Swap Out Your Sugar.

I recently did a short segment on a local news station.  Check it out!

http://www.twelve.tv/news/newsitem.aspx?newsid=1431&newsitemid=23492

Swap cereal and juice for eggs and fruit and you'll save yourself over 11tsp of sugar.

Instead of a sandwich with chips and soda opt for chili with a side salad and sparkling water.  BAM! you just decreased your sugar intake by 15+ tsp.

How you might ask?  Take the total carbohydrate of any food and divide by 4.  This will tell you how many tsp of sugar you just fed your body.

Health-Bent's Primal Cravings

A coworker recommended the blog health-bent.com to me last year, and now I've been recommending it to many of my clients who are gluten and dairy free.  It's great for clients with families who need quick easy meals or "treats" for special occasions.  Even though I'm becoming more and more convinced that cookbooks are becoming obsolete, the Keatley's first cookbook 'Primal Cravings' looked too good to pass up.  I now have my mother-in-law to thank for this past months delicious meals:

Chili Dog Chili- The recipe in the cookbook is a little different than the website version, but it really does taste like a chili dog minus the bun. We topped ours with diced pickles a squirt of mustard and some homemade kimchi. The best part was that it was ready to eat in less than 30 minutes.  To be honest, I actually despise hotdogs; it's an acquired food aversion from working at camp. However, we bought grass fed beef dogs from Whole Foods, and when mixed into the chili, they were quite tasty.  This dish is perfect for Super Bowl Sunday, which is when we are making it again. While it's great even without any beans, I did add 1/2 a can to the leftovers just to stretch it for two more meals during the following week.

Hot and Sour Chicken Soup- I originally made this for myself and froze some of the leftovers.  I didn't feel that the broth had enough flavor, so I added about 2 tsp of miso to each bowl and that really brought the dish together.  Ryan recently came down with the flu while in DC for work.  The night he came home I thawed out the leftovers and he added lots of sirracha to his bowl in hopes of clearing out his sinuses.  For the most part, I'm not a huge chicken and rice soup person, but the Asian flavors in this version are right up my alley.  Ever since it turned cold, all I want to do is eat stir-fry and curry. I couldn't find the shiratake mushroom noodles recommended in the book and had to settle for kelp noodles; neither of which I have used before. The Keatleys are right, the kelp noodles aren't anything to get excited about.  But for someone with a grain allergy, or diabetes they would be a nice alternative.  In the future I may forgo the noodles and use a little white rice instead, or just add extra carrots and perhaps some daikon radish.  Never could leave a recipe alone.  We ate the remaining leftovers last night (I added extra chicken to stretch it...see a pattern here) and topped it with kimchi, super duper delicious.

Thai Chili Chicken Meatballs- No paleo cookbook would be complete without a meatball recipe.  We ate ours with stir-fryed veggies.  The sauce was quite sweet, so we added extra sirracha...what else right?  I let Ryan make the meatballs, which he doesn't make on a regular basis, so ours were more of a Tai Chili Chicken meat-blobs.  I think these would be great for pot-luck or party.  A person could serve the sauce on the side and let guests decide how much they want.

Pumpkin Chili-Again, no paleo cookbook would be complete without at least one or two chili recipes.  I made the website version several months ago, and it was good.  I used cubed butternut squash instead of pumpkin 1.because TJ sells it.  2. because sometimes I'm lazy and want pre-chopped veggies.  I'm not sure I loved the flavor combination, but it's nice to have variety and I do plan on making it the "real" way sometime in the future.

Chunky Monkey Muffins-This was my first time cooking with tapioca flour, and the muffins came out amazing!  The nice thing about tapioca flour is that it doesn't cost a mini-fortune, unlike coconut flour and some almond flours.  For people wanting a low carb option, this is not it.  For people with a sugar addiction, this is not for them.  For someone wanting a Gluten, Dairy, Grain Free uber tasty muffin that isn't crumbly and dry, and that could easily be made nut free, this is for you!  I was licking the spoon and spatula before they even made it into the oven.  Sooooo good.  Ryan is looking forward to the gingerbread muffins and the apple tart.

Cowboy Breakfast Skillet-We have not made this yet, but it contains eggs, avocados, sweet potatoes, and hot sauce...what's not to like?

With so many of the recipes on their website you might be wondering why buy the cookbook?  Ummmm..... I truly don't know.  I guess I just like to have a real cookbook.  Plus it has extra recipes not on the website such as chorizo stuffed pork chops which I have promised to make for Ryan's little brother Chad.  And the biscuit recipe will soon be paired with gravy instead of honey butter for a Saturday morning brunch.  Unfortunately I now feel the need to invest in a mandolin so I can make the butternut squash lasagna and plantain chips that go with the Chili Pie (aka-nachos).