WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesday

Can I tell you guys a secret?

I have had ZERO inspiration to write this last week....and I apologize.

It's just that, between Mitch being on leave these last two weeks, deployment coming up in a matter of days, and planning our Thanksgiving feast...I haven't had much energy to put onto this blog.

I did do some cooking this week, however.  So hang with me because I made some of our favorite things to eat this week and also some new things!

Can you believe that I cooked dinner FOUR times this week?!  That hasn't happened in what seems like forever!


I have a confession...I have no idea how to work a grill.  There.  I said it.  I bought The Mister this fancy schmancy infrared gas grill for Christmas last year and I have no clue how to work the thing.  He is the grill master.

What this means for us, is that, mama doesn't usually eat steak at home when The Mister is deployed.  This week, I demanded sweetly requested, that we grill out some big juicy rib-eyes!

I absolutely love that we can find 100% grass fed beef at Target now!!  We love the Thousand Hills Cattle Company beef.  I always buy their hotdogs for The Sophster and the ground beef for my Veggie Spaghetti with meatballs, but on occasion, we love to treat ourselves with their rib-eyes. And they never disappoint!

With the steak, I made our favorite brussies with bacon and also glazed some carrots.  This was something new for me, because glazing carrots used to mean lots and lots of brown sugar {which is now a no-no}.  I didn't do things much different this time, though.  Just used coconut palm sugar, a couple of dates {chopped}, and some cinnamon in place of the brown sugar.  I don't have step by step pictures, so you'll have to use that imagination of yours!

• Chop carrots
• Put carrots in pot with about a half inch of water, 3 Tbsp grass fed pure butter, 2 rounded tsp of coconut palm sugar, two dates, shake of cinnamon, and about a tsp of kosher salt.
• Bring to a boil
• Cover and reduce to simmer for about 8 minutes
• Remove lid and crank the heat back up to a med-high until water is evaporated, carrots are cooked, and sauce is ooey-gooey and delicious!
• Don't let your husband eat all of them! 

Somebody couldn't keep her fingers out of mommy's brussies long enough for me to get a picture!

Thursday night, The Sophster and I went to visit some friends in the hospital who just became first time parents!  Yay!  We spent more time than I had originally anticipated up there, so I had to come home and throw something together quickly because we were all HAAANGRY!

We had some chicken breasts in the fridgey, so I cooked them the way that The Sophster loves them, and just prepared a quick salad to pair with it.  

The chicken is super easy.  It's just boneless skinless breasts, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then pan sear in coconut oil.  Easy peasy and certain to be loved by toddler palates everywhere!

We bought some Four Pepper Hot Sauce at the farmers market last weekend.  It only has ingredients that I can pronounce.  I like that.  So we put the hot sauce {it's more like relish, really} on our chicken.  It was yummy.

The salad was just some baby spinach with an orange bell pepper cut up over it, some s&p and garlic powder.  We used our Tessemaes red wine vinegar dressing.

Side note: I went to Whole Foods yesterday and was so excited to see that our WF actually carries more than one flavor of Tessemaes now!!  WooHoo!  I bought Zesty Ranch and Soy Ginger.  I can't wait to try them both!

Remember the saga about the lamb roast that wouldn't fit in anything??  And then my super wonderful Mister went and bought my dream slow cooker and the lamb still wouldn't fit???  

Yeah.  I decided to take that baby for a test run this week!  I made the Easy Shredded Beef from paleomg.com.  I hadn't spent a lot of time on Julie's blog until recently.  That chick is FUNNY and she creates some delicious looking food!  Guess I'll be adding her book, OMG. That's Paleo?, to my wish list.

I made the beef a little different, because that's just what I do, and I added a pack of sliced cremini mushrooms and a handful of peeled and smashed garlic cloves.  

I also could have sworn the time said low for 6 hours, so I didn't start until right at about 6 hours before dinner time....it says 8-10 hours.  Fail.  So, in an attempt to save dinner, I put it on high for 3 hours and then low for 4 hours.  I figured we could eat a little late that night.  Anyway, I think cooking it on high those few hours might have messed me up.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad...it just wasn't beautiful and shreddy like Julie's was.  Next time, I'll know better.  Next time, I'll also add some fresh thyme or rosemary for a bit more flavor.  The meat was, however, awesome as leftovers!

