paleo

Fell off the PALEO wagon – SIGH!

Let me begin by letting you know I did not just fall off the wagon but I completely JUMPED off the PALEO wagon and ate some PIZZA, COOKIES and MISC other crap for two days. And let me tell you I thought I would enjoy and love every minute of it and let me also tell you I DID NOT! I enjoyed the first few bites of all the supposed goodness and it didn’t take but a few minutes to feel like UBER CRAPOLA! But did I stop eating… HELL NO, I kept eating like a psychopath. Seriously NOT WORTH IT! Not one bit. It was like I was in a haze for 2 days. Like a hangover fog without the worship to the porcelain gods. I haven’t felt so out of it in a very long time. I can only attribute that feeling to the eating of bread, sugars, processed foods, etc. In the past 4 months I have never felt so crappy. Ernie indulged with me and he pretty much felt the same way. SAY NO TO GRAINS and processed food people! I mean it! It’s not even fun. It’s horrible. I promise.

Now that I have my PSA and admitted faults out of the way let’s move onto the day before I ate like CRAP and our Christmas Eve WOD! It was a doozy but we worked out in teams of 2 to eliminate the fear of absolute death. It went along to the song the 12 days of Christmas. So as you will see in the picture below we had a lot of reps ahead of us 🙂

Christmas Eve 2011 WOD

I teamed up with Kara and I feel that we worked well together. Thank goodness she can bust out pullups because as I’ve mentioned many times before I’m really bad at them! After our WOD which took us 14:22 to complete we played with SLEDs. The BOOM boxers presented Grant with 2 sleds for Christmas. So of course we had to play with them. It was fun and unexpectedly hard. It doesn’t help my right hip has been giving me grief but it was fun to watch everyone pull around some good weight!

So like a crazy person I went out into the world to shop and it seriously wasn’t that bad but I had a lot to do and I was already losing my voice. But with the heat of the stores, the cold of the day and the beating of the WOD about took me out for the day. After a good nap I was good to go though. Christmas Eve through Christmas morning ended up being pretty good. The family had a great Christmas and Ernie managed to keep two of my presents reserved for Christmas day. So in addition to the food processor and new Inov-8s I received a French Fry Cutter to alleviate all my prep time when I make Sweet Potato Fries! I also got a nice little gift set of Mary Kay products! Woohoo.

Christmas Present

I bailed on any workout for yesterday or today as my voice has been gone. I don’t feel bad or anything really… just random bouts of coughing/congestion and lost voice. I don’t however want this to turn into something icky so I’ve been resting and keeping in from the cold – hopefully I’ll be over this funk soon.

Other than that, it’s Tuesday. Back to work, back to the routine. I’m back on that Paleo Wagon and I hope to never jump off again. It was horrible! The new year is right around the corner. And to bring it in we are doing a NYE WOD at the BOOM Box. If you live in the DFW area and want to be crazy like us come on with your badself! Let me know. We’ll be ringing in the New Year with FRAN! I know it’s insane but we plan on feasting a few hours before and then gettin our workout on!

WALL BALLS are my ENEMY

See the snowman with the med ball? that's me!

Seriously. Wall balls, don’t underestimate them. I didn’t even do that many but I despise them more than ever. Maybe cause I wasn’t feeling 100% or maybe cause I just suck at them in general. I think it’s the latter of the two but if I can throw in some sort of excuse then I will cause I’m lame like that!

NOTE: I am no where NEAR built like the girl in this picture.. maybe one day I will be

I did more pullups than I did wall balls… there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with that picture because I SUCK at PULLUPS too! I’m so mad at myself for doing so poorly today. REALLY REALLY just down about it. You have no idea. People bust out a lot of reps in 90 sec and I could barely do 15. Are you kidding me? All you have to do is get that damn medicine ball up and back down. Moving on I suppose. I think I’ve said WALL BALL enough times for you to want to poke your eyeballs out.

