Paleo Fast Food on the Go (and Paleo Guacamole)

Due to a cancelled swim class we decided today to do an impromptu trip to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum with some friends (the Silk Road exhibit!). We planned to leave in 20 minutes. In that time we had to get the kids dressed and whip up a snack or lunch to take with us. We packed in a small cooler some coconut wraps (I had the Paleo Wraps), avocados, some left over chicken strips, baby carrots and a Swiss Army Knife (no time to cut anything ahead of time). Water and kombucha for drinks.

After an eventful but fun museum trip back in the car we filled the wraps with chicken and avocado cut with the pocket knife. If the kids hadn't been like little baby birds opening their mouths and demanding food (fast!), I might have cut small strips of carrot in the mix too but this mama bird didn't have time for that so the carrots were eaten separately. Believe me, it was fast food! And it was easy and mess free to eat in the car too when I folded the end of the wrap before rolling it.

This quick lunch was so easy and successful and it made me think that I should prepare some guacamole for trips like this. We could then have fajitas on the go! Some lettuce, pre-fried or steamed zucchinis and mushrooms would make a nice addition or could replace the chicken completely. Below is a recipe for paleo guacamole. 

Guacamole

Autoimmune paleo, paleo, gluten free, vegan, night shade free
Some don't include garlic or lemon on autoimmune paleo diet so leave them out if necessary.

One Avocado
A clove of garlic
Squeeze of lemon or lime
Sea salt or Himalayan pink salt to taste

Mash avocado with a fork, add chopped / squeezed garlic (I l
ike the Kuhn Rikon garlic press - not paid to say that), a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime and sea salt to taste. Easy peasy!

PS. This would also work as a great dip for the Friendly Crackers.

Fish sticks and turnip fries (paleo) and vegan tartar sauce!

We had quite a feast on this third day of our autoimmune paleo experiment. After our plantain pancakes with red currants and some black tea with coconut milk for breakfast we had leftovers for lunch, a green smoothie for snack and fish sticks with "tartar sauce", turnip fries and steamed spinach for dinner. Here are the recipes!

The idea for how to make the fish sticks I got from a chicken nugget recipe from the book Allergy Proof Recipes for Kids by Quayside. I developed an autoimmune friendly recipe from it. It would work for chicken nuggets too I am sure.

Fish sticks
Gluten free, grain free, autoimmune paleo, paleo

Any white fish fillets cut into strips
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
Dash of white pepper and garlic powder (optional)
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp coconut aminos
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
2 tbsp coconut flakes
1/2 tsp salt

1. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, salt, garlic powder and coconut aminos in a ziploc bag.

TIP: Place the ziploc bag in a coffee mug so it is easy measure in the ingredients.

2. Add the fish fillets in the bag and mix. Let it marinade in the fridge for a while if you wish.

3. In the meanwhile mix coconut flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flakes and salt in a bowl.

4. Add the flour mixture to the bag. Close it and mix again.

5. Heat some coconut oil in a frying pan (I use cast iron) on medium heat and fry the fish from both sides until cooked. Fish cooks quickly and it flakes if you cut it a little to check if it is ready.

Vegan "tartar" sauce
Gluten free, grain free, autoimmune paleo, paleo, vegan

1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 small garlic clove
the juice of 1/4 lemon
salt
1 AIP friendly pickle
dill, optional

TIP: Home made fermented cucumber without mustard seeds and night shades is best. I was out of mine (they are too good and we eat them faster than I can produce new ones!) but I was able to find some fermented cucumbers from an ethnic store. They are imported from Lithuania and they have only water, salt, dill and garlic. Making your own is easy, there are plenty of recipes online but I will also post a tutorial as soon as possible.

1. Add all ingredients except the dill and the pickle in a blender.

2. Mix until smooth.

3. Chop the pickle in small cubes and the dill in small pieces.

4. Add the pickles and dill to the blender and pulse a few times to mix and break them a little but not to blend in completely so there are still chunks.

Turnip fries
Gluten free, grain free, autoimmune paleo, paleo, vegan

Turnips
Olive oil
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cut turnips in fries.

