Camping!

So, on the 19th day of my 21-days-of-no-sweets, I shared a Hershey chocolate bar with an 8 year old boy and ate two marshmallows.  :(  I was so close to 21 days!!!  Anyway, overall I think I did pretty good while camping.  While I did eat potatoes every day, I mostly ate eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese, burgers, hot dogs, brats, veggies, water, tea, coffee, trail mix, beef jerky and a couple of alcoholic beverages.  Not bad!  I also went for a 2 mile run both Saturday morning and Sunday morning and did a lot of swimming and hiking. Getting back on track for the rest of the week will look like this:

Dinners
Tuesday: Grilled marinated chicken breasts, butter crisp lettuce salads, kohlrabi
Wednesday: beef brats, cauliflower with ranch, kohlrabi

Beautiful waterfall near our campsite!

Thursday: steaks, sauteed onions/peppers, kohlrabi
Friday: cheeseburgers, tomatoes, onions

Lunches
Tuesday: whatever i can find at the grill down the street
Wednesday: leftover chicken breasts
Thursday: leftover brats
Friday: leftover steak, sweet potato (microwaved)

Breakfasts:
hard-boiled eggs

That's a pretty rough menu based off of what's left in our fridge/freezer, but it will work.

Holiday Weekend Menu Planning

We're going camping/4-wheeling this weekend. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cooking over an open fire!  I don't want to use camping as an excuse to fall completely off my eating-clean train, so of course, I'm planning our menu!  I AM planning a little bit of cheat in there, but we'll get to that later...  Here's what our menu generally looks like:

This menu is pretty general, but we'll be in the woods for 3 nights and about 2-1/2 days and I don't intend to plan exactly what we'll eat when.  We can only eat what we take with us, of course.  The Pudgie Pies (think toasted sandwich pocket) are a total cheat food.  We basically NEVER eat bread, but I plan to make these as they are a favorite camping treat and we haven't been camping in almost 3 years!  I intend not to eat more than one PP a day (if even that).  I planned to take bottled water and some lemon wedges to drink, but husband has asked if we can take some diet soda.  That would be another "cheat" for me.  I'm not sure if I want to do that.  Although, I guess I can take them for him and I can just drink water.  I've already purchased 6 different flavors of Bold Blue Diamond Almonds for snacks (instead of chips...etc).  The only downside is that another couple is coming along and I suspect they'll have a ton of junk food with them.  I just have to be sure to resist :)

I plan to create another menu for the rest of next week before we leave so that we won't get off track.  I feel SO much better knowing what we will have for dinner each night and knowing the ingredients are all ready at home waiting for me!

Twice Baked Sweet Potato!

If you ask my mother what my favorite meal that she makes is, she'd probably say her famous Twice Baked Potatoes made with ham, cheese, garlic and love!  So, when I stumbled across this recipe for twice baked sweet potatoes from Strictly Paleo...ish!, I couldn't resist giving it a try!  I chose cream cheese, shredded cheese blend, green onions and bacon for my fillers.  I went ahead and baked them on Sunday night while I had the oven on for baking my hubby's cod.  After they cooled, I scooped the guts out and put them in a container in the fridge.  I put the shells in a separate container.  I also opted to finish them on the grill since I was already firing it up for our steaks.  I left them on with the lid down for 8 minutes (the cheese on top was getting "melty" already) and then I cooked our steaks for about 7-1/2 minutes with the top up.  I closed the lid and left the potatoes on for about 2-3 more minutes after that.

All the ingredients ready to go!

4 slices of bacon, cooked & crumbled
2 oz of regular cream cheese
1/2 of a bunch of green onions
1/4 C. shredded cheese
S&P

All mixed up and ready to go in the shells!

Eating Clean!

I did start using MyFitnessPal again last week in order to gauge how I'm doing as far as getting enough protein...etc.  I think yesterday was my cleanest day of eating EVER!  Although, I've already picked apart how it could have been even cleaner.  Here's what it looks like:

I changed my meals to include time windows because I'm playing around with Intermittent Fasting using the condensed eating window method.  I'm basically just trying to increase my "fasting time" and decrease my "eating window" from the 12-13 hours that it was down to around 8-10 hrs for now.  So far, this is working out great.  I am not intentionally reducing my calories, but it seems to be a natural side effect of eating breakfast later.  I get full from one hard boiled egg and a cup of tea with honey (probably because of the caffeine in the tea).  And I stay fuller longer.

