Pizza Soup - Kid Friendly Primal Soup

Today was one of those days where I just threw what I had in the fridge in the pot, and hoped it came out well.  The kids loved this soup, drank it from their bowls until they couldn't suck down anymore.  This recipe was enough to feed a family of four easily.

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground pork
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 2 cans of water (use the empty tomato can)
• a bunch of celery
• 1 small zucchini
• 1/4 tsp sage
• 1/2 tsp garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 roasted pepper

Directions:

1. In a stock pot, brown the ground pork with the sage, and garlic.  
2. When the meat is cooked thoroughly, add the can of tomatoes.  Use the empty tomato can and add two more cans of water.  You can also use stock if you have some on hand.  I didn't.
3. Cut up a small bunch of celery, in tiny bite size pieces and toss them in.  Let this bit simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. After it's been simmering for 20 minutes, add the zucchini and a small bit of roasted pepper (I had some in a jar).  Simmer for another 20 minutes. 
5. Enjoy!

This is really good with a sprinkle of cheese on top if your diet allows for that.  That's why my kids named this pizza soup.  :)

Menu Plan

After settling in a bit at our new house, I've come to realize I must plan out our meals a bit better. The grocery store is not as close as I'm used to it being, so daily trips to the store are not practical. So, here's my first go at a plan.  This is something I used to do a while back, and got out of the habit when I lived in Colorado....due to it not really being necessary.  Anyway, hopefully planning will save us money too!

This will include memorial day weekend's food too, since we need a solution to food now.  :)

Sunday:
Breakfast: Eggs and Bacon
Lunch: Rolly Meatballs
Dinner: Garlic Pulled Pork

Monday:
Breakfast: Egg Frittata
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Roasted Chicken and veggies


Tuesday:
Breakfast: Walnut Porridge
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Lamb steaks with fresh broccoli

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Eggs and Bacon/Leftover Porridge
Lunch: Grilled Chicken Salad
Dinner: Beef and Vegetable Soup

Thursday:
Breakfast: Eggs and homemade sausage
Lunch: Leftover soup
Dinner: Shepherd's Pie


Friday:
Breakfast: Paleo Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Primal Fried Chicken

Saturday:
Breakfast:German Apple Pancakes
Lunch: Grilled Steak Salad
Dinner: Maryland Crabs (or) Out to dinner

Sunday:
Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Paleo Pad Thai

Honey Glazed Bacon Chicken

A few months ago, I stumbled on this recipe for honey glazed chicken.  It was amazing, and even my kids ate it up.  The recipe linked fits the definition of primal, however I have tweaked it just a bit more to better suit my family's tastes and needs.  Here's how I make it.

Ingredients: 

1 package or organic boneless skinless chicken thighs (usually comes with about 5-6 thighs)
1 package of bacon at your disposal
2 tbsp honey
1/2 organic onion
4 oz. mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp coarse mustard
1 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp butter (sliced)
fresh lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste


Directions:


1.  Put 3 slices of butter in your baking dish.


2. Cut the chicken thighs in half, in strips.  Wrap your chicken strips carefully in the bacon.  Having a whole package at your disposal is definitely helpful.  Depending on the size of your strips, you can cut your bacon in half, or lengthways to get the most out of your bacon.  The more generous you are with the bacon here...the better the rewards.  Line them up in a baking dish.

3. After you've wrapped your lovelies, cut up your veggies.  These are to taste, feel free to skip veggies if you'd prefer.  I think it makes for a more rounded meal with them.  Fill in gaps between your chicken strips in the baking dish with your cut up veggies.

4.  In a separate bowl, add your honey, lemon juice, and spices.  Blend them throughly, then drizzle them in your baking dish on everything.

5.  Bake on 400 for 15 minutes.  Flip these puppies over and spread juices and any leftover honey, lemon mix on them.  Then bake for another 15 minutes.

6.  Enjoy!

Challenge Day 4

The hubs had cravings pretty bad today, but resisted "cookie day" at work.  Here's his lowdown for the day.

Photo credit: http://celiachandbook.com/recipes/southern-fried-chicken/

Breakfast: 2 eggs, over easy
Lunch: Salad with chicken breast, mushrooms, olives topped with oil and vinegar.
Dinner: Primal fried chicken!

The chicken was so good, and we were so hungry we forgot to take a picture.  Which is why I looked for the prettiest picture on the webs I could find.  One day I will learn to take pictures of food like this.  In the mean time, check out my best friend's recipe linked above.  It really was divine.

Challenge Day 3

Quick update!  Challenge is going well, and day 4 has shown some weightloss.  Let's move on to day 3 first!

