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.

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

Maintenance

I've gotten a lot of compliments lately on my weight(fat)loss.  It makes me feel great that others are noticing, but I have this nagging voice in the back of my head (and sometimes even in my mouth) that says "Yeah, but I've done this before.  Weight loss comes easy.  It's keeping it off that's hard."

You see, a few years ago I lost 46lbs.  I was tracking everything that went in my mouth and all the calories points that I was burning through cardio exercise.  I concentrated on portion sizes and read every label at the grocery store.  I lost the weight in half the average time of anyone else on that program.  But all along I knew that I couldn't maintain the lifestyle.  By the time I had reached my goal weight I was so tired of counting points that it made me angry.  Sure, there were somethings that I could carry on with like exercising regularly and eating off of smaller plates, but I was still putting processed, high carb/sugar foods in my mouth constantly.  Also, I wasn't eating near enough veggies.  

So... I put about 35lbs of the weight that I had lost back on.  So sad.  

When I got tired of being fat again, I decided to take a different approach.  I started eating low carb and then eventually tried to eat sort of in the "Zone".  Finally, in March of 2012, I decided to try paleo.  I was scared.  I won't lie.  The idea of not eating pasta, rice or bread anymore was daunting (even though I had already given up bread for the most part, we still occasionally had low-carb tortillas and whole grain pasta...etc.)  Then after months of unexplained stomach issues that were leading me to miss work and spend countless hours in doctors' offices, I decided to try the Whole30.  The low-carb/zone eating allowed me to lose about 10lbs.  Through Paleo, I lost another 15.  Then, with the Whole30, I lost another 8lbs.  So... I'm back to my goal weight!  I've maintained it for a about a month now.  

I feel like I have a better chance of sticking with the Paleo/Whole30 lifestyle because my health and well-being really depend on it.  I have found that gluten and dairy were causing my unexplained stomach issues and I have no desire to ever eat anything with gluten in it again after my latest episode.  This way of life is so much the opposite of what I did before, that if it doesn't work, I don't know WHAT will.

                   

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!

Book Review: Make it Paleo

I promised you all a review of the cookbook Make it Paleo by Bill Stayley and Hayley Mason, so here it is!

First of all, this not JUST a cookbook!  There is SO much more to this book than just recipes.  There is a list of basic ingredients that you'll need on hand for paleo cooking.  There is also a list (with photos) of all of the different kitchen gadgets/tools that will be useful.  After you get through all of the recipes, there is also some wonderful menu ideas for various occasions.  Add the short, simple ingredient lists for all of the recipes and it is truly the PERFECT book for beginner cooks or beginner paleo cooks. 

Secondly, I should mention the pure beauty of this book.  The photographs are out of this world!  It makes it a pleasure to go through the book and there is no doubt of the hard work and time that was spent creating it. 

So, if you are new to paleo cooking (or cooking in general), or you would like to get a gift for a new paleo cook, I would recommend Make it Paleo.  However, if you are a seasoned paleo cook, I would maybe skip it.  I didn't find it to be all that inspiring and most of the recipes are actually available on their blog site. 

I am glad to have the book because it is so pretty!  Also, I did learn a few things from the book, like how to poach eggs.  I hadn't tried egg poaching until just recently and I used the drop in boiling water method, which I wasn't too impressed with.  Make it Paleo uses a different method of dropping the eggs in a hot greased pan and letting them cook about one minute before adding a 1/4 cup of water and putting a lid on it.  This has revolutionized my egg making! 

I look forward to trying many  more recipes out of the book and I know Bill & Hayley are currently working on another cookbook that I will probably purchase when it becomes available.

Learning the Hard Way

Seems the best way to learn (for me, anyway) is always the hard way.  I learned some very valuable things in the last week.  I learned that  eating gluten & dairy for 3 out of 4 days will cause over 7 days of misery and agony.  SEVEN days!  I really didn't eat THAT much gluten and dairy, but apparently it was too much.  Here's what it looked like:

Friday:
some cheese in my soup and on my salad
half of a cakepop
crispy fried chicken (2 pcs)

Saturday:
small pumpkin muffin
5-6 "pinwheels" (crossaint with cream cheese and sausage, rolled up and sliced into bite-sized pcs)
coffee punch (ice cream & milk with coffee)

Monday:
huge plate of nachos!

That is all it took to make me absolutely miserable from Tuesday through the following Tuesday.  I literally stayed in bed or on the couch most of the weekend.  My symptoms included aching hips and lower back, minor abdominal pain, major constipation and IBS symptoms and fatigue.  

That was all the reminder that I needed to know why I began this crazy path to paleo to begin with.  So, from now on I will avoid gluten all together.  I will also avoid dairy, but if my salad comes with a little shredded cheese on it, I will eat it.  I don't think it will cause as much damage in small quantities, as long as I don't eat a small quantity every day.