Grain Free/Primal/Paleo for Spring!!! - Page 2

[CoBabyMaker]

I will have to keep working on stretching things using some of your ideas.  I think maybe I need to pack things up and put them away before we eat or we eat it all.

Mmmmmm, that gravy sounds really good!  I'm sorry it made your stomach upset.  I have seen a couple blogs that people made gravy and thickened it by pureeing onions caramelized onions.  I wonder if you might handle that better. 

We had popcorn chicken and a big salad for dinner tonight.  I "breaded" it with the spent coconut from making coconut milk and flaxmeal, smoked paprika and salt.  It still needs some tweaking but it was good and DD and DH loved it. 

DH wanted something sweet and asked for brownies.  I was making some for him-with eggs- and some for me-without eggs- and I accidentally put 2x salt in each one. So I had to double the ingredients in each one.  We have a lot of brownies now but I feel like I used SO much of our coconut flour and it's not cheap!  Ugh. 

On a more positive note I found out that our CSA starts this week!  We get a dozen pastured eggs and lots of greens for now.  This is my first year so I am excited to see what we get.  I am hoping it's worth the money and works in our budget.  In mid-May or June it will have more variety. 

[bodhitree]

I vote the garfava flour. That stuff is hard to digest! It definitely has a bloating effect on me.

That list of blogs is great! I love Mark's Daily Apple. I also love another blog called Hunt Gather Love, by Melissa McEwen.

I feel like I'm trying to figure out how to gradually shift into a primal/paleo style of eating without making myself crazy. I really need to feel like it is not a diet and is not about losing weight, because that does make me crazy. Partly I think I need to learn to incorporate more fats into my diet, because the style of paleo where you eat a chicken breast and some salad is NOT going to work for me. I need the higher-fat variety. But since I'm sucha newbie meat-eater, it's going to take a while to figure out what works. Sigh. Over the last few months, I've made such drastic changes in what I eat, since I've had to eliminate so many things due to food intolerances and then having to start eating meat again. I'm ready to settle down a bit and not have to try so hard!

[CoBabyMaker]

bodhitree- I am having a hard time getting used to eating more meat too.  I wasn't a vegetarian but I just don't love that much meat.  I made some sunbutter a week ago. Between DD and I we have polished of about 2 cups already.    I just feel like my body wants protein and fat but I don't want much meat.   (Goes for another spoonful...)

I made some beef with mushrooms in a wine sauce the other night that was really yummy.  I tried using butter in it though and DD2 didn't react well to it.  Bummer. I made some cauliflower mash which was pretty good considering we don't like cauliflower!  haha.  Tonight is chicken soup with is fitting since it's cold and yucky today.

Can anyone help me think of some protein ideas for a breakfast for DD.  The issues is this...She's on GAPS so bacon is out cause I can't find any without sugar.  She is allergic to eggs, dairy and nuts and won't eat ground meat like sausage.    So right now we are down to seeds but suddenly she won't eat sunbutter.  This morning I hid it in a smoothie.  I can get her to eat some chicken with salsa too.  Any ideas?

[CCJWGM]

A little bit of freaking out is going on here.  Any ideas/help is cutting my food budget?  Due to looming govt. shutdown I don't know when DH will be paid next and we have only 1 paycheck worth in savings.  Of course, they have until Saturday at 12:01 to decide but I don't want to wait to plan and I'm sure you can tell how much faith I have in the govt.to solve this before then. 

I know that organic is going to have to be out and the kidlets will have to drink homemade coconut milk and not store bought.  Other than that???  I'm assuming it's going to be beef a lot around here since beef is the cheapest.  I have a lot of beans on hand but never could digest beans well and don't really know how to cook them well (the two may be related). 

Is anyone here on a grain free/primal super tight budget?  I guess I've taken DH's job/pay for granted and lost the ability to actually super budget food.  I mini-budgeted but with a $800-$1000/month food bill obviously didn't do that well.  I want to cut food to $150/week starting immediately. 

