Author: heather

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Flounder sucks and my shoulders hurt

heather

I made this delicious tilapia putanesca recipe for the second time last night.  The first time I made this, it was the bomb.  Super delicious.  We all loved it.  Last night I thought I would widen my realm of meat experience and give flounder a shot.  Flounder sucks. It tastes super fishy and a little mealy.  At least the flounder WE got stinks.  Maybe it was bad flounder?  Tim pointed out that the name of the fish, FLOUNDER, is pretty unappetizing in and of itself.  A floundering fish just does not sound tasty.  And it wasn’t.  Never again.

I have made 2 awesome recipes this past week though.

African-Inspired Chicken Stew – This soup was delicious.  I even remembered to sub 2 cups of my homemade bone broth for two cups of the chicken broth.  However, I did forget to add in the $9 almond butter (ridiculous), until after Tim and I had already dished up our bowls.  When I cook, I get all of the ingredients out, and then put them away as I use them. So, I look over at the counter, and the almond butter is just chilling out there, mocking me.  We dumped our bowls back into the pot and added the almond butter.  I am glad we did!  It gave the soup a delicious, nutty flavor.  Eating paleo, a lot of our food starts to taste very similar.  I use a lot of the same range of seasonings – basil, chili pepper, oregano, thyme, etc.  The flavor of this soup was very unique.  Cooking the chicken IN the soup (instead of separately) was a novel idea for me too.  I’ll definitely make this again.  When I can afford the $9 almond butter.

Crispy Carnitas – This recipe came highly recommended by a coworker, and he was spot on.  This turned out amazingly delicious.  Sure, it takes awhile to cook it, but most of that time is unattended (we even looked at a house and went to the gym while it was cooking), so the recipe is actually really easy.  I cooked it in a cast iron skillet, which worked out great and seasoned the pan with delicious pork fat.  I took an insane amount of pictures and posted them to Instagram – check out the link on the right if you are interested.  We ate it Sunday with sweet potato salad (I made the mayo with olive oil because we are out of avocado oil.  Avocado oil makes much tastier mayo, in my opinion).  Tim made guacamole Monday night, and we doused the leftover carnitas with that, and it very well could have been the best meal I have ever eaten.  A note on the guacamole – a couple of times when we’ve made this, it’s turned out, well, off.  We think it’s the onions.  Whatever you do, DO NOT mash the onions with the avocados.  Onion juice is no one’s friend.  Tim is not a huge fan of raw onions anyway, so he cut the measurement down to about 1/8 of a cup, and it turned out fantastic.

Now, on the shoulders hurting thing.  I found out about this website, Bodeefit, that will email you a body-weight workout every day for free!  You can also upgrade and get additional information from them, but for now, I’ve just been using the workouts.  Each workout will list of the movements and times, and it contains a hyperlink to a short video showing you how to do the movement.  It is really cool.  I enjoyed Crossfit for the few weeks I did it, but I don’t really like working out with people in a hot gym.  I prefer the convenience of my own home where only Tim and Lucent are staring at me, wondering what in the heck I am doing.

Well, I’ve done two workouts on back-to-back days, and I am feeling it.  The first day called for handstand pushups.  Yeah right.  I modified it using a technique I learned at Crossfit – you place your knees on the edge of a box (or in my case my bed) and do “pike pushups.”  It’s easy at first, but by later rounds, it SUCKS.  Both workouts had a lot of arm exercises and squatting exercises.  So my shoulders hurt, my ass hurts, and I jammed my thumb while doing Inch Worms.  So I’m taking a day off.  I’m reading the Primal Connection, and it reiterates the needs to GET OUTSIDE.  The weather has not been optimal, but that’s not a good excuse.  I need to get outside and get in some good, slow movement where I am actually moving through space.  I plan to make it out tonight.

Well, that’s my update for today.  Hope you have a fantastic day!!  It’s going to be light until 5:25PM tonight!  Yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhuuuuaaaa!!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Primal Meal Extravaganza

heather

Two of my coworkers have been doing the 21-Day Primal Challenge in January.  So to encourage them and to feed my need to be social, Tim and I hosted a Primal Meal on Saturday night.  We had 5 people over, and here was the menu:

Main course:

  • Garlic Pulled Pork
  • Beef Brisket – I used Mexican style chili powder, and instead of using sugar in the rub, I rubbed the brisket with honey and then rubbed the spice mixture into the meat on top of that.

