Wendy Damonte - Eat, Play and Live

HEALTHY SNACKS FOR KIDS

August 27, 2014 By Wendy D 1 Comment

You know what I want? Maybe even more than world peace? Are quick healthy snacks my kids will actually eat! Is that asking too much? As you all know, we follow a mostly Paleo lifestyle. “Mostly” meaning about 85 percent. And to be totally honest, it drops to about 50% for the kids. I’m not going to lie; I buy mac ‘n cheese every trip to the grocery store. But I grab the all natural stuff… does that make it any better? OK, fine, no! But it does make me feel better! So anyway, when Whole Foods asked me to review some of their gluten-free, kid friendly snacks, I honestly thought maybe the Middle East was at peace!

We first tried the Hip Chick Farms Chicken Wings.

Eva liked them. Dominic thought they were too spicy. So of course I ate them! Next up, Applegate Naturals Gluten Free Chicken Breast Tenders.

I have an excellent recipe for similar chicken wings… but I don’t have time to make them! So this was a perfect example of what I’m looking for to fill up my kids’ bottomless stomachs! I cooked them for 20 minutes in my toaster over. We paired them with Grama’s Sweet Chili Sauce (AMAZING!) and…. SUCCESS! Both kids loved them! I even kept sneaking bites while they weren’t looking. They are all white chicken meat “breaded” with rice flour. They even had a nice crunch, which is crucial for any chicken strip! So there you go! Some nice options for kids now that we are back in the “I’m home from school and I’m starving and there’s nothing to eat in this entire house” season. Now, let’s work on that world peace thing!

Filed Under: Eat, Wendy Tagged With: eat healthy, family, healthy snacks, healthy snacks for kids, KIDS, paleo, paleo diet, wendy's family, Whole Foods

HOW TO FIX YOUR WASHING MACHINE

August 14, 2014 By Wendy D Leave a Comment

Last year was a big year for us. “Us” being Darrin and me. Excluded in that “us” is Eva and Dominic. That’s because last year, “us” decided “they” would start doing their own laundry! YES!!!!!!!! I loved that idea! I was fully onboard. “They”… not so much. But after threatening to take away football for the lad and pageants for the lass (yes, I said pageants. That’s for another blog post I haven’t yet brought myself to write!) “they” agreed to add laundry to their list of chores. That’s a good thing right? Well, it was for about 13 months. But then F35 entered our family. F35 is a warning that started showing up on our Whirlpool Duet washing machine just moments before it would beep 3 times and shut off. No matter the washing machine was full of sopping wet clothes. Well, I’m the type that just assumes it was a momentary laps in function of my washer. So I rung out the clothes, threw them back in, and hit start. 7 minutes later, F35, beep, beep, beep, and another “momentary lapse of function.” Damn it! I called Darrin and he said he had no idea what F35 was so we agreed I would call our appliance guy. So imagine my surprise when THIS is what I came home to that night after work!!

“What in the hell are you doing? Just because you work on ranch trucks does not mean you can work on a washing machine!!” I sputtered out. “No, I think I know what’s wrong. I found out the F35 code means the water pressure sensor switch it out. I think I can get to it,” was his reply.

What I forget about my husband is his confidence he can fix anything and the fact he has a truckload of tools. Check out this little flashlight! It even has little grabbers at the end in case you find a treasure! I bet if I told him my stomach hurt he would honestly think he could do a colonoscopy on me.

And low and behold! Check this out! On his way to fixing the water pressure sensor switch he found a treasure trove of kid stuff! A few rocks, some coins, candy wrappers, ABC gum, bobby pins… treasures from little kid pockets that were never emptied prior to washing! When this whole mess started my first thought was to start doing the kid’s laundry again. But not anymore! I can get used to having an appliance man in the house!

Filed Under: Live, Wendy Tagged With: family, KIDS, wendy's family

…AND I’M BACK

August 8, 2014 By Wendy D 3 Comments

Well hello! How have you been? Whoa, I’ve been busy. Crazy in fact. But all good things. Since we last spoke, I’ve launched a new organization that will save lives. It’s called Each One Tell One. My partners are Heather Reimer and Chiqeeta Jameson. Heather is a breast cancer survivor. Her cancer was missed on a mammogram. A SonoCine automated whole breast ultrasound she randomly received found a marble sized tumor. Chiqeeta’s story is similar. Only while on chemo, she got the wrong cocktail, taking away her ability to have children. And as you all know, my mom died from breast cancer after her mammogram missed four tumors in her left breast. Her disease had spread to a tumor in her neck and out of the 54 lymph nodes her surgeon took out… 38 tested positive for cancer. All of these stories have one common denominator. All these women have dense breast tissue. So under the Each One Tell One umbrella, we created The Dangerous Boobs Tour. We are traveling the country educating anyone who will listen to us that mammography isn’t enough for women with dense breast tissue. Here are the stats:

40% of women have dense breast tissue

50% of cancerous tumors are missed on mammography

70% of all breast cancers occur in women with dense breast tissue

85% of women don’t know what type of tissue they have.

