Category: Cooking/Recipes

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Uncategorized

Primal Day 3

heather

Today overall was good.  Had another omelette for breakfast and a big-ass salad for lunch.  I got snacky this afternoon and discovered a delicious treat – celery with macademia nuts.  Take a bite of celery, a piece of macademia, and chew together.  Delicious.  I also had wwwwaaayyyy too many pumpkin seeds.  They were so salty and delicious.  I ate too many.

For supper I tried a recipe from the Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals – sautéed brussel sprouts with pork chops.  I’ve never made brussel sprouts before, but I was willing to try it.  In this recipe, you shred the brussel sprouts in a food processor.  All shredded they look like this:

It makes a mess, but it’s done in a jiffy.  You warm up 1/4 cup of olive oil in a pan, and sautee the sprouts until they start to turn brown.

While those were cooking, I rubbed some pork chops with Spike and then cooked them in some olive oil in a cast iron skillet.  Tim made brown rice to carb it up, but I didn’t partake. By the time the meal was cooked, the kitchen was disaster.  Tim is cleaning it up right now, sweetie pie that he is.

The meal was absolutely delicious.  The brussel sprouts were kind of sweet – tasted like delicate cabbage.  I’ll definitely make that again.  They paired well with the pork chops too.  The pork chops were not grass-fed.  I haven’t found any grass-fed pork locally yet.  Might have to order some on the internet.

Tomorrow I am making a grass-fed arm roast.  I’m already looking forward to it.

The challenge today dictated a “Full length PEM workout.”  That means that I should do 2 sets of the following: 25 pushups, 5 pullups, 2 minutes plank, and 50 squats.  Fortunately Mark recommends “progressions” of these exercises for those who, like me, cannot even do one real push up (yet).  So I did 30 wall push ups, 0 pulls ups (we ordered a Power Tower from Amazon, but it’s not here yet), 1 minute planks and 50 wall squats.  For the 2nd set, I did about 1/2 of everything.  It was exhausting, especially with my legs being super sore from running yesterday.

But I have good news – it’s not all pain – I weighed in at 145.9 today!  Three pounds lighter than Monday.  The large variance is probably due to water weight, but I’ll take it!

So we’re supposed to finally get a few inches of snow over the next couple of days.  I think it’s about time, but I will definitely miss the 50 degree weather.  I’ll have to go back to working out in  a stuffy old gym.  Bah.

My energy level today was not as good as yesterday.  I didn’t sleep well last night, so that could be it.  Maybe my body is adjusting to the lack of carbs.  We’ll see how the rest of the week pans out.

So, take care, and go out in play in the snow tomorrow, if we really get some!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Primal Day 2

heather

As promised, I will not bore you with pictures and extensive details of everything I ate today.  Here are the quick highlights.

