Bone Broths and Packed Lunches

Thermos of bone broth in the sunshine.
I'll bet she never gets sick.
(Via the Library of Congress on Flickr.)

Bone broth is a cornerstone of any healthy ancestral diet - whether you identify as "just eat real food", Weston A. Price Foundation, paleo, primal, or any other diet based in nutrient-dense foods.

Broths and stock made from scratch using the bones of naturally-raised animals can offer up gelatin and trace minerals - like a warm, soothing multivitamin that you can sip. Broth made from scratch has been demonstrated to have anti inflammatory properties, and to aid in regulating the immune system. Who wouldn't want some immune system regulation, especially with the colder temps coming up?

However, there tend to be logistical complications with bringing bone broth to school or work. Though bone broth is a wonderful and nutritious addition to any meal, and considered an essential part of the GAPS diet, it's sometimes tough to figure out tidy and appetizing ways to consume bone broth away from home.

There are a few "outside the box" ways to get bone broth into your away-from-home lunch and snacks. One is to simply slurp down a few "cubes" of cold gelled broth. No smell, no worrying about heating the broth - it is a fast (if not that appetizing) way to get some broth in your belly.

For adults, there is often the option of using a smaller appliance discretely at work, to heat bone broth by itself or as part of a leftover soup or stew. One simple and inexpensive option is a coffee mug warmer to gently heat your broth in a ceramic coffee cup. You could also reheat broth in a mini 2-cup capacity crock pot if your office permitted it. I've even seen a handled thermos with a metal inner bowl that you can cradle on a warming dock at your office.

Microwaves, too, are an option, but a lot of ancestral health folks avoid those, especially if on GAPS, in a bid to preserve the structural/nutritional integrity of the broth. (The jury is out for me on how much microwaves actually change bone broth.)

A no-appliance method for warm broth consumption is to find yourself a high performance, reliable stainless steel or ceramic thermos. (I love my Nissan thermos - it's served me very well for years.) This way, you can transfer bone broth straight from your slow cooker into your thermos, and enjoy sips of warm broth at your leisure all day long. The thermos is definitely the friendliest option if you are in close, shared quarters with coworkers - because some people relish a long simmered broth, and others can do without the smell lingering. It is a great option, too, for picnics, or day trips and road trips, making travelling a little more flexible even for those who need bone broth every day, like GAPS patients.

When it comes to my 2.5 year old, who is on the GAPS diet, I've elected to keep bone broth a staple at home. Since she comes home from preschool less than an hour after her lunchtime with her teachers and classmates, it's easy for me to offer her bone broth before and after preschool to avoid having to figure out ways to get it in her tummy when she's at preschool.

What methods do you use to get more bone broth into your day? Do you have a bone broth ninja method to share?


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Shopping Amazon through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

Operation "Smuggle Cod Liver Oil", aka the Supplement Smoothie

I've tried a lot of different methods to smuggle certain vitamins to my kids over the last couple of years. This year has become an even more interesting gambit because there are certain supplements I've been advised to give my two year old with sensory processing disorder. How do you get a young, sensory kid with oral motor and language delay issues to down different forms of necessary (and sometimes not-that-tasty) supplements?

A smart girl makes the most of a banana.
(Via the the U.S. National Archives on Flickr.)

My current answer is: a banana smoothie. After going through the initial stages of the GAPS diet, very ripe (brown-spotted) bananas are permitted. My sensory two year old doesn't get as much fruit as she did pre-GAPS. This means that she's especially eager to have some of that banana smoothie, because it tastes extra sweet to her these days. I use that one banana's worth of smoothie to my full advantage to smuggle in her supplements - and a nice feature is that a thoroughly blended ripe banana's thick liquid texture accommodates drops, powders, and capsule contents alike.

Most of the time, I use a minichopper to make the smoothie. It's so much easier to pop the chopper's cup and blade off into the dishwasher after making the smoothie - much less work than dealing with a blender or my full sized food processor. Another option I've used for the smoothie is an immersion blender, which works well as long as the banana is very ripe. I simply blend a very ripe banana until it's a thick liquid, and then add the supplements and blend a bit again.

Fortunately, sucking thick liquids through a straw is one of many oral motor exercises that our speech therapists and occupational therapist have recommended for my two year old, so I get to kill multiple birds with one stone when she's slugging down her smoothie.

