Dessert

One of the biggest struggles with my change to the Paleo diet, is that dessert basically becomes obsolete. I can’t tell you how many times during the day I used to think to myself, “You know, ice cream would be great right now.” I’m the person that always looks forward to dessert at the end of the meal, and would probably order it first if I really wanted to.

I was perusing Pinterest, looking for Paleo recipes, when I happened across one for banana bread. Granted, it’s not straight dessert, with loads and loads of chocolate, but it sounded super delicious. In addition to sounding and looking wonderful, it actually tasted very similar to the non-Paleo version. I think one of the changes I have found with Paleo versus non-Paleo foods is usually the texture of the food. It’s not so much the taste that bothers me. The texture of this banana bread was soft, chewy, and moist. (I can’t believe I used that word! It’s on my “do not use list, but it’s all I could think of to adequately describe it!.) This recipe is pretty much a winner, and you can’t go wrong with it.

Paleo Banana Bread

Recipe adapted from Peanut Butter Runner

Ingredients:

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil a 9 x 5 loaf pan

In a medium bowl, whisk together baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg almond flour, and coconut flour. In a small bowl, mix together the coconut oil, eggs, bananas, honey and vanilla, until combined. (The original recipe calls for maple syrup, but I substituted honey, because first of all, I didn’t have any Paleo maple syrup at time. Second of all, I love honey!)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix. Do not overmix!!

Pour the batter in the pan. I poured half of it in the pan, poured a layer of dark chocolate chips over top, and then topped it off the the rest of the batter. Feel free to bake it with or without the chocolate chips, I’m just a sucker for chocolate though. 🙂 Bake for 45-55 minutes, prick the center with a toothpick, and the toothpick should come out clean. Let cool in pan for about 15-20 minutes, and then remove it and let it cool on a wire rack.

Okay… so to preface this picture. I know it doesn’t look like much, but seriously, melt in your mouth, can’t get enough of it delicious! Enjoy!

Mashed Potatoes

Well, if there’s one thing that you need to know about me, it’s that I love mashed potatoes. Seriously. Love affair status. Give me rosemary, garlic, whipped, smashed, buttered, and I’ll eat it. I would smear it on toast (another thing I love) if that wasn’t considered weird. Although, now that I say that, I’m sure in some country, that’s their national food: potatoes on bread. 

Anyway, the point of this post is that I cannot express to you how much I LOVE mashed potatoes, and how much I HATE mashed cauliflower. So far in my Paleo diet, I’ve liked all the Paleo substitutes I’ve tried. The Paleo brownies I made, such a hit! I may even be bold enough to say that they’re better than non-Paleo brownies… but just don’t tell anyone I said that. Paleo bread? Eatable, for sure, but still not horrible. I have even liked another food substituted with cauliflower, cauliflower tortillas. Delish. But, I can not get over how disgusting mashed cauliflower is. 

I honestly expected it to be okay while I was making it. Granted, it looked kind of odd, but I can always get over looks when it comes to food. I’m serious, I even, mistakenly, ate a shrimp head, but kept on eating anyways because it tasted so wonderful. I used similar ingredients when making these said Paleo mashed potatoes, with garlic, sea salt and pepper. Even spooning it onto my plate wasn’t so bad. But after that first taste, I couldn’t accept it as “mashed potatoes.” There was some connection that my brain refused to make, but I don’t blame it. I don’t know if it’s because mashed potatoes was basically it’s own food group before I switched to Paleo; but for whatever reason, I couldn’t bring myself to like it. I’m sure that if I wasn’t such a mashed potato-head (haha, oh silly me), I would have tolerated it, because then it would have only been pureed cauliflower. But because the recipe I read called it, “Paleo Mashed Potatoes”, it had a lot to live up to. Maybe I have ridiculously high expectations…

So to open this topic up for discussion, does anyone have any recommendations? Should I just suck it up and deal with it? Or is there a better way to make mashed potatoes Paleo? Or maybe…. it could just be one of my cheats. 🙂

Progress

Okay, so I know it’s only been a few days since my last post, but I have already seen progress with the change of my eating habits! And no, I’m not only speaking of losing weight, but progress in my willpower and ability to say no. I feel so accomplished when I have the willpower to say no to something, and know that I will reap the benefits later.

Let’s start with grocery shopping. If any of you know me, you know that I am an atypical grocery shopper. Yes, I make lists and cut coupons. But the similarities end there. I can’t just zip in and zip out of a grocery store. My friends joke with me, because I’ll say I’m just running to the store for one item, but walk out with a cart full. I also have to walk down every single aisle, even if I don’t need anything from half the aisles anyway! It’s a bad habit, and it makes me impulse buy like crazy. So, now that I have to shop Paleo, walking down every aisle is a huge no-no. Most Paleo eaters suggest you skip the middle aisles entirely, since the contain most of the gluten heavy foods, high sugar items, and processed foods. This irritates me. I dislike not being able to follow my pattern and habit. But, in the long run, it does pay off. I spend less time trying to decide if buying a container of Oreos can be my cheat for… uh… the week, and spend more time trying to find vegetables, meats and fruits for my meals.

Eating out as a Paleo eater is also very difficult. Dating a non-Paleo eater makes it even more challenging. If he wants to go out for a burger or sandwich, it’s hard for me to figure out what to do for two reasons. Number one, what am I supposed to eat at Potbelly’s, when all their food is made on bread?! Number two, if I go there, I’m just going to want to go and “cheat” so I can eat a delicious sandwich. Gah, so frustrating! But, I am finding that I can and will say no.

Lastly, I have to say that I have conquered eating at work the most. I work at Panera Bread as a manager, and as a manager, you are allowed a free meal each shift you work. That includes literally anything in the cafe, pasta, soup, sandwiches, salads, pastries, bagels and cookies. Before I decided to go Paleo, I would usually consume at least one or two baked goods a week, along with a sandwich or soup a day. And, if you haven’t looked a the nutritional content in our pastries and sweets… oh dear. It’s shocking how much saturated fat and calories Panera can squish into one small scone. Granted, I wouldn’t gorge myself on their mac and cheese every day, but even their sandwiches are packed full of calories, sugar, sodium, and fat. Now that I have decided to eat Paleo, I try to bring in my own food and use what I can at Panera, to create a healthy, filling meal. I have lasted two whole shifts so far without even nibbling on a cookie or a piece of bread.

I know that there’s an inevitable hump coming my way, but I’m reveling in the fact that I have not given in yet. I want to follow through with this, change my lifestyle, and be more healthy!

Over the past few days, I have pulled from many difference sources for ideas for food. Let me tell ya, Pinterest is great! I know, you see the Pinterest wedding pictures plastered over Facebook, and can only assume that’s what Pinterest is for. But being able to find recipes that are Paleo online, right at my fingertips, is the most helpful way for me to find things to eat! Cookbooks can get expensive, and I don’t have too many friends in the area that are Paleo, so Pinterest is the way to go.

Last night, I was brainstorming dinner ideas, trying to find something that would appease my non-Paleo boyfriend. And what came to mind? Tacos! Yum. I love tacos. They’re so versatile and you can basically top them with anything you can think of, and it’s all delicious. But then I realized my problem. Flour tortillas. They were the only thing standing in my way from making one heck of a meal. So what do I do? I’m not just going to give up on this! I go and grab my trusty laptop, open up my web browser, and pull up Pinterest. (Let the groans begin.) I simply typed in “Paleo tacos” and pages and pages of recipes appeared before my eyes. After a couple of minutes, I settled on a tortilla recipe. Now, when I tell you what these tortillas were made of, some of you probably won’t believe me. I mean, there is no way tortillas could be made from this! But seriously, these tortillas were amazing, maybe (dare I say it?), better than flour tortillas! Call me crazy, but I think so. And, for your enjoyment, here is the recipe!

Cauliflower Tortillas

Makes about 6 tortillas

Recipe by: Slim Palate

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower

2 eggs

Sea Salt

Pepper

Cheese cloth or a dish towel

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

1. Clean and wash the cauliflower. Cut off the stems and cut into smaller pieces. I try to pull them into bite sized pieces, they will be easier to mix that way.

2. Place about 3/4 of the head of cauliflower into a blender or food processor. Pulse until it resembles rice. It should only take a few pulses to create the right rice-like consistency. You should have about 2 cups of it riced.

3. Take the riced cauliflower and put it in a microwave safe bowl, microwave for 2 minutes. Stir, and microwave for another two minutes.

4. Place the cauliflower into a piece of cheesecloth or dish towel, and squeeze all the liquid out. Be very careful, it will be hot!

5. Put the cauliflower back into a bowl, add the two eggs, sea salt and pepper, and pulse until it is all combined. It will be slightly runny.

6. Place a piece of parchment paper on your cookie sheet (very important), and spread mixture into 6 small circles with a knife.

7. Bake for 10 minutes. Take the tortillas out, peel the them away from the parchment paper, flip, and put back in oven for 5-7 minutes.

8. Heat a fry pan over medium heat, and place a tortilla in the pan to crisp up both sides of the tortilla.

9. Eat! 🙂

I topped my cauliflower tortillas with Paleo taco meat, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese (my cheat for the day). But feel free to use whatever topping you like.

I apologize for not having any pictures of the final product. 😦 I do not have adequate lighting in my kitchen yet, but I will hopefully have that fixed soon.

Well, here it goes…

I have never been a proficient writer. I made do through high school and college, but when asked my hobbies or what I excel at, writing was never at the top of my list. I have never been a blogger either, outside of having a Xanga many moons ago (do you remember those?). However, lately, I have been inspired to blog, and finally gave in. This is a big step for me, to publicize the ups and downs of my life for all the world to see. But, I’m up for the challenge.

Recently, I have been researching the Paleo diet. Heard of it? Essentially, you eat as a “hunter-gatherer”, and eliminate grains, dairy and processed food from your diet. That means no pasta, no bread, no cheese, no Cheez-its… you get the picture. Now, if you know me, you know that I love to eat. I love all food, and am rarely picky. You can easily assume that this diet would be hard for me, and you would be right! I LOVE pasta and bread. You could go as far to say that I’m passionate about, fond of, enthusiastic about, or have a weakness for it. After pouring over a couple… dozen… books and cookbooks, I have realized that the health benefits greatly outweigh the deliciousness of all the junk food I currently eat. But, the one thing I love about this diet, is that it acknowledges that you will mess up and cheat. The biggest thing that deters me from diets is feeling guilty if I eat something that I shouldn’t. Eventually, I give up on the diet altogether and go back to eating what I was before.

I decided that I will slowly transition over to this eating lifestyle for two reasons. Number one, I know myself. If I go cold turkey, one week from now you’ll see me with an enormous plate of pasta piled high with cheese and calories. Number two, it can be somewhat expensive. I went to Meijer today and looked for almond flour to substitute for the all purpose flour I currently have in my house. Not only did it take forever to find it, but I could only find one brand of it, and it was about $10 for one, tiny bag. I tell ya, living out in West Michigan with no Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods makes it more difficult!

So, my first, small step into this whole “Paleo thing”, began with dinner tonight. Let me just start by saying that whoever thought up the whole “let’s put food on a stick” idea, was a genius. Last night, I ran to the grocery store and picked up some steak, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, summer squash, and Lawry’s Lemon Pepper marinade. Yeah, yeah, the marinade isn’t Paleo. But hey, notice I used the word “small.” And of course, every good dinner has to have a yummy dessert. So I also grabbed some fresh raspberries, strawberries, nectarines, blueberries and bananas to make fruit skewers. Okay, so to lay this all out for you, I’ll put it in recipe form.

Beef and Vegetable Kebabs

Serves 4-6 (depending on how hungry people are!)

Ingredients:

2 pounds of steak – You can use whatever cut you like, but I think I used round. Feel free to use chicken or pork too!

Veggies – I used mushrooms, peppers, onion, and summer squash.

Lawry’s Lemon Pepper Marinade

Wood Skewers

Take the beef and trim the fat. Cut the steak into uniform, bite sized pieces. Be sure to cut them as uniform as possible, or else they will cook at different rates. Cut all the veggies into uniform pieces. Place all the meat and veggies into a large Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over top. Place in the refrigerator for a couple hours, or overnight to optimize flavor.

When ready to prepare, arrange your oven so that one rack closest to the top and leaves enough room to put your cookie sheet in. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (to make clean up easy!), and place a cooling rack on top of the cookie sheet. Allowing air to circulate underneath will cook the bottom of the skewers. Preheat the oven to “broil”, and set it to 500 degrees if possible. Take a skewer and alternate meat and veggies until the skewer is full. Make sure you do not fill the skewer up completely and leave room on side for an easy gripping spot. When all your meat and veggies are on skewers, place them in your oven for three minutes. Take them out, rotate them, and place them back in the oven for another three minutes.

Check to make sure they are cooked to your liking, and enjoy! 🙂

I was going to post a picture of my lovely meal, but my fellow eaters managed to eat most of the kebabs before I could get a good picture. So, I posted the second best thing (or first best, depending on how you rate dessert) on this post instead. Now those sure look delectable, don’t they?