Going paleo has taught me a lot about being prepared. Not in a hoarder/prepper/conspiracy-theory kind of way.
More like in a if-I-don't-I-won't-survive-the-week-and-I'll-eat-crap-when-things-head-south kind of way.
So in true paleo-it-forward fashion here are a few things I've learned and how it looks for me. Remember --> you don't have to do things my way. Just find a method/madness that works for you and go with it.
1. Prep ahead. If you have your whole, real foods ready to go for breakfast/lunch/dinner, you are more likely to eat them for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Freezer meals. That's right --> make it, freeze it....days go
by....thaw, cook, EAT! This is my biggest lifesaver in terms of staying on track with eating paleo.
2. Don't keep CRAP in your cupboards. Sometimes I bemoan the fact that there's no junk food. Then I am glad because if it *was* there I *would* eat it.
3. Think about what you DO have, not what you DON'T have. You get to have all the plants, proteins, good fats, and nuts/seeds {in moderation} that you want! Plus water, coffee, tea, and throw in a little dark chocolate here and there...what more could you want?!?!?!?
4. Snacks are what you make of them. We snack on leftovers, raw veggies, fruit, homemade trail mix {read: whatever is in the cupboards...sometimes just raisins and almonds but, hey, let's get fancy and call it trail mix}, anytime cookies {a Paleo Parents recipe from Eat Like a Dinosaur}, bacon, veggies -- oh, wait, I already said that. People are so keen on "breakfast for dinner" like they are the first ones who thought of it. Well, not to be a jerk, but it's been done before by EVERYONE. So, take the same idea of eating-something-at-the-wrong-time and apply it to snacks! How about "leftovers for snacks" or "whole fruit/veg for snacks" or "real food for snacks?"
Now for a few examples:
This was early in September. In one day I made 7 dinners and froze them. This is A LOT for me. Go me!
I made 2 steak meals, 3 beef cube meals, and 2 chicken thigh meals. I think we still have one steak meal frozen and the last beef cube meal is thawing for tomorrow.
Another weekend I was slightly less ambitious but still made some good stuff to fuel us during the week. Please bear in mind than ground meat NEVER photographs well. Try not to gag. First I made 2lbs of taco meat for taco bowls, salads, lunches, breakfasts, or whatever. I also made spaghetti sauce {which we are using some of on our spaghetti squash tonight!} and I baked off one of the frozen chicken dinners from the last freezer meal prep.
Today I am feeling sort of under the weather. Sad. I mixed up a giant meatloaf -- you can find the recipe here. I also made some red cabbage from Practical Paleo and I have a pork roast and korma curry beef cubes thawing. Remember what I said about ground meat...
Two things to note:
*I use Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfillippo for many of my go-to recipes. They are easy, don't have weird ingredients, and always taste good.
*I am a Wildtree rep so I use a lot of my fave Wildtree seasonings for paleo eating.
This mayo isn't really paleo per se. It's just homemade. Real food. Which semi-by-default makes it paleo. The point, whether it's paleo or not, is that it is made with whole foods, we determined our ingredients, and used our (and by that I mean my husband's) own manperson-power to make it.
Eggs. Oil. S&P. A squirt (sorry, I had to say squirt) of dijon mustard. Boom...or actually...Blend. MAYO!
This was a first-go for us at making mayonnaise! It's one of those things that we'd like to stop
buying at the grocery store because there are A TON of additives and
junky stuff in most store-bought mayo. Bummer. I have a running list
of things I want to start making myself (or have my cave-man make...as
demonstrated below!). Maybe sometime I'll share it with you. If you're
lucky. Or if I ever get around to it...
Thankfully there are quite a few places on the inter-webs to learn how to make your own mayonnaise! I started here with Michelle from Nom Nom Paleo (btw: I wish I could look as cute as her in pig-tails) and ended up using the recipe from The Clothes Make the Girl.
I'm not going to lie. We weren't in love with our homegrown mayo AT FIRST. After a few
ham-lettuce-tomato-mayo-roll-ups and some tuna salad -- we are sold!
The recipe and directions were spot on, we just want to play with the
flavor a bit. Possibly a different type of oil? I'll keep you posted.
Because I know you are on the edge of your seat.
I think my cave-kiddos' favorite words are, "Can I have a snack?" And when one hears it, the other instantly appears echoing the request.
It's the itch that never gets scratched. The job that's never quite done. The mission that is never complete. Oh snacking, why do you plague me so? One day they love raisins, the next day they don't. Have you ever tried reasoning with an almost 3yo about how just the other day he LOVED broccoli and hummus? It's no use. I love hearing how pineapple is SO GROSS when just yesterday the juice was dripping from their chins.
Um, ok. WHATEVER. I will not let their obviously-calculated-attempts-to-make-me-look-crazy bother me whatsoever.
Here's my {ever-changing} list of cave-kid snacks:
Raisins or other dried fruit*
Almond/raisin/whatever-I-can-find Trail Mix*
Fruit -- their current faves are bananas, apples, mango, pineapple {ahem...}, and peaches*
Veggies and dip {hummus, homemade ranch dip}*
Applesauce*
Hard-boiled eggs
Leftover meat
Cheese
Yogurt
Cottage cheese {here are some brief explanations about by cave-kids & dairy}
Banana muffins
Popcorn
Apples or bananas with almond butter or peanut butter {my older cave-kid is NOT enamored with almond butter}
Lunch meat roll-up
*These are my go-to snacks*
Other things that make snacking less-painful...
~My kids have their own drawer with all their plates and bowls so they can always choose
~They have jars on the kitchen table with the kid-size-cutlery --> more of the do-it-yourself-spirit!
~They can't reach any of the snacks on their own {at some point that will change for my own sanity but we are establishing the snacking-norms so, for now, they must ask}
~We NEVER buy boxed or packaged snacks so it simply isn't an option
~We always pack a snack and water whenever we go somewhere for more than an hour so that when hunger strikes {and it always does} we are prepared
~Let them play with their food
~You'll notice I have a few not-so-paleo snacks on the list...that's life.
In the spirit of transparency...IF I offered my kids pop-tarts and chocolate cookies along with their cave-kid options THEY WILL ALWAYS CHOOSE JUNK. I see my job as the *purchasing agent* for our family as my opportunity to make real-food-snacks the ONLY OPTION. It's definitely not a democracy in our house.
GROCERY BUDGET RESULTS!
We came in slightly over our $400 goal but the rare pantry staple purchases and a few impulse purchases are the clear budget-offenders. Ha! At the last update I had $8.96 left and I spent another $37.34 more...making me over-budget by $28.38. I accidentally bought a pumpkin pie. It was for a special
occasion. Bad choice :-( I paid dearly in lost sleep and a puffy
face. Not to mention the sugar cravings that kicked in the next day.
BUT OH. EM. GEE. COSTCO MAKES THE BEST PIE.
So we spent $428.38 last month {including pantry staples and impulse purchases}...not bad! I won't bore you with the details of September's grocery budget but I'll keep you posted on the overall excitement of being paleo-on-a-budget. I did a big shop on September 1 because I'll be out of town for a few days and I wanted to stock up on Freezer Meals. Whew! A big chunk of change gone early in the month but I'll see it pay off when I don't need to shop much in the next week or two.
Coming soon...freezer meals, navigating the holidays, and recipe round-ups. Anything you'd like to know about our paleo-family-life?
