Grain Free Taco (aka Taco Style lettuce Wrap)

Grain Free Taco AKA Taco Style Lettuce Wrap

Ingredients:

• Refried Beans (I make refried beans from dry beans)
• Cooked Ground Beef (I cook in bulk and freeze to make this a quick fix)
• Tomato
• Cheese of choice
• Green Leaf Lettuce leaves, whole (or you can just make this as a salad)
• Sour Cream (just a little bit)
• Spices to taste (I use these Mrs. Dash flavors)

I slice tomatoes instead of dicing so its less messy... unless I'm making this salad style

I mix a little bit of refried beans into the taco meat to extend it (because, hey, meat is ExPenSive!) and also to make it stick together a little bit more for less mess!

Add the tomato and get ready to fold and eat!

Viola!  Grain Free Taco!

Verdict:  Um, yeah.  I've had one of these every morning this week.  I LOVE it.  Having the seasoned ground beef and beans already put together in the fridge or freezer has been perfect for a quick fix meal!

OAMC:  Add some extra ground beef to your Once a Month Cooking plan and leave seasoned ground beef and refried beans to your list to make this a quick and healthy fix for your family!

What are your favorite quick fix meals?  How many grain free meals do you suppose you make in the course of a week?

Whoa. I'm LOSING WEIGHT. Grain Free, clean eating Pot Roast

After a solid YEAR of gaining weight (whilst trying to LOSE), I have not  only NOT gained any weight this past week, but I have lost four pounds!!! (If you see them, please don't tell me, I don't want them back)

That may not sound like much, and its not a lot... but I am telling you, after watching the scale go up for so long, it feels like a miracle to see it go back down.

Apparently my body just does not like grains.  I went a while without eating gluten, but found that even brown rice was making my digestive tract go into spasms and a form of rebellion that I honestly hope I never have to deal with again.  

So I guess you'll be seeing more grain free recipes from me for a while.  And, since we're moving within the next two weeks, the recipes will be SUPER quick or made for bulk cooking because I don't have time for anything else!

Grain Free Pot Roast & Veggies in Marinara

A pot roast with veggies and meat so tender, you can cut it with a fork!

Ingredients:

Home made Marinara Sauce (or you can buy your own, I prefer to make it in bulk at home so that I know what the ingredients are!)
Beef Broth ***I like thicker stew like pot roast, so I tend to keep it 3 parts marinara to 1 part beef broth, you can use the amounts that suit you and your family.

Round Steak/Flank Steak (I used round steak and just cut extra fat off before cooking)

Carrots, chopped in large pieces

Potatoes, chopped in large pieces
Frozen Corn (although some people sensitive to grains shouldn't have corn either)
Frozen Green Beans
Cabbage, chopped
Onions, chopped in 4ths (I keep mine big so that my one non-onion kid can pick them out)

Pretty much any other veggies you want!

Directions

OAMC:  Chop the veggies, Steak and divide into meal sized freezer bags/mason jars if you're avoiding plastic.  Add Marinara sauce and seal bag.  Freeze.

When you're ready to cook, take it out and Add 1-2 cups of Beef Broth throw it in the crock pot in the morning and have for dinner.

Regular Cooking:

• With thawed meat, put skillet on med-high.
• Sear meat by cooking it for just a few minutes on each side.
• Add marinara & beef broth
• Add carrots 
• After about an hour or so
• Add all other veggies

Cook on the stove on medium until the meat and veggies are done (at least three hours)
Bake in oven on 350-400 for several hours.

If I had the freezer space right now, this would DEFINITELY always be a OAMC recipe.  Until I get an upright or deep freezer, we're stuck with bulk cooking on the stove and then we all just eat it until we're stuffed.  

This is a slightly modified old time family favorite.  I remember eating pot roast with potatoes and carrots at my grandma's house for Sunday dinner.  Yum!

Grain Free Quick & Easy Breakfast Pepperoni Pizza

Grain Free Pepperoni Breakfast Pizza

I am currently looking into going grain free.  I have a long blog post explaining, but until I'm willing to put up a photo of my current weight, I'm not going to publish it just yet.  Suffice it to say that I have tried everything under the sun that I could think of, I have been to doctors and been tested for everything we could think of and my weight continues to creep up...

