2017: It's a New Year!

Time to put myself under the magnifying lens...it's time for a "new me".

What is my goal here...in life, how I eat, and what I write on this blog?  Perhaps I originally wanted to "inspire home cooks to achieve the best flavors and a happy weight" by documenting some of my cooking experiments and weight loss attempts.  But it's time to zero-in on my passion.  My passion.

I have struggled for a long time with what my "thing" is.  What should I pursue as a career in the food community?  I'm not likely to work at a restaurant or cafe, do catering, or even work as a personal chef at this point in my life (long story).  So then what product or foodstuff should I put my flag on, and fully stand behind, and call praises on from the highest mountaintops?  What is my passion?

-Meat?  I like meat and happen to think it's healthy (grass-fed, ethically raised, preferably local/organic).  However, it's not my "thing".
-Vegetables?  Hmm, yes, but somewhat boring.  (Unless it's roasted and caramelized.  Then it's sexy, like candy.  But still not my singular passion.)
-Some kind of Paleo-ized less-processed snack food, such as:
     --Almond-pulp crackers?  Not really a dietary necessity.  (And it turns out, I am sensitive to almonds.  More on that later.)
     --Dehydrated banana-coconut bites.  Again, not a dietary necessity (and banana is another food sensitivity for me!).
     --Dehydrated flavored kale chips.  Kale chips are more healthy, but still not a dietary necessity.

Even though I'm still struggling with the WHAT (what particular food), I am rock-solid in my dedication to the HOW (cook at home)--that's the important thing to me.  No matter what you choose to eat, no matter what "diet" or "food lifestyle" you ascribe to, let it be un-processed food.  Let it not come from boxes or bags or a drive-thru window.  Instead, let your meal come from your local farmer, and your own hands and knife/cutting board and oven.  (Or at least from a very high-quality meal delivery service.)  And you get to control your ingredients!

So, what will be the focus of this blog, then, going forward?

Cooking at home.  With whole foods.  From scratch.

I won't change my mind on that.  No matter what food trends and scientific studies come and go, that will always be the best approach to eating, the GOLD STANDARD.  Cooking at home with whole foods from scratch is simply the healthiest, most economical, and (I would argue) tastiest way to eat.

And by the way, Paleo happens to emphasize cooking at home with whole foods from scratch.  I happen to believe Paleo is likely the healthiest, most nutrient-dense way to eat as well.  (Especially if it includes organic/local produce, grass-fed/organic meats and fats, and low-to-no processed foods/sugar/"industrial seed oils".)  So, you'll see more about Paleo popping up soon on my blog because my husband JK and I started another 30-plus day Paleo Challenge on Monday (1/16/17).  I expect to see my health markers (weight, digestion, mood) improve over time on Paleo.  But first I have to stick to it...hopefully for many months straight this time!  More to come soon.  :)

Forward Flavor!

Standard American Diet food pics from Summer 2016

Drafted on 8/31/16...but never posted (until now).

8/31/16: On vacation, we stopped for takeout from several non-Paleo restaurants.  Pizza, Swedish food, U.P. Pasties.  Worth it.

When it comes to baking with my beautiful summer garden fruit, I haven't been able to totally give up the "basics" (the "normal"/gluten-filled versions) of pie, shortcake, and cheesecake, etc.

What can I say?  I'm not perfect!

Homemade Cherry Pie with our garden tart cherries and homemade crust (using organic AP flour and butter)

Strawberry shortcake with our garden strawberries and homemade shortcake (using organic AP flour and butter), and whipped dairy cream

Homemade Cheesecake for JK's Birthday, this time served with garden strawberries and raspberries!

Using up last jar of peanut butter (and some oatmeal) by making Monster Cookie Bars (OMG, they are too sugary, but of course, delicious)

Paleo food pics from Summer 2016...breakfasts, baked goods, and desserts

Drafted on 8/31/16...but never posted (until now).

8/31/16: Paleo Shortbread Cookies (a little softer rather than crunchy, but so addicting!)

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies, versions 1&2 (Against All Grain cookbooks)

Paleo cashew butter "bread" (tastes weird, probably won't ever make again)

Paleo Birthday Cake for my mom!  OMG it was delicious!  First, Paleo lemon almond cake from Against All Grain cookbook (my modifications), topped with dairy whipped cream folded with lemon curd (could easily have been coconut cream), and topped with strawberries.  Yum!

