Food Porn

So.... I'm still following Paleo, and I have been REALLY good about it. My friend Amanda (the one who I give the majority of credit to for turning me onto it) still drinks some cream in her coffee and some cheese here or there (she calls it being "lacto-paleo"), so I use full fat whipping cream in my tea now (!!!! crazy, I know).... but other than two small slices of organic raw cheddar a few weeks ago, I haven't eaten cheese in over a month now. (I'm sure if  Cake Betch is reading this, she's staring at the screen fully convinced I'm a full fledged lunatic, or a pod person.)

My Mama & her hubby ♥

Changing my diet to strict Paleo wasn't as hard as I had imagined it would be, in fact other than being much pricier than I can honestly handle these days, it's been fun. I'm finding ways to cut prices/costs by signing up for discount cards, looking for coupons, and perusing the internet like a mad woman for deals. I'm also begging my Mother (who lives off the island for the better part of each month now with her new hubby ♥) to stop off at Trader Joe's &/or Whole Foods to see if she can find deals on specific items (which she thankfully has!) and bring them back with her when she comes to the island each month.

I've been so into cooking new things that I started taking pictures of a lot of the meals I was cooking after a while. I even have an album up on my facebook page dedicated to it called "Food Porn." Here are some recent ones:

free range organic chicken in a sauce of almond butter, coconut milk, & diced up hot peppers, on a bed of fresh mixed greens.

a whole red onion sauteed in coconut oil with red & green peppers, and small red & yellow sweet peppers, with free range eggs.

wheat free spinach "muffins" (spinach, onions, garlic, sweet peppers, red pepper, egg, and seasoning), and some sliced up grass fed organic medium rare porterhouse steak.

free range chicken mixed with organic wasabi mayo & plain organic mayo (made with walnut oil), atop a bed of fresh greens, vine ripened cocktail tomatoes, and lightly toasted pine nuts.

wheat & gluten free "pancakes", scrambled eggs with red pepper, asparagus, and some sweet peppers.

(paleo pancakes (my version ) are made with 4 tbsp coconut flour, 2 tsp coconut milk, 1 egg white, 1/8 cup almond milk, 1/4 tsp raw honey, and a VERY small dash of sea salt)... the tiny bit of Irish butter I put on them was unnecessary, so I wiped it off after I took the picture... oh.. and they were cooked in coconut oil too, all of it was.

caramelized onions cooked in walnut oil with red peppers, fresh spinach and then baked with 10 eggs (yeah, the pan is THAT big- it sliced up into 8 pieces the size of average pizza slices), with herbes de provence that I brought back from Paris....btw, was gonna add bacon, but this was so good w/out it that I didn't need to. Will put some in next time just ... well... because I can!
"yummy yummy yummy I got love in my tummy......"

fresh brussel sprouts steamed then lightly sauteed with organic nitrate free bacon and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. THAT is a yummy side dish :)

(who the hell would have thought I would ever cook, let alone EAT & enjoy brussel sprouts?! Weird)

veggie fed organic chicken marinated and baked in a mixture of olive oil & walnut oil (1part oo/2 part wo), & herbes de provence (and red onion cut up and put the pan in while it cooked)... and a side of fresh green beans, mushrooms, sweet peppers, and garlic sauteed in a small bit of ghee, and some walnut oil.
I just gotta say... HOLY SHIT THIS WAS YUMMY!!

So, anyone wanna try to tell me they couldn't eat this way? That they think it's limiting? That there aren't enough options? Know what I ate for breakfast today? Spicy andouille sausage (obviously organic & nitrate free, as if I needed to keep repeating that), with  local farm fresh eggs on a bed of fresh spinach. It was more than a little wonderful.

I have lost weight, not a ton, but... again, that is not why I switched to eating this way. (Totally 110% A-OK with that side effect though!) I might even try to find a working scale and see what the numbers tell me, though, just for the record, I trust a tape measure waaaay more than a scale. (Plus it's ZV week... so I'm feelin' all bloated- 'cause no change of diet can take away that oh-so-lovely aspect of being female- & if you don't know what I mean by "ZV week"... um.... it rhymes with Rombie Ragina, ok?) It's been just over a month since I started, and I haven't cheated (i.e. I haven't eaten any bread, legumes (outside of the green beans which are considered acceptable), glucose, sugar etc... My skin is practically glowing these days, my hair (even though, yes, it's over processed with bright fuchsia streaks in it... which I'd like to say I always seem to type as "steaks" by accident... much like now only I caught it in time...) has been feeling so soft and healthy. My nails aren't chipping/peeling like they usually do in the winter. "Other" things are still very regular (yes, I'm talking about poop) and there have been no issues. Not that there ever really were any, but it's pretty much a guarentee now that there won't be any, so that's nice. (Y'all, I just totally told you about my poop... this means I love and trust you, you should feel honored.) I fall asleep faster, which I have not been able to do in about 30 years since childhood. I wake up no longer feeling groggy. I get urges in the middle of the day to just go do stuff... like anything... except walk the dog. She's been pissing me off lately so I pretend I don't see/hear her. It's a standoff at this point. What? She's the size of a human at 130lbs and almost as tall as me (I'm 5'11) on her hind legs. I'm being totally reasonable.

Basically I just wanted to say that I could not possibly recommend  Paleo more than I already do, but I am also trying SO hard to not be all preachy about it. Today at the grocery store I was looking at the Greek yogurts and trying to find just a regular ol' Greek yogurt, full fat, no "flavorings", and this guy walks up next to me and says "which one of these are good?"
I asked him "good for you? or just taste yummy?"
He said "what do you mean? isn't yogurt good for you?"
I told him "it can be, but all this crap is fat free/low fat stuff pumped with chemicals"
He says "yeah, but fat will make you fat."
I actually laughed and said "you know, up until recently I actually believed that myself, till I did some research."
"Well, I don't need low fat really" he tells me (& one look at him would tell anyone that what he actually needed was a haircut, a shower, a person that loved him enough to say "please don't wear those nasty sweat pants out of the house!", and some nutrition to fill out his bordering on anorexic frame.)
I just smiled and said "That Key Lime flavored one used to be one of my favorites, you might like that" and walked away to go buy some bison meat.

Yup, BISON! I  just had it for the first time EVER the other day, and now it is pretty much the yummiest meat I've ever had (other than duck). If only it didn't cost $10.29 per pound (I know)... maybe that's why it tastes so good? Still though, for that price, it should cook itself and do the dishes.


and just for fun...and totally off topic...'cause that's how I roll.... if you ever wondered what Dr. Suess books were REALLY about... here is your answer.