The ratatouille was pretty good but a little soggy although I’m told that’s how it’s supposed to be. I enjoyed (again) the sweet potato mash but didn’t enjoy the Indian Spiced Butternut Squash as much as my husband did. I rated it a 3 on a scale of 5 (with 5 being the best) and my husband thought it was a 5. Go figure. For me, it had a tad bit too much lemon and cardamon seeds (only 2 pods though).
Ratatouille, Indian Spiced Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Mash
Had the butternut squash been spiced down just a bit I would have enjoyed it a lot more. But it really depends on the person and how spicy they like their food, eh?
The main ingredient in this gluten free paleo bread is almond flour. The texture is a little different than wheat or white bread — it’s a little more dense. But add a tad of butter — oops! now you know we’re not having butter on this part of our paleo diet journey — so, my husband had egg salad on his slice of bread.
Paleo Bread
Either way — dry or with something else it was good. But if you’re looking for something soft and mushy in your mouth, this is not your bread. A fried over easy egg would also be a good accompaniment with this bread.
It is filling though so slice your bread nice and thin …
Chicken pot pie, paleo style — that means no bread and this one was made with no bottom crust either. The top crust was made with coconut flour and other ingredients. It tasted pretty good!
Paleo Chicken Pot Pie
The pot pie was served with a delicious papaya pear arugula salad which was scrumptious. Arugula is a little bitter though so the papaya and pear helped to sweeten it up.
I had this meal as leftovers also and the pot pie heated through just fine and tasted the same as the day it was first made.
Lamb is one of my favorite foods to eat so when my son made slow cooked lamb I was quite excited to taste it. The lamb was served with a peach salad that had a peach cumin dressing. They both turned out very good (even as leftovers later in the week). In addition, we had a butternut squash that was served with tahini. Yum!
Slow Cooked Shoulder Lamb
For dessert we had paleo cheesecake. Uh, well, kind’ve cheesecake. It had no cheese so the name is a misnomer. The “cake” was good but quite heavy on the stomach, perhaps because it has a cashew nut filling that is blended with other ingredients. The topping was sweet enough as in a “regular” cheesecake.
Paleo Cheesecake
It is very hard to make a dessert that tastes like “regular” desserts as no sugar, dairy or gluten is used. Kudos to my son for his effort in trying to find us desserts that are palatable while eating paleo and watching our diet.
I love, love, love soup in the winter! I could have it every day if my husband wouldn’t get sick of it. Of course, normally I’d also have a nice piece of warm bread and butter with it …
No, no, no! Remember — no bread on this new paleo diet we’re trialling.
Actually, I didn’t miss the bread at all. This paleo chicken soup was that good. Period.
Paleo Chicken Soup
My son served the soup with chipotle sweet potatoes on the side. I was in heaven! Well, food heaven, anyway. (laughing)
Later, my son had made some pumpkin scones that were pretty good also. We normally give him a hard time when he makes paleo pastries as the texture is very different from a regular pastry — it’s more soft most of the time. There’s also the palette trying to get used to the taste of almond flour and coconut flour.
Paleo Pumpkin Scone
I’m not quite “there” yet but my palette is slowly coming around. (Not the best picture of the scone — sorry.)
Oh — on an “up” note, when I saw my doctor recently because of my bronchitis, she took my blood pressure and, guess what? It’s still normal. This paleo diet has brought my blood pressure down. Great news, eh?
I once read that “sugar clogs the system” and I believe it’s true. The body can repair itself if given a fighting chance. There are definite benefits to this diet.
You may be wondering if I’m still eating a paleo diet since I haven’t posted much lately. The answer is yes.
Unfortunately, I’ve been sick and today I found out I have bronchitis. I thought for sure the cold I caught was going away but it returned with more coughing, chest pain and a low grade fever. The doctor took a chest x-ray which I questioned because I “normally” get bronchitis when I get a bad cold and I already know what they prescribe  for the cure — antibiotics and prednisone.
Actually, I didn’t see a doctor but a nurse practitioner. Â She explained that the x-ray was needed because of the chest pressure although she didn’t “hear” much in my chest. I kind’ve knew the x-ray would come out negative. Should I have asked her not to give me one or would that have seemed too much like the patient telling the doctor what to do?
Anyway … here is a recent paleo dinner that we had. This salmon with basil pesto and tomatoes was pretty good but I am partial to both salmon and tomatoes and enjoy eating them both.
Salmon with Basil Pesto and Tomatoes
This was served with a blood orange salad. Have you ever had a blood orange before? This was my first time trying one and although it looked like an orange grapefruit to me, it did not taste that sour.
It feels like a long time since I’ve blogged but in reality it’s only been 3 days since I’ve added a new post.
A recent weeklong trip to Seattle to check on a friend who started on hospice a couple of months ago, along with an “almost” weeklong cold has left me feeling quite fatigued and without much momentum.
Image courtesy of Microsoft Free Images
The cold started slowly with just a little cough. Within a couple of days my sinuses were fully congested, I could hardly hear and my chest started feeling like someone was squeezing it. Â Then the wheezing started and that’s when I became concerned.
I started using my asthma inhaler, albuterol, almost daily which is uncommon for me. Today I’m feeling a little better although my ears are still plugged.
Mornings are worst for me because of the coughing yet I’ve been able to sleep through the night.
What have I done to “cure” myself? Not much really. I use a humidifier at night right next to where I sleep, drink lots of water and eat “right” which is easy to do on a paleo diet and then I get lots and lots of rest.
