Mother's Day 2014

Today we spent the day with my sister, Carol, and her family.  My dear sister is one of the people who hounded me about changing my diet.  Our genes lend us to more autoimmune issues than either of us care to admit.  We both have Raynaud's, we both suffer from migraines, we both have seen specialists for other autoimmune issues.  She has been a big supporter of me converting my whole family to a paleo diet.

It was so nice to be able to plan our whole meal today with no worries.  We had a wide variety of food, and not one child complained!!  We did laugh later that there was no fruit!  How did we miss fruit?!?!  Oh well, it didn't matter, we ate well for sure!!  I even ate avocado!!  

Today's menu included BBQ chicken on the grill, with my homemade paleo friendly BBQ sauce; jicama potato salad with bacon; creamy cucumbers; carrots with dressing and sesame seeds; roasted butternut squash; deviled eggs; and a mixed lettuce salad with all the trimmings.  Oh and I brought leftover chunky monkey muffins, which everyone always loves.  Maybe that was our fruit!

Christian helped make the deviled eggs.  He is not adept at peeling them yet, but he'll get there!

Creamy Cucumbers

2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2/3 cup fresh parsley leaves (I used dried because that's what I had)

In another bowl, mix: 

1/4 cup mayo (there are many paleo mayo recipes out there but this is my 20% as I tolerate it and I failed horribly at making my own.)

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Toss over cucumbers, salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe adapted from the book Well Fed.

Jicama Potato Salad

This takes prep.  24 hours of prep.  But it's not hard.  You need two medium jicama, about the size of your two fists.  Diced into 1" cubes.  You can peel it if you want but I don't.  Place cubes into a crock pot and cover with water 2" over the top of the jicama.  Add 1 tsp salt.  Cook on high 12-24 hours.

Drain and pat dry.  These can be kept in the refrigerator until ready to use.

In a bowl, mix together:

4 strips of bacon, 1/4" pcs fried (you can use leftover bacon from breakfast like I did, or cut up the bacon into pieces and quick pan fry it.)

4 hard boiled eggs, diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

1/2 medium red or yellow onion, diced

1 TBS dried chives (I used fresh)

3/4 tsp. dried mustard

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Add the jicama and mix well.

Add 3/4 cup mayo (see above for my mayo disclaimer)

Chill for about 20-30 minutes.

This recipe was also found in Well Fed.

My personal notes on this...I used 5 strips of bacon and next time, I will use more.  I also like mustard, so I may increase the dried mustard a bit.  But everything blended really well together and was yum!  Jicama does not taste "exactly" like potatoes, but it is a great substitute.  If you find that you do well with white potatoes, use them!  I do eat them on occasion, but I prefer to save those for a rare treat.  This I could make once a week all summer!