My Paleo Wordle

This Week's Gruel - Beef Shoulder Roast Stew

Here is this week's slow cooker recipe.  This one has a bone-in grass fed beef shoulder roast along with

shallot
golden beet
brussel sprouts
broccoli
tomato sauce
black pepper

Here's the photo evidence:

the veggie layer

Grass fed beef shoulder roast

Some bone broth action in this one...

~ 60 oz of organic tomato sauce & 1 tbsp of black pepper

Did someone mention marrow bones?

A Few Dinners - Beef & Mahi Mahi

Here are a couple of recent dinners.  The main "new" thing is a slightly smaller portion of grass feed beef.  Instead of my "normal" 1/2 lb pre-cooked weight, I'm cutting back to 1/3 lb.  In part, this is due to reading Paul Jaminet's Perfect Health Diet.  One thing I learned from that is my protein intake was >100 grams on a typical day (in fact close to 140g).  That's essentially more than any human can process, and there are some potential negative consequences of eating that much protein.

There's a potential problem with too much protein. Your body doesn't store excess protein. It either converts it to glucose, if necessary (with 55% efficiency, usually when you're eating very low-carb), or your body excretes the excess. In theory, the excretion requires too much work from the kidneys, and the excretion turns the excess into ammonia, which could leech calcium from your bones as a protective measure. Dr. Christopher Gardner speculates about this in a YouTube video while discussing the results of the A to Z study. link

So, if we're cutting back the protein by 40g or about 160 calories, what are we going to do to replace the calories?  Answers:

   1) add more Ghee to the stir fry
   2) top the burger with 1 tbsp of grass fed butter
   3) make sure to add a strip of bacon to the veggies.

Yum!

The second dish was baked Mahi Mahi, and basically the same veggie mix.  I did not put butter on the fish, but maybe I will next time.

Baked Mahi Mahi with veggies... I love Cayenne pepper

Rufus - the other kitchen helper

Fermentation - Another Batch

Here's another batch of fermented veggies.

Ingredients:

Brussel sprouts
Carrots
Daikon
Shallot
Garlic (3 cloves, smashed)
2 tbsp of Whole Foods sauerkraut (to get the fermentation off to a good start)
1 tsp red pepper
1 tbsp sea salt
Water - enough to cover

Then wait about 5 days, or maybe 7 or 10.  (Stir it every couple days).  

If you have a fermentation detector, you'll know when it's ready.  Otherwise just taste-test as you go along.

I'll let you know when it's ready

This Week's Gruel - Beef & Beef Liver Stew

Bone Broth in the Mix

Here's a typical week's "gruel" - a slow cooker recipe.  I call it gruel based on a concept from Paul Pitchford's book called Healing with Whole Foods.  It's a great book because it integrates Chinese Medicine with Western medicine.  It does allow grains, but there's still a lot of great content in that book.  The chapter on Oils alone is worth the purchase price.

Also, in that book he describes how we are confronted with over 50,000 types of food, and the idea is that drains our mental energy.  Gruel is simple.  Mostly the ingredients are just the foods themselves with a little black pepper.  People ask "what does it taste like?"   Well, like food tastes... but not like Doritos or other chemically engineered foods.  (See the 60 Minutes episode - Tweaking Tastes and Creating Cravings on that topic).

Ingredients

Meat:  Grass Fed Beef and Liver, Beef Broth

Vegetables:  Squash, Onion, Broccoli, Green Onion, Cauliflower, Tomato Sauce, and Kale/Collards/Mustard Greens

Spices:  Black Pepper, Turmeric, and Crushed Chili Peppers

This makes 4 bowls, which I bring for lunch during the week.

Pictures

I made this a few weeks ago. This was in the freezer. Saved the fat for other purposes.

Grass Fed Chuck Roast 

I smell BEEF!!!

Spices - not a lot

There's the Liver

There's 1/2 lb of frozen mixed greens

Fermentation! - Sauerkraut - Mom's Recipe

I was going to do a post on fermentation today, but then my Mom sent me a couple pictures of her Paleo adventures.  We'll go over the benefits of fermentation, and then get to the pictures.

Fermentation Benefits

There's been a lot news lately about fermentation, including an article in the New York Times.Basically, fermented foods help maintain our digestive health, which prevents disease and other afflictions.  If you want to read more (and you should), check the articles below.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/18/mcbride-and-barringer-interview.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/opinion/lets-add-a-little-dirt-to-our-diet.html

Mom's Sauerkraut in an authentic Red Wing #2 Crock

Sauerkraut is quite easy to make.  Chop up cabbage.   Smash it up.   Add water.  Add salt.  Wait at least 5 days, maybe up to 3 weeks.  In my case, I made fermented vegetables, and I knew they were getting close to ready when Lucy showed interest in the smell.

Hey - where's the smelly stuff?

If you don't know the history of Red Wing Pottery, check the Wikipedia article.

Fermentation Recipes

Here's a good source of additional fermentation recipes:

http://fermentationrecipes.com/

Based on the above, this was my original recipe:  Brussel sprouts, carrots, garlic, shallots and water... Took about 5 days for it to "cook".  Then you just transfer it to the refrigerator and eat it for snacks or as part of your meal.

Lamb Loin Chop with Garlic

If you're a fan of GARLIC and don't mind the smell of roasted garlic wafting through your house for hours, or perhaps days, this lamb loin chop recipe will delight.

Lamb gets a lot of mention on various Paleo blogs as one of the good red meats.  Part of that is because a lot of what you get is grass fed New Zealand lamb.

