Paleo-ish and Failing

I woke up this morning and decided going Paleo was a good idea. Until I went to work and realized it wasn't going to work out.

Fred brought cupcakes. Filled with cream cheese. I had two. :(

But I only succumbed to weakness because you can't just wake up and go Paleo, you need to prepare for it. For those of you who don't know, the Paleo Diet is basically caveman stuff, a hunter-gatherer diet free of grains, legumes, dairy, refined sugar, refined salt, and processed oils (processed anything, really). I'm told the cupcake craving goes away after three days or so... obviously I was confronted with cupcakes too soon into my experiment.

I've always been interested in the idea of eating foods that have not been processed to death, which is why certain aspects of Paleo make sense to me... no cheese, I get that (as sad as I may be, I get it) but no grains? No sir. I don't see anything wrong with a little farro or quinoa in my life (cavemen should have BEEN so lucky). 

So I'll be giving Paleo-ish a try... buying into the stuff I think sounds right (getting rid of processed/refined things) and rejecting what I think sounds cray-zeh (hello whole grains and legumes!). Whatevs, I do what I want!

This is the best I could do on such short notice. 

I gathered (points for literally hunting/gathering!) two beets out of my manmade garden bed (I'd be an awesome caveman) and topped a piece of salmon with beet greens and slices of the golden beets, olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. 

And then those cupcakes happened. :/ But after work, I went to go stock up on more vegetables and lean meats/fish so I'm actually prepared for more than one meal. 

I'm making a butternut squash soup tomorrow! I'm pretty excited about this. I've always tried to avoid using anything too terrible for you when cooking, but I'm hoping this new thing will be a neat way to find different (more natural) ways to add flavor to recipes. 

I'm thinking of roasting the squash and caramelizing the onions for the soup tomorrow instead of microwaving the squash and drowning it all in a chicken stock that has "chicken flavor" listed as an ingredient, something I usually do. 

Maybe it won't last, I can forsee it being difficult to sustain if you can't find the time to shop/plan/prepare everything, but we'll see!