Featuring your star, DINNER!

Dinner seems to be the star of the show here in our house. Sure, I've made good breakfast, Lawrence made a great salad the other day, but our dinner has been much more exciting the past few days. The recipes I've found this past week have really helped... I think I would have been lost otherwise.

Today's breakfast was a Cinnamon - Apple 2 minute mug cake from The Paleo Mom.
Wait - you all do know that the little blue words are the link to the recipes, right? Every name of where I got a recipe from is clickable, and it will take you directly to the page where the recipe is.

Tastes much better than it looks in the first picture. 

                                       
Anyway, lunch was leftover butter chicken - which was much better than last night - although last night was amazing! The chicken was more tender, the sauce was spicier and creamier. I loved it. I didn't make caulirice until later, so I just ate the butter chicken without caulirice.

Now, dinner! The star of the show!! I (as you may have seen, lol) have been posting my blog on FB, and someone sent this recipe to me. Crockpot chili! It was great, because the day I went to the doctor, I was going to make chili. He told me "true chili" didn't have beans. Okay... but I like beans.
Now, I don't need them! The chili was amazing! And I made caulirice to eat with it... so good! And I'm full!

I got this recipe from Paleo Newbie.
It calls for two pounds of ground beef - I only used one pound of ground turkey. I thought two would be too much. One pound made a very meaty chili.

Thankfully so far, I haven't had too many of the side effects from changing my diet - I'm a little tired, and I had a pretty bad headache one night, but that's about it.

Speaking of tired, I'm going to make Janiyah a dessert and go to bed early.

Oh, and you can follow my Pinterest board here (the word "here" is the link).

Thanks, all!

This recipe!

You MUST try it! Even if you're not following the Paleo diet, you must try this recipe!
Paleo Butter Chicken from My Heart Beets. I even made the naan (there's a link on her page for it).

I hadn't heard of butter chicken until my friend Keisha came to Charlotte for a visit and asked Lawrence to make it. That time, he made the traditional recipe. It was delicious. So when I saw this recipe available, I had to try it. 

It was SO easy! And inexpensive to make! If you have an international market near you, that may be a good place to purchase the seasonings you need. And extremely tasty! My girls were fighting over the pot to get seconds... 

We had it over cauliflower rice - something else my kids asked me to make again. I got the recipe from And We Are Here.
I was missing an ingredient for the butter chicken, so while I was waiting for Lawrence to come back from the store, I grabbed a little bowl of "caulirice", added a little salt and a pat of butter, and enjoyed a little snack.

Like I said before, I made the naan as well. I don't like "spongy" naan, so after pan frying it, I placed it in the oven. They turned into a wonderful cracker texture that worked very well with the dish. It's also something I can use for snacks and spreads - like the pumpkin spread I purchased the other day. Yum!

I know this is out of order, but for lunch, Lawrence made a chicken and spinach salad with boiled egg and bacon. It was great! He even made a dressing - olive oil, garlic, and some other seasonings... I forget... I just know it was amazing! 

And I made banana nut ice cream using the one ingredient recipe I posted yesterday. Well, of course mine is two ingredients, but still... you get the idea. 

                                             

Of course we had breakfast. We had the leftover cubed steak and some eggs. 

I am STUFFED!! Today was a day of great eating - just like the last few days. I tell you, this diet does NOT leave you hungry.

Well, I'm going to get my last glass of water, crochet, and watch some Chopped. 

Thanks, all!

Theater temptations.

We finally went out to see Into The Woods with the three children that still live with us. We were supposed to go Christmas Day - try to continue the tradition we started with Les Miserables, but we didn't make it. We were supposed to go last weekend... didn't make it. You get the point...

Anyway, when Lawrence purchased the tickets, the cashier gave him a stack of coupons... for 99 cents movie candy. WOW!!! We have never been able to purchase movie theater candy for such a low price, and now that we're not eating candy, they're basically GIVING IT to us! Stupid people!! 

Don't they know we're on a diet? How can we resist?

It was hard, but we did. As we walked past the concession stand, smelling the popcorn, nachos, and whatever else they were cooking back there (are they frying chicken now, because I smell it!), we were able to walk away without getting anything.

Well, Deven stopped. Then I gave the Ahja and Janiyah two coupons so they can get candy.

Lawrence and I went to find good seats - and get away from the scent that was trying to lure us to break our new diet.

                                      

When the girls sat down, they asked if we wanted some of their candy.

No.

No? Ohhh, you can't eat this, right? 

Right. 

Aw man, that sucks.

Yes, I know.

Why they feel the need to remind us is beyond me. But anyway.
We were good. The movie was good. I especially enjoyed the princes - although Deven made me miss the prince's reprise (everything already happened, mom. They're not going to put it in the credits...). Stay for the credits.

