"Fantastic Beef Sticks"

Created by Adam Thompson of the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group, Fantastic Beef Sticks are perfect for day trips and overnight camping trips. I'm not sure how long they'll last for longer trips due to the fat content. But, because they contain fat, they taste better and are more satisfying than beef jerky. They're also super easy to make if you have a dehydrator. You don't need a fancy one. Basic dehydrators cost $40-$60 and you can find used ones for less.

Seasoning
Fantastic Beef Sticks don't need any salt or seasonings. However, salt makes them taste especially good. I've never tried putting salt directly in the meat. Adam says he's soaked the meat for several hours in very salty water (tons of salt) and then mixed the beef around a bit in the water at the end.

Type of Beef
Go with a lower-fat ground beef, of sirloin composition or leaner (10% fat or less). You really taste the beef flavor, so higher-quality beef makes a difference. The farmer's markets in Austin feature local free-range beef that is ideal for these.

Amount
Adam's basic four-tray dehydrator (shown in the in final picture) holds two pounds of beef well. Three pounds is a squeeze but it's doable. The pictures below show two pounds.

RECIPE

 

STEP 1:  Press 2 pounds of ground beef -- lean or extra-lean (no more than 10% fat) -- onto a cutting board until it's about 1/4 inch thick.

STEP 2: Slice the beef into "bars" 1 1/2 inches wide by 3-4 inches long.

STEP 3:  Peel the bars off the board using your fingers as shown above. As you do this...

STEP 4: ...place them on dehydrator trays, evenly spaced. Dehydrate for at least 12 hours on high. The beef sticks will be just a bit bendable and chewy. If you go longer, the sticks will turn into "beef crackers" which are also delicious and most likely have a longer shelf life.

STORAGE:  Store in the refrigerator or freezer. We've found that they'll last fine for one-day trips in the Texas summer heat. They probably last longer in cool weather.

Tuna, Mushroom, and Red Bell Pepper Salad

A great summer salad made from leftovers I had in my fridge.

Ingredients:

3 oz. package tuna
mushrooms
red bell pepper
cucumbers
Romaine lettuce (just a bit)
scallions
2 Tbsp. guacamole
Caesar or other salad dressing to taste
salt and black pepper to taste

Other things that might have been good: tomatoes, celery, parsley, artichoke hearts, fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Caveman Chocolate Soft-Serve Ice Cream

Follow the chocolate pudding recipe from my blog, then put it in an ice cream maker and you'll have Caveman chocolate soft-serve ice cream just like in the picture! It's best eaten right away, because like most low-fat ice creams, it doesn't freeze well.  As is melts, it's very similar to a Wendy's chocolate frosty or a chocolate milkshake.

It contains only 75-100 calories per 1/2 cup and is completely Paleo. It contains no sugar or other sweeteners and no dairy. Once again, the secret is sweet potatoes.

Japanese sweet potatoes will make sweeter ice cream than the kind that are orange inside, sold in most stores, but the orange ones work fine too. They're called either sweet potatoes or yams. Both will work. If you use the orange kind, try using 1 1/2 cups water and 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder instead of what the recipe calls for. That's what I did for the ice cream in the picture.

Once you and your friends have had your fill of the soft-serve ice cream, when it melts you'll have a mouse-like pudding once again, also delicious. I'm thinking of making pudding pops. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Paleo Chocolate Pie

On Sunday, the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group held a Paleo Picnic in the Park that was filmed for a local TV show that's just starting up called Paleo Cafe. Hats off to Judith, Dorian, Herman, and Eddie for their awesome production and camera work.

We all brought dishes. I made kale chips, Nutty Chocolate Truffles and, my coup d'etat, Paleo Chocolate Pie.  Thanks to the magic of sweet potatoes, yuca, and plantains, the pie contains no sugar, flour, dairy products, or condensed sweeteners.  And it tastes as good as it looks (I know that's bragging, but I really do like it).

PALEO CHOCOLATE PIE

(From memory--everything is approximate.)

Filling

• 2 cups mashed Japanese sweet potatoes, no skin
• About 2 oz baking chocolate (unsweetened)
• About 1/2 cup egg whites (pasteurized)
• Very small pinch cinnamon
• Very small pinch cayenne

Blend in two batches in food processor until the chocolate is somewhat broken up. In a nonstick skillet over low heat, cook until chocolate is melted, then cook five minutes more, stirring frequently so chocolate doesn't burn. Blend it again in food processor in two batches to get a smoother texture. 

Crust

• About 3/4 cup cubed flesh from a green plantain
• About 1/2 cup cubed yuca root, peeled
• About 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 banana
• About 1 tsp baking powder

Blend in food processor to make a wet dough-like mixture that holds together fairly well. Grease a glass pie pan well with olive oil. Pat crust mixture into pan so that it rides up the sides but doesn't leave any holes in the crust. Try to make it thin. This is what you'd do for a graham cracker crust.

Bake at 300-350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until it's almost about to brown but not quite browning.

Putting the Pie Together

Add filling to the crust. Smooth it out with a dinner knife, and then use the flat part of the knife to make swirls toward the center as seen in the picture. Bake at 300-350 degrees for about 20 minutes until outer edge of crust begins to brown.

Strawberry Garnish

Choose a nice strawberry. Cut it lengthwise into five slices but don't cut all the way through the cap. Spread the strawberry out like a fan and place in the middle if the pie. The pie will cut easily with a dinner knife.

