I slept like a baby last night even though there was no heat in the house. The furnace repair folk left us 3 small heaters that I didn’t think would heat much of anything, but a small bedroom was really nice and toasty.
I didn’t feel very hungry for some reason so I had a lemon poppyseed muffin with a bowl of fruit salad.
Lemon Poppyseed MuffinsFruit Salad
Sounds kind’ve boring, huh?
By around 10 a.m. I started to get a little hungry so I had 1.5 deviled eggs, unsalted sunflower seeds and a mandarin orange.
I have to say, the french fry parsnips and the “mac” nuggets were absolutely delicious! The cauliflower tabouli … well, it was okay but I wouldn’t have it on a regular basis.
Later in the evening I had some pistachio nuts and a mango juice mix. So far, so good on this diet.
Woke up this morning to a very nippy house. The furnace was not working. Sigh, sigh and sigh …
After returning from a doctor’s appointment, I looked in the refrigerator so I could have some leftovers for brunch (10:30 a.m. is considered brunch for me).
Sure enough, there was some leftover chicken from Day 2. I also ate the last of the pumpkin and apple muffins.
Since I had to wait for the furnace repairman to arrive, I decided that dinner was going to be “out.” Hmm .. so where to go?
Looking online, we found that the Outback Steakhouse has a gluten free menu and although we had other dietary requirements, we decided to try them.
After we were seated, I requested the gluten free menu and was handed one. The waitress, Laura, was very nice. From our food to the drinks, she was very helpful and made sure that our request did not have butter or any dairy. Quite a nice experience.
I decided to have my “usual” which is the Sirloin Steak and a baked sweet potato (with no added butter or brown sugar) and a side salad. The salad had a balsamic vinaigrette on the side and no cheese or croutons.. Apparently they make the salads from scratch so you can request whatever you like to be excluded. The steak and potato looks plain but was filling nonetheless.
Kudos to the staff here for being efficient and accommodating. No “strange” looks either for being a tad bit different from the rest of the crowd.
My son had a hamburger (minus the bun) and they put the dressings on the side (which was good because ketchup is not allowed on this diet). So here’s what a paleolithically served hamburger would look like.
Outback Steakhouse Hamburger
Later in the evening, I had a few pistachio nuts and some tea then headed to bed.
I sure am glad we bought an electric mattress pad or we would have been quite cold with no heat. As it was, I slept all through the night.
We had brunch today instead of breakfast. It was quite hearty and delicious! The meal could be laid out separately on a plate or layered. I chose to separate my meal items which consisted of baked sweet potato fries, turkey hash, guacamole and pico de gallo.
Paleolithic Brunch
Here’s another view of the same meal but layered …
Paleolithic Brunch
We had a vegetarian paleolithic dinner that included broccoli with sweet potato bhaji (delicious!), roasted cauliflower Indian style (so-so) and rutabaga masala which tasted bitter. This was my first time tasting rutabaga and I’m not sure that I like it.
Paleolithic Dinner
I really did enjoy the sweet potato bhaji — but then I just about enjoy anything with sweet potatoes or yams.
Overall, a good hearty day’s worth of eating. I also had some juice (no added sugar) and later some tea with a tad bit of honey throughout the day.
Today for breakfast I had almond blueberry pancakes with scrambled eggs and orange juice. The pancakes weren’t anything special but since we can use a tad of maple syrup it made life much more wonderful.
Almond Blueberry Paleo Pancakes
I didn’t much feel like having lunch but I did have a snack of a pumpkin apple muffin and a deviled egg. (See Day 2 for the recipes)
Dinner was baked salmon topped with tomatoes, dill and garlic, steamed carrots and a spinach tangerine avocado pine nut salad (whew! that’s a mouthful) with an orange vinaigrette. This was very delicious and filling! Yum!
Baked Salmon
So far, I have not missed the gluten or sugar in my diet. Although thoughts of hot chocolate pop in my head every now and again. (smiling)Â
While I was driving around doing errands, a thought crossed my mind. “What a beautiful crisp sunny day. Maybe I should buy myself a hot chocolate.” Uh, no. Hot chocolate is not allowed on this diet because of the sugar content. Grrr …
Oh but back to day 3. Okay, so, today for breakfast I had the same turkey mixture as yesterday with a pumpkin and apple muffin and some grapes. (See Day 2 for recipes) It was nice to have leftovers so no additional work had to be done.
