A Primal Anniversary (and some delicious projects)

Last Tuesday we celebrated our Primal Anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been a year since I went "primal," it's totally a part of who I am now. Over the past year, I have found so many resources and I feel like there's still so much more for me to learn. Luckily, I'm still hungry for more! Amit and I have really enjoyed finding new recipes to add to our repertoire. I think I'm finally starting to rub off on him too - my favorite dentist is doing his Grand Rounds presentation on Ancestral Diets and the benefit on oral health!

In honor of our growth over this past year, here is a sampling of what we've been up to in the kitchen! Though it's just starting to warm up, we've been grilling for a while now. Real men (and dogs) grill when it's cold.

I'm glad I stay on this side of the glass.

Salmon and Brussels Sprouts

Smoky Mexican Tortilla-Less Soup

Venison with peppers and onions.

We've mastered the kale chip.

I found this recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream, which was a total success! We still love walking to our Abbott's for frozen custard, but we don't feel as guilty about eating our homemade coconut milk ice cream.

So delicious and so good for you...
thanks to the added spinach (for the green color)!

Amit is more of a chocolate guy, so I adapted the recipe and created my own for chocolate chocolate chip ice cream. 

It's ridiculously easy - 1 can of coconut milk, 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and about 2-4 tablespoons of honey (sweetening to taste, I make mine less sweet). 

I put all of that in the blender, mix it up, and then add it to our ice cream maker. 

We stir in the chocolate chips (and Amit adds toffee pieces) before we let it firm up in the freezer.

This is becoming a regular treat in our house...

Too bad Amit won't let me add spinach to this one...yet.

Our Kombucha experiment continues...
It's almost time to taste this batch.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Hello, Scoby!

We really have gotten more in touch with our natural side since beginning this primal journey. I make my own lotion bars, we drink herbal teas, and now we're moving to a place where we'll really be able to get in touch with our simple, primal selves. 

I have some lofty goals for our second year of living Primally - begin composting, start a garden, and maybe even friend some farmers who raise local, pastured meat. We'll see what the year will have in store for us, but I know that Ithaca will be the perfect community to support my natural living adventure! 

I Love My Dehydrator!

Right now I'm finally taking a minute to blog after enjoying a sunny day outside. Finally we had a beautiful, warm (aka 40s-50s) weekend to do lots of great hiking! I apologize for the lack of posts, our lives are very uneventful at the moment, especially as we're preparing for our move. 

Since I haven't posted any new food pictures recently, I figured I should share one of our crazy new adventures, cooking with my dehyrator. I couldn't really come up with any good Christmas present ideas, so Ron and Mom were nice enough to be willing to get me an Excalibur Dehydrator so Amit and I could continue our primal cooking adventures. So far we've made sweet potato and beet chips and we're working towards mastering the art of making our own jerky!

Our sweet potato chips!

Beet chips

Look at us making our own jerky!

Our second attempt turned out a little better than the first.

Can't wait to try and hopefully master it the third time!

As for other Primal foodie ventures, we have just started to rehydrate our very first Scoby. We drink kombucha every day and wanted to begin brewing our own batches. It takes about a month to rehydrate the Scoby, so right now we're still waiting to see if it worked. We're definitely keeping our fingers crossed that this project works!

You can barely see the Scoby at the bottom of the jar.

We've actually been cooking fiends recently and have been playing with a ton of new recipes, so I'll be sure to post details about those soon. Spring is in the air and we are getting excited for new hikes and our favorite Farmer's Markets!

Some Plans for 2013

Well, now that we're more than a week into 2013, I might as well post about some of our "resolutions" for the new year. Clearly, 2012 was a big year for us - school, graduation, moves, and living apart for a semester. This year, while free of school (Hallelujah!) still holds big changes in store for us. Hooray for moving, again! Even though we do not know where we will be after June, I've found a few things that I want to start this year.

1. Eat dinner at the table: 

I think this is starting because we'd spend the semester apart. Oftentimes we end up eating in front of the TV, because we've had long days and need some time to unwind. 

Mmm... Our Christmas Day dinner.

(We don't usually take the time to take pictures of our normal meals.)

2. Brew our own kombucha: 

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is full of probiotics (good for you bacteria). I've been reading a lot about it on the paleo blogs, so we bought some from the grocery store and tried it. We love it! It's strange, because it smells like vinegar, but tastes a little like sparkling cider. Buying bottles from the store will get expensive, so we're going to make our own! Those will be some interesting blog posts. 

Kombucha!

3. Read before bed (in bed): 

This is another effort to be more "primal" this year. I need to start turning off the TV early and read before I go to sleep. So far, I'm taking the time to read before bed, but I know I need to go to sleep earlier than Amit does. (I'm old.)

Even Emma likes to watch TV.

Here she's watching Dobby from Harry Potter.

4: Start a compost bin and maybe a garden: 

This one is contingent on where we move in June, but I'd love to start composting to reduce our waste, as well as grow some Primal veggies. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to try this goal out in 2013, but we'll see what happens.

5. Complete the 21 Day Sugar Detox
I've got a good start on this one, only one little detour (wings at Buffalo Wild Wings). I'm eating lots of meat and vegetables, but have modified the program a bit for me (I'm still eating dairy). I figure this is a good way to reset after the holidays. I promise to share a wrap-up post at the end of it, to share my thoughts. 

