So I have this dream of camping and backpacking, but there is one problem–I have not yet discovered dehydrating my own food. Commercially available camping and backpacking food is full of nasty refined carbohydrates. This quandary has been on my mind and I daresay an obstacle to me exploring these potential favorite outdoor activities. I was on a walk with Dr. Sheehan yesterday and we do some of our best thinking together while walking in nature. One of us mentioned pemmican. Have you ever heard of it? It’s a dried meat and fruit snack that doubles as a survival food. Native Americans used to prepare it to sustain them when away from camp. By all accounts, one can survive on pemmican indefinitely. It’s prepared from dried and powdered meat, dried and powdered fruit (usually berries), and animal fat. So if I could just make some pemmican, my camping-food dilemma would be solved.
When researching how to make pemmican online, I found some interesting methods. Here is a good one from Mark’s Daily Apple. And another method from The Practical Primitive. Finally I settled on a simple recipe I found, but will substitute ingredients I have on hand. So this morning was a whirlwind of slicing up thawed beef heart and lamb heart, which I will mix with ground beef. I got out the food dehydrator and cleaned it thoroughly (I’ve owned this particular gadget for about 8 years and this is the first time I have used it…what kind of whole food advocate am I??) I placed the thin (or as thin as I could get them) slices of heart on the dehydrator trays. Don’t they look lovely? Then I took some ground beef and made thin patties to dehydrate as well. So now my meat is happily dehydrating on the counter. Sadly I just undertook this meat dehydrating adventure, so I will have to report on the results in the next post. Until then, enjoy my food log from last week. And forgive the chips. It’s because of hormones–yes, I am blaming hormones.
5-5-16
Breakfast 7:30 AM: coffee with butter & more butter
8:00 AM: chicken meatballs with mushrooms and organic salsa
10:00 AM: salted roasted mixed nuts
11:00 AM: herbal chai tea
1:00 PM: 3 eggs over lite with asparagus and salsa
2:00 PM: black tea
4:00 PM: pine nuts, a sugar-free Klondike bar
8:00 PM: half a bag of lard-cooked chips, chorizo with onion, plantian and guacamole, polar black cherry seltzer (not sweet)
5-6-2016
7:00 AM: coffee with butter, ground beef and chicken stew with cabbage, carrot and curry
10:00 AM: mixed nuts
1:00 PM: mixed nuts, raw carrots, hummus, potato chips
2:30 PM: 1 cup raw milk, 2 scoops of Paleo Bulk Formula (24 g protein)
5:30 PM: butter, the rest of the potato chips
6:30 PM: chicken meatballs with onion & salsa
7:30 PM: pine nut primal butter cookies
10:00 PM: celery, seaweed salad
