Take control of your calories, even when you’re eating out. Order meat, poultry, or fish that is grilled, broiled, or steamed and served without gravy or sauce, ask for your salad dressing to be served on the side; request for your vegetables be steamed, then seasoned with lemon juice or herbs; and order a plain baked potato or rice. Above all, avoid butter.

Try not to indulge in foods described as over time, buttery, sautéed, fried, or creamed. Instead, select dishes that are broiled, grilled, steamed, roasted, or poached.

If the restaurant serves heaping helpings, go ahead and share an entrée with your partner; you may only have to pay an extra plate charge. Skip the main course and order an appetizer, salad, and soup.

Order first. This helps you keep to your diet because you avoid the temptation of following the lead of dining companions who select calorie rich foods.

As you guys are aware Kitty and I love us some good coffee – for a while there I has to be on decaf and it was killing me! – Anyways I’m back on the full octane stuff now and just wanted to get you up to speed on a new dripper we snagged a while back.

We saw the clever being used both at Verve in Santa Cruz and Red Rock in Mountain View and just had to snap one up – it combines the best of both worlds – both the french press which allows the coffee grounds to sit in the coffee, and the drip filter style.

One of the things I did realize when I first saw this was that yes – when you use a regular pour over filter the water does not stay in the grinds very long – thus does not have that much time to impart flavor to the coffee. The Clever solves that problem – we use it every day and get a perfect cup of coffee.

This is how it works:

1. Put a paper filter into the Clever, and place the Clever over your cup. The valve on the bottom will open.
2. Get some hot water from your kettle and pour a little bit in to wet the filter. Move the Clever off  your cup. Pour out the water in the cup.
3. Put the grounds in the Clever and move it off your cup. The valve will close.
4. Pour hot water into the Clever and fill it to the rim – or less depending on the size of cup
5. Stir the coffee until you see crema, like we told you before
6. Time 2 minutes & 30 seconds
7. When time’s up, place the Clever over your cup and let the coffee drain out.
8. Once the coffee is all drained out, tip the Clever over the trash to dump out the filter and coffee.
9. Rinse and replace the Clever
10. Enjoy your coffee!

Once you go Clever, you’ve never go back to just using your pour over filter. Try it out! BTW, the best price is on Amazon at the moment, $22

The Clever Coffee Dripper is an easy way to brew great coffee without bitterness, acidity or loose grounds. The difference is it’s new shut-off valve system. Instead of pushing the grounds to the bottom of the brew carafe, the grounds settle naturally. Instructions: * Set the paper filter into the brewer. * Add coffee and “boiling” water, stir and let brew for “3 minutes”. * Place the Clever Coffee Dripper on top of a mug and watch as it fills with perfectly brewed, perfectly clear coffee in seconds. * Lift the brewer off the mug and the Patented Shut-Off System stops the flow.

via Amazon.com: Clever Coffee Dripper: Kitchen & Dining.

Since we’ve been on the Paleo diet, we haven’t been able to make our own mayonnaise so we wrer on a quest to find something pre-made that at least uses decent oil. That does not exist, people! You know all of those mayos that you see in the store which tout “olive oil”? Well, if you look at the label you’ll note that there is very little actual olive oil in it – its mostly soybean or canola oil with a little olive oil for flavor. There is basically no true paleo mayo on the store shelves – at least none that we could find, even at Whole Foods.

Don’t despair though – making your own is not that hard. We found a large glass jar which used to hold mayo and blended it right in the jar. Real easy to do with a stick blender – if you don’t have a stick blender you can use a regular blender, but we found a stick blender also very useful in pureeing soups in the pot – and nowadays they are fairly inexpensive. Plus its a lot less messy to just leave it in the jar, otherwise you’ll be extracting the beautiful think mayo from around the blades for a while.

One thing we didn’t realize was how little mayonnaise a cup of oil makes. Kind of tell you how much fat is in mayo – a cup of mayo seems to only make about 4 tablespoons by eye, so if you think about it, there is an amazing amount of fat in mayo. Which is fine of course if its a good fat. Too bad most store bought mayo is bad fat. We have yet to try the Mac nut oil but as we both love mac nuts I’m sure that it will be damn good.

