I’m a little behind the eight ball in hearing about the story that “broke” back in December of 2011 (well, only a little over a year).
I consider myself to be one of the “try to be healthy” people who likes to buy fresh orange juice — but only when it’s on sale.
An article/video was recently sent to me that discussed how fresh orange juice — the one we pay more for because it’s fresh — is actually made. Come to find out, it’s not very fresh — unless you think sitting around for a year is fresh. Â Personally, I don’t.
I share the video with you as informational only. You can choose to continue to buy “fresh” orange juice or not. I just found it quite interesting that we pay extra for a product that’s not fresh at all.
Please turn the volume down on your computer as there is a video that starts up right away that discusses fresh orange juice and then later (after an ad or two) another video starts that discusses arsenic in apple and other juices.
Feel free to turn off the video and just read the article. Again, I found it quite interesting.
Chicken pot pie, paleo style — that means no bread and this one was made with no bottom crust either. The top crust was made with coconut flour and other ingredients. It tasted pretty good!
Paleo Chicken Pot Pie
The pot pie was served with a delicious papaya pear arugula salad which was scrumptious. Arugula is a little bitter though so the papaya and pear helped to sweeten it up.
I had this meal as leftovers also and the pot pie heated through just fine and tasted the same as the day it was first made.
Lamb is one of my favorite foods to eat so when my son made slow cooked lamb I was quite excited to taste it. The lamb was served with a peach salad that had a peach cumin dressing. They both turned out very good (even as leftovers later in the week). In addition, we had a butternut squash that was served with tahini. Yum!
Slow Cooked Shoulder Lamb
For dessert we had paleo cheesecake. Uh, well, kind’ve cheesecake. It had no cheese so the name is a misnomer. The “cake” was good but quite heavy on the stomach, perhaps because it has a cashew nut filling that is blended with other ingredients. The topping was sweet enough as in a “regular” cheesecake.
Paleo Cheesecake
It is very hard to make a dessert that tastes like “regular” desserts as no sugar, dairy or gluten is used. Kudos to my son for his effort in trying to find us desserts that are palatable while eating paleo and watching our diet.
I love, love, love soup in the winter! I could have it every day if my husband wouldn’t get sick of it. Of course, normally I’d also have a nice piece of warm bread and butter with it …
No, no, no! Remember — no bread on this new paleo diet we’re trialling.
Actually, I didn’t miss the bread at all. This paleo chicken soup was that good. Period.
Paleo Chicken Soup
My son served the soup with chipotle sweet potatoes on the side. I was in heaven! Well, food heaven, anyway. (laughing)
Later, my son had made some pumpkin scones that were pretty good also. We normally give him a hard time when he makes paleo pastries as the texture is very different from a regular pastry — it’s more soft most of the time. There’s also the palette trying to get used to the taste of almond flour and coconut flour.
Paleo Pumpkin Scone
I’m not quite “there” yet but my palette is slowly coming around. (Not the best picture of the scone — sorry.)
Oh — on an “up” note, when I saw my doctor recently because of my bronchitis, she took my blood pressure and, guess what? It’s still normal. This paleo diet has brought my blood pressure down. Great news, eh?
I once read that “sugar clogs the system” and I believe it’s true. The body can repair itself if given a fighting chance. There are definite benefits to this diet.
You may be wondering if I’m still eating a paleo diet since I haven’t posted much lately. The answer is yes.
Unfortunately, I’ve been sick and today I found out I have bronchitis. I thought for sure the cold I caught was going away but it returned with more coughing, chest pain and a low grade fever. The doctor took a chest x-ray which I questioned because I “normally” get bronchitis when I get a bad cold and I already know what they prescribe  for the cure — antibiotics and prednisone.
Actually, I didn’t see a doctor but a nurse practitioner. Â She explained that the x-ray was needed because of the chest pressure although she didn’t “hear” much in my chest. I kind’ve knew the x-ray would come out negative. Should I have asked her not to give me one or would that have seemed too much like the patient telling the doctor what to do?
Anyway … here is a recent paleo dinner that we had. This salmon with basil pesto and tomatoes was pretty good but I am partial to both salmon and tomatoes and enjoy eating them both.
Salmon with Basil Pesto and Tomatoes
This was served with a blood orange salad. Have you ever had a blood orange before? This was my first time trying one and although it looked like an orange grapefruit to me, it did not taste that sour.
The Moderno Churrascaria Restaurant, which is a specialty restaurant on the Norwegian Star cruise ship, was a pleasant surprise from the usual cruise ship food. Both the service and the food were great!
Although reservations are recommended, we didn’t find they were really needed. The cost per person was $20 which I thought was very reasonable considering all the food you have the option of eating, the quality of the food and the service provided.
