Meal Plan

Caramalized Broth Brisket with beef jam and green beans (cooked with garlic and chicken broth).  I actually made this tonight and it was soooo delicious. 

Roasted Whole Chicken with salad and roasted asparagus

Pork Chops with mashed garlic cauliflower and cabbage

Salmon Cakes with broccoli and roasted sweet potatos and onions

Spaghetti Squash with sauce and meatballs.  I'm going to do this in the crockpot like they do here but use my own recipes for meatballs and sauce.

Butternut Squash soup with crumbled bacon on top

Last week I also made Creamy Tomato Soup and it turned out great.

Meal Plan

Butternut Squash Soup topped with bacon

Cincinnati Chilli and Spaghetti Squash

Stuffed Pizza Peppers and salad

Stuffed dumpling squash (going to stuff with pork sausage and apples)

Salmon Cakes (one batch made with avocado's and one batch made with eggs)  with veggies (whatever is on sale)

We have a 6 year old!

On September 8th our little girl turned 6 years old!  Un-be-liev-able!  It was the day after a huge yard sale we had so it was very low key.  She had a couple of friends over to play, open gifts and have cake and ice cream.  I didn't take pictures because my phone was messed up but a friend sent me a couple that she took. 

Goodbye Summer

Summer vacation ended early for the girls. Ruby started Kindergarten on August 1st!  So far she loves it and her teacher.  Then only downside is that she is exhausted.  We are hoping she will adjust soon.  Today she presented her Me box in class.  She got to stand up in front of all the kids and show 5 things that she put in her box that were special or significant to her.  She was super excited and very proud of herself!

This girl is growing up so fast.  She started her second year of preschool and didn't miss a beat.  She is so laid back and social that she was really excited and happy to get to school.  She has only been three days so far but is loving every minute of it.

Meal Plan

Salmon cakes with salad (lettuce, heirloom tomatos, sunflower seeds, peppers, and shrimp on top)
I make two different salmon cakes (one with egg and one without)

 Italian Stuffed peppers in the crockpot

 BBQ Chicken Legs in the crockpot with mashed butternut squash and apples

 Grilled Hamburgers and brats with grilled kale salad and grilled onions 

Ground Turkey Fajitas with Cauliflower rice

New Recipes

We have had a busy and fun summer which means little blogging.  Here are some things that I have been cooking.

Sweet and Tart Rhubarb and Berry Dessert Sauce
Brian and I ate this atop plain whole milk yogurt with a bit of honey.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
It calls for a total of two cups of honey (or maple syrup) but I used a total of about 1/2 cup because I ran out.  I also subbed half the strawberries for blueberries.  This page has a lot of other rhubarb recipes so you will have to scroll down to find the crumble. 

Stuffed Pizza Peppers/Mushrooms
I got this idea from some friends who made them for us one night.  I stuffed red, green, orange and yellow peppers along with a few portabellos with ground Italian sausage and ground beef mixed with tomato paste, tomato sauce and some Italian spices.  I topped some of them with cheese and left some of them plain.  They were delish!

Homemade Coconut Milk
This was really easy to make and tasted good.  I felt very domestic while I was making it until I broke my blender.

Primal Stuffed Eggplant
Brian asked me to put some variety in the veggies that I make so I bought some eggplants.  This was actually a tasty meal but will probably not be a staple around our house because eggplant is not a favorite.

Chili Sweet Potato Fries
YUM!  This was such a great meal.  You should go make it this week.

I've also been making egg less salmon patties weekly.  I just mix canned salmon with either a mashed sweet potato or mashed avocado and fry in coconut oil.  They turn out great and the whole family loves them.

Spring has Sprung

Recipes

It has been a while since I listed my meal plan so I thought I would just do a quick round up of what I have been cooking...if I can remember everything that is.

Marina's Primal Zuppa Toscana Soup - this was a paleo version of the Olive Garden Soup.  I used sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.  The recipe says the bacon is optional but...really?  really, is it?  I think not.  Great soup.  I will make it again.