WOD 12/21/11

On a good note, I did 4 reps of my max shoulder PRESS today. WOOOOO. A whopping 65lbs! Have I told y’all I’m a wuss and only 4 months into this thing we call CrossFit? It’s true. One day I will be super strong and awesome but for now I’m just aspiring for that 🙂

As far as food goes, “DAY 2, EZEKIEL BREAD FREE!” … still staying on track although I think I taste tested too much batter from the cake balls. Not a good feeling in my belly but it’s like I couldn’t help myself. I guess it’s a wash for not having ezekiel bread 😦 Probably worse, who am I kidding? NOT YOU and surely NOT ME. I have not however had a cake ball if that helps! I make the kids try them out before I send them out to the public.

Hang in there kiddos… It’s already Wednesday. Before you know it it will be 2012!

Rockin and a Rollin with Random Tuesday

It’s Tuesday people! Christmas is so close and I’m sooooo not ready. But that is a whole other topic that I don’t think y’all want me to delve into. I got so excited yesterday talking about our Saturday Funday WOD and our casting call with Escape Routes I completely forgot to mention the WOD for yesterday! What was I thinking?!? Oh ya I also got caught up in the cake ball frenzy which is still in action. Baking, mixing, rolling, coating, baking, mixing, rolling, coating. It never ends!!!!

12/19/11 WOD

So the WOD for yesterday was skill work on Double Unders. DU 2 mintues x 2 with a 3 minute rest in the middle. I’m getting better at those sneaky little double unders. I’m going and going and then kablam, I get tired or out of rhythm, but I managed to get 86 my first round and 83 my 2nd round.

We moved on to the METCON: Toes to Bar and Air Squats… I got this… well at least HALF of this. So I wanted to practice Toes to Bar before we started cause to this point I’ve not been able to master them. Low and behold. I got it figured out! But not for long. 3-2-1 GO, I got 5 before I thought I would die, so I moved to Knees to Elbows and those weren’t much prettier. I struggled and I struggled. It was sad 😦 I felt defeated but surprisingly it didn’t ruin my day!

What almost ruined my day was the non stop downpours of rain and bad drivers when I left work. But when the rain slowed it’s roll and the sun peaked out the slightest bit, it turned the sky into amazing beauty. I took a picture with my phone but it doesn’t do it justice. Everything had a deep warm orange glow and it just made me smile. It’s great when the world opens up like that and shares 🙂

Beautiful!

Enough gushy talk I suppose. On to today. There’s not much to report in general, I had a good workout today at bootcamp. Lots of pushups. I can do them but I still struggle. One day I will be the master of pushups but that day is still not in sight for me.

As I sit here staring at the screen writing without a plan, I did realize I do have big news. I’ve been holding on to one grain source Monday-Friday …. EZEKIEL BREAD! I have not been able to let go of my one slice with almond butter and a smidgeon of jelly. It’s warm and fuzzy and makes me happy. But I said enough is enough. If you’re going to blog about crazy CrossFit, Paleo and other healthy stuff you do then you have to step up your game. I’m not saying I’m never going to eat a grain again, I’m just saying I need to eliminate it from my ROUTINE. Break the habit. So I told myself after I ate my last piece (yesterday) then I would give up my lil slice of grains. So today, I brought me an apple to dip in my almond butter. It was good but it will take time to move forward without second thoughts going to my Ezekiel bread. I’ll be sure to post if that little bit of grain gone out of my life makes any major changes. It’s hard, cause when you feel good you don’t want to nitpick yourself. You just enjoy feeling good. So I may  have nothing to report in general, but if I notice anything measurable I’ll be sure to let y’all know!

