Japanese Soup

This recipe was given to me by my friend from Japan.  She heard Goose makes kimchi and was very interested in making her own.  So we had a kimchi making party, and in return she showed us how to make this most simple but delicious soup.  We trekked over to the China Town markets to get some supplies, and she didn't even know all the English names.  The base soup is very easy, and you could strain it as a veggie broth, or eat it with all the veggies.  Around here we have just been calling it seaweed soup!

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!

I lost count of the days -- 83? 93? or something?

I know I haven't been blogging weekly, that's because I'd only be reporting the same old story...the GMO disease is out of this spot but still in this place.  Each week little by little it moved out of my system.  That's all we needed to focus on, so it would have been monotonous to blog it each week.  Four weeks have gone by.  I went in weekly, disgusted at the government allowing this GM virus to be exposed to us humans, yet not one iota surprised.  *glares at Monsanto*. I am still annoyed about it, so lets look at this picture of the ocean together and breathe.

*waves* 

A few things to catch you up on that aren't GMO related:

After my trip to Texas and their super early spring, I had to recover from that.  While the Healer is working his magic on me, I still have a damaged immune system that I have to rebuild.  33 years of damage does not go away overnight.

Two weeks ago I had a real wake up call.  I was cleaning my bathroom on a normal Tuesday afternoon, trying to get rid of shower floor stains when all else had failed.  So I picked up the bleach spray and went at the shower.  Not 45 seconds later I was choking, and couldn't breathe.  I was coughing so hard I was gagging, my eyes were watering and I barely made it to the next bathroom before my violent coughs gave way to puking my lunch up.  Come Thursday, I started coughing and it "felt different" for lack of better words, so I jumped up from the couch during my shows and ran to the bathroom to spit.  It was blood.  I couldn't tell at the time if it was from my lungs or my ripped up throat from the violent coughing.  I'd bet it was from the lungs though.  I had a bit of a panic attack but since I had just refilled my ACS Silver spray I didn't feel freaked out enough to wake Goose to go to the hospital.  However I did wake him to tell him "Don't freak out, but" which he totally freaked out.  I did a breathing treatment of Silver, and managed to fall asleep somehow.  The next day, the blood was minimal in my cough. I did two more breathing treatments with ACS and I repeated this to Goose and he hugged me very tightly and said "we can't lose you, you can't leave us yet" and that made all my heart strings rip apart.  I knew that moment, I might just have to outlive the "we" in that sentence, and that makes my heart swell with love knowing those people, who know who they are, kinda need me around.  By my next doctor appointment, I was all clear but still told Healer what happened and he had the same look in his eye as Goose and worried I was suffering chemical burns.  He did test me, and I had done the right thing with the ACS breathing treatments because I was all clear of chemical burns.  Also, I don't plan on using bleach EVER again.  Whites will just have to white some other way.  Shower stains will just have to cease to exist I guess.

I also had mentioned how it had been 50+ days or so without dairy and pork.  I won't be eating cheese again, I don't think, because I prefer to have clear skin.  It makes sense as I Would usually crave cheese with a burning desire about once a month.  Even more so than chocolate.  Also, we smoked a ham to put on a pot of beans Goose was wanting.  I thought, why not try some out?  So I ate a little bit of ham, and yes it was still delicious as I remember.  However, I was sick the next day from it.  It's really a bittersweet moment coming to grips with these food sensitivities.  I am really going to miss it, but its also nice to finally clue into what my body has been trying to tell me.

Hey girl, you know you want me.

Yeah, you want me too!

Today was my final WEEKLY visit, it's gone.  I AM FREE!  Well at least of genetically modified diseases and previous pathogens.  I know that there is a good chance that something else might pop up in my healing process, but as I continue to visit him for monthly checkups, those can be dealt with if they arise.  I took a couple of ingredients I used to use into the Healer's office.  I had heard he can test your reaction to certain foods and well, I needed to know.  I took in coconut oil because, really why would coconut anything be bad for you? I also grabbed our black pepper at the last second.  I'm so glad I did.  I tested with the coconut oil, and I CAN handle it.  I tested with the black pepper and failed bigtime.  It was great I took pepper with me since most spices/seasonings include black pepper.  I had been doing my best to avoid it, and now I know I'm "allergic" to it, so to speak.  All the more reason to say no.  It sucks because most restaurants use pepper.  Luckily, Goose had been mindful of my pepper avoidance when he grilled.  The food still tasted great without so I'm not upset about it.  It's just one more thing to be cautious of.

