One week of (almost) paleo meals
I took a picture of every meal I ate for one week. In addition to being mostly paleo (if you disregard the rice and a few potatoes), I am also avoiding eggs and seafood at the moment to test some food intolerance issues. Normally I'd eat a plenty of those.
Maybe the pictures can convince you that even though this diet is fairly restrictive, it does not feel limited or depriving. Maybe the pictures can give you some inspiration.
You only need modest cooking skills to eat like this. You only need basic kitchen equipment.
The pictures are in no particular order. I don't have regular meal times anyway.
Oh, I should warn you that I don't really know how to operate a camera.
You can discuss this article on reddit.
Strip steak with boiled kale, sweet potatoes and a small eddo. Watermelon for desert.
Contrary to the paleo dieter stereotype, I rarely eat steak. Beef that's both good and cheap is difficult to come across where I live. But I found a nice piece of grass-fed strip steak on sale the same day I started this picture series, and could not resist.
Watermelon has acquired a reputation as an evil fructose bomb in paleo circles, even if it has no more fructose per unit of weight than other fruit like e. g. oranges or blueberries. Just don't eat a whole melon in one sitting.
Pork chop with boiled kale, a carrot, and eddo with cilantro.
Another rare find, high-quality eddo. I discovered by accident that eddo tastes really good with cilantro.
Banana, avocados and basmati rice with home-made kimchi.
I make my own kimchi, ignorant westerner style. It may or may not be authentic, but it is amazingly tasty. Probably healthy, too. I got the basic recipe from Sandor Ellix Katz' Wild Fermentation.
Pork chop with grilled cauliflower, eddo and a a carrot.
Another pork chop. The cauliflower is grilled (or broiled, technically).
Strip steak with eddo and kimchi with a carrot.
Continuing work on that steak. Did I mention that kimchi is delicious? I think I did.
Rice with kimchi and a carrot.
Kimchi makes even white rice exciting.
Bilberries from the freezer and freshly roasted macadamia nuts.
A geographically unlikely combo. Freshly roasted macadamia nuts are dangerously good, and I can easily put away 1000 Cal or more of those without noticing.
Steak with a boiled sweet potato and cos lettuce.
A couple of years ago, mini cos lettuces with consistent good quality year round showed up in all the local shops. I must have eaten hundreds of the things.
Guacamole with kale chips and carrot for dipping.
When I grew up, "guacamole" was a greenish powder you mixed with sour cream to make potato chip dip. It never occured to me that a person might actually want to make that stuff from scratch. Recently, the local shops started filling up with good, cheap avocados from Peru, and I decided to give it a go. I'm really happy I did, because this stuff is brilliant!
In other news, I'm moving out from underneath the rock.
I use Alton Brown's recipe.
Yet more steak, with rice, kimchi and a carrot. Plums for dessert.
Did you know that the sugar in plums is mostly glucose?
Grilled bell peppers with Kalamata olives and oil.
My current favourite snack. Cut up the bell peppers, put them under a searing broiler until the skin starts to blacken, peel and discard the charred skin, and mix the bell pepper with good black olives and plenty of olive oil.
Steak with cos lettuce and a banana.
The seventies were a golden age for crockery.
Reindeer stew with plums for dessert.
The stew is based on sauteed onions and carrots, with various root and leaf vegetables. The fluid is mostly beef bone broth, with some water and red wine. The meat is from relatively cheap cuts sold by local reindeer herders.
Yet more steak, with kale, a sweet potato and a plum.
The steak is still good.
Roasted macadamia nuts and watermelon.
Macadamia nuts are very easily burnt. Watch the oven.
Reindeer stew with watermelon for desert.
Last watermelon of the season.
Reindeer stew and zucchini salad.
The zucchini ribbon salad is Alton Brown's recipe. The recipe uses a lot of salt, so it's not technically paleo I guess.
Steak, white rice, a carrot and a cos lettuce plant.
Finally done with that steak!
Venison with sweet potato oven fries, broccoli and Morello cherries.
The last piece of venison from my family's last harrytur. Bizarrely, venison shipped around half the world from New Zealand to Sweden is 4 times cheaper than venison shot 50 meters from my apartment. That's what I get for living in the last soviet state.
Leftovers, part I.
Cleaning out the fridge.
Leftovers, part II.
Banana and avocado is my go-to quick snack. Apparently, some people are grossed out by the consistency. There's a big lump of coconut oil by the avocados as well.
Fried beef liver with home-made sauerkraut, potatoes and grilled cauliflower
Pork heart stew and a banana
Pork heart is a great starting point for offal newbies. It's cheap, has a mild, meaty flavour, and a tender texture.