Paleo chips????

One of the biggest things we have struggled with when trying to stay true to our diet is snacking. Well we have found a great option that is created with the powerhouse vegetable kale. This vegetable right here is one of the best you could ever eat, and has shown significant health benefits including cancer protection and lowered cholesterol. One cup of kale includes 33 calories and 9% of the daily value of calcium, 206% of vitamin A, 134% of vitamin C and 684% of vitamin K!! It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese and phosphorus. So yeah, you pretty much want to keep some of this bad boy in your kitchen 🙂

Ingredients

Kale

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

pepper

parchment paper

Directions

1. preheat your oven to 375 degrees

2. cover a baking sheet with parchment paper

3. break up kale and place in a single layer on the parchment paper (the kale with almost shrink in half when cooked so no need to be stingy when placing on the pan, just make sure the kale is not on top of each other)

4. drizzle the top of the kale with olive oil

5. sprinkle salt & pepper on top, you can also add cumin or lemon pepper etc if you’d like. Just keep in mind once again the kale does shrink so don’t go crazy with the salt & pepper, or else it will be too salty and unless you just like salt as a meal. In that case salt away 😉

6. bake for about 10 minutes, keep an eye on it though. Different stoves heat higher or lower than the temp you choose. If you keep it in too long you will have a smoke fest when you pull it out (and yes I learned that the hard way).

7. pull out when done and after cooling off it is ready to eat 🙂

I made 4 batches the other day, and no lie my husband ate every bit of them as soon as he got home and has yet to stop bragging to everyone about how god they were.

I swear it’s better than ice cream :)

Ok so I know you are probably thinking “there is no way whatever she is posting is better than ice cream” but I promise everyone in my household has gone nuts over this sweet treat I make! It’s very simple, and it is the perfect addition to a bowl of fruit. We have put it over peaches, blueberries and strawberries. And come on, it’s HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk 

1tsp cinnamon 

1tsp pure vanilla extract 

2tbs (I use about 3) raw honey

 

Directions 

1. Pour all ingredients into a blender and mix until honey is blended well. You can even heat the honey up for about 30 seconds before adding if you’d like but I don’t see the need to because it blends just fine for me without. 

2. Pour mix into a mason jar (I keep a arsenal of these in my kitchen and recommend you do also, especially when making your own sauces etc.) and place in the freezer. 

3. After it has been in the freezer for 1 hour I stir it up, the top freezes first so this just helps to make it evenly consistent. Then let it freeze for about another hour and then stir again and it’s done! 

4. Pour over a bowl of fruit and ENJOY!!!! 

 

**You can always add more or less cinnamon/honey or exclude one or both of them also. This is just what I use and we enjoy. I only make a mason jar at a time, because it is just that good that we cannot save for another day lol. 

quick & easy kid friendly breakfast!

 

 

So here was our breakfast this morning, the only thing not pictured is the fresh cantaloupe and blueberries. This is super easy and so yummy, and actually filling. 

1. Scrambled eggs (I poured a little bit of almond milk when mixing, about 2 tbsp) and cooked them in coconut oil 

2. Raspberries 

3. Bananas & a spoonful of raw local honey to dip in 

 

Breakfast doesn’t have to be complicated, I literally just looked at what I had in the kitchen and threw it together! 

 

ENJOY!!! 

lemon pepper chicken

This right here is one of our favorite meals, all 4 kids request it on a regular basis and get so excited when they see me in the kitchen preparing it (that might or might not be because I make the chicken do a little dance). This one takes a little more time to cook than most of my meals but it’s so worth it. Now I double this entire recipe, so if you have 6 hungry members of your family like me or just want to make sure to have leftovers to have for the next day or for the week you can do the same.

Ingredients

coconut oil

1 whole chicken

2 lemons

sea salt

pepper

garlic powder

1 large onion

1 tbsp olive oil

3-4 carrots

Instructions

1. preheat your oven to 375 and arrange the rack rack in the middle. Put about a spoonful of coconut oil in the pan and spread throughout the bottom.

2. remove the neck and giblets from the chicken and discard (I currently do not do anything with these parts)

3. puncture 4 holes in one of the lemons and place inside the cavity and place the chicken in the middle of the roasting pan

4. drizzle olive oil on top of the chicken and rub in

5. squeeze the juice out of the second lemon on top of the chicken and then place inside the cavity also

6. depending on how seasoned you like your chicken will determine how much you use,  we like ours heavily seasoned so I make sure to cover the chicken pretty well. (the first time I ever made this I played it safe and lightly covered it, then I used more each time until I found the taste we preferred).

