Getting back on the wagon

It's funny - I did very well at sticking to Paleo during the Christmas holidays. I spent 5 days at home in rural Washington state with my family, where finding some paleo friendly food items can be challenging, so I did what any good paleo girl does - I brought it with me. Yup, I packed my suitcase with coconut oil, coconut flour, and almond meal, and two of my favorite paleo cookbooks (check out Make it Paleo and Paleo Comfort Foods).

My goal: eat well and show my family that it still tastes good.

Upon arriving at my parent's house and looking in the fridge I realized that they really had no REAL food in the house. I'll talk more about this in another post, but at any rate, I needed to go shopping stat. I was able to find coconut butter, almond butter, and some other ingredients I wanted at their local grocery store that carries more of the natural and organic foods, but I was still very thankful that I packed my staples.

After shopping, I decided that I would start with making breakfasts for my family while I was there and by breakfasts I don't just mean eggs and bacon. We had that too, but I wanted to show them that you could have things like pancakes and not have to eat gluten.

I first made them coconut flour pancakes, which would have been great if my mother had a gas stove and a griddle. They tasted good, but I couldn't get them cooked quite right. FAIL

What's a girl to do, but try again. This time I borrowed my sister's electric griddle and made pumpkin pancakes. SUCCESS

Of course in making pancakes I had to have the conversation with my mother that sugar free syrup is not actually food. I bought real 100% pure maple syrup for those who felt they must have syrup and I used frozen blueberries and raspberries from my mom's garden for me - it was delightful.

At any rate, the more dishes I made the more they discovered that paleo is actually pretty darn good. I even made some paleo fudge from the Make it Paleo cookbook, but it was a little bit rich for my taste given that I rarely eat such treats.

All in all the holidays were a success, but post holidays are another story. All I will say is I went to Vegas for MLK weekend. So, beginning February 1st I will be doing another paleo challenge.

Thanksgiving

I keep forgetting I need to post about Thanksgiving. I had two Thanksgivings - the one with family and the one at my house with friends. Thursday I decided to make tasty paleo desserts to bring with me because a) I don't like to eat pie (never did) and b) I don't like to eat sugary, carb loaded desserts, but I do like to have a special treat on a holiday.

So, thank you thank you thank you goes out to Paleo Comfort Foods for their tasty Chocolate Cake with a kick recipe. I left out the "kick" part and went straight for the dark chocolately goodness. It was a total hit with one person stating that my husband was a very lucky man. It was so good that said hubby begged for me to make it again at our Thanksgiving on Saturday night.

Saturday night I made my very first thanksgiving with meat! I admit I did not make a full turkey. Since there were only 3 meat eaters I opted for a breast and a thigh/leg. It was pretty tasty.

I didn't completely go paleo though. I really, really wanted mashed potatoes. So I gave in and ate them and then sent the leftovers home with my non-Paleo guests. So here was the menu:

Turkey
Mashed potatoes (my cheat)
Mashed sweet potatoes
Creamed spinach with artichoke hearts (creamed with coconut milk)
Acorn squash

It was all really very tasty if I do say so myself and to be quite honest I could have done without the potatoes.

I did also do one very bad thing. I ate bread. I really wanted bread mostly because I wanted dip. BAD idea I felt like someone took my insides out, ran over them, and then put them back in tied in a knot. Yup. I will NOT be eating bread again. BAD me.

A little bit more about me

I keep thinking I need to add some more background here or maybe some pictures. So, here goes. Remember how I said I was over 200 lbs and how I lost 35+ lbs. Well, here's a glimpse at my before and after photos. I also lost more than 17 inches off of my body the last time I measured myself (which was several months ago).

 I will also add that while I'm telling you I lost 35+ lbs I am not necessarily a fan of the scale. It all comes down to how you feel, how your clothes fit, the physical changes you see in your body. I could easily weigh what I do now and wear a much bigger clothes size than I'm at, but I'd be carrying around fat as opposed to the muscle I'm building. Something to think about.

P.S. These pictures were taken months ago. So, I've lost even more inches since these were taken all by eating a real food diet (practically paleo) and exercising (specifically doing weight bearing exercises). 

Paleo and Potlucks

So, today was day 21 of the Paleo challenge. I made it and made it through today's potluck at work. I'm so thankful that I wasn't alone in the paleo challenge - it meant there was definitely more I could eat.

On the menu for me today:

Mashed cauliflower (which I made)
"Creamed" spinach (which I made)
Turkey
Sweet potatoes
Paleo coconut flour biscuits
Chocolate date balls for dessert

All in all pretty darn good. Did I miss anything? Really, all I somewhat missed were mashed potatoes and maybe gravy, but I felt like I got to partake and really enjoyed myself.

