"Life Without Bread"

[Rick Rowe]

I have a question about certain food and high cholesterol! Am I able to eat any of these grains or flour "buckwheat flour, Quinoa, Oats and or brown rice"?

This is a thread about carbohydrate restriction -- no flour of any kind.

What area on here would I find recipes for high cholesterol diets on here?

See the recipes section: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/board,50.0.html

Thank you for the thread links Data, I started to read them "ALL" Thanks Laura :), I am glad to know now that all flours have to be stamped out of my diet! I don't eat them often, same with grains but I do love them when I do. I will have to be creative.

 

[Gertrudes]

Gertrudes, you could try making bone broth in a pressure cooker. I put them in and cook for around an hour, maybe more. Faster than the slow simmer method. Maybe need a bit longer to get the bones soft enough for blending. You could also add some acid (I use apple cider vinegar).

Well, I will have to admit that although I am aware of the wonderful advantages of a pressure cooker........I've been afraid of them since I was a child I know that this is probably very silly, but there you go. I may actually buy one at some point, but I am still postponing it

My chicken carcass broth cooked for about three hours and I crushed the bones when they were completely clean (without any scrap of meat left) and the carcass was really falling apart (after about two hours, I think). Tigersoap used a nut cracker. Some were already soft. I tried to scrape the inside of the bone to help a bit, but they were really hot ! Let us know how your broth turns out!

3 hours? That's not bad at all. I kept reading average times of 24hrs and beyond. Will definitely give it a go. Usually I stew my chicken for something between 2 and 3hrs, I like it reeeaaally tender, almost falling apart. By the time the stew is done the bones are very soft, lately I have been crushing them with my teeth and eating the marrow. Delicious!

 

[Laura]

Don't be afraid of pressure cookers, but DO respect them! A good, stainless steel pressure cooker, like the modern ones, is a real time and nutrient saver in the kitchen. You can do in one hour what previously took all day PLUS retain the nutrients.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Well, I will have to admit that although I am aware of the wonderful advantages of a pressure cooker........I've been afraid of them since I was a child I know that this is probably very silly, but there you go. I may actually buy one at some point, but I am still postponing it

Ha, me too! Ma had this old thing that whistled and smoke/steam came out and I thought it was like a dragon! Another one of the things that made me nervous about cooking. ;)

 

[Gertrudes]

Ha, me too! Ma had this old thing that whistled and smoke/steam came out and I thought it was like a dragon! Another one of the things that made me nervous about cooking. ;)

Same here! Although our pressure cooker had something broken and it would often "explode" unexpectedly. It was terrifying! All these years and I'm still recovering from that :D

Don't be afraid of pressure cookers, but DO respect them! A good, stainless steel pressure cooker, like the modern ones, is a real time and nutrient saver in the kitchen. You can do in one hour what previously took all day PLUS retain the nutrients.

Yeah....I know you're right, I'm mulling over this idea.

 

[Laura]

Yeah....I know you're right, I'm mulling over this idea.

The main thing you need to know about a pressure cooker is that it should never be opened until it has cooled to the point that there is no more pressure in there. You can accomplish this by placing it in the sink and running cold water over it for approximately 2 minutes. Then you gently lift the weight a tiny bit and if no steam comes out, lift further, and if you can then take it off completely and not even warm air comes out of the hole, it is safe to open.

Or, you can just let it sit for half an hour and wait for it to cool down naturally.

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

3 hours? That's not bad at all. I kept reading average times of 24hrs and beyond. Will definitely give it a go. Usually I stew my chicken for something between 2 and 3hrs, I like it reeeaaally tender, almost falling apart. By the time the stew is done the bones are very soft, lately I have been crushing them with my teeth and eating the marrow. Delicious!

What is so great about bone broth is that if, like me, you are a bit squeamish about eating cartilage, less appealing bits of fat, etc., you can just hand blend it and voilà! you just drink everything in one go! My daughter loves it (which is so great since chewing fatty meat is not exactly what she prefers) as well.

As Laura was saying, I can only encourage you to use a pressure cooker. We have been using ours more and more, especially for 'last-minute' stews. We also once used it for ribs (I prefer my ribs on the dry side, so I prefer to use the oven for those). To have meat falling off the bones easily, I usually cook ribs 3 to 4 hours in the oven but with the pressure cooker, in 45 minutes, it's done!

I do want to emphasize that people who have been eating high-carbohydrate diets tend to have their Hydrochloric Acid shut off in their stomachs. So you could start taking Betaine HCI right now to help you to digest the meat/fat and everything else you are eating. It has made a world of difference for me. You may want to try the ox bile, also, and see how that works for you. But don't start them on the same day so you can see what type of affect they have on you. Of course, continue the enzymes.

Thank you N.E.! Hydrochloric acid and ox bile are indeed on my shopping list.

 

[mcb]

Gertrudes, you could try making bone broth in a pressure cooker. I put them in and cook for around an hour, maybe more. Faster than the slow simmer method. Maybe need a bit longer to get the bones soft enough for blending. You could also add some acid (I use apple cider vinegar).

Well, I will have to admit that although I am aware of the wonderful advantages of a pressure cooker........I've been afraid of them since I was a child I know that this is probably very silly, but there you go. I may actually buy one at some point, but I am still postponing it

Not silly. I had exactly the same reaction. It must be all the things my mother told me could go wrong with a pressure cooker (and she was not at all mechanically minded).

 

[Aliana]

Well, I will have to admit that although I am aware of the wonderful advantages of a pressure cooker........I've been afraid of them since I was a child I know that this is probably very silly, but there you go. I may actually buy one at some point, but I am still postponing it

Ha, me too! Ma had this old thing that whistled and smoke/steam came out and I thought it was like a dragon! Another one of the things that made me nervous about cooking. ;)

Have to admit they scare me too - my mother was afraid of them as well. I am still using my crockpot - but you have all gotten me curious now. Perhaps I will do some research, although space in my kitchen is now really limited!

