Month: May 2016

Friday Favorites

Apparently all good bloggers have weekly columns they are known for: Monday Motivations, Fashion Fridays, Weird Wednesdays, Throwback Thursday, and you get the idea. If I am going to hold my own in this arena, I figured I need to have my own weekly columns.

Today, I proudly present the very first Friday Favorites post from Our Paleo Family.

If you’ve looked at my resources and ingredients page, you know what most of my favorites are, but I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of my very, very favorites, how I use them and why I love them so.

Without further ado, my first five Friday Favorites (in no particular order):

1. Bacon – Do I really need to elaborate on this one? Of course, I do. We could talk for years about the virtues of bacon. I have been on a quest for the very best of the “healthy” bacons and I feel confident that Pederson’s sugar free bacon, found at Whole Foods, tastes the absolute best. Yes, there are others that are nitrate/nitrite free, from animals raised humanely and without hormones and antibiotics, but Pederson’s tastes the very best. Pete’s Paleo Bacon is very good as well, but you have to mail order it and it’s a little more expensive. You can’t go wrong with either brand. Lately, I’ve been buying 365 brand (Whole Food’s house brand) of uncured center cut, but it doesn’t have enough flavor, in my opinion. When I can splurge, I’ll go back to Pederson’s, specifically the one labeled Paleo. Of course, bacon is not just good for breakfast. A few slices fried up and broken into pieces make an amazing addition to salads, baked potatoes, cereal (just seeing if you’re paying attention). You get the idea though. 

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If you buy good quality bacon without all the chemicals and hormones, you can save the fat that renders out when cooking and use that to cook vegetables, meats, scrambled eggs, etc. It adds just a little bit of amazing bacon flavor. Use it as the fat in salad dressings too. So yummy! And it’s already paid for. Don’t throw away that precious, healthy fat.

2. Avocados – Avocados bring so much to the table. They are full of healthy fats, fiber, folic acid, iron, magnesium, potassium, B vitamins and vitamin C. They add amazing creaminess to anything you put them on or in. If you love schmering cream cheese or butter on your (gluten free) toast, try avocado instead. If you like just a little cheese on your salad to add a creamy component, add avocado instead. Do I even need to mention guacamole?

PastedGraphic-5DSC_32503. Plantains –  Seriously, plantains are so versatile. Do not be afraid of them. Yes, they are related to bananas, but as long as you use them while they’re at least a little green, they don’t taste like bananas. I am talking like a banana hater, which I pretty much am. I eat them on occasion, but they are not my favorite. You will not find bananas in a future Friday Favorites post, that’s for sure. Back to plantains, you can blend them with eggs and flavorings to make amazing pancakes and waffles. You can smoosh them and fry them into crispy, crunchy potato chip alternatives. You can even make those chips really big and use them as bread/buns for your burger or sandwich.IMG_4464

You can go all out and make my AIP burger buns with your ripe plantains. But my favorite way to eat these little beauties is in chip form, fried up in coconut oil. You’ll never need a potato chip again as long as you have some of these to look forward to.


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4. Mini Food Processor – My poor Cuisinart Mini Chopper has seen better days. I’ve dropped the plastic bowl so many times it has lots of jagged edges and just a whisper of a handle, but it still works great. I use this guy almost every single day. Chop nuts, make chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad, blend up a smoothie, make mayonnaise, finely chop garlic and onions or any vegetable really, whip up some pesto with all that basil in your garden. Seriously, I use it all the time. If you don’t have one, it’s a great investment at around $35.

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5. Saucony Triumph ISO 2, my wonderful new tennis shoes. I’ve talked about my difficult feet before, the old surgeries and the new arthritis. It’s chronic pain and it stinks. Especially for this shoe lover. I have given away the shoes I can’t wear anymore. There’s no reason to have them in my closet taunting me. But I do have to wear shoes. I mean, I really have to wear shoes. Going barefoot is not an option. My feet need lots of support. I find myself wearing tennis shoes more and more often because they are just the most comfortable. And I have to wear big, old orthotics and you can’t put those in a high heel or sandal. I over-supinate, which means my feet tend to roll outward. Most people over-pronate or roll inward. The shoe industry makes lots of shoes for over-pronators, but they don’t make any specifically for supinators. I would buy a lot if they did. They are missing out on an opportunity here. Again, I digress. If you have this same problem, I have found the perfect shoe! There’s space for my orthotics, room for my to toes wiggle, lots of cushioning and support at the back of my foot to give the stability I need.

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I know this has nothing to do with food, but these shoes are one of my new favorite things and I figured there have to be other people with this same problem who could benefit from a recommendation.

So there you go, the first ever Our Paleo Family Friday Favorites. To see more of my favorite things, check out my resources and ingredients page. 

Next week, you’ll get What We Ate Wednesday where I’ll show you what our meals consisted of for the week. We all get in a rut sometimes and it can be helpful to see what other people are putting on the table. Plus, isn’t it just fun to spy into other people’s kitchens every once in a while? 😉

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Monday Musings…

School officially ended for us last Friday. And end of year testing officially began this morning. Such emotional highs and lows going on over here.

