Sunday Story...Whatcha going to Eat Willis?

Sunday Story…Whatcha going to eat Willis?

OK…Food…one of my favorite topics as most of you know…so you gave up grains, dairy, legumes, sugar (duh…should have been the first thing btw)…So, what are you going to eat?

I mean this whole food thing sounds like a lot of “No”. No pasta, no bread, no cereal, no beer (gluten), no Boston Baked Beans, no refried beans, no cheese, no Mexican, Chinese, Italian and more restaurants, no sandwiches, no peanut butter, no pancakes, waffles, hot chocolate, no wheaties, no oatmeal, no yogurt, no corn on the cob (corn is a grain), no, no , no, no. That is just the very short list and it feels like a lot of NO. It feels like, when I look at that list, deprivation and despair. So quit looking at that list and start looking at the Yes list.

Yes to all the vegetables I want to eat…broccoli, turnips, parsnips, carrots, lettuce of all kinds, arugula, beets, radishes, plantains, pumpkins, peppers, squash of an infinite variety, tomatoes (technically a fruit but…), eggplant avocado, and on and on and on. Yes to herbs and spices…cilantro, basil, parsley, oregano, cumin, coriander, turmeric, pepper, salt (real salt from the sea or the ground not chemical salt), cayenne, etc. Yes to meat, poultry and fish (sourced from real farms meaning grass fed, pastured animals)…beef, bison, lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, ostrich, elk, venison, pork, boar, quail, salmon, cod, sole, shrimp, octopus, scallops, oysters, and more. And yes you get to eat the whole critter because it hasn’t been created from bad feed using GMOs and franken-animals. Yes to seed and nuts…cashews, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin, sunflower, and my favorite…macadamias. And of course the nut butter from those nuts. Be cautious here though it’s easy to go nuts on those! Yes to fruit in moderation…apples, oranges, berries, bananas, kumquats, kiwis, persimmons, pomegranates, and so on. Best if you can consume these in season by the way (which means not much in February!)

Lots of yeses on that list but that really doesn’t solve a couple of the big big problems. Like what am I supposed to eat for breakfast which is supposedly the most important meal of the day (who made that up anyway?). We are so conditioned to eat certain things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that it seems inhuman to eat a salad for breakfast. Let see if you can channel you Paleolithic ancestors for minute…what would the first meal of the day looked like? Because you haven’t been out foraging and hunting yet. It would have to be whatever you had leftover from yesterdays hunting and gathering forays…if they were successful. And if they weren’t well tough luck…no food for you this morning until you get out there and find some. You are a modern human and missing a meal once in a while is not going to kill you. As a matter of fact, going all day without eating won’t kill you, waste your muscles away, stop your fat burning mechanism or really have any detrimental effect whatsoever. I cannot imagine that there is any one of you reading this who is on the verge of starvation. So think outside of the cereal box for breakfast and eat dinner in the morning once in a while. First problem down.

The next problem is significantly more challenging. I don’t know how to cook. I don’t know how to cook vegetables. I don’t know how to prepare food that doesn’t come with a 3 step instructional list. When I read an ingredient list I have no idea what is healthy and what isn’t (here’s a hint…if there are more than 3 ingredients put it down and back away…real food doesn’t come with an ingredient list). My kids won’t eat ___________(fill in the blank).

Learn to cook. It isn’t that hard. And no, it doesn’t take that much more time. Grab a knife and chop some stuff, throw it in a pan and see what happens. Add some spices and taste it. Use bacon (the good uncured no nitrite, nitrate stuff), use olive oil; use coconut oil to cook with. Throw meat over a fire (aka the bar-b-que grill) without slathering it in commercialized sugar sauce and cook it up…put it on the plate with some of those veggies and a salad and there you are…a meal made with healthy intentions, love and that isn’t killing you slowly. More on the how to cook thing next week by the way.

This Sunday is the day where way too many of you will be overeating really crappy food. Not me…here is my super bowl Sunday menu with links to the recipes and a full recipe for my special dessert bar…
Oysters on the half shell…no recipe necessary…shuck them and eat them raw…protein, in abundance.
Brazilian fish stew…pretty simple and very tasty and if you make it the night before it will be even better on game day… the recipe is here: http://www.radiancenutrition.com/2011/10/04/brazilian-fish-stew-moqueca-de-peixe/
Chorizo (you can use any sausage you want) stuffed sweet potato skins…use the guacamole recipe for other stuff (like the chips below, duh) too…the recipe is here: http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-avocado-chorizo-sweet-potato-skins/

Sweet Potato Chips with Red Pepper dip…Ya gotta have chips and dip…here is the homemade version that is actually good for you:
http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-sweet-potato-chips/
and the dip:
http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-roasted-red-pepper-dip/

Date-licious Dessert bars: This is so simple that you will wonder how this can be so awesome for so little work:
Get a pound or so of pitted dates, about a cup of raw cashews (no salt, no oil), and about a half cup of almond butter. Throw the cashews in a food processor and chop up to the consistency you want (don’t powder them). Put them in a big bowl. Put the dates and the nut butter in the processor and process to a paste. Put that mixture in the bowl with the cashews and using your hands mix it all up together. Put some saran wrap on a cookie sheet (1/4 sheet) and pour the mixture on the cookie sheet. Press it flat with your hands, cover it with another piece of saran wrap and put it in the fridge. Pull it out 3 or 4 hours later and cut into squares. Eat sparingly because these are very addicting and calorie dense.

So…Whatcha going to eat Willis?

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

Follow me at:
Twitter --- http://m.twitter.com/jmariotti
FaceBook --- John Mariotti
Blog Spots…John Mariotti
http://feel-good-friday.blogspot.com/
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/