Paleo Chocolate Chip cookies

I did it. I actually followed through on a promise.  I made the Paleo chocolate chip cookies I talked about making like five days ago.  Peyton was my little helper and also a little bossy.  She told me exactly where to put each cookie on the cooling rack, and if I put it somewhere other than where she said to, I got yelled at.  Other than baking the cookies and going to hockey, our day was pretty low key.  We played Belle's birthday party for two hours, read books, and played a little TMNT Wii.  We ended the day by watching two episodes of Chip and Dale's Recue Rangers on the big screen while munching on candy and popcorn. Obviously,  I only had a handful of popcorn and truthfully did not even want the candy.  The kids are finally asleep and we have a ton to do to get ready for Sunday; so I apologize, but this post is going to be pretty short. 

Breakfast:  Coffee. 1 cup. We overslept this morning and had like 8 minutes to get Austin ready and out the door in time for school.  Then I had to shower and get Peyton, Brayden and I ready to go to gymnastics 40 minutes later. So, I had no time to eat, but I promise I fed all of my kids!

Lunch: Leftover pulled pork with pickles and a pear. I know the pulled pork is three days old, but my future sister in law, who just so happens to be a nurse, told me that as long as I heat stuff up enough there is nothing to worry about. The heat kills any lingering bacteria.  I'm not sure if this is true or not, but there was no way I was throwing away that delicious pork. 

Dinner: Paul had the last of the pulled pork on a Kaiser bun with Colby jack cheese and pickles.  The kids had chicken fingers, Alexa tater tots and green beans.  I had a salad with baby romaine, craisins, green apples, blood orange, and clementine with balsamic vinegar that I mixed with Dijon.  We also had some Alexa fries.

Snacks: I had a few chocolate chips, one cookie and am planning on making a banana sundae in a few seconds.  The cookies were very easy to make and the directions were easy to follow, but I did make a few changes to the recipe.  The reviews said that the cookies were too salty when following the original recipe. After reading the reviews, the author did cut the salt down to 1/2teaspoon, but I was still skeptical so I did 1/4 teaspoon instead. I also did 1/4 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup melted coconut oil instead of all coconut oil.  The cookies were extremely sticky and difficult to roll towards the end of the batch, so I was worried about how they would turn out. However,  they were perfectly cooked after 13 minutes in the oven.  We let them cool for about three minutes before we grabbed one to try.  Austin couldn't get enough of them; he ate three.  Peyton ate one and a half; she is not really my sweet eater, but she did say she liked them.  Hot out of the oven, I thought they were great.  They were soft, a little chewy and chocolaty which is everything I look for in a fresh home baked cookie.  Don't get me wrong though, they could never be compared to a Nestle Tollhouse cookie, but they were certainly delicious given the limitations we face when sticking to a Paleo diet.  I have not tried a cookie yet now that they are cooled and put away, but Paul has.  He said they were like little sponges. He's not sure if that is a bad thing or not.  He just thinks the consistency is strange.  I'm going to take his word for it until tomorrow when I try one because tonight I want to have a sundae instead. Worse case scenario, I will just heat them up in the microwave if they end up tasting better warm.  Don't worry, they won't go to waste. 
http://www.crossfitcu.com/foodie-friday-best-paleo-chocolate-chip-cookies-yet/

 My taste testers

They look like they would be gritty and grainy but surprisingly they weren't.

 Their "we just ate yummy cookies" happy faces.

Their "someone tried to take our cookies" mad faces.

 

Tonight I will be spending my time planning my menu for the big game. I am hoping to include some foods I can eat, so I can feel like part of the party. I see a whole lot of guac and veggies in my future!  I think I might also try to find some decent fruit like some melons and pineapple. I am six days away from completing my 30 days of Paleo; I certainly don't want to blow it now!!! 

 

XOXO

Breakfast For Dinner

Today was pretty low key.  We had plans to meet Dianna and Maggie at McDonald's for lunch and some play time. Unfortunately, Lydia got sick last night, so Dianna couldn't make it. Boo.  But Maggie and I still went with the kids and spent two and a half hours gossiping and trying to keep my kids from watching Tom and Jerry on the TV in the play land. We suggested they act out Tom and Jerry instead by chasing each other through the tubes. This seemed like a good idea until Austin grabbed onto Owen and swung him into a wall. Yeah...lesson learned by us mommies. I think next time we will have them act out a less violent cartoon.

After leaving McDonald's, the kids and I went to Wal-Mart to get some Super Bowl supplies and then we headed home. Paul has Snowboard/Ski Club tonight, so I decided to do breakfast for dinner rather than cook.  And yet, again, time slipped away from us, and I didn't get a chance to make those damn cookies!!!!  I would make them now, but Peyton would kill me for doing it without her. She is my little sous chef complete with her own set of baking tools and bowls.  I am not even going to promise that I will make them tomorrow because I'm sure I won't have time. Tomorrow we have gymnastics, school, and hockey. Fridays are crazy at our house!

Overall, we had a really fun day, but a pretty boring day as far as eating goes!

Breakfast: Coffee. 2 cups. Nothing else.  I think I have suffered more than kids by Paul being back at school and not making breakfast for us :)

Lunch: Clearly, I was not eating at McDonald's. I don't even trust the chicken that comes on the salads. Plus, I am so spoiled with salads that I make at home that I knew I wouldn't even enjoy a salad from McDonald's.  I brought an apple, a pear and two clementines with me.  It was like a little fruit plate.  I also brought some pistachio bark to have as a treat when the kids were having ice cream.  I did not miss eating a cheeseburger, fries or nuggets AT ALL.  I wouldn't be sad if I never at McDonald's again. I'm pretty sure that there is literally nothing on the menu that would even come close to being Paleo friendly. 

