Let's Cheat!

Okay, time to discuss a biggie in Paleo circles, cheating. Weather you're 80/20, strict, Primal, or Paleo the big discussions always come up about cheats, do you do it all? How much? What puts you over the edge? For me it's Saturday morning cinnamon rolls for my kids, they still eat SAD (standard American diet) foods on occasion and this Saturday institution goes on to the protest of my stomach every week, and it's not even the damn rolls that get me it's the smell of wafting cinnamon. So the good folks at Paleo on Main http://paleoonmain.blogspot.com/2011/08/cinnamon-pecan-coffee-cake.html provided us with a great cheat to get us through our weekend sweet attacks. Now this recipe is Paleo but so many factions would cry foul at the thought of ingesting "sweet" or "fringe" ingredients that many would still call it a cheat. We say if it only gets eaten on occasion (we don't make this every weekend, although we could easily), don't sweat the small stuff.
Which brings me to today's dinner selection, Pizza. Pizza is probably in the top 10 first questions I get asked when I first launch into a conversation on Paleo:

Me: ..and the health benefits alone are enough to make it worth th..
Them: You mean you don't get to eat ANY pasta or bread?!
Me: Well no, but you'd be surprised at how easy it is, most people come away saying how mu..
Them: Wow no pasta,,, or Pizza! Oh man I couldn't do that no way!

So the fact is we do eat pizza, once a month and I make it from scratch with a package mix.... suddenly I just felt a disturbance in the force! As if thousands of Paleo voices just cried out,, NOOOOO! No packages! No mixes! No artificial substitutes!

Whateves, the mix is clean and everything you add to the dry mix is Paleo, give or take the dairy depending on where you lean. Amy is lactose close to intolerant so this is a double bad for us, our cheat, but really not bad in the grand scheme of,,, don't judge!!

Okay, so there are alot of ways to make pizza out there, cauliflower, cheese etc., but we started using Chebe pizza mix when we got off the whole 30 and it really did the trick for our pizza "jones". The problem is we liked it so well we started eating it every week, and along with the coffee cake our weight loss stopped and began to creep upward, so we rationed ourselves to once a month for the pizza and when the mood hits for the cake and everything smoothed out again.

So, start with the mix in a good size bowl, add your eggs, oil, and cheese, we use a softer Parmesan, or a Gruyere, this will effect how soft or hard the dough is.

It gives you the option to add whatever oil you want, as well as water or milk, we use olive oil and raw milk

Set aside the 1/4 cup milk and mash that bad boy up, drizzle in the milk and knead the dough up till it forms a nice doughball, about the size of a softball. Here is your only opportunity to adjust the firmness of the dough, but we've found the recipe is spot on for our needs.

Next I hope you have a pizza pan and a rolling pin,, No? How's life in college treat'n ya? Go ask your mom for some cash and score a pan and pin,, I'll wait... Okay, ball in center and slow roll the dough to the desired thickness, it'll do a 14 in. with plenty to spare.

Next is the sauce, and I make my own but there are some good clean organic sauces out there you can use and shave off some production time, I just prefer to make my own. I use an organic paste, some fresh garlic, and herbs. No, google pizza sauce recipe.

Is your oven on 425? Do it now, cause we're fixin to warm this puppy up. Lightly sauce the pie, too much and it'll be a sloppy mess, 6 oz. is plenty. I've seen alot of people go way overboard here.
I use a hard mozzarella for my topping and I like a cheesy pizza, but this is all about you now, Domino's has no clue how much you like, they just put on what you tell em, so let yer freak flag fly and put on whatever you like, or what you have in the fridge. Our pie has Nathan's hot dogs my son won't eat and a leftover hamburger from yesterday. Apply toppings and throw into oven, wait impatiently for 14 minutes and then try not to dig into it before it cools.

You have now cheated, and yet stayed Paleo, aren't you proud of yourself? I am. Enjoy, you deserve it.

So here's the thing,, I'm Paleo all the time, and I'm hungry all the time so food seems to take on a good portion of my day. But as I grow older and I sit here in a cubicle stealing time from my company writing this I listen to the world around me and realize that it's pretty much everyone's priority. And I know that food is social as well as nutritional but it's amazing how much food is talked about around here. Did I mention I'm in the food service industry?
I began my culinary career at 17 years old and I've been doing it all my life, I started as a dishwasher and realized I had a knack for the production end which grew to a college education, oversees cooking experience and capped off by cooking for not 1, not 2, but 3 of our presidents. I've cooked for a host of government officials (not proud of), and a host of celebrities (the only one I was proud of was Ladybird Johnson), so I think I have a soapbox to stand on.
I can cook dammit! I mean I can slurp a sauce and tell you what it needs. I can whip up a dry rub that'l make your BBQ a hit on the cul-de-sac. I can sit and design menus all day and they will be tasty, different, and look great. But I hate, I loathe, I despise doing ingredient sheets, and that has probably kept me from being more successful as a chef my entire career. That being said I am really happy where I'm at right now, calling the shots for a conference center as the front man in the tie, having a chef working under me who puts my recipes to work and dazzles our clients who expect cardboard chicken with packet sauce, and get really damn good food. Now I can jump in the kitchen and play when I want to. So my plan is simple, to show off my food and talent and feel good about myself, and throw a chunk of my mind on the screen when I feel like it (you know, the soapbox) so if you stumble on this blog you might find a friend to agree with, or an asshat you love to hate, don't care cuz I'm all full up on friends. I'll be posting the Paleo dinner "creations" for the most part, just my nightly venture into the fridge to utilize what my lovely bride has brought home from Trader Joe's or Kroger mktplace. I will be glad to tell you how I made it but you're on your own for the specifics, pull up yer big boy pants and experiment, yours might taste better than mine, but I doubt it :)

I also plan on posting my event photos, when I go all out and put out galas and fundraisers so enjoy those as well, your welcome.