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!

Cavemen Cookies from the Cavemen Bakery

Last week I received in the mail a beautiful bag of these Cavemen Cookies from the Cavemen Bakery.

I know… I know… cool name right?

It gets better… this is the slogan on the bag “Just like your great, great, great, great, great… grandmother used to make!”

Anyways, they are available from the online store and are available in select deli’s and store’s around the NYC area (hear that you crazy black box crossfitters?). They claim to be a paleo friendly cookie for the masses. I know that I have featured my own “Caveman Cookies” here on the site but these are actually very different

So how do they add up? Here is the skinny on them:

Taste:
The taste is great! Way… way… WAY to sweet for me and my sensitive palette but aside from that they are quite good. They remind me of a cross between a ginger snap and an oatmeal cookie.

Texture:
This is the best part of these cookies. They are so soft and chewy that I have to wonder exactly how they managed to do it (ok, actually I know… it’s the honey and raisins but shhhhhhh). If you could think of the best possible cookie texture to have… this would be them.

Presentation:
From the packaging to the product, these look great. They are done in such a way that they would make great gifts in the bag or you could take them out of the bag for a party or the like and no one would be the wiser.

Ingredients:
There are no chemicals and the ingredients are almost completely benign which is a nice thing. Almond flour, nuts, raisins, ginger and nutmeg are all pretty darn safe. The only thing I don’t really like about the ingredients is the honey. I am of the opinion that refined sugar is refined sugar whether it is refined by man or by bee’s albeit the bee method is probably more natural. There is plenty of honey in these cookies too, you can tell from the taste and the texture. Still it is a far better option than the typical cookie floating out there.

Nutrition:
The nutrition info is easily available right on the website which is commendable.
Per 2 cookies it is:
Fat: 7g (Sat: 0.5g, Poly: 3g, Mono: 3.5g
Chol: 0
Sod: 0
Carbs: 15g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar:13g
Protein: 3g
Yeah a little high in sugar for 2 cookies… so eat only 1!

Conclusions:
These taste awesome and truly are a worthy investment. I wouldn’t make a habit of packing them back but one here and there is definitely a reasonable treat. Also as I said, these would make an excellent gift! I have bantered back and forth a little in email with the owner of the Cavemen Bakery and I can assure you that she has the right motives and intentions. This means that not only can you enjoy eating a yummy cookie but you can also feel good about supporting a good business.

You can order Cavemen Cookies from the Cavemen Bakery online at:
www.cavemencookies.com

Cracklin Chicken with peppers and salsa

I know I promised this last week but here it is… sorry… better late than never right?

Do you miss your chicken/veal parmesan? How about breaded tilapia or any other delicious breaded or fried meat? Well here is a perfectly primal solution… and it is delicious!

I give you Cracklin Chicken. It is so easy and so delicious. This same principle can be applied for fish, beef, pork or any other meat that you would like as well (Just change the cooking times accordingly of course).

Ingredients:
- Chicken tenders or breasts
- Egg (white and yolk mixed)
- Crushed Pork Crackling or Pork Rinds. You can either collect all the crumbs that are left over from your normal stash or crush some up on purpose.

Prepping the chicken

Directions:
1. Paint your chicken with egg.
2. Cover with crackling crumbs using the egg like a glue.
3. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until cooked.
4. Enjoy!

You can add some additional seasonings to the chicken if you like but I have found that it is not really necessary because of the salty nature of the crackling or pork rinds.

You can eat your Crackling Chicken straight up, use it in a chicken salad or use it in other delicious recipes like this:

Primal Chicken Parmesan:
Top your crackling chicken with this simple sauce:

Ingredients:
1 Can Tomato Paste
1-2 Cups Water (To desired thickness)
1 Tsp Dried Oregano
1 Tsp Garlic

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients. Use water to desired thickness. We like ours pretty thick. Feel free to add more spice if you want it, too.
2. Simmer on stove for approximately 15 minutes.

Serve with or without spaghetti squash noodles!

I hope you all enjoy this one… I can’t wait to try my Crackling Tilapia!

Disaster Waiting to Happen

I am sorry that I have not posted in a while. I recently had a major change in that I changed companies and I have been adapting to my new position and company and getting everything figured out as far as my exercise schedule and all that jazz.

That above is what I was SUPPOSED to eat on Sunday. That is the wedding cake we froze for a year to celebrate our one year anniversary. It is a white cake with bavarian cream filling and fondit frosting. So pretty much it is sugar, filled with sugar and coated with sugar. Yuck. Anyways we just couldn’t eat it.

So in the trash it went and I whipped up this to substitute…

Much Better

It is my Gorilla Cake with a home made strawberry cream cheese frosting. It turned out delicious with no guilt, no sugar coma and no hospital visits!

All in all an excellent trade I would say.

The Whole Cake

I know. I get an "F" for presentation but it is delicious!

Recently I discovered that my brother in law, my sister and my wife are all pretty big fans of hummus. Seeing as how hummus is made from legumes (which aren’t the worst thing in the world but I recommend avoiding), I figured that I would see what I could do about finding a more primal alternative.

This is what I found. Unfortunately I cannot take credit as this is taken from several similar recipes spread across the web. Still though this is extremely easy to make and also extremely good. This is so good in fact that I am now hooked on hummus as well!

This makes a great vegetable dip or you can eat it like me and put some over fried eggs which I find delicious.

Ingredients:
-2 peeled and cut zucchini
-3/4 cup of tahini
-1/4 cup of olive oil
-1/2 cup of lemon juice
-4 cloves of garlic
-2.5 teaspoons of sea salt
-1/2 tablespoon of ground cumin

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor (or blender).
2. Blend thoroughly.
3. Enjoy!

Store in the refrigerator.

Do you like hummus? Try this one and let me know what you think!

Piece of Cake

I binged a bit this weekend. You heard right… the SoG and a binge… not often you hear that put together. By binge, I mean that I had about 50g extra carbs this weekend and a little extra natural sugar from fruit…. so nothing too bad but for me a binge none the less. The culprit was this… Gorilla Cake. I could not help myself. I ate 5 pieces!

I had some leftover bananas from making the Caveman BNBs and I decided that I wanted to make a pie/cake with them. Wow… this… one.. is… good. I used these quantities to make 1 batch which i divided into 9 pieces. Each piece worked out to (by my calculations) about 180 calories, 10g carbs, 15g fat, 4.5g protein. A little high in natural sugar so I wouldn’t make too much of a habit out of eating these but they are definitely a great option for treating yourself or even a visiting or resident grain/sugar addict.

Ingredients:
Crust
- Dash of Cinnamon
- 2 Tblspoons organic butter (or coconut oil if you prefer)
- .5-1 cup almond flour

Filling
- 3 bananas
- 2.5 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 2 eggs
- Dash of cinnamon

Directions:
Crust
1. Melt butter or oil and mix almond flour and a dash of cinnamon into a dough.
2. Press your dough very thinly into your baking pan. (I used the Pyrex one you see in the picture below).

Filling
1. Process 2 of the cups of shredded coconut until fine. (I used my food processor.
2. Combine fine coconut, unprocessed coconut, bananas and eggs in a mixer (I was trying out my new kitchen aid) Mix until liquid pudding texture. (if you don’t have a kitchen aid, you may need to uses a blender or processor to goo up your nanners.

Put it together
1. Pour your filling into your pan with your crust
2. Sprinkle top with a dash of cinnamon
3. Bake at 350 degrees until done (mine took about 30 minutes).
4. Serve warm or cold! Enjoy

Ready to go in the oven

This recipe seems similar enough to Caveman BNBs but is delicious enough to deserve its own post.

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.

Picture doesn't really do them justice

Well, yesterday I DID finish my schoolwork in time to do some experimental cooking. I give you Dinosaur Droppings. My wife says the name is too unappetizing but I think its hilarious and pretty primal so I am sticking with it. These are basically dark chocolate primal fudge balls and they are absolutely delicious.

I kind of created this in a flurry of experimentation…which means I did not keep very good track of ingredient quantities so I am going to kind of guesstimate what I used. You might need to adjust slightly according to your results but this SHOULD work out as well as it did for me.

Ingredients:
- 1 bar ghirardelli 100% cocoa baking chocolate
- 1/2 can or 7oz of coconut milk
- 2 tblspns coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tblspoons egg white powder. I am not entirely sure about the necessity of this ingredient but i used it and it worked so I am keeping it in here.
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup almond butter. This is where I really failed keeping track. I just spooned it right into the pan.
- Crushed walnuts (or another nut you would like to use.
-(Optional) Add in some stevia or sweetener if you need it sweeter. I don’t think it needs additional sweetening at all.

Directions:
1. Slowly warm coconut milk in a saucepan on low to medium heat.
2. Add in almond butter and stir until smooth. Keep pan on low-medium heat.
3. Add chocolate bar. It will melt easier if you break it into its section. Stir on low-medium heat until smooth.
4. Add coconut oil and once again stir while keeping mixture on low-medium heat.
5. Stir in egg white powder and vanilla.
6. Once all stirred and melted. Remove from heat.
7. Stir in crushed walnuts (or other nut) and allow mixture to cool enough to handle. You can do this in the freezer or refrigerator to speed it up.
8. After sufficiently cooled, use your hands to roll the mixture into whatever size fudgeballs you would like.
9. Cool the fudgeballs in the freezer or refrigerator.
10. Once cooled and hardened… enjoy! Store in refrigerator.

Try it out and let me know if it works as well for you!

This was my actual final product

I have been playing around with trying to make a cheesecake for a while now.I was well on my way along the right track but reader Tim e-mailed me a cheesecake recipe that quickly skyrocketed me to success. This is largely that recipe he e-mailed me but minus the splenda and plus the berries. I like my sweet additions natural.

This recipe is very heavy on dairy.Which makes sense cause how could you make a “cheese”cake without dairy lol. Anyways, that means this recipe is not Primal per say but is pretty darn healthy IMO. No added sugar and no artificial sweetener. Mostly just good fat and deliciousness. Even our guests (chronic sugar eaters) enjoyed it!

Ingredients: (Note: remember that organic DOES matter when it comes to dairy)
Crust:
1+ cup of almond flour
3 tblspn organic butter OR Coconut oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Filling:
Approx 2 cups or 10 Large Strawberries. I used the frozen kind
2 8oz. packages organic cream cheese
2 dollops organic sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs

Directions:
Crust:
1. Melt the butter or coconut oil in a large bowl.
2. Add cinnamon
3. Add almond flour and mix until you get a good crumbly consistency. This should take a little more than a cup of almond flour.
4. Press very thinly into your pie pan. A sprigform pan is recommended but not necessary. As you can see from my picture, I used a regular pie thingamabob

Filling:
1. Add all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. Use a mixer or a hand mixer and beat until smooth
3. Pour mixture into your pan over your crust

Bake:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Put cheesecake in the oven
3. After about 5 minutes, turn the oven temperature down to 200 degrees. This will allow the cheesecake to bake while slowly cooling.
4. Chck cheesecake periodically after 60 minutes. Mine took about 90 minutes to cook. The cheesecake should appear firm on top all the way to the center.

Serve and enjoy:
1. Cool cheesecake and place in the refrigerator to further cool.
2. Once cooled, cut and serve.
3. Enjoy delicious strawberry cheesecake!

This is really quite good. I used strawberries as my “sweetener” but i think that other berry would work very well too. You could try blueberries or blackberries!