Culinary Cave Dad’s Turkey Brine

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I LOVE turkey absolutely love it so you can bet it will be on our table Thursday.   I brined our turkey several years back and now I rarely make it any other way (in fact, Cavemom won’t let me mess with the recipe on THE Turkey day).  So in honor of the upcoming holiday, here is my secret brine recipe for the big bird!  Now, what am I going to do about the stuffing this year????  Yeah I know, this recipe uses sugar but most of it stays in the brine, you can omit if you are so inclined but I wouldn’t!

Culinary Cave Dad’s Turkey Brine

1 cup lemon juice
1 cup orange juice
2 cups apple cider
1/2 – 1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
2 onions roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic smashed
The relapse of renal disease: some years later after the kidney viagra professional canada transplant which may exasperate impotence. Instead, they are short-term “enlargers” of the penis. review cheap viagra pfizer Similarly, if you buy professional viagra 60 pills, you will be able to find help for any of these signs, seek for medical care. Arginine has been found with substantial benefits necessary for optimum health. discount price on viagra 2 lemons quartered
2 oranges quartered
1 tbs peppercorns
2-3 sprigs rosemary
5-8 sprigs thyme
12 sage leaves
3-4 Bay leaves
about 2 gallons cold water

Bruise the herbs with the back of a knife.  Dissolve the sugar and salt in the water (you can bring to a boil to speed up the process but be sure to cool back down).  We have a large canning pot that I use but a 5 gallon plastic bucket works too.  Toss in the rest of the stuff, add the bird making sure to completely submerge it and make sure all the air is out.  I usually put a plate on top of it.  Put it in the fridge or in a cooler for about a day.  Turn the bird once about half way through.  When read to roast, take it out, pat it dry and toss the brine.  If you need more water to submerge the bird, add about 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup brown sugar to a gallon.
Updated 11-24-2013
Copyright © 2013 “The Culinary Cave Dad”

Lazy Man’s Cabbage Rolls (Paleo)

Easy Button

Easy Recipe Ahead!

Easy and quick way to get your cabbage roll fix.  I’ve included the instructions for traditional rolls as well.

3 eggs
1 ½ lb ground beef or bison (can also add some sausage)
½ tsp allspice
3 cloves garlic – minced
1 cup cauliflower rice (raw or pre cooked)
1 tsp salt
1 medium onion finely chopped
½ tsp pepper
 
·      Mix the above in a bowl
 
1 jar of your favorite marinara or hot peppers in tomato sauce. (we love Oliverio http://www.oliveriopeppers.us/Products/View.aspx?ID=27 )
1 medium sized cabbage head
1 bag sauerkraut rinsed and drained – or make your own (used fennel and red cabbage) http://www.food.com/recipe/quick-fresh-sauerkraut-346063
If you use red cabbage – be warned, everything will get a nice pink color!

 

 

·      Core cabbage and place steamer for about 30 minutes.

o   Tip – using a wooden spoon take the outer leaves off as you steam, they will be less waterlogged.  I use kitchen scissors to take the thick rib off the leaves.

·      Remove from steamer and remove all heavy core pieces and cut out any thick ribs and separate leaves.

·      Coat deep 9×13 pan with olive oil

·      Place a small amount of the sauerkraut in the bottom of the pan and drizzle a little marinara

·      Layer with a single layer of cabbage leaves

·      Spread ½ meat mixture on top of the cabbage

·      Layer with another layer of cabbage leaves cover with marinara 

·      Spread sauerkraut on top of the marinara

·      Repeat layer

 

 

Cover with foil and bake at 350 deg for 1 hr, reduce heat to 325 and bake for another 30 minutes or so until meat is done.  Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

 

 

Traditional cabbage rolls aka golabki:

 

Double the meat, spices and onion.  Put 2-3 Tbs in each leaf and roll burrito style turning in the ends so that you have a tight cylinder.  Layer sauerkraut a layer of rolls and marinara.  Repeat until you have filled your crock pot, last topping with marinara.  Cook 8 hrs on low.  Freeze the raw cabbage rolls that you have remaining for another time.  This makes a ton!

 

 

Updated 11-17-2013

Copyright © 2013 “The Culinary Cave Dad”

 

Incrementalism: The Art of Methodical Change

Change is hard, confusing, scary...

Change is hard, confusing, scary…

For some people change is HARD. It takes me a really long time to implement change. I need to think about it for days, weeks, sometimes months before I figure out how that change fits into my daily routine. For example, I want to start running again. I used to love running. My doctor (who’s also a runner, and knows what it means for a runner to not be running) even discussed a plan to get me back running again in a manner which will, hopefully, prevent a recurrence of the injury that has me side-lined. That was a month ago. I have yet to run. What am I waiting for? Time. Scheduling. The universe to help me figure out exactly when and where I can implement this in my already insanely full schedule of being a father and husband, having a full-time job, blogging, keeping up with social media, and all the other 3 million things my brain is interested in doing at any given moment.

