susan slattery

I found some leftover Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips in the cupboard–from the holiday peanut butter ball making frenzy–and managed to consume them over the course of the last few days. Shocking how I went for these while the brick of bittersweet chocolate was sitting right there. Sugar. I had the honey a few days ago (Friday) and it’s been something of a struggle to let it go again. But that’s it–some milk chocolate chips in the last few days. Less than half a bag total. Not the end of the world, and now they are gone.

I start my new job this week and have been thinking about how I will accommodate both my schedule and my diet. I’ve only been out of work for six months, but you know, I have grown rather fond of eggs and greens for breakfast, a lunch I think up and make on the fly, and dinner with no real rush involved. I will have a longer commute, so I am really thinking that I have to create a slightly different plan.

My previous job: much shorter commute. I would come home every night and spend 30 or 40 minutes making dinner AND an elaborate salad to bring to work for lunch the next day. Not just the salad either. I would make something to bring for breakfast–berries, yogurt and nuts, or an apple sliced with a container of peanut butter to smear on it; snacks for the morning, and the afternoon… I would be in the kitchen for over an hour.

Knowing I have a longer commute, I am less enamored of this approach. I want to be able to come home and have something in the fridge I can just take a dish or wedge of for the next day. Dinners I think will alternate between roasted sweet potatoes or buttercup squash with a side of greens on either two nights a week, and salmon, tuna or chicken with a side of greens the other nights.

I am thinking on the weekends I will make a big batch of chili or stew that I can take for lunch most of the week.

I got a little ambitious this weekend.

We went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon and I went a little crazy at the meat counter. I was thinking of chili but really remembering that great meatloaf I made a few days ago. I got 5 pounds of grass fed beef and 3 pounds of buffalo, a pound of chicken sausage, a whole chicken breast… not to mention greens and apples and cheese…

Early this afternoon I made both chili and more meatloaf–now these have many of the same ingredients, but I used different spices in each, and the meatloaf has an egg and some almond meal in it. I made the chili this time with only chili powder and cumin–though I did use two different chili powders, and I also added two diced jalapenos to the chili.

I toned down the meatloaf and made it with ancho chili powder and the smoked paprika.

I portioned off 2 pounds for the meatloaf, and used the rest of the meat–slightly less than 6 pounds, to make the chili. As you might imagine, this meat made an enormous pot of chili. But, no beans, so there was room! I used mostly the beef, two onions, a green pepper and a red pepper, two minced jalapenos, 5 or 6 large cloves of garlic, diced… then I think I put in 2T of ancho chili powder, 1T of chipotle power (these powders just disappeared into the giant pot of meat!), a little oregano, and also I added two large cans of organic diced tomatoes and a small can of organic tomato paste. No beans–I said that, right? But in this chili there are more vegetables and it is easier to eat than the chili I made with cubed beef chuck. I tasted it a few times–it’s delish.

I used mostly buffalo and some beef to make the meatloaf. I used about 2 pounds of meat, slightly less than a cup of almond meal, one beaten egg, 3T cholula hot sauce, 1T ancho chili powder, 1t cumin, 1t smoked paprika, and to this raw mix of meat and spices I added these veggies, which I sauteed first in olive oil: 3 cloves of garlic, minced, red onion diced, one green and one red pepper, also diced. Also some salt and pepper.

I am eating more beef (obviously!)–now I was fairly primal before with my salad lunches and chicken or fish dinners with veggies. I am just remembering that I supplemented before with sugar–the salad was just not enough to carry me through the afternoon. I need to have some protein at lunch and that’s why I think chili or meatloaf is the ticket. I expect I’ll also get into cooking more than a dinner’s worth of chicken at some point. The other day I had a little piece of leftover meatloaf for lunch and it stuck with me for like 4 hours! I did not feel the desire to eat much until dinner that night.

