Hello to my fellow gym members! Thanks for checking the blog out. I've been a little too busy for posting this weekend but I want to wish you all a Happy Halloween and remind you to email me any recipes, questions or idea's for future posts. My email is daisyvelisek@gmail.com

In the spirit of going to Vancouver on Tuesday I will be working on a traveling while paleo post coming up this week.

Hope you all got to dress up and be silly this Halloween, I know we did! Haha

This post was inspired by a friend of mine (actually a few friends of mine) who put primal living into a little box that I like to call "but cavemen didn't have." Maybe it's just the lack of education and information in the general public, but man! It irritates me. So first I thought I'd make a short video to explain in all as simply as possible, then I spent some time looking around the internet and lo and behold! It already exists.

Sorry for the music... just mute it.

Well, it's happened. I had my first bad paleo "cheat."  Cheats will happen but when they do we need to move onward and upward and not lose yourself. Every moment is a new opportunity to make better choices.

YUM!

After a trip to Johnny's Meats here in Kelowna the other day, we came home totting 3 hefty bags full of different meats (I was getting a little protein bored.) One of which was a nice grass fed roast. I've never really been into red meats before lately. I always deemed it as "bad" for you. But I can now say that I've consumed about 2 times the red meat I had in my entire life in the past month. And I LIKE it!


I had no idea how to cook a roast so I left that one up to Fraser, making him pinky promise he would keep it paleo. 

I went to work on the rest of what turned out to be a very hearty fall paleo meal, dessert and all.

First I realized I hadn't used my organic pumpkin that I had received over a week ago from Urban Harvest, so I decided to try a few different things with that. 


Arrange squash pieces on a piece of tinfoil, drizzle with olive oil. Distribute spices throughout the pieces and finish with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Fold up the foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until tender.


Arrange squash pieces on a piece of tinfoil, drizzle with honey. sprinkle cinnamon and finish off with a touch of salt. Fold up the foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until tender.


Both turned out great. I definitely favoured the sweet batch but I have a bit of a sweet tooth.


I had been dying to try cauliflower mash since I failed miserably at it a few months ago. I looked around the internet and found what seemed to be a fail-proof recipe on Paleo Comfort Foods, so fail-proof that she served it at her wedding reception... now that's confidence!


The Most Amazing Mashed Cauliflower 


1 head cauliflower
2 cloves crushed garlic
1-2 tbsp rosemary
1 cup chicken broth


Cut the stem out of the cauliflower and chop up into florets. Put these pieces into a medium sized pot. Add the chicken broth, crushed garlic and rosemary. Simmer on medium for about 20-30 minutes on until soft enough to break apart with a fork and almost all the broth is gone.


Add cooked cauliflower and remaining broth into the food processor and pulse until as creamy and smooth as you like. You can add other spices at this point. I found the broth added enough salt so I only added pepper. Dill or chives might be nice to add. You can add some                  coconut milk to make it even more creamy and rich but I didn't feel the need to.


This was honestly the best faux mashed potatoes I have ever had! Perfect consistency and taste. Even Fraser liked it! I would definitely serve this to guests or as a potluck dish.








Cranberry Coconut Loaf


¾ cup coconut flour
½ cup coconut oil or butter, melted
6 eggs
3 tablespoons honey
½ cup shredded coconut
1 cup fresh cranberries
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder


Blend together eggs, oil, honey and salt. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk thoroughly into batter until there are no lumps. Stir in shredded coconut and cranberries. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

It turned out so good! Best baking project so far!


All in all it was a very good meal and my first endeavour into non-baking paleo recipe blogging. Enjoy!

Since adopting the paleo diet, and telling fellow gym members and keeners alike, I've noticed a big hurdle for a lot of people is alcohol. We tend to tie alcohol to everything, bad or good. Bad day at work, have a drink. Promotion at work, celebratory drink. It's what keeps us relaxed and social, right? So what about it's role in the paleo diet?

Well we could sit around beating ourselves up for what seems like depending on a "drug." I feel as though the positive, calming and social effects of alcohol far outweigh the negative stigma. Paleo living is meant to make us feel good, mentally, physically and emotionally. If you need a glass of wine to help you get there at the end of the day, DO IT.

Now I'm not condoning anything excessive. I myself like to have 1-2 drinks in the evening with dinner or while winding down. Use alcohol as a tool, not a crutch. Don't go and get wasted every night thinking, "this is good for me! It's helping me 'wind down!'"

Now all that being said, there are better alcohol choices out there in the paleo community. First and foremost, 100% agave tequila is your best bet. If you haven't been graced with the knowledge of the NorCal Marg... get ready for this drink recipe:

NorCal Margarita (the best thing since bacon wrapped anything)

2 shots 100% agave tequila
juice and pulp from 1 lime
topped with ice
splash of soda

This drink just makes sense, the tequila is fermented agave juice (gluten and starch-free,) the lime blunts insulin release and helps maintain insulin sensitivity. The lime also produces a great alkaline kidney load. The bubbly soda helps the ethanol enter the blood stream more quickly, so you can drink less for the same effects. More bang for your buck!

Mark Berkhan also has a very interesting take on the science behind alcohol and our body. He breaks it down in such an in depth way that you can't help but want to praise the alcohol gods and mix yourself up a NorCal. Here's a link to his article on The truth about alcohol, fat loss and muscle growth.


Cheers!

As I was writing that last post I remembered I had some organic pure pumpkin left in my fridge from Thansgiving baking.. so that prompted another batch of muffins using coconut flour. Behold..


Paleo Pumpkin Muffins

½ cup butter or organic coconut oil
5 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
½ pumpkin puree
1/4 cup honey
½ cup coconut flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 & ½ tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt


Combine the wet ingredients (oil/butter, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin and honey) and beat well. In a separate bowl, mix together the rest of the dry ingredients (coconut flour, baking powder, spices, and salt) and mix into the wet ingredient mixture. Beat with a whisk until no remaining clumps. Pour into greased muffin tin (again could be a loaf) and bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!


And this time I took pictures!

I recently got the hang of Paleo baking. After a few botch jobs, I've realized that coconut floor works alot different than other Paleo flours. Almond meal seems to be the collective choice for most recipes I've seen out there but I was determined to knock out a kickass coconut flour recipe... and I did.


Coconut Chocolate Chunk Muffins

¾ cup Organic Coconut Flour
½ cup Organic Virgin Coconut Oil or butter, melted
6 eggs
3 tablespoons honey
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup dark organic chocolate, cut into chunks
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

I've started this blog to highlight some of the daily thoughts, articles, recipes and activities that contribute to primal living. I'll be posting as often as I can so check back to find new exciting things!


If there is something you would like me to include let me know and I will work it into the blog. 


Thanks!


-daisy