Paleo Breakfast for the week of March 17th 2014

I love to eat good food with lots of flavor and when possible is local and in season. When I had to give up wheat to a full on allergy that had me on the ground trying to figure out how to get air and then when I was diagnosed with Celiac and said my good byes to gluten I moaned about my breakfast options (when I ate that early in the day but truly, breakfast is subjective and I usually at it at “dinner” time) going down but I traced done substitutions that I could eat. I then started a huge battle with my diabetes and  as many I was told to give up carbs to the best of my ability without getting rid of the produce. I learned about the Paleo lifestyle and WOW things have changed in my life. I still whimpered about giving up bread, pasta, rice, and oh why oh why did I give up legumes again? oh ya because they made me feel like crap, spiked my blood sugars by over 100 points and it would take a minimum of 3 days for them to recover. I had to find good food that I could eat and start eating on a regular basis more by the clock than by my stomach to; keep my sugars, mood, and body as stable as I could. Looking back I remember trying to hide it a little but not much as I already accepted that I am really strange and peoples opinions of me could pretty much take a flying leap but I did not want to openly talk about it as I was trying to get a handle on it.  Anyway, I took a step back and thought “what can I eat now?” and giggled at myself, I mean really if I can eat breakfast foods for dinner why not dinner and lunch foods whenever as well? Man things got so easy after that! I just had to think ahead and prep so I could have what I wanted within a few hours of my getting up while not making my daycare children or my family crazy frustrated with me <silly grin>.

I have learned to have most of my vegetables ready the day I pick them up so it is a fast grab and cook, heat a few left overs (I HATE THIS), and slow cook those things that I want really bad to start the day off right. I still eat way more eggs than the food police might recommend but to darn bad and I slip in a tiny bit of dairy (butter, whole heavy cream, goat cheese, and if I am really feeling mischievous and lazy a small serving of ice cream in the summer; all local, organic, and from pastured animals) that the Paleo police would holler about, again to bad this is my choice and I am aware of the potential issues with it.

Anyway, now that I have rambled on, I will get to this past weeks eats and please feel free to share with friends and comment on your thoughts (be nice and non-judgmental or I will not approve it) and experiences as well as any questions or requests…

Monday: I love sausage and had some on hand that a friend of mine makes. This is a summer styled sausage made with rabbit meat that he raises and butchers with humanity. He than spices and smokes it and I am fortunate to be able to purchase any that he has over what his household needs. I then grabbed celery, onions, a few chunks of carrots and sautéed with so homemade stock till tender and added cauli-rice that I had on hand with garlic and crushed red chili peppers. I keep containers of diced; carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and other odd vegetables on hand so that I only do the chopping once a week and am ready to whip up a meal with ease. I find this helps with storage as well as I waist way less food because I have no excuses about time. I also keep at least a couple heads of cauliflower riced as well as chopped for the same reasons. Other than my “shopping/prep day” this meal really took be less than 5 minutes to cook up while the little ones ate (the youngest here is 1 year old and is into everything) so while they finished up their meal and helped clear their spaces for free play, I sat down with my tea and enjoyed…

Tuesday: Steak, sautéed mushrooms and onions with a lovely side of garlicky red chard. This took a mega 10 minutes to cook up and the little ones had already shoveled in their own food and had moved onto playing outside in the brilliant weather so I got the privilege of having my first breakfast outside with them for the season. Again I had everything pre sliced and chopped so all I had to do was cook it up. I did this while the children ate and then I wiped the kitchen down while they got shoes and coats on then we headed out and they ran, giggled, dug in the damp dirt and generally had a blast while I watched on and savored every bite in the glorious spring time sun…

Wednesday: I had a small handful of chard left in the fridge to cook up and decided on going back to basics with pepper bacon and eggs. This was all local and while simple, it filled the bill of just what I wanted. The daycare children where still eating when I sat down as this took less than 5 minutes and 1 skillet so the clean up was ubber easy.

Thursday: My husband and I enjoy making Mortadella once a year and then I portion it out a little each week. This year we put the normal spices, whole pepper corns, and pistachios in it and boy does it make a get kick start to a day. We use all those odd bits from pigs that we collect in the freezer so this is our waist not want not kind of Paleo food. In just a couple minutes I fried up a couple eggs and sliced some healthy meat onto my plate and the children asked tons of questions about this and a few even were willing to try some (not the eggs for some reason though).

