Oops

We're home!


Today was a total failure (our first!) in staying Primal. I hate Fridays anyway because they have to be meatless, but traveling and Fridays? Forget about it.


I hesitated to even post what we ate, because I know it will inspire many "you could have just..." comments, but then, I thought "surely there are other Primal people out there who totally fail every once in a while."  And I'm honest to a fault most of the time, so... I'll tell you, but don't yell at me. ;)


Breakfast was at the hotel. The eggs looked like ... that yellow insulation stuff they put in houses. So I passed. And I couldn't have the breakfast meats. So what was I left with?  An apple. I knew I needed some protein, and all I could find was... peanut butter. D'oh.  Hey, at least I didn't grab the prepacked cream cheese pastry (which I would have killed for).


Tom had (yes, dear, I'm telling on you, too) an English muffin and some fruit. I'm not sure what the kids had, since Tom is awesome and made up their breakfasts.


Then we headed out of the hotel, and went to say goodbye to my grandparents. It was all fun and games until the baby stood in an ant pile and had about 100 ants swarm her. Thankfully only her feet (mostly the left foot) were bitten. The left foot was pretty red and swollen. Poor thing.


Soon after we headed out. After driving about 40 minutes both Tom and I were fading fast. I knew I needed more protein, but we were stuck. There is very, very little between Oklahoma and Kansas, so finding foods that fit into our Primal diet is almost impossible. So we finally stopped for lunch when we saw a road sign for... wait for it... Dairy Queen. 


The kids had hamburgers (without the top bun) and water. Tom and I had... um... ice-cream. Calcium, some protein, and sugar. Yum. Really, though, I was completely jealous of Elizabeth's cheeseburger. I really would have much rather had meat. Plus, sugary stuff now has this annoying after-taste that just stays in your mouth. Blah. 


Anyway, the "lunch" helped to perk us up, but not for long. After another twenty minutes, I felt like I could sleep for days. I don't know if that had to do with sugar or just the general lack of protein (or both), but it was really not fun. I was going to switch with Tom and drive the second leg home, but I was just too lethargic. 


We finally arrive in Kansas, and dropped the kids with Grandma, and then headed to eat at Jason's Deli. We had a bowl of soup and the salad bar.  Waaaaaaaaaahhh!!  I want steak, darn it! 

Poor Tom has had stomach issues for the last four or five hours now. He is FINALLY (I'll have to mark the calendar) admitting, after years and years of me saying it, that he is, indeed, allergic/intolerant to milk (I know some people say you can still drink raw milk and not be bothered but he isn't interested). Kinda sad. :(

Now we're sitting on the couch. Talking about meat.

Friday, Friday... Can't Stand That Day

Well it's another Lenten Friday. I dread it. I get all wobbly and tired and headachey. Blah. But my soul is being sanctified. I hope. 


So today was a whirlwind!  The girls had the day off school, which was awesome (more sleep!) until last night when I remembered I had an appt at the gym, so we'd have to get up and dressed anyway. Booo. 

Things took a while to get going this morning so I had no time to make breakfast. ACK! I had to grab the secret stash of Larabars, and pass those out (except for Veronica who is allergic to almond, so she had to have... uhm... pork rinds.

 Hey, don't judge! Four kids with no husband (he's on a trip) and a routine thrown off by kids not being in school... it was the best I could do. And it had protein. So there!

I had a bottle of water for breakfast. I do not recommend having only water to "eat" before working out. Instead of focusing on breathing, you will focus on "if I do 50 reps, can I eat a cheeseburger?" And your muscles don't like it. 


So anyway, we dropped Elizabeth with a sitter, and the three older girls and I headed to the gym. That took a little while.


Then we headed to a thrift store to buy some school supplies for class on Monday. 


By this point, I was about to drop dead, and the kids were hungry, too.  So I'm trying to think of what we can eat that is permissible on Friday, doesn't cost a lot, and isn't too far away.  The only thing I could come up with was Long John Silver's. BLECH  Well, it was our only option at this time. I don't even remember the last time I ate there, or if I've ever taken my kids... maybe?  


We ordered the fish. I thought the kids would be thrilled they had fried food, but instead, they picked all the batter off, and ate the insides. I had to do the same. Pretty awesome. 


Then we ran out the door to go to a political rally nearby. The kids were really excited about it... Amy (5) says "I can't wait to hear my first speech!"  The rally took a little over an hour. And by the time we got out we were all hungry again. Ugh. 


We rushed home and they had some apples with cashew butter. I had a spoonful of cashew butter (and I may or may not have sneaked a slice of apple), which really took away the edge of hunger. 


Right as I was headed out the door to pick up Elizabeth, the AT&T guy shows up to install some kind of line in Tom's office. Well, he had to wait out in his van since I had to leave. So we rushed to get E, rushed back home, and waited another 1.5 hrs for him to finish, and in the meantime, we're still hungry!


