Carrots and Ginger: Fermentation Fun on Wahls Paleo Plus

Fermentation on the paleo plus diet is a huge part of the "plus" that follows paleo in its name. Of course you can buy this stuff at the Whole Foods and pay WAYYYY too much money for rotten food, or you can rot it your damn self. All it takes is about a week in a dark corner of the house.

First off it does take a week or more, so be prepared to make at least a weeks worth at a shot, and keep making it because once you run out it will be harder to get it rolling again. Why? Well, because we are busy, that's why. And it is a bit of work, its not hard, but it does make a mess and we have to be prepared to make it, AND clean it up. This wouldn't be so daunting if I had a garbage disposal, but I don't.

I have a food processor, I mentioned in my first post that you would benefit form having one of these, you can read that post here. I like to shred when I ferment and my food processor is the best thing I can think of to do that, I would like to invest in a lid with a larger shoot to shove my food into but at this point I am fine cutting my stuff smaller and with carrots and ginger I really don't have an issue fitting them into the standard shoot.

This recipe was brought to my attention by my friend "Bread Hurts My Head" who sent me this from Fermented Food Lab and it is amazing!!!

As you all know I am not one for measuring too closely and in this recipe I didn't change that, when it comes to fermenting I am really relaxed. Everyone I talk to tells me "you got to be careful", or "be sure it is all submerged", I say poppycock. I have been winging it for over a year and I have never had an issue. I have a very healthy gut, as far as I can tell, and I am as regular as I can imagine people get.

Having said that I am not endorsing winging your fermentation, I mean you need to be comfortable with what you do. I am comfortable with my way of doing things and you will have to find a way for you to find the same.

I began by shredding my ginger which, again, I did not measure, I just eyeballed it. It was eyeballed to be more than the 6 tsp which is what the recipe was asking for, I like a little heat. And, mind you, I knew the container I was going to use and after fermenting for a while I got a feel for how much of things I aught to be adding.

I took most of a 5lb bag of carrots, trimmed them and shredded them adding them to my Fido container mixing in a bit of salt and ginger while macerating it all with my hand. Not so surprisingly the carrots sweat and filled the container with liquid so I didn't have to add water at all, I usually add water to my sauerkraut but maybe not any longer after this experience.

Once the container was full I capped it and put it in my cabinet where I would burb it, or open it slightly every day just to let pressure out . Fido now has a lit you can add an airlock to and I would recommend this if I had tried it yet, but I haven't, but when I do I am willing to bet it works great.

Now my carrots were often found not submerged in liquid and I again had no problems with this, I even offered some to a friend so I was fairly confident with it but that doesn't mean you have to be, by all means be vigilante we are talking about bacteria and that is nothing to be messing around with.

The Tongue in My Mouth on Wahls Paleo Plus Diet - Fighting my MS

To start, there is a bit of an "Eeeew" factor when it come to eating tongue, and unless you have eaten it your whole life you will have to get over that a bit. The only way to do it is to dive right in. I would suggest go to a restaurant and get a tongue taco or something similar so as to get it as meat rather than as a whole tongue.

That Eeew mindset is because, I think, we have all bitten our tongues, and that we always have one in our mouths, well most of us do. We immediately think "Oh man, it is going to have a real tough outer skin that I will have to bite through and it is going to be strange." Not to worry folks, that is a total misconception of what tongue is. In all reality tongue is one of the most delectable, fatty and silky parts of a cow, or other animal, you could have. If you think a beef steak well prepared, I am talking medium rare with a deliciously seared outer layer, is the peak of what beef can do, let me tell you now you are WAY OFF.

Tongue is going to win you over. That is if you like meat and can get beyond the Eeeew factor that comes with eating tongue as an american who has probably never eaten it before. Cooking tongue is a bit of an ordeal, which is why I suggested getting it already prepared first. Handling a tongue, if you are not used to handling organ meats and dead animals, may be off-putting to some. Of course there are many of you who will get excited about handling a tongue and for those of you, this is something you can not screw up so dive right in if that is your fancy.

you will have to buy tongue whole

First off decide if you are going to brine or not. You can brine your tongue for 6 hours to 2 days in the refrigerator. Tongue doesn't keep well raw so buy it on the day you are going to deal with it. I should mention here that when you buy tongue you will be buying the whole tongue, there is no "Oh can I have a pound." That is another reason why it is best to get it at a restaurant first.

I did brine my tongue for a day

I seasoned my water for boiling

Boil for 50 min per pound

Now no matter if you brine it or not you are gong to boil the tongue for about 50 min per pound. I like to season my water and if you decide not to brine yours you are going to want to add additional salt to your water. Remember if you have a diet that doesn't have a lot of canned or frozen foods you probably don't have to worry about your salt intake as much as those who have a more traditional american diet. Once the tongue is boiled properly you are going to be able to peel the out skin off.  

you can see it peels very easily but only when it is HOT

 What happens seems to me to be that we create a huge blister on the tongue. We have to peel that outer layer off, that skin is that tough layer we all thought we would have to bite through, but we just toss it.

Be sure to peel that off while it is still hot, if it cools before you get that skin off it will be very difficult for you to peel so just get some tongs or something to help but get it off asap.

Now that you have a peeled tongue it is ready to be prepared for eating, like I said it is a bit of an ordeal to make one of these. I just cube the tongue and fry it up in my skillet with some fat. searing the outside of these makes a great addition to a salad similar to, but better than, pork belly. These are delicious little fatty bites that will be a welcomed addition to any Paleo or Wahls Paleo Plus diet. Deliciously fighting MS and probably cancer too.

The back very fatty part of the toung I pop in first and just eat it right out of the skillet

these bits are the tongue proper, they fry up to a crispy outer layer
very easily with high heat dropping them into a and hot fat 

Cooking Venison and Other Lean Game Meats: Wahls Paleo Plus

Bambi Bambi Bambi :)

So I have picked up archery since learning about my MS. My reasoning is simple, if diet is the most important thing then eating as pure and close to the source as possible is the best. This is my belief and if I stick to that belief I will benefit more than I would if I were to have a belief I did not hold fast to. The mind controls so much of how we process and access nutrients. If I were to believe, and I do, that McDonald's food is poisonous to a degree, then, no matter what I would consume from there would, in fact would actually be poisonous. If I believed it was good for me, I would benefit from it and it would be good for me to a degree. This has so much to do with everything, where your mind is will ultimately dictate what you are going to experience. Trust me, if I do not believe my diet will rid me of my MS, Cancer or any other malady, it won't, but that is not the fault of the diet. If I do not believe, then I will not stick close to the diet and I will tell myself it is the fault of the diet because it is easier to blame than it is to take responsibility.

Venison in Brine

Now back to the archery, I have not yet gone hunting for my own venison but that will come in the fall. Until then I get my venison from some very generous hunters I am familiar with. This is a gift and much better, both on my plate and in my body, than any other meat product I can think of. The issue with cooking venison is that it is so lean. Thinking back to the "Fat is Flavor" line when we have lean meats there is a battle between the heat and the meat. If you were to overcook venison and it dries out you have the "gamy" taste everyone complains about. Just like "rubbery" seafood, this is caused by overcooking. With Lean game, when the blood and fat evaporate completely out of the meat you are left with the elements that don't evaporate. That gamy taste is primarily the iron from the fat and blood. Since the blood and fat are gone when it is overcooked you are left with a tough and very metallic tasting cut, but that is not what venison is at all. is it a velvety flavorful distinct cut of meat that needs care while preparing.

I have a number of butterflied chops I will be preparing today. Because it is so lean I start with a brine this will help the meat retain moister without compromising the structure of the muscle, so as not to get it either mushy or tough. You can get mushy when using a marinade because the purpose of a marinade is to break down penetrate the meat slightly, usually only about 1/4 inch. Penetration with a saltwater brine is much better and doesn't leech any of the fat in the cuts.

As I do so often I will be cooking in cast iron, I like high heat and rapid movement. Turning the cuts ever 20 - 30 seconds allows the meat to cook from both sides rather than cooking one side then the other. The secret to a well cooked cut of venison is allowing it to "finish" off the heat. If you cook a lot you will know all about the fact that, when you remove something from the cooking source, the center of that which you removed, will continue to rise in temperature. When you have patience, and can become comfortable with removing your meat while it is still slightly more rare than you are looking for, you'll be able to get rich and juicy cuts every time. Venison is one meat that, if you cook it to medium rare, you'll end up with a well done cut by the time you eat it. That's going to give you a gamy taste that has no business on your plate.

done but not finished

here this is still rare and although I
would eat it I wouldn't serve it.

Now it is finished

Cooking Fish in a Salt Crust - Wahls Paleo Plus

Hello again, today we are going to talk about fish. I have always been daunted by fish. It is, I have found, easy to prepare but I never think of it first. Having grown up in the Midwest I ate chicken probably 4 nights a week, then pasta, pork and beef unless it was Lent then I ate fish once a week. It's a shame really that most of the fish I ate as a kid came as a stick and was categorized simply as "Fish."

Fish is one of those things, when you do not live near an ocean, that just doesn't get on the menu as often as pizza, pork chops, or spaghetti. Since my diagnosis I have eaten fish more. My first foray was something that was familiar, canned kipper and sardines, I get these when they are packed in olive oil only because they can use some seriously poor quality oils if you are not paying attention. Those are often a bit more fishy than I prefer so I went to the land of adventure and started to get a basic understanding of how to really prepare fish. It cooks real quick and can go really wrong when overdone. When it comes to seasoning salt, pepper, rosemary and lemons are very traditional, but I knew all this already. I could fry, poach it, grill it, and bake it, again nothing new. I ran across this Salt Crust baking and it intrigued me.

It takes a lot of salt to completely encase a whole fish but salt really isn't that expensive and it was going to be interesting either way. I started by mixing 2 cups of salt with 4 egg whites until all the salt was evenly coated and it made something like a gritty paste.

I am doing this with 2 whole Rainbow Trout and when dealing with whole fish you really want to scrape the scales as best you can. doing this is not hard but containing the scales is not easy. they will go all over and later tonight you might find a few scales on your thumb and they will be stuck there for you to peel off like a scab.

once the fish are clean and ready to for the oven you'll want to take a baking sheet and put a layer of salt down large enough to hold your fish. I am using a Pyrex dish and it was a mistake I could have used much less salt than I did and It was a bitch to get out.
\
I was preparing dinner with a Pisces so I arranged the fish accordingly, again I want to mention that this would have been easier had I just used a flat pan but this was fun and seemed appropriate at the time.



I then covered the Trout with salt, I ran out of the egg-white and salt mixture and just used salt which is a method I used to cook a fillet once, of course for that you will just cook the fillet on top ot the salt and not cover it. I thought it would be all the smae in the end but no it wasn't. Please if you want feel free to lay loose salt in as a base but do not do what I did and spread loose salt atop the fish, this was mistake 2 I made making this wonderful dish, it ultimately made removing the fish a terrible ordeal, add in the fact that I also didn't use  a flat sheet but a Pyrex and I was up shit creek when it was time to remove these. Either way I won't bore you with the details of my mishaps, just know that even if you make a mistake it'll be okay, its just cooking and you can do it.

Mussels Mmm Paleo Plus

I think mussels are a great seafood to eat, and if you live near saltwater they are probably in your diet already but for those of us that are landlocked it is not such a common thing. I live in Chicago which is right on Lake Michigan but that's not where I get my mussels. Mind you there are eatable freshwater mussels in Illinois' rivers and it is on my radar to find and harvest a few, but this post is about the mussels that are farmed as well as being so abundant in the worlds oceans.

Being in Chicago the mussels that I get are going to already be dead, this is not as desirable as the alternative, them being alive. The fact that they are dead already means we have lost freshness and we need to be real careful with cracked or broken shells. There is also a lot of writing about being a bit of a stickler when it comes to shells that are open also, and if I was worried about food borne illness I would. The fact is, because I am on the Wahls Paleo Plus diet, and eat a lot of lacto-fermented vegetables,  I don't feel like I am susceptible to a whole lot of food borne illness. If you are not as confident in your system you may want to toss cracked shells as well as the ones that are slightly ajar.

