Full Moon Party tonight!…Decided on a pu pu…Recipe sharing…Today’s post is for “foodies” only…

Not quite sunset, sunny views over the bay.

Whenever we bring a dish to share, we consider the tastes of the other guests rather than impose a recipe that is only befitting our dietary concerns. Many recipes for delicious and outrageously contrary-to-our-way-of-eating are my appetizer recipes from years ago, still taking up space in my brain.

Recently, when we invited a couple (who were on vacation) to our home for happy hour, I made an old favorite from the days when Tom and I first met and we entertained quite a bit. It’s high carb, high fat, high starch, and high sugar, which I never eat but, Tom does on occasion.

The rushing waters below at high tide.

Please share this recipe below with your friends who have no illness, no high blood sugar or diabetes, no heart disease, no clogged arteries, no dementia, no risk of Alzheimer’s disease, no pain, no signs of inflammation anywhere in their body, and, aren’t overweight and can eat anything they want without gaining weight. For those lucky folks, here’s the recipe we’re bringing tonight, which is NOT SUITABLE for my way of eating:

Jess’s Apricot Almond Brie en Croute 
1 medium-sized round Brie cheese

¾ cup apricot jam (not jelly)
½ cup slivered almonds
1 package refrigerated Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
2 T melted butter 

Preheat oven to 350.  Cover a baking pan with nonstick tin foil or parchment paper. Top the unwrapped Brie cheese with apricot jam. Sprinkle half of the almonds atop the jam.  Pinch all the seams together of the entire package of crescent rolls and carefully wrap the dough all the way around with the Brie keeping the jam side up. Make it look as nice as possible, leaving no gaps or holes. This takes one minute. Brush melted butter over the top. Poke holes in various spots in the top to allow it to expand during baking.  While butter is still moist, add the remaining almonds to the top.  Use a spatula to transfer it to the prepared baking pan. 

Place in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or less, checking to ensure the top doesn’t get too brown during the last 10 minutes (based on how hot your oven cooks).  This dish is very hot. Be careful handling it. Serve with a variety of crackers and plates, forks, and knives. May be prepared 48 hours in advance and cooked at the time of serving. Reheats well in the microwave.

When our guests visited, they loved this recipe so much they asked for it which prompted me to finally write it down for them via a PDF document. I hadn’t made this dish in years. 

Late afternoon sun over the sea.

I suppose I have hundreds of recipes stuck in my brain, not unlike the useless documents and files we end up transferring from an old computer to a new computer over and over again as we make new computer purchases. How I wish that one day I’d feel rambunctious enough to remove that clutter.

And, how I wish I could remove the clutter of old recipes from my brain in the same rambunctious manner.  Yesterday, I found myself looking for a recipe for Moo Shu Pork, a favorite I often made when preparing a meal of Chinese food. (Is it PC to still call it “Chinese food?” I could call it Asian food but there are many regions of Asia that cook many different styles of food. Hopefully, I don’t offend anyone).

Why was I looking for this recipe, so far removed from my modern-day reality? I’d found a recipe on Dr. William Davis (Wheat Belly) site for low carb, grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free tortillas, which could substitute for the Mandarin pancakes required in the recipe for Moo Shu Pork. I thought if I could find my recipe for the food that goes inside the Mandarin pancakes (like a tortilla), I could adapt it to my way of eating.

A pair of Nene birds, Hawaii’s state birds, wander around the golf course which they seem to love.

Oh, dear, I’d better post Dr. Davis’s tortilla recipe or I’ll get 100 email messages asking for it (of which I always, happily and quickly respond to each):

Dr. William Davis (Wheat Belly) Tortilla Recipe 
Make 4 tortillas      
1 cup golden flaxseed, ground
4 tablespoons almond meal or 4 tablespoons almond flour
1⁄4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare a large baking sheet by lining with parchment paper. Add ground flax seeds, almond meal/flour, and salt to a medium bowl and whisk together. Whisk in the eggs just until combined. Divide the dough into 4 equal balls.  Using 2 pieces of parchment paper, roll each ball between pieces until 6” round. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, or until golden.

