Steak with Swiss Chard

Well, it's a Friday evening and I just finished cleaning the heck out of my living room. I spent at least 4 hours vacuuming the rug, sweeping and mopping the floor, vacuuming the couches and giant bean bag, fluffing pillows, sweeping under the couches, wiping down the dining room table and chairs, and mopping the tile in the hallway. To say the least, I'm beat. On the bright side, I did spend the evening with two of my delightful friends, KAOS and PC, painting pottery. I was so engrossed in trying to decide what to do and then actually executing my plan, that I forgot to take photos. It seems like I can only remember to photograph food. Anywho, here's some of the food I remembered to take a photo of...

Steak with Swiss Chard and Roasted Peppers

1 top sirloin steak (other cuts work too)
salt and pepper, to taste

1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped into 1-2" pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pinch crushed red pepper
2 Tbls ghee

Roasted Peppers

1. Set oven to broil.

2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over high heat on the stove. Once hot, add the steak and cook for 2 minutes on each side.

3. Place the steaks 3" away from the top of the oven. Cook for 13 minutes, flip, and cook for another 13 minutes (for medium-rare).

4. While the steaks are cooking, heat 2 Tbls ghee over medium heat. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and the minced garlic, and saute for a minute or so.

5. Add the Swiss chard, cover, and cook for 5 minutes.

6. Flip over the leaves, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes. The chard should be soft and look like sauteed spinach leaves. If it's dry, add a tablespoon of water and cook for another couple minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

7. Once the steaks are done, remove pan from the oven, transfer steaks to a plate, and cover with tin foil. Let rest for 5 minutes. Then serve with Swiss chard and roasted red pepper.

Whole 30 - Day 23

Breakfast today was leftover veggies from Sunday night's stir-fry with a few slices of Proscuitto and watermelon.

Lunch consisted of leftover steak and fajita veggies, some "power greens" from Trader Joes. I also had a snack of plantain chips, apple slices, 3 strawberries, some pineapple, and some grapes (we had a meeting at work during lunch and my only viable food options were fruit).

Dinner was a post-workout sweet potato with an egg, and some pomegranate seeds.

I read an article recently from Fitrocracy about weight loss: http://www.fitocracy.com/knowledge/weight-loss-101/. This article provided a link to a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator in order to determine your ideal caloric intake for weight loss. Your BMR is the amount of calories that your body burns while at rest. Now to accurately determine the BMR of your specific body, lab experiments need to be run, including a gas analysis through direct or indirect calorimetry. I bet most of you don't want to spend the time or money to have these tests, so in the meantime, you can get an estimate of your BMR from one of these websites: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ or http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html. You can then use the Harris-Benedict Equations (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/) to determine what your caloric intake should be based on your lifestyle/activity level. Alternatively, if you want to use the Mifflin St Jeor Equation, this calculator can be used: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm. The Harris-Benedict equations were originally developed in 1919, and then updated in 1984. The Mifflin St Jeor equations were developed in 1990 and take into account the change in lifestyle over the last century, a.k.a. we're a bit more sedentary. Keep in mind that these formulas don't take into account lean body mass. If you know what your % body fat is, then you can use your lean body mass [your weight * (100% - %body fat)] with the Katch-McArdle or Cunningham formulas.

As you can probably guess, I've read about this just a bit and would in fact like to lose weight. I wouldn't say that I'm actively counting calories, but it's a side effect of using PaleoTrack.com to keep track of my nutrient intake. I've posted before that it's rather difficult to achieve ideal Paleo nutrition. To add another layer of difficulty, the article I mentioned above said that you should eat your goal weight in grams of protein, i.e. if your goal weight is 100 lb (not that mine is), you should aim for 100 g of protein per day. That's a LOT of protein, and it's much higher than what I tend to consume in a day. And I've found that a lot of protein sources, like beef and chicken, have high omega-6:omega-3 ratios, which messes up my fatty acid ratio. So I guess that means I should eat fish every day? Yikes. Though I've gotten past most of my aversion to raw meat, I haven't quite gotten used to the idea of handling raw fish every day. I still find it gross.

