Vietnamese spring rolls

Janhavi made Vietnamese spring rolls for us last night. They were really good. Not really paleo because they use rice noodles and wraps, plus we dipped them in peanut sauce

They are still pretty healthy since they have all fresh ingredients.  She made them with shrimp.  They were easy to put together, but I bet it took her ages to chop everything.  Ben loved them too, they would be great "kid food"

It was Anne's 21st birthday party yesterday.  Ben & I ran over there for a while before eating with Janhavi.  We brought a Jell-O shot back for her.  I didn't want to drink it before I drove home

Happy Birthday Anne!!!!!

Bacon-related "stuff"

We were at Five Below (everything under $5) at the weekend and Ben found this car magnet which goes perfectly on our fridge.

Then Greta found this shirt that she just had to have!!!!

Actually, we don't eat as much bacon as you might think!!!!

Happy Birthday Sam.....

Well, he had to wait until after all the paleo stuff was over, but Sam finally got his birthday cake.....

My Whole30 year

Well, I have been trying to do paleo for the most of this year, sometimes with more effort than at others. I have done the Whole30 program with Leeny twice and I have tried doing it on my own twice and lasted about 3 weeks. The rest of the time I have hovered between being pretty good and completely hopeless. It's horrifying how quickly you can get back into your old habits. It's mostly because we are completely surrounded by processed food and sugar. Leeny had told me that she had been looking at my before pictures from January and comparing them to my after pictures last week. I had been looking at them myself and was reassured that I had been losing weight (better that it's fat) gradually over this year. I have lost 17 lbs in total (12.5% of my body weight) and some inches (maybe not as much as I'd like). I have noticed a change in my clothes and how I look. I need to stay on track to get to where I would ideally like to be.....

Look at all that fat on my back!!!!

Not bad, but still got that belly going on.....

Whole30, Round 2

My second go at the Whole30 program wasn't anything like as successful as my first time. That is mostly because I was traveling for so long at the end of the program. However, I could still have done better if I had really tried. Leeny had a pot luck party for the group and she awarded some prizes. These are the statistics from the group as a whole:
total lbs lost: 122
avg. wt. loss: 7.2 lbs
total inches lost: 69
avg. in. lost: 4
We look pretty happy about it......

There was some fabulous food there-I made these taro chips, my favourite at the moment.  Lisa (middle of the pic above) made some really yummy guacamole that went perfectly with the chips.

Apricot chicken-slow cooker recipe

• 4 Chicken breasts
• 4 sweet potatos cubed
• dried apricots
• 1 chopped onion
• paprika, salt, curry, pepper, ginger
• apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons
• Soy sauce or coconut aminos 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup cold water and 2 tbl spoons arrowroot powder

Chop onions into large pieces and cube sweet potatos and put into the crock pot as bottom layer. Lay chicken and apricots on top and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, curry and ginger. Mix together soy sauce (or coconut aminos!), apple cider vinegar and pour over chicken. Put the lid on the crock pot and cook for 6 to 8 hours.
Mix cold water and arrowroot powder and pour into crock pot, turn to high for 15 minutes to thicken .

Pizza crust

Going to try this suggestion from fast paleo recipes, just in case it works!!!

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1 cup arrowroot powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a round pizza pan
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk to blend together.
3. Add eggs and almond milk to the dry ingredients. Mix well. (The batter will be runny–not like typical pizza dough.)
4. Use a spatula to spread batter onto greased pan.
5. Bake crust in preheated oven 8-12 minutes.
6. Remove crust from oven and top with sauce and desired toppings.
7. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Lemon Bars

We had these at Lenny's party the other night. The recipe is from Fast Paleo. Sam said we should make them in ramekins andput chocolate on the top. Chocolate-it improves EVERYTHING!!!!!

• 2 eggs
• coconut oil 1/4 cup
• honey 1/4 cup (for cookie)
• coconut flour 1/4 cup
• coconut flakes 3/4 cup
• fresh lemon juice 1 cup
• 6 eggs
• honey 1/2 cup (for topping)
• coconut oil 1/2 cup
• sea salt

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor combine eggs, coconut oil, salt and honey. Mix to combine. Add coconut flour and 1/4 cup of coconut flakes. Again, process until well combined. Transfer to a bowl and stir in remaining coconut flakes. Grease a glass Pyrex baking dish (7 x 11) with coconut oil. . Press cookie batter base evenly into dish. Bake for 18 minutes at 350 until the edges are just starting to brown and center is cooked through.
Whisk lemon juice, eggs, salt and honey together in a sauce pan. Slowly add coconut oil while whisking over medium heat. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the filling through a fine mesh to remove any cooked egg bits. Top the crust and refrigerate.

Whole30, Day 25

I have to say that traveling and eating healthy are pretty much mutually exclusive.  After having spent the past week or so away from home and doing a pretty horrendous flight to Calgary, my Whole30 diet has completely fallen apart.  We spent the long weekend in Little Rock for Richard's birthday.  So, I was faced with some of my favourite restaurants, plus a bunch of food at the party.  My major transgression was the Triple Treat Chocolate Malt at The Purple Cow in Little Rock.  Haven't had one in years and I shared it with Sam, but even so....

I am now at a meeting in Banff.  We had a 24 hour delay in flights and so I spent a whole day dealing with airport food.  The conference has catered food which is really good but mostly things I can't eat.  It's given me a new perspective on what most people eat on a regular basis.  It's ironic that a conference that is focusing on diet, lipids, insulin resistance & Type II diabetes should serve four different jars of candy, plus mini kitkats at break time!!!!  I am resisting as much as I can, but it's a good job they ran out of the white chocolate mousse by the time I had eaten dinner though!!!