. Sawyer has actually thrown up just from seeing peas in a bowl by his plate (not even joking)... the little boys are just stubborn ... and I am the worst of all... I am the L word... L-A-Z-Y!!





I can admit it... I start the day off with great intentions... and so many times the only things I eat until 5 pm are bites I steal from the boys. They are scarred by their thieving mother's attempts to help them "finish" and all to often ask me to stay away from their food... poor kids:):) AND it's not because I'm soo crazy busy I just don't have time to eat a real meal... but because mama's too lazy to go throw some pre-washed lettuce in a bowl or slap a piece of turkey on some bread. It's that bad. If I'm hungry I grab whatever's fastest and easiest... which translates into "CRAP" off of my kids plates, and then I like to gorge myself with dinner because I realize I am freeken starving...

By Guest Contributor {Emilie Sampson}

Almost six years ago, I gave birth to this perfect little monkey named Parker. He was my third baby and I had breastfed the other two with little to no issues. From day 1 Parker spit up. And not the typical small amount of baby spit up…like disgusting man-barf from this tiny, perfect bald baby. The doctor did MANY tests and no matter what medicines we tried…Parker still spit up. A friend of mine suggested that it could be something in my breast milk, so I decided to try cutting food out of my diet. I tried dairy first and it was an IMMEDIATE change. He stopped spitting up completely! As long as I did not consume the SMALLEST amounts of dairy (not even cream in my coffee), everything was golden….until Parker started eating solid food. As we began to add food to his diet (still eliminating all dairy), Parker began to get sick. He was losing weight by the week, and the doctors were concerned. We saw specialists and had a MULTITUDE of tests done, and eventually one gave us the answer. Parker had Celiac Disease. Celiac disease is a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, and rye. Switching to a gluten free (as well as dairy free) diet was a huge adjustment, but we saw the benefits immediately! After months of losing weight, as soon as we took Parker off all gluten, he gained 10 oz in one week!!



As I entered this world of food allergies, I had to learn how to read labels and how to find out what is REALLY in the food we eat! And the more people I opened up to about this, the more people I found that also deal with food allergies and food intolerance.



How many of us deal with daily ailments that could possibly be attributed to the food that we consume? Chronic headaches, stomachaches, rashes, irritability, insomnia, trouble focusing can all be signs of food allergies! Now, I am no medical professional (Seriously, guys…I’m not a doctor. Take their word for it, not mine), but I often wonder how many things we choose to medicate for that could be cured by a simple change in our diet.

   With March fastly approaching we Saucy Sisters are gearing up to what we think, and hope will be our biggest market season yet!  Why you ask?  Well, this year in addition to the Thursday Market in Medford we are adding Tuesdays in Ashland...and Ashland will be big!



     I know many of you have not yet had the Saucy experience. During the off season we have sold a good number of products out of the restaurant (Redrock Italian Eatery) but come market season we expect to make 70-100 of each product weekly. So it is nearly time for these sisters to get back to work, dust off our Saucy Wagon (bring it home for the husband to fix), and get this valley Saucy!



Today I am giving you a super simple Saucy recipe that even Lindsay can do!

(editors note: thats rough Kim...Lindsay can mess up  follow a recipe just fine!)

And the best part is you only need 2 things:

1 bag of frozen or fresh cheese tortelini

1 tub of Saucy Sisters Creamy Pesto ….mmmmmmmmm

Cook the tortellini as directed, and Linz that means boil water and let the little guys float. (little guys, now that is something Lindsay knows about!) Strain them, and run them under cold water until they are cooled down. Add them to a bowl, scoop in some Creamy Pesto, toss together and Wa-la! A super easy pasta salad that the whole family will eat. Now if you want to get adventurous you could add some diced bell pepper, broccoli, or even chopped chicken….whatever you like!





So remember you can get our products every day at Redrock Italian Eatery (after 4pm), Starting March 15, Tuesdays at the Ashland growers market and Thursdays at the Medford growers market!

In case you can't tell those little dollops of cement are actually burnt cookies.

You may have heard me refer to myself as the "Anti-Martha" before. It's not a badge I wear proudly, and it's not by choice... it's by DNA. Growing up I think the best way to describe my mom is "June Bundy-Crocker" All of the domesticky goodness of June Cleaver and Betty Crocker with a little Peg Bundy smooshed in the middle to account for her funny sassiness. My sisters are clearly Betty and Junes but apparently Peg was the only one home when I was born ...

