Avocado Egg

I think I'm overdue for more actual food and cooking posts here. I'm still "doing" Paleo. But I hate saying I'm "doing" it or "on" it because at this point, it's really just my lifestyle, which is eating whole and unprocessed food. Yes, all wheat products are processed. Anyway, here is a picture of an avocado with an egg baked inside:

I just sliced and avocado in half, removed the pit, and then cracked an egg into each one. Next time, I think I would use the smallest egg possible since these ran over a little bit. I think I would also doctor it with some hot sauce and garlic too, but we were so overcome with our avocado egg, we didn't add much:

1 large avocado

1 small egg

Salt, pepper

Shredded cheese for the husband

Crack the egg into each avocado, salt and pepper it to taste, adding cheese if that's your thing.

Bake until the egg is cooked to your liking at 350 degrees. I think ours took about 15-20 minutes.

We loved these for breakfast, and now pretty much all I want to do is find ways to stuff avocados and places to crack eggs into.

Crossfit -- Day 2

Day 2 was yesterday, and I have mixed feelings but the mixed part is all my fault! We learned deadlift form, and push presses. AWESOME. This is exactly what I've been waiting for. We worked with weighted ball overhead throws and goblet squats. Then, our WOD:

3 rounds for time:

200m run
10 goblet squats
10 overhead ball throws
5 burpees

All fine, except I ran so slow :( I don't know why running is such a mental block for me, I get out there and by my third 200m, instead of sprinting like I should have I was out of gas. There's no excuse for being out of gas on the 600m of the day, so it's something I have to work on and overcome. Which is exactly the reason for taking CrossFit in the beginning-- to overcome all kinds of things.

Woo!

Can't wait for tomorrow's 7 am class.

Turkey Bolognese (ish) and a disclaimer

What does one do when they are swept up into a new way of eating, but their husband is like "meh, I'll kinda do it with you, but I like all foods thank you" ? They devise and scheme up new dinners where one half of the couple can eat like a happy cavewoman and the other half can gorge like modern man and they both can live happily ever after.

Disclaimer: I'm excited for my new diet. It probably shows. I'm down a healthy amount of poundage and I feel good. But I don't want to turn my little blog into a religiously Paleo type thing. It's working for me and I believe it will continue to work for me until I am happy with my weight again. At that point, like I've said, I may have the occasional burrito after a big workout. I can tell you I'll never go back to my old ways again though. Having said my piece.....

Turkey Bolognese!

My favorite start to anything I make: Onions sauteeing in a little oil.

Did I say that was my favorite? Add in some fresh garlic and ground turkey...

Throw in some red chili flakes, salt, pepper, saute and saute and saute....

Throw in a large can of organic choppoed tomatoes or tomato sauce and some frozen spinach...and voila! The husband can top this over a bowl of pasta and throw on some cheese, while I can pour this into a bowl and eat it while making happy grunting sounds. Everyone wins!

Turkey Bolognese

1 pound ground turkey

1 large white onion

3-5 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1/2 to 3/4 bag frozen organic spinach

Liberal amount of red chili flakes

Salt, pepper, olive oil for sauteeing

Use a  little olive oil to coat the pan, add your onion, some salt, and saute until soft. 

Add your turkey, your garlic, a touch more salt, and let brown a little. 

After the turkey has mostly browned, add in the remaining ingredients and bring up to almost a boil. 

Turn the heat down to low, cover, and saute for up to an hour on low heat to let all the flavors come together. 

I recommend eating it as is!

Chicken Broth

It seems like when I talk to friends and family about my "new" diet, I'm starting to get some looks I can start categorizing into different lists of patronizing/concern. For example, before I'm done explaining, I often start to see the "Oh, you're doing Atkins" look. No. I'm not going out and buying double bacon double cheese bacon cheese burgers, hold the bun. I'm not counting carbs. Oh, and I just had a banana for breakfast with my egg.