Tomorrow I will prepare a baked pan of egg, sauteed Swiss chard and chicken sausage–this I will cut into squares for easy on the go breakfasts. I think that eating protein at breakfast, and protein at lunch will make a single organic apple with an ounce of cheese a viable “snack” and to hedge my bets, I’ll bring a little baggie of curried cashews, in case I really get ravenous. There is a heavenly chocolatier within walking distance of my new job and I do not want to find myself running out for chocolate covered cherries at the first dip in my blood sugar.

We will eat fish and chicken with veggies, and all veggies, for weeknight dinners. Also, when I make my all veggie dinners, I will make enough to bring some for lunch too. On those days, hard boiled eggs will be a good snack.

I’ve harped on this before–planning. If you don’t want to find yourself at the mercy of take out food you have to have a plan. I know from personal experience that I cannot really eat out more than once a week if I want to keep my weight in check. I learned some time ago that, for example, on Sundays we usually go out for breakfast, and this is fine, has not impacted my weight much, BUT, if we went out to dinner Saturday night, or we go out Sunday night–I’m not kidding. I gain 3 pounds! Restaurants use too much butter, sugar and salt. Watch out.

Here was dinner last night: this was grilled ahi tuna and a mix of roasted sweet potatoes–one of them was white because it was an Asian variety; and roasted Brussels sprouts–the latter is really one of my favorite veggies.

This was really delicious. I use a Cajun spice blend on the sweet potatoes and just salt, pepper and olive oil on the sprouts. So good!

We have a CuisineArt Griddler that we’ve been using a lot lately–for a long time I rarely used it. Only for the occasional turkey burger. We’re using it much more often these days! Primal pancakes, ahi, lamb burgers, turkey burgers…

This was tonight’s dinner–we had a little leftover meatloaf from late last week and we split it, and each had a little wedge of the new meatloaf–Don likes it more–but I did miss the chipotle chili powder, and I wish I’d added more smoked paprika. Still it’s very good–I think it ended up being mostly buffalo:

This is about 4 or 5 oz. of meatloaf and 2.5 cups of steamed broccoli. So despite all the talk of meat, we still eat our fair share of green stuff! You can see how the broccoli is basically overtaking the plate.

I used up most of the little envelope of ancho chili powder I had, and I had to call Don, who had run out to pick up a few things, to ask him to get more cumin–I needed it for the meatloaf. I could not believe I did not have a cumin back up. I did find that I have many glass bottles of coriander and turmeric though.

Anyway, I ordered up a few things on Penzeys. Like I think we’re going to be plowing right through the smoked paprika, so I ordered some of that. The other night I cooked a small pork tenderloin and I sprinkled it with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Don loved it!

It is crazy, cooking up nearly 8 pounds of meat in a day, but when I take pictures of my dinner plate, I do think we are eating in proportion–2/3 of the plate is usually covered with veggies, and 1/3 is covered with some lean protein. The beef and buffalo were both something like 98% lean. Plus, I cooked the meat for the chili before sauteing the other ingredients and I drained almost all the remaining fat off. There are no pools of oil or fat on top of the chili.

Considering this further, I think the chili has a pretty fair share of veggies–tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic… but on the days I take it for lunch, I’ll make veggie dinners: buttercup squash stuffed with spinach, or roasted sweet potatoes with roasted broccoli–I’ve been wanting to try roasting broccoli. Also I should get some cauliflower and use up some of the turmeric. Cauliflower is an excellent vehicle for turmeric, which in and of itself is a spice known for its anti-inflammatory properties.

This chili was so thick and chunky I didn't even need a bowl!

Unlike my more user friendly chili from a month or so ago, this chili was made with cubes of grass fed chuck; garlic, onions, spices, and not too much else. It was pretty dense. It was the chili I referenced in some early posts about eating a few pieces of it and not feeling like eating anything else for days.

Anyway, when I make it again, I will buy a less fatty grass fed beef–maybe even lamb, or turkey, or cubed bison. Also, while I’m not eating beans any more–oh, they do make chili seem more friendly, don’t they?–I will add some more vegetables to this chili (like green and red peppers.)

AND, I want to recommend that you find some smoked paprika and look for various incarnations of chili powder–I’m not kidding. I bought some chipotle chili powder recently and when I cut open the sleeve of it, I started salivating like a Pavlov dog. Ditto for the little tin of smoked paprika. Yowza, that smells utterly delicious. The meatloaf I made last night had these two spices–Don thought it was too spicy, but I can really appreciate a meal where I am salivating all the way through it.

Here are my dogs–they are 9 and 8 years old. We feed them nothing but raw meat–lamb, chicken or raw salmon. They get freeze dried salmon and liver. Occasionally a kalamata olive, a raw free range egg, a broccoli stem… but gosh, don’t they look healthy? This is what no grains looks like, I think. Their coats are like mink. Their eyes are shiny. Brahma, the younger one, is intact–so this diet keeps him pretty ripped looking. Buddha is muscular too–but he has an unusual trait for a black pug: a double coat. It is quite delicious to bury your face in his neck fur.

This is Brahma. He's 8 years old. There is almost no subcutaneous fat on him. His fur is thick, and his skin is loose in a very pleasing way. But you can feel his ribs.

This is Buddha. He's 9 years old. Double coated. Gorgeous eyes. Loves to play. All the loose skin on him is around his neck. You can literally knead this pelt--it's super soft and luxurious.

Even as a puppy, Buddha did not like dry food–like kibble, which is loaded with carbs. He preferred the cooked vegetables and cheese cubes I added to the food to try and make it appealing. He could pick out those things and leave every kibble behind. Finally I gave up. Also, around that time, he developed bladder stones.

He was only a year or two old. So we had the stones surgically removed. I consulted a vet nutritionist. I learned that dogs can form 3 kinds of stones: one because their urine is too acidic, one because it’s too alkaline, and the third stone was specific to Dalmations, so I didn’t have to worry about that. Buddha’s urine was too acidic. I did some research and set out to pull him back toward center. I started making the dogs a home cooked diet of rice, chopped rotisserie chicken and cooked peas. They loved this.

Six months later, I had swung him too far–he formed the alkaline stones! At this point we laid out an enormous amount of money to have a surgical procedure that would allow Buddha to pass small stones without needing to open him up again and have his bladder sliced open. I knew that having that done even once was terrible. He had it TWICE, but on the second one, they also cut a little opening behind his penis so that urine could exit before it entered the penile bone–that’s where the stones lodged. The urethra is flexible until it passes through that narrow bone.

At that time, this was ruling our lives. We love Buddha. We did not want to subject him to endless operations, peculiar diets, testing, medications, or other things that likely would shorten his life.

One day I was at the training center where I was taking obedience classes with Brahma. Another woman was there with an utterly gorgeous Rottweiler. His coat was unbelievable. Shiny, soft and thick. I complimented this.

“Oh, thank you,” she said. “He’s a rescue. You should have seen him. Patchy hair loss, skin problems–it was so bad.”

I could not believe this–”What? But he’s so healthy now!”

“Raw diet,” she said. “Bravo.”

This was the first I’d heard of feeding dogs raw meat.

I did agility with the dogs, and took them to trials. One of these was a huge cluster trial after Thanksgiving. At this trial there were four rings, thousands of dogs, and there was a whole dog marketplace. That’s where I bought the first tubes of raw diet. I fed some samples to the dogs and they loved it. That was good enough for me.

I had gone to this show several years in a row before I finally went to the raw booth and asked about the tracheas. They had a big basket of beef tracheas. People snapped them up like they were gold.

“Do dogs really like these?” I asked the booth rep dubiously.

She smiled. “You’re the lady with the black pugs, right?”

I nodded.

She gestured to the bin of tracheas and said, “Take two of the smaller ones. On the house. Give them to your dogs.”

“Really?” I said.

“You’ll be back.”

You bet I was. I bought 20 more.

The dogs went for these things like wolverines. They are not the neatest things — they are a little greasy and leave a little smear wherever the dogs eat them, but hey, they are like dog cocaine.

The first time I mashed up some raw lamb in their little dishes, I was a little grossed out. I mean, there was blood and bones and everything. It smelled almost foul to me. I could not believe I was going to pass this off as food to my dogs.

