Roasting Veggies

I have two favorite food blogs right now.  One is Nom Nom Paleo and the other is Paleomg.  I have yet to follow a single recipe down to the letter, but we're getting there.  They certainly give me good ideas... like roasted broccoli.  Who would have thought?  I sure didn't.  Broccoli was always for boiling or steaming, but those days are gone!  Roasting is so good, and my daughter eats it like it's chips or something.  Definite win for our family.

My husband made the house look much better today by cleaning the kitchen floor, something I never get around to, what with working full time, cooking, cleaning dishes and more dishes, our daughter, and helping my parents with stuff.  It's been some busy times.

But now that it's all clean we can now look to getting our refrigerator fixed.  After that it's a matter of saving up money to go to Austin to buy a few less than perishable staples.

Tomorrow is gaming night since I'm off Friday, and I'm going to make chicken and gravy in the crock pot again.  It was divine last time.  This time I am going to make it without using the soup mix and use beef stock instead.  I know it seems weird to some people that I cook chicken with beef stock, but I love that extra little bit of flavor.  I am also going to roast an epic ton of broccoli.  Some of it will be for our dinner and some of it will be for my daughter to snack on.  I imagine, however, that our host's kids will eat a great deal of it as well.  They always do.

I will be well prepared this time to say no to the pizza.

I think I might roast some asparagus as well... man, that sounds good!

Ode to Broke

So, we're not doing so hot financially speaking at present, but I still managed to make an amazing dinner that is (almost) paleo.  The only cheat was some Lipton's Beefy Onion soup mix because I didn't have anything else.  Tasted divine and I'm already thinking about how I'm going to make the chicken again without the soup mix.

God, it was delicious though.

I don't do recipes though.  I just randomly throw things together usually.

Now I feel like a big fatty... well, I am one, but I really feel like I'm going to gain 5 lbs after only eating one.

My love for rutabagas and sweet potatoes combined has been reaffirmed.  I haven't had it for a while, but it certainly is still amazingly delicious even without onions and garlic.  I just salted and peppered it and cooked it in some coconut oil.  I love my food processor.  Shredded it nice and pretty.  And I made greens that were awesome smothered in the gravy that I made with the chicken stuff in the crock pot.

Hardest thing today is to not keep eating just because it is delicious.

I am debating on if I want to make acorn squash for dinner tomorrow or make a breakfast bake in the morning.  Some decisions are so hard to make.

I'll see how I feel in the morning.

Resisting Temptation

Today was a bit of a rough day.  Nothing really went right.  It all really started last night, though, with the horrible goat stew I tried to make.  I kind of had a feeling it was going to be bad when I was checking out the meat I had bought.  It really was filled with the worst cuts of meat from anything possible and working with an unfamiliar meat didn't help.

Needless to say I'm not buying goat from that supplier again.  I might try again, when the wounds have healed and my ego forgets the painful blow.

I basically wasted $20 that I didn't have to waste.  Now I'm up making stuff to eat tomorrow for my breakfast.  I think I'll just wait to eat until 10 am tomorrow so that my husband and daughter can have some of it as well.

On a bright note, I did resist the siren call of pizza as I fed it to my daughter, bite by torturous bite.  Then I left our gaming session to go get some food for my husband and I, as we ate our salad already and had nothing else prepared.  We ended up getting Mooya burgers wrapped in lettuce.  I did do some cheating and used their mayo, which undoubtedly had soybean oil and a ton of other crap in it and I had their sweet potato fries that are made with canola oil.  Minor cheats, really, but I doubt they'll set me back since the rest of the day was on point and everything else in the meals was as well.

I had to have fries though.  They have the perfect crisp to mush ratio.

Don't judge me!

Anyway, between yesterday morning and this morning I lost 3 lbs there abouts and I was super excited.  I'm pumped to keep this up, and hope to get closer and closer to eating healthy as I go along.

Right now I'm thinking about rutabaga hash and meatballs.  Will that be dinner tomorrow or will it be chicken and gravy?

I have no freakin' clue.

Left overs...

My left over liver and onions weren't all that great.  They weren't terrible, but I really didn't have an appetite for them today.  I think it's because I already had my weekly allotment of liver and I just can't make it as good as my mom.. I think it's the flour and gravy.  I'll do better next time.