With it, I cooked some burnt broccoli {we love our green veggies crispy and burnt around here, if you haven't noticed}, sautéed in some coconut oil, with some parmesan grated on top, and the most amazing, most delicious {I did that in my best Gordon Ramsey voice, btw} sweet potato medallions.  Seriously.  Those things were so flippin' good, YOU GUYS!  You have to make them. 

Here's how:

• Preheat oven to 400*
• Clean and scrub your sweet potatoes
• Slice them into about half inch rounds
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat in melted coconut oil
• Place potato rounds onto baking sheet in a single layer
• Coat each round with coconut oil
• Season with s&p and garlic powder
• Put in oven for 15 minutes
• Take out, flip over, coat with coconut oil and season
• Cook for an additional 15 minutes
• Remove from oven
• Devour
• You're welcome 

The weather here has been especially dreary and gloomy the last couple of days.  Most of you may be used to that this time of year, but this is Florida.  We are not.  We are used to wearing shorts.

Anyway, I've been eyeballing this recipe over on the Paleo Parents blog for a couple of weeks now, and last night seemed like the perfect time to make their Creamy Dairy-Free Butternut Bacon Bisque.  

I love how they break down all of the good stuff that makes this soup so wonderful.  Stacy says:

" The best part of this dish is how freakishly good it is for you. With nutrient-dense and healing stock, anti-oxidants from the beta-carotene-rich butternut squash, tons of vitamins and minerals including a good punch of Vitamin D from the lard, this soup is the perfect food when winter germs approach and winter squash is in season."

BOOM!  Plus....there's this...

I followed the recipe exactly, except, I don't have pork stock made, so I used the chicken broth that I cooked up over the weekend.  

It was divine!  The Mister and I each had two bowls and The Sophster really enjoyed dipping her bacon into her soup and eating it like the delicious meat candy that it is.  I mean really, everything is better with bacon, right?!

On a more serious note, I do want to say that I'm glad that you all are here reading these posts.  In a few days, I will be experiencing some gloom and doom and I probably won't feel like writing {or maybe even cooking} at all for a while.  Having you here and seeing that you are interested makes me want to not go hide away in my little deployment cave.  So, Thank You.

On a funnier note, I love that this WFD Wednesday series of posts has kept me accountable for how long leftovers have been in our fridge.  I'll be writing one week and go to link back to a meal from a past week and I'm like, "Ew...that's still in the refrigerator...time to do a purge!"  haha So, thanks for that, too!  

I am not linking up with The Pajama Mama this week.  Today is her birthday and she is probably out partying it up PJM style!  If you get a chance, pop over to her Facebook page and send her some happy birthday wishes!  While you're there, make sure you like Our Life with The Sophster, too!

Did you make anything delicious this week?  What about Thankgiving?  It is next week, you know!  Who does the holiday cooking in your family?  Do you leave it to one person or is it more of a Turkey Day potluck?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include at least one affiliate link.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.  In hindsight, this isn't so bad when you think about all of the many hours that go into this blog, right??**

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesdays

Hey there!  Remember last week when I said that Sandra was coming to visit and we had a very busy week planned?  Yeah.  That happened.  As a matter of fact, I only cooked two meals this week.  I did not cook a single thing from Wednesday to Saturday.

We ate out A LOT.   For me, it can be a bit defeating in the kitchen when Sandra is here.  She is used to eating all of the foods that we don't keep in our house, so it's very difficult to please her palate with my cooking.  So we ate out, where she could get what she wanted and we could make the healthiest choices possible.  Either that, or we ate leftovers.

The good news is, the two meals that I did end up making this week came out really yummy!

Sunday, I decided to cook dinner as more of a late lunch meal, since The Mister was driving Sandra back towards Louisiana that afternoon, and I wanted everyone to have full happy tummies.  I made the Pina Colada Chicken that is featured over at The Paleo Parents blog.

This recipe was posted by the Paleo Parents, but it is a review of the Pina Colada Chicken from the new cookbook, Well Fed 2.  I have the first Well Fed cookbook and I honestly love it, and I have to say that, after trying this recipe, I will surely be buying the new cookbook, too!  This stuff was delicious!

The recipe in the book suggests pairing the dish with some cauli-rice.  I didn't want to make plain ol' cauli-rice, so I jazzed it up a bit to go with the tropically inspired chicken dish.

I shredded the cauliflower as usual in my food processor.  Then, sautéed it in some coconut oil, the rest of the coconut milk leftover from the recipe, and some crushed pineapple with some of it's juices.  It was really yummy!

Last night, I set out to make a paleo version of shepard's pie.  In our PP {pre-paleo lol} life, I made a pretty tasty shepard's pie, and as I've mentioned before, my recreations haven't always come out so good the first shot.

Long story short, It.Was.Awesome!  So awesome, in fact, that it is already gone.  Which makes me kind of sad because now I will have to cook tonight {which is usually a night off for me}.  Just kidding.  I love being in the kitchen!

I made this paleo by using some beautiful locally grown butternut squash instead of mashed potatoes, and just adjusted the spices from my usual pie.

The only thing I would change here is, I usually add about a half cup of beef broth to keep the pie moist, but this time it seemed a little soupy.  Tasty, but soupy.  Today, as leftovers, it was not at all soupy.  So maybe the next time I make it, I'll leave the broth out or just use less of it.

Want the recipe?  Let me know!  I'm happy to make it again and create a post with tons of pics!

Comforty Goodness right here!

I know that I said I would spend some time this week working on some grain free mug cakes also, but to tell the truth, we ate so much junk that I just didn't feel up for baking any more sweets.  I did take one shot at a cake recipe I want to figure out.  It's definitely not ready to give out the recipe yet, but hopefully it will be soon!  See the sacrifice I make for you people?  I have to make all of these yummy cakes and then EAT THEM.  Tough life for this girl.

Can you guess what I'm working on here?

Well, that's it for this week!  I'm linking up again with The Pajama Mama, so don't forget to check her out along with any other blogs that have linked up over there!  I love that she lets her son, Mango, shop for his own items and then she actually came up with some things from items that he chose!  She is one cool mama!

What kind of meals were on your table this week?  Do you have "lazy" weeks where you don't cook much for your family?  What are some of your favorite cool weather comfort foods to cook up?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesdays

Hey y'all!  It's time for the weekly round up of what was ate here at Casa de Sophster!  I'm going to try to keep this one short and sweet today, though.

As I type, The Mister is on his way to Louisiana to pick up Sandra, and we have a VERY busy weekend planned.  As I said before, we don't see Sandra and Bryson as often or for as long as we would like, so we try to cram a lot of things into a short time.  And as much as I love you guys, I'm not going to be hanging around here talking to you all weekend!  So, I'm trying to write and schedule a few posts over the next few days...you know, so you won't worry about little ol' us over here in Sophster land!

I'm realizing quickly that, we are pretty much down to making three meals a week most weeks.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me!  When we first made the switch to paleo, I felt like I never got to leave the kitchen!  Cook, cook, cook, cook, COOOOOK was all I ever did.  Ugh.  It was exhausting.  I was rewarded though.  By the health of my family, by the fact that The Sophster will finally eat her veggies {and I don't have to hide them!}, and by regaining my own health.

Now, I've gotten this thing down, pretty much.  I can make one big meal that will last us two or three days {usually} and I get some time off from the kitchen.  Time to play and steal some much needed snuggles from The Sophster!

Let's get down to business!

Thursday night was Halloween!  We took The Sophster out for her very first trick-or-treating!  The girl had a blast!  We were out for about an hour.  We can't believe that she lasted on foot as long as she did.  After about 45 minutes, she kept getting candy and then sitting down in the driveway of said candy giver to "take a break".  So we walked for about another 15 minutes and came on home to check out her bounty!   We ate leftovers.  No way this mama was cooking after all of that trick-or-treating!

