Paleo on a Budget

So, as I have said before, I've had many people tell me that they think it's great that I eat the way I do but that they never could. One of the reasons people think they couldn't do it is because they cannot afford it! We are a homeschool family of 5, and let me tell you, we are not rich. We sacrifice other things because food is important to us- food is life; it is our medicine, because without nourishing food we would be paying in other areas for sure. We often laugh that our grocery bill is higher than our mortgage, and it's true. However, we definitely have to be wise and stretch our food to make it work or I'm sure I could spend far more. Can you be paleo (or primal, keto, healthy) on a budget? Absolutely!!
Today, I want to share some budget friendly meals that are both nourishing and affordable. Eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank. The key is to include a protein, healthy fat, and some good veggies to each meal. Think about the money you'll save from eliminating soda, junk food, pastas and breads, and processed food; that stuff adds up!! You really can do it, and you can't afford not to.
If possible, try to find grass fed beef and farm grown chicken and eggs. If you look around, you can find some great local sources and save money by not shopping in the stores. I've developed some great relationships with local farmers that will deliver right to my door! If you can't afford to buy all organic produce, check out the "dirty" and "clean" list to determine which fruits and veggies have the least amount of pesticides and purchase non organic produce from that list. I hardly ever buy organic avocados for this reason.

Ok, so... let me show you what some great, healthy, affordable meals look like.

 When I started this journey, I was NOT about to give up comfort food. So, I tweaked everything I could to meet the criteria that was important to me. Here is the classic "Spaghetti and meatballs". Looks great, right??!! This dish is so simple and everyone loves it. And, there's a lot of variations as well. Bake your spaghetti squash (or throw it in the IP which is a.maze.ing. Cause it takes like 6 minutes in that thing!!) Make your sauce (with or without meat, or if you're really feeling adventurous, make some yummy meatballs), and DONE! You can puree some steamed spinach into your sauce, or I really love to bake this with some grass fed cheese to make lazy lasagna! YUM!

Speaking of comfort food, check these out!! When I think of comfort food, I think of "fried" food... which I don't eat! So, here are some great ways to give into that fried food craving, without the frying part. On the left are some "chicken nuggets"; Farm chicken breast dipped in egg, then into an almond flour coating. You can either "fry" them in a pan of avocado oil, or drizzle with the oil and pop in the oven. And, of course, you need to have fries. I always use avocado oil because it has a high smoke point. Cut up some regular or sweet potatoes, toss in the oil with a sprinkle of good quality salt, and bake in the oven! On the right is one of my favorites, burgers! I make my own patties with some grass fed beef, mix with an egg, a bit of almond flour, and some spices  (I also make a delicious homemade BBQ sauce for these babies). Then I wrap mine in lettuce but the rest of the family enjoys these just as a patty and eat them with a fork and knife. Either way, these are soooo yummy! And, you save money by not buying buns ;)

Another really budget friendly meal is cauliflower rice. Now, when I first heard about this, I was quite skeptical. BUT, you'd be surprised how good this actually is! Especially paired with some honey garlic chicken. You just take a head of cauliflower and throw it in your food processor and VOILA! You have rice! Fry that up in a pan with some garlic and avocado oil, sauté for a few minutes and add your veggies. DONE! Easy, right?

Now you might be wondering, why not just eat rice? It's healthy isn't it? Well, no. Now, I understand that not everyone has the same goals as me and that's ok. But, I'm just giving you the info and you can do what you want with it. Everyone has different goals. BUT rice has what's called phytic acid, or phytates  (as do all grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes) which are antinutrients (they interfere with the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Properly prepared (soaked or sprouted) these types of foods can be great. And, I do make sprouted rice on occasion. BUT, we're talking about budget friendly meals, and the cauli rice is definitely easier on your wallet. Skip the soy sauce and drizzle with some coconut aminos, or your yummy honey garlic sauce from your chicken.

Next up, who doesn't love a good pot roast??!! The great thing about a pot roast, or a good roasted farm chicken, is you're going to get more than one meal out of that sucker for sure. Pair that with a good healthy carb like some sweet potatoes tossed in avocado oil and some veggies, so good! I also like to do some yummy garlic mashed potatoes. Now, I need to eat these babies sparingly as they are starchy and convert into glucose in your body. But, since they're my favorite, I eat in moderation and have also found a way these can be healthier for my family and I.

Cooking potatoes in your instant pot turns a large portion of the starch into resistant starch, which is a healthier starch that isn't fully digested but is used by the body like fiber. Need another reason to eat some potatoes? If you leave the skin on, you've got yourself some prebiotics which promotes the growth of healthy bacteria in your gut!