Those number are shocking. Those numbers mean women are dying needlessly. Those numbers are huge, but the only number that really matters to me is 1. My mom. She died from dense breast tissue. She died because no one ever told her additional screenings can see what mammography misses. A SonoCine machine was 2 miles from her house. But technology is useless if you don’t know about it or know how it can help you. So, in honor of my mom, The Dangerous Boobs Tour is doing what we can to inform women about dense breast tissue. We’ve already made presentations to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Women’s Task Force. We just got back from speaking at the National Women’s Survivors Convention in Nashville. And we are looking forward to doing more. Please go to www.eachonetellone.com Educate yourself about dense breast tissue. Ask your doctor if you have it. If you do, ask about additional screenings that might be right for you.

Filed Under: Live Tagged With: breast cancer, DENSE BREAST TISSUE

PALEO GIRL

June 13, 2014 By Wendy 2 Comments

You know You know what I love about vacations? You get to read a book with morning coffee. You can get your fingernails painted crazy colors with sparkles on top. And you use pool towels as tablecloths. But back to the book. Primal Blueprint Publishing recently sent me a copy of Paleo Girl to review. This vacation actually provided me the time to read it. And I loved it! If you’ve ever read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, this book is like it’s younger sister. Mark created Grok. He’s the caveman in his book. Grokette is Leslie Klenke’s cave girl in Paleo Girl. While so many Paleo books I read are just cookbooks, Paleo Girl is a lifestyle book. It talks about exercise, puberty, sleep, playing and also provides a few recipes. It’s written very conversationally; your teenage daughter would even relate. Definitely a good book if you are contemplating starting a Paleo lifestyle but you’re not quite sure how to do that. This is a good and fun manual. It’s also a quick reference guide for things like workouts. Can’t remember the Paleo fitness essentials? Turn to page 58 for a refresher course that’s full of helpful pictures. But what caught my attention was the skin products. I’ve never tried Paleo skin products but I’m going to now. Want to join me? Let’s do it! I’m going to try the Coconut Milk All-Over Wash (page 240). Leslie says to combine 1/2 cup coconut milk, 2/3 cup Castile soap, 1 tsp preferred oil like vitamin E, olive, almond, coconut (I’m going to use olive, just because I already have it) and you can add 5 drops of an essential oil for fragrance. I’m skipping that. She says to shake your bottle of body wash before each use. The second thing I’m going to try is to use coconut oil as a moisturizer. That’s it. Just coconut oil. I’ll use this at night since I have to have a moisturizer with sunscreen in it for daytime. Soooo let’s all get our stuff this week and start using it on Sunday the 22nd. I’ll remind you on Facebook so be sure you are following me at www.facebook.com/ktvnwendydamonte And don’t forget to pick up your copy of Paleo Girl by Leslie Klenke. Go to this website for some pretty cool deals!! http://www.marksdailyapple.com/paleo-girl-book/#axzz34rAatzf0

Filed Under: Live Tagged With: eat healthy, family, losing weight, paleo, paleo diet

WHAT ALL MOMS REALLY WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY

May 10, 2014 By Wendy D Leave a Comment

When my mom was alive, here’s how our Mother’s Day always went. After a lovely home cooked brunch, we would go see a movie, grab a glass of wine afterwards, and meet our family at dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. No presents. No flowers. Just time. Time spent with one of my favorite people on the planet. Munching on popcorn and hot tamales in the theatre. Giving our best Siskel and Ebert review of the movie over a glass of Rombauer chardonnay. Happily eating out because we didn’t have to cook… or clean! It was always a day I looked forward to. Not for the “thing” I might get. But because of the intangible gift of time. When you lose THAT gift, you truly realize how precious it is. So now that I’m a mom, time is all I want with my kids. I wake them up early sometimes, just because I missed them overnight. I sometimes deny their request for sleepovers simply because I want them staying with me. I look forward to Darrin being out of town because the kids and I know this means we all sleep together in my big bed like a pile of puppies. So like all of you moms reading this, I’m sure your request for Mother’s Day is the same as mine; TIME. NBA MVP Kevin Durant probably said it best:

Filed Under: Live Tagged With: family, Holidays, KIDS, wendy's family

MY ZOO JUST GOT BIGGER

April 21, 2014 By Wendy D 1 Comment

I live in a zoo. I guess ranch is more accurate, but it feels like a zoo. Like a crazy zoo. Like I’m the zoo keeper of a family of orangutans. I can’t get control. And it gets worse every year. Allow me to explain. We have a dog… who sneezed right as I snapped this picture.

two cats… we inherited from my mom.

a hamster… that was an 9 year old little girl’s birthday present.

thousands of cows… which constantly need to be fed. Literally, they eat before we do.

Two 4-H pigs named Jerry and Henry.

and now this.

5 kittens and a mamma cat… that are incredibly difficult to take pictures of.