After I spent considerable time looking for a recipe similar to my old version of Moo Shu Pork, casually mentioning it to Tom he said, “I never really liked that dish anyway. Don’t bother to make it for me.”

Oh. it was one of those dishes I made in our “younger days” when he was courting me while pretending to like my “non-meat and potatoes” recipes. Now that we’re old, he doesn’t try so hard to impress me. My feelings aren’t hurt. I’ll make the tortillas and use them for my adapted recipe for Mexican food (Is that OK to say?)

A gnarly tree trunk at the edge of the golf course.

Anyway, here’s the third recipe of the day for which we received zillions of requests after mentioning it in a post a few days ago; low carb grain-free, sugar-free, starch-free high fat protein bars. 

I found this recipe online and adapted it to my taste and way of eating and voila, its a heavenly dessert, energy booster, and plain and simple meal substitute loaded with nutrients that won’t raise a person’s blood sugar if eaten in moderation, the size of an average protein bar. 

A strained branch holding a cluster of bananas.

From all the research I’ve done thus far as a layperson, on what foods raise blood sugar and subsequently increase inflammation I began testing my own blood sugar. In doing so it proved to me that eating any foods in excessive amounts, even low carb foods, can raise one’s blood sugar, even if I ate too large of a portion of protein, for example, a huge steak.  Moderation is always the key in life, isn’t it? 

Watching animals in the wild was a good lesson for me about eating in moderation, eating only until one is satisfied and not uncomfortably full. Animals never overeat (other than our household pets if we’ve  been feeding them “people food”). 

I believe this is papaya tree.

Wild animals only eat until full and comfortable. We never saw a lion while on safari eating the last morsel off the carcass he’d killed. He/she was always leaving some to savor at a later time, with the female leaving some for her cubs or often letting the cubs eat before her. Not so much with the males who would often steal the food from the females, never sharing with the female or her cubs.

If you make these delicious bars, please place individual portions into baggies to store in the freezer, taking out one bag at a time to eat frozen. They are so good they could trigger a frenzy of overeating.

Here’s the recipe:

Jess’s Low Carb High Fat Keto Bars
1 cup organic extra virgin coconut oil, melted (Don’t use
microwave.  Use room temperature)

1 cup organic almond butter
½ cup any lowest-carb protein powder (I used hemp)
1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (the large unsweetened coconut chips  found in the healthy section in grocery stores or a health food shop, are good to use)

½ cup chopped almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans or
hazelnuts (I used macadamia nuts, grown here in the Hawaiian Islands)

½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup unsweetened cocoa chips (found in health food stores)
1/3 cup erythritol or other preferred 0 carb sweetener,  (found in health food stores)
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp Himalayan or sea salt
Whisk together oil, nut butter, protein powder until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and stir. Pour onto lined parchment paper baking pan being careful to have pan fully covered with parchment.  Cover and place in freezer until frozen (3 hours).  Break or cut into bar size pieces, keeping single servings in plastic bags in the freezer.  Keep and eat frozen.

These low carb recipes that I post are suitable for a low-carb way of eating where the body is burning its own fat stores for fuel, not burning the sugar we’ve consumed. These recipes are not intended to be eaten in combination with sugary, high calorie, high-fat food for which in doing so may increase in weight could result.  Burning our own fat for fuel is referred to as “ketosis”, not ketoacidosis, a dangerous life-threatening condition.  These are two entirely different metabolic states. The reading material in the following paragraph explains this further.

For more on the science surrounding the low carb, high fat, grain, starch, and sugar-free way of eating which causes our bodies to burn our own fat for fuel and subsequently reduces inflammation, please read, Dr. William Davis (Wheat Belly) or Dr. David Perlmutter’s  book Grain Brain, and Jonathan Bailor’s books, all of whom have highlighted my story on their websites and in Jonathan’s recent book, Eat More, Lose More (about health) in which there is a full story and photo on my return to good health after an over 20-year struggle.

Here’s a link to my story which was posted on their sites a few years ago, all of which are similar.

