Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 10

That salad is not what I planned on having for dinner. In fact, as I type this, my house is filled with the delicious smell of a warm Crockpot meal. But the key component to eating Paleo/healthy/better is planning. And that "Fail to plan and plan to fail," saying was ringing pretty true today.

I found myself at the mall at dinner time. Because I started it so late, said Crockpot meal would not be done for another 2 hours. I was starving. The kids were starving. So dinner was served at the mall.

Now I love the mall for a  number of reasons. I love to people watch there. I love to snag free panties from Victoria's Secret every now and then. I love the shoe sales at Dillards, and earning Gymbucks at Gymboree, and letting Claire window shop at Claire's, the store she truly believes was named after her.

But I do not love the mall food court. At all. The lure of the WetzelspretzelCinnabonOrangeJulius is strong. And so not Paleo. So very not Paleo.

So I ran in the opposite direction and bought this salad. It was decent enough after I extracted the American cheese from it. American cheese in a Chef's salad? Who does that? American cheese could cease to exist and I wouldn't shed a tear. I'm not a fan. Which coming from this cheese lover is saying something.

Today was an epic food fail, but I'm pretty stoked about a new spaghetti squash recipe I'm trying tomorrow. So stay tuned...

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 9

Sometimes when you're experimenting with new foods and new recipes, you stumble upon one that looks and sounds delicious, but is very much not. So is the case with these stuffed peppers. The guts were good. I combined browned hamburger meat with sauteed onions & garlic, then added basil, salt, pepper, zucchini, tomatoes and corn. My kids ate it on a bed of potato chips (kinda defeats the purpose, I know. But they ate it nonetheless), but we stuffed ours in peppers, sprinkled with a bit of Parmesan cheese and roasted them.

Now I love me a good stuffed pepper, but the combination here just didn't work. I'm going to make the hamburger hash portion of this again, but avoid using the pepper as the base. I'll have to think of something else to serve it with/on. Maybe cauliflower rice or mashed sweet potatoes? Experimenting here I come...

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 8

It's gluten-free. It's dairy-free. It's Paleo. AND it's loved by every member of my family. SCORE!


I've had a few of you ask me for the crepe recipe I use. I've combined a few recipes I've found and tweaked them a bit until I found a recipe that worked for me. Here it is:

Coconut Flour Crepes 

2 eggs
2 Tbs of melted coconut oil (plus extra for cooking)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbs coconut flour
Sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg
1/3 cup coconut milk
Strawberries (or whatever berries you have on hand)

Beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and salt. Stir in coconut flour, nutmeg and cinnamon and then add coconut milk. Heat a small pad of coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Pour about an 1/8 cup of batter in the skillet and spread it around with a spatula until you have a very thin layer. Cook 1-2 minutes or until the crepe is cooked around the edges. Carefully flip the crepe and cook the other side for 1-2 minutes. Fill with berries and roll up.

Vanilla Coconut Frosting

1 cup of chilled coconut milk (must be full fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Dash of cinnamon
1 Tbs honey

Using a hand mixer, whip ingredients together. Drizzle over crepes. You can also skim the top off a can of coconut milk (just down to the liquid), chill overnight and then whip for about 5 minutes on high to get more of a whipped cream. Then add the remaining ingredient and whip just until blended. I don't do this because I'm impatient and I've found it tastes exactly the same. So we just drizzle the more liquidy frosting over the crepes and gobble them up.

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 7

So one thing that has become very apparent as I have been documenting my meals is how much chicken and eggs I consume. I guess I could notice worse trends, like Twinkies and Milk Duds. But I actually have a lot of other meats on the menu for this next week, including spaghetti squash with meat sauce, zucchini hash, pot roast, etc. So the next few pictures should not contain chicken or eggs. But I can't make guarantees for the week after that. Old habits die hard!

Grilled Chicken Breast with Italian Spices
Roasted Broccoli & Cauliflower (tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with pesto and baked for 30 min)
Cantaloupe

I'm actually surprised cantaloupe has not been present in more pictures, as it's one of my most favorite fruits! I can easily eat an entire cantaloupe on my own in one sitting. I'm awesome like that.

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 6

And sometimes you snag a hot date, head downtown and let someone else prepare your dinner for you. I heart Bonefish Grill. And handsome dates. And not having to wash dishes after.

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 5

Before my father died, he introduced me to crepes. He loved them, and after trying many different varieties, I realized it was a shared love. The problem with crepes? They aren't exactly Paleo friendly. Or so I thought.

Enter the coconut flour crepe, and the world is right again.

