Gettin' All-Primal in the Applachians page 3

[Inksplat]

How has no one asked for the pancake recipe yet!? I'd love to see it, if the offer still stands!

[Crabbcakes]

How has no one asked for the pancake recipe yet!? I'd love to see it, if the offer still stands!

Hey Inksplat! Sure!

Crabbcake's Salmon Pancakes

1 can of salmon (the 15oz can)
1 small/medium carrot
1 smallish stalk celery
1 tsp good quality onion powder (this can be replaced with finely chopped scallions or fresh chives as available)
4 eggs if small-to-medium, 3 eggs if large-x large
1/4 cup coconut flour
saute fat of your choice, and a non-stick (or favorite) frying pan

1. drain salmon - don't press all the juice out, just tip over and catch salmon. save juice - it can go into a fish soup or canned chowder later. put salmon into a mixing bowl.
2. grate carrot finely. I just put the bottom of my box grater into the mixing bowl and grate directly onto salmon.
3. same with the celery stalk.
4. sprinkle with the onion powder (or add scallions/chives).
5. add the eggs. Then mash all together - you are trying to break apart the salmon flakes, incorporate the eggs, and make sure there are no globs of grated carrot hiding in there anywhere. If you have large salmon chunks in your pancake mass, the pancake will break apart in the frying pan at that spot where the chunks are.
6. sprinkle with the coconut flour, and remash. You should notice that the coconut flour has a pretty aggressive binding tendency - that is okay.
7. preheat your pan - I use a 6 heat setting on a dial that goes to 10, and a thermal-bottomed pan. Add your fry fat, and be somewhat generous - the pancakes take up fat.
8. using a tablespoon from the silverware set, scoop up a ball of salmon mash and set it into the frying pan. You will need to use the spoon to press the mass into a thin, rounded shape. This should be easy, as this mass does not stick anywhere.
9. fry - the idea is to brown the pancake on the first side, then turn only once and brown on the other side. In practice, you can turn the pancakes multiple times, if you desire, but the most important point is to let the pancake cook on the first side until well-solidified on that side so it doesn't break when flipped

then you add a little more fat to the pan for each batch of pancakes fried, and eat.

Hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions, I'll get back to you as fast as I can.

Edit: P.S. I get three pancakes into my frying pan at one time - you don't have to fry them individually. You probably already know this, but just in case you are a total kitchen newbie, I mention it.

[Inksplat]

Thanks a bunch! Those sound pretty damn tasty!

Also, as an aside, you make me very insecure about my journal. You've got so much personality its awesome to read. :P

[honeybuns]

Also, as an aside, you make me very insecure about my journal. You've got so much personality its awesome to read. :P

I'm with Inksplat on this one. I thought I might be mildly interesting, but next to you I'm downright boring!

[Crabbcakes]

Guten Tag, Journal!

Today's journal entry will be one of mental cogitation, so if you aren't in the mood, dear Journal, I suggest you peek in here a couple of days from now. Hopefully by then, I can give you something more real-world...

My first confession: I have done no WOMing since my bike ride / amble around the parking lot. Absolutely none, outside of what movement is necessary for the basic running of this household. Hrmph. I just can't seem to get up the enthusiasm. I met a new poster, Inksplat, and hopped on over to his place for a gander... and he just seems to be hitting the exercise (yeah, I know I hate that word, but HE was doing the exercising, not me, so I think I can use this term if it appropriately describes another poster's activity) hard. I don't wish I were he, but still - I see DashFire and Inksplat, both of whom have serious weight to lose, and they are getting into it neck-deep. And it makes me wonder what my real problem is. (I'm not counting all the others who have already done it - DashFire and Inksplat's journey are contemporary to my own - makes it feel "more real" in a way.)

So I have been thinking of this in my typical windy-twisty-wordy, overly-philosophical way. All my mental exercises seem to come to the same point on the road: at a crossroads, to be more precise. The one path is the Somehow Ain't Gonna' Get It Done Path. The other is the Proceed This Way to a Fuller Life Path. It should be a no-brainer - but it isn't. I can get up the energy to beat down doctors in the service of Third; I can drive interstate just to find books for our little homeschool for First, Second, and Fourth; I will scour the Internet and drive to all the vets and drugstores in Ohio to get a stupid box of specialty needles for a giving set for Ringers solution for Rudi (one of our cats - he is my heart and soul in feline form, now 18 human years old, and doing fantastically well for such an old cat, outside of some sub-Q fluids I need to give him as a kidney flush here and there); I will waste so much gas to get a rare (for my garden, at least) form of basil for my herb garden because the family loves fresh garden herbs on their summer tomatoes - but I can't get off my ass and move to do it for myself.

You know what? Making decisions like this is scary. It really shouldn't be - I used to be rail-thin, and was my entire life until after I had Fourth and depression set in and I took so much anti-depressant the doc needed extra approval from the insurance company to cover it. That, and a rotten hormonal birth control method (for me, at least) compounded the side-effects problems. I never used to worry about weight or fitness level or general activity level - my youth, coupled with my non-car Eurpoean lifestyle, took care of everything. So I just don't get it...

Actually, yes, I do. All my life, I have been REacting to stuff.
...Father wanted me to go to vocational school during HS and become a secretary, complete with high heels and lipstick and tight skirts, just so I could earn money as fast as humanly possible (which he then could borrow), so I took a huge HS load of college prep courses to stave him off, without really believing in what I was doing
...Home was not a nice place to be, so I left right after my 18th birthday, just going to the first farthest safe place I could imagine for me - Germany
...Missionaries I met overseas insisted my soul would be saved with them, so I joined because I couldn't counter their arguments (in their defense, the folks in the church walked their strict talk, and did help me through a lot of leftover childhood stuff, and were simply wonderful people, so I don't complain too much - just after a while I couldn't do the theology any more)
...Company I was with offered me a job back in the US, and I took it because I didn't think I had anything to offer anybody else
...And the list goes on and on in my personal history.

The more I do Primal, the more the brain fog is lifting, and the more I see that I really do have it in my control to change tons of stuff I don't like - by myself and for myself, in cold blood, if you will. Do I - Don't I. This road or the other road. Dare I - Dare I Not. Like Jane says in Twilight - "Decisions, decisions...".

The more I do Primal, the more the brain fog is lifting, and the more I see that I alone needs must do this - nobody is going to do it for me, and nobody could, even if they desired. Not Mark, not the posters here on the MDA, not hubby.

The more I do Primal, the more the brain fog is lifting, and the closer I come to really believing that my days of being constantly in the position of REacting to stuff (or waiting in limbo for something to REact TO) can be over - and I can move into that position of being PROactive.

And the more I do Primal, the more the brain fog is lifting, and the more I self-reflect and begin to say HEY! I C-H-O-S-E THIS FOR MY SELF BACK IN APRIL/MAY - I HAVE ALREADY TAKEN THE FIRST STEP!

Perhaps I have the inkling that if I decide going all-facets Primal is within my grasp - and actually do and finish it - I might decide other things in my life need changing, too. I really like reading Gravyboat's journal right now - she is so eloquent about all the missing things in her life, and how the whole thing is so scary, and that takes guts (whether she realizes it or not).

Dear Journal, I think this is where YOU come in. Yeah, I know you are a construct - nothing but photons, yanked out of mine own head, even. Yet "talking" to you is helpful, so Thank You anyway. My pool is sitting outside the windows, clear and sparkling in today's heat... perfect for a dip... a little unpressured WOMing... Again, dear Journal, I will return...

[Inksplat]

Do not feel bad about the exercise thing. The first time I lost weight, using CW, I exercised my ass off. Yes, I lost 90lbs, but I didn't get any stronger, and I was always tired.

Second time I lost weight, first time I went Primal, all I did was walk around the neighborhood every day. And then, suddenly, I found myself able to do a 7-mile hike. (I was exhausted at the end, but hey, I did it.)

This time around, I'm doing more because the stuff I've found is short, and some of it is actually enjoyable.

Shovelglove takes 14 minutes. Tabata Sprinting takes about 11 (with warm-up and a bit of cool-down). PB Fitness routine takes a bit longer, but each exercise in and of itself is pretty quick.

And then, in the end, the thing I'm having trouble with is just walking! I'm in a new neighborhood that isn't as nice for walking, and I've been on my butt for so long that its just totally weird to leave the house for that long, lol.

So don't worry about it. You'll eventually find something you like (or at least don't mind), and you'll do it. Or you won't, and you'll still be getting healthier regardless, just maybe not quite as quickly.

Though, I do envy you your pool. If I had one, I'd get my "move slowly" in every day no problem. I love pools.

[honeybuns]

WOM should be something you enjoy doing, not a chore. You'd be surprised at the things I log on the WOM charts!! Crank the tunes and boogie around the house with the kidlets. They'll love it as much as you do!

[Crabbcakes]

Howdy, Journal!

After my existential WOMing crisis of two days ago, I do have a success to report - that very night, I jumped into the pool and played for quite a while with the kids. Yup - I jumped into the water and had some fun... hubby turned on the light in the pool, and most of the Family Crabbcakes played with floats and inflatable balls and water cannon-sy toys, and I generally astounded the progeny when Mr. Crabbcakes and I proceeded to water-fight each other for the ball.

And again, my kids thought this was an earth-shattering event. I am beginning to vaguely feel like a neglectful parent; why would my kids think that every time I do something semi-sport-like, it is an Occasion to Remember, if I hadn't neglected this aspect of parenting to begin with? Hrmph. I do support THEM doing sports in any way I can, so it isn't all bad, but still...

Inksplat and Honeybuns are total sweeties - I really didn't expect anybody at all to respond to the mental mish-mash of two days ago (even though I really did mean it), but they had great words of encouragement. Thank You, you two!!

As for today, it looks as if the entirety of WOMing today will be in the Housework department... our house is not exactly in shambles, but it sits on the precipice... teetering... I hope to bring it solidly back onto solid footing today. As this is a decently large place, the entire Kids Crabbcakes clan will be helping me to winch the place away from the cliff's edge... And there is work to do outside as well as inside (weeding the herb garden)...

Tomorrow, Fourth has a picnic-playdate at a local park. This being a park and all, I should be able to get some fun WOM in there. Only impediment - if there is a ton of heat out there tomorrow... I really don't do well in the heat, and the Mom we are meeting has offered her place to escape to if the weather does not cooperate (she does not like the heat either).

So, my Journal, off I go to fix the house and prepare for tomorrow. After I return home from the park, I will let you know how it went...

[Gravyboat]

Is your cat Rudi a siamese, by any chance? I had a cat named Rudy growing up who was a siamese and lived to about 19. He was my dad's special little prince. He spoiled that cat!

[Jamilyn121]

Hey Crabb.

I just stumbled onto your journal today and loved reading it! Look forward to keeping up