When you start on the list of things you can't eat on a paleo diet, you may start to feel like there is nothing left to eat. After all, once you eliminate bagels, subs and pizza are there really any foods left? One friend doing a Whole 30 challenge told me she was just eating fruit and nuts at first because she knew they were fair game. The problem there is that, if you are looking to lose weight or just to improve your health, a diet of fruit and nuts (sugar and fat) is not going to do it for you.
The best way to view paleo is not as a restrictive diet telling you what you cannot eat, but as a license to eat all the delicious things you can eat. So what can you eat? I'll provide a basic list, but encourage you to print out this pdf by Diane Sanfilippo for a full list. If you followed the 10 steps in Getting Started Part 1, then you have a copy of the pdf in your Practical Paleo book.
- Fish & Seafood (wild-caught preferred)
- Meats (grass-fed/pastured/organic/nitrate-free)
- Poultry (Pastured/Organic/Not-injected with a billion hormones preferred)
- Eggs
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Nuts & Seeds (no peanuts!)
- Healthy Fats & Oils
- Natural Sweeteners
Now I understand that this list doesn't really clear anything up for you and that illiteracy is not what is standing between you and eating a paleo diet. Rather you are wondering 1. how do I remember what is a paleo food and what isn't? and/or 2. how do I put those things together to make a meal?
The answer to number 1 is easy, "there's an app for that." Paleo.io is unfortunately NOT a free app, but it is only $0.99 and a quick easy way to check if a food is paleo. You search for a food and it comes up with a green thumbs up for yes and and red thumbs down from no. Even better, the app provides information with the reason the food is/is not paleo and what to look for when buying it. Of course, if you are not tech savvy, you can carry around your copy of the pdf I told you to look at above.
Now for number 2. While at first you feel like there is nothing to eat, this quickly gives way to being overwhelmed by how many things there are to eat. There are seriously so many foods and recipes that you will want to try that you will soon have a problem of narrowing your choices enough to actually get food on your plate. Until that time, here are three simple ideas each for breakfast, lunch, dinner and of course, dessert.
Breakfast
- 2-3 eggs + 1-3 oz meat + veggie
- The possibilities are endless - omelet, frittata, scramble, poached, casserole - bacon, sausage, chicken, shrimp, steak - avocado, spinach, sweet potato, zucchini, squash, kale, onions, etc.
- Oh, and hot sauce. Get yourself a bottle or two of gluten-free hot sauce. Try Frank's Red Hot or my personal favorite, Cholula.
- Chicken Sausage and Banana Bread
- Chicken sausage is one of the most widely-available store-bought paleo-friendly products. Avoid the ones with gouda, feta or asiago, because you aren't eating dairy. The sundried tomato and apple flavors are awesome. Oh and make sure the product is gluten-free. Aidells, Al Fresco, and Applegate Farms are great choices.
- There are 1 thousand paleo-friendly banana bread recipes out there and they are all seriously delicious. Pick your favorite and make a loaf for the week or make 2+ and freeze for the future.
- Pancakes and Bacon - **GASP** PALEO DOESN'T SUCK
- You can make paleo pancakes that look and taste just like what you expect with a recipe like this one. That just seems like too much trouble in the morning for me, so I stick with making easy pumpkin pancakes from my Practical Paleo book.
Lunch
- a "Big Ass Salad" (Pardon my French)
- This blog post by Eat Live Grow Paleo is a great guide to putting together a salad and includes a link to Mark Sisson's video on Big Ass Salads. Also, see my post http://snelsandthecity.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-prequel-ends-and-real-story-begins.html for a dressing recipe and pictures.
- NOTE: Be careful with the dressing. Make your own, stick with olive oil and lemon or balsamic vinegar or take your list of paleo foods with you to the store and examine the ingredient list on your bottle of dressing closely. Store-bought dressings are a flytrap for sugars, unhealthy oils and chemicals.
- Paleo Wrap Sandwich and Fruit w/ nut butter (not peanut)
- If you cannot picture your life without a sandwich at lunch, you will be okay I promise. I love these wraps from Stupid Easy Paleo, but you can save yourself a step and buy Paleo Wraps (on Amazon or at Whole Foods).
- Fill wrap with deli meat, your favorite sandwich toppings, gluten-free organic mustard like Annie's and BOOM, life can go on - just leave out the cheese.
- Leftovers
- This isn't a cop out. I eat leftovers for lunch at least every other day and it is about the easiest thing you can do. Purposefully make more food at dinner than you need and immediately put the leftovers in a container you can reheat or take with you to work.
Dinner
- Shrimp and Vegetable Saute
- Shrimpies cook really fast which make them a great option for a quick week night dinner. Rinse and pat dry your shrimps, season with at least salt and pepper (get as fancy if you want). Chop up some veggies (e.g. onion, garlic, spinach). Heat one of your healthy fats in a skillet on the stove and cook your veggies and shrimpies until your veggies are softened and your shrimpies are pink and cooked through. Timing of course depends on what veggies you choose.
- Slow-Cooker Roast
- I use my slow-cooker at minimum once a week. It is a god-send and makes delicious meals easy. The easiest thing to make? A simple roast.
- Season pork, beef or lamb roast with salt and pepper and put in slow-cooker with beef bone broth (or vegetable or just beef), a starchy veggie (sweet potato, plantain, turnip, etc.) and any other veggies that suit your fancy and do well cooking over a long period of time - carrots, onions, celery, garlic, collards, etc. Cook on low 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
- Baked Chicken Thighs with Root Vegetable Fries
- Chicken thighs are just the best (i'm eating those pictured right now) and if you're using pastured, hormone-free chicken, you can eat the crispy skin without feeling a moment of guilt. Oh and they are inexpensive - even better!
- Second best are root vegetables, sweet potatoes aren't the only delicious ones out there. Carrots, turnips, parsnips and beets are all delicious sliced and roasted as fries. Peel, slice, toss with coconut oil, ghee or bacon fat, season and pop in oven for 25-30 minutes.
- Pick up some Sir Kensington's ketchup and you won't even remember why you hesitated trying paleo.
I know, you're thinking I forgot something - "excuse me, what about the 4th basic meal, dessert?" It is really important to try to get off the sugar game. I struggle with it all the time, even when eating paleo desserts. A lot of times the difficulty isn't in kicking the sugar craving, its the concept of having something sweet at the end of a meal. However, try to avoid "paleo treats" when you first start out, because if you view them as a part of your normal diet, you won't lose weight and you won't kick the sugar cravings. Instead try one of these options for dessert:
- Fresh fruit with ground cinnamon and shredded coconut (papaya, mango and pineapple are my personal favorites)
- Baked fruit (apples and peaches are great) with a pat of grass-fed Butter or ghee topped with cinnamon and walnuts.
- That dark chocolate you bought per instructions in part 1. At least 70% (I try to buy 90-100%), no dairy, organic sugar if you must and no crazy chemicals (read the label). Organic Fair Trade is a good label to look for on your packages.
I promise you can do this! Just give it a try, one week, two weeks, 30 days, 3 months, however long you think you can and set a goal for yourself. I said 30 days, and now i'm about at 4 months of eating paleo and not looking back.
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