Forty Ounces

For the love of all that is holy, why won't you let me upload a video from youtube?

Here is the link of how the most awesome juice in the world is made...

Why won't you upload?

Kale, Spinach, Celery, Beets, Apples, Pineapple, Parsley, Carrots and Strawberries.

Just awesome...

Ian

It isn't as hard as you think

Well, now that day 50 has passed, I have to say, It isn't as hard as you think.  Sure, you have to have bread and pasta...because you always go to a restaurant and order a plate of bread and pasta.  You have to have Diet Coke or ice cream...because those are just staples in your life.  Diet Cola is a big thing around my house.  It is a big thing around the world.  Shoot, zero calories and all the taste of a flat soda.  How could this ever not be good for me?

But I regress.

Last night we went out to eat with some friends of ours and the menu was handed over to me and I just knew that the restaurant they picked was full of deep fried goodness and fries.  I knew that this was really the first test to really sticking to the primal eating blueprint.

See, at home it is easy to stick to it, I don't have much else to choose from other than meats, veggies, fruits and whatnot.  I also don't graze like I used to because you can only eat so much okra.

So I was able to get away last night with minimal damage.  I ordered a grilled fish and had sweet potato fries.  Sure, I know the fries were not fried up in olive oil or something like that, but it was close enough.  And I know that the fish probably had the same canola oil on it that the fries did.  But it was close enough.

I remember when I worked at Chuy's many many many moons ago and there was this prick we called John Denver.  He looked like John Denver.  and this guy would come in and order baked chips, only get the fresca sauce to dip it in, a side salad with limes and the veggie enchiladas with no oil.  I waited tables for many years, had a bajillion customers, and this is the one guy that I can still remember the order he had.  I don't want to be that guy.  That guy was a prick, screwing up everything for the kitchen.  If you want to eat like tht, fine, do at home or some vegan cafe.

Don't go to a Tex Mex restaurant and expect to eat healthy, or primal, or paleo, or vegan.  Don't be that guy.

Ian

What not to cook with Coconut Flour...

So far everything has been a pretty good success when it comes to creative paleo eating.  Sure I am adding some flours that are not truly paleo, since true paleo is all militant and whatnot.  I use brown rice flour, almond flour and now I use coconut flour.

So I had never used coconut flour.  I smelled it at the bulk section of the grocery store and smelled like coconut.  So i brought some home.  I figured I could make some kind of a cookie style treat.  I also bought these natural chocolate bits that look like chocolate, smell like chocolate, taste like bark.

But I know once these bark tasting chocolate impersonators are baked that it will be better...right???

So I take some of this delicious smelling coconut flour, I add a bunch of shredded coconut, the bark chocolate crap and some eggs.

It even resembled cookie dough.   It may have resembled it, but it was a bit crumbly.  I figured, hey, lets bake it and see what happens.

This is what happened.

I went to cut it in squares and it turned into sand.  i went to try it, and it turned into bad tasting sand.  It was bad.

So I made nachos.

And everything was better...

Ian

Pizza Pizza!!!

This is my second attempt at making a paleo pizza.  The first attempt had a crust made of brown rice flour.  I know, not quite paleo, but damn close enough.  The sauces were similar and the meats were the same.

This time I used almond meal as the base of the crust.  Almond meal does not like to stay stuck together so you need some kind of binder.  I used almond flours.  I know what you are thinking, this guy is nuts...

So I mix the dough and break it into 5 different parts.  I put a ball of dough in the center of the pizza stone, then suround it like a four leaf clover with the other 4 balls of dough.  I had to use a lot of extra flour at this point since the dough sticks to everything.

You cannot roll the dough so you have to just stretch it out and connect it.  Once the dough is stretched out I put it in the oven for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

To create the sauce I take 4 roma tomatoes and dice them down.  I take half an onion and do the same.  I take olive oil and bring it to a good heat and throw the onions in until they start browning.  Once this happens I add the tomatoes, 2 cloves of diced fresh garlic, some diced spinach (Just for fun), black pepper, salt and oregano.  I let this fry up for a bit until the tomatoes start to break down.  I then take the heat down until it is at a simmer.

During this time I also take 1 pound fo pork sausage from, where else, Gramen Farm.  This is a greaseless sausage like no other.  I let the 1 pound cook on both sides before I break it up.  I then break it up into large pieces.

Once the dough is ready to take out of the oven I take the sauce and plop it down thrustly.  Spread it across the dough and then add the sausage.

I still sprinkle a little cheese to keep the eating audience happy.  Then I put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes and serve.

It is fricking awesome.

Tomorrow I am going to try to bake some kind of a coconut flour/cocunt/carob chip cookies.  I have no idea if they will work, but in my mind they make sense.

Ian

Yogurt!!!

My lunch this week has been wonderful.  I am taking fresh fruits like strawberries...

And then I crush up some fresh blackberries...

And then I add some fresh yogurt from all places, Gramen Farm.

Yep, that is cow yogurt.  Not to be confused with goat yogurt or some other kind of yogurt.  The raw dairy has really opened my eyes and my tastebuds to what dairy should be like.  The cheese there is expensive, but it is by far the most delicious cheese I have ever eaten.  You can ask Ashley, I like, no, I love me some cheese.  I often tell my wife and daughter that I love them as much as I love cheese.  So for me to say this cheese is the best I have eaten says a lot.

At $4 a pint with about $1 of fruit added to half a pint for lunch, it really is not that bad.  It is about $3 a serving and really fills me up.  It has an insane amount of protein and all sorts of yogurt stuff.  I am not a yogurtologist, but I think it is pretty healthy.

Ian

I would like some diseased and unhealthy animals for dinner please...

This couldn't have happened at a better time.  My wife shot this over to me today and said that 8.7 million pounds of beef had been recalled.  This is at a turning point in her wanting to eat better.

Then I read this little article...the recall was on beef processed since 1/1/2013 until 1/7/2014...

Well, thanks for a little late info, USDA.

Now onto dinner.  We had some ground cow meat.  It was grass fed, just down the road from here.  Gramen Farm rocks!!!

I decided to also throw together some green beans and okra.  I was thinking about frying it up in a little olove oil, but instead took the fresh veggies...

Chopped them up, drizzled some olive oil on them...

 

I then took this almond powder.  It isn't almond flour, it is just really diced up almonds.  I added some pepper and cajun seasonings.

Oh, it is getting good.

I shook the hell out of them, placed them on a cookie sheet and baked them for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees.  I probably should have done around 350 for a little less time, and will try that next time.  It passed the wife and Kennedy test this time.

And the breading tasted like seasoned almonds when it was done.

Had a banana and some almond butter for a desert, and now I am feeling good.  Sure do wish that I could get some of that delicious tainted meat though.

Ian

Groceries Groceries Groceries

My favorite part of grocery shopping now is thinking of new ways of preparing the stuff that I used to run the cart through on the way to the cheese aisle.  You know that part of the grocery store with all those crazy colors.  The fresh part...

So my groceries look a lot like this...

15 lb bag of grapefruit
1 lb of green beans
1 lb of jalapenos
2 bunches of parsley
3 bunches of kale
7 lbs of bananas
1 lb of okra
2 bunches of spinach
2 lbs of sweet potatoes
4 lbs of roma tomatoes
2 bunches of celery
4 lbs of carrots
3 lbs of spaghetti squash
1 lb of black beans
2 lbs of strawberries
1 lb of black berries

Before we went to my local HEB we stopped by Gramen Farms and picked up 6 lbs of ground beef and ground pork and 4 pints of the best yogurt...ever.

Looks like it will be a good week.  we will have spaghetti squash spaghetti, pizza, nachos, breakfast for dinner, burgers and tacos this week.  Should be awesome.  And a lot of juice.

And for everyone that says they do not have the time, budget, energy, creativity or any other excuse as to why they cannot shop, cook and eat like this, I call...

Ian

Almond Chips...er...Crackers

 

So I tried a new dough tonight.  I bought shaved almonds, not quite flour, still with the consistency of almonds.  Once I added water it became very messy.  The consistency was like couscous. I tried to ball the dough up and flatten it and that was a huge failure.  So I added some brown rice flour and the batter became very thick.  

 I was then able to flatten them out and put them on a hot skillet.  The dough was very dense.  After about 2 minutes on the skillet the dough had hardened and I was able to flip them easily.  After another minute or two I was able to cut them up in triangles.

 After frying them in olive oil the chips were very thick and dense.  The outcome was almost like a cracker.  So my almond crackers were born.

Ian

Pasta ala Kennedy

So my daughter said I had to name my food.  So I named it Pasta ala Kennedy, and she giggled and laughed and ran away.

This was an awesome meal.  Spaghetti squash, baked at 375 for about 35 minutes and pealed out.  While it baked I took 5 roma tomatoes and one onion and diced them up and put them in a frying pan with some olive oil, salt, red pepper and cooked them down to a chunky sauce.  Ashley is still not down with fresh sauce and wants her prego or ragu.

I then took some pork sausage, the best pork sausage I have ever eaten, and browned it.

It is from the Gramen Farm out in Tomball.  Well, it isn't really Tomball, it is 5 minutes down Mueshke road north of 290.

Then I took the squash, added the sauce and topped it with the pork sausage.  Kennedy said she liked it better than regular spaghetti.  That is a win for me.  We all know that eating better, eliminating the processed food in our lives is not easy, it is downright difficult.  But it is worth it.

Ian

But the USDA says it is safe...

I spent almost all my life thinking that the government had my best interest at heart when it came to food.  This is odd, because when it comes to taxes, representation and just about anything else the government does, I pretty much trust it about as far as I can throw it, and with my bad back I shouldn't be throwing anyone.

So i always thought the USDA had just teams of scientists and regulators that were making sure our food supply was AOK!!!

And through a lot of reading and watching that damn Netflix, I realize that they just do not give 2 shits.

Case in point.  Today Subway made an anouncement that they would stop, in the near future, but not right now, using Azodicarbonamide in their bread.  

Azodicarbonamide...doesn't that sound delicious?  It has always made my shoe rubber and yoga mats more palatable...Yoga mats and shoe rubber...wow.  But as long as it is used in moderation, the USDA says, hey, use it in bread.

Hey, if the United States of America says it is okay for me to eat, why would I disagree?

And when I was looking at the ingredients to my dinner tonight, I could not find Azodicarbonamide.  I found Roma Tomato, Onion, Salt, Pepper, Squash, Olive Oil, Pork Sausage.  Now the pork sausage had some crazy ingredients...

Still looking for the Azodicarbonamide that was not part of my shoe...

Ian
 

 

Pizza

I have this need to not eat like a boring dieter.  So I made Pizza.  I had made tortilla chips the other day with Brown Rice flour and figured that pizza could be made the same way.  It is really dense, but it is pizza, and it is not corn based or wheat based.  It has a little cheese, that is okay with me.  The meat is farm raised natural pork sausage.  The pasta sauce is tomatoes that have been sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with oregano and crushed red pepper.  I will let you know how it tastes after the wife and the kid try it.  I know I will like it, but they are the true judge of the trickery of eating better and healthy.

Ian

********************UPDATE****************

The daughter thought the pizza was awesome, the wife thought the sauce did not taste like pizza sauce (Which is kind of the point, no sugar added).  I believe it was a success.  It can only get better!

Ian

Love this stuff...

Another juice, another bajillion % of my daily recommended intake of a bunch of different vitamins.  I only started juicing right after Christmas, but it is just a game changer.  I went 21 days this January doing nothing but juicing.  Felt like garbage on days 1, 2 & 3, but after that it was great.  I guess my years of toxic buildup and addiction to sugar and corn related products had a grip on me, as I felt like I was coming off heroin in the movie Trainspotting.  

I made the mistake of eating pork roast on the first day of eating "real" food again, and I felt like I had been poisoned. 

Ian

The Third of February...

I have discovered a new thing.  I cannot imagine who came up with this contraption.  I had never noticed it before.  I thought it was just a piece of broken counter top.  I was unaware that this piece of steel did anything but take up space where the counters could not touch.  I think I will call it a stove...

What I have found is that this thing makes raw materials and helps them merge into delicious dishes.  Delicious dishes...love that phrase.  I only need two tools in the kitchen to make this eating primal thing work.  One is this magical stove thing and the other is this wonderful, gift of the modern age...

This neat little invention is what I call a juicer.  It is imperative for my eating on a daily basis.  I just cannot eat all of this in one sitting and not have my jaw hurt...

That was breakfast this morning.  It is a normal breakfast for me.  I usually have some sort of combination of Celery, Kale, Cucumber, Carrots, Apples, Spinach, Parsley and Beats.  Sometimes I get crazy and throw in a Tomato. 

This morning it was half a bunch of celery, a half of a bunch of kale, 3 good sized carrots, 2 apples, about 2 cups of spinach, one good sized beet and a bunch of parsley.  It made about 36 ounces of juice.  Now I will admit that over the last month or so of juicing everyday that I have come to enjoy the taste, but if this is your first juice, avoid the spinach and beet.  This concoction tastes like sweetened dirt.  It is hard to explain but it is awesome.

Let's take a look at what is in this thing...

Celery (About 3 cups):

Vitamin K 98% DRI/DV (
Vitamin A 45%
Folate 27%
Vitamin C 12%
Potassium 21%
Vitamin B2 15%
Calcium 12%

Kale (About 3 cups):

Vitamin K 3300%
Vitamin A 1800%
Vitamin C 210%
Calcium 27%
Omega 3 Fats 16%
Protein 15%
Potassium 24%


Carrots (About 2 cups):

Vitamin A 1300%
Vitamin K 35%
Potassium 22%
Vitamin C 20%
Folate 11%

Apples (About 2 cups):

Vitamin C 23%

Spinach (About 2 cups):

Vitamin K 1800%
Vitamin A 1200%
Iron 70%
Calcium 50%
Potassium 45%
Omega 3 Fats 15%
Protein 20%

Beets (About 1 cup):

Folate 35%
Potassium 15%
Iron 10%

Parsley (About 1 cup):

Vitamin K 140%
Vitamin A 25%
Vitamin C 15%
Iron 5%

So with one juice I get the following:

5,373% of my daily Vitamin K...
4,370% of my daily Vitamin A...
280% of my daily Vitamin C...
89% of my daily Calcium...
96% of my daily Potassium...
85% of my daily Iron...
73% of my daily Folate...
35% of my daily Protein...
31% of my daily Omega 3 Fats...

It makes me feel awesome, and I used to wonder why until I finally counted all this and added it up.  It blew me away.  It is 7:30 in the morning, I have already worked out for the day, and then I put this rocket fuel in my system.

I moved on through the day and had some berries and natural dark chocolate covered almonds for lunch.  After my CrossFit workout this evening I had half a pint of raw natural yogurt from Gramen Farm with some blueberries added to it before I ate a few eggs and some all natural no preservatives, no pesticides, no steroids, no hormones and pretty much God natural pork sausage.

This is the way to eat...And I am not sure, but when i broke the 8 minute mile this evening, it probably had nothing to do with eating better...

Ian

An Introduction

My friend Kennis gave me some great wisdom recently..."Don't take diet advice from a fat person."

Well...I have to disagree.  I cannot think of a better source of dieting than a bunch of fat people.  If you think about it, we (I am a fat person) have tried every imaginable diet, gimmick, quick weight loss program, shake, pill or whatever and have had success with each one.  I have lost 20 pounds at least 20 times in my life.  Yeah, maybe the weight did not stay off.  Yeah, maybe I gained even more back.  But the diet did what it was meant to do.  It made me lose weight.  But it was, after all, just a fad, a gimmick and a small page in my book of life.  The page was quickly turned, usually backwards, and the weight just went back to normal.

Just two and half years ago I weighed in at 365 pounds.   I currently weigh in at 260 pounds.  This took a lot of time, energy and trial and error with food.  I have swayed between 260 and 280 like a breeze in the wind.  I don't want to do that.  I want change.  I want to live long and I want to prosper.  I truly believe that my God has a better use for this body than what I have done with it over the last 35 years.  I abused my body.  I ate too much.  I drank too much.  I kept telling myself over and over again that I would take care of my health when I got older...I got older.

Over the next 4 months a group of like minded individuals at the church I belong to have formed a Life Group and are going to share our experiences, recipes, successes and failures with Primal and Paleo eating.

From what I can gather about diets is that it is not meant to last.  You cannot continue to lose weight forever.  You cannot get back to your birth weight.  What is needed is a complete and total change in the way you view health.

Thanks to Netflix and some great films like Farmagedon, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dying, Food Inc. and Hungry for Change my eyes were cracked open just enough to start doing my own research.  I have so many resources right at my finger tips.

I have found a great local farm that has grass fed animals such as cows, goats and pigs along with a raw dairy that has some of the most ridiculous tasting milk I have ever had.  The yogurt is pretty darn good too.

I don't expect to convince anyone that this is a better way to live.  I am up against a mountain.  But I suspect that everyone knows that fresh is better than a box.

I don't know what this journey will bring.  I know that dieting is silly.  I know that a lifestyle change has to happen.  I have plateaued.  I dropped the first 100 pounds in a year.  I have struggled to remove any more.  Over the next 4 months I will be documenting weight loss, size loss, and hopefully some very delicious reviews of some really delicious dishes.  That is fun to say.  Delicious dishes.I don't want to limit myself to just a piece of meat and veggies every meal.  I want breads, pizza and comfort foods, but I don't want to die for them.

So wish us luck!

Ian