My husband & I started a new diet about a week ago: Paleo. Most say it is not a diet but a lifestyle change. We can definitely attest to that! For those of you not familiar with Paleo, the eating regimen entails the following: you have to cut out all dairy, soy, starches, legumes, refined sugars and grains. We started it due to my husband’s health issues & as a family decided to try it out to support him. I have been reading many others start Paleo to live healthier life styles & start it to help lose weight. Many CrossFit fitness programs recommend the Paleo diet as well.
You should see our pantry! There is so much room now that we got rid of all the food not allowed on the Paleo “do not eat” list. Starches, breaded products & sweets are so hard to cut out of the diet. As most of you know, I love sweets so this was a daunting task for me to stick to. I will admit I have cheated at times, but I am trying to stick to it.
So I was presented with a new challenge. How can I incorporate some sweet treats that are Paleo “legal” for us to eat without feeling guilty of straying from the diet? Baking dairy free, gluten free, soy free & not adding artificial sugar has opened up but another path of baking I had not thought of. I wanted to take a stab at chocolate chip cookies. My son calls them “tookies”, lol! I made my 1st batch & I have to say that they didn’t turn out too bad. Looking to perfect the recipe, however. These chocolate chip cookies are dairy free, gluten free, soy free & have no artificial sugars. Hard to believe they taste good, right?! But the amazing thing is they actually do taste decent & not like what by husband & I refer to as a “rubber shoe sole” (tasteless and/or dry). I definitely will be looking into more Paleo sweets to bake & maybe in the near future they will be for sale along with our other menu items. A Paleo cupcake is next on my list to experiment with! In the meantime, I might sneak in a non-Paleo cupcake every now & then:)
