Pro Eats Paleo

Paleo-Friendly Curry Chicken and Cauliflower

2009-12-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

We had just gotten a bunch of boneless/skinless chicken breasts from Costco, and had a head of cauliflower in the fridge. Put it together with coconut milk and curry and you've got dinner and lunch the next day!

To start I diced up raw chicken breasts into bite-sized-ish pieces and put in a sautee pan with heated olive oil until brown

While that was going I diced up the cauliflower

We bought both regular and "light" coconut milk. The "light" I think is exactly the same only probably twice the water and half the coconut fat.

Once the chicken was browned I poured in the cauliflower and coconut milk and mixed with curry. Justin added some cayenne pepper and paprika. We mixed it all up and let it simmer covered for a bit so the flavors could mix.

Just before it's done we added in the diced carrots so they didn't cook into too much sugar.

Finished product:

Paleo-Friendly Homemade Almond Milk and "Festive Raw Nog"

2009-12-22T10:09:00.001-08:00

A few nights ago I measured out (way too, way way too many) raw almonds and water and stuck the almonds in cheesecloth to soak overnight in the fridge.

We got this out to make the milk before doing dinner cause we thought it'd be quick. Well, I had too many almonds, and it's messy, and not that quick. But, anyway, we picked up some pitted dates at Sprouts yesterday to sweeten the milk a little.

Justin measured out a cup of almonds at a time and put them in the blender with about 3 cups of water and mixed to a good blend.

From there we took more cheesecloth to strain out the almond meal/pulp and be left with the almond milk only.

The meal:

Straining it out

Once you have strained the almond milk out you save the pulp, and then put the mix that is left back in the blender along with the dates (or sweetener) and blend again until mixed. Then you're done!

Since we had so much we also made "festive raw nog", which I had seen on one site! I've been missing egg nog big-time. It isn't the same, but it's pretty good.

When you put in the dates to blend, you also add banana and nutmeg. We wound up making it a bit too banana-y, but it wasn't very yellow either way!

Now we have a lot of almond milk leftover. This would be fairly easy to make a batch to last for 5 or so days, but need to make ONE serving instead of 6 :)

Paleo-Friendly Cashew Butter Recipe

2009-12-22T10:02:00.001-08:00

We bought a bag of raw cashew's at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago, and since we've been mixing up the nuts we eat and have been having a ton of almond butter, I thought I'd try my hand at cashew butter!

I found a few recipes online and put them together. Basically I used about a cup or so of raw cashews, maybe 1-2 tbsp (tablespoons) of Canola Oil, and a pinch or two of sea salt.

I mixed all the above in the food processor and then just ran it until the blades stopped turning.

From there I took a rubber spatula and scraped the sides and mixed it up a little more, then put the lid back on, added a bit more oil, and processed it some more.

Eventually it was done enough in a nut butter-like consistency!

I'm looking forward to dipping my sliced apples in it later today.

Going strong!

2009-12-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

After day 30 of eating out (bread, beer, and wine) we got back to paleo eating by and large. It feels good!

I've got a few recipes to lay down in a bit, but for now just wanted to post up some pics of what we've been eating and cooking for anyone interested.

Here's a platter of sliced veggies ready to be put on the grill. No oil or anything added:

At Henry's last week they had Mako shark! It was as good as it looked

Dinner one night: grilled Mako shark with cajun seasoning and Kirkland Organic No Salt, butternut squash, and grilled veggies

Leftovers: grilled veggies, Mako shark, and chicken breast

Here I was making quite a mess! Trimming the visible fat from pork tenderloin

For breakfast we still like to eat "breakfast-ey". Justin made us some blueberry omelette's last week. I have no idea how to make an omelette, so maybe a guest spot will be coming up soon! I made pumpkin smoothies to add some carbs and healthy fat.

Dinner another night (with leftovers waiting to be refrigerated!)

Salmon marinated in a little bit of Avocado oil, champagne (just a tad), lemon juice, and organic no salt along with sauteed veggies (olive oil and spices)

We grilled up the salmon and chickie at the same time - dinner and lots of leftovers!

Flank steak baked with dry diced onion, a bit of Montreal Steak seasoning, and diced onions and bell peppers.

You can ask my family, I never was into eating fish ("nothing from the sea"). Last Friday we picked up some "surf and turf" however!

Along with small lobster tails and filet we had some sweet potatoes (shhh!), roasted broccoli, and steamed cauliflower

I will get to the almond milk, but Justin's latest creation is paleo cereal! As Steph pointed out, it's like trailmix without the oats. Since we had a TON of almond milk leftover Justin made us Paleo cereal:

sliced almonds, walnuts, pecans, blackberries, blueberries, unsweetened banana chips, ground cinnamon, and almond milk.

Up next:

Almond Milk and Paleo-friendly "festive raw nog" Recipe
Curry Chicken and Cauliflower Recipe
Cashew Butter Recipe

I didn't come up with any of these. I found the recipes through a Google search or just looking around at paleo recipes! Definitely not taking credit what-so-ever. I'll just lay out how we made them!

Never too busy for food!

2009-12-15T17:55:00.000-08:00

While I've been too busy with work and training to blog about food, I haven't skimped (too much!). Yesterday marked my 30 days of fairly strict paleo (for athletes). Aside from a few glasses of red wine, a few beers, 2 small slices of pumpkin pie, and 3 chocolate chip cookies I held out all month. I have found that I only eat non-paleo when I drink. Odd coincidence, eh?