3. Spread your fries on the baking sheet and toss them in oil and salt.

4. Bake for 20 minutes or until ready.

Grain Free and Vegan Pancakes (updated!)

It is the third day of our autoimmune paleo experiment. I woke up earlier than usual but don't feel as tired as I think I would usually if I did so. We started our lovely sunny Saturday morning with pancakes and red currants.

I found this recipe from Purely Twins for grain free pancakes. I modified it a little as I wasn't sure if psyllium is allowed on AIP (I think it is not allowed on GAPS diet). I replaced the psyllium with arrowroot starch (not allowed on GAPS if you follow that as well). Next time I will try the recipe without psyllium AND arrowroot, I think it might work out just fine. Or a little coconut flour might help too if it is too runny. The yoghurt I replaced with coconut milk. I was out of home made coconut kefir but will try the recipe again in a couple of days when I have fermented some more. I also added a pinch of salt which wasn't in the original recipe but I like a pinch of good quality salt here and there.

The kids loved these (I think I heard one say: "These are the best pancakes EVER!") and ate several. They are not fully on the AIP (yet at least, I want get adjust myself first) so for their pancakes, per their request, I added some dairy free and gluten free mini chocolate chips (Enjoy life). I ate mine with a little bit of maple syrup and I think one pancake was fine but after I ate two I felt a little nauseous. So for me these are good one at a time. Husband was fine with two and he brought a third left over pancake with him when he left to Rainbow Ranch Farms to pick up our monthly organic meat batch. As a side note for those who remember me as a long time vegetarian: After we found out about our food sensitivities and started having health issues, I had to leave out legumes and nuts and grains etc. and had to take some organic meat in my diet. I still like to cook vegetarian/vegan foods though.

Grain free vegan pancakes
autoimmune paleo, vegan, grain free

1 green plantain (mine were already yellowish as you can see in the photo but they worked ok, green ones make a better batter though) UPDATE 4/18/2014: Green burro bananas work even better than plantains!
1/2 cup full fat coconut milk or coconut kefir
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted (I buy mine from here, affiliate link that supports my blogging)
2 tbsp arrowroot starch (UPDATE 4/18/2014: if your bananas are really green you can omit this and won't know a difference)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
pinch of sea salt
(1 tbsp maple syrup, optional, I don't actually add this anymore but it is for you who have a sweet tooth!)

TIP: If the batter is very loose, say, if the plantains were already very ripe, you can add a tablespoon or two of coconut flour too.

1. Peel the plantain, chop it and add in the blender or food processor (this is a perfect job for little kids!)

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

3. Warm your pan on medium-low heat.

4. Spread the thick batter on the pan. You might need to spread it a little bit with a spatula so the pancakes are not too thick.

5. Cook on one side until you are able to turn them. They are ready when they seem solid. They won't be very easy to turn if the plantains were already yellow.

Have a great weekend!
Sirpa

PS. Transform these pancakes to a lunch or dinner by adding spinach to make spinach pancakes. Or eat them later cold as "bread".

Beef Stroganoff in Slow Cooker (autoimmune paleo compatible)

Dairy free beef stroganoff 
Autoimmune paleo diet, paleo diet, GAPS with slight modifications, gluten free, dairy free

1 lb beef stew meat
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper (optional if avoiding)
1 tbsp honey (optional, excess fructose avoided on AIP)
1 cup full fat coconut milk
A package of mushrooms
1-2 carrots, sliced
about 1 tbsp arrowroot starch (optional, leave out if on GAPS)
about 1 cup broth
Thyme (optional)

Turnips or sweet potatoes (optional, sweet potatoes might not be GAPS legal)

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker and stir.  Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with diced fermented pickles (don't cook these, just add them on top of the food on plate - and make sure they are night shade and mustard and vinegar free if following AIP)) and if you wish you can serve the stroganoff with boiled, peeled and cubed sweet potatoes or turnips. If you eat them with sweet potatoes, leave out the honey as they are very sweet. You could add the turnips or sweet potatoes cubed directly in the slow cooker too but they might become very soft.


