Oven omelet

1 large sweet potato, sliced
6 whisked eggs
2 finely chopped leeks
1 cup mushrooms
asparagus
sun dried tomatoes

8 slices bacon

I think you can basically throw in whatever you want to this.  I just used the vegetables we had lying around the house and things that needed to be used up.

I sliced the sweet potato and used it to line the pie dish.
Then, I fried up the bacon, added the leeks, asparagus and mushrooms and cooked until soft.  I added the vegetables to the sweet potato and topped with tomatoes
Then I whisked the eggs and poured over the top

I baked it at 350 for 40 mins

Broccoli salad

Broccoli (bunch of it)
Bacon (about 8 slices)
Raisins (1/2 to 1cup-can add more)
Unsalted sunflower seeds (about a cup)

Fry bacon until crisp.  Mix all together.  Add some mayonnaise to bind it.  Can add some red onion if you like

Mayonnaise

This is my favourite recipe for mayonnaise

1 egg
1 tsp mustard
pinch of salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup walnut oil

Put the egg, salt, mustard and lemon juice in a blender.  Blend for 30 sec.  Add walnut oil very slowly to allow emulsion to form. 
Can be kept for about a week

Sunday cooking

Apart from taking the kids to see The Lorax this afternoon, I have spent all day cooking. I made a huge batch of sweet potato pancakes, then I fried some bacon for broccoli salad. Next, I cooked some chicken for Sam to put on salad during the week. Then I put together the chicken for dinner tonight and make my own mayonnaise for the broccoli salad. I cut up everything for the salad and put it all together right before we went to the movie.

When we got home, I made the brussel sprout recipe and cooked the chicken for dinner. We had chicken, brussels and broccoli salad.

I made this parmesan chicken for Maggie-she loves it.  She often takes it to school for lunch during the week.

My favourite brussel sprout recipe

2-3 lbs brussels
4 oz pancetta
1 shallot
salt & pepper
olive oil & balsamic vinegar

Cut up brussels and microwave for 5 mins.  Add to baking pan
Add pancetta slices
Add chopped shallot.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Drizzle equal amounts of oil and vinegar over all, mix together
Bake at 400F for 45 mins

Chicken stuffed with onion, mushroom and hazelnuts

I have adapted this from a recipe I found in the Mark's Daily Apple recipe book.  It's one of our favourite chicken recipes.

4 chicken breasts
1 onion
Mushrooms
1 oz hazelnuts
Chicken stock
1 tsp mustard
Sage

Cook onion in some coconut milk.  Add mushrooms and cook for about 5 mins.  Add the hazelnuts
Stuff the chicken breasts with mushroom mixture
Fry both sides of chicken and transfer to an oven-proof dish. 
Add some chicken stock to pan, 1 tsp mustard and some sage.  Cook for a couple of minutes.
Add to chicken and bake at 400F for 45 mins

Sweet Potato Pancake Recipe

Sweet Potato Pancakes

• 16 oz. sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cook sweet potatoes
Combine coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Puree cooked sweet potatoes in food processor until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla to sweet potatoes and pulse to mix.
Add dry ingredients to potato mixture and combine
Fry up individual pancakes in coconut oil, flipping when the edges are dry/cooked and you see air bubbles releasing through the tops.  Be careful not to scorch the pancakes

Two great links to recipes

I am by no means and expert with paleo and I rely on several other people for ideas on recipes.  NomNom Paleo is a great resource.  She just completed the Whole30 program and has posted what she ate every day.  She eats a greater range of food than I do, so she has something different every day.  I tend to eat exactly the same thing all day and then something different at night!!!
Her Whole30 menu is here
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/16824406467/the-whole30-recap-every-single-day
and her recipe index is here, I have made a bunch of them
http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex

Saturday morning

No oat oatmeal and the crossword-Perfect!!!!

Throwing in the towel on paleo pizza

After several frustrating outings, I have decided that if we are going to eat pizza,we might as well just go with pizza. I tried making a crust with almond flour and some regular flour and it was hopeless, so I started again and just used regular flour for the whole thing. It was perfect!!!! From now on, I'm going to stop messing with it......

It could be worse, I caught Sam on camera eating Cici's pizza that I bought for Ben.....

Ben and Maggie ate this, but I find it really easy to resist it these days. Never thought it would happen!!!!

Soup and Salad from a Sam's Club Chicken

I would probably be horrified by what they baste chickens with at Sam's Club, but no matter-they make a pretty good roast chicken and they are very reasonably priced.  Best of all, you can make a decent meal out of them.  I used to buy them on a weekly basis, but don't do that as often any more. 

