Paleo and primal

[Daughteroughter]

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

Oh I forgot the chicken nuggets were a success thanks all for tips.

What do you lot all have on a picnic? We are having one tomorrow and trying to think of some extra things to take.

So far have got:

Salad - spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, giant spring onions, peppers, grated carrot

Cheese coleslaw

Olives

Parma ham

Prosciutto

Spicy chicken wings

Gluten free sausages

Hard boiled eggs

Brie

Strawberries and blueberries with cream

Not sure how practical this is nappyaddict but it sounds quite a sophis picnic - what about a punnet of frozen berries (will help keep things cold ) and you could put some in disposable plastic glasses with fizzy water on top - would look pretty. Either that or tins of slimline g&t

nappy I feel hungry just looking at your menu, despite having just had 2 sausages and an avocado and tomato salad!

GiraffeI don't know how strictly you follow paleo...Oats are grains ( Mark's article ) and cashew nuts (& peanuts) are not nuts but legumes. Gluten alert! Gin is often made from grains.
Well done on your weight loss, it's amazing how fast you can lose weight!

Sounds like a pretty good spread nappyaddict. I can't think of much else you could add without doing some serious cooking - and that's not always the point with a picnic,
Made the dcs pizza last night, they both had friends over, did the whole thing from scratch so not as bad as shop bought - they had a hankering for it and I thought it better to just make it rather than make a big deal out of it. Dh and I had ribeye with onions and mushroom with mustardy paleo mayo - followed by too many choc chip cookies - they were gluten free but far too high in sugar - the shame! They were lovely though.

What's everyone else planning to eat this weekend?

I wish I was organised enough to plan meals!

I have courgettes so either they get cooked au gratin (using almond flour not bread crumbs) as a side dish or stuffed with meat/alla ligure as a main. I also have beautiful big tomatoes, so I'm tempted to baked them stuffed with ricotta and spinach (my turn on the ravioli) or with salmon and asparagus.
The oregano is doing wonderfully, so I'll probably end up cooking braising/ minute steak alla pizzaiola.

Drool at ask the yummy food... Just making cooked breakfast, ds not happy.

Favadi I will stay away from cashews and oats I felt shaky yest. Not following it that strictly at moment, I will need to get a balance of what we can afford and what keeps children happy but def want more natural diet

I'm a bit hyper this morning - dh set the alarm for 6.00am - so I was up with the larks. Ground up some breakfast sausages for dcs from Everyday Paleo and froze the leftovers for their lunchbox and then started the process of curing some pork belly to make my own bacon - it should be ready next Saturday, I'm quite excited about this project, it looks pretty easy to make with every day ingredients and it's a lot cheaper than the stuff I get from the butcher.
I'm going to spatchcock a chicken and cook it on the BBQ for dinner tonight - probably spice things up a bit and add some chipotle paste for the adults at least and serve it with some coleslaw.

By the way snow I did similar during the week when a friend of dd came round. we are having a picnic which includes cheese strings today but that's the treat element for dc.. I never got them for the DC before but they always wanted them, .it's to negate the moaning about no bread...i think it was a mistake though

I'm a total cheese head - kids grew up on artisan cheeses but they still wanted cheese strings - they only contain cheese, so I gave in....the desire didn't last for long, they were keen to eat the first few but the novelty quickly wore off, sometimes it's worth just letting them have their moment, we all like to cheat and go off plan, keeping them on board is more important than the odd slip.

Fava I made your crackers again last night - they were even better than last time - had them with a very decadent triple cream cheese for breakfast - delicious...they are my very favourite cracker. Just wanted to say a very big thank you for posting the recipe.

Really interested in your sausage and bacon experiments snow, I don't get much processed pork and the sausages we had today debby and andrew were really salty. Hopefully some slips along the way with cheesetrings will mean we are still eating better this time next year rather than giving up because it is too hard.

Going to the park soon, going to try and play with the children a bit rather than watching, very mark sissons!

Hello all. I posted way back on this thread, but have decided that paleo/primal is not for me after all. It reduced my appetite, but actually made me feel a bit rubbish, and gave me terrible insomnia for some reason!
I'm now eating carbs, but avoiding white bread and sugary stuff, plus trying to cut out processed food as much as possible. I felt much better once I'd reintroduced some wholegrain carbs and potatoes etc.
Just wondering though, did/does anyone else get the insomnia thing with this WOE? I was curious about why I had it.

You're more than welcome, snow and likewise for you. I'm looking forward to trying the bacon. I'd been looking for an easy recipe.

