You can eat too healthy you know....

Made this for Ben after he came home from gymnastics.  He looked at it and said "Is this for me?  You can eat too healthy, you know".  Then he ate the whole thing!!!

Sunday cooking marathon-5 hours

This is going to be a very busy week, so I thought I'd better get a head start on it on Sunday.  Sam and I have realized that we have pretty much moved into a mode where I cook a bunch of stuff and we each pick something to eat every day.  Leeny had posted a recipe for Chimicurri sauce, so I thought I'd make some and see how it was.  She has been putting it on everything so it's a good opportunity to try it out on the meatballs I made yesterday (they are below)

I have come to the realization that we really do need plantain pancakes on hand all the time. They are just THAT GOOD and handy to have as an accompaniment to many of the meat dishes I make in the week

I made some taro root chips while I had the oven on.  I can't eat them while I am doing the Whole Life Challenge, but everyone else loves them so much.  I think Ben ate the vast majority of them

I made sweet potato hummus.  It's great with the taro chips or with raw vegetables.  Easy snack to have on hand

The meat offering was these pork meatballs.  I got some ground pork from Soulard farmers' market the other week and added chives, ginger, garlic and coconut.  When they were cooking, I realized that she said the pork was seasoned with sage.  I thought the flavour combination would be disastrous but they turned out fine-a little salty though.  Will remember not to season as much next time

On top of all of this, I made pizza for Sam and Maggie for dinner.  Ben doesn't like my pizza and it's off limits for me right now.  After I made lunches for Monday, I'd been in the kitchen for 5 hours!!!!

Major cooking episode

Well, we had absolutely nothing to eat in the house after coming back from Little Rock, so I set about making a bunch of things for this week.  I made a batch of plantain pancakes.  I think my plantains were not as ripe as the last batch and the pancakes came out a little better.  They are really good.  I baked a couple of sweet potatoes while the oven was on so I could make some hummus.

I fried up a batch of chicken chunks.  I haven't made any for a while because Sam hasn't been eating as many salads, but he likes to snack on them.  The kids will eat them for lunch or dinner too.

A friend gave me some butternut squash from her garden so I made a batch of curry with one of them.

One of Sam's favourite things to eat are these meatballs.  They are pretty easy to make, just beef, sun-dried tomatoes and basil.

The kids had Richard's ribs for dinner.  They look pretty happy with them.....

I also made a batch of no-oat oatmeal and put together a crockpot meal with chicken and apricots to eat tonight....
All told, it took me about 4 hours to cook everything and get cleaned up

Mini cooking spree

Anne and I had a mini cooking session last night.  I made these chicken, sweet potato and kale patties and Anne made plantain pancakes.  These are marvelous but very labour-intensive.  I could eat every one of them at a sitting!!!  I made an enormous batch of no-oat too, 30 eggs!!!!

Plantain Pancakes
2 ripe plantains
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
salt

Coat parchment paper with coconut oil.  Spread plantain mixture thinly into pancake shapes.  Bake in oven at 425 for 30 mins turning halfway through.  Cool on a wire sheet.

The top 10 things you should always have in your kitchen

On the first day back to school, Ben opened the fridge door and exclaimed "wow, the fridge has NEVER been this full before".  I think it was mostly because the lunch boxes were there!!!  Of course, on other occassions, either Ben or Maggie will open the fridge door and exclaim "there's nothing to eat".  Ben eats more fruit than Maggie does, so he will say this a little less often she does, but still.....

Our fridge does look like it's full most of the time and the food in there is mostly healthy and fairly paleo-good words to use as caveats!!  The fridge is mostly filled with fruit (we have peaches, apples, strawberries, grapes, blueberries and raspberries).  We also have a lot of leftovers.  Of course, there is still the pizza sauce in the top left hand corner......

After Ben had made his comment, and the success of the sweet potato hummus, Anne and I were talking about the things that you should absolutely always have in the kitchen, so that you can always whip up a paleo meal.  This is what I came up with

1.  Bacon

2.  Eggs

3.  Avocado

4.  Limes

5.  Cilantro

6.  Coconut milk

7.  Thai red curry paste

8.  Almond meal

9.  Chicken

10.  Red onion

I've got all of them!!!!!