On another note, other than the sausage I had in my rutabaga hash this morning I pretty much had a sugar free day other than fruit.  No bread.  No beans.  No dairy.  This is the closest I have gotten so far.  I already made my breakfast (minus the eggs) and lunch for tomorrow.

I'm not sure what I'm going to make tomorrow for dinner, but I will figure it out.

Sugar in everything!

Sugar is put in everything, I swear to God.  Does bacon really need sugar in it?  No.  No it does not.  Diced tomatoes that are steeped in garlic and olive oil?  No.  Breakfast sausage?  Nope.

Why the hell is sugar in everything?

If it isn't sugar it is some artificial stuff.  Then there is a all the added acid.  Bah!  Bah, I say!    But really, I'm steamed over the sugar.  How can we eat sugar in moderation when it's in everything.

Just disgusting.

So, I haven't been quite paleo or Whole 30 or Primal or whatever today, but I have certainly done the best I could with my meat-crust quiche.  The Bacon is applewood farms or something like that and it's uncured bacon, but still manages to have sugar in it, and of course so did the breakfast sausage.  After what I have is gone, I am going to mix my own.  I'm sure I will be able to get my hands on some unseasoned ground pork.

Then for lunch I had a bit of my left over liver and onions with cauliflower "rice".  Going to have the rest of the left overs for lunch tomorrow, so I didn't want to over do it.

Then I made some meatballs, which, in and of themselves were totally legit, but I didn't have legit tomato sauce or diced tomatoes.  I used spaghetti squash and it served to thicken the sauce quite well.  I didn't need any other starches and it served as a good pasta.  My daughter gobbled it up.  I had to control myself to leave the rest for my husband since I promised him meatballs after he got off work.

After I picked up my car that was getting treated for a nasty flat tire I made the most time consuming part of breakfast, a rutabaga hash.  It wouldn't crisp so I walked away to stop myself from going nuts and just stirring it over and over, but then I got distracted so it burnt, but it is still amazingly good... so long as I picked out the most burnt spot.  It'll be amazing with eggs in the morning.

So, other than all the hidden sugar in everything, I ate pretty darn close.

We bought some pork belly sliced up like bacon.  It tastes pretty good and we're planning to have lettuce wraps on Thursday, but what will I make tomorrow?

I'm definitely going to treat myself to a coconut milk smoothie with pineapple and bananas.  Mmmmm

My husband is losing weight and is going to be in need of new clothes soon.  He's lost almost 20 pounds in the last three weeks due to our slight changes.  I am so jealous.

Getting a little closer

My husband and I were so bad yesterday.  We not only had pizza, but we drank with friends while playing DnD.  I don't feel so good, and I can comfortably say I probably won't have any alcohol for another year or three.  I don't feel terrible, but I don't feel great either.  The pizza we chowed down on didn't help much either and kind of countered the watermelon, nuts, and dates we brought to snack on.  I think it's because we didn't have time to prepare a real meal or the food to do it.

We did get to go grocery shopping, but the meat market won't have what we wanted until Monday.  I bought some liver.  I'm going to make that up tomorrow.  I have to make my dinner before I go to work today since I'm working until 8, and I don't really have much to make since we were really banking on the meat market having the goat.  Tonight I'm going to put some pork ribs in the crock pot though, and try my hand at making these breakfast tacos.  I might even buy some bacon since I can't get any uncured pork belly until Monday.  Curse my luck.

I was going to make a meat crust quiche today, but I have nothing to put in one.  I think I'm just going to make some sausage and hash browns with what is left of my potatoes.  I'm so disappointed that my store had no rutabagas.  They haven't been looking good either.  The ones that I have seen over the past few weeks have been shriveled and sad looking.  I might have to go to the other one to see if they've had any better luck on their deliveries.  If not, I don't know what to do.  I wish I had the money for a trip down to Austin, but I don't, and Nature's Grocer in Temple has a crappy limited little produce section with only the most basic American used veggies.

When can a woman catch a break?

I asked my husband what he thought about our left over food, and he has pretty much lost any desire to eat any of it as have I.  We have also decided that pizza is out of our diet.  No more.  Unless I make it.