Monday morning, and hubs had to get to work today.  He made himself a quick couple of eggs, paired with a few pieces of bacon that I had fried up for him the night before.  For lunch he went to Wegman's and made himself a salad.  He piled on the grilled chicken, on some lettuce.  Lots of raw veggies, topped with oil and vinegar.  He said it was a small salad, but a satisfying one.

I was dealing with the movers all day, and managed to only snack on dry roasted almonds until dinner.  It wasn't the ideal way to go, however fasting is a good thing.  I can't say this was a true fast, since I did munch on almonds, but it was definitely a lighter way to go.

For dinner, I modified one of my go-to recipes to fit our needs. Kayotic Kitchen's honey glazed chicken bacon bites are to die for just as she/he lays them out.  I tweaked it for Mike's stage of the diet, using less honey, and added some turmeric for an extra anti-inflammatory twist.  I'll be posting my version later.

There's just something about bacon making everything better.  Hubs loved this dinner (even though he doesn't like onions), and even said with more meals like this...he could see primal working for him.

Anyway, recipe later.  Neither one of us had any weightloss on the morning of day 3...but writing this on the morning of day 4, that's going to change. :)

Challenge Day 2

Today's challenge was definitely more difficult for the hubs.  We started the day with some scrambled eggs, then got to work on the lawn.  Having just moved in, the lawn had some serious catching up to do and we only got the front yard in good order.

For lunch, we met my parents (who I haven't seen for almost a year!!) and our kids at Don Pablo's.  It was so great to see my parents.  Having lived in Colorado for the last two years, it's been so hard for us to get time together.

I got a modified fajita for lunch.  I asked for the meat to be prepared gluten free, and told them to skip the rice and beans.  Since I'm supporting hubs in his first 21 days, I didn't eat the cheese or the sour cream on the dish either.  Lots of veggies, some guacamole, and meat.  Washed that down with unsweetened ice tea.

Hubs had a steak, with some shrimp on a skewer.  For a side he had grilled vegetables.  They did have corn bits mixed in with their vegetables, but he picked them out.


For dinner, we're still bare bones in the kitchen.  We had organic grass fed rib eyes, with fried cauliflower, mushrooms, and garlic.

It was simple, and super yum...and look, we have plates now.  We're still just using simple ingredients, butter...garlic.  We don't have spices, so I don't have any fabulous recipes to woo you with.  Just simple.

All and all, hubs had a rough day.  He was thinking of cake, and sugar, and ice cream.  We went to the grocery store, and he drooled over peanut butter.  I think it's just normal withdrawal and getting used to having restrictions.  He's also having minor headaches from caffeine withdrawal.  I don't think he's seen the end of it yet.  I think day three will be harder, but hopefully after that things will start to taper off.

Moving trucks arrive tomorrow.  Cooking supplies will hopefully be unpacked soon, and we can get more creative in the kitchen.

Challenge Day 1

They say you can do anything for three weeks, right?  Well, yesterday was the first day for my husband to go primal.  I'm doing the 21 day challenge with him, however this isn't my first go.  I've been primal now for five months.

Today, he said his thoughts lingered on the things he cannot have.  The bread, donuts, etc.  He will get used to it, I know. :)

Here's what we ate today:

Breakfast we went out, since we still had no food in our house.  We had eggs and bacon, and home made sausage at a Mennonite Market.

We loaded up the kitchen after we ate, so we were able to cook lunch.  For lunch hubs had a chicken thigh, fried in butter and some raw carrots.  I wasn't hungry, so I didn't have a lunch.

Throughout the day, we also munched on roasted almonds when the urge for a snack hit.

For dinner, we had to get creative.  With limited spices (since they are en route from Colorado still), and limited cooking utensils we had a very simple dinner.  Chicken thighs, baked in butter, with mushrooms and garlic.  The only thing we added was a personal touch of salt and pepper. 

No excuses, right?  Don't have much?  You can still make it work.  We didn't want to wait until our things got here, we wanted to get the bad moods, and crappy feelings out of the way before he went back to work on Monday, and before our children arrived later this week.

I imagine our recipes and meal plans will get more creative as we actually have appliances and other things around the house.

Made it to Maryland!

After three days of driving, and staying with friends and family across the country, I've finally made it to Maryland.  I'm a Virginia native myself, so this is almost a home coming for me.  I grew up on the Virginia side of the Chesapeake, and one of my fondest childhood memories was having blue crab with my family.

So last night, hubs and I found a restaurant only five minutes from our new home with crab.  It's actually very easy to find crab here, it's practically on every corner.  When you move from this area, you realize can't get blue crab anywhere else.  It's outrageously expensive to deliver crab to Colorado, and being as picky as I am...I probably would have been dissatisfied with it anyway.  So last night was an awesome feast, and no...I couldn't finish the pile.