Well, those are the big goals I have for this year. Depending on where we move, I know I'll have more projects to accomplish, but I think these goals are a good start! I'll keep you posted on our progress, especially with the Kombucha! We've been using my dehydrator quite a bit, so once I master those recipes, I'll share our very primal, very natural snacks!

Our Primal Thanksgiving Feast

Disclaimer: This is our Primal Thanksgiving feast that follows the 80/20 rule, since a few of our must-haves are not entirely Primal.

While I've always loved Christmastime the most, Thanksgiving is right up there, mostly because I love spending the day in the kitchen making delicious food for my family and friends. This year, Dad and the family came out to celebrate and eat with us. I think it was a success, since I didn't hear any complaining about any of the food. For the most part, I think I did a great job for our first Primal Thanksgiving! Next year, I'll be sure to add in even more delicious (and Primal) food!

Hmm... I wonder how you can tell we're cooking right now?

Our turkey is ready for the oven!

I went with my usual recipe, it hasn't been bad yet!

So there wasn't much time for photo-taking while we cooked.

I was a busy girl!

Here are some of our finished sides!

Brussels sprouts

Cranberry Waldorf Salad

Sweet Potatoes - My favorite!

My plate!

(Non-primal foods were only the little bit of stuffing I had and the marshmallows on top of the potatoes!)

And since we had dog-lovers for guests, 
look who joined us for dinner.

So we relaxed for a bit.
Then it was time for dessert.
I made Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dip and we had pumpkin pie!
(Warning - this was so not Primal!)

After digesting for a while, we started to play Monopoly,

on Nate's iPad.

 

So that was our amazing Thanksgiving feast. All of the recipes are on my Pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/hp620/my-favorite-primal-recipes-for-fall/. My long-time favorite has always been that sweet potato recipe, but the brussels sprouts with cranberry-pistachio pesto is my new favorite side dish! We had a really great Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending the rest of the weekend together doing some shopping and some relaxing. Here are a few more snapshots from the weekend:

This is what happens when the people eat too much food.

Emma just wanted Uncle Nathan to wake up and play!

After a few minutes of sitting and waiting, 

she started to give up...

We went to Niagara Falls on Saturday 

and enjoyed the beautiful view from the Canadian side!

It was great to be able to cook our first Thanksgiving meal for family and show them around our new home state. We love exploring NY and always enjoy showing it off to anyone who visits! We're glad Dad and the family were able to come out and spend the holiday with us! Next up, another Christmas in Chicago!

Our Latest Primal Recipes

Apologies for the lack of posts! Between school assignments, student teaching, and my quick weekend visits to NY, time has gone by way too quickly! (And I've been slacking on my blogging!) I'm back in Mass now, busy with school and student teaching. It's so great being back in the classroom! I've already been busy with assignments, and I have my first faculty observation tomorrow (eek!). It's hard to believe that we've already been in school for three weeks! Now I only have to survive three more months before I'm back in NY for good. I have a feeling that with all the work I need to do, it will fly by! Now that I've talked about the work I'm supposed to be doing right now, I'll get back to my blogging break.

Aside from our occasional "cheat" treats, I'm primal and still going strong. Amit's been mostly primal, though he can't quite give up the beer, burgers, and wings. My favorite part of being primal has been finding new recipes to experiment with! Cooking together is one of our favorite things to do, and we definitely miss being together in the kitchen every night.

Here are some of our favorite new recipes. Some aren't totally primal, but we tweak it to make it work!

Taco Salad

So easy and we don't even miss the tortillas!

A really easy veggie bake.

And a burger made of  local, grass-fed beef!

Zucchini Lasagna

It wasn't too bad, but I wasn't impressed.

Think I'll just skip the whole lasagna thing. 

Too much work!

Our absolute favorite new recipe - 

Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.

AMAZING!

I'm trying to get creative and eat more vegetables.
Brussels sprouts with cranberry-pistachio pesto works for me!

For my sweet tooth - 

Fruit with whipped or plain cream.

Oh, and the occasional piece of dark chocolate.

Hopefully I made you good and hungry! In addition to the cooking and schoolwork, we've been doing some hiking, but haven't taken many pictures. Next weekend, Amit is headed back to MA and we're planning to head up to Keene to do some hiking. I promise, I will take pictures then!

The Patels go Primal

So I totally had this post nearly ready to go before this weekend and kept meaning to add a few more pictures, so I could blog before we moved this past weekend. Despite my good intentions, it obviously didn't happen. So, here is my post, a few days late. We're home from NY and all moved in - one big moving post coming up! Now - back to the Primal topic...

What do I mean by Primal? No, we're not becoming cavemen (those jokes get old, fast), we're basically changing the way we eat. We've cut out the added sugar, processed foods, and grains. Being Primal means we're spending more time in the kitchen, but so far it's been a delicious adventure!

Here is what we've been making:

Leftover burgers, avocado salad

Our absolute favorite - pesto chicken

with sweet potato "chips"

Tacos in lettuce "shells"

Kale Chips
They are AMAZING!

We feel fantastic eating this way and love the other aspects of the program: get plenty of sleep, move slowly (i.e. hiking), and take time to play! We are energized and ready to eat locally in NY, while we go on hiking adventures in our new home state! (Although, as we get closer to being home, I am getting a little excited to follow the 80/20 rule. 80 percent primal, 20 percent of other treats - I'm thinking deep dish pizza and Italian beef!) 

Time to go back to being primal. My last day of school is the 15th. Then it's on to Pensacola and back to Schaumburg. We didn't eat that well this weekend and I can definitely feel the difference. I better get back to normal so we can get ready for all that fun!