Paleo Tips, Tricks, & Hacks: Surviving the Holidays

     I had the idea some time ago to share tips, tricks, and hacks to help others who wanted to get into the paleo diet. We've been eating this way for a while, so we've learned a lot along the way, sometimes through luck, sometimes through sound advise from others, and sometimes through trial and error.

     With the holidays fast approaching, we decided that in our first video we would talk about our top 10 tips to holiday success. These tips are tried and true to get your through the holiday season with as little stress and as much healthy eating as possible. Within each tip, we share some of our favorite sub-tips to make it even easier.

Here is an easy list of our top 10 tips, in case you don't have 36 minutes to devote to the video right now.

10. If there is nothing wrong with you, and you are just eating paleo to be healthier, indulging over the holidays is okay.

9. If you want to stick to your paleo way of eating, be firm but not rude.

8. Make time to play. Enjoyment is what the holidays are supposed to be about.

7. Take time to rest. Your friends, family, and body will thank you for it.

6. Tell the food pushers that your doctor told you to stick to your diet.

5. Follow the 80/20 rule. It will allow you to treat yourself and still feel good about yourself.

4. Make your own sauces. Most of them are really easy and much healthier than store bought.

3. Make a travel plan. Don't just plan your route, plan your food, too.

2. Have a game plan, but don't be a slave to it.

1. Paleo-fy your family's favorite holiday foods!

Halloween Costume Reveal 2016: Five Nights at Freddy's

We did another Whole 30, but this time, we did it with a twist. Our Whole 30 had a theme, and that was Hot 4 Halloween. We started on October 1st and went to the 30th, so that by Halloween, we'd be done and looking good, or at least better. The bonus was that we got to wear the Five Nights at Freddy's costumes that we worked so hard on! This is the final reveal of our costumes and hard work, but if you want to see us vlog about our Whole 30 journey, click here.

Paleo-fy This! Pumpkin Pie Spice Ice Cream

This recipe was fun to create. I was inspired while walking down the ice cream aisle in my local grocery store. Fall is always full of pumpkin spice everything, and the ice cream section was no different. Ice cream in the fall? Sure, why not? Especially when you live in Alabama, and it is still pretty hot outside. We made a caramel sauce to go on it, and it was fantastic! You can find Vanessa Barajas's caramel sauce recipe here.







Ingredients:

2 cans full fat coconut milk

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. ground cinnamon



Directions:

1. Add coconut milk, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and vanilla extract to a blender or food processor.



2. Run blender or food processor until blended.



3. Follow you ice cream maker instructions, or use the technique from the video.

Paleo-fy This: "Cheesy" Grits

You've seen this recipe on this very blog, and you can get it in my new book:

Paleo A-Z Challenge Cookbook



Now, you can see me make this and eat this. It's still just as delicious as the first time we made it.

Book Release Date!

     The book is so close to being done, and I am psyched! As I've said before, this book will include the 26 recipes that I did last year for the A-Z Challenge. But you may be wondering what makes this book different? What makes this book worth the investment if I can get the recipes on the blog for free?

     I'll tell you. Some of these recipes are flat-out better. If you read the posts from last year, you know there were a lot of typos, some recipes that didn't work out quite right, and some bad pictures. Well, I'm proofreading better, reworking the recipes I didn't quite like, and retaking some of the pictures.

     Not convinced? There's also an introduction to the Paleo diet that I wrote with an eye toward humor and levity. It includes what you can and cannot eat to eat the Paleo way.

     Not enough for you? It contains four extra recipes, including my bone broth recipe, my favorite mayonnaise recipe (it's changed since I've been sending everyone to Melissa Joulwan's blog), and two never-before published recipes.

     Still not convinced? Well, each recipe now has nutritional facts! You can now see how healthy or unhealthy (I'm looking at you quesadilla) each dish is at a glance.

     So when is this wonderful book coming out? Barring any problems, it will be hitting Kindle Unlimited on October 5th of this year. So if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free! If you don't have Kindle Unlimited, you can get it for the low price of $5.99!

Mind Blown: Preservatives Make It Hard to Break Down Food!

     Have you ever read, seen, or heard something so simple and yet so mind blowing that you simultaneously thought, "Why didn't I think of that?" and, "Oh Em GEE!"

     Yesterday, I woke up at 3:30 am. Why? I had a dream that made my heart physically start to race, adrenaline began to pump through my blood, and I was wide awake. There would be no going back to sleep, even though it was my day off. I lay there for a good 30 minutes, just to make sure before getting out of bed and firing up the computer to do some reading while the rest of the house slept.

     That's when I stumbled upon the fact that our digestive system has a hard time breaking down preservatives because preservatives are designed to keep bacteria from breaking them down!

     "Oh Em GEE!" How did I never realize this? It seems so fundamental. "Why didn't I think of that?"

     This makes perfect sense. If something is designed to not break down, and then we eat it, we will have a hard time breaking it down. While stomach acid and chewing our food well will help in the process, the rest of our digestive system is run on the process of bacteria in the gut breaking down food for the micro-nutrients we need. If the food is treated to be hard to be broken down by bacteria, our bacteria doesn't have much of a fighting change.

MIND BLOWN!

The Geek Family Kitchen: Snickerdoodle Apple Blocks

We made another video. The recipe is at Snickerdoodle Apple Blocks.