Monthly Archives: January 2012

Day 30 Eats!!! Day 5 Beach!!!

Day 30!!!!!!! We made it!!! So proud of everyone that achieved this amazing goal!!! So proud of everyone that fed their family better than they ever have and have made some wonderful and amazing strides towards wellness!!!

Our “Whole Family” ate extremely well for 30 days and we feel great. What do we do now? Are we being thrown off the wagon? No. Now, we live our Whole9 life, with the exception of the times that it is really worth it to eat something off the paleo wagon. And then we get right back on it.

We are all pretty aware of what grains and dairy do to our bellies so we are not running for the mac and cheese or the donuts. But we are REAL. We do like an occasional dessert, an occasional drink, an occasional dinner of fondue. Like I said, we’re REAL! And I like it that way.

So what did we do on our last day? On our Day 30? We shopped.

Let’s start from the beginning.

For breakfast I made an egg casserole of leftover salmon, brussel sprouts, plantains, and eggs. Go figure that everyone loved it! Continue reading →

Day 29 Eats! Day 4 Beach!

I know I sound like a broken record but yay for another fun day at the beach! And yay for great Whole30 approved food! I can’t believe we’re already at Day 29 of our Whole30. It didn’t necessarily “fly” by but it was a very real, good, refreshing Whole30. Can’t wait to share our progress and our new goals in a future post.

Day 4 at the beach started with a delicious breakfast of eggs over easy, sautéed acorn squash, and some absolutely incredible green onion sausage from the meat market.

A good breakfast always starts the day off right and today it certainly did the job.

Continue reading →

Reflections at the Beach…..

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For a few years now I have come to the beach with a wonderful group of ladies. We make a purpose to get away for a couple of days, not to have a girl’s weekend, but to have time with God. Quiet, uninterrupted, massive time with God. I love it, I love the quiet, and I look forward to it every year.

These past few days, although not quite the same as my quiet beach trips, has reminded me of them. Why? Because it’s the beach. When I come to the beach and look in awe on God’s creation I can’t help but feel closer to Him. I stand in front of one of His many masterpieces and realize once again how big He is… and how little I am. Continue reading →

Day 28 Eats! Day 3 Beach!

We are nearing the end of our Whole30 and we are having a nice and relaxing time at the beach. When we first arrived we spotted a farmers market and our plan today is to go back.

First though, we started our day with a scrumptious yet SIMPLE meal of farm fresh eggs and acorn squash.

After breakfast we finally made it back to the farmers market. The kids were so excited, although I think I was more excited than they were. The market also included a bakery that they are hoping to return to on our way back to NOLA.

It felt so nice, so homey, to be at the Burris Market. To have so many clean fruits and veggies in one place, ripe for the picking, calling out to us, begging to be eaten… we were like kids in a candy store. Continue reading →

Day 27 Eats! Day 2 BEACH!!!

Our first full day at the beach and we are up and ready to get out there!

Of course, we started with a great breakfast….

Salmon, eggs, peppers and mango. A wonderful beach breakfast!

As we we getting ready I thought about the changes that we have had in our lives in the past few years. One of them being our physical appearance. Check out Shiloh and I from 3 years ago and then today.

Crazy, huh?!

I love that I now have the energy to run after the kids, play with them, and go until they tire out…not the other way around. What a difference eating right and exercising makes!

The kids could barely hold in their excitement about getting to the beach!

They had buckets and buckets of supplies!

Love them!!!

This is Levi’s first trip to the beach…can you tell?

The second we got off the boardwalk and his tiny toes touched the sand Levi FREAKED!

All he would say over and over and over was, “OW!!! OW!!!”  and he wouldn’t let his feet touch the ground. 

It was absolutely hilarious! We were all cracking up. He looked so cute!

I did finally get him on the beach and this is all I got. He was in a silent protest.

On the other side of the coin, Jeremiah and Shiloh were like fish who had come home.

Their smiles were plastered on their little faces.

Continue reading →

Day 26 Eats…on our way to the beach!!!

We’re going to the BEACH today!!!!! Are we’re so excited!!! Can you tell?!?!!!

But first…breakfast!

I had to take a picture of our farm fresh eggs and our lucky green one. Aren’t they just the prettiest things ever?!

For breakfast I was still trying to use up leftovers so I made a casserole of shredded pork, tomatoes, spinach and eggs.

