Month: March 2016

Happy Easter!

I will be short and sweet today since it’s a very special day. I hope you enjoy this Easter celebrating our risen Lord with friends and family.

As promised last week, I posted some delicious recipes this week:

Baconnaise and Heavenly Eggs

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New and Improved Paleo Sugar Cookies

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Grilled Asparagus

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In my humble opinion, deviled eggs, asparagus and cookies make for a complete meal. Extra cookies for dessert. You heard it here first.

Happy Easter, friends!

Paleo Travel and Easter Recipes

Whether Easter brings to mind thoughts of flowers, chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, or Jesus and His sacrifice for us, it also likely brings travel. Easter and Spring Break usually go hand in hand and many of us take this opportunity for a getaway. If you’re planning to hit the road over the Easter holiday and you’re wondering how you’re going to manage to stick with your paleo diet, I have a few tips for you:

  • On travel day, eat before you leave home or take at least one meal with you.

When we travel, we are typically going someplace within 5-6 hours of our home so we usually leave at the end of a work day. Naturally, this means dinner on the road, which means fast food. But if I can, I cook something simple for myself that I can eat in the car. This isn’t to be selfish, although it does sound that way. Due to my Crohn’s disease, it is more important for me to watch what I eat than the other three. They can handle more “off plan” foods than I can. If I’m packing my dinner for the road, this is what I pack:

  • leftover vegetables
  • sweet potatoes or rice
  • a freshly cooked piece of meat – I’ll often stick a piece of chicken or fish in the oven while I’m doing last minute packing and by the time we’re ready to go, my dinner is ready as well. If you don’t have trouble with histamine intolerance, you can easily plan ahead for leftovers.

If I have time to pack for the rest of my family, I’ll pack them a sandwich with gluten free bread or just lunch meat, string cheese, cut up veggies and fruit and Larabars or homemade cookies. I want simple, fast and nothing that will be smelly in the car.

Once at your destination:

  • If we’re staying with family, they very graciously accommodate our difficult eating habits. If you’re hesitant to ask your friends or family to adjust meals to your needs, think about how you would like to treat guests in your home. I would much rather have my guests let me know what their needs are so that they will be comfortable while in my home, than go to the trouble to plan meals and find out my guests can’t eat any of them. You get to be a gracious guest and they get to be gracious hosts and everyone is happy.
  • If you will be staying in a hotel and therefore eating out all of your meals, you have a couple options:
  1. If your hotel room has a mini fridge, bring food with you. You can at least manage breakfast and some snacks from your mini fridge. Hard boiled eggs, lunch meat, fruit, carrot sticks, milk (if you drink it), cereal, homemade granola, etc.
  2. Study restaurant menus from the area you are visiting to pick out restaurants that will work for you. Find Me GFree is a great app that will get you pointed in the right direction.
  3. If your hotel has a concierge, they can be a convenient resource as well.

**I would caution you against eating the free hotel breakfasts that are so commonly offered these days. Most hotels don’t provide 100% real eggs. Some do have hard boiled eggs, but most have those pre-made omelets and scrambled eggs, both of which have lots of additives. Besides the “eggs,” the choices are almost exclusively pastries. Better to have a restaurant picked out or take your own breakfast foods and know you’ll start your day with a good meal that won’t leave you feeling sick a few hours later.

  • Don’t forget snacks. It seems that no matter how big the meal, my kids are ready for a snack an hour later. Bring snacks from home that you approve of so you don’t have to go to the trouble and expense of buying snacks. And of course, it is unlikely you will find all the foods your gang is used to (and you find acceptable) while away from home.

Some of our favorite travel snacks:

I hope those travel tips are helpful! If you have favorite travel snacks or other tips others might find helpful, please share in the comments.

One more thing: Medicines are not my first choice, but sometimes you just have very little control of the food before you. Here are some aces I keep up my sleeve for these occasions:

  • Gluten Flam – I take one or two of these capsules when I eat out and I don’t completely trust that what I’ve been given is gluten free. I will also take these when I eat dairy and it seems to work very well. I buy Gluten Flam from my chiropractor, but I’ve also seen it at a small, local pharmacy. It might take a little digging to find, but well worth it.
  • Histamine Block – I react severely to high histamine foods, but if I know I’m going to eat something high in histamine (like leftover meat or canned fish) I will take one histamine block immediately before the meal and it wards off any unpleasant side effects.
  • Digestzymes – I actually take these digestive enzymes on a regular basis, but if I’ve eaten a particularly fatty or possibly gluten-contaminated meal, I’ll take an extra digestzyme, especially if I am without my Gluten Flam.

