Day Seven: Recipes, McDonald's, and Jack in the Box

Breakfast
Made my usual Salty Lemonade this morning, but added 1T of Sea salt instead of 1t. Don't make that mistake. Yuck.

Snack
Autumn trail mix.

Lunch
McDonald's for lunch, and let me tell you that all I wanted was a hamburger. A Big Mac, or a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or the new Cheddar Bacon Onion Burger. Instead I ordered a Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad, didn't use the dressing, picked out the tortilla strips, corn and black beans.

The salad was freshly prepared, as usual, but it wasn't as riveting as, say, the same salad with crispy chicken and the Southwest Salad Dressing. I feel good about my choice.

Snack
Holiday Grapes, again, and then some roasted almonds.

Dinner
Dinner we decided to celebrate our first Paleo week with Jack in the Box. I survived 1/3 of a Spicy Chicken sandwich before I took off the bread and just ate the chicken. I ordered Chili Cheese Curly Fries (a limited time offering) and survived three bites. I managed 2 sips of an Egg Nog Shake. I spent the rest of the evening feeling slightly ill and bloated.

So not worth it

Day Five: Recipes

Breakfast
Salty Lemonade again for breakfast. I cannot tell you how amazing this beverage is for breakfast. I crawl from bed bleary eyed and grumpy. I sit at the breakfast table with my salty lemonade, and by the time I'm done I'm awake, alert, and almost chipper. Incredible. I'm also not hungry for about 2 hours after.

Jolene's Salty Lemonade
16oz warm water
1T lemon or lime juice
1t Sea salt or Himalayan salt

Lunch
I ate out with a co-worker today, so I had to improvise. I got a sweet potato, grilled salmon, and grilled green beans. Are green beans really a bean? You can eat them right off the plant! I called it good enough and it was quite a tasty lunch.

Snack
Almonds and a cup of coffee.

Dinner
Paleo Shepherd's Pie from Neely at Paleo Plan.

There are so many variations on shepherd's pie it's a bit of a craps shoot as to whether you'll get what you're expecting. This shepherd's pie is delightful, robust, well spiced, and quite savory.

Modifications:

• recipe calls for onion salt, but I used onion power and then added Sea salt.
• Herbs d'Provence instead of Italian seasoning. I prefer to add my spices separately so I can tailor to my own palate.

I may never get over the noxious smell of cooking parsnips. How can anything so tasty smell so bad? The mushrooms I used weren't optimal (white beech), so I recommend sticking with something more traditional.

Dessert
Holiday grapes from Whole Foods.

The only grape juicer and sweeter than the Scarlotta, this grape has a very short harvesting period. They are shamefully expensive and worth every penny.
I am coming to understand why people on the Paleo diet don't complain about the Paleo diet.