Cooking in our Cave

My Primal Benefits

2009-10-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

A commenter asked me what I found to be the greatest benefits as a woman doing Primal eating. I started to post a long answer in the comments and then I decided I'd also like to do a post. Not all of these benefits are exclusive to females, of course.

Benefit 1: I keep my curves. The first time I consciously tried to lose weight I went on a no fat whatsoever diet. Yes, I was young and stupid. Moving on. I got skinny, but I also had NO breasts/ass. Not fun. For some reason, eating Primal, I stay lean but I keep my curves=happy Cavewoman :)

Benefit 2: Fabulous hair/nails/skin. Oh yes, I have a nice sleek coat, nails I can open soda cans with, and a healthy glow. I never wear make up. Now granted, that's partly because I don't like make up. But I like having the option instead of feeling like I need to have something on my face to be presentable.

Benefit 3: I get to eat yummy food. No, I really don't miss Snickers, baguettes, and fries. I get to eat cheese, bacon, omelettes, chicken skin, ribs, burgers, etc. I have REAL cream in my coffee. I have dark chocolate for dessert, or strawberries, or a green tea protein smoothie (raw milk, matcha powder, stevia, whey protein, dash of vanilla, ice.)

Benefit 4: I don't stress about food. I was definitely one of those Type A calorie counting wonders. I can still tell you how many calories are in most food items. Now I just eat what is nourishing, eat until I am full, and leave it at that. Sure, I do have the urge to stress eat sometimes (see post below) but the moments are easily controlled because my blood sugar is always nice and level. As many Primal followers have noted, they can fast effortlessly, and I find that I can easily skip dinner or lunch some days no problem.

Benefit 5: Less severe PMS/cramps. Sorry boys, this may be TMI for you. My moods are much more even, I don't break out, and my cramps are much better. Not gone, mind you, but better.

I'm not perfect. I drink a fair bit, and I sometimes make less than optimal choices. I would encourage all of us not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I am very happy just getting right MOST of the time, and I would wager that most other would be too.

Maintaining Primalness When Stressed

2009-10-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Of course as soon as I decide to re up my blog, work goes batshit :) But whatevs, I shall plow through. It's amazing how eating Primal has changed my ability to cope with stress. I really believe food has a huge effect on mood.

I start my day with protein, I have protein at lunch, and more protein at dinner. With fat and non starchy carbs. And I don't ever have those lows anymore before mealtimes. You know, those shakey headachey (and for me, downright bitchy) moments where you desperately need to get something in you or something bad will happen?

Nope. I work placidly until I feel belly hunger. Mostly. I do occasionally get stress cravings, but I've found that tea helps quite nicely with those. Now, for those of you who are rolling your eyes and thinking tea would never do it for you, let me just say, I was in your camp. Really, I was.

Now, I'm not getting paid to endorse this particular brand, but I'm addicted to Good Earth Cocoa Spice Chai and Decaf Vanilla Chai. Honestly, sometimes I just brew it and sniff it, because it smells SO yummy. But I find that the warm liquid, and doing something with my mouth, psychologically soothes me.

And having a crutch like that that won't otherwise fuck up my Primal eating goes a long way in times when work is going like gangbusters or something else stressful comes up in my life. My other crutch is taking a walk, but I know that's not always an option in other parts of the (freezing cold) country :) Tea works everywhere :)

How do you cope with stress while maintaining a Primal lifestyle? Do you have crutches? Mabe crutch isn't the right word, maybe it's "trick."

Sunlight makes me happy

2009-10-05T15:30:00.001-07:00

So, off the topic of food, but generally Primal, let's talk a little about the Sun. When I lived in the Northeast, or Midwest, I spent at least three months out of the year miserable and cranky. The cold got to me, but it was really the lack of sunlight.

Since I have moved to California, I've been a much happier person, and I would venture to say, it's the sunlight. I know there are a lot of people who don't buy the whole SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) thing. And frankly, I was one of them. I figured it was more the cold than the lack of sun.

But SF is not all that warm. It's basically coldish cold or warmish cold the vast majority of the time. And yet, I'm so perky my friends back East ask me if I'm on uppers on a regular basis. The thing is, SF may be chilly, but it's sunny.

Even today--perfectly blue skies, but I couldn't go out without a sweater. And yet, here I am, writing about my good mood :) It's not even that I get to go out in the sun very much (again, office drone) but even just walking to work in the sun and seeing it shining outside my window puts me in a happy frame of mind.

It's amazing to me how much my mood affects my appetite, even eating Primal. Now, it's more the kind of Primal food I eat rather than whether I eat Primal or not. But I notice when it's nice and bright and sunny and I'm in a good mood, I do tend to eat less.

And when it's darker and grayer, even if it's the same air temp? I'm definitely more snacky. I think it's just a basic human instinct: what's more primal that perking up in the sun? And as a side note, what could be more necessary to our ancestors when they were looking to get some vitamin D?

So am I crazy? Am I just making up the effects of sunlight? Or do you all experience it too?

Anecdotal observations

2009-10-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

For a patient population of 1. I don't know about you, but I love experimenting with my diet and seeing how changes pan out. Of course, I do it in a totally unscientific way, altering multiple things at a time so that it's hard for me to isolate what single thing was the factor in a particular change, but whatever. I don't have the patience for the whole one thing at a time bit.

So, for example, I take fish oil, D3, and K2 on a daily basis and have for about a month. Why? I am D deficient (office drone) I do sometimes eat non free range meat (hello Omega 6s) and I also don't eat foie gras regularly (oh, how I would love to, but my budget will not tolerate it) and I've noticed a major change in my skin. I have mild acne (usually a few small pimples here and there, annoying but not a big deal) and lately, my skin has been totally calm. Love that. Now, is it the fish oil, the D, or the K? Or some combination thereof?

Or when I drink diet soda, my stomach gets extremely sensitive to anything else. I've been diet soda free for a week (YAY me) but I've also cut out all other artificial sweeteners (used to be a Splenda addict, now use liquid stevia on occasion, but far, far less frequently than I used the evil yellow packet) so I can't tell if the carbonation or the sweeteners (or again, some combination) that set my stomach off.

I just find it fun to play around with how my body reacts...

She returns!

2009-10-02T18:48:00.001-07:00

Wow, I seriously doubt anyone is even checking here anymore :). But I was googling something today and a link to my poor little defunct blog popped up and it felt oddly like running into a friend you haven't seen in a long time. Slightly awkward, but nice too.
Besides, I couldn't let that slightly self pitying last post be my final statement. Not my style :)

I've fully settled into San Francisco, and I love the Bay area more than ever. I have gotten back into dairy. I know, not Paleo. But I am of Northern European ancestry, and you know what? I like my dairy. It tastes goooooood. You know what tastes really good? Raw milk. Oh my goodness. The beauty of California and legally permitted marketing of unpasteurized dairy in all its glorious forms to the public.

Oh, by the way, raw cream, raw butter, and raw cheese--also awesome. Almost as good as the look I get when I tell other people I eat raw milk products. You'd think I'd told them I lick it off the sidewalk. Honestly, it's hilarious. Never mind that everyone else in the office has caught the last version of whatever rhinovirus is floating around and I'm totally unstuffed. No, I'm the crazy one :)

Actually, I am the crazy one. But I'm ok with that. And gosh darn it, I'm back to blogging, even if I'm just blogging about what I eat so that I can keep track. And if anyone DOES start reading, hi :)

So let's talk chinese veggies. I grew up in Toronto, which means that even though I'm the whitest white girl you'll ever see, Asian food of all stripes is comfort food to me. Soon I'll discuss how fabulous Japanese flavours are for Paleo/Primal/whatever the hell you want to call my diet now. For now, let me just tell you about chinese broccoli, or gai lan. Gai lan is a delicious leafy green veggie that come in long stalks with long narrow leaves and stems about a centimeter (~.5 inch for you Americans who don't feel like doing the metric thing) in diameter. You will often see small yellow flowers midway up the stalk as well.

Gai lan is delicious steamed or stirfried. The one thing to remember is to cook the stems first, and the leaves at the end. When cooked, gai lan does taste a lot like broccoli, but is harder to overcook and doesn't get the same slightly sulfurous flavour that broccoli can get. I like to steam it in the microwave (3 minutes on medium heat for the stems, throw the leaves in at the last minute) and toss it with roasted garlic and butter. Or, stirfry it with coconut oil and shallots and throw in some hot pepper flakes at the last minute.

In any case, the gai lan is ready when the stalks are bright green (they start out a much duller grayish green) and the leaves are wilted. Gai lan can be found in Asian grocery store and in the Asian veggie section of some larger supermarkets. Oh, and if anyone out there has other gai lan recipes, please post them in the comments!

Primal and Dating?

2009-04-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

Not that I'm anywhere near being ready to date again yet, but I freely admit that with a break up comes some old fears. My former SO was really, really supportive of the way I chose to eat. But not every former SO has been that way.

I've been called controlling, anal, unable to relax. After all, why can't I just chill and have a couple slices of pizza? Why do I have to insist on ordering a salad with chicken? Why can't I just not record what I've eaten for a few days? Don't I realize I look disorderd? etc. etc.

To be clear: if I was really lusting for a slice of pizza, I would have it and move on. I'm talking about the situations where I really don't want to eat something I see as lower quality or as otherwise unappealing.

And while I have no problem being open with my friends, in a more intimate context I feel very sensitive about being judged. I'm not sure why. I know the feeling is irrational, and that someone who likes me will like me for all of me. But I can't help it.

When I cook for people I date, I NEVER weigh my food in front of them. I don't discuss my eating philosophies or talk about how I use my CRON-O-Meter. I joke with my friends that I am saving the "crazy" for later.

There seems to be sliding scale of socially acceptable eating habits. For example, being a vegetarian is fine, but vegans are nuts. Weight Watchers is a-Ok, but raw foodists are total weirdos. Hell, everyone is on South Beach, but breathe a word of Atkins and you're a bacon snarfing freak.

And rightly or wrongly, I feel like CR and Primal eating are both solidly in the unacceptable category. I would really love to find a way to screen for guys who were into Primal eating. Sadly, in my personal experience, most guys in good shape either 1) don't care what the hell they eat because they've never had to, or 2) are solidly in a nutritional camp I don't identify with, like the school of carrying tupperware protein everywhere for feedings every three hours. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Hmmm. All of the sudden I appreciate the companionship of my cat so much more. He never cares what I eat so long as I feed him too.

Low and Slow

2009-04-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

The credit for the cooking technique I am going to discuss today goes entirely to Richard at Free the Animal. I love his blog, and I highly recommend checking it out if you're at all interested in Primal eating. He and I have gotten into it a bit over CR, but he is a very reasonable, rational, and generous blogger.

I recently discovered a cut of beef I ADORE. Now, I generally adore red meat. My grandparents were cattle farmers, so it's in the blood. And I credit their, and my mother's, good health in part to the grassfed beef they ate frequently throughout their lives. And I have never even come close to being anemic ;)

As a side note, I should mention I have never gone through a vegetarian phase. Dyed in the wool carnivore here, folks. To each their own.

Anyways, back to the beef. So I was flipping through one of my many, many (seriously, I have a problem) cookbooks and it mentioned butcher's cut steak. Some of you may know it as hanger steak. This is a piece of meat that hangs down near the diaphragm of the cow. It's not too lean or too fatty, and it makes a delicious steak. Not only that, because it's generally a less familiar cut, it's usually cheap (and y'all know by now how much I like that :) ).

Which brings me to the title of the post. The best way to cook this steak, IMHO, is Richard's way. Which means roast the steak in a 250 degree oven until internal doneness is reached (depends on personal taste). A digital remote thermometer (one that has a lead cord so you can stick it in the meat but the temp monitor sits outside the oven) is a HUGE help here. Get one. They are the best.

Once internal doneness is reached, take the steak out. Don't worry that it doesn't have that yummy sear/crust you love so much. I'm getting to that. Now, turn on the broiler, rub the steak down with butter, and broil both sides until it looks the way it should.

Serve with some nice spinach pureed with olive oil. Or grilled asparagus. Or steamed broccoli with parm on top. Or anything else that looks appealing. I promise you this will be the most melt in your mouth steak you've had in ages, and you did it all by yourself.

Carb belly?

2009-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have many slim Asian friends who refer to their 'rice bellies'--the phenomenon of being slim all over, except for a little roundness in the tummy area. Now, to my eye, they have no rice bellies to speak of, but they did get me thinking about an anecdotal observation of mine.

I definitely do get carb belly. Generally, I see it when I eat over 120g of carbs a day, which can happen, since I set my upper limit as 150 (not counting fiber). My daily carb count can vary between 50-150g on any given day.

There is more leeway for carbs in my diet because I'm not trying to lose weight. Also, 150g of carbs generally means I ate more fruit, including dried fruit, than usual, or I had more chocolate than usual--not that I went nose down into a baguette.

In any case, I do notice a little belly when I hit my upper carb limit. Generally when I see the carb belly, I know it's time to take it down for a few days, and I'll usually go right back down to about 50g. 3 days of 50g usually puts my belly to rights again.

The other thing I notice with carb belly is that, per my trusty (and I say that with sarcasm, because I have no idea how accurate it is) Tanita bodyfat scale, my body fat jumps ~3 percentage points along with the carb belly. My theory, since the scale judges body fat with electrical impulses, is that extra carbs somehow screw with water retention, which in turn screws with the readings.

It's observations like this that reinforce how important what you eat is to how you look and how you feel about yourself. Oh, and that remind me to watch my carb intake ;)

Primal Passover

2009-04-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, the joys of being a Jew. Most of our holidays revolve around eating and celebrating the fact that we escaped massacre. Good times :) For Hannukah (look, those who are about to bitch, there IS no right spelling, it's a transliteration, so if you don't like it, spell it the way you want to on your own blog :) ) it's food cooked in oil, for Purim it's hamantaschen, and Passover, well, Passover is the mack daddy of them all.

The first night of Passover there are specific foods you must eat. And yes, I break with Primal eating to have a bit of matzoh and charoset (a dried fruit paste bound with sweet wine) at the Seder because the ritual is very important to me. But even beyond the Seder, I keep kosher over Passover, something I don't do at any other time of the year. This year, I am actually trying to eat kosher and Primal. Adventures have and will continue to ensue, I'm sure, but I'm happy to report, it hasn't been that bad.

At the Seder itself, which was a meat (as opposed to dairy) there were the usual suspects, like brisket braised in red wine, veggies, and a few choice Jewish treats I will never be able to get into, like gefilte fish. Let me pause for a second--seriously, sweet fish? Who ever thought that would be a good idea? Anyways, there were also fabulous pickled veggies of all incarnations. Let me just say pickled asparagus, YUM.

As to the rest of the time, turns out keeping kosher and Primal is relatively easy, with the big caveat that I am lucky enough to have access to a steady supply of kosher meat. My plan for the week, at least for right now, is to avoid dairy completely, since I am far more reliant on meat than milk in my day to day consumption, and I hate the whole waiting period between eating milk and meat.

I have roasted off a nice kosher chicken, which is feeding me quite nicely right now, and then I have some hanger steak (post on that soon!) waiting in the freezer once that's eaten. Since I don't eat grains and legumes anyway, chometz and kitniyot, both trayf for the Passover period, aren't an issue. There are some cuts of meat I have to avoid during Passover, like beef tenderloin, and pork is obviously out :( And I cook with schmaltz or olive oil, and yes, I do miss butter. A lot.

But at least I have eggs, and lots and lots of yummy fruits and veggies. I've been having fresh strawberries as my sweet of choice lately, or baked apples doused in cinnamon. Dates are back on the dessert rotation too. I like the parallel, I can imagine the Jews fleeing Egypt eating dates in the desert on their way out.

Caffeine

2009-04-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

Caffeine is one of those gray areas for me. Coffee, I can't handle straight (and I know I'm not the only one) but good coffee is palatable with just cream, so it isn't paleo-horrible. And CR wise, it does have B vitamins and few calories, even with a little cream.

Tea, eh, I go through phases. Genmai-cha is one of the very few I drink consistently, and as April once pointed out on her fabulous blog, in a way it satisfies any residual or random grain craving you might have, since it tastes like what it is green tea + roasted rice.

