Our Paleo Challenge Results

Well, we made it through our 40-Day Paleo Challenge!  It was a really interesting and different challenge for us, and it was definitely NOT easy.  We both agree that it was tough, but it was nice to stay disciplined and have some sort of goal to stick to every day.  It was also fun to get creative and learn about different ways to prepare healthier but delicious meals. I found a TON of new recipes and substitutes for my typical ingredients that will help us lead healthier lives forever.  I also really loved sharing my successes (and difficulties) with everyone, and hopefully we inspired others to live cleaner-eating lives too!  Below are some questions that we have gotten, and some answers about our experience:

Do we feel healthier?  I would say yes.  I think my body has more energy and things are definitely regulated... if you know what I mean... Not to go all TMI, but your insides will surely be happy when you are only eating natural foods.  Just saying.  I would say above all, I feel good that we have not been putting any chemicals or crap into our bodies! 

So, how successful is this as a diet?  Well, we did not set out to do this to lose weight.  That means we still ate dessert (Paleo versions of course), drank alcohol occasionally, etc.  And I will tell you what, we have both lost a fair amount of weight.  I'm down about 8-10 lbs and my husband is down over 10 lbs.  So for people looking for a lifestyle change that will help them lose the pounds, I would definitely recommend it.  The proof is right there!  We have by no means been starving ourselves- we have just been replacing calorie-heavy foods with more vegetables/nuts/etc, and that led to weight loss for us.  I'm not sure what will happen once we start eating some of the non-Paleo foods again, but I am guessing if we stay 75% Paleo, we will at least maintain our weight, and stay healthy of course.

Was this more cost effective?  I honestly don't know.  I should have kept better track of our grocery store visits.  The thing is, we were basically only buying produce and meat and eggs.  So we definitely cut down on "snacks" and eating-out and alcohol, etc.  I tend to find that produce and eggs are generally more cost effective than buying cereal or bags of chips or anything like that.  The big cost would probably be the specialty items like almond flour, coconut oil, and so forth.  Maybe that will be my next charge: figuring out the cost difference!  It clearly wasn't very noticeable either way, but it might be more obvious over a longer amount of time.

So what is next? Well first, I am going to go CRAZY on some non-Paleo foods on Easter Sunday.  I know my body will not be happy for it, but I NEED some cheese and pasta.  For real. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet what will happen.  As we have said before, we want to stick with Paleo, but not 100%.  I am not willing to live my life without my favorite foods like cheese and pasta.  Life is too short!  We are still discussing how the 75/25 plan will work for us (probably 2 days per week eating whatever we want, and 5 days of strict Paleo), and I am definitely still planning to find new Paleo recipes and report on them!  So stay tuned...

We hope you have enjoyed following us on our Paleo journey, and be sure to keep up with us as we continue on (at least for the most part) in our Paleo ways!

Pork Tenderloin with Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

It's the last night of our Paleo challenge!  Wow.  I can't believe it has been about 6 weeks of strictly Paleo meals.  For our last Paleo dinner (of Lent), I wanted to do something sort of fancy and super delicious.  So I went with pork tenderloin, which I had made before and we loved, and stuffed portabellas.  This pork tenderloin is just as it should be- super tender and moist and tasty.  I actually used the same marinade I have used before with pork chops, except I was sure to marinate the meat for 3-4 hours this time for extra flavor.  For the portabellas, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do, but I bought them at the store, along with some asparagus, and decided to find a recipe that combined the two.  So I used this one, with a few changes to make it Paleo.  Overall, this was a great meal, and healthy of course!  It was a nice final meal before we binge on our non-Paleo favorites tomorrow!  Here is what I did:

Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce
(serves 3-4)

• 1 lb pork tenderloin
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T tamari sauce
• 1/2 T red wine vinegar
• 1/2 T lemon juice
• 1/2 t dry mustard
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1/4-1/2 c chicken broth

Preparation
About 4-5 hours before you want to serve dinner, combine the marinade ingredients in a plastic Ziploc bag: olive oil, tamari, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Place the tenderloin in the bag and make sure to get the whole thing coated.  Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.  Once it is all marinaded, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Sear the tenderloin (without all the marinade- just the meat itself and whatever juices are on it) on each side for 2-3 minutes or until it is browned up.  Keep the marinade handy and keep the skillet coated in meat remnants!  Place the tenderloin in a baking pan/dish and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165-170 degrees (I use an electronic thermometer).

