Day 3

I never thought it would happen today… The kids are finally sleeping… At the same time. Hallelujah! Tie for a mommy moment with a second cup of coffee for the day. After I get the eating thing under control again I should probably start decreasing my caffeine amount. Maybe…

Meal 1:
2 fried eggs
Broccoli and zucchini (leftovers)
Coffee with almond milk

Meal 2:
Chicken salad
-leftover grilled chicken chopped
– red pepper, apple, tomatoes, walnuts, pecans, raisins, mayo

Snack:
Watermelon with coconut milk and cashews
Almonds
Coffee with almond milk

Meal 3:
Leftover meatloaf
Cauliflower and carrot pilaf with raisins and almonds

Snack:
Sweet potato frittata with almond milk and cashews
Cherries

Day 2

Today I am meeting my friend for lunch at chik fil a and I have become that person… I made my own dressing to bring. I know the chicken isn’t going to be perfectly paleo but I figured I would not add insult to injury by putting sugar filled dressing on top of the salad I am going to order as well. Look at me planning ahead… Now, a quick prayer for the perseverance to not deviate from the plan. I’ll finish this later with the results of eating out. 🙂

Meal 1:
Leftover fish shredded and heated with ghee and bacon fat
Broccoli
2 fried eggs
Coffee with almond milk

Snack:
Grape tomatoes

Meal 2:
Market fresh grilled chicken salad
Brought my own dressing…raspberry balsamic, olive oil, salt, garlic
Water

Snack:
Almonds
Banana
Almond milk latte

Meal 3:
savory sweet potato meatloaf from paleo mg
Sautéed zucchini
Watermelon

Day 1

Day one… Today we went shopping when it was like 95 degrees during the kids’ nap time (and they weren’t sleeping) for things like curtain rods that I didn’t really want to spend money on… Oh and today was the day that we weren’t going to go through a drive thru coffee to make the process a bit more bearable… Whoopie! But i was determined not to crack, seeing as it took me three days anyways to get a day 1, So we struggled on, stopped two stores short of ourvgoal and went home. Now we are happier, and I didn’t eat anything not paleo. Yay hooray!

Meal one:
Banana
Coffee with almond milk
3 fried eggs

Snack:
Almonds

Lunch:
Applegate chicken hot dogs
Grape tomatoes
Sweet potatoes ( roasted this morning, then sliced and reheated in ghee with salt and cinnamon)
Blackberries

Snack:
A vanilla cloud drink

Dinner:
Grilled Mahi Mahi
Broccoli with garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil, and ghee

Whole30 revisited

It has been about a month or so since my first whole30 and my failed second attempt. We are still eating paleo the vast majority of the time, but it is time to kick the latte addiction. It’s hard on the waistline and checkbook. I also have family pics scheduled in about a month… Nothing like a little motivation to get a little healthier aka… Loose weight.

So it is whole30 eve, and under full disclosure I will admit to the Dairy Queen cake leftovers waiting for me in kitchen. So good…. But I am excited this time for my whole30. I know so much more this time around. I know how to do a weekly cook up, and plan my meals flexibly. This time I’m going to figure out how to stay within a reasonable budget. My husband and I also agreed to using agave and honey in moderation, but not buy more during the whole30 when we run out. Yes, I know that breaks the rules, but I don’t care too much at this point.

Happy Fourth of July! This month I’m going to exercise my freedom to say no to certain foods and live as a healthier me.

Sweet potato banana pancakes

Somehow it has to the point where my 2 year old is a picky eater… Sigh… However, if it looks like a pancake he will eat it. I have been making pancakes with banana, egg, and almond meal. But then I decided it was time to start sneaking in veggies. I went with a naturally sweet veggie to start with and it was a hit.

Here’s Isaiah scarfing down his pancakes. He was a big fan.

Sweet Potato Banana Pancakes

Mash together:
– 2 ripe bananas
– 1 mediumish sweet potato, cooked and peeled

Mix in:
– 4 eggs
– 1 cup almond meal
– 1 tsp vanilla
– 1 tbsp cinnamon

Heat in a pan some clarified butter and coconut oil.

I used a quarter measuring cup to plop out the batter. Then I sprinkled pecans on top for good measure when they were in the pan. Make sure they are pretty sturdy before trying to flip them… Often I’ll try to distract myself momentarily so I don’t get too impatient. If they get a little toasty, that’s ok… That’s just added caramelized banana flavor… Yum!

Enjoy your paleo pancakes! We sure did!

Breakfast of Champions

Just eat… Just eat what sounds good. Get out of the breakfast food, lunch food, and dinner food bubbles. One of the biggest things I have learned since eating paleo. Especially since not many “breakfast foods” are paleo.

This morning my husband was in charge of breakfast this morning. He thought strawberry spinach salad sounded good, so that’s what we had. And it was tasty.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

– olive oil
– 1/4 c sweet onion
– 5 strips bacon, chopped
– 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, we used raspberry but you could use a different flavor or plain
– 2 tbsp agave nectar
– strawberries
– eggs
– spinach

In a sauté pan, put about 1-2 tbsps olive oil.