On to different news, today my husband will begin his 21 day primal challenge.  If you're not familiar with what that is...click the link below to Mark Sisson's book.  This is how I got started on the primal diet. I will be joining the hubs on his challenge too.  It's never a bad idea to flip those switches again now and then.  I will try to keep a running log of what we eat, and any awesome recipes we come up with.  It will be a slow start I'm afraid.  We're still waiting on the movers to deliver our stuff...so most of our kitchen supplies haven't arrived yet.  We'll get it up and running soon though.

Nitrates in your food...should you care?

Yesterday I was in the grocery store browsing the food to see what was on sale. More and more I'm getting frustrated with the local grocery store that I've been going to. I'll get on more of why later. However...I noticed something while there today. In their lunch meat sections they had lunch meat labeled, nitrate free. So I read the fine print of some of there meats, and I see Sodium Nitrate, and Sodium Nitrite (note the difference). I'm baffled. Why should I care about Nitrates?

I began my research on why I should care, what is it doing to my body?. Well, first warning I read was that babies metabolize nitrates differently then I do. You can read more about it in the link if you want, but in summary babies under six months of age shouldn't eat processed meats, or cheeses that could have added nitrates in them. Quite frankly though, babies under six months shouldn't have anything but breast milk. Just sayin.

Some researchers believe that too much nitrite in the system (your body turns nitrates into nitrites), can be cancerous.  Although that research hasn't been completely supported by whatever government body needs to support it to be credible.

So why is it there? It's a preservative. It retains the color, wards off bad smell, and prevents the growth of botulism.  There's a lovely thought.  Now, is this on my list of things I won't eat?  Not entirely.  I won't go nutso with this one yet.  I will for my kids, but for myself I'll keep it on the every now and then it won't kill me list.  They can make their own decisions about what they eat when they're older.

Here's another helpful link.

What are your thoughts?

Primal Cinnamon Banana Shake

This recipe and picture is from realgrubbin.com which, looks like is sadly down.  The website hadn't been updated in so long, so I am doing my best to remember this recipe that has been a staple in my primal life.

• One frozen banana
• two tablespoons of almond or cashew butter
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 ice cubes
• 1/2 cup of cold water

Directions:

Place everything in in a blender.  Pulverize and enjoy!!

Picture was taken by realgrubbin.com.  I hope they come back, they had some tremendous recipes!!

Organic vs. Conventional

We've been an organic family for many years now.  Initially that was met with resistance from people that I know, but it's becoming more and more accepted as people learn more about the farming industry.

If not ingesting harmful chemicals wasn't enough to convince you...perhaps this graph can show you the difference.  Yes, you pay a bit more...unless you grow it yourself.  I personally think it's worth the investment.

This chart only shows the nutritional value.  What about the pesticides?  Have you ever heard of the dirty dozen?   Perhaps this little snippet from CNN will inform you a bit too.

Primal Berry Ice-Cream (No Sugar!)

• 1 frozen banana, sliced
• 1/2 frozen berries (any berries will do)
• 2 tbsp half and half (or coconut milk)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place bananas and frozen berries in a blender.  

2. Add half and half, and vanilla extract.

3. If you have an ice cream maker, pour the mixture in and let it spin for about 20 minutes.

4. Eat it up!  This stuff becomes rock hard in the freezer.  This makes 2-3 servings.  Was perfect for my two kids and I.

Primal No-bean Chili

This recipe is based off my best friend's recipe, you can see the original here.   My version is almost the same, minus the turkey part. :)

• 2lbs of ground meat of your choice (pork/beef mix is one of my favorites).  
• 1 piece of bacon
• 1 onion
• 1 green pepper
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 pint of tomatoes (or 16oz can of crushed tomatoes)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tbsp ancho chili pepper
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (I'm a wimp)
• salt and pepper

1. Put crushed tomatoes and stock into your crock pot, and begin cooking on low.

2. Put in ground meat of your choice.  Please note, if you use ground turkey or chicken you will need added fat, so add 1 tablespoon of tallow/lard to your pan before frying up your meat, or fry up some bacon for the bacon grease as Jessica suggested).

3.  While your ground meat is browning, cut up onion, pepper, garlic and place aside.

4. When meat is almost done, add ancho chili powder, salt and pepper to the pan.  Cook until done.

5.  Put everything in the pan (grease and all) into your slow cooker.

6.  Put the pan back on the burner, and cook your pepper and onion until it's slightly golden.  At the last minute, throw in the garlic.

7.  Place your veggies in the slow cooker.

8.  Add the rest of your spices, and cook on low for 4-6 hours.