W30D6

I don't know what it is about weekends that make me feel so darn lazy. I still worked out, cleaned, cooked, and did laundry. But I did spend 30 minutes of the day just relaxing on my un-made bed. It seems as though the dryer at my house decided to stop working after I started washing my bedding. So it's taking me hours with a combination of hanging the sheets and running the dryer on timed dry to get my sheets close to being somewhat dry. Fun, huh?

My friend Jay (of Health Nuts Anonymous - go check it out!) is doing this Whole 30 with me. It's not quite the same as having a support system with you, but it's the next best thing. It keeps me a bit more accountable than if I were just doing this alone. During our brief conversation today, we talked about our communal love of chocolate and our associated sadness in not eating chocolate for the next three weeks. Can there be a version of Whole 30 that requires the consumption of a limited amount of dark chocolate every day? Please? I think that's the thing that I've been wanting the most over this past week. Especially because it's so easy to snack on. Anyways, we also discussed fish, in particular sardines. Jay has found some excellent sardines that come in olive oil with sea salt, and because the sardines have been roasted, you can eat the spine. Um, not exactly my cup of tea, but props to him for choking that down. I'll allow that it may be good for you, but I think I'm going to need to work on Paleo for at least another couple years before I make it to eating sardine spine... if I ever get there. Don't count on it.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that even if your support system doesn't physically see you, it's still helpful having someone else do Paleo/Whole 30/21DSD with you. Sign up for newsletters, join online forums, or even just comment on blogs. Give it a go!

Paleo Hollandaise Sauce

2 egg yolks, room temperature

1 Tbls lemon juice

1/2 cup melted ghee, this should be warm, not hot

pinch of salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

1. Blend the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne pepper on low for 30 seconds. Keep the blender running...
2. SLOWLY add the ghee drop by drop to the blender. If you add the ghee too quickly, the emulsion will fall apart and then you'll just have a yellow mess. No bueno. After the emulsion has formed, you can speed up a little bit to a trickle, then to a steady, but slow, stream. Continue until all of the ghee has been incorporated.

Poached Egg with Hollandaise

W30D5

I'm currently watching the end of the movie The Croods right now. And man, am I a sucker for happy endings. I'm telling you, there were tears, laughter, and shouting at the TV - all within the last ten minutes. I clearly get too emotionally invested in movies... and books... and really any story. What can I say? I've got an active imagination that lets me become fully engrossed in a character's life. Hence my long history of late-night bouts of reading. I just can't put the book down. Anyways, I'm getting off track. The Croods is a movie about a caveman family which must venture out of its comfort zone and experience new things when their cave is destroyed by an earthquake. It's cute and fun. I enjoyed watching the Croods run around chasing their prey and chucking rocks at each other. Give it a go if you've got some free time. I turned it on so that I had something to watch while I used my rowing machine in my room. I find I can keep myself going longer if I have something to keep myself entertained. When I'm on the water, its the changing (though familiar) scenery; at home, it's movies.

Well now that I've jumped from movies to books to exercise, let's cover food. Here's another pasta sauce that I made to go along with yesterday's meatballs.

Fresh Basil and Mushroom Pasta Sauce

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes

1/2 cup packed fresh basil, chiffonade cut

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3 large cloves garlic

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp parsley

1 tbls olive oil

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan.

2. Once hot (a few drops of water will sizzle), add the onions, garlic, and half of the fresh basil. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. (Just a little note that I like my onions to be really thoroughly cooked, meaning that they tend to be extremely soft in whatever it is I'm cooking.)

3. Add in the remaining ingredients and reduce heat to medium-low (level 2 or 3 on electric stoves). Let simmer for 1 hour (you could reduce this cook time, but I think it tastes better if you let the flavors meld).

I layered the spaghetti squash, pasta sauce, and meatballs in my Mason jar that made splitting it up into two lunches during work super easy.

W30D3

OMG this pesto sauce is YUMMY! If I hadn't restrained myself, I might have eaten the entire jar of pesto sauce. Who needs "pasta"? I was eating it by the spoonful, but it tastes damn good with the spaghetti squash and meatballs.

Pesto

4 oz fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 clove garlic
3/4 tsp sea salt
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/3 cup EVOO

1. Place the basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes into a food processor.

2. Process until smooth.

3. Slowly pour in the EVOO. Stop a couple times to scrape down the sides of your food processor bowl, if needed.

Serve it up... and try not to eat it all at once.

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.

Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce

Yesterday I tracked my food intake on PaleoTrack, a free Paleo food journal. The cool thing about this food journal is that it let's you know if you're staying "Strict Paleo" or if you ate legumes, sugar, dairy, or grains. It also tracks your nutrient intake, including amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Additionally, the journal calculates your omega 6:omega 3 and sodium:potassium ratios, and signals if you're within the appropriate Paleo ranges. This is a screenshot of the results of my food intake yesterday: 

As you can see, I got "Congratulations! You are: Strict Paleo!" The beauty of Paleo is that though I only ate 1153 calories worth of food, I felt full after every meal, even after one hour of kickboxing. And when I got hungry at work, I snacked on green pepper slices and a pear while.

Anyways, it's recipe time...

Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves
2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes, with their juices
2 whole heads roasted garlic, cloves removed from peels

Saute the onion in the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, salt, balsamic vinegar, hot sauce, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, and basil, and cook for 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes and their juices. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a  simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the roasted garlic and stir to combine. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes longer. Then toss onto your zucchini pasta or spaghetti squash.

Whole 30 - Primal

If you don't read Mark's Daily Apple, you should. If you don't care about the science and facts behind Paleo/Primal and are purely searching for recipes, Mark also has authored a few cookbooks. He just announced the release of his newest book (Primal Blueprint Healthy Sauces, Dressings & Toppings) and is offering awesome giveaways. So check it out!

In other exciting news, I went to the gym today for over an hour! I haven't done that in quite some time, and I feel wonderful. Tomorrow may be a different matter. I'm hoping the 20 minutes I spend icing my ankle while I'm writing this will keep the pain from getting too bad tomorrow

I brought my pumpkin trifle into work today in a small-ish jar for people to taste. One of my co-workers who NEVER gets second helpings of desserts went back for more (and also got a bit of whipped cream in his mustache). My supervisor ended up finishing off the dish, then washed it and returned it to me, "ready to be refilled." I think they liked it.

Anyways, I wanted to share some products I found while perusing Whole Foods tonight. First off is Go Raw Organic Lemon Super Cookies. I was intrigued... Gluten free, wheat free, and nut free. I tried one of the "cookies" and I am NOT a fan. I do not recommend these. It tastes a little strange.

The second thing is Eden Organic Spaghetti Sauce. If you're like me and sometimes get too lazy to make things from scratch. Here is a Paleo option for spaghetti sauce. It just contains tomatoes, olive oil, and herbs/spices. So give it a try.

Paleo Mayonnaise

I know some of you may hate mayonnaise so you mayo-haters can stop reading now.

For my mayo-lovers, or even just mayo-likers out there, this is for you. And I actually got this one to work!!! I even texted BA (my fellow Paleo-ish buddy) last night to alert him of my mayo accomplishment because I was so excited!

Homemade Paleo Mayonnaise
1 egg, pasteurized

2 tsp or more fresh lemon juice

1 tsp water

1/4 teaspoon or more salt

Pinch of pepper (white if you have it)

1 cup pure olive oil

1. Blend the egg with 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp water (you can use a food processor or blender, or whisk it by hand if you'd rather). The water and lemon juice help with stabilizing the emulsion by disrupting the surface tension of the egg.

2. Blend/whisk/process the egg and lemon juice. While you continue mixing using your chosen method, SLOWLY add the oil. Start with drops progressing to a light drizzle once the emulsion forms. The slowness is necessary to create the emulsion (see below). Once the emulsion is created, you can add the oil more quickly.

3. After the oil is incorporated, add the remaining lemon juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

The secret for mayonnaise according to the NY Times is 1 tsp water.

I started off using the whisk and then transferred the frothy mixture to the blender after I had gotten about 4 oz of olive oil mixed in. It hadn't quite formed the emulsion yet, but as soon as I put it into the blender, it started to whip up a bit more.

My next step is to replace the olive oil with bacon fat resulting in Baconnaise! You just can't go wrong with that. I want to make a BLT where the bacon is actually baconnaise.

Definition Time

An emulsion is mixture of two liquids that are usually immiscible (unable to be combined). An emulsion is a colloid in which both the continuous and dispersed phases are liquid. Examples of emulsions include milk and vinaigrette dressing.

Types of Colloids		Dispersed Phase
		Gas	Liquid	Solid
Continuous Phase	Gas	N/A	Liquid Aerosol	Solid Aerosol
	Liquid	Foam	Emulsion	Sol
	Solid	Solid Foam	Gel	Solid Sol

Music of the day: Steel Magnolia - Last Night Again

The recipe that I tried last time that failed on me was:
2 egg yolks
3 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup coconut oil, liquid
Salt
Pepper

Paleo Shepherd's Pie

So Sunday morning started with my parents and I making a frittata for breakfast. We used one chicken breast and a bunch of veggies. While the frittata was baking in the oven, I started the preparation for my Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breast by marinading the chicken (see below) and making the mushroom-bacon stuffing.

Chicken Marinade
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

After a late brunch, we went for a 5-mile walk around Stone Mountain and rented a movie on the way home. We started on dinner (below) after the movie ended.

Paleo Shepherd's Pie

1 lb ground beef, grass-fed (substitute with any type of ground meat)
3 carrots, diced
5 mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tbls fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tbls fresh sage, chopped
1 tbls fresh thyme, chopped
paprika

Mashed Cauliflower
2 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp garlic salt
2 cups water or chicken broth
3/4 head cauliflower, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Saute the ground beef in a large pan on medium heat until browned. Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and mushrooms, cooking until soft. Mix in 3/4 of your fresh herbs. Cover and remove from heat.

Heat the water, garlic, rosemary, and garlic salt in a medium pot on high heat. After it boils, reduce to medium-high heat and add the cauliflower in a steamer basket (I used a stainless steel collapsible steamer basket). Cook until cauliflower is soft and starts to fall apart when stuck with a fork. Remove from heat and let cook for a few minutes. Place into a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in your remaining herbs.

After blender

Before the oven

Transfer your meat/veggie mixture into an oven safe baking pan or corning-ware. Spread the mashed cauliflower across the top and sprinkle with paprika. Bake on the middle shelf for 15 minutes, or until mashed cauliflower is slightly toasty.

We served the shepherd's pie with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and steamed carrots. Enjoy!