My UN-Processed Life

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Breakfast for Dinner!! Paleo Pancakes!

This is one of my favorite Paleo recipes! Tonight I had breakfast for dinner! I took 2 eggs, 1\2 banana, and a small amount of shredded coconut and mixed them together! Heated up a skillet and put in about a tablespoon of coconut oil. I then poured in the mixture! Cooked it on one side then flipped pancake and let other side cook! You can make one big pancake or 2 small ones! You can a!so top with fruit or maple syrup if have the extra calories! So good!

Paleo Pumpkin Coffee Cake

This morning I tried my first recipe using coconut flour and almond flour! I got the recipe from PaleOMG http://paleomg.com/pumpkin-coffee-cake-lake-powell-trip-3/ it was very easy to make and I think it turned out really good for my first attempt!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

I'm Back! Day 177! September 5, 2014

Finally.........I am back! I haven't posted anything new in 107 days! :( I would love to say that I have not had any processed foods in the passed 107 days, but over all I think I have done pretty well! The downside for me was that I had started adding in allot of carbohydrates and was not doing as well with portion control as I should have- therefore I started gaining weight! So even though this journey was suppose to be about a lifestyle change and not my weight*** as we women know, no one wants to have excess pounds and it is not healthy either! So after some research, I have decided to go with a UN-Processed Paleo eating plan. For special occasions I will stick with some of my favorite UN-Processed recipes but for day in and day out I will be using Paleo recipes!

One exciting thing that happened over the past 107 was My Sister and I purchased 1/4 of a beefalo from Hawks Farms in Chesnee, SC! http://www.hawkfarms.com/

Here are the nutritional facts for Beefalo: http://www.hawkfarms.com/nutritional-facts/

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Day 70! Happy Cow Creamery! Pelzer, South Carolina

Day 70! Happy Cow Creamery! Pelzer, South Carolina

http://www.happycowcreamery.com/about-us/

I am ashamed to say that I have driven by a big sign for Happy Cow Creamery almost every other Saturday for years! :( I have heard about Happy Cow over the years but just never took the time to stop and check it out! In my search for healthier food my sister reminded me about Happy Cow and how close I live to the farm(about 15 minutes)! She sent me a link to their website and a link to Farmer Tom Trantham's story on Youtube! http://www.happycowcreamery.com/12-aprils-program/
Rhett and I sat down one evening and watched the video, it is a really great story about how the cows let Farmer Trantham know what they needed and therefore became Happy Cows! After school the following day we headed out to Happy Cow Creamery! Rhett loved getting to see the cows and even petting a few of them! On our first visit we purchased a gallon of whole milk and 2 gallons of chocolate milk, I had heard the chocolate milk was the best, obviously it's chocolate! Both of my children and their friends love the chocolate milk! On my visit last week to Happy Cow I got more milk and some butter, can't wait to try it out(had another brand left I need to use first before it goes bad), my sister says it's the best! They also sell fresh produce, cheese, free range chicken, free range eggs, homemade jellies, relishes and so much more! Rhett's favorite is their ice cream! We Love Happy Cow!

Here are the Happy Cow Milk nutrition facts: http://www.happycowcreamery.com/nutritional-facts/

Here is what I copied off their website today-says partial list of items!

Here are a few pictures from our visits!

Rhett loves petting the cows!

Said He was looking for his favorite cow!

Yum! Milk and Butter!

Rhett loves the ice cream- He always gets 2!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Day 64! Exercise! May 15, 2014

