Mom Life

Wow. Where to even begin. It’s been a long freaking time since my last post, like three years. If I have any followers left, I’m sorry! Life happened. For real, I made a life, and now my own life is complicated and often difficult to navigate.

On top of fibromyalgia and keeping my own self alive, I now have a whole other person to manage. Thankfully, I have my amazing husband to help me balance things, but it’s still tough. Every day is a new lesson.

Keto is still our main way of life, but I’d be lying if I said we were anywhere near as strict about it as we were before I got pregnant. During the week, we’re pretty good about it, then the weekend comes and POOF! Chipotle and pizza just seem to appear 😬.

I’m honestly not sure where I’m even going with this, I just wanted to make a post to break the ice and get the words flowing again. Wish me luck!

Life on Keto pt2

As promised, here’s the rest of my latest food adventure 🙂

Dinners are usually made in large batches to be eaten throughout the week, which means they aren’t usually very photogenic. On the weekends, the husband and I usually cook together and enjoy making slightly more complicated meals. Here are a few of our favorites.

First up, PIZZA. I will tell you right now, that if I couldn’t have pizza on this way of eating, I wouldn’t have made it this far. This girl needs pizza. We’ve tried a few different recipes, but we keep coming back to cauliflower crust, (super simple and very quick to throw together).

Our other favorite is Fat Head pizza, which is slightly more complicated than the cauliflower, but almost identical to “real” pizza. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures!!

My husband is a pot roast fanatic, so of course we had to find a way to make that keto friendly. The only thing he misses is the mashed potatoes, but I thought the cauliflower cakes and roasted radishes we made were an excellent substitute. As you can see, there’s no shortage of veggies on this plate!

Here, we have some oven roasted ribs with coleslaw and cheesy cauliflower. It’s not quite mac and cheese, but it is darn good.

This sesame chicken is one of my favorite meals EVER. I don’t even miss the rice with this dish. (I do swap out the soy sauce for coconut aminos, since our version of keto is soy free). I like to use a bag of Asian Chopped salad or a broccoli teriyaki salad, (without the included dressing or toppings), instead of just broccoli, it really adds to the texture of the meal.

This meal is also excellent as leftovers, so it’s great for meal prepping, (win!).

One of our other favorite meals so far has been this shrimp alfredo with bacon wrapped scallops.

Who’s ready for dessert?

We try not to make desserts too often, but sometimes you just need a little something sweet. I’m still looking for my perfect non-sugar sweetener, but so far, my husband has been happiest with Swerve. When I use it in baked items, I find that it has an odd after taste, but that seems to be just me. We’ve made several cheesecakes, all with Swerve, but I’m going to try one with allulose soon!

This was the cake I made for our anniversary back in November. Overall, I was very happy with it, but again, I got a weird after taste from the erythritol. To be honest, this cake was so good that I barely minded the after taste. Chocolate covers many sins, apparently.

Life on Keto

When I last posted, I was so full of hope that I’d be thin and svelte in no time flat. Sadly, that has not happened. We’re about halfway through our fifth month on this way of eating and I’m down just 17 pounds. However, I am down 2 jeans sizes (from a 14 to a 10!!!!), which is amazing and I can’t get over how awesome I feel overall. I’m actually sleeping through the night most nights, (epic freaking win!), and I even wake up feeling mostly refreshed. Considering that previously, I was lucky to wake up feeling even slightly refreshed, I’m counting this as a major success. I also haven’t had any major flare ups since we made this lifestyle change. This isn’t to say that I’m totally pain free, but my pain on average is way down and my trigger points haven’t made any appearances in MONTHS.

Another major success I’ve encountered is that the cravings I used to have for horrible food, (chocolate/sugar/all the carbohydrates), have basically disappeared. I still want chocolate, but my cravings are now for Lily bars, which have no added sugar; they’re sweetened with stevia and erythritol. I also get random cravings for bacon, but since that is 100% keto friendly, I am ok with this.

