Week 73: Rest?

I was thrilled  to attend a women's retreat this past weekend with a ton of other moms at Winshape Retreat in Rome, GA!  It's such a beautiful place nestled up in the foothills of Northern Georgia!  They make amazing food and the rooms are really peaceful!  It was a great weekend away, but I was very happy to return to my sweet family!

Chicken Ginger Soup

A few weeks ago we started our Paleo challenge, but I've been sick and that's really putting a damper on my ability to work out.  I got a double ear infection and it's giving me a feeling of vertigo when I over-exert myself.  I just went back to the doctor and I'm now on a second round of antibiotics and I'll be going to an allergist soon to see what is going on with me.

Week 73 Menu

Sunday - Chicken ginger soup
Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Rotisserie chicken, roasted cauliflower, green beans

Wednesday - Tomato basil soup, mixed green salad with leftover rotisserie chicken
Thursday - Pan seared salmon, mango salsa, broccoli

Friday - Ground beef tacos, black beans, seared zucchini

Saturday - Out to dinner

I would love to see what you all are cooking!  Post your menus!!!  :)

Sarah

Week 69: Playing Catch Up!

Well, I totally missed posting last week's menu with my post-Thanksgiving craziness.  My SIL came into town to visit her sister (who had pre-eclampsia and delivered a preemie a few weeks ago) with my niece, so we had a little time with my sweet niece, Josephine (Zach calls her 'JosePine' and I love it).  The 'no-menu' weeks are always a challenge, but we did almost totally Paleo meals all week despite the chaos.

Now this picture is not a Paleo meal, but I made these right before Thanksgiving and I was thrilled with this pita bread recipe!  It was the easiest bread I've made and the kids devoured this stuff as it came out of the oven.  I cooked it in the oven on a cookie sheet turned upside down and they only take a few minutes to puff up and cook!  Pita bread was a really fun recipe to make with the kids, so give it a try if you like pita bread.  They are SO much better than anything you get in the store!

Week 69 Menu

Sunday - Rotisserie chicken, broccoli (from our garden)
Monday - Mexican beef (or lettuce wraps), roasted cauliflower, guacamole

Tuesday - Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, zucchini noodles

Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Thai basil shrimp, cabbage, red peppers, white rice

Friday - Grilled steaks, spring mix salad, grilled asparagus

Saturday - Roasted salmon with normandy vegetables

Happy cooking!

Sarah

Week 62: Happy Labor Day!

Some weekends just don't turn out as you plan them, do they?  I was planning on traveling to visit my mom with the kiddos, sleep in and generally get a bit spoiled, but a stupid stomach bug had to invade my life and cancel all my awesome plans!  GRRRR!  Happy Labor Day!

Roasted asparagus with salt, pepper and olive oil!  Yummy! 

My husband and I are about to begin a fitness challenge this week!  I think he's participating in two separate challenges simultaneously.  The first is the just a general improve your endurance challenge using the Army Physical Fitness test at the beginning and the end of the 6 week challenge.  I had a total score of 201 (not great at all), but the idea is to improve over the next few weeks.  The test is a workout that included 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups and a timed run for 2 miles.  The running totally did me in.  I barely passed on the sit-ups, but actually did fairly well 88/100 for the push-ups (that's my score, not how many push-ups I did, BTW).  ;)

The second challenge he's going is a CrossFit Challenge at his gym, so I'm on strict orders not to bake over the next month!  I absolutely hate being told 'not to bake.'  My first instinct is to run to my cookbook and bake something totally new and amazing!  I know that would be an 'Epic Fail' on my part as a supporting wife, so I will do my best to resist the sweets this month.  We have agreed, however, that I can bake as long as it does not linger in our house and I give it away immediately.  I know I can work around that rule!  So, I'll be doing lots of Paleo meals over the next month on the menu plans.  You will still see starches on my menu for the kids, but Alain and I will not be eating them.  Click on the paleo link if you are curious about the Paleo diet.

Week 62 Menu

Sunday - Rotisserie chicken (Costco), green beans, rice

Monday - Mexican Style pork, rice, black beans

Tuesday -  Leftovers

Wednesday - Thai basil shrimp, cabbage, red peppers, white rice
Thursday - Hamburgers, roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli

Friday - Grilled mahi-mahi, roasted carrots & cauliflower

Saturday - Out to dinner?

I'd love to see your menus!

Happy cooking,

Sarah

Week 45

Sorry for the delay in posting menus, but sickness and life got away from me the last 2 weeks!  I help coordinate a children's consignment sale at my church and my life cannot exist beyond the sale during that week and I usually need a week of solitude to recover.  Don't misunderstand. . . I love the sale!  I would not allow something that I didn't love to take that much of my time away from my family.  This time, I had sickness on top of after-sale exhaustion, so I thought it best to wait for my weekly menu post!  I hope that you all have been keeping up with your menus.  I don't get too much feedback on here, so I don't know if reading this blog helps you all or not, but I'm glad to see that you're reading it either way!

In reference to the above picture, I met a sweet mom today who told me that she just found out her son is allergic to wheat, corn, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and shellfish!  He has eczema all over his body and she's struggled with it since he was a baby (he's 3 now).  My heart brakes for this mom who works full time and has a teenager in the house because now she has to completely alter her way of eating to keep her youngest son healthy!  I mentioned the Paleo diet that my hubby uses, so I'm going to give her some more information about it.  I'm hoping that it might at least give her a good source of information to start with and show her how to start changing her diet towards less processed foods.  Everything has traces of corn or wheat in processed foods, so I know how overwhelming that can be at the beginning.  If you all have any advice, I'd love to pass it on to her!

Onto the menu. . .

Weekly Menu #45

Sunday - Chicken tacos, black beans, white rice, salad for Alain
Monday - Beef with soy sauce and ginger, spinach, roasted asparagus
Tuesday - Out to Eat (Girl Scout meeting followed by PTA meeting)
Wednesday - Thai basil shrimp, white rice (Yes, I am making this again.  I LOVE it!)
Thursday - Out to Eat
Friday - Venison Kielbasa, seared onions & cabbage, roasted potatoes & sweet potatoes, green beans
Saturday - Indian summer chili, mixed green salad, broccoli

Have a great week, everyone!  I'd love to see what you're eating this week!  Post your menus!

Sarah

Week 42: Easy Week. . .

Well, my sweet hubby is out of town for 9 days.  Although we are already missing him dearly, the kids and I are a little excited about the possibility of using dairy items, potatoes, legumes, grains and maybe even a little sugar in our dinner menu plans this week.  I feel like I'm rebelling just a bit, but I'll be happy to return to Paleo eating in a week and a half.  Annabelle's favorite meal is beef stroganoff, so that's definitely going to be on the menu and we may have to have a pizza night as well!

We were eating dinner tonight and I just had to take a picture of my 8-year-old, Annabelle, eating Thai Basil Shrimp.  She eats it the way her daddy does (no rice, but lettuce wraps).  She really doesn't care for the cabbage and red peppers unless she eats them with the shrimp in a lettuce wrap.  Amazing!  I would never have tried that with my kids, but they all love it!

Weekly Menu #42


Sunday - Thai basil shrimp (I know we just had this on the menu, but we are eating it again!)
Monday - Over to a friends' house (I'm only responsible for dessert)  :)
Tuesday - Beef Stroganoff, steamed green beans, egg noodles
Wednesday - Out to dinner
Thursday - Baked salmon, roasted cauliflower, baked sweet potato fries
Friday - Barbecue meatloaf, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots
Saturday - Out to diner                                                                                           

Have a great week, everyone!  I'd love to see some of your menus!  Don't be shy!

Sarah

Week 40: Chili Week

Relaxation. . . That's the spirit of this week.  My friend, Anne, and I got to escape this weekend and enjoy a mom's retreat up in Rome, GA!  We had such a wonderful time connecting with other moms, learning great tips and eating food that we did not prepare!  You know I love to cook, but I also LOVE to eat delicious food that I don't have to cook and clean!  I ate dessert with both lunch and dinner!  That makes for a perfect weekend in my book!  :)

This is the Winshape Retreat in Rome, GA!  

We're trying to find a good chili that's Paleo-friendly.  There's tons of recipes on Paleo recipe sites, but we haven't been impressed with the ingredient lists, so we're going to try a bean-free chili.  We tried our existing chili recipe on Sunday night, but it just didn't taste quite right.  In addition to taking away the beans, we also used ground turkey instead of ground beef.  So, we'll be trying another non-bean recipe later in the week and we'll let you know if it's any good!

On the Menu. . .

Sunday - Chili (w/no beans for Paleo diet), salad
Monday - Seared mahi-mahi with tropical salsa, green beans, yellow rice
Tuesday - Chicken Roman Style, roasted cauliflower, roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Roasted Salmon with mixed veggies (I use pre-marinated salmon from Costco with a Normandy mix of frozen veggies, defrost it all and throw it together on a cookie sheet at 400 F for 15-20 minutes)
Friday - Texas beef chili, broccoli, mixed green salad
Saturday - Hopefully more leftovers. . .

Post your menus, everyone!  It's ok if you are eating pizza or hot dogs too!

Happy cooking!

Sarah

Week 39: Paleo, Paleo, Paleo. . .

As I've mentioned before, we are following a Paleo diet very strictly over the next 5 weeks while my hubby is in this Cross-Fit challenge.  I typically focus my dinners on Paleo cooking, but I'm trying to resist baking and using any items that are completely 'unfit' for his diet.  Of course, he bought me a Kitchenaid mixer for Christmas and now decides to go on this challenge.  I hate that my mixer is just sitting there, not being used, but it will have to wait a few more weeks. . .

Although I may be frustrated about not baking, I am thrilled with this challenge my man is working on! Cross-Fit has been amazing for him and he's in the best shape of his life!  There are no complaints from me!  :)

So, I've been scouring the internet for any more Paleo ideas and found a few great blogs that I thought I'd share with you! My favorite thus far is 'The Paleo Mom.'  She has some cookies and granola bars that I'm anxious to try when the challenge is over!

http://paleoonabudget.com/

http://www.thepaleomom.com/

Onto the menu for this week. . .

Weekly Menu 39:

Sunday - Beef with soy sauce & ginger, roasted cauliflower, leftover cabbage slaw, white rice
Monday - Herb rubbed sirloin tip pork roast with roasted mixed veggies
Tuesday - Angel hair pasta with red meat sauce, zucchini noodles, broccoli
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Grilled salmon fillets, wild rice, steamed green beans
Friday - Out to eat
Saturday - Breakfast for Dinner (TBD)

Have an amazing week!  Happy meal planning!

Sarah

Week 38: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Welcome to 2012!  I can imagine that it's been a busy holiday season for all of you!  I hope that you were able to relax a bit and enjoy this special time with friends and family.  We had a wonderful Christmas!  We had my BIL, SIL and FIL in town the week before Christmas and then we took off to Orlando with my oldest BIL for the week after Christmas!  I turned 35 just 2 days before Christmas as well!  It was non-stop around here, but I loved every minute of it!

However much I love my house full of people, non-stop action and tons of love, I also cherish the quiet days after the guests have left.  The kids are playing quietly in their playroom while I catch up on the computer today and it's a blissfully sweet sound.

As you can see, Zach is just as excited as I am to use our new mixer!

I received a wonderful gift from my hubby this year, so I can't wait to start using it!  He got me my Kitchen Aid mixer that I've been eying for quite a few years!  I kept using excuses about why I didn't need one, but he fortunately saw through all of that this year and bought me a beautiful shiny red toy! 

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but Alain is doing a 5-week challenge at his Cross-Fit gym that measures body fat loss and muscle gain (I think).  So, he is very committed to eating healthy (that means a totally Paleo diet from here on out) for the next 5 weeks and I'm going to keep dinner no-carb, no legumes, no milk for him.  You'll still see black beans on my menu and you'll see rice a few times a week because the kids will continue to eat their carbs and beans.  But I'll be leaving milk off all of my menu items for dinner due to Alain's milk allergy.

Menu Week 38:

Sunday - Angel hair pasta with meat sauce, zucchini noodles, steamed broccoli
Monday - Mexican beef in the crock pot, yellow rice, black beans, seared zucchini
Tuesday - Baked chicken, roasted asparagus
Wednesday - Seared salmon fillets, roasted cauliflower and carrots
Thursday - Chicken with balsamic reduction, roasted white & sweet potatoes, steamed green beans
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday -  Out to eat

Happy cooking to all of you!  Now, I can't wait to see your menus! 

Week 34 - Baking buzz. . .

I'm not sure if any of you experience this "baking buzz" that I mentioned in the title, but I feel it every year around this time.  It's like I'm anticipating all of the yummy baked goodies that I am going to bake over the holidays.  I started baking during the summer between 6th and 7th grades when we moved from Chicago to Florida.  I didn't know anyone when we moved, so I started baking to pass the time.  I gained a few pounds in middle school thanks to my "boredom," but I also gained a wonderful passion for baking and cooking.  The pounds came off eventually when I was a starving college student. . .   ;)

Zach's 3rd 'Cars' birthday cake!

We celebrated my youngest, Zach's, birthday this weekend with a little party, so I made him this cute little 'Cars' cake!  He was so excited that the whole day was focused entirely on 'Cars.'  My attempt at a billboard sign for his birthday message was a bit of a mess, but it was a graham cracker with a granola bar split in half as the base.  I had to use lots of frosting to keep the granola bars together.  

Onto the weekly menu. . . My hubby has asked that I try to incorporate a new soup into the menu each week because he's been craving soups lately, so I'll do my best to find some good 'Paleo' soups to meet his dietary requirements.  I'm sure some of you remember that 'Paleo' entails no dairy, no legumes and no grains, but everything else is fair-game with lots of lean meats, veggies and fruits. 

Sunday - Roasted salmon with mixed veggies, yellow rice
Monday - Thai chicken in the crock pot (Paleo), shredded cabbage, steamed broccoli
Tuesday - Chili Verde (didn't get to this last week. . . I'm looking forward to it in the crock pot)
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Fajita burgers, roasted sweet potatoes & potatoes, green beans
Friday - Out to dinner
Saturday - Pork roast with red curry sauce, white rice, roasted asparagus

Happy cooking, everyone!  Hope to see some menus soon!

Sarah

Week 26

So, last week was a total wash!  I don't think I cooked anything I put on my menu if you can believe that!  I ate all of the meat and veggies, but just chose to cook them differently than my menu.  I'm sure you all have those weeks.  Before this blog, I didn't even usually even have a menu!  That's the biggest reason for doing the blog. . . so that I will continue to keep menu planning.  It's much less stressful to have a menu planned, but then decide to change it than it is to have no menu at all.  

Salmon with carrot, zucchini saute and steamed broccoli! 

I'm really enjoying reading your menus!  Only a few people posted last week, but I was very late in putting the blog post up, so I'm hoping to get a better response this week!

Here's the menu:

Sunday - Out to Dinner
Monday - Red sauce with ground turkey, angel hair pasta, zucchini noodles*, roasted asparagus
Tuesday - Chicken stir fry with cabbage and asparagus, white rice
Wednesday - Seared salmon, roasted cauliflower and carrots, couscous
Thursday - Grilled chicken legs, roasted sweet potatoes/white potatoes, broccoli
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Shrimp scampi with lime, roast veggie medley, white rice

*I've mentioned the zucchini noodles before , but I wanted to explain exactly what we do around here to accommodate my husband and his Paleo ways.  I make a pot of pasta for the kids, but I peel a zucchini or two (depending on the size) and I throw away the outside peel.  Then, I keep using the peeler and make long, thin noodle like strips of zucchini and I blanch them quickly in the water after I take the pasta out.  Now, this wouldn't work for a pure gluten-free diet since I'm re-using the water, but it's fine for us and I don't have to wait for the water to re-boil.  I usually just drop them in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes and plate them.  I think that they are delicious and I eat them every time rather than noodles now. 

Week 23 Menu

Hello there Everyone!  I've missed this blog, but we are finally back from our month-long vacation across the country.  We had such an amazing time, ate wonderful food and gained a few pounds too.  I'm off to work out early in the morning to try to combat the few pounds I've added to my waistline.  Check out the blog from our trip if you want to read about our Nicolet family adventures!    www.nicoletfamily.blogspot.com

That's me and the kids under North Window Arch at Arches N. P. in Utah!

We stayed at 4 different houses along our way, so I've missed cooking.  I was able to cook at my friend, Lauren's, house and also at Jeannie's house.  However, I'm craving some food from my Mexican cook book and Alain is really anxious to get back on his Paleo Diet.  I think I can meet all of his dietary needs in my cookbook.

For those of you who don't know, the Paleo diet is all about lots of lean meat, veggies and fruits. They don't recommend dairy, legumes or wheat.  A few of these (dairy and wheat) are common allergies and there's lots of scientific studies showing that people have serious health problems for years as a result of these allergies.  Often, the reaction inside your body can destroy organs and cause severe damage if not treated early,  I have no problem getting rid of dairy, but I have a problem with getting rid of wheat.  I'm not able to totally cut it out right now, but I'm definitely making an effort to provide all whole wheat and lowering fat and sugar in my baking.

Now, for this week's menu:
Sunday - Roasted pork loin, seared cabbage and seared asparagus
Monday - Chicken thighs with dry chili rub, mixed green salad, roasted cauliflower
Tuesday - Thai basil shrimp, cabbage, red peppers
Wednesday - Meatloaf, roasted sweet potatoes/white potatoes, broccoli
Thursday - Seared salmon (with Emeril seasoning), roasted carrots, yellow rice
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Out to Dinner

I'm looking forward to seeing some menus this week!

Happy Cooking everyone!