Fuel : Lunchtime salad

Coach T says that if i'm still hungry, it's because i need more fat in my diet.

I love chicken skin and bacon as much as the next guy, but I've got eight children and there just plain isn't enough skin to go around :)...

Other great ways to increase your fat intake is: olive oil dressings, butter slathered on roasted meat, nuts (salted or not) and nut butters, coconut oil.

But one of my favourite fat sources is avocado.  It's full of minerals, has a delicious, smooth taste, can be added to eggs, sandwiches or salads, and fills you up!

Plus, I find that as mom i can either feed me or feed the troops, and eight little mouths certainly outvote my paleo tummy...  So i end up making carby foods for their breakfast, and grabbing quick whatever i can find to fill my tummy as they get going.  This morning (and lunch) it was a peach and some leftover ham!

This salad is super easy to make with leftover salad, taco fixings, or to just make up for a one person salad bowl.  A plain oil and vinegar dressing is great, but add in some mashed avocado, and a little dab of dijon mustard, and it's a whole 'nother world.

One more delicious trick is grinding up sesame seeds into a paste in the blender, and using the pea sized chunks as "croutons"...

Fast and easy!

Fuel : Garden Season - Beets!

The day after i processed all the kale (kale chips, but i also blanched and froze two bags full and made kale and beef for dinner, which was yummy, kind of like a healthier hamburger helper), i decided to tackle the beets.

I already had borscht and i thought instead of making more, why not just process them so that i can do whatever i want with them  later on?

I love roasted beets with my roasted pork or beef, and they are delicious just as a side dish.

My friend Zoe used to make beetroot pickles and i remembered she told me all i needed to do was to peel and slice beets and put them in vinegar.

So, first i cut off the beet greens, chopped them up to eatable size, blanched and froze those.

Then, i washed off the beetroots, and let them cook in the boiling water for 25 minutes, till they were nice and cooked.

The children loved the "bloody" looking water in the sink afterwards!

I drained them, and sliced them up.

The little ones i peeled (just by rubbing with my fingers, the peels slid off easily), sliced, and put into two little pint jars with cider vinegar for easy beet pickles.

The bigger ones i cut off the tops and sliced in coins for roasting or soups later on, and filled four bags full.

Then i was hungry, so i opened one of the bags, slathered the beets in sour cream and fresh dill (also thanks to Shawnelle!) and had lunch...

MMMMMmmmmm....

Fuel : Garden Season - Kale chips!

My friend, Shawnelle, brought over a few children to play with mine, and a whole lot of produce.

I felt rich!  Fresh goat's milk, goat cheese, herbs, and a huge bag  of kale and another of beets.

I had just made and canned 11 quarts of borscht (mmm....), so i was thinking of things to do with beets, and what on earth to do with all that kale?

But, we have found a winner recipe!

And best of all, paleo friendly :)

For months/years people have told me about kale chips.  Finally, a chance to try it out.  I decided to try two methods and have a taste test with the littles.

First, to prepare the kale - wash the huge leaves free of caterpillars and their eggs.  Then, using a sharp knife, cut out the tough inner vein.  Then, tear them into roughly potato chip size pieces.

After they were all torn up and clean, i put a few handfuls in a big ziploc bag, poured in some olive oil, and gave them a nice massage through the bag, getting oil all over them.

Then, i took them out of the bag one by one and spread them on a cookie sheet (being careful to spread them out flat) or a dehydrator tray.  Sprinkled with coarse salt, and some batches with table salt (table salt was much less salty).

Then, i put the cookie sheets in the oven at 300 degrees, and the dehydrator sheets into the dehydrator at top temperature.

The oven baked kale chips were ready after about 20 minutes or so - they got a little golden and were completely dry and crumbled to tasty dust as we crunched on them.

 In paleo eating, i often crave something crispy and this fit the bill.  I also have a history of kidney stones, and these are full of oxalic acid, so when i eat them, i have to be careful to drink a lot of water!

The dehydrated chips came out the next morning, and they were surprisingly still beautifully green.  Crispy, yes, but some of them were still chewy.  Probably if we had left them in the dehydrator a little longer, they would get just as crispy.  They did have far more "kale" taste than the other chips, which i thought was a plus.

