I go out to eat all the time! However, I only go to high quality restaurants, not delis, cafeterias, fast food places. I go to nice places where I can order fish, salad, steak, vegetables etc. It is more expensive, but who cares? If you are going to eat out, go somewhere nice with high quality food. I don't go out unless I'm going to be eating good stuff.

I guess I don't worry too much about miniscule amounts of sugar that might be in my food....as long as I'm eating mainly meats and veggies and they aren't drowned in a noticeably sweet sauce I'm fine.

I also eat out a lot, due to my job. I usually have just meat/chicken/fish and a salad. With only our typical Spanish salad dressing on that. You can't even get any other kind here in a typical restaurant. It's olive oil and vinegar drizzled over the salad and then a pinch of salt. Very Paleo. LOL. In fact, I found out the other day that Spain is the second fish eating nation in the world, after Japan.

For dessert I'll have some cheese or just a coffee with artificial sweetner. If I'm at home I'll have some fruit.

fabulous. once again, thanks for the confirmations and positive feedback. as much as i looooove cooking at home and for friends/family, i really can't do it all the time. it is a good idea to make a bit pot of something and eat that for meals during the week, but i seem to prefer variety more. so i guess i'm willing to deal with sacrifices.
articslug - i agree, when dining out, i like to know that my food going to be good. otherwise, it just isn't worth the couple of dollars saved for yucky food. yes, i find that eating japenese food, mainly sashimi, is great for us! i love getting my spicy tuna sashimi salad that is on a bed of sauteed seaweed marinated in sesame oil, and shredded cucumber, then topped with toasted sesame seeds is just what the caveman ordered..... mmmmmmm. it's divine and so healthy-feeling. if you like japanese food, i highly recommend this. i don't see it everywhere, but i just ask the waiter to take the tuna sashimi, make it spicy, and top it on their usual house or seaweed salad. they are more than happy to do it, and it's good!

CuCu: Coconut Oil/Butter are the same thing!

(I edited out that which did't pertain to my questions)

How do you eat this while getting the full potential of it's benefits? As you said, heating it nullifies most of them, so I can't imagine you spend the extra money to use this to cook with... or does the "cold" process ensure a longer shelf life?

Since it's solid at most temperatures in which I'm comfortable, I can't think of how to utilize it short of eating it like peanut butter or the like.

Curious in CO

I have the same general questions that Dianne has. What about heating this oil? I have heard that most people are using it that way. Another thing I was wondering is using it on hot veggies (instead of butter). I was reading on the web links and it said to use it in place of butter (and other things), but has anyone tried it on, say, steamed broccoli or asparagus?

What about olive oil? I was using canola oil, but that was said to be bad. I am currently using olive oil... but is that now found to be bad? How have people incorporated lard (rendered from whichever animal fat) into their diets? Are people still using olive oil to make salad dressings and mayo? Or can coconut oil be used to make some of these things? Has anyone used it on their skin while out in the sun?

Any info on how this oil is best to use would be greatly appreciated.

This thread stirred something in my memory: one of the folks on the paleofood list back before my Great PC Crash of '01 and subsequent Internet Famine Period (kinda like having a "green period" or something...)

Anyway, this person... actually it was more than one, recommended using rendered goose fat for things that you put fat on to make them taste even yummier (or palatable, in some cases). I recall I'd even tracked down some links to online sources... it certainly sounds good...

Anyone try that? What'd you think?

And then there's some that say Ghee is "pure enough" although somewhat processed.

Dianne

who's trying hard to be as unprocessed and yet as convenient as possible--especially since it's getting warmer here and after driving around town all morning, doesn't really feel like doing much cooking at all and yet doesn't want to get in a rut...

I am always trying to perfect the art of eating inexpensive, convenient, yet healthy unprocessed food. It is hard to make all the salad dressings and mayo and such from scratch, especially when they go bad so quickly due to not having preservatives in them. I have resorted to finding salad dressings and mayo and steak/bbq sauce, etc. that are "as paleo as possible". However, most of this stuff is canola oil based, and a lot of it has dairy in it. Also, I have used butter on hot veggies, and really want to get away from all dairy. So, it is a challenge to say the least. I often just throw bison roast and lots of different veggies and herbs and spices in a crock pot. That keeps for a while, but I have been using butter in this when I reheat it... I was wanting to render some bison fat into lard and try using that instead of the butter. Has anyone tried that?

Forgive me if you've already practically memorized this...

on the www.paleofood.com site there is an entire section devoted to rendering fats.

Oh yeah, small warning to anyone who gets interested enough in joining the recipe forum from which the recipes on that site are gathered, they're quite strict about the foods in the recipes being as paleo as possible! There's also a section on making pemican.

(All I can say about that is that the one time I tried it, with jerky I'd made, I totalled my food processor and eventually the jerky ate a whole through the bottom of the tin I'd put it in! Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bad cook... it's just stuff way outside my realm of culinary experience!)