A Thanksgiving dish to try...

This year, I helped make several side dishes for our family Thanksgiving dinner and decided I would throw in a "Paleo-esque" dish to see if any noticed.  After searching online, I stumbled upon The Primal Palate Thanksgiving recipes and decided to give the carrot souffle a try.  It looked pretty tasty, and I figured it would at least be an experience.  Let me preface this by saying that I happily cook with some milk and butter -- I do eat dairy, but I wanted to see what happened when I stepped outside my comfort zone and cooked with coconut.
I always hated coconut as a kid.  There was nothing creepier to me than a cake covered in that horrible shredded coconut, and eating an Almond Joy was out of the question.  So, I've been wary of coconut, although I'm learning as an adult that I think I have greater issues with the texture of shredded coconut rather than the taste of coconut itself.  So, I went to Whole Foods and joined the rest of the holiday crowds to buy coconut flour and oil, and made the dish (along with butternut squash, mashed sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce) for our celebratory meal.
The squash was technically paleo, but the sweet potatoes were made with organic milk and butter and the cranberry sauce with organic cane sugar.  And out of all the dishes that were eaten, guess which one was gobbled up?  The carrot souffle!  I revealed my paleo secrets to my family, and I'm quite proud of my sneaky dish.  It was delicious, and I highly recommend it for the holidays!

Summer Recipe: Pesto

There's just something so lovely about herbs in the summertime, especially basil.  I love the smell and taste of basil; there's just something so comforting and familiar about it, and I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment when I went to cut basil from my back deck today to use for dinner:

My husband asked if I would make pesto for dinner, and I was happy to oblige.  It's easy, convenient, and delicious.  In the past, I've associated pesto with pasta -- specifically gnocchi or tortellini.  But in my desire to rid my diet of processed foods, pasta isn't a healthy or practical dinner choice.  So, pesto chicken seemed like the tastiest and best option.

When I went to our local market to purchase chicken breast, I was faced with an economical and ethical decision.  Did I purchase the boneless chicken breast at $2.99 a pound, only labeled with a barcode and a price?  Clearly, that conventionally, farm produced chicken was pumped with hormones, antibiotics, potentially fed animal by-products, and who knows what else.  Or, did I buy the hormone free, antibiotic free, pure vegetarian diet chicken with a price tag of $7 a pound?  After a brief debate, I opted for the latter.  Quality of food is important to me, especially when dealing with meat.  I don't want to put unnecessary junk in my body.  If I'm going to "eat the earth" and consume foods in their most natural state, that means paying attention to labels and how foods are produced.  It's easy to forget that a piece of clean chicken was once an animal, and the way in which that animal was raised could potentially have a profound affect on my own health.

This afternoon, I cut my basil, and prepared all necessary ingredients:

Pesto:
-1/3 cup (organic) olive oil
-1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (this will definitely make it cheesy, which I love.  Scale back a bit, though, if you want it "less cheesy")
-1 garlic clove, minced
-2 cups fresh basil
-a sprinkle of black pepper
-a dash of sea salt (optional, since the cheese is pretty salty)

Place all ingredients in food processor; blend for 15 seconds.  Mix around as necessary; process again if needed.  Voila!  Pesto is ready.  My husband grilled the chicken and an eggplant, we cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, and I mixed the pesto into the chicken for a little pesto chicken salad.

It was a delicious dinner, and perfectly eaten on our back deck as the sun went down.  Enjoy!

Recipe

Fish is good for you, and I'm making an effort to incorporate more fish into my diet.  Granted, I still get squeamish around seafood, but I am trying to increase my consumption of our seafaring friends.
With that said, I've always had an affinity for canned tuna.  Perhaps it was all the mayonnaise and pickles I mixed in it as a child, but I've always had a place in my heart for canned tuna fish sandwiches.  My brilliant husband thought it might be a good idea to convince me to actually eat fresh tuna steak since it's tastier than the canned stuff.  After a few tries, I've found that I love it, especially when grilled (albeit not for too long).

Enjoy this recipe that he's adapted -- it's perfect for summer grilling!

Tuna steaks:

Marinade 1 pound tuna fillet cut in two to three parts for at least 1/2 hour (1 to 2 recommended) in:

1/3 cup EVOO
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped cilantro; plus additional chopped for garnish
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
sea salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl, mix together the EVOO, lemon juice, cilantro, garlic, paprika, chili powder, and sprinkle of pepper.  Add tuna; cover and refrigerate.

Prepare grill; grill vegetables of choosing first (although I made steamed broccoli on the side for this round).

Sprinkle with salt; grill to liking (at least three minutes each side for rare-medium rare).

This recipe is wonderful, delicious, and gentle for a non-seafood girl like me.  Enjoy!

My beef with gluten (recipe included)

Trying to figure out what to eat is a daunting process.  As Americans, we are constantly flooded with messages regarding what's appropriate (and what's not appropriate) to consume.  Swap whole fat yogurt for low-fat.  Substitute butter for margarine, or is it margarine for butter, or is it I Can't Believe It's Not Butter? High carb is the way to go.  Lay off the meat.  Actually, it's Weight Watchers/Jenny Craig (depending on the celebrity spokeswoman of the weekend).  Perhaps eating Subway sandwiches will bring the key to being healthy.  Acai is definitely the only way to get a flatter belly.  Without a doubt, we are a nation of fads, willing to pay lots of money to put in as little effort as possible when it comes to health.  If we don't lose ten pounds in the first two weeks, magazines send messages that we are failures at being fit and thin, and we quickly fall of the wagon.  It's all quite disheartening and confusing.

For the past several months, I've been trying to define what health and healthy eating means.  And I am starting to realize that eating food in it's most natural state is the best way to go, but I don't think it's always easy to understand why or to always follow through with it.  Part of the problem stems from the fact that (and I speak for my 20-something generation) we've had pretty bad information about healthy eating.  What has been defined as 'healthy' has been designated by companies with clever marketing campaigns.  Counting calories as a means to weight loss and health was always the (most recent) preferred method to measure health success, and it was easy for companies to exploit the calorie outlet.  100 Calorie Packs -- you little demons.  For years, you convinced me to eat a pack or two of you a day.  I greedily scarfed down those buttery Lorna Doones and those Mister Salty chocolate covered pretzels.  Chocolate + salt + carb = magic, I thought.  These little guys were the key to my health and happiness, and would make me thin.  It was the best of both worlds -- I could eat crap and still look great!  Blessed Nabisco for such a great product. 

Gosh, I was so ignorant and ill-informed.  I counted calories, bought packaged products, trusted things like Smart Choices labels, believed I was doing the "right thing," and never saw much permanent change in my body.  And I certainly didn't feel any different.  Check out the nutrition information for Lorna Doones here.  Quite honestly, I'm not really sure I know what's in Lorna Doones, but I still ate them.  Was I healthy?  What does healthy mean?

Through everything I now read (I owe everyone some major Michael Pollan blogging!) and the more time I spend musing about my health, it's clear to me that humans are intended to eat foods found in nature.  Wonder Bread came into existence in 1924 and Lucky Charms was first marketed in 1964, and while I might not have my dates right, it seems like people were able to eat before the inception of such food products.  Like, a long, long time before.  So, why should I think there is something wrong with the foods that people ate earlier, before the creation of McDonalds?  Why should I get my vitamins and minerals from fortified Lucky Charms when I could get it from something like, I don't know, spinach and apples?

When I decided to attempt to cut gluten out of my life, I really don't know if I could tell you why I did it. And yes, there are days when I think I want nothing more than a fudgy brownie.  But should I replace processed gluten-filled foods with processed non-gluten foods?  I really don't think that's the best answer.  I think my beef with gluten is less about gluten than it is about processed foods.  And let's face it, most foods with gluten are highly, highly processed (and yes, pasta counts as highly processed).  And right now, I don't feel a need to eat barley and oats.  It's getting off the Oreos that's hard, but not impossible, and actually quite rewarding.  Study after study proves that no matter how you package it or size it, processed foods are not the answer to health.  So, that takes me back to my original point: getting to be healthy is about eating food that looks and tastes like natural food.  And that's my goal.

(recipe for this butternut squash is below!)

And with that said, the more and more I think about food, the more my perspective on what constitutes good, delicious food had changed.  I am forced to consider food purchasing and preparation more carefully and have had to broaden my food horizons to keep my taste buds interested.  And through all of it, I find that I'm definitely more of a foodie than just someone who eats Hot Pockets because it's the convenient package in the freezer.  I'm redefining "fast food."  And, through it all, I'm starting to enjoy food a whole lot more.  But more on this to come.

Musings:  check out this link from the Summer Tomato about Whole Grains vs. Intact Grains.  I found it informative and helpful, and it solidifies my belief that processed foods are no good for our us.

Secondly, my husband and I have finally decided to make eating grass-fed meats and farmers' markets produce a part of our food lives and are musing with the idea of starting our own herb and vegetable garden.  More to come!

