Paleo Pot Roast

I probably have the funniest husband in the world...seriously, I was only able to capture a photo of this but we were in Bed, Bath and Beyond trying to find curtains for our new apartment and I turn my back and look what this man (kid) is doing: 

Correct, he was sliding in and out through the curtain displays, I seriously almost peed my pants in the store I was laughing so hard. This is just one of many funny things he does, I need to start video taping them. Anyways... I know Paleo is defined as lean meats and rump roast isn't probably the most lean meat there is and you get more nutrients from raw vegetables rather than cooked ones. But it sure was delicious and well worth the cheat if you call eating non lean meat a cheat. Pot Roasts are really quite simple, especially if you have a crock pot, if you don't have a crock pot, look online you can find some good deals and it is well worth the spent money. (Ours was a wedding gift, thanks Claire, we love it! That's a good way to get one too...get hitched.) So where I was going... a Pot Roast... Really with a crock pot you can't mess it up, you can make it how you like it, but this is how I like it, it's also what we had on hand.

1. Take the rump roast season with salt and pepper on all sides

2. In a skillet, sear on all sides at a medium heat for about two minutes

3. While meat is searing:

     Put all natural chicken broth or stock in crock pot (Trader Joe's has the best kind of chicken broth/stock I can find...so far)

     Cut up desired vegetables

     -I tend to like the typical vegetables when I think of a pot roast such as:

      Carrots, Celery and onions, sweet potatoes might be delicious too, but I have not tried it yet

4. Once meat is seared place in slow cooker

5. Put Vegetables in after the roast

6. Cook on High for 4 hours and warm until you are ready to eat.

....See the great thing about a crock pot was I was able to make dinner in 15 minutes and go about my day, all while letting the meat cook because I didn't really have to stay at home and worry that the apartment was going to burn down. By time dinner was ready the meat literally was falling apart, it was amazing! We might have ate the whole roast in one night...no judgement please.

A new way to do dessert

I know what your thinking.... a new way to do dessert and you show me a bowl of orange slices and a sliced banana....really? Really. For a nice-not-so-guilty-sweet-treat after a meal place desired fruit in a bowl and place in the freezer for the course of making dinner and eating dinner then after dinner for those of you who also have a sweet tooth or an addiction to sugar like a do, sharing a nice bowl of frozen fruit makes it a whole lot more exciting than just regular fruit...really.

Or I have to give credit to Anthony for this next one

He is the creator of this masterpiece and he deserves the credit for it. He took one large apple and cut it into slices and placed it on a plate in two lines, because there is two of us. Then he took cinnamon and slightly coated the apples and then added some 85% coca dark chocolate from Trader Joe's and placed it top. He put it in the microwave for about 3 minutes....really until it melts and doesn't burn the chocolate and then we enjoyed, it was very sweet and very rich and very satisfying to that sweet tooth of mine!

Delicious Asparagus

My sister, Heather, texted me this picture the other day and for anyone who knows me, I have this strange love for dinosaurs. I also have the enormous hate for push-ups so it was quite fitting for me. Anyways when Anthony and I first started dating, we did the whole long distance thing between Kansas City, MO and West Lafayette, IN. It's about an 8 hr drive...more or less depending on the way you take, how fast you are driving and the time of day you travel (which is most of the day). Anthony told me he was going to arrive at my house right around dinner time, which everyone knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and this was the first thing I ever cooked for him (which at this point in life everything I cooked tasted awful) so I spent all afternoon getting everything together and sitting by the oven to make sure it didn't burn and here is a replica of what I produced!:

 Looks Delicious, right? I have to say I didn't make him asparagus that first time, I don't really remember what side made after all. But! One time we went to his sister's house (Melanie Madonia) and she made this awesome asparagus that I couldn't get enough of and she told us how simple it was:
-Asparagus (we used one bundle)
-Olive Oil
-salt
-pepper


Put asparagus on a pan
drizzle olive oil over the asparagus
season with salt and pepper to taste
place in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes
enjoy!


