I hosted Thanksgiving again this year which means I had access to all the leftovers.  Which resulted in me gaining about 3 pounds.  Not good when were just starting the holiday season!  This might not sound like alot but it was just enough to put me into what I call my weight danger zone.  My weight danger zone for me is when I reach my highest weight I've ever been and am in danger of going up a size.  I pretty much don't think much about calories unless I am in the danger zone, then I am very careful to eat low calorie and exercise any chance I get.  I also try to be really careful about cutting out sugars and grains (unless it's high fiber) and basically trying to recreate that magical time in my life when I lost 15 lbs effortlessly. 

My husband needed to bring a dessert for an office potluck, so I wanted to make something everyone would like (who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter), uses simple ingredients (uses ingredients in most peoples pantry's), not too unhealthy (I wouldn't call this health food but it is healthier than normal Rice Krispy bars), is easy to make (no bake all you need is a microwave and a bowl an spoon), transports well (my husband commutes on a train to work), and doesn't need refrigeration.  Or in other words the perfect potluck dessert.  This would also be great for lunches, picnics, road trips, holidays, gifts, etc.

I often have a cantaloupe around in the summer.  I love cantaloupe and I love that they are so inexpensive and just the perfect size to pig out on for 1-2 people (I married with no kids).  Cantaloupe is also very high in vitamin C and A.  I cup has 95% of RDA (recommended daily Allowance) and 106% of vitamin A along with other vitamins and minerals.

Every June we have a huge abundance of strawberries from our extensive strawberry plants we have as ground cover.  We often pig out on our strawberries fresh with a chocolate dip  I make by adding milk with chocolate chips melted in the microwave.  What we don't eat fresh we freeze and use in smoothies and preserves.  So I make jam once a year.  My husband has peanut butter jelly sandwiches for lunch every day, so we go through a lot of jam!

My husband and I were invited to a cook out at our friends house.  They were making burgers on the grill and a salad.  While they didn't ask us to bring anything I thought it would be nice to make something.  The tricky thing is the couple hosting follows the Paleo diet and one of them hates all veggies and fruit.   Hummmm...   So I had to think what would be Paleo that most people would like, that wouldn't need to be refrigerated, and doesn't have veggies or fruit?   I scoured through my pinterest boards, (finally all my time putzing around on pinterest has paid off), and then I had it, brownies.  Who doesn't like brownies? They're always great for a picnic or pot luck!

This chocolate peanut butter popcorn is so easy to make from home!  This popcorn is perfect for movie night, game day, or any day really.  I know I could eat a big bowl every day.  It's super addicting!  :)  Not a fan of peanut butter?  No problem just substitute it with almond butter.

Lately I've been craving muffins.  And since I'm trying to clear out our freezer for Thanksgiving (we host every year) and we have alot of frozen pumpkin puree I made in our freezer, of course I thought of pumpkin muffins.

My Dad was in a really bad car accident almost 1/2 a year ago now and is finally coming home from the nursing home where he has been recovering since then.  I've been talking to my family about ideals for meals that will be easy for my family to make ahead for them.  My family is on the go often and very busy and my dad is a picky eater so I've been thinking of what I make that is simple, super good, and every one loves.  Look for more easy make ahead meal recipes to come soon!

I'm currently addicted to these muffins.  I seriously can't stop eating them.  I can eat them for Breakfast lunch and dinner right?  Think cheesy sausage omelet cooked to perfection crossed with a muffin.  Next time I make it I plan to use my large muffin pan so I don't feel like such a pig eating 4 or 5 muffins at a time!  These are great for brunch or an easy hearty breakfast to go.  They'd even be great for a picnic! 

I think I might have a new food love.  Butternut squash fries.  Oh my good golly miss molly these are addictingly good. They actually taste to me a bit more like potatoes but with a twist. I liked these actually better than sweet potato fries.  I'm not sure if squash is actually better for fries or if this batch just happen to turn out better.  Either way it's a great way to get your kids friends or spouse to eat their veggies and to use up extra produce.  We didn't grow any squash this year after our horrible infestation of our squash crops last year, but we did snag a super deal at our local farmers market for a huge bucket of squash the last day of the market this year.

Okay so this recipe is soooo not Paleo. Which I do follow most of the time, (about 80% of the time) but not always.  Sometimes a girl just needs a grilled cheese sandwich! I'm all for substitutes when they are just as good, but in this case I just went with the real deal.

Upon playing with the ideal of making vegan ice cream this week I had the question "Could it be possible to make vegan ice cream that you could just throw in your freezer and eat the next day without having to do anything else that actually taste like the real deal?"  Boy did that question intrigue me.  Healthy ice cream in under 10 min prep.  That would seriously rock my world (and my husband's).  Well I've been playing with recipes all this week, and I'm happy to say mission accomplished.  My world may never be the same again.  I just had gelato for breakfast today!  It was creamy, quick to melt in your mouth, and had a denser (less airy texture), and you would never dream it was vegan and made from fruit and nuts, or that it only took about 10 minutes of prep time to make!

Check out BBC Food's egg and cream base no churn ice cream recipe

Lately I've been obsessed with ice cream. So I figured it's time to develop a  a recipe that doesn't require an ice cream machine.  We actually have one which we used to make our low sugar vanilla ice cream, but since we don't have an ice machine on our fridge, we have to clear out a lot of our freezer and slowly make ice cubes in our trays, dump out the ice and rock salt in our bath tub and hope we can keep Mr cat out who is beyond curious about the whole process.  It's really only something I'd like to do a few times a year, but I'd rather eat ice cream much more often than that!  I've been researching and playing with recipes all week.  I go to bed thinking of ice cream and my first thought in the mourning is "I better check out how my ice cream did overnight".  Let me tell you that helps get my lazy butt out of bed!

Every Christmas I like to make snack packs as gifts.  I tend to go a bit crazy making lots of chocolates.  You can see some examples here.  While they turn out great and people love them, it is a bit too much work I've decided.  So this year I was just going to make a batch or two of spiced nuts.  That was until I found some fantastic easy healthy recipes for nuts, candies, and chocolates from "Paleo Indulgences" by Tammy Credicott.