Step It Up

Finally it's been 15 days into the Paleo Challenge. Two weeks down, Six weeks to go! It feels good to be at the quarter-way point. So far things have gotten so much easier physically, BUT mentally not so much. I never went this long without a Larabar. I catch myself thinking about treats, like CAKE. I don't even like cake that much, I'm more of a ice cream gal. But my gosh if you were eating a piece of cake in front of me, I might threaten your life for it. Hence why I haven't been invited to birthday parties lately!
Also, this no alcohol thing is really making my friends seem less funny. Sorry friends! You may want to step up your game a bit.


A few new things...

Sunday was a great day. My kite and I did the Children's Memorial Hospital-Step Up for Kids. Which is a stairclimb of 80 flights of stairs in the Aon Building. It was a great event. I did it last year, but this year my kite did it with me. He really was a great support, pushing me through the whole thing. I'm so glad we did this together. I was 4 minutes slower this year from last year, I blame squats. I blame everything on squats.

Thanks to my friend Tami who recommended Door to Door Organics. Which is produce co-op delivery service. I ordered the bitty box to see what it was all about. My first delivery came on Thursday and was waiting for me when I got home. It was perfect. The organic romaine, might have been the best lettuce I've ever eaten. Check out the link when you can.

This weekend was topped off with a wonderful purchase. I finally got a food processor. I can't believe I lived this long without one. We walked into Sur la table randomly, which by the way I would marry this store if I could. It was so amazing there, I had to be dragged out of it-kicking and screaming. But before I left I found the perfect food processor in my favorite color...envious GREEN!

This week was jam packed with Paleo Foods. And I was on a BigAss Salad kick.

I started the week with fried eggs with cabbage, bacon, pear and spinach.

I experimented with a couple of things. I fried some plantain chips in coconut oil. They were beyond delicious. You definitely need to try this if you miss chips at all. Now I want to try bananas next.

I also experimented with making some coconut butter. I have to admit I have never tried coconut butter, but I've been hearing such great things about it, I had to try it. I found NomNomPaleo's recipe. Which by the way is one of my favorite food porn sites. And took this out for a spin. My first batch involved me breaking a wooden spoon, but my second batch came out so much better. It was less woody.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

For emergency protein this week. I made some spicy chicken thighs in the crockpot. And they came in handy. I paired it with a few kalmata olives and some EVOO for a snack.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

For breakfast this week I made a veggie quiche with cabbage, onions, and mushrooms. Mmm.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

My bitty box came with the perfect sized yams, which I ate with the quiche on WOD days. Perfect with a little ghee and some cinnamon.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

I marinaded some lime chicken for the grill, but I couldn't get the grill to work, so they were broiled. Good, but needed that char flavor. I paired with acorn squash and salad.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

I also marinated a bunch of steak, so I had the same meal twice this week. Grilled steak with greek green beans and you guessed it. Salad.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

I made a version of individual Meatza's from the cookbook Well Fed. I made one with leftover sauteed cabbage, mushrooms, bell pepper, and onions. And added leftover chicken breast and bacon crumbles. For my non-paleo kite, I made his with cheese, chicken breast, bacon crumbles, and BBQ sauce. I loved this and want to try other versions ASAP.

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

I made the best BigAss Salad this week. Because I couldn't get enough salad, seriously. I used organic romaine lettuce from my bitty box. I swear I Mmm-Mmmed the entire time. The best part was I used what I had in the fridge and it worked.

From 2012-01-29

And I ended the week with my favorite comfort food. Chicken Noodle-less Soup. The simplest thing EVER. I usually add avocado and lots and lots of lemon. Greek Style baby!

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

And while my Chicken soup was simmering I decided to experiment with making some almond butter in my favorite appliance (shhh..don't tell the espresso machine). Nuts, a pinch of sea salt, and tsp of light evoo. BAM. Delicious! Thanks for the idea Sgt. Friday!

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

From 2012-01-29

While I was doing all of this 'slaving in the kitchen', I caught my kite being all handy n' shit. I know I was shocked too. I thought things just magically fixed themselves. But apparently guys do actually fix things when you're not looking!

From 2012-01-29

That was this weeks eats. Now on to week Three. Stay tuned.

The Challenge has begun!

Well it's Day 6 of our Paleo challenge and it is finally getting easier. My day dreams about ice cream and latte's have finally disappeared (Crap! Did someone say ice cream?).

Day 3 was by far the hardest. It landed on hump-day and boy it was quite the hump (see what I did there). I had a headache and I was never full, both lasted all day long! I was one grumpy paleo chick.

Which had me thinking, I've been living a Paleo lifestyle for over a year now, but like all lifestyles you have a little treat so you don't feel deprived of the world. The problem is everyday you start adding a treat, sometimes even two treats if you had a really good day or that day landed on a Friday. Before you know it's just normal to be bad. So wonderfully bad. But this challenge has been eye opening I haven't been this strict since I first started Paleo. It feels great to clean up my diet and well be *GASP* a good girl.

The best part of this week is I got 8 hours of sleep each night. MY GOSH I LOVE SLEEP! A well rested Mary is a happy Mary and a happy Mary is plain good for your health (I mean MY health *WINK*). The only downside is it involved me going to bed at 9 o'clock. Between that and knitting, all I need is a rocking chair and someone's going to accidentally put me in a home if I'm not careful.

Before we get to my Paleo eats, your forced to hear about a couple of new things this week.

I bought some new crossfit shoes. I normally wear vibrams to the gym, but needed a pair of minimalist shoes to wear in the winter. They're light weight and adorable. If you see me sporting them don't forget to 'OoOoo' and 'Aaahhh' at these babies! Oh and to my kite..I bought some new shoes--they were on sale and by sale I mean free!

And secondly I finished up reading THE HELP this week. As you're reading this I'm watching THE HELP movie. Because I cannot watch a movie based on a book before I read the book first. I have to have a reason to scream out "that's not what happened in the book!!" Which by the way I loved it and recommend you read it.

And now to our scheduled program...there was a ton of Paleo cooking done.

The number one thing I made this week that I loved and ate everyday for breakfast was Scotch Eggs from Well Fed. Be jealous because these were beyond amazing!

I use butter as a fat in a lot of recipes I make, but since I'm avoiding dairy I made some homemade ghee. I melted two packages of Kerrygold unsalted butter. And carefully strained the ghee from the milk scum with a coffee filter. It was messy but super easy.

Another recipe I made from Well Fed was homemade olive oil mayo And it's hands down the best mayo I've ever had. I will never buy a jar of mayo again. I'm getting the Paleo condiments down packed!! Paleo living just got a lot better.

I brined a chicken overnight and roasted it. The secret to a crispy chicken is a good fat on the skin. I used coconut oil, but I've been known to smother it with butter.

I made some broiled steak with mashed sweet potatoes, and sautéed some kale with some mushrooms/shallots.

I broiled some lemon pepper chicken breast the next day and had that with leftover mashed sweet potato, leftover kale and a salad.

After all week of cooking I made some chicken salad with leftover roast chicken and homemade mayo. It was SUPER homemade, I even cracked the walnuts for it. Talk about hard work.

We also made some burgers. I don't go a week without a burger. Paired with a salad a nitrate free bacon. Simple and delish.

For snacks this week I made avocado rolls with nitrate free turkey. This is my paleo version of a tortilla and cheese scenario. So so so good.

And today was a complete no oven day. I made a simple tuna salad with a evoo/vinegar dressing.

My treat everyday this week was kiwis. It's definitely no chocolate, but still felt like a treat. Especially ice cold.

And the most important thing I did all week long was drink a bizillion of these bad boys. WATER with lemon. The thirst quencher of all thirst quenchers. TAKE THAT GATORADE!

Week one is almost under my belt. I'm proud so far.

Also, stay tuned there's going to be some changes to my blog. Like I don't know a recipe section. FINALLY!

:)