So, when it comes to changing your diet and you’re unsure of how to start, or you can’t figure out how you can possibly make this work for you, I get that. I’ve been there. I’m still there. The key is, you don’t need to go from 0 to 60 instantaneously. The key is to recognize that big change comes from the result of many, many small changes. This is known as “The Art of Incrementalism”!

Consider that you’ve spent your entire life, or at least a significant portion of it, with the same basic daily routine. Your meals follow a certain pattern, in part dictated by the rest of your daily schedule. The foods you buy are dictated by that same schedule as well. You need to get up in the morning, deal with the kids, feed them and you, make sure everyone has something to eat for lunch, get them out the door, etc.

As Lao-tzu, the Chinese philosopher once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” And thus begins our Paleo Life. This is incredibly important to realize; one does not just “become Paleo”. It takes time, patience, practice, and planning.

Even after 3 years I am still working on “becoming Paleo”. I am constantly seeking out new ways of doing things, new hacks I can use in my everyday life to improve our health and nutrition as a family, and different practices, not always related to food, which I can seamlessly incorporate into my daily routine.

Incrementalism is the process of change

Incremental change is all about the process, not about a singular event.

It’s all about the process!

When I first “went Paleo” the thing that confused me the most was the mechanics of the process. I’m an engineer, I need to know the “How To” aspect. My brain works by finding a process for everything. Buying a house? There’s a process. Learning to invest successfully? There’s a process. Even lifestyle changes such as shifting from night-owlhood into an early riser or weaning yourself off of sugar? There’s a process!

Once I’ve figured out that process, I can break it down into a series of steps from beginning to end. And since everything is a process, then everything is also a skill which can be learned. And all it takes to learn a skill is knowing the process, and applying it over and over and over until it ceases to be a process and becomes habit.

The slow, steady, and methodical change…

Inchworm, Incrementalism is natural!

Slow, but steady progress.

Let’s go back to about 5 years ago and see how my family and I moved incrementally from a SAD breakfast to a Paleo one. It’s 2008, long before I discovered Paleo. I was commuting into the city on my bike 4 days/week. My almost daily breakfast was 1 cup of steel-cut oats with raisins and brown sugar. In the fall I’d sub in fresh, chopped cranberries instead (as an aside, can you see how this breakfast consists entirely of sugar in one form or another?).

I would make 4 cups (cooked) of steel-cut oats on a Sunday and Wednesday nights and take 2 cups to work with me on Mondays and Thursdays. One cup for each day. At work I had a stash of brown sugar and raisins or cranberries. That, and a couple of cups of coffee was breakfast during the week. So even back then I was automating my meals, and planning ahead to make it as effortless and thoughtless as possible.
Meanwhile, back at the cave, CaveMomma was dealing with the CaveKids, who back then were fairly tiny little people who didn’t eat much. Breakfast for the rest of the family was a variety of things; usually whatever the path of least resistance was. If there was porridge left in the pot, they had that. If not, it was likely cereal with skim milk, toast and fruit, or some other easy-to-prepare, grain and carb-based food-product.

On weekends I’d usually cook at least one decent breakfast consisting of pancakes (usually with chocolate chips for the kids and blueberries for me) and home fries (again, can you see where this is still an all-carb based affair?).

My transition to Paleo was slow and incremental. It began one summer after reading The Zone diet which focuses more on quantity than quality. As a result, it really helped me with portion control!

A “decent” Zone breakfast was a meal well-balanced between the 3 macros; carbs, protein, and fat. My first hurdle was to figure out how to work fat into my diet. My breakfasts of nothing but porridge were about to come to an end. Though perfectly acceptable on the Zone, 1-cup of porridge was way to much compared to the amount of protein and fat I was supposed to be getting. I needed about a 1/4 cup at most, with no sugar, syrup, or raisins. Well, where’s the fun in THAT?! I had to find something else: egg-sandwiches to the rescue!

It took 3 minutes to cook some eggs up in butter (there’s my fat!), and slap them on 2 pieces of “healthy, whole-wheat bread” with a little ketchup. But 2 pieces of bread turned out to be just slightly over my carb-limit for breakfast (as an aside, did you know that the glycemic index for 2 pieces of “healthy, whole-wheat bread” is greater than that of a Snicker’s bar?!)

So, after a while, I moved to having a couple of eggs and 1-piece of toast. Then I started thinking that toast really wasn’t doing it for me. It was yummy, but really, I could do without it. We started buying fresh fruit instead, and I could have a huge bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries without even coming close to the glycemic load of bread! And it actually took less time to dump a bunch of berries in a bowl than it did to make toast!

By the fall my main breakfast had become eggs of some sort, usually in the form of an omelet with sautéed veggies inside. In fact, this is pretty much what I eat still to this day! And with fall came yet a new job where I was able to be home in the mornings with the family. Thus, I began cooking breakfast for everyone. Eggs all around!