For omega-3 essential fatty acids, I use Carlson's cod liver oil for kids in Lightly Lemon flavor (which I order on Vitacost.com) - I've found that the lemon and the banana flavors combine very well with no discernable fishy aftertaste. A high quality fish oil that's been tested for negative with heavy metal contamination is critical for us, since my sensory girl doesn't eat that much fish because of concerns about heavy metals and her body's limited ability (if any) to deal with them appropriately. That said, we give Carlson's to my neurotypical 5.5 year old as well, because quality omega-3s are almost always a good addition to one's diet. There are a few really good quality fish oils out there, many with flavored options. I think a cinnamon flavor fish oil might also combine pretty well with blended ripe banana, but I haven't tried that combo yet myself.

Other things I've been known to smuggle into the banana smoothies include Vitamin D3 drops (a great idea anyway for kids who may not get enough sunshine), Vitamin K2 drops (as I've mentioned, a decent addition for those avoiding dairy), and some trace minerals that are especially critical for kids with neurological issues, such as magnesium, iodine, and selenium. Of course, in tandem with giving these supplements are our efforts to improve our daughter's gut health with the GAPS diet, in order for her digestive tract to regain its ability to appropriately absorb and process these nutrients in the first place! While I think it's ideal to get as much of these micronutrients from their original food sources as possible, in the case of a kiddo playing developmental catchup, making sure that these bases are covered is that much more important, which is why I'm grateful that most mornings, a banana smoothie usually gets enthusiastically gulped down.

How do you ensure that your kids get their supplements down the hatch? Do you have any tricks for them (or for you!)?

~

This blog post is an explanation of personal experiences for entertainment purposes only, and is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. Please consult your trusted primary care physician with any questions about major changes in your diet and your family's diet, and remember that decisions about your diet and your family's diet are your own to make based on your own health and circumstances. 

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon and Vitacost. Shopping Amazon and Vitacost through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

Lunchbox #192

Here is a lunchbox for my kindergartner. It featured:

• Strips of roasted chicken tossed in some homemade ranch dressing
• Baby carrots
• A single serving pouch of guacamole (great way to get some guac without it going brown by lunchtime)
• An apple
• A mini box of raisins
• A coconut butter cup (coconut butter, coconut oil, a little raw honey, and a little sea salt...mix together while warm, pour a mini muffin cup liner, and freeze)
  
  

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link - shopping Amazon through it supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you - thanks very much!

Lunchbox #191

This is a recent lunch for my husband. It featured:

• A steak salad. A bed of iceberg lettuce, a generous amount of sliced cold leftover grilled steak, and some sliced grape tomatoes. It was topped with a chili-powder heavy (= spicier) version of my homemade savory ranch dressing.
• Pistachios
• Baby carrots
• Half a banana

~

Lunchbox #190

Here is a paleo lunchbox of my husband's. It featured:

• Baked spaghetti squash, covered with a serving of meaty marinara (basically grass fed ground beef, marinara, and some added mushrooms)
• Pistachios and dried apple chips
• Sliced nectarines

~

{GAPS} Lunchbox #189

Here is a GAPS lunchbox for my 2.5 year old daughter. The banana is just starting to go spotty - this is her snack. It's eaten seperately from the lunch during snacktime, which is handy, because GAPS generally suggests keeping fruit consumption seperate from meals.

The top half of the lunchbox is her actual lunch. It keeps the portions accordingly small for a 2.5 year old -

• Thin strips of roasted chicken
• Quartered grape tomatoes
• Shelled pistachios
• A coconut butter cup - this is coconut butter, coconut oil, a little bit of raw honey, and a little bit of sea salt

The Context Post: Managing Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) with Paleo / GAPS diet principles

Lingering in the background of the last few months describing GAPS diet related stuff is, of course, a full and complex story. Early in the spring, my 2.5 year old daughter was diagnosed as having speech delay and sensory processing disorder (SPD).

WOOF. How is that for a suddenly serious, personal revelation on what, to this point, has been a fairly lighthearted blog?

For those not familiar, sensory processing disorder (SPD) is a neurological disorder that affects the way that a person's brain takes in and perceives sensory information. This includes inputs from sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and the lesser known vestibular (body spatial relationship) and proprioceptive (pressure) senses.   It often occurs in tandem with many other neurological disorders.

I went back and forth in my head on whether it was worthwhile, discussing these issues. After all, my daughter is deserving of privacy as much as any other person, and I debated whether it was worthwhile bringing family business to a public sphere.

