The Paleo Mama

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Well Fed Cookbook Giveaway (CLOSED) & Jicama Home Fries Recipe!!!

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I don’t know if I’m more excited about the fact that the author, Melissa Joulwan, has offered to give this amazing cookbook away to one of you, or the fact that I get to share my favorite Paleo recipes with you! Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat is AWESOME! This is, by far, one of my favorite Paleo cookbooks!

Not only is it Paleo, but this cookbook is features tons of recipes that are Whole30 & 21 Day Sugar Detox approved! It is loaded with so many recipes and has opened up my tastebuds to a whole new world!

Some of my favorites (and I have pretty much made EVERYTHING from this cookbook) are Chocolate Chili, Meatza Pie, and her Meat and Spinach Muffins. Seriously, I could go on and on! However, my absolute favorite recipe that has rocked my Paleo world is the Jicama Home Fries!

Jicama Home Fries:

(posted with permission by Melissa Joulwan)

Photo by David Humphreys
Photo by David Humphreys

Diner home fries don’t discriminate. Their brown, crisp outside and warm tender interior are equally comfortable alongside eggs for an early morning (or midnight) breakfast and next to a beef burger. Seasoned with plenty of salt and just a whisper of paprika, these home fries transform jicama, the “Mexican potato,” into an all-American classic.

NOTE: This recipe requires you to pre-soak the jicama for 12-24 hours, so you’ll need to start the process the day before you want to eat.

SOAK 12-24 hours

PREP 5 minutes

COOK 20 minutes

SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

The jicama:

1 pounds jicama

1/2 teaspoon salt

The home fries: 1 medium onion, finely diced (about 1 cup)

1/2 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, minced (about 1 tablespoon)

DIRECTIONS The jicama: Cut the jicama into 1/2-inch dice. Whether or not to peel it is up to you; I usually peel half and leave the skin on half to better impersonate a potato. When you’re done chopping, you should have about 3 cups of cubes. Place the jicama and salt in a slow cooker and add enough water to cover the jicama by about 2 inches. Cover and cook on high for 12-24 hours. The longer it simmers, the more tender it becomes.

When the jicama has finished its soak, drain, pat dry, and place in the refrigerator until you’re ready to start frying.

The home fries: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, about 3 minutes. Add coconut oil and allow it to melt. Toss the onion in the pan and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Cook until nicely browned, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer the onion to a small bowl and return the pan to the heat.

Add 2 tablespoons coconut oil to the skillet and allow the pan to get hot, about 2 minutes. Add the jicama cubes, shaking the skillet to make an even, single layer. Cook the jicama without stirring until the cubes are golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes, then carefully flip the jicama with a large spatula and make another single layer. Repeat this process until the jicama is browned on most sides, about 15 minutes.

When the jicama is appropriately toasty in color, add the onions, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper to the pan. Stir to blend and heat through. Remove the home fries from the heat, stir in the parsley, and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

 

Ridding Yourself of Paleo Guilt

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As mothers and fathers, we carry a tremendous amount of weight on our shoulders. We provide, we nurture, we nourish, we educate, we protect, and we impact our children’s lives. However, at times, we fail, we give in, we give up, we don’t care, we make mistakes…we throw up our hands and feel like the biggest losers. We aren’t perfect, nor will we ever be perfect. We know this. We feel this. But, can we ever learn to accept this?

When we choose to change our family’s nutrition, we go through waves of highs and lows…and towels thrown on the floor in frustration. We so want to change our nutrition. We SOOOO want to give them the best. We SOOOO want to provide the top-quality products that we can. We try and we try to make room for it in our budget, but when things get tight and bills come in, we have to make choices.

Oh, the guilt. I know it, cause I feel it too. I remember making the most delicious, roasted chicken legs for my kids one night. They LOVE chicken legs. They love getting their fingers dirty and not being forced to use a fork. They relish every delicious bite. I hear my 18 month old going, “Mmmm,” slurp, “mmmm“, over-and-over that night, literally licking the bone…sucking on the delicious cartilage. I remember my daughter saying to me, “These are the best chicken leggies ever, Mommy”.

Enjoying his chicken leg
Enjoying his chicken leg

I should smile and be happy, right? My kids are eating chicken! They are eating Brussel sprouts. They are eating asparagus, for God’s sake! However, happy is NOT what I felt.

You see, we had just lost A LOT of money. I’m talking thousands and thousands of dollars. We had to make some serious budget cuts and buying grass-fed meat, free-range poultry, farm fresh eggs, organic produce, expensive raw milk…this stuff was the first thing to get pushed to the back burner. We just couldn’t afford it.

I know they tell you to make quality food a priority, but we were, literally, having to save any extra penny we could. Buying the best quality was not attainable for us.

So, as my son is gnawing on a chicken leg, I’m thinking about all the hormones, antibiotics, and preservatives that he probably was ingesting. Oh, the mommy guilt. Mommy guilt will crush you. It will crush your confidence in an instant. It will break every good thing that you have done for your family and tell you…you’re…just…not good enough. You’re just not smart enough. You don’t try enough.

LIES…

We make the best choices we can for our family and no one else can tell you that you could make better choices.

You see, our best, is relative to each person. You can relate this to lifting heavy weights. I often talk to other women about how I love to lift heavy weights. Some ask what my numbers are and when I tell them, they say they could never lift heavy weights. Then I explain to them that heavy is relative to each person. Heavy to me may not be heavy to you. Heavy to you may be heavier than someone else. However it’s all still heavy! However it’s all still our best!

When people start eating Paleo they think that they MUST buy organic, free-range, grass-fed, pastured foods. I don’t know how many have even been detoured from eating Paleo because they know that can’t afford this. More important than this, should be eating REAL foods. More important should be moving off of processed foods. More important should be that WE ARE ACTUALLY TRYING.

So, I bought my factory farmed chicken legs and I watched my kids eat them…and I felt it. I felt that guilt. But, when I saw my kids enjoying it and I knew that I had done my best to put the best food on the table that I could…I smiled.

I smiled back at them and said, “thank you” and I meant it. I kissed their greasy lips, and I really did mean it. And, you know what?

My kids still love me. Love me to the core.

 

Steps to making wiser choices when your budget is limited:

Check out how I save money here.

Buy whole chickens and make stock with the bones.

Shop at meat markets where preservatives are not used.

Order from Amazon.

Check Craigslist for local people selling farm-fresh eggs.

Shop at Farmer’s Markets. Remember local is, sometimes, better than organic that has come from across the country.

Don’t make meat the highlight of the meal. Incorporate it in to your meal.

Do the best you can and let go of the guilt!

 

 

 

 

 

On the Road to Faleo Paleo?

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Eating Paleo has sustained me and my family for over a year. The longest that any diet change has lasted me, before Paleo , was 2 months, and that was when I was doing Weight Watchers. I was a diet nomad wandering from place to place trying to find a way of eating that would stick. Eating Paleo works. It sustains. I will never eat another way.

I want you to be able to say the same thing. I often hear that someone has “tried” Paleo but they couldn’t keep up with it. I’m often bewildered by this because eating Paleo has become a simper lifestyle for my family. I don’t want you to fail. I want you to thrive on Paleo.

Here are some signs that you might be on the road to becoming a “Faleo Paleo”:

