Onward Paleo!

I have to admit. Eating paleo for a majority of the time isn't that bad. You just have to plan. I think I have stumbled onto a few things that I will keep in the rotation.

Breakfast:

A sweet potato frittata with veggies. This is so versatile. You just change up the veggies, or even add meat, when you feel like a change. I started with asparagus/onions/garlic/mushrooms. This week, peas and mushrooms. I had this in my previous post about paleo eating, but it's served me well for the last couple of weeks.

Snack:

Fruit and nuts. Again, versatile enough to where you can switch up the fruit and nuts when you get bored. Before I leave for work, I pour in coconut milk. A sweet little treat mid-morning. Would probably work well as a dessert too. To give credit where it's due, I totally stole the idea from the website LeanMachineNYC.

Lunch:

Sweet potato chowder with chicken, corn, and mushrooms. Boil the sweet potatoes, throw into a crockpot with two cans of coconut milk and blend until smooth. Throw in the chicken, mushrooms, onion, garlic, corn, and any spices you want, and let her rip on low for 6-8 hours. It was sooo good! It had a taste of coconut soup that you can get from Thai restaurants, but so much heartier with everything else thrown in. A great fall soup. And can I just say that the new immersion hand blender that I just got is now one of my favorite kitchen tools.

All in all, for about a week and half worth of food, took me about 2 hours total from prep to closing the lid on the crockpot. Not bad.

I haven't been as great about preparing dinner as sometimes, I honestly just don't have an appetite for dinner so I will munch on some nuts or veggies. My attempt at zucchini spaghetti last week was a disaster because I'm not talented enough to "julienne" with just a knife. I have now bought myself a julienne peeler and will be attempting again to make the zucchinis my bitches later this week.

Apologies for the crappy photo quality. The lighting in my kitchen isn't great.

Stay tuned to see what I come up with next week! I think I like doing these posts better than the weekend in review collages. Let's face it, I'm a boring old suburbanite that has no weekend life outside of sitting on my behind catching up on the dvr, and food is just much more fun.

Walk Like An Egyptian, Eat Like A Caveman

It is no secret that I love all the foods that are totally bad for me. It is also no secret that I am not the most active of humans. Obviously, these two non-secrets do not provide for a healthy existence. Last week, a blog in my local paper discussed if it was plausible for families with young children to convert to a completely vegan diet. In one of the comments, someone mentioned "Paleo eating" or in other words, eating like the cavemen. Meats, fruits, veggies. No dairy or grains. I was intrigued. And then I was terrified. Could I really give up the two greatest food loves of my life? Luckily, I was able to find a couple of sites that avoided the preachiness that sometimes comes along with advocating certain diets, and they assured me that you don't have to be 100% paleo if you don't want to. The key is really to try and get away from any sort of processed foods and back to basics. I have made a goal to be at least 75% paleo.

My first attempt was a fritatta that would provide me breakfast and maybe a couple of dinners. Ingredients: eggs, shredded sweet potatoes, asparagus, garlic, and red onion.

Sautee all the veggies until tender:

 

Combine eggs with veggies, pop into the oven and ta-da:

 

 

Not only was it super easy, it turned out pretty tasty, too. I still have some food items to get rid of before I can get serious with the paleo meal planning, but next week, I attempt zucchini spaghetti. Stay tuned!