Paleo and the family

Some of you were asking how the Paleo thing is working with the rest of my family, so I thought I'd attempt to explain.

First of all, my husband and sons are too hilarious for their own good, and so the main effect it's had on their lives is that it provides endless fodder for jokes:

"Mom! Be careful! There's corn chips over here!"
"Do you want me to cook this steak, or are you just going to gnaw on it raw?"
"Did they make crackers in their cave blenders in Paleo times?"
"I don't think it counts as forage if you can buy it at Walmart."
And so on.

So no, no one is doing this with me. My husband, though, sees merit in cutting back on breads and sugars, and he's generally happy to share in the Paleo meals I make—though sometimes adding rice or cheese to them.

So do we cook two different sets of food at every meal? I wish. It's usually more like three or four. See, one of my kids has dietary allergies, and we've always had to cook something separate for him. The other one is fairly picky, and over the years we've found it hard to enforce that he has to eat what we're eating when his brother never has to.

But we're used to adapting everyone's meal. Say we're having tacos, for example. Allergy Son has his with everything but the cheese. Picky Son has cheese microwaved on a tortilla and refried beans, and then is forced against his will to eat a tiny pile of ground beef and a bit of iceberg lettuce. Paleo Mom turns hers into a taco salad with fancy lettuce, ground beef, and tomatoes. And Normal Dad has normal tacos.

Sometimes, I admit, it gets a bit wacky. Just now for "meal" I wanted hamburgers and the kids wanted pancakes. So I had a lettuce-wrapped burger, cauliflower, and mushrooms. My husband had a hamburger patty with cheese and mushrooms, cauliflower, and a couple of soymilk pancakes. And the kids had the pancakes with chocolate chips…and cauliflower.