Meal Plans Week of September 13, 2015

My life is so hectic with graduate school and teaching.  It seems like when I am not at work, class, or sleeping, I am doing homework. I have done very little workouts the last three weeks with trying to get in a back to school routine, so I am ready to get back to workouts this week. We have been doing P90x3.  This last week should have been "Victory Week," so we are going to do "Victory Week" this week since we missed a lot of the workouts last week. With my schedule of having to go to class two nights a week, I may have to do workouts either early in the morning, late at night, or sometimes double up other days and forgive myself a workout on days I have class.

We ended up eating out a lot last week because I ran out of steam to cook.  This week I have decided to use my crockpot more in order to avoid some of the fast food. My goal in general is to move back towards more of a Paleo diet, but those recipes can be more time-consuming to make sometimes.  I really like a lot of the Six Sisters Stuff recipes because they are tasty and easy, so for now I am probably going to use a mix of Paleo recipes and Six Sisters recipes as I work on establishing a routine.

My plan for Meals this week

Below is my general plans for meals this week.  Sometimes I will choose to change things around depending on my mood, but this is my general plan.

Sunday:

Last night I made Creamy Ranch Chicken in the crockpot and served it over brown rice.  I also threw zucchini and baby carrots in with it while it cooked in the crockpot.  It came out pretty good and made for an easy Sunday dinner.

Monday:

Diestel makes a Turkey Chorizo that Kyle and I both really like that I can get at Whole Foods. I like to use it to make quesadillas, frittata, or breakfast tacos.  We usually do some type of breakfast for dinner at least once a week. Monday night I am going to make a frittata with the turkey chorizo, spinach, and bell pepper. I may also sneak in some other veggies.  We will probably have it with some biscuits.

Tuesday:

I will use the leftover Turkey chorizo to make quesadillas with some spinach and cheese. I will probably make roasted squash and zucchini to go with it because I have a lot that I purchased from the Farmer's Market on Saturday.

Wednesday:

Wednesday night I have class so we will usually do leftovers, wraps, or I will make something in the crockpot. This week I am going to make Crockpot Picadillo.  Picadillo is really tasty on rice, a salad, or in tacos.  Kyle prefers it as a taco.  I like it all three ways. Once again I will probably sneak in some extra veggies in the Picadillo because I have a lot from the Farmer's Market.

Thursday:

I have class again. We will do leftovers.

Weekend:

We will probably finish off leftovers, eat Chick-Fil-A at least once, and I will also make Sweet and Sour Turkey Meatballs in the crockpot.  You can read about the recipe I use from this post.

As you can see I am using my crockpot a lot this week. I am hoping it will help me be more successful with meals this week. How is your eating going with the back to school craziness?

Taking time to Enjoy Food

I have been eating a paleo diet for about three weeks now.  I realized the other day that I have enjoyed food a lot more in the last three weeks than I have in a long time.  That sounds crazy!  I have cut out a lot of things from my diet and been forced to cook a lot more.  How can I enjoy food more when I take out grains, dairy, beans, soy, corn, etc?

I have always had a love/hate relationship with food.  I love to eat, but then nothing sounds good.  I don't want to cook.  I don't want to eat out.  I think a lot of this emotional tension over food is that a lot of foods made me feel blah.  When you eat something and then feel blah, it doesn't sound good the next time you think about eating it.  Over the last few weeks,  I have not felt blah.  Nothing has disagreed with me.  You can enjoy food so much more when you don't have to worry how you will feel after you eat it.

Did I mention I have also had fewer headaches?  Another bonus.

Anyway, I look forward to trying more paleo recipes and see where this new journey takes me. I am learning to enjoy food and learning how to make good decisions when eating out.

What kind of relationship do you have with food?

Whole 30 Week 1

I decided to start Whole 30 on January 3.  Many teachers are actually doing Whole 30 in the month of January.  You can check out what everyone is eating on Instagram with hashtag #teachersofwhole30.

I think the inspiration for many teachers to get started with Whole 30 began with Rachelle at For Blogness Sake.  She has some great posts on Whole 30. You also can go to the official website.

I have been considering trying the Paleo diet for awhile.  I have read quite a few stories like Danielle Walker's story at Against All Grain where the Paleo Diet helped them reverse a lot of the symptoms of their autoimmune disorders.  Autoimmune disorders run in my family.  I already have asthma and thyroid issues, and I also know I am probably high risk for other autoimmune disorders considering my family history.  I also struggle with chronic tension and tension headaches. I already know I feel better when I east dairy free and gluten free.  Well, now I am going to try grain free all together.

I created a Pinterest board to save Paleo Recipes.  You can click HERE if you would like to follow the board. I tried a few of the recipes the first week and really liked all of them.

Dinners from Whole 30 Week 1:

I started off making the sausage and veggie skillet.  It had some kick to it, but it tasted really good.  It was an easy and quick meal that would be a really easy one to throw together. I used a turkey kielbasa when I made it.

I then made a beef stew in the crockpot.  You can't go wrong with something warm that cooks for hours in the crockpot.  It was filling and made good leftovers.

I decided I wanted to try this Asian Chicken Stir Fry recipe.  I also had been wanting to try making cauliflower rice, so I also made this cauliflower fried rice to go with it.  Both tasted good, but it was a bit involved to make both at the same time.  If I made it again, I would probably blend  up the cauliflower ahead of time.  I would probably also just morph it all into one dish to make it easy like a chicken cauliflower fried rice with extra stir fry veggies.

I will have to do another post to share what I have tried this week.  I will say I have enjoyed all of the recipes I have tried.  Who knew you could enjoy food so much without grains, beans, sugar, or dairy?