CHRISTMAS WEEK!!!!

YEAH! ITS HERE! HOORAY! (YES IT IS CAPS WORTHY!)

Day 1:

• Waffles (Kurt made about a dozen too many, and hey are huge, so we will do that, lol!)
• Sweet Pepper and Kale toss
• Sausage "Spaghetti" with Creamy Tomato Sauce

Day 2:

• Bacon and Eggs
• Two Whole chickens! Serve with steamed peas **Make chicken salad now!
• Chicken soup ***MAKE BREAKFAST CASSEROLE BEFORE BED!!

Day 3- CHRISTMAS!!!!!

• Breakfast Casserole!! 
• Holiday Chicken Salad
• Ham, holiday yams, cranberry sauce, broccoli

Day 4- Post-Christmas-Relax-Day!!!!

• Leftovers
• Leftovers
• Kid Friendly Chili (double the spices)

Week Before Christmas!

This is a special time!!! Kurt got a job offer, and I will be trying to cook one of the meals per day. Next week I will be doing two a day- and with any luck it will help me ease back into cooking without Kurt's help!!! We are expecting a huge snow storm here (admittedly, I don't know what Iowans consider huge...) so I am planning some good- "stay warm" meals for us!

Day 1:

• Eggs and Bacon
• Leftovers
• Pizza!!!

Day 2:

• Eggs and Muffins!
• Roasted Whole chicken, sweet potato casserole, broccoli.
• Chicken Soup with leftover chicken

Day 3:

• Bacon and Eggs
• Chicken Salad with leftover chicken, served with seed crackers
• Sirloin Dijon with kale (use Kindle version)

Day 4:

• Tapioca Crepes, filled with sausage, eggs, or berries, or jam
• Leftovers
• Sweet Pepper Kale Toss (Yeah, Kurt requested it again!)

Day 5:

• Waffles!
• Avocado wrapped in lunch meat, served with sliced veggies on the side
• 
  

And the menu for the week isssssss:

There is one paleo cheat per day on this menu... it is final's week for me- so STOP JUDGING ME! (I also let the boys each pick one of the meals, so that explains 3 of these!)

Day 1:

• Bacon and Eggs for the kids (oatmeal for me.)
• Leftovers from previous week
• Sweet pepper kale toss

Day 2:

• Eggs and sausage, with fresh fruit
• Pumpkin soup
• Pizza!!!  (Crust, and top with toppings!)

Day 3:

• Waffles! We will be making them with GF flour and using the waffle-maker's instructions
• Meat wrapped avocado slices, served with cut celery and baby carrots
• Peanut Chicken and cauliflower rice (we don't normally eat peanuts, but 'tis the season!)

Day 4:

• Breakfast scramble (1lb breakfast sausage cooked with eggs)
• Nachos 
• Baked steak (21 seasoning salute!) and broccoli or peas

Day 5:

• Sausage, hot rice, or oatmeal- everyone do your own thing!
• Leftovers, or meat wrapped avocados and veggie slices
• Crock pot curry and cauliflower rice

And yet another menu!

Day 1:

• Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs
• Lunch: Pumpkin Soup and leftover bacon
• Dinner: Meatloaf and peas

Day 2:

• Breakfast: Banana Pancakes or Eggs and sausage
• Lunch: Leftovers, or chicken wrapped avocado, and sliced celery
• Lime Chicken (use agave instead of sugar) and cauliflower rice

Day 3:

• Breakfast: Scramble (we accidentally did this with Italian sausage- and WOW was it good!)
• Lunch: Leftovers, or grilled chicken salad with Kurt's favorite oil dressing
• Dinner: Chicken "Enchiladas" (no tortillas for us!) with cauliflower rice

Day 4:

• Breakfast: Eggs/sausage, and fresh fruit
• Lunch: Ham slices with sliced avocado, carrots and celery, and sugar snap peas
• Dinner: Steak Fajitas (use this chicken recipe, but sub steak for chicken)

Day 5:

• Breakfast: Eggs or Pancakes, with sausage links
• Lunch: Leftovers 
• Dinner: Orange chicken with cauliflower rice

Menu Plans, they continue!

I didn't post the last few menu plans, but Kurt said he likes it better when I do. So, if you are following this an wondering why there is a large gap between the weeks- there is the explanation!

This week we are starting back to a fully paleo diet!!! Looking forward to feeling (and looking) much better, very soon. We will be allowing ourselves a little (very little) wiggle room on Thanksgiving day, only because we are not hosting our own dinner.