Other sources of caffeine? I've come a looooooooooong way, baby. I have mostly cut out diet soda, and that would be my only other source. No, wait, I'm lying. I do eat chocolate. Diet soda would be my only other concentrated source.

The thing is, I don't think there's anything wrong with caffeine. It perks me up in the morning, but it doesn't give me a hardcore buzz, and it never has. It may be a genetic thing--my mom can drink a cup of coffee and fall asleep half an hour later, so can I. And I love, love, love a shot of espresso after a nice dinner.

But then I hear these tropes about how caffeine increases appetite, etc. So I go through caffeine fasts. I guess I'm just wondering if it's necessary? Some of the healthiest people I know, including bloggers like Mark Sisson and the aforementioned April, consume caffeine relatively regularly.

Hmmmm, on the fence about this once (while clutching my morning coffee in one hand...)

The incredible, edible, well... you know

2009-04-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

I think the egg is one of the most amazing foods in existence. Incredibly versatile, incredibly tasty, and absolutely brimming with nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere (choline, anyone?), they can also be an excellent convenience food.

Allow me to pimp a product for a minute, because it has improved my already good relationship with the egg http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007M2BN0. This little gizmo, which cooks eggs in the microwave, is a LIFESAVER in the morning.

I'm a huge fan of soft boiled eggs for breakfast. I also love hardboiled eggs minced up on salad, and a frittata is a great way to deal with leftovers.

I look back on my egg white eating days with some amusement. I never really liked egg whites on their own, but I made myself eat them for the protein. Not that they were all bad, especially topped with a slice of cheese.

But the lovely, luscious soft yolk is definitely the best part. I will never forget my first salade Lyonnaise--frisee, bacon, and poached egg perched on top, pierced so that it would run down the leaves of the frisee and mix with the bacon grease, forming a totally delicious dressing.

I even eat eggs raw (gasp! scandal! salmonella!) mixed into steak tartare or in homemade caesar salad dressing. Each cooking method, or lack thereof, brings out something different in the egg.

The only thing you HAVE to do with the egg is handle it gently. The proteins in the egg do not react well to high, dry, heat--they seize and get tough and become, in the words of one great french chef "elephant skin." And anyone who's had an overcooked hardboiled egg can attest to the tongue desiccating nature of overcooked yolk. But treat the egg with love and patience, and it will repay you handsomely.

I'll finish with a cooking recommendation, rather than a recipe, because this is more technique than anything. For a truly indulgent, glorious example of what the egg can do, I recommend scrambling two or three gently in some clarified butter, over low heat. Stir the eggs gently and slowly in a figure of eight motion until just barely cooked through. It feels like eating rich, creamy, yellow clouds and it is possibly my favourite meal on a Sunday morning.

What to eat when you don't much feel like eating

2009-04-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Paleo survival mode. I'm not an emotional eater. If anything, I'm an emotional faster. When I'm upset, food tastes different to me, and I avoid things I otherwise love and consider treats.

Have you ever stood in front of an open fridge door, wondering why there's nothing in there that appeals to you? I've been doing that a lot lately. So I've defaulted to things that are very easy, and don't require much chewing.

For example, the green smoothie. Whey powder, frozen spinach, and coconut milk. I use Jay Robb Vanilla whey powder, which is delicious. Sometimes, when I've been low on carbs for the day, I throw in a little (~35g) frozen banana. It's not necessary though. Between the whey and the coconut milk, you don't taste the spinach, and you get a nice dose of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients. Plus, the smoothie is a very attractive shade of green, pale and appealing and springlike.

Another dish involving spinach is where I get some chicken sausage(check the nutritional label and make sure there is 1g carb or less per serving) slice it up, and nuke it with frozen spinach. At the end, throw in a little herbed goat cheese for creaminess, mix it all together, and enjoy.

Another good one is soft boiled eggs, all on their own or with some salami. I like dipping salami pieces in the nice soft yolks.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times published a recipe for hot chocolate made with coconut milk, and let me tell you, it's delicious even without added sweeteners, because the coconut milk has a certain natural sweetness itself.

I know that particularly at a low point, it is important for me to care for and nourish myself, and cooking for myself is a key component of that self care. Of course, I'm always open to more Paleo comfort food suggestions :)...

Cooking in my cave

2009-04-06T09:32:00.001-07:00

I will be back to normal postings tomorrow. I rarely talk about my personal life on the blog, but I wanted to explain this absence. The SO and I are no longer together. I'm not changing the blog name (maybe 'our' can now just be a universal term for all Paleo/CRON bloggers :) ).

The upside is I'm learning all about Paleo comfort food. More on that tomorrow...

Brussel sprouts

2009-04-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Not surprisingly, given my cabbage obsession, I am magnetically attracted to brussel sprouts. Now, maybe it's because there's a 5 year old girl inside me who squeals "awwwww look at the little baby cabbages." I blame many things on my inner 5 year old.

There isn't much love for the b. sprout in the general populace. In spite of their obvious cuteness (at least to me) people tend to avoid them in favour of more pedestrian, accessible veggies. Or maybe they can't bring themselves to eat them BECAUSE of their cuteness, the way some people won't eat lamb but have no problem chowing down on prime rib.

Those who do choose to cook them often seem to prepare them as if the b. sprouts have offended them in some way, such that they must be punished by boiling until they've reached a grayish dark green tint and smell of sulfur.

I like to treat my sprouts with a little more love. I peel off the nasty outermost leaves, slice them in half. Then I melt some bacon grease in a frying pan, saute some onion, throw in some hot pepper flakes, turn the heat up and lay the sprouts in the pan, cut side down, for 2-3 minutes. Then I flip them over, douse them with some white wine (or stock, or water, or whatever else you think might be good as a braising liquid), throw on the lid, and let them steam for a few minutes. Then I poke them with a fork, to see if they're soft, throw on some salt and pepper, and there you go, Lightly charred, bright green sprout deliciousness.

Or you can slice them up (for this endeavour, as well as an other veggie cutting project, let me HEARTILY endorse a ceramic knife. Mine is a Kyocera and one of my favourite things) thinly and saute them--that's even faster.

One word of advice: overcooking is the kiss of death of b. sprouts. Remember: bright green=good, dark grayish green=bad.

Of breasts and thighs

2009-03-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

Aren't I naughty ;)?

I'm talking poultry today, because I had a revelation over the weekend.

The chicken breast: much maligned by foodies, the dieter's cut when boneless and skinless, the safe order in restaurants, etc.
The chicken thigh: much praised by foodies, the dieter's nightmare no matter what, the rarely seen option in restaurants unless you just see 'chicken' listed at your local cheap places.

I love chicken. But I always thought I loved the breasts way more than the thighs. Sure, they were slightly dry plain, but they were also predictably acceptable tasting steady protein sources whether you were at a Chinese, Indian, French, or Aghani restaurant. And when one is trying to CRON and have some semblance of a social life, being familiar with a good protein source/relatively low calorie item is a real plus.

And chicken breasts are not bad. Roast chicken breast will never be derided from this corner. But I fear my affections have indeed shifted to the dark side.

Now, to be fair to the thigh, I never did give it a chance before. The few times I cooked it when I was younger, I tried to cook it like a chicken breast and it just seemed too fatty and weirdly gristly. And while I love pork fat on a nice pork chop, I've never warmed to chicken fat on the bone.

But lately, I've come to appreciate the thigh. It's always cheaper than the breast, and has a deeper, more nuanced flavour. It is more reliably juicy. And calorie wise, the difference is not that significant at all (1.7 cal/g vs. 1.8 cal/g).

The trick with cooking a thigh at home, to my mind, is to realize you can be a little rougher with it. Breasts require attention so that they don't dry out. Thighs need less TLC and can still be delicious. I really like to braise skinless or skin on chicken thighs (depending on my audience) with canned tomatoes and big hunks of onion on the stove in a Dutch oven for 45 min-1 hour.

I keep trying to convince my friends to give the thigh a chance, but I think the bias against dark meat runs deep. On the other hand, why should I encourage them when their rejection just means there'll be more for me :)?

Pondering dairy

2009-03-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

I am not anti-dairy. I know many Paleo eaters who are. Although I was never a milk drinker, I am deeply attached to cheese and cream, and I consume them in relatively small amounts (an ounce of cheese a day, for example) so I figure they're not a big deal.

Previously, I was a fiend for yogurt, particularly greek yogurt (Fage loyalist here) and goat milk yogurt. Now, I have a tendency to play tastes out. I will get obsessive about something for a while, eat it far too often, and not want to see it again for many moons. Many innocent foodstuffs have fallen victim to my unfortunate habit (pickles, canned pumpkin in everything, shrimp cocktail) but I never thought my beloved yogurt would be one.

And yet I notice for the past two weeks, other than cheese, I have not been eating it, nor have I been craving it. This is kind of shocking for me because I thought I could NEVER give up yogurt. It was my dessert/breakfast go to protein filled comfort food. Smooth, thick, creamy, it lasted far long than many of my obsessions did.

But, to my shock, I find I can live without it. My tastes have been swinging more savoury than sweet of late, and I've been making a concerted, and I'm proud to say, successful, effort to give up artifical sweeteners--when I would have greek yogurt, I would always put in a little Splenda. Lately, my dessert of choice has been dates and almonds, or salami, cheese, and other nuts like pistachios and cashews.

In the absence of major dairy intake for the first time in a long time, I have also been able to make some observations. For me personally, dairy is not a negative feature in my diet. Without it I have not lost weight, my skin as not become any clearer, I have not felt any better (of course, I typically feel pretty good).

So I wonder whether I will reintroduce it or not at some point. I know from a Paleo perspective, yogurt is not a great choice, and should be a once in a while thing. And now that I've broken my addiction, perhaps it's better to avoid it. I don't know. But it's something to think about.

And now I think I'll go have some Gouda.

I'm keeping my salt

2009-03-26T12:44:00.001-07:00

This morning at the doctor's office (annual physical, nothing exciting going on) we had this conversation:

Dr: Does low blood pressure run in your family?
Me: Yes, why?
Dr: Because yours is LOW. (95/60 for those who are curious)

I take this as a sign from some higher deity that I can just keep on sprinkling my sea salt on things. 'Cause I love me my salt. I even like salt in sweet things. I find it heightens the sweetness. I'm a HUGE fan of salt chocolate. Lake Champlain Co. makes this AMAZING chocolate bar with sea salt and almonds. SO has been sent to the store more than once to fetch me one of those little buggers (they only seem to carry them in 35g portions, which I guess is good. Sigh.) when I've been struck by a craving. My salt cravings are SO well known that my stepfather, fabulous guy that he is, got me a salt sampler of all these different fancy salts for Christmas. One of my favourite snacks, discovered when I lived in France, is raw radishes with a smear of butter and a sprinkling of salt. Try them, they're the fastest tastiest appetizer.

I know there are divided opinions on salt, and to each his/her own. For me, it's just an essential element of my cooking and eating. I have tried to eliminate it, and the elimination makes me so unhappy it's just not worth it. It's all about balance, right :)?

Ode to Pork Butt

2009-03-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Lovely, lovely pork butt
at $3.89 a pound
All marbled and sexy in that glass case

How can I resist you?
Cheap, porky fatty goodness
I had to take you home with me

But what to do with you, all raw and tough and full of cartilage...
I contemplated the best way to bring out
the tenderness I know you have in you

I gently coated you in Worchestershire
Left you to sit for 30 minutes
And then I covered you and set you in the oven at 200F to keep you warm

And I'll bet you thought I forgot about you
Because I left you in there
For 7 hours while I ran errands on a Sunday

You should have known I would never do that to you!
You had a long time to soften up in that nice warm oven
And hot fat bath that pooled around you

I gently lifted you out, freed you from that bone
Shredded you and tossed some Sriracha on you, just to wake you up a bit
And you, you were delicious.

Blog? What blog? Oh, THAT blog

2009-03-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

So, moving to CA and settling in is in fact more intense than I thought. But I think we're through the worst of it, and on that note I will bring you my latest favourite recipe, along with my hope that all has been well with all of you :)

Slow Roasted Sirloin Tip
Now, I have discussed my fondness for buying big honking slabs of meat and cooking them off. It's cheaper, easy (yay leftovers), and less time consuming than preparing little bits every night. Sirloin tip roast is relatively inexpensive, mainly because it's relatively lean--which means you can throw a crazy rich sauce on to get your fat--and can dry out easily if you don't know what you're doing. Here's what you need/do:
1) One 3-4lb sirloin tip roast (or eye of round, or any other lean roast)
2) Something yummy to rub on it, I did butter and oregano, but you can do what ever you want

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 500F. This is very important, give your oven a good 20 minutes to get there.
2) Put the roast in a roasting pan, give it a good rub down with your seasonings.
3) Throw it in the oven and let it roast 7min/lb. So for a three pound roast, 21 min.
4) Turn off the oven. Let the roast sit in the oven for 2.5 hours.
That's it. Take the roast out and you are good to go. I let it rest, carve it into slices, and eat it over the course of a few days. To heat up the slices, get a frying pan nice and hot and sear the outsides. Yummy, I tell you.

As for sauces, go wild :) Bearnaise, gravy from the roast drippings, slather it with butter...

Change up

2009-03-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

My wonderful foodie has been a bit preoccupied, so I thought I would take a moment to brief you on our happenings. We have been going out to eat at least twice a week, but have made quite a run of the grocery scene here in SF. Our key local favorite is the Berkeley Bowl, suplimented by our staple place for random items, Trader Joes.

The highlight of eating over the last three weeks has been Pork Butt. With this, I will leave it to my love to tell you more about receipes and variations there of . . .

And another recipe!

2009-02-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, I freely admit I am trying to use up the head of cabbage I bought. I love cabbage. I love it raw, I love it boiled, I love it braised. I really really love it braised, actually, because cabbage gets all lovely and silky and tender but still has just enough chew and it takes on this delicate sweetness that is just amazing. So I had some leftover ground turkey, and ground beef, and cabbage. And I had about an hour before the SO would start whining for food.

So, I Googled around for recipes and came up with one for unstuffed cabbage, http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/maindishes/r/unstuffcabbage.htm which of course I screwed around with because that's how I roll. This meal comes together very easily and requires little supervision, and since the SO loved this, I thought it was worthy of a post.

For this recipe, which will serve one small female and one larger, very hungry male with some leftovers, you will need
1) 7 g/1.5 tsp butter
2) 454 g/1 lb of cabbage of cabbage
3) 120 g onion, thinly sliced.
4) 1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced
5) 200 g jarred tomato sauce+1/2 cup water OR 1 16 oz can tomatoes
6) 454 g ground beef/turkey
7) Malt vinegar (or any other you have lying around)
8) Red pepper flakes
9) Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350F.
2) Use butter to grease bottom of large dutch oven.
3) Slice cabbage into 1.5" wedges and lay on the bottom of the oven.
4) Lay onion slices and garlic slices on top of cabbage.
5) Pour tomatoes or tomato sauce+water over cabbage+onions+garlic.
6) Roll the meat into 1.5" diameter balls. Wedge meatballs between cabbage slices. When doing so, make sure you give them a good roll in the tomatoes.
7) Douse the pot with a nice shake of vinegar, salt and pepper, and hot pepper flakes to taste.
8) Throw the lid on the pot and stick the whole shebang in the oven for an hour. Halfway through cooking, remove the lid.
9. Serve in bowls in order to savour properly with the lovely meaty tomatoey broth that will form on the bottom of the pan.

In the last 20 minutes or so of cooking, carefully monitor the meat. My turkey meatballs we slightly overcooked, although the beef was dandy. This recipe would work nicely with ground lamb or chicken as well. And it's an economical dish, owing to the cheap ingredients.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend :)

Kind Bar hacks

2009-02-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

So a while ago, starving at an airport, I grabbed a Kind Bar in my mad dash to make my flight. For those not familiar with them, these bars are actually pretty good, in my opinion. They're made of fruits and nuts, and while some have icing, and all are bonded together with glucose syrup, some of them are still pretty good re: fat (lots of it) and carbs (not too too high). What I really loved were the flavors of the dried fruit and the nuts together.

