Primal Thanksgiving With The Help From A Friend

Since I began my new Primal life I have been one of it's biggest cheerleaders.
Obnoxiously so.
If you happened to ask about my weight loss or ask why I was not eating the bun...God help you.
I am more than happy to tell you about my journey, the reasons you should not be eating that processed goo, and the newest scientific facts I had just read about grains and fasting.
Just try and stop me!!
You have to know my friends were my first victims to attack with my new found knowledge...enthusiastically so.
To my great surprise most of our friends and family have come on board and given it a try.
All of them to great success.
Our good friends Matt and Sheila were some of the first people I told all my new found information to. I knew Sheila would be interested but never thought that Matt would listen or even give it a second look.
Matt did not like anything green, and was not interested in veggies at all.
What he did like was the fact that he could eat bacon, steak, sausage, and butter.
As he and his wife explored their eating possibilities within the Primal sphere they taught my husband and I a few things.
Matt and Sheila found Luigi's, which sells grassfed beef and free range Amish chicken, and they have the most amazing buffalo chicken flavored sausage that we all love.
The best thing that Matt has given to us is his recipe for Brussel Sprouts, which is a green veggie, if you remember!
I was shocked to come home from Hawaii to my husband raving about this fabulous dish that Matt had made for him while I was gone.
My mom is even a huge fan of this dish which is why it will be one of the sides we share at our Primal Thanksgiving this year.
I wanted to give the recipe to anyone who was looking for a flavorful and filling Primal side dish to serve at their holiday table.

I chop the brussel sprouts apart and any other veggies we like to throw in. Today it was carrot shreds, peppers, broccoli , snow peas, and as always some great sausage.

I add a flavored olive oil or coconut oil to the pan first and then add in the sprouts as they take the longest to cook.

After 5 minutes I add the all the veggies but the carrots and peppers. I then pour on the balsamic vinegar. We also add in the chopped garlic and a handful of spices at this time.

After 3 more minutes in goes the sausage. It is precooked and goes in to get heated through.

The carrots and peppers are added last as my husband likes a bit of a crisp to those two veggies when it's all done.

Primal Brussel Sprouts and Sausage

Here is the finished dish, plated and ready to enjoy!

Primal Meaty Brussel Sprouts:

1 cup of brussel sprouts cleaned and halved
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup of mixed veggies (broccoli, snow peas, and others)
1/4 cup of sliced peppers
1/4 cup of flavored olive oil or coconut oil (we used a basil olive oil)
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1-2 tablespoons of chopped garlic (ours came from a jar)
2 large precooked sausage links (your choice of flavor)
spices (choose your favorites, we added Italian types of spices)

• Heat your pan over a medium high heat and add your flavored oil
• Next add in the brussel sprouts and cook for 5 minutes stirring continuously
• Add in the mixed veggies, the balsamic, garlic, and spices and cook for 3 minutes
• The sausage goes in next and gets stirred for 2 minutes
• Now add in the veggies you like crisp and saute for a few minutes until they are done to your taste

That's it! Ten minutes on the stove and you have an amazingly flavorful main or side dish.

Thank you again Matt.
He has made us proud by meeting his goal weight and losing over 30 pounds!
At the last band concert Matt played the entire night without a shirt and looked smoking hot!!

Matt as Jimmy Page at our Halloween gig...sexy!

I hope you give the Primal life a try and enjoy looking and feeling better like we all do.
Have a wonderful holiday.

Pesto Encrusted Salmon and Beachy Dreams

I have been slacking off lately.
Not only in cooking and blogging, but in housework and personal grooming.
We have a vacation scheduled to take our graduating son to Hawaii for his senior trip.
My husband is self employed which means vacations are few and hard to come by.
If he doesn't work...we don't eat...or pay the cable bill.
As Americans we love to eat and watch our TV!
That being said, I have really been dreaming about that trip.
I love the the ocean, the breezes, and the beauty of Hawaii.
I also look forward to not doing housework or all that comes with being mom.
I want to be Sarah.
I hardly know who Sarah is anymore, I have been mom for so long.
With the kids being 18 and 16 I am going to lighten up on being mom on this trip.
If your shorts and swim trunks need washed...then I guess you'll have to wash them.
If you want to have breakfast...cook it up kid...because Sarah only eats once a day.
I still cook and clean everything at home because as honor students and kids with jobs, I know it is hard for them to get their food and laundry done and keep on schedule.
So I help keep it all moving.
But in Hawaii...Sarah is on vacation.
The problem is...I wish it was here already.
I am having a hard time making myself do what I am supposed to do.
Cooking has been the same old trusted things I can put in the fridge for them, chicken, tilapia, turkey burgers, cauliflower, salads...nothing new...I just haven't felt like it.
When you are personally never hungry it's hard to get creative with food.
But I gave myself a kick in the pants and a pep talk yesterday...'You're still mom so get going!'
I made them Pesto Encrusted Salmon with green beans and mushrooms plus a big full salad.

Pesto Encrusted Salmon:

Salmon fillets ~ we used wild caught from Costco
Pesto ~ from Costco or you can make your own
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup) ~ made from raw milk; grated. From Costco

Turn on the oven to broil.
Place the salmon on foil or silpat lined baking sheet.
Spread with a generous amount of the pesto, you can coat the top and bottom if you love pesto.
Broil in the middle of the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the center has lost most of it's deep pink color.
When done I grated some of the Parmesan cheese over the top of each fillet.

