Month: June 2018

What We Ate Wednesday 6/27/18

Hi friends! I’m back with two weeks worth of What We Ate. My excuse for skipping last week is that my kids were at camp all week – even nights – and I hardly cooked. I missed them like crazy, but it was nice to not have to prepare so much food. It was a glimpse into the future when they’re grown and gone and I will be cooking for two most of the time. It seems like a lot of work to make a full meal just for two of us. Thankfully, I have a few years to adjust to this. Actually, I better not think about this anymore or I’ll cry all over my keyboard!

Fair warning: some of these meals are pretty random. I’m making a concerted effort to clean out the freezer, so that coupled with the kids being gone made for some unusual meals. But in reality, as I think more about it, we do eat like this pretty regularly. I pick the meat or main entree and fill in with whatever vegetables I have on hand, or as is the case right now, what is coming out of the garden. You will see A LOT of squash and zucchini in these meals. And if I showed you lunches as well, you’d see a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers. But NO fresh okra. Because of deer. I am not happy with them, no matter how cute they are.

Let’s get started:

Meal #1: This is my son’s special request: Nut-Crusted Fish – in this case, cod – cauliflower rice (real rice for them), cole slaw and broccoli Meal #2: I’m not sure why, but I was just cooking for my daughter and myself this particular night so I sautéed up a bunch of vegetables and added a piece of kielbasa. Throw some leftover cole slaw on the side and you have a complete meal with a lot of vegetables! Bonus meal – Breakfast! People seem shocked and somewhat dismayed when I tell them that I try to always eat vegetables at breakfast. I find that if I start my day with a really hearty and balanced meal, the rest of the day falls into place in the food department. When I do eat veggies for breakfast, they are almost always leftover. In this case, I had some roasted sweet potatoes with onion, cole slaw and some eggs. I love the contrast of flavor and texture that vegetables bring to my eggs. I eat eggs almost every day and it gets pretty boring so adding in the various vegetables really makes that boring breakfast staple more enjoyable.  Meal #3: Beef stroganoff, mashed cauliflower, “fried” squash, and side salad (not pictured) Meal #4: This was our Father’s Day menu. My husband is very easy to cook for. Sure, he has his favorites, but he happily eats (and usually enjoys!) everything I prepare. So for Father’s Day, I tend to fix something that I think my dad will really enjoy. In this case, a local magazine had just published the recipe to Seafood and Grits, dad’s favorite dish from a local restaurant. I will say that the recipe was pretty scant. If you had no idea how to make something like shrimp and grits, you could not have followed that recipe very easily. All that to say, there was a lot of improvising here. I was mid-Whole30 on this day, so I made my own serving with cauliflower instead of corn grits and did not include all the diary in my portion. They all said it was delicious.  Here’s my gang on Father’s Day. The kids left for camp that afternoon. Aren’t they precious? And so big! I don’t know where the babies went. I love them all so much! Meal #5: Grilled Cod (we have a grill basked specifically for fish and it works really well.) If this is something you think you’d enjoy, I highly recommend a grill basket. Mine is similar to this one. On the side, we had grilled squash, salad and fried plantains. The plantain was pretty random, but it was at the perfect ripeness so I went ahead and cooked it. I love these when the plantain is still pretty green, but once it gets totally ripe, the resulting chip is not very crisp and way too sweet.  Meal #6: Squash two ways! Grilled squash and a zucchini fritter. I’m still working on perfecting that recipe. We also had chicken fingers and roasted sweet potatoes Treat #1: zucchini bread/muffins – look for this recipe to come in the next couple of weeks. I apparently only know how to grow giant zucchini! Unlike yellow squash, when zucchini get overgrown, they’re still good all the way through, not too seedy. So I take advantage of it and make zucchini bread! LOTS of zucchini bread.
Meal #7: Hotdogs (grass-fed, but still not the most ideal choice), salad and cauliflower rice that I made like fried rice.  Treat #2: Chocolate Chip Cookies – while the kids were gone, I started baking for an upcoming camping trip later this summer. Be sure to check out this recipe. I even did a video tutorial which my editor will have up for you in a couple weeks. If you’re missing an honest to goodness cookie on your paleo diet, you have to try these. They really are way better than those Tollhouse classics.  Treat #3: N’oatmeal Cookies – just like the oatmeal raisin cookies you remember, but without the grains! I created this recipe because my husband was going on and on about those Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies. I haven’t perfected the dairy free cream filling, so for now, you’ll just get the cookie recipe. Don’t despair though because they are great on their own. For us, these serve as portable energy for long hikes.  Meal #8: I actually went to the effort to cook a real meal this night! We had steak tacos, AIP tortillas, grilled squash (of course) and the first tomato of the season! If you’ve never tried yellow tomatoes, they’re amazing! So sweet and less acidic than red ones.  Meal #9: The kids and husband had gone to a VBS kickoff dinner at church and because I get sick every single time I eat at a potluck, I opted to just stay home. I was in the mood for fried okra (even though the evil deer are eating ALL of my garden okra – I just used frozen). So I cooked up some okra and then a pice of salmon and had that with a little buffalo dipping sauce (just mayo + Frank’s Red Hot Sauce).

