Bread!

Thanks to a very nice reader who sent me a quick and easy recipe for coconut bread, we made sandwiches today! I was nearly out of sliced meat, so we made mini-sandwiches, but hey! it was a sandwich. The kids were thrilled! So thank you for the recipe, reader!

Ham and grassfed butter on coconut bread!

I wanted to also make cookies that have bananas and avocado mixed in to the batter, but 4 out of 5 of my avocados were black inside. BOOO!


The kids forgot to pack their lunches last night, so it was a mad rush this morning, and I couldn't even begin to guess at what they packed. Although, I know Amy took nothing, because I saw her lunch box at home, so I had to call the school and ask them to give her the beans and corn they were serving at lunch. Eh, she'll survive.


I skipped breakfast--did a lot of purging of the house--and had salad with turkey around 12:30.  Then I had a two of the mini-sandwiches in late afternoon. And I've yet to eat dinner. Not sure why I'm not all that hungry lately, but I'm guessing I should eat more than a salad and two small sandwiches. Or not. I don't know. 


Tom had quiet a few bowls of chicken soup, and a salad with pork for dinner. 


The kids had big bowls of salad and topped it with leftover pork loin. They seemed to like it well enough. 


I am not dehydrating beef jerky... I really hope it turns out well. I haven't a clue as to when to take it out of the dehydrator. 


So that's how I spent my day. Tom spent his cleaning the kitchen (cause he's nice like that). And the kids spent the day at school and then taking baths. 


Exciting, aren't we?

You Know You're Primal When...

1. You have to make multiple trips per week to buy fresh produce.
2. You can actually taste the difference in vanillas. 
3. Foods/condiments which ones had subtle flavors are now strong even in small amounts. 
4. Your first thought when planning a trip is "how many grocery stores are along the way?"
5. You get looks of "did you escape from the looney bin" when you order Mexican entrees "without rice, beans, tortillas, or chips."
6. Your teeth hurt when you think of eating sandwich bread.
7. You tell your kids "if you have a good day, and eat all your dinner, you can have an orange!" And they cheer.
8. You now know how to prepare three different types of squash, six different ways.
9. You actually enjoy drinking water. 
10. And you eat your salads out of mixing bowls, because the "regular sized" cereal bowls just won't cut it.

Dillema

Regina and Veronica were a ball of emotions today. Dang Valentine's day cookie. Actually, I don't know if that as enough of a sugar-rush to cause all crying and grumpiness today, but it seems like it correlated. 


So here's the dilemma: How do you keep kids Primal/healthy while still allowing them to partake of foods at parties/school/friend's houses. etc.?  

 I don't believe in taking the line of "you can never eat anything off the primal "plan." All that will create is children who at the age of 16, will drive to McDonald's as soon as they pass their driving test.


Yet, the fall-out of allowing them to cheat is not a barrel of laughs. 

Now, Regina (8) is old enough to realize there is a link between what she eats and how she feels. 

Veronica (barely 7) seems to be hit the hardest with food cheats. And she's not quiet mature enough to realize that the cheating is the cause of her emotional issues the next day.

 Amy (5.5) seems to react really well to cheating. She doesn't seem to have emotional or physical issues. I tend not to worry about her anyway since she has always been good about freely choosing healthy foods over the unhealthy ones.


And the baby (2) ... well, we can't tell much of anything with her since her standard mode is to cry and be generally difficult (even though she's cute). 

I have to be on top of their allergies and I don't allow them leeway with these foods, but what should I do with the Primal diet in general? At this point they are too young to fully understand the consequences, and yet, they're not animals, so they do need some sense of control. It's also very important that they learn to make good choices in life, even when Mom and Dad aren't around. 


Thoughts?




This morning we had eggs for breakfast. Veronica had requested eggs last night, so in an attempt to boost her spirits, I made her extra. (It didn't work.)


Then the kids packed left over chicken and steak, peppers, trail mix, and water. 


I didn't eat anything all day. I just wasn't hungry. I did drink plenty of water though. 


I'm not sure about Tom. I haven't debriefed with him yet. 


For dinner, my wonderful Mother In Law came over to babysit, while Tom and I met up with friends for some Mexican food.  We ordered fajitas minus the rice, beans, and tortillas. I had no chips, but Tom decided he wanted to eat them. Hopefully they will not cause him a problem since he seems to be more sensitive to gluten, and those were corn chips.


And now I'm drinking more water.   

This weekend I hope to play around with some more baking recipes. Veronica had mentioned feeling "weird" and "not normal" because her friends don't know why she can't eat grains. Given that she is so sensitive to food changes, I don't want to reintroduce grains/carbs yet. So maybe I can find a coconut flour recipe for a mock-bread or something....

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Heart shaped eggs for breakfast!  (eggs, bacon, feta cheese, mixed and poured into a heart-shaped cupcake mold)


We did books for gifts rather than the standard chocolate cake with pink icing, and bits of candy. Grandma--who is not Primal, but is being supportive of us--also bought the kids books. They love books, so there were no complaints... other than Amy saying "I guess we can't do what we did last year." 


I have to hand it to the kids. This morning I told them (again) they really had to avoid eating all the sweets that would be coming into school today. I said they could have one cookie, but to stay away from everything else. I packed them some extra fruit and nuts that they could eat. Not terribly exciting, I'm afraid. I thought they would would break (and I would have understood), but they didn't! As I picked them up, each girl very proudly told me "I only ate one cookie, and my fruit!" except for Veronica who said "I ate all my fruit. I didn't know I could have a cookie!" 


What kind of alien kids are these? Aren't kids supposed to break under such pressure, and sneak a treat or two, and just not feel the need to mention it?  I have some pretty awesome kids. 


I didn't eat anything until about 2pm. Then I made a salad with roasted turkey. And that was about it until dinner around 5:30 when I had a few eggs. And a lot of water!  Not sure why I wasn't too hungry... but there seems to be a little virus going through the kids, so maybe it's a good thing. 


Poor Tom was hit with the virus as well, so he hasn't eaten much at all, but he has been drinking a lot of water and resting--well, as much as resting as Tom knows how to do.


I was going to take Tom's "after" photo today, but he wasn't quite up to it. So maybe tomorrow. :)

Not So Hungry

Finally!


 I've noticed that all of us have finally settled into normal eating cycle. I would say the first four to five weeks, we all felt like we could eat very often. We never felt hungry as in "I'm not getting enough food and I'm starving!" like you can on other diets, but we did feel full, and two hours later be starving again. 


The last few days I've noticed the kids (who still eat more than six weeks ago) are finally satisfied and are going longer between eating.  


I ate 3 eggs this morning, and did not eat lunch (which was some brisket and two cups of steamed broccoli, carrots, and green beans) until 3:30... even then I only ate because I was beginning to get a headache, not because I felt starving.


Dinner was steak with butter, green beans, and some fresh carrots for the kids. Tom is sick, so just had some vegetables (and maybe a small piece of cheesecake). 


The kids packed their own lunches again for today. Much of the same: roast beef, bell peppers, and some grapes. Although, Regina forgot her lunchbox in the van this morning (she forgets things all the time), so she had to have the school lunch, which was a rib sandwich, green beans, and a cookie. I told her to take the bread of the sandwich, eat the green beans, and she could have half the cookie. I would have driven her lunch to her, but I was already at the school (in Tom's car) since I was there to help the Kindergarteners with lunch.


I already gave the girls the speech on how they cannot eat all the junk that will be at school tomorrow for the Valentine's Day party. They are really great sports and happily said okay, and they would just bring fruit and eat that instead. I said they could eat one cookie, but no cakes or candies.  Maybe next year I'll have time to bake special cookies for them to take in. 


Tonight I made heart-shaped egg muffins (eggs, bacon, and feta) for their breakfast tomorrow. I also found heart shaped dark chocolate (about 1 sq in) and will give that to them. And one chocolate dipped strawberry.  That should just about do it. 

I signed up for a gym today, it's 3 miles from the kids' school and has childcare, so hopefully this saves me time and helps me get exercising a little more regularly.

Sunday

This morning I had cheesecake for breakfast.  I won't make a habit out of it, but it was so good and one decent-sized (not huge and not super small) piece kept me full for a good three hours!


After Mass, Regina and I (Tom was in Seattle) went to Jason's Deli and had a salad bar with an extra side of protein. Chicken for Regina, and turkey for me. Yummy yummy. 


Then I went to the grocery store, brought in the groceries, washed the produce, cooked the meat, and chopped the vegetables. Whew.  Sunday is our day of rest around here, so I went at my own pace, and had fun doing (most of) it. I really enjoy cooking and being creative. However, I do hate the cleaning that comes with it.  Good thing I have a wonderful husband who cleans up for me (when he's in town).


By the time I finished all of that, I was so hungry the hole in my stomach was starting to eat through to my back. So I snacked on some leftover ham, and then made a salad with olive oil and nuts on top. 


Tom had been traveling all day, so as far as I know he had a fruit and cheese tray this morning, and a seafood salad for lunch (blech). He seems to be coming down with a virus the kids had this week, so he hasn't eaten much else. He does say about every three minutes "oh, it's so cold in here!" when really it is not. He should go eat some of the chicken soup I just made. 


I've decided the kids will start packing their own lunches for the school. They seem to like this idea, and it's fun to see what they pick out. 


Amy packed: carrots, one slice of roast beef, some grapes, and trail mix. 
Regina packed: carrots (the ones I was saving to stew), roast beef, and "four or five clementines". Uhh... 

Veronica forgot to pack her lunch. Hopefully she remembers tomorrow morning. 

They will be starving tomorrow, but eventually they'll learn how much they need, and that Mom is not crazy when she gives them particular foods in order to keep them full. 


Let's see... what else?  Hmm.  I had to use a squash (butternut) and some tomatoes before they went bad, so I made squash fries, and baked tomatoes. Both turned out decently, and the kids (at least 3 out of 4) like them.

halved tomatoes, topped with salt, pepper, basil, oregano

Squash fries

Cheesecake is My Friend

 I heart cheesecake. I especially heart chocolate cheesecake, which is funny, because I've never cared for chocolate cheesecake before. Primal-approved choco cheesecake is ah-mazing. And it cured my constant craving for a dessert. Very happy about that. It was getting annoying.

 Okay, it's not pretty, but it would be if I had cared to enough to fix it. Also, that hole (near the bottom) was me sneaking a bite while it was freshly out of the oven and still hot.

 This is after being in the fridge for about... uh... eight hours. Keep it in for about 12, and it's not so runny.

The recipe called for a chocolate sauce, but I just topped with heavy whipped cream. Perfect.


So go and make this cake. And I don't want to hear how you don't like cheesecake. You do now.


                             !!Recipe for Primal-approved cheesecake!!