Yes, it’s possible to have real foods delivered to your door. I love it that we live on a mini-farm and grow much of what we eat these days, but hey, it’s nice to know there are products you can have delivered that are made with real-food ingredients. I’ve received some nice samples over the past several weeks and thought I’d give a shout-out to the people and companies making the good stuff. (I don’t receive commissions or anything, but the samples were sent to me at no charge.)
We’ll start with Mark Sisson’s company because WOW, that was a big box full of goodies we received.
Primal Fuel is a protein shake mix. The ingredients are: whey protein, inulin (a pre-biotic), guar gum, natural flavors and stevia extract. Since Sisson is smart enough not to muck around with low-fat food, there are 9 grams of fat per serving, along with 9 carbs (3 of which are fiber) and 20 grams of protein. The mix makes a nice, thick shake even if you just blend it with ice water.
I pretty much only drink protein shakes after my workout on Wednesday, but I like this one rather a lot. There’s just a hint of coconut flavor, and the sweetness is subtle. I don’t like food where the sweet flavor is overpowering, even if it all comes from stevia.
Chareva and the girls were also big fans of the Dark Chocolate Almond Bars. (I probably would have been a big fan, but only managed to get my hands on one before they disappeared. The bars, that is, not the girls.) So many snack bars sold online are garbage, even if they’re low-carb. Soy protein, maltitol and whatnot. By contrast, look at the ingredients in Sisson’s bars:
Almonds, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Grass-Fed Hydrolyzed Collagen, Cassava Root, Water, Coconut Flakes, Honey, Natural Flavors, Coconut Oil, Bitter Chocolate, Cocoa Powder, Cocoa Nibs, Himalayan Pink Salt, Monk Fruit Extract, Tocopherols.
Again, as with the Primal Fuel, the sweetness is subtle. Each bar provides 15 grams of protein, eight net carbs (14 minus six grams of fiber) and 15 grams of fat. You can eat these as a treat and actually be doing yourself a favor.
Our care package included some salad dressings we haven’t tried yet, so I won’t comment on them other than to say they’re made with real ingredients. Avocado oil provides the fat, and most of the dressings also contain red wine vinegar. Pretty much everything on the label is listed as “organic.”
My favorite item in the care package is the mayonnaise. Why? Because it tastes just like mayonnaise! I’ve made mayonnaise that’s okay, but doesn’t quite taste like, say, Hellman’s. I ordered some paleo mayonnaise awhile back that tasted more like a mustard spread than mayo.
But Sisson’s mayonnaise tastes like the real deal. And unlike the real deal (assuming we’re calling Hellman’s mayo “real”), this stuff is actually good for you. Here are the ingredients:
Avocado Oil, Organic Cage-Free Eggs, Organic Egg Yolks, Organic Vinegar, Sea Salt, Rosemary Extract.
I don’t know how Sisson’s people managed to make real-food mayo that tastes like commercial mayo when so many others have tried and failed, but they nailed it. I spread this stuff on a slice of turkey breast when I want a quick protein snack.
By the way, you know how often one of us wishes that someone would open a chain of paleo restaurants? Well, Mark Sisson is doing that, too. The current plan is to open a Primal Kitchen Restaurant in three locations: South Bend, Indiana; Anchorage, Alaska; and (of course) Los Angeles. Sisson will be conducting a webinar next week for people who are interested in becoming franchise owners. You can read more on the topic here.
If there was ever a sign that people’s attitudes about fats are changing, here it is: there’s a company now that sells fat. Specifically, FatWorks sells lard, tallow, chicken fat and duck fat. The animals are all raised in cage-free environments, and the cows who provide the tallow are grass-fed. In other words, these are the good fats.
The only one I’ve tried so far is the tallow. I’m old enough to remember when McDonald’s still fried their French fries in tallow, and man, those were good fries. So for breakfast on Sunday, I asked Chareva if she’d mind frying up some taters in tallow. She told me later the tallow gave her iron skillet a nice, non-stick quality. She never had to scrape the potato slices from the pan.
No wonder our great-grandmothers cooked with the stuff. I remember reading somewhere that Teflon helped the low-fat diet movement gain momentum. It was suddenly possible to fry or bake low-fat foods without having them stick to the pan. If only we’d all known better.