We were eating so many eggs we were buying 5-dozen count flats at the local Warehouse Club. This lasted a few months, but introduced a new logistical problem: fitting the 5 dozen eggs in the fridge. We knew we had to figure something else out when my wife and I both bought eggs on the same day not knowing the other had gone shopping. Now, along with all the other food we had each purchased, we had to squeeze 10 dozen eggs in our already over-stuffed fridge!

This led to us buying our eggs from our local dairy farmer, a great family down the street that’s into its 3rd or 4th generation running the farm. The re-sell eggs from another local chicken farmer. The eggs are all pasture-raised, organic, yadda, yadda, yadda. And they’re more expensive. But we drive by their house no less than 4 times a day! Which means CONVENIENCE! I can now have all the eggs I want, when I NEED them, and the only interruption to my life is pulling off the road on the way home from work. No more squeezing 5-dozen count crates of factory-farmed eggs into my fridge. We do pay more, but the convenience and quality is unmatched! Plus, we get to support 2 different local farming families to boot!

 

Incrementalism is all about being Better Than Before!

The goal is simply to be better than before!

Incrementalism: Allow the change to creep up on you!

Lunches and dinners have changed incrementally as well. The kids have almost always brought their lunches to school, and my wife and I have always brought our lunches to work, even pre-Paleo (I’m also a lazy cheap skate, why waste time going out and spending money when you can toss it together yourself, be guaranteed to enjoy what you have, and not waste time or money in the process?!). The CaveKids used to bring sandwiches, Goldfish or graham crackers, and some fruit. CaveMomma and I would often bring leftovers from the night before. Now, CaveMomma and I almost always bring salads with homemade salad-dressing and the CaveKids usually bring a couple of slices of deli meat, and some fruit. Sudsy McDoo, the oldest loves black olives. She takes precisely 17 with her for lunch. The Chooka loves tomatoes, so she’ll take a bunch of cherry tomatoes, or if we have them, one small vine-ripened tomato.

Dinners have moved from things like pasta (which would be made in huge batches and eaten for several lunches and dinners in a row) to things like bean-less chili, beef stew, crock pot rotissery chicken, steak or pork chops, etc., all with sides of things like roasted root veggies, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower rice, etc.

Over time we’ve seen our basic meals shift from heavily processed carb-based to meat and veggies-based. We’ve seen some old favorites like porridge, pasta, and white potatoes get pushed aside for eggs, roasts, and sweet potatoes and various varieties of squash. Our meals, and our family, are significantly healthier and even happier with our dietary changes. I don’t know too many kids who get excited over veggies (except for other paleo kids), but mine can’t get enough of them. And who has a kid that BEGS to take half a can of black olives to school for a snack?

Overnight success takes about 15 years

Success is the residue of skill. Skill is the residue of practice. Practice IS Incrementalism!

Overnight success is a myth!

It didn’t happen over night. It’s been a 3+ year journey at this point, and I feel like we’re just getting started!

I’d love to hear how The Art of Incrementalism has helped you to get to where you are today. Or, if you’re just beginning your Paleo Adventure, how you think The Art of Incrementalism might be able to help you on your way. Have questions? Need help making some small adjustments? Want suggestions on different incremental changes that might be helpful? Post a comment below of ask us on Facebook or Twitter! We want to hear from you!

Here are some great resources for starting or continuing your journey:

  • The 21 Day Sugar Detox, by Diane Sanfilippo (see my review here)
  • The 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook, by Diane Sanfilippo
  • Practical Paleo, by Diane Sanfilippo
    These three books are a great way to learn how to change your diet slowly by just giving up sugar for 3 weeks.  By the end, you’ll have changed your taste buds and your life by eliminating sugar; the first steps to easing into the Paleo Lifestyle. Diane is a master teacher who is able to break complicated tasks down into incredibly simple steps, complete with colorful pictures to guide you every step of the way. The 21 Day Sugar Detox is a great “Intro to Paleo”, and “Practical Paleo” is exactly what the beginner ready for the next steps needs for the second stage of lifestyle transition.
  • The Food Lover’s Primal Palate
    Bill & Hayley have hands down, the best books on the Paleo publishing circuit.  Their photography, indices, tables of contents, and incredibly simple recipes are unparalleled.  Of the 3 books below, I have only Make it Paleo.  It is by far my favorite cook book in the Paleosphere!

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285 Days Makes a Habit

GGG Copyright CulinaryCaveDad 2013

Was just ruminating (I do that from time to time) about the journey my life has taken this year.  It was 285 days or 24,624,000 seconds ago that I started Day 1 of a Whole30 challenge.  The challenge was my own but it was spurred on by diagnosis of painful arthritis and a set of very caring doctors trying to help me find relief and comfort; albeit with chemicals versus nutrition.  I decided there was a different path I had to try first and adopted food as my medicine and dove into the deep end on that cold January day.

