Vapiano Pizza-Makin' for Kids

A few weeks ago a friend of mine happened to be walking by Vapiano (pizza and pasta restaurant) on a Saturday morning and noticed that they had a little pizza class going on for kids. She stopped in, there was room in the class for her son, and so they spent the next hour or so making mini pizzas. It turns out that Vapiano at Reston Town Center does these free pizza-making classes every other Saturday morning! I signed the boys up and last weekend we had a wonderful time with the manager in charge of the class, the other employees who helped, the kids, and the boys' little friend Sonja.

Rene is the manager and he has this whole experience down. From the moment you walk in the door, you are welcomed, the kids are given (real, cloth) aprons, a paper chef hat, crayons, drinks, and parents are also given complementary drinks. The tour starts with a well-advised trip to the restrooms for the kids to wash their hands before they get to squish down the pizza dough. After the pizzas are all put together and baking, Renee brought out dough for the kids to practice tossing into the air. That was probably Cal's favorite part.

Without further text, here are the pictures. I highly recommend this fun morning (allow a good hour and a half or two hours) for anyone in the area. I'd say ideal ages are probably 3-6. Call ahead to reserve a space in the class, but it's all free! (Reston Town Center location: 571-281-2893)

The marketing worked on us...I'm sure we'll go eat dinner there at some point soon because they were so great to deal with- and the pizza was delicious!

Sonja and the boys get set for baking!

Everyone meets the manager and introduces themselves.

Clean hands are ready to press the dough!

How does my hat look?

Smashing the dough down

Decorating...

While the pizzas are baking...let's throw dough!

Chef Cal catches good air!

And the dough catches the floor a few times...

Everyone gets turns.

Cal does it again...

Yum, Batman: A bunny pizza and a normal little pizza for each kid

Thank you, Rene! 

On the Loss of My Wheat Tooth

It's been over two weeks since I stopped eating wheat. (Read about why I gave it up here.) Two weeks was my planned trial period and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. The hardest day was the first day. Ever since then, it hasn't been bad. A few nights ago it was a little difficult to ignore the fresh sourdough bread in front of my plate at the restaurant, but I did it. Planning for and preparing meals has taken a little longer because I had gotten in ruts of easy things like pasta and bread and crackers for the boys. I haven't taken the boys off wheat and Brian isn't off wheat, but I'm trying to have less and less around, and more and more vegetables and fruit.

I found a recipe for muffins with whole wheat flour and oat bran and I substituted rice flour for the wheat flour. They also had carrots, raisins, yogurt, and banana in them. The boys loved them, so that was a victory. (However, Cal still only eats muffin tops, not the whole muffin. So Seinfeldian/Jenna Maroney-ish) But I was amazed at how heavy I felt after eating just one muffin, after I had been off wheat for a week.

Yesterday I purposefully stepped off the wagon, because I had met my goal of two weeks and allowed myself two small treats. One was because my inner scavenger took over after the boys refused their flat raisin bagel halves. Then later at Valentine's dinner I had a bite of the cheesy bread while we waited for our food. I definitely felt heavier in the morning after the morning cheat, but didn't really after the single bite last evening. I found my cheats rather disappointing, actually. I guess I'm losing my wheat tooth.

The changes I've noticed have been:
    1) I feel....lighter, less full but in a good way-- which I'd say is a good reason to continue
    2) I don't feel hungry as much, I think just because my body is used to eating less now
    3) I have lost 7 pounds-- also a good reason to continue
    4) I find myself craving things like grapes and carrot sticks instead of bread or crackers

I'm also still running, which is a big 'ole streak for me. I even still like it! So overall I'm feeling healthier than I have for awhile, and inspired to keep it up. My wheat-free two weeks are over, but I'm going to keep going.

P.S. If you haven't already, enter the soap giveaway I'm doing this week. Read about it below.

P.P.S. Consider donating to the walk for epilepsy I'm doing next month, or walking with me.

Less bread, more rice cakes with peanut butter

Wheat and Stomp Rocket-ing

I've decided to not eat wheat for two weeks. I'm part of the way into the third day, and it’s actually not as hard as it seemed the first day. Why am I doing it? I'm not really sure exactly, and there's not one reason. I've been reading things like this and this and this and about wheat as a common allergen and something that slows down your metabolism. Cutting out wheat and carbs in general is what people with extreme cases of epilepsy do to try to manage their seizures through diet. When your body is basically starved, it runs on ketones, and for some reason no one has seizures while running on ketones. That diet, however, is to be done under close observation by doctors and is close to starving yourself, which presents its own set of complications.

As far as anecdotal evidence, my mom and grandfather have always had bad allergies, frequent sinus infections, and troublesome noses in general, all their lives. They both recently did a battery of allergy testing that showed they are both allergic to wheat—and pretty severely. Going off wheat greatly improved the quality of life for both of them. Some of my brothers and sisters in-laws have been cutting out carbs and have had some big success with weight loss and overall health improvements.The other day I was talking to someone who controls her migraines by cutting out wheat and some other main categories of food. So, with science and success stories, I decided to give it a go.

It’s not that I’ve felt bad and was looking for help…it’s just that I’ve been feeling…heavy inside from eating the bread that I eat, and of course since most processed foods have wheat in them, I’m also cutting out those, which will do nothing but good things for my health. The last two days I’ve felt great, and I’m very excited about it! Let’s face it, I can stand to lose a little weight as well, and hopefully changing my eating habits will help with that. The last two days I’ve also been able to run outside, which has been marvelous. It’s been around 70 degrees! The boys and I spent some quality time in the sunshine today, using their stomp rocket. I leave with the stomp rocket photo story. Happy Wednesday! 

Getting ready to launch

Cal's turn

Your turn, Mommy!

Mommy stomps with too much gusto.

Watch me, Mom!

Clark brought his pet dog to watch the launches.

Watch, little doggy!

Cal's turn to take pictures

Clark's turn...

PS. Anyone else want to give up wheat with me?! Anyone else living without wheat? Anyone have good no-wheat recipes?

Bread Experiment Update

Almost two months ago I read a bread label. There were a staggering amount of ingredients, and many of them I could not pronounce. And that was organic whole wheat bread! Inspired by In Defense of Food and reading a blog post from Fat Duck Farm about bread baking, I decided to try to bake bread and work toward not having to buy it.

My first attempt was horrible, my second attempt looked a little like bread, but that's where the similarities ended, and my third attempt was downright edible. We were still buying bread at the store. It's been almost two months since I started and as of last week we have phased out all store bread. The real challenge is yet to come as I have not yet attempted to make a grilled cheese sandwich for the boys. I don't know how I could cut the slices thinly enough so they could get their little mouths around both pieces of bread. I'll let you know when I'm brave enough for that.

I tried yet another recipe today. It's a honey whole wheat bread with a little molasses in it and it came out delicious. I have more recipes I'm excited to try. I make two loaves and keep them in plastic bags in the fridge. Since they have no preservatives they don't last long, as I found out from making a batch of four loaves to start out with.

Today's loaves