This week just disappeared before my eyes. We only got through two days of school work. I’m not even sure what happened. Thankfully, we had worked ahead a while back so we should still finish up in about three weeks. We are so ready to be through.
We studied modern history this year, 1850 – present. It’s been fascinating for me. So much of this more modern history was very new when I was in school and we didn’t study it. The Korean War and the Vietnam War were not even mentioned, even WWI and WWII were glossed over at best. I’m thankful to be giving my kids such a foundation in our world’s history. It helps to give them a broader perspective. It’s so easy to be self-centered.
Despite our love of school (really, the kids love it too), some weeks just get away from us. When you only have two days of school, you have more time to write up recipes! See, there is always a silver lining.
Recipes posted for you this week:
Spinach salad with hot bacon dressing
Can you tell we’ve been grilling a lot? I’ve been trying really hard to make simple meals. Both for me and for you. Paleo can be complicated, for sure. It can get really boring eating meat and vegetables exclusively. You need to experiment with different flavors, sauces, marinades, and cooking methods. All of these different tricks definitely keep the food interesting, but it can make for long cooking times as well. Who needs complicated? Especially on a week night.
Way back in my transitioning to paleo article I talked about my grocery shopping plan and I thought this would be a good time to discuss again some of my tricks for getting a healthy balanced meal on the table night after night.
- Plan, plan and plan some more
- Buy a variety of fruits and vegetables
- Keep healthy protein stocked in your freezer
- Keep a good selection of herbs and spices and other paleo kitchen staples in your pantry. See this resources list for some of my favorites.
If you have these basics on hand, you can put together a pretty wide variety of meals fairly simply.
My kids ask for snacks all the time and as long as I have a good selection of fruits and vegetables, they will most often choose something healthy. They love baby carrots, those little sweet bell peppers, clementines and just about any other type of fruit.
Sure, they love junk and even pseudo-junk like “all natural” fruit gummies, dehydrated fruit, protein bars, but those foods are really expensive. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a healthier choice and much more affordable.
I feel like this post should be titled “Random Thoughts by Elizabeth”…
If you’ve been following along with my Whole 30 journey, I just posted my Week 3 update. When I’m all through with this adventure, I’ll compile a list of my recipes that work for Whole 30 and some of my favorite meals, should you want to complete your own detox sometime in the future.
There is mixed news regarding the new Our Paleo Family ventures this week. I’ve told you that I’m working on an ebook, which I plan to have out this fall, with recipes for many of the occasions we celebrate. I had titled my book Celebrate! and was reading the blog of one of my favorite paleo writer’s this week (Daniel Walker of Against All Grain) and she has a new book coming out. Guess what it’s called. Yep, she released the name last week and it’s Celebrations. Naturally, I’m assuming the book has the same premise as mine. My heart just sank when I read this. Clearly, I cannot name my book the same as she has named her’s. I will carry on with the premise though. My recipes will be different from her’s and I hope you’ll love each and every one. I need to come up with a new title though. Let me know if you have any great ideas for me.
I do have some good news to share: I now have the permit and am waiting for my inspection which will allow me to produce cookies and then get them out to you! I’m really excited about this! Creating recipes from old favorites that are acceptable for our current diet is something I love to do.
It does feel a bit hypocritical to be talking about doing a Whole 30, where the purpose is to get off of sugar, and also talking about selling cookies! I definitely believe we all need some cookies in our lives. Just not every day. Well, I don’t. Maybe you do. Actually, if they are my cookies, you most definitely need them every day. 😉
That’s it from around these parts. As always, there is lots more in the pipeline over here so please keep checking back. My goal for this week is to figure out how Instagram works. Apparently, as a blogger, that is something I need to get on top of. Have you heard that saying about old dogs and new tricks??
Be well!