not boring chicken recipe of the day...

Eating a lot of chicken (at least twice a week) you get bored of grilling it or mixing it with veggies, so I figured I would look up a recipe having to do with bacon, which is slowly edging out sausage as my favorite meat. I had some bacon left from yesterday so I googled some recipes to see what I could find. I found one but I didn't have all ingredients so I took what I had and iron cheffed it. In sticking with my Paleo ways it was pretty easy! Also only a ingredients so its pretty cheap. Chicken, Bacon and tomato paste, the veggies could be whatever you have but I had tri-colored peppers from earlier in the week, onion, mushrooms, and broccoli.

So here is how I made it.

Preheat the oven for 400 and grease baking sheet with butter or coconut oil


2 boneless skinless chicken breast pounded thin and cut into 3 strips each
1/2 can of tomato paste
6 strips of bacon (mine was uncured...no nitrites/nitrates)
6 grape tomatoes
pepper/oregano to taste

lay each chicken strip out on cutting board
spread a little tomato paste on each strip and place one grape tomato on each strip
put a little pepper and a little oregano on each strip
roll each chicken strip up
wrap each chicken piece with a strip of bacon
place each chicken piece on the baking sheet and place in oven
bake for 15 min
place under the broiler for a few min to let the bacon crisp

Here are the veggies:
Red, Orange, Yellow peppers roughly chopped
1 onion chopped
1 Cup or so sliced mushroom
1 small head of broccoli cut into florets
1 tbsp butter
chili powder

heat butter in the pan and add onion and chili powder, cook for a few min
add in the broccoli and peppers cook a little longer
add a TBSP of water and cover for a few min
add mushrooms and cook until tender adding a little more chili powder if you would like.

When the chicken was done I nestled the chicken with the veggies and covered just to let some flavors meld. YUM!

Enjoy

day 14 Paleo again

So as my diet and eating and food consumption is evolving with this new found enthusiasm for being as healthy as I can be. I am starting to eat a few foods that are either foreign (or only ate them a few times) or I was always told to avoid. These of course being the artery clogging coconut oil, shredded, milk (really, can something in nature REALLY clog your arteries,)fattening macadamia nuts (again, bad argument) and Jicama (didn't know what it was until a few years ago.) SO I being of sound mind and feel AWESOME internally will focus my efforts to try new foods like these and incorporate them into my rotating meal schedule. Since one of my favorite shows on TV is Chopped I feel I have learned about new foods and these chefs incredible skills in turning something unfamiliar into something good. Well at least I hope I can accomplish this. I cooked with the Coconut oil last week and even made some macaroons (which I was told were delish.) I have been adding Macadamias as a little snack and well will try some Jicama in my salad or on its own, maybe I will use it as my "potato alternative."
Anyways I have been reading different Paleo-peoples blog and telling my friends and some others about it and even stumbled upon one gal whom I see every once in a while while working at her school who loves the paleo and actually may get a different teacher at this particular school who has Celiac to look into giving it a try. I would love to have a lot of friends and friends who are paleo, but alas it's not happening. I get it from all angles and I am supported by many (except that Lemon pie that has been staring at me in the face everytime I open the fridge, Thanks Randy.) I am glad I have the support I have and I am glad this time the diet is making me feel better and I know it is the diet that is making my body happy. I have to check out an upcoming winter farmer's market and see what kind of delicious local meat I can find, maybe even some tasty lamb (my next "new food.) All I know is spring greens and summer garden harvests can not come soon enough.

Back to being Primal...day 8

Hey fellow Internet web blog readers. Haven't written a post in a while and thought I would update how my little part of the world is going in this the year 2012! Well I didn't run the NYC marathon as I thought...again...and I think I am giving up hopes of doing it. I think I would like to focus on some shorter running races and maybe a tough guy challenge. As far as the paleo thing goes I was eating rather "loosely" over the summer avoiding as much pasta as I could, unfortunately my laziness got to me and I ate one too many sausage egg and cheese mcmuffins :(. So I gave myself from thanksgiving until new years day to eat basically whatever I felt I needed in order to get it out of my system. I ate anything the hell I wanted, but of course since learning that food is good when I cook it, or when a really great restaurant cooks it I know it's good, so all in all not a terrible stint, but I digress.

As of new years day I have been following Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint 21 day total body transformation, and so far so good. I have been following the diet part the most diligently and have been going for walks every day with Ivy sometime throwing in a sprint or going to the park where there are wooded trails so Ivy can go off leash and I can walk up some hills. Today I tried yoga, for the first time in a while. Now I like yoga, have been attempting it off and on for the better of 10 years or so,maybe even before whenever I started I had a tape of it. So the yoga class today had me attempting handstands and headstands...not quite my level and I didn't feel relaxed after, gotta find a new instructor.

Alright so you may ask why I went back paleo/primal and why wasn't I happy eating what I wanted to. Well I will tell you this. I was feeling like crap. I was eating crap, felt like crap, and my clothes were starting to shrink...JK, I was getting fat. So I figured most of it was the gluten in my diet. So far my gut feels a lot better and my waste has been a lot better! So I am going to stick with it.

Well my plan is to stick with it until my birthday so that is two months, but I am taking one week off while we are in key west, but as much as possible I will stick with the diet...no bread/pasta anyways. Sugar on the other hand...that's another story. So we shall see, I just want my shirts to feel comfortable again.

Summertime Co-Op

So it has been a while since I posted last and wanted to update about all the wonderful fresh and local veg that I have been using and getting. So we do get a CSA from Stone Garden Farms in Shelton and it has been A LOT better this year. I am so happy about the abundance of local veg that we have been getting, plus it has been a pretty good year for veg. Since May we have been getting MOSTLY greens - Asian Mix, various lettuces, Red Deer Tongue, and sometimes...seriously...Grass. You know getting fresh greens and making salads is always great, but a month in you get sick of it. We have also been getting a whole lot of Kale. This to me was a new veggie a few years ago and we didn't know what to do with it since I had never eaten it! So this year for the most part it was being used in Sautes with some Ham or Prosciutto, EVOO, and garlic. Last year we also made some Kale Chips in the oven. So since it has been HOT we haven't wanted to cook inside. So now I have started to juice it which is AWESOME! Especially with a mixture of apples and carrots.
Now the greens are starting to wain and we are starting to get the "meat" of the CSA. We have gotten the squashes, zucchini, and beans. Corn has started to come as well. I am waiting for the tomatoes to come and I am can NOT wait. Summer tomatoes are SO great and so great.
A great recipe that I tried with zucchini and squash is kind of a mixture of asian noodles and a slaw.
Zucchini Slaw:
One Zucchini (julienned)
One Squash (julienned)
Sesame oil
Peanut oil
Tamari
Sesame Seeds
Red Pepper Flakes

I mixed everything together and let it set for a little bit. Really delish!

Marathon...finally

So I finally did it. I ran an f*in marathon! 26.2 of the best miles of my life. I don't know if I could actually write a whole blog post about my experience since it was such a whole new experience which can't be put in words. you need to do it yourself. Plus I can't really think of anything to say about it. I don't remember much about it except the people cheering, running occasionally on rail trail, bike trail, one guy following closely to two woman and I THINK taking pictures of their butts. Around mile 24 I definitely thought I was just going to break down and cry because of two reason. The first because it was the "mile of hope" which showed the people who have passed away from cancer, or survived, I don't remember just remember the pictures...OR the other reason was because I was 2 miles from finishing my first marathon!!! Well I finished in 4 hours and 45 min! I was so proud, and just really wanted to puke when I finished. I am ready for my next one! Bring on NYC 176 days left! Nov 6, 2011 here I come!!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes...yum

So someone on facebook post-St. Patty's day posted a list of food that was now settled in their stomachs and it all sounded wonderful! One of the items stood out among the rest. I think mostly because I was forced to do one on my birthday and I am not a fan of the drink itself. Anyways that's besides the point. So on my birthday we were at an Irish Bar in Portland, ME called Bull Feeny's, actually one of my favorites in the Old Port, Irish music and the whole 9 yards. I am not a fan of Guinness though and that of course is the staple Irish beer! So on my birthday I was forced to do an Irish Car Bomb shot and just as I remembered it, it was gross. I don't like stout, but what I do like is the taste of dark chocolate and I figured that a dark roasted malt that was in a stout would pair nicely with a dark chocolate. SO I read the post on Facebook and thought, alright I could make these, so I did. My first batch came out okay, nice the cake was a little dense, but the ganache was wonderful and the frosting was of course the best part (really you can't go wrong with buttercream.) So since Orion's birthday came soon after mine AND St. Patty's day I thought I will make them for him, especially since I already made him Meat Cup Cakes for his 29th b-day (see earlier post) and of course he will eat nearly everything I cook, and love it. So I made them again. I used the same recipe which is posted here I just used super dark chocolate and some single malt scotch in the ganache. So here is the progression of them from cake to finish. Of course these cupcakes are fat-free, calorie free, gluten free, and dairy free, they won't make you gain any weight and you can eat all you want for the rest of your life. Really that is not true, but I wish it was. If you do think about what are actually in these cupcakes it is terrible. I know all the ingredients and I selected as best I could. The cake has these simple ingredients in it: Flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs, sour cream, butter, cocoa powder (+ espresso powder to make it pop.) The ganache is Dark Chocolate, butter, cream, and a tad bit of scotch. The frosting is butter, powdered sugar, and irish cream. There isn't really anything crazy in these cupcakes. I am not defending them, they aren't health food by any means, but they are homemade with an extra special ingredient: Love.

Wakame Salad

I love posting new stuff I love, I guess this isn't technically "new" for me, but I only learned about it and started loving it within the last year. It is seaweed salad. I have always loved Seaweed when it is used in sushi, and apparently it is really healthy. So I found out I liked it at a friend's wedding where she had sushi, and seaweed or Wakame Salad. So I tried some and loved it and found a recipe and made it and LOVE IT! Also it is super easy to make:

Wakame Salad
3.75 dried Wakame (found in the "Asian" section of Whole Foods)
3 TBSP rice vinegar
1 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 TBSP Sesame Oil
1 tsp sugar
red pepper flakes
sesame seeds


Cover the wakame with about 2 inches (over the Wakame) of hot tap water and let it sit until most of the water absorbed (3 min or so.) Drain the wakame and squeeze excess water out with a paper towel.

In separate bowl mix next four ingredients until sugar is dissolved.

Add dressing to Wakame and toss, when ready to serve add sesame seeds and red pepper flakes to taste.

YUM!