Real Paleo diet / Primal Blueprint living –

As many of you know, I’m a fan of the primal/paleo style of eating. While I’m not rigorous or rigid about it, I do a pretty good job of being about 90% compliant.

The theory is simple- try to eat like our caveman ancestors. This means avoiding grains and processed foods. Doing this brings the total carb load on your body into a more realistic range, about 100-150 grams a day (the average American get over 300 grams of carbs each day). The benefit? You start losing weight naturally by eating primally.

Eating this way is really not as hard to as you might think, it just takes a little planning ahead and a little getting used to…

One of the first objections that I hear from people goes like this, “But I like my pasta!” I get it. I like pasta, too. But I also like weighing 15 pounds less than I did when I was eating pasta.

Enter the spaghetti squash. I don’t know who discovered this, but if you cut these big, yellow, football shaped things in half, put them face down on a baking sheet and bake for about 40 minutes at 400, you can scoop out several cups of squash that looks and behaves just like spaghetti. Now, of course it doesn’t taste exactly the same, but the general consensus amongst all who’ve tried it is, “Close enough!”

What about the meatballs? I like to use grass fed beef, about 3 pounds so we get 2 nights out of it. I add a couple of eggs, parmesan, salt, pepper and ground up gluten-free bread crumbs (from 2 slices of gluten free bread. I mix it all up and roll into meatballs which I cook in the sauce for about an hour.

Optional addition- ratatouille veggies. Sometimes Meredith roasts up these veggies and we add them on top of the spaghetti squash (meatballs on top). It’s surprisingly good.

1 medium eggplant cut into one-inch cubes

1 large sweet onion, chopped into small pieces

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into one-inch pieces

2 medium zucchini, cut into one-inch pieces

peeled garlic cloves, halved (use as many as you like, or just add chopped garlic to taste)

1 pint cherry tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil

2 t dried thyme

salt and pepper

Combine all veggies and garlic.  Add olive oil, thyme, salt & pepper.  Put mixture into a large roasting pan.  Place in 400 degree oven on lowest rack.  Mix veggies after 20 minutes.  Mix in cherry tomatoes.  Bake another 15 minutes.