Betty Grokker

  I was worried when I began eating and living more Primally. Most women are a lot more averse to this lifestyle: the fear of fat is so ingrained. I am hesitant to bring up my new lifestyle, especially as I am not anywhere close to svelte, and I want to be a good example, and not be perceived as a horrible warning.

  People who know me well immediately register that I look happier and healthier, but I don't think I "look the part" enough to explain things to complete strangers, and I have a horror of getting all "evangelical" on people who just wish I would shut up about my weird caveman cult thing, already.

My first clue about how different eating Primally was: about a month in, I went to a baby shower, and (STUPID!!! STUPID!!!) didn't eat breakfast before we went. I couldn't drink the mimosas, obviously the bread basket wasn't an option: neither were the fondant-frosted cupcakes or the shower favors, which were full of jellybeans and personalized M&M's- adorable, but in my new life, inedible. When lunch finally came, it was a green salad with chicken breast and strawberries. I wolfed it down. Of course there was no fat to speak of, but I also suspect the salad dressing was laced with sugar. It didn't even dent my inner appetite- in fact, it only seemed to make me hungrier. My stomach growled all the way through the afternoon, through the pleasantries, through the games. I did win one of the games, and my prize was a Whatchamacallit candy bar. #$%&!

It was a good wake-up call: a lot of women eat like this, in the name of health, pretty much constantly. I know I did. And I was always hungry, cranky, and miserable, and somehow, still fat- even when I weighed my chicken and measured my low-cal dressing. I can't believe that I had forgotten that awful gnawing feeling over the course of the month. It was the first time that I realized that hunger like that between meals was not, in fact, normal. And I love knowing that I can eat a decent breakfast, and not worry about my blood sugar crashing through the floor at 10 AM.

That's something that the Primal Blueprint has restored to me: my love of cooking. When you're using fresh, unprocessed ingredients and not counting every calorie, it is so much easier to cook, and what you cook is just effortlessly delicious. I adore kitchen gadgets and time-saving measures, and I HATE doing the dishes, so I typically try to cook once a week for the rest of the week. That day, my friends, was today.

                                                      The Menu:

Mmmmm....chicken!

"Rotisserie Crockpot Chicken" from "A Year of Slow Cooking".This is a fantastic website, all gluten-free, so easily adapted to my needs- when recipes need adapting at all. This particular recipe has been made three times in the past two months at my house- it's a keeper. It's quick, idiot-proof, and also makes its own concentrated stock: even the breast meat comes out moist, not dry. If you've ever wanted to cook with chicken fat, the "schmaltz" this produces is divine.  Lord Grok is addicted to this, and I love that I have shredded chicken for salads and omelettes or what-have-you for the rest of the week.                                                          

Frittata completed, soup in progress.

Chicken Vegetable Soup: My own creation. Even here in sunny Cali, autumn is approaching. I usually make a huge batch of this, and freeze anywhere from 25% of it to half.  When we're sick or feeling lazy, it's like money in the bank. And since we're not sick as often around here, heating it up and bringing it to a sick friend makes me feel like Superwoman.  I'll post a more detailed recipe later, but it's chicken soup the old-fashioned way. With a little prep-help from good old Trader Joe's.

Lord Grok's lunch.

Taco Frittata: Another creation. The beauty of the frittata is that it uses up leftovers seamlessly, it's portable, simple, and it's endlessly adaptable. An easy equation: a large-ish oven-safe frying pan and fat to grease it. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Saute veggies (roasted peppers and onions)and protein (leftover taco meat) on stovetop. When cooked or heated through, pour beaten egg mixture (I used 8 eggs, 1/4 c. milk) over the top. When it's setting on the bottom but still jiggly on top, throw grated cheese on top and stick in the oven until the top looks solid when you jiggle the handle of the pan. Perfection.

It's amazing how I feel , knowing that we pretty much have the cooking out of the way for the week!