Midweek Checkin

August 27, 2014Andrea 2 Comments

Yesterday I was having A DAY. My site was having issues connecting to the server which meant that anything I wrote wasn’t getting saved. I couldn’t upload pictures either.

This on top of how much I’m starting to hate my iPhone and I’d had it. I shut everything off and watched SVU until it was dinner time. Then I made us a pizza, had a gin drink and called it a night.

The pizza was an all white flour crust (yesterday was not a day for a whole wheat crust) with a kale and sundried tomato pesto. Topped with cheese, pepperoni (Applegate Farms) and banana peppers.

I had leftovers of the pesto and that’s what inspired me to make the pizza.

Earlier in the day for lunch we had the pesto on some noodles.

Yellow squash noodles with the pesto and leftover shredded chicken. The pesto is this recipe with some marinaded sundried tomatoes added in for extra flavor.

Last week I did awful with meal planning and prepping. I had two events to attend and there is a definite correlation with us going out and then grabbing something to eat on the way home.

This week, while I desperately need to go to the grocery store, I have been better about planning and prepping. I’m going to hit the grocery store today, hopefully it won’t be too slammed with people stocking up for Labor Day.

Tomorrow is going to be spent cooking and prepping for the weekend so we have plenty of stuff to see us through.

How has your week been going? How are you doing with your meal planning and prepping?

Going Reduced Grain

August 12, 2014Andrea 3 Comments

Hey all! How is everyone’s week going so far? Our meals have been a little off schedule but so far everything is running smoothly. I feel much more centered than last week. I don’t feel like I’m constantly behind trying to catch up!

Meal planning unfortunately did not happen as I would have liked but we’ve still been on track with our eats!

BREAKFAST

Grain free waffles using Brittany Angell’s recipe. I heated up some peppers and onions in a skillet and added in some leftover steak, sliced thin. Placed on top of a waffle with a slice of swiss, which then was put in the toaster over so the cheese could melt. Perfect breakfast sandwich and a great way to use up leftover steak!

Scrambled eggs seasoned with Flavor God’s Garlic Lovers and two slices of Dave’s Killer Bread with lots of grassfed butter.

Grains! Yikes! I’ll get to that in a minute, be patient.

DINNER

Pork tacos and a simple side salad. Ground pork cooked in a skillet with some peppers and onions. Seasoned with a little salt, pepper, and chili powder (however much you like but easy on the salt). Then I added in a few heaping spoonfuls of salsa and let the whole mixture simmer until the salsa reduced and thickened up. Topped with chopped tomato and sour cream.

Salad was mixed greens with cucumber and carrot. Very easy! I love having salads with meals because it’s quick to assemble and a great way to get in some raw veggie action.

Sockeye salmon with red peppers and capers with a side of green beans with prosciutto and almonds.

For the salmon, in a sautee pan I heated up the peppers and capers in some ghee until the peppers softened a bit. Then I added in the salmon and sprinkled that with some Flavor God’s lemon garlic seasoning. I added in a touch of chicken stock, brought to a simmer and covered. All of that simmering until the salmon was cooked through. Remove and top with the peppers and capers.

The green beans were prepped ahead of time. They were blanched and just waiting in the fridge to be used. I sauteed them up in a skillet with some ghee. Seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Right before serving I tossed them with some almonds, crispy prosciutto (heated and prepped before heating the beans), and sprinkled on some parm.

Looks fancy but it’s really simple to put together and no fussy ingredients!

SNACK

A little bit indulgent but much needed! This was banana ice cream with bourbon butter pecans on top.

Banana ice cream is one of the easiest things to make. All you do is put frozen bananas in a food processor with a little liquid (cream or almond milk for example) and blend until smooth and creamy. That’s the basic concept and then you can flavor it or sweeten it a bit more.

For this version I added in some bourbon, vanilla almond milk, and vanilla extract. Blended until smooth.

For the pecans, I sautéed them in a skillet with lots of butter. After about 4 minutes I added in a small splash of bourbon. Once done, I tossed the pecans with some cinnamon and coconut sugar. I let them cool and sprinkled on top of the ice cream.

Delicious!

We have been on the clean eating and grain free train for several months at this point. We have learned a lot during just these few months and one of the things we realized is that grain-free and gluten-free items do not work for us. In fact, those types of things, like the grain free waffles above, do not sit well with our digestive system.

Every time we eat something like that, both of us are running for the bathroom immediately after eating. Tummies rumbling, bloating, and hitting the bathroom multiple times for hours afterwards.

Not fun.

Clearly those kinds of items are not working for us. So with that, instead of being grain-free we are reducing grains. Most grains don’t give us any kind of digestive distress, not like the grain-free items do. So while we won’t be seeking out sandwiches daily or big bowls of pasta, if we feel like a pancake we’re going to eat it.

Don’t be surprised when you see some whole grain items pop back up in our eats!

Curry Chicken Salad

August 8, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

The first time I had a curry chicken salad was at a Whole Foods in North Carolina. It kind of blew my mind. It was my first experience with anything “curry” and was a whole new flavor sensation to me. I immediately wanted to recreate it and I have finally succeeded!

It’s an easy recipe and the amounts can be adjusted to however much chicken you have. There are always leftovers when I roast a chicken and this is my go-to recipe to transform those leftovers into something tasty.

I’m going to provide rough estimates for the amounts I use for leftovers but definitely play around with this recipe to fit your tastes and for how much you want to make.

Andrea’s Curry Chicken Salad

1 Large Chicken Breast, cooked and shredded

3 Green Onions, chopped

1 Green Pepper, sliced thin

1/2C Raisins

3/4C Mayo

1TBSP Curry Powder (I like Simply Organic)

In large bowl combine all ingredients. Make sure to mix well so the mayo and curry covers everything. It can be served immediately but is best when left to sit for an hour or more.

Eat it on a sandwich, in a wrap, on top of a salad! Or just out of the bowl, like I sometimes do. A little different than your standard chicken salad, curry brings some warmth while that little bit of raisin keeps things sweet. It’s great for lunch during the week or for dinner on a hot summer day. Heck, or even breakfast! No judging here.

Have fun, and remember, always play with your food! Enjoy!

Walk About

July 29, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

Up bright and early today because we had our group dog walk at 8am. We get together with other dog owners and do an easy walk with our dogs. It’s exercise for dogs and owners and also allows the dogs a chance to get used to walking in a pack. Plus it provides a nice bonding time between owner and dog.

Today was our longest walk which clocked in at almost 3 miles! It was a lot cooler this morning than it has been so we were able to take the dogs a little further without worrying about them overheating.

Avery and Penny are so chill and relaxed the rest of the day after our group walks, which means that mom and pops can get lots of work done!

I was starving when we got back and because I planned ahead I just had to heat up leftovers. Breakfast win!

Fritatta with chopped kale (from frozen), onion, and bacon. I topped it with some swiss cheese and tomato slices. On the side was some pork sausage links.

For the fritatta, I used 5 eggs + a splash of water and scrambled. I sauteed up the onion, bacon, and kale in some ghee in an oven proof skillet and sprinkled with Flavor God’s Everything seasoning. Once the onions were soft, I added in the egg mixture and placed the skillet in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

The sausage was already cooked. I usually will cook an entire package of sausage at a time and then keep the leftovers in the freezer. This way I can pull out what I need and easily reheat it.

Lunch was a salad with some tomato, avocado, and cucumber. Chopped tomato and cucumber were seasoned with a little salt and chili powder. Then I added in the juice of half a lime and a little olive oil. Let that sit for a bit to marinade and get the juices flowing out of the veggies. This makes a quick dressing that I used on the salad. Easy peasy!

I was looking forward to dinner all day! Roast chicken! The chicken was rubbed down with lard (you can sub in butter or ghee if you want. Olive oil doesn’t provide nearly the same depth of flavor but you can use that if you prefer.) and then sprinkled with Flavor God’s Lemon Garlic Lovers. I add some water to the bottom of the cast iron skillet and roasted the chicken at 375 until cooked through. Basting about every 30-40 minutes. This chicken took about two hours to roast.

On the side was parsnip mash and green beans. The green beans were simmered on the stove in water until they were cooked through. Drained and then got tossed with butter and Flavor God’s Everything Seasoning and a little splash of water.

I also made a quick pan sauce out of the pan drippings. I added some more water to the skillet, about 1/2 and scraped up the drippings. I brought that to a simmer and let it reduce by half. Bam! Pan sauce that is flavorful and doesn’t need flour or butter.

Tomorrow’s dinner will be leftovers so I only need to worry about making breakfast and lunch. Today was a good day with the eats!

Supplies:

Flavor God seasonings

Sausage from Boulder Sausage Company

Bacon from The Boar and Bull

Eggs and chicken from Jodar Farms

Disclaimer: I list the supplies I use so you can purchase some as well and so that folks who are local know where they can find quality products. No affiliates and no kickbacks. I share because we should all eat well!

Monday Meals: Good Week

July 28, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

This will be the last “Monday Meals” but don’t worry, I’ll still be sharing all of our eats with you! Monday through Thursday will be a recap of meals and exercise for that day. Those posts will go up at the end of the day. Fridays will be rotating topics that include recipes and the weekend will be time off for play!

I really want to get this blog back to it’s roots, which is about living a healthy and active lifestyle by focusing on real whole foods and doing things we love.

Plus these Monday posts were just getting way too long and can’t contain all of the deliciousness!

New schedule starts tomorrow so look for that post at the end of the day.

Alright so let’s recap last week!

BREAKFAST:

PEACHES! They have finally started showing up at the farmer’s markets and I am stoked! Colorado peaches are amazing and their season is very short. If you see them, grab them while you can!

Peaches with a little sprinkle of grain free granola. This breakfast rocked, it was sweet from the peaches and the granola helped keep me full for several hours.

This was a second breakfast. I had a big bowl of peaches one morning (with no granola) but once we got back from our big walk with the dogs, I was starving! So I made a potato-less hash. Scrambled eggs, sliced up chicken sausage, and peppers and onions. Totally hit the spot!

A huge bowl of sauteed kale with kielbasa and shredded carrots. Cooked up in some ghee and seasoned with Flavor God’s Spicy Everything blend.

Protein + greens are a favorite next to soup!

Leftover rice that I cooked up in some lard with a little tomato paste and seasoned with chili powder. Then I added in some kale and cooked everything until the kale wilted down and cooked through.

Not as hardy as sausage but still very satisfying and would make a great post workout breakfast.

Poor man’s breakfast this past weekend. We ran out of eggs! It was tragic. So this was some bacon, sliced cantaloupe, and granola. Some almond milk got splashed on the granola as well. It was good but would have been better with eggs!

More bacon and cantaloupe! The bacon was from a local butcher that they cure and smoke in-house. Grain free scones topped with cherry jelly. I pitted the cherries and added them to a blender with cup of water. I blended for a minute until the cherries broke down a little. A little bit of sugar was added to the mixture. In a sauce pan the mixture simmered until it reduced by half. Once it cools it thickens up a little bit and now you’ve got a quick jelly.

And a fauxmosa to wash everything down. OJ + Seltzer = fauxmosa Tasty! Plus you can add fresh lime juice or mango juice to give it a little extra kick.

LUNCH:

Kale salad with cucumbers and carrot. A quick balsamic dressing on top. Allow the dressing to mix with the kale a few minutes before serving. Helps to break down the kale and pull out some of the bitterness. Smoked salmon on the side!

Really random lunch. A fried egg, leftover baked beans, sliced carrot, and guacamole for dipping.

DINNER:

Cheeseburger on a gluten-free bun, coleslaw, and oven fries. I nixed the bun, I didn’t like it. It had a weird texture to it and was spongy. Ew. So I ate my burger bunless which I prefer!

Burgers take two! Leftovers with the addition of baked beans. Both Scott and I can handle beans without it causing any distress on our digestive system (to be blunt, beans don’t give us gas) so we eat them from time to time.

A really monotone and unappealing picture, I know! Pulled pork tacos with a cauliflower veggie mix. The pork butt was cooked in a slow cooker with a can of diced tomatoes, 1/2C water, with sliced green pepper and onion. Once the pork was done, I pulled it out and shredded the meat. I blended all of the liquid and veggies together to create the sauce. Everything was seasoned with salt and chili powder.