Now to be sure, I didn’t go cold turkey and I really don’t recommend that as an approach for any major dietary change like 21 Day Sugar Detox or Whole30.  Ease into it.  Learn how to stay sane with it and how to make sure you and hopefully your loved ones can achieve with whatever program you try.  I do believe that a strict elimination diet is a great (only?) way to understand what your body is telling you.  They’re fine tuned works of art that break down when under attack but we often can’t recognize the attack as we’re remarkably adaptable creatures both in body and mind.  We marginalize how we feel as getting older, a part of life, just the way things are.  Guess what, for most of us, that’s total BS and I know it!  Remove the toxins, create a time to heal (it might take more than 30 days) and then see what happens when you add back those foods that could be harming you.  What you learn could shock you, it did me.

As those 285 days progressed my body has healed and has reshaped dramatically.  My family that went along with the journey has also seen some very positive benefits a clean eating way of living has provided us.  I think sometimes I am a little fanatical about what I don’t eat anymore but then find when I cross the line and try it again, I often feel like crap.  As for wheat, it’s much more than that, I feel sick so that is off the list for now.  So for the most part, I stay on the path (although a good ice cream will get me every time).  In this short amount of time I have lost 60 pounds, five pant sizes and four jacket sizes.  I have started running again.  My arthritis has all but vanished into the night.  Most importantly, my personal doctor has agreed to me weaning off of all remaining medications I was on which is now in progress.

Preventing anxiety, improving digestive functions and curing dysfunction buy generic cialis of reproductive disorders. Impotence have a peek here viagra uk online is also known as “male erectile dysfunction, it makes the incapability to accomplish an erection, sufficient for satisfying sexual intercourse is one of the most common problems. The mechanism of male reproductive system is guided by the buy female viagra 2 enzymes, cyclic guanoyl monophosphatase (cGMP) and phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE-5). However, out of various supplements available in the online market, cialis generic cipla and people tend to buy those products frequently.

For me, this has become a lifestyle, one which I can embrace and continue easily going forward.  There are critics out there that insist keeping a kind of food or foods out of our diet doesn’t make any sense, is not sustainable and we’re just depriving ourselves.  Those critics also say we should be happy with our body image regardless.  On that last point I heartily agree but not on the first one.  You can see my progress picture; I’ve always had a good self image, generally a happy kind of guy.  However, what this journey has taught me is that some foods just don’t play nice with my body.  In fact, some foods were significantly hurting it, robbing me of a quality of life I fully expected.  It has nothing to do with deprivation that I can’t (won’t) have a Triscuit; it has everything to do with eating that cracker will cause immediate and negative reactions within me.

Is this approach for everyone, 100% of the time?  No.  What??  Culinary Cave Dad said no?  That’s right; I don’t think this approach is for everyone, all the time.  What I do think is for everyone is to stop relying on highly processed foods as your source of fuel.  I think that reliance is killing you faster and you deserve to be here longer.  I think creating and eating most of your food yourself from sources you know will add years to your life.  I think doing an elimination protocol of some kind will benefit you greatly in understanding your body better than anything else can.  At the end of that though, you have to do what’s right for you.  Need help?  Just ask!

Copyright © 2013 “The Culinary Cave Dad”

Ground Turkey Curry

Ground Turkey Curry

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I love a good curry, the smell, the tastes are really perfect for a cold fall day.  This curry is admittedly an approximation because I am always tweaking the spice blends based on my whims of the day!  This is great over cauliflower rice (add some lime and cilantro just before serving).  I also love it cold the next day for breakfast (I know not everyone can do that).  By the way, if you haven’t discovered Penzeys Spices, I encourage you to find a store or check out their website www.penzeys.com.  Any  spice you might want, you will find here and the freshness is unbeatable.  If you are close to a store, really check them out because all their spices are on display for you to smell and enjoy.  Anyway, here’s a great basic curry for you all on what is a cold fall day for us!

 Ingredients

2 Tbs Ghee
1 ½  pounds ground turkey
1 large purple onion, diced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp fresh ground cloves (about 8 cloves)
1 bay leaf
½  tsp crushed dried red pepper flakes
1 ½ – 2  Tbs curry powder (Penzeys Hot)
1 Tbs Garam  Masala (Penzeys)
1 can coconut milk
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (or 3-4 fresh)
Juice of ½ lemon
1-2 Tbs finely minced or grated fresh ginger
½  tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
4 carrots chopped
1 yellow zucchini chopped
12 oz fresh green beans chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Melt ghee in large skillet or pot.  Add turkey, onions and garlic and break up while browning.  Just before meat is fully cooked add cinnamon, clove, red pepper flakes, curry and masala and continue to brown.  When things start to stick a little, add the tomatoes and coconut milk scraping up the brown bits.  Add rest of ingredients except cilantro, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover.  Cook for 20-25 minutes,remove cover and increase heat to help evaporate a little of the sauce.  Stir in cilantro and serve on lettuce boats or over rice (we mixed in some leftover lime and cilantro cauliflower rice).

