Favorite Eats for the week!

I have been SICK.......again! What in the world is up with this? Hubs has been sick and now I am. I think I have gotten over the worst part now though. Thank the Lord. Anyway, I haven't been to the gym and I have been bumming. I have lost weight though... Probably muscle. :( Anyway eating has been good...got lots of responses for my Greek Chicken Salad with Taziki so here is the recipe!!

First things first.... Grate a whole seedless cucumber (should end up with about a half a cup) and place it in a mesh strainer with some salt and a bowl underneath. You wanna try to get as much water out of the cucumber as possible so the taziki sauce isn't watery. This will take about 20 minutes. Give the cucumber a good squeeze before using it in the sauce.

While that is going make a marinade for the chicken:

1/2 cup olive oil

couple cloves of chopped garlic

juice of one lemon

some fresh chopped parsley

and a teaspoon of dried oregano

oh, and salt and pepper

Marinate some diced up bite sized chicken breast or tenders or thighs (whatever) for no more than 15 minutes. Actually you can have this marinating while you are waiting for your oven to heat. Bake off your chicken until it is done. I actually used my toaster oven and put my chicken on the broiler pan on the broil setting and it only took about 18 minutes.

Taziki:

1 cup of greek yogurt (not paleo, I know, but this made ALOT of sauce and I really didn't get much at all for my salad. the left overs have been surprisingly great as a dip for the girls veggies)

juice of 1 lemon

fresh mint (I only used about 7 fresh mint leaves chopped)

strained cucumber

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

Mix all of that in your food processor and you have your taziki sauce!

Salad assembly

Chopped romaine

marinated chicken bites

taziki sauce

diced cucumber, tomato, red onion

opt. You could also add olives, banana peppers, whatever else you like!!

Some of my favorite meals this past week has been taco salad and chicken taco salad. The chicken taco salad is made with a marinade from www.primal-palate.com. I LOVE this marinade! It is posted as a marinade for skirt steak fajitas but I use it on chicken ALL THE TIME! As a matter of fact the very first thing I do when I get home from the grocery store is take 3 pound of chicken tenders and dump them in this marinade and pop it in the freezer. As the chicken thaws in the fridge it is soaking up all that flavor. Here is The Food Lovers' Primal Palate's recipe for the marinade (for one pound of meat)

2 tbls. olive oil

juice of 2 limes

4 cloves of garlic chopped

tsp salt

tsp pepper

tsp cumin

tsp chipotle powder

After cooking up the marinated chicken, I set it atop a mound of chopped salad, cucumbers, tomato, and radishes. Then plop some avocado or guac on top!

Now I do the same thing except with grass fed beef. I make my own taco meat by browning the beef, draining, returning it to the pan, then adding the following mixture to the pan...

1/3 cup of water

T chili powder

T cumin

1/2 T paprika

T onion powder

1/2 T garlic powder

tsp oregano

pinch of chipotle powder

pinch of salt

cook until water is mostly gone but meat is still moist.

Next on the list of my favorite recipes is a tomato sauce from the same creative and wonderfully talented Food Lovers Primal Palate. This recipe is for a Zucchini Lasagna which is wonderful, but I also use the sauce from this recipe for meatballs!!

http://beta.primal-palate.com/recipe/zucchini-lasagna/

One last very successful recipe was for turkey breakfast sausage. This recipe came from the blog of Caveman Food. http://cavemanfood.blogspot.com/2009/03/turkey-or-pork-breakfast-sausage.html

Here is how mine turned out>>>>> LOVED THEM!

I also tried a zucchini cake recipe the same day and that didn't turn out so well. I have never been good at making ANY kind of pancake so why should zucchini be any different?

Anyway, those are some of my faves from the past week. I hope to put up some of my very own recipes for "treats" later on this week.....

Monday already??

Today I woke up to my girls in my bed. Soon after that the hubby went off to work and the girls and I sang through little bunny foo foo (even though they thought little bunny poo poo was much funnier) about 7 times, twinkle twinkle little star and the ABC's once. Then we headed down for breakfast. I didn't have a lot of time this morning so I just grabbed a hard boiled egg and some walnuts. The girls had cereal, banana, and almond milk.

I was SOOOOO tempted to stop somewhere to pick up lunch on my way home from running errands but I didn't. And boy am I glad, cause the lunch that I made was rockin'! I filled a bowl with salad, cucumbers and radishes. I topped that with a drizzle of EVOO and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Then placed a scoop of tuna salad in the bowl and topped it with slivers of pear. I loved it!! The girls had my favorite brand of hot dog. It is actually the only kind I buy for the girls. It is Applegate Farms grassfed beef hotdogs. The only ingredients are 100% grassfed beef, and spices. That's it! Anyway they had a hot dog some walnuts and some sliced pear for lunch. Here is a pic of my tuna creation... :P

Dinner was so easy to make since I did all my prep work on Friday. I did learn that I need to cook more veggies than I think. They were all gone after dinner and I don't have any for left overs. :( Anyway, I just took the veggies out of their bags in the fridge, seasoned and oiled them up and placed them on a baking sheet. I put them in a 400 degree oven and let them roast up.

So this is acorn squash coated with coconut oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then we have broccoli coated with olive oil and seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. And there is also carrots coated with coconut oil and seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper. We also had lemon pepper chicken for dinner.

Pardon the quality of my photos, they are all taken with my phone. :/

So tomorrow is CFN workout day. I see that we are doing back squats again for our strength training. I just started walking normally yesterday from weds back squats!! Oh well, I'll suck it up. Hopefully I can get some more weight on the bar this time. We shall see....

JERF kids!

Tonights dinner was chicken salad wraps. I made a chicken salad with rotisserie chicken breast, relish, grapes, and walnuts, and then stuffed that in a lettuce leaf. I asked Em if she would try it again since she insisted that she HATES chicken salad. After tasting it again she said she would like that in lieu of a pb&j. whew!

I know all kids are different and what works for one may not work for the other, but I also know that sometimes we don't give our children and chance to Just Eat Real Food (JERF). Don't get me wrong my children will still eat chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese when we go out, but at home it is 100% real food. I have control of what goes in my fridge and pantry and I have control of what goes in their mouths. And guess what moms, our kids will sometimes surprise us. I know my kids will ask for fruit and nuts more than anything else for a snack during the day. They will eat every gluten/dairy/soy/grain free treat that I make and love it just as much as an oreo. And sometimes they like things that you would think they would despise. I mean my 4 yr old will ask for eggs and brussel sprouts for breakfast. c'mon! But you know what? She would never know she loves them if I hadn't first given her the opportunity to try them.

So parents, if you are interested, here are a few tips to get your kids used to eating real unprocessed foods.

1. Give them a chance - You HAVE to let them try new fruits and veggies. Don't skip by them in the grocery store just because you don't like them or THINK they won't.

2. Let them pick out a new fruit or veggie to try - We do this ALL the time! My 4 yr old LOVES it and my 2 yr old is starting to get in on the fun now. It was through this process that my daughters found out they love those little furry fruits called kiwi. When they picked it up they thought it was strange and had no idea what was on the inside, but felt they would be very brave that day and pick it out! :) This week they picked out a Japanese sweet potato. "Ooooh, It is purple on the outside!!! : )

3. Try things more than once and more than one way - A prime example of this goes back to the brussel sprouts. We tried them three different ways before we found a way that my 4 yr old liked. We blanched and shredded the leaves and that was yucky. We steamed them and that was yucky. And finally we roasted them in the oven until they got a tiny bit crispy on the edges and those were YUMMY. The same kind of thing with my 2 yr. old. I tried baby carrots, and carrot sticks and carrots sliced in to rounds and she wouldn't have it at all. But one day as I shredded some carrots I figured I'd give it another shot. Sure enough she will eat carrots if they are shredded.

4. Try the "not my favorite veggie" with a healthy dip - My kids don't like celery on it's own but with a dap of almond butter they will munch it up. Or cucumbers for example (not my 2 yr olds favorite) but she loves it if she can dip it in baba ganoush (roasted eggplant dip)

5. Let them help you cook - Oh my, this is huge in this house!! Both of my girls help me cook. It makes them so excited to eat a meal that they helped prepare. Also, tell them about how each food nourishes their body. For example, how does this broccoli help our bodies?? Or what's so great about kale? We also talk about which food is a protein, carb, and a healthy fat.

6. Be prepared - Step away from the cookie jar, and have some nuts and fruit washed and ready for when those little tummies get to rumbling and they need a snack ASAP!

Those are just a few things that have helped me along the way. I hope it gives you a bit of help too!! :)

BTW - here is my favorite recipe for baba ganoush from one of my favorite bloggers Melissa Joulwan @ www.theclothesmakethegirl.com

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/07/17/eat-your-vegetables-eggplant/

Prep time

Today is grocery day. I have made my menu for the next couple weeks and I have gotten every thing ready. I spent about 2 hours today prepping for snacks and meals for next week. I would say that I am about 98% prepped. I'm hoping that this will make meal times go much smoother for me and I won't be dreading cooking cause I have to spend so much time washing and chopping veggies.

So what we have here is 3 heads of cleaned and chopped romaine, peeled/seeded/sliced cucumber, and cleaned and sliced radishes for salads. 3 huge chopped onions, 1 lb. of cleaned and sliced mushrooms, 1 lb of cleaned and trimmed asparagus, 1lb of washed and chopped broccoli, and 1 lb of picked and washed grapes. I also peeled and sliced up a pound of carrots and an acorn squash so that it is ready for roasting. On the meat side I diced up some chicken that will go into a soup, and sliced up a pound of chicken and placed it in a marinade ready for fajita lettuce wraps. I also filleted a couple of pounds of chicken - one for lemon pepper chicken and one for bbq chicken. Don't worry....chicken is NOT the only thing we will be eating. I've also got 4 lbs of grass fed beef divided in the freezer, a pound of shrimp, and some apple chicken sausage. I bought some ground turkey breast for my first attempt at turkey breakfast sausage, and this week will also be my first attempt at zucchini fritters. (made with coconut flour) Hopefully I will get some yummy looking food to take pics of!!

P.S. I'll say it again...the BEST fajita marinade I've had.....EVER!

http://www.primal-palate.com/2011/06/skirt-steak-fajitas.html

SICKO!!

Wow, it has been along time since I blogged. I headed back to CFN today...first time in a week. I was sick and down for the count all last week. And then when I felt the cough had died down enough for me to return, I popped a rib out of place. Kinda hard to cross fit with an out of place rib.... ANYHOO!!

Diet has been fine. I am reading on veggies that have a negative effect on AI diseases. I'm probably going to be cutting out eggs, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli here in the near future and see if that makes a difference to my body. I'm also cutting out all sugar for the next month. The hubs said he would give me 20 dollars if I can do it. So far I have gone a half a day. Is it sad that the first thing I thought when he said 20 dollars was..."I could get 6 iced coffees for that!" That is probably gonna be the hardest thing to cut out, and the dark chocolate. Although I could have 100% dark but that is just too strong for me. I also started the couch to 5k treadmill program. I have GOT to get better in my running. NO long distances in my future (it is just too hard on the body) but 800 meters is not that far to run and I can't even make it 400 without getting out of breath. Anyway, I'm on day 3 of C25k and day 1 of sugar free.

Today's workout:

Strength

Backsquats

1 X 10 @ 65lbs

1 X 8 @ 75 lbs

1X 6 @ 75lbs

1 X 6 @ 75lbs

1 X 6 @75 lbs

I know that 75 is not my max rep. I could do more weight for a single squat but I couldn't do more for multiple squats.

We did a bit of mobility and then onto the WOD:

21:15:9

kettlebell swings 20lbs

shoulder presses 15 lbs

toes to bar ( I could only do knee raises)

Time: 11:30

bonus awesomness for today....my fortune cookie..

WOD

SO It was my first day back at CFN in over a week. Boy, did I pick a day! The warm up was a 400 meter run, butt kickers, high knees, lunges, and inch worms. Then we had some double under training. I was worn out and the WOD had not even started yet! The WOD was as follows..

Team Workout
100 kettle bell swings (I used 16lb kb)
800 meter run with 25lb plate held overhead
100 wall balls ( I used 10 lb ball)
100 pull ups ( I did body rows)
200 double unders or 400 jump ropes

Time: 26:20

I really don't like team work outs. I don't want to disappoint other people or hurt their time or jip their workout. I did have an awesome partner today. If I'm not mistaken, his name was Jeremy. I'm SO HORRIBLE at remembering names. I'm so nervous when I meet new people that it is hard to remember things. I tried to look for him on the site to make sure I got his name right but he wasn't on there. He was a great athlete and a great encourager so it made my first actual team experience quite pleasant.

I thought I wasn't gonna make it through this work out but I did and felt awesome AFTER it was all over! :)

I made a pretty awesome breakfast after I got home too. I'm thinking I made this up since I haven't seen a recipe for this before, but who knows....I opened the fridge and spied 2 hard boiled eggs and some individual packs of wholly guacamole......

I halved the eggs and emptied out the yolk
mixed in the pack of guac, a little bit of diced jalapeno, and a chopped up piece of bacon
then stuffed the eggs with that mixture and consumed! It.was.YUMMY.

What happened?

So I feel a little off kilter since I didn't make it to CFN ANY last week. We were on the road with my hubby. So that mean long hours in a car, food on the road and no CFN. Recipe for disaster I would say. Oh well, we have slowed back down and all is well. Back to CFN tomorrow. I've had other work outs that I haven't posted but I will try to be better about keeping up with that. I have tried lots of new recipes and even made up a few of my own!! La-ti-da! I'm very proud of them actually. Some friends actually even made my recipe and LOVED it so I was very happy. Now I just need to find out how to post pics here ( I know I'm awful with technical stuff) and we will be set.

I think I've got it! forgive me if it is weird....Here is a shot (albeit crappy iPhone shot) of Caveman Crunch. Got the recipe from here.... http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/caveman-crunch/

www.civilizedcavemancooking.com is an awesome blog by an awesome dude. I've made MANY of his recipes and none of them have failed me. I added pecans to this recipe and used coconut oil instead of grape seed and let me just say it was dangerous to have this around the house. I wanted to munch on it all the time. The girls ate it for breakfast with some coconut milk. YUMMY!

This is paleo dirty rice... I got this recipe from http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-dirty-rice/ www.elanaspantry.com was a God send for me when I started out on this journey. Let me tell you.. I don't like cauliflower but I LOVE this dish.

This is one of my FAVORITE go to dishes!! I make this every week if not twice a week and I LOVE it! All it is is some grass fed beef browned and drained. Then I sautee up some broccoli, mushroom, asparagus, zucchini, and napa cabbage and mix it all together. I add some salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and coconut amines to taste. My hubby likes this with Thai hot sauce.

Well it is getting late and I have to be up at 4:50 for CFN in the morning. I will try to get caught up tomorrow. Night!