Sunday Morning Shopping

Good morning everyone! :)

We slept in again, because my sinus infection is back in full swing, hit me again last night and I have a killer headache.  But I believe that if it's not during the work/school week, if the body allows itself to sleep, we should allow ourselves to sleep as long as we can.  My natural waking time is usually right before 7:00AM (too bad my job starts at 7:30!) but this morning, being Sunday, I allowed myself to sleep until 8:00, and lay in bed until about 9:30 just wishing to go back to sleep.

Good news this morning, from Mars (you may see me call him DH - Dear Husband sometimes, btw). When he awoke, and after getting his sleepy morning thoughts together, he informed me that his stomach feels much better, and none of the normal morning cramps or bathroom explosions he'd had the past week!  I'm so happy with this news!  So I will be posting some of the things we did yesterday on our "liquid" diet that may have helped soothe his IBS. 

If you've been following me for all of a day that I've blogged on Pallid to Paleo, you know we've "done this before."  So this is the first "OFFICIAL" day that me, Mars, and our son are fully Paleo.  And I need to go grocery shopping.  It's a little daunting, even though I know the gist of what I should be buying.  Not that I'm afraid I'll "slip up" or anything, it's just that I haven't made an actual menu for the week yet, plus, the budget is pretty tight today, with Mars having had a week off from being attacked by the IBS last week.

So, this is my simple list, which I have to say, I do enjoy grocery shopping more when we're Paleo.  It's so much easier.  Note: Nothing in the way of meat that I'm buying is organic.  I realize organic is preferred on the Paleo lifestyle, but the budget is just too tight for it right now.  We'll do the best we can with what we have :)

• Chicken thighs (Fresh, not frozen, from Sam's)
• Roast Beef (Sam's)
• Ground Beef (Sam's)
• Sweet Potatoes (Sprout's Farmer's Market)
• Onions (Sprouts)
• Cauliflower (Sprouts)
• Bacon
• Eggs (2 dozen)
• Fresh organic spinach (2 packages)
• Tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• Canned Salmon

I still have the frozen mixed fruit, green powder, flax seed, and ACV (apple cider vinegar) for our morning fruit smoothies.  Yes, I know, there are a lot of Paleo/Primal folks out there who wouldn't agree with the daily smoothie, but it's dairy free, and we enjoy them.  It gives us a lot of nutrients I still feel we need.  We still have about 2 lbs of venison that was given to us that I'll be using for chili today. We also still have plenty of almond meal for the salmon patties, hamburger patties and meatloaf. 

This is my plan for the week:

Breakfast 

• Bacon, eggs, and a small fruit/green smoothie

Lunch

• Meatloaf, hamburger patties or Salmon Patties
• Salad
• Homemade bars (like Larabars)

Dinner

• Today - Venison chili (no beans!)
• Monday - eat at the Lodge (I have no idea what will be served, so that's a bit scary)
• Tuesday - Pork Roast with sweet potatoes, onions, and a salad
• Wednesday - Leftovers from Tuesday
• Thursday - Sage & Bacon wrapped Chicken Herbed chicken breasts with cauliflower rice sauteed cabbage and steamed carrots
• Friday - Leftovers from Thursday

Saturdays are different...whatever we have leftover from the week, I will neatly wrap up in an omelet for breakfast. 

So this should be interesting.  I will update after our shopping trip to list what we were actually able to get on the budget, and through the week I will be posting the recipes I use and how well the quantities of food are lasting with our appetites!

UPDATE - this is how it went...you can also see above what we didn't get (stricken through on the list above)

Sprouts:
3 lbs whole carrots
3 lbs (approx) vine tomatoes
2 lbs dried fruit (for Mars' snack through the week)
2 heads green cabbage
10 Haas avocados
6 lbs sweet potatoes
$31.18

Sams:
2 - 18ct
2 pkgs organic baby spinach
5 lbs ground beef (90%lean)
10 lbs chicken breasts (less expensive than the thighs this time)
5 cans pink salmon
14 lb pork butt (they didn't have the beef roast I normally buy)
$86.04

Grand total - $117.22

Did I do well as far as the budget is concerned?  Well, quite honestly, I'm not sure at this point.  As the week progresses I'll see how the food stretches and how we're all feeling. 

One honest side note: I still have a package of Bob's Red Mill gluten free bread mix, that I will be making for our son's lunches.  No, it's not paleo, but there is no grain in the mix.  This is only because we're on such a tight budget this week, and we still have this, some cheese slices, lunch meat and four single serving bags of chips that I will not throw away.  His skin is still bad, but he's really the only one in the house who can eat this stuff without as serious instant side effects as we seem to have, so it's his until it's gone.  Then once it's gone, he'll be paleo with us.  I can already tell he's going to have serious issues with this way of life just by some of the comments he makes about not having cheese and dairy.  He has opportunities for work which gives him some extra money, and I know that when he's out, he's free to buy whatever he wants (and he does), which is fine with us.  We won't be tyrants about his diet, and he knows that whatever he does will affect his skin, so he's old enough to know this is his choice.  However, after the gluten free bread, cheese, lunchmeat and chips are gone, none of that poison will be brought into our house anymore, and he'll eat the same things we're eating. 

I do know from past experience, that while being primal, not having the sugars and heavy carbs, after a few weeks, everything tasted better.  It's like the sugars and empty carbs screw up your taste buds (I figure kind of the same way smoking does, but I've never been a smoker, so I can't say for sure) and once we're "off" of that addiction, everything good just tastes better.  So hopefully this will help him in his transition to Paleo.

So, here we go.  I'm off to the kitchen to cook for the rest of the day!  Will be posting recipe pictures as they come...