DW's primal journal

There is a bottle of Stella Rosa Black in the fridge wondering what happened to me last night. :/

Today is basically a rehash of yesterday.

Brekkie: coffee on ice with a shot of cream
Lunch: 1 avocado, 4 small tomatoes, half a cucumber, chopped with a little lime juice, coconut oil, salt, pepper, and turmeric, and a hard boiled egg w a little salt. I should try making salted duck eggs with chicken eggs....
Dinner: grilled chicken quarter minus the drumstick plus another round of loaded cauliflower, also with added turmeric. Trying to work that into my food these days, hoping the fabled anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric will start to help my bitchy right hip.
Today's tea is iced cinnamon apple

10 minutes MMA workout done, another 10 minutes this afternoon.

T-giving is at the in-laws.... other than turkey there won't be a thing I can really eat. (and that turkey won't be a thing I wanna eat) The Mr. said I shoulda waited until after to go back to primal but I said next up was Christmas and then he'd be telling me to wait until after that. Thinking I will make me up a plate at the house and then sneak it over. There'll be so many people there, no one will notice I'm eating anything different.

Not going near the scale for a while.

 

I am making bone broth today with oxtail and chicken bones. The bit of vinegar I poured over the bones is making it smell like cat piss. The upside is the smell is killing my appetite. I hope no one stops by because they'll think our dogs are marking in the house.

Breakfast: iced coffee w cream
Lunch: the usual avocado/cucumber/tomato/lime/coconut oil salad with some roasted meat off the oxtail bones
Dinner: Chicken thigh glazed with honey and turmeric and roasted carrots and cauliflower with butter, sea salt and rosemary, doing it all on the grill
iced tea, herbal cinnamon apple

I got on the scale anyway. I love water weight! "Lost" 5.6 pounds in 2 days, lol! Hey I'll take it.

 

THANKSGIVING!

Rather than try to get through the day on carrot sticks and dry turkey while everyone else noshed their way into a carb sugar coma, I made myself a little container of honey grilled chicken thigh, mashed cauliflower w/ butter and bacon to sneak in with me. The idea was I could slip it on a plate and no one would be the wiser. Thanks to the Mr. however, his mom knew and asked in front of everyone if I needed to heat up my dinner. All heads and eyes were on me in 2 seconds. "You brought... your OWN food?" Yes, yes I did, and thank you honey for throwing that particular bit of dirty laundry on the table for all to see. Once more I'm the weirdass kid at lunch with the brown bag and the cucumber, alfalfa sprout, wheat bread sammich. So I flipped the tables, said yes that I'd lost 70+ pounds going to paleo/primal, and when the Mr finally wore me down and got me back on his way of eating I gained X amount back. So now his mother is on his ass to go on it with me, heh. That'll teach him to out me. Hope he likes cauliflower... oh wait, he hates it. Too bad, it's now on both our menus. His mother's orders. muwhahahahaa!

Breakfast: iced coffee n cream
Lunch: honey glazed chicken w mashed cauliflower n butter n bacon, and about 2 oz cheddar cheese (couldn't say no to that)
Dinner: at the moment, a cup of bone broth I made, which is surprisingly good. I may make a salad later on, just have to see if I get hungry later or not.
On my 3rd 32 oz glass of iced Lady Grey tea

Only a few days back on the wagon and I feel better already.

I have put in my claim for dinner at our house around Xmas. Am gathering up my best paleo/primal recipes for this one. My in-laws have rather limited culinary appetites, which is to say burnt pork chops, mashed taters, and canned green beans are fine dining as far as they're concerned, so they may show up with their own plates.

 

It's been sleeting all night and is predicted to continue through Saturday. Woke up at 5:30 for some reason, gave up trying to sleep at 6 and got started on tonight's dinner. Pork Carnitas! I normally dislike slow cookers for meat because mine always turn out dry and crappy, but I can do pulled pork no problem. The Mr. has a friend who raises show hogs for the FFA crowd, and anything that doesn't get sold for a show pig gets turned out to pasture and then sold for a butcher hog. We just had one processed a few weeks ago and I have a freezer full of pastured pork. I'm using a 5 pound pork butt roast for this. Recipe is super simple.

Pork Carnitas
5 pound pork butt or pork shoulder roast
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
2 T kosher salt or sea salt flakes if you have 'em... if you're using table salt, go with just a tablespoon
1 t black pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 oranges, for the juice
1 T oregano
2 t cumin
Enough olive oil to coat the thing, guessing it's about a tablespoon or two

Rinse and dry the pork then rub in the salt and pepper, followed by the oregano and cumin. Set in crockpot, fat cap up, and toss the onion, jalapeno, and garlic on top. Pour OJ over it all.



Cook on low 8-10 hours or high for 6. The meat should just fall off the bone at that point. Get out of the cooker and let cool a bit, otherwise you'll burn the crap out of your fingers trying to shred it. NOW, you can eat it like this, which you will because you won't be able to resist, or you can do it one better by putting some oil in your cast iron skillet over high heat, then taking the shredded pork and putting it in, pressing down, and cooking until the bottom side is nicely browned and crusty. Then take the juices from crockpot (you may need to reduce them a bit in a separate pan) and pour them over the porky goodness.

Instead of a tortilla I'll be putting these in romaine lettuce wraps, with pico de gallo, which is just sweet yellow onion, green onion, jalapenos or serranos, tomatoes, cilantro, and salt mixed together. I add a little lime juice to it.

Speaking of oranges and limes, I buy them when they're in season and super cheap and toss them in the freezer to have available year round. The oranges I grabbed this morning were from last year... I got them 10 for a dollar at this hispanic grocery store. I wouldn't really want to slice and eat them coz they kinda fall apart once they thaw inside, but for cooking with they're great. The limes seem to get dried out around 9 months, but I just left them in a paper bag so they might have gone longer in a ziplock. Also, if you like garlic but hate jacking with peeling it, most Asian markets sell peeled cloves by the pound. I get a few pounds every so often, pour them into mason jars, and stick 'em in the freezer. Lasts forever, and makes grabbing a few cloves for a dish super easy. Given our local market has garlic globes 2 for a buck, it really doesn't cost me any extra to go the lazy route here.

Also roasted up some pork neckbones and tossed into another crockpot to make more bone broth. First batch turned out perfect, and good, so guess I will add that to the daily menu. Maybe it can take the place of the coffee 'n cream. Am using my homemade vinegar to put on the bones, kinda neat having that on hand. Found out my step-son-in-law has been doing a lot of hunting (surprised the crap out of me, I thought he never left his bong and gaming console) so asked him about tossing the organs and bones my way and they're more than happy to let me have the trash, ha. They also gave us some deer meat so am totally ignoring the Mr.'s objections that deer tastes nasty and will be cooking some of that up next week.

I finally ordered Primal Blueprint.

Breakfast: iced coffee 'n cream and a couple slices of the maple cinnamon bacon I made
Lunch: half a big avocado and some leftover chicken
Dinner: pork carnitas with pico de gallo in lettuce wraps
Snackie: cup of bone broth, 1T blackstrap molasses (which I happen to like and is apparently good for you), and a cup of "golden milk" which is coconut milk infused with ginger, honey, and turmeric

 

My entries read more like cookbooks than anything particularly inspiring to potential Primal converts.

Per Primal .... guidelines? rules? ... anyway, I've been trying to constantly stay moving these days, always busy with some little task. However with ice on everything outside and a windchill of minus ohhellno it's hard to want to do anything besides huddle under a blanket. And no you don't want to plank under a blanket if someone else is in the house. You look insane and they will get strange ideas that you cannot explain away.

SO, to keep off the couch I got busy with the deer meat the son-in-law gave us. The Mr. was in charge of removing every bit of fat and potential ick so here's what I wound up with. It looks suspiciously smaller than the half he kept to make jerky with.


I ran through the meat grinder with a 20% addition of lard courtesy of the pastured hog currently dirt napping in the big freezer. Originally I was going to make deer sausage, but frankly I don't like sausage all that much when there's bacon to be had, so I decided to do something different. When I used to raise sheep and goats, I got pretty good at dealing with the occasional funk their meat can have, and decided to make this for an Indian style coconut curry meatball recipe that had worked well with meat from older, stinky goats. It should work well on the venison, and it's paleo.

The mix is simple: 2 pounds meat, half a chopped onion (or a whole if you really like onion), 2 T curry powder, 2 T garam masala, 1 T fresh grated ginger (I grate tons up at one sitting and freeze for quick use), and 1 egg. Mix it all up, roll into balls, voila.

If you don't have garam masala, no biggie, you can make it. It's just a spice blend and there's recipes all over the net but my lazy version is 1 T ground cumin, 1.5 t each of ground coriander, cardamom, and ground black pepper, 1 t ground cinnamon, and 1/2 t each of ground cloves and nutmeg.

They smell amazing, mmmm. If I didn't have enough pulled pork from last night to last all weekend I'd make this now. Instead they all went onto foil lined pans and into the freezer to flash freeze. Once they're solid I'll pack 'em in foodsaver bags and freeze 12 to a bag for easy 2 person serving size when I'm ready to make this.



I flash freeze first because this way they don't squash flat during the air suck with the Foodsaver.

The curry sauce for these is simple. You need oil, onion, garlic, coconut milk, curry powder, garam masala, fresh ginger, turmeric, coriander, chicken stock, and of course salt and pepper. Oil in the skillet, then add about a half to full cup of chopped onions and cook til soft, then add a few cloves of diced garlic and give it about a minute. Then 3T curry powder, 2 T garam masala, 1 T grated ginger, 1 t turmeric, and 1 t coriander. Stir this for about a minute, then whisk in a cup of chicken stock and 1 1/2 cups coconut milk. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5-10 minutes, then season w salt and pepper to taste. The meatballs, just thaw 'em and cook however you do meatballs. I like to brown in a skillet on high heat in oil, then move to the oven to finish out the cook. Once they're cooked, add them to the pot with the sauce, get it all coated, and it's ready to serve. Non-primal people and cheaters can put it over basmati rice. It's awesome, although your house will smell like an Indian restaurant for a while.

I also made flourless Snickerdoodles. If you don't eat one thinking it will taste like a regular Snickerdoodle it's pretty good. I just wanted something sweet. The Mr. is thoroughly unimpressed with them but I'd make them again. The recipe can be found at Delighted Momma: Flourless Snickerdoodle Cookies (Paleo)

Today's menu includes
Breakfast: TWO iced coffees with cream. I really need to cut back on the coffee. Wonder how coconut cream would taste in there though...
Lunch: half an avocado, then tossed pulled pork into skillet w beef fat leftover from bone broth, added some chopped up green tomatoes off the vine hanging in the garage.
Dinner: probably the same thing. Need to use up those tomatoes before they go bad
Snackie: bone broth soup, some not-snickerdoodles lightly dusted with bitter tears of disappointment

Scale: Apparently I've run out of water to lose. Dammit.

LUNCH!

 

Bring the FMP's back please

 

LOL! I am a chic & I agree. Doc Martins..... ugh!

 

We're buried in ice here. Stilettos are retired until I can walk outside without fear of breaking both ankles. And I love my Docs! Complain, and I will go borrow someone's fugly Crocs! (no not really, I would never sink that low)

My "explosive action" for the day is running outside to feed chickens and rabbits and running back in before I freeze solid... while not falling on the ice. Also hitting the free weights for upper body.

Breakfast: iced coffee n cream, 2 eggs, 2 pieces bacon
Lunch: half an avocado, couple small tomatoes
Dinner: half a chicken breast off one of our roosters who didn't know when to shut up, pan seared in coconut oil with red peppers and onions
Snackies: bone broth with chopped celery, carrot, portabella mushrooms, and a little turmeric

 

dem shoes ewwww!!!

 

OMG OMG OMG WANT THOSE!!!

The rest of you need to settle down fo I crack a whip up in heah.

I am having a really hard time letting go of calorie/carb counting....there's just something addictive about running the numbers. Also I am exhausted after pretending to be Bruce Lee in the kitchen for 10 minutes.

 

lol we are just letting you know we like your regular shoes

 

In the interest of giving up any CAFO products I decided to try swapping out my milk cream for coconut cream in my coffee. The jury is still out on that one but maybe it'll grow on me. Less expensive and shelf stable though, plus, coconut, so I'll keep trying it for a while.

Yesterday my hip was really hurting bad, until about an hour after I drank a cup of coconut milk infused with turmeric, black pepper, ginger, honey infused coconut milk. It's been pain free ever since. I'm a pretty huge skeptic of natural remedies, but am trying the turmeric route instead of gobbling down Naproxene, and am crossing fingers that the turmeric is why my hip shut up, and not that the nerves just gave up and committed seppuku. There was a whole teaspoon in that cup... I boiled the milk with everything in, and then cheated and threw in a packet of sweet n low because... yeah I got no excuse.

Waiting for my pork bone broth to cool down now. Heated it up with chopped celery, carrots, mushrooms, and a bit of leftover pork, added a little grated ginger and salt and pepper. The bone broth thing is genius! I've always made soup stock but this is like concentrated stock. I poured it into a muffin tin to gel up, then froze them. Vac sealed up an entire month's worth. Also ate half a can of sardines in olive oil. Hrm... I remember liking these things more when I was a kid.

Breakfast: coffee 'n coco cream
Lunch: pork bone broth with veg n pork
Dinner: pan fried eggs n shredded pork, curry turmeric roasted cauliflower
Snackies: BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato wrapped in romaine lettuce), half T blackstrap molasses, warm coconut milk w/ turmeric/ginger/pepper

Scale: Kicked across the room

 

10 Proven Health Benefits of Turmeric and Curcumin

Pretty much can't eat eastern Indian food without eating it. Not gonna worry about it.

 

Post deleted. (You are a big girl, make your own mistakes.)

 

Well bless your heart.

Anyhoo... I ordered Primal Blueprint in over the weekend and it arrived today. Started reading a little bit this afternoon. Big fan of the idea of taking a nap after lunch! I fought tooth and nail over afternoon naps as a kid, now I beg for them, go figure.

Still on the fence with coconut cream over milk cream in the coffee. It's not BAD, just doesn't taste quite right. Making pork chops this evening, roasted butternut squash with olive oil/salt/pepper/ceylon cinnamon, and roasted cauliflower with olive oil/salt/pepper/curry/turmeric. The grill is acting up so it may get transferred to the oven in a bit. The Mr is giving the stink eye to the cauliflower.

Got in a couple of hard, fast, but short workouts today and managed to stay mostly active cleaning inside and busy work outside. I've started learning to use a Bo staff so that is keeping me off the couch and occupied a lot as well. I have only smashed 1 plant in the house so far. Felt pretty good today, zero pain and quite zen despite dogs' best attempts to make me crazy. And the jeans are loosening up again, which is always a good thing.

 

DW, you dont have any spurs for the FMPs do you?

Kidding. Keep posting about your journey. I am about to start.

 

Yeah, I know. I speak southern. I had fun trading southern with CRC.