Listen to your body.....when it's GOOD for you!

I made a comment on FB the other day about how I firmly believe our bodies can tell us what we need. Sometimes if our body is lacking a certain mineral or vitamin we will crave a certain food that is abundant in what we are lacking. I had a very strong and strange craving for tomatoes the day before yesterday. I do NOT like tomatoes! It was so weird, but I pulled out a pint of cherry tomatoes and just started snacking on them, and felt very satisfied.

Yesterday I had a hankering for some grass fed beef and kale. So I came up with this recipe which I personally think is delicious. So delicious in fact that I had it for lunch, dinner, and breakfast this morning. Here it is incase you want to try it out.

Goulash with Kale over Mashed Cauliflower

1 lb of grass fed beef
1 Tablespoon of fat
1 tsp of minced garlic
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 bunch of kale, sliced in strips, appox. 2 cups
1 Tablespoon of tomato paste
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of oregano
1/2 -1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of red pepper flakes (optional)

1. In a large pan brown up the beef over medium heat
2. Remove from pan and add fat and garlic
3. When garlic becomes fragrant add in onions
4. When onions become soft and translucent add in kale (it will look like a lot but it will cook down)
5. Make a space in the center of pan to add in tomato paste. Let it cook until you can smell it, you have to wake it up a bit.
6. Add in tomato sauce
7. Add in spices
8. Let simmer on low for about 15 minutes.

Mashed cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower
2 1/2 Tablespoons of grass fed butter
salt and pepper to taste
about 1/2 cup of chicken stock ( you won't know exactly how much you'll need till you make it)

1. Cut all of the floretts off the cauliflower head and wash
2. Steam the florets until they are nice and tender (mine took about 12 minutes)
3. In a blender or food processor (I used my ninja) place your cauliflower, and butter
4. Blend to incorperate and then stream in chicken stock until you reach your disired consistency
5. Add in your salt and pepper to taste and maybe even a bit more butter!! :)

A Weeks Worth of Easy Meals

Hi guys,
I hope this blog post finds you in great spirits today. I also hope your weekend has been and is filled with awesome real food and plenty of movement!

So my husband and I have been taking about our budget lately.......dun, dun, dun. I know some people hate the "B" word but for me it is sort of a sense of safety. I like the fact that we are preparing for an emergency and not spending money we don't have. Needless to say, we have noticed that we were spending more than we intended, mostly on eating out. My husband was in quite the habit of eating out every day for lunch. Well this week we ate at home every night except one. And my husband even took leftovers to work a couple of days this week. I usually eat leftovers for lunch every day, But try to go to lunch out with someone once a week. Hey! I need a social life too!! So I thought I would share with you guys some of the meals we ate this week. All of them are really easy and all but one are really quick. But no worries, the one recipe that isn't, is a crock pot recipe. Here goes....

Monday we had some BLT's. This is SOOOO easy to put together. It literally consisted of washing some romaine leaves, adding some tomato, crispy bacon, and home made mayo. Add anything else your family likes. My kids actually like home made honey mustard on these too.

Here is how I make the mayo.....It hasn't failed me yet!! I got this from The Clothes Make the Girl!!

1/4 cup plus 1 cup of avocado oil
1 egg (ROOM TEMPERATURE!!)
2 Tablespoons of lemon juice (ROOM TEMPERATURE!!)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard powder

-In a blender dump your ROOM TEMPERATURE egg, the 1/4 cup of avocado oil, ROOM TEMPERATURE lemon juice, salt, and mustard powder. The egg and lemon juice seriously have to be room temperature to make a happy, happy mayo.

-Blend together for about 30 seconds

-While continuing to blend. SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWLLLLLLYYYYY add in the remaining Cup of avocado oil. I mean it should take like a good 2 minutes to add it all.

Then you magically have gorgeous mayo! And it tastes amazing. I really do LOVE the avocado oil! It is really delicate and not oily...if that makes sense. IDK, it does in my head. I have tried this with vinegar instead of lemon juice.....don't like it. And I have tried it with light olive oil instead of avocado....don't like it.  Experiment and see what YOU like!! Awesome thing about making your own food.... YOU are in control of it ALL!! 

Now make sure you keep that mayo in the fridge, cause we will use it two more times this week.

The next meal that was made was Sausage, Peppers and Onions. 

Another Super Duper Easy recipe. This served 2 adults and two small kids

1 package of Kielbasa, Applegate Farms and EarthFare brand are good and Paleo friendly

1 medium onion, sliced 

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into strips

1 orange bell pepper, sliced into strips

1 pablano pepper, sliced into strips

1 teaspoon of oregano

1 Tablespoon of favorite healthy fat

salt and pepper

In a medium sautee pan over medium heat, add your sliced kielbasa. It is already pre-cooked so you are just getting some color on it. Once that is done, take it out of the pan and set it to the side. 

Add you fat to the pan and once hot add all your veggies

Add oregano, and salt and pepper to taste

Stir and cook the veggies until crisp tender

Add back in kielbasa and serve with a side of guac!

Keep the meals coming!! Next I made some tuna salad boats.

This is just for one serving. Double, triple, quadruple if necessary.

1 package of tuna

1 bubbies pickle, diced

1 hard boiled egg, diced

4 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 Tablespoon of homemade mayo

3 leaves of washed romaine

salt and pepper

So basically mix this all together and plop on some lettuce!! LOL! It is easy, quick and tasty. Ya know, my girls actually like tuna salad this same way but with a bit of mustard and some pineapple. It sounds weird, I know, but it  is quite tasty.

Next up is Lemon Garlic Chicken.......

This chicken is made with Tessemae's lemon garlic dressing. It is completely Paleo! I marinated some quick cooking chicken tenders in the dressing for an hour and a half. Sautéed them in some bacon fat, made a salad of romaine, spinach, and tomatoes and dressed it with the same garlic lemon dressing. Served with a side of oven roasted asparagus. 

Moving right along to some Thai Cashew Chicken.

1 1/2 pounds of chicken boneless skinless chicken breast or tenders

2 bunches of baby bok choy, sliced length wise

1 small head of brocolli, chopped

2 large or 4 small carrots, sliced in half moons

1 small onion, sliced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1 cup of chicken stock, divided

1/2 cup of toasted cashews

1 Tablespoon of arrowroot powder

2 Tablespoons of coconut aminos

1 teaspoon of Thai chili powder or 1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes if chili powder can't be found

1 Tablespoon of fat for cooking chicken

salt and pepper to taste

 -in a dry nonstick pan over medium heat, toast up your cashews. This should only take about 5-7 minutes. Keep and eye on them, they will burn.

 - in a large skillet heat 1 To fat, I used bacon grease.

 - salt and pepper the chicken and add it to the pan, cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes per side until cooked through and no longer pink inside

 - take chicken out and set it on a cutting board - slice chicken thinly against the grain

 - in the same pan over medium heat add all your veggies

 - add in the coconut aminos and some salt and pepper

 - toss the veggies and let them cook for about 7 minutes until they are crisp tender

 - add 1/2 cup of stock to the pan

 - in a separate small bowl add the other 1/2 cup of stock and arrow root powder, stir till completely dissolved and add to the pan of veggies

 - add in cashews, thai chili powder and chicken back into the pan to heat up again

 - let cook and the sauce thicken for about 3 minutes

 - the heat level is relative add more or less to your taste

 - add salt and pepper to taste

 - serve over cauliflower rice

And finally pulled pork and coleslaw!!! You can find the recipe for the pork here and for the slaw here!

Now I know this isn't culinary genius type food....and it's not supposed to be. What this is is real everyday food. I'm too busy to make labor intensive meals everyday! This is just to give you guys some ideas on some different things you can try to keep real food on your table throughout your busy week. I hope it helps some! Have a great week and......

Happy Fathers day to all the wonderful Paleo fathers out there and to my WONDERFUL Husband and   AWESOME Daddy!! 

WARNING!!!! Busy Days Ahead....Must Prepare!!

Summertime is the time to relax....right?! Well, summertime around here means it's time for VBS! I am a stay at home mom and my kids aren't in school yet (oldest starting K this year!!) so I'm usually in no hurry when it comes to breakfasts. But during the week of VBS I get a taste of what most moms have to do during the school year....get breakfast on the table in a hurry! I just wanted to share with you guys how we take care of that situation, just to give you another option or maybe some new ideas!! Here is what our breakfast will look like this week...

So here I have the girls favorite foods, so no begging to hurry and eat their bfast!! I browned up some pastured pork sausage and once cooked laid them out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Those will go in the freezer and then divided into the portions we will need each morning. I also boiled a dozen eggs. My girls LOVE hard boiled eggs. So each morning we will throw the sausage in the microwave, grab an egg and a piece of fruit and we are good to go! VIOLA!!

Sweet Apple Slaw

I believe today's post is a fitting one since the previous post is a pulled pork recipe. What goes better with pulled pork than a cool refreshing slaw? And yes I did use a bag of slaw mix...because I can! If you don't want to...don't just chop up your own cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots.







Sweet Apple Slaw


1 pkgd bag of slaw mix
1 small sweet red apple sliced into matchsticks or shredded
1/2 cup of home made mayo
2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon of raw honey
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper

-In the bottom of a large mixing bowl dump mayo, honey, vinegar, salt and pepper.
-Whisk to combine
-Dump in slaw and apple
-Toss with tongs until slaw is coated with the dressing
-Keep refrigerated
-You can eat now or wait. the longer you wait the better it tastes!! :)