Saturday night dinner

Cave Baby, when asked, said that she wanted taco meat for dinner. Well, first she said chicken, and when asked what kind of chicken, she changed her answer to taco meat. We've been eating taco meat an awful lot lately...I promise that's not the only thing we eat! But it's something that almost always sounds good to me, so I'm absolutely okay with Cave Baby's taco meat kick.

I decided to make crispy (roasted) broccoli as a side. And then I saw some summer squash fresh from the garden and decided to do something with them. I haven't been all that creative with veggies since going Paleo. I find that I really just like to roast them. Or grill them. I wanted to be a bit more "creative" than normal, so I opted for some additional seasoning.

Taco meat, roasted broccoli and roasted summer squash.

For the taco meat: (no measurements. I find that by taste is the best way to go)
Ground meat (I used ground chicken this time around)
Sea salt
Pepper
Ground Cumin (I'm very generous with this)
Paprika
Chili powder (not Indian chili powder, which is obscenely spicy)
Garlic (I usually just use garlic powder, but used Penzey's garlic today)
Onion powder
Dark cocoa powder (be sparing with this)

Just brown the meat, drain the grease, add some water and add the seasonings. Let it simmer as you stir periodically.

For the broccoli:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Trim the broccoli (I like the pieces nice and small because Cave Baby likes them crispy). I use the stalks too, I just peel them first. They're really nice and tender. Put the broccoli and stalk pieces onto a cookie sheet (I line mine with tin foil because it makes clean up a breeze), drizzle a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil on top, and add some sea salt and pepper. Toss. Spread the pieces out evenly, and put into the oven for about 20-30 minutes.

For the summer squash:
Summer squash (I used 3 small/medium squashes)
EVOO
Sea salt
Pepper
Garlic (you could use powder or fresh, I used Penzey's)
Penzey's orange peel

I used the 450 degree oven. Slice squash into coins. I used an 8x8 baking dish. I poured some EVOO into the bottom of the dish, and put the squash in. I drizzled some EVOO on top of the squash, added the salt, pepper, garlic and orange peel and tossed well. Then I put it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. It turned out fabulously. This was probably my favorite way I've ever had summer squash. Cave Baby informed me that she doesn't "yike" squash, but as per our rules she had to try it. Instead of gagging, which she does when she legitimately doesn't like something that is in her mouth, she smiled. She clung to her story of not liking it, but her smile told me she was full of bologna.

I hope you enjoy!

I'm sure some of you are wondering if my Cave Mama plate looks like Cave Baby's. The answer is: no. When I eat taco meat, I piled it on top of a heaping salad. I use Half/Half baby spinach/spring mix lettuce. I also use a rainbow of bell peppers, and about a half of an avocado. And then I put the meat on top. I, of course, mix it all up while I eat, though. I had broccoli and squash on the side. I love putting my protein on top of a bed of spinach and spring mix lettuce. It tastes fresher and is more filling. And it has the benefit of the spinach. I'm always looking for meal ideas, so if you have any you'd like to share, please do!

She asked for pizza...

Still not feeling up to par, I was planning on just heating up some of my Paleo chicken nugget freezer stash for Cave Baby's lunch. Cave Baby, however, was adamant about wanting pizza. Let me just say that I'm not a mother who gives into their child's every whim. But I do like to do things she likes with food, and I thought cooking would be a good way to help snap me out of this sickie feeling. She asked for pizza three times, so I obliged.

Paleo pizza with some leafy greens. Cave Baby was offered a peach for dessert.