Next week I should be ready to post again — I have a backlog of things to share.
The food on the cruise ship was, well, let’s say interesting. It went from really really good to so-so. This was the case whether you went through the buffet line in the cafeteria or one of the main dining rooms.
Some of the fruit in the cafeteria (called the Market Cafe) was sometimes not quite ripe enough to be served. Other times, the thought ran through my head that perhaps some of the food had been frozen then thawed. Overall it was good.
Once, after dinner, we were walking around and found a chef who was making crepes. Of course, I had to try one and it was delicious! (Not the best choice for a person on a paleo diet though.)
The Norwegian Star has a few specialty restaurants. These are not included in the price of your cruise though so you pay extra to eat at them. Most times you have to make a reservation depending on the popularity of the restaurant. We only took advantage of one of these restaurants which was a Brazilian Restaurant called the Moderno Churrascaria (more about this later in a later post).
This is the first time that we have cruised on a ship that is “freestyle.” Most other ships have formal nights where you dress up and meet the Captain and the waitpeople get to know you and your preferences. The passengers have designated dinner hours in the dining rooms and sit with other people who they get to know during the cruise. Not so on this ship. You can pretty much eat in the dining room any time on the half hour and you’re seated “wherever.” I do like the casual clothing aspect for dining but prefer the same designated waiters and busboys.
There is also much clattering noise as people are coming and going for meals and they have to quickly set up tables. The maitre’d came to our table to ask us how things were going and we spoke to him about the noise and slow service. The following day, he moved us to a quieter area of the dining room and we also had more experienced waitstaff which was much appreciated.
Below are some of the photos I took of some breakfasts and dinners. For this first entree, they had mashed potatoes but later when I had the lamb shank I requested they substitute the mashed potatoes for sweet potato mash and they were happy to oblige.
Lamb Shank with Mashed Potatoes
The smoked salmon tartare (below) was good. It had a cucumber, avocado and dijon dressing.
Smoked Salmon Tartare
The cheesecake was too sweet for my palate. Since I have not been eating sugar for a couple of weeks, I just couldn’t finish the cheesecake that came with a strawberry compote.
Cheesecake
Yes, another picture of the lamb shank because I must’ve had it three times. Can you guess that I enjoy lamb shank? You’d be right.
Lamb Shank with Sweet Potato Mash
I’ve been appreciating salads more and more these day. This one was served with balsamic vinaigrette.
Field Greens, Anjou Pear and Blue Cheese Salad
This was one of the breakfasts I had in the Versailles Dining Room. For breakfast, we normally went to the Market Cafe where they had a buffet and I had fruit with my breakfast.
Breakfast with Turkey Sausages
The quiche, which was served as a “starter” was really good. It tasted very light and was served with mixed greens and lime dressing.
Sundried Tomato and Sweet Onion Quiche
These meatballs were scrumptious. Yes, scrumptious!
Beef Meatballs
The bread pudding was served warm. It was okay but a tad bit too dense.
Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
I can’t recall exactly what this soup is but it was good.
Soup
I ordered the apple pie and thought it would be really really good but I was disappointed (and they brought me two slices that I didn’t ask for). It was just okay — nothing special.
Apple Pie a La Mode
My husband had the coconut souffle with a mango lime sauce. I wish I had ordered this instead of the apple pie as it was heavenly (well, the small bit my husband allowed me to taste).
Coconut Souffle
An interesting thing about the beef stroganoff was that it had beets in it. Very unusual, eh?
Beef Stroganoff
That’s just a small sampling of what they served in the Versailles Dining room on the Norwegian Star. You can click here to see the rest of the menu items from another person’s blog.
Overall, I did okay on my paleo diet although I did have a slice of bread every day, a small dessert and an occasional hot chocolate.
Other posts regarding the cruise are below (just click on the link).
Here are a couple more new paleo dinners that we’ve recently tried.
This crustless quiche was very good! It had asparagus in it which I’m not usually fond of but it was complimented with other veggies so tasted great. I had leftovers for breakfast and it heated through just fine.
Crustless Quiche
The quiche was a side dish to this very delicious cod.
Cod
The next recipe we tried was an Ethiopian Chicken in a red pepper paste. Although this looked a little odd with the eggs in it, it actually tasted very good.
Ethiopian Chicken
The chicken was served with a Kale, Sesame and Ginger salad which was not my favorite. Perhaps it was the kale or too much sesame oil. The flavors just didn’t seem to flow right in my mouth so we’ll have to work on tweaking this recipe if we want to use it again.
Kale, Sesame and Ginger SaladEthiopian Chicken with Kale Salad
The chicken was quite moist and very flavorful.
It’s really not too hard to eat paleo. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has tried any of the recipes and tweaked them some to make them better.
Did you watch the Superbowl game yesterday? I was rooting for the underdog all the way — the Ravens. And … they won (she says gleefully). It was quite a close game though. A real nail biter!
While waiting for the game to start, we had an appetizer that included julienned carrots with Baba Ganoush. Â It was really good and even though it was made with eggplants it tasted very much like hummus (a Middle Eastern dip).
I should have really enjoyed the fruit salad but it had a little too much lime sprinkled on it and made my mouth pucker quite a bit. Next time we’ll use less lime.
The paleo barbecue sauce was actually pretty good as long as you didn’t slather it on the chicken — pretty much the same as with regular barbecue sauce.