[rhianna813]

I buy mostly cheaper veggies like potatoes, carrots, onions plus broccoli, cauliflower, squash and celery. Sometimes frozen mixes for stir fries. I can usually find an organic 1 pound tub of lettuce mix around town. We grow our own in the summer. We grow other veggies too and always kale in the winter.

We do ground beef with jar sauce served with spaghetti squash or over sized zuchini "ribbons". Ground beef with homemade taco seasoning over green salad or served in a baked acorn squash.  Stew meat with onion in a crockpot, add sautéed mushrooms, beef stock and sour cream for stroganoff, over cauliflower "rice". Beef stew with potatoes, onions and carrots. Chicken soup with onions, carrots and celery. Minestrone with chicken and no pasta.

The chicken is baked whole and then used for dinner with roasted veggies, then stir fry and then soup. And stock made of the bones.

I make crustless quiche a lot for breakfast.

Rhianna

[CoBabyMaker]

Kimberely,   I'm so sorry!  That is soooo frustrating! 

Lots of eggs (can't remember if you have allergies.)

Nuts and seeds.  Sunflower seeds are cheap. If you have a food processor you can make your own sunbutter.

Bone broth will certainly stretch things and up nutrition.  Salads should help stretch things too since lettuce is fairly inexpensive. 

You were still having brown rice if I recall, if you tolerate it (or the kids do) that should help alot. 

Do you have access to costco or a good bulk source?  Our costco has 10# bags of carrots for 4.50.  We roast them, toss them in soups, snack on them, add them to rice.  Since spring is here produce should get a little cheaper and more available.  Do you have space to grow anything?

that everything comes out ok.

[milomama]

I just started primal (following Mark's Daily Apple) earlier this week.  I was diagnosed with celiac in Dec and haven't seen enough improvement, so am giving primal a go.  Excited to find this thread as I'm already feeling a bit bored with salad and am looking for ideas.  I especially need ideas not to feel hungry...I've been eating tons of nuts this week as the meat and veggies just don't seem to fill me up.

[CCJWGM]

Originally Posted by milomama 
  I especially need ideas not to feel hungry...I've been eating tons of nuts this week as the meat and veggies just don't seem to fill me up.

I personally eat every 2 hours.  This works really well for my body and I'm never hungry but never full either.  I no longer am eating full meals except dinner which is much smaller than it used to be.  Some days I feel like I'm eating all day but I look back and haven't eaten that much and my body is happy.  This is really helping with my blood sugar as well.  I've always had problems with hypoglycemia (and now hyperglycemia when I eat grains). 

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by milomama 

I just started primal (following Mark's Daily Apple) earlier this week.  I was diagnosed with celiac in Dec and haven't seen enough improvement, so am giving primal a go.  Excited to find this thread as I'm already feeling a bit bored with salad and am looking for ideas.  I especially need ideas not to feel hungry...I've been eating tons of nuts this week as the meat and veggies just don't seem to fill me up.

If you've just started, this is completely normal. Your body will adjust after about a week or so. When you start doing this, you really have to plan for extra snacks that first week as your body switches from burning carbs to burning fats for fuels. It will taper off.

I am really struggling. I know I need to get back on the wagon, but every time I try, something happens and I just don't seem to have the willpower right now...

And to make matters worse, DS won't eat most meats. So I keep stuff in the house to feed him and wind up eating it myself. Not sure how to get past that mentally. But I've struggled with this for most of my life (eating just because it's there).

[CCJWGM]

Raising my hand as another "eat just because it's there" person.  I ate bread this morning just because I made it for my children.  Yes, it was GFCFSF but it hurt my belly and I only ate 1/2 slice.  I really have to work on that. 

On other fronts:  Since the feds didn't shut down my DH didn't loose his paycheck.  But I decided to act as if he had and use this opportunity to cut our grocery budget.  I made coconut milk for the first time yesterday.  It was sooooooooooooooo delicious.  I'm going to try almond milk next.  I live in land of filberts (hazelnuts) so once filbert season rolls around I will try filbert milk as well. 

I'm also noticing signs that DD has developed another intolerance???  So I need to figure that out.  My suspicion is eggs but we'll see.  Can they just develop random intolerances?  Ugh.  I'll get it all figured out.  Since I know how her body reacts it should be easier this time, right?

