When I was fairly early on in my pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The worst part for me was not that I had to prick my finger and test my blood sugar four times a day. Nor was it counting every single carb that went into my mouth. It wasn't even the fact that I couldn't just eat when I was hungry. Although I hated all those things, the worst part was breakfast. My options were limited as I was allowed a mere 15carbs for my morning meal. All of my favorite breakfasts were well above 15 carbs. I was basically left with eggs, eggs, and more eggs. I grew to really dislike them.
Oh, how I wish I'd known about paleo/primal back then, Then I would have known the possibilities for low carb, high protein, breakfasts go way beyond eggs with a side of eggs.
My new favorite are pumpkin muffins, the following is a recipe I've adapted from many different sources, with my own special addition of chocolate, because I really like chocolate.
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbs unsweetened cocoa
1/2cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
6 eggs
4 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or you could use unsalted butter)
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Shift all dry ingredients together
3. In a separate bowl, add one egg at a time to pumpkin puree, until well blended. Then add coconut oil, honey and vanilla. When mixed well wisk in dry ingredients.
4. Put batter into well-greased muffin tins. * I use a large 6-muffin tin
5. bake 20 minutes and enjoy
*if you like your muffins to look pretty, be sure to flatten out the batter after putting it in the tins. I've found any non-grain flour will pretty much bake in the same position you put it in the oven. Flattening it out helps them look a little more "normal"
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Koren Rice Bowls
Lots of recipes for Paleo/Primal Korean Rice Bowls can be found on various paleo blogs, and in cookbooks. For example, This one from Primal Rampage, Or this one from Paleo Table, (which adapts the basic primal recipe to take out the Tamari Sauce). Since we are more of a primal family than strictly paleo, I went with the primal recipe for the most part.
Marinade :
4 garlic cubes (I cheat and use these fabulous frozen minced garlic cubes each one = 1 clove)
1/4 cup Tamari Sauce (most will say 1/2 cup, however I find it makes it a little too salty)
1/4 cup water
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
1/4 sesame seed oil
Mix all together in a small bowl
"Rice"
Cut up 1 head of cauliflower, pulse in a food processor until shredded. And then microwave for 2 minutes and separate into two bowls (or two bowls plus a toddler bowl like I did)
Toppings
The possibilities here are endless, use whatever veggies are in season/on sale in your area.
I used:
1 egg
2 cups frozen spinach
2 cups grated carrot
2 shitake mushrooms sliced
1/2 lb beef (I used a cut that was on sale) sliced into thin 2 inch strips
1. place beef in 1/2 of the marinade and mushrooms into the remaining 1/2
2. Heat 1 tbs of oil (I used olive) in a wok or large skillet
3. Saute each vegetable separately until cooked. Then place on top of "rice" in bowls
4. Fry the egg in the same pan to desired doneness
5. Remove meat from marinade and cook in pan, place on top of cauliflower rice
6. Put mushrooms in the pan, cook until soft and remove, placing in bowls
7. Add marinade to pan, bring to a boil for 3 minutes and then pour over bowls.
Enjoy :)
Because I had already pre-shredded the cauliflower, and prepped the veggies this meal took about 10 minutes to get on the table which makes for a great quick weekday-night meal.
Marinade :
4 garlic cubes (I cheat and use these fabulous frozen minced garlic cubes each one = 1 clove)
1/4 cup Tamari Sauce (most will say 1/2 cup, however I find it makes it a little too salty)
1/4 cup water
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
1/4 sesame seed oil
Mix all together in a small bowl
"Rice"
Cut up 1 head of cauliflower, pulse in a food processor until shredded. And then microwave for 2 minutes and separate into two bowls (or two bowls plus a toddler bowl like I did)
Toppings
The possibilities here are endless, use whatever veggies are in season/on sale in your area.
I used:
1 egg
2 cups frozen spinach
2 cups grated carrot
2 shitake mushrooms sliced
1/2 lb beef (I used a cut that was on sale) sliced into thin 2 inch strips
1. place beef in 1/2 of the marinade and mushrooms into the remaining 1/2
2. Heat 1 tbs of oil (I used olive) in a wok or large skillet
3. Saute each vegetable separately until cooked. Then place on top of "rice" in bowls
4. Fry the egg in the same pan to desired doneness
5. Remove meat from marinade and cook in pan, place on top of cauliflower rice
6. Put mushrooms in the pan, cook until soft and remove, placing in bowls
7. Add marinade to pan, bring to a boil for 3 minutes and then pour over bowls.
Enjoy :)
Because I had already pre-shredded the cauliflower, and prepped the veggies this meal took about 10 minutes to get on the table which makes for a great quick weekday-night meal.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Meal Plan Week Three
Saturday - Dinner at a friend's birthday party (mac n' cheese for Hailey, lucky girl)
Sunday - Meat Loaf and Mashed Yams with coconut milk and cinnamon. Both were really good. Even Isaac ate the yams, and he normally steers away from the orange stuff. We just added about 1/4 cup canned coconut milk and some cinnamon to 6 mashed yams.
