Crossfit Ero: Paleo Challenge Results

Just wanted to share the good news! The results were posted yesterday :) The original prize was a gift card from my gym, Crossfit Ero, paleo kit, mee nut butter, gym gear, etcetera. But my coach contacted me and offered to get me Adipower OLY shoes! So, I'll be getting those instead. Time to retire my Reebok Oly shoes, after only a month of having them, lol.
 

I'm so proud :) And I really wanted to win because I worked so damn hard. If I can do it, so can you :)

 

La-La-Land

I went grocery shopping and I have no clue what I was thinking when I was at Trader Joe's. I had a cart and I was just thinking about everything that I needed/wanted to buy and I was thinking about my boyfriend. I began pushing my cart and started to add the groceries I wanted/needed. I remember thinking how excited I would be since I would see my boyfriend soon and then some guys stops me.

Guy: "Umm... Miss. I think you grabbed my cart."

Me: "Oh, I'm sorry" I turn red and begin to walk away

Guy: "I think these are your groceries" hands me them

Me: "Thanks. I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention."

Guy: "It's cool. Did you need help finding YOUR cart"

Me: "No" I walk away as fast as possible and rushed to get the rest of my groceries from the store so I wouldn't see that guy again. 

It was such an embarrassing moment for me. It made it worse that it was very easy to distinguish my cart from others because it had a bag full of groceries from Whole Foods. SMH. SUCH A FAIL!

Laziness.

So, I've been pretty good about cooking and eating clean for over a month now (with Thanksgiving weekend as the exception). If you've been following my crossfit blog (at acerz.com) then you'd know that I've been dead from this week's WODs thus far.

Last night, I decided to chop some sweet potatoes into yummy matchsticks and bake myself some sweet potato fries.

While my exhaustion was slowly creeping in on me, I managed to do all of the following:

• Burn the backside of my hand on 3 knuckes while flipping the fries
• Burned my boob on the frying pan (I'm short and I reached over too far)
• Added too much salt to my baked crusted chicken
• Added too much salt to the sweet potato fries
• Overcooked my bacon for breakfast

By the end of my 2.5 hour failure of a night, this was me...

 

So, I should have listened to my brother and other Paleo YouTube people... Do all your cooking for the week on Sunday night.

I ended up tossing the overly soggy and salty fries, showered and knocked the hell out. Just to find myself up and awake at 3:00 am doing the dishes I should have done at 10 pm.

Definitely not a good week so far. HOWEVER! I did weigh myself this morning, and I've been eating well and drinking lots of water that I'm back to my post-paleo challenge weight :)

As far as the paleo lifestyle is concerned, my friend Cecilia and I are continuing with our own little challenge. Our 30 days lands on Christmas! Our reward?...

Paleo Banana Bread

The picture was taken by me, and the following was taken directly from Three New Leaves Paleo Banana Bread 

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated (keep the yolks and whites separate!)
4 or 5 tbsp honey (up to you!)
4 tbsp olive oil
3 mashed bananas (3 small, or 2-3 big)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups almond flour
1 cup pecans or walnuts (optional, and likely broken into smaller pieces if you use them)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the egg yolks and honey in a large bowl until light and fluffy. I use a hand-held mixer for this. It takes about five minutes.
3. Add the olive oil, vanilla, and mashed banana to the bowl, mixing well.
4. In a smaller separate bowl, mix the cinnamon, baking powder and almond flour and sift well. You don’t have to do this, honestly, before you add it to the big bowl, but an even distribution of the spices and powder never hurts.
5. Add that mixture of spices and powder to the bowl and stir well.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. A hand mixer is champion at this. Stiff peaks are vital.
7. Fold the egg whites into the banana mixture to pull it away from the sides before gradually folding the rest of the egg whites into the mixture.
8. If you’re the nutty type, go ahead and add your cup of pecans or walnuts to the mixture and stir well.
9. Lightly butter 2 foil bread loaf pans and pour the banana mixture in.
10. Place in oven for 40-45 minutes, though I always end up keeping them in for the latter.
The tops of the loaves should be a nice toasty brown by the 45-minute mark. Stick them with a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean. If so, you’re golden — set the loaves out to cool and enjoy!

