Our 14-sleep no junk food reset (and the one exception we made!). Plus game-changing affordable kitchen gadgets for making healthy eats, and our favorite budget-friendly Paleo recipes…. all in this week’s newsletter!
Our Real Life
As a family we started a 14 sleep no-junk-food reset about a week ago. After the first couple days, we’ve been happier, calmer, and pretty pleased with life in general. Coincidence? I think not! After holidays, family tragedies, and vacations, the whole family desperately needed this! So glad we are all doing it together… and all seeing improvement!
Yes, even for Valentine’s day! Matt made us Perfect Restaurant Steaks from Real Life Paleo topped with tons of mushrooms and onions! It was the perfect night, complete with a Redbox movie I had been waiting months to see. Quality time and good food with each other was all we needed… no chocolate or sweets even necessary!
We did make one exception to the rule for Matt’s birthday celebration. My sister tried to make a cheesecake but had a recipe fail, so she found store-bought gluten-free and dairy free mini cheesecakes and made homemade raspberry sauce to go on top of them. It was our first bites of something sweet in a week. We put the leftovers in the freezer so we wouldn’t be tempted as we finished our 14-day no junk reset. It was a perfect reminder of what treats are truly intended to be!
Sunday brunch called for Easy Peasy Pancakes – no syrup needed because we added blueberries and pumpkin pie spice to the batter! Served with bacon and cheesy eggs. The best part? Wesley and my sister helping me in the kitchen so we could give Daddy a day off during his “I need to be spoiled birthday week!”
Our Favorite Affordable Kitchen Gadgets
Cast iron pans are magnificent! You can cook just about anything in them, and a nice-sized pan will cost you under $20; we highly recommend the small investment. Not only will it last a lifetime, but it makes the most incredible golden brown steaks, chops, and chicken! Find it –> here! And then make Garlic & Herb Perfect Pork Chops with it!
Turn vegetables into “noodles” with this vegetable spiralizer! It really does help everyone in the family to eat their veggies, and opens up a whole new world of healthy vegetable dishes to make! Find it —> here! And then make Shrimp Pad Thai or our Fauxmato Lasagna with zucchini noodles! You’ll save a lot of money over buying them per-prepared in the store!
A stick blender, also known as an immersion blender is an incredible kitchen helper! We love it for pureeing soups or applesauce right in the pot we cooked it in. It has an incredible variety of uses… from mixing pancake batter and scrambling eggs, to whipping up a batch of homemade mayo (so affordable when made at home)! Find it —> here! And then make —> Creamy Butternut Bisque with Bacon!
Our Favorite Budget-Friendly Paleo Recipes
Balsamic Roasted Root Vegetables
Crispy Oven-Baked Chicken Wings
Salted Chocolate Coconut Stacks