Morning Mush

Even during the darkest times in my quest to feed my Music Man, he usually was a champion breakfast eater. This never shocked me since he would barely eat anything for lunch or dinner. My best shot at getting quality food into his belly was when he woke up starving. He absolutely LOVED oatmeal and millet. I would cook up both of these grains in huge batches and add bananas, cinnamon, peanut butter, honey, and milk. Some mornings he would inhale three huge bowls. On the weekend the Hubs would keep track and some Saturdays our Music Man ate more than his 200 lb dad!

So when I decided to remove all grains from our diet, I was nervous about breakfast. But I can honestly say, it really hasn't been an issue. For awhile, my little guy was totally content eating grain-free pancakes, sausage, bacon and just recently he's been digging scrambled eggs. But I always felt a little bad taking away his beloved "porridge" type meal so I went searching for an alternative. What I'm about to describe down here may sound odd and like it has 4 too many ingredients, but I promise it actually tastes good. And my son eats it by the bowlfuls a few times a week.

I found two recipes through Paleo sites and cookbooks for grain-free porridges. I basically combined the two and then added a few other ingredients to make my own. We'll call this:

Music Man's Morning Mush!

Ok, so you start with an almond meal based porridge that I got from Paleo Parents. I forget the exact recipe but I think it's pretty close to this:

3 cups almond meal

3 cups water

2 T cinnamon

2 apples (grated)

Mix all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Set on LOW for about 6 hours, or until a porridge consistency is created.

This is the base for the Morning Mush. Put a few big scoops into a saucepan. To this add:

1/4 c shredded coconut

2 T almond butter

a few splashes of coconut milk or raw milk

a few sprinkles of cinnamon

spoonful of honey (optional)

Mix together over low heat and you've got a coconutty porridge that my little guy loves!

But that's not all! So one aspect of the Paleo diet I am very conscious about is just how many carbs my kids are getting. I clearly don't limit this at all for growing kids, so I am always looking for ways to get high carb root vegetables into their bellies. To this porridge I add a huge scoop of either mashed up butternut squash or sweet potato. If I don't have any on hand, I use the butternut squash or sweet potato pouches put out by Plum Organics.

And then there's one last ingredient. I know, it's sounding ridiculous but all the flavors blend together. Sometimes the Music Man needs a little motivation with his meals. And breakfast is no longer the exception since he's actually eating lunch and dinner now so he's not always starving first thing in the morning. He likes to "find" bananas in his porridge so we cut up some bananas, stir them in, and he happily searches for them while he eats up his mush.

So with this breakfast you get:

FAT - almond butter, coconut

PROTEIN - almond butter, coconut

CARBS - apples, bananas, squash/sweet potato

FIBER - apples, bananas

Add a scrambled egg to this for an extra punch of protein and I promise this will fill your little one's bellies for the morning!

Finding Motivation in a Closet

There's something about going into your closet and trying on clothes that gives you a bit of motivation to take better care of yourself! I have a bunch of weddings and a few trips coming up this summer that require clothes a notch above my normal shorts and T-shirt wardrobe. So last week I rummaged through the closet and took out some old dresses. I really try not to get too caught up in my image and to love myself at whatever size I am, but it is difficult. Especially when you have fairly recent memories of yourself looking a lot different in a particular piece of clothing. 

I do believe good food is the backbone of a health, but I can't dismiss the importance of exercise. Flexibility, strength and a good metabolism are very important tools to a long, enjoyable life. This past week I have started working on getting my butt moving. Nothing hard-core (I have some issues with my knee and hips that I will some day write about) but I am getting out for 25-30 minute walks. I take them at a fairly brisk pace and oh my goodness I am out of shape. It's amazing what happens when you essentially take two years off from any cardiovascular activity. I also popped a Pilates DVD in for the first time and am actively trying to get a few yoga stretches in every day. The key is consistency. I am trying to not get too wrapped up in my progress or just how well I am doing things. I'm aiming to do something as often as I possibly can. Small goals, baby steps.

It's amazing how much I miss the simple act of moving around and using my body. My entire childhood and all through my teens and early 20s I was an athlete. This was a huge part of my identity and I don't think i ever really appreciated or understood that until a few years back. In 2006 I realized something was missing from my life so I started road races. I absolutely LOVED them. I worked up to running a half marathon and was amazed how much happier I was in my life and thoroughly enjoyed this new sense of purpose. Then I started having some troubles with my knee and soon after I started a family and that part of my life went missing yet again. As I walked yesterday morning watching the sun rise, I felt joy that I haven't felt in a really long time. It felt like saying hello to an old friend.