 

Updated 10-25-2013

Recipe by Culinary Cave Dad. All rights reserved.

Creamy Fennel, Carrot, Cabbage and BACON Slaw

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I found a recipe that looked good but needed more paleoness. Plus I didn’t have everything she had. So here it is as adapted from Melissa d’Arabian’s Fennel and Cabbage Slaw.   Her version can be found on Food Network’s site but it also contains sugar which I wanted to remove.  I find the apple cider vinegar helps add a sweet note without adding sugar.  This goes great with fish or on top of pulled pork.  We added the red onions as well for a nice flavor counterpoint.

Ingredients

1 small or 1/2 large head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced or shredded
1 fennel bulb cored and thinly sliced, finely chop about 2-3 Tbs fronds
4 carrots shredded
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onions (soak in cold water if too strong) (optional)
2-3 oz bacon fried and crumbled
2 Tbs bacon fat from above – reserved
3 Tbs chopped fresh chives
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

Mix the above in large bowl, drizzle bacon fat over and toss.

Dressing

1/3 – 1/2 c mayo (make your own, no really, Make Your Own)
3 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs red wine vinegar

Blend together and pour over mixed slaw, mix well, and adjust seasonings.

Updated 10-25-2013
Recipe as adapted by Culinary Cave Dad. All rights reserved.

Paleo Chicken Curry Recipe

(Easy) Paleo Chicken Curry

(Easy) Paleo Chicken Curry

I am not a gourmet chef.  In fact, I’m fairly simple in the kitchen.  I’m lazy and a huge procrastinator and a horrible planner.  There are at least a million other things I’d rather do than get stuck in the kitchen cooking. Which means I often find myself in the predicament where we discussed what to make for dinner, but put off doing anything about it until it is mostly too late to reasonably make whatever it was in enough time to both eat it and get the kids to bed before their bedtime.

Unfortunately, I despise bland and boring food.  I believe your food should assault your senses.  You should know you’re eating something.  You should be looking forward to that first bite of food with an expectation of flavor explosion, and every bite after should provide you with the same anticipation.  And when you come to the last bite you should be really sad when the experience is over

These qualities often conspire against me.  It’s really hard to be such an expert procrastinator and demand a high quality dining experience.  It usually means I have to get off my duff and cook.  I’m also one of the world’s foremost experts at the misunderestimation of time required to complete any given task!   This skill does not, in combination with the others, lend itself to having timely meals at all.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for me to start cooking entirely too late for use to actually eat the food on the night it is made.  Of course, we do end up with some fantastic leftovers, so all is not lost, just late.

This is how things started out the other night.  CaveMom told me early that morning that company was expected sometime after the CaveKids came home from school.  Of course, tell me something in the morning which I’m supposed to remember in the afternoon is pointless. Once my brain gets absorbed in my work, anything I’m told beforehand usually gets pushed right out of my memory banks!  So it’s not surprising at all that I found myself just beginning to cook dinner that evening at 6:15ish while our guest was still here.

The original plan was to have Grilled Lemon-Dijon Chicken, a recipe by John Fragoso, Sarah Fragoso’s (of Everyday Paleo fame) husband.  Oh, I should probably mention that I pretty much despise chicken and that this is (or was until now) the only chicken recipe I actually enjoy.  I’d much rather have beef, pork, or fish over pretty much any type of chicken.  I find it bland, flavorless, and, well, always tasting like chicken.

Here it is, 6:15ish, and the chicken is not quite defrosted (I had at least remembered to take it out of the freezer and toss it into a sink full of water a few hours before).  But marinating it for an hour, or even a half-hour didn’t seem possible given that still partly frozen status. So, 6:15 p.m. The guest is still here.  Dinner hasn’t been started. It’s entirely too late to make what I had planned.  Now what?

Clearly this is the perfect time to experiment with something I’ve never done before, don’t even know if I have all the ingredients for, and am clueless about whether my family will even like, right? Obviously!

Enter…

(Easy) Paleo Chicken Curry a la Thoughtful Cave Dad !

We start off by googling for “Paleo Chicken Curry” and land over at NomNom Paleo’s page with this recipe for Thai Chicken Curry.  Which looks fantastic.  Of course, of the 11 ingredients she lists, I have:

  • waaaay more than the 1 pound  of chicken she lists (about 4 pounds or so)
  • no curry paste of any kind (I don’t even know what curry paste is, nevermind where to find the stuff!)
  • no frozen veggies
  • no leftover roasted kabocha squash (whatever the heck that is!)
  • no apple juice
  • no fresh basil leaves.

