Spring Break (aka Week with my Dad)

So, as previously stated, my Spring Break was a week full of hosting my father at my house and cooking paleo for him or making him eat mostly paleo when we ate out.  However, he adamantly refused to give up his morning coffee, complete with Cold Stone Creamery coffee cream...wah wah wah :(  Oh well, doing the diet a little bit is better than not doing it at all.
The first night my dad was in town, I didn't have time to go to the grocery store before he got there, so I made him dinner out of leftover Paleo Cajun Meatloaf, steamed asparagus, and sauteed portabella mushrooms.  The first dinner was a success....my dad really liked the meatloaf!

Day #1: Dinner

On the second night I made a repeat dinner, but one my dad had never had (Braised Chicken Thighs).  I paired the chicken thighs with steamed broccoli and raw organic baby carrot sticks.  The verdict from the father...another success!

 Day #2: Dinner

On the third day, I made salads for lunch with flank steak on them.  

 Day #3: Lunch

For dinner that night, I made Paleo Tacos with ground turkey and steamed bell peppers.  We ate almost all of the ground turkey, but I ended up with just enough leftover to add to my lunch salad for the next day.  Another meal that my dad liked, but he really liked the homemade guacamole that I added some jalapeno pepper to!

Day #3: Dinner

On night #4, my dad picked out a recipe that he found online for Foil Baked Salmon with Basil Pesto and Tomatoes. We headed to the grocery store and bought all of the needed ingredients! My dad actually made the basil pesto for me while I was teaching a riding lesson so I don't really know how labor intensive it was, but the rest of the recipe was a breeze to make!

Dinner before baking

 While the salmon was baking, I steamed some white asparagus and whipped together my own recipe for mashed "faux"tatoes (aka mashed cauliflower).  I steamed the cauliflower and then threw the florets into the food processor along with some freshly ground pepper, some salt, chives, ghee (clarified butter), and some chicken stock that was leftover from the last time I made chicken soup. So below is the final product...

 Day #4: Dinner

 Now here's the funny part, I've made mashed cauliflower 3 times now and this was the first time I didn't go straight off of a recipe, so I was taking a bit of a gamble.  They actually turned out better than I had expected, however, I couldn't finish my serving due to how spicy they were. My best friend happened to call me just as I was cleaning up after dinner and I was telling her about how spicy the mashed "faux"tatoes were and when I said that I think I put too many chives in the recipe she started laughing at me.  Laughing at me, can you believe it?! So apparently chives aren't spicy, but I couldn't just take her word for it, so I made sure to taste test a chive on its own.  And yep, she was right.  So the only thing I could figure out was that I just put way too much ground pepper in. It was so spicy I couldn't even eat it as leftovers the next day. Whoops!  The salmon, however, was very good and the basil pesto and tomatoes were delicious on it.  My dad did a very nice job picking the recipe!

The next day, I made another salad for lunch, this time with chicken breast. 

Day #5: Lunch

If you're wondering where the rest of the meals are, some of them we ate out for and some I simply forgot to take pictures of, but everything was quite delicious and I'm glad my dad got to try paleo, even if it was only for a week.  At the end of the week, he even lost 3 lbs! I considered the week to be a success and it was fun too cook for someone for the week.

 

I'm still alive!

I had to laugh a little when I read my last post and saw that I apologized for not posting in 2 weeks.  Well, this time it's been about 3 weeks since my last post, so I have a lot to catch you up on!  However, I will post the past few weeks separately so you don't get stuck reading the longest blog ever!

Let's start with March 6th, shall we?  That evening I had dinner with a couple friends/co-workers who I chaperoned an alternative Spring Break trip with last year to New Orleans.  We had been talking about how much fun we had and how great the food was, so we decided to do a little Cajun cooking of our own.  I had found a  recipe for Paleo Gumbo, but the recipe was much too labor intensive for the amount of time I had, so I decided to go with a recipe that I had found for Paleo Cajun Meatloaf.  It was extremely easy to make and it's perfect for leftover meals since they are mini meatloaves made in a muffin tin.  See below.

 

Mmmmm....meat!!!