Sides

Dessert

I have to say, we had a great time!  While we may have perhaps have drank more than was primally-friendly, we all enjoyed the food, companionship, and Nerf guns immensely.  The result was well worth the effort.  It also showed me that our house, with a little rearranging, can comfortably fit more than 2 people at a time.  Perhaps we don’t need to spend $150 – $200,000 on a new place so that we can entertain more!

Here are some pictures from the evening.

Here is our living room.  We pulled the church pews out of the breakfast nook and used them for seating in the living room.  They aren’t the most comfortable seating option, but they will do in a pinch (and it was much cheaper than buying a new loveseat, which we are also contemplating).  Also note the beautiful coffee table built and designed by the Benny Boo (my little bro).

 

Rearranged living room

Here’s a picture of the Love You Long Time Cupcakes.  My bananas were not quite ripe enough, so I added in some honey.  They turned out pretty tasty – not too sweet, but nice and moist.

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Cooking/Recipes, Paleo

Dangerous Paleo Treat

heather

My coworker introduced me to this fantastic recipe:  Chocolate Coconut Bars.  He said they taste just like dark chocolate Mounds.  I have to say, he is correct, only I think these actually taste better!  They are super easy to make and dangerously delicious.  I think I could easily eat the whole pan.  Next time I make them, however, I’m going to double the chocolate for the topping and add a smidge more salt to the coconut mixture.  I’m afraid these alterations will make them even more delicious though.  Going forward I can only make these for company because I cannot be trusted around these things.  Sure, they are paleo, technically, but they have 1/4 cup of honey plus 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, so they have a lot of sugar/carbs in them.  But, boy.  Are they ever tasty!!

Health & Fitness

Tri Training

heather

The Teeeemy Tee and I are signed up to do the Quad City Trathlon.   This will be Tim’s second tri and my first. I have never been a strong swimmer.  It took me 3 tries to pass Beginner’s Swimming.  Plus when I was little, I almost drowned in my grandpa’s pool.  Consequently, I have a lot of anxiety around being in the water, especially when my chest is below the water line.  BUT, I want to get over this fear, and I think that doing a triathlon at 36 will be a good way to celebrate rounding up to 40.

Tim and I hit the pool today for our second swim.  Tim promised that with each visit to the pool, I will get exponentially more comfortable in the water.  I have to say, he is right.  Today still sucked (I think I swam 18 laps, with rests, and then I did 4 or 6 laps with a water board), but it sucked less than it did a week ago.

What did I learn from today?

1.  Do NOT wear 3 inch heels the day before swimming.  Your feet and calves will cramp up something fierce.

2.  Do NOT attempt to put on super tight workout pants after getting out of  the pool, unless you are in possession of a jumbo-sized container of baby powder.

I’m going to try swimming at least 2 times/week.  Hopefully we can get some open-water swimming in before the event too.  From all accounts, swimming in a open body of water with thousands of other people intent on not drowning can be a fairly intimidating experience.

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

NY Resolutions – Day 5 Update

heather

We’re five days into January, and I am proud to say that my resolutions are still in effect.  Don’t even say, “Heather, it’s only been 4 days.  Of course they are still in effect.”  January 1 is essentially a holiday, which in my mind means that you should be able to do whatever in the hell you want – including eating out at a nice restaurant, snacking on chocolate chip cookies, and drinking some nice whiskey or wine.  Well, I’m proud to say I did none of those things!

