Chili-Lime Chicken Wings

Hey guys!

Here it is, a real summer BBQ option.

Ingredients:
1/2 a medium onion
3 Garlic cloves
2 Jalapeno peppers (I used 1 pepper and didn't have any kick...and I can't take spicy food)
1/2 cup of cilantro
Ground black pepper
Zest from 2 limes
1/4 cup of lime juice
2 TBSP of Paleo friendly fish sauce (I didn't use any, it's up to you)
2 TBSP of coconut aminos (didn't use any)
1 TBSP of apple Juice (didn't use any)

Steps
1. Throw all the ingredients in a blender until it looks like green ooze.

2. Put wings and mixture in a bowl and mix it all well.

3. Throw in oven or BBQ until cooked to desire.

My Struggle
As good as it was, there was a little zip missing. Next time I will be using a 2nd jalapeno pepper and add apple juice. I don't like fish sauce and I am unsure what coconut aminos is.

Honey, I'm home!

Hey everyone!

I am having a great visit with my mother this week and she asked me how my blog was going. I gave her a typical child answer: "it's good", then I realized that I haven't written anything in a while! I wanted to introduce her slowly into paleo and explain some stuff to her. I made great chili-lime chicken wings with a salad for her. It all turned out great and I never heard her complain about being bloated or hungry. I will give you the recipe in another blog.

For tonight, I'm going to write a bit about honey. I have been using a lot of honey lately to sweeten some food/drinks. According to paleo guides, it's acceptable to use it because it is naturally produced by bees and can be cultivated (with a few bee stings involved). Bees collect the nectar from various plants, fly back to their nest and this is where it gets weird. The bees actually consume the nectar and regurgitate it several times to make the honey. So yes essentially you are eating regurgitated food and most likely gastric contents. LOL.

Our mothers always told us to put honey in our tea to help sooth a sore throat. Some people put honey on open wounds to help heal. I found out that some properties in honey combined with body fluids and oxygen becomes anti-bacterial and create a slow release hydrogen peroxide. Because this process needs contact with oxygen, it makes for a bad topical antibiotic used with gauze. Diabetic ulcers are a great example for using honey.

Most importantly we use it for food. Because it is allowed in our paleo diet I've decided to really research how good it is. There are as many good things as bad things about this and I will leave it up to you to decide.

1. It is loaded with antioxidants,vitamins and minerals. Buckwheat honey is proven to increase the antioxidant value in the blood.

2. It can vary in glycemic index from low to extremely high, half of the sugar content is actually fructose, and does raise your blood sugar just not as much as regular dextrose and sucrose.

3. It helps reduce inflammation.

4. Lowers LDL ("bad" cholesterol) and raises HDL("Good" cholesterol).

Some of the big tips for honey is to choose a darker coloured honey and make sure it is unpasteurized. It is a healthier option in baking than processed sugar. And most importantly, It is still not recommended for someone who has problems with their weight and diabetics.

Homemade Fresh Almond Milk

Hey everyone! Everyone has been asking me lately how to make almond milk. I had a million questions as well when I first heard about it. Now thanks to youtube and a particular co-worker, I make my own Almond milk however I like it. Here are the instructions:

Step 1: Buy a bag of RAW almonds. They have to be raw. If you choose organic almonds, that is your choice.

Step 2: Soak your almonds in water for a few hours. Easiest done at night before bed time, for milk in the A.M. or before you head off to work.

Step 3: Drain your almonds. The reason why you soak them, other than giving milk, is to remove an acid that is on the brown peel of the almond. This stuff has been known create a bit of gut irritation.

Step 4: (ignore this step if you choose) I personally decide to slide the peel off the almond. You will notice they tend to pop/slide out. If you want to keep the peel, it will give you almond meal instead of almond flour.

Step 5: Put the almonds in the blender and add water. 1 cup of almonds to 2-3 cups of water, depending how creamy you want it.

Step 6: Add a pinch of salt and any kind of flavouring you want. I add a vanilla bean, I haven't quite mastered chocolate yet.

Step 7: Blend it like nobody's business! You should have very small pieces.

Step 8: Using a cheese cloth or clean tea towel, lay it in a strainer over a bowl and slowly pour the mixture into the strainer and squeeze the towel to get as much of the milk out.

Step 9: What is left over in the bowl is the pure almond milk. Add Honey to the vanilla mixture to sweeten it up. Again, flavour it to your liking.

Step 10: What you have left in the tea towel is your almond milk. I let it dry out a bit, but be careful, it could go rancid in room temperature. So put it in a ziplock baggy and freeze it for when you need almond flour/meal!

Now that you know how to make it, you can apply the same thing to other kinds of nuts. I tried Hazelnuts...it isn't as good as the fake stuff in the grocery stores. :(