Score . . . Paleo Dressing, and the hubby likes it!

One of my FAVORITE things about the Thanksgiving or Christmas meal is my mama's dressing. It is heaven on a plate, and so I wanted to see if I could come close to recreating this yummy dish while remaining Paleo friendly. I haven't hit perfection, but Brad likes it. In fact, he says not to change a thing . . . he's scared I will mess it up. I did enjoy it, and I am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow. I think the bread may be a little sweet, but I am going to leave it alone for now. Okay, so here's what I did (to the best of my memory!).

I made one batch of Empowered Sustenance's Paleo Corn(less)bread, and I doubled the recipe. I also made one loaf of this Paleo bread from Elena's Pantry. There are two recipes on this page. I used the bottom or old recipe. My mom makes her dressing with one pan of crumbled cornbread, and also uses Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix. So, I needed the bread to be like the Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix. I wasn't sure what spices they use in the Pepperidge Farm stuffing so I kinda guessed. To make the "stuffing mix" I sliced the bread and laid the slices out on a baking sheet. I used a pastry brush to brush olive oil onto one side of the bread. I then sprinkled the side coated with olive oil with spices such as sage, garlic, salt, pepper and tarragon. I then flipped the bread slices over and repeated with olive oil and spices. Next, I cut into crouton sized cubes with a pizza cutter. Bake in oven on about 400 degrees for about 5-6 minutes. Flip croutons and bake another 5 or 6 minutes or until starting to crisp.

Okay, so now that your bread is done here comes the easy part. Recipe is below.

Ingredients

Double batch of Empowered Sustenance's Paleo Corn(less)bread cooled and then crumbled
One batch of Paleo Stuffing/Croutons made from this Paleo Bread recipe from Elana's Pantry
One tablespoon fat of your choice (I used bacon grease)
One large onion chopped
Three stalks of celery chopped
Sage, tarragon, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper and other spices to taste
Chicken broth - Approximately one cup. Vary according to how moist/dry you like your dressing
Two eggs

Directions

Grease an 11 X 17 casserole dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sautee onion and celery in oil/fat of your choice. I had fresh and jarred spices. I added a couple of cloves of fresh minced garlic, a few sprigs of fresh sage and thyme to the onions/celery and sauteed the herbs/veggies together for a few minutes. Once sauteed, I then set aside. In a large bowl combine crumbled "cornbread", "stuffing mix", sauteed veggies/herbs, and chicken broth. Again, I used 1 - 2 cups of broth. This will vary depending on how moist you want your dressing. Mix all ingredients with a potato masher until well combined. I want my dressing to be very fluid when you slightly shake the bowl. This will give you a fairly moist end result. If you like yours more dry, you would mix until everything is well coated and moist. At this point you can add additional spices, salt, pepper, etc. as you like. Once you think the flavor and consistency are correct add in two eggs. Mix well to incorporate egg into your dressing (you don't want egg-y spots in your dressing). Pour dressing into a greased casserole dish. Bake on 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Dressing should firm up and start to bubble around the sides.

Yummy! I hope you enjoy! If you make a version of this recipe let me know how it turns out! Happy Thanksgiving!

Moderation: My Slippery Slope

Okay, so I admit it, I have been bad! I got off plan, and I have basically got to start over. I was doing moderately well, when I had to go out of town for work. I decided to eat what I wanted while out of town, then it was my husband's birthday, etc. So, I basically just ate whatever I wanted for the past week.

I have found that I have to be strict with myself or I just slide right off the road. Some people have no problem with a little piece of cake here and jumping right back on the bandwagon. I however, think, well my day is messed up so I may as well have what I want now. That one slip up then turns into a day, a week, a month, and so on. So, I find that I have to have a plan, and I can not deviate from the plan. That is not to say that if I have roast planned for dinner on Monday that I couldn't switch that out and just do leftovers, etc. However, I can't sneak in that one bad food and not go down hill.

My husband turned 40 this weekend, and he set a goal to exercise daily for the next year. He was planning to also diet by counting calories starting today. However, he has had a couple of episodes where he didn't feel very good after eating some meals recently. I think he is now willing to jump on board and eat a Paleo/Primal diet with me. I hope he does. Mealtime will be simpler if we are both eating the same thing.  I think he will feel better going Paleo/Primal over calorie counting, too.