Let me say I don't recommend dried fruits if you're trying to lose weight. They are sugar bullets. But for an occasional dessert, I really like them.

My two favorite bars are the date walnut and the apricot almond. So here's what I do: I buy dates and I split them open and stuff them with walnuts and eat them like a sandwich. Three big dates and my sweet tooth is MORE than satisfied. With the apricots and almonds I slice three dried almonds into strips and eat them with ten almonds, a strip of apricot on top of each almond. So I control the portion of dried fruit and pair it with some good nutritive fat. And I get my dessert fix AND I save money and avoid the glucose syrup in the Kind Bar.

I know this hack thing sounds basic. But Kind Bars sell pretty well, so I assume people either haven't thought about doing this or just can't be bothered to buy the raw ingredients (of which there are two each) and make these snacks themselves. That fact in and of itself kind of blows my mind. Or maybe I'm just that cheap ;)

Hunting for supplies

2009-02-18T15:22:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do is to go searching for various supplies requested. This is always fun, as these random assortments are not things that I would purchase myself (but then, I am no cook like her) . . .

Salami, various meats, different foods of precise nutritional composition. It is fun because it is always somewhat challenging and always educational. I have made mistakes from time to time, therefore the charge now is to give me explicit instructions when making purchases.

I have always been into the culture of eating; my largest discretionary expenses have always been food and eating out . . . I enjoy the atmosphere of great meals, though since we met this has transitioned more to home, than out. I have various interests and hobbies and developing skills in cooking is one for 2009. I am still trying to make a mental picture of where to start and since I have been fetching random bits and pieces for a while, I am starting to get an idea on what to look for.

More on how I figure out how to cook things beyond my chicken taco recipe later.

If you're afraid of cooking fish...

2009-02-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

I have the technique for you! It's fast, easy, delicious, and as a bonus, there is little clean up after. Interested?

If so, here's what you need to make 4 servings:
1) 4 firm fleshed fish fillets (salmon, cod, mahimahi) about an inch thick and 4-6 oz (112 to 168 g)
2) 2 cloves of garlic, slivered or finely chopped, however you prefer
3) 1 lemon
4) butter
5) Salt
6) Four large sheets of foil

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 450F.
2) Place one fillet in the center of each piece of foil. Top with some of the garlic, lemon, a couple pats of butter (I used 6g per packet, but you can use more if you'd like) and good sprinkle of salt. You can also had herbs like dill if you have them lying around. Yell at cat who is trying to sample bit of raw fillet.*
3) Lock cat in bathroom until finished with step 4.
4) Bring two of the opposite sides together and crimp them so they're sealed shut. Now crimp the other two ends until they're sealed shut. Make sure everything is nice and tightly closed.
5) Place packets on cookie sheet and slide into the over for 12-15 minutes (adjust time accordingly for thinner or fatter fillets).
6) Remove packets from oven, place on plate and slit open packets VERY CAREFULLY as there has been steam build up and nobody likes 2nd degree burns before dinner.
7) Enjoy your moist, perfectly cooked, no pan to clean up fish. Taunt cat, then take pity and slip a bit into his food bowl.

*Please note, some instructions apply only to cat owners.

This dish is what we had for dinner last night, along with sauteed cabbage as I completely forgot about my mushrooms (which will be on the menu tonight!) until after dinner ;)

Getting back on the blog wagon :)

2009-02-17T14:17:00.001-08:00

I was going to title this post "Falling off the blog wagon" but I decided I was going to be glass half full for once in my otherwise Nelly Naysayer life ;) Busy busy busy at work and moving in, but things are starting to settle. Boxes have been emptied, my kitchen has been resurrected in a new and improved form (my mom generously stocked me with Le Creuset from the Le Creuset outlet store, and it's already been put to good use) and I am off and running with the meal preparation.

So what have I been up to the last week or so? Well, aside from all the boring stuff, I've discovered an AWESOME new way to exercise. For a once a week high stress bit of training, right near my new apartment are the Filbert Steps. These are a very long set of stairs up the side of Telegraph Hill, and let me tell you, running up those is a serious workout. And, it's free! Love, love, love. And my legs, although sore as the dickens, secretly love it too. Or at least, my brain will take them to a bar, get them drunk, and eventually convince them of that, I'm sure.

And I went to my first San Francisco Farmers Market at the Ferry building. Among my amazing purchases were gorgeous organic dried pork sausage from the Fatted Calf, purple heart lettuce that is so beautiful I almost wanted to decorate with it instead of eat it, perfect mandarin oranges, some deliciously oozy goat camembert, and black trumpet mushrooms, which are kind of earthy and spicy. Needless to say, I've been cooking up a storm.

The lettuce was tossed with lemon juice and walnut oil and a little bit of salt and pepper, and decorated with hunks of avocado and grilled portabella mushrooms, served alongside a meatloaf with lots of chopped fresh parsley, onion, and a few good shakes of worchestershire sauce. The mandarins are munched out of hand with the camembert for dessert.

Tonight I am doing pan roasted mahimahi with lemon, butter, and garlic served with the sauteed black trumpt mushrooms. With so much delicious fresh stuff out here, Paleo seems easier than ever. Ironically, there are also a million more temptations out here. Real french pastry (as opposed to the easily avoidable nasty americanized cotton ball versions), San Francisco sourdough with that fabulous golden crust on every corner. Although the SO bought a bag of Ghirardelli chocolates and how sad was I to see they use HFCS in their chocolates? Thankfully, it's only in the filled ones, but still.

In any case, please forgive my absence!

A less considered aspect of primal living

2009-02-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Today, I want to talk a little bit about my other SO. His name is Rocky, and he's a 10 year old, 13 pound orange tabby I adopted about 8 months ago.

Growing up, I always had cats around. And as a teenager, my family acquired a basset hound as well. So I have always associated home with pets. When I moved out on my own, I was hesitant to get a one--it took me 8 years of being on my own before I got up the nerve to acquire one. I take the responsibility that comes with pet ownership very seriously, and I wanted to be sure I could provide a good environment for an animal.

So about 8 months ago I set myself to the task of finding a cat. I went to the excellent SPCA in Boston, since I firmly believe adopting shelter kitties. And I was immediately attracted to a playful ten month old unfortunately named Boo Boo (sidenote: why do people do this to animals? Seriously????) until my friend pointed out I would still have Boo Boo when I was 40.

Sufficiently freaked out, I kept looking until I saw this other cat, waaaay in the back, with a pretty orange patch on his nose. I looked at his description--he was old. PERFECT. So in due course, Rocky (aka Rocko, Rockstar, Rockefeller--I'm amazed he's not totally confused as to his actual name, not that he responds to any of the above anyway) came home with me.

So what does cat ownership have to do with this blog? Well, I eat the way I eat because I want to be healthy. Pets have been shown over and over again to have a symbiotic relationship with their owners: their presence lowers blood pressure, makes people feel less lonely, and can otherwise relieve stress. I can personally vouch that I am a happier person for having Rocky around; it's hard to be cranky when you have a warm fuzzy critter snuggling up to you asking for head rubs.

Long time no post

2009-02-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

For me, anyway. I have an excuse, I promise! Our stuff has still not arrived from Boston, so we've temporarily relocated to a hotel because frankly, I'm a princess and 4 nights on an air mattress is my limit. So there hasn't been much cooking going on.

I am making psychological progress that is very encouraging to me. For example, I had a lovely experience last night. The SO and I met up with an old, old friend of mine who I haven't seen for 5 or 6 years. She's in SF getting her PhD in neuroscience (yeah, she was the smart one in our group, can ya tell?) We went to a Thai place in Inner Sunset for dinner.

I had Po Tak, which is a mixed seafood soup in a clear chicken/lime spicy broth, as well as a green pumpkin veggie curry I split with the SO. I have lost a decent amount of weight since the last time this friend saw me. From some people, this would elicit some kind of expression of concern. But she just told me I looked great. And she didn't make one crack about me not eating any rice.

Most of my friends are very much like this, but I was curious to see how one I hadn't seen in a long time would react. I'm obviously still a bit defensive, anticipating negative comments. But I also wasn't about to eat the rice as some kind of anticipatory 'see, I'm normal, really!' or order dessert for show. That I consider progress. But I was also reminded I need to give people more credit sometimes, and not let a few bad apples spoil my impression of the lot.

The other bit of progress for me was at lunch on Friday. Where I work, on Fridays everyone in the office eats lunch together. This week, it was sandwiches. Someone was complaining about how heavy they were, and someone else said "you could eat the inside out" and I actually said "yeah, that's what I do." I would NEVER have said that out loud even a few months ago. I would have done it, but I would have been furtive about it (see above: trying to avoid the perception I'm a freak.) I also stole the kale garnish from the sandwich tray to top my meat.

So I'm going to pat myself on the back for the progress I have made in being more comfortable about being open with the way I eat. And I'm going to remember that it can't hurt to give someone the benefit of the doubt until he or she shows me that he or she doesn't deserve it. It's definitely easier on the knees not to be in a defensive crouch all the time.

Dietary Vices

2009-02-04T16:00:00.001-08:00

We all have them, whether we give in to them or not. I am one of those who does. It would be disengenous of me to pretend I'm the perfect Paleo/CR chick all the time. I do the best I can, and I think I do pretty well, and I'm happy with that.

I know there are a lot of people who take the all or nothing attitude with eating healthfully--I used to be one of them. Waaaaaaaaay back in the day in my deeply fat phobic phase, I would beat myself up if I had even a small amount of the stuff.

Then I happened on a helpful rule of thumb. Basically, would you talk to a friend the way you talk to yourself when you screw up? I began to automatically apply that rule to my self criticism, and I decided I should stop being so mean to me. So if I knew I was making a less than ideal choice, did that mean I had blown the whole day? If I had some chocolate at lunch, then I wouldn't have chocolate after dinner. After all, that's what I would tell a friend to do. I wouldn't tell her she was weak and lazy and didn't really want to be healthy.

And I still do that now, because I definitely have some dietary vices. I love how Mark Sisson advocates healthy vices, like dark chocolate, and I agree with him. But I also have some not so healthy vices. And even though I'm most definitely not Catholic, sometimes confession is good for the soul, so here goes:

1) Diet soda, aka Diet Satan: It erodes your teeth and your esophagus, it's full of crap, it's bad bad bad. But it's sweet and fizzy and caffeinated. Sigh. I have cut back on my consumption considerably, but I still fall off the wagon, particularly at movie theaters. Yes, I know plain water is better. Yes, I am trying to switch to seltzer. I'm working on it.

2) Ice cream: this is an occasional treat for me, but I don't think dairy is particularly good for me and I really don't think dairy full of sugar is good for me. And then I see the beautiful curvy bright red Dairy Queen sign and my mind goes blank... Good thing there aren't any near my home.

3) Low carb tortillas: Grain, soy, where do I begin with this? Again, it's an occasional thing, but every once in a while I miss the particular chew that comes with bread products. I justify them to myself because of the low carb content, but I'm a shitty liar and I know I'm full of it.

4) Vodka: I do have the occasional tipple... 'nuff said.

5) Almond M&Ms: only after the vodka. Sigh.

Phew! That feels better. I hope I haven't completely lost my Paleo cred with y'all :) I do always keep my calories consistent, so at least I'm CR'ed if not always ON'ed. I'm not perfect. I just try my best and make my peace with my screw ups--it's a much less stressful life that way.

Kindred Spirits

2009-02-04T14:32:00.001-08:00

Part of the reason I started this blog is that my style of eating is not one that has met with widespread approval among real world folks. In the virtual world it is easier to find those people whose dietary philosophies align with my own.*

This morning, my stepfather had a stress echo on his heart (he's fine, it's a routine check up for him) and his cardiologist mentioned that he (the doc, not my stepfather) did the caveman diet. My stepfather told him I did too and the cardiologist got all excited. I'll bet he was feeling the same way I felt when I found all of the wonderful blogs I have found online. It's really nice to find kindred spirits.

One of the marvelous things about San Francisco, particularly since I don't have my kitchen set up yet, is the plethora of good options for us Paleo eaters. Finding even fast(ish) food that contains organic meat and veggies and good fat is surprisingly easy. For example, today I had a takeout soup of roasted chicken and summer squash in a lime/chicken broth with a salad (and lots of healthy oil on the salad). There was even a chicken bone in my soup, which showed they were using... wait for it... REAL CHICKEN instead of that pre fab crap they try to pass off as chicken at some joints (Au Bon Pain, I'm looking at you!).

I'm sure for many people who attempt Paleo, one of the biggest hurdles is what to eat when they're out and about, because frankly, the options out there are not great. For example, the aforementioned and maligned Au Bon Pain does have a sort of decent cobb salad that you can get with or without cheese depending on how Paleo you are. Eating the inside out of sandwiches works well for me, particularly if you get a grilled chicken sandwich. Most places do have olives or nuts for decent fat options. At bars at happy hour I've been known to corral the celery sticks and blue cheese dressing from the wing platter. But it is frustrating, and I feel your pain. There have been times when I have opted to just hold out, because there are literally no options. There are other times when I have peeled the fried coating back to get at least some of the poor abused protein underneath. Not pretty, let me tell you.

Anyway, I think my point, as I meander to it, is that I hope my blog serves the same purpose other paleo and CR blogs have served for me, which is to make those who choose to eat this way, or try to eat this way, feel like they have a community that welcomes them. Some of us are lucky enough to have the support of our families and SOs, but others are not, and particularly for those who lack that real world support, the blogging community can perform a very important role. And besides, I do love getting comments :)

*Not to exclude you vegans/vegetarians/others--I love you all too! We all need to do what is best for ourselves, not what other people tell us to do :)

Paradise

2009-02-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

At least my Cards were valiant to the end... So now we are established in San Francisco. I know I'm not the first East Coast refugee to say this, but it is stunningly lovely out here. And the food. Oh, the glorious food.

But first, my mother's rib recipe. She boils pork back ribs with onions until mostly cooked, and then slaters them with a homemade barbecue sauce like this one http://southernfood.about.com/od/bbqsaucemarinade/r/bl40312p.htm. I would make the same but with homemade ketchup a la Mark's Daily Apple and no sugar, but a tablespoon of molasses. In any case, once slathered, they are grilled. HEAVEN. With some grilled veggies it was a feast.

San Francisco is a foodie haven, of course. I only got here last night and I'm already blown away by the quality of the produce around here. I found some lovely crisp asian pears 4/$1.99. They're going for $2/piece in Boston. Last night's dinner was quick and easy, since we're still lacking most of our equipment.

Chicken burgers:
3/4 lb Ground chicken (breast or thigh, whatever you like)
1/2 medium jalapeno, finely diced
1/2 medium onion (100g), finely diced
Salt-to taste
Pepper-to taste
Chili powder-to taste
Romaine leaves
Tomato slices
Avocado slices

Mix together all the ingredients up to and including the seasonings gently and pack into burger shape. Cook in a frying pan at medium to high heat. If you use chicken breast, throw a little fat on the pan, cook for approximatly four minutes each side
or until done. Lay on one half of romaine leaf, top with tomato and avocado slices, fold over other half of romaine leaf to make a bun. Yummy, easy, spicy.

We had that with a side of raw shredded cabbage with a quick vinaigrette (3 parts oil to one part acid, salt, pepper, and enough mustard to make it emulsify, shaken hard in a bottle). We both vastly preferred having home cooking to a restaurant, tired as we were. It amazed both of us how much our tastes have changed since we really started making a concerted effort to eat in a few months ago.

On the long drive out we had beef jerky, almonds, lots of water and iced tea, and the occasional diet soda (I'm working on it :( ). I can't wait to get my kitchen set up and really start exploring the farmers markets here.

GO CARDINALS

2009-02-01T09:35:00.001-08:00

:) So now you know where my loyalties lie. We are in transit from Beantown to the City on the Bay, so posting will be light until Wednesday when we are settled. Currently we're in AZ, hanging with my parents, preparing to cheer on the home team. On the menu-RIBS! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

Care and feeding of sick SOs

2009-01-29T14:44:00.001-08:00

Between getting everything packed up (finally) and the SO's bout with some bug (vibrio, salmonella, rotovirus--hey, it's anyone's guess. I vote vibrio, but only because it sounds cool), I'm only up to a short one today: what to feed nauseous sickies.