  • I didn’t weigh myself this morning.  See,  I didn’t take a shower this morning, and I only weigh myself before I’ve eaten anything and when I’m nekked.  I don’t want clothing to tip the scales at all.  So, no shower, no weigh-in.
  • For breakfast I ate a super delicious omelet of sautéed (in coconut oil) leeks, spinach, and onions, with 1/4 an avocado.  For those of you who think I mis-spelled “omelet” I direct you to Wikipedia, which says you can spell it “omelet” OR “omelette.”  Tim and I just had a 5 minute discussion about it.  But, I’m off topic.  After breakfast I felt, to borrow a phrase from my brother, Nate, “amazing.”  I had a ton of energy and felt as if I could take on the world.  The sky was prettier, Lucent was cuter, the air was sweeter.  You know – all sorts of good stuff.  My general mood and feeling of well-being could have been enhanced by my visit to my chiropractor last night, admittedly.  She uses the Lifeline Technique, which to quote her website is, “An amazing tool that taps into our subconscious mind to find the causes behind symptoms and unlocks the mysteries to your health’s unanswered questions.”  It sounds a little far out, but it really works for me.  It’s good for what ails ya.  Or me, at least.  OK, back to primal.
  • Lunch was complicated today.  I attended a Chamber luncheon function, which fortunately consisted of salad and then the fixings for sandwiches. I got some salad and a couple slices of roast beef, a pickle, and a tomato slice.  As we were already the first ones in line, I didn’t want to look ultra-greedy, so I took a very modest amount.  It did not fill me up.  So I was snacky this afternoon, but I only ate pumpkin seeds and macademia nuts.
  • That late afternoon snack really energized me.  I took advantage of our 50+ degree weather and went for a walk after work.  I intended to just walk, but once I hit the bike path, I was all like, “Hey, let’s jog.  Why not?”  And I ended up running for 2 miles!  Albeit at a very slow pace.  But, I haven’t jogged since, I don’t know, early November, maybe?  I felt as if I could have gone another mile, but at 5:15, the darkness was already settling in, so I headed home. It was so beautiful being out at that time, though, as dusk was settling in, the sky turning orange and coral and mauve.  So beautiful and peaceful.  Almost peaceful enough to forget that the atomic clock got moved forward a minute.  Sad face.
  • As I mentioned yesterday, I forgot to take meat out of the freezer in time, so we didn’t really have a good entree.  Tim ended up making a monster salad, and I sautéed spinach, celery, leeks, onions and broccoli in coconut oil, and then tried my hand at another omelette (I spelled it the other way, just for you).  It seems like such an easy thing to make, but it was giving me fits.  The eggs got cooked eventually, but it wasn’t pretty.    It was an OK omelet, not as good as this morning’s though.  Maybe too many ingredients?  Too busy?  The broccoli had no place in that omelette, really.   Seems so obvious now.
  • For an after-dinner dessert, I had a small square of a Green & Black Organic 85% dark chocolate bar.  Yes, the bar cost almost $4, which the clerk at HyVee was gracious enough to point out when we commented on ample size of our bill.

And that brings us to right now.  I am drinking tea and writing in my blog.  Oh, we watched an episode of Lost too.  What in the heck is going on in that show?!

Mark Sisson recommends adjusting your schedule to the sun’s natural rythms – wake up when the sun comes out and go to bed, or at least wind down (no digital stimulation) after dark – use candles if possible or yellow bug lights or dimmer switches.  It’s obvious he lives in California, because if I tried that in Iowa, I would be getting up at 7:28AM and going to bed at 4:51PM (thank you to Tim for the exact sunrise & sunset times).  That’s not really feasible to me.  I may try the yellow lights in our lamps and see how that goes.

So, Day 2 is behind me.  Only 19 more to go!  One of my friends at work has promised to bring me in some deer meat, so you get to look forward to my review of that.  Bet you can’t wait.

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Primal Day 1

heather

I started out the day in a depressing fashion, by taking my weights and measures.  Ugh.  My weekend of debauchery (aka eating pizza and pasta and drinking beer) definitely took its toll.  I weighed in this morning at 149.3, which is higher than I have been in at least a year.  I’m hoping it was mostly water weight, and I’ll be back down to 147ish, which is where I’ve been hovering lately.  And for the measures – 36-31-43.  Sigh.  I have my work cut out for me!

Breakfast!  I sauteed cabbage & Swiss chard in coconut oil, fried 2 eggs over-easy, and added some avocado.

Lunch!  I made a delicious salad of organic herbs and greens, with green peppers, avocado, walnuts, sardines, olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

For supper I made what was essentially a taco salad.  I cooked up a pound of grass-fed meat, adding home-made taco seasoning and used it to top off a salad of romaine hearts, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, and avocado.  I have to say, it was not my favorite meal.  I think I broke up the hamburger into pieces that were too small – kinda got lost in the shuffle.

So, the day in retrospect – My stomach felt good.  My energy was good all day.  I didn’t get hungry between meals really.  After lunch I got snacky, but that was more psychological than pysiological.  I ate some pumpkin seeds, and they were delicious.  In my limited experience eating primally off and on over the past month or so, adding good fat to a meal really does make it last longer.  I used to always eat oatmeal mixed with raisins and cinnamon for breakfast, and I was always hungry by 8:30AM.  For exercise, Marta and I took two walks around the bank, and I took a walk around the block over lunch.  I am wicked sore from doing planks & squats yesterday.  Ouch.