Now for the chicken

-Take chicken breast and... well... I believe people call this tenderizing the meat, where they hit the chicken with a little ridged hammer, but we don't have one of those...so my fist worked too...the meat was thawed thankfully...it's okay to laugh, I did too when I actually typed it out how ridiculous it sounds, but it gets the job done.
- season meat with:

• garlic powder
• onion powder
• cilantro
• pepper
• salt 
• olive oil

all to taste, then squeeze a lime over the chicken. Once seasoned then you place the vegetables of choice onto of the chicken. My preferred vegetables of choice for this meal are:
-Avocado slices
-Tomato slices
-Onion slices
and some cilantro (optional, I really like cilantro)


Then bring the two ends on the chicken and place one underneath the other while keeping the vegetables in the middle. (roll hamburger style, not hotdog style)


Place on pan and put it in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes or until the juices run clear and enjoy!

Apple Pie Attempt #1

Apple Pie Attempt # 1....your probably hoping to see an attempt # 2 in the near future....and that will come...sometime.  I have been baking a lot and Anthony and I have decided to try Paleo-Zone so that means cutting down on the baked goods. Although recipes and what not will still be posted instead of delicious dessert-like treats, it will be more towards the measurements for two people of 40%protein 30% carbohydrates and 30% fat (per person) for now at least. With our recently intensity up-graded WODS from Crossfit to Seal Fit, this 40:30:30 ratio is subject to change depending on how we feel. ( I feel like a piece of Chocolate cake but that's not Paleo....yet.) Anyways back to this apple pie I tried to make....it turned out to be more of an apple crisp with a crust, but it was still good.

What's in it:

• 2 C Coconut Flour
• 1 tsp Agave
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cups Coconut Oil
• 6-9 tbsp Ice Water
• 6 cups Apple- peeled and sliced
• 2 cups dates
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 2 tbsp Maple Syrup
• 1 tbsp Arrowroot Powder

Combine coconut flour, agave and salt. Mix in ice a few tbsp water till crust forms and will hold together. With 3/4 of the crust, place in the bottom of a greased pie plate with your fingers.  Once crust is formed, in a blender mix the remaining ingredients except the apple until it forms a paste. Then mix the paste and apples in a bowl to coat the apples with the paste. Place mixture on to the pie crust and dust with cinnamon and then dust your work surface with additional coconut flour. Using the remaining 1/4 crust, roll out and cut into strips to form a lattice topping. Be gentle, as the crust is very soft. Once completed, place in a 325 oven for 35-40 minutes.

**Be sure to consume within 3 days, but the 3rd day our pie went bad...maybe we just had bad apples but it was sad to waste a good pie.

Banana Bread so good, it had to have it's own post

No joke, this is by far probably the best tasting thing I have made yet. Anthony and I nearly freaked out it was so good and had to contain ourselves from eating the whole loaf once we tried it. It's nothing like a Crystal Kirgiss Banana Bread, there will never be anything delicious like that, but it is phenomenal and a must-try recipe! I obtained the recipe from:

http://www.elanaspantry.com

It's an awesome gluten-free website, not all things are paleo but a lot of them are and I would tell you to check it out. However, my recipe differs a little from hers because of the ingredients I had available that I thought would make suitable substitutes and they did! So here is the moment you have been waiting for:

• 3 bananas (about 1 ½ cups) mashed
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 tablespoon agave
• ¼ cup ghee
  
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Place bananas, eggs, vanilla, honey and ghee in a food processor
2. Blend ingredients together in food processor
3. Blend in coconut flour, almond meal, salt and baking soda
4. Scoop batter into a greased loaf pan
   
5. Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes
   
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool

 I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Something like Anthony's mom's Guacamole and Steak

Yesterday Anthony wanted steak and something Mexican for dinner, I've never made steak with a Mexican dinner before so this was my first attempt at it, and I would say it was quite a success, it tasted a lot like a burrito bowl from Chipotle, obviously minus the grains and dairy. We had 2 avocados that we were very ripe and we had not used them yet so I decided to take my best attempt at Anthony's mom's guacamole, Anthony always makes it better and I'm sure Shelia does an even better job, but when we were dating he used to make it for me all the time so from my memory this is what I was able to produce:

to make:
-2 avocados
-1 large tomato
-1/2 cup of chopped onions
-garlic powder to taste
-salt to taste
-1/2 lime (squeeze the juice) - I'm pretty sure Shelia uses a lemon, but lime was a nice touch too


-in a bowl put the avocados into the bowl (obviously get rid of the skin and seed) and smash until guacamole like
-add other ingredients to taste
-enjoy!




This is what dinner came out to be:

I realize a lot of my pictures look the same, and that's because I use a lot of the same ingredients, they are ones we like, we usually have them on hand and they make us feel good too! This just proves that eating Paleo doesn't have to be boring meals, they can be fun and tasty too, we just have to learn how to make them that way and that's exactly what I am doing and sharing them with you!


-4 thinly sliced steak (I don't know the technical term of what slice of meat they are)
      - heat a skillet on medium heat
      - slice meat into thin strips
      - cut strips in half
      - put 1tbs of olive oil in pan
      - season with: Garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt and pepper to taste
      - cook until there is no red left in the meat


-1/2 onion
-5 snacking bell peppers
-slice
-saute in pan on medium heat

-2 handfuls of spinach per plate
-A large spoonful of Anthony's mom's guacamole on top and enjoy!

Pumpkin bars

So, I realized that the plate is nearly empty of pumpkin bars, I promise it makes more, however, Anthony and I just happened to consume most of the before I took the picture. In all actuality they tasted a lot like gingerbread cookies, and they were delicious. I got the idea off of an e-mail I received from Shape Magazine and the title said something like "10 delicious low fat pumpkin recipes" so I decided to try to make a paleo version of it. Since it is fall, I have felt the need to use pumpkin in our meals not only because it's a great way to get a vegetable source, but to me pumpkin/winter flavor. Although the weather in Southern California doesn't display that, pumpkin can. For the recipe:

Pumpkin Bars:

1/2 c. coconut flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
5 tbsp. agave
1/2 c. canned pumpkin (or cooked, pureed pumpkin)
2 tbsp. nondairy/nonsoy milk - I used coconut
2 tbsp. coconut oil
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
Combine dry ingredients, then add in wet. 
Spread mixture into an oiled 8x8 pan and cook for 20 minutes.

I also put 2 bars in a bowl and put a scoop of SO Delicious Chocolate Ice cream on top and froze them until after our dinner and they a great ( I think better ) frozen too!

eating paleo while eating out

This is how Anthony and I's Sunday morning started off and we spent the remainder of the day here too. We went to Manhattan Beach in LA this weekend for The 6th (?) Annual Jimmy Miller Foundation Surf Competition, it was neat there was a whole bunch of people there. A couple of guys Anthony works with entered into the competition, while I remained parked on the beach, and took pictures. Anyways, prior to this event Anthony had mentioned there was going to be lots of free food all day and he was right. They had beagles and donuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and pasta for dinner.  They also had some fruit available all day but for those of us who try to avoid the grains, this made things a little difficult. So we decided to make due with what we had. We had grapes and bananas all morning, also a couple handfuls of a bag of nuts that I happened to bring, and for lunch we attempted to walk round the town we were in to find meat, and that wasn't happening for us, so we decided to get the pizza.... and we got a lot of it, only to take the meat and veggies off of those to fix our craving for protein. Surely enough the meat off of the pizza did the job, as well as some fruit fixings every now and the until it was time to leave to go get ready for dinner. When we arrived to dinner at Sangria's, which was awesome, no doubt, the only thing that was grain-free was the salad, by this time we couldn't get enough of those dark leafy vegetables and we both consumed two big plates of it, vegetables have never tasted so good in my life before. After sitting there for a little bit, we heard about a local restaurant that served a meat plate that was delicious. So we made our way over to this little restaurant and for the first time of my time with Anthony, we were both so full that he was unable to finish all of our food.