There was actually enough left that we had the left overs for Monday Lunch and Dinner.
Tuesday - Cauliflower "Arroz" con Pollo from Primal Blue Print Quick and Easy Paleo - this was ok. I thought it was spicy without being flavorful. I think next time I'll try this recipe, which looks much more flavorful.
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - Pork Chops with Shredded Brussels Sprouts. Originally I was going to just use salt and pepper on the Brussels Sprouts, but after my friend Heather posted this recipe on her blog, using whole sprouts and maple syrup and bacon, I think I may be adapting the plan a bit. Seeing as how bacon and maple syrup are both ok with most of the primal/paleo community. (Except the super hardcore people who basically abstain from eating anything fun, I'm not one of those people)
Friday - Pot Roast in the slow cooker
Sunday - Meat Loaf and Mashed Yams with coconut milk and cinnamon. Both were really good. Even Isaac ate the yams, and he normally steers away from the orange stuff. We just added about 1/4 cup canned coconut milk and some cinnamon to 6 mashed yams.
There was actually enough left that we had the left overs for Monday Lunch and Dinner.
Tuesday - Cauliflower "Arroz" con Pollo from Primal Blue Print Quick and Easy Paleo - this was ok. I thought it was spicy without being flavorful. I think next time I'll try this recipe, which looks much more flavorful.
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - Pork Chops with Shredded Brussels Sprouts. Originally I was going to just use salt and pepper on the Brussels Sprouts, but after my friend Heather posted this recipe on her blog, using whole sprouts and maple syrup and bacon, I think I may be adapting the plan a bit. Seeing as how bacon and maple syrup are both ok with most of the primal/paleo community. (Except the super hardcore people who basically abstain from eating anything fun, I'm not one of those people)
Friday - Pot Roast in the slow cooker
Week Two Recap
A bit late after a crazy busy weekend...
Cheat Meals - 2 I caved and had a real donut Friday when I got to the office after court, and then at a friend's 30th party on Saturday
Energy- Good
Hunger- Not really, but I was craving something sweet
Favorite Meal - Chicken Pie in a Pot - super yummy, although my crust did not stay together well and I ended up crumbling it on.
Workouts - 5 I made working out a priority, and although I used to be an early riser I've realized I cannot count on that with an infant who also likes to get up early
Pounds lost - 2. Pounds to go - 25
Cheat Meals - 2 I caved and had a real donut Friday when I got to the office after court, and then at a friend's 30th party on Saturday
Energy- Good
Hunger- Not really, but I was craving something sweet
Favorite Meal - Chicken Pie in a Pot - super yummy, although my crust did not stay together well and I ended up crumbling it on.
Workouts - 5 I made working out a priority, and although I used to be an early riser I've realized I cannot count on that with an infant who also likes to get up early
Pounds lost - 2. Pounds to go - 25
Thursday, January 12, 2012
I hate Fridays
Fridays and I do not get along. I know that sounds strange, I mean who doesn't love Fridays? But Fridays at my office mean Donuts. Although donuts are not something I generally crave, and the smell of which made me physically ill during 66% of my pregnancy, I somehow always cave and have at least a few bites of one on Fridays.
A few bites sabotages my day. I know, I know, I'm a grown-up, I have will power. But I swear to you something in the donut destroys my self control. Then lunch time comes, and we always go to lunch as an office on Friday, and I find myself ordering something very non-paleo.
To ward off the temptation I decided to make my own paleo/primal donuts to bring into the office this week. Sunday night, I used part of our grocery budget to buy a donut pan, and set off on my journey of finding the perfect donut.
My first attempt was the Paleo Sugar Cookie Donut from whatrunslori.com (http://www.whatrunslori.com/2011/12/paleo-sugar-cookie-doughnuts/) While they tasted wonderful, they were just a little too wet to come out of the pan in full donut form.
Tonight, I plan on making a few tweaks to hopefully get something that more closely resembles a sinfully good donut. I also need to figure out how to make the outside crispy, as if it were fried, but don't want to fry it. I would love your ideas on how to achieve this.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Making the most of my 90 minutes
The downside to not eating processed food is cooking often involves lots of slicing and dicing. Even recipes designed to take 30 minutes or less, take closer to an hour once I'm set up with all the necessary chopped veggies.
