Paleo/Primal - Week One

So last Friday I went out shopping on my first full Paleo/Primal shopping trip.  It was a little more hectic than normal because I was busy reading labels and trying to figure a LOT of things out.  I should NOT have taken the girls with me.  This just made it even more crazy.

So here is what I learned from week one:

Making all this stuff is a LOT, and I mean a LOT of work.  I think it was good to try everything so I know what works and how long it will take me.  Next time I may just pick a day to do my fruit rolls for the month, rather than try and tackle EVERYTHING at once on grocery day.  I went a bit nutty though because I wanted to make sure I had PLENTY of options in there to feed the family, otherwise this was NOT going to work.

You have to determine how much your time is worth.  You have to figure out what is better to buy store bought and what is worth the savings to do at home.  I tried to make my own almond meal and that was a miserable failure (as you can read about below).

It's all about trial and error.

Anyhow, you can stop reading now if you are totally bored at this point and I won't blame you one bit, if you want, read on to see what I made and what I learned from each process.

Apple Chips

I sliced up the apples thin as I could, put them in a bath of un-sweetened apple juice (to help with browning), sprinkled them with cinnamon and baked them in the oven at 250 degrees for about two hours on a cookie rack placed on a cookie tray.  The rack helps get air underneath them and helps in the drying process.  I've tried apples in the dehydrator, but I think they turn out better in the oven.

I did about 6 apples and it really does yield a SMALL amount of apple chips in comparison to what my family will eat.  The kids LOVE these but they are rather time consuming for a really small reward. Problem is apple chips at the store are CRAZY expensive for a small amount, so for now this is one treat I'll be making at home.

homemade apple chips

Fruit Roll Ups

I have been wanting to tackle fruit rolls for a while, but didn't think I could do them since I didn't have the roll tray in my dehydrator, and I just didn't feel like keeping my oven on for 6-8 hours like this recipe suggested.  I just lined my dehydrator with plastic wrap and it turned out fine.  Of course with it not being square I didn't get the pretty little rolls on parchment paper like they did.  I just sliced it up and placed them in snack size baggies  I think I over did it though because mine were a bit more leathery than fruit roll up type.  Still yummy though.  I tried four different kinds, strawberry, mixed berries, peach and banana/pineapple.  The peach turned out a gloopy mess and I had to pull them out because they were leaking on EVERYTHING.  Berries seem to work the best.

my dried strawberry fruit leather

Home Made Almond Meal

Ok, so this was an EPIC failure.  I bought a 12oz bag of dry roasted almonds at Aldi for $3.49 a package.  I came home, stuck it in my food processor and it never turned fine enough to go through a sifter.  It was way too chunky.  The more I ground I just started to get more like almond butter.  I just ended up putting it in a tupperware container and saving it to bread some salmon or something later.  I ended up having my husband just cave and get it at Whole Foods for $6.99 a pound.  Expensive, but this was one where my time was worth more than the money it saved me.  Until I have a coffee grinder or a better food processor this is going to be store bought.

my sad failed almond meal...sigh

Homemade Beef Jerky

Jerky we have been doing for quite some time, we just pick a roast at the store, have the butcher slice it thin, and we come home and marinade it with various spices then throw it in the dehydrator and let it go.  I know they say it takes like 8-10 hours but our dehydrator seems to dry jerky CRAZY fast.  The batches took about 2-3 hours each.

peppered beef jerky.  YUM.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

My favorite meal of the week was these pancakes below, topped with 100% pure maple syrup from PaleOMG.  LOVE LOVE LOVE this site.  REALLY good stuff. Also this chick's name is Juli and she has a great sense of humor like me, so she is pretty awesome ;)

Find the recipe HERE

Homemade Granola

A recipe from my new favorite blog PaleoOMG (listed above).  This was pretty good stuff.  I subbed out the coconut oil for olive oil because I ran out.  It seemed pretty greasy, and sticky.  More like granola bar consistency, I think I could back off on the liquids and do just fine, but it's a really great start.

Img and recipe from PaleOMG here

Paleo Mayo

So, I knew this one may be tricky.  I followed these directions to a tee....it took FOREVER.  I mean seriously people you need patience for this stuff, and frankly I have none left.  My blender actually started to smoke.  No kidding.  It never seemed to get to the consistency that I thought it should so I pulled it out and put it in the food processor.  This made a pretty nasty mess because my food processor is a piece of crap little bit old.  I gave up and went BACK to the blender, loosing half my precious mayo in the process.  I finally just gave up and put it in a tupperware and figured it may not work well as mayo but I could salvage it for some type of dipping sauce.  What did you know that it started to thicken more as it stood.  I guess it was thin because of the overheating of my stupid blender got it all warm....arrgh.  If I had only figured it out twenty minutes earlier I would have saved half my batch of mayo.

