EatPood

Atencion, atencion - Info and a Recipe

The Info...

The box is gearing up for another healthy eating session beginning June 9. Cliff and I are off to an early start. We began a Whole30 on Monday. Remember, our box is a Whole9 partner gym. Have you ever wondered what Whole9 means? Well, the "9" in Whole9 represents: (1) exercise; (2) nutrition; (3) sleep; (4) stress management; (5) active recovery; (6) injury rehab; (7) fun and play; (8) personal growth; and (9) temperance. The idea is that all of these factors play into a healthy lifestyle.

What’s the Whole30? The creators of the program describe it as “a short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, calm systemic inflammation and put an end to unhealthy cravings, habits, and relationships with food.” It seems strict at first, but the real food you eat is delicious, accessible and plentiful.

Here's the skinny...

YES to real food. This means meat, seafood, vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.

NO to sweeteners of any kind, real or artificial.

NO to alcohol, even in cooking.

NO to grains, legumes, dairy and white potatoes.

NO to carrageenan, MSG or sulfites.

So here’s how you put it into practice. Pick a protein, any protein. Put a palm sized amount on a normal sized dinner plate. Now fill the rest of your plate with any combination of vegetables and a serving size of fat (more on this later). That’s it. There’s nothing complicated about it.

The Recipe...

Our kitchen is almost finished! But, we’re still cooking in the basement. During the extended subterranean holiday, I’ve made a lot of this slaw. I think it would be a nice dish for a Memorial Day picnic.

Mango Slaw

4 T extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lime

3-4 cups shredded purple cabbage

½ medium cucumber, washed with skin on, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1-2 cloves garlic minced

½ C cilantro, chopped fine

½ medium red bell pepper, chopped

½ yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped

1 large ripe mango, peeled and chopped, pit removed

1-2 avocados, peeled and chopped, pit removed

½ t ground cumin

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk together the olive oil and lime juice in the bottom of a large serving bowl. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss to combine. Taste for seasoning.

Enjoy!

Passive-Aggressive

Ok.  So I’m not as tricky as I imagined.  I thought that if I didn’t post any recipes for a looooong time, you all would feel sorry for me and invite me for dinner.  However, you didn't take the bait so here’s another grilled veggie recipe. 

Before we get to the recipe and in addition to my passive-aggressiveness (or in spite of it), we must say felicidades to the Joseph family!!!  All four of them - Felice, Ray, Ike and Brittany - completed their first Whole30 last week.  Great work!  I hope all of you feel as fantastic as you look.  If anyone else hung in there, congrats to you as well. 

Grilled Broccoli

1 large head broccoli

2 lemons

Olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your grill to medium-high. 

Cut the broccoli into large spears.  Place the spears in a large bowl.  Drizzle the spears with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss it all together.

Cut the lemons in half. 

Place the broccoli and lemons (cut side down) directly onto your grill.  Turn the broccoli occasionally.  Cook until slightly charred, about 15 minutes total. Serve the broccoli with the grilled lemon halves.

We enjoyed this in our basement kitchen along with some grilled Italian sausages and chorizo and grilled peppers and onions.  It was simply grilltastical. 

P.S.  Thanks to Paula and Niall for a yummy dinner and the much-needed break from subterranean dining.

We Still Gotta Eat

We decided to smash up the Eatpood kitchen so we’re cooking out of our basement now. 

Tonight we grilled cauliflower to go with our lamb shoulder steaks and sautéed spinach. Here’s what we ate:

Cliff and I liked the cauliflower steaks.  Clara didn’t even try it.  Jack said it wasn’t his favorite.  If you ask me, we’re doing pretty well considering our circumstances.  Give it try for a new way to enjoy cauliflower.

Grilled Cauliflower Steaks

1 head cauliflower

Olive oil

Sea salt

Pepper

Chopped fresh oregano

Lemon wedges

Leaving the stem, slice the cauliflower it vertically into 1″-thick steaks.

Brush each steak with plenty of olive oil and season it with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and a bit of chopped oregano. 

Grill the cauliflower over medium-high heat for a few minutes on each side. 

The steaks are ready when they're nicely browed.

Drizzle the steaks with a little more olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice when serving.   

How is the Whole30 gang doing?  You only have 10 days left!!!  I haven't heard a peep lately.  Let me know if you need any cheerleading, meal ideas, or anything at all. 

Who's still in?

Hey, CrossFitting Whole 30 people!  How are you doing?  Who’s still in?  If you've made it through this first week, trust me - you're doing great! 

I'm happy to meet with anyone.  If you'd like that, we can meet at the box on Sunday, 2/26 at 1.  Post a comment so I know if there's any interest.  Also, you can always post comments with questions or just catch me during the week. 

I had a special request for veggies.  I’ve got a recipe below, but before we get to that, I want to boss you a bit.  Order Well Fed!  You can get it here or there.  Just get it somewhere!!!

I told you before – it’s great!  One fun part is the cooking wod. 

That’s right.  You read that correctly.  The book has a cooking wod!  Does that appeal to you, my Type A friends? 

The author, Melissa Joulwan, programmed a 60-minute wod for you to do on a Sunday in preparation for a week of eats. 

She’s your Paleo coach.  She's got you steaming, sautéing and roasting veggies.  She orders you to brown and stew meat.  She instructs you to hard boil eggs.  If you work this cooking wod into your weekly routine, you’ll find yourself prepared to face the week ahead. 

Well Fed also has tips for stocking your Paleo pantry, and almost every recipe in the book is Whole30 complaint – and delicious!  What are you waiting for?  Get thee on the internets!!!

Okay, so I’ve plugged Well Fed.  Now I’ll give some love to Nom Nom Paleo.  I gobbled up this puree.  We had it at dinner one night, and I ate all the leftovers myself, over the course of the week, as part of my post-workout meals.   

Carrot and Parsnip Puree

2/3 lb parsnips, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 pound carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped (slightly smaller than the parsnips)

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 onion, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup organic chicken stock

1/2 cup water

4 tablespoons ghee

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Melt 3T of the ghee in a pressure cooker or a Dutch oven, and then add the veggies, broth, and water.

If you are using a pressure cooker, put on the lid; lock it; and bring to pressure at the high pressure setting.  Once the pressure indicator goes up, reduce the heat to low.  Cook at pressure for 12 min.  Then run the cooker under cold water until the indicator drops. 

If you are cooking on the stove top, bring the liquid to a boil.  Then, put the lid on the pot and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer for 20-25 minutes. 

When the vegetables are tender, puree them in the pot with an immersion blender.  Then stir in the remaining tablespoon of ghee and season with salt and pepper. 

I didn’t take any pictures of this.  Sorry!  I guess I was too busy eating it to photograph it.  Visit Nom Nom Paleo and check it out! The photography there is better anyway.  :0)

Cabbage and Info

Monday night we had our nutrition talk, and we conveyed a lot of general information in a short of amount of time. I was thinking that you might want more specifics. I’m not an expert, but I’ve been working on clean eating for almost three years now. I know where to get stuff. I order certain things to eat when I go out. I have a lot of meal ideas because I’m always cooking. With that, I’m always trolling websites, and I have several I would recommend. I am happy to share this info with you.

For instance, yesterday Caroline texted me and asked me whether she could get blanched almond flour at Kanawha City Kroger. I can say unequivocally that I’m fully qualified to direct you to the appropriate aisle at Kroger (Kanawha City, Ashton Place and maybe South Charleston). I really don’t mind. If you have a specific question about anything (CrossFit food related that is), post a comment. If you want, I’ll email you with my cell number so you can text me from Kroger too. If I don’t know the answer to one of your probing questions, I’ll find someone who does. I promise.

Here’s a little recipe for you. Cabbage, even organic cabbage, is inexpensive and a little goes a long way. I have a memory of loving buttered cabbage and noodles at my grandparents’ house when I was a girl. I wanted to recreate that without the noodles. Nom Nom Paleohelped me out. Thanks!

Stovetop Braised Cabbage

½ head green cabbage, sliced into noodle-ish strips
½ yellow onion, sliced
2 T pastured butter or ghee
2 carrots, julienned
Chicken broth
Splash of cider vinegar
Celtic sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a dutch oven. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Then toss in the carrots and sauté a few minutes more.

Add the cabbage and about 1/8 C chicken broth. Cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until the cabbage softens. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a splash of cider vinegar. I also added some more butter at the end because I wanted it more buttery, duh!

I know my carrots aren't julienned, technically, but they were thin enough.

Recipe adapted from Nom Nom Paleo.

Can't get enough soup!

Whenever I make chicken, I freeze the carcass so I can use it to make soup, and this morning I woke up with that plan in mind. Also, there’s been some butternut squash on my counter staring me down for about a week. I knew I wanted to use those little guys too, being tired of them eyeballing me all the time. I did a quick internet search and found a recipe that inspired me.

It really is a little tedious to remove chicken meat from the carcass. But, I get a strange sense of satisfaction while I'm doing it (in an I-feel-like-Ma-Ingalls kind of way).  The important thing is that the broth tastes exponentially better than what you get from a can or a box - there's nothing strange about that, baby!

