NO MORE THAN 9:
RECIPES AND CONTENT WRITING
No sugar. No carbs. No more than 9 ingredients.
This paleo recipe blog was started as a means to show even the most amateur of cooks how to cook easy, healthy meals. Ingredients were limited in order to keep things uncomplicated and affordable, and the advice columns come from my own short-lived Paleo experience.
9 WAYS TO FAIL AT PALEO
1. Don’t plan.
If you’re following Paleo you will at some point have heard the adage: “Fail to plan, and you plan to fail.” Not being prepared is the number one reason why we break our diets. If you don’t have healthy food in your house, you’ll grab unhealthy food from elsewhere.
Plan your dinners for 3 - 4 nights in a row. Plan to re-use fresh ingredients that might go off quickly to avoid wasting food and money.
2. Don’t prepare.
You guys, it’s time to use all those tupperwares you stole from the office. Make big meals like soups and curries, portion them into the tupperwares and shove them in the freezer. Let this become your new favourite fast food outlet.
Don’t confuse preparing food for being prepared. If you’re new to paleo, you will have to prepare your mind too. Cutting carbs, sugar and dairy is a massive exercise in self-control. It helps to know what to expect when you first turn paleo, so here’s a little breakdown of the common physical effects for your first month:
Week 1: You need to adjust, learn to cook ingredients you might not be comfortable with, learn to read intimidating ingredient labels, and worst of all, get over your cravings. It’s only 1 week. Man up. You’ll survive.
Week 2: This is where the detox symptoms are starting to kick in and you might suffer from a bit of Low-Carb Flu. It’s not infectious, but it feels like normal flu. You can expect nausea, light-headedness, fatigue, headaches, and all those lovely fluey things. Drink lots of water! It’ll help flush the toxins from your body.
Week 3: You’re getting into the swing of things. You now have a reportoire of recipes you can refer to and your detox symptoms are coming to an end. Push through the last stretch. This is the worst place to fall off the wagon.
Week 4: Congrats! You made it. You’ve been eating paleo for about a month now. You look great, feel great, and you can be really proud of yourself. You are an unstoppable force of good health and energy. You are Rocky Balboa. You are the best.
3. Dwell on what you can’t have.
Thinking about what you’re not allowed to eat causes frustration and brings out physical cravings that aren’t even really there. Focus on what you can eat. Consider ingredients that are allowed, then write lists of possible recipes and combinations for them.
To read the rest of 9 Ways to Fail at Paleo, visit nomorethan9.wordpress.com
BACON AND ONION WREATHS
The festive season might be over but that’s no reason to stop eating delicious, festive-themed foods. These paleo bacon wreaths are super delicious, for obvious reasons. (I’m talking about the bacon.) They’re also super cheap to make if you’re cooking on a budget.
Ingredients:
1 pack bacon (makes about 6 rings)
1 onion
2 handfuls of baby spinach
2 handfuls of baby or Italian tomatoes
2 eggs
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Olive/coconut oil for cooking
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180.
2. Slice your onion into 1cm thick slices and separate the rings. Keep the biggest rings aside for the bacon wreathes.
3. Starting from the inside, wrap the bacon around the onion ring. You don’t need anything to to bind it as the bacon fat will stick on its own.
4. Pop them on a baking tray and brush lightly with your oil.
5. Place them in the oven until for 10-15 minutes or until crisp.
6. Dice the remainder of your onion and fry in a pan on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
7. Slice your tomatoes in half and add them to the onion along with some salt and pepper. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes till done.
8. Boil some water in a small pot on the stove. Once the water is boiling, place in your eggs and cook for 6-7mins for soft boiled, a little longer for hard. Take them out and gently crack and remove the shell.
9. Plate as desired.