Two Kitchens, One Passion

It really doesn't feel like 30 days have already gone by, but our last day of Whole30 is actually here!  I wanted to wrap the month up with a great Whole30 dinner and I even lucked out with a surprise day off work.  I showed up at the middle school this morning and the teacher I was supposed to sub for was in the main office as well..turns out there was some confusion with the online system, but I secured 4 days of work in February at this school as a result! So what did I choose to spend my day doing?  Cooking of course! I also can't forget to mention that I ordered my bridesmaid dress for Lindsay's wedding today!  Next on my to-do list: Find gold shoes!

It's definitely hard to believe that we only have 1 day left of our Whole30!  This month flew by, but I enjoyed the changes that I made to my diet.  I look and feel much leaner and stronger than I did one month ago.  My overall health has also improved as a result of the Whole30 program.  I've enjoyed it so much that there isn't any non-Whole30 food I've been craving to have after the 30 days are officially over!  My plan is to stay Paleo and continue experimenting with new ways to prepare food, so that I can keep variety in my diet.  However, I won't be following the strictness of the Whole30 program on a daily basis.  I will probably incorporate some paleo foods that were not okay on Whole30, such as paleo desserts every once in a while, paleo pancakes, paleo muffins, etc.  Another important thing I have learned from completing the Whole30 is that additives, such as preservatives, sugar, and salt are not necessary and foods taste much bette...

I've been substitute teaching for a few weeks now and here is what I have learned: 1) I definitely like middle school more than high school.  It took me a while to realize this, but now I know for sure. 2) I love subbing for science classes! Today, I got to play another  Bill Nye video! :) This time it was on nutrition...and sorry Bill Nye but this video is NOT correct with a lot of the statements on nutrition (at least not in my mind, especially after being paleo!).  However, we are all aware of the when the Bill Nye videos were filmed, so I'll give him some leeway for not necessarily knowing any different. Now on to food...dinner today was the first time that I have had swordfish and I liked it!  I have learned this month that I really enjoy seafood and I've had fun trying different fish.  The swordfish was much meatier than other fish I have had.  Unfortunately, I did some research on seafood after dinner and discovered that swordfish contains high...

So today I was in another creative and experimental mood.  The turkey sweet potato meatballs below are my OWN recipe, and not to toot my own horn, but they turned out spectacular!  They had a delicate sweet flavor from the sweet potatoes that was nicely complemented by the addition of sage and onion.  They tasted great for dinner, and I am thinking about enjoying the leftovers for breakfast this week as well.  A little side note: The pumpkin curry dipping sauce that I made for the meatballs is very tasty, but I thought that the meatballs had plenty of flavor themselves and enjoyed them more without any sauce.  Feel free to try them with any sauce though if that's how you enjoy meatballs! BREAKFAST Chicken Asparagus 1/2 avocado POST WORKOUT Larabar LUNCH Leftover sesame chicken and cabbage 1 beet Handful cashews 1 clementine 1/2 avocado DINNER Turkey sweet potato meatballs Pumpkin curry dipping sauce Garlic & chive mas...

Hello Alumni Day!  It was great to see everybody that traveled for this annual UMBC swimming & diving team event, hosted by our head coach, Chad.  I was amazed at the number of alumni/family that showed up this year..the house was way more crowded than last year!   Chad always has TONS of delicious food at these events, but unfortunately it is 99% NOT paleo.  Since Dan and I are still going strong with Whole30, we felt it would be best to cook dinner ourselves before  going to Chad's and being surrounded with those foods!  The coconut thai basil curry chicken we made was excellent!!!  The spicy paprika rice Dan had made the previous night also tasted great with the curry.  I don't have the specific recipe, but it was basically a mix of garlic, onion, red curry paste, coconut milk, fresh basil, and a couple other spices. BREAKFAST

It's Friday, AND we got an early dismissal for (the threat of..) snow!  How could the day be any better :)  It's also alumni weekend for UMBC's swimming & diving team, so I'm looking forward to seeing everybody tomorrow at the swim meet and our coach's house.  I had somewhat contemplated going out with everyone tonight, but that turned into an epic fail when I fell asleep at 8:30.  Oops! :) BREAKFAST

You know it is going to be a good day when it starts with a 2 hour delay!  It still amazes me the amount of snow that schools in Maryland will close for in comparison to upstate New York.  Not that I'm complaining about this fact because it allowed me to get some extra sleep.  I also got to substitute for my mentor teacher from the high school today.  It was nice getting to see some of the students and other teachers there again!  After work, I went to try on bridesmaids dresses for Lindsay's wedding that's coming up in June...It was an easy decision to pick out the one I will be getting (it also happened to be the first one that I tried on).  Now I just need to order the dress and find shoes! For the wedding, the colors will be Maize & Blue! BREAKFAST