Eating Paleo/Primal when you are off grid & without a fridge...?

So... when I was pregnant with my last daughter, I started having really bad blood sugar crashes from my whole wheat homemade sourdough bread... started doing research and it led me to the Primal diet. I ate that way to survive my pregnancy but found I just did REALLY well with it in general.

I ended up losing a ton of weight, etc. But it was really difficult to maintain the diet once we moved here a year ago, now that I don't have a fridge. I've regained a lot of the weight I lost and I miss how good I felt when I was eating that way.

I guess I'm looking for ideas or help. I have a mini-fridge that I can run once or twice a day for a couple hours on the generator, but it will be at least 6 months before I get either constant power or get a propane fridge.

I hadn't really prioritized it as much because my husband always poo-poohed paleo and was never really on board, but now we are getting a divorce and it just occurred to me (and it's stupid how excited I was when I realized this) that now I have complete control of the diet in this house and so I can eat paleo if I want and no one will criticize me! Well, except for the kids but they don't count, and will just have to go along with it.

So - here's what I do have:
Free range laying hens that I feed with a home-mixed GMO free feed
Pastured pork in the freezer at my parents' house (I can go there a couple times a week to grab what I need, but it's kind of a hassle)
I do eat some dairy but mostly cheese and Kerrygold butter. I intend to get a goat at some point and then I may drink milk again, but regular milk hurts my stomach.

I think my big problem is that my mini fridge does OK with cured meats and things that need to be cold-ish but would be OK not being super cold all the time. I also have a hard time storing leftovers - I used to always have cooked steak around (steak and eggs... oh Lord I miss that breakfast) and other quick proteins but now I can't really do that. So really all I have going for me is eggs, and you get tired of that.

I am, at this point, too reliant on the quickness of carb based food. And a lot of that is due to my lack of time - let's face it, I'm a single mom with three little kids, run a business online, and also living in an unfinished, off grid house trying to finish it... so I really have found I don't have the time for lots of meal preparation. I'm still heating water on the stove when I need hot water, so small menial things just take a long time around here.

I may be stuck between a rock and a hard place, but I thought I'd throw this out there and see what y'all think and if anyone has any creative solutions. I just know I felt so much better when I was eating a very high amount of steak/meat and animal fat. I just have let that go by the wayside and I need to reclaim it!

You may wish to can your meat.
You can find much information on canning meat which is a great source of protein.
If you do not have a freezer or refrigerator you are talking, canning, curing, drying, or if you live in a place with cold winters you can make a ice house.
The ice house is just freezing buckets of water and storing them in a insulated cooler or room.
Many people I know will by meat on sale such as pork loins and eye of round and can it in pint and half pint jars.
When I lived in Alaska I use to can a great deal of fish. This was our main protein when I lived up north.
So your problem is really a issue with how will you preserve the protein you now desire to eat.

http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/culinary-salts/meat-curing-and-pickling-salts/178/morton-tender-quick/

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/cure_smoke.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/italian-cured-meats.html

https://permies.com/t/2258/food-preservation/preserving-meat-crock-lard-fat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confit

simple techniques for production of dried meat
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6932e/x6932e02.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_house_%28building%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakhchal

Bethany Dutch wrote:
Pastured pork in the freezer at my parents' house (I can go there a couple times a week to grab what I need, but it's kind of a hassle)

A week's worth of frozen meat can do a pretty good job of keeping a fridge/cooler cold & it should last at least a week too. Lard & coconut & olive oil are easily stored. Veggies lasts longer when cool but you can keep canned around as backup.

Your biggest problem will be leftovers but you may have to cook everyday. Luckily, a little protein with fat over greens doesn't take all that long.

Thanks guys! Yeah I think, now that I'm REALLY thinking about this, my biggest obstacle is the amount of meat that I'd ideally eat. Especially beef. I can keep veggies in the mini fridge no problem. I don't really like eating that many veg anyway, my stomach has a hard time with them. I do really well on a diet high in meat, animal fat, with some fruit and a little veg.

I was talking to my mom about this and I thought about that I can use their dehydrator to make beef jerky. Also, I have the belly from the pig that I need to baconize, and when I do that, I'm also going to cure some of the roasts I kept aside (I do them like they were pastrami - they taste phenomenal) and thought I could possibly make some summer sausage or some other kind of sausage that doesn't require refrigeration.

I really want to increase my beef consumption, since I suspect I'm low on iron (supplements don't work well on me, unfortunately), but I may have to wait until fall for that. I can't afford to buy grassfed beef from the store, so may need to wait until my quarter is ready.