I go through them and clean them a bit, pulling their beards and rubbing off any barnacles under running water. This is the most time consuming part of the whole cooking process for these little buggers because once this is done all you have to do is bring a cup of water in a pot on the stove to a boil and dump them in.

The cup of boiling water will cook this whole batch, just cover and let them do what they will do, You are going to know when they are ready because they will open up, give them a little stirring after 8 or 10 minutes and see if any are still sealed shut, if not they are ready to eat. If you find one that won't open, take the hint and toss it, if it doesn't want to open we don't need to force it.

A lot of people think that seafood like this is rubbery, let me clarify that issue right off the bat. If you eat Clams, Mussels, Squid, Octopus, or any of those things that often get called "rubbery" when describing it, it was just overcooked. For some things, like octopus, it could also be under-cooked but that is a much rarer issue.

Mussels can be eaten pert near alone but you will want to supplement your meal with some veggies and a salad to keep your diet plan up and running. One of the best things about mussels is that it is communal, you start your meal with a few on your plate and end up just cracking them open after everything else has been eaten while just chatting at the table with all those loved ones you have decided to share this meal with. I had the pleasure of sharing it with a lovely women for New England who told me all about her experiences eating fresh mussels growing up.

Here is a pic of the dinner I shared. In the foreground you can see the cauliflower I fried in clarified butter, which, incidentally, I also used to dunk my mussels in. I can not find one "bad" thing in this dinner, maybe the fact that I can not eat it every night, but I wouldn't want to do that anyway because variety is the spice of life.

What are you making? Are you on a Paleo Plan? How can I be adding variety to my diet, I know I have plenty but I am always looking for more, send me suggestions and ideas, lets talk.

Grocery List For My MS Diet

Last week we talked briefly about the grocery store perimeter, and how I am able to keep to my diet much easier by staying in that area. This week I want to go over my grocery list, how I travel though the store and how I am able to keep fresh food stocked and available to me consistently so I do not have to think about it at all.

First off I do think about it, but what I mean by "not think about it" is that I don't want to over-complicate my eating and the experiences around eating. Really, the Wahls Paleo Plus diet is one of the most simple diet to be on because, I think, most people have a range of things they buy at the grocery store already. Most homes I go into have oils, pasta and their corresponding jars of sauces, rices, fruit, breads, and snacks, both salty and sweet. For the most part none of those things are in my home (well I have pork cracklin's as a salty snack which is probably not something Terry Wahl would approve of but I am fine with it). 

Figure the thought that goes into choosing what fruit to buy, if you have enough rice of the kind you need for what you are making or all the bread choices you are given: the fresh bakery breads, dinner rolls, pop-n-fresh, sandwich breads. All of that is no longer a thought for me because I won't be getting any of it. and the nice thing about that is that I just don't have to think about it. All of those choices and varieties have been removed. Of course I could complicate my life and diet by flirting with gluten-free options but I don't like to complicate things so I keep it simple. Now that I have made my choice to be on this diet my produce department visits simple, "Do I have broccoli?" if "No" then I buy it, if "Yes" I still might buy it but I don't have to. I will forever be eating broccoli so it will not go to waste.

My diet, the Wahls Paleo Plus, is all about keeping the nutrient density level of your food up as high as possible. She talks about it as a way to keep the cells of your body balanced and healthy.The theory, as I understand it, is that by eating rices or bread we are getting a lot general calories filling us up for the nutrient trade off. While eating fat, like cooking cauliflower in schmaltz, gives me all sorts of nutrients from the cauliflower while also giving you a stable calorie source in the schmaltz. This is a simple look at one of the many theories held within this diet.

Any basic search of the Whals diet will give you the basics, that you are to eat 2-3 cups of Greens, foods rich in sulpher, and color foods. However the diet structure is not super clear when we focus solely Paleo Plus diet because we lack all the fruit and squash and so many other things that have color or calories. All of my MS posts will be tackling this diet and looking how to actually stay on the diet, for real.

Here is the standard grocery list I keep in my phone for Fats andthe produce department. I use it to ensure I can properly eat all the time, and that I have all the nutrients I need to keep up with my day.  

Produce Department

• Avocado (smoothies/salads)
• Beets (smoothies)
• Bell Peppers [any/all colors] (smoothies/salads)
• Broccoli (cooking)
• Cabbage (cooking/fermenting)
• Carrots (salads)
• Cauliflower (cooking/fermenting)
• Daicon Radish (smoothies)
• Garlic (cooking/smoothies)
• Ginger (smoothies/tea)
• Hearty Greens (cooking/smoothies/salads)
• Mushrooms (smoothies/cooking/salads)
• Olives
• Radish (salads)

Fats

• Coconut Cream/Milk (smoothies/coffee additive)
• Coconut Oil (cooking/coffee additive/spoonfuls of delicious calories)
• Lard (cooking)

Any grocery list app would work as long as you can turn on and off the items, I use the Pete’s Fresh Market app to turn on and off these items when I have, or run out of them.

When it comes to meats, in a week I have at least one fish meal and two organ meals, Chicken livers and gizzards are my favorite but I have to venture away from that on occasion and do get kidney, sweetbreads, and other livers as well . It is a lot of work but I would suggest a beef tongue to anyone, it is one of the most delectable meats I have ever eaten.

Things That Help Me Succeed on My MS Diet: Wahls Paleo Plus

I hear people talk about changing one's diet as "a complete lifestyle change" and that is no different here. When I got home from hospital and knew I was going to be changing my diet for good I got rid of just about all my kitchen gadgets, my rice cooker, ice cream maker,toaster oven, baking stones, baking pans, flour and powdered mixes. I threw away any food that was in a box, can or came directly associated with a logo. I had a new way forward and it was taking shape. Now, it should be said, this new path was not far off from the trajectory I was already headed, but I definitely got there quicker than I had anticipated. It was probably easy for me to make the switch so rapidly because I had already envisioned this diet, in some abstract way, as ideal. Life is funny, how it prepares us.

I had to get pure and simple. I was about to eat as naturally as I could, which meant if it was wrapped up in plastic, cardboard or had to go through any printing process to get to me it was probably too much processing and I could go without. Pure meant to get as close to the source as possible. I was already a fan of only eating meats that had bone in it, that way I wouldn't be fooled by meat glue, if you do not know what meat glue is, it is worth a google. When it came to vegetables I was still buying bags and wrapped things which, although it seemed okay at first, I felt much more confident in the foods that I put in bags myself. This confidence goes a long way in being able to absorb nutrients and gain all the benefits of the foods we eat. The mind is really where digestion starts. 

I look at the grocery store, and how t is set up, I ask myself where can I find food that is worth eating no matter where you go the answer is the same, it is around the perimeter. That is where the Butcher and Produce departments are as well as the Bakery and Deli neither of which I visit any longer but you can remain relatively healthy by restricting 90% of your food shopping to these departments. The minute you enter an aisle you are going to be inundated with logos, ads and High Fructose Corn Syrup. I get my spices, coffee and tea from the isles but beyond that, when it comes to food, I don't step foot in them. Because of that my home is filled with pure food, I have to shop 3 times a week to keep it that way but it is a pretty simple trade off for me at this point. 

Now you specialty diet folks, I mean all of you that are gluten free, vegetarian or vegan and I am sure there are many many others, you may not be able to use the perimeter rule. That is fine, there is no one answer for everyone, your health and mine, although they may be equal, will not be arrived at in the same way. 

I have a regular list of great foods that I keep stocked in my home, that is the first and best thing to help me succeed at my diet. Beyond that there are a number of other things that, without, I would probably fail miserably.

They are...