PS. I found this grocery list for AIP - it differs a bit from the other protocol I posted before. But I find it pretty useful!

Making crackers on Autoimmune Paleo Diet Day 2

We had some left overs from yesterday for breakfast and lunch. Yesterday I got weak in my attempt not to have any snack so for today I made for snack some grain free crackers which turned out pretty good. I had this great idea to eat them with US Wellness Meat's Liverwurst (night shade free, gluten free, dairy free and egg free!) and sliced cucumber. After eating it (of course after) I double checked the ingredients and realized that one of the spices, coriander, is a seed based spice and thus avoided on AIP diet. Oh well, next adventure is making my own liverwurst I guess (good recipes, anyone?) and I will eat the crackers with just cucumber and maybe smoked salmon. I am dreaming of creating a delicious recipe for some vegetable paste.

I have made these coconut flour chia seed crackers before (often!) but chia is not allowed on AIP. Using the recipe as a template I came up with this new recipe for AIP friendly crackers and they are pretty good I have to say. Even the kids approve them. 

Autoimmune Paleo Friendly Crackers (I think I am going to call them Friendly Crackers)

3/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup sliced or grated zucchini (buy organic, zucchinis are on the "likely to be GMO" list)

1/4 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup warm water (warm so the coconut oil melts)

1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt or sea salt

1/8 tsp garlic powder

A sprig of fresh thyme

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Mix all ingredients except the coconut flour in a food processor or a blender. 

3. Add coconut flour last. It gets thick so you might have to mix it by hand with a spoon or spatula in the end.

4. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put another parchment paper on top and use a rolling pin (or an empty wine bottle from your pre autoimmune paleo era) and roll the dough thin. It will cover the whole baking sheet.

5. Use a rotary cutter aka pizza cutter (also from the times you still ate pizza) and cut the crackers to the size you like before sticking them in the oven for about 20 minutes. Monitor them so they don't burn! (What I often do is when they look almost ready I turn off the oven and let them still sit and dry in the cooling oven. But you still have to monitor them, they could still burn.)

PS. Haven't still given up tea completely - had some organic English Breakfast tea with full fat coconut milk today. Be careful with coconut milks by the way, many of them have all sorts of icky additives. I buy often Aroy-D brand coconut milk which is in a BPA free carton and it is additive free. I also bought some shredded coconut from Tropical Traditions to start making my own coconut milk but haven't started yet.

Lemon Marjoram Chicken

Both the lemon and the marjoram
are from our garden!

As I am planning our autoimmune paleo meals I am googling different ingredients and finding out that there are many different approaches to the autoimmune paleo diet. Some say not to drink coffee but black and green tea are ok. Some say no caffeine at all, not even tea (some herbal teas would be fine). Some say peppercorns (black and white pepper) are ok, some say they are not. Some say garlic is ok, some say you should avoid FODMAPs too and then garlic is not ok. I am getting a bit overwhelmed. (What are FODMAPs anyway? I can't take it in today anymore, will research them later...)

I decided to use garlic and black pepper still, I might stop using them later after I do more research. I also had a cup of green tea in the afternoon (oops). This is our first AIP dinner and it is very similar to our previous paleo dinners. Actually almost identical. Tonight we are having lemon marjoram chicken, spaghetti squash with herbs and olive oil and broccoli rabe sauteed in bone broth.

(After I had squeezed a whole lemon and grated its zest to make a marinade for chicken I remembered that fruit should be avoided too on AIP. Oh well, citrus are at least low fructose fruit. I think it is the fructose that is the main problem especially considering blood sugar regulation.)

I had the inspiration for this dish from my friend Bridgid who served me something similar barbequed. It had thyme instead of marjoram and the amounts were maybe a bit different but otherwise most ingredients are the same.

