Ok… SIMMER down, this recipe doesn’t really use grits….it uses the ever-versatile…Cauliflower!! AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!
I started out to make Shrimp and bacon, cheese grits, but the horror of all horrors, I only had three strips of bacon. I was making this for my son’s 19th birthday, he’s not “real” primal…so I wanted this recipe tasty and spicy. Since this recipe turned out well…I’m going to tell you exactly what I did…not what I was going to do. 
Meat Ingredients
3 pieces of bacon
1/2 lb of sausage
1 lb of 21/30 shrimp (any size will do, but I love this size)
1 ribeye (optional)
Cauliflower Ingredients
2 cups of cheddar cheese
1 large head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons of black pepper
2 tablespoons of paprika
2 tablespoons of red pepper
2 tablespoons of Tony Chechere’s
2 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of Texas Pete (or hot sauce of your choice)
4 tablespoons of Heavy Whipping Cream (or milk)
** NOTE ** you can click on pictures for expanded version.
 Sausage and 1/2 pound of shrimp cooking in the skillet
Meat Preparation:
Fry 3 pieces of Bacon with a pound of sausage and a 1/2 pound of shrimp together. Remove shrimp when done and set aside in a a covered dish to conserve moisture.
After the bacon, sausage and first 1/2 pound of shrimp are done, begin cooking the steak. Once you have turned the steak for finished cooking, add the last 1/2 pound of shrimp. Making sure to add butter, CO or water to prevent burning. I kept the shrimp cooked with steak separate and served them separately, in a separate bowl… the difference in flavors is fantastic!
Cut or chop bacon and sausage into smaller pieces.
 Cheese, Sausage, & Bacon Cauliflower... awesome by itself!!!
Cauliflower Preparation:
- Steam cauliflower for 20 mins
- Allow time to cool and then cut into chunks and process to “rice” the cauliflower using a food processor, blender or grater.
- Check the moisture level, you may need to “hand press” the riced cauliflower to remove excess moisture.
- Add the “riced” cauliflower to a large mixing bowl with the bacon, half of the sausage, all the spices, butter and heavy whipping cream. Mix well and microwave for about 2 min (your mileage may vary). Mix well again and repeat until cheese has melted uniformly.
- Once uniformity is achieved add to a serving plate. Sprinkle some cheese on top and then add shrimp and the last 1/2 of the sausage for “display”. Microwave for a minute or two prior to serving to make sure it’s warm.
 This is how mine appeared on a serving platter. This is how my “meal” appeared on my plate… I will be honest, the steak was delicious…but the cauli-cheese and shrimp was DIVINE!!
 Shrimp & Cheese Cauliflower with Rib Eye .... hmmm good. It was soooo good. Hope you try it and enjoy it.
IF you have not had a “MEATWICH” yet… you really should try it…
I have not used any “meat” for the bun other than ground turkey but ground turkey works great for my purposes.
Step One:
Cooking the “BUN”.
Lightly grease the skillet, I prefer Coconut Oil or Butter. Press out about one pound of ground turkey into a skillet (the more square, the better) making sure to fill the bottom fully….this makes for more uniform “buns”.
Cook on medium temperature for about 5 minutes, use a spatula and press down to begin to separate into quarters. Then turn the pieces and cook on the other side. Once both sides are done, cover the skillet and allow to cool… if you are in a hurry, you can refrigerate. Cooling helps with the texture and “firms” it up.
Step Two:
Prepping the “Fillings”.
I cooked Bacon…always a crowd favorite… This is Peppered, “THICK CUT” bacon…great flavor.
In the picture below you can see the “bun” on the right side of the plate and the additional fillings…. Deli-style roast beef, pepperoni and swiss cheese.
The Finale:
Below is a picture of the MEATwich, fully assembled and waiting to be eaten!!! … notice the “bun” is holding up very well. Another reason I like ground turkey for the “bun”…. it does not have that much flavor, so you truly do taste the contents of the MEATwich.
Lastly, below is a picture of the MEATwich in the process of being consumed. Note again, the “bun” is holding up well. I used “wax papper” to contain the moisture, but with this particular MEATwich, it was not needed.
Give it a try sometime…HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!!
Title : Right off I want to say, the title seems a little provocative. But I decided to use it anyway, FYI – if you came here looking for a provocative post…AND you love bacon…. you will NOT be disappointed!
I wanted to make this an eloquent and well written post…yeah…like that was going to happen…NOT!! :) I am rushing to get this out for your use.
So …here we go….
