Sweet, Sweet, Illusive Sleep....zzzzzz....

Hi Guys,
How's it going? Long time no blog. Been pretty hectic around here lately. I started homeschooling my oldest daughter, so that is a bit time consuming. And I've been going through some health issues lately. I will tell you what, I know how Melissa (from The Clothes Make the Girl and Well Fed fame) feels like. I can totally relate to her struggles and to her frustrations. We are kinda in the same boat. Due to those issues I have had to quit Cross Fit. I really made me sad, but I need to focus on healing my body first and then I can start back. I have been advised to just walk lots, and do yoga for now. In a few months if things are going good I can add some heavy lifting. Then a few months later if I am perfect, I can add back in some metcons and some sprinting. Honestly, I just want to get back to heavy lifting. I am in love with lifting.

So you can imagine that with all that is going on, that my sleep is pretty crappy. And you would be right. I usually fall asleep about 12-1 in the morning and wake up at 7. My husband BEGS me to go to sleep, but I just can't. It's not that I don't want to....I can't. Well through some advice that I got from Chris Kresser.....for the past week I have fallen asleep at 10 and have gotten at least 9 hours of sleep each night!! I honestly didn't think it would work, but I figured if all I have to shell out is 7 bucks for a chance of some good sleep then I'll do it!

So here's the thing...it may sound a bit kooky to you (it actually did to me at first) but the secret lies in a pair of glasses. Let me start from the beginning....We all know that sleep is UBER important for our health. It is helpful in SO many areas and the lack thereof aids in things such as heart disease and diabetes. And yet insomnia is rampant. So what is the deal? Why can't we get sleep. Chris Kresser suggests that the answer could lie in the production of melatonin. Studies have shown that "blue light", the light coming from our iPads, tv's, computer, and iPhones suppress melatonin production. A reduction in melatonin results in sleeplessness, but more important than that, it has been shown to increase cancer risk, impair the immune system and a whole host of other not-so-good things. But have no fear there is a product, glasses to be exact, that block the "blue light" so your bodies production of melatonin is not disrupted. These glasses are what I have been wearing for the past week and I have gotten a total of 15 extra hours of sleep because of them. I have been falling asleep at 10 instead of tossing and turning and flipping channels until 1 am when I can finally fall asleep. I honestly didn't expect it to work, but like I said I thought that 7 bucks was an o.k. price to pay to see if it did. Any way there is my sleep story. HERE is the link to the article by Chris Kresser just in case you would like to have a look see. And HERE is where you can buy the glasses if you would like to give them a try. Chris also gives a link to a more expensive pair but the ones I bought are working great.

P.S. Relationship service announcement...... Be warned: They ain't sexy!!

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!! :)

TWO, That's Right, TWO Ingredient Crock Pot Pulled Pork!

Busy days coming up.... dress rehersals, ballet recitals, teaching VBS. And you know what busy times call for......the crockpot!! Us mommies have to put dinner on the table even when our schedule is full and there seems to be no time for cooking.

Well I bought a pork shoulder last week thinking I would make my friend George's crock pot pulled pork for my dad because I LOVE it. Well we ended up taking my dad out to eat most of the time so I still had this beautiful pork shoulder in the fridge. Even though George's recipe is super simple, It was late and I needed to get that thing cooking. So instead of going and gathering all the spices to rub on the pork, I literally just threw the 2 and a half pound shoulder in the crock pot. It has enough fat that no water or anything else is needed. That cooked for 10 hours on low while I was snoozing. This morning the house smelled great!!! The shoulder was falling apart.

I pulled the shoulder out of the crock pot, poured off the fat and returned the roast to the pot. I shredded it with 2 forks and added 1 cup of magic!

Those of you with Whole Food stores around you need to go ahead and make a trip if only for one thing. This one thing will make our busy paleo lives that much simpler. It is Tessemae's dressings!! There are a few that contain soy so make sure you read your labels, but most are 100% paleo... and DELICIOUS! I mentioned the southwest ranch flavor that I had with breakfast yesterday morning on FB. I also take that with me when I go out to eat to avoid the funky oils served in restaurants. Well, they also have a bbq sauce called Matty's BBQ. It is phenomenal! I'm from NC and it totally made my pork remind me of the vinegar-y tasting pulled pig from my home state. It was juicy, vinegar-y and sweet tasting. I also got a thumbs up and "delicious" from my non-paleo hubs and both the kids!! SCORE one for mom!!

So to recap...
throw a pork shoulder in a crock pot and cook on low for 10 hours
pull out pork, pour off fat and return roast to pot
shred with fork
add tessemae's matty's bbq sauce and cook for another hour on high
devour

If you don't have a whole food or a place that carries tessamae's you can order here online. You can also find locations close to you that sell it on their website also.

P.S. I get NOTHING for recommending this product, I just love it and it makes life a little bit simpler! :) And who doesn't need that!?!

Now check out these wonderful ingredients....

And now....check out that gorgeous, tasty pulled pork!!!!! 

What A Weekend!

Wow! It has been a while! I was under the weather there for a few days, which kept me from posting. Stupid allergies! It was miserable there for a day or so then it was bearable. But I got well just in time for my BIRTHDAY!! And while it is usually just another day, this year it was UBER special! My husband elaborately planned out 3 months in advance a surprise party for me and a very special surprise guest. He flew my dad in who I usually only get to see once a year! AND my dad and I share birthdays so that made it much more special! We went early morning fishing with my 5 year old, went to a baseball game and visited the zoo! It was so much fun spending time with my daddy and him getting to spend time with his grand-daughters!! My dad just left to go back home today, so needless to say all my attention was on him and not so much blogging. But now things are getting back to normal and I will be getting back in the kitchen. Today I made some chocolate dipped macaroons for the kids as a treat. I thought I would share them with you guys. Hope you like them! Recipe below.

Now for a question for you!! I'm thinking of selling these t-shirts and was wondering if any of you would be interested. All proceeds would go toward recipe development for the cookbook! If we ever reach 1000 fans on FB I will more than likely give a couple away as a giveaway as well!! They would cost approximately $17 bucks plus shipping. Yay or nay?!? Interested?? Anyone!?!  Feel free to suggest different colors!! :)

Chocolate dipped macaroons

4 egg whites
2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup of maple syrup
2 Tablespoons of coconut flour
1 teaspoon of almond extract
pinch of salt
6-8 ounces of melted enjoy life chocolate chips



- in a large mixing bowl wisk for egg whites, syrup, extract and salt
- add in coconut and flour and mix till well incorporated
- set in fridge to harden a bit for about an hour
- scoop out with a 1 inch scoop or use two spoons and place on a parchment lined baking sheet
- bake at 325 for about 20 minutes. they will start to brown around bottom edges and will be firm to touch.
- let completely cool
- melt chocolate in the microwave or double boiler
- dip each macaroon in chocolate and place on parchment or wax paper
- let the chocolate harden or you can place in fridge to speed up the process. By this time my kids were tired of waiting and just ate them! haha!