Grain Free/Primal/Paleo in October!!!

[harrietsmama]

I hope I didn't step on any toes starting this, but I'm really struggling with sticking to my eating guns in my mixed household. My il's eat crap, although I have gotten them into a few things from Trader Joe's.

I've been doing some freezer meals. I also have a bunch of kale stems and other veggie scraps saved up to make some stock in my new 24 qt. stock pot!!! I am sooooo excited!

I made stew the other day, 6 batches.
Onions, garlic, lard, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, turnips and parsnips in place of potatoes, uncured ham chunks to lure in the picky eaters, navy beans and baby limas soaked with whey first, ummm, redpepper flakes, pepper, celtic sea salt, home made stock, dry white wine, I think that's it.

Turned out great!

My biggest stumbling block is bread. I crave it! It doesn't agree with my belly though. What is your favorite quick grab food? Mine is toast. Grrr. I was doing larabars, but I'm getting sick of them and really when not used in moderation, it defeats the purpose I guess. I'm not doing well with nuts right now either. I need something quick with some crunch that I don't have to cook.

[Sasha's Mama]

I've been grain free for this last week and I'm so surprised about how good I feel that I'm going to try and keep it up for October. I told my HCP that I would try it for two weeks, which was my original goal.

My stumbling block is what to eat for that "filler" carbohydrate at dinner. I've been eating a lot of cabbage because it seems pretty versatile. I even made the normal burrito/taco meal and put it on cabbage instead of tortillas and it was delicious. My kids aren't too thrilled, but my Russian husband thinks it's great

[harrietsmama]

yeah cabbage and romaine leaves are great for that. For filler type stuff, mashed cauliflower is great in place of potatoes, and you can make little shreds of zucchini for rice or orzo, and ribbons for pasta, or spaghetti squash is good for pasta too. Also you can slice zucchini or eggplant and use it for lasagna.

[spughy]

I've been grain-free for a few months now and it's going great. And, I just found the best thing ever - kelp noodles! They taste like nothing but feel like noodles, so I can eat spaghetti or noodle soup with the rest of the family. Sometimes I make zucchini noodles too. Mostly though, I just fill up on vegetables. With butter. (I am not fully paleo, I still like my dairy and I'm weightlifting to maintain/build muscle while I lose weight, so I rely pretty heavily on cottage cheese (and whey protein ) for extra protein... but a lot of my dairy is raw milk...)

I also don't eat any sugar (or honey or maple syrup) but I do eat as much fruit as I want. I don't restrict my eating otherwise.

[harrietsmama]

I need to cut out dairy as well, but I'm still working on successfully getting away from grains which is the hardest part, and doing both at once is even harder for me.

Kelp noodles sounds cool! What kind of store do you find them in? would the have them at whole foods or Trader Joe's or do I need to go to an Asian food market?

I'm more of a sit down with a bowl of veggies and some meat kinda girl myself. I just get bored with it sometimes.

[spughy]

I got the kelp noodles at my local health food store (Lifestyles) which is sort of like a mini-TJs but less mainstream. They were in the same section as the tofu and soy nasties, refrigerated. They're promoted as a "raw food" but frankly they're a little too crunchy for me raw - they need some softening.

[FairyRae]

I'm here, and I'm working on recovering from a sugar binge. On MDA they had this Primal Iron Chef contest, to make a recipe and take pics of the process w/ the secret ingredient being coconut. Working to perfect 3 coconutty recipes later, 2 of which were desserts including maple syrup, (which involved LOTS of taste testing on my part--by choice ) and I am in need of some very simple, VLC, real primal food! Whoah! And, I'm going CRAZY waiting for them to post the results of the contest (which are supposed to be posted today), as the prize was a VITAMIX!!!!!

We'll see what happens...

Anyway, I'm here, but too preoccupied w/ blender dreams to post anything substantial on the grain free front!

Oh--I'd love to hear about the freezer recipes harrietsmama! I'm just starting to work on doing more batch cooking, etc, and would love some more ideas!

[harrietsmama]

Well so far most of my freezer meals haven't counted for this thread because I'm also feeding picky kids and my il's, but I did make some chicken chunks that worked out great!

I got 5 lbs of chicken breasts and cut them up into bites, and I put this mix of dry spices on them in the bag:

* 1/4 cup paprika
* 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon white sugar
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 teaspoon celery salt
* 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
* 1 teaspoon dry mustard
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon onion powder

I just used the regular sugars listed, in organic fair trade, but you could use whatever you want, and I didn't use celery salt, just celery seed.

I made up 4 bags I think and just squished the powder all around and froze them.

the other stuff I made -
Strata, you could still make an egg casserole with lots of veggies, I used 27 eggs, plus a bunch of cheese shreds, broccoli, you can put in meat chunks, any veggies, and put in bags to freeze, defrost and put in the dish after you grease it with lard or duck fat.

Chicken/cheese filled shells, but you could do cabbage rolls, fill them with what ever combo you want

I made some other roast prep with a big bowl of my dry herbs, put it in the bag with the meat, shake it all over and freeze, so when it defrosts it sort of marinates and it's all ready to go.

