Wish I had a lemon tree.

I wish we had a lemon tree but I live in Oregon and I'm not willing to move to Cali but that is how many lemons we are going through.We did our bulk grocery shopping on Sunday and we are out of lemons already (its Tuesday.) We have been going through lemons like crazy lately. Why? I'm not sure. I suppose I get semi-obsessed with certain types of food now and then. The way I look it, as long as its healthy, I'm okay. In a sense, I'm a functioning addict to sweets, but since losing 50ish pounds I've cut back and switched options. More on that  later, this post is about lemons. I've also thought, perhaps I am deficient in certain vitamins (as most Americans are) and that is the source of my cravings. This addiction is good; I'm drinking a lot more water and getting some good vitamin C. I don't tend to drink straight water. After my coffee in the morning, throughout the day I drink tea. Usually herbal and decaffeinated, with the exception of green tea. It is going to get warmer and when I am warm I don't enjoy tea  as much and I don't always prepare iced teas. I like soda, if I didn't have an issue with my weight I'd probably still be drinking it. I used to drink diet soda and it was a personal choice to quit that addiction and boy, did my body thank me! Body aches and headaches ceased in less than 3 days after having it out of my system. I occasionally drink Zevia: http://www.zevia.com/ which is a stevia sweetened soda but its expensive so I don't always buy it unless its on sale.  What the Prince and I have been drinking is: club soda, fresh lemon juice and lemon drop stevia. Sweet Leaf lemon drop stevia is probably my favorite stevia out there. If you've never used stevia you can read up on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia. I buy it from amzon usually, for around $10 with free shipping. If I cant find it for that price or without shipping costs I buy it from whole foods for $14.99. This bottle will last months. Stevia is SUPER sweet and you don't need a lot. For this drink its usually 1 full vile (from the dropper) of lemon drop stevia, 1/4 of your glass with fresh lemon (with pulp!) and then club soda. Sounds super simple- and it is... simple deliciousness. In our glassware, the recipe is about 12 calories per glass all coming from the lemon itself. Club soda has no calories and stevia also does not have calories. It tastes like carbonated lemonade. Lemons are makin' me happy! I can only imagine how nice this drink will be sitting on our patio in the summer months... maybe I'll add some fresh muddled mint from the garden too! Yum!

Welcome

Welcome
Welcome to the Princess House. My husband and I are pretty boring and that’s why I’m sure no one would be that interested in my blog unless you know me. This blog is will be centered around a few things that interest us: our home, (on  Princess Avenue) our pets, our successes and failures in gardening, (we're new at it) and our food; we have been trying for the last few months to eliminate grain from our diet and eat  close to "paleo" style. It has been life changing.

About the Princess House
We have three cats, a rat and two beloved dogs, that we treat like our children. My husband and I bought our house on Princess Avenue in 2009. Our humble house is about 1200 square feet with 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms. One of the best parts about our home is our lovely yard that takes TONS of work. We've also started gardening which most likely will take up several entries on the blog. My daily life basically consists of: my wonderful husband, Sam, our eldest dog Blue (a karelian bear dog/black lab mix, never met a person that didnt adore him because he really is PERFECT,) and Charles Duckworth (Charlie Duck for short, who is short, a basset hound/lab mix, and let me tell you he is the funniest character you've ever met) and our kitties: Chairman Meow, Thor and Ash. We also have a rat, Rufio (Rufioooooo. Remember the movie "Hook?") Rats make excellent pets, Rufio is the 9th rat I've owned and someday I'll do a post on why rats are amazing pets. 

This blog is so I can share my husband and mine's story. While we not very interesting, people often ask about our diet, "what CAN you eat?"  This will hopefully be an excellent resource and a bit of life documentation for myself!