I think it’s going to be a struggle to plan ahead and to have the right groceries in stock.  Already, after Day 1, I’m a little screwed.  I didn’t take anything out of the freezer yesterday, so I’ll probably need to go to the store for some meat tomorrow.  Also, I wanted to make cabbage pesto slaw.  I got half the ingredients, but the recipe called for 4 cups of basil, which would cost like $12 at HyVee.  So I have cabbage but no pesto.  Have to figure that out.

I’m sure this will get easier eventually.  Hopefully.  As for tracking the progress on the blog daily, I’m going to have to reconsider that – at least reconsider the level of detail.  I’m already bored just writing about 3 meals.  No one is going to want to read that everyday.  So, going forward, I’ll just hit the highlights.

Day 1 down, 20 to go!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Back in Bidness

heather

As is my custom, I have gotten out of the custom of writing in my blog.  Again.  I’m not sure why.  We’ve had quite a bit of “action” lately.  The Beentz was here for a visit, Tim’s mom was here for a visit, I took a watercolor class at the Figge, I agonized over getting a smart phone and finally broke down and got one and then traded it in for the iPhone 4s, my mom bought me an awesome $15 standup desk from Salvation Army, we ran a 5K.  What else?  Hmm…  I found another school program I am interested in – Human Computer Interaction at Iowa State University.  Maybe I’ll do it?  That’s about the past month or two real quick-like.

On to the present, today we are cooking!  This morning I tried a roasted chickpea recipe from Fitness Magazine.  They probably would have turned out deliciously if I hadn’t over cooked them by at least 5 minutes.  The chickpeas that were not reduced to ash were actually pretty tasty.  I’ll have to try that recipe again.

Right now we are cooking up some delicious minestrone and acorn squash.  I made the absolute best chocolate chip cookies on Thursday, and I froze half the dough, so I might bake up some of those up tonight too.  Once the cold, windy weather sets in, I’m all for keeping the oven on all day.

Tim and I played a game of Carcassone, ate some Buffalo Wild Wings, and listened to some great music this afternoon.  Did some laundry, kissed Lucent on the head lots, dyed my hair dark brown.  Overall, it’s been a pretty excellent Sunday.  Here’s to me getting back on track with blogging and with healthy eating & exercise habits (which have been absolutely disgusting lately).

Take care, and don’t forget to the watch the Simpsons Halloween special tonight!!

Cooking/Recipes

Healthy Beans & Rice

heather

I ended up working from home today because the internet at work was out.  That meant, amongst other things, that I pretty much ate everything that was edible in the house.  So for lunch, I had to get creative.  Tim had made some delicious brown rice on Sunday.  He mixes a little wild Ojibwa rice (from Greatest Grains) with some brown basmati rice and then cooks the whole bunch in chicken broth.  Wow, I almost wrote, “chicken juice.”  Chicken juice sounds gross, but chicken broth sounds delicious.  Yet they are exact same thing.  Ah, the power of language.

ANYWAY, Tim made some delicious rice of which we still had plenty left over.  I got creative and mixed the rice with about 1/2 a can of Aduki beans (excellent for a weak spleen) in a pot on the stove.  When it was all hot, I put it in a bowl, drizzled it lightly with olive oil, doused it thoroughly with Sriracha, and peppered it heavily with salt.  It was, I must say, absolutely delicious.  Feel free to steal my idea.

Cooking/Recipes

Artichoke Walnut Hummus

heather

I just made the most delicious hummus.  In the food processor, I combined an almost full can of rinsed garbanzo beans that had been chilling in the fridge for a couple of days, 1/3 cup tahini, 1 full fresh squeezed lemon + enough water from some canned artichokes to make up 1/4 cup, 1/2 teaspoon of Real Salt, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 or 4 canned artichoke hearts, a swirl of olive oil, a hefty pinch of cayenne pepper and about 6 walnut halves.  I blended the crap out of it for a few minutes.