We celebrated with a pizza party Friday night. I made a gluten free crust for the family using my gluten free flour mix and used a sliced yellow squash for my crust. I’ve been wondering how I could possibly have gone through essentially four months of Whole 30 dieting and come out without losing a single ounce. I think we all know this comes down to calories in and calories out – for the most part.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: paleo does not encourage calorie counting. If you are filling your plate with vegetables, fruits, healthy meat and fat, your body should know when it’s had enough and hunger/fullness will naturally regulate. The thing is, that doesn’t always happen in a text book sort of way.

Lots of tips about Whole 30 and other such diets/detoxes warn of over-eating fruit and nuts in particular. Why this happens probably varies greatly from person to person, but for me, I did eat more fruit than I normally would and I definitely ate more almonds than usual. The fact is, almonds pack a powerful caloric punch and I was probably eating too many. I ate them to keep from being hungry and wanting to snack on chocolate instead. Yes, I think this was a good choice, but a few less calories would have been ideal.

So, back to the squash crusted pizza: I’m keeping a close watch on what I eat these days. I’m not being restrictive in the ‘what’ so much as I am keeping tabs on calories and how many grams of protein, carbs and fat I’m consuming. I’m aiming for about 40% fat, 20% carb and 40% protein. I don’t hit that most days, but it’s what I’m working toward. I use the My Fitness Pal app, which I find works really well. On Friday, I knew that gluten free pizza crust would push me way over the edge on calories and carbs, so I enjoyed squash pizza instead. It was still really good and I felt good afterward, which was a plus.

One other side benefit of this level of food tracking, is that if I end up not feeling well after a meal, I know exactly what I ate. I don’t have to rely on my memory. Huge bonus!

I hope to not have to do this long term, but I felt it was important, for a while anyway, to see exactly how my calorie consumption was stacking up each day. And you know what else I noticed? Some days I hardly eat any vegetables! How does the happen? I feel like I eat them ALL THE TIME. This serves as another reminder that I need to constantly keep looking for ways to get in the veggies.

On to fun ways to get your calories…..If you haven’t checked in lately, I’ve recently
posted a delicious strawberry salad recipe and a cauliflower crust pizza recipe. Both of these have been huge hits around here.

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DSC_3425There was a chocolate emergency in my house this weekend and I whipped up the most delicious flourless chocolate torte/brownie/cake. Any way or shape you make it, this is an amazing dessert, filled with only real food ingredients and no flour of any kind. Not too sweet, but just enough sweetness and chocolatey-ness to satisfy any such emergency. I’ll be posting the recipe this week.DSC_3546

I’m also working on some throw-back recipes this week. Some are foods from my childhood that have been off limits on paleo and others I just haven’t gotten around to perfecting, like meatloaf.

I did get my AIP enchilada recipe updated this past week and it was sooooooo yummy! My kids used to really hate this, but they loved it this time. I think it’s because I finally figured out how to keep the tortillas from getting gummy. If you haven’t made this yet, give it a try. The Nomato sauce is amazing in and of itself. Keep some in your freezer at all times! It’s totally chocked full of vegetables and your picky eaters (even if it’s you) will never be able to tell!

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Happy cooking this week!

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This week with Our Paleo Family, May 18th

Hello there! What a lovely weekend we had here in North Carolina. My boys were camping and for once they didn’t have to battle torrential downpours. Miracles do happen!

I have one super delicious and refreshing recipe of you this week.

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Fresh Strawberry Salad

We served this as a side dish, but I can’t wait to make it again and add some grilled chicken. I think it will make a super quick and easy, and still yummy, light dinner. If you’re following Whole 30, just toast the nuts without the maple syrup glaze and leave out the cheese. It will still be amazing!

This isn’t a new recipe, but it’s a new twist on an old one. I’m always looking for ways to enjoy a burger or sandwich with paleo appropriate ingredients. I love a good piece of gluten free bread every now and then like everyone else, but I try to keep 100% paleo because that keeps me feeling better. Well, one slightly over-ripe plantain in the fridge + burgers for dinner = plantain chip burger buns.

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Yes, it is just as delicious as it looks!

Follow this recipe and make this modification: after the first pass through the coconut oil, smash the plantains as you normally would, then overlap two or three or four (depending on the size) and mash the edges with a fork or your fingers to get them to stick together to form one big patty. Re-fry as usual. I was surprised these were sturdy enough to allow me to pick up my burger, but it did work and it was really, really good.

Coming up later this week is a recipe for cauliflower crust pizza. You’ve probably seen recipes for this before, but all that I’ve seen and tried have a lot of cheese in the crust. I wanted to see if it would work without. I even found one recipe that suggested the crust could be sturdy enough to pick up and eat with your hands. Well, lo and behold, it worked! My daughter thought this was the best gluten free pizza ever. You can see from the picture below that it’s a little floppy in my hand, but it was HOT right out of the oven. I had to keep putting it down and picking it up again to try to get a picture because it was so hot. Once I calmed down and allowed it to cool, like a normal person would, it was very sturdy. We had a little leftover and it was not nearly as good. Do you know why? It started to taste like cauliflower. When it was fresh, there was no cauliflower taste! So make this one with a big appetite and eat it all up.

