The BBBLAP (Beef, Bacon, Basil, Lettuce, Avocado and Pepper)

Okay, so I am back on the program and actually going to post recipes that are new for me to use again and again and again... especially this one.
                                           Ingredients:

Burger Patties (makes 2)           Avocado Cream
1lb of ground beef                       1 avocado
1 tsp garlic powder                      1 clove of garlic
1 tsp salt                                      1 Tbsp of lemon juice
1 tsp black pepper                       3 Tbsp of water
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
1 egg


1 Red bell pepper
Butter Lettuce
Basil Leaves

 4 strips of bacon



Process
1.  Avocado cream.  Put everything in a food processor and blend until smooth.
2.  Bacon.  Cook bacon as you usually would.  Either oven or on the stove.
3.  Roasted Bell Peppers.  Slice the bell pepper into relatively flat pieces.  Broil for 15 minutes then immediately place the peppers into a brown bag or covered bowl to trap in the steam.  This makes the skins easier to peel off.  Once cooled, the skins will peel off by hand or with tongs.
4.  Burger Patty.  Mix all the spices, the egg and the ground beef into a bowl and form two patties.  I then used a Griddler to grill my burger on Medium high until desired level of doneness.
5.  To Plate:  Layer a few large pieces of butter lettuce on the plate.  Then place the burger on the bed of lettuce.  Top burger with the roasted peppers, basil, desired amount of avocado cream, and finish it off with the bacon.

I'm not going to lie..... this was DELICIOUS and really hit the spot for a good burger.  The avocado cream did a nice job filling in for a mayonnaise or ketchup and I really didn't miss the bun at all.  So good.  Can't wait to make it again.

Paleo Fettuccine

I have baked spaghetti squash and used that as a pasta substitute many times. A while ago my husband made this Indonesian vegetable dish with zucchini ribbons that was so delicious and reminded me of fettuccine. Tonight instead of baking a spaghetti squash for our "pasta" dinner I peeled yellow and green zucchini for some fettuccine with meat sauce.

Ingredients:

5 zucchinis, yellow and green for color variation. Pick skinny ones
1 pound ground meat of your choice
1 jar of Paleo spaghetti sauce or your own homemade
oil

Cook the meat. While the meat is cooking use a vegetable peeler to peel off ribbons of the squash. Try to get them the whole length of the squash so you can slurp them up like real fettuccine. I found this was easiest by laying the squash on the cutting board and holding it steady on the sides, constantly turning to make sure the ribbons weren't too wide. Peel until you expose the seeds, then stop. (The seedy part it too wet to make good fettuccine but is good roasted. Chop these up and save them for tomorrow night's dinner of roasted veggies and protein.)

By now your meat should be done so pour in the sauce. Doctor it up however you would like adding spices or more veggies. (Honestly my straight-from-a-jar sauce was pretty lame, it needed some flavor added but I was lacking inspiration.)

Place meat sauce in a serving bowl. Add a little oil to the pan if needed then throw in the squash ribbons/fettuccine. Toss to get the oil distributed, add a dash of water, like maybe 1/4 cup, cover and steam for a few minutes. When they are tender, but not mushy, put in a serving bowl and you are ready to eat!

The texture of the zucchini was good, kind of chewy in the same way a mushroom is that has been grilled or sauteed. It's a great way to eat a whopping bowl of zucchini and this will be a fabulous way to eat the piles of zucchini that appear around August.


Toddler report: 3 year old preferred meat. Direct quote for dinner tonight "yum, yum, yum, more meat!" The almost 2 year old ate it all, dangling ribbons of zucchini over his head and swallowing them whole. Makes a mom proud!

Chicken curry

Growing up my mom made this once a year when my uncle visited for Christmas. As a kid it was the best treat and was reserved for only that one time a year. When I got to college I asked my mom for the recipe and was shocked and horrified at how incredible easy it was. Why did we only eat this once a year?? Maybe it was to off set the creamed spinach souffle we were also forced to chock down when my uncle visited.

Well, this has become nearly a staple in our household as it is so easy to make a large batch of, great as leftovers and is so delicious.