Minnie Mouse was all set for some candy hunting!

Friday night we had our pre-deployment briefing for the families, so I also did not cook that night.

Saturday night was back to the kitchen, though!  The Sophster and I decided we wanted to make some veggie spaghetti.  Let me tell you, before changing our diet to grain-free, we were a spaghetti loving family!  I usually made it once a week or so.  Since making the switch, I have tried to make a successful "veggie spaghetti" {thank you, Daniel Tiger for the name} four times....and failed each time.  Something was always missing.  So, I set out to make a new version this time....and Oh.Em.Gee people, it came out AWESOME!

I'm not going to post an entire recipe in this post, but if y'all show an interest, I'll get it typed up and in a new post.  I will tell you this, though....I made this for lunch time because Mitch had to work nights Saturday, and The Sophster not only loved it for lunch, she asked for it for dinner!  She loves this stuff!  YeSSSS!!

Want in on one of the secrets?

I added a small pat of grass fed butter on top of each pile of spaghetti squash!  Have you guys ever had real butter from grass fed cows??

 I have a funny story.  So, my Nana used to tell this story about how when my mom was a little girl, she used to walk around eating sticks of butter.  {Sorry, Mom}.  That always really grossed me out.  Until recently when I stopped using what I thought was butter, and started using REAL BUTTER.  Omg people, if I wouldn't get totally shamed walking around eating a stick of this butter...I probably would with this stuff.  The stuff is creamy and tasty and omg omg omg!  I imagine this is the kind of butter my child sized mother used to nom on.

Have I totally freaked you out yet?

Anyway, here is The Sophster...I think she was just a little excited about the way her spaghetti tasted. She kept proclaiming "YAY! VEGGIE SPAGHETTI! I LOVE VEGGIE SPAGHETTI!!"

Sunday night was cool in a couple of different ways.  One, my little brother and nephew came over to play and have dinner with us {yay!} and two, mama got a new kitchen gadget!  

I decided to make the lamb roast that was taking up huge amounts of room in our freezer.  I set out to make the Mediterranean Lamb Roast from my Practical Paleo cookbook, but I quickly realized that my {very old and outdated} slow cooker was much too small.  So, I tried the dutch oven {does that name just make you giggle?  It does me!}.  Too small.  Ugh.  What was a girl to do?  Guess I would need that newer, bigger slow cooker now instead of after The Mister leaves for deployment!  Being the awesome, wonderful {fill in all things good here} husband that he is, he took off and brought me home my new slow cooker in record speed!  We ripped open the box, cleaned the cooker out, plopped the lamb roast in....it didn't fit.  Omg this roast was never going to get cooked!

These are the moments when I am so so thankful for Pinterest {do you follow me yet??}.  I found this roasted lamb recipe from the Paleo Foodie blog and I knew that it would be "the one"!  It would have to be, really.  I had all of the stuff to make it and that damn lamb roast was definitely fitting into my roasting pan!!  The recipe doesn't call for it, but I also added about an onion and a half, cut into quarters and shoved down around the roast.

It actually came out pretty amazing.  Easy peasy and really tasty.  I made my cauliflower mash with it and served it with the onions that cooked with the roast.  I didn't think my brother would eat it, but much to my surprise, he cleaned his whole plate!  If I can get my picky brother to eat my food, I must be doing something right!

 The kids had lamb, cauli-mash, grass fed hotdogs, and some banana slices sprinkled with cinnamon. Neither one of them ate their cauli-mash.  Maybe I'll add butter to theirs next time and see if that helps.  I feel like I need to yell "Butter ALL THE THINGS!"

Last night, Tuesday, I went with another easy meal.  We did our Commissary shopping yesterday, so this family was lucky to get dinner out of me at all.  Yeah, I'm pretty lazy on grocery days usually.

I made my asparagus with lemon zest and I made some chicken thighs with bacon and sage.  It came out really really yummy.  I mean really....chicken....wrapped in bacon.  Would you just look at this deliciousness??

