Pumpkin Sausage Soup

In honor of the first week of October happening this week, I've decided to do a week of pumpkin recipes. Someone forgot to tell Texas weather that it's fall, but the spirit of fall is in the air. Grocery stores are displaying tons of pumpkin desserts, Halloween stores are open, and Christmas decorations are already on sale. But then again, I've seen Christmas decorations in stores since June. Anyways, pumpkin recipes will be happening for the week. I'm pretty excited, but since I'm cooking for one, and apparently never cook small batches of anything, I'm going to be eating pumpkin at EVERY meal this week. I would say that I'm concerned about getting tired of pumpkin, but I LOVE pumpkin, so I think we're safe.

Pumpkin Sausage Soup

2 Tbls olive oil

1 pound sweet Italian sausage (bulk if you can find it)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

1.5 Tbls sage leaves, chiffonade

3/4 cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)

1 1/4 cup chicken broth, homemade if you have it

1 bay leaf

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salt and pepper, to your taste

1. Heat 1 Tbls of olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Once the olive oil is hot, add the sausage. If you couldn't find mild (a.k.a. "sweet") Italian sausage, and instead have the sausage itself, make a light cut lengthwise along the sausage, then fold flip the sausage inside how, keeping hold of the casing. Use your hands to break up the sausage to smaller chunks.

2. Cook the sausage for a few minutes, until it's thoroughly cooked.

3. Transfer the sausage to paper towel, to allow the fat to be drained.

4. Heat another 1 Tbls of olive oil to a skillet and toss in the garlic and onions. Cook for 5 minutes until onions are soft.

5. Now add the sage, bay leaf, and wine to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes to allow the wine to reduce. (To chiffonade the sage, roll up the leaves, and then make small slices from the rolled edge.)

6. Mix in the chicken broth and pumpkin puree. Once the concoction starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low.

7. Stir in the coconut milk and the sausage, and cook for 5-10 minutes to allow the soup to thicken.

Paleo Pizza and Tuesday/Wednesday Workouts

Because my computer decided not to post this when I planned to, you get Tuesday and Wednesday wrapped into one. Lucky you!

Tuesday's 5 am workout took about 45 minutes to do.

Warm-up: 20 lunges

Side-to-Side Squats: 2x20, 15 lb

Straight-Arm Raises (Front/Side): 2x20, 10 lb

Step Back Lunges: 2x20, 15 lb

Inchworms: 5

Punches: Jab-Cross – 20 each side, Hook-Uppercut – 20 each side

Wall Sits: 1x1 min, 2x30 sec

Bench Press: 10-8-6, 50 lb

Angled Leg Press: 20 @ 120 lb, 20 @ 180 lb

Abs (Lay flat on your back. Lift your legs about 6" off of the ground and rotate to the right. Rotate your legs over your head and then to your left, returning to your starting position. Switch directions. Repeat 20 times - 10 in each direction.)

Cool-down: Stretching

By Wednesday morning I was so sore from my recent reintroduction into weight lifting, that the effort of  ignoring my muscles to roll over and turn off my alarm was almost too much. I had a very serious debate with myself over whether I should just let the alarm keep going off. I mean, it'll turn off eventually, right? Instead I turned it off and went back to sleep until my next alarm.

Sitting at my desk for the day at work was rough, too. Because I sit on my ass for most of the day, my muscles, such as my hip flexors, like to tighten up so that when I do try to stand up, it becomes a very slow process of stretching out my muscles first. Therefore, my exercise for the day was to go for a nice relaxing walk... outside. It was wonderful getting fresh air.

And you know what else is wonderful? Pizza. Especially pizza with a yummy crust, like the one from the picture below. So keep scrolling for the recipe. Yum!

Paleo Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza

Pizza Crust

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup shredded coconut 

2 Tbls flax seeds

2 eggs, thoroughly whisked

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp ground pepper

sprinkle of salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the bottom of a round cake pan with coconut oil.

Mix the ingredients together and transfer to the cake pan. Use the back of a spoon or your hand to spread the mixture evenly across the bottom of the pan. It'll be pretty sticky.

Bake for 20 minutes or until top is browned and crust-like.

Topping

1/2 cup pasta sauce (like this one I found in Whole Foods)

6 pieces of pepperoni

1/2 cup sausage crumbles, precooked (I used mild Italian sausage)

5 basil leaves, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes

Once the pizza crust is made, spread the pizza sauce over the crust and sprinkle with the basil and green onion. Spread the meat across the sauce...

... and top with the cherry tomatoes.

Bake for 15 minutes (this is basically just to heat the meat and roast the tomatoes).

Slice into quarters and serve hot.

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.

Stuffed Pumpkin

Stuffed Pumpkin

1 pie/sugar pumpkin

3 links mild/sweet Italian sausage

2 Granny Smith apples, cut into chunks

1 cup walnuts, crushed/chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 Tbls coconut oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Adjust your oven racks so that you have enough room to fit the pumpkin you bought into the oven. Preheat oven to 350F.

Prep your pumpkin like you would if you were carving it. Start by thoroughly washing the outside of the pumpkin. Next, cut the top to make a lid. Then scrape the insides of the pumpkin to remove the seeds and the stringy bits. Save the seeds... I'll explain why. Once the inside is sufficiently clean, set the pumpkin aside.

Pumpkin Seeds: Switch over to your seeds. Rinse them to remove the pumpkiny bits, and spread over a paper towel to dry them a little bit. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper, or any other combination of spices, i.e. cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Stir up the seeds and spices and then spread over a tin foil-lined baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F. At this point the seeds will be nice and crunchy.

Chop up your onion. Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a pan on the stove. Once hot, add your onion and cook until translucent. While the onion is cooking, chop up your apple and walnuts. Alternatively, you can just put the walnuts in a sealed Ziploc bag and crush the nuts by pounding with your fist - this is what I did. After the onion has cooked down, add the apple and walnuts. Take your Italian sausage and remove from the casing (you can also buy bulk sausage from most grocers and save this step and some change). Break down the sausage so you don't have giant chunks.  Transfer to the pan with the onions, apples, and walnuts. Add 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Brown the meat.

While this is cooking, grab your pumpkin and place onto the foil-lined pan you used for baking the pumpkin seeds. When the sausage is done cooking, transfer your sausage mixture to your pumpkin. Pour in 1 cup of chicken broth (you can use water if you'd like, just add a bit more salt to the mixture).

Replace the lid of the pumpkin and slide into the oven.

Bake the pumpkin for 1 to 1.5 hours. Check after 1 hour. Your pumpkin is ready when you can easily pull the flesh off of the underside of the lid by scraping with a fork.
And here's your final product. When you serve, just scoop out some of the pumpkin flesh with your spoon/serving utensil.

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!

CrossFit

Last Friday night I went out with some friends. While we were at the bar, my buddy BJ convinced me to attend CrossFit with him the following morning. I've expressed interest in attending a few times over the last year and he's invited me multiple times; this was the first time I accepted. I was excited about going on Friday night, but when Saturday morning rolled around, I was nervous. I know that there was no reason to be nervous, but I was apprehensive because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle the workout. I had heard about so many CrossFit workouts that seemed impossible to me because I hadn't tried any of them. We did the "Fran" workout on Saturday which consisted of thrusters (squats with an overhead press) and pull-ups. I didn't add any weights to the bar and I did an assisted pull-up, and found the workout much easier than I expected. Don't get me wrong, my arms and legs were burning afterward, but I know that I could have increased the intensity of the workout with more weights and would have been able to handle it.

