Whole30: Day 3

Well, I'm really only mostly through Day 3, and I'm still surviving somehow.   I made a rather tasty breakfast for myself around 9, did some rescue work, and then around 11 showered and snagged another piece of my breakfast before heading out the door to try out Pilates class (my sister has been begging me to go for the last 2 years, so I finally figured I'd cave and try it out).  It was a lot of fun, and really a great workout, but afterwards, I could tell I'd need to eat again soon.

The biggest thing standing in the way of me and my food was the errands I needed to run.  So I headed to the book store to purchase a copy of "It Starts with Food" by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig.  20 minutes there, and they don't have any copies in store.  Sigh...  Then I hopped over to the mall to return all of my last minute frantic New Years Eve purchases that I didn't wear.  That was another hour.

Then I decided I really needed (yes, needed) some almond butter - never had it, assuming it's paleo, and going to grab some because I'm famished.  I knew Ozark Natural Foods would be the easiest place to find what I needed, so I picked up a nice jar for $8.  The only ingredient?  Almonds.  Can't get any better than that, Paleo gods.

I also picked up a bundle of kale, a bag of honey crisp apples (I could smell them all the way across the store... thinking of make apple cinnamon chips with them), some chicken/turkey sausage (with surprisingly very few ingredients - I was tickled) for $7, some bananas, and (drum roll) a Naked Coconut Water.  I was shaking by the time I finished shopping so I knew I needed something, anything quick.  The last (and first) time I had tried the coconut water was on a shopping trip with Kempto.  She had let me try a sip, but blegh!  It was like soggy dirt water to my taste buds.  Now, only 3 days in with no sugars in my diet other than fruit, it tasted like HEAVEN.  I'll have to see where I can purchase a whole case of the stuff.

On to my meals...

Breakfast Day 3:
Egg Frittata with sauteed mushrooms, onions, spinach, and red bell peppers (and my spice mix)

Breakfast was an easy affair.  And delicious, did I mention that?  So good, in fact, that I ate some more before my workout, and then, I finished off the rest for lunch.  Lunch... it was a pretty sad mishmash of anything I could grab quickly.  Word to the wise, don't wait til you're starving to try and eat well.  Doesn't work.

Lunch Day 3:
Ham
Honey Crisp Apple
1 Heaping Spoonful of Almond Butter
And the rest of the yummy frittata

Oh... and a banana.  Whoops.

Like I said, don't wait til you're starving...  It's not pretty.

Dinner Day 3:
Steak
Spinach salad with strawberries and walnuts
Steamed veggies
Sweet potato

(this was Justin's plate, btw; I had half of that steak size, and just a few bites of sweet potato after dinner to quell my cookie craving)

We're heading to my parents' house for dinner, so this will be our first meal eaten that I haven't been able to fully prepare in my kitchen where I know exactly what's going into it.  Shaking in my boots here.  May need to call my mom just to tell her not to marinate our steaks. (edit:  Mom left them with just seasoning.  Dad walked in, slathered them in A1, and took them to the grill - me, wailing and gnashing of teeth; Dad, unapologetic) lol

Whole30: Day 2

See?  I told you I was playing catch up... Oooooh, ketchup sounds really good right now...

As you can see, I'm not thinking with my stomach.  My stomach is totally full of good food, but all my brain wants is garbage.  They say around Days 5-6 you start to get really sleepy because your body is so tired from learning how to process ACTUAL food that you want to sleep.  A lot.  Well, that hit me early, because on Day 2, I found myself so lethargic that I took a 3 HOUR nap...  and still slept fully through the night.

So what did I eat today?

Still no Coke.  I could kill for a Coke, or some chocolate.  But what's funnier, I'm really in the mood for crackers... I have them in my pantry and they're haunting me.  I'd throw them out, but I think they'll still be good in 28 days.  And that, my friends, is the real reason to eat Paleo.  If it lasts that long, just think of all of the preservatives needed to keep it looking and tasting 'fresh'.  Eeeeeek.  Run away!

Okay, so remember the mayo I made yesterday?  I made it into chicken salad before I went to bed last night.  And because I highly doubt relish is Paleo, I had to trick my body by adding something else that was sweet.  I'm thanking myself heartily for the purchase of grapes... They've been my real savior this first week.