[bodhitree]

I was wondering about the feelings of hunger as well. It'll be interesting to see how that develops for me as I ease into being more and more grain-free. I just don't think I can do it all at once without having it feel like a "diet" and make me all crazy, so I'm going slowly.

Beezer, yes, they can develop random intolerances. Until you heal the leaky gut that's at the root of the problem, intolerances will continue to develop because undigested food proteins are leaking out into the bloodstream and causing immune responses. Eggs are a likely candidate. We haven't even been eating eggs for all that long, but on DD's IgG testing that we did a month ago, she showed a sensitivity to eggs. So we're supposed to be rotating those and only eating them every four days or so, but that makes it really hard to do grain-free breakfasts. Does anyone have any ideas? We eat fried potatoes, onions, and peppers as a grain-free breakfast, but I don't want to do that every day. I was thinking maybe sausage and fruit, but I don't know if I can easily find sausage that meets my ethical standards (no factory farms). I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone may have.

[Punchy Kaby]

Originally Posted by beezer75 

Can I ask a silly newbie question?  How much red meat do you eat?  I've always felt like I "should" be limiting our red meat but I have no idea why I feel I "should."  In reality:  I have a family who loves it, a DS who tends to be anemic, and access to cheap grass fed meat.  DH just shakes his head when I talk about limiting it.  I guess it's the former vegetarian in me. 

A former neighbor of mine raises hormone, chemical free grass fed beef and sells it for $2.54/lb.  It's not officially organic but it is.  Plus, you can't beat how he raises his cows from birth to death.  I've never seen such a respectful "kill" policy.  I just don't know how much red meat is too much.  I have access to good fish and can eat salmon all day every day but organic chicken is too spendy for me right now so we tend to eat chicken only once or twice a week.  We do eat a lot of turkey though.  But really:  it's a lot of red meat. 

Should I just purge my red meat guilt?

Green with ENVY! I cannot even get the bad beef for that price here! We eat red meat all the time as in 4x + per week, I crave it: I am anemic and have to take iron even with all the beef I eat.

[CoBabyMaker]

Yes, The hunger at first is hard.  It does pass though I still find I have to eat more but I am nursing so that may be why.

Beezer, HOOOORAY!  So glad that your DH still has a job!  It's always good to find ways to cut back though.  Hopefully you can figure out  DD's new intolerance soon. No fun.  What sort of reaction does she have?  I'm a little jealous of your hazelnut access.  Yum.

Cristeen, How long have you been grain-free? 

Bodhi, Grain-free, egg-free breakfast is hard around here too!  I make sausage for myself using ground turkey and spices (salt, pepper, sage, basil, a little cumin and cayenne), just mix it up and shape into patties.  I like to cook a pound or so at a time and then freeze them.  That might work for you because you can grind regular meat that is up to your standards.  DD won't eat sausage (she hates ground meat) so sometimes I just warm up some leftover chicken in butter for her.  I got her to eat sunbutter with apple for about a day and now she doesn't want it.  She will eat a little if I add cinnamon.  One day I added some to a smoothie for her too.

This is really helping with my blood sugar as well.  I've always had problems with hypoglycemia (and now hyperglycemia when I eat grains).

This is interesting to me...I went in for acupuncture on Wednesday and she recommended congee so I made some with brown rice.  On Friday morning an hour or two after breakfast (I had protein also) out of nowhere my blood sugar just crashed.  Saturday I decided to have some rice with dinner and about 30 minutes later felt foggy and strange.  We ended up going to Qdoba for lunch and I had rice in my burrito bowl.  I have been soooo wiped out and foggy this afternoon and evening.  All I can figure is that it's the rice.  I will be honest that I didn't really set out to go grain-free it was just sort of happening for the most part since DD1 is on GAPS and DH was limiting grains.  This is really making me re-think things.  It's odd to me since I don't feel like I had issues with grains before.  I will see how tomorrow goes I guess.

I tried making cauliflower "rice' this evening and I feel like it worked pretty well.  I think DD thought it was actually rice so that is good!   We had squash stuffed with turkey, "rice" and greens.   Haha.  I guess I am all about rice right now!

[CeciMami]

So glad to find this thread since I've totally fallen off the Primal wagon and need to get back on! We recently moved (two weeks ago) and my kitchen is JUST now starting to shape up...because of this I've been barely cooking, meaning I buy prepared fish (tortilla crusted tilapia, breaded fish sticks), bison hot dogs, and chicken tikka masala at Costco and serve it along side our CSA veggies...thank goodness for them. Weve also been eating too much bread (Ezekiel) and blue corn chips (with guac). I know that those eating the SAD would think that the way we eat is great but I also know that being grain-free makes me feel better so why is it so hard? I find myself missing certain foods...Mark from MDA says to aim for 80% primal but how do I do that without taking my cheats too far? I think that maybe a "cheat day" would work better for me, otherwise I'll just overindulge all week and I don't want to go through life feeling guilty about food, much less teach that to my kids. Ugh...sorry to ramble on...thanks for listening!

[CCJWGM]

Bodhitree:  thank you so much about the intolerances.  I haven't found a doctor to do IgG testing for her yet.  They all just want the allergy test.  She doesn't have allergies though so it's useless.  I could write a novel about her health issues and my hassle with doctors.  We have good insurance but it doesn't cover anything remotely traditional so I'm stuck with Allopathic doctors.  I've "diagnosed" all her intolerances myself by taking things away, watching for change, and then adding them to see a reaction.  I'll try that with eggs.  The most notable reaction is horrible horrible diarrhea.  Her body stops processing nutrients and everything comes out (literally).  Sorry, TMI I know, but such is life with intolerances.  She's only 5.  Poor girl.  Once her body starts getting "off" as I call it it can be hard to get it working normally again.  In the mean time:  she is drinking A LOT of water which is yet another sign that her gut is having problems again. 

I'll see what I come up with as far as grain free and egg free breakfasts go.  No ideas here.  The place I get beef at sells local bacon and sausage (ham) as well as beef bacon and sausage.  Once I started eating REAL handmade local bacon I couldn't go back.  It's so different.......  Tomorrow I'm placing my order and it will be the first time to order beef bacon.  I'm really beginning to love my Meat Company.  It's just a random meat company in a really poor redneck timber town in Oregon.  Had they not been my next door neighbors and had I not driven past those cows so much or met the owners I never would have guessed the meat was great.  A lesson in not judging the book by it's cover I guess. 

CoBabyMaker - I never saw my grain free coming either.  I think that our body gets used to things which are bad for us.  When we take them out then we can truly see what they were doing to us. 

Thanks mamas.  I can't tell you how much support this thread has given me.

Edited by CCJWGM - 4/11/11 at 7:32am

[neverdoingitagain]

Hi  I've been Primal for almost a year now. Great to see a new thread here on MDC! I have had a hard time with Primal this winter, mainly due to all the different little health issues that I have. Enough of them to get me very frustrated with my body even though I still try to eat as Primally as possible. I realize I need to eat a carb with every meal and I do need to eat every couple hours still, after my first meal due to reactive hypoglycemia. I have adrenal fatigue that is getting much better but winter really took the boot to me. I started taking digestive enzymes since I have a hard time digesting fats and proteins(but not bad enough to be considered malabsorption.)Add in allergies, working in a bulk food store(with lots of candy bins!) and a tendency to opportunity eat( the other staff like to bring in baked goodies) and general slacking in vitamin D and Magnesium and not exercising as much...yeah, regained a little weight.

But it could also be due to the fact I'm finally done breastfeeding after 7 years 

 Our grocery bill for the past couple months have been very high, $800-1000 usually. Plus I've been buying more supplements, its been getting expensive. I spend about $50 on nuts, dried fruit and seeds last month and I still have a good supply which works out great. I try to buy a lot of meat when we shop so that I have a good supply on hand at all times. I'm finding that our bill is actually lower when we add dairy in, which is great since we all love it so. My biggest problem is eating enough vegetables and being creative with meals. Kids are happy with meat and potatoes( even rice!) but they tend to balk at vegetables that aren't raw. Those they'll eat all day long. 