One thing to consider: the loaf will harden and become more bread-like overnight, so don’t be surprised if it comes out pretty soft in the end. Banana bread always tastes better the next day, and these loaves are definitely no exception.

Notes:

I followed it exactly, just no nuts because I'm not sure what nuts I'm allergic to. I didn't have any foil bread so I used the dark pan. It looks like it overcooked... It looks burnt, but it tastes yummy! I didn't have any left to save for the week. My brother is my taste-tester and I did good :) Thank you Three New Leaves!

PaleYOLO: Turkey Muffin Balls

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lb ground turkey
• 5 strips of bacon
• 1/2 lb champignon mushrooms, diced
• 1 cup of almond flour
• garlic powder, to taste
• ground pepper, to taste
• sea salt, to taste
• 2 tablespoons of ghee, melted
• 12 count muffin pan

Prep:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Cube and pan fry the bacon
• While your bacon is cooking, season your ground turkey with desired spices (even if they're not mentioned above)
• When the bacon is almost done cooking, throw in the diced mushrooms... like a stir fry. Don't overcook the bacon and mushrooms though! Drain the excess lard
• When the bacon and mushrooms are slightly cooled to the touch, mix in with the ground turkey
• Once that's done, let the meat relax, and nuke your ghee
• Get your almond flour in a separate bowl, mix that with the garlic powder, pepper and salt
• Ghee up your muffin pan, on the bottom and the walls
• Using a spoon, pack a layer of "breading" at the very bottom of the pan (so it's like a crust)
• Scoop the turkey mix and place in the muffin compartments... Feel free to pack it in tight cuz the meat will shrink anyhow
• Use the excess "breading mix" and sprinkle on top of the meat
• Bake for about 30 minutes

Mind you, I just made this out of nowhere so I wasn't following anyone else's recipes.

Notes:

• Next time, I would just roll up the meat in my hands into a ball, and thoroughly coat and roll around on the "bread mix" and still bake in muffin pans
• I find that using muffin pans help lock in the moisture and flavor better

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! My brother said it was a hit!

Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! Did you eat clean??? Of course I didn't! This weekend was a stuff-my-face-fest. On top of the all the food I had at home, my brother and I ventured out into the world and ate all that I was craving during the paleo challenge:

• Original Pancaked House: Eggs Benedict with FLUFFY buttermilk pancakes PALEO
• The Original Rinaldi's: Fatboy (consists of garlic bread, pepperoni, meatballs, marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese... mmm) PALEO
• Dominoes Pizza: Sausage, Bacon, Pepperoni and Mushrooms with a side of chicken wings and ranch PALEO
• Starbucks: Caramel Creme Brulee PALEO

Yes, I did feel like crap. But I got most of my cravings out of the way. All I need right now is Hakata Ramen! Maybe in the next couple weeks.

 

Thanksgiving at my  house... we had turkey, salad, my dad's awesome gravy. That's it. I was going to cook but I failed and slept early the night before from that beast of a WOD.

 

I wasn't going to spend Thanksgiving with Dan and his family, but my mom ended up not working so I spent lunch with my family and dinner with Dan's. This is what they had:

 

Ham with pineapple and cherries and cloves

 

Turkey with breaded stuffing, another bowl had sausage stuffing

 

They had white and red wine, corn, olives, cranberry sauce... They went all out. I'm still not used to the American Thanksgiving. Hooray for exposing myself to different cultures!

 

On Black Friday, I didn't do any shopping. Instead, I raided my refrigerator to find out what I need to cook before all the food goes to waste, LOL. Here's what I made:

 

Almond-crusted PAN FRIED salmon with a side of sauteed spinach and mushrooms in ghee. This is the exact same prep as my PaleoYOLO: Baked Crusted Salmon, except, I just pan fried it at about 3-4 minutes on each side :)

 

My Turkey Muffin Balls

 

Banana Bread!

 

I will post the Turkey Muffin Balls and Banana Bread recipes later today or tomorrow :) 

Easy Peasy: Beef Chorizo & Egg Salad

 

We all have our lazy days where you just want to eat and cause a disaster in the kitchen. That was me last night, hardcore.

 

Ingredients (servings 1):

• 1/4 lb of 1 lb of beef chorizo (Sprouts) -- trust me, you'll use the rest for other lazy days
• 3-4 cups of spinach or other veggie (depends how much you want)
• 2 jumbo eggs (sub 3 L/XL eggs)
• Teaspoon of ghee

Prep:

• Melt the ghee on the pan
• Pan fry the chorizo until cooked
• The chorizo juices and ghee will seep out
• Crack your eggs, scramble and mix
• Set on top of your baby spinach (or salad veggie of your choice)
• Grub that mug

Best 5 minutes of my life.

PaleYOLO: Curried Cream of Broccoli Soup & Sweet Potato Fries

I got this recipe off NomNomPaleo's iPad app. You can find the original post here.

 

Here’s what to gather to feed 4-6 people:

• 1½ pounds broccoli
• 4 leeks, cleaned and trimmed
• 1 large onion
• 3 medium shallots
• ¼ medium apple, diced
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil or fat of choice
• 1 quart organic chicken broth or bone broth
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• Kosher salt
• Freshly-ground black pepper
• 1 cup coconut milk

I love NomNomPaleo's arrangement on how to prep and cook the recipes. But anywho...

 

•  Chop zee broccoli, so they're all about the same size
• I didn't use leeks cuz I don't know what the hell they are... if they're by another name at the grocery store... then woops. LOL.
• Chop up your onions and shallots
• Dice your apple (Next time I would use half an apple instead of 1/4)
• In a large pot, add the coconut oil (Yes, I used coconut oil)
• Saute the onions and shallots (and leeks if you added)
• Add the broccoli and apple
• Top off with the chicken broth
• Here's my mistake... instructions said to submerge the broccoli under water... I didn't realize broccoli floats. SOOO... LOL.
• Bring it up to a boil
• Add curry powder, salt, pepper
• Let cool
• I don't have an immersion blender, so I pulled out my food processor and transferred the soup (or as Marilyn would like to call it... "broth") and zing zinged that bad boy
• Replace in pot and add the coconut milk. In my desperate attempt to make this creamier, I added more coconut milk. It did nothing. I added about 20 fl oz, lol.
• Bring back to a boil, taste and adjust salt/pepper/curry to taste

Finished product. Looks yummy, tastes yummy, but I have to drink it like a TEA. hahah.

 

I made NomNomPaleo's Sweet Potato Fries while I cooked the soup. It's pretty easy, you should give it a go! I made one potato's worth last night. Here's my variation:

 

Ingredients, serving for 1:

•  1 large sweet potato, peeled
• Paprika
• Salt
• Pepper
• Coconut oil
• Cinnamon

Prep:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees 
• Wash and peel the sweet potato
• Cut into matchsticks, I would make this thicker next time
• Rinse and dry the potatoes
• Melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (microwave that mug)
• In a bowl, coat the sweet potatoes in coconut oil, go to town with the paprika, salt and pepper (to taste)
• On a baking pan lined with foil or parchment paper, place those suckers on there
• Bake for about 15-17 minutes, then flip em
• Bake for another 15-17 minutes
• Add more salt, pepper, paprika to taste
• If you wan't a little more of a treat, use cinnamon. GO. TO. TOWN.

VOILA!

Breakfast Bacon Quiches! I was lazy last night so it looks all messed up, lol. Nevertheless, YUMMY!

Hostess RANT

If you adore Hostess products and are indulging in one right now CLICK OUT OF THIS POST RIGHT NOW. You will not like what I am about to blog about.

First off, all this "HYPE" about the Hostess brand closing and the immediate need to purchase and consume these snacks is a bunch of bull poop, in my own opinion. I'll begin with the fact that most people know that Twinkies will last FOR YEARS! What's wrong with this you ask? Well it's a BAKED GOOD. Ever leave bread, muffins, cake out for too long? What accumulates in it? If you answered mold, then you are correct. For some odd reason Twinkies don't mold. I had a Nutrition teacher that had a Twinkie posted on his wall. Weird I know. Under the Twinkie was a sign that said "Since 19??" I can't remember the exact year, but it still looked consumable!

