Yummy meals and my pot garden

  My pot garden is well on its way to producing yummies for me.  

Lots of pots going on out there!

reminds me of my granny :)

Already producing cherry maters!

We aren't sure if this tomato plant will make it.

We have rosemary, basil, chives, oregano, thyme, sage, lavender, 3 ancho chili peppers, 1 great marconi pepper, 1 "mexican big jim pepper", 1 banana pepper, 1 cherry tomato plant, 1 black cherry tomato plant, and one purple plum tomato plant.  Hopefully the bunnies stay far away from our tomatoes!

Super Easy Dinner

Okay, so with this new lifestyle food plan one might think it would be impossible to have variety in my daily meals.  Not so much the case.  True, I am limited by having to omit some of my regulars (here's looking at you, black pepper) but I'm not even missing it so far.  Even though I can live off a salad every day, and I still like to try, I like to tinker around with stuff.  I haven't really talked about what goes into our food planning, and I think I should.  It's not much different than the paleo life we have been used to for over a year.

Of course, I have to shop weekly or a little less because I solely buy produce and we all know that doesn't keep so well.  It makes shopping simple.  I often get confused in the store when I need something that's not in the produce section, like maple  syrup.  One day Goose and I walked up and down the store twice looking for bottled water.  It's with the pop btw which is STUPID.  So honestly, I only know what's in my produce section and the two aisles dedicated to "organic/GF/etc".  Oh, and I know the wine aisle but that's not relevant right now.

Since it's just me for breakfast/lunch I tend to be pretty boring.  Like today, I had 1/2 a burger patty from this weekend I made up, topped it with a fried egg and onions and ate a small kale salad on the side.  Later on I grabbed an apple.  I also might have had a spoonful or two of almond butter...with a dab of chocolate in it.  Don't judge, I needed a sweet.

I'm really lucky Goose loves the grill and the smoker.  Seems like every other weekend we are replenishing our smoked meat stock.  It makes lunches and dinner portions easy because I don't have to cook AS much at dinner unless I plan on the leftovers for breakfast or lunch for myself.

I guess I should include a rough description of the lunches I send with Goose to work.  While he's not on this wellness plan with me, he's doing the Blood Type Diet Lifestyle as well, albeit with cheats.  I do not cheat, I have invested too much money to do that.  But alas, since he's not following my path to a T, he's allowed to sneak some goodies here and there.  With that said, he still would much rather not eat fast food every day.

His lunch usually goes like this:

• a nice portion of smoked meat (fish or chicken) or some leftover from dinner  
• sauteed broccoli or asparagus
• another veggie like sweet potato, raw carrots or even some rice.
• a hard boiled egg, 1/2 avocado if we have it
• green onions and his beloved kimchi (Don't forget the kimchi, or I'm going to hear about it after work!  :D ).
• a fruit for snack

At work, Goose keeps a jar of almonds.  So it's not difficult to stick to this style with some REALLY simple planning ahead.  I'm not a menu planner by any means, and I manage to do okay.

A couple weeks ago, we checked out some spice shops downtown in search of some spices that don't have all that extra junk in them like at the store.  I found a salt grinder there, and picked up some roasted chicken spices that were acceptable for even me to eat.  Do you know how hard it is to find pre-made spices that don't have black pepper?

4 chicken thighs
1 sweet potato, cubed
2 C kale, stems removed
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 TBSP EVOO
1/4 C of spices of your choice

I tossed 4 thighs (I probably only needed to do 3 but I did an extra one for my lunch) in EVOO and the spices and then roasted them in the oven at 400 for maybe 25 minutes.  I didn't pay that close attention because I used  my thermometer to pull them out at 160 degrees.  While that was roasting I sauteed the sweet potatoes until they were soft and starting to brown.  Once I removed the sweet potatoes from the pan, and right away added the kale and onions and tossed them,  Once the kale started to wilt (it won't wilt much because kale is a super food and it's super strong!) I put the sweet potatoes back in and gave it a stir and  topped that with my finished chicken

TA-DA! 

