Breakfast for Dinner

You know how I said I've been lazy lately. Well, that laziness has continued. I'm being more productive this week, but I didn't do my weekly meal prep, so here's what I tossed together for dinner today:

Leafy Greens, Sweet Potato, and Avocado with Eggs

1 sweet potato, diced

2 cups spinach

1 cup kale

1 cup Swiss chard

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 avocado

pinch of cumin

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp lime juice

1. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium/medium-low heat (setting 4 on my stove).

2. Once hot toss in the sweet potato. Add the cinnamon, pepper, and salt. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.

3. After a few minutes, toss in the carrots and stir with the sweet potato. Add the spinach, kale, and Swiss chard to the top of the pan, but don't stir. Cook for 4 minutes.

4. Stir everything together, reduce heat to medium-low (3) and cook for another couple minutes, or until the greens are wilted.

5. Push everything to the side of a pan and crack the eggs into the pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the egg white is cooked through.

6. Serve in a bowl with the eggs resting on a bed of leafy greens.

Top with avocado, and sprinkle with the cumin, cayenne pepper, and lime juice.

Whole 30 - Day 26

Check that out, y'all. I'm almost done with a Whole 30. I admit to having my first cheat today. I had a soda... I know! It's terrible, but I needed it. I have an out-of-town regatta tomorrow and had to drive this afternoon, because I had no desire to make a 2:30 a.m. drive before a day of races. As I was driving, I was having a lot of trouble staying focused and kept wanting to close my eyes, just for a little bit. Sleeping while driving is really not acceptable, so I pulled off at a Bucee's gas station to buy myself some caffeine. Try not to judge so much. I at least made it to my destination in one piece.

Want to know what I ate for a pre-drive breakfast? Of course you do...

Asparagus and Pepper Scramble

3 eggs

1/2 red pepper, cut into large chunks

1/3 bunch of asparagus

1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 cup shredded cabbage

1 cup baby kale/spinach/arugula

1 tsp garlic salt

3/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 pinch cayenne

1 Tbls olive oil

1. Rinse your asparagus and cut the bottom 1-2 inches off the stalk.

2. Wrap the asparagus in paper towels, and briefly run the wrapped bunch under the faucet so it's a bit damp.

3. Microwave for 3.5 minutes.

4. While the asparagus is being microwaved, heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat.

5. Toss in the peppers once the asparagus is hot. Cook for a couple minutes, until starting to soften.

6. Chop the asparagus into 1-inch pieces, and add to the pan with the peppers.

7. Add in the tomatoes, cabbage, and mixed greens. Cook for about a minute, then add the whisked eggs.

8. Stir often until the eggs are cooked, then eat.

After checking into the hotel, I immediately drove over to the boathouse to help unload boats from our trailer and then rig them. After dinner, we went to Rodeo Goat (http://www.rodeogoat.com/) for dinner, where I had the Caca Oaxaca, minus the cheese and the bun. It was good, but not mind-blowingly good for a burger joint which was rated the best burger in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Here's my burger below...

Whole 30 - Day 21

Wow. Has it already been 3 weeks? It doesn't feel like it's been that long. At least not right now. There are other times that it feels like ages, but as I've mentioned, it's primarily when I'm craving snacks or something to drink other than water. That might be when I most want to drink alcohol. Not for the fact that it's alcohol, but for that fact that it's a flavor other than plain water. Sure, sure, I could give my water some flavor by tossing in a couple slices of orange, lemon, or lime, or some frozen raspberries or something like that. There are options, but that also requires effort. More effort than opening a bottle of wine and pouring myself a glass would be.

Anyways, it's not a super difficult struggle, so at least we know my willpower is still kicking. I just want to remember the way I feel now so that when my Whole 30 is up, I don't attack all of those foods that aren't Paleo, but are gluten-free and dairy-free. We'll see what happens in 9 days. Maybe my Whole 30 will last a bit longer?

Here's what I whipped together for dinner last night and tonight (I've been lazy this weekend, so it's mainly just me tossing veggies together with leftover chicken, egg, and some seasonings).

Chicken with over-easy egg and sautéed zucchini, leek, cherry tomato, and baby kale.

Chicken with egg and stir-fried carrots, leek, zucchini, and baby kale and baby spinach. I cooked the veggies with some coconut aminos (from my shopping trip yesterday) and a few splashes of fish sauce.

Whole 30 - Day 20

Today I got called out by the guy working the cash register at my local Whole Food on my Paleoness. Why? you ask. Because of the seaweed snacks that I bought today. So as he's ringing me up, he turns to me and asks "Paleo?" While I'm packing my purchases into my backpack, I look up and ask "How did you know?" Then I looked down at the bottles in my hand and see my coconut oil (OMG I just cannot get enough of it, and I guess I have to buy it every time I see it on sale) and coconut aminos. Oh, right. He then looks at the seaweed snacks and mentions that he's never tried them before and questions whether they're Paleo. He flips over the package and scans the ingredients list. And then he points out the fact that there is canola oil in the seaweed snacks. "Oh. Well I wouldn't eat these because I'm really strict." Ooooohhh, burn. So so right though. After I left I realized that I picked up the wrong brand. There's another brand of seaweed snacks that doesn't use canola oil. Oops. So now I have seaweed snacks at home that I won't be eating. Oh well, I still walked to and from the Whole Foods (about a mile each way), and came away with coconut oil, coconut aminos, and some veggies. So overall, it was a good trip. And a relaxing way to spend my afternoon after a 6 a.m. row, followed by an unplanned nap, then a sushi lunch with LMR. So scratch that to say it's been a very relaxing and rejuvenating day.

Now for what I whipped up for breakfast...

2 eggs

2 cups baby kale

1/4 cup chicken breast, shredded

1/2 sweet potato

1/2 cup blueberries

1. Add 1 Tbls ghee to a pan and heat over medium-low heat. Once hot, add the kale and chicken. 

2. When the kale has cooked down, add the eggs and stir to scramble.

3. Cook for a few minutes or until the eggs are cooked through.

4. Serve with half of a baked sweet potato and a half cup of blueberries.

Chemo - Part 7 - Day 6

Today I went to the Atlanta Steeplechase for my friend's birthday. It's bright and very colorful. I didn't see a single horse, but I did see a lot of our tailgate. LF told me after the event that she saw me getting my flirt on... I do miss my fraternity boys - there's not as many within my social circle in Houston. There were four of us that are gluten-free, so we stuck with cider. And there's a liquor store in Atlanta which carries my favorite cider, Kopparberg, so we drank a fair amount of that. Her younger brother, who we used to torment when we were growing up, and his friends planned the gathering, and it was a lot of fun. I recommend that you go if you get the opportunity. A similar upcoming event is the Kentucky Derby. Celebrate this fact.

While I was gone, my parents stayed at home dealing with the repercussions of chemo. I feel guilty that I wasn't there to help out. The bone pain that I mentioned yesterday was worse today. The pain has extended from one shin and one shoulder to both shins and shoulders. And there's not anything that I can do about it.

On the bright side, our neighbors made DELICIOUS pork loin with grilled asparagus for us for dinner. OMG! I would eat that pork all day, everyday. And he sought to make sure that I could eat it with my funny diet. It was wonderful. I plan on chasing him down to get the recipe tomorrow.

Last week one of my family's other neighbors brought us some kale from the DeKalb Farmers Market (yet another instance of my family's support system). She had bought some dinosaur kale, which I had never seen before. But when I was flipping through The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, one of the many cookbooks I borrowed from the library, I found a recipe that called for dinosaur kale. So yesterday afternoon when we got back from chemo, I decided to give it a try. Here's the recipe (found on page 89):

Kale with Sweet Potatoes and Pecans

2 Tbls olive oil
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 sweet potato, peeled and finely diced (~1 1/3 cup)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup bone broth
5 cups dinosaur kale, washed, stems removed, and chopped into bite-size pieces
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 Tbls golden raisins
1/4 tsp maple syrup
chopped pecans for garnish

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the ginger and cook for roughly 30 seconds, until just aromatic.

2. Add the sweet potato, cinnamon, and bone broth, and cook for 1 minute.
3. Toss in the kale, salt, and raisins, cooking for about 5 minutes, until the kale turns dark green and the sweet potato is soft.
4. Stir in the maple syrup and remove from heat.
5. Sprinkle chopped pecans on top of the kale and serve.

According to the cookbook, kale is like a "twenty-four-hour pharmacy." Kale contains "phytochemicals that attack cancer." So go eat some kale. It's good for you!

