What's Shakin Bacon (Mmmmmmmm Bacon)

It's been awhile since I have been around these parts. Not much has been going on except the end of the school year (14 days, but whose counting). Our last day of school is Friday May 23 and then we will have a week of Inservice to close everything down. Thankfully I won't have to do too much since my wonderful assistant will be running summer camp in my classroom. I plan on cleaning out and getting rid of a lot of stuff, but besides that I am done. 

I honestly think the reason I have not been around much is because all of my extra time has been spent dealing with my little ray of sunshine (we have been in the trows of the terrible two's for the past 2 months) and cooking. Lots and lots of cooking! I have really been trying to get a handle on my allergies and dig myself out of the rut that comes with trying to figure out what I can and can not eat these days. I have cut out all processed foods and I have never felt better. I have gone full Paleo these days and I am currently completing my first Whole 30. I attempted to start one a last month, but Lent kind of threw a wrench in the whole you need to eat a lot of meat thing and I panicked and stopped after about 2 weeks. I am pretty sure God will forgive me for eating meat during Lent since there isn't much else I can eat and no one would want to be around me on those days I only ate fruits and vegetables (It t'wasnt pretty). . After these 30 days are up I will continueto follow an 80%/20% paleo diet which means I will stick to a completely paleo diet during the week and on the weekends If I want a little splurge I will enjoy my homemade gluten free pizza crust, almod ice cream bites,  and almond chocolate chip cookies and I will enjoy every bite!

I posted on my Facebook a few weeks ago about how people react when I tell them about my food allergies and what i eat. They usually ask "If you can't eat bread what do you eat?" and then they say how much that would suck and I must be hungry all of the time. I will say living this way isn't the easiest and the amount of dishes I make would make any mom cringe, but for me this works and I am happier and healthier than I have been in quite some time. As you can see for not being able to eat any bread I eat pretty well most days.

Zucchini noodles with homemade ground turkey spaghetti sauce

              This next picture is a typical day of food. Breakfast of poached eggs, sweet potato hash browns, and fruit. Lunch this day was tune fish stuffed hard boiled eggs using egg free/dairy free paleo mayonnaise. All of these snacks lasted me about 3 days at school. Dinner was a bowl of home made turkey tacos with black olives, lettuce, avocado, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro.

Another breakfast of scrambled egg whites, Pederson's bacon, sweet potato hash browns, and some avocado.

Dinner of an all beef burker patty over some fresh lettuce, sweet potato fries, and some apples.

Looks awful huh?

I am on day 9 on this new journey and I have never felt better. Besides 2 allergic reactions to  foods I knew were not safe I am 100% happy and healthy. I typically post all of my meals on Instagram especially during these next few weeks of my Whole 30. I am not an expert on this journey and I am absolutely not perfect, but I am trying my best to do the best for myself and my body. I am going to try posting a weekly update of my meals and how everything is going. Today also marks the first day I will be joining a new workout group at my school and I am hoping this helps out with my goal to run the St. Jude Half Marathon this year. Wish me luck and if you are also working on a Whole 30 I highly suggest you check out Nom Nom Paleo. I get a lot of ideas and recipes here.

9 days down 21 more to go, but whose counting. And if you were really paying attention you will notice the end of my Whole 30 does not coincide with the last day of school so we will see how restrained I am in not enjoying some of the wine I have waiting in my freezer on that very last day.

Where I've Been and What I'm (Not) Eating

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

I took a much needed break from this here bliggity blog , but after a few glasses of wine today and the threat of bad weather I decided I needed something to occupy my time so I am jumping back in! I have still been typing over at my school blog Insane In The PreK Brain and I am actually a few weeks behind over there, but that is neither here nor there. So what have I been up to? I have mostly been working on staying healthy, learning more about my food allergies, and hanging with my little family of course. Ever since allergy gate 2014 life has been a little more complicated and I can say with all honesty, going gluten free was so much easier than cutting pepper out of my diet has been. There really isn't a lot of information out there on black pepper allergies and I thought maybe I could compile any information I could find and put it here for anyone else who finds them self living with random food allergies. 

So what does a pepper allergy mean for myself and my family? Basically we only eat at home and the food is almost always 100% prepared from scratch with a few exceptions. The super short list of store bought items currently residing in our pantry, fridge, and freezer are: gluten free tortillas, laughing cow cheese, Veggie burgers, and gluten free bread. Everything else we make or is a fresh fruit, vegetable, or protein.
We have also been switching to all organic foods since our grocery list is so limited anyways that we may as well use the money we were saving on organic non modified foods.

Just this weekend I had my first experience eating out since finding out the extent of my allergies and let me tell you that it was very interesting and not very easy to navigate. I can honestly say going gluten free was a hundred times easier then going pepper free in regards to eating outside of the home. Gluten/Wheat allergies are more prevalent nowadays that most restaurants offer at least a few safe options. Our first pepper free venture out just so happened to be at one of my favorite restaurants called Soul Fish where everything is blackened, fried, and not Roxanne allergy friendly. Thankfully our server was very patient, understanding and as helpful as she possibly could be. I didn't really mention my gluten allergy since I could tell for myself which items would be the safest in regards to that, but I needed a little more help with the pepper. Basically any and all proteins were not an option so we started looking through the vegetable plate options which were limited when it came to my needs. I ended up choosing steamed broccoli topped with parmesan cheese with no seasoning (delicious!), cucumber salad with no seasoning (delicious!), and sweet potato fries which were delicious, but probably not the safest option gluten free wise (See I told you this was complicated). What makes them unsafe you may ask. Well many sweet potato fries are coated in flour to make them crispier and I guess I was so worried about not getting peppered that I totally forgot about this. I ended up with a belly ache and itchy swollen eyes which is just normal these days so nothing new and lesson learned.

As of right now I don't even think it is worth the risk of trying to eat out anymore so don't look at me like I am crazy if I roll up to a restaurant or your house with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because going through a menu and trying to figure out if something might possibly have pepper in it is just not worth it. Like Brent said I guess I will just have to eat at home and drink wine whenever we go out (Darn!)

So there you have it. The long and short list of what I have been up to and what I have been eating. Hopefully my itchiness can help someone else out there who suffers from food allergies and doesn't know what to eat. Starting next month I will be posting my monthly meal plans again and I will make sure to note any changes I make to any recipes to make them wheat and pepper free.

And in honor of my big sis getting married in exactly 9 days here is a picture from her big bridal shower a few weekends ago.