Whole 30 - Day 22

I smell like a candy cane right now. Weird, right? Especially considering that it's September; I'm a few months early for the Christmas holiday... just a few. Anyways, you're probably wondering why the smell of peppermint is wafting from my skin. Well, in my ever-encompassing effort to incorporate the Paleo ideals into my life, I bought a bottle of Dr. Bronners Magic "All-One" castile soap which is supposedly a good option for Paleo/all-natural-fanatics, of which I'm becoming (or have already become). There are a lot of different scents available: tea tree, lavender, eucalyptus, almond, citrus, rose, peppermint, peppermint/hemp, aloe, and unscented. You can purchase it in bar form or in liquid form. Personally, I got my hands on an 8-oz bottle of the liquid soap. I probably would have gone for a different scent than peppermint, but it was the only option that came in 8-oz at the grocery store, and I didn't want to invest in a giant 32-oz bottle if I didn't like the stuff or the smell. Now, I've only used it once, but I have no complaints so far. My skin feels soft and minty-fresh. It also feels moisturized, which means that my skin isn't itchy right now, if you exclude the locations mosquito bites magically appeared after my Saturday morning row, and even they aren't terribly itchy.

You may be wondering what is castile soap, and why should I use it? Well, castile soap is the name of olive oil-based soaps that are made in similar style to that originating in Castile, Spain. Dr. Bronner's soap is a popular version that is well-known for the insane amount of tiny text all over the bottle's label, and more importantly for its foaminess. If you're like me, you're used to your soaps developing into a lather when you use them, however, there's some soaps out there that don't lather. For instance, Cetaphil is a soap that had been recommended to me by my dermatologist as a gentle face wash. It was moisturizing and gentle as claimed, but it didn't lather and I just felt like I wasn't getting clean. That being said, my experience with Cetaphil was ages ago (a.k.a. high school), and now that I've switched over to the oil cleansing method for my face, I no longer need that foaming action to consider my face clean. I haven't completely accepted that for my shower though, so Dr. Bronner's Magic "All-One" is a good option for me to start going more natural for soaps. I've looked up some recipes for making my own soap though, and I imagine it's going to happen some day. I mean, I've taken to making everything else and using natural household ingredients for everything from face wash to toothpaste to leave-in conditioner and moisturizer. Why wouldn't I eventually get around to making soap. Yeah, I see that in my future.

In the meantime, let's talk about the present, or technically the past at this point. After getting home from Krav Maga and a brief stop at Trader Joe's for some veggies and unsweetened dried fruit, I whipped up some steak with fajita veggies, and a side of plantain chips with salsa. For the fajita seasonings, refer to my post here: http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2013/08/whole-30-day-4.html

I used a bag of frozen 3-pepper medley (red, green, and yellow) with onions. Toss that into a cast-iron skillet, and cook with the seasonings until it's melted and the excess water from freezing has started to evaporate. Then toss in the steak (or half a steak as shown above), cooking for a few minutes on each side until the insider reaches your desired pinkness. As always, go for the grass-fed beef if you can find it. And the plantain chips are a good option (when you can find them not cooked in canola oil) if you're really craving chips and salsa. Don't go wild on it, because we don't want to have too much dried fruit, and it falls into that iffy region of "Sex With Your Pants On." But I feel that as long as you don't eat ALL of the plantain chips in one sitting, you're probably okay. And if it feeds the craving, that great, and you can get back to all of the other healthier options.

Whole 30 - Day 4

Steak Fajitas

1 lb flank steak

1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 green pepper, cut into strips
1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
1/2 onion, cut into quarters and then into strips

1. Mix spices together and rub over the steak.

2. Place steak in a Ziploc bag in the fridge for at least an hour.
3. Heat 2 Tbls olive oil in a cast iron pan (or any pan) over medium-high heat. The pan is hot when a few drops of water sizzles when sprinkled onto the pan.
4. Place the peppers and onion into the pan and cook for a couple minutes, then clear out a space in the center and add the steak.

