3 chicken breasts

1 cup pineapple, cubed

2 Tbs grated ginger (fresh or jarred)

dash of salt

1 Tbs olive oil

Heat oil over Med/High heat.  Saute pineapple and ginger for 2 minutes.  Cube chicken and add to pan.  Heat all ingredients until chicken is tender (about ten minutes).  Serve over a bed of greens for a delicious, fresh summer salad!

2 small onions, sliced

3 Tbs diced garlic, fresh or jarred

2 tomatoes, wedged

32 oz vegetable broth (chicken broth or beef broth can be substituted)

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

3 Tbs lard or olive oil

Brown all sides of roast over medium heat in pressure cooker.  Remove roast and place onions, garlic, and tomato into pan and saute for 3 minutes.  Add broth and roast.  Place cover on pressure cooker and cook on medium until rocker weight starts to sizzle and bob.  Lower heat until rocker weight bobs about 8 times a minute.  Cook for one hour.  Take pressure cooker off heat for five minutes and then run pressure cooker under cold water to release pressure.  When pressure is released, it is safe to open the cooker.  Open cooker away from face and wear oven gloves.

To make a nice, thick gravy, place liquid, tomatoes, onions, and garlic into a blender.  If still not thick enough, mix in some tapioca powder or arrowroot until desired thickness.

Tomatoes – yep. Vinegar – seems fine. Sugar – wait, what? Even ketchup isn’t safe from the wrath of sugar.

Think you have to ditch the bottle – the condiment bottle that is – in order to avoid these hidden sugars? Not a chance, especially if you have the baseline kitchen skills necessary to whip up some of these homemade alternatives. Read on for simple Primal recipes for ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, barbeque sauce and almond butter. Enjoy!

Ketchup

There’s no need to give up ketchup if you can opt for this sugar-free (but no less delicious) 3-minute variety.

6 ounces tomato paste
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
2 tbsp of your preferred sugar substitute (optional)
2 tbsp onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp pepper

Combine ingredients in food processor and blend until the onion disappears. Spoon mixture into an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Mayonnaise

If using raw eggs in mayonnaise makes you nervous, try this recipe, which not only dramatically reduces the sugar content but also partially cooks the eggs!

2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp water
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1 cup pure olive oil

Heat the egg yolks, lemon juice, water, and sugar in a small skillet over very low heat, stirring constantly. At the first sign of thickness, remove from heat and submerge in a large pan of cold water (you should continue stirring here to avoid creating citrus-y scrambled eggs…trust us!) Scoop mixture out of pan and into a food processor. Blend for a few seconds and then let mixture sit uncovered for at least 5 minutes to cool. Add remaining dry ingredients, and blend on low speed. Drizzle oil slowly into the mixture until all ingredients are combined. Scoop into a large glass container and chill immediately. Mayonaise should keep for at least one week if stored correctly.

Mustard

Ahhh…mustard. Another childhood favorite. But did you know many varieties contain a hefty dose of brown sugar? Cut the carbs – and synthesize the taste – by following this spicy mustard recipe

1/4 cup white or brown mustard seeds
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2 tbsp cold water

Place mustard seeds, wine vinegar and wine in a small bowl and let sit for 3 hours. Pour the contents of the bowl and the water into a food processor with a steel blade. Blend until seeds are broken up and then add the dry mustard, salt, allspice, and water, and process until smooth. Scoop into glass container and refrigerate 12 hours before serving.

Faux Honey Mustard

This is perhaps one of the most delicious (and kid-friendly) ways to sweeten the appeal of a chicken dish!

1 cup mayonnaise (extra credit if you use your own homemade version!)
1/3 cup mustard (again, there’s no harm in using your own!)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 packet sugar substitute or a bit of honey

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix thoroughly. To store, refrigerate in airtight container.

Barbeque Sauce

Ever wonder what makes barbeque sauce so delicious? Perhaps it’s the 30 grams of sugar per 1/4 cup serving? Don’t want to give up this comfort food favorite? Then try this innovative recipe, which uses diet soda in place of the sugar!

2 strips of thick bacon, chopped fine or 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, or chipotle powder to taste (this gives the sauce its smoky flavor, so using either the bacon or the spices is fine!)
1 small onion (minced)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup (again, use your homemade version!)
3 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch cinnamon
Hot sauce to taste (any variety is fine!)