It's often those reactions mixed with, "oh, life without pasta would be so sad, it's not worth it!" mixed with a pitying head-shake. I must say, I might have been guilty of that attitude more than once in my life. I honestly do feel like I've shaken it forever though. To me, pasta is that filler I could pour a pound of into a bowl, cover with cheese, and just eat until I was numb without thinking. Looking back on that, nothing seems sadder. 

Taking the time to be mindful, appreciate the protein and veg on my dinner plate for where it came from, taste the strong flavors, and be done and satisfied when I've eaten the right amount is priceless. I think too many of us have lost the simple sight of that.

Enough philosophizing for this entry. I meant to be writing about home made chicken broth! For my most recent batch, I had saved up two carcasses from recent roasts in the freezer. I was also keeping a bag of all vegetable scraps I wasn't using-- broccoli bottoms, carrot tops, dill that went limp, onions, brussel sprouts we never finished, etc. I took both carcasses, all the veggies, and dumped them into my husband's giant stainless steel pot he uses for brewing beer (maybe that's my secret ingredient??). I add salt, pepper, whatever spices I have on hand that look tempting, and a splash of vinegar the way my grandma used to!

After bringing to a boil, I generally cover the giant pot and let it simmer hours, sometimes all day. Then, I strain out all the liquid, feed some chicken bits to my dog, and dump the rest in our compost bin. I separate the broth out into little containers that I freeze and boom... we have about 10 portioned out tupperwares of chicken broth for the next couple weeks anytime someone wants a bowl of soup or one of my recipes calls for chicken broth.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it might be the best hot liquid of all time. It's been cold and rainy here, which I love, but it's also been a winter of runny noses and fevers around here--and I don't just mean the baby. So whipping out one of these batches of the soup has been a tiny piece of heaveny-goodness each time.

I love this homemade broth so much, I took it outside in one of its containers before freezing and took a picture of it (maybe I need help):

It's magical, I tell you.

So last week when we needed a warm little pick me up, I whipped up this with the broth above:

I took about  1 1/2 cups broth per person

1/2 avocado per person

1 clove raw garlic, crushed

Kosher Salt & Pepper

Dash of lemon

Dash of hot sauce (TJ's Habanero for us)

I heated these up nice and hot and sat around sipping them watching the rain. Perfect. And Paleo.

Paleo "challenge" check in

To borrow a phrase from McDonalds... I'm lovin' it! ;)

Seriously though, it's been about a week and a day since I've started the Paleo 30 day challenge, and I feel amazing. I know that after these 30 days are up, I may do another 30 or 60, but I can already tell what kind of modifications I'll be making when the "challenge" portion is over. I know I'll re-incorporate high quality dairy in the end--I just don't think I see a long term problem for me personally with adding in organic cheese, russian or greek yogurt, etc. I can also see myself being able to go out for a giant Mexican meal once in awhile and enjoying it sensibly, but for now, my body is thanking me loud and clear for laying off my old habit of beans, beans, beans, cheese, rice, tortillas...followed up with pasta and pasta and pasta. Gross.

Anyway, here's a favorite we made last week that's been good for several days of leftovers for hubby and myself.

Garlic Meatballs in organic Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti Squash:

Check out my little suckers sitting there waiting to stew in the crock pot all day!

I took:

1 pound grass-fed organic beef from Trader Joe's (6.49 a pound!)

3 (okay, maybe a little more, but I don't want to scare people) cloves of crushed garlic

1 1/2 tablespoon Worcester sauce

A few heavy sprinkles of Hungarian Paprika

Kosher Salt & pepper to taste

Juice of maybe half a small lemon...old trick I saw my grandma always use

I balled them up into the small size you see above and lined them up in the crock pot. Then.......

I topped it with a sauce I was simmering--

1 can Trader Joe's tomato marinara sauce (Paleo enough)

1/3 of a white onion (I imagine any kind is ok)

1 clove garlic

A dash, to taste, of red chili flakes

A dash of red wine I happened to have open

A dash of Thyme 

Kosher Salt & Pepper

I simmered for probably 20 minutes just to get all of the flavors mixing in, and then topped the meatballs in the crockpot, while adding another liberal dash of red wine.

