What do we eat?

I have had lots of people intrigued with what exactly Sean and I are eating now that we are eating Paleo.  Honestly, it varies.  I decided to try and go through what a typical week might look like for us.

First of all, at the beginning of the week, we have found it works best if we cook up a couple of large, inexpensive steaks and several chicken breasts.  I have a griddle that is on top of my stove (which I don't know what I would do without!) and I make both the steaks and chicken breasts on there.  When they are done, I cut half of the steaks into strips and package them in individual baggies for topping a salad and then I cut the remaining steak into 4 pieces of steak and package those in a baggie as well.  I do the same with the chicken breasts...cut half of the breasts (I usually make 6) into strips and package in individual baggies for topping salads with and then the remaining breasts and put in a baggie together that I can heat up throughout the week.  All of this meet usually covers Sean and I for about 5 lunches each.

Breakfast: Sean eats an apple and a banana almost every morning for breakfast.  I eat fruit for breakfast most of the time as well.  A banana is common for me, but I will eat whatever we have.  If I don't get around to eating until mid/late morning, I will sometimes eat a larger meal for brunch and not eat lunch.  This would consist of either some of the strips of meat I have prepared along with some over easy eggs and some fruit or sometimes bacon and eggs and fruit.  Also, there is a sweet potato hash that is yummy (I will have to do a post on my favorite recipes) that has potatoes, onions and sausage in it.

Lunch:  We eat a lot of salads with our strip meat on the top and other raw veggies we have (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower)  and we dress our salads with different things, but we love the Roasted Red Pepper Annie's dressing you can find in HyVee's healthfood market.  We also sometimes make the prepared steaks and chicken breasts we have and eat those with raw veggies and sometimes will fry up and egg to eat with those as well.  Otherwise, we will eat leftovers from the night before or sometimes saute up some veggies in coconut oil or cut a zucchini in half lengthwise, drizzle in olive oil or spread some ghee on it and season with sea salt, pepper, garlic and put in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  We almost always eat some sort of fruit with every meal as well.

Snacks:  Both Sean and I snack on cashews, pistachios and almonds a lot.  I also snack on fruit or carrots and celery a lot.

Dinner:  We find ourselves eating some form of protein (grilled steaks, chicken, kabobs, roast, pork chops, fish) and at least 4 nights a week we roast veggies.  It is our favorite and never gets old.  We roast all kinds of veggies (brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, celery, carrots, leeks, cabbage...pretty much anything!).  The way we like to roast them is by spreading the cut veggies onto a baking sheet and drizzling with coconut or olive oil and sprinkling with sea salt and fresh ground pepper and roasting for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, flipping the veggies over so they don't burn on one side and then roasting them for an additional 7-10 minutes.  MMMMM...they are soooo good!  Sometimes we will just eat a salad with our protein or even raw veggies too.  I have recently discovered and fallen in love with frying food with a mixture of almond and coconut flour, sea salt and pepper...dip your protein in egg, into the flour mixture, back into egg and then into the flour mixture again.  We fry it in a skillet with coconut oil...it's sooooo good!  Also, we bake fish with lemon a lot as well.  I have a couple paleo soup recipes I really love also!  We have made burgers and lettuce wrapped them, made italian chicken and lettuce wrapped it, made our own version of tacos by browning ground beef and seasoning with cumin, chili powder and adding lime juice, peppers, tomatoes, onions and wrapping in lettuce.  I found a paleo tortilla recipe that I am excited to try as well. :)  We don't feel limited with options at all and don't often do the same thing more than a couple of times.  Pinterest is amazing for finding simple paleo recipes and I use it a lot!

We are still going strong and both LOVING it!  Sean has lost close to 20lbs in these last 5 weeks in just changing his diet and as I have said before, I have no idea how much I have lost because I don't weigh myself. :)  What I can say is that I am fitting into clothes easily that I wasn't even close to squeezing into only 5 weeks ago.  I would say that I have lost almost 2 pants sizes.

Some of the other changes I have noticed...

NOT A SINGLE HEADACHE IN A MONTH!!!!  This is unheard of for me...a girl who got a terribly debilitating migraine about once a week and minor headaches at some point at least every other day!

I have more energy...I'm just simply not tired all the time.

Less aches and pains...I can't explain how diet changes this, but it's the truth.  I just FEEL better.

No heartburn/indigestion...again, this was a huge issue for me before, and it's GONE!

Less skin issues...my skin just looks clearer.

My hair is not greasy...like ever.  This was oddly one of the FIRST things I noticed when eating paleo both times I've tried.

I am just in a better mood...I just feel mentally healthier.  Again, not something I would have expected from changing my diet, but it's the truth!


Maybe I'll post some of our favorite recipes here in the near future!