W30D9

This round of Whole 30 isn't going as well as some of my others. Usually I feel better within a few days of starting a round of what I term super-strict Paleo. I normally feel more energetic, I sleep better, my stomach gives me no issues, and so on. My skin has gotten a bit better on this round, but it's still isn't clear. I'm not as bloated as I was the morning that I started (1" from my waist to be exact).

I guess part of it probably comes down to the fact that I've continued to consume alcohol for the last week, which means I'm technically not doing a Whole 30. While I'm not drinking on a daily basis, I'm thinking that I'd probably feel better if I cut out the alcohol completely. The problem is that I like drinking alcohol with friends. So I'm making my own rule: no alcohol Sunday through Thursday. In addition to this, I'm no longer going to watch TV shows on my iPad just before bed. I'm not going to cut TV out completely, because I fully intend on watching some of the Olympics which starts up this weekend, but not watching it while laying in bed is probably a good idea and will help me fall asleep more quickly. Starting today, I'm also cutting myself off from facebook, excluding my blog posts to my facebook page: Adventures in Paleo-land. I seem to have a lot of caveats to everything. Here's the complete list of my new rules:

1. No alcohol Sunday through Thursday
2. No TV at night, except for the Olympics, but not within 1 hour of bed time
3. No social media
4. Exercise every day -- The most important of the bunch!

According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise...

1. controls weight
2. combats health conditions and diseases
3. improves mood
4. boosts energy
5. promotes better sleep
6. puts a spark back into your sex life
7. can be fun

And based on the article "Physical Activity and the Prevention of Depression: A Systemic Review of Prospective Studies" by George Mammen and Guy Faulkner, moderate exercise can both treat and prevent depression. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2013; 45(5):649–657.

I'm really bad about exercising these days. I need a goal or some sort of punishment if I don't exercise. Which is why I'm having my parents hold me accountable. If I don't exercise in some form, whether it's a walk, yoga, rowing, or Krav Maga, for at least 1 hour per day (barring the plague/flu or serious injury), I have to pay my parents $100 each. That's $200 that I could devote to shopping or travel or eating out. And that's $200 that my parents get to hold over me. I don't like failing. And I really don't like giving my money away when I have control over the cause. Plus, if I win, my parents have to buy me a steak dinner. Yum! So wish me luck.

Exercise Challenge Day (ECD) 1: 1 hour Krav Maga Flex (somewhat intense yoga)

Spicy Pepper Frittata

6 eggs

1 1/2 Tbls coconut oil

1/2 cup diced onions

1/2 cup diced green pepper

2 minced jalapeno

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Heat 1 Tbls coconut oil in a medium oven-proof pan. Add the onions, green pepper, jalapeno and spices to the pan, cooking for about 5 minutes.

3. Add the last 1/2 Tbls of coconut oil and spread across the pan. Pour in the whisked eggs, and cook for 2 minutes or until the eggs at the bottom of the pan start to firm up.

4. Transfer pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the eggs are thoroughly cooked. Remove from pan, slice, and serve. I ate mine with a quarter of an avocado.

Sweet and Spicy Cabbage Tacos

The sweet potatoes, carrots, and cherry/grape tomatoes adds some sweetness to the heat from the ground beef seasoning. If you like dishes that give you a little kick while also providing you with soothing sweetness (thanks to the sweet potatoes in particular), give this a try.

Sweet and Spicy Cabbage Tacos

1 lb grass-fed ground beef

6 leaves of green cabbage, carefully removed from the head of cabbage (you don't want any tears in your taco "shell")

1/2 sweet potato, diced

1/4 onion, chopped (I'm not a huge fan of onion, so feel free to add more if you like it)

1/2 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup broccoli florets,

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped

Taco Seasoning (http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/05/guacamole.html)

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (add another 1-1 1/2 tsp if you really like spice)

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp pepper, freshly ground - See more at: http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/05/guacamole.html#sthash.Nekjm48U.dpuf

1. Mix the taco seasoning and raw beef together in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for an hour or so.

2. Remove the seasoned beef from the fridge, and toss into a pan on medium heat. Once the meat is thoroughly cooked, drain the fat and transfer the beef to a paper towel-lined plate.