And finally, this new lifestyle has forced me to be much more creative.  Last night, I made butternut squash that we had purchased at the Winter Farmers Market.  To make it, I used what I had on hand: olive oil, sea salt, ginger, and cinnamon.  After peeling and dicing the squash, I put it in a bowl, coated it with olive oil, sprinkled on cinnamon and ginger (mostly cinnamon, although I wish I had had more ginger), popped it on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, took it out, sprinkled it with sea salt, and voila!  Veggies for dinner were done.  

Alright, I've been mostly known to kill plants, not get them to grow.  But what foods and herbs should my husband and I try to grow in our tiny backyard garden?

An easy (and tasty) fish dish!

So, my friends, I am venturing out into the world of eating fish.  It has actually been quite exciting.

My husband and I agreed that he would be the one to prepare the fish and I would be the official taste tester.  (I think it's a great arrangement, if I do say so myself).

Last week, we went to our local Roche Bros. and spoke to the nice man at the seafood counter.  After explaining to him that I am terrified of seafood, he recommended tilapia.  He wrapped up three small fillets and we headed home.

Since I knew I would beat my husband home, I decided to put some acorn squash in the oven.  I had a brief crisis moment, however, because I usually pour brown sugar over acorn squash and bake it.  After several minutes of contemplation and panic, I cut the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, put a pat of butter in each, and sprinkled cinnamon and and ground ginger on each half.  I baked at 400 degrees for almost 50 minutes in a pyrex dish with about 1/3 an inch of water in it.  End result:

OMG -- it was, by far, the best acorn squash I've ever had.  Ever.  The whole house had an aroma that smelled like holiday baking.  Delicious.

For our tilapia, my husband mixed:

-1/4 cup dijon mustard

-1 tablespoon olive oil

-1 teaspoon powdered thyme

-1 1/2 tablespoon capers (drained and rinsed)

-1/2 fresh lemon, squeezed

-dash of sea salt

-4 Backyard Farms tomatoes, cut into wedges

and poured it all over the fish (which he cooked in a CorningWare dish at 425 for almost 20 minutes). Make sure you check the fish as it cooks, because I don't think it's supposed to take that long, but for some reason, in our oven, it did. 

End result:

Quite tasty.  While I still have an inclination toward my beef and chicken, it had a great flavor and did not taste "like fish."  Tilapia is pretty moist, and honestly, I think the dijon mustard, capers, and lemon offered a strong enough flavor so it didn't seem like I was eating fish.  Brilliant!

Any new foods that you've tried lately and enjoyed?

Does something smell fishy?

In my desire to be a clean, healthy, Primal eater, I've decided that I should incorporate more fish in my diet.  My problem: I don't particularly like seafood, and I've never liked fish.  I always found it to be tasteless, bland, and with a chewy consistency that I couldn't stand.  Plus, fish can smell funny, and as a child, seeing whole fish in the grocery store with eyes still intact used to terrify me.  The only way I could stand fish was if it was battered, fried, and smothered in tartar sauce.

But now, that just looks and sounds disgusting.  My stomach hurts looking at it.  Yuck.  (Yes, I am turning into an elitist food snob, and the picture above is unappetizing.  I never thought that would happen!).

But I'm reaching the point where I'd like to start eating more fish.  I'm just not quite sure where to start.

My husband has marinated tuna steaks for us in the past, and after eating them a couple of times, I've enjoyed them.  But other than that, I'm pretty clueless.  What are good kinds of fish to eat that aren't too fishy?  How do I prepare it to make it taste, well, tasty?  What kind of fish should the girl who loves steak and chicken try?  How do I get over my fear of fish and start eating it?

Quick and Easy Dinner

I had part of a sweet onion and some hamburg in the fridge.  Clearly, cooking that hamburg on the stovetop seemed like the natural (and lazy) thing to do.  I scanned my kitchen to see what else I had and came up with the following:

1 pound hamburg (grass fed if you can)
1/2 cup sweet onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Put 1 tablespoon EVOO in a saute pan over medium meat.  Add onions -- cook for four minute, or until it begins to brown.  Add garlic.  Mix ground mustard, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  Add to saute pan.  Steam some brussel sprouts on the side.  Add a pat of butter to brussel sprouts.

Voila!  Dinner served.

I added some organic ketchup to mine.  I think it needed a little extra something, but I haven't been able to figure out what.  Perhaps more garlic, or some red pepper flakes.  Regardless, it was a sweet and simple meal.  Hardly glamorous, but easy in a pinch!

WOD and dinner ideas

Happy Friday!

