Brisket and Polenta Dinner

I have never had either of these before so I'm hoping we like them. The brisket is in the oven now. I'll link to the recipe later.  Ok, HERE is the recipe from http://tastykitchen.com/  It turned out really good but I would lower the cooking temp next time for sure.  Also, all the younger children did not care for the polenta.  They said it tasted like cheesey cream of wheat.  So I will cut the recipe for that in 1/2 next time too.  Over all it was pretty good.

Gluten Free Update

I'm doing really good, actually trying to do a lot of Paleo recipes but I can't and won't give up dairy. I'm really craving something bread like to put butter on so i plan on making this really good paleo banana bread recipe I saw that I will link to tomorrow when I'm on the computer rather than the iPhone.
I haven't had any fresh brewed sweet iced tea for the past few days and that's been hard. I'm trying just to drink water and coffee or tea only once a day other than maybe a glass of raw milk. I normally drink way too much sugar and I'm trying to stop that.

Kicked Up Meatloaf

This was an awesome dinner. I made Emeril's Kicked Up Meatloaf with some little changes like subbing home made GF bread crumbs and it came out so good. My husband didn't even notice the change. I had a wonderful spinach salad on the side with mine. I have discovered I really like the chopped green onions, that add a really good flavor.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies? OH YEAH!

Before



After

"Infamous" Bacon Cookies"

5 Slices nitrate-free maple bacon
3 cups almond flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut oil
3/4 cups milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350
bake bacon in oven till crisp and crumble

mix dry ingredients
beat syrup and eggs, add vanilla
beat together the dry with the above mixture
add melted coconut oil and blend
stir in chips and bacon
drop in parchment lined baking sheet
bake for 15 mins at 375

Adapted from Make it Paleo



French Onion Soup with Homemade Gluten Free Croutons

Here's a picture of the croutons before I added the cheese and baked it.

Out of the oven and ready to eat.

This stinky cold gave me a good reason to make The Pioneer Woman's French Onion Soup and it is so wonderful but since I am going Gluten Free I made homemade croutons from loaf of Pamela's Bread Mix bread I made yesterday in the bread machine.  I added a little garlic powder and sea salt to them and they were very good.

Paleo Coconut Cake Recipe

Just out of the oven

With icing and a candle

Manny loved blowing out the candle

Morgan's birthday is a few days away-a true leap year baby February 29, 2000- and we did a trial on this Coconut Cake recipe and it was so yummy.  I cut the recipe in half to try it and I wish I made the whole thing.  The girls loved it too.

I copied it from a cook book my friend brought down Friday and I can't remember the name-I think its Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipies For Any Occasion by Bill Staley- but I will give them credit for it when I find out.  Recipe below is not halved but the full one.

Coconut Cake-

3/4 cup of coconut flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
10 eggs
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup pure maple syrup-not pancake syrup
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Sift together first three ingredients
Mix-eggs.vanilla, maple syrup, and melted coconut oil
Add dry to wet and blend till smooth then stir in shredded coconut

Pour in 2 greased 9 inch pans

Bake at 325 for 35 mins. or till tests done

I iced mine with a frosting I made of cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  I wanted to try and make powdered sugar out of some maple sugar I have but am just too darn tired with this cold to try it today :(

I'm Starving...

Note the beautiful, made in Poland cup I got at TJ Maxx

Ok, I'm not really starving of course but I'm really hungry cause I was up a lot lastnight dancing around with Manny and trying to get him to settle down and go back to sleep. He kept waking up and pulling at his tongue and putting his fingers in his mouth. And crying and screaming uncontrollably. I felt so bad for him. Especially because he's not talking that well yet and he couldn't tell me what was wrong. He was trying but I just couldn't figure it out.
Back to breakfast, since I was so hungry I decided to make french toast with cream cheese and apple compote.
I made mine from the sweet bread recipe loaf of Pamelas bread I made yesterday. Did that make sense? It was really good. I didn't miss the regular bread at all.

Roasted Vegetables

I made these today for lunch and they were delicious.
Cube-
Yellow squash
Red onion
Yellow pepper
Carrots
Cherry tomato
Broccoli - add after about 10 mins cause it cooks faster
These are just the veggies I had on hand but you could use any, I love to use eggplant but didn't have any :(
Mince a few cloves of garlic
Now drizzle and mix all with olive or coconut oil and sea salt and spread in baking sheets and roast in oven at 425 stirring often till roasted.

Are You Gluten Free?

If so, did you know this little piece of information?  I didn't.  I'm new to all of this but what I just read really upset me.  Ok, so gluten is the main protein in wheat and it effects your blood sugar among other things and a side effect is weight gain, especially around the middle(visceral fat) so to avoid this I went out and bought 2 different brands of GF bread I have been using Pamela's GF baking mix and they both have starches in them as replacements and these starches are worse for your blood sugar than the gluten.  These starches are- corn, rice, potato, or tapioca.   You can read more about this in the book Wheat Belly on pages 72-74.   Anyhow, I did find that Pamela's bread and flour mix doesn't have these so now I'm going to give it a try.  I'll let ya know how it is.

Ingredients

Sorghum Flour, Tapioca Flour, Sweet Rice Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Organic Natural Evaporated Cane Sugar, Chicory Root, White Rice Flour, Millet Flour, Honey and Molasses; Rice Bran, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Yeast Packet.

Gluten Free Breakfast Idea #1

Portabella mushroom bake-
I came up with this from what I had available-
Large mushroom cap
Canadian bacon
Egg
Sun dried tomato
Cheese
First I grilled the mushroom in a buttered skillet
Then I put it in an oven safe dish and put the canadian bacon slices-I use Jones from Costco, no yucky nitrates- on top then the sun dried tomatoes-Trader Joe's sells a nice bag for $1.99-next I fried an egg over easy and put it on top then topped it with some yummy Kerrygold cheese. I should have cooked it a little longer but I was starving.

Starting Weight is.......

140 lbs!  Ugh, I have gained about 5 lbs back since I ate so many wheat based products this last 2 weeks cause I knew I was stopping today.  Pizza, hoagies, cakes and cookies.  You don't really realize how many things have wheat in them until you try and stop eating it.
Oh my gosh, I just measured my waist right now- right above my hips and below my belly button and it is 39 and 1/2 inches!  That's just ridiculous for not having a baby in there and not one since 2 years ago.  I know I have carried 5 babies to term and that my belly is stretched but, come on, I'm not gonna live this way, its not healthy.. 
OK, so to sum up my "wheat belly",
140 lbs- weight (I'm about 5'5")
39 1/2 inches- waist at rest

I can't believe I'm posting this but it should keep me accountable!

22 inches- thigh
12 inches- upper arm

Now I'm not really going to "diet" or even do much exercise- even though I should- I'm just going to give up wheat and gluten and fast from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays for the Great Fast (Great Lent) and see what happens.  I want to FEEL better more than look better.  I have 5 beautiful children to take care of and I want to be at my best for them and my husband. 

Yummy Snack Mix- Gluten Free

Since I'm not eating gluten I needed a go to healthy snack so Morgan, Manny and I ran to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things.  They have a print out of all their gluten free items.  It was very helpful.  When I came home I made my own little trail mix.  I mixed raw organic pecans and walnuts with chocolate covered raisins and dried cranberries.  Then I sprinkled on some organic shredded coconut from Tropical Traditions.   It is so good and good for ya too.

Review- Vacuum Fried Pineapple