In March I went super gourmet on ya. This month, and probably for several months, it’s time to simplify. Many want to know how to make healthy eating practical – and while I maintain my belief that your homemade food must be really good and satisfying to keep you eating clean homemade meals, it need NOT be difficult or complicated.
Enter “potachos,” my super ghetto potato with a nacho theme – one of my favorite quick lunches over the last month as I busily slaved over the new version of 180 Degree Metabolism.
Ingredients:
1 Yukon gold potato, boiled and lightly-mashed
Salsa
Shredded Cheese
Sour cream
Directions:
Mash the potato (make sure it is warm to begin with)
This one’s dedicated to my new favorite snack – brought up in 180 Kitchen, recipe #83. This time, Aurora and I have gotten crazy and added a little nutritional yeast to our coconutty favorite. Aurora, by the way, is the popcorn princess. She makes it the best. Her recipe. Not mine.
I must say, there is no finer use for coconut oil. Say what you will about butter on popcorn, but a light, expeller-pressed coconut oil shatters my best friend butter. It defies reason I know, but try it sometime, especially if you’re seeking out the metabolic advantages of coconut oil but have failed to find a way to consume it that doesn’t make you gag.
In the following recipe, I:
1) Place a jar of coconut oil into hot water to liquefy it.
2) Cook about a half cup of Steinke’s heirloom popcorn (awesome) in an air popper.
3) Pour lots of coconut oil (5-6 Tablespoons), 2T nutritional yeast (optional), and some sea salt over the popcorn and mix it all up a bit.
That’s about all there is to it. Does anyone really not have time to do this at home? Makes a great post-dinner snack. Get’s that ol’ tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier where happy serotonin gets made and transformed into melatonin for a long, dreamy night’s rest.
Sir Robert Mack-Daddy McCarrison held the diet of the Hunzas and Sikhs of the Himalayan region as being superb. Compared to neighboring white rice eaters, near-vegetarians in other impoverished locales, and those on a typical Western diet, the health of the Hunzas and Sikhs was unquestionably superior. Although they were agriculturalists, they were larger, stronger, and more physically robust. McCarrison even fed eight different mouse groups eight different diets representative of each Indian region, and the mice met the same physical proportions as the people of each respective region. The Sikh-diet mice were huge and much more physically robust and healthy.
That’s right Paleo nerds, they were huge, ass-whoopin’ agriculturalists that ate predominantly whole, unfermented wheat in the form of fresh-ground glutinous wheat chapati, and they were amongst the healthiest humans ever documented in modern times – up there with Eskimos, Maori, Masai, and other non-grain mostly animal eaters. Their diet was well-rounded with full-fat goat milk, cheese, and ghee and apricots, vegetables, and apricot seed oil (which is, are you getting this Ray Peat, 26% omega 6 polyunsaturated fat).
That’s right. The Sikhs and Hunzas were touted as being cancer free, heart disease free, tooth decay free, having perfect digestion, being muscular and lean, and having the greatest longevity on earth…
… On a high-carb diet (did you hear that Eades, Washington, Lutz, Taubes, Moore, and Naughton?) revolving primarily around glutinous wheat (are you getting this Sally Fallon, unfermented and cooked for only 60 seconds), “killer” omega 6 with very little omega 3 (get that Sears and Mercola?), full-fat dairy products (paying attention Fuhrman, Barnard, Graham, Robbins, and McDougal?), and fibrous fruits and vegetables (hello Monastyrsky).
The diet was; however, profoundly nutritious and devoid of refined starch and/or sugar, additives, solvent-extracted oils, trans fats and even protein powder. The conclusion, by McCarrison, who was notably more intelligent and whose scientific methods had far more integrity than any of the above-listed names, was that a diet rich in the full spectrum of micro and macro nutrients, devoid of refined foodstuffs, and fresh and minimally processed was the ultimate diet. He was even able to feed this to monkeys, pigeons, and rodents with perfect health (Is this where D’Adamo tells us that each of these species has the same blood type?).
To make fresh-ground, highly-nutritious, and cheap enough to be called “cheapatis,” follow these simple directions. It takes no more than 8 minutes to make from start to finish with practice (+1 minute for each additional chappati), is made from nonperishable whole grain, and costs about 20 cents.
1) Fill a Braun “grain” grinder (beta endorphin slaves call it a “coffee grinder”) with whole wheat berries. (click on photos to enlarge)
2) Grind for 45 seconds into a nice flour.
3) Pour into a steel, glass, or ceramic bowl.
4) Add a pinch of salt and enough water to make a soft dough.
5) Knead for 5 minutes while a large frying pan heats up on the stovetop to high.
6) Roll into a ball, press, and then roll out with a rolling pin to tortilla thickness. If your dough is too dry, it will get crumbly. If it is too wet, it will stick, but you can prevent that by sprinkling a little white flour (gasp!) on your rolling surface.
7) Cook, ungreased, for 30 seconds on each side – 60 seconds or longer for a more cracker-like consistency.
Smear with some soft butter while they’re still hot and serve with some other tasty vittles. You could use these for a million different things though. Dip ‘em in hummus, melt cheese over them, use them like tortillas for quesadillas or something, or smear with a little honey and cinnamon for a dessert-like concoction.
Here’s a highly-skilled chapati-maker making some white-flour based chapati, but the idea is the same. Puff it up at the end too if you’re up for it. Don’t know if it’ll work that well with coarse whole wheat flour though.
180 Kitchen 