Enjoying my kitchen!

We have been home with a fully functioning kitchen for about a month now.  With the holidays officially over, I am excited to get back into my kitchen and try some new recipes.  We seem to get caught in eating the same 7-10 things over and over since I'm too tired on Friday nights when to find new ideas and make a list.  So a few days ago I sat down and figured out meals for the next several weeks, tricky only due to gymnastics Tues/Thurs and art class on Mondays.  Since we eat so early I have to do quick to cook or crockpot meals on these days.  But Sunday and Wednesday I can cook whatever I want.  If things get too stressful I might even switch our leftover night to Thursday and cook on Fridays.

I pulled recipes from a list of Whole 30 approved meals.  I'm not doing a Whole 30 as that is really restrictive and our budget won't allow for it.  But it's great to have these guaranteed gluten free meals.  So tonight's main course is Crispy Buffalo Chicken Fingers.  The kids enjoyed helping to crush up the pork rinds and this took about 20 minutes to get into the oven.  I did simply cut up chicken breasts instead of buying chicken strips.  Looking forward to a new taste.  To accompany tonight I made potato fries - baked in the oven for 30 minutes at the same time as the chicken and frozen broccoli. Looking forward to a yummy new taste made from known ingredients.  Hopefully the kids will be a fan.

I also made Energy Balls last night.  I plan to send these in Carolyn's lunch as a "dessert" and use them as a quick breakfast when needed.  Both kids tried and approved them today.  Next time I think I might swap out the flax seed for gelatin.  I wonder if that would work?  It would certainly up the amount of protein in these, something I always seem to be looking to get more of with the kids.

I'm looking forward to trying some snack recipes for the kids as we go into this year.  If I can find a combination of things that need to be baked and that don't we'll have some good things throughout the year, regardless of the weather.

Off to try dinner!

Update:  Two thumbs up by me and Jon.  The kids think it's a bit spicy.  Hopefully with some more exposure to spicier foods they'll not be quite so impacted.  They did eat it by dipping in ketchup though, which they seem to do with most meat.  Which reminds me that I should really get around to making my own ketchup to get the sugar out.  We also discovered that we like the fries cooked at 400 much more than the usual 350.  This produced a nice, crispy outside and soft inside.  Hopefully this good meal will help this nausea and dizziness to go away.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

So I'm not Irish, but with a last name of Mahoney, my kids certainly are!  The light blue eyes and blonde hair make them look the part too.  So yesterday we made some cupcakes with green frosting.  I was also trying out a recipe to use for Carolyn's party.  It turned out quite well.  The cake was maybe a tad dry, so I might add a little more coconut oil next time.  Will need to increase the recipe, multiply 3-4 times to get enough for her playdate and then her actual party.  But both kids ate their whole cupcake, which is quite rare.  So I think the recipe is a keeper.  I did sweeten to taste, starting with a big squeeze of honey, then two more.  Each of these squeezes I've found to be about 1T.  It still didn't taste quite right to me, so I added regular sugar, 2t at a time, for a total of 6.  I figure 3T of honey and 6t of sugar is likely a lot less than a typical recipe.  But sweet enough to please everyone.  I made a cream cheese frosting to go on top, but I think I will do regular frosting for Carolyn's birthday so I know I can get it the right consistency to decorate with.

Last night I was still craving sugar, as I have been for a while.  So on the advice of someone on the Wheat Belly facebook page, I made some sugar free chocolate.  I was a little skeptical because I've only ever like milk chocolate.  But I gave it a try anyway.  It was awesome!  So rich, in fact, I almost couldn't eat all of it.  I'm thinking about having this once a week.  Sugar free and onley 2-3g net carbs, mostly due to the almonds!

1T coconut oil
1T butter
1T unsweetened cocoa powder
optional - 10-12 almonds
optional - coconut flakes

We are celebrating tonight by joining the in-laws at Hackney's.  The kids are super excited about it.

I have also lost another 0.5lbs, showing me numbers I can't remember the last time it was I saw them on the scale.  Down 8lbs overall.  Hoping that if James ever decides to be done nursing my weight loss will accelerate.