Secondly, ever read the back of a Twinkies label? Somewhere amongst the ingredients that you don't know what they are and can't pronounce you will see BEEF FAT (I have yet to find a Twinkie's box and post the picture of the ingredients). Yes I'm talking about cow fat. The stuff that you are supposed to trim off when you eat meat. I mean if you like eating beef fat then go right ahead. This should teach you to read your labels people!

Lastly, I checked out Amazon.com and a 24 count box of Twinkies is selling for $100. Hey fat ass clicking "Add to Cart" how about you do yourself a favor and delete it from your cart and invest in some healthy food.

You do the math. Healthy food = Healthy body. Crappy food = Crappy body.

I'm by no means a health freak. I'm still learning things day by day. But I know that Twinkies will be something that I don't like eating.

I'll spare my rant about gelatin/gummy candies until some company pisses me off. I also don't want to rant about gelatin because I love me some Haribo Gummy Peaches. Hint: If my boyfriend ever reads this blog, these will get you out of practically any fight. Just cram about 5 pieces into my mouth and I won't stop smiling for an hour or so. 

PaleYOLO: Slow Cooker Chicken

This weekend was a battle in itself for me. I stayed at my brother's this weekend since he went on a trip for his friend's wedding. Let me tell you that Paleo is ALL ABOUT being prepared. That means have a backup for your backup for your back. Basically, bring everything you need and everything you think you'll need.

Saturday morning I made a cup of coffee, which is mandatory if I'm watching 3 four year olds and 1 two year told, but I had no almond milk or Truvia sugar. Yeah, I know Truvia sugar isn't Paleo at all but I like my coffee practically white colored and sweet. So I had to use International Delights French Vanilla Creamer and white sugar. I said I like my coffee white and sweet so BOTH were needed. I'd opt for a cup of black coffee but I'm not into drinking liquid dirt.

I went home to grab a few of my essentials: Red Boat Fish Sauce, Truvia Sugar, Almond Milk (Unsweetened), and Coco-Roon Lemon Pie.

For dinner I prepared NomNomPaleo's Slow Cooker Roast Chicken and Gravy. I'd hate to toot my own horn but.... TOOT TOOT TOOTLY TOOT TOOT! It was pretty bomb in my opinion. There are a few adjustment for next time though.

Here's what I used for the recipe:

• 4-5 pound organic chicken
• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 2 leeks (white parts only) (I bought this prepackaged at Trader Joe's)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup of chicken stock
• Salt
• Pepper
• Herb Seasoning

1. Cut the leeks into small pieces and set aside.
2. Take the garlic and smash them with a knife (don't be an idiot don't use the blade, the side of the knife)
3. In a pan heat the ghee on medium-high heat
4. Once the ghee is melted add the leeks and garlic. Season with some salt and pepper
5. Add 1 teaspoon of tomato paste (you can add more if you like more flavor)
6. Saute everything so that they are lightly brown About 8-10 minutes depending on how well your stove conducts heat
7. Add the chicken stock to deglaze the pan, this basically means add chicken stock before your shit  burns.
8. Put everything into a Crock Pot and turn it on to a LOW SETTING. At first it may not cover the entire bottom of the Crock Pot but it's okay.
9. Clean the chicken and pay dry inside and out
10. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and herb seasoning. Don't be shy with the seasoning
11. Place it in the Crock Pot, breast side down. Cook for 4-6 hours depending on chicken size. My chicken was 4lbs. So I cooked it for 4 hours 30 minutes.
12. Once the time is up, remove the chicken from the Crock Pot and put it on a plate cool down a little (this ensures that your bird will be nice and juicy)



Why yes, that is a rubber band around the Magic Bullet in my many attempts to open it. Finally, my Uncle opened it. AFTER I consumed my meal like a cavewomen.

13. With the remaining sauce in the Crock Pot, remove some of the fat that comes up on the top and then blend the rest of the stuff in a blender, immersion blender, or whatever. I personally used a Magic Bullet but I failed because I couldn't open it after
14. Season the gravy to your taste
15. If you cooked the chicken correctly you should be able to rip it apart.

Comments: Next time I'll add more seasoning, more tomato paste, and onions. I'll also invest in an Immersion blender so I don't fail at opening the Magic Bullet.

My nieces ate the chicken I made and Reese said that she wanted me to make it with BBQ sauce instead. She doesn't know it but she just ate a meal WITHOUT preservatives, hormones and is PALEO friendly. BOOM. Nutrition for that ass. 

Crossfit Ero's Paleo Challenge (Whole 30)

In reference to Marilyn's "You go Glen Coco" post, I have officially completed Crossfit Ero's 30 Day Paleo Challenge. We were doing the Whole 30 Challenge. I must say that this has to be one of the hardest things I've gotten myself to into.

 

Cutting everything out cold turkey was hard as hell. For the first 10 days, I was so groggy and miserable... having headaches all the time. Once I got 2 weeks in, things got easier. I've developed good eating and cooking habits, having fresh breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner... I must say, the last 30 days forced me to learn how to cook. And I haven't been able to cook myself a real dish... EVER.

 

Last Saturday, 11-10-12, I had finished a WOD, went home to wait for my brother to get home to eat. Things didn't fall through and I was so busy that all I had in the morning was a banana. The first and only meal I consumed that day was at 6 pm. I went to Wood Ranch with Dan. I was really strict paleo, and he had ordered his tri-tip mushroom soup and they brought out their fresh garlic rolls. My hunger and lack of control overcame me. So by now, you think I'd eat all that right? NOPE. I sat there, on my side of the booth and I started to cry. NO NO not that bawling type of crying, but fog up my glasses and tears come down type of crying. Poor Dan felt bad, lol.

 

I stuck through it though, and even on my laziest nights of not wanting to cook, my subconscious woke me up at the crack of dawn to make food for work. THAT is how serious I was about paleo. Even then, I didn't know until I found myself waking up at 5 am to cook.

 

The challenge was from October 15, 2012 - November 14, 2012.  Here are my results:

	10/15/12	11/14/12
Weight:	173 lbs	163 lbs
Hips:	41”	39 7/8”
Waist:	39”	37”
Baseline WOD: 500m row 40 air squats 30 sit ups 20 push ups 10 pull ups	6 minutes, 30 seconds Doing negative pull ups	5 minutes, 56 seconds Doing 2 kipping pull ups and 8 negative pull ups

I wish I lost more inches :( But I lost the weight and fat, gained more strength. I strongly encourage you to try this Whole 30 Challenge. I guarantee that your changes are going to be worthwhile.

 

Tips:

• No excuses
• Read the ingredients on EVERYTHING
• Eat frequently
• Believe you can do it

Here's what I turned in on our meeting on Wednesday:

 

 

Look at that. LOOK AT THAT. (I obviously miss college, lol)

 

Last night, I went to Eatalian. Looks delicious, right? Tagliatelle con funghi (Porcini Mushrooms), Linguini con pesto, Cappricciosa Pizza. YUM YUM RIGHT RIGHT?

WRONGGGG!!!!

I enjoyed tasting the food, the pizza was the best honestly. But I over-hyped myself for the pasta. I was over it. And 10 minutes after the carb filled binging... my body wanted to throw up so bad. Mom thinks I'm borderline bulimic or something. I'M NOT. I just don't care for the carbs anymore... So you know where I ended up?

 

Home.

So Fresh and So YUM YUM: Baked Crusted Chicken

 

Here's a new photo of the Baked Crusted Chicken I posted a couple weeks ago. The picture I posted was refrigerated and in tupperware, lol. My brother saw it and thought it wasn't cooked. I just went to town even more with the layers/coats of almond flour/egg. Still delicious! YUM!

YOU GO GLEN COCO!

YOU GO STACY!! 

CON-mofuggin-GRATS for finishing your Whole 30 Diet!!!

I'm so proud that you were able to do it. You are probably at Xfit right now but whatevers, I'm in class. LOL. We still have to keep this up okay?