  1. You try to just eat just lean meats (because you don’t believe fatty meats are good for you) like chicken, turkey and fish, yet when you head to TGI Fridays with your friends you order a burger and hungrily eat it like you haven’t had food in ages. Then you decide that the Paleo diet is ridiculous and you give up.
  2. You stress over every little bit of food, if it’s Paleo or not, and after a while, the stress frustrates you so much that you say, “screw this” and go back to your old way of eating.
  3. You are ill-prepared when starting out and cravings get the best of you. You give in to the remains of your kids mac n’cheese, engulfing them like a starved vulture. You think, “oh how ridiculous is this,” and then proceed to eat the rest of the mac n’cheese on the stove, a half bag of sour cream and onion chips, and the half-eaten corn dog.
  4. You, literally, believe we should eat like a caveman…literally. Caveman didn’t eat almond butter. Caveman didn’t eat coconut flour. Caveman didn’t eat canned tuna. Cavemen didn’t eat Paleo cookies.
  5. You criticize other Paleo-eaters. You criticize their butter, their heavy cream in their coffee, their white potatoes, their quinoa, their non-organic meats, their store-bought eggs, their frozen veggies, their raw dairy…how could they call themselves Paleo, you wonder?
  6. You change your diet to Paleo, yet you keep feeding your kids garbage. This garbage makes its way into your mouth and you give up.
  7. You leave no room for grace, pizza or beer. You think that you must be 100% Paleo for it to work.
  8. You’re not losing weight. You quit the first week because you didn’t lose any weight.
  9. You think Paleo is too expensive. You compare the expense of eating Paleo to your old, coupon-clipper days and decide it’s too expensive.
  10. You stay away from healthy fat. You can’t, for the life of you, see how eating healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, palm shortening, and butter/ghee is healthy, so you resort to baking your chicken breasts without any flavor.

Before you quit, try this…

  1. Plan ahead for dining out and, also, realize that all kinds of meat bring nourishment in their own way! I have a great guide written up here that includes suggestions for top chain restaurants.
  2. Don’t stress. Make the best choices you can and when you want to indulge, do it! I have pizza once a week. It’s my dirty, little, Paleo secret. But it keeps me grounded. Just don’t do it everyday.
  3. MEAL plan, meal plan, meal plan! Take a look at my Pinterest page for lots of recipes and, also, consider eMeals.com! eMeals.com is a meal planning service that does all the planning for you. All you have to do is buy the food and make it! They have a Paleo plan, which is what I use and I love it. The dinners are easy to make and only require about 20-30 minutes in the kitchen!
  4. Paleo is a guideline. Please don’t compare us to cavemen. Yes, Paleo replicates their style of eating, but c’mon! We use KitchenAids and food processors and mandolin slicers. We got it easy…let’s appreciate and accept that and stop thinking you have to do everything like a Neanderthal.
  5. Not everyone is as rich as you, dude! Some of us don’t have much money to work with and we make the best choice we can. Yes, we know grass-fed beef and free-range chicken is ideal…we, also, have some guilt that we can’t give our family that option. We do the best we can. And, stay away from my butter in my coffee! Read my suggestions for saving money!
  6. Stop giving your kids garbage and feeding yourself like royalty. I know changing a child’s diet is hard, but make some effort to rid processed foods from their diet as well. If you need help take a look at what I feed my daughter. It is possible! One small step toward this is all that is needed. Then keep building upon that.
  7. I am about 80% Paleo. I will NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER be 100%. If I was Paleo would feel like more of a diet than a lifestyle. I prefer to leave room for some indulgences because it keeps me balanced.
  8. Your body needs time to adjust to a new way of eating. It also takes time to find that balance and learn what foods your body can handle and which ones restrict weight loss. For me, it’s nut butters. I have to be very careful with nut butters and nuts, in general. Now, I rarely, eat them. BUT, it took me months to figure this out! Months of plateaus. Months of the scale not moving.
  9. You will have a hard time finding coupons for meat, produce, almond flour, and healthy oils. It just doesn’t happen much. However, you need to realize that your health, and your family’s health is worth the extra expense. And it might not even that much extra. I think I spend around $100-$130 a week on our family of 4.
  10. You must have heard it by now that fats are healthy. Well, take it to heart. Fats are good for you. Stop being scared of them. Take a look at the proper portion-size is for healthy fats here.

I hope this posts helps you realize that Paleo does NOT have to be all or nothing. Paleo is a guideline. It is not a diet. Yes, many people do it to lose weight or because they have allergies to gluten/dairy/soy. Be easy on yourself and make the best choices you can! This will help you succeed. This will help make Paleo become a part of you. 