5. Cook for a few minutes on each side. Transfer steak to a plate and cover with tin foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Then serve with your veggies.

21DSD Day 8 - Chemo

Well folks, I'm back in Atl to be with my parents for this next round of chemo. Yesterday we just took things easy. We took the dogs for two walks, finished one puzzle, and watching Rise of the Guardians and Resident Evil: Resurrection. I really enjoyed the first one. I thought it was super cute and funny. Resident Evil was a bit of a let down though. I've been a faithful Resident Evil since I watched the second film during my senior year of high school, probably slightly becasue of the movie itself, but mainly because of the good memories I associate with it. (Yes, you heard that right. Zombie movie = good times. I'm weird, right?) Anywho, we stayed busy, while still taking it easy. I whipped up some steak and roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner.

And got to use my parents' handy Wustof Silverpoint steak knives. Yep, they copied me because of how much I raved about my set.

Today we spent about 4 hours at the facility, which is a lot less than what we expected. The doctors started the chemo drip slowly (50 mL/h, then 100, 150, 200, and 300 after 30-minute intervals) in order to watch for any signs of allergic reaction, which of course kicked in after about 45 minutes. The allergic reaction we got today was a "weird-feeling," slightly itchy throat. We notified the nurse (Vanessa is really helpful), and they paused the chemo and started up a steroid drip to stop the reaction. The doctor basically told the nurse to use whatever drugs (steroids, anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, etc.) she thought we needed, considering all of the issues we encountered with the supposedly "nicer" chemo drug. After the steroid we progressed without a hitch.

We then headed home to start a new puzzle, (maybe you can tell that we like puzzles?), and eat a late lunch. We brought some food to snack on while we were at the doctor's office, but it didn't count as a meal. I brought a sugar-free chicken-andouille sausage, some proscuitto, and a mixture of almonds, pistachios, pecans, and pumpkin seeds.

After about an hour working on the puzzle, we took a nap break because some light-headedness and tiredness had set in. We checked temperature and blood pressure just to make sure there wasn't any fever, which is a concern if it goes over 100 F, or anything like that. I headed back to the puzzle after placing a trash can next to the bed just in case and leaving the yorkies in the room to "keep an eye on things" (Yes. The two 8-lb dogs are worriers and will stick close by when they know something isn't quite right.) A couple hours later, we were pulling together some dinner before calling it an early night, with some Benadryl to hopefully prevent any other possible side effects.

In summary, things are going well so far. Fingers crossed that the good continues!

And just to leave you with some comfort food, here's a garden vegetable soup recipe I made last week:

Garden Vegetable Soup

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup tomato puree

3/4 cup water

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1 14-oz. can tomato puree

2 cups carrots, sliced

2 cups celery, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbls olive oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

1. Toss everything into a large stock pot. Heat over medium-high heat on the stove for 2 hours.

Man, again with the one-step recipes. Awesome, right?

Colors, Crafts, and Steak

So I apparently don’t know how to run without injuring myself. I participated in a color run (5k) over the weekend and managed to roll my ankle once again. It was only 3 miles, yet somehow, I fit in another sprain – at the green color station. Of course, I kept running and finished the race, but my ice pack and ACE bandage were necessities once I got home. Disregarding the return of my ankle pain, the race was a blast. Something about being rainbow-colored is immensely satisfying. I highly recommend it. Just try not to injure yourself.

This ankle injury is kind of baffling to me. How do I keep injuring myself? If I didn’t know better, I’d say that I’m klutzy. But I don’t often trip over myself or fall over or knock things down. As a child, I did 6 years of ballet lessons, so by the time I switched over to soccer, my coach was impressed that I didn’t fall over like most of the other girls on my team. I had and still have good balance. Yet make me run on even slightly uneven ground and whoops, there goes my ankle. As I mentioned before, my running career is over.

This past weekend has been a Christmasy weekend. I hit up Ikea twice for some Swedish Christmas decorations, lights, and candles to set up around my apartment. I also spent some time in the crafts section of Wal-Mart. Here is the result of my Sunday afternoon crafting session with KAOS and How the Grinch Stole Christmas playing the background:

Monday and Tuesday of this work week has been spent primarily in training. They have provided fruits, muffins, pastries, and sugared fruit juices for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. One thing that I noticed while I wasn’t eating breakfast was that more of the fruit was gone in comparison to the amount of grain-based sweets. Also, during lunch, I saw that 4 of the 16 people in our training ate the insides of their sandwiches but didn’t eat the bread/wrap. It made me happy to see that other people are also restricting their grain intake (though I recognize that they may be doing so as part of a Southbeach-esque diet).

Anyways, time for a How-To…

How-To: Cook Steak in the Oven 

Need:

Oven

Cast-iron skillet/griddle

~1-lb rib-eye steak, grass-fed, at room temperature

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Set the oven to broil. Let heat for ~20 minutes. Place a cast iron pan over medium-high heat on the stove until hot (heat your griddle in the oven).

While things are heating up, pat dry your grass-fed rib eye steak. Then brush with olive oil. In a small bowl, mix together salt and pepper. Sprinkle evenly over the steak on both sides.

Now that your pan/griddle is hot (pull the griddle out of the oven and place over stove), place your steak on the hot surface. Flip over after 30 seconds. After both sides have been seared for 30 seconds, flip back over onto the original side, and transfer pan/griddle into the oven. Cook for 2 minutes for medium-rare, or 4 minutes for medium. Once cooked to your liking, remove from the oven and transfer to plate, covering with tinfoil. Let the steak rest for 5 minutes. Slice against the grain and serve immediately.

You may get some smoke in your kitchen, so I recommend turning on overhead fans and opening a window to prevent your smoke detector from going off like mine did.

If you’re like me, eat ¼ of your steak for breakfast with one scrambled egg, and wilted spinach.

The Return of the Gitta

I've managed to escape the clutches of my parents and the city of Portland. In other words, I was on vacation last week to the city of Portland. My dad was in Portland for a National Academy of Kinesiology conference, so my mom and I tagged along to see a new city and do some sightseeing. (Kinesiology is the basically study of human movement, in case you were wondering.)

So I'm sure you've been wondering what happened to me... I'm usually so good about posting each weekday, and I failed that pretty badly this past week. I guess could have posted using my handy-dandy smart phone app, but texting a post using my thumbs didn't appeal to me. I type much faster. So here's a brief start to my Portland trip...

On my way to the airport, I got stuck behind a truck with the bumper sticker: Please drive naked. I found it amusing. Maybe you don't. Either way, I don't suggest trying that anytime soon.

My airplane snack food/lunch consisted of beef jerky, which is always a handy stand-by when you're Paleo-on-the-go. I fell asleep for take-off. This ended up being a good thing, because I slept through the ear pain that I usually get from airplane take-offs and landings. watched Battleship on the plane and studied for the FE exam. Studying = un-fun. On the happy side, we made it to Portland in one piece!

We stayed at the Hotel Monaco, which wins points for leaving a teddy bear in the room (see below). They also get points because they host a daily happy hour with free wine and beer tasting, which my parents and I hit up before we even went into our hotel room. They set up a Wii for people to play Mario Kart, as well as an easel and paint for attendees to explore they're more creative side. We were there for four nights and I was the only person who made use of the painting or the Wii. So what, I played video games like a kid while drinking wine. I'm cool with it. And do you want to know what's even better than all that? They host a Thursday morning run at 6am! Not many hotels do that. So I woke up at 5:45am on Thursday, stumbled into my workout clothes and running shoes, and made my way to the front desk where I was greeted by my running guide/chief engineer of the hotel. It was about 50F outside for our run, and it was a bit of a shock from the Texas heat that I'm used to, but vastly preferred. We ran down to the river front, along the river, and then across one of the numerous bridges to check out the other side, before looping back to make up a 3.7-mile loop. It felt good (I haven't been doing more than 2.5 miles without taking a break - I blame the 90-degree heat)! My hamstrings didn't quite agree that it felt good, but  it was a great way to start the day off before walking lots and lots while sight-seeing.

Picture taken while standing in our sitting room!

Nick at the front desk recommended that we try out Jake's Grill (park of McCormick and Schmick's) for a good steak, so that's where we went our first night so I could get: The Queen Bee (made with lemon and honey) and steak. Yum.

The Queen Bee

Steak with Zucchini "Pasta"

Last night I cooked up some steak and paired it with zucchini that I had sliced julienne-style with my nifty mandoline. It's really sharp btw, and I've got the cuts to prove it. I seasoned the steak with some blackened seasoning. Below and to the right are the zucchini that I used. That's one massive zucchini (the above picture is maybe 1/4 of the large zucchini). I grabbed the largest and the smallest one from the local farmer's market just because... and I picked up some grass-fed steak.

The pasta sauce was way easy but I'll share it anyways...
Basic Pasta Sauce
1 can organic crushed tomatoes
1 can organic tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley
1 fresh tomato, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbls EVOO

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium pot. Once hot, add the onions and garlic, cooking for ~4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and spices. Cover and cook for ~20 on low heat to incorporate the flavors. Uncover and cook on medium heat until you reach your desired pasta sauce thickness. Or... you can let the pasta sauce sit overnight in the fridge for flavor incorporation. Up to you.


Despite the fact that I worked just over 12 hours yesterday and I really just wanted to go home and go to bed, I convinced myself to do 30 minutes of yoga. So it wasn't very intense exercise, but I still did it. Give me props. Plus, I haven't had any sugar or fruit in over 48 hours and I have yet to tear through the office searching for dark chocolate despite my current stress level. And I've been resisting the pear that's been staring at me from my desk. Go me!

I really want to try this recipe Pork Avocado Cream Enchiladas. If you're nice, maybe I'll let you sample it with me.

Happy Easter and Paleo in Atlanta

In honor of Easter weekend, I've returned to my hometown to visit my family. We went to dinner Friday night and got steak. Yum!!! Unfortunately I also managed to lose my camera at the restaurant. I'm very sad about that. Possibly this is an excuse for me to invest in a SLR.

Yesterday morning my parents and I all slept in until around 9 a.m. All of us sleeping in that late is unheard of in our household. I woke up and took the yorkies outside, at which point my mom got up to join me for Kenpo X. Yes, you read that right. My mother, who is 34 years older than me, did P90X. So what's your excuse for not working out? It better be a good one!

After P90X, we made scrambled eggs with veggies, my leftover steak, and some ham. I used my mom's camera to document the experience. We used 1/4 cup each of yellow, orange, red, and green bell peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup onions, 1/2 cup broccoli, 3 mushrooms, sliced, and 9 eggs. We used 2 slices of ham, cubed, and 1/4 cup steak.

Begin by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions and garlic, cooking until translucent. Then add in all of the veggies. If you are like me, I prefer the peppers to be a bit more crisp, so I'll usually add the mushrooms and broccoli 5 minutes before I add the peppers. After you've cooked the veggies to your liking, add the pre-cooked meat. If your meat isn't pre-cooked, you should add in the meat after the onions and garlic.

Mix in the eggs and cook until fluffy. Serve with some sliced avocado and top with salsa (my dad preferred ketchup, so if you like that, whip up some home-made paleo ketchup and use that instead).

I love my parents' kitchen. They have so any nifty gadgets and pretty stainless steel. Did I mention that my parents, like me, organized their spices in alphabetical order?... I love them!

Voilà!