What to eat when you can't chew - Paleo Style



Sad face because Justin was eating our pastured eggs.. and I was eating soup.



I know I said my next post would be about milk, but I need to get this one posted. Little known fact about me: I have all four of my wisdom teeth. I had enough room in my jaw and they came in without pushing the other teeth out of the way, great, awesome.. Now, that would be great if that was the whole story - but it's not. Every year or so I manage to give the tender insides of my mouth a good chomp where the wisdom teeth meet. It's accidental, it hurts, and usually my inability to chew solid food goes away within a day or so. Not this time.

Sometime Friday I bit down really hard and did some serious damage. I felt like I'd been smacked upside the head in a bar room brawl with my mouth open and shredded the left side of my mouth. Every time it felt a little better, I would manage to bit down wrong while I was talking to the kids or gingerly attempting to chew my food. Then the throbbing started in my gums and the intense pain spread. I've been taking a bunch of ibuprofen and called the dentist this morning. I hope she calls back soon.. I'm starting to get concerned about an infection or something..

Anyhoo, this morning I could not bring myself to try to chew again. Food has just become so unappetizing, but I do still feel hungry. And I really hate wasting food that I had already prepped for the week. So, I made myself some breakfast soup.

The crockpot had already been going overnight with some bone broth. Basically put bones into the crockpot, cover with filtered water, throw in a Tbsp or two of apple cider vinegar and let cook on low for.. a long time. This batch had been going about 19 hours and is still cooking.

3-4 ladles full of broth

1 hard boiled egg

1/2 Cup leftover cooked green cabbage

Salt to taste

Blend all  together and enjoy. This was actually pretty tasty in my opinion. Real bone broth can be very silky and leave you with a greasy feeling, but the cabbage and egg cut that nicely.

Does this look unappetizing to you? You might change your mind if it felt like you were chewing razor blades every time you ate.

Something else I might make for myself today is one of the smoothies I made for Justin a few months back:

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2/3C dates
Garnish coconut flakes


*If you cannot chew, use a broth as your base and throw in already cooked ingredients. And blend. That's my recommendation. Hope you enjoy!

The Farmer's Market Haul

Last fall I made a visit to the FRESHFARM Market at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. It's our local farmer's market and I wanted to see how food costs there compare to a grocery store. I was really dismayed at how expensive the food was and decided not to buy there again. However, after a recent viewing of a documentary called "Fresh," I decided to give it another try.











Here's the synopsis of Fresh from their website:

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

Initially it sounds like a lot of environmentalist, tree-hugging balogna that I normally let go in one ear and out the other. But, I thought that I should give it a try since I find food interesting and it is free to watch on Netflix. Not only is this film about how bad industrial meat and produce growth are for our bodies (pesticides, loss of vitamin content from long transport times, bacteria in meat, meat with a poor nutrient profile), it is also about how it is bad for the people actually growing it. The film goes through how when you buy from a big corporation, you are buying food that is artificially cheap for a reason. It's food grown cheaply because of exploitation of farmers and use of cheap labor (i.e. prison workers, poor people, or illegal immigrants).

Because we are planning on going into business ourselves in the near future, this really struck a cord with us. Farmers are people that have mortgages, children to raise, and private health insurance to pay for. And that makes us.. exactly the same. Unfortunately animal welfare is usually not enough to make me spend more for something. But the welfare of another human being is. So, in the interest of supporting the individual, encouraging capitalism, obtaining better, more nutrient dense food grown in the way God designed for myself and my kids - I went back to the farmer's market.

I spent $70 Total for enough eggs and greens for the week. I actually remembered the breakdown!

Eggs - $4.50/doz x 4 = $19.00
      The best thing about these eggs.. I talked to  and laughed with the man and his son - a 12 or 13
      year old boy who actually grew the chickens and harvested these eggs
Beets - $2.50 per beet x 5 = $12.50
Kale - $4.00/bunch x 2 = $8.00
Spring onions $2.50 x 1 = $2.50
Tomatoes $3.50/lb x 3.8ish lbs = $13.00
         Kinda a sticker shock so I can't wait for my backyard tomatoes to take off.
1 bunch red chard x $3.00 = $3.00
Butter lettuce $3.00/head x 2 heads = $6.00
Bok choy $3.00/head x 1 = $3.00
Green cabbage $3.00/head x 1 = $3.00