Once it is cooked through, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes.  In the meantime, make the sauce.  Use the same skillet and reheat it over medium.  Once it is hot, deglaze the pan by adding the chicken broth and stirring it all around.  Once it starts to bubble, add the rest of the marinade and continue to let it all bubble up.  Cook for 5 minutes or so, until it thickens up.  Slice the tenderloin, and serve by pouring the pan sauce over top of your slices.

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
(serves 3-4)

• 3 or 4 large portabella mushrooms (or just the caps)
• olive oil
• 1 c chopped fresh asparagus (about 10 stalks)
• 1/4 c onion or shallots, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tomato, diced
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 c (or so) almond flour
• parsley flakes

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, or in this case, once you remove the meat, crank up the temperature on the oven to 400 (bake these while you are finishing up the meat).  Carefully gut the gills from mushroom caps and remove stems, then rinse each cap under cold water and pat tops dry with paper towel.  Chop stems and set aside. Brush a bit of the oil over mushroom caps and place oiled sides down on a baking sheet (line it with foil for easy cleanup).  Heat 1 T oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add asparagus, shallots/onion, garlic and chopped mushroom stems. Cook 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are cooked but crisp. Remove from heat and stir in tomato, salt, and pepper.  Spoon mixture into mushroom caps. Sprinkle almond flour and parsley flakes, and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top. Bake 10-12 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Here is what mine looked like right before going into the oven:

So there you have it!  The final meal of our Paleo challenge!  Don't worry- we are not done with Paleo forever. Stay tuned to hear all about what our future holds, and hopefully to get more great new recipes!!

Paleo Apple Pie Tarts

For our last night of the Paleo Challenge, I wanted to make another special dessert- something more than just the usual cookies that we have come to know and love.  My husband really loves apple pie (as do I), so I started searching for a recipe for a Paleo pie crust so I could try to make a Paleo version.  I found this one using almond flour, so I decided to go for it!  Instead of making a full pie, I went with little mini pie tarts. This was partly due to the fact that I had gotten this really cool mini-pie maker from my sister-in-law for Christmas, and I still had not used it.  This was the perfect chance!  It really is a cool little machine- here it is:

It reminds me of a waffle iron, but for pies.  Pretty neat.  Anyway, I first made the pie crust dough, which you could really use for any type of pie, but I wanted apple!  Then I made the filling which was easy enough, and voila!  Here is what I did:

Paleo Apple Pie Filling
(enough for 4 mini pies)

• 1-2 apples, peeled/cored/sliced
• 1 T honey
• 1 t cinnamon
• lemon juice

Preparation
As you slice up the apples, toss them into a bowl and add enough lemon juice to coat them.  This will keep them fresh as you go. Add the honey and cinnamon and allow to sit for a few minutes to get the apples soft and gooey.  Use as the filling for the pie crust.

Paleo (Gluten-Free) Pie Crust
(makes 1 pie crust, or enough for 4 mini tarts- top and bottom)

• 2 1/3 c plus 1 T almond meal/flour
• 1/4 t baking soda
• pinch sea salt
• 1 egg
• 3 T olive oil

Preparation
In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a fork.  Then, add the egg and oil and start mixing it up with your fork.  Once it started to incorporate, I used my KitchenAid to mix it thoroughly, but you can also knead it up by hand.  It should be able to form a nice ball, and it will be a bit oily.