The next steps are to continue with my supplements and general health.  That includes Vitamin B, Vitamin D, Super omegas 3-6-9, ACG (Glutathione), DHEA drops, curcumin, ACS (by choice to keep these silly lungs in check, miracle thing I tell you!)  aaannndd...I feel I'm missing something.  OH! The once a month probiotic.  I will continue to stick to the basic fundamentals to keep this up.  Take said supps, exercise and eat accordingly to my blood type, hydrate, and sleep well.

In my experience, I hope what I learned can be passed along to others that I love.  I know its not all going to be reciprocated, but maybe some of it will, and it's one more step in the right direction.  I am sure there's more to come but for now, I'm happy with where I'm at.  I've really learned a lot.  I'm working out, my clean eating is at its prime, my pathogens are clear...now I just focus on my workouts and real food. No problem mon!

Day 35

It's been 35 days since I've had cheese.  It's been 35 days since I had any type of pig.  To say my junk food cravings are gone is a joke.  In fact this week was the worst week I've had in the "I need a son of baconator!  No! I need some super gross Taco Bell nachos and a quesadilla!  No wait! I got it, queso...melty gooey cheesy cheese dip from any mexican joint.  I will have you know, I almost failed myself twice this week.  Once, I took Goose to the airport for one of his work trips, and I thought "ooh breakfast, I can get some and no one will know..."  I almost stopped twice.  Almost.  Then I found myself driving right past it all and the next thing I knew I was in my driveway.  The next time, I was at Dierbergs, and I picked up a sammich with extra cheese and put it in my cart.  I felt so guilty that I didn't even make it out of the aisle before putting it all back.

I did find a 98% safe remedy for chips and salsa.  Expensive salsa made without weird junk, (and why should it have weird junk in it?) and Beanitos chips.  Granted, that's still a "rare treat" because beans.  But it's better than tortilla chips which I cannot have...because corn.  You can bet your bippy when tomato season comes back, I will be making salsa for myself.  Also hummus is a good alternative, with some broccoli and carrots.  The other day, Goose told me he liked raw carrots better than cooked.  I pondered it for half a second and said "I am an equal opportunist carrot consumer.  I love them any way I can eat them."   It's been a busy day and I've not had much other than an apple and a little bit of turkey stir fry from my leftovers container.  Can you tell?

I didn't write this on Friday because I came home from the doc with my Adrenal Stress Test to do, and wanted to include that.  So here's my update from Friday:  Things are going super swell, and I don't need to come back for another two weeks since we are out of the crucial stage.  That said, Healer did the DNA damage testing on me and I have brain damage!!! Whee!   Well, no for real...due to the viruses hanging out in my brains, the DNA is damaged in there.  Also some DNA damage in my lungs, DUH and my gallbladder, and another organ I have since forgotten.  Just like when he reset my dopamine levels and voodoo'd my intestines, he did the same thing.  Okay, they call it integrating, but thanks to Goose that just sounds all Math-y to me.  But that's what he did to all my DNA damage.  He reset it with his magical Healer powers.  I have to believe it now, he's proven me otherwise several times with this "reset button".

At least I don't need resetting every 108 minutes.

I am to continue taking all the things until next time.  I did run out of the ACS silver, but since my lung fungus is gone I don't need it unless I chose to have it as a maintenance dosage.  Since my Tri-guard has silver in it already, I opted out of it this time.  My liver cleanse drink, Protoclear, will be gone I think by Friday and that's it with my liver cleanse.  Healer sent me home with a mega strong probiotic, in fact it's so strong I only have to take one pill a month.  Every seven days it regenerates all its probiotic friends to do their magic to my flora in my gut and its one less thing a day I have to deal with.  I talked to him about my oil pulling concerns, since coconut is a no-no for my blood type (I'm still dubious on that, since coconut is everyone's best friend, but that's for another day).  Since I'm already taking the zeolite, right now oil pulling isn't a concern for me.  Otherwise, I can use sesame oil as I suspected.  But because I want to get on top of my tooth game, I took home curcumin because its the best ever and that's all that matters.  Hahah! No no, I kid.  That's for another post.  All that is important now, is that its AMAZING for the body, and swishing with it in your mouth kills all that nasty bacteria you wanna get rid of.

Onto the Adrenal Stress Test.  It's pretty easy, you wake up and follow the directions.  Four times a day you must wear a cotton ball in your mouth til is soaked and place it lovingly in a vial marked "morning, noon, afternoon, midnight" respectively.  For the noon test though I had to do a carb simulation test and eat 75 grams of carbs an hour before drooling on the cotton.  They have a list so that's helpful and I chose the highest carb items because well I didn't want to be eating all day.

