Paleo Week One

First week on the Paleo diet went great!  I am not starving on this diet which is surprising to me.  Drinking a lot of water helps and i'm eating foods that are filling and stay with me longer.  I have noticed that my stomach has shrunk and i'm down 3.6 lbs!!  I'm loving Paleo and loving the results so far!

New Paleo recipes I tried this week--experimented with sweet potatoes :)

Poblano Roasted Sweet Potato

From Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook by Sarah Fragoso

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp black pepper

5 cups peeled and diced sweet potatoes

1 poblano pepper, seeds removed and diced

4-5 garlic cloves minced

1. Preheat your oven to 400F

2. Melt the coconut oil and in a small bowl whisk the spices and oil together

3. In a large mixing bowl add the diced sweet potatoes, minced poblano pepper, and minced garlic

4. Pour the oil and spice mixture over the potatoes and stir well until all the sweet potatoes are coated

5. Pour the sweet potatoes into a large glass baking dish and roast for 25-30 minutes or until the potatoes start to brown and are soft all the way through, stirring halfway through the cooking time.

Makes 5 servings- 28 total WW points

I served mine with garlic balsamic pork chops and a salad.

This was delicious and I will definitely be making this again!

Pork chop- 3.5 oz

Sweet potatoes

Salad 

Total of 11 WW points

I also made sweet potato pancakes and used them instead of a bun with a burger.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

From Practical Paleo Cookbook by Diane Sanfilippo

Coconut oil to pan-fry in

3 eggs

2 tsp coconut flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups shredded sweet potatoes (using a food processor with a shredding disc is ideal)

1. Beat the eggs with the coconut flour and spices.  Mix in the shredded sweet potatoes until well combined

2. Using a skillet over medium heat with coconut oil coating the pan and filling it up about 1/8" for shallow pan frying

3. Spoon the mixture into the pan in desired sized "cakes"  I made mine roughly 4' in diameter and cooked them two at a time but you can make smaller ones and load up a pan with 4 at a time.

4. Serve warm or at room temperature- along or with bacon and eggs- or use as a bun with a hamburger patty.  Yum

Sweet potato pancakes- 2

Jalapeno burger

Salad

Total of ~17 WW points

These sweet potato pancakes had great flavors!  They look very strange when you first put them in the pan, but hold together better than I thought.  Next time I will make them flatter and use less oil- this will cut down on the WW points for each pancake.  I liked them so much, I had one for breakfast the next morning :)

Try Paleo, it works!  I feel great and am so glad I started eating a Paleo diet.