Article Page - Dairy Intolerance

Even before we heard of the Paleo Diet the male half has been telling me too much cheese is no good.  He never went into detail on the why....he just said "can cause constipation"...and I never asked him why he was so against it since I love dairy products.

Some Paleo folks cut out dairy, some reduce their dairy, some will only use raw products, etc.  I haven't seen and haven't really looked for raw milk, etc here in Hawaii and I'm not sure I love dairy enough to pay the extra cost for it either...so we're choosing to cut out as much dairy as we can.  The results -- as long as we're not having a voggy day I seem to experience less post nasal drip which is great!

I'll have to keep tabs on what the male half is eating when we're not together (i.e. - at work, on business trips, etc.) because his sinus problems are still there...then again, we've had a week of bad vog...so I'll check on his sinuses again once we get the vog out of our system.

This is an interesting and informative article about dairy intolerance.   We hope to post more articles on dairy intolerance soon.  A month or so ago the male half and I had a conversation about what was making his sinuses clog up.  We ran down what he ate that evening and decided it had to be the ice cream he snuck in since that was the only thing he ate that he doesn't normally eat.  This led to a search on "does dairy effect sinuses"...I found a great article which I cannot seem to find again...but I'll keep looking!

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Articles Page - Paleo Diet Info.

We've mentioned this page before, but now that we have a page to collect articles and posts, thought we'd post it.  We read a couple times on Flamidwyfe's blog about the Paleo diet...sounded interesting, so almost an entire year later I decided to look into what the Paleo Diet was all about.  This is one of the first article/post we came across.  It was informative, in layman's terms and humorous (not to the point the humor discredited the post).  I emailed it to the male half of this couple and said "let's discuss over lunch".  He read it and that same day we were discussing the pluses and minuses of trying the Paleo Diet.  

The male half actually read up on information similar to the Paleo Diet when his father had bypass surgery years ago.  The dietician his father saw not only recommended exercise and a low fat diet, but he encouraged "cleaner" eating.  While the male half hasn't committed to trying the Paleo Diet 100%, he will eat the Paleo/Dukan meals we make and has even tried the baked goods I've been baking for him.

Our lives have become a little crazier, so we have even less time to cook but as soon as things get back to normal I am going to push for us to eat Paleo for all meals.

Hope you enjoy nerdfitness' rundown of the Paleo Diet.

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Dukan Aji Criollo (it's Paleo too!)

We loved this recipe!

To be honest, it didn't wow us by itself, but when eaten on fish or an omelet, it's yummy!  It's a great low cal sauce.

We came across this recipe...ours looked closer to the second photo on Laylita's blog post.  We used jalapenos since that's all the farmer's market near us carries but we'll be trying this recipe with other peppers.  We actually have a couple aji amarillo peppers in our freezer we'd like to try.  NOTE: remove seeds from the peppers if you don't want your sauce too hot.

We've eaten a similar Aji Sauce at a Peruvian restaurant in San Francisco which they serve with bread...mmm!  We used this sauce on some ono or wahoo we grilled up.

RECIPE:
Makes about a cup and a half, sorry I forgot to measure!
Prep Time: less than 10 minutes
Blend Time: just a couple of minutes

4 hot peppers, seeds removed
1/2 bunch cilantro (stems and leaves)
1/2 c. water
3 garlic cloves
Juice from 1/2 a lime (or lemon, we used lime)
3 T. green onions, finely chopped
Pure sea salt, to taste.

Cut peppers into smaller pieces for the blender.  Add peppers, cilantro water, garlic and lime juice to the
blender and blend until peppers are very small pieces.  Pour sauce into a bowl, add green onions and mix well.   Add salt to taste.  We chilled ours before using it on our fish.

Enjoy...we sure did!

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Dukan Moo Shu Turkey (it's Paleo too!)

We loved this recipe!

I should say, we loved the taste of this recipe, but boy was it time consuming!  While I prepped the meal I told the male half of this couple, I don't think I want to make this again...it took me a while to
clean the bean sprouts (we clean each piece).  Plus I was prepping veggies and fruit for breakfast at the same time.  Just seemed like I was standing at our sink for hours.

We found this recipe on an about.com site.  I haven't eaten plum sauce for several years -- ever since I started trying low carb and low sugar diets...so we didn't try the sugar free plum sauce recipe -- if you try it, let us know how it was!

After tasting the dish, I announced I would be willing to make this again...maybe I need to look into growing our own bean sprouts.  By the time bean sprouts hit our markets, the ends are mostly
brown.

For this dish, we used some carved turkey, but you can use chicken if you wish.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 30 minutes + (depends on what kind of veggies you use and how you end up cleaning your veggies)
Cook time: 8-10 minutes

Marinade:
3 T. Tamari gluten free soy sauce
1/2 T. sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 t. fresh grated ginger
1/2 t. Chinese Five Spice Powder

Other ingredients:
1 lb. turkey, cut into thin strips (we used precooked, but you can use raw turkey or chicken)
2 medium stalks celery, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T. fresh grated ginger
6 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
1 c. sliced green onions
4 c. sliced cabbage (we used Napa, about 1/2 inch strips)
8 oz. bean sprouts
1 T. Tamari gluten free soy sauce
1/2 T. sesame oil

Mix together marinade in a large ziploc bag.  Add turkey and mix to coat.