The recipe was extremely easy and the meatloaf was nice and moist! It was also quite spicy with the sauce that the recipe calls for! Also included in the dinner was Ratatouille (which happens to be paleo friendly) and then vegetable chips and homemade layered taco dip (those were not paleo friendly but I ate them anyway and they were delicious)! :) 

 Delicious Dinner

The weekend of the 9th and 10th, I judged a horse show back home so it was kind of hard not to cheat during the day, seeing that most horse show concession stand food isn't paleo friendly. However, each morning I had eggs and bacon for breakfast and had a paleo friendly meal out at restaurants. We went to Texas Roadhouse on Saturday night and I ordered a side salad, Filet Mignon, and unbuttered mixed veggies.  Then on Sunday night, we went to the Lafayette Brewing Company and I ordered a Cobb Salad (sans cheese) with their house balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

The weekend of the 9th and 10th was probably the worst that I've cheated on my diet up to this point, so I was somewhat worried that when I jumped back on the scale when I got home, I would have gained a couple extra pounds.  To my surprise, I came home and found out that I had lost a total of 20 lbs since Jan. 13th!!!  Woohoo!  The next week was my Spring Break, and since I had no plans to go anywhere this year, I invited my dad to come visit for the week and try out the paleo diet.  To read more about this exciting week with new recipes, check out the next post to come! :)

It's been a crazy couple of weeks!

So I just realized that I haven't posted in over 2 weeks and shame on me!  My schedule has gotten increasingly busier over the past couple weeks since starting back into my master's classes and getting into the horse show season, so I haven't had a lot of time to explore new recipes.  I've still been eating well though, with exception to this past weekend (I majorly cheated...multiple times) :(

I'm back on track now, though, so let's visit some of the food that's been in my life over the last two weeks.  First, something fun.  On the weekend of February 23rd and 24th, my team hosted a weekend of shows for the second weekend in a row.  Even though I was quite tired, I still made my breakfast and lunch each day, and then ordered a paleo dinner at whatever restaurant where we ended up eating dinner.  I include organic baby carrots in my lunch almost every day and on one day over the weekend I ended up with a slightly deformed baby carrot.  After looking at it for a bit, I have no choice but to make it an Easter Bunny! How cute is that, right!?!  And speaking of Easter, I can't wait to break out some paleo cooking for the family then!

 Last Tuesday, I made a grilled chicken breast (seasoned with Emeril's Essence) on my indoor griddle, steamed some white asparagus, and sauteed some portabella mushrooms in minced garlic and ghee.  It was a super easy and fast meal.

Last Wednesday, I attempted a meal in my slow cooker for the first time since starting the paleo diet.  I made Ancho Chile Pulled Pork Barbeque.

First, I started with the list of ingredients for the rub...

Then mixed them all together...

 Then I put the rub all over the pork and placed it in the slow cooker with a bit of water...

9 hours later, I made the sauce for the pulled pork and poured a bit of it all over the pork...

I then steamed some green beans, put a little extra sauce in a cup, and sat down to eat...

So how was it?  Let's just say I won't be making this again.  I will put a disclaimer that I'm really picky about my barbeque sauce, but this sauce just didn't do it for me.  I had to force myself to eat it and the leftovers are still sitting in my fridge :(  So it's back to the internet to find a different pulled pork recipe!

Over this past weekend, I did quite a bit of cheating on my diet, but I sneaked some paleo meals in when I could.  I just keep forgetting to take pictures of my food when I'm out, but I'll try to remember in the future! Overall though, even with my cheating, I am down 17 pounds from Jan. 13th!  I wore a cardigan last night that I haven't worn since I bought it last Janurary and it's too big now!  Too bad I didn't still have the tags on it, or else I would have returned it.  Oh well.. 

Next week is my Spring Break, so I'll have more time to try some new recipes...so look for more posts soon!

I forgot about steamed spinach!

I've been a busy girl these past couple of days, but I managed to do some good cooking in the past couple of days!

On Monday, President's Day (also my day off), I was planning on doing a lot of cooking, but I got slightly sidetracked with other domestic duties that day so 9:30 pm rolled around and I still hadn't made anything for dinner.  I had a flank steak in the fridge so I decided to try a recipe that I had done previously, but to see if it would be any good without marinating the steak for 3 hours like the recipe instructed to.  I made the Honey Garlic Chipotle Flank Steak again and as soon as I threw the marinade on, I put it in the oven to broil. In the meantime, I put some fresh spinach in a colander to steam and in less than 15 minutes my meal was done! 

 
The steak tasted just like it did when I marinated it for hours and I realized after eating the spinach that it was probably my first time eating freshly cooked spinach all by itself.  I've always been a fan of cooked spinach, but growing up we would always buy the frozen rectangular blocks of spinach and cook those.  Now I can safely say that fresh spinach is definitely the way to go!  You just have to cook a lot more of it than you think you'll need because it shrivels down a lot.