Is it really only Tuesday?!? I gotta get on some more recipes to share with y’all but our days have been busy so I haven’t made the effort to try out new things. I will, I promise as that is part of my intentions with this blog. But it may have to wait a few more days. It’s still Tuesday, damn. Oh well. Have a Happy Day, please 🙂

DOWN & OUT FRIDAY

Nothing is worse than getting a poor night of sleep and then hitting your work out early in the A.M. and failing miserably at it. Yes I’m whining and crying. Feel free to move along in your day and come back on Monday where hopefully I’ll be less pathetic.

12/16/11

As you can see on the whiteboard… there is no “STEPH”. I didn’t even make it through my second round of back squats. My HIP, GLUTE and whatever else is in that area is super TIGHT and I just couldn’t get the weight up. So Coach thought it best I sit out on Grace 😦 Rest up, don’t get injured… all good ideas, I just hate feeling weak when I showed up to be strong. It happens I suppose, I just wasn’t expecting for my body to let me down today.

And that’s all I got for ya. All week has been drizzly, rainy and super gloomy …. hopefully with the sun peeking out today I’ll get in better spirits. But for now I am down and out!

Have a great weekend! Remember kids, JUST SAY NO! to grains, sugar and processed junk that your body doesn’t need 🙂 The weekend can be the hardest. Stay Strong.

Words from the Wise

MIRACLE WEIGHT LOSS PILL

YES I FOUND IT!

It seems that most people who want to know “HOW” I’ve lost weight want a simple answer. Something along the lines of – I sat on my couch watching TV, drinking a glass of wine and poof I woke up thinner. The truth of it all is that I found a MIRACLE WEIGHT LOSS PILL and I’m not sharing!

Hahahhahahahahahha YOU WISH, I WISH! But it just ain’t gonna happen that way. Not for you. Not for me. Not for anyone. Not anytime soon either. I’m sure the medical field will find something and someone will prove me wrong but it won’t be the right way and I’m sure there will be consequences that we the people, society don’t know how to deal with if and when that “pill” is developed.

So if there isn’t a “fad” diet or a 2 week solution, what’s the answer? The short answer is hard work and determination. The long answer is hard work and determination with life, will power, struggle, fatigue, sore muscles, kids, money, faith, courage, stamina, fear, want, desire, failing, laughing, crying, smiling, yelling, loss, emergency, sickness, choices, and everything else you can think of MIXED in. I’m not an expert. I’m just a girl that is winging it and researching on her own. Learning from others. Taking advice. Disregarding some advice and using what is best for me.

If you’ve read my “NO EXCUSES” page then you know where I’m coming from and I feel that it’s important to re-iterate the issues every now and then. Some people can DIVE right in and do everything the right way right off the bat. Ernie (boyfriend and the before/after pics you saw in previous posts) did just that. He turned on the switch and BAM he was on track. His thought process is why would I half ass it. You just gotta do.

Other folks can’t do that. It’s too much for their brains/lives to handle. So it’s baby steps for you folks. Don’t say well I can’t go ALL IN so I might as well not try. You gotta try. You may stumble. You may flat out fail. Who cares… just get back up and keep going.

The best analogy I heard that has resonated with me for at least 7 years now is something I heard at Weight Watchers meeting (yes I’ve done WW and it worked and then I failed at it). The WW Rep said to us… If you’re driving down the road and you get a flat tire, do you get out and say OH GEEZ I have a flat. Sucks for me, I guess I’ll slash my other 3 tires because my car is useless now. I’m stuck. UH NO YOU DON’T do that because it’s dumb! You’d be a moron! (ok she didn’t say that but you know where I’m going by now) What you do is YOU FIX THE FLAT. YOU CHANGE THE TIRE but you don’t go destroying the other tires. You keep on.

Same thing applies with whatever lifestyle change you decide to make for the betterment of your body. YES you will have flat tires but you fix the flat and keep going. You don’t just give up and say I quit.

