Paleo and primal

[Daughteroughter]

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

RawCM thanks for suggesting the wheat belly site - I haven?t been on there before, I didn?t realise wheat was linked strongly to depression?maybe my improved mood isn?t a coincidence.

Misscph1973 I had a look at the link on protein and have worked out it should be between 56 and 109g dep on if I want to lose weight. By the way your smoothie sounds great, I like mine with natural yog frozen spinach, frozen ginger, pear and spirulina. Have you managed to find any smoothies that work with veg other than spinach apparently it?s a good idea to rotate the greens.

Thanks favadi! That ice cream sounds yum. Thank you so much for offer of recipes for ds, tbh he likes plain food, he will eat raw veg but he isn?t keen if it has been roasted for example. His favourite dinner would involve fish fingers or chicken nuggets so I should try to make some myself if you have any tips? He will eat regular chicken but it would be nice for him to actively enjoy some meals! I keep reading about pasta made from vegetables has anyone found this in the shops?

infamous DP has already suggested I only lose another 7lbs because he is worried about my rapidly shrinking boobs! I am going to try not to focus on my tummy too much because a flat tummy will def mean losing too much for the rest of me to look healthy.

You can "breadcrumb" fish or chicken by dipping in beaten egg and rolling in ground almonds with herbs/seasoning in it. I have shallow fried this, and it does tend to fall off if turned to often (the lack of starch to glue it on, I suppose). Tastes good tho, next time, I'm going to oven bake the nuggets instead as I think that might work better!

Veg pasta... Just strips of corgette or spaghetti squash (I haven't tried squash), salted and soaked for half hour then boiled for a couple of minutes. I think the salt/soaking makes the strips more bendy. Cut the strips thin and narrow.

Giraffe I have one of those machines that make spiral veg, but I haven't convinced the dcs to give up pasta - we have gluen free stuff but I have reduce the frequency and the ratio of pasta to sauce. They quite like eating raw spiral veg though.

Giraffe, thanks for the inspiration for smoothies. I have never used frozen spinach, mainly because I can't find it organic, how does it taste in a smoothie? Yes, I know you need to rotate your greens for green smoothies, but that is mainly if you drink them every day - which I used to do, in my vegan days I was 50% raw. I like kale, chard and pak choi in green smoothies. Mangoes are terrific in smoothies and Sainsbury's sells them frozen.

Thanks do much for all the ideas, going to look up spiral gadget! Chicken in almond crumb, I Have loads of ground almond in freezer that will be trialled this weekend.

Misch, thanks so much four those ideas, dp gets ulcers from mango but one fir me to try. I hadn't considered the fact that frozen spinach is non organic an eating it a lot with eggs toI which us why I think I need some alternatives.

x

Giraffe, I always have frozen spinach in the freezer, I like it with eggs too. I try to buy organic when it makes sense, but if I can't get something organic, I am not going to let that stop me eating it. But fresh spinach is easy to get organic, so I always buy it. However I am also happy to try a frozen spinach smoothie, but for some reason I have always been a bit suspicious of the idea ;)

Did someone at some point on this thread have a recipe for pulled pork in the slowcooker? I have never had pulled pork, but I just got a slowcooker and I am keen to try it ;) Preferably with cheap cuts of pork, although I guess that's the whole point.

Hello everyone and hello again Giraffe. Yes i remember you too from 5:2, rather fallen off the wagon but intend to get back to it. V effective.

Kids' breakfasts?? Anyone any kidfritndly ideas please? Tried paleo flapjacks, not a goer.. Pancakes hit & miss. Sigh...

My kids like break fast burger patties, bacon and scrambled/fried eggs, cocktail sausages. My DS likes tinned mackerel in tomato sauce! Also try egg muffins (google paleo egg muffins).

Giraffe I haven't tried to make chicken nuggets before but I've been happy with recipes from Paleocupboard before. You can use tapioca flour instead of arrowroot. For the fish fingers, I would paper dry and dust the fish with some tapioca or arrowroot flour before dipping in egg and 'breadcrumb mix'.

Salbertina we treat breakfast as another meal, so anything goes. My lot love their cooked breakfast. Dd was grilling aubergines topped with mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado and cheese this morning, whilst dh and ds opted for kippers, tomatoes, mushrooms and leftover roasted veg. :)

Thanks for ideas. Kids' breakfast has become rather entrenched - gradually moved fairly recently from cereal & toast to porridge/toast now noatie porridge & paleo pancakes. And they're not partial to eggs
Taken a vote and tomorrow its going to be organic sausages, beans and will try to add egg.

salbertina we are in the same boat with bf, ds not happy with porridge and honey instead of wheatabix and toast but the dds are fine. I bought him the moon shaped nuts (cashews) he wanted though, so he was slightly appeased. They will get used to it , then I can work on cooked bf at weekends. Have seen quinoa pops in the health food shop cereal section so might try those, I guess they are ready to eat with milk?

Ds had spaghetti and a bread roll for his school dinner...he has school meal three times a week. Oh well, I plan to experiment with reducing gluten and finding things they like until summer hol then try a total clearout for a few weeks. Dep on results will reduce or stop school dinners.