Green Beans With Sauteed Mushrooms:

Fresh spring green beans ~ bought from Costco
White capped mushroom container ~ bought from Costco
Kerrygold butter ~ bought from Costco (getting the theme here?)

Steam the green beans for 10 to 12 minutes until fork tender.
While the beans steam, saute the mushrooms in a generous heap of Kerrygold butter until they reach the tenderness you desire.
When the beans were done I popped them into the mushrooms and got them coated with the butter too.

We also had a big spinach salad filled with walnuts, bacon, and hard boiled egg slices.

I hope you try the salmon recipe and love it as much as we do.

Mashed Creamy Cauliflower And A New Feeling Of Freedom

I've noticed something.
I haven't been hungry lately.
There are days when I make myself eat lunch, even though I'm not hungry.
Some days I don't eat dinner till nine or ten o clock at night because...I'm not hungry.
This is new and strange for me.
I was always hungry.
Since turning to Primal eating in late December I have noticed this getting stronger each week.
No hunger.
What a novel thing in my life...it is a very freeing feeling, when you are no longer plagued by the constant thought of putting food in your mouth.
I read an article on Mark's Daily Apple this weekend about intermittent fasting or IF.
This concept really slammed home for me that maybe I didn't have to eat each meal...that maybe I could just skip one or two and be fine?!
It's a worry though.
I don't want to screw up my metabolism anymore than I already have by being obese and a slave to carbs and sugar for decades.
But this morning I woke up and made my coffee...and sat.
I couldn't think of a single this to eat...not hungry.
So I'm going to try an experiment this week.
I am not going to eat anything food wise till I am good and truly hungry.
When I do decide to put something in my mouth I am going to make it a good protein, an omega rich fat, and wonderful leafy green veggies.
I will keep you updated on this weird fasting experiment.
In the mean time let me show you our new  veggie obsession.
When I do feel like eating, it's cauliflower I have been craving...mmmmm...cauliflower!
I needed a side dish to have for the hubby and kids (they were going to revolt if I gave them another side salad) so I looked on Pinterest for a recipe that I could make, and up popped cauliflower.
This makes the smoothest, creamy and dreamy cauliflower ever.
The secret is to not steam it.
Here is how it's done.

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1/3 cup of heavy organic cream
•  2 tablespoons grass fed butter (Obviously I went overboard the first time I made this, because that amount in the picture is totally crazy!)
• 1/4 cup of sharp cheddar cheese (I used Kerrygold white Dubliner, extra sharp and good)

Clean and trim the cauliflower, breaking it into medium sized pieces.
Place in a microwave safe bowl with cream and butter.
Microwave, uncovered, on high for five minutes.
Stir to coat cauliflower with cream/butter mixture.
Microwave for another 5 minutes on high.
Remove from the microwave and put into a food processor along with the cheese.
Puree until smooth.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

I eat it cold and straight out of the container the next day...it's that good.

I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it too.


PS: the last pic is from whole foods, since we ate all of our cauliflower before I could remember to snap a picture :)

Slow Roasted Italian Sauce

I have been getting more bold in the foods that I will eat and attempt to cook now that we are eating whole foods and trying new things.

I was in the process of making my spaghetti squash casserole last night for dinner, so I grabbed a jar of sauce from the pantry. I stopped and stared at the label for a moment.

I had not even thought to check this label out since we started our Primal way of life.

It was a shock to see all the weird ingredients and the sugar content of what should really be a simple thing. Tomatoes and other vegetables cooked and mixed up together into a silky pure goodness.

I had 10 Roma tomatoes in my fridge, onions, and garlic too.

So I got my big girl panties on, looked on marksdailyapple for a Primal recipe and got to work.

I quartered the tomatoes and took the seeds out, chopped up a whole onion and two cloves of garlic.

I put everything in a large bowl and drizzled it liberally with basil olive oil and a boat load of my favorite spices.

I roasted everything for fourty minutes on 350 until it looked like this...

Then I poured it all back into the bowl and hit it with my imersion blender till it looked like this...

What a wonderful flavor it had. I have to say it is one of the best things I have made yet.

I am going to make more batches like this in the future and freeze then or can them.

I hope you try something new soon...and love it!

Squishing My Fear Of Squash

I have been a carb and sugar junkie for at least 40 years.
Mac and cheese was my go to food to solve anything from a broken fingernail to a broken heart.
I was so hooked on noodles, pasta, and rice it was killing me...one bite at a time.
But now that I am 45 I am beginning to grow up to be a smart human.
I am learning to make choices of food that come from nature and not a factory.
But hell...I wanted pasta...I wanted it with cheese and butter...and more cheese.
I had read about spaghetti squash before, but...ewwww!
It's a vegetable.
I am committed to staying on the whole, clean food approach to life, so I gave it a whirl.
Last night I cracked open my first spaghetti squash.
I do mean cracked. That thing took ten minutes with an electric knife to get hacked apart the right way. It looked just like a pumpkin inside, smelled like one too.
I cleaned out the seeds (washed them for roasting later), salt and peppered it and roasted it face down on parchment for one hour.
I took a recipe from Pinterest that I liked, followed it, and low and behold...one more vegetable I am willing to eat...no...wanting to eat!
It was great.
I enjoyed this first one just like I would have with carb loaded pasta, with sauce and a bit of parm cheese.
Next time I am going to have my batch of spaghetti squash with pesto, diced tomatoes, and black olives.
I hope you try a new food this week and love it too