I’ve been on a coleslaw kick for quite a while now.  It’s just a great salad to have on hand for a fast vegetable side for lunch, dinner, snacks or what the heck, even breakfast.  It’s easy to make, the flavors deepen and improve on Days 2 and 3 (if it lasts until Day 3!) It’s easy to get hooked on coleslaw.  Maybe we should call it cabbage crack.

A Chopped Greek Salad for Lunch

November 7th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (6 Comments)

Since reading Cholesterol Clarity, I’ve been rocking out with the Low Carb/High Fat way of eating.  (I’ve been trying to do this for a nearly year now and have finally figured it out… more details to come in an upcoming post.)  I found my way to this salad when I was looking to swap my usual yogurt and fruit combo with something a little lower in sugar and carbs.

Let me cut right to the chase: I’m still a little shocked at how much I love this salad.  This is officially My New Favorite Lunch, I’ve eaten more days in a row than I can count.

Caveman Fajitas

October 10th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (5 Comments)

Even though I’m not participating in a 40 Day Paleo Challenge, I’m still cooking for someone who is – so for the time being, I’m making dinner like any good cave woman would.

Namely, low-carb/grain free chicken fajitas.  Just call me Wilma Flintstone.

Paleo Chicken Fajitas

Lettuce as a our tortilla was the only thing I did differently to make these chicken fajitas Paleo friendly.  You could obviously use a regular flour tortilla here in place of lettuce if that’s what floats your boat.  (And if you can float a boat with flour tortillas, you must tell me and we will alert the National Academy of Physics!  Or whoever is in charge of gravity, momentum, centrifugal force, etc, etc.)

I’ve had a number of conversations with some friends and family about breakfast recently, and so I decided to put together a collection of morning food photos from the past few months.  Once upon a time I ate overnight oats for breakfast every day!  As I’ve mentioned more than once lately, I’m going the grain free route most of the time and don’t even miss my beloved oats, cold cereal or cinnamon raisin Ezekiel toast with almond butter and banana.

(This [sorta scary] blog post is a good but lengthy explanation of why I’ve chosen to follow a mostly grain free lifestyle.  The Paleo Solution, Wheat Belly and The Primal Blueprint are loaded with convincing info and studies too.)

This is one of the current meals in my breakfast rotation.  I call it a “Breakfast Bowl” because it’s not cereal or oats, it’s just a bowl full of stuff.  And it’s for breakfast.

Today it was a Strawberry Coconut Banana Chia Breakfast Bowl, but your choice of toppings/adjectives is completely up to you.

Tailor this to suit your own tastes –  there are lot of ways to make it a little different each morning too.  Today’s chia breakfast bowl base:

Coconut Chia Breakfast Bowl

(I usually estimate ingredients but measured today for the sake of this post.)

I’ve always been curious about straining regular yogurt to make my own Greek yogurt. I prefer Greek yogurt to regular yogurt these days – it’s thicker, it’s creamier.  It’s got more protein and fewer carbs compared to regular yogurt.  It’s a great sub for sour cream too.  (Hello, homemade burrito bowls!)

Plain and simple – I love (plain and simple) Greek yogurt.

With a quick glance at the numbers in the dairy section, I guessed I could save some money if I made Greek yogurt at home by straining it myself.  Of the two brands of yogurt I buy, the price breakdown looks like this:

New Groceries

January 8th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (12 Comments)

I rarely buy books. I much prefer to spend my money on late fees at the library. I did buy Deep Nutrition because it’s not in our library system and b.) I need more than 3 weeks to get through most books these days. (I can read Goodnight Moon in about 3 minutes flat though. Just saying.)

When I bought Deep Nutrition, I also bought The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth because hello, free supersaver shipping! And b.) I get this dorky smile on my face whenever I read the myriad of awesome things that good foods can do for our bodies.

No Bake Grain Free Granola

December 30th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (4 Comments)

I make Lisa’s peanut butter coconut oil cups all the time, they have become a fast favorite around here. (Have you tried these yet?  You need to get on it!) Once they’re made, they are a quick, easy, satisfying snack – I love to pop one before a run (sort of like a direct fuel bite a la Brendan Brazier from Thrive) and we often find ourselves sneaking in to the freezer for one (or two!) after dinner.

Attack of the Snacks

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (14 Comments)

Once upon a time I ate one snack a day, usually between lunch and dinner. But now at nearly 7 months pregnant, I’ve stopped counting how many snacks I eat everyday. I need more fingers if I want to keep track.

Today I’m in the mood to hand out some awards to a few of my most favorite snacks in recent weeks. Snickity snacks that are awesome if you eat 1 or 11 snacks a day. Snacks that please the palate whether you’re gestating or not. I think this paragraph needs the word “snack” in it one more time, don’t you? Snack. OK, that’s two more times. Snack.

Berry Simple

October 25th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (5 Comments)

I’m trying to make peace with the fact that early morning outdoor exercise is soon to be a relegated to the weekends.

Pink Knit Hat and Gloves

For the first time since early spring I busted out the pink hat (you know, the hat I knit myself) and gloves for a morning walk/run today. More walking than running this morning, sometimes it nice to simply walk.

It’s also nice (and necessary) to remember that no matter how freezing it is out there, you DO warm up once you get moving! If anything, the cold is motivation to pick up the pace in the beginning. Knowing how good that early morning air and sunshine will feel on your skin is enough to make it worth it to drag myself out from under the covers.