Chicken curry (serves 5 adults with minimal leftovers)

Ingredients:

ghee or oil of your choice
1 onion, sliced
1 head cauliflower, chopped (optional, but dang good)
2 pounds cubed chicken or other meat
yellow curry powder (in bulk spice section of your grocery store)
1 can coconut milk
around 2 cups chicken broth
water

Toppings:

banana slices
shredded coconut
chutney
green onion
salty cashews or peanuts

Heat ghee in a large pot. Saute onions until soft, throw in cauliflower to saute a couple minutes. Remove onions and cauliflower from pot (unless it's a really huge pot and there is room) and add chicken. Pour in a couple tablespoons of yellow curry powder. The more curry, the spicier. Stir to coat the chicken with curry and cook until nearly done. Add onions and cauliflower back in, tossing to spread the curry flavor around. Pour in a can of coconut milk and about 2 cups of chickn stock. Rinse out the coconut milk can with water and add that as well. Cover and simmer until the cauliflower is done to your liking.

Serve in a bowl and top with bananas, chutney, green onions, coconut and cashews or peanuts.

Here's the recipe my mom sent me in college:

Basically you brown some onions in butter, add chicken and sprinkle with curry powder. Cover with chicken stock and simmer until done.

And we only had it once a year!!! A recipe that takes 2 lines and is so delicious! I'm incredulous.

Give it a try and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Back on the wagon

After a few days off and a few days of cheats here and there I am back on the wagon except for milk in my coffee and sugar in my bacon (does bacon free sugar exist? I like my Cheryl the Pig Lady bacon, sugar and all)...and the occasional adult beverage.

Breakfast today was a quick 2 egg scramble and chicken apple sausage. Not glamorous or fancy, but it got the job done as a post WOD meal and breakfast.

Lunch was a leftover pork chop along with some baby carrots. I was feeling quite primal as I gripped the chop and tore at the meat with my teeth.

Dinner:

Roasted chicken with parsnips, carrots and beets

Usually I follow a simple recipe for roasting chicken, just salting and roasting the bird. I wanted more flavor tonight so I found a recipe for herb rubbed chicken.

Herb roasted chicken:

1 whole chicken, patted dry inside and out
1 lemon
1/2 an onion
2-3 cloves garlic
fresh rosemary, sage and thyme
salt and pepper
olive oil
ghee

Chop the lemon and onion into chunks. Mince the garlic. Salt the inside of the bird and stuff with the lemon, onion and garlic. Chop all the herbs, add some salt and pepper then enough olive oil and melted ghee to make a slightly liquidy paste. Rub this all over the bird. Roast for about 1+ hours or until the juices run clear when pricked at 4oo degrees.


After I got the bird in the oven I peeled the parsnips and carrots and threw them in the bottom of the roasting pan where they caramelized in the juices of the bird. The beets I had were tiny and too much trouble to peel so I boiled them until fork tender then easily slipped the skin off with my hands. I threw them in the bottom of the pan along with the carrots and parsnips to roast a bit and get some of the chicken juice flavor. The carrots and beets made for a colorful tye-dyed looking dish.

Feb. 5

It seems I had created a habit of recording my meals everyday because I miss updating the blog. So, how have I fared after 31 days of cleaning eating? It hasn't been pretty, but most things have been reasonably delicious.

First big post-clean eating go-crazy consumption was caramel macchiato cheesecake. It was freaking delicious, although I had to take a break about half way through because my body was in a little shock.

Sushi. A massive plate of sashimi with some rice and some rolls filled with a little bit of everything. So good.

Most over the top meal was a bacon cheese burger with a brioche bun, homemade ketchup and two sliced pickles. Again, freaking delicious. This amazing burger with a glass of pinot noir was the essentially like getting drunk on food because I woke up with a food hangover-gross feeling stomach, little slow to get moving.

Then the Super Bowl. Pizza, goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto (totally recommend, are good without cheese, are good wrapped in bacon and then baked), two kinds of cake, a reasonable beer. All in all, it was mostly bad, but a little good-there were some veggies and salmon in there.

So, where do I go from here? Back on the clean eating wagon. With the progress towards my goal half way complete there is no reason to stop. The last 5 days sure haven't helped me move towards that goal, but I am also not just quitting because eating crap food is that good. I have found my clean eating habits are ingrained in my lifestyle and when I stray my whole routine is a little out of whack. It makes it easier to go out to restaurants when not limited but I think it is realistic to eat clean 90% of the time and still be able to go out and enjoy all the delicious things there are to eat, clean or not.

