In other news, we are getting ready for Halloween.  I’m still getting used to doing Halloween every year again.  Sometime around 13 years of age I got my first of many menial food service jobs. My initial foray was at a Dunkin’ Donuts.  Back then Dunkin Donuts had a long coffee counter where regulars hung out and we had to wear hideous brown, orange, and pink thigh-length smocks with matching visors. Even though I got sent home early my first day on the job for consistently making inaccurate change, they kept me around until I moved up in the world by landing a choice cashier job at a local bookstore.  I think the onset of regular employment marked the end of trick-or-treating.  Once you are actually able to afford the bags of candy from the supermarket yourself, the trick-or-treat excitement dies away.   I mostly ignored Halloween from that point on until a few years ago when I realized my children were going to be trick-or-treating soon.  Now it’s a really big deal, on par I’d say with Easter or Thanksgiving (not quite at the level of the big “C”).  They are both going as werewolves although there is still time for last-minute mind changes.  I offered to go with them as the victim, perhaps with a prosthetic bloody stump or a fake neck gash but they just looked at me with big sad eyes and said softly, “Please, mom, no”.  Oops.

It’s a dark, wet, gloomy morning here in the mitten. There is no doubt that fall is upon us.  The leaves are beginning to change, my garden is (finally!) dying, and huge flocks of thousands of birds have been occasionally sweeping through our tree tops.

All this fall-ness makes me want to cook squash.

Last night I put together a delicious stuffed squash dish that I thought I’d share.  Not only is this a complete meal in itself, but the whole dish only took me a little over a half hour from start to finish.  I think I’ll be making variations on this a lot this fall.

The winner of the Primal Blueprint Cookbook is Caroline Bull! Caroline, send me an email with your address and I’ll ask the good people at Mark’s Daily Apple to send your cookbook out.

I also decided to choose another winner to receive a free bracelet courtesy of Synergy Beads. I love these bracelets and my entire family (even the kids) wears them. In addition to being beautifully made, the CEO of Synergy Beads is a personal friend who puts an incredible amount of personal care and consideration into each and every bracelet. I can’t recommend this product highly enough. The winner of a free Synergy bracelet is Neva! Neva, take a look at the Synergy Beads site and send me an email with your choice of bracelet.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. I got some awesome ideas and will be posting some more recipes soon.

Incidentally, my pizza crust recipe was posted on Mark’s Daily Apple yesterday. If I make it as far as the voting and if any of my readers sees fit to vote for me, I will be most grateful! I’d love to see what this whole Sous Vide Supreme thing is all about!

If you don’t eat dairy or do not tolerate cheese, my apologies in advance.  I have made this pizza crust without the parmesan cheese but it was not as firm as it is otherwise.  I welcome you to give it a shot, though, and see what you think.  I have also made this recipe using zucchini instead of the eggplant.  If you do this, just make sure you salt the shredded zucchini and squeeze out the excess moisture.  Also, make sure you end up with a pound of shredded zucchini before you add the other ingredients.  If you’re not sure how to get the water out of shredded zucchini, take a look at my recipe video from last year.

I hope this recipe is as useful to you as it has been for me. As I mention in the video, half of this crust, which I consider to be one serving, has about 330 calories. Not too shabby! Wishing you many years of delicious primal pizzas!

Okay, so I said I was going to have a giveaway and here it is.

The prize: Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint Cookbook

To enter to win this fabulous prize, complete the following tasks:

1. Like This Primal Life on Facebook Be sure you use this link so that you are liking the PAGE, not joining the GROUP (which was a mistake and will probably be deleted eventually).
2. Then, leave a comment on this post telling me what recipe you’d most like to see on This Primal Life. Perhaps you’d like to see a primal version of a favorite non-primal dish, or maybe you’d just like to eat more shrimp and are looking for shrimp recipes. Feel free to be as vague or specific as you like. Mainly I’m just looking for ideas.

The deadline is Tuesday, September 28 at midnight EST.

I will pick 1 qualifying entry at random (probably name chosen from paper bag method).

By the way, have I mentioned I am officially in nursing school now? I have been taking prerequisites for three years in preparation of this current one. Now I actually do clinical coursework in hospitals, which, incidentally, is fascinating. Mostly, since this is my first semester at this, I just follow a real nurse around and ask questions. On Tuesday, though, a nice woman offered to allow the student nurse (me) to give her injection. I wouldn’t say it went great, but I’m learning.

Working in the hospital is also a constant reminder of why one would want to make their health a priority.  People, being a patient in the hospital S-U-C-K-S.  And though many hospital patients find themselves there through no fault of their own, there’s a good number who might have prevented their current circumstances.

Since this is my blog and I can, I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to debunk a few myths about nursing in general.

