Ode to Chorizo

Mise en place des hommes des cavernes

Pre-Paleo Diet, my typical weekday breakfast was either Kashi cereal with fruit and yogurt, or oatmeal- both a veritable Paleo catastrophe.

On the weekends we typically make scrambled eggs on at least one morning, but we barely get ourselves out the door with our pants on during the week. I shudder to think what might occur if we threw cooking into the mix.


In Googling around for Paleo recipes, I found a recipe for Chorizo, Sweet Potato and Egg Casserole on the website Paleo Table, which looks like a great resource for Paleo recipes, meal plans, and even grocery lists. I ran the recipe past Ron, got the green light, and hit Whole Foods for the ingredients.

Lady Gaga: also a bit full-on
(but so Paleo-appropriate in her meat dress!)

The verdict: Tasty, but a bit full-on.


The recipe calls for 2 POUNDS of chorizo. If you're wondering how much that is, the answer is A WHOLE WHOLE LOT (metric equivalent: a shit-ton).


Especially when combined with a dozen whole eggs.


To be fair, the recipe makes 10 servings (it says 12 but my knife skills need some work). 


My recipe calculator estimates that each serving of this has about 400 calories- and it is definitely filling. I ate it yesterday and today for breakfast at 9am, and both days was not hungry for lunch until at least 2pm. 


This makes sense: a) it's a lot of calories and b) health magazines and nutritionists always say that protein is the most filling macronutrient (vs. fat or carbs).

Ta-dah!

Despite what the nutritionists say, however, I've always found that protein isn't very satisfying on its own. It produces satiety, but not satisfaction- I'm not hungry, exactly, but I feel the urge to eat something else.


Yesterday, I definitely found that to be the case. But after that initial craving passed, I was full- almost uncomfortably so- for hours after each meal. And yesterday, despite eating a big fatty breakfast, and lots of steak for dinner, my overall calorie intake was about 1,600 calories- that's down from an average of about 2,100 from last week. 


Of course we'll see as this goes on, but that's intriguing. Paleo people would argue that the Paleo Diet makes you lose weight because you're somehow genetically programmed to process the foods on this diet more effectively. I'm not sure that's true, but I do believe that if eating so much protein allows you to reduce your overall calories without being significantly hungrier, it will be an effective plan. 


So, onward and downward!