Meal Plan for Primal Living

Hello everyone!  I'm enjoying this last day of vacation with my kids and husband.  I'm going to be very sad to see them go back to work/school, I love having them home here with me.  The house is just too quiet when they're all gone.

I thought I would give you some ideas of what kinds of things my family eats now that we're living a Primal lifestyle.  

First let me say that eating whole foods definitely takes a bit more planning and preparation than getting your meals from a box, bag, or from a take out restaurant.  I certainly have mixed feelings about that fact.  Some days I enjoy spending lots of time in the kitchen, with the pay off being delicious, healthy meals for my family.  But there are times when I don't even want to step foot in my kitchen, and that makes this lifestyle a bit more challenging.  I realize that many of you work full time, and don't have the amount of time to dedicate to cooking that I do.  I hope that you'll find some workable ideas in the information that I post here.

One thing that I've started to do is to dedicate 2 nights a week where I make the same meal, each and every week.  For example, every Sunday I now make a pot roast.  This is my families favorite meal, so they don't mind eating it every week.  The other weekly meal we have are cheeseburgers made from grass fed beef.  Again, my family loves them and doesn't mind eating them once a week.  The reason I'm telling you this is that I've found that by doing this, there are 2 meals each week that I don't have to even THINK about!  I don't know about you, but part of what I don't like about cooking is feeling like I always have to come up with something new.  That's certainly not how I grew up, my mom repeated meals quite often, but for some reason I worry that my family will get bored if I cook the same things over and over again.  So even though yes, I do still have to cook these 2 meals, the only thought I need to put into it is pulling the meat out of the freezer, and making sure I have vegetables in the house to serve with it.  Get the idea?  I suggest you try doing this with your families favorites.

Now I'm going to list some of the foods we typically eat, broken into sections by BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, and SNACKS.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast might be one of the more difficult meals to wrap your head around if you've decided to give up grains.  Believe me, my family (especially my kids), LOVED their cereal before we started eating like this.  And it was "convenient" for mom.  But we've all adjusted quite nicely without it, and are healthier for doing so.
EGGS:  Most mornings that's what we eat for breakfast.  Whether it be scrambled, fried, or omelets, with added veggies, meat, or with cheese melted over top, eggs are our go to breakfast.  My 15 year old son, who gets up earlier than the rest of us, has been cooking his own eggs on school days for several years now.  It's an easy dish to teach older kids how to make for themselves.  I still cook my daughters eggs each morning for her before school, she's not quite as reliable in the kitchen yet ;)  Also, there are many make-ahead recipes like this one, that you can have ready and waiting in the fridge or freezer.
YOGURT:  I buy 2 kinds of yogurt, the raw milk whole stuff from the farm, and Chobani Greek individual servings with fruit.  I love the convenience of the Chobani Greek, even though it does contain some sugar.  I don't eat it, but my kids do and I'd rather have them eating something that I consider fairly healthy like Greek yogurt with some sugar in it than other things they could be eating.  My husband and I love the raw milk yogurt!  I usually stir in some berries, sliced almonds, coconut, and a bit of stevia to sweeten.
SMOOTHIES/SHAKES:  Almost every morning I make myself what I call a "coffee shake".  For the past few months I've been on a pumpkin coffee shake kick.  To make it, I pour a cup of milk in my blender (raw milk, unsweetened coconut milk, or unsweetened almond milk), a spoon of instant coffee granules, a couple of big spoons of canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, pure vanilla extract, and stevia to taste.  I top it off with a bunch of ice cubes, and then blend (the more ice cubes you use the thicker it will be).  I LOVE this drink.  Some mornings if I don't feel like cooking eggs I add a couple of raw eggs to the blender too.  I have no qualms about consuming raw eggs because I know where my eggs come from.  Plus I've been eating raw eggs my whole life (cookie dough, cake batter anyone?)  Adding the eggs makes a complete meal, and one that I can take with me in the car if I need to.  My other favorite coffee shake is made with milk, coffee granules, cocoa powder, a couple of drops of peppermint oil, and stevia to taste, along with the ice cubes.  Peppermint mocha shake; delicious!  There are tons of fruit and vegetable smoothie and shake recipes on the internet, many of them completely primal friendly.  A favorite of my kids is plain yogurt, frozen bananas and strawberries, and sweetener if necessary (honey perhaps?)  I've also been experimenting with green smoothies lately, and have been really enjoying them.
CAVEMAN CRUNCH:  I made this recipe a few days ago as a kind of substitute for cereal, and my kids LOVE it!  Just make sure to teach them about serving size, 1/3 cup is very filling!! 
PANCAKES:  Yes, you can still have things like this, although personally it's not something I would eat everyday.  But there tons of recipes on the internet (just google paleo pancakes), and you'll find plenty of recipes to try.
LEFTOVERS:  This is something that I didn't do before I started eating primal, but now I do it all the time.  I simply eat leftovers of what I had for dinner last night.  There are no rules regarding breakfast, nothing that says you must eat "breakfast food".  Just as I love sometimes eating breakfast foods for dinner, nowadays I don't mind at all eating dinner food for breakfast!

LUNCH

I will admit that my kids still buy the school lunches.  They just do not want to pack, and I don't force them to.  I figure that at least they're eating much healthier at home, and if the time comes that they say, "Mom, I really want to pack a healthy lunch", I will be more than happy to do that for them.  As for me, many days I don't even eat lunch to be honest.  If I'm not hungry, which some days I'm not because I ate a late, big, filling breakfast, then I just skip lunch.  I'm not afraid of skipping meals anymore after learning about this concept.  When I do eat lunch more often than not it's something fairly light like a salad or a cup of soup (Primal friendly, of course).  I often cook myself liver for lunch too, I LOVE it, and since my kids are only so so on it I do them the favor of not making them eat it too often.  Btw, I tried lamb's liver for the first time last week, and I have to tell you that it is THE BEST liver I've ever tasted!!  It's very very mild in flavor, and the texture wasn't as mealy/grainy as some other livers.  I highly recommend that if you like liver but have never tasted it to give it a try!

DINNER

Our dinners these days usually consist of some kind of meat or seafood, and at least 2 different kinds of vegetables, often one of them being a more starchy veg such as sweet potatoes.  Some of my family favorites are roasts (beef or pork), roast chicken, broiled salmon, and burgers.  I've also found myself making tons of soups and stews in the colder weather.  Often I make them in my crock pot.  Just add any meat to your crock pot (nitrate free smoked sausage, ground beef, beef cubes, cubes of raw chicken, ham cubes, etc.), then add lots of chopped veggies such as carrots, celery, onions, turnips, mushrooms, kale, tomatoes, really any combination that you think would taste good together, then fill the pot with some good stock, and any herbs you like.  I do this at least twice a week, and I love using the crock pot so I can get it started in the morning and not have to worry about it all day!  You can even prepare (chop) everything the night before and have it ready to start cooking in the morning.  Other ideas for meals are things like paleo shepherds pie, meatza, paleo meatballs or meatloaf.  There are literally thousands of paleo/primal recipes floating around the internet, and I feel certain as you search you'll be able to find things your family will love.

SNACKS

Gosh, what to do if you can't eat a pretzel or cracker lol!  There are lots of delicious, primal foods that are out there that you can snack on.  Some of my family favorites are cubes of raw milk cheese, string cheese, beef sticks and beef jerky from the farmer's market (made without nitrates, MSG, or other additives), fresh fruit and veggies, yogurt, nuts and seeds, nut butter (it's delicious on apple slices!), trail mix, smoothies, hard boiled eggs and deviled eggs, pickles and olives, and kale chips.  My Pinterest Paleo/Primal board has tons of great snack ideas on it, check it out!

The laundry is calling me, so I'm going to have to stop here.  Please feel free to ask me any questions you like in the comments section and I'll answer you as best I can.

Resources for Primal living

So how about some tips and resources for the post I did a couple of days ago?  If you didn't read that post and would like to, here's the link.

First of all, some resources.

Eat Wild   Check here to find local sources for grass fed foods.

Local Harvest    Another resource for finding local sources for organic, real food.

Real Milk   Check here to find where you can buy real (raw) milk.

Mark's Daily Apple   One of the best sources I've found for information.  They also have a huge, active forum where you can ask questions.

Amazon   I was amazed to learn about all the health products you can buy on Amazon!!!  I'm linking you here to the coconut oil I use.  I've also bought coconut flakes, coconut flour, and many other food products from Amazon.  They offer great prices and fast, free shipping on many items.

US Wellness Meats    I've ordered several times from this company.  The products I ordered (chuck roast bundle, liverwurst, and beef sticks) were of excellent quality and the shipping was fast.   I suggest signing up for their newsletter.  In addition to informative articles it will notify you of their sales.
 

In addition to the above resources, I subscribe to a number of blogs that regularly offer great recipes and information.  Some of these blogs are strictly paleo/primal, some follow similar eating plans such as GAPS or WAP.  The ones I'm listing are some of my favorites (in no particular order), but there are MANY more out there!

Nom Nom Paleo

elanaspantry

The Food Lover's Primal Palate

Cave Girl Eats

Everyday Paleo

Paleo Parents

Nourished Kitchen

Cheeseslave

The Clothes Make the Girl

Multiply Delicious

Food Renegade

Healthy Living How To

Health-Bent

This Primal Life

Balanced Bites

Purely Primal

Daily Bites


If you are a part of the Pinterest community, look me up there, I have a board dedicated to paleo/primal recipes.  I think I'm soon going to divide that board into 2 separate boards, savory and sweet, so the recipes will be easier to find.  I've discovered A LOT of great paleo/primal blogs on Pinterest by subscribing to others who link to paleo/primal blogs.  It's a great resource!

I think I'm going to stop here for now.  Lee Anne requested some sample menu plans, and I will do that for you over the next few days.  Have a good one :)






I

My New Life

Today's post will be filled with lots of reading.  I know that many of you won't be interested in taking the time to read, and that's OK.  But I have something that's happened in my life that I'm very excited about, and I wanted to take the time and tell you about it.  It's changed my life, and if it can change even one of my reader's lives, that will make me very happy!

As some of you know, the past few years have been very difficult for me physically.  It seemed that when I turned the big "50", my body started to fail me BIG TIME!  I've spent the past few years going through an endless round of X-rays, MRI's, spinal injections, physical therapy, chiropractic treatments, and doctor visits.  What all of these things revealed was that I had osteoarthritis in many parts of my body.  In my neck and lower back, in my shoulders, knees, hands and feet.  I was a walking bundle of misery.  In addition to this, I was entering that wonderful time of life known as menopause!  I was experiencing all of the typical symptoms of menopause including hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, headaches and weight gain.  Also, my depression was getting worse, and my energy had left the building.  I spent many months feeling pretty darned hopeless about my life and my future.

Fast forward to August of 2011.  During this time I was discovering some new recipe blogs through Pinterest.  I don't remember exactly which blog I first saw this one particular website mentioned on, but I'll be eternally thankful I did!  The website that taught me a new way of living is Mark's Daily Apple.  The "Mark" of Mark's Daily Apple is Mark Sisson, who developed a way of eating/fitness/lifestyle, called The Primal Blueprint.  Mark's approach to health is similar to a paleolithic lifestyle, but it's a bit less stringent, which is why I think it appealed to me.  About the same time I discovered Mark's Daily Apple, I came across a review of a new book that was out called Wheat Belly.  The concepts addressed in this book fit in quite nicely with Mark's primal way of eating, and the combination of these things convinced me to give it a try.  Certainly losing some weight would be a good thing for me, but I was even more interested in experiencing the health benefits of this way of eating.   I'm including a link here to many of Mark's "definitive guides to..." posts that will supply you with tons of information should you be interested in reading further.  I also have lots of links in my text below to explain things more fully.


Here is some basic information on what I am and am not eating these days:


The foods/food groups that I have totally eliminated from my diet, or 99% eliminated (a girl does have to eat out sometimes, and it can be difficult to find great, whole foods when doing so), are:

grains
sugar
industrial oils
processed foods


So what do I eat these days?

MEAT:
I eat grass fed beef and lamb, pastured chicken, turkey, and eggs, and pork from happy piggies (nitrate, MSG, and additive free).  I also eat lots of liver, which I discovered is really a super food!  I'm very lucky to live near a farm that is dedicated to producing these wonderful products.  If you can find, at the very least, a farm where you can buy pastured eggs, you will be doing your family a big favor.  For those who might say they could not afford to eat these products, I can honestly say that all the money I save avoiding my off limit foods listed above more than pays for good, whole, healthy foods!

FISH:
I eat a variety of fresh/frozen fish and seafood.  I also supplement with cod liver oil. 

VEGETABLES:
I think I eat more vegetables now than I've ever eaten in my life!  Kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, spinach, romaine, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, beets, turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, mushrooms, cucumbers, OK, I think you get the idea, I haven't met a vegetable yet that I do not like if it's prepared properly!   I buy organic when possible.

FRUIT:
I don't eat tons of fruit (I think I make up for that in my vegetable consumption however), but when I do eat fruit it tends to be berries (all kinds), apples, melons, and citrus fruits.

FAT:
I eat A LOT of fat.  This makes sense because if you eliminate all grains from your diet you have to make up the calories somewhere.  If you take the time to research this you will learn that healthy fats are a very important part of the diet (contrary to conventional wisdom).  I eat and cook with extra virgin coconut oil, lard and beef tallow, olive oil, avocado, seeds, nuts and nut butters.

DAIRY:
On the Primal Blueprint dairy is allowed if you can tolerate it.  One thing I learned is that many people who cannot tolerate pasteurized dairy products CAN tolerate raw dairy products.  This is because there's something in raw milk that allows your body to deal with the lactose in milk, but this substance is destroyed in the pasteurization process.  Hence why some people are "lactose intolerant".  My family has switched to almost all raw dairy products that I buy at a local farm.  Raw milk, cream, butter, yogurt, and cheeses.  I'd never even tasted raw dairy before discovering The Primal Blueprint, and I have to tell you that it is absolutely DELICIOUS!

MISC:
I try and eat a variety of fermented foods.  I've learned through my research that these things are good for our bodies.  I also make bone broth, and drink it often.  I occasionally partake in a nice glass of red wine, and some dark (70% or darker) chocolate (these 2 items are allowable on The Primal Blueprint, and do have some health benefits).  When I need a sweetener for something, my choices are stevia, raw honey, or pure maple syrup.

Now I would like to tell you about some of the AMAZING health benefits I've experienced since I started following the Primal Blueprint on Sept. 1st:

1.  I've lost 25 pounds (and that's over the holidays, folks), and have never once felt deprived doing it!  And along with those pounds I've lost the horrible cravings for sugar and grains that used to plague me!

2.  The pain in my joints is GONE!!!  I was facing a knee replacement operation because of the pain I was in, now that has been postponed indefinitely.

3.  ALL of my menopause symptoms have vanished, and I am no longer using the hormone cream I had been using to tame my symptoms.

4.  I had been taking 2 different anti-depression medications to help with the depression I was suffering.  I am currently just taking one of those medications, and at half dose of what I had been.  Soon I will cut that dose in half again, and if I still feel terrific I will try to go without the medication altogether.  I never thought this would be possible!  My moods are very steady and even these days!

5.  I have an abundance of energy.  I used to HATE exercise, but now look forward to my daily walks.

6.  I sleep more soundly.

7.  My acne and rosacea have cleared up, and my skin and hair have a healthy glow they didn't have before.

I've given you A LOT of information here, yet I haven't even scratched the surface of all the information that is out there.  Believe me, I've spent the past few months reading voraciously!  But it's totally been worth it.  The quality of the life I'm living now is leaps and bounds above what I was experiencing just a few short months ago.  I wouldn't trade what has happened to me for all the world.  Instead of dreading the aging process, I now look forward to my health improving as time goes by.  What more can one ask for?

If you have questions for me please feel free to ask them in the comments section below and I'll answer you there, or shoot me an email.  At some point I might do a post of some of the helpful resources I've discovered over the past few months.
 

More tags

I have 2 more tags to show you using the technique that I linked to in this blog post.  Once again I ask you to please excuse the blurry photos, I can't wait until my good camera is fixed!

