Making Kefir

I have begun drinking kefir, for the probiotics. From my research I have learned that kefir contains a more diverse range of probiotics (often 10-30+ strains) and beneficial yeasts, while yogurt typically contains only 2-5 bacteria strains. It's recommended by the "Steak & Butter Gal" and many other high profile carnivore diet fans, so I'm giving it a try. I'm a fan of yogurt, so I'm hoping I will like kefir, as well. 

I bought dried kefir starter yesterday and put it into the recommended amount of whole milk (about 2 cups) in a clean jar. If I had more cream, I would have added cream to it for the extra fat content. It's not necessary to heat the milk first, as it is with yogurt, and it makes at room temperature. Both of these make it much easier to make than yogurt. I set it on the counter, in a clean jar with paper towel on top. I poked a few little holes in the paper towel, so it could get even more air. It needs to breathe. I set it out of the way, to make for 12-14 hours. Some people that like it extremely tart, leave it for 36 hours but I don't think I will do that. Not until I get used to the taste, anyway. I think I'll start at 12 hours when it is developed but still mild tasting, just to give me and my gut time to adjust to it.  

Kefir develops "grains" with time, that are used to make more kefir. They get strained out of the finished product before use and kept in a little milk in the fridge. (It is recommended to use a plastic strainer, as metal will degrade the kefir strength over time.) These are used as starter for the next one. Apparently these grains grow with time and can be given away to friends who want to start their own kefir at home. 

I'm looking forward to tasting it tonight, after 12 hours, when it should be ready. I might leave it a bit longer, as it's very cold in the house in the winter mornings. I'll see how it goes. 

 

Freezing Cooked Salmon

 

 

 

I cooked a very long salmon for dinner. It was huge, several meals worth of salmon! I had to cook the entire thing, as it had been frozen. I thawed it then baked it. I added salt and pepper and lots of butter, then I wrapped the entire thing in foil. I baked it for about 40 minutes at 400F. 

 

It was cooked through, flaky and perfect! It's important to cook salmon, and all fish, completely to avoid getting parasites. Fish is opaque, white and no longer slimy when it's done. It should be all firm and flaky. This was perfect! 

 

I cut it into serving size pieces, wrapped each one separately and froze them. It's an experiment to see if the cooked salmon will be just as good after freezing as it is freshly cooked. 

 

Follow up a few days later: I thawed a piece for tonight's dinner earlier on the counter. I reheated it for dinner and it was delicious! I could not tell the difference between this one, cooked then frozen, from the freshly baked one a few days ago. I couldn't be happier with it! 

 

  

Carnivore Ground Beef & Egg

 

I found this recipe in several places on the internet while looking for ground beef carnivore recipes. I'm trying to clean out the freezer bottom and I have a lot of ground beef to use up. 

I cooked the ground beef in the skillet, with lots of added tallow, salt, pepper and a light dusting of my own mix of herbs. I can't handle onion, so I make my own spice mix. 

It's "lean" ground beef, bought before I was eating carnivore, so I added lots of extra fat to it. 

When it was fully cooked, I put half of it in the bottom of my little cast iron skillet. I love this little skillet. It fits into my toaster oven for baking and is the perfect size for single serving, stove top frying. I usually make a lot of servings at one time in the big skillet so I have food already cooked int he fridge. I needed the little one for the toaster oven for this recipe. I use the little toaster oven whenever possible to save on energy use. 

In another bowl I mixed together two eggs and a dollop of sour cream. The original recipes I found said to use cream, but I love sour cream, so I used that instead. I blended the egg and cream together well and poured over the top of the cooked meat. It then went into the oven. 

I baked it at 350F for about 25 minutes, until the center egg was cooked. After I took it out of the oven, I topped it with grated cheddar and parmesan and returned to the oven for another 5 minutes.  

It looks pretty good! Cheesy!

I let it sit for about 15 minutes to cool and also so all the juices and fats get re-absorbed. It's important to let meat sit after cooking. If you wait about 15 minutes before eating meat, it will absorb a lot of the juices and fats back into the meat.

 

This is the finished product. It was very good. 

I ate the serving with sour cream on top, then I heated up a left over bowl of fried and salted beef fat pieces and ate those. They are delicious! I was disappointed when the bowl was empty, so I ate some left over pork roast too. It was also delicious! 

Next week I plan to make carnivore lasagna!

