"A person's a person...

... no matter how small."

Stefani over at Paleo for Women wrote up a neat post about evolution and gender-size stereotypes, and it's really good. She talks about the benefits of being a small woman, how men have certain ideas about what a woman should look like, and certain expectations women have for men. And how a lot of it is somewhat silly.

I agree, it is. As a nearly 6-foot tall woman, the cultural expectations for women are both frustrating and freeing. Women take body size and weight very seriously and it's hard (and sad_ to hear women lament at being "size 8" or "size 10". Since when do we let what clothing stores choose as a number to represent the amount of material needed for a shirt or pair of pants affect our self worth? I am me, I am healthy, and this is the way my body looks. If your products don't fit me, I don't have to buy them.

Because I'm bigger, I have the freedom to be as athletic as I want and to feel comfortable in size 10 pants. I will never weigh 140" because of my height and muscle mass (and, yes, my body fat, too). I don't want to. Jennifer Lawerence says that she's considered a fat actress, and that she'll never starve herself for a role. Jennifer Morrison has arm muscles I envy. We need more women like these in Hollywood. We need strong, food-eating women for young girls to look up to.

I do completely understand the need to be small, and I wish for it sometimes (especially when it comes to feeling protected by a man). But, a man doesn't have to be physically bigger than me to be able to do that, and I don't have to be smaller than him to let him. Because my size challenges gender stereotypes, then he doesn't need to follow them either. This gives both of us freedom to be strong as well as vulnerable, and there's no way it's a bad thing.

I enjoy being tall. I enjoy being athletic. I enjoy being a woman, and feeling beautiful and strong. But, thankfully, I will never have to wear high-heeled shoes. ;)

Paleo Lessons: Week 13

This is ironic, today is Friday, September 13 and I'm writing the Paleo Lessons for Week 13.

Sometimes, you're just going to spend more than you'd like at the grocery store. It happens. Sometimes, it's for a very good reason though. Sometimes, the extra cost is due to nuts being on sale and restocking your coconut oil stores and getting flourless cake for a birthday that was totally worth splurging on. It's not always the cause, but sometimes it is.

After the massive grocery trip, Super A and I did what anyone would do in that situation: we went out for dinner (for the aformentioned birthday). On our way back to the new apartment (which I moved into all by myself [yes, I'm proud and excited about it]), we explored a little and found a butcher shop that actually looks fairly promising. We're both really excited about it, but I'm waiting until after this coming week to go there. This coming week is almost the end of tri season/my "week off" before classes start up again/a week of weird meal schedules/the last week before campus fills up again and my friends come back and I'll no longer be cooking alone after it. So hopefully 2 Fridays from now I'll have a really nice little blurb to say about what will hopefully become my local meat shop. Until then, Trader J's, here I come!

Sometimes, you're not going to want to cook. So instead, cook a bunch of meat and prep your veggies when you have the time to (over the weekend, right after you get them) so that you'll be ready for your "Nope, not using the stove today" moments.

And finally, even though I'm pretty sure I've said it before, this lesson is worth repeating especially because I apparently didn't get the message the first time: fat will help keep you full. My goals are to use more fat when I cook, including coconut oil and bacon fat. Not sure what I'm going to do on the Whole30 coming up, but I don't normally use butter (or even have it in my fridge since I discovered bacon grease), so I should be good on that front.

Importance of Quantity

When it comes to food, yes, the quality of what you're eating is important. That's why so many Paleo sites emphasize the need to get organic, pastured, free range foods. But another thing that's just as important is the quantity of what you eat.

Eating disorders and disordered eating (yes, they are separate concepts) are far too common in today's society. I'll bet that usually when you think eating disorder, you think self conscious teenage girls. It's not limited to girls. It's not limited to teenagers. I suspect most people are at least a little disordered in their eating. That does not mean that I think most people have eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. It means I think people use food to control and react to stress, or as a reward system, or mindlessly eat to stay awake or to help them focus. Some people just don't eat enough good real food for meals and gain weight from all the snacking they do to try to fill themselves up.

No, if you do these things, you are not broken. Neither is your relationship with food. You just need a little adjusting.

Take a look at what you eat. Try keeping a food journal for a week. Write down every single thing you eat (even those 3 m&ms from the candy bowl sitting out on your coffee table). Look at it at the end of the week. How much of your food consumption was real food? How much of it was during meals? How full were you after those meals? How full were you at the end of the day?

Also note down how much you moved, and how much sleep you got. Exercise and amount of sleep also play key roles in how your body reacts to your environment (including the food you put into it).

Now, you've done your research, you've gathered your data, and it's time to start adjusting. Things do not change overnight. It will require a little work. If you found you snacked a lot between meals because you were hungry, make bigger meals. If you snacked for any other reason aside from being hungry, start cutting down on your snacks. If you ate mostly TV dinners and rehydrated meals, you know what you need to do (eat real food!). If you rarely exercised or slept, make those aspects of your life a priority. I understand the book is good, or you really want to see what happens on your Netflix show, but put in the bookmark, hit the pause button, and hit the hay. Having a solid 8 hours will help you focus and be more productive the next day.

I would also recommend not counting your calories (in most cases). They're just numbers. They're an estimate. Obsessing over amount of calories consumed vs amount of calories burned does not encourage healthy eating habits. 17 calories is not going to make a difference either way. You'll probably be much happier when you stop doing that. Maybe try going by macronutrient ratios (protein, carbohydrates, fat) and vitamin/mineral content instead with a focus on making sure you get enough.

Try eating real food for meals, eating until you're full (not stuffed), eliminating snacking, exercising (whether just walking or something more strenuous like weightlifting, swimming, or running), and getting 8 hours of sleep a night.

End of Internship: the Performance Reivew

Just as important as getting an internship, make sure you ask for a performance evaluation at the end of your time with the company.

"Why?" you ask. "I don't really want to know what they think I did badly."

Au contraire, my friend. You do. It's not a matter of what you did badly, but what you can do better at your next internship or job. They say it's important to learn from your mistakes, and you won't know what your mistakes were unless you ask someone.

If a review is not mentioned or offered by the last week in your time there, seek it out. Ask your supervisor or mentor if they have 20 minutes to meet with you for a performance review. They might ask you questions about your time there - what you got out of it, what did you like, what didn't you like, etc. I would suggest that if you know what day it's going to be, make sure you look nice that day for work. Not interview nice necessarily, but office-nice. No jeans, even if that's normally what you wear. Nice, clean, unwrinkled pants.

When you finish at your review, thank your reviewer, shake their hand, and then go write down what they said. It's nice to know what your weak points are as a worker, but it's also nice to hear what they thought you did well.

Then, next summer (internship or job), put it into practice.

Blueberry Pieish Salad

No, there are no sugars, sweetners, anything added to this salad that resembles sugar other than the blueberries and the coconut. No, there is no guarantee that your salad will actually taste like blueberry pie. The combination of the coconut, berries, and cashews reminded me of it a little, though.

Ingredients:

• salad greens (I prefer romaine, chopped)
• handful of blueberries
• couple of pinches of shredded coconut
• small handful of cashews
• 1 tsp coconut oil, melted

Rinse your salad greens. Toss with blueberries, shredded coconut, and cashews. Drizzle with the melted coconut oil. Enjoy!

Race Season 2013: Race 2 Recap

Labor Day weekend brought my first Oly distance race. It was predicted that we would have perfect weather on race day, so naturally it rained the night before. We stayed a few minutes away by bike, so getting to and from the transition area was easy. 

Nervous as anything, I got into my wetsuit and hoped it would come off more easily than it was going on. Raised my GU with two other team members a bit before the swim start, checked out the water temperature, and posed for a group picture, all with butterflies. My age group went second, and it was a group start on the swim. Because of the open water, wetsuit, and oh yeah, my first time doing an Olympic distance, I started near the back and off to the side. The course was a simple out and back. I zig-zagged a bit on the way out, turned left and swam across to the other set of buoys, and started coming back. The next buoy seemed really far away, but I kept swimming for it. Just as I was about to reach it, someone came up to me in a kayak.

"I'm sorry, you're almost back at the 'out' side. You have to turn around and go back."

Oh boy, did that get me moving. I had wasted so much time trying to reach a buoy that I had already passed. After that, though, I caught up with and passed a girl from my team, made it to the shallows, and was halfway out of my wetsuit before even the professional photographer got a shot of me with it on. The rest of it came off in about a minute (could have started singing, had been stuck in one in a previous race) and I was out of transition and biking in less than 4 minutes. I think that's a personal record. 

I had been led to believe the hills on this course were going to be killer, but they weren't as bad as I had expected. The worst one in my opinion was at the very beginning of the course. I saw Abbs on one of them and kept telling her to not give up, that she was almost there. She made it to the top, I passed her on the way down, and that was the last I saw of her on the bike. Then there was some "leapfrogging" with a 16 year old later, where we passed each other but neither got a good lead for a while. He left me in the dust though.

Then came the run. This is the leg I'd been most worried about. I started at a jog to prevent my PF from flaring, and Super A passed me about a half mile in (on his second lap). He was pretty impressed, the look on his face was great. I jogged and ran most of the first lap, but my legs kept giving out. Turns out not running for 3+ months means those muscles start to forget how to work that way. Despite that (or maybe because of it) I liked the run. I wasn't the only one struggling, so I'd pace with people who were about to give up (kept me from doing the same) and even challenged a teammate to pass me (which he did) and paced with an injured teammate (she was so determined to finish) until my legs gave out again. Ended with running, and crossed the finish line 7 seconds before my goal time of three and a half hours. Definitely a good first Olympic distance race! Can't wait to do it again next year!

