Tuesday Things

Just some randomness!

• I installed Disqus so hang in there while I figure it out.

• Lee shared an article on banning photography in restaurants and wrote her own opinions about it.  I'm totally with Lee about photographing food.  I don't think it's a big deal but I definitely do it discreetly.

•  I love this post from The Primal Toad!  Why do I always find myself nodding my head in agreement while reading his posts.  This article is on paleo police and while I agree with him it drives me bonkers when I see people label things "paleo" that are not.  Peanuts, beans, corn...  I feel like they are ignorant and haven't researched the lifestyle.  Maybe I'm a part time paleo police officer?  

•  I found a couple new blogs this week thanks to instagram.  Why is it so hard to find paleo bloggers? Not that I don't love reading non-paleo blogs...

-Nummy For My Tummy
-Paleo Jess
-Cinnamon Eats
-Bigspoon Lilspoon

• I'm a big jar recycler.  I save all my sunflower seed butter and coconut oil jars.

Random but true... And helpful!

• One last thing... A blog post I read today from Nummy In My Tummy.  She talks about some self confidence issues with her daughter.  That is one of my biggest fears raising a little girl.  I want my daughter to always know she's beautiful and I never want her to worry about what people think about her.  What I love about this post is the way she handled the situation.  It's a must read especially if you have a little girl.

Meal Prep Meals

All meals I ate today were made yesterday. After reading through your comments yesterday and today I started to really think about meal prepping. "Is it worth it" really came to my mind a lot. After today I can tell you it was TOTALLY worth it.  It looks overwhelming and hard but it's really not.  Make a list of meals, make a list of groceries, and get going.  Set aside time to succeed.  Seriously, there are NO excuses.

Breakfast:

That ground pork mixture I made yesterday plus two eggs.  This took a little longer because I had to cook the eggs.

And coffee made with foamy coconut milk.


I just use my milk frother.

Why does it make it taste so much better?

Gym:  An hour of pilates and 30 minutes on the stairclimber.

Snack:  
I forgot my snack at home and didn't have anything in my bag.  Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.  I failed. I thought a coffee would tide me over until lunch but then I walked into the coffee place.

I walked out with a large coffee and two bon bons.  Was it worth it.... yes... They were freaking amazing.  AND they are locally made by South'n France here in Wilmington.

Lesson learned- Always go through the drive-thru.

Lunch:

Stir fry beef with sunshine sauce.  This took one minute to make.  Literally one minute in the microwave.

Plus a strawberry kombucha.


Dinner:

Pulled pork from yesterday plus salt and vinegar cabbage and sautéed veggies.  Another minute or two meal.  Everything was made yesterday.

I'm thinking of installing Disqus to my blog for comments.  I'm so tired of not replying in a feed.  Do any of you use a third party for comments?  If you have Disqus how do you like it?

Weekly Preparations

I spent a lot of time this weekend making food for the week.  Seems to be a trend for many people!

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.  Right?

So this weekend I made...

• Homemade applesauce in the slow cooker.

8 apples peeled, cored, and diced with 1/2 cup water cooked on low for 8 hours.  Then just a second in the vitamix.  The kids love it.

• Chocolate chip pancake dippers

One cup pancake mix (we use kodiak cakes whole grain buttermilk and honey) plus one cup of whole milk and 1/4 cup enjoy life mini chocolate chips.  For the kids for breakfast this week.

• A double batch of sunshine sauce.

To go with...

• A mix of grass fed beef, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, peppers, onion, garlic and broccoli.

Sunshine sauce is amazing on top of this!

• A pork shoulder in the slow cooker.



For the rub I used 1 teaspoon of each- chili powder, garlic salt, salt, pepper, paprika, and red pepper flakes.

Cooked on low for 12 hours no water required.

• Salt and vinegar cabbage


• Hardboiled eggs


• A mix of ground pork, apples, onion, and kale.
I'll probably eat this with fried eggs in the morning.

• Sweet potatoes

For after the gym.

• Salted cinnamon coconut chips

For when I want something sweet.

• Random sauteed veggies
Lunch and dinner sides for the kids.

Just a note- I do use plastic containers to store our food but I do not reheat anything in them.  I have an extra set of glass tupperware that I use for things I want to reheat in the container.  Like the husbands lunches.

Do you meal prep?  If so what do you do?

The First Weekend

I promise I'll stop whining soon... The first weekend is always tough.  The week is usually pretty easy because we have a good routine but the weekend is when we do family things.  My idea of staying as busy as possible through the week worked.  I had a great Saturday!

Today on the 28 day blog challenge I got caught up on my google reader and organized it a little better.  I also added five new blogs to it.  I love reading new blogs!  Sometimes it's the little things that make you feel more organized.

Breakfast:

I had a rough night with LB last night so when I got up this morning I wasn't going to the gym.  Then I was.  Then I was going to go later in the day.  Then all of a sudden I had to go right now and be at the 8:15 combat class.  In my hurry out the door I forgot to eat breakfast.  I didn't realize that until I was in the class.  I ate that Kit's Organic bar afterwards.

I love love love those bars!  Especially the chocolate coconut!  Way more betta than Larabars.

Gym:  An hour of body combat.

Lunch:

Taco hamburger helper and two eggs from the backyard.

Plus some kale chips straight off the baking sheet.


It was freezing cold today so we did a whole lot of nothing this afternoon.  We painted and played with stick on tattoos... We also broke out one of squirrel's Christmas presents.  Her easy bake oven.

Can you tell she liked it?

When did she get so big?  Check out this post... Time goes by too fast.


Dinner:

I had dinner at my parent's house.  A cheeseburger, potatoes with butter, and salad with ranch.  It wasn't paleo but it was so nice to feel comforted by my family.  Just being at my mom and dad's put me at ease.  There's nothing better.

What comforts you?

What Day Is It?

I've been in such a fog the past few days that today I really didn't remember what day it was.  This week has flown by but each day has stood still.  Does that make sense?  I missed yesterdays Thursday's Things and I totally forgot about Friday's Favorites.

Did you guys remember that today was the first day of the 28 day blog challenge?  For my first day I made a schedule of posts.

I can be a bit scattery in real life and here on my blog so I'm hoping this keeps me on track.  I'm also hoping it gives my blog some good and different content.  Then I won't have food journal posts for everything.  That all starts Monday... So today you get a food journal post haha!

Breakfast:

Breakfast was quick- A green smoothie made with kale, SFH grassfed vanilla whey, half a banana, and water.  I packed a snack for after the gym- a hardboiled egg, carrots, and coconut water.

Perfectly peeled egg!


I knew I was going to Starbucks this morning...

So I packed my to-go cup with coconut milk in the bottom.

Gym:  A quick and simple push workout (chest press, tricep kickbacks, dumb bell flys, shoulder press) plus abs and 20 minutes of cardio.

If you were on Instagram today you saw what I found after the gym!

THREE EGGS!  That means all three hens are laying eggs.  Yay!  Now I've got to start eating eggs because I just bought a bunch at the store.

Lunch:

Leftover taco hamburger helper and kale chips.


Plus a new to me kombucha.

Dinner:

Friday nights are always pizza, popcorn, and a movie night for us.  Sometimes we order pizza... sometimes.  Usually we make the kids a gluten free pizza and we eat something different.  Pizza is my favorite food so I decided to splurge a little on Friday nights and have pizza too!  Tonight I made the kids their pizza...

And made me a cauliflower crust pizza.


I am a huge fan of cauliflower pizza crust.  You either love it or hate it.  The hubs isn't a fan but I prefer it over regular pizza crust.  The one trick I've learned is you have to use preshredded cheese.  You can't grate fresh mozz.  I did it once and it was disastrous.


I used Rao's marinara sauce, Organic Valley shredded mozzarella, and Applegate pepperoni.


What is one food you can't live without?