Based on that one class, I could definitely see myself doing CrossFit regularly. This past Saturday made me realize how much I miss doing working out with people. I miss teams. I should join a team of some sort. Doing P90X alone at home holds absolutely no appeal now. I've been running instead lately. I really need to join a team. I'm just waiting until AFTER I take the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) Exam, so I can actually study a bit.

My post CrossFit breakfast: Open-faced Omelet

2 eggs

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 sausage link

3 Tbls guacamole

5 cherry tomatoes

Brown the sides of the sausage over medium heat. Once browned, cut the sausage into pieces and brown the flat sides. While the sausage is cooking, whisk the eggs with the spices. After both sides of the sausage slices have been browned, reduce heat to medium-low, then add in the eggs. Once the eggs have cooked, slide onto plate and add guacamole/salsa/Paleo ketchup/whatever you want. I used hatch chile guacamole with some cherry tomatoes.

P90X - Day 5

Day 5 is Legs and Back. This work out consists of 23 exercises, with the general format for area of focus being a leg-leg-back pattern. In other words, two leg exercises, like balanced lunges and calf raise squats followed by reverse grip chin ups. I like this workout. It makes my quads burn. Burn, baby, burn!

I think my body is getting used to waking up at 5:00 a.m. again. It's been a while since I've consistently woken up at 5, and I have to say that I like it. I always feel accomplished when I work out in the morning.  Of course, this is after a decent night of sleep; I'm sure I wouldn't be so happy if I hadn't gotten 7+ hours of sleep.

Here's what I ate yesterday: 

Breakfast (@8a.m.): 1 tbls almond butter, leftover sausage, brisket, and bbq chicken

Lunch (@11a.m.): Sliced turkey, lettuce, and 1 slice provolone cheese (yeah, yeah, it's dairy...). I was in a lecture during lunch about Piping and Relief Systems (thrilling, huh?) and the lunch that was provided was a boxed lunch of a sandwich, potato chips, and a cookie. So all I could eat was the inner parts of the sandwich.

Snack (@3p.m.): Apple, 2 more slices of leftover sausage and 1 slice of brisket

Dinner (@9p.m.): Rack of lamb with ginger beets, steamed vegetables, and a butternut squash salad.

		Goal	with Exercise	Actual
Calories	kcal	1,330	2,133	1,510
Carbs	g	183	293	70
Fat	g	44	70	81
Protein	g	50	80	113
Calcium	g	100	100	29
Fiber	g	15	25	13
Cholesterol	mg	-	-	181
Sodium	mg	-	-	1,510
Sugars	g	-	-	34

P90X - Day 1

I decided yesterday to start the P90X program again. So when I woke up yesterday morning, I changed into my workout clothes and did P90X Chest and Back. Of course this was after I shot out of bed because I thought it was Monday morning and I was going to be late for work. At least it got me out of bed and moving at 7:30 a.m. Chest and Back consists of a ridiculous amount of push-ups and pull-ups. I don't have a pull-up bar, so I used bands instead. And because I haven't done push-ups in so long, I did a lot of the push-ups with my knees on the ground. Despite my doing the "easy" version, my arms are aching from the exertion. Thus, the P90X Pain begins again...

MN, KAOS, and I went to Cafe Brussels (Belgium restaurant) for brunch on Sunday morning for their buffet, where one of the options I grabbed was rabbit sausage. Delicious! The brunch buffet came with a mimosa, two eggs, and a Belgium waffle. We all skipped the waffle because it was more than enough food without the waffle. Everything was yummy! And I definitely want to go back.

As shared over the weekend by Mark's Daily Apple, recent research has identified the existence of non-celiac wheat sensitivity using a double-blind placebo-controlled study. So you can be sensitive/intolerant of wheat products and not actually be diagnosed as celiac. For more information on celiac, check out Celiac Central. They also have a short symptoms checklist to determine if you may have celiac. It's estimated that 3 million Americans have celiac and an estimated 95% of those are undiagnosed. So look through the checklist and see if maybe you should talk to your doctor about celiac.