See, my over-achieving daughter decided she wanted to foster kittens from the Nevada Humane Society. She went to her first introduction get-together and while she was there, I was busily preparing for the 6:30 newscast. I got a call at about 6:22. Here’s how the conversation went. “Mom, they have 6 cats I can bring home tonight.” “What? I’m reading scripts and putting on mascara and trying to talk to you. You said they have hats for you?” “No cats.” “Well ok, fine, I’m sure we can find people to hand out these hats to. Bring them home. No problem.” “Um, ok mom, I’m doing it. I’m bring home the cats.” “Ya ya, sure, ok sweetie, love you, my mascara is going all over my face because I’m holding the phone with my cheek. Love you see you tonight.”

DAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT! Not one hat did she bring home! But instead 6 CATS! So our zoo now has 5 two week old kittens and their mamma. We are fostering them until they weigh 2 pounds. Ok, these babies weigh 12 OUNCES! We will have them for weeks! This is a perfect lesson for me to stop multi-tasking. Next thing I know, Eva will be calling me asking for the “keys” and I’ll say “no problem” thinking she wants “peas” for dinner!

Filed Under: Live, Wendy Tagged With: family, HUMOR, KIDS, PETS, wendy's family

Fitbit

April 15, 2014 By Wendy D Leave a Comment

I recently tested a Fitbit for Renown Regional Medical Center here in Reno. Did I like it? Sort of. Here’s the blog post I wrote for them on their best medicine blog. Sorry, you’ll have to copy and paste it into your url.

http://bestmedicinenews.org/perspectives/wendy-damonte-tests-out-the-fitbit-and-learns-a-lot/

Filed Under: Play, Wendy

Bartending for Breast Cancer

March 12, 2014 By Wendy D Leave a Comment

Did you hear?? I’m going to be a celebrity bartender. Ok, that sentence is just down right funny to me. Because 1) I don’t consider myself a celebrity. And 2) I don’t know how to bartend. The last time I was a “bartender” my friend Amy and I snuck behind the bar at our college hang-out called The Wall and gave beers away to friends. That was 1993. But when someone calls and asks me to help in the battle against breast cancer, I have a hard time saying no. Joe Kelly and David Hughes made that call. So, on March 22nd, please come out to Pinocchio’s on South Virginia Street in Reno between 5-8pm. All your tips will be donated to the Moms on the Run organization. Can’t make it? You can also donate on the Moms on the Run website (http://www.momsontherun.info/) … but please put WENDY’S TEAM in the comment section otherwise we won’t get credit for your donation. And we are up against other bartending teams… one of which made $21,000 in one night!!!! Did I mention we have auction items?? Moms on the Run is a non-profit organization that raises funds to assist northern Nevada women with everyday living expenses while in treatment for breast and gynecological cancers. THANK YOU!!!!!!

Filed Under: Live, Wendy, Wendy's Work Tagged With: breast cancer, DENSE BREAST TISSUE

PALEO BREAD

February 21, 2014 By Wendy D 2 Comments

Here’s my complaint about eating Paleo. There’s no delivery system. The gurus of “eating like our ancestors” want us to eat meat, veggies and healthy fats. Fine with me! But there’s no delivery system to get them into my mouth. Yes, yes I know. I can make a great salad and pile it high with veggies and spinach and lean meat. But this girl can only do so many salads… and trust me, I do a lot of them. I need BREAD to deliver my turkey to my tongue. I need RICE to dump my sizzling stir fry onto. I need CRACKERS to dip into almond butter. And guess what? Bread, rice and crackers aren’t Paleo. Yes, there are companies making Paleo options. Sorry, I’ve tried them. I can’t swallow them…. literally. Well the other day, a miracle happened. I was making dinner and I had some left over frozen spinach. I also had some parmesan cheese out on the counter. I looked at the two and thought, hey, I bet I could combine them and make a delivery system. So here’s what I did. I put a bunch of squeezed and thawed out spinach in a bowl. Next, I dumped a good amount of parmesan cheese in the bowl (by the way, I follow Mark Sisson and he says I can eat Parmesan… so heck ya I do!). I mixed it together and flattened it out into the shape of two tortillas. First, I tried pan-frying one with some olive oil. That didn’t work. I put the other one on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and cooked it at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. And that worked PERFECTLY! It came out just like parmesan crisps only slightly softer. Next up? I put a dollop of guacamole on it, some chicken breast and then folded it up. OMG. Honestly, this is the best sandwich I’ve had in a long time. I would honestly eat this sandwich over anything offered at Subway.

Filed Under: Eat, Wendy Tagged With: eat healthy, paleo, paleo diet, paleo recipes

TEDx Talk

February 11, 2014 By Wendy D 2 Comments

On January 24th, 2014, I gave the talk of my life. It was at TEDx University of Nevada. The talk informs women about the dangers of dense breast tissue, and more importantly, what you can do if you have it. 40% of women have dense breast tissue and you have the right and the need to know this information. Please watch my talk and pass it on to people you know and love. Without grassroots movements like this, women will stay in the dark about this hidden danger. Thank you for being a part of my mission to save women’s lives. The video below my TEDx talk is my Mom’s Story. Please watch that as well… maybe with a glass of wine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPLMWuTlWQ

Filed Under: My TEDx Talk, Wendy Tagged With: breast cancer, DENSE BREAST TISSUE, eat healthy, Grief, Grieving, tedxtalk

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