Big Changes

I would like to apologize for not updating this blog for a few months. My family and I have had some really big changes in our personal and professional lives which has taken my full attention. We moved into a new house several hours away from our previous home and have some plans to further our education. Both of which took a lot of planning and created a lot of stress. I will do my best to update the blog a few more times this year, then will probably only post once every month or every other month once January gets here. My husband and I will be returning to college full time, so between raising our daughter, writing papers, and taking exams, I am not certain of the amount of time I will have left to devote to this. There are a lot of things we're changing to make things more simple, so I will be sure to share those tips and experiences with you!

Please continue to check back as I do plan on writing a new post soon!

Cheers,

Deedee

What is this thing called Paleo that people keep talking about?

In a nut shell, it's all about eating food we have evolved to eat. This means that practitioners try to only include foods and food practices that our ancestors during the Paleolithic Eras used.  The Lower Paleolithic Era began roughly 2.5 million years ago and went through changes known as Middle and Upper Paleolithic Eras. I won't go into a ton of anthropological detail about these different cultural shifts, but there is a major shift from being hunter-gatherer societies to agriculturally bound societies. This major shift is something I do need to spend a little amount of time on as it defines why we, as a human collective, aren't thriving as much as we could. 

Out of the Cave and into the Fields

As soon as our populations increased and we became less nomadic, we had to figure out a way for our tribes to survive. I don't blame our ancestors for becoming farmers and adopting an agrarian, sedentary lifestyle. When I first came across the Paleo lifestyle I was  confused at how a group of intelligent people could suddenly throw away such a healthy way of living for one based on crops which yielded much less nutrition.

EXCITING NEW UPDATES TO THE BLOG!

Something's NEW! 

I have updated the blog to make it easier for you to find recipes and other information must faster than before. Now there are separate tabs for Soups and Stews, Gluten Free Alternatives, Casseroles and Baked Meals, and Snacks and Desserts as opposed to the precious single "Recipes" tab. This should also make it easier to you to post a question or comment. I hope you like the less complicated, more efficient function to the blog! 

Cheers!

-Deedee

How to be the very best parent in the universe:

Did I get your attention? Good! 

Random fact: Did you know that studies have shown drunk driving to be equal to driving while exhausted? It's true! When a person is exhausted their brains just don't function as well as it should. Incoherence is a common issue in my house as I am sure it is or has been at some point in your house. Or, maybe you can't remember...

Reduce, Reuse, Reuse, Reuse, Upcycle, and Sometimes Recycle

Reduce, REUSE, REUSE, REUSE, Upcycle, and Sometimes Recycle

For the past few months, my husband and I have been trying to reduce the amount of consuming we seem to do. While I feel responsible for the new material things I bring into the house, this habit is a huge part of our culture and it seems strange to not want. I have to be honest, I've been very challenged with this seemingly simple task. You might be saying, 'It's easy! Just don't buy anything new!'. But it's not quite as simple as that. 

CSA's and Buying Locally

Start a Revolution: Why Joining a CSA and Only Buying Local Meat and Produce is Integral in Saving American Farms and Communities

What's a CSA, you ask? The basic definition is this: a community of supporters who purchase "shares" in a local farm that then grows food specifically for those "shareholders". When you join a CSA you're doing three VERY important things:

1) Allowing the local farmer to continue growing food for members of the community.
2) Cutting out the middleman grocery chain by getting your food directly from the source.
3) Benefiting from natural, healthy, usually organic, produce and other items that don't contain harmful preservatives and other chemicals. 

Need more reasons to consider joining a CSA? Here's the more detailed rundown:

Bottled Water: Just Say "NO!!!"

Bottled Water: The good, the bad... oh wait... there is no "good" (unless maybe in a disaster relief situations)

Wow.. I just got done watching a clever documentary about bottled water and the companies that package and sell bottled water called "Tapped" (a link can be found under the "resources" and "recommended" links on my homepage). I mean, I knew bottled water was terrible for the environment. But honestly, the only thing I really knew was that the plastic container sat in landfills for something like a thousand years. There was so much I had to learn.