Category: Paleo

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Best Chicken Marinade Ever

heather

My mom was kind enough to pick up some organic frozen chicken breasts for us from Costco.  I had them defrosted in the fridge when I serendipitously ran across a Honey Mustard Chicken recipe in my RSS feed.  Tuesday night I mixed up the marinade and poured it over sliced up chicken breasts resting in a Pyrex dish.  I lacked ginger, and for the mustard I used the local favorite, Boetjes.  The chicken stewed in the marinade for about 24 hours, and we cooked it up last night.  The recipe instructs you to move the chicken into a fresh Pyrex dish, but I don’t understand why!  I just left in the original dish, and popped the works into a 400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes.  The chicken turned out SUPER delicious – very moist and flavorful.  We ate it with a green salad, chopped cauliflower and green pepper and kalamata olives.  This recipe is definitely a keeper – very simple, yet very delicious.  Oh!  And I totally ignored Instruction #3 (where you boil down the juices and leftover marinade), and the chicken was still very moist and tasty.

Also – here is an update on the Ginger and Lemongrass Meatballs recipe.  When I made the meatballs, I ran out of room on my pan.  I didn’t want to have to bake two trays of meatballs, so I put the leftover mixture in a pan and cooked it up like the ground meat it was.  Tim had the brilliant idea to use this mixture in a rice stirfry.  He made some tasty nice and dry basmati rice, sauteed it with olive oil, added the cooked meatball mixture and a healthy dollop of Thai chili paste.  I don’t typically eat rice, but I had to try a bite of this because it looked and smelled so tasty.  It could possibly be the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.  Thai chili paste is amazing.

It’s 5:59, and I have to head out for a run.  I’ve been trapped in a basement (ahem, “garden level”) conference room all week working on a project, and unless I exercise in the morning, I start to lose it about 2PM.

I hope you have a fantastic Thursday!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Fancy sounding food that sucks

heather

I tried two new recipes this week – much to the dismay of my pocketbook.  Trying new recipes can be an expensive gamble, especially when you are talking about high quality, healthfully-raised meat.

Hot & Spicy Pulled Pork – Tim and I were not fans of this recipe.  The recipe instructions say you can put it together “in a snap,” but cutting up all of the tomatillos, tomatoes, peppers, etc. took quite a while.  The end result was bland – not spicy at all.  Perhaps it’s because I used a poblano pepper instead of a serrano pepper.  While the sauce tasted good, the pork did not have much flavor.    In fact, we didn’t even end up eating it all.  I ended up tossing probably about 1/2 of the sauce/stew too.  It didn’t taste BAD; we just weren’t that into it.  I’ve written about this before (and should have remembered this before trying the recipe), but a lot of roasts with tomatoes, onion, and garlic end up tasting the same to me, and I don’t like that taste.  Oh well – nothing ventured, nothing gained, right??  As always, I appreciate the fact that people post their recipes for free on the internet though!

Ginger & Lemongrass Meatballs with Braised Scallions – Tim and I LOVED this one.  Lamb is just a really delicious, flavorful meat, and this recipe makes it even more delicious by mixing it with pork, garlic, ginger, basil and cilantro.  As indicated in the title of the recipe, you are supposed to add lemongrass, but I could not find it anywhere, so I subbed lemon zest for it.  The meatballs were still very tasty!  Tim’s going to make some basmati rice and eat it with the leftovers.  The fancy-sounding Braised Scallions, on the other hand SUCKED!!  I used green onions from the Farmers Market, and they were basically unedible – super tough and difficult to eat.  We ate the centers out of about 2 of them, and then tossed the lot.  I don’t know what I did wrong!  Mark made them sound so delicious in the introduction to his recipe.

What’s on tap for the weekend?  Leftover meatballs 🙂  And a bike ride from Cordova to Fulton and back.  Having a friend over for supper and a bonfire.  And I need to go shopping.  Need to.  We need to buy a deep freezer.  And I want to swim.  I might drag Tim to one of the local pools that have tiny water slides.  I have to eat well this weekend too.  We had a milestone birthday on our team this week, which resulted in cake, donuts, alcohol, chips and bean dip, etc.  As a result yesterday I was dealing with pre-primalish mood swings and anxiety, and it’s carried over to today. I’m hoping a day of being outside, exercising, and eating good food will get me back on track.  I forgot how bad it feels to feel bad!  I really need to remember how horrible sugar makes me feel.

I hope you have a great weekend.  Get outside. Play.  Appreciate the beauty of late summer.  I’ll quit bossing you around now.

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Dangerous Paleo Treats

heather

IT’S SATURDAY – WEEEEOOOOO!!   It’s sunny and beautiful out.  I’m heading to the Farmer’s Market in a bit, going to try to hit it before it gets busy.   I love local food, but I hate crowds and slow people, both of which are rampant at the FM.  After that I need to hit the library, the grocery store, the pavement (for a run), and then we’re heading up to Monticello to see Mom and Dad and wish Mom a Happy Birthday weekend.  I asked her if she wanted me to make a treat for her birthday, and she wants, instead, for me to make her the Cowboy Breakfast Skillet!  I shall get her and Dad on the paleo bandwagon yet!!

I tried a few new recipes this week.  Here is the one we are most excited about:  Chunky Monkey Muffins.  It’s another Health-Bent recipe.  These guys are geniuses.  They just released a cookbook, Primal Cravings.  Based on the recipes on their blog, I’m sure the recipes in the book are fantastic, but I’m trying to be more careful about spending money, so I haven’t purchased it yet.  Back to the recipe – these muffins are DELICIOUS!!!  Tim loved them, and I took them into work, and my coworkers said I should open a paleo bakery.  Maybe they were just stroking my ego, but regardless, these are some tasty sons of bitches.  They had a perfect muffin consistency (not too dense), which I think is probably due to the tapioca flour.  It was also the first time I’ve used coconut sugar.  It smells like heaven.  I used pecans instead of walnuts, and I went a little heavy on the chocolate, of course.  I used about 1/2 a cup of dark chocolate chips, and then I chopped up a couple of squares from a dark chocolate bar.

So, in reference to the title of the post.  This is a DANGEROUS paleo treat.  While eating one of these muffins is way better for you than eating a muffin from, say, Panera, there is still a lot of sugar and carbs in these.  Tim and I are only 2 people.  What are two people to do with 12 muffins??  Well, I took 3 into work, and then Tim and I finished off the rest.  I should probably eat like ONE of these a week, not FOUR over the course of 2 or 3 days.  This is why I really SHOULD open a paleo bakery, so that like-minded people could go to a nicely decorated, lovely-smelling bakery, spend an exorbitant amount of money on ONE muffin and feel better about themselves than if they saved money, made their own muffins, and then ate them all.  Paleo Bakery, here I come.  What should I call it?  Hmmm….  Heather’s Home-Cooked Creations?  Hlo’s Paleos?  Suggestions??

Shoot.  I have to get booking here – I got to get ready for the FM.  So, real quick, I also made The 21 Day Sugar Detox “Fettucini” with Meat Sauce.  I think you have to buy the ebook for this recipe – it’s not posted online.  The meat sauce was tasty (thanks for making it, Tim!).  Tim and I ate it ALL in one meal, which is impressive considering it was a full pound of meat.  However, I was not a fan of the “fettucini” which consisted of sauteed zucchini “noodles.”  They just seem kind of limp and greasy.  Next time I will just cut the zucchini into chunks and put the meat sauce over it.

I also made a new recipe to accompany our Hebrew National hot dogs:  Tomato and Olive Salad.  The combination of the low rent hot dogs with fancy kalamata olives amused me.  This salad was super easy and pretty tasty, but next time I will go lighter on the lemon juice.  It made the salad VERY tart!  I ate some of the leftovers with eggs yesterday, and that was a tasty combo.

And those are my new recipes for the week.  Hope you  have a fantastic weekend, and thanks for reading!

Cooking/Recipes, Paleo

Sweet Potato Chips

heather

I tried a new recipe last night:  Sweet Potato Chips.  We’ve been having delightfully cool weather this week, so I wasn’t concerned about turning on the oven.

I sliced the potatoes using our mandoline (careful to not slice off the tips of my fingers.  I don’t think Heather Finger Chips would taste good, no matter how much coconut oil and salt you put on them).  For the first batch, I laid down parchment paper as the recipe instructs, laid out a single layer of sliced potatoes, brushed coconut oil on both sides and salted both sides.  For the second batch, I put the potatoes directly on a cookie sheet and oiled and salted them. I put both pans in the oven at the same time.

The chips placed directly on the cookie sheet crisped up MUCH better than the chips on the parchment paper.  However, they had a tendency to stick to the pan, making them difficult to flip over.  So for the 3rd and 4th batches, I tossed the parchment paper, sprayed the pans with coconut oil cooking spray (which is really cheap at Trader Joes, FYI), and tossed them in the oven.  These batches turned out MUCH better – very crispy and pretty easy to flip over during the cooking process.

After the chips crisped up in the oven, I slid them onto a wire rack to cool.  The original batch that I made on the parchment paper seemed really under cooked once they cooled, so I put them back on a sheet and put them back in the oven.  They crisped right up, and turned out fantastic.

For my last batch, I added some chili powder and garlic salt to the chips.  Very good!

I had to cook each batch about 3-5 minutes longer than the recipe called for.  You have to keep a pretty close eye on these suckers.  The potatoes are sliced very thin, so they can go from perfect to burnt within a few seconds.

While this recipe is kind of a lot of work, we’ll definitely be making these again.  And by we, I mean me.  🙂  I’m not sure they end up being that much cheaper than Terra chips once you consider the costs of the food and the time, but these are much better for you.  Terra chips are cooked in canola oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil.

I stored the leftovers in a Pyrex dish, and they are a little chewy this morning.  Maybe if I tossed them in the oven for a few minutes, they would firm up again?  If anyone has suggestions for how to store these to keep them crispy, let me know!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Meatball Week

heather

This has been the week of meatballs.  Meatballs are so awesome.  They are little bite-sized morsels of spiced deliciousness.

Last night I made Beef Liver and Onion Meatballs again.  I think I’ve written about this recipe before.  Liver is tough for some people to eat, but it’s chock full of goodness and is fairly cheap for grass-fed meat.  Tim and I both like the taste of liver, but often it has stringy bits running through it which make it difficult to eat.  This recipe overcomes that drawback – you grind up the liver in a food processor!   Because I am efficient (aka lazy), I toss the liver in the food processor along with the onions and spices from our herb garden (dill, oregano, and basil).  I mix it all up for a few minutes and then add it to the ground beef.  The meatballs turned out delicious.  I made them with the tried and true Sweet Potato Salad.  I kicked it up a notch with fresh dill from the garden and chopped, cooked bacon.  It was so tasty.

Tonight we went out to Lake G for an open-water swim (Tim is considering doing another triathlon this summer).  I did a few test runs in the water; I was too scared to swim out in the middle of lake without a wetsuit.  Plus, in my defense, I ran 4.5 miles this morning and did 8 15 second sprints.  My legs were beat!  Anyway, after the swim we were pretty whooped.  We came home and sauteed broccoli with cauliflower, and I made Asian Pork Meatballs with Dipping Sauce.  We ate it with the leftover sweet potato salad and slices of avocado.  Not to toot my own horn, but it was a delicious supper.  I was super proud of myself too for planning my recipes so that I used ALL of my homemade mayo.  I love homemade mayo, but it only lasts for 3 days, so I always end up tossing some of it.  It’s too expensive and too tasty to waste.  

And that’s meatball week.  We’ll have leftover meatballs for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.  I sauteed chopped up beef & liver meatballs this morning in grass-fed butter with red peppers and zucchini.  It was delicious and kept me really full and satiated until I got to work and succumbed to a cherry donut.  So tasty and so bad.  I had rot gut immediately after consuming it, but I’m pretty sure it was worth it.

Tomorrow is Friday!  And Payday!  I hope you all have a fantastic, productive, in-the-moment day.  

Health & Fitness, Paleo

Fantastic Bruschetta Chicken Recipe

heather

I ran across this Bruschetta Chicken with Zucchini Pasta recipe last week and HAD to try it as it features one of the 4 herbs I have in my herb garden – BASIL!  My basil is growing fantastically, as is my oregano (it came back from last year – thanks Diane!).  The dill is doing pretty well too.  The parsley is not producing as much as I want to eat, but it’s persevering.  The cilantro is dead and buried.  RIP cilantro.

Anyway, back to the recipe.  I wish I would have thought ahead and made up the bruschetta and marinade yesterday.  As it was, I made everything when I got home from work last night and let the works sit for about an hour.  I made a few alterations to the recipe – Tim does not like balsamic vinegar, which is a pretty integral ingredient in bruschetta, so I went light on that.  Also, I had no walnut oil, so I used olive oil.  I also smashed the chicken breasts in a plastic baggie, so that they were nice and flat and would cook evenly, then I added the marinade to the baggie and rubbed it all over the breasts (wink wink).  I also forgot to buy a lemon, so  I used 1 T of lemon juice instead of the juice and zest from one lemon.  They turned out SUPER delicious.

I used my mandoline to create the zucchini noodles and to shave a little bit of flesh off the tops of my fingers.  I can’t figure out how to the use the little tool that is supposed to prevent you from shaving off the tips of your fingers.  It mystifies Tim and me utterly.

The combination of the parts – sauteed zucchini noodles, grilled & marinated chicken breasts, and garlicky, basily bruschetta – turned out fantastic.  This was a perfect summertime supper.  We will definitely make this again!  I can’t wait until my coworkers’ gardens explode with zucchini, so I can have it for free instead of paying $1/zucchini at the farmer’s market from some douchebaggy farmer who complains about how people hand him cash (not all perfectly sorted and straightened out).  I love having produce from the FM, but I hate buying it there.  Too many people, dogs, strollers, and sun. It’s so hot and crowded.

Tonight I’m making beef & liver meatballs, accompanied by sweet potato salad.  It’s going to be deeeeelicious.

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Sooo….Training for a Triathlon and managing cravings

heather

Today Tim and I did our first “brick” which means we trained on 2 of the 3 exercises.  We swam 600 yards in the pool and then biked 15 miles in the super cold, sunny, windy outdoors.  It wasn’t as exhausting as I anticipated, at least not physically   However, I think it’s rather draining emotionally.  At least something is draining me emotionally today.  Exercise usually makes me feel happy and energetic, but yesterday and today I’ve had a serious case of the Sundays (I just want to lay around, not do anything, and think about how I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow because I have so many things I would rather do at home, none of which I feel like doing when I have a case of the Sundays).

I think that my mopey grouchiness, while exacerbated by the 1.5 hours of pretty intense exercise, is compounded by a few factors:

1.  My bro was in town last weekend, and as is our custom, we ate a lot of delicious (non paleo) food and drank A LOT of beer.  I drank mostly cider, which is gluten free but definitely not carb free.  I gained the Benny differential (about 3 lbs).

2.  We had a little get-together here Friday night.  We had a great time, but having a party is an emotional roller coastal in and of itself.  You have the stress of preparation, the stress of hoping the weather cooperates, the excitement of looking forward to the event, the stress of hoping people have a good time, and then you enjoy the party, and then it’s over.  You have nothing more to look forward to except for cleaning up and dreading Monday.  Plus, at parties you usually eat too much (pizza, pretzel turtles, Triscuits, etc.) and drink too much (whiskey, Rumchata shots (BAD IDEA), and caramel apple shots (another horrible idea), which does not leave you feeling awesome the next day.

3.  And finally, Boys – feel free to skip this paragraph – I’m in the hell week of my cycle.  I’m 36 years old and should have figured out how my body works by now.  However, I’ve just generally noticed that around day 15 I hate everyone.  I hate life.  I hate myself.  I hate everything except for sugary, fattening foods.  Life would only be fair if this period of the cycle lasted one day at the most.  However, I’ve been feeling this way for like 3 days, so I finally googled it today.  I found it hilarious that the first search results for “What to expect during days of your period” were hits for adolescent sites.  I should have read this stuff when I was 13, evidently.  Anyway, I found this enlightening article.  I’ve discovered, much to my dismay, that “hell week” is actually “hell 12 fucking days.”  Sorry for the cussing, but it’s warranted in this instance.  The only reassuring portion of that article was the assurance that gaining 3-5 pounds during this time frame is normal.  So that, combined with the Bboo’s visit, explains why I can no longer see my abs.  Man, sometimes it really sucks to be a woman.  Except for days 6-13.  Why do the feel good days only last for 7 days, and but the bad days last for 12 + the 5 days of your actual period??  It is SO unfair.  Bleh.

Anyway, I’m done wallowing.  On to brighter topics.  I’ve planned some delicious paleo meals for the week.  I’m going to try writing more in this blog now that school is over – hopefully once/day.  I’ll post reviews of the recipes.  We also bought some herbs (cilantro, dill, and parsley) and flowers (vincas and impatiens), so I’m going to plant those once the weather cooperates.

My cravings also drove me to discover a tasty “paleoish” treat.  I had some sunflower seeds hanging out in the freezer forever.  I kept trying to get Tim to put them in smoothies, but he wasn’t listening!  So tried to make sunbutter out of them.  No matter how much I processed it, the butter was pretty mealy.  I even added some honey and olive oil.  Finally I got it to a point of tasty paste and gave up.  However, I’ve really been wanting some peanut butter cups, so I had a flash of inspiration. I put 2 squares of dark chocolate in the bottom of a silicon muffin liner, added a tablespoon of the sunpaste, then a shaving of coconut butter, and put it in the microwave.  I did the first one for 30 seconds, which was too long.  I burned the chocolate.  The second one I microwaved for 15 seconds, and it was just perfect.  I used a knife to slightly mix up everything, and then put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.  They turned out really tasty!  They don’t look beautiful, but they taste really good.  I got my peanut butter cup fix!!

And that’s it for today.  It’s about supper time, and we’re making pork chops and roasted cauliflower (spiced with cumin, turmeric, and salt).  It’s going to be super deeeeelicious.

Hope you have a great Sunday and talk to you tomorrow!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Freedom!! Sweet Freedom

heather

Wow.  It’s been almost 2 months since I’ve posted!  That’s what I get for going back to school.  I’m so stupid!

But the stupidness is over!  My team gave our final presentation on Friday, and so now all the hard work is done.  We just need to wait for the final grades to come in. I better get an A or all my self worth will be gone. Just kidding.  Kind of.

Between school and work, life has been crazy lately.  With school finishing up, life will start to get a little more normal.  It’s still a little wonky because Teeeeem and I are in full-on tri-training mode.  I’ve been swimming 3-4 times/week, and we’ve been adding in biking and running.  Yesterday I did the March of Dimes 3 mile walk, and then Tim and I biked 23 miles into a headwind both ways (dammit, Iowa!!).  Today we swam.  This afternoon I sat outside for about 3 hours and read, wrote emails, and attempted to vacuum a metric ton of Lucent hair out of the Fusion so that it looks appropriately pretty for the B-Boo’s visit on Thursday.  Yeah, that’s right, the Benny Boo is coming on Thursday!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Work is super crazy busy right now and will be for months and months.  Fortunately I have Benny’s visit to look forward to.  Then Nate & his lady are coming in June for the triathlon. I need to plan something for November/December, so I have something to look forward to after that.  It’s going to be one crazy summer, and I’m afraid not in a good way.  I’m trying to convince the Timmy Tee to go on a Caribbean trip.  I think that only way I will make it through these upcoming months is with the promise of white sandy beaches, turquoise ocean, and scads of free drinks.

So, that gets you up to speed on my life.  The true purpose of this post is to report on a couple of good recipes I tried last week.

First of all I made an old favorite, Balsamic-Glazed Drumsticks.  This is the 3rd time I’ve made these, and each time 1) They are delicious and 2) They set off the fire alarm for an hour.  I guess it’s the high heat and the oil?  Anyway, they always taste super great, and they are the essence of easy. I do need to get a prasty/food brush though, so I’m not always fingering our food.  Don’t be perverted!!

Chicken in Buttery Caper Sauce:  This recipe was AWESOME.  I put the breasts in a large ziploc baggie and then smashed the hell out of them with a small skillet.  They came out super moist and delicious, as would almost anything that is cooked in 6 tablespoons of fat.  This is a not a cheap recipe, considering the copious amounts of olive oil, butter, and capers, but it’s well worth the expense.

Slow-Cooked Coconut Ginger Pork:  This is another recipe that I found on Mark Sisson’s website (thank you, Mark!).  I thought it turned out super delicious.  I shredded the pork after it cooked all day and served it with sauteed veggies and slices of avocado.  It served up 2.5 meals.  Tim liked it, my friend Michael thought it was super delicious, and I thought it was great too. I will definitely make this again.

As mentioned, the B-Boo is home this week, so we’ll be eating out a lot, but I also want to make him some of my primal favorites – brisket, sweet potato salad, and coconut bars.  Besides that we’ll be eating a lot of brats (NYC only has Johnsonsville brats – travesty!!), beer, and local favorites. I’ll probably weigh about 5 lbs more by the end of the week, but with tri training going into full force, I can probably use the extra calories.

Hope you all are having a great week.  It’s beautiful here in Iowa.  You really couldn’t ask for a prettier, more gorgeous, awesome day.  Hopefully I will be more regular in my posting going forward.  Thanks for reading!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Chicken sucks and Pork is awesome. So awesome I capitalized it.

heather

I tried a new baked chicken recipe this weekend.  Let me go back a smidge.  My baked chicken usually turns out awesome – super crispy, salty skin, moist meat, utterly delectable.  You can eat the skin like a potato chip.  However, last time I made it, we got hit with a one-two punch of a questionable chicken and an undercooking Heather.  The meat measured the right temperature, but when we cut into it, it looked a little pink.  We risked it and starting eating, only for Tim to discover what can only be described as a postule.  It was pretty gross.  So it’s been a while  since I’ve made chicken.  I figured it was time for another go, and how better to refresh the chicken brand at our house than to try a new recipe.  So I tried this one on a $15 chicken from a local farmer.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, just using dried thyme instead of fresh.  I also didn’t make the sauce.

Neither Tim nor I were impressed with this bird!  The skin was chewy, and the meat was chewy too, especially the dark meat.  I don’t know if the recipe is at fault or the chicken or my cooking, but something failed there.  I won’t be trying this recipe again.  In fact, I just put it in the recycling.  We ate what we could, and I stuck the rest into freezer bags to use for bone broth.

I also made this recipe again:  Asian Pork Meatballs.  This has to be one of my all-time favorite recipes.  These turn out tasty every time, and they are so versatile!  Quick note – I didn’t have any fresh jalapenos, so I used pickled jalapenos.  I also don’t know what “chili garlic sauce” is, so I added maybe a teaspoon or two of chili powder and a chopped up clove of garlic.  I also forgot the sesame oil.  As always, they turned out great.  We ate some of them straight up.  The next day, we ate them with over-easy eggs on top of them (amazing).  The next day I chopped up the remaining 5 and sauteed them with cabbage.  Again, amazing.  Pork is just so awesome.  Pigs are smart.  Eating pork makes you smarter.

This week is going to be a fridge-forage week.  Tim and I went to a local brewery on Sunday instead of meal planning/grocery shopping, so we’re going to have lots of meals consisting of eggs, sauteed frozen veggies, and frozen salmon, which actually doesn’t sound too bad.  We are almost totally out of snack foods however.  Today when I got home from work I ate 2 dates and about 10 almonds with some raisins.  Exciting!  I guess it’s better than eating a bag of Cheetos.  I read this article from the NY Times about how mega-food companies literally engineer food to reach your “bliss point.”  The article mentions that Cheetos are basically the perfect snack, and I have to agree.  Ever since I read the damn article, I’ve been craving Cheetos.  Cheetos are like the anti-paleo.

Interesting observation, from the paleo perspective, by the way.  For months after going paleo I was easily able to notice the effects of eating grains or cheese on my system.  It made me all rumbly and gassy pretty quickly (sorry if that’s TMI).  As I’ve been on the paleo wagon longer, I’ve noticed that now I get bad effects if I eat bad oils too.  For example, today I ate lunch at Panda Express.  I had chicken & string beans and the sauteed veggies (broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, and carrots).  This is a meal that would give me NO problems at home.  But my stomach still hasn’t recovered from the the PE version. It looks like I’m slightly pregnant.  I know it’s the bad cooking oils they use on their food.  There is probably some added sugar in there too.  Maybe some MSG?  Anyway, in my experience, the longer you eat well (i.e. Paleo) the quicker and more forecefully your body will tell you when you DON’T eat well.  It’s good in that it makes cheating less attractive, but it’s bad in that it makes cheating less fun.  Yin and yang, Man.

Cooking/Recipes, Paleo, Uncategorized

Meatloaf with hard boiled eggs in it. Yeah, that’s right. IN IT!

heather

Today was a snowy, blowy, wintry day.  What better way to deal with the inclement weather than to make meatloaf??  And not just any meatloaf, but meatloaf with hard boiled eggs INSIDE of it.  Wow.  Tasty.

Here is the recipe.  I used 1 lb of ground beef and 1/2 a lb of ground pork.  I had no raw milk or almond milk, so I used 1/4 cup of Lactose free milk and 1/4 cup of coconut milk.  I also didn’t know how to make “homemade grilled tomato ketchup,”  so I Googled it and found this recipe.

The recipe was actually pretty easy.  The hardest thing about it was peeling the God damn hard boiled eggs.  Peeling hard boiled eggs is one of the most frustrating tasks of my 36 years.  So annoying.

Anyway, I paired the meat loaf with leftover cauliflower fried rice (a great recipe from Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals).  It was fantastic. The homemade ketchup was nice and tart, and the meat was perfectly counterpointed with the softly boiled eggs.  It was delicious, and I’ll definitely make it again.

It was good to eat a healthy supper tonight because today the sugar monster got me.  I ate not one but 2.5 cookies today, one of which vomited powdered sugar all over my keyboard, wrist pad and crotch.  Ah, good times.  Bit of advice – avoid ALL sugar.  Once you get the sweet, sweet taste of it on your tongue, you just want more and more.  It’s poisonously delicious.

And….now I want another cookie.  Blast.