Coconut Haystacks (b-day present for my mom)

Paleo Rhubarb Bars (recipe made Paleo by using almond and coconut flours in crust, and arrowroot flour to thicken the rhubarb topping), with Paleo coconut frozen custard

Organic, fresh-picked (by me!) strawberries from a local farm, and our own garden.  Heavenly!

Experiment: Dehydrating the strawberries--nah, like 'em frozen better

Dried sweetened tart cherries from our yard--delicious!  And beautiful trees.

Dehydrated almond-meal crackers (from leftover pulp from making almond milk).  Very tasty.


Coconut milk ice cream, with paleo chocolate sauce and cherries


Paleo granola made with nuts, with coconut milk yogurt and fresh berries from our yard!


Paleo almond cake with cherries from our yard, with coconut milk ice cream (and dairy whipped cream)


Paleo angel food cake (made with egg whites, coconut sugar, and arrowroot flour) with strawberries, blueberries, and dairy ice cream and whipped cream

Paleo food pics from Summer 2016...salads, entrées, and savory foods

Drafted on 8/31/16...but never posted (until now).

8/31/16: I have maintained my weight loss from our Paleo Challenge.  I am hovering under 135lbs, and even though I haven't lost more weight, I am pretty happy about NOT gaining any back!  Other than my daily 30-minute walk with my dog and chores around the house, I don't get any major exercise, so I really need to start jogging again...(We ran a 5k trail run in June!)

Prepping some new Paleo "basics" at home to bring camping (roasted cauliflower and hard boiled eggs)


Sweet potato and Salmon salad with avocado

Chicken, Almond, and Grape salad

Pesto Chicken Cashew Salad

Spiralized zucchini with chicken, tomatoes, and homemade Pesto made with our garden basil!  So good!  (We do put parmesan cheese in our pesto--it adds so much umami!)

Roasted fennel bulb, braised (pressure cooker) chicken thighs and sauce, and garden asparagus (with organic butter)

Lamb Kebabs with Roasted Cauliflower, Tzatziki sauce and fresh veggies

Barbacoa Beef in pressure cooker (yummy sauce!), and then served with all the fixings on Paleo Wraps (from Against All Grain)

Burgers and hot dogs, roasted sweet potatoes (from Meals Made Simple), and all the yummy sides we like

Bacon, Avocado, and Pear Salad with homemade Paleo crackers (while camping!)

Brat and onions, Roasted Cauliflower and Bacon, and Snow Peas from our garden

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Pesto "Pasta" with Zucchini Noodles and Hard Boiled Egg

Braised Chicken Thighs, Roasted Fennel, Sweet Potatoes, and Asparagus from our garden

Braised Chicken Thighs, Roasted Fennel, and a side salad

Straddling the Paleo and S.A.D. diets

Hello dear readers!  Oops, I unintentionally took a summer hiatus, so now I wanted to put a post out here on my eating habits of late...

How have I been eating this summer?  Paleo?  Or Standard American Diet (SAD)?  Or somewhere in between?  Yes.  Yes.  And Yes.  For right now, I am straddling my new Paleo intentions and my old SAD ways (haha!).

I have now come to realize that changing my eating habits (and health, and life) is tricky, time consuming, and often part of a longer journey.  Some people can come upon a new diet/"lifestyle choice" and just jump off the deep end and do it fully, from the moment they hear about it onward.  You know, dump all the "vile" foods from their freezer and cupboard and gallop off into their new, perfect sunset.  I wish I could charge off in the Paleo direction fully without a backward glance, easily giving up dairy, grains/gluten, legumes, and refined oils and sugars.  However, I am clearly not one of those people.

I definitely have a few hold-ups that are keeping me not-totally-Paleo.  In the spirit of my list making, here they are:

1. Dairy.
We still eat it, and in my heart-of-hearts, I wish we didn't.  But boy, we have reduced our dairy consumption, and my "gut" is calmer and happier about it.  When I really think about it, we have come a long way: we are not buying milk, sour cream, or yogurt.  Now you'll find coconut milk and (homemade) almond milk in the fridge instead.  And I used to have multiple cheeses in my fridge at any given time (cream cheese, cheddar, parmesan, havarti, mozzarella, ...).  Instead, I recently had a non-dairy cream cheese instead (made from cultured almond milk--I'd love to learn how to make it!).  But yes, I have an unopened package of parmesan cheese for making one last batch of garden-grown basil pesto (I still MUST have the parmesan cheese in it, it needs the umami, people!).  And yes, I did buy a 1/2# brick of a local 3-year cheddar for a camping treat (boy, it sure tasted salty--but good--after not having that for awhile).  And I even have organic heavy whipping cream and butter.  And we've been on a weird vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream kick lately.  Progress has been made, and yet, I would like to do another 30- or even 60-day non-dairy trial sometime soon...

