Going Primal

It once again has been weeks since my last post. My afternoons, which I used to use for blogging time, have been recently taken up with graphic design work and doing a Wordpress site, which I've nerded out on completely and had a TON of fun with.  So MUCH fun in fact I'm considering taking my blog over to Wordpress, but I'm a little freaked about the transition...

Anyhow onto my food journey.  My husband was struggling with his diet and I didn't know exactly what to do.  This week at bible study I lifted him up in prayer, when I did so I also asked that they pray that God show me how to help him and support him.

Funny things happen when you pray.  God will push you out of your comfort zone.

Ok, let me get totally real here and yes, I'm gonna air my dirty laundry.  I've always tried to be real here, and it's time for me to make a confession.  I've been a horrible un-supportive wife to my husband.  For over a year now we have both been working out, trying to eat healthier, but I've been kinda smug and nasty about it all.  I've totally thought "this is HIS battle.  He is the one who needs to loose the weight, not me.  I can eat what I want within reason and I won't gain, so why should I quit the foods I love?"

I know people.  I'm ashamed of myself.  VERY ashamed.

So I would still buy the vanilla wafers, the graham crackers, cookies, treats and sweets.  I'd bake brownies on the weekends and smother them in ice cream and caramel syrup.  I'd make cookies when I felt like it and claimed that it was for the children.  I'd buy fruit snacks, chips and cookies and explain it was for the kids lunch.

Even though I was cooking grilled chicken for dinner with broccoli and salads, and offering some healthy choices in there, there were still cookies in the pantry.  It was like blowing smoke rings into someones face that was desperately trying to quit.  I didn't even realize what I was doing.

So, as I prayed. God began to reveal to me how I'd been behaving.  Not only has he revealed this but he gave me a desire to take our whole family into a Paleo/Primal lifestyle.  (if you haven't heard of it, you can see what it is about here) We can't do it if we all don't do it together.  I can't expect Jamin and I to eat one way and the kids to still have all kinds of grains and sugar in there just calling out to us.

I repented.  I apologized.  I'm trying to change.

As I started scouring the internet looking for recipes and snacks I became more motivated.  My BIGGEST concern was the kids lunches.  What on EARTH would I send with them if I couldn't give them a sandwich in their lunch box?

So I started Googling Paleo kids lunches and came up with quite a few great ideas:

www.paleoparents.com

www.everydaypaleo.com

Look at those cute little cucumber sandwiches!  Rolled lunch meats, little smokies, apples, pickles, olives, etc...

I came up with a schedule of meals for them next week.  I think the biggest challenge for the kids will be cereal and bread.  Lucy eats a PB&J sandwich EVERY day.  She is my most picky eater.  Evie won't have a problem with the fruits and veggies, but she doesn't really like eggs, so that will make breakfast difficult.  I plan to try this breakfast hash and seeing if that will satisfy her:

I've also found some recipes that use coconut flour and almond flour in lieu of white flour so I can try my hand at some Paleo pancakes and waffles.  We will see how it goes!  I'm gonna try making my own almond meal because I just don't feel like forking over $9.99 a pound for it at Whole Foods. 

I'm considering buying my own coconut to make coconut flakes, but depending on the cost I may or may not go this far.  Since I'm doing more primal than Paleo I am going to keep SOME dairy in our diet, but very very little.  For the most part Jamin and I will go without but I do plan on having some in there.  For dairy I'm going for hormone free, full fat dairy (rather than organic because of cost).  Braums milk is very good and hormone free, and their eggs are also cage free I believe!  Later this summer hopefully we can get a freezer and buy a side of grass fed beef from Jamin's uncle.  For now I'll keep buying the Fit and Active from Aldi.  It's not organic, but it's "natural" which is the next best thing and means it's free of hormones.

Anyhow I'm not sure if we can be 100% strict and I'm not sure I want to be crazy strict, I believe you do need to allow yourself some freedom now and again, but for now I'm getting ALL the junk out of my house and I think that will get us eating good like 95% of the time. 

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I'm hoping that this will be a REALLY positive change for our family.

Fitness Goals 2012

In the summer of 2011 I really hit it hard at the gym. I was doing boot camp two days a week, Zumba twice a week and C25K three times a week. I saw some massive results once I started in with my running.

Once I finished C25K though I never actually RAN a stinkin 5K. Then fall came and the kids went back to school, our schedule got crazy busy, and I went full force into a BUNCH of DIY projects followed by the Holidays. I still continued to work out, but I ate everything I wanted. Funny thing is while I was downing all the sweets in the world I wanted and NOT watching my eating, I lost like 5 pounds. No kidding. I know I know, hate me if you like.

Even though I may have LOST weight during the holidays, I felt gross. I was tired. I felt weak. I wasn't hitting the gym with my usual passion and my nutrition was going downhill fast. I was still hitting my Ease into 10K plan, but I'd hit it three times one week then skip a whole week, or only do it once. THEN I realized I'm getting these massive migraines on running days. I'm sure its from dehydration and improper nutrition.

So, here I am, feeling like a total mess. I feel weak. Something MUST change.

We've all seen this on Pinterest right?  Exactly how I feel.

So this past week I've been eating MUCH better and I've come up with a new workout routine to hopefully help me get to my goals. My weight is almost to the place I want it, what I REALLY need now is some muscle. My husband wants me to do Crossfit, but as much as I'd LOVE to it just doesn't fit in with my schedule at this time (childcare issues and such). I know Crossfit and running alone could take me right to the level that I would want, but I have to find something that works with my life right now so I've come up with a plan.

I will continue with my E210K plan and run a 10K the beginning of march. I will be running Mon, Wed and Friday morning at the gym while the rest of my family sleeps. Six AM and 30 degrees does NOT agree with me. I HATE the cold. I know running on the treadmill is NOT the same as the street, so I plan to mix in some street running when the weather gets a bit better.

Tues, Thurs and Saturday I'm mixing back in P90X. I never felt more bad ass and strong than when I did that program. (You can read about my journey here). It will help me gain the muscle that I really need. I'm not doing Plyo, Kenpo or Yoga, I'm just doing the strength days and Ab Ripper X.

THEN if my schedule allows and I feel like it I may hit up Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday. Depends on how my day is going. I also may hit up boot camp every now and again on Monday & Wednesday. I like the girls in those classes, and it gives me time to unwind and the kids can play in the daycare.

It's a crazy workout schedule. My husband said that If I stick to it all this week, at the end of the week he would detail my van for me. He he.

Him doing dishes in an apron and detailing my van for me in one week would just be crazy awesome.  He really needs to learn to stop betting me.  I always win.

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.

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".