Sweet Potato Hash

Things have been mainly quiet on the home front...just plugging away an bags and boxes.  I'm pretty happy to share that I got all my purses put up on a shelf and all the boxes in the kitchen and den cease to exist.  We've also made major headway in the curtain department.  Maybe next week I'll have some after photos for everyone. 

Paleo is also going well.  My hours have just been slipping away between work, food prep and house stuff so I haven't had time for the o' bloggeroo but I have been keeping a photo log in my phone.

Hubby made some amazing sweet potato hash, super simple and super yummy.  I'm not sure where he came up with this little ditty but we've made it a couple times so I pretty much have it memorized.

You start out by chopping half a red onion, one apple, one orange and shredding about 2 cups of sweet potato.  My poor little grater is now stained and strained!  I highly suggest getting a food processer with a grater if your looking for paleo friendly tools.  I'll be getting one next month.

Secondly heat your non stick skillet with coconut oil and saute the onion and apple till translucent.

Then add in your sweet potato and oranges.  I squeezed my oranges just a little to get some of the juice going in the pan.  You'll continue to stir and saute till the hash cooks down.  Then finish it off with a Tbsp of honey and a tsp of garlic salt.

We had this as a side to Spicy mustard pork and to steak, I'm sure it would also be great for breakfast.

Enjoy!

Paleo at Sprouts

One of my favorite things about the Foodee blog is that you can save recipes you like and it will make a grocery list for you.  I picked 11 meals that I wanted to try along with some basic needs I've read about like Coconut Oil, Aminos and Milk.

After searching for the local Whole Foods store I found the closest one to me was about 40 mins away.  No Bueno.  Then I remembered there was a Sprouts on my way home from work.

I'd only gone to Sprouts once before, honestly its pretty daunting walking in.  Its not set up like a typical grocery store and I spent 2 hours there!  Slowly strolling up each aisle hunting down my items and reading labels.  You would not believe how many things they sneak sugar and soy into.  It took me a long time to figure out which was the "right" kind of almond and coconut milk to drink.  Still have to do a little research on brands.
Here are some photos of my "Haul"
Coconut Oil, Milk, Aminos and Water.  Chicken Stock. Almond Milk.  Stewed Tomatos.  Apple Sause (not shown) and Apple Cider Vinegar.  I'm going to try my hand at making my own Mayo!

Spaghetti Squash, Strawberries, Cauliflower, Onion, Shallot, Cranberry, Flaxseed, Almond Meal

and that funny thing on the right is a Jicama.  Apparently you can treat it like a potato.

Green Stuff: Basil, Mint, Cucumber, Celery, Kale, Chard, Scallions

I felt very silly standing infront of the greens totally stumped at what I was actually looking at, found a very nice man who told me which was chard and kale.  He even brought me a Ad and coupons.

Googled how to prepare chard to learn how to cut the beast apart. 

There was SO much prep work for veggies. 

Hubby made some perfect steaks for dinner.

Last but not least I tried a recipe I saw on facebook for a green drink. 

(Using their pix, my shaker cup was not as pretty)

Fresh Start

Happy Monday!

The move is officially over.  Most of the boxes are un packed. I'm mostly over being sick and feeling the full effects of being robbed an hour of sleep (thanks day light savings)

I've been tip toeing around the topic of Paleo eating, reading the Paleo diet book and blog after blog of information. 

These are my favs so far:
Whole9
The Foodee Project
Chowstalker
PaleOMG
Paleo Plan
Meanest Momma

Whole9 writers have a book called It Starts with Food.  Several sites recommend it so I looked it up on amazon and BAM bought it for my iphone Kindle app.  You know how they show you other's purchased xx also?  The cookbook Well Fed popped up, also good reviews, so I purchased that too.  I never thought I'd read a cook book cover to cover, but the style of writing was so real and invigorating it made me want to start right away and that's what I did.

The author talks about doing a weekly cook up, where you prepare everything you would need for the week so all your meals take less than 20 mins to make.  I really didnt have a meal plan for the entire week so I just prepared for Monday. 

Whats for Breakfast:  Egg scramble with shrimp, bell pepper and onion.  Topped with Avocado.  Grapes for a snack.

Whats for Lunch: Seared Mahi and Dill, Green Beans, Cherry Tomatos.  Blueberries and Almonds for snack.

Later on tonight we'll have Steak and Asperagus for dinner.  Although I havent finished reading all my books I know this is what I want to do.  I cant believe that no one told me about this sooner.  For the next month I'm going to follow the Whole30 plan.  30 days of strictly paleo eating.  What some of you dont know is that I also suffer from Fibromyalgia and Psoriasis, both auto immune disorders.  I'm hoping by eating clean foods that I'll be able to reverse my health to something close to normal.