Weekly Menu Planning ~ Week 2

I meant to post this last week, but ran out of time.  Here's our menu for this week (although, I forgot that we'll be camping on Friday so, I can save that meal for next week):

I made the woodchuck chicken from this recipe.  I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts in stead of the bone in thighs and I used raw honey in stead of coconut crystals.  It was really good!  Now I have yet ANOTHER reason to love woodchuck!

No Sweets = Extra Fat Loss?

I haven't been working out or running a whole lot these last couple of weeks, but I have been eating pretty clean and eating no sugar (really just no sweets like ice cream, candy...etc.) and I have lost 2.8 lbs!  I think that's proof that eating clean is a bigger part of getting lean than working out.  I think both are important, but there are a lot of people that think that if they run or work out a lot, they can eat whatever they want.  That might be true for some people who are already in great shape, but that's no way to lose fat!

New Goals, Ideas and Paleo Heaven

New Goal:

• Replace some of my "red meat" meals with more fish/chicken/turkey.  I eat A LOT of beef.  I know it's not necessarily "bad" for me, but I think I could get a little leaner if I ate some leaner meats.  My plan is to alternate days on my weekly menu so that I am making a "red-meat" dinner (which also serves as lunch for the next day) on night and a "lean-meat" dinner the next.

New Idea:

• I want to try some form of Intermittent Fasting to see if it helps me lose fat.  My thoughts are that currently my "eating window" is about 12-13 hours (6am-7pm), so I want to try to reduce it to 8-10 hours.  Since my hubby works 3rd shift, we don't eat dinner until after 7pm, so I am going to have to start eating my first meal later in the day.  I also need to get in the habit of eating more calories at night.  The idea is not reduce calories (necessarily), but just to have a longer "fasting" period to burn more fat.  This will be a work in progress.

I mentioned in a previous post that the Farmer's Market Vendor that I bought my cabbage from was handing out copies of a good recipe.  I tried it last night (slightly varied, of course) and it was very good!  My cabbage was huge, so one quarter was enough for both of us.  I put 2 pieces of bacon on quarter and instead of baking it, I put it on the grill for about a half hour before grilling our steaks.  I also sauteed some onions and bell peppers.  This is what Paleo Heaven looks like:

Breakfast!

I made these little gems twice now.  I updated the recipe slightly the second time.  I put the peppers in my cast iron pan (on medium heat) with a little coconut oil for grease.  I put a lid on it and let the pepper cook 3-5 minutes alone.  Then I flipped the peppers, lowered the heat (to about 2 on my electric stove) and added the eggs.  I put the lid on and let them cook until the eggs reached the desired doneness.  They were much better this time because the pepper was more cooked, but still crispy!

*I have only 13 days left of no sugar.  I have resisted many a sweet treat over the last week.  I have still had small amounts of sugar (think honey mustard dressing on my sandwich, or a glass of wine), but no "sweets" (cake, pie, candy, ice cream...etc.).  I'm looking forward to having some kind of treat on or after Memorial Day, but I don't think I'll go crazy. 

Preparing for the Week Ahead

The second part of my  preparedness for this week was getting my groceries bought and my veggies all prepared for the week.  I recieved these lovely containers from a friend long ago.  I believe they are from tupperware.  They are meant for storing fresh produce, complete with little vent holes for air.  They stack nicely in the fridge.

I started with my Bell Peppers.  I had 3 different colors; green, orange & red.

I cut them 3 different ways, the ones on the left are for sauteeing, the ones in the center
are for these little breakfast gems, and the ones on the right are for snacking!



I left one bunch of carrots unpeeled and just cut the tops off for
using in my beef roast crock pot recipe later in the week.  The other
bunch, I peeled and cut for snacking.  Same with the celery.



I cut a head of broccoli and a head of cauliflower, also for snacking,
but could be used for steaming if needed.



