21 Day Sugar Detox & Mexican Meatloaf
So as you know, I’m a seasonal camper. We have been to our
home away from home every single weekend since Mother’s Day. It has been really
great. We’ve made fabulous family memories, and have made a new camping family
with our neighbors there. However, this summer has not been great for my
healthy new Paleo lifestyle.
What do you think about when you think about camping?
S’mores? Chips? Hamburgers? Well that’s what all my “camping family” thinks
about, too, but also ice cream, pizza, spaghetti, alcohol, and more. I have not
indulged in all of the above, but many of them have entered my previously clean
system throughout the summer. I can definitely see and feel the effects. My
face, my energy levels, and the fit of my clothes are 3 main effects to be
exact.
I’ve kept up with working out all summer and have a great
relationship with that, but the food is no longer where I want it to be, so in
comes the 21 Day Sugar Detox. I know about this Detox because I follow Diane Sanfilippo (I have her Practical Paleo cookbook and love her podcast Balanced Bites). I've known about it for awhile but kept making excuses why I shouldn't do it. I would look at the calendar for 3 weeks and see: "oh I have this dinner out, so I can't do it until after that." But then the next 3 weeks would have something else. Finally, I decided there's no time like the present and I'm just going to commit!
I started on Tuesday and have been doing great. This week I’ve
stuck to recipes from the 21 Day Sugar Detox guidebook and have found more than
one keeper already! Here is my first adventure with completely Paleo and
sugar-free cooking:
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| The makings of red pepper sauce in my food processor |
Monday September 4, 2017 Labor Day
What I made today:
4 salads for my lunches
Salmon salad (like a tuna salad) from the 21DSD guidebook
for Phillip’s lunches
Mexican Meatloaf from the 21DSD guidebook
Red pepper sauce to go on our eggs in the morning from the
Whole 30 book
Homemade Mayo for the salmon salad from Julie Bauer’s
cookbook
How long it took:
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| The finished red pepper sauce. LOVE this on eggs! |
I didn’t actually notice the time I started in the kitchen, but it was after I got back from shopping, so probably a bit before 4. I was able to do all that cooking and get my workout in before we ate around 6:40.
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| The cilantro in the filling smelled fabulous! |
It was not intentional, but I did not cook the onions and
garlic, as the recipe called for, before mixing in with the meatloaf mixture. I
was trying to “mise en place” before I actually started cooking, which is not
something I usually do. This has me run into stress issues as I’m trying to
grab ingredients while something is simmering/overcooking on the stovetop. So
anyway, I pulled out all the ingredients ahead of time and even did my
chopping, which is where the problem came in. I chopped up the onion first and
put it in a bowl. Then I grated the carrots on top of that and the red pepper
on top of that. Well, I was only supposed to sauté the onions, but since I had
the other veggies on top, I couldn’t only sauté those! So they just went in
raw. I can’t imagine that they could have made that much of a difference in the
taste, though.
Lessons learned:
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| This is the Grass Fed Beef I got on sale this week, it was only $5.99 lb |
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| Here's what it looked like before going in the oven |
Meatloaf Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
It was good, but since I’ve become a “Paleo chef” this year
I’ve tried at least two other Paleo meatloaf recipes that I liked much better.
We both thought that this one tasted very similar to regular non-Paleo meatloaf
recipes that we had when growing up, with a ketchup on top. The ingredients made
it seem like it would have a Mexican flavor (they included cumin and chili
powder among others), but that Mexican taste just wasn’t there.
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| The plated meal with extra red sauce for dipping & roasted broccoli |
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| My kitchen after all was said and done, phew! |
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