Birthday Brunch Menu

This past weekend was a big one in the Smith household. My Music Man turned 3 years old yesterday and my Peanut turns 1 tomorrow so we had a joint birthday celebration. I decided to take on the exhausting task of cooking all of the food for a birthday brunch. While I love cooking and sharing my Paleo-inspired dishes with friends, I will not lie and say I enjoy cooking non-stop for three days! This was not the original plan, but the hefty back spasm I endured last weekend threw a wrench in my preparation plans and so I was pulling the graveyard shift on Thursday and Friday getting everything accomplished.

But I pulled it off! Here was my menu:

Sausage, Mushroom and Egg Casserole (I used raw milk in place of the cottage cheese and did use some shredded cheese so this was my one non-Paleo dish)

French Toast Bread Pudding (I made this for Easter as well…I think it will become a staple in our house for holiday breakfast/brunch meals because the Hubs is a BIG fan)

Zucchini Banana Muffins

Pulled Pork with "home-made" BBQ Sauce

Grilled Veggies 

Fruit Salad

And for dessert I made two cupcakes with two home-made icings:

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

"Reese's" Cupcakes

All in all I think everyone enjoyed the food. And I made WAY too much but most of the food can be easily frozen so we'll have these tasty dishes to enjoy the next time I'm entertaining during the morning hours.

My back is feeling better, thanks in large part to my craniosacral therapist. I'll have to write about this alternative therapy another time because I'm sure most reading this don't even know what craniosacral is! 

Hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day weekend!

Planning, prepping, cooking, cleaning...

I wanted to write a post yesterday about my preparations for my Paleo-inspired birthday brunch but there just isn't any time! Plus, the forecast is calling for rain tomorrow which is putting a major snag in my plans. Will post later this weekend about the menu and all things birthday. Hopefully everything turns out OK! And if it doesn't, whatever!

Mama's Health is #1

As a mother, you learn right away about sacrifice and putting others in front of you. From the moment you get a positive pregnancy your choices impact another person, and the impact on them becomes far more important than the impact on you. You change your diet, lifestyle choices, clothing and schedule your entire world around doctor's appointments and your due date.

Then the baby arrives and now ALL of your choices are about someone else. When you sleep, when you eat (if you're nursing, what you eat), when you go to the bathroom, when you sit down, when you stand up...all of this is first run by the baby, and he or she dictates the consequences you will face if you choose yourself. Don't feel like wearing your baby in a wrap while you pop a squat? That's fine, but you very well could hear a screaming child while you're in there, or worse yet, wake a sleeping child. And depending on how well your past 24 hours have gone (or even 24 minutes), you'd be surprised how often you will pick having your baby up in your grill while you reach for the toilet paper.

Now all of this obviously gets better as the baby grows and gains more independence. But even with young children our choices as parents have consequences. Altering the day so that your child misses a nap, or deciding to relax and take some time for yourself during nap time instead of preparing dinner. There is a give and take that never seems to end (at least for this mother of an almost 3 and 1 year old!).

So whenever I would hear people saying I had to take care of myself because my health is the most important thing for our household, I sort of shrugged my shoulders and said that was impossible. I do my best to eat well, but that's mostly because I take the same time to prepare my kids food and I think it's a cornerstone of my work as mother. But exercise? Stretching? A massage?!?!?! Yeah, right. When was I to fit that into my schedule? Was I going to take the fifteen minutes in the morning to do a couple of yoga sequences or use that time to get breakfast ready so that I wasn't trying to do that when the kids were up and the Peanut was hanging on my leg and the Music Man was screaming from the breakfast table for his porridge. Am I going to do some stretching and ab work during nap, instead of preparing dinner, doing laundry or just sitting on the couch relishing in the quiet and staring at a wall?

These choices seemed simple to me for quite some time. But in my sleep deprivation and overwhelmed state, I had forgotten something that happened to me two years ago. I threw my back out when the Music Man was about 9 months old. I've always had lower back problems. My lower vertebrate are close together, my right hip is slightly higher than my left, my pelvis is slightly tilted, I have a natural sway back and the entire region from my hamstrings to my shoulders is so tight that anytime someone has tried to give me a massage they just touch me and say, "Whoa, stressed much?" So add a pregnancy and a 20 pound baby that I lug around 24/7 and you've got a mother collapsed on the floor unable to move. And I was laid up for a solid week, and couldn't do much for an addition week or two. I swore that when that happened I would take better care of myself, and I did for a bit. But then I got pregnant again and my choices went right back to being the baby's choices.

Until this past Saturday. The Peanut was crawling up the stairs and I leaned over to pick her up and BAM, back in major spasm again. Luckily the Hubs was home and could come retrieve my precious cargo. It took me about 5 minutes to make my way down the four steps, another 10 to get myself on my back and I spent the next hour on my back on the floor below my steps. Just horrible.

