Just wanted to drop in real quick to share this amazing Paleo Cauliflower Cilantro Rice recipe with you guys! I made this for dinner and holy moly, it is good! And so easy too! This is modified from my meal plan recipes.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:4]
Tag: paleo
Menu Planning Monday
I always feel so much better about the week when I take the time to Menu Plan, Grocery Shop, and Prep food for the week. Knowing that I have several options to chose from for Dinners makes me WAY less stressed. It also makes me less likely to spend extra money (and Calories) Eating out. The problem is when I go to plan my meals I usually just sit at my blank piece of paper awhile and try to figure out what meals to plan. I have a few go-to favorites I use over and over (and over and over) again. Pinterest is always a great tool. I’ve actually started the process of organizing my food boards into categories to make it easier. I just recently found out that Emeals has a Paleo menu and I had to try it out. I love that they give you 7 meals and a shopping list, with each ingredient numbered. There are some meals that they have on the menu that we just won’t eat (fish… ick) so I just cross those ingredients off the list and replace with one of our favorite go-to meals. I spent yesterday shopping at Sam’s and Dierbergs for the groceries we needed and actually had a plan for a healthy dinner. Usually when I go grocery shopping I’m NOT in the mood to cook after. This time I was prepared! Shopping was way less stressful and I’m pretty sure I saved money, but I’ll have to average out over the next several trips to make sure. So here is what we have planned for the week:
Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday meals are all from the Emeals Paleo plan. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday are either pinterest finds or repeat meals.
We aren’t strict Paleo, I just try to follow a mostly paleo eating plan. I feel better when I eat that way. When it comes to meal planning I am not always set on having these exact meals on these days. I try to be flexible, it is way less stressful that way! Usually for lunch we will have leftovers or something easy like tuna salad. Breakfast nearly every morning is eggs and bacon. If you need some help planning breakfast and lunch too – emeals has you covered! They have meal plans for both lunch and dinner. Right now they are offering a free week of their breakfast plan. If you like it, use the code BREAKFAST30 for 30% off!
So far I’m loving this emeals plan. It takes the stress out of menu planning and shopping and still allows me to deliver healthy delicious meals to my family.
Do you meal plan? What are your favorite resources?
WIAW #10 – Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes
I’ve written before about how I love What I Ate Wednesday because it lets me see what other people eat and find inspiration for my own meals. I recently realized another reason! Because when I know I am going to post what I eat I actually try new things so I don’t bore you with a million posts about buffalo chicken (even if I could eat it every day). So for this week’s WIAW I tried new recipes at every meal!
As always, thanks to Jenn from Peas & Crayons for hosting this awesome link up! Make sure to join in for some WIAW fun! Now on to the eats! In the spirit of Fall, I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes. These were actually pretty good! Especially with Pure Maple Syrup from Trader Joe’s. I had an inspiration recipe but tweaked it a little more towards our taste (and doubled it!)
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:1]
For lunch I have been stuck in a Tuna rut. I like tuna because it’s great protein that is usually not too fussy to prepare. I really struggle with finding the oomph to make lunch in the middle of the work at home work day. I’m working on it. I tried Tina’s Curry Tuna Cake and it was pretty good! I served it up with my favorite crunchy snack: Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato Chips. These things are SO good. It’s like a tortilla chip and a cracker. In one. and it has an easy ingredient list too.
I’ve really started to like these neuro drinks lately. My husband got me hooked. I like the neurosonic and neurobliss. They give me a little extra boost in the afternoon!
My afternoon was sorta chaotic so I wanted something easy for dinner. Another Pinterest inspiration FTW! When I saw a recipe dubbed “World’s Best Chicken” I knew I had to try it. I cooked it a tad too long, but other than that it was great. I don’t know if it was World’s Best… but it was good for a quick dinner. I added some Quinoa and Green Beans on the side for a round meal.
I get a lot of my meal inspiration from other blogs and pinterest. Are you on Pinterest? You should follow me! I’m also on twitter, facebook, & instagram. And if that’s not enough… You can follow my blog in your google reader or even get it emailed to you daily! Just click the “+ Google” subscribe button on the right hand side of your screen or enter your email and press subscribe, easy peasy!