I am choosing to go the PALEO route. It’s working for me, it’s going good. I feel good. I feel GREAT actually not just good. I sleep well, I have energy, and I feel strong. Not roided up strong, but overall health strong. The kind of strong that makes you feel like you can do anything! It’s awesome. Not everyone is willing to give up the grains. It’s ok for now if you aren’t ready but I hope you would do research on why the grains are bad for you. I started out initially but just cutting out processed foods and a lot of sugar. I did great with that, I lost weight and still ate grains. And I feel now that I have evolved from that thought process and moved forward. I’ve had several “bring you down” kind of people tell me “well you know the food pyramid has “grains” on the bottom for a reason?” So you should be eating more grains than anything. WHY? CAUSE THE GOVERNMENT TOLD ME? SO WHAT!?! And ya my whole life I thought they were right… NOW I believe otherwise.

This is an interesting article I read and it’s just one of many. Just like there are articles for the GRAIN there are the opposites. There’s a lot of knowledge out there and it isn’t always correct so you have to do the legwork and sift through the crap. I could be the wrong one but right now I don’t feel wrong.


http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/09/20/on-the-evils-of-wheat-why-it-is-so-addictive-and-how-shunning-it-will-make-you-skinny/

So I dare you… challenge you… to give up grains, legumes and dairy for 30 days! Eat lean meats, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. There’s lots of challenges and programs out there and I’m not fancy enough to reward you with free stuff. Just do it for yourself though. If anything just give up the GRAINS… 30 days! If you don’t like it after and only AFTER 30 days then you can go back to your grain eating ways. Roll around in oats, rice and wheat all you want. I’m not here to hold your hand, I’m just here to share my experience. But if my experience can help yours then YAY for everyone 🙂 And let me know. PLEASE share with me if you start saying NO to the Grains!

Ok I’m done now. If you have questions… leave a comment. If you want more, keep on reading this blog, I’m sure I’ll return to the rambling on this subject. It was rest day for me and I felt like rambling. Thanks for coming! Enjoy your day.

I AM NOT A RUNNER

I am not a runner NOR do I aspire to be one. I don’t train to “RUN”. I don’t care to run. I don’t take casual runs around my neighborhood or local park to relax or blow off steam. Running is a big ol pain in the ass to me. You get the point, I HOPE!

So when I say I don’t like to run it doesn’t mean I don’t run when requested of me at either iChooseFit bootcamp or CrossFit Boom. I run. I just don’t like it. So Stephanie what are trying to get at? Why do you keep rambling?

Well 9 months ago I took my first ever conditioning type test and I was miserable and felt horrible and hated life. I was a chunk of a girl trying to get through one hell of a workout. Part of the test was a mile run. Yay fun! 1 whole mile and I thought I would die. UPHILL! Well part of the way uphill… it’s called Hamburger Hill and it’s a hill that I have not befriended. In order to make the “mile” we have to run up it twice… EVEN BETTER right? So I ran this MILE in 11:47 in March of this year. Not really horrible but not stellar by any means. This past July I took another conditioning test and low and behold I took off more than 2 minutes off my time. I ran the mile in 9:06! SAY WHAT? Amazeballs! Well, no test today but we timed our mile this morning and believe it or not even more time got shaved off. 8:36 MILE! Are you kidding me? I felt so good about that time you have no idea. 8:36! Yes me, the NON RUNNER who doesn’t train to run. That is the proof in the pudding (proper saying, not sure but it sounded good) that it just takes consistent physical training to get the job done. I know it’s not a 6 min mile or some magical “runner” number but that’s a number I’m damn proud of! Woohooo…. Thank you iChooseFit… Thank you CrossFit BOOM!!

So now I’ve got that out of the way I have more stuff to share! It’s a good day for blogging but maybe blogging overkill. So I’ll keep it short and just put pictures.