Here is a status update:

  1. Avoid ALL gluten (including no beer at all – no matter how delicious the concoctions at Great River sound).  Goal met!
  2. No alcohol except for social events (no drinking at home, in other words).  We had company yesterday, so I drank with them (it qualified as a “social event”).  I kind of wish I would not have, however.  I had 2 whiskey and waters and one cider (gluten fee).  My right wrist is killing me today – alcohol-inspired inflammation.  Bah.  But I kind of HAD to drink, as it was a key component of yesterday’s activity, “Drink and Draw 2013.”  My friend Michael and I got together to create some art.  We figured alcohol would get the creative juices flowing.  And it did!  Michael created three awesome sketches, and I did a sketch/pen drawing of Lucent and a pastel drawing of Link (of Zelda fame).  We had a very relaxing, fruitful afternoon, and it made me happy to see our living room covered in art supplies.  I even accidentally dyed my slippers with pastel dust when the box dumped out on them.  It was good times.
  3. Eat supper out only 1 time per week.  We are considering buying a new house or possibly even building a new house, so we are trying to save approximately $300/month before making any moves to prove that we can afford a higher house payment.  We figure this equates to about 2 meals out per week (2*$30 = $60 * 4 = $240).  Michael and I did eat out lunch yesterday, but I paid for it out of my personal account, which is not subject to this goal.  We ate supper at home.  We tried out the barbacoa again, which after being cut with a whole can of chicken broth is still insanely hot.  It’s no good on my Hlo tummy.  We have SO much left though.  I wonder if I freeze it, if it will calm down….
  4. Spend 30 minutes each day doing something creative – writing, painting, or reading (reading isn’t technically “creative,” but it is good for your brain, so I’m letting it count).  This goal has actually been keeping me  pretty happy over the past 4 days!  I’ve been reading a lot more.  I’m going to finish “Cloud Atlas” if it kills me. I wrote in my journal for the first time in a year, and I did the aforementioned art projects.  It’s very satisfying to produce something instead of consume something.  Speaking of which, I canceled my order for these awesome $135 LL Bean Boots.  I wanted new boots because my jeans don’t fit OVER my current boots, so I have to tight-roll them to get them INSIDE the boots, and that’s ugly and uncomfortable.  But, I figured I don’t really NEED new boots.  My current boots are cool and functional.  So instead I bought a pair of $20 skinny jeans that fit inside my boots. I never thought I’d get these hips in skinny jeans, but they don’t look too bad, and they saved me $115!

I hope your resolutions are sticking as well!  If you need some inspiration, check out this article, 50 Ways to Achieve Greatness In Your Life.  What I love about this list, is that a lot of the items deal with just improving yourself.  It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you have to do something grandiose and earth-shattering to be “successful.”  But, nope, you just have to improve yourself every day.  That will make the world around you a better place.  It’s an attainable goal that can still inspire you.  Here are some other thoughts from the list that I really love:

9. Don’t be jealous, be inspired.

10. When you’re talking to someone, listen to them very carefully as if that is the last time you’ll ever hear their voice again.

18. Challenge yourself everyday.

25. Learn everything you can to make yourself better.  To be a better provider.  To be a better man.

31. Progress, not perfection.  Stop beating yourself up for not being perfect and focus on small changes that make you 1% better everyday.

45. Remember, the most important things in life don’t cost any money. Love, friendship, hope, respect, dignity, character…

Good stuff!! 🙂

Health & Fitness, Paleo

Hotter than Hell Barbacoa

heather

Perhaps Tim and I are pantywaists, but I made this recipe tonight, Leftovers: Barbacoa, and our mouths are STILL on fire.  I super appreciate Juli posting recipes free on her blog, so I’m hesitant to express any dissatisfaction, but holy hell!  This barbacoa was SOOOO spicy.  AND.  AND.  I used an extra pound of meat, above what was called for in the recipe!

I should have remembered that Juli likes her food spicy.  I made something else from her, and Tim and I had to cut it down with several extra cans of tomatoes to tame it down.  I think if I cut down the spices by at least half, it would still be plenty spicy.

We now have about 3 lbs of ultra-spicy barbacoa marinating in fridge.  I’m hoping that overnight the flavors will mellow, and it will be all kinds of delicious in the morning.  Tim and I are trying to save about $300/month out of our food budget, so we can’t afford to NOT eat this.

Tonight we ate it over baked sweet potatoes.  I think we’re going to try it with eggs and then maybe over spaghetti squash.  Wish us luck!

Uncategorized

Best Drumsticks EVER

heather

I know I’ve written about this recipe before, but it’s so good, that I have to talk about it again.

This is another MarksDailyApple wonder, Balsamic-Glazed Drumsticks.  These drumsticks are some of the tastiest things you have ever eaten.  They are remarkably easy, as well.  However, the 450 degree oven did NOT like the 3 T of coconut oil coating the chicken.  It smoked and fumed and turned my house cloudy and upset the Lucent dog.  But Tim and I both felt as if the drama was worth the deliciousness.

We didn’t make it to the grocery store, so we had to forage in the fridge for a side dish.  We found a head of funky smelling cauliflower, chopped it into bite size pieces, put a hefty amount of olive oil in a cast iron skillet, and sautéed the cauliflower with a huge chunk of garlic.  I spiced mine with turmeric (good anti-inflammatory) and salt and pepper.  It tasted delicious and accompanied the chicken quite well.  All-in-all it was an easy, quick, simple, and cheap supper.  My only regret is that I did not follow my own advice and make MORE drumsticks.  Again, my package only contains 5 legs, so we have no leftovers.  Boo.

 

Uncategorized

New Year’s Resolutions and Breasts

heather

Turkey breasts, I mean!  Ha – gotchya!

As I mentioned in my last post, I baked a turkey breast on Christmas for the Timmy Tee and me.  I have to say, it turned out fantastic.  Here is the recipe.  It was the easiest thing in the world to make – just open up the package, plop the turkey in the Nesco Roaster, wait 6-8 hours, and BAM!  You got yourself a moist delicious hunk of meat.  Tim and I ate it for at least 3 days.  I even brought some to work to eat as a snack, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much more satiated I was eating turkey than say an apple or an orange.  I really shouldn’t be surprised  because I’ve read a zillion times that sugar (even the sugar in fruit) messes with your insulin and causes you to feel hungry, but yet I was still shocked at the difference.  I’m going to have to start bringing in more meaty snacks.

So this was a big weekend for Hlo!  MarksDailyApple posted my “primal success story.”  I got an email Thursday telling me the story was going up on Friday, and immediately I though, “Oh Sh!t.  I submitted a picture of me in a bikini.”  I NEVER thought the story would get published, so I wasn’t too concerned about the picture when I sent it in, but I got very concerned about it once I heard it was getting published.  Overall though, even though it could lead to some embarrassing moments, I’m glad I submitted the pictures.  All the commenters on the article were awesome and super encouraging.  It sounded as if all the details I provided in the article were helpful to people, and people were encouraged to hear a story from someone who wasn’t in horrible shape to start with but still ended up in a much better place by going primal.  It has been a very positive experience for me, and I thank everyone who took the time to comment on the article.  Now that I know how much it meant to me to read those comments, I’m going to start being more proactive about commenting on other people’s stories.

The commenters also submitted a whole litany of interesting links, as follows:

So I’m internalizing all of this positive energy and feedback and making some New Year’s Resolutions.  These resolutions stand for at least the month of January, and I will re-assess at the end of the month:

  1. Avoid ALL gluten (including no beer at all – no matter how delicious the concoctions at Great River sound).
  2. No alcohol except for social events (no drinking at home, in other words).
  3. Eat supper out only 1 time per week.  We are considering buying a new house or possibly even building a new house, so we are trying to save approximately $300/month before making any moves to prove that we can afford a higher house payment.  We figure this equates to about 2 meals out per week (2*$30 = $60 * 4 = $240).
  4. Spend 30 minutes each day doing something creative – writing, painting, or reading (reading isn’t technically “creative,” but it is good for your brain, so I’m letting it count).

I think those are some good achievable, yet stretch, goals for the month.  I’m looking forward to feeling better and to being a better person at the end of the 31 days.

Good luck with your goals for the month and for all of 2013.  Take care!

Cooking/Recipes, Paleo

Trying my hand at fish

heather

For some reason, I’m intimidated by cooking fish.  Maybe it is because there is such a slim margin for error – cook it a little too long, and it’s all dry and nasty.  Maybe it’s because it’s usually expensive, and so it really sucks when you cook it too long, and it’s all dry and nasty.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in Monticello, IA, 1000 miles from the ocean.  Fish and me are not familiar creatures.