Coconut Flour Crepe (stuffed it with chicken, leftover bacon and sauteed veggies)
Fresh Green Beans w/ Bacon and Onions

The best part is I always make extra crepes & eat them for breakfast the next day. I fill them with strawberries, a touch of honey and some whipped coconut milk and it tastes like I'm eating dessert for breakfast. Because nothing starts a day off right quite like dessert. Especially when it's healthy!

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 4

This is a breakfast I routinely do, but without the bacon. I only throw the bacon in when I'm cooking for the husband, too. Not that I don't adore bacon. I do. But my love affair with bacon can get out of control if not kept in check. I'd put bacon on everything and anything. Bacon on donuts, check. Bacon on ice cream, check. Bacon on blueberry muffins? Oh, I've tried it. But do you sense a theme here? All of the items I love with bacon don't love my thighs, or love my thighs a little too much I should say. So I eat bacon sparingly, and enjoy every last morel when I do.

Egg Scramble (I throw in any and all veggies I have on hand. This morning it was broccoli, red & green peppers, onions, tomatoes & avocado. Then a few cloves of garlic, basil and some pepper spice it up.)
Almond Butter Coated Banana (I especially love eating this first thing in the morning because it makes me to guzzle water or choke to death. Great way to force hydration!)
Bacon (YUM!)

My husband is not a breakfast lover or I'd eat breakfast for almost every meal. Breakfast foods make me happy. Although I have swapped waffles and pancakes for what you see above, there's this tasty Paleo berry banana muffin that I can't get enough of. I'll share that recipe later this week when I make them. It will almost make you forget about custard-stuffed french toast. Almost.

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 3

Here's what's for dinner:

Honey Lime Chicken (added some olive oil, chili powder, lime juice, honey and pepper & grilled it up)
Roasted Pesto Cauliflower (toss cauliflower in olive oil & pesto & add a dash of garlic salt. Roast at 425 for 20-30 min depending on your preference. I add a sprinkle of fresh parm cheese after 20 min & bake another 10 min)
Grilled Pineapple

Growing up we always ate cauliflower raw. I had never even eaten cooked cauliflower until I started Paleo last year. Now it's one of my favorite veggies to roast. There's another roasted recipe that calls for red wine vinegar that's pretty delish too, so maybe I'll share that one later.

The thing I love most about Paleo (besides how ridiculously awesome it makes me feel) is that it forces me to try new things and experiment with food. Through the years of playing mommy chef, the end goal was to just get a warm meal on the table. So I found myself on autopilot, repeating the same recipes and simple meals week after week. I don't necessarily feel there's anything wrong with that; it's a method of survival some days. But I do think it takes some of the fun out of cooking and you unavoidably end up in a food rut.

I didn't realize how bad it was until Cora went to dinner at a neighbor's house a few years ago. They had halibut, brussel sprouts and mashed sweet potatoes, all foods I'd never cooked. Cora cleaned her plate. When said neighbor was dropping her off, she mentioned she'd never seen a 6-yr-old so open to trying new foods. I realized what a disservice I was doing my family by regurgitating the same menu week after week. Clearly Cora was (and always has been) willing to try new foods. If I wasn't introducing new foods to my daughters when they were young, they would eventually get stuck in that food rut as well.

They don't always eat all the crazy Paleo recipes I make, but they do try them. And I love that they are exploring new foods and new ways to prepare old foods right along side me. Don't get me wrong, they'd choose fudgy brownies over a Paleo banana coconut muffin, but I'm just happy I can convince them to try both!

Paleo Plate Pictures: Day 2

My tasty breakfast this morning. I used to be anti-breakfast, but have learned over the last year that a hearty breakfast fuels me for the day. I also end up eating healthier throughout the day if I kick it off right. Here's what was on my plate:

3 Ingredient Paleo Pancakes (2 bananas+1 egg+ 2 T almond butter~ cooked in coconut oil) topped with fresh strawberries
2 eggs scrambled (with basil & pepper seasoning)
Roasted Butternut Squash (tossed in olive oil & salt/pepper/garlic)


Don't ask me how many calories the meal contains because I don't count calories. In fact, when I stick to a strict Paleo diet, I typically consume way more calories than the average 2,000 calorie recommendation. With that said, I also find myself losing weight and in the best shape of my life, so it's not something I concern myself with.

Lastly, here's a silly video that my bestie & I made last year. We made a series of Paleo videos that were mostly trainwrecks, but you might find a tad bit of enjoyment from them. In this one we explore what our typical Paleo day looks like. I'd say enjoy, but I've seen the video.