But the children all voted for the oven baked.  I think we will end up making both, as the dehydrated kale chips are likely more nutritious.

Fuel : Coach T's Coconut Curry

Once summer is over, I'll be doing most of the cooking again.  Coach is a principal,  and has the summer off, and loves cooking, which equals easy street for me, kitchen wise.

And I am so grateful he likes cooking so much *and* loves nutrition and fitness.  I sure wouldn't be making as much of an effort to lose those baby pounds if i didn't have him on my side and in the kitchen :)

Here is our dinner tonight - sweet potatoes on the side, and Coach's famous coconut curry.

Coach T's Coconut  Curry

8-10 chicken breasts

1 can coconut milk

lots of curry powder

garlic and onion

cinnamon

salt, pepper

chop up chicken breasts, fry in olive oil with spices.  Once browned, add coconut milk.  Season to taste, and let simmer till cooked through.

Fuel : Proteiny, savoury eggs in a muffin tin!

Like most things in life, the inevitable craving for carbs can fixed with the judicious application of bacon!

Coach T loves these little "muffins", which are super easy to bake and are super tasty!

We tweaked this recipe from allrecipes.com, so it's always a little different...

Bacon and Eggs in a Muffin Tin

Preheat oven to 350.
Bake bacon on a cookie sheet (this reduces the mess!) till well done but not completely crispy. 

But a little knuckle of butter inside each muffin cup.
Curl a bacon slice around the inside of the muffin cup, and break some up to make a "bottom", too.

Sprinkle a little cheddar in each muffin cup, then break an egg into each one.  Top with jalapeno bits and a little more cheddar, and any leftover bacon crumbs.

(Coach T likes to switch up what cheeses he uses, or add in onion instead of jalapeno, or red peppers, too)

Bake in preheated oven for ten to fifteen minutes.

Delicious!!!  I have frozen these so he can grab them for a quick breakfast (when he isn't doing the intermittent fasting, which i guess will be another post one of these days...) :)  But in general, they go way too quick to save.

Fuel : Simple, Clean Suppers

I feel a little guilty blogging about meals i didn't make (except for the chicken!).  Coach T loves cooking and is a lot less utilitarian than I am.  Still, he makes meat, a veggie, and that is it.  No breads on the side, no carbs, but still... tasty!

One simple thing we do with a lot of our veggies is roasting a la Jamie Oliver.  (Click the link for the recipe!) In one of his shows, he had a huge pan of cut up veggies and poured on a "big glug" of olive oil, tossed it all up with his hands, shook generous coarse salt and pepper on it, and threw it in the roaster with his meat.  It looked beautiful, and when we tried it out, it *tasted* wonderful, too!

So, we tend to roast veggies a lot.  Some, like the sweet potatos in the top photo surprise us with how delicious they are later on, cold.  We left the skins on, and they were delicious cold as boats in our bedtime snack.

The pork ( top photo) is just marinated and cooked in a chimichurri sauce, and the chicken (second photo) was "fancy" - Coach T asked me to mix seasoning salt with butter and lift the skin all over the chicken and stuff in the seasoned butter.  Usually i just use a lot of seasoning salt and make sure to baste but the added butter did make the meat extra tasty!  They end up tasting just like the rotisserie chickens you buy at the supermarket!

The tomato and mozzarella salad is his summer favourite, and I love it too!

Here is the recipe:

Coach T's Summer Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

6-8 ripe tomatoes, cut into 1" cubes
2-3 cups mozzarella, cut into 1" cubes
2 tsp basil
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste


optional add ins: pine nuts, and feta :)

Fuel : Snack time

If you've tried to  lose weight before, the idea of a bedtime snack may not seem like a good idea.  But if you've been in the Zone, you'll know where we're coming from.  Three meals, two snacks, all balanced carbs/protein/good fat.

This is what Coach T made me for my bedtime snack.  Mmmm....

Being paleo doesn't mean following all the Zone rules, but we do find they mesh pretty well, and following the Zone may be better if you are the type of person who likes to count calories, or measure portions, or who is apt to cheat :)  just a tiny little bit!