Friday: I was in the mood for Italian food today so I rubbed my steak in some seasonings and grilled it up then topped with grilled artichoke hearts. I then added an antipasti salad (just toss a bunch of grilled and fresh goodies to some romaine and make sure to have sausage and basil) I then tossed with a light French vinaigrette (think Italian  dressing made fresh with scallions and mustard added). I took maybe 10 minutes on this so although the children where wrapping up their meal, they were happy to enjoy free play while I dug in to some food and watched on…

 

PSU Farmers Market Opening of the Season!

All winter long I wait in anxious anticipation for the PSU farmers market to re-open after the horribly long (alright it is not even a full 3 months but hey you know how it is right?) winter break. I have been posting every few days my count down on my social media and daydreaming of the first batch of meals that we might score. My 19 year old daughter was almost as jazzed as I was even if it meant getting up “early” for a weekend. I like to get down there as they open at 8:30 so I can get in and get out with our score before the crowds get there. After getting a slow start with needing petrol for the van and cash from the bank (I forgot last night to get it ahead of time) we still managed to get there and parked at 8:35 so not to bad. The sun was out and for once there was no wind and a balmy 60 degrees (F) greeted us! AMAZING!!! Not all of our booths start on opening day but heck I am still impressed that there were over 100 food booths (normally they top out at 200+) and not a “kitch” booth in sight. All local and organic for as far as my eyes could see. We  really limited what came home mostly because of budget but is was a great start for the season as you can see:

 

My daughter and I decided that we would not have breakfast before we went and instead we had a huge brunch with the rest of my daughters and my 16 year olds boyfriend while my exhausted husband slept after working his night shift (I made extra so when he gets up he can have some as well).

I took 2 of the lovely small leeks and thinly sliced into a hot buttery skillet after washing and sautéed until tender and glossy at which point I added the full package of sliced “porkstrami” that we picked up from Tails & Trotters and simmered till hot and yummy.

While that simmered, I placed spring asparagus onto a baking sheet, drizzled walnut oil and mashed roasted garlic on then broiled to perfection.

I whipped up eggs that I get from a friend (my hens are to little for eggs yet but this summer I should be up and going with a few eggs each day from my own back yard again!) with just a tiny splash of pastured heavy cream. I then made incredible omelets with the eggs, filled with a dollop of leek and porkstrami that was then topped with a smidgen of decadent farmstead smoked gouda that was made in Salem by Willamette Valley Cheese.

to trim this brunch out wish just a tiny bit of sweet I put out a bowl of cubed fresh cantaloupe (no this was not purchased at the market).

All in all a mostly local and in season feast and a fantastic way to start the season if I say so myself. The one thing I have to accept is soon I will have to switch out from using my granny cart and use a large hand cart with several Rubbermaid totes as my family and daycare enjoy eating well to much for such a small cart option.

Paleo Breakfasts for the week of March 10th 2014

This week has been fun with my Birthday having started it off. I even added a splurge to me eating and I do not regret it at all…

1) fresh clams steamed and served with a garlic butter sauce

2) my family likes to call this breakfast barf in a bowl… we take all the leftover meats and vegetables that are in the fridge, dice them up in a skillet, scoop it into a bowl and then top with an egg over medium so the yolk is nice and gooey to slop around with all those goodies.

3)simple eggs with breakfast sausage

4)sausage with kale and hot deviled eggs

5) gluten free but not paleo blueberry pancakes… I used a mix that I like and added the last of my frozen blueberries to this. I had only one and as long as I do not do this often AND I remember this can and probably will adversely affect my goals I should be alright…

 

Paleo Breakfast for the week of March 3rd 2014

1) lemon chicken with pulled pork

2)crab with cabbage and onions

3)Brussels sprouts with eggs

4)Asian short ribs with eggs

5) sea scallops with kale

 