I noticed right away that the potatoes became crispy without us having to fry them to the burning point. Can’t say that about vegetable oils, which don’t taste good anyway. And according to Nina Teicholz’ book The Big Fat Surprise, heating those “heart-healthy” vegetable oils to frying temperatures produces a chemical relative of formaldehyde. So the bad news is that those oils will kill you. The good news is that you’ll already be preserved when you die, which saves the undertaker some work.
Anyway, the taters fried in tallow were awesome. Crispy, delicious, satisfying. I ate a few as a stand-alone snack, then put three eggs fried in butter on top of the rest. Heckuva tasty breakfast.
I don’t eat meals at work very often these days, since I usually leave at 3:45. But when I do decide to eat at the office, it’s often a soup I like called True Primal. No grains, soy, preservatives, sugar, MSG, vegetable oils or any of that other nasty stuff. The ingredients are:
Water, tomatoes, diced beef, carrots, onions, green peas, green beans, tomato paste, chicken broth, rendered chicken fat, pork gelatin, sea salt, spices, garlic.
Each one-can serving contains 18 net carbs, 10 grams of fat and 20 grams of protein. If you’re on a strict ketogenic diet, the peas and carrots might be a no-no, but it’s a good lowish-carb soup and pretty tasty. Beats the heck of out Campbell’s.
Enjoy. I certainly did.
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I, too, really enjoyed Primal Kitchen’s Avocado Oil mayo. But, my problem is that you have to PAY to buy it! I got some free from attending an online seminar and then when I wanted to buy more, they required a $49 membership to buy their products which are supposedly wholesale or much lower priced (than what??) Something in me resents having to pay to buy online.
I think it’s worth the price. If I went through a dozen jars of mayo per week, I might worry about the price. But I suspect one jar will last us several weeks.
re: But, my problem is that you have to PAY to buy it!
Only at one membership site. There’s no membership fee at primalblueprint.com, but you also don’t get much discounting.
PK products are also being stocked at the Natural Grocer’s chain, and, for a few dollars more, at Whole Paycheck.
I just bought The Primal Kitchen Mayo, and both salad dressings on Amazon….Prime Shipping…win win! Should arrive today!
Go to: http://www.onestoppaleoshop.com
I ordered a dozen jars from them last week. Awesome service.
First mayo that doesn’t taste like plastic……
I was reading the ingredients list on some of the products. They’re calling them sugar free yet have maple syrup and blackstrap molasses.
Hi Linda,
I noticed most grocery stores are starting to sell the primal kitchen mayo. They have it at publix, harris teeter, and even food lion, at least where I live.
Hi Tom!
Agree – the Primal Kitchen Mayo is delicious, in both flavors (regular and Chipotle!). Even my husband agrees.
Tried both of the salad dressings, and they were both delicious – but I think I use too much of them to make them price-worthy for me, I am better off making my own.
I like the idea of the fats – I took the fats from the deer my husband has shot and rendered it into fat, but never thought about using it for potatoes…thanks for the great ideas!
Potatoes fried in a real, non-industrial fat are delicious. It also doesn’t take many of them to be satisfying. I suspect that’s how the market for Super-Sized fries came along: with garbage fats, you don’t get that satisfied feeling and keep eating.
Consider sweet potato fries in good animal fats. I’m making my mouth water.
Now you’ve got me thinking about them fried in duck fat …
He changed up his formula for the protein shake because it use to contain malto-dextrin.
Must get the mayo. I need my egg salad fix.
That’s one of the reasons I respect Mark Sisson. He’s willing to change his mind and his products in the face of new information.
Can these be mailed to those of us who live in Food Deserts? I heard there a conspiracy not to sell real food to such zip codes.
If the FatWorks people are in on the conspiracy, they don’t want your money.
I’ve ordered fat works online and had it mailed to me. Same with primal kitchen mayo.
Thanks for the reviews! I hadn’t heard of the True Primal soup, I would love to have a decent canned food to rely on when I don’t have time to cook. And I’ve been meaning to try the PK Mayo, so now I have a little extra incentive – it sounds great. My own homemade mayo is good, but it doesn’t really taste like Hellman’s.
Potatoes fried in tallow are the BEST!!!!
I look forward to your reviews of the duck fat and chicken fat.
I look forward to trying those too.
I, too, really enjoyed Primal Kitchen’s Avocado Oil mayo. But, my problem is that you have to PAY to buy it! I got some free from attending an online seminar and then when I wanted to buy more, they required a $49 membership to buy their products which are supposedly wholesale or much lower priced (than what??) Something in me resents having to pay to buy online.
I think it’s worth the price. If I went through a dozen jars of mayo per week, I might worry about the price. But I suspect one jar will last us several weeks.
re: But, my problem is that you have to PAY to buy it!
Only at one membership site. There’s no membership fee at primalblueprint.com, but you also don’t get much discounting.
PK products are also being stocked at the Natural Grocer’s chain, and, for a few dollars more, at Whole Paycheck.
I just bought The Primal Kitchen Mayo, and both salad dressings on Amazon….Prime Shipping…win win! Should arrive today!
Go to: http://www.onestoppaleoshop.com
I ordered a dozen jars from them last week. Awesome service.
First mayo that doesn’t taste like plastic……
I was reading the ingredients list on some of the products. They’re calling them sugar free yet have maple syrup and blackstrap molasses.
You can get oils also here:
http://grasslandbeef.com/favorite-fats
If you look on their site, you can get lard, too. I’m not sure about schmalz. You do have to order a certain amount, though.
We usually make our own mayo, using the following “two minute mayo” recipe:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonnaise.html
You can add garlic to create aioli, chipotle to make chipotle mayo, or just leave it plain. It really does take two minutes. There’s nothing to it, although it’s not 100% foolproof. I use white vinegar, but my wife uses lemon juice. You can use avocado oil or olive oil (or at least these are the only two oils I’ve used so far). My goal is to try this with some bacon fat.
A bucket of bacon grease? I think I landed in heaven.
Did you try making your bacon grease mayo? How did it work out?
The good noose about frying in highly unsaturated oils is by the time they kill you you won’t mind so much. 🙁
I remember fast sunburning in my high carb daze, not nearly so much even in Hawaiian sun. Just think of what fried polyunsaturates could wreak.
I noticed that as well. Now that I eat real fats, I don’t burn as easily.
re: Now that I eat real fats, I don’t burn as easily.
You’re also eating a lot less grain, and perhaps no wheat at all, which is what I credited for no-more-sunburn in my case.
Could be. I figured since fats are a big part of skin, I’d credit the fats.
Hi Tom!
Agree – the Primal Kitchen Mayo is delicious, in both flavors (regular and Chipotle!). Even my husband agrees.
Tried both of the salad dressings, and they were both delicious – but I think I use too much of them to make them price-worthy for me, I am better off making my own.
I like the idea of the fats – I took the fats from the deer my husband has shot and rendered it into fat, but never thought about using it for potatoes…thanks for the great ideas!
Potatoes fried in a real, non-industrial fat are delicious. It also doesn’t take many of them to be satisfying. I suspect that’s how the market for Super-Sized fries came along: with garbage fats, you don’t get that satisfied feeling and keep eating.
Speak for yourself! Whenever I fry up potatoes I always have to make twice as much as I think I’ll eat, because I’ll inhale the first batch while the second batch is frying. My terribly dysfunctional, FODMAPs-plagued gut LOVES potatoes fried in tallow, though, so it’s an indulgence that is well worth it.
I guess we can’t blame that on a sweet tooth.
I have FODMAPs, too. When I’m ill or under a lot of stress, I crave potato chips. Fortunately, I don’t feel like eating very much when I’m ill or stressed, and crappy oils in small amounts don’t bother me.
I’m still flabbergasted that Sisson is building a primal restaurant in Indiana. But then, the low-fat fad doesn’t seem to have caught on here.
Consider sweet potato fries in good animal fats. I’m making my mouth water.
Now you’ve got me thinking about them fried in duck fat …
He changed up his formula for the protein shake because it use to contain malto-dextrin.
Must get the mayo. I need my egg salad fix.
That’s one of the reasons I respect Mark Sisson. He’s willing to change his mind and his products in the face of new information.
Can these be mailed to those of us who live in Food Deserts? I heard there a conspiracy not to sell real food to such zip codes.
If the FatWorks people are in on the conspiracy, they don’t want your money.
Thanks for the reviews! I hadn’t heard of the True Primal soup, I would love to have a decent canned food to rely on when I don’t have time to cook. And I’ve been meaning to try the PK Mayo, so now I have a little extra incentive – it sounds great. My own homemade mayo is good, but it doesn’t really taste like Hellman’s.
Potatoes fried in tallow are the BEST!!!!
I look forward to your reviews of the duck fat and chicken fat.
I look forward to trying those too.
You can get oils also here:
http://grasslandbeef.com/favorite-fats
If you look on their site, you can get lard, too. I’m not sure about schmalz. You do have to order a certain amount, though.
We usually make our own mayo, using the following “two minute mayo” recipe:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonnaise.html
You can add garlic to create aioli, chipotle to make chipotle mayo, or just leave it plain. It really does take two minutes. There’s nothing to it, although it’s not 100% foolproof. I use white vinegar, but my wife uses lemon juice. You can use avocado oil or olive oil (or at least these are the only two oils I’ve used so far). My goal is to try this with some bacon fat.
The good noose about frying in highly unsaturated oils is by the time they kill you you won’t mind so much. 🙁
I remember fast sunburning in my high carb daze, not nearly so much even in Hawaiian sun. Just think of what fried polyunsaturates could wreak.
I noticed that as well. Now that I eat real fats, I don’t burn as easily.
re: Now that I eat real fats, I don’t burn as easily.
You’re also eating a lot less grain, and perhaps no wheat at all, which is what I credited for no-more-sunburn in my case.
Could be. I figured since fats are a big part of skin, I’d credit the fats.
Kerstin, I agree with you- I can’t imagine that one little jar of PK mayo lasting very long. My freebie was gone in less than a week. I’m really better off making my own mayo, which I make with coconut oil and bacon fat- had to tweak it numerous times, but it’s delicious and I go through a lot of it! I make it at least once a week. I’ll have to try making chipotle, too.
As for the soup- it sounds good, but I make my own and freeze it in batches- enough for one serving- works well for me.
Really easy to make yummy soup in a big crock pot — broth, browned grass-fed hamburger, onion or (if lazy like me) dried onion flakes or onion powder, whatever fresh and/or frozen veggies appeal to you (I always include some form of tomato), and small amounts of beans, rice, barley or potato if you aren’t going strictly paleo. I like to add Italian seasoning near the end of cooking, and a little Worcestershire might not hurt. Meals for several days, or to freeze.
I got this pattern for hamburger soup from my stepmother. You can vary the basic broth and burger mix an infinite number of ways according to whatever veggies, herbs and spices you have on hand and what sounds good to you. I’ve had it with macaroni noodles, but never made it that way — don’t know if gluten-free noodles would hold up in a dish like this.
I’ve been ordering the cooking fats and the mayo from Amazon for about a year. They are all wonderful. I just had to order more duck fat because my husband gave our jar to his sister since she told him she like the way the eggs taste cooked in it. I didn’t know about the Primal Soup. I’ll have to see if I can get that from Amazon too (small town with limited shopping options). The snack bars sound wonderful, but knowing my sweet tooth habits I would gobble them all up too fast.
Fortunately, the snack bars aren’t all that sweet. I don’t think they’d tempt a sweet tooth.
Kerstin, I agree with you- I can’t imagine that one little jar of PK mayo lasting very long. My freebie was gone in less than a week. I’m really better off making my own mayo, which I make with coconut oil and bacon fat- had to tweak it numerous times, but it’s delicious and I go through a lot of it! I make it at least once a week. I’ll have to try making chipotle, too.
As for the soup- it sounds good, but I make my own and freeze it in batches- enough for one serving- works well for me.
Really easy to make yummy soup in a big crock pot — broth, browned grass-fed hamburger, onion or (if lazy like me) dried onion flakes or onion powder, whatever fresh and/or frozen veggies appeal to you (I always include some form of tomato), and small amounts of beans, rice, barley or potato if you aren’t going strictly paleo. I like to add Italian seasoning near the end of cooking, and a little Worcestershire might not hurt. Meals for several days, or to freeze.
I got this pattern for hamburger soup from my stepmother. You can vary the basic broth and burger mix an infinite number of ways according to whatever veggies, herbs and spices you have on hand and what sounds good to you. I’ve had it with macaroni noodles, but never made it that way — don’t know if gluten-free noodles would hold up in a dish like this.
I’ve been ordering the cooking fats and the mayo from Amazon for about a year. They are all wonderful. I just had to order more duck fat because my husband gave our jar to his sister since she told him she like the way the eggs taste cooked in it. I didn’t know about the Primal Soup. I’ll have to see if I can get that from Amazon too (small town with limited shopping options). The snack bars sound wonderful, but knowing my sweet tooth habits I would gobble them all up too fast.
Fortunately, the snack bars aren’t all that sweet. I don’t think they’d tempt a sweet tooth.