Right now, we're loosely following Zone/Paleo/ketogenic diet rules - low carbs (and good carbs over refined, no white sugar/flour), adequate protein, and high(er) fat.  It's so delicious!  And, i lost another pound this week :)....

Fuel: Breakfasts and Lunches

Breakfast is probably the easiest time to be paleo/primal.  Really, all it means is that you get to have delicious first thing in the morning.

I love toast and muffins as much as anyone, but it's not really a great way to start the day.  I know i feel logy and then ravenous an hour later when i eat bread for breakfast, but paleo breakfasts fill you up and give you energy for the morning.

I've been cruising paleo blogs  this  morning, looking for ideas, and there are some super creative people out there!  For instance,

Nomnompaleo's  sweet potato hash (she has an ipad app,  too!)

MultiplyDelicious' Paleo Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Mark Sisson's Mini Crustless Quiche

These delicious bacon wrapped muffin tin eggs from Allrecipes.com (Coach T loves these with a little extra chili chopped up and mixed in)

or

these labour intensive but yummy sounding 

breakfast salmon burgers from The Paleo Network

We are a little more boring - but doable!  Coach T does intermittent fasting, so he never eats breakfast, and frequently not lunch either, so i'm kind of on my own with the children for those meals.

I usually have eggs for breakfast - fried.  I don't require a lot of variety :) first thing in the morning - and eggs are easy and quick to do, and easily dressed up with cheese, avocado slices or guacamole, sides of salsa and/or sour cream, and if i have any leftover meat, pretty much anything can get fried up and then eggs poured over it.

I especially love when we have leftover pork roast - carnitas (crispy fried bits of pork) are so delicious on the side, or scrambled up with eggs!

The other awesome thing is bacon - it feels a little decadent, but bacon doesn't take too long to fry up in the pan - i add it in a few minutes before i start my eggs and end up with one dirty pan.  Of course, if i'm making paleo for all the children, too - i bake the bacon on a cookie sheet in the oven under the broiler.  It's finished super quick and i can do a pound at a time.

Coach T's lunch - leftover taco moose, with spices, mixed into scrambled eggs, with salsa on the side.

Lunches are easy, too - i make big amounts of dinner, and usually use the leftover protein for lunch,  something like the above!  This is all about quick and easy.  We are taking time over the summer to assemble more paleo recipes for variety over the winter months (and even through the summer!  I love these roast beef tacos by nomnompaleo!), but often with eight children, just getting something on the table and into our bellies is an accomplishment.  So we're going for fuel,  which occasionally is beautiful, rather than food porn every day :).

Fuel: The Simpler the Better

Because i'm feeding ten people most of the time, I'm usually making huge amounts of food.  I love making a big roast, or ham, or a few chickens at a time, and having leftover meat - it's always good to have an emergency protein ready to go.

I have a little crate of hardboiled eggs in the fridge right now, cheese, and no leftover meat!

Even though we made a huge ham, it went fast.

So, here is a fast and easy dinner.  Just meat, and watermelon.  Easy, "allowed", and simple.  You don't need a ton of starchy sides!  Try it!

Fuel: Son of Grok!

We first came across this recipe at Mark's Daily Apple - another paleo eater called son of Grok invented this, and it's surprisingly satisfying.

We DO eat meat other than ground beef!  And we'll get there soon.  This is just what Coach T wanted to make today, and i'm willing, as usual...

Son of Grok

mmmm.....  primal!

Brown 2 lbs meat (we used ground moose, but whatever kind of ground meat you have will work)

Season with chili powder, seasoning salt, onion powder, whatever you like to make it mexican - if he had taco seasoning, he would have used that.

Serve!

OKAY, It's a little fancier than that.  Serve, with green salsa, sour cream, and homemade guacamole on the side.  Delicious!

We had burritos for the children, but most of them chose to have Son of Grok with us instead...  yay!

Homemade guacamole

based loosely on the Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen

We also eat meals other than dinner... more on that coming up :)

Tonight's workout:

3 rounds of this:

1 minute rowing machine

1 minute kettlebell swings (i used the 8k baby one)

1 minute jumping pullups (like a chinup, only you jump up and lower yourself slowly - killer)

1 minute shoulder press thrusters (i used 8 k dumbbells)

1 minute squats

1 minute rest

And i should confess (do i have to?) that although breakfast and dinner were both paleo, the middle of the day was a total write off - six of seven littles were sick, and so was i, so we voted to do school on Friday instead and take Monday off. Very sweet. I don't feel much better, but we'll have to get the show on the road tomorrow - i don't think i can handle that much nothing :)...