Salad from the buffet
The meal starts with a trip to the large beautiful salad buffet which includes deli meat and soup. Â Once you finish the salad, the waiter brings small containers of rice, fried sweet plantains (my absolute favorite), garlic mashed potatoes and black beans.
Fried Sweet Plantain
There are “cards on the table that you turn over to let the servers know when you are ready to start your main courses. Red means stop (don’t bring any more food) and green means bring it on! You can pass on any food that you do not want to eat.
The servers, called gauchos, are quite prompt in bringing the selections of food to your table which include lamb chops, filet mignon, beef, chicken, chorizo, etc. Â They will cut as much or as little as you want to eat. Most of the meat arrives on a long metal skewer.
Moderno Churrascaria
And, of course, I had to have my lamb …
Lamb
They also brought pineapple on a skewer which was very tender.
Pineapple on a skewer
For dessert there were three options: Coconut Flan, Mango Rice Pudding and Papaya Cream. Â I had the Mango Rice Pudding which was okay but not great. When I tasted my husband’s Coconut Flan, I wished I had ordered it instead as it was very light and tasteful. I could have changed my dessert but decided to keep what I had.
Coconut FlanPapaya Cream
For me, this was the highlight of the food on the Norwegian cruise ship called the Star. Very good food and excellent service. The best part of this experience was being able to select which foods you wanted to eat and eating at a pace that was just right.
The food on the cruise ship was, well, let’s say interesting. It went from really really good to so-so. This was the case whether you went through the buffet line in the cafeteria or one of the main dining rooms.
Some of the fruit in the cafeteria (called the Market Cafe) was sometimes not quite ripe enough to be served. Other times, the thought ran through my head that perhaps some of the food had been frozen then thawed. Overall it was good.
Once, after dinner, we were walking around and found a chef who was making crepes. Of course, I had to try one and it was delicious! (Not the best choice for a person on a paleo diet though.)
The Norwegian Star has a few specialty restaurants. These are not included in the price of your cruise though so you pay extra to eat at them. Most times you have to make a reservation depending on the popularity of the restaurant. We only took advantage of one of these restaurants which was a Brazilian Restaurant called the Moderno Churrascaria (more about this later in a later post).
This is the first time that we have cruised on a ship that is “freestyle.” Most other ships have formal nights where you dress up and meet the Captain and the waitpeople get to know you and your preferences. The passengers have designated dinner hours in the dining rooms and sit with other people who they get to know during the cruise. Not so on this ship. You can pretty much eat in the dining room any time on the half hour and you’re seated “wherever.” I do like the casual clothing aspect for dining but prefer the same designated waiters and busboys.
There is also much clattering noise as people are coming and going for meals and they have to quickly set up tables. The maitre’d came to our table to ask us how things were going and we spoke to him about the noise and slow service. The following day, he moved us to a quieter area of the dining room and we also had more experienced waitstaff which was much appreciated.
Below are some of the photos I took of some breakfasts and dinners. For this first entree, they had mashed potatoes but later when I had the lamb shank I requested they substitute the mashed potatoes for sweet potato mash and they were happy to oblige.
Lamb Shank with Mashed Potatoes
The smoked salmon tartare (below) was good. It had a cucumber, avocado and dijon dressing.
Smoked Salmon Tartare
The cheesecake was too sweet for my palate. Since I have not been eating sugar for a couple of weeks, I just couldn’t finish the cheesecake that came with a strawberry compote.
Cheesecake
Yes, another picture of the lamb shank because I must’ve had it three times. Can you guess that I enjoy lamb shank? You’d be right.
Lamb Shank with Sweet Potato Mash
I’ve been appreciating salads more and more these day. This one was served with balsamic vinaigrette.
Field Greens, Anjou Pear and Blue Cheese Salad
This was one of the breakfasts I had in the Versailles Dining Room. For breakfast, we normally went to the Market Cafe where they had a buffet and I had fruit with my breakfast.
Breakfast with Turkey Sausages
The quiche, which was served as a “starter” was really good. It tasted very light and was served with mixed greens and lime dressing.
Sundried Tomato and Sweet Onion Quiche
These meatballs were scrumptious. Yes, scrumptious!
Beef Meatballs
The bread pudding was served warm. It was okay but a tad bit too dense.
Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
I can’t recall exactly what this soup is but it was good.
Soup
I ordered the apple pie and thought it would be really really good but I was disappointed (and they brought me two slices that I didn’t ask for). It was just okay — nothing special.
Apple Pie a La Mode
My husband had the coconut souffle with a mango lime sauce. I wish I had ordered this instead of the apple pie as it was heavenly (well, the small bit my husband allowed me to taste).
Coconut Souffle
An interesting thing about the beef stroganoff was that it had beets in it. Very unusual, eh?
Beef Stroganoff
That’s just a small sampling of what they served in the Versailles Dining room on the Norwegian Star. You can click here to see the rest of the menu items from another person’s blog.
Overall, I did okay on my paleo diet although I did have a slice of bread every day, a small dessert and an occasional hot chocolate.
Other posts regarding the cruise are below (just click on the link).
Here are a couple more new paleo dinners that we’ve recently tried.
This crustless quiche was very good! It had asparagus in it which I’m not usually fond of but it was complimented with other veggies so tasted great. I had leftovers for breakfast and it heated through just fine.
Crustless Quiche
The quiche was a side dish to this very delicious cod.
Cod
The next recipe we tried was an Ethiopian Chicken in a red pepper paste. Although this looked a little odd with the eggs in it, it actually tasted very good.
Ethiopian Chicken
The chicken was served with a Kale, Sesame and Ginger salad which was not my favorite. Perhaps it was the kale or too much sesame oil. The flavors just didn’t seem to flow right in my mouth so we’ll have to work on tweaking this recipe if we want to use it again.
Kale, Sesame and Ginger SaladEthiopian Chicken with Kale Salad
The chicken was quite moist and very flavorful.
It’s really not too hard to eat paleo. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has tried any of the recipes and tweaked them some to make them better.
Did you watch the Superbowl game yesterday? I was rooting for the underdog all the way — the Ravens. And … they won (she says gleefully). It was quite a close game though. A real nail biter!
While waiting for the game to start, we had an appetizer that included julienned carrots with Baba Ganoush. Â It was really good and even though it was made with eggplants it tasted very much like hummus (a Middle Eastern dip).
I should have really enjoyed the fruit salad but it had a little too much lime sprinkled on it and made my mouth pucker quite a bit. Next time we’ll use less lime.
The paleo barbecue sauce was actually pretty good as long as you didn’t slather it on the chicken — pretty much the same as with regular barbecue sauce.
After returning from a cruise where we were tempted with every kind of food under the sun (well, okay, don’t take that too literally), I decided to weigh myself to see what kind of damage had been done after a week of moderate restraint.
Arriving in the bathroom, I looked at the scale and scowled at it. Yes, I had eaten bread on the cruise although not a lot … Yes, I had had some desserts (one being a cheesecake that was simply too sweet for me to finish) … Yes, I had had hot chocolate … (You wouldn’t expect anything less from a chocoholic, would you?)
But it was time to weigh in. One thing I learned about weighing yourself is that you have to be as light as possible so empty the bowel and remove all clothing for a true weight. lol
Our scale is one where you have to touch it with your toe then wait for it to show “0.00” before getting on.
I know no one cares about my scale. Â I’m just procrastinating in letting you know my weight gain, uh, loss?
Naw — I gained 2 pounds and  was quite pleased as that’s exactly what I thought I had gained.
Now we’re back on the Paleolithic Diet full time instead of part-time. Since I’ve already had day-by-day postings of a lot of  paleolithic meals I decided to post a few new recipes on one post that we’ve tried this week. (Hope that works for you all.) Breakfast and lunch continue to be quite simple since I tend to eat leftovers most of the time although we did have a new tuna salad recipe (see below).
Tuna Salad
This tuna salad was quite good and since my son made a lot of it, I had some for breakfast one morning and some for lunch twice. Regular mayonnaise was used in this salad although you could make a paleo mayo that is more friendly to this diet.
Next we had a really really really delicious soup. Don’t let the name “Mulligatawny Soup” deter you from trying this soup. Totally delicious!
Mulligatawny Soup
The soup was served with an orange cranberry bread. It was “okay.” We need to work on tweaking it a little I believe. The crust was semi-burnt but the bread was quite moist.
Another day we had roasted chicken which was also delicious. It was served with mashed potatoes.
Roasted Chicken
Oh … are you wondering about the mashed potatoes when we’re not eating potatoes on this diet? Doesn’t it look delicious?
Truffled Cauliflower Mash
Actually, this recipe is called truffled cauliflower mash and it tasted very good. I’m not sure I would have noticed they weren’t potatoes except that it has a wee bit of a different taste to them. It doesn’t taste like cauliflower though.
And here’s what the actual dish looked like …
Roasted Chicken with Cauliflower Mash
Can we all say yummmm???? (laughing)
I’ll be posting more pictures and recipes as time goes on although I think we’ll be making some of these recipes over again so there may not be as many new ones as I’ve previously posted.
The paleolithic diet is not about losing weight for me but about eating more healthy. Weight loss is a bonus.
Since I was a vegetarian for over 20 years, it does feel like I’m eating a lot of meat. Â Once I start cooking on my own, I’ll try to incorporate more veggie type dinners.
