Is this the end?..

Kinda but not really :)

Sunday was technically the last day of the Paleo Challenge. I am getting final weight and measurements tonight when I go in for class. I'm nervous anyways but its worse because our first measurements were in the morning and I'd barely eaten anything and today I go in at 6:45 pm. So ya, I'm nervous. I'm also happy the challenge is over but I don't really intend on changing my diet back to what it used to be. So it's been a few days since I've posted so here are some of the things I've been making..

I made the perfect hard boiled egg. Seriously, the were perfect. I made them for a salad but had a few left over for breakfast/snacks.

Also included avocado and bacon toppings. YUM!

One night for dinner I made chicken cacciatora. (Brussels Sprouts on the side) I have no idea what 'cacciatora' means, I just know this dish is yummy. I did a few things a little different. The day before I had bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco, its great for lunch and snacks or for quick salads. So I shredded that up and skipped the chicken cooking step. I also just used 1 can of tomatoes and not the tomato sauce because I just wanted it a little less tomato-ey. It was a very delicious dinner and there were plenty of leftovers for a few lunches.

At the moment I am letting some of this delicious granola cool. This time I didn't burn it! It looks nice and crispy brown, I can't wait to have a bowl!

And for fun, here is a picture of my gorgeous daughter with a mustache from my before gym shake I make. Now that she's figured out how good it is she follows me around saying and signing 'Please! Please! Please!!'
My shake consists of about 1/4c frozen berries, 1 banana or apple (whatever I have), and about 1c almond milk. I drink this about an hour before I go to the gym to give my body the carbs it needs for working out.

I'll let you know how the weigh in goes!

Not counting days anymore..

Last night we had these chicken fajitas. We have done them before, they are so so good. I also use the guacamole recipe that's linked in there. So simple and delicious.
It's almost like a treat though if you use butter lettuce because its so dang expensive.. but you could always use an alternative or make it into a salad or something. It says there should be leftovers but my husband and I ate it all :) Oh ya, and he wants credit because he cooked the chicken and veggies. Thanks honey!

This morning I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Also delicious! I need to be careful about recipes that include almond flour because almond flour is so high calorie. I've been trying to count calories this week since its the last few days of the challenge and since I screwed up last week on two meals (which I still feel is affecting me)
Anyways, I use an app called myfitnesspal. I really like it. Probably the best thing about it is you can enter in the ingredients to a recipe and find out how many calories, fat etc is in a serving. That is extremely helpful for me because I think it's so easy to be like, whatever.. this is a healthy meal, I'll just eat however much I want of it.. but with paleo you have to be really careful of the fat content because there's so much nuts, bacon, avocado, etc in every recipe it seems. My fitness pal will break it down into a pie chart for you and everyday I eat more fat than what is allotted to me and way less carbs, and way more protein. But I guess that's the paleo way right?

I can't believe its basically been a month with absolutely no dairy and no bread. Crap, I guess that's not true with my two screw ups. Okay but still.. 2 servings of bread basically in a month. That's crazy. I used to have a piece of toast every morning with breakfast, and a snack would regularly be toast with jelly. I don't know if it's because I'm so focused on this being the last few days and being strict on myself, but I'm not even craving bread or sugar or dairy. Definitely not dairy. I don't know what it is but it kind of grosses me out now, and I love cheese and yogurt!

I'm not sure when we are doing final measurements and weigh ins, I'm going to ask tonight at crossfit. I'm nervous. I have a feeling that nothing has changed.. I feel like my belly looks the same. I'm terrified it'll say my fat percentage went up.
I'm sure when this challenge is over I will still eat primarily paleo, and hopefully not feel guilty if I have a cheat day or something.
My shoulders feel so much better during workouts now, I'm sure a lot of that has to do with diet.
I also read on I think it was momgonepaleo.com that it takes a full month of strict paleo for your body to really feel the difference. So I want to keep going and see what happens :)

What will I blog about after the challenge??

Holy Crap!

I can't believe there's only a few days left of the challenge. Today is Thursday and Sunday is the last day. Time sure does fly!
So my last post was about screwing up on two meals and not being able to workout because of my neck. I've been really really good this week to make up for the points I lost.. I still want to win this challenge! I feel like my body is STILL recovering from eating two bad meals, and it's been like 4 or 5 days! How crappy is that? I'm going to be really bummed if it eff's me up when we weigh and measure at the end of the challenge. BUT good news, even though I haven't lost much weight (which wasn't my goal in the first place) I did go down a pant size, and I put a new hole in my belt. It's pretty remarkable to me that the shorts I wore on my 21st birthday, now fall off of me (I'm 26).. Maybe it's time for new clothes? Ha ha :)

Some of the stuff I've made over the last few days..
Sausage and peppers again.. and I added mushrooms this time. Yum Yum
Simple Beef Stew.. I used everything except the wine. I've made it before with the wine but since I'm being strict this week, I did not want an open bottle in front of me because that's tempting! I love having some wine while I'm cooking or eating dinner. I'd say it is better with the wine because it just makes it more well rounded, this time it was pretty tomatoe-y tasting. Still good though!