LUB YOU CUHH!

PaleYOLO: Breakfast Bacon Quiches

I've been craving quiches for a while now, and I usually use a wonton wrapper as the base. Since I'm still on the Whole 30 plan, I decided to make some with... BACON! I was winging it yesterday so it was just one big experiment.

 

Serves for 1 or 2 using a 12 count muffin pan (I only used 6 compartments, so double the ingredients if you want to use the whole 12 compartments)

 

Ingredients:

- 6 strips of bacon

- 4 large or extra large eggs

- fine sea salt

- ground pepper

- garlic powder

- 3 champignon mushrooms (white button), kibbled

- 1 cup of baby spinach, diced

- 1 tablespoon of ghee, melted

 

 

Prep:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- In a large frying pan, brown the strips of bacon. Cook it just enough so it's cooked, but still flimsy.

- While that's cooking, if you haven't done so yet, chop up your mushrooms and spinach

- Nuke your ghee for about 45-60 seconds

- Coat 6 of the 12 compartments on your muffin pan with ghee

- Once the bacon strips are cooked-ish, set aside on a paper towel to absorb the grease

- Saute the mushrooms and baby spinach

- In a large bowl, add the eggs, garlic powder and salt and pepper (to taste) and beat together

- Add the cooked mushrooms and spinach to the eggs and mix thoroughly

- Line the compartments with bacon

- Using a pyrex measuring cup, or spoon or whatever... pour the eggs into the bacon lined muffin pans

- Bake for about 10-15 minutes depending on how you like your eggs. I like mine a little runny so I take mine out sooner

- After cooking, let cool and grub that motha!

 

Spiraling Downhill

So my life has been pretty "bah" lately. Probably because the BF is in bootcamp and I've turned into an "Emo-Nemo" since he left. I'll be honest with myself and say that I haven't stuck to the Paleo challenge since it started. Please factor in the fact that I have learned a lot since I began the challenge but I haven't learned enough. This weekend I went to SoCal (Sorry again Stacy we couldn't meet up!) but I was bombarded with so much food, all of which were NOT Paleo friendly and highly bad for your body. (Alcohol was NOT consumed this weekend)

I come back home and step on the scale and BAM. Right back where I first started the Paleo journey. Okay I'll admit I'm pretty jealous of all these people on IG, Facebook, or whatever all getting skinny and shit. No lie. Hooray for you. It just makes me think I should stop allowing myself to Spiral Downhill. Okay so I promise to start eating healthier and incorporate exercise into my life because the pictures that were taken of myself this weekend we NOT FLATTERING. (I'll insert one after school)

In My Belly: The Counter

This weekend has got to be the worst I've eaten while doing this Whole 30 Challenge. I was supposed to have a lunch date with my brother on Saturday, but he ended up going with this crossfit friends. FAIL. So, I waited a couple hours for him to tell me that I'm not eating, lol. I was busy sorting stuff for Marilyn, whom I planned on seeing yesterday. Just this weekend didn't fall through at all and I'm pretty pissed about it, lol. *not your fault cuhh! lol.

 

Yesterday, I woke up from my 9 hour slumber to cook myself the basics: scrambled eggs, bacon, and sauteed spinach in bacon fat. Clearly it smelled delicious, because the ratdog, Noodle, wouldn't stop eyeballing my food. Hell, I couldn't stop eyeballing my food.

 

I needed to run errands and stop off by Whole Foods. It was super cold so I dressed accordingly. I asked my brother if I looked too bummy. His response? "You look okay. Looks like you're going to Whole Foods." LOLOL. This was taken at Nordstroms and I was holding myself back from spending a good bill on some sale stuff. But, I left with only a button down.

 

After doing my errands, I had to stop off at home. I was starving and the bro needed some stuff from Whole Foods. So I picked up my brother, and headed to The Counter for a pre-WF adventure. I got myself a 1/3 lb beef patty, cooked medium rare (actually, they cooked it medium well, I forced myself to eat, Steven brought it to the waiter's attention, I got a replacement and it was free of charge), lettuce blend, spinach, scallions, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, fried egg, tomatoes... It would have been a $27 burger, lol. I didn't eat the replacement, so I'm having that for lunch today.

PaleYOLO Seafood Supper: Baked Crusted Salmon

If you suffer from any food allergies, I totally understand your pain. I identify well with Chuckie Finster (yay for Rugrats reference!) because he's allergic to anything and everything. Well, one of my main, deadly allergies are shellfish. I haven't enjoyed a piece of shrimp since I was 15 (that's 10 years ago!). I have never tasted crabs, lobsters, oysters, clam chowder... YEP. Never have I had the opportunity to indulge in shellfish. Although, I can as long as I have my epi-pen with me and willing to pay $1500 for an ambulance ride and enjoy the thrill of waiting in the ER. 

 

Anyways, here's what I cooked last night...

 

Ingredients:

•  8 oz Atlantic Salmon
• 1/2 cup of almond flour
• 1 tablespoon of the following:
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Marjoram
• Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon of ground black peper and sea salt
• 3 tablespoons of ghee, melted (nuke it for about 45 seconds) 

Prep:

• Preheat the oven at 350 degrees
• In a small tupperware container, add all dry ingredients and shake! (SHAKE AND BAKE! YEAAAA!)
• Rinse your tender salmon and set aside
• Line your baking sheet with foil
• Coat the area with ghee where you will place the salmon, skin down
• Thoroughly coat the salmon with ghee and place on sheet
• Once the salmon is in its ready position, sprinkle and cover with the dry ingredients (I went to town with it)
• I love garlic so before I stuck it in the oven, I added more garlic powder on top
• Bake for 15-25 minutes depending how juicy/dry you want it

Alternate cooking method: You may also pan fry this to retain more moisture, probably 3 minutes each side.

 

Before

During

(I decided to make some sweet potato mash, and yes, this was post WOD, lol)

 

After

 

After After

Dessert: Apple Coconut Custard

 

I got this recipe off of PaleoZone. Here's the Apple Coconut Custard recipe...

This is how I prepped it:

You need a food processor or Magic Bullet, and a large pan or a pot

• I got 3 ambrosia apples, a bit bigger than a tennis ball
• Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
• 6 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 4 tablespoons of cinnamon

First, I peeled the apples, removed the core and any excess kin left on there, then sliced the apples, duh. The thinner the slice, the faster it will soften.

I placed it in a pan on medium to high heat, added the can of coconut milk, coconut oil and went to town with the cinnamon. Stir to evenly distribute the ingredients.

Let those bad boys sit and boil, until the apples are soft. It took about 20 minutes to soften the apples.

Pour contents into your food processor or Magic Bullet (I had to do 2 sets on my Magic Bullet).

Once they're blended into its yummy milky form, pour in a glass sealable container, or into individual cups to watch your portions (my mistake here, lol). Feel free to lick the leftovers, they're so yummy.

*You can also add berries or any fruit you want that will complement the apple flavor and mix it in, or just top it off later

Once in your container, let cool for about 10 minutes.

Seal your container(s) and let sit overnight.

Once it's hardened and formed it's custardy goodness, add any fruits you want.

Boom.

 

Yes, it was THAT good.

PaleYOLO: Baked Crusted Chicken

I got this recipe off PaleoPlan.com ... again! Here's the Crusted Chicken recipe directly off their website:

...BTW, this picture below is absolutely horrible. I'll explain why.

Ingredients

• 2-3 egg, beaten
• 6 Tbs water
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (optional)
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3 strips each

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Combine egg and water in a shallow bowl. Set aside.
3. Place nut flour on a plate, and mix in sea salt (optional) and black pepper.
4. Dip chicken in egg mixture, then pat moistened chicken in nut flour.
5. Coat chicken with flour on both sides. For thicker coating, repeat above procedure.
6. Place coated chicken on a metal baking sheet and bake for about 25-35 minutes, or until fully cooked.