Paleo Lessons: Week 11

Whew it's been a busy week. There were a couple of things I noticed this week.

I forgot how good hardboiled eggs are. I'm not kidding. I made some to go with lunch salad this week, wow. Not only are they protein and fat filled, but they're super portable and come with their own packaging. If you do it right, they take less than a minute to peel and don't need anything else to taste good (although that second bit might just be me).

This was a little stranger, but I realized my tastebuds are changing. For example, almonds taste slightly different now, with have more depth of flavor. The chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream I splurged on last week tasted... fake. It tasted full of preservatives and sweet chemicals made in a lab. It wasn't as good as I was expecting (might be the type of ice cream though, since the black raspberry - no judging, 20% and a 2/$5 sale - was delicious). As mentioned earlier, hardboiled eggs are fantastically delicious now, and I grew up enjoying them only for their ability to be colored. It's not just a physical adaptation, I think. I also wouldn't dream of giving up my lunch salad for any type of sandwich, and eggs are pretty much my go-to for breakfast now.

Last week I was sorta dreading doing a Whole30 and had all but completely dismissed the idea. Now I'm actually considering it and somewhat planning to do one relatively soon. It seems like a neat challenge. With that in mind, I'm trying to see what I can do to remove dairy from my diet. Not yet, and probably (hopefully) not permanently. Just to see what I would use instead on the Whole30. It's little things, like replacing the cheese on my lunch salad with cucumber chunks and coconut flakes and using bacon grease (my usual go to) and coconut oil instead of butter.

And finally, because this has been the most important lesson this week, allow yourself time to recover after a race. Do not go somewhere and walk around for 6+ hours the next day when you quad muscles were screaming if you merely stood the day before. Especially don't do this if you suspect you might be dehydrated. Let yourself sleep, even if that means putting off prepping some type of food until the next day. Your body needs sleep to recover. You will thank yourself the next morning, or afternoon - let yourself sleep in a little bit. I could only afford an hour, but boy did that extra hour help.

Cinnamon Eggs

Yep, you read it right. Cinnamon eggs. Scrambled eggs with cinnamon. And coconut (which is optional but not as good without).

Let me back up a second. Who's heard of the Whole9 or Whole30 program? The idea is that for 30 days, you eat nothing but meat, veggies, a little bit of fruit, and maybe some nuts. You don't eat grains, legumes, dairy, any kind of sugar (including chocolate), or foods that resemble anything processed and packaged and treat or cheat like (such a Paleo-brownies or Paleo pancakes).

Well, I like my chocolate and I like delicious glucose bombs (aka bananas) at the end of the day for a sweet moment of ... well, sweetness. Only thing is, on a Whole30 protocol, I wouldn't be able to have either one of those. Maybe some fruit, but not a baked banana with chocolate chips.

Then, Super A made breakfast. And whoa was it pretty darn sweet (without any added sugar or fruit).

Ingredients:

• eggs
• onion (chopped or diced)
• butter
• cinnamon
• coconut flakes (unsweeted, optional)

Melt the butter (or coconut oil) in a frying pan on the stove. Scramble the eggs, but add in the cinnamon, onion, and coconut flakes as they cook. Keep mixing. You should add enough cinnamon that you can see it everywhere in your eggs. Serve immediately

I'm actually going to ask him to make it again this weekend, because it was so yummy last time we had it!

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Garlic Chicken

This week is moving week, and there are two things I knew coming into it:

1. I needed to not get a ton of food at TJ's, because I would need to move it all.
2. I would be coming off a race weekend, be tired, and generally not want to cook.

So I decided to whip out the handy dandy slow cooker. It needed to be something that would last a few days in the fridge, leave me full afterwards, and not be too time consuming for the prep-work. Also, it had to be delicious. I've really been into cinnamon lately, so when I found this recipe for chicken legs, it sounded just about perfect.

Note: this recipe is in portions for a 6 quart slow cooker. You might need to make adjustments if yours is smaller.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lb chicken legs
• 1 onion, chopped or diced
• butter (optional, add on top of everything)
• 5-6 cloves garlic, smashed (not chopped or diced at all!)
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3-4 tbsp chicken broth, white wine, or water

Toss the chicken in the pot. Dice the onions, smash the garlic, and add them to the pot. Add the spices and the water. Cook on medium-high heat for 3-4 hours.

The original recipe called for a full tablespoon of cumin, but I like my food a little less spicy (and I think Abbs might have accidentally snagged mine), so I left it out. It probably needed it. I don't think I can emphasize enough to make sure your chicken is cooked through. If you find pink bits (which I did as I made this the night before and was slightly impatient to go to bed), put them aside and nuke them (politely of course) in the microwave for a minute or so until the pink goes away. Also, you don't need to add that much water. It might look like it, but you don't.

Now I have a meal that lasted 2 nights and meant I didn't have to actually cook anything. Cue the packing!

Paleo Lessons: Week 10

Be aware of how your fridge works. Specifically, the best places to store certain foods to keep them from spoiling. In my minifridge (that I could probably live out of if need be), I forgot that the cooling parts are at the top, near the pretend freezer. Anything I store on the top shelf, just below the freezer, runs the risk of becoming frozen. Like my romaine and zucchini. Romaine is not happy when it is frozen.

It is possible to make healthier versions of your favorite. Last week Abbs made this incredible, amazing fish sticks that actually tasted like really good (albeit way healthier) fish sticks. My favorite thing to get at Chinese buffets is the coconut chicken (so creamy, so coconuty, so gooooood....), so I Googled "paleo coconut chicken" on a whim. The top result was for coconut chicken tenders, and it looked so good that I'm planning on making it next week (move out week and recovery week).

If you're craving carbs, look at your diet again. For some strange and unknown reason, I started craving oatmeal and bagels last week, but didn't realize what it meant until this week. While the oatmeal made some sense, I haven't craved bagels since before I started eating Paleo. Right now, I suspect my body is asking for more carbs (sorta duh, I know) and maybe more fat. It's the beginning of race season for my team, and I'm doing 3 races between now and the end of September. Carbs help athletes recover from races and hard workouts, I believe, and fat would help keep me full between meals. For me, this means learning to make salad dressings. I tried it a few weeks ago, and it tasted so bad even thinking about trying again made me cringe.

Paleo Blues - Keep Your Head Up

Sometimes, with all the conflicting information and personal views out there on the wild place known as the Internet, it's very discouraging to try to eat healthy. There's the 80/20 rule that Mark Sission goes by and Primal Blueprint Fitness, which involves lifting heavy things a couple times a week, moving slowly for long periods of time quite often, and moving fast for a short period of time once a week. There's people who swear by the Whole9 and their Whole30 program. There's people who say dairy is just as bad a grains. There's people who say Paleo desserts are just as evil as the real thing because of your emotional response to that kind of food. It got to the point last week where I almost gave up on fruit because it contains carbs and a banana (the food I like to eat after dinner for "dessert") has approximately 100g of carbs in it and that's about your daily "allowance" of carbs as a Paleo-er.

It makes me want to give up and either go back to the way I had been eating (because I was actually doing pretty well relative to most everyone else I know) or to just eat salad and eggs for the rest of my life (because there's all sorts of ups and downs to every single kind of fruit and every single species of meat). Either choice involved never reading a nutrition/food blog/book/article/magazine/email/any-form-of-written-communication-that-has-to-do-with-food-except-recipes ever again.

Ok, there, you're probably saying. Calm down now. It's not that bad.

You're right, it's not. (Have I mentioned that life is a little crazy right now?) But when the buzz of mostly non-important details starts to get to you, keep this in mind:

1. Women and men have different types of bodies. Women have more fat deposits because, for childbearing - immediate or down the line, these fat deposits are very important. (See this article for more details.)
2. Because of #1, intermittent fasting affects men and women differently. See the same article listed above, I think. (I read a couple of articles yesterday on the topic and I believe it's covered in that article. If not, leave me a comment and I'll look it up and post it.)
3. Carbs aren't the devil. I'm pausing before saying the human body needs some carbs because of all the fully fat-adapted athletes I've read about, but carbs aren't the devil. Or even evil. Carbs are a macronutrient. As a topic, they should be neutral. It's too much or too little carbs/protein/fats that becomes iffy, but... (see next line)
4. Your macronutrient ratios depend on your body, your body's chemistry, and your body's metabolism. And your gender might have something to do with it too. Stefani over at Paleo for Women actually recommends women consume 100-200g of carbohydrates per day, especially those breastfeeding or athletes. (Cue a calming of my banana-induced too-many-carbs-in-one-day freak-out.)
5. I digest dairy well, so milk isn't the devil for me either. I enjoy Greek yogurt on an almost daily basis and have had no adverse reactions.
6. Eating natural foods, organic or conventionally grown, grass-fed or not, is definitely healthier than eating pre-processed, pre-packaged items found in the frozen dinner section of the grocery store. Nit-pick about the details all you want, I'm going to go make myself some beef burgers with peach chutney, eat them wrapped in lettuce leaves, and polish off 1 potato's worth of homemade baked sweet potato fries dipped in cinnamony Greek yogurt. I'm eating whole, less processed foods, and it makes me feel good. Maybe I'll even throw some bacon in with that burger and have a small almond flour brownie afterward (although I'm probably full by this point so maybe not). Have an issue with Paleo desserts? More for me. And, yes, they are a treat for me, too, not an everyday thing.