Last night we celebrated by going out to a restaurant (first time!). The only non-paleo thing I had (aside from beer and wine) was bread. I wasn't that impressed, and since it was toasted it tore up my mouth! Darn you grains. Anyway, the sandwich was pretty bland without the heaps of mayonnaise and ranch dressing, go figure! Needless to say, I'm really happy with my paleo (for athletes) diet, and have no plans of changing it any time soon.

I don't miss dairy or grains really (aside from convenience). I have no idea if my calcium intake is sufficient, but a few days a week (when I'm not outside at all) I'll take a Calcium/Vitamin D supplement. It contains soy, so I don't take one every day. Aside from that, I've been taking Glucosamine and Omega-3, and that's pretty much it.

Now on to the best part - food!

We tried a variation of the paleo banana/flaxseed pancakes a few weeks ago. They were supposed to be lemon, but really just tasted like almond butter. Justin added blueberries, and I topped with agave one morning pre-ride.

Next morning we got back to basics with leftover fish, butternut squash, and half an avocado

Dinner the night before was grilled veggies and salmon with rubs (our previous favorite recipe was marinated in low sodium - haha - soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar. Soy sauce is totally out, and balsamic vinegar mostly is due to the acidity in vinegar, so rubs it is). We've been doing cajun seasoning and Costco/Kirkland Organic No Salt - tasty! Leftovers for tomorrow in the background!

One night last week while I put in some trainer time Justin hooked us up with a curry chicken and cauliflower recipe I'd found online. Basically he browned up some chicken breasts, probably with a little olive oil or coconut oil, then added in some diced cauliflower along with a little coconut milk and curry. He added in the carrots when the rest was nearly done (carrots fully cooked release their sugars - raw they are still plenty paleo-friendly). It was tasty! We've been liking the curry a lot lately.

Other than that, we've been eating good! Justin cooked up some mushrooms in a red wine reduction sauce with spinach, and then the old standby's: chicken, fish, and beef!

Breakfast is served:

Went on an almost 3 hour ride on Sunday, got pretty worn out, so came home to baking sweet potatoes and left over top sirloin. Delish.

I scarfed that down.

Justin also made applesauce for us last week. It was much easier/quicker than I thought it'd be. If I have time this week I'll try to make up the rest of our apples and do a post on it just in case someone else out there isn't sure how to make it! We left the skin on, so it's kind of...clumpy! Tastes great, though.

We also want to make almond milk and cashew butter, so stay tuned!

Paleo Banana and Flaxseed Pancakes

2009-12-04T20:27:00.000-08:00

Since I am getting a little tired of the same old, same old (roasted broccoli and other mixed veggies, leftover turkey or chicken) I thought about maybe having "breakfast" for "dinner" tonight. I looked through a few recipes that I could find and finally settled on banana flaxseed pancakes.

I've never made pancakes. No, really. My mom used to joke that I could do almost anything with electronics, but once I stepped into the kitchen my brain would short circuit. For some reason I'll play around with a computer until it breaks, but I'm scared to death of the stove!

Well, Justin's been out in the garage a lot lately with his new toys, so after I did some general house cleaning I got to making the pancakes.

The recipe called for:

1/2c(up) mashed banana
1 1/2 t(a)b(le)sp(oon) ground flaxseed
1 egg
2 tbsp almond butter
coconut oil

I don't have coconut oil, but I did just buy some flaxseed oil today, so I used that. I do hope to get some coconut oil, though, since they were a bit too "flaxseed-y".

I'll be honest, seeing as how I've never made pancakes I used WAY too much oil. I dumped half out, and it was still WAY too much. Lesson learned.

So, little bit of oil in a frying pan on low-medium heat, then in a bowl mix up the banana, egg, almond butter, and flaxseed oil. I actually wound up mashing up 2 bananas, using 2 eggs, 4tbsp almond butter, and about 3 tbsp ground flaxseed. I used an electric mixer (hadn't pulled *that* out in awhile!) and some of the banana was still a bit too chunky. Everything else mixed nicely.

I poured the mix into a measuring cup with a lip so it'd be easier to pour into the frying pan (I think I've seen my mom do this many times).

From the cup I poured 3 dollops of mix into the frying pan.

The recipe said to wait one minute and then flip them. I waited 2 minutes and it wasn't nearly enough. The mix was pretty liquidy and non-flippable for quite a few minutes, so the first few didn't come out so well.

Just the two of us...Droid and I

I was getting better, though! I was being more patient letting them really brown on the first side so that I could flip them over. 1 minute definitely wasn't enough for my thickness/batter. I was just giving it a few mins and then flipping back and forth until they seemed done.

Look ma, no (real) bubbles!

OK, now I've got it down.

I wanted to fuel up pretty well for tomorrow, so after eating some of the chunks I put some apple butter on a few pancakes and devoured them. Such a tasty treat. I am really looking forward to breakfast tomorrow!

Leftovers!

Going on Week 3, and a little cheating never hurt anyone…

2009-12-01T15:32:00.001-08:00

Ahh…gotta love the holidays, right?

I knew it'd be tough "going paleo" with Thanksgiving around the corner. We had gone 11 days straight/strict paleo with no problems. I didn't have any energy lags what-so-ever, no problems sleeping, etc. I was hungry quite a bit, but eating a lot. After the first I'd say 5-7 days I felt pretty good, and now things are falling into place nicely. We spend a LOT of time prepping, cooking, and cleaning up after food. But, we both feel good and our weight has really stabilized (e.g. no massive weight swings), and I think we've dropped the excess water weight from carrying around a bunch of refined carb calories.

