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Showing posts from February, 2014

Exciting News and a Month in Review

If you are local to our area (Indiana).  Mr. and I are excited to share with you that he will be doing a LIVE segment this Sunday morning at 9:50 a.m. on  Fox 59 .  He will be sharing our Paleo success with Emeals and Paleo.  I will not be able to join him as I work Sunday mornings.  He will represent us well and I am excited to get the word out about this blog and Paleo in general! If you've been visiting the blog the last couple of weeks you'll notice that I've been doing the Learning Curve that comes along with blogging.  I have no background in writing or blogging so it's been a slow process.  Thanks for being patient.  I've recently purchased a domain name and so at some point will be able to share this with all of you.  Let's just say You Tube videos and I have become good friends this week!  I have soooo much to learn. If your new to us or have missed something this month here's a quick recap of your favorite posts during our first month of blo

10 Simple Ways to get your Kids to Eat #Paleo

10 Simple Ways to get your Kids to Eat # Paleo ! 1.  Have a chat!   My boys were 8 when we started our journey.  My husband and I had a chat with them about changing our eating habits.  Luckily they had taken a food class at our local library and they knew the importance of fruits and vegetables.  The obstacle became explaining to them why we weren't using the My Plate method as that is what they learned.  The My Plate method is the government recommended program on nutrition. 2.  Start with 1 meal a day!   When we started and after our family discussion we thought they should be all in.  That did not happen.  Mr. and I would make them Eggs and Bacon for breakfast and pair it with a different fruit each day.  On the third day of eating eggs for breakfast G money sunk his head in his hands and wanted to know why he just couldn't eat oatmeal.  It took me a little while to get into the egg habit too.  You  can read about that here:  I heart eggs! .   Mr. and I quickl

Lining up the Ingredients...

Everyone has their own style of cooking but today I'd like to share how I am able to fly through recipes quickly.  I am not sure when I started doing this or how long I've been doing it, although it's been a good while even before Paleo.  I usually cook with recipes.  That's just how I roll and am much more comfortable that way.  What helps me make sure I don't skip steps is to line up my ingredients as it calls for it in the recipe.  This helps me do 2 things.  First I make sure that I have everything the recipe calls for before I am in the middle of it and find out that I can't make it.  Plus it also helps me fly through putting it together.  Sometimes, when I have time in the morning I line up the ingredients like I did here for my Spicy Turkey Chili.   When I come home from work and I am getting ready to make a recipe or marinade I still tend to line the ingredients up.  It seems to make the process go smoother when I am prepping and cooking.

I HEART EGGS!

Pre paleo, I was not a breakfast eater.  I would go in spurts but a bowl of cereal or a cup of yogurt were about as much as I ever thought of regarding breakfast.  I am not a morning person either, so many days I would be running too late for breakfast.   Then came Paleo.  As I was learning how to navigate the lifestyle I was already tired of eggs.  I didn't love eggs.  I promise I've been trying to avoid loving them but something happened to me in the last 6 months and it's time that I come clean.  I love eggs!  I look forward to them every morning. Sometimes at night I think about how I will make them the next day! Woo...that feels better. So now that it's out there, let me tell you how I learned to love them.  Every day I try and fix them a different way and I rotate through the week.  Fried hard, Fried Soft, Scrambled, Scrambled with Veggies are on constant rotation at my house.  Then I try to switch up what I have with them.  Different fruits on the side, l

Looking forward to the week ahead...

Often times I am asked how I manage to meal plan and prepare for the week ahead.  I work full time and run kids to after school activities like everyone else.  I've been meal planning before Paleo so I haven't noticed a big change except I am not as familiar with recipes so it does take me a little longer to cook.  We've been using meal plans through  Emeals  since September 2013.  I get the meals sent to my inbox on Wednesday so that gives me a few days to determine how to proceed.  I don't cook every meal that comes from the meal plan.  Typically though I will use 4-6 depending on the week.  Some I know we won't like, some are too time consuming, and others like fish I'd prefer not to cook inside. Emeals isn't perfect.  Last week there was a recipe for "on the grill." Well we don't have a gourmet kitchen and our outside grill has 6 inches of snow on top of it.  Also it isn't strict Paleo.  There are dressings etc that use honey and pure

Media Support!

The Perfect Human Diet Along the journey there have been articles, Facebook posts, blogs, and people that have inspired me to keep moving forward.  I don't find the Paleo Lifestyle to be the easiest to follow.  Let me give you a couple of quick examples. In September we took the boys to a Red's Game.  It was just after our 30 day strict Paleo when I had decided to extend to 90 days.  We had a salad and snacks on the way to the game but baseball games are long and food is meant to be eaten at a stadium.  Sometime around the 5th inning I took one of the boys to get a snack and looked for something for myself.  I did find an apple, small bag of pistachios, and a bottle of water to the tune of $21.  I saved my receipt that day because I wanted to remember to always keep as focused as I was in the beginning. Social settings are always hard to navigate too.  Many of our church gatherings and fundraisers have a set menu and we avoid those things which we use to be very prese

THE SYMBOL OF A RING

When I started my journey I had something I wanted to accomplish that I probably didn't tell anyone.  I have shared it with a few people after the fact.  In my weight gain and all the things I couldn't do, wear, or accomplish one thing bothered me more than anything.  I couldn't get my wedding ring on my finger. I've always had large hands.  My fingers are puffy and it had been years since I had gotten to wear my wedding ring.  Many mornings it would leave a pit in my stomach and I can't tell you how many times I would try hoping that some of the water weight had made my fingers small enough to slip it on. Our anniversary is in September and a year and half ago I had contemplated having it resized so I could wear it again.  I didn't have a real goal or the gumption to loose weight.  In the end, I was too embarrassed to walk into the jewelry store and admit defeat.  When we began our journey this past August the first thing I started to do was slip my rin

In search of good pants!

In my mind when I decided to jog to my parents for dinner it would be a nice easy pace while looking around at the beautiful quiet scenery this beautiful 24 degree day provided.  I started by asking both boys if they wanted to jog with me.  It's 1.5 miles from my house to theirs.  Both were eager to join me and I told them to put on appropriate attire and headed upstairs to change my own.  Yesterday I purchased a pair of running pants so I could jog outside.  All my current workout pants are too big that they fall down.  New running pants on (a size smaller than I previously wore) I headed down stairs to lace up my shoes.  By the time I got down stairs I had already lost one boy to the challenge!  When G-money and I headed outside I explained to him that I was going to go a slow pace but my goal was to jog the entire time.  As soon as I took a couple of strides I thought how weird that these pants I just bought were falling down but I pulled them up as it must just be a fluke.  I

A New Homecoming Day!

Our kiddos were born at 29 weeks and 2 days.  G money only weighed 2 lb 4 oz and Smooth E weighed 2 lb 10 oz.  They spent 7 weeks and 2 days in the NICU.  Luckily they both got to come home together and we celebrate Homecoming Day every year.  We started the tradition when they were 1 by taking them to  Chuck E Cheese for our annual celebration.  Last night we headed there to follow tradition.  This year was a New Homecoming type of day though.  In the past I've taken my coupons and we've gotten as much pizza and soda we could get while sticking to our budget.  But this year was different since we've been following Paleo and the boys were both good with the changes.  This year we took our coupons for coins only and then headed to  Texas Roadhouse  for dinner.  Here are a couple of pics of the boys with their tickets.  Sorry for the blury pictures! Smooth E collecting his winnings!     G money excited with his earnings! We've not eaten out

Paleo Transition as a Family

Last Night was another throw together dinner.  My Mr. had planned Seasoned Pork Chops from a local butcher.  They are so good on the grill but we made these in the oven.  Still tasty.  He also mentioned we had cauliflower on hand and wondered about mashed cauliflower. For some reason, I am not a big fan of Cauliflower Mash unless my friend makes it.  Hers is really good.  I suggested Caulirice and he agreed.  We also did Sweet Potato fries too.  I still have this thing with three things on my plate.  I know this is weird but I do!  Of course I forgot to take a picture of my plate before I ate it all.  So I took a picture of our leftovers, but their were no sweet potato fries to speak of left.  I'm sure I'll make them again and will be able to share.   Baked Season Pork Chops and Caulirice Caulirice is simple enough to make.  Simply cut up a head of Cauliflower.  Add 1/4 to your Food Processor and pulse.  Repeat until all cauliflower is a rice consistency.  I always

Stepping Out In Support of Paleo

My goal is for this Blog to help someone make the switch to Paleo and ultimately live a happier and healthier life.  I am stepping out in support of the Paleo lifestyle because it has changed my life and my husbands life for the better.   Please know that I am not a writer.  My "style" if you will, of writing is more conversational than gramatical and I am o.k. with that.  I hope you can be too because I think I have a lot of great experience from learning how to actually live the Paleo lifestyle to share! For now, however, I'd like to share with you my dinner from last night.  I've just returned from an extended trip and my Mr. has been taking care of grocery shopping and meal planning and does it much differently than me but I fused our efforts and made Maple Mustard Chicken Thighs with Cabbage Apple, Bacon, and Walnut Side Dish.  This recipe was taken in part from www.emeals.com  and changed to what we had on hand.   EMeals  is my go to place for all recipes