Busy Busy

Oh dear, I’ve barely started this blogging thing and am already having a hard time keeping it up! My life has taken a turn towards busy these last few weeks. While I haven’t been writing here, I have been on the computer a lot. I made a website for my residency program! It’s been a super fun, time consuming, project. I’m really proud of it!

No matter what kind of busyness life throws my way though I’m still making time to cook. Every Sunday is my cooking WOD day. WOD = Workout Of the Day, it’s what we call our CrossFit workouts. So at South Loop CrossFit we do WODs and on Sundays I do my cooking workout for the week. Basically I make a lot of meat and prepare tons of veggies for us to eat all week long. This week I made honey mustard marinated chicken breasts and drumsticks. I’ll share that recipe soon!

Today though I’m sharing breakfast- I love breakfast! Paleo has meant the end of all-purpose flour which we thought was the end of weekend pancakes and donuts. While I haven’t figured out a good pancake recipe yet I did find a great paleo friendly donut recipe!

Paleo Donuts
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 TBS raw honey
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Whisk together all dry ingredients in a bowl. Transfer to a food processor (this makes the batter light and fluffy since nut flours tend to be so heavy)
3. Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and add them to the food processor
4. Blend until batter is very smooth and pour it into greased donut molds filling them 2/3 the way full, makes about six donuts
5. Bake for 10 minutes



 I sprinkle mine with a little cinnamon and enjoy them with my homemade coconut-almond milk latte!

Experimenting with success

Cooking has always been a struggle for me; therefore I tend to follow recipes exactly. To me there is a right way and a wrong way, a good result or a bad result. I am growing in this area of my life; I want to be open to the spontaneous, creative, fun journey cooking can be. My goal of late is to see the final dish as only a starting point on the way to better variations! My variations!
 
So recently I’ve been taking HUGE steps in the kitchen and adapting recipes. Living on the edge for sure! It’s seriously so exciting, anxiety provoking, and rewarding!

This is what I adapted this week. Bomb diggity for sure. Can’t wait to get a few more bananas so I can make more!

Brazil Banana Nut Bread

Prep time:  10 mins
Cook time:  30 mins 

Ingredients

• ½ cup Almond butter- raw creamy unsalted
• ½ cup brazil nuts (or macadamia nuts…I had brazil nuts on hand)
• 1 banana, peeled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1tbsp raw honey (optional)
• coconut oil to grease baking dish

Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.Place nuts in a food processor and pulse until broken down into a chunky meal.
3.Place all other ingredients in the food processor and puree until smooth.
4.Grease a bread pan with the coconut oil. I used a 4x8 glass baking dish.
5.Pour batter in the baking dish, smooth out, and place in oven.
6.Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a tooth pick comes out clean.
7.Let cool a minute and enjoy with Kerrygold Grass Fed Butter!

Happiness

“Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.”
― Walt Whitman

Are you happy? I really am. I am so stinkin happy! It’s been an awesome week (I surpassed a few goals I set for myself- yay!). Even if I hadn’t exceeded those goals it still would’ve been a great week. Why? Because I just love where I am in life right now. I love challenging myself everyday at Crossfit, I love the community of friends I have there, I love watching people challenge themselves and get better, I love trying new things in the kitchen (which I did a few times this week and all were successfully delicious! Don't worry I'll blog on then eventually!), and I love the energy I’ve had lately from eating healthy. It’s so silly but I often just catch myself with a smile on my face for no reason, do you ever do that? I sure hope so, cause happiness is meant for now.

A big part of what makes me happy is breakfast. I love breakfast. I am one of those people who wake up hungry. I seriously wake up excited to eat!
 
Of course I don’t have time to make breakfast each morning so on Sunday I make a breakfast I can eat all week. This is my new favorite- quick, easy, delicious re-warmed, super filling, and great with my black cup of Starbucks bold coffee.
   
Meat Crust Quiche (Adapted from PaleOMG)

Prep time:  20 mins Cook time:  30 mins Total time:  50 mins
Serves: 4-5

Ingredients

• 1 pound breakfast sausage or ground meat
• I made it with ground turkey which was ok
• I made it with Italian sausage seasoned ground turkey which was better
• This week I made it with Trader Joes Chicken Sausage Sun Dried Tomato Basil
• 1 small sweet potato, diced
• I add chopped mushrooms and bell peppers too for some extra veggies and flavor
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 4 eggs, whisked
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ⅛ teaspoon ground paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or grass fed butter/other fat)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Press the meat into a pie plate or quiche plate until it’s even all around and pressed up to the rim of the plate.
3. Bake for 18-20min on a baking sheet (in case of spills) until meat presses back when you poke it. It doesn’t need to be completely cooked through, but pretty close.
4. While your crust is baking, heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat and melt the 2 tablespoons of oil. Then add garlic, onion, sweet potatoes, and any extra veggies to the pan. Stir. Cook until the onions begin to become translucent, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper on top and cover to help steam the potatoes and cook quicker.
5. Once potatoes are tender (4-5 minutes), add the spinach and cover again to help the spinach wilt.
6. When the spinach is wilted (1-2minutes), put the mixture into a bowl and let it cool.
7. When mixture is cooled, add in the eggs, garlic powder, ground paprika, salt and pepper. Mix well.
8. After the crust is done baking, remove the excess oil and pour your egg mixture on top of the meat crust. The meat shrinks so some egg might leak over.
9. Place the pan back into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. It takes a while completely cook through, you’ll know it’s done when the middle pushes back when you poke it.
10.Enjoy once cool or every morning for the rest of the week!

Being Prepared

So much of sticking to Paleo is being prepared. If you don't have yummy healthy things ready to eat throughout the day you'll grab something less healthy. Cause lets face it, you're not you when you're hungry! All my good intentions of eating great go out the window as soon as I'm hungry without Paleo options. So I always have a little fruit or veggies to snack on, water to drink, and a Larabar! Larabars are gluten, dairy, soy FREE, Kosher...and yummy. 
 
I’m obsessed with them, in fact I eat one every day. At $1.50 a piece though I set out to make my own. There are tons of recipes out there so I easily recreated one last week- they were awesome. This week however I decided there wasn’t enough protein in these bars so I took matters into my own hands.

Larabar Basic Recipe
1 cup nuts of your choice
    Almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, etc.
1 cup dates 
1 cup filling (optional)
    Dried cherries, dried blueberries, dried apricot, dried pineapple, cranberries, dried coconut, chocolate chips, coffee beans, cacao nibs, shredded carrot, etc.  
2 - 4 tbsp flavoring (optional)
    Cacao, vanilla, cinnamon, citrus zest and juice, ginger, mint, cloves, coconut oil.

Directions:
In your food processor, mix together fruit and nuts until a sticky, workable dough is formed.  Add flavoring, and process well.  Add fillings, and pulse until combined - being careful not to wreck the texture.  Shape into bars or balls, and wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap.

My version - Cashew protein packed Larabar!
½ cup raw cashews
½ cup raw almonds
9 dates
1 scoop protein powder (I used Simply Pure Nutrients Chocolate flavor)
Coconut oil

Chops the nuts a little in food processor then add dates and mix together in food processor until it gets sticky. Just keep checking the mixture. Then add the protein powder and check again, mine was dry so I added ½ tbsp of coconut oil and mixed it all again for a second.
 
And guess what? They are awesome!!...and awesome for you!!

The four in front have the chocolate protein powder, the four in the back are the basic recipe with cashews and almonds.

Background

Over the last twelve months our lives have changed, in the most amazing way.

Background on me- I don’t cook! Well I didn’t cook anyway. If you asked anyone who knows me if I cooked they would’ve laughed at you! I am a lot of things but domestic ain’t one of them. Seriously, over 5 years of marriage I had stepped in the kitchen maybe 5 times. If I was found in there actually doing something useful then I was baking, I liked to bake cookies and banana bread- that’s all. So what changed? Well I found CrossFit (life changer!) and through CrossFit I found Paleo eating and through Paleo I found my kitchen. It has been so much fun learning how to cook delicious meals that are healthy. So much fun that I want to share my experience with everyone, and I do, just ask my husband, I’ll tell anyone who will listen!

What is paleo?

Here's the skinny, it includes eating natural foods like: meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, veggies, sweet potatoes, fruit, berries, mushrooms, nuts, and healthy fats (coconut in all forms, avocado, olive oil). Basically natural stuff that’s good for you and makes you feel good.

It does NOT include eating: processed foods, grains, legumes, soy, sugar, dairy, alcohol, white potatoes, and vegetable oils.

This sums it up pretty nice!

OK so the real question is why eat like this? The whole basis of the paleo diet is that our bodies where designed to digest certain foods. We have a harder time digesting the No foods and they lead to increased inflammation. Chronic inflammation eventually causes all sorts of problems, decreased energy, poor sleep, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, digestive discomfort…

Here's what the experts have to say about Paleo
http://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/

The bottom line though is that I had a few life changing events that led me to Paleo and since eating this way I feel great!

Seriously I feel amazing, I’m lighter, my belly is flatter, I don’t feel bloated and 5 pounds heavier at the end of the day. I have a ton more energy (before during and after workouts), less headaches, my mind is clearer…it’s great. So simply put, I feel better when I eat this way. Therefore I continue to eat this way. Do I cheat?…oh heck yeah! Once a week. It serves as a reminder as to why I love eating Paleo cause I feel like poo afterward. I seriously get ‘food hangovers’. It sucks, in a good way.

Alright that's the background- now let's get to the good stuff, what am I cooking up this week?!

Beginning

Welcome to my blog!

I’m so excited to be putting a little bit of my life down on ‘paper’. I’ve been wanting to blog for quite some time now but haven’t known exactly what to say. See, I’m the kind of girl that needs an end goal before embarking on a journey. I need answers to, what will this blog be about?, how will my blog be different from others out there?. I didn’t have definite answers therefore I didn’t blog. Recently a few special people in my life have encouraged me to just start writing with the confidence that the blog will steer itself. So here goes...

Of course I do have a few things that I’m completely obsessively passionate about, CrossFit and Paleo! The Paleo thing is really what I want to write the most about. I want to share what I’m making and how much I’m LOVING life while living Paleo!