It’s time to get back at it and stop screwing around.  Last week was off and on, but this week is going to be back to what we’re used to in this house and that’s family dinners that are Paleo and balanced!  I missed having dinner with my family last week.  Sure, the time off was really nice, but I missed our time around the table together.  I grew up eating with my family every night, and it’s something that’s very important to me for my own family.  I’m glad to be back with them each night!

I’m going to try a couple of new recipes, and repeat a couple of our favorites.  I was thinking back to my childhood and the amount of different recipes my parents made each month.  We grew up on grilled meat (burgers, chicken, steaks, pork chops) so there wasn’t a lot of variety.  My mom would shake things up by making tacos or spaghetti once in a while (my dad did 90% of the cooking), but for the most part, my parents rotated between 5-7 meals.  Thinking about this, I realize that it is OK to repeat every couple of weeks – no one expects a new recipe every night!

Sunday, 08/10/2014  *** Eate.ry A ***

We kicked the week off well – at our new favorite restaurant!  B and I went to this place a couple of weeks ago and it was so good, and then I went with my girlfriends on Thursday and once again – SO GOOD!  After a very active day at the Iow.a St.ate F.air, where we stuck with our Paleo lifestyle completely, we decided to try our luck at getting in to this new hot spot and taking the boys.  We ate on the patio, had wonderful food, and had a really nice time!  I had the best Brussels sprouts of my life – they are just divine!

I will say that for the first time in 7+ weeks, I’ve been missing DQ.  We used to go there a lot and we all love it.  I miss it.  I can’t wait to have it again in a few weeks – just as a fun treat!

Monday, 08/11/2014  *** Shrimp in Horseradish Mustard Sauce***

This recipe was ridiculously easy.  I bought a bag of frozen, wild-caught large shrimp and thawed them out a couple hours before it was time to cook dinner.  I mixed up the sauce (sans the green onions because they froze in our fridge) and then put the shrimp on the stove.  They aren’t kidding in regards to how quickly this meal is ready.  The shrimp were done in a few minutes, I poured the sauce onto them in a big bowl, and POOF!  Dinner!  (My sauce was super thick – the finished meal did NOT look like the picture, which was fine by me because the picture worried me that the meal would be boring.  There was NOTHING boring about this meal!)

I did roast up some asparagus (it was really good – finally!) prior to making the shrimp.  That was a nice complimentary dish.

I’m super excited about this sauce because it tastes very similar to the sauce at our favorite BBQ place that I put on the smoked chicken and sausage I get twice a week.  I’m glad to find that it really is quite Paleo-friendly.  I’ll be making some up next time I have leftovers of my smoked meats!

Tuesday, 08/12/2014  *** Fiesta Chicken Soup (Again) ***

I am trying to get a better variety of meats into our meal plan each week, so I wanted to have a chicken dish but NOT the Greek chicken (we’re all needing a break from that one).  We loved the Fiesta Chicken Soup from Week 1, so I planned that for tonight.  It was just as good as the first time around and we ate more of it this time, leaving only enough for lunch leftovers for 1 person.  It is just so good with the avocados and lime added at the very end.  We both just love this!

Wednesday, 08/13/2014  *** Meatballs and Sweet Potatoes Chips ***

The boys love meatballs, so it’s time to try making some of our own.  This recipe calls for spaghetti squash too, but I just wasn’t in the mood for that.  I decided to go with sweet potato chips as a side.  Because of the fat content in the sweet potato chips, I passed on those and made baked sweet potatoes instead.

The meatballs were good, but the sauce was AMAZING.  I love pizza and pasta sauce, so I was really excited when it turned out as great as it did.  It was just so good!  The meatballs were a bit tough, so I’ll use veal (yes, veal) next time instead of the ground beef.  I did over-cook them a bit.  I should have pulled them off the stove when I tested them and there was just a hint of pink in them, because they did continue to cook and that would have cooked through.  Cooking them in the sauce took WAY longer than the 10 minutes she states in the recipe, but we had lots of time so that was no big deal.  I would say they cooked for 25 minutes in the sauce.

Delicious!

Thursday, 08/14/2014  *** Mexican Beef Skewers with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Basil Pesto (Again) ***

It was time to make this little dandy again, including the Brussels sprouts skewers, from Week 1!  We used beef tenderloin tips instead of sirloin this time just to see how it would be different.  Oh, and we added mushrooms to the skewers!

I am happy to report that the skewers were awesome once again!  I do prefer them made with beef tenderloin tips like we did tonight, but that is expensive.  We have a local (within-state) meat service that delivers grass-fed beef once a month and when I saw the beef tenderloin tips, I figured they were worth the try.  They weren’t much more than our service’s grass-fed sirloin, so it was pretty much a wash and I’ll order them once a month.  But when you compare them to grocery store (corn-fed beef) sirloin, they’re a lot more expensive.  Since we’re committed to as much grass-fed beef as possible, we accept this as a “cost of our Paleo choices.”

We also decided that we should make 1.5 times the recipe for the chipotle cream sauce (see Week 1).  There was more than enough pesto, just like last time, but we could have used more chipotle sauce.  There isn’t any leftover for our two leftover skewers.  Sadness.

I can’t recommend this recipe enough!

Friday, 08/15/2014 – Saturday, 08/16/2014 *** Road Trip – I’m Not Cooking! ***

We’re heading to Chicago for their annual Air and Wa.ter Show.  We will be minding our Paleo lifestyle rules, but will obviously not be cooking!

Week in Review:

• Weight Lost This Week:  2.0 pounds
• Weight Lost So Far (in 4 weeks):  8.4 pounds
• Fat % Lost This Week:  0.0%
• Fat % Lost So Far:  2.6%
• Noteworthy Points:  I feel good to be back at it! The results already show with a 2 pound loss before a Saturday weigh-in. I was hoping ri see a drop in body fat too, but that usually happens on Saturday or Sunday. Because we’re traveling today, I’m taking Friday’s stats.
• How I feel:  Awesome! Sore! But more energized! Some days see 3 different opportunities to exercise, which has been awesome! I’m working my plan for the next 10 weeks!!!