Dinner:  Breakfast.  I rarely eat breakfast at breakfast, but I LOVE breakfast for dinner.  Tonight the kids had magic eggs with cheese, rye toast, and yogurt.  I made myself a mushroom and ham omelet that I topped with spreadable fruit. It was the best looking and tasting omelet I have ever made. I almost always break the omelet when I am trying to flip it and then have to turn it into a scramble instead.  Not today, today I flipped my omelet seamlessly.  I made a three egg omelet so it was all I needed to feel full. 

Snacks: Pistachio bark, a few chocolate chips, and I am going to make myself a banana sundae soon.

Confession: I had a small Dr.Pepper today at McDonald's.    So, So mad at myself.  Was it good? Yep. Does that make it worth it? No.  I am the worst promise keeper ever.

XOXO

Paleo Grocery Shopping 101

Here is  a breakdown of what I buy to stock my pantry and fridge when I start Paleo and where I find it all. I also gave an example of what I typically eat for meals.  The first thing you should do is browse Paleo friendly websites, blogs or cookbooks for some really good dinner recipes.  I typically try a new recipe 3-4 times a week for dinner.  Then I make sure to have leftovers for lunches or for the following night's dinner.  Remember, Paleo is an investment not only of your time, but of your pocket book as well.  Starting Paleo is expensive because you most likely need to clear out your pantry and fridge and start fresh with preservative free items. But, as I said before, it is an expense worth investing in because I promise you that you will feel a thousand times better after following Paleo strictly for a week.  If you are trying Paleo to lose weight, make sure that you take note of the limitations I listed on food quantities.  Also, a major cheat, like pizza, could completely destroy all the progress you've made and cause you to gain weight.  Cheat with a few extra chocolate chips or bake a Paleo friendly cake if you are feeling deprived or like you want to be "bad." My other advice is to avoid attempting to replicate something you love, like pizza, by using a Paleo recipe.  Paleo is wonderful, but a Paleo pizza will NEVER come close to tasting like a "real" pizza so do not set yourself up for failure or disappointment. 

So without further adieu here are all my lists:

Costco

• Stretch Island Fruit Chews(my Costco sells these, but I have heard they are hard to find. Jewel sells them too, but in smaller quantities.)
• Nitrate free bacon(it is cheapest here if you eat a lot of bacon. if you don't, Oscar Mayer makes nitrate free bacon that is sold in most grocery stores)
• Frozen fruit
• Unsalted Nuts(cashews, almonds)
• Dried fruits(cherries, craisins, pineapple)
• Cage Free Eggs
• Dole Banana Dippers

Produce Market(Caputos, Tony's, Cermak, Joespeh's)

• Boar's Head lunchmeat but the seasoned(Cajun, chipotle, etc) varieties are not nitrate free
• Good EVOO
• Good plain balsamic vinegar
• All fresh fruits and veggies

Grocery store

• Chicken Stock/broth(Imagine brand located in the organic/health food aisle)
• All meats(grass fed, cage free, free range, and/or organic are best)
• All beef Nitrate free hot dogs(Applegate Farms or Oscar Mayer)
• pickles
• whole grain mustard(Dietz and Watson)
• Coconut oil(spectrum brand)
• Plain, Vanilla or Chocolate Almond Milk(Blue Diamond or Silk Brand)
• grass fed butter(if you can't find it buy Challenge brand full fat butter)
• Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips
• Alexia simple recipe frozen fries(limit to a small portion once a week)
• Heinz Simply Ketchup
• Grade B Maple syrup(if you plan to bake or make pancakes)

Common Spices used in Paleo Cooking:

• cumin
• cayenne pepper
• Thyme
• rosemary
• onion powder
• Kosher or sea salt
• cinnamon
• ginger
• dill
• basil
• Fresh herbs are always best, but they go bad quickly. If you will not use the whole package of fresh herbs within 4-5 days then just use dried herbs instead.

My Weekly Menu Options:

Breakfast:

• Eggs with grass fed butter(scrambled, over easy, over medium)
• Omelet with veggies or ham or bacon or a combo of all three. NO CHEESE.
• bacon or nitrate free sausage(must contain only natural ingredients)
• Fruit(banana, apple, pear, orange,etc)
• Smoothie(1 cup frozen fruit, almond milk to desired thickness, 1 cup raw baby spinach, and a banana)
• Coffee

Lunch:

• Lunch meat rolls with toppers(avocado, lettuce, pickles, mustard, tomato, onion, etc)
• Citrus salad(craisins, green apples, oranges, cashews, avocado)
• Cobb salad(lunch meat, egg, avocado, veggies)
• House Salad(veggies, olives)
•  I add leftover steak, chicken, or shrimp from previous meals to any of the above salads for some extra protein.
• I make my own balsamic vinaigrette or use straight balsamic vinegar.  There are Paleo recipes for Caesar, Greek and Italian dressings as well.
• Apple with almond butter
• Leftovers from previous meals
• Tuna fish with a tab of mayo, relish, and egg wrapped in romaine leaves with a little spicy mustard(you can substitute the mayo for avocado to be 100% Paleo)
• Eggs and bacon
• Nitrate free hot dog or sausage(Gilberts or Aidell's Brand. Choose a flavor without cheese) boiled or grilled with Whole Grain Dijon and Simply Heinz ketchup
• Homemade guacamole with carrots, celery and jicama as dippers