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Look what came from the UPS man today:

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My labels!!!!

I have just finished a crash course in international business with these little labels. Thankfully, my first experience dealing with a manufacturer in China went very well. It wasn’t pain free, but the end result was great.

And just look at that tempting little cookie! I’m super close to having these ready for market. So excited at what the Lord has done in this regard. First the idea for the blog in the first place, then the idea for selling these cookies. I love to cook, I love to write and I love to help people learn to make better food choices. This is such an exciting opportunity. Just praying for guidance every step along the way. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a really expensive hobby.

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I am a little over a week out from finishing my Whole 30 and I’ve had a few significant thoughts/revelations that I thought would be beneficial to share.

  1. It took a few days to realize I didn’t have to document every single thing I ate. A nice relief!
  2. I felt very restricted for a few days. At first, I didn’t want anything that had been off limits on the Whole 30, then I got my appetite back and started craving more sweets. Bummer, but also good to actually feel like eating.
  3. During the Whole 30 I didn’t recognize the magnitude of the guilt I felt if I ate a bite of something that was off limits. The guilty feelings were very oppressive. I feel so free now to eat however I choose and it’s refreshing. I am, of course, still choosing paleo with a little dairy thrown in. But I am no longer force feeding myself sweet potatoes instead of rice or only green apples. And those sugar cookies above: you bet I’ve had a few of those bad boys. Guilt free.

 

That’s it from around these parts. Please let me know if you’re trying my recipes and if they work or don’t work. I would hate to have recipes posted that don’t turn out for you. I may need to tweak my instructions a bit.

Oh yes, and I’m still working on that enchilada re-make. I made the nomato sauce yesterday and I had forgotten how yummy it is. For those of you following the AIP, don’t hesitate to make this sauce. It will scratch those itches for Italian food for sure!

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My Whole 30 Recap and Best Tips for Success

Have a seat because this is going to be a long one. You might want to grab a cup or coffee or tea or green juice, (if you’re one of those people). I’m going to give you my best tips for successfully completing your own Whole 30 and I’m going to tell you what I learned through this long and unpleasant process. Really, it wasn’t all that bad. As I sit now, almost a week post-Whole 30 completion, my fondness for the program is growing.

In case you need a little refresher on the Whole 30 program, please refer to their website here. If 21 days is more your speed, consider the 21 Day Sugar Detox. Details on that program can be found here.

I officially began my Whole 30 on January 18th. And I officially ended on May 8th. If you’re counting, that’s 112 days. I did take a break of about a week around Easter (remember all those chocolates I had to stuff into eggs for the church egg hunt?). I faltered here and there due to recipe testing, sickness and plain old human weakness.

If the Whole 30 bosses were evaluating my experience, they would surely say that what I did was not a Whole 30 at all because I did not follow the rules to the letter for 30 straight days.

If you ask me to evaluate my experience, I would probably make a bunch of (reasonable) excuses, but ultimately would have to agree that I did not complete a Whole 30 as the program is designed.

Nonetheless, I did follow the rules pretty well for most of the time. And I learned a lot along the way.

Who am I to be giving this advice, you may ask, considering that I didn’t do it particularly well? That’s a good question. I guess the bottom line is that I understand the program, I understand what it is supposed to do and I understand how you are to carry it out. I just chose not to do it exactly according to the rules laid out by the creators of the program.

Here are my best tips for success should you try the Whole 30 for yourself:

1. You have to plan

There is no way to be successful with this diet if you do not plan each and every meal and snack. The Whole 30 discourages snacking, but sometimes you get hungry between meals. If you don’t have a plan for an appropriate snack, you will choose poorly. Don’t think you can just wing it. You really can’t. Trust me. If you are not currently someone who plans all your meals, this may be the one positive change that comes out of your Whole 30! I can’t think of a single person who would not benefit from planning meals on a regular basis.

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2. Try your very best to pick 4 weeks where you do not have a birthday, a major holiday, or a vacation.

You may need to travel for work, but having done that myself, I know work travel does not qualify as anything close to a holiday or vacation so you should feel no need to treat yourself during that time. Yes, eating this way while away from home is harder, but not impossible.

3. Don’t binge right before starting.

The more junk you are putting in prior to the start of the diet, the worse your initial withdrawal symptoms are likely to be and the more likely you will be to throw in the towel.

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4. Give yourself something to look forward to.

You will likely learn to love Granny Smith apples. If you currently eat a lot of sugar, that green apple will taste sour to you now, but a week into your detox and it will be a treat direct from heaven.granny-smith-apples

5. Clean out the cupboards!

If you have read all my earlier posts, you know I had my kids join in at the beginning because I simply could not walk past their stash of Christmas candy every day and not be tempted. I thought I was strong enough, but I wasn’t. A couple re-starts later, I realized those goodies had to be out of sight to be out of mind.

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6. Don’t think about what you can’t have. Think about what you can  have.

Every time I dwelled on the delicious dark chocolate chips in the cupboard, I found myself craving them and sometimes eating them, resulting in yet another re-start.