For dinner I had some chicken out to cook. Ernie was starving and really didn’t want to wait but I made him wait anyways. My dad took care of the kids dinner so I didn’t have to worry about them starving. Just Ernie but he lived and all was well. So I sauteed up the chicken with some coconut oil and yummo spices. While that was simmering away I made a mad dash to make FRIED RICE out of cauliflower. I kind of sort of followed this recipe from NON NOM PALEO but I didn’t have all the ingredients so I took what I did have and winged it. You can find the recipe at this link: http://nomnompaleo.com/post/3195098303/asian-cauliflower-fried-rice

"RICE", Onions and Carrots

Crispifying the Bacon 🙂

Chicken with Asian Cauliflower Fried Rice

 

Post dinner I decided to make a go for it with a new cookie recipe I found at elana’s pantry … http://www.elanaspantry.com/double-chocolate-mocha-cookies/

I used all the ingredients except for the coffee because I had none. After burning the bottoms of some of the cookies I was upset. But they still tasted ok for having some char on them. The next batch were burn free and delightful! Added bonus: kid approved! So overall another WIN!

Double Chocolate Cookies = GREAT SUCCESS!

 

Double Chocolate Mocha Cookies
2 ¼ cups blanched almond flour
¼ cup cacao powder
2 tablespoons organic decaf coffee, espresso grind
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¾ cup dark chocolate chips

  1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, cacao powder, ground coffee, baking soda and salt
  2. In a smaller bowl, stir together grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
  3. Stir wet ingredients into dry and then mix in chocolate drops (or chunks)
  4. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
  5. Bake at 350° for 7-8 minutes
  6. Cool and serve
Makes 24 cookies

Monday, Monday, Monday

So I don’t know why it is that when I get two rest days in a row that my whole body just turns into lazybones but all weekend I was lazy bones! I even managed to get 12 hours of continuous sleep!!!! Who would have ever guessed that I was capable of such things 🙂

In complete honesty I wasn’t total lazybones… we went out to support our coach at the ACO competition in Dallas on Saturday. And let me tell you I’m soooo glad I’m still a newbie because it was a beast of a day. After watching a couple hundred athletes just hit these WOD’s full force I was extrememly exhausted. All I did was casually walk around and wish I had more money to buy an event hoody but I was tired from seeing all of them put their max effort on the court and fields. I know those guys and gals were killing it and I have much respect. Maybe next year I’ll be ballsy enough to register!

Grant moving STONES

Here’s a quick pic of Grant beginning his go at the “atlas stones”. He had to move 5 stones ranging from 116lbs to over 250lbs in 2 minutes. He absolutely KILLED it. It was awesome to watch!!!

It was good to hang out with the “box” peeps outside of our typical days at the Boom Box. Overall it ranked as a super fun day 🙂 ACO put on a good event and I can’t wait till next year.

Our WOD for this morning was:

Skill/Strength

DL 5,5,5+

METCON

15 min AMRAP

200m Run

20 sit-ups

I managed to get 6 on my last round of DL’s at 165. I was having a rough morning for lifts but I managed to get it done… barely! And I got a WHOPPING 10 rounds for my metcon…whooo I thought I was going to die, but clearly I did not. It was dreadful on the way in thinking about the runs but post WOD I was glad we did it. It got me moving and I felt like I pushed myself.

SWEET TREATS! Soooooo, I managed to get the lemon bars made. I found them over at Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations. I made the lemon part on Friday evening before Jonas’ orchestra concert (which by the way was pretty good, I was surprised that 7th and 8th graders performed so well!). I didn’t make the “crust” till last night though. I wish I had made it all the same day but next time I will. Here is the link to his site and the recipe I used. 2 out of 3 kids liked it. I think my youngest thought it was too tart. But he didn’t complain. Forgive me for my poor quality pics. I was in a rush on Friday and I spaced out last night.