Served on a white flour tortilla that I ended up not eating. It was making me feel too full too quickly, so I tossed it and ate the pork with some guacamole.

The veggie casserole was a head of cauliflower pulsed in a food processor until it resembled rice. I sauteed that in a huge skillet with onions, peppers, carrot and corn. Once everything was cooked, I added two eggs to the mixture and some shredded cheddar. Everything was seasoned with chili powder and then I cooked it all again in a casserole dish till it was bubbly.

It looked like a mess but it was tasty! We had this two nights in a row.

Second favorite meal of the week, mussels! I purchased these at my local Whole Foods. With a ton of butter (seriously, like 6 tablespoons), I sauteed up some onion, jalapeno, and lots of garlic. That all got seasoned with Lemon Garlic Lovers Flavor God seasoning. Then I added the mussels and a bottle of wheat beer. Put a lid on it and let that simmer until the mussels opened. Maybe 5 minutes tops. I sprinkled on some chopped cherry tomatoes and we dug in!

This was a lot of mussels and was plenty for both Scott and I to share. There’s a misconception that seafood and things like mussels are expensive but they are not.

A pound of mussels (which was way over 2 dozen mussels) cost me $6.99 and that fed two people as a main meal. That’s pretty budget friendly!

Favorite meal of the week, ribeye steak with a twice baked potato. So good! And gigantic! I did not eat the entire steak, there’s plenty of leftovers. The steaks were seasoned with Flavor God’s Garlic Lover’s and I seared each side of the steaks and placed them on a baking sheet. The steaks finished cooking in the oven. It only took a couple of minutes since ribeyes are best at medium.

The potatoes were super simple, no fuss twice baked potatoes. Baked potatoes with the insides scooped out. To that was added sour cream, cheddar, horseradish, and some green onion. Stuffed and baked again until cooked through and bubbling.

Great eats this week plus utilizing leftovers as much as possible. Minimal meal planning for this week because Scott and I have some big plans for the weekend!

Supplies:

Flavor God seasonings

Bacon and steaks from The Boar and Bull

Mussels from Whole Foods

Pork and eggs from Jodar Farms

Cowboy Burgers

July 25, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

I’ve been on a big burger kick lately, it’s all that I really want to eat and I’m going with the flow. If that’s what my body wants, so be it! Burgers all around!

I wanted to make a burger that had a nice punch of flavor to it. It’s getting to be about that time here in Northern Colorado, when roasted green chilies are going to be popping up at the farmer’s markets. I love roasted green chilies! You can get any spice level you like, the chilies are roasted fresh while you wait, and the smell is amazing.

I still had some roasted chilies in the freezer so I pulled those out and got to work creating this burger. It’s super easy to prepare and tastes delicious!

Andrea’s Cowboy Burgers

1 pound Grassfed Ground Beef

2 Roasted Green Chilies, seeded and chopped

1/4 Small Red Onion, finely chopped

2 Slices Cooked Bacon, chopped

1/2TBSP Worcestershire Sauce

1tsp Chili Powder

1/2tsp Salt

1/2tsp Pepper

1/2tsp Garlic Powder

1TBSP Oil for cooking (I recommend Lard or Ghee)

Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and gently combine. Quarter the mixture, and make a patty out of each quarter. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Place patties in skillet and cook on each side for about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve!

Makes 4 patties

You can serve these however you like! Top with cheese and maybe some caramelized onions. I topped ours with guacamole and served them on lettuce wraps.

The roasted chilies bring a nice heat to the burgers while the bacon highlights the smokiness. The spice level of the chilies used will determine how spicy the burgers turn out. If you love heat, use spicier chilies!

These would also be great grilled! Leftovers can be used right away or frozen. To reheat, gently warm them up in a toaster oven or in a regular oven at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food! Enjoy!

Monday Meals: Utilizing What’s On Hand

July 21, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

It’s a fresh start to a new week! Last week was much better than the previous one, the only time we dined out was on Sunday while we were in Boulder.

I don’t have pictures of that food because it was nothing special. Next time I’m in Boulder, I’m hitting up the fancier farm to table joints! Lesson learned, don’t waste time at brew pubs because they don’t have any good food to offer.