What are some of your favorite meals this week? Where do you get your meal inspiration from?
WIAW #6
Before we jump into today’s post I wanted to let you know that the winner for the SOYJOY Summer Prize Pack giveaway has been announced… and the winner is… RAY!
I tried to email you, but the email address came back as invalid. If I don’t hear back from the winner in the next 24 hours I’ll pick a new winner.
and now for the 6th installment of What I Ate Wednesday on JourneyofaDreamer.com! Thanks again to Jenn from Peas & Crayons for hosting this link up every week, I really look forward to it!
Of course I started my day out with the typical protein/monster pump/Blox combo, but I figured you got tired of seeing that… So we are going to move on to something WAY more exciting… I got a juicer! And it was a steal of a deal!!
Thanks Target clearance!! I went out this weekend to the flea market and stocked up on produce from local farmers
Can you believe all this was $15?! SCORE.
So… my breakfast started out looking like this:
and ended up looking like this:
It was very filling, although I will say adding in that big chunk of ginger did give it a little bit of a zing!
For lunch I tried an intriging recipe I found on Run To The Finish. Amanda shared how she made Faux Potato Salad. Since I had a head of cauliflower I had to use I thought it would be perfect. It was good! I thought it would be weird, but it really wasn’t. The cauliflower steamed long enough to be the right consistency as a potato stand in. I’d do this as a side dish again, but maybe not a whole meal.
There was a snack of a Nature Valley Granola Thin as I ran out the door to the dealership to get my car serviced, but I forgot a picture of that. I think you can survive.
I have been super excited about this dinner for awhile. Before we started to change our eating habits I made some killer Enchiladas. When I stumbled across an enchilada recipe on Everyday Paleo I knew I had to try it. I even used fresh tomatoes from the Farmers Market haul above. To be honest… I was disappointed. It turned out tasting more like Semi-Mexican Chicken than Enchiladas. It was still decent, just not exactly what I was expecting.
I had some qunioa on the side. Not exactly paleo (neither is the cheese or sour cream) oops. 🙂
A few hours later I started to feel the munchies come on and I wanted something sweet so I whipped up some Banana Soft Serve with GNC Egg Protein!
It was super delicious and filling. And it was easy to make!
This has definitely been one of my summer staples as a go to for when I want something cool and creamy.
What are some of your favorite summer treats? What was your favorite meal this week?
WIAW – #3
It’s already time for another installment of What I Ate Wednesday! Thanks again to Jenn from Peas & Crayons for hosting this link up every week. I love getting new ideas for meals and snacks from other bloggers. Plus, let’s be honest… I’m totally nosey and love the idea of getting to see into other’s lives for a day! You know you like it too…
Pre CrossFit I had a protein shake and ProSculpt… but I forgot to take a picture. You know what a blender bottle looks like? Imagine 2 of them. Done.
The WOD totally did me in today. 100 Kettlebell swings for the strength, then 5 rounds of 12 hang cleans and 12 burpees. There is just something about burpees that makes me want to vomit every time. Seriously, what it is?! Anyway, the finisher was 2 x 500m row. Ah, yes… row 1000m after nearly puking thanks to burpees.
All that to say I had a protein shake when I got home, tried to go for a run then realized that wasn’t going to happen, went home showered and laid down for a few minutes before making some scrambled eggs with ham.
that I forgot to take a picture of.
oops again.
No worries I remembered to take a picture of lunch! and it was SO good. Just an easy mixed green salad, tomatoes, cucumbers and left over flank steak from Sunday’s dinner. Salad is definitely one of my summer staples, especially with my favorite dressing: Ken’s Lite Northern Italian 
I love the flavor of it, plus it only has 45 calories per serving AND it’s gluten free. Awesome, right?