Since our local meat market has been pretty disappointing, I think I'm going to buy a big butt roast to crock pot for Sunday night or something.

If we're going to have grass fed anything ever, we're going to have to do po'folk paleo.  I think we're just going to get some ground pork and make our own sausage.  I'm fairly certain our butcher puts sugar in everything.

So disappointing.  Not to mention the seasonings that they tout have MSG in them.  You know, the one thing everyone is so proud that their products don't carry.

Blah.

The Adventures of Dog Walking

So, this morning I had a serious scare.  One of my neighbors has a white pit bull, and I was walking my dogs by his house, he jumped out of his backyard and came running at us.  I was terrified.  I thought he was going to kill my dogs.  Rascal would probably be the most likely to defend herself, but she was tethered to me.  I had her leash wrapped all around my wrist.  I freed her from me and she kind of danced around him and I was kicking him to try and get him away from her.

Eventually he stopped and sat down.  I was worried he'd snap at me, but I let him sniff my hand and he didn't seem hostile so I grabbed his collar and took him to his front door.  His owner seemed to take forever to get there.  Thankfully he wasn't actually serious about hurting my dogs.  I know that pit bulls are powerful dogs.  I have one of my own, after all.  I know from all the research I have done on them that they can do a lot of damage when they set their mind to it.

Thankfully this dog was not in the mind to do damage.  I think, in hind sight, he wanted to show them that it was his turf and they had best recognize that.  I'm proud of how well behaved my dogs were in the whole thing.  They didn't run away from me when I released their leashes and walked on either side of me and stayed there when I handed the dog back over.

I think I have the best pitty in the world.  Love my mongrels.

I've been trying not to snack, but work is giving us free knock off cheezits.  My co-worker brought them to the box and I had some.  Damn things are addictive.  I never should have started.  I chugged down a ton of water to try and get myself to stop and it worked pretty well.  My job is trying to sabotage me.  So much for trying to encourage us to be healthy.

On the bright side, the pile on my table is getting smaller and smaller.  I think some sausage i filtched from my parent's house, potatoes, and eggs will be on the menu for breakfast tomorrow.  No idea what I'm going to eat for lunch though.  I might brown some ground beef in soup mix, make some instant mash potatoes and mix everything up with peas and carrots.

Hmmmmm....

So not heartbroken about peas not being "Paleo" or whatever. I'll eat them! but I can live without them.

So Broke

I don't get paid for another two days, which is really not too horrible.  I'll survive.  I have plenty of junk in my kitchen to eat, not that I really want to eat it.  I think that when the cans and boxes are gone the flour and sugar is going to get donated (if closed) or tossed.  I have been reading up on Whole30 and I know that my husband and I will be doing that.  I've been planning and looking up a ton of recipes.  I have even done pricing research and I think that going Paleo won't be much more expensive on our immediate grocery bill than what we were eating before.  After all, we're cutting out chips, cookies, and my husband's overly priced Propel packets.  No crackers either.  I think I'l miss crackers in my soup most, but I think I can make soups that are so hearty I won't mind the loss.

Plus, no eating out.  We haven't done it for 3 weeks now, so I think we'll be ok.

I also kinda look like I tried to kill myself by slitting my wrists two different ways.  I cut them in creative ways while trying to get coconut meat out of the shell.  I bought three of the buggers and the second one would not cooperate to save my life.  In fact, it tried to kill me.

I'm bummed about now having anymore onions.  I don't know how I'm going to survive a whole day without an onion.  Man, what a turn around.  Before I was 19 years old I wouldn't touch onions.  I thought they were gross.  Actually, I don't think I ate vegetables.  I think carrots were the only vegetable that didn't have to be smothered in something horribly processed for me to eat it, and that's just barely.

I have been searching google like mad for stories of people's Paleo failures that go beyond a week.  Most people get the low-carb flu and quit or stick with it forever or decide that yeah, they feel great but they want their bread.  I haven't found anything that compares to what vegans and vegetarians face from weak teeth, hair loss, and other, scarier problems.  The closest thing I've seen is a guy that cut out pretty much every carbohydrate for six months and got sick from that.