There was a lot of leftovers this past week and utilizing what I had in the fridge and pantry.

This week I’m planning on spending more time in the kitchen. I have a checklist of items that I want to get made (like stock) and I really need a kitchen day. I haven’t had a chance to spend any significant time in the kitchen lately and it’s stressing me out.

We were busy all weekend so I also didn’t get a chance to prep for this week. I feel a little bit behind but I think that I can catch up easily!

Let’s look as last week’s good eats!

BREAKFAST:

Scrambled eggs and two slices of ham. The ham is applegate farms and I heated it up in a skillet first then made the scrambled eggs.

Sweet potato hash with fried eggs. One large sweet potato, shredded, with chopped peppers and onion. Cooked in a skillet in a little lard until everything was cooked through. Seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Fresh grain free granola with fresh blueberries. I splashed on a little vanilla almond milk after the photo was taken. I’m playing around with the recipe for the granola and using eggs in the mix as a binder so that the granola clumps up a little more. So far it’s working but I’m still tweaking with the recipe.

Sauteed baby kale with andouille sausage. I used a whole package of andouille (4 links), sliced and cooked in a skillet in a little lard. Then added in a whole 1/2 pound container of baby kale, and let that wilt and cook down.

I seasoned it with new Flavor God seasonings. These season blends are legit! They are handmade fresh when ordered and taste fantastic. They are 5oz containers and for freshly made seasonings the price is spot on. (not affiliate links). For this dish I used the Spicy Everything Seasoning.

I spotted some green tomatoes at the farmer’s market this past week and immediately knew what I would be having for breakfast. Fried green tomatoes along with a fried egg.

The tomatoes were fried in lard and I used a blend of tapioca starch and coconut flour for the coating. Also seasoned with Flavor God’s Spicy Everything blend.

Fried eggs with leftover kale and sausage. This breakfast was perfect fuel to deal with the crowds in Boulder!

DINNER:

Leftover soup that I added some diced tomatoes to for a little flavor boost. We also had the last remaining portions for lunch one day as well. I didn’t want to toss the last little bit and it was past the time of being able to freeze it for later. It definitely was on it’s last leg but made for a nice quick lunch.

Mixed greens salad topped with leftover chicken. This salad was huge and so filling! I love having gigantic salads for meals.

Grass fed hotdogs (Applegate Farms) topped with kraut, a side of green beans, and some onion rings. The onion rings were premade and about as clean as you’re going to get for packaged food. The hotdogs were amazing! Not normally much of a hot dog fan but these really hit the spot.

The next day I had the leftovers on a salad! A little kraut, tomatoes, and I made a spicy brown mustard dressing to go on top. It was perfect and now I think this should be on a menu somewhere. Seriously, people would buy the hell out of a hot dog salad to go with their beer!

Looks boring but tasted delicious! A pork chop seasoned with Flavor God’s Garlic Lovers (look I just got the seasonings last week but expect to see more of it because they are delicious) and cooked in a little lard in a cast iron skillet. Along with fresh corn on the cob with a little grass-fed butter.

We were out of salad stuff and I had no desire to run to the grocery store close to the weekend. So I looked in the fridge and saw there was some cabbage that needed used up. I made a quick slaw with purple cabbage, shredded carrot, corn cut off the cob, and some bacon. A dijon dressing on top and I added some avocado as well.

So good that I’m definitely making the slaw again this week!

Leftover slaw with some Applegate Farm’s pepperoni and prosciutto on the side along with a little sharp cheddar cheese.

I totally inhaled that slaw too!

Since we have been eating better for several weeks now my body has caught up with the new routine. I’ve been hungry in the afternoons for a little lunch so I’ll be adding in lunch to the Monday Meals post.

Supplies:

All pork, chicken, and eggs from Jodar Farms.

Some veggies from the farmer’s market.

Applegate products from Whole Foods.

Flavor God seasonings

Upcoming Week:

The goal is to not eat out at all this week and looking at our schedule for the upcoming week this should be an achievable goal.

