Making Banana Pancakes

I stumbled across a recipe for lemon basil cookies on Elana's Pantry website today and I got really excited. See, I recently started an "herb garden" if you can call having three plants in my kitchen window a "garden". I have Peppermint, Thai Basil, and German Thyme. I was all excited to use these herbs on my cooking. The trouble is that I don't use those herbs that often. Now I'm trying to figure out how many cups of water I can put mint in. Finding an unusual recipe to use basil make me excited to use my fresh thai basil. As a side note, this will be my first recipe I'm making from Elana's Pantry site. She always has these drool-worthy recipes posted, but I don't bake often (or when I do it's because I'm trying to come up with a recipe) so I'm super excited to try out one of her recipes tonight.

Lemon Basil Cookies from Elana's Pantry

Shortbread cookie dough...so yummy!

This recipe also has perfect timing since Book Club is this Friday. I started our club in January as part of my New Years Resolution to meet new people. While the club is going great (we have a meeting once a month and actually discuss the book!) the part of "meeting new people" didn't pan out so well. All the people in the club I already know. Not just recently know. I've known these people for years. We still have an awesome time when we meet so it's all good. We all bring snacks to our meetings but siting around watching everyone else eat delicious brownies sucks. Enter lemon basil cookies! They sound interesting and unique, I already have all the ingredients in my kitchen AND I get to use my Thai Basil. Sold. You'll have to go to the link to get the recipe, but I'm posting photos of the cookies I made. They went over okay at the book club. I think they work really well as a shortbread cookie since they are less sweet then other types of cookies. I would make these again with a little more lemon. 

Since blueberries are in season right now at the store I thought it would be fun to work off my Cinnamon Swirl Banana Cupcake recipe and make a simpler pancake recipe from it. I came up with this one and it's officially my favorite pancake recipe! It's perfect and they were delicious. This will probably be a staple weekend morning recipe. Enjoy!

Pancakes with Avocado Baked Eggs

Paleo Blueberry Pancakes 

1 Bananas mashed
2 eggs
1 T melted grass-fed butter (or coconut oil)
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar 
1/2 T Vanilla
1 T coconut flour
1 T Arrowroot flour
1/2 T cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/8 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t gluten free baking powder

1/2 C blueberries
1 T coconut oil for cooking






Blend banana, eggs, melted butter, vinegar and vanilla until smooth and runny (I use a food processor). 

In a small bowl sift coconut flour, arrowroot flour, cinnamon, cloves, salt, baking soda and baking powder together to break up any lumps in the flour. Blend dry ingredients into wet until well blended. Fold in blueberries.

Let the batter rest for 5 minutes while melting coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Spoon pancake batter into your desired sized pancakes. Flip after bubbles form on the surface. 

Ginger rubbed pork shoulder and running.

It's been an interesting start to my week so far. Husband talked me into running a 10K in September. I really don't mind running, but it kills my knees. I'm trying to up my exercise since I tend to do well for a few weeks and then kind of hit a lull. Maybe knowing I have to run 6.2 miles will motivate me to stay on track. As I guessed though, my left knee is killing me already. This may have been a bad idea and I've only gotten past day 1 of training. It's going to be a long 11 weeks.

So I have been a bad blogger for the past week. It really isn't easy to learn how to keep up with making and posting recipes. Last week was busy so I ended up making some of our staple items (burgers, roast chicken and veggies). I did, however, make this AMAZING Ginger Rubbed Pork Shoulder. I was surprised that it turned out so well since I just grabbed spices from my cabinet. I hope someone else tries it and lets me know if they like the recipe since it was super easy to make!

Spice rub on the roast

Ginger Rubbed Pork Shoulder

Ingredients

-Bone in pork shoulder roast

Spice Mix
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp powdered ginger
- 1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp white pepper

Sauce
- 1 Tbl coconut aminos
- 1/4 tsp fish sauce
- 1/2 Tbl toasted sesame oil

This recipe came about because I found this beautiful pork shoulder roast at the store this weekend and Husband loves Chinese food and nothing else mostly.

Directions
The night before cut cross lines across the entire roast to help the seasoning permeate the meat. Rub in the spice mixture all over the meat and then wrap the meat in plastic wrap. Let sit in the fridge overnight.
Place in the crock-pot with 1/4 cup water and a splash of coconut aminos. Cook for 10 hours on low. Slice roast and plate. Drizzle with the sauce on the plate to finish.

I made this really simple because Husband isn't a fan of other flavors, but if this was just for me I would have added chopped onion into the crock-pot. I made cauli-rice for me and brown rice with veggies for Husband to go with this. It was a super simple meal and was amazing tasting!

I also forgot to take a photo of the end product, so I guess everyone will have to take my word for it that it was pretty. It was, I promise.

It's getting unusual in here

I don't normally bake treats (even those without sugar) since I lack the life skills necessary to stop after one serving. But since it's a holiday weekend (that would be the 4th of July if anyone wasn't aware) and Husband is really good about not eating junk food at home, I thought I would be nice and bake him something. I let him pick whatever he wanted and of course he chose cinnamon coffee cake (out of the box). He prefers box mixes to my homemade ones. Which is probably because I really don't think we even have wheat flour in our house right now...we might not even have sugar now that I think about it.

The problem is that I also enjoy baked goods, so I'm running interference and making myself Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins (with no added sweetener) so I'll have something yummy to eat as well. And lets face it, the holidays are meant for eating, right? I don't know a holiday that isn't centered around food. If you follow me on Pinterest, I have a board entitled "Paleo Treats: I shouldn't even have this board". Well sometimes I like treats, and that's what this board is for. I went through a bunch of recipes for muffins and banana breads and came up with this recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins. Since I don't bake often and I invented this recipe myself, here's hoping for the best!

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins (Paleo)
Batter:
2 Bananas mashed
2 eggs
1/4 cup cashew butter (or other nut butter)
2 T grass-fed butter (melted)
1 T Vanilla
2 T coconut flour
2 T Arrowroot flour
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t allspice
1/8 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t gluten free baking powder

Swirl:
1 Tb coconut oil melted
1/2 Tb cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix bananas, eggs, nut butter, melted butter and vanilla until bananas are runny with very few lumps. In a separate bowl combine coconut flour, arrowroot flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

Slowly add dry mixture into wet ingredients making sure to break up any lumps in the coconut flour. Coconut flour is REALLY absorptive so let the batter sit for 5 minutes or so and it will thicken up.

Divide batter into 6 muffins. As a side note for anyone who bakes with regular flour, GF baked goods stick to everything when you bake them. So use those metal muffin liners or the silicone ones. Basic paper liners with stick to your muffins and then you end up with only like half a muffin when you try to take them out! Learned that the hard way a few times.

So the last step is to add the cinnamon swirl part. Melt coconut oil (or butter) and stir in cinnamon. Then drizzle on top of muffins and use a toothpick to make a swirl pattern on them.

Bake in the over for 15 to 20 minutes.

These were some of the best paleo muffins I have mede yet. I think the blend of coconut flour and arrowroot flour make these much more cake-like then ones I've made before. Since I don't eat sugar the bananas were enough to sweeten the batter, but you could always add in a little honey to up the sweetness. And I know a lot of people wont believe me, but since these muffins are the correct texture, you could pass these off as regular muffins. I promise :)

I apologize for the lack of photos for this recipe, I apparently wasn't in the mood to snap pics so I only have the one.

Zoodles and Pickles. Not together but that would be delicious.

Today I'm posting my recipe for Sesame Ginger Pork Zoodles (or fried rice for husband who has the palet of a toddler and will not try zoodles). We're also going to look at my pickles. Isn't that exciting? No? Just me then.

Check out my pickles! It's been a little over three days. I had to scrap off the scum that was forming on the top of the pickles. But don't worry, Alton Brown says that's ok! It's only kind of gross. Now I have to wait three more days. The anticipation!

Alton Brown's Pickle Recipe <--- In case you don't believe me about the scum.

On to dinner topic. Zoodles. Zoodles are one of my favorite basic evening food...mostly because I really like saying zoodles. It rolls right off the tongue and like a child, the more I say it the better the word gets.

So Zoodles are just noodles made out of zucchini or yellow squash. These are perfect this time of year because they are currently in season (which is why I have 6 in the crisper in my fridge from my CSA box). These are perfect as a substitue for pasta/noodles/or rice in most dishes. Husband loves Chinese food, so I make him rice with veggies and just use zoodles in my dishes. And in case anyone is wondering: yes, it gets a little exhausting cooking two meals most nights.

So I really want one of these to make my noodles, but I haven't gotten permission to buy another kitchen gadget yet. I'm working on it. I think the rule should be when husband expands his tattoos, I should get a kitchen gadget. Sounds like a compromise.

Noodle Maker

Sesame Ginger Pork Zoodles

2 zucchini or yellow squash (or mix and match)
1 T coconut oil
1/2 Lb ground pork
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger (or powdered if you don't have fresh)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
dash of Chinese Five Spice (optional)
dash of sea salt
2 T coconut amnios
1/4 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

So since I don't have a fancy noodle maker gadget, I use my julian peeler to make my squashes in to thin noodle-like strips. Hence forth known as Zoodles.

Melt coconut oil in a pan over medium heat. Brown ground pork in the pan with ginger, garlic powder, Chinese five spice and salt. Once meat is almost cooked through, add in zoodles, coconut amnios and fish sauce and cook everything until the zoodles are soft (I like mine starting to get the soggy, so I cook mine longer). If you like zucchini not soft then cook a short amount of time, like 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and then add in the sesame oil and stir. Garnish with sesame seeds. Yummy.

This is one of our go to meals most weeks.

And yes, I did eat my dinner out of a giant plastic mixing bowl. I didn't want to dirty another dish. And it's classy.

Pickles and liver...but not together

On the weekend I try to cook an abundance of things to help last through the week= less work when I'm tired later on. I posted this weeks menu the other day and this morning I started one thing on my menu and then began Operation Pickles.

Superfood Sausage Meatballs...eerrr.... meat chunks? Yeah so I was feeling lazy this morning after my 8 am run to Whole Foods. You'll see what I mean.

Here is what I mixed up

Superfood Chunks

Yeah I know that title's gross but it's what I made

1 lb grass-fed ground beef
1 lb pastured ground pork
1 lb of chicken livers ((hence the superfood and I expect the grossoutness (yeah that's a new word) of other people)) <-- Double parenthesis? I think so.
Favorite sausage seasoning (mine is a blend of white pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, fennel seeds and salt). You can use any type of blend or just throw in like 1 tsp of all your favorite spices. You could easily make these Asian with garlic and ginger with some fish sauce or Mexican with cumin and chili powder. So many options!

All you do is puree the livers in a food processor with all the seasoning and then mix into the other 2 lbs of ground meat. Now, if you want to be all fancy you can make these into meatballs. I was feeling lazy, so I spread the mixture in a 9x11 pan. I put them in the oven at 400 degrees and cooked for about 40 minutes. After they cooled I cut them into squares and now I have lunch this week. Easy peasy.

Pickles

Now for my fun experiment! Fermenting my own pickles. There is an easier (faster) way to make pickles with vinegar but I'm going old school and used a salt/water solution and good old waiting to make mine. There are many many different ways to make pickles. But I used this plan from Mark's Daily Apple website

Mark's Daily Apple Pickles

This is also one of my favorite blogs to follow.
I tripled the recipe to make three jars of dill pickles and added thyme from my herb garden into one jar to see how that goes. Basically in 3-10 days I should have three jars of dill pickles. Exciting? I think so! Just don't tell Husband I'm fermenting things in the kitchen.

Welcome Back...me!

So I started this blog in January and then only made it like a week and a half before failing. Yea, New Years Resolution!!! But now I can put to use one of those life lessons: If at first you don't succeed... eat bacon. It makes everything better. That's a personal motto. Feel free to use it.

Over the past few months I've started a new job, moved apartments, traveled to Ireland and fallen off the Paleo wagon and gotten back on again and again. I honestly feel SOOO much better when I eat better. So I've been super focused on eating REAL food for a few weeks and decided to retry this whole blog thing since I'm starting a new project this weekend. I've also incidentally lost around 10 lbs since focusing on eating only real food over the past few weeks. So on the exciting agenda this weekend is making my own pickles the good old fashioned way (read: no vinegar). Old-school fermentation happening in my kitchen this weekend and I couldn't be more excited. Hey, I know a lot of people who go on and on about brewing home beer, so I think pickles deserve a shout out for being amazing. Also I needed something to use some of the herbs in my new garden before they die. And they will die. I'm not too good at plants. Unless it's Plants vs. Zombies and then I rock at plants.

So coming up this week I'll be cooking the following menu for dinner incase anyone cares :)

Friday: Bangers and Cauli-mash (thanks to Ireland for this being my new favorite dish)
Saturday: Sausage and Squash Hash with eggs
Sunday: Sesame Beef Stir Fry
Monday: Italian stuffed zucchini boats
Tuesday: Roast Chicken
Wednesday: Sliders with avocado & BACON!
Thursday: BACON! wrapped chicken thighs

Lunches: Superfood Sausage Meatballs (warning: might contain a squeamish ingredient)

I'll be posting some of these recipes on the blog with photos through the weekend and week!

Goal: don't fail at blog

Day 9: Chili Round Deux

Well I haven't written for a few days, it's been a busy weekend...and I took a nap yesterday afternoon instead ha.

So yesterday evening was a little disappointing because we tracked all the way to the Roller Derby to find that it was SOLD OUT! Who knew they were so popular. So we'll try again when they have their next bout. And we'll get tickets ahead of time. Boo! But I still got to spend the evening chatting with two good friends and eating delicious green curry at Siam Square in Fountain Square. So all is well.

Today is my second Sunday cook up since I started blogging, so we'll be trying some new recipes and continuing my hunt for the perfect Paleo Chili!

I started off my morning with a hearty breakfast of Applegate farms bacon, eggs and browned sweet potatoes with cumin...delicious!

Today's cook-up:
Ultimate Paleo Chili
Slow-Cooker Italian Pork
Quiche as usual
roast veggies

Slow-Cooker Italian Pork:
Check out the recipe: Slow-Cooker Italian Pork by Melissa Joulwan.
I used a different cut of pork (loin instead of shoulder) since that's what they had on sale at the store.
I also didn't have anymore rosemary in my spice cabinet, so I subbed thyme and I threw in three pieces of bacon into the bottom of the slow cooker before I put in the pork. Other then that this should be a super easy recipe. It was pretty delicious but a little dry. The recipe says to pour out the liquid halfway through cooking so that you get a better crust on the outside, but I think that made the pork dryer. Next time I would leave the liquid in the pot for moister meat.

Mashed Cauliflower:
To make this dish I cut up a head of cauliflower into chunks and put in a pot and cover with water. Boil until you can pierce the cauliflower easily with a fork. Then I drain the liquid and put the cauliflower into a food processor with about 1 1/2 Tbs coconut oil with a little bit of salt, thyme and garlic powder. Blend until smooth.

Ultimate Paleo Chili:

I follow Robb Wolf's website (pretty big in the Paleo world) and they recently had a chili cook-off and posted the winning recipes. Chili Contest. This site has the links to all the recipes. I'm making Ultimate Paleo Chili submitted by Holly Gary because it seems like a basic recipe with a few twists! It has 1 1/2 Cups of coffee in it AND pumpkin pie spice! This made me very excited! The only change I made was I used 1 lb grass fed ground beef and 1 lb New Zealand ground lamb.

Ingredients:

2 lbs lean ground beef (good) or grass-fed ground 
beef (best)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 28oz can tomato pureé
1 – 14oz can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups coffee (substitute with broth if you prefer)
3T chili powder
2T cumin
1T oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie seasoning (substitute with 1tsp cinnamon + 1tsp nutmeg)
1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)
1 tsp sea salt + sprinkle
1 tsp pepper + sprinkle
1 T coconut oil

Instructions: Sauté onions and bell peppers in coconut oil over med-high heat in a large dutch oven or soup pot. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. About 5 minutes.

Add beef and garlic and cook until brown. About 7  minutes.

Add tomato pureé, tomato sauce, coffee and spices. Bring to a bowl, then reduce heat and simmer 1-2 hours.

Enjoy! Makes 6 large servings.

This was a great chili recipe...a little spicy which I like. I think that is because the chili powder I have is a lot spicier then my old chili powder so I forget and keep putting in extra like I used to. I think next time I might try to incorporate this chili recipe with the one I made last week with the butternut squash and cocoa powder. Lets see how much I can fit in my pot.

Oh and don't worry, I set the smoke alarm off again roasting veggies. Whenever I get a little confidence in my cooking skills I spend five minutes waving a towel at the smoke alarm.

Day 6: Feeling good in the kitchen

So I know I've been kind of obnoxious about my sugar cravings and blah blah blah. So today I'm getting back to what I do best: Cooking! (Oh and I made it through Day 2 with no sugar...go me!)

This morning I has some free time before heading to work, so I dug through the cabinets and thew together dinner in the crock-pot. I always have various types of canned tomatoes (puree, paste, diced) so when I saw a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and tomato paste in the cabinet I thought, "Spaghetti!"
I don't think this counts as a recipe since spaghetti is too easy to make but I'll include it anyways in case someone really doesn't know how to make any type of spaghetti sauce...which is a little crazy.

Whatever you have in the cabinet Spaghetti
1 lbs grass fed ground beef
1 large can of fire roasted tomatoes (or tomato puree or regular diced tomatoes..just not tomato sauce because they usually have sugar and other processed ingredients in it)

1 small can tomato paste
14 oz of broth (I made my own chicken bone broth a few weeks ago and still have it in my freezer so I used that)
                                                1 tsp red pepper flakes
                                                1 Tbl oregino
                                                1 Tbl. basil
                                                1/2 Tbl. garlic powder
                                                1/4 Tbl. onion powder

*all measurements are made up, as I just toss in what looks like a good amount...but this should be about close for anyone who needs more specific measurements)

Throw it all in the crock-pot and set on low until you are ready for dinner.

Pet Peeve: Recipes that say you should cook something in the crock-pot for like 6 hours...who only works for 6 hours!!!???? I always cook everything in the pot on low for about 10 hours because that's how long it takes me to get to work, work all day, and drive home from work. It seems to never really be a problem...except that one time...

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I don't want to hear any "I don't like Brussels sprouts!" You just haven't eaten my sprouts! I quarter mine (Don't throw away the leaves that come loose, that's the best part!) I actually try to pull off a bunch of leaves while I'm cutting them. I toss them all in a roasting pan (leaves and all) and drizzle them with Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast them in the oven at 400 degrees until they are brown and delicious! I usually stir them after 10-15 mins to get them to crisp up on multiple sides. Seriously, people give Brussels Sprouts a bad wrap but they are delicious. On a side note, do you know it's Brussels sprouts (with an "s" at the end)? No "s"= not spelled correctly. I checked the package to make sure... I don't believe you squiggly red line under my word!

Breakfast: Quiche again! A little salmon, 1/4 acorn squash left over from last night and Jello again.
Lunch: Canned Salmon (mixed with olive oil and southwestern spice mix I picked up at the store the other day) an avocado, baby carrots and half a cucumber.
Dinner: Spaghetti squash and sauce with roasted sprouts.

Day 5: Put a bird on it

Sleep: 6.5 hours
Exercise: 5:30 Morning boot camp! Today was a rough shoulder day. Body killers suck and make it difficult for me to wash my hair properly when I can't hold my arms up that long! The downside to morning workouts is that I end up WAY hungrier then usual on boot camp days. So I spent all afternoon thinking about food...but that could be a sugar craving.

Tomorrow Amanda (my bootcamp trainer) is going to do a caliper body fat measurements of me. I'm not really excited about doing this after my terrible two weeks of eating...I'm also not excited about this because I'm really really really ticklish. Like inhumanly ticklish. I'm going to be giggling like a fool tomorrow morning.

Random: So in between the rain storms today a bird landed on the tree right outside our office window and I thought,"put a bird on it" and started cracking up. We recently starting watching Portlandia on Netflix and that show's hilarious! If you haven't watched it, it's basically strange sketches making fun of hipsters (which is apparently all of Portland). One of their first sketches is aptly titled "Put a bird on it" and they make fun of all the things people put birds on (if you don't know what I'm referring to, you're obviously one of those crazy people who don't waste time on Pintrest). So I'm cracking up at this sketch because I would totally put a bird on everything and husband turns to me and says, "You must love this show since it's like watching your life." I told him he was being ridiculous, everyone knows I prefer owls.

Put a Bird on it

Now I want to move to Portland... or Seattle.

ANYWAY!

Day 1 of Sugar Detox...since I've been a bust on the "healthy living" front, I started 21 day sugar restriction to get back in balance. In case anyone wonders: Sugar detox means no added sugar. I can have small amounts of fruit. Also no dried fruit or Paleoized treats. (Not that I know how to make three different versions of paleo chocolate cake in a mug...of course not). I'm not going to lie, I have a sugar withdrawal headache. But that's to be expected since I have been eating chocolate like a fat kid at Halloween. But I packed a good snack today so I can make it through without sticking my face in the candy dish.

Breakfast: Quiche, a little leftover chicken, saute spinach, and jello.
Lunch: Chili and veggies.
Snack: Green apple with 1 Tbl. cashew butter and left over chicken
Dinner: Lazy me made Pad Thai again with the rest of my leftover chicken and cabbage with Pad Thai sauce from a previous post. I also made cinnamon roasted acorn squash for dessert!

I just cut an acorn squash into pieces, rub with coconut oil and then sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Roast in the oven at 450 for about 45 min! It's so good and looks pretty too!

Day 3: Murderous Chocolate Cravings!

Sleep: 6.5 hours
Exercise: Bootcamp at Barkes Fitness! http://www.facebook.com/barkesfitness?fref=ts
You would think waking up at 5:10 most mornings to go workout would suck, but it's actually my favorite part of the day! Today was shoulders and arms? (I'm never good at remembering body parts.) It was my first time doing bench on an incline...turns out I suck at it. The second set of 15 my arms gave out and I required mucho assistance to finish the set. But I always feel accomplished after working out.

Rant of the Day: I do not know what it is about this office, but I spent the past two days with no cravings. Well, I did dream about chocolate cheesecake Saturday night. You know the one from the Cheesecake Factory with the chocolate frosting and chocolate chips in the crust and the giant cookie on top. Oh yeah.  But here I am, on my first day at the office with my "no sugar" rule and I spent most of my morning calculating a way to justify eating a cupcake. In fact, if a serpent appeared to me right now and said he would trade me a lifetime of eating chocolate with no weight gain in exchange for eternal damnation, I would take him up on it. I like warm climates anyways.

See, this is my problem. I have spent ALL DAY thinking about chocolate at work.  It doesn't help that I have to keep this bowl of candy sitting on my desk. So I cheated a little today. I had a small amount of dark chocolate out of the bowl, then I moved the bowl across the entryway. I thought that would help. But then I ate one more piece of dark chocolate. I guess I can't win today. I would like to add that dark chocolate is allowed in the world of Paleo, but seeing as I am trying to get back to an existence not ruled by sweet cravings, I am trying to avoid any kind of added sugar for the first 30 days. We already found out that I cannot control even a small deviation from my healthy eating plan or disaster ensues (see first blog post). So Day 3 was a bust for "no added sugar" but a plus as I stopped myself from eating the entire bowl like last week. See, I do have some self control! Now, if anyone has some ingenious way I can get over my sugar cravings without resorting to murdering for a cupcake, please post in the comment section!

Breakfast: 1/4 of the quiche I made Sunday with about 2 oz. leftover steak from last night
Lunch: 2 cups of Chili, 1 cup baby carrots, 1/2 avacado, and then a little later a banana with 1 Tb. cashew butter... and dark chocolate
Dinner: The rest of my leftover steak seared with Southwestern spices (bought a spice mix at the store today...and I think it's my new favorite!). Served with kale chips and reheated roasted veggies from yesterday.

Dessert: Raspberry Gelatin  (not raspberry Jello= Sugar). Gelatin, made from animal collagen...yummy. Bone products are good for "gut healing." and are recommended a lot in the Paleo sphere. Instead of using Jello which is sugar and more sugar. I purchase unsweetened gelatin and add in flavors like herbal teas or raspberries! It's delicious. I was out of coconut milk so I used Chamomile tea instead. This is the recipe I got from Mark's Daily Apple Blog:

Raspberry Coconut Gelatin Dessert

• 1 tablespoon unsweetened, powdered gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 can of coconut milk (13.5 ounces)
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
Soften the powdered gelatin by pouring it into the cold water.
Heat 1/2 cup of coconut milk.
Add the hot coconut milk to the gelatin and stir until the gelatin dissolves.

In a blender, blend the remaining coconut milk with the raspberries and vanilla. Pour into the bowl with the gelatin. Stir.
Chill in an ice bath first to speed up the thickening process (like in the salmon recipe) or just pour into small dishes or ring molds. Refrigerate until firm

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/salmon-mousse-gelatin-ring-and-raspberry-coconut-gelatin-dessert/#ixzz2JJBRJSbP

Anyone know how to get over sugar cravings related to stress eating?

Day 2: Cooking up a storm

Sleep: 8 hours

Exercise: None...unless extreme cooking counts!

So I set off the fire alarm in our apartment again. It doesn't help that they installed the fire alarm about three feet away from the oven. So every time I do something like say, roast a chicken, I probably piss off the neighbors. But as husband says as he stands on the couch and waves smoke away from the fire alarm with a kitchen towel, "It sounds like Sunday"

The most inconvenient part of only eating non-processed foods is that you cant really just grab and go meals. No more cereal in the morning or lunch on the go. This means I need a lot of food ready to eat or else it's too easy to cheat after a rough day. Enter in Weekly Sunday Cook-up. Every Sunday I spend an obscene amount of time in the kitchen (which also doubles as the living room since our place is so small) and I cook...a lot. Today's cook-up is the following:

1. Chili in the crock-pot (this will be lunch for most of the week)
2. Roasted Squash (zucchini and yellow squash with coconut oil and thyme...taste very pizza like)
3. Roasted carrots and parsnips (Olive Oil, garlic powder and ginger)
4. Crustless Quiche
5. Roast Chicken

Chili: Everyone has their favorite Chili recipe, but when you switch over to paleo and realize that you can't have beans then it takes a little creativity to get a good hearty chili recipe (that's not just tomatoy meat). I'm still experimenting with mine. Today's version
1 lb beef
1 onion (diced)
1 acorn squash (cubed)
1 red bell pepper
2 carrots
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
chili powder
salt
paprika
melted bakers chocolate (I threw in one square of unsweetened chocolate, I love it in chili!)

I just throw it all in the crock-pot on low and let it cook all day. I can pack this for lunch with half an avocado for topping and raw veggies on the side. I hope it turns out ok (not that I've ever eaten bad chili)

Roast Veggies: I prefer veggies to be cooked, so I drizzle them with olive oil or coconut oil, add some seasoning and then throw them in the oven at 450 degrees until they look done. Then I just reheat them for dinners for the next couple of day.

Crustless Quiche: I got the basic recipe from the BalancedBites site by Diane Sanfilippo. Her cook book Practical Paleo has great recipes and food plans for someone starting out on paleo. Here is the link to her recipe:
http://balancedbites.com/2010/06/easy-recipe-crustless-quiche-with-summer-squash.html

I tend to use whatever veggies I have on hand for quiche.
Today's mix:
1 large zucchini (shredded and squeezed dry)
1 large sweet potato (for added carbs I need after Bootcamp class)
2 carrots (shredded)
I mix this with 12 beaten eggs
throw in some sage and garlic powder
bake at 350 until it starts to brown on top.

I cover this pan and cut out a piece each morning for breakfast and reheat it. Super fast and easy way to have eggs and veggies for breakfast.

Roast Chicken:
I read this recipe on yahoo Friday afternoon but now I can't find it on the website. Oh well. It was super easy so I'll wing it.
4 whole cloves of garlic
1 lemon cut in half
thyme and rosemary
Stuff these all in the cavity of the chicken and then roast in the oven at 500 degrees (yes, that's 500!) Cook for 15 min. per lb of chicken! So it should only take an hour or so and then I'll have a crispy roasted chicken! Oh, and if you can you might want to remove the batteries out of your fire alarm while making this chicken. Unless you have someone who is skilled at fanning a fire alarm.

Breakfast: eggs, roasted acorn squash with cinnamon and sauteed spinach with cinnamon topped with walnuts and apricots.

Lunch: Roast chicken with roasted carrots and parsnips. Also had a banana with cashew butter for desert.

Dinner: Chili with avocado.

Snack: In honor of our new TV/ cold weather, we stayed in an watched bad horror movies all day which means Kale Chips again! Salty snacks and gore go so well together. I love it when the blonde dies first :)

Day 1: Smells like cabbage

Day 1                                                                                          

Sleep: 8 hours (gotta love the weekends!)

Exercise: 30 min. fast walk on inclined treadmill (easing back into it)

Breakfast: Coffee (black of course... and strong). Herring Snacks (that explains the fish smell) two eggs cooked in coconut oil and reheated butternut squash sprinkled (or covered... because I'm a little heavy handed) with Cumin.  Cumin is my favorite spice and if you have never tried in on squash or sweet potatoes, you are missing out. Also, don't tell husband I ate Herring in the apt. He hates that I eat "smelly" foods. But he was still sleeping, so maybe he wont notice...the cats sure did. "No kitty, my Herring Snack!" 

Lunch: Pad Thai and banana with sunbutter! So I love love love Pad Thai but sadly it's made with noodles and peanuts and soy sauce, "Oh my!" so it's a no go. Until, that is, I found my savior of interesting Paleo foods, Melissa Joulwan, author of Well Fed and one of my favorite Paleo bloggers. She has a recipe in her book for "Sunshine Sauce". I hate her for it. I wish I'd never heard of Sunshine Sauce. Now I eat Pad Thai weekly...maybe more then that. Her book is amazing because she has all these great Moroccan and Middle Eastern spice mixes that make me not miss non-paleo foods. Seriously. The Pad Thai is so amazing, I don't miss that old stuff. Damn her and her delicious sauces! Anyway... here is the link to the recipe on her page: 

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/07/21/sunshine-sauce/

It turns out that I like my Pad Thai on the lazy side of things. So here is my cheat/lazy version of Pad Thai sauce.  

1 T. of Sesame Butter (you can buy this at a regular grocery store, but I get mine at Whole Foods. Make sure there is no added sugar!)

Pour in some Coconut Aminos (Better then Soy Sauce, I promise...and also bought at Whole Foods)

add a pinch of ginger

sprinkle in some garlic powder

crush in some red pepper flakes

Mix.

Call it a day.

Yeah, I don't usually measure the sesame butter either. I just spoon some into a bowl. I don't measure because I enjoy the added suspense of maybe adding too many pepper flakes and making it too spicy. What can I say, I walk on the wild side.

I love to mix the sauce with cabbage cooked until tender in coconut oil and shrimp. For the record, pre-shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw that you can buy in the produce section save my sanity. I go threw a few bags a week. No washing, cutting or shredding makes cooking fast dinners so much less messy and faster!   Maybe throw in a few handfuls of spinach into the pan while when you add the shrimp in until it wilts. And you end up with this lovely creation:

Oh yeah, looking good! See, I don't even miss peanuts...or delicious creamy Skippy peanut butter... eaten right out of the....ummm.... that was awkward. I might have lied when I said I didn't miss peanut butter.

Well, this afternoon husband and I traveled down to Best Buy since he has been hording gift cards for a year from there. We went to peruse the Blue Ray collection and I suggested that we go glance at new TVs since he has been wanting a new one forever. I figured we would just price some TVs and get and idea of what we might want down the line.  TRANSLATION: We bought a 60" LED TV. IT'S HUGE! I mean our apartment is only two rooms. The couch is literally four feet in front of this giant wall of a TV! And as we're setting it up husband says, "See, we have more room. We could have gotten the 80 inch."  (insert my deadpan stare)

Moral of the story is, we now have life sized people on the TV in our living room.

Dinner: We had dinner with my parents in Greenwood at our favorite sushi place. I had sushimi (raw fish). No rice.

In honor of our first movie night with our personal at home movie screen I made my favorite movie snack: Kale chips. Delicious and good for you too! I think he owes me watching a chick flick tonight.

Tomorrow is weekly cook-up Sunday so stay tuned for some cooking madness!

Christmas Tree Trash Brownies

My inner fat kid is judging me.

So I'm sitting at my desk eating a bagel and thinking this has got to stop. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not eat bagels. I don't eat any "non" foods. I'm the obnoxious person who asks for the Gluten Free menu at restaurants and "hold the dairy" and "can I substitute the potatoes for a veggie?" My husband rolls his eyes, my friends poke fun at me for being difficult, I'm pretty sure the waiter spits in my food, but I just ignore it and keep eating Paleo (google it if you don't know what this is...or keep following and you'll eventually figure it out :) ). So like I said, I never eat popcorn until this week hit me. I've been stressed. Very, very stressed. And then all bets were off.

It all started with one dark chocolate hershey's nugget.

Just one nugget.
Then maybe just two.
Then two more
and then I ate:

6 full sized Peanut Butter Cups
4 Kit Kat bars
Skittles
more chocolate nuggets
Vanilla Wafers

Pub Mix (if you don't know what this is you are better off for it...cheesy crunchy goodness)

about 40 animal crackers
The sugar headache came on, but I kept strong.

I went home and realized that I threw the last of our junk food out the night before. See, there was a box of Little Debbie Brownies. You know the ones with the waxy delicious frosting (shaped like Christmas Trees) I had received them as a present from a lady at work and I didn't eat even one Christmas Tree! These have been sitting around m house since before Christmas and no one ate them! So I put them in the trash can the night before. Well that night, I picked the box out of the trash and ate all three Christmas Tree brownies. You heard me right, I ate Christmas Tree Trash Brownies! Out of the trash can. "Hello Low Point, lets be friends"

See the problem is that I have great will power until I make one little error and then I'm not just off the wagon, I killed the horse that pulled the wagon and used the wagon wood to make a fire pit with which to toast marshmallows. So my out of control binge chocolate eating has spread across three days (and may or may not have included Chinese Pot Stickers and Shrimp Fried Rice last night and four cookies at work today...oh wait, that was five cookies because I bought a Oatmeal Raisin Cookie at Zoup today as well).

So the moral of my story is that I'm starting over again. A re-boot of my nutrition and exercise plan. Not because I want to be skinny or perfect but because I want to be happy. I want to be healthy. I want to be content. So that is what this blog is, my musing, my recipes, my trials and my failures as I find a path to content. Oh and I love to cook. So look for some great recipies and photos as I invent in the kitchen! Here's to a Sanguine life.

P.S. I can't spell. Do not message me with spelling or typing errors. I do not care. If it bothers you, don't read my blog.