Paleo Birthday Cupcakes

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My 3 year old is turning 4 and requested cupcakes to share with some friends. Awww, how sweet, right?!?!!! NOT!!!!!!!!!! This Paleo mama sucks at Paleo baked goods. So, I’m smiling at my adorable, little princess and thinking, “CRAP…how in the world am I going to make cupcakes?” Aha! I have almond flour and I’m pretty good with it.

Wait, does no peanuts mean no almonds? Because, if we get technical, a peanut is a legume so if you are allergic to peanuts then you probably aren’t allergic to almonds…right? I wonder…and wonder…and reach out to my Facebook fans for help.

The winning verdict: use coconut flour and don’t play with almond fire! Which by the way is so contradictory.  So, let me get this right: you can’t bring nuts to school because someone in the class is allergic to it, but you can bring gluten-laden garbage? Not fair!

Anyways, I went with a vanilla cupcake, a chocolate ganache frosting, and pink sprinkles! The only thing not Paleo was the pink sprinkles! I think I did pretty darn good! And….her little friends gobbled it up!!!

Here’s the recipes that I used…

Very Vanilla Cupcakes (using coconut flour):

Cupcake Ingredients (makes 8 cupcakes):

(click here to view the recipe)

My opinion: I was SHOCKED how moist and delicious these cupcakes are. I was debating about using another recipe that didn’t have any oil but I remember how coconut oil just sucks up moisture and I wanted to make sure the cupcakes were moist. This recipe is a KEEPER!

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Chocolate Ganache Frosting

This ganache is delicious and you can sub coconut milk for the heavy cream. I did that the last time I made it. And the author of this recipe now has a AWESOME cookbook available with TONS of recipes!

Ganache Recipe:

(click here to be taken to the recipe)

…and all this I did for my little princess ON MY BIRTHDAY! Yes, today is my birthday. However, I do get to pick out where we are going to eat for lunch. I say Vinne Van Go Go’s Pizza and some beer (***runs and hides***)!!!

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I’m NOT Crunchy…I’m CHEAP and LAZY!!!

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I am not sure what I don’t like about the label of being “crunchy.” If you are not sure what this means or have never heard it, let me enlighten you with my ever-so, trustworthy source, Urban Dictionary.

Crunchy Mama (defined): “Mother who supports homebirth, breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, gentle discipline, etc. One who questions medical authority; tends to be VEGETARIAN (hhahahaha) and/or prepares all-organic foods.”

I love the vegetarian part! Ok, let’s break this down…

“Mother who supports homebirth.”

I absolutely support a woman’s right to choose where she would like to have her baby. I almost had a homebirth with my son! I was 9 centimeters when I got to the Birth Center. Homebirth’s are becoming more popular because of the way that hospital births are run. Unfortunately, hospital births are a business. Please watch, “The Business of Being Born.” Total eye-opener. I had a hospital birth with my daughter. My water broke at home. I went to the hospital an hour later. I was forced to stay in my bed so my vagina wouldn’t become contaminated. In my bed, I sat and sat…and nothing happened, so I was hooked up to Pitocin. Labor started and it hurt. Pitocin contractions are freakin painful! I asked for my epidural. I pushed and had my baby, my beautiful Arianna. I was numb for hours and hours. She wouldn’t latch on and they washed off her precious vernix without asking me.

Now with my son, TOTAL different experience. If you want to read his birth story here, it will save me all the beautiful details. But, his birth was complete opposite. I hated my birth experience with my daughter so I looked for an alternative, and for us it was a incredible waterbirth at a nearby Birth Center. I didn’t even know I was in labor!!! The contractions felt so different than my Pitocin contractions!

I support women’s right to choose where to give birth and I, fully, support and understand the rising “trend” of homebirth.

birth

“A mother who breastfeeds.”

I don’t understand how, if you are human, you CAN’T support breastfeeding. Other than all the health benefits, a good reason to breastfeed is because it’s CHEAP! Holy crap, formula is expensive! And my other favorite reason is because I’M LAZY! How hard is it to whip out a boob?

I know breastfeeding comes with it’s challenges, trust me, I had my share! My daughter was breastfed and my son was, also, breastfed. However, my son was nursed by many, many mothers. When my son was 2 months old, my younger sister passed away. The grief, shock, and trauma from her death caused my supply to tap out. I posted a plea of help to other mother’s…and with goosebumps on my body right now, I am so incredibly grateful to all those mommie’s out there who came to our rescue. I received coolers and coolers of milk from the most unselfish and generous people in the world. I had to buy a new deep freezer! I even received 2 donations from 2 seperate mother’s who had lost their baby, yet wanted their milk to nourish another baby. I’m telling you folks, the generosity of mother’s is amazing! You can read more about our milk-sharing experience here.

milkMy son at 6 months old with milk that was donated from a special mommy who lost her baby girl.

“A mother who supports babywearing.”

I LOVE baby-wearing! I love the Moby Wrap for the 0-3 month age and the ERGObaby carrier for the 3 month and above age. They are LIFESAVERS!!! My baby’s, like all baby’s, loved and demanded to be held. It’s natural. We are to hold our young. That is what they need and thrive on. I hear it all the time, “My baby just want’s to be held,”…”she won’t let me put her down,”…”he cries when I put him in the swing.” Well, guess what…your baby is NORMAL! I baby-wear because I hate the sound of my baby crying. I babywear because it’s easier. I babywear because I don’t have to try to quietly set my son down and escape out the room. I babywear because I’m cheap and I don’t want to buy a swing, a bouncer, a new stroller, a floor mat, a hanging hammock…my God, what else is there! All those baby products and your baby just wants YOU…you’re warmth, your body next to theirs, your heartbeat, your breath on their skin. They want YOU.

My 3 year old in the Ergo with me (before I lost 50lbs)
My 3 year old in the Ergo with me (before I lost 50lbs)

“A mother who supports cloth-diapering.”

OMG, I LOVE cloth diapering! And no, I don’t love it cause it’s environmentally friendly and I’m saving thousands of pounds of poop-soaked diapers from fermenting in a land-fill…although that is a plus. I love cloth-diapering cause IT’S FREAKIN CHEAP!!! I have, literally, spent about $50 on my son’s diapers! FIFTY DOLLARS!!! My son is 18 months old and we have saved thousands and thousands of dollars on wasted diapers. I spent about $300 on my daughter’s diapers, which then got passed down to my son. And let me tell you something, he is so cute in a PINK diaper! Yes, I’m cheap, folks, so that is why I cloth diaper.

pink

“A mother who supports co-sleeping.”

This one fits right in with the lazy part. Who want’s to get up and go to another room, feed their baby, and then go back into another room again? Whew! It’s annoying and tiring. Just let your baby sleep in between you. We had this fabulous thing that our kids slept in called a SnuggleNest. It was awesome! It is a little bed that you can put the baby in and it has sides to protect you from rolling over on to them. I know that is a concern wtih a lot of people who won’t co-sleep, but the SnuggleNest makes co-sleeping a very safe option! Plus, there are so many benefits to co-sleeping. And, no, you don’t have to co-sleep forever! We only co-slept till our kids were around 6-9 months old.

All this to say that the bottom line is…I’m cheap and I’m lazy! But you can call me crunchy if you want!

My Top 10 Paleo Necessities

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When I first started eating Paleo, I spent A TON of money! Let’s face it, it costs a bit of pocket change to get a Paleo pantry stocked…especially when you are not used to cooking whole, unprocessed foods. In walks Amazon.com…my lifesaver and money saver.

If you haven’t started shopping on Amazon, then you need to. They have some ridiculous deals and shipping is always so fast. When we started Paleo, we signed up for Amazon Prime, which is an annual fee of $79. Wait, wait, don’t get scared away. This includes free 2-day shipping for the WHOLE year, accessibility to Prime Instant Videos which has lots of TV shows and movies to choose from, and the Kindle Lending Library with thousands of books to choose from!

They also have Amazon Mom which gives you 20% off diapers and wipes and, also, 2-day shipping on Prime items. Amazon Mom also has a free trial you can do to test out the waters and see how you like it. You don’t have to be a mom to do it either!

Amazon Student is another great deal! You get a free 6-month Prime trial if you have a valid student email address.

All this to say, I love Amazon! And if you are eating Paleo, some of the items that you find you might need, are so expensive in the grocery store. You can find them on Amazon for a fraction of the cost. Here are some of my favorites…

1) Coconut Oil

You will use coconut oil a lot! Coconut oil replaces all other vegetable oils you may have used before going Paleo. Coconut oil can cook at a higher temperature than any other oil, so it’s a good choice to have! The benefits of coconut oil are mainly from the nutrient value of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs). The best comparison in nature as to the percentage of MCFAs being consumed in a diet is human breast milk!

2) Coconut Chips

These are delicious! You can snack on them raw, throw them in baked, Paleo goods or make caramelized coconut chips!

Recipes I love: Caramelized Coconut Chips, Paleo Breakfast Cookies, and Morning Glory Muffins

3) Coconut Milk

It’s really, REALLY hard to find coconut milk that doesn’t have any added ingredients, however Natural Value coconut milk only has water and coconut! It’s a great deal off Amazon because in the stores it’s nearly $4 a can! On Amazon you can get 12 cans for $30!

Recipes I love: Ground Beef Stroganoff, Pumpkin Pie in a Cup, and Whipped Coconut Cream

4) Olive Oil

Zoe olive oil is my absolute favorite olive oil. The taste and flavor of it is amazing. It’s great to have both coconut and olive oil on hand in a Paleo kitchen. Coconut oil withstands hotter temperatures better than olive oil, but olive oil is great for marinades, homemade mayonnaise, and salad dressings.

Recipes I love: Homemade Mayo and Marinated Balsamic Chicken

5) Sweetleaf Liquid Stevia

Stevia saved my life when I was giving up the flavored creamers to put in my coffee. My favorite kind is the English Toffee from Sweetleaf. Stevia comes from a plant and is 100% natural. Beware: lots of the store-bought stevia brands are not 100% stevia. Sweetleaf and Kal are reputable brands that are 100% stevia.

6) Almond Butter

Peanut Butter is a no-no if going Paleo because, guess what, peanuts are a legume, not a nut! Crazy, eh? I was surprised too. We really like Barney Butter Smooth Almond Butter , however it does have some evaporated cane juice in it. If you are looking for something with JUST almonds then Maranatha Natural Almond Butter is awesome…just a little on the expensive side.

Recipes I love: The Easiest Bread Ever, Zucchini Brownies, and Paleo Breakfast Cookies

7) Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

We love these chocolate chips by Enjoy Life. They are the only ones I have found that are gluten, dairy, nut, and SOY free! They are so good and we use them in lots of recipes. The kids love them too and I feel good about letting them snack on them. They are around $3.50 each on Amazon which is an AWESOME deal. In the stores they are around $6 each…yikes!

Recipes I love: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chunky Monkey Muffins, and Zucchini Brownies

8) Coconut Sugar

Coconut sugar is a great substitution for regular sugar, and even, brown sugar. It comes from coconut tree sap and is one of the lowest glycemic index sweeteners on the market. I have made caramelized onions using coconut sugar and they come out delish!

Recipes I love: 2-Minute Paleo Mug Brownie, Caramelized Onions, and Whipped Coconut Cream

9) Fruit Leather

If you follow my Pinterest page, I post pictures of my daughter’s lunches to help give my followers some ideas for sending whole, unprocessed lunches. You might see fruit leather mentioned in there from time-to-time. They are so good and are 100% fruit. I get these for super cheap off Amazon and my kids, even I, love them! They love it when I cookie-cut them into cute little shapes and hearts.

10) Almond Flour

Almond flour is my favorite alternative to white flour. I LOVE it! You can do so much with it and it Honeyville’s Blanched Almond Flour is very light and fluffy.

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These are 10 staples in our house. A lot of the items have a “subscribe & save” option on Amazon, which makes the cost come down even more.

And once you gather all your kitchen pantry essentials, here is a list of my favorite Paleo cookbooks to get you on your way:

1)Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat

2)Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipes For Any Occasion

3) Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen