I've decided this is my favorite new term for Ramadan.
I've also decided that they might as well arrest me now. Come get me Ramadan Cops.
No, seriously, I suck at Ramadan. I keep forgetting that I'm not supposed to drink or eat in public. Scratch that, I keep forgetting that it's ILLEGAL to eat or drink in public right now.
This is a picture of my conversation with my friend Jessica. I'm the one on the right...
Yesterday I was driving home from the grocery store and Caden was hungry in the backseat. (Children are allowed to eat and drink as usual). So, I handed him some cashews, and as any good mom would do, I had to make sure they weren't "poisonous" first and ate a few. I stopped mid-chew and froze in place with what I'm sure was a 'scared out of my freaking mind' look on my face. OH CRAP.
I looked to my left (of course I was at a stoplight) and the Muslim man next to me was given me the look of death, he had caught me mid-chew. I wanted to just open my mouth and spit out the cashews, what else could I do?
I'll tell you what I did; I just sat there with half-chewed cashew in my mouth, pretending they weren't there, trying to act as innocent and nonchalant as possible. Not easy to do with half-chewed nuts in your mouth. I could still feel his stink-eye on me...he KNEW. After what felt like for-ev-er the light turned yellow then green (as they do in Bahrain) and as soon as I could, I took off. Initially I couldn't decide if it was better if I sped ahead of him to get away, thus leaving him able to write down my plate number, or just stay right beside him as he glared at me, avoiding showing my plate number. I decided to take off. I couldn't stand the half eaten cashews any longer. Not like I was fooling him anyways.
The Navy has done a good job of scaring the crap out of us about what would/could happen if you violate the laws, so I was PARANOID to say the least.
A few miles down the road a car sped up and was tailgating me, my heart dropped as I JUST KNEW that it was the Ramadan police coming to get me.
It wasn't.
BUT STILL...this is stressful. I definitely spent the rest of the drive home looking over my shoulder. All over a few nuts.
Today I was SO THIRSTY in my car while running errands, I ducked down to sip some water. FYI: trying to drink water out of a water bottle while hunched over trying to hide in your car is not easy. I felt like a water ninja. I just had to do it. Caden asked me why I was drinking like that. When I explained to him that I'm not allowed to drink water and eat food in public during daytime right now his response was,
"MAN! THAT IS A PAIN IN THE BUT!"
Yes it is buddy, yes it is.
Also, the whole long pants and long-sleeved shirt thing. Seriously, I might as well paint a BIG AMERICAN FLAG on myself! The clothing rule is mandated by the big kahunas on base....so aside from Muslims, we are the ONLY people dressing like this. In my grocery shopping adventures yesterday Jessica and I were the ONLY non-Muslims wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts. All of the other ex-pats were in sun dresses and shorts. Even a lot of the shop workers were in short-sleeved shirts.
Heck, I'm PRETTY sure that the guys jet-skiing in front of my house wearing shorts are Muslims that live across the way. Meanwhile, I'm afraid to go out on my porch without long sleeves.
The story in Andrew's command is that last year one of their guys was sitting on his front porch eating during Ramadan and the police stormed his apartment and arrested him on the spot. Yep...let's avoid that at all costs. I guess, it is what it is, and I'm better safe than sorry. Though I would LOVE to just wear a short-sleeved shirt. Do you know what it's like to sweat ALL THE TIME?!
In other news....look at how cute my nephew Cash is! He is 3 months older than big D. Steph and I compared notes today, and they are the SAME length, but Cash has a 5 pound advantage. Chunk-a-lunk...or maybe Davis is just long-a-long-a-ding-dong?! . Nevermind, I'll stop trying to rhyme now.
I can't wait to see this little guy in 2.5 months. Not like I'm counting or anything!
Here's a picture of D today. I think they look alike. Brothers from another Mother. Sorry - I had to do one more rhyme. Deal with it.
And YES, he is playing with a whisk. It's his new favorite toy...what else is he supposed to do while I'm in the kitchen cooking ALL DAY LONG.
Yes, people - we are going strong on our Whole 30! Initially we had decided to do the Whole 30 during Ramadan because we figured that everyone will be miserable for this month anyways, so we might as well be miserable too. Well, now I think we were so smart to make that decision! All of the restaurants and coffee shops, snack places, everything is closed - so that pretty much eliminates temptation. Genius!
I've been having a pretty easy time with cravings and such so far. Though I've been SO tired. The reason I didn't post anything yesterday is because I was too tired to even think straight. According to the Whole 30 timeline, that meant I was right on track.
Caden, however - I'm pretty sure he is getting cravings BIG TIME. All day today it's been,
"Mommy, let's have (insert unhealthy food here)"
Grilled Cheese
Doughnut
Sandwich
Burrito
Candy
As Andrew put it, I'm "knocking it out of the park" with our meals so far. Seriously, it's all been so delicious. I hope I stay motivated to keep cooking such great meals and not fall into a grilled chicken and vegetables every day trap.
So here is our roundup from the past two days. I'm sharing this as I sincerely hope that some of you join us in our journey or at least try these amazingly delicious and healthy meals!
DAY 3
Breakfast: Homemade Beef Sausage.
I had a pack of ground beef, or 'mince' as they call it here, and wanted to prep some breakfast meat with it. Andrew found THIS recipe and it was so wonderful. We honestly couldn't tell that it wasn't pork. We made a bunch of little patties and have frozen the rest for the future. I served that up with some roasted veggies.
Lunch: Salad with left over Bruschetta Chicken, Avocado, and homemade dressing.
This was really wonderful. The best part was that we used the left over bruschetta mix as a topping on the salad. Oh - So- Good!
Dinner: Mustard Lime Chicken with Roasted Carrots and Salad
I found the recipe for this HERE
Somehow I didn't get a picture. Sad, sad day. It was beautiful.
We roasted the carrots in coconut oil and sprinkled some salt, pepper, and parsley on them.
Day 4
Breakfast: Bacon, Eggs, and Roast Carrots
That's right folks, I've found Whole 30 compliant bacon in Bahrain!!! It was an adventure to find it, a hot, sweaty, miserable adventure. But I found it, and it was so so so worth it! We also ate up the rest of last nights' carrots.
Lunch: Salad with Avocado and balsamic vinegar and some of our beef sausage patties.
Not too exciting here, I realized I didn't have anything quick to make today, so I grabbed a few of the sausage patties. It worked. I got my protein and my veggies in. Andrew had the leftovers from last night and Caden asked for more eggs. Mishmash day.
Dinner:
Obviously, I'm not a great food photographer. This dinner was out of this world though!
Thanks to one of my favorite Paleo food blogs, Everyday Paleo, we enjoyed
SO SO SO good. We didn't even miss the mayo in the broccoli salad. This is going to definitely be a go to meal from here on out.
You are probably sensing a theme with all of the avocados. Well, they are SUPER cheap here. Strangely. Broccoli costs a fortune and avocados are cheap. Of course.
According to the Whole 30 Timeline tomorrow is the, "Everything Must Die" phase where you hate everyone and everything around you. Wish me luck. Hopefully my husband survives.
And just because these pictures are WAY too cute to NOT post - and you deserve a reward if you've read this far:
All horribleness aside - at least my boys are cute!
and That's 'Watts' She Said...
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