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.

Leftover Veggies for Breakfast with Turkey Sausage

The leftover veggies from yesterday's fajita post also make for a great breakfast.  I happened upon some turkey sausage that was on sale and I had coupon for it.  I normally prefer pork sausage, but I'm trying to eat more poultry and seafood and less beef and pork.  I eat a LOT of beef.  Granted it is good quality, grass-fed beef, I still feel like I'm not properly balanced in my protein sources.  Soooooo... last night I stir-fried more peppers & onions and I also fried up the entire package of turkey sausage.  This made breakfast so easy this morning!

Omelet Re-Creation

I never used to like veggies in my eggs.  Even during my first Whole30, I struggled with this.  But the Whole30 really changes your tastes.  Typically (pre-paleo), when out for breakfast, I would order a ham & cheese omelet.  This weekend I decided to order the Ultimate Omelet at Denny's.  It has onions, peppers, tomatoes, bacon, sausage and mushrooms (I asked them to hold the cheese).  I don't even LIKE mushrooms, but I devoured this thing!  It was soooo delish!  So... I sort of recreated it at home (without the tomatoes and mushrooms because I didn't have any).  I started by cooking the onions and peppers in butter. Then I added a little sausage and a piece of bacon that I had cut up.  Once that was all done cooking, I put it in a dish and added more butter to my pan.  Then I poured 3 whisked eggs in the pan and let it begin to set-up.  Once it was starting to set, I added the meat and veggies back in (on one side like the picture above shows).  Once it was firm enough to flip one end over, I did that and let it cook just another minute. YUM!

Shredded Beef

I can't believe I have never shared this Easy Shredded Beef recipe from PaleOMG before!  I've made it several times.  After the first time that I made it, I decided it should definitely have bell peppers added to it!

Ingredients

2-3lb Beef Roast

1-2 large Yellow Onions, sliced

1-2 Bell Peppers, sliced

1/2 cup Chicken or Beef Broth

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp White Pepper

1/4 tsp Chili Powder

Directions

Place roast in crockpot.  Pour broth over roast. Put onions and peppers on top of roast.  Put spices on top of meat & veggies.  cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.  Then shred the beef with 2 forks (or get yourself one of these amazing little tools from the Pampered Chef!)  I prefer to shred mine right in the crockpot with all of the juices and then cover it again and let it cook for another 30-60 minutes.

**This stuff makes the most amazing breakfast!  I put a little of it in a frying pan to re-heat it and then move it to the edges of the pan and fry an egg in the center of it!  It is sooooo delish!

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.

food funk

I've been in a bit of "food funk" lately and haven't felt the inspiration or excitement for cooking that I've experienced during my Whole30 and after.  I feel like I need to do something to rev up my inspiration in the kitchen.  In the meantime, here's what I've been eating (maybe you'll find food inspiration here):

One night I grilled a skirt steak (for fajitas) and 2 chicken 

breasts (with adobo seasoning) and a pound of hamburger patties.  

I figured since I was turning the grill on, I might as well cook up

a bunch of meat!  

I stir fried extra fajita veggies (onions and peppers) and had

them with a chicken breast and some guacamole for lunch the

next day.  This was delicious!

I got the idea to sautee cabbage with bacon and eat it with
fried eggs.  GROSS!  Not doing that again. :(

Fried Eggplant with eggs.

Baked Cod (with butter, lemon, s&p), sweet potato fries,
sauteed asparagus (with garlic & lemon), mayo

Husband doesn't eat asparagus, so he got tomato slices!

Recipes from Make it Paleo

I made three more recipes from my copy of Make it Paleo (book review coming soon!).  These recipes can also be found on The Food Lovers Kitchen site and on the My Kitchen free app!

Bacon Wrapped Scallops
I had been anticipating this recipe for a while.  I finally decided to make it for the football game on Sunday.  I took it (prepared, uncooked) to a friend's house to watch the game.  They prepared broiled shrimp and homemade potato wedges to go with it.  We also snacked on raw veggies and dip.  It was a wonderful spread!

Ingredients:
1lb Bacon (I didn't use a whole pound, maybe half)
15 Scallops (I had purchased a pound of fresh sea scallops at the farmers market)
1tsp Smoked Paprika (I didn't measure, I just sprinkled)
Skewers (I used metal reusable ones)

Preheat oven to 425 (we used a toaster oven).  
Cut bacon strips in half (be careful with this, my scallops were large, so I needed more than half a strip of bacon on most of them).
Wrap each scallop in bacon.
Skewer 2-3 scallops on each skewer.
Sprinkle with smoked paprika, seasoning both sides.
Bake for 20 minutes, then flip and bake another 15 minutes.

These turned out delicious!  However, the bacon was thick cut and didn't crisp up as much as we would have liked.  Next time I'm going to try pre-cooking the bacon a little in the microwave first.

Tomato Basil Soup
I enjoyed this soup, but it was too peppery.  Next time I will cut the amount of salt and pepper in half and then, if needed, I will add more upon serving.

Ingredients:
1 Onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. Coconut Oil
1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 C. Fresh Basil (I used some dried that I had on my spice shelf and I didn't use half cup, I just sprinkled a reasonable amount)
2 tsp. Salt & Pepper (I took this to mean 2 tsp EACH.  After further review, I think it should have been 1 tsp. each)
3 cloves Garlic, minced
3 Cups Chicken Stock
5 Tomatoes
6oz Tomato Paste

Tossed with oil, salt & pepper

-Preheat oven to 350.
-Clean and quarter tomatoes.
-Toss with olive oil, salt & pepper
-Roast on baking sheet for 30 minutes.
-In a large soup pot, heat coconut oil over medium heat.  
-Saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent.
-Add in the roasted tomatoes and continue to saute for 1 minute.

Onions & garlic sauteeing

-Add in 3 cups of chicken stock, the basil and tomato paste and stir continuously over medium heat until the tomato paste has dissolved.
-Season with salt & pepper.
-Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.  
-Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
-Pour soup into food processor or high-speed blender and puree until smooth.

I prepared the broth with the basil and
salt & pepper while the tomatoes were
roasting and the veggies were sauteeing.

Ready for the food processor!

Root Veggie Hash with Poached Eggs
We didn't like this recipe.  The hash was too sweet and I'm not a fan of rosemary.  I don't know why I even added it.

1 Beet, chopped
1 Cup of chopped Turnips (mine were large, so I only needed one)
1 Tbsp fresh Rosemary (I used dried, but wish I would have left it out entirely)
1 tsp Coconut Oil
1 Cup chopped Vidalia Onion (this is not the season for these, so I just purchased some sweet onions)
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Egg, poached



Preheat oven to 400.  Toss rinsed, chopped beets, turnips & onions in olive oil and spread out on a baking sheet and season with salt, pepper & rosemary.  Roast for 20 minutes, then add minced garlic, stir and roast another 10 minutes.

Heat 1tsp coconut oil in frying pan over medium heat.  Crack egg into pan and cook for 30 seconds.  Then add 1/4 C of water and cover with lid.  Let egg steam until the yolk is pinkish on top and the white is no longer runny.

Serve with bacon, because bacon rocks!

Halfway!!!

It's Day 15!  And today was BLT day at work.  There was over 70lbs of bacon on the premises and I couldn't eat one. single. piece.  Between that today and Saturday night's wine tasting fundraiser event that I volunteered for, I've had a pretty tempting few days over here!  I made through both events without cheating though.  I think it will be all downhill from here!

I asked Husband yesterday if he was feeling hungry and/or deprived at all.  His response "No, not at all.  In fact, I don't even think about food like I used to.  But, I do miss my beer".  I told him that if he had such an emotional attachment to his beer, these 30 days might do him some good in that department :)  Everyone keeps asking is if it's hard, and we both agree that it's not hard.

Here's what I've been eating:


Day 12 ~ Friday, July 20
Up at 5:00, 30 minutes of kickboxing
SKIPPED COFFEE (again)!!!
6:00 - Smoothie: 1C. fresh spinach, 1/2 frozen banana, hand full of frozen blueberries, 1/2 can of coconut milk, splash of vanilla, 1 raw egg
8:00 - Tazo Awake Black Tea
11:30 - Salad w/oil&vinegar, melons, shrimp & scallops on hibachi grill
We were running errands for work and my co-worker wanted to eat at the hibachi grill.  I couldn't get the man at the grill to tell me what is in the garlic sauce and I needed my protein, so I just went with it.  Sure hope there wasn't anything nasty in there!  I didn't eat much... 
2:00 - pistachios
7:30 - Chicken Salad
8:30 - Almonds (We went to see the Dark Knight Rises)



Day 13 ~ Saturday, July 21
Up at 6:00
Coffee w/ coconut Milk
8:30 - 2 eggs fried in coconut oil w/ Wholly Salsa
2:30 - Chicken & Veggies
4:00 - Banana Ice Cream w/Blueberries added!
8:30 - 2 mini burger patties, grapes, melons (This was the only thing served at the wine tasting that I could eat!)



Day 14 ~ Sunday, July 22

Up at 7:30 (long night Saturday night!)
9:30 - Sweet Potato Fritters with 2 fried eggs, grapes, sausage
11:30 - Veggies & Ranch, Baked Chicken Thigh
5:45 - Pistachios, 1/2 apple pie larabar
7:30 - Pork Loin Slowcooked w/ apples, veggies & dip

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!

Breakfast!

I made these little gems twice now.  I updated the recipe slightly the second time.  I put the peppers in my cast iron pan (on medium heat) with a little coconut oil for grease.  I put a lid on it and let the pepper cook 3-5 minutes alone.  Then I flipped the peppers, lowered the heat (to about 2 on my electric stove) and added the eggs.  I put the lid on and let them cook until the eggs reached the desired doneness.  They were much better this time because the pepper was more cooked, but still crispy!

*I have only 13 days left of no sugar.  I have resisted many a sweet treat over the last week.  I have still had small amounts of sugar (think honey mustard dressing on my sandwich, or a glass of wine), but no "sweets" (cake, pie, candy, ice cream...etc.).  I'm looking forward to having some kind of treat on or after Memorial Day, but I don't think I'll go crazy. 

Paleo Biscuits

These are a delicious treat with a little butter and honey on top!

I made paleo biscuits using this recipe from Simply Living Healthy yesterday.  My goal was to have a biscuit recipe that would work for making my husband his favorite breakfasts; sausage, egg & cheese biscuits and biscuits and sausage gravy. 

One note about the recipe, using 1/4c measuring cup only made 5 large biscuits.  In the future, I may use 1/8c (I don't have an ice cream scoop like the recipe mentions).

Overall these did not impress me when I just brushed some butter on them and I think they are too dense to use for either of my intended uses, but I found that a little butter and honey on them, make them a delicious treat!!! 

Menu Planned for the Next Week!

I think today is day 4 of sugar free.  I haven't had any sweets.  I was at a wine down last night and drank plenty of wine, which I am sure had some sugar in it, but I passed by the desserts (and ate meatballs instead) and I've turned down sweet treats in my office every stinkin' day this week!  So, I would say I am doing pretty good.

I have planned our menu for the next week.  I based it off of the meats we already have in the freezer.  I will have to pick up most of the veggies at the farmer's market tomorrow as well as the brats and eggs.  Here are the daily dinner menus (which double as lunch the next day): 

SATURDAY

Chicken in the Crockpot

Sweet Taters

SUNDAY

Hibachi Grill for Mother's Day

Leftovers from Saturday

MONDAY

Brats on the grill

Cucumber/tomato salad

TUESDAY

Honey Garlic Wings

Creamed Cucumbers

Celery w/ranch dip

WEDNESDAY

Steaks

Sautéed Peppers & Onions

THURSDAY

Burgers on the grill

Sautéed cabbage & onions

FRIDAY

Beef roast in crockpot with onions & carrots

I plan to make hard boiled eggs and/or deviled eggs for snacks along with raw veggies and ranch dip.  For breakfast we'll have our usual eggs, bacon...etc.  I do plan to try these recipes this week  for breakfast though!

Photo from Mom Click

Paleo Pancakes

We had breakfast for dinner last night (my favorite!)  My husband love, love, LOVES pancakes.  So, I made paleo pancakes using this recipe.  They were really good!  They have a nuttier flavor than your typical pancakes do, but they have the same texture.  I really love how the coconut flour is compared to wheat flour in this post by paleo spirit.

We topped our pancakes with a little butter and pure Wisconsin maple syrup (thanks Dad!).  We had bacon, eggs and some homemade hash browns on the side.  Some may argue that hash browns aren't paleo.  But they are in my house!  We don't eat potatoes every day (or even every week) and normally, when we do, they are sweet potatoes.  It's a rare occasion that we have "white potatoes" in the house, so I used the occasion to make one of our favorite dishes to have with eggs!

I made these in my cast iron frying pan with coconut oil.  Next time, I think I'll use my griddle so that I can save my expensive coconut oil and also make the whole batch at one time!