What am I eating to make me feel so awesome? I’ll show you, but before I do, I’d like to explain my approach to keto. Chances are, if you’ve ever heard anything about a ketogenic diet, it was explained in a way that makes it sound like a fat free for all. It is high fat, this much is true, but I’m not eating sticks of butter or pounds of bacon every day. I like to call our approach the “neurotic clean keto”. We don’t eat any grains, legumes, (except the occasional peanut), or added sugars at all, which means very little of what we eat is premade or processed. I am constantly reading ingredient labels for hidden evils. The whole point of the ketogenic way of eating is to keep carbs extremely low, 20g per day or less. The carbs that we do eat come exclusively from vegetables, (mostly green, with the odd carrot), dairy, nuts and seeds.

Most days, I’m at 10-15g of net carbohydrates. I choose to count net carbs, (total carbs – fiber = net), rather than total carbs so that I have more room for vegetables and avocados! I have found that this approach helps keep me “regular” and keeps me full so I don’t gorge on fat or go too far over my calorie budget. I know that a lot of people only worry about their macros, (fat, protein, and carbohydrates), but if I don’t count my calories, I will over eat. This helps me stay accountable!

Enough explanations, on to the food!! Breakfasts are usually simple affairs with some combination of bacon and eggs, with the occasional veggie add in. This first picture is a simple salad of cabbage, celery, kale and a teensy bit of shredded carrot, that I pan seared just until the veggies started to wilt with over easy eggs and bacon.

Next, is a bacon, egg, and cheese “sandwich” using two over-hard eggs as the bread. Quick, easy, and tasty!

We don’t always do fancy breakfasts, most days it’s just a couple of eggs and some bacon. Some days we get extra fancy and make waffles or bagels with almond flour! Sadly, I don’t have a picture of the waffles, but I’ll take one next time we make them!

Oh, and don’t forget the coffee! There is ALWAYS coffee with a splash of heavy cream. Mmm.

I’ve fallen out of the habit of eating lunch, mostly because I’m just not hungry. When I did eat lunch, it was super simple: some salami and cheese most days. Maybe some salted almonds and a cheese stick or guacamole and celery. These days, I’m happy with a ginger-vinegar tonic. (Sounds gross, I know, but I swear it’s delicious!!). It keeps me full for several hours and is a great way to sneak in some extra electrolytes.

I’m out of time for today, but I’ll cover dinners, (and desserts!), soon!!

Here’s To Non Scale Victories!

Six weeks ago, my husband and I decided to completely overhaul our diet/lifestyle and follow a ketogenic diet. Essentially, it’s a very low carb, (20g or less per day), high fat and moderate protein. No sugars or artificial sweeteners, no grains, no legumes and no pseudo grains. Some of you may remember that I previously did the Whole 30 diet, keto is very similar, except it allowed dairy, (if you can tolerate it), and is meant to be a way of life, not a temporary trial. 

The idea of intentionally eating high fat foods is somewhat foreign to most of us. It certainly was intimidating to me. I spent about a year researching this way of eating and watching friends who followed before I managed to find the courage to try it myself. To be honest, if not for my husband, I probably would never have made the leap. This way of eating goes against everything we Americans are taught about “healthy” eating. The standard American diet consists mainly of complex carbohydrates and processed foods with some red meat and vegetables thrown in for variety. 

Our own government tells us this is how we should be eating. Fat is bad! Carbs are good! We are constantly bombarded with images of “low fat” and “whole grain” foods. What no one tells you is that in order to make anything “low fat” palatable, the manufacturers are loading their food with sugar to replace the fat. I have come to realize that fat, (good, non processed fat), is not the enemy; sugar is. If I want to have a fibro flare up, the fastest way to get there is to eat sugar. It doesn’t matter if I go for organic snooty sugar or the basic stuff found in candy bars, it causes a painful reaction. Unfortunately, sugar is also highly addictive and I have been an addict all my life. 