So the lesson here is that even though I didn't think I had 20 minutes a day to devote to myself, I have to find them. Because it's either 20 minutes a day helping my body, or it's days not being able to do anything for anyone. I've got to find some time to carve out for myself and let some other things slide. But not good food! Maybe we'll just all have to wear our clothes twice (shouldn't be an issue during the Charlotte summers that average about 90 degrees a day) or stop vacuuming the dog's hairs off the carpet, or stop watching so much Bravo. Hmmm....I feel like one of these is the obvious choice but I'm having a hard time seeing it.

My back is nowhere as bad as it was last time, thank goodness. But I've brought in some extra help today and tomorrow to let me rest. And I'm also in the midst or planning the kids' birthday party for this weekend. I'm cooking a Paleo-inspired brunch. I'll post the recipes throughout the week and let you know how it goes!

Picky Peanut

When you become a mother, you learn about this interesting phenomena. I've been trying to come up with a catchy phrase to define it the past 3 years but still haven't found something that sticks. But basically, when you become a mother your child(ren) seem to always know just how far to push you before you snap. They also can feel when you think you're actually figuring out motherhood and start to believe you can handle it all. Then they take you down a few notches to remind you of who is really in charge.

When my son was young, I joke how he used to read my mind. At first, after a few days of good naps and some predictable behavior, I would find myself on the phone with someone saying, "Things are actually going good. I think I'm finally setting into a nice routine with him. I can do this." The second the words came out of my mouth...BAM! Early morning wake ups, screaming through naps, cranky for no reason whatsoever, needing to be held constantly, and a whole slew of unpredictable, exhausting behaviors would knock me over for a few days. But again, I would fall into the same trap. After another "easy" period I'd utter those words, "I got this" and the whole charade would happen again. It got so eerie that I couldn't even THINK I had it under control, he seriously read my mind!

Then my daughter was born and it's unbelievable but I swear the two of them immediately started to communicate with each other. Even when she was just 6 weeks old and the only thing she could do was barely hold her own head up, they somehow knew when to crack the whip. Now for the two of them to be a mess simultaneously, well that would just be cruel. So they take turns. Maybe my son has a rough week and really needs my attention, well then the Peanut will be good as gold. Then Music Man will start calming down and be really cooperative, and I'd get a half day of two well-behaved, somewhat predictable, happy kids and think to myself "I think I've got this...?" and BOOM, Peanut will stop napping well and I have to attend to her needs for a week.

So it comes as no shock to me that as I finally start to figure out the Music Man and his eating habits that my normally fantastic eating Peanut would begin throwing her food, eating nothing but blueberries, and screaming at me throughout meals. Last weekend I was feeling like Mom of the Year as I watched my son eat fish, carrots, avocado and some beets for dinner. And with that meal, his sister started refusing everything.

Now the difference this time around is that I'm not stressing. I know she'll eat eventually, and I am not jumping through hoops of fire to appease her. She seems to want to eat while she is crawling around (I experimented and put the same pancake she had rejected in her high chair on my coffee table and she gobbled it up faster than my dog could have). She also demands to have a spoon and/or plate on her tray so she can eat the food off of something (or just have another item to chuck). Basically, she's getting opinionated but I'm not gonna let her get to me! I know she'll eat eventually, it's just a matter of time.

And with that final sentence, she is up a solid 45 minutes early from her nap. Her brother is at school so they clearly sent signals and decided I'm getting too comfortable with my 90 minute break for the week...

Real Food on a Budget

I think one of the biggest reasons people avoid eating good, real food is that it is too expensive.

Food is expensive, that is a fact and I totally understand how someone on a budget (basically all of us!) has a tough time spending that extra couple of dollars for organic produce, or an extra few dollars for the best meat or dairy in the store. But hopefully, you understand the long-term benefits of eating healthier. Less trips to the doctor, a happier mood, and spending less money buying clothes that fit you as your weight constantly fluctuates are just a few realities I look at when weighing where I spend my dollar.

And good, whole food doesn't have to be super expensive. Hopefully I can shed some light onto how to soften the hit your wallet takes at the register.

Tip #1: Purchase cheap cuts of meat.

A "lower quality" cut does not mean lower quality meat. You can get some really high quality meat for a lot cheaper if you opt for less fancy cuts. Instead of spending an arm and a leg on a filet from a local farm, buy the ground beef. Instead of individually packaged organic chicken breasts, buy the whole chicken. Better yet, get some beef jerky to snack on or have at lunchtime with some veggies. It has all the nutrients of beef at a fraction of the cost.

