Pizza!

Boy, it's been a while, eh?  Sorry for the long absence.  I've been busy, busy, busy!  

So... I haven't had pizza in over a year and I really miss it.  I don't miss a lot of the foods that I no longer eat, but I do miss pizza!  I even make pizza inspired bowls when I go to Ghengis Grill (pepperoni & other meats with peppers, onions, spinach, garlic...etc. and I use the tomato based sauce).  Yes, I know there are ton of "gluten-free pizza crust recipes" out there.  I'm really not interested in those.  

I found this recipe for Primal Eggplant Pizza from The Domestic Man, I really wanted to try it.  Yeah, I know dairy isn't paleo (it's primal!), but I thought a small amount of high-quality cheese might not hurt me (it didn't).  

So, I bought a nice looking eggplant from the farmers market and then picked up my favorite toppings:
Italian Sausage (from my fave farm!)
Pizza Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Pepperoni



You'll also need some olive oil and salt & pepper.  You can include any toppings you like.



As the recipe indicates, you want to slice your eggplant and then salt both sides of the slices.  These need to sit for 30 minutes.  You'll see the moisture drawing out of them. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425.  

I cooked my Italian sausage while this was going on.

After 30 minutes, rinse your eggplant slices and pat them dry with a paper towel.  Then brush both sides of the slices with olive oil and add salt & pepper (I just liberally added the S&P, didn't measure).  I put them on my cooling rack over my baking sheet and stuck them in the oven.  It took closer to 10 minutes for mine to start to brown.

Then I added the sauce and toppings and cheese (I tried to go light on the cheese) and baked them again until the cheese was bubbly and the pepperoni was starting to crisp.

Overall, this recipe really hit the spot!  I like that the "crust" is made of a vegetable (vs. a bunch of nut flours...etc.). 

Happy Birthday (cookies) to Me!

I made these incredibly easy and tasty cookies from Fast Paleo to share with my co-workers for my Birthday.  OMG!  YUM!  I used Simple Truth organic dark chocolate chips (rather than those njoy life chips that all the paleo peeps seem so fond of).  The Simple Truth chips are larger and tastier.  Oh yeah and half the price.  I like them better.  End of story.  

 This is the My Fitness Pal output per cookie:


Not bad for a COOKIE!

Weekly Cook-up & Banana Bread Muffins

 My weekly cook-up this week wasn't nearly as extensive as last week, but we had several servings of soup left over as well as the spicy pork.  So... on Sunday I cooked the two spaghetti squash that I had in the pantry from the farmers market.  I tossed it all in butter with some garlic powder, salt and pepper and then let it cool and put it in storage containers in the fridge.  I also made a batch of chunky marinara sauce using the recipe I found on Spark Recipes.  Sunday night I sauteed some shrimp and reheated the spaghetti squash by sauteing it in (more) butter with fresh garlic.  

This "shrimp scampi" wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be.  I think I need to do a better job cooking the shrimp next time.   






Monday night I reheated more of the squash using the saute method again and topped it with the chunky marinara.  This has quickly become a favorite dinner for me! 


                                                                                    
 

I also made these banana bread muffins.  I replaced the olive oil with coconut oil and left the walnuts out (because I didn't have enough of them).  I topped one with coconut butter (first time trying coconut butter ever!) and it was really good!  These were a hit!

I've decided to go to CrossFit on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights (and maybe Saturday mornings) for now, so tonight I will cook up the 3lbs of boneless chicken breasts that I have and saute any veggies that are in my fridge.  That should get us through Thursday or Friday.

Catching up...

There's been a lot going on in the last week and half and I haven't even had time to share it all!  

On November 18th I participated in a 3-1/2 hour CrossFit Fundamentals class.  I'm hooked!  I went back the very next day and did a WOD that was spending 30 minutes determining your one rep max deadlift. I had never done a deadlift before, so I had no idea what to expect.  I started with 95lbs (you are only lifting the bar from the floor to a straight standing position, mostly using your lower back muscles and hips to move the weight, allowing for much heavier lifts).  I then tried 115, 135, 145 and finally 155 pounds!  I was proud as a peacock to have lifted that much on my first night!  