But as they say "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good" So, I do what I can and try not to get too upset that I don't eat perfect all the time and don't buy grass-fed beef, or organic eggs/milk. 

Anyway great to have a new thread going 

[Toolip]

I need to get back on the wagon too!

[Koalamom]

I hear you all on the breakfast thing. It was hard to get over the habit of grains and I am allergic to eggs. This morning was leftover lunch of super soaked black eyed peas and round beef with steamed broccoli mixed in. All was leftovers in the fridge. My kids both had eggs. Before that for a snack when I first woke up was grapes and a spoon of cashew butter.

I have added back in so many foods that I had histamine reactions to just from starting up drinking red wine daily, just a tiny glass. Who knew that would get me over my chemical intolerances.

Lunch today will be brown rice pasta for the kids. Dinner will be stewed beef with mashed potatoes and a veggie on the side.

[milomama]

As far as egg-free breakfasts go, we tend to do eggs most days, but smoothies a couple times a week to mix it up.  We usually throw in a couple bananas, some avocado, some nuts (almonds or cashews) and then greens (whatever is in the fridge...I love kale, but my DH is somewhat reluctant, especially for smoothies!).  Usually a bit of flax as well.  You can make it protein rich with the nuts and the avocado helps too with making it more filling.  My 2-year-old calls it "ice cream" and will happily eat greens that way, when he would never eat them cooked or in salad!

[ocelotmom]

I also have to do egg-free breakfast due to the baby's food sensitivities. Kind of a pain, since everyone else does eggs pretty much daily with only rare exceptions.

For a while I made a big crock pot full of lentils and ate off of that for a  week or so. Then she started showing signs of intolerance to lentils, too. I basically have to do a rotation diet at this point. Dairy, wheat, legumes (including peanuts. Soy as a minor ingredient doesn't seem to be an issue, thankfully), tomatoes, eggs, chicken, and turkey all seem to cause problems to some extent (we're hoping the poultry issues will go away if we can get better quality - we're working on a chicken coop now). I do still eat chicken, eggs, and tomatoes in limited quantities (2-3 eggs a week, rather than every day), and it seems to be going ok - I figure it's better to have them as part of the rotation rather than risk her developing symptoms with beef and pork, too.

Anyways, most days I eat dinner leftovers for breakfast. Which isn't proper rotation diet. Oh well.

Our strategy in meat buying:

We budget for stocking up, and have a big chest freezer. One of the local stores had pork roasts for $.99/lb last week. We bought 50lbs. We bought 1/8 of a cow last month and hope to buy a large portion of a pig soon. We buy meat that's on clearance and either use it immediately or freeze it. After Christmas, we were able to buy a bunch of (good size, reasonable quality though probably not organic) turkeys for $5 each. Between just plain eating and bone broth, these provide many meals, even with 7 people in the house. We usually bake some, and grind some up for turkey burgers/meatloaf/whatever (frozen as patties). 

Easter is coming up, and Easter meats will likely be on big sale afterwards! Yay ham! We're taking that into account in our food budget for this month and making sure we have enough towards the end that we can do some stocking up.

We try to limit buying meat that isn't on sale, and are at the point where we have enough of a stock that we never have to do emergency meat buying for meals.

Everything gets used up as much as possible. Drippings get saved and used in another meal (often with the fat skimmed off and given to the dogs, who, other than stuff like this, eat a raw diet). Bones get frozen, and made into bone broth once I have enough to be worth it. The leftover meat that is strained out, along with the bones that are soft enough to break with my fingers, get fed to the dogs.

We try to balance quality and expense. For us, that means eating some meals with lower quality commercial meat, alternated with our grass-fed beef and so forth. Hopefully we can get to the point where we don't have to do this.

Our housemate formerly worked in a meat department, and knows how to cut meat. This saves us money because we can buy primal cuts and have minimal processing fees included in the cost (this would save us $0.50/lb from one of the local grassfed beef providers).

I find it hilarious that the ad at the bottom of my screen as I type this is for Cocoa Pebbles Treats.