Satay Sauce!

Here is Hungry For Living's simple recipe for a Paleo Satay sauce.

½  cup sun butter  Recipe Here

¼ cup coconut milk

1/8  cup hot water

1/8  cup coconut aminos

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp red pepper flakes

Juice from ½ a lime
1 1/2 tsp curry powder (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until creamy.

Makes 1 cup

My fiance is not a fan of curry so we choose to make our satay sauce minus the curry powder.

Fried Green Tomatoes!

Fried green tomatoes are a great Paleo breakfast dish and are easy to make.  Whether you eat a Primal diet or not there is no denying this is a tasty way to cook up a tomato. Here is the Hungry For Living recipe for Paleo fried green tomatoes.  Obviously you can use white flour in place of the coconut flour if you don't practice the Paleo Lifestyle.

You Need:

• 2 bacon strips
• 1 green tomato
• 1 egg
• ½ cup coconut flour
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cut clean tomatoes in 1/8 inch slices
2. Whip up eggs in a shallow dish or bowl
3. Fry bacon in a skillet over medium heat, set aside and allow to cool.
4. Cover tomato slices in the egg wash, then dredge in coconut flour.
5. Place covered tomato slices in the skillet and fry them in the remaining bacon grease over medium heat for about two to three minutes on each side.
6. Crumble up bacon slices.
7. Remove from heat, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and top with crumbled bacon.

 

Would you fry up this tasty dish for breakfast?

Unrefined Virgin Coconut Oil!

With so many type of oils out there how are we supposed to decipher the good oil from the bad? Well, First off, eliminate vegetable oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids and Omega-6. These are the types of oils that are not good for you. For example: vegetable oil, corn oil, peanut oil, soybean oil , grape seed oil, cottonseed oil, safflower and sunflower oil.

Learning to eat Paleo you pick up on a few things, like how good fats don’t actually make you fat and are actually healthy.  Paleo eaters rely heavily on consuming good fats, it’s our main source of energy. Our bodies are said to be designed to run primarily on fat as a source of energy. Coconut oil is an edible oil, like olive oil that is extracted from the meat of coconuts. The oil is made up of around 90% saturated fat, 6% monounsaturated fat, and 3% polyunsaturated fat which allows it to stay stable under high heat.  This is also why it is great to cook with.

Using coconut oil for cooking is becoming more and more popular. I actually began using unrefined virgin coconut oil in my cooking long before I made the jump to a Paleo lifestyle.  When I began eating Paleo I quickly learned that although you can consume olive oil at room temperature, for example, drizzled over a salad, you are not supposed to cook your food with it.  Since I used olive oil in many of the dishes I prepared,  I began supplementing the coconut oil in it's place and opening up many more possibilities for cooking with it.  The difference from most oils you are probably used to cooking with is that coconut oil is solid at room temperature. I use this oil now for most of my stove top cooking.  It is great for sauteing vegetables and frying eggs.  It will leave a great subtle coconut flavor and smell that is not overpowering to your dishes.  I also use it in some of my grain free baking.

Using coconut oil in your cooking can also positively affect your health. Here are just a few examples of how:

• Boosts your metabolism 
• Aids with weight loss.
• Increases your digestion 
• Helps you absorb fat-soluble vitamins.
• Improves your heart health 
• Supports your immune system.
• Positively affects your hormones for thyroid and blood-sugar control. 
• Promotes healing & tissue repair.
• Helps protect against kidney disease and bladder infections.

Coconut oil also has many other uses outside the kitchen check out these 160 uses for coconut oil.

If you are unsure or curious I encourage you to buy a jar and substitute it in a few of your recipes   You may just be pleasantly surprised.  There are many brands of coconut oil on the market.  I tend to buy the brand Spectrum that's pictured above on the left.  It is reasonably priced and has worked well for me for many different uses.

Would you cook with coconut oil?

Sun Butter!

Sun Butter is a butter made from sunflower seeds.  This is a great addition to your diet if you eat Paleo or Primal. Below are the simple steps for how to make Sun Butter.

