Tripping up on Paleo Girl..

Well like many people getting on a new diet and sticking to it is very difficult. Including me. I'm back on track and will be posting again soon!

Homemade cough drops...

Well not totally paleo, but close, and if you get a cold they are sure nice to have. Hers my recipe for homemade cough drops. ;0)

1 1/4 cups of water
3 Throat Coat Bags of tea (you can use any tea for colds or even just echinechea or lemon ginger is nice too)
1 cup of raw cane sugar
1/3 cup of honey

15 drops of lemon essential oil
15 drops of peppermint essential oil
10 drops of eucalyptus essential oil
5 drops of tea tree oil
5 drops of lavender oil

You will need some sort of mold for these, either a candy mold or you can take a cookie sheet and fill it with cornstarch about 1/2 inch deep, then you take and roundish shape no more than 1 inch wide and press the shape into the corn starch about 1/2 way down. You will need to make about 75-80 of these.

1. Boil the water and tea for 5 minutes and then allow to steep for 15 more minutes to make a very strong tea.
2. Over medium high heat dissolve sugar and honey in tea.
3. Do not stir and allow mixture to reach the hard crack stage or 300 degrees. This is important otherwise they will be very sticky and stick to your teeth!
4. Once your reach 300 degrees pour mixture into a Pyrex measuring cup, add the essential oils stir and moving quickly but carefully pour into your mold.
5. Once cool wrap in wax paper to prevent sticking and store in a zip lock bag in a cool area. ;0)

Enjoy! You can play with the essential oils or the tea, for different variations, or even add some fruit juice concentrate for kids.

This recipe makes about 80 cough drops depending on your mold size and they taste a lot like Ricola brand cough drops. ;0)

Some good reading....

Take a minute and read this http://www.westonaprice.org/Guts-and-Grease-The-Diet-of-Native-Americans.html Very interesting read!

Paleo and eating out....

One thing I have noticed is that I often mess up on my diet when I am eating out. Its next to impossible to find anything very good for you when you eat out. I have often messed up royally because of this. Theres only so much salad a girl can eat you know what I mean?

Since pulling the hamburger patty of a burger sounds so incredibly nasty I have been brainstorming foods I can stuff in my purse and eat while on the go. SO far I have come up with the following..

• Beef Jerky (of the organic no MSG and nitrate variety)
• Raw Trail mix ( get these little packets form Trader Joe's)
• Freeze dried fruits (OK I know dried fruits are not the best, but freeze dried is the best option because it retains more nutrients)
• Powdered Green Drink mix toss a scoop in a bottle of water(I buy this kind http://www.firstshake.com/)
• Sliced fruits and vegies. If you plan ahead you can portion out sliced fruits and vegies in small containers and keep them in the fridge ready to go.

Coming next. Paleo Girl Fast Food! I have some cool ideas to share with you. ;0)

Changing my paleo diet a bit......

My thoughts are that some people doing this "caveman" diet have it slightly off. First they put meat at the bottom, like the first pyramid I posted. I have started to think about this and I think this is wrong. Our Paleo anscestors would not have had meat every day. Could you imagine hunting with a spear and getting meat every day? Heck I have gone fishing and I only came back with one tiny trout. I do not think that they ate meat like we did.

I have done my own little research project and it seems like in ancient cultures red meat was not eaten as often, with fish being the primary animal protein. I think that along with nuts, seeds, coconut, and other foods that these should make up the main protien of a paleo diet, and not a diet high in red meat. No keep in mind I am no expert nor am I an anthropologist. I guess I am going with a gut feeling. Also for me, my reliegion states to eat meat only in times of winter and famine, so this will work better for me too. ;0) It seems like red meat was dried and saved for winter. Try doing your own research and see what you come up with. So I have made my own little paleo pyramid and this is the way I think I will be focusing my diet.

Paleo girl needs to plan ahead

So I wake up this morning and realize, dang, I need to go to the grocery store! Of course this busy mom has to take the kids to school and then has an appointment, so theres no shopping till lunch. Breakfast, a handful of raw almonds and a plan to be more organized with my foods.

Here's some links for getting started if your interested....

Some good reads for getting started..
http://dietsexplained.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/news-flash-caveman-diet-goodyour-diet-bad/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/fashion/10caveman.html

http://www.paleodiet.com/

http://paleoeater.blogspot.com/