What you actually thought it was going to be clean clean??? Have you met me?? Well maybe you haven't, but still you should know better!! I will say though, at least for the 45 minutes surrounding this picture, I think our house was actually bumped back up into the "It might be messy, but it's clean underneath" category... good enough for me:) Project #1 ... Complete!

I still vividly remember the day Gena and I were walking the hills in her neighborhood gossiping having a deep conversation ... It was in our annoying pre-kid days,  and we were talking about all of the "NEVERS" and "Can you believe so and so let's their kids..." The victim of our rants was a "friend" who actually made her kids a separate meal of hot dogs and macaroni and cheese because they didn't want to eat what she and her husband were eating. The nerve! Can you believe it??? Right then and there we swore we would NEVER make a second dinner for our kids and certainly NEVER hot dogs or mac and cheese. Five years later I have one thing to say about that discussion.... Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha.... Sorry, but I was an idiot.



Of course Gena's children followed her annoyingly perfect little plan, but thankfully for our friendship, they give her loads of grief in other areas... (so you don't have to hate her either:))  My children on the other hand have MAJOR sensory issues and will only eat a very few things. My oldest has actually thrown up at the dinner table just from looking at green peas in a bowl next to his plate.  I cook 6 meals a day, in an attempt to get my kids to eat something... anything besides chips and pretzels... and while autism and sensory issues play a HUGE roll in their pickiness... I know there are other families out there blessed with kids that simply refuse to eat because they are just plain picky. On a side note, if you don't have a picky eater, please keep all of your "helpful tips" to get kids to eat to yourself... unsolicited advice in this area on the wrong day could lead to a nasty cat fight:)

Proof that mealtime at the McPhails is an actual war zone!

Meal time is a source of constant anxiety for me. One... because I am a horrible cook and can't follow a recipe to save my life and two... because it is almost impossible to get any nutrients into my boys  because they will only eat about 4 different meals.  On top of everything else... my kids are on a gluten, casein, dairy and soy free diet, this equals a huge pain in my butt and a grocery bill that is more than our house payment each month.

Do fried green snap peas count as a veggie??

While I'm not huge fan of New Year's resolutions I know that getting my family healthy is a MUST... so I am making the "Un-Resolution" (because I'm a rebel and don't want to admit to making a real resolution) of sneaking veggies and nutrition into their diets... even if it means I have to lie and cheat and sneak... conveniently my conscience has no qualms with this.



So here are just two small changes I'm going to make to ensure my children don't get scurvy this year or become morbidly obese before the age of 6.

Jessica's first cookbook

1) Deceptively Delicious and Double Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld will become my bibles in the kitchen... Most of you have probably heard of her... she is oh so sneaky and even more fabulous in the kitchen than she is deceptive. While most of my meals would only pass as "deceptively edible" I have been using her recipes and sneaky tactics to trick my kids for the past couple of weeks... and it's actually working!!! (and I should add learning to follow recipes actually does make food taste better, who da thunk it!) Even me, the "anti-martha" can have success in the kitchen when enticed by deceptive trickery:) Some of our faves are her pancakes, spaghetti, and hamburgers and I am trying to add new things like quesadillas and mac and cheese to our short list of approved meals. (She also has a "Do It Delicious" blog with great ideas and recipes.)

Picture "borrowed" from Bay Area Bites

2) I am also going to do MENU PLANNING to save at the grocery store and to make sure I am only buying what I need and using what I already have. When my hubby and I sat down to do our budget a couple of weeks ago I laughed at the thought of carving our grocery bill down from $1,500 to $1000 a month. Seriously I didn't think there was anyway this could be done. So, skeptically I decided to plan out our meals for a week, and make my grocery list off of that menu (this includes all snacks too.) I almost fell over dead when I saw that we spent $175 for the entire week and had everything we needed!!! I am not a planner and organization is NOT my strong suite... but it really wasn't that hard, so when I say if I can do it, anyone can do it... I really do mean a monkey could do it!! (Here's a great site to help with menu planning: orgjunkie.com)



So, whether you have a picky eater or just like tricking your family (or both... like me:) Check out the sites above and let us know what you think! We also want to know what your "Un-Resolution" is for 2011!