Clean Eating Recipe: Beef Burgundy Pot Roast & Veggies

I was inspired by this recipe that I ended up at when I was reading the Paleo Blog.  I've been researching the whole "Primal" or "Paleo" diets for a while, because carbs have always been a... bad thing for me.  I like reading about diet, nutrition and health regardless, but since I'm soon going to be doing the 90 Day Challenge, I think the issue is more in the forefront of my brain lately.  This recipe is NOT Primal/Paleo, the above recipe IS... but it definitely inspired me to want some pot roast:)

I added a lot more carrots and potatoes, because I have vegetarians in the house, and those are their preferred veggies when it comes to a pot roast type meal.

My kids are SO weird.

It has been SO nice lately, we've been having our meals on the back deck.  I'm loving this weather!

Ingredients:

2-4 lbs.* of Steak, Roast, basically BEEF!:)

*I use less meat because I'm cheap and because two of my kids are vegetarians, so we don't need as much. Plan accordingly if you have a bunch of carnivores in your house or they might revolt.)

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

1 bottle of Red Wine

1 32 oz. Box of beef brother

1 32 oz. box vegetable broth

3 16 oz. cans of tomato sauce

3 lbs. onions quartered

2 lbs. of potatoes quartered

2 lbs. of baby carrots (or regular carrots, chopped)

1 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 tsp. worchestershire powder

2 tsp MsDash Garlic & Herb seasoning

OPTIONAL:  2 Tbsp of Almond Flour or Corn Starch for thickening

First: Heat the oil in a skillet on high

Add the steaks and sear for just a minute on each side to help seal in juices.

Second:  Toss everything else in the crock pot, except the potatoes (unless you don't mind slightly mushier potatoes... and I don't, but if you do, add those later because they cook faster than everything else:)

Next, you have three options:

A) Use a big enough pan in the first place

B) Use half the ingredients so that it all fits in your 5 qt crockpot.

Or C) The option I inadvertently chose:

When its time to add the potatoes, realize that you don't have any room left.

Transfer half of the ingredients to your spare crock that you have from the last crappy crock pot you had.  The base doesn't even exist anymore because it was so crappy so you have to use the oven and heat the entire kitchen because you didn't think ahead.  

*I don't recommend this one unless its really cold outside, and then I most definitely do.

Cook on high in your crock pot for 4-6 hours or in the oven at 350 for 3-4 hours.

If you add cornstarch or flour, put that in a separate bowl with some of the liquid and make sure you have all the lumps out before adding to the stew.  Leave the lid off for the last half of the cooking time to let the sauce thicken.

Optional step #3:  While that's cooking, realize at 4:50 that it is indeed Thursday and that your youngest child has gymnastics at 5:00.  Rush out the door... get back and still have dinner cooking because crock pots are awesome that way.

Finish with a lovely family dinner with your crazy children on your pink and brown deck.**

YUMMY!!!

 I am SO in love with our yard!  And this weather!

**If you don't HAVE a pink and brown deck, I apologize profusely for getting your hopes up.  If you don't have crazy children... you can borrow some of mine.  They'll rub off on yours and soon you will have your own crazy children.  Really.  I've seen it happen.

Mostly Raw Food Sunday with Salad Bar

Casual Sunday Salad Bar

My Family & a couple of the kids friends that were over for dinner:)

We have started back with the tradition of family dinners!!!  With our family, that makes for some interesting conversations, interesting AWESOME conversations.

We've discussed all sorts of things from the Cold War, to my husband's somewhat... unusual past (so far I've avoided being questioned, but the kids are merciless on their dad... and the reactions are priceless.  Apparently they thought he'd most been a goody two shoes most of his life.)  Kainan being in Public School now always brings new and interesting topics as well.  He is SUCH a character.  Basically, a table full of really good story tellers makes for EPIC dinner conversations!

We're doing well during the week, but on the weekends, there seems to be too much running this way and that, so I decided that I'd just lay out some fresh veggies and salad fixings.  I've found that my kids rarely think to open up the fridge and grab veggies, but if I have them out and easy to access, we all eat a lot more of them.

Patrick playing chess with the kids, noshing on veggies and hummus between turns.

Family Salad Bar with some of our favorite toppings:

**Except when linked to a website, the rest of this information is from the awesome book Eat Well, Be Well by Pierre Jean Cousin

Sesame Seeds:

"The seeds are also very good source of dietary proteins with fine quality amino acids that are essential for growth, especially in children. Just 100 g of seeds provide about 18 g of protein (32% of daily-recommended values)"

Kale:

Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.

Spinach:  Rich in antioxidants and stimulates pancreas function.  Vitamin C, Folic Acid, Iron, Zinc & Carotene

Sprouted Lentils:  Folic Acid, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Protein, Carbohydrates.  "Lentils are nutritious, digestible, regulate colon function and should be eaten frequently as a part of a healthy diet."

Lettuce: 

Vitamins A, C, D, Folic Acid, E, Iron, Manganese, Potassium, Zing, Lactucarium.  "Because it is rich in fiber, it helps food to pass quickly through the intestines and aids digestion.  Lettuce contains lactucarium, a substance that has sedativeand analgesic properties, and is thought to be useful in the treatment of mild insomnia."  (wow.  Maybe I should eat more lettuce, my insomnia is AWFUL!)

Carrots:

"Carrots are rich in antioxidants and protect the body from certain types of cancer.  They boost the immune system and are useful in treating a range of ailments, from poor night vision to stomach ulcers."

Flax Seeds:

Almonds:  

Vitamins A, B, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Oleic Acid.  Almods are an energy providing, nutritious snack.  They have a balancing effect upon the nervous system and are useful for digestive problems.

Dried Cranberries:

A substantial number of recent studies have shown that whole cranberries consumed in dietary form—in comparison with purified cranberry extracts consumed in either liquid or dried supplement form—do a better job of protecting our cardiovascular system and our liver. Several groups of researchers have summarized their health benefit findings by pointing out that it is the synergy among cranberry nutrients (rather than individual cranberry components) that is responsible for cranberry's health benefits. This synergy is only found in the whole berry as consumed in food form. This rule about whole dietary intake appears to apply to the antioxidant benefits, anti-inflammatory benefits, and anti-cancer benefits of cranberry.

Cabbage:  

A long established remedy for a variety of digestive ailments.  It is also rich in antioxidants and can strengthen the immune system and help the body to overcome infection.

Cheese:  

We keep to a minimum.  Some of us avoid most dairy (except yogurt), so we go light on the cheese, but my hubby especially likes cheese on just about anything:)

Salad!!!  With Poppyseed Dressing

Paris created a happy face Grilled Cheese & Apple Sandwich for herself and Patrick:)

This made for a mostly raw day for me (except for the hummus), and I think it was AWESOME.  I woke up feeling so much better the next day.  I don't think I could pull off an all raw diet right now, but I certainly like having it be a part of every day, and then a full day of it on Sundays sounds perfect!  (Other than the hummus I ate with some of my veggies!:)

I've decided that hummus is not a very pretty food, but its SO yummy!

We finished off our day in the front room where some of us worked off and on with a big Hollywood puzzle, talked about the Avengers and why Patrick doesn't "buy" the Iron Man concept, because no one explained how Tony Stark doesn't die when he's thrown through a tree just because he's wrapped in a suit of metal.

I just stood in the middle of the room and snapped a few pics as I turned... This is our front family room/office/art/game room (You can see more photos of our front room here on my Always Family Blog)

And our dog, Kitty laid around being spoiled by Kainan, as usual.

Clean Eating #148: Convenience Foods: Bulk Breakfast Burritos

Bulk Breakfast Burritos

Okay, okay, the truth comes out.  In spite of the fact that I have been really busy this month with movie stuff, I just hate cooking when its hot.  I hate even thinking about cooking, meal planning, any of it.  If only I hated eating... nah.  No such luck.

I would think that logically I would crave fresh fruit, salads and the like.  No such luck.  I eat junk.  I also find that I eat a lot of convenience foods because I'm running around too busy to want to think about cooking.  So not only am I eating less healthy, I'm paying too much for it.

Today was my last straw when I bought a breakfast burrito at Quick Trip... ugh.  I ate a gas station burrito for Heaven's sake.  It is ridiculous.

So I came home and made a dozen breakfast burritos for my hubby and I, and a pan full of kiddable eggs for their own breakfast burritos.  Kids and teenaged boys don't really need to worry about having full out eggs and extra cheese:)

Ingredients:

• 24 egg whites
• 12 eggs
• 1 large onions (diced)
• 8 oz frozen spinach
• a little finely shredded cheese of your choice
• coconut oil
• seasonings to taste
• 12 whole wheat tortillas

Directions

1. Sautee the diced onions and spinach in a little coconut oil until tender
2. add mixed eggs & seasonings, cook on med-low with a lid, flipping occasionally (try to keep it all in one piece for less mess later
3. cut your eggs into "bars" and roll up in tortillas sprinkled with a little cheese
4. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for heating later.

*Kids variations:  I used all eggs, extra cheese, plus added a couple of chopped baked potatoes to stretch out the eggs a little so they would last longer.  Kainan added jalapenos to his (eww!!)

And here is what happens at my house when I go out to a really long lunch with a friend and Paris and Abyni have a lot of time to kill... Its rockstar makeover and modeling time!!  I came home to find nearly 200 pictures on my camera!  My 13 year old is quite talented at the makeup and photos, and my 10 year old loves being in front of the camera:)

Those EYELASHES!!!  

The pouty lips...

Sorry!!! I have a GREAT future movie star excuse, though:)

I know I've been gone, but I really REALLY have a GREAT excuse!! 

I promise!

My youngest two daughters (Paris, left, 13; Abyni rt, 10) are both aspiring actresses...

And I spent most of the last week on movie sets without internet while I waited for my youngest actress to be done with her really LONG filming days (9 - 15 HOURS).

This is a video of my baby girl... expect to see her on the big screen in the future as she is very talented and even more determined!

I am finally home, unpacked and have our wash in the laundry... so hopefully now I can get back to cooking.  For at least a few days before we're expected back on set.

I'm thinking I need to start a new blog about our adventures as movie extras/principles, because it appears to be a pretty exciting ride!  What do you think?  

Are you interested in hearing the nitty gritty... the boring to the exciting?

Anyway, that is my excuse!  First I made an Anniversary post, then had a week of vacation, then got my kiddoes back just in time to have to leave for a week out of town for movies.  Its a somewhat exciting time and I can't wait to see what's next!

Clean Eating #133: Memorial Day Vacation Tilapia and Onion Campfire Bake

Campfire Tilapia & Onion Bake

Scroll down for the recipe if you don't want to see our vacation pictures:)

When we first got there, we got everything out and started putting up tents.

We had an inadvertent 'set up the tent competition' and the little girls pretty much won:)

They haz mad skillz:)

 Actually, I think the fact that the girls ALWAYS play together, and the boys COMPETE with each other, it makes the girls a much more formidable team, even though none of them have ever put a tent together by themselves before.  Actually, I think it was only the second time they'd even helped.  We haven't went camping often:)

All of last weeks flooding (see the tree TOPS just poking out of the water?) and storms resulting in "big waves" for at least the younger kids:)  They had an absolute BLAST "riding the waves" on their swimming noodles:)

Paris and Abyni jumped right in, first thing, even though the water was too cold for the rest of us.  They are like little fish!

Off to find a good place to kick off to ride the waves back to our campsite.  I think this may have been one of their favorite things to do... or at least what they spent the most time doing.

 Tilapia and Onion Campfire Bake

Ingredients (*For one meal/serving)

Foil

EVOO or Coconut Oil

2 Medium White Onions

Tilapia Filet

Tone's Citrus Grill Seasoning

Oil the foil with your choice of oil, all except the edges.

Add your thickly sliced onions

Top with Tilapia Filet

Sprinkle with Tone's seasonings

Wrap the foil tightly sealing the edged thoroughly by folding several times.

In the campfire (or oven set to 400), scrape some hot coals to the side of the fire and place your double wrapped foil packets directly on top of the hot coals.

You can also cover with hot coals to cook faster, but we rarely do.

Cook for about 15-20 minutes on each side.

The finished product?  WONDERFUL!!!

I actually made several different variations of meals this way this weekend and in the past when we lived on the bus.  I posted some of those as a guest blogger... so please go check it out!

See my Guest Post at my fellow blogger Kelsey's blog: ChicnSavvy Reviews "Campfire Potato & Cheese Bake" for some other variations and some vacation Video of the Bean jumping out of a tree into the water!:)

Thanks for stopping by!  What did you do this weekend?

Laughter is the Best Medicine: Hilarious Wisdom Teeth Boys

And yes, now that my trauma inducing wallet loss has been remedied, I can post all the tons of recipes I had on the SD cards that were IN the lost wallet.

While you wait, feel free to watch these fun youtube videos of my boys!

Jaedin's funniest clips (I had almost an HOUR of footage to go through!)

"Ellen is AWESOME" "why's that?" "I'm not exactly sure..."





Kainan was SO sad!! I didn't take much footage of him, and ended up trashing the majority of it because he was just crying and it made me sad. It CRACKED him UP, though, and he said I could post it. He thought it was hilarious... go figure:





Please feel free to share around!:) and there are three more on youtube, including the hilarious one with the boys together in the car on the ride home.

I need a laugh now, too!!  Comment with your funniest youtube video link or pictures, blog post, joke... ANYTHING.  Help me laugh today, PLEASE!!

Audition for a TV Show! Also, A look at my totally Random, FLY BY THE SEAT OF MY Pants life!

No Cooking OR Clean Eating Today.  

I'm Auditioning for a TV Show tomorrow!  And I am SO not prepared.

But my husband took me out for an amazing meal because he's just that awesome (so I didn't have to cook, but I shouldn't have eaten what I did because now I feel like crap AND I'm nervous!)

We've been getting more and more involved with acting, but focusing mainly on our two youngest daughters because they have expressed such a passion and drive for it.  My husband and I both enjoy acting as well, but the drive has been on them for the most part.

This is my youngest daughter singing a song I wrote for one of my plays.  She is absolutely adorable and THRIVES on stage.  She LOVES it.


This is my middle daughter being one of my narrators on stage... in a very unusual way. Probably like no narrator you've ever seen before:)

Because of this interest, the girls have taken some workshops at a semi-local casting agency.  That means we're on their email list and that we get casting notices.

Yesterday I got this casting call:

CASTING CALL: 

Co-Host Needed for Local TV Station

Auditionees will  interview and if possible sing/play piano and Sing.   Whatever talent you might have that would make a talk show more fun and interesting.  A pianist will be available for you.  Maybe do a pretend cooking segment. You could really do any kind of a product demonstration just like you would if you were hosting a show.  As with most talk show/interview shows it is all about personality.  This is open to men and women ages 21-50

I was like, "Wow.  SERIOUSLY??? I could DO that.  No.  REALLY, I could do that.  I COULD."

Then I thought, "Wow.  Could I do that?  Yes.  I could.  I'm going to go for it!"

I mean, why not?  This is no time to hesitate because I'm totally unprepared.  Since when has that EVER stopped me from doing anything?  As a matter of fact, most of the absolute best times/events in our lives are from moments just like this.

For instance when I was sitting in on my kids rehearsals for Alice in Wonderland night after night at the theater and thought, "Wow.  I could do this.  I think I might even be good at it" a few weeks later I ended up making 37 costumes in 10 days because the costumer apparently dropped out.  After I came through with flying colors, the Producer asked if I'd be interested in directing the next youth production.

Then followed three years of intensive theater involvement.  It led to me writing, directing and producing several plays myself and those were some of the absolute best experiences of my life.  Here is a clip from the first play I wrote (And, btw, the stunning one in the pink is my oldest son:)

When we lost our house to black mold and decided to go live on the road for a few years... we packed up the 5 kids, and lived on the road for nearly three years.  That was amazing.  I painted on motorcycles and we traveled around through 32 states painting at rallies.  These are some of the types of things I painted.  Motorcycles, leather, helmets.  And I did etching on windshields as well.  It was a nice way to support us when we were traveling.

Heck, even when we moved to Tulsa.  My husband and I had been fighting the 'rut' in our lives for a year or two, trying to move to the next town over, feeling a pull for CHANGE.  We finally decided that maybe we wanted to move out of state, decided on Tulsa and 3 weeks later, we packed up the UHaul and moved here.  Three weeks before my youngest was born.

I know this is the most random post, but I'm just so excited, on first, tired and EXCITED and nervous.  Yeah, I'm a little bit nervous.  But anyway, at the heart of it, I just had to share the excitement:)

Here is the song that I think I'm going to sing for the audition tomorrow... the rest of the audition?  Who KNOWS?  I have no idea which particular aspect of my talents I want to try to fit in there! I'm a very... eccentric, quirky and unusual person.

Feel free to leave comments on youtube (especially for my daughters, they LOVE comments!!:) if you actually watch/like any of these videos!  Wish me luck on Saturday because I will be needing it!

Have a fabulous weekend and Mother's Day!

Family Fun Finale: Hilarious Cooking Show "Chopped" Always Style

So, if you're a regular reader, you probably saw THIS post about the first segment of our cooking show remake and THIS post of part two.

Well today is the day for the finale!  This is the water spewing, food spitting segment.  Paris decided to play a trick on the judges, because she knew that she couldn't possibly make anything better than my tried and true cream cheese filled French Toast... so she added all kinds of spices and weird things to her dish and disguised it from them.  The reaction was priceless.  If you enjoy the video, please click 'like' on youtube!  Thank you:)

Family Fun PART 2: Remaking the Cooking Show "CHOPPED" with the kids.

Chopped, Always Style:  part 2 ~ Lunch!

So, if you saw this post, you know what you're about to watch:)  This one was even funnier... but not quite the level of the FINAL episode that's coming soon!!

Watch here, and please click "like" if you enjoy it and comment on youtube.  I'm really trying to get our youtube channel going strong!



Let me know what you think... and what other shows might be fun to remake? Or should we do a new version of this (and actually plan AHEAD to video?:)

Family Fun: Remaking the Cooking Show "CHOPPED" with the kids.

So my 12 year old daughter (last summer) came up with the idea to recreate the show "Chopped" with our family.  She wrote out food lists using things we had at home.  My husband and Squatch volunteered to be the judges (boy, did they regret THAT!) and the rest of us were contestants.

The rules were that you had to use at least some of each ingredients on your list.

The first segment had our food list as:

• Apple
• Peanut Butter
• Salt
• Frosting
• Oatmeal

Not too bad, right?  Surely no one can mess that up too badly.

That's what we thought too... untilllllll:



Watch. You know you want to:) Its worth a laugh. I'll post part two next week!

No Recipe Posting today, My HILARIOUS mom is visiting!!

Okay, so I got carried away watching youtube videos with my mom.  She lives in Iowa, we live in OK, so we don't see her often.  I video taped her watching the Ellend Degeneres show and she was HYSTERICAL!!  In case you're interested in a laugh... or two, please watch!

Spring Cleaning made Simple for Moms & Kids

Spring Cleaning

We had a few days without recipes because honestly, I was so tired of all the messes accumulating over the busy days between homeschooling and work.  I decided to try something new because I was tired of all the complaining whenever we took on "big" deep cleaning jobs.  

The "Lists"

This was the beginning of our lists.  I tend to think that my kids get overwhelmed with cleaning (especially deep cleaning) because it seems never ending.  What I chose to try this time was breaking things up, and giving THEM the choice of what chores they wanted to do.

We broke our time into 1 hour of cleaning, 30 minutes of free time... then back to 1 hour of cleaning.

Depending on the ages of your children, you  might want to go 30 for 30 or whatever.

Cover your table/door/whatever with post it notes.

Each post it note has ONE job.

I did not make one long list, like I usually do.  I didn't assign each kid a specific job.  That is just overwhelming... to all of us.  The thing is, this worked out SO well because the kids found the chores that they actually enjoyed!

This way the kids got to find ONE note, choose it, write their name on it and work on it. 

If they finished before the hour was up, they chose another and got started.

When the time was up, everyone stopped what they were doing and went outside to play.

*Honestly, this drove me NUTS because I would much rather just get it DONE!!

However, this was the most productive cleaning day we'd ever had, so I'm not going to complain!:) While they were outside, I'd add a few more post it notes with new things...

My 'pantry' was a mess.

When Paris cleaned out our spice shelf and they nearly covered the entire stove, it was obvious that we needed to thin down a bit.

Look at the GREAT job that Paris did!  And she discovered that she loves to organize, so she chose all of the organizing jobs from there on out.  She cleaned all the old food out of the refrigerators and organized everything, helped The Bean clean out cabinets... and she was GOOD at it too.

 And it looks like Paris may have inherited my love of the interesting angles for photos:)

Abyni scrubbed down the tops of the refrigerators, I moved and cleaned under them.

Realized months later why (once again) I don't spend time trying to find coupons when I can't even remember to use coupons RIGHT ON THE BAGS.  And the worst part?  I bought these BECAUSE I noticed the coupons, and I only bought one other thing that day.

The girls tackled the lazy Susan next. We needed some help.

We're wanting to thin down on plastic usage, so we tossed anything that wasn't in decent shape that we knew we could replace easily with glass or stainless steel.  This will be a process, though, because quite honestly, we're quite broke right now as it is.  It is a goal, though, and we're committed to working up to it!

And then I forgot an after picture, go figure.  I'd take one right now, but its the middle of the day after a lot of baking so the cabinets are pretty much empty because everything is dirty!