Bacon and Veggie Frittata

The last morning that I was in Atlanta, my parents made a frittata for me. Aww, aren't they just the sweetest? I don't know exactly how they prepped everything, so I'll just tell you what I would do.

Bacon and Veggie Frittata

1 cup kale, ripped to pieces

1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup orange bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup roasted cauliflower (precooked)

5 strips bacon, chopped

8 eggs, whisked

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place your uncooked and chopped bacon into a large pan over medium-high heat. Cook for 5 minutes or until the pieces are crispy. Remove bacon pieces.

Add the onions and cook until starting to turn translucent. Toss in your kale, stirring to coat with the glorious bacon grease. (If you're not using grass-fed bacon, you could remove the bacon from the pan and pour out the bacon fat. Instead use coconut or olive oil for cooking the veggies.) Cook for a couple minutes before throwing in the rest of your veggies. Remove from heat and stir the bacon bits back in.

Transfer the veggies and bacon to a greased 13"x9" baking pan. Pour the eggs over the veggies and bacon, making sure that the ingredients are evenly distributed. Bake for 25 minutes.

Spaghetti with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

I finally got a spaghetti squash to taste delicious. The first two times that I attempted it, the result tasted horrible. Seriously. LMR and I coated it with more and more pesto trying to get it to taste good, but it didn't work. It was still terrible. This one is much better. And it's so colorful!

Spaghetti with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

1 spaghetti squash

2 cups shredded kale

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 cup chopped carrots

1 1/2 cup broccoli

1/2 cup each of chopped red, yellow, and orange bell peppers

2 cups grape tomatoes, sliced in half

4 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

Cooking supplies:

2 baking sheets

2 frying pans, 1 needs a matching lid

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and brush the flesh with extra virgin olive oil.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Place the spaghetti squash face down on the lined baking sheet.

Place into the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the skin is squishy when poked.

While the squash is cooking, start on your veggies. Prep all of the veggies (rinsing, shredding, chopping, etc.). Heat 2 Tbls of olive oil in large pan. Put the kale, broccoli, and carrots into this pan and stir to coat evenly with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The kale will turn dark green, and the carrots and broccoli will be soft.

In a separate pan, toss in the mushrooms and peppers. Stir occasionally.

Remove from heat after 10-15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have been cooked down. Mix in with the kale, carrots, and broccoli, and cover to keep warm.

When there is roughly 15 minutes left for the squash you can start working on the tomatoes. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with 1 Tbls olive oil and a couple shakes of salt. Spread the tomatoes onto the second pan and put into the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the squash from the oven and flip over. Drag a fork across the flesh and the squash will come off in strands. It will look like spaghetti.

Scoop the "spaghetti" into your serving bowls and mix with the veggies. Stir in some of the roasted tomatoes and top with as many extra roasted tomatoes as you want.

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

The thing about my parents' house is that they have an incredibly well-stocked fridge and pantry. And I mean incredibly... to the point that every time we went grocery shopping, we had to spend a little while rearranging the fridge to fit everything in. And why are they so well-stocked? Sam's Club. My mom likes to buy in bulk. It's both good and bad. On the one hand, you get food for a cheaper price per item/unit of measurement; on the other, you get more than you can eat at any given time. So when we chopped up three bell peppers, we used some for our Christmas Eve salad, and then placed the rest into Tupperware. This turned out to be very handy for us because when breakfast rolled around, all I had to do to make a frittata was to toss all of the pre-chopped veggies into the pan to cook and then transfer to a baking dish and add scrambled eggs. For our morning after Christmas breakfast, we did just that and tossed in some chorizo pork sausage that I bought from Whole Foods. So here's a total list of what went into breakfast:

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

2 links chorizo sausage

8 eggs, whisked

1/3 red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1/2 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped kale

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the kale, toss, and cover with lid. Cook for 5 minutes until kale becomes a darker green. Add carrots and broccoli and cook covered for another 5 minutes. Remove lid and set aside. Add in the mushrooms and peppers and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer veggies to an oiled baking dish.

While the veggies are cooking, cook your chorizo in a separate pan. Start by cooking the full links on each side over medium heat until browned, about a minute per side. Then remove from the pan and slice into pieces. Return to pan and cook for about 2 minutes per side. 

Mix chorizo sausage with the veggies and pour the whisked eggs over the top of the meat and veggies. Transfer to the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the eggs are firm. Remove from oven and slice into 8 pieces.

