Favorite Challenging Paleosphere Posts from 2011

2011 featured a huge explosion of blogging in the paleosphere. There were many posts that I read that made me challenge previously dearly held notions! I think that it is good to seek and think through different takes, because it keeps us accountable and because it keeps us on our toes, prevents us from relying on half-baked justifications of nutritional concepts. Also, sometimes, reading up on ideas and evidence contrary to our own beliefs actually does change our minds on topics.

Here are just a few of the 2011 posts that I enjoyed because they took on popular ideas.

By Denise Minger of Raw Food SOS:

• The New USDA Dietary Guidelines: Total Hogwash, and Here's Why
• Wild and Ancient Fruit: Is it Really Small, Bitter, and Low in Sugar?
• The Truth About Ancel Keys: We've Got It All Wrong

If you've never read Denise Minger's blog, you're missing out. This is one smart lady, and she isn't afraid to take down sacred cows, no matter their provenance. Vegan myth, paleo myth, mainstream myth - no theory is safe! She is diligent about going through data sets and presenting the statistically significant patterns, making data geeks everywhere go squeeeeeeee!

By Karen of Paleo Periodical:

• The Argument for Slow Entry

Some ambitious folks manage to transition to paleo overnight. Karen says that, for the rest of us, a slow entry may be just the ticket.

By Lea of Paleo Spirit:

• Does the Paleo Diet Make Sense Only in Light of Evolution?

The paleo community has a strong emphasis on evolutionary principles, but Lea argues that you do not need to agree with some or all of those principles to benefit from a nutritious diet that doesn't rely on grains or sugar. She embraces the "as God intended us to eat" aspect. A must-read if you're a Christian who has been interested in the paleo diet but hesitant because of the evolution angle.

By Jimmy Moore (of Livin La Vida Low Carb) and contributors:

• Is There Any Such Thing As Safe Starches on a Low Carb Diet?

This one was convicting to me. The paleo zeitgeist in late 2011 was drifting heavily toward consumption of safe starches like peeled white potatoes and rice. While I think that the metabolically healthy (say, my husband and girls) can handle these just fine, I often strayed from my usual low carb routine, hoping that I could, too - and it seemed I was wrong! Maybe after reaching a goal weight and becoming more used to regular exercise I could indulge more, but for now, I err on the side of caution and stick to modest quantities of lower-GI carbs right around workouts.

By Chris Kresser:

• 3 Reasons Why Coconut Milk May Not Be Your Friend

Kresser reminds us to be diligent in sourcing our coconut milk due to concerns of bisphenol-A (BPA, an endocrine disruptor) lining canned products.

By Krista Scott-Dixon of Stumptuous:

• F*** Calories

"An irreverent, foul-mouthed, yet surprisingly useful guide to what to put in your eating hole. Guaranteed to offend, surprise, and delight."

I love the no nonsense / common sense approach in this free PDF. I also adore Krista Scott-Dixon's special compassion for the practical and social/cultural challenges that women face in fitness and healthy eating.

By Dallas and Melissa Hartwig of Whole9:

• The Bacon Bummer

...a good reminder that, as much as I love bacon, it probably shouldn't be a core source of calories. ;-p

Also:

• Sex with Your Pants On

Err...This one had me thinking twice! I think that there are some paleo treats that are super delicious and very worthwhile in their own right, but I have also personally experienced trying to replicate non-paleo delights to end up with a C- version that's technically paleo-legal, and also leaves me only wishing for the real thing due to the paleofied version's taste inadequacy and blood-sugar-bumping honey or maple syrup content. While I don't advocate the idea of foods as inherently "good" or "bad", "sinful" or "guilt-free", I do think that in the spirit of being honest with oneself in light of personal health, weight, and fitness goals, each person has to figure out where their vulnerabilities lie and whether the paleofied version of an old favorite will only increase pining or even searching for the real version of the old favorite.

By Melissa Joulwan of The Clothes Make the Girl:

• Friday Flashback: Convictions and Goals and Knowing Oneself

This classic (that I saw for the first time when reposted) explores the sometimes fraught balance between having fun (the short term) and being happy (the long term).