Well, I went gluten free this past weekend and my weight has dropped two pounds.  That's not necessarily saying a lot, but after a full year of a continuing climb, I'll take it!

I saw this super easy idea for pizza (one of my favorite foods ever!) when going grain free, so I tried it this morning.  Not bad!

Ingredients
1 tsp coconut oil
2 egg whites
2 eggs
pizza toppings of your choice
1 Tbsp pizza sauce (marinara or alfredo)
1/4-1/2 cup of cheese of your choice

Dab the oil from the pepperoni to get rid of a little extra fat

Directions
Melt coconut oil over medium heat
Whip the eggs & pour into skillet
Once the bottom is cooked, lift edges and let the uncooked egg run under (this is my hubby's favorite way to make omelettes... it makes them a lot fluffier).  After about a minute, flip the eggs.
Add pizza sauce, toppings and cheese
Remove from pan & stick under the broiler for just a few minutes


Eat it up!

Verdict:  Yummy!  It definitely won't replace "real" pizza forever, but it will hold me over as I go through this month of trying grain free!  Next time I'm going to try it with alfredo, spinach, feta and tomato:)

Going Grain Free? Raw? Which end is up?

I have been having some pretty hard core health issues over the last year.  I know that a LOT of it stemmed from stress, wearing out my adrenals, etc.  A LOT.

But I have continued to gain a large amount of weight, regardless of anything I tried.  I know a lot about nutrition.  I am continually trying to inform myself, make better choices and get healthy.

A year ago, I looked like this:

Not perfect or anything, but I was toned.  I had muscle and not  a ton of fat.

Now?  I'm too embarrassed to have my photo taken.  I can barely handle going out in public.  I can't shop for clothes without crying. I cringe and try to hide whenever I see someone with a camera.  I have gained enough weight that I now am more than 20 pounds heavier than I ever was... even 9 months pregnant with my fifth child.

I was a fitness instructor until recently.  Since last May, I have gained a LOT of weight (as in over 60 pounds in a year).  It wasn't long before the weight was making my knees hurt. A lot.  I taught 4-5 fitness classes a week. I would come home and my joints hurt SO badly that I could barely walk into my house.  I was stiff, sore and aching.  I pushed myself to keep working out because I kept gaining weight, even when there was no change in my eating habits or even when I made even more, healthier, change.

Finally I had to take time off of work.  The pain in my joints was SO bad.  I thought I just needed to rest them.  After 5 weeks, they felt no better.  I was so upset... and the weight still piled on.  Then the rest of my symptoms of dry skin, exhaustion and even more severe insomnia than I had already suffered from got worse and worse to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore.

Googling symptoms one day, I found that I matched so many of the symtoms of adrenal fatigue and hypothyroid.  I started researching natural supplements that would help.

After 10 months, I finally caved and went to a clinic.  The doctor, for whatever reason, refused to do a thyroid panel, even though I would have been paying for it out of pocket (we don't have health insurance currently).  I finally found a doctor who ordered the thyroid panel and I had all the test results from the first doctor to show that it wasn't anything blood, liver, etc. related.

My results came back "normal"  they were borderline "off" but not enough to get any help.

I found an online place to order thyroid supplements and began taking them.  I need something to change, like right now.  Everything in my life is going fine except for this... and this is a BIG deal to me.  HUGE.  Ha, no pun intended.

ANYWAY, in researching even MORE... I found these, and it intrigues me, because the symptoms of being grain sensitive fit my symptoms just as much, if not more than the hypothyroid.  Huh.  I had planned on doing a blog series of "30 Days of Raw", but now I'm thinking I may do "30 Days of Grain Free" (obviously a lot of these will overlap... but still...)

If you're interested in learning more about going grain free, why/if you should (its not for everybody), etc. you can check out these links that I've been reading tonight!

10 Reasons to go grain free

Difference between Atkins Diet and grain free diet (The Atkins diet always worked wonders for me in the past)

Eating ancestrally

Grain Free Living

Grain Free Recipes

I will definitely still be eating clean (I especially do not miss MSG, HFC & artificial sweeteners)... I'm just not sure its going to include grains much, if at all.  It may take me a few hits and misses, because I do love my bread and POPCORN... omg.  I LOVE popcorn... ugh, but I have to find something that works.  Being this overweight is just devastating to me.