Thanks, glad it could help.  It's a great journey, going on paleo.  It
totally changed my life.  I had the physical and mental strength/energy/will
eventually to leave a broken marriage, go abroad to travel (alone!), and
eventually reconnected with my first love from high school.  We married and
couldn't be happier.
A further point about time crunches and eating/meal prep--I treat
simple-to-prepare items like Menu Gold.  It's easy to start relying too much
on the fastest/easiest to make stuff, like a can of tuna or some scrambled
eggs.  I look at those things like my emergency go-to, and reserve them for
that, instead of always eating them.  I use my most time-available days to
do a load of cooking/pre-prep (wash and put away veggies, cut up some fruit,
etc).  I shop the day or night before a "cooking" day, so I don't have to
shop and cook on same day.  I tend to cook a lot on Sunday, and some more on
Wed nights.  I make the meals that take longer on such days, and make extra
to freeze or fridge as leftovers.  I throw on a 'mess of greens'  on Sunday
that'll last for several days.  I plan on things that use leftovers then for
Mon Tues night, and then Thurs Fri nights (so can go out fri night).  Like
roasting two whole chickens on sunday, and the leftover meat can cubed, set
aside in fridge, then be a quickie reheat-saute on tues night, like a
tortilla-less fajita, with peppers, onions, and veg that I've already had
cooked, also.  Just reheat it all in a pan quickly and season, and add a
sald or fruit, depending on carb load.

I found those vacuum packing machines to be great tools!  Don't know how I
lived without one. As soon as I buy a lot of nuts, I weigh them and vaccum
seal various most-often-used amounts, and label with a sharpie pen, throw a
few in pantry, rest in outside fridge, sorted by date.  Do things a little
along like this and you'll soon find yourself with loads of stuff on hand in
freezer, like turkey burgers, cubed or strips of cooked chicken, fresh paleo
bone broth, paleo meatloaf, etc.  I make extra protein amounts of meat and
right after dinner, cut them up how I'll use them next meal, and quickly zap
leftover protien in vaccumsealed bag, and into fridge.  Don't find hardly
any quality of texture or taste degradation a few days later, when pulling
out to eat.

Another useful tool is a simple food scale, one that be zero'd (tared) out,
so you can set your own bowl or measuring cup on it and weigh things for
packaging and prep.  I use one for putting up amounts of food, and also
diving up smoothie base evenly into glass jars (Ikea has some nice ones) for
fridge/freezer.

Combine things that prepare well together.  Don't rely on a meal that needs
everything on stovetop or baked at different temps---combine a baked meat
with a steamed (stovetop use) veggie, and a pull-from counter fruit bowl or
fridge fruit).

Keep notes!!!  Best thing I ever did was keep a log of things I made.
 There's so many choices, it really helps to note how nice that leftover
roasted chicken with a touch of jar curry condiment was when combined with
the cooling taste of canteloupe.  This is the start of your own paleo
cookbook.  I got a software program (I'm a geek, so I integrated paleo into
 my geekness), and printed out my stock recipes, put each in plastic sheets
into a ring binder.  I have a section on which stores carry special things I
 buy.  It's so much easier to write what came from where down when you come
home from the store (I keep a litlte yellow legal pad on the counter where I
unload groceries),  and sit down later while watching TV, and transfer the
one or two new things to my pantry list. I might add:  "Organic canned
tomatoes- So-and-So brand-Trader Joe's" to my list.  It makes gathering up a
shopping list much easier.  I buy extra on sale of long-store staples.  Try
not to run out of things.  I shop at separate stores on separate evenings,
and take advantage of late store hours and husbands sent off with a list on
their own..

Ro







,

On Jan 30, 2008 9:55 AM, Lynnet Bannion <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:16:22 -0700, Ro <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Hi, Jessica, welcome to paleo eating!
> > After improving my health (not counting still having RSD), and losing
> 270
> > pounds through paleo eating, I can pretty much tell you with authority
> > some
> > things that worked for me.  Everyone's mileage varies, even on paleo.
> >  Especially on paleo, given it's so theory-driven.
>
> Wow, Ro, what a wonderful list!  And congratulations on losing all that
> weight.
>
> All I can add, to answer Trish's question about working all day and eating
> paleo, is to plan to bring your own lunch.  In cafeterias or fast food
> joints it will be
> nearly impossible to eat paleo.  Ro's suggestions for what to have on hand
> to avoid
> that awful after-work slump (too tired to cook) are great!
>
>        Lynnet
>
>