Here is a window into what I prepare in any given day and what myself and the kids eat. (My husband is also mostly Paleo, but I have no idea what he eats during the day, so we'll all just have to live with the mystery.) This is not a "typical" cooking day for me, as I was trying to get some things done in advance of the long weekend so I can kick up my heels. This is what I did today in terms of food preparation.
For breakfast this morning, I made a large tray of bacon and a batch of Paleo-friendly pancakes. (I actually follow the version of this recipe from their cookbook, which is slightly different. I omit the raisins and add about 2 teaspoons of maple syrup.) Whenever I make this recipe, I always triple it and freeze the extras. I actually make in bulk and freeze a lot when I cook - it does not take that much more time to do so and that way I don't have to constantly cook. Also, it means I have a tonne of food stocked in the freezer that is ready to go. Since I ran out of time to also make myself some eggs during the usual morning chaos, I broke my "Whole30" and had some pancakes. RIP, latest Whole30 attempt, or "Whole17" as you will be now be known. You will be missed, but I plan on consoling myself with chocolate this weekend, so I'll get over it. (Although to be honest, a few hours post pancakes, I can't say that I felt so fantastic.) Both older kids also got bananas before they were strapped into the car to go to school.
Before we left, I defrosted some "saucy chicken" (a Cindy original paleo recipe!) from the fridge and cut up broccoli for my daughter's school lunch. This was packed in a lunch kit with another banana and a bottle of water. For the 'at home' lunch crowd, the picky-eater-who-also-does-not-have-a-spectacular-appetite had a bowl of blackberries when we got home from pre-school, followed by a Lara bar and a banana. We often spend hours trying to get him to eat a proper lunch, only to have him eat his lunch at dinner time-ish. So I'm trying to lay off and let him have a snack mid-day, followed by an actual dinner. I think he'll end up eating exactly the same quantity/quality of food, but I won't have to go through the frustrating exercise of trying to force him to eat his lunch in a timely fashion. I was not feeling particularly hungry myself at mid-day, so I had an apple.
For the upcoming weekend festivities, I made a double batch of Paleo-friendly chocolate truffles, which are divine. (This is the recipe that solved my "no more chocolate mousse" problem.) I'll actually roll out the balls tomorrow morning. I also made chocolate chip nut-butter cups from the Paleo Parents' cookbook, Eat Like a Dinosaur. They're like banana chocolate chip muffins, but unfortunately the recipe is not available online. Not having lunch, I sampled one of these babies after they cooled off. After school, both kids had muffins for a snack and Mr. Fruit had a bowl of blueberries. Around 4 p.m., I regretted not having lunch earlier and scarfed down another apple before heading out to get groceries with three kids.
For dinner we had Nom Nom Paleo's Slow Cooker Kalua Pig. Because this spends 16 hours in the slow cooker, I put it in the night before I want to eat it, just before I go to bed. (I end up being closer to 18+ hours in the slow cooker, but it's deliciousness is unimpaired.) I made some roasted asparagus for the adults and some carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes on the side for the children. I also ate some carrots sticks while I was getting the kids plates out.
Back in the kitchen for my monster food preparation session, I seasoned 20 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with salt, pepper and granulated garlic; and then grilled them off in my countertop grill. I like to have these sort of chicken breasts always on hand, already cooked. The kids will eat them just like this, cut up into cubes, for either lunch or dinner when I'm not organized enough to have something else on the table. They are also seasoned neutrally enough that they can be added to other recipes as is, for emergency protein. I often pull one of these suckers out, heat it in the microwave, then add it to a big salad, and voila - lunch!
I prepped four batches of chicken wings, using recipes from Nom Nom Paleo's awesome iPad cooking app. Neither recipe is available online, so you'll have to spring for the app to get the recipes for Magic Wings and Chili-Lime Wings. What I've taken to doing, which is not in the app and can be easily done with other recipes, is that I season and bag the wings after I get them home from the store and then pop them in the freezer. Then, when I want to make them, they marinate as they defrost and the prep work is already done. I similarly got eight steaks into marinade, bagged and into the freezer. I think we're pretty much covered for weekend barbecuing.
I took at "testing" bite of the chocolate truffles (awesome!) and now I'm going to bed. So many dishes....
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