Update and Groceries

For any of you who are interested in how the Paleo lifestyle is going for us after 3 days, here are a few tidbits...

The kids are doing better with it than I thought.  Before starting, I decided that I would let them eat ketchup and other such condiments with their meat, so that helps them with the meat-eating.  Two recipe hits with them have been the paleo pancakes (we tried them on Tuesday) made of almond butter, unsweetened applesauce, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon, and of course the spaghetti (with spaghetti squash).  I used the Pioneer Woman's sauce recipe for that.  It is pretty easy as long as you allow enough time for it to simmer.  The only changes I made include subbing a teaspoon of raw honey for the sugar, and I used some diced tomatoes + juice in place of the 15 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, because that's what I had on hand.  It makes a lot of sauce - enough to make 1 lb. of meat last for at least two meals for our family of 4.  And the bonus was that there was enough spaghetti squash leftover to go with it for another meal, too.

Eeeeek!  I am over the food budget, as of course I knew would happen.  Since my last grocery update, I have had 2 orders from the farm (milk and eggs) for a total of $40, a $25 trip to Whole Foods on who knows what, an $89 trip to Costco (purely meat, fish, and produce), the $24 trip to Price Chopper (pictured below)....

(the soap and detergent was per my husband's request... I try to use more eco-friendly stuff on myself and the kids and our clothes)

... and then there was another trip to Costco for $12 because my husband called me from work while I was on my way home and asked me to bring him more food :) so I stopped and got a rotisserie chicken and 5 lbs. of organic apples (took most of the apples home with me).  So, that brings the monthly total up to $450 (past my typical limit of $400), and the month is not over, yet.  Looks like there are some good produce deals at Aldi this week, so I think that is where I will be heading in a few days.

I felt like I almost had grocery shopping down to a science, but now it feels like I have to learn frugality all over again as I try to adapt it to this new lifestyle...

On a different note, one thing I already learned is that this family does not like curry dishes, so I won't be making any of those again anytime in the near future.  I think I am going to give away my jar of curry to a friend at work.

How do we feel?  Hungry :)  We do want to eat frequently, so I very quickly learned to be armed for that, or things get ugly fast.  I have to plan for one or two snacks a day for all of us.  And snack planning takes more prep.  BUT, the desire to overeat is gone.  Ya just don't feel like stuffing yourself with meat, vegetables, fruit, and nuts.

We are eating SO many more fruits and vegetables!  I expected to be grossed out by how much more meat we would be eating (and I even like meat), but I've hardly noticed that.  I am more amazed by how easy it is to eat a ton of produce... and I thought we ate a lot of produce before!

I couldn't do this on my own.  I am so glad my husband is doing it with me.  And there is no way I could do it if there were non-paleo items staring me down in my pantry.  I do miss the cheese.

OK, that is all for now.  Goodnight!