What's on the menu today?

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:05 am

Hello Paleo Pals,

We haven't done this in a while but I'm curious what everyone is eating. It always gives me new ideas:)

Here's what's on my menu:

Breakfast: Decaf coffee and 1 piece homemade chicken sausage and leftover veggies (sauteed yellow squash, red onion and red bell pepper)

Lunch: Leftover frittata made with Italian sausage, broccoli and garlic, cucumber salad, nectarine

Snack: Piece of Theo orange dark chocolate bar, banana with Artisana walnut butter (a recent find - I love it)

Dinner: Salmon and arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette

Snack: Smoothie with banana, mango sorbet and coconut milk

Mary Beth

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:43 am

Mary Beth,
That line-up sounds delish. I haven't started off very paleo today - I had a small bowl of Udi's granola with coconut milk and just ate a (rare for me) Udi's bagel with almond butter and honey and a huge mug of Earl Grey tea at work. Lunch will be leftover chicken cutlets and an avocado. Dinner will be grilled flat iron steak, roasted garlic and herb seasoned potatoes and grilled asparagus. Snacks will probably be Trader Joe's dark chocolate truffle or a Pure vegan brownie bar (yummy).

My steak marinade that I created for the first time last week is sublime: Goya mojo (you can substitute OJ, salt and pepper), fresh coffee grounds, cumin, cinnamon, garlic powder, wosteshire sauce. I often use coffee grounds as part of a dry steak rub too -- learned this at Whole Foods. It doesn't taste like coffee in the end, just adds depth.

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:05 am

I love this game!

Today's breakfast was duck bacon and sweet potato with cinnamon, and black coffee. (I add a few drops of oregano oil to the sweet potatoes - YUM.)

Lunch will be leftover steak, a peach, and probably a few potato chips (I'll be out and about...) - and a sliver of chocolate. Mary Beth, I *love* Theo's! They have a chili-flavored bar that's great. But this one's plain, from Lindt, and amazingly good and "ingredient-clean." We picked up our CSA share last night, on our way out to dinner - so I don't have a good prepared vegetable ready to go.

Dinner will be a roast chicken, and probably Swiss chard, and - not sure what else.

I have a packet of Jason's hazelnut butter with chocolate in my purse - too sweet for my taste, but good for a caloric emergency... I can often do the whole day without a snack. Maybe a bottle of kombucha...

Z, I love steak with coffee rub - I can't remember where we learned that trick, but we did it for years. I don't know why it fell off the radar, but I'll be reminding the steakmaster ASAP!

Thanks for starting this, Mary Beth!

Love,
Sara

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:06 am

Sara,

Speaking of Justin's nutella knockoff . . . .it has been reformulated and the jars now contain almonds, not just hazelnuts (the packets are still all hazelnut, at least for now per the company). My son and I are both yellow reactive to almonds so I was not happy about this. But I was so happy to find the Artisana raw walnut butter in little packets (it contains some cashew as well). I carry some with me for emergency situations.

Never had duck bacon but it sounds delish.

Z, your menu also sounds great and worthy of a nice red wine:)

MB

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:10 am

Mary Beth - thanks for that heads-up. I am avoiding almonds at the moment (they were a potential issue in my Enterolab tests, not sure how to interpret those - but walnuts were worse and cashews were better - MRT will give a clearer picture). I have only seen the packets, not the jars; our local store carries an odd mix of flavors, but luckily that worked out in my favor!

I'll keep an eye out for Artisana - I have seen that brand somewhere, but not in a place where I typically shop. (Where was that??)

Love,
Sara

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:41 am

I got it at Whole Foods. They also carry packets of cashew butter and pecan butter. I found these packets near the coconut oil (Artisana makes coconut oil) not in the nut butter section. Going to Whole Foods is like a Treasure Hunt.

MB

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:04 am

LOL, I know what you mean about the treasure hunt! Our Fairway market has a section like that, but on a much smaller scale.

I've used Artisana coconut oil - I know just where to snoop around now, on our next Whole Foods treasure hunt. Thanks! I would do backflips for pecan butter (though it's possible I might not tolerate it - haven't had a single pecan since my MC re-started). I have been looking for pistachio butter, too - I bought some for my grandmother many years ago, when her teeth started giving her trouble. She adored them - when she was younger, I'd sometimes buy her a 10-pound bag as a present, and she appreciated that so much more than yet another scarf or handkerchief or decorative thing.

I have Once Again brand cashew butter, but in a jar. I really do feel as though carrying a packet of nut butter is like insurance for getting through the day, even if I don't wind up needing it. I'm actually not eating a ton of nuts at the moment - more like a garnish. I was wondering whether that might not be real reason my triglycerides were down - not the modest amount of fish oil I take, but the huge reduction in omega-6 oils. But that's just a guess.

I must amend my lunch menu: there wasn't quite as much steak as I remembered, so I'm having a turkey burger as well, with coconut aminos...

L,
S

hazel · Post by **hazel** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:44 pm

Coffee grounds? Like after the coffee is brewed? Not ground coffee?

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:14 pm

Mary beth - awesome topic

and Sarah - duck bacon sounds amazing, i would even do the 20hours of flying to the states just to have duck bacon......

my eating plan is bland given the medical stuff of the past month (and the stitches in my mouth from the oral surgery)

:coffee2:

First up - 'merlo' coffee (ground coffee made in italian stove top) very smooth not bitter
I am finally back to 'hot coffee' after 2.5 weeks of having to drink warm/ cold coffee

breakfast - bubble and squeak (potato, sweet potato, parsnip, cauliflower) with poached eggs
snacks - jelly
lunch - gooey rice with sweet potato and lamb
dinner - tasmanian salmon (fresh) with roasted veges. (i use a bit of rosemary in the pan for flavour)

this is boring as I cant stop thinking about duck bacon ...............

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:19 pm

Gabes,

Mine is somewhat bland too as I am watching after my recent flare. I would do anything to have some real Italian coffee. The decaf I drink is Ok, but I have fond memories of strong French roast or Italian coffee. Ahh, the good old days.

I too am very intrigued by the duck bacon. Sara, where do you get that? Is it as good as it sounds?

MB

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:28 pm

Kathy,
Sorry, I should have said fresh ground coffee, not coffee grounds!!

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:51 pm

Oh goodie, I love this game too! I always learn some new tricks from others.

Today I had:
B - banana, diluted apple juice, coffee (1/2 decaf)
S- apricot applesauce with pecans stirred in
L - Boar's Head turkey on brown rice tortilla, green and black whole olives, and Virgil's root beer (eaten on the run during a busy clinic!)
S - pistachios
D - broiled flounder, sweet potato, fresh kale, zucchini, red wine
S - 2 Jennie's coconut macaroons

I feel like the dunce of the group today - my meals were definitely the least creative.

Gabes - I see you are OK with sweet potatoes again! You know, I can't stop thinking about that duck bacon either.

Love,

Polly

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:06 am

Polly,

Are the macaroons good? I will have to check them out. I love coconut and need to find a few portable sweet options. This is why I like comparing what we eat - I always learn something new:)

Mary Beth

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 7:09 am

Hi Mary Beth!

Jennies coconut macaroons are my latest find! They are AWESOME and the only commercial cookie I have found that I can tolerate. In fact I recently ordered a case of the 8 oz. tins over the internet. They are baked in a dedicated facility free from wheat, gluten, casein/lactose/dairy, soy, yeast, peanuts, and sulfites.

The only ingredients are sulfite-free coconut, organic evaporated cane juice with honey, and egg whites. Absolutely no synthetic color, artificial flavor, or chemical preservatives. They taste fantastic - very fresh, moist, rich, and chewy........ oooooooh, I'm drooling just thinking of them.

I find that I tolerate them beautifully. I recall on this original website and others (maybe 10 years ago) some were touting coconut macaroons as beneficial to digestion. The tins come with plastic lids to keep the cookies fresh after opening and contain small cookies, about one inch in diameter. Two cookies have 130 calories, so these would be a help for those who neeed to gain weight. You can also find larger cookies individually wrapped in health food stores.

If you are OK with the ingredients, I say go for it! I'll be interested to hear what you think.

Hugs,

Polly

mbeezie · Post by **mbeezie** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:50 am

Thanks Polly, I am going to give them a try. It would be nice to find a commercial product I could tolerate.

Mary Beth