Sometimes it’s easy now to forget what a hard time I had cooking when I first started eating Paleo. It’s not like I was cooking very differently, but I’m one of those things that, when learning, have to follow things as close to the letter of the law that I can. I would cook a meat and then panic about what side dishes to serve. I’d forget the time of day and panic because I had only a few hours of the day left before bedtime and wondered if I’d get dinner on the table soon enough. (Lord help me when I have kids…)

But things got easier. I realized that there is no defining policy to Paleo. That it’s more about eating healthy and eating well than it is about worrying about the minutae of an ingredient list. That really all I was doing was removing a few things from my daily dinner plate (like rice) and replacing them with more veggies. It’s always a giggle to me when I’m headed to the grocer to choose the next meal’s veggies. yes you heard that right. even with my change to Paleo and the juicing I’ve incorporated, I don’t keep as many fresh meal friendly veggies on hand. This is partially because I’m finicky and never learned to make do with what’s on hand, and also because I tend to forget about the “good” veggies in the back of the fridge and they spoil.

That being said, I’d like to share with you my first meal post. Most of you (some?) have been seeing them in my Instagram feed (find me as LianaWS), but I thought I’d share them here in a more detailed manner.  This meal happened a few days ago. Almost a week now? We had just received our copy of Practical Paleo and I cannot tell you how excited I was about it. Also, it’s a very heavy tome. The first half is dedicated to talking about Paleo and what it can do for you. I won’t lie, I’m still diving into that portion. But as soon as I ripped open my Amazon box, I headed straight for the recipies. NomNomPaleo did a review of the Bacon-wrapped Smoked Chicken Thighs. Her pictures were delish and it was actually her post that locked my decision to purchase this book. I wrote down the ingredients that I didn’t have and dashed to the store!

It’s a pretty simple recipie once you have everything. More importantly it was another nice recipie that allowed Justin and I to spend some time in the kitchen together. After I put  the spice blend together, he prepared the meat and I prepared the side dish (The added benefit of being able to save some chicken skins was a plus). We wrapped that sucker in Bacon and set it in the oven to cook.  While it cooked, I took the time to chop up one of my favorite veggies, Baby Bok Choy and stirfry it with some coconut aminos. This was such an easy meal to prepare and I love it. Literally, remove chicken from package, add spice, add more meat, add more spice and cook. We paired this meal with some fresh watermelon juice. A friend of mine had been raving about Watemelon juice recently and I felt it would be a great addition to our meal to have something fresh and different.

 I love when we both have the time and energy to do this, it makes the meal itself feel more intimate and the evening more intimate. We’re able to talk about how our days went, our triumphs, frustrations and plans for later in the week without the distractions of Social Media. I’m all for time spent in the Twitters, FB’s and beyond, but it’s nice to disconnect and spend time with the people in front of you. A good meal with family is probably one of the earliest social networks known to people. Time spent connecting and making memories. Modern Social Media has only expanded that to allow us to look back and remember great evenings like this.