I feel like I have finally gotten the hang of the UN-Processed Life! It has been 63 days and just this week I feel like I have my life back! I mentioned in a earlier blog that not eating processed food was defiantly work! I also mentioned that it is defiantly worth it! This is by no means written to discourage you, I am just trying to be honest with you! I work full time and have been on-call nights and weekends 4 out of the 9 weeks! So between work, kids, family, and life in general, I feel like I have been spending most of my "free" time in the kitchen and if I am not in the kitchen I am at the grocery store! At times I have felt overwhelmed and thought I would never make it, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! I now have a system worked out- between my grocery lists, meal planning, leftovers, making meals ahead for freezing and learning some recipes for what I like to call quick meals, I am happy and thankful to say it is all going much smoother! It has taken allot of work to get my kitchen and life organized! Learning to prepare ahead is defiantly worth it! I feel better and I feel better about what I am serving my children! I would encourage you to take the 10 Days of Real Food Challenge http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/take-the-10-day-pledge/ or the 100 Days of Real Food Challenge http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/original-100-day-pledge/ I personally did not sign up for either of these as I was already on this journey before My Sister sent me a link to Lisa's Blog! 63 days in I think it would have been nice to have been on some sort of program for encouragement and accountability! I highly recommend this blog for encouragement, tips, ideas, and best of all the recipes! So I guess at this point you are wondering why I put exercise in the title of this entry?? My point behind telling you all of the above was to let you know during all the work I have put into being UN-Processed I have been a slacker on exercising! On day 60 I started back with my exercise routine! I not only want to eat healthier I also want to be stronger and feel even better! Oh and I have the Kiawah Half Marathon coming up in December, no time like the present to start training! Wish me Luck!

As a side note, I am thankful for the New to Me refrigerator I was able to purchase about 2 weeks ago! In my planning and prepping I realized I needed more fridge and freezer space! Not only was this refrigerator bigger and matched my kitchen better, it was a great price! My old refrigerator is now it the garage for more storage! Thankful and Blessed!

Friday, May 9, 2014

Day 59! My Son's Unprocessed Birthday Cake! Mine Craft! May 10, 2014

Day 59! My Son's Unprocessed Birthday Cake! Mine Craft Birthday!

Tomorrow is My Son's 8th Birthday! So hard to believe he is already 8 years old! For his birthday we went hiking and had a picnic lunch at Pisgah Forest in North Carolina! http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g49442-i116834-Pisgah_Forest_North_Carolina.html The theme of his birthday was Mine Craft, I got a few ideas off the internet on how to decorate his cake! I also wanted to make him a cake from scratch with nothing processed in it. I got this recipe from 100 Days of Real Food : http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/05/24/recipe-yellow-cupcakes-homemade-frosting-better-than-the-box/ I did not do the pink icing- I made his green icing with Spinach that I juiced! So my major fail on this cake was-The Mine Craft character Creeper on the cake is made ofHershey's chocolate bars! This was the only part of cake that was processed! I had a hard time deciding what to make the face out of and the quickest and simplest thing to so was break up the squares of chocolate and make the face! By far the icing was the best part of this cake and you could not tell it had juiced spinach in it at all! The cake was good too, I did let it bake a little long and it seemed to be a little dry but overall, a Win! Great day of Family, Food, and Hiking!

Day 57! May 9, 2014 So how's it going?

Day 57! May 9, 2014 So how's it going?

I have to say over all I still feel better and have more energy! I am really enjoying the cooking part and trying new recipes! It has been a crazy few weeks here between my daughters prom and our families April and May birthdays! I can not say that I have not eaten any processed foods but I have tried to limit it, the hardest was prom weekend! We were on the go all weekend and ate out allot- even though I tried to stick with salads and whole grain items, and so called good for me items.....guess what??? by Sunday night my indigestion was back, I had not had indigestion in over a month! Needless to say Monday morning I started back juicing and got right back on track! Guess the moral of this story was even when I think I am "eating good", unless I am make it myself its more than likely processed on some level!

I found some eggplants on sale so I thought I would give it a try! I had never purchased an eggplant in my life so it seemed like an adventure! I used this recipe from All Recipes for Eggplant Lasagna! http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-lasagna/
It did take me a while to prepare this so unless you do some of the steps ahead of time I would not recommended making this on a busy night! It was some work and but defiantly worth it! The only change I made to the recipe was replacing ground beef for tofu! I also got a tip from someone about eggplants, they said eggplants can have a bitter taste to them unless you soak them in salt water at least 15 minutes before cooking them. I did this and I did not taste any bitterness! I will defiantly be making this again!
Here are a few pics from our crazy past few weeks!