I'm still looking though, since the illnesses that people got from playing pray species got me to rethink getting my family on a plant-based diet.

Gah.  Stupid brokeness, and frustrating hundreds of soup mixes I have to figure out how to go through!

Carb Counting Part 1

Today has been an interesting day.  I had a less than stellar breakfast, but it used what I had in the house to use.  I was hungry through a good chunk of work, but my breakfast lasted with me far longer than my lunch did.  My lunch lasted for about 2 hours before it left me starving.  Why did I ever eat spaghetti and meat sauce?  I mean, I love the way it tastes.  It's savory and mildly sweet with plenty of good, chewy textures.  However, it goes right through me.  I feel full and then I crash.

Sadly I'm not as done with pasta as I thought I was.

le sigh.

I "cleaned" out my pantry, which means I really just put everything on the kitchen table so that I could get a good look at it.  I need to see what I have left to use, and I think Rob and I have enough food to last us approximately two weeks... except for that we ran out of eggs.  My blood sugar won't stay in a good way out of most of the stuff we have in the house, and I'm making some "left overs" for tomorrow.  I'm going to be testing my freshly made coconut milk.  I hope it doesn't taste too bad.  If it does I'm going to have to give my husband my wonderful dinner that I made for me and the mess... and put the leftovers away for.

Not enough for him and left overs for work tomorrow.

I wish I could work without eating like my husband can.  Sadly, my crank-o-meter goes off when I'm hungry and I can't do customer service that way!

So, today was a pretty slow day in the Box, and I was thinking about carbs.  Not about counting my own personal consumption of them, but what people say about the Paleo diet and it being "low carb".  From what I've read of it so far, it isn't necessarily low carb unless someone is trying to lose weight and isn't expending enough energy to eat up their carbs before it turns to fat or whatever.

Personally, I don't see it as low carb.  I once went on a "diet" where I got shots and had pills to suppress my appetite in order for me to lose weight at a stupidly fast rate.  I was restricted to 1000 calories a day and I was told that I should keep my carb count under 30.  Do you have any idea how impossible that is?  I ate the low fat yoplait yogurt because it had volume and low calories and that had, if I remember correctly, 42 g of carbohydrates in and of itself.  It also made it impossible to eat anything but the most unappealing stuff like lettuce with 0 calorie dressing that felt like liquid rubber and didn't taste too much better.

My parents swore by that stuff and it still grosses me out thinking about it.

So, I think that I'm going to be compiling a list of things I ate on a normal day of my SAD diet in all it's horrible magnitude and count up the carbs I ate.  Then I'm going to make a list of things I ate trying to do the "heart healthy" grains, legumes, and other such foods plant based diet and do the same.  Then I will do an ideal Paleo day and see how my carb counts look.  I bet it won't be as "low-carb" as critics think.

On another note, I remember my chiropractor from days long past saying that I was allergic to milk.  I hope that isn't the case.  I'm really hoping to eat Primal.

A Plodding Pitty

Today has already been... exciting... sure.  We'll use exciting.

My daughter decided that 4:30 am was the premier time to wake up.  I let her make noises and squeal in her crib for a while hoping she'd go back to sleep, but the noises got more and more anxious as time wore on so at 5 am I forced myself out of bed and changed her diaper.  Then we snuggled in my bed for a while.  Her, the dogs, and me.  For half an hour she was still and full of snuggles and I thought I could doze off even though we haven't slept together since she was 6 weeks old, but no.  She decided that at 5:30 am it was the perfect time to start moving around.

She pet the dog, climbed all over me, and climbed on and off the bed.  Then she left the room and went to find her daddy who was sleeping on the couch (he snores so loudly it's impossible to get any sleep with him).  She gave him a kiss and startled him awake and then climbed on top of him and stood there.  He grumbled and complained so I started to get dressed to take her out to the park that would be full with runners and walkers.  In Texas summers the only time to really go outside is before 9 am and after 8 pm.  Otherwise it's just too hot.

