Chicken and Rice Casserole

Sometimes you really just need a change.  Do you ever find yourself just randomly tossing things together to make something?  I definitely do.  It has been a long time since I had chicken and brocoli caserole like my mom used to make, and unfortunately the ingredients kept me from doing that.  Here's what I found in the kitchen.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 carrots
• 1 bag of brocoli
• 1-1/2 cups of rice
• 2 tbsp of flax seed (to thicken)
• 2 cups of almond milk
• 1-1/2 cups of water

• cheddar cheese
• onion powder
• ginger
• garlic powder

I love casserole!  I preheated the oven to 425.  I just put everything in the top list in a casserole dish added a liberal amount of garlic and onion powder in (we really like it and both have a tendency to lower your blood pressure!).  I added some ginger.  (Generally with spices we do a lot of smelling to see if it smells strong enough, LOL).  I baked it for about 45 minutes and then topped with a very small amount of cheese. 

This dish turned out great, everyone loved it, and it was enough to feed our family of 6 dinner and lunch the next day!  Adults added cayenne and aneheim/jalepino pepper.

Chicken and broccoli

Thank goodness for having an AMAZING husband!  Although I have really been wiped out for the last few weeks, our food has not suffered because my husband has stepped in and really created some more delicious and new meals.  Yesterday, after beginning a new and increased thyroid regimen, I managed to plug through the day but around 6 p.m. I was out.  He woke me up to a wonderful and different chicken dinner, and the preparation was pretty easy. 

Here's your shopping list:

• White onion
• Rice Vinegar
• Garlic powder
• Poultry seasoning
• Sherry
• Carrot
• Celery
• Sea salt
• 3 chicken breasts
• White rice (1 serving per person)
• Butter
• Broccoli steamer bag

First finely chop about a fourth of an onion and 1 stick of celery.  Warm (on low-medium heat) 2 Tbsp of butter in skillet with 1/2 teaspoon of rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of poultry seasoning, 2 Tbsp of sherry, a pinch of sea salt, carrot, and celery; once warmed add in chicken.   Steam broccoli.  Prepare rice.  When the chicken is fully cooked add in the broccoli and rice.  Stir until even and serve.

This was a great meal, but it ended up being too much food for our family of six (by about 4 servings).

I am giving this meal an 8/10 for prep time, nutrition, and taste. 

Make it hotter with cayenne.  My husband added a tiny amount of A1 for a tangier taste.  The kids loved it as it was :)  If you want to use less sodium, add it after cooking (cooking brings the flavor of salt down).

Primal Chili

We are not really soup people but we LOVE chili.  Bean less chili is pretty much just meat and sauce right?  No, not ours.  It's delicious, filling, and nutritional!  Definitely a family favorite and a quick fix!

 

Shopping list:

• Ground meat (1 pound or more)
• Avocados (2)
• Garlic
• Onions
• Cumin
• Tomato paste
• Dehydrated peppers
• H2O
• Sea salt (the good stuff where you can actually see the minerals)

Brown your burger, with diced garlic and onions add a little cumin and dried peppers.  Dice up the avocados.  Once browned add in a pinch of sea salt and tomato paste and water (to preferred consistency).  Once all is good and hot, add in your avocados and you are done! 

The avocados give a great bean-like consistency full of healthy fats and yumminess!  The avocados also really bring a filling quality to the chili, so this is a great meal that is relatively inexpensive for being primal!

I like it hot, so I add in a ton of cayenne!  We also like it chunky so sometimes we add in tomatoes or chunks of green peppers.

Maybe later I will have about 30 minutes to make some, if so I promise a picture!

Where's your TV

Alright, the modern things we have are pretty much in every home, car, computer, and now even phone that is used regularly.  I am as guilty as anyone carrying around my awfully tempting cell phone everywhere I go.  I love getting quick updates on my friends and having that external connection because I am so bound to my home.  Regardless, people who come over ALWAYS comment on one thing at my house... "Where is your TV."  They ask this question generally minutes after coming into my home.  We have a corner fireplace that looks like it would be the perfect framing for a nice large flat screen TV and it wouldn't take up too much space in this awkwardly shaped "great room;" yet over the fireplace hangs a family picture, the same one that I said would hang over it four and a half years ago when we were still negotiating on the house and I said I never wanted a TV in the living room. 

Nonetheless, when people come to my home that response is the first thing I hear about.  Why do I not want a TV right there near the kitchen where I can watch it while I cook, where people can watch it when they come over, where it is nicely centrally located in my home?  Because I don't want it on while I cook, when people come over, or centrally in my home. 

