Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Recipes Cookbook Review

"On the heels of the phenomenal success of the Primal Blueprint Cookbook, and in response to the growing demand for healthy meals that can be made with minimal time and effort, Quick & Easy Meals delivers over 100 mouth-watering recipes with easy-to-follow instructions that will get you in and out of the kitchen in 30-minutes or less."

With the upcoming school adventure on the horizon, I was delighted that not only did Mark Sisson release another cookbook, this time full of quick and easy meals, but also that I was asked to give it a review.

Obviously I haven't yet tried out all of the recipes in the book. Some of them I've tried, some are new twists on already familiar dishes (Roasted Radishes, and various meatballs) and others I've already started pulling apart and tinkering with (Berry Pancake.) Some, however, require ingredients I don't, or won't have right away, but do fully intend to try soon! Hello, Squid with Tomato and Basil, or Chorizo and Almond-Crusted Halibut!

I found several of the recipes in this cookbook to be quite innovative in their simplicity. I really appreciate that. When I begin juggling full time work and full time school, simplicity will be my saving grace. Some have as little as 3 or 4 ingredients and take no more than 15 minutes to make. Perfect for those hectic days where you want good food, fast!

One of the things I noticed while reading through the cookbook initially is that many of the recipes can easily make use of already existing leftovers. I now know that when I have leftover spaghetti squash, it makes a delicious omelet! Being a single girl, there are always, always leftovers

Speaking of omelets, I was glad to see a number of recipes for eggs. For most of us eggs are a staple, and they can get a little old. Sure, I can get by eating boiled eggs four or five days a week, but sometimes you need to change it up a little. Omelets, frittatas, quiches, and "pastries" just to name a few. Cannot wait to try a Pizza Frittata very soon!

I'm happy to find a lot of flavor in this cookbook- as in recipes for sauces and rubs. That way even if I don't want to follow a specific recipe, and just want to change up my usual steak and veggies, there are sauce and spice ideas I can use without a lot of fuss. Some of them were shockingly simple, containing as little as 3 ingredients, but they were 3 well thought out ingredients.

Another thing I really was happy to see was new twists on old stand-by's. Instead of plain old egg salad, you can try Jalapeno Egg Salad. Instead of boring tuna salad there's Cranberry Tuna Salad or Sesame White Fish Salad. There are also a number of recipes for salads centered around greens, which is helpful to those of us who are less than creative in that arena (like me.)

I also appreciate that they included a nutritional breakdown for each recipe. It's helpful for those of us who want or need to track our macros occasionally. Some of the measurements or recipe sizes are problematic for us single eaters, as the recipes are often for 2 or more servings, but that can be gotten around with a little math.

One of the things that I think speaks volumes about the cookbook is the reaction of non-Primal food lovers. I can't count how many times I heard "Oh, that looks good!" Or "We should try this!" That says a lot right there. When non-Primal folks like the looks of the food, you know you've got a good thing going! (Not to mention it's always a good "in" for getting them to eat a little more healthfully if the food tastes great.)

Oh, and it comes with a handy grocery check list and erasable marker, to make grocery planning super-easy. It has just about everything listed that a Primal kitchen might need. If it's on that list, you know it's good to eat! I stuck mine on my fridge and have started marking the things I need for recipes I want to try, or marking things when I run out of them. It's very helpful, but would be better if it came with it's own magnet. (Not to be too demanding.)

And the best news? I'm giving away a copy of the Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals at this year's upcoming Boarfest!

One lucky attendee will be taking home this cookbook, and there will be many other great goodies also from Primal Blueprint, including blender bottles, samples of Primal Fuel, t-shirts and temporary tattoos! If you'd like a chance to win this or a number of other great prizes, join us July 30th for the event.


FYI: I was given a copy of Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals to review. I was not obligated to review it for this blog, nor was I obligated to give it a positive review.

Be Well,
Deanna

Primalizing Easter

I'm really looking forward to Easter this year. I think I've finally gotten my family to the point where they're not SAD-ing up every holiday meal, and letting me have a little more say in the menu. It's been a long, slow process, but the tide is finally turning, I hope.

