Here's the Cave Update!!

Well I haven't done so well with blogging, but that is all getting ready to change!! So here's what has been going on with us!! We are expecting another little cave dweller in the next 2-6 weeks, as she will be choosing her birthday!!! Yes, that's right we are adding some PINK to the cave!!! I may be slightly excited as I was feeling very outnumbered! I am 36 weeks pregnant and still sick every day, it has been loads of fun (insert sarcasm here!). We have very much fallen off the Paleo lifestyle and are getting ready to get back on it with a 30 day challenge tomorrow! I have been in survival mode for months now, doing the best I can while being so sick and pregnant. Not to mention all the renovating we have been doing in our home. I can't wait to start eating Paleo again, we figured it would be best to get started before I deliver so I can be back in a routine before the new little one gives me an excuse to continue eating a disgusting SAD. We are doing the challenge with others to help us be accountable.  My midwife is hopeful that being grain and dairy free again will actually cure my milk supply issues I had with the boys!! Woot! Woot!! Another plus for Paleo!

Well I have decided to start focusing on my blog and recipe creation as I take my maternity leave and pursue other parts of my passion for food and cooking!! I will also be documenting my weight loss journey post baby!!!

Guess, it's time to introduce all the cave dwellers, as I'm sure they will be mentioned a ton in my posts! They are my full time job!! :)

There is the hubby- Ben, our oldest- M, and our younger son- H, coming soon- C.

The hubby works in the corporate world and works in HR Communications. He does computer stuff all day that bores me to tears. Guess that is why I have an artistic job! He spent 5 years in the Army. I met and married him during this time.  He speaks Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. We have been married 7.5 years. He is also very handy with power tools!  M is a spirited 6 year old, who loves action heroes, Wii, and playing outside. He also likes to help with cooking. He also has a very independent side he is his father's son! H is my sweet 3.5 year old, who loves to play with his big brother, cuddle with Mom, and playing with our dogs, Dolce and Gabbana Bear. He is a very happy little guy who is usually smiling. As far as C goes, all I can tell you is she is much more active in the womb than the boys and I'm slightly afraid of what I've gotten myself into as far as her personality!! She seems to already be a little diva! Only time will tell us what God has blessed our family with this time! 

Be looking for lots of yummy recipes, some educational posts on food and maybe even natural birth, and some posts about natural/ holistic living with a family! Now I'm off to enjoy my last non-Paleo meal--PASTA!!!

60 Day Paleo Challenge

We are getting ready to start a 60 Day Challenge on Monday!! We have been cheating a little bit since the hubby's 30th birthday party was this last weekend and now Mother's Day is on Sunday. We have had some splurges and are mainly eating paleo in between. But I definitely feel yucky after eating a traditional American diet. I have a goal to lose another 35 lbs by the end of July. To date I have lost 18 lbs since going paleo. I am also getting ready to start Crossfit workouts. I am looking forward to eating cleaner, and feeling stronger and healthier. Join us for our 60 day challenge, let me know if you join in and we can all be support for each other!!

Chef Jess

Lack of updates

Well here's the deal guys!!  You know that my dad is sick, so I have been a bit busy spending as much time with my dad while I can. Plus, my plants arrived for our organic vegetable container garden, so between visiting my dad, I have been spending lots of time planting. I'll make a whole separate post on the veggie garden and why everything is in containers. I have several recipes that I have been dying to get posted and a post on organic v. conventional. Lots of ideas, not enough time. To top it all off, my hubby's 30th birthday is in a little more than 2 weeks, so I am a crazed fool trying to party plan!! I promise to get some new info up on here soon!! Weight loss update for me to date is 14 pounds.

Chef Jess

Update...Days 1-6 of Paleo!

Warning: this is a long post as I have put the last six days into one post!


Things with our paleo diet have been going great! I have lost nearly 4 lbs and at last weigh in, my husband had lost 6 lbs. I will admit we have had a few days that I didn't plan ahead very well and we ended up eating out, but we made it work. Two of the meals out we had Fajitas with guacamole and salsa. We also tried eating barbecue out, really hard, but chose brisket with no sauce, 2 pork ribs, and carrots. The other time I ate out, it was an 8oz steak and double steamed broccoli.


Things have been a little crazy this week for our family. My father is in the hospital and has just been diagnosed with Stage 4, inoperable, colon cancer on his abdominal wall. He had been in remission from colon cancer for 11 years. He also suffers from Parkinson's disease. These are both reasons that add to my desire to change the way my family and I eat, and why I am so happy to have learned about eating/living paleo. I don't want to have either of these illnesses. The commute is almost 60 miles round trip to go see my dad, each day. So it's quite a haul with 2 kids to go see him, but we are making it happen. On top of my dad being in the hospital, I started feeling sick Thursday with a sore throat and progressed into a nasty virus. I have head congestion, tons of sinus pressure, a sore throat that felt (I'll share my remedy that helped relieve this in a bit) like it was on fire, and a runny nose. It has been a struggle to eat as paleo as possible this week, but I can tell my body is really preferring this way of eating.


When I heard the news of my Dad's diagnosis, I wanted a giant bowl of chocolate ice cream and a bowl of spaghetti. Talk about emotional eating! Instead, I ate some rotisserie chicken and steamed broccoli. I was still wanting that chocolate, so I splurged a little on 1 Tbsp of chocolate almond butter and a cup of coconut milk. Not the worst thing I could have chosen.


So here is what our meal plan looked like this week....