When talking about healthy, cost effective meals soup is definitely going to make the list. After you've made your whole chicken, don't waste those bones!! Make some nourishing bone broth and then use it for a yummy soup! Such a great meal, and we love to pair them with these grain free rolls

paleospirit.com/2013/paleo-dinner-rolls/

Here is another classic: Caesar salad. I always make my own dressing (mayo, avo oil, garlic, spices). Throw in some chicken, and here I've also added some cheese crisps! Shredded cheese formed into a cookie like shape and baked in the oven until crispy and then cooled. Now, these aren't actually paleo. But, I can source a really good quality cheese (locally made and from grass fed cows) so we will eat this on occasion.

Here is the last dish I'm going to show you; we like to use butternut squash noodles. There are so many things you can do with these. We often do a stir fry with these and add either beef or chicken and whatever veggies I have on hand. I've also made an alfredo sauce from coconut cream and made these into "fettucine alfredo". It was to die for.

There are so many things you can do on a budget. We almost always have raw, organic veggies on the side of most dishes. A smoothie packed with protein and healthy fats is served with lunch daily to nourish and fill growing bellies. It's really not as hard as you'd think. Find your groove, what works for you, and never stop learning :)

Toxin Free Mama

My journey began with a huge lifestyle change. But, I certainly didn't do it all at once. First, I started off eliminating gluten and refined sugars. That actually wasn't that hard! I relied heavily on raw honey and gluten free oats. Over time, we've adopted more of a paleo diet; we eat organic, whole food and are grain free with the occasional sprouted grain, refined sugar free, as well as dairy free except for grass fed butter and cheese (which isn't paleo, more primal because primal includes raw dairy, although what we consume isn't raw because it's not available where we live).
I've recently begun  working at eating sprouted nuts and seeds, but we're not completely there yet (I have found sprouted seeds for a reasonable price, but not nuts... but I have soaked my almonds). It can be so overwhelming! I feel like once I've tackled one thing, I learn something new and I'm at it again.
One of the things I'm currently working on switching over is our household cleaners and other household staples. I'm working on being a toxin free mama! There are so many nasty chemicals in all those household cleaners you find at the store. I've started using essential oils and I'm loving them; they are quickly replacing the conventional medicines and my "medicine cabinet" is now filled with healing oils. I've also been using an essential oil infused cleaning product that I'm absolutely loving! I love that it contains no chemicals and my kids can use it to clean the house without breathing in the toxins. And you know what that means, less cleaning for mom!!
This week I  started using a few other products as well, and I'm feeling good about my home becoming a toxin free  environment. :)

What steps are you taking to rid your home of chemicals?

Banana Bread!

This last week has been hard. I warned you, I'll be writing about the good and the bad...well, this week has been bad.
Last week a snow storm hit our city and covered us with a blanket of heavy snow. It snowed for days and, though the kids were so excited to see the white stuff that they really hadn't had a lot of this winter, I did not share in their enthusiasm.
Now, I can't blame the snow for my troubles, but it certainly didn't help being stuck in the house. I couldn't drive on the roads myself so I mostly stayed in. Kids' activities were cancelled so there were some restless kids with cabin fever as well since they weren't able to get out and play in the snow until the weather permitted.
But after the storm had passed and I thought my spirits would lift, I was hit. This Lyme thing is no fun, illness often comes without a warning. I've been fighting insomnia since last week, and it has done a lot of damage to my body. I'm tired. I'm weak. I'm just plain exhausted.
Our daughter had ballet tonight and my wonderful hubby drove her to class before heading to his men's group at the church. My mom picks her up after class which is such a blessing to me. I usually stay in with the two boys until grandma returns with my daughter and I get everyone to bed. Grandma stopped by tonight before heading to ballet and saw me struggling to keep the boys occupied while cleaning up supper and making coconut milk for tomorrow. So, she graciously offered to take the boys along for the ride. So, I'm sitting in a peaceful house blogging!! These moments are rare but when they happen, I really just need to be still.
Being this tired is very difficult. My work doesn't stop just because I'm not feeling well. Each week I try to spend a day baking our breakfasts for the freezer so that I'm not baking all the time. I try to do 6-7 breakfasts in one day and it is quite tiresome. But I do it so I'm not baking daily. Though we can't eat processed foods like cereal, I still try my best to keep it simple. We are grain free so even oatmeal is out. We do a lot of eggs for lunch, so those are out for breakfast as well. So, I've found that the best thing for us is to have some yummy paleo baked goods, like muffins and loaves, in the freezer and I just grab something from the freezer each evening and it's ready for the morning! Well, tomorrow is baking day... ugh. I'm praying for rest tonight so I have the energy and strength to bake in the morning.
I push myself too hard a lot of the time. In fact, it was baking day last week that set me off. After spending the day in the kitchen I started to not feel well, and it was a tail spin after that. So, perhaps I need a new game plan. I often forget that I can't push myself like I used to and that's tough. How do you go from being the kind of person who just goes all the time, to someone who just can't? I don't know. But, what I do know is I need to learn when I need to stop.
Anyway, enough of the "bad", let's get to something good!! Because I need to be prepared and plan ahead for breakfast, I like to have easy recipes that I can make lots of. One of our favorites is this paleo banana bread. it's super yummy, and its grain, dairy, and refined sugar free! How great is that?! It's super moist and tastes great with a ton of butter.


