A Paleo Valentine's Day

I know that I'm almost a month late in posting this, but better late than never, right?  So, Valentine's Day.  A holiday built around treats.  Not quite like Halloween, but treats are still a big part of the picture.  We knew that Jack would get all kind of junk at his class party, which turned out to be an understatement.  If memory serves me correctly (I helped at the party), each kid got a cupcake, two different kinds of cookies, four pieces of licorice, a handful of goldfish, fruit snacks, a fun size candy bar and a fruit rollup.  This is in addition to the candy that their classmates gave them as part of their valentines.  Yikes!  Lucky for us, Jack forgets about candy the minute it's out of sight (in fact, he probably ate about 3 or 4 pieces of Halloween candy total), so we just dumped it in the trash the night and I never heard another word about it!

Since we did not want to contribute to the rise in childhood diabetes in America, I gave Jack the option of a couple of different none food valentines to give to his classmates.  And here is what he chose:

I found the free printable online and we grabbed some bugs (which were actually plastic cockroaches.  Nothing says "love" like a cockroach!) and bags at the dollar store.  The girls in the class weren't super jazzed about them, but they were a big hit with the boys.

For my loves, I made some homemade treats.  For B, I made these AMAZING chocolate covered caramel dates.  Seriously, so good.  And no sugar.  Well, there are natural sugars in the dates and honey technically.  We even had enough caramel left over to make a caramel apple.  Delicious!

For my little loves, I made our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and filled up some little mailboxes that I snagged for a buck each at Target.  (Sorry for the dark pictures of the treats.  I had to take them under the cover of darkness the night before...)  Now, this might not be a popular choice among parents, but I let our boys eat their cookies for breakfast that day.  When you think about what some kids are eating for breakfast though - donuts, pop tarts, Lucky Charms - a few paleo chocolate chip cookies are definitely a better choice.  The best choice out there? No.  But I'm perfectly fine with having a little fun once in a while.

A Paleo Birthday Party

Last week, we had three different get togethers with none paleo eaters to which I brought paleo snacks -- all of which seemed to be fairly well received.  I neglected to take pictures of it all, but I'll give you the gist before finishing off with the big get together.  For the Super Bowl party that we attended, I made some deviled eggs (kind of my go-to appetizer) and bacon wrapped dates.  The next day, it was our turn to bring snack to our weekly church small group.  I baked up a batch of chocolate chip cookies (by the way, this recipe makes a lot of cookies!) and we sliced up some apples as well.

This past week was also our little Sam's birthday.  We had some friends over for some food and fun (really, more like choas - our house is small!).  Since the party was in the morning, we did some brunch foods and kept it all Paleo (minus the Capri Suns, of course, which we had leftover from a party this summer).  I don't think any of our guests felt like the food was too weird for a birthday party.  Although, they probably wouldn't have said anything to my face, anyway, would they?

We made Pumpkin Muffins (from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook), had cups of fruit salad (bananas, kiwi, oranges, pineapple) and deviled eggs with bacon (get it? Bacon and eggs? :))

Obviously, the party was Toy Story themed.  I made some little cupcake toppers to make the muffins seem a little more exciting.  If I'd had more time, I would have made some frosting (from this post) to make them a little more cupcake like.  As it was, I ran short on time and since it was a brunch party, I thought it would be fine to just skip it.  Not worth stressing over!

A Paleo Birthday

Today is my handsome husband's birthday.  While we couldn't do what we had originally planned (a hike) due to the weather, we still managed to pack our day full of fun stuff.  Brandon got to sleep in while I ran Jack to school and picked up a free birthday coffee for him at Dutch Bros (just tell them it's your birthday and you'll get a free one!).  When I got home, I gave him a couple of his gifts: a subscription to the Crossfit Journal and some floor mats to put in our workout area in the garage.

He had a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, peppers, and avocado along with his coffee.  After breakfast we grabbed Jack from school and headed downtown to a fabulous BBQ place.

After lunching at Slabtown, we gave Brandon a few more gifts...(and we FINALLY have a family photo to put on our side bar, albeit a fairly goofy one)...

My sister and bro-in-law got Brandon some dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice.  Brandon loves cranberries, but they are almost always sweetened with sugar.  In addition to the cranberries, the boys and I got Brandon some BBQ sauce from another of our favorite restaurants (the sauce is also sold at New Seasons), some dark chocolate and some buffalo cranberry jerky.  The chocolate and the jerky both have a bit of sugar in them, but that's okay once in a while, right?  Especially on your birthday!

For dinner,we put the kids down and I grabbed take out at our favorite little Thai place in downtown Gresham.  I don't actually know the name of it, but we (along with most people I know) call it Joe's, after the super kind and friendly little Thai man that runs the place.

Happy Birthday to My Love!!! 

A Paleo Father's Day

It seems quite fitting that our inaugural blog post happens to land on Father's Day since we owe so much of our Paleo journey, and ultimately our health, to my dear husband. Without him, we never would have started down this road and I am eternally grateful for his leadership and trailblazing in the area of our family's health.

Okay, enough of the mushy stuff...and on to our Father's Day menu!

For breakfast, we started off with a little Paleo biscuits and gravy. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the gravy. Although it called for an entire can of coconut milk, it didn't have a coconut flavor, which is what I was afraid of. The biscuits definitely had a coconut flavor, but I didn't notice it when the sausage and gravy were with it.

For lunch, we enjoyed fajitas (sans tortillas) at our favorite little Mexican restaurant.

For dinner, we had Carraway Chicken from the Everyday Paleo cookbook, but we substituted cabbage for the Belgian endive. The chicken was incredibly tender and tasty. And, since it was a crockpot meal, it only took about 5 minutes to put together!

And for dessert, we had strawberries with Honey Vanilla Cream. It. was. delicious. This is something that we'll definitely make again for special occasions. It ended up being pretty sweet, but great.

So, there you have it. Not a typical day necessarily with the baked goods and sweet treats, but we managed to indulge a bit without using ingredients that we don't typically use.

Happy Father's Day!