Since forgoing my conventional diet of no fat, low protein and only veggies I've been kind of M.I.A. in society. Meals out are very few and far in between, visits to the bar with friends has become an anxiety ridden adventure and time is lost in the kitchen hovering over the stove. The one beautiful thing I rediscovered was sushi.. well, sashimi. Back in the day I used to love yam tempura rolls, edamame, miso soup and fried tofu. Now I stick to tuna/salmon sashimi and gomae and seaweed salad without dressing. Most restaurants will also give you a side of avocado if asked (some more generous than others.)

I do, however, miss the diversity of rolls. So I set out to create a paleo sushi roll. AND IT WORKED! Now in this recipe I used whatever veggies I had lying around plus some tuna we had bought. You can vary it up any way you'd like with different meats, veggies and sauces. Keep in mind that soy sauce is a no-no in the paleo diet because of it's soybean and wheat content. Tamari or Bragg's are gluten free (without the wheat) but still contain soybeans. We used a little bit of Bragg's and considered it a safer cheat (haha)

Another little note.. sashimi grade fish can be hard to come by and more expensive. The fish store we frequent usually has sashimi tuna in stock but not always and never salmon. After we had asked why this was, they told us a little secret. Tuna doesn't contain the same bacteria as salmon and will generally always come sashimi grade. You can make your own sashimi grade salmon by buying fresh salmon and freezing it for 72 hours, defrosting and using. This kills any harmful bacteria that the salmon may contain. You can do the same thing with scallops and shrimp.

Paleo Tuna Roll

300g sashimi grade tuna
seaweed paper
carrot
beet
green onion
zucchini
1/2 avocado
wasabi paste
Bragg's or Tamari Soy Sauce
bamboo sushi roller

Throw the tuna in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes, this will harden the fish enough to be able to slice it into thin strips. Julienne the veggies into thin, long strips. I microwaved the carrot and beet for a minute or so to soften them up before slicing. Puree the avocado with a fork in a bowl, this will work as your "glue"

Place one piece of seaweed paper on the bamboo roller. Take a generous spoonful of the avocado puree and spread over the paper, making sure to reach the far edge. Arrange the veggies and fish along the bottom, about an inch from the edge. Lift the roller and carefully fold the paper over itself, pulling the roller up over the paper. Give it a good squeeze to keep tight before continuing to roll.

Use a serrated knife to cut into desired sized pieces. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce, ENJOY! This made 5 small rolls for us.

I'm coming up on my 4th month of crossfit and 3rd month of paleo and I can honestly say I've never felt better in my life. I can only imagine how much better it will get with time. I just want to touch on a few obstacles I have encountered so far. Obsession, fear and guilt.

I've always been the kind of person to dive into something completely. Food has always been a huge obsessive thing for me and when I was introduced to paleo I was no less obsessive. I researched every corner of this way of living. Spent hours and hours online reading everything I could get my hands on. With every article I read I would take it all to heart and completely change my way of thinking to accommodate the opinions of the blogger I had just followed. I would eat only almonds, then I would read that they were "bad" and freaked out and omitted them entirely. I would eat all raw and then freak out about antinutrients and cook everything to death and scold myself for depriving my body of the things it needed for so long. I couldn't stop thinking or talking about it and I'm almost positive my friends, coworkers and clients have had more than enough already. I felt extreme guilt if I had a glass of wine or anything not organic. I would beat myself up to the point of not enjoying my workouts or meals because I didn't know if I was doing everything "right".  I had a bit of a epiphany about a month ago when I realized that this obsession was no better or less detrimental than my past food issues. This got me thinking about where I fit in paleo and primal living. When I could find a comfortable spot, knowing what I need to fuel myself with and for.

I know that I definitely have all the knowledge I need to slowly find what works well for me and my body. I've adopted a more healthy way of thinking about meal times and not obsessing over a craving for dark chocolate and wine. I am learning to listen to my body rather than letting my "crazy girl brain" take over (Fraser, my boyfriend, knows all about this aspect of me.) It's all a journey of self-realization really and I'm not finished and hope I will continue to tune in to the body that I was given. I encourage you all to try to do the same. Paleo is a huge crazy world of information (some that totally contradicts itself) and you really need to find where you fit in to remain a happy and sane person.

I'm always open to emails with questions, comments or relatable information. daisyvelisek@gmail.com

I haven't had a ton to write about lately. I'm not baking much, mostly because I tend to eat the outcome of my experiments WAY too quickly. We've been eating fairly plainly and upping our red meats by alot (check out T- Bones on Spall, free range top sirloin specials are 5 for $20, you can't go wrong buying that in bulk and freezing.)

Do you gym members remember Coach Kevin's amazing salad from last months BBQ? Well it was great and he has submitted the following recipe to me to post.

Kev's Warm Radicchio Salad

1 pack of bacon ends (from Johnny's Meats in Kelowna)
1 head radicchio lettuce
1 cup sui choy
1/4 cup green onion
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)
2 cups spinach
1/2 cup chopped dried figs

Fry bacon and keep warm on low heat. Chop radicchio, sui choiy green onion, cilantro and add to a big bowl. Add spinach and dried figs. Dice cooked bacon and add to salad mixture as well as the bacon fat in the pan.

Dressing


1 egg yolk
1 oz olive oil
1  tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp honey
1/2 lemon

Emulsify the yolk and olive oil. Add the mustard seeds, honey and juice of the lemon. Mix well.
Serves 2-4

Comments people! Please let me know if you have an recipes, ideas, questions or requests for posts. I'm thinking about doing a big post in the next week on intermittent fasting and leptin resets. Interested??

I've been trying to up my running lately. It's a beautiful time of year and the plethora of parks around the city make it easy to bust out some box jumps, pull-ups, wall climbs and anything else you can imagine. I came across this video while checking out some of my daily primal reads. Try it out next time you get a chance to run.

The Lost Secret of Running - 100 Up Technique

We found some extra lean ground salmon at Nesters and I thought I'd try to create a salmon burger recipe for the blog. They turned out really delicious. I'll definitely be picking up some more ground salmon, it's a really nice change to work with.


Salmon Burgers


1/2 lb ground salmon
1/2 cup zucchini, chopped fine
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste


Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix well and add any spices you may want. Form into desired sized patties. I made 4 smaller ones. Heat pan with coconut oil or olive oil. Fry each side for about 4-5 minutes, or until cooked through. I topped mine with some homemade limey guacamole.

Sheep Shabu-Shabu, gomae, seaweed salad and tuna sashimi

Gomae with cucumber

Wakame Seaweed Salad

My one day Vancouver tripped wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, copious amounts of driving aside. I did have to ditch the whole local, organic and grass fed mentality though. I made a trip to Johnny's Meats before the trip and loaded up on jerky and buffalo pepperoni beforehand. We pretty much just snacked on that and then ate salads from salad bars (lonsdale quay market has an unreal one) and sashimi. I will say that I probably ate about 140-150 grams of protein the entire day and had a hard time even thinking of meat today. 


Oh and I made some last minute little chocolate bar things that I'd probably change up quite a bit next time as they were way to cocoa-y and not enough filler. Here's the recipe of what I would do instead of what I did.


Paleo Chocolate and Nut Bars


1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup almonds (hazelnuts would be great too)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3 tbsp honey
2 eggs


Add both seeds and half of the almonds into a food processor and process until fine, but not over processed to a nut butter. Add the remaining almonds and pulse a few times to leave them in larger pieces. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add the cocoa powder, coconut and honey and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs slightly and add them into the seed and nut mixture and mix. You could omit the eggs for an unbaked bar but I wanted to add some protein and wasn't sure how they would hold up traveling if they weren't baked.


You can either spread this onto parchment paper about 1/2 an inch thick or roll into bite sized balls for baking. I decided to opt for the bar method. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (balls might take longer), let cool  slightly before cutting into desired bar sizes. Then let cool completely.


In other news, Robb Wolf put a great article up (written by someone else) about antinutrients that really got me thinking about the way I cook my food. I've always tried to eat at raw as possible when it came to veggies but in this article the author explains very simply how antinutrients are the plants form of repelling it's predators (us) biochemically, they absorb nutrients from the foods they are found in. Meaning we are being robbed of our precious nutrients! 


The 3 main ones are phytates, oxalates and goitrogens. Phytic acid binds itself to calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron and is mostly found in grains and legumes. Not our problem anymore right? The can be broken down and neutralized by soaking, sprouting and fermented. So don't be too worried about serving them to your family if you do. 


Goitrogens effect our thyroid function and are found in some great veggies like brussels sprouts, kale, all cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and collard greens. They too can be avoided by most cooking and fermentation. Which really makes sense.. most of those veggies and typically enjoyed cooked anyways.


Onto oxalates... much like phytates, these bind to vital nutrients and make it hard for the body to absorb them. Spinach, chard, blueberries, beef tops, cocoa and dark chocolate, to name a few, contain oxalates and are also best to serve cooked to avoid the nutrient stunting effect in our body.


So really, as long as you're cooking the veggies that make sense to cook, you should be fine and full of all the vitamins and minerals you need. She mentions that the negative effects of eating these veggies don't outweigh the good they do, but eaten in large amounts and very frequently they can definitely cause a deficiency in the good stuff we think they are giving us. So don't get fixated on just a couple veggies, eat a wide variety of the great produce available to us here in the okanagan. Stay seasonal and make sure you eat as many colours as possible. This will insure you're not depleting yourself of iron while wolfing done 10 cups of raw spinach a day!