To "roll" it out, I put down a piece of parchment to avoid any type of sticking.  It is tough when you can't use regular flour for that!  I tried to use the rolling pin, but without flour it got a bit sticky.  I just used my hands and pressed down on the dough to form the circles.  For the tarts, I made a bunch of small circles of dough, but if you want to do a whole pie, go ahead and press out a large circle.  I also just took small chunks of dough each time I wanted to roll out an individual circle.  My little pie maker also came with the circular cutting tool, which made things easier.  Heads up: the dough will probably feel really oily, but that is normal.  Here you can see my work station:

Once I had 4 bottom pieces and 4 top pieces cut out (and used all the dough), I got my machine all preheated and ready to go. You could also bake the pie(s) in a 350 degree oven using just a full sized pie pan or even mini pie or tart tins.  In my machine, I first fit my bottom layer in, filled them with some apple pie filling, and placed the top layer on, as you can see below.  HINT: This crust may be a little crumbly so do your best to piece it back together if it falls apart in this process at all.  HINT #2: Try to get some of the apple goop from the bottom of your bowl into each tart.  We discovered later that we wished there had been more saucy/goopiness.

After 5 minutes or so, mine looked like this (almost done):

If you are baking yours in the oven, just check to see when they get golden brown and bubbly- that means they are ready!  Here are my mini pies fresh out of the "oven":

We enjoyed these later on at night, and we found that they tasted better when heated up in the microwave for 30 seconds.  They also would have been great served with some sort of cream, but alas, I didn't make any (whipped coconut milk works great).  Regardless, here is what we ended up with:

These were good.  Like I said, we wished they had been a little gooier, and of course I missed my buttery flaky Pillsbury crust.  But however you want to make your pie or tarts, these crust and filling recipes are both great ones to try!  Enjoy!

My Hubby's First (And Hopefully Not Last!) Solo Paleo Cooking Attempt!

My husband wanted me to title this: Not a Complete Disaster. I am very proud of him, though!  Enjoy his guest blog post!

Some of you might not know who does the majority of the cooking in this house.  Some of you, however, might be able to guess, particularly those of you who read this blog on a regular basis. When my wife went out of town last Saturday, I knew that at some point, I would have to cook for myself, without supervision. For those of you who don’t know me that well, you might not understand the enormity of that task. 

I was able to sustain myself on leftovers for the first few days. As Tuesday evening rolled around, however, I knew I would have to venture in the kitchen if I wanted food. Doing some research online, (aka Googling “paleo chicken recipes”) I came upon the recipe found here.

Looking over the recipe, I thought to myself, “That doesn’t look too hard, and I have all of those spices.” So, I decided to give it a go.  Right away, I knew that I didn’t know the first thing about making mashed sweet potatoes and I didn’t even know if I had them. So, the first thing I decided to do was substitute mashed carrots for the mashed sweet potatoes seen on the plate for the recipe. Mashing carrots, however, turned out to be a greater misadventure than I anticipated. After picking out five large carrots and slicing them, I put them in a bowl and tried to mash them using a potato masher. Yes, that’s right. I had no idea what I was doing. When this was met with little to no success, I used the handheld immersion blender. This succeeded only in shooting carrot fragments all over the kitchen. So, unsure of how else to do this, I googled “How to Mash Carrots.” Realizing that I needed to boil some water and use that to soften the carrots, I grabbed a pot, threw the carrots in, and put the water to a boil. This, I figured, was probably the incorrect way, but whatever. After several more attempts and primarily through trial and error, I was finally able to mash the carrots up sufficiently. I then added a touch cinnamon for flavor.

Moving on to the chicken. I selected to use chicken breasts rather than chicken legs for the simple reason that I didn’t have any chicken legs. I selected three chicken breasts, and, following the recipe, coated them in olive oil. Here, I’m pretty sure I used too much, so if you try this on your own, make sure to do a lighter coat at first and add more if you need to. Then, I simply lined a baking pan in tin foil, though I admit I had no idea what a baking pan was, or how to line it with tin foil. Using the internet again, however, was my salvation. After a few minutes of wrangling with tin foil, I realized that I wasn’t that great at lining baking pans, but I made it work. Spicing the chicken was the easiest part of the whole process, just lightly spicing both sides with garlic powder, chili flakes, cumin, sea salt, and pepper. I didn’t really heed the estimates used in the recipe, but it turned out fine. Once I had the chicken prepped, I turned to the oven, which I have never used. Ever.

