Lunch idea: Chicken Cole Slaw

This was a last minute lunch I threw together last week that turned out to be pretty awesome. It’s inspired in part by Arun’s lunch meat ceviche, and I ate it in the style of Lyssa’s tuna bombs.

Ingredients:
Green cabbage
Green apple
Shallot
Cooked chicken
Olive oil
Lime juice
Pepper

Simply chop the first 4 ingredients, then add olive oil, lime juice, and pepper to taste.

You could eat it by itself, like a salad, or you can use it to fill sweet bell peppers.

This salad had a very “clean” feel to it. Most paleo food does (as it should, since we are only eating pure, real food), but there was something about the combination of the crisp cabbage and apple with the lime juice that gave this salad an extra cleanness.

Prolotherapy

In my last post, I introduced you to M.E.A.T—an acronym for the treatment of ligament and tendon injuries.  I now want to elaborate on one of the treatment modalities mentioned in that posting—prolotherapy.  Short for proliferation therapy, prolotherapy promotes inflammation through the injection of an irritating substance (usually a mixture of dextrose and lidocaine) into injured tissue.  With the inflammatory process begun anew, growth factors in the blood migrate to the site of damage, encouraging new tissue production that strengthens lax ligaments and tendons. 

 Personally, I’ve had prolotherapy performed on three separate injuries—both ankles and a great toe.  My first experience with prolotherapy was in 2006, following years of ankle sprains that had resulted in chronic pain, edema, and weakness.  Following six treatments of prolotherapy, the pain and edema were gone, and I was able to complete my senior season of basketball without a single ankle sprain—something that hadn’t happened in 8 years!

 A year later and another injury down, I turned again to prolotherapy to treat turf toe.  This time the symptoms were different—acute pain and limited range of motion (I couldn’t even get my foot in a pair of heels for the lack of ROM…a very sad day indeed).  After one treatment, the pain was gone and the ROM was back! 

 Guys and gals, the stories go on and on.  Did I mention my neighbor who avoided knee-replacement surgery with prolotherapy?  Or his wheelchair bound mother that was again able to walk again?  How about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who attributed prolotherapy with extending his career?

 If you’ve got joint or back pain, whether from acute injury or wear and tear, I highly recommend that you take a look at prolotherapy.  What do you have to loose?  When compared with surgery, prolotherapy carries vastly fewer risks and is significantly less expensive.  Even if you aren’t looking at surgery, why live with chronic pain?  Try something ‘new’ (prolotherapy, in fact, has been around for over 70 years).

 The following article is from the New York Times, and it does an excellent job at summarizing prolotherapy and its uses: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/health/07brod.html?_r=4&ref=science&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

 

Think MEAT, not RICE

Hello everyone!  I’m very excited to be able to participate in this blog, while going 100% Paleo with a group of a great people.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity! I hope to add value through my own unique background and perspectives.  Since Lyssa has assured me that this is a lifestyle blog, I figured I’d take a different route today by talking a little about sports injuries and how to treat them.

Many of you may be familiar with the R.I.C.E—an acronym for rest, ice, compression, and elevation.  To date, RICE has been the conventional treatment for sports injuries.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve utilized this therapy under the advisement of doctors and athletic trainers.  It wasn’t until later that I discovered that my efforts were completely counterproductive.  Rather than aid my body’s natural healing process, I was inhibiting it!

How?  Well, like most athletes, the majority of my injuries were due to sprains and strains—stretching or tearing of ligaments and tendons.   While RICE therapy may be useful in the treatment of muscle injuries (as it can theoretically prevent Compartment Syndrome), it is actually detrimental when applied to ligaments/tendons.  Unlike muscles, ligaments and tendons have poor blood supply.  Their ability to heal following injury is therefore dependent upon the inflammatory process and its resultant vasodilation and increase in bloodflow.  Every component of RICE, however, works to DECREASE bloodflow to the site of injury.  The result? Injuries that do not heal, and a chronic weakened condition in the area that is susceptible to re-injury. 

