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thailand

Thai Shrimp Salad

March 6, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 5 Comments

I miss and love good Thai food. I lived in Thailand for a year and grew to love the flavors and spices involved in making delicious Thai food.

One of my favorite dishes ever is “Som Tam“, which is green papaya salad. You take a unripe papaya, peel it, and then shred it. Add in some more veggies, shrimp, and special ingredients, and you have a very refreshing salad. I used to buy this salad off the street for less than $1! I loved my “Som Tam” Thai lady who thought it was funny to test my Thai language. The first time I ordered from her she asked me how I would like the salad…”spicy or a little spicy? ” she asked me in Thai. I responded to her in what I thought was proper tone (Thai has 5 tones) and said “no spice please.” I said the word spice with the wrong tone and it ended up coming out, “no sex please.”

She gave me the most memorable face, corrected me, and then we both roared with laughter. It was a joke from that day on that I don’t like no sex!

Anyways, I swapped out the papaya and am using shredded cucumber instead, which makes recipe  Whole 30 and 21 Day Sugar Detox approved. Green beans are ok on Paleo even though they are technically a bean, because they are more of a pod than a bean!

Shrimp Thai Salad

_MG_4917

1/2lb of cooked shrimp

2 cups of shredded cucumber or 2 cups of shredded green papaya

1 cup of very firm green beans (don’t overcook); cut in 1 inch pieces

1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

4 TB of sliced or mashed almonds

3 cloves of garlic, minced

juice of 2 limes

2 TB of fish sauce (or soy sauce)

handful of cilantro

1 TB apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: red chile pepper

Directions:

1. Lightly steam your green beans or eat them raw. Mine green beans were from the freezer so they were not too hard so I didn’t have to steam them. You want them to be crunchy.

2. Shred your cucumber and then place it in a colander to drain. Leave it to drain for like 15 minutes, then pat dry with a towel.

3. In a large bowl add your green beans, shrimp, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and chile pepper (if using).

4. Then add your wet ingredients: fish sauce, lime juice, vinegar, and garlic. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper.

5. Add cucumber to the bowl and mix. Taste and adjust seasonings.

6. Top with mashed or sliced almonds!

 

 

Filed Under: My Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: cucumber salad, gluten-free, green beans, paleo, primal, recipes, som tom, thailand

This is my story…

October 27, 2012 by Jackie Ritz 20 Comments

I can sometimes close my eyes and smell my childhood. It smells like freshly raked leaves, chlorine on my bathing suit, sweat that lingers on my skin, and freshly popped cheesy popcorn.

It tastes like Oatmeal Cream Pies, tacos on a Saturday night, and hose water.

I treasure the childhood I had. I spent summer days riding bikes with my sister, Dinah, to faraway lands and magical “secret” places that only we knew about. My sister treasured it too. Five days before the worst day of my life, she wrote a short story for college about a time when we were playing hide-and-seek as kids. She must have treasured it as much as me, for no one can ever take these moments in time away.

I am the middle child. I am the free spirt. My mom sings, “I Hope You Dance” over me because she says the words remind her of me. I’m my Daddy’s little girl. I hold his hand in mine even when my teenage friends could see. I walk with pride standing next to my big brother. He’s huge. Standing at over 6’6″, he stares into the eyes of boys and frightens them away. I smile at him because I’d rather hang out with him, then stupid boys. My sister was always my best friend. We loved hard and we fought even harder. Yet, at the end of the day when we layed down in our beds that shared a room, we always said:

“I’m sorry if I’ve done anything wrong.”

“I forgive you.”

” I’m sorry if I’ve done anything wrong too.”

Every. Single. Night. We didn’t want to die and go to hell for unforgiven sins.

Sometimes we had a line dividing up our bedroom. Other times we slept in the same bed when outside terrors scared us.

Eventually we grew up.

I started college, then became involved in church ministry. Soon, I left for Australia, then to Thailand for a year of missionary work. My passion became showing women how beautiful they are. Thailand changed me forever. I talked to prostitutes and taught them English. I helped a center that gave them a chance to come out of prostitution by choosing to learn a trade. I bought them out of bars for a night of fun and feasting.

Life became hard there by myself. I came home.

I went to massage school and became a licensed massage therapist and worked on completing my bachelors degree.

During this time I met and married the man of my dreams who I met in the most unique way…online! He, since, has given me two beautiful children and fulfilled my greatest purpose in life of being a mother.

Now I am reliving my childhood through my two children. Nothing could be better than the life I have now. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t been easy. Some of you know the missing part of my testimony. One year ago I lost my best friend, my sister. She made the impulsive decision to end her life the day after her boyfriend was killed in an automobile accident. By just admitting this, I feel like I have to defend her honor. I wonder when that will go away?

Her death shattered my perfect, little world and questioned all I believed in God.

It’s been a year since her death and life is changing once again. We are eagerly anticipating getting out of the military and moving back home to establish our roots close to our families. Life is good for my little family. With each boo-boo that I kiss, each diaper that I change, and each word that I speak to my children, I remember how critical the present is.

I remember to kiss my husband deeply everyday.

I remember to tell my parents how much I love them.

I remember that life is too short to have fake friends.

I remember that no matter what God is still good and still my God.

I remember that if my kids adore me, then I have successfully been the mother that my mother was.

For this life is my story.

Filed Under: About Me Tagged With: death, love, motherhood, paleo, sister, thailand

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Hi, I'm Jackie Ritz and welcome to The Paleo Mama! I'm a published author, certified herbalist, and voracious researcher of natural medicine and nutrition. I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around for awhile!

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