Month: April 2018

What We Ate Wednesday 4/18/18

Another week, another list of meal ideas. Please let me know if this is helpful to you. My goal is to help you put nutritious meals on your table 7 nights a week, but we all suffer from brain block when it comes to meal planning from time to time. Even me! Here are this week’s ideas:

Meal #1: Turkey Stroganoff Meatballs, Cauliflower Grits, Broccoli

Turkey Stroganoff Meatballs

Meal #2: Spaghetti sauce over sauteed squash, salad and garlic bread

I may or may not have eaten that large pile of garlic rolls! Honestly, I only ate three of them. But I could have eaten them all. Just look how yummy….Let’s just say I got lots of hugs from the kids after this meal!

Meal #3: Taco night! With guacamole, raw veggies and plantain chips

Meal #4: Chicken Cordon Bleu, Okra, Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Cornbread

This chicken cordon bleu is a new experiment and is still in progress. It tasted great, but needs a few tweaks.

Meal #5: Pizza Popover and Salad

When I’m craving pizza, I head straight for the Pizza Popover. It has all the flavors of pizza, includes lots of veggies and makes enough to feed a big family. All without the trouble or expense of restaurant gluten free pizza! Bonus: make this without cheese and it’s even Whole30 approved! Tip: I add whatever veggies I have in the crisper drawer when I’m making the sauce. It’s so flavorful, your picky eaters won’t even notice.

Meal #6: Quick Asian Stir-Fry with Salmon

My family was eating leftovers that I could not eat due to the histamine, and I was shockingly short on my veggie consumption for the day, so I decided to get as many colors in my dinner as possible. I chopped and quickly sautéed lots of veggies, added a frozen salmon fillet at the very end, then poured on some coconut aminos and sprinkled in a little garlic powder and ginger powder. Voila! A stir-fry that was super quick, flavorful and packed full of phytonutrients. I will be making this stream-lined version fo stir-fry a lot more in the future.

Meal #7: Grandma’s Beef Tips, Mashed Cauliflower, Green Beans

And I threw in a clementine at the end because I’m trying to “eat the rainbow” everyday and hadn’t had any orange yet. It made the perfect dessert. 

That’s it for this week! I hope you’re getting to enjoy spring weather where you are! It has finally spring here and we are out enjoying it as much as we can!

Friday Favorites

I have a few random things that I’m loving right now – things that make me happy or bring a little comfort on hectic days and I want to share them with you in hopes they might brighten your day a bit too. Here’s to a weekend full of favorites, whatever that might look like for you!

My current favorites, in no particular order….

  1. Oldies Country Music on Saturday mornings

This is what prompted my desire for a favorite’s post in the first place. I usually listen to KLOVE, which is the contemporary Christian station, but one Saturday many weeks ago, they were playing a song I really didn’t like, so I started flipping through the other channels on my pre-sets. When I landed on the country station (if you’re in the Raleigh, NC area, this is 102.3 on your FM dial), I could not contain my grin! They were playing the theme song to the Dukes of Hazard!

And when that song ended, they played The Statler Brothers and then one of my favorites by Johnny Cash and on and on. This type of country music takes me back to sitting in the back seat of my grandparents’ big Buick listening to their country tapes. Yes, cassette tapes! These songs (generally) have such upbeat music that you can’t help but smile every second. This oldies music is only played for a short time on Saturday mornings, but this just happens to be when I’m out and about doing my grocery shopping for the week and I enjoy every second of it. I know there are these new-fangled streaming devices that will allow me to listen to this type of music whenever I want, but there’s something special about listening on the radio with the windows down. It brightens my day right from the start.

  2. This one’s a little more serious, but still a favorite! EWG’s Dirty Dozen and Clean    Fifteen Lists

Just because you read the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” list four years ago, don’t assume they’re still the same. In fact, the lists do change somewhat from year to year. Be sure to check this out each spring to find out where you need to spend your grocery dollars on organic produce and where you can save a little with conventionally raised items. Please read the article linked above, but I will go ahead and tell you that Strawberries top the Dirty Dozen list again this year. I know that picking strawberries is a really fun activity for lots of little ones (my family loves it too), but please try hard to find an organic farm. Or at the very least, discourage your kids from eating too many berries while they pick. That’s really the reason this is so important. Those bright, red, juicy berries are so tempting, you know they’re going to stuff their little mouths full while picking, and conventionally raised berries are drenched in pesticides. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, just wanting you to be aware. I’m thankful for EWG putting out this list each year!

