Friday, January 8, 2010

Some Paleo meals we've enjoyed lately!

Well, this week has been my first totally good week :) - no "bad" snacks, just paleo all the way all week, looking forward to today, CHEAT DAY!!!

I won't talk about all the sordid details of our cheat meal, but i did think i should share some of the delicious paleo meals we've had this week...

My mother in law bought me a great cookbook called "500 Low Carb Recipes" and i've made a few things from it already, but one that's been a huge hit has been salmon patties. My mom and dad have a boat on the west coast and gave us as one of our Christmas presents, a box full of canned salmon (and said we can return it to be refilled whenever we want! )

I've doubled the recipe to serve my seven children and me for lunch -

Salmon Patties

2 500 ml jars of canned salmon
1/2 c. oat bran (dh used wheat bran, i used ground up oats... neither of them is paleo, i know... maybe someone reading this can give me an idea of a binder that is paleo?)
2 eggs
1 green onion, finely chopped
a lot of butter for the pan frying!

Drain the salmon, and mash it up in a bowl, skin and bones and all. Add the bran, eggs, and green onion. Heat butter in two frying pans (nicer than waiting for the second batch!), and shape the mixture into eight burger sized patties. Fry till golden on both sides (around 7 minutes per side, maybe less)

We also had a less than stellar cooking experience using splenda instead of sugar, and making a paleo cake... it was so disgusting! It was supposed to have the consistency of brownies, and it did - but it tasted disgustingly chemical. I couldn't finish mine. I told T that splenda wasn't really paleo anyway... and he agreed - but i think i will need to make some chocolate balls for him to snack on, or find a healthier paleo snack.

Having pepitas in the house works for a fast and easy and yummy snack - having salsa to go with eggs, or guacamole to add to a blah plate of leftover meat really peps up the paleo meals (especially if the little ones are eating ravioli or something warm and tempting!) Also, the diet coke, while not paleo, is good for quenching the sweets desire...

Next week, i am planning to try a recipe for Cheese Popovers using nut flour... We buy almonds or walnuts in bulk through a coop, and i can sacrifice some for the cause. It might be that we do better when we completely eschew anything that seems like sugar/starch...

I was in ketosis by Thursday p.m., but i think that could be avoided if i just up our produce buying. Already i buy for an army! But the littles love snacking on veggies and fruits, and they are low in prep and full of vitamins...

I'm considering moving one of our children to a totally paleo diet as we get this figured out, too... But i feel like we got a lot closer (okay, *i* got a lot closer) to what i'd like my diet to look like.

Too bad i didn't get hardly any workouts done. Baby has been awake at 12:30 and 4 a.m. for two weeks (with one great night's sleep on Wednesday night... praying for another good night!) - anyway, neither of us feels like we have a ton of energy to spare... and with that, i'm off to bed to read and fall asleep early!


this is what i'm hoping for this weekend:

3 comments:

  1. Use almond flour/meal instead of oats, if you wish to keep it 100% paleo. Mashed (cooked) root veggies work too (or a combo of the 2).
    Coconut flour might make it too sweet and potentially dry (you would need to add extra fat probably).

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  2. Thanks, Alchemille! There is an interesting looking recipe in my book for "cheese popovers" using almond flour - i haven't tried it - dh is the non dairy kind of paleo, and i'm not eating a lot of dairy, but i will try almond flour in these next time, and let you know how they turn out! I did have leftover parsnips and beets that i could have used (maybe carrots would have worked, too?) that i put into a soup, but i will think about using leftover roasted root veggies for binding, as well. Another hint the butcher gave me today was that you can use thinly chopped bacon to bind meat instead of eggs or oatmeal or crumbs or whatever. Haven't tried it out yet, but i bought some delicious looking bacon there and i plan to try it out!

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