Turkey Sausages & Chard

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We had a simple dinner tonight.  Handmade turkey sausages from the local butcher and steamed chard. This was seasoned with organic dried spices (a big bottle from Costco) and extra virgin olive oil.

I ate this plate plus two organic bananas for dinner after completing my ride home from my office downtown.

Victor

Valentine's Strawberry Pie and Celery Chicken Soup

Made a Valentine's Strawberry Pie for my wife.

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The crust is made from 2 cups of almond flour (crushed almonds), butter and two whipped eggs. Just mix everything real good and make a crust in a pan.  Bake at 350*F for 15 minutes or so and you've got a crust.

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While the crust is baking, slice strawberries, place in pan and add <gasp> brown sugar to taste.  Hey its Valentine's Day, gimme a break!  Cook the mixture stirring frequently until strawberries are soft. Let me add here that the wonderful thing about Paleo\Primal eating is that the times you DO cheat aren't as punishing.  I've gotten where I am with 80% compliance to the diet philosophy.

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Spoon the strawberries onto the crust and cover with whipped cream.  Add sprinkles if desired.  Serve and enjoy!

This is a delicious and Paleo-friendly soup.  Buy a roast chicken and a large head of celery.  Pull the chicken apart and place bones and meat into a soup pot.  Wash and cut the celery into pieces and place into the same pot.  Add diced ginger to taste.  Bring to boil and simmer for 45 minutes.  Salt to taste and enjoy.

This celery chicken soup is an absolute delight on cold winter or fall days.  The tastiness of the roast chicken, meat falling off the bones and the spiciness of the ginger make it freshing.

Victor

Sirloin Roast for Lunch

Here is a simple and tasty roast. Marinate the roast the night before and pop it into the oven first thing in the morning.

Ingredients:
- red onion
- garlic
- Montreal steak spice (or your favorite spic rub)
- olive oil
- Teriyaki sauce
- sirloin roast.  (Pictured is 3 lbs.)

Mince the garlic and onion and add olive until its a thick paste.  Make cuts in the roast and coat the roast liberally with the paste.  Pack paste into the cuts of roast.  Marinate overnight in the fridge.

I woke up at 7:30am and placed the roast in the oven at 185* F in my oven.  This is a very low setting intended to slow cook the roast and tenderize the connective tissues without over cooking the meat.  This is a set-it-and-forget-it type of cooking.

We left at 9:35am for my daughter's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class followed by our adult kickboxing class.  By the time we got home, it was 1pm.  We quickly steamed some sweet potatoes and zucchini to go with the roast.  It was very tasty.

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The liquid at the bottom consists of cooked blood, oil and juices from the meat.  We used this as a sauce on the meat.  Leftovers was used for a stew.

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Some people don't understand how we can eat meat, bacon, avocados, eggs and butter yet stay slim.  Mainstream media has it all wrong. Eating healthy fats will not make anyone fat if they eat in moderation.  Its processed foods, trans-fat, "low-fat" (which is code for sugar) and grains (whole or otherwise) that make a person fat.

I will do another post on this later.

Victor

Food Porn & Chinese New Year Feast Pics

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Raw cubed stewing beef, carrots, diced red onions, 2 apples, tomatoes, pad of butter and seasoning in a pressure cooker.  Once steam hisses, cook for 15 minutes.

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Completed stew with almond flour added to thicken gravy base.

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Spinach salad made with yellow pepper, raisins and boiled eggs.

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A huge salad made with romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, cashews, avocados and diced mint.

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Carved roast suckling pig.  Superb.  Truly and on many levels.

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Sushi platter of raw seafood.  Clockwise starting at 6 o'clock:  salmon (orange), shrimp, scallops, tuna, toro aka fatty tuna, 2 pieces BBQ eel, fish eggs, scallops in mayo, below that spicy scallops.

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All the food for the Chinese New Year Feast.

Victor

Food Porn - 2

Chopped kale and leeks fried with garlic and eggs.

Sting ray also called skate wing.  Season with salt, pepper, or chinese black bean sauce or sweet Thai chili sauce.  Broil in oven turning over every 15 minutes.  Very tasty dish of seafood meat and relatively inexpensive.   You can also cook this in  a pressure cooker.  Garnish with ginger and spring onions.

Can't remember what this was.  But it was yummy!

Food Porn

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Ginger, salmon, carrot, garlic and dried chinese red dates soup.

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Bison meat seasoned and fried in a cast iron pan with organic flame raisins, walnuts and lettuce.

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Almond flour (crushed almonds) with organic butter.  A whipped egg or two.

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 Form the batter into little cakes.

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Pan fry until golden brown.

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Lamb chops seasoned with salt and rosemary.  Fried in a pan.

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Lamb chops sliced into pieces with a light gravy made from pan drippings and cream.

 Baked primal pie made without flour.  The crust is made from crushed almonds.

Meat, onions, celery,  vegetables, seasoned and placed in a baking bowl. 40 minutes later.

Pie served on a plate.


Victor

Primal Platter from Leftovers

The hardest part about losing weight is eating right.  All the exercise in the world will not cure poor nutrition.  Probably the most frequent question I get asked is what can we eat that is not starchy, not sugary, will not drive blood sugar sky high, yet be tasty, nourishing and satisfying.  Here is an example of the dinner we had tonight.

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Opening the fridge revealed leftover brussel sprouts and steamed turkey burger.  The natural thing would be to use it as part of a Primal Platter.  Here is the turkey burger sliced and being fried in a cast iron pan with bacon grease.  This sears the turkey slices to give it texture.  Sprinkled with sea salt and cinnamon.

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Part of the dinner prep included washing and slicing mushrooms, spring onions, tomatoes and spinach.  The plate on the left shows the bacon that was cooked prior to mixing the sliced turkey burger, brussel sprouts and the fresh ingredients.

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Here is the mega platter of cooked whole food on a bed of raw spinach.  Charred sliced turkey burger with mushrooms, spring onions, brussel sprouts,  seasoned with mixed spices, cinnamon and salt.  The platter is ringed with bacon.

Topped off with an omelette made from four  free range, organic eggs.  Our family of three did not finish the platter for dinner.  So there will be leftovers.


Victor

Organic Turkey Burger & Avocado

It's the weekend so there are more occasions for me to cook and take some pics.

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Steamed cooked organic turkey burger, steamed yams and avocado for lunch.

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The steamed turkey burger is garnished with sauteed white onion seasoned with cumin and sea salt.

Victor

Brussel Sprouts, Beef Stew & Octopus Recipes

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Couple of days ago, we steamed brussel sprouts.  I usually put a pad of organic butter for flavor. A bowl of this and some bacon would make a meal.

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This was our lunch today.  Ingredients are 2 lbs of cubed stewing beef, some sweet potatoes or yam, 1 large onion, nutmeg, cumin, sea salt, 3 tablespoons butter and crushed almonds aka almond flour.  I used a pressure cooker for this since I wanted it ready in 15 minutes.

Slice the sweet potatoes or yam into large slices and place into pressure cooker along with cubed beef.  Dice onion and mix into the pot along with butter, nutmeg and cumin.  Put enough water so it fills about 1/3 the height of the mixture in the pot.   Turn heat on high on the stove. Once the pots starts making steam sounds, set the timer for 15 minutes and lower the heat slightly (keep the pot hissing).

Once the 15 minutes is done, cool pot under tap per manufacturer's instructions, salt to taste and add the (crushed) almond flour to thicken making gravy.  The sweet potatoes naturally sweetens the stew while the nutmeg and cumin make it tasty.  The beef should be tender, moist and full of flavor.   Serve with large leaves of washed lettuce. The orange brown color is from the yams.

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For dinner we bought some cooked octopus (the slices of white-orange up top), made some boiled organic free range eggs garnished with walnuts and cashews (picture only shows walnuts).  Two helpings of food led to satiety.

Victor

Ground Beef, Broiled Yams & Siu Choy Dinner

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Tonight's dinner consisted of broiled yams (aka sweet potatoes), 1 potato, boiled siu choy and some pan cooked ground beef.  This is dinner for three people.

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Sliced, skin on. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and cinnamon.  Oven broiled till cooked.  12-15 minutes, turning over once.

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Boiled in a pot with 1 inch of water.  Drizzled sesame seed oil for flavor.

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Dice sweet white onion and fry in coconut oil.  Add ground beef and turn over frequently.  Add dried spices to taste, along with salt, black pepper, dried oregano and Lea & Perrins sauce.  For tonight I cheated and added some Thai sweet chili.  I added some water and used a lid on the cast iron pan to allow some steam to cooked the ground beef thoroughly.


Victor

Primal\Paleo Food Links for the Beginner

Don Matesz over at Primal Wisdom summarizes food this way:

Primal Diet in a Nutshell

Eat
1. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and any natural animal fat
2. Vegetables, including leaves, stems, bulbs, roots
3. Fruits and berries (includes avocados and olives)
4. Nuts such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, coconut, etc.
5. Herbs and spices

Avoid/minimize (in order of importance)
1. Sweeteners, including sugar (white, brown, organic, whatever), maple syrup, rice syrup, etc.
2. Vegetable oils other than extra virgin olive, avocado, palm, and coconut.
3. Cereal grains and grain products (bread, pasta, pastries, etc.)
4. Legumes (beans and peas, including soy and peanuts)
5. Dairy products

(Note that dairy is a gray area among Paleo\Primal folks.  Some say have it in moderation if you're not allergic to dairy, others say no dairy at all.  My household eats cream, cheese and butter.)

15 Tips to Eat Primal Cheaply

http://followingmynose.blogspot.com/2010/11/15-tips-for-eating-paleo-on-cheap.html

Making the Switch to Primal Living
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-living-transition-six-easy-steps/

Here are some ways to transition your pantry:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/clean-your-pantry-for-health/

Why Can't I Eat Grains?  What about whole grains? What about oats?
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/

Still holding on to grains?  Avoid them in general.  (I still eat white rice.  Ask me why).
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2010/3/12/the-argument-against-cereal-grains-ii.html
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/6/23/the-argument-against-cereal-grains.html

Primal Food Eating Pyramid
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-succeed-with-the-primal-blueprint/

As long as you are compliant say 80% of the time, the times you do cheat won't undo the benefits you'll experience being on the Paleo Diet.



What about starches?

How about white rice (I'm Chinese!), potatoes, sweet potatos, yams and tubers?   My personal feeling is that they are fine in moderation.  I don't think eating a baked potato will make you diabetic. However, eating french fries from a restaurant is unhealthy due to the kind of vegetable oil they use in the fryer.  Its not just starch as a food group, but how the starch is prepared, the portion size you are eating and your caloric expenditure throughout the day.   We tend to steam our tubers.  We seldom make rice at home and only eat it when we're at social meals outside the home.  As a result, I have not bought rice in over a year - highly unusual for a Chinese immigrant family.

If you are sedentary and never workout with peak intensity, I don't see a compelling reason to incorporate starch in your diet.  If you cycle many miles a day, run, swim, hike mountains, box, wrestle or practice mixed martial arts, then having a bit of starch isn't going to harm your metabolic profile.  The key as in all things, is knowing yourself and being honest with who you are.

If you're trying to lose weight, then cut out starches completely.  Get your carbs from veggies and increase your fat and protein intake.  This leads to better satiety,  You'll feel full for longer periods of time.  Overall, most people eat fewer total calories by eating more protein and healthy fats than by decreasing fats.  This caloric deficit is necessary for weight loss.

Victor

Chuck Roast Beef for New Year's Day

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Got an organic beef chuck roast this afternoon from Choices at 57th Ave in Vancouver.  I'm planning to slow roast it tomorrow on low temperature.

After washing it, it was coated generously with olive oil. I made small cuts and stuffed it with whole cloves of garlic.  Next came Montreal steak spice, black pepper, cinnamon and cumin.  Lastly, added fresh mint.  Its marinating in the fridge until morning.  When I wake up, the plan is to pop it in the oven and start the first meal in the New Year with a nice beef roast. 

I'll take pictures of the finished roast tomorrow and update the post.

UPDATE: January 1, 2011.

Woke up at 6:30 a.m. and put the roast in the oven at an indicated 185*F. Consumer ovens are notoriously inaccurate and the setting on the dial has no bearing on the actual cooking temperature in the oven.  Basically, it was just warm, and I went back to sleep.   Cooking a roast for many hours on low heat naturally preserves the tenderness in the meat without drying it out. It permits less expensive cuts of meat to taste succulent and have that melt-in-your-mouth type texture.

At 9:15 a.m., I turned up the heat indicated by the dial to 225*F.  This is necessary to crisp the outside of the roast.  The following pictures were taken at the stove top around 11a.m. when we started eating the meat.

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The crispy outside was full of spices and had a great bite to it.  The inside middle was tender, moist and succulent.  Some parts of the roast had connective tissue which was too chewy.  We left those aside.

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Sliced chuck roast on a serving plate is shown in the picture above.

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We dipped the beef into pan drippings before partaking of the organic roast.  The beef melted in our mouths. It was a good Primal way to start the new year.

Happy New Year!

Victor

Baked Chard with Pork

Get some chard, fresh mint, eggs, beans, pork and red onion.

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I use non-factory farmed pork and meats wherever possible.  Here is why.

 

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Slice the pork and veggies.  Dice the onions. I use cast iron or stainless steel exclusively.  No non-stick pots or pans of any kinds.

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Pan fry the sliced pork with red onion and your favorite spices (I used salt & pepper here) until brown.

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While that's cooking, fry the chard.

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Once everything is cooked, mix everything together in a large pan as shown in the picture above.

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Sprinkle crushed almonds (also known as baking almonds or almond flour) generously on top.  The large chunks of yellow stuff is aged cheddar cheese.  Now bake it for 10 minutes on high. After it comes out of the oven, it should looks like this:

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Portion out individual servings and garnish with fresh mint.

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Victor