You Need

• 1 cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1 ½ Tbsp macadamia nut oil
• ½ tsp pure maple syrup

Directions

1. Grind sunflower seeds in a food processor until you have a fine sunflower meal.
2. Blend in oil until you have a peanut butter type consistency.
3. Blend in maple syrup.
4. Continue to blend until you have the consistency you prefer.  You may need to add a bit more oil.       

Makes 1cup

Tip: You can also add more syrup for a sweeter flavor.

I keep my Sun Butter in a glass container but you can use any air tight container and just store in your cupboard or pantry.

Would you make sun butter?

Experience Design!

Going Paleo?

I remember a friend telling me a while ago that they were eating "Paleo" often times nicknamed "The Caveman Diet".  After a very brief description of what eating Paleo entailed, I remember thinking "Oh my god! I could NEVER do that".  I had forgotten all about that conversation until recently when I stumbled upon a popular blog I had just started reading.  I was checking out a post for a healthy version of the old favorite, chocolate chip cookies, when I began to read the entire post.  The author explained how some of her ingredient choices were due to the fact her boyfriend was on the Paleo diet, and with that I opened a new tab and Goggled  The Paleo Diet.  At first glance I realized I was researching the same diet my friend had mentioned to me a while back, but the more I read the more intrigued I became with the science behind the idea of eating Paleo/Primal.  It is based on modern foods that mimic the food groups our pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.  It is also not a diet but rather a lifestyle.

I found two things most interesting when reading up on the Paleo Lifestyle.

1) Food.  What has happened to our food? Agriculture!  We are the only species who have dramatically changed the foods we were meant to eat.  When humans discovered farming, the agricultural revolution exploded, and we became farmers instead of hunter-gatherers. The problem however is that our bodies never adjusted to eating all the grains that we began farming.  Now, rather than mainly eating meat, vegetables and fruits, our diets have been overrun with grains (bread, pasta, rice, and corn). 

Beyond that we have become taken over by processed foods, genetically modified foods, and junk food that cost a fraction of what real food does.  

2) Dairy.  Did you know that we are the only mammals that drink another mammals milk?  Or that we are the only mammals that continue to drink milk after infancy? Some believe that the reason so many people have issues when it comes to dairy is because we are born producing the enzyme lactase, which gives us the ability to digest milk by breaking down lactose, but that we stop producing it around the age of two since it is only meant to aid in our digestion of breast milk.

I was a little nervous when I decided to take on the challenge of eating Paleo,  but when I began looking at all the foods I could eat rather than the ones I couldn't, it didn't seem so daunting.  After eating Paleo for only a week I noticed changes.  For one I didn't feel hungry all the time! I remember reading an article that told you not to worry about always eating three meals a day and to only eat when you were hungry.  I didn't think I would actually feel that way but I did.  I also found that when I stopped eating processed food I stopped craving processed food.  I could already feel my energy increasing as well. 

It is a big change for a lot of people and most go into it making slow changes over time.  A lot of people also eat an 80/20 or 90/10 version of Paleo allowing themselves certain foods weather it be milk or bread etc.  There are so many health benefits to eating Paleo and would encourage you to do a bit of research yourself and look into it with an open mind.  

A quick list of some Paleo foods:

You can eat as much of these as you want: 
Meats
Wild seafood
Organ meat
Fats – tallow, lard, ghee
Oils - coconut oil, olive oil, sesame oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil
Eggs
Vegetables
Fruits

In moderation:
Nuts (peanuts are not nuts) :(
Seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower)
Coffee
Dark Chocolate
Tea
Wine
Dried fruits
Raw honey

For a more detailed list you can check out this LIST

To learn more you can check out Dr Loren Cordain's Web Site.  He is the world's leading expert on Paleolithic Diets and the founder of the Paleo Movement.

Do you eat Paleo? Would you ever try eating Paleo?

The Perfect Human Diet!

Thoughts?