Dinner:

• Any lean protein(chicken, fish, pork, lean cuts of beef) on the grill simply seasoned with salt and pepper or marinated in a Paleo friendly marinade.  Served with roasted or steamed veggies and 1/2 sweet potato with real butter and cinnamon. NO sugar.
• Any Paleo dinner recipes I find appealing
•  Taco salad with lean ground beef and homemade taco seasoning served on romaine with salsa, guacamole, olives and black beans.
• Roasted whole chicken(Greek, lemon, Garlic) with 1/2 russet baked potato
• Limit potatoes to 2 total per week for weight loss
• Mom's spaghetti sauce over roasted veggies or chicken. If you are feeling adventurous try spaghetti squash.  I personally do not care for it but know lots of people who love it!

Snacks/Sweets:

• Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips( no more than 10 a day)
• Stretch Island Fruit Snacks(1 package a day)
• Dried fruits and nuts(limit to 1/4 cup a day)
• Fresh fruit with organic heavy whipping cream(whipped of course and add vanilla for more sweetness)
• Natural popcorn(limit to once a week)
• Dole Banana Dippers(1 package a day)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Beverages:

• Coffee. No SUGAR. Should be black, but we all know how I follow that rule. Limit to 2-3 cups a day
• Tea(Iced or Hot) unlimited amount. Sweetened with honey or agave only
• WATER
• Sparkling water-Unlimited
• 100% fruit juice. Limit to 4oz a day to see weight loss. 
• Almond milk. Limit to 1-8oz glass a day to see weight loss

Baked Goods:

• Use Almond, Coconut or Arrowroot flour for baking. I use Bob's Red Mill brand
• Maple Syrup(Grade B is best, but Grade A is good too) and honey to replace sugar
• Coconut oil or real butter to replace Canola or Vegetable oil
• Only dark chocolate
• Limit baking to once every two weeks unless others will be helping you eat it!!!

Weekly Must Haves on My Grocery List: I buy these every week in addition to any ingredients needed for recipes.

• Romaine
• Spring Mix Lettuce
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Asparagus
• fresh green beans
• baby carrots
• celery
• Garlic
• yellow onion
• shallot
• sweet potatoes
• russet potatoes
• grape tomatoes
• avocados
• apples(Granny Smith and Fuji)
• pears
• clementines
• grapes
• grapefruit
• craisins
• Boar's Head lunchmeat
• pickles
• tuna fish(in water and white albacore)
• olives(ant variety)
• chicken(breasts, whole, thighs)
• 93/7 ground beef(organic)
• Beef(flank steak, filet mignon, or skirt steak)
• 100% juice
• Almond Milk
• eggs
• bacon
• fresh herbs

I really hope this helps some of you who are thinking about starting to follow a Paleo lifestyle.  I am certainly no expert, but I do feel like I have a handle on the do's and don'ts of eating on Paleo.  Keep in mind though, that I am following the 80/20 lifestyle which allows me to integrate potatoes, chocolate, baked goods and the occasional high fat, organic dairy into my diet in moderation.  If you want to do a cleanse you would have to eliminate far more from your daily diet.  I have done a full cleanse in the past and was successful, but I had a hard time maintaining that lifestyle.  I would like to create good habits that I know I can keep forever which is why I chose the 80/20 plan. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of these lists or products.  Tomorrow I will be baking those chocolate chip cookies. The day just got away from us today, but tomorrow we will have plenty of time to bake and cook!!  Today was just leftovers for all three meals. The pulled pork was Ah-mazing reheated!!  It was hard for me not to eat it for both lunch and dinner, but I refrained because I wanted some leftover so I can have it tomorrow too!

XOXO

A Day in Pictures

I am going to structure today's post a little differently by counting down to our top moment of the day...

The Fraser Family's Top 5 Moments of the Day

5. I ate a good breakfast again.  I had a magic egg with some Boar's Head ham that I tore into little pieces and half a slice of Boars Head Colby jack cheese on top with a side of spreadable fruit and two pieces of nitrate free bacon.  Daddy made the kids banana chocolate chip pancakes. They are going to be pretty disappointed tomorrow morning when daddy's gone and mommy is back in charge of breakfast. Cereal or a Fiber One bar it is!

The magic egg maker is from Harry and David but is sold on Amazon and is a miracle worker. It makes a perfect egg mcmuffin egg after 60 seconds in the microwave!  Then you just put the cheese on top, close the lid, and let the steam melt it.

4.  My iphone has not connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for three months. I've been to Verizon several times and they can never give me a solution that works, so today I made an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Woodfield Apple store.  They told me basically, "sucks to be you. You need to buy a new phone for $199."  NOT HAPPENING!!  They told me that it was nothing I did, but because it is outside of the warranty period, I have to pay for a new phone.  The first time I went to Verizon it was,coincidently, exactly six days after my warranty expired. So I was screwed from the beginning.  Long story short, no more talking in the car for me and no more connecting to Wi-Fi. We may have to up our 3G package since that is the only way I can access the internet on my phone even when I am in my own house! I was pretty mad when we left there, but then we went to the Disney Store for their daily activity and the kids earned a ton of FREE Monster's University pins which made them really happy.  Seeing them happy made me happy, so I quickly forgot about my asshole phone.