Then I realized: We've learned a lot in the last 7 months. The journey thus far has proven (and continues to be) a crucible for our whole family in many ways. What if...what if some of the lessons we've learned over weeks and months could be distilled into blog posts that would help other parents of children with sensory issues and other neurological issues? What if they might learn something by reading a post that is turns out to be a shortcut for them, whereas otherwise they'd have spent much longer working through it on their own, or perhaps to never even have tried it?

As if it weren't obvious from my slowed blogging pace, we had to hit the ground running with managing my little one's SPD - in large part because it seemed to be a main culprit in her speech delay. After all, if your brain is not processing sensory information in a typical way, it is very likely going to impact how well your brain can interpret and develop language - and that window for optimal brain plasticity and language development closes very quickly. So, we've been immersed in speech therapy and occupational therapy. We've tried so much - some stuff works for us, and some stuff doesn't. This turns out to be typical, as every case of SPD is different and unique to the person who has it.

Lingering in my head was a suspicion that my daughter's diet could be even better honed from her 80/20  paleo model to manage her SPD symptoms. While our family tries to stay gluten free at home, I hadn't restricted my daughter from eating Sunday school snacks (almost always wheat-based as in pretzels, crackers, cookies) or the odd piece of cake at a birthday party. News of her diagnosis, however, suddenly motivated me to crack down. I wanted to know for sure if the small but regular doses of gluten were impacting her. I also reluctantly completely cut her off of dairy. While our state laws are tough on raw milk, we had been buying low temp pasteurized grassfed milk from a local farmer, and this milk - in addition to full fat cheese and yoghurt - at that point made up a significant portion of her calories.

Upon going "cold turkey", the difference was astounding. Within a few days it was as if my daughter came out of a fog. We went from her sometimes acquiring one word per week to trying to say about 40 words in a single weekend. Her eye contact also dramatically improved in those few days. To this day I still can't be certain whether it was the gluten, or the dairy, or both, but I'm willing to bet that it was both, because wheat and dairy sensitivity frequently go hand in hand, especially in the presence of  neurological disorders. My mother-in-law (a retired speech therapist) and my dear friend both remarked on the huge before/after difference in my daughter's attempts to verbalize, whereas before she had simply not even been trying.

In the late spring I saw something flicker across my Twitter feed, mentioning the use of the GAPS diet in managing dyspraxia. My daughter's speech delay was initially identified as apraxia, which is a kind of verbal dyspraxia - a verbal motor planning disorder, so in that moment I began to seek more about GAPS. As I learned, GAPS is a long-term gut health management diet plan that aims to get to a source of many neurological issues, including my daughter's condition.

The GAPS theory dovetailed so precisely with what we had witnessed going on with my daughter's reaction to going wheat- and dairy-free - in that for her to have sudden and documented neurological improvement when removing wheat and dairy in her diet, her damaged gut was probably letting those proteins through to her bloodstream and her brain. I knew that for our family, in this case, I was willing to give GAPS a try. (Note that GAPS does not de facto exclude dairy and permits it in certain forms in even in the early stages, but GAPS does allow for dairy to be excluded entirely if it needs to be, as is the case for us right now.)

First, I found a certified GAPS practitioner who was willing to consult by phone (as we have no certified practitioners living close to us) - a delightful lady that works with special needs kids as the core of her consulting business. I gathered for her all of my questions, and she patiently answered them over the course of a two hour phone call. We began my daughter on GAPS in earnest in late June, with a very slow reintroduction of foods over the following weeks.

My youngest daughter is the only one of us that is full-on GAPS. Like many parents who kick off GAPS and integrate its bone broth, probiotics, and other elements into their routines, I've had my initial doubts as to its impact, but those were put to rest when we recently had to reluctantly suspend her intake of probiotic drops and probiotic foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, etc.) in order to collect stool samples that my daughter's primary care doctor was sending off to a lab. I saw some noticeable SPD regressions in her in that short time frame, enough to convict me that GAPS had indeed been bolstering her progress. We're only 2.5 months in, but I'm excited to see my daughter's continued progress as supported by GAPS.