  

Pork Rinds - A Great Carnivore Resource!

 

Pork rinds are made from the skin of the pig, baked or fried crispy. They are very good for you, containing a lot of collagen. They are tasty alone, as a quick snack. Use high fat sour cream as a dip or mix the sour cream half and half with liver pate. Delicious Dip for pork rinds!  

Pork rinds are also useful when adding crispy bulk to other foods. They are good in chaffles and in meatloaf.

  

Ground up, they make a basic crispy coating for anything you want to fry. Dip the meat into egg first, then into the ground pork rinds, then into the hot grease. Both tallow and lard work well for frying. (Never, ever use veg oils of any kind.)  

I consider them to be an important staple for the carnivore diet and always have them ready for use. I buy mine at the store, usually located with the potato chips, but you can make your own. It's more trouble than I consider it worth to make them myself, even if I could get the pig skin from the butcher. They are not necessarily healthier made at home, either. Less salty perhaps, but salt is not a bad thing.  

Cutting Board Safety

One Solid Piece of hardwood

2" hardwood board, no stain

I thought, since this is a blog of a carnivore, that I should cover cutting board safety. Raw meat should always have it's own cutting board and it should be washed with hot soapy water immediately after use. Oiling it after washing will help it to last longer and prevent cracking. You can buy special food grade oil for this or just use olive oil. Rub it in well before putting the board away. 

One solid piece of hardwood

The best boards to use are one solid piece of dense hardwood, no glue. That will make it very expensive, but they do last a long time. You can make these yourself if you have access to larger planks of hardwood and have the tools and time. 

 

Bamboo

Also good is bamboo. It has good antibacterial properties. They are making toothbrushes out of it now. The drawback to bamboo is that it doesn't grow here in North America, and it especially doesn't grow up here in Canada. It probably does grow in the hot regions of the US but they don't seem to be using it to make things there. All of our bamboo things come from china, which makes them not very sustainable. I'd rather get a locally made hardwood board, or make it myself. 

 

The plastic boards are not a good substitute for hardwood cutting boards. They cut and scratch easily and these are hard to disinfect and can harbour bacteria. If you have one, I'd recommend only using it for things like bread. I wouldn't cut raw meat on it. Meat should have it's own bard anyway. 

I have a bamboo cutting board that I like and I plan to get a larger hardwood board in the near future, when I get around to it. I can probably order one form Amazon but I'm happy with my little bamboo board, so haven't felt the need to get a bigger one yet. 

Am I Bored with the diet?

 

Beef fat pieces and rosemary ham

Am I bored? LOL. No. Breakfast today: Poached eggs, crispy fried beef fat pieces, meat loaf with sour cream, fried rosemary ham. Delicious! 

A healthy and interesting plate of carnivore foods, all in one place!  

Meatloaf From The Freezer

 

 

I made meatloaf today from several meats I cleaned out of the freezer. First a pound of ground beef, of course, I added a pound of ground turkey, as well and six eggs. I added about half a pound of grated beef fat trimmings to add fat and compensate for the lean turkey.

 

 

I grated about half a pound of chicken livers and added that to it. This is the first time I've used the chicken livers in anything but we can use the minerals and I had them in the freezer, so in they went. The chicken livers and the beef fat are easily grated when frozen.

I also added five cooked and grated smokies and about 2 cups of grated medium cheddar. I usually use bacon in a meatloaf but I had the smokies I needed to use up, so I grated those and put them in instead of the bacon. They were already cooked. 

 

 

I only added a small pinch of salt. The smokies and cheddar are salty enough for the whole thing. 

 

 

 

After mixing it altogether, I packed it all into a loaf pan large enough to hold it without spilling the juiced over in the oven. I always line the meatloaf pan with parchment sticking up, so I can get it out of the pan in one piece. 

I baked it for around 1.75 hours at 325f with convection, until it was around 175-180f in the center. It's important that it be fully cooked with the eggs and chicken livers in it. 

 

 

It was delicious! The livers were just barely evident in the taste, just adding a bit more flavour. The eggs make it hold together very well. 

I think its a great way to use up things in the freezer! It's the first time I've used livers in meatloaf. I like it! It'll be great hot with sour cream on it! 