Grocery list

Goose is not doing the wellness diet with me, but he is wanting to follow his Blood Type's list of foods.  Since we are two different blood types, I thought well this will SUCK for us eating...do I make him one meal while I eat another?  I then laughed and said, "don't be silly, you won't make TWO dinners at night...PSH!"  So I thought the best thing to do was to write down every single "allowed" and "neutral" food (which is still allowed, it just won't hurt you nor will it benefit you) on both our lists.  I then cross referenced them to see what foods we would have in common.  Turns out, more than I thought.

I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I could shop for us off of what we DO have in common instead?  Well yes, but that's a lot of memorization, and I don't do well on test day.  I'd get to the grocery store and forget everything I memorized!


*idea bulb*

Wanna know more?

I was perusing through my FB news feed, like I do all the time :D and I came across this link from PaleoHacks.com.   This little short e-read is a great book to check out if you're just curious about what the Paleo/Primal diet is.  It's pretty short and sweet, great for beginners to read.  I don't think I could explain it any better than this!  So, if you're wondering what foods you can or can't eat, you'll find out here.  It's amazing how I don't feel limited with foods, like other diets.  "Oh, I'm cutting back carbs and calories, I need to count them to make sure I don't go over!"  No more.  I don't even count calories or fats anymore!  I know everything I going into my body is REAL food and those fats and calories are good for me.  I am eating the way my body was intended to eat and I like how I feel because of it, plain and simple.

http://blog.paleohacks.com/sq/

You will have to enter an email to get access to the book, but you can opt out of future emails at anytime.

Back in the saddle. Again.

Man, things have been CRAY around here.  I have been so incredibly busy but now I am back and ready to blog!  It's been a very busy summer and my workouts and super clean eating all but halted.  Basically I failed my workout challenge I gave myself.  We were living back and forth between the old house and the hotel.  I did pretty well the first couple weeks at the hotel with the workouts, doing some swimming and taking advantage of the gym but then things got so hectic (and the chromebook broke down again, had to get it replaced) that I just had to stop.  Even though we had a kitchenette in the little hotel room, and we went to the farmers market on the regular, we still went out to eat a lot.  And we craved ice cream.  To say that I was knocked off my routine is an understatement.  Now that we are into our new house, and things have settled into a normal routine, I am jumping right back into our lifestyle.

Almond butter cups

Okay, I know I've seen several "peanut butter cups" online.  All of which look great, but I never got them to turn out right.  Or they weren't paleo friendly.  Mostly because I am probably lazy and don't take the time to make them correctly?  Or I never have those cupcake liners.  I think it's just that my chocolate was always the wrong consistency.  Whatever.  Either way, the two times I tried to make them cute, I'd end up with a huge dollup of chocolate on the bottom and the sticky almond butter too thick, and then no tops so to speak for them.  I tried something different this time.

2/3 C cocoa powder
1/3 C coconut oil, melted
4 TBSP honey (or maple syrup)
This is my base recipe for any chocolate I make.  Depending on the sweetener/more or less oil you use, you can make it really runny or really thick.  I needed it more on the thin side this time so I used a bit more oil.

Mix til smooth and tasty, adjust your sweet the way you like it.

I poured my chocolate (which was really runny!) into a greasy pie pan just enough to cover the whole pan.

Then I dolluped about 1/4 - 1/2 C of almond butter (this kind was crunchy!) into several spoonfuls to try to cover as much of the chocolate as I could.  I flattened it out a little where I could and then poured the remainder of my chocolate liquid on top to cover the almond butter.

This worked out so much easier than trying to stuff individual cupcake cups.  I'm sure it's not as cute of a presentation, but still.  Stick it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to harden and then cut into squares.

My end result ended up looking like this:

It tasted like YUM.

Maybe I will call them Breeze's Almond Butter Squares: the "reeses" for lazy ladies everywhere!

Here  is a pretty easy recipe too.   I tend to buy the chocolate in pure powder form, so I can make a variety of things and not have to melt it.  I've also become a  stickler for whats in my chocolate so I have avoided any with sweeteners.  Yes, my semi sweet dark chocolate chips are on standby til I can find some without cane sugar or yucky oil.  You not paleo, or semi-paleo will like this recipe too, but when its as easy as 3 ingredients to make your own sweet chocolate, why bother?