It was totally off the cuff and totally delicious.

Can you tell Levi enjoyed his breakfast?

After breakfast Levi, his big belly, and the rest of us said bye-bye to Daddy. We finished packing the truck, picked up the keys to the condo, ran by guitar practice, and headed out to the BEACH!!!

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My kids love tuna salad. Jeremiah has even become really good at making it. Since tuna was on sale this week I bought a whole bunch of cans and made a huge bowl of tuna for lunch, and for many more lunches. They loved it.

On our way in guess what we spotted?! A wonderful, huge, year-round, daily, gorgeous Farmers Market!!!

The kids and I could barely pick our jaws up off the ground as we walked around goggly-eyed looking at all the fresh produce.

There were aisles and aisles of fresh beauty!

Talk about being tempted to buy one of everything!

We really only got a small bit but stay tuned…we will be going back soon!

Drumroll please….we made it to the BEACH!!!

Continue reading →

Day 25 Eats!

With the help of our Facebook friends our “Whole Family” (minus the hubs who unfortunately couldn’t get away) won a trip to the beach thanks to http://www.rickcrozier.com!!! We were so excited and thankful and only had a day to pack! Due to our crazy day, our meals were fast and full of leftovers and a little odd, but that’s okay…we were packing for the beach!

Breakfast on our crazy day was leftovers of sweet potato slivers and chorizo sausage. Yummy even the second time!

Continue reading →

Day 24 Eats!

Day 24 was full of oldies and goodies……..

Breakfast was chorizo and egg (the oldie) along with sweet potato cinnamon hashies (the goodie). 

Jeremiah actually took this picture of his chorizo and eggs and was so proud of it that he begged me to put it in. I told him of course.

The hashies were so good they didn’t even make it to the kid’s plates. They just kept coming up to the serving plate over and over and stealing them. Apparently they liked them!

Continue reading →

Whole Family | Sweet Potato Cinnamon Hashies

Our family loves sweet potatoes in all forms and fashions. We make sweet potato fries, sweet potato coins, mashed sweet potatoes, cubed sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes….you get the point. This morning I was looking for a new way to make sweet potatoes and WOW, did I come up with something spectacular.

Sweet Potato Cinnamon-Hashies! 

Check out my super easy and super tasty recipe. Make sure you make a whole bunch of these, your family won’t be able to get enough!

Continue reading →

Monday, Monday | Day 23 Eats!

Monday brings us back to work, back to school, back to routine. Does it bring us back to boring food? Um…NO! No matter how “routine” of a day, our food is never routine. We had a great day of eating wonderful food that was wonderful for us. 

We started our morning off wonderfully with the kid’s long awaited breakfast of breakfast pizza. Not only is it full of vitamins from the eggs, the protein, the veggies, and the fruit…but it tastes incredible too!

Check out the recipe here and go make it for your family. They will love it and love you for it!

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Lunch was leftovers of pork carnitas and it was just as yummy as the first day.

………. Continue reading →

Whole Family | Paleo Spicy Coconut Shrimp

I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for a while and finally the stars aligned, the kids cooperated, the kitchen was clean, and mama could make some shrimp.

And make some shrimp I did!!!

Let me tell you, these are the best darn shrimp you will ever have. They really are not spicy, just “well seasoned” as my kids say. If you wanted to spice them up, and what I will most likely do next time, is add a little bit of cayenne pepper. Yay for “well seasoned”!

This recipe is super SIMPLE, super fast, super easy, and super delicious.

Continue reading →

Whole Family | Paleo Breakfast Pizza

What a fun breakfast this is. And so SIMPLE!

You can fancy this up as much as you want or keep it simple. However you make it, you’re going to want to make this breakfast pizza again and again.

Here’s what you need (For 5 people): 

10 eggs

salt and pepper

1/4 pound of chorizo

half an onion, coarsely chopped

handful of grape tomatoes, halved

optional: 1 mango, diced

optional: 2 kiwis, diced Continue reading →

Whole Family | Week 4 SIMPLE Meal Plan

I am planning ahead of time to have a low-key week. I know already that Tuesday night is basketball, Wednesday night I am getting together with my small group women to help a friend unpack in her new house, Thursday is cheerleading and my bible study night, and Friday is an early bedtime because of an early basketball game Saturday morning. Our nights are full this week so I want to keep as much of our day as SIMPLE as possible. My only goal is to try some new meals from new places. I will be using a recipe from Nom Nom Paleo, Eat Love Run, Chowstalker, and hopefully more.

