Introducing "It's Primal Y'all!"

Hey, I have a new primal blog, with a catchier name, on a platform that will be easier to use (so I've heard), so please go there to continue reading my posts about the primal/paleo lifestyle:

It's Primal Y'all! Primal with a Southern Drawl

 

 

All the posts I've written from the past two months were transferred over to the new website (there's an export/import function for both blogspot and wordpress that makes it easy), and I think I have updated all the links. Some of the photos are not positioned correctly, so as I have time I will reposition them, but otherwise, it looks the same as this one.

 

When I created this blog, it was not intended for primal/paleo info, it was just stuff I thought was interesting. The name is a total dud,  (sandy's check it out -- that's really the best I could do? haha!) and along with the difficulty of using the blogspot editor, I thought it was time for a new name and a new editor.

 

Being from the South, even though I don't have much of a southern accent, I thought this would introduce the idea that Primal isn't just for people in California! (Many of the primal bloggers are out there.)  Southern food is not typically what you'd think of being adaptable to primal ingredients --  after all, grits are grits, and there's no substitute. But I just don't like all the weird ingredients I see on so many primal websites; eating things that are toooo different will cause me to have a primal-fail! so I thought it would be fun to try to put a primal spin on Southern Food!  And I will continue to share info that is interesting as it applies to learning about living in a healthy "primal" way.

 

Thank you for reading, I hope you will join me at It's Primal Y'all! today!

Sandy

Is Paleo Even Possible?

Recently there's been some criticism of the "paleo" diet, but it's not so much the diet that is criticized but the name. People apparently want to condemn the whole idea of eating real food because of the name-- paleo, primal, ancestral, caveman -- saying that we can't possibly know what people 10,000+ years ago ate;  are they implying, therefore, that we should eat junk? Are they serious?

I have no doubt that few of us would want to live and eat like ancient people. And even if we wanted to, we simply couldn't.

Nutty Bites

Nuts* seem to be in a lot of primal snacks. I just made these little Nutty Bites yesterday --they are yummy and you can eat one in two bites (or if you are like my husband, just  pop the whole thing in your mouth). For an extra treat, I put a spoonful of coconut oil on top of mine just before I ate them.

 

Vary the flavor by using different fruit and nuts.  I think dried mango, dried pineapple, raisins, coconut, almonds, and macadamia nuts would be good.  Or try dried blueberries, raisins, cranberries, almonds, and cashews (with "paleo white chocolate" if there is such a thing)!

Paleo Popularity

Maybe I spend way too much time clicking on random internet links but I am finding a lot of paleo websites around the web.  Most of them are well designed, with articles and plenty of recipes. The reason there are so many websites is probably because people want to share the good health results they are experiencing.

The more primal/paleo/ancestral/real food websites there are, the more people will hear and learn about the benefits of eating Real Food!

 Farmer's Markets are becoming more popular as more and more people want to buy real food grown locally, (frequently without chemicals). There's been a huge growth in the number of farmer's markets around the country in the past few years.

Grain-free "Breads"

I don't encourage you to make bread substitutes all the time because I think you will continue desiring wheat bread that is now off-limits. Save these recipes for special occasions or when you have company. I have tried the scones and the cheese biscuits, and they are good enough to serve to company who will probably have no idea they are not made with flour.

Most of these recipes use almond flour which is very expensive at the grocery store. It is less expensive when bought in a 5-pound bag through amazon.  Coconut flour, while less pricy than almond, can also be found on amazon. The cost of these flours is another reason to make hese recipes infrequently.  Store almond and coconut flours in the refrigerator or freezer.

Diet Books

4 Bookshelves of Diet Books

Everyone must be trying to solve the obesity problem now because there are hundreds of Diet Books available. How would anyone know where to start? Which diet to choose? Do most people use the recommendation from friends or maybe a TV host to choose their next diet? Notice I said "next diet".

Americans seem to go from diet book to book hoping to find some way to make it easy to eat the junk and still lose weight. We believe the promises made on the book covers that we can eat all we want and lose pounds.  You might start out well enough, but after a week or two you are tired of the food restrictions, always hungry, tired of counting calories, and you let yourself cheat a little bit. Soon you toss the book aside assuming you are a failure and doomed to keep gaining weight until the next book cover entices you to try it.

Eat Beets!

When I was a kid, I might have eaten canned sliced beets about once a year.  I started cooking with fresh beets when I learned to make borscht in 1995, but I threw away the greens, thinking that only the round red root was edible.  (By the way, as with most other foods, fresh tastes much better than canned!)

Now that I buy fresh local organic beets, we eat the greens and the root. I took a couple pictures while making beets today to show you how to work with them.

Primalizing old Cookbooks/ Polynesian Chicken Salad

There are so many paleo/primal websites online with recipes, and quite a few paleo cookbooks at the library, so you really don't have to buy special cookbooks if you want to start eating Real Food --meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, and fruit, with olive and coconut oils, and nuts. These aren't weird ingredients.  (I tend not to like cookbooks that have unusual ingredients I am not used to eating.)

Many of  the primal websites focus on recreating the old food that are off-limits in the primal world: primal cinnamon rolls, primal cookies and muffins,  primal bread, and paleo pizza! They are ok once-in-a-while, but I think it's a mistake to try to make these substitute foods because they just aren't going to taste the same and that will cause you to miss the grain-based foods you enjoyed.