A Fun Day and Yummiest Lunch Ever

While having absolutely nothing to do with this post, my kid is adorable,
even when he's trying to shoot me :)  And no, I haven't been sending my
kids to fight club, he climbed up on a box and fell off and smacked his eye.

We had a fun day today, the kids decided that we needed to have a picnic, but I hadn't had time to make any "picnic" foods, so we went through the frig and grabbed some leftovers and a few bananas.  But first we had to sell milk and go to the gym and do some shopping.  So I worked out, the kids watched TV in the kids area, they have a great play area, but my silly TV deprived kids just think that stupid screen is the best thing in the world...  Oh well, they'll grow out of it, they had better :)  Then we did some running, by the health food store to pick up some Sea Snax, since I use sea salt I've been thinking I needed to eat some sort of sea vegetable to get iodine, and I noticed these were Whole 30 legal, so I grabbed a couple packs of the Toasty Onion.  And they are actually super yummy!  My kids even liked them, surprise, surprise.
While they were kinda pricy at 2.29 for .65oz, they're super nutritious and I figure since we don't spend any money on snacks and junk food, this is okay.  Then we ran by the grocery store to pick up some "light" olive oil.  I'd like to make some healthy mayonnaise and tried once before with extra virgin olive oil and I had to throw it out...  I hear this recipe is super delicious and it'd be nice to have on hand to make my own Ranch, something that's hard to live without in my house.  And then finally, to the park!!!  My kids beg to go to the park constantly, but we rarely do, I'm always ready to go home after being in town and don't want to be away any longer than necessary.  But since they brought a picnic I really didn't have a choice.  Our picnic consisted of leftover Faux Pumpkin Pie made out of butternut squash, leftover fried apples, 3 boiled eggs, bananas, and our new Sea Snax.  All it all it was a pretty good picnic, the kids got to play in the river, well, the puddles in the river bed, and had a blast exploring among all the weeds that have grown up 6 feet tall in the river bed.  There hasn't been a river there all year because of the drought, pretty sad.  Ender had fallen asleep on the way there and slept through it all, poor boy.  I had the kindle book Public Schools, Public Menace on my Iphone as it was free a while ago, so I sat in the grass and read it while they played.  I only got a bit into it but he has some good points, not that he has to convince me about the horror that is public school, but it definitely has some convincing arguments.   I'd recommend reading it, though not for 18.00 as it is now.  So then we headed home, of course by now I was starving as it was 2:00 and I'm always hungry after working out, I didn't end up with much of the "picnic" as the kids consumed most of it.

So I looked for a quick and healthy lunch, there was a bunch of green beans in the refrigerator that had been there a while and needed to be eaten, plus a chicken breast with the same story.  I have never liked green beans as I have never found a great recipe for them.  Mom can make good green beans, but I fail every time.  So I googled "whole 30 green beans" in hopes of finding an awesome recipe.  And I did!!!    I think I'm in love with this blog as well as Everyday Paleo, they both just have such amazing delicious recipes.  These were so good, incredibly good, like I ate three times what I was planning to eat.  I knew I needed protein as well, but didn't have much time as I forgot to get around to cooking the chicken until the green beans were done, so I took the chicken breast, ripped the bones out, slapped it between two of those sweet thin plastic cutting boards, and beat it to death with my meat tenderizer hammer.  Then I sprinkled it with salt and pepper and threw it in an iron skillet with a couple tablespoons coconut oil, as thin as it was it only took about 5-6 minutes to cook, and was perfect to go along with the beans.  I think I'm going to make everything with a coconut milk sauce from now on, the last two days I've cooked with coconut milk and it's just absolutely to die for.   I almost licked the plate, now I have another quick and easy and delicious recipe to fall back on when I'm pulling my hair out trying to find something to cook...  Well, I guess it will only work if I have chicken dethawed and green beans available.  Hmm, maybe I need to run back up to the farm and buy a bunch more green beans and freeze them.  Previously I was like green beans, meh, who needs them, now I'm like green beans, I need my green beans, gimme some green beans, can't run out of green beans.  Okay, maybe not quite that bad, but it'd sure be nice to have some on hand.