If using bacon, fry in a 2-qt pan (no oil) until cooked through. Add the onion and cook over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes (or until onion browns). Add in garlic and cook for a minute, then mix in all other ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes. Test the mixture and add other spices, more vinegar or hot sauce until you achieve the desired taste. To store, scoop into a large plastic container and keep refrigerated.

Almond Butter

Looking for a peanut butter alternative? Try this almond butter recipe – its quick, easy, and super nutritious!

3 lbs raw, unsalted almonds

Spread almonds on cookie sheets and toast in a 350 degree F. oven for about 10-15 minutes, stirring them around occasionally to ensure that they are toasting evenly. Let cool for 30-45 minutes. In a food processor, add handfuls of almonds at a time through the shoot opening and blend on high. Periodically open blender and scrape down sides to make sure that mixture is blending evenly. If you prefer a chunkier almond butter, save a handful for the end and then add in while pulsing food processor to attain desired consistency.

Share your favorite homemade condiment making tips and recipes in the comment boards!

by Mark Sission

(found on Marksdailyapple.com  November 5th, 2009)

I find that grain bashing makes for a tasty, but ultimately unsatisfying meal.

You all know how much I love doing it, though. But no matter how often I sit down to dine on the stuff (and I’ve done it with great gusto in the past), I always leave the table feeling like I left something behind. Like maybe I wasn’t harsh enough about the danger of gluten, or I failed to really convey just how much I hated lectins. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the mere mention of grains was eliciting a crazy insulin-esque response and throwing my satiety hormones all out of whack. I was filling up on anti-grain talk, but I just couldn’t fill that void for long.

Well, I’ve got the hunger today, and this time I aim to stuff myself to the point of perpetual sickness. I don’t ever want to have to look at another anti-grain argument again (yeah, right). If things get a little disjointed, or if I descend into bullet points and sentence fragments, it’s only because the hunger has taken over and I’ve decided to dispense with the pleasantries in order to lay it all out at once.

So please, bear with me.

Apart from maintaining social conventions in certain situations and obtaining cheap sugar calories, there is absolutely no reason to eat grains. Believe me – I’ve searched far and wide and asked everyone I can for just one good reason to eat cereal grains, but no one can do it. They may have answers, but they just aren’t good enough. For fun, though, let’s see take a look at some of the assertions:

“You need the fiber!”

Okay, for one: no, I don’t. If you’re referring to its oft-touted ability to move things along in the inner sanctum, fiber has some unintended consequences. A few years back, scientists found that high-fiber foods “bang up against the cells lining the gastrointestinal tract, rupturing their outer covering” which “increases the level of lubricating mucus.” Err, that sounds positively awful. Banging and tearing? Rupturing? These are not the words I like to hear. But wait! The study’s authors say, “It’s a good thing.” Fantastic! So when all those sticks and twigs rub up against my fleshy interior and literally rupture my intestinal lining, I’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s all part of the plan, right?

Somehow, I’m not convinced that a massive daily infusion of insoluble grain fiber is all that essential. And that “lubricating mucus” sounds an awful like the mucus people with irritable bowel syndrome complain about. From personal experience I can tell you that once I completed my exodus from grains, the IBS completely stopped. If you’re not yet convinced on the fiber issue I’ll refer you to Konstantin Monastyrsky’s Fiber Menace. Anyway, there’s plenty of fiber in the vegetables and fruit I eat. Which takes me to the next claim:

“You need the vitamins and minerals!”

You got me. I do need vitamins and minerals, like B1 and B2, magnesium and iron, zinc and potassium. But do I need to obtain them by eating a carb-heavy, bulky grain? No, no I don’t. You show me a serving of “healthy whole grains” that can compete – nutrient, vitamin, and mineral-wise – with a Big Ass Salad. What’s that? Can’t do it? Thought so.

“But it forms the foundation of the governmental food pyramid!”

You know, I should have just started the entire post with this one. I could have saved my fingers the trouble of typing and your eyes the trouble of reading. Governmental endorsements are not points in your favor, grain-eater; they are strikes against you. An appeal to authority (unless that “authority” is actually a preponderance of scientific evidence, of course) does not an effective argument make. Conventional Wisdom requires consistent, steady dissection and criticism if it is to be of any value.

There’s a reason grains are first and foremost on the list of foods to avoid when following the Primal Blueprint: they are completely and utterly pointless in the context of a healthy diet. In fact, if your average unhealthy person were to ask for the top three things to avoid in order to get healthy, I would tell them to stop smoking, to stop drinking their calories (as soda or juice), and to stop eating grains. Period. Full stop. They really are that bad.

I’ve mentioned this time and again, but the fundamental problem with grains is that they are a distinctly Neolithic food that the human animal has yet to adapt to consuming. In fact, cereal grains figured prominently in the commencement of the New Stone Age; grains were right there on the forefront of the agricultural revolution. Hell, they were the agricultural revolution – einkorn wheat, emmer, millet, and spelt formed the backbone of Neolithic farming. They could be stored for months at a time, they were easy enough to grow in massive enough quantities to support a burgeoning population, and they promoted the construction of permanent settlements. Oh, and they were easily hoarded, meaning they were probably an early form of currency (and, by extension, a potential source of income inequality). And here’s the kicker: they were harsh, tough things that probably didn’t even taste very good. It also took a ton of work just to make them edible, thanks to their toxic anti-nutrients.

Toxic anti-nutrients? Do tell.

Living things generally do not want to be consumed by other living things. Being digested, for the most part, tends to interrupt survival, procreation, propagation of the species – you know, standard stuff that fauna and flora consider pretty important. To avoid said consumption, living things employ various self defense mechanisms. Rabbits, for example, with their massive ears, considerable fast-twitch muscle fibers, and nasty claws, can usually hear a predator coming, outrun (out-hop?) nearly anything, and (in a pinch) slash a tender belly to shreds. Blue whales are too big to fit into your mouth, while porcupines are walking reverse pincushions. Point is, animals have active defense mechanisms. They run, fight, jump, climb, fly, sting, bite, and even appeal to our emotions (if you’ve ever seen a puppy beg for a treat with sad eyes, you know that isn’t just accidental cuteness) in order to survive. All the while, predators are constantly evolving and generating adaptations.

Plants, though, are passive organisms without the ability to move, think, and react (for the most part). They must employ different tactics to ensure propagation, and they generally have to rely on outside forces to spread their seed. And so various methods are “devised” to dissuade consumption long enough for the seed to get to where it’s going. Nuts have those tough shells, and grains have the toxic anti-nutrients, lectins, gluten, and phytates. (Of course there are some obvious exceptions. Fruits are tasty, nutritious, and delicious so that animals will eat them whole and poop out the seeds, preferably into some fertile soil. The seed stays intact throughout the digestive process; it is indigestible by design. No seed “wants” to be digested, because this would defeat the purpose. They “want” to be swallowed, or borne by the wind, or carried by a bee to the next flower, but they do not want to be digested.)

Some animals are clearly adapted to grain consumption. Birds, rodents, and some insects can deal with the anti-nutrients. Humans, however, cannot. Perhaps if grains represented a significant portion of our ancestral dietary history, things might be a bit different. Some of us can digest dairy, and we’ve got the amylase enzyme present in our saliva to break down starches if need be, but we simply do not have the wiring necessary to mitigate the harmful effects of lectins, gluten, and phytate.

Lectins are bad. They bind to insulin receptors, attack the stomach lining of insects, bind to human intestinal lining, and they seemingly cause leptin resistance. And leptin resistance predicts a “worsening of the features of the metabolic syndrome independently of obesity”. Fun stuff, huh?

Gluten might be even worse. Gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley, is a composite of the proteins giladin and glutenin. Around 1% of the population are celiacs, people who are completely and utterly intolerant of any gluten. In celiacs, any gluten in the diet can be disastrous. We’re talking compromised calcium and vitamin D3 levels, hyperparathyroidism, bone defects. Really terrible stuff. And it gets worse: just because you’re not celiac doesn’t mean you aren’t susceptible to the ravages of gluten. As Stephan highlights, one study showed that 29% of asymptomatic (read: not celiac) people nonetheless tested positive for anti-gliadin IgA in their stool. Anti-gliadin IgA is an antibody produced by the gut, and it remains there until it’s dispatched to ward off gliadin – a primary component of gluten. Basically, the only reason anti-gliadin IgA ends up in your stool is because your body sensed an impending threat – gluten. If gluten poses no threat, the anti-gliadin IgA stays in your gut. And to think, most Americans eat this stuff on a daily basis.