Live and learn people.  Live and learn.
 

Paleo mayo

Paleo Ranch

Ok, so I used the mayo , mixed it with a little coconut milk (equal part mayo to coconut milk ratio), a crapload of dill and garlic and  a little apple cider vinegar to make Paleo Ranch dressing.  It was, different.  The coconut milk gave it a distinct sweetness that I wasn't used to with ranch.  I also tend to go overboard on garlic, like always and this was no exception.  It was not terrible, but it wasn't great.  This recipe still needs some tweaking.  Maybe next time I'll try almond milk instead of coconut milk...dunno, we will have to see.

Paleo Ranch Dressing

I tried several other recipes, coconut shrimp with creamed coconut spinach,  some quiche, etc...but it wasn't worth mentioning in the blog....

This first week seemed to go pretty well so far.  Lucy gave us the most fit out of anyone, which was expected.  Mix a kid going through the terrible two's that currently has power struggle issues as is, add in a diet change and you pretty much have a recipe for disaster.  Evie is thriving on this diet, but then again that girl will eat pretty much anything, she LOVES Paleo is what she tells me.  She also told her teacher, "We are going Paleo, which means that I'm OFF of sugar."  He he.  The older kids seem to be doing ok, Myah has her hang ups, but seems ok and Brett is seeming to like it but more to make us happy and kinda brown nose mom than anything else.  I know inside he is dying for a bowl of cereal.  However I have noticed he does seem to be more full.  He does not have his nose shoved in my pantry all the time.

Jamin got out of the 200's and only has 10 more pounds to go.  He hasn't been this weight since right after he got out of the army in 1999.

Oh, and he told me to talk about his "big muscles".  Silly man.

I don't expect us to NEVER have grains again or to do a complete Paleo Thanksgiving, I mean seriously life is for living, but as long as we can eat well like 95% of the time, we can allow ourselves an indulgence every now and again.  You better believe come Christmas time I'm gonna still be baking some of my favorite treats, but maybe just not as MANY as I normally do.  The problem comes when we have sweets and treats ALL the time...that HAD to stop.   I feel like we are really on the right track.  It's been difficult at times, but I'm hoping I'll soon get in a rhythm and of course I'm sure it will all be worth it.  I mean, check out the photo below.  That was my lunch and GOD I'm STILL full.  I can TOTALLY eat like this.

I do feel like a bit of a Hippie making my own granola. mayo and stuff, but it's also kinda fun.  If I stop shaving, decide to call myself Willow, and start wearing Birkenstocks you may want to worry though....

If you stuck with me through the entire blog post, WOW, thanks ;)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This is a family recipe from my husbands Grandma that I've adapted to make my own. Since it's Christmas time I plan to be doing a LOT of cooking (mainly sweets) and I figured I'd post the recipes as I go.

Some people are calling them "little drops of heaven", but, WHATEVER - Monica Friends

I kid, I kid. But I did hear that they were "the best oatmeal cookies ever." So, um, there is that ;)

So, as I turn into crazy Christmas candy/cookie lady, I plan to pass along some of the deliciousness to you.  Enjoy.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Mix in order. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever since I became a mom and started baking, I wanted to make sure that I had the most awesome cookie recipes around. Thanks to the Akin Family Cookbook, I mastered peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies, but I could NEVER seem to get chocolate chip cookies just right.

I was becoming a bit nutty, kinda like Monica on "Friends" (yes, I relate to Monica the most, I am SOOOOO Monica). Oh come on, you've all seen the episode where Monica wants to be the mom who makes the BEST chocolate chip cookies?

I tried everything, Paula Deen, Emeril, and yes even Nestle Toll House (insert Phoebe's French voice here "Neslee TOOL Haus")

I had given up. I would just succumb and buy the store bought cookie dough. I would not be the mom who made the worlds best chocolate chip cookies.

Then I found it. It was in a little green recipe card holder, on one of those 3 x 5 cards, in my mom's handwriting. I happened upon it by mistake. I had NO idea that it was in there. All these years it was right under my nose, and I didn't even know it.

I should have known it though, anyone that knew my mom, knew that she was a fantastic baker. It was HER thing during the holidays. Even though I miss her SO much that she has gone on to be with the Lord, I'm so glad that I have some of her heritage to pass down to my kids.