7. cut up the onions and the carrots and place them in the roasting pan surrounding the chicken.

8. once the oven is ready cook the chicken for about 1hr 45mins. The temp should be at least 180 in the thickest part of the chicken (check multiple areas just to make sure)

Now all you have to do is separate the chicken from the bone and serve with your sides 🙂

We eat the carrots and onions also, they soak in all the yummy juices and flavoring and are sooooo good!

Tonight I sauteed zucchini in a little bit of olive oil with red pepper flakes and then made brussel sprouts seasoned with salt & pepper.

 

ENJOY!!!

mmmm pancakes

 

Ok so here is a SUPER easy breakfast recipe for you all. And I must say I think they are the best pancakes I have ever had 🙂 Are you ready for these ingredients?? Get a pen and paper ready…. oh wait a minute, no need to because all you need is bananas and eggs! Easy, right?

1 banana (not a ripe one) to 3 eggs. Of course I had to use 4 bananas and 12 eggs to make enough for us but we are a big family. 1 banana to 3 eggs will make about 4-6 pancakes depending on how big you make them.

Instructions

1. Peel the banana and cut it up in pieces about as thick as a stack of 4 quarters and place in a mixing bowl

2. Crack your eggs and mix them in a separate bowl and then pour on top of the banana. You could use a blender also but I prefer to use some good ‘ol elbow grease 🙂

3. I have a potato masher (or whatever those things are called) that was my grandmothers and I use that to mix the banana and eggs together. There will be some light chunks but I like it that way. If you use a blender it would probably eliminate that.

4. heat your skillet to low-med (very important to not have it too high or they will burn) and put just enough coconut oil to keep the food from sticking. If you don’t have coconut oil on hand and aren’t going to the store you can use non stick spray but to me coconut oil works better.

5. pour your batter on the pan (I only do 1 at a time) and watch carefully, these will be done quicker than regular pancakes. And word to the wise, use a spatula that doesn’t have any slits in it so the batter doesn’t slip though when flipping.

6. when the first side is done, flip and repeat to the next side and DONE!

Now these are so moist and yummy that I don’t need anything to top them but you can add maple syrup, blueberries, strawberries etc if you’d like.

I made these this morning along with turkey sausage and mandarin oranges on the side.

ENJOY!!!!

Last nights dinner – Paleo Pizza

Ok, so the main food I have been hearing lots of mixed feelings on in the .com world is pizza. The thought of making it and failing consumed me, yes I totally understand that is pretty lame but come on! Anyways yesterday at my local grocery store I was doing my regular shopping and the kids kept BEGGING for bagel bites. Now I will admit that those things used to be my total weakness, bagels + pizza = HEAVEN! But now it seriously made my stomach start turning because it knew the aching that would ensue after consumption. So right then and there I decided to go with the challenge and I was going to make pizza finally. I must say it was super yummy, and even all the kids agreed!! And let’s just say my husband was super pumped that there was enough leftovers so he could have it again for lunch today 🙂 And I am pretty sure he snuck a piece for breakfast this morning lol. Although it was delicious, I will be trying to tweak it just a little bit. When I think of pizza, I think of no silverware needed and those perfect triangle pieces. But with this “crust” it had a tendency to fall apart and required a fork to eat. When discussing the pizza over with my Mr and kids they all agreed the pizza was awesome but the kids thought the same way I did about wishing they could just pick it up and eat it (the Mr said he didn’t mind having to use a fork because he went for taste not texture). But here is the recipe for the crust, and you can add to your little hearts desire the toppings 🙂

Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 cup almond meal

1tsp baking powder

2tsp garlic powder

4 eggs

3tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup coconut milk

Preparation 

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F

2. In a large bowl, combine all your dry ingredients first and mix.

3. Using a whisk (to avoid clumping), start  mixing in your wet ingredients while whisking. I whisked until the eggs were mixed in well and then started using my hands to go the rest of the way. Do this until it becomes batter like (it will be softer than dough, but will take the dough form when cooked)

4. Grease your rimmed pizza pan (mine had the vent holes throughout the bottom, but next time I will be using a stone pan) and pour the batter and spread evenly to all the edges.

