Paleo and primal

[Daughteroughter]

I have been reading about paleo and primal diets has anyone tried them?

Snow -That all sounds nom nom! I've just ordered a heavy duty burger press - m&s does nice gluten free steakburgers (and outdoor pork sausage) but I want to try making my own more often - texture is never quite as good without a press.

Re gluten, I have to totally avoid it now as since I cut it out (and all my health issues that I hadn't realised were due to gluten disappeared), I get ill with only trace amounts of gluten or wheat derivatives.

This makes eating out a minefield \

I so wanted chocolate last night was stood at the vending machine with a pound in my sweaty hand debating what to do
Thought "is a chocolate bar worth it?"
Nope. And walked off. Craving went after about an hour

Raw Burger presses are brilliant, so simple, i have a couple of different types but I'm also happy to just shape them in my hands - looking forward to mixing up cuts and making a damn tasty burger in the next few weeks.

I know what you mean about the jerky being full of crap - I think I'm going to make my own, I'll give it a go in the oven and then toy with the idea of getting a machine to do the job. Dh and the dcs love jerky.

Much respect emuz beating a chocolate craving is success indeed.

What chocolate can I actually have? I went looking today and they all said may contain milk or soya, i'm intolerant to both and even the smallest chance of it containing something is too much of a risk.

I've given up on chocolate altogether
For sweet cravings I usually have no added sugar peanut butter with a banana or an apple
Myprotein website sells a kg of peanut butter for about £5. Tastes different to added sugar one though!

Spotteddots, generally for low carb, paleo, woe, any good dark choc (85% being perfect!). Dairy and soya free is a tall order though! I buy stuff off goodnessdirect - they have loads of carefully labeled products, you can search for different dietary requirements on their site quite easily. They sell "seed and bean" chocolate with no milk or soya ingredients (but it says "may contain traces").

Snow! I never thought to MAKE jerky but I suppose it can't be too difficult as the original jerky would just be strip of meat dried/smoked near a fire!

Spotteddots, your local health store might help. Have you come across Plamil before.

Ideas for lunch/snack:
-Any meat set in gelatin. The gelatin helps keeping the meat tender and juicy. If a broth is not setting I use gelatin sheets. My favorite meat for this is cow tongue but ham shank is beautiful too :)
-to follow from jerky: Pork scratchings. num.
-Fish skin cracklings are yum in any salad (or veg)
-Avocado and tuna/prawn salad
-Parma ham and melon
-Stuffed tomatoes (pretend they are ravioli/cannelloni)
-Roasted meat filled courgettes
-Meat loaf (I love adding a boiled egg wrapped in ham in the middle!)

Scotch egg is great for lunch!

On the milk and soya free chocolate, we got some from www.realfoodsource.co.uk. It's ingredients are 70% cocoa and coconut palm sugar, tastes good.

M&S does pork scatchings in a crisp size packet, they taste pretty good too.

raw this is the recipe I hope to replicate at home. Will let you know how it goes...maybe a project for next week.

Pudding of the week is going to be cookie dough ice cream, it has to compete with Ben&Jerrys which is dd's favourite, its a big ask! cookie dough made today from almonds, dark choc, butter and maple syrup - yep it's sweet but it's also full of good stuff too, the cookie dough went down well with my junior taste team, which is a big improvement from my last attempt with coconut butter, can't decide whether to make a proper custard ice cream with cream, egg and maple syrup or an ice cream with coconut milk, I'm still trying to gain their trust on this approach to eating.

Today dd swapped pasta for puy lentils, I know that's not Paleo, but it's better than pasta! And both dcs enjoyed hoovering up the leftovers from our lunch - although one still objected to the aubergine. Homemade sausage meat was well received too, no more shop bought sausage!!!

I put a bowl of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and raisins in front of the kids while they watched TV, came back and it was gone. They would never have agreed to it.

Re: chocolate - I've just started buying Ombar chocolate which is actually a raw chocolate sweetened with coconut. It sounds a bit weird but is delicious, and pretty paleo as it has no sugar and no milk. They also do a 72% bar that has added probiotics... It's not cheap but because it's rich you only eat a little at a time - maybe half a 38g bar so hardly anything really! I reckon good chocolate is a a health food - you don't need to avoid it if you choose carefully.