By Stacy of Paleo Parents:

• Paleo IRL: Stacy's Confession

To me, this post goes against conventional attitudes because it shows how the scale doesn't have you destroy your day, or your week, or your month. Stacy's already lost a super-wow-inspiring 135 pounds in her paleo journey, so by now she's honed a maturity and can-tackle attitude that doesn't let the tiniest uptick on a scale stop her positive outlook or momentum in the least. Check out how she, her husband, and her three young boys have done paleo in their blog!

By Amanda of A Slim Winter:

• Something Lighter and Cleaner

Amanda and her family are mythbusters of the canard that doing a natural, nourishing whole foods lifestyle inherently means destroying one's budget. While it may take more thoughtful budgeting, Amanda has admirably and impressively steered her family through a tough season of unemployment with many shrewd budgeting tactics, including making bone broth with low-cost chicken feet, and relying on inexpensive and natural liquid castille soap for cleaning purposes. Check out this blog to glean more tips from real-life experience.

What posts from the paleo blogosphere did you enjoy for their mythbusting or thought-provoking value?

A Month of New Things

Something about the paleo lifestyle just forces me to try new things. It's wonderful! As an at-home mom and an introverted, homebody creature of habit I am very rut-prone, but transitioning our family to a paleo way of life a year and a half ago has drug me into more fresh experiences that I'd ever have anticipated.

Here are some new things that I have done for the first time - in the last few weeks alone!

• Crossfit. Oh yes, this is by far the biggest immediate overhaul. I'm still getting to bed early, still rising well before dawn. Every workout is shocking my body - but thankfully, the extreme soreness from last week is slowly starting to dissipate. And...dare I say? Even though every exercise makes me well aware of my current physical limitations, I am having fun. Today was my first day using a weighted bar instead of a PVC pipe, and though it was still relatively light, it was satisfying. I'm also grateful to have a set of very patient and attentive instructors who have helped me to scale some exercises appropriately around a lingering preexisting injury.

• Half a cow. We did it! We have committed to buying half a grass-fed cow from a local farm. It will take a certain amount of budget accommodation on our parts -- which is making me glad that I've already thought through some of our budget and options for making or acquiring Christmas gifts. Meanwhile, I need to start clearing out our freezers a bit to make room!
  
• Beef tongue. AND beef liver. TOGETHER. My first stab at making offal was in today's batch of chili. I had picked up the tongue and liver at the same local farm this past weekend. I was very suprised to see how well the tongue cooked - overnight last night on low in the crock pot, then the outer rough skin came right off this morning, revealing a very tender pot roast type meat (I used the recipe at Primal Palate as inspiration for how to approach cooking the tongue). I took the advice of Lindsay over at Wildness and Wonder and pulsed our pastured beef liver in the mini food processor until it was super fine, and then added it to the chili in the crock pot. The result was very savory, definitely reminiscent a bit of liverwurst, and tasty with sour cream and shredded cheese. I enjoyed it, and my girls definitely enjoyed it (my four year old asked for seconds!) - but next time I may add even more muscle meat in a bid to tone the robust liver taste down.

• A touch of bourbon in whipped cream with vanilla seeds. I don't think this requires much of an explanation. :)
  
  

What new things have you been trying lately?

Paleo / Primal Shortcuts: Knowing Your Strengths, While Learning from Others

When I first dove into the primal lifestyle last June, I put lots of pressure on myself to tackle the whole spectrum of paleo eating styles right away: acquiring lots of high quality fats, baking paleo goodies, sourcing higher quality foods, and so on. I guess that I thought that it was an all-or-nothing venture! But soon I learned that it was folly to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

For me, going from zero to sixty like that was exhausting - I wasn't managing very well. Then it dawned on me: There's a whole community of likeminded folks on the Internet just overflowing with solid nutritional information and recipes.

Why would I try to become a paleo baking expert overnight? I sure wasn't a baking expert before jumping into primal life, so I knew that I could end up burning up a lot of time and somewhat more expensive specialty ingredients (coconut flour, nut butters, etc.) in a quest to perfect a baked creation of my own.

Meanwhile, there were so many great blogs with scrumptious primal / paleo-friendly baked goods that my family and guests could enjoy, that it suddenly made sense to get a feel for primal / paleo baking by making some of these recipes for a while, first. To throw just a few examples out there (and there are so many more!):

This my slice of Bill's Chiffon Pumpkin Pie, via
The Food Lovers' Primal Palate,
which I chose to contribute to our family's
feast last Thanksgiving. Yum!

