Spring has Sprung!



These little beauties smell so good!

Spring has sprung, flowers are starting to bloom and I am so excited because that means at the end of next month our garden will be full of veggie and fruit plants. I'm excited to try growing some new stuff this year and of course I do plan on canning. I won't talk about canning yet since that time of year means fall time and I don't think any of us are ready for that kind of talk. So here are last weeks goodies. I hope you try something new and take at least one baby step to better eating. Can't wait to share weeks menu. I already created a favorite!!! Also lets talk crossfit and what paleo really is this week!

This weeks challenge: All meals paleo except one day so that means 6 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 6 dinners. I will let you throughout the week how I do. On to the recipes.

Seriously this was superb!! Honey Walnut Apple Crisp thanks to Fast Paleo I was able to throw this together in 10 minutes. after baking it for 40 minutes I had a 100% paleo treat. Next time I will splash a bit of almond milk on mine. Something you should know about me I rarely follow a recipe and I usually use my hand for measuring. And if I am going to bake it has to be easy and not too messy. I hate baking to tell you the truth but I do love the results. I did change some things from the original recipe.

 

Ingredients

• 6-8 c. chopped apples (I like Gala, but any kind would work)
• 2 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. ginger
• 1/4 t. nutmeg
• 1/4t. allspice
• 1/4 t.  salt
• 1/2 c. honey, divided
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, in solid state
• 11/2 c. finely chopped walnuts

Cooking Steps
Preheat oven to 400. Place chopped apples in 9×13 inch baking dish. In small bowl, whisk together spices and salt. Sprinkle over apples and stir to evenly coat. Drizzle with 1/4 cup of the honey and stir to evenly coat apples. In a food processor (I used my Ninja Blender) mix coconut oil into walnuts until no chunks of oil remain. Stir in honey, then sprinkle mixture over apples, breaking it up with your hands as you go. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until apples are tender.

Cooking on the other hand I love especially when I come up with my own recipes. I am hoping to start experimenting with some of my very own paleo recipes but for now I have found some fabulous recipes online that have seem to hit the spot. I'm trying to decide do I let you know what we had last week and what we liked vs. didn't like or tell you whats on the menu this week? Thinking I should go with what we had last week that way I can let you know the results.

The Triple Cheeseburger..... YUMMY!! this recipe came from www.paleopot.com

Even the kids loved this. And of course I made a few changes. Here is my recipe. I did make the sauce on top but I did not like it, in fact I scraped it off before serving it.

The Burger:

1.5 pound venison mixed with 1lb. beef. (or 2.5 beef.)

2 whole eggs

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1  TBL. granulated onion

 Fillings:

• 4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, sliced thin (optional)
• Large handful of chard or Kale leaves I used this and it was tasty. Even wished I used more.
• 1 medium white onion, sliced thin
• 1 sliced zesty dill pickle, I bought these presliced.
• Other options: Bacon of course, fresh tomato slices, mustard, chili, etc.

 Sweet Potato Casserole

 Another fine meal this week was this yummy casserole. Again another one from www.paleopot.com. I actually did change anything in this recipe. A crock pot is a must for paleo cooking that way you can get a few days done at once. I actually bought a second crock pot so I could get two meals going at once. The triple cheese burger and this casserole were made on the same day. Yay for that! That means when I head out to crossfit in the evening the kids already have dinner made.

Meat Sauce

 This meat sauce is a staple ever week. I put this on EVERYTHING! Seriously EVERYTHING veggies(brussle sprouts, onions, mushroom mixture), fried eggs (sounds wierd but trust me it is delish!) it can be put on spegetti squash and of course for the kiddos I put it on pasta. This week it will go on top of meatballs so I will omitt the meat when making it.

 

Here is my recipe: I did get the original one from another paleo blog but I changed so much of it I made it my own ;o)

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground chicken/ OR any other meat we use venision you could use turkey
• 1 pound bulk pork mild italian sausage
• 1 green bell pepper, diced

  
  
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 (14 ounce ) cans of tomato sauce
• 1 (14 ounces) stewed tomatoes, I used my canned stewed tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2-3 tablespoons of Italian herb paste
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons fat of choice (I used coconut oil)

Brown your meat, onions and peppers then add rest of ingrediants and let cook for 45 min.

 

** side note- Gourmet Garden makes Italian Herb paste. This stuff is fantastic, fresh herbs, organic all in one tube. I find it at meijers in the produce section usually on the end where all the lettuce is. It is a must have!!!

 

 

 

Have a Blessed Day!

 

 

 

 

 



Just another blog

 I contemplated on naming this blog "OH NO! Mom is going paleo"but then I wouldn't  have the cute OMG in the middle of the title and I figured it covers the "Oh No" part. My poor kids and husband have been drug into my new plan of going paleo. My plan isn't to go 100% since my love for food gets in the way of that. So my purpose of this blog is mostly for my own accountability. You see I don't do so well with commitment especially healthy eating commitments. I start out strong then I just end poorly.  This isn't my first blog but it does happen to be the only one I am posting on. My first blog was for the adoption of our two littles. It began in summer of 2010 when we started our journey to add two more kiddos to our clan and ended soon after returning home in the fall of 2011. So for those of you who followed Two Lives One Journey you again will see some little updates and photos of the littles. As  a mom of 5 I am really trying to instill in my children to be active and to eat healthy. To make choices about their health that will give them a long life free of childhood and adult diseases. Right now my kids are young enough to help make those decisions but soon they will be making there own choices when it comes to health and fitness. 
<sup>Here is my plan for this blog:
#1 accoutablitiy for myself. It will make it much harder to post failures then successes. I am all about truth and honesty, no sugar coating (no pun intended). If I eat hotfudge brownings you will know about it. Speaking of hot fudge browning they sure do sound good.
#2 Share my love for crossfit! Did I mention I LOVE crossfit!! Seriously I have never loved working out like i have in the past year. After a two year break from working out during our adoption process I had a hard time getting motivated to start agian. I knew it was going to be alot of work and a lot of time to get back into the shape I was before our adoption. I also gained 12lbs in that two years and it was going to take alot of discpline to get that off. So my dear husband convinced me to try crossfit. I went in with the attitude that there was no way I could do it, and there was no way I would like it. It took one class and I was hooked. Four days a week you can find me at the box. I will talk later about crossfit.

#3 My journey into the paleo world. I will be experimenting with my own recipes some will turn out good and some not so good. Also I will be finding and making paleo recipes and letting you know the ones worth making. I will share my struggles and my families struggles with paleo along with our successes. I can honestly say my husband and I will be eating paleo more than the kids. I tend to use part of my meals to add to the kids. I don't expect them to go paleo but I do expect them to eat healty which they already know my expectation to nutrition. We have always eaten fairly healthy. Don't get me wrong we fall off the wagon just like everyone else.</sup>
And last but not least #4 Family Musings, can't forget my family. We are not a normal bunch of peeps over here. Sometimes I wonder how I got here and what I got myself into with all these kiddos but then I remember this is where God has brought us. I'm not religious just a crazy Jesus Freak and I like it. I like following a man that broke all the rules. I'm sort of a rule breaker myself.