Have your other ingredients ready, this will cook pretty quickly.   Heat a large wok over medium-high heat.  NOTE: Because we used precooked turkey, we added it in last just to heat it.  If you are using raw meats, stir fry your meats first until they are just about cooked, then remove from wok and set aside.  Add sesame oil to wok, then the celery, garlic and ginger.  Saute for one minute.

Add vegetables in this order, stir frying each for about 1-2 minutes after each addition:  mushrooms, green onions, cabbage, bean sprouts.  Add the soy sauce and turkey with marinade.  Toss to combine.

Serve as is or you can try about.com's sugar-free plum sauce recipe.

Enjoy...we sure did!

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Paleo Pesto Salmon Skewers

We loved this recipe!

The other day we posted a recipe for Dairy Free Pesto which we used on these salmon skewers.  Hindsight, although the lemon slices on the skewers made the dish look pretty, the lemon over powered the pesto...but it still tasted great!  (the lemon was inspired by this photo -- we might try this recipe too!)

The asparagus was ok...but this bunch was so skinny it was difficult to put them on the skewers -- they kept splitting.

This made a nice, light dinner for us on a humid Sunday evening.

RECIPE:
Serves: 6 skewers
Prep time: not including making the pesto, approx 15 minutes
Cook time: we used a grill pan, so we could only grill 3 skewers at a time, approx 16 minutes

24 cubes of wild caught salmon (approx 1 1/2 lbs.)
3/4 c. Dairy Free Pesto
18 slices of lemon (optional)
veggies if you like (we would have used cherry tomatoes if the male half liked them)
6 bamboo skewers (soaked in water for an hour)

Marinate your salmon in the pesto (we left it in the bag for about 30 minutes) -- we used a large ziploc bag.  Thread salmon and lemon on the skewers.  Heat a grill pan over medium heat.  We lightly wiped our pan with olive oil then place the skewers on the grill pan.  Grill for approximately 3-4 minutes on each side, cook until done.  The salmon we picked up was from Costco and definitely isn't fresh, so we don't like to eat it underdone.

Enjoy...we sure did!

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Dukan Thai Style Chicken Burgers (it's Paleo-ish too!)

We loved this recipe!

I asked the male half of this couple what kind of burger he wanted the other weekend and he said "chicken!"....so after a quick search on the internet, we came across Gwyneth Paltrow's recipe for her Thai Style Chicken Burgers.  We made a few changes and it became an easy, tasty Dukan/Paleo-ish recipe.

We usually make turkey burgers in our house but the male half after all these years finally told me he doesn't care for ground turkey because it's mushy to him.  So, we have one more ground turkey recipe coming up since we had one package of ground turkey left in the freezer...from now on it'll be chicken burgers for us.

We are still using our old bottle of fish sauce, so we don't have the Paleo-friendly brand, Red Boat which is why we are calling this a Paleo-ish recipe.

RECIPE:
Makes 4 burgers
Prep time: approx. 15 minutes
Cook time: approx. 13-15 minutes

1 lb. ground chicken (dark meat, but if you're in the Cruise phase, you can try ground chicken breasts)
2 garlic cloves, very finely minced
1/2 c. cilantro, finely chopped
2 shallots, very finely minced
1 tsp. very finely minced red chili
2 tsh. fish sauce
1/2 t. pure sea salt
2 tsp. black pepper

Mix ground chicken with garlic, cilantro, shallots, red chili, fish sauce, salt and pepper.  Form 4 burgers.  Heat a grill pan over medium heat.  If you're on the Dukan Diet, spray your pan lightly with non-stick spray...if you're on the Paleo Diet, wipe some oil on your pan (we used Extra Virgin Olive Oil).  Grill for 8 minutes on the first side and about 5 minutes or until cooked on the second side.

We ate our burgers with broccoli steamed with adobo seasoning.

Enjoy...we sure did!

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Dessin de Shih-Tzu (Pastels secs)

Bonjour à tous !

Comme promis aujourd'hui je vous poste le portrait terminé de Volfy, un adorable petit Shih-Tzu très copain avec Gary. Comme pour lui, l'arrière-plan est réalisé à la main dans différents tons de verts. J'aime vraiment beaucoup cet effet !
Je vous présente donc les étapes de ce tableau :

L'esquisse est réalisée au crayon pastel gris sur Pastelmat blanc.

Je commence par colorer le regard, la truffe, la bouche, et le poil crème autour des yeux.

Je réalise les oreilles et commence le travail du haut de la tête.

Je travaille ensuite la fourrure bien blanche du buste. Il ne reste plus qu'à poser l'arrière-plan.

Je choisis des tons naturels plutôt chauds pour inspirer un moment ensoleillé. Quelques touches de bleu foncé contrastent joliment avec le vert. Voilà le portrait final !

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