Walk to Madrid

The SLU Walk to Madrid program started on Monday. I am the team captain again this year. I usually do pretty well with increasing how much I walk when I'm doing this program and it's the first step that got me trying to increase my exercise in general.

I decided that I'd take this 8 week period to try to exercise regularly and eat correctly.  However, I forgot about the fact that we have 2 birthdays this week and Greta will be leaving on Sunday.  After eating terribly last night (Maggie's birthday) I realized I hadn't posted any pictures of paleo meals I have made recently.

I made this shrimp the other weekend.  We were going to barbecue it, but it started pouring with rain so I had to cook it on the stove.  Surprisingly, everyone loved it and ate all of it!!!

Ben has been asking me to make his favourite dinner for quite a while.  He loves it, but Maggie hates it!!!

I made this zucchini salad for a barbecue for the exchange students.  It was great, I will definitely make it again

These paleo deviled eggs are delicious!!!

This mango curry is one of my favourite things to eat-I bought some mangoes at the Soulard farmers' market just so I could make it

After all the clean eating, Maggie wanted pizza and my chocolate cake for dinner.  So much for my intentions to eat well all week....

Sunday-whole day of cooking!!!

Sam is going out of town this week.  This means that things always change dramatically, including changing my schedule completely and our diet.   I spent the whole day making food for the week ahead so that I have a jump start on feeding everyone.  I made chicken chunks and chicken salad for Greta to take to school for lunch, then I made chicken noodle soup with the rest of the chicken because I know the kids will always eat that.

I had made a bunch of no-oat oatmeal on Saturday, but I will need to make more tonight as it's almost done.  I take it to work for breakfast every day.  I decided that I'd make something new to take for lunch this week, so I made these buffalo chicken egg muffins.  They are really good.

I made this vegetable side dish and meatballs for dinner.  The meatballs are one thing that everyone in the family will eat!!!  Hadn't ever made the vegetables before, but they were pretty tasty.  Sam and I ate them, of course the kids wouldn't go near them.....



I made Sam a couple of things to take with him so that he has something he can eat in an emergency.  I made this granola and these mango treats.  The mango treats were the first thing I made in the morning. Unfortunately, trying to chop up the mango fried the motor in my food processor, so now I need a new one and I won't be trying this again......

I'm going to make crispy pork for dinner tonight.  I cooked some pork butt in the slow cooker and then I will cook it in the oven tonight.  I hope it turns out OK.  I think we have enough to get us through.....

Thanksgiving 2012

I made paleo and non-paleo dishes for Thanksgiving, I thought I would keep everyone happy that way and it worked!!!  One of our guests made sushi for an appetizer-food and art.  Aren't they spectacular????

I made these sweet potato biscuits.  I made them ahead of everything else so I could free up the oven, we ended up eating them as an appetizer.  They were the best thing I made yesterday.  I will DEFINITELY be making these again.

I made the prosciutto wrapped pears as well. They were the best looking thing I made, but I didn't actually have any of them....
Overall, everything was really good, but I am not a huge fan of the broccoli-cauliflower casserole, it is very bland.  Going to find an alternative

OK, so we had apple pie and ice cream for dessert.  Definitely NOT paleo, but worth it for a change....

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!!!!!

Sunday cooking

I had my usual marathon cooking Sunday. We were going to have salmon for dinner, Sam was going to grill it so I made up a marinade with oil,lime juice and dill. Unfortunately, it rained so we had to put it in the oven, but it was still good.

Sam wanted some honey muffins.  They are not part of the Whole30 because of the honey, so I made these banana pumpkin rock cakes.  They were OK,but the honey muffins are WAY better!!!!

Made the usual batch of no-oat oatmeal, Sam & I still eat this every day.

Since I'm still in my buffalo sauce mode, I made the buffalo chicken meatloaf recipe again.  This time, I added more hot sauce, used turkey instead of chicken and made the mixture into meatballs rather than putting it all in a loaf pan.  It made some very convenient snacks for in the week.

I also cooked some chicken chunks for Sam to have with salad and I made butternut squash curry with chicken.  We seem to eat a lot of chicken these days!!!!

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.....