Creamy Italian Dressing

So I made homemade mayo the other day and was shocked to see how easy it was. I was curious about what else was in the fridge and easy to make too. One of the family staples is creamy Italian Dressing for salads. Using the HomeMade Mayo as a base, it took no time at all, it was all natural, and it tasted awesome.The original recipe (from PaleoFood) called for dried herbs, I have fresh growing in the garden. So you could use 1/8 of a tsp of crushed dried Italian herb blend, oregano, rosemary, or basil) or raid your garden for a pinch of oregano, basil, rosemary, marjoram and thyme, chopped very small.

Creamy Italian Dressing

Serves 1 dinner, or 2 side salads

Creamy Scallop Soup

1 pound medium-size sea scallops (save money by buying sea scallop pieces instead of whole)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cup)
2 carrot, chopped (about 2/3 cup)
3 celery stalk, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 bottle (8 oz.) clam juice
2 cup heavy cream

Season scallops with salt and pepper.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the scallops and sauté until golden, about 2 minutes per side. (If using pieces, saute the scallops.) Remove from saucepan and set aside.
Melt remaining tablespoon of butter. Add onion, carrot and celery and sauté until softened, about 4 minutes. Add tomato paste and sauté 1 minute more.
Add clam juice, water and a pinch of cayenne (optional). Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook to heat through.
Add scallops, heat through.
Add cream, stir and remove from heat. purée soup in batches until very smooth. Return to saucepan and simmer to warm through. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Quit the The Finish your Plate Club and Lose Weight! ~ video

Most of us, growing up were told by our parents to clean your plate at meal times. I know I was threatened with that there would be nothing else to eat if I didn't eat what was served to be at that time. Told that I wasn't allowed to leave the table until I finished my dinner or that I was being wasteful for throwing away perfectly good food. Sometimes I would be told of starving children who would be more than grateful for the bounty that I had before me. Eventually I would comply, until I didn't have to be told anymore. Dinner would be served, weather it was a huge plate of Thanksgiving dinner or going to a restaurant, my family and I would finish our plates.

I was desensitized to what the 'full' or 'satisfied' feeling was. I learned to eat with my eyes instead of my stomach, ignoring the signals to my brain that I had ate enough. I would 'see' the food on my plate and eat most of what I saw or all of what I saw. I would eat when I was told to, three meals a day plus snacks, weather I was hungry or not.

Things you already know:

1. Starving children in 3rd world countries will not benefit from the last few bites on your plate weather or not you eat them.
2. Eating too many calories is wasteful to your time and your wallet. If you have too much to eat, you will join diet clubs, buy books, join gyms, take pills or might even get lipo.
3. If you made too much dinner, you can save it for another meal, or maybe later that night. If your body is hungry, you should eat.

Quitting the Clean Plate Club, takes practice. It doesn't matter how much food is left on your plate as long as you leave just some of every item. Chew your food slowly and after every swallow, ask yourself if you are still hungry. If the answer is yes, then have some more. Leave some food on your plate at every meal so you can get used to it.

Below is a video clip of the Diner Experiment. Six people went to a diner and all got the same breakfast meal. On the first day, almost everyone of them cleared their plates. The second day they went back to the same place and fed the same meal, but this time they were blindfolded. They had to rely on their stomachs to tell them to stop eating instead of their eyes. Not one of them even came close to finishing their meal. Not saying that you should eat blindfolded, but you should try to learn to sensitize your self to the feelings of satidfaction coming from your stomach.

Paleo Weight Loss Mistake Part 2

I have had a lot of people on Twitter message me about my weight loss mistake that I was making. They say they aren't eating nuts and still cant lose weight. The problem may be that they are eating too much.

I know, I joined up with the paleo movement because I wasn't counting calories and can't sustain counting calories for more than a day. Besides that, counting calories isn't how we are supposed to eat. And I am totally not suggesting it. As a matter of fact, I want you  to lose the "diet journal" all together. I have some simple, really simple rules for you to follow that will make you lose weight. These rules worked for me before I was primal and made me eat primal before I knew what that was.

Eating Out Primal ~ Brazilian Steak House

Eating out at restaurants, for someone who wants to eat Primal, can be come difficult and sometimes require one to be creative. When visiting a Brazilian Steak House, specifically Gauchos Brazilian Steak House in Portland, Maine, there is no creativity required.

My friend Michelle, my daughter Justice and I went to Gauchos around 5PM on a Saturday. Such a popular place it was, that we were asked if we had reservations. Fortunately, even though we didn't have a reservation, it was early enough in the service, that there was a table available.

Cheap but Great Eats ~ Chicken Cacciatore

Shopping day was nearly upon me and all I had left in the freezer was chicken legs. Which is fine and dandy, but I really wasn't in the chicken kind of mood and neither were the kids. So I had to think of something different to do with them.

Cacciatore is not a new invention, in fact it is something that I enjoy paired with pasta, but these days pasta is a no-go, especially since I need to drop a few more pounds. So I altered it a little from when I was a kid. Instead of the sauce being something designed for pasta, I adapted it to be chunky, something you can scoop up with a fork to go with the chicken. Pair it up with a side of steamed green beans and you have a hearty winter dinner for cheap money.

Ginger Sea Scallops

Ginger Sea Scallops ~ Fighter Fuel

Yeah, I know they are sitting on white rice.
Try and picture those nice pieces of
protein on a bed of black wild rice...

Tis the season for Sea Scallops. Yeah really, there is a season. It runs from October till March, of course you can get them anytime frozen. They are very quick to cook. 2 minutes per side if you are searing them in a fry pan over high heat.