I personally am in the camp that if the nauseous sickie does not want to eat, there is no reason to try and shove things down their throats. I am also not perched over the sickie with IV fluids in hand, waiting for the first signs of dehydration. I'm more of the leading the horse to water type. I provide low calorie Gatorade because that's what my sickie requested, and I left it by his beside. When he wanted it, he drank. I know that when someone you love is sick, the instinct is to DO something, anything. And that's a hard instinct to fight.

But I think it causes you and the sickie more stress than necessary if you get into a battle of wills. Just a thought.

If any of you have ever had food poisoning, you know how miserable it can be. Also, how quickly you bounce back. Now, I don't buy the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) for obvious reasons. I do think that bland is best, so my sickie, when he was up to it late last night, had some lean ground turkey mixed with black beans, topped with mild salsa and chopped avocado. When your body has been through a trial, why give it nutritionally devoid carbs when you can give it nutrient packed goodies? I'm happy to say the SO is up and about today (if FAR more suspicious of the meat at the taco joint down the street.)

When I'm sick, I personally love soup (shocker, I know) which is also bland and soothing, but nutritive. I'll bet I recover faster than the saltine eater.

It's all in our heads...

2009-01-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

The adjective convenient, unlike say, horrible or wonderful, generally has a neutral connotation. When I think of things that are convenient, I think of things that are easy to do, that require little stress or effort or energetic output on my part.

Much of our society seems to be structured around making things easier and more convenient. Electricity, cars, indoor plumbing, grocery stores: all designed so it is easier and more convenient to live our lives. True, some things that are designed to make life more convenient have the opposite effect (cell phone customer representatives spring to mind).

Now, I'm certainly not going to bash hot running water or functioning refrigerators. I may believe in Paleo eating, but I'm not going to throw on a loincloth, grab a spear, and take up residence in a field--I don't even like camping with a tent and sleeping bags. And I am certainly not against making food convenient, especially given my love of prechopped frozen spinach :)

What I do have a problem with is the way this mentality of convenience is applied to food, particularly in this country. Convenience seems to mean 'as quickly as possible with no regard to the healthfulness of what is being provided.' I hate the association of food with convenience with a complete disregard for taste beyond an assault of salt, sugar, or both.

I also don't like that convenient means getting your money's worth in giant portions so that manufacturers have to spin their nutrition labels and break down a massive packaged chocolate chip cookie into two servings (because most people stop at half the cookie, right?) to obscure the fact that there are 600 calories in that beast. I hate that convenience food must be food so crammed full of preservatives that cockroaches will be able to munch on the leftovers after a nuclear holocaust. And it's this mentality of food merely being a commodity to be valued at the lowest common denominators of healthfulness and taste that is spreading (check out Living Healthy in the Real World, where there is a fabulous review of a book on this very topic) throughout the globe.

When I was living in France, it was gauche to walk and eat at the same time (I know because I was the recipient of a lot of staring). One did not snack. One took time to prepare proper meals, sit down, and eat them, even if preparing the proper meal was taking the frozen cassoulet you had purchased at Monoprix and heating it in the oven. Taste was important. Portion size was moderated as much by cultural norms as a sense of satiation. It was simply not 'comme il faut' to eat until you groan. I'm not going to pretend the French don't like convenience foods too--but their convenience foods tend to be yogurts and frozen versions of classic dishes and individual portions of grated carrot salad, rather than bags of potato chips. And their portion sizes are still considerably smaller.

Convenience food doesn't have to be the way many American food manufacturers make it now. What if I told you of this fabulous new low calorie product that was individually packaged with organic materials, came chock full of vitamins and nutrients and fiber, and was available NOW in your grocery store?

Interested yet? I'm talking about oranges (and many other fruits). It's all about the spin, baby. In other words, the issue is not that healthy, convenient food is not available to us--it's that we don't view healthy food as convenient. And when someone is tired and stressed and feeling economically stretched, even the perception that healthy=extra effort may be enough to turn people towards sub optimal choices. American food manufacturers help create and sustain that perception because it is good for their bottom line, at the expense of our waistlines.

I feel like we have made great strides in the recent past--how else can we explain the popularity of "The Omnivore's Dilemma." I worry that the economic downturn will lead, however, to a backward slide (note the fact the Spam and McDonalds are resurgent). I don't know how we decouple convenience and nutritional bankruptcy on a large scale, but there must be a way. I think it will have to be a combination of top down (getting our government to be more proactive) and bottom up (actually getting that frozen spinach in peoples' grocery carts). But like I said, I believe the issue is not that we don't have the resources, it's that we lack the mindset.

Diet and Anger

2009-01-26T09:04:00.001-08:00

So I'm sure at least some of the people who stop by my blog read the article in the New York Times that referenced the Paleo diet, among other things
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/health/views/20essa.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The article implied that following the Paleo diet was part of a 'paleofantasy' us modern humans cling to that doesn't reflect the modern society we live in today and further, is built on a shakey and fragmented understanding of how our ancestors lived. I think the author makes a valid scientific point that correlation is not causality, and there may be more than our modern diets to blame for our modern illnesses. The author also agrees that eating a less processed food based diet would probably be better for us.

The author does make many at least seemingly counter Paleo points. For example, the article argues that evolution does not stop, and cites lactose tolerance among modern humans of European dissent, a genetic mutation borne of the evolutionary environment. If I follow correctly, the implication is that we are also now, thanks to evolution, grain tolerant and legume tolerant and generally well adapted now to survive on carbohydrates. Other bloggers have taken up the points made in the NYT piece with vociferous enthusiasm and somewhat expanded and distorted the author's argument to generally attack the Paleo philosophy. Interestingly, at least to my mind, there is genuine nastiness in the dialogue between some of the Paleo camp and some of Paleofantasy camp, mostly arising from the Paleofantasy end.

I'm pretty much a live and let live type. I don't tell other people how and what they should eat, and I don't bash other people's food choices. I'm actually surprised people care enough to really get into it. But now that I've seen some of the points made, I do feel the urge to respond to some of them, if only for my own edification.

1) We don't know what our ancesters ate: True. We can only make educated guesses. And we can back up these guesses with scientific studies that show the efficacy of different ways of eating. And pretty much all the studies I have read that are halfway decently done tend to support the hypothesis that moderating carbohydrates, upping protein, getting good amounts of healthy fats,and eating whole natural minimally processed foods (not whole grains, which are by definition highly processed) is good for us.

2) It is a fallacious assumption that the point to which we evolved 50K years ago is the ideal: Maybe. But isn't it equally fallacious to assume either that we have evolved significantly from that point and that it WASN'T the ideal? I'll take my chances, as you will take yours, with our different approaches. But I don't see how my view can be categorically knocked out.

3) Sugar, high fructose syrup, heck, grains generally aren't bad for us since we make them/grow them ourselves: I respectfully disagree. They are very dense sources of calories with few or no nutrients, especially compared on a calorie for calorie basis with other foods. Just because we have created them doesn't mean they're good for us. Please note I'm evaluating these foods on their NUTRITIVE value. Animals are adapted to consume that which is optimally nutritive for them. On this basis, grains simply cannot match meat, vegetables, fruits, and naturally occuring fats.

4) Different groups of humans have evolved to eat different things, so what works for an African will not necessarily work for an Inuit: again, respectful and qualified disagreement. Masai eat cows and cow blood, Inuits eat whale meat and blubber. But it's all animal protein and fat. And I believe I just named two of the healthiest ethnic groups on the planet when they stick to their customary diets, which are heavily weighted in favour of animal protein and fat. Of course, you can cite the Chinese or the Japanese with higher carbohydrate intake, and I will concede that it is possible that some ethnic groups are more carb tolerant. But even in those groups the carbohydrates are not heavily processed and/or treated in such a way as to minimize their negative effects (e.g. fermenting soy products).

These are only a few points of rebuttal, and they likely won't change anyone's mind. I know that I eat the way I eat for the simple reason that it makes me feel good. I just don't get the anger associated with what people choose to eat and why. In the end, so long as everyone is happy, does it matter? And when did we all become so intolerant of dietary dissent? I generally find that those who react negatively to my food choices tend to take my choices as a repudiation of their own, which is an inaccurate personalization of my diet. Perhaps those who are unhappy with the way I eat are perhaps instead really expressing an unhappiness with themselves.

Fit as a fiddle

2009-01-25T05:23:00.000-08:00

As I'm getting ready to move I'm saying goodbye to people I know in the Northeast. This includes my paternal grandparents. My grandmother is 81 and my grandfather will be 90 in a few months. As I was visiting with them yesterday I was struck by how mobile they are, and how lucid, in spite of their advanced ages.

Both my grandfather and my grandmother were quite phyiscally active into their 70s. My grandfather was a tennis champ in his youth, and in his retirement he was a tennis coach for a small college. My grandmother began figure skating in her thirties, a sport she continued into her late 60s, as well as an avid swimmer.

While neither eschewed grains or ate particularly healthfully, they both maintained normal body weights through the course of their adult lives. My grandfather, a former smoker who quit cold turkey in his 50s, has had quadruple bypass surgery. But he's still kicking around now. And my grandmother actually fell down the stairs in her late 70s and didn't break a bone!

My maternal grandparents were farmers. Both died in their 90s. Again, both had perhaps less than the ideal diet (a fair bit of grain) but both also ate a good amount of protein and veggies, and it was often lean, grassfed beef because they were cattle and wheat farmers. They also didn't have access to most processed foods. And they were both very physically active for most of their adult lives. In fact, had my maternal grandfather not been a smoker himself, and developed bad emphysema, he would have had an excellent quality of life even in his 90s.

I feel like I was and am blessed to get to have my grandparents around. And I feel like there are lessons I can learn from their lives. They didn't go to the gym and run on a treadmill for an hour. They did sports that they enjoyed and found relaxing, and they did them not out of a sense of obligation, but a sense of play. And they were all what we would call today intuitive eaters, eating when they were hungry and stopping when full.

But it also strikes me that they have the benefit of good genes. Both of my grandfathers smoked, and they didn't get lung cancer. My paternal grandfather basically has no heart function left, most of his coronary arteries have been blocked for years, and by all rights he should not be running around the way he does. For the love of Pete, people, DON'T SMOKE. Bad, bad stuff those ciggies.

Also, it seems that those genetic conditions that might predispose someone towards obesity aren't present in my genetic code (not that I am incapable of gaining weight, but I seem to top out in a normal range, even eating totally ad lib). So I may not need to eat as carefully as I do, but I would anyway because of how it makes me feel.

So the conclusion I draw from watching my family is both that I'm lucky and that it pays enormous dividends at the end of life to be attentive to your body earlier on (oh yeah, and that my kids will never be tall-the tallest we got on either side is 5'9"; I'm lucky I'm not a dwarf). And that it's much easier to be attentive when you're doing activities you like. We all have to work with what we have, but we are also all capable of maximizing what we have.

Restaurants

2009-01-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

We love restaurants. We tend to eat out at least once a week, it mixes things up and we enjoy trying new places. We a have a few favorites that we visit over and over again. Sometimes it is a certain dish, a favorite drink or the combination.

Sometimes I can eat a starter, main and followed by a delish dessert. Other-times I am happy with a hearty main. Before ordering, we have a bit of debate on what we should have, because I tend to go conventional, while she has more elaborate tastes that I end up becoming very interested in, as they usually taste very, very good.

The trick as someone who is often interested in someone's elses food, is to make sure they order something you will like too. But it is pretty easy with her . . .

Yes, I write down everything I eat

2009-01-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

One of the details of my diet I am most paranoid about discussing is the fact that I record everything I eat in a database. Because I am paranoid about it, I figured the ultimate anti-paranoia thing to do would be to blog about it. So, here goes.

I use a freeware program called the CRON-O-Meter. I know some people use SparkPeople or other programs, and some simply write down what they eat. I use the the CRON-O-Meter because I find it to be particularly convenient and user friendly. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I first got into journaling food when I began with CRON. Both elements of CRON, restriction and optimal nutrition, are aided significantly by tracking what you eat. First, most people have no idea what or how much they really eat during the day. I've watched people forget not just nibbles here and there, but whole slabs of lasagna they've had for lunch. Also, people generally have no idea how many calories are in things. Especially when it comes to processed food, things usually have far more calories than people expect. Beyond that, I seriously doubt most people know or care whether or not they're getting their RDAs, even if they are relatively educated and careful about food.

The CRON-O-Meter was an absolute revelation for me. One facet in particular which is very effective as a visual aid is the fact that it shows, in pie chart form, the macronutrient distribution of different foods. Imagine my surprise the day I saw that ~75% of the calories in almonds are from fat, not protein. Or that skim milk has more carbs than protein. Beyond that, I was amazed to see what I was consuming, in what proportions. I can tell you that when I first began paying attention to what I ate, the picture was not pretty. I was eating more than I thought calorie wise, a 60% carb diet when I thought I was getting loads of protein, far too little fat, and my RDAs? Totally hit or miss.

Journaling is helpful to me in many respects. 1) It allows me to track my calories, which is comforting for me because I have the hard visual data to counteract water weight swings on the scale (I know for a fact there is NO way I had put on three pounds over night). 2) It allows me to see that I am getting enough protein and fat, and controlling my carbs-I was fat phobic, as I think a lot of women are, for a long time, and seeing that my weight remained steady even as I upped my fat intake was psychologically important for me. 3) It allows me to ensure I am getting all my vitamins and see my deficiencies. 4) It provides me with data over the long term so I can analyze myself: for example, I was able to link food cravings I had to certain nutrient deficiencies.

Now, journaling is like a game to me. For example, if I'm low in C one meal, I figure out how to add it to the next. Unlike some people, I don't find writing down what I eat to be a huge hassle. It takes me about 10 minutes a day, and for that investment the dividends are hugely rewarding. But I know it looks disordered and anal retentive, hence the insecurity. I hid my journaling from my SO when we first started dating. Luckily, he's an engineer, so when I showed him the CRON-O-Meter, he thought it was cool--it was just a tool for analysis to him, not a symbol of anything else.

I think that if you're interested in improving your nutrition and trying to lose weight, one of the best things you can do is track your food for a week and see what happens. I'll bet you'd be surprised how your diet compares to what your perception of your diet is. I'm not saying journaling like I do is necessary or desirable for everyone, but from personal experience, it is a very useful tool in my toolkit.

A sweet AND a savoury treat

2009-01-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

Having had two culinary successes in the last couple of days that the SO has raved about, I feel obliged to share. First, a ridiculously simple, in no way authentic, put-it-on-everything guac:

1 ripe avocado (or more if you're trying to use, say, some of the 10 for $10 you bought in a fit of excitement because avocadoes have been $1.99 a piece lately)
1 small wedge of onion (1/2 oz or 15g), diced finely
1/2 lime (fresh is better, but if all you have is bottled, go for it)
Sriracha to taste
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Slice avocado in half. Twist gently to separate halves. Scoop out seedless half with a spoon, gently running the spoon around the edge of the avocado skin. Do the same to the half with the seed. Gently pull the avocado flesh away from the seed. Taste a bit of the avocado now to get a sense of how much salt you want to add.
2. Mash the avocado to the desired level of smoothness with a fork on a cutting board. I like it chunky :)
3. Place the avocado in a bowl. Add the lime juice, onion, Sriracha, and salt. Stir well and arm yourself with a fork to fend off the SO as he comes barging into the kitchen with every intention of eating ALL of your freshly prepared stash.

I actually love to use this mixture, mixed with salsa, as a salad dressing. But I'm weird.