Roast Leg of Lamb

This year I've got the honor of cooking a leg of lamb for my family. I don't think my mom is quite sure of my kitchen skills yet, and I'm really hoping to win her approval this Easter. There is also a gorgeous smoked ham that my butcher wowed us with, which will be prepared by my dad. Mom is taking care of the side dishes- some more Primal than others, but at least there will be meat!

Last April I cooked my first leg of lamb and it turned out surprisingly well, so that's the recipe I'm going to use this time. It reassured me that lamb is not that intimidating, and if you're attentive you really can't mess it up. It's a very basic recipe, so pretty much anyone can handle it- even me.

Also on the menu, we have baked sweet potatoes, which is one of my absolute favorite Primal/Paleo "treats." Really, coconut oil and sea salt are the way to go when making these. They're absolutely heavenly. Of course you can always dress them up after cutting them open by drizzling in a little meat juice and bacon bits (real ones, of course!)

Carrot Raisin Slaw

We're also having some of my other favorites- roasted Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots- in the form of my yummy Carrot Raisin Slaw. Of course there is the obligatory baked beans, biscuits and that funky gross pink "fruit salad" for my CW family. You'd think the world was going to end if there wasn't junk food to eat.

I would LOVE some of these local, wild favorites, if our fiddleheads and dandelions were in season, but it's been a very... very long winter this year. I did, however, just spot some knotweed shoots poking up out of the mud, so it's only a matter of time before I'll have some delicious knotweed recipes to share. If you have access to dandelions or fiddleheads, you may want to try some of these.

Dandelions with Garlic & Onion
Dandelion Fritters
Fiddleheads with Walnut & Fennel
Roasted Carrots & Radishes

We're also having an amazing, delicious cheesecake, prepared by a local bakery. If I had any ability to make cheesecake what-so-ever, I'd be making these delicious Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes, made by my dear friend, Batty. Or this cheesecake, also a la Batty. I swear, she's the cheesecake goddess!

Here are some other really fantastic Primal and Paleo menus and recipes to consider for Easter. I really wish my food could look so pretty!

Primal Palate Easter Dinner

Girl Gone Primal does Easter Fruit Buns Gone Primal

Then there's this. I am just enamored with. It's a Raw Carrot Cake Breakfast Bowl, but it could easily make a delicious dessert!

Deviled Balsamic Eggs

Of course it wouldn't be Easter without EGGS! One way to use up all those leftover Easter eggs is to make pickled eggs, or deviled eggs... or both! How about some Balsamic Deviled Eggs?  We'll be making deviled eggs with cream cheese and caviar, but they won't be pickled this time around.


With so much good food to choose from, what are you planning to eat!?

I hope you have a wonderful, happy Easter full of fine food, loving family and many smiles.

Be Well!

Tamarinds

Tamarinds were an interesting experiment. Not so much a successful experiment, but an interesting one. I learned a lesson about food this time. Sometimes, just sometimes some foods are meant to just be enjoyed in their natural state. I believe tamarinds are one of them.

I'd first heard of tamarinds from a friend of my sister. I had no clue what they were or what I was looking for when trying to find them for him, but find them I did. Out of curiosity we ate some raw and yow! I was not expecting the tart flavor at all! But they were strangely addicting.

Later, I decided I was going to challenge myself to find something useful to make with these bizarre exotic fruit. I looked them up on the internet, which is where anyone goes to find anything, at any time these days. I didn't find a whole lot helpful other than making tamarind paste (to be used for who knows what?) and that you could toast and eat the seeds. Ok... maybe I was getting somewhere.

So experiment day comes. I buy my few dollars worth of tamarinds (reserving just a few to snack on, because at this point they're becoming a favorite treat.) The bulk gets shucked, de-veined, de-seeded, and broken into pieces tamarind paste.

I begin the paste with water and tamarind pieces, heating it gently on the stove. Not much happens other than they get a little slippery. I heat them more, they get a bit gooey. More heat, more gooey. More heat, more gooey... but really nothing resembling a useful product. My curiosity gets me and I taste it. Aweful! The slight sweetness that the raw fruit had has disappeared and it's pure bitter. Gross!

