Enchiladas Dressed

Alright, it is about time I put this recipe up. I think it still has room for improvement which is why I have held off on posting it but I have not gotten around to developing that yet so here it is in its current yummy state. Those of you that are adventurous can play around with it. I think that adding some organic sour cream to the beef before baking would make it even better as creamy enchiladas but have not yet tried it. This is an enchilada plate and not “rolled” enchiladas which are what you may be familiar with.

Primal Enchiladas:
Ingredients:
Crust option 1: (This is my favorite. It sounds a little odd but its delicious).
- Eggs
- Ground coconut

Crust option two:
- Eggs
- Shredded zucchini

Other ingredients:
Beef (grass fed preferably)
- Onions (white, yellow or red. Pick your favorite. I prefer white in my enchilades)
- Green Chile (if you have it available which I know that those that aren’t New Mexican natives often dont).
- Salsa ( make my own special for enchiladas that is heavy on tomato paste)
- Shredded Cheese (I like a mixture of mozzarella, pepper jack and cheddar)

Toppings:
- Shredded Lettuce
- Organic sour cream
- Guacamole or avocado

Directions:
1. In a baking dish we will first create our crust.
Crust option one.
- Make some SoG coconut griddle cakes and line the bottom of your baking dish with them. Fill in the in-between spots with some egg.

OR

Crust option 2.
- Mix shredded zucchini with egg and line the bottom of the pan.

2. Season and brown your ground been in a skillet. I recommend a lot of garlic and spicy seasonings.
3. pour your browned beef on top of your crust.
4. Top your beef with chopped onion, green chile (if you have it of course) and a layer of salsa.
5. Top with your shredded cheeses.
6. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until a slight crust starts to form on the top of the cheese. About 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
7. Serve on a plate and top with shredded lettuce, organic sour cream and guacamole or avocado slices. delicious.

For my next recipe, I am working on an idea I have for Primal goat cheese manacotti. I know.. awesome right?!?!?

Lean in that the portions are so small?
Lean in taste and flavor?
Lean as in lean forward as your gut drags you around?

Whatever the reason, the Lean Cuisine name makes it sell. It is crazy how well these things sell.

I brown bag my lunch most days. I bring an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack to keep my lunch cold. It isn’t that we don’t have a fridge at work…. Its just that there is no room in it. The fridge AND the freezer are literally packed to the brim with Lean Cuisines. This is not an exaggeration… they are completely full with the little cardboard boxes. With the exception of an occasional egg-o waffle box or Marie Calendar pot pie, 90% of these cardboard boxes say “Lean Cuisine”. It is crazy.

Now I am not going to lie. There have been times in my life where I lived off little freezer boxes. Michellina’s and the generic cheapies were sometimes all I at 3 meals per day. They were cheap and easy to make. They were VERY cheap and VERY easy to throw in the microwave.

Occasionally when they were on sale I got the Lean Cuisines too. You know what? They were terrible! I think I once ate the cardboard box that it was in on accident because it indeed did taste as good as the meal. That and it doesn’t really matter how many of these gross little meals I ate, I was inevitably still starving afterwards.

Now on to the speed and convenience of Lean Cuisines. The simplicity of opening the box and tossing it in the microwave is completely negated at my work. Come lunch time, there is actually a line the forms at the microwave. People queue their food up and actually tell each other “Your turn” as they retrieve their heated plasticy cardboard contraptions. Considering that each meal takes 3-5 minutes or so to heat up, it can easily be 20-30 minutes before it is your frozen cuisines “turn” to get fried. Me? I whip out my lunch bag and dive into some delicious egg salad, nuts, pork rinds, veggies. No wait… instant delicious gratification.

Ugh and the smell of these things. It doesn’t even smell like food. During the Lean Cuisine Queue at lunch, an awful aroma fills the office. It is funny because sometimes I do bring leftovers that need reheated. Once I heat up my meatloaf etc., I usually get quite a few people coming by my desk asking what that “Delicious smell” is and also frequently get told “did you bring enough for me?” Funny, though Lean Cuisine appears to be bountiful enough for all, no one really seems to enjoy eating it.

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!

Dairy Free, No Sugar Added Custard

Do you miss puddings and custards in your primal world? We have a local egg custard here known as “Flan” and for some weird reason, I have been craving it. Here is a custard recipe that I have been putting together. I finally got the proportions perfectly where I like them. If you like yours sweeter, all you need to do is add more bananas! This recipe is about as simple as it gets.

Ingredients:
- 2 bananas
- 1 can coconut milk
- 3 eggs
- Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients except for cinnamon in a mixer and mix well.
2. Pour into custard or souffle cups (coffee cups or other oven safe containers work fine if you don’t have custard cups).
3. Sprinkle top with cinnamon.
4. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for approx 45 minutes. Custard will balloon a bit and you may see some liquid… its ok, it will work itself out.
5. Chill.
6. Serve and enjoy.

This makes a tasty treat! Careful though… it is easy to overeat lol.

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?

Indeed... indeed

Thanks to reader/close friend Roger De Rok for the picture!

Everyone loves to demonize bacon. But whats so bad about bacon anyways? Take for example just on the McSoG post where Dangeruss commented on how he has a hard time viewing bacon as a healthy food. Many of us have the same problem. Bacon is viewed by our collective CW society as optimizing bad diet.

I have 3 theories on why this is:

1. We are still stuck on Ancel Keys bs “fat is bad for you” theory. This has been pretty heavily debunked but still sticks with us in out conventional wisdom ways. Bacon has plenty of fat in it. Heck, you can SEE all the delicious fat all over it. In our minds thanks to Ancel Keys, it is still sometimes hard to get over the though of fat=bad.

2. We have this thought that if something tastes good or feels good… it must be BAD for you. Because eating healthy is supposed to be hard right? No way it can be easy. NOT! This is another one that we have a hard time getting over. Your body still knows whats good for it. Just because something tastes good does in fact NOT mean its bad. Just look at all the delicious, real food we get to eat in our primal lifestyle.

3. Some bacon IS bad. Many companies process the hell out of their bacon. They add sugar (bad), nitrates (may not be as bad as we think), and other chemicals and crap. This has given the rest of the bacon a bad name.

Now lets take a look at why bacon can be good and healthy. (Assuming of course you get bacon that is as natural as possible without the added sugar and crap.

1. It is full of protein and fat. This fits in perfectly with a primal/paleo profile.

2. It tastes freaking awesome. If you can’t stick to an eating program that greenlights eating bacon… I don’t know what hope ther is for you J/K of course… you can be primal WITHOUT eating bacon… but seriously… dude… bacon.

What are your thoughts? Do you love tha bacon as much as I do?

Yummy Green Goodness

Let me start off by apologizing for not getting any posts up this weekend.It was very busy. We went indoor climbing again (yep, just as fun as the first time!) and my mother and brother were in town. I have also been very busy with school (I have 2 major papers due over the next two weeks) so i apologize for taking longer to get to everyone’s comments. I will do my best to get caught up on them over the next couple days.

When I made the challenge to everyone on Friday to “try something new” this weekend, that went for me too! My brother brought a bag of roasted seaweed over when he came and let me tell you… this is my new favorite snack. I almost immediately had to go out and buy a couple bags of my own.

First off, this stuff just tastes good.It is like eating sheets of paper… that are meaty. Meaty sheets of paper lol. Anyways, it is hard to explain the texture and flavor but it is awesome! A very filling healthy little snack treat that you can take with you almost anywhere.

Benefits of seaweed:
-Seaweed is loaded with vitamins and minerals! It has calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, iron, zinc,Vitamins C, niacin, B1, B2, B6 and B12.
-Seaweed is said to regulate hormones, speed up the metabolism promote a young looking skin color and also promote mental well-being.
-Seaweed contains significant amounts of lignans, which are plant compounds with cancer-protective properties.
-Sea vegetables pack a double punch against heart disease. In addition to their folic acid, sea vegetables are also a very good source of magnesium, which has been shown to reduce high blood pressure and prevent heart attack.
-Seaweed also has been proven to provide support through stressful situations by supplying not only magnesium, but pantothenic acid and riboflavin. Pantothenic acid is especially important for the health of the adrenal glands.
-Seaweed is exceptionally high in protein for a plant!
-Seaweed is generally grown and harvested in the Ise Bay region of Japan which is noted for having exceptionally clean and pure water.

I could probably keep listing things but you get the idea.

Now, I am a person that hates when things are labeled as “superfoods”.I like seaweed though… and I mean that I REALLY like seaweed. So if I enjoy snacking on it anyways AND it just so happens that it IS a superfood then double bonus!

Have you tried seaweed? What was your new thing that YOU tried this weekend?

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.