Bring on the week! 

Monday: 

Breakfast- breakfast pizza

Lunch- leftovers: carnitas

Dinner- Spicy coconut shrimp with spanish “rice”

Tuesday: 

Breakfast- Eggs and sweet potato hash

Lunch- Salmon patties, a knock-off of Nom Nom Paleo’s crabby patties. Sure to be great!

Dinner- leftovers: carne asada

Wednesday: 

Breakfast- Eggs and veggies

Lunch- chorizo and sweet potato coins

Dinner- Pork and cabbage stir fry from Eat Love Run

Thursday: 

Breakfast- Frittata

Lunch- Tuna salad on tomatoes

Dinner- Salmon from Chowstalker

Friday: 

Breakfast- leftovers: frittata

Lunch- homemade raw sushi

Dinner- leftover cabbage stir fry

I hope my SIMPLE meal plan inspires you to feed your family good, whole, SIMPLE foods this week as well. Eating well doesn’t have to be hard, it doesn’t have to be complicated, it doesn’t have to take a long time with a lot of ingredients. It just has to be good. And it will be. Feed your “Whole Family” good food.

There will be “thank you’s” all around….

Whole Family | Carne Asada

Another new Mexican recipe that the “Whole Family” LOVES!!! 

Carne Asada!!!

This is such a SIMPLE, flavorful, comfort-foodie, kick up your senses kind of meal. You will want to make it again and again.

So let’s get started.

I started this recipe with a crock-pot pork roast that I seasoned with salt, pepper, comino, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and oregano. After 8 hours of cooking the pork in it’s own juices it was falling apart and was perfect to shred and use for my carne asada.

If you don’t have a roast you can always use the carne asada dressing on raw meat, marinade and then cook or grill. Turns out wonderful!

Here’s what you need: 

Dressing:

2 jalapeños, diced

3 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 limes, juiced

1 orange, juiced

3 tbsp olive oil

a dash of salt and pepper

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1 pound pork (or meat of your choice)

1 onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, sliced

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tomato, diced

1 avocado, sliced

lettuce leaves for tacos

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Continue reading →

Whole Family | Lazy Sunday | Day 22 Eats!

I’m sure I say this every Sunday, but this Sunday really was a LAZY Sunday. Brandon had a work function he needed to be at so the rest of us decided to sleep in. And did we sleep in! We all slept in until 10 and I finally woke Levi up at 10:30. Apparently we needed our sleep and it felt really good.

Because of our late wake-up we had “brunch”. The new idea of “brunch” very much confused the kids since we’ve never done this before, but they adjusted quickly. And it tasted pretty darn good!

I had previously slow-cooked a pork roast to use for our weekend meals. It was great to know the main component of our meals was done for us and made the weekend cooking much more SIMPLE. For brunch I used that pork and made carnitas. Carnitas literally means “little meats” in spanish and that’s exactly what it was. I had slow-cooked the pork on low all day with comino, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, dried oregano, salt and pepper. After simmering in it’s own juices all day it was beautifully tender and falling apart .The perfect meat for carnitas.

I plated the carnitas with the obvious lettuce, onions, tomatoes and avocados. The perfect light brunch for the “Whole Family”.

Levi loved it too, I promise. This face was the “I’m not going to look at you or smile because I wanted a fourth plate and I am not okay with you telling me no. So humph.” Really!!!

Continue reading →

Day 21 Eats!

Our day 21 started out really early as Jeremiah had an 8am basketball game and Shiloh had cheer duty.

Thankfully everyone loves chorizo and eggs and it is a really fast and easy breakfast to make. You can see by their faces they were still a little groggy as they enjoyed their breakfast.

After breakfast we rushed out to cheer on the Green Wave, Jeremiah’s upward team and to watch Shiloh cheer. They both did a wonderful job and were really cute doing it.

Levi “happily” sat on the sidelines cheering his big brother and sister on.

Continue reading →

Whole Family | Mexican “Rice”

In my house, growing up, spanish rice accompanied most every meal. Since getting on the healthy train rice has, unfortunately, fallen by the wayside. I am very happy to re-introduce my version of spanish “rice” and I must say, it works!