Chicken curry and samphire tonight has gone down ok (if you consider lots of complaining ok!) but toddler dd refuses to try, trying not to get stressed, she ate lots of potato and cheese at lunch with my mum and I sneaked fish oils into her fromage frais

@ peoples dc eating all this amazing breakfast food

Will try that fish recipe favida , maybe if i add turmeric it will give an authentic golden glow ;)

misscph I actually feel suspicious about putting fresh leaves into smoothies! The frozen stuff reduces the temp and doesn't taste of much, maybe a bit nutty?

I kicked the breakfast cereals out last year....but offered to make them anything else they wanted - we had crepes with sugar and lemon for ages....porridge became popular once again, homemade granola too, they enjoyed frying their own bacon and eggs, I made them potato bread with rice flour. Then we dropped the crepes and I introduced cream cheese pancakes....finally I got another recipe with bananas, almond butter and eggs - their current favourite. They have smoothies with greek yoghurt and frozen fruit. Also made some sweet fruit muffins, they have started eating Kallo Puffed rice too, I make almond fruit scones too. They have decided that dried fruit tastes good now too. It's funny because lots of the food they enjoy now they turned their nose up at when the were eating a more standard diet.

Oh yay! A MN Paleo/primal thread!
How did I miss this?

I've been primal for about 18 months with a period of strict paleo when bf my (then) dairy-reacting DD2. She has since had dairy with no problems and I have gone a bit nuts and fallen off the wagon completely with ice cream and tonnes of milk in tea.

I feel like crap though so am back to paleo again now.

Off to catch up on the thread but hope you'll have me!

Hi kelly .

Just been looking at paleo recipes on line (well, googling snow's almond banana pancakes :) )and the mention of grass fed butter reminded me that kerrygold is 2 for £2.50 at tescos.

Giraffe - they're from Civilised Caveman - they need to be cooked slowly in a medium heat....he uses a very similar recipe or banana loaf and that was an enormous hit (I made muffins rather than a loaf)

Hi kelly

Gah. Had PMS and fell off the wagon today, with pretty much the ultimate paleo fail: white bread with butter and jam. And now I have sugar-crash and a dodgy wheat-tummy.

I suppose I used to feel like this all the time. I'll give my self a coupl eof days of healthyish but not paleo eating and then go back to strict once my period starts and I get sane again.

Same TOTM for me too, a bugger, isn't it? Dark choc can help, maybe?

Giraffe, my kids have school dinners only once a week, on the day that they always have roast lunch - less risk of gluten! Thanks for tip about kerrygold butter offer at tescos!

Welcome, kellykettle, I would be very interested to hear about your 18 months of strict paleo - how did you do with sugar? I am working very hard on sugar, I have no sugar in the week but I do allow myself honey and other natural sweeteners in very moderate amounts. In the weekend I might have a few treats, but not many. I don't eat dairy apart from some occasional cheese.

Yami, don't worry about it, just get back on it!

I was going to fast 24 hours today, but I logged my food yesterday and I only had 1500 calories AND I did a workout including deadlifts, O ai am going to break my fast for lunch in an hour as I am quite peckish ;)

Yami, I'm sure that in this situation, the ultimate paleo fail would have been wholemeal bread with extra wheatgerm and jam (no butter) .
At least the butter reduced the glycemic load, and actually white bread tends to spike blood sugar a little more, but for a shorter time but wholemeal spikes it for a lot longer (and also requires more vitamins/minerals to digest and process).
Hormonal cycles are difficult to deal with IMO and ime, but less of an issue since I have cut grains out. It doesn't take many months before you realise it's just not worth the gut pain, increase in appetite that throws everything out of kilter for days... I eat more carbs (fruit, honey, sweet potato) for a few days every month, but never grains (except white rice) anymore. I find a baked potato with butter and cheese is an excellent Cheat meal when you have a real craving (I don't eat the skins tho as they tend to give me gut ache too).

You just need to find what works for you, but the gastric distress suggests wheat is not the best "cheat" for you !

And as salbertina says... Dark chocolate!

I haven't felt so good today on subject of paleo fails! I have had bf: 1st oat experiment - a tiny bowl of porridge with cashews and honey, LM some eggs and samphire, lunch a little cheese melon and strawberries at a picnic just now coffee and more cahews. Too much cheating (cashews aren't allowed either are they?) and sugar is my guess?

What should be my plan for next week - part of me wants to concentrate on recipes and variety another part on losing lbs quickly with more basic fat and protein and greens? I am still overweight so prob the latter but have lost 10lbs in 3 weeks which seems quite quick?

Cashews are allowed, Giraffes, any nuts are fine, but in moderation. Sugar is not great, but personally, I think it's less of a problem than grains (although oats are of the more benign kind, so don't worry too much).

Well done with the weight loss, that is very fast! I suggest you focus on trying out good recipes so you get into some good routines to keep the weight off and less on quick weight loss, just so you don't stress your body.

I cheated a bit for dinner, there was rhubarb in my veg box, so I cooked stewed rhubarb with a little brown sugar served with whipped cream for pudding. But I think I deserved it after a 17 hour fast ;)

Thanks Misschph, I think your right I really want this to stick and not be temporary. I was just in tesco and they had some bread for 19p I had to have an inner battle not to get it for the freezer! Your pudding sounds lovely and normally I would not think that about rhubarb well done on 17 hour fast