Since I get home from the office with Hailey around 5, and she goes to bed at 6:30, I don't want to spend our entire 90 minutes together chopping onions.
To save down on my dinner prep time, I take Sunday evening and go through the week's recipes. I chop all the necessary veggies, mix spice rubs together, and set the oils I'll need at the front of the pantry. I then store the chopped veggies in a larger zip lock bag labeled with the day of the week they are needed. I also set myself google calendar reminders for throughout the week to make sure things go smoothly, since I would otherwise forget to put the chicken in the slow cooker, or turn the slow cooker on.
This week I plan to take it one step further by pre-cooking some meals the evening before after Hailey goes to bed, so I just need to heat it up the next night. I plan to do this with the Chicken in a Pot Pie and the Meatloaf. This way, I can devote my entire attention to Hailey during those 90 minutes, which go by all too quickly.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Since I get home from the office with Hailey around 5, and she goes to bed at 6:30, I don't want to spend our entire 90 minutes together chopping onions.
To save down on my dinner prep time, I take Sunday evening and go through the week's recipes. I chop all the necessary veggies, mix spice rubs together, and set the oils I'll need at the front of the pantry. I then store the chopped veggies in a larger zip lock bag labeled with the day of the week they are needed. I also set myself google calendar reminders for throughout the week to make sure things go smoothly, since I would otherwise forget to put the chicken in the slow cooker, or turn the slow cooker on.
This week I plan to take it one step further by pre-cooking some meals the evening before after Hailey goes to bed, so I just need to heat it up the next night. I plan to do this with the Chicken in a Pot Pie and the Meatloaf. This way, I can devote my entire attention to Hailey during those 90 minutes, which go by all too quickly.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Weekly Menu Plan
Our plan this week was motivated by my sinuses, my colder than normal office (which means I don't warm up all day during the week) and what's on sale at the store.
I wanted something spicy tonight to help clear out some of the gunk, and the spicy chicken wing recipe we chose really did the trick. Being cold all day also means I crave comfort foods for dinner. Unfortunately most of what comes to mind revolves around grain-based carbs. Thankfully my copies of Everyday Paleo ** and Paleo Comfort Foods ** arrived bright and early this morning, along with my subscription delivery of almond flour from amazon.com. I found some great adaptations of some of my favorite comfort meals.
Saturday Lunch - ham and plums: Dinner- spicy chicken wings from Paleo Comfort Foods and slices of red pepper (I had accidentally bought fresh red peppers last week for our spaghetti sauce, when the recipe actually called for jarred roasted)
Sunday Lunch - leftover Wings Dinner - Shepard's Pie, adapted with mashed cauliflower rather than the traditional mashed potato, and arrowroot to thicken my sauce
Weekday Lunches - larabars, fruit, cucumbers, egg salad and lunch meat
Weekday Breakfasts - Almond flour pancakes and coconut butternut squash
Monday Leftovers from Shepard's Pie
Tuesday Spice Rubbed Slow Cooker Chicken from Everyday Paleo
Wednesday Pot of Chicken Pie made with left over slow cooker chicken, adapted from Paleo Comfort Foods
Thursday Bangers and Mash (cauliflower of course)
Friday Meat Loaf with Mashed Yams adapted from Paleo Comfort Foods
** full disclosure, if you click one of the above links and make a purchase, I get a very small percentage of the sale
I wanted something spicy tonight to help clear out some of the gunk, and the spicy chicken wing recipe we chose really did the trick. Being cold all day also means I crave comfort foods for dinner. Unfortunately most of what comes to mind revolves around grain-based carbs. Thankfully my copies of Everyday Paleo ** and Paleo Comfort Foods ** arrived bright and early this morning, along with my subscription delivery of almond flour from amazon.com. I found some great adaptations of some of my favorite comfort meals.
Saturday Lunch - ham and plums: Dinner- spicy chicken wings from Paleo Comfort Foods and slices of red pepper (I had accidentally bought fresh red peppers last week for our spaghetti sauce, when the recipe actually called for jarred roasted)
Sunday Lunch - leftover Wings Dinner - Shepard's Pie, adapted with mashed cauliflower rather than the traditional mashed potato, and arrowroot to thicken my sauce
Weekday Lunches - larabars, fruit, cucumbers, egg salad and lunch meat
Weekday Breakfasts - Almond flour pancakes and coconut butternut squash
Monday Leftovers from Shepard's Pie
Tuesday Spice Rubbed Slow Cooker Chicken from Everyday Paleo
Wednesday Pot of Chicken Pie made with left over slow cooker chicken, adapted from Paleo Comfort Foods
Thursday Bangers and Mash (cauliflower of course)
Friday Meat Loaf with Mashed Yams adapted from Paleo Comfort Foods
** full disclosure, if you click one of the above links and make a purchase, I get a very small percentage of the sale
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Week One Recap
Cheat Meals - 1 - sushi for lunch on Friday.