7. Set clear goals.

Be honest with yourself about why you are trying to eliminate sugar. Do you feel that your sugar cravings are out of control? Do you want to lose 5 pounds? Do you want to take a closer look at what you’re consuming? Paleo is great in a lot of ways, one of which is that it discourages calorie counting and general scrutinizing of fat grams, carbs, etc. BUT that doesn’t mean we don’t all need to take a closer look at our diet on occasion and make sure we’re in check.

8. Know whether you are going to allow yourself to ease up on the rules at all.

I think if I had told myself that I could have one sweet treat per week, I would not have felt compelled to keep starting over. For my situation, I am recipe testing on a constant basis and sweets are a part of that. Not being able to sample a new recipe is just not realistic for my job. Yes, I’ve read about the professional bakers doing a Whole 30 who simply chew a bite and then spit it out. Well, that just seems silly to me.

9. Enlist help!

If you live alone, then you are accountable to only you and that makes this whole venture much simpler. But if you have a spouse, kids or even a roommate, eliminating “banned” foods will be so much easier if the other people in your house aren’t constantly eating what you can’t eat or keeping big bowls of candy and chips lying around. Don’t set yourself up for failure. The fact is, EVERYONE can benefit from this sort of diet clean out. Beg and bribe if you have to, but get your peeps in on the action.

10. Read your labels!

There is, in fact, sugar in just about every single packaged food. If you read carefully, you will notice that one product might contain four different kinds of sugars. You need to know these sneaky names. Become a sugar detective. Believe it or not, the following list is just some of the code names for sugar.

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11. Find good recipes. 

There are many blogs (this one included), Pinterest boards, Instagram accounts, and the Whole 30 website offering oodles of compliant recipes.

If you need lots of variety in your diet, start your Whole 30 with at least 30 different recipes at your disposal that sound appetizing to you.

If, like me, you don’t need tons of variety, but prefer easy and routine, choose about 15 recipes you think you will love, and plan to make those over and over again.

Since my recipes are at least gluten free and almost all are fully paleo, just about everything on this site is appropriate for the Whole 30. You may need to leave out the teaspoon of honey, but the recipe will work just fine. Obviously, you need to skip the dessert section, but anything else is fare game. Just look at this amazing chicken…totally Whole 30 compliant.

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Nut Crusted Chicken

There ends the tip section. When I’m ready to do this again sometime in the future, I will certainly refer to this list for some reminders.

So what exactly what my personal experience, you might be wondering. I was pretty disappointed, to be honest. I kept waiting for the “tiger blood” that Whole 30 promises will happen about two thirds of the way into the program. If you don’t know what I mean, use your imagination and I bet you can figure it out.

There was one afternoon very early on, probably during my first attempt at the program in January when I noticed a dramatic increase in my energy level. It lasted one afternoon. One.

All was not lost however. I came away from the month four months, with some important realizations.

1. I am an abstainer, not a moderator. 

What on earth does that mean? Suppose I’m going to a party where there is not likely to be much in the way of food I will be able to eat. It is easier for me to eat before I go and eat nothing at the party than allow myself one “treat” and as many raw vegetables as I can handle. I would be perfectly content to sip a glass of water or tea and ignore the food altogether. I am not that person who can eat half of a candy bar. Abstaining is easier than moderating.

The simple fact that I cannot have certain foods makes them altogether more attractive. I think I can all of a sudden become a moderator and have just one (chocolate, potato chip, fill in the blank treat) and move on. But I can’t. “No one can eat just one,” as those brilliant potato chip people taught us.

2. I need a certain amount of a certain type of carbohydrates to properly fuel my body.

The Whole 30 doesn’t make you limit your fruit, but it does advise that you eat it judiciously and be aware if you are using it as a crutch for sweets. I don’t really love fruit so this one rule was pretty easy for me.

I learned that I need a certain amount of carbohydrates to keep me feeling energized and healthy. After a workout, I need some carbs – stat. As soon as I come home from a workout, I eat an apple or banana. Sometimes I choose a different fruit, but we always have those two around so 99% of the time, that’s what I choose. Bananas are at the bottom of the list of foods I enjoy. But my body seems to love them. This is not something I did pre-Whole 30.

White rice works for me as well. I only had rice during my Whole 30 when I was sick because, you know, I really did try to follow the rules. But I know that rice is the one grain I can eat on a regular basis and feel well. Really well as a matter of fact. I don’t love sweet potatoes, sometimes they even make me feel a little nauseous. I don’t care that the paleo police tell you to eat them every day. If something makes me nauseous, I would be wise to choose something else.

3. I need to plan each and every meal and snack

Planning all food is my #1 tip for success and I am speaking from experience here. As the saying goes, a failure to plan is a plan to fail. As full disclosure, I am a planner in real life too. If you are more a fly by the seat of your pants guy or gal, then you may fare just fine without this level of planning, but it’s my blog and we’re talking about me here. 🙂

This goes for eating out and special events as well. Know what food is going to be available and plan ahead. Take what you can eat. Or eat beforehand. Or direct the choice of restaurant. Someone has to choose the restaurant. It might as well be you.

 4. My body just loves it’s current size and shape

In my opinion, my ideal weight would be 10-15 pounds less than it is right now. I had hoped that through the Whole 30, I could knock off 3-5 of those and get a good jump on the rest. But alas, all those pounds decided to stick with me. When I turned 38 (two years too early according to popular wisdom) 10 extra pounds hitched a ride and I haven’t been able to shake them no matter what. My job now is to learn to accept and (gasp) love this reality.