After a few attempts and failures using other oils, we finally found one that worked. Thank you macadamia nut oil. To quote Mark Sisson, “macadamia nuts are superior to all other nuts”. You can read more of Marks thoughts on macadamia nut oil here. This is a fantastic oil to add into your diet. It has a very mild buttery flavor, with a hint of the sweet macadamia nut, making it a perfect oil for homemade mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unrefined macadamia nut oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground mustard seed
• Salt and pepper to taste

Process:

In a blender or food processor, blend egg, lemon juice, and mustard seed.Slowly add in oil, one tablespoon at a time, continuing to blend.When the oil has all emulsified and you have a creamy mayonnaise, add in salt and pepper.Keep in a jar in the fridge. This mayo will last about a week.

via The Food Lovers Primal Palate: Macadamia Nut Mayonnaise.

If you want Greek yogurt, get REAL Greek Yogurt.

Hmm. Should I be offended that they are leveraging “greekness” by plastering the word “GREEK” in faux Greek script across this cereal box? Or should I be more offended by the ingredients:

Whole Grain Flakes (Whole Grain Wheat, Sugar, Rice, Corn Syrup, Wheat Flour, Yellow Corn Meal, Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Malted Barley Flour, Salt, Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Honey, Natural Flavor), Greek Yogurt Granola [Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Brown Sugar, Whole Grain Wheat, Rice Flour, Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Milk Protein Concentrate, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Greek Yogurt Powder (Heat Treated After Culturing), Honey, Natural Flavor, Lactic Acid, Malic Acid, Citric Acid], Greek Yogurt Style Coated Granola [Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Brown Sugar, Whole Grain Wheat, Rice Flour, Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil, Corn Syrup, Whey, Sugar, Honey, Greek Yogurt Style Coating (Sugar, Palm Kernel And Palm Oil, Reduced Mineral Whey Powder, Nonfat Dry Milk Solids, Greek Yogurt Powder (Heat Treated After Culturing), Lactic Acid, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural Flavor)]. Bht Added To Packaging Material To Preserve Product Freshness.

Who was it who said that anything over 4 ingredients is bad? Or if you can’t recognize the ingredients you should stay clear? This baby’s got 13g of sugar and a whopping 47g of carbs per 1 cup serving, 270 calories with milk! That’s 30 minutes on an exercise bike at high speed!

Note that the list says Greek “style” – so its not even Greek yogurt? I doubt that this stuff even has any of the ingredients that are supposed to make yogurt good: like probiotics and stuff.

If you want Greek yogurt, you should get real Greek yogurt. And eat it like the Greeks do, plain with a little Greek honey. My recommendation? FAGE (which means EAT! in Greek) is probably the best one that you will find anywhere, but make sure that you get the full fat, aka Total Classic. Stay away from Chobani, Oikos, Greek Gods or anything that looks overly GREEK! (Like cereal with the GIANT GREEK on the side!)

Even better, go to an middle-eastern or Greek market in your neighborhood, its very likely that you have one, and get a name you don’t recognize, like Krinos! Make sure that you are getting “pressed yogurt”, which is what Greek yogurt is – yogurt with most of the water pressed out of it. In future, we’ll feature how to make it yourself. While you are at it, pair it with Attiki brand honey:

This whole “Greek Yogurt” thing has gotten out of hand. I guess it was Oprah who started it all way back when. The reality is that most of the products that you see out there nowadays are cheap knockoffs trying to leverage the whole Greek yogurt movement. Be smarter! Take it from a Greek, if its really Greek, I doubt that it will say GREEK in giant letters. Maybe a big flag instead!

Opa!

These are really great tasting – you’ll never know that they are paleo at all – although they aren’t strictly paleo they are pretty damn good. Just don’t eat too much of them! We use Sharfenberger 70% chocolate chunks – we really are supposed to use 72% and up chocolate chips but if you can’t find those this is still pretty good. If you can’t find those, we use Ghiradelli 60% chips, which are pretty readily available around here. If you want to be more strictly Paleo, reduce the maple syrup and amount of chips. Unfortunately, other than fruit, paleolithic man didn’t really have a lot of options…

Ingredients

• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 cup Sharfenberger 70% chocolate chunks
• 1/2 cup Coconut Oil, Organic, unrefined
• 1/2 cup Maple Syrup, Grade B
• 2 whole Eggs, Pastured
• 3 cup Blanched Almond Flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
3. In a small mixing bowl beat eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and beat with hand mixer until combined.
5. Melt coconut oil, pour into batter, and continue to blend until combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop balls of cookie dough, about a tablespoon in size.
8. Bake for 15 minutes.
9. Try not to eat too many at once – these are damn good!

OK folks many of you have been clamoring for for info on the Paleo diet ever since that post yesterday on the bacon wrapped hot dogs (oh, so, good – and BTW make sure to use nitrate and gluten free bacon and dogs) so here is the first post in a series on the books we got to help us move to this way of eating.

This is not a clinical book with lots of reasons on why to switch – this is a great book with ideas, food and recipes which will inspire you. If you want a more scientific reasoning of why you should switch you need The Paleo Solution. But Make It Paleo is much more inspirational and the source of most of our recipes. Highly recommend the print book over the Kindle edition, great big imagery of food, food and more food.

Transitioning from conventional foods to a grain-free Paleo lifestyle can be a daunting proposition to most people. Hayley Mason and Bill Staley, authors of The Food Lovers Primal Palate, show you how easy it is to take any dish and Make it Paleo! Adapted from Chinese, French, Mexican and classic American meals, the over 200 mouthwatering recipes are each accompanied by vibrant photos and thoughtful notes to ensure you recreate each dish with ease.

Beyond its wealth of recipes, Make it Paleo describes fundamental cooking techniques, includes tips for selecting the best ingredients, and chronicles a variety of menus for holidays and special occasions. Hayley and Bill demonstrate how to make cooking gourmet Paleo meals a carefree affair for everyone, from a kitchen rookie to a seasoned chef. Make it Paleo is filled with meals that all lovers of great food will enjoy, whether they follow a grain-free lifestyle or not.

via Make it Paleo: Over 200 Grain Free Recipes For Any Occasion

Yup! After a few weeks of Paleo, we are now converts – after losing a few inches and feeling a lot better than we have a in while – we’ve decied to fully switch ourselves over to the Paleo Diet. More information below but suffice to say that its a big chance from Eat To Live – plus it lets us eat all sorts of MEAT – which has always been good from my perspective…. 🙂

So why go Paleo? To start things off, here’s a little Paleolithic timeline for you. We started eating the Paleo way about 2.5 million years ago, and then we drastically changed our diets about 10,000 years ago when we began cultivating grains and legumes. That’s not much time for evolution to catch up with us, meaning our bodies are still most adept at eating the way we used to eat: meat, vegetables, fruits, and some nuts and seeds.

When I say not a lot of time, think of it like this: 10,000 years out of 2.5 million is equivalent to a little under 2 months of a 40 year old man’s life, or .4% of his life – not very much. Switching from our evolutionary diet of animal products, veggies and fruit to a diet full of grains and legumes is like that movie Super Size Me where Morgan Spurlock goes from eating his normal diet to eating only McDonald’s food for 30 days. His health plummets – he gets fat and depressed, and he develops fatty liver and sexual dysfunction.

via Why Paleo? | Paleo Plan.

Well, maybe not toss your machine – keep it around for dinner parties and such. If you are like most of us, you probably don’t really make more than one or two cups in the morning to take to work on your morning commute in a travel mug, so why make a full pot – you make 10-12 cups, take 2 , and then the rest just sits there until the thing clicks off after a few hours of non-use. Why not make a fresh cup of coffee every time, in usually less time than it takes to make a pot. You will need:

1. A hot water pot. Our favorite one is the Zojirushi – get one that is sized for your family. Most of them even have a timer so that the water is boiled just before you need it
2. A ceramic or plastic filter holder
3. Cone filters – you need a #2, usually Melitta brand filter, for a single cup
4. A burr grinder for best coffee taste
5. Coffee – we recommend Blue Bottle, any of theirs will do, but you can use your favorite whole bean blend from your favorite coffee shop. Starbucks Tribute blend, which is in stores now for a limited time, is really nice.
6. A spoon
7. A mug for the coffee to go into – travel mug or ceramic