Steak Nirvana

The perfect portion. So I had two.

We are down to the last cuts of meat from our cow share. And this week I pulled the final few hunks out of the freezer to finish them off (what a lousy chore, ha ha). I didn’t know I would discover the most amazing, simple meat on the planet. Oh, and be reminded of what this paleo thing is all about.

So the steak I saved for last was a porterhouse. Mostly because neither of our previous shares had included one and I wasn’t quite sure how to cook it. Ignorance really is bliss.

As a dinner companion, I wilted down a bunch of baby spinach on low heat with garlic and olive oil. This took all of five minutes and three ingredients. While I’d like to give credit to the amazing spice complication (salt and pepper) and the fantastic grilling of my husband (4-5 mins a side on direct high), the beauty in this meal was the simplicity of the steak itself. It tasted like meat, butter and fireworks.

This is where grassfed meat really shines. In my opinion, grassfed, pasture-raised meat simply cannot be matched in quality. Beef is an item where you truly get what you pay for (this stuff isn’t cheap). However, one bite of that steak made me feel like I got the bargain of the century.

Above all else, this dinner reminded me that paleo doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be about carefully emulsifying olive oil and lemon. It doesn’t have to be blending complex and varied spice mixes. It doesn’t have to be finding “substitutes.” It can just be simple. And shut-the-front-door good.

Lesson learned. Thank you porterhouse. 

PS The next cow share arrives my house this weekend. I'm crossing my fingers for a porterhouse. 

Naked Picture of Me

No fracture, but I don't think this photo shows my cankle from it's best side. I'm taking my cankle to CrossFit tomorrow, it's been a week and I feel like a total sloth.

Cankle

Naked Cankle

Squashome

I think we can all agree that squash is awesome. Acorn, spaghetti, butternut varieties all have a special place in my belly heart.  What’s not awesome about squash is the process of cutting, cleaning, roasting and pureeing the awkwardly shaped vegetable. Frankly, I’m lucky to have 10 fingers after the battles I’ve had dissecting a few behemoth gourds.

Safety First

So I have a confession to make: I buy my winter squash already pureed and frozen. (Gasp!) I can feel you judging me. Don’t you want me to keep digits intact?

Saving all that time (and my fingers)  is how I discovered the warm, comforting and simple squash soup recipe below. It's an amalgamation of a dishes I'd tried pre-paleo. I tweaked the ingredients and spicing to my taste.

This can be whipped up in 20 mins (if your squash is defrosted and you’re not a martyr who makes it from scratch).

Here’s what you need…

• 4 packs pureed frozen squash (defrosted)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 can chicken stock
• 1/4 cup green curry paste
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup lime juice (I used bottled lime juice, so clearly I am in no way qualified to tell anyone how to cook.) 

Put a saucepan on medium-high heat and dump in the defrosted squash and can of coconut milk. Fill the empty can of coconut milk with chicken stock and pour it in. Let it warm up a bit and then add the curry paste. You’ll have to do some work to break up the paste, sometimes I whisk it or use a fork to break it down. Let it get bubbly and add salt to taste. Once it’s incorporated, bring the heat down and add the lime juice for some tang. Eat up!

To add some greens, you can stir in fresh spinach, but I only recommend that if you’re not keeping it for leftovers. You can also add it in as you reheat single servings. I also topped it with crumbled sausage the other day. What’s not better with sausage? 

Clean It Up, Buttercup

Over the past few weeks I’ve been straying from paleo a bit too much. A little cheese here, some yogurt there, a bit of rice. It’s a slippery slope. Before I knew it, I was elbow deep in cheese pizza. Oops.

When my awesome friend Melissa of Lift. Teach. Run. Love. told me she was doing a 30 day challenge, I asked if I could join in. The challenge is 30 days of totally paleo eating (no wheat, soy, dairy, legumes). I am really looking forward to cleaning up my eating over the next couple weeks. (And my hubby agreed to join in too.)

I spent much of today cooking to prepare. And while I don’t find a list of what other people are making terribly interesting, I feel compelled to share it with you. Perhaps it’s because I’m bored and trapped in the house by this damn cankle.

And oh by the way, cankle’s are a total drag. Don’t ever invite one to your house or birthday party, it will never leave and will force you to lay on the ground with your leg up on the couch/wall/fireplace/fridge. Lame.

So here’s what I made:

·         Tuna salad with paleo mayo

·         Squashome soup (recipe coming soon)

·         Shepherd’s Pie

·         Savory Breakfast Casserole

·         Osso Buco

·         Grilled Sausages

Want to come over for dinner?

Good News, Bad News

Cankles are hot.

I always like to get the bad news first. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m a pessimist. Maybe I like to end on good news. My glass is never half full or half empty because I drink stuff pretty fast.

Since this is my blog, I guess you have to get the bad news first. If you don’t want it first, please skip to the next paragraph and come back. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Bad news: I twisted, sprained, did something wonky to my ankle Friday. It’s now swollen, sore and yucky.

The good news is that I did it on my third rep of a 205 back squat set. Yay! It would have been a PR if I could have stuck it out. My previous set was 195 so I'm still pretty happy. Except for the afore mentioned bad news.