Ben has been hankering for chicken noodle soup, so I bought a chicken on Saturday.  I cut the breast meat off to use in chicken salad and then I  cooked the legs and carcass in water for about an hour.  Then I fished out the meat and bones and let them cool.  I cut up all the meat and added back to the pot.  I cut up two leeks and added some noodles and cooked for about 30 minutes.  Definitely not paleo, but the kids absolutely love it and will eat the whole thing.


I cut the chicken breast into small chunks.  I cooked 6 or 8 rashers of bacon and added to the chicken.  Then I cut up an apple, an avocado and added some walnuts.  I made a dressing out of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a little spinach and herb mixture added.  One of my favourite dinners.....

Soup, soup and dinner

I made my tomato & basil soup, chicken noodle soup for the kids and dinner, all before getting Ben out the door to gymnastics and me to the PTO meeting.  It can be done, but still takes a lot of time.  I feel like I spend a major portion of my life cooking these days, and I love it!!!

Tonight, we had party pork tenderloin from Time for Dinner.  Not really paleo because it's coated in crackers, but it's not too bad.  I had made a bunch of TFD stuff before I started the Whole30 and we are still using it up.  I broiled some baby zucchini-I cut them in half, and then put some olive oil, salt and Italian herbs on top.  I also fried up some broccolini, I do it in butter and salt and overcook it a little so that it's crispy. Yum.....

Tomato basil soup

Making this tonight.  It's my staple for lunch, with some chicken for protein.  I ate this almost every lunchtime during the Whole30 program.  It makes a huge batch of soup which can be frozen if you like.  It's great to have something on hand for those days you run out of ideas.

Road trip-guaranteed to shove you off the rails

Sam and I drove 1000 miles over 2 1/2 days.  It's got to be a sure-fire way of putting you in a situation where you are going to eat everything that is NOT paleo.  We did pretty well though.  I cooked up 6 lbs of chicken before we left and we took that, plus our no-oat oatmeal with us.  We made our way through all of the chicken, the no-oat and 2 bags of TJs plantain chips.  It really helped us with not eating too much junk food.  I did break down and got a latte from the Classic Rock Coffee Co in Springfield-my favourite coffee place.  One of the perks of not having regular coffee all the time is that it tastes SPECTACULAR when you do have it!!!

I also had a caramel latte in Poteau, OK (also fabulous) and we ate at US Pizza in Fayetteville.  US Pizza was one of our favourite pizza places in Little Rock and it was as good as I remember it.  Oh, I had their salad too!!!

So, even though I had several things that are usually taboo, I think I did much better than I usually do on a trip-huge numbers of Starbucks, fast food at McDs and gas station candy....

Catering for the teachers

The PTO always makes dinner for the teachers during parent-teacher conferences.  I was in charge of the dinner on Wednesday night.  It was quite a spread-salad, bread, chili, spaghetti and some absolutely yummy looking desserts.  Sam walked in and said "it's a good job we're not teachers because we wouldn't eat any of this", he's absolutely correct.  What a bunch of unappealing food-how did we get to this stage???!!!  However, when we cleared up, there were desserts left and we had to try them.  They were all hand made and NOT paleo, but definitely worth the flinch!!!!

Beef pot roast with sun dried tomatoes

At the beginning of the challenge, I found this recipe when I was looking for new things to try.  It's still one of our favourites.

Ingredients:

2-3lbs of beef (I usually use roast since we don't like the fat, but you can use chuck if you like)

Sun dried tomatoes (I use about 1/2 packet from Trader Joe's

Garlic

1 onion

Pack of basil from Trader Joe's (it's in the vegetable section)

Salt & pepper

I just throw everything in the crockpot together and add about 1 cup of water.  I cook on low for about 6 to 8 hours.  The original recipe calls for serving on top of shredded zucchini-I am still not hip on the zucchini, but Sam likes it.  I put a bunch of pine nuts on top of it & voila, yummy dinner....

Search for the Perfect Paleo Pizza

Over the years, I have perfected pizza and I can make a pretty good one in my opinion. I have had plenty of practice. In our opinion, the perfect pizza has TJs fresh pizza sauce, Margherita sandwich-style pepperoni and Dierberg's mozzarella.

When I started the Whole30 program, I assumed (and was probably correct) that my biggest challenge, and the thing I'd miss most, was pizza on a Friday night. 

So, the one thing I looked forward to at the end of the challenge was the  thought of Friday night pizza.  The first one I made was the real deal-used regular flour and I made it the same way as I had always done.  Well, it didn't bother either of us, so we are not gluten intolerant at all. 