My mom and I baking during the Holiday season.

Now, I'm going to share that recipe with you.  Why?  Because it's Christmas, we are all baking, and I've decided to start sharing some of my favorites with you all.  This is what I'm making today for a class party tomorrow.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 12oz package chocolate chips

Cream together the shortening, sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Spoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 10-12 minutes.

*Disclaimer, the batter will seem unusually greasy.  It's the shortening, but the come out fine, I promise.  Also mass consumption of delicious chocolate chip cookies MAY cause your waistline to expand.  You have been warned ;)

I promise you, they are amazing.  The secret all along is the shortening.  It just makes them light and fluffy.  Butter doesn't compare at all.  In fact, my oldest daughter who LOVES to bake used up all my shortening in the house.  I currently have all the ingredients measured out on my counter as I type this, but I refuse to substitute, so I'll be heading to the store in a bit to purchase some shortening!

Also greasing the cookie sheet is a MUST, any other time I made cookies and didn't grease the sheet, they stuck to the cookie sheet and were ruined.

I hope you try the recipe and I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

Healthy Meal Ideas

I am truly blessed with a husband who will eat pretty much anything.  He is not a picky eater.  Same thing with my kids, for the most part they will eat just about anything.  There are a few items that they don't like, but that is to be expected with anyone.

We do however get extremely bored in our family eating the same thing week after week. I realized some time ago that I could easily get in a rut recycling the same meals over and over again. I would sometimes venture out and check out some stuff on Food Network, but some of that stuff can be a little bit more high brow than what I want to make for a weekly meal (with the exception of Rachel Ray...I do a lot of her meals since they are mostly quick and easy and Paula Deen is wonderful but I think every one of her recipes has a ginormous amount of butter in it...SIGH wonderful, wonderful, butter).

Another issue is that we have been trying to eat healthier/low cal/low fat meals.  This threw me for a loop at first because I'd been cooking a certain way for YEARS, and to completely change my eating habits and the way I cooked wasn't going to be easy (insert whining here). After a couple years of TRYING to eat healthy I think I've finally gotten it down, especially over the past year.

So, within the past year SparkRecipies has become my go to place for a good, healthy meal. I've tried out a TON of stuff on there and some has worked, some has not. It's a gamble, but sometimes it turns out to be totally worth it.

I also stumbled across a blog called Our Best Bites.  I have fallen in LOVE with these meals.  Not all of them are low cal/low fat, but some are.  

There are several of my friends out there who are trying to find healthy meals that actually taste good,  or some friends that just need some new ideas, so I decided to share what has worked for me recently over the past several weeks. 

Peanut and Sesame Noodles (SparkRecipies)
This was a HUGE gamble.  It was kinda a wacky out there recipe.   I added some steamed frozen broccoli to the recipe because it just needed something different.  My kids totally loved this.  It is a bit "heavy" tasting, but it's still only a little above 200 calories per serving.  This turned out to be good enough to make again!

New England Clam Chowder (SparkRecipies)I was also concerned about a "low fat" version of clam chowder.  Also when I purchased the clam juice in the store I thought it looked like the grossest thing I'd ever seen. (It was a running joke in our house that if you did something wrong, you'd have to drink the clam juice). I kept pushing this meal off until finally it was one of the last things in the cupboard.  This was YUM.  Only 153 calories per serving!  Even the kids loved it!

Alfredo Pesto Chicken (SparkRecipies)
This was pretty good.  231 calories per serving BEFORE the whole wheat pasta.  Not bad, and it was really easy.  Nothing to write home about, but still not bad.  It was easy and that's what made it so good I think.

Slow Cooker Beef and Mushrooms (Spark Recipies)
This was a HUGE hit at our house.  HUGE.  I added a bit of low fat sour creme at the end and served over whole wheat egg noodles to make it a healthy alternative to stroganoff.  My whole family LOVED it.  I don't care for mushrooms, but the chunks were big enough that I was able to pick them out.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (SparkRecipies)
I'd never made my own pizza dough before and this turned out really good, AND it's healthy to boot!  I topped it with low fat cheese and veggies (zucchini) and grilled chicken.  The kids loved it (even our friends kids who were over for the evening that I was babysitting).  They looked at it and said "we don't like that kind of pizza."  That was about ten minutes before they cleared their plates and kept coming back for more. 

Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas (Food Network)
I stumbled upon this about a year ago and fell in love with it.  I've made it a handful of times since then.  The mushrooms are really hard to pick out, so if you don't like them, omit them.  This is really good with some pico or guac on the side.  Guac is high fat, but it's a good fat.


