During warmer weather, you may have spied the Truckasaurus roaming the streets of Milwaukee in search of hungry folks with a penchant for health and wellness. Home of the Urban Caveman food truck, the aptly named truck started out as a fire department vehicle until Alan Harris decided to transform it into the home for his small, local business.

With the help of his sister, Laura Oberski, Harris converted the vehicle into a food truck that specializes in paleo-style fare.

"Laura is a registered nurse," Harris explains. "My degree was in finance, and I’m a registered CPA.  So, neither of us were restaurateurs. But both of are paleo, and like making food. So, we decided to bring our passion to the streets of Milwaukee."

Paleo is short for paleolithic, and it’s a diet comprising lean proteins, fruits and veggies, healthy nuts, seeds, oils and grass-fed meats. It’s also become a dietary trend that’s swept the nation, particularly among those who gravitate towards CrossFit workouts.

Harris, a devout advocate for the paleo lifestyle, was first inspired to try his hand at the food truck business when he came across The Caveman Truck in Indianapolis.

"I was in town working on a project for about a month," he says. "And paleo dishes were often hard to come by, so I ate there almost every day."

Upon returning to Milwaukee, Harris decided that Milwaukee was ripe for a similar concept. At the time, Oberski was living in Texas, working as a nurse.

"My wife had been trying to convince Laura that moving to Milwaukee was a good idea. And the food truck was the clincher," he says.

So, he wrote up a business plan, bought the truck, and launched Urban Caveman in July 2013.

"When we started, we had very little idea of what it was going to look like," he recalls. "We invited 20 of our friends to come out to a park and tested out all of our procedures as well as the food we were making."

It wasn’t easy. Oberski recalls that learning to cook on a larger scale was one of the challenges.

"We started out super slow, doing one meal and then two, and we built from there," she says.

Eventually, the pair saw that people were coming to the truck and ordering multiple meals at a time.

"It didn’t take us long to figure out what people were doing," says Harris. "They were taking them home and eating them throughout the week."

So, they decided to launch a prepackaged meal program. Using an online ordering system, they began to offer meals for delivery or pick-up.

"We got to a point where lots of people were ordering food every week," says Oberski. "And people were getting tired of ordering the same foods over and over."

"So, we hired a full-time chef to run the program and be the creative mind behind new recipe generation," Harris adds.

They hired Alex Becker, formerly of Tenuta’s in Bay View, to begin developing additional recipes for the truck and growing meal program. They also looked to other chefs, like John Okrulica from Mo’s Steakhouse, to round out their offerings.

"We’ve now transitioned from an a la carte model to a subscription menu," says Harris. "Initially it was kind of a gamble, since people can be relatively picky about what kinds of food they want to eat.  But, by and large people have been overwhelmingly supportive. They trust us and they’ve become really open to trying new things. What it means is that they’re getting a more healthful and diverse selection of food than they might choose for themselves."

Dishes offered by the program include chicken carnitas with cilantro cauliflower rice, roasted bell peppers and salsa verde, sausage and cabbage soup, Italian stuffed chicken thighs with roasted eggplant cutlets, Cobb salad, Caribbean jerk chicken with plantain mash and chile mango relish, stuffed bell peppers, pasta Bolognese with squash noodles, chicken Marsala and chicken Caesar salad.

But, Harris says the Urban Caveman concept is about more than serving up delicious food.

"According to our surveys, more than 80% of our customers are not strict paleo," he says. "And a lot of what we do is really educating." He points to the many misconceptions of the paleo diet.

"We’re not trying to be cavemen," he explains. "It’s really about getting back to basics and eating foods that our bodies are designed to eat. The point of all of this is to emphasize a change of mentality to focus on foods that are nutrient dense and as close to their natural form as possible and practical under the current food system.  Clearly, we’re not attempting to replicate the Paleolithic lifestyle."

Myths regularly debunked include the idea that paleo-style eating is akin to the Atkins diet, with a focus on eating only proteins.

"People think it’s all about the meat," Harris says. "And while there’s a heavy focus on the quality of the protein sources that you’re eating – grassfed, pasture raised, ethically raised -- people miss that it’s more about balancing the amount of protein with a diverse nutrient-dense diet.  We’re not eating 15 ounce steaks, bacon and turkey legs all day."

Oberski nods. "And carbohydrates are not the enemy," she says. "People associate carbohydrates with grains, but vegetables and fruits have them as well. So, we emphasize different sources. For example, a staple of paleo diets is sweet potatoes, and they actually contain lots of carbs. So, you’re eliminating the grain component, but you are still providing your body with the carbohydrates it needs."

Others equate paleo with gluten-free eating.

"Paleo is gluten-free," confirms Harris. "But, the opposite is not true. Gluten-free isn’t necessarily paleo. Sugar, for instance, is gluten-free. Rice is another example. And these things don’t fit into the framework that we’re advocating."

Harris admits that they’re really operating at the most extreme end of the paleo spectrum.

"That said, it’s really a serviceable for everyone," he says. "It’s good food that tastes good, and it’s good for you."

Urban Caveman plans to operate its truck during the warmer months – roughly April through November – in addition to offering their "fresh packs" meal ordering program all year round.

"On Mondays we offer four selections, and you can choose as many increments as you like," says Harris. "On Thursdays, we add another three selections."

He says that, typically, customers order between four and seven dishes a week.

The cost for meals is $9.75 each, which includes tax and delivery.

"Right now we have ten drop-off locations, mostly cross-fit gyms, along with limited home delivery," Harris notes. "And we’ll expand that as the need arises."

For more information on the Fresh Packs program, visit urban-caveman.com or follow Urban Caveman on Facebook or Twitter.