Category: Health & Fitness

Health & Fitness, Paleo

Hotter than Hell Barbacoa

heather

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

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

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

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

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo

Holiday Weekend Cooking Bonanza

heather

Bananza?  Bonanza?  Bonanza doesn’t look right, but Bananza gets red squiggles under it.  I guess I’ll go with Bonanza.

So, Sunday was Duck Day!  I popped that sucker in around 8 or 9 and followed the recipe almost to a T.  Three comments of note: 1.  I didn’t pull off all the quills.  I pulled off a few and then got bored and tired and stopped.  We just ended up not eating most of the skin.  2.  The molasses in our cupboard, come to find out, expired in 2010.   I had to improvise.  Instead of of 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup of molasses, I went with all honey. I also had no Sriracha, so I used Tapatio.  We were in a whiskey kind of mood on Sunday (we started out the festivities with a shot of Templeton Rye), so I added a couple tablespoons of Jack.  I don’t have a pastry brush, so I just poured the glaze on the duck.  The glaze was so tasty, however, that we scooped up the leftovers from the bottom of the pan and dipped the duck pieces in it.  3.  I think I overcooked it.  The recipe said to cook the duck for 4 hours, but it didn’t specify what size of duck to use.  Mine was around 5 lbs.  The legs were tasty, but the breast meat was a little dry.  We ate most of the bird for lunch, and I pulled off all the leftover meat.  For breakfast I chopped it up and sauteed it in duck fat with some veggies.  We ate it with avocado and scramby eggs.  Muy bueno!!!

So, would I do it again?  Yeah, I sure would.  It was an Event!  The duck was tasty, I got almost 2 cups of rendered duck fat, and I was able to spam all my Instagram followers with hourly photos of a duck cooking.  Good times.

For dessert, I made Love You Long Time Chocolate Cupcakes.  These things are so good.  You don’t even know.  Unfortunately, being wiped from slaving over the duck all day (and from drinking a couple of whiskey and sodas), when I was putting the pan of cupcakes into the oven, I hit the shelf and ended up spilling half the batter on the open oven door.  ARGH!!  I was able to salvage about half of them, and they ended up delicious.  They have no added sugar – just ripe bananas to make them sweet.  Tim and I loved them.  I’m not sure if someone who is used to eating a lot of sugar would think they were as good, but we’ll definitely make them again.

Speaking of sugar, I also made Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies to take into the office.  You make regular PB cookies, but then you make this filling of PB, vanilla, and milk, and then you make peanut butter cookie sandwiches out of it.  They were wicked good.  I felt a little bad making them and unloading them on my coworkers, because I just read this article.  Sugar is poison.  Sweet, delicious, hideous poison.  If you want to poison your friends and family, let me know in the comments, and I’ll send you the recipe.

For supper last night I tried another new recipe:  Apple and Butternut Squash Hash.  This recipe was super simple, yet super delicious.  We had it for supper last night, and I ate it for breakfast and lunch today, and there is enough left for breakfast tomorrow.

For supper tonight I made Low Carb Italian Wedding Soup accompanied by Coconut Flour Muffins (from The 21 Day Sugar Detox).  The soup turned out really tasty.  I dirtied about 1/2 of our dishes though and had a run-in with a ziploc baggie of frozen chicken broth.  I ended up breaking a bowl and burning some of the precious duck fat whilst wraggling with the baggie.  But, well, you know.  It’s all over now, and we had delicious soup with MUFFINS!  Paleo muffins though – no sugar – just coconut flour, eggs, coconut milk, coconut flour, baking powder and salt.  Tim said they tasted like macaroons (did I mention they have coconut in them?).  I broke mine up and added it to the soup. It was nice to have a bread-ish texture with the soup.  I think they would taste fantastic with some raisins and/or dark chocolate chips.

So that’s all my recipes for the past few days – lots of winners and will-make-agains in there.

Oh, and we didn’t just EAT all weekend.  We also biked 15 miles and ran 5, raked the lawn, and cleaned the house.  So we burned off some of the energy at least!