1. A Juicer Blender (like the Ninja or VitaMix) - For the amount of raw food I choose to eat, my ninja is something I use every day for a morning drink. I try not to call it a smoothie because there are a lot of preconceived ideas to what a smoothie is and this beverage is not covered by any of them. Here are some of the things that you would find in my morning drink.

1. Beets
2. Daikon Radish
3. Avocado
4. Mushrooms
5. Hearty Greens
6. Ginger
7. Coconut Milk/Cream (can)
8. Water
9. Horseradish*
10. Diatomaceous Earth*

* = not added everyday

I have had a lot of people ask me about the Diatomaceous Earth and why I use it. First thing you should know is that it is a food grade DE. I use it because my diet is so fat laden and it is knowns to help control cholesterol. and whether it does or not it absolutely helps me calm down about cholesterol a bit. Here is the study I found that helped me choose to add this to my diet, I do not believe it is something Terry talks about although I could be mistaken.

2. 8 Cup Food Processor - This is something I use to slice large amounts of raw vegetables.When I got home from hospital I could not use my left hand and so cutting things was very difficult, I decided that owning a food processor was a solution to that. The main thing I use it for today, because I have use of my left side again, is shredding cabbage for Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut, which is something I eat very regularly.
3. An Iron Skillet - Once properly seasoned, it gives me a non-stick I can use on the stovetop or in the oven and adds much needed iron into my diet This is my go to pan, I cook everything in it, if you might look to me to help derive some recipes from this is a must have. In a few weeks I will post instructions on how to properly season a skillet.
4. A Cat - This diet is very good for cats (at least the meat and fat parts) so I got one. Lü and I eat, for the most part, the same things, I take portions of all the food I prepare separate it out and freeze it. Later, I use my juicer blender to make her food, to which I add Taurine and some of that Diatomaceous Earth. She is on a strict raw diet that includes organs as well as greens.
5. NO CHEATS IN THE HOUSE - Now I am a firm believer in cheating on this diet, within reason. Meaning once every week or 10 days to have a sweet or something to take the edge off but if you buy salted chocolate covered caramels well, all bets are off, trust me. This kind of means living alone is probably best for success. I am lucky enough to not have anyone clambering to live with me that I get to enjoy living with nothing but meats, fats and some viggies in my house. Yippee!

Now that you know some tips on how to get your new diet under way lets get into the nitty gritty of what we need in the fridge. Next Week - Grocery Shopping

My Diet for My Multiple Sclerosis

So, over a year ago I got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I have always been a proponent of the idea that diet is the key to health, both metal and physical. After being diagnosed I didn't find in myself a whole lot of drive to learn about the disease, the little that I did find out was that it effected everyone differently. That fact informed me that I was more in control of the disease than the disease was in control of me. I figured a healthy mind and a healthy body was going to be my way forward.

After my second flair up, where I lost most of the motor function on my left side I decide to not take the stress management and diet portions of my life lightly. I needed resolve and loosing the ability to walk and tie my own shoes was enough to find that resolve. I was extremely lucky that Dr. Terry Wahls had just published The Wahls Protocol. This book eventually became my go to for my new life's diet regimen.

The Wahls Protocol

It took me weeks to actually read this because Dr. Wahls is kind of a smug bitch. This is really unfortunate because I just couldn't get past that for a few weeks but it was so important for me to get over it. Mind you, my perception of Dr. Wahls is totally because I have an extreme distaste for over-educated white folks, and so she might not be half as smug as I perceive her to be.

I have read the book and I get the diet, I cheat on the diet because I am alive in the world, but I have a balance that I am comfortable with. Not that I want to over simplify things because this diet is very complex but this diet requires that you cut out anything that your body will easily make into sugar. That is an idea I had for myself a decade ago. So when it was spelled out for me here I was ecstatic. The nutrient density of this diet is unmatched, it has helped my energy levels, my ability to calm down and sort data, learn new things and stay healthy.

I will be adding information about my diet, how I stay on it and my understanding of why the diet is how it is. I will also talk about cheating on this diet, mind you I am not a doctor but I feel feeling good and being healthy go hand in hand and if you can't cheat then you might not feel too good all the time, and we sure can do that.