3. With what fat remains in the pan, throw in the sweet potato, onions, carrots, and broccoli, but don't add the mushrooms, red bell pepper, or tomatoes yet. Sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper for a bit more flavor. Cook for 5 minutes. (I know that I'd usually cook the onions until they turn translucent before adding other veggies, but I figured that that these veggies all could do with roughly the same amount of cooking time and I didn't feel like doing this is too many stages).

4. Add in the mushrooms and tomatoes, cooking for a couple minutes.

5. Then return the ground beef to the pan. Heat for a couple more minutes or until the beef is thoroughly warmed.

6. Add a couple spoonfuls of the ground beef mixture to one of the cabbage leaves, curl up the edges, and dig in.

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.

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.

Christmas Food

Let’s review some of what I ate while I was in Atlanta with my parents. Obviously, I didn't photograph everything. How obsessive do you think I am while on vacation?

For Christmas Eve, my mom made a pork loin pot roast with sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and potatoes (which I avoided), and a side salad made with red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, etc.

(Doesn't my mom set a pretty table?)

Christmas day was somewhat unusual. Instead of waking up super early and opening presents like I've done every other year of my life, I slept late and my parents and I ate breakfast together before even considering opening presents. We didn't open presents till the afternoon. I guess my inner child wasn't too concerned with opening presents early.

And for Christmas dinner, we had potato sausage, lefse (Scandinavian potato bread), and salad. I don't know if you picked up on the trend, but there's a serious love of potatoes. Because this meal is a tradition in my family for Christmas, I made a Paleo-xception, and heartily enjoyed it. I don't have photos for the entire meal put together, but below is a photo of the potato sausage being cooked in the pan. After cooking in the pan, we transfer it to oven-safe bakeware and bake it for another 20-30 minutes in the oven. The result is delicious!

Whole 30 - Italian Greens Frittata

My dad sent me an email a while ago about this and I'm finally getting around to posting this... Apparently cooking with dry heat isn't good for you... or at least not for mice. Cooking meat with dry heat increases Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs), such as the compound methyl-glyoxal (MG). With sustained exposure MG, mice (across four generations) "developed significant abdominal weight gain, early insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes." The study recommends that we stop cooking foods with dry heat (grilling) and replace them with lower heating methods or methods that use a lot of moisture (stewing, poaching or steaming). So check out my slow-cooker recipe from yesterday.

Check out the article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120820152102.htm

And now that I've shared that it's possibly bad for you, let's bake breakfast...

Italian Greens Frittata
7 eggs
1 lb ground turkey/beef
1 baby bok choy, chopped
1 cup frozen, chopped spinach
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch broccoli, chopped to bite size pieces
1 green onion, sliced - for topping
1 tbls olive oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp oregano
3/4 tsp basil

Preheat oven to 350F.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan on the stove over medium heat. Once hot (test this my getting your hand slightly wet and flicking the excess water onto the pan. If it sizzles, it's ready.) Add the onions and garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes. While this is cooking, rinse and chop your bok choy, separating the stalks (white part) from the leafy green part. Toss the stalks in with the onions and garlic and cover for ~3 minutes. Now add the leafy bits, broccoli, and mushrooms. Cook until veggies are soft. Transfer the veggies to an 11" x 7" pan.

While the veggies are cooking, use a separate pan to cook your ground meat. Once browned, transfer to the pan with your veggies and spread evenly. Crack your eggs into a separate bowl and whisk with your seasonings. Pour eggs into the pan and put into the oven for ~20 minutes or until the eggs have solidified. Take out, sprinkle with green onions, and slice into 6 pieces. Breakfast for the week. Sweet.

Whole 30 - Tomato and Beef Stew

I'm not sure whether this qualifies as a soup or as stew. I generally think of stews as thicker than this one, but I think of soups as thinner than this one. Sooo, I'm going with a stew. Call it what you will.

Tomato and Beef Stew
1 lb beef for stew chunks
1 - 28 oz can of peeled whole tomatoes
1 - 6 oz can of tomato puree
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 cup chopped spinach, frozen
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
3/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp pepper
a few shakes of salt
(optional) a little bit of your own blood... Just kidding. I happened to slice my finger open while trying to find another fast way of chopping onions, but I promise, no blood went into this stew...