AT&T guy finally left, so we headed to grandma's (since the three girls are staying the weekend). The girls were very happy to see dinner already waiting (shrimp, vegetables, and maybe one other thing). So Grandma saved them from starvation. Whew. 


The baby and I were still hungry though. And I was not about to go home and spend an hour making dinner for an empty house. So E and I went to the local Mexican food place, and I tried a new entree. Chile Rellenos: a poblano pepper stuffed with cheese, and fried in corn masa flour.  When the dish came out, I scrapped away all the fried parts (which was easy because the breaded did not stick to the pepper) and ate what amounted to a steamed pepper with semi-melted cheese.  


EWW. Did not like it. At All. It was really watery, flavorless, and just not appetizing. I don't know if this is because this particular restaurant did not know how to make it properly, or if this is how chile rellanos are meant to taste, but no, thanks.  


So I'm STILL hungry. 


Anyway, my point in this post is someday things are just going to be crazy and hectic, and while you may not be able to be completely Primal (all organic items and such), you can still find some options that are maybe the least-worst of the worst.  


I think the important thing here (especially if you have children) is to accept that there will be days you won't be as good of a Primal Eater as you want to be , but that life will go on, and it won't do any good to beat yourself up over it. 


Yes, it is a good idea to have stashes of Primal-approved snacks, ready to go, in the fridge/pantry, but sometimes even that will fail. For us it was because I didn't cook as much this week since I knew Tom would be away most of the week. And also because today is Friday, which usually means we're down to the last few items before restocking on Sunday. 


Just one of those days.  Now I'm going to Google some snacks that will keep for longer than a week, and be better prepared next time. Hopefully.

Another Friday

 I don't even remember yesterday, so I can't tell you what happened food-wise. 


Today is Friday (as Catholic we must fast and abstain from meat during Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, (but we can have meat Saturday-Thursday) which means we are cranky!


A friend of mine was able to help clear out the fasting/abstaining issue for kids. I've always gone by the Church's teaching from 1962 stating that all people over the age of seven years old must abstain from meat of Fridays. I didn't know there was a revision in 1983 which moved the age to 14. This makes it so much easier with my kids now. Thanks, Sarah! 


Anyway, I found this out too late (after I packed lunches for today, last night), so we stuck with a meatless lunch. We did better this time around.  The girls packed some fruit, some raw vegetables (carrots and cucumbers, I believe--we're out of nearly everything else), trail mix nuts, larabar, and either cheese (for Amy) and olives.  They ate about all of it, and were not hungry at pick up. Yippee.


Some of you have suggested quiches and cheese foods, which I like the sound of!, but the trick is remembering all the allergies my girls have: Dairy (except butter and yogurt), peanuts, almonds, egg yolk, and something else I can't remember....  If you have a favorite recipe for the things you mentioned, let me know, because I might be able to do it for myself sometime :)


Tom is out of town today, so dinner was for the girls and me. I made tuna wraps. We haven't had tuna in a really long time, maybe a few years. I thought it would be an easy Friday dinner to make up tuna salad. For tuna salad I knew I'd need a mayonnaise, and for mayonnaise, I'd need a recipe... so I googled one.  It was said to be easy... it used 1 1/2 cups of olive oil (yikes!) eggs, lemon juice, salt, and dijon mustard.  So I get everything incorporated, walk tot he sink to wash my hands, come back... and it had broken (the oil had seperated from the rest of the ingredients). UGH


So I start with another recipe, wich called for olive, avocado, and coconut oil (one cup total of oils), and eggs, salt, lemon, and mustard.  This method called for adding one tsp of oil at a time. Do you know how long it takes to add one cup of oil, one teaspoon at a time (with rests between each tsp)?! 

For-freakin'-ever!  

So I did really well... got it all looking great... and then realized the motor from the blender was hot from running continuously for so long... that it had heated the mayo into a soupy mess. So I thought I'd chill it and pray it came back... it didn't. It turned into a messy, grainy goop.  ARGHHHH

By this time, the kids are starving, and I'm about to collapse from being so hungry (from the fasting/abstaining) ... and now I'm just angry that it has failed twice, and the oils are pretty expensive to eat, let alone just pour down the drain--literally!  

So we had to have tuna with chunks of grassfed butter. Weird, I know. I just couldn't think of anything else to act as a binder and give it a creamy texture. It was actually pretty tasty. We missed the mayonnaise though. 

Anybody have tips/recipes/know-how on how to make mayonnaise? You'll be my best friend if you share!

Anyway... It's interesting to see the effect of not having enough protein throughout the day. I thought the grumpiness and low patience level, and the tiredness came from the carbs. And some of it does. But I'm seeing that it also is a result from not having enough protein. I've been tired all day, despite sleeping over eight hours last night. And my patience ran out around 5:30pm. Since going primal, Ive been so much better about yelling and overreacting... so I was bummed I reverted back tonight. 


Now... what to do with the giant turkey and pork loin I have in my fridge? When I baked all meat last Sunday, I forgot to take into account we wouldn't be eating any meat on Wednesday or Friday. D'oh!