Well, fish is an important part of the primal diet, so I need to get over my fears (fear is the mind killer, you know).  So I started with this recipe:  Tilapia Puttanesca. (Thanks, Diane, for the recipe!).  I made it for my hubby, Tim, and my friend, Michael.  They both totally loved it, as did I.  I used frozen fish from Target (Market Pantry brand), defrosted for 30 minutes in a bowl of water.  The recipe is super simple, yet delicious.  We ate it with a side of spinach salad.  I will definitely be making this again.

Here are a few other recipes I’ve made over the past two weeks that have turned out good.

21 Day Sugar Detox Roasted Spaghetti Squash – You can get this, and many other sugar-free recipes, here.  Not to steal the recipe, but basically you cut a spaghetti squash in half (which is no small feat), rub it down with coconut oil, splash on some salt and pepper, bake that baby at 375 FOREVER (at least 45 minutes depending on the size of the squash), and then shred the squash.  Since this took so much longer to bake than I anticipated, we ended up eating the rest of supper and then using the squash over the next few days in breakfast scrambles.  It smelled magnificent while cooking due to the coconut oil, and it held up really well in the scrambles. Once Tim feels up to tackling another slippery, wicked hard, oblong, rolly object, I’ll make this again.  I know there is a dirty innuendo in there somewhere, but I just can’t quite put my finger on it…

Spaghetti Squash Primavera – This is what I was baking the spaghetti squash for.  We ended up just eating the veggies with some sautéed ground pork.  It was delicious, especially with the dressing called for in the recipe – very tart and delicious.  I love leeks, so I used a whole leek.

Today I am cooking a turkey breast in the Nesco roaster.  This is another new recipe, so hopefully all will turn out well!  None of the bastard grocery stores are open today, so if the recipe bombs, we’ll be eating olives and capers and beer, which is pretty much all we have in the fridge at the moment.

For my next venture into unexplored territory, I think I am going to try making soap and/or lotion.  A lot of the blogs I follow have been writing about using more natural products on your face and skin.  We spend so much time and money on the food we put into our bodies; now the paleosphere has decided we should start to pay attention to the stuff we put ON our bodies (skin is the largest organ, you know).  My cousin-in-law just gave me some soap which smells amazing and also shared some of her recipes with me, so I have a good foundation to start with.  I just need to order some supplies from Amazon and take the plunge.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Hope you are having a great day with your families!

Uncategorized

Cowboy Breakfast Skillet

heather

I made this Cowboy Breakfast Skillet this week, and it was amazing.  It’s a very simple, quick recipe.  The only thing I would change in the recipe is I would add more oil to the pan once you remove the sausage.  My sausage didn’t really produce enough fat with which to cook the sweet potatoes, so I had to add a tablespoon or two of olive oil*.   The recipe made enough for supper and breakfast.

I made a ton of new recipes last week too, but I just lost interest in posting about them!  I made two different batches of knock-off Lara bars.  The first batch was made with olive oil, and I was not a fan of the taste, so I made the second batch with coconut oil.  I also used half raisins half dates for the sweetener in the second batch.  The second batch tasted really good, but I burnt them a little on the bottom.  I need to make them thinner, so they cook all the way through without burning the bottoms.  I would post the recipe, but I can’t find it online anywhere!  I got it online, but I cannot find it again, which is why I gave up on posting recipes last week.  The frustration of not finding the recipe sapped my energy to write.  I’m a baby.  If you want the recipe, hit me up in the comments, and I’ll spend the 3 minutes typing it out.

But in all my googling, I found a zillion (probably literally) Lara bar recipes.  They all are pretty similar, so I’m sure anyone you find will turn out tasty.  I think I’ll lay off making them for awhile though.  They are pretty carb-heavy, and it’s hard to stop eating them once you start!  The weather is getting colder, and daylight is only about 9 hours long.  Carbs + cold + lack of sunshine = uncomfortably tight trousers.

And that’s about it!  Hope you are having a great evening.  Pray for 14 inches of snow tonight, so I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.  😉

*If you are particular about your olive oil (a lot of olive oil is mixed with inferior oils and is not true olive oil), check out this site.  You can place an order now for California-made olive oil to be delivered in February.  We ordered 2 gallons of the spicy mid-season.  I can’t wait!