Anyway, no cookies tomorrow! I'm turning a blind eye to my 3 yo sneaking into the kitchen as i write - i know it means one less butterscotch almond cookie to tempt me...

T downloaded the Robb Wolf podcast for me to listen to, and has an abstract (?!) of the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" - less about a specific diet, more of studies on nutrition. We'll try to keep to this for now. Sometimes it's just too hard for me :) But i want it to work! Tomorrow's a new day...

Saturday night workout

T's taking care of me in that "tough love, make me workout and cook me paleo meals" kinda way. When i say it that way, it sounds pretty stupid to complain, doesn't it? He's a good man. I'm gonna lose those last 15 lbs.

somehow.

Tonight's workout:

Tonight's workout:

21 thrusters (with 20 lb dumbbells)

21 rows (on chin dip station)

500m row

15 thrusters

15 rows

500 m row

9 thrusters

9 rows

500 m

tonight's paleo dinner:

Smokey Cauliflower and Sausage from the Low Carb cookbook - delicious! All melty with cream cheese and cheddar - very very rich, but the spicy sausage cut through and the cauliflower was perfect. I think i love fauxtatoes almost as much as the real thing. Almost. I am part Irish :)...

thursday workout

for me, Thursdays are the new Fridays... We only homeschool four days a week, so that i can get caught up on appointments, shop, do mom stuff like practice my mandolin, or knit or sew (i have the cutest little purse cut up and half sewn, just calling my name around the corner here)...

So tonight is my "hooray, pressure's off" night. Dh, not so much. He bought some red wine on the way home from work, we did a hard workout, and he's up in bed, waiting for me. So this had better be quick! I hate when he falls asleep before me...

Tonight's workout (which i was dragged into kicking and screaming - bad attitude tonight, but I STILL DID IT and that's the moral of the story, that or T's angelic nature for putting up with me, even when i decided after the fourth set to actually go change out of my jeans so i could get my feet in the tubing for the chin ups... oh, let's not split hairs...)

Tonight's workout:

Tonight's workout:

10 sets of

3 deadlifts (so basically, a dumbbell complex, followed by chinups

3 power cleans and i used 15 lb dumbbells, and i probably should

3 forward squats have used 20 lb ones, but like i say every time,

3 thrusters NEXT TIME!!!)

5 chinups

Paleo, yes, i have been *pretty* good. I had a few french fries yesterday but apart from that, i've been clean all week, and tomorrow is CHEAT DAY! You have no idea how much i look forward to cheat day...

I'm looking into GFCF for my second son, and groaning inwardly at the thought of yet more dietary gymnastics. But i think i really do need to try this and see if it will make a difference. The good news - we're already halfway there by eating paleo - so long as we cut out the dairy. The sad news - i need to seriously beef up the excitement factor of eating paleo if i want to get my 9 yo to eat this way for weeks on end. So looking for excitement. paleo cookies and chocolate almond balls to start out, but i need variety to get me to longevity. Combing blogs that are GF give me ideas for *him*, but i need paleo ideas i think, so i can still keep the eaters in this family into two camps - paleo, and not...

These are my concerns :) and my workout, and the end of my day!

Tonight's workout and a pork roast recipe...

Tonight's workout:

30 rows on chin dip station

50 swings with 15 lb kettlebell

50 situps

15 standing press with 15 lb dumbbells

30 squats

25 rows

30 deadlifts with 15 lb dumbbells

15 knees to elbows ( call this captain's chair, but it's T's workout)

50 pushups (i did girl ones since my arms are aching from yesterday's workout still..)

Tonight's dinner:

T's tomatoey pork roast

a nice sized pork roast (enough to feed a family of nine!)

cooked with a can of tomatoes

a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

worcestershire sauce

two diced onions

four cloves garlic

a couple of cloves

a couple of Tbsp chili powder

Oven at 350, 45 minutes

side dish - spaghetti squash...

it was tender delicious!

Deck of Death

Today we went down to "the valley" to check out the new butcher shop - it's called Yukon Sausage, and we picked up a whole bunch of meats to try out. So far, i can vouch for the deli meats - shaved thin like butterfly wings... mmmm

Then we got home, had some potty excitement with Mimi (she rocks! She is totally doing this all by herself - i just have to help her get up on the potty!)

THEN.... the Deck of Death.

And it sure was. it wasn't a lack of strength - in fact, i think i need to step up to the 20 lb dumbbells.. But i have no power! No endurance! I've had a whole week off, and no sleep for 2 weeks (well, almost three weeks) now... (with the shining exception of last Wednesday night on which babe Meow slept angelically all the way through...

Anyway, Deck of Death may not have been explained on this blog before, so i will give a quick explanation of a neat little workout.

What you need: a deck of cards and whatever you need for four different exercises. I did rows (using our chin station), pushups, captain's chair (again using the chin station) and thrusters, using 15 lb dumbbells...

Shuffle the deck of cards, and assign a suit to each exercise - chin ups = hearts, pushups = diamonds etc. Then turn over the first card. Do however many reps of that exercise as the card is work - for instance, a face card is worth ten, so you would do ten reps of that exercise. Aces are worth eleven. And when you are very tired, it seems the whole deck is face cards. But it's not. I checked.

We're back on the paleo wagon today and with a fridge full of good meats, i'm excited about another week of healthy eating!

Paleo readings and Margie Mom!

>
http://www.nerdheaven.dk/~jevk/paleo_intro.php

T made me read this article today and it was a good (although grammatically weak) explanation of the paleo diet, and some trouble shooting.

I liked it because he seemed to recognize that we are all individuals and will follow the diet in different ways, and be motivated by different things.

On another blog i was reading last night, America Peals (accessed from the www.paleomama.com website), a reader commented on using "personal marketing" images - i.e. stick my head onto a model's body and put it on the fridge to help remind myself of my goals.

Thing is, my goal is to eat healthy, to be at a healthy weight - and i do know that no matter how fit i get, there are certain things that won't change - i will still be 5'2 - i will still have borne seven children and have the stretch marks to prove it.

Lately, i'm finding that my motivation comes more from the way eating right makes me feel. When i'm down, i don't care much, i eat crap and feel worse. But if i can break the cycle somewhere, it influences the other half of the equation, too...

paleo, now with workouts!

well, we haven't done anything dramatically different lately, except for the breaking of our paleo vows for Christmas. Even though we weren't too too crazy, we still feel rotten - i drove home from my sister's beautiful Christmas two day party with a stomach like a lead balloon, but we are getting back to paleo foods (lunch was leftover chicken in tomato sauce with mozza melted on top - yummy!) and back to exercise.

My two (younger) sisters are both very beautiful and every time around this year i vow to get a new hair cut, buy some clothes (done!) and in every respect, be a worthy sister in the trio :) - so today starts our "at least try a little, Stephanie" regime...

Hair cut booked (by sweet T) for tomorrow, new clothes bought, paleo foods consumed, and exercises will forthwith be blogged here (instead of my homeschooling mom blog, which i'm sure might be a relief for some of my friends there)...

I'm behind by quite a few workouts - the month of December didn't leave a ton of room for blogging - as Yoda would say "Blog or workout. There is no both" (or something like that, maybe a little less dorky)

Today's workout:

Tabatas

(consisting of 20 seconds of full out exercise, then 10 seconds of rest - for eight minutes. We use a premixed tabata mix that has heavy metal/prog interspersed with beautiful classical or acoustic guitar so we don't have to check our watches)

These were the exercises today:

rows (i use the chin/dip station)

pushups

situps

squats

at some point, babe Meow decided she needed some mama love, so partway through my form got sloppy and i did one round of rows with her clinging to my neck and balancing on my chest (and almost puked then)...

I'm working in lightshop with all of our Christmas pictures (well, most of them) and i would like to get out of the house and enjoy a little more winter wonderland this week before T goes back to work, but there's a game today (football? hockey?) and it's his vacation after all, so we will veg in front of flickering boxes, and let the children run wild and forage for food amid the chocolate/cookie detritus...

Update on half hearted paleo...

I am not a very faithful paleo girl, but dinners have been paleo pretty regularly around here, and often the two other meals are too (at least for me)...

and i'm down to the lowest weight i've been since having baby #7! So excited about that - i'm sure it has to do with a little more frequent workouts lately, too, but it's nice to see *results* when you are wanting to lose weight. I don't have a ton to lose (twelve pounds would be fine), but I remember what it felt like getting down there again after baby #6 and fitting into the clothes i bought and feeling more like me, less weighed down and self conscious...

I am also feeling more clear headed this time around. I think going 100% right at the beginning was maybe a little much for my system (although it's how it works with both dh and i - we'd rather jump right in than go halfsies at first - we're wholehearted :)...) - It's worked great for dh, but my not quite as committed version is working too... We are feeling healthy and happy, and full, and eating foods we like...

Not bad!

Workouts

OH, i do have pictures of food :)

but first, workouts:

Sunday - dumbbell complex - 20 minutes of 5 deadlifts, 5 cleans, and 5 thrusters every minute (i did seven and then nursed the baby before heading out to choir... )

Monday - "Fran" but modified (www.crossfit.com) - 21 thrusters with 15 lb dumbbells, 21 rows, 15 db thrusters, 15 rows, 9 db thrusters, 9 rows. Quick and effective!

As for food, we are getting to a good place.

We are still subbing in chocolate flavoured protein powder as i can stand that in warm water (hot chocolate!) - and it makes a great meal replacement...

But dinners are getting easier as i just let go of a lot of baked side dishes, and just enjoy meat and veggies...

The other night T made chicken breasts on the bone with roasted root veggies:

Chicken - he sprinkled seasoning salt on the breast portions, then baked them.

Root veggies - sliced in thick rounds, rubbed with canola oil, sprinkled with seasoning salt, baked in the oven

Mustard sauce - 1/4 c. grainy mustard with a teaspoon of honey, and a half cup of heavy cream,heated through - Season with salt and pepper.

Delicious! The meat was juicy and delicious, and the sauce was excellent...

"Am I good at workouting?" asks Lulu as we walk down the stairs to meet Daddy, beaming in front of a white board.

"I love workouting with you and Haven. Cause Haven an' me hold hands an' kiss in between our situps. We're best friends" he says matter of factly about his big sister.

We were down to only five children tonight - our littlest and our biggest girls were just wiped out today, and went to bed early.

Our workout was a little late, too, as i prepped for the school week, pulling books on the ancient Americas, photocopied worksheets, maps, coloring pages, wrote out my plan for the week, and organized everyone's day for tomorrow...

But finally we are down there and this is the workout:

"Race to One Hundred!"

Pick any exercise you like. You will do one hundred of that exercise. If you can do all one hundred in a big long stretch, bully for you! You will be done soon! If not, every time you take a break, you have to pay for your break before you restart the count, by doing ten burpees.

Burpees aren't my favourite.

I chose squats (body weight) and i got to 50 before my quads were burning (they've been the stars in our workouts lately so there's always a little stiffness the last few days) - and i did two sets of 50, with my ten burpees in the middle...

T is still working out, although the children have all run upstairs for a banana before bed, and i am not hearing any noise at all. We're all pretty tired i guess. Hopefully a good sleep will set us all right for a fun week!

Paleo is still going okay. I'm not as good as T at avoiding carby snacks. Especially when there are treats in the house for coffee, but the majority of what i eat is caveman, and during the week there is less temptation.

Tonight's dinner was delicious -

Travis' Awesome Indian lemon chicken

Chicken breasts on the bone

separate skin from the meat.

finely chopped jalapeno, ginger, and garlic

salt, pepper, curry powder, turmeric

a little olive oil

Mix all but the chicken together. Push the mixture under the skin of the chickens.

Salt and pepper the top.

Bake at 350. Squirt lemon juice over them two or three times during the cooking.

These were delicious, yellow, lemony and a hit with everyone at the table. Wy said it was his new favourite chicken dish...

T made basmati for the children to go along, but we cavepeople ate meat and savoured every bite...