Sometime near the end of last year our family began an even more basic food eating strategy. The Paleo Diet, in short, consists of meats and vegetables and fruits that would have been consumed in a non agricultural society. No, we are not on diets, but this way of eating can be really helpful if you suffer from gastronomical distress, as well as if you are looking to develop a lean muscle physique.
Some of the things we used to eat a lot of, like for instance, oatmeal, and cheese, are now "off the plate" so to speak. We eat very little in the way of animal dairy products and grains are pretty much taboo! It has taken some adjusting, mostly on my part, as a cheese sandwhich is just about heaven for me, but fortunately, our kids have always eaten really heartily of all things healthy, so they are not begging for food like others might. Our kids haven't had wheat based products, like noodles or bread, so that hasn't been a problem to exclude those from the menu.
Like most kids, my older daughter still enjoys cereal for breakfast, but now that bowl consists of chopped up apples, pears, bananas, blueberries, raisins, and blanched almonds roasted in coconut oil (yum!), about ten corn flakes and coconut milk to top it off. Whereas before she would get two bowls of oatmeal with raisins. She loves this combination! I'll bet its because of all the textures and flavors and because, she can still have seconds :-) She loves to add cinnamon and Macca, which is one of those add-it-to-anything kind of powders full of all kinds of ancient goodness.
For lunch we usually eat eggs with avocado, sometimes a little leftover rice which we are eating once or twice a week now. Another fun concoction I've come up with is "Caterpillars" which is shredded carrots, chopped apples, celery or parsnips, raisins, and sometimes a bit of pineapple or orange thrown in. I mix all this with some coconut cream and it is really delicious. Then I plop a couple of balls onto the plate, add some avocado "feet," and my kids happy as can be! Baby really likes this combination too, so its nice that I can make one bowl and everyone's eating basically the same thing.
At night, like most families, we eat meat! Chicken and beef, mainly, but occasionally we will have uncured bacon or pork, or white fish like cod and tilapia, or salmon. Sweet potatoes, spinach, and or broccoli, and, maybe every other week, a legume, i.e. lentils, beans, or peas. Like I said, we do occasionally have some grains like basmati rice or quinoa. Other nights we will have cabbage and hamburger soup, which I'm surprised to be enjoying so immensely!
My husband has started making his own broths and drinks those while on the job. He has commented that the broth really helps him get through the day without feeling so starved. Before, stopping for a bag of chips and eating nearly the entire bag would be considered lunch, so his now at least the salt intake is coming from a very healthy source. I'll go into the broth making process in another post, but basically he just throws a bunch of bones in the crockpot, fills it to the top with water, and then cooks it on high overnight. This we put into mason jars for convenience sake. The kids really like to drink this too and its really easy to add to soups. I've even seen dad use the "soggy bones" to enhance their breakfast cereals (not mine)!
If you're looking to lose weight, this is a great way of eating. It takes about two or three weeks to kick the bread habit as I call it, but one way to think of food is that it is a habit. If you habitually put sugar in your coffee, well, it would take practice in developing the habit of not doing that! So changing your food habits takes practice too. I'm always surprised by how easy it is to maintain my weight when I'm not tempted by snackies on the cupboard shelf :-)
I know we hear all the time in the news about the hormones added to just about everything, as well as all the pesticides etc. Almost everything we buy is organic, and our beef is grass fed hormone free. This of course costs more, but we feel its an investment in our children's future, and well worth the extra effort it takes to prepare their food to take with whenever we are eating elsewhere. Most restaurants are offering more gluten-free options, and I've never had a problem getting things left off the plate.
If you're interested in learning more about the Paleo Diet, do some research. The above information is my most non-technical way of explaining to people some of our food choices, and should in no way be considered expert advice :-) Thanks for reading!