I knew enough to pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Once it was ready, I placed the chicken in the oven as instructed in the recipe: uncovered, in the center of the oven. I then thought I was ahead of the game when I used the oven timer to tell me when I needed to switch sides for an even roast. I, unfortunately, learned my lesson the hard way. This actually turned the oven off after 20 minutes. I learned this when I saw “Done” prominently displayed upon the oven’s display. So I then had to re-heat the oven, and this time used the microwave timer. Once everything was finished and I was able to enjoy my first solo-cooked meal in years, I had just a couple observations.

1)   Carrots were a good substitute, especially with the cinnamon added. That being said, I don’t think can beat the taste of sweet potatoes, so I know next time I try this recipe, I’m gonna use sweet potatoes. Hopefully my mashing experience will go better. 
2)   There’s a reason the recipe calls for chicken legs. I could tell, even though the chicken was juicy and tasted great, it would’ve been even better with the chicken legs. Further, and this may just be me being a salt fiend, but I could’ve used more salt in the initial seasoning process.

Overall, this wasn’t quite the disaster that I thought it was going to be. Nothing burst into flame and I didn’t burn the house down. If that were the only fact, I’d call this a win. I did, however, make a relatively easy meal that was a great jumping off point to further cooking endeavors down the road. Anyway, I wanted to make a “guest appearance” on this blog to document my experience. Hope you all enjoyed the story, and hope you keep up with our blog even after Lent ends tomorrow!

Paleo Pumpkin "Pasta" with Sausage & Mushrooms

This was our second-to-last night of our Paleo Challenge and I cannot believe we are winding down already! The meal I made tonight was one that I had been thinking about Paleo-izing for a while now, so it seemed as good a time as any!  I originally made this recipe probably about 2 years ago out of Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats cookbook. I never would have thought about combining pumpkin, sausage, and mushrooms until I tried it, but boy was she right about this one- it tasted delicious!  It wasn't too hard to make Paleo- mainly I had to just substitute spaghetti squash for that glorious Penne pasta.  And of course, I couldn't douse it in Parmesan cheese like I normally would...  Now, I used store-bought packaged sausage for this, which some hard core Paleo-ites would frown upon, so if you want to make your own or use organic or whatever, go for it.  Other than that, this recipe should be perfect!  Here is what I did:

Paleo Pumpkin "Pasta" with Sausage & Mushrooms
(serves 4)

• 1 lb bulk mild (or sweet) Italian sausage
• 1 T olive oil
• 4 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 4 ounces white mushrooms, sliced (use any mushroom combination you want!)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 c dry white wine or sherry (OPTIONAL if you are avoiding alcohol)
• 1 c chicken broth
• 1 c canned pumpkin puree
• 1/2 c almond milk
• pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t nutmeg 
• 1/2 spaghetti squash (make the whole thing and freeze 1/2 of the "spaghetti" for future use)
• sprinkle dried or fresh chives as garnish

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees to roast the squash. Slice the squash in half length-wise and scoop out the seeds and goopy stuff from the middle.  Place squash halves on a baking sheet/pan flesh side up and season with salt and pepper.  Roast in the oven for about 45 min to an hour, until the flesh is softened.

Heat a large, deep skillet over medium high heat and brown the sausage in it. Once it is all broken apart and cooked (no pink), transfer it to a plate.  There should be a little fat left in the skillet.  Return pan to the stove and add the olive oil.  Toss in the garlic, onions and mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper.  Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender and mushrooms are browned. 

Deglaze the pan with the wine/sherry (or chicken broth if you aren't using alcohol).  Add chicken stock and heat for one minute until it starts to bubble.  Stir in pumpkin and incorporate - it will be thick.  Return sausage to pan, reduce heat to low, and stir in almond milk. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce.