• The Food Lovers' Primal Palate (see their recipe list linked here for a whole list of desserts) - Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake is my go-to for a dessert that nonprimal / nonpaleo company has thoroughly enjoyed at our place in the past!
  
  
• Life As A Plate - I have been dying to try out her Irish Cream Gluten-Free Pear Crisp for Two, once I acquire some Bailey's.
  
  
• What I Crave - her most recent creation that caught my eye was Chocolate Chunk Hazlenut Biscotti.
  
  
• Joyful Abode - which has the deliciously simple-looking Almond Flour Shortbread, and of course her Grain-Free Granola Bars, which we have made before at our house and LOVED.
  
  
• Eat the Cookie - which has the coconut-flour- and almond-flour-based grain-free Honey Graham Crackers and a special-occasion-worthy Lemon Tart.
  
  
• And of course...DessertStalker! This recently-debuted recipe-aggregator site features a selection of real-food desserts from around the web - with picture previews. You're sure to find inspiration there!

Deciding to try these recipes has been lots of fun - and guess what? While baking these recipes has taught me lots about the natures of different ingredients and their combinations, letting others' wisdom and experience "write" a delicious dessert menu has freed me up to spend more of my time and resources experimenting in areas where I'm more comfortable - sauces and reductions, roasts, grilling marinades, soups, smoothies, ice cream, etc. I call this a win-win!

Have you decided to "apprentice" yourself by trying out recipes or tutorials from other wise and experienced real-food folks? What sites and writers have you enjoyed and sought to help learn more about areas where you're not so experienced or comfortable?

Christmas Eve Dinner - Prep for Cheesy Chicken and Potato Soup

As I type this, the remains of a mirepoix simmer on the stove. The rest of the mirepoix has been ladeled over 3 chickens in 2 crockpots to cook on low overnight.

I'm adapting my mother-in-law's family tradition of potato soup at Christmastime. The original recipe, from her mother, called for skim milk and an irrational quantity of non-dairy creamer, which - you guessed it - is loaded with hydrogenated oils. In place of the skim and the non-dairy creamer, I'll use one or both of organic whole milk and/or organic heavy whipping cream.

The one neolithic ingredient of the soup that I'm willing to keep, especially since this recipe is a once-a-year thing, are cheese singles. In my mother-in-law's potato soup making heydey, she probably used Kraft; I'll be using Horizon organic singles for their stripped down ingredient list and smooth meltability.

For the mirepoix, I simmered salted Kerrygold butter, diced celery, diced white onions, diced carrots, halved mushrooms, minced parsley, and minced chives. Are you supposed to slow cook parsley and/or chives? I'm not sure, but I had a load of these fresh on hand because tomorrow I'm making AndreAnna's Grain-Free Savory Country Biscuits and at my grocery store you must buy about 10 times as much of the fresh parsley and chives as I'm planning to use in the biscuits. My extra bits of fresh celery and parsley have gone into a freezer bag for a future batch of broth or stock (see tips on making your own broth and stock here, and also here).

So, the to-do list for tomorrow, before we feed a crowd of 8 adults and 2 children dinner:

• Grain-Free Savory Country Biscuits - in my convection toaster oven, the Christmas gift from my generous parents
• Finish the Cheesy Chicken and Potato Soup - Remove 3 cooked chickens from the crockpots. Tear off the slow-cooked chicken meat into hearty chunks, add back into the broth in the crock pots. Add 1/2" cubes of potatoes to slow cook for a few hours more. Just before serving, add singles and stir to melt, along with by any cream or milk necessary.

I emailed tomorrow night's guests shamelessly soliciting primal-compatible indulgences for dessert and they gladly delivered, so dessert will be: nuts, chocolate, clementines. Yay for crockpot cooking and crowdsourcing making a (more or less) primal Christmas Eve a simpler task!

How are YOU adapting your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebration food to be more paleo / primal / gluten free / grain free / sugar free? If you're blogging about your adaptations, feel free to add your link!