Since my daughter is still nursing, I'm also strictly wheat and dairy free. We are careful, though, with our significant dietary shifts - under the advice of our certified GAPS consultant and the close supervision of our primary care physician, we are taking care to monitor nutrient intake and absorption as best we can. As just one example, due to the lack of high fat dairy in our diets, both my daughter and I take a high quality form of Vitamin K2, the fat-soluble vitamin found in high fat dairy and natto, which aids the body in depositing calcium where it belongs (i.e., teeth and bones, instead of in atherosclerotic plaque). All this information I put "out there" is to explain that we did not make lightly the decision to try GAPS for our daughter, and it remains an undertaking that we pursue carefully, with the advice and services of professionals that we trust. I see GAPS not as the only tool in our "SPD management" toolbox, but it is a cornerstone in her progress - it supports everything else we try with our speech therapy and occupational therapy by giving her the best chance at learning and hitting new milestones.

Is the GAPS diet worth considering for your family or one or more family members? Only with research and consulting your trusted primary care physician can you know for sure. But, if you're thinking about trying it, you can be sure that here at Primal Kitchen, you'll often catch tidbits about how we've found GAPS shortcuts, practical preparation tips, and the social/cultural aspects of doing GAPS for a young child with sensory issues.

Do you have a loved one with sensory processing issues? Have you thought about giving GAPS a try for boosting gut health? What have been your experiences?


~

This blog post is an explanation of personal experiences for entertainment purposes only, and is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. Please consult your trusted primary care physician with any questions about major changes in your diet, and remember that decisions about your diet are your own to make based on your own health and circumstances.

Basic Savory Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Paleo Ranch Dressing / Dip

Dips "sell" packed lunches - especially for kids. Strips of leftover steak or baby carrots become that much more compelling when there's a savory dip around.

Since my two and a half year old has been dairy free for a few months - and by extension, so have I as the nursing mother - I've had to become a lot more diligent in learning to make classically paleo dips and dressings. My old stand-by was mixing full fat sour cream with seasonings. Now, though, I've been making a lot of practice batches of dips and dressings using a good old fashioned paleo mayo base. Credit goes to Melissa Joulwan of The Clothes Make the Girl for introducing me to the world of making one's own mayo - her recipe is a great one, and she has some links to delicious-looking tuna salads to make with it!

I've learned, too, that spending just 15 minutes to make a batch of homemade dressing or dip can yield a week's worth of dip - for the price of 1 egg and 1 cup of a healthy oil of choice, plus seasonings. The versatility comes when you experiment with added paleo condiments and seasonings to alter the taste profile and consistency of your basic mayo base.

This edition is a basic ranch dressing. The beauty is that it is very easily adaptable - you can remove the vinegar to keep it thick and ultra-dippy (like sour cream), or keep the chili powder and hot sauce out if you're serving it to someone who is averse to spiciness (though this recipe is hardly spicy...perhaps better described as "zesty"). The flavor of the dressing deepens overnight in the fridge, so keep that in mind as you add your seasonings - a batch that tastes just a little underseasoned while you're making it may be just right by tomorrow morning.

I've tried to base this recipe in ingredients that nearly anyone has in their kitchen at any time, but there are plenty of less common extra possibilities for fun additions to mix up the flavor, like fish sauce (for savory), curry paste (for tasty heat), or tamari and/or coconut aminos (more savory). As always, carefully read your ingredient lists on your condiments and seasonings to make sure that they fit your dietary requirements.

Basic Savory Ranch Dressing
Makes 1.5 cups

Ingredients

• 1 egg (room temperature, so that it emulsifies properly - use the best quality eggs you can source for your money)
• 1 cup oil of choice  - some good neutral taste choices are avocado oil, macadamia oil, a good quality light tasting olive oil (avoid oil blends with canola or soy added), or (less neutral) slightly warm just-melted coconut oil - either way the oil should also be very close to room temperature
• 2 tsp. dried dill
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. chili powder
• 1/4 tsp. pepper (I used ground white)
• 2 tbsp. vinegar of choice (read ingredient labels; raw organic apple cider vinegar is a great choice)
• 1.5 tsp. Tabasco or paleo-friendly hot sauce of choice
• 1 tsp. raw honey
• 1 tsp. plain yellow mustard (read your ingredient labels!)

Also, you will need a clean glass jar with lid that can hold at least 12 ounces.

Directions

First, you will make the mayo base.*

Crack open your room temperature egg into the bowl and turn your appliance onto medium speed - enough to whip the egg. Once the egg is uniform, turn the appliance onto high speed and very slowly drizzle your oil into the bowl. If you're doing it the right way, it will take a few minutes to drizzle your cup of oil into your bowl - using a narrow necked bottle or pitcher may make it even easier to keep your drizzle steady and slow.