Here's the resulting frittata served with leftover potato sausage and a handful of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

After eating breakfast, my parents and I finished up this cute puzzle:

And just to finish off, I want to give everyone a warning about bread in the microwave.

NEVER EVER PUT BREAD IN THE 

MICROWAVE FOR THREE MINUTES!!! 

One of my co-workers did that today with a hot dog bun and OMG does the it smell terrible! The burnt smell has permeated half of the floor so far and someone called our safety manager to report a fire. Yikes.

Whole 30 - Family Gathering

Today was my first full day with my family, and it was a bit of a later start than I was expecting. I ate a small banana for breakfast before leaving the hotel. After my parents and I got our ID passes from the Air Force base (the hotel at which we are staying is on the base), we stopped by the grocery store in order for me to pick up some ingredients for Paleo meals. My grocery list consisted of:

• Butternut squash 
• Cauliflower 
• Broccoli 
• Onion 
• Scallions 
• Garlic 
• 2 tart apples 
• Bacon (as organic and free-range as I could get) 
• Ground beef (as organic and free-range as I could get)

While I was there, I also grabbed some acorn squash because it looked delicious. Once we got to my uncle's house, I immediately started cooking. I started off with Mashed Cauliflower, Roasted Broccoli

and Spicy Kale Chips

I also chopped up two bags of Brussels sprouts for a side dish tomorrow. By this point, it was about time for lunch. So while my family ate BBQ pulled chicken, I snacked on some broccoli and salami. And because of happy coincidence, my Atlanta-born college roommate and I happened to be in the same city, so I met up with her in the early afternoon for a catch-up -on-your-life tea break. When I got back from hanging out with her and her hubby, I started making non-Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars for my family. Yeah, I'm just that nice; even though I couldn't eat it, I wanted to share the deliciousness with my family. I think they liked it... just kidding, it was awesome!

Because the oven was full of baking lasagna and mozzarella breadsticks, I postponed prepping my own dinner until the oven was free. Because I'm on vacation I didn't want to think of any new recipes and the acorn squash reminded me of a PaleOMG recipe that I wanted to try. So I made Stuffed Acorn Squash.

1/2 acorn squash

1 lb ground beef (go for free-range/grass-fed if possible)

1/2 onion diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbls + 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375°C. Cover a baking sheet with tinfoil.

Cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Coat the flesh of the squash with olive oil (1 tsp on each half). Now shake 1/2 tsp of cinnamon onto each half and rub the cinnamon across the squash to ensure even distribution. Place the squash, cut-side down, onto the baking sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes before flipping over and baking for another 10 minutes.

While the squash is baking, heat 1 Tbls of olive oil in a skillet over the stove. Once hot, transfer the onion and the garlic into the pan and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the ground beef. Once the beef has been browned, reduce heat to low and keep warm until the squash is done.

Now that your squash is done (the skin of the squash will be squishy when you poke it), carefully scoop the flesh out of one half of the squash, making sure that you don't break the skin.

Transfer to the pan on the stove and mix into the ground beef. Transfer back into the skin of the squash. When the half is almost completely full, use your spoon to make a dent in the mixture and crack an egg into the hole you just made. Put the squash back into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the egg is cooked.

You could do the same thing with the other acorn squash half, or you could use a knife to cut the squash into squares for use in some other dish. I did the later, but I haven't decided yet what to make... I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow.

So it took an hour after my family ate for me to finish cooking and get around to eating, but hey, I managed to stay Paleo and eat a delicious meal. And I have exercised INTENSE self-control and have not eaten any of the pumpkin chocolate chip bars which you all know that I love. That's dedication to Whole 30. Your admiration of my mad self-control is appreciated.

Whole Foods Dinner

Go USA Women Soccer Team! Gold medal! Woo hoo!

As I'm sure most of you know, Whole Foods is pretty awesome. The store provides a wider selection of grass-fed meats as well as organic foods, some of which is local. However, there are some disappointing things about Whole Foods. Their pre-made dishes tend to have tons of hidden surprises for us Paleo followers. Just so you know.

Despite this, LMR and I met up at her local Whole Foods to grab some dinner and head back to her place for former-roomie bonding time. I picked up some plantain chips (I've been craving them lately), some super dark chocolate, as well as some Hatch Chile Chicken Salad, a grilled chicken breast, and some sauteed kale.

