Paleo Prep

******************So I know I've talked a lot about prepping being one of the cornerstones for making this whole Paleo thing work! But I realized today that it might be helpful to some if I went into a little more detail. So...

Went to Henry's today and did a quick run through to pick up some essentials. I buy tons of stuff at Costco also, so this isn't all my veggies for the week, but about half. It took about an hour to prep it all once I got home. My BIGGEST tip to you would be to try and do your grocery runs when you have an hour or so after to spend chopping. I love to cook. I love to chop. It means nothing to me to spend 20 minutes making lunch. But I've learned the hard way that when I'm tired - walking to the outside fridge to get that entire head of cauliflower...knowing I'm going to have to get the plastic off and cut the damn thing. Ugh - too much! I'll grab whatever happens to be in the fridge and fast (usually raw asparagus or cherry tomatoes)...yeah, still Paleo...still veggies...still healthy. But we're also going for variety here for numerous reasons. And honestly, woman can not live on asparagus alone. It would make eating boring...and that's sacrilegious! And I know that if I shove everything in my fridge when I get home from the store, it's chances of staying right in there, wholly intact, increases tenfold! I will even leave the stuff on the counter for an hour or two until I can get to it, before putting it away unprepped! So, if at all possible, prep immediately upon unpacking!

******************Now first thing I do is make my greens for the week. Those are the numero uno veggie of any good Paleo diet. I try to eat them with every meal - and it's really not hard, so I guess it's really not 'trying'. : -) I saute them with a bunch of other veggies with my eggs in the morning. It's the basis for my lunch salad. At dinner, it usually is sauted with onions to make a nice cushy bed for whatever animal fell to my spear that day or gets thrown willy-nilly into the chili pot. So lots and lots of greens!

******************Today I bought red chard, dandelion greens, kale, collard greens, and napa cabbage. Got home, chopped them all up, and mixed them all together with a head of cilantro just for good measure. Now I know that it looks like a huge pile...but ...it condenses nicely when packaged up; if you're eating as much of it as you should, it won't be around that long; it takes about ten minutes to do and is cheaper than buying those pre-packaged bags that were cut days ago; and - most importantly - you control what goes in them. You'd be hard pressed to find a salad mix as nutriently dense as this one is! And leave those beautiful stalks and stems on when you chop them. You won't notice them in your salad, or if you do, it'll be like celery! And another helpful hint...any veggie that's a 'heavy breather' needs to have a paper towel thrown in the bag with it to absorb the excess moisture, which will keep it fresher, longer. I'm actually a huge fan of Tupperware's FridgeSmart storage system - NOTHING seems to go bad in those things! But right now I'm prepping so much - that even with two fridges, I wouldn't have room for that many containers. The bags make it easy to stack and fits lot in a small space.

******************After the greens, I prepped the rest of the stuff I'd bought. That included celery, radishes, peppers, red cabbage, red onions, 4 heads of cauliflower, a second head of napa cabbage all by itself, Italian parsley, portabello mushrooms, and jicama. It really is amazing how much more likely I am to grab that celery or a radish if they've already been topped and tailed and put in a bag! Just this hour of prep will save me numerous hours over the coming week! But bear in mind that some veggies don't respond well to pre-prepping. Tomatoes, zuchinni, squash, cucumbers...all lose a little something when left to sit. And if everything else is prepped, it's not that bad to just chop one of two things!

Hope that's a bit more helpful that just telling you to prep! Now, go eat those greens!