Once you have achieved a nice, thick mayo base, add in your condiments and seasonings with your appliance at medium speed. If you want to be conservative, add a little of each at a time to suit your tastes. Chili powder and Tabasco should be added last, since they have the most potential to amp up the zestiness of the flavor profile. Some kids (and grownups) like zesty; some don't. Customize yours!

Store in an airtight glass jar in the fridge and consume within a few days.

~

*There are four kitchen appliance options to consider when making your mayo base. You can use:

• One hand to hold a mixer while the other drizzles oil (tiring, very! I've done it), or 
• A hearty blender, or 
• A stand mixer, or 
• A food processor with a lid that has a top with an opening.

In my experience, the stand mixer is the easiest option, but my food processor is a close second for ease and produces the thickest mayo base because it whips at even higher speeds than my stand mixer. Either way, your appliance will need to be prepared to run on full speed for at least 5 minutes...sometimes closer to 10, so chose one that is up to your task.

~

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Shopping Amazon through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

Looking to A Bright School Year with Nourishing Lunches

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines...here in our neck of the woods, the school year is about to kick off. For some of you, it may have even already begun! Read here for my tips on securing your family members' (and kids'!) buy-in on packed real food lunches.

'Sup?
Don't mind me. I'm just hanging out, hoping to end up in somebody's lunchbox.

I've been on a couple of different vacations with extended family in the first couple of weeks of August, and now the prep for going back to school is suddenly very much upon us.

I have a lot on my (har) plate this coming year. I want to get more consistent about getting a lunch packed for my husband every day - he usually, unfortunately, gets the short end of the stick for lunch packing if I'm suddenly out of time or lunch materials, and when that happens, he often grabs a couple of bananas and some snacky food like almonds to get him through the day.

Adding to the schedule is my oldest's first full day school year as a kindergartner - and yes, that means me packing her lunches 5 days per week. My youngest is slated to start a two morning per week preschool program...so that's another two packed lunches in a week!

With the gearing up of packed lunches around here you can be sure to see more examples of packed lunches. I'll also be doing a series in September on dips and dressings that you can include in your lunchboxes; kids love to be able to dip, so including a dip or sauce in a lunchbox is a big selling point.

Sugar snap peas with a basil avocado ranch dip.

You'll also be getting a good look at GAPS diet compatible lunches via my two and a half year old's lunchbox. This adds another level of challenge - because my littlest is dairy free and GAPS excludes certain paleo staples like sweet potatoes. It will be her first regular meals-away-from-home experience, so bone broth and "aromatic" kimchi aren't exactly tidy options. I'll also be in charge of providing her with a GAPS-compatible snack on her school days.

I've had the opportunity to try out some new things here and there this summer, too. A hard apple cider, and a decadent new cashew butter. We also have tried a few new school supplies for the upcoming year, like Mama K's gluten free play clay.

Left to Right: Things I've loved trying out this summer.

• Angry Orchard's apple ginger hard cider (naturally gluten free), which I found at Giant. This is very sweet, like Martinelli's.
• Artisana's 100% organic raw cashew butter, available at Vitacost. Gluten free. ONE ingredient: organic raw cashews. That's my kind of ingredient list! It's also a GAPS staple for making pancakes and adding fat to my 2.5 year old's diet. I sometimes combine a tablespoon or two  of the cashew butter with an egg and some butternut squash puree for a fast breakfast for her.
• Mama K's aromatic play clay, found on Amazon, is a gluten free play dough in 5 colors with subtle natural scents: Green (lemongrass, to inspire), orange (sweet orange scent, to uplift), yellow (bergamot aka Earl Grey, for tension), purple (lavender, to soothe), and and pink (geranium, for balance). My husband and I are scent sensitive, but I found these to be lovely and subtle in their scents. I'm bringing a couple of these to my youngest's preschool for her to use instead of Play Doh, which is made with wheat flour.

Did you have a good summer? What did you enjoy trying for the first time? What are you looking forward to trying out with the start of the school year?

~

This post contains affiliate links for Amazon and Vitacost. Shopping Amazon and Vitacost through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

The Magic Number

Some numbers are just too low.

Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum Collection
via Flickr Creative Commons

I have a magic number. It's seared into my psyche, both beckoning and mocking me. The number is: 159.

When my first daughter was conceived, I weighed 159 pounds. It was a tall-ish and lean-ish 159 - I was a very committed cardio bunny and did light weight work, so I could wear size 8 pants and size 4/6 tops.

