On a Paleo Lifestyle as a Gift to Your Loved Ones

Happy Thanksgiving! Of course, paleo foodie that I am, I couldn't resist taking a shot of a loaded plate with my Droid. (You stay classy, Primal Kitchen.)

I am deeply grateful for the paleo, primal, and Crossfit communities - especially that they are so vibrant in our virtual world. :) Though it's been so thrilling to finally run into some traditional food folks in the flesh in the last couple of months, I know that there is no way I would have made progress or learned as much as I have without the collective wisdom and shared tips of fellow paleo people all around the world - and that includes my readers. THANK YOU for sharing your stories, tips, and recipes and for offering up support! I hope that your Thanksgiving holiday weekend offers lots of warm and memorable moments with your loved ones.

And...speaking of Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I'll wager that a few of you might be braving the crowds today for Black Friday deals. Bravo for you, I say! But even better, if you've stopped relying on sugar, grains, and industrial oils in your diet - if you've "gone paleo" - you are giving your loved ones a better gift than any you could have picked up at the big box store, even if you were first in line camped out with a tent and power generator.

As you know, I am the mother of two daughters, aged (almost) 2 and 4. While I know that (despite my wishes) I can't protect them from everything, I know that I can do my best to protect them from a lot of unnecessary ills. If I make it a priority for us to eat foods that our bodies are meant to use as fuel, and I ensure that my girls get lots of fresh air activity outdoors, I've gone a long way to protect them from:

• Childhood obesity. If kids' day-to-day menus are chock-full of nutrient dense foods (and inherently lower carb than standard industrial diets), their metabolisms will operate as intended and won't degrade over time.
  
• Inactivity. Fueling kids with quality food gives them the long-lasting energy needed to support lots of healthy playtime, climbing, running, and anything else their little bodies wish to tackle! Meanwhile, overdoses of sugar and other less desirable ingredients (especially from processed foods as a dietary staple) only serve to deplete energy and offer up a blood sugar roller coaster.
  
• Childhood disease. There's still a lot we're learning about cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses that shouldn't be a part of any kid's life - but it's certainly becoming clear that wholesome nutrient dense diets partnered with outdoor play and healthy Vitamin D stores result in healthier populations on the whole.

As an adult, "going paleo" has a similar set of benefits! If you've been waffling or thinking about "going paleo", I urge you to consider giving it a 30 day try! You'll be amazed by the difference in how you feel (even short term), and even more by the long-term benefits reaped.

When you and your kids are eating the food you're designed to eat - and getting sunshine, fresh air, and exercise, you'll live longer and have more energy to do the things you love, and the "best you" is a gift that keeps giving!

Going paleo is one of the greatest gifts that you can give your loved ones - especially in the legacy it leaves your kids!

This post also appears on the collaborative blog Highbrow Paleo.

Menu Plan

Yesterday morning: Sliced mango and leftover chicken,
whole milk on the side.

Wow, we made it through March! It was a very rainy March for us - and it's still rainy today, hence the playlist.

I was shocked at how much money we saved on groceries last month with my husband being the primary grocery shopper -- enough to have him involved in grocery shopping a lot more often from here on out.

Also? My preschooler is more or less geared now toward the idea of whole foods for breakfast; I can't remember the last time that she asked about breakfast cereal, and I consider that a milestone of some sort.

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday:

Leftover beef brisket soup, absolutely
loaded with leeks and mushrooms.

Breakfast - Hot tea for me, bananas and leftover chicken with mango for my girls
Lunch - Liverwurst, smoky autumn beef brisket soup using leftover beef roast
Dinner - Flank steaks on the grill - it's grillin' weather, baby, YEA! :)

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Hot tea for me, milk and fruit for my girls (I meant to get some protein in for them, too, but the morning got ahead of me!)
Lunch - Leftover beef brisket soup, Dubliner cheese
Dinner - Chebe Pizza!*

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Onion and cheese omelette
Lunch - Fasting for me, probably
Dinner - Chuck steaks under the broiler, baked Brussels sprouts with butter

Thursday:
Breakfast - Frozen blueberries, warmed with cinnamon, served with cottage cheese
Lunch - Lamb shoulder simmered in tamari and butter
Dinner - Salmon filets, coconut oil veggie stir fry

Friday:
Breakfast - Whole milk yoghurt with liquid whole leaf stevia and vanilla extract
Lunch - We're visiting with a friend and her daughter! She's providing the chicken for grillin', I'm supplying a loaded salad and maybe some Green & Black's as a special treat :)
Dinner - Bacon and eggs

Tonight's Chebe crust pizza, which I made using the
very simple and low-carb Victoria tomato basil sauce.
It is, quite simply, delicious.
I would be proud to serve it to company.