However, after doing the Whole30, I was determined to try to find an option that can be classed as paleo.  I found some gluten-free flour.  It has a lot of ground beans in it, so it's not strictly paleo.  However, I was shy of using almond or coconut flour to make the base.  The first time I made it, it came out OK.  It was pretty hard to roll out the base, It took me a couple of times, but it was pretty good.  We were happy in thinking that we'd found a solution to the gluten problem.  However, the second time I tried it, it was terrible.  I couldn't get it rolled out thin enough.  I tried 3 times to no avail and I ended up kneading it into the pan.  It was way too thick in the middle and tasted terrible.

Next, I tried a paleo pizza recipe.  I mashed up about 1 1/2 cups of cauliflower, added 1 cup of mozzarella and mixed together with an egg.  I cooked the base first (top pic), then added the sauce, pepperoni and cheese and cooked until the cheese was brown (bottom pic).  I liked it, Sam was less enthusiastic, but it was definitely NOT pizza!!!!

Tonight I am going to try half gluten-free and half regular flour to see if I can get a happy medium crust.  There are plenty of recipes out there to try.  Hopefully, I'll get it right eventually!!!!

What you DON'T want to see in a lunchbox

I try very hard to strike a balance between eating right and eating enjoyment with the kids.  I usually pack them some meat (Maggie likes chicken chunks, Ben likes deer sausage), cheese (Maggie likes the Babybell Gouda, Ben likes cheddar sliced off the block), carrots (Ben will eat them, Maggie ignores them til she gets home) and grapes (wow, something they both like and will eat) for school lunch.  Sometimes, I'll give them a sandwich (Ben will eat PBJ, Maggie won't), but it never looks like this (honest).  This was Maggie's lunch after Valentine's Day parties.  Her whole bag was green and sticky.  It had to be from sherbet candy that she got at school.  The picture doesn't even do it justice, it was way grosser than this looks!!!!

Sweet potato pancakes

Well, we've established that I am pretty useless at sweet potato chips, but I am able to make a passable sweet potato pancake.  These are also something that I make at the weekend and we can eat during the week.  Sam likes to heat them up with coconut butter on the top of them.

Ingredients:
16 oz. sweet potatoes
6 eggs
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine coconut flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
Puree cooked sweet potatoes in food processor until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla to sweet potatoes and pulse to mix.
Add dry ingredients to potato mixture and combine.
Fry up individual pancakes in coconut oil, flipping when the edges are dry/cooked and you see air bubbles releasing through the tops. 

Pork Fried Rice

Chucked this together tonight.  I had some pork left over from yesterday and this is a good way to use veggies up.  I fried some green onions in coconut oil and then added the pork tenderloin.  I cooked this for a while, then added some garlic, ginger & Chinese five spice.  I put some cauliflower though the food processor to make some "rice" and added it.  Then I added some TJs broccolini, cilantro & basil to finish it off.  Turned out pretty good.

Fruity Clafouti

I make this almost weekly.  It gives us something to eat as dessert without having any of the "bad" things in it.....

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut flour (can use almond)
Vanilla
Fruit

Method:
Whisk eggs and coconut milk together
Stir in flour
Add vanilla
Add in whatever fresh fruit you want
Bake at 375F for about 45 mins

Sunday cooking....

I spend a lot of time on Sunday cooking food to give us a jump start on the week.  This week, I made my usual mega batch of no oat oatmeal (bottom right), then I made a pan of Time for Dinner parmesan chicken for Maggie (bottom left).  I made a couple of egg dishes.  The top left was an oven omelet-I put a layer of sweet potatoes on the bottom to form a crust and then I fried up some onions, mushrooms and TJ's broccoli slaw.  I added 4 scrambled eggs (maybe should have done six) and cooked in the oven.  I make a fruit clafouti almost every week so that we have some dessert to keep us going (top right).  I usually cook some cut up chicken breast so Sam can eat it with salad during the week.  I also make some tomato-basil soup most weeks because that's what I eat for lunch.

Asian Pork

Sometimes I just throw something together at the last minute.  I still had some Time for Dinner Asian Pork in the freezer, so I fried some onions in coconut milk, added the Time for Dinner pork and added some extra pork to it.  I also added some broccoli that was on the turn (was pretty yellow!!) and some mushrooms (just to upset the kids!!).  It turned out pretty well and everyone ate it.

My sweet potato chips

Of course, I don't always get it right.  I have tried three times to do these and I fail miserably.  I found a slightly modified version where they are much thicker and I might try that next because clearly I'm not getting it.  I seem to get a cross between soppy sweet potato and outright burnt potato!!!  We have eaten them every time I have made them, but last night they were stuck to the baking sheet like I had added superglue.  At this point, the best thing I could say about that batch was that I soaked the pan and they came off immediately!!!!