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! 

Day 21!

Well I made great strides!  I am officially now in Phase II but let me start from the beginning.

Today's appointment was seemingly normal, with the regular NeuroLink checkup.  This week however, the Healer says my virus is completely superficial and nearly gone.  Also, the fungus in my lungs appears to be CLEAR!  Wha?  I just thought I felt the same all week.  I didn't feel any different from last week, but apparently the medicine is doing its job!  I never thought it would be clear so soon.  Since the fungus is out of my lungs, I can stop the Silver as a breathing treatment and continue with it orally as normal.  I can't say I feel different, like I said.  So I am still slightly skeptical.  But as I said last week, I am noticing more dry coughs than I'm used to.  So it's something.  I don't expect to be completely cleared up in a snap though.  

So, to recap: No more bacteria, no more fungus, and practically no more virus!   This isn't to say that when these pathogens leave my body we might find more.  It's very possible.  But at this point the ones I am treating are getting out of here!  I am having some issues in my intestines (remember how he picked up a little virus last week) that he did his fun Voodoo on, so we shall see if that fixes itself.

Since things are going so well, the Healer started me on the detox portion.  This includes two more sprays to take: ACG which is Glutathione.  Its the natural antioxidant in your body that's been utterly depleted thanks to the modern living and crap we put in our bodies.  It gets so overworked that it kinda gives up in your system.  So I am now taking that 4 times a day.  One time a day I am going to try to nebulize it to get it into my lungs, so long as I don't have a weird reaction.  We shall see!  The other spray I am taking is ACZ, Zeolite.  It will bind to all the heavy metals in my body and pull them out through the urine.  I am curious to see if this changes my body like when I first started on these medications.

Now I am taking 10 different things 2, 3, and 4 times a day! WHEE!  No time to do much else but take these fun things!

The outside air has been beautiful this week, I was loving the walks I could take.  Well, except for the fact that I'm not used to all these hills and my hip sockets were mad at me the next day!  NO MOAR COLD!

Movin' on up!

Day 1

Yesterday, I had my appointment at the Chiropractor (lets call him the Healer) to go over my lab results and do this test called NeuroLink to see what kinda nasty junk I have going on inside me.  Of course going into this, I had no idea what he would actually be doing.  I like to say it's Voodoo because it just looks that crazy to someone standing there.  I can't even  really begin to explain the test but I did find it very fascinating!  You know, a normal person would have said "What is that? What are you doing to me?" I totally didn't!  I was just so excited to get it done so I could see what gross stuff is inside me!

LAST SUPPER.

I am human and I have needs.  Before I start my new life tomorrow, I'm being honest.  We went to dinner at a Chinese buffet.  I wish I could say I enjoyed it more...the robust woman and friend with her in the booth next to me ruined my "last supper" experience.  They chose during their meal time to call up someone on speaker and then scream their life stories, full of expletive's (don't get me wrong, I like a good explicative or two myself, but in...public...REALLY?) about some hoochie that hooked up with some other hoochie's mama.   Sorry "ladies" but I'm trying to talk to my Goose about what happened to me earlier today which to me is more important than impressing some dude about how much you don't care...

 So there was a lot of "LATER I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT the. . . YEAH THE REST OF THE BUFFET WANTS TO KNOW TOO! Let's see if they have a karaoke, I can just share it with everyone!"

"Oh, what? You didn't hear the last five minutes of what I said, goose? Sorry...let's just cut this date short and go." Seriously, I had to YELL to get him to hear what I said...most of what I wanted to talk about was private.

WE LEFT.

I was most annoyed because I wanted to stuff myself of chinese food I can't have later, and enjoy my findings with the hubbs.  We even made an EARLY date to avoid these idiots.  So much for that.

All this week I have taken advantage of my last meals.  I had Mexican food, biscuits and gravy (which made me later sick!), OJ, Chinese, skittles(cuz that's my only sugar weakness), anything pork, wine...okay red wine is OKAY on my list but not during my liver cleanse and detox so it will be forever til I can imbibe!

The Chinese buffet was good enough.  I think I can replicate some of them to get my eventual cravings in order. The loud talker just really ruined all my last "Dinner date for a while" experience.

For a bit I'm probably only going to want to eat here, where I can control portions and ingredients.  It's a pretty cool thing I am part rabbit as it is and love me a good salad.  I can meet most meal requirements with my salad obsession.  Strange that is the one thing I love and partake in most of all!