3. We did another mall scavenger hunt, but this time we looked for eight things since we were at a bigger mall.  I had to call in reinforcement to draw some of the pictures. You can see that Paul took the job very seriously.

I drew a few pictures too. I'm sure you can figure out which ones those are. 

 

The kids still really got into the hunt.  Austin found half of his list in the Nordstrom's children's department alone.  They redeemed their completed sheets for cinnamon sugar pretzels again. I offered Forever Yogurt instead, but they wanted pretzels. They choose the Pretzel Bitz at Wetzel's Pretzels and holy cow, they give you a massive amount. They each got their own because I had a B1G1 coupon, but they easily could have shared. I think each bag had 15 large pretzel bites.  We brought a full bag home. Luckily, the bag has reheating instructions on it, so they can have it as a treat tomorrow.

 

2. Dinner: Pulled Pork. I put it into the crockpot at 8:30 this morning after taking about five minutes to prepare it, and then forgot about it until 4:30.  The house smelled so good.  I almost didn't make the homemade barbecue sauce because we didn't get home from the mall until 4:15, but I had spent $5.99 on Chipotle powder, which was impossible to find, just for this recipe.

I looked everywhere, and this was literally the only chipotle powder I could find. I found it at Jewel for those of you who want to make this barbeque sauce. The Mexican Beef Skewers called for it too, but I hadn't found it yet when I made the skewers.

 

I did not have any cumin or shallots, so I omitted the cumin and minced about a sixth of a red onion to replace the shallots.  I did use the maple syrup even though the recipe said it was optional.  The sauce was put together in less than ten minutes and then simmered for 45 minutes on low heat.  While it was simmering I shredded the pork.

 All the fat from the cooked pork shoulder. It was very easy to separate. It probably took me 10 minutes to pull all the meat off

The pulled meat

 I put the pulled pork right into the sauce to blend it all together.

My dinner: Salad with romaine, apples and clementines with balsamic, pulled pork with pickles, and Simply Heinz ketchup and sea salt fries.

The best fries for you if you want to be bad!

 

We LOVED the pulled pork. It was so, so good and so,so easy.  I cannot wait until summer time, so I can make this for a BBQ. I am going to start researching Paleo coleslaws because coleslaw would have been awesome on top of this pulled pork. 

1. For the last few weeks, Peyton had been begging me to let her do something very cool. I kept telling her that I had to ask Daddy first.  Well, I kept forgetting to ask Paul.  So today, while we were at the mall, Peyton asked daddy in her, "you can't say no to your baby girl" voice, and Paul said yes.  SO.....(Scroll Down)

Peyton got her ears pierced!!!!!!!  She picked out 14K Gold pink studded earrings! 

 

We went to Claire's where we ran into my cousin Jillian whom Peyton loves. Jillian told Peyton that she got her ears pierced when she was four and Peyton said, " Good. Because I'm four too."  I asked for them to pierce both ears at the same time afraid that if they did one at a time, Peyton may chicken out and not do the second ear.  They cleaned her ears, marked the spots with a pen and then told her they were just measuring and brought the guns to her ears. We thought they were just measuring too, so Paul did not have the video on and then BAM... ears pierced.  Peyton did not even flinch, she did not say ouch or make any noise at all, her eyes didn't water; she just jumped off the stool and looked in the mirror. It was CRAZY!  Five hours later and she still hasn't said a word about them bothering her. I am so proud of my "tough as nails" big girl. 

When we got home, she wanted to do a photo shoot to show off her new look.

 She cannot wait to show all her friends at school(sorry Sabrina. LOL)

 

She loves to give a crazy face.

 

So that was our Top 5 Moments of today!!!  We had a great day off of school. I'm pretty sad that everyone is going back tomorrow, but only three days left until the weekend!!

 

Many of you have been asking about what ingredients are needed to start Paleo, so tomorrow I will post the Must Have list for the first 30 days of Paleo.  We have a birthday party tomorrow, so I won't be cooking anyway.  I will just do a quick recap of my meals, but will focus on Paleo grocery shopping 101.  I'm so happy that so many of you want to give Paleo a shot and hope that I can make the transition a little easier for you by providing as much information as possible!

 

 XOXO

 

Picture Palooza

I took a lot of pictures of the food today because nothing else exciting was going on at home.  Paul and I spent all day at home with Brayden, but Austin and Peyton got to spend a couple of hours with Grandma and Grandpa Fraser at Dave and Buster's.  They were very bundled up and went straight into an already warmed up car, so the cold hardly affected them.  While they were gone, we cleaned the house a little bit and then decided to just relax. I read a People magazine, and Paul watched The Mummy Returns.  I'm not sure how many people know this, but Peyton's middle name is Evelyn because of Rachel Weisz' character Evie(short for Evelyn) in the movie.  Paul loves all the Mummy movies, so he immediately suggested Evie as the girl name when we found out what we were having.  I didn't like it as a first name but said that we would keep it on the list for middle names. To be honest, I have no room to talk; she is named Peyton because I watched One Tree Hill everyday during Austin's nap when I was pregnant with her .  I fell in love with the character named Peyton and thought the name was unique.  Once we decided on Peyton as her first name, Evelyn really sounded better then any of our other options for a middle name. So, thanks to Paul's love of the Mummy series and my addiction to One Tree Hill, we named her Peyton Evelyn which I actually think is beautiful.  Austin is named after crackers, so really it isn't all that strange for Peyton to be named after TV characters.

Speaking of crackers, let me tell you about my day of eating.

