Interested in the Paleo way of eating, but not sure where to start? Replacing certain foods on your plate with paleo-approved ingredients is easier than you think. You can focus on one meal at a time when making changes to your eating habits. If you’re not entirely sure that you want to go 100% paleo, this is a good way to experiment with a new way of eating. One step at a time!

Beginning Paleo Breakfast Ideas

• Instead of white potatoes, use sweet potatoes. Eggs and bacon and chopped sweet potatoes make for a delicious breakfast. Add hot sauce for a kick.
• If you love to start your day with a smoothie, use almond milk in place of cow’s milk. Add a half of a frozen banana to your blender to thicken the smoothie instead of yogurt.
• Muffins are extremely convenient, but so are egg muffins. Mix up 12 whipped eggs with vegetables and meat (I like to add spinach, onions, and sweet potatoes along with a bit of chorizo). Pour the mix into muffin cups. That’ll give you 12 egg muffins that you can stash in the fridge and heat up in the microwave when you’re ready to eat.
• Make Paleo pancakes with almond flour or coconut flour, bananas, eggs, and a couple of other ingredients. Here’s a good one.
• In a pinch, eat your dinner leftovers! Don’t limit yourself to traditional breakfast food.
• Love cream with your coffee? Try canned coconut milk instead. Give it a few days and you’ll never go back to cream.
• Replace your toast or bagel with a side of fruit or a paleo muffin.

Beginning Paleo Lunch Ideas

• Love sandwiches and tacos? Try rolling up your meat and veggies and condiments in a lettuce wrap. It is much more delicious than it sounds.
• Put bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mustard in deli meat and roll it up!
• There are also many recipes for tortillas made with coconut flour (try this one in this recipe) that you can use to fill with all kinds of things. For my toddler, I mix up avocado and tuna along with a splash of lime and put it in the tortilla.
• Make a PB&J the Paleo way by spreading almond butter and honey on a coconut flour tortilla.
• A big salad is obviously very Paleo friendly, but try adding roasted nuts (almonds, pecans, or walnuts) along with at least one serving of meat. Don’t be afraid to mix in lots of avocado — it’s full of very good fat!

Beginning Paleo Dinner Ideas

• Swap out that rice/potato side with another vegetable. Many of our dinners consist of a meat entree, a vegetable, and another vegetable.
• Cooking a stir-fry or a curry dish? Replace jasmine rice with delicious cauliflower rice. Here’s how, but I like to use coconut oil instead and add 1/2 cup of coconut milk and some minced garlic for extra flavor.
• Grill a couple of burgers for everyone and forgo the buns. Add a side of healthy french fries to make a hearty dinner that’s also guilt-free.
• Love a sweet finish to your dinner meals? Cut up a fresh mango for everyone or assemble a bowl of mixed berries and roasted nuts topped with whipped coconut cream.