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I am off to an AWESOME start!  What I do have is this:

Ingredients:

  • 4 pounds of partly frozen chicken thighs
  • coconut oil
  • a couple of onions
  • a bunch of golden zucchini squash
  • some celery and a few carrots
  • fresh garlic (1 head)
  • curry powder
  • ground ginger
  • garlic powder
  • salt & pepper
  • tomato paste (1 6oz. can)
  • full-fat coconut milk (2 cans)

Directions:

Clearly this is almost as good, right? So, following Mrs. NomNom’s directions, I do the following:

  • Cut the partly frozen chicken into small, bite-sized chunks (this takes a long time when you have 4+ pounds of chicken.  You fingers also become partly frozen and unable to move or feel at a certain point.  This is sub-optimal when dealing with sharp knives or kitchen scissors!)
  • Melt some coconut oil in 2 different frying pans (did I mention I had a LOT of chicken?)
  • Toss the chicken in the frying pan(s) and cook until browned
  • While the chicken is cooking, chop all your other veggies
  • Remove the chicken when cooked to a separate (and really LARGE) bowl
  • Leaving all the chicken juices in the pan(s) add the onions and sauté until translucentish/golden brownish
  • Season the chicken and onions with salt and pepper
  • Then douse with curry powder and ground ginger
  • Mix well  and continue to add curry powder and ginger until things look yellowish
  • Now is a good time to add any other veggies you’ve chopped up

While the onions are cooking make the “curry paste” replacement:

  • Open 1 can of tomato paste and scrape it all out into a mixing bowl
  • Open 2 cans of whole-fat coconut milk and dump them into the mixing bowl with the tomato paste
  • Add more curry powder and ginger
  • Mix well with an immersion blender
    (or use a whisk and beat this stuff into submission.  The final color should be a reddish-pinkish yellowish color)
  • When you’re satisfied with the color/flavor of the “paste” (which is much more liquidy and anything but pasty and ) pour it into the pan(s) with the chicken and everything else
  • Mix well until everything is well slathered and looking yellowish.

When the carrots not quite soft and the zucchini isn’t yet mushy, turn off the heat and serve.  This can be served over white rice, cauliflower rice, sweet potato noodles, spaghetti squash, or even baked white potato.  Use your imagination!

This was a complete “wing-it and serve” meal.  The CaveKids and CaveMom loved it.  The CaveKids loved it enough that at least one of them had it for breakfast the next morning!  It was extremely filling, and it made enough to freeze a significant portion.  There you have it.  (Easy) Paleo Chicken Curry by a guy who has no idea what he’s doing!

21 Day Sugar Detox – A first impression

21 Day Sugar Detox

21 Day Sugar Detox

 

As I may or may not have mentioned in the past, but will now for posterity, Diane Sanfilippo of Balanced Bites fame is a friend of mine.  I’ve known her since she delivered her second-ever Balanced Bites Workshop  in a dojo sub-let by what is now my Crossfit gym.  And, just like my gym has grown and expanded in the years since, as have Diane and Balanced Bites.  She recently announced that 21 Day Sugar Detox program will soon be released as a book.

I have never engaged in a detox of any kind.  In fact, until I went Paleo, the idea of a “detox” seemed rather hinky and hippy-dippy new-ageish.  Not something I’m likely to be interested in.  And I have never had a problem with sugar either. Sure, I was a pasta-holic for much of my life, but I dropped that cold with no problems or withdrawal issues.  I like high-quality beer, but can easily do without it.  And I certainly like the occasional ice cream.  But I’ve always been a “give me more steak” kinda guy rather than “save room for dessert”. I don’t like cake, or frosting. I dislike candy for the same reasons I dislike cake and frosting; I find them pointless and mostly lacking any flavor but “sickeningly sweet”.  Clearly I am NOT the guy you ask to review a book about eliminating a sugar addiction or going through a detox.  Maybe that’s the plan?  I am, nonetheless, honored to have received an advance copy of this book to review.

I am not quite yet ready to provide you all with a comprehensive review of the 21 Day Sugar Detox book, so this mini-review will be limited to merely my first impressions created by what I have read thus far; a whopping 56 pages.  Before I say anymore, watch this trailer:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeASoyn6v2o]
That video pretty much sums up my impressions so far. If you liked her first book, Practical Paleo, you’ll LOVE the 21 Day Sugar Detox book.  I’m slowly reading my way through it and so far in less than the 6 pages, here are the things that strike me:

  • For someone who’s a visual learner, Diane has packed this book with some serious textual density. This greatly appeals to me, I’m a very technical person who “just wants the facts”.  Too many pictures, unnecessary graphics, etc. detract from efficiently delivering the information I’m after.
  • This book is totally different from Practical Paleo, yet seems very familiar and welcoming.  You get a warm, fuzzy feeling paging through this book, like you’ve been here before.
  • I absolutely love the basic intro to “here’s how your body works and why you get fat from eating crap” section.
  • She has a “set yourself up for success” planning section that is A-FREAKING-MAZING. My biggest complaints about pretty much any type of repeatable process is that they always completely lack clear, concise how-to style set of directions combined with realistic expectations. Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson both sorta kinda did this in their books (The Paleo Solution, and The Primal Blueprint, respectively), and Practical Paleo does as well. But 21DSD does this EXACTLY the way I would have approached it being the technical, pedantic, process-driven type that I am.  And I always love reading something written the way I would have done it myself 🙂
  • Throughout the book she has placed little cartoon sugar-monster guys (affectionately referred to as the Hangry Monster) which make me smile every time I see them.