I feel great about these purchases and sticking to greens and NOT FRUIT really helps keep the purchase price down. You see the one fruit item I did buy (tomatoes) was quite expensive. I hope that these price points help you - I think they are typical and fair. Most of this produce is certified organic. The eggs were $4.50/doz which sounds steep, but the "organic free range" eggs from the super market are at least 3.50/doz and they come from chickens that that have been fed soy or pelletized food + you can't really trust what the "free range" label actually means. The $4.50/doz eggs were from chickens that are truly free range, not fed soy, and allowed to forage outside for bugs which equals and entirely different nutrient profile from the store eggs. See here.

We are able to do this largely because we've gotten rid of organic milk or even milk of any kind in the house. My next post will be on that.

All in all, I am looking forward to the day I can have a backyard garden that 100% feeds my family, but until that day I will be going to the farmer's market and only supplementing fruit and the occasional odd thing from the grocery store. More work? Yes. More money? Yea. But totally worth it.

Lazy (and Delicious) Paleo/Primal Pot Roast - Updated

D thought it was delicious because he is awesome/my son

When I am trying to "convert" someone to paleo or show them that delicious comfort food does not have to involve pasta, I have this one dish I like to make and shove in their faces. It is Sarah Fragoso's Pot Roast. The only problem with this recipe is it is kind of involved and wayyy too many steps for lazy me to do more often than like, twice a year. It is a crockpot recipe and when I think crockpot I think easy and fast prep work, slow cook time. This is easy, but not fast in the prep arena. SO I would just suck it up, make this delicious meal and make people drink the kool aid.

Awww kind of looks like a heart. YAY FOR MEAT!

Well, meal planning time happened this weekend and this particular dish popped into my head. AND I WANTED IT. But then a couple days later when it came time to actually follow my meal plan and make the dish - I basically stared at the crockpot for a minute and contemplated how to cut corners and make this much more lazy-person friendly. You're welcome lazy person. 

Lazy Pot Roast

3-5lbs of pork shoulder or pork butt roast.

        <Look for a little bit less fat or even trim the gigantic chunks if there are any. My eldest son has

         a texture issue with solid fat :*( I'm not even sure he's mine. jk jk jk>

2 Cups or so of baby carrots

      < I buy the gigantic bag at Costco.. they are easy to throw right into soup or put on a veggie

        platter>

4-5 Celery stalks, cut off nasty ends, break in half

1, 32oz Jar of Tomato pasta sauce.. I used Classico Tomato & Basil (no sugar, but does list "spices"

        as an ingredient)

1/2 Tbsp Garlic Powder

1/2 Tbsp salt (if desired.. I <3 salt)

* Throw all of the above into a crock pot, give it a stir and leave! I had it on the six hour setting and it was done just about then.

When done remove the roast and put on a plate to for chunks to be cut off at the dinner table. Skim out the solid and put into a blender or food processor. Add:

1/2 Stick Butter (I only had 1/4 stick so I put like a 1/4 cup heavy cream in there too)

*OMIT TO MAKE THIS WHOLE 30 COMPLIANT*

*Blend

Serve sauce over shredded pork. Serve with some steamed broccoli/kale/etc.

What's left after skimming. You could thin with chicken stock and add basil for a tomato basil soup!!

What you get after blending: The "Secret Sauce"

F*ing delicious

Alternate Version:

My sister-in-law Julie put her own spin on this and it's probably the fresher, better way to make this :) She didn't have a pork shoulder roast or a jar of tomato sauce, so here it is:

- Pork Loin
- Garlic salt
- 3 tomatoes
- Italian seasonings
- Celery & carrots as in the previous recipe

 She said she pureed the everything up a little too much so it wasn't chunky at all more like a soup... BUT it turned out great!! She and her boys loved it, so yum! Sounds like a great soupy version :)

Project Idea/Recipe Review/Pink Slime

This will be a mish-mash post on a few things I've been thinking of lately.

1. I am thinking to put together a month's worth of Whole 30 approved paleo freezer meals using recipes you can find online and pairing it with shopping lists.. this may take a bit.

2. I made the Cinnamon Apple Cookies from Clean Eats in the Zoo the other day and they were great! I am liking this site quite a bit and will probably link a few recipes from it soon that I've tried an liked.

3. I will be working on a post about Pink Slime and why you might want to be a little more choosy about where you buy your ground beef.

Make it Paleo's Carrot Cake Recipe Review

We love our desserts in this house. Sooo one day I had absolutely no chocolate in the house, but a ton of carrots. I thought it would be a great time to try a new recipe and immediately turned to Make it Paleo as they are the creators of the best damn Paleo pumpkin pie ever. I selected this carrot cake and made cream cheese frosting to top it with.

I did not think that this recipe was much more labor intensive than regular cake made from scratch. My husband really loved the carrot cake, while neither of my sons really cared for it. In my opinion, the cake was very dense and the frosting had a VERY strong ginger taste - to the point that it was spicy. This wasn't super sweet either. If I were to make this again I might add a little more maple syrup or dates to the cake mix and either halve the ginger in the frosting or use some powdered ginger instead. This cake was much better after sitting overnight in the fridge.

I also decided to get fancy this week and make this homemade laundry detergent. I'm like a hippy without the armpit hair.

Turned out great - just needs some stirring once in awhile

One other very easy treat that the kids have been enjoying for the last few days is frozen OJ. They've been wanting Popsicles, but everything I have found in the grocery store either has sugar in it or says it's sugar-free (but has SPLENDA - hooray for feeding our children chemicals). So, I just froze some orange juice in Popsicle molds and the kids LOVE the cold treat.

What's Up!?

I would like to go on another Whole 30 to see if perhaps we won't dive off the deep end afterwards. I think now is a good time since we have no travel plans, no birthday parties, NADA to sidetrack us. The great thing is that my husband has programmed me a special 'Butt Month' training schedule and I think these two will go great together ;)

The last week I have done all workouts programmed, but failed with the Easter candy. I am definitely discovering that I am one of those people that can't have stuff in the house.. or have just one of anything. Today I did the Crossfit Total for the first time and this was a small miracle if you know me. I hate lifting anything heavy and have this fear that I'm going to do something horrible and injure myself and not be able to take care of the kids for awhile. My husband actually suggested that I could have done the workout by myself at home (because I was whining a little bit about how it's never convenient to work out), but hell.no. is that happening. He's a Crossfit instructor at our local gym and there's no way I'm doing anything without him there to triple check my form.
Here are my results:

Deadlift - 160 (PR - personal record)
Shoulder Press - 60lb (PR)
Back Squat - 145 (PR)

All PR's, so I'm stoked, but I never have done a back squat to see how heavy I can lift. I'm looking forward to getting stronger and I know that's going to take some getting accustomed to heavy weights.

I just need to pair these workouts with how I, as a someday hopeful nutritionist, know how to eat. The great thing is that when I do workouts, I not only get a self-esteem and energy boost, but ALSO this leads to eating better. I think it's a momentum thing. Exercise and that will make you want to eat better so as not to cancel out all that hard work. Just avoid that gallon of ice cream when hunger hits you!

Buying a pastured pig. My second experience!

This is the second pig we have purchased from Mount Vernon Farm in Sperryville, VA. This pig was somewhat smaller than the last one we had and we paid about $100 more for that one. That was a completely random thing that the pig was bigger.

The type of pig our farmer grows is called Tamworth, which is an old breed that is hardy and very good at foraging. They are a beautiful red color and our farmer even has photo and video of the pigs posted on their facebook site. You can learn more about Tamworth pigs here.

I asked that half of the pig be dedicated to maximize roasts and the other have be dedicated to sausage. I asked that 1/3 of the sausage be ground and 2/3 links. I was very excited this year because the butcher introduced a new sugar-free spice blend for the sausage. It's just black pepper and sage - yummy but a bit spicy tasting for my little guys. Maybe next year I will get adventurous and try making my own..

I asked that the hams not be smoked or cured this time as my dad has a smoker I am going to test out! Last time I had them smoke and cured - they were really really good, but came covered in brown sugar. Also, this was an added cost.

I was able to get the liver and heart from the pig, but was unable to get the ears or feet for my dogs because the butcher doesn't have a scalder that is required to process these parts for sale. I received bones as well which I will use for stock.

