Paleo Girl

I've been reading up on the Paleo diet, mainly through the interesting blogs Free the Animal and Mark's Daily Apple. I'm especially interesting in light of our friend Rob revealing he'd lost 60 lbs following the South Beach diet, which has a lot (mainly no refined carbs) in common with the Paleo diet.

Tonight, it occurred to me maybe my diet guru could come from a closer, unexpected source.

Our six-year old girl, Olivia, mainly subsides on chicken nuggets. We're trying to get her off of the kid chow and into a more eclectic mode, figuring even if the alternatives aren't ultra-healthy, getting her used to variety is more important than any specific nutritional goals right now. So tonight, the parents had spaghetti carbonara with bacon and a lovely green salad. Olivia saw the carbonara and requested its distant cousin, ramen, for her dinner. We made it but it turns out of the two we have in stock, "red" ramen (beef) and "orange" ramen (chicken), she indulges in the orange variety exclusively. As we had only red ramen and are clueless parents, the ramen was red, and she rejected it.

Along with the ramen were several sliced strawberries. Also on the table were extra slices of bacon left over from creating the carbonara. Now, bacon is a provision for which olivia has great fondness. In no time Olivia ate all of the strawberries and all of the bacon, four pieces in total. The perfect Paleo dinner. Mark Sisson would be proud. And her obstinance gives me something to think about, too- what are we doing eating so many carbs at this dinner when Abbey are I were so knocked out about Rob's accomplishment, vowing to do something similar in the new year to shed our extra inches?

Food for thought...

But the carbonara, by the way... was awesome.

In Praise of Electric Skillets

Thanks to Lowe's inept flooring department, we are heading into week four of our kitchen reflooring saga. We selected our tile (Armstrong Excelon) and placed our order. Assured it would arrive in the middle of the following week, we spent the better part of three days ripping the existing layers of flooring out of our kitchen- four layers of linoleum. The eldest layer was rather handsome, a mid-century pattern with stars and gold flecks. The three most recent, including what was in evidence when we moved in, were ugly as sin.

The week came and went, and we were informed there would be a delay. Fine. When it did come in, we took the two boxes home and only found when they were opened that they ordered the wrong color. So, I hauled it back in and reordered. That is where things stand, four weeks later.

All of the kitchen appliances were moved into the dining room. As we have an electric oven with a 220 plug, it's out of commission. We're making due with a crock pot, toaster, microwave and a vintage electric skillet. The skillet has performed admirably; we've used it practically every day this month, and for the most amazing things: boiling corn and pasta, poaching eggs, frying falafel, browning roasts, popping popcorn(!), and perhaps its most successful and most appropriate use, serving as a hotpot for Sukiyaki.

This morning, I've fried a rasher of bacon, and near the end, fried eggs sunny side up in the grease. Not exactly health food, but incredibly satisfying! Even if I did break some of the yolks.