Ok, so just to make you come back for more, I'm not just giving you a picture of the banana bread. I'm giving you a picture of some other goodies as well ;)  you'll have to stay tuned for more recipes!

Ok, onto the recipe...

Paleo Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

3 eggs

1/2 cup of almond butter

1/4 cup of melted coconut oil

*optional 1 tsp vanilla

* optional 1T raw honey (tastes great even without any sweetener!!)

1/2 cup of almond flour

1/2 cup of coconut flour

2 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp of salt

The how to:

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line your loaf pan with parchment paper or grease it with coconut oil.

Ok, this is great. Take those wet ingredients and put them all in your food processor or blender and mix it up. Easy, right? Mix together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then pour the wet into the dry and combine. I've also mixed the wet first in the processor and then added the dry to the processor as well and combined it in there and it works too. But, I always double the recipe to make two loaves at a time and I cannot fit it all in the processor at the same time.

Pour into your prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour (if you double the recipe and bake the loaves together, bake for an extra 15 minutes or so, but check to see if they need more time after that).

Make sure to cool completely before slicing or putting in the freezer. So, easy and so good!! I DO NOT recommend mixing it and not baking it right away as the coconut flour will absorb the liquid as it sits so its best to bake it right away.

Ok, the kids are back! I better get back to reality. If you try this recipe let me know what you think!

Coconut Milk!!

I get told all the time, "That's great that you can eat so healthy...I could never do that." Ok. First of all, that is ludicrous! I tell people all the time: If I can do it, you can do it. And, here's why...

I used to start each morning with coffee, full of pasteurized creamer. Then, I would drink that all. day. long. And, basically I would barely eat. And, when I did, it wasn't good. I snacked, I ate sugar and carbs, and I very rarely ate a veggie. It was bad. Anyone who knows me knows that I had terrible eating habits. We lived out of town for years, and the kids knew that every trip to town started with a trip through the Starbucks drive thru for a sugary latte. They had my order down pat. 

So, what changed? Well, if you've been following my journey you'll know that I was diagnosed with a pretty serious autoimmune disease that really forced me to take a look at my bad habits. And it was really this reality check that forced me to change. I'm not saying it has been easy, but it's absolutely necessary for my healing. I've learned so much over the past year and a half, and I'm excited to learn so much more.

So, if I can do it, trust me, so can you...

So, I've really had to change A LOT. And, because I had such unhealthy eating habits, I really had to find great alternatives to things I did enjoy (since there weren't many things I did) or I knew I would never stick to this new way of life. I'll post more on my wonderful treat alternatives. But for now, I'm going to show you this super simple way to make homemade coconut milk.

So, one of the things I chose to eliminate from our diet was pasteurized dairy. And since we cant legally source raw dairy here, I had to find an alternative. A huge part of our daily routine is smoothies. This stuff is excellent in a nice, creamy smoothie!

Why make your own? Great question! Store bought coconut milk (or any dairy free milk for that matter) is filled with additives like carrageenan, guar gum, xanthan gum, etc. What are these things exactly? Well, that's just the point. If you can't pronounce it and don't have a clue what it is then its probably not safe to consume. These additives used as thickeners and preservatives are not meant for our consumption and are harmful to our gut. And, making it yourself saves you money so it's a win-win, right?! 

Ok, the how to:

You don't need anything fancy to do this; a blender, some coconut, a glass jar, and either some cheese cloth or a nut bag (I HIGHLY recommend investing in a nut bag as it is easier, saves time, and will give you more milk).

You'll want to use 1 cup of shredded coconut to 2 cups of warm water (heat the water in a pot on the stove (you'll want it fairly warm but not boiling). Put the shredded coconut into the blender and cover with the water. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes to hydrate the coconut.

 

While the coconut is sitting, I like to get my jar ready. Put your nut bag (or cheese cloth, which is trickier) into your jar and secure at the top with a rubber band.

Blend your coconut for 2-3 minutes, then pour into the nut bag.