I ordered the PK mayo from Amazon, but for comparison I also ordered the Coconaise, made with coconut oil, and thought it was actually far better! I don’t use a ton of mayo, mostly in tuna salad or devilled eggs, or a dollop on asparagus, so the price doesn’t bother me.
I ordered the PK mayo from Amazon, but for comparison I also ordered the Coconaise, made with coconut oil, and thought it was actually far better! I don’t use a ton of mayo, mostly in tuna salad or devilled eggs, or a dollop on asparagus, so the price doesn’t bother me.
I love his mayo too. Now I can feel good about tuna salad again.
I love his mayo too. Now I can feel good about tuna salad again.
I hate Teflon skillets, it is a classic rip-of . I acquired several Grishwolds from ebay 5 years ago and I am sure it would last forever.
I hate Teflon skillets, it is a classic rip-of . I acquired several Grishwolds from ebay 5 years ago and I am sure it would last forever.
The paleo food and market are growing in Australia. Paleo restaurants, cafes, market stands, butchers etc. Duck fat, goose fat, all good fats are plentiful and reasonably easy to source. Konjac noodles abound and many supplies can be found at supermarkets though always room for improvement!
I’m still struggling with some med issues but as far as supply is concerned the Paleo/Wheatbelly future in Australia is bright if not yet completely widespread.
The Anointed are going all-out to convince people paleo is somehow a bad idea, but they’ve already lost the war. They just don’t know it.
The paleo food and market are growing in Australia. Paleo restaurants, cafes, market stands, butchers etc. Duck fat, goose fat, all good fats are plentiful and reasonably easy to source. Konjac noodles abound and many supplies can be found at supermarkets though always room for improvement!
I’m still struggling with some med issues but as far as supply is concerned the Paleo/Wheatbelly future in Australia is bright if not yet completely widespread.
The Anointed are going all-out to convince people paleo is somehow a bad idea, but they’ve already lost the war. They just don’t know it.
Or maybe they know it and are fighting a delaying battle. Much profit can be taken in the mean time and they can kept their reputation for a while.
Of course some will want to delay being sued for horrid advice.
I believe the threat of litigation is part of the reason organizations who’ve been passing out bad advice or worthless drugs won’t just admit they got it wrong.
“If you find yourself in a hole, the first step is to stop digging.”
They could stop talking, the longer they go on the greater the liability.
Maybe they are try to make themselves grate. Make the AHA (American Heart Assassin) grate again?
Behold the power of silent “e”. Tom Lehrer sang a song about it.
The mayo is pretty good, definitely more tangy than regular soy mayo or miracle whip.
The soup is tasty too. Although when they shipped mine they put the case of soup loose in the same box as a bag of grain free crackers. Not a good combo.
None of it’s cheap, but it is good.
The mayo is pretty good, definitely more tangy than regular soy mayo or miracle whip.
The soup is tasty too. Although when they shipped mine they put the case of soup loose in the same box as a bag of grain free crackers. Not a good combo.
None of it’s cheap, but it is good.
The mayo is outstanding. I purchased Sir Kensington’s just before trying Sisson’s and there is no comparison. I thought the honey mustard dressing was little too “vinegary” for my taste (to be fair, it is labeled as a “vinaigrette”) but was solid. I haven’t tried the Greek dressing yet, but have a bottle waiting.
The mayo is outstanding. I purchased Sir Kensington’s just before trying Sisson’s and there is no comparison. I thought the honey mustard dressing was little too “vinegary” for my taste (to be fair, it is labeled as a “vinaigrette”) but was solid. I haven’t tried the Greek dressing yet, but have a bottle waiting.
I make a mayo out of MCT oil that is pretty good. The recipe I started with wanted half olive oil, which I didn’t try. I suppose it didn’t taste just like Hellmann’s but I think it was about as good. When I used the same recipe with avocado oil, it wasn’t as good.
I make a mayo out of MCT oil that is pretty good. The recipe I started with wanted half olive oil, which I didn’t try. I suppose it didn’t taste just like Hellmann’s but I think it was about as good. When I used the same recipe with avocado oil, it wasn’t as good.
Do I need to refrigerate tallow after opening?
No. Natural saturated fats are shelf-stable.
Do I need to refrigerate tallow after opening?
No. Natural saturated fats are shelf-stable.
Costco sells Chosen Foods brand avocado oil mayo now. It is a lot cheaper than Sisson’s.
Costco sells Chosen Foods brand avocado oil mayo now. It is a lot cheaper than Sisson’s.