For those of us who are Paleo, sometimes eating out is hard, especially at events where food is provided. However, if there is a will, there is a way. For us it was also understanding that, okay we are very hungry and the sun is hot and bread is not going to make this situation any better, so although the meat on top of this pizza isn't going to be completely Paleo, what else are you going to do? I know I can speak on both of our behalves that with Paleo there is room for error and cheats. If there wasn't what fun would it be? The errors and cheats also play as good reminders to why we eat the way we do.(Which is having a clean diet not only is good for us, but it makes us feel good too, amongst many other reasons) After one day of not having a home cooked meal, I was ready to be back at home, in my kitchen to make food, that I know my body will love me back for.


A couple of things that have been created since I last wrote:


"Almost Soft Serve Icecream"

Anthony wanted a smoothie and he usually makes them because he is usually better at it. However, apparently when I make them it turns out like fruity soft-serve ice cream. 
You will need:
-Frozen fruit to choice
(we have a bag of mixed berries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries)
-So Delicious Coconut milk
-PROGENEX Beligum Chocolate protein powder
(the best on the market, if taking a protein supplement, look into this one, best purchase ever)
-If you don't have PROGENEX, you should look into getting it, and if you need a substitute until then, cocoa powder to taste probably 3tbs should get close to the same taste.


To make:
(we have a ninja blender/food processor and I used the measurements on the blender, you might need to play around with yours to figure out what works)
-Fill blender with berries up to the 3 cups line (or put 3 cups of berries in blender...duh?)
-Put 2 scoops of PROGENEX in blender
-Fill blender with coconut milk up to the 3 cups line
-Blend until the contents within the blender nearly double and reach the 6 cup + line on blender (approximately 3-5 minutes on high)

Put in cups, or bowl and enjoy!

toward the end of our smoothie, we got adventurous and put a couple of enjoy life chocolate chips in the smoothie, and it was one of the best ideas Anthony has ever had.


Shrimp Salad

I didn't grow up eating sea food, for some reason I had it in my head that is was gross, especially because it also smelled awful to me. However, like a lot of things I claim not to like, Anthony is determined to change my perspective on this one too. So the last time we were at the grocery store, we bought shrimp. I've never cooked shrimp before, and I only used to like the breaded popcorn shrimp from Applebee's when I was a kid, I eventually tried more Cajun grilled shrimp from Applebee's and liked that, but let's be honest, that was like a month ago. Anyways... back to the awesome salad Anthony and I made.
The Salad:
(Per salad, if you need 2 salads, double etc...)
-2 big handfuls of spinach
-1 small handful of sliced snacking bell peppers
-1/4 of chopped up cucumber
-sauteed onions and pepperchinis
- a little (really little) drizzle of olive oil
-cracked pepper to taste


The Shrimp
-shrimp
-chili powder
-garlic powder
-onion powder
-Thyme
-4tbs of coconut flour
-olive oil

to make shrimp:
-heat olive oil in pan
-place shrimp in pan
(if frozen drain water most of the water and oil when shrimp thaws)
- coat shrimp with the previous spices and ingredients
-saute until shrimp is pink and spices and coconut flour create a light breading


Anthony thought of adding the coconut flour, it was a pretty genius idea especially when working with a lady who isn't the biggest fan of shrimp.

Pork Chop left overs...again, Paleo Sweet Potato Chips and a Paleo Pecan Pie

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of us, he was doing the Mighty Murph at Hoosier Crossfit on lovely Saturday. I'm sure doing 200 show-me push ups doesn't feel good, well I know this because I did them that day too...just not with a weighted vest on...whatever that's besides the point, the point is: the WOD sucked( in the best way possible) and it was very hard. Shortly after this picture (Ryan Burton Photography) was taken my dad came over and said to Anthony "If you don't move faster you are going to have to marry Heather instead" So he started doing push-ups like it was his job (not that he doesn't love you H, just loves me a little bit more :] ) and it was quite humorous to all of us.

Anyways, attempt 3 of what to do with pork chops was probably the best one yet. Anthony and I had a little over an hour before we went to the gym to meet a new friend there and I was very hungry so I decided to make dinner part 1, something light-ish before we went and here is what I came up with:

I call this "Whatever we had in the fridge that was already cut up and pork chop stir-fry"

- 2 pork chops, cut off the bone, and which ever way you would like them to be cut

- 2 handfuls of pre sliced onions

- 2 handfuls of spinach

- 1 handful of mushrooms

For the spices, I didn't care, I was too tired to be making dinner so I guessed but I used:

-garlic powder

-onion powder

- salt and pepper

-1tbs of coconut oil

saute on pan until spinach wilts and serve!

Probably the best tasting pork dish I have ever had....weird.

Yesterday morning was probably one of the best mornings ever. Most mornings I get up and make breakfast while Anthony gets ready to go to work and once he goes to work, I watch an episode of Mad Men and then go back to sleep for a little bit. However, yesterday morning Anthony got up a little earlier than usual and once I went out to the kitchen to see what he was doing he demanded that I go back to bed and being obedient got me this:

I don't care what he says....he will always be better at cooking breakfast than I will be, its one of his gifts from God. I understand the picture is a bit blurry, however when the picture was taken, it wasn't even 6am yet so I didn't really care what the picture looked like but what we see here is:
-Decliciously scrambled eggs with chopped up onions mixed in with salt and pepper to taste
-Turkey Bacon
-Sliced snacking bell peppers
-& avocado slices that I ended up smashing into my eggs.
What a treat right? : ]


So we have had these sweet potatoes sitting in a bowl in our house for nearly 2 weeks and something was going to have to be done with them, and Anthony and I have tried making sweet potato chips several times before and they always turn out squishy and not chip like. Well for those who have been waiting, it's finally been done!

How I did it, I know you are dying to know:

1st I took an amazing sharp knife and did a WOD to cut the sweet potato's as thinly as I possibly could, without hurting myself.

2nd in a bowl mix the following things:

-sweet potato chips

-1/4 cup of melted coconut oil

-1tps salt

-1tbs garlic powder

-coat with cinnamon

-and cracked pepper to taste

3rd bake for 20 minutes

4th heat coconut oil in pan

- place chips in pan (not all at once, just a few at a time)

-turn frequently

-once they start to brown place on plate

-enjoy

Anthony was so excited when he got home from work because they were so delicious and I had a hard time all day keeping my hands away from them, these things are great! But consume in moderation.

There are a million spaghetti squash recipes out there and not that mine is any better or any different than any one else, it's something Paleo that I created and thought I would share.

-Cut squash in half

-Put in a pan face down with 1 cup of H2o

-Heat in oven at 350 for 45 minutes

-Brown ground beef

-Drain from grease

-Put the beef back on the stove

-Add chopped onions

-Add 1 large can of tomato sauce

-Add 1/2 small can of tomato paste

-Add Italian seasoning

-pinch of salt

- a little bit of pepper

-garlic powder to taste

-add a little bit of agave to cut the acidity

heat on low until squash is done

YUM!

Last but not least, Anthony LOVES Pecan Pie...well he did until we went Paleo, then he was Pecan-Pie-less, until now. While creating this masterpiece it felt like I was destroying it and that it was going to come out terrible. However, when it actually came time for desert, the crust...actually tasted like a crust and the filling actually tasted like the filling, not to sweet, just right.

For the crust

-1 cup of coconut flour

- 2eggs 

-1/4 tbs of salt 

( I had a hard time keeping my crust, crust like and not crumbly, so I added coconut milk when in need of moisture)

For the filling:

in a food processor mix:

-3 eggs

-15 dates (ours were really small, they were the Dole brand other recipes called for 6)

-1tbs of vanilla

-1/2 cup of maple syrup, all natural, nothing else

-1tbs of coconut flour

-2tbs of coconut oil

-1.5 cups of pecans

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes

Enjoy! :]

Porkchops and Dessert

For those of you who don't know Anthony and I were recently married and moved out to California together about a month ago. We met working at a Young Life Camp in Minnesota, did long distance for about a year and on our 1 year and 5 days, we got hitched. It was pretty awesome... having grown up in Indiana, California is quite a shock, today is the first day I really drove on the 5...which has 4 crazy lanes of traffic, all by myself to go downtown San Diego for a career fair, which all in all ended up being a joke due to the fact that there were only 10 companies there, however, I do get to enjoy the company of a friend from camp today, Carly Hren, which makes the trip totally worth it. All in all, finding a job, even volunteer opportunities has been a struggle. So I am learning to find joy in being a house wife and doing house wife things such as cooking and cleaning and for those of you who know me or have lived with me before know that those aren't things I typically enjoy doing. However, cooking/ baking has become a new adventure to me, it helps being married to a man who claims to like everything that I make and as for the cleaning, well its still growing on me and it gets done.

Some people would call this our signature pose, yes...we do in fact have a lot of pictures like this, but its not everyday that a man can pick up a woman, put her over his head and squat... Crossfit is a pretty awesome sport and Anthony is pretty good at it. This week, we are eating lots of pork chops, I always said growing up that I never liked pork chops all that much, but that is because they were never prepared in a way to where I could enjoy them before... Well we are a newlywed couple living in California and well.... pork chops are fairly cheap, at least at the commissary on base they are, so this week we cooked up 6 large pork chops and I am trying to be creative with ways to make pork chops a little more fun. So far this week, here is what I have been able to come up with:

Mustard & Nut Pork Chops

I looked a several recipes and none of them really sounded delightful to me, so I decided to mix a couple and it turned out pretty okay....

Base Coat:
-1/2 cup of all-natural mustard
-1 egg 
-1tbs of Garlic powder 
-1tbs of thyme

Toppings:
-1/3 cup of chopped pecans
-1/4 cup of slivered almonds


Mix the base coat, cover the meat in coating, place nut toppings on plate, place meat on the mixed nuts. I personally cooked mine for 8 min ( 4min on each side ) on a hot skillet, however, you are able to bake them as well, you probably ought to visit another site to tell you the temperature and for how long.


Pork Chop Stuffed Peppers

For the meat & sauce:
- remove bones from pork chop
-shred pork chop in food processor
-place shredded meat in sauce pan
-add 1/2 can of all natural tomato sauces
-add 1/4 can of all natural tomato paste
-add agave, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic to taste
-remove top of snacking bell pepper (and seeds on the inside)
-stuff meat sauce into the middle of the peppers
-place on baking sheet
-bake at 350 for 10 minutes

-We ended up having a little bit of leftover meat sauce...it also goes great on green beans! :]


For desert we had a couple of paleo chocolate chip cookies on hand so we put a couple of them in bowls and heated them in the microwave for 25 seconds... 30 probably would have been better, then we added a couple scoops of SO Delicious vanilla bean and chocolate ice cream on top of the deliciously warm cookie :]....genius, I know.

I made another delicious treat the other night for our growth group with our church, I have to give my sister, Heather Ross from http://321paleo.blogspot.com/   credit for this, because it was her idea, she created it first and I just replicated it, because it sounded so good, and trust me...it was. Paleo Ice cream sandwiches....really...

It's quite simple really, just make the Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies, let them cool and then take your choice of SO Delicious ice cream and place in between the two cookies and freeze. I left mine the freezer for a couple of hours that way they could harden and they turned out great! But once again, Heather gets  the credit for this great and creative idea, I just borrowed it.

Lots of Left-Overs & A Silly Husband

The more and more I thought about this blogging thing, made me realize when a couple of my good friends Elaine Gray and Amy Taylor read this....they are going to give me a hard time, because these two (God love them for it) are vocal and honest about their opinion of the Paleo diet. Amy pretty much thinks its Whack and Elaine thinks a lot of the baked goods taste like cardboard....which if you are just starting out...things can taste like cardboard.

Yesterday for dinner I was going to attempt to make a pico de gallo chicken soup, I saw a recipe for it on another blog however, when it came time to start making it, I realized I only had half of the ingredients I needed (which tends to be a common trend) so I decided to create my own soup, kind like a Spicy chicken and vegetable soup...but predominately more vegetables because I just used the left over chicken that we had made a couple days before. Anthony loved it, and still mentioned it today, so I thought it was blog-site worthy.  So here it is :

Spicy Chicken and Vegetable Soup:

 

- left over chicken breast meat

-1 can of straight chicken broth, no additives or anything

-1 avocado

-1 cup chopped up celery stalk

-1 cup chopped onion

-1 tbs of garlic powder

-2tbs cilantro 

- chili powder to taste

- salt and paper to taste

(We had a little Pico De Gallo left over so I threw that in there too)

- Put in pot and heat, stir occasionally

For a long time I believed it was hard to eat lunch or take lunch some where that was completely Paleo and not completely boring. Today I met Anthony on his chow and PT time and packed him a lunch! This maybe took me 5 minutes max to do, but that is being quite generous because I was running late.