Energy- Up, way up
Hunger- Nope
Favorite Meal - butternut squash with coconut for breakfast (added to meal plan after the blueberry balls were just not filling enough, recipe to follow with next week's plan)...followed up by the Korean Rice bowls for dinner (longer post on those to come)
Workouts - 0 :( With Hailey waking up for hours at night, and my being sick. It just didn't happen.
Pounds Lost -1... not great, but considering I didn't work out, not bad either.
Goal for Next Week - find time to work out, no excuses.
When Less Costs More
When grains and beans are absent from your diet, inexpensive fillers are difficult to find. I do save money by planning our meals around the meat and produce on sale at the store, but there is no "extreme" couponing to be had when we mainly shop the perimeter of the store instead of the aisles.
While I know the benefits to our general health are priceless, I get a little bitter about how much more it costs to eat healthy. And then there are times when the additional cost of eating healthy baffles me. I thought about this yesterday as I had to search to find unsweetened coconut flakes.
Sweetened coconut was cheap and plentiful at the store, with three different brands to choose from. The "organic" one coming in at a whopping $2.50 for a 16oz bag. Unsweetened coconut was hidden on the bottom shelf, with only one brand available and I paid $4.63 for a little 12oz bag. It's not even organic. I just don't understand how not having the added sugar costs more. You would think that the opposite would be true.
It's no wonder we have such an obesity epidemic in our society.
While I know the benefits to our general health are priceless, I get a little bitter about how much more it costs to eat healthy. And then there are times when the additional cost of eating healthy baffles me. I thought about this yesterday as I had to search to find unsweetened coconut flakes.
Sweetened coconut was cheap and plentiful at the store, with three different brands to choose from. The "organic" one coming in at a whopping $2.50 for a 16oz bag. Unsweetened coconut was hidden on the bottom shelf, with only one brand available and I paid $4.63 for a little 12oz bag. It's not even organic. I just don't understand how not having the added sugar costs more. You would think that the opposite would be true.
It's no wonder we have such an obesity epidemic in our society.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Meal Plan Week One
Breakfasts - Nutty Blueberry Protein Balls
Lunches
Isaac - Lara bars, lunch meat and apples
Amanda- Tuesday & Wednesday Jalapeno Egg Salad with lettuce
Thursday & Friday Egg Plant and Fennel Salad
Lunches
Isaac - Lara bars, lunch meat and apples
Amanda- Tuesday & Wednesday Jalapeno Egg Salad with lettuce
Thursday & Friday Egg Plant and Fennel Salad
Hailey (16 months) gets left overs from dinner
Dinners
*Monday Night - Vegetable Coconut Stew From my Quick and Easy Primal Blueprint cookbook
Dinners
*Monday Night - Vegetable Coconut Stew From my Quick and Easy Primal Blueprint cookbook
* Tuesday - Spaghetti Squash with Ragu
* Wednesday & Thursday- Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Apples and Saurkraut, based on this recipe
* Friday - Korean Cauliflower “rice” bowls
* Wednesday & Thursday- Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Apples and Saurkraut, based on this recipe
* Friday - Korean Cauliflower “rice” bowls
Introduction
As a New Year's Day baby I have always hating making resolutions on New Years Day. No one else (well aside from other Jan 1 babies) is asked what they want to improve on in the next year on their birthday. For the same reason, I refuse to eat black eyed peas for good luck. I hate beans and I'm not going to force myself to eat them on my birthday, the one day I should be able to eat whatever I want.
So I generally make my resolutions on January 2, and this year is no different. The big change this year is that Isaac and I have madea joint resolution. After veering off our Paelo/Primal track over the last few weeks we both realize how much better we feel when we are strict. So for the next year we will be a strictly Primal family. (The difference from Paleo being we will have a small amount of dairy).
For myself I also need to make more of an effort to pre-make breakfasts and lunches. Those are the two meals I most often find myself eating out for, and the more I eat out the harder it is to be grain/legume and mostly dairy free.
So I generally make my resolutions on January 2, and this year is no different. The big change this year is that Isaac and I have madea joint resolution. After veering off our Paelo/Primal track over the last few weeks we both realize how much better we feel when we are strict. So for the next year we will be a strictly Primal family. (The difference from Paleo being we will have a small amount of dairy).
For myself I also need to make more of an effort to pre-make breakfasts and lunches. Those are the two meals I most often find myself eating out for, and the more I eat out the harder it is to be grain/legume and mostly dairy free.
This blog will track our progress, meals, and health over the next year.
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