Darcie from Such The Spot always has some good-looking recipes on her blog and I have tried a few.  I’ve had her recipe for chicken tacos cut out for a long time, but just made them last week.   However, since my family is eating Paleo now at home, I did make one change: I switched out the corn tortillas for lettuce leaves.  I’m still trying to figure out if we will eat corn tortillas (not Paleo, but some people do).  I don’t think I have a hard rule about it and will probably eat them at a restaurant, but while cooking at home I prefer to stick as close to Paleo as I can.

You can check out Darcie’s blog post for chicken tacos her way, but basically I prepared the chicken the way she suggested and used her pico recipe as well.  Then I chopped up some cucumbers, avocado, coleslaw to use as toppings.

My family chose their toppings and wrapped them up along with the chicken in big romaine lettuce leaves.  Doesn’t that look beautiful?

Everyone raved about how fresh and tasty the “tacos” were.   This recipe will be added to my meal rotation.  The only thing I will change is the amount of chicken used; Darcie has a bigger family than mine, so we had tons of chicken left over.  Even using the chicken scrambled in eggs and in a coconut wrap for lunch a few days, it was still too much for my family.

Thanks Darcie for the recipe!  See, the Paleo way was not so bad .

© 2012, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

It’s no secret that Nordstrom Cafe is one of my favorite lunch spots.  The restaurant staff knows me by name and what I usually order, which is the Cilantro Lime Shrimp salad.   One of my Facebook friends knows my love of this salad and sent me a recipe for the dressing.  This is either the exact recipe or a very convincing facsimile.  I don’t know where she got it.  I did not ask.  I assume that it is part of the unspoken culinary “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.  Whatever; it’s absolutely delicious.

Cilantro Lime Dressing

ingredients:

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon purred chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup chopped cilantro, stems and leaves

3/4 cup oil  (the recipe says canola, but I used olive oil)

Blend all but the oil in a blender, then add the oil in a slow steady stream.

This recipe makes quite a lot, I need to remember to cut the recipe in half for my family of four.  I kept it in the refrigerator and used it all week.  It’s not Paleo with the honey and next time I will try using less or maybe eliminating it all together.  I’m sure it will still be delicious.

Enjoy!

© 2012, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

It’s not often that I use the phrase “I’m too old to wear that,” but I did when I saw myself in Gap’s dressing room mirror.  My daughter had urged me to try on these pants:

They are even brighter in person.  Like, put on your Ray Bans kinda bright.  I wore a sweater this color in the 80′s and I may or may not have had a matching lace headband like this one:

but mine was neon yellow

It was a bad idea even back then.  One of the benefits of getting older is wisdom; I showed good judgement leaving those pants at Gap.  Looking like a highlighter marker is best left to those under 20.  Or really, no one.  Who decided that the 80′s were worthy of a fashion revival??  Neon colors, wrap belts, and yes, the other day I saw a college student wearing a lace headband like the photo above.   I decided that I would pass on this fashion trend.  Once was enough; no neon for me!

However, a few days later I saw this top in a local boutique and thought that it was cute; neon enough to be in style, but not obnoxiously so.  It’s made of sort of a weave material (also in style…I ask you, who are these designers?), so I was nervous when the 20-something salesgirl said, “just wear this bandeau underneath,” because generally I don’t take fashion advice from children.   But it’s fine.  While you do sort of see the bandeau, I don’t look naked underneath.  I wore this during our college road trip last week and I don’t think I embarrassed my son at all.

 on the balcony of our hotel on Folly Beach, SC

top & bandeau – Bill Hallman, a local boutique

jeans - Hudson Beth Crop Baby Boot, Nordstrom

I think that’s one of my better What I Wore photos because it’s candid.  I was actually looking at my husband off to the side as my daughter snapped this photo.

