Good Eats

 Okay, so, ready for some yummy food?!

Here ya go!

First on last week's menu was "Farmers Pie"  from Paleo Comfort Foods, including their Mashed Cauliflower recipe. I used beef instead of lamb, but it turned out great. I really liked it and it made quite a bit so we had leftovers for a couple of days. Erik and Lindsay liked it, but the younger taste-tester's (7 and 4) weren't too hip on it. Not sure why, but oh well. When I make it again, I'll go for a double batch of the mashed cauliflower so it's thicker on top.

Next on the list was Chicken Enchiladas with Coconut Tortillas, also from my new favorite cookbook Paleo Comfort Foods. These were a bit labor intensive mainly because I needed cooked, shredded chicken and I didn't have any on hand and also because the tortillas needed to be made in advance. Once those items were ready, it wasn't more than 30 minutes before the enchiladas were ready for the oven and they only baked like 20 minutes. 

Because we're eating dairy in small doses, I topped them with some shredded Tillamook Medium Cheddar cheese.

These were good. "Killer" according to Lindsay, which in foodspeak means they rocked. Kera didn't like the pepper in the filling, which wasn't too spicy but did give it a bit of a kick. Next time, because there will be a next time they were that good, I'll skip the pepper and double up the meat. Otherwise, these were extremely tasty and made awesome leftovers.

Kera cracks me up sometimes. She has asked for chef salad a couple of days in a row for her lunch, which is awesome. The weird thing is she eats it without dressing! She helped me whip up this lunch and then asked me to take a picture of it, so here ya go. :-)

I made my Egg Nests the other day for a morning Bible study group I'm part of that meets monthly. Only this time I couldn't find pancetta at the store so I used proscuitto and some dry coppa. I threw in some shredded Dubliner cheese, too. They were so good with those variations!! I also took pictures of the process of making them, giving a visual to the whole "nest" part, so hopefully that's helpful.

Ready for eggs to be added...

Baked and being eaten!

Yum!

I have to confess, I am getting tired of eggs for breakfast. So this week I planned some nonegg options. I whipped up a double batch of Elana's Scrumptious Sandwich Bread (our fav recipe so far) so that I would have extra for french toast this morning. Yes, I know French toast uses eggs, but at least it's not only eggs. I used my normal French toast mix of eggs+milk+vanilla+cinnamon. It worked pretty good and was a nice change.

I really like this bread recipe and it's nice to be able to send a PB&J sandwich in the girls' lunch if they want, for something different. This time I baked one batch in the pan Elana recommends, and another in my Pampered chef stoneware loaf pan. I was pleased to see that it turned out fine. it was wider and shorter, but still baked perfectly. 

Our menu for this week is:

Breakfast:

Fauxtmeal

French Toast

Bacon

Biscuits & Sausage (from Paleo Comfort Foods!)

Lunch:

Leftovers, etc. 

Dinner:

Sunday: "Spaghetti" (Basically I brown 1# ground beef then add jar of Spaghetti Sauce) Serve over cooked spaghetti squash. They love it!

Monday: Chicken Soup from PCF pg 154. (Also did their Chicken Broth)
Tuesday: AuJus Roast in crock pot, Braised Cabbage
Wednesday: Leftovers

THursday: Dinner Out (Celebrating my birthday early with my Hubby)

Friday: Fish Sticks (Paleo Comfort Foods page 258) with Tartar Sauce too. Random veggies

Saturday: Hamburgers with all the fixin's.

Food Stuff!

First of all, I must share this with you. 

Any idea what it is? 

I'll give you a hint:  It's a version of a seasonal drink at a popular coffee place.

Any clue? I'll tell you. It's a Pumpkin Mocha Latte and it was delicious. I've never really liked pumpkin stuff before, I could only eat pumpkin pie if it was smothered in whipped cream, but for some reason I'm really craving it this season. I am starting to like it a lot, and so when I saw this drink I had to try it. Lucky me, the recipe makes enough for two good sized cups so I have another cup for tomorrow!

Next up, lunches. For some reason I have not thought about taking pictures of the girls' lunches. If it is something you want to see, let me know and I'll try harder, otherwise I'll probably stop. It's a pain to remember to take pictures when we are in the chaos of lunch making.

Clockwise: Turkey meat, half a muffin from last week, trail mix and cucumbers.

Clockwise: cucumbers and applesauce, whole muffin, plain greek yogurt with a drizzle of agave and some freeze dried strawberries, turkey rolls.

I did get to making the pumpkin pancakes found in my new cookbook, Paleo Comfort Foods. They were pretty good--everyone ate them for breakfast but I don't think my family is as excited about all things pumpkin like I am right now.

So, we went up to the lake this past weekend to hang out with Erik's folks. I think I've mentioned this before, but they have a wonderful garden and half a dozen different fruit trees on their property. I came home with quite the bounty from them: 

Tomatoes, pears...

apples (like 25# worth!)

Plums...and zucchini, as well as some canned jellies.

The zucchini were looking a little past due, so I did a search to find a couple recipes to use them up right away. The first one I found was for zucchini brownies, a paleo version of course!