I made these bread rolls today to go with home-made burger. There were really nice and very filling but the recipe is wrong! The mix came out more like a batter. Having added 3 extra tbsp of coconut flour, it still needed another 3-4 tbs of tapioca flour before the 'dough' held some shape. It couldn't be shaped by hand (too sticky), so I floured (using tapioca) the baking tin, spooned the mix onto the tray, then sprinkled some flour on top of the 'buns'. They came out with a lovely crust and a soft inside (almost like a crumpet). Yummy! I had to make another batch!

They look delicious Favadia! I have the dan lepard book from the library and it has gluten free white bread which I hope to try this week. Not sure if it primal but can post the recipe if it works.

Played frisbee football in the park - I can't catch and was wearing silver ballet pumps and a chiffon scarf must have looked ridic!

This page has some intersting stuff on paleo skincare! [[http://www.primalpalate.com/category/blog/
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holmes funny you had insomnia that isn't generally what people suggests happens with this woe. On the 5:2 thread some people slept better whilst others had insomnia, I guess things have different effects on people. The only night I have had trouble sleeping I ate dinnerreally late, just before going to bed and I was going on holiday the next day so both my tummy and my mind were churnning!

Sugar gives me insomnia - it has a cummulative effect - or maybe it's glycogen levels - who knows but I can usually get away with a pudding in the evening every now and then but if I go back to eating carbs normally, I really suffer - I think I wake when my blood sugar level falls and with low carb Paleo that doesn't happen. But it's all so personal - you may have to eat a certain amount of carbs to keep your body happy - maybe you could try eating the more benign starches like sweet potato, rice and plantain. Wheat is generally seen as the worst of all the evils.

Favadi, cashew "nuts" are not technically legumes, but they are not tree nuts either, they are very odd things- a seed which grows outside the cashew fruit... With a hard shell like a nut!

I like them but they do give me gut ache if I have more than a few

Sorry Holmes didn't see your post earlier. I wonder how many carbs you were eating when doing paleo- I had a terrible experience when I reduced carbs to max 30g/day, in the hope of speeding up weight loss. I agree with snow that other starches might be worth a try. All of us are different and only by trial and error do we achieve what's best for each 'individual' us! We are here for you if you want to try paleo again or even as a sound board.

Giraffe Had a quick look at your link: Looking forward to delve in

snow 7 days to wait and counting seconds to try bacon ! Fingers crossed, as I opted for fresh herbs not dried! oopsie, I hope the freshness adds to antimicrobial potency!

Fava I did one belly with honey the other without - will be interested to see which we prefer. Have bookmarked the rolls, waiting on my tapioca order to arrive - was surprised the rolls had no raising agent....kept reading the recipe thinking I'd missed something, I suppose the egg helps it to rise, but will give it a go next week, thank you - again!

Genuinely looking forward to pork report!

After reading up a bit more on the bacon making I have just pulled the bacon out of the fridge - drained off excess water and added more salt, maybe a tbsp to each slab.
Spatchcocked a chicken last night and was really pleased with the result - cooked in half the time and the breast was incredibly moist - well worth trying! I'm hooked!

Giraffes, very interesting blog post on Paleo skin care, thank you! I have been using the oil cleansing method for 2 years since I read about it on Mumsnet, and it has made such a difference for my skin, it is no longer oily and most spots will never get to the point where I have to squeeze them and there are fewer of them. I do still get spots before my period and obviously I still have the scars. I have just added Argan oil to my olive oil/castor oil mix and I am eager to see if it makes a difference.

I would like to not use shampoo and deodorant, but I have really tried, and I can not get used to baking soda or soap nuts for shampoo (but I think I will have another go a ditching deodorant). I have just started using hot oil *olive oil and Argan oil) and the result are promising after 2 goes.

Do any of you take fish oil supplements? My DH does, but I personally focus on eating fatty fish as I believe in real foods, not supplements, at least for myself.

Miss I rarely use shampoo, I use a rinsing conditioner (=light conditioner) as shampoo. It will feel strange for the first couple of weeks but worth it.
Paleo hair link
useful ingredients and products lists

I really like Daniel galvin junior organic lavender shampoo but it seems to have become less organic as time guess on. I tried washing with conditioner once but my hair is to thin. Maybe I will try again. I have been meaning to try oil cleansing for a long time, I like the idea of using coconut oil rather then blending castor oil etc. I saw arm Pit sweat pads on a thread last night, maybe they would be a second line of defence for natural methods?