Twisted Paleo

Louis Park.

Twisted Paleo is selling Paleo Baked Goods, Sweet and Spicy Mixed Nuts and Sweet and Spicy Cashews (a Paleo version and a Vegan/Paleo version of each), and Paleo Rubs at 7400 Hwy 7, #109, St.

06/03/2025

It has been a while since I last posted and I’m guessing people are wondering if there is still a Twisted Paleo. There definitely is, and late last year I finally cracked the code on Paleo Brownies! They are fudgy and moist with a rich chocolate flavor and a crinkly top, and because I use almond flour (which is simply ground almonds) they are much lower in carbs and higher in protein than standard brownies. There is nothing about them that would make you think they are gluten free.

I’ve been working on Paleo Brownies since 2017 so after making several hundred Brownies I was elated to finally have my recipe! After baking several batches to give away a lot of these to about everyone I know, the consensus was that they were superb, gluten free or not. Straight away I started working on a plan for producing and marketing them since they really belong in a retail environment.

They say in real estate it’s all about location. But when it comes to starting a commercial food business, I learned during covid that it depends a great deal on the economy. In 2019 I was approached by a number of stores at my markets wondering if I would be interested in selling my Sweet and Spicy Paleo (with butter) and Paleo/Vegan Mixed Nuts (with coconut oil) in their stores after moving into a commercial kitchen, and would I consider a version with just cashews.

I started doing markets again in 2021 and even with the addition of my Sweet and Spicy Cashews that people loved after sampling them, I sold a fraction of what I had sold in 2018 and 2019. After three years of doing markets, I decided I needed to wait for a better economy before investing in making the transition from cottage food to commercial and instead focus on other things – like my Brownies.

After developing a plan for introducing first my brownies, followed by my Sweet and Spicy Cashews, and then Sweet and Spicy Pecans, I concluded our economy again was unsuitable for starting a small business.

Another option for me was to sell these as a cottage food producer IF this turned out to be the year the MN legislature finally passed the bill allowing us to use food delivery services and ship our products within the state. We’ve been trying for years to get this passed and with 34 states now permitting this, our chances looked very good. I was elated when I read it had passed last month, but was stunned to see it wouldn’t go into effect until August 2027! In the past all cottage food bills have gone into effect in August of the year it passed.

Stay tuned – Twisted Paleo is working on much more, and I will start posting again on a regular basis.

08/28/2024

I was planning on spending maybe a month this summer working on projects at my farm, but they just seemed to keep multiplying. I had created a lot of summertime menus last winter but it wasn’t until last Friday when I hosted my first event since last spring. This was a birthday party for a friend who last year discovered she needed to follow a low oxalate / low goitrogens diet. This is the most challenging of all the diets I cook for, especially since the foods also need to be Paleo/Primal for me to eat, and there is not a lot of common ground between them.

Finding foods we can both have would have been especially difficult had I not expanded my diet last year to include some Primal Diet (Paleo with dairy) foods since dairy has never been an issue for me. When I was only eating Paleo foods I was making a lot of foods that included coconut, something she can’t have. In the past I was only making frozen yogurts and ice creams that contained coconut milk or cream. But now I was able to make Frozen Strawberry Greek Yogurt, which everyone loved.

One benefit of spending so much time at my farm this summer was my neighbors’ wonderful herb garden that they kindly share with me. I used to love arranging my mother’s beautiful flowers, but now I enjoy making basil bouquets. I discovered that freshly picked basil can be stored in a jar of water (or vase), covered loosely with a plastic bag, and it will keep for 1 to 2 weeks. Just keep it out of sunlight, change the water every few days and wash it only before using. Amazing!

One of the first things I noticed about the SCD and GAPS gut health diets when I started baking for them in 2022 is that they include several cheeses (including Parmesan) in small quantities. This was another reason I made the decision to add some dairy products to my diet last year. Last week I made my first pesto in several years using Parmesan cheese, which was downright exciting!

While I learned to enjoy Paleo pesto (especially when I discovered nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavor), it can’t compare to one made with freshly grated Parmesan. The birthday gal loves cheese and does well with moderate amounts, so I knew I needed to make real deal pesto. The only change I made from my old recipe was replacing pine nuts with blanched almonds (skins removed). She avoids pine nuts but does eat small amounts of almonds and I like to avoid almond skins since they are high in phytic acid which can prevent your body from absorbing minerals like calcium and potassium. I couldn't tell the difference with this swap. Another replacement for pine nuts that works well in pesto is roasted unsalted cashews.

One of the foods I missed the most after going Paleo was pasta. I bought a spiralizer once zoodles became popular and I really like these, especially given their low carbs, but I was thrilled when cassava pasta came out. I loved that it came in a variety of shapes, and while it didn’t have the same bite as the duram wheat pasta I grew up on, that didn’t matter. It was close enough.

Because cassava has high levels of goitrogens, this is not something my friend can have, but she does well with rice and brown rice. So for the first time I used brown rice pasta and made Pasta with Pesto Sauce, one of my favorite pasta dishes from the past, and it did not disappoint. I can see why it’s considered the best tasting gluten-free pasta. But even though rice is gluten free, it is still a grain and something I will only eat occasionally. I was strict Paleo for years before I learned the founder of the diet (Dr. Loren Cordain) said the diet only requires 85% compliance which means you can have three meals a week that can be whatever you want.

For our beverage I made Watermelon Mango Mocktails, which starts with muddling mint leaves and thin lime slices in the glasses and filling them about 2/3 full with ice. Add mango juice topped with lime-flavored sparkling water. Then slowly pour watermelon juice (made from a seedless watermelon pureed in a blender and strained to remove any watermelon pulp) around the inside edge of each glass. Use about 3-4 oz each of mango juice, lime sparkling water and watermelon juice. They are very pretty if you leave the layers separate, but I think they taste better if gently stirred. I only garnished mine with mint leaves, but garnishing with lime slices and watermelon slices too would be a nice touch.

04/17/2024

Twisted Paleo ETC

I’ve been working on my reinvention of Twisted Paleo, which I am now calling Twisted Paleo ETC. It includes:

All Gluten Free and either Paleo or Paleo/Dairy* (often options for both)
* plus some rice dishes and nightshade vegetables
* plus options for some items that replace Paleo sugars with Keto sweeteners
Many items are Dairy Free, Egg Free, or Nut Free
Three Healing Gut Diets: AIP, GAPS, SCD
Vegan, Keto, Low-Carb, Primal, Mediterranean, Whole30

While rice is a grain and therefore not allowed on the Paleo Diet, it is gluten free and also considered safe by the Primal Diet provided everything else is going well in your diet. I started eating rice (sushi rolls!) and wild rice in small quantities after being strict Paleo for about 6 years and noticed no ill effects. It is such an integral part of just about every ethnic cuisine that I felt I needed to include it as an option.

For as long as I can remember Thai food has been my favorite. Once I decided to include rice items, I started thinking about all the Thai foods I’ve been missing since 2016 when I went Paleo. I’ve been making Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles with Paleo compliant noodles, but what a treat to occasionally have these with rice noodles. And as much as I like lettuce wraps and coconut wraps, they don’t measure up to fresh spring rolls in rice paper wrappers.

I’ve made a lot of dishes with cauliflower rice that I’ve really enjoyed but I never attempted Thai Basil Cauliflower Fried Rice since it can’t be made (successfully) without oyster sauce. If you look at the ingredients on a bottle of this, the majority of them are not Paleo. I once tried a recipe to make my own, but it tasted nothing like oyster sauce. However, with the decision to start making rice, I searched again and came across two recipes that sounded promising. I merged them into one and could not believe how much l liked it. So last week I decided to try Thai Basil Fried Rice, one version with cauliflower rice and shrimp and one with jasmine rice and chicken.

I was having a friend over for lunch and was expecting to make the cauliflower version for her since she has two autoimmune diseases. I keep a list of foods that people I cook for either can’t eat or don’t care for (top items include cilantro, celery, mushrooms, coconut), and looking at my list for her I thought this would probably work well.

When I asked her if anything had changed with her diet she said she is now avoiding fruits and vegetables that are high in goitrogens and oxalates. I was familiar with oxalates but not goitrogens, which are items that interfere with thyroid function. I was surprised to find that these include foods I’ve always considered healthy and are included on the initial stage of the Autoimmune Protocol, foods such as cauliflower, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, strawberries, peaches, and many more. She said she has no issues with rice or any of the ingredients I told her were in the fried rice except the Thai peppers, which I served on the side. Even though she had assured me she would be fine eating this, I was still relieved when I heard the next day that everything had agreed with her since I know she is never a hundred percent sure this will be the case.

The next day I remade the dish with cauliflower rice and shrimp. I had not kept any of the rice version so I couldn’t compare the two, but I really think I enjoyed it just as much, especially since this time I had stir fried the Thai peppers with the garlic which infused the heat throughout the dish. I also appreciated the fact that this was much lower in carbs than the one with jasmine rice and happy to freeze several servings for future meals.

Below are Thai Basil Chicken Fried Rice and Thai Basil Shrimp Cauliflower Fried Rice (which is also Keto)

Address

Saint Louis Park, MN

Telephone

+16122476591

Website

https://www.twistedpaleo.com/

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My Story

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I had a small catering business called Cuisine with an Accent. I had traveled a lot for work and always sought out the best ethnic restaurants, plus all the wonderful ones here in the Twin Cities. Then I worked on recreating those dishes for family and friends. After a number of years of being asked to cater parties I decided to make the leap.

I was trying to decide if I wanted to make catering a full-time career rather than doing it nights and weekends. But when I took a job at FSI International and they offered to pay for my masters in Business Communications at St. Thomas that was the end of my catering career. I always wanted to eventually return to the foodservice industry but wasn’t sure in what role.

I continued to host many several-course meals for family and friends to test recipes, but since spring 2016 they have been all Paleo. I didn’t tell my guests I was serving only Paleo until afterwards and they were surprised, especially when it came to baked goods and desserts. They found it hard to believe it was possible to make a Paleo cream cheese frosting that has no cream cheese or dairy of any kind.

In June 2016 I had regenerative stem cell injections as part of my recovery from a serious car accident. At the first meeting with my orthopedic doctor, he said he wanted me on the Paleo diet for life because it is anti-inflammatory. It didn’t take long before I noticed I wasn’t getting tired in the afternoon, which made it easier to give up some of my favorite foods, like popcorn and rice.

I was able to convert a lot of my recipes to Paleo and in less than two years, I had enough recipes to open a Paleo catering business, restaurant or bakery. But all of these sounded too daunting. In January 2018 I learned about the cottage food program in Minnesota, and in February I was certified to prepare foods at my farm in Howard Lake to sell at farmers markets and other community events.

When I was growing up, I discovered there were two jobs you could do on a farm where you could watch TV – cook/bake and iron, so these were ones I volunteered for at a young age. My mother was an excellent cook and baker, and won many prizes for her baked goods at the Wright County Fair, but she had other things she would rather spend her time on, so she was happy to turn the kitchen over to me. My mother was a very patient and encouraging teacher and never complained if I had a failure. By 12, I was planning the menu and making the grocery list for the week.

My parents remodeled their kitchen in the early 50s, and it was considered ahead of its time, at least for a farm in Howard Lake. The appliances have been replaced a few times, but it still looks much the same. I’m sure I love it as much as my mother did when it was new.