Last week at the request of my doctor, I started a two month stint on the Paleo Diet. My doctor is an M.D. who is also trained as an acupuncturist, and so he tries to treat the whole body. He charted out his nutritional beliefs as a triangle, with glucose/insulin on one point, the thyroid on another point, and the adrenal gland on the third point of the triangle. He told me my systems were not in balance and so he ordered a two month course of vitamins, minerals and the Paleo Diet.
The concept behind the Paleo Diet is that humans were built to eat a significantly different diet than we do today. The idea is that prior to the beginnings of agriculture 10,000 years ago, humans existed primarily on lean meats and fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. The advent of agriculture started a gradual shift towards grain, fatty meats and dairy based foods, and according the author of the diet, Loren Cordain away from the natural foods that the human body evolved to eat.
Being on such a restrictive diet, the biggest challenge is to have foods that don’t bore me and provide lots of flavor. I am a big fan of pasta, bread and dairy and now those foods are verboten (at least for two months).
In order to make the diet a lot more enjoyable, I have been looking for recipes that look good to my semi-foodie palate. Looking on the web I have not found too many Paleo Diet recipes, so I figured I’d just share the recipes that I am making up as I go along. My thought is that maybe someone who is on the diet and looking for recipes will stumble upon mine.
Please note that as a little bit of this – a little bit of that kind of cook, I am going to just give an overview of the recipes rather than an exact re-creation.
Spaghetti Squash with Ground Beef and Tomato Sauce
- Split and de-seed 1 spaghetti squash and bake face down on an olive oiled baking sheet
- Bake until the squash is very soft and easily turns to threads
- Split and chop a large onion into big half-moon shaped pieces (so it can give the sauce more texture)
- Sauté onion and two cloves of garlic until light brown and soft (10 minutes or so)
- Add in whatever Italian-type spices you like.
If you like spice, add in a sprinkle or two (or three or four) of crushed red pepper. For me the heat of the pepper makes up for the fact that I can’t add cheese to the finished product - Add 1 lb very lean beef (96% lean) and saute until cooked
- Add large can organic whole tomatoes (look for ones that have no salt or sugar added)
- Cook all the ingredients together for 10-15 minutes
Serve over the spaghetti squash.