Whole30 day 2

No food photos today because I had leftovers from yesterday and I was watching my sixth-month-old Grandson.

The negatives today - because this is the beginning of this...adventure and there will be some negatives:
I was tired all day. I'm sure mostly from not sleeping well. This is an issue I've had for a while now. Also, caring for and carrying around my Grandson most of the day kicks my butt.
I had cravings for something sweet and a cocktail and had to be very aware of not tasting - everything - while cooking.
I got really hungry before dinner and got a little cranky. I prepped everything while waiting for Hubs to get home but he took a little longer than expected.

The positives today - there are ALWAYS positives:
I'm barely noticing the sweetener missing from my coffee in the morning. Win!
I got to watch my beautiful Grandson today and visit with my son when he came to pick him up.
The sun was shining all day!
We went for a walk.
We sat outside and watched the birds.
My sister stopped by for a few minutes.
I planned ahead for today with leftovers so I wouldn't have to make anything for breakfast or lunch which made things much easier.

And now I get to go to bed.

It IS all about the food

Today was Day 1 of my Whole30 experience.

My daughter challenged invited me to do this Whole30 thing along with her. She started right away but I had to do some research first. And I'm still researching but I decided to get started today because I need to get a move on.

I am blessed to have the time to do this right now, a supportive husband, and really, I don't have any excuses not to. Yes, it's a lot of work but I've done a similar plan before while working and preparing food for myself, my husband, and our three children. How the hell did I do that? 

So much planning and shopping and cooking. My meal planning is proving to be so half-ass and is not going to work here.  I seriously need to up my game. 

Meanwhile...

Day one was a success. I had coffee with coconut cream and no sweetner. And I survived! I spent most of the day cooking. Go figure. It's a good thing I have taken a liking to cooking more. I made Sweet Potato and Sausage hash for breakfast, chicken stock from the chicken I roasted last night, chicken salads, from that same chicken, for lunch, and grilled flank steak, broccili, and baked sweet potatoes for dinner.  I now have leftovers for a couple of days breakfasts and lunches. 

Then....more planning and more shopping. 

So yes, it really IS about the food. It's also about taking care of myself and my body and that takes time and dedicated, focused attention. Huge learning curve here for me.

Hopefully, I'll get into a flow and be able to think about something else once in a while besides food. Like photographing my food with my Canon instead of my iPhone and moving to a new blog platform (is that what you call it?) becasue this one is tired. 

Delicious Chicken Salad on a pile of fresh spinach for lunch outside on the patio. 

Part of my research. This is a great book for understaning it all.

Rainy day play

Paleo-ish Pumpkin Muffins with Chocolate 'swirl'

It rained all day Friday so I baked.

Again, Paleo-ish because the recipe calls for baking powder. Baking powder has corn in it. Corn is not Paleo. Of course, I made them anyway.  I need to find Paleo baking powder or a recipe to make it.

These turned out okay. Just okay. I think I needed to bake them a little longer and should have added a little salt.

I'm now on the hunt for a really good Paleo cookie recipe. I NEED to cure this cooking craving without flour and sugar.

I really need to get to work on some Paleo lunches and dinners.

Priorities.

Post Valentine's Day

I'm not a fan of Oatmeal Raisin cookies but my husband is, so I decided to make him some for Valentine's Day.  I don't know if it's because I have a total weakness for homemade deserts or because I made these from scratch but they are REALLY GOOD. So good that I can't resist them and that is bad.

Since I was on a roll, I went on to make another favorite of his; Chicken and Dumplings for dinner. You got it, not a fan of that either. The only recipe I had on hand and that he was used to was from a Bisquick cookbook. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do the can of cream of chicken soup or the frozen vegetables or the Bisquick. Ewe. I jumped onto Pinterest and found a Martha Stewart version. You guessed it, not only was it fun to make it was actually quite tasty. I liked it. Hubby liked it so much, he took leftovers to work for lunch the next day.

So now I'm onto a cookie detox and ready to get back on the wagon: finding and making Paleo recipes, especially Paleo deserts. I must because I am really liking this cooking and baking and experimenting thing and I have this issue where I feel the need to taste eat what I make. Who am I kidding? I want to eat ALL THE FOODS and I have to make the ones that don't have flour and sugar in them so I can.

Today's experiment

Paleo-ish Double Chocolate Banana Bread -

This recipe is listed as Paleo but it calls for baking powder, which is not. Also, it calls for Almond or any nut butter of choice and I used Peanut Butter which is not Paleo. We all know Peanuts are not nuts. Right? 

It was fun to make and it smelled wonderful baking but it turned out a bit dry. You can probably tell this by the crevice on the top of the loaf. Maybe I cooked it a little too long? 

I confess. I didn't have enough bananas. I needed two and a half cups and I had enough for two but I was going for it anyway.  They were pretty ripe yet I think they need to be riper as well as needing to be the correct amount. And this is why I called it an experiment.

Yes, I will have to try this again another day.

In the meantime, tomorrow I'm going to warm up or toast a slice and slather some creamy butter on it for breakfast. 

My "kitchen sink" salad of the day

Maybe I should call this my "everything but..." salad. I like a mix of flavors, textures, and color. So when I decide to make a salad as a meal, I go for whatever I have in my kitchen and I throw it all together. Most of the time it tastes great.

Here I had some left-over roasted pork and sweet potatoes from the night before that I put on a handful of baby spinach. I added half a tomato, some sugar snap peas, aged cheddar, sliced olives and a drizzle of caesar dressing. Yum!

The key is to use a regular size bowl. I have started with a plate or a pasta bowl and ended up with far too much food. Which, of course, I have to finish because my momma didn't raise a quitter. Yeah, it's a firmly ingrained habit to eat everything on my plate, no matter how full I am. I'm working on this by just trying to be mindful and present while eating. It is amazing how slowing down and really tasting the food helps with not overeating.

On to finding some more Paleo-ish recipes I can make, shoot, share and eat!

Ciao!

#canon7d