Ok, well... I'll just let that simmer and I'll toast up some of these seeds. At least those will be useful!

The internet's instructions were pretty basic. Heat seeds in a dry pan until they crack, then eat and enjoy. Simple enough even for me. I do as all the directions to tell me to and it worked! Well, it worked if you like eating pebbles. Pebbles that taste like charcoal. The shells never cracked or popped like all the internet instructions said they would. I just ended up with what tasted like scorched little rocks.

I guess not all kitchen experiments can be great successes. Sometimes flubs and fails happen, and usually you learn something. I learned I have no practical use for making tamarind paste. I learned tamarind seeds are not a quick and easy snack. And finally, I learned that I much prefer tamarinds in their natural, sour fruit-snacky state. If I want to make tamarind candy, I'll go out and get the pre-made paste.

In Pursuit of the Perfect Soft Boiled Egg

For the last week I've been trying my darnedest to make soft boiled eggs, and for the last week I've been eating various degrees of under cooked eggs.

Photo by FotoosVanRobin

It does kind of bug me. Shouldn't any cook worth their salt be able to make a decent soft boiled egg? I mean, I wouldn't go to Denny's and try to order one, but at any fairly decent restaurant you bet the chef can get it right. Granted, I'm no chef. Shoot, I've never done any sort of cooking professionally beyond prep work, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but still... I consider myself relatively competent in the kitchen. But this... this I'm having trouble with.

Of course when I first set out to make my own soft eggs, I enlisted the help of the internet, where I found help. I found help overload. Every kind of cooking and blog site you can imagine had a suggestion for how I should "properly" make a soft boiled egg. The tips ranged from salting the water to piercing the egg. Salting I did, but the piercing I didn't. That was just asking for a slimy, eggy mess all over my counter top. Big pans, little pans, thermometers and lids. The sites ranged from very simple domestic guidelines to rocket science a la Alton Brown.

Photo by FotoosVanRobin

I tried all kinds of tip combinations and none of them turned out just right. It's one of those things, like making mayonnaise, that is a little tricky to figure out, but once you've got it, you've got it. I don't have it yet. But... I don't think I'm ready to give up trying. Lunches at work have been pretty basic, and I was in great need of changing up my hard boiled eggs. This little experiment has certainly done the trick. Now if only to get them to come out just right.

Do you make soft boiled eggs? What's your method?

Also, how do you prefer to eat your soft boiled eggs?

Easy Coconut Milk Chai

This is a quick and easy recipe brought to you by Spring Cleaning. There's nothing like a steaming hot, or ice cold cup after a long day of wiping, scrubbing, sweeping and sorting.

Easy Coconut Milk Chai

You will need:
2 chai tea bags
4 cups of water
3 cups of coconut milk
sweetener of choice

1) Put 4 cups of water and 2 tea bags in a medium pot. Heat over medium until tea becomes very strong and dark.

2) Remove teabags and add coconut milk and sweetener to taste. I used liquid stevia drops.

Drink warm, or refrigerate and serve over ice. Garnish with a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon. The leftovers can be refrigerated for later use, or share it with friends!

Enjoy!

Wilderness Childe Goes to School

It's official. I am a student.

As many of you may know, I went through a dramatic life change over the last 4 years. I got a great job that I really like, I got out on my own, and I lost a lot of weight. 125 pounds, actually. I chopped my hair, got pierced, inked and life is good.

As much as I really do like my job building custom fiber optic cables, it's not something that I can do forever. It's a nice season in my life but I want to do something more meaningful. I want to teach people to eat well, get healthy and live the best life they can. That's why I decided to go back to school.

With a stroke of good fortune and a blessing from the gods, it turns out my local community college has expanded its Phys Ed program, starting this fall, to include a program called "Health Education and Wellness Specialization." How exciting is that!?

With this Health & Wellness program, I'll be taking classes that range from Anatomy & Physiology, to Psychology, to Behavior Modification, Yoga, Martial Arts, Human Sexuality, Stress & Stress Management, Humor & Health, and Meditation. Can you believe it!?