Paleo pizza seemed like such a task when I first started eating Paleo. It seemed that I was dirtying a ton of dishes, spending a preposterous amount of time prepping and cutting and cooking, etc. It just seemed like a really big task. I don't know if I have it together more than I did when I first went Paleo, if I'm more used to cooking everything from scratch, or if it just doesn't take as long as it originally seemed, but today I realized that this is a really easy thing to make. And doesn't take a lot of time. I've tried a few recipes for pizza and this is what I've come up with:

Crust:
1 cup almond flour/meal (I used pecan meal because I had it on hand and I'm running low on almond flour. It made the crust darker, but it's equally delicious)
1 egg
Sea salt to taste
Olive oil (I don't measure it, but I'm guessing it's about a tablespoon)
Italian seasoning (I'm just using McCormick which has marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil)
Garlic powder (of course you could use fresh) to taste (I used probably 1-2 tsp)
Onion powder to taste (I used about 1 tsp)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet or pizza stone with parchment paper. This is a necessary step. Whisk the egg with a whisk or fork, and then add everything else. Mix/combine it thoroughly. Form it into a ball, and then press into a circle on the parchment paper. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Before preparing the sauce, which takes basically no time, start your toppings. Cave Baby doesn't like much on her pizza. She absolutely can't handle veggies on her pizza, so I stick with meat for her. When I have pizza I like to have tomatoes, baby spinach, mushrooms, peppers and black olives on it. But Cave Baby literally gags if she takes a bite containing the aforementioned ingredients. So I just do sausage and/or bacon for her. I often put some baby spinach in the Magic Bullet with the pizza sauce, but didn't think about it today until it was too late.

As soon as I put the crust in the oven, I put the turkey Italian sausage on the stove. I used Jenny-O. I cut the meat from the casings before putting it into the pan (the casings can be difficult for cave baby to eat, especially on a pizza). And that was it. I just browned it.

While crust is baking and meat toppings are cooking, make the sauce. Now, it's hard to find prepared pizza sauce that doesn't have sugar or other "special" unwanted ingredients, but I actually have found some. The problem is that it comes in a big can and I use all of a couple of tbps when making a big pizza. It's organic, so it doesn't last long in the fridge either, which means it often goes to waste. I've found that just using tomato sauce (check to make sure it doesn't have sugar in the ingredient list) works well for me. I put some tomato sauce in a bowl, add some Italian seasoning (McCormick that I mentioned earlier), garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper, and stir it up. As it sits, it softens the herbs.

Once the timer goes off indicating that the crust is ready to be topped, pull it from the oven and top it! I just spread the sauce on, and then topped with the sausage. Put it all into the oven for another 10 minutes. All told, this took about 30 minutes from start to finish. And Cave baby got her pizza. I have a lot of left overs, too, which is nice...especially since school starts this week!

Enjoy!

Finished! It looks dark, not because it's burned, but because I used pecan meal . This was the perfect personal pizza size, and cut beautifully into 8 toddler-sized slices.

Some catching up

I'll start with yesterday's lunch for Cave Baby:

Taco meat (made with ground chicken), roasted "crispy" broccoli, blueberries, baby spinach "leaves," and Paleo bread with no-sugar-added strawberry jelly.

I like to give Cave Baby a variety. It doesn't always happen, but I try. Yesterday Cave Baby was tired, crabby and not feeling well, so she was actually crying before even sitting down to lunch. With that in mind, I was thrilled that she ate half of the meat, all of the broccoli and a couple of blueberries. Within 10-15 minutes of being done with lunch she informed me that she was getting hungry again. Imagine that? Thankfully, I'd seen such happenings in my future, and left her lunch plate out. I told her she could eat the rest of her lunch if she was still hungry, and reminded her of what was left on her plate. She thanked me excitedly, grabbed her plate off of the dining room table and took it to her little table in the living room where she proceeded to devour the bread and jelly.

Today: Well, today I am just not feeling so hot. I woke with a sore throat yesterday morning, and it got worse throughout the day. In the middle of the night last night I woke with such a sore throat that I actually took some medicine, which is not like me. And I slept all morning while Cave Baby was with her daddy. So, as you can imagine, cooking was a less than thrilling idea to me when lunch time rolled around. Keeping my fingers crossed that Cave Baby would want an almond butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, I asked her what sounded good to her. Thankfully, her answer was just that! So I cut up some cabbage and sauteed it with sea salt, pepper and curry powder, and added some blueberries to her plate (which she didn't touch. I think she's getting sick of blueberries).