When the squash is done roasting, take it out of the oven and use forks to scrape away the flesh.  This will create spaghetti-like strands.  Get as much from the squash half as you can and add it to the sauce mixture.   Stir it all around and it is ready to serve!  Serve it up on a plate and garnish with chives.  If you were eating dairy, this would be a great time to add some Parmesan...

Other than roasting the squash, this meal takes only about 30 minutes of actual prep time.  It has a TON of different flavors that work really well together, and it is not something you would usually think to make!  I love Rachael Ray recipes, but they are typically grain and cheese heavy, so I am hoping to try to Paleo-ize more of her meals at some point.  Hope you enjoy this!

Paleo Apple Cinnamon Spiced Muffins

After I made my birthday dessert shortcakes the other day, I realized that I could transform that recipe into muffins for everyday consumption.  The shortcakes were a little dense and a bit plain (as shortcake usually is), so I decided to pump up the flavor, lighten them up, and turn them into muffins!  I would say it was a great success.  These taste delicious and will be a great treat for breakfast or a snack!  Here is what I did:

Paleo Apple Cinnamon Spiced Muffins
(makes 1 dozen)

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c apple sauce
• 1/4 c honey
• 1/4 c melted coconut oil
• 1 t lemon juice 
• 1 t lemon zest
• 2 1/2 c almond flour
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t baking powder

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs and apple sauce.  Add honey, coconut oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest.  Once combined, add almond flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.  Mix until it is all well combined.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. DO NOT SKIP THIS.  I tried to make these the other day by just greasing the tin and they were super messy when I tried to remove them.  You should DEFINITELY use the liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Like this:

Serve these warm or keep them in a sealed container for later.  Just a tip- if you serve them warm, they may still be a little crumbly.  These need to cool before they will be more "glued" together.  Regardless, they will taste great even if they are a bit messy!  I am excited that I tried these out and I will definitely be doing it again.  Enjoy!

Paleo No-Bake Pumpkin Almond Bars

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and it looked interesting.  I am always in search of new ideas for breakfast/lunch/snacks and all the ingredients seemed good to me!  I tried these out today, but made some changes since I didn't have everything the original recipe used, and I was fine with using just what I had.  These were pretty easy to make and will be handy to have around whenever I need a sweet and healthy treat.  They don't exactly harden up like a granola bar, but if you keep them in the fridge or freezer, they will be great.  Here is what I did:

Paleo No-Bake Pumpkin Almond Bars
(makes about 20 thin bars)

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 3 t pumpkin pie spice (I used 2 t cinnamon, 1/2 t nutmeg, 1/2 t ginger)
• 1/2 t sea salt
• 1/4 c raw almond butter
• 1 mashed, ripe banana
• 1/2 c canned pumpkin
• 1 T raw honey
• OPTIONAL: raisins, shredded coconut, sunflower seeds, etc

Preparation
In a small sauce pot, mix together almond butter, mashed banana, pumpkin, and honey.  Heat over low until it is all soft and well combined, stirring occasionally.

In a food processor, combine almonds (and other seeds/nuts), spices, and salt.  Run it until they are broken down but not total powder.  If you want to add dried fruit, coconut, etc, stir them and the nut mixture together in a bowl. Combine the wet and  dry ingredients and mix well.  Line a baking pan/dish with parchment paper (mine is foil on one side so it conforms to the pan- I would recommend it!).  You could also grease the dish.  Use wet hands to press the mixture into the dish really well- I made mine pretty thin and almost went to the edges of a 9 x 13 pan.  This is what mine looked like:

Freeze for at least a half hour, or until firm.  Take them out and cut them into bars.  They will likely still be a little soft, so I would put them back in the freezer for a while.  Store these in the fridge or the freezer to keep them nice and solid.

Here they are all done!  These will be nice to enjoy for breakfast, lunch, or a snack anytime during the day.  All natural and yummy!