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!

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.

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