So the second month of Insanity didn't go so well. In fact it didn't exist at all. The husband's knee started to hurt and since he had a wedding to go to in a few weeks, we called off Insanity until we returned from vacations. Yes that's vacations plural. He went to a wedding in Alaska and I went to a family reunion in North Dakota. We each had a great time. :) I plan on being together for our next vacation. :)
Anyway, so when we returned he actually got back into his fencing classes which took time and energy away from Insanity. And I have been cleaning the house... Ok yeah, watching the Olympics mostly (at the in-laws house because we dont have cable and NBC SUCKS.)
We also kept saying that we would get back into the Real Food plan. And that wasn't happening. So after our vacations of not so healthy food we decided to do one better.
My co-worker told me about the Paleo diet. You know, the Cave man diet. It's basically taking Real food and removing dairy,grains and legumes (dont forget peanuts in this one). The husband and I were on the way to the grocery store and I was listing off the grocery list in my head and commenting on how I wanted to make some quinoa bites because I had found a new recipe recently that looked good. Of course they had cheese and grain which was what I was contemplating cutting out of my diet for a while and the husband simply said "Ok lets do that. Its not that much different than the real food thing anyway". I was actually a little shocked. (And slightly disappointed, I wanted to try that recipe!) And I'm pretty sure he agreed before I even mentioned the cheat day, but also before I mentioned no peanut butter. Although without bread, what good is peanut butter to him anyway?
Cheat day. That is what will make a big difference I think. Now its not a matter of can we get to the 30 day mark. We have no time limit this time. We're just going to see how long it lasts.
So far, I feel that food is a lot simpler now. It's only been week one though. And we did very well I might add. I am afraid we will run out of things to cook though. Its not that there are not options, it's just that as much as I would like to experiment with new recipes, finding them, getting the proper ingredients for them and actually making them just doesn't seem to happen.
I did try a few new things this week and I am glad that I did.
After we had consumed all of the farmers market chicken, (no grains or cheese means a lot more protein, especially since the husband fenced three times this week) I realized that whole foods is actually a fantastic place to get ground meats. The animal my not be local but they do fresh grind in the store so its actual meat and not fillers. With some ground turkey and pork I made mini no oat and no cheese cabbage rolls.
Then I found a new recipe for baked halibut (we need to finish the Alaska halibut we have in the freezer) I didn't follow the recipe exactly so I'll just give an over view of what I did do.
Herb Wine Halibut
Preheat oven to 450. Sprinkle herbs and lemon/garlic no salt seasoning in bottom of glass baking dish. Place halibut over herbs and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I had about 3 4oz pieces in an 8*8 Pirex. Pour 1/2 cup white wine (love the box wine in the fridge, drink or cook with it for months!) over the fish and then drizle a bit of olive oil on the fish. Loosly cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
Then there were some instructions about reducing the sauce with some lemon juice but since I kinda cut the recipe in half I skipped that part. The halibut was pretty good. It turns out you can make it without a gross can of cream of mushroom soup!
Today's recipe was the real winner. Even though today is the cheat day (Ok to be fair yesterday was too since we had tickets to the Lion King Broadway show we went out for sushi) I found a new desert that totally fits both real food and the paleo diet. Actually this one came from my co-worker and when I heard about it she said that she was surprised at how creamy it was. I honestly was like duh, smoothies with banana are creamy. I was still shocked when I made it.
Banana Ice Cream
Take frozen bananas ( I have them to make banana bread) and throw them in the food processor. Add a splash of vanilla. And a teaspoon/tablespoon? (didn't measure) of honey. Blend, blend, scrape sides and blend some more. When you have a creamy ice cream texture you are done. Enjoy!
Variations:
For about 3 bananas add 2 Tbs of cocoa powder = Chocolate Ice Cream
Add frozen strawberries (these take a bit longer to blend) to either the plain or the chocolate. :)
Amazing!!!!!
