Cave Wraps: 40 Fast And Easy Paleo Recipes by Ivy Martin
Like a growing number of athletes, I follow a Paleo Diet—some people refer to it as a “high fat” diet, but I prefer the phrase “nutrient rich” since the emphasis is on vegetables, fruit, nuts and healthy portions of meat. My lovely wife is an incredible cook who can take just about any normal recipe and turn it into something that is both tasty and healthy (we sure have a lot of almond flour, flax meal, coconut oil and raw honey in the kitchen cabinets now). However, my wife works during the day and I am left to fend for myself at lunch—I work in my office at home in the mornings and usually go to my real office in the afternoons. I used to go out to eat at local restaurants for lunch, but I thought it would be easier to stay on my diet if I ate at home. Unfortunately, my culinary skills are pretty much limited to use on a Weber charcoal grill so I started looking for things I could make at home and when I found Cave Wraps: 40 Fast & Easy Paleo Recipes For The Best Damn Wraps Ever by Ivy Martin I felt like I had struck gold!
As the name of the book suggests, there are 40 recipes for making wraps—most of the wraps use slices of thick meat (turkey, chicken, ham, beef, salmon, etc.) to hold the ingredients together instead of bread, but some of the recipes call for large pieces of Romaine lettuce leaves. I’ve made nearly every wrap listed in this book (all by myself) and, to quote the old GEICO commercial, they are “so easy a caveman could do it.” Not only are they easy to make, but they taste fantastic! The Maple, Bacon & Ham Wrap is better that any breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had at a restaurant, and the Apple Festival Turkey Wrap is now my favorite meal! Bacon lovers rejoice—a lot of the recipes call for that blessed ingredient! Other frequently used ingredients include pecans, walnuts, maple syrup, apples, pineapples, coconut, honey, and eggs.
When I started trying to make these wraps I was having trouble finding high quality cut meats to use. It’s hard for me to believe, but some of the healthiest cut meats on the market are sold at Wal-Mart! The Prima Della brand uses whole muscle cut meats and are gluten-free, soy-free, and contain no fillers or MSG. Another good brand is Boar’s Head, but I’ve had trouble finding a store in my area that sells it. When you buy meat for your wraps you will want it cut thick, so tell the folks at the deli counter that you want either number three or number four thickness (on most commercial meat slicers the number one setting is very thin and the number four is about 1/8″ thick).
Cave Wraps: 40 Fast & Easy Paleo Recipes For The Best Damn Wraps Ever by Ivy Martin is a 93-page paperback book and has beautiful full-color photos to go along with every recipe. This book retails for $20, but I only paid $17 for it on Amazon.com. You can buy the Kindle edition for only $9.
If you are not familiar with the Paleo diet I would suggest you read the Paleo Diet for Athletes—this book really changed my life and way of thinking about nutrition.
mspaleo
November 2, 2013 at 5:35 AM
Lettuce wraps are the BEST!
All Seasons Cyclist
November 2, 2013 at 9:51 PM
Lettuce wraps are certainly easier to eat — but the “caveman” part of me loves the turkey wraps the best!
TdF
November 2, 2013 at 6:26 AM
mumble…mumble…mumble…then you are definitely not a climber 😉
All Seasons Cyclist
November 2, 2013 at 9:52 PM
That is not exactly a secret! I live in the Chicago area which is fairly flat. However, we do have what one blogger called the Chicago Hills, i.e., high winds about ten months out of the year!
nutsandspokes2013
November 2, 2013 at 7:38 AM
I will have to give this a try. My riding stays consistent but the weight loss has certainly plateaued.
Isn’t Paleo, just like the Atkins? I did some reading on it and it seems similar.
All Seasons Cyclist
November 2, 2013 at 9:55 PM
The Paleo Diet is more of a “sensible carb” diet than a “low carb” diet like Atkins, and the Paleo diet rejects the use of cereal grains and dairy products. Switching from the Atkins Diet to the Paleo Diet was not a problem at all for me—basically I just had to give up dairy products and cereal grains. By the way, I have profound respect for the late Dr. Atkins — he was a man who was way ahead of his time!
nutsandspokes2013
November 2, 2013 at 10:05 PM
Thank you for the reply. I will take a deeper look.
Tré
November 2, 2013 at 9:54 AM
Yummmm
All Seasons Cyclist
November 2, 2013 at 9:56 PM
You’ve got that right!
Randy
November 2, 2013 at 11:25 AM
Lewis produce on Grand Ave sells Boar Heads and at a great price.
All Seasons Cyclist
November 2, 2013 at 9:57 PM
Thank you so much for that information! My wife and I have been searching all over for it but couldn’t find it. As for contents and quality I think the Boar’s Head meats and Prima Della meats are identical (and since Wal-Mart sells the Prima Della it is certainly a lot cheaper).
DummyDiva
December 19, 2013 at 10:04 PM
Grand Ave., what city?
DD
All Seasons Cyclist
December 19, 2013 at 10:12 PM
That would be Waukegan, Illinois.
DummyDiva
December 19, 2013 at 10:14 PM
Too far by bike! (-:
DD
OutsideKMA
November 2, 2013 at 5:51 PM
I drink almond milk; however, I did not know that almond flour existed. Going to look for that.
All Seasons Cyclist
November 2, 2013 at 9:58 PM
I bought the first package of almond flour from Amazon.com, then my wife found the same product at the local grocery store — she seems to use a lot of it anymore!
Melissa
November 3, 2013 at 4:36 PM
Almond flour is readily available, but you can make it yourself pretty easily if you have a good food processor. Almond flour is typically made of blanched almonds (no skin) while almond meal is made with the skin (I *think*). The flour or meal is just ground up almonds.
All Seasons Cyclist
November 4, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Thanks for the note! I guess I am too lazy to do that myself (my wife would go to that much effort, but not me).
SHAUNA
November 5, 2013 at 6:21 AM
Awesome idea – my husband works from home – perhaps I can get him on this gig!
All Seasons Cyclist
November 5, 2013 at 7:43 PM
Not only are they easy to make, but easy to clean up as well — I try to keep the kitchen clean when my wife is at work. As I tell my friends, “Happy wife, happy life.”
Alfonso Sarette
November 19, 2013 at 10:17 PM
Excellent list of deliciousnesss!! Thank you, I am always looking for good recipes. Great ideas 🙂
All Seasons Cyclist
November 19, 2013 at 10:20 PM
You should like the book — they had several salmon wraps in it!
Primal Cotton
November 20, 2013 at 1:26 PM
This just made me so hungry!!!
All Seasons Cyclist
November 20, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Glad I could help! 🙂
Primal Cotton
November 20, 2013 at 4:53 PM
🙂
DummyDiva
December 19, 2013 at 10:02 PM
Thanks so much for sharing this book. It’s the first recipe book I bought; started the paleo diet this week. So far have only tried one, but I love it for my morning meal. The spinach, scrambled egg, mushroom wrap. A friend asked me why I all of a sudden started eating this way, and I said, “better sleep, better energy, better health, and balanced body weight.”
DD