I love to eat. I love to cook. I love spices and flavors! And I love feeling healthy. At the beginning of 2013, I was feeling depressed, sore and older than I really was, so I committed myself to a new lifestyle of exercise and healthy eating. As of July 2013, I’ve lost 40 pounds, some chronic knee pain is gone, I look and feel better, and I have a lot more energy and optimism.
So what changed? Well, upon recommendation from my mother, I tried eating according to the Paleo movement philosophy. In a nutshell, it’s eating with ingredients available to man before the advent of the agricultural revolution. That means omitting the refined sugars, cereal grains, legumes, dairy, refined vegetable oils and processed foods. Ouch! Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Well, not really. I’ve been eating like this for six months, and I don’t feel deprived of any foods. It took a while, but I don’t miss the sweets and starches, and I feel awesome! Am I a purist? Not even close. I still have yogurt for breakfast, an occasional sandwich with bread or a tortilla, and I wasn’t about to pass up a slice of rhubarb-strawberry pie that my folks made recently. And when I have the munchies, I snack on dried fruit, nuts, and coconut. In addition, I try to eat gluten-free as much as possible. I believe this has helped me with inflammation and soreness issues.
I’ve always liked to cook, so I’ve challenged myself to create fun, delicious dinners that mostly follow the Paleo philosophy. I’ve posted a few of my dishes on Facebook, and have had many requests for my recipes, and thus, my new blog features some of these for you to try!
I have no formal training in food. My only experiences in food service were stints at Pizza Hut in high school, and a long-gone burrito shop in college.
I don’t really measure out a lot of my ingredients. I just like to experiment, try out different spices, add a dash of this, and a splash of that, and for the most part, these meals have come out pretty tasty.
So, my caveats:
- I’ve made a good-faith attempt to give reasonable measurements in my ingredient lists. Don’t feel bound to follow these exactly, I certainly don’t! If if looks like more chile pepper than you like, don’t add as much.
- I don’t include serving sizes. Don’t really know how to determine this, I just end up with an amount of food by the time I’m done. Most dishes serve 2 to 4 people.
- I use a lot of ingredients found in Asian and Hispanic groceries. Of course, there are none where I live in Montana, so I stock up on ingredients any time I’m in a larger city. Give it a try! If you don’t have the ingredients feel free to substitute.
- Most of my recipes are inspired by a delicious meal I’ve had at a restaurant, or other recipes I’ve found in books and on the web. There are many, many great resources out there, and for every dish I feature here, there are a 100 variations you can try. Be adventurous, be creative.
So have fun, challenge yourself, and share the love.