And now, the sweet. Full disclosure: this dessert requires a bit of skill and some artificial sweetener. But sometimes, a girl needs a little fix. So, without further ado, I present broiled figs with sabayon;

6-8 nice plump figs, sliced in half lengthwise
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp butter, melted
3 egg yolks
1 tbsp Marsala wine/spiced rum/another liquor of your choice
1 packet Splenda

1) Turn on oven broiler to low. Place the figs on a baking sheet, cut side up. Mix honey and butter together.
2) Set the bottom half of a double boiler on the stove, filled with water, and boil water. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks together until nice and homogenous. Place the eggs in the top half of the double boiler and with a whisk, begin beating the egg yolks vigorously. The goal of the exercise is to warm the yolks, but NOT to scramble them, so moving them constantly is important. As the yolks get thick and lighter coloured, add the liquor and Splenda. Continue beating until the mixture is pale yellow, at least doubled in volume, and when you raise the whisk, ribbons of egg foam fall from the whisk.
If you don't have a double boiler, you can achieve the same effect by placing the eggs in a glass bowl or metal bowl over a pot of boiling water.
3) Immediately remove the eggs from the heat and pour into a bowl.
4) Slide the figs into the oven and broil until the figs are starting to cook, about 2 minutes. Remove from the oven, brush with butter/honey mixture, and return to oven until honey browns lightly. Remove from oven and divide figs onto two plates. Allow the figs to cool for five minutes, spoon the sabayon over the figs and dig in :)

The sabayon recipe works well on any fruit, raw or cooked. In the summer I have it with fresh berries. It also goes very well with poached pears in the winter.

Spinach (a.k.a. confirming my rep as a culinary nerd)

2009-01-20T05:46:00.000-08:00

First, let me just say I am working from home today to watch the inauguration. All I can say is Wow. Today is a great day.

And now, on to the spinach. Spinach has had the benefit of at least one free schill, but let's face it, Popeye is a little out of date. I know this because I made a Popeye reference a few days ago to someone about 10 years younger than me, and they thought I was talking about the fast food chain. Yup, I'm looking for gray hairs in the mirror right now.

Now, I know I've made the case for unpopular veggies before, but few actually face the negative press of spinach. Take steakhouses, for example. Apparently, spinach is so unpalatable it needs to be literally drowned in butter and cream to make it tolerable. And I respectfully submit that canned spinach is the ultimate way for parents to guarantee their children will never want to touch a green veggie again.

But last night I was out with the SO and we had a spinach salad that was, in his words, perfection. Delicate baby spinach with goat cheese, slivered almonds, macintosh apple slices and cranberries with a cranberry beer vinaigrette. The fresh bright flavour and delicate chew of the spinach was a great contrast to the crisp apple, soft cranberries, and creamy cheese. And baby spinach is still tough enough to stand up to a heavier dressing.

In fact, baby spinach is an excellent salad green with an assertive, but not aggressive taste and a beautiful rich green colour. But why stop at fresh? After all, anyone who has tried to cook with fresh spinach knows of it's disconcerting habit of shrinking to 1/20 of its original volume in precisely two seconds flat, leaving one cursing the day she didn't listen to her mother and buy four bags instead of two while she serves her spinach dish in miniscule portions to her ten guests. Ok, maybe that's just me. In any case, frozen spinach is a fabulous alternative that has the advantage of already being (ahem) volume reduced. It is the base of one of my favourite quick soups (full disclosure, I stole this from Mary's CRON Diary blog)--pop about 150g of frozen spinach in a microwave for two minutes until nice and hot. Dump it in a blender with some hot chicken broth and 15g feta. Blend (with the lid off and a towel thrown over the top, unless you really like playing hide and seek with little chunks of spinach for months after) until smooth, and enjoy. I usually have to throw the soup back in the microwave for 30 seconds, taking the total production time to about 7 minutes. But you can also throw it in an omelette or toss it with seasonings and stuff a chicken breast or a pork chop with it.

Did I mention frozen spinach is cheap, tastes good, and keeps forever? And I mean seriously, forever. I discovered a bag in my freezer I haven't touched in a year, tried it yesterday, and yup, still good. Oh yeah, and I heard somewhere it had TONS of nutrients in it? For anyone on a budget, monetary OR caloric, spinach is a great deal. Just try it. Grab a bag. It'll be around $1 and I promise you you won't be disappointed.

Paging Dr. Gupta

2009-01-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

You may have heard that Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been discussed as nominee for Surgeon General in the Obama administration. Although there has been a lot of positive feedback regarding this nomination, there has also been a significant amount of criticism about his candidacy.

Despite Dr. Gupta's accomplishments as a practicing neurologist and a White House Fellow in the Clinton Administration, criticism is being made towards his nomination because of his lack of experience in the public health corps. Many believe because he has not worked in the administration, practice and management of public health beyond his WH fellowship, he is not appropriate to lead this part of government.

The Surgeon General is the face of medicine in the United States. With over 50 million Americans uninsured and health care costs increasing yearly, the Obama administration has made universal health care a top priority. My love and I are quite passionate about food, as you can tell by her daily writing, but health in general, is also something we are equally passionate about and we are specifically concerned by the growing issue of obesity within the United States. We believe Dr. Gupta’s experiences as a journalist and ability to explain medicine to the layperson, prepare him to being an influential advocate on issues in nutrition, among others. With that, he has our virtual support.

A typical shopping list

2009-01-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

I live 5 minutes away from a Whole Foods. I know not everyone shares my opinion, but I love Whole Foods. True, there are certain things they don't sell, like my low sugar ketchup, and they don't usually have specials like 10 avocados for $10 (found last night at Shaws-SCORE!). But I generally find the quality of their produce, including their frozen produce, to be higher and I can get grass fed beef and other organic meats for relatively reasonable prices.

Now, I used to stop by WF every night on my way home. Why plan ahead when I could just grab whatever I was feeling like that night? But as it got colder, and I started working later, stopping by the grocery store every night became a hassle.

So lately I have been experimenting with actually *planning* a week's worth of meals and shopping for them on the weekend. Revolutionary, no :)? And I'm proud to say I've been pretty successful. So here's what the SO and I consume over the course of a week, more or less:

8oz smoked salmon

1 package organic smoked sliced turkey breast

1 package organic sliced ham

1 lb ground beef

1.5 lb ground turkey

1 package spicy italian chicken sausage

1 lb frozen salmon fillets

1.25 lbs chicken breast

1 package Trader Joe's Chili Lime Chicken Burgers (SO GOOD)

1 package bacon

3/4 lb provolone

2 cartons eggs

1 bag of onions

1 package of mushrooms

1 bag frozen asparagus

1 bag frozen brussels sprouts

1 bag frozen spinach

1 bag frozen strawberries

1 bag frozen peach slices

1 spaghetti squash

1 cabbage

2 avocados

Breakfast is eggs and bacon most days, with the cold cuts and cheese or the smoked salmon subbing in sometimes. Lunch is usually leftovers from dinner. I like to kick off the week by making a big pot of chili on Sunday nights, since it takes a long time but pays great dividends. I really despise frozen broccoli, peppers, onions, and mushrooms because I think the freezing process totally screws up the texture. But for some reason, the above listed veggies don't seem to suffer.

Actually, looking at the list is interesting-I realize that I would like to incorporate more fatty fish (love those omega 3s), but otherwise I feel pretty good about it. I try to be flexible in order to take advantage of sales. For example, last week chicken breast was on sale, but this week I'd like to add in some pork for my B1. I also find that, particularly with the dearth of fresh produce where I live at this time of year, frozen veggies are the better bet, but I would buy more fresh seasonal veggies if it were warmer. And I find for my sweet tooth, snacking on frozen fruit is a great solution. It slows me down (hello brain freeze) and I really enjoy the texture of frozen fruit.

We don't get through all of that in a week, necessarily, but it's a pretty good approximation. Sorry, this might be really boring, but I know when I first started eating the way I eat now, I had no idea what to buy for myself, and it's kind of neat to see how far I've come :)

Oy, one of those nights

2009-01-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

Every good cook has his or her bad days. The kind of day that ends in smoke alarms blasting, words that consist of four letters in every form (adjective, verb, noun, adverb), and general feelings of frustration.

To the poor chicken who sacrificed his or her breast to me, only to have me sear it into oblivion, I'm sorry. I did salvage most of your contribution to dinner, gently shaving off the parts that were blackened beyond edibility. Please do not take my carelessness as a sign you died in vain--the SO still gobbled up the rest of you and swears you tasted good.

Of course, he'd eat almost anything if I stuffed it with cheese, but that's another story :)

I guess that makes me elitist

2009-01-15T10:01:00.001-08:00

I went to see 'The Nanny Diaries' this summer. I love chick flicks, I love ScarJo, and I was in desperate need of air conditioning (oh how I long for those days now). And that movie made me mad.

For the most part the movie was cute, harmless fun. But there is one scene where the lovely Ms. Scarlett, in her role as an Upper East Side mother's nanny, decides to 'liberate' her charge from the horrible restrictions his mother puts on him.

What are these horrible restrictions? His mother wants him to *shudder* eat organic food all the time! No processed food! No sugar! It's practically child torture, no? Scarlett, angel and child advocate, decides to introduce her poor, suffering subject to the glories of, what else, peanut butter and jelly on white bread. Also known as sugar on sugar with some aflatoxins thrown in for good measure.

I realize what the movie was trying to do, which is address how we shouldn't treat children like little adults. How we should let them just be kids. Hey, I totally agree that dressing a child up in a suit on a daily basis is a little ridiculous :) My beef is with the idea that eating healthy organic food should be lumped together with all the other obviously unpleasant constraints the mother puts on her child.

I was thinking about this issue today because I was reading about Jamie Oliver, a British chef who has publically decried the crap available to British school children in their school lunches. He is frequently accused of being an elitist snob because he thinks children should be served fresh, unprocessed food. I doubt Nanny Diaries was going for deep social commentary, but I think that the scene mentioned is telling in indicating a more general American attitude towards food.

It is singularly amazing to me how little some people seem to care about what they consume. I am amazed because we are talking about items that one is literally putting in one's body. And then the media tells us if we care, we must be rich snobs with too much time on our hands? If we want to feed our kids healthy food we're somehow depriving them of a normal childhood?

I don't understand how that happened. When did it become so fundamentally uncool not to eat sugar? Or Cheetoes? Or any of the other processed crap major food companies make tons of money off of? This kind of manipulation makes me angry.

We get the majority of our information from biased sources: big food comapnies who have a vested interest in have us consume their products, and the FDA, a political institution that is subject to lobbying by said large food companies. I highly recommend the movie King Corn, which makes this point far more graphically and eloquently than I ever could.

Worse, the information is transmitted not just in the obvious ways, such as food commercials, but as the Nanny Diaries illustrates, in far more subtle ways as well. This is why I'm in favour of measures of accountability from these entities. Take, for example, making major restaurant chains post their calorie counts. To those who rail agains the nanny state--WAKE UP. The public needs more information about food from more sources. Doesn't it freak you out a little that these chains would be so resistant to doing so? Posting calories is a very small step towards accountability. I'm not advocating take fast food commercials off the air, or ending product placements in movies. It's a free, capitalist country. All I'm saying is, don't we all deserve a little truth with our food? Shouldn't we all start to care just a little bit more?

Why I don't like the word 'substitute'

2009-01-14T06:27:00.001-08:00

When people begin a new way of eating, they often look to 'substitute' for foods they used to eat that may have been less than ideal. For example, a person might 'substitute' a bowl of oatmeal for the danish they used to eat in the morning. The 'substitute' is supposed to be an improvement on the usual item consumed.

Here's why I don't like the term 'substitute.' It somehow implies to me that what you're eating is merely standing in for what you WANT to eat. You are will to accept something other than what you really want for whatever reason (typically because the new food is in some way a better fit with your new style of eating) but by calling it a 'substitute' you are implicitly acknowledging that item's second class status in your mind.

I don't look at cauliflower puree as a 'substitute' for mashed potatoes. I look at it as a delicious, healthy side dish. It irks me a little to see people call them 'mock mashed potatoes' and then hear people bitch and whine about how cauliflower doesn't taste as good, doesn't have the right texture, etc. IT'S CAULIFLOWER. A yummy and highly nutritious vegetable in it's own right. One should accept it for what it is, rather than blaming it for what it can't be.

My theory is that the internal monologue you have about what you're eating influences your psychological satisfaction. If you are always saying to yourself "I want x, but I'll accept y" it is unlikely you will be able to appreciate y for all it's wonderful qualities. Instead, you'll be blaming y for not being x, and wishing you had x the whole time. What if you said 'I am going to try y this time.' No reference to x at all. Then you wouldn't define y in terms of x, but as a freestanding entity. Perhaps you might be better able to discern and appreciate all the wonderful qualities of y you wouldn't notice if you were focused on it's deficiencies vis-a-vis x.

Why does it matter? Because if you always treat your new food choices as lacking in some important way, like how they taste, you will never fully accept and integrate them. You may continue to make yourself eat them, but you will feel deprived and unhappy. But if you make the conscious decision to take the new foods as they come, and give them a fair shot in the taste department, you may in fact find that something you thought you wouldn't care for is actually pretty darn good.

I firmly believe that the way you frame a change in eating psychologically has a huge effect on whether you can make the change effectively. I don't use the word 'substitute' for any of the foods I eat. For example, I don't 'substitute' coconut milk for cow's milk. I use coconut milk instead of cow's milk because I know that coconut milk has significant benefits for me and it tastes really good. I don't 'substitute' spaghetti squash for pasta, I view pasta as a nutritionally deficient in comparison to spaghetti squash.

I know it may seem like a small point, but I think it's an important one. Little syntactical choices have been shown time and time again to reflect the overarching mentality of a person. At the very least, it is something to ponder.

A typical dinner recipe...

2009-01-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

My SO has a few favourites among the things I cook that he frequently requests. Since, vain little creature that I am, I love them too, I have no problem complying.

Here is what I made for dinner last night:
CR/Paleo Chili
5g bacon grease
150g (1/3 lb) carrots, chopped in large dice
150g onion (1/3lb), chopped in large dice
150g celery (1/3lb), chopped in large dice
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 lb (454g) 90/10 ground beef (grass fed if you can get it)
2 28oz (1500 g) cans Fire Roasted Muir Glen tomatoes, or any other brand you favour
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp green jalapeno chili flakes
1 tsp ground pasilla peppers
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large stewpot with high sides, over medium heat, saute carrots, celery, and onion in bacon grease until onion is translucent and carrots and celery are softened, 5-7 minutes.
2. Add garlic and saute for one more minute.
3. Lower the heat to low and add beef. Saute until brown, stirring to ensure all the meat is browned evenly.
4. Add in the two cans of tomato and the bay leaves. Turn up the heat to medium, give all the ingredients a good stir, and watch the pot until the mixture boils.
5. Lower the heat to medium/low and cook for two hours. For the first 3/4 of an hour, do not stir the pot. Let the tomato mixture burn on the bottom, it adds a delicious flavour to the chili. After the first 3/4 of a hour, stir occasionally, scrapping the bottom of the pan to incorporate those nice charred bits into the chili. When the mixture seems to be getting dry, add a cup of hot water and keep cooking.
6. After two hours, add the chili powder, cumin, chili flakes, jalapeno flakes, pasilla, and salt and pepper. Give the pot a good stir, and let cook for one more hour, until the mixture is a deep red brown.
7. Serve with any garnish you like. This recipe feeds the SO and I for a couple of days, lunch and dinner. I had it with a side of braised cabbage.

One of my favourite kitchen tools

2009-01-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

I am sure this will be the theme of many posts. I collect kitchen gadgets the way rich, poorly endowed men collect loud, gas guzzling phallic substitutes. I am incredibly easy to buy presents for, given that my kitchen preferences are, shall we say, well publicized ;).

One tool I turn to again and again is my meat mallet. I do have a heavy work schedule, and I refuse to compromise on cooking for myself every night, so a practical girl learns a few short cuts. Pounding pieces of protein flat and popping them under a broiler or slapping them in a hot frying pan is a great way to expedite a meal.

Now, everyone knows you can pound out a chicken breast. But one of my favourite tricks is butterflying a whole pork tenderloin, pounding it into a nice wide slab, rubbing the sucker down with seasonings and oil, and giving in a nice quick sear.

Throw a little guacamole on top (because in my world, guacamole goes with everything) and steamed veggies (steam 'em in the microwave while you're cooking the pork, and douse with parmesan) and you have a lovely dinner you can throw together in 15 minutes PLUS leftovers for breakfast/lunch the next day. And it all starts with that nice little mallet.