When hot, add onion and bacon. When the bacon is cooked, add vinegar and agave. Then take it off the heat.

Throw spinach in a bowl, and put sliced strawberries on top. The dressing goes on top of that.

Then to go with our theory that iff you put eggs on it, it must be breakfast… Or something, David poached some eggs and put them on top. Yum! Like I said, breakfast of champions… At least paleo champions!

Chicken and broccoli

Chicken and broccoli… That’s what I had in my fridge for dinner. I hadn’t been to the store yet this week. Not going to lie… I was not terribly excited about dinner. So I just started throwing things together and it turned out pretty spectacular if I do say myself. As with all things I throw together the measurements are not exactly precise… But that’s just when you Know you’re really cooking. Ha!

So I know that said it tastes good…didn’t necessarily say it was pretty. This is actually a picture of dinner reheated later that night when my husband ate dinner. Food is always prettier fresh.

Teriyaki Chicken

2 lbs chicken tenders

Marinate the chicken in:
– 1/3 c olive oil
– 1/4 c coconut aminos
– 1/2 – 1 tsp each: garlic, onion, ginger powders and salt
– 1 tbsp agave nectar

Let sit for about an hour. Get a sauté pan piping hot over med high heat. Cook chicken for 5-10 min per side. You don’t want to over cook them. You do want them to be done, so watch them.

Herby Broccoli

Cut the florets of broccoli off, rinse them in a strainer, and throw them Ina sauté pan with a lid. After a few minutes add a generous amount of olive oil. I then sprinkled herbs de Provence, salt, white pepper, and a little bit of Cajun seasonings. It took me two rounds of seasoning to get it to taste good to me. Then I cooked it until it was a bit toasty and it was sooooo good.

And that is one way to switch up chicken and broccoli blahs to chicken and broccoli wows!

Vanilla Cloud Drink

Sometimes when you are eating paleo, you get tired of water… Like real tired of water. Normally I’m okay with it all the time but sometimes you just want something creamy, yummy, and sweet. I tried this 8 dollar drink at whole foods… A bottled drink of yumminess. I know… I can’t believe I splurged for it as well, however, I did figure out that it was super tasty and recreatable. The recipe isn’t super specific and doesn’t even look super appealing in the picture but trust me, it is amazing.

Vanilla Cloud…my way

(Once again rough measurements )

3 parts unsweetened almond milk
1 part coconut milk
A couple shakes of cinnamon
One shake of nutmeg
A long squirt of agave or honey
About a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Mix and put over ice… If you are a latte lover you can switch out the coconut milk for strong coffee or espresso.

Enjoy! I bet you could blend it as well for a frozen one… Or even switch out the cinnamon and nutmeg for cocoa powder…

Summertime Activities

I am loving summer! Every year I get better at summer…. Probably because my distractions are multiplying. I am a high school ESL teacher for the majority of the year on top of being a mom to two, a wife, a volunteer, and part of my church community. So I’m used to being extremely busy all the time. But then summer hits… It’s 100 degrees and I have two faces staring at me.

I love these kids, but it is a complete change of pace and sets of needs… And for a little while, I was terrified…. Then I relaxed and learned to love being a mom. It’s okay to sit holding one baby while watching my son play outside. That is doing something. I’ve also learned that I do have time to keep my kitchen clean… Most of the time.

So one of the fun things we have done so far is go to the farm with Grandma. Isaiah is an animal lover. So he fed the sheep, and goats, and a baby calf. He loved it! Totally worth the 3 dollars. Ha!

We have also had a few photo shoots. These were from Father’s Day. I was taking pictures of the kids while my husband, brother, and dad were golfing.

What a little princess… With attitude! So, now that I’ve learned to entertain little ones… Most of the time, I’m pretty sure the summer will fly by, and I’ll be back with the big kids.

Paleo update… So it’s my birthday… Totally had pizza and a latte today… Not paleo… Will do better tomorrow… When it’s not my birthday!

A little backtracking

I have slowed down a bit on my posts only to reflect on what I have been posting. I realized that I kind of jumped into this blog world without really explaining myself. My husband and I have been married for almost 4 years. We have two beautiful children. Isaiah turned 2 in March. He is the cutest thing…most of the time… And then sometimes he decides to voice his opinions of dislike…by screaming… Oh for two year olds!

Yes I know it’s a little fuzzy… I need to start taking pics with my camera and not always my phone.

Veronica was born on Christmas Eve. So she is almost 6 months old. She is adorable pretty much all the time. She is definitely along for the ride with her older brother to chase.

I love dresses in the summer for her. So nice and cool in our super hot house.

In April, David and I started our paleo journey. We decided that we needed to do something different. I want to loose weight and seasonal allergies, and gain more energy. David wanted to do the same and clear up some digestive issues. We tried to follow basic paleo rules the majority of the time. But we would fail miserably on the weekends…it was like one step forward, two steps back. So we went all out whole30 and succeeded. We thought we could start another a few days later… Wrong. So now we are eating paleo with guilt free treats on birthdays and holidays… We will probably do another whole30 in September… We might be ready then. Until then I’ll post any good recipes I make… Not everything I eat.

Time for the next stage of our food journey… Self control