So I think I'm going to give it a go for another couple of weeks. Maybe taking it slow, committing to short time lines will make it easier. Because it is a big commitment to eat healthier. Making sure you have enough food in the house to avoid the temptation to just go drive thru and grab something. Devoting at least 45 minutes to an hour of your evenings to food prep and cooking. Plus add in the 30 minutes 3x per week I've been doing the C25K program and shower time, I am losing a lot of time I would normally spend crafting or working on house projects. I'm sure most of you guys already spend a lot of time cooking, so my complaints are just something you get used to, but it really is an adjustment to no longer be able to shove frozen dinners in the oven and have a good 45 minutes to do other things around the house. I haven't had time to vacuum since I started this diet!
But struggles with the time suck that eating real food is aside, I wanted to do a little recap of the recipes I tried over the past few weeks. Mostly as notes to myself on what to try again, and what I would change, but also in case any of you are interested in trying any of these recipes. I thought it would be fun to jump on the Instagram bandwagon and take photos of the meals, but then I realized how annoying only being able to take a square photo is. So I snapped these photos with my phone, but added the photo filters on my computer with Pixlr-o-matic instead. As a reminder, this was our meal plan from my previous post:
Day 1 - Deli Chicken and Salad
Not much to report here. It was just one of the whole roasted chickens from the grocery store deli and a quick salad I threw together. We didn't even eat until 10pm because grocery shopping took me so long, but the chicken was good, and it is a nice option to be able to pick up something fresh cooked when I'm grocery shopping on a weeknight, since I usually am working until at least 7-8pm.
I thought the Mahi Mahi was pretty good, but my husband wasn't a big fan. It was a little on the dry side with the crushed macadamia nuts instead of a sauce, but it turns out he just doesn't really care for any combo of fish + nuts. Who knew? As far as the Brussels sprouts go...I'm sad to report that I wasn't that into them. I used a blog friend's recipe, and I really wanted to like them, but I just couldn't get behind the texture. I'm going to give them another try though, because I'm thinking I may not have cooked them long enough. But at least now I can say I've finally tried Brussels Sprouts!
Day 3 - Low Carb Meatloaf
We thought this recipe was pretty good, using chopped apples instead of bread as a filler. But it called for way too many onions, in my opinion. Next time I'll put in half as many onions, and I think it will be a lot better. I did really like cooking the meatloaf in muffin tins though, since it only took them about 18-20 minutes to cook. However, this also contributed to the onions being a bit too much, since they didn't have enough time to fully cook. I think quickly sauteing the onions first would have helped if I'm going to use muffin tins again. And yes, I put ketchup on top of the mini meatloafs. I know it's not primal or paleo, but I can't just give up everything overnight. Meatloaf without ketchup just wouldn't be meatloaf!
Day 4 - Crab Cakes and Broccoli Salad
These crab cakes with no breadcrumbs were super yummy. A bit more work than the normal way I would make crab cakes, but worth it. And the recipe made enough for me to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.
The broccoli salad is a recipe of my mom's (not sure where she got it from), but it is also super yummy, and the only way I will eat raw broccoli. It is just finely chopped broccoli, crispy cooked and chopped bacon, yellow raisins and finely chopped red onion. Then you stir in a dressing of 1 cup mayonnaise (I used dairy free mayo, but I bet greek yogurt would be good too), 1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda instead), and 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar. I know it's not exactly the most healthy of dressing recipes, but it is sooo good, and much better and lower calorie than something like Ranch dressing would be. And it gets us eating broccoli, which is the most important part!
Day 5 - Balsamic-Glazed Drumsticks and Broccoli Salad
This drumstick recipe was probably one of my favorites, because it was so easy to make. I will definitely be repeating this one again, because it was great for a mid-week dinner where I could throw it in the oven for a while and only had to make the sauce toward the end.
We ate it with more of the leftover broccoli salad from the night before. And fun fact, this was the first time I'd ever cooked drumsticks! I'm not a fan of the skin, so I pulled it off, but my husband liked it.
Day 6 - Fajita Frittata with Avocado Salsa
This was another first, the first time we had ever tried frittatas. Overall, a little time consuming to chop all of the ingredients up, and it ended up needing to cook a bit longer than the recipe said, but it was pretty good. And this recipe would have been enough for two night's worth of dinners, but since I didn't realize that when making our meal plan, I just ate the leftovers for the following two day's lunches.
Day 7 and 8 - Butter-Stuffed Chicken Kiev and Spinach with Warm Bacon Dressing
This one definitely needs some notes. First, I made the butter part of the recipe the night before and stuck it in the fridge overnight. Second, how is 1 stick of butter between 4 servings of chicken healthy? Ok, that aside, this one didn't cook exactly like it was supposed to. Or maybe my skills in wrapping chicken around butter are lacking. But I have no idea how I could possibly cook this with all of the butter trapped inside the chicken. It all basically ran out, and so I kind of ended up just spooning some of it over the chicken at the end.
For what it was, it was ok. The dill and parsley inside the chicken were good, but I had higher hopes for this one. For the spinach with warm bacon dressing, the first night I made the bacon dressing, then put half of it in a tupperware container for the next night, and mixed in the spinach. You can use whatever greens you want in the recipe, but because we've never tried things like kale before, we're starting with things we're familiar with. The picture up above was from the first night, and I think I overcooked the spinach. The second night I removed the bacon dressing from the heat for a few minutes, then just stirred in the spinach at the last minute, so it only got warmed, not cooked and soggy like the first night. It was really good, though better the second night when it was more like a warm salad.
Day 9 - Grilled Eggs with Mexican Chorizo
This recipe was really good, and a very different way to eat eggs. We both really liked it, although next time we will just break the egg yoke at the beginning. We didn't until the end, and it made everything have to cook on the grill a bit longer than the recipe said. The bottom of the peppers were slightly more well done than I would have liked, but overall, this was a winner. Neither of us had had chorizo sausage before (and I had to use chipotle chilies instead of the dried chilies in the recipe because that was what I could find) and we really like it. My husband even used the leftover sausage for nachos.
Day 10 - Korean-Style Short Ribs and Scallion Salad
This short rib recipe had all of the potential to be one of my favorites. The blackberry marinade was really tasty, but unfortunately the ribs themselves were just really chewy and fatty. I blame the grocery store, because that's all they had, but it was disappointing to have something taste so good, but be such a poor texture. We only really got to eat maybe 1/3rd of each rib, since the rest was too fatty. The dressing for the salad was a really good compliment to the rib marinade though. Next time we might just have to try this with a steak or something instead of the ribs.
Day 11 and 12 - Chicken with Goat Cheese and
I liked this goat cheese stuffed chicken a lot. My husband didn't quite as much, but apparently he has a problem with chicken breasts in general. When I'm a picky eater, and so is he, it makes finding healthy recipes a challenge. He said he'd rather have his chicken cut up into little pieces, so the sauce/cheese/whatever coats the chicken better. When I explained to him that it's more for the presentation to not have chicken served in bite sized pieces, like you would a kid, and that he's perfectly welcome to cut up his chicken and rub it around the goat cheese, he just kind of looked at me! Ha, men! Although I think I will be nice and try to look for less full chicken breast recipes next time around. Also, you'll notice by the title that I couldn't find arugula. I've looked for it before, but maybe it's not in season, or my grocery store just doesn't have it. So I made the salad with romaine and stuffed the chicken with spinach instead.
Day 13 - Buttery
I couldn't find fresh catfish, so I used tilapia instead, but this fish recipe was far better than the macadamia nut one. And we tried coconut milk for the first time and didn't even notice the difference (neither of us are coconut fans). It was a relatively easy recipe, and my husband like it too (because I didn't tell him I used coconut milk until after he was done eating!). Now the Garlic Paprika Dressing on the other hand, meh. I was not impressed. Not only does the recipe make just a ton of dressing and way more than we needed, but it wasn't very flavorful or good. Just mainly tasted like lemony oil. So as you can see in the photo above, I loaded a lot of minced garlic on top, just to give it something. This dressing is definitely on my "not worth trying again" list though.
Day 14, 15 and 16 - Primal Texas Chili and Sweet Potato Fries
My husband loved this meaty chili. He said it was probably one of his favorite of all the new recipes we tried these past few weeks. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that there were no green veggies in these meals, ha! But I know he also like the spiciness, although it gave me a stomach ache, because I am a spice wimp. I think next time I will cut down on the spices a little, and he can just add his own in a bowl separately. The sweet potato fries are always good, with a sauce of dairy free mayo and Siracha. And this was a really good meal to have toward the end of our meal plan, since I just froze the meat until I needed it, and sweet potatoes stay fresh in the fridge for weeks, so I didn't have to worry about buying the ingredients in advance and them going bad before I could use them.
Then Day 17, 18 (today) and 19 - Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup
This recipe isn't really primal or paleo because it does have black beans in it. But it is from SkinnyTaste and still pretty healthy, especially if you leave the sour cream and cheese out. My favorite part is that this is another really good recipe to save until right before you need to go grocery shopping again, because you can freeze the chicken until you need it and it uses frozen and canned veggies. And it gets you three nights of meals, which is always a plus in my book. This is the third time I've made this recipe, and it is husband-approved (quite possibly because the chicken is shredded, and not whole breasts!), so even though it's not primal or paleo, it's going to remain in the recipe rotation because it's still a heck of a lot more healthy than a frozen dinner or something with pasta or bread would be.
So that's it. 19 days of {mostly} primal meals. Now it's time to start planning our next few week's of recipes to try, since I want to try some more things to see if I can find more options that we both like enough to try again.
Do you have a favorite primal or paleo (or just low carb) dish that you make regularly? If so, I'd love for you to share it with me!
15 comments:
Darn! about the brussels sprouts! Hit me up and we can talk about what you did- if you like the flavor but not the texture, there are definitely ways to work with that! Most people don't like the bitter flavor if they dislike them.
And goodness gracious this is a lot of involved cooking! I LOVE the idea of meatloaf in little muffins instead of a whole loaf- so much easier and then you get more "crust" parts too! keep up the great work!
This recap is awesome! I love reading through all of your recipes and am inspired by you devoting so much time and intentionality to cooking and using less processed junk. Looking forward to reading more!
I'm definitely going to be trying some of these recipes! I'm all about the tilapia, meatloaf and goat cheese stuffed chicken. My warm bacon vinaigrette is really good, to toot my own horn! http://wishfulfillmenteveryday.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-we-eat-bacon-we-eat-bacon.html
I also like to broil my brussels sprouts (cut in half to minimize sogginess on the inside) with bacon, shallots and sea salt, until they get a little caramelized/burnt. Some people just can't get over the texture/taste, though - Josh HATES them!
paleo looks like a lot of work, but definitely tasty! i am now craving some broccoli salad and short ribs. and hooray for going 19 days :)
These recipes all look pretty good - I'll agree with you that 1/4 stick of butter per serving is not necessarily that healthy, but it seems that you made up for it on other nights. One trick for us to save time cooking during the week is to make a big pot of soup on Sunday that lasts through the week as a side dish or a main. This doesn't work if you need variety, but fortunately my husband and I don't - we really only end up eating it for four days since I eat dinner with friends once per week and we usually go out or make different things on the weekends.
I'm so very impressed that you stuck with your plan!! I would love to do something like this but it seems so daunting to have to cook every day-- and I am SUCH a picky eater it is ridiculous. Without bread and cheese, I don't know what to eat?! lol.
I'd love it if you'd do a follow-up post on this that talks about what you eat for breakfast (I'm a yogurt every morning girl... not sure what I'd eat if I wasn't eating dairy)? And also if you have noticed any physical differences in the last month? Do you feel healthier or have you lost any weight?
Hi Lyndsey!
I AM eating dairy. Just in more limited amounts. From what I've been able to tell, that's the real difference between Primal and Paleo. Primal allows some dairy, but recommends going for the full-fat, less processed things. So, for example, I've let myself eat some smoked gouda, but been staying away from Laughing Cow cheese. And there's no way I could give up my coffee creamer or yogurt for breakfast! Giving up bread and pasta is hard enough. One recommendation I read was to try to follow these diet guidelines 80% of the time. If you need to eat something else, just do it in moderation. I totally had a cookie this weekend as a holiday reward for being so good for the past few weeks. At least it was fresh baked and not super processed though! :)
And I've been trying to stay away from my scale, at least for now. But I do feel healthier, although that could be because I've been jogging a couple of times a week too. I do think I'm going to start counting calories again though, just to really get a handle on what I'm eating. It's a big pain, but it will be good to be accountable for what I'm eating at every meal, not just for dinner. But yeah, coffee and yogurt is my go-to breakfast. I'm not a breakfast person at all, so it's all I can stand to eat. For lunches I've been eating things like a big chicken salad, tuna on a sliced cucumber, or two deviled eggs with avocado and bacon. I'll definitely expand on this too, once I get in the rhythm of tracking all of my meals again!
I've never tried eating paleo, so I have no suggestions, but I'm glad it went well! 19 days is a long time for such a different method of eating than normal!
YUM! I totally just pinned your bacon vinaigrette recipe, definitely want to give it a try!
Wow! Awesome. I tried to eat clean for a week and I couldn't even do that. This looks like a good experiment. Thanks for posting links!
Very impressive. I use to cook a lot more than I do now because of the time commitment. I have definitely gravitated more towards meals that I can cook in large batches and that reheat well. I love living vicariously through you on this and hope to be inspired enough to actually commit to it ;)
Hey, good stuff! We like our primal diet, too. I have to eat some carbs though because my kidneys don't like when I hit ketosis. :P
I don't know anything about this type of diet (I tend to ignore diet trends), but I make my own freezer meals. Something like shepherd's pie, really most casseroles, can be put in the freezer, then taken out and cooked later. I cook the meat and everything else, then layer it all together in a tinfoil container from the grocery store, label it, and freeze it solid! When it comes to stuff like that, making 3 isn't much more work than making 1, because you've already got everything out.
My grocery store has pre-chopped veggies that I use in fritatas. Usually they say "stirfry." Another good idea is to use the fixings from a grocery store salad bar.
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