So, he and I are back on track starting with tonight's dinner. I have some meals planned from now through Wednesday lunch. We are going home for Thanksgiving, and we will be doing a lot of traveling. We will try to make better choices over the holiday, but since we will be traveling so much we have already accepted the fact that we will probably eat whatever we want from Wednesday evening through Saturday evening. We will try to start back over the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

So here are some meals we are planning starting with tonight's dinner.

Sunday Dinner: Crock pot roast with carrots, paleo dressing, and green beans.
Monday Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with chicken sausage.
Monday Lunch: Leftovers from Sunday.
Monday Dinner: Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
Tuesday Breakfast: Egg Muffin Cups
Tuesday Lunch: Leftovers.
Tuesday Dinner: Something with stew beef . . . unsure what this will be, I just have some meat I need to use! I would do beef stew, but don't want to do that since having roast tonight. Any recipe ideas . . . let me know!
Wednesday Breakfast: Egg Muffin Cups
Wednesday Lunch: Leftovers

I will keep you posted on how our week goes!

Chai Spiced Banana Muffins . . . these could only be YUM!

I absolutely LOVE vanilla chai lattes! I don't love how unhealthy they can be so I rarely have them these days. I ran across some chai spice one day in the grocery store . . . it was in the spice aisle with the regular spices. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I was certain I could find a use at some point. Of course, I bought it, and it has been sitting in the kitchen unused . . . until today!!! I have also seen this Chai Spiced Banana Bread Muffin Recipe on the Primal Bites blog. I have wanted to try it for a long time, but finally decided today was the day. Well, I got in the kitchen and realized that I only had two bananas and the recipe called for three. Hmmm, what to do? Well, I looked around and found this Banana Cacao Muffin recipe from Rubies and Radishes so I basically took this recipe and modified it to banana chai instead of banana chocolate. 

I haven't had a ton of luck with Paleo baking. I have only tried a few things, but they usually wind up really dense, and they don't seem to rise much. I was REALLY impressed with how this recipe turned out. I WILL use it again. The only think I tweaked about the recipe itself is that I used 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead of baking soda. I had baking soda, but as I said earlier, I haven't had much luck with my paleo baking. Most of it calls for baking soda. I did some research and read somewhere that baking powder makes paleo goodies more like the "real" thing. So, I tried it . . . IT WORKED ;-)! Oh yeah! These muffins are a little dense, but much fluffier than my normal paleo sweet treats, and they actually did rise a little during baking . . .double yeah! So below is what I did. 

Servings: 9 muffins - (I used a mini muffin pan & it made 24)

Ingredients 

2 ripe bananas, mashed 
1/4 cup honey 
3 eggs 
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1/4 cup almond butter 
1/2 cup coconut flour 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 

2 teaspoons chai spice - (I will probably use more next time. If you don't have chai spice use spices from this recipe)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda - (I used 1 tsp baking powder)
1 banana sliced for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In a mixing bowl, mash bananas until smooth, then add eggs, honey, coconut oil, vanilla and almond butter and mix thoroughly.
3. Add coconut flour, chai spice(s) and cinnamon, mix really well.
4. Let batter sit for 5-10 minutes 
5. Add in baking soda or baking powder. Mix until baking soda or baking powser is mixed through.
6. Fill muffin tins all the way. This made 24 mini muffins. You don’t need muffin wrappers for these, the muffins slide right out of the tray.
7. Add a slice of banana on top of each muffin.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Regular muffins may take 25 minutes or so. 
9. Remove muffins from the muffin pan and let cool.

Recipe adapted from a combo of Rubies & Radishes and Primal Bites recipes . . . .I am going to go try Rubies & Radishes' Paleo Pumpkin Spice Poppers now! I can't wait! I will let you know how those turn out, too! 

Oh.My.Yum! Paleo Bacon Pancakes!

I have tried paleo pancakes before, and they have been not so desirable. However, these paleo friendly pancakes from Organically Paleo are delish! I followed her recipe pretty much to the letter. I did make one major change. She made blueberry pancakes, and I made bacon. I didn't have any blueberries. I couldn't decide if I was in the mood for salty or sweet this morning. I thought about making bacon to eat with my pancakes to give me a taste of both, then I just decided to throw the bacon in the pancakes. I love the taste of bacon or sausage when it gets syrup on it from your pancakes, waffle or french toast so I thought it would taste great to just throw the bacon right in the batter. It was good!!! One side note, if you do eat the pancakes without the maple syrup they don't have much sweetness to them without the fruit. They then taste a little like hoe cakes or lacy cornbread. If you are from the south, you definitely know what I am talking about, right? In fact, I think I may try them again, add a little salt and a little more liquid and see if I can make some paleo friendly hoe cakes! Oh yay!

It is an absolutely beautiful day today. Typically, on such a gorgeous day, I would want to be outside doing something. Today is a bit chilly and windy though. So, I think I will stay in and try out some paleo holdiay-ish sides. Dressing is definitely on the list. We have had turkey this week already so I will probably cook pork chops to go with the dressing. I may even get creative and try a broccoli casserole with cauliflower rice. Something sweet is on the list, too. I am headed to the kitchen now. I will let you now how my experiments turn out!

Paleo Bacon Pancakes with Maple Syrup

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Kitchen Fail! :-(

So, it's not often that I have a true, kitchen fail. My friends, family and husband typically enjoy my cooking. Well tonight was my lucky night (yes, insert sarcasm here)! A friend and I were on the phone as I was getting ready to cook dinner, and she was talking about how she missed my cooking. She claims I can whip up a full blown meal out of a seemingly empty kitchen. Tonight I was not on my "A" game for sure! As soon as I was done eating, I had to text her to let her know she must have jinxed my cooking skills . . . haha! 

Brad recently decided that he may try Paleo . . . YAY! However, we have quite a bit of processed foods in our cabinet. He doesn't want the food to go to waste so he's trying to eat through that first. 

We decided to have steak for dinner tonight. YUM! I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up the meat. I decided to have leftovers as my sides, and Brad said he was good with rice from the cabinet. While I was rummaging through the fridge for my leftovers, I found some spinach that needed to be eaten. When I was on the phone earlier, my friend was talking about sauteed spinach. I have never made sauteed spinach, but I thought, how hard could this be? In the meantime, I was also cooking some Rice-A-Roni for Brad. I've cooked it tons of times! Well, I burned it! Completely stuck to the bottom of the pot!!! Then I look over, and my half a bag of spinach was a mere tablespoon. I guess maybe I overcooked it, because it was GONE! I had like two bites, and that was it. I will say that although the amount of my spinach was minute, it was very flavorful. I just cooked it in olive oil with garlic, salt and pepper. If someone can give me some pointers on how to NOT cook it down to nothing, I will definitely have to try that again! Or maybe I just didn't cook enough of it??? Who knows? Apparently not me . . .haha. 

I will say, the steak turned out great! I heated my cast iron skillet in the oven. I seasoned my meat while that was preheating. Then I seared the steaks on both sides in the hot cast iron skillet on the stove. After they were seared I moved them back to the oven to finish cooking. They were tender and tasty!  

So have you had any kitchen fails? I'd like to hear about them! What's your favorite way to eat spinach? And other than grilled, what's your favorite way to cook steak? 

A Taste For Turkey

I know that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, but the minute my brain registers that Fall is in the air, I start craving turkey! I've been in the mood for turkey for about two weeks now. I don't want to have a huge turkey this close to Thanksgiving, but I decided to cook a turkey breast in the Crock-pot. Oh, what a great idea that was. It hit the spot, and there are some leftovers, but not so much that I will be tired of turkey by Thanksgiving! 

I decided that since I had the turkey thing going, that it was the perfect time to test out some Paleo friendly holiday favorites as well. Time got away from me, so I didn't get to try EVERYTHING on my list, but I did try mashed cauliflower for the first time as well as green bean casserole. The mashed cauliflower is good, but it needs a little perfecting. First, I don't have a food processor, so I used my blender. Second, I got inspiration from here(nomnompaleo) and here (thedetoxinista), but didn't follow either recipe very well :-). Next time I will TRY to follow a recipe, but I am soooo bad at that! I like to add my own flare! 