I got home quite late for lunch so ate 1.5 deviled eggs and some sunflower seeds. (Again, no pics because I have the pics and recipe on Day 2.)
Now here comes dinner — beef brisket with sweet potato (made with coconut milk) and stir fried mushrooms (with carrots and sauteed onions).
Beef brisket with mashed sweet potato and carrot salad
I don’t believe I’ve ever had beef brisket before. For some reason I thought it would be more tender but my husband said it came out exactly like it was supposed to (it’s not beef stew, ya know?)
After day 3 I’m still not having major cravings for bread or sweet “things.”
So here we are on day two of this new diet and although the first day was only dinner, today there were 3 meals that can be considered paleolithic.
For breakfast, I had a turkey, hmmm, what to call it? The ground turkey basically had added spices to it and then left in the refrigerator so that all I had to do was  cook it through. It was pretty simple and very filling. I had one over easy egg and a banana with it also. (Again, the recipe was tweaked so if  you don’t like turkey you can use something else.)
Paleolithic Breakfast, Ground turkey with spices, one egg over easy and a banana
Lunch was easier since I normally don’t have a large lunch anyway (I like to have popcorn but corn is not allowed on this diet). So, I decided to have a homemade pumpkin and apple muffin with pistachio nuts (normally they should be unsalted but I have to finish these off) and an orange. I also had a 1/2 glass of almond milk.
I have to say, this muffin was very very moist. I could eat them every morning!
We are allowed snacks on this diet (the muffin could be considered a snack). But I had one deviled egg for a snack before dinner (that’s half an egg) since I wasn’t starving to death.
Deviled Eggs
The diet prefers you use homemade mayonnaise or none at all, but the recipe called for 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and that’s what was used.
Lastly was dinner which was sauteed orange chicken with ginger. This came out really really moist! We also had caramelized onions with broccoli on the side. And I just had to have another pumpin and apple muffin.
Paleolithic Dinner, Sauteed Orange Chicken with Ginger
Overall, it was a splendid day! No starvation or hunger pangs yet. I did (for a teensy weensy moment) crave some bread to have with the chicken but the feeling was fleeting. Â (laughing)
Yesterday I wrote about trialling a paleolithic diet for a couple of weeks. On this diet, one has to eat very little salt. That isn’t too big of a deal for me since for many years I’ve used low salt due to having had hypertension.
Salt
But an article was forwarded to me recently regarding salt intake. It was written on June 12th of this year and I found it rather interesting as it says:
“…the evidence from studies published over the past two years actually suggests that restricting how much salt we eat can increase our likelihood of dying prematurely.”
Whoa! That would be a 360° turn around from what we have been told for so many years.
Read the article if you have a chance and let me know what you think. The author cites studies from the 1970’s and more recently.
So … I guess you’re wondering what a paleolithic diet is, eh? Here’s what Wiki has to say about it:
“The Paleolithic diet consists of foods that can be hunted and fished, such as meat, and seafood, and can be gathered, such as eggs, insects, fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs and spices.”
No grains, legumes (e.g. beans and peanuts), dairy products (eggs are okay though), salt, nor refined sugar or processed oils are allowed.
Now the “why” of this sudden diet. Well, our son recently came to visit and he’s always playing around with different recipes and researched this particular diet and offered to cook for us. And guess what we said? Â “Why not?” Â So, he’ll be cooking for us every day and I’ll be posting pictures (and hopefully links to the recipes) of what we’ll be eating.
This diet will be quite different for me. I grew up eating a Puerto Rican diet which pretty much consisted of chicken, rice, beans and corn. That was the “poor” Puerto Rican diet. We did eat other things but that was our staple.
Then, when I became a Seventh-day Adventist as a young adult, I became vegetarian for 20 years or so. Later, when the children were grown, it came a little more difficult to be a vegetarian since my husband prefers some meat so I became a semi-vegetarian (I know, I know there’s no such thing but it’s a point of reference, i.e. some days we’d eat meat and other days we wouldn’t).