Today, I thought I'd share my WOD along with my quick and easy dinner.  (I promise to come up with some more interesting dinners in the future).

After work and some errands, I went to the gym (not CrossFit.  Aside: I met my trainer through the gym where I've been working out, and she decided to open her own CrossFit, so I'll be there starting January 15! So, my CrossFit experience so far has just been with her.)  Anyway, I was originally thinking of doing some deadlifts, push presses, and kettlebell swings, but I changed my mind last minute.

I started off on my quest to learn how to do a pull up.  I started by trying my hand at kipping, hoping that the momentum could help me pull myself up.  I wasn't that successful, but I definitely had the "kipping" part down!  So, I decided to try negative pull ups.  I wasn't very good at slowly lowering myself down.  I think I'll have more success this way, but it's going to take time.  I could definitely feel the burn, though!  Awesome.

I did the rest of my workout on the track at the gym.

WOD (3 rounds):
spiderman crawls
(bicycle crunches
jumping jacks
push ups
squats
v sit crunches
wall sits (almost did burpees, but changed my mind))
400 m run

How I did it:
For round 1, I did a spiderman crawl 1/4 of the way around the track.  I stopped there, and did bicycle crunches in place for 30 seconds (I used my ipod as a timer).  I continued on with the spiderman crawl for another 1/4 of the track and did 30 second of jumping jacks in place; 1/4 spiderman crawls with bicycle crunches in place, 1/4 spiderman crawls and 30 second jumping jacks.  I then ran 400 meters (about 5 laps around the track).
For round 2, I followed the same pattern, but replaced the crunches and jumping jacks with 10 push ups and 20 squats, and followed it with another 400 meter run.
For round 3, same deal, but I did 15 v sit crunches and one minute walls sits and finished with another 400 meter run.  It was a very exciting work out, and what's great is that it is really customizable.  One problem:  I have short hair, and it's hard to pull back.  I have these really thin, stretchy headbands, but they're too big for my head and keep falling off.  Any suggestions on how I should pull back my hair?

For dinner, I threw together what I had in the house.  I cut up some peppers:

Put this rub on some chicken breast:

(I love it because it has very simple ingredients, and it's not too salty);

and I steamed the last of our green beans.  I grilled the chicken on the stove top, sauteed the peppers with a smidgen of olive oil, and read E.L. Doctorow's "Homer and Langley" while I waited for everything to finish.  

Final product:

Yum.

FYI -- the green beans are pre-cut.

Today, I saw this great NY Times article titled "Sustainable Food" that basically said that while everyone knows that successful dieting starts with eating real food (which we need to cook ourselves), that people today are less willing to cook than ever before because we feel we don't have enough time.  The author thinks a lack of time is a bogus excuse for not cooking (he cited the latest Nielsen ratings which revealed that the average American watches 35 hours of TV a week).  He also provides some basic, easy recipes (they aren't Primal, but they look pretty good).  I feel slightly vindicated in my desire to eat tasty, colorful salads for lunch.

What was the best part of your week? Any great workouts?

WOD and food

Per request of my sister, I'll be posting exercise routines and meal ideas here.  Comments, questions, and recommendations are always welcome!


Workout Of the Day:

5 rounds of:
Rowing 250 meters
10 burpees with push up and vertical jump
20 squats

all for time.

I completed my rounds in 17:15, and I think next time I'll push for 6 rounds in under 20 minutes.  It was tough, but wonderful and amazing.  Rowing always kicks my butt, and I try to sprint as I row.  I finished my workout with some planks on the stability ball and butterfly crunches.  Unlike the video, I come all the way up -- not sure if it matters -- any thoughts?

After the gym, I came home and put together a pretty easy dinner of grilled, grass fed beef, sauteed tomatoes, and steamed green beans:

I love this meal because it's colorful, tasty, and super easy.  For the meat (which I got at my local grocery store -- no hormones or antibiotics in it!), I put on the Montreal Steak Dry Rub.  I can read all of the ingredients in the rub, and it's mostly salt, pepper, sunflower seed, and paprika.  But don't add too much, or else it's overwhelming.

For the tomatoes, I used:

1 pound grape tomatoes

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced (with a garlic press)

basil (in this case, dried, but fresh basil tastes wonderful)

I put the oil in the pan, added the garlic, and sauteed the tomatoes until they started to shrivel and soften.

Green beans were steamed, and dinner was on the table in under 25 minutes (with a lot of the cooking time spent by me reading the junk mail that arrived today!)

Any great meals you've had or cooked lately?  What do you enjoy to eat (or cook?)