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If you happen to be staying home this week, possibly even hosting relatives, I have a few recipes for you. I will be posting a couple more later this week, so be sure to check back.

I admit that I have done a poor job of observing Lent this year. I’m not sure why it seemed to pass by unnoticed, but it has primarily been a non-event in our house. In the past, I have led the kids through a special Lenten devotion each day, or we have given something up as a family. One year, we made a paper chain and wrote on each slip of paper the name of someone we know. We ripped one link off each day and prayed for that person. This was our count down of sorts to Easter. But none of that this year and it just hasn’t been the same. Mental note: observe Lent next year.

One thing we will do is participate in all the special church services this week and we will go meatless on Friday. This is not a ritual that I observed growing up, but my husband apparently did and so we carry it on in our home today. I know that lots of folks forgo meat every Friday throughout Lent, so doing it for one day is not a huge sacrifice.

To that end, I have a couple fish recipes for you today (I know, I know. Some people consider fish meat, but my husband doesn’t so just play along, please):

Marinated, grilled salmon is quick, easy and very flavorful. Do whatever it takes to make sure you remember to marinate your fish a few hours before cook time, and then after that, getting dinner on the table is a snap.

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If you want to go all out and treat your family to some crispy, crunchy goodness, give these tempura shrimp (or fish) a try. I admit- I love fried foods. I think I’d rather have something fried like onion rings than a piece of cake. There are some restaurants around now that will fry with gluten free batter, but I don’t know of any that fry in an acceptable oil. So as much of a mess as it is, I go to the trouble to make fried fish or shrimp for my family once every couple months. We love every crispy, crunchy bite while pretending we don’t have a huge mess to clean up. 🙂 So, yes, this is a little messy, but it isn’t hard to make and it’s oh so good!

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Eat your fried shrimp or fish as is or turn them into tacos with AIP tortillas and tropical salsa slaw – this is our favorite way to enjoy this treat. With all of my experimenting trying to find the right batters, I also made some tempura vegetables and they were awesome too. Really, I think you could batter and fry old tires and they would taste good.

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Coming up later this week:

  • the best “heavenly” deviled eggs with bacon
  • new and improved cutout sugar cookies, all dressed up for Easter
  • super simple grilled asparagus that just happens to go really well with the fish recipes I’ve shared with you this week

I hope your Holy Week is filled with meaning, special family times and a good, healthy dose of chocolate.

What Our Paleo Family Ate This Week

Last week I told you all about how we transitioned from a Standard American Diet to the Paleo Diet. The key piece of advice I gave was to plan, plan and then plan some more.

I recognize that it is probably overwhelming for a lot of people to think about sitting down on one day and planning what you will eat for each meal for an entire week. So I thought it might help to show you what we eat in a typical week – a week that includes kids’ activities, a couple evening meetings for the adults, and an unexpected trip.

This is just how we balance things out around here. I hope you’ll find something in this post that is helpful for you, whether you’re just starting out in paleo or you’re an experienced paleo-er, but stuck in a rut.

Monday

We host Bible study at my house at 6:45 PM so dinner has to be relatively quick to clean up and not stinky (meaning no fish or lots of garlic). Maybe I’m the only one that thinks about my meals in this amount of detail, but I’m laying it all out here for you. Pick and choose what you will.

Breakfast:

  • husband: omelet and gluten free cereal
  • daughter: clementine and gluten free toast with honey, milk
  • son: gluten free cereal and sausage, milk
  • me: Applegate Organics Chicken apple sausage with kale
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Paleo Cinnamon Rolls – totally worth the time for a weekend treat

**It is important to note that everyone makes their own breakfast so I’m not in the kitchen for an hour serving and cleaning up after everyone. The exception is when I make something special like pancakes or cinnamon rolls.

Lunch:

  • husband: leftover rotisserie chicken from the night before, salad, chips
  • kids: leftover gluten free pizza from the weekend (homemade), baby carrots, apple slices
  • me: salad with smoked turkey, almonds, half an avocado, dried cherries, balsamic and olive oil

Dinner: Asian Stir Fry with chicken breast, white rice cooked in broth (none for me)

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This is the stir fry with ground beef. The recipe works just the same with chicken
Tuesday

Tuesday has meant one thing in my house for the past six years – Boy Scouts. Dinner has to be fast and something my son will eat relatively quickly.

