Memories and Change

I have such wonderful memories involving bread. My Mamaw's rolls, my Mimi's bread, the rolls and honey-cinnamon butter at Texas Roadhouse. I have many times told people I rate restaurants based on their bread! I also love desserts. My mom's coconut cream pie with it's delicious meringue, Annette's yummy poke cake, Sarah's homemade apple pie, soft snicker doodles, pumpkin anything. And chocolate - oh I love thee! Ghirardelli's Sea Escapes with caramel and sea salt is my absolute favorite! And chocolate fondue - I can't even begin to express my feelings toward fruit dipped in warm, melty chocolate. I am saying goodbye to these items. Some, for forever, and some hopefully for just a while.

This week I was diagnosed with celiac disease. If you are not familiar with what celiac disease is, it is basically an allergy to gluten. Gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. So, the short story is: eating gluten damages my body. The treatment is to be gluten free for life. Because my body is not reacting well to dairy (it never really has) and egg, I am going to be dairy and egg free for a time period as well and then discuss it again with my doctor after my body has had some time to heal.

I think the egg is the most difficult part for me right now. I am familiar with the Paleo diet (which already is grain and dairy free) and could learn to be happy with Paleo products. However, Paleo uses a lot of eggs. So, I guess this is a time for me to learn to be more creative in the kitchen. It is also a time to learn acceptance of the things I cannot change. It is most of a chance for me to bring glory to God amongst an uncomfortable situation. It could be so much worse. I am thankful that our move to Texas and change in insurance allowed me the opportunity to see a specialist and especially one who is listening to me and providing me with the testing I needed and have been asking for. I am extremely thankful that the Lord has provided me with a fantastic husband who takes this whole "in sickness and in health" thing seriously. He is so supportive and encouraging through my cravings for things I cannot have. My sweet sister is sending me gluten free recipes she finds. And, generous and thoughtful parents came to visit us bringing a gift basket of gf products and delicious gf and Paleo baked goods from Unrefined.

Bottom line... the Lord has given me so much to be thankful for! I won't be celebrating that with cake or hot buttered rolls any time soon, but maybe a banana.

After Cruise Eating - Back to Paleo

After going on a wonderful cruise - I realized all of my pants were too tight - most likely from the way I ate my way through Seattle and Alaska.  And, with a Myrtle Beach vacation on the horizon - I needed to lose some weight and get ready to wear a swim suit in public. So, Paleo - hello! Come on in! My man has been dishing up some yummy food that is super healthy on some beautiful plates we got from West Elm. Fist we have a skirt steak with a roasted "salsa" that B concocted. He roasted a red pepper and purple onion on the grill and then cut them up with some fresh peaches and cilantro. It was fab-u-lous! Then, he roasted some bacon-wrapped asparagus in the oven and paired it with mashed sweet potatoes. It is now a family favorite! We bought our Grass-fed Skirt Steak at Mosley's Meat Market.

Our next meal was the one we had last night. It was was fantastic as well! We had Pork Steaks grilled to perfection along with Spaghetti Squash and Kale. The spaghetti squash was tossed in some Garlic Dipping Oil and some Parmesan Spices. It took the squash to a whole new level! Then B used our friend Heather's recipe and put some bacon and kale in the skillet. He served it with some lemon juice squirted on top.

It just goes to show healthy, Paleo meals can be delicious too!!! :)

Garlic Chicken Butternut Squash Lasagna

I made a fantastic new recipe this evening!  It was super yummy and Brad and I both gave it two thumbs up!  It is Garlic Chicken Butternut Squash Lasagna.  It smells delicious when baking.  You will want to just scoop it up from the oven and into your mouth!  I will warn you that the blog I got the recipe from does not always use PG language.

FYI - these are the things I changed and will change for next time.  I used more chicken than called for because we like our protein!  I was generous with my herbs - and they were fresh.  Next time I will double the recipe for the sauce so that I could make more layers.  I didn't have enough to cover much of the top as it was.  It would have been even better with more sauce.  I had tons of squash left over though.  I used the Silk coconut milk I already had on hand instead of canned and I just used a little spaghetti sauce from a jar in the fridge instead of tomato sauce.  No use opening something new for 1/8 of a cup.  We will definitely make this again!  One of the kids liked it and the other didn't - no surprise there.  It would not have been enough for our family if everyone was to have eaten it.  I would double it for more for than two adults and a child.  Enjoy!  

Yummy Lettuce Wraps and more!