I've heard plenty of mixed reviews on the movie, but I will say - if you haven't watched the musical, you probably are not going to "get" the movie. The musical is on YouTube. Please watch it first - you'll feel much better about the movie.

In the movie, Jack was wearing a crocheted sweater that I am now obsessed with trying to recreate. It looks so simple and complex at the same time.

One day...

So, as far as food today, I didn't take pictures. Not even of my ice cream! UGH! But I do have a link to the ice cream...

But for breakfast, we had bacon and eggs again.
Lunch - we skipped. !!!

I know... don't skip meals. But we were running around and didn't get home in time. We didn't want to try to find something outside, either. I'm too afraid of what we'll end up eating so early in our journey.

Dinner was cubed steak with sauteed onions and greens with tomatoes.
Ice cream - YAY! I got to have ice cream!
Well, I guess I shouldn't call it that... it's actually frozen fruit. And that's it. For the most part.

Avacado Barrel has "ice cream" - just frozen fruit in a food processor. You can use bananas, like One Ingredient Chef, and add ingredients.. just look at this picture! They look delicious!

Picture from One Ingredient Chef

Going to try the banana ice creams tomorrow...

Also tomorrow, I'm going to try a recipe that I think everyone will love... stay tuned!

Alright, I have to pick up my boy from rehearsal. He's in a musical - How to Succeed in Business... more details coming soon,

Thanks, all!

The good and bad of ginger tumeric tea...

When I started having my stomach issues (if you didn't know, I had my gallbladder removed on 12/31), I decided to ask the good ol' internet for something that will help my tummy while I couldn't eat much.
Ginger tumeric tea came up. I checked out a recipe on Pinterest, and I loved it! I make it a lot! And that's part of the problem.
My family doesn't like the taste. The tumeric also stains EVERYTHING! I have yellow rings on most of my counters (they come off after several days of scrubbing). The kids hate cleaning the pot and never know what to do with "that yellow stuff" (even though I tell them it's tea all the time).
So I think I'm going to try just ginger tea, cut out the tumeric. 

Today for breakfast, we just had bacon, eggs, and a banana. After home church service (there were too many issues to get us out the door on time for church), we made lunch. Since Deven (my son) and Janiyah (my daughter) didn't try the three ingredient bananas, I made another batch. Deven didn't like them, but Janiyah loved them.
Lawrence - the great cook that he is - made the delicious lunch you see below. It's shrimp, zucchini, yellow squash, and red bell peppers, cooked in olive oil and garlic. It was amazing! Even Ahja (my other daughter - there's four girls), who doesn't like veggies, ate every bit of it.

Shrimp, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell peppers. 

We still had our bibles on the table...

 Dinner was cilantro lime chili chicken and mixed veggies. It's not the best looking picture, but I wish you could have tasted it!

I'm having fun with this meal plan. With all of the information online, I know I won't get bored with food choices.

Now, to try some ginger tea. finish watching the Golden Globes, and go to bed.
Thanks, all! 

I deleted myself...

... from my last blog.  And the repair email hasn't been sent to me. And my husband, who is also an admin, lost the password to his old email address and can't remember any of the info to reset it. I've asked for it several times, but nothing. So....

Welcome to my new blog! Which is really a continuation, but whatever. You get it.

Day 2 of Paleo.
First, I need to say I'm an idiot. For some reason, I want to call it paLEo and not PAleo. Be happy you don't have to hear me sound like an idiot.
For breakfast, I made the Three Ingredient Pancakes I found on Recipe by Photo. I wanted to try these before, but I heard so many fail stories about them that I stayed away. Well, I don't know what those other people were doing wrong, but these pancakes were yummy!!

Bananas, eggs, and cinnamon

Lunch was the rest of the ground turkey from last night and pan fried squash seasoned with sea salt.

For dinner, we had pork roast. Very simple - cut an onion and three apples. Add to the crock pot. add port roast. Season with salt and pepper. I threw a little tumeric in as well. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

Ours fell apart! It was so tender and tasty!

Lawrence made the veggies because he kept changing his mind on what would be good with the meat. We had yummy mustard greens with tomatoes and bacon. 

Snacking hasn't been an issue so far. We stocked up on nuts and frozen fruit, so I haven't even been tempted by anything else. Yet. I know it may happen, I'm going to try my hardest to not have it become a problem.

So... this is now where the blog is going to live. If you want to check out the old blog, you can go to The Wandering Nomads Blog and read up on everything. I may just have to let it die...

Going to figure out what to cook for dinner tomorrow... thanks all!