Breakfast:

see Monday – we eat the same things almost every single day

Lunch:

  • husband: leftover stir fry
  • kids: turkey, slice of cheese, baby carrots, salad greens, clementine and half a banana, avocado oil potato chips (the ones I buy are in a different bag, but same company)
  • me: same as Monday

Dinner: cod quickly sautéed in skillet and drizzled with fresh lemon juice, mashed sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli

Wednesday

Wednesdays are busy with kid activities in the afternoon that involve me as well, so dinner is usually pretty quick and easy.

Breakfast:

  • husband and kids: same as Monday
  • me: ground pork, kale, half a green apple, all sautéed together

Lunch:

  • husband: turkey breast, chips, carrots, banana (we ate all the fish the night before so no leftovers today)
  • kids: turkey breast, slice of cheese, apple slices, baby carrots
  • me: iceberg lettuce rollups with turkey and my dairy free ranch dressing (recipe will be in the e-book)

Dinner: Pan roasted chicken with mushroom sauce (recipe coming), root veggie puree and green beans

Thursday

Thursdays are also full of kid activities, though the first part of the day does not involve me. Yippee! I get some free time. Generally, I used this free time for exciting activities such as grocery shopping or cleaning the house. This week, the weather was so beautiful that I decided to spend my time working in the yard, prepping my garden, weeding, and finishing up a couple painting projects.

We also had community group this week, which means a super quick sort of date night. The kids eat with their grandparents so my husband and I pick someplace quick that we don’t usually take the kids. Nothing fancy here, but for example, we’ll go to Five Guys Burgers because my son is allergic to peanuts and we can’t take him there.

Breakfast and Lunch on Thursday looked very much like the rest of the week. Even though the kids had packed lunches, they ate the same things. One exception was the addition of a homemade paleo gingerbread cookie. I did have this recipe up on the blog, but I’ve taken it down because we’re considering selling these. They are so good, you cannot tell they are gluten free or paleo. Have you had the gluten free cookies in the bakery at Whole Foods? They are like eating sand. In my opinion. There is a hole in the market here!

Dinner at Five Guys is a great option for me because they seem to treat gluten allergies seriously. They have a separate grill for allergy sensitive orders, which I love. On this particular visit, I had the little bacon burger with lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, pickles, mustard and mayo. And I stole about half my husband’s fries. Usually I get a double burger and forgo the fries, but I was having one of those “I must have french fries” kind of days. At least these are real, fresh potatoes and are cooked in peanut oil, which is a small notch above canola.

Friday

Watch out, it’s about to get crazy over here. We really mixed it up today.

Breakfast:

  • husband: omelet and cereal as usual
  • daughter: gluten free Van’s waffle, honey and clementine
  • son: cereal and sausage
  • me: eggs with a heap of spinach (I ran out of kale 🙁 ), some raw carrots

Lunch:

  • husband: we had two portions of the chicken with mushrooms leftover so he had that for lunch again today
  • kids and I: Bacon and egg salad from Practical Paleo, plantain chips, carrots and apple slices. The bacon and egg salad is simply amazing. Put that on some freshly fried plantain chips and this is some salty, crunchy heaven. Plus paleo chocolate chip cookies. More cookie experimentation going on over here.

Dinner:

Super exciting stuff here. Hold onto your hats. We had Applegate Grass Fed Hotdogs, leftover mashed sweet potatoes mixed with bacon and fried up in little patties, carrots and fresh orange slices. We broke out the grill for the season on this meal. Hot dogs on the grill are just the best.

Saturday

Breakfast didn’t stray much from the norm this week. I had intended to make something fancy this morning, but alas, I woke up with a headache so everyone was on their own again. I did manage to fry up some ground pork for myself and threw in some mushrooms for good measure. On a day like this, I would be content with just coffee, but my husband makes sure I eat. He will even, on occasion, cook me some eggs. He’s the best.

I had a couple hours of free time and decided to take myself to the mall for Easter shopping. I hate shopping. I really hate the mall. And on a Saturday, it’s just the worst. What was I thinking? Why did I do this with my precious free time? So lunch was portable for me today.