Weight lost on Whole 30 = 0 pounds

5. I don’t need sugar

There is no doubt that sugar is inflammatory. All the experts tell us so. The proof is in the pudding as they say and this experiment confirmed that fact. I feel inflamed, I even look inflamed when I’m eating too much sugar. I don’t need it to feel well. It is Y-U-M-M-Y and a fantastic way to celebrate birthdays and vacations. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a birthday everyday, nor do I go on vacation every day (wouldn’t that be nice), which means I don’t need dessert every day. I can live with that.

The tiger blood never materialized for me, but I am ending this experience with fewer sugar cravings. That was one of my goals. If you had asked me mid-way through if I thought I was going to kick these craving, I would have said no way. I wanted something sweet every day through this whole process. Now that it’s over…not so much. Which leads me to my final point.

 6. I want what I can’t have. Tell me I can have it and   it loses it appeal.

My Whole 30 is over and there is a box of chocolate truffles on my kitchen counter. I brought them out of hiding the day after I finished my Whole 30 and had one. Just one. I didn’t want any more. All week they have been on the counter and I haven’t wanted even one. Now that I can have as many as I want, I don’t want any. Maybe I can be a moderator after all.

Just like the Bible teaches regarding sin, bring it into the light and it suddenly loses it’s power over you. These foods are no longer off limits and so they have lost their power over me. Pretty impactful realization.

I would love to wrap this experience up in a neat, little package, but it’s pretty complex. The internet abounds with stories and pictures of lives changed by Whole 30. Many pounds were lost, much energy was gained, a new, sunny outlook on life was achieved. None of those experiences were mine. But this was not a waste of time. Remember that I was going into this already following a paleo diet 99.9% of the time. Most people who embark on a Whole 30 for the first time are coming from the standard American diet. I would expect that person to have more noticeable changes than me.

The fact that I reduced my sugar cravings, realized I really don’t need dairy, became an even better planner and figured out which foods best fuel my body, I’d call that a success!

One comment I have read over and over when reviewing others’ Whole 30 experiences is that they didn’t realize how bad they felt until they dropped all the junk food and realized how good they could feel. Just like I mentioned in my health journey article, when you’re feeling less than great every day, that becomes your normal. But it shouldn’t be. We should not be walking around with bloat and constipation and heartburn and headaches and sinus infections. That is not  normal.

I hope you give the Whole 30 or 21 Day Sugar Detox a try sometime. It is most definitely a worthwhile experience. Everyone should do it at least once. You will learn something! 

This Week with Our Paleo Family – 5/10/16

This week started off with a bang. I was a little bummed about our short school week last week and was determined to get a lot done during these five days. And did we ever. The kids seem to have found a new motivation to finish as well. Seeing the finish line in sight is a great motivator.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I hope that you enjoyed your day. Whether you are a mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, mother-in-law, teacher or friend, I’m sure there are little ones who look up to you for love and guidance. Thank you for all that you do. This mothering gig is the hardest job on the planet.

I have one new recipe for you this week, although I feel a little guilty even calling it a recipe. This is something I usually cook when we’re camping. If we have this at home, the family knows I’m desperate. It’s not that it isn’t good, because it is tasty, it’s just not very fancy or creative.

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Hamburger Hash

Cheeseburger (or just plain burger) hash is very adaptable. Add in whatever vegetables you have lying around, use whatever ground meat your prefer (beef, sausage, pork, turkey, chicken), add in your favorite condiments and toppings and voila! A quick, easy, one pan dinner.

The recipe as I’ve written it is what we usually eat, though the vegetables do vary depending on what I have on hand. It just so happens that I usually have onion, mushrooms and squash so they are pretty much a given. Sometimes we add peppers, asparagus, cabbage, carrots, even sweet potatoes if I have some leftover.

If you want, you can leave the condiments out of the mix and allow everyone to top their own “burger” with what they like best. I just mix it all in so I can control what they eat or else I have one that would eat a bottle of mustard and another that would consume a half a bottle of ketchup.

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If you’ve been following my Whole 30 Journey, the final week just wrapped up. And if you’re counting, yes it’s a few days early. I gave up on Mother’s Day. What’s Mother’s Day without some chocolate or ice cream or cake or all three? Keep in mind, I have been doing this pretty well since January, so I should say my Whole 125 is finally over. For any of you who are stronger than me and have actually completed one or more Whole 30s by the book, then you know I technically didn’t do it right. I’ll get more into that in my Whole 30 wrap up coming later this week.

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I’m working hard on my ebook of holiday recipes. It’s funny to be putting out Christmas decorations in May for photographing recipes, but those are the lengths I will go to for you, dear reader. There won’t be quite as many new recipes on the blog as I work steadily on the book, but I will still be getting new recipes out for you here and there. A few goodies coming in the book:

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Fall off the bone ribs – notice the plate is half empty – I was fighting off two hungry boys!
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Totally Paleo Overnight Breakfast Casserole – Perfect for Christmas morning
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You can’t have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie!