I think that covers most of it for now. Remember, the body you have is the only one you get. Treat it right, but don't be afraid to treat yourself well, too. It's not worth stretching your budget to its breaking point just to get organic and grass-fed everything. It's not worth stressing out about the details when you're already eating healthier than the vast majority of America's population. And hey, if long distance running (or triathlon-ing, in my case) is more your thing than body-building (or vice-versa), ok. It's all up to you. But don't be afraid of your food or your exercise.

I will also add that I think I still need to do some evaluating of my life, eating habits, relationships with food, and relationships with other people that include food.

Cinnamon Maple Syrup Dip

This is intended to go with the Homemade Crabby Sweets, but it's also just a good dip. I'd make it for carrots, maybe even celery, too. That's how Super A and I tested it while we were waiting for the fries to be done. I made a double batch and brought the leftovers to work this week for my carrots.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients until well combined and serve! Note: don't make it in the container the yogurt came in, it will most likely overflow.

*** I will be trying this again with less maple syrup. Stay tuned!

Homemade Crabby Sweets

This summer, I was introduced to Crabby Sweets. Normally, I'm not a fan of sweet potato fries. I don't know what it was about these - maybe the Old Bay, maybe the maple-syrupy dipping sauce, maybe my tastebuds are changing that much - but they were delicious. Abbs, sweetheart that she is, made some a few weeks ago (sans maple syrup dip). She and our friend who was over for dinner passed after a few fries, so guess who ate most of the bowl? Yup. No regrets, they were fantastic.

Ingredients:

• 3 large sweet potatoes
• Old Bay seasoning
• coconut oil or other cooking fat, melted (don't use olive oil for this one!)
• salt, if desired

Heat the oven to 450 F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (for much easier clean-up).

Peel the skins off your sweet potatoes. Despite what people think, the skins actually hold a lot of anti-nutrients, so you don't really want to eat them. Besides, this is easier than scrubbing them. Cut them up lengthwise, like fries. Or alternately you can make potato wedges, it's up to you. But stick to one or the other, and aim for similarly sized pieces or they won't cook through properly.

In a bowl, combine your potato sticks, melted cooking fat, and spices. Yes, this involves getting your hands dirty. When the oil and spices evenly coat each fry, put them on your baking sheet in a single layer and stick it in the oven. Let them cook for 15 minutes, then flip them over and cook for another 15 minutes. If you want crispier fries, I suggest (but haven't tried!) putting them on the top shelf and turn the oven to broil for the last few minutes.

Yumyumyum! We only cooked them for 20 minutes on one side, but Super A cut them really thinly so they were nice and soft, well cooked but still held their form. I have to say, they were pretty amazing (and cost less than $7.50 - what I'd normally pay on the boardwalk)!

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

Last year was the first time I was introduced to spaghetti squash. It's like magic - a vegetable that, when cooked and "attacked" with a fork, turns out looking like one of my favorite but definitely not Paleo foods. I had one hiding in my fridge, as well as some tomato sauce and ground beef, so the solution was obvious: made spaghetti and meatballs.

Ingredients:

• 1 spaghetti squash or 3-4 zucchini
• 1 lb ground beef
• tomato sauce
• spices

Prepare your noodles. For the spaghetti squash, I actually made it in the microwave. Cut it in half longways, scoop out the seeds, and coat the edges and inside with cooking fat of your choice. Lay the squash open side down in a glass container or microwave safe dish. Cook for 5 minutes in the microwave on high, rotate dish and squash halves, and cook for at least 3 more minutes. Test with fork and cook more as needed. 

Meanwhile, add your spices to your beef (I used oregano, basil, a generic spice mix, salt, pepper, and garlic powder). Mix well. Abbs suggested adding an egg, but it's optional. Heat a frying pan on the stove and add cooking fat. Form the beef into balls and put in pan. Let cook, making sure they don't burn. Flip as needed. Cooking time will differ depending on how big you made your meatballs. When the meatballs are cooked, add your tomato sauce to the pan (to warm the sauce). Turn the heat down to simmer.

When everything is ready, run your fork through the squash to make spaghetti strands. Since there were only two of us, we used the squash halves as bowls. Put your meatballs and sauce on top and serve!

Dear Reader: Love Your Body

Dear members of the human race: Please read this article. It's an apology from a person who used to work in for a diet-food company to all of her clients. She thought, at first, that she was helping her clients, and she realized more and more that eating 1,200 calories a day is certainly not enough food. Especially not if that person was running 5 times a week. Or breastfeeding. Or a teenager on a high school sports team. You need more than that.

People need to hear that they are beautiful. Not just their face, or their eyes, or there hair. Not just their soul or mind, although those are important to hear, too. They need to hear that their bodies are beautiful. Your body is strong. Your body endures. Your legs are strong enough to carry you anywhere you want to walk, your arms can lift something heavy or hug a friend. Your body provides for you, so that when a deadline comes up and you can't make a meal, you don't immediately starve. Your body is a work of art just the way it is.

Race Season 2013: Recap 1

I have 4 races between August 17 and September 28. They're every other weekend, and three of them are for the conference my triathlon team is in. For those, I'm racing solo (as usual) but this past weekend I did a relay with Abbs and another girl from our team.

Abbs swam, I biked, and our third girl ran. It was a sprint, so we went as hard as we could, given we're all new to the sport. My goal was to beat Super A on the bike leg of the race. Abbs made it into the transition before he did, we swapped over the timing chip, and off I went. Breathe, mount the bike without falling, and go. Get through the twisty part of the course without wiping out and make it to the causeway. So far, so good. Was only passed by one woman doing a relay, although there were a lot of guys who blew past. Not worried, they were competitors, and guys. They're supposed to be passing a newbie like me.

Then I hit the bridges. I was being careful, but I still need to get more used to shifting, so I lost time going up and, more often than I'd like to admit, used the downhills a bit for recovery. A little before the turnaround (halfway point), I hear someone coming up behind me. I scoot over a little, and look over.

"You're doing good, you've got this!" Super A says as he passes me.

Grr. I kept pretty close behind him, but lost time on the bridges again and lost sight of him completely when a pack came up on me from both sides. Lost more time on the twisty turny part of the course, and sort of launched myself off my bike at the dismount (didn't crash, didn't fall, didn't land on any one). Made it to transition, got the timing chip swapped over, and started working on catching my breath. He passed me. Super A passed me. I was only a minute and thirty seconds or so behind him when I got in to transition, but that was a minute and thirty seconds I had hoped I would be at least neck and neck with him, if not ahead of him. Later, I realized that he has a year more of racing and at least two years more of being an athlete in running and swimming. I think I'll take what I can get.

Abbs, the other girl, and I ended up taking second in women's relay. Super A got 5th in men's for his age group, which at this race meant that he made it to the podium. So proud of him and us!

It was a blast, and we all crashed hard that night. Can't wait until the next race - an Oly(mpic) distance at a lake. Apparently the course is hilly (think trial by fire), but the swag is good and the post-race has lots of food. I'm excited for the race itself, but those are nice benefits. I still have PF (exacerbated by someone leaving a race packet in the car and me having to run back to get it before transition closed), but I have some workouts now to help with it and get me back into running. Keeping my fingers crossed, but I doubt I'll finish in less than 3:30 (that's hours and minutes).

Paleo Lessons: Week 9

Oops, I lost track of how many weeks it's been since I started Paleo. I thought it was week 11. That seems like a good thing to me, actually.

Try new foods. Even if they're scary, hard to pronounce, or you don't know what they are. Went with Super A and Abbs to a gluten free Mediterranean place for lunch on Friday and didn't know what I was doing when I ordered, so I asked the gal behind the counter for recommendations. I ended up with steak, feta, carrots, and cauliflower in a gluten free wrap with a lemon sauce and a balsamic sauce on the side. It was amazing and I can't wait to go back.

Before a race, banana pancakes are the perfect food. I made some for a race on Saturday, they were devoured, and now I'm all set to make them before the next race, too. The race went well, look for a post soon.

Listen to your body. If you can't keep your eyes open, get some sleep. If you're so sore that standing up or sitting down causes you pain, go easy or take the day off. You'll feel so much better the next day, and your body will perform better than if you had forced a hard workout on yourself. It's not worth it.

Eat when you're hungry, don't when you're not. If you're trying to loose body fat, try to avoid nuts and fruit. If you're trying to stay fuller for longer, eat more fat. This is something I know I need to work on. Salad dressing makes me nervous though. Maybe I'll compromise a bit.

Empty jars are your friends. So is bacon and bacon grease.

Slow Cooker Chili

Alright, here's one of the recipes I keep talking about but not actually posting: the slow cooker chili recipe.

I don't know about you, but the homemade chili I'm used to eating is full of beans. It's delicious, except for the whole "beans being legumes and legumes not being Paleo" thing. I wanted a recipe that I could whip together in the morning before a long days of work and classes and enjoy when I got back that night, ready for an easy "no-prep" meal. Preferably a warm one well suited to fall and the strangely chilly weather we're having here (no complaints, I like it). The original recipe is Melissa's from Clothes Make the Girl. She has instructions on how to make the chili on the stove, but that won't help me. On a whim, I pulled out my slow cooker (a nice, sturdy, old thing that I love) and used it for the first time. The prep work consisted only of adding everything to the pot, clearing a space for it on the counter, and writing a note so no one would accidentally burn themselves or unplug it.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons oil (coconut, EVOO, your choice)
• 2 onions, diced (medium-large are best)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano leaves
• 1 tbsp red chili pepper
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp salt
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 14.5 oz fire-roasted chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup broth (use beef for the best results, but I used chicken)
• 1 cup water (possibly less, need to test again, when in doubt use a little bit more)
• 2 lb ground beef

Combine all the seasonings in a small bowl and mix. Dice the onions (Abbs taught me how to do this without loosing a finger) and put them in the bottom of your slow cooker. Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the meat, and the seasonings.

Mix it all together (using your hands works best). Add the broth and water. 

Turn the slow cooker on to medium heat (make sure at least medium if using raw meat like I did) and let it cook for 8+ hours. I think mine sat for closer to 9 or 10 and came out fine.

Notes:

The original recipe Melissa wrote calls for twice the amount of red pepper and cumin. I'm not that used to eating spicy foods, so it was too hot for me. I still need to test the halved amounts of chili pepper and cumin to see what the heat is like. Also, it freezes well, and it's pretty good in a breakfast omelet.

In other news...

I haven't made any of the new recipes yet, and I still need to write up the one for the chili, but I'd rather give it another go before I post it to see if I can get it to be a little less spicy.  Last night was zucchini carbonara night. Abbs was really impressed at how easy it was to make. She's keeping track of what meals we make for during classes, I think, so she knows what's good and easy and quick. Tomorrow I'm making damn fine chicken again (another classic), and tonight she's making turkey burgers I believe. So much yummy food.

I think I've mentioned earlier that right now I have plantar fasciitis (PF) and am avoiding running. It's been going on 2 months since the last time I ran, and although I'm antsy to get back to it, I'm also finding that I actually do enjoy biking and swimming. Yay! There's a challenge going on at the pool where each length (25 yards) counts as a mile, and they want to see who can swim the farthest away from the pool. I got roped into it by someone else from the tri team, and we roped in someone else, with all of us hoping to get to Hawaii. Hawaii is nearly 5000 miles away from here. Right now I think I'm hovering around 1300 miles (respectable!) with a little over a half a month to make it the rest of the way (not happening, I'd like to maintain my status as second place holder though). My average biking speed has increased, too, I think, which is also exciting. There's a race this weekend that I'm doing as a relay, and I'll be doing the bike leg. It's only a sprint, so it should be pretty easy.

Paleo Lessons: Week 8

Week 8? How on earth is this week 8 already? It seems like much longer and much less than that at the same time.

Here's what I've learned in the past seven days:

You will on occasion buy too much food. It's somewhat inevitable. It'll happen. And some of it will go bad before you get a chance to use it (like an entire package of butternut squash did over last weekend when I was away grr...). The upside is, when you make your food, you'll have options. Abbs, my newest cooking buddy, and I didn't coordinate as well as we could have, and we ended up with an extra zucchini and some panchetta that we didn't quite have plans for. So Wednesday night when I made cauliflower pizza, we ended up throwing the panchetta on top (a very good idea). Thursday, when she made green beans with coconut chips, it turned into a stir-fry and in went the zucchini!

Read up on spices before you use them. I used to think I had 8 year old taste buds when it came to spicey food. It's something I have to remind Super A of on a quasi-regular basis. I made slow cooker chili this week and it called for a variety of spices I didn't own and didn't know how to use. So I followed the recipe, and it ended up a bit hotter than I normally would like (cue runny nose). It was good though, and not too hot for me to enjoy. Then Abbs made soup. I don't know what kind of soup it was or what she put in it, but it was spicy! I let it sit for a while, thinking that if the temperature cooled down I'd be able to eat it without feeling like my throat was on fire. Oh nay nay. She and I figured out later that the spiciness actually got stronger the longer it sat. I gave up halfway through my bowl and went back to the chili. Now I've decided I have 6 year old taste buds, and that I really need to know what the spices are going to do to the dish before I add them.

It is easier to cook with a buddy. I already knew this from cooking with Super A, but it's that valuable of a lesson. If you're already making x-amount of food, double (or triple) it, and you get multiple meals for the same amount of work. By sharing those meals with a buddy, it means you don't have to do the clean up (at least in my kitchen) for that meal, and your friend will probably make dinner the next night. It's twice the food for half the work. (Eh, don't do the math on that, I'm not entirely sure myself). It also means you might find yourself eating foods you wouldn't normally choose. With Super A, I eat tomatoes and avocado on my salad. With Abbs, I eat (as previously mentioned) spicier food than normal. Whatever you make probably tastes better, too, if you're trying to impress someone (be it friend or more-than-a friend). It also might mean a night of leftovers - the already cooked kind of leftovers, not the "what the heck can I make out of an eggplant and three sausages" kind of leftovers.

I think that's about it for this week (that's it? That's a lot!), so I hope you have a good weekend! I know I plan to!

Upcoming Recipes

I know, the posts and recipes have been sparse lately. That's due partially to me working longer hours to build up enough for a "day off" so I can go see my family and partially because I have a new co-chef buddy, Abbs. She's been exploring Costa Rica for the past few weeks and just decided to go Paleo. The place where she's staying until the fall doesn't have a very good kitchen, so we're buddying up and using mine.

Between the two of us, we've made some really delicious recipes this past week. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to write them up and post them for the reasons mentioned above. Don't worry though, I'm working on it. Be on the lookout for a slow-cooker chili, a chocolate cake based off of fruit, a meal that includes mahi mahi and veggie stir fry, and possibly a soup.

Cranberry Salad with Chicken

Note the title. This is not a recipe for chicken salad, but rather salad with chicken in it.

Ingredients:

• Romaine lettuce, spinach, or your preferred salad greens
• Dried cranberries
• Flax seeds
• Chicken (cooked)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cheese (optional)

Rinse the salad greens and tear into appropriately sized pieces. Add chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add flax seeds and dried cranberries and cheese. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Noatmeal

Ah, oatmeal. That good ol' stick to your ribs, totally not Paleo breakfast food. Best made by a parent on a stove on a cold Saturday morning, complete with hot chocolate and snow outside. Also highly enjoyed by children when it's the instant oatmeal with sugar eggs that dissolve into dinosaurs when hot water is added.

Instant oatmeal. I shudder slightly at those words (despite consuming plenty of it myself in the past). Society, you're doing it wrong.

Last week I started thinking about how delicious oatmeal is and that it's one of those meals I still miss occasionally. So when I went to the grocery store, I had to get some butternut squash. I know what you're thinking - those two things have nothing in common, what are you talking about, Jenna? I'm talking about noatmeal!

I first saw the idea on Mark's Daily Apple. His recipe calls for a banana, 3 eggs, a couple handfuls of nuts, nut butter, and a food processor. That sounds like a lot of work for someone who's looking for a quick and easy meal in the morning (and doesn't particularly want eggs - not blasphemy, it happens to the best of us). I liked the idea though, so I kept looking around. Most of the recipes called for bananas. I love bananas. Sounds perfect, right? Well, Super A just told me that bananas have something like 27 grams of carbs per 100 grams, and I know they're packed with sugar - a lot of recipes that call for bananas say adding more sugar is optional. Plus I like my sweet treats at the end of the day, which usually involve a mashed banana. Plus I'm trying to get more veggies as part of my daily food intake. Pumpkin noatmeal sounds good, but they don't have pumpkins (canned or regular) at my Trader Joe's yet.

But they have butternut squash. Already cut up butternut squash. Easy to cook butternut squash chunks.

It probably would have cooked quicker if I had cut the cubes smaller, but it worked pretty well. I sauteed my squash chunks in a frying pan over low-low medium heat for (accidentally) an hour. I believe they're supposed to be done after about 15 minutes, but I was cleaning up some stuff and forgot. Luckily they didn't burn, the heat was low enough. I dumped the chunks into a container, mashed them up, and put them in the fridge for the night. Cooking the squash is the main prep needed for this recipe.

Ingredients*:

• 1 cup butternut squash, cooked and mashed
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 "shakes" (1-2 tbsp) almond flour
• 2 eggs
• Handful of chopped walnuts
• Cinnamon (I used lots)

Put the squash, almond milk, and nuts/nut flour into a saucepan on medium heat and stir until combined and warm. Add the egg and stir until mixture is uniform and cooked (3-5 minutes). Remove from heat and add cinnamon and more nuts if desired. I sprinkled my noatmeal with cinnamon, stirred it in, and then sprinkled it again.

It's good hot (like regular oatmeal) or chilled in the fridge for a while (like pumpkin pie). Enjoy!

*This recipe could easily be halved or doubled. The amounts listed were sufficient to fill me up completely for a couple of hours. Also, I don't actually know exactly how much I used of each ingredient as I didn't measure. (Come on, when you're running around in the morning would you measure, or just say "Hmmm, this looks like a good amount of that" and move on?) This is more of a guideline, adjust as needed. Start with less almond milk and add if it looks too dry. With the cinnamon it was sweet enough that I didn't feel the need to add honey.

Avocado Pineapple Burgers

So yummy! Don't think I have a picture for this yet, but I'll take one the next time I make them.

Ingrediants

• 1 avocado
• 1/3 of a lemon
• 1 lb ground meat (used beef)
• 1 onion
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Spices
• 1 pinapple

Mush the avocado in a bowl. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon. Set mixture aside.

Cut the pineapple into desired sized chunks.

Season the meat. Separate into quarters. For each quarter, divide it in half. Make each half into a small patty. Spread the avocado mixture on the patty. Put the second patty on top of the first one and fold the edges together  If you don't get them all the way together, that's ok, just know that avocado will leak into your pan/onto your grill. Repeat for the remainder of the burgers.

Heat the pan and place 2 burgers in it. If you have a lid, cover the pan. You want to cook the burgers on medium heat. Flip when sides start to brown.