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*

Starting a new path!

WHOA, how long has it been since I have written?!? A long, long time.  My three followers were probably going into shock waiting. I apologize.  We have moved and settled into our new house and I have enjoyed every second of it.  I have been extremely busy regardless of not working anymore and it seems like we have had company almost every weekend.  This really threw me off my good-eatin' train big time.  I completely derailed once we got here. *slaps self*  It was all fine and dandy until mid-summer.  I was walking until it was too hot for the dog to go with me, and we were in the hotel most of the summer so I didn't want to leave her in the room.  The swimming in the pool helped a lot, but still I stopped working out altogether. I am ashamed. *hangs head*

Right now, I am just shocked at how I let things go and frankly embarrassed that I threw all my health by the wayside post-move.  I got so busy planning, packing, unpacking, organizing, enjoying shopping, trying new restaurants, and all the other stuff that wasn't real food/work out related that the next thing I knew, I wasn't happy with myself.  So many excuses, and there's no apology to myself big enough for it.

In late October, I met with my new Chiropractor and let me tell you, I was chomping at the bit for the holidays to be over so I could go back to him and start his Wellness Program.  When I say that, I mean I literally went home and ordered the "Eat Right for Your Blood Type" book that he follows with his program.  I am 99.6% sure my blood type so I studied that list inside and out!  I am planning to document weekly how I am doing with this program, so cross your fingers I remember to do it!  I am curious how things change and I feel documenting them in the blog will just help me see where I was vs. where I am in the end.  I probably won't post all my measurements and personal stuff because NOT YER BIDNASS!  Maybe I will after I feel better.

Enough of the back story.  Today, I went in for my first meeting with the chiro.  I learned what I will be doing as far as HIS wellness program goes.  When I go back, I will go in detail over that.  But for now, the most important parts are 1. sleep 2. hydrate with purified water 3. exercise 4. get your Vitamin D levels up 5.eat REAL FOOD.  Luckily I am slightly ahead of that and it won't be as taxing on me as some other people.  I already know what food/exercise is required of me. I know I should be hydrating more than I am and have been working on it.  For the most part I get enough sleep, but I need to turn it around as in "go to sleep sooner/wake earlier"  Sleeping at 1230am to 8am isn't really ideal for me because I still have to force myself to get up at 735am at my alarm and still lay there til 8am.  For shame. I know some of you are thinking, "what a lush, sleeping in til 735! That jerk!" Hey, it's better than sleeping til 11am...just sayin' is all.  I need to slap myself around and tell myself "workouts at 830am!".  Unless its walking outside,  then I want it to be mid day and hot! I'm back into my workout videos, so that's also a step ahead.

I also got the basic panel done so that the chiro can contour the wellness program for me.  Funny thing, most nurses can't find my blood veins and end up murdering my arm before they get any blood.  I warned the nurse of this, so she spent more time investigating my teeny tiny deep in the tissue veins before saying "I'm not going to try to poke you 100 times, let me get the vein whisperer."  She went to get another nurse who also spent a few minutes looking for the best place and got my blood on the first stick.  NICE!  Three vials of blood and some stolen urine later, I was finished with my end.   However, tonight I have this great blood blister from where the BANDAGE came off.  Huh?  The needle hole is red, but then there's this giant blood blister next  to it.  STRANGE.  Anyway, they tested for a variety of things that will be discussed next appointment.

With that, you are caught up on my current health crap.  :D I hope to get back into the blogging along with the other things I just gave up on.  I think it helps that we got the PC working again, 6 months later!

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.

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:

Gotta hold myself accountable!

Day 1 done...whoa all over again. 

Well after almost a year of not working out (please hold while I punch myself in the face for admitting that....okay done!) for MANY reasons excuses, I have gotten back on the workout train and taken off.  What a dumb metaphor.   Anyway, I can sit here and give you a long list of reasons why I didn't work out...but I will summarize with a few key points which all boil down to laziness if I want to be honest with myself.  And, lets face it ... with this title, I better just be honest.  I started out the year with some injuries, one involved my falling down the stairs that stopped me from working out, and I just got it all up in my brain  that if I went a week or two and didn't stick to schedule, that I had ruined all my work and should start over...which was dumb.  Goose was gone for 7 months (minus the weekends) and I just.got.lazy.(not to mention would have rather had TV dinners instead of making something for just me...STUPID!)  My TV broke, my PC started wearing down and becoming unreliable, my fitbit broke, worked again, then broke. Then my hard drive failed completely, the one I had ALL my workouts backed up on, including old photos and music, etc.  Blah. Blah. Blah.  All excuses if I look at it truthfully.  Except for the hard drive, that just happened.  But it was a week of tears and sap until I realized intelligent me had backed up my photos and music elsewhere....just  the videos were gone.  I suppose the last excuse was I needed to get my eating right squared away and get through the 30 day paleo challenge first.  Done, now what? GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER BRI!