As it stands, I'll be working my full time job, and will be in school full time. That's quite a work load but I think I can handle it. The trick will be getting my job to flex my hours around classes if necessary, but they're supportive, so I think it'll be ok.

There are other benefits that come with being a student, like taking advantage of the newly renovated and expanded gym. I'm really looking forward to seeing what will happen with my workouts in the coming year. I sure could use a little structure and some inspiration these days.

On one hand this extra work will cut into my food experiment and blog time, but on the other I'll get to share all the really neat stuff I'm learning with all of you!

Wish me luck! And I'm open to any suggestions or advice you may have on surviving school as a returning adult, as well as how to survive nutrition courses as somebody who believes in the goodness of saturated fat.

Tropical Traditions All Purpose Cleaner Review & Give Away

Spring Cleaning is in full swing! I've vacuumed, I've dusted, I've moved and re-arranged furniture. In an odd sort of way I look forward to this, but at the same time am always happy when it's over. This year I was right on time to try out Tropical Traditions All Purpose Cleaner on all my surfaces and glass. If ever there's a test for cleaners, it's the big spring clean.

Over the last few years I've been trying to get as Earth-friendly, and health-friendly as I can with my cleaning products. If you remember, last year I posted about cleaning with natural cleansers. Those all worked great, but it can be a tad bit inconvenient. Besides, none of those natural cleansers were nearly as versatile as Tropical Traditions Cleaner. Seriously, I was boggled at how many things it could be used for. Everything from cars to fruit. No, I'm not joking!

Naturally I started in the kitchen, and it did a fantastic job of cleaning the stove top and counters. I decided to give it a go in the dishwasher and it worked great! And you know I mopped the floor with it. Call me strange, mopping is my favorite chore.

It worked just as well in the bathroom on the sink, tub and floor. It even took care of the bit of mold around the bathtub. Man I hate that stuff! I was practically giddy though when it got my bathroom mirror all clean, without streaks! That's the true test of a natural cleaner- Can it clean a mirror without any weird spots or streaks in it? Yes, it absolutely can!

After that, I took care of the windows. I loathe windows- because of the streaks partly, but also because I have those old windows that don't tip in. They're a real pain in the neck. Sometimes literally. But now they're done and I'm happy.

With all the household basics out of the way, I decided to see what else this stuff could do. Would you believe you can use the same stuff to wash fruit as you do your kitchen floor? No, really! Yup, I did it. It was pretty cool. I just sprayed it on my pear and rinsed it off. And it's way cheaper than the specialty produce cleaners at the grocery store.

I also soaked some of my greasy laundry in it for wash day. That's a problem when you eat Primal and are a bit of a clutz, like me. You always end up with bacon grease in your clothes. Problem solved! It's easier than using dish liquid because you don't have to find all the grease spots. You can just soak the whole garment.

And since the weather is finally getting warmer, I'm curious what this stuff can do for my car. It needs a good cleaning after all the winter grime and salt. We'll really see what this cleaner can do come summer and we get bombarded with bugs.

Really though, I think the best part of Tropical Traditions All Purpose Cleaner is that it's not all chemical smelling. I was so happy not having to open a window just to mop the floor, or even have to worry about putting on those big rubber gloves to clean the bathtub. I love that it's safe for my kitties too!

You have a chance to win your own jug, and it's easy! You'll find that this time when the bottle says "all purpose," it really means it!

To enter simply subscribe to Tropical Traditions E-mail Newsletter and leave a comment here telling me what you love or hate about cleaning, and how Tropical Traditions All Purpose Cleaner would make it better.

For each of the following you can gain ONE additional entry:

1) Follow both @DianaRenata and @TropTraditions on Twitter, then leave a comment here with your Twitter ID.

2) Tweet about this giveaway: “@DianaRenata is giving away #free @TropTraditions all purpose cleaner! http://bit.ly/hyrrN8" then leave a comment here with your tweet link.

3) Be a follower of this blog and comment here to tell me you have.