Well, I need to get my tire checked because it's leaking air, but I scrounged up some change to fill the tire again on the way.  I got in the car and started driving towards the park.  When I looked back she was passed out so I looped back and in her crib she sleeps.  I then gave the dogs a walk.  My poor pitbull was not keeping up by the end of the walk.  He just plodded on after us.  He was so tired, while my beagle mix (mabye?) could have gone on for the least 2 hours.  But, right now they're sleeping and working off their labors.  My silly babies.

Since my husband and I are still trying to eat through the stuff we have in the house we had no more lean breakfast sausage or bacon.  So, instead I opted for the super lean ground beef chub that we got from Cosper's.  Everything in our fridge is pretty much frozen... since it's broken... so I had to brown it and I did so in garlic and one sweet pepper.  Then I added a ton of other stuff like onions, kale, and the last of my cooked spaghetti squash.  Then I fried me some eggs in butter over medium and had a nummy breakfast.  I left the rest for my husband to feed himself and my daughter with when they get up.  Theirs will likely be scrambled.

Off to get ready for work!

The End of Independence Day

So, I had a wonderful day with my family, but I had a horrible day in terms of minding my grain consumption.  I indulged in some "weight watcher's" cake (which is basically a boxed cake mix made with soda and jello instead of oil and eggs) and used a bun on one of my burgers.  I also ate some cheeto puffs.  They were literally calling my name.  I didn't eat the whole bag.  Maybe about 12 of the puffy  little balls of cheesy temptation.

But, over all, it was a good day with family and dogs.  I had the privilege of watching my daughter play quite well with my brother's girlfriend's children.  Say that three times fast! They only drank water all day (as far as beverages go) and my brother and his girlfriend were incredibly surprised how well behaved they were.  I tried to convince her to give them more water, which water and milk is about all my daughter ever drinks at home.  It isn't until she's at Nana and Granddaddy's house that she gets soda.  I want to buy a juicer eventually so that I can give her juice that I know what the ingredients are.

On another juicy note, I really want to know why Dole felt it necessary to put sugar in their watermelon juice.  I mean, for real?  Do they not realize that watermelon is adequately sweet on it's own.  Every time I eat one I contemplate the best way to eat the melon's meat and save the juice.  I wind up just shunting the seeds to the side and drinking from the plate or bowl.  No judging.

I'm really chomping at the bit to get my house emptied out of food, but I still can't resist the urge to go to the local meat market and check out the veggies the farmers deliver there (and there is so much more selection than at the farmer's market) and I want so badly to get up the courage to ask about how much their cow liver is.  I really want some liver.  Just thinking about ten pounds of cow liver makes me want to throw $2k at a farmer for a cow.  Just for the liver.. and the meat I have no place to store.

I can hardly wait for all this processed food to be devoured and gone so that I can make wholesome meals to match my wholesome breakfasts.  My husband is totally surprised about how much he enjoys having veggies for breakfast and even my daughter loves it.

Despite the slow transition, my desire to have at least one, if not two paleoesque meals a day has really started to help me lose some weight.

Fingers Crossed!

Not there yet, but feeling closer!

So, I've been resistant to the whole "grass-fed beef" thing because well... I'm not very well off.  My husband makes $5 less and hour than he did last year and make no overtime at all.  I make about $.50 more and hour and that does not, by any means make up for what we lost.  Our main bills were far less than what we made, and we were horrible about eating out.  We literally ate out all the time.  If we had loose money it went to some business that fed us tasty food that helped us pack on over 60 pounds each... and even more for me--especially after I had our daughter.

So, needless to say we're scraping our bottoms over the poverty line.  I haven't bothered with trying to get food stamps because our area has highly prejudiced people working there, and they ultimately decide how much you're going to get.  Being married to my child's father, having a mortgage, and a car note pretty much means they'd only give me $13 a month.  I kid you not on the $13.  I literally had a lady tell me that she gets $13.  That's it.  I was floored.

Needless to say.  I'm not going to waste my time at the EBT office.  I could probably qualify for wic, but with my family cutting out dairy, peanut butter, and grains... well... $6 in fruit or veggies isn't going to do me much by way of favors.  I find it mildly upsetting that government assistant only lets you buy heavily processed juices, grains, and legumes... but whatever.  I won't eat it, so there is no point in applying.

Anyway, back to the grass fed beef.

