Bacon Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms

Some days you really fall off the wagon. You wake up in a pissy mood because there are more tasks than minutes, and your daughter can’t find her shoes because she leaves every pair she wears in the car that your husband took to work so you’re really late to work and dropping her off, and after third period you realize some kid in your class actually used their gum to make little sticky stands on the bottom of your water bottle, and at noon you realize that there isn’t enough food in your lunch sack because you were being optimistic this morning, and when you get home everyone is eating Limited Edition Lemon Oreos while you search frantically for something to put in your mouth before you cry.

Then you spend the 5 hours you have after school, even though you have a billion things to do, shopping and planning and cooking to make the best amazing yogurt dessert so that you can win a trip to NYC to see Bobby Flay, even though you can’t eat yogurt. Then you make your husband drive to the studio to get your photography lights and set everything up and spend even more time taking pictures and editing them. And you sit down with minutes to spare to enter said contest, only to realize that the deadline was midnight Eastern Standard time, not Pacific Standard time.

I had a day like that this week.

You know what I did?

I ate my dessert. Yogurt and coconut panna cotta and crumble with a lilikoi top. And it was amazing. It would definitely have won that contest. Paleo diets don’t stand a chance against really bad days.

But I’m back on the wagon.

Tip #3: Start over. Again.

I started off again strong the next day and when someone offered me cookies, twice, that day, I knew I’d feel bad about messing up. I think especially with something strict like this, you have to be very committed to it, but you also have to allow for some mistakes.

Put most of your savings in the bank of health, and you’ll have a little to spare for the occasional Doritos splurge or those lemon bars you’ve been wanting to make.

It doesn’t hurt if your diet allows for bacon wrapped Enoki mushrooms.

I’ve used this recipe on my blog before, but I’m really reveling in the fact that I can eat bacon whenever I feel like it. Ok, so maybe I don’t eat it whenever I feel like it, but I eat it pretty dang often.

I’m not super into trying to force every food into a substitution for Paleo, so I try to find, as often as possible, foods that already fit the bill. I think I’ve done well trying to eat mostly normal looking foods, rather than trying to trick myself that vegetables can be cut and cooked to look like carbs.

Bacon Wrapped Enoki Mushrooms (wrapped in lettuce leaf)

Good as a snack, appetizer, or part of a meal

• 1 package of Enoki mushrooms, stems trimmed
• 4 pieces of bacon, cut into thirds
• romaine lettuce

1. Split your mushrooms into little sections to go inside your bacon slices. Wrap the bacon around the mushrooms. You can either secure this with a toothpick or you can be like me and just plan to sear it on the overlapping edge first.

2. Heat a non stick pan to medium high heat. Put the bacon wrapped enoki into the hot pan, the ends facing down. The sear should help seal it. Keep rolling the little bundles around as they begin to golden in the pan until the bacon is cooked. The mushroom heads should get golden.

3. Wrap in pieces of romaine lettuce and eat immediately.