December 08, 2017

Small Town Autoimmune Paleo, Is it Possible?

I love living in this small town, I really do. I have never lived anywhere with such friendly people, especially a small town. But shopping in a small town can be limited, especially a specialized diet like Paleo. I spent October getting off caffeine, and worked on collecting recipes in November. I would say I collected Everyday or Practical Paleo recipes, but I have looked through those recipes and they aren't quite practical enough or everyday enough for me. Maybe I should write a book called Small Town Paleo. lol The problem is that most paleo recipes try, in some way, to replicate favorite known recipes using hard to find and fairly expensive ingredients.

This is my local grocery store. Produce and meat on the right, dairy at the back.



And this is the rest of the store, all eight aisles of it.



There is no almond flour, no coconut flour (not that I would use it), no coconut aminos, no soup bones or bones with marrow of any kind, no organic anything, very limited vegetables, and, well, you get the picture. They do have natural almond milk, and coconut milk. I buy the almond milk but I still can't stand the smell of coconut, much less the taste. I don't know if that is something one can get over or not but I'm going to try. I can't drive into the city to get to a Whole Foods even if I could afford to shop there. I can go to neighboring towns, all about twenty miles away, but their selection isn't a whole lot better. And I certainly can't drive to one of those towns for a spur of the moment grocery run. I need to have shelf stable staples on hand, and cook with ordinary food, more along the line of foods that early man really did eat.

I also take exception to the term paleo, and think of it more as the Noah diet. But I won't go into that. Someone named it Paleo and the name stuck. So that's that.

I am going to spend the rest of December compiling recipes until I have a few breakfast recipes, a few quick lunch options, some premade single meals, and at least 14 dinner meal recipes. Because I know myself, and if I don't have an easy option when I walk in the door at 5:30, I'll revert back to my old habits and eat a sandwich or open a can of soup. Both of those are easily available at the local market, along with an entire aisle of soda and chips.

Healthy is hard, and Christmas is harder, but getting used to the recipes now and cutting back on my sugar will make it easier in January than just going cold turkey on bread, dairy and sweets plus trying to come up with an edible recipe every day.

If you have a favorite paleo recipe, that is also accepted on the autoimmune protocol, please share it with me. Did I mention that Hubby, who is going to continue eating anything he wants, will also need to like these recipes?

My favorites so far are:
Breakfast:
Chicken and Apple Sausage - Guest post at Paleomg. I shred the apples and don't precook them. Also, beware, there are a lot of popups at this website.
Turkey Hash - This was a suggestion from a friend. Cooked and crumbled ground turkey with a little seasoning. Because that is a little dry, after frying the turkey, I deglaze the pan with chicken broth, and then thicken with arrowroot powder and a little almond milk.

Dinner:
Roast Chicken in the instant pot using salt, pepper, garlic salt, dried oregano, and basil.
One Pan Balsamic Chicken Veggie Bake from The Real Food Dietitians
Everyday Paleo Salisbury Steak from Sarah Fragoso - Everyday Paleo

6 comments:

  1. Both breakfast and dinner sound mighty fine. I'm hungry now.

    Have a fabulous day, Marti. ♥

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  2. Your grocer will probably order a case of something for you if you will take the whole case. Freeze it, no matter what it is. I have everything under the sun in my freezers. I could be marooned here for months and not starve. It might get down to things I wouldn't ever have planned to eat together but I wouldn't starve.

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  3. My Guy order's those specialty flours from King Arthur. I've not looked at the cost there, but that might be one option for you. Good luck with your recipe search and with your healthy eating plan. It's not easy sometimes.

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  4. Even for a "normal" diet - shopping in a small town is a challenge!!

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  5. T, It's worth another try. The last time I asked if they could order a case of something for me, I never heard back from them. There are actually two little stores in town and I haven't tried the other one.

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  6. Very true, Grandma K. But the upside is that I know where everything is in the store now.

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