I am actually having people over for dinner this weekend to cook a paleo and vegetarian friendly (for my veggie friends) thanksgiving. I can't wait to plan the menu; cooking paleo meals that are tasty is so easy. So, I'll plan for a mostly paleo meal, but it is a holiday afterall so there might just have to be some exceptions. I can say that I am very excited to make some paleo desserts and show off my mad baking skills. Mmmm apple crisp.

Tom Kha Soup

I originally came up with this recipe as a vegetarian recipe, but the great thing about soup is that it is so easy to modify. When I was looking for a vegetarian Tom Kha soup recipe I did a little searching through my cookbooks and found in "The Carb Conscious Vegetarian" a recipe for Tom Yumm - close, but not quite, so I modified.

The first time I made it my husband said it was yummy and there were absolutely no leftovers. I think he went back for fourths!

And without further ado the recipe:

1 T of lemon grass (I used pre-sliced)

1 T of crushed ginger

4 cups of organic vegetable broth

1 can of organic coconut milk

1 T chili paste ( or less if you don't like spice)

2 T lime juice (or to taste)

1 T cilantro 

1 bunch of asparagus (remove the tough stems)

8 oz of mushrooms

Diced chicken pieces already cooked

Add the vegetable broth, lemon grass, and ginger to a stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low 15 minutes to infuse the broth.

Remove from heat and strain through a sieve to remove the pieces of lemongrass. Return to pot.

Add the coconut milk, chili paste, lime juice, and cilantro and simmer until coconut milk is thoroughly dispersed in the broth (you don't want clumps).

Add the asparagus, mushrooms and chicken and simmer 10 minutes until vegetables are cooked through.

Asparagus Coconut Milk Soup

I love this soup. It's quick, it's easy, and it's tasty. 

1 onion chopped

1 T of grass fed butter (you could substitute a healthy oil here)

2 bunches of asparagus cut into 1 in pieces (discard the tough stems)

4 C of vegetable broth

1 can of coconut milk

Melt the butter in a stock pot.

Add the onion and saute until soft.

Add the asparagus and saute until it begins to soften.

Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or until the asparagus is soft.

Add the coconut milk and stir.

Blend in a blender and voila!!

*Sausage goes well in this too. 

Better than Pasta - Introducing Spaghetti Squash

I love spaghetti squash. I could eat it almost every day. No, really, I could. It's mother nature's idea of noodles - nothing processed, just 100% food. It doesn't get better than that does it?

There are a zillion ways to eat spaghetti squash and I plan on posting a number of recipes, but my favorite simple spaghetti squash recipe is.... Nope not spaghetti squash with pasta sauce, but this tasty little recipe.

1 medium size organic spaghetti squash
2 C organic baby spinach leaves
1/2 C sun-dried tomatoes
Meat of your choice*

*Pork Sausage (free of all the nasty stuff - nitrates, nitrites) or pastured chicken goes well in this dish

A little note: I don't usually use measuring cups when making this dish so all of the above amounts are guestimates. Ultimately, add as much as you want of each of the ingredients. You can also add red onions, black olives, or if you are doing dairy, goat cheese is very tasty in this dish.

Now to the cooking part.

How to cook a spaghetti squash 101. There are several ways to cook a spaghetti squash from microwaving, baking, boiling, and steaming- if you are one that will use a microwave you can microwave a spaghetti squash for about 15 minutes and viola. The caveat is that you have to poke about 2 zillion holes in it or you may very well have a squash explosion and then no dinner. No bueno. Then there is the pesky idea of microwaves themselves, but that's a whole other post.

I personally like to steam it, it takes only about 5-10 minutes longer than a microwave and I feel like I've got control of the food and there is no room for a squash explosion. I will say that I have a vegetable steamer, which makes things pretty easy.

Other ways of cooking a spaghetti squash can be found on the internet - just google "how to cook spaghetti squash".

To steam it:

1. Cut the ends of the squash and then cut the squash in half lengthwise.
2. Remove the seeds
3. If needed cut the squash into pieces until it all the pieces will fit in a steamer
4. Steam for 20 minutes or until the squash is soft (you can easily slide a knife into the squash)
5. Remove the squash and allow it to cool (be careful not to burn yourself on the steam)
6. Scrap a fork along the squash to remove the "spaghetti"and place it in a bowl

To fix the rest of this tasty recipe:

Place the spinach in a skillet with just tiny bit of water, cover and heat on medium until the spinach begins to wilt. Remove the spinach let cool (or you can't wait for it to cool run it under cold water) and squeeze out all of the liquid.

Add the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and goat cheese to the spaghetti squash, stir, and viola!