Lunch:

  • husband and kids: clean out the fridge day – they ate up all the scraps of leftovers
  • me: an Epic Bacon Bison Cranberry Bar and two paleo graham crackers (more recipe testing)

Dinner:

  • Daddy/daughter camping trip tonight. Somehow this was missed in my detailed planning so we had about 24 hours notice for this trip. Who knows what they’re eating. At least they will have paleo graham crackers for their smores. I couldn’t let them just eat the chocolate and marshmallows and miss out on the graham cracker. I love them too much for that.
  • Mom/Son evening: we’re going car shopping this evening because he’s my boy and we just love cars. We will be shopping for Porches, Ferraris, fancy Mercedes convertibles and the like. If you would like to send one of these my way, I would graciously accept. Not sure what we’re having for dinner, but it will likely either be burgers at home or a burger out somewhere.
Sunday

Church in the morning, maybe a trip to the Y for a workout in the afternoon, but otherwise, Sunday is a lazy, family day around here. If the weather’s nice, we go for a hike or bike ride. If the weather isn’t so nice, we might play a board game or three.

Breakfast on Sunday is the same as always, except that I usually get up a little early and make bacon. If you are still pan frying your bacon, stop it right now. Here’s what you do:

  • line a rimmed backing sheet, like this, with parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil
  • lay out your bacon so it does not over lap
  • bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
  • move bacon to paper towel-lined plate
  • eat that bacon!

You get perfectly cooked bacon that lies flat and you don’t get any mess! Pour off that fat into a jar and stash it in the fridge.

This is my public service announcement for this week. You’re welcome.

Lunch will be a rotisserie chicken picked up from Whole Foods with a big salad

Dinner: one word – Spanakopita. This is by far my favorite food ever. When the Greek Festival comes to town, we go twice and I eat more of this than I care to admit. Except that now I can’t because phyllo dough is definitely not gluten free. But, if you are a spanakopita lover like me, I have a solution for you! Yes, I’m making it primal. Not paleo, but primal. What’s the difference? Primal includes dairy, paleo doesn’t. We’ll serve this with some simple grilled chicken and maybe a salad. There’s a whole bunch of spinach in the spanakopita so salad or no salad depends on my mood at the time.

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So there you have it. One whole week’s worth of meals. I hope that was helpful and not dreadfully boring. I don’t have any new recipes for you this week, but there will be more soon. Don’t worry. I’m forever in the kitchen cooking something!

One last (for now) Whole 30 Day Sugar Detox Update: I am responsible for the egg hunt portion of my church’s Easter egg hunt/party so my house is filled with plastic eggs and lots and lots and lots of candy. Do I need to say anything else? I will be resuming my attempts at ignoring all things sugary and sweet come March 28th. This is called grace.

 

This Week with Our Paleo Family

I’m sorry I didn’t get this out over the weekend, but I had very important things that took precedence this week:

  1. I had an all day date with my husband. Time away we desperately needed.
  2. The Downton Abbey finale was on last night.

As much as I love working on this blog, I do have my priorities. 🙂

Don’t, you just love a happy ending? I won’t spoil anything in case you haven’t yet seen the finale of Downton Abbey, but I will say that it was a good one. It left my heart smiling. I know there are movie and TV making people who think we want lots of drama and cliff-hangers and sad/twisted endings, but we want happy endings. Don’t we? We want closure. We want to be left feeling light, not heavy. Thank you, Julian Fellows for giving us great characters to love and hate for six years and then tying it all up for us in a satisfying package. Now, we can move on with our real lives.

If you’d like your tummy to feel happy and light as well, try out one or all of the new recipes I posted this week.

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Crispy Baked Cod with Sweet Potato Soldiers. Soldiers is just a fancy name for thick, round chunks of potatoes, but it sounds nice, doesn’t it?

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Easy, weeknight frittata. This is a great one to make at the end of the week to clean up all the bits of vegetables and meats left from earlier meals. It’s easy, it’s delicious and it seems fancy, but isn’t lots of work fancy.

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A great side dish for the frittata, or anything really, is the wilted kale salad. Spinach salad with warm bacon dressing is one of my favorites so that was the inspiration for this kale salad. Plus, I know there are some kale haters out there, so I wanted to create something that anyone would enjoy.

I updated the Beef Stroganoff recipe this week. I wanted to see if I could punch up the flavor just a bit, so I added a couple teaspoons of coconut aminos with the broth. It was great before, but this addition made it even tastier. If that’s a recipe you’ve tried or printed out, check back for the updated recipe. There’s just this one slight change.

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We celebrated a birthday in my family this week, which gave me the opportunity to create a paleo cake. I really enjoy cooking, but I think I like baking even more. Perhaps you figured that out with all the Christmas Cookies I posted last December!

This time around, it was carrot cake (totally paleo) with real cream cheese frosting (totally not paleo). The great thing about this cake though was that it was so full of flavor that it would be fantastic without any frosting at all. But no, I’m not going to be posting that recipe…..yet. I’m working on an ebook, working title is Celebrate! There will be paleo and autoimmune-friendly recipes for all the ways we celebrate through the year, including all the basics like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, with extras like birthdays, Cinco de Mayo, Fourth of July, backyard BBQs, and more.