Lemon marjoram chicken
Gluten free, paleo, autoimmune paleo

2-3 pounds of chicken thighs or breasts (or why not use this same marinade for a whole chicken) (enough to have left overs!)
2 cloves of garlic
A couple of sprigs of sweet marjoram
A splash or two of olive oil
The juice and zest of one lemon
Black pepper and sea salt to taste (pepper is optional)

TIP: To grate the zest of the lemon, use a grater and put a piece of parchment paper on the smallest grating blade (the one that is almost sharp, when you press the paper on it and start grating the lemon zest, the sharp poky parts come through the paper and attach the paper securely on the grater). Grate the lemon and lift the paper from the grater and you can just scrape the zest off the paper with a knife. I learnt this at my home economics class as a teenager in a public school in Finland! Maybe it is common knowledge but maybe useful for someone.

Mix all ingredients of the marinade in a ziploc bag or a bowl or the pan you plan to bake the chicken in. Toss the chickens in the marinade and let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I prefer longer.

Preheat oven to 375 (or if you have just roasted spaghetti squash, just leave the oven on when you take the squash out, they could overlap too if you have space in your oven). Bake for 30 minutes or until fully cooked. I use a meat thermometer to check the temperature (165F for chicken).

I served this with lots of spaghetti squash and piles of broccoli rabe. Salad would be a nice addition.

First day of autoimmune paleo went great. I learnt that I really need to eat before my blood sugar drops. I got a little weak before dinner and snacked on some cucumbers and carrots. I feel pretty good though, calm and serene and am looking forward to the day two of this experiment.

How to prepare spaghetti squash

I had to hunt down the squash for its photo shoot from under the couch
where it had rolled when my almost 3 year old was playing with it.

Spaghetti squash is a staple food in my home. It is very handy for grain free and low carb meals.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (You can put the squash in the oven before it has heated too, just takes longer.)

2. Cut the spaghetti squash in half.

TIP: If it feels hard to cut through the tough skin you can heat it whole in the oven or in a microwave if you use one for a while to soften it enough to cut it in half. In this case, poke some holes in it with a fork so it doesn't explode and cause a huge mess in your oven. You can also bake the whole squash until a knife goes through it easily and then cut it in half but I think it is easier to remove the seeds from the squash before cooking it.

2. Remove the seeds from the squash halves and put the halves in a pan the cut side facing down with an inch of water.

3. Bake in about 375-400 degrees for an hour or until a fork or knife goes easily through the skin.

4. Let cool down a little bit and shred the "spaghetti" from the skin using a fork.

I don't know why the photo won't rotate to a horizontal photo.
The computers don't always seem to do what I tell them to do.

5. Eat as is or add some olive oil and fresh herbs (I use oregano and basil). You can use it in place of spaghetti and add a spaghetti sauce of your choice on it too. Then you don't need the oil and herbs. I use those when I eat it plain or as a side.

Autoimmune paleo diet experiment, day 1

Feeling excited! I also feel this is not that different from what I normally eat so I think it won't be difficult. Me and my husband missed morning coffee until I realized that we should just stop dreaming about it and decide that we don't really need it anyway. I started my morning with rooibos tea, husband with black tea that some allow and some don't on the autoimmune paleo diet (I will use AIP for short). I like to add a hint of cinnamon in my rooibos tea as well.

Just drinking the tea felt so satisfying and it didn't mess with my blood sugar like coffee and strong black tea does. For breakfast we had a soup that had been in the slow cooker overnight. (We also had it for lunch and snack, I kept feeling hungry and ate bowlfuls and bowlfuls of it.) It is a basic soup also consumed on GAPS diet with individual variations in the vegetables and meats. I have bought a big lead free slow cooker (Hamilton Beach, I think it is the 6 quart slow cooker) which is perfect because I can make enough soup for all of us for several meals. I also use it to make bone broth.

Basic chicken vegetable soup for any meal
Autoimmune paleo, paleo, GAPS, gluten free, dairy free, corn free, soy free, nut free, legume free

Home made bone broth (I boil a chicken or leftover carcass of chicken with still some meat on it in water with a splash of apple cider vinegar, some bay leaves and sometimes black or white peppers - although some don't allow those on AIP diet so I left them out from the last batch - and leftover veggies like celery and carrots in a slow cooker on low for 24 hours, you can find several recipes and tutorials online, like this one). I usually add some water as well as the broth is pretty concentrated.

