Day 4

It already seems like we've been doing this forever - not because it's easier, but because everyone is ready for it to end...and I don't think the dishes ever will.

Breakfast (Stage 2/3)
Eggs with cooked carrots on the side
Some had it scrambled in ghee, others had it over-easy with the yolks just barely cooked through.  They SHOULD be eating them raw or soft-boiled, but they won't and right now I just need to get some food in them.  Between my four boys they ate 15 eggs for breakfast.  It makes me want to cry.  We drive an hour and a half each way to get free-range, organic, pastured eggs at $4 something a dozen.  I just might be driving up more than once a month to stock my fridge.

I forgot to include broth with this meal.  We were rushed to get out the door for church.

Lunch (Stage 1)
Meat patties, green beans and spaghetti squash
I had some leftover meatball meat so I formed small patties and boiled them in broth.  After 20 minutes or so I added some frozen green beans and cooked until they were soft.

Baked spaghetti squash (cut in half) in the oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or so.  We served it with a bit of ghee and salt.

The meat patties were a huge hit and they wanted more than I had prepared.  Green beans were okay (I loved them) and they ate most of them.  One son had seconds.  Spaghetti squash was a bust.  They'd probably like it better with some sort of sauce on top.  The meat patties and green beans had some of the broth left which we added to the plate, but it wasn't the "one cup per meal" it should have been.

Dinner (Stage 1 except for the eggs which are Stage 2/3)
Boiled steak strips, broccoli, butternut squash soup and a fried egg
I cut up a few small steaks and boiled them in salted water (with half a sliced onion) for 25-30 minutes, covered.  Broccoli was boiled in salted water until fully cooked, but not mega mushy.  One of the things I learned while living in Brasil was to cook eggs until the white were firm and yolk was pretty runny, then place it on top of rice or meat or whatever to create a sort of 'egg sauce'.  My 5-yr-old said, "It's kind of gross but kinda yummy."

For the soup:
2 or 3 quarts of beef broth
3 to 4 cups butternut squash, cubed
1 huge carrot, sliced
1/2 onion

Boiled until soft then pureed with immersion blender and salted to taste.  I'll be honest, the only reason I'm giving this recipe was because it was GROSS and I don't want to you ever think this is a good combination.  Maybe it was because I used beef broth instead of chicken?

I had sauerkraut juice and garlic with my dinner.  I had garlic 3 times the first day and had a massive headache so I decided to do 1 garlic-in-soup a day for the first few days, then 2, then 3.  My sauerkraut just barely finished which is why I didn't have it earlier.  I'm having a HARD time getting sauerkraut to work.  The kids won't touch it so I need to find a different way to get probiotic food into them.

Reactions:
The 5-yr-old is basically on a hunger strike.  He'll eat the eggs, sometimes.  He used to eat meat without a problem and now he won't.  He "hates" soup and "all squash is gross".  He loves carrots but not if they are cooked.  It's getting hard to find anything he'll eat and he cries a lot.  Most likely we'll move him to Stage 3 or 4 tomorrow or the next day.  While I understand that moving too quickly isn't the best idea, I have to balance that with him getting enough to eat and his emotional well-being.  He's also the child with the least problems so we're not very worried about speeding him up.

The 10-yr-old has told me for 2 nights that he's really tired.  I can't tell if it's because he's not getting enough to eat, or that he's having a healing crisis, or that he's eating something that is bothering him, or that his body is adjusting to good food and now he is actually sleeping.  He always has a hard time falling asleep, but not lately.  Good thing, bad thing?  His eczema, which is horrid, is starting to clear up in some areas, other areas look just as bad as before.  He has A LOT of it though so it may take a while.

All of the kids want to know when we'll move on, what they can eat next, etc.  We never really talked about food before and now they talk about it all the time.  It's getting really hard to get them to drink broth.  They're starting to look at soup as one of the most evil things on the planet.  Energy levels are good though.  BMs are good.  No real reactions that we can see (other than above).

I'm cranky but I think that's because I've never seen so many dirty dishes in my life.  It's like Thanksgiving every meal.  Every pot/pan I own gets used every meal.  I have to wash them constantly.  I also didn't anticipate how long it would take to cook all the foods.  I bake/cook from scratch all the time, but this is a whole new level.  The emotional aspect is something I didn't expect either.  Having the kids cry and complain and talk non-stop about when it will end is very trying.  But we will keep forging ahead.  I know it will be worth it in the long run.