Ingredients
2 cups of Ground Turkey
1 ½ cups of Mozzarella
½ cup of Riced Cauliflower
Steps:
1. Cook Cauliflower and press to remove excess moisture.
2. Rice Cauliflower (or process in food processor).
3. Mix all ingredients together.
4. Stretch the bacon, halve it and then placed in the muffin pan slots.
5. Fill in the muffin slots and fold over the bacon.
6. Baked in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 mins.
7. Broil until tops have desired appearance.
8. Sprinkle with mozzarella and preferred spices…. my preferred spices are Tony Chechere’s Cajun Spices, Red and Black Pepper.
9. As I mention below… when I started this project…I was starving…so I ended up frying about half the “batter” in my skillet…THAT WORKS TOO!!!
This idea is derived from the great Jamie Saal VanEaton . I remembered that Jamie had mentioned using the Caulicrust for tacos etc. Then I thought about the Meatza and thought… what if I combine the TWO!!! And put the “mixture” in a muffin pan like Jamie’s Oopsie Rolls….
So my original plan was to have stuffed meat muffins using meat, cauli and mozzarella.
It was a nice plan…and I may still do it some day…but here’s why that did NOT happen.
I waited until 1 pm to even start making the dish, AFTER I worked out…and I was STARVING!!
To be honest, it was taking me too long to form the “meat muffins” so I basically filled the muffin tin with bacon and the “batter”. It still turned out DELISH!!!
A single…close up… Hmmm good!!!
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
You simply don’t need to eat carbohydrates to exercise. – Kurt G. Harris MD
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
IT IS OVER !!!
YES it is OVER…prematurely for sure and sooner than I had planned…
I said I was going to do a Food Journal for TWO weeks….however…
1) The desired affect has been achieved. (see below, but my OFBG has gotten…low… )
2) I hate journaling… and I don’t see any new info being gleaned from the “experiment”.
3) I hate journaling…
I do not count calories (it is automatic when you do fitday.com’s food journal) …. just can’t help but NOTICE the number…. 2,952 yesterday !!! Before journaling, I know I was pushing 4, 000 + calories many days. AND I am sure I was doing 300g of protein some days as well.
For the record, I have NOT gained a pound since Oct/Nov ‘09. I have been in the 160-165 range since then. So I do not think, from my experience that there is anything wrong with the high daily protein grams numbers EXCEPT that my Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) began to rise. For those new readers, my OFBG had been in the upper 90’s to low 100’s. I woke up one day with a 141 reading…. THAT ONE made me stand up and take notice, and that is the day I decided to start food journaling.
Over the last 11 days, my OFBG readings have drastically lowered. My last five have been 76, 78, 70, 81 and 76. Oh, did I mention that I am a Type 2 DIABETIC and that I control my diabetes with diet and exercise…I take -0- drugs and -0- insulin.
Here are my last 5 OFBGs … pretty aren’t they?
** I have read that “experts” suggest that everyone keep a food journal for a week, once a year. I have to agree, based on my experience.
CLOSING Summary:
Protein: Original Goal was 140 grams per day… average 158 grams. While I only met my goal ONE DAY!!!… I did lower my protein consumption and I believe (I do not know) that is what lead to my BG reduction.
** Special Thanks to Anne Luther for mentioning protein consumption as a possible reason for my higher BG.
Carbohydrates: my daily goal of 20 grams +/- 10. Met this goal, average 17g per day. Once you “kick the habit” …going Very Low Carb is EASY!!!
Fats: Goal is 75% of total calories. Met this goal, ok… I was off 1 %… I can live with that. I was very pleased.
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My Food Journal
This is an AVERAGE…and will be my last one for a while…
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
No known primitive culture in the history of the human species has ever adopted vegetarianism by choice. –Nora T. Gedgaudas
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
Quick Recap: I started journaling to attempt to reduce my daily protein consumption. WHY? I am a diabetic and my Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) has been running higher than I like. Excess protein can cause an increase in Blood Glucose…which usually isn’t a problem if you are not a diabetic.
For the last 10 days, a typical protein consumption day for me, has been around 200 grams. From my readings and discussions my daily protein range should be in the 120-140 gram range. I have had difficulty achieving that range…until YESTERDAY. I employed a very primal tactic… Intermittent Fasting. (it involves skipping a meal, two or three.)
Why Intermittent Fasting?
According to Mark Sisson (click here for info) a normal protein range is .8 to 1.0 protein grams per lean body mass. For me, that range is approximately 120 – 140 protein grams per day. I am going to attempt to shoot for the 120g daily total, so if I go over… I should still be under the maximum. This should reduce the amount of blood glucose I’m creating with my heavy protein meal plan… some days I had been eating in the 250g to 300g of protein.
This strategy, coupled with implementing an INTERMITTENT FAST!!! … helped me achieve all of my daily goals, yesterday!!!! WHOO HOO!
Summary:
Protein: Goal is @ 120 – 140 grams per day…. GOAL! ONLY 121.9 grams… lowest since I kept a journal.
