Ridiculously simple

For lunch, I just grabbed a couple of handfuls of baby spinach leaves, tossed them in a bowl, diced half a leftover chicken breast, cut up the other half of a cucumber from the other night's dinner salad, a handful of grape tomatoes-halved, 2 mushrooms-sliced, and drizzled a little balsamic vinegar over it.  YUMMY!  Be aware that balsamic vinegar is a very strong flavor, and be sparing with it. 


1/2 bag spinach                                      90 cents
1/2 a cucumber                                       25 cents
1/2 chicken breast                                   50 cents
tomatoes                                                 20 cents
mushrooms                                             20 cents
Balsamic vinegar                                     15 cents
                                            Total        $ 2.20

A great lunch for 2 bucks, and totally Paleo. :-) 

Changing my mindset about what a "convenience" food is has taken some time.  A granola bar, while easy and giving the illusion of something healthy, does not hold a candle to the ease or the nutritional punch of a carrot.  Grab a carrot, wash it off, and dig in.  A carrot gives you Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Iron, Potassium and Copper, and is a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin K and Manganese.  Carrots do have lots of natural sugars in them, but much less than anything that I was feeding my body as a "healthy alternative" before.

I find that I am eating raw more than before, and I like that.  It is easier to toss together a meal without cooking it, and the vitamins are in full force. That being said, I love cooking meals for my family.  The time, planning, and thought that I put into feeding my family gives me all sorts of warm fuzzies.

This evolution that I am on, that is making me more aware of what I am feeding my family, is a good one.

I did make the Sweet Potatoes Anna from Paleo Nick's website...  http://paleonick.com/articles/Sweet-Potatoes-Anna   and, they were GREAT!!  After the first batch, I was on the phone with my friend, who is coincidentally named Anna, telling her about the recipe, and she said "I wonder how that would work with sliced apples mixed in."  Curious, I decided to try it.

IT WAS A CULINARY REVELATION!!!  Layer of sliced sweet potatoes, drizzle of butter, sprinkle of cinnamon, dash of nutmeg, layer of apples, drizzle of butter.  Repeat until all ingredients are gone.The layering will look something like this...

  Bake at 400 degrees.  For plain sweet potatoes, bake for 60 minutes.  For the sweet potato/apple mix bake for 45 minutes.  I think it is because the apple imbues the recipe with more sugars, and it caramelizes faster.

Sweet Potatoes                                                                      $ 1.78
2 apples                                                                                 $   .50
Butter                                                                                     $  .50
Cinnamon and Nutmeg                                                           $   .10
                                                                             Total        $ 2.88    (for a huge amount)

Finished product...

Not too shabby for a first attempt, if I do say so myself.  :-)


Thing2 loves both versions, and Husband declared them a couple of his favorite of my culinary experiments.

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