Hi everyone,

Hope you all sur­vived that nasty day of weather yes­ter­day. Yuck. I had to lit­er­ally wring out my socks at the end of the day, after tredg­ing through the slush and snow down­town. Is spring ever going to come???

Today, I would like to talk to you a bit about the Paleo Diet and what I’ve recently learned about it. What exactly is the paleo way of eat­ing, you might ask? Well, to put it sim­ply, it’s return­ing back to the diet of the cave­man; one that con­sists solely of lean pro­tein, eggs, veg­eta­bles, nuts (in mod­er­a­tion), seeds and fruit (again, in mod­er­a­tion). Dairy, grains, legumes and sugar (for the most part) are strictly forbidden.

For most of us, this diet seems pretty extreme and restric­tive and quite hon­estly, when I first started to read about it I was ready to dis­miss it as just another fad diet. How­ever, after doing some fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion and prac­tic­ing it myself for the last week or so, I have to admit, I’ve never felt bet­ter. I feel more ener­getic; my body feels lighter and believe it or not, I’m sleep­ing more soundly.. Grains and dairy were never a big part of my diet, how­ever, I did enjoy oat­meal, quinoa, chick­peas and of course, peanut but­ter quite reguIarly.

I can’t say that I don’t miss my big bowl of oats because I do, but I’ve dis­cov­ered a few yummy alter­na­tives to enjoy in its place, which I’d like to share with all of you.

Kabocha or But­ter­cup Squash

Toss wedges with 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pep­per and roast in 425 degree oven for about 40 – 45 min­utes or until ten­der and slightly charred. Flip halfway through cooking.

Enjoy with a sprin­kle of cin­na­mon, driz­zle of maple syrup or just on its own. I had it for break­fast yes­ter­day with maple syrup and it was delicious!

I also made these yummy paleo-​friendly banana pan­cakes. My daugh­ter gave them two thumbs up!

All you’ll need is:

1 ripe banana

1 egg

1 Tbsp chia seeds

¹⁄₄ tsp bak­ing powder

¹⁄₄ tsp pure vanila extract

dash of cinnamon

salt

Pre­heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mash the banana until smooth and add the egg and chia seeds. Stir well to combine.

Add salt, cin­na­mon and vanilla extract.

Line a bak­ing pan with parch­ment paper and care­fully pour out 4 pancakes.

Place on mid­dle rack and bake 15 min­utes. Flip and bake for an addi­tional 5 – 7 minutes.

Enjoy with maple syrup, almond or peanut butter.