Chop up all of your ingredients. Put into the crockpot. Stir. Set for 8 hours on low. Check back 8 hours later. Eat. Enjoy.

Today, I ate a piece of my Italian Greens Frittata (recipe tomorrow) with avocado for breakfast, had nuts and a Lemon Pie Larabar for lunch, a banana for a snack, and almond butter and a Cashew Cookie Larabar for dinner. Too many nuts. Way too many. And I used myfitnesspal.com to track the nutritional values of my food, and my "dinner" ended up being ~500 more calories than if I had eaten a cup of my stew. Yikes. Darn nuts.

And as a side note to all of you wondering why corn isn't Paleo: Mark's Daily Apple: Corn is not a Vegetable.

Breakfast Bites

Breakfast Bites - Veggie Base

1 dozen eggs

1 red pepper, chopped

1 white onion, chopped

5 mushrooms, chopped

2 large garlic cloves, sliced

1 head cauliflower

1 head broccoli

salt and pepper

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Start by roasting your cauliflower and broccoli. Use 1 Tbls olive oil with a little bit of salt and pepper for a flavor base. Wrap with the aluminum foil, and cook in the over on 425°F for 25 minutes. It doesn't matter if you don't roast it enough for your usual liking, because it will cook further later.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium-low heat (4 out of 9). Once you think it's ready, wet your fingertips and splash a little bit of water onto the pan. If it immediately sizzles, you're ready to add your onions. Cook the onions until they start to become translucent. Then add your sliced garlic. After cooking the onion and garlic for another 10 minutes, add your red peppers. Cook for ~5 minutes.

In a separate pan, heat 1/2 Tbls olive oil and 1 1/2 tsp bacon fat over medium-low heat (3 out of 9). Once ready, add your sliced mushrooms. The trick to cooking mushrooms properly is don't overcrowd. Cook until they've started to brown and have reduced in size.

While these veggies are cooking on the stove, whisk your dozen eggs. After all of your veggies are done cooking, stir in the broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, red peppers, and mushrooms. At this point you're ready to make veggie muffins.

Veggie Egg Muffins
Veggie base (see above)
1 muffin tin
Muffin tin liners

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Pour roughly 1/4 cup of the mixture into each muffin liner. Bake for 25 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked and solid.

Chorizo Egg Muffins
Veggie Egg Muffin base (see above)
1-2 chorizo sausage links, casing removed

Take your chorizo sausage links and make a slice length-wise down the link. Pull the link open and turn inside out, removing the meat from the sausage casing. Break the meat into pieces and mix into the egg muffin mix. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour 1/4 cup of the mixture into each muffin liner. Bake for 25 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked and solid. The "muffin" won't rise, so feel free to fill the muffin tin.

Salmon Frittata
Veggie Egg Muffin base (see above)
~ 1.5 cups of Lemon-Rosemary Salmon, shredded

Mix salmon into the veggie and egg mixture. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a round 8" pan with coconut oil. Pour the egg-salmon-veggie mixture into the pan. Cook for 30-35 minutes or until eggs in the center are cooked through and are solid.

And now you know what I've eaten for the week. Yum!

Go Bad and Go Big

"WHY?" I ask you, "Why?" I was bad, REALLY bad, at lunch yesterday. I wasn't feeling very good; I had a sore throat, just felt generally icky, and was having an incredibly hard time staying awake. I blame running outside and "sucking up" (in my dad's words) allergens, because the sore throat kicked in shortly after my run on Tuesday. Anyways, when I don't feel good, my willpower is zilch. And I guess I have this idea that eating food will make me feel better. Does it? Hell no. And after eating a small square of lasagna I felt even worse. Not only did I have a sore throat and my ever-present headache, but also I could feel the "bad" food just sitting in my stomach. If that food could talk, it'd probably say something along the lines of "F' you!", "Gotchya!", and You're gonna suffer now!" That was one of those decisions that, as soon as I finished eating it (and even slightly before I finished), I thought I really wish I hadn't done that. I wish I could take that back. That was stupid. But I can't undo it. Ctrl-Z does me no good. (Did you know that Ctrl-Y is "re-do"?) There's no way to take it back aside from sticking a finger down my throat to make myself throw up. And I don't do that. Nor does it work on me anyways. I've tried in the past when I've accidentally eaten something with shrimp/shellfish in it, and apparently my gag reflex isn't strong enough.