While the first burgers are cooking, saute the onions (chopped as desired), mushrooms, and garlic in another pan. Use as a topping or a side. 

Place the pineapple or onions and mushrooms on top of the burgers and enjoy!

Repercussions

I like eating Paleo. I feel better, I sleep better, and I enjoy my food. But on the weekends, especially when I go to visit friends or go on long rides/big workouts, I don't eat nearly as well. This past weekend was no exception.

Friday night I was at home, so I made some yummy yummy cauli-pizza (and fried the extra "dough" on the stove to make fritters - yum!). It was a good time.

Saturday was messier. I went to an open water swim for the first time (turns out opening my eyes underwater, yes with goggles, makes me feel clausterphobic when I can only see to my elbows) and so breakfast consisted of a Larabar after the swim, a banana and a Builder bar after the bike ride, and plenty of water and Gatorade. Saturday night found me at the boardwalk eating a bacon cheeseburger (fine except the bun), Crabby Sweets (which apparently are the only sweet potato fries I like), and frozen custard.

Sunday was full of bagels and tons of fruit (which normally I love, but I was craving some protein), some fries and chicken fingers, and nuts/raisins on the train back home. When I got back, I overloaded on the protein with fish, chicken, and eggs, with some veggies and spinach on the side of course.

I'm sure you're wondering, "What are these repercussions you're talking about?" Try mood fluctuations, grogginess (which could be due to a late night beach visit that I'm recovering from), and restless sleeping for the past 2 nights. Not to mention that I just felt inflated after eating all those fried, sugary foods and the bagels. Ugh. It makes me want to do a ton of pushups to verify my muscles haven't disintegrated.

I'm aiming to eat as well as possible this week, with lots of veggies and protein, because I know that's what makes me feel good. Well, that, and dark chocolate. Unfortunately, something similar is going to probably happen the next two weekends. On the upside, Larabars are as Paleo as a granola bar can get (Apple Pie is good), I have butternut squash and zucchini in my fridge, and I'll be getting a new cooking buddy next week!

Paleo Lessons: Week 6

I like yogurt, but it's a common place for high fructose corn syrup to sneak in. I was disappointed when I read the ingredients on my favorite flavor (Trader Joe's Vanilla Greek Yogurt) and saw that sugar was the second ingredient and corn syrup was on the list as well. I got some of the plain Greek yogurt instead, because it at least doesn't have any added sugars or syrups, forgetting that I consider it to be fairly bitter and tart. I will say though, it's much better with honey added and it makes a great veggie dip. Just keep in mind that the honey sinks to the bottom if you add the honey and then put the container back into the fridge without mixing (oops).

Variety is the spice of life. Wednesday, something struck me. I was eating the same handful of meals every week! Yes they're familiar and safe, and I know they don't cost much, but man do they get dull after a while.

It's not as scary to tell people as I thought it would be. Maybe I just have nice friends though, or maybe it has to do with being in college where everyone tries new things. The few friends I've told have been very accepting of my choice - especially my buddy who has been away researching in beautiful Costa Rica and will be sharing the kitchen with me when she gets back.

Don't grocery shop when you're hungry. I thought this problem would go away with eating Paleo, but it doesn't. It just means you look to foods that aren't bread products instead of those yummy looking donuts.

And finally, it's ok to not be perfect. The lovely Diane over at Balanced Bits reminded me with this article that I am human (that is to say, imperfect), I am a college student (that is to say, financially constrained), and it's ok that I love chocolate (ok, so maybe she didn't say that exactly). So you know what? If I'm eating Greek yogurt instead of Kefir, or even vanilla Greek yogurt instead of the plain stuff sometimes, it's better than I was eating before. It's better than choosing ice cream every night. And it's not a huge deal if I do choose ice cream every now and again.

An Honest Quandery

I like really like really really like chocolate. Before my tea days, before the brief stint when I drank hot chocolate-vanilla cappuchinos from the crappy coffee machine in the dining hall (they were pretty delicious but I shudder to think about what I was consuming), I would drink hot chocolate. It was warm and delicious and very easy to make. My parents gave me a huge container of hot chocolate mix when I moved in my freshman year.

It's not Paleo in the slightest.

In the evenings, I roam through the apartment searching for a piece of chocolate. I long for that sweet little bite right before bed. Hot chocolate would be an easy, obvious solution. It would also help me hydrate more, I could drink it at work, and it's chocolate. Er, chocolate flavored. It would stop the craving and halt the evening hunt.

A few days ago I found out about Choffy. It's a drink similar to coffee, but made with cacao nibs instead of coffee beans. It's recommended you make it in a French press, but it can be made in a regular coffee maker too.

I own neither of those products, having sworn off coffee after I had nasty, nasty caffine jitters from 2 cups of chocolate vanilla cappuchinos during a final my freshman year. (It wasn't even all that much caffine! The drinks were half hot chocolate and half whatever the vanilla cappuchino mix was. It was the equivalent of a cup of hot chocolate and a cup of cappuchino. Clearly my body does not handle caffine well.) It has tons of antioxidants (more than blueberries, believe it or not) and no caffine (a plus for me!). It does however have theobromine, which is a more mild stimulant than caffine, but it's still a stimulant. It sounds like I'd have to get a French press and a 12 oz bag if I wanted to try it, but that would be a waste of money if I didn't like it.

EDIT: just found out Choffy can be brewed in a tea infuser for 5 minutes! Now to find somewhere I can try a cup before splurging on a $15 bag...

But I do love tea.

Tea was the next logical step after the coffee fueled final debacle. I didn't like tea, really at all, before college. Super A got me to drink it. I started drinking black tea, since sometimes I needed the caffine first thing in the morning. There's one that tastes just like a cookie, it's incredible. Usually I have the fruit infused black teas, or this really yummy vanilla caramel one that tastes the way coffee smells (yes I still really like the smell, residual from childhood and a mother who drinks coffee every single morning). I'll even drink chamomille and herbal cinnamon apple teas now. I'm starting to run out of the flavored ones, though, so I'm looking for more to replace them. Generally, I'd like to find fruity or chai teas, but then I stumbled on this:

It's rooibos tea with chai spices and chocolate pieces. I'm not sure how Paleo it is, but it's caffine free and certainly better for you than hot chocolate mix. Cha Tea Company sells the blend in the picture above and Urbane Tea Company sells a chocolate hazelnut blend (also caffine free as it's made with honeybush leaves). They both come out to $6.00 for 2 oz. I imagine Cha's tastes cinnamony and chocolatey while Urbane's might taste like liquid Nutella. I'm not sure which one sounds better, so I might just have to get a bit of both (as well as more of the blueberry tea I'm drinking as I write this).

Chocolate cravings satisfied?

Easiest Breakfast Ever?

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don't doubt that. I've found over the past few years that skipping breakfast leaves me cranky and ravenous by noon. I don't quite have that problem anymore, but I still agree that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast sets the tone for the day (if that day is Monday, it can set the tone for your week). A nice, yummy, relaxed breakfast leaves you refreshed and ready for anything. A stressed running-out-the-door-late-for-work breakfast leaves you haggard and can very easily result in falling off the Paleo wagon for a meal.

This meal has been my go-to for the past week or so. It's got protein and fat from the eggs and ham and you get a nice serving of veggies and vitamins and minerals from the spinach.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• large handful of spinach
• 2-3 slices of ham
• seasonings (salt, pepper, and garlic powder are my favorite right now)
• cooking fat (I'm using bacon grease that I store in a jar in my fridge)

Heat your cooking fat in a pan on the stove. When it's warm, drop in chunks of your ham and all the spinach. Let cook until the spinach is dark green and the ham is starting to brown. Crack your eggs into the pan and mix it all up for a pseudo omelet. When the eggs are mostly cooked, add your spices and sprinkle on the cheese. If it's circle shaped, fold the eggs in half to make a nice omelet looking thing. Remove from pan and enjoy!

I've actually been putting mine straight into a to-go container and eating it at work with some tea once it's cooled a bit. Use whatever add-ins or seasonings you want, this is just my current favorite.

Paleo Lessons: Week 5

Be careful on cheat days. I had kinda a weekend long cheat and spent the first few days this week readjusting to Paleo. Not necessarily worth it (although the mac and cheese and regular brownies were delicious). 

Preparing food the day you get it can save time during the week. Grating cauliflower is a pain, but if you do it all at once while watching tv or chatting with a friend, it's not that much of a hassle. Cutting veggies ensures you have a premade snack ready when you pop your head into the fridge.

Buy larger sizes and make your own "snack packs". The bigger sizes are often cheaper than the individually packages, and by making your own in reusable baggies or containers you can help the environment, too.

One Month of Paleo!

One month ago today I decided to try eating Paleo. The specific challenge was just to eat Paleo for a month and see what I thought. After adjusting to a low carb diet (read: after 3 weeks of low carb flu) I can say this was a good choice. I sleep better and have an easier time falling asleep. I'm calmer. I certainly eat more veggies. I feel more relaxed. I suspect my body's natural chemistry is leveling itself out. I don't need to drink tea for the caffine, I can drink it because I want to (although I'm trying to stay away from black tea currently). I have a bunch of new recipes. I enjoy cauliflower. I can cut a pineapple. I have a new appreciation for dishwashers. I know more about what I'm putting into my body and how it affects me.

This past weekend Super A and I went to a party his family was hosting. There was lots of really good food there, but not much of it was Paleo. I cut myself a break and did what I could (lots of salad and some fruit) but also indulged in mac and cheese, desserts (real brownies!), pasta salad, fried chicken, and pork bbq (although that last one was probably the closest to Paleo out of all of them). I was hungry more often, I had mood swings, and I kept wanting to eat more. It was delicious food, don't get me wrong, and I still do love mac and cheese, but I think that eating Paleo is probably better for me right now than eating the average American high-carb, low-fat diet.

My verdict: this was a good choice.

My next goals are to find more published research on food, chemistry, and how the human body reacts to it. I'm considering cutting out cow milk for various reasons and replacing it with almond or coconut milk. I'm planning to invest in a food processor (gasp!). Oh yeah, and I might want to figure out how to explain to people (including my parents) why eating this way is a good choice for me.

The journey continues!

The Perils of Grocery Stores

This past week I decided to try something new. I went to a regular grocery store.

Not happening again. At least not that store.

The produce section was severely lacking - there were exactly 4 zucchinis when I went. I couldn't find any romaine heads, and the bagged salads were two for $7. $7 for a less than a week's worth of salad doesn't sound like a good idea. The berries might have been a decent price, but this store has a history of moldy fruit. The mangos looked kinda sad. Have I mentioned that I love baked goods? It's hard to pass by an Enteman's sale or a sale on Life cereal even when you're not eating Paleo.

The main reason I would go to this store is the meat section, but I think I can probably do about the same at the Trader Joe's I normally frequent. I did score a bit on the cheese, so maybe it will become a 5 minute stop on the way home from work for cheese and cheese alone, maybe meat too. I also got the single spaghetti squash, but not much else from the produce department. I think I'll stick to TJ's for my weekly grocery needs. It's better quality and more variety.

My weekly grocery list usually looks something like this:
Veggies - zucchini, spinach, romaine, squash or eggplant, onions, cauliflower, sometimes peppers or tomatoes
Fruit - berries (fresh or frozen), mango, pineapple, bananas, occasionally regular apples
Meat - ground beef or turkey, bacon, chicken
Other - nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans), Greek yogurt, cheese, coconut or almond milk, occasionally sweet potatoes

Chocolate Truffles

I've been trying to work extra long days at the beginning of the week so I can take Friday afternoons off to grocery shop and run errands. A couple of weeks ago, I gave in and bought coconut oil and coconut milk - mostly so I could make this recipe by Michelle over at Nom Nom Paleo.

Michelle makes her truffles into balls, but I ended up sticking the entire "pan" (my pan was a Chinese takeout container) in the freezer and realized they'd make a great, rich fudge too. I cut them into squares. I'd recommend doing that at the 4 hour mark, before freezing them.

Ingredients:

• 10 oz dark chocolate (70% or higher)
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Very carefully shave the dark chocolate into small pieces. Going on the diagonal seemed to work best for me. Put the dark chocolate into a bowl with the coconut oil. Don't worry about melting it.

In a saucepan, bring the coconut milk to a simmer. Pour it into the bowl and gently stir until the chocolate is melted and everything is thoroughly combined. Add vanilla. Pour mixture into a tray/pan and place in refrigerator for 4+ hours. 

Scoop out truffles and shape into balls. Roll in cocoa powder or shredded coconut. 

OR

Cut truffles into squares.

Keeps in the fridge for about a week or in the freezer for 3 months.

If keeping in the freezer, Michelle says to put the truffles in the fridge for a half an hour before serving. I'm keeping my squares in the freezer and whenever Super A wants one, we just take it straight out of the container in the freezer without worrying about defrosting. The kind of melt in your hands, anyway. Maybe that's just the type of chocolate I got. 

Happy snacking!

Paleo Lessons: Week 4

This week was my first week when it didn't feel like I was still adapting to eating Paleo - meaning no "low carb flu" symptoms. I'm trying to figure out what proportions of what types of food my body needs to consume to feel full and certainly still learning how to eat when I'm hungry and not eat when I'm not hungry. It's all about balance.

I saw this article earlier this week and it made me laugh a little. It's about a gentleman of age 26 in the United Kingdom who lived off of $18 of groceries for the week. Intrigued, I started reading and found that most of his diet is heavy in carbs. He said that it was difficult to get enough protein on such a low budget. He also struggled with getting enough fruit and veggies and mainly relied on pasta, bread, and potatoes to meet his caloric intake goals (which actually weren't met from what I can tell). Here's his original article (more extensive than the interview).

What does this have to do with anything? Since going Paleo, I've been spending what's felt like a somewhat ridiculous amount of money each week on food. Super A helped me put it in perspective (making purchases that will last a while, like spices, coconut oil, and nut products), but this article helped me realize that this might be the monetary price I'll pay for living a more healthy lifestyle. If I spend $25 more a week some weeks, but I eat healthier food, I can live with that.

I overheard a co-worked talking about his wife going Paleo and that he was doing it to support her. He said it was really, really hard because basically you can't get anything you normally would at the grocery store. It made me smile - it's surprising how much food you can still actually eat when you're Paleo, especially when you do your research and cook for yourself.

The last lesson for this week is stock up. Get food items that keep for a while, such as frozen berries, nuts, dried fruit, frozen veggies, frozen meat (check the ingredients list first), onions, sweet potatoes, and apples. Spices are also worth the investment and can make all the difference in a dish.

Bacon Grease

It's Wednesday. Whoo! The week is halfway through!

Whoa, wait, the week is halfway through? I'm not ready for the weekend yet! I have yet to do any of the things I've been counting on getting done this week, let alone tried a new recipe out. Yesterday my stomach decided to be a hungry hungry hippo after I went swimming (3000 yards, possibly the biggest swim workout I've done yet), which was awesome and unfortunate. 

Awesome because now I don't have any more leftovers. I chowed down on some cauliflower fried rice, eggplant pizzas, fish, and zucchini noodles and it was deliciously awesome!

Unfortunate because now I don't have any more leftovers. I have what I think is a mild but persistent case of plantar fasciitis (pf) and I started treating it over the weekend using Sock Doc's recommendation of trigger point therapy. So far, so good, but my legs feel like they're covered in bruises. Getting back on track, I realized that standing in the kitchen and cooking for an hour or more every night after work probably wasn't helping. Hence the no new recipes. 

I can however give you a really good recommendation: eat more bacon. 

First of all, it's bacon. Second of all, a slice or two makes a good Paleo snack between meals. Third of all, the grease can be kept in a jar and used for cooking. You know how it works - you cook a bunch of bacon in a frying pan, bacon grease puddles up in the bottom of the pan, and you have to dump it out before putting the next batch in so your arms don't get covered in grease burns. Instead of pouring that melted fat down the drain, pour it into a jelly jar and put it in your fridge. Reach for that next time you need to sautée anything. 

Paleo Monday Update

For the time being, I am discontinuing my Meatless Mondays. They generally left me hungry and in varying degrees of grouchiness, in part because I'm still adapting to eating Paleo. My previous Meatless Monday dinners usually included some sort of pasta, and at least once a day (every day) there was a peanut butter sandwich.

Question: why would you do a Meatless Monday in the first place?

People can quote their science and studies at you until they're blue in the face. For all intents and purposes, my reason was that I have friends who are vegetarian and vegan and it was my gesture of support for them.

Follow up question: why did you stick with if after converting to Paleo?

For another simple reason: I wanted to see if I could do it. Turns out, I can. I need more experience though, both in the kitchen and as a Paleo eater, before I'm ready to do it in a way that's healthy and fulfilling.

Cauliflower Rice

Like any other college student, I don't have a food processor (yet). Unlike most of the college students I know, I have a cheese grater.

It's beautiful.

It also means I might be able to get away with making Paleo food I would normally need a food processor for, such as cauliflower rice. This turned out a little better than I expected and it certainly filled me up. You can use any veggies you like, I used what I had on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 zucchini
• 1 lb of mushrooms
• 1 large onion
• 1 pineapple
• 2 eggs

Wash the cauliflower, cut off the florets, and grate. All of it. You probably want to squeeze it out too to get rid of some of the water. Wash and chop all other veggies and the pineapple.

In a pan/wok/large saucepot (you want a large surface area), melt butter or other cooking fat (I think I used coconut oil). Cook the onion and the zucchini first, then add the mushrooms and cauliflower after a while. 

Push all the veggies and "rice" to the edges of the pan. Crack your eggs, mix, and cook for a few more minutes. Add in the pineapple slices just before you're ready to serve. Toss everything so you have well mixed rice and serve!

NB: cauliflower gives off a lot of water when cooked. I suggest squeezing it out before adding it to the pan, but cooking it briefly in the microwave would probably help get more water out of it.

Baked Bananas

This idea was my special 4th of July treat for Super A. Originally from Paleo Mom, it was inspired by the movie The Croods, which is about a family of cavemen. It's a really sweet dessert and it's even better topped with ice cream (I know, that's not really Paleo, but I can tell you it is delicious).

We sorta ate the first one before I realized it!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup pecans
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 2-3 bananas
• cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 425 F. Chop the nuts as finely as you desire. Mix with cinnamon

Put the bananas on a cookie tray. Start at the top of the banana and cut through the peel and through 3/4 of the banana lengthwise down to the base of the banana. Don't cut through the other side of the peel.

Using your fingers and maybe a spoon, put the nut mixture into the groove your just cut down each banana. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon if desired. 

Put bananas into the oven for 12-14 minutes. Allow them to cool slightly upon removal. Enjoy straight from the oven, over Elana's Chocolate Zucchini Bread, or as the base for a banana sundae.

Snacks

Problem: you just started eating Paleo and you have the munchies - all the time. What do you do?

For starters, try eating more at meals. Make bigger meals - more meat/protein and good fats, more veggies. The veggies can fill you up if you eat enough of them, but protein and fat keeps you full.