I did lasagna, but you could make it with zucchini or eggplant slices but if you don't do cheese, might as well skip that.

oh! taco meat. I got 5 lbs of grass fed ground beef on sale and made taco filling. I didn't use a recipe, I threw in cumin ( probably around 1 tablespoon), chipotle peppers (6oz?), mild green chiles (16 oz?), onions, salt, regular pepper...ummm I think that's it.

that's it so far

[harrietsmama]

oh, and I reheat everything in the oven at 350, the strata took an hour, so the egg casserole mix would likely be similar.

The chicken bites I cook in a cast iron skillet, on medium it takes about 20 minutes for a gallon bag.

[FairyRae]

Thanks for the details HM!

And, I checked on MDA and the Primal Iron Chef winner is up--and it wasn't me. BUT, the winning recipe looks really yummy! http://www.marksdailyapple.com/hazel...ealth-coconut/

[harrietsmama]

I just realized if you were to follow my notes above for the eggs, you wouldn't get the right thing, you would want to follow a frittata or quiche filling recipe to get the right stuff for the egg base

[ihugtrees]

I'm about to take a cross-country flight with my 16 month old DD next week, to visit my parents and various other family/friends in my hometown. Any primal snack ideas??

[harrietsmama]

I guess it kind of depends on how advanced an eater your little one is, but raw nuts, dried fruit, pemmican type stuff, larabars? I'm not totally sure what counts as primal vs just grain free.

[2xshy]

so i went from 90% vegan to paleo over night.
(vegan for ethics not for health)
in any case, i'm hungry! very very hungry.
so my main question is does this regulate itself and my body just gets used to being grain and dairy free or do i really need to eat a lot more than i have been. i know it's likely a combination but if there is any BTDT insight into what i can expect i'd be appreciative.

[FairyRae]

Originally Posted by 2xshy

so i went from 90% vegan to paleo over night.
(vegan for ethics not for health)
in any case, i'm hungry! very very hungry.
so my main question is does this regulate itself and my body just gets used to being grain and dairy free or do i really need to eat a lot more than i have been. i know it's likely a combination but if there is any BTDT insight into what i can expect i'd be appreciative.

Would you share what your diet was like (specific examples of what your typical day's meals looked like) along w/ what you're eating now? Maybe that would help us give some ideas.

Primal eating tends to be a lot less sugar in general than most other ways of eating--cutting grains/carbs so much in general will = less sugar overall. Lowering carb intake seems to cause food/carb/sugar cravings for me, so it may just be part of adjusting to the naturally lower carb intake of eating grain free/paleo.

[ihugtrees]

Originally Posted by 2xshy

so i went from 90% vegan to paleo over night.
(vegan for ethics not for health)
in any case, i'm hungry! very very hungry.
so my main question is does this regulate itself and my body just gets used to being grain and dairy free or do i really need to eat a lot more than i have been. i know it's likely a combination but if there is any BTDT insight into what i can expect i'd be appreciative.

My transition was not overnight, but I was also mostly vegan for a long time and have transitioned to more and more paleo. What I've found is that grains/carbs fill you up a LOT more than just fruit, veggies, nuts, meats. The way I've solved the problem is to add in lots of fat. Mostly meat drippings, but also more olive oil, avocados, coconuts, and raw dairy/cream. What I've found is that I am MUCH more satisfied with a meal of meat & veggies with lots of fat than none at all....and I am feeling way better than I did as a vegetarian and vegan.

[Toolip]

I was hungry a lot at first and it got better.

I kept on eating the same things, and it just got better.

Now I can eat one meal for the whole day. Today I had breakfast and then dinner with friends and I am seriously stuffed. The fat has been important but I would say it will just get easier.

[FairyRae]

Originally Posted by Toolip

Now I can eat one meal for the whole day. Today I had breakfast and then dinner with friends and I am seriously stuffed. The fat has been important but I would say it will just get easier.

I used to need to eat at least every 3 hours. Now I can eat 1-2x a day if I feel like it, and not enormous meals. I now typically do 2 meals a day (when I'm not PMSing ) But I started eating this way a/b a year ago, so I've had time to transition.

I believe most folks eating paleo/primal become keto-adapted, meaning your body gets used to burning fat for fuel instead of carbs. Then you can switch back and forth from burning fat or carbs for fuel easily. And when you are there, fasting, eating less in general, etc, is just easier/feels right. But when you are coming from carb burning mode this is a big transition.

From PaNu on ketoadaption:

*I define keto-adapted as being conditioned enough to ketosis that you can easily fast without getting light headed or hypoglycemic.

It took me a while to feel fine w/out snacking. (I've always snacked/ate/grazed when I wanted to whether or not I was primal/paleo--and it was normal for me to do this when I was first trying out primal eating.) At some point I just didn't feel like snacking for the most part, and then I started naturally skipping meals/IFing and feeling fine.

I'd keep eating primal/paleo foods whenever you are hungry and it will balance out over time...Keep us posted on how you're feeling!

[simplykate]

I'm joining! Very strict paleo type here - really I'm on GAPS diet, so I don't get any cheating room!
Been eating this way since about April, it's brought about some very significant changes - 30 lb weight loss, reuction of crippling fatigue, no longer retaining water, no more tingling and numb limbs, no more eczema, no more hair loss, digestion improved, MOOD improved
Still working on- my awful terrible headaches and more energy!
Lots of healing left to do so I need food/meal ideas to get me through!

[simplykate]

Sub'ing