For the tag below, I first used a stencil and Tea Dye distress ink for the diamond shape in the background.  Then I stamped with Old Paper distress ink using a Waltzingmouse text stamp.  Next I stamped the flower with leaves (a Unity stamp), using Fired Brick and Peeled Paint distress stains.  The brown center of the flower was also done with distress stain (Vintage Photo), using a starburst stamp from Waltzingmouse's Vintage Ornaments.  The sentiment (PTI) was stamped with black ink, as were the little scrolls at the top of the tag.  I hand stitched some vintage lace onto the end of the tag to finish it.
 

The next tag uses stamps from Unity.  The background is a single stamp that I inked with Old Paper distress ink.  The bird was stamped using Broken China distress stain, and the sentiment was stamped with black ink.

That's all I have for today.  Next week I really need to start working on some Christmas gifts if I want to get them done in time!

Tag Play

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share a few tags that I made last week.  Basically I was "playing" when I was making these, so there are no mini masterpieces here, hee hee, just trying out a new to me technique.  Did you see this blog post several months ago from Jill Foster?  Jill did a wonderful video for Penny Black, using Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Stains, to make some really gorgeous tags!  I loved the muted, watercolor effect using the stains and wanted to try it with some of my stamps.

***Please excuse the rather crappy pictures here, my good camera is broken and I had to use my not so good camera, and the results are the best I could give ya; hopefully you get the idea ;)

PTI fans will recognize various stamps used on these tags.  I also used some Waltzingmouse stamps.

The tag below uses a set from CTMH, and the word "peace" is from Practicing Creativity.

This was a fun technique to play with, and I'm anxious to try some things with non Christmas stamps.

Thanks for stopping by today :)
 

Happy day after Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day and were able to spend it with your loved ones.

I have a card for you today that uses PTI's Shape Up Snowman dies and stamps, and the Christmas Prints paper pad.  I'd like to thank the wonderful Teresa Baseret from Inspiration Station for sending me LOTS of snowmen and word cut outs in a variety of colors, she generously offered to do that for me when she heard that I didn't own the dies or stamps.  Thank you so much, Teresa, I really appreciate you!

The brown doilies behind the snowman were cut with the PTI doily die from brown paper bags.  The hat and gloves were stamped with Pure Poppy ink and the PTI gingham stamp.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you're getting lots of shopping done this black Friday, if that's your thing.  As for me, I try to avoid the crowds, so I'm happy to be home today crafting and watching Christmas movies :)

Breaking News!! (picture heavy)

Ha ha, did the title "Breaking News" capture your attention?  Well this is VERY big news in my little world!  I've been "contemplating" opening an Etsy shop for going on almost 2 years now (yes, you read that right, now how's THAT for procrastination lol!), and I've finally gotten off my keister and done it!  My first 2 listings are for 2 different butterfly themed card collections with envelopes, along with a gift bag that everything will come in.  I used a Club Scrap kit collection called Papillon to create these cards.  The papers in this kit are breathtaking and made it easy to make a beautiful finished product!  Now onto the pictures.  The first card collection contains the 3 cards below:
 

This is the bag I made to hold the cards and envelopes.

 A close up of the tag.  The butterfly key is from the Papillon kit.

Next, the cards included in the first collection, and some close up shots.  Papertrey Ink lovers will notice that many of the stamps and dies I used are from there.

And next, collection 2.

The bag for collection 2.

Collection 2 tag close up.

Individual cards in collection 2 and some close up shots.

And finally, here is a picture of the Kraft envelope, each one is stamped with a butterfly image, and of course each card comes with an envelope.  The cards are all blank on the inside, and I lined it with a piece of white card stock so that a personal note may be written to the recipient.

I found it very easy to set up an Etsy shop, did "most" of it by myself (although I did have to ask my hubby a few questions), so all of you computer challenged folks out there who might be thinking of opening a shop, take heart, if I can do it anyone can!  I want to thank Karen Baker for helping me out with my Etsy shop banner too.  Karen did the header for my blog, and I used her design for my Etsy shop.

I hope that having the shop open inspires me to start creating more often, I've been a bit lazy lately.  If anyone has any tips for me about selling on Etsy, please let me know!

Thanks for stopping by today, and sharing my excitement :)