Easy Honey Roasted Vegetables

Looking for a way to make veggies less boring? All you have to do is roast them in a bunch of fat, some fresh herbs and a little bit of honey.

No joke it’s that easy. I’m always looking for ways to minimize my time in the kitchen and roasting veggies is the easiest way to do that. I prefer a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Now you can use fresh if you want to, but honestly I’m too lazy to cut all the different ones and all that, plus flash frozen veggies tend to be fresher because they are frozen right after they’re harvested. I call that a win win, but the choice is up to you. The cook time just may be a little less for fresh veggies over frozen. Costco has a pretty good selection of huge bags of frozen veggies. That’s where I tend to get mine or if I run out I just get them at Stater Bros.

Pair these veggies with the protein of your choice and you’ll have about 10 minutes total kitchen time and then all you have to do is wait for your veggies to roast to perfection. While they’re roasting feel free to play with your kids, run around with the dog or take a nap.

Fresh herbs

Before Oven
Before the oven

Close up with fresh herbs

After oven
After the oven

Crispy
Crispy & sweet

Easy Honey Roasted Vegetables

2016-03-21 20:32:38

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Ingredients

1lb mixed fresh or frozen veggies (I prefer the ones with broccoli, cauliflower and carrots)
1/2T honey
3T extra virgin olive oil
1/2t Kosher salt
1/4t pepper
Handful of fresh thyme (or 1/2t dried thyme)
Handful of fresh mint (or 1/2t dried mint)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425.
Pour veggies onto baking tray. Measure out (or eyeball it) and pour all ingredients onto veggies and mix it all together. Try not to crowd the veggies or else they will take forever to crisp up.
Roast in oven for 35–45 minutes depending on if they’re fresh or frozen. You really just need to keep watching them and pull them out of the oven when they are at your desired crispness. I like to stir them only once throughout the roasting.
Once they’re done, pull them out and serve with your protein of choice. Enjoy!

That's So Primal https://www.thatssoprimal.com/

Epic Review

When I first went Primal, I was always on the lookout for Primal snacks. It was tough shifting from burning carbs for energy to burning fat for energy at first. I would get super hungry between lunch and dinner on the way home from work. So I searched online for what would be a good Primal snack. As it turns out, jerky and nuts are a great source of protein and fat to hold you over until dinner. During that time I came across something called Pemmican. I so badly wanted to try making some but I was just too lazy. Then I came across Epic. They were basically a modern take on Pemmican, they had meat, berries and fat in the form of nuts. I had to order some.

I ordered a box of the Turkey Almond Cranberry bars and they were the perfect snack for in between meals, or hikes or camping. Perfectly Primal. Then not too long after that I noticed that Epic started branching out to jerky and trail mix packs. First of all, I was super interested to check out these new jerky and nut packs because they just looked so cool. Once again, being that I’m a designer by trade, I got enticed with all this amazing branding and package design. So I reached out to Epic to see if I could review some of their newer products since I was already familiar with their Pemmican-esque bars that you can check out here. Epic was kind enough to send me some of their Bites and one of their Hunt & Harvest packs. So as with any review I wanted to check out the three main categories: Nutritional Profile, Affordability and Taste.

Nutritional Profile

Epic has a bunch of different products and they just keep expanding. So Like I said I started with their bars, then they created some bites and bits, trail mix packs – and now they’re branching out to selling pastured cooking fats and bone broth. What we’re looking at today is their Bites and their Hunt & Harvest packs.

Epic Bacon Bites
Bacon Bites
Total Fat: 7g
Total Carbohydrate: 0g (Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 0g)
Protein: 10g
Ingredients: Uncured Bacon (Pork, Water, Sea Salt, Vinegar, Celery Powder), Natural Pork
What? Zero Carbs? Whats not to love about the nutritional profile of these. The way they get away with that is because there is no sugar used for curing or added sugar after the jerky is made. If you’re looking for a perfectly Primal snack, you can’t go wrong with these. Packing some fat and protein and zero carbs. You’re on your way to becoming a fat burning beast.

Chicken Sesame BBQ Bites
Total Fat: 2.5g
Total Carbohydrate: 8g (Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 6g)
Protein: 9g
Ingredients: Natural Chicken, Organic Currants, Sea Salt, Garlic, Onion, Sesame Seeds, Sesame Oil, Ginger, Black Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, Red Pepper
This chicken jerky comes in with a little more carbs and less fat, but it’s still a low sugar snack and perfectly Primal.

Epic Honest Harvest
Honest Harvest
Total Fat: 8g
Total Carbohydrate: 4g (Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 3g)
Protein: 9g
Ingredients: Jerky (grass fed organic beef, wildflower honey, water, salt, organic apple cider vinegar, yeast extract, organic black pepper, celery powder, organic garlic powder). Nut Mix (roasted almonds, roasted pecans, roasted Brazil nuts, pistachios).
This is such a great little package. Packing just the right amount of fat and protein for a snack or on the go meal. Low sugar and real whole ingredients with grass fed beef.

All of these products have an impressive nutritional profile. Epic really focuses on high quality ingredients, pastured raised meats leading to high omega–3 & CLA, gluten free, soy free and low glycemic, paleo friendly snacks. So it’s without a doubt that not just these but any of Epic’s products have an amazing nutritional profile. With their products you don’t have to worry about high fructose corn syrup or other weird ingredients that you don’t know how to pronounce. It’s all real ingredients, not something some scientist invented in a lab.

Affordability

Now this is where things get a little dicey. I love Epics products, but they can be a little pricey. It’s all about comparison though. If you compare this chicken or pork jerky with other jerky you find in the grocery store or gas station it will be filled with sugar and soy – cheap ingredients no doubt. So what happens when you remove the cheap ingredients and use high quality pastured raised meats? The product becomes more expensive, thus we have Epic coming in as follows:

Bacon & Chicken Bites
Price per pack: $6.25
Price per box of 8: $50

Honest Harvest
Price per pack: $3.88
Price per box of 8: $31

Oberto Bacon Jerky
Price per pack: $4.68

Now I put the price of a sorta comparable Oberto Bacon Jerky up there to compare and see that yea Epic is slightly more expensive for a comparable product and size (2.5 oz bag) but the difference is in the ingredients. Oberto’s Bacon Jerky is cured pork with sugar, unlike Epic’s which is uncured. So if uncured pork is a big thing for you, I would say Epic is the way to go if you’re willing to pay the extra money, otherwise Oberto isn’t necessarily a bad option if you’re not concerned with the quality of your protein, as I assume Oberto’s pork is CAFO.

Finding a comparable product for the Hunt & Harvest pack is kinda difficult as there really isn’t any other product out there marketed like this. Sure you could go buy some grass fed jerky yourself and some nuts and come in less expensive, but you’re paying for convenience with this pack. It’s about having a nice little snack for when a craving hits or when you’re on the go – hiking, camping, running from meeting to meeting. For the price I think it’s a great deal to have for when that craving hits.

Taste

I’ve never really been a fan of sweet jerky or really tough jerky and that’s where Epics jerky really shines. They’re all low sugar and very moist so win win. Let’s take a closer look at all the flavors they sent me:

Epic Bacon Bites
Bacon Bites
Soft. Salty. Pork. Expect nothing else and expect nothing more. If you like salty you’ll love this. I really liked these bacon bites. Not tough at all and not sweet at all which is what I like. Pretty great.

Epic Chicken Sesame BBQ Bites
Chicken Sesame BBQ Bites
I normally am not a fan of chicken jerky but I really liked this one. It was just the right amount of sweet from the currants and has a pleasant sesame taste to the jerky. Both of these jerkys aren’t just straight dehydrated muscle meat. They’re sorta ground up and turned into strips and cut up. Sounds gross but it actually works for both of these jerkys.

Epic Honest Harvest
Honest Harvest
Now this is a cool little idea. There are two sides to this pack that have jerky on one side and mixed nuts on the other side. When you open the ziplock you open the divider as well and mix it all together.

Epic Hunt Harvest
Jerky and nuts separated for freshness

Mix Contents
Instructions on how to mix after you open up the bag

Mixed together
Voila, you have a nice little grass fed trail mix

The jerky is traditional grass fed muscle meat dehydrated and the nuts are simply mixed dry roasted nuts. Both of these together had a great trail mix salty taste. The jerky is much tougher than the other stuff but the flavor is nice and salty and peppery. Not sweet at all. I really like the idea of this pack and suggest having a few on hand just for emergency hikes or if you’re strapped for time and need some quick protein and fat.

Conclusion

Epic is onto some great things. They’re a promising company with some pretty amazing products and I look forward to trying out all their new stuff like their cooking fats and bone broth. I’m glad there are companies like Epic out there dedicated to making whole food snacks, with fat and high quality protein. Feel free to share in the comments what your favorite Epic products are. Thanks for reading.

Buy some for yourself:

Our New Family Member

Little Sis

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of weeks. I’ve been a little busy as we welcomed our second daughter into the world! For the past few weeks I have been able to stay at home to help out my wife with our toddler and newborn. I have more than loved these last couple weeks off but man is it hard work to be at home with two kids!

A photo posted by Kristi Creasey (@hikristi) on Feb 13, 2016 at 5:46pm PST

We were in the hospital longer than expected because our newborn was in the NICU due to fluid in her lungs after the c-section. She recovered quickly and my wife was doing an amazing job at providing pumped breastmilk and we were discharged within a few days. The last few weeks have flown by though and we are at home now chasing around a toddler and enjoying the time with our newborn. Since I’ve been at home the last couple weeks I’ve noted some things that I wanted to share on how I was able to make the most of my time off and how you can too if you find yourself at home with a newborn.

Kids

Help your wife

Breastfeeding is tough work and some of the most important work. Our daughter being in the NICU for a few days kinda threw off our breastfeeding plans. The NICU demanded a lot of milk, and my wife was able to pump and we had frozen breastmilk at home that we were able to bring in. This led to a tough time at home for my wife to figure out breastfeeding all over again even though she nursed our toddler until 15 months. We’ve seen a lactation nurse a few times already and my wife is working as hard as she can. All that is to say – breastfeeding and caring for a newborn is tough work and helping your wife in whatever way possible should be your top priority.

Sleep

I know it sounds a little stupid to say to get sleep when you come home with a newborn because everyone says it and it’s near impossible to get sleep with a newborn, but this should almost be your second top priority. Sleep is important for the nursing mom and important for the dad too. Hopefully you can work together with your loved one to fit in as much sleep as possible even if it’s in the form of naps throughout the day or biphasic sleep. Sleep is necessary for breastmilk production and a multitude of other things. Treat sleep as a top priority for yourself when you get home.

Resist the blue light

Sometimes all you may want to do when your newborn goes to sleep is to grab your phone and do something mindless. Now I’m not saying to not do that at all just try to resist it when you’re nearing the end of the day because the blue light from your phone or computer can effect how you sleep because it tricks your body to think that it’s daytime. Apple is tackling this with their new feature to add more yellow light to your screen, but as of this writing this update isn’t out yet. For your computer you can install f.lux to adjust the color temperature of your monitor. Still though, try to get sleep – don’t scroll endlessly on Instagram.

Make some bone broth

You’re at home with a newborn, what a better time to throw a bunch of bones and veggies in a crockpot to make bone broth. I like Nom Nom’s recipe for this or The Domestic Man has a nice recipe in his book. The prep time is super simple and all you have to do is throw this stuff in a crock pot and let it simmer as long as possible. Nom nom also has a great guide for storing bone broth in the freezer.

Make easy meals

I’m chasing around a toddler and my wife is slaving away nursing our newborn so meals need to be easy and simple and preferably provide left overs. So far my favorite go to meals the past couple weeks have been as follows:

Taco bowls – These are super quick to make and provide lots of leftovers. Just buy a bunch of ground beef and cook it once so you can assemble these bowls for a couple of days.
Slow cooker kalua pig – Grab and big pork shoulder and let it slow cook overnight and you’ll have meals for a few days. We eat this with salad, cal rose rice or baked potatoes. Don’t fear the carbs here, they’re necessary for the breastfeeding mom and if the rice and potatoes are eaten leftover as cold they provide resistant starch for your gut bacteria.
Burgers and fries – No not McDonald’s, make your own. Buy a bunch of ground beef and sweet potatoes and you can make a pretty tasty meal super quick. Burgers cook quick on the BBQ and fries can be cut and tossed in the oven in no time. Make extra patties for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner and just eat these lettuce wrapped or on a pile of mixed greens.
Eggs and bacon – Breakfast doesn’t have to be fancy. Just eat some eggs and bacon. The eggs are great for the nursing mom because of the choline and cholesterol in the yolks. Luckily we have an amazing egg farm near us where we can buy eggs in bulk at a great price.

Enjoy your family

We have been blessed with the opportunity for my wife to stay at home with the kids, so being at home with the whole family is something I was able to enjoy the last couple of weeks. I told myself to get off the phone, skip trying to get good pictures of the kids and just soak it all in. The kids will grow up quick so just stop and really soak in the time that you get to spend uninterrupted with your family.

Go outside

I work inside a building all day normally. So being at home with my toddler and newborn was a perfect time to break the norm and actually let my skin get some sunlight during midday. We busted out our bouncer in the backyard and just hung out outside. We need vitamin D and nothing’s better than midday sun to get that vitamin D synthesizing for mom, dad and the kids.

Eat some pizza and ice cream

What?!?! Now unless your Celiac or truly have a dairy allergy disregard this one. But sometimes we just needed a pizza and some ice cream. During your time off with a newborn your diet isn’t gonna be perfect. Don’t worry about it. One pizza and some ice cream here and there in an otherwise healthy person isn’t going to make you unhealthy just as one or two healthy meals in an unhealthy person won’t make them healthy. Don’t let perfect be the enemy good. Is that how that phrase goes? Not sure, just know we abide by the 80/20 principle and a pizza here or there isn’t going to kill you.

Go on walks

Along with getting sunlight we need to move more. Getting outside on walks is good for your health and for your sanity too so that you don’t get cabin fever while you’re at home with a newborn. If you’re at home with your first kid or you have a whole tribe, try to make time to get out of the house to break up the day and go on a walk.

These are just a few ideas that stuck out for me as I’ve been home the last few weeks. Feel free to share any thoughts you had on how to stay healthy and sane while at home with a newborn in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

Macadamia Coconut Butter

I first caught a glimpse of coconut butter in this video where Mark says he eats some for an afternoon snack. So I headed over to Nikki’s and bought a jar and once it arrived I’m pretty sure I consumed it all in just a couple of days. I would just keep buying it by the jar but I wanted to take a stab at making it myself. After some googling I found this recipe for how to make some yourself. I pretty much followed this recipe with a few tweaks.

Macadamia Coconut Butter

One thing I love about this snack is it sustains you. A couple spoonfuls by itself can satisfy an afternoon craving, or you can eat it with some fruit or apples like I do after dinner. One time in particular that I find this a great snack to have on hand is when I go to the river with my family. Going to the river normally includes lots of wake boarding, paddle boarding and more activity than I normally get at my (standing) desk job. So after breakfast and a nice wake boarding run this butter really comes in handy to provide energy and give a huge dose of fat.

Macadamia Coconut Butter & Apples

If you’re body has been trained to use fat for fuel this will work great. If you’re still stuck being a sugar burner, this might just be extra calories that you’re body doesn’t know how to use efficiently. For more info on becoming a fat burning beast check out this post.

Only three simple ingredients

Coconut flakes

Roasted & salted macadamia nuts

Dates
Dates

Get all your ingredients ready to go

Blend the 1 cup nuts, with 1 cup of the flakes and dates first

It should then look like this

Then add the rest of the coconut flakes all the way to the top

Set it to on for about 15 minutes

After 5 minutes it will start to look like this

When it's done, it should be steaming and in a liquid state
When it’s done, it should be steaming and in a liquid state

Once it's blended to your liking, transfer it to a mason jar and enjoy by the spoonful!
Once it’s blended to your liking, transfer it to a mason jar and enjoy by the spoonful!

Macadamia Coconut Butter

2016-02-13 18:04:31

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Ingredients

1 cup roasted and salted macadamia nuts
5 cups unsweetened coconut flakes or shreds
4 dates

Instructions

In a food processor, like this one I use, blend nuts and 1 cup of coconut and dates first until it’s all blended roughly, about 30 seconds.
Now the easy part, dump the rest of the coconut inside the food processor. It should fill the food processor all the way to the top. Disregard the line that says don’t fill past this line. We’re gonna break the rules. Now turn the food processor to on and leave it on until the butter is a nice creamy texture to your liking. This takes about 15–20 minutes for me and my climate. I’ve noticed that the ambient temperature in my house or time of year effects how quickly the coconut turns into butter. Just watch it and taste it and stop when you’re satisfied.
Once it’s all blended into butter, transfer it to a jar or some other container. It should probably be good for a week or so but I guarantee you’ll eat it all before it goes bad. Enjoy!

That's So Primal https://www.thatssoprimal.com/

7 Tips for Moving More

Statistically by this time of the year most people have failed at their new years resolutions. Only 8% of people achieve their new years resolutions in the end. So what are you to do if by this time you’ve already failed? I suggest you just try to not make it a thing and just readdress how you want to achieve your health goals this year. I’ve already written a general guide for simplifying Paleo so it sticks, but how can we simplify our movement and fitness goals too?

The tips I’ve listed below aren’t necessarily for people who are die hard cross fit folks or people who have no problem sticking to a fitness schedule – these tips are for people who want to move more in general, since moving frequently at a slow pace is what we are supposed to do, but have a hard time finding the time to do it in their regimented work schedules and such. Think of these tips as a way to look at your normal routine and how to weave in more movement throughout your day.

1. Park further away

This one is where you have to make the non lazy decision when you’re parking at the grocery store, work, mall or Disneyland. If you park far away from where you’re going you’ll definitely be adding more steps to your daily step count. So to do this all you have to do is stop hunting for the closest spot at the place you’re headed to and park in the spot far away from where you’re going. Finding a spot won’t be a problem because most people hate parking far away.

2. Take the stairs

Whenever you can, try to take the stairs. It’s better for you and gets you moving more. Plus you won’t have to sit around and wait for elevators and have awkward starring non conversations with the people in the elevator. If you take the stairs it’s easy and fast to get to where you need to go.

3. Go to a farmers market

Most farmers markets around me are on Saturday mornings, so this is a great alternative to do at the end of your long work week. Instead of just being a couch potato on the weekends, try to get up and out of the house and to a farmers market. This will ensure that you’re moving around checking out all that the local farmers have to offer. Most of all, not only are you getting in more walking for the day, you hopefully will find some pretty great food. Here you can connect directly with farmers for pastured eggs and more affordable options for grass fed meats and such. If your budget still doesn’t afford those high priced items, the produce will still blow anything from your conventional grocery store out of the water. Check out the fruit samples or tomato samples and notice the difference in taste. Even if you don’t buy anything, you still got out of the house and moved!

4. Go down every aisle

For a grocery store, I normally say avoid going down the center aisles and just stick to the perimeter of the store where real food is. But in any other case that you’re shopping, just take the time to go down every aisle to add more movement to your day. Be cautious with this one if you’re trying to stick to a budget when shopping because stuff will always throw itself at you convincing you that you need the newest vacuum or lawn mower. The marketing people get paid big bucks to convince you that you need the latest and greatest.

5. Take breaks

During you’re regular work day, hopefully you already have a standing desk, but you should also consider taking a few breaks throughout your day to go for a walk or something. Just break away. We weren’t designed to stare at computers all day and we need vitamin D. So take a break from your work and try to move around a little bit. Go with a friend or take some time by yourself and even listen to a podcast. It will make the time pass more quickly. It’s a win win.

6. Drink more water

Now I don’t know if we really need to be drinking 8 glasses of water a day, since we eat a good amount of vegetables and salads, a lot of our liquid will be coming from that. I normally drink about 3 liters of water a day, but that’s just because I really like water. That might even be too much water. But guess what… the more water I drink, the more I have to break away from my desk and use the restroom. It may sound silly, but the more water you drink the more that water needs somewhere to go – which will force you to move around more.

7. Get a dog

I love dogs. We have a Boston Terrier. Now having a dog doesn’t guarantee you’ll move more, it just means you should move more. This is assuming that if you have a dog, you should be taking that dog for a walk or playing with it in the yard. Not everyone does this or even has time to do this, but you can definitely use the excuse of going out for a walk with the dog – if you actually have a dog. It allows for you to contemplate what you do after dinner with the family: do you turn on the TV or do you go for a walk with the family and the dog.

Remember we aren’t shooting for perfection here. These ideas won’t get you ripped like you would be if you’re doing cross fit, but moving frequently at a slow pace will make you overall more Primal and healthier. So lastly, pick up a fitness band or use your smart phone to track your steps and see if you can get to 10,000 steps a day. Most people are around 5,000 steps a day and considered sedentary. That’s not good – get up and move. If you have any more ideas on how we can move more throughout the day, feel free to list them below in the comments.

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