  3. Soup – in no other way can we pack in so many nutrients and keep everyone happy.  Soups freeze beautifully making them perfect for batch cooking, which means quick dinners down the road! They’re full of gut-healthy bone broth. You can use up veggies that may be slightly past their prime. So many reasons to make a big pot of soup. Here are a few of our favorites:

Cauliflower Soup (Paleo, Whole30, AIP option)

Butternut Squash Soup with Sausage

Primal Cheeseburger Soup (Paleo and AIP options)

Sweet Potato, Sausage and Kale Soup (Paleo and AIP)

The one we probably eat the most is my Beef and Vegetable Soup. That recipe can be found in the New Year’s chapter of my book, Your Paleo Holiday. 

 4. Beautycounter Color Intense Lipstick in Backstage

I’ve mentioned these new lipsticks before in my What We Ate Wednesday post this week and also on Facebook, but they really are good enough to bear repeating. I’ve worn this lipstick all week and have settled on my favorite shade: Backstage. It’s a neutral taupe/slight pink shade.

Unlike any other long-wearing lipstick I’ve ever tried, this one does not dry out my lips. It does stain the lips a bit because I still have color at the very end of the day – but this is the whole idea! I even find that I’m applying lip balm less often than normal. The moisturizing comes from jojoba extracts and it really works! I highly recommend these lipsticks. I do love Beautycounter’s Lip Sheers, but definitely need to reapply regularly to keep the color. The color intense line is a one swipe and done for the whole day. Seriously!

This shot was taken right after applying the lipstick.

Then I showered, ate breakfast and brushed my teeth and still had this much color! In fact, my lips looked like this the rest of the day.

I have all eight shades from this new line and would be happy to send you a sample! Just check out the link above to pick your shade (or shades) and drop me a line at elizabeth@ourpaleofamily.com

  5. “Fashion” sneakers, specifically these: New Balance 574 in Classic White 

To whomever it was in the fashion world that decided “fashion sneakers” would be a thing – I love you! As someone who suffers from pretty severe arthritis in my feet from a structural problem (read: it can’t be fixed), I need to/should wear sneakers ALL OF THE TIME. But really, sometimes fashion prevails. I will not be wearing sneakers to church on Sunday morning. Or out on a date. Well, actually, I do usually wear sneakers on dates because we do fancy things like hike and ride bikes on our dates. So aside from church, I wear comfy shoes almost all the time. And when fashion bloggers tell me that this pair of sandals or that pair of heels is SOOOOO comfortable they could walk all day in them, I just roll my eyes. There’s no comparing the comfort of a good pair of sneaks. I am particularly loving this pair right now, but there are tons and tons of great options that are comfy and cute.

That’s it, friends! Just a few things I’m loving these days. If you have something that makes your day brighter or easier or makes it always sunny where you live, please share in the comments!

One parting funny for you today that may ring true if you’re knee deep in spring cleaning:

What We Ate Wednesday 4/11/18

Before we get to this week’s meals, a couple of announcements:

  1. If you don’t follow me on Facebook already, I’d love it if you would. It’s the social media channel on which I’m the most active. But don’t worry, I still only post once a week at the most, so hopefully, you won’t get sick of me. 😊
  2. Check back on Friday for a Favorites post. I haven’t done one of these in a while and I have a few things I want to share with you!
  3. Here’s a quick Beautycounter update: If you haven’t checked out their website lately, there are several new products that I’m really excited about! The makeup remover wipes work really, really well to get your face clean and don’t leave you feeling like there’s a film on it like so many others do. And the new Color Intense Lip Stick is amazing! It actually leaves lasting color without making your lips dry and cakey. I have all the shades so let me know if you want a sample!
    Here I am with a fresh application of “9 to 5”

    This is after a shower, eating and brushing my teeth. There’s still a lot of color there!

Now to the meals…

I have a confession: I’m in a cooking rut, which I realize is ironic for a food blogger, especially one who is posting weekly menus that are meant to help you avoid food ruts! As I type this on Monday, in preparation for posting on Wednesday, I can honestly say that I do have a couple new recipes planned for this week and I’m really excited about that! This means next week’s WWAW will be a little more exciting. I hope!

Meal 1: Carnitas, Cole Slaw and Fried Plantain Chips

Meal 2: Ham Soup with Rice (prepared just like Beef and Vegetable Soup found in my book)

Meal 3: Chicken Stir Fry Mash-up served over white rice – I used my Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry method, but used chicken breasts instead of ground beef and I made the sauce from my Mongolian Beef.

Meal 4: Beef and Vegetable Soup – our spring weather turned back into winter weather and so I’ve been craving soup. Can you tell? My kids will eat soup happily and it contains lots and lots of vegetables, plus it’s a one pot meal that can be made early in the day and then just simmered on the back burner. No wonder I make this a lot!

