Gettin' Creative with my Meat

(Did that make you giggle like it did me?) Doing this whole Paleo thing (Day 28!!) means a lot of meat and veggies. I've been experimenting with different things to mix it up a bit. Friday I bought some poblano pepper pork wheels from Fresh n Easy. I think pork probably isn't my best choice over lean chicken or turkey but sometimes I want a change ... they looked weird. Kind of like a cow patty.

Someone at a party told me the other night how easy it was to grill veggies (specifically eggplant) on the George Foreman grill and since I'm also looking to mix it up in the veggie department, I tried that as well. A half of zucchini (quartered) and some eggplant slices, rolled in some olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt on the George Foreman grill. Super simple - super yummy!

The cow patty review? Decent but not as spicy or as tasty as the label implied. I probably won't go back to get some more. But a pretty hearty lunch! (Obviously food photography isn't my specialty!)

Admission: while I haven't completed my 30-day "hard core paleo" challenge, I decided to make Saturday night a cheat night. The plan wasn't to go crazy with my cheat but to venture off plan just a titch. I won tickets to the Diamondbacks game at the TGIFriday's tables. We got these awesome seats and $90 in food & drink for the table! A pretty sweet win! The planned cheat? Beer. Beer at the ballpark - come on, I had to!!

I pre-studied the menu online so I would be prepared with healthy food choices. I felt confident I could go with minimal damage to my plan. Small snag - they post their menu online for the ballpark but during game time, they feature a smaller menu -- with none of my choices I had planned for. Then my table mates started talking appetizers and NONE were healthy. It sounded like I was going to have a plate of loaded potato skins in front of me ... uh oh. But after thinking about our $90, and the mystery price of the cocktails (Friday's also changes the prices of their drinks during game time to a higher cost and so the menu has no prices and when you ASK the price the waitress says "about $5.75" in a guessing voice ...), we opted to each get our own dinners and no apps. After some hemming and hawing, I came up with a turkey burger, no bun, avocado and a small side salad in place of the fries. Victory! Great game (Diamondbacks win!), great company and minimal damage and guilt. Happy Amy.

(Little whine to TGIFriday's - I get the limited menu so you can pump out food for the larger crowd in a quick time, but the mystery drink prices? Do you really have to jack those prices up too? Also, I ordered a soda water - most places treat it like a water because it is water with bubbles and a button right next to water on their soda fountain - they charged $3.88 for one glass of soda water. Lame.)