Birth Control Pills - Surprisignly good and yummy

How do birth control pills belong into Cave Kitchen? Well, I am not going to recommend using them in recipes.  However, while my Science page has not been created yet, part of the purpose of this blog is to reconcile recommendations of Paleo lifestyle with mainstream science. 

An aspect of Paleo philosophy that I find so appealing is that it does not reject modern developments for being modern. It is not about going back to traditions, but rather, it uses history book along with modern science to estimate the most optimal lifestyle given our current knowledge.

So... birth control pills: good for sex at the office, bad for health, right? Wrong! Actually, birth control has been prescribed for a long time for young women (even preteen girls) to treat various conditions from high blood pressure to endometriosis.  Recently, I was alerted to a rather interesting history lesson into the development of the pill It also talks about the harm and benefits of the pill, the research into making it even better and describes some interesting habits of the primitive cultures when it comes to menstruating women.

On that note, I'd like to digress, just for a second. PERIODS. There - now I said it. Your mother had them, your girlfriend's got them and your daughter's going to have them. Can we please lift the taboo and teach our boys & girls that there is nothing to be embarrassed about? My 4-year-old can give you a lecture on menstruation, reproduction and will successfully identify articles of feminine hygiene (well, because he keeps getting into my cabinets!) I really hope our culture is moving in that general direction and most girls don't have to live through the embarrassment I remember...

OK, back to the topic. Turns out:
a) The Pill protects you from ovarian cancer. Mainstream cancer researchers agree.
b) The Pill does increase the risk of breast cancer. Pregnancy (agreed) & menopause (Resounding yes!) all reduce it.

Basically, the idea is, ovulation is a hard on a woman's body. Doing it over and over again will eventually result in wear and tear leading to cancer. Being pregnant for much of your life or (if you must insist) using the birth control pill (which suppresses ovulation) makes things better, EXCEPT that the pill causes hormone fluctuations which, while protecting the ovaries, creates a problem with the breasts. But now that we are thinking about it, we can work on correcting.

So.. evolutionarily women are supposed to have lots and lots of babies and live for a long time to take care of them (and perhaps help them take care of their babies), but no similar evolutionary mechanism exists to protect women who do not reproduce. Their body is more likely to fail. So for us, the over-educated busy career women of the modern times, the best hope for survival is the ironically natural ovulation-suppressing pill and the hope for producing an even better pill that keeps us safe.

Butter is not a grease

I experimented with the Primal Cookbook's egg muffins recipe.  Basically, you make an omelet (skip the water), pour it into muffin cups and call it breakfast.  Neat idea, yeah?

The Primal Cookbook advocates using butter as a grease. I was a little surprised, but went for it.  Sigh... The muffins stuck to the pan and we wound up eating muffin tops!  They were pretty good, but lesson almost learned.

I tried butter again when cooking chicken legs.  (Usually, I prefer coconut oil, but I am out!) So, I put a little olive oil in, remembering my earlier muffin experience, and added butter. The chicken was yummy, but it lost its skin to the pan, sticking to it mercilessly. The pan was a mess and the chicken, nearly skinless. Still, my kids and I both delight in chicken drumstick and lunch was a complete success.

Have you guys had any luck using butter as a grease? What am I doing wrong?

Food Network thumbs up!

I finally discovered  the Food Network site, which is a surprisingly valuable resource as many recipes have a heavy emphasis on Fast and High Fat. They are not afraid of publishing recipes that include bacon, cheese, cream, and don't seem to be nearly as fond of carbs as the general culture. And I failed to find a much by way of recipes that rely on grains as a signfiicant ingredient.

Today I am experimenting with Old-Time Beef Stew - compliments of Paula Deen . That one can be prepared as-is and be 98% paleo friendly.  It does use some cornstarch, but even Mark Sisson agrees (click & search for cornstarch) that a tiny bit of it won't mess you up. (Soon I'll be experimenting with Arrowroot Powder & Tapioca Flour, which are both thickeners & starches.  Can't wait till they get here.)

Generally, I like to choose recipes that don't rely on flour & other grain/legume-based ingredients, but use them sparingly to achieve a particular cooking transformation (e.g. making broth into thick gravy) and experiment with substitutions later. This allows for cleaner evaluation of the base recipe.