We practice this thing called the “wait” at mealtimes. It’s a good stay practice. We never leave bowls full of food around for the dogs, we feed them and then pick up the bowls. Now they would always eat what we gave them–remember, it was chicken, rice and peas for a while, and before I switched them to raw, we were following the vet’s advice and feeding them these awful cans of Science Diet with an ingredient list as long as your arm.

I put the bowls on the floor.

“I don’t know,” Don said. “It’s kind of gross.”

The dogs were waiting to be released. “Wait,” I said.

“Wait.”

“Oh…”

“O”

“OK!”

The DOVE on this food, slurped it up so voraciously you’d think I’d gone out and freshly killed a deer for them. Brahma pushed his snout into the bowl so hard that he did a headstand–his back feet were off the ground!

It’s been many years now, and no more problems for Buddha–no more surgeries. The vet marvels when she sees them. They are healthy and energetic. The vet is skeptical about the raw diet. The diet of pure protein.

But I am a believer.

I would hardly have called myself a carboholic–I mean, for some years I have not in my mind classified pasta as anything remotely foodlike. Pasta–it’s not food. Eat it and be starving in a little while. It’s worse than not eating! Never went in much for cereal or bread either, even as a kid I reviled cereal for breakfast–though I ate it anyway; I just didn’t like it at all–it grossed me out.

I do like some grainy and dense breads, but I can live without them, or live with their sprouted and spelt cousins.

We were watching TV last night downstairs when I wailed, apropos of nothing, “You have no idea how much I want to go upstairs right now and plunge a big spoon into the jar of raw honey and put that spoon directly on my tongue!” Really, I said this. Because other than a bit of bittersweet chocolate now and then, the default snacks have been:

Cheese… Manchego, Parmesan or a really good crumbly aged cheddar. Still no yogurt though. I feel like the cheese is better because cheese has less lactose.

Olives… Little French black herbed olives, with the pits. I eat them over the compost pail. (I spit the pits into the pail.) This is gross because there are egg shells and coffee grounds in the compost and the smell is not anything remotely appetizing. (Right now there are asparagus stems on top of the coffee grounds, which are sitting NEXT to the compost pail–it’s too full.) I have not given up coffee, and I still have a few tablespoons of half and half daily (in the coffee). I feel like I’m entitled to this. I mean, I’ve given up everything else, seems like. Tobacco. Alcohol. Grains. My beloved full fat Greek yogurt. Finally, and hardest: Sugar.

Nuts… Mostly curried cashews that are organic and fabulously expensive.

I’m thinking primal, but mainly I’m just not eating some things. Like sugar. This is pretty hard for me, because I clearly see now that I was not a soda drinker or a pasta addict, I did not eat cinnamon buns or waffles or pancakes, or even French toast; HOWEVER, I did get my sugar. By mainlining it this way. Honey jar in one hand (and raw honey, mind you has the consistency of sticky evaporated butter) spoon in the other, and aching teeth… Don would go for a bowl of ice cream, mildly sweet and creamy, but I would take a huge spoon of raw honey any day over that. Pure sugar filling my mouth…

Bacon, on the other hand, is on my grocery list now. I started eating hard cheese again because I’m reading Gary Taubes’ books, and somewhere in there I read that cheese is okay.

Anyway, this should all be satisfying right? Eggs for breakfast. 4 cups of salad and 4 oz. of protein at lunch. Some fish, fowl or meat for dinner with a side of green vegetables. Plus, savory snacks like nuts, cheese and olives.

I’m not craving pasta or bread, or even rice or quinoa. This morning I thought I’d make Primal Pancakes. I swear I had a large bag of almond meal laying around, but damned if I could find it. I NEVER want pancakes, yet I threw myself into a frenzy digging through the refrigerator and the cupboards. I briefly considered whipping up some freelance hazelnut meal pancakes, but I’m not really that good at making up this kind of thing in the kitchen. I can make it up if chili powder is involved, but not cinnamon and eggs.

In the end I scrambled some eggs and then ate a bowl of organic blueberries with some canned coconut milk. That’s the other thing–I start dipping into the coconut milk to answer this weirdo craving.

