A promised recipe - N.R.G. Bars!

This is a recipe I have promised several people now. It is not of my making, the original can be found at www.marksdailyapple.com but I have tweaked it for my own purposes and preferences. That is the best part about this recipe is the flexibility. I gave them my own name as well. Because it sounds so much better than Primal Energy Bars. Boring!!

N.R.G. Bars (Naturally Really Good!)

First of all, preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Ingredients:

1/2 cu slivered/chopped/minced almonds (your preference)

1/2 cu pecans

1/4 cu unsweetened shredded coconut (I found mine at the local co-op)

1/4 cu almond meal (also at the co-op)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla (this can be omitted if using vanilla whey protein powder, unless you really like the vanilla flavor, which I did!)

1 tsp raw honey

1/2 cu vanilla whey protein powder (original called for plain but all I had was vanilla)

2 LG eggs (original called for one but 2 really helps bind it together)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cu dried fruit of your choice (I used a chopped blend that was excellent)

1/4 cu unsweetened shredded coconut (this is for the topping if desired)

1/4 cu almond butter

1/4 cu coconut oil (at the co-op again)

Steps:

1. Toast coconut/nuts until golden brown.

2. Melt coconut oil and almond butter (30+ seconds in microwave) and stir until smooth.

3. Add vanilla, salt, and honey. Mix thoroughly.

4. Fold in nut mixture, almond meal, and whey protein powder until mixed thoroughly.

5. Add eggs and mix well.

6. Fold in dried fruit.

7. Press mixture firmly into 8 x 8 pan, any larger and the bars will be thin and crumbly.

8. Cook at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

9. Remove from oven if ingredients appear dry and cooked. This cook time can vary depending on your oven so it might take some experimentation to find your perfect cook time here.

10. Cool 10-15 minutes, cut into bars.

OPTIONAL TWISTS: You can also add coconut to the top and broil it until golden brown or for a chocolate spin, add dark chocolate chips to the mix! Experiment to find your favorite.

I don't have pictures because THEY DON'T LAST LONG ENOUGH! Try them, you'll be impressed!

Rough Patches

No one said the Primal Diet was easy. And yet it is. What is not easy is battling stress-related comfort eating. Although the Primal Diet instructions have remained a constant reminder in my mind, I have still struggled over the past couple of months. I'm not going to spend this time justifying or waxing eternal about all the problems I've had that have gotten in the way of me following my plan. But I will acknowledge the difference.

Over the past month of eating poorly, my energy has dropped, I have put on some of those shed pounds, and am starting to have a resurgance of some of the symptoms that had initially vanished with this way of eating. This is motivation alone to get me back on the wagon. As today is my last day of employment, I am looking forward to being able to spend more time focusing on managing my stress, getting back to eating 3 square primal meals a day, and getting more exercise. The return of good weather also means I can begin to go outside and get more exercise than I have previously. Ahhhh, vitamin D!

I'll keep you posted on what develops over the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

Paleolithic Diet

First of all, I'd like to share an especially interesting link given to me by my friend Elizabeth -- an interesting debate on the "paleolithic diet" from the perspective of four "experts" in various anthropologist and biology fields.

GOOD -- Ask the Experts: Is the "Paleolithic Diet" Really Better?

What I took away from this is that while the opinions were differing, there seemed to be a broad general agreement that one size does not fit all and that generalizations are often not factual.

"Leonard: In the modern, industrial world, we have become ever better at creating diets that are dense in calories and don’t require a lot of energy to procure them. No one recommendation is going to fit everybody, so the challenge is to find what works for you individually, and, at the same time, what fits the broad nutritional requirements of our species."

"Leonard: Although there’s an extraordinary range of variation, based on the climate and the environment, hunter-gatherers get a fair amount of meat in their diet. We require a diet that is more energy-dense than other primates and historically, we may have reached that point by incorporating more meat. It’s reflected in evolutionary changes in our face, our teeth, and in our gastrointestinal tract. Indeed, the GI tract of modern humans looks more like a carnivore's than a large primate's. Because early humans increasingly used tools to hunt, we don't show the same kinds of dental adaptations as modern carnivores."

More deliciousness!

Mmmmm made a delicious dinner tonight!

Slow roasted pork and carrots (with a little onion soup mix thrown in,) Spicy and sweet potatoes, and some salad!

Here's the recipe for the delicious Spicy Sweet Potatoes!

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes (about 6 cups)

2 tablespoons olive oil or 2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. In a zip-top plastic bag, toss potatoes and oil.
2. Combine remaining ingredients; add to bag; toss to coat.
3. Transfer to a greased 11x7 inch baking dish.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring every 15 minutes.

Slacking

This past month has been a whirlwind and shows no sign of abating as we get closer to wedding time and now that I am under the influence of drugs deemed necessary for my post-septum repair surgery. BUT! I wanted to update with some more pictures of delicious eating in the meantime.

I came across this delicious recipe in the Primal Eating Cookbook featured at Mark's Daily Apple and I love it because it contains a lot of my favorite ingredients.... namely?

Eggs! Bacon! Cheese! Salsa! RINSE LATHER REPEAT!

These transform to create the awesome, protein packed egg muffins. Be

st part is that they are highly customizable and I experimented a little. I made two types:

- Eggs, ham, salsa, pepperjack cheese

- Eggs, chicken, goat cheese, stirfry veggies, chives

I think upon the next round I'll ditch the veggies only because they were frozen and were a little too soggy to be palatable. The rest was delicious however and the chicken ones turned out really excellent minus the vegetables.

Here's the recipe for those who wish to duplicate my delicious success.

INGREDIENTS

▪ 6 eggs

▪ 1/4 – 1/2 cup cooked meat, cut or crumbled into small pieces

▪ 1/2 cup diced vegetables

▪ 1/4 tsp salt

▪ 1/8 tsp ground pepper

▪ 1/8 cup mayonnaise

▪ 1/8 cup water

▪ 1/4 cup shredded cheese, onions, and lightly

drained salsa to the eggs

Submitted by Amy Schoenherr OMELET MUFFINS

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease 6 muffin tins with butter or coconut oil or for easier removal line with paper baking cups. The baking cups also help the muffins hold their shape. In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add meat, vegetables, salt, ground pepper, and any other ingredients and stir to combine. Spoon or scoop into the muffin cups. Bake for 18–20 minutes until a knife inserted into the center of an muffin/omelet comes out almost clean. The omelets will continue to cook for a minute or two after removed from the oven. Remove the omelets from the muffin cups and serve, or cool completely and store for another day.

I served mine with a side of sour cream and flame-roasted salsa. YUMMY!

Promises, promises.

The Primal Blueprint has a lot of promises packed in there and while I have not read the book itself, I follow the blog and community pretty closely. This are some of the "Primal Blueprint" claims (from marksdailyapple.com):

• Learn how a high-fat diet can help you lose weight and why it is actually healthy.
• Reject gimmicks like regimented meal times, portion control, strict caloric ratios, and food point scores. Instead, eat like our ancestors and be totally satisfied at every meal.
• Discover a complete strategy of eating, exercising and living that is fun and comes naturally—even for the “unmotivated” types!
• Achieve incredible fitness breakthroughs in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the suffering!
• Reduce your risk of developing conditions like arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
• Stabilize blood sugar levels without medication.
• Naturally control certain commonly medicated conditions like depression, hypoglycemia, diabetes and high blood pressure.

So the question is, does it deliver on these pretty profound assertions? Remember, I said I was an evidence-based person and I don't do things if they suck and feel like shit. So we've met one of my parameters: I feel GOOD. Okay, excellent. But now we've got to move on to the evidence based portion. As a member of Group Health I have access to these nifty health charts that show the progression of weight, blood pressure, BMI, etc etc. I also have access to my labs. I will be sharing this information here in hopes that we will in fact be able to SEE the evidence (if there is any to be had) about what this diet is actually accomplishing inside my body.

Let's talk briefly about the immediate "external" benefits I've been able to see and directly experience thus far:

1. My hypoglycemia vanished. This is an issue I've been struggling with for many years, forced to eat every few hours to keep myself from experiencing severe blood sugar crashes that cause dizziness, sweating, fatigue, and that impending "oh my god, I'm going to die" feeling. It's gone. I can now eat less than 6 "meals" a day and the only sensation I have is a normal hungry feeling. No crash, no fluctuating, no "oh my god, I'm going to die" feeling.

2. My psoriasis has shown improvement. When I first started, I experienced a drastic reduction in my psoriasis flares. So much so that I first thought it was grain that WAS the cause of it. However, it did not vanish as I thought it was going to and reached a stable point. But the flare ups are all but gone and it is significantly reduced from its previous status.

3. My hair seems to have stopped falling out. This will be an observation that will have to take place over a long period of time. But it SEEMS my hair has stopped falling out and the "bald spot" I was developing in my part line seems to be filling in. Time will tell.

4. My stomach is smaller. I carry most of my weight in my upper body, including a pouch of fat across my abdomen. I had this even when I was much thinner, though its size has of course increased with the weight gain. Over the last 2 months, myself and others have noticed a decrease in the size of that stomach fat.

So those are the most direct effects I can think of so far but hey, so far so good. Check out following posts for the actual graphs from my GHC profile!

Mmmm Sausage!

Sausages are an item that while technically primal, tend to be so packed with nitrites and other nasty preservatives that I rarely eat them (though I love them so.) But when I saw these all natural roasted red pepper and spinach sausages at Costco, I couldn't resist. No nitrites, preservatives, all natural pork casing, etc etc.

Here they are featured with slabs of goat cheese and an herb salad with yogurt ranch dressing. This is one of my favorite meals at the moment and very filling!