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You people must really love enchiladas because that post if by far my most visited page. It’s one of the first recipes I posted and the photography is really awful. I’ll be remaking that one soon so check back as it may have some updates. There will definitely be new photos! I cringe every time I see how many hits that page is receiving!

Those are all the goings on around here this week. We’ve been under a torrent of rain the past couple weeks. If you have too, I hope you’re enjoying sunshine now. Get out and enjoy it!

“Examine me, God, from head to foot, order your battery of tests. Make sure I’m fit inside and out so I never lose sight of your love, but keep in step with you, never missing a beat.” Psalm 26:2-3 (MSG)

 

Whole 30 FINAL WEEK Journal!!!

Monday, Day 22 Breakfast: I was sick again last night. It was clearly my dinner of carnitas, fried plantains, cole slaw and guacamole. I think it was just too fatty for my gall bladder-less body. Ultimately, I don’t know what caused the nausea, but it was miserable and thankfully, short-lived. Felt ok upon waking this morning, but decided an easy-on-the-stomach breakfast was in order. Two eggs, two pieces of gluten free toast with ghee.

Noon workout

Lunch: turkey waldorf salad over salad greens

Dinner: spanakopita stuffed chicken thighs, sweet potato hash browns

Felt ok all day, but didn’t want to eat anything too extreme lest the stomach pains come back. Still not feeling super energetic as the Whole 30 people said I should, but perhaps it’s because I’ve had too much off plan food: all the gluten free bread when I was sick, and then some after I was better, tastes of baked goods….I’m sure there was more here and there, but I can’t remember.

Tuesday, Day 23 workout before breakfast

Breakfast: two eggs, chicken sausage, spinach and tomato frittata

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Lunch: leftover spanakopita filling (basically spinach, onions, garlic, seasonings and egg) with ground pork and leftover sweet potatoes

afternoon pick-me-up: coffee with coconut milk. I have been falling asleep as soon as my kids are in bed, which I do not like. I’d prefer to get some work done in the evenings and if I need a little jolt of caffeine to make that happen, then so be it. All the paleo and Whole 30 experts say that eating this way gives you so much energy that you won’t need caffeine at all. Well, I don’t know what world they’re living in, but in this homeschooling house of two pre-adolescent bickering kids, I need some caffeine.

Dinner: beef stroganoff with sautéed squash and broccoli, rice for the family

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late night snack: Green apple fried in a little ghee, sprinkled with cinnamon and a good helping of almond butter. I’m having fasting blood work done in the late morning and I know I have to eat something right before bed or I will wither by 10:30 AM.

What I learned today: I like to have something to look forward to in the food department. For example, instead of telling myself, “Ok Elizabeth, dinner is over and now you cannot eat anything until breakfast tomorrow,” I tell myself a different story. Negative comments can leave me feeling deprived. I can feel hungry after such a mental conversation even if I’m not really hungry. I just might want something and yet I’ve been told I can’t have it. Instead I say, “Elizabeth, you might be hungry later and if you are, you can have some apples sautéed in ghee, sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with almond butter.” Yum. Does this make me crazy?

Wednesday, Day 24: Had to fast this morning for that blood work. Very, very hungry.

Breakfast around 10:15: two eggs, one chicken apple sausage, carrots

mid-day workout

Lunch: salad greens with turkey waldorf salad

Dinner: out at the all gluten free restaurant….so I ate here a few weeks ago and was able to eat entirely Whole 30. On this occasion, I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to try some of their gluten free “breads” and…hold on to your hats….I had cheese. I know, I know, I am just terrible at following these rules to the letter. Or maybe I’m just terrible at following rules for such a verrrrrrrrrry loooooooong timmmmmmmme.

Anyhoo, I had beef kibbeh (I think that’s what it was called). Grass-fed beef and pine nut meatballs with salad and yogurt sauce plus one of their flat breads made on gluten free pita with portabellas and caramelized onions and some sort of sheeps milk cheese.

Honestly, I did not feel great after this meal. Gluten free products typically do this to me. There are just too many additives and funky flours involved. And then there was the dairy. That combo was a little upsetting to the tummy, but as of Thursday morning (as I write this) I am feeling fine. Thankfully, dairy makes its way through your system in just a day or two. Gluten can wreak havoc for 6 weeks or longer!

Thursday, Day 25 Breakfast: had an early morning workout so just black coffee before, then two eggs, chicken sausage and spinach after. Plus banana with almond butter.

Lunch: I actually didn’t have lunch today. This is rare for me, but just too much going on.

Snack: almonds, green apple

Dinner: eggs, bacon, fruit, homemade gluten free pancakes with some strawberry jam. The strawberry crop in NC is not great this year due to all the rain and storms so we are savoring last year’s jam supply. If you’ve never tried jam on waffles or pancakes, try it, it’s delicious! (this is an old picture with actual, real maple syrup)

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Pancakes made with my gluten free flour recipe. So, so good!

Day end review: I know I should not have had the pancakes. I feel myself slacking off on the rules a bit. Or a lot, I guess. Whole 30 offers no grace. Either you do it 100% or you fail 100%. One little bite of an unapproved food and you are kicked off the island. I just can’t live my life that way. Thirty days is a long time to live in this Whole 30 bubble. Mentally, I’m feeling done.

Friday, Day 26 Breakfast: another relatively early morning workout, but I was up early enough to eat prior to the workout: coffee, one leftover pancake, ground pork patty (like sausage but without the spice), one fried egg.

Lunch: waldorf salad over greens – one good thing about all this rain is that my lettuce crop is thriving. Lots of yummy green leaves from the garden today.

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Dinner: I’m going to post this “recipe” for you, but I should warn you, it’s not one of my most appetizing in appearance. This is cheese burger (or just burger if you can’t eat cheese) hash. We eat this mostly when we camp. It’s easy, takes one pan, gets in lots of good nutrition and tastes yummy. This is my desperation meal. There is always grass fed ground beef in the freezer, there are always some sort of vegetables in the crisper and we always have miscellaneous condiments in the fridge. That’s all it takes.

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At the end of a busy week, with field trips and other extra activities, I’m through. Cooking dinner is not something I’m interested in taking on. BUT, it’s just so hard to eat out sometimes. Besides the diet, we’re really trying hard to stick to our budget, save more and only eat out for Sundays and special occasions.

Which is why we had this camping dinner tonight. I can make it without any thought and everybody will eat it. They may pick out the onions, as they always do, but they’ll eat it.

Day 26 thoughts: If there were a bowl of M&Ms on the kitchen counter or at my desk, I would surely eat them non-stop. But there is not a bowl of M&Ms on my counter or on my desk and I’m not running out to the store to get them. Do I still love dessert? Yes. Would I still really enjoy a nice flourless chocolate torte at a restaurant? Most definitely. Do I feel the need to go whip one up right now? No.

The fact is, I feel so much better when I do not eat sugar. A little bit of honey or maple syrup in a paleo recipe is really fine for me. But even paleo desserts are a little too much of a sugar load on a regular basis.

Saturday, Day 27 Breakfast: I am a breakfast eater, but in a perfect world, I want to enjoy my coffee, do my Bible study, read my favorite blogs, and check my email for a good hour before I eat anything. Something that always happens when I do these detox or elimination type diets, is that I lose my appetite to a certain extent. Whether it’s that I’ve actually lost my appetite or that I am just paralyzed by indecisiveness, I’m not really sure. The fact is, it’s hard to decide what to eat a lot of times. Which is why I end up eating the same meals over and over and over. I know what will taste good to me, I know what will not make me feel ill. It doesn’t require thought to eat the same things time and time again.

This is why I usually include breakfasts and lunches for me in my weekly meal plan. If I can’t decide what to eat, I’ll check the plan and usually go with what is written down. Because of course, I don’t plan to eat donuts and potato chips, right?! Having a healthy choice written down helps ensure I make that healthy choice.

So breakfast….not sure yet. Will take a shower first. 🙂

I ended up with a turkey burger and some carrots.

Lunch: turkey lettuce wraps and fried plantains

Dinner: We met our family for dinner out at a restaurant tonight. They are always so kind and allow me to pick a place that will work for us, but I also have to keep in mind that there are 10 people involved and I want everyone to be happy. On this occasion, we chose a local pizza place that had good reviews of their gluten free menu.

I had a small spinach salad with strawberries, avocado and goat cheese plus a “mini” thin crust, g-free pizza with sausage, tomatoes and cheese.

Remember above when I said I felt like I was starting to fade a bit, not following the rules to the letter? Well, this dinner is surely an example of that. But this is how I really live my life. Mostly paleo 100% with little off plan meals here and there. The cheese on the pizza might upset my stomach a bit, but more than likely I’ll be ok. The joy that comes from participating in a relaxing, family dinner is worth a little stomach upset. If you’re in the Raleigh/Durham/Cary North Carolina area, I highly recommend Patrick Jane’s Pizza in Cary. It was excellent!

Final Thoughts on Day 27: Nothing new today. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and I don’t know what my family has cooked up as far as meals go. Whatever it is, I’m sure will be fabulous!

Happy Mother’s Day (and day 28): Breakfast was delivered to me as I got ready for church this morning – an omelet with ham, spinach and cheese. I did not chastise the chef for adding cheese. I just enjoyed it.

Lunch: Five Guys burger with veggies (no bun) and fries. Our tradition ever since I was expecting our first child, is to go for a picnic and hike at a local state park. This year was the same. We grabbed our food to go and went for a nice, long hike. Afterward my husband surprised us by taking us for ice cream. What the heck, I made it this far and it’s Mother’s Day! I did have sugar free though. 🙂

Dinner: they made my marinated grilled shrimp, baked sweet potatoes, green beans and fresh strawberries with real whipped cream for dessert. A delicious and super special meal!

Thoughts on Day 28: I guess this is officially the end of my Whole 30 since in 24 hours I’ve had pizza, ice cream and french fries. I made it 27 full days pretty much to the letter and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

This coming week, I will wrap up this whole experience in a tidy, little package and compile a list of my favorite meals, recipes and tips for surviving the Whole 30.

This Week with Our Paleo Family: May 1st

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:

Cole Slaw

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Spinach salad with hot bacon dressing

Guacamole

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Hawaiian Burgers

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Simple Grilled Fish

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Marinated Grilled Shrimp

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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.