The big question is: how does one twist their ankle doing a back squat? It takes a very stupid special person to accomplish this. On the third rep of the 205 set I decided to bail. This is a pretty simple thing, especially in a back squat, you basically let the weight roll backwards off your shoulders and scoot out from under it. Unless you’re me. And then you lean your chest too far forward, get the weight stuck on your back, finally shove it off, twist away, and land your dumbass on the floor. 

As I went down, I heard my ankle crack. And that’s why I’m sitting on my couch right now, iced and elevated, being bummed out that I ruined my weekend.

I am dumb. The end.

Pulled Pork is Boring, Said Nobody

Amazing.

Who says you can’t make burgers out of shredded pork? Liars do. I mistakenly read a recipe today and it turned into something awesome. What the recipe called for was a hamburger that was covered in shredded meat. I read it a little differently; I thought the burger was made of shredded meat. Doh.

Cue recipe conundrum, cue idea, cue pork, cue awesome. What happened next is a dinner that made me and the hubby very, very happy. I had some Everyday Paleo Beyond Easy Shredded Pork I’d made in my crockpot over the weekend. And, since it was cold, it was easy to scoop out and make into balls. Balls. Hee. I squished the balls (double hee) into patties and pan seared them in bacon fat. Oink. 

This looks gross. It wasn't

I served the magic burger on a bed of spinach topped it with caramelized onions and drizzled some wing sauce on top. It was yum.

The wing sauce is really awesome and easy too. It’s equal parts paleo mayo, Frank’s Red Hot and some dried dill. So. Friggin. Good. Make some now. Right now. I’m ending this post early so you can. You’re welcome.

Recipe Bandit

I love cookbooks. Well, all books. But since I love food and books, cookbooks really are a little piece of paradise.

Stuff that goes in chili.

I’ve never been good at following rules, so I tend to “interpret” when I cook. I recently played around with the ingredients and spicing mix on a chili from Wed Fed by Melissa Jouwain of The Clothes Make the Girl. 

I thought I’d share what I came up with because it’s pretty darn tasty. It went over well at our superbowl party (where I actually made a double of this recipe).

I don't know the rules of being a recipe bandit, so I'm hope posting this doesn’t get me sued. Or upset the goddess that is Melissa.

Chipotle Chili with Bacon*

·         4 pieces thick cut bacon

·         4 onions

·         3 pounds ground beef

·         1 pound beef roast, cubes, whatever

·         2 cloves garlic

·         2-4 chipotle peppers in  sauce  

·         3T cumin

·         1 tsp allspice

·         2 tsp salt

·         2 cans tomato paste (12 ounces total)

·         2 cans petite diced tomatoes

·         1 box beef stock

Dice the bacon and throw it in the bottom of a stockpot at medium heat. Chop the onions while the bacon is cooking. Throw them in once the fat has been rendered and bacon is getting crispy. Leave on medium and let cook down (10 mins?). Then throw in the garlic and give the whole thing a good stir. 

Choose the amount of peppers you want. Two will make give your chili a nice hint of spice, four will make it hot! I typically use three. Chop them up and throw them into the pot. At this point, add the rest of the spices: cumin, allspice and salt.

Take your beef roast and cut it into small chunks. (I typically cut mine to the size of a black bean.) Throw all meat (roast and ground beef) in the pot. Mix everything together and then add tomato paste, broth and diced tomatoes. Mix again and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer for two hours.



This was yummy. Chili + Verde + Eggs



We just finished the last bit of the chili. The final bit was served as breakfast with salsa verde and eggs. It was really yummy. Thinking about it makes me wish I had more chili right now.

As a side note, you should buy WellFed immediately. Even if it’s just to read the stories and stare at photos. This is one cookbook I couldn't live without.

*Putting bacon in the title makes any recipe immediately more interesting. At least to me.

I Was Hungry for 29 Years

About a year ago, I was eating a steady diet of low-fat, low-calorie foods. And I was hungry. Really hungry. All the time.

I once posted my Facebook status as, “I am hungry every moment of everyday ever.” It had 50 likes and comments in 10 minutes. I was not alone.

Through the recommendations of some friends, I joined CrossFit Aspire. I joke that CrossFit is a cult that doubles as a gym. I drank the kool aid – oh yeah. One morning I showed up for a workout, but it was really a nutrition seminar. That’s where I learned Paleo IOI and started my first 30 Day Challenge of eating only real food.

After a week, I wondered aloud if eating Paleo raises your body temperature because while I used to be constantly freezing cold – with my fingernails turning blue – I was now comfortable. Apparently that means my blood sugar had leveled off to a normal amount. Who knew?

Beyond not being cold (which is so amazing I could talk about it for hours), Paleo means I’m not hungry all the time. I’m eating foods that fill me up and are good for me. Today my fridge is brimming with spaghetti squash, meatballs, chili, kale and spinach.

My energy level, gut and strength has never been better. I can do things – like push press 120 x3 – that I never dreamed about before. And my stomach doesn’t rumble with hunger or distress.

I’m hoping this blog will be a place where I can share some cool recipes, talk about my CrossFit obsession, and explain both of these things to my friends who think I’m crazy.