Phytates are a problem, too, because they make minerals bio-unavailable (so much for all those healthy vitamins and minerals we need from whole grains!), thus rendering null and void the last, remaining argument for cereal grain consumption.

What, then, is the point to all this grain madness? Is there a good reason for anyone (with access to meat, fruit, and vegetables, that is) to rely on cereal grains for a significant portion of their caloric intake?

The answer is unequivocally, undeniably no. We do not need grains to survive, let alone thrive. In fact, they are naturally selected to ward off pests, whether they be insects or hominids. I suggest we take the hint and stop eating them.

And with that, I’m done. I don’t think I could eat another bite.

1 can coconut milk

1 1/2 cup any type of berry (fresh or frozen)

1 cup of any sweet fruit (pineapple, honeydew melon, banana, pear, grapes, peach, plums…etc)

Blend fruits in a food processor or blender until it is a puree.  Add coconut milk (shake the can first) to the fruit.  Set in freezer for 2 hours.  Make sure to check ice cream and stir it every 45 minutes.  The outside of the cream will freeze first.  By stirring it, the ice cream will be homogeneously frozen.  If you want to make a “frozen fruit” type ice cream, leave it in the freezer overnight.  Warning: this is very filling!

1 lb grass fed ground beef (or chicken/pork)

2 cups fresh spinach (or 1/3 cup frozen spinach)

1 container of mushrooms sliced (we used chanterelle)

1 small onion chopped

1 tomato chopped

1/4 tsp Paprika (hungarian)

1/4 tsp Cumin

1/4 tsp Cayenne

1/4 tsp sea salt (or to taste)

1/4 tsp ground pepper (or to taste)

1 egg

1 Tbs oil

Heat pan over medium heat.  Add oil when pan is hot.  Saute mushrooms and onions for about 3-4 minutes with a pinch of salt and pepper for flavor.  Add spinach to mushrooms/onions and saute for another minute or two (if spinach is frozen it may take longer).  Add tomatoes if you would like them cooked (they may be added raw).  Remove heated vegetables and place into a serving bowl.  In another separate stir (or knead with hands) 1 egg with ground meat until it is thoroughly mixed.  Next add paprika, salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne to the meat mixture.  Add all ingredients to the pan and heat at a medium/high heat.  Make sure to continually stir the meat to get all sides browned (about 5 minutes).  Combine meat and vegetables in the serving pot.  Can be served as is or can be wrapped in a piece of lettuce for a “taco.”

(serves 2)

1 bag Kelp Noodles (Sea Tangle Noodle Company)

12-13 oz red sauce (we used Dell’Amore Basil & Garlic- local Vermont sauce with low sugar)

1 Tbs chopped garlic (fresh or spice world in a jar)

¾ lb-1 lb of shrimp (we used tail-off pre-cooked)

¼ lb mushrooms (we used chanterelle, but any will do)

½ cup fresh spinach (or ¼ cup frozen)

1 Tbs oil or lard

Thaw shrimp. If tail-on, take off the tails. Dry off the shrimp with a paper towel or kitchen towel. Put shrimp to the side for later use.

Over medium heat sauté garlic and oil until light brown. Do not crisp the garlic.

Add the shrimp to the garlic. If the shrimp is pre-cooked, then just toss shrimp until warm. If the shrimp is raw, cook until pink and cooked.

While the shrimp is heating, chop mushrooms coarsely. You may chop the spinach if you wish, but it is not necessary. Frozen spinach can be added as is.

Add the mushrooms and spinach to the shrimp and oil. Toss until well heated. 0

Add sauce to the pan and stir all the ingredients together. Let the ingredients heat for 2-3 minutes in the sauce.

Rinse the kelp noodles in warm to hot water in a bowl and break up the noodles with fingers. DO NOT BOIL NOODLES. Drain the noodles and add to the serving bowl. Pour sauce and shrimp over the noodles.

The noodles will become softer over time. I would let the dish sit for a few minutes before serving, otherwise your noodles will be a little crisp in the center—nothing to be afraid of though…just let the dish sit to become tender.

Voila! Instant Italian dinner without the dense semolina pasta! Enjoy.

Mens – 45 Ladies – ~30

4 Rounds – We did 5

WD 5:20
MD 5:40

Next time would scale up (approx. double) jump roping.