Breakfast: As promised, I ate a real breakfast this morning! Woo hoo!

Paul made the kids cinnamon sugar, vanilla French toast. They went nuts over it!

 Brayden just hung out on his mat  while we ate.

This is my breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with grass fed butter, a pear, and two pieces of nitrate free bacon.  Oh, and coffee with the forbidden cream.

 

Lunch:  The kids were out and Paul wasn't hungry, so I just made a salad with romaine, black olives, black beans, and the leftover garlic chicken from last night.   I used balsamic dressing.  Confession: we brought home the extra cheese from Qdoba the other day, and because I am glutton for punishment and I can't keep any promises to myself, I heated it up and had like six bite sized Tostitos with a drizzle of cheese on top.  I didn't feel sick, surprisingly, but I still stopped and threw the leftover cheese straight into the trash so I couldn't be tempted again to eat it. 

 

Dinner:  Brayden woke up at 4:30am to eat and when I left his room I remembered that the crockpot was set to turn off at 4:00am, so I went downstairs and reset it for another 10 hours. Then I stumbled back up to bed and, believe it or not, got to sleep until 7:50!!!  The kids slept in...all of them!  It was awesome!  Anyway, by doing that, the bone broth was ready by 2:30 today. When I strained it, I saw that it only yielded 2 cups of broth.  I was less than pleased since the tomato soup recipe called for four cups of broth.  I now realize that I should have measured out four cups of water into the crock pot to begin with, but ,in my defense, I did what the recipe said which was to fill it to just above the bones.  Twenty hours of cooking and I didn't even get what I needed.  I improvised and mixed the bone broth with two cups of canned chicken broth. Grrr.  The soup was extremely easy to make, but did take a little time due to the need to sauté and simmer all the ingredients.  http://www.primalpalate.com/recipe/creamy-tomato-soup/

 

 Before going into the Ninja

 Waiting to be blended

 Out of the blender and back on the stove to heat up

In my bowl. I had three ladles full.

 

Tomato soup verdict: I liked it but thought it could have been a little creamier. It still had a texture to it, and you could taste bits of onion.  It had great flavor though. I can only imagine how wonderful it would have tasted if I would have had enough bone broth. This is all I ate for dinner, and it completely filled me up. I do think some kind of homemade crouton would be fabulous in this soup. I may have to test out some Paleo bread recipes to use as croutons. The kids both had the soup and grilled cheese. Peyton didn't care for it, but Austin really liked it and kept saying, "Mmm. This is homemade.  It is so good.  It tastes homemade."  He must have told Paul it was homemade twenty times while we were at the table.  Paul does not like tomato soup at all, so he had the same salad I had for lunch. 

 

Snacks:  I decided to treat myself with carrot cake(Paleo version) today because the scale read 121.1 pounds today which means another 1.1 pounds lost!  However, I could have sworn the cake was made with almond flour, but no, it's coconut flour which I don't have in the house.  I ran to Jewel and out of all the Bob's Red Mill flours guess which one was totally gone? Yep, you guessed it, the coconut flour. Son of a Bitch. I came home and raided my cookbooks and none of them had any almond flour recipes that appealed to me, so I resorted to pistachio bark instead. Not at all what I wanted, but still really tasty.

I had to make my own double boiler by setting a stainless steel bowl on top of a pot of boiling water.

 After cooling in the freezer

Broken up and ready to eat

http://www.primalpalate.com/recipe/pistachio-bark/

 

I had one piece of bark today, a pack of fruit snacks and half a bag of all natural three ingredient popcorn.  Popcorn is a splurge.  Paleo doesn't really like corn because it is just a vegetable used to fatten people and animals up and has next to no nutritional value. But, even Robb Wolf, who is one of the fore fathers, of Paleo indulges in natural popcorn and corn tortillas every once in a while. The key is to stick to five ingredients or less. I also had one of my juice spritzers today using the sparkling water Paul made for me in our Soda Stream.  Making the sparkling water ourselves is going to be a HUGE money saver! 

 

 

Tomorrow I am going to make pulled pork in the crock pot and homemade barbecue sauce.  I'm pretty excited about it. I love barbecue!  Plus, it might make it feel like summer even though it will be -3 outside.  I may also try a Paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe that a friend from West, who is also trying her hand at Paleo,  posted tonight.  I got so excited when I read the recipe because it calls for ALMOND flour!!!  Plus, she made them today and said they were great!  Overall, a great day of eating, but I think tomorrow will be even better.  Here are a few more pictures. They were taken yesterday morning while Peyton was still sleeping.

My two boys laid in bed together for 20 minutes and snuggled while watching cartoons

 