Bacon and Crab Stuffed Peppers, Courtesy of Life As A Plate

You may have noticed these cute baby peppers
in my daughter's lunch last week.
They were at Sam's Club and so compelling.

It dawned on me that they would be the perfect stand-in for mushrooms in AndreAnna's Bacon and Crab Stuffed Mushrooms, because my husband has a longstanding issue with the texture of mushrooms. I whipped up the filling and stuffed my peppers.

I even happened to have enough pork rinds around to crush and sprinkle before baking. They have a TON of flavor, and after 20 minutes the peppers are just cooked enough to be tender-crisp, yielding to the warm filling. Perfect texture! I love the colors in these - would definitely add some Southwestern seasonings and make'em for Cinco de Mayo. :) Thanks, AndreAnna, for the inspiration!

 

Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt - Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

This week's Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt brought me to Amy Green's blog Simply Sugar and Gluten Free. I love Amy's laid-back style and her evident passion for crafting quality dishes. She's even training as a chef! She lost over 60 pounds after giving up white sugar and gluten, so that enough is reason to check out her finely-tuned recipes. Also, her blog has a lot of innovative twists on substitutes in a world without gluten or sugar, so of course I'm inspired by her creativity.

In particular, she offers a lot in the realm of desserts which I will probably peruse in the event of very special occasions - though much of her baking contains non-gluten grain flours, I wouldn't mind baking up some of her teff-flour gingerbread cupcakes for my preschooler's birthday classroom cupcake treat to share with her friends, as my primary goal is avoiding gluten and refined sugar. (I've made them once before, substituting palm sugar for the agave.)

Amy also has a terrific "How To" lineup:

• How to Butterfly Chicken Breasts
• How to Freezer Marinate Chicken
• How to Hard Boil Eggs Perfectly
• How to Line a Cake Pan the No Fuss Way
• How to Make Garlic Paste
• How to Oven Roast a Squash & Dry the Seeds
• How to Peel a Butternut Squash
• How to Roast Peppers
• How to Segment an Orange

Here are some primal-adaptable Simply Sugar and Gluten Free recipes of Amy's that I'm dying to try:

• Dairy-Free Coconut Spice Chai Ice Cream looks delish! (Enough to make me put an ice cream maker on my Christmas wish list! I'd do full-fat coconut milk and skip the agave.)
• Almond Flour Crepes
• Broiled Grapefruit (I'd probably do honey in favor of agave)
• Mushroom Frittata
• Homemade Buttermilk Dill Ranch Dressing (I'd use organic full-fat yoghurt)

Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt - Joyful Abode, Including Grain-Free Granola Bars!

Joyful Abode's blog is such a breath of fresh air - real, grain-free food - and a lot of "real life" foods. Recipes that may enable me to keep my husband and 3-year-old willing to continue eating this way.

After intending to make this for a couple of weeks, I finally got around to cranking out a batch of Joyful Abode's Grain-Free Granola Bars. All I can say is: YUM. I will definitely be integrating this into rotation. Author Emily Chapelle is right; it requires a certain amount of muscle to press the bars together (and I will be pressing even harder next time), but the results are so worth it! Lightly sweet, but full-bodied with a chewy, nutty taste. All I could ask for! You'll probably see these popping up in my preschooler's lunchboxes.

Recipes like this are the reason Joyful Abode is this week's Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt. Other Joyful Abode grain-free recipes I'll be doing in the future:

• Cheese Crisps accompanied by A-Freaking-Mazing Artichoke Dip
• Chicken Broccoli Cheese Bake
• Grain-Free Chicken Cordon Bleu

Mmmmm freezable comfort foods...mmmm.

Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt - Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ah, the weekend is on the horizon, and it's time for Primal Kitchen's Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt. I don't care if the blog is paleo, primal, vegan, vegetarian, raw foodist, fruitarian, or what; if you have some yummy-looking and primal / paleo -compatible recipes on your blog or site, you've piqued my curiosity, and I just might end up posting links to those recipes in my weekly hunt. I'm all for ecumenism. :)

This week's hunt turned up the Pioneer Woman. I'm not naive to think I've 'discovered' Ree and you haven't -  Ree Drummond runs one of the most popular domestic-life-themed blogs to grace the web. There's a reason she's so appealing - her love of cooking is infectious. Here are some of her primal / paleo friendly recipes:

• Rosemary Skewers - what a GREAT appetizer. I may make during this coming football season.
• Asian Noodle Salad - only I'd skip the noodles and brown sugar. Looks like a scrumptious pairing of flavors!
• Ginger Steak Salad - I'd skip the sugars, or at the very most use about 1/4 as much, as in half a teaspoon brown sugar and half a tablespoon white
• Beer-Braised Beef with Onions - go with a dark beer, a la Mark Sisson
• Steak with Burgundy Mushroom Sauce - 'nuff said
• Egg Florentine Casserole (by her buddy, Pastor Ryan) - if you eschew potatoes, make your hashbrowns with parsnips
• Huevos Ree-os (without the tortilla)

Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt - Weelicious

This may be the start of a new feature here at Primal Kitchen - the Friday Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt. It is a hunt, analogous to Grok sizing up his newest environs to see what looks tasty and edible.

Though Catherine McCord isn't paleo / primal, she is all about real-ingredient clean eating. My Grok-Friendly Recipe Hunt this week turned up McCord's blog weelicious.com. She notes in her "About" page:

"When I had my kids, Kenya and Chloe, I realized that I wanted them to be exposed to seasonal, organic food that’s as pure as possible. I want them to know that food shouldn’t have to be pumped with sugar, salt and preservatives to be delicious."

What can I say? I like her style. :) Here are some paleo / primal friendly recipes that I turned up in just a short time while browsing her site. I will definitely be trying some of these out in the near future. Try her gluten free tags page for some ideas, too.

• Spinach Ricotta Bites (ooo definitely an idea for my preschooler's lunchboxes)
• Carrot Chips (ditto on the lunchboxes!)
• Mango pops (I'd probably use unsweetened coconut milk or almond milk instead of rice milk)
• Homemade Strawberr-Wee Fruit Leather
• Avocado (with lime juice and salt)
• Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Cheese Spread (I'd totally eat with celery or carrots)
• Kale Chips

Son of Grok's Strawberry Cheesecake with Joyful Abode's Chocolate Ganache

Happy Birthday to my mom! We celebrated over Son of Grok's strawberry cheesecake with Joyful Abode's chocolate ganache spread on top. To me, the cheesecake was just sweet enough; my nonprimal relatives proclaimed it "tart" - but in a good, European dessert kind of way - and they said that the sweet, dark chocolate ganache was the perfect balance. It might have been just a bit prettier had there been a springform pan on hand.

The only substitutions I had to make to the cheesecake mix were these: I had only one 8 oz. block of organic cream cheese, so I used 8 oz. of organic cottage cheese for the second cream cheese block called for by the recipe. The result was firm, creamy, very lightly sweet, and tart. I would happily eat by itself, but with the ganache it is a little more "intro to primal/paleo" friendly. I also added just a few of the semisweet chocolate chips to the melted butter/almond meal crust and mixed to melt/combine.

Stoked About Primal Blueprint Fitness and September Primal Blueprint Challenge

Did you hear? Mark Sisson released a free PDF as an intro to an ongoing project with his readership to encourage Primal Blueprint Fitness. While this blog is primarily a blog about my adventures in cooking primally, I'm really stoked to see that PBF has made its debut because I'd been reading a lot on MDA about ways to lift heavy things, run fast, etc., but it hadn't been all in one place until now. And there's a community element to it, so even if I don't know anybody locally who's doing it, with the new Workout of the Week, I can at least give it a go and see how others are faring with it online.

Before I discovered MDA, I'd been slugging it out, doing 60 minute+ sessions on the elliptical at the gym (of course, while also still eating lots of sugar and flour, which of course negated the effort and probably combined with the cardio to inflame my system). Those were 60 minutes I just didn't have, either, frankly! With a nursing baby who was teething, more often than not I was getting called home from the gym early. SO, needless to say, the prospect of Mark and his Apples offering a lot of tips on short, intense workouts seems like it could be a lot more doable. For the last couple of months, I've been doing some light weight work (and of course carrying around a 25 lb. baby also probably constitutes something additional ;-p), but I'm ready to see what PBF has to offer now in terms of some anaerobic activity.

Also, the 2010 Primal Blueprint Challenge is coming...in September!! I am excited and planning on participating.