The Scoop on Salmon

I was recently given some "farmed" BC salmon, bought at a grocery store here in British Columbia. Never having eaten farmed salmon, I did some cooking research. I learned that farmed salmon are about 10x higher in fat than "wild caught" and, therefore, a lot higher in omega-3s. They are also much milder tasting, a softer more "buttery" flavour and texture. I decided to give them a try. I know I said I didn't care for salmon, but that was after dry frying wild caught. This was an entirely different experience. (Instructions below.) This is a huge piece. I cut it into servings and will freeze each one separately. I aim to eat it 1 - 2 x weekly. 

 

The Scoop on Salmon. I baked a huge farmed BC salmon. It's important that it be a BC salmon, if farmed, as North American (especially from BC) farmed salmon are much, much lower in PCBs and a lot safer than European farmed salmon. From the research I've done lately, European farmed salmon are so high in poisonous PCBs that they are usually above the allowed "safe" limits. See more about the safety and farming practices of BC farmed salmon below. 

 

The argument against eating farmed salmon in BC is more about protecting our own native species, than the safety of eating the fish. Something to consider, for sure.

 

This is some of the info I found:

Safety Monitoring: Companies, MOWI and Grieg Seafood, conduct regular testing for dioxins, PCBs, and other contaminants to meet strict, safe, and regulated standards in BC. Tested Contaminant levels: British Columbia farmed salmon (including from these major producers) is generally regarded as having low levels of PCBs.

 

Farmed salmon supplied to our store here is "open-net" farmed in the ocean, which is a frowned upon method of farming fish as it does some harm to the surrounding wild ones, although probably a lot more healthy for us than fish farmed in a little pond. BC has a plan to outlaw this type of fish farming in 2029, due to it's propensity to possibly harm the native wild salmon.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COOKING SALMON:

Salt and pepper salmon, add a bit of garlic and lots of butter. Wrap completely in foil. Bake until completely cooked. Mine baked in a  at 400f for about 30 mins but it was a big fish. It needs to be completely white and solid throughout. I will never, never, ever eat any kind of fish that's not well done. period. (Worms!) If it's even a little clear pinky, cook it longer. (I don't eat suishi.)

If you take it out of the oven and let it sit on the counter for a bit, it may continue to cook in the foil. It was absolutely delicious!! 

 

 

 

Ground Turkey Meatballs

 

I made carnivore ground turkey meatballs today. They were delicious! As we all know, ground turkey has little fat so I added lard and cooked them in butter. I used a pound of ground turkey and added two eggs, about 1 tablespoon of lard, salt and pepper and a pinch of my own dried spice mix. Mixed well and made balls by hand. 

 

By this time the butter in the cast iron skillet, was hot. I added the meatballs, browned them well, turned down the heat and put the lid on. They were done shortly. It didn't take long. I cooked them until they were over 165f. 

I removed the meatballs from the pan and added more butter. When melted and bubbly, I added a glug of heavy cream and a few tablespoons of high fat cream cheese, salt and pepper. This made a delicious white cheese sauce for the meatballs. I ate about 5 of them smothered in the cheese sauce. Delicious! 

 

These photos are not my own. They come from a free photo site, of which I am a member. I forgot to take pics of mine but they were very similar to these.

 

Carnivore Meatloaf

 

I made carnivore meatloaf today, again. It's one of my favourite carnivore meals. I make it about every two weeks, at least. It's 1 lb gound beef, 1/2 package of bacon, 1 cup grated cheese cheese (this was cheddar), 3 eggs, a little garlic and a pinch of my own seasoning mix, and pepper. I did not add salt as the bacon and cheese add a lot of salt to it. It doesn't need any more salt. I like using Himalayan pink salt on everything but if salt is added it will be way too salty! 

It is important to take it out of the oven when it reaches done temperature in the center (165f) and let it sit in the pan until it cools off. I leave it about an hour. It will reabsorb all the melted fats and juices in the pan as it cools. It will be one solid loaf after it cools with no liquid left in the pan. It's important to let it do this and not pour off the liquid in the pan when you take it out of the oven and do not remove the meatloaf from the pan until it has cooled. I bake it for about 45-50 mins at 350f.  

I like it hot with sour cream. Hubby eats it cold on a sandwich. He said it was delicious and I agree! I didn't have any sour cream today, but it was good anyway.  

I cooked the bacon that did not go into the meatloaf in another pan at the same time in the oven with the meat loaf. 

