At the suggestion of the team, and encouragement of people through social media, we’re working on making simple lists we can share with everyone of things we recommend, use, and love. We decided the best way to start of was with the boys. So, we’re kicking off 2015 of the boys’ favorite things – both from 2014 and what they’re looking forward to in 2015.
Cole is our oldest son, currently 9 years old (he was 4 and still in pre-school when we started Paleo). Next week Finian – our middle child – will list his favorites. And then Wes, our baby (now 4 1/2 years old), will do his before the end of the month. Each of the boys has their own interests, hobbies, and favorite foods – we hope the boys sharing inspires your family to try something new! ♥
Food & Snacks
My favorite foods are pineapple, black olives (I even eat them straight out of the can!), and peppermint anything. Here’s some of my recommended things to try:
Organic Peppermint Tea, I recommend adding a little bit of raw honey if it’s not sweet enough for you.
I love anything pineapple, but these Crispy Pineapple Chips are my favorite. I even sometimes choose them over Caveman Cookies when I get to choose any special treat at the grocery store.
I put these Organic Canned Black Olives on my fingers, if your fingers are little enough maybe you can, too. Even if not, they’re still delicious. I love when my dad makes Black Olive Topenade dip (available in Eat Like a Dinosaur and Paleo to Go), but usually I just eat them plain as a snack or in my lunch box.
RxBars are one of my favorite snacks, especially the Apple Cinnamon. I like to eat them for an after school snack, or on the weekends at picnics.
Since my parents always make me eat protein, I really like EPIC Bars (Bacon Bison flavor), Go Chomps, and Steve’s Original (Berky and Sticks).
I know you may think it’s weird, but Fish Eggs (like salmon roe) are one of my favorite foods. I loved them so much in sushi, that now we buy them from the Asian food market and I like to put them on my scrambled eggs in the morning.
I have found lots of paleo snacks and foods I didn’t know about from One Stop Paleo Shop. My favorite is when my mom gets me gift cards and lets me shop for anything I want on there!
Recipes
My parents make so many really good recipes, it’s hard for me to remember them all or even pick favorites. But these are the ones I remember asking for all the time:
I loved the holidays because it meant that lots of people brought Deviled Eggs over for parties; I wish we would make them more often! My favorite way to make them is with Baconnaise, like Deviled Bacony Eggs from Eat Like a Dinosaur.
Whenever I get to choose dinner, I always choose Meatloaf. I love when my dad doubles the recipe and I can have leftovers for lunch the next day!
When my mom doesn’t drink all the broth, I love to have Egg Drop Soup instead of scrambled eggs for breakfast.
I like making this, even though we don’t make it too often – these chia seed puddings (Cinnamon Raisin NOT Rice Pudding and Mango NOT Sticky Rice) are really awesome, you should check them out!
Even though this is Danielle’s recipe from her first cookbook, the Lemon Poppyseed Muffins that we make from it are one of my favorites!
We have only ever made bread pudding a couple of times, and each time I love it! I can’t really remember if it was the Pumpkin Pudding one or French Toast Casserole that I loved best, but both were really good!
And I still LOVE making Mussels (not Muscles) with my dad. Anytime I see them in the store I beg for them!
Restaurants
I like to go out to eat when my dad is busy or feeling like he doesn’t want to cook. Usually on the weekends we get to eat out, too, and these are the places I go if I get the chance.
Elevation Burger has the best burgers in the world! The actually wrap your burgers in lettuce instead of just putting it on the top and bottom. When we’re busy and running errands we eat at burger places a lot, some others I like are 5 Guys, Smashburger, and Red Robin.
Our local Peruvian chicken restaurant, Chicken Palace makes good chicken. You can get yuca fries instead of French fries.
I love to go to PF Changs for their Egg Drop Soup and Fried Rice. It’s one of my favorite dinners in the world, that’s why my dad figured out how to remake the soup perfectly and we even just made a batch this week!
At Chipotle, they have corn tortillas if I really want to, but usually I get a salad since it’s a bigger portion!
Stuff That’s Not Paleo (but I love it)
Some of my favorite things to do are read graphic novels, play board games and sometimes use my laptop or console to play video games – but not too often because it’s not healthy to sit and be lazy all day.
My current favorite game is Settlers of Catan. It’s a cool game where you collect materials so you can build stuff and I like spending time together as a family when we play it.
I like the board game Munchkin Quest because you can explore, find things and beat up monsters. If you’ve never played Munchkins before, start with the simple card version.
My favorite comic books are Amulet and Axe Cop. Amulet is about a girl who’s father died in a car crash and she inherited an amulet with special powers. Axe Cop is about a cop who found the perfect fireman’s axe and now chops off bad guys’ heads. It was written by a kid my age, so it’s a lot of fun!
My favorite toy is my Nerf Mega Thunder Bow Blaster because it shoots far and is awesome! Plus since I have to play it outside it gets my body moving.
♥
Cole’s Words of Wisdom
If you are a kid, too, I think the best choice you could make it to stop drinking bright colored drinks – like Hawaiian Punch and soda. I never drink that stuff, instead I choose water and then am able to have a sweet treat for dessert instead!
♥
What do you think I would like if I knew about it?!