Meal 5: Chicken Sandwiches! Yes, Chicken Sandwiches!!! With broccoli on the side. But who cares about the broccoli. Let’s talk chicken sandwiches. I made my Shake and Bake Chicken Nuggets in strips instead of nuggets. For the buns, I made my Resurrection Biscuit recipe modified to leave out the sweet parts – and the marshmallow, of course. These rolls require a little more tweaking before I post the recipe.

Meal 6: Spaghetti Sauce over sautéed squash with salad and garlic bread. The garlic bread is another practice of the Resurrection roll dough in savory form. Can you tell we are loving the tapioca rolls? They’re so easy and fast to make and it’s super satisfying to feel like you’re eating bread! My kids are in heaven! And thank goodness for Thrive Market who sends me all the ingredients at a reasonable price!

That’s it for this week! Don’t forget to hop over to Facebook and click that little follow button. And if you’re ready to clean out your makeup drawer or skincare routine, head over to Beautycounter and see all they have to offer. And as always, you can email me with any questions, comments or requests! elizabeth@ourpaleofamily.com

What We Ate Wednesday 4/4/18

If you’re counting, there will be a few more meals to show you this week since I completely forgot to do this post last week. In my defense, I did publish three new recipes and actually made some mention of those over on my social media channels, so I was a busy beaver.

If you didn’t catch those new recipes, check them out now because they’re good ones!

Resurrection Biscuits (you can make these anytime of year, not just Easter!)

Scalloped Potatoes made Whole30 compliant with options for the Instant Pot or oven

Orange Pineapple Glazed Ham with Instant Pot instructions

Now for this past week’s meals:

Ham Soup – this is just like my Beef and Vegetable Soup (recipe in my book) but I use ham broth (made from the ham bone) and I add rice. On this particular day, my Whole30 was complete and I was adding back in gluten free grains. I loved this with rice! So hearty and delicious!

Pumpkin Pancakes, Bacon, Oranges and Grapefruit – So we haven’t had pancakes in a very long time because you can’t have them on Whole30, even if they’re made with approved ingredients. I think my kids each ate a dozen pancakes. I doubled this recipe and had only two leftover! (This is an old picture.)

Grilled Steak, asparagus, and Scalloped Potatoes

Burgers smothered with onions and mushrooms, Okra, Salad and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Jambalaya with Rice

Paleo Pizza crust with Roasted Veggies for the topping – On this night, I decided to try reintroducing cheese. It seems that I can handle good quality grass fed butter and cream, but cheese is very hit or miss for me. It was a miss this night. The paleo pizza crust is pretty flavorful, the sauce is full of garlic and basil and of course, the roasted vegetables were full of flavor so I could have totally enjoyed this meal without the cheese. But I tried it and now I know.

Paleo Spaghetti Sauce over Sautéed Squash with side salad. Nothing fancy, but good. The sauce was even in the freezer from a previous big batch cooking day so this was super fast to put together.

Hot dogs – our inaugural grilling for the season – plus green beans, roasted sweet potatoes and No Frills Cole Slaw

Babyback Ribs in the Instant Pot, more roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli with cheese – I tried the cheese again with similar results as with the pizza. Boo hoo.

A little piece of cod, a piece of salmon with Asian marinade (orange juice, ginger, garlic, mustard and a touch of maple syrup), leftover green beans and miscellaneous roasted veggies – clearly this was a clean out the fridge and freezer night!

Please indulge me as I put in another plug for my book, which is now old even though it says “Brand New” on the website, these “bo-berry biscuits” were on our Easter breakfast table and to quote my son, “I want to eat these and only these for the rest of my life.” Yeah, they were good. You can find the recipe in the book in the New Year’s Chapter.

We ate out on a rare Thursday night because we had a church service that made cooking dinner challenging. Since I’ve been doing Whole30 for such a very long time, my kids have been acting deprived of all their favorites, so we headed to Smash Burger for gluten free burgers and fries. First of all, we were very hungry, second of all, we were eating fast food and it tasted awesome. I think we were all done eating in about 10 minutes. Not healthy I know, but we were very happy. I ate it too fast for a picture. 😃

We also enjoyed a date night at City Barbecue, which consisted of lots of barbecued turkey and brisket, vinegary cole slaw and the saltiest green beans on the planet. I love this restaurant most of the time because it doesn’t make me sick, but I hate the inconsistency in some of the dishes.

So there you have it – two weeks worth of meals. As I look back over these, I’m impressed with the amount of vegetables we eat each day. Even on nights when we just had soup or jambalaya, those recipes are chock full of veggies. We’re all used to eating this way now so it’s not a big deal. I feel good about feeding my family this way and overall, the effort is minimal and the food tastes great. What more could we ask for? I’m so thankful for the the Paleo experts I learned from. This diet has made such a difference for me and my family. I hope you find good health with it as well.

Happy eating this week!