For lunch I roasted some asparagus and ate it with some sardines that I mashed up with lemon juice and mustard (the kind of mustard with mustard seeds and vinegar and no junk in it.) This is the kind of lunch I feel virtuous about, but at the same time it feels terribly like nutritional punishment.

Still, I added “almond meal” to my shopping list. This weekend I’m gonna make a few things I never would have made before: the aforementioned pancakes (um, butter, but not syrup… hmn, maybe I’ll wrap these pancakes around bacon),  jalapeno poppers–this is pretty much jalapenos stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon and baked. You can’t believe how appealing all this sounds to me right now… I feel like I’m hopping into the sack with Dr. Atkins. Also: meatloaf. (No bread, though, I think that recipe does call for almond flour, so there will be primal pancakes and meatloaf soon…) At the meat counter at Guido’s I order up a pound of grass fed ground round (98% lean) and some Colorado buffalo (extra, extra lean.)

“What do you think?” I asked the butcher. “Grass fed beef and buffalo–do they combine well?”

“Oh yeah,” he said. He was wrapping up a half pound of bison for me and went on, “Even a coupla burgers out of this will be great.”

“I’m making a meatloaf,” I said. “No bread either, almond meal, and some eggs, I think.”

“Definitely add something like eggs or fat of some kind,” he said, “Otherwise it will be dry and dense as a rock. It’ll thud onto the table and your husband will wonder if it’s edible.”

Anyway, with all this cheese and chicken and meatloaf, not to mention my fair share of avocados lately, I wonder that I am sitting around pining for things like maple syrup and raw honey? The honey especially is painfully sweet–eating it I remember makes my teeth ache.

I’ve heard again and again that cancer loves sugar. So I just wrote that and I know how that sounds–no I don’t think I have cancer (though my dermatologist and some other doctors might say, well, not yet), I think it makes incredible sense to simply deprive myself of all sugar, except the incidental sugar of an apple or a papaya now and again. Wouldn’t it just be the bomb if that was the answer? That if you did have cancer and just stopped eating all sugar, it would just die (the cancer, not you.) Wouldn’t that be something?

Those I’ve known who have died of cancer all steadily consumed a sugary diet until the end, like they wanted or needed it.

Still, it’s not for the average person. Giving up sugar is extraordinarily difficult. I think because you have to wait for your body to figure things out and start cashing out glycogen elsewhere.

I got this great recipe on marksdailyapple.com. It’s delicious, though I’m sure not super healthy. Enjoy in moderation. (Baking finely ground nuts of any kind means oxidation.)

Walnut Crust:

•     2 1/2 cups walnuts
•     1 teaspoon baking soda
•     1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
•     2 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions:

Blend walnuts, baking soda and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Add butter and pulse until butter is mixed in.

Scrape the batter into a deep dish pie pan. Use your fingers and take your time smoothing and patting the batter out evenly. It’s better to spread the batter thinner across the bottom of the pan and thicker around the edges of the crust.

Place the pie on a cookie sheet (helps to keep the bottom from burning) and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the crust from the oven and pour your filling of choice inside. Bake again until filling is done.

Pumpkin Filling:
I upped the spice factor and swapped agar agar for arrowroot:

•     One 15-ounce can of pumpkin
•     1 cup full fat canned coconut milk
•     1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•     1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
•     1 teaspoon cinnamon
•     1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•     1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
•     1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
•     pinch of sea salt
•     3 tablespoons real maple syrup
•     1 tablespoon agar agar (found in natural food and Asian markets)
•     3 eggs, whisked

Instructions:

Mix together all ingredients. Pour into the pre-baked crust. Don’t overfill the crust – you might have a little batter leftover.

Bake for another 50 minutes. The center of the pie should be fairly firm and only jiggle a tiny bit if you shake the pan. Let the pie cool completely before cutting into it–the nut crust is delicate. Serve with a dollop of real whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon, which is good for ‘ya!

This pie is delicious, and the only heavy cream is the cream you see in the photo.