Yummy Waffles

I was perusing through my kitchen cabinets the other day when I came upon a waffle iron. Of course I immediately got a huge craving and decided that I had to create some Primal Waffles.

Here is what I came up with and it will definitely not disappoint. These were quite good. It has been long enough since I had a “normal” waffle so it is hard for me to compare but I would say that these are easily as good if not better!

Old… OLD World Waffles

Ingredients:
- 8oz Organic Cream Cheese
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 half cup shredded coconut.
- 4 eggs
- 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
- dash of cinnamon

Waffle Syrup:
- Fruit! Any you like but I have found that frozen strawberries that are put in the microwave and then chopped and mashed makes a great natural syrup!

Directions:
1. Pulse half cup of shredded coconut in a food processor or blender until you have a kind of coconut flour. (some people may remember this from some of my other recipes) This makes a great coconut flour that is full fat and less dry than pre-made almond flour which is usually de-fatted.
2. In a mixer or mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well to create a batter.
3. Cook your batter on the waffle iron. If you dont have a waffle iron, you could probably make them pancake style in a pan on the stove.
4. Enjoy them how you like them! We did some organic butter and the heated frozen strawberry natural syrup.

Came out perfect!

Image courtesy usnews.com

Reader, web-buddy, primal aficionado and crazy Black Hills cyclist of the Dakotas Tim provided me with the following link to a very interesting read.

“The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race”

This was written by a UCLA Med School Professor in the 80′s so nothing new here but has obviously been passed over many a time by CW. Go read the article then return here…. now discuss. Lol j/k… but I highly recommend reading it then returning.

A couple of my favorite excerpts: Hunter gatherers spend only around 20 hours or less per week obtaining food! The bushmen when asked why he did not plant crops like his neighbors responds “Why bother when food is so abundant”. Agriculture far from protects us from famine. The article uses the example of the great potato famine in Ireland. Our great agricultural revolution really has done little to solve the problem of world hunger.

I offer you 2 scenarios:

Scenario 1:
You wake up, shower, iron your clothes, make breakfast, pack your lunch. You then go to work for 8 hours (yeah right more like 10 right?!?!), get off work, run errands, workout, cook, run the kids all over town, and whatever else comes up. I call that a busy jam packed day!

Scenario 2:
You wake up naturally (no alarm clock here) have a casual breakfast, head out and meet you buddies or gal pals, hunt or gather food for a couple hours with your friends, workout in the process, return home, relax or get some errands and housework done, meet again with your buds or galpals in the evening to socialize, eat and “tribe” together.

You tell me which scenario sounds healthier and less stressful. I am not saying… I am just saying… I mean, this is the type of stuff we have to take vacations to do now! The hunting trips etc.

Now I respect the fact that our world population is out of control. For everyone to go primal, hunter gatherer sustainably at this point is pretty unrealistic. The reverting to a tribal village life is just my fantasizing utopial (is that word?) ramblings.

Maybe their is a way to get a little of the best of both worlds though? The idea of growing food or keeping livestock really dose make a certain amount of sense. The problem I think is that we are going about it the wrong way.

I see great benefit to keeping livestock. Having chickens, eggs, meat at the ready is awesome! But lets raise and keep the livestock healthily and sustainably.

I also see the benefit of growing crops. The problem is in the crops we grow. Subsidies, big agra, and other forces have decried that our agra consists of grains and corn. Let subsidize the right crops (vegetable, fruits and nuts). Imagine if there where subsidies for growing nuts! Then we would have an abundance of nutrient rich food as opposed to the grain calorie dense but nutrient devoid “food” to provide to the world. Prices would drop and we would see almond flour almost as inexpensive as wheat flour. Lets subsidize the right crops.

Just my ramblings here but am I really too far off base? What are your thoughts?

I need to learn to take better pics

I have often said that bananas would make some wicked Caveman Cookies (see Caveman Cookies here and here). I decided to put that to the test. Instead of cookies though, I made bars as it is even a little easier.

I generally try to avoid bananas as they are higher than I like in natural sugar. This came out to where they are packed with a delicious banana flavor but actually have little enough banana in them to where they are like 1.5g of natural sugar each… not to shabby. (Bee, maybe these are easy enough to solve your bar dilemma?)

Ingredients:
- 2 Bananas
- 3 cups nuts. I used 2 cups almonds and 1 cup cashews
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 eggs

Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients except eggs in a food processor.
2. Pulse until well mixed. You want it pretty well chopped but chunks are delicious so not too much.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine mixture with eggs.
4. Press into an 8×8 pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees until done. Mine took about 30 minutes.
6. Cut 4X4 so you have 16 bites/bars. (or however you want to divide it up.
7. Enjoy!

I think these are absolutely delicious. Let me know what you think!

Carrot Cake Caveman Cookies

Got a new flavor of Caveman Cookie for you… Carrot Cake. These are less sweet and more savory which means that I like them a lot. Best I can figure, each of these bad boys only has about 1g of sugar (natural from the carrots) in them.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups mini carrots
- 2 cups almonds
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla. (I think it would actually be better with 2 tsp vanilla but I have not tried it yet).
- 2 teaspoon Evoo or Coconut Oil
- 3 eggs

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients except eggs in food processor. Pulse until small but a little chunky.
2. Combine mixture with eggs in a large mixing bowl.
3. Form into “patties” and place on a baking sheet. I made 10 with this batch.
4. Bake at 350 degrees until done. Mine took about 40 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

As I said, I really enjoyed this version as I tend not to be too big on sweet. You could probably find a way to sweeten these up a bit if that is what you are looking for though. Maybe that 2nd teaspoon of Vanilla or some berries would do the trick.

P.S. I am convinced that banana caveman cookies would be absolutely amazing. I haven’t made them myself because of the sugar content in bananas but if you eat bananas then I would definitely recomend giving that one a try! Actually bananas would probably be pretty darn good in these carrot cake caveman cookies.

Have you made you some Caveman Cookies yet? If they weren’t so easy, I would package them and sell em! lol

Sorry for the blurriness

In the tradition of primal peach patties, I bring you Caveman cookies. These are a little more moist than the peach patties for those of you that were looking for something more moist. Once again the wife is enamoured with them while I am not overwhelmed (although I do admit they are pretty tasty).

The flavors shown above are Apple, Apple Strawberry and Apple Blueberry.

Apple Caveman Cookies:
Ingredients
- 1 granny smith apple de-seeded
- 1 cup almonds (or other nut)
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 teaspoon evoo
- 1 Egg

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients except for egg in a food processor and pulse.
2. Mix in egg.
3. Form into patties. (I made 5 per batch)
4. Bake at 350 degrees until done. (Mine took 45 minutes. These definitely have more moisture than the peach patties)

Apple Strawberry, Apple Blueberry or Other:
- Add in 1/2 cup of berries for pulse. (I used freeze-dried because I had them).

These were very easy and turned out quite good. The wife is happy.They would be pretty good with a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg as well.

I am Rich!

I know that there have been a bajillion “Eat on a budget” posts around the blogosphere over the past couple months. I figured that instead of regurgitating the same old advice, I would sit down and think about how I personally would actually save money on the grocery bill if I had to.

Here is what I came up with:

1. Drop the booze.Booze is a wholly unnecessary evil in the grocery budget. While a glass of red-wine here and there is great for anti-oxidants, you really don’t need it to survive. Booze adds up to a lot of money when you look at it.

2. Cut back on the fancy coffee.I buy fancy organic coffee and espresso. Fact of the matter though is that there is free coffee at my workplace. It may not be the best or most flavorful but it does the job. I could easily cut back on buying expensive coffee from the grocery store in a pinch.

3. Cut back on expensive meat cuts and increase eggs and less expensive meats.You really don’t need a freezer full of porterhouse steaks to eat primally. Pick up several pounds of ground meat (be wary the trans fatty ones). Eggs are also a great, inexpensive, healthy protein and fat option. Also, bone-in full skin poultry is pretty cheap! Ditch the expensive boneless skinless chicken breast and buy a whole chicken. Not only will you be getting more nutrition from it but you will be saving yourself a ton of cash. I actually recently stopped buying canned tuna which is getting awfully expensive($1.99 per can for real tuna in water – Most canned tuna is in vegetable broth with soy) and started buying extra eggs instead to save on some grocery cash.

4. Save money on your produce.Buy the produce that is in season. Grok only had what was in season available to him anyways. You really don’t need 6 different veggies in every meal (although it is delicious). Focus on one veggie one week and another the next. Certain veggies are almost always a steal too… like a good head of romaine lettuce. You can fulfill your veggie needs inexpensively.

5. Shop the sales. You can almost always find one vegetable, fruit or nut that is on sale for a great deal. Stock up on that one! For example, almonds are on sale at my local grocer for $3.99 per pound. This is a heck of a lot cheaper than the other nuts at about $7 per pound so right now I am focusing on almonds for my nut consumption. When they go back up, I will switch to another nut that is a better deal. If I was limiting myself to say… walnuts, I would be missing out on $4 per pound!

6. Buy in bulk where possible.If you have the freezer space, buy a 1/4 of a cow… it will save you a ton in the long run. Ground meat is also usually significantly cheaper if you buy it in bulk. Other bulk deals to lookout for are nuts, fruits (the pre bagged apples and oranges and grapefruit… etc), almond flour etc.

7. Do it yourself.Many of the foods that you may be buying pre-made can be made from scratch simply and easily at home. They are often more nutritious this way too. For example, I have started making my own mayonnaise… this is saving me a ton of money. My homemade mayonnaise is also WAY healthier than the store bought which is made from soy oil and some chemicals and bleh. Some other do it yourself items that are easy and will save you cash… salsa, guacamole, jerky, salad dressing etc.

8. DON’T save on the grocery bill.That’s right, I said don’t save or skimp on the grocery bill. What could possibly be more important to your health and well being than eating well? Look first at other areas in your life that you can save… movies (a movie ticket is worth like 5 pounds of ground beef), premium television, nights out at the club wherever. Prioritize what is most important to you and if it is your health, then start saving in some of the areas towards the bottom of the priority list before your start diving into the grocery budget.

Anyways, I hope this has implanted some ideas in your head and got the gears turning. I also hope that this is a little more involved and personal than some of the other “budget eating” posts you have read.

What are some other ways that you save dough on the grocery bill?

Actual shot slightly burnt

We already pointed out that Larabars tend to be a little high in natural sugar. So what can you do when you get a craving for a mobile, portable slightly sweet snack? Grab a SoG Primal Peach Patty.

These bad boys have about 110 calories each and less than 6 grams of natural sugar. That means that you could get away with eating 3 or 4 of these without reaching the sugar in a Larabar. they are also very very easy to make.

They are slightly sweet with a pretty awesome texture (it is VERY similar to bread for those of you trying to kick the grain habit.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried peaches (the chewy kind… not freeze dried)
1 cup roasted almonds
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg

Directions:
1. Put peaches, almonds and coconut in a food processor. Pulse until nicely broken down.
2. Drizzle in olive oil while pulsing mixture.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine mixture with egg and mix thoroughly.
4. Make 10 “patties” by rolling and pressing this “dough” with your hands and place on a baking sheet
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

These are a little sweet and “bready” for my liking but my wife absolutely loves them and I have had a few friends give them the thumbs up.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Dark morning picture from my cell phone before work

All this talk of Larabars got me excited about showing you all the bars that I make. This recipe is adapted from this recipe over at MDA. I took it, experimented (a LOT of experimenting) and morphed it into a whole new monster.

The process for making these bars is a little involved. It is worth it though because they are delicious. Once you have done it once, it is actually pretty easy too. I can whip these out in under 30 minutes now. Please give them a try! you will not regret it.

What you will need:
- 2 cups of nuts and seeds. Any mixture will do. I am currently using 1 cup almonds and 1 cup sunflower and pumpkin seeds. You can use all almonds if you want.  I have also tried walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, macadamia… they all work great.
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut.
- 1/2 cup coconut oil.
- 4 tblspn organic butter. (If you don’t eat butter, add 4 tblspns extra coconut oil)
- 1/2 cup almond butter.
- 2 teaspoons organic vanilla.
- 2 tblspns unsweetened cocoa powder.
- 1/3 cup powdered egg whites
- 1/2 cup almond flour.
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup fruit. I have been using 1/3 cup currents, 1/3 cup dried apricot and 1/3 cup freeze dried blueberries. Due to research on Larabars and fruit however, I will be switching to only using berries in the future. (I get freeze dried strawberries. Going to try strawberry and blueberry).

Directions:

1.  Place nut/seed mixture and shredded coconut on a baking tray and toast in oven until coconut turns golden brown.
2. Pulse toasted nuts and coconut briefly in a food processor.
3. Combine dry ingredients (almond flour, cocoa powder, egg whites and sea salt) in a separate bowl and mix together.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, coconut oil, almond butter and vanilla. Microwave approximately 2 minutes until all melted.
5. Fold pulsed nuts and coconut into melted butters/oil/vanilla.
6. Fold dry ingredient mixture into melted melted butters/oil/vanilla/pulsed nuts.
7. Fold your fruit into the mixture.
8. Press mixture into a baking pan. Top with some extra unsweetened untoasted shredded coconut. Press into pan again (the more compressed your mixture in the pan, the better the bars will turn out).
9. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven, press into pan again and set out to cool.
11. Once cooled, press into pan AGAIN and place in refrigerator for further cooling.
12. Once cooled in refridgerator, cut and enjoy!

Store in refrigerator.These bars soften as they warm but will keep in tact if you want to throw them in a ziploc and take them with you. The better you compacted your bars while making them, the more solid they will be.

These bars are extremely filling! I use this recipe to make 8 bars. I eat a whole bar and my wife eats half bars. They are very tasty and very filling. Even my sugar and grain loving family enjoyed them when they visited.

What do you think?

P.S. I get my Almond flour, powdered egg whites, and freeze dried fruit all online from this company if you are looking for ingredients: Honeyville Foods

Doesn't that pile of cocoa and coconut look delicious?

I know, I know.. no post for 4 days! I am a sucky blog host. And I have been promising a post on Larabars for a while now and not delivered. So here it is!

When reader Brynith contacted me to ask my opinion on Larabars, I chuckled to myself and put on my immediate skeptic hat to go start debunking some corporate health food. I was pretty surprised with what I found.

First off, what is a Larabar?A Larabar is basically a packaged health/energy/candy bar that you can find in most health food stores now.  Their website is www.larabar.com

I grabbed my list of naughty chemicals that most processed foods have and went over to the Larabar website to begin debunking.Wow, was I in for a shock. All of the Larabars had about 6 or less REAL FOOD INGREDIENTS and nothing more! No sodium dicophizonate or cabrodetrohypropolyne. No sugar, cane juice, evaporated cane juice, organic evaporated cane juice, pygmy fair trade organic evaporated cane juice… oh well, you get the point.

An example larabar has the following ingredients:
Pecan Pie Bar: Dates, Pecans, Almonds
No that’s not a typo… those are the three ingredients.

Pro’s:
-As you can see, the bars all have whole, real food ingredients. They are all healthy ingredients too, consisting mostly of nuts, unsweetened fruits and spices like cinnamon.

Con’s:
-The base of all of the bars are dates. This can make the bars kind of high in natural sugars. Most of the bars are in the 20′s gram range for sugar. Still, natural sugar kicks the crap outta refined sugar any day.

-The bars are small. Way smaller than I expected once I saw them.

Final Verdict? For an already made/ready to buy snack, these bars are a great option. I would stick to the bars that are lower in natural sugar and don’t contain concentrates (Pecan Pie, Cashew Cookie, Banana Bread, Ginger Snap, Apple Pie, Chocolate coconut). I would still prefer a much more filling bar based on nuts myself. I make a pretty good one that I will post for everyone very soon. But for a ready from the store product, I applaud Larabar. Definitely a step in the right direction!

Have you tried Larabars? What is your take on them?

Delicious Almonds!

I know that everyone and their mother has a post on nuts. Yes their mothers mother probably even has one but I am going to do a post on nuts anyways! If only because its my site and I can There is nothing wrong with throwing a little fuel on the fire huh? Besides you may learn something new about nuts that you did not know before.

Most of us living the primal or paleo lifestyle know the importance of nuts in our diets. Nuts are filling, delicious and nutritious. What added benefit do we see from nuts being an integral part of our diet and what makes them so nutritious?

Interesting studies done on nut eaters:

1. Harvard School of Public Health researchers studied more than 83,000 women and found that those who ate nuts five times per week or more significantly lowered their risk for type-2 diabetes compared with those who never or rarely consumed nuts. The women who reported eating nuts at least five times a week reduced their risk by almost 30 percent.

2. In a landmark 1992 study from Loma Linda University, researchers observed about a 50% reduction in the number of both fatal and nonfatal heart attacks among those who consumed nuts five or more times per week, as compared with those who ate nuts less than once a week.

Ok, enough with the studies I know but I had to throw those in there.

What nuts are good for what reasons?

• Almonds: Most alkaline nut, high in fat, protein and vitamin E
• Brazil Nuts: Rich in fiber, high in protein
• Hazelnuts: Rich in selenium, aid in normalizing the metabolism
• Macadamia nuts: Rich in niacin, help rejuvenate the liver and discourage alcohol craving
• Pecans: High in fat, Vitamin B6, assist in repairing damaged cells in diseased hearts
• Pine Nuts: One of the best known sources of protein in the nut family
• Pistachio: It is one of the only nuts that is inclined to be alkaline forming, they are beneficial for healing constipation and help purify the blood and tone the liver and kidneys
• Walnuts: Rich in calcium, vitamin E and fiber, walnuts are a warming and laxative food used to strengthen the kidneys and lungs, to lubricate the large intestine and improve metabolism.

Nuts are also rich in:

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which can reduce blood cholesterol. We all know that fats are an essential part of the diet and some of the mainstream seems to be catching on finally.

Folic acid and other B vitamins, which may reduce the risk of heart disease

Vitamin E, known to be cardioprotective. Almonds and hazelnuts have more vitamin E than other nuts do.

Copper, magnesium and potassium – all three are linked to heart health.

Always remember: A PEANUT IS NOT A NUT! It is a legume. Peanuts are also known for being high in aflatoxins which is bad juju. So even though the almond butter costs twice as much as the peanut butter… it is worth it.

What is your favorite nut and why?