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Now, being the process-oriented person I am, I begin a book at the front-cover and I go until I reach the back cover.  About the only thing I “skim” is the index.  I’m that guy who reads all those boring acknowledgements, prefaces, intros, and forwards.  Rumor has it there is a whole section of recipes in there somewhere.  I can neither confirm nor deny that. I’m on page 56.  What I can say, is that based on Practical Paleo, I have high expectations for any of the recipes which may or may not be contained somewhere between the covers of the 21 Day Sugar Detox.

As is hopefully obvious by now, I’m not nearly ready to do a comprehensive review of this book yet.  I’ve had the book for over a week, and waiting until I’m finished might be a while.  So, in short, this book is fantastic! And while I am certainly not Diane’s target audience, I know lots of people who are.  Based on what I’ve read so far, if you are one them, you need this book.  If not, you likely know someone who is, which makes this the perfect gift item! The book can be pre-ordered on here from Amazon.com.

(Disclaimer: Other than an advanced copy of the book, I am receiving no payment of incentive of any kind for saying anything above.  These are entirely my own thoughts and words.  There are no affiliate links in this page either.)

Automate Your Life

Scalability: The million dollar question.

When we last met, essentially we discussed how to begin living the Paleo lifestyle.  Evolving it from a strict engineering process into an art form in “The Art, Science, and Engineering of Lifestyle”.  This time  we’ll discuss how to automate your life for scalability.

Scalability simply means you want some thing, process, or system to be capable of growing as large as necessary with as little effort as possible. Ideally, you do the work to build it once and reap that effort well into the future.

In the context of our lifestyle, we really want to answer the question: “How can I convince others this lifestyle is worth practicing?”.  People won’t change unless *they* want to change. They will come up with every excuse possible to resist change. We can’t remove every excuse, but we can work on the “It’s too hard!” one.

 

Easy Button

Everyone wants an Easy Button!

We can show them it doesn’t have to be difficult, and we do that by showing them how to automate their lifestyle. As I discussed in my previous article, habits move from being a chore or process to being an art-form over time. Therefore, we first need to be proficient in the practice of the Paleo lifestyle. We need to move beyond the part where it’s a process for us before we can convince others that it’s worth their time to make this investment. So, let’s get to work on figuring out how to automate our lifestyle!

Cartoon photo of food assembly line

Automation is essential to scalability!

Until now, we have automated our lives in a sense, by accepting a trade-off between convenience and quality. Food manufacturers have listened to our demands for convenience and responded with “faster & cheaper”, but the compromise allowed quality to suffer. Clearly, we adapted as we have wholeheartedly adopted the convenience and low price, and built our lives around the speed of food preparation now available. We rip open boxes and bags, “zap” things in microwaves, grab various “food bars” for the ride or to stuff in our kids’ backpacks and lunches, etc. It’s time we turn the tables and get automation to work for us!

The key to automation is first knowing what you have to work with and second, having the right tools to do so. In plain English, that means you need kitchen gadgets! Not any gadgets, but specific ones. And you needn’t go out and spend a fortune either. This lifestyle doesn’t have to break the bank, it can be done affordably

So, let’s talk gadgets!

Inspector Gadget

It’s all about the gadgets!

I’d like to introduce you to June. I’m sure if you look around your house, buried in a closet, or stuffed at the back of a shelf under the basement stairs, you’ll find a June hiding in your house too. Yes, I’ve named my crockpot after Wally & Beav’s Mom. Why? Because, she does all the cooking and has a delicious meal ready for me when I walk through the door after a long day!

June and Beaver

June always has dinner ready when I walk through the door after a long day!

The crockpot is possibly the most useful and versatile piece of equipment in your kitchen when it comes to time-saving devices. You simply fill it up with stuff, turn it on, and walk away. Here are a few meals I’ve made in my crockpot with very little effort:

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Each required a little prep work; usually just cutting up some veggies. Others like the beef stew or roasts take a little more, but once the prep work is done, so is your time in the kitchen, and June takes over!

In addition to complete meals, June can make a variety of other things nice to have on hand. Bone broth is a staple cooking ingredient for me, and it’s so much better and cheaper to make it yourself. And, as previously mentioned, I make my own homemade applesauce, which, besides being cheaper and tastier than store-bought alternatives, and  it’s a delicious lunchtime snack.  And who can forget this favorite:

My other favorite device is my immersion blender. I don’t really have a name for it, but I suppose I should come up with one, huh? Anyway, I use this thing daily! It’s pretty much always on my counter. It’s quick and simple to clean so you can whip up a cup of Bulletproof Coffee, rinse it quickly, and turn around to make your own mayonnaise, rinse it again, and puree the applesauce June just finished making for you. The time saved using this thing around the kitchen is amazing when you consider how often you’d need to lug out the blender or food processor and clean all those parts just to do the same small job!

