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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

If you were wondering... a day of simple Paleo meals

Food time! For those of you who are interested. (If you're not, skip this one. ;) ) I've been talking about food more lately, now that I'm happy with my diet and am proud to share it with you. (My raw vegan-to-Paleo transition here.) Some of you have asked about the kinds of things I eat every day, for snacks, for breakfast... I'm happy to share some of what we've found works for our budget and tolerances on a nutrient dense, whole foods, Paleo diet.

So how about some photos?

Years ago I was so impressed by Angela Hardison's gorgeous photos of her meals as part of an effort to eat at least 50% raw foods. I don't have nearly as good a light box set up (or as much Arizona sunlight) as she apparently does (oh, food photography is hard!!), but I tried to show you in simple photos what I often eat on a typical day.

I took these on a weekend day a couple weekends ago: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Breakfast


  • Poached eggs
  • Steamed spinach
  • Nitrite-free bacon ends & pieces
  • Bulletproof Coffee (I add some cinnamon sometimes, like in this pic)


Lunch




Dinner


  • Ropa Vieja from The Paleo Slow Cooker (see my review here, even a picture of the page!)
  • Homemade guacamole. Currently have 8 avocados and this is reminding me we need to eat them!!


Snacks:


Not pictured: I sometimes snack on raw cashews (buy them for $2.77/lb in the bulk foods at Winco), coconut oil, 85% dark chocolate, and homemade almond butter. But, now that I eat plenty of FAT at each meal, I'm not hungry between meals and can go hours without the blood sugar swings I used to have all the time on my old high carb raw vegan diet. So I don't need to snack much.

Veggies, protein, and fat...


I try to eat veggies with every meal, but sometimes I'm low on time so I like one-dish meals like stews that have veggies in them already. Loving our CSA this summer with tons of veggies each week and pressure to use them before the next one! ;) We also grow salad lettuces on our porch.

I really enjoy all our meals when we put some effort into them. Like those above--but that's a common weekend day! On the weekdays, I try to make sure we have left overs for lunches.

For breakfast on weekdays, sometimes I just have Bulletproof Coffee (low-toxin coffee blended with butter and MCT oil), which keeps me totally satisfied and full of energy till about 2PM (shocking for me, used to have to protein/fruit breakfasts and be starving at lunch! Needed the fat!). This "Bulletproof intermittent fasting" sounded completely insane to me until my husband got into it and felt good. I tried it and am a convert. Recent post on fueling your morning here on one of our favorite researcher's sites. Amazing how my hubby has lost 35 pounds of fat and gained muscle by eating more healthy fat!

This is so fun!!


I love learning new recipes for meat (cooked a whole chicken the other weekend and was SO proud of myself!!!!), and we get a chance to since we buy cow shares from a local grassfed beef farm and never know exactly what we're going to get. (More on my husband's blog Grassfed Geek about that.) I feel so grateful and positive about this nourishing diet we've adopted, and so glad he introduced me to it! I love the delish meals we've been cooking, and have no cravings like I used to. It all works for me. =)

13 comments

  1. love these photos and the meal options. yay for clean, paleo eating!

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  2. Thank you for sharing! Do you use the classic bulletproof coffee recipe or do you tweak it? I can't believe it keeps you full until 2! Crazy!

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  3. Yes, it's amazing! We use the basic recipe, varying the amount of butter a little more or less sometimes. We use NOW brand MCT oil. My hubby did a post about how we make it! http://www.grassfedgeek.com/2013/02/how-to-make-bulletproof-coffee.html

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  4. I am a vegetarian, mostly raw, yet feel malnourished. I've added dairy back and it's helped some. Was a huge leap to begin eating meat?? I struggle with the texture of chewing it.

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  5. When I transitioned from a vegetarian to eating meat again, I reintroduced seafood into first. Grilled salmon has a nice texture to it that isn't a 'meaty' texture. If cooked right, it flakes nicely and melts in your mouth. Maybe then you could try some ground meats? Take a chili or stew with lots of beans & veggies and add some grass-fed beef. That way the texture of the meat is mixed in with other things. Best wishes on your road to a healthy you! : )

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  6. Very interesting! I've heard raw dairy is amazing but haven't tried. I started by eating bacon, pork chops, and ground beef and while the first time it didn't sound good, after the first bite I was hooked. I never missed meat but felt so full and satisfied and energetic after eating it, and after that first day it tastes delicious! The only texture issues I had were with medium/medium rare steaks and burgers--again, just the first time. More about my transition here http://www.adventuresindressmaking.com/2013/02/big-changes-in-diet.html#.UaggtUDVB8F if you're interested =)

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  7. The first meat I cooked and ate was ground beef! I had been eating fish a couple times a year anyway, but I agree, ground beef is great and easy to know it's done! Always interesting to hear from other former vegetarians!

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  8. You've definitely piqued my interest in Paleo eating! I get severe nausea during pregnancy (coming to the end of my second pregnancy like this) and my diet becomes very limited. This time around I've had to really limit anything with wheat, and remember hearing mention of Paleo at some point but never really looked into it. But this really has been interested!

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  9. Mmm I have to admit that the above meal + unpictured snacks sounds wonderful. I don't usually cook meat, but when we travel I often have meat and I do notice how much fuller I feel and how much longer it lasts. Unfortunately it is just the opposite of my husband's vegetarian ways - he hates the smell of me even making eggs or bacon. And we're both a little scared of bulletproof coffee. But being in PDX does provide amazing access to lots of great local meat, and it's great you are supporting Meating Place!

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  10. Cool!!! I bet limiting wheat would help... one of my fave podcasts did an episode about pregnancy and Paleo recently, http://balancedbites.com/2013/05/podcast-episode-86-talking-paleo-pregnancy-baby-books-with-arsy.html, and another fun one has done a couple!! http://paleoparents.com/featured/tpv-podcast-episode-31-paleo-pregnancy/ and http://paleoparents.com/featured/tpv-podcast-episode-7-paleo-pregnancy/. There are some really cool Paleo mom bloggers out there who might have some good info for you if you're interested in hearing more!

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  11. Yes, so many great placed here with quality meat! We just went to Dick's Kitchen on Friday, awesome. When I was vegetarian for 13 years the smell of meat used to make me nauseous as well. I overcame it automatically when I started eating meat again, though. Now I love it!

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  12. I enjoy reading about your Paleo diet as it is something I am very interested in. I have heard about it only in the last year or so and I am still trying to figure out if I could manage without carbs, I guess I am a bit of a carb addict.

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  13. Excellent! I may just need to check out some of those sources. Thanks!

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