My friend Billie & I after we totally
ROCKED the Turkey Day 5k

That was only the beginning of what was to become an incredible week of accomplishments for me!  I had been planning on running the Turkey Day 5k on Thanksgiving morning for the 2nd year in a row and while I had been pretty excited about it, in the weeks leading up to it I felt very unprepared and not ready.  There were over 800 runners!  What a rush!  I was convinced this was going to be one of my worst 5k races.  Last year I finished it in over 35 minutes.  That's about what I expected this year.  You can imagine my shock and astonishment when I finished in 30:06!  That's over 2-1/2 minutes faster than my record.  Also, it was the first time that I have ever ran the entire time.  NO walking!  My next 5k will be under 30 minutes and I will bring home a trophy before the heat of summer in 2013 stops me from running.  Mark my words.

After the race we had Thanksgiving lunch with some of Husband's family.  I had deviled eggs, veggies with homemade ranch, turkey, potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, cranberries and even a paleo cake that his Aunt made for us!  

I have since done 2 more WODs at my local box (CrossFit Jackson) and I felt a sense of accomplishment after each one like never before!  Husband has been CrossFitting since April and since he works 3rd shift, he attends the 7pm class (would be the equivalent of me going at 6am).  Since April, I have been making dinner while he's gone to the gym and when he would get home (after 8pm most times), I would either have already eaten dinner or we would eat together.  He really wants me to workout with him at 7pm, so I had to figure out how to make and eat dinner in that time frame.  Since this is the first week we are trying that schedule, I spent time this weekend cooking up a ton of food so that all of our meals would be ready to heat & eat.  Here's what I made:

Paleo Blueberry Muffins

Chicken Salad (with homemade mayo, grapes, salt & pepper)

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Steak & Chicken Fajitas

Spicy Pulled Pork (I skip the sauce) Served with green beans

Smoked Beef Brisket with steamed broccoli

Beef/Venison Cabbage Soup  

I also made 10 hard boiled eggs and baked a cookie sheet full of bacon.

We are nearly out of boiled eggs and the bacon is gone, so tonight I will fry up a pound of pastured pork sausage together with a dozen eggs and portion it out in the fridge for the rest of the week.  We like to heat it up and top it with Frog Ranch Salsa.

These Blueberry Muffins by PaleOMG were pretty good!  However, an entire cup of almond butter is a lot of money and when I think of it that way, they weren't good enough to warrant that kind of spending for a dozen muffins.  Also, if I were to make them again, I would put an entire cup of blueberries in them because you can never have too many blueberries in your blueberry muffins.

The recipe says it makes 8-10 muffins, but I easily filled all 12 muffin cups.  Also, it didn't say how far to fill the cups.  As you can see, I filled mine about 3/4 full.

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes

I came across this pumpkin pancake recipe on this "Everything Pumpkin" post from PaleOMG.  It's a collection of 19 paleo pumpkin recipes!  Can you say "heaven"?!  Do check it out!  

I had a little canned pumpkin left in the fridge that needed to be used up and I was looking for comfort food.  This hit the spot!

Ingredients

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree

1-2 Tbsp Coconut Flour

2 Tbsp Butter or Coconut oil, melted

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

2 Tbsp Honey or Maple Syrup (this optional!  I used maple syrup)

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 tsp Cinnamon

pinch of Salt

Directions

1. Whisk eggs, pumpkin, vanilla & maple syrup together.

2. Sift pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon & baking soda into the wet ingredients.

3. Melt 2 Tbsp of butter and add into batter.

4. If your batter appears too thin (mine was), add coconut flour. Start with 1 Tbsp and mix well.  Add more  if needed.

5. Heat skillet over medium heat and add grease.

6. Spoon batter onto skillet (I used a 1/3 cup for each pancake).  Once bubbles start to form, flip cake and cook a few minutes on other side.  

7. Serve with desired toppings.  I used butter and a small drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Pizza Muffins

I have hesitated to try anything in the nature of "paleo pizza" because I am afraid it will make me want the real thing.  See, pizza is was one of my very favorite foods!  I love a Pizza Hut Pan Meatlover's!  But, I haven't had real pizza in several months.  And now that I know how gluten and dairy make me feel, I'll probably never eat real pizza again.  For the most part, I am ok with this, but there are times that I would really like to taste pizza again.  So... when I stumbled across this recipe for Pizza Muffins from Civilized Caveman Cooking, I was hesitant to try it.  

I did change up the original recipe a little by adding some pizza sausage toppings to the recipe.  Also, I feel like I didn't chop the sun-dried tomatoes enough and I need to cut them smaller next time.

The combination of the egg and the almond flour in this recipe gives a moist crispiness that is reminiscent of the pan pizza crust from Pizza Hut.  This recipe makes 7 muffins.  I had 3 polished off in a matter of minutes. Husband acted like he didn't like them, but then ate the 4 remaining muffins.  This recipe takes barely any time at all to make and uses mostly ingredients that I normally have on hand.

Ingredients

• 3 Large Eggs

• 2 Tsp Coconut Oil

• 1 Tbsp Ghee (I used butter)

• 2 Tbsp Coconut Milk

• 1/4 Tsp Salt

• 1/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract

• 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

• 1/3 Cup Almond Flour

• 1/4 Cup Pepperoni (I cut mine up into quarters)

• (optional) handful of sausage pizza toppings (found with the refrigerated meats/cold cuts)

• 1/4 Cup Sun-Dried Tomatoes (I chopped mine up, but not small enough)

• 2 Tbsp yellow onion, diced

• 1/8 Tsp Garlic Powder

• 1/8 Tsp Oregano

• 1/8 Tsp Basil

Process

1. Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees F

2. Mix together your eggs, oil, ghee, milk, salt, and vanilla

3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, spices, and baking powder

4. Add your flour mixture to your egg mixture and mix until there are no lumps left

5. Fold in your vegetables and pepperoni

6. Pour into 7 lined cupcake pan and bake for 15 minutes

7. Enjoy

Pumpkin Treats!

I bought a large can of pure pumpkin puree last week and then got busy using it up this weekend!  First, I made these pumpkin bars from Elena's Pantry:

Pumpkin Bars

½ cup pumpkin puree

½ cup agave nectar (I used honey)

2 eggs

1 cup blanched almond flour (I made my own and it wasn't blanched)

¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cloves (I didn't have any cloves, so I used some pumpkin pie spice)

1. In a food processor, combine pumpkin, agave (or honey) and eggs.  Pulse for 2 minutes.

2. Pulse dry ingredients into wet for a full minute, until well combined.

3. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 pyrex baking dish (I just rubbed a little coconut oil all over the inside of mine)

4. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes

5. Serve naked or with whipped cream (see what I did below)

I made a coconut whipped cream by refrigerating about 3/4 of a can of coconut milk (this Golden Star that I found at wal-mart is REALLY thick and works perfect for this!).  I put a splash of vanilla in a metal bowl with the chilled coconut milk and use my beaters to whip it into a whipped cream.  After the cake was cooled, I topped it with this whipped cream.  I wish I had taken picture, they were really good!  I was afraid with all that honey in it, that it would be too sweet, but the "frosting" wasn't very sweet, so the combination was PERFECTO!

Then I made these delicious pumpkin muffins from Balanced Bites.  These were a HUGE hit and I ended up making a second batch after the football game on Sunday.  We shared with some of our paleo friends!  

Ingredients

1/2 C butter or coconut oil, melted (I used coconut oil)

6 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C pumpkin puree

1/4 C honey or maple syrup (I followed the author's advice and used 2 Tbsp each to equal a 1/4 C of sweetener)

1/2 C coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice/nutmeg (again, I used pumpkin pie spice in place of this and the cloves, 1/2 tsp)

pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Grease muffin tray or use paper liners (my first batch stuck to the paper, so I switched to the foil liners for the second batch and that worked MUCH better!)

3. Combine wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl together until well beaten (I used a whisk).

4. Measure dry ingredients into a sifter and slowly sift into the wet ingredients  whisking as you do so that you don't have lumps in the batter. (The batter got really thick as I added the last of the dry ingredients).

5. Divide batter evenly into the muffin tins and bake for apprx. 15-18 minutes or until slightly golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

I also made this pumpkin mug cake from The Preppy Paleo, but it was pretty bland :(

Sweet Treats!

I made this amazing Caramelized Apples & Cinnamon recipe from Clean Eats in the Zoo for some friends this weekend.  It went along with our dinner of Grilled Pork Loin (Husband made this and I have no idea what he put on it other than the spicy brown mustard), french style green beans & sweet potato fries.  The apples were DELICIOUS!  Everyone raved about them and I went to the Farmers Market today to buy more!

I also made this delicious dessert.  It's really just leftover Butternut Squash (reheated) and Banana Ice Cream.  Again, delicious! 

This is my favorite thing to read today:
http://paleononpaleo.com/paleo-quotations-health-1/

This was my lunch today.  It's chicken salad wrapped in lettuce.  YUM!

A Good Dinner & a Not-so-Good Dinner

I made Smoky Country Style Ribs and Cajun Sweet Potato Fries Wednesday  night for dinner.  The ribs were too dry and tough and the fries were too spicy.  The dinner was edible and not awful, but it is not one I will make again.

On a happier note, I found spaghetti squash at the farmers market yesterday and got 2 small ones for only $3!  The lady that grew them told me that would keep a long time, so I figured I'll make them in a week or 2.  I also bought this from her:

I didn't know what to do with it, but her son said he cuts them in half and puts melted butter mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar on it and then bakes it.  I followed his advice, but left out the brown sugar.

I started by cutting the stem off the top and then cutting the squash in half the long way.
Then I scooped the seeds out.

Then I melted some butter and added some cinnamon & nutmeg.  Of course, I didn't measure.

I brushed it all over the insides of both halves.   I put them in a glass baking  dish and covered
them with tin foil.  I baked them on 400 for 55 minutes then took the foil off and baked them another
5 minutes.

Here they are after they are done baking!  We just scooped the meat out and ate them out of the shells!

Overall, the squash was good, but I can see why he put brown sugar on them!  I think they would be delicious hot out of the oven with some banana ice cream.

I also made buffalo wings for dinner last night (paired them with green beans).  They were tasty!  

Recipe Roundup

I've tried 2 new recipes this week and invented a 3rd one!  

I've been wanting to try greens for some time now, but I had a feeling that the traditional southern way of boiling vegetables to death would turn me off.  So, instead I used a great recipe by Whole Life Eating called Pork Loin Chops with Collard Greens.  I actually liked it!  It was best when I took a bite of greens with a bite of the pork.  Husband resisted even trying them and then when he finally did he said they were "disgusting".  I still plan to make them once-a-weekish for myself.  The health benefits are too good to ignore (calcium, folate...etc).

My next new recipe was this Crockpot Ropa Vieja & Cuban Style Rice by PaleOMG.  I left the capers out because I didn't know what they were!  This recipe was good.  Husband wasn't thrilled with the texture of the cauliflower "rice", but overall he liked it.  

Then came my masterpiece!  Strawberry (banana) Ice Cream!  This recipe was inspired by the Banana Ice Cream that we had already been enjoying from time to time.  I simply put frozen sliced bananas, frozen (fresh) strawberries and full-fat canned coconut milk (chilled) in  my new food processor and blended it all together! When I do this again, I will cut the strawberries in half prior to freezing.  Being whole, they required a bit of coaxing with a wooden spoon in between processing.  I left out the cinnamon & nutmeg from the original banana ice cream recipe and I think that was a good decision.  Now I'm dying to try this Cinnamon Sweet Potato Ice Cream from PaleOMG.  We MUST get an ice cream maker!

On my list to make this weekend/next week: 

Meatballs

Marinara Sauce

Spaghetti Squash

Sauteed Shrimp

T-bones

Buffalo Wings

Sweet Tater Fries/Mashed sweet taters

Smoky Country Style Ribs

Crock Pot Lemon Pepper Chicken

Watermelon & Cucumber Salad                                                     

Riding my Own Bike

Yesterday I was riding my own bike for the first time!  So, what did I do?  I kept my training wheels on for the most part.  For dinner I had a Jimmy Johns Unwich with Turkey, tomato, cucumbers, guacamole, mayo and ....CHEESE!  I figured I could make dairy my first reintroduction.  Although, I didn't reintroduce it like the program suggests (eat it at all 3 meals and then see how it effects you for the next 2 days).  I didn't notice any digestive effects, but I did have a brand new zit on my chin when I woke up this morning.  Related?  Maybe.

I also made these last night:

Recipe can be found here:
http://paleomg.com/strawberry-rhubarb-mini-pies/

The only off-plan ingredients are raw honey and vanilla extract.  These little gems have no added sugar (just the honey) and yet are delicious and sweet!  I ate 3 of them and haven't had that usual sugar overload feeling that I normally have when I eat sweets.  I consider these a "guilt-free treat".  Key word being "treat".  These were baked for a special occasion for a special person.  These will not be a weekly (or even monthly) treat.  

The only other thing I've changed since finishing my first Whole30 is that I eat breakfast later in the day now.  I tried to be compliant the entire 30 days and eat my breakfast within 1-2 hours after I woke up, but it was a struggle to get food down that early.  I feel so much better when I eat about 4 hours after I get up.  I think I eat more (calories/fat...etc) this way too.  

Week 3 Wrap-Up

Well, our 3rd weekend of our first Whole30 went pretty well.  We ate at Red Lobster Friday night and both really enjoyed our meals.  So much so that we were still talking about it Saturday afternoon.  He had NY Strip and Lobster with broccoli.  I had a ribeye with crab legs.  We both had salads with no cheese or croutons and we both skipped the butter with our seafood.  

On Saturday we had a house guest from Wisconsin!  For dinner we enjoyed grilled ribeyes, sauteed-shrimp (mine didn't look anything like that picture!), sweet potato fries, sauteed onions & peppers, tomato/cucumber salad and creamed cucumbers.  Our steaks were a little charred so we smothered them in delicious homemade mayo, which our house guest raved about!  Husband did give in and drink 2 beers on Saturday and he felt like crap after it and the next day (no surprise).

Left: w/blueberries
Right: without blueberries 

Before our guest arrived on Saturday, Husband and I had a little bit of banana ice cream with some blueberries added.  I put the rest in the freezer to see if it would be good after being frozen.  We all had a little of it on Sunday.  It was good, but was frozen too solid, we had to defrost in in the micro for just a few seconds and then it was perfect!  We also had Turkey Pizza Burgers:

1lb of lean ground turkey mixed with:

chopped green bell pepper, chopped onion, 

garlic powder, Italian seasoning, marinara sauce.  

Grilled and then topped with more

 marinara sauce.  Yum!

On Sunday, keeping true to the tradition of the past few weeks, we cooked and cooked and now have a fridge full of meals to eat for the week including:

Pork Roast (with saurkraut)
Beef Stew (Husband made it up as he went, so I have no recipe)
Buffalo Chicken Salad (I really love this stuff!)
Chicken Salad (chicken breasts, mayo, grapes, s&p)

After Week 1, we  just make a list of the meals we want for the next week, buy the ingredients and then cook or pre-cook everything on Sunday.  It's worked out really well!  I only end up cooking one or two nights a week now and there are always healthy meals in the fridge for either of us to grab at any time!

Banana Bread!!!!!!

I made THREE different Paleo Banana Bread recipes on Sunday!  I should start by telling you that I am one of THOSE bakers.  I don't read all the directions before I get started.  I know, I know.  So, the the first recipe from Three New Leaves was a bit of fail.  I didn't even know where my electric mixer was (I almost always use a whisk) and I wasn't prepared to make TWO loaves of bread (I only have one bread pan, and it's glass, not aluminum).  So, I made one loaf in the bread pan and another in an aluminum cake pan.  It sort of fell apart, but tasted "just ok".  (note: it tasted a little better the next day).  This recipe was the most difficult/complicated of the three and probably won't be repeated in my kitchen.

The second recipe which comes from Running to the Kitchen had more promise because it had both almond flour AND coconut flour.  It turned out "salty" tasting,, but had the texture and look closest to traditional banana bread.  If I make this one again, I will cut the salt down to 1/2 teaspoon.  I did use two bananas instead of one because one just didn't seem like enough.  Also, I  might experiment with using honey in place of the maple syrup.  This one is good with a little butter and honey on a slice!

You can see the bottom of the loaf stayed in the pan, a little
grease might have helped...

I'm REALLY glad that I didn't give up after the first two recipes because the third turned out AMAZING!  I will definitely use this Paleo Banana Muffin Recipe from With Style & Grace again!  I made about half of the recipe with walnuts and half without.  These were by far the best!

I had fun experimenting in the kitchen this weekend and have more recipes to share with y'all later this week!