It's sooooo simple!  Just take some chicken thighs {I use bone in}, season with s&p and garlic powder, top with a few sage leaves, and wrap in bacon.  I started these on the stove because I like to live dangerously and I infused a couple of large garlic cloves in some bacon grease before adding the chicken.  Cook these puppies for 40 minutes {less time if using boneless}, pop them under the broiler until they start to sizzle and BAM!  You get a husband with a happy tummy!

The Sophster requested more veggie spaghetti.  Who I am to tell her no??  Psshhh!! 

Anyway, that's it!  I am working on some yummy grain-free mug cake recipes {these might be my new favorite things}.  I'll be in the test kitchen {aka the kitchen in my house} some this weekend with The Sophster and Sissy.  Looking forward to sharing some of those soon!

What about you?  What was on your plate this week?  Make anything new and exciting?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesday

Wow!  Is it really Wednesday again already?!  My goodness, this week just flew by!  Are y'all finding that you are keeping busier lately with the weather cooling {for most} and the fall festivities picking up?  I feel like we have hardly stopped for a minute around here!

Mitch's POM leave {his pre-deployment leave} starts next week and I know that we will be on the go then, too.  We are going to get Sandra and Bryson {our older rugrats} and we're taking all of the kids to Sea World in Orlando!  We took The Sophster right before last deployment and she loved it then, so I know that they will all enjoy it this time!  The Mister and I are also trying to plan a small overnight getaway.  Just the two of us.  That will be fantastic!!

Anyway, with us staying so busy, I have been a little lazy in the kitchen.  Luckily, we had a lot of leftovers to get us by on the days that I didn't cook and I even cut a few corners on days that I did!

Thursday night I decided I didn't want to cook, so we went out for some wings and a beer.  We also ordered a lot of fried stuff.  I knew I would pay for it.  Boy did I ever!  I was laid up on the couch with terrible stabbing gas knots in my tummy for the duration of the evening until I finally gave up and went to bed.  I think I said to Mitch something like "I freaking hate paleo for making me healthy!"  But seriously, I don't.  I love it.  :)  It's just a hard pill to swallow that this is how I used to feel all.of.the.time....and it felt normal.  Gross.

Friday night was a nice easy meal to make.  I was going to make pork chops {ended up making these on Tuesday night}, but we picked up a rotisserie chicken from Target instead.  It was delicious.  I made the Rosemary Carrot Mash from the Beyond Bacon cookbook, and some simple roasted brussels sprouts with bacon.

Edit** I found the recipe for the carrot mash, here, on the Paleo Parents site.  It's fab and you should totally make it.  Also, how awesome does that meatloaf look?!  Clearly, I haven't read the whole cookbook yet!

The brussies are a regular staple in this house, now.  It's funny how we used to protest brussels sprouts and swore we would never eat them.  We were wrong.  Have you tried them roasted?  I just cut them in halves or quarters {depending on the size}, toss them in some melted bacon grease {or coconut oil}, chop some bacon up over them, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and roast them at 400* for about 20 minutes.  They are SO good, you guys!!  The carrot mash was fantastic, too!  I'll definitely be making that again.  I had a half bottle of GTs Synergy Kombucha  to drink, and the Mister had an Angry Orchard.  I am in looooove with GT's kombucha in the Gingerberry flavor.  They are a little on the pricey side, so I swing by Whole Foods once a week and buy three.  I drink half of a 16oz bottle a day.  One of my upcoming deployment goals is to learn how to make and bottle this stuff on my own!

Saturday was super busy for us.  We had The Sophster's fall festival at the Discovery House, which is quite possibly her favorite place in the known world.  Then, home for a nap and right back out the door for a fall/Halloween mini photo session with one of our favorite local photographer mamas!  I definitely did not have the energy to cook that night.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I dined on dark chocolate covered almonds and a glass of red wine on the couch and passed out under my snuggie while watching Person of Interest with The Mister.

