Setting Goals and Making Ribs!

Sunday is cooking day so I made ribs and Paleo Carolina Gold BBQ sauce for dinner tonight.  If you aren't interested what I have been doing and thinking about, you can skip the next part and go to the recipe at the bottom of the post!

I met up with a old long-time friend, Kathy,  for lunch this past week, something we have done for  the past 30+ years. In our younger days,  something we did every year was to set "goals" for ourselves for the next year.  I still have some of the lists - finish my degree (Kathy), get out more (me) and - always - lose weight.  Every single year - lose weight.  Not once did we list "get healthy" as a goal.


At lunch we talked about our health (as you do when you get older - right?), and the effect the Paleo diet has had on my health - all good - and how I wished I had known about the effects of inflammation on the body and how diet could change the way I felt.  I might have been able to skip all the bouts of depression, the yo yo dieting and the major hormone shifts I went through to get where I am.  But maybe I needed to go through all that to arrive at the health benefits of Paleo now.  It is a major shift from the Standard Canadian Diet, that many people (especially our age) are not open to such a major change.

Kathy's husband, Big R., someone else who has struggled with weight and health issues since I have known him, found Wheat Belly several months ago, recognized himself, eliminated wheat from his diet, lost forty pounds and is feeling great.  One change can make a difference even if you are not ready for the full Paleo experience.

A couple of days ago the Vancouver Sun ran an article on how much baby boomers are going to cost the health system in the coming years and how we are not going to have enough money to support ourselves in our own homes.  An overdue discussion of such policies is even more timely in light of an alarming poll released Monday by the Canadian Medical Association. The survey, done by Ipsos Reid, found six Canadian in 10 - almost seven in 10 in B.C. - doubt the health care system can cope as millions of baby boomers enter their so-called golden years.  Scary - right?  The article discusses government policies geared towards keeping seniors in their homes longer, rather than putting them in "appropriate" housing and then having more money to live on rather than spending on a house that they are in no condition to keep up.

We can prove them wrong by improving our health - what have you got to lose?  Oh, yeah - extra years in assisted living.  So set your goal - improve your health, try Paleo.

My rib recipe is fool-proof and so good.  Paleo Grandad particularly loves the Paleo Carolina BBQ sauce.

For the ribs (Serves 3-4 - depending on how hungry everyone is, or if you have teenagers eating with you):

Take two racks of baby back ribs (I get mine from Seafair Gourmet Meats on No. 1 Road in Richmond), rub on both sides with Nom Nom Paleo's Magic Mushroom Powder (or your favourite seasoning\) and wrap each rack separately in a double layer of tin foil, sealing the edges tightly.

Place on a baking sheet in a 300 degree oven for 5 hours - low and slow.

Paleo Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce
(original recipe from Honestly Delicious - Living Life Against the Grain)

Honestly Delicious had red onion in their sauce, but onion upsets my stomach so I omitted it in my version.

4 strips of good bacon (Seafair Gourmet Meats again)
2 cups of sugar free, gluten free YELLOW mustard (it must be YELLOW mustard)
¾ cup of good honey (preferably raw and local - Steveston Farmer's Market is a good source)
1 T. granulated garlic (again, garlic bothers my stomach, so I only put in a teaspoon of garlic
1 T. paprika
¾ cup of apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

•   Sauté the diced onions and bacon in a heavy bottom pot for 15 minutes until the bacon is cooked.

•   Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes until all the flavors have married. 

•   Store in glass mason jars, and serve on just about anything.

Paleo Grandad says it tastes like piccalilli!