The heart of a home is the kitchen.  It is where I prepare food for my family.  The kitchen is where I teach my children about what food does for their bodies, about fractions, and where I hear all of their questions.  When I am in the kitchen it is the perfect time for us to interact and learn about one and other, I feel that would be greatly impeded if my children or myself had the television going on.  The kitchen would become a stressful area with too much extra stimulation and distraction.  Preparing food would become a hurried hassle instead of an enjoyed part of our day.  For me, that is enough reason to relocate the TV. 

When people come to visit I enjoy having the time to interact.  I have been to many family member's homes and there is always a TV in the "living room."  Watching TV is not living it is existing to watch fake lives.  I enjoy watching TV, but it just does not fit in well to social experiences as a main event.  As a child I remember being yelled at for "not being a window" at family gatherings where suddenly watching golf right after watching hours of football was essential to your next breath; and I want more for my kids.  I want them to have the opportunity to develop stronger relationships with the people we invite into our home.

Being centrally located in my home is not a necessity because it is not and will never be a central or essential item in our home.

Do you have TVs?  Where is your TV?  Yes, of course we have TVs.  Our big TV is downstairs.  We have had this particular TV for nearly a year.  Our family has maybe used it for about 100 hours this year.  We watch movies on it and play games on it.  It is in a nearly unfurnished room that gives us the ability to have plenty of space to play games and enjoy our family time.  We also have two tiny TVs.  This is great because if we really want to we can take it to any room and watch a TV show or movie, but these are also used infrequently.  We do not buy cable, honestly I would not want to have to police a TV as much as would be required if I had cable available to my children. 

What Parents As Teachers representative said about not having a TV.  My PAT representative said that my children's vocabulary was larger than average children their age.  They work on more abstract and creative things than many of the other children she saw.  My children have a different pattern of development than most of the children that she works with and seem to pick up on understanding language faster.  Their gross motor skills develop rapidly (though generally later) than most of the children she works with.  She said she felt this all was a result of not having extensive amounts of television around them all day long.  They were able to listen more carefully to words because there was not extra noise to sort out. 

Anyhow, I have my reasons.  I know that some of my guests dislike my TV policies, but they work for our family; and how great is it that it already fits nicely in with my newer primal lifestyle.  I'm loving it :)

Please tell me if you have a reason you think it improves family or could be really important, I would love to hear all about what I have not looked at!

Promote Family Time

My children and I commonly talk about loving each other to the moon and back.  Yesterday, when I ran out of work early, I decided we should head out on a walk, but when you are getting the kids ready I have found that it just kind of goes crazy around here if we have a predetermined destination... Two want to go, and two almost definitely protest making it a hassle and no good.  So, yesterday as I had in my head I thought we would go to the park I told them we were going to the moon.  That created quite the stir... questions like how we could, why we needed walking shoes, and what kind of outfits to wear... of course we were not going to the moon, but we got creative juices going about what would happen if we were.  That distraction kept anyone from protesting our unknown adventure.  I think we may start going to the moon everyday :)

I have a primal commitment to walk with the kids and spend quality family time everyday, which is really hard in this world we live in today.  Despite being home with them throughout the day, I am working and busy with chores, and trying to fit in time for some of my personal interests (something I spent years completely ignoring as it was not high priority).  A special thank you to Mark Sisson for writing The Primal Blueprint and giving me words to live by in essence.  I needed someone to tell me I had to do the things I enjoy, or I may have completely forgotten what they were. 

On the walk to the park we really had a wonderful chance to enjoy each other, talk, and grow as a family :)  This is my favorite part of everyday.  Learning together and bonding is probably the most important committment I recieved from The Primal Blueprint.  Anyway, here is your reminder:  WALK, PUT TIME INTO WHAT YOU LOVE (even if the dishes slide a few hours), AND PROMOTE FAMILY TIME! 

Mom's Better Than Bisquick Pancakes

Congratulations, you've started your primal lifestyle, you can eat meats, fruits, vegetables and nuts and seeds (in moderation). 

It took awhile but about three weeks in I realized that the kids were just not getting fully used to the primal diet, they seemed a little bored and were ALWAYS hungry.  In an attempt to fill them up we decided to occasionally allow some rice to add a little variety.  So, our new policy is that we are hardcore primal every other month and the second month we are primarily primal and ALWAYS gluten-free. 

In an attempt to fill these children up on our third month I decided to hunt for some kind of pancake that would be acceptable.  We had tried to do the banana pancakes and other recipes that we had stumbled on, but they still did not really seem to fill the kids up (a real challenge with three boys!). 