2.  Grains/Gluten.
Again, we are still eating wheat/gluten, and I REALLY wish we didn't.  As I do more and more reading on the negative health affects of gluten, it really scares me.  (Feel free to read this and this and this.)  In good news, we are making strides away from eating it daily, and are definitely not having it at every meal anymore!  We haven't made homemade bread (either hand-mixed, like my Sourdough, or bread-machine-made) in months.  Months!  That's pretty amazing.  Another meal staple that we've almost eliminated is pasta: I haven't bought a package of pasta (ANY kind, gluten-y or otherwise) for months.  I've had a few bites here and there (at my in-laws, or a bite of a friend's dish out at a restaurant), but it's pretty cool that I have just said NO to it in our house, and we've survived just fine.  It helps that both me and JK enjoy eating spaghetti squash and spiralized veggies as a pasta alternative!

As far as other grains go, we have eaten some corn lately (hello, Sun Prairie's Corn Festival!), but way less than we would in years/summers past.  We made some garden-grown salsa and had to have some corn tortillas with them (for crunch!).  We are slowly working our way through a bag of white Jasmine rice that I had bought pre-Paleo, but we equally enjoy eating Cauliflower Rice as a substitute under a good stir fry or other dish we'd normally want rice with.

The biggest problem that we have with completely eliminating grains is when eating out and eating a quick meal on-the-go (or getting take out for eating in, when you're exhausted/busy/harried with other things in life!).  That's when the sandwiches on bread, pizza with a regular crust, and other grain/gluten no-no's still slip into our lives.  And for now, I'm learning to be OK with that as long as it's not super frequent.

3. Legumes.
I used up our last jar of peanut butter, and gave away my legumes and most of my other "non-Paleo" dry goods to a dear friend, for better or worse for her (haha, sorry, @BadgerReader!).  I do miss black beans in my ground beef chili, and making homemade chickpea hummus (or buying a container of hummus and a bag of pita chips for a quick and easy "cheater" appetizer when friends are coming over).  We have cheated and had peanut butter in purchased baked goodies and Thai dishes out, but at home we've converted to other non-legume nut butters (almond, cashew, and sunflower butters are very good!).  We are slowly going through a bottle of soy sauce, but will probably completely convert to coconut aminos when we finish that up.  We're eating plenty of poultry and meat, so we don't really miss the tofu we occasionally had.  So, overall, we've not eaten or missed legumes too much!

4. Refined Industrial Seed Oils.
I no longer purchase or have in the house any "refined industrial seed oils" that I formerly thought were healthy and good for us to consume ("vegetable oils" such as canola, corn, peanut, soybean, etc are NOT health foods, read this for more info).  Of course, we still eat them whenever we eat out (by default, since that's what restaurants use for their fats).  And we eat these oils whenever we buy a non-Paleo processed food at the grocery store (I have yet to find an organic corn tortilla chip that is fried in olive, avocado, or coconut oil, though I think avocado oil would be an awesome flavor combo!).  Instead, we go through LOTS of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), to the tune of 1 liter per month between the two of us!  I buy a pretty expensive brand (Lucini Premium Select, from our local grocery store), and I stick with it, because we have tried other brands, but we prefer this one's flavor.  I know there's a controversy regarding whether or not any of the olive oils in our country are actually "real" (read this) and whether they are even good for us per the Mediterranean diet (check this out), but I can't worry too much about that now.  Maybe I'll do more research in the future and/or buy my EVOO from a California producer (if I can find one I finally like).

When we were strict Paleo for that first month, we ate through a lot of EVOO, coconut oil, bacon fat, palm oil shortening, and ghee for our cooking (and baking) as well.  Now I've let that slide a bit, and we are cooking and baking with butter too.  I'd like to move away from this more in the future.  As far as other fats go, we are eating plenty of "healthy" fats in our grass-fed/organic meats and poultry, coconut products, avocados, and raw (then soaked/dehydrated) nuts.  I feel pretty good overall about our fat consumption.  I'm finally used to the idea that "eating healthy fats is healthy"!

