The Paleo Solution Changed my Life

Amazing! Saw this on Robb Wolf's Web site and had to share.

The Paleo Solution Changed my Life

Starting the Paleo Journey

I love to eat!

Seriously, I love food. I love talking about it, writing about it, thinking about it, cooking it, and eating it. It's one of my bigger passions in life (I have several passions, but those are more appropriate in other blogs).

But love must have some challenge to make it more enjoyable, right? So here's my challenge...

I have food allergies.

Lots of them!

Trust me, it's an extensive list. Cow dairy, legumes, grapes, melons, peanuts (which, yes, I know, are legumes, though most people don't realize that), and lobster are just a few in the long list. And loving food while being allergic to some of it can be quite a challenge.

When I discovered some of my allergies, I started looking for ways to adapt my diet so I can get the nutrition I need and not "cheat" with my allergens (none of which cause an anaphylactic shock reaction except, oddly enough, hemp).

At one time, it was thought I was allergic to wheat, so I tried a gluten free diet. I CRAVED wheat the whole time I was following the diet (or not following, since I was "being bad" on far too regular of a basis). I did manage to get some of the swelling in my legs under control and lose a little weight, but that was it.

When I had another allergy test (by the way, don't get me started on the back-pricking allergy test!) and discovered I wasn't allergic to wheat, it went back in my diet with a vengeance! And any weight I had lost found me again.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and my chiropractor suggested the Paleo diet. Actually, so did his office assistant. Her exact words were, "Try it for a month. That's just 30 days. See what happens." So I picked up Robb Wolf's book, The Paleo Diet Solution, and started reading.

The book suggested focusing on the following foods:

• Healthy, grass-fed meats
• Healthy fats like avocado (yum!), walnut oil, and coconut oil (which I love!)
• Vegetables (I was the one weirdo in my family that always loved these)
• Some fruit
• Some nuts and seeds

Mr. Wolf recommended removing these foods from you diet:

• Dairy
• Legumes
• Grains
• Processed sugar

Wait a minute!! What?!!

I realized I was allergic to two of the four things listed that I should avoid. I also realized, after looking over my old food logs, that most of my processed sugar intake comes from baked goods. So I was halfway following the diet already! I thought, cutting out grains would cut out most, if not all, of my processed sugar intake.

I should try this! I thought.

So I gave it the 30 day try. Dropping grain from my diet took care of the wheat/grain craving I had suffered from in my GF days. And the health benefits were awesome!

•  I lost about 13 lbs in a month!
• My swelling went way down.
• My energy level went way up!
• I could get up and down from the floor again (after breaking a knee in 2010, this was a big accomplishment for me).
• I started sleeping better.
• My mood improved (something that makes my husband very happy).
• My blood pressure went down, and my blood sugar evened out.

Once my 30 days was up, I moved to an 80/20 version of Paleo eating. I’ve seen some sources say you should follow an 80/20 and others say 85/15. I seem to bounce between 70/30 and 90/10 (depending on the day and occasion, because I still cannot seem to shake my obsession with buttercream icing!).

Have you tried this diet? Or read about it? What do you think? Leave me a comment, because I would love to hear your ideas.

Breaded Pork Chops and Almond Flour Fritters

The old saying is that “necessity is the mother of invention.”

It seems that “waste not, want not” causes more invention in my house.

I was raised poor. I mean dirt poor. As in “eating out of church boxes, one missed rent payment from living in a box on the street” poor. So the idea of wasting food, even to this day, makes me sick to my stomach.

So when I decided I really wanted breaded and fried pork chops the other night, I hit a small conundrum. Okay, maybe a few small conundrums.

Conundrum 1 (I love this word, by the way): What am I going to bread the chops with? Regular flour is right out, because a) I don’t eat wheat and b) there isn’t any in the house.

Solution to Conundrum 1: Almond Flour. Why not? The texture of almond flour is closer to corn meal than wheat flour, so it would make a nice, crumbly crust. I thought, I’ll just dredge the chops in some egg and then the flour mix and fry them up. So here is the mix I used to make 2 chops. You'll want more oil if you make more.

Breaded Pork Chops

1 cup almond flour (you can use Bob's Red Mill or Trader Joe's)

1 tsp Trader Joe's 21 Salute Seasoning

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 tsp bacon grease

2 tsp coconut oil

Heat the oil in a skillet. Mix the almond flour, seasoning, and salt together in one pan. In the other pan, whip the eggs (don't cook them!). Dip the chops into the egg mixture, then dredge in the dry mixture on each side. Place in the skillet and cook on both sides until done. Don't turn them too much. I actually only turned the chops once.

It worked! The chops had a nice, fried, breaded coating...what? I'm a Hoosier! We like our fried food. And my husband and I don't cook like this often.

Then I hit…

Conundrum 2: What do I do with the leftover breading? Throwing away almond flour is completely out of the question! Even if it has had raw pork meat rubbed in it. Almond flour is way too expensive to waste! For that matter, so were the leftover farm-fresh grass-fed eggs I had used.

Solution to Conundrum 2: I’ll add a little more salt to the almond flour and seasonings then add the egg. I’ll fry them in the pan after the chops are done, and voila! Almond Flour Fritters!

What?

They’re kind of like a hush puppy, but shaped more like a pancake. But they were tasty! I stumbled upon a great idea! And here’s the recipe.

Almond Flour Fritters

Makes about 8-10 fritters

1 cup almond flour (I had to add some to get back up to a cup)

2 eggs (about 1 egg had been used to coat the chops)

1 tsp Trader Joe’s 21 Salute seasoning

¼ tsp salt

Oil for frying

 Mix the dry ingredients together, then blend in the eggs. Let the batter sit about 5-10 minutes. In a skillet, heat enough oil to be about ½-1 inch of oil. Drop teaspoon servings of batter into the skillet. Cook until done on one side, then turn and cook until done on the other side. Drain on a paper towel and serve warm. Though I had one the next day straight from my fridge, and it actually tasted better cold.

I served the chops and fritters with some boiled red potatoes (yeah, I know they're not Paleo, but I'm a little too Irish to give them up). Dinner got my husband, David's, grunt of approval.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think of these tasty morsels.

You're the What?

"You're the Hoosier Paleo Gourmand?"

What?!!

Let me break it down.

Hoosier: I’m a Hoosier, born and raised. It means I come from Indiana. Love me or hate me for it…I really don’t care. It’s taken me years to reach this point, but I love the fact that I come from the Midwest. We’re an interesting set of people. Polite and friendly, but sometimes a little distant (until we get to know you, then we're often as loyal as you can get). A friend of mine claims we Hoosiers are a lot like our German ancestors that way (he’s from Lichtenstein, so I’ll take his word for it).

Paleo: I eat following (somewhat loosely) the Paleo eating style. It’s a healthy way of eating a lower carbohydrate diet that has a lot of health benefits (at least, to me it has). I’ll explain more about that in the next post. Is everything I follow “hardcore” Paleo? Lord, no! Being “hardcore” about eating is too stressful, and I live by this motto…

“Stressing out about eating healthy defeats the purpose!”

Gourmand: I’ve been cooking since I was 9 years old, but I’ve never been “professionally” trained, unless being trained by a short-order cook and bakery/deli counter worker counts (Hi, Mom!). And a “gourmand” is someone who loves and appreciates food (and knows a lot about it) but doesn’t have professional training regarding it (that would be a “gourmet”).

So that's me...the Hoosier Paleo Gourmand!

Join me on my journey as I explore the wonderful world of food, through both the adventures in my kitchen and the amazing foraging I do out in the world of grocery stores, farmers markets, and restaurants. Buckle up! It’s going to be a wild and crazy (but tasty) ride!