Kitchen Sink Soup

I got this from MarksDailyApple and it was quite amazing with that savory flavor that's almost spicy, but not quite. A 5 star success.

Ingredients:
The basics:
5 cups stock or broth
1 15 oz can tomatoes, chopped (I used two fresh tomatoes)
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
1 tbsp sweet paprika
3 tsp turmeric (I used dry mustard)
½ tsp cinnamon
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
“Kitchen Sink” items: Feel free to include as many of the following items as you deem fit:

* I used celery, bell pepper & chicken breast.

2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium bell pepper
1-2 cups of chard, spinach or another leafy green vegetable
1 cup of pumpkin
4 cups of meat, chopped into bite-size pieces – leftover turkey, chicken, steak, pork tenderloin or ham works best here

In a large soup pot, put oil, onion, and celery (if using). Cook on low heat for 5 minutes to soften. Turn up heat, and add garlic and any other vegetables (except the greens) that you plan to use. Cook for one minute, add spices. Stir and cook about one more minute. Add tomatoes, stock, and meat, if using and allow to simmer 10-15 minutes (we don’t count this as active work since it’s not very hands-on!). Adjust seasonings to taste. This recipe will make about 9 cups of soup, depending on what you add in.

My non-Paleo husband enjoyed it as did my four-year-old.

Paleo Rodeo

Here is this week's collection of Paleo bloggers' favorites:  Paleo Rodeo #18.

My favorite find here is PaleoEats.  Truthfully, it's the most beautiful cooking blog I have ever seen! One of my problems has always been predicting what the recipe will turn out like. The scores of stepwise cooking pictures that accompany each are truly a godsend for a clumsy cook like me!

High Protein is key

After a stellar beginning with Paleo, I've had a dramatic slump over the last two weeks. Cooking Paleo requires a lot of thought and planning (simply because it requires real cooking - no bowl of pasta to rush to the rescue!)  I found myself eating less and less, using yogurt as a meal more and more often, until I slid all the way back into pre-Paleo lethargy.

For the last three days, things have been on the rise. I have made a wonderful observation/conjecture. It goes like this:

• Carbs provide immediate energy, enabling you to wake up and do far more than your base energy level allows for.  Perhaps, this is the reason atheletes love to carb up.
• Protein is the high-octane fuel. It builds up resources that can be used for long-lasting no-crash base energy. Yet, it's hard to get at and none of it is available immediately.
• If my base energy level drops, two things happen
•  I begin seriously slowing down
• One meal does not restore me to health - sometimes it takes more than a day of high protein meals to attain it!

So, bottom line, you gotta maintain the higher energy level or pay the price.

I've been eating well for three days now and I am back to my Paleo high!  This morning was fun. I made a salmon-cheese-tomato salad, which can be improved on by adding avocados, different kinds of cheese and, perhaps eggs and even other kinds of meat. But it was yummy and I felt good.

Lunch had chicken drumsticks and bell peppers.  Easy, low-key, and tastes great.

Blogging about a part of me

Back in 2000 when I created my first livejournal post, I thought of blogging as a sort of online diary. Over the years I watched people badmouth their husbands, whine about their employees, share publicly sexual exploits and realized that I did not wish my life to become a laundry list of routine and uninteresting status updates. I wanted to be someone interesting, engaged intellectually, respected and worth following.

Today I realize that I've gone to the other extreme. I think of my blogs as collection of thoroughly prepared articles and have a problem publishing as each individual post takes several copies, lots of thinking and most never see the light of day.

A friend recently wrote about checking her premises with respect to her health, and focused on the problem with being a perfectionist.I would never, in a million years, would have called myself a perfectionist prior to this writing. However, it gave me pause.  I realized that there is only one kind of perfection (really, one kind of engagement!) that I truly value: intellectual. Having a bad idea is far worse than wearing your underwear inside out.

I am now engaged in the second most difficult task of my life: focused nutrition, which falls just behind parenting. When I say hard, I mean hard for me. Sure, some people might find breastfeeding or differential calculus to be a challenge. Me - cooking and cleaning up after myself! I created this blog in the hopes of that it will help me clarify my thinking. And what did it have to be? A collection of expert-like essays from the start.

Now that I think about it, it sort of makes me laugh. I am writing about my vast successes and sharing "wisdom" with one hand, while crying for help at the OEvolution list with the other.


Perhaps today, I will try a different, more humble approach for blogging. Still no sexual exploits, husband bashing or job whining.  Well, OK.  Just this once.

• Sexual exploits: Trying to get pregnant. Primary difficulty: conception requires far more energy than it used to.
• Husband bashing: He is a god damn picky eater. Boy, is this making my Paleo adventure more difficult!
• Job whining: My boss leaves me alone until the project is completed. I work from home and it gives me an intellectual break from the daily routine. I've had it worse.

Now that this is out of my system - I would like to dedicate this blog to the story of making Paleo work for me, coping with cooking for the family, monitoring my health, energy and other symptoms and sharing the ups and downs. And to my readers (both of you!) thanks for stopping by. Leave me a comment. Comments make me tingle all over!

Icing, skip the cake

It always surprises me how kids can eat that sickly-sweet icing that comes on birthday cake. Mine take it to a whole new level: they eat the icing and hand me back the cake. When I came up with a paleo-licious way of enjoying desert, I told them,

"That's it, guys, desert: Icing, no cake!"  Needless to say, it was a win.

Ingredients:

• Berries of any kind. My kids' favorite: strawberries.
• Whipped cream

You get the idea. Who said, desert is out with Paleo?

The amazing thing about whipped cream is, it's a nearly-unlimited-sinfully-delicious-feel-good-about-it food.  It requires so little sugar to taste sweet that you will usually see "Sugar: 0g" on the label.  Do shop around as most whipped cream these days is low-fat. The costco version is amazingly tasty, full fat and very lightly sweetened.

Pork Medallions in Wine sauce

It was time for lunch. I knew because I was ready to faint from hunger and would have happily done so, had it not been Lily's nap time and me knowing that I'd regret not tending to it now. A bottle of goat's milk prepared, sitting at her side, I started thinking about lunch.


The problem with Paleo cooking is, meat just takes a lot of thinking ahead! It just cooks and cooks and cooks. I needed lunch right now, damned! While I could still handle hot pans without exposing myself and others to danger.  There was a giant 7-lb sleeve of pork I bought at costco, a portion of which had been defrosted in the fridge (I cut meat into portions prior to freezing it and each night make sure something is defrosting for the next couple of days to choose from.) What to do?... Then I felt the beginnings of an inspiration...


Ingredients:

• 2-3 lb of boneless pork meat. If you are using pork chops, make sure, they are thinly sliced
• 2 tbs olive oil
• A cup of coconut flour
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• A few cloves of garlic, 5 gives it flavor without making you think, Italian mama
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 4 tbsp butter

The cooking:
The key to this recipe is, do not overcook the pork!  The process below looks long. Don't panick. Your total time should be under 20 minutes. I list ingredient amounts below so you don't need to keep looking back and forth. Here it goes.

1. Cut pork into medallion-size slices, an inch or so across. Keep them at about 1/4 in thick.
2. Pour some olive oil in the pan at high heat. Add 2 tbsp butter.
3. Throw a cup of flour into a bowl, along with your medallions. Once the oil heats up, lay the floured pork neatly. Pork loves high heat. I learned this from my dad, who took 5 minutes to make his famous pork chops! By the time you lay the last of them, it's probably time to start flipping the early ones - as soon as they begin to brown.  Total cooking time: 4-5 minutes.
4. Slide the pork off the plate onto a platter.
5. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add some more olive oil; once heated, throw in onions. Cook another 4 minutes. Add garlic for just 1 minute more.
6. Pour 1/2 cup wine, 1/2 cup vinegar, 3/4 cup chicken broth. Cook five minutes more, letting some of the liquid cook off.
7. Here is a tricky bit: throw the pork back in. You really want to warm it up in this yummy juicy winy sauce you've got.  BUT before it gets too comfortable (after 1 minute), fish it back out. It's ok if the onions go with it.
8. NOW Add another 2-3 tbs butter and melt it in the sauce. This will give the whole thing an amazing rich flavor. Want something fun? If you are in the habit of saving bacon fat, get that in, too!
9. Pour the sauce over the medallions. Serve!

I simply served mine with a garden salad. The sauce is so light in flavor, it can stand on its own. The upside of a salad - no more cooking!

