Double Meat

Double meat has been our life lately. Thats the good thing about Paleo, but it is also the really expensive part of Paleo. Still struggling with the costs of all the food and the feeling of being hungry almost all of the time, but I am adjusting. We are already at Day 10, one-third of the way through!

I bought some bok choy at the Farmers Market this

week and I decided that I better use it! So I decided to make a big stir-fry. I pulled out all the veggies in the fridge and

just started chopping. My husband came out of the bedroom and said, "Well, I can see that your knife works...." I chopped up zucchini, broccoli, celery, carrots, onion and bok choy. I also bought some organic, grass fed, open pasture beef at the farmers market that was already cut into stir fry strips. I just love the name, Lucky Dog Ranch. I sauteed all of this in a huge skillet with garlic, powdered ginger, red pepper flakes and sesame seeds. This made a huge amount of stir fry! But it was delicious and another good change of pace.

Paleo - Day 6

Well we have made it almost a week. It has been a tough week, much tougher than I anticipated. The first three days were really hard but about day 4 we started to turn a corner and it started to get a little easier. Except for last night.

We went to a "gender reveal party" last night to find out the gender of a good friends baby, and it was pure torture. There was cakes, cookies, cheese, crackers, and cheesecakes. Ugh. I was doing ok and then people kept offering me cake and sugary punch...it was really difficult. The only thing there we could eat was a plate of strawberries. I had already reached my limit for the day on fruit, but if eating a few extra strawberries keeps me from eating a huge slice of chocolate-chocolate cake, I am going to do it.

We have been looking for variety in our meals because everything we have been eating either has eggs, tomatoes or beef in it. So I spent some time looking through an old Rachael Ray cookbook called "30 Minute GET REAL Meals" which was her take on the low carb and Atkins craze a few years ago. I started reading through it for some inspiration and then I went to the farmers market and found a STEAL on fennel so I made a delicious lunch today. We had mini-turkey sausage burgers with fennel and orange salad.

I took some ground turkey and added fennel seed which makes ground meat taste like sausage, and also added onion powder and red pepper flakes. I drizzled them in grapeseed oil and grilled them off. I also grilled the stems of the fennel, but it turned out too tough to really eat. Meanwhile, I cut up the fennel bulb, segmented two oranges, zested and juiced half of a lemon, added a little pepper and drizzled with a little bit of oil to create the salad. It was a pretty good lunch to wake my taste-buds up again.

Day 1 of Paleo

So we started eating Paleo today and it wasn't too bad. Scott and I were so tired of eating JUNK for the last two weeks that we were super excited to get started on these 30 days of strict Paleo. Last night I made a huge pot of chili that we will be having for lunches for most of the week and we are trying to figure out dinners. Tonight we had chicken cooked in bacon (yum!) and a salad. Feeling pretty good about it and we will see how it goes. Scott says that he already misses Dr. Pepper and I am already missing bread and sweets, but I am sure the cravings will pass. Last night I took some horribly unflattering photos of myself and took all of my measurements so that at the end of the 30 days I will have something to compare to. I will try to post some Paleo recipes in the next week or two as we get this all figured out!

Paleo-What the heck is that?

I will get to this salad later, update first.

I know I have not blogged in a long time but I am due for an update. The hubby and I have become very interested in the Paleo diet. It is also called the Caveman diet and what it is essentially is that you only eat things that you could have hunted or gathered. So basically it is meat, fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. We became interested in it over Thanksgiving break and spent our 10 hour car ride looking up articles and discussing the possibility of doing this diet. We started debating it more and more and researched and asked lots of questions. I started talking to an old math-major buddy Jessica Alzen because they have been doing Paleo for a year now. She gave us lots of info and has helped us as we are preparing to go hardcore Paleo in January. We have been eating more and more Paleo meals and figuring out what works for us. It will be an interesting adventure. I will keep you posted. For now, a Paleo salad that is delish!

Since Paleo does not allow vinegar, I started to wonder wh

at I was going to use for salad dressing and I found the greatest alternative. Roasted tomatoes.

This is a before and after shot. when they roast they release their juice and that combined with olive oil and a little salt and pepper makes for an insane dressing, trust me.

The other components to this salad are: grilled steak, toasted pine nuts and spinach. Seriously good salad.

More Paleo updates to come!

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs!!
This recipe is from a Rachael Ray magazine recently and it is a great little meal. I add into it some seasonings (red pepper flakes, oregano, garlic) and some parmesan cheese. These are really yummy and I think they would make a great party snack too!

I am super behind in my blogging-so these pictures are from a few months ago (!!!) but we had these for lunch today so I thought it was time to blog them!

Blogging Frustrations

I really want to blog more, but I spend so much time making each blog post that it makes me not want to blog. My main problem is that I spend SO much time formatting the pictures and trying to make them look right that I don't even want to start! Is this a normal problem with Blogger? Do people have better luck with Wordpress (or any other blogging site)?
I really do want to blog, but I don't want to spend an hour formatting every picture that I put into the blog.

Birthday Present

Here she is! I decided to buy the KitchenAid stand mixer and I am so glad that I did! I found a pretty good deal on it at Kohls and they even had it in red!! I used it right away and made homemade marshmallows (post to come soon!).

The super fun part of my birthday was hanging out with some dear friends and going out to Tex Wasabis for dinner and our place for ice cream.

Tex Wasabis is one of Guy Fieris restaurants and we are both big fans of his. The restaurant is a fusion of BBQ and sushi. We tried

some of the "gringo sushi" which is BBQ meats stuffed in the sushi. We had the "kemosabe roll" which had BBQ beef brisket, french fries and garlic chili mayo sauce. We also tried the "screaming gobbler roll" It had roasted turkey, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese and siracha mayo. They

were really good especially since Scott and I don't like real sushi! We also ordered a BBQ beef brisket dinner that was pretty delicious too. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday!