Drive Thrus

It has been crazy around here! My living room looks like a bomb exploded. My kitchen is empty, except for a few random items... a hammer, some tape, salt and pepper... our one frying pan, a spatula, and a cookie sheet.

The only thing we've made in the house this last week is bacon and eggs. Good thing we enjoy those two foods so much!

Kinda weird that in two days we will be in a brand new house. I was just telling Tom this seems surreal in a way. It has been 30 days since we first said "how would you feel about moving?" ... buying a house... selling the old house (closing next Friday) ... to packing and unpacking... and Friday we will have the furniture moved.

We have had to do drive thru food a few times. We've tried skipping fries, and eating around the bread, and adding extra vegetables. Then there was a day or two where we all said "whatever" and we ate it all. Just being honest.

Hope to check back in soon!

Not to Self: Bring home the frying pan

So it turns out the one skillet I had set aside to leave in the old house (for eggs and such) was packed away. And even though I was at the new house yesterday, twice, I forgot to bring it home. The poor kids are starving, and I don't really have a way to make breakfast. I did find a cookie sheet, so I can at least make bacon.  None of us care for eggs microwaved. Much too spongy. 


Amy (6) decided to eat some grapes, but apparently didn't wash them first, and now she is crying because Regina (8) told her she would get pinworms. Amy is sure she is dying of pinworms now. Big sisters are so helpful sometimes. 


I suppose it will be leftover (nitrate free) hotdogs. Yummy!


Also, we are over the 100,000 view mark! As soon as I am up and baking again, I will share the amazing turkey recipe!


Thanks everyone!

Some Moving Stuff

Yesterday was chaotic. We don't officially move until June 1st, but we thought we'd start moving rooms one at a time in hopes of it being a smoother transition.

Yesterday I moved (from the old house to the new house) the laundry/storage room, master closet/master bathroom and the KITCHEN. The kitchen needed 23 boxes. And that was *after* I had thrown out half my stuff.

I was only able to get through it thanks to my friends Karen and Cathy. One helped to pack me up, and the other helped to unpack it. Sooo... I now have 1 bowl, a plastic spoon, a casserole dish, and a frying pan. I do believe we will be very creative over here for the next week or so.

A teacher from the kids' school picked up three of the girls and took them for the day. She was a little apprehensive about feeding them so I found some quick and easy t hings for her to give them. I bought the nitrate free hotdogs, carrots, and grapes and threw it in a cooler bag. That seemed to work well.

For dinner Tom bought bbq and we ate it out of tupperware in the new house. hehe  Fun times. 

Where to Buy Butter?

A reader has asked about buying grassfed butter. Do any of you have any tips for him?


I buy my butter at the grocery store. I find the KerryGold brand in with the case of exotic cheeses. So don't go looking in the case with Land O'Lakes and Country Crock!

One pan dinner

Wow, so sorry postings have been sparse. We closed on the new house today. We are now trying to pack up sections of the house and slowly move it over to the new house. Only, with four kids running around this is very slow going. 


I made a one pan dinner last night. I have no time to wash dishes. So we had steak and vegetables. 


Step 1: melt butter
Step 2: add salt to steak, and add steak to pan.
Step 3: Cook steak until done. 
Step 4: Remove steak and let rest
Step 5: Throw in broccoli and carrots into same pan (do not drain the butter or meat drippings)
Step 6: Toss the vegetables in the "sauce" and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes. Or until tender. 


Serve. 


Delicious! And quick.

Almost there!

Just 1,500 views away from my super-duper secret turkey recipe!

Whew

What a week!  It's been crazy preparing for a garage sale, holding the garage sale, loading items into cars, and trying to keep track of four kids while Tom is out on a speaking event. 


I''ve yet to make it to the grocery store. I'm this close :::hold thumb and pointer finger 1/2 inch apart:: to telling the kids we're going to be extra primal and eat leaves and grub.  Maybe then they'll appreciate the steak and cheese more. 


My mom was super generous and drove from Oklahoma up here, with four of my siblings in tow, to help out with the garage sale. The kids wanted things like doughnuts and chips and bread for sandwiches.. so I bought them. And my own family may or may not have snuck a few of these items. I'll take it to my grave though. 


I seriously need a detox though. I fully expect the kids to have some meltdowns in the next day or two. My mom and siblings left a few hours ago, so the kids and I will be eating a lot of salad and olive oil tonight. And that will probably be our diet for the next few days as well. 


I'm going to go make that salad now. . . right after I take a nap. 


Oh wait. I'm Mom. I don't get naps.

House is Sold!

Wow, it's been a crazy few weeks here! We decided to buy a new house, 18 hours later we signed a contract on a our future home, three days later we put our current house on the market, and five days later... it sold!  Amazing. 


Because of all the craziness I haven't been to the grocery store for over a week. It's making meal prep a little difficult.  Last night I realized the kids had nothing to pack for lunch so I had to run to the store. I had to think of something quick and wouldn't require cooking... so I came up with deli turkey wraps. 


1 big romaine lettuce leaf
3 oz turkey
2 slices turkey
mustard. 


Layer and roll. 


I also gave them some sliced apples and some dark chocolate chips. They were really pleased with it, thankfully. 


Tonight was dinner at Jason's Deli since we had a house showing at 6pm.  I did have to stop at the grocery store on the way home since Veronica needs some pudding for tomorrow, so we stopped and bought some avocado and raspberries. I still need to make this... ugh 


So tomorrow is yogurt for breakfast. And some beef burgers (I'm cooking them now) for lunch. And who knows what's for dinner. 

Food is so Stupid Sometimes

I keep stalling out on weight loss. It's really starting to annoy me. I haven't written out my story yet (it would take forever at this point!) but I still think something is not quite right with my metabolism. 


I think food is too much of a bother when you're a mom... I think the main problem is eating too little. It's difficult (though not impossible) to be Primal when you are constantly on the go. Lately I haven't had time to premake any meals or snacks, which means I don't eat. 


What happens when you don't eat?  Your body craves fuel. What does your brain immediately think of as fuel?  Sugar. (I wonder if the brain is ever retrained or if it will always rely on sugar as a quick energy source?) So I go throughout my day thinking "I'll eat as soon as I get time to make something" but I never do have/make the time for it, so I end up wanting to devour sugar. Any kind of sugar. So I had to put the chocolate chips on the high self (at 5'1 I'm short) so I could resist the "Hey, it's dark chocolate, it's good for me--it's filled with antioxidants!" type rationale. Now I was not eating handfuls of chocolate a day, but even if I were, it seems to me that I would have to consume a massive amount of chocolate in order to take in more sugar/calories than my body could use and store as fat. 


I've also really tried to focus on smothering anything I eat with grassed butter. I've added heavy cream to foods in the hopes that the high fat content would help eat away the stored fat. I know some people say that dairy hinders weight loss, but I dairy out for a while and saw no results in additional weight loss, so I'm skeptical this is the case with me. 


So I'm in a little bit of a slump, I'm afraid.  I don't want to go back to the way we were eating before, GP has way too many great benefits, but sometimes I wish I didn't have to think about food so much. 

And then there's the idea of "you could be 115 pounds if you just stuck to eating meats and vegetables all the time. For some people even eating a dairy serving or having some sugar stalls weight loss, so it's best to stay away from these things."


Let's say this would be true of my situation. Do I want to live like that? Do I want to say *all of the time* "no thanks, I'm only eating my chicken and green beans today."  Sometimes I do want a cupcake. And sometimes I do want to go out for frozen yogurt with my girls. (After all, It's a Summer tradition!) And every once in awhile I want to eat the things I loved when I was a kid. So if indulging in these things every once in a while is going to mean I'll be fat forever... maybe I just have to accept that. 


I really think a properly working body should be able to tolerate eating a few sweets or grains without it going completely haywire and completely halt weight loss. Right?  


Sorry, don't mean to be a downer, but this blog was started to be an accurate depiction of a family's ups and downs of going Primal, so I figured I'd better keep with that theme.


In the meantime, if anybody has some good high-fat menu ideas, please share!

Cupcakes!

I really wanted cupcakes yesterday, but the thought of making Primal-friendly cupcakes made me tired. Baking is so time and energy intensive when baking primally. ::sigh::


Anyway, I remembered a Facebook friend of mine started a blog and she tends to do more baking than cooking (from what I can see anyway)... which is great! because I don't have time to fiddle around with ingredients. 


So here's her blog: Primal6  where she gives some simple instructions to a quick and easy cupcake recipe. 

I made them today (omitting the Stevia) and they really did turn out well.  I made the icing out of heavy cream, 1/2 tsp almond extract, and 1 tsp of maple syrup. 


You should try it!

Who Wants the Perfect Turkey Recipe?

We have hit 95,000 hits!  Yippee!!


I have a super, amazing no-fail turkey recipe which I love. I have never given out the instructions before, but I will if we hit 100,000 views! 


So help me help you. Send some of your friends over and let's all have the juiciest, more flavorful turkey ever!

Easy Peasy Pudding

Veronica's teacher emailed me to say that next week they are having an end-of-school party, and she would be serving dirt cups. She said she wanted to respect our "diet" and what sort of accommodations could she make for Veronica.


I thought that was very sweet of her. Even better is when she emailed me two hours later with a link to coconut milk pudding, and asked if she could make that for V. You know your kids are at a great school when an overworked, unpaid teacher is researching pudding recipes for a student's crazy diet.


The recipe called for two hours of prep and cook time. Two hours?!  Yikes. I told Mrs. Kind (she fits her name well!) I would make the pudding and send it in next week. Then I decided I just don't have two hours to spare these days, so I was in a pickle.


About an hour later I was checking Facebook and my friend Tammie just so happened to post a link to quick and easy Primal pudding! That, my friends, is Divine Providence. ;)


I realized I actually had all the ingredients on hand, so I tried it out for dessert tonight in hopes of her liking it well enough for next week's party.


Here's the link: Yummy Primal Pudding


It's basically raspberries, lemon, vanilla, avocado, honey, and water. Blend well. Refrigerate for 20 mins. (I did have to add about a tsp of maple syrup because the raspberries (to me) were too bitter.) And serve. 


I made whipped cream using heavy whipping and a smidge of maple syrup, blend in a blender, or a Magic Bullet (which works wonders! It's the one kitchen gadget we bought from an infomercial, and it actually as great as it appears on TV) blend for about 30 seconds.


Top the pudding with the cream and enjoy!


It even passed the kids' taste test!

Quick Dinner

Tonight I threw together a quick dinner since our routine has become completely disrupted lately.


I made some hamburgers, fried onions (in butter) and corn on the cob (not technically Primal, but it's "real food") for the kids. They seemed to enjoy it! I also gave them each half a cup of chocolate coconut milk. It has a little sugar, but the fats in the milk are worth it, I think.


Now I have pork loin in the oven. And chicken soup on the stove. These should make for quick meals tomorrow, I hope.

Now I want bacon. So maybe I'll go bake up a few pounds and we can munch on it while watching TV ;)

Steak is Yummy

So I've done nothing for the last week except purge, organize, clean and clean some more. I've not had time to really make much food, so we've just been grazing on whatever is in the fridge at the time. And we've gone out for dinner several times. 


Tonight we had our first house showing (to a lovely older couple, I'm told) so I spent from 9:30am until 6:45pm (Tom jumped in to help when he could) scrubbing floors and polishing wood. I think I managed to squeeze in about five minutes for lunch... which consisted of three slices of ham, wrapped around some cheddar cheese. I'm not sure how it tasted, because I had to inhale it. 

By the time we finished cleaning (and had to be out of the house anyway) I was starving! So we headed to Longhorn Steak House and had STEAK. Which was yummy. 

The End. 

Just kidding. 

I had the 20oz ribeye cooked Medium. It was ah-mazing. I wish I had had more energy to enjoy it though. The kids had grilled chicken fingers and broccoli (and a few fries) and water. Tom had a sirloin and stuffed mushrooms (with cheese and bacon, not breadcrumbs). So we pretty much devoured all the food. Hey, we're Primal, what do they expect?

Tom had to rush off for an internet Q&A, so I took care of the bill while the kids finished up. 

Then our server (a 30ish man) walked out with four bowls of ice-cream sundaes and said "I hope this is okay, Mom?"  and I ... didn't quite know what to say. So I said "oh, you are so kind, but two of the kids have dairy allergies! I'm so sorry, but thanks so much!"  The kids were crushed. He said "not to worry! I'll return!"  and he did return with four fruit, dairy-free, smoothies. The kids were elated. 

And I was secretly envious since I knew there were now four servers in the kitchen scarfing down free ice-cream bowls. Hey, I want one, I've been working allllll day!


The showing went very well, I'm told. Great news. But I still want ice-cream.

Hot Potato!

After Mass today we decided to eat at Jason's Deli. I love this place. Not exactly Primal, but it does have free range meats and organic produce. 


Anyway, today I decided I wanted a baked potato. I am/was a potato lover. I seriously could eat mashed potatoes everyday, for every meal, all the time! Not having (white) potatoes has been one of the biggest hurdles for me in GP. I really don't like sweet potatoes, so please don't tell me I should just try that. And I know white potatoes are okay-ish in the Primal world, but you're really not supposed to eat them if you're trying to drop weight (which I am), so I have really missed them. 


So I ordered a loaded baked potato and a salad. It was all I loved about potatoes and more! Unfortunately, I totally crashed about an hour later. I never, ever, ever take naps. Never. Unless I'm pregnant that is... but today I fell asleep while on the computer. I don't know how long I was out, but I felt really wobbly for a little while after I woke up. 


I'm guessing this is due to the carb spike in the potatoes. Darn it.  


So tomorrow is grocery day again. I'm off to make a list, I guess. Blah.

We're Moving! Any Tips?

Tom and I decided last Saturday that the house we are currently living in just isn't working for us. We live on 20 acres and a huge house sits on it, and while it is beautiful and we are thankful to have such a nice place, it's just too big for me to keep up. It's also very remote. I spend about two hours a day just driving back and forth to school/errands/church etc., and with gas prices what they are... it's just too much. 


So Monday we went to look at a new potential house which is much smaller. It sits on a hill so we can overlook the city (not that there's much to see), so we will be in the city but still feel out of the way. We decided to buy it on the spot. It's perfect for what we need for this stage of our family. It's a bit small, but smaller is easier to clean!  The kitchen is really pretty but has about 1/4 of the storage I have now, so I'm going to have to be creative... being Primal means I cook a lot and use lots of different cooking items, so that'll be a little tricky, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. 


Anyway, after the euphoria of finding the (almost) perfect house began to wear off, it suddenly hit Tom and I that we have less than four weeks to get our current house move-ready. And since we want to sell this house as soon as possible, we've been scrambling to get it on the market... next week hopefully... so I've have no time to post, or cook, or even think. I've sorted the house all ready. I know what needs to be tossed, sold, and given away. Now it's on to cleaning and calling utilities and other such calls... ugh 


In the interest of my new small kitchen: What are some space saving tips you have? And what are the essential cooking items you must have?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday, hurray! And I did not stay Primal. 


I didn't eat breakfast since I rushed to get the kids to school. And then I had a chiropractor appointment. After this, I met Tom to pick up the baby, and then she and I went to the Mall and bought a new pair of sandals. 


Then we went to the movie store and rented Lord of the Rings so I could have something to watch while doing laundry. I tell you, we go wild and crazy on our birthdays here! 


 I decided I really wanted fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy. I didn't have time to make this, so I went to our local grocery store where they make these things fresh. Elizabeth and I shared the chicken and potatoes. It was really delicious! Not quite as good as when I make it myself, but it was a good second-best. 


So we did laundry, at lunch, and watched LotR (well, E watched Blue's Clue's in the other room) for most of the day. Oh, and I also had a real Coke (made with real sugar). Interestingly, it other than some bloating, it had no other noticeable ill-effects on me. Not that I would want to drink it regularly, but I'm glad it doesn't affect me the same way as Coke make with HFCS does. 


After the movie, we had to run some errands. After which, Tom took the kids home and fed them, while I went to the movies. I saw that new Mirror, Mirror movie. Really odd. I didn't eat any popcorn though since movie popcorn always makes me feel sick. Which makes me wonder: what do they put in it?

Then it was dinner time! So I met a couple of friends a new restaurant and we had some really great food. We shared an order of chicken nachos. They were so good, I want some more today! I miss tortilla chips the most since having GP, I think. Then I had a salad with ranch dressing. And a Ribeye with loaded mashed potatoes. We really went crazy and ordered waters all around! 


Everything was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it.


On to my house where a friend brought Dunkin Donuts, fudge, and wine. As I ate my cream filled donut I was thinking "I wonder how horrible I will feel tomorrow?" but I ate every bite anyway. 

It was a very nice, relaxing birthday filled with lots of good-tasting food. Oh, and, a big rainbow!

Today I feel fine, really. I think I'm slightly dehydrated, but other than that I don't have any weird aches or pains, I don't feel like I'm about to die, or have no energy.  I am fairly bloated though... small price to pay once a year. 

Now I'll be spending the next week being super strict on GP, but it was fun while it lasted! 

Help, Please

So many of you have linked me to so many different and interesting websites, but I've never really had a chance to explore them since it usually means I have to go back through all the comments and find them. 


If you have suggested a link in the past, could you please post it again in the comment section of this post? 


Thanks so much!