Yesterday I just bought a rotisserie chicken and just made giant salads with vinegar and olive oil dressing.

I still have no idea what I'm making for dinner tonight.. just have a few ideas for sides :) Stay tuned! Thanks for reading! 

I don't even want to talk about my indiscretions the last two nights. It's embarrassing and makes me feel like crap. Friday morning I woke up in severe neck pain, that night I ended up drinking beer to try and make myself relax, but I drank enough to lower my inhibitions enough that I ate Wendy's for dinner. Gross, I know. It was not good. Then last night was my dad's birthday party so there was good food, cake and ice cream. It was good.
I am back on track today though. My neck has been so bad that I didn't get to work out the last few days and that along with crappy food has just made me feel crabby!
Hopefully tomorrow I can workout though and just get back on the wagon all the way around.
I do have one recipe for you though. Pancakes! These were really good, and they're really nice especially if you feel like you need to eat something 'carb-y'. I made a double batch and it probably made 12 pancakes.

I will definitely make them again!

Suzy Home-Maker

I felt like Suzy Home-Maker yesterday. Lots of baking/cooking which meant lots of dishes! It was a good day though. It was very rainy and cold yesterday and we didn't have our heat going so it was nice to have the oven on. First thing I did was make Granola!!! The picture on the left is before I put it in the oven. I actually burnt mine a little.. exactly what she warns you about. I was trying to do laundry and wash dishes so the 25 minutes just went by really fast! I actually kind of like it burnt and so does my husband so it's not a big deal anyways. I'm excited to have some 'cereal' or a different kind of snack. I'm tired of fruit and nuts and I know that's all the granola is but it's still totally different. I'm excited!

I also made these muffins. I like the carrot banana ones way more. I eat those way too fast though so I wanted to try something different. I don't think I'd make the almond ones again though. Such a waste of that expensive almond butter! I think that's what I am most bummed about!

For dinner last night I made Meatloaf again. Thursdays are my day off from the gym so I can make something that takes a little longer, and meatloaf takes a really long time to bake!

I used the Paleo BBQ sauce I made on top that I've linked before and it was really yummy. For a side I made these sweet potatoes. It was a nice sweet to go with the kind of spicy meatloaf. And they are so good for you!

I hope you enjoy some of these recipes as much as my family and I did!

Day 16..?

Alright guys, sorry I've been MIA for a few days. I have not been diligent about taking pictures of my food, let alone blogging about it. I might just have to start trying to write during my daughters naps instead of bedtime because I'm always too tired at the end of the day! So I don't have any pictures but here are a few recipes I've been making the last few days that are a couple of my 'old reliables'.
Chicken curry with Apple
Apple Glazed Turkey Breast (I just use chicken)
Chicken Fajita Salad

These are a few of my go to recipes that I know are good and they are not expensive. I don't know how you feel but eating healthy sure can be expensive! I know its worth it it's just a hardship financially sometimes! So I always buy a big bag of frozen chicken from Costco so we end up making tons of chicken recipes because the chicken is already paid for and I don't have to buy another ingredient at the store.
Another thing that's even more noticeable during this challenge besides the money is there are ALWAYS dirty dishes. That is one never ending battle let me tell you. You end up having to cook every meal pretty much, so the dirty dishes are just constant. I look forward to having a dish washer one day! Can you tell I hate washing dishes? :D

Anyways, so I haven't been diligent about blogging but I still have been doing good on my diet. I still haven't had a non-paleo meal and I'm really proud of myself for that. I have to go to the gym at night now so it's hard to want to cook a meal after that! (I also look forward to having room for a crock pot so I can make easy crock pot meals!)
The only thing I've cheated on is a glass of wine here and there and I've also had a few squares of super dark chocolate.. like 85% cocoa dark chocolate.
The easy part of all this for me is going to the gym everyday. That's the fun part and it's also my sanity :)

I'll try to be better about taking pictures of my food.. and finding other topics to blog about so it's not the same thing everyday.. If you have any ideas let me know!

11 & 12

Alright! So yesterday, I forgot to take any pictures of food. We had family over for dinner so I totally spaced it. I made sausage and peppers and a side of this cucumber salad. The sausage and peppers were sooo easy and sooo delicious. I used mild italian sausage, green pepper and yellow onion. The cucumber salad was ok.. a little to lemony. I think for the leftovers I'm going to try and put some honey in it and see if that will make it better.

Remember these breakfast muffins? Well I made another batch today.. before I had used coconut flour because its what I had. The batter was not batter at all and I had to work really hard to get all the flour wet even. Well I found out its obviously way drier and there's some sort of conversion to either use less flour or use an extra egg. Anyways, today I used almond flour and they turned out SO much better! I had assumed they were so dense because they are meant to be a breakfast and they still tasted good. But today they are actually muffins, nice and light and delicious..

They look a little different this time!

For dinner tonight, I didn't make what I had planned. I was too tired so I just made us gigantic chicken salads after I put Fin down for bed. YUM!