I chopped up 4 leftover chicken breasts, two stalks of celery, and then about 20 grapes, and added it all together with some of the mayo.  It turned out great!  So great, in fact, that instead of standing outside in the cold to make breakfast, I noshed on that :)

Breakfast Day 2:
Chicken salad
Sliced red bell peppers

Lunch Day 2:

Sliced ham (yes, from the holiday... so not Paleo, but I'm not going to let it go bad)

Baby Carrots with my own ranch-esque dipping sauce I made from the mayo

Black Olives

I'm sure I snuck an orange in here somewhere, and probably a few grapes (eating too much fruit still, I think, but I don't have any almonds to snack on... mmmm almond butter....)

Dinner Day 2:

My own version of fish and chips :)

Sauteed Tilapia

Roasted Sweet Potato (fries)

Spinach salad with scallions and tomatoes, covered in an olive oil dressing I made in about .2 seconds

I'm still trying to be very stoic about my cooking/eating decisions, but it's definitely difficult.  It would be so easy just to grab a glass of milk (although I'm not hankering for one) or pop a Coke, or snag one of the many pieces of chocolate that Justin's parents left us after Christmas (grumble).  I seem to be hitting a major tummy slump around 12-2pm every day, where I really just need a Coke or something, anything.  Like this gnawing 'hunger pains'.  Don't get me wrong, I'm eating a ton of food, but my stomach just hasn't told my brain that yet.  However, I still haven't really had that awful caffiene withdrawal headache.  Justin had it on Day 1.  I'm used to having at least 1 Coke a day, so this 30 days without it is the most terrifying.

Whole30: Day 1

Okay, so Justin and I have been doing this whole Crossfit business for the past - oh, say - six months?  It's really made a nice change in working out for us.  You work out with a huge class of people, and they blare the music, and everyone gets pumped up.  If you're any kind of competitive, it's a major boost to outdo your neighbor as well.  All of the workouts can be scaled, so it doesn't matter if you're weeny (like me) or strong.  It's great training for 5k's and marathons, without having to log so much running time.  In a nutshell, we love it:  www.crossfit540.com

This new year, many of our box (read: gym) buddies have decided to kick up their diet regimens and start on a Whole30 quest.  What is Whole30?  http://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/  Read all about it :)

Most of them were already eating things that were mostly Paleo (what is this freakin' foreign language she's speaking?!)... http://thepaleodiet.com/

So starting off the year with the Whole30 seemed like a natural transition for them.  Justin and I decided to go along for the ride.  Let's just say, we were not prepared for the bumps to come!  Whole30 (and Paleo) makes you really dig down and think about what you're eating, what's in it, and how to prepare it.  It involves lots of grocery shopping, and lots of prep and cooking everything yourself.  For 30 days. For me, that's bone chillingly frightening.

Things You Can't Consume:

Sugar
Alcohol
Grains
Beans
Dairy

You also can't eat anything heavily processed, etc.  It's pretty intense, ladies and gentlemen...

I'm actually already starting Day 3 as I write this, but I'm going to play a little catch up, and show what I've been eating.  I haven't bought the book yet (only going off of blogs and guidelines), so there may be things in there that aren't strictly Paleo, but I'm trying, right?

First off, here's my grocery shopping I did for the week.  Total just squeaking in under $100 -

The potato chips and nestle morsels obviously were not part of the purchase, and are simply hanging out on the counter because I never made them into cookies...

Breakfast Day 1:
(Keep in mind, I have no stove at the moment, so everything is cooked outside - frigid - on a grill)
Scrambled eggs
Spinach and mushroom sauteed

Lunch Day 1:
Sliced Turkey breast
Carrots & Sliced Red Bell Pepper
An orange

Dinner Day 1:
Roast chicken thigh
Roasted carrots
Mashed Cauliflower

And because I had a lot of left over chicken (I anticipated this), earlier in the day, I also made my own homemade mayo, which I could use for chicken salad (you'll see soon enough) or for my own unique dipping sauces.  It's more white than the picture makes it out to be.

A Home for the Homeless

Now that title may be misleading at first.  No, we don't get many hobos in this part of town.  Maybe a few goat nappers from time to time, but thankfully, everyone in our neck of the woods seems to have a home, no matter how small or grandiose.

I'm a purchaser.  A shopper.  A picker.  I find things I absolutely love, and I buy them, even if I have no clue where they would ever fit into my life or my home.  It's my weakest link, or possibly my greatest talent (depending on who you ask).  This means I have lots of 'things' sometimes with no actual home.  They just come into the house, wander around, and find themselves an unobtrusive corner to live out their days, until I either remember them and find them a good place, or forget them until they're old and grey, upon which time I release them into the world (read:  throw away or rehome).

You could call me a pack rat.

Anyhoo.  I made a great trip to TJMaxx the other day.  I purchased lots of fantastic things:

New Queen Size Quilt - $39.99
Two Matching Shams - $12.99 each
Two Tan Matching Pillows - $16.99 (on clearance)
One Rather Dashing Watercolor Pillow - $19.99
One Fetching Decorative Pillow - $16.99
Some unfortunate Not Potpourri - $3.99 for two
Another cylindrical glass vase - $3.99 (really if you want great vases, there's no where better to go than TJMaxx)

Picture below are the new homes everything has found.  I also included a photo of Beau's brand new Sealy Posturpedic pet bed we got from Sam's Club last night... $29.99.  He lurves it.  Remember, I said "Beau's".  Pepper typically refuses all dog beds.  Her fat body prefers hard floor, for whatever reason.

The new bedding:

The Pillows for our Summer Sofa:

The Fetching little Bird Pillow I think I'll put on the guest bed:

The Dog Bed in front of the Hearth:

And the little Ralph Lauren Lumbar Pillow I couldn't leave behind at TJMaxx last fall.  It was $12.99.  It has now, finally, found the most perfect home!

Summah Time! And the Livin's Easy!

Well, I know it's been almost a year since my last blog.  A lot has changed at the Red House.  And really, very little.  This will be a photo heavy blog.  Let's start our with our last vintage shopping trip.  We went to the store:  Olives and Grapes in Prairie Grove, and we found these fun letters:

And later, we had a shower for Lauren.  My mom found some excellent bundles of tulips at Sam's Club:  

Here was the table scape for Lauren's first wedding shower.  According to my mother, everything looks better fanned out, and I believe her.  See how elegant the fanned out silverware looks?  We have a veggie platter, meatballs provided by Farm Rich, pinwheels, gluten free crackers and dip, and then our amazing Fro Yo Bar.  My favorite purchase for this shower?  The two beverage dispenser from BB&B, as seen on the left.

A side view of the tablescape, with the drink dispenser.

And the famous Fro Yo Bar :) Lauren and Cory's favorite date night includes a local frozen yogurt bar, so we gathered 15 different fro yo toppings, and three fro yo flavors, to simulate their favorite place!  It was a big hit!

Justin and I found a root bound Japanese Maple for $70 at Home Depot.  Amazing find, and it fills this corner of the house perfectly!

For Valentine's Day, I made some awesome food, via Pinterest.  I made a shrimp dish, with salad, and then finished it with a Mississippi Mud Pie, pictured below!

Mud Pie by the slice :) It was rich and flavorful.  It had a little coffee in it, so it had a hint of coffee flavor.

And dinner was a Tuscan shrimp dish, with tomatoes and spinach.  So delicious!  I should have served it with rice or pasta.  It was saucy and delicious.  I served it with a thick bread to sop up all the deliciousness.

Come April I had decided to plant a raised bed garden.  We had some extra wood, so we made the sides, and added a top to keep the sides straight.  I purchased some weed liner, and lined the whole thing, about 8'x5'.

I added about 15 bags of dirt from Lowe's.  Then I planted (on the front end) 3 tomato plants, 4 squash plants, and 4 cucumber plants.  On the back half, I planted 3 bell pepper plants (red and green), 3 watermelon plants, 4 different spices (thyme, 2 sages, and parsley), and then two rows of beans and lettuce.  

One month later, and the squash is over taking the tomato plants :)

You'll see the four spices on the bottom row.  Then the peppers on the next two.  The bald spot was the lettuces.  The cats had a field day pottying in their 'new potty' the first day I planted, and they essentially raked up the nice rows I had planted.  So there are beans/lettuces in a weaving pattern in there.  At the back are watermelon plants, but I'm not holding out hope for them.

Our friends finally got married!!!  Lauren and Cory look awesome!

And while the rest of you were having a debaucherous Cinco de Mayo, I awoke to a cock in my yard...

Ok ok, my inlaws brought this with them, as a gift to me.  They know I like cocks.

The Road Less Processed

Well, it's been a long while since my last update.  Le sigh.  My summer should have been more productive.  Slackers Anonymous, here I come!

But on the plus side, I did have some great firsts as well as find some awesome deco finds.  Our first adventure involved buffalo, camping, and snow.  Yes, snow, in June.  Last time I EVER listen to my husband when he tries to talk me into camping.  We took a trip to Rocky Mountain National Forest and Yellowstone, both of which were completely amazing.  We saw lots of buffalo, buffalo poop, and grizzlies bears.  We actually had a grizzly outside of our tent the last day were there... emPHASis on LAST day.  WTF Mr. Grizzly.  Way to freak me out.

Here we are fishing at Yellowstone.

This we took at Rocky Mountain National Park.  That is a marmot :)

We went to eat at the Buff in Colorado after RM.  It's one of those "Man vs. Food" places :) All of this food for only about $6!  I gorged!

Jump back to Yellowstone; we had just arrived (temp drop from 65 to 41, out of park to inside the park) and set up our tents in the drizzly cold.

Just one of the amazing thermal features... it was so cold there, and all I could think of looking at this was the beach!

The Yellowstone General Stores carried everything to make a camper happy :)

A beautiful river that runs past some of the geysers, including Old Faithful.

Heading over to the I think, Excelsior Geyser.  The crater was huge where the actual Geyser had first exploded.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone... Let me just say, I'm terrified of heights, and I wouldn't get any closer than 20ft away from the edge.... mEEEEP!

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from Artist's Point, great hike there, even better view!  There is a trail that goes straight down to the bottom of the waterfall, Old Tom's Trail, and well... I was so scared of that trek I almost peed my pants.  Heights + me + water + slick handrails....  I don't even want to recall the awful memories!

And on the way home, we decided to stop and see Mount Rushmore.  It was 7 oclock at night and we'd been driving all day.  For some reason, the heads seemed much smaller and less cool than I think that it should have.  Of course, at that point, I had been woken by a grizzly bear, not showered, and been in the car all day.  I was seeing the world through a haze of grease and grog...

Later in the summer, I spent a few wonderful days with my grandparents.  My grandmother is a wonderful cook, and she taught me to make the most excellent coconut cream pie!  I took pictures to show off :)

The world's smallest rose, grown by who else but my grandfather?  That's a teaspoon!

Here's the magnificent coconut creme pie I made with my grandmother's help.  It was delicious!

And the 4th of July cookie pizza for the shindig my mother hosted.

Grandpa is a storehouse of oddities (mental as well as physical), and he somehow coerced me (ok, so I begged) into taking one of my dad's only water skis home with me.  After lots of washing in Dawn and scrubbing, it's all clean, and ready to take it's place in my dining room.  We've decided to go with a travel theme of sorts.  Right now I'm on the hunt for antique snow shoes for the wall as well as some awesome vintage prints on canvas from the various national parks we've visited recently.  It's going to be pretty damn sweet, if you ask me.

All that being said, Justin and I are really trying to move away from processed foods and get back to the 'nitty gritty' as it were.  I would love to become that from scratch sort of cook.  I've already mastered the from scratch gravy, as well as a few other dishes (like chicken and dumplings, oh goodness, yum!).  But we still have a long way to go.  What kind of things do you eat that are unprocessed?
Also, I would love to hear what your favorite new recipes are.  How did they turn out?  Are they easy or difficult to make?

It's the Little Things

Hope everyone had an amazing holiday!  Our Fourth of July weekend was absolutely jam packed!  Justin and I drove down to Little Rock with three rescue puppies (so cute!) and our two hooligans in tow.  We stayed the night with my in-laws, always fun, and we had crab legs, steak, red wine, and played rummy and spades.  It was just so wonderful and so much fun, and I couldn't get over how much in love they were with all 3 of the puppies.  By the end of the game of Spades, we each had a sleeping puppy in our arms.  Terribly sweet for sure!  We got up early Saturday morning to let the two boys catch their transport rides north (one to NY, and the other to OH), and the little female puppy got to meet her forever momma in Little Rock. 

It made me feel so wonderful and yet so sad at the same time to be uniting these loving families with great little dogs that they will cherish and love for the rest of their lives.  The sadness was merely jealousy on my part, because I had had my heart stolen by little Eastwood, one of the puppies.  Even Justin cried a little when we had to say goodbye to him...

But then came Sunday, with a day at the lake, thanks to my wonderful water-loving sister.  And Monday brought its fair share of fun too.  My mother invited us all over for BBQ and fun, and I made a cute little dessert to bring along.  It's called Fruit Pizza.  It's incredibly (ridiculous, actually) easy to make, yet it looks like a show stopper!

So here it is, my Fruit Pizza!

It's essentially sugar cookie dough, rolled out and baked according to the directions.  Once cooled, you mix cream cheese, sugar, and a dash of vanilla until smooth and spread it out over the 'crust'.  Then arrange whatever kind of fruit your heart desires.  Here are a few more photos, just for fun! 

It really was the prettiest thing I've made in a long time....

It's hard to be artsy fartsy with photography a la iphone...

Anyhoo, so that was yesterday.  Today was a new day, and it was a day where in rare form, I really wanted to go shopping.  The need to shop must have a greater pull on the majority of females, but myself, well... I usually can only handle about 10 minutes and then I begin to whine.  Anyone in my family can attest to this.  This time is greatly shortened if I'm not actually shopping for myself...

But I got an incredible wind today!  I went to..... TJ MAXX!  The worst store in the entire world for shopping... really, it is.  That being said, I gave it a good go for at least 2 whole hours and somehow managed to actually spend money there as well.  It's one of those stores where if I walk around with an item long enough, it always turns into something I don't reallllly need.  So today, I made it my mission to only pick up amazing things, and then to buy every single amazing thing I put in the basket. 

I did realize by the end of my excursion that furniture, despite my trying, will not fit into a basket.  But, I simply could not leave this piece behind!!!

It felt almost like one of those instances where I wasn't buying the piece, but rather freeing it, as though it were one of those sad little hermit crabs in the shop with 8 million hermit crabs, where you think that if you buy it you're really saving its life, but in reality you're just giving them a reason to buy more... same goes for pet stores and backyard oodly doodly fake breed breeders (You spent $800 on a mutt?  Aren't you smart!)... *steps off of soap box and backs away slowly*...

Anyhoo, as I was saying, I just knew in my heart it was the perfect piece for my dining room, the one I have spent months searching for!  I also got a few other things, including 2 pillows ($10 & $25), 1 gorgeous pillow cover ($25), a basket just like in the Pottery Barn magazine (but for $16), a glass vase ($4), vase filler ($8), and two candle holders ($8).  All in all, I was rather tickled with my purchases.

Here they are on display in my dining room, which is beginning to look a little more refined.  The table top:

The new buffet, topped with some glass vases and candles I had, as well as my lovely white platter, pitcher, and more vase filler for color.

Here is a view of the whole buffet.  Underneath is the PB-like basket (will fill with goodies) and a pillow I purchased but haven't found the perfect home for yet.  I also repurposed some amazing pillows we also found at TJMaxx but had been using in the formal living room.

And the whole sha-bang.

So what do you think?  Next on the list is a new rug.  I'm thinking a white one with a grey/blue pattern (also at TJ Maxx, but I really couldn't carry that one, so I gave up on it for the time being).  Also, I'm thinking of doing some really fun vintage travel posters in here, like these:  http://www.art.com/gallery/id--b6473-c1837/places-vintage-art-prints.htm?Aff=CONF&RFID=054402&TKID=0&KWID=893413358&gclid=CMWa7e-e66kCFYtb7AodIQ8eYQ&CTID=1105803609.  I think they'd fit perfectly, especially ones like the Yellowstone poster, since we just recently got back from a trip there.