My dinner plate ended up like this:

Sunburn for the Pale

By Monday evening, I had already managed to get sunburned. It's a really unfortunate sunburn on the back of my thighs and my upper back, so it makes sitting and laying down very uncomfortable. By some miracle, I'm not sunburned down the middle of my back. My sides? Yes. Center of the back where I can't actually reach? Nope. The thing I really don't understand is how I always get sunburned despite reapplying sunscreen repeatedly. I also want to know how my parents are so much tanner than I am. I mean, I am the product of them, so shouldn't my skin tone be at least the same as one of theirs, if not somewhere in between? Ah, genetics... how I don't fully understand you. Yes, I spend a significant amount of time hiding from the sun at work, whereas my mom takes the puppies for walks and plays tennis on the weekends. But even during winter she seems to have more color to her. And my dad? He's just naturally more tan. He's like me and spends an exorbitant amount of daylight hours locked inside an office building and yet, if you take a photo of him and me, you see my white skin boldly declaring my paleness!

Monday night dinner was burgers that my mom had brought. My dad chose to have his with bread, but my mom and I stuck with the Paleo version.  I served mine on a bed of romaine hearts and is topped (from bottom up) with tomato, cucumbers, roasted onions, orange bell peppers, mushrooms, and Spicy Kale Chips (recipe below). These kale chips gave the burger a real kick. I also topped the burger with some spicy Dijon mustard just because.

Spicy Kale Chips

1 bunch kale chips

2 tbls olive oil

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Rip the kale into small one-inch pieces. Place into a gallon size Ziploc bag with the other ingredients and toss to coat evenly. Spread onto greased baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through to make sure that the kale chips don't stick to the baking sheet.

Road Trip to Pensacola

I made a 530-mile drive to Pensacola today to attend KM's winging ceremony tomorrow. I left my apartment at 10 this morning, and after a quick stop at Whole Foods for some cut celery, baby carrots, fresh fruit, and Larabars, I began my journey. After driving for 250-miles, I found myself at The Tiger Truck Stop along I-10, where I stopped to fill up on gas and take a 30-minute lunch break. My lunch consisted of an extremely greasy hamburger pattie. I don't recommend it, but there wasn't a whole lot of other options around. Alas, such is life. I only stopped once on my drive and made the entire trip with 1.25 tanks of gas. I love my new car and it's gas mileage. I've averaged 33.0 mpg in the past week of driving my car.

This morning my breakfast was a kale, spinach, mushroom, and Swedish Meatball Turkey Burger crumbles omelet, with two slices of oven-baked bacon. It was delicious, but ended up being too much food for me. Unfortunately, one-third of my omelet ended up in the trash since I was taking off for my 9ish-hour drive.

Tonight I broke Paleo for some fried, Boursin-stuffed artichokes at the Global Grill. They were delicious and went very well with pork tenderloin! I'm well aware that I won't be able to maintain Paleo all of this weekend with all of the winging activities, but I'm going to choose the healthier options wherever available. And I'm not going to worry about it. Stay tuned...

Nap Time

I took a 5-hour nap today and it was amazing! This afternoon some buddies and I watched the Chelsea - Bayern München football (soccer) game. Congrats go to Chelsea for winning the UEFA Championship. Failure goes to me for falling asleep during overtime; I woke up in time for the shoot-out though. As soon as I got home after the match, I fell asleep on my couch for 5 hours. Finally getting sleep made my headache go away. I'm attributing today's lingering headache to a lack of sleep, though my body probably doesn't need a reason to have a headache.

Last night for dinner I sauteed some kale, onion, mushrooms, and spinach over bacon fat and then mixed in some eggs for a kale-veggie scramble. Here was my dinner plate:

Doesn't it look yummy?

1 Tbls bacon fat
2 leaves kale, ribs removed, and ripped into small pieces
3 mushrooms, washed and sliced
1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 cup baby spinach
1/4 cup vegetable broth
3 eggs, whisked

Heat vegetable broth on medium heat in saute pan. Place kale into pan and cook down until kale turns dark green in color. The kale will absorb most of the broth. Put 1 Tbls of bacon fat into the pan before adding the onions and cooking until translucent. Next add the mushrooms and finally the spinach. Once the spinach is wilted (will turn dark green). Pour in the eggs and cook, stirring frequently (unless you'd rather make an omelet). Plate and top with salsa or guacamole. Easy peasy!