Take care, and I’ll let you know how the rest of the week’s recipes pan out.

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness, Paleo, Uncategorized

It’s Novembeeeeer

heather

Wow.  It’s been like 3 weeks since I’ve posted.  It’s been a busy time.  I went to Florida and Des Moines for work, then I went to NYC for play (visit the bros), and now I’m finally back home for a few solid weeks.  I have another trip to Des Moines in early December (Business Analyst Boot Camp) and then no more trips on the horizon.  Which makes me both happy and sad.  I’ve found that I’m rarely ever in exactly one mood or feel one way about anything.  I’m happy tinged with sadness or looking forward to an event and looking forward to it being over, so I can be at  home in bed.  You get the idea.  Anyway, I digress.

Due to the traveling and getting used to the new season/lack of light, I’ve gained about 3-5 lbs over the past few weeks.  I’ve been eating out more, drinking more delicious beer, and not exercising as much.  It’s a dangerous combination.  I’m pretty sure that if I reign in the cheats (alcohol, chocolate, donuts at work, etc.), I’ll normalize pretty quickly.  At least, I’m hoping so.  This will be my first winter fully paleo.  In reading the paleo blogs and posts, I was looking forward to pure bliss over these short days – no winter blues for Hlo this year! HA!  The winter blues have hit me harder than I ever remember.  I blame it on a confluence of events.  1.  I was outside A LOT this summer – more than any other year.  My body got used to copious amounts of sunshine, and when that sunshine went away, so did my good spirits.  2.  For a variety of reasons, it’s been a stressful month, which  is hard on the disposition 3.  I’ve not been following the paleo diet strictly.  I’ve been eating more dairy than usual and drinking more beer (gluten!) than usual.  That exacerbates my allergies and throws me out of whack.

But now that I’ve identified what I think to be the culprits, I can go about fixing them.  Right now I am sitting in front of my Light Therapy light, which really does seem to help.  I just planned out a week’s worth of 100% paleo meals, and today we biked and raked, so I got some vitamin D and some exercise.  We’ll see what a difference this makes.

I haven’t been all bad, though.  I have made a couple of tasty recipes lately.

I made Garlic Pulled Pork again.  This time I put the garlic rub on the meat the night before and then stuck the roast in the Nesco Roaster on about 200 for about 5 hours.  I also didn’t put the fresh garlic INTO the meat.  It turned out FANTASTIC.  We ate it last night with cauliflower and spinach sauteed in coconut oil.  We also ate some for breakfast.  I sauteed it with coconut oil, fried some eggs, and covered it all with avocado.  Amazing.

I also made 5 Ingredient Breakfast Stuffed Acorn Squash.  This turned out good, but next time I would NOT crack the egg in the squash and bake it in the oven.  I left it in the oven FOREVER, and the egg still did not bake.  I had to scoop the mess out and fry it on the stove top.  I don’t think it’s necessary to stuff everything back into the acorn squash skin and bake it, unless you are into presentation, which I’m not.  I just am into tasty food.  This was tasty, but next time I’ll make it the easy way.

I also made Cream Chicken Casserole.  As you can see, I’m a big fan of paleomg.com!  She has great recipes.  This recipe made a TON of food.  We ate it for supper, breakfast, lunch, supper, and still had some leftover. Tim even liked it, even though the base is made from coconut milk.  I did notice that my stomach was a little upset after eating it – maybe due to the coconut milk and hot spices?  Tim noticed it as well, so the next time we ate it, he had toast with it.  That seemed to help.

And that’s it for tasty recipes as of late.  I’m attempting to cook a duck tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Good recipes and general fitness

heather

I tried a new recipe and rehashed an old favorite this week.