As the day progressed the temperature warmed and I changed into shorts.  You can’t see them in this photo, but they are Gap gray and white striped shorts from last summer.   How about my tote is a perfect match too?  I’ve had that tote for years, it’s my official vacation tote, so I didn’t plan that at all!

Folly Beach Pier

tote bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs, Nordstrom

kids – adorable, mine

I’m linking up with What I Wore Wednesday  and Monday Mingle.

© 2012, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

Last week my family went on a college tour road trip.  In the past a road trip would have meant frequent stops at the gas station, where I would buy Sour Punch Straws and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.  Ugh.  Since I didn’t eat like that often, I would get sick.  I wonder why?  Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are only made of

Enriched corn meal (corn meal, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid), vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean, or sunflower oil), salt, maltodextrin, sugar, monosodium glutamate, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, artificial color (including red 40 lake, yellow 6 lake, yellow 6, yellow 5), corn syrup solids, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, hydrolyzed soy protein, cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), whey, onion powder, whey protein concentrate, corn syrup solids, natural flavor, buttermilk solids, garlic powder, disodium phosphate, sodium diacetate, sodium caseinate, lactic acid, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, nonfat milk solids, sodium citrate, and carrageenan.

Well, not this time.  Since we were going to be in the car quite a bit during this road trip, touring 4 schools in 3 cities in 6 days,  I was determined to stick to Paleo as much as possible.  The only way to do that was to stock the car with plenty of Paleo-friendly snacks that the whole family would eat (even my non-Paleo son). I packed a huge bag with:

reusable water bottles for everyone

unsweetened organic dried mango

almonds (Trader Joe’s Spicy & Tangy flavor is really good and interesting)

pistachios

apples

freeze-dried raspberries

Laräbars

Trader Joe’s Fair Trade Organic Belgian (72%) Dark Chocolate Bars

Trader Joe’s Sweet Potato Chips (made with canola oil, but short ingredient list)

Trader Joe’s Roasted Plantain Chips (made with sunflower oil, but that’s it)

Grass-fed Jerky Chews by Sophia’s Survival Food

I saw these jerky chews mentioned on a Paleo website and ordered 3 packs a few weeks before our trip.  They were all delicious.  This beef jerky is gluten-free, made from grass-fed beef and uses no preservatives.  The ingredients are: grass-fed beef, lemon juice and unrefined salt.  That’s it.  I liked that we were able to have a “traditional” road trip snack in the healthiest form possible.  I will be buying more just to have on hand at home; my kids are starving after school and this is a satisfying snack.

*I must admit that I didn’t stay Paleo the entire week; I stayed away from grains, but I did have sugar.  I had a popsicle at Las Paletas in Nashville and buttermilk pie at Hominy Grill in Charleston.  They were both so good, but I noticed that I can’t consume sugar like I used to; one small slice of pie was quite enough.  That’s progress!

© 2012, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

Funki and oh-so-helpful organizing & life-hacking tips by yours truly. Like McGyver, who could dismantle a bomb with a roll of duct tape, a toothpick and a nail file, I am Ma-Gyver, organizer of everything and life-hacker extraordinaire. From time to time I will be bringing you my tips and tricks for keeping an orderly house and mind.

I am such an organizing nerd. I was positively giddy when my new Walker bags arrived in the mail. Now I could organize my purse like I’ve always dreamed!

See, organizing nerd.

I bought my first Walker bag at Therapie in New York City, which is sadly out of business.   I bought another one at a store on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, California.  I always find Walker bags at high-end drugstores, but I bought these online, right from the Walker website.  The selection was incredible and I spent an insane amount of time grouping and measuring my items to make sure I got the correct size bags.  I owned 2 already and bought 4 more.  Look at the fun colors!

The bags are now filled with all the contents of my purse.

I hate digging in my purse to find something.  Now the only things not contained in a Walker bag are my wallet, sunglass case and reusable shopping bag.  I like to change purses often and this makes it so much easier.

See, organizing nerd.

© 2012, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.