A few hours later I was getting hungry but it was too close to dinner for a big snack so I just made up another protein shake with my GNC Egg Protein and Chocolate PB2. Yummers. And finally you get a picture of the blender bottle I know you missed…
After working some more and finishing up some blog stuff (Check out yesterday’s post about Losing Weight with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis!) I started working on dinner. I’m super excited to share this with you! I found this recipe for Paleo Turkey Meatballs and I was so excited to try it out. It came together really quick, but was super messy. While I was making the meatballs I roasted some Spaghetti Squash. I put the meatballs in the oven and started on homemade marinara sauce. I used 3 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 onion, 2tsp minced garlic, spinach and carrots from the food processor, italian seasoning, parsley and basil. I let it simmer, then the meatballs were done. I piled it all on my plate so quick I almost forgot to take the picture… but I remembered at the last second, aren’t you glad?!
I really wanted dessert but I spent so much time cleaning the kitchen from my dinner cooking fiasco I was too tired to make banana soft serve. Maybe next week!
And that is what I ate. Ta-da!
Sidenote: Check out the sidebar! There is now a place for you to subscribe via email so you can get your daily dose of me in your inbox everyday, or you can click the Google button and it will add the blog to your google reader. Stellar!
What are some of your summer staples?
WIAW Week #2
Ah, it’s Wednesday. That day in the middle of the week that signals the transition from “Aw, man! The weekend is over?” to “All right! It’s almost the weekend!”Last wednesday I linked up with Jenn from Peas and Crayons for my first What I Ate Wednesday and I had so much fun I am back for Round 2! I loved getting to share what I eat, but even more than that I loved getting bounce around blog land checking out other peoples’ eats. It’s my nosey side coming out. Although for it to “come out” it would have to hide every once in a while and it doesn’t seem to do that often. or at all. Anyway, on to the eats! So these were my eats from yesterday. It just so happened to be the very last day of the 60 day Fat Loss Challenge, so I tried to pay extra attention to what I ate. We are getting our DXA scans today and I am nervous and excited to see the results. Wait- we were talking about food… 
Started my day off with Pro Sculpt, I really notice a difference when I take this stuff. oh, by the way, it was 440am. cause thats how I roll.
So, this was delicious. I recently found Zico chocolate coconut water at Target (and stocked up like y2k was about to happen…) and was drinking it after my morning workout and decided it would probably taste awesome mixed with my 1st Phorm Level-1 chocolate coconut protein. I was right. It was epic.
Scrambled eggs are standard for breakfast most mornings. Sadly, we are out of farmers market bacon so I had to settle for some all natural sausage. Oh, and see those peppers? They are from my garden! They were a few of the things I could salvage after the darn squash bugs killed most of my garden.
Snack time! Fresh Cherries and Almonds. Sad fact- Growing up I’m pretty sure I thought maraschino cherries were “real” cherries. Like, I don’t remember ever thinking about these kind of cherries when I thought about cherries. I so missed out. No worries- I’m making up for it now. 
Lunch was totally random. I forgot to take anything out for lunch, so I dug through the freezer and found some Gardein Veggie Burgers. I cooked one up to have with a salad. It was quick and did the trick. While it had some wheat and stuff in it, it did the trick in a pinch. Lesson learned, plan lunches better!
Afternoon snack was a glass of CLICK. The coffee taste is super strong, so I mix in 1 scoop of plain vanilla protein and it balances it out. Afternoon snack and afternoon coffee all in one cup!
Dinner was a recipe I found when we started trying to eat more Paleo type dishes. It is a copycat PF Changs Lettuce wrap from Cavegirl Cuisine. It is so delicious. Seriously, like go make it right now. I wish it photographed better. 
I even tried another angle. It still doesn’t look nearly as yummy as it really is.
See, even Little Dreamer is excited about it. Or about the fact a camera is out… that’s my girl. There you have it. Another day of eats! What are some of your easy lunch ideas? I get stumped all the time!
PS- Thanks to everyone who voted for me yesterday, I moved up a few spots but I still need your help! I am less than 10 votes away from being the Top Health and Fitness Blog on Top Mommy Blogs! All you have to do is click the banner above and it registers as a vote… no forms to fill out or anything. Can you take a second and click on the Top Mommy Blogs banner above or button in my sidebar? Thanks so much!
imperfectly courtney 