What the Heck Do I Eat?

I just finished making carrot fries, butternut squash fries, kale chips, roasted squash puree, cut up a pineapple and baked rustic pears with blueberries and peaches. I ate my lunch of tomatoless meat sauce over spaghetti squash in between tasks. I'm worn out! At least I did it all while the girls were napping...and now they should be waking up aaaany minute. I just wanted to share some of my food adventures, tips, and what I've been eating these days.

In case you're curious as to what I eat on a day to day basis, because I'm sure you're DYING to know, here are a few pics. :) This first picture is what I typically eat for breakfast. Leftovers and a smoothie. That chicken is the Spicy Honey Chicken from Our Best Bites. It is deeelicious, and one of our favorite ways to cook chicken. We use chicken thighs, sometimes with the bone and skin and sometimes without, or chicken drumsticks. It's SO easy to throw the spice rub together, season the chicken, and throw it on the grill for dinner, and it's delicious with the sweet honey glaze.

 I started making smoothies for breakfast on most mornings, made with:
-1/2 can of coconut milk (without any additives. Trader Joe's Light Coconut Milk is about the only SCD legal coconut milk around, because it's just coconut milk and water. There are a few kinds you can find at special Asian markets that don't have added guar gum, but sometimes they're made with coconut extract or sulfites, so it's hard to know whether to trust them).

.

-1/2 or whole avocado
-1/2 or whole frozen banana
-frozen pineapple or berries, spinach, or carrot puree, depending on what I have on hand

Then along with the smoothie, I eat whatever is in the fridge- leftovers from dinner or some kind of meat dish I've prepared. Or bacon! I love bacon. Here's a picture of my favorite meatloaf, which I got the recipe from here on The Healthy Foodie. I change it up to suit my needs and taste, but I like it because it's packed full of vegetables, hence the title: Vegetable Overload Individual Meatloaves. I make a bunch at a time, and freeze them to eat later.

We decided to buy 1/4 of a cow from the good ol Toone Dairy Farm, the farm where my dad grew up and that my uncles still run. They had a nice fat steer ready to be slaughtered, and since I eat a good amount of meat these days, we thought it'd be a good idea. We bought a deep freezer from RC Willey a couple months ago, so that we would have room. It feels good to be stocked with beef that we know came from a good place, without antibiotics and hormones, and it's all nicely wrapped and labeled. Here's our box of beef before we stored it in the freezer.

Ideally, I'd be eating all grass-fed beef, since I'm grain free so the animals I eat should be too, but that stuff is expeeensive! I also wish I had a good source for organic, free range chicken, because I'd feel a lot better making chicken broth out of something that wasn't pumped full of antibiotics and crap. Oh well, I work with what I can. I haven't fully jumped on the organic produce bandwagon either, although I know it's best. I just can't justify paying 2 bucks a pound for organic grapes when I can get regular for 88 cents a pound. I know I know, I shouldn't think that way and I should at LEAST buy the dirty dozen in organic, but haven't gotten there yet. Baby steps. This healthy eating thing can get pretty pricey! Granted, you cut back on costs on fast food, restaurants, and processed snack foods, etc. But I go to Sprouts every Wednesday for their double ad sale, and bring home my load of fresh produce and meats and coconut water, and it adds up fast!

Here's one of the kinds of coconut water I like to drink. The first time I tried it was a few months ago, and it was such a refreshing change from just having plain water for months! I buy whatever kind I can find on sale and that is 100% pure coconut water. Sprouts brand is a good one too.

K we've talked about coconut milk and coconut water; now let's talk about coconut oil! Pure gold. Coconut oil, such as this one that we buy at Costco every few weeks

is such a good, healthy fat and has so many benefits and uses. I cook with this stuff for everything. I used to use olive oil, but learned that olive oil should not be cooked at high temps, so I use it now mostly for drizzling on food after cooking. Coconut oil is solid at room temp (unless it's summertime like now and the kitchen stays well above normal room temp), and liquid at about 78 degrees and above. I like it much better when it's solid, so that it's easy to scoop and dab on things, so I keep a little container full in the fridge, and the rest of the jar stays on the counter. I like the slightly coconutty taste, but if you don't want that, you can buy refined coconut oil or just add a little salt. I gotta say, though, organic extra virgin unrefined coconut oil is the way to go!

As far as snacks go, it's hard to find things to snack on! I usually eat a bowl of homemade applesauce or pearsauce  with some coconut oil mixed in, awhile after breakfast, or some butternut squash "pie" with almond butter. Another go to is half an avocado, mashed with half a ripe banana, mixed with coconut oil and a little cinnamon with nut butter on the side. I know, all these things sound totally lame and unconventional, but you do what you gotta do! I recently added in grapes, which is diVINE to have a portable, snackable fruit. And if I'm on the go and really need something to sustain me, I grab one of these little beauties:

Have you seen these in the store? They are bars made of fruit and nuts. That's it. The cashew cookie Larabar is made of 2 things: cashews and dates. That's IT! And it's deeelicious! Which also means that they are a cinch to make at home, too! I started making these homemade about a year or two ago, and just use whatever combination sounds good: almonds, cashews, dates, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla. Tastes like an oatmeal cookie! Or almonds, dates, dried unsweetened coconut with a touch of coconut oil- coconut cream pie! I follow the guidelines for making them from Camilla at Power Hungry, which has an awesome big long tutorial with all kinds of variations. Since I can't have chocolate on SCD, I do miss my little dairy free chocolate chips, but I make due with what I CAN have. I love love love my Cuisinart food processor and Blendtec blender, which make my life a whole lot easier with this diet. For the larabars, you can use either to whip up a batch, and I usually make enough for about 8-12 bars. Then you just wrap them in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. Easy peasy. 

Here's another easy, sneaky treat. Banana ice cream!

,

Who knew that frozen bananas blended up would produce such a creamy, delicious treat. I started doing this  over a year ago when I went dairy free and missed ice cream like crazy! Then I forgot about it for awhile, and was reminded by a fellow SCD friend about this treat, and started eating it again. The last time I made it, I mixed in frozen strawberries and it's amazing! I keep ripe bananas on hand at all times, and periodically peel, slice and freeze them to keep in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Then I can use them in smoothies or to make a big batch of banana ice cream, which I store in little plastic containers in the freezer.

Other snacks I like are carrot fries, which I posted about here, or butternut squash or acorn squash fries! The possibilities are endless. Roasted veggies are amazing, and it's my favorite way to cook carrots, squash, zucchini, brussel sprouts, beets, fennel, etc. Have you ever roasted brussel sprouts, and then eaten those flimsy crispy outer leaves that fall off? They're like chips! So tasty. I just made kale chips for the first time this week....twice. That's a nice new crispy snack, too.

I've taken to baking...trying to find recipes on Pinterest of things that I can eat. I've found lots of yummy recipes, and have had some failures and some successes. Grain free, sugar free, dairy free, soy free, egg free baking is tricky business! One of my new favorites is 3 Ingredient Coconut Flour Cookies from Lauren at Empowered Sustenance. Just coconut flour, coconut oil, and a bit o' honey...and voilah! A sweet little "buttery" shortbread mini cookie. It's amazing what people come up with. 

I, on the other hand, am not so good at creating things on my own. I tried to do that on Mother's Day for a special pancake breakfast for myself, and it turned out looking like this:

                       
Pancake FAIL! I tried to use mashed bananas, almond butter, coconut oil, and a little coconut flour, (and probably some baking soda, salt, vanilla...whatever struck my fancy) but the batter didn't hold together at all, and they fell apart in the pan. It was a big mushy fried mess. But a tasty one, so that's what matters most! I cooked some blueberries down to make a jam/syrup, and added some bacon on the side, and I was a happy girl.

I haven't really started baking with almond flour yet, because supposedly almond butter is easier to digest at first than flour, so I'm taking it slow. I loooove nut butters, though, and will do another post on those adventures. (Not sure if my body loves them, but I love them).

 I'm learning a lot, though, and still have so much to learn. Just a month ago, I didn't know how good mashed cauliflower, cauliflower fried "rice", or zucchini noodles were! Who knew?