We have had some yummy food this week.  We started out with some bacon wrapped venison steaks with roasted sweet potatoes and onion.  That is always a hit in my book!  And, you know how Flurry boys feel about steak.  ;)  Tuesday, we had basketball practice.  We needed something that would not be time consuming to make for dinner that night.  Paleo Crock Pot Pineapple Ribs were the answer!  I recently upgraded to a larger crock pot so that I could make more meat for my growing boys.  These ribs were easy and delicious.  I made sauteed yellow squash, onions, and zucchini as a side.  The meat literally fell off the bone.  Everyone voted that we repeat these in our menu rotation.  Our friends Adam and Megan North (Happy Anniversary guys!) gave us another terrific recipe that we tried out tonight.  We love Pei Wei and PF Chang Lettuce Wraps.  These aren't quite the same but a yummy healthy alternative.  I will include their recipe below along with the variations we tried.  We really enjoyed them and will definitely have them again!


Paleo Lettuce Wraps

1 ½ pounds ground turkey or chicken

2 large zucchini

1 package button or baby bella mushrooms

1 small yellow onion

3-4 cloves minced garlic

a handful of toasted sesame seeds

a handful of crushed cashews

salt and pepper

Bragg’s liquid aminos

Coconut oil

Chop the zucchini, mushrooms and onions into small cubes, about the size of peas. Saute the veggies together in coconut oil, over medium high heat until they start to brown. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the veggies start to brown, add the garlic and sauté for a few more minutes.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, brown the turkey or chicken. Drain and add to veggie mixture.

Add the sesame seeds, cashews and Bragg’s, to taste, and simmer for a few minutes over very low heat. I usually add just enough Bragg’s to coat the mixture without soaking it. The Bragg’s is salty, so take that into consideration when seasoning the veggies.

Serve with iceberg lettuce leaves.

*Our Variations:

- we did not use mushrooms

- we added in orange bell pepper (about 1/3 to 1/2 diced) in it's place

- we were out of sesame seeds - so we omitted them and cooked with sesame oil instead of coconut oil

- we used extra cashew than called for

- we used Coconut aminos instead of Bragg's because that was what we had on hand

- we used purple onion instead of yellow onion and probably not as much as the recipe called for

- we used 2 lbs. of ground turkey

 

New RecIpes Blog

Brad found a fantastic new blog that I wanted to share with you. It is called The Foodee Project. It has a lot of great recipes to choose from. There are several different categories. We will be trying out a couple from the site this week. There are many different bloggers from all over the world who have contributed to this site and they have some yummy ideas but I will warn you that they don't all use the cleanest language when sharing them. Please comment and let me know what you try! :)

Fast and Easy

Many have asked asked, so first off I want to say...I had some diet soda this weekend.  I was a very cranky girl and had a headache for days that would not end.  I gave in for my entire family's sake.  Brad said thank you.  I do not have any in the house now - and would probably give in again if I did.  I have significantly cut back on my diet soda intake and have done pretty well on my diet otherwise.  But, the caffeine headaches pushed me over the edge.  I have one again today.  I don't like it.   

As for the fast and easy...  Our meat did not thaw according to plan yesterday evening.  We were unsure what to have for dinner.  The kids were tempting us and tried to convince us to get wings from Lucky's to eat while we watched the BSC game.  We did not let them lure us away!  I ran to Kroger's and picked up two rotisserie chickens and while Brad cooked some broccoli.  It was a yummy, healthy dinner that allowed us to get dinner fast and stay on track.  Tuck that one away for a night that you want something tasty and healthy.  :) 

Caffiene Headaches...

I don't like not drinking any soda.  I have had a headache at some point every day this week since we started our challenge.  On the bright side, when thinking about how much I want a soda - I don't think about missing bread so much.  We have had a couple of good meals this week that I thought I would share.  We had a Paleo Pot Roast this week in my brand new crock pot. I did not put the sweet potatoes in the crock pot as the recipe suggests.  I roasted them in chunks in the oven along with some sliced purple onions.  It was really yummy.  We also had a repeat from before with some Turkey Tacos using the yummy Primal Tortilla Recipe.  Our new recipe of the week was Zucchini Boats.  The recipe listed is not exactly what we did.  There was no cheese on ours - but I thought this was a good diagram  showing you how to do it.  We actually used zucchini and squash for our boats as well.  For the meat we used a combination of beef and venison in our boats.  I'm anticipating more yumminess in the future.  Stay tuned...  :)