Vegetables (I use most often different cruciferous vegetables like kale, white cabbage, napa cabbage, mushrooms - I think shiitake is sometimes not included on AIP - carrots, celery, zucchini- this time I added in addition to those mentioned before also daikon and Japanese white sweet potato and had my husband who has worked in a restaurant to chop everything as he does it so well :))

Some chicken cut in strips (if you used a whole chicken to make your broth, save the meat from it, tear it to strips and add it to the ready soup, you don't necessarily need to cook it for hours anymore). I keep the meat-vegetable ratio probably at something like 15-20% meat and rest vegetables. I try to eat mostly veggies and just add meat for some protein in the absence of legumes, nuts and other protein sources (there is protein in vegetables as well of course).

For spices I added chopped ginger and garlic (if chosen to include it to AIP), Himalayan pink salt (I have it always handy because I use it for lactofermented vegetables) and herbs from my garden (my favorites for this soup are cilantro, thyme, rosemary).

Eat with a spoonful of home made sauerkraut to improve digestion. You can find plenty of lactofermented sauerkraut recipes online as well as in the book Nourishing traditions, a good basic book for anyone interested in healthy traditional nourishing foods.

For dinner we are planning to have some spaghetti squash, chicken and vegetables. If I come up with a delicious recipe I will post it later! Now off to unpack from our trip to Sequoia. Happy new year to everyone! And please post your recipes to the comments, I'd love to get some more ideas!

Sirpa

What to eat on (autoimmune) paleo diet? Meal ideas!

After returning from our New Year's trip to Sequoia tonight we ate a feast of sushi, some Californian Sauvignon blanc and coconut milk ice cream from Wholefoods before starting the autoimmune paleo protocol tomorrow. I have been brainstorming on meal ideas. We eat mostly grain/legume/nut free food already so this is not a big change. Biggest change is leaving out morning coffee, chocolate, occassional rice and legumes, nuts, seeds, processed foods, sugar and such things.

Here is my go to list of meal ideas for the coming weeks:

Breakfasts/lunches:

-Soup from home made bone broth, greens, mushrooms, chicken (I buy our organic meat from Rainbow Ranch Farms), ginger, sea salt and herbs

-Wraps: Using either collard green leaves, other cabbage leaves, lettuce or coconut wraps (made yourself in a dehydrator - google for recipes - or buy from here or here) wrap in them anything that is allowed on the diet like cooked chicken, cucumber, fermented veggies, avocado, naturally cured olives, quacamole made with avocados, garlic, lemon and sea salt, carrots etc. etc.

-Smoothies: greens, berries and coconut milk or greens, apples and limes and kombucha (remember to keep the amount of fructose per day in minimum though, some recommend max 20g/day).

-Avocado and cucumber with smoked salmon or cooked shrimp - you can also put all these in nori wraps "taco style"

-Stir fry with beef or chicken or pork and zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms - spinach or kale might be a nice addition (for faster mornings, chop ingredients already in the evening and store in a jar in the fridge), add sea salt and herbs

-In the toaster oven: bake sliced zucchinis (put some olive oil on them and for instance Herbamare salt) and premade breakfast sausage/meat patties / meat balls (fry or bake ground meat in any shape you like, you can add herbs, salt, apple sauce, mashed boiled cauliflower, coconut flour etc. to the "batter"). Eat with sauerkraut or carrots.

-baking some coconut flour biscuits/muffins, will have to look into the fructose contents first

Dinner ideas:

-Spaghetti squash (recipes coming soon!) with olive oil and herbs, steamed broccoli and baked/fried/roasted chicken or ground beef patties or sauteed shrimp (sautee in coconut oil with garlic if not avoiding and sea salt)

-Soups with home made bone broth - AIP legal veggies and meat (see the breakfast soup, it works for luncha and dinner as well :))

-Fried or baked fish with steamed veggies (I like to add some coconut oil and Herbamare on the steamed veggies, my faves are kale, bok choy, spinach, cauliflower)

-Mashed cauliflower, beef patties spiced with salt and grated carrots and/or rutabaga with orange juice

-Sweet potato fries (sweet potatos, coconut oil or olive oil or lard and salt and baked in the oven, will post a recipe later), beef patties in lettuce wrap with fermented cucumbers (will post recipe later) and avocado slices

-Roasted chicken (herbs, salt, oil, lemon, maybe garlic if you choose to include that in your AIP, I think some avoid it), roasted cauliflower (toss cauliflower in olive oil/coconut oil and salt and bake on a baking sheet in one layer) and sauteed greens (sautee any greens in bone broth or coconut oil or lard and add salt and garlic if you choose).

