Let the baking begin!

We haven't made the full conversion in my home, yet, from junk to strictly paleo. We are in the warm up phase. I believe this part of the process is so valuable because you can arm yourself with knowledge and prepare for what this is really going to look like on a day to day basis and make sure your kitchen is ready. I knew there were a few things i would need to accomplish during this phase, such as cleaning out my cabinets and finding paleo recipes for a few of the things I can't live without. That list includes bread, chocolate chip cookies, and hummus. Many are surprised that super-healthy hummus isn't a part of paleo. Sadly, it's true. Chick peas being a legume and all, eliminate hummus from my options. On that note, beans in general are not paleo friendly, which is very sad but alas, I can't have it all I guess.
Ok, back on track from my pity party over legumes, so yesterday I mentioned there were paleo friendly breads out there, according to my friend. I did some Internet research and found a plethora of resources!! There were a few that stood out to my taste buds, but Paleo Herb Bread sounded out of this world. I love herby, earthy, breads so I decided to give this one a go. The list of ingredients was simple and short, but most needed to be purchased at a specialty store. I already had all natural coconut oil, pink Himalayan salt, baking soda, farm raised eggs, fresh herbs, and apple cider vinegar. I needed to purchase almond flour, golden flax seed, and coconut flour. The first 2 weren't that bad, but be warned, coconut flour is a little pricey. However, you use so little it will last forever.
Let me preface this by telling you, I'm a good cook. I love to cook. I cook for my family each and every day as well as for our friends on a regular occasion. However, I have NEVER enjoyed baking. I've just never had a knack for it, so I was a little intimidated at this project. But I knew, learning to make paleo friendly bread would make or break the outcome of this change. After the slightest bit of hesitation, I rounded up the needed items and began baking.
Guess what?! It was easy. Yep, I said it. Easy! Who knew? Not only was it easy, but it was good. Very good. So good in fact, I shared it with some never-going-to-be-paleo friends and they agreed it was delicious.
With this success, I really feel like this is doable. What a relief! Now we just have to finish ridding our house of junk and the real fun will begin, paleo conversion 2013!
Talk to you next time!

Why change now and why paleo?

I hate clutter. Clutter makes me feel like the world is crumbling in around me and I'm suffocating on the debris. Might sound a little heavy to some folks, but that's how it affects me. What does this have to do with changing my families diet to a more natural approach? In my world, a lot actually. It all began a while back with my pantry. My husband, the wonderfully talented man that he is, has made me an amazing pantry with a ton of storage. It has deep wooden shelves, sturdy enough for whatever I may wish to cover them with. I have coordinating baskets to house loose items and plastic containers to put cereals in. Did I mention a lot of plastic containers to put cereals in? My house is like the OCD version of Jerry Seinfield's kitchen when speaking of cereal. Anyhow, long story short, my pantry is for the most part very organized. There was just one problem that I could not seem to overcome; clutter. Every single time I'd return home from the grocery store, I'd have to reorganize. And the stuff seemed to multiply. Where did all this junk come from?? It made me long for a simpler approach. Those longings turned into a vision for what I wanted.
While my aversion to clutter was certainly a driving force behind my change, it's definitely not the only reason. Over the last few years I've had a real desire for our family to become more self sufficient. That has resulted in a rain barrel, a garden, and becoming the proud owner of 9 chickens. Having my chickens really changed my perspective on this whole "all natural" movement that's been going on. My natural eggs really are better than their antibiotic filled counterparts. So with those influences in mind, I did what comes most naturally to me in times where I need to do something. I made a list.
This is what that list looks like:

What I want-
A simpler approach to eating
To overcome my carb addiction (that is a whole other blog)
To teach my kids to make healthy choices in their eating
To know and understand what's in my food


What I don't want-
To become the crazy, it has to be all natural or else, woman
To rely on restaurants to fill in the gaps of my lack of preparedness
To count calories

After some research, I decided the paleo approach fit my needs and vision the best. However, I was still a little apprehensive about the change. Could I really give up bread?? And CEREAL?!? I wasn't fully convinced I could. I sat on this for a couple of months until this past weekend. We had friends over and we were chatting and one brought up that she and her family were going paleo. She said there were paleo friendly bread recipes! We discussed it and moved on, but the conversation lingered in my mind. I couldn't shake the feeling that we could do this. I spoke with my husband and he agreed.
 So here we are about to embark on a journey of change. I'll be documenting the ups and downs and the successes and flops.  See you next time!