Caveman Cafe: Sweet & Sour Pork w/ Cauliflower Rice

I love Tuesdays.
On Tuesday the sale papers come out!
Today pork, pineapple, and green peppers were on sale....so you know what that means!

Sweet and Sour Pork! (Can also be made with chicken, which I like even better but alas, chicken was not on sale this week.)

I also decided to try something I've been reading about on random Paleo blogs....making rice from a cauliflower! It was soooo easy! Just grate a cauliflower until it looks like rice and either steam or microwave it! I loved it! Rice really has no flavor and neither does cauliflower so it works perfect!

Jason cooked the meat while I did the veggies. I think he diced it, coated it in egg and coconut flour, and cooked it in a skillet. I made the rice and cooked pineapple, green pepper, green onion, carrots, and celery in the wok.

It's easy to make your own sweet and sour sauce (just google it), and I usually do, but tonight I had a jar of an all natural, locally bottled Vietnamese sauce! Boy howdy was it spicy! But I loved it! For some reason (old age perhaps?) I can eat spicy foods now. I have NEVER been able to, hated even most mild spiced foods but within the last month I adore the spice!

It was one of the best meals we've had recently and tasted just like it came right out of a restaurant!
My kitchen is a mess right now though...but it was so worth it. Well maybe I won't think that in a minute when I drag myself back in there to clean it up. haha

Why we Paleo

We've eaten a lot of different ways over the years as we tried to find what worked best for our family, we wanted to be healthy and our kids, especially our special needs son, to have the best start in life. Through the years we've been vegan, vegetarian, raw foodies, low-carb, no-carb, specific carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, Feingold...and more. We learned soooo much about foods along the way and how it affected our bodies differently. We did tons of research. Read books from all sides.

The most important thing we learned is that there is no right or wrong way of eating as a whole, no one type that it best for everyone. Actually that's something I've applied to every aspect of my life. What's best for me isn't best for you. Diet, religion, clothes, schooling, job, parenting, relationships...everything. You have to research everything, question everything, and find what's best for you and your lifestyle.

I have no idea what or how you should eat, only you can know that.

But boy did I learn what my body can take and my kids, until they are old enough to take over for themselves, by charting reactions. Pretty interesting stuff.

AND I learned how to cook no matter what "restrictions" we have. Jason teases me that I can find a way to make a cake no matter what is going on. lol

Being vegan showed us that we don't handle grains or sugar well.

Being vegetarian showed us that dairy hates our tummies.

Feingold showed us that processed foods cause us all kinds of problems.

Raw foodies showed us that our bodies love whole foods and everything made from scratch.

And so on.

One day I listed all the foods we can't handle (grains, dairy, sugar, beans, starches,additives) and the foods we do ok with (meat, some veggies, nuts, seed, and berries) and did some research and found that...it was pretty much a paleo diet, also called a Caveman Diet, Stone Age Diet, Hunter-Gatherer Diet or Primal Diet. Pretty much anything your ancestors picked or hunted. Tons of info on google - I'm not gonna put it all here.

We got serious about the switch after our son had his worst tummy issue ever, 2 weeks of non-stop diarrhea, I had taken him in to see about getting some bloodwork done to try to figure out how to help him as he was just getting worse, he's always had tummy issues but this was horrible. His doctor asked me if I had tried a caveman diet, I was so shocked because I had just been researching it! So, we told our son we were going to be caveman and he was pretty excited. lol

He's always had a enlarged tummy, not fat as his legs and arms were small though. In just ONE week his tummy was perfectly flat! For the first time he was proportioned right! And no more tummy issues or eczema!

All of us felt better in fact, both Jason and I lost a bunch of weight and we all have more energy. And our son, well his mental and behavior issues also improved tons - lots of progress!

The downside is it costs a lot. A whole lot. Organic, grass-fed, humanly raised foods are not cheap. We would LOVE to relocated to where we could have a tiny farm and  year-round garden. When we were eating lots of grains, pasta, bread, and potatoes...our grocery bill was so low. But of course our bodies were not happy. And our son was miserable.

Some sites I like:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/  (The movie is really good also and worth a watching.  He's really smart and uses logic and/or math to make his points, plus he's funny. )

http://www.elanaspantry.com/recipes/ (Love her recipes as they are all wholesome, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and yummy!)

http://www.livingpaleo.com/

Some books I read that were helpful.

