Day #21

Whoa!  Has it really been that long?!

Minus one major temptation cave-in (Domino's breadsticks) that I regretted the next day when my knees started cracking again, my head started pounding, and generally just not feeling well I can proudly say I have stuck to this Paleo thing.

My bread recipes have turned out to be disastrous.  I found one that used a box recipe that tasted okay, but that costs $5 per box!! With that type of money I'd prefer to just buy GF bread from the store that's pre-made.  However, I just came across a cracker recipe I have a lot of faith in.

The recipe calls for butter, and I refuse to do milk yet (still have another 9 days to go before I try adding it back in).  I found a recipe for Clarified Butter (basically it's butter with the milk proteins, sugars, and water removed).  So all you have left is simply butter.  It looks fairly simple to make, and at least in the future I'll have some butter to mask the horrible taste of my bread failures...

If it tastes anything like butter I'll post the recipe on here later.

So today I made some beef stew for myself and my sore throat.

A lot of recipes call for this bone broth mixture which I haven't tried yet...I do have a chicken carcass in my fridge awaiting my Mother's assistance.  The recipe to make it is like 2 pages long and uses a lot of words I don't understand.  So this way...if it turns out horribly, I can say it was  'we' failure instead of a 'me' failure.

But since I don't have any bone broth stuff made up this is what I did:

I helped Dad can some deer meat yesterday.  I then took some canned deer meat with me when I left...perhaps more than what he realized I took.  ;-)

Then I opened up the canned meat, and plopped it into a pan.  I added some water, some carrots, and some spices.  I put in some grilling seasoning, some parsley, and some black pepper.  I stirred it up, and waited for the meat to cook.

Then I ate it.  Yum.

Lucky Day #13

So it really hasn't been "lucky" per se, I've just always wanted to have a post called "Lucky Day #13".  I've been looking forward to this post for the past week and a half.  lol

But I'm officially the energizer bunny on steroids!  I've always been overly energetic, but lately I've had way more energy than usual.

Here's what I've had thus far today:

Breakfast:
Paleo Pancakes.   YUM!

Lunch:
Tilapia and some steamed broccoli. I was really busy with work today, so I didn't have enough time to chop up some almonds for my tilapia toppings.  I must say, after having this dish a few times and playing around with the ingredients, the way to really make it taste good is to add some season salt.  The more the merrier.

Supper:
You know, I haven't really sat down today to eat a full meal.  I've been snacking since 2ish or so.  I've consumed:  a banana, an apple, an orange, some cashews, a salad (no dressing--but I did chop up some bacon to make it a bit tastier), a handful of almonds, and a GF DF (gluten-free, dairy free) brownie.  Which for the record, tastes WAY better than what it sounds.

I'm also about to consume some apple chips.  There's another 10 minutes left on the oven until they're done. I'm not sure how they'll taste, but they smell AMAZING!!!

here's the recipe for the brownies:
1.  Go to the store.
2.  Purchase a GF DF brownie mix.
3.  Add an egg, 1/4 C water, and 1/2 C unsweetened apple sauce.
4.   Add in an additional 1/2 C chocolate chips (in addition to what the recipe tells you to add)
5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes.
6.  Enjoy!  :)

I bought a bunch of flour--tapioca and coconut in the hopes that I'll find the world's greatest GF bread recipe.  I've got a list of 5 different bread recipes I plan on trying (all claiming to be the greatest GF bread recipe out there).  No worries--I will wade through the dirty dishes, hours of sifting and baking in order to let you know what REALLY is the greatest GF bread recipe in the world.  I got ya covered.  :-)

Day #5-#12

Wow. I'm waaay behind on my blogs.  Been rather busy lately with a variety of things--went out of town for work, had a hurricane come pay a visit, it started raining in my bathroom....you know, minor things like that.

Overall, I'd say I feel better in some aspects, and worse in others.

Pros of the last week:
-Swelling has gone done A LOT
-I feel pretty awesome when grocery shopping...I'm probably the only one in the store buying only healthy stuff--I have to fight the urge to go parade around the store showing off my healthy purchases.
-I have more energy than before
-I no longer need caffeine to operate (and anyone who has known me, knows that's something pretty spectacular in and of itself)
-I have discovered a love for researching new recipes, and......cooking! *gasp*
-I now realize there IS a life that exists without sweet tea!  And I gotta say--it's a much cheaper one, too.
-I looked at my budget today and realized I have almost $60 more than usual!  Most people complain about how expensive eating paleo is, but when a person eats out as much as I used to I'm actually saving money by doing this.
-I have zero idea if there is any scientific evidence of this for other people...but I have yet to have a Raynauds flare-up since day #3 of this thing.  And I've been in some pretty cold places.
-Paleo Pancakes.  They are God's gift to people everywhere, male and female alike.


Cons:
-I'm hallucinating--two days ago while I was at work, my pen miraculously turned into a bread stick from Olive Garden.  I had it halfway to my mouth before I realized it was my pen.
-I no longer sleep only 4-5 hours/night.  I'm now out for the count by 10P, and sleep like a log until 7:30 the next morning when my dog decides it's time to wake me up (30 minutes BEFORE my alarm goes off).  Therefore, I'm not getting as much done. I now understand the saying "there's not enough hours in the day"
-The whole having to cook thing is beginning to get old, especially on days when I work until 5, then have to rush out the door by 5:05 in order to be on time somewhere by 5:30.
-Chili. I love chili.  I tried a Paleo friendly recipe, and the word "suckage" doesn't even begin to describe it.  I'd post the recipe on here so you can avoid it, but if you're anything like me you'll try it out just to see if it's as bad as I claim it to be--trust me, it is.
-Bread.  It's all but disappeared from my diet.  If I'm going to last much longer I NEED to find a paleo-friendly bread recipe.

Anyways....I gotta run. I have a date with a ping pong paddle and some friends.  Hope you're having a good day!