Countdown to Fitness

I love well-flavored and spicy foods, and this recipe, which  is a modification of Emeril Lagasse’s recipe I found at GumboPages.com, is a great compliment to many dishes.

This seasoning goes great on a good, sturdy piece of fish, pork, and beef.  I haven’t tried it on chicken yet.  My version adds a little smokey flavor to the meat.

Last night, we had fantastic pastured pork steaks, which I bought from Live Springs Farm.  I sprinkled a little of the seasonings on each side of the steaks and broiled them.  Yum!

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I had the fortunate experience of getting butternut squash from my CSA, Three Rivers Community Farm, and I saved one for Thanksgiving to make a Paleo dessert substitute for pumpkin pie.

I chose butternut squash since it is sweeter than pumpkin and doesn’t need added sugar.  I figured I could make it like pumpkin pie with a few substitutions.  Note: this recipe makes 1 deep-dish pie.

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Baby back ribs by Geoff Lane

Today, I made some pastured pork spareribs, but I wanted to create a sauce without added sugar (except pineapple juice) because a high-carb, high-fat meal creates a lot of artery-clogging cholesterol while a high-fat, low-carb meal does not.

Since we like our ribs saucy, this recipe made enough for one large rack of spareribs.

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Since we aren’t eating grain flour, that cuts down on desserts to eat.  Fortunately, we are not dessert eaters at our house. (We eat fruit normally at dinner and sometimes refer to it as “dessert.”) However, there are certain occasions where we want to celebrate with something special that isn’t full of refined carbs.

These cocoa coconut balls get a big thumbs up!  (I bought a coconut for this recipe, shredded the meat, and stored the unused amount in the freezer.)

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Ricotta Cheese - Original image by Paola Sersante

Since my family and I have stopped eating flour, I needed something special to make for my husband’s birthday.

During the summer, we went to a reunion and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast where Marin, one of the innkeepers, made a fantastic dessert in the evening — panna cotta, which I had never had before.  I came home and looked it up.

While this quick recipe, which I’ve been experimenting with, is not the real panna cotta, it is a good desert that isn’t loaded with some type of sugar (honey, table sugar, etc.), which no matter what type, is unhealthy in large amounts.  (The American Heart Association suggests no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for women and 9 for men.)  Next time, I’ll try less honey, and spoon over top a 3/4 cup of fresh strawberries, which I will cook down first to concentrate the natural fruit sugar.  Then, I’ll cut a strawberry into 6 slices and place 3 pieces on top of each serving. (more…)