Finally... Dinner! And then, lunch and lunch and lunch. My hubby got to add Parmesan cheese to his, but I went all hard core paleo and skipped the dairy:

Isn't it glorious? For the Spaghetti Squash, I just cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and visible fibers, drizzled some olive oil, salt, pepper, and popped it on a baking sheet in the oven. I do it on top of a sheet of aluminum foil and cut side down, though you will see it both ways if you google a recipe. I pop it in there on 350 for about 45 minutes before I take it out, scoop out the "noodles" with a fork, and top it with whatever we have around. 

This is seriously such a good low carb trick that I feel like calling it a "low carb trick" cheapens it. It's so healthy for you, so filling and satisfying, I dare anyone to say they feel better an hour later after eating a bowl of pasta noodles instead.

"A change is gonna come"

The following is how today went down and how it ultimately led to My New Plan.

For breakfast/lunch, I prepared a very familiar (to me) concoction. Rosarita refried beans from the can, a slice of cheese (pepper jack in this case), a small handful of rice, a generous topping of salsa, a couple green onions, and some guacamole we had sitting around. I heated it all up and wrapped it in a whole wheat tortilla and had this beast for breakfast and for lunch. Sounds yummy, eh? It is. I've been having this meal on and off SEVERAL times a week since I was about 19 years old. I'm 34 now.

Anyway. Today, I finished the lunch version of this meal and caught a glimpse of myself passing a mirror. Now, I've lost ALL of my pregnancy weight and am back to where I started. Yes, it's still 20ish pounds from where I want to be, but I've been doing well. However, my eye caught a bulge in my stomach. I looked 5 months pregnant. Gross. I also felt sluggish, and a little cranky. Kind of like a sloth. It didn't feel good.

You see, I pride myeslf on "eating well"--I rarely eat sugar/candy/soda/pies/cakes....barf. But I had to stop and think. I'm 20 pounds over weight...why? And why do I feel crappy. Low on energy, slothy, cranky, quick to anger, and with a pregnant-looking belly to boot.

And then the wheels started turning. It's a combination of some posts I read on Facebook recently-- friends getting into Crossfit, getting into Paleo, PREACHING how great they feel. Yes, yes, I can give this a try. If you scroll through the paltry amount of recipes I've posted so far, I think you'll see I have Paleo tendencies as it is. I love seafood, chicken, good beef, pork, love all my green veggies, love the right fruits. I guess the problem is I've been loving too many carbs as well.

I can easily binge on a whole can of refried beans in one sitting. Often on top of rice and rolled in a tortilla. This kind of meal all of a sudden is just not ringing as right to me. If a portion of food should be about the size of your fist, there is something very wrong about being able to put down two tortillas filled with beans and rice and cheese in one sitting. And it's not like I'm running a marathon everyday and need to have these glycogen stores filled.

So before I get too far off track... One thing led to another and I've decided to try the 30 day paleo challenge. I went out to the store (Safeway and Trader Joe's) today and bought the following:

Pork tenderloin
Bone-in french cut pork chops
Grass-fed organic ground beef
Organic chicken legs
TJ's frozen chicken breast tenders
Shrimps

Cabbage
Cauliflower
Onions
Garlic
Green onions
Zuccini
Celery
Spinach
Gem lettuce
Arugula

Walnuts
Almonds

Salsa
Apples
Oranges
Blackberries

And I have a well-stocked pantry to start.

Tonight, I'm making sauteed pork chops that I've marinated in garlic, olive oil, and lemon. I'm adding a gem lettuce salad with cucumber and avocado. I'm EXCITED. For the first time (about food) in a long time. I already feel great.

So. For the next thirty days, you'll see me posting the best paleo food I can come up. I might get inspired and post an old meal that's not paleo, but I'll always post a disclaimer. I'm really excited to try new recipes and feel like a new person. I know it's going to happen.

And finally, my pork chops marinating for tonight. To be enjoyed after some home-based crossfitting and a dog walk: