How do you find the time?

I get asked A LOT.... how do you find time to cook healthy meals? And the key, my friend, is PREPARATION! And that preparation starts before you even take your trip to the grocery store.

1. Plan out a menu.
I make a menu for breakfast (hubby doesn't eat breakfast), lunch, dinner and snacks for the girls. I usually make the menu in two week increments since that's how we get paid. I usually buy all my groceries for the two weeks except for veggies. I buy those only one week at a time. Obviously if you buy your veggies and aren't planning on using some till two weeks from now you will have a lot of waste. And that might as well be money thrown in the trash.

2. Have a preparation day.
Wash all those veggies, slice what needs to be sliced, chop what needs to be chopped. Separate the meat and marinate the meat that needs to be marinated to place in the freezer for future use. Make a huge salad, without dressing, that you can pull from throughout the week. Bake up sweet potatoes, and hard boil a dozen eggs to use throughout the week as well.

2. Choose menu items that can be transformed into another meal.
For example.... crock pot carnitas. There is a lot of meat in a pork shoulder. Use it to make taco's one night, (lettuce taco's in my case), and then serve it over a cauliflower mash with a side salad on another night. In the case of the pork shoulder there is usually enough for a couple of leftover lunches in there as well. Roast a chicken. For our family we would eat a thigh and leg each for hubby and I and a half of one breast for the girls. The rest of the chicken is shredded for chicken salad for lunch the next day.

3. Precook easily frozen items.
Almond flour pancakes, almond blueberry muffins, waffles, meatballs, and soups. All of these things can be prepared in one day (preparation day) and stored in the freezer until you need them. In the case of the pancakes, muffins, meatballs and waffles (if you have a waffle maker) Cook them up and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and place them in the freezer until frozen then you can store them in your favorite freezer ready container. In the same day cook up a batch of soup and store them in individual serving freezer containers. That way you know how many servings you have or if you need a lunch....grab it and take it to work. All of these things taste just as good when they are reheated from frozen. With this method a breakfast would look like this.....four silver dollar almond pancakes in the microwave, put them on a plate with a drizzle of raw honey (most of the time they just eat them plain), sliced banana, and some greek yogurt for the girls. That takes about 2 minutes to get ready and serve.

4. Take advantage of your crock pot.
Not only does it cook for you, but you can prepare and store multiple crockpot meals in gallon freezer bag and just dump them into your crockpot when you are ready.

5. Prepare snacks
Use and reuse snack bags for some almonds, walnuts, jerky, veggie sticks, grapes etc. If you prepare these bags on your preparation day then it is so easy to just grab them when the kids or you need a snack. I also make up some kind a bars for the girls and just wrap them individually in plastic wrap for easy access.

Here is an example of a weekday menu
Mon
B: turkey sausage, hard boiled egg
L: roast chicken with salad
D: carnita's
S: almonds, sliced apple

Tue
B: egg cupcake, banana
L: chicken chili soup
D: pasture pork chops with roasted broccoli and carrots
S: veggie sticks with eggplant dip

Wed
B: turkey sausage, hard boiled egg
L: chicken salad with cranberries and walnuts (made from left over chicken) with a side salad
D: Left over carnita's over cauliflower mash, roasted asparagus

Thurs
B: egg cupcakes, cantelope
L: chicken chili soup
D: crock pot mongolian beef with side of sweet potato and left over roasted asparagus

Fri
B: pancakes, banana, yogurt
L: Left over mongolian beef, side salad
D: crock pot teriyaki chicken over cauliflower rice


On preparation day I would have...
made and frozen the turkey sausage, pancakes and soup
washed and chopped or sliced the broccoli, carrots, veggie sticks, huge salad, asparagus, cauliflower, cantalope
riced the cauliflower
made egg cupcakes to store in the fridge
assembled the crock pot teriyaki meal for the freezer
prepared snack bags and/or bars
marinate pork chops for the freezer
Boil some eggs

With this menu, I would still have left over turkey sausage, chicken chili soup, and pancakes in the freezer for the next week.

Keep in mind. I LOVE this stuff. I love to cook, I love to make menu's and go grocery shopping. Now, I don't love to clean. So if someone has a solution to that problem, please share! :) It does make it so much easier when everything is prepared for you. It helps to avoid the "oh, I forgot to defrost the chicken, we must go out to eat" situation. And it TOTALLY helps the little ones get a quick and healthy snack, with little to no effort from me. E usually runs to pantry and picks out a bag of nuts or opens the fridge and get a snack pack of fruit or veggies for her and her sister. I really hope this helps and that you can implement some of these ideas into your weekly planning. Click on the links for all the recipes. I hope you try and like some of those as well. Happy Eating!!

Do Ya Miss Mashed Potatoes???

I have found a wonderful mashed cauliflower recipe and it comes straight from www.easypaleo.com

http://www.easypaleo.com/2012/05/23/food-diary-easy-mashed-cauliflower/

I altered this recipe a bit though..... instead of just steaming the cauliflower...I put a couple of cups of chicken stock in a pot and threw the cauliflower in there with the lid on and let them cook like that. It added some great flavor and I used some of the stock when processing the cauliflower. I haven't had mashed potatoes in almost 10 months, and these were very yummy. Oh, I didn't use quite as much grass fed butter. Everyone's taste is different. You have to taste as you go, ya know!!? I also added some garlic powder, about a 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme and a pinch of dried rosemary. Tip: Rub the dried spices in your palms to kinda wake them up bit as you put them in the dish. Rachel Ray tip: didn't think it would make much of a difference but it does. Anyway I hope ya'll try this one....I thought it was delicious. Oh one more thing. These weren't my favorite thing to eat as left overs. In my opinion they were much better when they were eaten right after they were made.

Calling all zucchini lovers.....

If you LOVE zucchini then I have a recipe for you. I don't have a name for it but the ingredients consist of only....
2 good sized zucchini
1 can of fire roasted tomatoes
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
red pepper flakes
2 tbls of olive oil

First things first. Peel and cut the zucchini into thin noodles. There is a special kitchen tool you can buy to do this but I'm not sure what it is called and I don't have one. So I use my trusty knife. Next, place your zucchini noodles in a strainer and salt them. Set the strainer in a bowl.

The salt will draw some of the liquid out of the zucchini. Let it set in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. If you skip this step the finished product will be WAY to watery. Rinse of and wring out your zucchini with a clean kitchen towel after the 20 minutes is over. You will be amazed at how much liquid come out of those things.

Over medium heat add a couple TBL of olive oil to medium sized pan. Once hot, sprinkle in some red pepper flakes. The amount will depend on the heat level you want. I added about a teaspoon. I like it spicy!! Also add about 2-3 cloves of minced garlic to the oil.

Let it cook till it is fragrant, but make sure to not burn the garlic, about a minute or so. Add your zucchini and can of fire roasted tomatoes. Crank the heat up and brink it to a bubble. Once that happens lower the heat and let it simmer covered for about 10 minutes. You want your zucchini to be cooked but not mushy.

I had some of this this morning for breakfast. I have also made some grass fed meatballs and put them in there. If you are not Paleo and cheese agrees with you, I bet some grated parm would be awesome!

Treats with no guilt for the kiddos!

I figured it was time to post some of the treats that I have come up with for the girls. They LOVE having treats and I don't want to give them processed cookies or sugar laden candies, so I have come up with things to satisfy them and keep me guilt free at the same time!! Some of the favorites are as follows..

Chocolate covered almond butter bars:
1 cup of almond butter
1 cup of almond flour
melted raw honey - add just enough to sweeten it to your taste. I think I only added just about a tablespoon to this batch. Raw honey is REALLY sweet tasting!
A bar of 75% or higher (the higher the better) dark chocolate

Melt your almond butter and mix in your almond flour. Melt your honey and slowly add it to the butter mixture making sure to taste as you go along. You don't want to add too much. Spread that mixture into an 8X8 pan. Melt your dark chocolate and spread on top of your butter mixture and place in the fridge. When it hardens cut in to squares and eat. The girls LOVED this one.

Next up is...
Frozen banana slices:
You will need as many bananas as you would like to eat :)
Enough 80% or higher dark chocolate to cover those bananas
optional toppings : chopped almonds or walnuts, unsweetened shredded coconut

So first step is to slice up your banana slices. Spread them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and place them in the freezer.

Melt your chocolate in the microwave ( have to watch it closely) or a double boiler. While your melting your chocolate you could use this time to process up some nuts that you might like to use as a topping. 

Next take the frozen banana slices and coat them in the chocolate. You could stop right there or press in some nuts or coconut into the melted chocolate. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and store them in the freezer. My girls kept asking for the "ice cream bites". Another hit with them.

Last but not least...MY favorite. Macadamia nut cranberry bars!!! I LOVE these!

Ingredients:
‎1/4 cup chopped Macadamia nuts
1/4 cup chopped unsweetened dried cranberries. 
1/4 cup hazelnut butter
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup chopped 86% dark chocolate 
1 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut


Melt the coconut oil, hazelnut butter, and dark chocolate all together. Mix in the nuts, cranberries, and coconut. Spread into an 8X8 dish and place in the fridge. These have to stay in the fridge due to the coconut oil. I have actually had a couple of people make these all ready and they loved it as well. This came about on a night that I really wanted something sweet. I ransacked my pantry and threw it all together. I didn't plan on coming up with something THIS yummy though. I guess I can get lucky every once in a while. :)

Well, make sure to keep checking back. I plan on making my famous ( in this house at least) coconut milk "ice cream" pops. 


Thanks for reading!

Cinnamon Cumin Roasted Carrots! Ummm....Yumm!

Here is my recipe for some yummy carrots. I don't really like raw carrots, but when they are roasted with these spices they come out tasting like sweet potatoes!

Preheat oven 400
Peel carrots - I used 4 very large carrots for this recipe

Next Slice the carrots in to medallions

Melt a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil in the microwave

Place the cut up carrots in a mixing bowl and pour the melted coconut oil over them along with.....
1- 1 1/2 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of cinnamon
salt and pepper
Make sure the carrots are coated with the oil and spices

Place carrots on a baking sheet making sure they are spread out fairly well. If you have never used coconut oil before, don't be alarmed when the oil starts to solidify on the cool carrots. Place in the oven and bake for about 20 min.

After they have cooked through, you can take them out and eat them as is. But I like to turn the broiler on and get them a little brown and crispy like in the picture. I sprinkle a bit more salt on them at the end and eat them up!!

Well, there it is! I hope you enjoy them!

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....