Lastly, I made my favorite ranch dip for dipping my veggies.  Yes, I
realize this is processed and dairy and totally NOT paleo, but it
gets me to eat my raw veggies and I'm just not ready to make my
own ranch yet! 

I also bought a head of cabbage, but I forgot to photograph it.  The tupperware set includes a large round bin for lettuce...etc.  The vendor that I purchased the cabbage from at the Farmer's Market had copies of a great recipe for people to use!  The basic recipe calls for cutting the cabbage in quarters, buttering the cut sides, adding salt & pepper, wrapping it in a piece of bacon and then tin foil and baking it!  YUM!  I plan to do this on the grill this week!  So, I left 2 quarters of the cabbage for that recipe and then chopped the rest of it up for sauteeing.

I also purchased tomatoes, cucumbers and onions for this week, but those are better off being cut when ready to use, IMO.

So, far this has already worked out great, as my husband and I have been snacking on raw veggies all weekend since they are so accessable!  All the washing, chopping and slicing took less than an hour and I only had to dirty up the kitchen once!

Paleo Biscuits

These are a delicious treat with a little butter and honey on top!

I made paleo biscuits using this recipe from Simply Living Healthy yesterday.  My goal was to have a biscuit recipe that would work for making my husband his favorite breakfasts; sausage, egg & cheese biscuits and biscuits and sausage gravy. 

One note about the recipe, using 1/4c measuring cup only made 5 large biscuits.  In the future, I may use 1/8c (I don't have an ice cream scoop like the recipe mentions).

Overall these did not impress me when I just brushed some butter on them and I think they are too dense to use for either of my intended uses, but I found that a little butter and honey on them, make them a delicious treat!!! 

Menu Planned for the Next Week!

I think today is day 4 of sugar free.  I haven't had any sweets.  I was at a wine down last night and drank plenty of wine, which I am sure had some sugar in it, but I passed by the desserts (and ate meatballs instead) and I've turned down sweet treats in my office every stinkin' day this week!  So, I would say I am doing pretty good.

I have planned our menu for the next week.  I based it off of the meats we already have in the freezer.  I will have to pick up most of the veggies at the farmer's market tomorrow as well as the brats and eggs.  Here are the daily dinner menus (which double as lunch the next day): 

SATURDAY

Chicken in the Crockpot

Sweet Taters

SUNDAY

Hibachi Grill for Mother's Day

Leftovers from Saturday

MONDAY

Brats on the grill

Cucumber/tomato salad

TUESDAY

Honey Garlic Wings

Creamed Cucumbers

Celery w/ranch dip

WEDNESDAY

Steaks

Sautéed Peppers & Onions

THURSDAY

Burgers on the grill

Sautéed cabbage & onions

FRIDAY

Beef roast in crockpot with onions & carrots

I plan to make hard boiled eggs and/or deviled eggs for snacks along with raw veggies and ranch dip.  For breakfast we'll have our usual eggs, bacon...etc.  I do plan to try these recipes this week  for breakfast though!

Photo from Mom Click

Homemade Wraps?

I was researching whether wraps contained less carbs than sandwiches (I had a half of a wrap for lunch yesterday and was wondering if that was even an intelligant move or not?)  As a rule, I never eat bread (unless it's a paleo treat that I've made myself), but occasionaly as a "treat" (and a complete stray from paleo), I will have a wrap for lunch. 

Aaaaaanywaaaaaaay... I came accross this little gem!  A recipe for homemade wraps using coconut flour!  I don't own a crepe pan, but I bet I can get one :)

Cabbage!

I had a half head of cabbage left from the bacon chicken that I made the other night.  I found this brillianty simple recipe from nom nom paleo and put it to use last night!  Of course, I very rarely follow a recipe EXACTLY as I find it.  We were having cheeseburgers on the grill and I made some bacon to go with them.  So... I used bacon grease AND butter to sautee my onions & cabbage!  It was YUM!  I have no photos.  You'll just have to trust me.  I do think that cabbage may become a new staple in our house!  There was enough leftover that we plan to have it again tonight with our steaks!