Baked Sweet Potato Fries (Our Best Bites)
I was extremely leery of these.  I had tried them once before (a different recipe) and failed miserably at making them.  My family HATED them the first time.  I kept running into them though on different websites and everyone just raved at how yummy they were.  I thought I'd give it a try one last time.  I came across this recipe and realized that I just didn't cook mine long enough and that made them really soggy the first time.  These turned out perfect.  They were crispy on the outside and yummy on the inside.  I didn't make their dip because I had honey mustard dip in the fridge and that was easier.

Smoky Honey Mustard Pork Chops (Our Best Bites)
My husband made these last night while I made the sweet potato fries.  OMG they were delicious.  I have always had trouble with pork chops.  The ones that I usually liked were the high fat bad for you chops, and the other chops I would get (boneless) were the breakfast chops which had zero flavor.  I can't believe this is the first time I bought sirloin pork chops.  They were low fat, tender and full of flavor after cooking them on the grill.  They were great!

I have a lot of neat meal ideas on the menu for this week (Southwest stuffed bell peppers, Greek style pita sandwiches, zucchini fries with corn flake nuggets, & Manicotti)  Can't wait to try out all these new recipes!

Money Saving Tip #1 - cooking a whole chicken

I'm not big on New Years resolutions, but my husband and I decided that this year we are going to really focus on trying to get completely out of debt. We are taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church to help us get motivated. We KNOW the principles, but we really think that the class we help keep us accountable. Not just accountable to ourselves, but to a group as well. At the same time we hope to meet other couples that are going through the same thing we are.

So, I took most of November and December off of couponing, and just let it slack, but I'm back in full swing. I took all day Monday and clipped about six weeks worth of coupons and re-organized my big binder.

I thought along the way of me trying to save a penny here and there that I would share some of my successes. Here is my money saving tip #1.

I take a whole chicken (about $3-$4 at Aldi) and cook it. I usually get 3 meals out of it and the best chicken stock you will ever have.

So here goes.

I take the chicken after it's thawed, rinse it and put it in a large stock pot with onion, celery, carrots, salt, pepper and garlic. I don't bother peeling the onion or garlic because I drain that out at the end and it adds flavor. Cover it with water and boil it until the chicken is falling off the bone.

After it is done, I pull out the chicken and drain the broth into a big pot, using a strainer to remove all the vegetables, so I'm just left with the broth.  I separate the broth into containers and place it in the fridge.  It needs to cool so the fat can come to the top.  Once the fat is floating on the top you just skim it off and can freeze it for use later to make some of the best chicken soup you will ever have.

While my broth is cooling I cut up my chicken and pull it from the bone.  Make sure not to get any bones in your meat.  It should be coming off the bone pretty easily.

I chop up my chicken and freeze it in labeled bags.  I usually freeze about two cups of chicken at a time because I have a large family and usually double my recipes for chicken pot pie and chicken and dumplings etc...if you have a smaller family you could freeze it in one cup portions and your meals will stretch farther.

I was able to get three meals worth of chicken and some awesome broth for about $4.  It costs some time and patience now, but in the long run it will save me time and money on dinners to be able to just thaw out the cooked chicken and throw it in a easy meal.

You'd think they grew on trees or something...

My two year old LOVES apples.  She usually eats at least one a day.

Tonight her daddy grabbed the last apple that we had.  She was NOT happy about it.  Daddy also doesn't like to share food.  In fact, he has stolen the quote from friends where Joey screams "JOEY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD," and changed it to "DADDY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD!"

I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

But I digress...

Daddy had the apple.  Evie wanted it.

She comes over to me and gives me the sad face "I want an apple mommeeee."

"I'm sorry sweetie," I reply, "you have to ask your daddy."

"Daddy said NO."  (big pouty face)

"I'm sorry sweetie." I then turned my head and continued watching Idol.

Two seconds later I have a hand forcefully pushing my head in the direction of her father.

"YOU ASK HIM!" she yells.

My Latest Project

So, I know for many of the moms that I'm friends with this is nothing new to them, but to me it is pretty fun and exhilarating.  I've decided to make my own baby food for Lucy.  With all three of my others I just bought the jar food, but this can get pretty costly, and with a family our size and with me being the stay at home mom, part of my job is to learn where we can save money and cut costs.

So, let me nerd out on you a bit and go into some detail.  Baby food stage one comes in a two pack.  This two pack costs 88 cents.  Lucy goes through 4 a day, two for lunch and two for dinner (breakfast and bedtime she has cereal).  This roughly comes to $52.80 per month.  That is a pretty hefty chunk of change for a one income family.  So, this is why I took on this endeavor.  I'd love to say it was for the health benefits, but that just ended up being a secondary perk...

So, I decided to puree my baby food.  I did peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, butternut squash, bananas and pears.  I used the magic bullet and food processor.  I found that the magic bullet worked better than the large food processor because I could work in smaller portions and add more water or add more food as needed, whereas with the big processor if I messed up I would have lost the whole batch, and it also made a MUCH bigger mess to clean.

There is a shot of the sweet potatoes.  They look pretty gross, but I actually tasted them and I couldn't believe how yummy they were.  They were NOTHING like the jarred kind.  Once I tasted how good these meals for Lucy were and once I realized how much fun I was having making them I was hooked.  I wish I would have done this with all my others.

After I pureed the food I froze it into ice cube trays.  Two cubes equal about one jar of food.  So, after I was done with all the veggies, I counted how many meals I had and how much it cost me.  The total cost of the veggies came to $5.48, which if I would have purchased equal amounts of Gerber jar food it would have cost me $24.64, so it was a total savings of $19.16!  Score!

After the cubes of food were frozen, I popped them out of the ice trays and sealed and labeled them in ziplock baggies, to pull out for easy servings.  Lucy LOVES the food.  The cool thing about this is I can also puree leftovers of my own meals as she gets older and she will all ready be used to the flavor of our cooking!  I even pureed some leftover chicken noodle soup the other day and froze them into cubes (she is not quite ready for that yet, but I will have it when she is ready for the next stage!)

This project was so much fun, I thought it was going to be a huge chore and not worth all the work.  It is a bit time consuming, but it was actually fun and relaxing, and I loved knowing how much money I was saving and exactly what was going into Lucy's meals.  I'm totally converted and will never buy another ounce of jar food again!

Why yes, I did swallow a watermelon.

Ok, so it's summer and the season for fresh fruit. I love to buy all the fruit, come home, wash it and put it in tupperware containers so I can munch when I please and all the work is done. I purchased a watermelon two weeks ago at the supermarket (part of my normal summer routine), came home and began chopping away at the thing.

I decided while chopping to take a little sample, and well, I could have just died and went to heaven. I could have SWORN that this was the sweetest best watermelon that I had tasted in my entire life.

So, let me paint you a picture of what this looks like. Me, barefoot and VERY pregnant in the kitchen with a butcher knife in one hand and a dripping piece of watermelon in the other hand. I'd cut a piece and put it away, then eat a piece, and so on and so on....i'm sure it was rather disgusting and unladylike looking me there with watermelon juice dripping down my chin and landing on my very big belly.

By the time the watermelon was finished and cut up, I didn't have as much in the container as I expected.

Three days later the watermelon was gone. My family griped for a few days that nobody else got any, but it's not possible is it? I didn't eat the whole thing did I?

Today was grocery day. Yes, I bought another one. My daughter moaned about how she "won't get any of this watermelon either because mom is going to eat it all!"

I noticed chopping it up today that I must have bought a much larger watermelon, because rather than one tupperware I had three. Then I came to a horrible realization. I ATE HALF the watermelon last time I cut it up. No wonder I didn't have as much as I expected.

So, when asked "are you pregnant or did you just swallow a watermelon?" I can just simply say "Yes".

Payback

When I first had the kids (Myah and Brett) I was concerned about getting payback for how much of a picky eater that I was. Surprisingly though, both Myah and Brett never really put up too much of a fuss with meals. They tried to as they got older, but now they will pretty much eat anything. Salad, veggies, you name it, they will eat it.

All I could do was just thank God that he is not vengeful and he truly blessed me with such wonderful eaters.

God does however have a sense of humor. He was laughing because he knew Evie was coming. He just waited until I was older and more patient to deal with it.

She will cry through whatever it is she doesn't like, until she gets what she does like (sweets). Green Beans, Peas, anything with meat in it, even Mac N Cheese she hates. She only likes the sweet veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes) and bananas and applesauce. Hates pears, peaches, will sometimes eat prunes depending on her mood. I tried Mac n cheese for the first time tonight. She screamed through it, so I gave up. I then went to peas. She ate it but she sure put up a fuss until they were done (this one she would at least swallow and not gag on). Once I busted out the applesauce for dessert she was just fine.




A photo of my picky eater.

"I'll eat it but I won't like it."