This book is actively in the works and my goal is to have it out before Thanksgiving. Pray for my technical abilities and photography skills!

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Also new this week is the article on my family’s transition to paleo. There’s nothing earth-shattering in there if you’ve been eating this way for a while, but if you know someone who is new to paleo or was just diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and are trying to find their way, I hope this article will be helpful. Please send it along to those you think it might benefit.

Oh, yes, the Whole 30 Day Sugar Detox. I guess I’m charging on ahead, but I seem to have lost some steam. Maybe it’s because I slipped up and started over a couple weeks ago. This exercise seems to be dragging on and on. Nothing major is happening. I don’t have boundless energy, but I don’t feel bad either. I don’t suppose I’ll be recruited as the poster child for either the Whole 30 or 21 Day Sugar Detox anytime soon.

My husband and I just spent a wonderful day at the beach this past weekend and we stopped at this great, local ice cream place. My sweet husband did a great job of not mentioning it and then asking me if I was sure I wanted to stop when I kept bringing it up. Yes, I was sure! I enjoyed every bite without the slightest twinge of guilt.

To me, that’s what this whole thing has been about. I’m finding out that I feel best when I don’t eat much sugar. I’m craving sweets less and less. BUT when it’s a special occasion and the treat is really worthy, I’m going for it.

I hope you get out in the beautiful sunshine and make it a great week! And if you haven’t watched Downton Abbey, what is wrong with you? I’m just kidding. Just remember, it’s never too late to start. The first five seasons are available on Netflix. For those of you (like me) who sometimes have a hard time understanding their British accents, you can rewind and replay to your heart’s content. Around here we joke that I don’t understand English – just American. You have to say “American” with a twangy, Southern accent for that to be funny. 🙂

Our Transition to Paleo

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means, if you click one of the Amazon links and buy that item through my link, Amazon will pay me a small commission at no additional cost to you. This will help keep the recipes coming and I will say thank you. 🙂

When people find out that we “are paleo,” the first response out of their mouths is often, “Oh, I could never do that. Well, maybe I could, but not my whole family. Not with all the junk they like to eat.” Well, guess what, we ate junk too and we managed the transition just fine. You can too. To be honest, Oreos were an infrequent visitor to my pantry, and Twinkies never darkened our doorstep, but we do love chips. We always had those on hand. And ice cream in the freezer. We would eat fast food: french fries, onion rings, all that good stuff. Not all the time, but often enough that switching to a paleo lifestyle took some adjusting for sure.

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Just say “no” to these guys
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And “yes” to these lovelies

I used to make homemade wheat bread. My recipe required the addition of gluten so that it would turn out like store bought bread. That just makes me laugh now to think that I used to ADD gluten to our food! Life is funny sometimes. I have always cooked the majority of our meals at home, but I didn’t pay much attention to the quality of my meat. About the best we did was buy organic produce according to the Dirty Dozen list.

My husband grew up with dessert after every lunch and dinner (or so he says) and I have yet to break him of that habit. He is a Type I diabetic, meaning his body does not make insulin anymore so he must inject it before meals. He has to carefully monitor his carbohydrate intake. Yet, he still loves his dessert. He wants ice cream, a cookie, some chocolate after every. single. meal. So he was thrilled when I started making some great paleo treats. There are a lot of treat recipes out there and a lot of them are very, very good. Even better than their non-paleo counterparts. Those who love gluten might not think so, but if you’ve transitioned even a little to this way of life, then you quickly learn that taking out all the junk = adding in lots of great flavors.

My husband was very supportive of ME making this transition, but I quickly realized that I could not and would not make two separate meals three times a day. The only way to make this work for me – to heal me (I realize that sounds selfish) – was if we all did it. Together. And so that’s what we did. I borrowed Diane Sanfillipo’s Practical Paleo from my local library, read the whole thing, cooked a few of the recipes and every one was delicious! So I bought the book and cooked all my meals from her book for months. If you are just starting out, I cannot recommend that book enough. The best thing about it for me was the fact that it was full of 30 day menus. I picked one and it told me what to cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a whole month. No, we did not follow it to the letter, but pretty close. I explained in my “about me” page more about this, so check that out if you want more details. Bottom line, it’s a great book and an invaluable resource for newbies.