I feel like the Monday Meals posts are getting a tad long so I might break it up into smaller posts through out the week. I’m still toying around with that idea. Also please let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to cover! Pantry staples or grocery shopping tips for example. I’ll be sure to make a post on it and let you know when it’s up!

Have a great week everyone and get those meal plans together!

Monday Meals: Too Much Take Out

July 14, 2014Andrea 2 Comments

We had a lot of takeout this week and it was a little disappointing. Both the food and the fact that we ordered out so much. By Sunday I told Scott that I was done with eating out unless it’s really special and we make it count.

Meaning it’s got to be a restaurant that we know serves quality food and it’s worth the effort and the money to eat there.

Why spend money on crappy food? This is what I was asking myself by the end of the week.

Most of us probably need to ask ourselves that more often. Crappy food does nothing for us. It doesn’t nourish us, it causes havoc on our digestion, and we pay money for that.

That’s just silliness.

This past week also made me realize that my body is over crap food. When I eat it, my body reacts right away, like, “Ugh why are you doing this to me? We were eating so well and it was soooo good! This is horrible.”

I usually end up eating an apple or something to try and make my body feel better.

This week the goal is to only eat out once or twice. Most likely that will be on Sunday because we are traveling down to Boulder for the day. Boulder has more variety of options for food and I’m excited to see what all is available to us!

On to eats!

BREAKFAST:

Veggie bowl! I cut the corn kernels off of the cob and sauteed that in ghee with some chopped purple cabbage, shredded carrot, and some chopped onion. Seasoned with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Very yummy and colorful breakfast!

I prepped some sweet potatoes for the week. I peeled and chopped two very large sweet potatoes, tossed them in a little olive oil and roasted them at 400 until they were just shy from being tender. Then I used them for breakfasts for the rest of the week.

This sweet potato bowl has roasted red pepper chicken sausage. Everything was heated up in a skillet in a little lard and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Having the pre-roasted sweet potatoes on hand makes things so much faster and easier to create breakfast during the week.

Lots of scrambled eggs, more sweet potatoes, and a few slices of bacon. Easy and filling!

Probably the saddest breakfast! A large piece of fried chicken and some nectarine slices. I had some leftover fried chicken in the freezer that needed used up. I didn’t eat the coating, it’s tasty but a little too heavy. This was the end of the week and I was running out of foods!

I had some plantains that needed used up as they were getting a little too ripe. I tried my hand at making some pancakes with them. I’m on the right track with the batter, I just need to tweak it a little bit more.

Having these for breakfast, while delicious, my body needs a little bit more in the mornings. Protein and fiber from veggies or fruit. This didn’t fill me up for long and by noon I wanted to gnaw my arm off.

Ham and swiss hand pies with grain free crust. I need to work on this a bit more to get the crust right so that it isn’t quite so dense and can be rolled out.

There is a French bakery here that makes the most amazing ham and cheese croissants. I tried to make clean eats version but it still needs a lot of work! Also, I’m not at all saying that this compares to French pastries in anyway because it doesn’t. I wanted to experiment and see if I could make a hand pie turnover thing. Close but not quite there!

DINNER:

Last week I mentioned that we were going to have pho for dinner and we did. It was so yummy! I get the chicken pho with chicken broth. The chicken is a little on the sketchy side so I try to avoid it and load up with onions and bean sprouts instead. It was delicous!

I had the leftovers for breakfast the next morning and that wasn’t so delicious. It turned sweet and a little strange. I’m going to stick with a smaller portion next time we order out.

I also got some fried rice which was actually amazing. It was full of flavor and not in the slightest way greasy. Now I know they used a less desirable oil to cook this in but for a treat I was pleased with it.

This was my big kitchen fail of the week. I attempted to make a quick grain-free pizza. I’m not sure what happened but the crust turned out awful. It smelled and tasted like cooked shrimp. EW I added baking soda and vinegar to this dough hoping to get a little more rise but I think that might have been the issue. Those two things didn’t react well with the other ingredients and so we had a very horrible tasting pizza. Ugh.

We tried to remedy that with takeout pizza which also wasn’t the best. We tried a new pizza joint in town that was rumored to have great gluten-free crusts. After researching, I learned that it’s a pre-made crust (from a company in Loveland but still, not house made) and is frozen. It’s smaller in size and costs $3 more.

For my money I would be getting a frozen pizza crust that isn’t even the same size as a regular pizza AND it costs more than the regular pizza.

Sorry but I’m not that dedicated to the cause.

Gluten doesn’t give me digestion distress, it only causes me to be a little bloaty and feel sluggish. These are things I actually can live with if the pizza is worth it.

This pizza is not worth it. We got the regular crust and just were not impressed with the pizza overall.

Roast chicken (sort of) and mashed potatoes and turnips. I learned a lot from this meal.

1. You can cook a whole chicken in a slow cooker and it won’t take nearly as long as you think. This chicken was ready in about 5 hours. Sure the skin won’t be crispy but the chicken is tender and has a more intense chicken flavor to it.

2. My body hates turnips. As soon as I ate them my stomach bloated up like an inflated balloon, and I was gassy the rest of the night. TMI? You’ll live.

I haven’t had a reaction like that to a vegetable before so that was definitely an interesting experience! But no more turnips, ugh.

Ham and cheese hand pies were not enough so I made us something else for lunch. I had a craving for seafood so I busted out the shrimp.

Spiralized three yellow squash. Roasted some chopped tomatoes at 400 degrees. Coated some shrimp with olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning and roasted those at 400 until done. About 10 minutes. Caramelized some onions in some ghee, added the squash noodles, more ghee and lemon pepper seasoning. At the end I added the tomatoes and topped everything with the roasted shrimp.

Delicious and totally what my body needed!

I used the leftover chicken and broth from the earlier in the week to make soup. Broth chicken, shredded carrots, chopped onions, celery, and potatoes all went into the slow cooker and cooked all day long.

It was comforting and tasty way to end the week!

Despite all the take out, this was a great week! I experimented in the kitchen, sure there was a huge fail, but shit happens. I learned that I can cook a whole chicken in a slow cooker which is perfect for when I don’t want to heat up the whole kitchen. I discovered that turnips hate me and not to ever make shrimp pizza again.

This week I’m busting out the meal plan and making sure everything is ready to go!

Monday Meals: Anniversary Week

July 7, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

How did everyone do with eats last week? Surprisingly our eats weren’t too bad! It was our anniversary week so we did indulge a bit but nothing crazy. This week though I’m ready to get back on track and eat well throughout the week.

We are having pho tonight for dinner and I couldn’t be more excited! It was supposed to be our last celebratory meal for the weekend, grabbing some takeout on Sunday while we snugged on the couch and watched Pacific Rim (Save yourself, don’t watch that movie. Really bad and cheesy.). Then we learned that they were closed on Sunday.

GASP!

Pho Blocked.

So we are having it this evening. And while it probably doesn’t fall into the clean eats category, I have to say it isn’t a horrible choice. It’s better than pizza for sure!

Speaking of pizza, there’s a new place here that is doing wood fired gluten free pizza and very curious to try their pizza. Not grain-free dough but eh, sometimes we have to live a little.

I’ve done some prep work already for this week. Still trying to work out what day would best fit my schedule for a prep day. Sundays and Mondays are super busy. I’m kind of stuck on what day. Maybe Friday? I can do big grocery shopping that day and then prep the rest of the day for the following week.

Let’s look at some eats!

BREAKFAST:

Sauteed chard with sausage bites and scrambled eggs. Whenever I make sausage, I make a whole package at the same time. We eat a portion of it that morning and the rest goes in the freezer for later. Then it’s ready to go when I need it. I do the same with bacon, I cook up 2 pounds of it at a time.

Not much a fan of this breakfast, the chard ended up being really slimy and just gross so I stuck with the eggs and sausage.

Shredded sweet potato cakes! 1 large sweet potato, shredded and mixed with two eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder. I cooked them up in some ghee in a skillet. With a fried egg and two big slices of tomato on the side. Delicious! The sweet potato cakes were a big it, both Scott and I loved them.

I prepped a huge batch of collards for the week by cooking them in the crock pot with a ham hock. I heated up some leftover brats and paired that with the collards. One of the best breakfasts! So filling and satisfying.