I have recently stumbled upon the chicken thigh as my new go-to option for dinner. Chicken thighs are so much cheaper than breasts. Plus, the thigh has so much more flavor!

I bought some bone-in chicken thighs from U.S. Wellness Meats and cooked them last night. They were absolutely delicious, and super simple. Here's the recipe I used:

Mustard Glazed Chicken Thighs

Simple and delicious. And the nice thing about the bone-in thighs is that you can use the bones to make homemade chicken stock (yet another way to help your budget!). And when you buy your meat from a really great place like U.S.Wellness, you don't have to waste so much time trimming all of the thigh fat (which was one reason why I used to steer away from thighs...too much prep work). The bone-in thighs had plenty of meat and I did nothing to prepare them. I just put them on a baking sheet covered with foil and brushed them with the mustard glaze. The whole family approved!

Do a little price comparing and see what the real difference is when you use the cheaper cuts of meat. If it's only a buck or two, it may be worth your while to make the switch.

Hello!

Well I certainly took a long time away from the blog! I have to say, even though I'm almost three years into it, parenthood still kicks my butt on a daily basis. And every time I feel as though I am getting into a routine, it gets swept out from under me in a flash. These past two weeks I have had some house guests and have taken a trip to see family with the kids. Just these two long weekends have totally wiped all of my energy and I feel so far behind in absolutely everything. My house has exploded (more so than usual, despite what the Hubs says "It always looks a mess...."), I am scrambling to get back into a cooking routine, and my motivation to get anything done (blogging, researching new recipes, preparing for the kids' birthday party) is impossible to find.

I find keeping on top of meals for four people, as well as those who come to stay with us, is an absolutely exhausting task at times. Probably because eating never takes a vacation. It isn't as though my kids don't need meals on weekends or I can just have them skip lunch. It isn't like I walk into my kitchen after not being here for five days and the dinners sometimes decide to prepare themselves. It's three meals a day, every single day. And committing to making the majority of our food is something that I am proud of, but also something that becomes a really big thorn in my side.

I'm desperately trying to organize myself and somehow get into a routine, but these pesky kids keep tripping me up. My son is potty training right now so that is taking up a lot of our energy. My daughter just stopped nursing so now we are getting into the routine of bottles and figuring out when to give them to her and how warm she likes them (my not even 1 year old is beyond opinionated...I'm already dreading the teenage years with her). Naps and morning wake-up times are inconsistent, my husband's work schedule is inconsistent, and I have a difficult time trying to keep up with it all.

So right now it's a tough period. I feel like I'm running out of ideas for the kids when it comes to food. They seem bored and tired of the same old, same old. My energy is super low and my patience razor thin. I beat myself up daily for not blogging or responding to peoples' comments (thank you for them by the way!). I haven't been able to go through any more of my workbook on emotional eating. Just a big, fat BLAH in my day to day life right now.

BUT, I will get through this like I always do. I'm going to try super hard to get back into the blog this week. And I'm going to try to take everything one day at a time. Right now my sixth load of laundry is going and the house is only about 80% disastrous. I'm about to go look through some of my favorite Paleo blogs for inspiration for the kids. Just gotta jump back on the horse!

Back but not for long!

Yowsa, I have a tough time when my schedule gets rocked. As much as I loved having my friends come to visit it just knocks my socks off and takes forever for me to find them and get them back on my feet. And even now, a full four days after they left, I feel like I have one sock on and can barely see the second one peeking out from under the bed.

I've been scrambling all week to get back on track with my cooking and routines for the little ones. And I've felt even more against the clock because we have another trip fast approaching that I have to get ready for. This April is jam-packed with the Hubs traveling, people coming here, and us flying with two wild cards. Thankfully I've had some meatballs, chicken nuggets and a few dishes in the big freezer in my garage so I've been able to get proteins together for meals. I fell so far behind with my cooking and shopping with The Hubs also being gone the entire two weeks before my visitors. AND I'm also exhausted from a couple of late (but fun!) nights. So goes the life of a mother...even when you have a fun non-kid weekend planned you pay for it in the end : )

Not too much to report on our eating here. We're pretty much at a plateau. Music Man still fighting me on anything green but doing well with his other veggies and meat. The Peanut is still eating well although I think she's still upset about the weaning process. I'm sort of falling off the wagon a bit and trying to get back on. And I'm really taking a look at my emotional eating and realizing just how big a mountain I have to climb there. But at least I realize I have some things to work through and that's a big step one.

Off I go to prepare for our trip, hopefully I'll get more of the swing of things soon!

Great Breakfast Recipe

This weekend I have some friends coming into town. I had all these grand plans of cooking dinners and  breakfasts and having tasty snacks everywhere but that just didn't happen. The Hubs has been away for two weeks and I barely have enough food in the fridge to feed my kiddos today. It's definitely not stocked for a weekend of fabulous entertaining! But, I packed away some of the Easter leftovers in my freezer and tomorrow we'll enjoy this absolutely delicious Paleo French Toast Bread Pudding.

Now that the kids are getting older and this place is starting to feel less like a dungeon that I can never leave and more like a home again. I'm looking forward to seeing places beyond my 5 mile radius that encompasses the grocery store and the playground. I'm also excited to socialize a little more and invite people over and actually do a little entertaining in my house. I say "entertaining" very loosely because I can only have people over that don't mind tripping on toys, sitting down to a table with crumbs all over it, and leaving with dog hairs all over their clothes. But that is actually an improvement from what this house looked like a few months ago so we'll just go with it.

Anyway, I'm trying to find some meals and dishes that can both satisfy my Paleo lifestyle as well as my guests' taste buds. And this breakfast casserole is definitely one of them.

I am off to try and put this house back together before my friends arrive. Probably won't be posting for a couple of days, enjoy the weekend!

Emotional Eating

OK, so here's a topic I've been thinking about for quite some time. As much as I go on and on about the addictive nature of sugar and the physiological toll it takes on my body, I know deep down inside that there's a lot of emotional turmoil that sends me flying to the refrigerator to scarf down food.

I'm currently working through a workbook on dealing with overeating and binge eating and this week the theme is humility. Basically, accepting that we are flawed humans and learning how to deal with the ups and downs of life without reaching for the ice cream. There's actually a LOT more to it than that, but for the sake of this blog I'll only share some tangible stuff, like the "assignments" I'm working on.

I had to pick one aspect of my "food stuff" that I would like to change. As I've mentioned before, I have a habit of eating whenever my kids go down for a nap. I end up snacking so much that I'm eating a full meal and I know that I'm really not hungry. I'm supposed to take note of what I'm thinking and how I'm feeling when I attempt to not eat at this time. I probably won't share everything I experience (emotional eating is deep-rooted in some very personal stuff!) but I'll share any progress I do or don't make.

I'm finding all these detoxes to be too much on me at the time. I think I'm actually going to take a small break from them and try to focus a little more on what is going on inside myself and work on some personal growth. There I go getting all Oprah again! But it's all part of the journey...food is such a huge part of our bodies (physically, mentally, and emotionally) that many of us have a long road ahead of us before we figure it all out.

Music Man 1,374...Mommy 1!

Victory!

As I have written in the past, trying to feed the Music Man has been a struggle for about two years. Ever since he started eating his own table food he has fought me on anything and everything. BUT, last week I earned a huge victory.

He ate salmon! And he actually ATE it. Like a lot. And he ate it for two dinners in a row. Oh baby, that had me on cloud nine for quite some time. I was patting myself so hard on the back that I bruised. Feeling like a triumphant mother doesn't happen too often these days, so I am soaking this in.

I made him the "Quick & Easy Salmon Cakes" from (you guessed it!) Practical Paleo.

Here's the recipe:

2 6-ounce cans of wild salmon (drained) *I order most of my salmon from Vital Choice.
2 eggs, beaten
3 T minced shallot (I just used a white onion)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T green onions, minced (I didn't have any so I left them out)
1 t Savory Spice Blend **
2 t gluten-free mustard (optional...I used regular yellow mustard. I plan on buying gluten-free once I go through the mustard in my fridge)
1-2 t coconut flour (optional...I used this, actually probably used a little more to get the consistency I wanted)
1/4 c coconut oil or butter

Combine salmon, eggs, shallots, garlic, green onions, Saturday Spice Blend, and mustard in a small mixing bowl. Add the flour you need to get the consistency you want. I wanted them a little firmer so added a couple of scoops.

In a large pan melt the oil and then just fry them up like patties. I guess it was about 3-4 minutes per side.

** Practical Paleo has a whole page of spice blends to make up for her recipes. They use easy ingredients and are great to have on hand. I basically just did a mix of rosemary, sage, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and black pepper. I like to get creative with my spice combos and don't really think you can go wrong. This is where you can feel like an actual "chef" and not just a person who does EXACTLY what a book tells you to do. There's something liberating about this for me :)


He ate these puppies up. Of course, he'll probably throw them to the floor next week but I'm adding them to my list of foods I know he can eat and that won't make him gag (broccoli and green beans are still on that list....)

These kids are killing me!