And just so you know:
This is an unpaid, independent review of Tropical Traditions All Purpose Cleaner. Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

The contest runs until April 30th at midnight (eastern time). The winner will be chosen at random and contacted via e-mail. The chosen winner has 48 hours to respond with their name, telephone number, email address and shipping information, otherwise another winner will be chosen.

This contest is open to residents of USA and Canada. (Neither TheWildernessChilde nor Tropical Traditions are responsible for customs or duties that Canada may charge.) The winner's personal information will not be shared with anyone but Tropical Traditions. They in turn will not share your information with anyone else.

Thoughts For April

The April Fool

The bitter cold winds of winter are a recent memory as the shining Sun brightly beams our way into April. This is the astrological New Year, and for centuries April 1 marked the New Year for most of the world. When our current solar-based Gregorian calendar was introduced, the New Year lost its affinity with the zodiac. It took almost two hundred years for the calendar to be accepted and instituted.

A few centuries later, echoes remain from earlier celebrations of joyful newness during April. The grass is a tender, fresh green, trees are budding, and singing birds return to court and mate. We are giddy with delight; foolish in our desire to celebrate the sunshine and blossoming growth. We celebrate the April Fool.

April Fools' Day, April 1, is a lighthearted holiday of practical jokes and laughter. Even though the origins are murky, some evidence indicates that this holiday of mockery and joking began while the calendar was changing. The fool mocked those who were laggard, resistant to change.

The idea of foolery and jesting is a time-honored and sacred tradition. In several Native American traditions, there are tricksters and sacred clowns whose path is to teach through humor and disruption. Joking, mockery, and the antics of the madman shake people out of their habitual thinking and actions, moving them into new relationships with the sacred and with spirit.

In Europe, the tradition of the jester and fool is widespread, stemming from a time when there was no free speech. The fool was considered a twin soul to the royal leader, though one touched with childlike madness. This insanity was considered a sacred condition, a touch of the divine, and it exempted the fool from normal rules, laws, and codes of conduct. The fool was able to say things, point out incongruities and contradictions, and reveal hypocrisy. He did that with laughter, wild antics, bawdy jokes, and rude language. In many cases, jesters and fools were the only ones who could tell the ruling classes some hard facts.

In our lives, the class clown performed these tricks for us. Modern comedians also look at life in a slightly askew fashion in order to point out ways to change. This is not always a comfortable or safe role- jesters and clowns often came to a bad end. A lot of times, our beloved class clown wound up in detention.

Folk and magical traditions tell us the magical times and places called "betwixt and between." Neither this nor that, betwixt and between are times and places where normal rules do not apply- the place between the wave and the shore; between the mountain and the earth; the between the earth and the sky. In between times are the stroke of midnight, the time between dawn and night, the hours of twilight. These are liminal times, standing on the threshold between one thing and the next.

In these magical places, the realms of the unseen reveal and touch us, leaving us changed forever. In these magical times of betwixt and between, the normally unseen worlds give us tantalizing glimpses of what is, what was, and what is to be.

April, from its first foolish day onward, is just such a magical time. Each new day- with its tender green shoots, fresh blossoms, and birds on the wing- is the time between childhood and adult. We can tap into our own inner fool, allowing the laughter, jesting, and disruption to jar us out of our winter pathways and depressions. We can move our awareness inward to that tiny bright spot of madness to find where desire and delight touch. In that gossamer place, we find our way into remembered innocence, laughter, mirth, and joy. Refreshed and enlivened, zany fools, we walk out into the sunshine ready for the next grand adventure and bright new season.

This is a time to see things with fresh eyes and to hear songs as if for the first time. We are rediscovering magic, reawakening to the world of light and beauty. We are between the past and future. We are the fool.

--Gail Wood

Gail Wood has been a Witch and Wiccan priestess for more than twenty years. She is clergy, teacher, ritual leader, tarot reader, and reiki master. She teaches workshops and classes on alternative spiritualities, Wicca, tarot, ritual, shamanic journeywork, and reiki, She is the author of Rituals of the Dark Moon: 13 Lunar Rites for a Magical Path and The Wild God: Meditations and Rituals on the Sacred Masculine. For more, read her blog at www.rowdygoddess.blogspot.com