Paleo Dan

I like hummus. But, being made of beans, I don’t reckon that it’s all that paleo or primal. What’s a caveman to do?

I don’t remember how I found this site, maybe my wife pointed it out to me, but I found my answer over at Everyday Paleo:

Walnut Red Pepper Dip

2 cups shelled walnuts (soak them for at least 1 hour to soften them; it’ll be easier to process them this way)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 jar (12 oz.) roasted red peppers – drained
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. lemon juice

In a food processor, pulse walnuts, cumin, and salt until walnuts are finely ground (like the consistency of Hummus). Add peppers, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.  Whirl until smooth.

I just made this today and I have to say, it’s not exactly like hummus, but it’s a damn good replacement! So, thank you, Sarah, for posting this recipe to your site.

It’s a blended ice drink using protein powder, so it’s definitely not paleo. Since I use a high quality powder from Optimum Nutrition, I guess it could be considered primal. But, even without either label, it is definitely good! To me, it tasted very much like a frappa-something from one of those exceedingly large, multinational coffee shops.

Dan's Blended Ice Drink

Look at that! It tastes great and fits my diet goals (as far as fat, protein, and carb ratios) perfectly! And, honestly, if I had four of these in a day, I’m not sure I could make myself eat any more than that… yeah, they’re that filling.

Ingredients

• 2 scoops of 100% Whey Gold Standard, Vanilla Ice Cream
• 1 large egg, raw
• 2.5 fl oz of heavy cream (I normally use coconut milk, but I’m out so I used my wife’s heavy whipping cream instead.)
• 6 fl oz of espresso
• water and ice (I use 8 fl oz of water and enough ice to fill the magic bullet blender.)

Directions

1. Pull the espresso and place it in the freezer to start it cooling. It won’t get very cold like this, but I like my drink more watery so I add it later while it’s still warm. You could add it to the blender in lieu of some of the water and just use more ice.
2. Put protein powder, egg, cream, water, and ice in a blender and blend until mixed and desired consistency. You can always add more water or ice if needed.
3. Pour into a 24 fl oz cup and add espresso, if you didn’t do it above.

For me, with my amounts of water and ice, this fits perfectly into a 24 fl oz cup.

OK, so I was stumbling around on the Internet when I found the AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner (iPhone app). I don’t know that AR will have a lot of paleo/primal recipes to choose from–or, at least, there won’t be a paleo/primal category to choose from. However, me being me and free being free, I tried it out. I did a search for appetizers utilizing… oh, I don’t know… let’s try pork. Well, one of the first recipes to pop up was a recipe for scotch eggs! I had never heard of nor even tried scotch eggs until about 3 months ago when I tried some at Tir na nOg in Raleigh, NC.

First of all, scotch eggs are good. I mean, hard-boiled eggs, covered in sausage and breadcrumbs and deep-fried. Um, yeah, they are really good. And, really, aside from the breadcrumbs, they are not all that bad for you… and, depending on the quality of the sausage, I’d say that they are downright good for you!

So, now I’ve got to find a primal replacement for the breadcrumbs that will keep the texture right. Time to confer with the Great and Powerful Google. A quick search for “primal scotch eggs” and there’s Mark’s Daily Apple rightthere at number one. Link one is to the forum where a few users have some great ideas: shredded coconut, almond flour, pork rinds. Link two is to a post from Mark called Primal Bloggers Around the Net. One commenter, Krys, points over to some scotch eggs at Caveman Cooking which is pretty simple in that it’s eggs wrapped just in sausage and then baked.

Now I’ve got a few options to try out. I love coconut and the idea of shredded coconut, sausage, and eggs deep-fried sounds really, really good. Then again, encasing eggs in sausage and baking them sounds really, really easy.

Adding these in with all of those recipes from over at This Primal Life, sounds like I have my work cut out for me in the kitchen.

Yesterday, Richard over at Free The Animal put out a call to health & fitness bloggers to leave links to their website so he can update his blogroll. I used the comments myself to find a few new blogs and sites to keep an eye on. One of those is called This Primal Life. I gotta tell you, some of the recipes on that site look awesome and I will definitely be trying a few of them.

Here are a few that caught my eye:

• Strawberry Picking and a Primal Pie
• Coconut-Orange Pound Cake Recipe
• Experiments with Primal Cookie Making
  • Sort of Almost Primal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Other Recipes
• Primal Coconut Blueberry Muffins
• Primal Cheddar Jalepeno Biscuit Rounds Recipe
• Primal Carrot Cake with Coconut and Walnuts Recipe

I’ll have to post pictures and reviews when I extensively test each and every recipe.