Make Your Own Bacon Cups
I had been wanting to make some bacon cups ever since one of my readers sent me a link to a company that sold some form of device for making bacon cups!
It’s a handy cup for filling up with simple salads, and it’s not only “cute” but also delicious!
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Eating Out Paleo: Gordon Ramsay at the London, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA
This is sadly my least favorite Gordon Ramsay restaurant (I’ve enjoyed many of his other restaurants). Although I enjoyed the chic decor and the prompt service, the steak came overcooked and dry, and the appetizer and sides were just mediocre.
Eating Out Paleo: Javier’s at the Aria, Las Vegas, NV
It was a bit tough finding a Paleo option at Javier’s (many options had corn or cheese or else wheat), but we managed with a nice bone-in ribeye steak before heading out quickly to our show.
(The restaurant is inside of the beautiful Aria hotel/casino, pictured below.)
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Braised Cardamom Cabbage and Pork
I’ve found that cabbage and pork go really well together, and this dish combines those flavors along with the slightly tangy flavors of cardamom and apple. It’s a fantastic one pot meal (in fact, I often make double the recipe at the same time with 2 large saucepans)!
Rosemary Roasted Vegetables Recipe
We’ve been making these vegetables for a while now, and it’s always a hit with the family and guests. The combination of fresh herbs with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and butternut squash along with the leeks is fantastic!
Eating Out Paleo: Honey Salt, Las Vegas, NV
Meeting up with Ben Morgan (from badasspaleo.com) is always fun, and so we couldn’t leave Las Vegas without catching up over dinner. Ben picked this fantastic place off the Las Vegas strip (Honey Salt).
Zingy Salted Lime Soda
This is such a simple and refreshing drink – my dad loves it so much, he bought 10 limes all at once!
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Paleo Thai Chicken and “Rice”
This is a really easy Thai Chicken and “Rice” recipe – I was inspired to make it after eating Thai chicken and rice (non-Paleo) at Nong’s Khao Man Gai in Portland.
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Homemade Thai Chicken Soup
I love making chicken broth in the slow cooker (see my easy slow cooker chicken broth recipe here), and after having some amazing Thai Chicken and Rice with Chicken Soup in Portland, I had to go make a Paleo version to enjoy at home! It’s a simple process – place everything into the slow cooker and leave overnight.
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Eating Out Paleo: Gordon Ramsay Steak, Las Vegas, NV
This is my favorite Gordon Ramsay restaurant so far! I’ve been twice now in the past 6 months, and I’ve loved it both times. In particular, the American Wagyu/Kobe Rib Cap was stunning. By far the best steak I’ve had in the US!
Coconut Masala Chai Tea (Paleo, Dairy-Free)
Our time in India was fantastic (3 Indian cooking classes, a camel ride in the Thar desert, meeting random travelers, seeing the beautiful Lakes of Udaipur, marveling at the amazing colors in Jodhpur, and so much more). It’s definitely gotten me excited about cooking more Indian dishes too.
One of the most common things we had in India was Masala Chai (Tea). We drank it with fresh goat’s milk in the middle of the Thar desert with some villagers, we had it at a random deserted road-side stall, and we made it in every single cooking class we attended.
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Make Your Own Masala Chai Tea Spice Mix/Blend
Looking to make your own chai spice mix to use for hot drinks or to sprinkle into dishes? Then this recipe is for you!
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Paleo Travel Snacks and Paleo Options at Frankfurt International Airport
Traveling is always tough when you’re on any type of diet, and long flights with layovers are the worst! I recently flew from San Francisco to Mumbai with a layover in Frankfurt (so that was an 11 hour flight followed by an 8 hour flight with around 3 hours to kill in Frankfurt airport).
I had stocked up on snacks for the long plane ride before I left San Francisco, but I was also surprised by the Paleo options at Frankfurt International Airport.
Paleo Book Review: Deep Nutrition
Book Title:
Deep Nutrition – Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food
Authors
Catherine Shanahan MD and Luke Shanahan
Producing Healthy and Beautiful Children through Traditional Foods
I, like many people, had resigned myself to the fact that I had not won the genetics lottery for beauty. And like many people, I had truly believed that external beauty was mostly due to random selection and wasn’t something I (or my parents) could do too much about.
Catherine’s book really opened my eyes to a completely new way of understanding beauty and what causes it. In short, Catherine advises that “there are nutritional choices you can make to help ensure that your baby be born healthy and beautiful if that is what you desire.”
There is a symmetry in all of nature that we typically associate with “beauty,” and a healthy embryo will develop according to those same rules of symmetry that allows the baby to be truly beautiful both inside and out!
Most Mothers-To-Be Are Deficient in Nutrients
A 2006 study that is cited in the book states that “[o]verall, 74% of women are falling short on nutrients from their diet.”
And so the body draws on the woman’s own nutrients in order to grow her baby. “If mom’s diet is deficient in calcium, it will be robbed from her bones. If deficient in brain-building fats – as horrible as this sounds – the fats that make up the mother’s own brain will be sought out and extracted….Studies show maternal brains can actually shrink, primarily in the hippocampal and temporal lobe areas, which control short-term memory and emotion.”
This was definitely the part of the book that worried me the most since I haven’t started to have children yet – how awful would it be to harm my own child and myself just by not eating well before and during and after pregnancy (before pregnancy is just as important as during), and as Catherine explains later in the book, eating well after pregnancy can significantly affect the health of your second child. Most mothers have lost so many nutrients after their first child that a second child following in quick session will result in a much more sickly child (and often, less beautiful as well!).
Eat Like Our Recent Ancestors
The nutritional guidelines Catherine suggests differ slightly from Paleo (her recommendations follow more of a Western A. Price approach). In particular, Catherine recommends sprouted grains and raw diary as both these foods are common to many of our near-ancestors across the globe. She also places great emphasis on offal (organ meats) and fermented foods, which many people new to Paleo fail to realize is a huge part of Paleo!
Eat Tons of Healthy Fats
No good nutrition book can be complete without a section on healthy and unhealthy fats, and I thought the chapter on fats was explained extraordinarily well (especially how unhealthy fats can cause heart attacks). The history of why polyunsaturated fats became associated with “heart-healthy” despite tons of evidence to the contrary is a fascinating read!
Who is Dr. Cate?
I’m lucky in that Catherine is actually my primary care provider (her office is up in Napa, California, and I’ll happily make the 2 hour drive just to see her!). She’s spoken at so many conferences across the world and provides excellent care for all her patients.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for free for review purposes. I received no other compensation, and this review is based on my own opinion. Note that some links on this page (and throughout this website) are affiliate links.