Easiest and fastest lunch around: almond butter and no-sugar-added strawberry jelly sandwich on Paleo bread, with blueberries and cabbage "noodles."

Paleo bread is something that I almost never indulge in, but that is because I'm trying to lose weight. I think it's great to have on hand for Cave Baby, though. I actually have a loaf in the freezer right now, too. It's easy to make and keeps for a long time in the fridge (doesn't have a long shelf-life outside of the fridge, though). This is the Paleo bread recipe I use. It is, in my opinion, by far the best Paleo bread recipe around. I've tried several recipes and was disappointed with all but this one. It is a bit dense, but not crumbly, it works well as toast (toasted in the oven or toaster oven...the slices are short, you'd never get them out of your toaster!), and for sandwiches. Cave Baby "yoves" the stuff.

For dessert I offered some almond butter blondies that I made on Monday with some Paleo whipped "cream." Cave Baby wanted hers plain. I indulged in a blondie (I've been indulging a bit too much lately!), and had some "whipped cream" on mine. I'm obsessed with said whipped cream.

Paleo almond butter blondie with whipped double reduced coconut milk.

I love Elana's Pantry. I've gotten a lot of great dessert recipes from her site. This is the recipe for the blondies.  . This was my 3rd or 4th time making the blondies, so I knew that I didn't want them so sweet. I cut down significantly on the sweetener. Next time I think I'll omit it altogether. I used 100% cocoa chocolate in this, and I'm not a fan. I'll use 85%-86% next time. You live, you learn.

For the whipped cream, I just used some double reduced coconut milk (when you refrigerate cans of coconut milk, they separate, leaving water on the bottom, and thick, creamy, rich coconut "cream/milk" on the top. The thick stuff is what you want to use. The liquid can be used in coffee or whatever other use you can think of). I added all of the double reduced coconut milk from one can and added some vanilla extract (I'm not a measurer...but I'd say a couple of tsps maybe a Tbsp), and whipped it. It is wonderful! Like, I could probably just eat it with a spoon wonderful.

Another recipe I'm particularly fond of from Elana's pantry are her Double Chocolate Mocha Cookies. These are fantastic. And very easy. And very fast. I have a bunch in my freezer because I like to have treats on hand for Cave Baby in case I run out of time. Elana's Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake is another favorite. The chocolate "shortcake" biscuits are addictive. Consider yourself warned. I made them and used the double reduced whipped cream in lieu of her recipe calling for dairy, and that was that. I didn't use strawberries because I didn't have any on hand. These are some really easy, but incredibly delicious dessert ideas that will keep your kids satisfied and ensure they don't feel like they're missing out on anything. I don't advocate these as staples, but rather as special treats. Who doesn't like getting a random special treat from time to time?

The Paleo Switch

I'll try to keep this brief and on point...we'll see how it goes.

My switch to Paleo happened after already losing a significant amount of weight. I was overweight before I got married, was overweight when I found out I was pregnant with Cave Baby, and gained a substantial amount of weight during my pregnancy. I lost 30 pounds within a week or two of having Cave Baby, but I never managed to lose the rest of the pregnancy weight, let alone the extra weight I was carrying around before Cave Baby ever existed.

I was fat. And tired. And my back hurt all the time. I was sick of it. I thought I was eating healthily, I knew I wasn't exercising, and I was (and still am) very into being "green" and homeopathic remedies, etc. Because of my interests in green living and the like, I used cloth diapers for Cave Baby, which led me to www.diaperswappers.com. On their site they have all of the information you could ever need about cloth diapering from some really awesome and helpful women. Also on that site are a ton of forums not related to cloth diapering. One forum is "Healthy Living and Weight Loss." I bit. And I am so, so grateful that I did. Because of the support and advice on that site, I decided to start Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. Again. I'd done about four days of it earlier that year, and then gave up. With the amazing support of the women on the message board, I stuck with it. And then I started the Couch to 5K program. And then I started counting calories. I was losing weight faster than imaginable! From Mid-July to December I lost about 60 pounds. Sixty.pounds.