Move is a four letter word

I've come to realize there are more 4 letter bad words, they include Pack, Move, and Demo.
This past weekend we officially moved...to a box fortress. Kidding.

Here's a few up date pictures of the demo process and what our home felt like before we took over.
Master Bedroom:

  Plaster

   Prime 

Move In

Having Fun Ripping wall paper in the kitchen:

Stripped

Painted

Stripped

  Painted

My Office:

Then

Now

The Den:

As soon as all the boxes are cleared and the dust has settled I'll post the finished photos.

Paleo Stuffed Peppers

I haven't full on started my paleo journey but I did decide to give it a whirl for one dinner.  I was totally winging it and thinking this is either going to turn out great or get me a spot on Worst Cooks in America.   Using all ingredients from Trader Joe's, I started out with browning ground turkey with sea salt, TJ "every day seasoning" and onion.  Then I was thinking what goes in a meatball?  And threw in an Egg.  (Didn't think it through and the egg scrambled.)  Then topped it off with TJ Roasted Garlic spaghetti sauce.  Best sauce I've ever had.

While that was sizzling...I cut and cored my bell peppers.

I really think peppers are pretty.

After making sure they were nice and even, they got stuffed and topped with Feta.  Dairy isn't really allowed on paleo, they suggest you do not eat it for 30 days and slowly add it back in your diet to determine your tolerance. (when I made these I had not gotten to the part in the book that said dairy was a no-no.)

The finished product was pretty darn good if I do say so myself....and I do.

I also tried my hand at a paleo desert.  Chia Seeds are super good for you, high in fiber and swell in liquid.  On the back of the bag it suggested soaking them in coconut or almond milk for a pudding effect.

In my mind it was going to be like rice pudding or tapioca...in reality it was an epic fail.  First off, I'm pretty sure my coconut milk had gone bad.  It didn't taste horrible, but it didn't taste right either.  That's when I noticed on the box "use within 7-10 days of opening".  I had no clue when I opened it, but my gut told me it was around 14 days.  (Mental Note: Mark the date on the next box)  Secondly, I'm not sure if I didn't let the seeds soak long enough or they need to soak in room temperature but they remained sort of crunchy.  I'll have to give it another try eventually.

Lastly, a cute pic of my pup after a long day of playing.  He is my world...you know besides my Hubby =)

Home Sweet Home - Before Photos

This is the house I grew up in, the house we will be moving into hopefully by next weekend depending on the work that needs to be done.

From the front door on your right theres a living room that was converted to a bedroom.  We're going to UN convert it and open the space back up.  We also want to take down the funny stone half wall to widen the entry way.

The Kitchen - New Cabinets eventually

When we remodel the kitchen the pony wall will be knocked out to open the view to the den.

The Den

The hallway:  leads to 3 bedrooms, laundry room and bath.

Left Bedroom: Going to be Hubby's new office

Right Bedroom: Going to be my new scraproom...and then hopefully a nursery.

The Master:  Needed the most work.  Tearing out the old A/C, patching holes and ripping wallpaper.

Updated Photo: start of tear down.

last but not least our cute little patio.

So the carpet's been ordered, right now the delivery date is next Thursday.  If that all goes well we can move furniture in next weekend.  In the next 2 weeks I should have some good after "face lift" photos.

Lab Worked Over

So Fridays lab work didn't turn out quite like I thought. I actually didn't have any blood drawn at all, this is why:

The PA that issued my lab orders failed to tell me my fasting glucose test was going to take 3 hours and that I needed to have a high carb diet for 3 days prior to the draw. (Yea I had a salad for dinner)

Seeing I had to go back to work I asked what else I could get out of the way so the trip wouldn't be a waste. Here's where it got hairy, the remaining hormone and infectious disease tests came up to $900 and they wanted payment up front. Turns out that Quest only takes payments for people who have been approved for financial aid.

I got a little angry at this point and wanted to see what the cost per test was. I also questioned why I had to do these infectious disease test anyway, I was basically told the state mandates it because they don't want any more children being born with HIV or Hepatitis. I both understand this and think its ridiculous, what about all the infected people who get pregnant every day? Can't control that. So the standard HIV test is $40 and then there's a secondary test that tells you what type you have for $400. This is what mad me really angry, I KNOW I have no STDs why on earth would I pay for this extra test??

I basically sat for a hour arguing with the lab on what I would and would not be paying for especially since it had to be up front. I finally got the cost down to $300 and wouldn't you know it my credit card got declined. I totally forgot we used it to buy hubby's flight to Canada.

Totally embarrassed I picked up a form for financial aid and cried the ugly cry in the parking lot.

The PA called and we worked out how to stagger the tests then I pulled myself together in time to walk into my office.

Now I'm back at the lab on Monday morning. I had my first draw done and drank the limeaid sugar water. Toward the end I wanted to gag. I have 2 more draws today, 4 tubes each. Can't. Wait.