I'll bet big bucks that most moms out there can name their prepregnancy weights, too.

It's just a number, it's just a number, I tell myself. And yet...that 159 whispers to me. Almost every time I get on the scale, I calculate how much I'd have yet to lose to hit that number. This is absurd, because according to my body fat skin caliper tests I've gained somewhere around 15-20 lb. of muscle since I started Crossfitting last September. I'm the strongest I've ever been -- way stronger than those cardio bunny days. One of my last tests had me at 135 lb. of lean mass. If I whittled only fat down until I was 159 lb., while retaining that 135 lb. of lean mass, I'd be at 15% body fat, which is way, way, way leaner and more muscular than I was in the 159 lb. prepregnancy days.

All this to say, even though I should be reveling every day in my new strengths, my new wisdom, my new experiences, I have that magic number from the past haunting me. I have difficulty permitting the context of my current, very different state in life - avid Crossfitting, lean-mass-promoting diet, post-baby and lactation hormones, caregiving to small children, limited sleep - to soften the siren call of that old weight.

The closer I get back to 159, the more I realize that I might be riding an asymptote, and that my returns invested in training and eating right diminish, to the point where - unless I allow my hard-earned lean mass to drop - I may never see that number on the scale again.

Do you have a magic number in your head? Are you haunted by your prepregnancy weight, your high school weight, your college weight, or even another number like a former pants size or a long-ago-achieved personal lifting record? How do you deal with the magic numbers in your life? Do you believe firmly that you'll get back to them, or that life has changed enough that you've decided to allow yourself grace even while you pursue personal excellence?

~

The July Challenge, GAPS Week 2 Concludes, and Adding Sprouted Lentils

Aaaaaaand we're off!

Courtesy of the State Library of Queensland,
Flickr Creative Commons

In case you're wondering, yes, my Crossfit box does have frequent nutrition challenges - and yes, I did just finish one at the end of May in the form of a whole30. I'm grateful for the frequency of these challenges, too, because my regular dates with our nutrition gal's scale and skin calipers keeps me accountable to my fellow Crossfitters in a unique way. (Not that everyone knows my numbers - more that they see me every day and that adds a positive dose of peer pressure to not backslide.) It's a great motivator for me to continue to chip away at those last body fat percentage points.

Today starts our July partner nutrition challenge - one more level of accountability! I have a wonderful partner who is also a stay at home mom of two young kiddoes - who, like me, landed in a whole food paleo style diet before she started Crossfitting. (Usually it happens the other way around!) I can't wait to see what we can do with this challenge!

And yes, GAPS soldiers on at our house. In addition to the meats, bone broths, and select vegetables, we've added in eggs in the last few days. Next on our list will probably be raw cashews, and maybe some avocado, but it will be a while yet. We're going ultra slow with the food reintroductions.

Fortunately for me, as mentioned, GAPS is overall very compatible with a paleo style outlook. That means I basically can eat what my GAPS patient is eating on the stage 1-2 food list, and add in a few "Full GAPS" items for myself.

This one more place my paleo experience gets tailored to suit. I'm going to try out sprouted fermented lentils this month. There are a several reasons I have, but one is making sure that I'm getting a good, regular, natural source of folate. Folate is very available on a paleo style diet in organ meats, particularly grass fed beef liver. While I continue to try and add liver in more regularly - as in chili, and burgers, and meatballs, it's still a challenge to find and cook appetizing liver dishes at the generally recommended frequency of a couple of times per week. Fermented lentils are permitted on full GAPS, though, so I'm going to try some recipes, and let lentils be some of my post-workout carbs this month - we're permitted 1 cup of starchy carbs post workout on days that we do exercise. I also think that lentils have good low-reward potential - I don't anticipate that they'll stoke cravings or make me want to nomnomnom excessively on them the way other paleo carbs like sweet potato sometimes do. The bonus is that if I have them precooked they won't be hard to scoop a cup into some warm bone broth with some added leftover meat and an egg or two for a fast, rehydrating, high protein, moderate carb post workout breakfast. My choice of lentils for the first try is TruRoots sprouted organic lentils trio, which is a gluten free blend. The qualification of "sprouted" means that they've already been allowed to soak and germinate, so that mitigates to some extent a lot of antinutrient concerns. I'll give them a try and see how things go!

~

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Shopping Amazon through Primal Kitchen affiliate links supports Primal Kitchen at no additional cost to you, so thank you!!

GAPS Diet Intro Week 1:

We are now officially 1 week into GAPS intro over here. While the whole household isn't doing GAPS, my fellow home cooks will understand when I say that it is a pain in the rear to create multiple separate menus. So, even those here who aren't officially doing GAPS are doing GAPS + stuff on the side just out of pure convenience.

I'm just one more bowl of bone broth away from
snapping and turning into a crazy cat lady.
It wouldn't be all bad, though.
Kittens are cuddly-wuddly!

Courtesy of the George Eastman House Collection,
Flickr Creative Commons

There are definitely a few learning curves. I enjoy bone broth and use it in my cooking all the time, but I've had to become accustomed to the prospect of always having it available to consume throughout the day. To that end I say horray for slow cookers! One big blessing is that my local Giant just switched its Nature's Promise chickens from "all natural" blah blah blah to Nature's Promise certified organic chickens. There's a big difference between the two! And while the organic chickens probably aren't pampered free range local chickens fed GMO free feed and allowed to forage for bugs, our family having regular, dependable access to certified organic chickens is a huge step up, especially when quality bones for broth are now a house staple. To get a certified organic chicken before that, I'd have had to drive at least 45 minutes away. I wrote a "customer comment" form at the customer service desk thanking Giant for carrying them! I know the folks at Giant probably don't get a lot of positive notes in the comment box, so a, "Way to go!" on their new inventory will probably catch their eye. I also mentioned that otherwise I'd have driven a ways to buy organic chickens from Trader Joe's, so that lets the staff know that they won a regular chunk of my money from a competitor by stocking certified organic chickens.

This is me stocking up on wholesome chickens,
with a slightly manic gleam in my eye.

Courtesy of the
George Eastman House Collection,
Flickr Creative Commons

They average $11-12/chicken, which is definitely expensive, but I am glad to have organic chicken bones from each chicken to supply us with at least a couple of days' worth of bone broth - not to mention being able to feed my GAPS patient the organic chicken's organs - so there is more value to them than just in the meat. I'll be keeping my eye out for sale prices on those chickens and when the price drops, I'll be stocking up!

I've already used a few shortcuts - Bubbies sauerkraut and Sunja's kimchis have been my go-to for sugar-free lacto-fermented veggies. One day in a blissful fantasy future I will figure out home fermented veggies, but for now I'm grateful to have a ready-made option to provide lots of lactobacillus for our guts. (And special thanks to my friend A. who lives near stores that stock these! She's been a big help in keeping us supplied.) For now I'm using the juice for our GAPS patient, but I readily hork down the veggies themselves, so it's all good.

Another couple of shortcuts I'm using this month include organic pumpkin puree and organic butternut squash puree. There is one ingredient in each of these: organic pumpkin, and organic squash, respectively. Also, I was happy to discover that their maker is committed to using BPA-free cans. Is peeling and slow cooking the whole food in my own kitchen ideal? For sure. But, having these around ensures that I don't forget to add some to meals for an added dose of good carbs.

What are your favorite bone broth tips and tricks? Have you had any fun discoveries in your local supermarket this week?


~

Scoring Summer Workout Clothes at Half Price: $25 Buys a $50 Voucher For Reebok

The summer heat is beating down this week - yesterday it was 90 degrees outside by about 10 a.m. Whew! Even for the early morning classes at my Crossfit box it's right around 70 degrees in the mornings. We have some gigantic fans going during those workouts, but I'm still sweating through my tees and capris.

Right now Groupon has a smashing Fourth of July deal - $25 buys you a $50 voucher good on the Reebok website! This voucher can be used on sale and clearance items, also. Shipping and returns on the Reebok website are free. Vouchers are limited in quantity.

Thanks to Crossfit and a paleo-style diet, I've managed to drop about 30 lbs. since Thanksgiving. So, I can safely say that this is the first summer in ages that I'm up for more breathable workout gear that allows a little more skin to show...like the Reebok long bra top! Some of my Twitter peeps have long vouched for the Reebok long bra tops as a great choice for a no-show midriff because of its extra long body.

I really like this version of their long bra top - it has a cute light blue graphic pop, a breathable v-neck neckline (which also happens to flatter bustier wide-shouldered builds like mine), and a non-racerback v-back, which goes well with the my favorite nonracerback underwire sports bras. There are lots of styles and variations on the long bra tops, including racerbacks, so there is something for everyone.

