Happy Wellness Wednesday, ya’ll! Hope you are having a great day. Today I’m so excited to share one of my favorite clean eating brands with you: Primal Kitchen! I’ve been using Primal Kitchen products for years ever since I started the Paleo diet. Their items are always super clean and healthy and compliant with the Paleo Diet and often Plant Based, Keto, and Vegan Diets, too! I love that they never use gluten, dairy, grains, soy, refined sugars, oils, or nasty additives and chemicals that cause inflammation, gut irritation, and chronic disease. They recently sent me a big box of new and classic products of theirs to try! Here are a few of my favorites…

Unsweetened Organic Ketchup: Well, this just made my entire life! LOL! I come from the land of Ketchup lovers… Pittsburgh, PA is known for being the home of Heinz Ketchup. I grew up covering french fries and chicken nuggets in this delicious sauce. But, as I got older and learned more about nutrition and how to read ingredient labels, I quickly learned that it is full of nasty ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and sugar which lead to heart disease, inflammation, diabetes, and weight gain to name a few! On the Paleo diet, I can only eat sugar in natural forms – i.e. fruit and honey. So, high fructose corn syrup and refined white sugar in conventional ketchup are out. Meanwhile, in comes Primal Kitchen with the cleanest ketchup on the planet to save my homemade sweet potato fries from being sauce-less! It has six simple, organic ingredients: Tomato Concentrate, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, and Organic Spices. It’s delicious and I don’t miss the Heinz anymore! Many thanks to Primal Kitchen for understanding how desperately the world needed a clean ketchup 🙂 Highly recommend this!

Organic Spicy Brown Mustard: I love a good spicy mustard! When you are eating really cleanly, incorporating flavor with spices and sauces is essential to you sticking with the lifestyle change. If you don’t love the way your food tastes, you are less likely to stick with it, right? I love using spicy brown mustard mixed with honey for dipping sauce, or just on it’s own on a burger with a lettuce wrap! Primal Kitchen’s Organic Spicy Brown Mustard is sooo good and it only has five ingredients: Water, Vinegar, Mustard Seeds, Salt and Turmeric! Simply delicious.

Protein & Collagen Bars: If you have watched my Instagram stories lately, you have probably seen me talk about how bad the protein bar options are at health food stores. Most all of them have hidden sugars or inflammatory oils among other additives and unhealthy ingredients. They look healthy and they say they’re healthy, but when you look at the ingredient list and the sugar content, the writing is on the wall. They’re not. My choice for protein bars has always been Primal Kitchen’s Dark Chocolate Almond Collagen Bars! They are so delicious. They remind me of tootsie rolls! Primal Kitchen also just recently introduced new protein bars in a variety of flavors. They sent me the Almond Spice to try and it’s very tasty! They’re less chewy than the collagen bars. They have a much softer texture. They’re also nice, small squares, so you can easily fit them in your pocket, bag, or car. My favorite is still the Dark Chocolate Almond Collagen, though. Those are a staple in my handbag on the go! Both are sweetened with a tiny bit of honey, no refined or cane sugar, and are gluten, grain, sugar, dariy, and soy free! Plus, they are keto friendly!

Collagen Fuel: I’ve been using Primal Kitchen’s Collagen Fuel forever it seems! I love that the Vanilla Coconut Flavor is AIP friendly! It’s hard to find protein powders that fit the Autoimmune Paleo Diet, but this one does. I love to mix it with fruit or avocados, coconut or almond milk, and some spinach or other greens in a smoothie. They also sent me the Chocolate flavor which is equally delicious in a smoothie, water, or coffee if you can tolerate it. You can drink it hot or cold. Collagen is great for the skin, hair, nails, and joints! I’ve noticed my nails have been really long and strong lately. Thank you, Primal Kitchen 🙂

Salad Dressings: Another gripe I have with health food stores is their lack of clean salad dressing options. It’s crazy how many poor ingredients are in them! Almost all of them use canola oil and sugar. Canola oil is usually made from GMOs and is very inflammatory. That’s why I love Primal Kitchen’s dressings because they use only the best and cleanest ingredients like avocado oil in their dressings. I really love the Lemon Turmeric which is vegan, and the BBQ Ranch which is Paleo. They can be used as marinades, too! I’m going to share a recipe with you below using the BBQ Ranch. They have a lot of other awesome dressings you should definitely check out as well.

Avocado Oil: If you haven’t started using avocado oil yet, you need to get on board! It’s one of the best oils you can use for cooking because it has a high smoke point of 500 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that it won’t break down and release toxic fumes and free radicals that can damage healthy cells in your body like other oils such as coconut and olive oil. Coconut and olive oil are great oils, but they should not be used at high temperatures for this reason. That’s why I love and use Primal Kitchen’s avocado oil so much!

Mayo:   I also must mention Primal Kitchen’s Mayonnaise!  Conventional mayonnaise has all kinds of gross ingredients you do not want to be eating including canola oil, which is a trans fat that leads to heart disease. Primal Kitchen’s mayo uses Avocado oil which is an oleic acid, a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid.  Much healthier! So, if you’re going to eat mayo, make it a clean one like Primal Kitchen’s!  

 

BBQ RANCH CHICKEN STUFFED SWEET POTATOES:

I love a good, simple crockpot recipe and this is as easy and tasty as it gets! 

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lbs (2 large) Organic Chicken Breasts
• 1 Bottle of Primal Kitchen BBQ Ranch Dressing & Marinade
• 4 Sweet Potatoes
• Red Onion
• Parsley Bundle

Directions:

1. Put your chicken breasts into your crockpot. Cover with 1/2 cup of BBQ Ranch Sauce.
2. Set your crockpot to cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2 hours.
3. Bake your sweet potatoes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour.
4. Wash and chop your red onion and parsley
5. When the chicken is done, simply shred it, leaving it in the sauce.
6. When your sweet potatoes are done, take them out and cut slits in them.
7. Take your shredded chicken and put half in each sweet potato.
8. Top with the chopped onion and parsley and drizzle the remaining BBQ Ranch sauce over top.
9. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this super simple, clean, Paleo recipe! Thank you to Primal Kitchen for sponsoring this post today! Be sure to check out their website here and all of the delicious products they offer. I have been a big fan for a long time and only recommend things I use and love with you all. Primal Kitchen is a standout company and I definitely see myself using their products for a long time to come 🙂