Perfect Paleo Day

When I first started transitioning into the Paleo lifestyle I desperately searched for meal plans covering breakfast, lunch, and dinner- plus snacks. There are a plethora of plans for Vegan and Mediterranean dieters, but not many for the primal eater. I thought I would start off my first food blog post with a bang and give you the perfect Paleo day. Don't get too used to this, I'm a busy working girl that sometimes just eats spoons full of almond butter :-)

Breakfast: Berry Banana Shake

Do you see product placement? I do. I swear I am not professionally associated with the Magic Bullet in any way, I just happen to have an unnatural love for kitchen gadgets and this is one of my favorites! This little thing occupies much less space than a blender and produces perfectly proportioned shakes on the go.  Here's what you do:

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1/3 cup frozen berries
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 2 tablespoons almond butter
• 1 tablespoon raw organic honey

Blend ingredients.

*This pretty pink shake packs a lot of calories (about 400). You can replace the coconut milk with water, use less almond butter, and skip the honey if you aren't going to hit the gym but still want a shake. I would go with the water thing though, because the honey makes it taste delicious and who would want less almond butter?!

Lunch: Bacon and Veggie Scramble

I really love scrambles. At this point I've tried to throw anything and everything in a skillet with some olive oil in attempts to make Paleo lunches I can re- heat at work. Lucky for you this is one of my better attempts. This scramble takes about 5 minutes to make if you already have the bacon and broccoli on hand.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 slices of bacon (organic and uncured for the hardcore primal)
• 1/2 cup spinach
• 1/2-3/4 cup steamed broccoli 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Pepper to taste

Scramble eggs in a skillet with olive oil. Chop your bacon into pieces and add it in with the spinach and steamed broccoli. Heat for 1-2 minutes. Don't let the spinach get too dark, that means it's burning and it won't taste as good. Pepper to taste.

*Ground peppercorn is delicious. I recently made the switch from grocery store brand pepper to an actual pepper grinder. It makes me feel like a classy cook and my food tastes so much better.

Snack: Dried Fruit and Almonds

I admit I do prefer almonds ground up in creamy deliciousness by the spoonful, but the raw version is so much more convenient. This is a good picker-upper mid-afternoon or pre-workout snack. Trader Joes is the place to go for bags of dried fruit and raw almonds.

Dinner: Spinach Turkey Burgers and Roasted Veggies

These turkey burgers are a great way to hide a serving of green vegetables- my partner ate them without much complaint (yes, this is how I track my successes).  Here's how you make them!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 medium onion
• 1 box frozen spinach
• 1 egg
• Pepper to taste

Defrost spinach and squeeze out any excess water. Chop onion. Mix ground turkey, onion, spinach, egg, and pepper. Mold into 6 patties and cook in skillet over medium heat. Use olive oil cooking spray or two teaspoons of olive oil to keep the burgers from sticking to the skillet.

*If you put the patties in the fridge for an hour or more after molding they stay together better while cooking!

Roasted Veggies: The veggie combo in the picture includes carrots and yellow peppers, you can use whatever you fancy. Chop vegetables, add olive oil and pepper then roast on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.