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18 Ways to Get More Veggies in your Diet paleo primal vegetables-min

18 Ways to Get More Veggies in your Diet

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With most things in life, the key is ‘everything in moderation.’ Not that this means you can eat pizza in moderation, but you get my point. One thing that certainly shouldn't be moderated however is your intake of delicious, fresh veggies. We could all benefit from upping our vegetable intake, and certainly shouldn't be aiming for the paltry ‘5 portions a day’ recommended by so called ‘experts.’ If you’re running out of ways to boost your veggie intake, why not give some of these ideas a try?

18 Ways to Get More Veggies in your Diet paleo primal vegetables-min

 

Use them in:

Hide them in:

  • Sauces – like this romesco sauce or as a base to a Paleo pizza
  • Baked goods, like these sweet potato and chocolate chip muffins
  • Omelettes – try a spinach and red pepper omelette for a delicious breakfast
  • Dips – why not try replacing the basil with spinach or kale in pesto?
  • Curries – Why not throw some sweet potato, squash, courgette or mushrooms into your curry?
  • Stews / Casseroles – You can ever add some extra veggies like onions, parsnips and carrots and blend them up to make a delicious fresh sauce

Make Paleo Alternatives:

  • Make Paleo Tortillas with Lettuce Wraps
  • Make Paleo Noodles with Courgettes – you may need a spiralizer!
  • Make Paleo Spaghetti with a Spaghetti Squash
  • Make Paleo Rice with Cauliflower

Eat lots of salad!

  • Making your own salad is a great way to consume loads of fresh, colourful veggies in one sitting. You can throw together all sorts of leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado – just about anything really!

Snack on them raw

  • Carrots, Cucumber, Celery and Peppers make excellent nibbles at snack time. Spread them with a little almond butter for a little indulgence if you like!

Make a vegetable based broth

  • This is an excellent way to use up all your leftover vegetables – simply throw them all into a pot and cook very gently for a delicious broth!

Go to your farmers market

  • A trip to your local farmers market can make you see vegetables in a whole new light. The colours, shapes and sizes of the produce on offer will be outstanding, and might just reignite your passion for vegetables. An otherwise boring tomato or bunch of kale will probably look much more fun here – so stock up at your local farmers market, and aim to walk away with at least one new vegetable.

How do you get extra veggies in your diet? Are there any ideas I have missed?

fail-proof poached chicken paleo recipe shredded poultry lunch dinner-min

How to Cook Fail-Proof Poached Chicken

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Recipe paleo egg muffins-min

Quick & Easy Paleo Egg Muffins: Perfect Breakfast Bites

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How to cut a bell pepper capsicum technique paleo-min

How to cut a bell pepper

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How do you cut yours? I always used to get seeds everywhere when I cut up a capsicum (or bell pepper as they're known elsewhere in the world), until I found this technique. No mess, no wastage – and best of all the seeds stay together and can be easily removed.

Tutorial How To Cut Bell Pepper Capsicum-min

So all you need to do is:

  • Cut the top and bottom off the bell pepper/ capsicum
  • Next to one of the white sections, connecting the outside to the seeds, make a cut down
  • Open out the side of the pepper/ capsicum, cutting away the pieces attached to the centre as you go
  • Remove the seed section
  • Put out the stalk from the top of the capsicum/ bell pepper
  • Now you have three clean sections to cut up!

How do you cut yours? I'd love to hear any good techniques that you use, in the comments below!

9 ways to keep it paleo at Christmas holiday diet health-min

9 Ways to Keep it Paleo This Christmas

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With all of the festivities at this time of year, you might be worried about keeping it Paleo? Well, with a bit of planning and organisation, there’s no need to worry about foregoing your health this Christmas.

  • Remember how you feel after you eat gluten/ drink alcohol/ eat something that doesn't agree with you.
  • Organise to host your own party/ dinner, early, to ensure you have control over the menu. You’ll be surprised how many friends will ask you for the recipes!
  • If you’re going out of Christmas events try eating before you leave, as when hunger strikes it’s harder to avoid the bad options
  • Call the venue ahead to check on the menu options, and see how they can accommodate you. You’ll find many places happy to tweak their Christmas menu to accommodate.
  • If you’re going to a friend's event, bring your own dishes to ensure there will be some good options you can have
  • Don’t let anyone pressure you into eating badly – often people seem keen to sabotage the good efforts of others (perhaps because it makes them feel better about their own bad choices) – so be prepared!
  • Don’t be afraid to lie – sometimes it’s just easier to say you have an allergy or intolerance instead of explaining why you eat this way (have you ever done this?)
  • If you have the chance to organise a Christmas event yourself, choose a venue with more paleo options – or better still arrange an event that isn't based around food.

And finally:

  • If you do fall off the wagon, tomorrow is another day. Don’t beat yourself up over it – but don’t let the slip justify more bad eating! Move on and eat well again.

How do you find sticking to a Paleo diet at this time of year? What are your top tips for success?

9 ways to keep it paleo at Christmas holiday diet health-min

Which Knives Do You Need In Your Kitchen paleo cooking diet primal knife choosing-min

Which Knives Do You Need In Your Kitchen?

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Eating a natural paleo diet – more real food – means more food preparation. Which knives do you have in your kitchen and are you using the right ones for the right job?

One of the most important tools in the kitchen is the knife. You use your kitchen knifes every day and if you buy good ones, you will be able to use them for many years to come.

If you’re about to buy a kitchen knife, have you worked out which type you need and what to buy?

It’s not easy to say a particular knife “is the best knife”. The best knife depends on you and how you will use it. The most important criteria is that the knife should be easy to use by the person who will use it the most.

When you walk into a shop, you’ll probably be overwhelmed by the amount and variety of knifes. Don’t worry, you will never use all of them, nobody does. A basic set of knifes for in the kitchen usually consists of 3 to 6 different knifes.

What you need to know about kitchen knives:

Wrought knives

Some people say that the best knifes are wrought. Whilst this used to be the only way to make steel suitable for making knives, it’s no longer the case. Nowadays, techniques are much more developed and even the steel is different. A knife doesn’t need to consist of one piece either, this has no added value for it’s cutting abilities.

Hardness

The hardness of the knife is an indication for the speed a knife can get blunt. Knife hardness is expressed in Rockwell C (HRC). Generally, the higher the hardness, the longer the knife stays sharp. However, the steel can get more susceptible to chipping of the cutting edge (the steel gets brittle) and to the occurrence of rust.

Which Knives Do You Need In Your Kitchen paleo cooking diet primal knife choosing-min

The handle

When choosing a kitchen knife, always look for the construction of the handle. If you want to be able to put your knives in the dishwasher (but please wash by hand!), choose knifes with a molded on handle or welded on handle of stainless steel. Knifes with a riveted handle are less adequate for a dishwasher. Wood and the dishwasher are of course not the best combination either.

There are five knifes that are completely indispensable in a paleo kitchen:

Chef’s knifes

A knife collection always starts with a chef’s knife. A chef’s knife has a high blade with a slightly rounded cutting edge, used for cutting meat, fish and vegetables. This knife is less suitable for the smaller carvings, you’d be better use a paring knife for that.

Chef’s knifes are usually used for cutting everything that is raw, before it goes into the pan, such as meat and fish – but also vegetables or cheese. Thanks to the large blade, it’s easy to cut onions and herbs without hitting the cutting board all the time. The most selected size is 20cm, but some people (mainly women) choose a smaller size.

Paring knifes

This knife has a small blade with a sharp point, suitable for peeling and cutting smaller vegetables and fruits. The knife comes in various sizes, between 8 – 12cm. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to use this knife for everything!

Tomato knife

The third knife that you should get is a tomato knife. It always has a small serrated blade and you use it for cutting vegetables with a rigid outside and a soft inside, such as tomatoes.

Boning knife

A boning knife has a long low blade with a smooth surface. You can use it to cut meat, fish and poultry into equal slices.

Every knife, no matter how good or expensive it was, gets blunt. Consider buying a knife grinder, or taking your knives to get professionally sharpened. To keep your knives in good condition, wash them by hand, instead of using the dishwasher!

Which knives do you have in your kitchen? Have you found a good brand? Please share your tips in the comments below.

Making a Non-Paleo Lunch Menu Paleo diet healthy ideas replacements-min

Making a Non-Paleo Lunch Menu Paleo

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I went out for a farewell lunch with my team today.  We went to a bar in the city centre, with a fairly typical bar menu. So – a Paleo Lunch?

I'm quite happy to go almost anywhere to eat, with the knowledge that on most menus, with a bit of staff interaction, a Paleo meal can be put together.

I start by ruling out any predominately grain based meals, such as pasta, pizza, pies and sandwiches.  Of the remaining dishes I'm usually left with a few meaty options, of which I’ll try to identify the least likely to be fried (typically in vegetable oil), processed, coated (gluten), or marinated (often in sauces containing ingredients like gluten and sugar).  Unless the menu is extremely limited I also rule out salads and vegetable based options, as I don’t find them filling and they often have many ingredients I wouldn't eat (like dressings, sauces, cheese and croutons).

At this stage today I was left with these options: –

  • Slow braised lamb shanks served with minted rich gravy & mash
  • Surf & Turf. 200g rump steak, prawns sautéed in garlic served with chive butter, fries and salad.
  • Grilled Barramundi fillet with creamy mash & asparagus served with a hollandise sauce.
  • Lamb Cutlets served with creamy mash, olive pesto & wholegrain mustard cream

I generally look at all of the menu options and mix and match my chosen meat with the vegetable and salad sides on offer with other meals.  I've not yet been to a restaurant unable to accommodate my Paleo mix and match requests.  Had there not been so many good options, I would have also considered things like the burger (without the bun, fries or sauces).

Paleoising-Lunch mix match making paleo

My Mix and Match Paleo Lunch

I went for the lamb shanks, as I knew they should be unprocessed and not fried.  I asked for the lamb to come without the mash and sauce, but with plain vegetables instead.  It arrived with roasted eggplant, capsicum, zucchini & mushroom (luckily I've not started my nightshade elimination experiment yet), which was a perfect Paleo meal.

I find pubs, bars and steak houses the easiest places in which to eat out, where there is usually a lot of reasonable options to choose from.  A good Indian restaurant is often a surprisingly good choice too.  I always ask the staff exactly what is in each dish, and there are often tomato based sauces or dry cooked meats, which are a great Paleo option.  In my experience Chinese and Japanese can be a bit more testing.  Quite often I actually find it easier to say I'm allergic to soy and gluten and ask for the staff to help me find a suitable option.

One of the things I enjoy about going off-menu, is the inevitable discussions it provokes from my pasta-eating dining companions – an excuse to talk Paleo is always welcomed.

How do you get a Paleo meal from a non-Paleo option?  Do you find some types of restaurant better than others?  I’d love to find out what tricks I'm missing!

Making a Non-Paleo Lunch Menu Paleo diet healthy ideas replacements-min