My kids liked it. My kids' playdate liked it. My husband liked it. Even I liked it!  This is a great dish to double or triple as it'll save so well and will stand up to microwaving.

Culinary puzzle

My husband is still skeptical about paleo. Our taste preferences couldn't have been more different to begin with - and throwing grains out of the equation was just about the last straw. Still, I wanted to be able to connect with him, even where fundamental disagreements were in the way.

He's got a mathematical bend, so I figured I'd try his sensitive spot:

Culinary puzzle
OK, so you are told to make a grain-free bean-free salad.
So far you've got cubed cheese & ham. Keep adding ingredients till it's yummy!

It worked! Before long we had a beautiful salad put together, so tasty, I wouldn't change a thing!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tomatoes, diced
• 1-2 cups of finely shredded lettuce (I am not a big lettuce person, so I don't like a lot of greens in my salads!)
• 1 cup of leftover meat (or lunch meat) of your choice (mine was baked ham, still trying to get through it!)
• 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese, small cubes
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• Optionally: add diced boiled egg and crumple crisp bacon while serving (don't put bacon in the salad bowl as it'll become soggy in storage)
  
  Dressing:
• 3 tbs Olive oil
• 1 tbs lemon or lime juice
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt

Jeff's requests:

1. Lettuce has to be shredded fine to really soak in the dressing.
2. No soggy bacon
3. Italian dressing should be tangy, not sweet (note: no sugar in my dressing!)

Yum! the only problem - not enough.  :-)  Once husband Jeff got started on it, he couldn't put it down.  I was especially happy with the dressing. Spicy is always a problem with young kids around - I am forever looking for that hint of something that will delight adult palates while getting by the little ones.  Big success!

Beautiful holiday ham for a busy mom

The best secret my mother-in-law has passed to me is baking ham. Whenever I serve my creation, people take in a sharp breath and ask me if I made it myself.  "Well, it started with a little pig name Pete..." no one wants to hear the rest.

The truth is, it's the easiest recipe I have in my repertoire. Before Paleo, I kept it handy for pretending I knew how to cook when we had company.

Ingredients: Ham.

Yeah, really!  One problem, though. Grocery stores frequently fail to carry ham during the off-season.  I found out, Costco has them all year round, cheap and beautiful! While you are there, I recommend picking up a stack of "catering" pans - think, foil roasting pans. Really, you don't want to have to clean the pan after a good meal, do you?

Fill the pan with 3 in or so of water. Put the ham face down in it. Sprinkle some love & joy. (That's not a special spice, it has to come from the inside!) Set your oven to 350F, timer to 2 1/2 - 3 hours and take your kids to the park.

When you come back, you'll have a delicious dinner ready for you. I would skip any kind of a glaze - all that sugar! (If you want a sugary treat, pour a little maple syrup over the ham.) It tastes great as-is, with some veggies on the side.

And for the rest of the week, you have a beautiful option for omelets, o'derves, snacks and just about anything else. Oh, and don't forget to save the drippings to add to your ham bone for a delicious soup.  (Coming soon!)

O'derves for lunch get high praise

One of the difficulties of cooking Paleo for a newbie is, well, there is a lot of cooking! You start out with raw ingredients and 4 pans, 3 pots & 7 dirty bowls later, you have a meal. Seriously? Three meals a day? Yes, mom, I know, that's how you had to do it too. But I was very quickly overwhelmed.

Then I discovered "sliced bread" of Paleo! You know, those cute little things at corporate events and weddings that one just cannot resist? Really, how much does it truly matter what's in it when it's on this dainty little toothpick? One can pick it up, play with it, eat it - it's equally good for gray hair in tuxedos & bottomless toddlers running around the house.

Ingredients: cold meat, raw veggies, cheese.

Here are a few options I've created that got the most "orders" from the crowd:

• A slice of hot dog & a bell pepper square on a toothpick
• Ham and cheese melt: three squares: baked ham, cheddar cheese, baked ham. Toasted for 5 minutes. Yum!
• Alternating circular slices: hot dog, string cheese, hot dog... Looks as much fun as it tastes!
• Ham, avocado, bell pepper, ham

You get the idea. I had to make them again and again! I seriously needed a break from heavy cooking today. It was a blast!