Today was the first day of my last college semester! I wanted to make sure we would start the week in an organized and prepared manner so a big part of the weekend was dedicated to re-organizing our food and preparing some food for the week.
I started it all on Saturday, with a grocery run and a quest to find the necessary ingredients to make Paleo bread. Almond meal, coconut flour, coconut oil, arrowroot powder, psyllium husk (soluble fiber) were the main elements I was looking for. I had to go to 4 different grocery stores to find it all. I knew I would be able to buy most ingredients online but I wanted to have them now (very Veruca Salt of me!) to start experimenting right away. When I got home, I tried my first loaf of bread from a recipe I found online. I quickly figured out that I should have looked at the comments before trying it. Not only was it the most ridiculously small loaf I had ever seen, it looked like a sad little poop. I was really disappointed but my husband encouraged me to look for another recipe (and checking the reviews this time). I found another one that turned out much better, although it tastes a lot like eggs (having 5 eggs in one loaf will do that, I guess) and I’m not sure that I really like it. So, all in all, the Paleo bread experiment isn’t going too well so far but I am not ready to give up. I will do my best to eat (read: avoid wasting) what I made this weekend before baking any new ones.
Sunday, I completely re-organized our pantry, fridge and cupboards. First, I cleaned our fridge of anything past its due date, almost empty, left sitting untouched for too long, or just very bad to have around. The fridge completely cleared up and feels healthier now. Then, I got to the pantry where, once again, I threw away everything that had expired as well as a few things that would be really bad to keep around (the old, but always there, marshmallows were the first thing to be trashed). I also moved all the beans I had put in mason jars before the holidays into ziploc bags instead as they aren’t encouraged in the Paleo diet and, therefore, don’t need to be so readily available anymore. Finally, the biggest piece of work was the cupboard. I loved the way it was organized with my massive mason jars of flours and various sugars. But let’s be honest, those are not the things I should be able to grab quickly anymore. Instead, I put them far away on top of the fridge and organized the new almond, coconut and arrowroot flours in their place. I also repackaged and organized the million bags (only slightly exaggerating) of various nuts and seeds we had around (pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds…you name it, we have a ton of it!). I put the most snack-friendly ones in the pantry at eye level and the other ones can be easily accessed in the cupboard.
All this made the kitchen a lot more health-friendly with minimized temptations and easy access to good options.
I made sure to cut up all my veggies (broccoli, carrots, celery, 3 colors of bell peppers) so they would be ready to cook or snack on throughout the week. I also hard-boiled some eggs for my husband’s breakfasts and my lunches. My husband cooked some fabulous thin sliced flank steak and portioned it for the week.
We’ve officially had a full week away from the tempting restaurants and already came up with a bunch of fabulous Paleo-friendly dishes that made us really proud and happy. I will hopefully be sharing some of the meals we came up with in the upcoming days.
The Hungry Quebbie 