The next day for lunch, I used some leftover flank steak to top my salad and it was delicious!  The steak just melts in your mouth...YUM!!

 Overall, I got 3 meals out of a pound of flank steak, so I was pretty happy about that!

Yesterday was when I got crazy with the cooking!  I got home a little before 6:00 pm and started work on my second batch of Fall Off the Bone Chicken Soup.  I left the potatoes out of the recipe, but instead added broccoli (like last time) and then added water chestnuts!  I wanted to try something new and add a little crispiness to the soup, so the water chestnuts took care of that for me. 

As the soup was cooking, I started marinating a new recipe:  Paleo Lemon Basil Chicken.  The recipe only called for the chicken to marinate 20-30 minutes and then only bake for 30, so it wasn't the most time consuming recipe ever.  The chicken turned out well and it had a little kick to it from the red pepper flakes, but I think I've figured out that I like chicken on the grill better than baked.  Maybe next time I'll just throw them on the grill instead.  And due to my renewed love of cooked spinach, I cooked even more of it to accompany my dinner for the second night in a row.

Well, I better get back to work now, but I just wanted to let you all know that I've stayed true to the diet and this weekend will mark 6 weeks being on the diet.  I've lost a total of 14 lbs so far, but I can definitely tell that my clothes are getting more baggy as time goes by! There might be a mini shopping spree in my future! ;)

I know, it's been a while!

Wow..it's been a while since my last post, this might end up being a long one, but we'll see! Life has been a bit busier than usual with horse shows every weekend, starting the last of my master's classes, and all of the other random things that occur on a daily basis.  But the good news is that it hasn't affected my dedication to eating paleo!

So where to start...let's start with a couple days before Valentine's Day.

On Tuesday morning, I was supposed to get a relaxing massage from my massage therapist, +Deborah Shahadey, but I got a call about 15 minutes before my appointment to say that she had to cancel because one of her goats was going into labor.  I ended up going over anyway, because I can't pass up seeing cute babies, but unfortunately her goat didn't want to have to have her babies until later that night.  In the meantime though, I got to visit with all of the chickens that have been providing me with the yummy eggs I eat for breakfast every morning.

 Thanks for your eggs, ladies!!!



        















 The next day, I got to visit these two cuties...

Now I realize that they don't have anything to do with the food I'm making, but I just couldn't resist.  So back to the food...I got an early Valentine's Day present from one of my lessons and I thought it was quite cute!  My present came with the explanation that since I can't eat chocolates, they got me these...

Perfect paleo present!

That night, I heated up some leftover chicken, steamed some broccoli and white asparagus. Speaking of leftovers, anyone have any favorite methods for re-heating meat?  I put the chicken in the microwave (just because it was fast), but it left the chicken completely dry and not that exciting. Any suggestions would be great!

 

Valentine's Day proved to be a quite busy day, and unfortunately, not due to all of my hot dates...lol! I didn't get home until after 9:30 that night, so I simply rubbed some of the Emeril's Original Essence Seasoning that I had left over from another recipe and put it on the grill.  I also steamed some green beans and in less than 15 minutes later, I had a delicious meal!

This past weekend, my school hosted a horse show, and I was worried about having enough time to cook/prepare food and eat well.  Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. My dad, as usual, stayed with me for the weekend so on Friday night, I made him a meal of Balsamic, Garlic, and Basil Marinated Chicken Breasts, mushrooms and minced garlic sauteed in clarified butter, steamed white asparagus, and some Kale with cranberries and roasted pine nuts.  I marinated the chicken for almost 24 hours and it was good, I just figured it would have even more flavoring than it did and it certainly didn't come out looking like the picture on the recipe website. But here it is...

My dad thoroughly enjoyed the meal and even experienced two firsts: eating kale and eating white asparagus.  And even better, he's planning on spending spring break with me to try the paleo thing for the week, however he informed me that he's not giving up his morning coffee, but we'll see about that!

As for the days of the shows, I made my normal breakfast each morning and made my salads for lunch the nights before.  I actually had multiple people comment on how good my salads looked each day and they tasted just as good.  The thing that was the most tempting was the smell of grilled cheese sandwiches from the concession stand wafting through the indoor arena, but I resisted!  Yay me!