We've tried a few new recipes since going paleo (or thinking about it). My favorites have been the paleo butternut squash (I could eat this at every meal), and spaghetti squash with meatballs. Justin actually made his own "sauce" last night by sauteeing some garlic in olive oil, and slowly adding in white onion, mixed bell peppers, tomatoes, and spices. It smelled heavenly last night, and is sitting in the fridge. Tonight we'll probably use a bit to cook some mushrooms (I know, seriously! Mushrooms! Me!) and use some 'shrooms in the sauce as well. We've got two medium squash at home we'll cook up, and get 1-2lbs of ground sirloin to make some meatballs.

I found the recipe online somewhere. For the meatballs it's just 1-2 eggs (depending on amount of beef) mixed with some garlic, red pepper flakes, beef, and diced tomatoes and basil. I'd never made meatballs before, but I basically hand mixed it all up to a decent consistency, balled them up, and stuck them on some non-stick foil in the oven on 400F for at least 20 minutes, once the squash is out of the oven. While the meatballs are cooking we let the squash cool, fork it into "spaghetti", put it in a baking dish, and then cover that and the meatballs with your sauce, re-warm/bake in the oven for a few and serve. It's delicious.

Here's me updating my training log for the day while Justin makes a mess in the kitchen

While I really like eggs and mixed peppers or breakfast smoothies (pumpkin or frozen fruit with egg white or whey protein), it's probably smarter for anyone looking to lose weight (not me) to stick to lean protein and veggies for breakfast. We do this a few days a week.

Leftover pork tenderloin and baked flank steak with chopped onions and spices along with leftover sauteed peppers, onions, and zucchini

I made dinner one night last week while Justin hopped on the trainer for a SHORT spin and some stretching. We had some yellowfin tuna and chicken breasts. This is how we do it. Plenty of food for a few days.

Sweet potatoes for post-Wednesday ride

Dinner #1:

Yellowfin with a cajun/cayenne pepper rub, roasted squash and broccoli, and lemon garlic string beans

I'm finally eating all kinds of foods this year that I never did before, including: fish (I repeat, "nothing from the sea"), eggs, vegetables (particularly anything green).

Dessert!

I believe it was Saturday, we didn't have any leftovers other than turkey (no veggies), and we'd probably had eggs the day before. Looking for breakfast, so I made us an applesauce fortified with pomegranate, blueberries, pecan pieces, and egg white protein. It was tasty!

Post morning workouts I still usually do a frozen fruit smoothie with fruit, juice (or lately fruit flavored tea), ground flax seeds, and whey protein.

Back to Thanksgiving! It was pretty paleo safe for us as Justin cooked. He prepped the turkey Thursday morning.

We didn't have any twine, so being the MacGyver he is…

Yes, he used dental floss. It worked flawlessly for one, and for two the turkey didn't even have a minty flavor. Score.

Turkey, paleo butternut squash, and the questionnably paleo string beans

I had my first glass of wine (or beer, etc.) in 11 days also. I love wine.

Dessert was baked butternut squash that had been mixed with vanilla, cinnamon, and coconut milk. It was delish. I left feeling full, but not sick to my stomach. That's a first!

Sunday we did Thanksgiving #2 with my grandparents, and boy did I "cheat". We pretty much only snacked on fresh veggies after lunch, but then we cracked open our last Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron (sooo good) to share. Dinner was fairly identical to Thanksgiving with turkey, butternut squash (I told you, I could eat this every meal), and the questionnable string beans, plus some tomatoes and cucumbers. I had some old vine Zin with dinner (again, delish). My grandma had some pumpkin pie leftover in the fridge, so what did we do? We finished it off. I don't even eat pumpkin pie! Once back at home we we polished off our last Stone Ken Schmidt Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Macadamia Nut Porter.

Monday morning it was back to the paleo experiment!

Leftover pork tenderloin, pineapple, and fresh veggies.

Dinner last night we got a bit fattier cut of meat (london broil, which we have never cooked before), and I added some balsamic vinegar to our baked asparagus. Justin grilled up squash, zucchini, peppers, and red onion. I heart BBQ'd veggies.

I can definitely tell a difference "weight-wise" when I eat too much salt and drink, and felt a little listless the next mornings, but generally not all that much different. I don't have any problems without the salt, but Justin was getting headaches (could be a tumor?).

Am I sold on this "way of eating"? In some respects, absolutely. Unfortunately it is extremely time consuming. I have gotten away from having to pre-plan every meal on paper a day or so ahead of time, but we still forget stuff at the store and wind up there 3-4 times a week. Costco Sunday, Henry's yesterday, Trader Joe's today, and Justin is going back to Henry's! We've cut out the weekly trip to Vons for affordable milk and creamer at least!

From what I've found shopping, Trader Joe's has the cheapest and best selection of raw and unsalted nuts as well as unsweetened dried fruit. Costco is the best place for us to get mixed peppers, berries, chicken, huge bags of broccoli and baby carrots, and other random food stuffs (Lara Bars). Henry's for us has the best produce and generally is where we get fish and beef, and sometimes pork. I also get eggs, coffee, and applesauce there.

So, back to the "diet". I feel fine, but really no better or worse than I did before. We aren't running out of energy later in the afternoon (post lunch bread binge), but still reaching for a small cup of black coffee (out of habit, I guess). I've had plenty of energy while doing endurance rides. The real test will be in a few months when I up the intensity and try to figure out where to get more readily available glycogen into my system pre-during-post workouts. For now it works, so I guess we will keep at it!

Up next? We may be trying to make our own applesauce! Watch out!

Week one - done!

2009-11-22T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been exactly a week since we started the paleo diet for athletes last Sunday. So far so good! As I noted earlier this week, the biggest issue is TIME. But, I think Justin and I are starting to get in a groove. We were able to chill on the couch Thursday and Friday night.

We've definitely tried some new spices and different foods. A few weeks ago we got butternut squash for the first time in a LONG time (before going paleo) and as I searched for a paleo recipe for it, found one of my favorite new veggie dishes! We also have a spaghetti squash locally grown that I'm going to try to cook up tonight with some ground sirloin and veggies. Hope it turns out well!

I had somewhat of my first challenges this week with a 2.5 hour ride mid-week, and then a long mountain bike ride yesterday. I'm trying to keep the carbs on the ride from drink mix and fruit stuff. Mainly, I start out with a banana, have a Larabar, fruit leathers, and drink mix. Most of the "bike food" I have contains wheat, soy, and rice, so I'm trying to save those for after my "strict" 30-day trial.

I really haven't had any issues with energy levels at all. My fat and protein intake (percentage calories) has gone up a lot, and carbs down. I'm trying to stick mostly to veggies and fruit for carbs. I think we got into the smoothie breakfast a bit too much this past week, so going to try to get back into lean protein and veggies for breakfast unless I've done a trainer ride pre-breakfast, or have a morning ride coming up.

Definitely stoked that my rides have been plenty fueled and I've been feeling pretty good. My legs definitely aren't feeling all that hot after a hard gym session on Thursday, regen on Friday, then a big mountain day yesterday and spin today, but I could be slightly underfueling. I've been eating when hungry. Some days I feel like I do nothing BUT eat!

So, I know everyone likes pictures...

Tuesday I got up and did a pretty solid hour endurance session and made some "homebrew" ish smoothies with applesauce for breakfast, along with black coffee (of course!)

Dinner was broccolini, big salad with veggies (lemon juice, avocado oil, and pepper as dressing), and pork loin.

Dinner, plus left over chicken for later!

Justin on Wednesday hooked it up with grilled salmon on a cedar plank while I sauteed some string beans and roasted broccoli.

Justin also cooked up his newest creation: King Garlic Yardbird I.

Thursday we changed up my mom's recipe of flank steak covered with dried onion soup (due to the sodium content alone I am sure this was NOT paleo-friendly, so didn't even bother to look) to flank steak with dried/chopped onions and some spices. It turned out pretty good! We also used the new massive pan Justin picked up to sautee a grip of peppers, red onion, squash, and zucchini.

Colorful!

Friday (and Saturday) Justin also spent some time in the mornings perfecting another new recipe: blueberry vanilla omelette's.

Justin made omelette's with just eggs and then added some vanilla and heated blueberries. We sprinkled with cinnamon. Very tasty!

Here's another example of a few meals at once:

Wild yellow fin tuna for dinner, leftover salmon for lunch the next day, and leftover chicken still in the fridge.

More sauteed veggies and roasted broccoli.

I was reading another blog or something and found a breakfast recipe for paleo pumpkin smoothies!

Friday night I brewed up green tea, then chilled it overnight in the fridge. Saturday morning I blended the green tea up with about 1/2 can of pumpkin (plain/natural/no additives), ground flax seed, egg white protein powder (natural), a bit of almond butter, and a dash of pumpkin spice. Once blended (I did add a few ice cubes also) I topped off with cinnamon and nutmeg. Delish!

Since I'd eaten plenty on the ride, had a bit of a small dinner last night:

Pork tenderloin and roasted asparagus. I was really really craving sugar last night, but we shared an orange and called it a night.

Looking forward to the coming week! New challenges with Thanksgiving on Thursday and a second get-together with family a few days later! Looking forward to a glass of wine.

Paleo: The Early Days…

2009-11-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

Not of mankind, but of my 30-day paleo journey. It isn't really a "challenge" since it's prescribed and driven by me, wanting to try something different nutrionally. For my 30-day journey I'm going to try to stay away from anything non-paleo entirely (e.g. no cheat meals, and probably no alcohol) just to see what happens. If I still take in dairy, wheat, and alcohol in somewhat regular fashion (1-2x a week) it may (or may not) be hard to tell if there are any true differences to this diet ("way of eating") vs. how I was eating a week or two ago.

My paleo (for athletes) journey began Sunday morning. Saturday I competed in the 12 Hours of Temecula, and didn't want to ruin my possible performance by being under-fueled and not used to this way of eating. I woke up Sunday, though, and realized that aside from eggs and veggies I had nothing else in the house that I could eat aside from left over red onion and frozen chicken breasts.

So, we got up Sunday after not sleeping long enough following a hard effort like the race the day before, and I decided to let Justin sleep. He cooks the eggs around the house, so instead I cleaned out the cupboards. I know, there's still off-limits stuff in there, but it won't be used. The olive oil and spices are must-haves!

Our fridge was barren, like a cool tundra

I've yet to bring myself to toss the creamer and yogurt because they are mostly full. But, who wants half-used food?

Some of the stuff I packed up, which we may or may not use again (the canned goods and anything unopened and still viable will be donated around Thanksgiving)

Justin got up and cooked some muy delicioso scrambled eggs with sauteed sweet peppers and spicy peppers, with red onion. I even french pressed some coffee, black. We don't drink black coffee. We drink coffee mixed with tasty french vanilla creamer. Well, not anymore!