Oh my, the green bean casserole is a keeper! It may need get some tweaks along the way, but it was a great substitute for the "traditional" canned version. In fact, I may even like it better than the other version (if that's possible!). Don't get me wrong, this from scratch concoction is a LOT more work, but for the health benefits, I think it's totally worth it. I looked and looked for the perfect recipe, but I couldn't decide on just one. This Cream of Mushroom Soup Recipe from Against all Grain really caught my attention. She has a green bean casserole posted on her site, but I didn't really want to fry the onions/shallots for the toppings so I modified this recipe from Fed & Fit.

FYI, I didn't have cashews so I couldn't make the cashew cream for the soup recipe. My husband is not on the Paleo bandwagon (YET)! He noticed a slight coconut taste the first day, but I didn't. I ate leftovers later, and I did notice it a little. That being said, you may want to try the original Against All Grains version if you think that will bother you. Oh, and I didn't intend to want to eat the soup by itself so this recipe is modified for the casserole specifically. However, after tasting the soup . . . I SHOULD have made the entire batch and just used what I needed for the casserole! It was soooo good! 

I am not always so good at measuring . . . I am a little of this and some of that kind of girl. I am going to do my best to give you accurate measurements so please bear with me. If you have any questions just let me know! 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

• 2 slices of bacon
• 4-6 ounces mushrooms, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
• ⅛ cup sherry cooking wine (may not be paleo friendly)
• 1/2 - 1 cup chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme - I used the leaves from one or two stems of fresh thyme
• 1-2 teaspoons arrowroot powder
• 1/2 cup milk - I used coconut milk, could use almond, etc. 

Instructions

1. Cook bacon and remove bacon from pan - feel free to eat the bacon now if you like . . . yum yum!
2. Saute the mushrooms, onion and garlic over medium heat (in the bacon grease) for 10 minutes, until the liquid has mostly evaporated.
3. Pour in the cooking wine, then bring to a boil and wait until it has reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour in the broth, salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer for 5 minutes then add the coconut milk (or milk of your choice). 
5. Use a whisk to incorporate the coconut milk. 
6. Whisk in arrowroot powder a little at a time until you get desired consistency.

Paleo Green Bean Casserole

1 lb Fresh Green Beans 

1 cup Thinly Sliced Yellow Onions

Cream of mushroom soup

1 - 2 Tablespoons of Almond meal

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Instructions:

1. Grease a small casserole dish. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
4. Drizzle 1 Tbl EVOO on the thinly sliced yellow onions and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Massage the EVOO and salt evenly into the onions with your hands.
6. Coat the onions with almond meal. This may take more or less than the amount listed. 
7. Spread the onions out on the baking sheet evenly.
8. Bake until starting to to brown/crisp. Mine were sliced thin so they didn't take long (10 minutes or so).
9. Put a large pot of water and salt on high heat and bring to a boil.
10. Cut the green beans into thirds or so (according to the size you like), and add to the water when it starts boiling.
11. Boil for 5 minutes then remove from the water, strain and place in greased cooking dish.
12. Add the mushroom soup to the green beans and stir until well coated.
13. Cover with aluminum foil & the lid (if you have one) and bake at 350F for 15 minutes.
14. Remove the foil/lid and sprinkle the dried onions evenly on top.
15. Place back in oven for 5 minutes at 350 F uncovered.

Thanks Cavegirl Cuisine! Dinner was Great last night!

Hello again! I didn't take pictures of last night's dinner, but it was delicious! I made this Stuffed Chicken Breast from Cavegirl Cuisine. I didn't have coarsely ground almond meal so I used almond flour instead. It was good, but I can see how the more coarse would give it a nice texture. I thought about chopping some pecans really fine and adding them to the flour. I didn't but maybe next time. I hadn't made this before so I was unsure as to how strong the flavors would be. I wanted some veggies to go along with it, but I didn't want to overwhelm them with flavor since I didn't know what to expect from the chicken.

I went through the fridge to see what my options were. I started by heating my pan on medium heat. Once preheated, I added some olive oil. Next I tossed in one small chopped onion followed by 3 or 4 cloves of minced garlic. I added chopped zucchini, carrots, and asparagus. I then added salt and pepper, a dash of red chili paste, one or two chopped basil leaves and a few dashes of coconut aminos. I just sauteed until all vegetables were tender.  It was delish! 