Myth #1: The doctor’s are the bosses of the nurses.
I will admit I used to think this.  Well, this is not how it works. At all. The doctors have their own bosses and the nurses do, too. Nursing is a totally separate profession and the physicians and nurses are supposed to collaborate to provide the best care possible.  Physicians make medical diagnoses and nurses make ‘nursing diagnoses’ (bet you never heard of those, huh?) and develop care plans for patients based on these diagnoses.

Myth #2: The nurses have to follow the orders of the doctors.
Again, seems like it would be true but actually is not. One of the most important jobs of a nurse is to act as an advocate for the patient and their ‘last line of defense’ against errors or poor judgment. So, if a physician orders a medication or treatment that a nurse believe is harmful to a patient, the nurse does not and should not do it and speaks up.

Myth #3: Good nurses are sympathetic, motherly types who like to fetch ice chips.
Actually, the fact is that if you truly don’t care about other people, nursing probably isn’t for you. However, the field of nursing is much more broad than most people realize. For example, you can become a nurse and never even do clinical work, if you don’t like it.  The profession has been changing dramatically for quite a while.  Unfortunately, nurses are still mainly portrayed in TV shows and movies as dewy-eyed doctor-helpers or sadistic shot-givers.  :sigh:

Now that we’ve got that sorted out, I’ll also mention that this 12 month nursing program I’m in is a killer. Turns out it’s the 4th best BSN program in the country!  There’s not lots of extra time for fun free-time projects and finishing the cookbook by next Saturday is a total impossibility. However, I feel bad about holding on to the pizza crust recipe when I said I would publish it by the end of the month. So I’ve decided to make the pizza crust on camera this weekend and enter it in the Primal Blueprint recipe video contest! I’ll post it when it’s done.

Releasing my inner Grok

In case you haven’t heard, this year’s Primal Challenge is going to begin on September 7, the day after Labor Day.  It looks like this year’s challenge is going to be better than ever.

For those of you who weren’t around for the challenge last year, here’s how it worked.  In addition to encouraging individuals to make a personal commitment to the primal lifestyle for 30 days, Mark would post a new contest on his blog every day.   The easier contests only required you to do something like leave a comment or friend him on Facebook.  Other contests required more work – like making a recipe video or writing an essay.  Each contest had a prize with a primal theme, some bigger than others of course.  I was a finalist in both the fitness and recipe video contests last year but didn’t win.  Mark did send me a t-shirt, though, which I thought was kind of cool.

Mark plans to focus this year’s contest on “aligning your lifestyle behaviors with each of the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws.”  Maybe they talk like this all the time at the Sisson household, but I always chuckle a little when I hear ‘The 10 Primal Blueprint Laws” because it sounds like some sort of kooky religion.  Until, of course, you find out what the “laws” actually are.   Need a refresher?  Here you go:

1. Eat lots of animals, insects and plants.

2. Move around a lot at a slow pace.

3. Lift heavy things.

4. Run really fast every once in a while.

5. Get lots of sleep.

6. Play.

7. Get some sunlight every day.

8. Avoid trauma.

9. Avoid poisonous things.

10. Use your mind.

(Question: why are insects specifically mentioned in the first law?  Are they not animals?)

As cooler weather moves in and we settle into new routines, it is a wonderful time to focus awareness on the diet and lifestyle choices that you want to include in your life this coming year.  Use the challenge as an opportunity to set in place a well-practiced consistency that will allow you to avoid the binge and restrict drama that accompanies the holiday season and new year.

If you are new or new-ish to The Primal Blueprint, there are a lot of resources these days to help you get going.  Mark has even put together a fancy Primal Blueprint Essentials Kit which walks you through your first 30 days step-by-step.  People generally lose 4-8 pounds of body fat in their first 30 days, but in my experience huge changes in energy levels and an increased sense of well-being come in just a week or two.

For those of you more experienced with the The Primal Blueprint, the annual challenge is a fun way to revisit the fundamental principals.  In typing out the Primal Blueprint Laws just now, I see that I really haven’t put made play a priority in my life.  I happen to be recovering from a sprained ankle at the moment, but I need to do some thinking about how I can make active play a regular part of my life.  Also, for me, if I’m not paying attention, my diet tends to slip back into something that may be more convenient but less healthy.  I intend to use this month as a chance to focus on being more consistent.  I also look forward to the inspiring transformation stories that always emerge during this time.  Mostly though, I want to win the cow!!

In the spirit of the challenge, I’ll be having a few giveaways here at This Primal Life in the coming month.  Check back for a chance to win some free stuff.

So what about you?  Whether you are new to primal or have been at this a while, are you planning to participate in the challenge this year?  Which of the Primal Blueprint Laws, if any, do you plan to focus on?

