I actually thought about you Ilene! But John has a meeting tonight and we have to be somewhere else Sunday afternoon. And (yes, I seriously considered it) there's no open B&B's in town ... golf tournament. Maybe we'll try planning better next year

I found this recipe for pork chops that I used to make after I took some cooking classes. My husband asked for it and I told him I am sure it must have some thickener in it to make it a no-no. But I was wrong....

Pork Chops with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

4-4oz pork chops (less than 1/2 inch thick) center-cut, boneless is best
6-8 button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp olive oil (I think I am going to use bacon grease)

Method: Heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add mushrooms and saute until just golden. Remove mushrooms to a plate.

Add remaining oil to skillet, sprinkle chops on both sides with salt and pepper. Place in hot skillet and sauté about 4 minutes on each side until cooked through. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

Pour out excess oil. Add wine to hot skillet and scape up bits on bottom of pan. Cook (at full boil) until the wine has reduced by half. Add cream and simmer another 4-7 minutes until sauce has thickened. Return mushrooms to the sauce. Taste for salt and pepper. Pour hot sauce over chops and serve.

Note: Do not "sauté" chops more than 1" thick. Brown and put these in 350` oven for 10-15 min. Variation: Exclude mushrooms, add 1 1/2 Tbsp. of Dijon mustard to cream before adding to skillet. You could also replace the white wine with 1/3 cup chicken broth - it does not need to reduce before the cream is added.

Even my picky no-meat daughter loves these.

Cheers,
Sandy

Yum sounds good Sandy.... If you don't mind I'll also put this recipe in our Paleo recipe thread...

Does anybody remember if I posted a peach salsa recipe? It only had about 4ingredients and was delicious! But I can't find it.

Susan, I don't remember you posting it but I've made that recipe too, I can post it later when I get home...

Ilene,

Be my guest. I didn't notice the primal recipe section of the forum. I am glad to know it is there.

Hugs,
Sandy

I remember you posting the recipe, Susan. I think it's in the July thread somewhere. Wine, cream and mushrooms work for me, Sandy.

Ya know, I am blessed to have no problem only eating primal foods. Since we have more newbs I am going to simplify that again.

Eliminate 3 things from your diet and you are primal. Eat them and you are not.

1. All foods with refined sugars.
2. All grains and legumes (this includes peanuts)
3., All foods made with seed, veggie or legume (soy) oils.

Olive oil and nut oils are acceptable. Minimize fruit. Avoid artificial sweeteners. As much as you can afford to eat organic veggies, cage free poutlry products and pastured grass fed meats. I try to focus on clean meat and dairy before worrying about the veggies. Supplement with vitamin D and fish oil. That is the gist of the diet/lifestyle.

I love it. I find it pretty simple even though I understand others don't.

Here's my current problem though. Even though I can eliminate all the processed foods pretty easily, I cannot seem to control the calories from dairy since my little physical setback. I'm thinking, heaven forbid, that I need to eliminate dairy (accept for butter) for a few weeks. So that is my plan for the rest of this month. No dairy. Yikes. I was going to start tomorrow, but what the heck. I am starting right now. No dairy for the rest of August. I need to do something and I am a little hesitant to get into keto mode again.

STILL not able to put weight on my toe. Off to middle school orientation. Haha. My kid is growing up. Shaved her legs for the first time yesterday. Oy!

Found it!
2 peaches
2 slices of onion
balsamic vinegar
lime juice
a pinch of salt

If I put it in the recipe thread, I'll never lose it again!

Since I cannot find decent tree ripened peaches around here, I think that recipe will be a perfect use for our hard green peaches. Do you make it chunky or smooth? Do you peel the peaches or eat them fuzzy?

Funny but some of the best peaches in the world are grown about an hour from me and we get garbage in our local stores. The good ones, oddly are shipped to Georgia, so they can brag about their great peaches. heh

Still on track, pockets bulging with emergency snacks!

Um, everybody seems to mention fish oil for the omega-3's--what about flax oil? That's what I've been taking and I'm wondering if there's something I don't know about it that makes it out of line for Primal? At least I don't feel like I swallowed the aquarium water!

Today's next action: log my day, count my carbs, ride my ex-bike....Best wishes to all newcomers!

Spanky

Hi Spanky,

The answer is pretty involved. It was quite a debate for a few years too, but the more recent fish oil studies have pretty much ended the debate. Flax is a great addition to any diet, but the primary Omega 3 it contains (ala) has to be converted to the primary omega 3s us humans need (epa and dha). The conversion is very poor. Fish oil contains very high epa and dha thus conversion is unnecessary.

Geeky stuff

The big issue in the primal/paleo community is omega 6/3 ratios. On the SAD (standard american diet) we become saturated with polyunsaturated omega 6s. In abundance they are highly inflammatory; perhaps worse than fructose and as a bad as grains. Refined seed oils are pure omega 6. The PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) in most of our meat is omega 6. This is one reason for the emphasis on saturated fats and pastured meats, to reduce the inflammatory O6s. Just as important is the addition of anti-inflammatory omega 3s. Eat fish a couple times a week.

The 6:3 ratio in most standard diets is between 20:1 and 12:1. For optimum health and to stop inflammation preventing a long list of autoimmune issues and accelerating healthy weight loss, it's widely accepted that a 4:1 ratio or lower is correct. So this requires cranking up the 03s as high as comfortable and eliminating unnecessary sources of 06. I think a lot of primals and paleos get the grains and sugars right but don't really bother with all the PUFA concerns and continue to use corn and canola oils at home and don't hesitate to stock their pantries with soy, cottonseed, and safflower oil based products. Eliminating them is as important as avoiding white bread and Coca Cola. It's also a huge challenge.

Uh Uh! No way-- no fish. I freakin' HATE fish! Maybe a little tuna on Fridays...... OK so I'll get fish oil capsules next time! The only oil I use is olive and we use butter for solid fat. I actually grew up with bricks of lard in the fridge [my folks were from the South] and don't have any aversion to it if I could find it again...

Wish I could send everyone fresh peaches! It's Michigan in August and we're wading in peaches!!!

Thanks!

Spanks

Haha! Well, the capsules can have a very fishy after taste (burps) that fish haters get very annoyed with. Look for the little red capsules that say no fishy taste or consider krill oil ($$) or even an algal supplement for the DHA and you'll be fine with that and flax.

I gave you the party line by the way. I don't toe that line all the time though. I'm not convinced on the ratio business, though I do believe cutting back on the refined 06s is very healthy. And no doubt upping the 03s has benefits.

Hi,

Saturday evening. Still totally on track--having a little trouble making myself get on the exercise bike, but it IS the Next Action....

Spanky

Good morning!

I had an incredibly frustrating incident last evening. The last bunch of us sitting around talking in the dark were all between 49 and 52. They all were rattling on about their arthritis and lipitor and crestor and metformin and BP meds ... but I was the target for saying something as ingenuous as "well, stop eating grain".
This conversation hot on the tail of talking about how trim and good looking me, my husband and our youngest son all are .... Grrr ...
Another good one? Someone wanted to speak to me about the arthritis in her back. Same as mine! So I sat cross-legged on the ground beside her and explained what I do. Oh she can't do that! She's prediabetic and has high blood pressure.
There ... there's my rant for the week. Bon appetit! Go eat meat!