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