There are two things you may not know about me.  The first is that I enjoy eating large quantities.  I don’t know how I developed this inclination, but there it is.  I distinctly remember the day I was able to eat entire can of Spaghetti-O’s, just like my big brother.  I was so proud.  I once asked my husband if he had ever dated a woman who could eat more than me.  He responded with a nervous look but I eventually got him to admit that he hadn’t.  Luckily, I eat a lot vegetables or I’d probably be getting lap band surgery by now.  As I’ve gotten older I’ve had to tone things down somewhat, but I’ll always be a big eater at heart.

The other thing is that, like the hot-blooded American I am, pizza is one of my favorite foods.  Despite the countless hours of my life I’ve spent learning about and working with ingredients and cuisines of all kinds, I still have the same favorite foods as your typical 3^rd grader.   Oh well.

Now that you know these things about me, you should also be aware that it has been my mission for well over a year now to come up with what I consider to be an ideal primal pizza crust.  The problem with most primal or paleo pizza crusts that I have tested is that they are either so heavy and caloric that you can only eat a slice or two (I’m thinking your typical almond flour crusts or ‘meatzas’), or they are unreliable and floppy.  I’ve heard good things about cauliflower crusts but truth be told I‘ve never been able to make that work.

In order to qualify as ideal in my mind, a crust must meet all of the following requirements:

1)   The pizza crust must not be overwhelmingly caloric.

2)   There must be no mistaking the crust for a frittata!

3)   The crust must stand firm, allowing you to easily enjoy the pizza with hands, not fork.

4)   The crust must be relatively easy to make.

5)   The crust must, at the very least, have a neutral flavor that does not interfere with the ‘pizza experience’.

Well, I’ve done it.  My primal pizza crust not only meets all of my ideal criteria but it is only 330 calories per serving, allowing plenty of ‘room’ for your favorite toppings.  A serving can be half of a large pizza (see photo) or, if you prefer, an entire individual pizza.  Further, I’ve managed this without using any weird ingredients or complicated techniques.  You can easily throw this crust together on a busy weeknight.

Sorry for the teaser but I am waiting until September to share the recipe in the new cookbook.  I’m just so happy to have finally accomplished this that I couldn’t wait to share the news.   I know you guys will come up with all sorts of excellent additions and modifications so I am looking forward to that, too!

My kitchen is a mess.  I don’t mean messy, I mean it has too much of too many types of food in it.   It looks like three different families just stopped by and dropped off their weekly groceries.  I’m trying to remain calm about it.   “It’ll all work out,” I say to myself. “I’ll just make some big soups”.  But in fact it all has me a little nervous and confused. 

First off, this is the time of year that my farm share really kicks into high gear, which is always a little nerve wracking.  This week I came home with, among many, many other things, six red bell peppers, a sack of chard that could smother an infant, and five pound of green beans.  Add to this the groceries from my near daily trips to the store to buy bits of this and that for the primal cookbook I’ve been working on.   Keeping the right kind of food around for the cookbook is a challenge all on its own.  Some recipes end with ingredients leftover, others are still waiting for a single ingredient I forgot.  Still others need more work (and another trip to the store).  Finally, for some reason I can no longer recall, we decided to grow a garden.  Yesterday I counted 12 cucumbers and more cherry tomatoes than I could eat in a year.

The kitchen chaos and my desire to create meals using up what we have on hand has led me to contemplate some food and flavor combinations I might not have thought of otherwise.  These are the thoughts that plague me:

How would coconut milk work in a tomato soup?

Avocado with almond butter: delicious or disgusting?

Lime with roasted beets?  And curry?

Primal Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

It is in this spirit that I introduce to you the rosemary olive oil cake.   I ran across the original recipe for this cake at 101 cookbooks some time back and was intrigued by the idea of using rosemary and olive oil in a cake, especially a cake that has big chunks of chocolate.  The end product is sort of what you’d imagine:  a little bit strange and a little bit wonderful.

I adapted the cake to use almond flour.  Unfortunately, I opted to use the almond meal from Trader Joe’s (which includes the skin of the almond) instead of almond flour from blanched almonds.  While tasting fine, the cake turned out very dark which means you couldn’t see the flecks of rosemary or even the chocolate very well.  I recommend making the cake with a lighter flour for maximum effect.