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

You just never know

I used to be an avid Big Lots shopper because let's face it, I love a good deal.  I loved shopping their foods section because things were just SO CHEAP.  I also loved Aldi for the same reason!  However once we decided to jump on the organic bandwagon I stopped going to those places.  I hardly even shop at the organic sections in the normal grocery stores, except for Kroger, since I found my little nature store.  Last week I got an email ad for Big Lots.

The ad featured Bob's Red Mill products from $2-7 depending on the item.  I got really excited because I had seen these items and they aren't cheap where I was shopping around.  So I gathered up the grillz and we headed out to just see what they had.  I ended up with a few items mentioned in my other post and went home.  Today, I went back because I was thinking about picking up some bean soup mixes.  It's getting colder here and I'm craving soups.

While I didn't end up with the beans for soup, I was pilfering and found several surprise items!

The Cascadian Farm cereal I had found actually at Kroger on sale for $3 a box and so I grabbed one of each to test out.  The granola was a winner, so when I see it I pick up a couple boxes.  However, when I found it hiding on the bottom shelf at Big Lots for $2.30 I put six boxes in my basket (one's missing because Goose stole it)! The Almond Breeze coconut/almond milk was $1.50 and SALE prices at Kroger were $2.50.  I don't even want to talk about the price at the nature store.  I got that very tall container of sea salt for a whole $2 because I love coarse salt, and I was almost out.  I was excited to see these organic chocolate snacks for the tiny humans too.  They were $2 and I cannot wait to try out the peppermint tea.  The couscous didn't actually say organic but when you read the label and the ONLY ingredient is whole wheat couscous, I'm betting it's pretty safe.

I knew Big Lots had some cool finds if you were looking for them, but I am so excited to see some of these organic products there because they always have a really good price.  So I guess you never know where you'll find good treats if you just look!

*Disclaimer: After some peeking around, I realized Cascadian Farms is owned by General Mills and works in conjunction with Monsanto. *BAD WORDS*  So, that also goes to show, even though it says USDA organic on the front, it may still associate with GMO's.  Now I'm super ashamed that I supported Monsatan! BEW!  It really sucks when you find a good deal and then research where the company came from.  Note to self...gonna have to not trust Cascadian Farms. :( 

HCG

HCG.  I know by now most people have heard of this.  I know there are some very differing opinions of this "diet".  I know there aren't a whole lot of people who have enough willpower for it.  I wondered about it for a while but at the time only the injections prescribed by a doctor were available so I blew it off.  My mother eventually went on it (the injections), and it took me a whole year afterwards to see she kept the weight off before I actually decided I needed to know more for myself.  I am well aware that there are negative responses to this diet.  "How can anyone survive on 500 calories a day? That's so unhealthy!  You can't lose that weight that rapidly, its not safe!" etc. etc.  I am also well aware that there are people who tried it and didn't like it, couldn't handle it, made them sick, etc.  This isn't a story to make you just go out and buy HCG.  Because if you aren't willing to commit the entire time to it for a true reset, you will fail. Period.  Just settle down there sassy and let me just tell you MY story!

red, green, lean

The bottles aren't mine, I SWEAR!
This isn't even Saturday, either!
The apples and tomatoes are being divas and asked not to be photo'd. 

Lately I have been working reaaaaaal hard on getting my diet squared away.  When I say diet, I don't mean "Oh, let me starve and not eat anything at all so I can lose weight.", I mean my regular foods.  With the current workout I am doing, I need to eat a lot of proteins and junk so I can't just eat less and call it good.  However, it feels like I am holding onto the extra carbs and I decided to do some digging and figure things out.  How can I cut carbs from an already low-carb plan?  Where is the extra sugar coming from?

My Saturday mornings have meaning again!

YAY! The Farmer's Market is back in business!  I have been looking forward to it ever since we started shopping there last summer.  It got pretty bad, we were buying ALL THE THINGS it seemed.  Walmart sacks full of tomatoes, and cardboard boxes full of sweet onions every.single.weekend.  It's really become a staple in our house these days.  I just love knowing my food is local and clean and fresh, now that I am better educated.  Here's what we got this day!

Ooooh! So pretty!