I’m an Omnivore

I’ve always wanted to make my own sesame chicken. I get sesame chicken almost every time I go to a chinese restaurant. Believe it or not, I actually find chinese restaurants good places to avoid grains and dairy. Dairy usually isn’t a problem at all; grains can mostly be avoided if you just stay away from rice and noodles. Anyway, I used this recipe:

Flawless Sesame Chicken

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I was trying to emulate the type of meal that is usually served up at Kanki, a Japanese steakhouse. The stir fry part is pretty obvious. I fried zucchini, mushrooms, and precooked shrimp (probably a bad idea). I assume some people have never heard of swedes, or rutabagas as they are known in the US. They are root vegetables, so I was kind of worried about if this would fit under paleo. I definitely wouldn’t count it as a “grain” which is all I’m focusing on eliminating this month, but eventually it might have to be cut. I actually found a pretty good answer to my question here. Apparently, swedes have a much lower glycemic load than potatoes. So a swede is not par for the course on a seriously strict paleo diet, but it’s probably one of the best options as far as root vegetables go. The best part about swedes is that they have a much stronger, sweeter flavor than potatoes in my opinion.

Admittedly, these were a pain in the ass to cut up, but that’s probably just due to my inexperience with cooking. I haven’t had them prepared any other way, but mashed is awesome.

BAM! This meal has flavor, and it’s quite simple too. I usually just fry up some green peppers and onions before throwing in the the kielbasa. Add some crushed red pepper or chili pepper if you like it spicy.

Here we have salmon again and one of my other favorites, zucchini. If you have a garden or are considering gardening, give zucchini a try. The plants produce like you wouldn’t believe and zucchini is such a great vegetable. Make sure you go for smaller zucchini. They have less seeds and better taste. This is a win-win at a grocery store if you pay by weight. Tips for frying zucchini:

• Cut up the zucchini. I prefer large chunks, but slices are good too.
• Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan. Make sure you put the zucchini in before the oil gets too hot or you’re going to have some serious splattering issues.
• Season with crushed red pepper and sea salt.
• Taste test while cooking. It really doesn’t need to be cooked for very long.

I just threw this together one morning thinking it wouldn’t be very good. It turned out great! The typical American breakfast is cereal, toast, oatmeal, or bagels, so breakfast is going to be the hardest meal for most people to drop the grains and sugar. This recipe does both; it consists of two eggs, ground beef, pasta sauce, and pepperoni. It doesn’t really matter if the eggs are omelette-style or scrambled. It will taste the same. And the ground beef isn’t really necessary; I already had it leftover from another meal. Enjoy!

This is a pomegranate, a slightly expensive fruit that is thought to have amazing antioxidant powers. Trying a new fruit can be an interesting experience and pomegranates are no different. But how shall you go about eating one?

Start by slicing it in half with a knife. You’ll see that the inside consists of rind and arils, seeds covered in a sweet, jello-like coating.

Some would suggest that you soak your pomegranate in water, which helps loosen the seeds. I tried this, but it didn’t really seem to do much and some of the juice was lost in the water. I suppose soaking the fruit in water is useful if you want to actually juice it instead of eating it. If that is the case, the seeds should break loose from the rind and you can then drain the seeds.

Ultimately, the most intuitive way to eat a pomegranate is taking a spoon or your hand and digging right in. The most productive approach will be to eat the seeds. I actually found the seeds to be quite yummy. One last tip. Be careful with the juice; pomegranate juice can stain fabrics.

I love ‘pasta sauce,’ but I’ll let you in on a secret. You don’t have to use it on pasta! So what I’ve done here is simply combine chicken and broccoli and then drenched them in tasty sauce. There are a wide range of sauces available. I’m particularly fond of one flavor, caramelized onion and garlic. Watch out for added ingredients though. Most sauces have cheese.

What I realize now is that most grain products really don’t have that much flavor. People love grain products because their dehydration and neutral flavor make them good delivery systems for other things that do have flavor. Think about it: toast with jelly, pasta with meat and sauce, bagels with cream cheese, ramen noodles with 70% of your daily required sodium, etc. If you make this realization, you can skip straight to the flavorful part, in this case the sauce.

This is the first dinner I made that was part of my month without grains. The great thing about not eating grains is you can eat A LOT of food without consuming too many calories. As you can see here, I have a whole extra plate for salad.

I have to recommend salmon. It is one of my favorite foods and ultra healthy. You always see it mentioned in lists of “super foods.” My fiancee claimed to hate seafood. She tried salmon and loved it. Oddly enough, the salmon I make always seems much better than what you can get at a restaurant. And it’s quite expensive at restaurants as well.

Most of the meal is self explanatory, but I’ll give some tips on cooking the salmon:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Spray a baking pan with vegetable oil spray.
• Put salmon in pan, throw some dairy-free butter on it, and add lemon juice and lemon pepper seasoning.
• Bake for about 25 minutes.
• Leave the skin on while cooking the salmon. You may take it off afterwards if you like.