Once you've poured all of the milk in, carefully remove the bag and tie the top (for cheese cloth you'll need to carefully secure the top with your hands and be much more gentle as you squeeze out the milk). Now, squeeze the bag like you're milking a cow :)

And, VOILA!

Look at that creamy goodness! This should keep in the fridge for about 3-5 days, but we use it up so quickly I've never gone longer than that ;)

Now, I don't like to waste. So, I dump that coconut pulp into a bowl...

You can throw that pulp into your baking, OR you can dehydrate it for coconut flour!

I use my dehydrator and leave it in there for about 6-8 hours.

You can also use the oven (though I haven't personally done this). You'll bake for about 10-15 minutes at 250 degrees F on a baking sheet. Then, throw it back in the blender and grind into fine flour.

No waste!

We use the milk for smoothies everyday as well as to replace milk in a cream sauce, in place of milk in recipes, with homemade grain free granola, and more!

Coconut flour is great, though quite finicky, so only use it in a recipe that calls for coconut flour (do not replace it for other flours, as it absorbs a lot of liquid.

I'll be sharing recipes that call for coconut flour too, so stay tuned!

What do you use coconut milk for?

 

My Journey

Three years ago, my life changed in a big way. But, let's back up. After having my first two children, I started to have health issues. After my second child, I was thrown into extreme anxiety and insomnia, so much so that after four full nights of absolutely no sleep and feeling like I was going to have a heart attack, I left the kids with my husband and headed to the hospital. The emergency room doctor diagnosed me with post partum and quickly medicated me. Over the next few years my medication was changed numerous times, I was having stomach issues, and later was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I stayed on meds and went on with my life. Then, we decided to have another baby.
After our little miracle baby was born (that's a whole different story) I became very sick. I had gone off of all medication for the first time in 6 years to get pregnant. And, after he was born, the anxiety and insomnia hit me again full force. I began having many other symptoms that were unexplainable and no doctor could find what was wrong with me. My body was so full of inflammation that I literally had full body hives from head to toe every single night and morning for 18 months. I had sores on my head from inflammation due to an extreme case of psoriasis that no medication or steroid would calm or heal. A doctor prescribed me an antibiotic for my head, and one night I got up to use the bathroom and felt so sick and dizzy I could barely make it back to the bed. I fell to the floor and weakly cried out for my husband who picked me up and carried me back to the bed. I had no idea what had caused such a reaction until later...
After a series of events, I ended up at a Naturopath In Vernon, BC who, though I didn't know at the time, turned out to be a Lyme Specialist. After speaking with her and answering her questions she mentioned that I most likely had an internal infection and I was later tested for Lyme Disease. On October 31, 2016, I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease which was most likely a result of a tick bite I received 20 years earlier. I was so shocked. I had been living with this for 20 years. It explained so many of the symptoms I had experienced over the years and was still experiencing. It explained so much.
In the beginning I was so devastated. I did what so many people do (and shouldn't)... I got on Google. Now, if you're wanting information Google can be your friend. But, it can also be your worst enemy. I was so full of fear and worry and I believed everything I read about this disease and what it meant for my life. It was essentially a death sentence. I don't mean it kills you (although it most certainly can). But a life filled with pain and a ridiculous amount of health and mental issues, as well as constant relapse and co-infections is no life to live. Not to mention, this disease isn't even recognized as a "real" disease by most doctors. And, living in Canada, Lyme Literate doctors just don't exist. So, what was I to do? I'm a mother to 3 children, 2 that I homeschool and one toddler. I not only needed to live, I needed to live. I wasn't going to be bed ridden and helpless. I just don't have time for that. I want to be present for my kids, for my husband. So, with the grace of God and by His strength, I took my health into my own hands. And, that is where my journey began...
I started small, but I knew I needed to get better. I'm so thankful I stumbled across the specialist who helped me find out what was wrong with me. I had prayed for answers for years, and He had answered those prayers by pointing me in the right direction. She's been a huge help even from far away, and has me on an intense herbal protocol. But, I know that a huge part of my healing has to do with diet and healthy living. I'm far from where I need to be. I still have many struggles. But I have seen improvements and victories and am believing for full remission in the near future. Some days I have to remind myself of that constantly. And some days my faith is strong. But, I keep pushing forward and doing my part, all the while trusting God to continue to do His. In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24 it says, "by His wounds you have been healed". I believe it, and on days when I don't I give my doubts to God and keep going because there's no other choice: you have to keep moving.
So, that's my story but certainly not all of it. This is just the beginning. My prayer is that I can share my healing journey, the good and the bad, in hopes that it will inspire others to enter their own healing journey. We're in this together.