In January, I posted something on FB about soy noodles. Matt, the owner of Survival Fitness, commented on it, and after a bit of back and forth, he suggested Paleo. I'd never heard of such a thing! But I knew Matt knows what he's talking about and I know he gets results (I started at SF the next month, btw). Thus began my Paleo journey. I threw calorie counting out the window (which I was TERRIFIED to do. Terrified.), and began eating like a cave woman. Between Paleo, and more importantly, I think, Survival Fitness (which is extended Crossfit), I have gained an enormous amount of strength and muscle. I've only lost an addition 10 pounds, but I know I've gained at least 3 times that in muscle mass.

I was really nervous, making the Paleo switch, not only because of calorie counting (did I mention I was TERRIFIED to stop counting calories?), but also because it seemed like such a restrictive diet! No pasta? No bread?! No CHEESE?! No problem! I was really worried about it. I'd tried South Beach once a year or two prior and failed miserably. I was miserable and hungry the entire time. I had cravings that I can't even explain. But the switch to Paleo was effortless. Trust me, that was a big surprise to me! I was actually planning on failure (please don't ever do that. Planning for failure is the absolute dumbest thing ever and 99% of the time is a self-fulfilling prophecy). But as I spent all of my free time googling Paleo recipes and browsing http://www.everydaypaleo.com's site, I found that I not only didn't have any weird cravings, I also really enjoyed it. I also saw my energy levels almost immediately sky rocket, which was fantastic. And then, after a couple of months of making Paleo meals for myself and SAD (standard American diet) meals for Cave Baby, it dawned on me that she would benefit from Paleo as well. That it wasn't fair for me to exclude her from this healthy way of eating just because it would be challenging.

So I did it. She still gets a sippy of milk each morning, and I can't control what she eats when she's at her Dad's house. But when she's in my care she eats Paleo. We discuss Paleo, what is good for our bodies, what isn't good for our bodies, why, etc. She's suffered from digestive issues since birth, and Paleo has really helped with that. When she's in pain and struggling, she now says "It hurts because I ate....." and tattles on whatever non-Paleo food (generally it's a gluten-containing food that causes the problem) she had with her Dad, and knows that it is the reason she is having difficulty. She's two and a half.

The transition with Cave Baby has not always been easy. But it has been worthwhile. She has to try everything I feed her. Not eat it. Try it. If she doesn't like it, that's fine, but she MUST try it. She has spent a lot of time in time out during meal times. And it's a bummer. And it's hard. But it's WORTH it. She went from eating primarily grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eating a ton of meat, more fruit that she used to, and ::gasp:: vegetables! That child would not TOUCH vegetables when I started her on Paleo. And now she actually asks for them. Asks.for.them. Her treats are 70+% dark chocolate, fruit, Lara bars (we have a stash, but I also make them), etc. I do bake Paleo baked goods for her. She's cute. And not trying to lose weight, so I don't see the harm. But she sticks to Paleo. I make her Paleo bread so that she can still have sandwiches sometimes...almond butter and no-sugar-added jelly on Paleo bread is one of her favorite foods. She's always thrilled when that's an option. That's another thing! I like to give her options. If I give her 2-3 choices, she's more invested in what I'm making. Sometimes I just say "What would you like for dinner/lunch/etc?" and she gives me an answer, but I often give her a few things to choose from and go from there.

Phew. That, friends, is my journey into Paleo-hood. =)

Cave Baby

Starting my Cave Baby blog to write about the food that I make for my precious little Cave Baby.

Tonight's menu:
Stuffed peppers and roasted broccoli. For dessert Cave Baby will be offered an almond butter blondie with whipped coconut milk.

I made stuffed peppers, but knowing that Cave Baby is not a pepper fan, I kept some of the "stuffing" in the pan and tossed in some No Oodles (noodles made only of yam flour and water).