Let’s get to the nitty gritty, shall we? How do we make this transition?

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Planning your meals doesn’t require a fancy app or pretty paper

One thing I had to start doing if I was going to make this paleo thing work was plan, plan and plan some more. Breakfast was no longer a simple bowl of cereal, lunch couldn’t be a sandwich and we couldn’t pick up a pizza on a really harried night. So some time over the weekend, this is what I do:

  • I sit down with a basic, old spiral bound notebook, my calendar, a pencil and my go-to cookbooks: Practical Paleo, Against All Grain, and the Autoimmune Paleo cookbook and of course, www.ourpaleofamily.com.
  • I take an inventory of what kinds of protein I have in the freezer and how many fruits and veggies are left from the week, then I start planning out the meals.
    • I make an effort to mix up the protein: one night beef, one night pork, one night chicken, one night fresh fish, one night canned fish, one night eggs. This ensures variety and also keeps costs in check.
  • I need my calendar for this so I know which nights need to be quick, which days I can spend a couple hours cooking up a storm, and which days we just have to eat out due to activities. We have way over-committed ourselves on the extracurriculars this semester. If you non-homeschoolers ever question the sociability of homeschoolers, just talk to one and you will see that they get PLENTY of socialization. We have to work really hard to stay home! 
  • I plan out every breakfast, every lunch and every dinner for the entire week.
  • As I make my meal list, I make my grocery list.

I generally shop at three stores each week. I know that’s a lot, but this way of eating is expensive and we can’t afford to buy everything at Whole Foods. The planning helps with the budget as well. I’m usually in such a hurry with my shopping that I won’t pick up extras we don’t need. If it’s on the list, I get it. If it’s not, I don’t. No unintentional cookies jumping into my cart. My thighs say thank you.

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Fill that cart with vegetables, fruits and healthy meats.

In case you’re curious where I shop, I always start at Kroger. The one near me has an amazing selection of organic produce, natural beauty products and other healthy choices at very competitive prices. They even started carrying Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips for about two dollars less than Whole Foods. The angels are singing!

Next, I move on to Whole Foods for all my grass fed beef, pastured pork, antibiotic/hormone free chicken, milk, eggs and any other special things I couldn’t find at Kroger.

On Sunday, I go to Aldi. There is one just down the road from my church so the whole family goes once we get out of church. It’s really fast to shop with all four of us and I have my men to carry the bags. That’s a real treat. If you have never heard of Aldi, try to find one near you and check it out. They are in the process of (or might even be finished now) transitioning to no preservatives or artificial ingredients in their products.

If you can handle gluten free versions of some traditional foods (mac and cheese, protein bars, pizza crust mix, brownie mix, crackers, etc. etc.) Aldi has tons of choices and the prices are amazing. Aldi is owned by the same parent company that owns Trader Joe’s and so you will find many similar products, only at lower prices than Trader’s. Aldi carries lots of organic produce and produce you don’t need to buy organic, like pineapples and citrus at a really good price.

You might not have time to shop multiple stores, but some day when you do have time, shop around, check prices (if that matters to you) and come up with a budget and a strategy.

At the beginning of our paleo journey, I was not 100% paleo. When we ate out, I was sort of slack. I wouldn’t go so far as to order a burger with a bun, but I would order fries and not bother to ask if they were fried with gluten containing foods. At first, I felt OK after these meals, but the better my diet became, the worse I felt after these “indulgences.” It eventually became just not worth it to step out of the paleo realm.

As of this writing, two years into our paleo lifestyle, I would say I eat paleo 99% of the time. The rest of my family is probably 80% paleo. Maybe a little more. I haven’t done any calculations. Our primary step outside the paleo sphere is with dairy. My husband and kids eat dairy whenever they want, but I rarely cook with it. I am eating dairy less and less all the time, but I do still indulge from time to time and a little bit doesn’t bother me. I’ve learned though, that just because a little bit is ok, that doesn’t mean that a little more will also be ok. I have to stick with just a little and try to be happy with that.

In summary, how we transitioned to a paleo lifestyle was relatively simple:

  1. We quit eating anything with grain, soy, legumes, refined sugars and mostly dairy
  2. I started planning in detail every single meal
  3. I scoured the best books and blogs for recipes
  4. We ate paleo treats so no one felt deprived
  5. We didn’t bring non-compliant foods into the house. If it’s there, it will be eaten.

Have questions? Want more details? Please ask!

This whole post has been about our transition from a traditional diet to the paleo diet. Our switch to autoimmune paleo was a bit different. More on that in a future post.