There's also a ton of Crossfit gear on the Reebok website, including summertime-appropriate workout wear for men and women both! I'm also eyeing the 5" inseam WOD shorts these days.

I just ordered the blue long bra top shown above with my half price Groupon voucher this morning. Here's how I got it deeply discounted.

• Purchase the Groupon voucher for $25.
• Optional: Go to the ebates site and search for "Reebok" in the stores search field. I got 5% cash back posted to my ebates account by clicking to the Reebok store through ebates.
• Load your cart with at least $50 worth of Reebok material. (In my case the long bra top was retail at exactly $50.)
• Redeem your coupon code in the promotion code box in the checkout process (the voucher code is good to use on the Reebok site 24 hrs. after purchase on the Groupon website).

Since my top was an even $50 retail, I paid $25 for the Groupon voucher, plus whatever comes back from the ebates cash back (the cash back amount seems to vary between vendors and on types of promotional deals). Since Reebok long bra tops go for $35 and up on Amazon.com, that's quite a deal!

What workout wardrobe updates are you shopping for this summer?

~

Gluten Free Dairy Free Egg Free Peanut Butter Pie Chocolate Cupcakes

My husband is basically a big kid at heart. When there were rumblings about him wanting a peanut buttery dessert, I thought, who am I to stand in the way of birthday boy's desires? Peanut butter shows up rarely at our house - I usually go with sunbutter instead (a fabulous stand-in, by the way, tastes very, very similar to peanut butter).

Though I frequently use Primal Palate's dark chocolate coconut cake in our celebrations, this is also a gluten free recipe that works really well for cupcakes - we did the same cupcake recipe for my oldest's birthday party earlier this spring. I've noticed that for my oldest daughter, often the big draw of grocery store creations is the bright colors and characters. Though I no longer use the artificially colored frostings that show up on these kinds of birthday cakes and cupcakes, that doesn't stop me from using colorful decorations to punch up the visual excitement factor on an otherwise neutral hued peanut butter chocolate cupcake.

In no way would I consider these cupcakes paleo or especially nutritious - just a very rare gluten free dairy free egg free treat that our whole family (extended nonpaleo family included) thoroughly enjoyed. I originally got the cake recipe from an egg free gluten free mama friend after tasting it at her daughter's party! (This one is my adaptation of the original, shared here with her permission - thanks mucho, A!)

You could make this version below that much more allergen friendly by switching around to another nutbutter or seed butter of your choice, depending on your guests' food allergies or sensitivities.

Wacky Chocolate Cake


Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar (you can play with refined sugar substitutes here, too)
• 1  ½ cups Arrowhead Mills all purpose gluten free flour - this is available at Whole Foods and Wegmans, as well as other grocery stores
  (You can also use King Arthur all purpose gluten free flour, if you also add 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum)
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (I've used apple cider vinegar and rice vinegar in the past)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup cold water
• 1/2 bag semisweet allergen-appropriate dark chocolate chips of your choice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put all dry ingredients in mixing bowl and blend them well, then add oil, vinegar, vanilla and water.

Beat well with mixer until smooth.

Stir in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

• For 8" round cake: Pour batter into 8" greased pan (square or round).
  Bake 35-40 minutes.
  (You can double the recipe to make an 8" round layer cake.)
  
• For a bundt pan: double recipe and bake 45-60 min.
  
• For cupcakes: Makes one dozen, depending how full they are. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. If desired, you can fill your cupcake cups halfway, add  ½ tsp. of your peanut butter, and then top with the other half of your batter. That leaves a little peanut buttery bite in the middle.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Can sub sunbutter or nut butter of choice


Ingredients:

1 ½ cups smooth peanut butter, room temperature (if you can, try this with trans fat free natural/organic peanut butter)
½ palm shortening, room temperature
1/4 cup coconut nectar
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Blend all ingredients thoroughly.

Peanut Butter Pie Bonus Decoration: I picked up a 2 pack of Justin's dairy free gluten free organic dark chocolate peanut butter cups and sliced each of the two cups into six little pie-shaped pieces to use as decorative "peanut butter pie" toppers.

What are birthday cakes looking like at your house lately? How are you tinkering with recipes to make them allergen friendly?


~


This post participates in the Life As Mom Creative Birthday Cake Round-Up. Head over there to check out more fun decorating ideas, like the DIY Angry Birds cake! This post is also participating in the Daily Dietribe's Gluten Free Birthday Cake Roundup.