Ugh, doing this detox while taking care of my kids is getting to me. And by getting to me, I mean that I cheated! Sad but true. It's so tough to have all of this fruit around for them and these muffins that I've sweetened with ripened bananas and honey. So this weekend I indulged a little. But the really good news is that for once I'm not beating myself up about it, and I'm moving forward with the detox instead of quitting and binging on anything in site. That's what I would have done before. But I'm trying to diffuse this perfection monster that always rears its ugly head when I'm trying to accomplish something.

What helped was one of the support emails sent out to the detox group this morning. It's Day 8 and Diane encouraged us to keep going forward even if we had a slip-up. "Slip-ups" used to not be in my dictionary. It was all or nothing baby! You can't say you did a detox if you even consumed 1 gram of sugar! Well, that chick has been suffering with sugar addiction and emotional eating for years so maybe it's time for a new mindset. A calmer, more compassionate mindset that doesn't collapse when plans don't match an exact blueprint. I enjoy this way of thinking a lot more and its the one I want to model for my kids.

But still, they are killing me. It's so much easier to go through this when you really can clear out your house of anything tempting. And it's easier when you don't have much stress in your life and aren't exhausted trying to chase your now mobile and curious Peanut and breathe your way through the Music Man's latest blow-up. My favorite is when he loses his mind over something HE suggested.

MM: Want water.
Me: Water? Ok, I'll get you some water.
MM: NO WATER!!!!
Me: Ok, I'll just put it on the counter and you can have it when you want it.

10 seconds pass...

MM: Water please.

And the day is like that for 13 hours....

But it's Monday, a new week and it is beautiful here in Charlotte. Spring has finally arrived and I'm off to the grocery store to load up on vegetables for the week. I've done a fair amount of cooking in preparation for this week so all of my proteins are ready.

Even if I stumble through these 21 days I'm still going to be happy I did it. I'm still working on my emotional bond with food and I think having a little more patience and compassion with myself will only help that.

Starting Day 6...

Well this is the first day on the detox without my mom here to help me. I tried to do a lot of cooking the past two days but it's still going to be a challenge to get quality meals on the table while taking care of the kids. And the Peanut keeps waking early so she's cutting into my morning prep time. The good (and sort of bad) news is that we've started to wean from nursing. More on that topic later, but it is giving me some freedom during the day and I can hopefully not feel so crazy with keeping to feeding schedules as I have been.

But I've got a grain-free porridge heating in the pot and some left-over sausage for the Music Man. The Peanut will have her egg yolks, sweet potato and avocado. And I made the apple streusel egg muffins from Practical Paleo last week and will shovel a few of them in my mouth as I scramble to get us off to swim lessons and a birthday party this morning.

Off to begin the day...it's finally spring here in Charlotte so hopefully the sunshine makes these withdrawal symptoms bearable!

Day 4

Holy tomatoes I did a lot of cooking today. My mom leaves tomorrow so I wanted to take advantage of my built-in nanny and get a lot done for the next few days. Unfortunately when I cook a lot I tend to "taste" a lot and right now my belly is about to implode. But I managed to make a few portions of two different meals (both from Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook), and some chicken nuggets for the kids. Oh and I also made these Apple Streusel Egg Muffins from the book, Practical Paleo. I'll eat these this next week while I'm trying to get the days started without much help.

All this cooking on top of the regular breakfast, lunch and dinner I do. When I have visitors I tend to think I can cook during the day and don't do as much prep beforehand. Somehow it never works out well and I scramble around all day and feel totally disorganized. My hungry kids scream until I serve them burnt or cold food. But I managed to slow-cook a chicken, roast some sweet potatoes and sauté swiss chard with ginger and garlic for dinner tonight. Yum.

Felt good today but the cravings aren't backing down. Lots of snacking again but I'm staying on the path. I think this weekend will be rough but if I can make it to the middle of next week without cheating I should start seeing some great results.

Home Within A Home

A little over three years ago we decided to move down to Charlotte. I was not too thrilled about the move back then, but one of The Hubs major selling points was that by moving South we could afford a bigger house. Although a small positive in a sea of negatives (as I felt they were at the time) I have to admit the idea of having a spacious house got me a little excited. Our move pretty much coincided with my decision to eat a whole foods diet that involved cooking about 95% of my meals and so these days it doesn't matter how much space we have in our house. Because I live in one room....the bathroom. No! Although I do take my digestion quite seriously and examine it more than is considered "normal" I clearly meant to say the kitchen.

I spend A LOT of time in my kitchen. I wake up at 6:00 in the morning, attempt to do a few sit-ups while my belly laughs at me and screams "Oh, you think throwing a pail of water on a forest fire is going to help...that's cute", and then head downstairs to get as much done as I possibly can before I hear the Peanut calling for me. Usually this means getting breakfast prepared for the kids....Music Man usually gets a grain-free pancake  scrambled egg and some sort of breakfast meat. The Peanut gets 1-2 egg yolks, avocado, some sort of veggie pancake I've got left-over and fruit. On the days I'm on my game, most of these items come out of the refrigerator and just need to be re-heated. But sometimes I have to cook from scratch and that requires me to shift into third gear by the time GMA starts.

After breakfast is clean-up and on days my son goes to preschool it's back to the kitchen when I put the Peanut down for her nap. Usually on these days I try to get dinner all done. I aim for slow-cooker meals, or dishes that taste pretty good heated up. Back to the kitchen again for lunch time and then during afternoon nap time (or "quiet time" depending on which way the wind blows that day for Music Man) I finish up dinner or try to cook something that can be frozen/stored for later...pancakes, chopping veggies for tomorrow's dinner, roasting potatoes. On the days I have both kids at home, I turn to my best bud Mickey Mouse (or Daniel Tiger) during the Peanut's nap so I can have a few minutes to assemble dinner.

Most days I don't have time to actually cook dinner at dinnertime. The 5:00 hour is a delicate balancing act of trying to get the kids into dinner and bedtime mode and while also not pulling out every hair on my head or kicking a hole in my wall. It's also a time of day when anyone's mood (my son's...daughter's...mine) can totally shift the energy in the house and we can go from having a pleasant conclusion to the day to a "dear God I think the clock is broken" type of evening. The Hubs isn't usually around during the week at this time so I've only got two hands and they usually can't be occupied prepping dinner.

Once the kids are in bed, back into the kitchen to clean up all the mess and depending on my energy I do some more prepping or cooking for the following days.

Even though I don't enjoy much of my nice house, I do love my very spacious kitchen. When and if we move again, I think I'll shoot for a smaller house but with a bigger kitchen. I figure I'll just move a bed and a TV in there...

Day 2 Complete...Cravings Knocking on my Door

Whoo, today was an eating day. I stayed with the program but I definitely snacked myself through the afternoon. Lots of unsweetened coconut flakes, an unripe banana, walnuts and carrots. Just to give an idea of what I CAN eat, here were my meals:

Breakfast: sliced skirt steak, zucchini pancakes, sauerkraut, and roasted butternut squash with thyme (all of these were left-overs)

Lunch: salad with avocado and left-over chicken thighs and bacon. Olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Gomasio (sesame seeds and seaweed) on top.

Dinner: Chicken Cacciatore recipe from the Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook. I had wanted to serve it with spaghetti squash to give it a more "pasta-y" feel, but squash are starting to go out of season so I couldn't get my hands on one. Instead, I roasted up some carrots, zucchini, and re-heated some broccoli and green beans and made a vegetable medley. I poured the cacciatore sauce over the veggies and felt really satisfied with the meal!

Music Man ate up the chicken and the carrots. My Little Peanut was digging the chicken and zucchini. Neither were into the mushrooms in the sauce.

So far I haven't had too many detox symptoms. I'm tired today but that could be from my cruddy night's sleep. I read on the 21DSD Facebook page that people who eat mostly natural sugars actually feel worse on days 5-8 of the challenge. I have a feeling this may happen to me. My mom leaves on Day 5 and I'll have the kids all to myself. Perfect timing : ) But I'll get through it!

Paleo Approved Recipes

So now that I've decided to tweak the way I eat, I'm going to look back at some of the recipes I've been posting and determining what is Paleo-approved and how I can maybe change them to meet our new diet.

I need to remove all grains. Some people also do not eat potatoes but I am including those in our diet for now. I'm not eating white potatoes on the detox these next three weeks, but I'm actually eating sweet potatoes almost every day. I am still nursing and I need the extra carbs to keep my milk supply up.

First up are my stir-fry recipes. Basically they are Paleo-approved as long as I don't serve them over rice:

Flank Steak Stir-Fry with Asparagus and Red Peppers

Peanutty Stirfry  - I can't use peanut butter for this anymore. Peanuts are actually legumes, not nuts, so no go for Paleo. I'm going to try using a different nut butter with this one...thinking maybe cashew?

Chicken and Squash Stir-Fry

** I may try serving these with spaghetti squash or some day when I get super fancy and buy some expensive equipment I can make my own zucchini noodles. But that's low on the list...I'm trying to figure out how I can get my hands on a dehydrator in the next year. The Hubs has never bought me jewelry, the best present is when he just shrugs his shoulders when I purchase kitchen equipment and "weird" ingredients online.