Batch jobs. This is an old concept from computer science. Basically you do a bunch of the same work all at once in one big batch. On Sunday evenings after dinner I like to do my veggie chopping for the week. I’ll grab a bunch of food storage containers of various sizes, a bunch of different veggies and chop them all up in various ways. Peppers and onions, get diced with the chef’s knife, mushrooms on the mandolin slicer, carrots and sweet potatoes will get shredded in the food processor, and zucchini will get noodle-ized on the spiral slicer. All of this takes maybe 30 minutes, and at the end I have a week’s worth of sliced veggies all ready for use in cooking breakfast, putting together salads for lunch for the CaveWife and me, or anything else that needs them. No more delays because I first need to chop something up, it’s all right there in the fridge!

Batch jobs. This is an old concept from computer science. Basically you do a bunch of the same work all at once in one big batch. On Sunday evenings after dinner I like to do my veggie chopping for the week. I’ll grab a bunch of food storage containers of various sizes, a bunch of different veggies and chop them all up in various ways. Peppers and onions, get diced with the chef’s knife, mushrooms on the mandolin slicer, carrots and sweet potatoes will get shredded in the food processor, and zucchini will get noodle-ized on the spiral slicer. All of this takes maybe 30 minutes, and at the end I have a week’s worth of sliced veggies all ready for use in cooking breakfast, putting together salads for lunch for the CaveWife and me, or anything else that needs them. No more delays because I first need to chop something up, it’s all right there in the fridge!

Now, if you combine the ideas of batch processing and bulk cooking, you’ve got a huge winner! Take one day every now and then and spend it in the kitchen. Sure, I can see that being about the least desirable place possible for some people. Frame it as an investment in time, bring the kids in to help, and make this a fun family event to bring you all together!

Start out by batch processing all your veggies. Then move into making something that can go into the crockpot for a few hours. Then get something in the oven. While that’s going on, Make a soup or something on the stove top. Spending 4-6 hours in kitchen all at once could mean you don’t need to cook for quite a long time in the future.

We’ve sacrificed our health for the sake of speed and convenience. Automation thus far, has worked against us. We, as a nation, have ended up fat, sick, broken, and once we start paying those health bills, just plain broke! It’s time to eat delicious meals that don’t take all day to prepare and cook. It’s time we bring a little modern convenience and technology into our caves, and free up some of our time. It’s time to turn the tables and make automation work for us!

Easy as Pie Pulled Pork

Finished pulled pork in a casserole dish

Perfect Pulled Pork

Hi Folks, TCD here.  We made this unbelievable dish this past week, and I couldn’t have been happier with it.  It was so good the girls had it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner  Tuesday AND Wednesday!  This is one of those dishes that you’ll be amazed at how easy it is, blown away by how good it is, and always regret not making 10x more than you did.  Really, you can’t make enough of this stuff!  Also, big thanks to my good friend Barbara who told me how to make this.

Okay, lets cut to the chase!

Required equipment:

  • Crockpot or slowcooker
  • Casserole dish

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Ingredients:

  • Pork tenderloin (as big as you want, many of they’re really small)
  • Onions, sliced
  • Fresh garlic, one head, separated, peeled, smashed.
    (Yes really, because garlic is that awesome you can’t have too much of it!)
  • BBQ sauce of your choice.

Directions:

  • Line the bottom of your crockpot with as much of the sliced onion as it takes
  • Place the pork tenderloins on top of the onions
  • If the meat has a fat-back (one entire side that’s all fat), place the meat so the fat-back is facing up and you can see it.
  • Cover the top of your pork with any leftover onions and the smashed garlic
  • Cover your crockpot and place on low
  • Go away for 6-8 hours

Later, back at the ranch:

  • Use 2 forks to pull the pork (see what I did there? )
  • Dump all the contents of the slow cooker into your casserole dish
  • Continue to pull apart any large chunks
  • Dump as much BBQ as you’d like on top
  • Mix so BBQ sauce coats everything
  • Place in the oven under the broiler for 5-15 minutes until it’s gotten a little crispy.

That last step can be dangerous if you don’t keep an eye on it.  It can go from not crispy to charred cinders pretty quickly. Don’t do that!

And that’s it.  There you go.  Effortless pulled-pork guaranteed to satisfy everyone until they want more only to discover they’ve scarfed it all down and there is no more.  This would go great with a baked potato or even better, a side of homemade cole slaw.  Hmm, guess that’s another recipe we need to get up here.  Of course, we already have our own homemade mayo, so maybe we just need to add shredded cabbage !

Please let me know how you like this if you try it!