Squash Fiend

2009-01-11T07:58:00.001-08:00

Oh yes, I am a squash fiend. Summer and winter. I am equal opportunity in my consumption. In the winter, I particularly adore spaghetti, butternut, and delicata squash. Now I know they're a bit carb heavy, but they are definitely worth it. They are deliciously sweet and gorgeously coloured, and I don't know about you, but I love having cheery, brightly coloured food during the loooooong grey Northeast winters.

Winter squash have several appealing features, such as keeping for a LONG time, and being packed with good vitamins. Let's take my personal favourite, butternut: it has A, all the Bs, C, E and K. Now tell me that's not good bang for your caloric buck! Not to mention they make very pretty display pieces--I had a nice fat butternut squash on my coffee table up until it was sacrificed to my stomach last night and this morning.

There are many ways to use the butternut. I will admit off the bat they're a hassle and a half to cut up-they have an awkward shape and they're VERY hard. If you're unfamiliar with the shape of a butternut, it has a long neck culminating in a bulbous end. You can approach the challenge in several ways. 1) Avoidance-just poke a few holes in it and roast it whole in the oven until soft. 2) Full frontal attack-stand that sucker on it's end or lay it on it's side and slice it straight down in half (if you choose this approach, for the love of Pete BE CAREFUL). 3) Divide and conquer-this is my method of choice, where you slice the butternut in two and separate the neck and the bulbous end, each of which you can then deal with separately.

Once you have defeated the beast, you can prepare it in whichever way you choose. If I'm lazy, I will nuke it in the microwave and then puree it into soup. If I'm feeling slightly more industrious, I'll make butternut squash 'fries,' lopping it up into fry shapes and roasting them in the oven until nice and crispy (425F for 45 min, flipping halfway through). If I'm feeling fancy, I'll cube it in small cubes and saute it in coconut oil and thyme. You can also oven roast the cubes and then toss them with a little butter you have browned in the microwave. As a side note, once I discovered I could brown butter in the micro, it was like a new WORLD had opened to me, but then, I really, really like butter. Anyways, you can also roast the halves until tender, brushed with a little butter and maple syrup (hey, I'm Canadian, I do like my maple on occasion), you can stuff the hollow with whatever you like.

Now, this may bother some people, but I am lazy when I prepare my winter squash, so I usually eat the skin. I do wash it thoroughly beforehand. You can always peel the squash if you want. I just can't be bothered. In any case, as you can see, the butternut is pretty, versatile, and to my mind, generally worthy of praise :)

On trying not to be defensive

2009-01-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here's the thing: I don't volunteer my eating philosophy. However, if someone asks, I explain what I eat and what I avoid. And if someone asks why, I'll go a little deeper. If that happens, well, it usually doesn't go well.

I have no interest in converting anyone to my way of eating. Food is like religion or sexual preference to me--it's a deeply personal decision, and not one I would want someone else dictating to me. If I explain why I'm not eating something, I do not mean to suggest that it is wrong for someone else to eat it. Yet, people often react as if explaining why I eat the way I do is an implied critique of their eating habits. And more than once, someone has responded defensively.

I have been called a conspiracy theorist, a control freak, eating disordered. And I admit, I have become more defensive because of it. You know the phrase "zeal of the converted?" When I first began CR, and then added Paleo, I was really excited and loved talking about it. But now, 5 years in, I have become more cagey.

I think part of why I like blogging so much, and why I'm so glad I started doing it, is because I have a little corner to myself where I feel at ease talking about this stuff :) It's kind of like my own personal 12 Step to be less self conscious, one post at a time.

On a side note, this is a HEAVENLY recipe for braised cabbage, and a wonderful blog to boot:
http://orangette.blogspot.com/2006/01/tender-is-cabbage.html

Being 'good'

2009-01-09T05:55:00.001-08:00

So last night, I was decompressing in front of the TV and a commercial for Applebees came on. The tag line for the dish advertised was 'when you feel like being good AND having steak.' This commercial featured a female diner and the dish was Weight Watchers approved.

Let me say that I have nothing against Applebees, nor Weight Watchers. In fact, for people who CR, or anyone trying to control their calorie consumption, it's great to have a chain that makes a concerted effort to provide healthier options, especially ones that center around a nice lean protein.

My issue was with the spin of the advertising. The message was that I would be a good girl if I chose the low calorie meal, but a bad girl if I chose, say, the burger. Because we all know that 'good' girls are skinny and desirable (because they have self control, discipline, etc) and 'bad' girls are not (self indulgent, lazy, etc). As if women don't get enough pressure anyway to be slender, we now need commercials adding a MORAL spin to our mealtimes? Because, yeah, I LOVE a side of guilt with my meals. Not to mention the implication that steak is typically 'bad.'

What gets me is the incredibly condescending tone of this marketing. Can you imagine a dish being marketed to men with the same theme of 'good' vs 'bad'? I certainly can't. But women are so desparate for praise and approval that if a commercial tells them they'll be 'good' for eating a certain dish (i.e. they'll be slender and feminine, the way our society wants them to be), they'll go and buy it?

Again, don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have healthy alternatives. But just advertise them as that, a healthy alternative, not a moral decision.

men=meat, women=vegetarians?

2009-01-08T07:22:00.000-08:00

I am an unabashed carnivore. I believe in buying humanely sourced meat, but I have no moral compunction about eating animals. I think they're tasty and nourishing, and I wouldly gladly walk across hot coals naked except for a silly hat for a nice plate of bacon. I am not one of those meat eaters, however, that looks down on vegetarians or vegans. I am a live and let live type (pun totally intended).

Interestingly, at least to me, people often assume I'm a vegetarian. Now I know my canines aren't particularly pointy and I don't wear the skins of my latest kill, but why would someone assume I don't eat meat?

I think it starts with the fact that I am a self described healthy eater. And I'm in pretty good shape. And finally, of course, I am a girl. A good amount of people who meet me, possessed of those three facts, immediately ask if I eat meat or not. Now, when I meet a man who eats well and takes care of himself, I don't assume he eschews flesh. I assume he avoids potato chips. And I think most people would agree with me.

I actually don't think these assumptions are out of line. After all, the vast majority of vegan/vegetarian blogs I read are written by women.* And the vast majority of Paleo blogs I read are written by men. Women seem to gravitate towards the vegetal end of the eating spectrum.

And I think we (we as in we women) do so for a combination of reasons. For one, we have been told for years that meat, especially red meat, should be consumed in moderation. In fact, we have been told that protein in general should be consumed in moderation,a nd anyway, there are alternative sources like soy. Vegetables are also 'safe'-they are low calorie and highly nutritive. And of course, it is less cruel to kill a carrot than a cow, at least in theory. Some people just naturally prefer the taste of veggies to meat, and maybe that taste difference is grounded in the XY/XX divergence. Some have argued that the preference goes back to the fact that men hunted and brought down the meat, while women scavenged for the berries etc.

As a side rant, can someone please explain pescetarians to me? I do not understand how you can draw a principled distinction which makes it ok to kill and eat animals that swim, but not ok to do the same to animals that walk on dry land. I am open to hearing the arguments...

But the part I find most interesting is that health=vegetarianism for women, and it does not for men. Personally, I physically feel most healthy when I'm eating a significant amount of animal protein.** Yet, even though I know intellectually, and very much enjoy eating a lot of meat, I still feel a twinge, as if it's still a emotionally little counterintuitive that so much protein could be good for me. Maybe it's those double Xs...

*I love vegetarian and vegan blogs, many of which have novel ideas for preparing veggies, not to mention some damn fine writing :)
**Relative to my size, of course.

Unpopular vegetables

2009-01-07T09:44:00.000-08:00

Some vegetables get all kinds of love. Broccoli, carrots, and peppers, for example, are ubiquitous crudite platter/salad/standard restaurant features. And they're tasty, all of them. But what about the less loved, underappreciated veggies?

Take celery root, for example. Peeled, boiled and pureed in a blender with seasonings and butter, you have a perfectly lovely soup or side dish depending on whether you want to thin the puree with a bit of water/broth or not. Or kale. Lacinato kale, sliced thinly and tossed with lemon olive oil, rice vinegar, and parmesan cheese makes a delicious salad. And turnips. Slice them into 8ths, toss with a little oil of your choice and some pepper and have some scrumptious roasted turnip fries.

I have a soft spot for all these vegetables. The ugly, the mocked, the ignored. Now granted, celery root is knobby and lumpy, lacinato kale looks like it has a skin condition, and turnips are just plain boring. Because of their looks, these poor guys never get the chance to show off how good they can be.

But, much like the sweet ignored nerd you went to high school with who eventually went to Harvard and founded a wildly successful company, they deserve a second chance. You might be surprised at how much they have to offer.

A Simple Roast Chicken

2009-01-06T05:58:00.001-08:00

Growing up, I was far more baker than cook. I enjoyed the precision of baking, the intellectual understanding of chemical interactions between leaveners or gluten, the elegance of the final product when I turned out a perfect souffle or decorated cake. And of course, the smells--warm chocolate, or caramelizing brown sugar, or soft floral vanilla custard.

At first, when I got into CR/Paleo, I would still bake for my friends and family because they had come to expect that from me. My mother loves to tell people how she knew I was having a bad day if she came home and there were fresh brownies on the kitchen counter. I stress baked through undergrad, although by then I had learned to give at least some of my output away rather than stress eat it too ;)

But gradually I came to realize I didn't want to bake that stuff for the people I love. If they choose to seek it out on their own, that's their choice. But they didn't need additional temptation from me. As I ramped down my baking, I ramped up my cooking to fill the void.

Cooking beyond a basic level had always intimidated me. Especially raw meat. Not only was it a bacteria fest, it was slippery and slimey and generally unattractive. Unfortunately, I had no choice-after all, meat is a BIG component of the Paleo way of eating and also a good way of getting many essential nutrients. Not only that, but I couldn't afford to buy prepared foods all the time, nor did I want to because lord knows what it would be prepared with.

So, I took baby steps: boneless, skinless, trimmed chicken. Boneless pork chops. Fillets of sole. Nice, easy cuts to learn with. As I grew more comfortable with my abilities, I began to realize how expensive some of these convenience cuts are. Now, part of the reason they were expensive is because I buy antibiotic free/grass fed/organic. But we all know convenience cuts are more expensive no matter what. And since I have already admitted my cheapness, it should come as no surprise that between my fear of more challenging pieces of meat and my wallet, the wallet won.

Which leads me to the title of my post. Even after I had tackled whole center loin pork roasts, brisket, and whole fish, the roasted chicken stood out as the single cooking goal I had set for myself that I was afraid to attain. Perhaps it was because I have read so many paens to the 'perfect' roast chicken in foodie literature. Or because I have read so many horror stories about people having to choke down overcooked bird breast. Whatever the case, the first time I approached a whole chicken on my own, it was with trepidation.

And in the end, there was no need. All you need for a delicious roast chicken is highish heat and a nice dry bird. I make this recipe http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Simple-Roast-Chicken-231348 exactly as is. And it is perfect every time.

It is also economical. One 4 pound bird can feed both me and the SO for two dinners and a lunch for $6. And you can pour off the schmaltz from the pan to use for cooking later and boil the carcass for stock. But all of that would mean nothing if it wasn't delicious. And there's nothing like a nice piece of cold leftover chicken as a snack any time :)

Imagination and Reality

2009-01-05T06:18:00.001-08:00

So I did not journal my food for a week on vacation. It was a conscious decision, and an experiment. I wondered what would happen when I was unaccountable to myself in writing. I also didn't have a scale at my parents' or SO's parents' place, so I had no idea how I was doing.

Of course, because I had not been eating my usual stuff, I felt less than fabulous. I thought I had put on a few pounds, which I'm sure contributed to that feeling. Now, when I say less than fabulous, I don't mean I didn't feel good in a swimsuit on the beach (gotta love FL for that!). I was more talking about a general mind-body feeling.

But I hopped on the scale this morning at home and I was up all of 1.5 lbs (for a two week period), which may also be some salt/carb water retention. I had thought it was more in the 5lb range, personally. Reality (and SO) 1, Imagination 0.

What I learned from this experience, now that I'm back to journalling, is that I am much better at managing my consumption than I give myself credit for. I freely admit I ate more chocolate than I should have, but I was also good at getting my protein and veggies and good fats. That said, I am going to take my carbs a bit lower/lay off the booze for a while to allow my body to bounce back from the Christmas/Hannukah/New Years indulgences.

Another twist on the social eating matter

2009-01-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

So this is our last day at the SO's parents' place. The SO's mother is Panamanian. For her, cooking for us is a big part of how she shows her affection. My family is not like that, in spite of being Jewish, probably because my mom was a single mom for a while and just didn't have time to cook for us, and my stepfather isn't much of a cook anyway. Affection in our family is expressed in the time we spend together. Neither way is better or worse, per se. But the whole love/food dynamic can be a bit stressful for me.

Most of the time, what the SO's mother cooks includes sufficient options for me to get in a nicely Paleo/CR meal without drawing any attention to myself. I have the protein, like pork loin or lobster, and whatever veggies there are. There is usually salad, plus a nice cruciate, and on this visit, there has also been lots of sauerkraut (yum :) )!

But then there are times like our upcoming farewell lunch. Shake and Bake. Yup. Bread crumb coated chicken. And it's particularly hard when his mom quite kindly points out that she is baking the chicken, and not pan frying it. It's just one of those crappy situations: do I shut up and eat the nasty preservative filled carbs on the chicken? Do I try to scrape them off? Do I just avoid the chicken altogether and risk offending a very nice and thoughtful lady?

To be honest, in most situations I would just shut up and eat the chicken. It actually bothers the SO when he sees me do this--eat something I would normally never eat just to make sure I didn't make someone else feel uncomfortable. But like I said, normally I would do it anyway, because I really do appreciate the effort the SO's mom puts into cooking for me, and the sentiment behind the food, and also because I feel it is a question of respect.

But it's been two weeks now that I have been away from my kitchen, my usual foods, and I'm really starting to feel it. Not that I think I've gained weight, I just feel sluggish and gross, and when I saw the package of Shake and Bake this morning my first thought was just 'oh please no.' Shake and Bake is both nutritionally devoid and highly caloric. And maybe this sounds melodramatic, but I've hit my people pleasing limit.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. In a way, this is a tempest in a teapot and I know it. But on a macro level, would it really be such a big deal to just say no this time?

Update: Should have known--the wonderful SO stepped in without me mentioning it and told his mom to make some plain chicken for me. I'm a lucky girl :)

Mmmmm lobster

2009-01-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

I have to say, staying with the SO's parents can be quite nice. Dinner this evening was lobster tails with garlic butter. So good. So full of protein. And so easy to prepare and eat.

It was interesting to watch the SO's little brother. He refused to eat the lobster, choosing Boca burgers and protein powder instead, while talking about how we were eating 'sea cockroaches.' No that I would say a word about how the phytoestrogens in the Boca burgers are going to give him breasts ;) Or how one of the ingredients in his whey powder is corn syrup solids.

He also went on and on about how dipping the lobster in butter was bad for us. I found this line of reasoning fairly entertaining, given what he was consuming. Oh well. To each their own. Luckily, my SO and I got to split his lobster tail-waste not, after all, especially on an unappreciative audience :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T19:08:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone has started 2009 well! The SO and I are in Florida hanging with the SO's parents for the next few days. I am honestly starting to get a little homesick. I miss my kitchen and cooking for myself. A lot. I'm hardly suffering, but I am missing my quotidian (I love that word!) diet.

Last night the SO and I had a romantic dinner out. It was an interesting situation because the restaurant we chose had a 4 course prix fixe, 2 choices per course. The second course was problematic: either risotto, or prawns. Now for most CR'ed or Paleo people, this is not an issue; you pick the prawns. However, prawns make me break out. It's the iodine. So I nicely asked if rather than either of those, could I have each one of the two salad options offered in the first course. And the chef (via the waiter) kind of pitched a fit at me, but in the end agreed.

And you know what? I didn't feel bad. I was actually kind of annoyed the chef was annoyed. I have worked both the front and back of the house in restaurants, so I try very hard to be a good customer. And I would have completely understood if my request had been refused because the kitchen was running low on a particular dish. But to give me a hassle for a minor alteration to the prix fixe for a relatively expensive dinner didn't strike me as particularly classy. Happily, the food was excellent.

As a side note, it always surprises me how easy it is to get what you want if you're willing to be creative. I could have ordered one of the two second courses and been unhappy. But as I get older I realize that quite often, situations are far less rigid than they appear. You simply have to think a bit outside the box to find a way of getting what you want. I remember how April, a fellow CRON blogger, once talked about stealing kale used to decorate plates of food to snack on. Following her lead, I would go to lunch meetings at work and rather than avoid the sandwiches, I would take two and eat the delicious chicken breast or ham or turkey out of the middle. A corollary of this way of thinking is the realization that if you really want something, you will find a way to make it happen. And I think that's true of most situations. Anyways...

Today we had a lovely celebratory New Year's supper with the SO's parents. Roasted pork loin with sauerkraut is apparently a traditional German New Year's dish, and the SO's mother did a lovely job with it. And, sweet lady that she is, she also provided steamed cauliflower, steamed scallops, and steamed peas with the meal for me. Like I said, I'm not suffering.

But I also can't wait to get back into my own kitchen :)

Very brief mini rant

2008-12-30T14:54:00.000-08:00

I must have had this conversation a million times, and I'm going to summarize it briefly:

1) Peanuts are NOT nuts. I know they have 'nut' in the name. Chickpeas have 'chick' in the name--do you think they're little peas made of chick?

2) Real nuts, like almonds, do have protein, but the VAST majority of their calories come from fat. If one more person tells me they're eating nuts for PROTEIN I'm going to club them over the head with a leg of lamb. Seriously. I have one in my freezer.

Skinny people everywhere!

2008-12-30T07:53:00.000-08:00

So I just got back from San Francisco. Using the fabulous gmaps hack, the Google pedometer, my mom and I figured out we walked at least five miles every day, and that's up and down some very big hills. Yesterday at the airport my mom turned to me and said "did you realize we didn't see a single really overweight person while we were here?"

I thought back and it was true. Now granted, San Francisco is probably not unique--in all urban areas where one can walk a lot and have access to high quality food, obesity rates are likely lower. But I would posit that the added strain of the major hills in SF definitely contributes to a slimmer population :).

I was very proud of my mom, who is just over 60, and handled the hills like a champ, including Filbert Street, one of the steepest hills in the Northern Hemisphere. I think I've been blessed with a pretty darn good gene pool. Hardy farmer stock on one side, hardy Jewish peasant stock on the other. When my maternal grandparents passed away they were over 90, and my paternal grandparents are both alive, which is pretty amazing.

I love the phrase "genes load the gun, environment pulls the trigger." Walking is my favourite form of exercise and I usually live in very urban, easily walkable areas. I have also never been overweight (even though I ate a lot of crap in high school and the first part of college). Whatever genetic hand you've been dealt, environment has a huge amount to do with how your genetic code is expressed.

I still believe what and how much you eat is by far the biggest factor. But the difference between having to walk a mile to and from the grocery store every day and having to drive because there are no sidewalks where you live can make a big difference. My running joke is that I am in good shape now because I live on a hill and I have to go down and up it no matter what if I want food. Obviously, I could get take out every night (back to the what and how much part) or have my groceries delivered. No matter what, today one needs to make a conscious effort to get exercise. But certain environments absolutely make it easier. As does the fact that I am usually too cheap to use Peapod or get crappy takeout ;)

Almost forgot

2008-12-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

Last week, I accidently created a fabulous side dish. I bought a bag of shredded red cabbage on a whim, not sure what to do with it but craving the cruciate goodness. Yes, I do crave certain veggies, and yes, that is an evolved facet of my palate.

It was very cold outside, and by the time I got home, I knew I wanted my cabbage warm. So I threw about 5g of bacon grease in my beloved enamel dutch oven, sauteed some onion (yes, I firmly believe most dishes taste better with sauteed onion) until nice and soft and golden, and then threw the cabbage in the pot. I stirred it to make sure it was nice and coated with some of the fat and mixed in with the onions and then I slammed on the very heavy lid. About 10 minuted later I opened the pot, seasoned the cabbage with salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar (about a tbsp worth) and hot pepper flakes, gave it another stir, and covered it for 5 minutes. When I opened the pot I had lovely cooked cabbage that smelled delicious.

Of course, the ultimate test was the SO, who had been quite skeptical of my impulse cabbage grab. I have to give him credit, he's a good sport, and will eat pretty much any veggie I throw on his plate. I loaded his plate up, expecting that I would probably end up eating most of it anyway. But I turned around twice, and it was gone!* I will DEFINITELY be making this dish again :)

*To be fair, the SO eats VERY quickly. His grandmother refers to him as 'the snake' because he ingests so quickly he appears to skip the whole chewing part of the process. Seriously, it's impressive. My point being that the speed of his consumption is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the degree of the yumminess of the dish--although he swears he did love it.

San Francisco Treat

2008-12-28T16:58:00.000-08:00

That is my SO's new nickname for me. Why? Because we are moving to San Fran! I am very excited about this. I have been living in cold climates for far too long. One of the down sides of CRON/Paleo is that being lean means sorely lacking in insulation. My feet enter a deep freeze around November and thaw sometime in May.

So I am in San Francisco scouting apartments. I still can't get over the fact that I will be living in a place that has PALM TREES year 'round.

And oh my god, the food. I have had fabulous thai including some amazing chicken satay and tom yum soup, as well as an excellent warm chicken salad with romaine, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and green onions, and a grilled Hawaiian fish called Monchong with zucchini and carrots. There are so many delicious choices, and it is so easy here.

Cage free eggs are everywhere, as is gorgeous produce. I am spoiled for choice. And as for exercise, I can be outside all year round walking the hills. I think I'm really going to love it here. As usual, traveling, I am simply doing the best I can eating wise. I feel pretty good, actually. Poached eggs and berries for breakfast, salad with chicken for lunch, fruit and a protein bar for dinner.

I am definitely eating more fruit than usual, but it is SO good here I can't resist :) And all this walking up and down is making me HUNGRY. But I really love the fact that San Francisco is a very walkable city--I can't wait to go exploring when I move here for good. I especially can't wait for the farmers markets.

A quick review of 2008

2008-12-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

I am a pretty inquisitive guy and have always been conscious of my health, but as I have mentioned before, my dietary habits significantly changed when I met my love, as I began to proactively analyze the nutritional value of my overall diet. The difference I have made is subtle but important; it is one thing to try to eat the "right" things, is quite another to understand your overall nutritional composition on daily basis and how this measures up to standards to ensure that you are getting what your body needs.

My methods in doing this certainly need refinement and I can be more explicit and scientific about my ways of tracking what I eat, but the general theme I am leaving for other wayward fellows out there is to track your food, whether formally or generally and look at these foods against nutrition factors.

Some of my guy friends get annoyed at me when I point out foods which are really not great. I don't stop though because this perspective keeps me in line and I also want them to think about these things.

I feel better when I eat less bread (which is hard because I LOVE bread) and keep a high protein, lower carbohydrate diet. I have also over 10 pounds this year as a product of diet (not exercise) and am looking to eating increasingly better that I can move towards the shape which I desire.

Is being a self conscious eater a girl thing?

2008-12-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

This is a topic I've mulled over for a while, well before I started the blog. I am a healthy eater. I am also a small girl. Skinny, even. I was not always this way. In high school, I was curvy (not fat, not even chubby, but round) and in college I definitely inched up to chubby in my freshman year. In my sophomore year, I moved out of the dorms, returned to cooking for myself as I had in highs school and my weight returned to my high school weight. All through this time I liked the way I looked and I didn't pay much attention to what I ate. Senior year of college, I decided I wanted to get healthier.

I am grateful that I never experienced the difficulties with self esteem and body image that many women have. That is not to say there weren't parts of me I didn't like, but I never really dwelled on it. I definitely had a couple of stupid health phases that senior year, including the three months where I refused to eat any fat whatsoever. I think I ate my weight in baby carrots :(

When I moved to France, I began to pay much more attention to what I ate, simply because it was part of the culture there. Then I began dating a European, who really showed me the importance of caring about what you eat. And I became that girl. The healthy eater. The person who orders dressing on the side and always gets chicken or fish. The girl who never orders dessert and avoids the bread basket and pasta dishes.

I lost weight, that layer of roundness I had been carrying since high school. And I loved it and I still do. I feel lean and satisfied. So why is it that I still feel uncomfortable sometimes eating in public? The holidays are one of those concentrated times when I am reminded of how differently I eat. I know in the office when I say no to egg nog and cider and the cookie exchange and the candy jar that there are co workers looking at me and wondering what kind of eating disorder I have. Lest I come off as totally paranoid, I have had co workers tell me how 'concerned' they are about my eating habits.

My frustration comes from the fact that I allow these comments to bother me. I don't feel like I should have to explain why I don't want to eat something. And to get to the title of the post, I know several health conscious men at work who also refuse these foods and I'm pretty sure no one says boo to them. But is that the case because I'm female and people feel more open to make unwelcome comments or because I somehow give off a vibe that I am receptive to them? I don't think I project the same kind of 'this is the way I do things and if you don't like it, screw you' vibe a lot of men do when I communicate. As is supposedly stereotypically female, I don't want to offend, and so I try to soften my refusals with body language, tone, etc. Unfortunately, my behaviour seems to facilitate the vicious cycle of comment/irritation.

I just don't know how to respond in the case where someone says 'oh, you're being so good' while they eat candies or cake. Or when they say 'go ahead, you're thin, you can eat this.' Or when someone says I am too rigid, or too thin. It's like someone telling you you're in denial--it's a lose-lose situation.

Unless someone asks me directly, I actively avoid talking about what I eat and don't eat. Of course, my friends don't care (it's actually a running joke for them, whenever we go out to eat they'll say 'don't worry, they have great salads at this place') and my family and SO are very accepting. None of them try to push anything unhealthy on me 'in my best interest.' In fact, anyone who has known me for a long period knows I have maintained the weight I am at for 6 years now and I take very good care of myself.

And yet, even now, when I've been eating like this for years, with all the support I have, these outside, insensitive observations by near strangers still get to me. I'm not sure why I care so much about what these people think. And worse, I find myself doing things to make myself look more 'normal', like ordering a dessert I don't want or eating the bread that comes with my cheese plate. Now, obviously it's not the end of the world if I do eat a cookie. But I should eat the cookie because I WANT the cookie, not to please someone else.

I want to have a guy's attitude. I want to project that confidence in my choices. It's definitely going to be a New Year's resolution/goal for me in 2009: to worry about me first, and not what other people think of me.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

As a product of an interfaith relationship, I like to take advantage of all the different holiday celebrations. Lighting the menorah and decorating the tree are equally enjoyable for me. And for the holiday dinner, we had a ham, brisket braised in red wine and broth with pearl onions and steamed broccoli for the primal among us, with potatoes au gratin, latkes, and biscuits for the others:) For dessert I ate out the filling of some apple pie.

Since I am the designated cook in the family, I take a certain sneaky delight in feeding people healthy delicious food. Of course, I don't advertise the healthy part. I just cook simple meat and veggie dishes. Often, people don't even notice the lack of the requisite starch. I didn't even thicken the sauce for the brisket beyond reducing the braising liquid. And it was delicious. I just called it a jus and no one complained.

Ham is even easier. I glazed it with some no sugar added apricot preserves and tamari, roasted it for four hours, and there you go. No sauce needed. But the best part, by far, is knowing there are delicious leftovers for the next few days: I could easily eat the ham, onions, and broccoli for days.

Stuck in Las Vegas

2008-12-23T05:43:00.001-08:00

Oh, the joy of traveling over the holidays. Las Vegas is not our final destination, but we're most of the way there. I am grateful for my go to healthy eats--raw almonds, beef jerky, and Starbucks espresso on the way. Last night I had a fruit cup at Au Bon Pain to round out my meal. Not too impressive, mainly anemic cantaloupe. I should have known better, but oh well.

For being on 3 hours sleep, I think I'm doing ok. My appetite gets really odd when I travel like this, across time zones and being up at odd hours (for me). Early in the morning, it is nonexistent. I marvel at the people I see in the airport Burger King shoving down their morning fare. The thought of putting something in my mouth at 5 am does not appeal to me.

I know in three hours, when I get off the plane again, I will be RAVENOUS. But my body definitely needs time to wake up.

Old before my time?

2008-12-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

My family likes to mock me because I seem to prefer to soft foods. I have to say, it's probably true, especially in the winter. While I like my veggies tender crisp, I'm more likely to eat them as a puree or soup. I love tender braised meat. Yogurt. Cheese. All soft. In the winter, I love microwaving frozen berries to have as a warm spoonable dessert.

Hard and crunchy is just not as appealing to me. Sure, in certain contexts it's nice: a crisp apple, or a nice piece of celery. But I will gravitate towards the more babyfoodish end of the textural spectrum. Just like any denture wearer ;)

One of my favourite soft slurpy foods is bitter greens like swiss chard or kale or collards. I heat up a pan with a slice of bacon. I cook the bacon, pour off some of the fat for later, saute finely diced onions and garlic with hot pepper flakes in the remainder of the grease until nice and fragrant, then I throw in the greens sliced into ribbons with some chiken broth and let it all stew together for 20 minutes. When everything looks nice and wilted, I pour the whole mess into a bowl, crumble the bacon on top, and slurp away. It's not the most attractive cuisine, but to me, a bowl of greens is a perfect comfort food, especially when you add bacon to the equation.

Eating on the road

2008-12-17T19:25:00.000-08:00

I'm traveling for work, with the SO for company (I am a lucky girl-he has that kind of flexibility with his job) and tonight we went out for dinner.

Eating out doing CRON is a challenge, as an CR'ed person can tell you, because you never really know what's in your food. I just try to order healthy and make my peace with the fact that I will not be entirely in control of what I'm getting. I figure since I eat in most nights, those nights when I do go out aren't a big deal anyways.

And I LOVE Japanese food. So when the SO allowed me to choose, I headed straight for the Japanese place around the corner from our hotel. While normally I'm a sashimi girl, it was pretty cold up here, so I didn't go all raw. I had miso soup, oshitashi with lots of bonito on top, and tuna tataki surrounded with lots of shredded daikon. Simple, filling, yummy. Oh, and nicely primal AND cr'ed.

I find that Asian cuisine in general is my favourite genre of cuisine when eating out. Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai offer lots of delicious, veggie and protein filled options with a fabulous mix of salty, sweet, and sour tastes. I could have Tom Yum soup every night with some kind of thai curry, or a nice bowl of pho (scandalously avoiding the noodles but eating the meat and broth), or bimbimbop... I have never been too into Chinese food, but I'm sure it's because I've never had truly Chinese dishes. American Chinese food is a real turn off--greasy, bland, covered in heavy overly sweet or overly salty sauces.

Hmmm. I'm inspired now. As soon as I get back, I see a homemade Thai curry in my future...

Managing whilst away

2008-12-17T03:21:00.000-08:00

Just got back from being away from home; it is tough to be away because without my cavewoman preparing food, I am left to fend for myself. I was just at a country where the cuisine is lacking and intense carbs are offered at every corner. Before meeting my love, I would have enjoyed a lot of these bread offerings, but now that I have been a year with less bread and even limiting th amount of empty calories I previously consumed (through soda and juices), I look and feel better, so on this trip I was disciplined in avoiding those once so unavoidable breads.

The next challenge we are taking up is coming up with a daily menu for me. This way, while I am away and without the guidance of my love, I will have clear options in my mind to eat that are both nutritional valuable but also within my daily caloric range. More on this later . . .

It really is 80% diet

2008-12-16T07:04:00.000-08:00

I have a very sedentary job. Not only is it sedentary, it requires very long hours. And yet, I haven't put on a pound since I started over a year ago. In my profession, this is an almost unheard of situation. Add in the fact that I don't go to the gym; I walk to and from work for my exercise, about two miles a day, and on the weekends I go on longer walks, usually 4-5 hours total on weekend days. I carry my groceries up the steep hill on which I live. My body fat percentage sits consistently around 15%, which is pretty good for a female, and a level at which I am comfortable. When primal/paleo people say your body composition is 80% diet, they are absolutely correct, at least in my case.