Carbohydrates: my daily goal of 20 grams +/- 10, 13.6 is within that range… GOAL!
Fats: Goal is 75% +/- 5 % of total calories. Achieved a fat percentage of 77%…. GOAL!
Exercise #1 : 60 mins – PLYOMETRICS… great workout by the way.
Exercise #2 : 20 mins – Yoga Stretching, Abs and Legs
Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) : 81 …..The sub 80 string is broken… but I am not complaining with an 81. Here is my last four OFBGs.
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My Food Journal
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
You are what you eat – and perhaps surprisingly, you also are what your ancestors ate. Jack Challem
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
1) Total Nutrition
Same OLD story… protein is reduced from previous, pre-journaling levels but still higher than I want…. Still pushing 200 grams per day. 
Today (4/20/10) I brought out my diet weapon….
Intermittent Fasting, we shall see if this helps….
2) Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) … set a new record! For the first time since being diagnosed a diabetic, I had three consecutive days of BG readings BELOW 80!!!
What do I attribute this too???
a) A low carb primal meal plan with an increased emphasis on lowering protein consumption while increasing healthy fat consumption.
b) Regular resistance training and higher intensity cardio.
Summary:
Protein: 196.1 grams , way above the 140 grams I set as my goal.
Carbohydrates: 23.7, well within my daily goal of 20 grams +/- 10.
Fats: Goal is 75% of total calories, so I am well below that at 67%. With 210 grams of fat, my low percentage is still a function of my protein consumption. As noted above, I am bringing out my “dietary” BIG GUN… intermittent fasting to attempt to reset my meal plan.
Exercise #1 : 40 min – P90X, Chest and Back
Exercise #2 : 30 min – Max walk with Push ups
Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) : 70 WOOT!!!!
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My Food Journal
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
When glucose is poison, it’s better to eat fat. – Stephan Guyenet, PhD in Neurobiology
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
1) Total Nutrition
I found this picture below to be VERY illuminating… one of the big drawbacks that is mentioned when you bring up a low carb / paleo meal plan when talking to an ADA Minion, is the lack of total nutrition. My standard response is that my diet and supplementation provide me with all the nutrients that I need. The numbers in RED are the nutrients I am supposedly deficient in…. these numbers do NOT include supplementation nutrients.
Potassium is the only element that I am deficient in after allowing for supplementation. FYI – I do take a multi-vitamin, Omega 3, Vit D3 and Calcium/Magnesium supplement. I will increase my salmon and greens (spinach, broccoli, etc) to increase my potassium consumption.
NOTE: I have NONE of the Potassium Deficiency Symptoms.
2) Last two days… My protein has been in the 190’s … NOT what I had wanted, I had wanted to be in the 140 g range …. But thus far, something is working….because my last two Overnight Fasting BG readings remains in normal range…. WOOT!!!
Summary:
Protein: 195.7 grams… too high, but lower than pre-journaling.
Carbohydrates: 9.7 grams, close enough to my goal of 20 grams +/- 10.
Fats: 70 % … a little low from a percentage basis, but can’t complain about 221 grams.
Exercise 1: 40 mins of Bleacher RUNS and Sprints.
Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) : 78 …. Another sub – 100 OFBG.
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MY FOOD JOURNAL
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
Prevailing condemnation of saturated fats by the medical community is wrong. A new analysis of risk of coronary, stroke and vascular disease vindicates saturated fats. – Dr. Art Ayers
IS FAT THE KEY?!
The main reason I began this journal was to test the affects of lowering my daily protein grams. Since I am ALWAYS low carb …that can only mean that my Fat Grams/Percentage would also increase.
Why am I testing this? My Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) had been climbing (assuming my meter was correct) and I know that excess protein can convert to blood glucose…so I wanted to see if reducing protein would reduce Blood Glucose.
I know that I have reduced my protein from pre-journaling levels. In this last week, almost every meal I am eating less protein than I normally would. I often would eat a POUND of meat (fish, chicken, beef etc) … now I try to limit to 8-12 oz.
So while I can’t prove or show a decline…. and I can’t prove this is the reason why… MY OFBG has returned to NORMAL levels. (without the use of drugs nor insulin)
My last 4 OFBGs 79, 83, 91 and 76…. so I am stoked!!!
IS THE INCREASE IN FAT THE KEY? …. I do not know, but it definitely has NOT CAUSED AN INCREASE.
I will continue the experiment… in the name of science! LOL! … I love saying that.
I’ll monitor and post for another week …two weeks of journaling is about all I can stand.
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
1) FINALLY!!!! I finally consumed less than 150 grams of protein!!! It was a struggle… and 149.8 … is close…BUT it can be done!!!