Left overs are an amazing thing, I used to hate them, but they are growing on me, good thing Anthony loves them and good thing that he loves lunch too!

Things you will need:

-Tupperwear container

-1 very large handful of spinach

- 1/2 of left over stake or whatever meat you desire, I cut his in slices

- small handful of pre-sliced onions

- 3 small snacking bell peppers, sliced

- Pico De Gallo for a salad dressing

He decided to express his happiness as such (the winking comes from the movie Life is Beautiful, he agreed to watch it the other night and loved it, it's a classic and a must watch - thanks Elaine Gray!)

....then it got stuck on his head...haha

For now, this is all I have, okay, so I do have more, but the pictures aren't on my computer yet and we will just have to wait until they get there. Enjoy leftovers...make the best of them!

First Post, learning what to title these things

That is me...Jenny and my lovely husband Anthony...and that cake that is on our faces is not paleo. The name of my blog "Cardboard Tables" comes from the first couple of weeks of our marriage, we did not have much furniture or any really...and we still don't have all that much, but we would sit on bubble wrap and eat our dinner on a cardboard box... it was actually quite fun for awhile, but we finally gave in a bought a table.

 There are endless ways to find Paleo recipes out there these days and I will be providing just one more way to access recipes and other Paleo & Crossfit friendly resources for those who actually search. My twin sister Heather, has a blog 3.2.1 Paleo, and let's be honest, she started way before me, she's probably a better cook than me... but I am a proud Marine Corps Wife and until I find a job, blogging is going to be something that I take up...maybe some day this will get me a job. Also, I didn't go to school for English or any thing of that sorts, so grammar and punctuation will go where I want it to go. 

So for my first post I am going to list a couple of delicious things I have made recently:

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes:

• 1/2 C Canned Pumpkin
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• 1/4 C Coconut Oil- Melted
• 1/4 C Coconut Milk
• 1/4 C Coconut Flour
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Baking Powder

Preheat griddle or pan to 350. In separate bowls, mix wet and dry ingredient.
Combine wet into dry. Spoon mixture onto griddle and cook 2-4 minutes per side.
Enjoy as is, smeared with more coconut oil, or topped with pure maple syrup and pecans.

Recipe from: http://fastpaleo.com/pumpkin-pancakes/

Paleo Pumpkin Pie:

Pie Crust
1.5 cups almond flour
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 egg
(We had a bigger pie pan so I ended up making more of it to cover the pan)

Pie Filling
1 can of pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk (So Delicious brand)
1/2 cup coconut creamer (So Delicious brand)
½ cup honey ( or whatever sweetener you desire)
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
(I also used cinnamon, I didn't measure it, just put a couple shakes in)

To bake:
-Grease pie pan with your choice of oil, I used coconut
- one you mix the crust, cover on bottom of pan
-put filling in bowl
-bake for 50 to 60 min or until you think its done

Recipe for the pie filling is from: http://thisprimallife.com/2009/11/primal-pumpkin-pie-paleo-too/

Chocolate Chip Cookies :]

-2 1/2 cups of almond flour
-1/4 tsp of sea salt
-1/4 tsp of baking soda
-10 tbs of Ghee
- 1 tbs of vanilla extract (paleo)
-1/2 cup of agave
- 1 cup of enjoy life chocolate chips

  To Bake:
-mix dry ingredients
-mix wet ingredients
-put the wet ingredients in the dry ones
-put dough in ball and place on cookie sheet covered with foil or parchment paper
-Bake at 350 for 7 to 10 min

In conclusion, when two people who both have a sweet tooth get married and when one has ample time, lots of delicious treats are made and consumed, thank God for Crossfit!