slow going in Paleo-land

I'm still visiting my folks for the holidays so going completely Paleo is kind of on hold until I'm in charge of buying the groceries again.
I have been able to do fairly well under the circumstances however. In light of the fact that I won't have a care-package to send every day or even every week, I'll probably discuss our Paleo journey in general on the days I'm not posting about care package finds.

This week's edition: how to eat sensibly in a house full of carbs.

Thankfully, my body doesn't allow me to cheat and eat lots of glutenous junk so the temptation to swipe a cookie or cracker from my parents' stash isn't really there. I allowed myself some gluten free Christmas pie since I haven't officially gone Paleo and since it is the holidays. Meals have been relatively easy to stay on track: usually some sort of unadulterated chicken or beef cooked with herbs, veggies and potatoes (I cooked the other day and subbed sweet potatoes, but a meal without potatoes in this house is unheard of. They're off the menu as soon as we get home though). Lunch has been deli meat slices, nuts, fruit and veggies and breakfast is eggs. I've been throwing in some greek yogurt so I don't eat my parents out of eggs, but I really have a hard time not eating some sort of egg dish in the morning. Today I made an absolutely amazing scramble out of a handful of ingredients I found in the fridge: four eggs, half an onion, flat leaf parsley and grape tomatoes. I sauteed the chopped onion in some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, threw in the tomatoes to heat them up and soften them, poured the egg in and sprinkled the parsley over the whole thing as I scrambled. Amazing!
Dinner tonight is roast beef cooked with rosemary, red wine and some beef broth.

I sat down during the baby's nap today and planned out our meals through the end of January, largely drawing on Sarah's recipes here and Barefoot Contessa (believe it or not, many of her entrees and veggie dishes are totally Paleo). I'm in the market for a pressure cooker to make cooking easier as well as a cast iron skillet and a blender.

Looking forward to getting home!

Our Paleo journey and the purpose of this blog

I have been eating gluten free for nearly four years. My brother was diagnosed with severe Celiac disease which ended up connecting the dots between a host of random symptoms that I was personally dealing with. Going gluten free changed my life, without a doubt, but I've still fought lethargy, blood sugar swings and difficulty really hitting my full potential when I run or work out. A few months after we were married, my husband attended Robb Wolf's nutrition seminar and came back completely stoked about the Paleo Diet. I was less than enthusiastic. It was traumatic enough for me to give up my Dunkin Donuts and french breads and the thought of giving up the gluten free substitutes that I'd worked so hard to find was just out of the question. Eventually he wore me down and we began a sort of half-hearted attempt at eating Paleo that fizzled due to our busy schedules and lack of motivation.

Fast forward to the present. I gave birth six months ago to our beautiful little girl and my husband is now down range. Eating Paleo is more important than ever, especially since we now have a third member of the family to be concerned about, so we've decided to make the switch. This doesn't present much of a problem on the homefront: I'm already extremely familiar with eating gluten free so it's really just a matter of clearing the empty carbs and dairy out of the pantry and replacing them with Paleo alternatives. Down range is a bit more difficult as the DFAC at the husband's FOB is abysmal, to say the least. For him, this next year may be more quasi-Paleo due to the limited choices, but it is my goal to make it more feasible through creative care packages.

Which brings me to the point of this blog. I did some research to find non-perishable paleo foods that can be shipped and didn't find a whole lot. I did find, however,  a lot of guys in the same predicament and have decided to blog my carepackages in an attempt to help anyone else who might be looking to feed their soldier from 6800 miles away! I welcome suggestions and I will shamelessly promote your product if it's paleo, non-perishable and good quality.