I was once a gym rat. I would easily do a hour on the elliptical machine. In fact, I used the elliptical so much I started to get hip pains. I was thin, but I was tired all the time. My body fat percentage was around 20%. I was also constantly fighting hunger.

When I learned about CRON, and really started to analyze both the macro and micro nutritional content of my diet, I was amazed to see my deficiencies. B vitamins. Magnesium. Potassium. And I certainly wasn't getting anywhere near the protein I thought I was. On the other hand, I was eating waaaaaaay too much fiber. 40g and above a day.

For some people, diarying their food is a huge chore. For others, it makes them preoccupied with what they eat to the point of an eating disorder. For me, tracking my nutrition is hugely freeing. I have the comfort of knowing that I am giving my body what it needs. It also helps to guide my choices. I know if I'm low in Vitamin K, I can reach for the romaine, or pork for my B1. I also can see where I consistently have deficiencies no matter what I eat, so I can supplement appropriately. I know which foods give me the most nutritional bang for my buck, er, calorie (e.g. kale) and which don't (e.g. radishes*).

As my nutrition became more balanced, I felt less hungry. And my food cravings, which had been powerful enough sometimes to drive me out at 2 am in the middle of the winter to the 24 hour grocery store a few blocks away, faded away. Any cravings I get now are significantly more mild and manageable.

Then I discovered Mark's Daily Apple. And through Mark, the whole universe of primal/paleo eating. I consider myself to be a pragmatic, rational person, and his approach to diet and exercise struck me as ultimately sensible. And he gave me permission to quit the chronic cardio :). I stopped going to the gym and waited to see if I'd gain weight. Instead, I lost a few pounds. And my body fat percentage went down.

While the primal exercise approach was easy for me to adopt, I was unsure if I could reconcile primal eating and CRON. I have mentioned the dairy conflict in CRON/Paleo. There is also the dietary cholesterol debate (to eat the yolk or not to eat the yolk), and the saturated fat debate.

But in many ways, the two approaches jive. They both advocate eating nutritionally dense, whole, natural foods. They are not trendy, like the Cabbage Soup Diet. They both fly in the face of 'conventional' nutritional wisdom. I have become used to the raised eyebrows I get when I say whole wheat bread is nutritionally useless, that potatoes are the functional equivalent of eating sugar, and that eating meat every day is good for you. Following either approach, you adapt to being viewed as an iconoclast.

In the end the two approaches may only be reconcilable in my own head. I don't care if I'm not 'truly' primal because I eat yogurt and cheese sometimes, or I'm not 'truly' CRON because I eat egg yolks and butter. I have gained valuable insight from both sides. Moreover, what I do works for me, and that's what counts. I know I will eat the way I eat for the rest of my life. Unlike some people who have lost weight, I have no fear I will gain it back because I love both what I eat and how I feel.

*I really like radishes, they're just not nutritional powerhouses!

Overheard at a party this weekend...

2008-12-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

A nice little morsel to chew on, so to speak.

Speaker 1 [normal sized guy]: Dude, you're looking really buff lately.
Speaker 2 [classic American musclebound type, with big buff arms and a gut]: Yeah man, the key is getting protein every three hours. I get my alarm o'clock to wake me for my 3 am shake.

Seriously...

Back in the saddle

2008-12-15T05:43:00.001-08:00

So yesterday, i.e. the day AFTER the Carbageddon, I made a delibrate effort to go low on carbs. One of the favourite dinners in my house is turkey tacos. The SO has taco shells, I use leaves of romaine. The recipe is super simple: I finely dice about 100 grams of onion, saute them until nice and soft and golden in coconut oil. I throw in around 400 grams of ground turkey, sprinkle with salt free chili powder, ground pasilla chili, and cumin. Toppings on the side are chopped tomatoes, mashed up avocado, sliced romaine, and Newmans Own salsa (we are both obsessed with this stuff-SO GOOD).

Great nutrition, good fat from the coconut oil and avocado, plenty of flavour from all the seasonings and the onion. Caramelized onions are, after all, one of the oldest chef tricks in the book, and while a lot of cookbooks advise adding a little sugar to assist the caramelization, it's not necessary, particularly when you use sweet onions. I honestly don't miss taco shells at all-like croutons and many hard cereals, they scraped the roof of my mouth, and I avoided them because of the discomfort.

Besides, without the taco shells taking up room in your belly, you can fill that space with the really yummy stuff. I remember when, in my freshman year history class in high school, my teacher explained that the reason we eat pasta or bread or rice is as a way making sure humans got adequate calories and of stretching the good stuff--the meat and veggies. It made sense to me then because I would always eat the sauce of my pasta before the pasta, or lick cream cheese off my bagel.

Now, given the abundance and access we have to meat and veggies, as well as the knowledge we have about the nutritional as well as the gustatory superiority of these foods over grains, why settle for the filler?

Ugh. Carb Overload.

2008-12-14T12:49:00.000-08:00

There are some days when I choose to be less picky about my food. While I can be highly self critical in other areas of my life, like my work, when it comes to how I eat I don't beat myself for less than ideal choices. I'm not sure why that is. I wish I could learn to be easier on myself for other things. Maybe it's because I know how careful I am in my choices, and rationally I know that one day will not undo the 7 good ones that preceded it.

In any case, last night I went to three Christmas parties. Thanks to work, they are the only ones I will be able to attend. In a way, being too busy is an excellent holiday food management. In any case, I had many cookies (all homemade) and nibbly apps. And wine and cider with rum. I know I overate calorie wise and carb wise in a big way. I enjoyed every bite.

But oy, this morning my body felt it. The major sugar crash, the belly bloat, the water retention. It's an excellent reminder of how the way I typically eat is so much better. So I'm loading up of protein and fat and keeping my carbs down today. I still don't feel great, but I know I'll feel better tomorrow, and the day after.

It's not a morality thing for me. I don't feel like I was *bad* for eating the way I did, nor is the food *bad*--it was a less than ideal nutritional choice, that's all. Attaching judgements like that to food are pointless. One day doesn't make a difference. Self-recrimination doesn't change what you consumed. And it doesn't make you physically feel better. Taking good care of yourself the next day does.

Yummy...

2008-12-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

Breakfast this morning included ham smeared with mashed avocado and rolled up into cigar shapes. The perfect mix of salty and creamy. Another combination I love is smoked salmon with poached eggs on top. Ah, salt and fat. Does it get any better?

Now I know, I know, I should avoid salt, it has acidifying effects on the body, it's otherwise not good for me, etc. But I like it. And so I use sea salt in my cooking, and I buy cured meat. Everyone has to do what works for them. I can't do without salt.

Oh, I've tried. People say that if you go without for a while, things start to taste waaaaaaaaay too salty. Nope, never happened to this person. I tried many times, would make it as long as a month, but in the end, I would crack. I would buy no salt added cottage cheese and throw some salt in. A pinch of salt used to make my oatmeal rock. And you know what? I NEVER lost the taste for it.

Now, I have lost my taste for sweet stuff. Certain foods, especially processed foods, taste grossly sweet to me--especially purchased salad dressings and sauces. Seriously? Do they have to add sugar to EVERYTHING? But salt and I are together for life.

My blood pressure is fine, even lowish. And on a grand scale, I don't think I do eat enough salt for it to matter (I don't ridiculously salt my food) on a day to day basis. In the end, you have to do what works for you. For me, in the final analysis, a little bit of salt ups my enjoyment of some dishes so much that in cost/benefit balance, salt wins.

Need versus want

2008-12-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

The trite saying is that we have many wants and few needs. Trite, but true. Sometimes, especially when I'm stressed, I want foods I consider comforting, which are usually carbs. In the bad old days I would go for ice cream or french toast. I had already 'healthified' these dishes--the ice cream was low fat and the french toast was made with low carb bread, egg whites and sugar free syrup (as a side note, wtf are those cartoned egg whites??? I tried to whip them once and they DID NOT act like real egg whites). In other words, a lower calorie, but still carby or low nutrient indulgence, and neither paleo nor CRON.

Those urges haven't gone away. But what I do now is actively question why I want what I think I want, and try to figure out what I need. Sometimes, I realize I'm just tired and I want emotional comfort. Sometimes, I feel like I just want what I want, and some part of my brains is acting like a spoiled six year old, complete with foot stomping. On those days when I can't reason with my inner six year old, I do what many parents do. I bribe me.

I buy the ingredients for french toast. I put them in my fridge. And then I look at all my food and ask myself if what I have bought is the thing I would prefer above ALL others in my fridge. In the end, rarely does the junky food win. I usually pick my Brie, or avocado, or a small square of dark chocolate. But buying the food shuts my inner six year old up. And once she shuts up, I can reason with her.

I know this approach doesn't work for everyone. For some, having that food in the house is too much temptation. But what I rebel against is the idea that I can't have what I want. In the end, when I have the option to choose what I want, I tend to reach for what I need.

Carbs may not make you fat...

2008-12-10T06:32:00.000-08:00

Of course, if you keep your calorie levels low to begin with, the fact that you are eating carbohydrates alone will not make you fat. There are many skinny vegans and vegetarians out there who simply don't eat very much.

What carbs do have a tendency to do, at least in my body, is make me retain water. Because I had an Italian friend visiting a few days ago, I had pasta (a small portion) with clams, mussels, and cod. I also had a little bit of bread and a small amount of apple crisp for dessert. And sure enough, the scale was up 3 pounds the next day. Now, I know because I track my intake that I could not possibly have eaten enough for this number to be a genuine gain. So for the last couple of days I have concentrated on keeping my carb levels down.

Sure enough, this morning I'm three pounds down again. More importantly for me, I feel better. My stomach doesn't feel swollen. Days like that just drive home to me how much better my body responds when I'm feeding it the right kinds of foods: veggies, meat, nuts, oil.

Healthier eating through influence

2008-12-10T06:01:00.000-08:00

I have always considered myself a relatively fit person, cognizant of the food I eat and my general health. However, my perspectives on this with regard to diet changed significantly when I met my cavewoman. How? By observing her break down daily nutrition levels using the CRON-o-meter, this made me start to reflect on similar things in my own diet . . . though I am not disciplined enough to use the tool on a regular basis, I do keep it on my Mac (we are both HUGE Apple fans w/ iPhone and Macbooks to boot). By using it as a source of information or mentally keeping conscience of the numbers helps me make better choices when eating.

The results: in keeping my routines, after 1 year of eating like this, I weigh about 15 pounds less. Thinking about what you eat matters and combined with the delicious food she makes, she has also helped me make better choices when she is not around and for that, the results speak for themselves.

Indeed, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

To dairy or not to dairy?

2008-12-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

This question is one that tends to divide not only CR and Paleo eaters, but even Paleo eaters amongst themselves. This blog is not intended to have the intensely scientific bent that some CR?Paleo blogs have--for example, I do not plan on citing studies.

From a purely personal standpoint, I struggle with the dairy issue. On the one hand, I truly love most dairy products, especially cheese. For a long time I used low fat cottage cheese, greek yogurt (2%) and fat free ricotta as central protein sources in my diet. From the CR perspective, this is ok. From the Paleo perspective, dairy is suspect to begin with, and pasteurized low fat or fat free dairy is especially so.

Our ancestors indisputably did not eat low fat or fat free dairy products. I also do not believe saturated fat found in dairy is a great dietary evil. But I do like that I can eat those products in a decent volume and get a good amount of protein for a small calorie expenditure. As I have tried more actively to balance CR and Paleo, I have moved away from many dairy products because they not give me enough bang for my nutritional buck. But I do miss them.

And I refuse to cut all dairy out. I think it is unnecessary. I love making myself a cheese plate after dinner (this week: tarantaise, st. nectaire, and rambol) with a little bit of prosciutto or salami. I have half and half in my coffee. I occasionally have a misto from Starbucks, with 2%, heavy on the coffee.

Am I sabotaging my body? Maybe. It's debatable. I am not lactose intolerant, and small amounts of dairy do not bother me. But at the same time, I feel a bit strange eating low fat dairy and pasteurized milk, knowing all the processing that has gone into them. So the internal struggle continues :)

What to eat for breakfast?

2008-12-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

The standard American breakfast is, in my opinion, generally a disappointing affair. As many others have noted, sugar shock seems to be the goal of most typical dishes (pancakes, french toast, muffins, donuts, cereal) and even the savory options tend to come with a huge dose of simple carbs (homefries, toast). For most of my life, I have been a typical American breakfast eater, with favourites ranging from instant sweetened oatmeal to Pop Tarts to bagels and cream cheese.

Mark Sisson has covered the breakfast topic quite well from the paleo (actually, for Mark, Primal) end. Another great blog, Feel Good Eating, also covers the topic of what paleo oriented eaters have for meals. From the CR end, April Smith is famous for her egg whites/flax oil combo.

I know this sounds silly, but it was a revelation for me that you could eat non breakfast foods at breakfast. At first when I began eating more healthfully, I was eating rolled oats, usually with sliced banana or pumpkin and a ton of Splenda. But I realized that sort of breakfast supplied a huge dose of carbs, very little protein or good fat, and left me starving two hours later. When I switched to poached eggs for their better nutritional profile, I began to wean myself off the sweet stuff for breakfast. In a couple of months, I was experimenting with all kinds of non breakfast foods: leftover salmon with broccoli, chicken breast with a V8 juice chaser. This morning I had an organic chicken sausage with a drizzle of mustard and steamed cauliflower with lemon olive oil.

Of course, there is the time issue. Opening a cereal box is easy, right? But steamed veggies? Well, I timed my breakfast this morning. I took out my chicken sausage, sliced it up in rounds, threw it in a bowl, and nuked it for thirty seconds. I had chopped the cauliflower the night before, so I threw that in another bowl with a bit of water, covered it, and nuked it for 3:30. I drained the cauliflower, drizzled the olive oil on top, and voila. 4 minutes of cooking time, maybe a minute of prep, and I had a nice, nutritionally well rounded breakfast. Often I can't be bothered to warm the meat up, so I'll just eat cold leftovers--even faster.

My darling SO also loves his eggs--for him, breakfast is always a couple of slices of uncured bacon and a nice scramble. Once I have cooked the bacon (6-8 min) I drain off most of the grease, and pour a couple of eggs beaten with a bit of cheese, and gently cook them over low heat (3 min). Of course, we both have the advantages of having high thresholds for boredom and liking leftovers :)

Why another blog?

2008-12-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

Oh, the pressure of the first post! Why is someone adding yet another eating blog to the already crowded field? I am doing it because, amazingly, I feel like there is still a niche out there for me. I am an avid food blogger/home cook/nutritional rebel. Several years ago, due to medication I was on at the time, I gained a decent amount of weight. While I had always been interested in food, I had not ever focused on the healthfulness of what I was eating. A temporary stint in 'healthy eating' in order to drop a few pounds became an avid interest in nutrition.

My two main sources of inspiration were and remain the Calorie Restriction Optimal Nutrition (CRON) movement, and the paleo eating movement. I have a deep admiration for the fabulous bloggers from both camps, including Art de Vany, Mark Sisson, April Smith, and Mary Robinson (please note this is NOT an exhaustive list). While there are some female bloggers in both areas, I feel that especially in the paleo arena, a few more would be a welcome addition.

I personally follow a hybrid combination of the two theories. I avoid grains, including whole grains, as well as most dairy. I embrace and adore fat in the form of unrefined oils, butter, nuts, and even lard. I aim to eat lots of protein and green veggies. I carefully track my nutritional intake on a wonderful freeware program called the CRON-O-Meter. I have recently become interested in the intermittent fasting movement (IF).

I am often asked how I can love food as much as I do and not gain weight. When I explain my eating philosophy, it is usually met with the twin reactions of "how can you not eat grains/dairy/junk food" and "I could NEVER eat like you do." The point of this blog is to show how I do it, and demonstrate that my quotidian diet is not as bizarre as it apparently sounds.