5. Once the oven is heated place the crust in the oven for about 15 minutes (because mine had vent holes I only did mine about 10 minutes)

6. After it has cooked pull it out and then add your sauce and toppings and then place the pizza back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

**Make sure to pre-cook and meat and veggies that you are using as a topping before adding it to the pizza**

Here are the toppings that I used: 

-tomato sauce

-parmesan cheese (we have not excluded dairy from  our diet but have limited it)

-mushrooms

-ground turkey (I seasoned while pre-cooking)

-fresh green bell pepper

-fresh cayenne pepper

I hope that you all enjoy this recipe and if you try it, please comment on here with any changes or input that you might have made or have. Or if you have a crust recipe you love let me know!! I am always looking for new ways to improve a dish 🙂

Here we go….

So I pretty much started this blog for 2 reasons

1. I am pretty sure that everybody on my personal FB is tired of seeing me & my husbands paleo/crossfit posts

2. Because when we started this new way of eating/living I was totally and completely overwhelmed with all the changes and the lack of practical info I found.

So here is a little bit to let you into how all it began……

My husband has struggled with losing weight as far back as he can remember. He had literally tried every diet, OTC pill, RX’d pill but could never get any results. He ran every day, and not your normal running either. This man was working out and running 8-10 miles at a time and STILL not getting anywhere. No matter what he did he was still getting labeled as overweight, until one day he came across a book called “The Primal Blueprint” (http://primalblueprint.com/) and that was the beginning of our eye opening. Now I did not jump on board fully at first, I have never in my 30 years had to watch what I ate (no, I am not sticking my nose up so don’t roll your eyes). I was never happy with my body but to be honest, being healthy wasn’t really anything I had preached at me before. I always got the “you’re so skinny” comments that were said like a question and made my skin crawl. How the heck was I supposed to respond to that? To this day I still don’t know what they expect me to say, because I honestly feel like they are either saying I have a eating disorder or suggesting I am on drugs. Oh and don’t forget the “you are going to get fat like me once you start having babies”….. 4 kids later and still no weight so I am sure the thoughts of drug use and starving myself were escalating. Well my husband got deployed overseas, and he started his primal/paleo diet and crossfit. Now keep in mind I was not seeing him except for the rare facetime calls. So instead I would get pictures of my husband and his disappearing self, and I mean seriously the weight was falling right off of him (60lbs to be exact!!!)! With each picture I got he was getting smaller and smaller, and he kept talking about how much more energy he had and just how great he felt period. I knew at that time it was my turn to do whatever I had to do to make this new way of eating going on here at home so when he returned he could continue with his progress.

Now I knew it would be a big change, but I had absolutely no idea how hard it would be. Now let me remind you we have 4 very active young children. Yes I am a stay at home mom but that does not mean that I am just hanging around the house enjoying the finer things in life, and I promise if you came over and spied in my windows you would see just how chaotic it is (but don’t really do that though, that would totally make you a weirdo). I have only been a SAHM for a couple years though, so I am fully aware of the challenges on each side. No matter wether you are home all day or gone, who has time to spend hours in the kitchen preparing dinner? And who has big fat pockets allowing them to splurge on all the expensive (and we all know Paleo can get pretty expensive at times) ingredients and supplies for cooking? Not me, and I just couldn’t understand why almost everything I was finding required so much time and money!!! I tried to at least cook a few paleo meals a week and cleaned up the rest of my eating, and within about 2 weeks I started crossfit and very quickly noticed a pretty big change. I felt better than I had ever felt, had more energy and no longer had the stomach pains that I have had every day going back even to when I was a kid!

Now fast forward several months, my husband is back home (whoop whoop!) and after so many hours researching until the wee hours of the morning I have now found my place in the paleo eating world 🙂 Recipes don’t have to be hard, and you don’t have to sell all your personal belongings to afford to be able to eat healthy. When you hear people refer to it as a lifestyle change, they are not kidding. You literally have to erase everything you have ever known about eating and start over. Make a commitment and discipline yourself. I promise you will not regret it and you will wish you had started it sooner.

Ok so now that I have completely rambled on, I hope that you made it through without wanting to poke your eyeballs out 🙂 Just imagine what my husband has to deal with 😉