Latkes

My parents grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and I have fond memories of going there while my other friends bragged about the beaches of Florida.  However, I couldn't imagine not growing up knowing about real Italian ices, how to play stoop ball, and what real pizza is.  My great grandmother was Eastern European and talked Yiddish a lot.  I thought she was just cussing at us.  She was a big woman who could have started at defensive line for the Jets.  (Sorry Mike and Jay.  My extended family didn't support the G-Men.)   I remember Grandma Rosen (we called her) baking in the kitchen with those dangling arms the size of meat hooks.  She was a good cook.  I'm pretty sure she was a great cook.  I have fond memories of running up to her apartment and her yelling, "Ahhh....here comes my tatala!!"  

So potato latkes are a huge part of my family and remain so come Passover time in the spring.  Nothing beats an oily, crispy, partially burnt potato pancake.  And if you are feeling really sexy, you'll add some sour cream on top or apple sauce with cinnamon on the side.  Whew!  I need a few seconds to myself.....

Nice and crisp on the edges

I need this guy in my house!

 Crack!!!

So on my Crossfit box's blog, there is a widget that read VEGGIE LATKES!!!!  Ok.....I have to admit....you could type Snot Latkes and I may take a look.  I gave it a whirl and now this healthy meal just may become a staple in my home.  The recipe comes from Marks Daily Apple, a website full of great information on The Primal Blueprint, another very Paleo way of eating.  Very similar.  Check out the recipe here.

I used the same amount of veggies and eggs he calls for.  We had plenty of zucchini and carrots so that's what I used, and I added cinnamon and wow!  No oil.  I used coconut oil.  Now......if you really want your kids on board and if you are caaaraaaaazy too, you'll do EXACTLY WHAT I SAY and add a dallop, wallop, dab, or dot of raw honey on top of each.  Do it!  Well worth it!  You don't need much.  

Here's what they looked like.....

The mixture in the bowl

Cooking away on the flipside

Finished product

The Verdict:  "DAD.....CAN WE HAVE SOME MORE?!"

-ification and some B and G

I recently heard the word Paleoification, and it reminded me of......

I thought I could think of more words ending in -ication, but I'm stumped.  


Either way.....Last week when I attended the Whole 9 Foundations of Nutrition Workshop in Chicago, Dallas and Melissa, founders of the program, proclaimed that one of the mistakes folks make with the Paleo lifestyle is the "PALEOIFICATION" of it all.  Paraphrasing what they said here.....


On the information superhighway we call The Internet, you can find Paleo Brownies, Paleo Pancakes, Paleo Pizza, Paleo Waffles, Paleo Cookies, and All Things Paleo.  The assertion:  These things should be avoided.  They are to be used as substitutes for the real thing.  Reason being....it will only lead to you wanting the real thing;  they don't taste like the real thing; there are a lot more healthy things you could be eating in its place.  (AGAIN...PARAPHRASING THEIR WORDS.  NOT MINE.)


And so there I was.....shocked!  Stumped!  Stymied!  I've fought with this the past week and I've come up with the following because it works FOR ME.....


I agree with what they are saying....now.  If you are constantly substituting Paleoified foods, then you may as well eat a bit of the real thing and get back on the wagon.  It's a trap many can fall into....It's like the first time I did Weight Watchers.  I lost 75 lbs.!  But......I did it eating everything and anything that could fall within my points.  It worked.....but a few years later I almost gained it all back.  It was not sustainable......for me, but I'm a fan of WW if you eat well doing it.  


Eating a certain way as a lifestyle is an evolving process which contradicts our innate sense of wanting to lose weight now and make it easy.  It's just not immediate and it's never easy.  So now I agree with Melissa and Dallas......if you are a newbie to eating Paleo.....if you are emotionally connected to food (something I plan to write more about as there are plenty of good, healthy ways to eat....not just Paleo.)


For me.....I don't have deep cravings for too may foods, but today I needed variety.  I eat eggs a lot.  We buy great eggs from our local CSA and pick them up every Wednesday.  I'm a food creature of habit and it does not take much to please me with food.  Paleo often works for me because a nice piece of chicken and veggies spiced well often works.......for me.  So this morning, my wife was out with a girlfriend, and daddy was being land-blasted with, "Daddy....what's for breakfast??!?!  We're hungry!!!!"  I took out a pound of sausage the night before with the full intention of making eggs and sausage.....again.  


Enter..........Paleo Biscuits and Gravy!!!


Now....I must tell you....I would BATHE in biscuits and gravy....I love it that much.  


If that description is a 10, then I'd give this recipe a 7.5.  I took it from Robb Wolf's blog.  Check it out because he has great info. and recipes.

Looks like the real stuff huh?  The gravy was pretty close to the real thing.  Next time, I'll use less cayenne pepper.  I don't prefer it that hot and neither did the kids, but they ate it.  I added a bit more salt to offset the heat for them.

These worked out well.  I did't have almond flour so I used almond meal and Peanut meal, so they came out a bit dry, but when you drape the gravy over them who freakin' cares, right?!  

The finished product.  First words out both kids' mouths:  "Mmmm....This is good."  Sometimes they are the best food critics.  (At least when they like it, right?!)

So........This worked for me today.  It offered me variety and a break from what we always make for breakfast.  Sure, I could have had more healthy options for breakfast, but check out the past 29 days of what I've eaten.  Now, I agree with The Whole 9 folks in that this should not serve as a substitute for the real thing, but I'm not craving the real thing.  I'm not new and struggling to find things that satisfy my food cravings.  I was not having this food craving today.  I just wanted something different to eat that could keep me committed to my 30 Day Challenge.  I'm not emotionally missing biscuits and gravy.  Pizza on the other hand.....that's a bit of a different story, but I only get that way when I'm around pizza.  I don't miss pizza because I feel awful after I eat it (probably because pizza is crack....CRACK, I say, for me.)  I can't just eat one piece.  

So....the Paleoification of pizza for me is not the best idea, but in my opinion.... once in awhile I think it's better than the real thing from a strict ingredient standpoint.

-fication

suffix

Production; making: jollification.

Origin: Latin -ficātiō, -ficātiōn-, from -ficātus, past participle of -ficāre, to make, from -ficus, -fic.

from YourDictionary.com

Beef Jerky, The Verdict

I love good beef jerky.  

But.....

I've grown tired of the store bought variety. 

It's hard to see, but look at the number of ingredients.  Too many that are not natural and made for longer shelf life.  I made this request as part of our Costco run in order to have some quick protein around the house, but I this may be my last bag of this stuff.  It's dry, full of stuff I don't need in my body, and not worth it in the end.  

This past weekend my wife ventured to the Indy Winter Farmer's Market and brought back a bag of........

Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Jerky from a local farmer

Ingredients:  Buffalo, Sugar, Water, Salt, Spices, Garlic, Cayenne Pepper, and Black Pepper.

All natural stuff, simple, and you know where it comes from.  Progress. 

And so I got the bug after our friend Lindsey made her first attempt at homemade beef jerky and did not use a dehydrator.  I have to say, I did not know it was possible without one.  I'm going to make you go to her blog to get the recipe because again, she deserves all the credit.  

Here is my final product

A bit too salty and too much pepper.  I was way too generous with it, so I had to scrape off the excess salt and pepper afterwards and it was good to go.  I did let the meat marinate for about 4-5 hours in a bag, but if I had to do it all over again, I would have let it marinate for a good 24 hours.  I just did not plan well this time.  I would also make sure to get a meat hammer or in my case, I used the back of a small iron skillet and spend more time hammering down the raw meat to make it flat, because I got some pieces that were too fat and they come out too chewy for my taste.  The only issue I have is that this is all that one chuck roast yielded, so that's roughly $10 worth of meat.  However, the meat came from a local farmer here in Indiana.  The ingredients are simple:  

soy sauce, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, and garlic cloves.  Easy!

Homemade Beef Jerky

Marinated and spiced raw meat going into the oven for the long haul. 

Stay tuned for my first attempt at homemade beef jerky.  I hope to have a full report soon.

All the credit goes to our friend Lindsey.  It's her recipe.  Click on the button below.  Her blog is slammed full of amazing recipes both Paleo and non Paleo.  

I Found a New Drug!!!

Remember this video?  I once saw them in concert.

I love pizza.  No......wait.......I can devour pizza.......no wait.......if pizza is around, I now need to leave the room.  In fact, the only connection I have to any kind of recovering addict is that I imagine them needing to get out of dodge when they are in the presence of whatever it is they are addicted to.  Ask the folks with whom I work.  Schools order pizza all the time for kids.  In the past, I could never.....ever have just one slice.  I just could not control how many slices I ate.  Have I mentioned I love pizza?!!?  On a Paleo diet, sausage and cashews (not together, of course) are the same for me.  I'm working on not eating cashews for this entire week.  Not easy.  But back to the pizza......

My favorite:  New York Style:  The thin crust and savory sauce.  

I don't need all that doughy Chicago style crust.  I don't hate it.  Don't get me wrong.  I just prefer taking a trip back memory lane to my aunt's house in Brooklyn and now Staten Island.  Nothing beats actually going into a real pizzeria and taking in that waft of Italian air baking in those huge ovens.  

So what's all this have to do with a blog about being healthy?

Well tonight, I took a stab at my first Paleo pizza and I found my new drug, Huey Lewis fans!!!  I took the recipe from one of my favorite Paleo blogs

This gal is the real deal.  She's a certified Crossfit coach and a mother of three!  Go to her "About" page and get the link to her before/after pics. of her.  She has truly transformed her body the healthy way.  

I took her Paleo pizza recipe and followed it exactly.  I was concerned that the crust was not as hard as her recipe makes it sound, but it ended up working out.  Here's the link to her recipe if you are interested as I can not take any of the credit.  

My discovery:  The almond meal is not the same as floury dough.  No real earth shattering breakthrough there, huh?  But.....it was good.  In fact, if I would have doubled the amount of rosemary I put in, I think it would have been really good.  And.....next time I won't cook it as long.  But......this MOST DEFINITELY fills the void left by choosing to omit such foods from my diet to attain the fitness goals for which I am striving.  This meal confirmed for me that living a Paleo lifestyle is more than attainable with real food.  It just takes some extra time and patience.  On a side note, tonight is my wife's night to work, so I'm Mr. Mom for the few hours that she is gone.  When I put the Paleo pizza on the table, my seven and five year old both said.....

"What is that?!?!"

"That does not look like pizza, dad!"

"I don't like this crust."

"Yeah, dad.  You need to work on the crust for next time."

Tough crowd.....However.........both kids ate both of their slices!!!  

So it can be done.

Here's a few shots of the b/f and after......

Crust on pan raw.  Pretty thin.  I was worried it was going to be too thin.

Crust after baking for 20 minutes.  I was wrong.  It turned out to be just the right thickness.

Finished product:  Sausage, black olives, onions, and spinach!!!

I found a new drug!!!!

P.S.:  On day 10 of my 30 Day Paleo Challenge.  Read my journal here.  

Paleo Mayo Take 1

This may be the most boring video in the history of the world wide web, however I wanted to show the consistency of my first batch of paleo mayo.  I have to say, it was a bit of a pain to make as it required adding the oil drop by drop.  I think as much as I don't eat mayo, that I may stick to regular, organic mayo.  (again...everything in moderation, however I just don't eat mayo that often.)  I may give another go at it as there has to be a way to not have it so runny.  If you have any secrets, let me know.  Here's the recipe I used as I hunted around online at various recipes.  

1 egg

1 egg white

1 cup olive oil

1 tsp. vinegar

1/2 tsp dried mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything except the oil last.  Add drop by drop so it does not separate.  Put in fridge to chill.  

Stuffed Peppers

Home on Fall Break this week.  Again, since my back is on the mend, I've made a commitment (to me and to my wife) that I will cook more.  I loved stuffed peppers growing up.  However, I'm not big on recipes.  I kind of just throw a bunch of stuff together.  Call it "the guy way", but I'll look at a recipe and then copy most of it and make up some of my own along the way.

Today I three together........

ground beef, 1 diced onion, diced tomato, chopped pepperoncini's, about a tsp. of cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon, kosher salt, pepper, and chopped fresh oregano.

I cook the meat and onions together.  I throw in all the spices next.  The peppers and tomatoes go on last as I turn off the stove so they don't get too mushy.

Our peppers come from our CSA and we got some really great sized ones this week as you can see.

Threw it all in the oven for about 15 minutes.  I like the peppers a bit crunchy but hot.  That way, I can cut the pepper and then eat the piece with my hand.   Each little piece is like a "boat" with the stuffing in it.  Another meal where eating was pleasurable and sustaining.  Heck, any time you put mean, onions and peppers together, it's hard for me not to over eat.