Tag Archives: bacon

Recipe: BLT Avocado Wraps and Pecans

paleobetic diet, paleo diet for diabetics

Ready to roll up and eat

BLT = bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

As I’ve written before, bacon isn’t a pure paleo food. Cavemen didn’t eat it. It’s too highly processed. You could make your own if you want. But bacon is convenient and no doubt better for you—at least if you have diabetes—than many of our traditional breakfast foods like cereal with milk, pancakes, instant oatmeal, bagels, or donuts. Those could shoot your blood sugar up to the moon.

Some studies link processed meats with cardiovascular disease and cancer, other studies don’t. If you want to be cautious with your health, don’t go hog-wild with bacon or other processed meats like hot dogs, bologna, and liverwurst.

Avocados come in hundreds of varieties. In the U.S., we mainly have California avocados (aka Hass) and Florida avocados. Californians are by far the market leader. They reign at the Parker Compound.

paleobetic diet

California or Hass avocado

paleobetic diet, paleo diet for diabetes

Florida avocado

California avocados are smaller dark green lumpy-skinned ones. Florida avocados are larger, smoother-skinned, and lighter green. Monica Reinagel has an article comparing the two, with notes on ripening and storage.

Oh, and by the way, avocados are fruits, not vegetables. But you knew that, you smartie.

Ingredients:

1 California (Hass) avocado, raw, medium size (about 4 x 2.5 inches or 10 x 6 cm), peeled and seeded, cut into long strips

6 bacon strips, medium thickness

4 oz (115 g) lettuce (e.g., iceberg, romaine, bibb, or broad-leaf lettuce you prefer)

4 oz (115 g) tomato, raw (this is about one-and-a half roma tomatoes or one medium regular tomato), cut into long strips

1 oz (30 g) pecans (option: substitute your favorite tree nut except for cashews—too many carbs)

Instructions:

Fry your bacon in a skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Next you’re gong to build two wraps. Lay out about two oz (  g) of lettuce and load it with three bacon strips, half your tomato, and half your avocado. Fold or wrap lettuce edges together and enjoy. Repeat with remaining ingredients. The pecans are for dessert.

paleobetic diet, paleo diet for diabetes

Our vicious guard dogs waiting for bacon

Number of Servings: 1 (that’s 2 wraps plus nuts)

Nutritional Analysis:

74% fat

12% carbohydrate

14% protein

720 calories

24 g carbohydrate

15 g fiber

9 g digestible carbohydrate

1137 mg sodium

1507 mg potassium

Prominent features: Good source of fiber, sodium, protein, vitamin B6, niacin, thiamine, pantothenic acid, copper, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium.

Plain Ol’ Bacon, Eggs, and Honeydew, and How To Put Out a Grease Fire

Is bacon paleo-compliant? Not really. It’s too heavily processed. Including it in a Stone Age diet is a nod to convenience and variety.

Bacon, eggs, black coffee, and Cholula hot sauce. A caveman wouldn't recognized any of this except for eggs.

Bacon, eggs, black coffee, and Cholula hot sauce. A caveman wouldn’t recognized any of this except for eggs.

If you follow nutrition science literature, you’ll see periodic references to “processed meats” like bacon contributing to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or premature death. I think the associations are pretty weak. I don’t want to debate it right now. Health-conscious cautious people aren’t going to go hog-wild on processed meats. I don’t. We may never have a definitive science-based resolution of the issue.

If you want to control the degree of processing in your bacon, make your own. The recipe at the link includes pink salt (sodium nitrite), maple syrup, and dark brown sugar. Many other recipes are available, some of which could be more paleo-compliant. My understanding is that sodium nitrite is a preservative and gives bacon meat that pink color. Does it contribute to flavor? If you’re not storing your bacon for a long time, you may not need the pink salt.

In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed three strips of bacon with my eggs yesterday. Mine was the Kirkland brand from Costco was $3.80/pound (USD). Two slices provide 80 calories (uncooked) and zero grams of carb although, if I recall correctly, it was honey-cured bacon.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

3 strips of bacon, standard thin slices

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup raw honeydew melon, cubed

Instructions:

Fry the bacon over medium or medium-high heat. If there’s too much grease leftover in the pan after cooking, poor out what you don’t want, for later use or drizzle over your dog’s dry kibble food. Leave a little grease in the pan so your eggs don’t stick. Then fry your eggs over medium heat. Enjoy with raw honeydew, which will cleanse your palate after eating bacon.

You can pay a lot more than $3.80 a pound for bacon

You can pay a lot more than $3.80 a pound for bacon

Servings: One

Nutritional Analysis per Serving: (from FitDay.com)

63 % fat

10 % carbohydrate

26 % protein

319 calories

9 carb grams

1 fiber grams

8 digestible carb grams

845 mg sodium

423 mg potassium

Prominent features: high in B12, riboflavin, selenium, protein, pantothenic acid, and phosphorus. Although this is low in calories, it’s adequately satiating because of the rich protein and fat content. The calorie count will be higher by 50 if you eat all the bacon grease.

By the way, I didn’t start a grease fire when cooking this. But I thought about it. After I poured excess grease out of my pan, some of it dribbled onto the outside of the pan. If I had put that pan back on a gas stove to cook my eggs, would that outside grease have caught fire and crept up into the pan?

How do you put out a grease fire? I knew water wouldn’t do the trick; my first thought was pour salt on it. That’s wrong! About.com says to simply smother it by putting a metal lid on the pan and turn off the heat. If you can’t find the fitted lid, use a cookie sheet. Fire won’t burn without a supply of oxygen. You could pour baking soda on the fire, but it takes a lot. Wikihow has more info on putting out a grease fire, mentioning a dry chemical fire extinguisher as a last resort if you’re going to handle the fire yourself. Think safety first.

Grease fire? Put a lid on it and turn off heat. If that fails, try a LOT of baking soda. Or fire extinguisher.

Grease fire? Put a lid on it and turn off heat. If that fails, try a LOT of baking soda. Or fire extinguisher.