  1. Plan, plan and plan some more
  2. Buy a variety of fruits and vegetables
  3. Keep healthy protein stocked in your freezer
  4. 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!

Whole 30 Journal Week 3

Monday, Day 15 Breakfast: no breakfast before workout, which was not my plan, but sometimes life gets in the way. Just coffee. Very hungry!

After workout had two eggs, one chicken apple sausage and kale

Lunch: some turkey kielbasa and ground pork, salad

snack: tea, almonds

Dinner: burger (I love grilling season!), sweet potato fries, salad

Final thoughts on the halfway mark: Still not really feeling any different, good or bad. I have wanted to eat sweets every day through this thing, but today it was easier to resist. Maybe it’s just that I’ve made it this far and I’m sick of it so don’t want to mess it up. I’m committed to two more good weeks.

Tuesday, Day 16- Wednesday Day 17: The week has gotten away from me and I forgot to write up my meals as I went and as a result, I remember zilch about breakfasts and lunches. You can look back over my other meals and probably figure out what I ate. I don’t stray too much from my regulars for those two meals.

Dinner Tuesday: Tried out a new fried chicken tender recipe. Flavor was good, but frying is such a huge pain, I doubt I’ll ever make them again, so won’t bother to post the recipe here. We had the chicken with some sautéed mixed vegetables.

Dinner Wednesday: Grilled salmon, rice for the family and spinach salad with hot bacon dressing. I ate lots of salad.

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Thoughts on Days 16 and 17: I’ve been waking up very hungry so I’m trying to eat enough at dinner and sometimes have a snack of a green apple with almond butter around 8:00. That seems to be helping. Otherwise, still feeling the same, ie. nothing fascinating or earth-shattering to report.

Thursday, Day 18 Breakfast: I made a spaghetti squash and sausage quiche recipe I found on Primal Palate’s website and it is soooo yummy! I have a breakfast casserole recipe I’ve been working on for the ebook because that’s what we have for Christmas breakfast every year and I think I will use spaghetti squash instead of gluten free bread. It worked so well and also turns that recipe into paleo or even autoimmune paleo instead of just gluten free.

mid-morning snack: “not granola:” green apple, one date, walnuts, coconut, cinnamon, drizzled with almond butter. And sprinkled with a little sea salt.

Dinner: Out for quick dinner before small group: we chose the Peruvian Chicken place for rotisserie chicken, salad and plantains. I brought my own salad dressing. They have this delicious yellow sauce that tastes like honey mustard. I’m sure there is some sort of sweetener in it. To avoid temptation, I just brought my own.

Day 19 Breakfast: more spaghetti squash/sausage quiche and black coffee

Lunch: “not granola” again. Will need something else, but there is A LOT going on in my house at the moment and this is all I can manage right now.

Dinner: This is a special date night with my son so we’re having one of his favorites: ribs! Also, some oven baked fries with white potatoes (a big deal since we eat almost exclusively sweet potatoes) and salad. Chocolate valentine’s cake from the freezer for my little love.

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Saturday, Day 20 Breakfast (pre-workout): bacon, banana, coffee

Post-workout Snack between errands: piece of sausage

Lunch: finished up the spaghetti squash/sausage quiche, carrots

Dinner: Dinner is hotdogs with chips and fruit. Can you tell I am serving two pre-adolescent boys this weekend? I made myself a bunch of sautéed vegetables and skipped the chips and fruit. Surprisingly, the boys wanted some of the veggies too! I tried out a new cookie recipe and they enjoyed those for dessert. Do you remember oatmeal scotches? The oatmeal cookies with those yummy Nestle butterscotch chips? That’s what I tried to re-create, paleo style. They are not exactly right (yes, I tasted), but the boys liked them.

Day 20 Thoughts: I was a little hungry at bedtime, and thought about having an apple and some almond butter, but opted to go to bed instead. I was hoping I’d sleep hard enough to not be bothered by the slight hunger. We had a really busy day!

Sunday, Day 21: Lo and behold, I did wake up pretty hungry. Usually, I run out of time for much breakfast on Sundays, but I made sure to eat some good protein today: two eggs and a chicken apple sausage. And of course, black coffee.

Lunch: at a middle eastern restaurant: ground beef stuffed eggplant with tomato sauce, a dish that was mostly rice and roasted chicken, a little bit of chicken salad, a piece of gluten free pita.

Dinner: Carnitas, cole slaw, guacamole, plantain chips, salad (the lettuce in my garden is finally thriving!)

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Three weeks over: I still haven’t done this thing perfectly, but I’m feeling pretty good. Honestly, I don’t feel all that different than before. Endless energy has not found me, I still want a cup of tea in the afternoon for a jolt of energy (most days) and I still have sugar cravings, but the cravings are not overwhelming. As I think about it, I guess what I’m wanting to get out of this whole 30 thing, other than less inflammation, is to forget about sweets. There is nothing wrong with a treat now and then, but in reality, I think most of us have “treats” on a regular basis. I wanted to break that habit.

Going into week four with a lot of hope for success and a desire for this thing to be over!