Unfaithful woman, faithful man

So, T has been sweet to me, even taking me out to Marble Slab for ice cream (and he didn't have even a lick...)... But he's still on the paleo wagon, and i'm feeling like i'm almost ready for another try. He thinks there is a point at which your body gives up and just starts using what you're giving it, and if i try again, maybe i will break past that point.

I do know that while i was eating paleo, i didn't lose any weight on the scale, BUT i did feel good inside, and i think i lost fat (because none of my dresses fit anymore, and some of my pants are too big, too. Plus my tummy is flatter...)

ANYWAY... this blog isn't quite dead.

One of my friends asked "What did you eat, anyway?"

Well, i think maybe we were a little unprepared, because while we can eat all meat, veggies, fruits and nuts and seeds, (well, almost all) - we didn't plan very well in terms of combining those things. So i'd cook a turkey and we'd have turkey meat, with a side of veggies.

I've been reading at Son of Grok and realizing that there are a lot more creative ways to eat your food than a few ounce of this, and a few ounces of that. One weird meal that appealed to me from his website was ground beef (spiced, with veggies), mixed with guacamole.

I think the hardest part of paleo for me was feeling like i was missing out. We'd make roast beef dinner, but i couldn't have mashed potatoes or yorkshire pudding (and i love yorkshires!). We'd have meat, au jus, and vegetables and/or salad. And i felt like i was missing something.

I think i need to find some new "favourite" meals that aren't an "old favourite minus"...

So, more research coming up, and hopefully some pictures and recipes... T is still doing a lot of cooking. Tonight we had jerk pork - the children and I had white buns from the bakery :) - but T just had meat. I'm not that hardcore. But i do have avocados, and they go a long way toward staving off the "i'm missing out" feeling...

OH, and T is looking great - he didn't have much fat to lose, but his midsection is looking very nice :) and he's still feeling great eating this way...

Paleo cookies!

I am seriously feeling way too deprived. And grumpy. The grumpy i think comes from ketosis, since it is abated if i eat a lot of fruit/veggies - but it seems like i'm always on the verge - but the deprivation... not much i can do about that. On the paleo way of eating, my "treats" have been fruits (which i am allowed to eat as much as i want now, as opposed to the Zone's miserly doling out) - and nuts (which i don't eat too many of since they are expensive :)...)

But today after running some errands, i had a brain wave. I had been oh so deeply desiring a coffee crisp chocolate bar with 70% cocoa chocolate - and been a good girl and even said no to my uxorious husband's offer of lunch at McDonald's...

I went to my recipe book cupboard and pulled out Serene Allison's cookbook, Rejuvenate Your Life, and double checked the ingredients for her "chocolate". It's a raw foods cookbook, and for awhile i was making a lot of things out of it - super healthy, really yummy - but a little time consuming, especially before we moved here where there is pretty much no moisture in the air and the dehydrator works like a dream (as opposed to several days to dry out flatbread in our last place)...

Anyway, not only was that recipe pretty kosher, but i decided to make halvah balls. Now i have, in the freezer of my fridge, delectable little balls of deliciousness that don't break the rules and that will give a little variety.

Here are the recipes i used:

Serene Allison's Chocolate

2 cups raw almonds, ground into almond butter in my vitamix
1/2 c. tahini
1/3 c. cocoa (i put a little less than she originally called for, which was 1/2 c.)
pinch sea salt
1/2 c. raw honey (again, i put a little less as i didn't have much and wanted some for halvah, too)

I mixed it all by hand in a bowl with a silicon spatula, oiled my hands with a little olive oil, and rolled them into balls, and put the plate into the freezer for an hour or so. Then i picked them off the plate and put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer, ready to eat...

Serene Allison's Heavenly Halvah

I ground 4 c. raw hulled sesame seeds (i bought a big bag of these through our natural foods coop and this is mostly what i use it for!) - i really made homemade tahini, since i ground them up into a paste
added in a little olive oil
a little raw honey

Mixed well together in a plastic bowl with a silicon spatula. Then, as it was really too soft, i chilled it in the fridge for awhile before i oiled my hands and rolled them into balls, put them on a plate in the freezer, till i can put them in their own ziplock bag. These are delicious little nougat-y balls, full of energy, and not too sweet (i didn't have a LOT of honey, and i prefer a little less over a little too much)

I asked T about the paleo acceptance of cocoa, since it is a bean, but he assured me that a lot of paleo people use cocoa, for whatever reason - if i knew why it's excepted from the beans restriction, i'd feel a little less like a cheater, but for now, these are a nice paleo alternative to the things i'd rather be eating (like fried cheese with mayonnaise and a side of fries... LOL!)