We have no tortilla chips, so I spread some of the hummus on brown rice cakes.  DEEEELICIOUS.

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Uncategorized

Super tasty breakfast

heather

Yesterday Tim and I ran (well, I walked/jogged to be precise) the Race for the Cure.  The weather was perfect for running – cool and slightly overcast.  Tim did excellently – ran the whole way.  I, on the other hand, ran the first mile and then walked/jogged the rest of the way.  I also got confused as to where, exactly, the finish line was located.  I assumed it was under the huge balloon arch that designated the starting line. After crossing under the arch, I wandered around for a bit, looking for Tim.  When I couldn’t find him anywhere, I realized that beyond the arch was the huge number 3, designating the third mile mark.  And… people were still running.  I flowed back into line and ran the 1 or 2 minutes to the real finish line, just up and around the corner.  I was super frustrated with myself for not catching on immediately and adding 5 minutes to my time, but it was a still a great experience.  The Race for the Cure is a very happy/sad experience.  It’s amazing to see 9,000 gathered together in a stand against a disease, exercising together and supporting each other.  It’s also super sad to see the long lists of loved ones who have died from cancer pinned to the backs of people’s shirts.

To cap off our 5K, Tim and I decided to take a bike ride.  We mapped out our route, from Rapids City, IL to a certain jog in the road that we biked to last time.  According to Googlemaps, the round trip route was about 22 miles:


We loaded up the bikes on the Civic and headed out.  Again, it was a perfect day for biking – cool, overcast.  As long as we didn’t stop in one place for too long, the bugs were not too annoying.  We started off in Rapids City and biked through Port Byron, past Cordova, and to the jog in the road.  It sure seemed much longer than any other 22 mile ride we had taken, but we chalked it up to being tired from the run.

We finally returned to our car, never so happy to see it before.  Our shoulders, necks, taints – anything that was in constant contact with the bikes was throbbing.  Once we arrived home, we looked at the map more closely and realized that we originally mapped the wrong jog!  We actually biked 13 miles further than we intended:


No wonder we were so exhausted!!  It really was a great ride, though, and a good training experience for RAGBRAI. We learned the importance of bringing snacks (dry-roasted peanuts), lubricating delicate body areas that you DO NOT want chafed, and taking breaks to give your shoulders and arms a rest from the unforgiving road bike tires.

To reward ourselves for all the exercise, we had a delicious supper of fried mushrooms and pork-T at Filling Station.  We continued the healthy eating spree with a super delicious, cooked-by-Tim-with-love breakfast this morning.  He cooked up some spicy chorizo and combined it with scrambled eggs, cheese, avocado, fresh green onions, and Salsa Brava and rolled it all up in a chewy, toasted tortilla.  It very well could have been the tastiest burrito I have ever eaten.

So that was Saturday.  Today is Sunday, and I have a list of like 30 things I would like to get done today.  We’ll see how long the coffee buzz lasts…

Cooking/Recipes, Uncategorized

Celebration of food

heather

Tim and I are having an all-around lovely weekend, and like all lovely weekends, it was capped from start to end with deeelicious food.

Ben and Leah visited us for the weekend.  It’s been months since we’ve seen them – I last saw them before I became an accountant and now I am already almost not an accountant – more on that later, maybe.

Anyway, they arrived Friday night, and we were all starving.  We’ve been hearing good things about La Rancherita in Rock Island, so we headed off.  It was a cool, brightly lit Mexican restaurant with tasty pico de gallo and delicious tacos.  The crowd was very eclectic – a mix of races and styles and party sizes.  We saw everything from hipsters to gangstas.  For dessert we introduced Ben and Leah to the joys of Checkers apple pies.  We got 4 for $2.12, and they were perfectly delicious.