Here was my invoice (the number of lbs of each item are in bold):

Pork Whole lbs of Pork Whole, by hanging weight 187.5(lbs) @ 3.20/lb =  $600.00
Processing pass thru processing cost 1x 297.33=  $297.33
Pork Loin Chops lbs. pork loin chops 9.36
Pork Tenderloin lbs of pork tenderloin 1.13 Pork Loin Roast-Boneless lbs. Pork Boneless Loin Roast 8.48
Pork Bacon Smoked Cured lbs of bacon smoked cured 17.6Pork Ham Roast -Fresh uncured lbs. Pork Ham Roast -Fresh uncured 14.2 Pork Ham Hock lbs. of Pork Hock 3.07
Pork Shank lbs Pork Shank 3.31
Pork Fat lbs. pork fat 8.0
Pork Jowls lbs. Pork Jowl 1.85
Pork Short Ribs lbs. Pork Short Ribs 6.18Pork Sausage-Mild Hot Bfst Lnk lbs pork breakfast links--Custom Blend #2 30.77 Pork SausageCustom #2 Bulk lbs pork custom blend #2 Bulk 16.73
Pork Shoulder Roast lbs. pork shoulder 19.6
Pork Bones lbs Pork Bones 0.00 0.00
Pork Neck Bones Pork Neck Bones 0.00 0.00
Sales Tax 2.50% 15.00
Total $912.33
Balance Due $912.33

Tamworth Pigs

As you can see the farmer charged $3.20/lb for the hanging weight of the pig (what it weighs before processing) which was 187.5 lbs. They received $600 for the entire pig. The butcher charged the processing fee of $297.33 for the entire animal which was a lump sum covering turning pork belly into bacon, turning various cuts into sausage, a kill fee and just plain cutting up the rest of the pig. This amount of pork will last me for breakfast and occasional meals for about half the year. I plan to purchase half a cow in May and will see where this gets me! I still do not buy pastured poultry because of the expense. Hope this helps.

I personally think that if you are going to buy a pastured animal, it would be great to buy pigs. They have some of the worst lives in commercial food production and I think about that every time I grab regular sausage from the grocery store. They are confined from birth to death and live life in nasty, unnatural conditions. I personally believe that animals are meant to be a food source for us and that we should respect them and treat them well because of that. They sustain us. I think that alot of people don't have any idea how commercial animals live because they don't want to know. The truth is pretty awful. If you have the funds, support your local farm by buying a pig that has been treated well. At the very least, educate yourself about what exactly it is you are getting when you buy those sausage links from your grocer.

Just for informational purposes, the kill process our farmer uses is a bullet to the head. I asked because I was curious.

Time to come out of hiding..

So, I kind of have a confession to make. I dropped off the radar because I completely fell off the Paleo/Primal bandwagon. Completely. Epic healthy lifestyle fail. My husband came home the second or third week in March and I just felt like doing nothing. Truth be told this lifestyle is alot of work.. and maybe that's my own fault for not batch cooking and freezing stuff ahead of time. My normal day involves cooking three meals a day for my husband, myself and a two and three year old. And when I don't feel like cooking or grocery shopping, fast food is right there across the street or just a phone call away.

So maybe if I come out of hiding and cleanse some things from my conscience I can get a healthy fresh start so to speak. Some things I ate:

- A whole box of thin mints.. in a day
- A half gallon of ice cream.. in less than 24 hours
- Candy, pizza, soda, cheesecake, tortellini, so on and so forth.
- A whole bag of mini reese's peanut butter cups.. in less than 48 hours

The crappy thing is I know these things are bad for you and I try to hide eating them from both my husband and children. Then I get all guilty and down on myself and the spiral continues until I break out and decide that I want to make choices that make me feel proud, vibrant and healthy.. but sometimes that takes awhile.

I think Jenna Marbles sums up my regular almost daily experience with food here:

Luckily (?), I'm aware of just HOW bad these things are for you. At least when I am drinking that can of soda or eating those cookies, I KNOW that there is high fructose corn syrup, or gluten, or a myriad of other crap ingredients and I KNOW just how damaging to health they are. And I think that is a start. So here we go again :) Maybe someday I can be a super mom like Sarah Fragoso or have an iron will like Peggy Emch at the Primal Parent, but I know today wasn't that day. Thank God each day is new. :)