Paleo Food Matrix

On Robb Wolfe's Paleo Solution website, he describes a story of a woman who couldn't figure out what to eat on the Paleo diet. This led him to create a food matrix to show how easy it was to make paleo meals quickly and with few ingredients.

There are four groups of food in the matrix, proteins, vegetables, fats, and herbs & spices.  The basic idea is to pick one item from each group and make a meal with those four ingredients.  In his matrix he has 27 proteins, 24 vegetables, 5 fats and 25 herbs & spices.  This would give 81,000 different meal combinations.  Some of them may be horrible, but some can be unexpectedly really good.

And his cooking method is simple:
1. Put oil in pan
2. Brown meat in oil for a minute
3. add hearty herbs/spices before meat, delicate spices when the dish almost done.  (I personally throw in the spice with the vegetable regardless of the type and it seems to work out fine)
4. Add vegetable
5. Stir, cover and set timer for 5-10 minutes
6. Eat, or cook longer if not done

After discovering the food matrix, I wanted to have it on my phone. Two reasons for this: I wanted to have a random meal generator when I was at home to stop my temptation of always using the same ingredients.  It would make me more adventurous. And, I wanted it in the grocery store, so I could get ideas and make sure I had a variety of ingredients in my cupboards. 

On my quest to find a mobile app, I came across both iPhone and Android versions.  However, I own a Windows Phone 7.  With it being a new phone, there wasn't that app yet.  So, I did what any sensible person with a bit of programming knowledge would do and built it.

So, if you have a WP7 and want the Paleo Food Matrix, random meal generator, here it is!

I also made a little video so you can see all the functionality before downloading it.  Note that I'm not an expert in making videos and the app could use a bit more design.  But my goal was to have it functional and worry about aesthetics later (if more than just me downloads the app).

Here's what Robb has in the matrix:

Proteins	Vegetables	Fats	Herbs & Spices
Chicken breast Chicken thigh Flounder Snapper Trout Halibut Mackerel Bass Salmon steak Salmon fillet Shrimp New York steak Rib eye steak Round steak Ground beef Beef ribs Rump roast Beef stew meat Pork loin Pork chop Pork ribs Baby back ribs Bacon Pork roast Lamb chops Lamb rack Venison steaks	Asparagus Avocado Artichoke hearts Brussels sprouts Beets* Carrots Celery Daikon Zucchini Fennel Root Kale Chard Dandelion greens Spinach Acorn Squash* Butternut Squash* Yam* Sweet Potato* Red pepper Yellow pepper Green pepper Red cabbage Green cabbage Napa cabbage	Coconut oil Olive oil Macadamia oil Avocado oil Lard	Allspice Basil Cardamom Cinnamon Celery seed Dill Fenugreek Garlic Ginger Curry-Red Curry-Green Curry-Yellow Oregano Cillantro Nutmeg Rosemary Thyme Garam Masala Bay Leaf Salt Herbs de Provance Chili powder Paprika Cumin Black pepper