First of all, I took another go at this Quick and Easy Meatball Soup.  To make things go quicker, I made the meatballs and cut up the veggies the night before.  I also altered the meatball recipe a tad; since I was short on almond meal, I flushed out the requirement with some coconut flour.  In regards to the veggies, I had no onions, zucchini or squash, but I did have a green pepper, so I threw that in instead.  I cut up all the veggies, including the garlic, and stuffed it all in a ziploc baggie.  The next evening, I threw it all in a pot, and we had delicious soup 30 minutes later.  I don’t know if the herbs had time to soak into the meatballs or what, but the soup turned out fantastic.  The recipe also makes a ton.  We had it for supper, breakfast, lunch, breakfast, and lunch.  So good.  And yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat soup for breakfast.

I also tried a new recipe – Grain-Free Zucchini Pancakes.  Timmy Tee was sweet enough to  go to the Farmers Market for me on Saturday, so we were flush with zucchini, and I felt like trying something new for breakfast.  I have to say that I believe the name “pancakes” is a misnomer here.  These were more like omelettes than pancakes.  They were still tasty, but they were super runny.  I ended up scrambling a few of them because I tried to flip them before they truly set up.  Not sure I’ll make these again.  If I want paleo pancakes, I’ll make these Carrot Cake Pancakes again.  These are what I actually wanted to make, but we were all out of damned almond flour.  Greatest Grains was out in their bulk section, and HyVee’s was $11.99 per package, which I refused to pay.  I’ll have to get some one way or another before next weekend.

Overall, it was a good weekend, food-wise and life-wise.  I volunteered for a few hours at the Nahant Marsh Fall Festival, helping to gather seeds of the Partridge Pea and the False Aster. It was a COLD job, but at least I am 3 hours further into my 32 hour Master Conservationist volunteer commitment.  Plus, I was rewarded with hot cider and roasted chestnuts afterwards.  Well, I had to pay for them, but they were still tasty.  I had never had roasted chestnuts before.  They kind of taste like raw potatoes.  I really liked them, but Tim wasn’t a fan.  They do taste much better warm.

After that Tim and I ran 5 miles and then biked downtown to the Front Street Tasting Lounge, where we indulged in a a pint and watched the river.  Then we headed to  Great River where some Chatty Cathy talked our ears off while we had a Brown Pumpkin (Farmer Brown mixed with Pumpkin Ale) and a Pale Ale.  After supper at the real Front Street, we tackled the chilly ride home.  And here is where I get to the “general fitness” portion of my title.  It is so obvious to me biking home from downtown Davenport how much more fit I am this year than last.  Sure, the hills up the valley still tire me out, but I can OWN them.  I no longer feel like crying biking up them.  I love that feeling of strength.

It was a fun day, and it was great to be outside, but 3 pints is too much beer for 125 lb Hlo.  My throat hurt, and I slept horrible.  So, today I had to buy some whiskey so I wouldn’t be tempted to drink more harmful beer. 😉  I got Buffalo Trace whiskey.  It was only $1 more than Jack, and I thought it would be fun to try something new.  Plus, I liked the picture of a buffalo on the bottle.  Yes, I’m distracted by pretty pictures.  Anyway, it’s pretty good.  My boss picked me up some Templeton Rye from Fareway last week ($37 at Fareway – $47 at Target!!!), but I figured I should save the expensive stuff for something special.

Hope you had a great weekend!  Tim bought a duck at the Farmers Market, per my behest.  Now I need an awesome duck recipe!  The freaking bird was $25, so it better be damned delicious!!  Send me a recipe if you have a good one.

Take care! Hlo-out!

Health & Fitness

The 20% (aka Thursday, October 4th)

heather

Whenever anyone asks me about the primal diet, I always mention and advocate the 80/20 rule – follow the primal plan 80% of the time, and you’ll be alllll right.