The ingredients for the Lemon Topping

Finished product before making into bars

http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/lemon-bars/

Servings: 36 1 inch squares
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Cool Time: 2 Hours

Tools you may Need:

Ingredients(Topping):

  • 6 Whole Eggs
  • 1/2 Cup Raw Organic Honey
  • 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
  • 1 Cup Lemon Juice (8 lemons)
  • Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
Ingredients (Crust):
Process(Topping):
  1. Whisk your eggs, honey, and lemon juice together in a small sauce pan
  2. Place on your stove over medium/high heat and add coconut oil
  3. Stir until coconut oil melts and then continue stirring until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble
  4. Once thick, remove from the heat and place in a bowl in your refrigerator to cool
Process(Crust):
  1. Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees F
  2. Place your almonds and macadamia nuts in a food processor and blend until in small chunks, you do not want a flour consistency, you want little chunks
  3. In a mixing bowl, combine nuts with the honey, melted coconut oil, and eggs and mix well
  4. Grease an 8×12 inch baking pan, I used coconut oil and then spread your nut mixture over the entire pan
  5. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until your crust is done, it will pass the toothpick test
  6. Cool your crust completely before applying your topping
  7. Once your crust is cool, spread your lemon topping over your crust, sprinkle as much unsweetened shredded coconut as you want over the topping, and then return to the refrigerator or freezer, I like mine better frozen
  8. Keep it refrigerated or frozen until you serve it and then return the remaining to the fridge/freezer
  9. Enjoy

WOD-tastic Friday

And a slacker blog day. No photos. No treats. I got nothin for ya today! And I apologize. I figure these things happen so long as I don’t let them happen often, right? Who’s with me on this? Hahaha.

We did go to Outback for dinner. Which is our GO-TO restaurant as of late. If only we had a place that served grass fed steaks! That’s close and not some schamncy fancy place.

We get home, I’m tired and I need to catch up on American Horror Story. Lame excuse I know but I knew I had an early morning and I didn’t want to be up all night. If I haven’t already told you, I get my WODs in at 5 am. M/W/F so it’s early and TV prevailed :/

So let me get to the Boom Box report. We worked on 5RM of Overhead Squat (OHS). This movement/lift takes a lot of flexibility that I still need to build but I’m getting there. Little did I know that today it would feel like my wrists were on FIRE and I had a hard time moving up in weight 😦 Overall I think I could handle the weight but the darn inside of my right wrist was just not having it. So I maxed out only at 60 lbs. I was real sad about that but you have to move on and work on wrist/forearm mobility. I guess.

The MetCon was:

METCON
Team WOD
7 rounds
5 Muscle ups OR 5 chest to bar pullups & 5 bench dips
8 Plyo Push-ups
11 Plyo Air-squats

It was guys vs gals this morning. Melanie and I did pretty good today. It helps that you can have someone finish out the reps for you and we got through our 7 rounds in a little over 8 minutes …. I THINK! I can’t recall. Granted we didn’t do Muscle UPS but we still pushed and worked hard. So Kudos to us 🙂

And that’s all I’ve got folks… This weekend will be one of rest and getting to those treats I’ve been needing to make. Good Luck to our Boom Box Coach at the All Cities Open tomorrow. We’ll be there cheering him on for sure! It’s a beast of a competition so that is why I am not participating. I’m just not a firebreather yet.. hahahah 3 1/2 months in… still a beginner 🙂

Oh and my kid note for the day: I was trying out one of our NEW lara bars, Chocolate Cherry Torte or something like that and it was YUMMO probably cause the chocolate chips had some sugar, ha, ah well. So I expressed that it was tasty and my 12 yr old (Jonas) says “can I have a little of it?” My immediate response was NO sir! And he was all poor poor petri and I said maybe if you’re good Santa will leave some in your stocking… OH that’s right you don’t believe in Santa anymore do you son?” And to his credit he’s become a little more quick witted and responded with “I BELIEVE IN PALEO SANTA!” Are you kidding me! It made me laugh, he will leave him almond milk and a walnut date bar. And straight up carrots for the reindeer! Good times, Good times indeed! Happy Friday people!!!