January 31

The last day! Wohoo!

Breakfast:

1 soft boiled egg
1/2 spinach pepper sausage
1/2 grapefruit
walnuts and pecans

Lunch:

leftover spaghetti squash with a canned salmon, caper and tomato sauce

I had a lot of squash leftover from last night but no more meat sauce. Luckily the emergency can of salmon was an easy way to add protein. I mixed about a can of salmon with some tomato sauce, added capers, black pepper and a bit of olive oil. A few minutes in the microwave made for a quick, flavorful, and easy lunch.
I definitely had a few handfuls of almonds and a couple sections of satsuma while hosting a playdate with 7 kids under four.

Snack:

Way too many nuts. I think I have eaten enough to be sick of them which is a good thing.

Dinner:

Pork chops with fig balsamic reduction

Dino kale

Baked parsnip chips

Due to my compute having serious problems (*problem solved-clearly) I can't upload the photo of my restaurant quality dinner tonight. Imagine an pile of slow cooked kale topped with a perfectly cooked pork chop and a side of basically parsnip chips. It was pretty dang good. Except that I don't know how to make a balsamic reduction, so this had a caramel quality to it which isn't quite complimentary to cooked meat.

The kale was cooked with ghee, onion and a little chicken stock. It was great after cooking about 20 minutes. The parsnips were just sliced and baked at 425 degrees until beginning to crisp on the outside.

Progress and final reflection:

I am down one more pound, so averaging 1 pound a week which is a reasonable and healthy rate. Plus there is more muscle on my body than when I started, so that factors in.

I posted every day!

My hip is messed up and I will see a doctor this week to open that can of worms.

No muscle up yet, but I have made plenty of progress on my pull-ups and dips. I can now do chest to bar pull-ups. Next I have to master the transition with false grip. Once I have that I just need to put it all together.

It is note worthy that I got two personal records this month especially with the lengthy rest periods. I have hit most of my PRs when eating super stricit and super clean, so there is a correlation there.

What will I eat tomorrow? Probably mostly the same stuff I have been eating this whole month, maybe with some milk in my coffee for starters. There is a visit to my favorite bakery for more than coffee in my future.

Happy eating to my 5-10 readers :) Go do your own Whole30 or 30 day challenge and be excited about the benefits. Be strict and remember you are doing this for YOU!

January 30

Breakfast:

Leftover porterhouse with amazing roasted red pepper sauce
leftover brussel sprouts
1/2 scrambled egg (my littlest one took the rest from me, he's a growing boy)
pecans and walnuts

This morning was another PR at the gym. After another week off, this time for recovery after having my hip manhandled by the best massage therapist, I PR'd my press. 80 pounds straight over my head. My previous PR was 75, so that is a respectable increase. My lifting partner today beat her PR by 9 pounds. There is something to be said about eating protein, sleeping 8-9 hours and getting the rest your body needs. I usually feel like rest days are lazy days, but clearly rest days are important to getting to the next level.

Lunch:

Another day of running around meant not a real lunch.

some nuts-pecans, walnuts, almonds and macadamias-but really not too many overall
celery and cucumbers with baba ganoush
green olives
coconut flakes
real Americano

The coffee was like speed. I got so much done today and I think it had to do with the shock of caffeine to my system. Plus I had the motivation of getting stuff done while kid free. Talk about efficient.

Dinner:

Paleo spaghetti

Yesterday my husband said we should get some spaghetti squash. I had taken some ground beef out of the freezer, so a pot of meaty spaghetti sauce was in order. Tonight I was feeling lazy so the sauce was very basic with few additions. Usually I throw in a ton of veggies but tonight it was meat, sauce, kale and some seasonings including basil, oregano and garlic powder. I didn't even chop an onion or garlic. I recommend cooking two pounds of meat so you have leftovers. With one pound of meat we had only one serving.

I made this earlier in the month and here is the recipe. Tonight was pretty much the same thing. A very easy weeknight meal when you remember to bake the squash an hour before you want to eat. It can be as fancy or simple as you want and makes great leftovers. The kids both love it and eat mostly the squash, but we sneak some protein into them when they aren't looking.