 

 

Chaffles

 

 

I made chaffles today! Chaffles are canivore waffles, a mix of egg, cheese, and whatever else you want to put in it. I experimented with a few different ingredients. The first one was just cooked grated chicken, cheese and egg. I have a large bag of cooked chicken breast that I have previously grated and added grated cheese to, in the freezer. I first made carnivore chicken nuggets with it and saved a large freezer bag full afterwards. 

It was an easy mix, I just thawed a large handful in the microwave, then added parmesan and an egg to it. The chicken/cheese mix is already seasoned with salt and pepper, too, so it didn't need anything else. The "chaffle" was crispy and good, especially with lots of butter on it. It would also be good dipped in sour cream, but I don't have any right now. I eat butter on everything. I have even been known to eat a bit of cold, hard butter straight. It's delicious and has gotten to be my quick pick-me-up, just a tiny corner is all that's needed. 

I added a lot of grated gouda cheese and finely crushed pork rinds and another egg to the second one. It was even better.  

I added cooked bacon pieces to the third one. It was absolutely delicious!

All three had lots of butter on top. I was quite full after eating the three crispy chaffles. Apparently, left over, made ahead chaffles can go in the toaster too, but not with the butter on them, I think. Just the dry, crispy chaffles. I'm going to try that next! 

I got the little red waffle maker at the thrift store today!! It works great! 

Pork Buttons and Chicken Legs

 

 

I have put pre-seasoned pork buttons and totally unseasoned chicken legs together in the slow cooker with a few inches of water. I got a great deal on some store seasoned pork buttons, but I usually find this store seasoning to be a bit too strong for my taste, so I combined them with the unseasoned chicken legs. 

The chicken will probably need salt and pepper before eating but I'll try it, as is, first. I plan to let it cook overnight, which will give them about 8-10 hours - just in time for lunch tomorrow. The buttons will be super tender by then and the chicken falling apart. 

These will give me some variety in the diet over the next few days. I usually cook a few days at one time so I have some things ready to eat in the fridge. 

Chicken Breasts - Breaded and Fried Carnivore

 

Chicken, pounded flat for even cooking, dipped in egg then in crushed pork rinds. Fried in lard on the stove top in a cast iron skillet. Crispy and delicious! I ate two of them and they were large! 

Tallow for Skin Care - Pros and Cons

 

 

Tallow is the new go-to for natural skin care on the internet. There are pros and cons for using it on your skin. 

 

In my search for natural things to use that don't have chemicals and poisons added, I might try tallow for skin care. I'm hoping to remove a lot of the modern things we use that are poisonous. Commercial deodorant with aluminum went last year in an effort to get my memory and clarity of mind back. I accomplished a great deal of that just switching to the carnivore diet. Shampoo with sodium laurel, -th sulphate is going soon too. I ditched shampoo a few years ago for about a year and it went well, from what I can remember. I don't remember why I went back to shampoo. I wish now that I had not done so. It's important not to get carried away and stress about these things. Peace and a less stressful life are important too. I change the things I can and I don't worry about the things I cannot change. Also, one thing at a time. 

Tallow can be very good for the skin. It has similar fatty acids, oleic, palmitic and stearic, that moisturize, protect and repair the skin. It may also help sooth psoriasis. That said, the composition of the tallow can change, depending on the age, breed and diet of the animal. 

It needs to be frozen for long term storage and kept in the fridge for short term use. It can go rancid, since it is an animal product. So these things need to be considered. It can carry bacteria, as well, if it has not been stored and handled properly or if it has not been well rendered. It has to be thoroughly rendered a few times to make sure it is cleaned of all meat which can bring bacteria with it. Rendering several times in water is the best way to do this.  

Tallow, as a skin care product, is not for everyone. If you have oily skin or are prone to acne, you should not use it. It does clog pores. 

It has been my experience that it is important to wash the face to remove bacteria and impurities before adding moisturizer, especially one with oils, like tallow. If you put it on your skin without thoroughly cleaning it first, you will probably get pimples. This can happen to anyone who uses any moisturizer without cleaning the skin first. Just water is not going to be enough to cleanse and remove impurities before using a moisturizer. 

So, with all the information above, I might give it a try. I have had success using vegetable oils on my skin in the past, but I have very, very dry skin. If you have oily, acne prone skin, I wouldn't do that. Ditto for coconut oil.