I stay low carb (sub 30g) so… my only source for “fuel” other than protein is … natural, dietary fats. (no hydrogenated veggie oils)
2) Overall, I feel really good about this Food Journal. It was probably an excuse but…in my mind I was thinking that “ I need extra protein due to my workouts…”, well Saturday (17th) I did two workouts and I am planning on hitting the Intense Cardio hard again today….so we shall see.
Summary:
Protein: Daily Goal is 140 grams, so 149.8 is STILL high….but I will take it considering I’ve been in the 190’s and low 200’s.
Carbohydrates: Goal = 20g +/- 10, so I am “in the money”.
Fats: Goal = 75% of caloric consumption. 73% is close enough.
Exercise 1: 45 mins of Kenpo X
Exercise 2: 45 mins of Core Syn
Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) : 76 WOOT! Another sub – 100 OFBG.
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My Food Journal
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
Carnivores don’t have lots of stored adipose because, I don’t know, have you ever tried to chase a gazelle while carrying 100 lbs of stored fat? – Dr. Kurt Harris
I LOVE THIS QUOTE!!!
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
1) Geez!!! Look at the calories… 3,238 !!! … AND my weight has remained in the 160-164 range…this AM, 162. I have been in this range for 4-5 months. I have been over 3,000 calories two days in a row.
2) I lowered my protein grams considerably but at 158 grams…that’s still much more than my goal of 140g. I am eating low carb so …. If I am not eating carbs and I am lower in protein… yep the FAT grams were high, 281 grams of FAT!!! 144 grams OF SATURATED FAT!!! It comprised a whopping 40% of my caloric consumption.
Summary:
Protein: Daily Goal is 140 grams, so 158 is STILL high.
Carbohydrates: Goal = 20g +/- 10, so I am “in the money”.
Fats: Goal = 75% of caloric consumption. 78% is close enough.
Exercise 1: 35 min – bleacher / track runs
Exercise 2: 30 min – P90X Legs & Back
Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose (OFBG) : 91 WOOT! Another sub – 100 OFBG.
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Food Journal
Quote of the DAY (QOD):
If you eat animals, you should have access to their bones, and you should never throw those bones away.— Mark Sisson
Dazed and Confused
I know… I know what you are thinking… exercising as I do, on such a limited carbohydrate meal plan ( 20g +/- 10 daily ) … I should barely have enough glucose for brain function… so I SHOULD BE dazed and confused!
This post is a follow up to yesterday’s meter failure post, if you did not read the post yesterday, click here.
In yesterday’s post I pointed out that I had a faulty meter and after using a new meter I was achieving NORMAL Blood Sugar readings…normal for non-diabetics. I received several comments and emails, all were appreciated…
…a friend asked me if I had tested all the meters ( my spare, my new one and my “old” one)
… another sent me links to websites showing the “acceptable range of failure” for these meters.
All this got me to thinking and yes… it was painful. . Last night I decided to test my blood with ALL THREE meters from the same blood sample. This testing was 4 hours post meal, right before bed time. The readings were perplexing to say the least.
I planned on testing my Over night Fasting this morning… but as sometimes happens I get so excited cooking breakfast…(bacon does that to me!!! ) I forget to TEST!!!… So, I waited an hour and tested my 1 hr post meal readings. Below are the results of both the 4 hr post readings from last night and the 1 hr post reading this morning, for all three meters.
Why AM I DAZED and CONFUSED!?!
1) The previous meter…is the one that tested “faulty” … yet it’s “in range” with the other two. Neither of the other meters came with “testing control fluid”.
2) ALL THREE are in “normal limits of each other.
3) Given this new information, it’s possible that I really did have higher BG readings. If I did have higher readings…
…. Even though I still consume higher limits of protein, I am sure they are lower than pre-journaling and the reduction may have lowered my BG.
It’s all guessing at this point…but there are two things I know…
1) I have reduced my protein level from pre-journaling levels
2) All three meters are showing my OFBG and Post Meal readings as normal for non-diabetics!!!! YIPEE!!!
FOOD JOURNAL OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES
1) Wow, ALMOST 3,500 CALORIES!! Despite being heavy on the calories… I have stayed within my 160 – 164 pound range.
2) It’s not just calories… my FAT Grams are highest all week at 286.8 and my protein grams were as well at 214 grams.
3) This “experiment” is to see if increasing my fat content and lowering my protein grams will affect my Overnight Fasting Blood Glucose.
Summary:
Protein: I want my protein about 140g so this is WAY high at 214g.
Carbohydrates: The carbs are good, @ 20g +/- 10.
Fats: …. percentage of calories from fat is 73%, pretty close.
Exercise 1: 60 mins of walking, push ups and hill sprints.
Exercise 2: 30 mins of Plyometrics
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FOOD JOURNAL
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