XOXO

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic and 6 year old drama

There was nothing overly exciting about today. In fact, it was kind of a mish mosh day where we did a lot but a whole lot of nothing at the same time.  Paul went to play basketball this morning with Mike in a 30 and up league. He had a great time, but was feeling it a little when he got home.  He then proceeded to shovel our driveway and mom's driveway.  He definitely earned whatever calories he consumed today!  I wish I could say I exercised today as well, but I didn't. Instead, I took Austin to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and on our way there he told me that I was not to stay at the party with him.  I said okay and was going to use those two hours to shop at Tony's for the very first time and hit up Wal-Mart for some Super Bowl staples. I brought him in, met the mom, gave him a kiss and left.  Tony's Finer Foods was in the same parking lot and I had heard great things about it so I figured it was worth a look. Well, Goodbye Caputo's and Hello Tony's.  It is almost exactly the same as Caputo's but with a few important differences. Tony's carries Boar's Head and it is priced the same if not a little cheaper; the produce is awesome, the bakery looks fabulous; and they have all the ethnic and organic ingredients Paleo requires. What makes it so much better than my Caputo's is that it is so clean and bright and inviting.  My Caputo's is dark and dingy and not very well taken care of.  When I got to the produce section of Tony's, I was confused for a second and thought I was at Mariano's or Whole Foods.  It is set up similarly to those stores and is just as appealing.  I wandered around for a little bit and then stocked up on lunch meat and butcher meats for the week. I also grabbed some perfect looking apples and some other fruits and veggies.  I left there very happy around 11:45 which gave me plenty of time to go to Wal-Mart across the way before picking Austin up at 1:00. I drove across the strip center to Wal-Mart and encountered a grid lock of cars immediately. I drove around for five minutes and there were not any spots to be found.  The parking lot had not been plowed so people were parking like chooches. I decided there was nothing I needed badly enough to go into that store today. I'll go back sometime this week during the day when it is hopefully less crowded. 

Because I couldn't go to Wal-Mart, I went straight to Chuck E Cheese and figured I'd find a booth and play on my phone. It was already 12:15 by the time I got over there.  When I walked in I saw a few of the other Kindergarten moms seated by the party tables, so I went over to sit and talk with them.  I just waved at Austin from afar to let him know I was there.  So as I'm chatting away with the girls, Austin comes over and says, " Mom, why are you here?" I told him that the second store was too crowded so I had nowhere else to go.  I promised to leave him alone.  About 10 minutes later, they started opening gifts basically right next to our table. Austin was standing near me and I saw that his shoe was untied, so I asked if he wanted me to tie it. He put his foot up and let me tie his shoe. About five minutes later, while he was still standing there, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch came on, and Austin started to bust out some pretty cool dance moves.  I just gave him a thumbs up and said, "good moves, buddy."  He left after presents and ran off to play games with all his buddies while I remained in the booth talking to the moms and that's where I stayed until 1:15 when we left. 

When we got into the car, the first thing he said to me was "why didn't you let me stay by myself?"  I explained to him again that my plans changed, but I told him that it was like he was there himself because I wasn't following him around. He said, " No, but you bothered me twice!  You asked to tie my shoes and you commented on my dancing."  I said I was sorry, and he made me swear that I would drop him off at his other party on Wednesday and not come back until the end.  Umm, he's SIX.  How could I already be such an embarrassment to him?  I am trying not to take offense because I think it is more the fact that he attributes being dropped off with being older and cooler. I get it, but I would rather wait a few more years before he wants me to leave him alone.  But, I do trust him and I know that he is very polite and well behaved at birthday parties, so I will drop him off on Wednesday for the majority of the time. I will have Peyton and Brayden with me, so I wouldn't have stayed anyway. We are going to go to Whole Foods to shop and to a self serve yogurt place while we are waiting to pick him up. The problem is that I really want to go because it is a party for the little girl at school that he tells me almost every day he is going to marry.  She is very sweet and very cute, but I still told him he has to wait 20 years!! Hopefully, some other moms will stay and can give me some dirt on the happenings of the party! 

After I got home and told Paul how badly I embarrassed our son, I started working on dinner. I made chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. I have always wanted to try this recipe, but I was putting off making this recipe because I was not excited to disassemble a chicken. Luckily, Tony's had a whole chicken already cut into pieces, so it cut my prep work in half. I also finally ate my lunch at 1:30 since I hadn't been home since 10:30. I thought about going out to lunch after abandoning Wal-Mart, but I had just spent a ton of money on lunch meat, so I couldn't justify spending money on lunch. In hindsight, I should have spent the money in order to save face with Austin.

Breakfast: Coffee and a banana.  I promise that I will have a real breakfast tomorrow. Paul and Austin are off for the next two days, so we are going to do a big breakfast both mornings to celebrate!

Lunch: Tavern ham roll ups with avocado, romaine, pickle and mustard. 

Dinner: Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, baked potato and baked beans.  The chicken was very easy to prepare especially since Peyton helped me separate all the garlic from the bulbs. She also counted out all 40 cloves to make sure we had enough. I did not but in the rosemary or the lemon thyme since we have decided that we don't like either of those spices. I was actually really surprised that the chicken didn't taste more garlicky when it was done cooking.  It had a very mild garlic taste but was still delicious.  All the meat was fall off the bone tender and the skin came off very easily.   Austin ate three pieces of chicken; he had two thighs and a drumstick.  Both he and Peyton told me again what a good cooker I was.  I guess this is a meal for the recipe books.

http://www.primalpalate.com/recipe/chicken-with-40-cloves-of-garlic/

 You have to sauté the garlic first unpeeled. Holy awesome smell, Batman!

The chicken just out of the oven with Austin's pieces missing.  All that at the bottom is delicious garlicky oil that we drizzled on top of our chicken. We also opened up the roasted garlic cloves and slathered them onto our chicken. YUM!!

 

Snacks: a green apple, fruit snacks, and my ice cream-less banana sundae.  SOOOO yummy. I also had two small glasses of my juice spritzers! 

One banana, about 10 dark chocolate chips slightly melted and real whipped cream. OMG!

 

Tomorrow I am going to make homemade tomato soup. One because Peyton and Austin love tomato soup and eat an entire can of Cambells' Condensed soup by themselves every time I make it for them.  And two, it is going to be wickedly cold out and soup always warms you up. This recipe calls for bone broth, so I used the bones from tonight's meal to make the broth. It needs to be in the crockpot for 16-24hrs.  I set it at 10 hours tonight and will have to reset it at 6:00am in the morning for another 8-10 hours.  I am really digging making my own stocks and broth!  The house smells amazing!

http://www.primalpalate.com/recipe/bone-broth/

 

Amazing Friends and Great Food Part 2

Saturdays are always our days to catch up on projects or run errands.  It is also usually the day that we splurge and go out for lunch or dinner.  We have not gone out since I started this challenge because it can be hard to eat out while following a Paleo diet.  Plus, I hate spending money on entrees that I have to leave several of the ingredients off of because they don't meet Paleo guidelines.  But today,for some reason,  my body was craving Mexican food. I wanted Qdoba, and I didn't care if going there would result in me cheating. I have been pretty good and have never felt deprived these last 20 days, but today was different. I wanted Nachos, and I wanted them bad.  I tried to talk myself out of it, but somehow we still ending up in the car driving to Qdoba. 

After Qdoba we spent some quality time as a family at Target.  I think we were there for almost an hour just roaming the aisles.  We only bought groceries which was quite the miracle.  At 2:30, Cari texted and asked if we could get together for dinner since we haven't seen each other for a while.  She said that they would bring dinner, so I said I would be responsible for snacks and dessert.  They came over around 5:30 and Peyton immediately attacked Kennedy by spouting off all the plans she had for them. They played dolls; they went on a treasure hunt; they pretended Kennedy was Peyton's dog. They played non stop for four hours.  Austin spent the entire time playing Wii with Kenny and Kris. The boys are much older than Austin, so he feels really special and cool when he gets to hang out with them. They played so much Wii that after the boys left Austin said his eyes hurt. They were bloodshot.  I think it was a combination of too much screen time and staying up two hours past bedtime both of which are perfectly acceptable every once in  awhile.  Brayden stayed awake for a little while and let Aunt Cari hold him. Uncle Mike, his Godfather, offered to rock him to sleep and give him some Godfatherly advice.  Mike watched The Godfather this morning so a few things were fresh in his mind. LOL. But, since Brayden nurses before bed, Mike was out of luck this time. Maybe next time. Here are our adorable kiddos:

While the kids played, Paul and I got to catch up with Mike and Cari.  Before children, the four of us used to go to dinner and a movie every Friday night.  It was just a given that we spent Friday nights together. We started going out on Fridays when Paul and I were Seniors in high school. Now with seven kids between us, it is pretty difficult to coordinate an evening out which is why we get together with all the kids instead.  It was a great night for everyone!  Our plan is to try to get together once a month no matter what! 

 

Breakfast: Just coffee which is probably why I was so hungry and easily tempted to be bad at lunch.

 

Lunch: Qdoba otherwise known as the place where I was defeated. Nachos:1 Nicole:0  I got chicken nachos with black beans, lettuce, a tiny amount of shredded cheese, and nacho cheese.  All the fixings were in a bowl and I got the chips on the side. I was so excited about these nachos even though I knew it made me a total failure; I couldn't wait to dig in.  I dipped my first chip into what was supposed to be a cheesy and gooey mixture, but instead I just got beans. There was cheese, but like barely any.  If I was going to cheat, then I was sure as hell going to enjoy it and eat it the way it was supposed to be eaten...with a vat of cheese. I went up to the counter and said that I barely had any cheese. They told me I could buy a side of cheese for $1.65. Had I not been so hungry, I would have gotten into it with the girl about how I paid $7.00 for nachos and did not put half the ingredients that I could have on top of them and yet she was going to charge me for extra cheese. I gave her my $1.65 and huffed and puffed my way back to the table. Five chips in and I told Paul how absolutely unsatisfying they were.  They tasted nothing like I remember them tasting like.  I did not enjoy them at all. I should have stopped eating them, but I paid $8.65 for them so they were going to get eaten.  I could not finish them though because about 15 chips in my stomach started to get really angry about what I was giving it.  I could not believe how quickly I felt sick.  I didn't actually get sick, but I felt like I could have.  I may never go back to Qdoba again.  My body in these last few weeks has learned to live without these rich and unclean foods, and I'm mad that I tried to mess that up.  No more drastic cheats for me again during this challenge.

 

Dinner: Mike and Cari brought over fried chicken from Mariano's and pasta from Papa Savario's.  Cari said she figured I would just take the skin off of a breast and make a salad. I told her that was exactly what I was going to do.  So I had a salad with chicken, crasins, oranges, cucumbers and olives. The salad was so good because the chicken was so moist.  I didn't miss the pasta or the fried skin at all. I was very happy with my salad.  I also ate several carrots and a few plain potato chips that had two ingredients: salt and potato. I was pleasantly full.  The biggest victory at dinner was my beverage. On Friday, when I was complaining about having to drink only water, Dianna suggested I try sparkling water with a little bit of 100% juice mixed in to get the pop feel. I bought sparkling water today and 100% fruit punch, and these two items have changed my life forever. OMG!  My mind is blown! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dianna!  It was the best thing I have had to drink in a long time!  I think I actually like it more than pop because it is not as sweet.  I cannot wait to experiment with other flavors of juice.  I want it to be tomorrow already so I can have another glass. On the enjoyment scale my dessert tonight came in as a close second to my drink. Everyone else had make your own sundaes with a large variety of toppings to choose from.  I wanted to feel included, so I sliced a banana, grabbed some chocolate chips and put them in an ice cream bowl and added a little bit of real whipped cream on top.  It was so good. So good, in fact, that I wasn't even phased by the lack of ice cream. Next time I may melt the chocolate chips and drizzle it on top of the banana!  So many new delicious foods to look forward to tomorrow!