Here is a good source of the health benefits of cabbage!  In case you're interested :)

Bacon Chicken! (and sugar free for 21 days)

I made this amazing recipe from Paleo Parents.  I left the sprig of rosemary out and my little birdie (about 4-1/2 lbs) couldn't hold an entire onion, but I crammed as much in as I could!

It turned out amazing!  The leftovers were real good too! It did take my chicken almost 2 hours (rather than the 90 minutes in the recipe).  I used a meat thermometer to be sure it was done!


As a sidenote, my friend Brittany (who is a carb/sugar-aholic) and I have made a 21 day Sugar-Free pact.  No sugar (except from fruit) until Memorial Day.  I'll post throughout the 21 days to let everyone know how we're doing.  I realize that the benefits would be exponentially better if we didn't eat any carbs at all (other than from veggies), but she's not ready for that commitment and I know we'll see benefits either way!  This post regarding the dangers of sugar showed up in my FB news feed on Day 1.  Coincidence?  I think not...

Recipe FAIL

Last time I made almost paleo burritos, I vowed that the next time I made them, they'd be totally paleo.  I made my own taco seasoning using this recipe from http://cavemanfood.blogspot.com/.  The seasoning smelled amazing!  Just like the "real" thing (the stuff you pay 59 cents for a little packet of at the grocery store).  I was so excited!  I had 1lb of grass fed ground beef thawed and 1lb of ground venison.  I decided to mix them together and made a double batch of taco meat!  YUM!

...except the meat had NO flavor!  I used more than enough of the seasoning and even added more.  What did I do wrong?!  I guess I'll go back to buying the processed stuff.  Or perhaps I can find some that's natural AND tastes good?  In the meantime, I plan to use the leftover "seasoned" meat to make chili this weekend.  With beans (not paleo).   I have several cans of beans to use up and I don't think eating beans once in a while will kill me.  I won't buy anymore, but I can't waste them.  Remember... I'm transitioning!  


I'm excited to visit the fresh, wild-caught fish vendor at the FM again today!  Hubs requested cod!

Randoms

Day 37 ~ Thursday, May 3, 2012


My husband is joining CrossFit this month!  I'm excited for him!  I am not joining at this time, but I have been doing some cross training on my own.  Here are some of the workouts I'm doing:

Click here to visit the website!

Here's some others that I have found on Pinterest:

This one was killer!
The Leg Lifts were tough!

The wall sits were the
toughest part on this one!

Here are some that I have yet to try:

Visit website:
http://backonpointe.tumblr.com/tagged/workout-challenge

I can see how this one is going to hurt!

Back to Hubs joining CrossFit... He's really getting into the Paleo eating plan.  However, he feels that I'm "overdoing it" on the spices and seasonings.  I think Paleo cooking includes a lot of flavor so that we don't get bored and go back to our processed foods.  I'm working on striking a balance between throwing myself wholeheartedly into these new and exciting recipes and toning it down a little for his taste buds.  Last night I made round steaks and just seasoned them with S&P (per his request).  I sided them with some delicious sauteed onions and peppers.  He was pleased!  

I'm still not eating veggies with my breakfast.  I need help in that area.  But I will be purchasing more fresh, wild caught fish at the Farmer's Market this week :)

Paleo Pancakes

We had breakfast for dinner last night (my favorite!)  My husband love, love, LOVES pancakes.  So, I made paleo pancakes using this recipe.  They were really good!  They have a nuttier flavor than your typical pancakes do, but they have the same texture.  I really love how the coconut flour is compared to wheat flour in this post by paleo spirit.

We topped our pancakes with a little butter and pure Wisconsin maple syrup (thanks Dad!).  We had bacon, eggs and some homemade hash browns on the side.  Some may argue that hash browns aren't paleo.  But they are in my house!  We don't eat potatoes every day (or even every week) and normally, when we do, they are sweet potatoes.  It's a rare occasion that we have "white potatoes" in the house, so I used the occasion to make one of our favorite dishes to have with eggs!

I made these in my cast iron frying pan with coconut oil.  Next time, I think I'll use my griddle so that I can save my expensive coconut oil and also make the whole batch at one time!