Unfortunately, doing Whole 30 and then paleo did nothing to help me with this addiction. I made it through Whole 30 only because I knew it would only be for 30 days and then I went right back to my vices. Paleo allowed me to continue eating sugar, just in different, albeit cleaner forms like maple syrup and honey. Keto allows for no such slip ups. The whole point of eating a high fat, low carbohydrate diet is to teach your body to burn stored fat for energy; to go into ketogenesis. If you consume sugar or anything else high in carbs, your body will revert back to burning glucose and storing the fat. 

So. How is keto working for us? In short, amazingly. In six short weeks, my husband has lost 20lbs, (and counting!). I am down about 10lbs, but I’ve already dropped a jeans size and heading towards a second. More importantly however, is how we feel. Both of us have experienced massive energy increases, better sleep, fewer headaches and much improved moods. Best of all, I’ve been in complete control of my sugar cravings. Not only was I strong enough to turn away from deep fried Oreos while at a haunted farm, I made it through Halloween without eating a single piece of candy!! I won’t say I wasn’t tempted, but it’s never been so easy to say “no”. 

While I would love to be losing weight a little faster, I am beyond thrilled with the non scale victories I’ve been experiencing. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have control over my cravings and I have never felt better! 

Bake on!

We’re now over a full month into our Paleo adventure! We’ve had a few cheat meals, but for the most part, we’ve stuck to the program! It’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be, although it is exhausting having to make pretty much everything from scratch. Luckily, both of us love to cook and cooking together only adds to the fun.

I’m still working on this bread thing. Last week, we made a batch using half cassava flour and half almond flour. It was very good, but it still lacks the size needed for a real sandwich. The cassava flour allows for a more traditional bread texture, which is amazing. Next time I attempt bread, I think we’ll try a recipe that uses yeast, since neither of us have any issues with eating it. 

The one thing I love about baking bread without yeast is that it comes together super fast. There’s no need to wait for rising and you don’t have to knead it; just whisk together and pop it in the oven. Unfortunately, the husband and I miss sandwiches. I’ve been craving a PBJ for ages now, (though it would have to be an almond butter and jelly since peanuts are not allowed). 

Today, I made English muffins! 

Aren’t they pretty? These were also quick to put together, but the cashew butter makes them a bit too expensive for me to want to make regularly. I am very pleased with the flavor, but they’re just too soft to be used the way we’d want to eat them. If you tried to make an egg sandwich or top them with anything other than a bit of butter, they’d fall apart. Again, I’m going to give the cassava flour a try. Stay tuned! 

Paleo Life

It’s been a busy few weeks around here. The success of the paleo cupcakes for my husband’s birthday has sparked a renewed interest in paleo baking in the both of us. We loved making bread before this diet change and we’re excited to try some new techniques. 
This last week, we tried a paleo sandwich bread made using almond flour. The one thing I noticed right off was that since this bread has no gluten or more importantly, yeast in it, it comes together so much faster than standard sandwich bread. So, that’s a win! There’s no need for rise time, punching or kneading the dough; you basically mix it, pour it in the pan and bake! The downside to no yeast however, is that the finished product doesn’t rise very much. Vinegar and baking soda give it a slight boost, but for the most part, it comes out of the oven at the same height it went in. Drat. I was hoping for a nice, tall loaf of sandwich bread. What I got was a mini loaf, albeit a very tasty one. 

The flavor of the bread is awesome. It’s dense and slightly nutty, not too overpowering and would be perfect for sandwiches or toast, it just lacks height. I thought I could get a little more height out of it by separating the eggs and whipping the whites into medium peaks before folding them back in, but there was almost no difference in height between the two loaves. I did notice that the bread with the whipped egg whites came out a little less dense, which was nice, but not the result I was hoping for. Back to the drawing board on that one. 

I can confirm however, that as written, this bread makes amazing toast. I eat it with a little bit of butter (not paleo, I know, but it doesn’t bother me, so I’m going to keep eating it). My husband loves it with his morning eggs, so win-win!

On the upside, I’ve got (almost) paleo chocolate chip cookies AND fudgy brownies. So, so good. 

Both are made with almond flour and organic chocolate chips. The way I made them isn’t exactly paleo compliant because the chocolate chips do contain processed white sugar, but for now, that’s going to have to do. Once I run out of chocolate chips, I’ll look into making them 100% paleo.

For the cookies, I follow the recipe exactly. I did experiment by adding one cup of dried cranberries and one teaspoon of cinnamon in order to make something close to my oatmeal craisin cookies, EPIC! I’ll have to take a picture next time, I was too hungry to wait this last batch. 

For the brownies, I tried them exactly as written the first time around, but they were too cakey for my liking. I prefer my brownies to be super fudgy and moist. I thought 3 eggs seemed like too many the first time I made them, so on my second try, I cut it down to 2 eggs and that was perfect!

We’re still on the hunt for a more sandwich friendly bread; I just got a tip about cassava flour, which is already on its way to me, so hopefully next time, I’ll be able to report a success!

Whole 30, The End!

Sorry I didn’t post on the last week of my Whole 30, I had a terrible cold and just didn’t feel up to it. I ate mostly soup and bone broth that week, so you didn’t miss much. 

We made it! We’re actually almost a week past the end of our Whole 30, and it feels amazing!!! I lost just over 6 pounds in 30 days and I can’t even describe how awesome I feel. My skin is clear, my digestive issues have sorted themselves out and I’m even sleeping better at night! 

So, now what? Do I just go straight back to eating how I was before? What’s my plan for the future? Well, the husband and I have decided to make a major dietary change and go paleo permanently. Whoa. Wait. What on Earth does that even mean?The idea is simple, paleo refers to our caveman ancestors and the diet essentially consists of things that could be hunted or gathered, so lots of lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Most importantly, the focus of paleo is cutting out processed foods and grains altogether. The paleo diet is very similar to Whole 30, but it is less restrictive on some things, like sugar. The Whole 30 does not allow any added sugars at all, except fruit juice. Paleo allows natural sugars such maple syrup and honey, which means we can have some sweets, (yay!). 

We haven’t decided yet how closely we want to stick to paleo guidelines. Right now, we’re considering a slightly modified version and allowing ourselves some dairy, because neither of us have any issues digesting it. We do plan to allow for cheat meals every now and then. Notice I didn’t say cheat “days”. I’ve always found the cheat day mindset to be particularly dangerous to any diet plan. I tend to go overboard on everything when it’s a whole cheat day. A cheat “meal” mindset allows us to have one non-compliant meal and then go right back to doing what we’re supposed to do as opposed to saying “well, I had a non compliant breakfast, may as well keep eating junk!”. 

Take this weekend, for instance, we went out to dinner for my husband’s birthday on Saturday. That was our cheat meal. The whole rest of the day, we stayed on plan. Before, I would have said “screw it, let’s ruin the whole day!”, and I’d have paid dearly for it the next. This way, we had some fun and didn’t feel guilty about it or make ourselves ill. Win! 

Speaking of birthdays, you may be wondering what kind of birthday doesn’t have a cake… not this one! I got a fabulous cookbook and made paleo compliant chocolate cupcakes with an equally compliant French buttercream. No one who tried them even realized they weren’t normal cupcakes until I told them, I’d say that’s a damn fine recipe. 

Ok, so you had a birthday cake. What about the Super Bowl?!? Don’t worry, I had that covered too! We made paleo friendly wings from NomNomPaleo and crispy smashed potatoes. 

I even got to have left over wings for dinner tonight with some roasted cauliflower and steamed green beans! Note: green beans are a controversial item on paleo; they’re legumes which technically aren’t allowed, but I say if it’s good enough for Whole 30, they’re good enough for paleo, since they’re mostly pod.

I think that’s just about it for now, more recipes and meal plans to come!

 

Whole 30, Day 22!

We are officially more than 2/3 of the way trough this round of Whole 30! 
This last week, we stuck with our breakfast smoothies, so nothing new or exciting there. 

Last week, I mentioned we had a bunch of all new recipes to try out, so here’s the run down. For lunches this week, we had a veggie laden pulled pork stew, (my own recipe, which I haven’t written out yet). I used left over pulled pork, bone broth, carrots, mushrooms, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, celery, onion and kale to make this super filling stew in the instant pot. One serving rolls in at about 307 calories and it kept me full all afternoon, win-win!

My husband wasn’t happy about the mushrooms in it, but otherwise loved it, so next time I make it, I’ll probably omit them.

Sunday, we made another new recipe: cilantro lime chicken, with roasted cauliflower and cabbage steaks.  The original recipe suggests serving this chicken over rice, but since rice is forbidden while on the Whole 30, I roasted up some cabbage steaks instead. I wasn’t sure how the cabbage steaks would go over, but they were awesome. We had a non Whole 30 friend over for dinner that night and he even enjoyed it!

Monday, we decided to make some grilled garlic shrimp with grilled asparagus since my husband was home from work for MLK Day. Oh my gosh, I love these shrimp. Not only are they super simple to put together, they are delicious! 

As you can see, with our shrimp, instead of pasta or another carby side, we had some more roasted cauliflower, (I am obsessed, not sorry), and we roasted a few of our home grown carrots, too. 

The rest of the week, we enjoyed curried shepherd’s pie. I made several changes to this recipe, the most obvious of which was using white potatoes and cauliflower in place of sweet potatoes. I also omitted the peas, since they’re not Whole 30 compliant and used bone broth rather than plain beef broth. I added in some finely diced mushrooms, a turnip and some extra cauliflower to make it a bit more filling. Next time I make this, I think I’ll add a lot more curry powder and probably a teensy bit more salt, but otherwise, it was excellent. 

Saturday was a little different this week since Aaron was working, but my good friend and fellow Whole 30 buddy, Amber came over to make dinner with me. We made NomNomPaleo’s Cracklin Chicken (sooo good!), roasted cauliflower and some kick ass garlic green beans. 

Amber brought her dog, Willow over to play with Freyja and we made a whole girl’s night of it, complete with scary movies. The only thing missing was chocolate and wine, mmmm….

For this next week, we’re having oven roasted pork ribs for dinner and chicken soup (with bone broth!) for lunches. I’ll probably be having just the soup today since my stomach is unhappy about something. Not a great start to the week, but hopefully things will be back to normal soon. 

Whole 30, Day 13

One more week down! This week was mostly leftovers, which made it super easy, but here’s a run down of what kept me going!
For breakfasts, we had smoothies! Yum. We tend to find something we like and use it until we’re sick of it, so all of our smoothies this week were the same: 

• 90g (1 cup) frozen spinach or kale
• 1 frozen banana
• 70g (1/2 cup) frozen blueberries
• 32g (2 tablespoons) almond butter
• 1 scoop of collagen peptides
• 6 oz coconut milk
• 6 oz cold coffee

I use a kitchen scale for most of my measuring, which is why everything is in grams. I just find it easier to just sit the pitcher on the scale and dump everything in, plus no need to dirty extra utensils! (I am a fairly lazy creature, after all.) I didn’t really take any pictures of the smoothies because they’re not very pretty. The coffee makes it a dark, unappealing color, but damn if it doesn’t make all the difference in my morning! 

This week, I really tried to start cutting out the snacks, but the results were disastrous. I’m going to stick to small, compliant snacks and leave it alone. Being grumpy and tired is just no way to be. For snacks this week, (once I realized cutting them out was a lost cause), I had an orange in the morning, if I needed it and a handful of raw almonds and plain walnuts in the afternoon. This helped keep my energy steady and kept me from being such a sourpuss. 

So, lunch! I tried sweet potato toast! It sounds weird, but I was very impressed; it’s super simple and very yummy, so win-win!

Take a whole sweet potato and give it a good scrub. Dry it off and slice it (lengthwise) so you get long, 1/4″ slices and stick it right in the toaster!

I toasted mine for about 5 min, until they were tender but not mushy. Slather on some almond butter, sprinkle with some cinnamon and a teensy bit of sea salt and enjoy! 

On the days I didn’t have sweet potato toast, I just had the kale and potato soup from last week,(equally quick and easy, since it was already made). 

Last weekend, we made the Paleo Beef Stew with roasted beets, carrots and parsnips; those leftovers served as dinner for the week.

I did, however make fresh roasted veggies to go with it, since I’ve found that those don’t reheat very well. Roasted cauliflower is officially my new favorite side dish. It’s soooo good!! I figured it would be fairly bland and tasteless, but it’s definitely not. Properly roasted, cauliflower has its own amazing flavor. It’s not a strong flavor, it’s very mellow, a little sweet and almost cheesy. Seriously, you have to try it! 

The other dish we made over the weekend was the Carne Asada, which is definitely a favorite around here. 

We found the recipe back in July when we did the Whole 30 for the first time and we’ve been making flank steak like this ever since. We had some cole slaw and pan seared asparagus to go with it. I can’t wait to make it again with the roasted cauliflower! 

This weekend, we’re trying all new recipes, including a curried shepherd’s pie, cilantro lime chicken and a pulled pork vegetable stew, (which I started this morning and it smells amazing!). Stay tuned!

Whole 30, Day 7

One week down, 3 more to go! Ugh, I miss cheese! And chocolate, but mostly cheese. That’s really about it though, yay!! I don’t miss the sugar in my morning coffee and while my evening cup of tea isn’t quite as pleasurable as it was before, I’m learning to enjoy it. 

Overall, I’m feeling really good. Pain is still currently an issue, but the cold and I are old enemies, nothing new there. Winter is always bad for me as far as pain goes. The Reynaud’s really starts acting up, adding an extra layer of pain to my already aching hands and feet and the fibro itself always seems to get more active in the cold. The snow storm I mentioned in my last post has finally cleared up, so that helped a little. We’ll be back up in the 60s by the end of the week, so I’m hoping the rest of my pain will ease up by then. 

In the meantime, I can enjoy the extra energy and clear headedness I’m experiencing from clean eating. So, what have I been eating that’s allowing me to feel so good? Here are a few of the things I’ve been eating during week one of my whole 30: 

For breakfast, I’ve been enjoying fried eggs with, (un cured, no sugar added), bacon and a hash made of baby potatoes and fresh veggies such as kale, cabbage, asparagus and Brussels sprouts. 

Earlier this week, I used my instant pot, (AKA the most amazing contraption EVER!), to make a huge batch of kale and potato soup, which I’ve been eating for lunch. Note: to make this recipe Whole 30 compliant, I omitted the beans. I also added some ground turkey “sausage” and used no sugar added chicken broth, so my version is definitely not vegan.

I’m not supposed to be counting calories while on the Whole 30, but I have to point out that this whole bowl of soup comes in at under 300 calories and is super filling! 

One of the more difficult things about the Whole 30, for me, is that you’re not supposed to snack between meals. I’m terrible about eating 3 meals a day, I prefer 5 small meals, so this is a huge adjustment for me. This week I ate a larger breakfast and an earlier lunch to cut out my mid morning snack, but I couldn’t quite make it to dinner, so I’ve allowed myself a compliant afternoon snack of either fruit or this awesome roasted cauliflower “hummus“. I think it sort of looks like cat food with green bits in it, but it tastes awesome. 

Dinner this week was Kalua Pig (another instant pot success!!) with coleslaw, (epic use of the home made mayo), and fresh green beans. Note: while most legumes are banned on the Whole k30, green beans are an exception since they’re mostly pod.

For those of you wondering, yes, we did eat the same thing for dinner every week night this week. I made a huge batch of everything and portioned it out into lovely little boxes to make life easier. I don’t know about you, but I rarely have the energy to worry about cooking every single night, so this process helps A LOT. It also helps cut down dishes, so major bonus. 

On the weekends, I do try to make dinner both nights, as a kind of reward for finishing up all of the prepped meals. Last night, we tried a paleo beef stew with roasted beets, carrots, parsnips and Brussels sprouts and some mashed potatoes. 

Tonight’s dinner is going to be carne asada with pan seared asparagus, but I’ll have to share that in my next post since I haven’t made it yet. 

Happy Sunday!