It begins here

When I first started researching Paleo I was excited about the absolute logic, science, and amazing testimonies that I was finding. Of course I was going to do this! Why wouldn't I? Oh yeah, that's right. I live in a small town where we have a Wal-Mart and Brookshires. No Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Central Market. And to go to any of theses wonder stores I have to drive an hour there and an hour back with kids in the car. And to make matters worse, I am BUSY! Too busy to be cooking elaborate meals three times a day. But I had a secret weapon...well actually two secret weapons.

Weapon #1: I'm neurotic. That's right. It's a good thing...sometimes. I researched the snot out of books, blogs and podcasts. I made notes, compiled lists, saved every Paleo approved recipe I came across and categorized them, and then made a meal plan that included three meals a day plus snacks.

Weapon #2: I actually own a health food store. I can carry these elusive foods and make them available to the rest of my small town community. But it isn't a perfect weapon. My store is small and I don't have room for produce. But I have been able to bring in quite a few new items such as coconut aminos, Sunbutter, nitrate-free deli meat, Wild Planet tuna, Kelapo coconut spray and grass-fed meats! Yay Sunshine Shoppe!

All of this is a learning process...how to shop, cook, eat. I thought I would make the learning painful and blog about it. So here it is. This is how a small town family eats Paleo. It starts here:

I woke up this morning so excited about BACON!!! Because I grew up in the health food store I always considered bacon bad. Grease bad. Fat bad. I know better now. Bacon good! We have been without bacon for awhile now because it is not easy to find sugar free bacon. But guess who carries it now??? You guessed it! The Sunshine Shoppe has a freezer full of this wonderful goodness. We cooked up an entire package and saved the fat to use later. We shredded up some sweet potatoes and fried them in a skillet and served with a fried egg on top with a side of bacon. Seriously Best Breakfast Ever!

We were pretty full from the huge breakfast but I made a small snacky lunch of sausage links, avocado slices, and cherry tomatoes.

Dinner was not what I had on my very cool, not geeky printed meal plan calender. We were supposed to have Paleo Creamy Red Pepper Steak and Pasta from PaleoOMG but I forgot to thaw the London broil in time. (Sidenote: before Paleo I had never even heard of London broil and now I have it in my fridge thawing. I feel so adventurous.) So change of plans...Crabby Patties. I call it that because my kids think food must taste good if it is named after an annoying cartoon or has a picture of an annoying cartoon on the label. So thank you Mr. SquarePants for encouraging my kids to eat wild caught crab, zucchini, carrots, onions, and celery. They loved it and I loved that I had a Paleo friendly backup meal.

Crabby Patties

Ingredients:
6 oz. Wild Caught Lump Crap
Zucchini
Half Red Onion
Celery Stalk
Carrot
4 TBSP Homemade Mayo
4 TBSP Favorite cooking fat
Free-Range Egg, lightly beaten
Cayenne Pepper
Old Bay Seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste
Fresh Parsley (I wash my parsley immediately after shopping. Fill a jar with water and add parsley stems down, of course. Then I take a baggie and cover and seal with rubber band. It keeps my parsley really fresh for much longer. I bought the one pictured below 12 days ago and it was still crisp. I also do this with cilantro too.)

1. Heat iron skillet (or any skillet but iron skillets are awesome) and add 1 TBSP favorite cooking fat...ghee, bacon fat, olive oil, or coconut oil.

2. Chop all veggies small and add to skillet to saute. I cooked my veggies down for about 15 minutes because we like them soft and sweet. Set aside to cool.

3. In medium sized bowl break apart crab meat with fork. Add mayo, seasonings, egg and veggies.

4. Form mixture into patties and stick in fridge to firm up for about 20 minutes. Take this time to change out the laundry, play a quick game of Guess Who with your kids, or check out awesome Paleo blogs such as Nom Nom Paleo and Everyday Paleo.

5. Heat skillet to medium high and add 3 or more TBSP of cooking fat. Once it is nice and hot add your patties. Let them get crispy before flipping over, about 5 to 6 minutes. The first batch I cooked came out beautiful and stayed together but the second batch to go into the skillet fell apart easily. This would have been resolved if I had let the second batch stay in the fridge instead of sitting out warming by the stove top. I may experiment with adding almond meal or coconut flour to the mixture next time to help with the consistency...mainly just for looks.

Serve with veggies of choice. We had steamable Green Giant green beans and I just melted a bit of Ghee on top and we were good to go. I also added juice from half a lime, tsp of Old Bay, dash of cayenne, salt, and pepper to about 1/4 cup of mayo. I added a dollop of this mixture to the Crabby Patties and it was yum.

What is really cool is this entire day's meals were brought to you by the small town of Greenville, Texas. So there it is folks, the daunting task of eating Paleo in a small town is possible. I'm sure I will make tons of mistakes along the way but what fun would a blog be if it was perfect!

Lessons of the day:

1. Thaw your meat dummy...especially if you took all the time to make a meal plan calender and you know what meal is coming up on the schedule.

2. Have a back up meal. Keep extra frozen veggies and meats that don't require thawing such as canned salmon, tuna or crab.

3. Food doesn't have to be pretty. It's all going to the same place the same way.