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!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes

Alright so, here's the nitty gritty on the pumpkin pancakes.  They are not gritty AT ALL.  They also are not light and fluffy... What are they?  Delicious and filling!  These are amazing, but you must know they take a lot longer to cook up than regular pancakes. 

So how do you make them?  It is really quite simple.  After making the pancakes I listed yesterday we got down to half of the batter, then I added in a can of Libby's Pumpkin Pie Filling (naturally gluten free!) and all spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg (I did not measure or use much of these, just to taste since I did not use eggs.  If you do not feel comfortable doing this but want that pumpkin pie taste Libby's also has an already seasoned can).  Then, you add water a half a cup at a time until it is thin enough to pour and cook. 

Please note, the reason I said these take a long time to make is because they have to cook at a pretty low temperature.  Cook them too high and they stay mushy (my kids kind of like them that way, but not me).  Anyway, there were way too many for us, so there will probably be way too many for you.  I love the KeePeez lids, just popped one over the top and I am ready for tomorrow!

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! 

Making Time To Live Primally

So, when it comes down to it many people wonder how I manage my time... and I can definitely see how on the outside it would look amazing; but I have been doing it for years and adding just one thing at a time, so it just seems normal busy to me. 

So, with homeschooling, living on a primal diet, keeping a home, and working a full time job and a part time job (running my own businesses) how can I have time to fit in exercise at all? Well the answer is I am trying not to make it too complicated. I walk the dogs when I can, I have my laundry room on a different floor, so I naturally have to go up and down the stairs several times for that and to get to the living space... I guess I am just simply trying to fit in exercise one step at a time.

I am trying to keep toned muscles to assist in my metabolism department and if you could see me while I am working and working out I would be quite a sight to be seen. There was a resistance band I saw some time ago that inspired me to find ways to use resistance bands to work out while I am typing, and this is what I have so far:

1. I wrap my legs together at the knees with the resistance bands and spend about a half an hour attempting to pull my legs apart.

2. I use the arm wrests on my chair and wrap the resistance bands around the arms to the chair and then my legs in a way that creates resistance on my inner thighs, and I spent about a half an hour attempting to pull my legs together.

3. I wrap myself to the chair and then I sit on the very edge of the chair. I spend about an hour attempting to sit forward and slowly leaning backwards against the resistance again to help tone in both directions.

Keep in mind I do all of this while I am typing, so I am quite sure anyone could find a way to adapt and fit a little bit of resistance training into their lives. I am attempting to do a few push ups everyday, but that is definitely an area to grow in! 

I would love to hear any ideas anyone else has about staying fit at their desk!

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

In The Beginning

So here on day one I thought I would just give an overview of what can be found here.  There will be many aspects of primal living addressed on this page.  If you are not aware of what this means, I am referencing the book the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. You can get a copy through Marksdailyapple.com.  I began living primally about three months ago, and I have a lot to say on the subject; so buckle up, it's going to be a long ride!  In addition to Paleo diet and Primal Lifestyle you will hear about my personal primal transformation, homeschooling, working from home, parenting, family time, frugal ideas, primal meal plans, cloth diapering, etc.  I will also work on living socially in a non-Primal world and attempting to deal with skeptics, especially those within the family.

Have a Healthy Day!