Back on the bandwagon

I promised after griping Friday night that I'd crawl back on. And I have. Yesterday was actually a little bit better, which inspired me to get back in the kitchen this morning. And in just under 2 hours, I've prepped some for the week and learned some lessons about whole foods. Shall I share?

Breakfast - fried apples and oatmeal. This is super easy and super yummy. Start coconut oil (remember those digestive benefits?) simmering in skillet. Add a smidge of brown sugar, and stir real fast so it doesn't scorch. Peal and slice an apple, sprinkle with ginger and cinnamon, and leave it. Every few minutes, toss the apples so they cook evenly. If you use an-almost-bad-apple like I did, this takes about 10 minutes. Then add oatmeal (and chia seeds) and fry.

My only complaint here was that I like my oatmeal toasted, as in, almost granola. I probably should have started this in another pan, because by the time I added the oats I was 1) hungry an 2) the skillet was too full to toast properly. 

Dinner - Taste of Home's Coffee Pot Roast. Onions, mushrooms, little salt/pepper/chili powder and a cup and half of coffee. 

Breakfast for this week - whole wheat waffles. That's the last one on top, so it looks smooshed. But they are light and fluffy and tasty. I can take these to work and re-toast them. 

Remember me mentioning the whole wheat cake mixes a couple weeks back? 

 Well, I've found that just adding whole wheat flour to a recipe that calls for white doesn't always work. The cakes were bread-like - good flavor, but stiff. So, genius thought, I started looking for recipes that actually call for whole wheat flour. I've been slowly following 100 Days of Real Food's blog and her recipe index has a ton of whole wheat recipes.

I think baking whole wheat with coconut oil also really helps to soften it up.

Whole Wheat Biscuit Mix - again from 100 Days of Real Food. This is to replace my jiffy mix...and also because we ran out of bakery bread and I'm not going shopping until this coming weekend.

Super easy - just the flour, salt, and baking powder. But now I just have to add milk (almond) and butter (or coconut oil) and we're set!

And lastly - just for fun - and because I had extra coffee left over from the pot roast - coffee ice cubes! On the right, I'm freezing my chocolate mint leaves to add to my iced coffee.

So slowly, but surely, I'll get through meals this week. I wish I had time (and money!) to just stay home and peal veggies, and cook and make bread. I'm learning how to fold all of this into a normal life, and trying hard to not feel guilty for using the easy routes sometimes. (I bought a cake at Marsh last night - I just needed icing.) I figure every real food we eat is a step in the right direction, and quite frankly, our bodies have adapted to eating processed food. So every now and then, I figure it's not gonna kill us. It sure beats stressing over things!