Thursday, December 30, 2010

Paleo: for the free range birds?

Oy. This Paleo thing is do-able but expensive. I can't even write what we spent on groceries this week, it blew our budget to bits. Today I started feeling resentful about it after Dave and I hit up the QFC (or the QFer, as I like to call it). We filled our cart with sockeye salmon, steaks, free-range chicken, bananas, avocados...beer, champagne, and chardonnay (okay so we have already modified).

Dave helped himself to a pepperoni-cracker snack that some grocer was making in the cheese aisle. Here's the dialogue that followed:
Me: You know you can't eat that.
Dave: What? I told him to hold the cheese.
Me: Yeah, a cracker is not Paleo. Let's go find the fruit n' nuts aisle.

Anyway, we're four days in to our diet and we've eaten bacon every day. How healthy is that? Today I made zucchini-bacon-egg scrambles and chimichurri sauce to pour over grilled chicken. Tomorrow I'm going to make chicken chili soup. Hopefully that'll serve us for a few days because I've been cooking like it's my job. Good thing we're only doing it for two weeks; otherwise we'd need to take out a small loan.

Yesterday I thought I'd try rice-less sushi. Not so good. It's like...all raw fish.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Which way is home?

Although we love snow, I'm happy to report that we narrowly escaped the blizzard of oh-10 yesterday. Our plane departed Hartford at 12:05pm, and the flight attendant announced that all flights after 2pm were cancelled. They de-iced the wings and off we flew. Honestly, it felt like we were escaping in a getaway jet!

Edie is a great traveller but we had a hard time getting her to sleep and staying asleep. At five months old, she is already aware of her surroundings, she knows when she's in a new bed, and she knows how to take a stance. Dave, my mom, and sister took her in the early mornings so I could get a few more hours of sleep but it was pretty brutal. Last night we all crashed in our own beds, and for the first time in a week, got some much needed ZZZss.

We are finally gonna try to eat Paleo. I always make excuses about why we can't do it (how can I give up the cheese!?) but Edie's having some unfortunate (and persistent) skin issues, and her pediatrician recommended I restrict my diet. She says to cut out wheat, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs. It pretty much aligns with the Paleo lifestyle (which prioritizes meat and veggies). My one modification is I'm not cutting eggs, because I really haven't been eating them, and I'm sure they're not the culprit. Today we had to give Edie baby Benadryl to ease some crazy skin reaction, and I figure why not try Paleo? So tonight I made bacon-wrapped chicken strips with sun-dried tomatoes, and kale sauteed in olive oil. SO. GOOD.

I just ordered a bunch of groceries on Amazon Fresh that fit within our new menu. I not a huge fan of Amazon Fresh, because I can get cheaper food at our store up the street, but with a baby in bed and work in the morning, ordering food while looking at Paleo recipes online is damn convenient. And that's what I'm paying extra for. It's gonna be on our doorstep before we even get up!

It's great to be back in Seattle. We had a good trip home, spent time with our wonderful friends and families (and they got some QT with Edie), but it's just so nice to sleep in our own beds and fall into our familiar routines.