Well, tonight I used up all my 20% in one gluttonous evening!  It started with eating the chips and salsa at Azteca (I usually abstain), progressed to 2 whiskey and sodas and at least 2 cups of popcorn at Pints, escalated to 1/2 a pint of Late Night Snack Ben & Jerry’s, and culminated in a homemade pumpkin bar.  Wow.  Sugar overload.  Why you ask?? Well, I weighed in at 126.5 today, which is about 4 lbs less than where I want to be.  I could either eat copious amounts of sweet potatoes or a whole mess of cheat foods.  I chose the latter.  The ironic thing is that I sent my “primal success story” to Mark Sisson of MarksDailyApple.com, and he actually responded!  He might publish my story some Friday!  But, by the time it gets published, I’ll be all fat and sassy from ice cream and vegetable oil & cream-cheese laden pumpkin bars.  Oh well, it was a nice ride while it lasted…

Take care, and have a wonderful evening!  Here’s hoping that tomorrow is a more moderate day! 😉

Health & Fitness

Sugar Detox Day 2

heather

I fell a little off the wagon today.  At first it was unintentional, and then it became intentional.

I got a salad from the HyVee salad bar and loaded up on veggies, chicken, and pickled herring.  I figured I hardly ever eat fish at home, so I should take advantage of fish on the salad bar.  As I started to chow down, however, I felt my mouth become all phlegmy.  That damned pickled herring was loaded with sugar!  Who knew!?

For supper I met some friends in Muscatine.  We ate at this amazing Mexican restaurant that is totally worth the 40 minute drive to Muscatine (not that meeting my friends wasn’t worth the drive in and of itself, of course).  I just HAD to taste their chips and salsa; I haven’t had it for 1.5 years!  I got chicken tacos with avocado, fully intending to just eat the innards, but the corn tortillas looked too good to resist.  I ate the tortillas on 1 taco, and the insides of the rest of the tacos.  I got my just desserts however, when I went to the bathroom after eating my meal and had to dodge a cockroach to get back out of the bathroom.  Sigh.

Pollen count: 4.10 out of 12

Allergy symptoms:  Still had the head fog and the post nasal drip.  I’ve resisted taking Allegra so far…

General feelings:  I didn’t crave sugar much today at all. When I got home from supper I cut up a bunch of veggies – zucchini, green peppers, radishes, celery, carrots, & onions, so that I’ll have a good medley to cook with eggs tomorrow, as well as some healthy snacks for work.

Tomorrow is another day, as they say, so hopefully I can do better than I did today.

Health & Fitness, Uncategorized

Sugar Detox Day 1

heather

Starting weights and measures:  Weight 129.6.  Bust 34.  Waist 28.25.  Hips 38.5

Pollen count: 5 out of 12

Allergy symptoms:  Head fog today.  No good!

General feelings:  I didn’t crave sugar until after supper.  For snacks I ate 1/2 a green apple and some almonds.  I bought two huge bags of pistachios at Walgreens.  They are calling to me even though I ate a massive amount of food for supper.

I’ve been snapping cracking and popping all over today.  My joints are super loud.  I think all the sugar from the past week has settled into them and crystallized.  It will be interesting to see how this diet affects the achy joints.

Hardest part to date:  NO GUM!  I chew gum constantly.  This sucks.

Health & Fitness

The binge before the purge

heather

So…

I’ve decided to do the 21 Day Sugar Detox.  I’m doing Level 3 since I’ve been eating paleo since January.  What does this mean?  Well, I will tell you.  It means Yes to lots of meat, fish, veggies, nuts, seeds, fats, oils, and water.  It means no to fruits, grains, legumes, refined carbs, dairy, all alcohol, and limited high carb veggies (like sweet potatoes).  Why would I do this to myself, you may ask?  I will tell you.

When I first started eating primally, I noticed almost immediately that my allergies were way better.  I used to wake up in the middle of night sneezing, with tons of disgusting snot just running out of my nose.  Within two weeks, this green fountain abated, only to return when I cheated by drinking wine at our company holiday party.  A light bulb went off – alcohol seemed to trigger/exacerbate my allergies.

Well, my allergies are back in full force.  I can only feel normal by taking Allegra every day.  I hate having to do that.  So, Reason #1 – I want to see if this detox will get my allergies under control.

Reason #2 – I’ve gotten into the habit of drinking regularly over the summer – not copious amounts, mind you – maybe 1-2 an evening or so.  But, it’s still not healthy behavior.  When I drink even 1 or 2 drinks, I am much less likely to make food at home (I feel like going out to eat), and I’m less likely to work out or to do anything productive (like write a blog post or paint).  So, I’m trying to reset my habit of casually drinking regularly.  I also read this great post on The Whole 9, and it just helped solidify my decision.

Reason #3 – I’ve become addicted to an evening snack/dessert of dark chocolate chips mixed with nuts and raisins.  I’ll eat supper and immediately want a bowl of this delectable mixture.  I know to people who are not paleo, this seems like a mild “cheat,” but it’s become a nightly habit, when it should become an occasional treat.  Again, I want to reset this to a healthier habit.  I’m never really HUNGRY after supper, my mind just thinks I want sugar.  I can beat this.  I know I can.

So, those are my 3 main reasons.  I do have some concerns, however.  I don’t want to lose any more weight.  I need to stay at my current weight, lest I have to buy MORE PANTS (FYI  – I still have a size 8-12 wardrobe for sale, if you’re interested!).  Since I’m a fairly heavy exerciser (I run 3-5 times per week and do pushups, pullups, squats, lunges on the off days), I will be following the modification for athletes and supplementing with some sweet potatoes – at least 1/2 cup per day.  I also purchased a Crossfit Daily Deal from our local paper, and I plan on starting that within the next couple of weeks.  I hope that I’ll have all the energy and calories I need to perform well there.

AND, I have a confession.  I’m only doing this for 17 days.  I have a work party on 10-11, and I plan to partake of a few alcoholic beverages that evening.  I know!  I know!  I’m cheating, of course.  But this is the best time of the worst time to do this.  The next few months are full of trips and visits, so I’m just going to go ahead and do it.

If you are interested in doing this as well, DON’T do what I did, which is binge on sugar and bad foods for a week before the Detox.  Yes, this week I ate Snickers, frozen yogurt, ice cream, pizza, heavy cream, etc. etc.  I felt like crap after every bad thing, but I still ate it.  I REALLY need a reset.  😉

I will post updates to let you know how I’m feeling and performing.  Wish me luck!

Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

The Week in Recipes

heather

We had some more great meals this week.    I rehashed some old favorites – Asian Pork Meatballs with Dipping Sauce, Sweet Potato Salad, Grilled Eggs with Mexican Chorizo.  They were all absolutely delicious.  I also tried two new recipes:

Moist Chocolate Zucchini Bread – This bread was super tasty.  I used 3/4 cup of almond butter, with a little smidge of macademia nut butter, since I didn’t have any sunbutter.  The title says it all – it was super moist and nice and chocolately.  I think you could even use less honey, and it would still taste great.

Cowboy Steak with Chimichurri Sauce – I used New York Strip steaks for this recipe (the recipe calls for “cowboy steaks.”  I have no idea what that is!!).  I used a fresh parsley and oregano from my garden, and the chimichurri sauce turned out delicious.  We don’t have high -quality olive oil in the house right now (just using the HyVee brand), but the sauce still turned out great.  Make this recipe!  You won’t be sorry!

And that was our week in food.  Now I need to jet to go by groceries for this week.  I think I’m going to try my hand at beet chips.  Wish me luck!

Health & Fitness

Cleaning the Closet

heather

If you are one of the about 5 people who actually read my blog, you will know that I’ve been following the primal/paleo diet/lifestyle since January of this year.  As a result, I’ve lost about 20 pounds and a few dress sizes.  I finally had time to clean out my closet today and found that I have about 30 pieces of clothing I need to get rid of.  I’m ready to commit to being my current size for the foreseeable future.  If I get rid of this stuff, I’ll have to!  I can’t afford to buy another whole new wardrobe!!

Here is a link to the list of clothes I’m getting rid of.  If you are interested in anything or everything, let me know.  I can send pics if needed.  If you want to buy the whole kit and caboodle, I’ll sell it to you for $75.  I think you’ll get a good deal, and I won’t have to deal with the people at the consignment store.

If you or anyone you know is interested, feel free to forward them the link.