Sunday was also a busy day.  My girlfriend, Kim, was throwing a baby shower for her daughter-in-law, Melissa {also a friend}, to celebrate the arrival of Kim's first grandchild!  I spent the day cooking and prepping food and helping her get things set up.  We went with a tea party theme, which ended up being so much fun!  I ended up staying after the shower was over and helping Kim clean up.  Mitch was home with The Sophster.  I didn't get home until after her bedtime, so they had to fend for themselves for dinner.  I ate some {read: A LOT OF} bacon wrapped dates...and some petit fours {whatevs, it was a party}.

If you follow this blog on Facebook, you may have seen the picture of the beef oxtails that I posted on Monday morning.  I had never cooked with oxtail before, so it was a bit of an adventure, but seriously you guys, it came out SO yummy!  I ended up mashing two recipes together to get this meal.  I made the Crockpot Caribbean Oxtail from Stupid Easy Paleo and I took inspiration from The Paleo Cupboard's Mashed Rutabaga and Veggie Gravy.  

What I did different: I added about a cup of {preservative free, no added sugar} red wine into the slow cooker about an hour and a half before the oxtail and veggies were done.  This added such a nice flavor profile!  For the mash, I used a little chicken broth {which it calls for}, but I also added some grass fed butter and some bacon grease, for a little more creaminess.

The meal came out wonderful!  It actually felt like we were eating such a guilty pleasure type meal.  Kind of like mashed potatoes, gravy, and pot roast.  I will most definitely be making this again.  We also had a small side salad with some Tessemae's Red Wine Vinegar dressing.  We love this dressing and I'm sad that our local Whole Foods only carries this flavor.  We want to try them all!

The Sophster's plate was not much different from ours.  Her Daddy put more grapes on there than I usually would.  What happens is, she eats the grapes and then claims she is full and will hardly touch the rest of the meal.  Plus, she was in a particularly sour mood that day.  Oh well.  Can't win 'em all, especially with a two year old!

I also bought 3.5lbs of oxtail and quickly realized that it all was not going to fit in my {much too small, apparently} slow cooker.  We are {slowly} trying to transition the dogs over to a raw food diet {that's a whole other future post}, and they know that when there is extra raw meat around the kitchen, they are in for a treat!  So, we weren't the only ones who enjoyed those oxtails!

Tuesday night, we had Shaken and Baked pork chops from Beyond Bacon, leftover Rosemary Carrot Mash, and one of our favorite things ever, sweet potato hash with sausage {that I made for breakfast that morning! So versatile!}.

We love these pork chops SO much!  They are easy, fun for The Sophster to help with, and so so delicious!  Not that the other recipes in the book aren't completely fabulous, but I would recommend buying this book solely based on this one recipe!  The Mister drools all over himself eating them and The Sophster always finishes her serving!  Win!  And besides...

Our plates came out looking pretty orange with the chops/carrot/sweet potato combo {it's time for a farmer's market run for more green veggies!}, so I made a side salad with organic salad greens, organic grape tomatoes, and crumbled some raw jalapeño cheddar on top.  We dressed it with some Tessemae's red wine vinegar and had a fabulous meal!  

The Sophster actually ate everything except for her carrot mash.  She just is simply not a fan of all things mashed, apparently.  We were thrilled that she ate what she did, though, so we left it alone.

Apart from these meals {and our other daily meals}, I also cooked up a large batch of chicken broth and a bunch of paleo brownie bites for the fall festival we went to on Saturday.  I was so excited to see that they were the first things to go on the cookie walk!  Makes me so happy to see people getting serious about their health and the health of their children. :)

This week I'm going to make a big batch of beef broth, and I may try to make the yummy looking pumpkin seed recipe I saw over at The House of Boys & A Girl!  I just love fall!  How about you?!