Nutritiondata.com has this profile on lamb:

And here's the overall rating for this meal, approximately.  I'm not quite sure how roasting affects the nutrient profile, but at least this gives a ballpark ideal.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/services/referral?messageKey=9f24ae8f66323e326ffbca8d935a4111

Key Stats:   634 calories (surprisingly filling)
Protein  76 grams
Fat        23 grams  (10g saturated)
Carb      32 grams

It is also a good source of Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Phosphorus and Zinc, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin K.


Inflammation Factor:  A Most Excellent + 662


Let's get started:

First, I put a baking rack into a pyrex baking dish and then filled the remaining space with chopped veggies.  I rubbed some Macadamia nut oil in that end to keep things from sticking, and also added about 3/4 cup of water.

Next up, we put the lamb on the rack, and used the trusty garlic smasher.




Here's how it looked going into the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes


















Toward the end, I put some foil over the veggies because they started to look a little dry.  However, while I might experiment with techniques for roasting veggies, they turned out perfectly cooked and not dry once I stirred them up on the plate.

Out of the oven

Onto the plate

Kitchen helpers were very pleased with the spare bits of fat and small shavings of meat off the bone.

Your Friend, Vitamin D

Did you know up to 69% of children and 77% of adults in the US are deficient in Vitamin D?

Did you know that insufficient or deficient Vitamin D is linked to:

• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Overall mortality
• Diabetes
• Autoimmune diseases
• Alzheimer's / Dementia
• Stroke (lower D, higher severity), and 
• Multiple sclerosis

What should you do?   Get your Vitamin D level checked!

And learn more at sites like these:

http://vitamindhealth.org/

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Scallop Stew Adventure

I've never made this before, and I did not read any recipes...

I had 1lb of frozen scallops that I thawed and considered grilling them.  However, I also needed some lunch food for the upcoming work week.

Here's the starting materials:  Asparagus, Onion, Garlic, Tomato, Golden Beet, Red Potato, Brussel Sprouts, Coconut Milk, Scallops.

Clean and chop (and peel) the asparagus and beet.

Put the potato, 1/2 of the vidalia onion, and 4 cloves of garlic in the food chopper thing.

Lucy came in to help out.










Dice the tomato and brussel sprouts.

Add spices - in this case, kelp w/cayenne, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.

Put it all in the crock pot with 2 cans of coconut milk.  Add about 1/2 can of water.

Stir it up, set the slow cooker on Low, and wait ~4-5 hours.

Here's the breakdown of this meal according to Nutrition Data dot Com.   (I'm assuming that this makes 3 bowls).

Calories:   1027
Fat:           77g  (63%)    - 66g saturated fat - yay!
Protein:     47g  (17%)
Carb:         50g  (20%)


Omega 6:3 ratio ~1.7 : 1   (pretty good)
Omega 3:    627mg
Omega 6:  1061mg

Vitamins

Amounts Per Selected Serving

%DV

Vitamin A

2468

IU

49%

Vitamin C

42.4

mg

71%

Vitamin D

~

~

Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol)

~5.3

mg

~27%

Vitamin K

~96.4

mcg

~121%

Thiamin

0.6

mg

43%

Riboflavin

0.4

mg

24%

Niacin

7.8

mg

39%

Vitamin B6

0.7

mg

35%

Folate

401

mcg

100%

Vitamin B12

1.8

mcg

30%

Pantothenic Acid

~1.5

mg

~15%

Choline

~210

mg

Betaine

~33.5

mg

Minerals

Amounts Per Selected Serving

%DV

Calcium

287

mg

29%

Iron

12.3

mg

68%

Magnesium

257

mg

64%

Phosphorus

986

mg

99%

Potassium

2610

mg

75%

Sodium

490

mg

20%

Zinc

8.0

mg

53%

Copper

1.8

mg

88%

Manganese

~3.5

mg

~176%

Selenium

71.0

mcg

101%

Fluoride

~39.8

mcg

Also note, the Kelp added about 3mg of Iodine

A couple salads

I've been feeling like I should eat more salads, so here are a couple from the past 2 days.

Salad 1:  Spinach, shallot, heirloom tomato, carrot, and beef brisket (from, of course, Whole Foods).  The dressing was a ginger teriyaki from Ginger People.

Salad 2:  Spinach, shallot, heirloom tomato, olive, baked bacon, and a hard boiled egg.  I made the dressing out of olive oil, ginger, cayenne pepper and black pepper.

Grilled grass fed beef, sweet potato, kale, asparagus, shallot

Here is last night's dinner.  This one was inspired by Paul Jaminet's Perfect Health Diet.  I just started reading the book. Sweet potatoes are what he calls "safe starches".   I cooked the veggies on low heat for about 20 minutes.  I put about 4 tbsp of coconut oil in the pan to keep things from sticking.  More to follow on coconut oil and Jaminet's book in another post.

The Kitchen Sink

I'm not exactly sure what to call this dish.  I failed to thaw some grass fed beef, so I had to improvise for dinner.  I started with 1/3 lb organic Berkshire pork sausage (from Riverview Farms) fried in about 2 tbsp of bacon grease.  Then, I added a cup of leftover veggies from the night before.  Brussel sprouts, kale, shallot, cauliflower - which were cooked in ghee the previous night.  Then I took 3 eggs and 2 oz of fresh spinach.  Mixed that all up, and added the eggs/spinach to the mix.  Cooked it for a few minutes on the stovetop, and then switched to the oven at 350 for about minutes.  Then added 1 slice of New Zealand grass fed cheddar.

It looks kind of disorganized, but it ended up tasting quite good.

 
Here's the cast iron pan used to produce this dish.  (Thanks Mom)