 

Tomorrow Austin has a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese for a kindergarten friend. My plan is to drop him off and head to Mariano's to shop for the week since Polar Vortex #2 is coming on Monday.

I have no desire to go out in that kind of cold if I don't have to.  Hoping to put lots of comfort foods on the menu for next week to keep us warm and cozy.  Soups, crock pot dishes, etc.  Only 10 days left of the challenge, so I need to choose my recipes wisely. 

 

XOXO

Amazing friends and great food Part 1

On Friday, I got to spend the day with two of my best friends, Dianna and Laura, both of whom went above and beyond to support me on my Paleo challenge.  In fact, all of my friends have stood by me on my Paleo journey. Maggie made me veggies at our play date on Thursday and kept her delicious looking brownies away from me. Tonight, Cari brought over dinner and was conscious of my diet(look for more on this in Part 2).   I am so incredibly lucky to have these woman in my life. I truly do not know what I would do without these ladies. They are my sanity, my saviors, and my partners in crime.  I feel so blessed to have such amazing friendships with all of them.  But what makes me the happiest  is that my children get to grow up with their children.  These women are my family, and I love them all!  Shout out to all my other girlfriends who I do not mention in this post; I feel the same way about all of you too. 

Dianna came over for a play date on Friday and surprised me with a Paleo treat.  She knows that I have a major sweet tooth and that the lack of sugar is what I struggle with the most on Paleo. She is amazing.  She knows how much I love carrot cake, and she found a recipe for carrot cake balls. She made a few adaptations to the original recipe, but they were still so good.  She said they were easy to make, but they sounded really complicated to me. She had to grind nuts for goodness sake. She is an avid baker, so I'm sure she put this recipe together in no time flat. However, I am still so grateful that she took the time to make me such a thoughtful treat.

 Carrot cake balls rolled in coconut

We had a fantastic time watching the kids play and gossiping about the wedding! We are both so excited for Eric and Michelle, but we are also very excited for us! Ten years ago we met at West Aurora High School and instantly became BFFs. We have been attached at the hip ever since, and being her best friend is absolutely the best. BUT now, we get to be sisters and best friends!!! I know technically not really, but if she's my sister in law's sister, then wouldn't she be my sister something removed?  Official or not, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

After a great afternoon with Dianna, I jumped on the road to go to Laura's 31 party.  Laura is my oldest(as in length of time not age) friend and one of the only people who knows all of my deep, dark secrets.  We have been through so much together, and she has always supported me!  In fact, we even were pregnant together. Her son Mason was born 36 hours before Peyton. During our pregnancy, Laura and I would constantly text or call about what we were eating.  Thankfully, I always had her to justify and support my decision to go to Sonic everyday that summer for a strawberry lemon slushy. For real, I went everyday from June through August, and I had an extra 36lbs to prove it! 

Laura is doing a Paleo challenge this month as well, so even though she was hosting a party she chose to keep the majority of the snacks healthy and Paleo friendly.  As soon as I walked in she was super excited to show me the food options, and I was super excited to see some of my favorite things on the table. In fact, she loves me so much that she bought shrimp cocktail.  Laura HATES shrimp.  The fact that she opened up the package knowing full well that shrimp juices could get on her hands was a huge labor of love.  I was enormously grateful and ate about 10 shrimp to show my appreciation. She did have brownies which I actually had no desire to eat and a spinach artichoke dip that looked awesome with all it's melted cheese on top, but I didn't want that either. What I wanted was the irresistible fluff fruit dip that was set amongst strawberries, pineapple, and melon.  I know how good the fruit dip is because Laura makes it all the time, so I couldn't even pretend it was gross.  So I caved and dipped two strawberries very sparingly into the delectable dip.  It tasted better then I ever remember it tasting, so I told Bonnie it was time to step away from the food table and go to the couch.  I had a great time at the party catching up with Bonnie and seeing Laura when she wasn't busy being the hostesses with the mostest.  I also got a super cute bag to lug all of our crap to t-ball games this summer. Peyton is extremely high maintenance  and requires a lot of stuff to keep her busy for the hour long baseball game.  So this bag will hold all her snacks, coloring books, leappad and various other trinkets that she brings along. I can't wait to get it, and the bonus is that I get to see Laura and Bonnie again soon so Laura can deliver it to me!

 Laura's Spread

The AMAZING fruit and Fluff dip

 

So Friday proved that even when entertaining or when being entertained, I can stick to my Paleo way of eating.  I was really good all day.

Breakfast: Coffee and a banana

Lunch: Four honey turkey, avocado, pickle and brown mustard roll ups with apples and pears on the side.  I also had two of the carrot cake balls that tasted amazing especially since they were cold and firm from being in the fridge. 

Dinner:  I chose not to eat before going to Laura's since I knew she was going to provide snacks. I ate a ton of carrots and celery dipped in guacamole. I also had a few pieces of summer sausage. As stated above, I ate easily 10 shrimp with a little bit of cocktail sauce and then I ate a lot of fruit. The pineapple and honey dew were so ripe and sweet that the fruit was much more appealing to me then the brownies!

Snacks:  A package of fruit snacks and a few chocolate chips