OAMM blog partners Stacy and Matt of Paleo Parents are truly an inspiring couple!
Their transformation is one you NEED to see. They and their children overcame a host of health problems – obesity, allergies, behavioral and learning issues, and more – when they made the switch to paleo five years ago. They now have written several books, they are highly involved in the paleo community educating others, and even their children are promoting their healthy lifestyle. Their site is full of resources for those who don’t just want to go on another crash diet, but want to nourish themselves and those they love. They even have a Costco grocery list for the paleo family! You will definitely want to check out this OAMM review by Paleo Parents staffer Crystal.
Original: Insanely Awesome Meatloaf (Paleo, Whole30, GFDF)
Freezable: Insanely Awesome Meatloaf (log in required)
Original: N’Oatmeal Cookies (Paleo, GFDF, Whole Foods, Kid-Friendly)
Freezable: N’Oatmeal Cookies (log in required)
Additional recipes from Paleo Parents include:
- Mini Corn Dog Muffins (original, freezable)
- Autumn Breakfast Cake (original, freezable)
- Organ Meat Pie (original, freezable)
- Pankoconut Fish Sticks (original, freezable)
- 50/50 Bacon Burgers (original, freezable)
I (Kim) have been moved to tears reading some of their posts, like this one on how going paleo gave them back their life and this one about some of the criticism they have faced together as a couple. They have worked hard, and they are enjoying the benefits. You won’t regret getting to know these two a little better through Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, where you will find more kid-friendly, paleo goodness and encouragement in living the paleo lifestyle.
How long have you been blogging about food?
We changed our diet to a paleo diet in 2010, and started a blog very soon after. We just celebrated our fifth anniversary of paleo!
Have you always loved cooking, or was it a skill that you learned to love? Who taught you to cook?
Matt never ever cooked until he started staying at home in 2008. He learned slowly over time, starting with meal services like Let’s Dish, then moving on to more complicated meals from scratch, to writing a blog and cookbook. Matt is essentially self-taught, save for a couple of cooking classes along the way.
What is your favorite meal to serve to family and friends? What is your favorite treat to make for yourself?
On our Strongman Fridays when we invite all our friends to come work out in our home gym, the favorite meal we serve seems to be The Domestic Man’s Japchae. On other occasions, we tend to make large smoked pork shoulders, which we write about in Beyond Bacon. We often treat ourselves with simple gummy snacks or The Best Brownies from Beyond Bacon on special occasions.
What is your favorite kitchen tool or gadget? Tell us a little about how you fell in love with it and how you use it in your kitchen.
Our favorite tool to use is a CO2 charged whipped cream canister made by iSi. Stacy loved whipped cream in a can and felt that hand-whipped cream just didn’t cut it. She got the canister for Mother’s Day a few years back and loves to use it to top desserts and waffles. It can even be used for coconut cream!
When you are meal planning or looking for new recipes, what kind of guidelines do you follow for choosing them? Or what inspires you in the kitchen?
When searching for new recipes, we try to pick things that are completely novel to us. We don’t want to prepare something that we’ve already done before, so we pick the idea that we never would have thought of. If we don’t have any idea how someone came up with something, that’s probably a good sign.
What items are ALWAYS on your grocery list? What items will you NEVER put on your grocery list?
We eat a lot of salad, Stacy especially, so we always buy salad each time we’re out. For the boys, we’re constantly buying bananas. And the whole family runs through eggs so often, we always seemed to be buying entire cases of them.
We haven’t bought a single bean in about five years now – neither dried, nor fresh nor canned, and we don’t expect we ever will again.
Tell us the best kitchen tip or trick that you’ve ever discovered.
Making good stock is the base of so much of our cooking, so figuring out and perfecting that technique is the thing we’re most proud of. And while we shared about that process in a blog post here, our biggest tip is to make the most nutrient dense broth possible by using bones that have more collagen and cartilage. That means joints! Knuckles, feet, backs, necks and heads are ideal for this. In fact, you’ll often find packages containing chicken feet, backs, and head just for this purpose.
What do you like to do when you aren’t cooking or blogging?
Stacy is a competitive Strongman athlete while Matt loves to read comic books.
Have you ever freezer cooked? Share some of your favorite recipes or tips.
We don’t do much freezer cooking ourselves, though Matt did do it for Stacy’s grandfather for over a year. When we do it, it’s usually to leave for babysitters. In those cases, our go to recipe is Fool’s Gold Nuggets from Eat Like a Dinosaur.