Here’s what you need:

1 head of cauliflower

1 tbsp olive oil

Half a small can of tomato sauce (with naturally derived citric acid and no added sugar)

1/2 tbsp comino

1/2 tbsp onion powder

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper Continue reading →

Whole “Mexican” Family | Enchiladas

I made a goal this week of making some wonderful mexican meals and since we are now done with the week, I can officially say that it was a huge success. The biggest success of the week? My enchiladas and rice. This meal was packed full of amazing flavors, textures and spices. It was perfection on my paleo plate. And of course, the “Whole Family” loved it.

Continue reading →

Whole “Mexican” Family” | Stuffed Poblano Peppers

If you have read our Day 20 Daily Eats! you know that this meal was a risk. A big risk. On many levels. Why is this a risk? Well, first of all I’ve never made them. Second of all, I’ve never eaten them! Yes, I know, it’s humiliating. I was not the most risky of an eater growing up. I was the kid who went to a mexican restaurant and ordered the chicken strips. Sad. Very sad. As I grew up and matured by leaps and bounds I began trying, and loving, new foods. One food I never did get around to trying was stuffed poblano peppers. Well, I guess I can’t say that anymore. I know not only have made them, I have EATEN them too!

Oh, to get back to my risks. The third reason this meal was a risk? The kids. I am blessed with non-picky-for-the-most-part kids but stuffed poblano peppers? I really was happily trudging along until I took a bit of one and realized DANG, these have a kick to them! Yeah, the kids…it was now an issue of would these be too hot for the kids?!

By the kids third plate each I figured the “too hot” concern had been catapulted out the window. Too hot?! My kids DEVOURED them!!! They couldn’t get enough of them! They’ve even asked me to make the peppers again! I really was is shock.

I told Jeremiah, my 8 year old, that I had been worried that he wasn’t going to want to eat the peppers because they would be too hot and guess what he told me? Oh dear. He said, “Of course they weren’t too hot! Mommy, I AM Mexican, you know?!” These kids…they never cease to amaze me. So long story short, my stuffed poblano peppers were a hit!

I know they will be a big hit at your house too!  Continue reading →

Whole Family | Chocolate Cupcakes (no sugar added, grain-free, dairy-free, nut-free, gluten-free)

We don’t do a lot of sweets, obviously, in our house. It is a rare occasion that we bring sweets in, it’s more that we bring them out.

My kids know by now that when they eye that coveted birthday party invitation through the thin slot in our mailbox and they squeeze their tiny hands in the slot to barely pull it out, that it’s time, again, to pull out the mixing bowls. Birthday cupcakes are coming!

I’m all about getting out of the mode of food being the center of a celebration and for myself and Brandon we can handle that and we are doing well with it. We already don’t eat the birthday foods at a party and Jeremiah knows he’ll be checking his sugar half a dozen times in the hour and a half party. The kids already manage gracefully the changes we have implemented and do great with those changes. But what do I sometimes allow? Cake. Well, “healthy” cake. Actually cupcakes. Okay, let me clarify.

I allow homemade, whole food ingredient, no sugar added, chocolate cupcakes. And they are the BOMB. I found this recipe on Elana’s Pantry‘s website from a few years back and with a few tweaks and changes have made them my own.

I hesitate to say these are Whole30 approved because they are more on the line of how you see the cupcakes. If these are filling a sugar craving you have, if you would rather not go to the party than go and not eat cake, then I would suggest you steer clear of the cupcakes during your 30 days and wait until you have your sugar cravings under control. These would be more of a gluten-free or paleo dessert. 

We just went to a birthday party last weekend where we decorated sugar cookies, eyeballed a punch bowl of popcorn and a pitcher of white hot cocoa, and watched the other kids eat marshmallow topped cupcakes with vanilla ice cream. What did we have? Chicharrones, prunes, an apple and water. And we were fine. We were more than fine. We had a great time.

Dessert is not our driving force and we are okays without it. On some occasions, I want to treat the kids with these cupcakes and they are always excited to have them. Do we have them every time? No. But when we do we, we sure do like them!

Saying all that, the ingredients to these cupcakes are great ingredients that even the most allergic/sensitive member of your family should be able to enjoy. 

So, without further adieu, I present to you and yours…. chocolate cupcakes. Continue reading →