** Public Service Announcement – unhealthy oils are a real, sneaky killer to other-wise healthy diets. That’s why using the right oils is a key part of the Paleo diet. See my “what is paleo” article for more details. If you use bottled salad dressing, mayonnaise or sauces, you are likely eating lots of very inflammatory oils. Trust me, it is super simple to make your own mayonnaise out of a healthy oil (avocado or extra light olive are my favorites). Then once you have your mayonnaise, you have a good base to endless sauces and dressings. Please try it if you haven’t already. Here’s a video tutorial to help. And here’s the recipe Meal #10: Beef stroganoff, mashed cauliflower and green beans and okra

As I write this post, I realize we’ve been eating the Ground Beef Stroganoff a lot lately. My meals are pretty well dictated by what I receive in my Butcher Box these days. We love burgers, but I try to mix it up. The Stroganoff is just so easy, fast and delicious and something a little special to do with all that ground beef. It’s definitely one of our go-tos.  Meal #11: A new Instant Pot experiment: Swiss Steak and more mashed cauliflower. And a side of zucchini. What else?

That’s it for this week. As always, I hope these posts provide you with lots of meal ideas for your own family.

Happy Wednesday!

 

What We Ate Wednesday 6/5/18

I feel like such a tease this week because most of these recipes are not published yet, but they’re all in the queue. I’ll release one a week over the next few weeks so stay tuned.

Two public service announcements:

  1. I have updated my Privacy Policy in accordance with the GDPR. If you don’t know what that is, be thankful and move on. But if you really enjoy reading legalese, then hop on over and read that document start to finish. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
  2. My sign-up form has been broken for a couple months, unbeknownst to me, so if you have not yet signed up for my monthly email newsletter and would like to, please do so. I promise I won’t bombard you with useless information or sell your information to anyone else (see PSA #1). But I will occasionally talk about Beautycounter in addition to Paleo food, because what we put on our bodies is just as important as what we put in them! I will also occasionally share Stitch Fix clothes because that’s just fun. Or at least I think so and it’s my blog so I get to decide.

Moving on to meals!

You will notice that this was clearly my last hoorah before starting a Whole 30 on June 3rd. I know that I simply cannot bake while doing a Whole30. I especially can’t create a new recipe because I have to taste what I am creating. So I got all my sweet creativity out in that last week of May. I can tell you that my family was very burdened by this. Wink wink.

Meal #1: Steak Tacos with salad with avocado dressing, AIP tortillas and grilled vegetables

Butcher Box sends me a lot of steaks. I’ve never eaten so much steak in my life. We are not complaining!

On a whim one night I turned our delicious steaks into steak tacos and we were all in love! Do not miss this recipe. The steak is flavored with a quick rub and topped with a salad tossed in an avocado dressing. 

Meal #2: My family ate Italian Pot Roastwhich I really don’t like (I don’t enjoy any pot roast really) and I had eaten a very late lunch, so I had a salad with avocado, balsamic and olive oil. 

Meal #3: Chicken stir fry with cauliflower rice. The one and only thing I am not happy about with Butcher Box is that they keep sending me chicken breasts. The only way I can assure I will receive dark meat chicken is to curate my own box and I’m not willing to pay extra for that. Yet. Maybe I will in the future. The chicken is good, but I just don’t like white meat.

Meals #4 and #5: My lovely husband allowed me to attend the NC Homeschool Conference last week, which meant two nights and three days all by my adult self getting encouraged and built up for another year of homeschooling. One bonus of this trip was that my Beautycounter mentor and super mentor (I don’t know all the proper names of my up-line team, so I’ll create my own titles)  both live in the same town as the conference so I was able to enjoy a dinner with them.

I ordered grilled flounder with cole slaw, sauteed veggies and potato hash. It was so tasty and still healthy that I actually ordered takeout of the same meal the next night! Of course, I forgot to take a picture the first night, but I did grab this one in the lovely takeout tin before I totally destroyed it!  Before I left town, I created this dessert for my family to enjoy while I was away. And so that I would not be tempted to eat it all! Growing up, this was called Chocolate Delight and had a shortbread crust. I recreated it to be Primal with my chocolate chip cookie recipe as the crust and topping, with creamy layers of Paleo Chocolate Pudding, cream cheese and whipped cream. It was amazing and I’m very glad I left town with this in the fridge! Recipe coming!! This is perfect for summer so don’t miss it. (I just realized I’ve never published my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I will do that soon!) Another dessert recipe that I’ll have out for you soon – before all the yummy strawberries go away for the season: Strawberry and Rhubarb Cobbler. Hint: You must subscribe to my newsletter to get this pie crust recipe. But believe me, it’s worth it. 🙂  Meal #6: Instant Pot Chicken and Cauliflower Rice Burrito Bowl. So no, I’ve not been quite this indulgent – that’s my husband’s bowl heaped high with sour cream and cheddar, but my own portion was so covered with greens that you couldn’t see the dish at all. Aren’t I virtuous? Under all that yumminess is a flavorful chicken and “rice” burrito bowl fixed in the Instant Pot in less than 30 minutes. It’s super filling and delicious and everyone can make their own bowl just the way they like it. 

Meal #7: Look at that delicious hunk of grass-fed cheddar! There are even little pieces of it in my salad. So indulgent!!!

This meal is a burger with bacon (and cheese!), roasted root vegetables and a big, yummy salad. My dressing is honey mustard made with homemade mayo, yellow mustard, a sprinkle of onion powder and drops of liquid stevia to taste. If you want it a little thinner, you can add some coconut aminos or a little balsamic vinegar. 

One more dessert! Is anyone upset about this? This is Grandmother’s Pound Cake. Chris’ grandmother was famous for this pound cake. I remember my first dinner with his family when this was offered and I initially said, “No thanks,” because I didn’t really like pound cake. They all convinced me it was not like any pound cake I’d ever had before so I reluctantly took a slice. And boy were they right! I immediately asked for the recipe – and knew I was accepted into the family because they actually gave it to me. This recipe became our go-to anytime we needed cake. I baked it into layers for birthday cakes and served it to everyone who ever came to my house. Then the paleo diet descended and this recipe got tucked away. Until one day when my son asked for it for his confirmation lunch. So I de-glutened it and low-and-behold it is still amazing!!!! The best part is that crunchy crust all around the outside. People fight over that crust. If you’re ever in the position to splurge on sugar and butter, please make this. You will not be sorry. It’s even better after the first day so make it ahead and make your life easier. You have to come back for the recipe. I’ll notify you on Facebook when it’s posted so if you don’t follow me over there, go ahead and do that now. 

I think we’ll end on dessert this week, because that’s just the way it should be, isn’t it?

Happy Wednesday everyone!