» Birthday Reflections

Pastured Turkey Tenderloin Recipe (& HUGE Offer!) — Guest Recipe by David of Tendergrass Farms

David Maren is a husband, father, farmer, and co-founder of Tendergrass Farms. Tendergrass Farms is a cooperative-style online grass fed meats shop that exists as a bridge between the often geographically isolated family farmer and committed grass fed meats enthusiasts like yourself. The Tendergrass Farms vision is to sustain family farms through making it easy
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Decadent Double Chocolate Cookies (Nut-free, Coconut-free, Egg-free)

The inspiration for this cookie came from a double chocolate brownie cookie that I used to make for special treats in the “olden days”. It used to be a hit at potlucks or parties because it was very intensely chocolaty and had a nice chew to it. I was thinking about Christmas cookies for this
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Shrimp and Avocado Salad

This is probably my favorite dinner salad. Something about this salad screams summer, refreshing and satisfying all at the same time. And it tastes better the longer you let the shrimp marinade, so it can be made ahead if you’re expecting company or are like me and have more time to prepare supper in the
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Honey-Garlic Chicken Wings

These are ridiculously delicious wings and great for anyone avoiding nightshades. If you cook them on the barbecue (which is the way we like them!), they end up as a “dry” wing (they are still moist and tasty though!). You can also cook them in the marinade in the oven for a sticky, gooey wing
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Birthday Reflections

November 17, 2011 in 2011

Today is my 35^th birthday. It has become a bit of a non-event. Not that my original plans were that exciting: celebrating with a delicious paleo dinner followed by paleo molten lava chocolate cake (recipe coming soon) for dessert. Instead, my kitchen floor is completely torn up (due to a leak behind the dishwasher that went straight into the subfloor and destroyed most of the hardwood flooring). I won’t have an oven for 5 or 6 more days and won’t have a dishwasher until at least a day after that (we still don’t know if we need a new one). And while I find this all quite stressful, what really upsets me is that my youngest daughter is turning 2 tomorrow and I had to cancel both of her birthday parties due to the chaos in our home.

I spent the day before demolition cooking up a storm. I baked Elena Amsterdam’s paleo bread. I baked two different paleo muffins (see Coconut Macadamia Banana Muffins). I boiled eggs. I made a big pot of potatoless potato leek soup. I baked a paleo chocolate cake for my daughter and stuck it in the freezer to be frosted (hopefully) tonight. I am determined that not having a kitchen will not completely derail my efforts to be healthy and improve my family’s health.

I don’t know if this havoc helps or hinders the usual birthday reflections… maybe it just alters the perspective slightly. Health has been a tough road for me. I was overweight as a teenager and worked REALLY HARD to lose 100lbs in my early twenties. I still wasn’t as lean as I wanted to be, but I was fit. I ran two marathons, did karate, worked out. But, I was on a “low-carb” diet that included lots of dairy and legumes, some grains, lots of salt and no thought to omega-3 intake. So even though I had lost weight, I hadn’t addressed gut irritation, systemic inflammation, insulin sensitivity or cortisol disregulation. After a year of enjoying what I thought was good health, I got sick. REALLY SICK. I was apartment-bound and on super high doses of steroids, which led to rapid weight gain and depression. With my ability to exercise suddenly gone, I gained back all of the 100lbs, plus ten more for good measure, in less than a year. I felt horrified but helpless when I had to buy a size 28 wedding dress (I had been a size 8 before becoming ill). I felt robbed. It took me most of the TEN YEARS since to fully recover, to lose all that weight, and to get into good shape again. In retrospect, I think a paleolithic diet would have been a godsend. Certainly, it would have given me better coping strategies and helped me recover faster. But more than that, I believe that I would not have gotten ill in the first place if I had been eating a paleolithic diet.

I try not to dwell on the past, but rather use it as a context to appreciate the present. Now, I am following a paleolithic lifestyle. I am ten pounds lighter than the thinnest I got in my early twenties. I am fit. All those autoimmune-related diseases are in remission. Even my ability to cope with stress (uh, like having your kitchen floor demolished on your birthday) is so so so much better. Really, I feel very lucky to be where I am today. I am loved and supported by my husband. I have two beautiful, healthy, crazy-smart daughters. I have good friends and a great family. I have finally gotten a good hold on my health. I feel happy. And I worked hard to get to this wonderful, happy place. And I will continue to work hard to stay here.