The next day was the rest of the collards and shredded ham hock soup! Just added stock and some extra seasonings. Mmmm even in summer, soup is still one of my favorite breakfasts.

Tried my hand at making some grain free chocolate donuts and they turned out really well! I still want to play around with the recipe a bit and as soon as it’s ready I will share. They were fluffy and full of chocolatey goodness!

Pretty standard weekend breakfast, fried eggs, pork sausage, and some roasted potatoes. YUM!

This breakfast/brunch I loved! Fried eggs with a side salad topped with avocado and tomato salsa. That was easy to put together:

Two medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3TBSP Chopped Red Onion
1 Large Avocado, chopped
Leftover corn on the cob, removed from the cob
3TBSP Chopped Cilantro
Juice of 1 Lime
Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder

Combine in a glass bowl and stir. Let sit for at least 5 minutes before serving. This was used as the salad topping and it was so fresh tasting. Definitely a nice squeaky clean breakfast.

DINNER:

Steak house dinner! Some grass-fed NY strips with horseradish mash potatoes and a side salad. Also some horseradish cream sauce to dip the steaks in. I didn’t think I would eat the whole steak but I totally did, it was so good!

The mash potatoes had sour cream, butter, whole grain mustard, and horseradish in them. This gave the dish some nice tang and spicy bite.

Our first cookout of the season! Grilled brats and kielbasa with grilled peppers and onions and a side of potato salad. I used homemade mayo for the potato salad. This tasted so so good! We definitely need to make time to grill out more often.

Pork ribs and homemade cole slaw. The ribs were cooked in the oven and I used a homemade bbq sauce on top. The sauce was made for a recipe development gig so I can’t share that with you. I can say that it incorporated beer though!

Leftovers! With some corn on the cob and some meatballs (from the same gig). Corn is one of those grains that I’m not sure I want to give up just yet. Rice and corn are two that I still love and they don’t seem to mess my system up too much.

Scott and I had gone out to dinner during the week to a local fish place. I had the lobster roll sandwich (ate the insides and left the roll) and it was very fresh tasting and not heavy at all. I decided to recreate a version of it using some leftover snow crab that I had in the freezer. I mixed the crab with some mayo, red onion, celery, lemon juice, and old bay seasoning. That was placed on a bed of fresh romaine with some avocado, bacon, and tomatoes added on top.

So freaking good. I’m going to try this with smoked salmon! I think the salmon and avocado will work well together.

Since we didn’t get pho on Sunday, we had a snack plate instead.

Carrots
Grapes
Salami
Prosciutto
Rice crackers
Cheeses

It was tasty and fun to eat but it didn’t really fill the hole left by no pho.

Your turn, how was your holiday week?

Happy 4th

July 4, 2014Andrea Leave a comment

Happy 4th of July! Not only is it a holiday weekend but it’s also our anniversary this weekend. Whooo!

I have a few things to wrap up for client work today and then the rest of the weekend is free!

I was hoping to be grilling some lovely ribs and corn on the cob today but the weather may have other plans as it looks like it’s about to storm.

Our holiday meal is going to look like this:

Braised ribs with some homemade BBQ sauce. I had to make some sauce for a client so we’ll be using that (and why I can’t share the recipe.). But I have shared my Bourbon BBQ Sauce and Hatch Green Chili Sauce, so check those out and impress folks with homemade BBQ sauce. Perfect for chicken too!

Coleslaw with homemade mayo

Buttery salty corn on the cob. Not nearly as good as Ohio sweet corn but it will have to do.

For dessert, I made some clean eats friendly chocolate pudding. I will be sharing that recipe soon! And we have some non-clean eats friendly local ice cream in the freezer. I’m leaning more towards chocolate though!

And we’ll be pulling out some special beers from the beer cellar to celebrate!

Have a great holiday weekend!

Food Embrace

Embrace Food, Embrace Life

Menu

Widgets

Search

Veggies

Midweek Checkin

Going Reduced Grain

BREAKFAST

DINNER

SNACK

Curry Chicken Salad

Walk About

Monday Meals: Good Week

Cowboy Burgers

Monday Meals: Utilizing What’s On Hand

Monday Meals: Too Much Take Out

Monday Meals: Anniversary Week

Happy 4th