The Joy of a Full Plate

It’s not until I started this whole Paleo thing that I really thought about what makes a meal satisfying. I already know I am somebody who prefers hot food but what else makes a good meal?

Before paleo I nearly always had at least 3 components – some kind of carbs such as rice, pasta, potatoes etc, the protein – meat, fish etc, and in most cases some kind of vegetables though sometimes the veggies were missing :/

Because I don’t like all that many vegetables I have never really been a fan of the traditional British ‘meat & 2 veg’ which is a shame because that would be an ideal paleo meal!

As I spent more time on Paleo I found that I was still having something on my plate that acted like a carb in my old meals. For example, sometimes it would be carbs – some kind of potato! Another example is a paleo version of a tortilla I made with coconut flour. I also tried to do a paleo pizza base once but that was pretty nasty!

But in the last couple of days I have been on the induction phase of Atkins on which I can only eat from a very small selection of foods. No potatoes, no starchy carbs, no nuts – thus no coconut flour, no fruit etc. Yesterday I really stuggled with dinner. I had planned a steak with some sugar snap peas but this was just not enough and not satisfying at all.

It wasn’t just the volume of food – it needed variety. Tonight I had 4 different things on my plate – steak and the sugar snap peas as before, but I added a portion of sauteed cabbage & bacon and a baby avocado. This gave me a full plate with a wide variety of colours and textures and it worked – I felt full and satisfied afterwards and I didn’t miss the carbs.

I see a lot of Paleo recipes which are just for the meat portion of the meal but I never know what to put with it because I don’t like many popular vegetables such as brocolli, cauliflower, asparagus, parsnips, carrots and so on. I’ve now managed to hobble together a few recipes for veggie side dishes and so I am now trying to make sure that for each meal I have at least 3 different items of my plate – all with different colours.