When you're fully adapted, you probably won't have this problem nearly as bad. Here's some suggestions for those between meal snacks:

• Apple slices and nut butter
• Veggie sticks and Greek yogurt or guacamole
• A slice of bacon
• Deli sliders: lunch meat topped with something else (personal favorite - ham and cheddar cheese)
• Cheese cubes
• Hard boiled eggs
• Drumstick (for a bit bigger of a snack)
• Nuts!
• Jerky

Feel free to add your favorites in the comments!

Elana's Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Oh. My. Gosh.

In my quest to find a flourless brownie, I decided to try a Paleo recipe that includes almond flour. Elana from Elana's Pantry came up with this great Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe. I don't have the same sized pan that she used, so I made it in a brownie pan and added chocolate chips.

The result: fluffy, moist, chocolatey, and completely Paleo brownies. Delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour or almond meal
• 1/4 c cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4 c honey
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 c zucchini (grated)
• pinch of salt
• handful of chocolate chips

Combine the almond flour and the cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Stir in the salt and baking soda. Make sure it's well combined.

Add eggs, coconut oil, vanilla, and honey. Make sure the ingredients are well combined. Stir in the zucchini.

Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 pan, sprinkle on chocolate chips, and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool and serve.

Paleo Lessons: Week 3

I need to get more veggies. Period. I thought I was doing well on this front until this past Monday. One of my favorite meals is pancakes - Paleo pancakes that is. They're delicious with bananas, but I eat too much fruit (I don't see the problem, fruit is delicious and nutritious). Then I remembered some zucchini pancakes I found a recipe for last summer. I'm working on modifying them (because I think they call for flour) so I can use way less banana in my regular pancakes. The only problem? As soon as I thought of this, my brain jumped in with a "No, you can't use those zucchinis for pancakes. You need them for .... something. Something else. You need those zucchinis for something else."

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I've found that if my breakfast leaves me ravenous in less than two hours, it's going to be a hungry day. On good breakfast days though, I'm full until at least 10. I think there was one day where I was actually not hungry until after when I normally grab lunch. An alternative I might start trying is to skip breakfast if I'm not hungry - that way my metabolism doesn't "wake up" until lunch.

I now need over 2 dozen eggs a week. I'm not sure what that says about Paleo and my eating habits, but I'm really glad they're cheap.

Pay attention when you cook bacon. Nuff said.

Cauliflower Pizza: College Style

aka Paleo pizza you don't need a food processor to make.

How excited were you reading that? First of all, PALEO PIZZA! Second of all, no food processor required. You can use one if you have one, it probably is easier and less time consuming.

Originally this recipe is from Michelle over at the Lucky Penny. She calls it "The BEST Cauliflower Crust Pizza!" I have to agree with her. I grew up making pizza dough with a recipe that required no fewer than 6 cups of flour, so I was slightly skeptical about any other pizza crust recipe, let alone a Paleo one.

Well. I shouldn't have been. This is delicious. I modified it a little bit since I don't have a

Ingredients:

• 1 cauliflower head (or 2-3 cups of cauliflower rice)
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1 egg
• salt
• pepper
• dried basil
• dried oregano
• garlic powder
• 1 tbsp almond meal (optional)
• Toppings and sauce as desired!

Wash and dry your cauliflower head. Cut off the florets and grate with a box grater. You don't want or need too much of the stem.

Cook the cauliflower snow for about 4 minutes in the microwave. I couldn't fit all of my snow into the single microwave safe bowl I own, so I used takeout containers as well. Place the snow on a clean towel and allow it to cool. 

Wrap the cauliflower in the towel and wring it out. You want to get some of the excess water out. You only need to squeeze it a few times - don't rip your towel.

In a bowl, combine the cauliflower, cheese, spices, and egg. Mix with your hands. Form the pizza crust on a greased baking sheet. Bake it at 450 F for 8 - 11 min until the top starts to turn golden.

Remove from oven and add sauce and toppings. Bake for an additional 5 - 7 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown. 

The hardest part: allow it to cool slightly for a few minutes. Enjoy!

I topped mine with tomato sauce, 3 different cheeses, and some ham. For the next one, I'm planning on ham, bacon, and spinach. I also ate the entire thing, it was so delicious. I only used about half a cauliflower head, too. I'm also planning on making one two when Super A is here next (we both eat enough that we probably need our own).

UPDATE: Here's the bacon and spinach pizza! It was for both myself and Super A, so I filled the whole pan. It probably could have used a longer cook time and I would have lined the pan with aluminum foil to make it easier to actually get slices out of the pan.

Kitchen Sink Crustless Quichezza

(pronounced keesh-za)

My food was starting to go, I had one more day to make it through until grocery shopping again, and I was out of meat and out of salad. This was also after successfully making Zucchini Noodles for the first time, and I had the inside part of the squashes left over. It was only after the squash and spinach was in the pan and I was cracking the eggs that I realized this was my first "Hey, I can actually cook!" moment. It's not so much a recipe though as a meal idea - lots of eggs, lots of veggies, some extra protein, and cheese. The end goal was something slightly quiche-y with veggies and shrimp scatter throughout, and slightly pizza-like with the cheese on top.

Ingredients:

• Remnants of 2 yellow squash, cut
• Spinach
• Shrimp, pre cooked
• Any other veggie or meat you want or need to use (it's called the Kitchen Sink for a reason)
• 4 eggs
• butter
• salt
• pepper
• cheese (optional)

Heat the butter in a frying pan on low-medium heat. Cook the veggies. Add the meat and cook it.

Crack the eggs in a bowl and mix them. Add salt and pepper. Pour the eggs into the pan. Cover and cook on low heat.

When mostly cooked, sprinkle cheese on top of the eggs. Allow to finish cooking.

Serve immediately or let cool and refrigerate for lunch.

The center ended up essentially being veggies covered in cheese with the eggs more toward the outside and shrimp everywhere. It wasn't quiche-y at all, or pizza-like, because I didn't spread out my veggies when I poured the eggs into the pan. I do like how the shrimp are all at different places in the eggs though. Next time I'd probably add some bacon or ham and maybe some onion. Maybe I'd make it more pizza like by putting tomato sauce on top, too.

The part I liked best? It fit in my lunch container, microwaved well at work, and kept me full for a loooong time.

Paleo Lessons: Week 2

This week was quirky and made me very glad to be using the 80/20 Principle. Just as I was getting ready to take my chicken out of the oven and flip it, the fire alarm in my building went off. What followed was four and a half hours of waiting to be allowed back in to the building. I gave in around 8:45 and ran to a nearby convenience store for a protein bar. When, around 11:30 pm, we were told it would be another 45 minutes to 2 hours before we could go back, my friend/past-future roomie and I went to take advantage of the accommodations provided for those displaced for the evening. In the end we got back in to our building, but I lost the chicken (which was my previous dinner, lunch, and next dinner).

With that, lesson number one this week is be flexible. Whether it's a fire in your building or a meal that didn't turn out the way you wanted, shrug, eat what's edible (aka, not half cooked chicken that sat out for 11 hours), and improvise until your next food shopping adventure.

A great alternative to cereal is a bowl of nuts, berries and other fruit, and coconut milk. I'm not sure how much coconut milk I'd drink on a regular basis, but I got it specifically for a recipe this week and "waste not, want not"! You could also sub in Greek yogurt for the coconut milk, or almond milk, or if you kept dairy like me, regular milk. It makes a good post-workout snack or part of a breakfast.

Frozen shrimp. Defrost it ahead of time so it retains its flavor and doesn't taste watery from being rinsed in the sink. Also, if you have plans to cook it, make sure it's not already cooked. They do make pretty good quick snacks though.

Zucchini Noodles!

All the recipes for zucchini noodles that I'd found said basically 2 things - use a julienne peeler and cooking is optional. None of them said anything about how to actually make zucchini noodles, and I don't have a julienne peeler.

I do have a regular peeler, though, and it did the job quite nicely.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium/large green or yellow squash
• little bit of butter or your choice of oil

Wash the squash well. Using a peeler, peel strips of squash. The best method I've found is to keep the ends of the squash on, hold one end, and peel from the top down. Rotate the squash and repeat until the seeds are visible. Now you have raw squash noodles!

To cook: heat the butter in the frying pan over low-medium heat. Drop in the noodles and cook until soft (3-5 minutes). Salt and pepper the noodles when partway cooked. Add toppings or mixins such as cooked shrimp or chicken, or toss it in a sauce. 

Serve immediately. I layered mine with cheese, but that's obviously up to you.

The leftover part of the squash is good for sautéing and use in other recipes, like a Kitchen Sink Crustless Quichezza.

Paleo Meatless Monday

I tried this last week, which was a very bad idea. It was my first day of eating Paleo and ultimately led to me being grouchy and hungry all day. This week, I have a little bit of a better sense of what I can eat that is Paleo while still doing my best to have a Meatless Monday.

Monday, I was PescaPaleian. 

I figure it's currently a good compromise. I've been participating in Meatless Mondays since February in support of my vegetarian friends and in protest against the campus dining hall (it's not exactly easy to get a good amount of veggies outside of the salad bar).

Breakfast, 3 eggs and an orange. Lunch, big salad with fruit and an egg (forgot to hardboil, so I scrambled it and cut it up to put on top), plus carrots, almonds, and some dry fruit.

Dinner: lemon shrimp with zucchini "noodles" and spinach. The original plan was to cook the noodles in the pan with the shrimp, but two very important things interfered. For one thing, the shrimp was already cooked and it was recommended to not cook them further. For another thing, the noodles turned out not so much noodles as a mass of zucchini tendrils. I cooked them with the spinach, threw in the shrimp, and dumped the entire thing in a bowl. Immediately water began accumulating at the bottom (and this is after I squeezed out the zucchini before cooking). What saved this meal was probably a little bit of lemon juice, some salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and liberal quantities of cheese (see my disclaimer). I think if I did it again, I'd have just thrown in some eggs (essentially zucchini pancakes) and served it with Greek yogurt.

My new challenge: figure out a good way to make zucchini noodles without a julienne peeler.

Check out the results - Zucchini Noodles!

Easy Peasy Fruity Salad

Last week I realized I needed to get better at making salads, considering the ones I made weren't that yummy and didn't keep me full at all.

Here's what I came up with this week:

Pardon the quality of the picture, and the fact that it's over half eaten. You can see all the ingredients though, which I like. I also found that the variety of flavors kept me from becoming bored with it after a few days. The only thing that would make this better would be a bigger bowl so I could pack more of it!

Ingredients:

• romaine lettuce
• spinach
• strawberries
• blueberries
• mango
• pineapple
• 1 egg

Start with you base and build up. Make your romaine bite sized and throw the spinach on top of it. Top with the cut fruit and berries (cut up the strawberries). If your egg is hardboiled, peel it, cut it up, and add that. If you ran out of time like me, scramble an egg and cut it into pieces. Easy to transport, and probably a hit with kids for the flavors and colors. Bonus: getting a variety of fruit allows you to mix it up a little each day and keep it interesting.

Still haven't mastered a good salad dressing yet unfortunately, but it's been a little too hectic this week to try very hard. I'd love to be able to make a good Caesar salad dressing sometime soon, we'll have to see what happens!

Super Easy Paleo Pancakes

I had these this morning for breakfast (all of them) with some berry compote. Normally when I'm at work, I start getting hungry around 10:30, 11, and I try not to eat lunch until noon. Today I got to 12:15, looked at the clock, and realized I still wasn't that hungry yet. Neat!

These are the quickest, easiest, and possibly most flavorful pancakes I've had, possibly ever (including pre-Paleo). There was a race this past weekend that Super A did and I volunteered at, and I made these the night before so we could grab something quick at 4 am. I believe his reaction was raised eyebrows, wide eyes, and a grin - "These are the best pancakes I've ever had. Seriously." He was so disappointed after the race to find we had eaten them all.

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas
• 3 eggs
• cinnamon (optional)
• butter (for the pan)

Mash the bananas in a bowl. If you're like me and don't have a food processor, break them in half and squish them with your hands, then stir with a fork. Add the eggs and mix. Add the cinnamon for flavor and mix more. The "batter" should look pretty uniform in color, although you might see banana chunks here and there. Not a problem.

Put a pan or a griddle on the stove with low-medium heat. Melt the butter and pour some batter. The smaller you make the pancakes, the easier they'll be to handle and the better they'll turn out. When the bottom starts browning (the banana is caramelized), carefully flip using a spatula. When the other side is cooked (brown or not, doesn't matter), your pancake is done.

In total, this makes about 6-8 pancakes, depending on the size. Didn't time myself, but it's very easy to make them the night before while doing other things.

I also suspect that they might behave better in the pan if you mash the banana using a food processor, but I have yet to test this theory.

Enjoy!

Things To Know Before Arriving on Campus

Here's my "top 10" list of things you as a college student going out into the world should know before you arrive on campus.

1. Grocery Stores - Sometimes dining hall food just doesn't cut it, or you want to make a romantic dinner for your significant other, know where you can get the supplies. Better yet, know a few in the area.
2. Hospitals - Seriously. Whether it's for something as serious as your roommate's concussion (which he/she should receive treatment for!!) or alcohol posioning (also seek treatment immediately for this one!), or something relatively minor like a broken bone, you will want to know where the nearest one is. Note: Ambulance rides are not free. 
3. Public Transportation in the area
4. Places of Worship - if only so you can take your parents there when they visit you.
5. Free Parking - Sometimes parking is free on certain streets, but other times you might have to pay. Find the free streets and figure out the times you can park there without a permit and won't have to pay.
6. Gym - Either the on campus one or one off campus with a cheap membership. Exercise will help you stay focused.
7. Movie Theater - Pretty self explanatory. You don't want to be wandering around trying to find it using your phone's GPS 10 minutes before the movie's supposed to start. Be prepared.
8. Park/City - If your school is in a city, you should know at least one place nearby that you can escape to when you just need some green growing things around you to make you feel good. If your school is surrounded by green, you should know the nearest city/town/shopping center for "duh" reasons.
9. Kmart/Walmart/Target - These places can possibly double as a generic grocery store, but they're also great for decorating your room, getting inexpensive clothes, art supplies, movies, etc...
10. Public Library - During finals week/midterms week, the library on campus will get very crowded. Knowing where the public library is can give you access to more study space plus their collection of books, movies, and CDs. 

This is my list, feel free to add your own "places to know" in the comments.

Paleo Lessons: Week 1

This week was my first week of trying to train myself to eat Paleo. It definitely had its ups and downs, and here's what I've figured out so far.

I so need to learn how to make a better salad. My mom has this amazing poppyseed salad dressing recipe and Super A has offered to help me make balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing, but I need to get a good base first. I'm also not a huge fan of dressing in the first place. Sure, throwing romaine and spinach in a takeout container every day works, and the ground beef I cooked up Sunday night was pretty good as a topping the first day, but by Wednesday my tastebuds were protesting.

I want to make salad like this:

It had blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, and chicken. I am not a person who takes pictures of meals at restaurants, but this was so good I had to (mostly so I could try to replicate it).

Almonds are delicious. 'nuf said. Almost good enough to stop the peanut butter sandwich craving and the inexplicable desire for large quantities of bacon. Carrots are pretty good too.

At some point, I will need to get a food processor. Lots of Paleo recipes require the use of a food processor to blend together ingredients you wouldn't normally use (because you'd use flour instead) or to make some sort of nut flour/nut butter. Until then, my super yummy snack choices will be somewhat limited.

Personal Paleo Disclaimer

I am not claiming to be an expert on Paleo eating. Here's some claims that I've heard since I started considering changing the way I eat and the best responses I've found for them.

The species our ancestors consumed in the Paleolithic era don't exist.
Seeing as most of the species of animals and plants that existed then are not present in today's world, or at least they aren't present in the same way, this is a valid point. I also don't think people are claiming to eat exactly the way our ancestors did. The idea is to trend toward how they ate - as a hunter-gatherer society, that means more meat and veggies and less grains. Grains happened after we settled down and turned to agriculture. Artificial sweeteners came from a lab. The big picture of Paleo eating means trying to eat more natural, less processed foods as much as possible while avoiding foods that mess with the natural biochemistry of the human body (such as grains and refined sweeteners).

There's no proof that eating Paleo is better for you.
Actually, a good amount of research has been done about the best foods for the human body to process. When I find a link to a good article, I'll do my best to add it here.

Paleo eaters don't eat dairy.  
I will be eating dairy. I do not plan on giving up milk, cheese, and yogurt, but I handle lactose well and that's my personal choice. Besides, when I do a Meatless Monday where else am I going to get my protein? Eggs are well and good and all and I love them, but eating them for three meals a day would get very old very fast. Greek yogurt and milk are full of good yummy protein.

Probable retort to my explanation above: well then you aren't Paleo.

First of all, we can't know for sure what our Paleolithic era ancestor ate because we weren't there and there's not as much evidence as we'd like. Second of all, think about vegetarians (hold the typical Paleo-vegetarian comments). There's different degrees. Some vegetarians don't eat red meat or poultry, but are fine eating seafood and fish. Some vegetarians take it further and don't eat seafood and fish in addition to red meat and poultry. And then you have the extreme vegetarians, vegans, who don't consume dairy products either.

So yeah, I might not be hardcore Paleo in the strictest sense of the eating habits. I think I'm okay with that. I'll also be eating plenty of fruit and nuts, and maybe some sweet potatoes every now and then. I will have meals that aren't Paleo in the slightest, and that's okay too. This is the degree to which I'll be eating healthier. I'm aiming for the 80/20 Principle.

Adapting baked goods recipes to fit a loose definition of Paleo defeats the purpose of eating Paleo.
I have a confession. I like bread. I like pasta. I like cookies and pastries and cakes and pies. I grew up making homemade pizza dough on Friday afternoons, so you'd better believe I like pizza. BUT I think eating Paleo is healthy. I will be posting neat recipes I find that are consistent with the idea of getting most of one's calories from meat, fish, eggs, poultry, veggies, and fruit. Yes, some of them will probably be desserty. If I make popsicles from avocado and dark chocolate, does it matter if I eat them in their original forms or in a modified one? If I find a recipe for sweet potato brownies, yeah I'll try it. The point of eating Paleo is to eat healthier and more naturally. If making snacks and desserts that are similar to foods I would normally eat helps me keep eating healthy, I have nothing against it.

Here's some people who know way more about eating Paleo than I do:
Warning: they probably have a stricter definition than I do of what's acceptable and what's not, so consider yourself forewarned. They also have more information though, and more recipes. Some of them have books, which I have probably not heard of at the time of this posting, and I am only posting them because I have used/will use their websites/blogs as references as I move forward in this eating adventure.
Mark's Daily Apple
J. Stanton's Gnolls
Juli Bauer's PaleOMG
Michelle's NomNomPaleo
Paleo Parents
Primal Palate