Breakfast

I had one of my remaining bananas before a jaunt to a grocery/market to pick up some local vegetables and meats. We picked up a wild Alaskan Coho salmon filet, 2 beef top sirloin's, a few pomegranate's, a butternut squash, spaghetti squash, avocado oil, a bunch of garlic, and 2 apples to snack on before the trip home. When we figured out a plan for lunch we also went back in and bought some really expensive organic unsweetened almond milk.

The apples were awesome, as were the steaks (but we'll get to those!).

Upon the return home I knew we'd be grilling up the chicken along with having some paleo-approved butternut squash (recipe taken from here), but it'd also take awhile to get all that sorted out, so I made a sort of homebrew smoothie for all of us to enjoy.

In the blender I mixed up some really frost-bitten frozen blueberries with vanilla whey protein powder and cranberry juice. It was pretty good.

Awhile later lunch was done. I totally dig butternut squash this way. It's SO tasty with the cinnamon, curry, and garlic. The Craisins also are delish.

Justin did a rub on the chicken with curry, garlic and maybe a bit of chili or cayenne pepper and hammered it in. Great lunch, and super filling.

I noticed that I wasn't really hungry, but had a weird empty feeling in my gut? I've felt that way a bit. I'm not generally hungry or really craving anything (I think I am happy I'm not craving carbs?), but just sometimes feels like I should eat. So, I grabbed a few walnut pieces and almonds to tide me over until dinner (quite a few hours away).

I ran to the grocery store to pick up a bunch of meat (wound up getting chicken to grill up for leftovers and some pork tenderloins), a lot of veggies, and more coffee! Using the french press I'm only making 32oz a day (2 cups for each of us), which is a lot more moderate than say, last week.

For dinner we grilled up the shark we'd gotten earlier in the week, and had sauteed squash and zucchini with roasted broccoli.

The shark was delish, and we saved a few oz's for breakfast the next morning.

So, yeah. Getting up Monday morning to cold/leftover shark and veggies was odd, but it worked out okay. I also sliced up an orange for us to share. Tasty, and pretty quick (but only because we'd spent twice the amount of time the night before making food!).

For a snack at work I had some plain green tea, about 2.5oz of peeled baby carrots, and an oz of almonds. Lunch was the same as lunch the day before (grilled chicken and butternut squash). For an afternoon snack I had a mix of about .5oz walnut pieces with .5oz dried blueberries and Craisins. I know not specifically paleo-allowed due to the sugar, but I didn't have anything else! My favorite snack of the day was a sliced apple with almond butter.

After work we hit up Costco for a LOT of meat and veggies, and also 2 massive bags of frozen fruit (no additives), one of mixed berries and one of tropical fruits. Should've taken a pic of the cart; it was the fullest we've ever had one! Tons of good stuff: flank steaks, chicken breasts, walnut halves, blueberries, mixed sweet peppers, huge bag of peeled baby carrots and pre-sliced broccoli, olive oil, almond butter, and a box of Lara Bars (no additives at all, just nuts and fruit!!). After that it was off to Trader Joe's for fresh juice, bananas, and a grip of unsweetened dried fruit and non-salted nuts! Should've taken a pic of that also. I got unsweetened applesauce, fruit strips from mixed fruit, and dried Bartlett Pears, and then we got some pistachio's, raw cashews, and pecan pieces. TJ's is awesome for the unsweetened fruit, but it was actually somewhat difficult to find some of the nuts without being roasted and salted. But, we worked it out. I looked for Coconut Milk, but didn't find any this time around. We'll likely be getting some vacuum packed frozen fish also, but we've got a freezer and fridge full of meat for now!

We got home and Justin got to work prepping the steaks and cutting onions to grill. He did a rub of garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and black and white pepper on the steaks. Then he grilled up some mixed pepper quarters and onion slices while I sauteed asparagus in olive oil, garlic, pepper, and lemon juice. Tasty.

In preparation for today, I packed up the same snacks as for Monday, but since I'd be doing a trainer session in the morning figured I'd make some homebrew-ish smoothies: grapefruit juice, banana, whey protein, and the frozen tropical fruit (mangos, papaya, pineapple, and strawberry).

When I hopped off the trainer the implementation didn't work all that hot. The blender froze up (I think I broke it). So, we added some almond milk to help it along. The smoothies were great, but very "grapefuit-y". I forgot to add the banana, and then also doled out some applesauce.

I took a Lara Bar to eat this morning with my coffee, and for lunch had leftover chicken from Sunday night along with leftover asparagus and peppers from last night. So far so good with the food.

I will say that I haven't had any difficulty with the types of food (but we're double checking every label and trying to figure out what to eat all the time), and I don't miss the carbs really. I thought I'd be craving the grains and wheat, but I'm not. I have yet to notice any difference in the gut (e.g. like those who have a gluten sensitivity, etc.) due to no dairy and no wheat/grains.

My biggest complaint overall is the time suck this way of eating leads to. I felt like all I did last night was cook, prepare, dole out, pack up, and get food ready for today. I am at work from 7-5 or so and typically exercise mid-day, so I have to have enough food for 2 snacks, lunch, and sometimes pre/post workout made up and ready to go, and no access to a grill, toaster, or anything other than a sink and a microwave. Thus, we always have to cook enough the night before for 2-3 meals so we aren't running out of foods.

I've had enough energy during the day, but I've been really tired, I think because I haven't been sleeping enough. With starting up training again, I need to be sleeping more. Stop the food insanity!

At this point if I fail in my 30-day journey it'll likely be due to the time needed to eat this way, and not due to the restrictions.

But, I'm liking it so far.

Will refrain from posting each and everything I eat on a daily basis, but if anything interesting comes up in the next few days I'll post it up. I do need a good spaghetti squash recipe as we've never cooked that before!

So Easy a Caveman Can Do It

2009-11-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

This blog has been pretty lackluster the past few months. I never really did up any recipes to make it interesting, and food pics can go anywhere. Now that I'm trying a new "method of taking in calories" with the Paleo Diet for Athlete's, I figured I'd chronicle my journey here so I can track what I'm eating, what I'm not, how I'm feeling, and how it affects training and life in general.

While we haven't yet gone Paleo yet, we're closing in on it, and have started cutting back on the refined carbs a bit. Mostly it's just been with dinner (no rice, quinoa, pasta). The hardest will probably be the morning cereal (low calorie and SUPER quick/easy to make and clean up) and ABJ's at lunch (again, easy/quick).

Last week we had some butternut squash, so I looked up a paleo recipe for it:

It was so yum. We put a bit of olive oil in a pan with some fresh pressed garlic, heated that up, sauteed cubed butternut squash, then added sliced red onion, dried cranberries, and curry and cinnamon. The only thing that made it non-paleo was that we added milk in place of the suggested coconut milk (which we don't have and I've yet to find in paleo-friendly format - e.g. I can only find it full of additives). So.Good.

Grilled bison

While we were without blueberries for a few weeks, finally the stores are getting them again (so far Henry's and Costco)

Hey there, blueberries…

Birthday cake is decidedly NOT paleo friendly. Good thing we ate it all!

Since I got wrangled into racing this weekend the paleo diet is set to "drop" on Sunday or Monday. I haven't decided yet! The first 30 days the plan is strict paleo. We'll see how those 4 weeks go; how we feel, how training is going, energy level, recovery level, etc., and then go from there. Either there will be some benefit to it, or there won't and we'll eat like we do now.

Should be an interesting "experiment" and due to where we're at in the year, it won't affect performance at all. Can't hurt to try something new!

We'll see if it's easy enough for me!

Food has been GOOD

2009-08-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

We've been eating pretty good lately. On top of eating a bunch of REAL food, and MOSTLY PLANTS, we've also enjoyed some vino...

Earlier this week we had some sauteed veggies with grilled sweet potatoes and baked flank steak topped with dry onion soup. My sister named it "snotty steak" as a child, and the name has stuck ever since. It's super good.

I'll be honest...I've been reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food". Real food, lots of plants. Oh yeah.

Earlier this week I had nothing defrosted, and no fresh meat, so I figured we'd finally eat that can of chicken in the cabinet. Well, we didn't have pasta, so another trip to the store was in order (we go about 3x a week on average between grocery stores - Vons, Albertsons, and Henry's, and Costco) for whole grain pasta (Barilla). I dig it.

We had a ton of veggies, so I figured we'd sautee' some zucchini, bell peppers, and red onion with garlic, then add in some baby spinach leaves and tomatoes and top some whole grain pasta.

YUM.

Tonight we had leftover pasta and chicken/veggie mix with some balsamic butter asparagus as a side dish. SO.GOOD.

Thanks to Michael Pollan's suggestion, I've advocated eating at the table for dinner. So far the last few days we've either been at the table, or had the TV off. It can't hurt, right? We spend all day chatting on IM or sitting in front of a computer, so some alone time without all of the modern "conveniences" has been a refreshing change. The only...bad? part is our neighbors having band practice at dinner time!

What to eat...

2009-08-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

When you can't eat what you normally eat.

Yes, I've been afflicted with what may (or may not) be a food allergy that has randomly and suddenly popped up. No changes to my diet or any new or weird food introduction. No, just the same old, same old.

Since last Friday morning I have stopped eating blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, grapes, citrus fruits, fish, and any kind of nut. Yeah, that does rule out most bike food that I currently have in my "stable".

It also means no anti-inflammatory dinner, no almond butter & jam sandwiches, no Luna bars purchased from Costco's multi-pack, no granola, very few options for Clif Bars, no TLC Crunchy Pumpkin Flax Spice bars, no TLC Chewy Trail Mix - Honey Almond Flax - or Peanut Butter bars, no mixed nuts, no Craisins, no almonds, no raisins, no wine, no walnuts, no Snickers, no oatmeal raisin cookies, no Kashi Go-Lean Crunch Honey Almond Flax cereal, etc.

So, what have I been eating? Well, I picked up a box of generic Smores Granola bars (SO good, but at 100 calories you almost need to eat 3 of them), Kashi TLC Apple Crisp bars (see the Smores granola bar comment), Clif Chocolate Brownie bars, Clif Shot Electrolyte - Crisp Apple, Apple/Apricot fruit leathers, turkey sandwiches, chocolate milk...

Seeds seem to be okay, so luckily I've been eating multi-grain bread with sunflower and flax seeds.

Dinner on Friday was grilled chicken, sauteed broccoli, squash/zucchini, bell pepper, red onion, and baby spinach leaves mixed with red pepper flakes, garlic, parmesean cheese and whole GRAIN (not whole wheat) pasta. The pasta was killer and smelled like fresh baked bread to boot. Also, it doesn't disentegrate or stick together like whole wheat pasta. I was afraid to buy the Barilla Pasta Plus last week since it has Omega-3 added, and I could be allergic to fish.

Delish!

Saturday morning I couldn't have my normal oats with walnuts, almond slices, craisins, etc., so instead I had oats with sliced apples, cinnamon, flax seed and honey

Saturday night we fixed up some of our ground turkey tacos (browned turkey with HOT Taco seasoning, organic black beans, sodium-filled Taco rice, mixed bell peppers sauteed with red onions in olive oil, whole wheat tortillas and Henry's salsa (red and green for me, please).

So, so good

Yeah, so I am pretty much subsisting on veggies, apples, and bananas. How long do you think it'll take before I can't eat another Braeburn apple or banana? I give it maybe 3 weeks.

Recent "goods"

2009-07-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Last week we stopped by Henry's and noticed while the salmon didn't look that great, the shark filet's did! Score.

Add to that a decent salad (zucchini, bell pepper, red onion, sweet butter lettuce blend, tomatoes, and the last drop of Annie's Naturals roasted pepper? dressing and balsamic vinegar) and Trader Joe's brown rice medley? Delish!

We didn't even over-eat.

Yesterday we were invited coast-side for some BBQ's and beers. Anything barbequed is good, and when you mix it with Alaskan Smoked Porters that have been "brewing" for a year or three? Uhm...YUM!

Mushrooms and squash in butter, garlic, and spices grilled in foil, BBQ chicken with a sweet marinade, and Kashi Rice Pilaf.

Nice somewhat healthy a.m. snack

Downieville food!

2009-07-17T07:37:00.001-07:00

Sorry, we didn't sample much of the local eats, but we did cook a lot of food in camp!

Not healthy, but I'm a sucker for sour gummy worms on road trips.

Dinner #1!

Veggies, veggies, and more veggies

Breakfast on the stove

4th of July Eats!

2009-07-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a sampling of some food throughout the weekend:

So good you can almost reach out and eat it

First course of 4th of July BBQ

How to make dinner, in just a few easy steps...

2009-07-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile, but the foodage hasn't been changed up much. A few nights ago I had a stellar dinner. Here's how it went:

1. Get out the spices 'n stuff

2. Apply to a TON of veggies in a Ziploc(tm) (or is it (R)?) and mix. Lay out your ton of veggies on baking sheets.

3. Get quinoa in a pot ready to boil

4. Get out your killer looking steaks

5. Apply some of those spices to your steaks

6. Cook dinner.

Here's the most important ingredient - a loving spouse to do it all while you ride the trainer!! Key thing there. I got off the trainer and dinner was almost ready to go. Yum-sauce.

The baked veggies (yes, we actually have some LEFT OVER):

Steak and quinoa, ready for veggie application:

Aws yah.

I'm ready for my close-up

Perfection

Happy eats.

Travel food

2009-06-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Without my steel cut oats this was breakfast!

Pre-race snack

Post-race meal at Wahoo's. Not as good as I was expecting.

Food pics

2009-06-10T10:52:00.001-07:00

Dinners have basically been status quo, but here's some food over the last few days:

Camp breakfast! FTW

Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats made with JetBoil, agave nectar, sliced almonds, Craisins... Not a light-weight backpacker setup, but it works for car camping.

SIMBREE!

I realize it probably looks gross, but it's been chilling in my Camelbak since early May. That means its gone through a vast array of temperature differentials. Taste was awesome, just took some pulling apart of the "bites".

Birthday (not mine) dinner! In the produce bags were a head of broccoli and asparagus. Mixed up the two with olive oil, spices, and balsamic vinegar. Mixed up some zucchini squash, bell peppers, and red onion with olive oil and spices separately. Roasted it all and had that on a bed of quinoa. The steaks were grass-fed filet. OMG. So good.

(Not my) birthday dessert.

Who needs restaurants when you eat this well? That was one HEAVY cookie. Not taste-wise, just weight-wise. The ice cream was delish. I'll be honest, my first bowl did not include a cookie, but it did include a dash of Whaler's Vanilla Rum and a bit of chocolate syrup. I need to work out more so I can eat like this every night.

I've seen other cyclists gnoshing on Stoneyfield with fruit, and was ever so jealous. Individual 6oz containers are about as pricey as it gets for regular yogurt. But wait! Henry's now carries Stoneyfield Organic yogurt in 32oz containers, and it is only marginally more than the Brown Cow ($.048/container). So, I picked some up to try.

I'll be honest, I was expecting more. It's good, but my taste buds have acclimated to Brown Cow vanilla. Will report back later after I've had it a few times.

Better late than never...

2009-05-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Memorial Weekend special:

It's that time of year...

2009-05-22T08:41:00.001-07:00

I'm struggling to find strawberries in the store now, but my favorite fruit is in season!

The only problem is that these aren't so easy to dice and I'm not sure how they'd turn out in cereal and oats? May have to find out next week!

Dinner

2009-05-19T20:00:00.001-07:00

We don't eat it often, but I do enjoy shark filet's. Match that with roasted zucchini, squash, onion, and peppers on a bed of quinoa...

YUM

Seared ahi on a bed of salad

2009-05-18T08:40:00.001-07:00

...with quinoa of course!

We had some guests over Thursday night and enjoyed some good Tempranillo just bottled up.

Mixed spring greens, peppers, onions, lentils, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, seared ahi, and quinoa. YUM!

It's Monday: I'm quinoa obsessed!

2009-05-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

I've had a box of Quinoa in my cabinet from Trader Joe's for about 3-4 weeks now and haven't opened it. Convinced a friend to make salmon, chicken, and roasted veggies on a bed of quinoa on Saturday night. Now I'm obsessed!

Dessert! Berries topped with plain yogurt, blue agave syrup, and dark chocolate.

I like quinoa so much now that I had it for dinner last night. And lunch again today.

Stellar weekend.

I wish I wasn't obsessed with Clif Builder Bars. I cannot stop eating them. I was full and just had one. Now I am more full.

I love berries

2009-05-08T15:27:00.001-07:00

Would you like some steel cut oats in your bowl of berries?

Hard to see, but there are oats in there. Somewhere.

More protein, less carbs

2009-05-06T10:32:00.001-07:00

I read a nutrition book from an Olympic runner, and it seemed like all she was eating was protein! I'm trying some new things following my last racing block (5 races in 6 weeks) and infusing a lot of protein and trying to shake down some of the carbs. I LOVE carbs, but carbs are not essential. I think I am currently getting too much protein (lots of bars with protein - Clif Builder, lots of edamame, turkey/chicken lunch meat, steak, fish, ground turkey, milk, oats), but my percentage of carbs the past two days is down from 58-60% to 45-50% or so.

While yogurt and granola with fruit is about my favorite thing to eat, I have cut it out entirely this week. Instead of yogurt I'm eating Nancy's Low-Fat Cottage Cheese with diced fruit. No granola.

Yellowfin tuna prepped in four different ways: teriyaki, light Italian-ish dressing, cajun rub, and steakhouse rub

Tonight is some grass-fed beef and monster salad action.

Food from last week

2009-05-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Nothing new, but here's a few photos from last week -

I love berries. Especially once they are chopped and ready to go for cereal, oats, yogurt, cottage cheese, or just simple snacking.

Salad - you know it's good cause you can't even see any lettuce.

Grilled chicken topped with salsa and Kashi's Fiery Fiesta mix. SO spotted a massive container of Mango Peach salsa at Costco so we snapped some of that up. It is tasty! Not as a spicy/hot as what we'd normally buy, but I dig it.

Remember that fruit?

2009-04-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's a cereal fruitopia!

I'm actually having to use bigger bowls for cereal now since there is so much fruit (not to mention 1 3/4 cup of cereal in there!). I don't know if it's a podium breakfast, but it tastes good.

Really into the fruit lately

2009-04-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I love fruit. I know veggies are healthier (less sugar, more fiber, usually less calories), but I love fruit.

Fruit in yogurt and granola on the way home from a race

Fruit ready for cereal as morning breakfast

Podium placing breakfast

2009-04-27T12:52:00.001-07:00

I don't know what champions eat, but this'll get you on the podium!

Week night eats

2009-04-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hubby spent a lot of time last night putting dinner together... It was worth it for me, hope it was for him!

It was delish.

Stuffed? bell peppers... sliced in half and then loaded up with diced yellow squash, zucchini, red onion, bacon, and sliced cheese all baked for 25 minutes. He made 3 kinds - garlic, cayenne, extra cheese. The cayenne with red pepper flakes was SPICY.

Baked veggies - sliced zucchini, squash, red onions, and bell peppers made up with some olive oil and spices and baked.

Grass-fed beef with steakhouse seasoning and garlic powder.

We even enjoyed some vino

Lots of food...

2009-04-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

I think I spent about 2 hours last night on food alone. Prepped dinner (chipotle marinated chicken breasts, left over yellow sweet potatoes, and salads - with lunch left overs) for awhile, and then took a long time setting up lunch for today.

I've got a lot of fruit and veggies in the refrigerator and since I'll be gone for 4-5 days coming up for this weekend's race, it was time to eat a bunch of the fresh food before I was out of town!

I had a ton of salad stuff - lettuce mixes, yellow squash, zucchini, mini bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, the list goes on... I have a salad mix also that I need to finish! So, salad for dinner and salad for lunch. Spent a lot of time chopping, slicing, and dicing!

Following dinner clean-up it was all about snacks for lunch. I've been obsessed with my yogurt, strawberry, blackberry, granola mix, and since I was super full after dinner and going to bed early it was all about having that as a morning snack for today. Took some time to dole out the yogurt from the big container, slice up the strawberries, etc.

Check it - lunch yesterday

vs. lunch today

Way better, but way more time to prepare.

At Henry's last weekend these were on sale, $0.77/lbs! The same size for non-organic at Vons is $1.99. The organic is SO GOOD.

Leftover corn on the cob, salad mix, and some of these bbq'd up tonight for dinner:

Lots of food when you pair those with the steel cut oats mix for breakfast. I'm full just thinking about all the food I will be eating today.

Fueling up and refueling

2009-04-13T10:32:00.001-07:00

Here's a sample of the weekend's food:

Leftovers! Beef tacos with sauteed peppers and onions, Mex rice, and black beans:

Breakfast - steel cut oats, blueberries, strawberries, cinammon, ground flax seed, walnuts, almond slices, dried cranberries:

Turkey burger with sliced cheese, bbq sauce, sweet & spicy mustard, tomato slice, grilled onion slice:

Dessert - sliced apples, blackberries, blueberries, vanilla yogurt, cinammon:

Thinking this upcoming week will be less exciting for food. Lots of packing, bike prep, and hopefully sleeping. Also, quite a few dinners "out".

Post-ride meal

2009-04-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

This wasn't my recovery food today, but it has been similar to one in the past.

Brown Cow Natural Vanilla yogurt, blackberries, strawberries, and Bear Naked Peak Protein granola. Super bomb.

If you need it for some really good recovery (e.g. not hours after your ride as a pre-dinner snack to use some fruit) - you can make it super yogurt and granola by adding 1/2 scoop or so of vanilla whey protein.