SIMPLE DINNERS

Here is what my Whole30 dinners have looked like this week! I didn't fully commit to following the Whole30 rules, which has resulted in some cheats. Uh oh. But these dinners are cheap, filling, and Whole30 friendly. Each recipe is around $5! They have been my lunch as well! Lots of leftovers = happy girl.

4 Item Soup

1 bag turkey meatballs

1 bag frozen vegetables

1 carton vegetable broth

Seasoning (garlic salt, onion powder, pepper, etc.)

 

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Let cook for 10 minutes, until vegetables are no longer frozen.

Serve!

 Pork Loin and Brussel Sprouts

2 lb marinated pork loin

1 bag brussel sprouts

1 t seasonings of choice

1 T olive oil

 

  

Instructions:

 Marinate your pork loin for at least a few hours in

chopped garlic, pepper, and marinade of choice

Brown the pork loin in a skillet with olive oil until all sides are slightly browned

Combine pork loin and seasoned brussel sprouts in a pan and cook in the oven on 350 for 20 minutes or until fully cooked

 Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Side Dish

 1 medium sweet potato

2 cups cubed butternut squash

1/2 onion, chopped

water

Seasonings of choice

(recommended-cinnamon, garlic salt, pepper)

Pulsed a little too much the first time! But I ate it as soup instead.

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. 

Pour water out.

Let cool, then lightly pulse ingredients in a blender or food processor until it is the consistency of chunky mashed potatoes. (Too much and it will become soupy.)

Mini Burgers

1 lb ground beef 

taco seasoning

1/2 onion, chopped

1 tomato

olive oil

Instructions:

Combine ground beef and seasonings in a bowl 

Heat olive oil in a skillet, and add beef patties to cook until brown on both sides, and cooked all the way through

Add onion slices to the beef fat leftover in the skillet and cook until browned

Serve with tomato slices and avocado!

WHOLE 30

A close relative of paleo is the Whole30 diet. The idea is to reset your body and eat clean for 30 days without cheating. Meat, veggies, nuts, and fruit make up the menu. This is basically paleo, but you cannot make any food that is a paleo version of a non-paleo meal. For example, pancakes, muffins, crackers, coffee creamer, etc. I did the Whole30 challenge last October and l o v e d it. Sweet potatoes, bananas, and hot tea became dessert to me.

I am going to do a looser version of Whole30 starting this week, so I will post Whole30 friendly recipes! 

Here is the link to the Whole30 site!

http://whole9life.com/

PALEO SNACKS

Since the Paleo diet consists of...

it seemingly takes away most go-to snack options. Finding Paleo friendly snacks was my mission when I started this lifestyle last summer. After a lot of experimenting, I have come up with quite a hearty list of options. They may not seem desirable because they need to be made, but your body will thank you. I also learned that the process of changing what you eat will also be a process of re-training your taste buds. If your mind thinks sweet = donut, then a banana smoothie might not seem like dessert right away. However, after training your taste buds to eat meat and veggies for dinner, followed by some frozen berries, your cravings will shift to healthier items.

Here are some simple and quick snack options for those of you starting the Paleo lifestyle, or a healthier lifestyle in general.

Savory

Black olives-filling, healthy fats

Sweet Potato Chips-great for dipping

Hard boiled eggs with salt and pepper

Beef Jerky
Snap peas- costco sells giant bags

Almond butter and celery

 Slices of meat-good, good, deli meat or grilled chicken
Sliced Radishes with sprinkled salt and lemon
Dinner leftovers!
Small sweet potato

Sweet

Coconut flakes
Larabars  
Apples and almond butter  
Banana flax seed "crackers"

Fruity muffins found here

Almonds with chocolate chips
Dried Fruit
Dates
Greek yogurt w. berries-If you are going to give in to dairy, make it full fat.

Veggie smoothies seen here or here
Mug Cakes found here 
Almond milk, sliced almonds, frozen berries mixed together for dessert

This is a short list but it gets me through! The point is to fill your stomach with good  things. Sometimes that will mean a small sweet potato at 10am!

SOME THOUGHTS ON JESUS, AND PALEO BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Life has been interesting lately. Lots of transitions, ups and downs, change and uncomfortable days. I have a history of not doing so well with these things. Mainly change/transition. Welcome to the first year out of college. I have moved three times, added jobs, deleted jobs and changed housemates along the way. I have also seen prayers answered, been promoted and met amazing people. There are days where I have no idea what I'm doing (most of the time) and days where I strut with confidence. No two days are ever the same when it comes to emotion and reality. An image on Pinterest explains this part of my life perfectly.

 

yep. 

I have been searching for meaning and purpose in my days and honestly a lot of the time I just say "I'm here for a reason...and I know it is God ordained...but I'm not seeing much past that." 

 I have learned that this is where faith comes in. Even when you don't feel like you have a purpose, you do. God doesn't do anything accidentally. He didn't create you without a purpose in his head. He didn't say to himself, "whoops how did she pop out there? Well, I hope she navigates life. Good luck little person." He molded you with your future in His head. And when we are made in His image, that is pretty cool already. I get frustrated with myself when I forget this. I want to buy new clothes, decorate my room and create an image and identity for myself when I already have one! This can get exhausting; pleasing yourself and the world. Colossians 3:2 says "Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth." This is the only way to be released from the grasp of the world.

When you leave situations you are used to and have identified you, such as sports and school, we scramble to find anything that can give us a sense of purpose or identity. At one point I made like a million muffins cause I felt like I had an identity as "Baker Girl." That seems even weirder now that I type it out. But that is how desperate I was to just belong somewhere. 

In the end, it is painful but mind blowingly beautiful when God takes away the need for these surface identities. When we realize He is enough, we are finally fulfilled and we don't need an identity in anything else. Bye, Bye Baker Girl.

I encourage you to spend time thinking or writing out the things of the earth that own an inappropriately big section of your heart. What do you wake up thinking about? How God will show His mercies today or how you need to please your boss? List things that you commonly give weight to and set them at the feet of Jesus. Those don't need to unnecessarily fill space anymore. Give that space to God. He deserves it.

And with that, I ironically leave you with a blueberry muffin recipe. 

Remember that I have a kitchen light that is from the 70s.

Paleo Blueberry Muffins

Adapted from Civilized Caveman

 

Servings: 12 Muffins
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes 

• 3 Eggs
• 2 Tbsp Honey
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil, melted
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Milk (I used Half & Half because I ran out of coconut milk)
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Vanilla
• 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1-2 Bananas
• 1/2 Cup Whole Blueberries
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F
Mix together your eggs, honey, coconut oil, coconut milk, salt and vanilla
Mix together your baking powder and coconut flour and then combine with your wet ingredients
Mix your batter well and then fold in your banana and blueberries 
Divide your batter into 12 Muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes 

These turned out really sweet for me because I used 2 extremely ripe bananas, so I cut down on the honey. They are very moist and not the same consistency as non-Paleo muffins but they do the trick! Great for an early morning snack. 

PALEO COCONUT CHOCOLATE COOKIES

These turned out like little mounds, but still tasted great.


 

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups almond meal
• ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• ¼ cup chopped dark chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together almond meal, dark chocolate chips, coconut, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg
3. Whisk in the coconut oil and vanilla, then add to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
4. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
6. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, place on baking sheet with space in between each. Press down slightly.
7. Bake 7-10 minutes, or until they begin to brown.
8. Let them cool before serving.

COLD, FILLING GOODNESS

So busy. I've been feeling like my weeks are just one giant checklist, hence my absence here. BUT part of why I was so busy was because I was making things. Mostly smoothies! So the result of that is more recipes. Always a good thing. We now have a juicer and a Nutri Bullet (close friend of the Magic Bullet), which has turned our house into a giant smoothie. I just keep packing random ingredients into those things and waiting for the result. Sometimes its not so great. Those ones are usually a weird grey color. But that's how I eliminate combinations. Good method? Yep.

If you have a Magic Bullet/Nutri Bullet/Whizzing smoothie machine you will appreciate these. If you don't, I'm sure they turn out the same :)

The Workout/Deceptive Smoothie

this one tastes like sweet chocolate banana heaven. GREAT dessert substitute if you are looking for low sugar. 

1 giant handful of spinach

1/2 frozen banana

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 spoonful almond butter

1 scoop chocolate protein powder (can substitute cocoa powder)

The AvoYoYo

 Don't doubt me. I haven't led you astray yet. Putting weird ingredients in smoothies is half the fun.

1/2 avocado

2 scoops *full fat greek yogurt (*less processed, more filling)

1 cup frozen berries

1 orange

1 cup almond milk

add water to make it blend more if needed


If you juice, feel free to add your juice to the AvoYoYo. More fresh fruitiness.
Some of my favorite juicing combinations are...

ginger
spinach
kale
lemon
apple

carrot
cucumber
orange
spinach

 

PALEO PIZZA

Mmmm....

Sometimes I take a small 1 hour break from Paleo and eat something slightly not Paleo. Whoops. This helps make it a lifestyle and not a strict diet where I feel like I'm controlled. However, the idea of filling that Paleo break with paleo's worst nightmare pizza seemed like a little too much. Enter PALEO PIZZA. Yay. Super easy. And you get to empty your fridge of random vegetables.

The picture isn't too appetizing...it was late...I was hungry. No time for picture prepping.

3 eggs

1 tbsp crushed garlic

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup coconut flour (mine is from Whole Foods)

1/2 can full fat coconut milk (I skimped a bit and it still worked with adding almond milk)

Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease it with oil.
Beat eggs and milk together with both garlics. Add the coconut flour and baking soda and mix/whisk until smooth. Let it sit for a minute to thicken. Pour onto greased parchment paper and bake until its slightly crisper/harder (about 10 mins).

While the crust is baking, cook your meat toppings. I did sweet chicken Italian sausage (from Trader Joes).

Take out the crust and spread sauce on it, add some cheese and toppings. Vegetables don't need to be cooked before so you can pile them on now (along with your cooked meat.) Bake another 10 mins or until the crust isn't too doughy. 

Enjoy!
shout out to greenefood.blogspot.com. thanks hil :)