Whining, Excuses and Spending Money

No workout this morning, ugh… Why you ask? Well I’m just a lazy whiny baby. Last night as I was trying to rush around, I burned my poor little ol fingers with hot oil 😦 I know you you’re all taken aback, ha! I was fryin’ up some sweet potato fries and I accidentally dropped a few as I was trying to nicely place them in the pan and SPLISH SPLASH BURN! And dang did it hurt! I felt like poo the rest of the evening. And this morning when I woke up and my fingers still hurt. I thought to myself … there’s no way I’m going to put on boxing gloves to box it up or do much with my hands still ON FIRE! So I reset my alarm and went back to sleep! When I awoke I realized there some blistering going on and figured I should suck it up and quit crying about it. But I still had to vent here, so thanks for still reading!

Finished dinner .. my apologies for the poorly shot picture :/

Now dinner was easy and simple for the most part. Ernie grilled up some grass fed steak for us. I steamed up some broccoli, fried up some sweet potato fries (I know I should have baked them but they are so much better tasting this way), and baked some kale chips. This was my first attempt at kale chips and my first batch burned cause I’m a forgetful person so it was an instant fail, but my 2nd batch came out quite nice. The kids enjoyed them which surprised me and Ernie said they “tasted green” and gobbled them up. But then he had to wash it down with some “orange” (sweet potato fries). Yes we are an odd bunch but we typically have a good ol’ time. Lots of jokes, rockin out and being silly.

Kale "chips" Ready For The Oven

Sweet Potato Ready To Be Cooked

Yummy Honey Drizzled Sweet Potato Fries

So although I’m still in pain from the burns, I had a mission. MISSION: PALEO LEMON BARS! I had printed out the recipe and I was determined to get out and buy the ingredients we were lacking. So off we went. I need lemons, more honey and unsweetened shredded coconut! Easy enough right? I’m thinking $10, no big deal. Well with Ernie and me out and about shopping I should know better by now.

Next to the lemons was a citrus reamer thing which of course I need. Still no worries. An extra few bucks for an item I don’t have and will use. I’m good. Until we get the the “natural foods” section at Kroger. And what do we find? Lara Bars! So many Lara Bars in all sorts of flavors! We typically buy a pack at Costco but to be honest Apple Pie and Cherry Pie get old after a while and we rarely scout out places for different flavors so like children in a candy shop we start picking out what sounds good! Then we say we’ll just get two of everything that doesn’t have peanuts and we’re good. So we had 10 flavors, 2 of each kind, at $1.49 a pop. We just wanted to throw our money away didn’t we?

Lara Bar Christmas

By the end of our shopping excursion I was done. I was tired, I was in pain and I was ready for bed. So no yummy goodness to report on. Hopefully I’ll make some time tonight but one of my kiddos has an orchestra concert tonight and another one has a concert tomorrow night so I’m not making any promises!

One more thing speaking of kids. They are definitely all jumping on the Paleo ship. Lunches have become exciting as we are wanting to get creative. All 3 boys really seem to want to be inventive. Yesterday Justice (10 yr old) took apple sliders. He said they were awesome and can’t wait for me to buy the “green” apples because he thinks they will be much better! It’s a proud momma moment when your kids are stoked about doing right for their body. 🙂

Paleo Cake Ball FAIL and other fun stuff

Before I get to CAKE BALL FAIL… I’ll discuss my workout this morning… then I’ll move on to last nights cookin’!