A boat, filled to the max, looks for the last vestiges of the humpback whales, many of which have already begun the journey to Alaska for the summer.

These three links I’ve provided above today are direct to their free blogs in the event you want to read more before buying their books if, in fact, the subject matter appeals to you.  I wouldn’t be traveling the world, pain-free if it weren’t for the science presented in these professional’s books and websites.

Enough for today. No preaching intended. Write if you have questions.

Aloha.

Photo from one year ago today, April 4, 2014:

The colors in the displays in the souks were astounding. Four of our senses were all in full on mode as we wandered through the maze-like environment; the smells, the sights, the sounds, and the touch of the fabrics. As for taste, we proceeded with caution, never dining on any of the food in the Big Square, the Medina for fear it would contain ingredients contrary to my diet or potential gastrointestinal distress. For more details, please click here.

Medicine from afar? Refill our prescriptions? Annual checkup?

As a health and fitness buff most of my adult life, I have made every effort to stay healthy by eating good homemade food, exercising regularly and avoiding toxins in every way possible.  

Many of my efforts have failed me and I have been forced to succumb to traditional medicine and take a few prescriptions each day, as does Tom for a variety of conditions.  

Yes, I have tried over these past years to gradually reduce these few medications with the hope of stopping them entirely. For example; days later, my blood pressure sneaks up to a dangerous level, prompting me to begin the tiny dose once again, fearful of the consequences. 

For me, it appears my genetics is the culprit. Otherwise, there is nothing in my lifestyle, that I could discover from my years of research as to why I would be plagued with these few ailments. Its frustrating. 

Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t drink soda. I consume only organic produce and grass fed beef, avoiding all grains, wheat (inspired by Dr. William Davis’ book, Wheat Belly) starches and sugary food.  I haven’t had a sweet treat of any type in almost a year.  
Each day and night I wear a BodyMedia armband to ensure I get in 10,000 steps a day.  It tracks thousands of measurements including how much time I spend sleeping each night which s usualiy about 7.5 hours.  
I have exercised most of my life, regularly, faithfully and with vigor while currently obsessed with HIIT training as recommended by Jonathan Bailor, backed by 1100 medical studies, 10,000 pages of scientific research, endorsed by some of the top medical professionals in the world, many from Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.  A great read!

We miss doughnuts.  Years ago, on occasion,Tom and I experienced what we called “MD days,” meaning “multiple doughnut days” whereby we’d eat many doughnuts, watch movies and lounge all day. No more.  We haven’t done this in fifteen years.  I can no more imagine, lying in bed all day and eating doughnuts than going to the moon. (Actually, space travel is on my wish list).

A fast food item hasn’t crossed my lips in 25 years!  And what has it got me:
hypertension, thyroid disease, joint and bone problems and borderline diabetes, the bane of my ancestors, most of them inflicted with these conditions, many of whom suffered and died from these conditions!  
Am I sick? No!  But…I am a slave to these few prescriptions.  Am I slim, physically fit, strong and without any memory issues at my age?  Yes. So, I faithfully take those few little pills each morning, hoping for the best, hoping in time that I will discover a way to toss them all away.

Today, I called our prescription medication plan explaining that when we’ll be traveling for no less than 949 days (so far) asking if they can provide us with at least one year’s worth of the prescriptions to take with us when we leave in 5 months and 19 days.  (We’ll figure out something for the remaining period).  The answer was “no.”They will only do what they’ve always done: if the doctor writes a three month prescription, we only get three months of pills at a time!  I asked, “Are you willing to mail our prescriptions to: Kenya, Africa or maybe Marloth Park, Kruger National Park, South Africa?” There again, the answer was “no.” No mailing outside the US.
Will our prescriptions be mailed to Africa? No.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with the family doctor, a great guy, who will most likely try to help us figure out a solution.  Yes, we will have a mailing a mailing service with our own address where any important mail will arrive and can be scanned and sent to us by email.  

The service will forward packages to us wherever we may be. However, some countries do not welcome prescription drugs entering the country.  We shall see what transpires and post the solution to yet another dilemma.