Kimchi

I am sure, as most of the world has heard, probiotics are all the rage these days.  What with Jaime Lee Curtis promoting Activia like its the next Micheal Myers movie...don't get me wrong, I'd love to see her adorable grey head fight that jerk all over the big screen but, wait.  That's not what this blog is about! *slaps self* Probiotics!  For those who live under a rock or just don't ask google, I'll summarize:  Super healthy live bacteria that we would call "good bacteria" that helps balance out you gut.  

For a more specific answer:

30 day challenge

We blew that one right out of the water!  We did our 30 day paleo eating challenge, and lemme tell you...it was so easy a caveman could do it!  *slaps knee*  Okay, maybe it was the transitioning period we had going into it, maybe it was that we were mostly on that mindset as it were.  I don't think there was a day where we were like "I want pizza" or "I need cheese!", it just kinda went seamless.

Day one, I went through all our sauces and spices, and condiments since it was the last thing in our kitchen to purge.  Anything that had fake flavor, msg, wheat (no matter how they tried to disguise it), rice, added colors or preservatives, or dairy went into a bag and into the basement.  We've since thrown it all out knowing we can live without it.  We instead use herbs from our garden, spices that were just that...spices, sea salt, pepper, evoo, coconut oil, pork fat, ACV, liquid aminos and white balsamic vinegar.  The flavor of the actual food is allowed to really shine without disguising it with "fake flavors".  We still to try to buy as much of our meat we could from the market, but sometimes just had to do with "store bought" and that is okay.  It's how we've been living for months already.  Nothing else really changed except we got smarter about looking for hiding items listed above and didn't buy those.  Oh, and no more rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, or beans.  No problem. *shrugs*

As for what we ate, I was amazed at some of the things we had.  Let's start with breakfast.  I mean how can you have a bad day when you start it off with a fat filet and a veggie omelet?  Or how about "paleo breakfast burritos" for a nice change?  Maybe you want something totally different like cereal?  Well, how about "paleo granola"?  I have tried several variations, but most always have a base of this one.  Every day I had eggs and meat in one way or another.  I figured out the very first week that for my body; if I ate the combo of steak, eggs, and a veggie that I would stay full until dinner time and not even think about food or hunger.  So whaddya know, for me breakfast really is the most important meal!  And to think I had gone SO MANY years without it.  Most mornings we either had a pork chop or bacon with either fried or scrambled eggs because it's just easy.  As we got farther into the month I experimented from probably my favorite website so far: paleomg.com .  She has some of THE coolest breakfast ideas!  I made a meat crust quiche that we couldn't stay out of, and just tonight I prepped a "mexican hash egg bake" for breakfast this week.

Lunch was usually a handful of granola for Goose, or a piece of fruit for myself, if I even thought about it.  Dinner time was Goose's culinary godlike abilities time to shine.  We did some experimenting with sauces.  He ended up  throwing some different flavors together and came up with a very delicious Asian Stir Fry sauce with a tahini base.  I do love tahini.  We liked the flavor so much we've repeated it three times.  We also pulled some great mexican dishes together, paleo style.  We did attempt to make a paleo tortilla for fajitas, but I think for the time it took to make them, it wasn't totally worth my time so I'd rather just eat the fajitas without the tortilla.  Carnitas were also amazing!  Of course steaks for dinner! On those nights I would usually save my steak for the next morning and put it towards my breakfast.

Now, lets talk about the sweets.  Sometimes a girl needs a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate, amirite?  Have no fear! I was not deprived of my two favorite things.  I just had to savor them in severe moderation.  I made my own chocolate (a process that can't be easier, and so settling knowing what's actually in it) and stored it in the freezer...you know, for the times I just need to fix my sweet tooth.  Eventually I forgot that it was in there.  I did make a couple desserts that I will most definitely do again and I found chia seed pudding.  Wow, where has it been all my life?  I should have tried out coconut milk long ago...yum!  I made the original version the first time, and put some into a big fruit salad (which didn't last a full 24 hours, fyi) and just yesterday I whipped up a chocolate version that will be divine over the strawberries in my fridge.  For me, I think knowing that these treats are in my freezer and are super healthy (calorie dense, yes but still), makes it easier to not crave them.  I just have a small morsel on occasion, and I'm satiated.