So those are our dinners for this week!  I hope you saw some things that you may want to try!  What did you make for dinner this week?  Don't forget to check out what The Pajama Mama had on her menu for this week and check out anyone else who is linking up over there!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

WFD {What's for Dinner} Wednesday

You guys!  I am super excited to be starting a new link up this week!  I'll be linking up with the always lovely Pajama Mama for a WFD {What's for Dinner} Wednesdays!  The timing on this could not have been more perfect for me.  Let me explain why:

You know how I just came back from a couple month hiatus?  A lot of that had to do with the fact that we decided to take a different approach on the foods that we put in our bodies.  We decided to try out the Paleo lifestyle.  I have to say, it has flipped my whole world around.  In the best way possible.  I have spent hours with my nose either in books or in the kitchen trying new recipes and patiently trying to get The Sophster to come around and like veggies!  I'll post more about this later, but I just wanted to say that linking up with The Pajama Mama has come at the perfect time and has gotten me excited about getting creative and blogging again. Yay!

Since I just decided to do this on Sunday, I only have a few meals to post this week, but I promise there will be more in the future.


Sunday night was a late dinner for Mitch and I.  I honestly don't remember what I threw together for The Sophster early on, but we got so carried away with outside play/work, that we didn't eat dinner until after she went to bed!  I ended up making  Beef and Broccoli from the cookbook Eat Like a Dinosaur written by some of my fave paleo bloggers, The Paleo Parents.  I used coconut oil instead of EVOO and I added fish sauce for more umami flavor, and some toasted sesame seeds as a finisher.  Also, the recipe suggests that the whole meal simmer on low for 30 minutes and that was just too long for us.  The broccoli ended up being WAY over cooked.  The flavors were so yummy, though!  I'll definitely make this easy meal again, just will cook the broccoli about 10 or so minutes less next time!  We also had a glass of yummy Layer Cake Shiraz to accompany dinner.

Monday night, Mitch and I had the Lemon Rosemary Broiled Salmon from the Practical Paleo cookbook, along with some roasted asparagus, inspired by the same book.

This is the second time we have had this salmon and it is so simple and SO tasty!  Definitely a favorite for us!
For the asparagus, I just toss the asparagus in coconut oil, season with pink himalayan sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder and roast for 10-15 minutes {depending on the size of the asparagus.  It's best to just keep an eye on it}.  When it comes out, I sprinkle lemon zest on top.  Delish!

Also, I love that this meal is such an easy clean up!  I just line both of my pans in foil and at the end, I just toss the foil and put the pans away.  Only have to wash plates and silverware!

The Sophster is not a big fan of salmon or asparagus, so she got her own dinner Monday night.  She ate a 100% grass-fed beef hotdog pan-fried in some coconut oil, some broccoli sautéed in coconut oil, some baby carrots, banana slices, honey mustard for dipping {not the best for her, but I'm working on a recipe that she will actually eat}, and she demanded a slice of my meyer lemon.

Tuesday night, I went all out and made a southern comfort food meal, y'all!  We had the Shakey Pork Barbecue ribs from Eat Like a Dinosaur, cauliflower mash, and collard greens, with a yummy Apple Orchard Gluten-Free Hard Cider beer to wash it all down. 

This meal was so yummy!  We didn't have enough gas in the grill, so I just cooked those puppies in a foil pack in the oven and then smothered them in some fantastic Bone Suckin' BBQ Sauce!  Seriously y'all, this stuff is the real deal.  I found it at Whole Foods, love the ingredients {no added garbage}, and the price was right!  

The Sophster had the same thing we had.  She also loved the BBQ chops with sauce and she ate almost all of her collard greens!  She is not a fan of the cauli-mash, but she was never a mashed potatoes fan, either, so I think it might be a texture thing.  The fourth item on her plate is half of a Go Go Squeeze.  I don't give her the whole thing or she will eat that first and then say she's full, so I just squeeze it out onto her plate.

That was a really large meal, which is great, because I had my military wives small group at church tonight and the Mister does not claim to be a cook, so him and The Sophster had plenty of leftovers for dinner and I didn't have to worry about rushing to throw something together for them this afternoon.  Yay me!

Did you make anything fun and exciting this week?  How do you feel about me posting our meals for the week?  I hope that I can be an inspiration to you for the coming week! Don't forget to pop over to The Pajama Mama to see what they ate this week along with others in the link up!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**