Dinner tonight - carbonara with cabbage instead of pasta - far tastier!

Tea, good chocolate is certainly Heath food!

Re pork scratchings - sadly as with the jerky, I have yet to find any that's not full of crap , gluten etc

Still lurking and gettings loads out of this thread. Do any of you take supplements or drink (?) protein shakes. A lot of the US paleo and primal sites rave about them, but I'm not convinced. However I've got a lot going on at the moment and could do with a boost to my stamina so wondered what your thoughts were.

Also if you have Ocado (and I guess Waitrose), they do Laverstoke organic jerky for two pounds and, aside from a bit of sugar, the ingredients look good.

I follow and post paleo recipes on Pinterest using this username. Anyone up for a recipe swap or following each other?

I take source of life gold multi vits, strawberry flavour omega 3 liquid and whey protein (usually only after workouts)

What a shit day.
All my colleagues have popped out to the Italian near our work for lunch to send off a woman who's leaving and due to money I've had to miss out, under the pretence of being really busy.
Also I have to embarrass myself by purchasing four quid's worth of petrol this afternoon as its all I have left on my card and no cash til tomorrow. That's if I can even buy that little amount! I don't know what to do.

I know this month was always going to be a tricky one, but I just feel like crying. Luckily my freezer is full of nice meat so I can have a good dinner. This is SHIT.
Sorry for the moan.

No ocado or waitrose (nearest about 70miles away!), will look at their jerky the next time I'm in a proper city .

Re supplements - omega3 and vit D3 probably the only ones most people need (lack of sunlight, and lack of omega3 in meat due to farming methods), but no harm in a multi vit/mineral tablet ...

A paleo/primal style diet should have MORE vitamins and minerals than a grain and dairy heavy diet - no need to worry that you are missing out on anything important by cutting those things from your diet .

Stuffez

stuffez it's crap being skint, will the month end see you ok again?

Queen I don't take supplements or protein drinks, I've never really understood why people who eat such a pure Paleo diet approach would ever consider taking those protein shakes, the ingredients are never very appetising or very Paleo sounding. I dont get why Mark Sissons promotes them - other than to make money. I've never been convinced by vitamin taking either, their ingredients are equally as artificial sounding....would much prefer to try to eat a better diet but its not a paleo thing for me, I've always felt this way, even when I ate a conventional diet.

On the recipe sharing, I log all my recipes on Evernote, I do get a little inspiration from Pinterest but it's mostly blogs, will look out for you though.

Oh, Stuffez, that's no fun . Can you make do without the car until you can fill it up again?

I had a homemade hamburger patty for lunch, which I grilled under the broiler and had with some sautéed mushrooms and onion, green salad, a blob of guacamole and some salsa. And some frozen berries that I blended up so they were like sorbet. Mmmm....I can't stop with the avocados. I LOVE them.

How are you all feeling mood-wise? I'm noticing that I feel a bit calmer and less twitchy/anxious...especially after eating. More balanced somehow and no desire to keep rummaging for things in the cupboards/fridge. Maybe it's the no wheat thing or perhaps the increased fat?

I take the protein shakes because I need a lot of protein that's quickly digested after a workout. So that's the only real reason I use them

Thanks for being nice, I am home now. I am so ashamed but I had to borrow a tenner off my friend at work. I was so worried about breaking down due to no fuel. I have no family and only a couple of friends around here so it would have been disastrous.
Am home now and some unbelievable wanker is parked in my space. No fucking money for a pay and display so have just had to park p and keep checking for the parking wardens.
Annoyingly I can't do without the car as work is twelve miles away. Will be fine at the end of the month.

Sorry to de rail - really needed to vent.

This thread is great (sorry you're having such a crap time Stuffez :().

I've discovered that Abel and Cole sell organic beef bones and chicken carcasses for £1.99 a kilo . Fantastic for making up super healthy bone broths and really cheap. Guess there's not a huge demand, lucky me!

Am boiling up a beef broth as we speak. My Friday nights are pretty rock and roll these days.

Didn't the Victorians used to give people beef tea when they were ill?