Paleo Buffalo Chicken Nuggets - Big Success 

Kale and Egg Bake- I got inspiration for this recipe from a blog that I found called Primal Green.  Here is the link to the recipe.  I actually just sauteed some kale with garlic for a few minutes then transferred it to a baking dish.  I topped it with chopped cherry tomatoes and avocados.  Lastly, I cracked some eggs on top and baked it until the eggs were done.  I ate it along with my girls and it was a hit!

BBQ Crockpot Chicken- I also mixed in some Dijon mustard and diced tomatoes.  YUM

BBQ Beef Brisket-  This was AH-MAZE-ING.  Go right now to your local farmer and buy a grassfed beef brisket and make this.  You will not be disappointed.

Iced Vanilla Bean Latte - I made this when I needed a little pick me up one afternoon and it did the trick.

Almond Banana Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins - Yes, it does have a long name because I had to sub a few things due to not using eggs, reducing carbs, and adding pumpkin.  Here is the original recipe before I changed everything around.

My New Room

After reading my friend Sarah's blog about the cool things that she is sewing for her girls I realized that I really am such a lover of fabric. That being said, I don't sew.  Not. At. All.  One day when the kids are bigger I am sure I will get to it but for now I will just admire Sarah's projects from afar.

Recently, I found some fabric that was just my style and went perfect in my bedroom .  My friend Julie, who just happened to be staying with us for a few months, turned them into pillows for our bed.  In about a two day period we painted my whole bedroom and made pillows for my bed.  This room went from a catch all place that we didn't like being in to a warm, comfortable, relaxing space that everyone likes to be in now.

Of course I didn't think to do true before and after pictures.  I found this one on my phone that shows the color of the wall (that I hated) and our old bedding (that I did like but was worn out) and some of the random things leaning against the wall plus furniture that I didn't like before we painted (i actually like our furniture now that we have a new wall color).  Also notice the adorable girls.

 The picture above is in the midst of our painting.

 The pic below is the finished walls.  Ignore the mess please.

 The blue and white pillows that Julie made.  The material cost five dollars and we just tore apart old pillows for the stuffing.

We even had some leftover fabric that we put on top of our old dresser. 

Julie and Telia taking a break from painting.

Meal Plan

Steak with Dinosaur Kale and Roasted Squash 
     I actually already made this and it was sooooo goood!  Brian and I ate the whole salad by ourselves.  So, I ate a 1/2 a bunch of kale.  That is pretty crazy.

Shoulder Roast with green beans and roasted sweet potatoes

Beef Taco Salad (will use the leftever meat from the roast)

Pork Chops with Sour Kraut and Apples

Spaghetti Squash with Sausage

Pumpkin Cocoa Chilli

Meal Plan

Hamburger (no buns) with Collard Greens and Bacon and Roasted Butternut Squash (just roasted in Coconut Oil, Cinnamon, and Bourbon Vanilla Extract from Trader Joes)

Chorizo and Italian Sausages with Sour Kraut and Mashed Sweet potato's (sharing this meal with our community group)

Creamy Crockpot Chicken and Tomato Soup

Garlic Roasted Salmon with Brussels Sprouts

Steak with Carrot Fries and Sauteed Spinach

My friend and I made this Copycat Shamrock Shake last night and added a little bourbon.  AMAZING!

Vroom Vroom

Shopping with Mama

Happy Birthday!

Looking Back at Cai's 1st Christmas

Looking Back-Celebrating

Caius celebrated both his sisters birthdays this year with our family & friends.  Here he is holding the balloons down.

Halloween 2012

I don't think I ever blogged about our Halloween this year.  Caius was 8.5 months old for his first Halloween.  Our neighbor and friend, Lauren made our costumes with the help of her mother.  The girls are M & M's and Caius was a M & M Fun Size Bag.  We had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood with our friends.  It was cold so Caius went in early and hung out with my parents.

Picture Credit goes to my Dad, Terry Faith.

