Is There an Elephant in the Paleo Room? Desserts, treats, and snacks

For those of you who subscribe to our companion FaceBook page, I posted a vent the other day in which I voiced my frustration over the amount of Paleo-ified desserts being shown on other Paleo/Primal/Clean-eating lifestyle blogs.  I thought I'd go a little more in-depth with my thought here, and I hope you will bare with me.

Now, I love pretty pictures as much as the next person. And as my belly will attest, I love sweets. I am of the mind, and most Paleo* Food bloggers probably are too, that if you are going to eat sweets, swap them out for clean-food sweets, ie: getting rid of white flour in favor of coconut or almond flour, etc. Use unsweetened chocolate and honey, or maple syrup, or dates pulverized into a paste.

I get it. I even choose to practice that philosophy of making cleaner, high GI treats for myself when I need a "sugar" fix. I'm not perfect at it, but I try. I make the effort.

But it's the sheer volume of posts and pictures of scrumptious looking treats that's killing me!

I can't be alone in this. If you subscribe to as many Paleo food blogger's FB pages as I do, your news feed is loaded with Paleo Donuts, Paleo Muffins, Paleo Sweets galore!

Why do they do this to me???? Is it because the sweet stuff draws people into their blog, generating ad revenue and spiking their pageviews?  Is this just sour grapes on my part?

I don't think so. I go looking for specific recipes a lot of the time, usually for meal idea, and I can look at a recipe index of most Clean Eating food blogs, and the dessert and snack links are usually longer than the actual meal ideas.

Am I the only one bitching about this?


*When I say "Paleo," I am referring to most clean-eating food blogs out there. Paleo is my personal catch-all phrase for Primal, Gluten-Free, Clean-Eating, yadda yadda.  Not everyone is the same flavor, and I'm not debating Paleo over Primal over Whatever the flavor of the month is.  I look at it all for ideas.

For someone cleaning up their food intake for health reasons, who is going to benefit from Almond flour cookies? Well, most likely anyone who doesn't have a sensitivity to almonds, but still. 

It's these circular arguments that go around and around in my brain. YES, it's better for you than a white flour cookies.  But what's the lesson here? I can eat the almond flour cookies and be satisfied? Or, can I eat almond flour cookies all the time, and lose weight, heal my gut, put my diabetes into remission, clear my skin, and feel badly for the poor saps out there who can't get off the processed goods?

Who out there is promoting their Veggie and Lean Protein laden meals over Paleo Cheesecake?

Or are you just providing what the masses are asking for?

I just peeked at my Recipe Index Page, to make sure I wasn't talking out of my ass here.  We have 4 dessert and snack recipes, 9 main dish recipes, 3 side dishes, 6 soups & stews recipes, and 4 breakfast recipes. Does this make this blog as bad as the rest? It's smaller, sure, but I think that the balance is good.

I checked another blog that is much larger than mine. 6 PAGES of dessert ideas. 3 PAGES of breakfast recipes, and an average of 6 pages each of main dish recipes, broken down by source: Beef, Chicken, Fish,
 etc.

ok, maybe it's just me. Maybe I shouldn't be complaining about this.

I just want to see more meat and veggie-laden recipes getting the same attention that the cookies, popsicles, and muffins do.  Is that so difficult?

Joie: Can we talk Beets??

This is a post that Joie start way back in the youngling days of our blog.  For some reason, it never got published.  Well, I'm doing it now.  So there. :)
~Rachael
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Can we talk about beets?

Yes, I know the sugar content is high... but what about all the NOMMY stuff sprouting from the top??

I had bought a small bunch (4 bulbs) of fresh beets.  Unfortunately, they stayed in my fridge too long before I could get to them.   I ended up cutting the tops off and trashing them.   The actual beets came out great.This is what I did:

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  Peel.  Cut.  Put in pan.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Salt n pepper.  I had some balsamic raspberry dressing.... I drizzled that on as well.
Bake.   350 degrees.  For a long time.   Add water to keep from scorching and add steam to the oven.  Keep poking till soft.

TODAY, I cleaned up the 2 full bunches of new beets.   Bulbs are in the oven.  Greens have been triple rinsed.  (buggers are FULL of sand)
I cut the bright red stalks off at the base of the leaves.  Tore into smaller pieces, and they are now awaiting a nice saute for later.

So, how do you prepare your beets?

"Image courtesy of acclaimclipart.com"