My son has tweaked some of the recipes a little so use your own creativity. Not being able to eat gluten means no bread, cereal, farina, etc. And no sugar … well, there goes my hot chocolate for a little while.
I’ll let you know how things go. The first day’s meal was dinner since we had to shop for the ingredients earlier in the day. And here it is …
This meal was great! The tuna didn’t taste like tuna to me but more like an actual steak (not as chewy though). The olive relish was also delicious as this diet is supposed to be low in sodium and the olives gave it some salt flavor. The carrot and squash stir fry and the asparagus with ginger were equally good.
First meal on a paleolithic diet was a success!
Have any of you ever been on this diet? If so, I’d be interested in how you liked it.
I tried — I really did try (okay okay, I only tried once) — to use gluten free pasta.
Why, you ask? Well, the chiropractor I go to told me that there are a lot of people who have problems with gluten and he thought I should try a gluten free diet for awhile. So the first thing I did when I left his office was head to a natural food store and buy myself some gluten free pasta.
The pasta I chose was made by Bionaturae.
Bionaturae Gluten Free Penne Rigate
It looks friendly enough, right?
I boiled it per the directions on the package but before I strained it, I tasted it. Ugh! It tasted quite hard still so I allowed it to boil 2 extra minutes. Uh, no … still tasted gritty and “funny.” So I let it boil 2 more minutes and tasted it again. (I had a gut feeling that dinner was going to be late …) Nope! So I boiled it two more minutes. And ya know what? It still didn’t taste good so I did what any normal gray haired Puerto Rican would do … I threw it out and grabbed a bag of “regular” pasta, boiled it and served it instead.
Whew! I’m glad I had some real stuff in my cupboard. The gluten free pasta looks harmless enough, it just didn’t taste very good … to me.
Gluten free pasta
I’m not saying I won’t try it again but am wondering if there’s anyone who knows of a better gluten free pasta I can try. Or, is it just a matter of getting used to the taste and texture?
Before the end of 2012, I made a homemade turkey pot pie that came out really good (even if the crust didn’t come out “pretty).” You’ll see what I mean when I post the pictures. The crust seemed a little too wet for me and I’m wondering if that’s why it fell apart (I did add extra flour while rolling.) Any ideas fellow bloggers?
I think you’ll enjoy this recipe.
Ingredients
1 pie crust (1/2 of a Perfect Pie crust recipe – click to see the instructions)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 cups turkey, light or dark, diced or shredded
1/4 cup flour
2 to 3 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth (more if needed!)
3/4 cup heavy cream
Frozen peas (optional)
Fresh thyme, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit.
Melt butter in a skillet then add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook until the onion is translucent (maybe a couple of minutes).
Add the turkey and stir.
Sprinkle flour over the mixture and stir then cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour the chicken or turkey broth and continue stirring constantly.
Pour in the cream.
Add the frozen peas.
Bring to a slow boil and allow mixture to cook and thicken for a few minutes.
Add the salt and pepper to taste.
Add the fresh or dried thyme to taste.
Pour mixture into a casserole dish or deep pie pan.
Roll out the crust so that it’s about 1 inch larger than the pan you’re using.
Place the crust on top of the pot pie mixture, and press crust into the sides of the dish.
Cut vents in the top of the crust.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly and the crust is done.
Allow to cool for a little before serving.
Ingredients (less turkey and thyme)Cook onion, celery and carrot in butter until onion is clearAdd bite-size pieces of turkey and stirAdd flour and stirAdd the broth, cream and frozen peas then stirPour mixture into casserole dish
Now, you can use whatever crust you like to cover the mixture. I used the Pioneer Woman’s crust which is what I link to in my recipe. The crust came out a little moist and came apart on me when I tried to lift it from the floured cutting board but it tasted fine just the same. Because of this, I did not have to vent the crust (it had enough holes in it – hahahaha).
Turkey Pot Pie
And here’s what a slice of this wonderful pie looked like …
Slice of Turkey Pot Pie
Yum, yum and triple yum!
I found the recipe for both the crust and the turkey pot pie at a fellow bloggers site – The Pioneer Woman.
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