5. Sugar, processed and otherwise.
Ok, sugar is my arch-nemesis.  I can give excuses all day long:
a. I am a "super taster", so I need the sweetness to help cover up the extra bitter notes that my sensitive tongue picks up (well, maybe!),
b. I grew up eating lots of sweets and it's in my genetics (thanks, Grandpa Buchholz!), and
c. I am now eating "healthy" sweeteners (honey/maple syrup/fruit), so it's ok (WRONG!).

The bad news: I am still addicted to sugar, both "natural" and processed.  The good news: I have dialed back my palate so that I can eat less-sugary items, and they seem much sweeter (such as fruit, and dark chocolate, and lightly sweetened goodies made at home).  I still fight a battle every day: I want something sweet with every meal--fruit with breakfast and dessert with lunch and dinner!  I am realizing this is my particular struggle, and I will have to continue to rein myself in.  At this point, I am not eating ridiculous amounts of fruit, so I am not going to cut back on that.  I need to just keep myself eating fruit as my only sweet for breakfast and lunch, and maybe a SMALL portion of a Paleo dessert for dinner.  And then maybe wean myself off to having dessert only for special occasions, holidays, or when we're with friends or family.  But I'm not there yet...  Right now I can celebrate the fact that I am not baking as much, and when I do, I am not baking with CUPS of white and brown sugars (and corn syrup, etc) like I used to.  Honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and bananas, dates, and dried fruit are my current sweeteners, and I feel a little better about them, used in moderation, for a weekly baking escapade.  However, I'm not under any illusion that these are "healthy" sweeteners, or that they are lots better than white sugar.  They all affect blood sugar levels and insulin in a bad way.  But I'm still working on it, and moving in a better direction...

As I've said before, cooking and baking completely un-processed foods using Paleo recipes is pretty time-consuming (and expensive).  It's been a challenge to prepare for our camping trips when I can't just throw together peanut butter, a loaf of bread, and cheese and crackers.  I now have a salad spinner (!) packed in our camper.  Eating "healthier" is a journey, and every step in the right direction should be celebrated, I believe.

So, that's what we've been eating lately.  I'll do a separate post soon with fun food pics.  Thoughts, suggestions, comments?

Forward Flavor!

Paleo Food Pictures--salads, entrées, and savory foods

BBQ Chicken Salad (made with homemade Paleo BBQ sauce), with balsamic vinaigrette

...and Take 2 with different toppings (yay for leftovers!)

BLT and avocado salad (OMG delicious)

Hard-boiled egg, bacon, and nut salad


Hard-boiled egg, avocado, and nut salad (see a trend here?), with NessAlla Kombucha


Homemade Paleo Sausage Patties on greens with mustard, and cooked apple with pecans


Broccoli pureed soup with bacon bits and Paleo crackers


Paleo Chili with cilantro (and avocados, not pictured)


Ground Pork and veggies with Asian-style sauce over cauliflower rice


Slow-cooker Orange Sesame Chicken Thighs with over cauliflower rice with a side of kale and carrots


Chicken Coconut Curry with green onions, basil, and cashews over cauliflower rice


Paleo Greek Lamb Meatballs over spiralized roasted zucchini, with dairy yogurt tzatziki sauce and tomatoes, kalamata olives, cukes, and red onion (YUM!), with NessAlla Kombucha

Salmon Bake with cabbage, sweet potatoes, onions, hazelnuts, butter, and thyme

Bone-in Pork Chops with pan gravy, Faux-tatoes and broccoli (delicious!)

Pulled Pork Mexican-style with spiralized roasted zucchini, avocado, sweet potatoes, salsa, lime, and cilantro

Paleo Italian Meatball in the pressure cooker (served over spiralized roasted zucchini, not pictured)

Oven-roasted caramelized fennel bulb (like CANDY!)--served with Italian meatballs

Homemade Paleo Crust pizza with Italian sausage and veggies (and topped with mozzarella), with spiralized roasted zucchini

Saté-spiced Chicken Kebabs with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli

Grilled garlic brats with faux-tatoes, fermented pickles and kraut, and steamed asparagus.  Yes, on a paper plate (we were camping!!).  And all of the asparagus in these photos is from our own backyard garden!

Grilled hamburger with cheese, Paleo bun, caramelized sautéed onions, pickle, tomato, and lettuce (and grilled asparagus, not pictured).  I even did the grilling since JK was out of town!

Grilled hamburger, asparagus, pickle, and potato chips (while camping).

Homemade Paleo BBQ Ribs (brined, with a homemade Paleo BBQ sauce), sweet potatoes, and asparagus--sorry for the blurry shot.

Forward Flavor!