The soups and stews are all fine:

Paleo Veggie Beef Chili  OK, I realized when copying and pasting this it obviously is OK since it's a Paleo recipe! I also love this because I can sneak liver in it with no one being the wiser.

Yikes - only one soup and stew recipe...gotta work on that.

The 2 slow cooker recipes I've posted so far need some adjustment...

Slow Cooker Tomatillo Chicken and Black Bean Tacos - No beans on Paleo. They are extremely difficult to digest. I think this dish would be fine without the beans, just cook chicken and the rest of the ingredients. I served it over rice and the Hubs used a wrap, but you could put it over a salad with some avocado and tomatoes and it would be delicious. You could also serve it along side some grilled broccoli, peppers and zucchini. Just make sure you get avocado and some good quality salsa whatever you do.

Sausage and Peppers - This one is a tough because who doesn't associate sausage and peppers with a crusty, buttery bun and some melted mozzarella dripping down the sides? That's the picture on this recipe post and it makes my mouth drool just thinking about it. But the flavors are delicious on their own, so just put it next to asparagus or maybe some crunchy kale chips.


Most anything can be Paleo-fied...a lot of times it's just increasing the amount of vegetables and eliminating the grain. I'm sure I'm going to stumble upon some bumps in the road, but luckily there are so many cookbooks and blogs out there about Paleo that I shouldn't have a problem creating delicious, satisfying meals for the fam.

Paleo - Day 1!

Day 1 of the detox and I've got a lot of groundwork to do. My mom's in town so hopefully I can get a lot of cooking done these next few days. I also keep noticing improvements in my Music Man on his grain-free/dairy-free diet and I've got to get cracking on some kid friendly Paleo options for him.

Here's what I'm working on for breakfast options for the kids:

Zucchini pancakes
Green eggs
Sweet Potato Pancakes
Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

I'll share the recipes I can as I work through them.

Most of my dinners this week are based on the new cookbook I just ordered: Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook . Tonight I'm planning on making a salmon and sweet potato cake with an apple rosemary dipping sauce, broccoli and a green salad.

This 21-day sugar detox is very similar to what I've been trying to do before, but no grains. My diet will be mostly meat and veggies. No beans, lentils, rice, quinoa, or millet anymore. I can eat green apples and underripe bananas. It's not because they are low on the glycemic index or anything, it's because they aren't that sweet. That's one of the reasons this particular sugar detox spoke to me, because they recognize that some people can't handle fruit that well. I was listening to a podcast and Diane Sanfilippo was explaining why fruit that is actually low in sugar content (like berries) aren't on the list. She said something like, "I know some people that can do a number on a pint of blueberries." Um, yes! That would be me.

I think today I'll feel Ok and hopefully the detox symptoms won't be as strong as they have been in the past since I really have been eating pretty clean these past three months. I just slipped a little last week and this weekend. I've got to drink tons of water and try to get outside a bit to help with the stress I'm going to be putting on my body. I've got high hopes for this plan so we'll see!

Happy Easter!

This has been a big week in the Smith household. I've decided to put my Music Man on a grain-free, dairy-free diet and have already seen huge improvements in his behavior and overall development. I know most that read this will think I'm nuts (and I know the Hubs and any other family member I've divulged this to are rolling their eyes at me) but I'm a Mama on a mission and I don't care! I've got him off his raw milk but am considering putting him back on that soon to see what happens. Raw milk is a great source of nutrition and a lot of people can enjoy it without any repercussions. But NO MORE GRAINS! More on this later.

I have decided to go full-blown Paleo. And tomorrow I am starting the 21 Day Sugar Detox put on by Diane Sanfilippo. She is the author of my new bible, (yikes, sorry for the comparison on this incredibly holy day but that's how strongly I feel about it!) Practical Paleo.

I started this year wanting to live sugar free and have had many ups and downs. Also, a lot of ah-ha moments and the biggest one came this past week with my first real introduction to the Paleo lifestlye. I had been eating sugar all along in the form of oats, millet, quinoa and rice. So I'm off on a newer version of my journey and tomorrow the first true detox begins. I plan on documenting as much as I can and I MAY even try to upload some pictures of what I'm cooking in the kitchen. Whoa, I need to take a deep breath just typing that. Pictures mean you really ARE trying to blog!

I'm also considering sharing this once private blog to my Facebook universe. I think I need the added motivation and if anyone out there is thinking about making a change in their diet or lifestyle I feel like they should know that a certified health-nut is just a message away!

So enjoy your Easter feasts. I've been working this weekend on two ham roasts, a Paleo French Toast Casserole, and a chocolate and bacon dessert. My last hoorah with a little natural sweetener and then back to the detox regiment tomorrow!