On Sunday night, my dad and I ended up going to TGI Friday's for dinner and I ordered the Bacon and Blue 10 oz. sirloin (sans blue cheese) with steamed broccoli and a side salad.  Everything was delicious and my dad couldn't stop raving about their beer selection...it was quite good, even though I only had a sip of one of my dad's.

Thank you, Friday's!

Well, I better get going because I'm planning on doing some cooking on my day off.  I hope you're all having a lovely President's Day, even if you don't have the day off! :)

Nothing to write home about...

I made a new recipe tonight...Cilantro-Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa.  I paired it with grilled bell peppers, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little bit of ancho chili powder. I had the peppers on the grill a bit too long, so they ended up much too soft, but it was my first time preparing veggies on a grill in a while so I'm sure it will be better next time.  My salsa also ended up more of a sauce than a salsa, but it still tasted the same.  It will be perfect to use as a dressing on my salad for lunch tomorrow, though! And again, thanks to my instant read meat thermometer, the chicken was cooked perfectly (no salmonella for me)!!  Well anyway, here's the food...

Not the best recipe ever, but at least it's still healthy!

On another note, I found out about a woman in town who started her own paleo cooking business right here in Terre Haute! It's called Gourmet Cave Girl and she makes and delivers paleo lunches and dinner around town!  Even though I plan on making all of my own meals, I figure there might be in a day in my future where I'm just too tired to cook and I can enjoy someone else's  healthy cooking!  Thanks to +Chad McKay and +Stephanie McKay for telling me about her and also for selling me some of their bulk almond flour and coconut flour!  I have the best friends!!  

A Weekend Full of Good Eats!

This weekend was a busy one, but I somehow managed to turn out some pretty awesome food, with the exception of one meal out at a restaurant.  My father stayed overnight for the first time in a while, so he got to experience not only the paleo diet, but also my new-found cooking skills. 

On Friday night, I made a new recipe, Honey Garlic Flank Steak.  I paired the steak with steamed asparagus and re-heated the last of my mashed cauliflower and then I served it to my father!

 Mmm...bloody meat! 

I know I've said this before, but these pictures truly don't do the food justice.  I was so excited to sit down and eat, that I didn't realize they were slightly blurry.  But blurriness doesn't change the taste, luckily!  The flank steak was heavenly.  The marinade of honey, minced garlic, chipotle powder, salt, and pepper was simply brilliant and I owe my perfect broiling of the juicy medium-rare steak to my new instant read meat thermometer that I bought earlier in the day.  It even alarms me when the temperature of the meat reaches the correct cooking temp...I have a feeling this will be my new best friend!  After dinner, my dad even helped me bake another batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies and they were just as good as last time I made them.  I still can't believe how easy it is to love something that has replaced what I used to pride myself on making!

The next morning (Saturday), my dad had to leave to go back home, so I cooked him my normal breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and then added in a little fruit salad.  

My dad's overall reaction was actually much better than I anticipated.  He liked the mashed cauliflower (which I was thinking he wouldn't like) and he couldn't stop raving about the flank steak!  I didn't think I was going to have enough left to put on my salad today, but turns out I think I'll get 2 more salads out of it...yum!  So now that my dad knows this paleo thing is quite yummy, I'm trying to convince him to stay with me for his Spring Break and I'll cook for him all week.  It will be like a paleo challenge and I'll make him weigh in at the beginning and end of the week, but the hardest part for him will be that he will have to give up his favorite thing for a whole week...BEER!  We'll just have to see if he takes me up on the challenge ;)

Saturday night I ended up going out to dinner with friends at Applebee's.  I got the 7 oz. sirloin (medium rare) and steamed broccoli and other mixed veggies (all without butter).  Not that the meal was bad, but it just made me appreciate my own cooking even more.  The steak was definitely overcooked and it just didn't have the flavor that the meats I've been buying have. Granted, I know it's steak at Applebee's (not Ruth's Chris) but it still just wasn't as satisfying as it might have been a while back.   

Tonight, I made Cajun Spiced Pork Chops.  I used thick pork chops, omitted the sage from the recipe, and grilled them outside, but I think they ended up much better than they would have if I would have followed the directions perfectly.  Again, I used my handy-dandy meat thermometer and the pork chops were juicy and spicy!  The seasoning really opened up my sinuses, but it was the perfect amount of spiciness. I also paired the pork chops with white asparagus (which I've never had before) and the kale/dried cranberries/pine nut mixture that I've made before.  It was a totally rewarding dinner which took hardly any time at all and it just made me realize that I'm truly getting better at this cooking thing!  

SO GOOD!!!