Veggies and Cookies...what a combo!

Tip of the day: Frozen veggies are your friend.

Frozen vegetables are often cheaper than fresh and have the same if not better nutrients.  Also, they are already pre-chopped so they save work! As a side note, I know that an ideal paleo diet would be composed of only organic fruits and vegetables.  However, I don't know about you, but I don't live in an ideal world.  I live in how-far-can-I-streatch-this-dollar-so-I-can-pay-my-rent-(or-maybe-see-a-movie-once-a-month) kind of world.  So if your budget allows, go for organic.  But it is definitely better to eat non-organic fruits and vegetables instead of a cookie (ironic-ly, see below).

Meals
Breakfast: 2 scrambled omega 3 eggs with grape tomatoes.  Passion tea.
Lunch: leftover bacon-wrapped chicken w/ blackberry dipping sauce & curried broccoli (frozen then roasted)

Dinner: turkey chili and 2 cinnamon raisin cookies

Recipe: Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb ground meat (beef or turkey)

1 small chopped onion

1 T minced  garlic

 1 32oz can of crushed tomatoes
½ cup water

1 T cumin

2 ½ T chili powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1-2 cups okra (or other frozen veggie)

Directions:

Brown meat and onion.  Add garlic at the end.  In a slow cooker, add crushed tomatoes, water, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and okra.  Add meat and onions to slow cooker.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours (longer if on low).

*A note about the cookies.  I am working on the recipe.  They were good, but still need a little perfecting.  Also, I know sugar is not a part of the 30 day challenge, and the cookies use maple syrup (which I fully acknowledge the body responds to the same as granulated sugar).  However, my intent in doing the 30 day challenge is to get back on track because I've been making lots of "exceptions" lately.  My biggest areas of  non-restraint are grains and dairy.  I'm pretty good about all of the other stuff.  So, I will probably consume the occasional small amount of natural sugar during my 30 day challenge.  While this makes it not an "official" challenge, what I love about paleo is that you can modify it to fit your body's specific needs.  I know that following paleo less than 100% means less than 100% results.  For my personal goals and needs, just below 100% is fine, so I will survive if I consume a little bit of sugar.