For breakfast on Saturday, Tim made his ultra-tasty egg, cheese, Canadian bacon, and  English muffin sandwiches.  He fries the egg perfectly, so that the yolk is the perfect state of gelatinous.  After doing a little shopping at Greatest Grains and the mall, we returned back to the house for a snack lunch of $7.00 Tillamook cheddar cheese, braunschweiger, saltines and cans of Great River Pale Ale.  While the boys played video games and Leah busted through advanced Soduko puzzles, I made guaucamole using this excellent Allrecipes.com recipe.  The freeze-squeezed lime juice gives it a tasty, fresh snap.  After contaminating all of my dishrags and utensils with tiny bits of chopped cilantro, I made chocolate chip cookies, using the recipe from the Nestle Tollhouse bag.  The trick is to get the butter at the perfect level of softness.  About 2 bursts of 10 seconds in the microwave gets it to the stage where it creates tall, fluffy, chewy cookies.

For supper Tim made amazing tortilla soup from an America’s Test Kitchen recipe.  The soup, paired with the gaucamole, made for an excellent supper and uncomfortably fitting trousers.

While we digested our Mexican feast, Leah and I soundly beat Tim and Ben at euchre and then retired to watch Despicable Me.  About 30 minutes into the movie, Tim and Ben were both sound asleep.

Tim treated us with another delicious meal this morning by making buckwheat pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Ben and Leah are cast iron snobs.  Ben, unheeding my warnings, convinced Tim to cook the pancakes on our fairly unseasoned cast iron griddle (which weighs about 30 pounds).  Ben convinced Tim and that a little butter and oil would cause the pancakes to not stick.  He was wrong – stick they did.  But they were still delicious.  I am right now re-seasoning the griddle and our cast iron pan.  I have already set off the fire detector.  We have several windows wide open, but the whole house is still quite smoky.  It better be worth it.

Besides eating, we spent the rest of the weekend playing video games, drinking excellent beers (Hopalicious!), doing lots of dishes, and just all around enjoying each other company.  Hanging out with family is so awesome.  It really makes me wish that we lived closer to Ben and Leah, and/or my brothers.  Someday…

Cooking/Recipes

La Rancherita 2

heather

Tim and I were lamenting the lack of really good Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities these days.  Los Agaves used to be good, but the quality of their food has nose-dived as of late, likewise with the Aztecas.  It seems as if they all offer the same things – cheap ground beef inside a lackluster pocket of fried corn meal, smothered in cheese and the cheapest tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream that can be bought.

I resorted to using Yelp in my own home town to find something new and better.  I stumbled upon a couple of good review of La Rancherita  2 on Elmore Ave (by Wal-Mart).  Tim and I had actually tried to eat there right after they first opened, but they do not take credit cards, and we never carry cash, so we walked out.  Well, I had $24.00 in cash on me for some reason, so we decided to give it another shot.

The restaurant itself is nothing to write home about – except for the chairs, that is.  The chairs are the hugest, sturdiest, most colorful things you will ever see.  They look as if they belong in a play-room for giant-sized children.  They are pretty awesome, actually.  On the downside, the outer door opens directly into the restaraunt, keeping the innards very chilly.  You’ll be warmed up stat by the delicious chips and salsa, however.  The salsa is fresh pico de gallo, and it is spicy and delicious, as are the chips.  On Saturday they were selling $2.75 Mexican import bottles, so Tim and I chased our lunches with Corona.

Tim got 3 steak tacos in corn shells.  They were delicious, especially once they were coated in the red hot sauce that is brought to your table with the chips and salsa (by pretty Mexican ladies in Santa hats). I got a torta (always searching for a torta in the QC that can rival El Olmito’s in Muscatine).  It was good, but it lacked El Olmito’s  jalapenos and carrots and ultra- crispy chicken tidbits.  Truth be told, I think that El Olmito’s torta is better because it is all around crispier – the chicken is crispier, the torta is crispier.  Which means that El Olmito must slather everything in oil and/or butter.  It’s probably why my cholesterol and blood pressure is up over last year.

All-in-all, Tim and I really liked La Rancherita.  They also serve breakfast, so over Christmas break, we are going to check it out.  I can’t wait to try some of that pico de gallo on eggs and toast.  Deeelicious.