How Eating at Home Can Save Your Life

I read a great article on the Huffington Post today. It really struck a nerve with me, since the Big Guy and i have been "complaining" to each other that since we eat so well and are both pretty darn good cooks - we now HATE going out to eat. It doesn't matter how fancy or plain the restaurant is.... we both end up feeling now so great or even flat out sick from eating food that isn't our own. We were wondering how bad people feel when all they do is eat out for every meal.... does it bother them? Are they affected? Do they not even notice that they feel bad because they ALWAYS feel like that? Is this one reason why every other commercial for drugs on TV is for some kind of stomach ailment? (Like that disgusting jingle for pepto? Yuck! " ... nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea!) So sad....

Please read the article here: How Eating at Home Can Save Your Life, by Mark Hyman.

(and for all you die hard paleo peeps - don't be alarmed by mention of beans, etc in the article. Look at the bigger picture, please!!)

Avocado Coupon!

There's not often coupons for any kind of healthy, paleo/primal foods but right now there's a coupon for a free Avocado! Print some out, they're good until 12/21/10.
Enjoy!

Coconut Pumpkin Soup

Here's one of my favorite soups. It's got sort of a Thai feeling to it. It's warming from the spices and if you make up a good sized batch, you can have a few meals out of it. Varying the add-ins will keep it interesting and keep food boredom at bay. Start with the basic ingredients (coconut milk, canned pumpkin, chicken stock) and add your own favorites as you see fit. I'm not one of those people who ever makes the same thing the same way twice. But that's what keeps life interesting, isn't it?

Start with:
1 can coconut milk (the real, full fat kind)
1 can pumpkin puree (do I need to say get the kind that it JUST pumpkin, not sweetened?)
2 to 4 cups of chicken stock, depending on how thick you like your soup. (Home made is best. Just save all your chicken bones in a bag in the freezer and make a batch of stock once a month. Your stomach and taste buds will thank you.)

Bring all that to a simmer and add some or all of the following:
Fish sauce, to taste
Diced red pepper

Fresh Ginger, diced finely
Tamarind Paste (unsweetened, adds a nice tart flavour. Optional, you can use lime juice instead. Or use them both.)
Lime Juice
Curry Leaves (if you can get these, they are divine! Located in the produce section of any good Indian grocer.)
Turmeric (adds an amazing yellow colour to the soup and is an anti-inflammatory in conjunction with the ginger!)

Simmer a bit longer. Adjust seasonings. Take off of the heat and add in some:
Scallions/green onions
Cilantro

If I'm making a big batch to eat later, I like to leave out the cilantro, scallions and lime. After I reheat whatever portion I am eating, I'll add those in to the individual serving. This keeps the soup from tasting flat and boring. Nothing like the pop from some freshly chopped herbs to make a meal sing!

You can add some shredded, cooked chicken or other meats to make a nice quick, vegetable filled meal. Makes a great breakfast on a chilly morning. Enjoy!

Grocery shopping

Tonight we head off to Wegmans for our bi-monthly grocery shopping. When I started changing my diet (mainly Nourishing Traditions in 2009, mainly Paleo/Primal in mid 2010) I was worried that I couldn't do it shopping at a "traditional" grocery store. I figured I'd have to mail order all of my food, and who could afford this, so why even bother? I just had to out my thinking cap on and figure it out. It all boils down to the standard advice of shopping the "perimeter" of the store to avoid all the junk. (Although, our Wegmans has toilet paper and the bakery on the perimeter....don't worry, I'm a smart girl, I can adjust!)

Here's what I usually pick up at Wegmans. In the "nature's marketplace" section I grab coconut oil, coconut milk (regular, not 'lite') coconut cream and coconut shreds and sunbutter. In international foods, I get my olive oil, fish sauce, PG Tips tea, sardines (Goya brand, packed in olive oil) and occasionally kippers (yum!). Also, there's a good selection of bulk Indian spices, like the anti-inflammatory Turmeric and ginger, and garam masala. Somewhere in the middle aisles is the tuna and canned Alaskan salmon.
The baking aisle has all the regular spices: black pepper, sea salt, Italian seasonings, paprika, etc. Also, dried fruit like dates to make my Ayla Bars.
In frozen foods, I usually get a couple of bags of greens - turnip greens, kale, collards, okra, etc. In dairy, I pick up a couple of dozen eggs (either organic free range or omega-3). Heavy cream, though I am thinking that is bothering me also, so I'm going to try knocking that off for a while to see if I feel less congested.
The meat department...hmmm, Wegs is a bit spendy on the meat. I'll usually grab a couple of whole chickens and chicken livers there but the majority of the beef I get is picked up on sale at Pathmark. We've been stocking up on $1.99 lb London broils since the Big Guy and i both eat them. Plus I make a ton of jerky using the London broil.
Near the meat department, with the fancy cheeses is my beloved grass fed butter. It's pricey but so, so worth it. Kerrygold, I love you!
The Veggies.... Again, Wegs is expensive on the veggies. With the sheer volume of vegetables I am eating, I just can't afford to buy all my produce there. (their produce is beautiful.) There's a local Korean veggie market near our house that opened back in the summer. I usually spend anywhere from 25 to 40 bucks there every week to 10 days. Their prices are great and since I buy so much they throw me the occasional discount or if they see me buying something that's a bit sketchy, they go in the back and get me a better/fresher/bigger one! Nice! They are my source for sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, peppers, greens of all kinds, onions, fresh ginger, avocados, and amazing mangoes (which I have to really limit myself on until I lean out a bit. Wah! I could eat a couple of those babies each day.)

So, that's what's in my grocery bag. Now for my life updates. The Big Guy has been looking in horror (my perception, probably not really true) at the amount of fat that I've been eating. I kid you not, If I am feeling snacky I will go and eat some coconut oil or a slice of Kerrygold butter. I am so happy to report that with all this good fat eating and all the other changes I've made in my life, I've lost 7 lbs since early September. This is huge for me. I am so happy. Butter snacks rule!

weights, meats and canine insanity

The dogs had an exhausting day barking at the trick or treaters. (there's a long rant about how out of shape we Americans are when your mom and dad have to DRIVE you from house to house...but that's another blog entry) In the middle of the night, the girlio had a nightmare or something and attacked the boy-o in her sleep. Insanity! She did no damage, in fact, I don't even think she made contact with him but the barking action was loud and fierce. After pulling her away from him, she settled down and went right to sleep. So, I really think she was dreaming.... so strange.

Beef was on a huge sale this week so I stocked up on 7 london broils, of which 6 are now in the freezer. Some will be cooked for lunches and some will be made in to jerky. It's so easy to make jerky in the oven. It's healthy, primal and delicious. I marinate it in Thai fish sauce (to avoid soy) and Sriracha hot sauce and lime juice. Yummy. Ayla likes it.
I also cooked for the week: 1 london broil, 2 meatloafs (1 is in the freezer for next week) and while not really cooking at all, I put up about 10 lbs of cabbage in my crock to make sauerkraut for the winter.

I misread my weight training log and accidentally leg pressed 948 lbs. I couldn't figure out why the lift was so hard. I still churned out a set of 15 but I was absolutely ruined for the rest of the training session. :-)
Let that be a multifaceted lesson to you -
1: be careful how you log your weights in your training log.
2: just because you wrote down the weight that you did...well, sometimes you are stronger than you think you are.

**edited to add: November 1st, 2004 I had my spleen taken out to try to put an end to the ITP. My scar still bothers me sometimes but the ITP is under control. I had to support of my friends and family and my Big Guy throughout it all. I am a lucky girl.

908, it's not just an area code!

Whoot! Leg pressed 908 today. As I was getting ready, some dude wanders by, kind of snickers and says "wow, i guess you'll do a set of 2?" He then proceeds to lean on the machine next to me to watch. I blasted out a set of 20. At some point, he exclaimed "wow, excellent!" gave a thumbs up and wandered away. heh....set of 2.

Overall, excellent training this weekend. There were no 30 lb dumbbells available while I was doing my flys so, I had to do 35 lbs. (don't you hate when that happens?) I also had a personal best on my calf raises.

The rest of the day was cooking - a chicken, a roast beast for the big guy, a pork roast (all for during the week) and then todays dinner - boneless pork braised with leeks, mushrooms, white wine, bay and Herbes de Provence. Yummy!

858!!!

Whoot! smashed a 858 lb leg press today, 1 set of 20 reps. So Happy! The whole training session was really intense.
Sunday is usually a massive "cooking for the week" day to get all my meals in order, but i did so much cooking last week and packaged all the meals like a good thrifty gal should so i am covered for this upcoming week. In the bag for next week is: butternut squash with apples, roasted chicken, roasted pork shoulder, sweet potatoes, cauliflower curry with coconut milk. i'll mix that up those meal potentials with a ton of fresh greens, and the only thing i'll be cooking today is a pot of vegetable soup made with a fantastic home made stock.
The big guy, who is not paleo/primal, yet - will be cooking up a pot of brown rice for his lunches at work, a london broil (also for lunch) and a pile of chicken breast tenderloins for his mid-afternoon meals.
Off to eat my steak and sweet potato post training meal and then head off to my studio to get so Art made today.