I was feeling creative, and just began tossing stuff into the mixing bowl hoping it would all pan out.  First, I made regular pancakes and then I used the leftovers to turn pumpkin.  I ended up making way too many, but with no eggs it kept great in the fridge and fed us breakfast for three more days!  My daughter called them "Mom's Better Than Bisquick Pancakes." :)

4T of raw sugar or other substitute

3T of baking powder

1/2 cup of GF potato flakes

6T of sunflower oil (this is super cheap compared to other oils we use)

3T of flax seed 6T of water = 3 eggs

1-1/4 cups of milk (I use almond or coconut)

6 pinches of seasalt

Add rice flour a little at a time until you get a consistency you like.

These pancakes cook well, just like a regular pancake.  They are less gritty than other rice pancakes I have had, although there will still be some.  I think if you wanted to add more potato and less rice it would make it even less gritty, but overall the whole family loved these, and they kept the kids full until well after noon!

Sorry, no pancake pics today, the kids ate them before I could get a picture!  Watch for tomorrow when I tell you all about making the leftovers into pumpkin pancakes and how that all turns out. 

I am not really sure that anyone is watching, but if you leave comments I would be glad to have ideas on others interests! I have been trying to plan meals on a budget as going primal has left me with a more expensive food selection and children that seem to have a hard time getting full.  That being said, I plan for the week; so I was thinking I could start posting a shopping list so you can follow me day by day and experience the savings too.  Let me know what you think!

Additionally, these KeePeez bowls I happened on one day in Sams Club are amazing.  I really love them.  They make it easier to store in what I am already using (less dishes for me!) and they stack very nicely in the fridge and to store.  I highly recommend them.

Making Lunch While Juggling

So, when you are really on the go and have no time, how do you live primally?  Some of the best things would be simply raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts.  They take very little preparation, but let's face it... most days are like this and you can only eat like that for so long before you begin to crave texture and temperature differences. 

My crockpot is my best friend.  It cooks the food perfectly with no attention at all.  When getting ready for the week I count on having to have at least four "emergent meals" to cover a shortened lunch break, extra work, unexpected errands, etc.  Because I know to expect these interuptions, I have found it perfect to take frozen meat out of the fridge in accurate portions sizes for the family, put them in a crockpot bowl, put seasoning on them, place a wonder KeepEez top on and pop them in the refridgerator.  KeepEez is BPA free, and provides a nice vaccum seal.  Now, when I am done I have already got all of the "emergency meal" meats prepared.  We need only to place them into the crockpot and turn it on.

Some of the favorite seasonings to add to the chicken:
  Mint.
  Thyme.
  Lemon pepper.
  Chili powder.
  Onion.
  Garlic.
  Cayenne.
  Lime.
  Olive oil or Coconut oil.

To add a little bit of substance as a side we may add yams or white rice on occassion.  We may steam a Member's Mark broccoli bag or top it off with a smoothie. 

What really great about this is, if there is by some chance a little extra, it saves and reheats very well! 

Fitting In My Jeans By Following My Genes Demands

Fitting into my jeans by following my genes... what an interesting concept it is to follow what our bodies want us to follow! 

After embarking on this adventure there was a little bit of a burnout (especially since I felt like I had been completely limited down to chicken, broccoli, and H20 after my allergy testing results), but that just inspired a new desire to explore foods and ideas we had never thought of like avocado chili, spaghetti squash, and our version of Mexican food.  The children frequently are a part of this endeavor and really enjoy expressing their creativity.  Just tonight Sis came in and said she was wondering if we could try a new idea that she had for chips to have with a Mexican inspired meal, using avocados to make chips.  A new spin on some healthy foods is always welcomed here; and as we are homeschooling food sciences is a favorite course for all! 

Teaching our children about health is really important to us; however, shortly after talking very in depth with the children about what foods that suit our genes do for our bodies and the nutrients they provide as well as their health benefits, I believed I had to have talked way above their ability to focus and their interests; however, I have found since we began discussing these things my children will often start these conversations.  They will ask about what a certain food will do for their body or to their body and the will discuss what the benefits of exercise are.  I hear Sis reminding my husband to keep our meals balanced, and Buddy regularly will remind him that the nutrients are in the peels.  They are very interested in what food is going to make them feel like or grow like.  They desire to be healthy and want to learn about how to be healthy.  I have never seen children so interested in health or how their bodies function, and I feel great knowing I am giving them the tools to maintain a healthful family for a lifetime. 

... and because teaching the children begins with showing them, I have started to squeeze in healthy amounts of exercise all throughout the week.  I know my body is meant to move, I try to keep moving whenever I can, but once I feel tired I quit, and because I know my body does not tolerate whole grains and several other foods, we have eliminated them.  Now, I have squeezed myself into a pair of jeans I had not worn in about nine years!

Anyone can read a book, anyone can "start a diet," and anyone CAN make a permanent lifestyle change if they marry into it.  It can look and sound overwhelming when you have not embarked on the transformation fully; but it is like a ball, once you get it rolling it does not want to stop.

The Primal Mom

Why We Went Primal

I have to say this is probably the biggest confusion among the people I know.  Why would you choose to be so different?  Why would you put your kids through this? 

To be honest, had I not had my own very trusted physician request me to read the Primal Blueprint for health reasons (I became obese very quickly), I probably would have never changed.  The journey that got me to this point was long.  It started about 10 years ago when I was pregnant for the first time and I lost a baby.  I also continued to carry a baby until he was 35 weeks.  At five months I began to have an awful immune response that led me to going to the doctor daily.  I lived in a small town and my doctor told me that I was just naive and did not know what to expect out of pregnancy.  When I went in on my birthday I took my mother-in-law (mother of nine children) with me.  When the doctor put the Doppler to may stomach within three beats I exclaimed that his heart rate had slowed, and the doctor said that it was a little slow but he didn't know what to tell me, so I left and went to a specialist.  I was admitted at 34 weeks my size five frame now carrying a size 28 body.  I was in the hospital for a week, and then they decided to transfer me to a larger facility.  I was moved and within 30 minutes of arrival my son was born.  After a very traumatic 30 days in the NICU we had to let him go.  At 19, I now had closed on a house in the NICU that ended up to have so many problems that had we been allowed time so we could get back home and do a walk through we never would have bought it.  Now, we were paying for a house we could barely use, mourning two losses of children in a year, and out every friend we had because no one could be around us without being scared to talk.  I was so tragically depressed I could not bear to get off of the couch.  Needless to say, the weight did not leave and at that point I really did not care.

Then, I got pregnant and was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder.  My healthy daughter was born a week shy of my son's birthday and my life began to came back together.  I lost 40 pound in two months by running nonstop on the treadmill and counting calories right down to the gum I chewed. I began to become extremely fatigued and would actually fall asleep while running.  As I lost the weight, boom I was pregnant again.  Apparently, since I suffer from PCOS when I lose weight my fertility increases. 

I was pregnant every other year for an additional three pregnancies, each time I began to lose I was pregnant and every pregnancy was high risk with it's own crazy problems.  Between each pregnancy I tried different variations of low-carb diets and antiinflammatory diets.  Finally, after the birth of Boo, and continuing to put on weight I decided it was about more than the weight, it was about the health.  To me, a vegan diet (after research) seemed right for me.  I was working out and losing weight and eating vegan foods.  I was happy, until the extra energy got during the first two weeks of the vegan diet fell out from under me and I was extremely fatigued. 

When I went to my doctor and mentioned my issues with weight and being vegan he was very concerned.  I was very vitamin B deficient despite injections and anemic despite my extremely high intake of spinach.  He suggested I read The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson and The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf.  I read these two books within two weeks, but I emptied my entire pantry out that day. 

In reading The Primal Blueprint, I felt that the only reasonable thing to do was to place the entire family on the diet.  Ultimately, I could not imagine failing to properly care for my family if I have the knowledge and understanding of how to do so. 

In just seven weeks on the diet I have dropped 40 pounds, gone from obese to overweight (I don't feel a need to attack the Wii anymore), managed to work less, workout very little, and spend a great deal more quality time with my family and friends.  When I say going Primal is a lifestyle, I mean it encompasses every part of my life and has made me happier!  My children Sis (7), Beau (5), Buddy (3), and Boo (1) have all adjusted fully after about two weeks and now eat all of their vegetables gladly!


As far as overall health benefits we have seen in the short two months we have been primal, this is what my husband and I have witnessed throughout the different members of our family:

Resolved:

• Eczema
• Attention issues
• Weight (my son who was severely underweight is now gaining, and I am losing!)
• Acne
• Attitude
• Fatigue
• Gastric problems

We are all becoming more tone and fit and enjoying each other so much more. 

Although this move has been a wonderful experience for my family, I will touch later on the social challenges we face and issues within extended family.  I will give ideas on manipulating outings and social gatherings as well as dealing with people who just do not understand and do not want to. 

So, if you want to know why we will continue to be primal you can look below; it is the best and most motivating reason anyway!

The Primal Mom