Grilled Tuna, green beans, and salad

I have been using Robb's meal plan from the book as a guideline, we are mixing it up some though...


Day 1
Breakfast: 2 poached eggs, 1 oz raw almonds, and 6 sliced strawberries and coconut milk latté
Lunch: Chicken Fajita Salad (this is going in rotation for regular meal planning)
Snack: Leftover chicken and avocado from salad


Dinner: Italian Herb Crusted Grilled Tuna, Roasted Thyme Green Beans, and a salad of mixed baby greens and grape tomatoes, topped with lemon juice, olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and fresh black pepper


Day 2
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 oz walnuts, coconut milk latté
Lunch: Burger Patties with mustard and tomato, orange, and 1 oz raw almonds
Snack: Apple (it's all I had stashed away, better choice than yucky hospital vending machine food)
Dinner: Rotisserie Chicken and Steamed Broccoli
Splurge: 1 cup coconut milk and 1 Tbsp chocolate almond butter


Day 3
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1/2 avocado, and salsa, coconut milk latté

Picture from everydaypaleo.com

Lunch: Chicken Jicama Slaw
Snack: Bell Pepper strips, baby carrots, and hard boiled egg
Dinner: Ate meat out of lasagna at my mother-in-law's house (another not so good paleo option, but did the best with the situation)
My husband ate a lettuce wrap with ham and veggies for lunch and saved his slaw for dinner at school.
Day 4
Breakfast: 2 Slices of ham and 2 hard boiled eggs, coconut milk latté
Lunch: Steak Fajitas and grilled Peppers with fresh, tableside made guacamole and salsa, side salad with salsa for dressing.
Snack: 3 slices of turkey, some chicken jicama slaw leftovers, and some almonds
Dinner: BBQ: Sliced brisket, no sauce, 2 pork ribs, and carrots


Day 5
Breakfast: 2 Scrambled eggs, 2 oz nitrate free little smoky style sausages, and coconut milk latté

A certain little guy loves my coconut milk latte

Lunch: Chicken Fajitas with Guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and Salsa
Snack: 1 Tbsp almond butter, tried this new, wonderfully delicious treat from Hail Merry's The Chocolate Miracle Tart (explain more in a minute) and 1 cup coconut milk
Dinner: 8 oz sirloin and double steamed broccoli


Day 6
Breakfast: None was sleeping
Lunch: 2 hamburger patties, mustard and tomato, wrapped in lettuce, 1 gluten free hot link, and a gluten free beer (Our oldest had a cookout for his end of season soccer party)
Snack: 4 slices ham and 1/2 avocado
Dinner: TBD...probably Grass fed meat sauce with Spaghetti squash, hubby has to cook since I'm sick and feel like I am gonna keel over..


As you can see we haven't been perfect, but have done pretty darn good with the current situation. This just goes to show that even in craziness, it is possible to try and live a Paleo lifestyle.


Our boys did pretty well with the transition. They are 5 and 2.5. Their lunches were easy to switch to paleo style, they still had some raw cheese from a local farm. They ate conventional stuff at both Grandma's and Great Grandma's houses. Plus, today they had hot dogs in buns, cheetos, cupcakes, and Sprite today at our oldest son's soccer party. I wasn't up for the fight of making them eat paleo since my husband was volunteering for a charity event and I was sick. I figured this isn't an all the time thing and I would just let them eat like the other kiddos.

Picture from vegangoodeats.com

I said I would discuss the Hail Merry's Chocolate Miracle Tart, so let's discuss.... First off....Yum!! Hail Merry's is a snack company out of Dallas, TX (yay, local) that makes raw, vegan, gluten free snacks. I know, you are thinking, Jessica you aren't vegan, you eat lots of animal products. Yes, this is true, but the ingredient list in this is so awesome. The Chocolate Miracle Tart lists dark cocoa, organic cold pressed coconut oil, organic maple syrup, almond flour and sea salt as it's ingredients. Not perfectly paleo, especially if you are hard core, but way better than other options out there! The company also makes chocolate and blondie macaroons, the tart also comes in Meyer Lemon and Chocolate Mint. They have flavored nuts and Grawnola in their product line as well. Check out www.hailmerry.com to find a store near you that carries their products or shop the online store.


The other thing, I said I would tell you all about is my remedy for my sore throat. I took Colloidal Silver and sprayed 3 sprays in the back of my throat and added 2 droppers of Colloidal silver to some Super Food juice and added 20 drops of Chlorophyll and drink. My throat felt better instantly. Did that again this morning. I cannot stress to those of you reading this, know where your Colloidal Silver is coming from and how the manufacture makes it. Do your research. Be an educated consumer. You want a high quality product. I'll write a separate post later on Colloidal Silver.


Well, that's the past 6 days in a nutshell. I am really gonna try and post more frequently, but I am taking a pass this week, with the craziness that is my life!


Want to start checking out this Paleo lifestyle, read Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution book.




Chef Jessica
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Getting Started!

We, as a family, are going paleo! I started with a new personal chef client a few weeks ago and they are paleo, after studying how to cook for them, my husband and I both decided to give this a go! We start our 30 day challenge today. For more information on the diet, aka the lifestyle, it's at www.robbwolff.com  We will be eating a no grain, no legume, no sugar, no dairy diet for 30 days. I am getting ready to join a nearby Cross fit gym. Our son's are 5 and 2.5, and I don't want them to remember me or their dad as overweight. Be sure to check back for recipes we use and like, original ideas, etc.