Cooking Day

Cooking day always wears me out.  I decided that my cheat meal needs to be on a different day than my cooking day because I am so full from eating what I cook and tried from cooking that I don't really enjoy my cheat meal like I should.

I made meals for the week and am trying out a couple of new things.  I made "breakfast" meals that I can eat with a fresh scrambled egg.  In a tupperware or ziplock I have a small portion of steak or meat and a 1/4 cup of vegetable (usually spinach or asparagus).  When I am ready for breakfast, I can either boil an egg or fry one and then add the meat and vegetable in the pan and breakfast is ready.

I am leaning heavy on the fish and fowl this week whereas I usually eat pork and beef.  My meals this week are comprised of ground turkey and salmon.  I purchased wild caught salmon and baked it and divided it up into 3oz portions.  I added 3 shrimp, my vegetable carbohydrate and 1/4 yam cooked with coconut oil and honey on top to make it sweet.  I also purchased a huge tub of ground turkey and made a turkey meatloaf, turkey meatballs with montreal steak seasoning and browned the rest to freeze so that it was available for lettuce wraps or tacos.  I like making meatballs because it makes it easy to portion.  I am trying to watch my portions during the health challenge, but usually I allow myself as much as I want as long as it is within my paleo guidelines.

Speaking of guidelines, I eat potatoes, yams and honey which are not strict to paleo eating.  These foods are natural foods which do no make me sick and so I include them in my diet. I like agava also and would eat more of it, but it is expensive.  Everyone has to find a way of eating which works for the individual and eating paleo and/or gluten free is not a religion.  Removing or reducing high starch foods while trying to lose weight is understandable, but I enjoy potatoes and yams.  When learning to eat without grains, sugar and gluten, a fried potato or a buttered yam can really sooth your soul.

When I am cooking my protein, I boil and bake my vegetables and set them up buffet style on the counter.  When the meat is done, I let everything cool a little and then make different combinations of protein and vegetable.  I boil yams and use half for savory and half for sweet.  Both kinds get a nice portion of real butter, because when you don't eat sugar, it makes you feel better to have twice the butter.