Emergency trip to Seattle Washington

Saturday was going to be “get a lot of work done day” for me. I have tons of things that have to get done or else and so I scheduled 6 hours worth of work time over the course of the weekend. This seemed like a great idea even if I really just wanted to take the weekend and play with my husband and family. Life on the other hand seemed to have had other plans for me and that is alright. When I sat down to my trusty new computer, I received a call from my ex-husband needing help. Him, his wife, and their three children where going to Seattle (from Portland) to visit an old friend of his wife’s, that was working at a writers conference close enough to home that they could make time to see each other. They had not had this kind of a change in about 20 years so all plans were made and the trip begun. The sights we nice and they were enjoying a nice casual journey at 70 miles per hour when out of the blue a wheel went flying and all came to a frightful stop. They tried calling a friend that lives in that area but alas there was no answer so knowing that I would be home they call me and my husband to see if anyone here could drive to the rescue. Once we were off the phone, I loaded the cooler with healthy snacks and off we went. We passed a silly shop called the “Mattress Barn” and chuckled at all the animal cut-outs, lots of poor soles that made the wrong choice and where keeping the local law busy with pull-overs, and the occasional pretty natural view as we made our way to BFE Washington. When we realized how close it was to Seattle we offered to finish the trip and hangout there for the remainder of the day so the original visit could be obtained. I have never gone to Seattle just to hang out so it was a fun adventure.

The first stop was at the Space Needle. I have a huge fear of heights but I am working on getting this fear to a manageable level. With this in mind, we went to the top and I actually went out on the viewing deck, walked all the way around on the outside edge, and even took several pictures. I wish I had a better lens on my camera for the distance but I am still really happy that I did this. Oh and a really cool thing that I saw while way up high was one of the local parking garages has a raised bed community garden!!!

 

 

After we came down from the top we wandered over to the Pike Street Market even though most of the stalls were closing as we got there late in the day. I really wanted a Starbucks coffee and when we were there we saw this fantastic coffee bean Hog above the door!

It was past supper time and I knew that we would not get back to Portland area till way late so we stopped and had a wonderful dinner at the Crabhouse:

Paleo Breakfast for the week of February 24th 2014

This whole week really sucked for breakfast. I came home from a trip to Umatilla Oregon with a major head cold and no appetite. So, I had tea every morning instead of actual food…

 

 

Paleo Breakfasts for the week of: February 17th 2014

Playing catchup so ..

1) simple easy and mega fast shrimp: all I did was grab a fist full of shrimp out of my freezer, thawed it out in cold water (maybe 5 minutes), heated butter, roasted garlic, and some other seasonings then tossed the shrimp in till they were done. Yummmy

2) Beef roast (medium rare), chard, and fried eggs over hard. I seasoned my roast and put in the crockpot the night before so it would slow cook while I slept to be ready for slicing and serving for the morning.

3) Egg filling. I love eggs but I like to mix-up how I eat them. I had some hardboiled eggs that begged to be turned into filling and then just cook a few slices of bacon to scoop it up with and WOW you have a great start to the day

4) Moroccan seasoned lamb with egg drop soup and supper fast Asian styled vegi brains (cauli rice for those  of you that do not know my humor)

5) back to basics breakfast: pulled pork and fried eggs over medium

Breakfast for the week of 10th of February 2014

 

This weeks post is going to be a very fast one as I am just swamped but want to still share these for ideas to help everyone…

Monday: deviled eggs: I like to make mine spicy and simple. I mix garlic and sericha sauce with the yolk and stuff, that is it.

Tuesday: Luciano chard in butter and garlic, smoked pulled pork

Wednesday: grilled tilapia with Italian seasoning

Thursday: cold smoked bacon with deviled eggs

Friday: I was not hungry this morning but I figured I would share a photo of the bagels I made for the children… this is from Elana Amsterdam; Paleo Cooking

 

Paleo Breakfasts for the week of February 3rd 2014

Wow we had a bunch of snow (not as much as many places but a LOT for here). With the snow daycare was a bit beyond crazy and not everyone showed up or if they did drop off and pick-up times were out of necessity flexible. I started posting these pictures a few weeks ago to help with one of the harder food times for people living Paleo. Many of us either at nothing or did a lot of the grab and run styles of “food” such as shakes, cereal bars, and breakfast sandwiches to name but a few “normal” morning meal choices. I have never been big on these but I did skip eating for a majority of my life as I just did not want to take the time to get up a little earlier to do so or I would grab a bowl of cereal or a supper fast slice of toast. I grew up believing that the more whole grains I consumed the better. The problem for me was I never stayed full and I would run out of energy pretty fast. I also learned that I have an actual allergy to wheat one Christmas morning when I was enjoying a bit of shredded wheat cereal and my symptoms got bad enough that I could not ignore them any longer. For me that was landing on the floor of the kitchen not being able to breath as my throat had swollen enough to knock me down. Once I was able to I looked over the ingredients and found there were only 3… My doctor confirmed my fear that yes, wheat could very easily kill me as my body has huge issues with it. I was also checked for celiac to have that also confirmed so I started the shift to gluten free and felt a LOT better but still had problems with digestion and insulin regulation so I started checking my sugars after eating in probably a neurotic way till I had a pretty good idea of what my triggers where. I talked with my doctor and the nutritionist and decided to give up ALL grains, legumes, and most dairy. Life is fantastic now for me and my family has gone for this crazy ride with me. They all comment on the changes they have gone through and only one of my girls still eats non-paleo friendly foods when she is not at home although that I think is just because she is strong willed and not because of how she feels as she has stated how much better her focus and emotions are etc when she stays paleo.  Anyway this whole long rant is to explain why our morning meal is the way it is and why we do not have cereal and the like here. Daycare and my children eat more baked goods than I do and maybe March I will add pictures of their plates to give a more diverse display of options. They have healthy bodies and I am required to give them “grain” type things like bread so I have to compromise. For myself I can not afford to eat those things often and have to keep treats in a limited space as I am still a diabetic and although I have lost a LOT of weight, I am still FAT. Fat is not a bad word in my book but it need to be kept in its place and that place is not on my rear. I know that the scale can not tell me how much fat I have and that is good as I do not put a ton of emotion in the direction of the scale. I know how my body is and I am making strides to achieving physical goals and the rest is falling into place in fantastic ways. Now on to this weeks food:

Monday: Rogan Josh simmered Lamb neck that I started in the crockpot the night before with roasted asparagus…

Tuesday: Simple clean out the fridge scramble; bacon, sausage, Brussels sprouts, leeks, olives, and mushrooms

Wednesday: more of the clean out the fridge scramble with a fried egg hacked into this to give an extra boost of yum.

Thursday: Simple and fast bacon (this round I have a pepper cold smoked bacon) with eggs over medium.

Friday: My family loves Nom Nom Paleo’s egg foo young in her new book. We added sautéed shrimp with garlic on the side…

Breakfast for the week of January 27th 2014

I am going to back post this as I have had it mostly ready but I have had major issues with my computer to the level that I now have a new system that took what felt like forever to set up the way I would like it and hunt down all my links and passwords. In the long run I think I will be happy with this but for now it is a pain in the keester to get used to. Anyway back to the food!

This week I have only 4 breakfasts as Thursday I really just was not hungry until much later so I did not eat breakfast. I suppose leftovers would have been alright although I do NOT eat left overs if I can avoid it (I fortunately have family members that do not mind eating them for me. I find a decrease in quality of taste and texture so avoid when I can).

Seasoned Sole (I put a lot of dried crushed peppers and fresh minced garlic with a light squeeze of lemon on this and tossed in the oven while I got the children ready for the day), curried cauli-rice, and sautéed red chard that I cooked in a ton of butter and fresh garlic.

Simple baked chicken with sunny paris seasoning, leftover (yes I am actually going to have leftovers but I added a little more seasoning to help boost the flavor) cauli-rice and chard.

I had a really good workout and was famished so I decided to treat myself to a small portion of baked sweet potato, Italian meatloaf with a simple marinara sauce, and my favorite vegetable on the planet: Brussels sprouts!!! Oh this was a fantastic breakfast that with a little planning was easy to have even to start the day.

To end the week I caved and decided to have a treat. I would probably list this more as Primal than Paleo and I am alright with this. I make bagels for Friday every week for the children as the love it and the daycare children at one point decided to come in chanting bagel Friday at drop off so it has suck. I used the recipe for bagels in Elana Amsterdams Paleo Cooking cookbook (it is the first actual recipe in the book by the way) with only a change to the topping. I make these up on Thursday and let each person pick a filling or topping of their choice. I choose to make mine savory with garlic, chives, and Italian seasoning. Friday I then sliced mine in half and added smoked ham and goat cheese. I do better with goat cheese than cow and so every now and then I will enjoy without guilt. I know this is not STRICT Paleo but I have learned over the past couple of years of food restriction and elimination what I do well with and what I don’t and adjust MY choices accordingly. I suggest everyone listens to their body and not the emotion of each food choice they make.