6 Paleo recipes (and snacks) even my kids will eat

About two weeks ago my husband and I started doing the Paleo Diet.  The "caveman diet" as it's often referred, cuts out grains, legumes, dairy products, refined salt, refined sugar, and processed oils and focuses on veggies, fruits, fish, proteins, seeds and nuts.

I'm not a big dieter, but my husband has tried various things before - including being a vegetarian.  If there's one thing I've learned from his diet fads, it's that it's a major PIA to cook for a family when one person is on a diet.  When the Mr. was doing no meat I felt like I was cooking 4 different meals....something for him, a version for me and something that would look and taste yummy enough for a picky 2 and 4 year old to eat.

That's part of the reason why this time I'm also doing the same diet.  Obviously, my kids are not on a diet (so don't even go there) - they're eating plenty of bread and dairy (and fruit snacks) - but I don't consider it a bad thing for me to limit their carbs and processed foods during the one meal where we all sit down to eat - dinner. 

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with all of us that we've actually managed to eat the same thing for more than one night...gasp it's been like three!  Even before the diet, it was a rarity that we'd all eat the same thing - usually there was a hotdog, a chicken nugget or a grilled cheese somewhere on the menu.  To my pleasant surprise, it didn't take too much any convincing to get my kids to eat coconut chicken and sweet potatoes.  They also enjoyed the spiced chicken with pineapple and peach puree, and couldn't get enough chicken with rosemary and shallots.   BFD (Breakfast for Dinner) is big in my house so there's an easy one because my whole gang is big fans of eggs and bacon and a side of fruit or sweet potato hash browns.  The kids even ate the paleo banana pancakes with agave nectar (we subbed that out for syrup more than a year ago).   Salsa chicken  and/or tacos (jar of salsa + taco seasoning + chicken breasts or ground meat + 8 hours in the crockpot) are another big one...we just eat the filling or put it on a lettuce wrap or over a salad instead of putting it on a taco shell or tortilla. 

One of the best tricks I've found is getting the kids involved in the cooking process.  I have found that they get way more excited to eat something when they've actually had their hands in there cracking the eggs or mixing something.

And I've also found my little guys sneaking my paleo snacks....apple slices with almond butter, grapes, paleo crunch (they really like the apple pie flavor), dried apricots, dates, lara bars, and raisins seem to be popular.  Of course, the most popular with the kiddos was the paleo brownies.

If you plan to do Paleo, you will need to sub out some of your staple pantry items including flour and oil.  Almond and coconut flour are pretty big, as is unsweetened coconut.  If you have a sweet tooth like me, be sure to pick up some cocoa powder, too. 

I've put together a Paleo staples shopping list on Amazon to make it easy for you to get started if you're interested in trying out the diet or at least limiting carbs and processed sugars.