So sadly, I got the spend the afternoon suffering through a sore throat, achy body, and angry tummy. If it wouldn't have drawn attention, I probably would have smashed my head on the desk a few times for being so idiotic. And do you want to know what the worst part was?? The food wasn't even that good. Stupid catered food from lunch meetings. If only my fellow Paleo-ish buddy (BA) was around to smack some sense into me before I ate anything. I must remember that if I'm going to slip up, I might as well do it at a fancy restaurant with high quality food, or at home, where I know the food is going to taste good and I know what went into the meal, like homemade pasta using my nifty pasta maker. Why do I make such stupid decisions???

In response to my bad decision, I made a Paleo version of lasagna. Now most of you probably think that I'd substitute the lasagna noodles with eggplant, but you're wrong. I hate eggplant. I've tried to like it in the past, but no matter how many times I've tried it, I can never finish the dish. Since going Paleo, a lot of my taste preferences have changed, but eggplant is not one of those. Instead of eggplant "noodles," I used sweet potatoes.

Paleo Lasagna

(prep steps are color-coded)

1/2 lb chicken, in strips or cubed

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1/4 tsp pepper

1 link of all-natural sausage

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise (say hello to the mandoline)

1/2 cup canned coconut milk

1 acorn squash, cubed
1 1/2 Tbls olive oil
2 Tbls olive oil

1 1/2 yellow onion

2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced or minced

1 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup artichoke hearts

1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

2/3 red pepper, sliced

3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

3/4 jalapeno, thinly sliced

Mix the purple ingredients in a ziploc bag and marinade the chicken for 2+ hours. After the chicken is chillin' in the fridge, prep your blue ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Pull out that acorn squash and remove the outer shell and the seeds. Chop the acorn squash into bite size pieces. Pull out a large square of tin foil and put the squash into the tinfoil, drizzling with 1 1/2 Tbls of olive oil and seasoning with salt and pepper. Fold the tinfoil over the squash and put in the oven on 400F for ~30-40 minutes.


Heat 2 Tbls olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat to start cooking the green ingredients. Once hot, add the onions and garlic, cooking until onions are translucent. While cooking the onions, season with salt and pepper. Add the peppers, acorn squash, jalapeno, oregano, cayenne pepper, and 1/4 tsp garlic salt, cooking for another 10 minutes.  Mix in the mushrooms, artichokes, and cherry tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes. All of your veggies should be soft at this point. In a bowl, mix your coconut milk with 1/4 tsp of garlic salt, and a few shakes of salt and pepper.

Lower your oven from 400F to 375F. And it's time to start layering. Grab an 8"x8" pan and grease the pan (I used a little EVOO). Begin by spreading a layer of sweet potatoes. Overlap the edges of the slices. Next layer is your veggies, followed by the acorn squash, and then your meat. Repeat until you run out of ingredients (I got two sets in). Top with a layer of sweet potatoes. Pour the coconut milk over. So for you visual learners, out there:

Coconut Milk

Sweet Potato

Purple
Blue

Green

Sweet Potato

Purple
Blue

Green

Sweet Potato

Cover your pan with tin foil and place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes. Check to see if the sweet potatoes are fully baked. If not, cook longer, checking every 5 minutes until they are ready. Remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Paleo Pizza and Running

For some reason, I find that when I cook during the week, it usually takes me a long time. And by the time that I actually finish whatever it is that I'm making, I'm not really hungry anymore and it's about time for me to go to bed. Sigh. At least I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow.

I went for a run yesterday after I got home and unloaded the groceries into my fridge. I started my run around 7:15p.m. today, with the temperature at about 86°F. My old running coaches always said to dress for weather 10°F higher than what it is, because that's what it'll feel like. And let me tell you, between the heat outside, the humidity, and the amount of heat my body was generating, I felt like I was cooking from the inside out. My legs started hurting that night, which only warned me how much it'll hurt this morning. When I stiffly walked into work this morning, you know the culprit.

I wanted to make something that I hadn't done in a while, so I decided to make some Paleo pizza.

Paleo Pizza Crust

1/2 cup almond flour

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp basil

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp ground pepper

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir up the dry ingredients. Taste to see if you want any other seasonings (then add said seasonings). Crack and whisk two eggs in a separate bowl before mixing in with the dry ingredients.  Use your hands to knead the dough to make sure everything is fully incorporated. Place the dough onto a well-greased or parchment paper-lined baking pan, and spread (using your hands or a rolling pin) until roughly 1/4" thick. Place is preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust is solid and starting to brown on the edges. And now your pizza crust is done. Voilà!


I topped my crust with a mixture of 1/4 chopped onion, 1/3 of a small red bell pepper, 1/3 of jalapeno pepper, 1/2 cup of quartered cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1 cup spinach, 1 clove garlic minced, and 3 chiffonaded basil leaves that I had cooked in a pan for about 20 minutes. Delish! The basil definitely gave it a good flavor!

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...

Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breast

This is the second time that I made stuffed chicken breast. The last time I made it, my friend told me it was the best meal anyone had ever made for him and that he had been worried about what type of food we were going to be eating considering that I was on the paleo diet. Tonight was a slight variation from before, but basically the same.

Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breast
1 tsp coconut oil
2 mushrooms, chopped
1 large shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 chicken breast
2 slices bacon
roasted red pepper (See Pistachio-Crusted Chicken Breast for roasting instructions)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Heat coconut oil in skillet over medium-low heat. Once the oil has liquefied (coconut oil is solid at room temp), add shallots and garlic. Cook until the shallots are soft. Add mushrooms and cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the mushrooms have cooked down. While the veggies are cooking, prep the chicken. To do this, you need two pieces of plastic wrap and a meat tenderizer (you'll want to use the flat end). If you don't have a meat tenderizer, you can use a study pan. Get your hand a little wet and rub it across your counter-top, then place one piece of plastic wrap on your counter (the water will keep the bottom piece from sliding around on you). Place the chicken on the plastic wrap and cover with the second piece of plastic wrap. Take whatever instrument you have available to pound the chicken so that it's roughly 1/4" thick. When the stuffing is fully cooked, place a mound of about 1/3 cup onto the chicken. Top with a few pieces of roasted red pepper, and roll the chicken around the stuffing. Then take your bacon and wrap it around the chicken, using toothpicks to hold the bacon in place and the edges of the chicken together.

Place wrapped chicken on a greased baking pan (I used a tiny amount of coconut oil to do this) and cook for 30-35 minutes. Once the bacon starts to look a little crispy on top, flip the chicken breast over and switch the oven to broil. Watch the bacon closely so that it doesn't burn; this will only take 3-5 minutes. The flip and broil allows the bacon that was under the chicken breast to get a little crispy as well.

Serve over mixed salad greens with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Or over sauteed spinach or kale.

If you want to make the stuffing extra delicious:
Do this before cooking the shallots, garlic, or mushrooms (so before you put it into the pan, possibly even before you chop everything). Cut two slices of bacon into bite size pieces (these two slices are in addition to the two you need to wrap the chicken breast). Pan fry these pieces over low heat so you don't burn them. Once they are fully cooked and crispy, remove the bacon but leave the rendered fat in the pan. Add the shallots and garlic, cooking until the shallots are soft. Then, add the mushrooms and cook for 5-10 minutes. Mix in the chopped bacon and use this stuffing mixture for your chicken.

Meat with salad

It's been a tad on the hectic side lately, so I'm really thankful for all of the leftovers that I have from this past week. Looking back now at these photos, I feel like I was a little lazy this past week with my meals. My office buddy joked at all of my meals were meat with salad, but in different arrangements. Truer words have not been spoken. I do need to work on my inventiveness, but give me some time to get into the swing of things. Below are some of the photos from this past week's meals.

Tuesday lettuce wrap

Wednesday's salad

Beef Stew for lunch on Monday. Tuesday's lunch was a lettuce wrap. I put pork chops, grape tomatoes, and mushrooms inside a large leaf of iceberg lettuce, folded over the edges and dug in. This was intended to be a chicken wrap, but I managed to grab the tupperware with pork chops instead of chicken. Oops. Fortunately it all worked out. My salad on Wednesday was very similar to Tuesday's wrap/sandwich, but differed in the type of lettuce and type of meat (I managed to grab the chicken this time). Oh, and I added broccoli and topped it off with a little balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Thursday lunch out was a turkey burger (minus the bun) and a fruit cup.

Friday morning breakfast

Every morning except for Friday I ate frittata with chipotle and guacamole. It's a little monotonous, but it's yummy. I'm still trying to figure out different breakfast ideas. Most of the breakfasts that I would have eaten pre-Paleo were grain- or dairy-based. There was cereal with milk, oatmeal, muffins, bagels, toast, eggs, yogurt, smoothies made with yogurt, hash-browns, etc. This is everything that is paleo from that list: eggs.

My dinner tonight consisted of a pork chop over wilted spinach with garlic, roasted broccoli, and a side salad. Notice the leafy greens... I'm working on my calcium. A hint to everyone who doesn't like broccoli or vegetables in general. Roasted tastes way better and is really easy. I did two types of roasted broccoli: garlic and red pepper, and basil and rosemary. I prefer the garlic and red pepper ones, but I've listed the ingredients that I used below.

Roasted Broccoli - Garlic and Red Pepper

1/2 pound broccoli, rinsed and trimmed

1 tlbs olive oil

3/4 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/3 tsp crushed red pepper

Roasted Broccoli - Basil and Rosemary

1/2 pound broccoli, rinsed and trimmed

1 tlbs olive oil

1/3 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Cut broccoli into small bite-sized pieces, and put into a large mixing bowl. Add all ingredients (for the particular type of roasted broccoli you're making) and toss. Spread seasoned broccoli onto a pan and cook for 13 minutes or until the broccoli is tender. Eat and enjoy.

How To: Wilted Spinach - possibly the easiest thing you could do

1 pound spinach, washed and thoroughly dried

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 tbls olive oil

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, cooking until the garlic is soft but not colored. Reduce heat to medium-low and add spinach. Cook until spinach turns dark green and reduces significantly in size, stirring often. Done. That wasn't hard, was it?

Sunday Shopping

Sunday has been deemed my shopping day. Every blog post, article, advice I've seen and received since deciding to go Paleo has said to dedicate one day per week to groceries and food prep.

So here's my intended menu for the week. (Forewarning - I made way too many pork chops this morning, so I will be eating a lot of those this week. Also, most of my breakfasts are eaten in a rush, so I'm sticking with the same thing each morning this week.) I made the frittata tonight and am letting the beef stew cook over.

Sunday
B: Omelet with leftovers from the week
L: Almonds and grapes
D: Veggies (I snacked a lot while I chopped)

Monday
B: Frittata with chipotle sauce and guacamole
L: Beef Stew with side salad
D: Pork Chops (mushroom-rosemary) with sauteed kale

Tuesday
B: Frittata with salsa
L: Grilled Chicken "Sandwich" (with lettuce)
D: Zucchini "Spaghetti" with meat sauce (meat sauce is leftover from last week) See right.

Wednesday
B: Frittata with salsa
L: Pork Chops with roasted broccoli
D: Beef Stew

Thursday
B: Pork chops mixed into veggie/egg scramble
L: Thursday Noon Tradition (TNT), a.k.a. lunch out with co-workers
D: Beef Stew

Friday
B: Frittata with chipotle sauce
L: Beef Stew
D: Dinner out

Saturday
B: Omelet with leftover veggies
L: Pork Chop Sandwich
D: Salmon with sauteed kale



Frittata Recipe:
7 eggs
3/4 cup bell peppers, diced (I used red and orange)
3/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup onion
1 precooked chicken breast, diced (precooked with a BBQ rub)
3/4 cup broccoli (I ended up not using all of the florets in the photo)
2 cups spinach
1 tbls + some olive oil
pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375F. Coat the bottom and sides of a baking pan with a olive oil or butter. Heat 1 tbls olive oil in a skillet on the stove. Add peppers, mushrooms, onions, and broccoli and cook until onions are translucent. While these are cooking, crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat. Spread veggies across pan and put the spinach in the skillet, heating until wilted. Distribute spinach in baking pan. Pour the eggs across the pan, making sure it's well spread. Bake for 20 minutes or until the center is firm (my oven runs a little hot, so it may take a bit more time).

Beef stew recipe will be posted tomorrow once it's done cooking.