Overall today was a great day. Austin was up at 6:30am and dressed and ready to walk out the door to go to school by 6:50. Unfortunately, school doesn't start until 8:00, so he waited around for a long time. He was sooo excited to go back and see his friends. What can I say? He is a social butterfly like his mom. He also decked himself out in all his rainbow loom creations(8 bracelets, 2 necklaces, and 2 rings). He got the loom for his birthday in November but perfected his craft over Christmas break. He apparently drew a lot of attention to himself in class today because he came home and told me that he needed to get to work on filling all his orders. His teacher also told him that he could bring the loom to school on Monday and demonstrate how to make a bracelet. He is on cloud nine. The loom still baffles me. Try as I may, but I cannot figure that sucker out. So, for now, I will just leave all the jewelry designing to him.
Paul had school today too, so I took that into consideration when choosing a recipe for dinner. I wanted to make sure it would be something he would like and would be relatively quick to prepare so that we could spend time as a family playing games and talking about our day. Plus, my entire pregnancy I craved shrimp. I ate some dishes while dining out but was never really satisfied by any of those meals. And I never cooked it myself because, as I stated yesterday, I always overcook seafood. But this recipe seemed simple enough and actually goes in the oven instead of on the stovetop. This sold it for me. As long as I'm not responsible for flipping it over or checking the translucency, I'm willing to try it.
But, I needed parsley for the recipe and didn't have any. Are you seeing a pattern yet? I am frequently guilty of planning a meal and forgetting to buy a main ingredient. So off to Caputos the kids and I went to get parsley and some other produce for the week. I drove all the way to Caputos instead of just going across the street to the Jewel because I was very, very angry at Jewel. On Sunday, during the snowstorm, I needed to go shopping for this week's groceries. If I hadn't promised that I would start on the 6th, I would have avoided going shopping and just postponed my Paleo challenge a few days; but a promise is a promise. Since it was snowing and the roads were terrible I decided to go to Jewel even though 95% of what I needed(produce and meat) is WAY cheaper at Caputos. One hundred and thirty four dollars later I was walking out of Jewel with FOUR plastic bags. That's right four bags of groceries cost me $134. Don't you worry I was swearing the whole car ride home. Couponing is my thing. Getting a deal is my livelihood. This trip to Jewel just about killed me, so there was no way in hell I was going back there for produce. Perfect example: broccoli crowns at Jewel $1.99lb, broccoli crowns at Caputos $0.69lb which is why I bought this much today:
Now that I have bitched out the Jewel, I will move onto happier thoughts like all the delicious food I ate today.
Breakfast: Only one cup of coffee with the devil cream and about a cup of blackberries. Breakfast has never been my thing, but while on Paleo I try to eat something every morning. During the week, because of school, it is usually something small and quick, but on the weekends I try to do eggs and bacon or some sort of egg recipe.
Lunch: I was waiting for lunch since the second I woke up because I was excited to eat the leftover pot roast. It didn't disappoint. I think it was actually better today then it was yesterday. So, so yummy!!
Dinner: The frozen tail on, deveined raw shrimp from Costco said to refrigerate it overnight to thaw. Ooops. I put it in the fridge around 11:00, but at 3:00 it was still pretty much frozen. So, as instructed by my mother, I ran them under cold water. They were defrosted within a minute. These claimed to be deveined and certainly one side was slit open, but the other side had a bluish line going through it. I had a bad experience once at Bob Chin's when I ordered peel and eat shrimp and proceeded to pop them in my mouth and then asked what that grittiness was. I had to excuse myself to the bathroom when Paul told me it was the shrimp's poop. Never again did I order peel and eat shrimp. So you better believe I sat there and took every single one of those blue lines out of the shrimp. Even if there was only a one percent chance that it was more poop, it was not a chance I was willing to take. Any ideas as to what it was? I don't think it was poop because a few shrimp still had pieces of poop on the other side that I had to wash away, but what else could it be? After dissecting the shrimp and butterflying them as instructed, I threw the marinade together in less than 5 minutes. Super easy recipe and the smell of the marinade was heavenly.
This was by far one of the best shrimp dishes I have ever had next to the shrimp tacos my mom made for Christmas. I may have to make those this month and just skip the tortilla. My shrimp today were so garlicky and perfectly cooked that I wanted to dance a jig. I was and still am so damned proud of myself. Never have I cooked fish this well. Just another reason why I love my Paleo peeps so much. I attached the recipe below and urge even the non paleo followers to try this at home. I will say that I added three very large cloves of garlic because we love garlic. I especially loved swirling my roasted veggies around in the garlicky sauce that was leftover on my plate from the shrimp. I tossed the veggies with some olive oil and sea salt before roasting them, so they already had great flavor but putting them with the shrimp took them up a notch. Yum, yum, yum!
http://www.primalpalate.com/recipe/shrimp-scampi/
Snacks: I was super excited to put this together today.
Using these ingredients:
This costs a small fortune(about $45) initially, but it lasts forever. Plus, Paul and the kids love the nuts and the chocolate chips. I had about 1/4 cup of this today and it totally satisfied my salty and sweet tooth. This does need to be enjoyed in moderation though. I wouldn't exceed 1/2 a cup a day if you want to see weight loss results.
I also had my other new favorite treat which is the Dole banana dippers. They are very minimally processed and so good. Then I ended the day with a pack of my fruit snacks to curb my chewy craving.
I'm not sure anything can top this day of food, but I am going to keep trying to find something equally or more delicious then today's meals. Tomorrow night may be leftovers because I don't want to throw away any of this good food, but I will still tell you about my day. Friday will be a crockpot lemon pepper chicken because Austin has his first night of floor hockey, and we won't get home until 5:00. Plus, that will give us leftover chicken for the weekend to put on salads for me or sandwiches for Paul and the kids.
BTW- the cake is being thrown away as soon as I send this blog into cyberspace. RIP you delicious bastard. I will see you again, but not anytime soon.
XOXO
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