Day 1:

• Breakfast: Eggs and Bacon, OJ
• Lunch: eating out, grocery shopping!
• Dinner: Better Butter Chicken over cauliflower "rice"

Day 2:

• Breakfast: Banana Pancakes (Harrison may have eggs)
• Lunch: Brussels Sprouts and Bacon (Kurt, please ask me about this recipe!)
• Dinner: Kid Friendly Chili (double the spices)

Day 3:

• Breakfast: Sausage Scramble (without potatoes or milk) with sliced avocado
• Lunch: leftovers
• Dinner: Sirloin Dijon (Kurt, please ask me about this recipe!)

Day 4:

• Breakfast: Steak and Eggs
• Lunch/Dinner - HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (we need crustless pumpkin pie- altered to be paleo)
• (Kurt's favorite salad, double the greens, Paleo Holiday Yams, Paleo Stuffing)

Day 5:

• Breakfast: Eggs and Sausage, sliced fruit
• Lunch: Avocado wrapped in turkey, leftovers
• Dinner: Lime and Coconut Chicken with cauliflower "rice"

Week 3 Menu

We have been fighting colds- yuck! Last week lasted a bit longer than a week because of it- we just didn't feel like doing much other than leftovers on some days. With us feeling better now, this week should be great!!!

Day 1:

• Scrambled eggs and cut fruit (sausage on the side, if desired)
• Sweet Pepper Kale Toss (Kurt requested it, he loves it! This is not a paleo recipe, but we do use GF noodles)
• Spaghetti in Creamy Tomato sauce (This is another repeat, but the kids loved it too much not to do again!)

Day 2:

• Hot rice cereal or baked oatmeal, served with a side of breakfast sausage. (Again, not paleo, but I find that oatmeal really helps my lactation, and hot rice cereal is Harrison's favorite thing!)
• Leftover Spaghetti or Kale toss
• Dinner in a Pumpkin

Day 3:

• Eggs and fresh fruit (sausage for those who hate eggs... aka: Carter)
• Pumpkin Soup (a favorite at our house, and a staple during cold weather)
• Crock Pot Chicken Curry with Peppers and Cabbage 

Day 4:

• Bacon and Eggs with fresh fruit 
• Leftovers (soup or curry)
• Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Day 5:

• Hot rice cereal or baked oatmeal served with a side of breakfast sausage
• Hot dogs and chips 
• Ham, Paleo Holiday Yams, peas

 

Menu Plan Week 2

Kurt made most of our meals last week (our house roles are currently: me homeschool the kids and work on my own classes, and feed and hold the baby- he is basically the house and food master!) and said he found that linking all of our menu plan online was convenient and helpful. So, I will do it again!!! (Oh yes, I am also the menu planner. Not sure why, lol!)

Day 1:

• Breakfast: Easy Crockpot Breakfast Casserole (because sometimes mornings need to be easy)
• Lunch: Leftover Casserole
• Dinner: "Meatballs too Tasty for Super Bowl Sunday" and Cauliflower "rice"

Day 2:

• Scrambled eggs and/or sausage, served with fresh cut fruit
• Pumpkin Soup
• One Pot Chicken Drumsticks

Day 3:

• Tapioca Crepes with fruit (or in Kurt's case, bananas and Nutella)
• Kurt's favorite salad (minus the encrusted goat cheese) 
• Sesame Chicken (from an e-book I bought years ago, and adore!) and cauliflower rice

Day 4:

• Baked oatmeal or hot rice cereal, served with a side of breakfast sausage
• Hot Dogs and Chips served with fruit (maybe we can use the grill! Let's hope it is nice out!)
• Pulled Pork and Kale Chips

Day 5:

• Scrambled eggs, fresh fruit
• Chicken Chili Soup
• Everyday Paleo "Stuffing" (from cookbook)

Last week we did SO amazing on staying in and sticking to our menu. Sure, we deviated here and there, but our menu lasted a week with us not feeling starved or deprived! LOVE!

Menu Plan

I menu plan each week, but thought I would post this one online, in case any other families would like to see what we eat like, or like to use some of the days/recipes/ideas/grocery list! **THIS IS NOT A FULLY PALEO MENU** This is my own postpartum "ease into paleo" transition!

** I leave extra days open in case we have leftovers or something comes up. =)

Day 1:

• Breakfast: Banana Pancakes with syrup and precooked breakfast sausage on the side.
• Lunch: Sweet Pepper Pasta Toss with Kale (double the kale, omit the cheese for those who cannot do dairy)
• Dinner: Sausage "Spaghetti" with sauce

Day 2:

• Scrambled eggs, cut fresh fruit
• Super Nachos (without cheese and sour cream)
• Oven-Roasted Chicken (stuffed with lemon, onion, and thyme), steamed broccoli, crust-less pumpkin pie for dessert (no whip, sub agave for sugar, coconut milk instead of evaporated milk)

Day 3:

• Gluten-free pancakes (from a gluten free mix) and eggs
• Kurt's favorite salad (we do not do the goat cheese encrusting part, but we do add extra greens)
• Chicken salad (made with leftover chicken), served with romaine lettuce

Day 4:

• Oatmeal or Hot Rice cereal, sweetened with agave and seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg 
• Lasagna made with zucchini as noodles
• Leftover Lasagna (Don't judge- everyone needs a lazier day!!!)

Day 5:

• Bacon and Eggs with fresh fruit
• Pumpkin Soup
• Burgers (without buns), potato chips (again, don't judge!!!), cut fresh fruits

Snacks:

Beef Jerky (without gluten or soy)

Cut veggies- celery, carrots, tomatoes

Fruit- apples, bananas, berries

Banana Pancakes

I don't cook very often these days. We have a beautiful new baby, and my husband has been home and dominating the kitchen- so I am a little out of practice. Sure, I admit to tossing together a few things here and there, but not regularly like I normally would. (This is a unique chapter in our lives, and that is okay!)

I saw a post about banana pancakes a few weeks ago- what I remember was that there were just TWO ingredients! Gotta love that, right??? So, I looked it up and thought I would give it a try! Through a mishap I ended up making them wrong (this is where you wonder, "How do you mess up two ingredients???" Yeah... well.... I don't know, but I did!) but they ended up wonderful and I don't think I would change them!

Two Ingredient Pancakes:

2 overly-ripe bananas (those ugly ones that only banana-bread lovers can appreciate)
3 eggs

Heat oil on a skillet (just pretend you are making regular pancakes! I like coconut oil). While skillet is heating, mash bananas in a large bowl. Add eggs to banana mush, and mix together. Pour banana batter on skillet and cook like regular pancakes.

My husband enjoyed his first helping without syrup of any kind, and his second he added maple syrup (which is how our youngest boy ate his). My eldest son and I topped ours with blueberry sauce. We all loved these- they were quite a hit!

Feeling sooooo icky...

Photo from Shutterbean

I am 19 weeks pregnant!!! We are beyond thrilled to be expecting, but while our hearts are overjoyed my body has been reacting less than wonderfully. I have been sick since week 6- and this has gotten really old! I have not been cooking (or eating!) as I should- either due to feeling sick or feeling totally run-down. My husband has been such a SAINT- he makes breakfast for the kids, and then runs lunch home for us during his lunch hour, and most days gets take-out for dinner. I have tried so hard to pitch in, but it seems like it is not in the cards right now. Our wonderful Church members provided a week of meals for us- it really gave my husband a break and my kids some needed nutrition!

This week I was *finally* able to make a meal on my own from scratch. I was so happy! I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to serve my husband and children some good, healthy, delicious food that I had created by myself! (I wish I could say the rest of the week went better and I was able to make food each day, but that would not be the truth. A gastrointestinal virus landed me in the hospital with directions to stay in bed through the weekend- ick!)

The meal I managed to make for my family was a pumpkin soup with curry. It was *soooo* delicious and flavorful! I love pumpkin soup, I really haven't come across one that I haven't enjoyed (some more than others, but on a whole, I like pumpkin soup in all forms I have tasted). My friend made an excellent one over Thanksgiving and I made it often during the holidays- but wouldn't you know I lost the recipe, so I had to rely on the internet and some last minute changes! Overall- this is my new favorite soup! My children and husband even loved it (and they are not generally pumpkin soup fans)!

Total time: 30 minutes
Makes 6, 1cup servings

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups chicken broth
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
1 can coconut milk

• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
• Add the onion and garlic, and stir 2-3 minutes until tender.
• Add curry powder, salt, and pepper, and stir an additional 2 minutes.
• Add broth, pumpkin puree, and coconut milk- stir to combine. Reduce heat to low, and heat for 15-20 minutes, or until heated through.
• Enjoy!

I am going to be linking this recipe to one of my ultra favorite recipe sites, Comfy in the Kitchen!