New Menu Suggestions

Usually I go grocery shopping on Sundays, and then get everything prepped and baked, but I decided the weather was too nice for that, so I cleaned out the garage and van instead. And then we went for an impromptu picnic with friends at the park. 


I thought a picnic sounded like a lot of fun, but the one problem was: I hadn't been to the grocery store for two weeks now, so what should I take?  We stopped by the store and picked up a vegetable tray, a meat and cheese tray, a roasted chicken, grapes, and water. These were easy foods to eat outdoors and were filling. Although, later as we were driving home Amy says "When's dinner?" Tom says "you already ate dinner." And she replies "well, it didn't feel like dinner."  Which was true. 


Anyway, I am going grocery shopping tomorrow, and need some new dinner ideas. Anybody?  
 (Please keep in mind the following allergies: Milk, cheese, peanuts, almonds, soy, egg yolks.)

Also, any vegetable ideas?  We have plenty of raw vegetables, but we need more ideas on cooked veggies.


Now, where's my bacon....

Traveling

Since my girls have Spring Break, we decided to drive to Oklahoma today so we could visit some family. It's about a four hour drive (with no stops), but we take an extra hour for the kids to eat and such. 

For breakfast we had eggs. Thanks to Tom for cooking!  

Then I packed a cooler with snacks. Well, at least, I wanted to pack a cooler with snacks. Given that I knew we'd be traveling, I skipped the grocery store this week, so we had very little on hand. 

So I ended up packing:

 2 cans of coconut milk (why? I don't know. It just seemed so... Primally.)
 1 bag of celery
 1 bag cheese cubes
 1 sm bag of dark chocolate chips
 1 lg bag of mixed nuts

Yeahhh... Next time I should go grocery shopping before taking a trip. Lesson learned. 

For lunch we stopped at Two Brother BBQ and had smoked turkey, pork, and brisket. We ordered the green beans (instead of fries or potato salad), but didn't eat many since they were obviously canned. Well, the meat was good!

For dinner we went out with my grandparents to a steak house of sorts. The kids had hamburgers in a lettuce wrap. Tom and I had steak (Tom a T-bone and I had a sirloin). 

But now we're hungry again, so Tom went to Walmart and bought some Organic milk for the baby. And a vegetable tray and a rotisserie chicken for us to munch on. 

So I'd like some cake... which always seems to happen when I travel. Maybe it's the stress of it?  Well, I guess I'll have to just be content with my water. Mmmm. 

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.

Last Night

Tom and I went to Kansas City, MO. for a speech last night. Afterwards, we went to Jack Stack Bbq.

 I first went to this restaurant when I decided to run away from the house last May (I think it was). I had the best brisket I've ever had. It melted in your mouth just like butter. So amazingly delicious. I've asked for Tom to go back to the same place for about nine months now. And since tonight we were .2 miles from the place, of course we had to go. 

We went with a few friends--who were great company!--and had ribs and brisket. Tom and I realllly wanted to cheat, so we did, but not too badly.  For each entree we could choose two sides. We made a deal that one side would be the roasted vegetable, and the other side could be a "cheat" side. Tom had the french fries. (I remember reading someplace "if you want to cheat, fine, but eat the thing because you really want to eat it, not just because it's there and might be good."  I've found this pretty sound advice.) I really wanted mashed potatoes, but they didn't offer this, so I ordered the loaded baked potato.

 Here's the funny thing: we only wanted a very small portion of our cheat food. I ate at most 1/4 of the potato. I tend to think it was less than that even, but I'll say 1/4 just to be as honest as possible. While I really enjoyed it, after a few bites, I simply didn't want it any longer. And Tom ate very few fries. I stole one fry from him, and really did not care for it... which I was happy about. We both agreed after the meal that we were set on wanting potatoes for a while. I'm really happy about this... a few months ago I would have devoured the potato and would have wanted more.


Neither one of us seemed to suffer any ill effects from our cheat food. Yippee.


Today I spent the day baking and chopping vegetables. We're getting a little faster, but it's still quite a few hours of prep. We started at 2pm, and I still have turkey to slice, pot roast to put away, and pork loin to check on--and its 11:30pm!


Someone asked for a grocery list, so below is a sample of what I bought today, and the meals I made were: Pot roast, turkey, pork loin, butternut squash soup, baked chicken, carne asada, hard boiled eggs, omelets, bacon, deli meat "sandwiches", kale chips, "spaghetti", salad, etc., 


6 pound fresh turkey breast (bone in) 
5 pound pork loin
2 lbs flank steak
4 pounds bacon
4 pound chicken (whole)
1 pound ham (deli)
3/4 pound roastbeef (sliced)
1/4 pound salami
1/2 provolone (not strictly primal, but satisfies everyone)
4 dozen cage-free eggs
1 quart whole-fat (organic) milk
1 pound grass-fed butter (Kerry Gold is what I buy)
1 large head of kale
1 large head of Romaine lettuce
2 heads of broccoli
3 cucumbers
6 bell peppers (multi colors)
1 head cauliflower
3 lb butternut squash
5 avocados
3 tomatoes
2 lb spaghetti squash
1 package cherry or grape tomatoes
Large pack of fresh green beans
1 Jalapeno
1 lg pack of celery
1 lg pack of mini carrots
l lg pack whole carrots
2 lg white onions
1 head garlic
2 sweet potatoes
5 bananas
1 bag clementines
4 apples
2 lbs grapes
1 lb strawberries
12 oz blueberries
8 oz blackberries
8 oz raspberries
Full fat Greek yogurt (16 oz)
8 oz heavy whipping cream



I'm sure there are a few other items, but I can't recall them at the moment... but if you just print this out and take it to the grocery store, you'll have wait you need to at least get started.  Today, the bill came to $220.00 for us (which is a savings, believe it or not), and should last us most of the week. We may have to go back for a few extra things here and there (usually produce), but this is the bulk of it.


Tonight's dinner was mostly leftovers from the prior week: pork (thanks to grandma), beef jerky, raw vegetables, and some butternut squash soup.


That's it for now.  :)