Friday night = Treat night

Day 3: So much better today. I could even manage a series of downward dogs to warm up my just-got-out-of-bed stiff body. The meals varied between same old, same old and something really exciting. More on that later...
Breakfast - a smoothie, with this one a bit chunkier than yesterday's - featuring a stick of celery, spinach, 1/2 banana, 4 sugar plums that were looking a bit tired in the fruit bowl and a teaspoon of chia seeds. All whizzed up with coconut water, water and a spoonful of coconut milk. Driving off for a surf I thought I needed to take a snack with me, but I realised I was under a Jedi-mind spell. I've been thinking of this Paleo food plan as a diet and the moment I tell myself "the D word" I go into real cave woman mode; obsessing about food, hoarding ingredients for future dishes and living from one meal to the next. When I took a deep breath and a long, hard think, I realised I wasn't hungry, I was still just a bit low on energy. Wonderful morning, as I watched my surfing buddy catch the wave of her life.

Lunch - a bit of same old... this time replacing the tuna with poached chicken breast and adding some savoury semi dried tomatoes and pine nuts.

Dinner - this was when things got exciting! Friday night is always my night off from cooking. I usually get sushi (or a kebab when hubby and I get out to watch some rugby). So I wanted this Friday to be a treat night too. I took this idea from Nom Nom Paleo's website. Then I had kale, which had been ignored as a smoothie ingredient, needing to be used. So I roasted it along with ribbons of zucchini and carrot with coconut oil and Herbie's Spices Roast Vegetable Herb Mix. I then rolled the crunchy kale into the sushi roll for some texture and had the other vegies on the side.

But the grand finale was this: chocolate coffee caramel bar. Seriously?!?! This can't be Paleo? But according to Mark Sisson, chocolate is firmly on the Paleo list, so who am I to argue? I bought as pure chocolate as I could find - 70% cocoa, no soy lecithin and a packet of Dutch cacao. Making it involved lots of bowl and spatula licking. I was soooo happy with the results. It was very rich - I replaced the coconut milk that goes in with the dark chocolate with Tasmanian grass-fed butter. But just heavenly. Definitely a keeper for life beyond Paleo.