Caveman Chocolate Pudding

I just attended another Primal potluck with the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group, once again at Elexia's house. She is a fantastic host. I particularly enjoyed the kale chips, homemade tangerine honey mead, buffalo heart, and the homemade beef jerky, as well as the good company :)

As a special guest, visiting from Arizona for South by Southwest, Angelo Coppola joined us. He has a weekly Paleo podcast called "Latest in Paleo" and is a cool guy to boot. Thanks to his wife Amy for the beef jerky. You can find the recipe for it on Angelo's website.

Since I've started a tradition of bringing desserts and having people guess the ingredients, I figured I'd do this again. I use a lot of the same ingredients in the desserts, which makes guessing easier for those who have played before. 

The Caveman chocolate pudding pictured above is purposely not too sweet. My current feeling is that if something is overly sweet, we'll eat more of it than we're really hungry for. If you make this for a non-Paleo crowd, you may want to add a little Stevia or sugar. But taste it first before you do. 

The pudding is suprisingly filling and contains about 75-100 calories per half-cup. I think you'll find that it doesn't spike people's insulin and is not nearly as addictive as traditional chocolate pudding, yet it still gives you the feeling of eating a sensuous dessert.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups sweet potato, cooked, peel removed, flesh mashed into measuring cup (I used Japanese sweet potatoes, which are white inside, but you could use the orange kind). Note: This is about 1 pound.

1-2 cups water -- First add 1 cup, then add more as needed.

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

very small sprinkle cinnamon (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 

Pudding can be eaten cold or hot. Try it hot--it's really good.

Caveman Brownies

Say it ain't so! Yes, you can eat brownies on the Caveman Diet. These are very rich, moist, and chewy, but have fewer calories and are a bit less sweet than regular brownies. Since they're "caveman" brownies, they contain no flour or sugar.

The secret? Sweet potatoes.

To clarify, dry sweet potatoes. The orange sweet potatoes (also called yams) contain too much water for this recipe. However, my roommate Moria used the orange kind to make chocolate filling for gorgeous tartlets (more on that later).

For the brownies, I use either Okinawan (Hawaiian) purple sweet potatoes or Japanese sweet potatoes. I think any sweet potato that's white inside would probably work as well, since those are the dry kinds.

Purple Sweet Potatoes

 Japanese Sweet Potatoes

The recipe below makes a very small batch of brownies, which is good if you're just making these to assuage a craving. For a larger batch, double the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups dry-type sweet potato, cooked, skin removed, and packed into the measuring cup (I microwaved these. If you bake or boil them, add some almond flour and/or coconut flour to make a drier batter.)
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp unsweetened carob powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
1/4 tsp vanilla (optional)
dash of cinnamon (optional)
1/2 packet Stevia (optional)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Put everything except the nuts in a food processor. Pulse a few times, then process. The result should be like soft playdough that molds into a ball. You may have to push the dough back into the food processor bowl and process again one or two times to get it mixed well.

If the dough doesn't hold together, add just a bit of water. Be careful not to add too much water or you'll have pudding rather than brownies -- not a bad trade, but that's another blog post.

If you don't have a food processor, you can mix these by hand -- in fact, you may want to just use your actual hands to mix it rather than a spoon. This is very primal, and it would probably work really well. (I think I'll try this next time.)

2. Add chopped nuts (if you're using them) and mix to incorporate.

3. Lightly grease a small (9" x 6") Pyrex baking dish with olive oil or coconut oil.

4. Press the brownie mixture into the dish.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Check towards the end to make sure the brownies don't burn.

6. Let cool a few minutes and cut into squares. They will darken and firm up as they cool but will remain moist and fudgy.

Southwestern Turkey Spinach Salad

I was at the Austin Barefoot Running Meetup Group and happened to overhear my friend Mo say he wanted to find recipes for Paleo salad dressing. If you look at salad dressings in the store, you'll find that even the ones that say "olive oil dressing" are made with canola or soybean oil.

I was at work and came up with the salad above. Please note that the real salad I ate was about three times that size. What you're seeing is the last bit of my meal arranged to look nice on a plate.

To make this into a Zone meal (to give it a 40-30-30 ratio of carbs, protein, and fat), eat the entire salad with an apple or other piece of fruit. Your meal will contain about 350 calories.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup cooked ground turkey
2 to 4 cups baby spinach
1/4 large avocado
1 to 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (start with 1 Tbsp and add more to taste)
2 to 3 Tbsp pico de gallo or fresh salsa (salsa from the jar won't taste as good)
salt and pepper (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a cup or small bowl, mash together the turkey and avocado.

2. In a large salad bowl, toss together the spinach, lemon juice, and pico de gallo.

3. Add the turkey, avocado, salt, and pepper to the spinach. Mix well so that some of the oil from the avocado coats the spinach.

Primal Holiday Party

A while back, a bunch of us in the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group enjoyed a Primal Holiday Party potluck at Elexia's fabulous house. Some of the food we ate is pictured below.

I think the make-your-own salad fixings that Bryan and Tracy brought were a great idea. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and boy, were those raspberries good!

Some people on the Paleo/Caveman Diet eat cheese and some eat dark chocolate. I don't personally usually eat these things, but everyone follows the diet differently. The cheese is raw cheese and the chocolate is 85% dark.

I think most of the other dishes are self explanatory. Oh, and there were two varieties of cooked mushrooms.

Not pictured but consumed later on:

- Large, delicious shrimp (yum - thanks, Elexia)
- Stir-fried beef heart (uh, interesting - thanks, Elexia)
- Cantaloupe
- Pomegranate seeds
- My caveman cupcakes


What a fun night! If you're in Austin, feel free to join the Austin Primal Living Meetup Group or the Austin Natural Movement Meetup Group for fascinating events like these with laid-back, nice people.