-This idea is from a dear friend, Kristin (thanks!!!): Fry some chicken strips in lard or coconut oil and add some broth and greens and simmer until ready.

-slow cooker stroganoff: ground beef or stew beef, coconut cream, home made broth, salt and eat with boiled sweet potato or rutabaga cubes or as is. Top the stroganoff serving with home made chopped pickles.

More ideas and actual recipes later!
-Creamy cauliflower soup
-Finnish Cabbage casserole (without pepper - I have heard mixed opinions about including black pepper on AIP - and without or with only very little molasses and no Earth balance that might be mentioned in the recipe, palm shortening instead will do)

Snacks (I am personally torn on snacks, I prefer to just eat 3 full meals per day but will sometimes snack too):

-If you choose to have fruit on your AIP diet - not everyone does, you can snack on fruit in small quantities (better to be eaten alone, not with meals anyway)

-Carrot/rutabaga/turnip/cucumber sticks (some choose not to eat starchy veggies on AIP)

-raw cauliflower

-avocados (I squeeze lemon on the avocado halves and sprinkle some Herbamare on the top).

Drinks: Water, kombucha (if not avoiding black tea/green tea that kombucha is made of) and water kefir, herb teas

Click on this link to see all autoimmune paleo diet friendly recipes from this blog.

More recipes:

http://autoimmune-paleo.com/recipes/

(I made the raspberry "cheese" cake and it melted in my mouth and tasted so good but it was almost too rich, we froze most of the cake and will eat it for a very long time!)

Excited to start this new experiment. It will be an adventure and I think I will learn a lot and feel great. I will try to post as many recipes as possible and also let you know how it is going. Talk to you soon!

XOXOX,

Sirpa

Experiment: 30 days on autoimmune paleo diet!

I never thought of myself as a person with a lot of illnesses even though I had a lot of colds, stomach issues, eczema, issues with blood sugar etc. After going gluten and dairy free a lot of the issues resolved but some still remain. By listening to my body I have been moving slowly closer to the so called Paleo diet. I don't really like the "paleo diet" name but I use it in lack of a better word to describe it.

The truth is that the modern paleo diet is probably quite far from the diet people ate in the paleolithic era. The plants even are different. The people ate different kinds of foods in different areas. I really recommend this video Debunking the paleo diet by Christina Warinner, an expert in ancient diets. It gives even an avid paleo diet follower some new perspectives and interesting information.

To start the 2014 I am going for 30 days on the so called Autoimmune Paleo diet. My husband will join me and I will keep the kids mostly on it but not sure if 100%. I will follow it religiously for 30 days. Mostly because it is so restrictive that I am curious to see first what happens when eliminating so many foods and what happens when I introduce them back one by one after 30 days. I will keep you posted! I try to report back as often as possible.

From the Autoimmune-paleo website:

The autoimmune protocol is a version of the Paleo diet (no grains, legumes or dairy) where a person also avoids the following:

-eggs
-nuts
-seeds (including cocoa, coffee, and seed-based spices)
-nighshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and the spices derived from them)
-alcohol
-NSAIDs
-excess fructose (more than 20g/day)
-potential gluten cross-reactive foods
-non nutritive sweeteners (including stevia)
-emulsifiers, thickeners, and other food additives

Pumpkin ice cream

I made beautiful orange pumpkin ice cream yesterday. We ate it before I realized to take a photo.
Here is the recipe.

Pumpkin ice cream

1 can or equivalent coconut milk

1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt, cloves and ginger each.
A handful of ice if the ingefients are not cold

Put everything in a blender (I use Blendtech) and add the mixture to an ice cream maker. Enjoy!