Mmmm Paleo-licious!

So Becca decided that she wanted to try eating strict paleo as of December 1st (today) and stick with it until Christmas. Me being the amazing girlfriend I am haha – and considering how much easier it is to share food and because I know I should eat paleo – I decided to jump back on the paleo wagon with her. Of course, this means I need to dig deep inside myself and find the will power to pass by the countless bags of delectable looking christmas chocolates in the grocery store aisles, resist the urge to drink eggnog by the carton (and spike it with baileys lol), and even fore-go my daily advent calendar chocolates – which, by the way, we’ve decided we’re both going to eat all 25 chocolates on Christmas day :-) Will it be worth it? I think so. I’ve done paleo before and I noticed an improvement in my overall well-being, and with how low my energy levels have been and how much my joints have been bothering me lately, I could use a little health boost. So in honor of starting fresh, I’m posting a couple “Paleo-licious” recipes – try them, you’ll like them!

BBQ Pork Ribs

We just had these for dinner tonight – yummmy!! We were craving “bad” food and the BBQ sauce on these babies hit the spot. The secret? Organicville’s agave nectar sweetened BBQ sauce, which can be found in Hannaford’s health food section or at the Co-op. Organicville makes other sauces too, but check the ingredients, the BBQ sauce checks out fine, but the teriyaki sauce, sadly, doesn’t make the cut :-( Another note of caution – ribs can be an iffy paleo meat because they can be very fatty, so when you get your ribs, make sure they’re as lean as you can get them.

Organicville Original BBQ Sauce

For this we got a nice lean 4.5 lb rack of pork spare ribs, which we had to cut in half to fit into two baking dishes. Crank your oven up to 350 degrees, brush a coat of sauce on the ribs, and throw them in the oven, preferably on the middle or lower rack. Let them cook for about 1 hour, then take them out and brush another coat of sauce on. Let them cook for another 30-45 minutes until the meat is tender and white all the way through (no pink). Grab a handful of napkins and dig in!

 

Fudge Babies!!

1 cup walnuts
1 and 1/3 cups pitted dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I sometimes add an extra teaspoon)
3-4 tablespoons cocoa powder depending on how chocolatey you want the balls to be

Throw all the ingredients into a food processor, bullet, ninja etc, and blend. Then roll the dough into bite-size balls of yumminess! You can also form them into brownie-like bars, but once they’re formed into whatever shape you desire, they’re ready to eat! Refrigerate them to keep. I actually like to let them set in the fridge for a bit before I eat them :-)