It was a windchill of 21° this morning as I drove to bootcamp. Thank goodness we have an indoor option! Although we did have a run that included being in the FREEZING COLD – not fun. Come on now, we’re in TEXAS! I’m not made for the cold! As always boxing is my favorite part of the Tuesday workout. We’re always mixing it up and I feel like I’m getting quicker every week. AJ makes sure to keep me on my toes! In addition to boxing we did a 20 minute AMRAP if you will. There were 8 movments where we had to do 25-50 reps of something and then run with a 20 minute time limit. (pushups, bicep curls, alligator plank, burpees, jack knife dead lifts, star jumps, up/down plank, run) I got through 1 round and 4 movements into the second round! Woohoo. I felt good today. I suppose I got some good sleep 🙂

Now for last night…..So my Paleo Cake Balls were an epic FAIL, my kids including myself were sure we would never erase the taste from our mouths. When you get too much unsweetened chocolate in one large ball it’s pretty disgusting! Although they came out just as pretty looking as any NON PALEO cake balls I have ever made. There will be a round 2, I promise, I just have to find a “good” PALEO frosting to mix with my cake crumbles.

Cake Balls lookin pretty .... TASTE HORRIBLE!

So now that’s off my chest and I admitted my failure, lets move on to the goodness that did pan out last night. PALEO PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE which I took from PaleoOMG blog http://paleohmygoodness.blogspot.com/2011/10/paleo-pumpkin-cream-chicken-casserole.html

It turned out quite tasty and the family seemed to agree. I feel that I liked it best since I scarfed it down or maybe I was just that hungry.

Paleo Pumpkin Cream Chicken Casserole

Paleo Pumpkin Cream Chicken Casserole Served!

What you need:
1-1.5 lbs chicken breasts, chopped into 1 inch cubes
1 medium sized spaghetti squash cooked and shredded
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1 can pumpkin puree
1/2 can canned coconut milk
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper, to taste

What you do:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Time to roast our veggggggies! Chop your cauliflower and put it in a baking dish topped with a little bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. Then cut your spaghetti squash in half, use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and extra threads, place face down on a baking pan. Add the cauliflower and spaghetti squash to the oven, side by side if possible, to roast for around 25 minutes. (Depending how big your spaghetti squash is, the cauliflower made roast a little quicker, but mine cooked at the same time) You will know your spaghetti squash is cooked when you can poke the outside skin and it gives a bit.

While the squash and cauliflower are cooking, it’s time to cook up your chicken. Pull out either a LARGE saucepan or a large pot and put under medium-high heat.

Add olive oil to it along with your minced garlic. Once the garlic begins to smell, add your chopped onions and cook until translucent.

Add your chopped chicken to the cooking onions, cover and let steam for around 5 minutes.
Once the chicken is about 2/3 cooked through, add your can of pumpkin, half can of coconut milk, and spices directly to the pan. Mix thoroughly. Taste to see if you need any more spices or salt.

Once your squash and cauliflower is done cooking, and chicken saucey mixture is heated up, de-thread spaghetti squash with a fork, running the fork the opposite way of the threads.

Add your spaghetti squash threads, roasted cauliflower, and chicken saucey mixture to a 9×11 glass baking dish and add dish to the oven under the broiler. Cook for about 5 minutes, getting a little dark on the top.

Remove from oven and let sit for around 10 minutes to help the sauce thicken up. Then EAT! It’s good stuff and rather easy to make.

AFTER I had cleaned up dishes and had my cake ball disaster I decided I would get a jump start on tonight’s prepping and got zucchini all sliced up to cook as my “spaghetti”. It’s just prepped and in the fridge for now

But post prep I had some zucchini ideas, ran it past the kiddos and they were on board so we made tiny zucchini sandwiches! This was quickly packed away into containers for their lunches. They were very excited about them and tried out a couple. There’s one for the WIN column. I hope they enjoy them today at lunch. MY 8 year old says the kids at school think what he eats at lunch is GROSS! Then he procedes to tell me “they have no idea what GOOD food is… raspberries are awesome and my sandwiches are going to be good today! They all eat chips and crackers, and sugar stuff. That’s stuff isn’t good for you” He’s a good kid that Jakob. 🙂

So I’ll leave you with a pic of our little zucchini sandwiches. They have all natural, minimally processed, nitrate free ham, carrot slice and of course zucchini. Have a great Tuesday!

Zucchini Sandwiches for Kids Lunch