I was looking up prices for it to see if it was remotely affordable, and places like Tender Grass farms are likely to never be in my price range.. unless I finish my science fantasy series and then make millions off of them.  This could take a while.  I even found some slightly (and I do mean slightly) less expensive places, and wondered if ranch cubes ruin the grass fed lable.

My mother's family has cattle that live and (sometimes) die on their pastures.  It has never been a "for profit" business.  They had a grocery store and a convenience store, and they literally only sold their cattle to keep them from draining their resources and when the herds got too large.  My pawpaw (since papa doesn't describe how we said it) could walk up to any and all of his cattle and pet them.  If I spent about an hour outside with them, over half would let me pet them.  I played tag with their calves, and enjoyed bottle feeding the rejected twin and the orphan calves.

I even got to help in a breech birth and tried to nurse the mother back to health.  Sadly she passed, however, and her calf, Molly, was raised on the bottle with her male calf friends Roach 1 and Roach 2.  They were so adorable.  They were rejected by their mothers and my granny bought them to bring in some extra something into the herds.

So that led me wondering to how much my uncle would charge me if I wanted to butcher one of the bovines he is going to sell.  I don't have a place to keep a whole carcass, however.  I'd definitely have to get a few people to buy in with me and split the meat up.

I also have to get up the courage to ask.

Yowzer.

Anyway!  Happy 4th to anyone that stumbles on this place!  I know I haven't been checkin' out my blog so I have gotten some page views.  Take care!

Ah, the guilt

I'm still working through what I have in my fridge and pantry.  I used the last of my pasta, and will be eating spaghetti and meat sauce all day tomorrow.  That and farm fresh summer squash and onions baked to less than perfection, but decently seasoned.  It actually tastes good, but took much longer to cook than I expected.

I had to resist the urge to make a paleo dinner today.  I really need to be good about getting rid of the food I already have in my house.  I dream of chevon stew.  It will be made with rutabagas, parsnips, carrots, leeks, onions, and kale.  It will be divine.  when I have the money to buy the goat.

My 21 month old daughter got a hold of my peppers and destroyed two of the five.  I have big plans for the remaining peppers still.  I will not be denied!

Paleo Variety

So, I've been doing a lot of research on the Paleo Diet.  I've even made a couple of the recipes (in the Primal way out of necessity), and while I haven't made anything organic and grass-fed, I have to say that it's all very tasty.  That's far more than I can say for the several recipes I tried to make with the plant based diet that left my pallet and my stomach wanting.  It was so bland I stopped eating once the true edge of hunger wore off.

With the paleo diet, however, I have the whole world opened to me still.  I have found ways to make tortillas (or a rough equivalent) out of coconut flour, and it takes far less coconut flour than wheat flour to make them.  I find myself excited about the menu, and I mean genuinely excited.  Not excitedly hopeful.  I can tell these meals are going to be divine.  They use seasonings I'm used to, and have easy milk substitutes.  I made soy milk for two weeks and found it super easy and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at coconut and almond milk (mainly to make the super pricey flour and get milk at the same time).

A lack of variety in the paleo diet?  I don't think so.  I find myself looking forward to winter so that I can have access to winter squashes.  I want to make my own pumpkin puree so that I can make all sorts of pancakes, muffins, and pies for my husband.  I want to try vegetables I'd never touch before.  Do you know how many vegetables there are in the world?  I'm going to try most, if not all of them.  I'm going to buy meat I never thought of buying before, and I'm going to get creative with everything.

Heck, during my shower I was thinking about how good it would be to have a spinach and salmon mixture stuffed into a sweet pepper and wrapped in bacon and baked.

Can anyone say heck ya?

So I'm going to give up most of the food I have been eating every day for the majority of my life.  Food that is bad for me and food that has done me no favors.  Will I miss the texture and taste of bread?  Maybe for a few weeks or months, but I can't think of any reason I would need it when I can get so much more from things I wouldn't even try before.

For now, there is a meat crust quiche baking in the oven.  Before yesterday I had never made a quiche before, but this is the second one.  The idea scared me, and I'm ready for my culinary and dietary adventure to begin.

Bring it on!

(But first everything I already have in my kitchen must be devoured.  Waste not, want not.  So the saying goes anyway.)