         

















So in a nutshell our day looks like this:

Breakfast: Eggs scrambled with some veggies
Lunch: Huge veggie salad with diced chicken and sunflower seeds
Snack: Fruit
Supper: Meat, veggies

Other:
Almond milk
Smoothies made with coconut milk, fruit, and stevia.
Dried fruit and beef jerky made in our dehydrater
Moderated uses of coconut flour or almond flour to make breads and desserts.
Tons of water and daily vitamins and supplements such as trace minerals, fish oils etc.


Should you eat like this?
I have NO IDEA!
Do your own research and find out what's best for you.
I don't even know if we'll still be eating like this years from now. I just know it working for the moment. But if I ever find a better way, one that helps us even more - you can bet I'll be switching.

In the meantime, enjoy my yummy photos. :-)

Caveman Cafe: Paleo Taco Salad

Very, very easy!

I found some noodle squash, finally! (They didn't have it over in the UK so I've been without it for sooo long!) It's also called spaghetti squash and I love it. After you cook it, the insides turn into strands or noodles! It's awesome covered in marinara sauce and meatballs, which is what we had the other day for dinner. And we ended up with tons of leftover "noodles". While I was staring at them, pondering what to do with them....I thought, "Hey, it kinda looks like cheese too!"

I decided to add them to our paleo taco salad, but first I stirred in some nutritional yeast to give it more of a cheesy flavor. (Nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes.)

I also made some cashew sour "cream"! It rocked!
Just blended some cashews and tiny bits of lemon juice, vinegar, and almond milk together. The kids loved it.

They both made our taco salad awesome. It would have been spectacular but I forgot to buy avocados.  :-(
I ADORE guacamole, worship it and would eat it non-stop if it was cheaper.
I always put it on my tacos!
But not today. I wanted to cry. I even thought about photoshopping some guacmole into my photo to make myself feel better.
Yes, I am that pathetic.

Anyway, lettuce, "cheese", taco meat, salsa, sour "cream", olives, tomatoes, and green onion!
But no avocados. :-(
So, just imagine they are there.

Freecycle Score - Boys Loft Bed!

Jarod has been BEGGING for a bunk bed since April, when we moved in. He tried to talk me into just buying him one pretty much all. the. time. "Common mom, how hard would it be to just pay for one?" (If you know me...really hard. lol)

But I knew there was the perfect bed out there for my boys. One that wouldn't cost me hundreds of dollars or make me give in to consumerism. We kept getting our hopes up and then dashed though, which just drove Jarod nuts.

* I saw an ad in the paper for a yard sale that mentioned a bunk bed. But when we got there is was a DOG bunk bed. (What? Why?) Jarod said he thought he could curl up inside just fine.

* There was an ad in the paper for a bunk bed but when I called it was 2 hours away. Jarod was up for the drive of course but I had to explain how with the gas it wouldn't be saving us any money. He said we could walk.

* There was a free bunk bed on craigslist but when I emailed it was already taken. Jarod asked me why didn't I type faster?

FINALLY, today a loftbed was listed on Freecycle. I wasn't sure what it was exactly but figured it would do. Problem was we had to pick it up....and we have a car. The man was kind enough to take it apart for us and Jason took out our back seat so we could push the pieces all the way from the trunk to the front seats. (I didn't know you could do that but now if I'm ever locked in a trunk I know how to get out! hah) I still didn't think we could fit a whole bunk bed in our trunk but we did! It' a really nice and made of solid wood!

We got it home and Jarod was so excited! He kept saying he must be dreaming and rushed us along as we tried to put it together. Of course we put it together wrong the first time, had to take it apart and redo it but one sliced up arm later (mine, ouch) and a few trips to the hardware store...and it was done! Jarod climbed up there and I haven't seen him since. lol

We put Alex's toddler bed (also from freecycle), chair (gift), and dresser (borrowing) underneath and he is now calling it his "cave".

I asked Jarod if it was worth the wait.

"Well. Maybe. But I could have fit in that dog bed."

Dawdle Bliss

Yup, I'm still taking a break.

The kids don't start school for a few more weeks so we are trying to squeeze every last second out of summer that we can. Museums and school shopping and swimming and libraries and movies and games and laughs and more.

I'm loving my new reading spot with a passion.

I'll be back when I'm stuck inside because there are feet of snow blocking the door.

Break Time

I'll be unplugged for a while as there is a lot going on right now! See you again soon!