Let’s get a few housekeeping items of business out of the way before we dive into the important things, ie. why it took us a good 2 minutes to realize a bottle of honey was almost entirely blocking the camera (and no, the honey company does not have an endorsement deal with us. Although come to think of it that might not be such a shabby idea {wheels turning}).

Seriously though, the business at hand is announcing the winner of the movie ticket giveaway we had back when Donna Summer was still alive (may the Queen of Disco RIP). I loved reading about your BFFs. I especially loved some of your “bonus” guesses. While the lobster reference Joey refers to is from Phoebe on Friends and essentially means someone who will be in your life forever, my favorite guess was someone who thought we’d been raised together on the beach & bonded over real lobsters. I feel it’s only fitting to take an immediate girls trip to the beach in honor of that comment!

Congrats to winner Diane!

I’ll email you with instructions on how to claim your prize! Enjoy taking your bestie to the movies!

Now onto our topic of the week:

Paleo Food Substitutions

Here are the pre-Paleo foods and their Paleo substitutions we use now, plus where we purchase them!

Enriched White Flour: We now cook with Almond flour or coconut flour. We purchase our almond four in bulk from a website called Honeyville. You can also find it on Amazon, Vitacost or in bulk at Rosauers or Fred Meyer.

Sugar: We now sweeten our meals and baked goods with honey, stevia or fruit (bananas and applesauce work as a great sweeteners!). You can get stevia for free using your Vitacost credit or on Amazon, and raw honey from Zaycon, at local Farmer’s Markets or on Amazon.

Chocolate Chips: The Paleo substitute can be expensive unless you know where to buy them! We get ours from Vitacost, but you can also find them on Amazon. I’d recommend not running out to the store to buy them, as I’ve seen them for over $6/bag! Yikes!

Vegetable Oil: We use olive oil and coconut oil like it’s going out of style now! There are constantly olive oil coupons and sales. In fact, I used some double coupons last week to get 2 large bottles of Filippo Berio olive oil for $3.25 a bottle!! You’ll find the best coconut oil prices on Vitacost or Amazon (see all the great ways to use coconut oil HERE!).

Salad Dressing: We now make a lot of our salad dressing from scratch using olive oil, vinegar, spices and occasionally some fruits!

Butter/Shortening/Crisco: Palm shortening is a great alternative to use when baking, or in place of coconut oil if the mild coconut taste bothers you (I don’t even notice it at all).

Pasta: Spaghetti squash is a delicious alternative to pasta. I talked about the easiest way I know to prepare it HERE. What I need to do is grow my own in our garden, because it’s not the cheapest produce item out there!

And there you have it folks. Old way of eating vs. new way of eating. Let me just tell you that if you’re thinking some of the substitutions above seem nuts and hard to integrate into your way of cooking, I hear ya! I felt the exact same way! But the transition is actually must easier that you might think. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too!

Until next time!

Hugs,
Jamber

So this Jamberee is supposed to be all about beef jerky. And the jerky is delicious enough to merit an entire post. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about. I’m going to talk about why we were shooting at Joey’s house until almost midnight last night. And it has nothing to do with Jamberees or Paelo anything  (in fact, we were cooking up a storm of tasty non-Paleo treats for Teacher Appreciation Week). It has to do with the fact that my bestie could sense I was stressed to the max, that I had overloaded my plate and I was treading water. Like she always does, she stepped in to rescue me (cue dramatic music-like Baywatch-ish but cuter bathing suits).

I have a jam packed week. I’ve overextended myself and many areas of my life (ie. housework, husbands) are being neglected because of it. She scheduled an intervention. She did what every girl needs her friends to do: she looked me in the eyes and told me my priorities were not where they should be. That I had to learn the word “no.” I’m certain that was hard for her, but I love her for saying it. I love her for knowing me well enough to know that a) I needed to hear it from her and b) I would never admit that on my own. So what’s the point?

The point is I’m grateful for Joey. For her friendship. For her lack of judgement (except when it comes to my obsession with NKOTB- she says she has standards or some nonsense). For her decision to take this crazy Paleo journey with me. For her ability to tell it like it is. For her strength when I’m a train wreck of a friend. Everyone needs a Joey.

I’m going to pause that thought, share her yummy jerky recipe and then give you the opportunity to tell me all about the “Joey” in your life.

Joey’s Jerky

1 lb extra lean ground beef
1-ish tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp celery salt

Mash all seasonings into your ground beef and mix thoroughly. Let sit in fridge overnight. Roll out hamburger mixture with rolling pin until it is 1/4th-1/8th-ish inch in thickness (we’re nothing if not exact). Then use a pizza cutter to cut into jerky looking strips. Lay strips into your dehydrator. Dehydrate for about 4 hours or until no more moisture appears on the top of the strips.

The Giveaway

And now onto more fun. You’ve heard all about how Joey is my rock, or my lobster as she would call it. Now I want to hear about yours! Do you have a Joey in your life? How long have you been friends? Why do you adore them? How have they helped you stay afloat when you’ve felt like you were drowning?

Leave ONE comment telling us all about your BFF and be entered to win 2 movie tickets! Simple as that.

I only have 2 rules:

1. While I’m sure many of you will be inclined to tell me about how your spouse is your bestie-and I totally respect that-I’m looking for lifelong Bromances and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-type stories! Got it?

2. You have until noon tomorrow to enter before I throw all of your names into random.org & they spit out a winner.

*BONUS ENTRY*

Email me at amber @ fabulesslyfrugal dot com and tell me where the lobster reference comes from. DO NOT LEAVE THE ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS OR YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED!!! Then come back here and leave a ONE WORD comment that says BONUS.

And, go.

Hugs,
Jamber