It’s six in the morning and I’ve just started the coffee. Today is the day of our big trip. The whole crew will be returning to my birthplace, Portland, Oregon and then the coast. This will be the girls’ first plane trip and, subsequently, my first plane trip with them. Until now I’d have preferred chewing tinfoil to sitting next to my kids on an airplane for any length of time. “Family vacation” seemed a bit like an oxymoron. Since they are almost 5 now I am starting to wonder if I’m being unreasonable. I must admit, however, that I am still not overjoyed at the prospect of spending nearly 6 hours trying to conceal their true nature (loud-talking, squirmy, dramatic, chaos-making) from the other passengers. I can only hope that some other sorry soul has a loud infant or hyperactive toddler that will steal the attention away from whatever inappropriate thing my kids are doing. It is times like these that I feel I didn’t adequately appreciate my 20’s. There was nothing to do on the plane but read a book and gaze out the window as I indulged in my own self-important thoughts. I didn’t have to worry about someone else getting bored, did not need to accompany anyone to the bathroom, anticipate their levels of hunger and thirst, be constantly available as a human pillow.

On the other hand, I get to share in their excitement and enthusiasm as we board this strange machine that can take us higher than the clouds.

As if simply making it through the day was not enough, I have set a goal for myself. I am determined not to waste a bunch of our vacation money buying snacks and little things at the airport. This is a weakness of mine. Once I go into vacation mode, money has no meaning. I only care about satisfying my immediate desires. I cannot guarantee that certain celebrity tabloid magazines will not be purchased, but I AM packing all the food we will need for the entire journey. We are leaving our home at 12:30pm EST and arriving at our destination hotel at about 8pm PST. That’s 11 hours of transit time and at least 1 meal and 1 snack each. Unfortunately I do not have time to prepare any of my cool green sandwich bread. Here’s what I got:

Celery with almond butter
Almond butter packets, for those who like it straight
Roast beef from the deli
Mozzarella cheese sticks
Clementines
Carrot and red pepper sticks
Boiled eggs
Cashews
Erythritol (just in case I need a coffee)

primal travel snack food

Nothing fancy here. Mainly these are items still remaining in our fridge or pantry, not even special things I bought for the trip. Wish I had some clever magic plane food recipe to share but the fact is that most of the time we just eat regular stuff. However, I would love to hear about YOUR magic plane food recipe or even just more ideas about portable primal snacks. In 2 weeks time we will be making another of these journeys and by that time I may need all the help I can get!

Note:  I am posting this a little after-the-fact as we are already on our vacation and enjoying the Oregon coast.  I had no way of knowing this at the time but we would have been in a desperate mess had I not packed all this food.  We were supposed to change planes in Denver but the airport closed due to a thunderstorm.  After circling the airport for an hour or so, we were instructed to land in Cheyenne instead.  Meanwhile, the Denver airport opens again but we can’t fly back because there’s a control panel that’s not working properly.  We also can’t get off the plane in Cheyenne because Frontier has no ground crew there.  Eventually, after some insane amount of time, they wheel some stairs over and we are allowed off the plane.  We ended up paying for a taxi to take us back to Denver where we crashed out at a hotel at about 3am.  The plane staff kept handing out cookies but there was no real food to be found either on the plane or in the middle of the night at the Cheyenne ‘airport’ so we would have been stuck feeding the kids Doritos for dinner. My initial calculation of 11 hours transit time tuned into nearly 24. On the bright side, the kids were amazingly calm and cooperative throughout the entire ordeal perhaps figuring this was all just par for course. We got $800 worth of vouchers from Frontier so we’re already planning our next trip….

My go-to lunch is a chunk of meat cooked up with some vegetables on the stove. At the moment, however, we are deep into summer and I really haven’t been feeling like pushing food around over a hot stove at noon. Furthermore, It is not always convenient to be home at lunch time.  If you’ve been eating primal for any length of time I am sure you have come to know the elusive nature of the on-the-go lunch in a life without grains.  Sometimes a sandwich would be really handy, and I don’t mean one where a big saggy piece of lettuce is the ‘bread’ because that’s just depressing.

I came to learn of the green eggs and ham sandwich from Krista Schaus’s blog.  Krista is an amazing individual.  In addition to being an ex-police officer, she is BOTH a competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter from Toronto. (By the way, anyone else notice there seems to be a disproportionate number of people from Toronto with strength training websites and blogs?  Why is that?).   She is owner of Defining Edge Fitness which offers an intriguing service called Biosignature Assessment.  Apparently they can analyze your hormone levels and make individualized training and nutrition recommendations based on the results. Anyway, Krista’s recipe calls for oats.  I substituted shredded coconut as a thickener and then threw in ¼ cup of raw almonds for good measure.  The result is a substantial bread-like patty that holds together really well.

You can easily whip up a batch of these in the morning or on the weekend.  This recipe will make 6 pancakes – enough for 3 sandwiches.  My kids will actually eat these hot of the skillet as if they were ‘regular’ pancakes if I put some maple syrup on them!  You can also make a big batch and keep these in a plastic baggie in the fridge.  Use them for sandwiches, hamburgers, or even just as a convenient snack.  I haven’t tried this yet but I think they’d be fabulous with just a little almond butter spread on top.

My turkey and brie sandwich.