My Variation:

• Stick with 2 eggs
• 1.5 - 2 cups of almond flour
• Proceed with any spices you want! I ended up using the advised amount of sea salt and black pepper, but I also topped the chicken (while on the baking sheet) with garlic powder
• 5-6 pieces of skinless and boneless chicken thighs (I get mine at Whole Foods)
• I did about 2 coats on each chicken
• Before placing the coated chicken on the metal baking sheet, line it with foil, and use ghee or extra virgin olive oil to avoid stickage (please refer to failed picture above)

So, the two things I learned from last night's fail... GO TO TOWN WITH THE SPICES AND USE FAT TO ANTI-STICK THE BAD BOYS! But, this was ABSOLUTELY delicious!

Okay, I really need to hit up Nom Nom Paleo's iPad app, because Marilyn bought it for me and I haven't used it, lol. I found some that are Stacy friendly :) So hopefully my next dish will be from there!

In My Belly & PaleYOLO: Steak and eggz

This is going to be a rather short post.

 

On Thursday night, I was so busy that I realized I didn't have any real cookable food for Friday's lunch and dinner. I was ridiculously busy preparing for a busy weekend. So, it's pays to have some go-to easy foods: eggs, spinach, and uncured beef hot dogs! I got the Applewood Uncured Beef Hot Dogs, but they're a bit salty (since it lacks the preservatives). So easy on your salt!

 

I managed to pick up some ribeye steak on the way home from work on Friday.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of baby spinach
• 2 large eggs
• 2 medium sized shallots
• 2 medium sized champignon mushrooms
• any size steak you want :)
• 3 garlic cloves
• salt and ground pepper

Preparation:

• Finely dice the garlic cloves
• Slice 3-4 slits on each side of the steak and season with salt and ground pepper (to taste)
• Stuff about 2 cloves worth of garlic in the slits and let sit for approximately 20 minutes (until it's about room temperature)
• In the meantime, chop up your mushrooms into small pieces and slice your shallots into thick rings
• On medium/high heat, saute your spinach in desired fat (extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, etc)... In this case, I used ghee
• Using the juices left over from the spinach, fry 2 eggs over easy (perfect for dipping the meat into)
• Let sit and place inside microwave to retain some warmth
• Quickly clean up the pan of excess spinach/egg residue and add 3-4 tablespoons of ghee or extra virgin olive oil and stir fry the mushrooms and shallots until shallots are transluscent
• Depending how you like your steak (I love it medium rare), pan fry for about 3 minutes on both sides
• Once it's cooked to your liking, set mushrooms and shallots atop the steak (lets the flavors absorb in the meat a bit)
• ENJOY!

 

I had one hell of a busy weekend and yesterday, I went to Blue Water Grill in Redondo Beach to celebrate my dad's birthday. I've been told I've been anal about being on paleo (asking people if anything's paleo), but hell, I was hungry and needed to know! I got blackened atlantic salmon, fresh veggies and spinach sauteed in extra virgin olive oil. PERFECT DISH. You know how I'm picky? Yeah, I definitely ate most of the squash and zucchini and spinach... but tomatoes... HAVE GOT TO GO, lol.

Bone Broth

I guess that will all of the stress that has been going on with me lately. I was bound to get sick. So today I headed over to Whole Foods and bought some bones (beef bones, yes they sell them at Whole Foods so ask the Butcher). As soon as I got home I rinsed the bones and threw them into my good old handy crockpot. Here's the recipe:

• 2-3 lbs of bones (you can use chicken, beef, whatever you like)
• about 7 pieces of garlic (if you like garlic feel free to add more)
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped into pieces
• 2 pieces of celery, chopped into pieces
• 1 onion, chopped into pieces
• 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

I didn't stir the ingredients. I just added everything in and set it to low temperature and let the food do it's thing for the next 8 hours. I'll admit that I opened it every now and them to smell all the goodness.

After 8 hours, I turned off the heat and let it cool down for about 30 minutes. 30 minutes later I came back and strained the broth into a container. I had a cup of my good ol' bone broth but to be honest I didn't like the "fat" layer that I was tasting. My suggestion: let it cool down in the container and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning that fat layer will appear white on top and just scrap it off.

Some of you may be wondering why I don't post pictures but I promise I will start trying to now. I'm really messy when I cook. Messy cook + klutz = broken camera waiting to happen.