I moved last weekend and lost about half my kitchen space - but like the new place as it is so much quieter, so sleeping much better. After being so exhausted the last month, I was dreading this move, but thankfully the "Atkins edge" kicked in just in time, so I made it through the ordeal. So glad I started the diet change in time - no way I could have done this last month! Also - had a lot of sore muscles, but kept putting DMSO all over my back and it worked like a charm!!! :D

My sister came to help me and I think she may convert to the Paleo diet after being mostly vegetarian for years. She was amazed at how much energy I had, so started asking what I ate and is planning to buy Primal Body-Primal Mind.

 

[Samuel]

While the article itself is obviously propaganda, the reader comments in response to this article Is a Paleo Diet Healthy? are very interesting!

Hurray for the commentators! :D

That was great! Maybe some of ya'll will want to sign up and make a few comments!

Yes, that article "Is the Paleo Diet Healthy" is a good example of so called "experts" that parrot misinformation. Lots of people read it, accept it as gospel simply because the author has an advanced degree after his/her name.

 

[Gertrudes]

So pressure cookers are a scary "beast" for several of us, that was a surprise :)
Thanks for the tips and encouragement Laura and Mrs. Tigersoap. The idea is slowly sinking in. I've started checking prices on ebay.

 

[beetlemaniac]

You guys have brought back memories of the first time I used a pressure cooker. It felt a bit like standing next to a bomb ready to blow. But you just need a bit of knowledge and preparation, and some experimentation once you have the basics down. The timings are also of utmost importance, open it up too fast or late and you get undercooked/overcooked meat. Your pressure cooker should come with a manual that has timings for different types of meat. And I find that for my pressure cooker (it's a 'jiggle top' type, not the one with a weight), I have to brown the meat before cooking, it gets all tough and horrible if I don't. I'm not sure if others have the same experience.

Here's a pressure cooking site that helped me out: _http://missvickie.com/workshop/schoolframe.html

 

[truth seeker]

For what it's worth, my dad has always had one in the house so I feel pretty comfortable with them. Perhaps other have done it differently but I believe that if the meat isn't done sufficiently, it can be turned on again. As stated, one should really respect this tool when using it. If you wait after turning off the heat until it completely stops whistling, it should be fine. Technically, the lid should not be able to come off while the pressure is releasing so there should be no chance of injury but if it makes you more comfortable, give it half an hour to be sure.

I have to brown the meat before cooking, it gets all tough and horrible if I don't. I'm not sure if others have the same experience.

Sounds like it hasn't been in the pressure cooker long enough. From my experience, you shouldn't have to brown the meat beforehand so I would add 15 - 30 minutes cooking time to it. Any meat cooked long enough should break down.

 

[Laura]

You guys have brought back memories of the first time I used a pressure cooker. It felt a bit like standing next to a bomb ready to blow. But you just need a bit of knowledge and preparation, and some experimentation once you have the basics down. The timings are also of utmost importance, open it up too fast or late and you get undercooked/overcooked meat. Your pressure cooker should come with a manual that has timings for different types of meat. And I find that for my pressure cooker (it's a 'jiggle top' type, not the one with a weight), I have to brown the meat before cooking, it gets all tough and horrible if I don't. I'm not sure if others have the same experience.

Here's a pressure cooking site that helped me out: _http://missvickie.com/workshop/schoolframe.html

I generally put the heat down a bit, let it cook about twice as long as the recommended times, and never have a problem. I cool it under the faucet.

I DO brown things in there sometimes before locking down the lid. But just as often, I just drop in a chunk of frozen meat and all the rest of the stuff I'm going to add (not much, lately), lock it down, and add 15 minutes to the time for defrosting. Depending on whether I want soup or just broth, I'll either cover it with water or just have water half-way up the volume of meat.

If I want bone broth, I put it on low and cook it a couple of hours. I don't use chicken bones but rather get ox tails from the butcher. They don't disintegrate, but a lot of minerals cook out of them.

We have three pressure cookers, though one of them is a huge canner and is not used in the kitchen. This is what the two kitchen ones look like:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sitram-PSIFOAU08-Stainless-Pressure-Sitraforza/dp/B000VWRLA4/ref=sr_1_48?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1316083129&sr=1-48

They come in various sizes and I have a medium and large one.

A lot of older ones are aluminum... evil. These are stainless steel.

 

[Laura]

For what it's worth, my dad has always had one in the house so I feel pretty comfortable with them. Perhaps other have done it differently but I believe that if the meat isn't done sufficiently, it can be turned on again. As stated, one should really respect this tool when using it. If you wait after turning off the heat until it completely stops whistling, it should be fine. Technically, the lid should not be able to come off while the pressure is releasing so there should be no chance of injury but if it makes you more comfortable, give it half an hour to be sure.

No, when it "stops whistling", it is still not yet cool enough to open. Even if the jiggler is still, there can still be pressure which is why you must lift it with a fork to check, and remove it (if there is no sign of additional steam coming out) to make absolutely certain.

I have to brown the meat before cooking, it gets all tough and horrible if I don't. I'm not sure if others have the same experience.

Sounds like it hasn't been in the pressure cooker long enough. From my experience, you shouldn't have to brown the meat beforehand so I would add 15 - 30 minutes cooking time to it. Any meat cooked long enough should break down.

I agree. As I said, I sometimes brown stuff, but generally don't and it comes out nice and brown anyway. If it is cooked as it should be, it is so tender it falls apart.