Adventures in Primal

I've still been experimenting with following a primal diet. Thus far, I've lost a couple of pounds and feel calmer, but I also feel tired a lot. The foods I've made have been pretty tasty. One morning found me having a simple omelet of scrambled eggs and some Morningstar Farms veggie bacon strips, they were in the freezer and needed to be used up. Though not quite as tasty as "real" bacon, they are still pretty flavorful and can become an addiction.

I'm always searching for new breakfast ideas so I also tried a smoothie recipe. This one was sort of a blending of ideas. I've made smoothies using milk, yogurt, fruit, etc. But yogurt and milk are on the carby side. I had read on Dana Carpender's Hold The Toast blog that since low carb milk has been discontinued in most groceries, she now substitutes cottage cheese. I made a smoothie by blending up some frozen blueberries, cottage cheese and a little fruit juice. Though it was not unpleasant and definitely very filling, I couldn't get past the taste. The cottage cheese is just too strong tasting for me and a cottage cheese shake isn't my idea of a fun time. I had to abandon this one.

Reading different primal blogs has been fun lately. One that caught my eye is Son of Grok's blog because of the interesting and varied recipes. This past weekend, I made his recipe for zucchini hummus. It's surprisingly delicous and tastes pretty close to traditional hummus. For breakfast the other morning, I made scrambled eggs and sausage, then topped them with the hummus. Though it didn't do much for the sausage, it was a fantastic flavor combo when mixed with the eggs. This is one I'd do again.

I'm also a big soup lover and was intrigued by the recipes on the blog of Mary Dan Eades, co-author of the Protein Power books. I decided to try her recipe for Sausage, Mushroom and Fennel Soup. As anyone who's read my blog knows, I am a huge, huge fan of fennel. The dried spice variety is my favorite seasoning in the world. I have just recently begun to cook with fresh fennel. This soup was one of the best I've ever made: rich, hearty, flavorful and satisfying. The fennel adds just a touch of anise flavor that truly enhances the other ingredients.