*Look away if you are dogmatic -- I saw Chebe Bread Pizza Crust Mix as somebody had mixed and baked it up on another paleo blog (it's tapioca flour based, very short ingredient list, came highly rated). Drumroll...this means that yes, our household will have the occasional pizza night! (I haven't been contacted by Chebe with any review requests; I discovered and bought Chebe of my own initiative, and am glad that I did!) I did some Googling, and discovered that Chebe also sells frozen pizza crusts with the same ingredients as the dry mix ... but unfortunately the wet ingredients added in the frozen crust include (ick! so bad for you) canola oil.

Definitely some leftovers going with my husband
and daughter in their lunches tomorrow.

But now that I know that the tapioca flour crust won't "die" while waiting in a freezer, I hold out some hope that I could make the dry mix (as I did tonight) fresh at home with Kerrygold, but then press it flat and and add some toppings, and finally freeze it for when unexpected dinner company drops in, or those nights when we arrive at home after some long trip with nothing in our fridge, or in case of nausea/illness/recovery when something simple and fast is needed. Hmmm, maybe that is a case where a vacuum sealing appliance comes in handy -- as it did for Joyful Abode when she cracked open some frozen vaccum sealed twice baked potato skins that she had made with her postpartum recovery time in mind.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you! All opinions expressed here are honest and my own.

Basic Butter-Glazed Shrimp

I have a sister-in-law in the Midwest who is a kitchen wonder - recipes inspired by her cooking certain to appear again and again on this blog. In the beginning of June (life before Grok, as it were), when she and her family were visiting, she introduced my husband's side of the family to the concept of buying, peeling, then butterflying fresh shrimp, glazing with a basic butter marinade, and then grilling to perfection.

It was one of those meals when even the most talkative in the crowd fell silent as we savored every bite. And though I've mentioned this before in my 4th of July post, I thought that the shrimp recipe merited a little extra post of its own, because it is so easy and so fast!

Basic Butter-Glazed Shrimp
Serves 3, conservatively, or 2 generously

Ingredients
1 lb. raw fresh or thawed shrimp, peeled, butterflied, tails removed (This process actually takes only about 10 minutes per pound)
1 stick butter (I prefer to use salted Kerrygold)
Drizzle honey (totally optional - but my sister-in-law had it in her original recipe so I include it here)
A few cranks of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions
Mix all ingredients. If grilling, skewer about 4-5 to a skewer, turned continuously on the grill, over a piece of foil if desired. (This is great also with pineapple on the skewers.) Do not overcook - once they are all pink and just a bit browned from the grill (see pic below), serve hot!

You can also sautee at high heat for about 5 minutes - but you must watch carefully and stir constantly. Take the pan off of the heat as soon as the grey is gone and the shrimp are all pink, lest you overcook and make them tough.

Here are the shrimp already peeled and tails gone, soaking up that butter. I'm about to butterfly them.

This is me butterflying a shrimp - just run a serrated knife along the "spine" to open it up a bit. This gives you more surface area for that delicious butter glaze to cover. ;)

Sauteed (last night's meal):

Grilled (though these had not been butterflied):

Serving suggestion with pineapple and asparagus
(great meal for nonprimal company):

Salsa Guac

Sorry - no pics this time. The guacamole - served with tonight's fried tilapia - got eaten so fast that there wasn't time to compose any compelling shots. But you still get the recipe for this ridiculously easy guac! I would definitely serve this to company in the future with a veggie tray for dippin'.

Salsa Guac

Serves 1 very generously

Ingredients

1/2 cup of tomato-based salsa (I use a premade tomato/cilantro/lime juice based salsa from my grocery store's produce section)

1 Hass avocado

Directions

Combine the salsa with chunks of avocado - in your electric minichopper (I got mine at WalMart about 5 years back for $9.99) or your food processor. 

***

According to Nutritiondata.com, the salsa-guac mix for 1/2 c. salsa with 1 cubed avocado is roughly:

262 calories

20 g carbs (11g fiber)

5 g protein

21 g fat (woo!)

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.