Slow-Cooker Paleo Pad Thai

Hi, folks!

If you're from the US, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! If you're not, well, I hope you had a great week anyways. You probably didn't overeat like the rest of us. I really enjoyed my week; I took the entire week off from work. It was glorious, but it's back to the grindstone tomorrow morning. I've been working a lot these days, given that I'm currently performing two roles at work. Nothing like taking on a second job part-time while your first job gets busy. I've been eating horribly, that is when I do eat. To be completely honest, my life prior to vacation basically consisted of waking up, going to work, eating lunch while working, going home, and going to sleep. I was only eating one real meal per day and snacking for the others. I've barely been working out and I need to change that. So I took today to clean up my room a little bit, try to prep for the week, and relax before getting busy again. Right now, I'm currently watching/listening to "The Perfect Human Diet." I highly recommend checking it out. It's on Amazon Prime and Netflix, just so you know.

With that, I'll leave you with an easy recipe that I threw together once I returned from the airport last night.

Slow-Cooker Paleo Pad Thai

1 1/2 lb chicken

1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

Chicken Seasoning

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Sauce

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup chicken broth

3 Tbls sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)

1 Tbls coconut aminos

2 tsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 bunches green onion, chopped

"Pasta"

2 zucchini, julienned

2 carrots, julienned

1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced

Optional Toppings

chopped cashews

green onions

cilantro

1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a pan on the stove. Chop the chicken into roughly 1" pieces. Season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Place the chicken into the pan and brown the chicken. It doesn't have to be thoroughly cooked yet because you'll be cooking more later.

2. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce in the crock pot. Stir until the sunbutter has broken down and is fully combined.

3. Stir in the browned chicken.

4. Place the "pasta" ingredients on top of the sauce/chicken. Do not stir to combine.

5. Cook on low for 6 hours. If you have a programmable slow-cooker, you probably don't have that option, but just set it on low and check it after 6 hours. If you cook it too long, the "pasta" will brown a bit more than you might like.

6. Remove from the crock pot and serve with any of the optional toppings if you so choose. It'll be a bit spicy, but sneakily so (at least to me). Enjoy!

Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese sauce refers to a meat-based red sauce generally used on broad/flat pasta (e.g. tagliatelle or fettuccine) or shorter tube shapes (e.g. penne). It typically consists of onion, carrots, and celery, as well as meat like ground beef or pancetta, a bit of tomato, and some wine. I cooked mine without the wine, but it still tastes delicious. The carrots give it a bit of sweetness. Enjoy!

Bolognese Sauce

1 Tbls olive oil
1 1/4 lb grass-fed ground beef
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 cup carrots, finely diced
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 6-oz can tomato puree

1. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium heat on the stove.
2. Break up the beef into small pieces and cook until thoroughly brown.
3. Once cooked, remove the beef from the heat and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
4. Drain some of the fat from the pan, then add the onions, carrots, and celery to the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until veggies start to soften.
5. Mix the beef back in and stir in the tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20-30 minutes to thicken.
6. Serve with zucchini noodles. If you don't have a mandoline, use a peeler to cut the zucchini thin and wide.

Whole 30 - Day 31

Kind of doesn't make sense, right? Day 31 of 30. But we'll go with it.

The other day I bought some grass-fed ground beef. I used half of it as some back-up protein to just toss in with veggies for a salad or whatever else I needed it for. I used the other half for meatballs. And what do we eat meatballs with? Spaghetti. We don't eat spaghetti? What to do? What to do? Grab all of the veggies you have in your fridge and "make it work" (Thanks, Tim Gunn).

Spa-veggie and Meatballs (I don't know how I feel about this name)

Meatballs

1/2 lb grass-fed ground beef

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp oregano

3/4 tsp ground pepper

3/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbls olive oil

"Spaghetti"

1 zucchini, thinly sliced

10 stalks asparagus, steamed and cut into 1.5" pieces

1/2 orange bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 leek, thinly sliced

2 Tbls ghee

Sauce

2 Tbls tomato paste

2 Tbls chicken/vegetable/beef broth

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1. Mix your Meatball ingredients together. Use your hands. Place in a Ziploc bag and let sit in the fridge for a couple hours if you have the time. If not, it'll be fine, just do step 2 first.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F.

3. Roll the meat + spices into 1" diameter meatballs. I made 7 out of 1/2 lb.

4. Cook in oven for 15 minutes.

5. While the meatballs are cooking, cut up all of your veggies for the Spa-veggie.

6. Heat ghee in large pan over medium heat (I used setting 4 on my stove). Once hot, add in the veggies and cook for 5 minutes, or until the veggies almost reach your desired softness.

7. Once the veggies are almost done, add in the Sauce ingredients, stirring until evenly coated.

8. Remove the meatballs from the oven, and toss in the pan. Serve, or store half in a glass jar for lunch tomorrow.

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 5

So there's a concept to be avoided in the Whole 30 called "Sex With Your Pants On" (SWYPO). This term refers to paleo-ifying junk food, such as pizza, pancakes, etc. So even though I can make a paleo pizza with all paleo-friendly and even Whole 30-friendly ingredients, I shouldn't. By substituting ingredients, I'm just giving myself a way of continuing my cravings for non-paleo foods, because just like SWYPO, it's just not as good; you always end up wanting the real thing. Am I right? I'm right.

Anyways, I find this concept somewhat difficult to understand. I mean, what is really considered SWYPO? Is my zucchini pasta with meatballs considered SWYPO? I mean, it's veggies and meat with some almond meal mixed in. Where does that line get drawn? Because technically, I'm taking a traditional non-Paleo meal of spaghetti and meatballs and making zucchini and meatballs. Does that count as SWYPO? I vote no. I'm choosing to believe that SWYPO refers to junk foods that contain significantly more grains, such as cakes and brownies, and Paleo-ified versions of things like ice cream or pizza.

Buffalo Meatballs

1 lb ground buffalo
3 Tbls almond meal
1 1/2 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Use your hands; they work best.

2. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for an hour or so.
3. Preheat oven to 350 F.
4. Separate into heaping tablespoon-sized pieces. Shape into spheres.

5. Spread on an oiled baking pan.
6. Bake for roughly 20 minutes, until there's no pink in the middle.

Serve with ribbons of zucchini and pasta sauce. YUMMMM!

I ate mine with a side of heirloom tomato salad... And boy was it good.

I was starving by the time I finished crew practice last night (and my stomach was grumbling while I was rowing), but this is so filling that I had to make myself keep eating. I've been using PaleoTrack to check my protein, fat, carbs, omega 6:omega 3, and potassium:sodium intake, and yesterday's grand total of food came out to be 1053 calories, including this dinner. Factor in a moderately intense crew practice for an hour and half, where I burned around 600 calories, and that would mean my calorie balance for the day is 500-600. You may think that's awesome if you're trying to lose weight, but it could also trigger your body into thinking it's in starvation mode. So I sat and at all of my zucchini and meatballs, and 3 tomato slices, because I just couldn't force myself to eat more at 10 at night. Oh well. It was yummy, so I suffered through.

In exciting news, I got the "Optimal Primal" designation yesterday.

My fish oil supplements and flax seeds (0.3:1 omega-6:omega-3) on my lunch salad helped significantly in bumping up the omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids ratio. It's believed that our paleo ancestors had a 1:1 ratio of omega 6:omega 3, though the PaleoTrack website says to aim for a 2.3:1 ratio, whereas most people today have a 10:1 or 20:1 ratio. Also, the potassium to sodium ratio should be at least 5:1, while most of today's society gets about a 1:1. The zucchini, tomato sauce, and freshly sliced heirloom tomatoes helped with the potassium to sodium ratio. I've basically decided that you can't add salt to your food at all to try to meet this last ratio. It's rather difficult to achieve, but fruits are a good source of this. Kind of makes me wonder how to get my potassium when doing a 21DSD.

Also, I've noticed that foods that have a good fatty acids ratio, tend to do poorly on the potassium:sodium front, or vice versa. For example, an avocado has a 69.3:1 potassium to sodium ratio, but also has 15.2:1 omega-6 to omega-3. Sad. At least flaxseeds have a decent ratio for both, even though the 27.1:1 potassium:sodium isn't a lot of potassium when compared to the sodium intake.

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta

First off, I want to say HUZZAH! During the month of April, I managed to get 2,032 pageviews. In one month! And that's managed to bump us over the 10,000 mark. Thanks y'all!

Anyways...

What do you do when you have leftover pasta sauce? It's obvious, make pasta. And what do you do when you don't eat grains? Turn to squash. I prefer zucchini, but yellow squash and spaghetti squash work really well, too.

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta

1 cup Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce

1 zucchini

Use a mandoline to slice the zucchini. My mandoline has 3 settings, I picked setting 2. Toss the zucchini and 1 cup of the pasta sauce into a pot. Cook until the zucchini is hot. Eat. Nice and easy, right?

Here's some food for thought...

• Whole Foods has a post about how to make bacon yourself. Granted you need a smoker, which I do not have: Makin' Bacon
• Everyday Health has an article about how a chemical reaction caused from eggs may predict heart attack and stroke risk. Apparently when you eat lechthin (in eggs, liver, beef, and pork), the body produces trimethlyamine N-oxide (TMAO), which changes how cholesterol is managed in your blood.

Chemo - Part 13 - Day 16

Have I mentioned that cancer sucks? Apparently the allergic reaction is enough that my parents made a trip to the dermatologist. The doctor biopsied a part of the rash to run some tests. They also ran blood work to test liver and kidney functioning. My parents finished off the day with two units of blood transfusion. They were at the doctor from 7:45-8:40 a.m., and from 10:40 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Yikes. I'm hoping that the transfusion will help and improve energy. At this point it looks as though the second round of chemo will get pushed back a bit. We'll have to wait and see what the test results are.

While we're waiting, check out this YUMMY version of Paleo lasagna. It's delicious! Enjoy!

Paleo Zucchini Lasagna

Ingredients

2 zucchini, sliced
1 lb grass-fed ground beef

Macadamia Nut Cheese

• 2 cup macadamia nuts
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• 2 Tbls of water

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce

• 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water for 1 hour
• 2 Tbls olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large can of tomato sauce
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 3/4 head of broccoli, chopped to ~1" pieces
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 4 carrots, diced
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp fresh basil, chiffonaded
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Macadamia Nut Cheese

1. Dump the nuts into a food processor and run until the macadamia nuts are fully ground. 

2. Mix in the lemon, salt, oregano, basil, and parsley.

3. Add in the water 1 Tbls at a time. The mixture should become slightly sticky and look a bit like ricotta cheese.

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot.

2. Add the onions and garlic, cooking until onions are translucent.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, cover, and cook for 30 minutes until the broccoli and other veggies are slightly soft.

Paleo Zucchini Lasagna

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Use a mandolin slicer to cut the zucchini into thick slices.

3. Place one layer of the zucchini slices at the bottom of a greased 8"x8" square pan

4. Spread out a ~ 1 cup of the Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce and top with ground beef. Spread out some of the Macadamia Nut Cheese on top of the ground beef.

5. Repeat the layers, finishing with the pasta sauce.

(You can also use small Corningware if you have leftovers like me.)

6. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven. Let cool for a bit, then devour!

Zucchini-Carrot Cookies

I call these cookies because they're cookie sized. However, the consistency is a bit more like miniature zucchini bread cakes. When I described them to friends over the weekend, I called them Zucchini-Carrot-Banana-Orange-Coconut Cookies. Doesn't sound terribly appealing ("too many veggies"), but if you like zucchini bread, you'll love these.

Zucchini-Carrot Cookies

1 cup zucchini, shredded

1/2 cup carrot, shredded

1 banana, frozen

2 Tbls orange juice, fresh-squeezed if possible

2 Tbls cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 Tbls honey

1 Tbls maple syrup

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 + 1 Tbls cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 325F. Now set out the frozen banana to let it thaw. Use a shredding attachment on your handy-dandy food processor, shred one zucchini. Remove the excess water from the shredded zucchini. Place zucchini on a paper towel and pat with another paper towel. Do the same with the carrot. Place the zucchini, carrot, and banana into a bowl and use a hand-mixer to break down the banana. Beat in the orange juice and eggs, and then mix in all of the remaining ingredients. Using a large spoon, place the batter on a coconut oil-greased baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

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.

Almond Chicken Scrambled Eggs

Monday was my first full day on the beach, so I had to start off my vacation the right way. After going for a short 2-mile jog with my dad (I'm slowly working my way up to half-marathon distance by next January), I came home and made some breakfast for my mom and me (my dad chose to eat cereal for breakfast). Here's what I whipped together.

Almond Chicken Scrambled Eggs (serves 2)

4 eggs

1/2 Almond-Crusted Chicken Breast, sliced

1/2 orange pepper, cut into 1 cm pieces

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste (~3/4 tsp each)

2 tsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil over medium heat on the stove. Add the orange pepper, season with a couple sprinkles of salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes before adding the chicken. Season the chicken and pepper with paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Add in the whisked eggs. Once the eggs are cooked through, plate and top with salsa (optional).

More Almond-Crusted Chicken Scrambled Eggs...

Tuesday's breakfast included 1/2 zucchini, sliced and halved, 2 cups of spinach, 1/2 of a red pepper, 1/3 of an onion, and 2 chicken breasts, sliced. Start with the onions in the pan because they require more cook time, then add, in this order: the red pepper, zucchini, and chicken, about 2 minutes apart. Mix in 6 eggs. Heap onto a plate, add a porch on the beach, and enjoy! It tastes particularly good after a three-mile jog.