Looking Back-6 Months

Meal Plan

Chorizo Balls with Roasted Whipped Carrots and Sour Kraut

Butternut Squash Soup

Sweet Potato Jalepeno Chowder (my friend gave me this recipe)

Pumpkin Cocoa Chili

Beef Taco Salad with Avocado Dressing (this is on pinterest and I made it yesterday with our fish tacos...soooo good!  I subbed coconut milk instead of yogurt).


I made truffles this weekend too.  I sort of used this recipe:
http://lowcarboneday.com/2012/12/chocolate-almond-butter-truffles-low.html
I had to add some honey & coconut milk because the chocolate I had was not sweetened at all.  They were a delicious treat and definitely confirmed that I still have little to no self control with chocolate.  That is why I don't keep it in the house.

I also made some muffins for the kids that they actually liked.  I kind of used this recipe
 http://www.thelittlefoodie.com/2013/01/sunshine-paleo-muffins.html

Meal Plan

Fish Tacos (from last week)

Steak with Kale and Onions (from last week)

Almond Chicken Soup with Sweet Potato, Collards and Ginger

Hamburgers (made double last week and froze the extras) with salad and carrot fries

Sweet Potato Soup- I will sub. full fat coconut milk for the regular and chicken broth instead of veggie.

Hot Wings with Mashed Cauliflower and Salad

Here are a few other recipes that we tried this week:

Sausage and Butternut Breakfast Hash
Brian actually cooked this one up on Saturday morning while I was getting ready.  He really likes opportunities to cook so I have been trying to hand over the spatula to him a little more lately.  This was so yummy.  Everyone in the house ate it up (only after one melt down about not wanting it from one child).  It will definitely go in the rotation for breakfast foods.

Meatza (like pizza)- Admittedly, this sounds disgusting but it was great.  The recipe calls for an egg but I replaced that with a half of a small sweet potato.  The toppings I used were arugula, shaved brussels sprouts, spinach, mushrooms and cut up chicken bratwurst.  Next time I will leave out the meat topping. 

Butternut Squash Fries

Paleo Chocolate Chip Scones I really wanted to make some baked goods for my family so I decided on starting with this recipe.  I subbed refined coconut oil (has less of a coconut flavor than extra virgin coconut oil) for the vegan shortening (whatever that is).  I also subbed 2 bananas for the eggs.  These two subs worked out fine...just had to bake the scones for about 20 minutes longer than the recipe called for.   Here is where everything went wrong.  Since going Paleo I haven't really researched what kind of chocolate I should buy so I panicked a the grocery and bought unsweetened Bakers chocolate.  BAD IDEA.  This stuff is super bitter because it is straight up chocolate...no sugar, not milk, nothing.  Shredding it may have worked better but the big chunks were not good.  Telia took one bite, spit it out and started licking her sleeve to remove the flavor.  Next time I will not use that chocolate.

First Trip to See the Horses

Last May Caius got to take his first trip to Churchill Downs to watch the horses.  He went twice the week of the Kentucky Derby...lucky guy.  To be honest, he didn't really watch much but he was indeed there and we took a couple of pictures to document it.

A Look Back- First Bath

A few pictures of Caius' first bath at home. We were still just giving him "bird baths" at this point and you can see in the pictures how much he enjoyed them.

Cai's First Easter

Meal Plan

This week we pick up our first meat CSA from Barr Farms.  We will get one month supply of beef, pork and chicken.  I actually  did a three month meal plan to be able to order all the meat that I needed and hopefully it works out well.

Sausage with Sour Kraut and Baked Apples

Fish Tacos on a bed of Lettuce with Avocados

Homemade Chicken Soup using the Homemade Bone Broth I made today  (if you have never read the nutritional value of quality bone broth you really should click on that link and read about it)

Steak with Sauteed Kale and Onions

Zingy Tuna Salad (minus the onions and peppers)

Hamburgers (bunless) with Sweet Potato Fries and Green Beans

Going Home Day

A couple of pictures of the day we got to take Caius home.