Zucchini Brownies

Even though these suckers had no flour in them, (its that magic almond butter again) they turned out awesome! The girls loved them, which says a lot. Super easy and tasty.

Another zuke recipe I found was for "Almond Zucchini Saute". This was very different, but tasted awesome with the Salmon that I finally cooked. (Don't worry, the salmon was still frozen until today).

 

I didn't take any pictures of it, but the Tomato & Basil Salad I made for my mom's birthday dinner turned out awesome. Wonderful flavor and was really pretty too. Everyone liked it.

I didn't make it to the coconut tortillas or the spiced nuts, but am hoping to this week. Our menu is looking like this:

Dinners

Monday: Salmon, Zucchini saute, frozen peas and Zuke Brownies!

Tuesday: Farmer's Pie from PCF page 290 (Including their mashed cauliflower recipe pg 172)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas PCF pg 230 + Coconut Tortillas pg 110

Friday: Oktoberfest (I'll be making crock pot saurbraten (not even close to being paleo) and German Potato Salad. I love German food, so this is going to be a planned splurge day.
Saturday: Chicken Pot Pie (new recipe but am trying to remember where it came from!)

Sunday: Not sure--Spaghetti maybe. I have a ton of beef now!

Also, I gotta figure out some fun apple dishes. Maybe apple fruit leather or a crisp or applesauce. Something to put a dint in my apple supply!

Lunches

Lunches from this past week. I didn't take pictures everyday, I forgot. Let's just say it's been a busy week!

Lindsay's lunch clockwise: Chef salad (lettuce, tomatoes, ham, shredded cheese) which we topped with homemade Italian dressing in the morning right before she left, Primal Pumpkin bread with butter (post to come later) and corn chip crumbs with salsa.

Kera's Lunch clockwise: Corn chips; cuke, tom & olives; strawberries, turkey rolled around cheese.

Lindsay's: Chips; strawberries; cuke/olive/tom; turkey rolled around cheese. Also there is a fruit leather stuck in the left side and a babybel on the right.

Kera's: Paleo bread PB&J; a babybel cut to look like a monster & some turkey; strawberries; cucumbers and   cherry tomatoes with homemade ranch to dip.

Kera's Clockwise: snap pea crisps, paleo pumpkin bread and a homemade larabar; trail mix with dried cherries and some homemade larabars that wouldnt' stick together; strawberries and tomatoes; ham rolled around some mayonnaise and shredded cheese.

I do have some more interesting posts in the works, but I need a few minutes to actually get them out. Stay tuned, I should have time this weekend! :-)

Lunches, Thursday Sept 15

 The girls are really enjoying their new lunchboxes. Lindsay is so funny, she was telling her sister not to tell anyone where we got them if anyone asks. Something about people forgetting who was the first to have them at school. Funny. Of course people will ask where they got them--they are super cool and not too common! If I had a job that took me outside of the house everyday for lunch, I'd probably get one too! hee hee. But, in all seriousness, they are working great. The girls have no problems opening the containers at school, and the solid food stays in the smaller containers just fine without lids. They hold enough food even for my big eater (Lindsay) although she's been stashing extra carrot sticks, fruit leather and even a portable applesauce in the top pocket too. My only complaint is that regular forks do not fit in the side hole made for silverware--just the fork that came with the kit. Just means I have to wash it by hand if the dishwasher is not being run. Not a huge deal but a small detail that I could do without.

Lindsay's lunch (clockwise) Peanut butter & Jelly Sandwich on sugar-free,grain-free bread, jerky and a babybel, turkey meat, lettuce with homemade italian dressing. She also had a fruit leather, carrot sticks and one of the squeezy applesauces in the outer pocket.

Kera's lunch (clockwise): PB&J (just like Lindsay), blueberries, a homemade lara bar and some baked sweet peas, salad with carrots and cherry tomato and Ranch dressing.

The girls will be eating their salad with spoons today, so that'll be interesting. 

Lunches, Wednesday September 13

Lindsay's Lunch (clockwise from top left) salad with homemade Italian dressing; a peach, cheddar cheese, beef jerky and a babybel; applegate turkey.

Kera's lunch, clockwise from top left: Peanut butter on "bread" (Stay tuned for upcoming post on the bread!), carrots, cheddar cheese, babybel and a date; half a peach and some blueberries.

Laptop Lunches - Bento Boxes

 It's really annoying to me how sometimes pictures on Blogger turn sideways. *eye roll*.

Anyways, here's a picture of Kera's lunch for today:

Clockwise: lettuce/carrots/tomato w/ ranch in the little box, chocolate powerball, baked snap peas, babybel, blueberries and leftover Asian shredded beef. Oh yeah and there's a fruit leather in the space with the fork. She brought a water bottle (reusable) for her drink.

Notice anything? I mean besides the obvious lack of gluten/grain and sugar.

No plastic baggies. Very little individual wrapping. 

Yep, I invested in some reusable lunchboxes and they finally arrived on Monday. Kera could hardly wait to pack her lunch for Tuesday! Which I think is pretty cool. ;-)

I've been thinking it would be good to invest in something more usable and fun for the girls as we've moved to doing more and more cold lunches. The first kind of reusable lunchbox I saw was the Planetbox on the EverydayPaleo blog. And I thought it looked really cool, but wasn't sure if it would work for us. Lindsay tends to eat a lot and it just didn't look like it would hold enough food for her. So, I did some google/internet research on what types of reusable lunch containers there were available. I lucked out and ran across a great blog entry that basically reviewed three different types of lunchboxes. So after reading all that blogger had to say about Planetbox, Goodbyn and Bento Boxes, I found those respective websites and did some of my own comparisons. 

I finally decided that the BentoBoxes looked like they would be perfect for us. Room for plenty of food, came with an insulated carrier bag and were a decent price. So I let the girls each pick out their own set of bag, box and interior holders. They had to make do with our old lunchboxes for a few days while they anxiously awaited the FedEx to deliver our package.

It was kind of funny, once they got here, the girls actually ended up trading boxes, deciding that the other had chosen a better color. That's fine, whatever works.

So you saw Kera's box full of food, wanna see it empty? I'll give you the "grand tour"....

The insulated bag. It's fairly compact--fits into a backpack, but also has a handle on top.

It zips open and that black mesh part is where an ice pack fits.

It opens easy enough, but I did have Kera practice. I didn't want her tipping it sideways while opening it and causing her lunch to fall out!

This is what it looks like open and empty. These are the containers that came with this kit. They don't all have lids--so you'd put messier things into the ones with lids. See the cute silverware side compartment on the right? It came with a fork and spoon. I hope the girls don't lose them!

I ordered some extra inner containers of other sizes, too. So you could take out those two on the left (like this)

And put the big one in. I'm sure Lindsay will use this big one more than Kera, but its the perfect size for leftovers or a big ol' salad. (Or a sandwich if you roll that way).

I love how interchangeable the inner pieces are, so you can mix and match to get the perfect containers for their food.

And there is a cool expandable mesh holder on the side for a water bottle.

It zips up when not in use! Isn't that ingenious!?

So, that's my first impressions of this lunchbox. I'll be sure to let you know how Kera liked eating out of it and how it cleans up. The inner containers are suppose to be top-rack dishwasher safe, so I'll be testing that tonight!

Lunches for Monday and Weekly Menu

We had "tacos" for dinner tonight, and so before I even put away the leftovers, I threw together lunches for the girls and Erik using the taco fixings.

Kera's lunch (above) featured (from top to bottom): taco salad (lettuce+tomatoes+black olives+beef/bison+shredded cheese), babybel cheese, applesauce, homemade cranberry/chocolate bar, water. 

Lindsay's Lunch: (clockwise) beef jerky, corn chips, taco salad (same as Kera plus salsa verde), powerballs, babybel, peach, applesauce and juice. 

Erik's lunch was a bigger size of the same ingredients taco salad as the girls, but I forgot to take a picture.

The beauty of my "job" is that I'll be home tomorrow around lunchtime, so I will just rummage around in the frig to find my protein/fat/veggie of choice to gobble.

Obviously, the girls eat a bit more fruit and corn than I do. My main goal with them is to keep them gluten free and limit their processed food/sugar intake. They do eat dairy, although I try to keep it as close to raw/full fat as possible, and some corn. We'll have air popped popcorn with butter on the weekends with a movie and I do usually keep corn chips on hand. My hubby loves to snack on them and salsa. I humor him because it's a healthier option than a lot of other things he used to love. (peanut butter and graham crackers or butter on saltines). I figure they are eating much more veggies and healthy fats than before and not all the bread products, so I'm content with were they fall on the paleo/primal spectrum.

I also thought it might be helpful to share with you the menu I come up with for the week. I usually spend some time on Sunday's figuring out what we'll eat for the upcoming week and picking some new recipes to try. Then, once I have a menu, I list anything we need at the store and presto! I have a grocery list, too. So, here's what we'll be eating this next week:

Miscellaneous: 

(this is the prep/extra stuff that isn't a meal but that we'll eat throughout the week)

chocolate power balls (new recipe) these are awesome!!

fruit and nut bars (new recipe) these are good too, sorry forgot to take a picture

caveman crunch bars (new recipe)

baked sweet potatoes

Breakfasts: 

Instead of planning exactly what we'll have, I give the girls options, this week they include: fauxmeal, scrambled eggs, sausage links, chicken/apple sausages, turkey meat (sometimes Kera doesn't want eggs and will eat turkey deli meat instead)

Lunches:

The girls get one day of hot lunch, this week Lindsay chose Tues and Kera chose Friday.  The rest of the week they'll eat cold lunch which will consist of leftovers, deli meats, cheese, assorted veggies and fruit. I've decided to have them help me make their lunches each night for the next day, that way they have what they want to eat. As long as it's in my allowed list, they can have it. Erik and I will eat leftovers, sometimes I make a fresh recipe for my lunch.

Dinner:

Monday: Thai Beef Wraps

Tuesday: Grilled chicken breasts into Chicken Salad  (new recipe)
Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Shrimp Tacos

Friday: Breakfast for Dinner or Leftovers
Saturday: Pork Spare Ribs in the crock pot

Sunday: Beef Fajitas