On February 1, we celebrated our 30 days with blue cheese atop our steaks for dinner.  But as far as sticking to strictly paleo, we will.  Every now and then we will have a little cheese, or a bit of potato if we want but really, we are stuck this way.  :)  It was so much fun finding out how some of these super tasty meals were so healthy for us.  For Goose's birthday (today) I surprised him with chorizo and mozz stuffed, bacon wrapped poppers and I nearly died at how wonderful this concoction ended up being!  I have said several times this month, "I can't believe THAT'S PALEO!"  Giving up rice, grains, potatoes, beans, and processed foods may not be for everyone but in this house it's the perfect way to go.  I mean, how bad can it be to be able to enjoy a steak for breakfast?  And any lifestyle that promotes bacon, is a real winner in my book!

As far as our health, I know Goose's BP has dropped significantly along with his weight.  Lucky jerk :) I also have dropped a few pounds but its very slow going, since I'm really close to where I want to be anyway.

Paleo n00bs here

After some researching on the "right" food plan for my household, I came across the Paleo diet.  It's not like I hadn't heard of it before, but I didn't pay much attention to it.  I knew without a doubt that vegan or semi-vegan was not going to work.  Besides, I'm crazy enough as it is.  I don't need meat deprivation (or protein deprivation, whatevs.) to make me a loony.  Since we had already tried to curb as much processed foods out of our lives, the transition will be fairly easy.  Once the Goose got over the idea of having to give up beans, rice and potatoes, he came around fairly quickly.  I like to think its because I armed myself with facts and science, to which he responds to more than hearsay.

Goose is a fan of the cavemen, so this wasn't as far fetched of an idea to give him.  Eat what the cavemen eat.  Hunt and forage for food.  Shy away from processed because clearly that wasn't around back then.  We still have our setbacks.  Come on, STL Style pizza is to die for.  We will have to give up grains because farming was in the NEXT era. Goose decided if he's boarding the Paleo train, he refuses to even cheat with flours to do breads/tortillas/pastas.  Good.  That's a lot of work.  I am already finding I have a lot of work ahead of me.  Boy, for a girl who said she'd marry a guy who cooks for her (and she did! I win.) I sure am taking over a lot of creative responsibility in the kitchen.  I'm not sure I can handle this. :)

I checked out website after website on recipes because as yummy as steak and salad sound, and even steak and eggs...that can get boring.  What I found was that I could make LOTS of things, lots of slight variations from what we already eat!  I can make paleo granola for Goose who needs his fix of "cereal" sometimes.  I even learned I could make my own chocolate.  Uh. Sold!

So I started cleaning out my food stuffs.  I started looking into alternate flours for those "in case" moments.   I had already ordered some coconut flour (which also came with manna, coconut flakes, and coconut sugar to replace brown sugar for ribs) and I gave away all the conventional flours and sugars in my pantry because I felt bad just throwing it out.  Out the door went oats for granola, brown sugar, flours, corn starch, corn meal, panko, Italian bread crumbs, etc.  We had already eliminated any teflon/aluminum cooking skillets because well, I paid almost $100 PER SKILLET and the frickin' things peeled right off and junk within the first 3 years.  O.o  We are sticking with cast iron skillets cuz the Goose says so.  For Christmas I got a Paleo basket with almond flour, coconut oil/flour, flax meal, and a Paleo cookbook.  I was so excited!

I am officially ready for us to do the 30 day challenge (the contest part is expired), especially after all the chocolates and treats and sweets that have made it in here over the holidays.  My dad even came up over Thanksgiving break and I made him aware we were going to be doing as much Paleo as we could. We did pretty well!  They came home one morning with Sonic and I furrowed my brow.  Other than that, the meals were quite close to Paleo, if not full Paleo.

I don't even think I have scratched the surface with this whole new lifestyle, but I am excited to try.  We will eventually be experts!  Meanwhile, here are a few meals we created while trying to be total paleos!

Some GREAT recipe sites:
http://fastpaleo.com/
http://paleomg.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2GNVtltVX
http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex
http://www.paleoplan.com/recipes/

Chicken Soup w/ Quinoa

Steak and eggs 

Kale Salad

Paleo Pork Roast

Mexican Carnitas (sans tortilla)

Duck in Red Wine Sauce 

Rosemary ACV marinated chicken
(topped with mushroom and onion)

Beatiful ribs!

Steak and Kale Salad