I plan to try the stir fry veggies again soon with some almond butter. I will go heavier on the basil, chili paste and coconut aminos to see if I can give it a Thai flare! Yum. I will let you know when I try that one. I'll try to take some pictures, too.

Musings of a What??????

I woke up recently, after having dined on extremely, yummy Papa John's pizza late the night before, and the first thing I noticed was how swollen my hands were. I told my husband I felt like a microwaved marshmallow. I got to thinking about that and realized that a microwaved marshmallow was a pretty good metaphor for my diet. Your typical store bought marshmallow is extremely processed and sugary. No real food or nutrition to be found in a marshmallow. 

Much like the marshmallow, my diet has often consisted of highly processed, super sugary, non-foods. When I think about it, it is amazing that I or most Americans are as healthy as we are. Where are we getting the nutrition to survive? In a typical day, I am likely to consume several servings of soft drinks, chips, candy, and grains. I am far less likely to consume any "real" foods like organic veggies and grass fed, pastured meats. The vegetables and meat that I do consume are probably covered in bad for me condiments and dripping with more non-food calories. So, I am surviving on chemicals and junk! Go me . . .  

After completing a Whole 30 diet plan for 30 + days I realized that I was not nearly as swollen as before eating Paleo/Primal. Then after stuffing myself with bad for me foods, I start to puff up like a microwaved marshmallow. Now, this is not weight I am referring to. This is some sort of inflammation or swelling. My weight could remain the same, but I notice after eating "off plan" at dinner I wake up puffy and swollen the next day. 

I will admit that I did not incorporate foods back into my diet one at a time after doing my Whole 30 so I don't know what causes the swelling. My inclination is grains, however, it could be grains, dairy, legumes, sugar or any combination of these items. Maybe I will try a proper reintroduction of foods in the near future to see if I can figure this out. In the meantime, I am trying to get back on the Primal/Paleo plan to help keep me from looking and feeling like the picture below! 

Poor microwaved Peep

Hello My Name Is . . .

Hello, my name is Elizabeth! Welcome to my blog! With a long name like Elizabeth, I get asked all the time, "is that what you go by" or "what do you like to be called"? My typical response is, "I introduce myself as Elizabeth, but people usually find their own nicknames for me". You have NO idea how many nicknames I have. They range anywhere from the normal, Liz, Beth, Lizzie, LizzyBeth, Lizzy Lu, Lizzy Lu Who, Lizzie Ann (my middle name IS Ann), and "E",  all the way to Lizard Breath and Bubba. The latter two are, of course, both family given :-)! I truly think I have a different nickname from just about every person I know, so pick something that works for you . . . I'll probably answer! However, it does make my husband happy when people call me Elizabeth. He's not so keen on being married to a "Bubba". I don't guess I can blame him! :-)

Okay, so you are probably wondering what is this "Musings of a Microwaved Marshmallow" blog all about anyway? I decided to write this blog because I am trying to be healthier. I turned 35 in May and set a goal on my birthday to let 35 be my healthiest year yet. So far that's not going so great! However, I recently did a "Whole 30" challenge. I actually lasted about 40 days following the true "Whole 30" guidelines. During that time I lost weight and felt great. I had more energy, and I really enjoyed the Paleo/Primal lifestyle. I have tried to maintain the Paleo/Primal eating habits since then, but I find myself off track quite frequently. Since reverting back to my old habits, I have gained most of that weight back, I am tired and just don't feel as good. So, with 6 months left until I turn 36, it's time to get in gear! 

I have made a meal plan for the week, and I intend to get back on track starting with dinner tonight! This weekend was busy, and I did not get to the grocery store, or I would have gotten started this morning. I know . . . excuses, excuses, excuses! Anyway, I intend to use this blog as a form of accountability, and you my friends, will hopefully be my accountability partners. I will share various things on here such as my meal plans, recipes, health tid bits, and other things I find (or think you may find) of interest. Please follow this blog and let's encourage one another on our life journeys! Have a happy day!