Busy Busy May

What is the deal with May? Everyone seems so busy, myself included. Way busier than usual. A lot of it has to do with school activities for the kids and the beautiful weather getting us out more. Today is the Hubby's birthday! I'm going to make the Carrot Cake from the Make it Paleo book. He is Vegan, but is mostly grain-free, sugar-free too. I was going to completely skip making a cake, but decided he was worth the effort ;-) This weekend the whole family is going indoor sky-diving for his gift. w00t!

In the midst of busyness I wanted to share some of what I have been eating. Ever since vacation (which I am still dreaming of) I may sneak in a grain food item here or there. Like last night, I made the kids Chicken Tacos and I just had their regular taco shells instead of making up the flax seed tacos I usually make. They are allowed on the Belly Fat Cure and I just did not have the energy or time to make anything else. But I'm 99.5% Grain-Free Paleo/Fast Track.


#1 biggest change for me lately is that I am getting my vegetables and fruit from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). It is delivered to a nearby location once a week with whatever is ripe. It is all organic and from local (within 300 miles) farms. I'm not sure how this is going to work since after the first week, I still have tons of it left! The Hubby has said he wants us to have all organic now, and while I totally see his point (after years of disagreeing) I realized how difficult is to find the foods we need that week that are organic. I'd come home and say "We had to have apples for the kids lunch box, but the market did not have any organic, so I got these" and he would say "Next get something else instead". So this left me really frustrated and determined to find something that would work for our family... I'm still looking. My CSA is Freshness Farms and includes eggs and fresh made bread.

I made Bacon Wrapped Chicken and it was wonderful, the kids loved it too, even they initially they acted like they would not. They actually just picked it up and eat it with their fingers. I splurged for nitrate free bacon and LOVED this meal. I made Cheesy Broiled Cauliflower to go with it. My friend Anne turned me onto this dish, and its is really nice. Fresh or frozen cauliflower chopped up, grated sharp cheese and seasoning under the broiler until its browned and bubbly.

I also get my meat from a local CSA that is up in Sonoma, Marin Farms. The Vegan Hubby said "If you're going to eat all that meat, make sure it's the good meat". Okay. It's great stuff, comes fresh once a month with whatever was ready for slaughter. It could be beef, lamb or goat - but after WAY too much goat, I asked to remove goat from my order. I gave it a try, it was fine actually but didn't really fit into a regular meal plan for us....  One of the first things I noticed about this meat was that it smelled like, well, raw meat and, well, blood. My store bought meat smells like ammonia and sterile by comparison. At first it grossed me out, but then I realized Hey! This is fresh meat and SHOULD smell like it! I'm completely sold on the meat CSA, we've been doing it for many months now.

These are my meatballs, made without breading. Just meat, egg and spices mixed, rolled into balls and baked in the oven. They are so good and I love to serve them with Zucchini Noodles and Alfredo Sauce. One of my very favorite meals! The kids get regular noodles with meal.


I hope everyone is doing well and still working on their weight loss goals! Summer is right around the corner and makes for a great goal to fit into new clothing. Remember the secret to losing your weight is to eat EVERY MEAL, EVERY DAY like it counts. Don't give into cheating urges, make something allowed and yummy instead. The urge to cheat will pass....

Local Harvest lists CSA's all over the country, even in places you would not expect, in case this got your curious. This is not a sponsored post (I've never done a sponsored post) just my personal love of CSA's kind of took over here!