Saturday March 19th 2011 Everybody falls off the wagon sometimes....

Rough day today trying to stay on the straight and narrow.  It's my little sisters 18th birthday,HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER!!! and we are all invited to her birthday party.  Now, I am well aware that my parents do not follow the paleo lifestyle and I am well aware of the types of food they love to eat(they love their bread, chips and pastas) so arriving at the birthday party you would think that I would have prepared myself and my little ladies better for the birthday situation.  In my defense, I was told there were hamburgers and hot dogs and I myself brought a veggie tray, so in my head I was thinking "sure, we can all have bunless burgers or hot dogs with some veggies, ya, we will be fine!" Needless to say that was not the way it went....  By the time I got there we were starving and I gotta say the first thing I spotted when I walked in was my mothers 7 layer dip and Doritos.  I will spare you all the messy awful details but lets just say there was some chocolate cake involved as well.:( By the time we left I was seriously regretting all the yummy goodies we ate, I felt like I weighed 200 lbs. and looked like a whale and the kids were grumpy and screaming " I dont wanna go!!" (I can bet money this was a direct result of a massive sugar crash due to the random items they inhaled because of all the birthday excitement) It was definitely an experience to remember not so much for the grand birthday(no offense sister, it was grand) but for the simple reminder that we don't ever want to feel that way again. So.....note to self, bring your own food!!! Had I simply taken a few minutes outta the day to make some grain free crackers and homeade guac. along with maybe some sliced and fried sweet potatoes with some lettuce wraps to wrap our burgers/hot dogs in and maybe some coconut muffins with homemade paleo frosting this never would have happened.  Dually noted and lesson learned...

March 18th 2011 Funless Fun Burgers

So....on the agenda for Friday night is a recipe I found a few weeks back on my favorite website (www.everydaypaleo.com) The recipe itself is called "Fun Burgers". Now normally, I really love everything this website has to offer... so I eagerly gather all the ingredients needed for "Fun Burgers".  When the gathering of ingredients began, my children were very gung ho about the recipe and were very excited to be a part of the"fun burger" making....so we gathered all the necessary ingredients and began the cooking process...2 hours later...The children are crying(literally) that they are starving, the fun burgers are still cooking and not even remotely showing any signs of fun and I am frustrated that its 9 o'clock at night and  we are all still starving.  Now if you actually take interest in what I'm writing and actually go to the website I just named and type in "Fun Burgers" you will see the process in which I had to go through in order to make fun burgers....Looking back at the recipe I see the error of my ways, for 1...my kids are picky and throwing broccolli in a burger called fun is a big fat lie. For 2,...the woman who created the Everyday Paleo website has more time on her hands to actually make the fun burgers fun for herself and her family ....and for 3.... it was just way to much for a Friday night with a  4 and a 6 year old who have been  at daycare and kindergarden all day long.  To sum it all up, I think Fun Burgers is a great recipe....if your not me.;}

Tomorrows agenda...something good.  I'll let you know the details as soon as I know.

Thursday, March17th 2011 Crustless Pizza Casserole

Since I've started eating and cooking paleo(its been about 5 months now)2 things have happened, I've always relied on certain websites and recipes that people have given me or suggested and I have always ALWAYS craved pizza.  It was very heartbreaking when I came to the realization that I would have to give up this delightful dish.  Tonight was a great, exciting moment when I came up with my  very own recipe for a paleo version of pizza. I call it, "Crustless Pizza Casserole".  I don't wanna brag or anything but it was pretty great considering..it was my first recipe and it was fairly easy to make.  The true test was when my very picky daughters both inhaled it without any coaxing whatsoever. although I'm sure the 2 layers of cheese probably helped with all the delicious yumminess. (this is not typical of a paleo dinner but what is pizza without cheese?) So here you are....Enjoy!

• 2 zuccinnis (grated)
• 1 red &1 green pepper (chopped)
• a handfull or 2 of sliced black olives
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves (minced)
• a few handfuls of parmasean cheese
• your choice of pizza sauce or make your own with tomato sauce, a lil onion & garlic powder & a bit of  basil
• any meats you may use for your favorite pizza toppings( we used pepperoni, chicken, bacon, and sausage)
• and your choice of cheese to top it all off

Preheat oven to 425.  Place grated zuccinni at the bottom of your casserole dish spread around so it covers the whole dish.  Next, spread your sauce over zuccinni.  Once that is done, I made 2 layers...1 layer of meat of your choice and 1 layer of veggies.  Once those are in place I threw a couple handfuls of parmasean cheese and my minced garlic over the meat and veggies.  I continued alternating layers of meat and veggies until I had almost overflowed my casserole dish.  Top it all off with cheese of your choice, cover with foil and cook for 20 to 25 minutes.