Yummy Primal Fried Chicken

I've been scraping together random bits and pieces; eating mostly fried eggs at night since it was 'easy' and I didn't have enough ingredients to make anything else.

However, tonight I cooked my first proper primal recipe. The recipe I tried was from the free primal reader-created cookbook from Mark's Daily Apple: Crispy Nut and Herb Fried Chicken with Creamy Avocado (pg. 52). I used all four nuts pictured: almonds, walnuts, macadamia, and pecans. I also chose rosemary as my herb and only 1 egg since I was making just one portion.


Instead of chicken breast I used a chicken leg (the only thing I had defrosted!). First time making this recipe, first time making fried chicken, first time working with chicken leg... the only thing I felt was hard was getting the timing of cooked meet in balance with a too crispy coating.

In the end, served with a quarter of an avocado (3 slices) and it tasted amazing even if just slightly burnt.

I used FitDay.com to estimate the nutritional values of this dish. Everything is estimated, so (disclaimer) may not be completely accurate!

A few berries for desert to top it off. Yummy! Happy belly!

UPDATE (10/Jan/12): After many more attempts at making this (it's my new favourite) I've found the best way to make this without burning is to use chicken breast and flatten it with a mallet like chicken schnitzel. Then proceed with recipe instructions as normal.

Meat Overload

Last night I made my first lamb roast with a spinach, feta, spring onion (eshallot) and balsamic salad. Not bad, loved the salad (mostly the cheese part), but I think I over cooked my lamb slightly. : /

This morning I had 2 fried organic eggs and 2 mini organic beef sausages. I made 3 sausages, but found I got too full to eat the last one. I think this is more meat than I've had in a really long time, so I definitely wasn't liking all the sausage this morning.

I finished eating at 10, did my sprints at 10:30 and only starting to feel hungry at 1:30 for lunch. Time to forage in my kitchen for food. I'm thinking a lamb salad... and maybe some blue/rasp/strawberries or cherries for a little sweetness.

If I'm lucky, I'll pop over to my friends place tonight (also primal) and will partake in primal fish tacos (hold the taco).

Going Primal

I started researching healthy things to eat to help grow healthier, thicker hair and stumbled across the Paleo Diet blog called Free the Animal. 


One holiday and three weeks later, I was back in town at a friend's BBQ and talking about how she and a couple other friends were going primal using Mark's Daily Apple blog. Living like the first humans would have - hunter-gather style. 

Seeing that I'd been researching a lot of different lifestyle changes for diet, including Ayurvedic diets (I'm Pitta Dosha), the primal lifestyle seemed like a good way to combine all of things I've been reading.

So, today I went to the shops and bought a lot of primal approved food for the week. I don't know what I'm going to create yet. There are a lot of recipes and I'm not great in the kitchen, so there's going to have to be a lot of research.

But, this is what I purchased for my first primal shop...

Veggies / Fruit

• Spinach
• Parsley
• Eshallots
• Organic Carrots
• Cherries
• White Onion
• Avacado
• Eggplant
• Portabello mushrooms
• Diced Tomatoes (canned)
• Garlic
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Strawberries

Meats

• Organic Eggs
• Organic Chicken Breast
• Organic Chicken Drumsticks
• Organic Beef Sausages
• Lamb Roast

Other

• Coconut Milk (canned)
• Tapioca Flour
• Beef Stock

As part of this change, I want to also head back to the naturopath and monitor my blood as I did in previous posts to see how the diet is affecting it.

Network Care Chircopractor

As I've been seeing my personal trainer I've started to use my neck a lot more in our exercises. Even ones that wouldn't work any muscle near my neck. So, he recommended I go see a network care chiropractor who would help my faulty muscle recruitment patterns.

Below is the chart my chiro filled in indicating the tension that was in my muscles. On a 1 to 5 scale, I was off the chart! I liked to joke that if 5 = steel, then my 5++ was adamantium (Wolverine's indestructible metal alloy skeleton). He also said he was able to tell that I was a type A personality (which I am completely) from the way I sat and composed my email.

After 10 sessions, I'll get my updated chart. Stay tuned.

Naturopath 3

8 weeks in, 6 weeks from last visit...

Annulocytes (Gone!)


Platelet Aggregation (mild [down from medium])
Platelets are responsible for blood clotting. Various lifestyle choices (such as smoking or eating fatty foods) and disease states may make platelets stickier, resutling in platelet aggregations. Large aggregations can be a sign of an increase tendency to blood clotting.
[THIS WILL TAKE A FEW MONTHS OF DIETARY CHANGES TO GO AWAY]

Naturopath 2

Second visit, 2 weeks later...

Annulocytes (very mild [down from medium]) Annulocytes are also known as 'target cells' due to their characteristic inner ring, which indicates that the cells are not fully inflated. This is typically due to a lack of haemoglobin inside the cell, which my be caused by nutrient insufficiency. A mild annulocyte-like appearance may occur with dehydration.

Platelet Aggregation (medium [stable at medium) Platelets are responsible for blood clotting. Various lifestyle choices (such as smoking or eating fatty foods) and disease states may make platelets stickier, resulting in platelet aggregations. Large aggregations can be a sign of an increased tendency to blood clotting.

Fibrin Clusters (mild [down from medium])
Clusters of Fibrin, resembling small spider's webs (observed within 10 minutes) indicate that your body may be experiencing inflammation. Fibrin may also indicate liver stress, which can be caused by dietary or lifestyle factors.

Protein Linkage (No Grade)
Some of your red blood cells are linked together by strands of sticky proteins, produced when the body is experiencing inflammation. This can give the red blood cells a tear-drop appearance and they can form long chains. This inflammation can be associated with infection, allergy, toxcity, poor digestion or unhealthy dietary choices.

Naturopath

My natural health kick started in April 2009 when I decided that I was tired of getting antibiotics and drugs from traditional doctors. I didn't feel like it was doing anything. I remember watching Michael Moore's SICKO documentary about how doctors in the UK are paid more if they get patients healthy - which means they need to treat the source - not the symptoms. Living in Australia, natural health and alternative health solutions are much more common and accepted. In the US, you simply walk into a doctors office, they give you a pill and you walk out. No one gives you the 'why' to the symptoms.

My first visit to the naturopath was eye-opening and the blood screening was the wake-up call that tipped me over the edge and on my path to be come a 'healthinator'. Here's what we found:


Annulocytes (medium)
Annulocytes are also known as 'target cells' due to their characteristic inner ring, which indicates that the cells are not full inflated. This is typically due to a lack of haemoglobin inside the cell, which may be caused by nutrient insufficiency. A mild annulocyte-like appearance may occure with dehydration.

Erythrocyte Aggregation (mild)
Your red blood cells are sticking to one another and forming clumps, due to being coated in sticky proteins. This is a sign that there may be inflammation happening in your body. This inflammation can be associated with infection, allergy, toxicity, poor digestion or unhealthy dietary choices [regularly ate take out, although I thought I chose healthier options, in reviewing my behaviour I didn't].

Fibrin - Clusters (medium)
Clusters of fibrin, resembling small spider's webs (observed within 10 mins) indicate that your body my be experience inflammation. Fibrin may also indicate liver stress, which can be caused by dietary or lifestyle factors.

Platelet Aggregation (medium)
Platelets are responsible for blood clotting. Various lifestyle choices (such as smoking [I don't smoke] or eating fatty foods) and disease states may make platelets stickier, resulting in platelet aggregations. Large aggregations can be a sign of an increased tendency to blood clotting.


In my next post, I'll review the progress I've made since then. But, so I don't leave the 'chapter' in suspense... things have remarkably improved.