Instead of RICE, try MEAT:

• Movement and Exercise: While immobility is detrimental to an injured ligament or tendon, movement is beneficial.  Movement via gentle range of motion and even isometric exercises (if the injury is too painful initially) increases bloodflow to the site of injury.  Increased bloodflow equates to better healing.
• Natural Analgesics: promote healing by increasing nutrient delivery to the injured site, while also removing debris from damaged tissues and reducing edema (aka—swelling). 
  • MSM
  • Bromelaine
  • Trypsin
  • Papain
• Treatment: Beneficial treatments include those that increase bloodflow and immune cell migration to the damaged area, such as:
  • Physical therapy
  • Massage
  • Ultrasound
  • Chiropractic care
  • Prolotherapy

Happy training!

A Very Paleo Thanksgiving

Team TLSP had a very successful dinner, and even our traveling teammates were able to stay paleo this Thanksgiving. Recipes and stories coming soon.

For now, just wanted to share the menu of the Team TLSP Thanksgiving. I really don’t feel like I missed out on anything this year!

Appetizers:

• Bacon-Wrapped Scallops
• Deviled Eggs
• Stuffed Mushrooms

Main Course:

• Roasted Turkey
• Mashed Cauliflower
• Cranberry Sauce
• Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• Green Beans and Carrots
• Prosciutto Asparagus Bundles

Dessert:

• Apple Crisp
• Raspberry-Mint Coconut Milk Ice Cream
• “Chocolate” Pie

 

Thanksgiving Recipes: Apple Crisp

So good you will not even miss apple pie!

My recipe is adapted from Elana’s Pantry. I’ve heard wonderful reviews of her recipe, but we are avoiding agave nectar during our challenge.  Also, I didn’t have any grapeseed oil on hand, so I used coconut oil.

In addition to tasting delicious, it will make your whole house smell like apple pie. I literally couldn’t get a picture of this before people started eating:

Recipe below is taken from Elana’s Pantry- my changes are noted.

Gluten Free Apple Crisp
2 cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used 2 tsp in the crisp, plus I sprinkled the apples with cinnamon before baking)
½ teaspoon nutmeg (I used 1 tsp)
½ cup grapeseed oil Coconut oil
¼ cup agave nectar 5 dates, pitted and chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 medium apples, peeled, sliced, then chopped in half width-wise

1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
2. In a smaller bowl, combine oil, agave and vanilla. First combine oil and vanilla (works best if coconut oil is heated just enough so it is liquid), then stir in chopped dates.
3. Stir wet ingredients into dry. Use a fork to mash it all together- you want a crumbly consistency.
4. Place apples in a 2-3 quart glass baking dish (a pyrex bowl or an 8×8 square) Sprinkle with extra cinnamon if you like!
5. Sprinkle topping over the apples
6. Cover and bake at 350° for 50 minutes on low rack
7. When apples are soft and their juices bubble, remove cover and bake 10 more minutes to brown crisp
8. Serve warm

Thanksgiving Recipe: Appetizers

Team The Label Says Paleo’s friend Mandy joined us for Paleo Thanksgiving with some awesome appetizers:

Deviled Eggs

Bacon-Wrapped Scallops

Mushrooms stuffed with a spinach-pesto blend (Who needs cheese?!)

Thanksgiving Recipe: Cranberry Sauce

I couldn’t pass up the fresh cranberries when I did my Thanksgiving grocery shopping, so this ended up as a last minute paleo kitchen experiment- and I think it turned out quite nicely!

Disclaimer: Paleo experiments generally don’t involve measuring on my part. I’m doing my best here to be as specific as possible, but I make a lot of decisions as I go. For this recipe, I started with the recipe on the back of the bag of cranberries, which involved boiling 1 cup of water + 1 cup (!!) of sugar, then adding the cranberries.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries
• 1 orange
• 4-5 dates
• 1/2 c applesauce

Recipe:

1. Puree dates and applesauce. Add enough water to make about 1.5 cups.
2. Add zest and juice from the orange. (Sorry, no measurements here. Just however much zest and juice you can get from 1 orange)
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Add cranberries, bring to a boil again. Stir a few times.
5. Let cranberries boil for about 8-10 minutes. When they start to break open, they are done.
6. Serve chilled.

This is NOT the supersweet cranberry sauce I grew up with (Hello, 1 CUP of sugar for 12 oz of cranberries?!?)- In fact, I wouldn’t even call this dish sweet. It was definitely tart, but it was really good- especially with the turkey.

I did not get a picture of just the cranberry sauce, so you get to see the whole dinner spread here: