Monthly Archives: September 2012

Cardamom nom nom

The other day, I was talking to my friend @wedgepizzza to see how she used cardamom pods. I had stopped by for a banana cardamom muffin back in March and it was delicious. She was baking them again that day.

I had been to the Indian grocery before we left Tulsa and bought a bag of cardamom pods that has been sitting in the cupboard ever since. Every time I open the cupboard I smell them and think I really need to do something wtih them. I love that smell!

@wedgepizza told me that she grinds the pods after she toasts them and she particularly likes it paired with banana and suggested pancakes. I told her I’d have to find a paleo pancake recipe since we are trying hard not to do flour.

Not ten minutes later, this recipe sailed into my inbox. I figured that crepes were pretty close to pancakes and got ready to make the recipe. I knew that allowing bananas to be old enough to moosh was going to be my biggest challenge since David loves them so much.

I bought a bunch of bananas and then we went out of town for a week. The bananas were ready and waiting for me to moosh them into crepes this a.m.

I followed the recipe as given but it wasn’t as soupy as it was supposed to be and we ended up with banana pancakes. Which we ate with our fingers. Delicious!

This recipe makes a lot of pancakes and we have a bunch left over. We’ll be having this again! Oh, and I forgot to add the cardamom so I will  have to figure out a way to incorporate that into something. 😉

Paleo Banana Crepes

Makes about 7 big crepes

Ingredients:

1/2 bag of Bob’s Redmill Tapioca Flour

1 can full fat coconut milk (try Native Forest – no BPA in can)

5 ripe bananas

1/2 teaspoon salt

7 pastured eggs

Instructions:

Mix and mash all ingredients together to make a pretty soupy batter. A hand held mixer or submergible blender works well. Heat a large, non-stick pan on medium low and then cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of the batter. Flip when bottom is golden brown. Cook until both sides are lightly browned.

You can cut these up and eat them plain or wrap meat and veggies in them. Even though they’re banana, the flavors blend really well.

Zapped

When I was a kid, our elderly neighbors had a bug zapper. I kinda thought it was a cool, old person’s tool.

A year or so ago, we started having a really bad mosquito problem. It was so bad we couldn’t sit on the patio, something I love to do above all else when it’s nice outside.

So we bought a bug zapper. And it made me so happy to hear the bugs merrily toasting. We even considered it important enough to bring on our new RV experience.

There are no mosquitoes here but the flies are awful. I detest flies.

While our immediate outside RV vicinity has less flies in it than inside of most restaurants in Amarillo, we were still having a problem with flies getting into the RV.

So I got one of these:

I. LOVE. IT.

In fact, I may be having way more fun with it than a normal, stable individual would have. It is like a game to me. You definitely have to hunt the fly. Then you have to catch it with the zapper. The resultant zaps and sparks just crack me up.  The bigger the fly, the bigger the sparks. 😉

This is truly the best $5 piece of entertainment I have ever purchased. LOL! I guess my love of the bug zappers means I’m officially old. 😉

Sugar is a slippery slope

Last week, David asked me at the last minute if I wanted to bring the dog and come along with him on his build route. I was excited to be asked and hurriedly made sure that I packed healthy snacks for the car.

Since beginning to eat paleo, I’ve realized that I can eat in almost any restaurant and maintain the healthy eating style. Having good snacks for the car is important to keep from getting too hungry.

That first day, although I had no idea it was going to happen, or not happen as it were, we didn’t eat lunch. David told me that he’s often caught out, far from civilization at lunch time and often goes without eating.

Needless to say, by the time dinner rolled around – and it was a late dinner – I was beyond starving and any good intentions to eat right on this trip had flown out the window miles before. The healthy carrots and radishes we had brought along barely took up any space in my very empty stomach.

We saw the Dairy Queen.

What we’ve learned while driving around Texas is that even the tiniest little towns have a Dairy Queen. I could have even eaten right at the Dairy Queen but I ordered a patty melt, french fries and a Georgia Mud Fudge blizzard (medium sized thankyouverymuch) for dessert. I don’t think I took a breath until I had hoovered the entire meal and, the shocking thing is,  I still felt hungry after I was finished. 🙁

The next day, forewarned by the previous day’s experience, we stopped by Walmart to get lunch. And some snacks.  Some good snacks. Into our cart went cookies and Doritos and donuts and Wheat Thins and a bag of Snickers. I was NOT going to be hungry on that day.

And then the slide started. Oh, I put healthy things into the basket too, but basically I shopped as if I was still as hungry as I had been the previous day.

Breakfast came. Instead of some healthy eggs and fruit, I chucked it all over for pancakes, syrup (extra syrup, please!) and sausage. And down the slope I rolled. Faster and faster.

Sugar and flour make me feel AWFUL. First my knees ache, then  my hips ache, pretty soon all of the joints in my whole body ache and I can’t sleep. It’s bad stuff. So what on earth possesses me to EVER eat sugar and/or flour?

Especially when we’re in a restaurant.  That should be the epitome of easy healthy eating since someone else is preparing the meal for me. But that first little bite tastes so good. And  I don’t feel bad. Not right away. It takes about three days to start feeling really bad and I can tell myself it’s not that big of a deal.

Ha!

Several years ago, my friend was diagnosed with diabetes. We went to an anniversary dinner and she was drinking sweet tea. Her daughter was trying to get her to drink  water but she insisted on the sweet tea. I couldn’t understand why she would do that to herself.

And, yet, here I am basically doing the same thing.  Although I just want to keep feeling good and flexible, I’m still hurting myself by giving in to that first bite that will push me over the edge and down the slippery slope.

I’m going to try really hard not to do that anymore. 🙂