Here’s what I came up with…

Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup
2 chicken carcasses
water
butternut squash (about 3 pounds), peeled, seeded, and diced medium
1 small yellow onion, diced medium
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Fresh cilantro (optional)

Put the chicken carcasses (they can be frozen!) in a Dutch oven, and fill the post with enough water to cover the carcasses most of the way.

Bring the pot up to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a low simmer. Simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

The meat will be falling off the bone at this point. Drain the broth through a colander into a large bowl and set aside.

Next, transfer the chicken carcasses into another large bowl, and allow them to cool. You can put them in the fridge to expedite the process.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss together the squash and onion, arranging them in a single layer.  Drizzle on the oil, and season with 1t celtic gray sea salt and 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper.

Roast until the squash is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Transfer about half of the squash and onions back into your Dutch oven, and add 4 cups of your broth along with the cumin and coriander. Using an immersion blender or a potato masher, mash the vegetables that are in the pot. Then, transfer the remaining vegetables into the mixture. These will stay nice and chunky.

When the chicken is cool, remove the meat from the bone. If necessary, cut it into bite-sized pieces before adding it to the soup. Discard skin and bones from chicken. Stir in the lemon juice along with 2 additional cups of broth. Add the chicken pieces and heat the soup over medium heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve topped with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Here’s a link to the real recipe from Martha Stewart.  You might like this if you don’t have chicken carcasses laying about.  But, if you decide to use chicken carcasses, you'll have about a quart of delicious broth left over.

Meatza

I finally made meatza. I followed the recipe on The Clothes Make the Girl (more or less). However, I made my own pizza sauce, and I used a mixture of Italian sausage and grass fed ground beef from Swift Level Farm. I used my beloved cast iron skillet rather than a pie dish. Because my skillet is larger than a standard pie dish, I used an extra pound of meat.

Click the link above, and see the recipe on the aforementioned website. I don’t feel like retyping it because I’m not sure anyone even reads EatPood anymore.  Uh-huh. I'm feeling insecure today.

Here are the photos. You can check out the toppings I used. I had some leftover grilled onions and zucchini so I threw them on along with roasted red peppers from a jar, sliced Kalamata olives and steamed broccoli. Yum!

 
 
 

 

Summer is waning

I placed my farm order today. The peaches are gone. This is a sign that summer is drawing to a close. The good news is that the green beans are still plentiful. As I continue my salad rebellion, my love of green beans swells. I’ve been roasting them in the oven like crazy. Here’s how I do it. I don’t have any exact measurements so stop reading right now if that bugs you.

Oven-Roasted Green Beans

1# stringless green beans
1 yellow onion, sliced thin
Extra virgin olive oil
Celtic gray sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400. 

Rinse the beans thoroughly under cold water in a colander, and allow the beans to drain.

 
Once the water has drained from the beans, snap the stem end from each bean. Put the beans on a baking sheet, and scatter the sliced onion among the beans. Drizzle the beans and onions with a little olive oil, and sprinkle them with sea salt and pepper to taste. Toss it all together with your hands. After the beans and onions are coated lightly with the oil and the salt and pepper are distributed, try and get the beans in a single layer on baking sheet.

 
Roast the beans in the oven for about 20 minutes. Check on them after about 10 minutes and stir them around to insure even cooking. Cooking time will vary.

 
My kids really like beans cooked this way. I do love them as well. I may be deprived, but I have a sort of “I’m eating French fries” feeling when I eat them. If I have them left over at lunch, I eat them with my fingers. Don’t tell Cliff.

 

Hurry… before it’s too late!

It’s August 27. Get peaches while you can - local WV peaches. Then, make this:

Grilled Chicken and Peach Salad
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (preferably kosher)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 pound peaches (3 or 4 small), halved and pitted
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 cups baby arugula (10-ounce package)

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Coat grill with oil and preheat. Grill chicken, turning once, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F, 5 to 8 minutes each side. Transfer chicken to a cutting board.

 
Coat peaches with oil; spread skin side up on grill grates; grill, turning once, until juicy but not mushy, 3 to 5 minutes per side.

 
 
In a salad bowl, whisk mustard, vinegar, oil and 1 tablespoon water.

 
Toss with arugula. Divide arugula among 4 plates. Slice chicken and peaches; distribute evenly among plates.

 
Cliff and I had this for dinner one weekend earlier this month. I have no idea where the kids were. That’s how I am. Anyway… we liked it. The grilled peaches were luxurious.

Recipe from Epicurious.

Faux-Tato Salad

Here in Chucky, West-by-God-Virginia our kids are back in school. But, summer isn’t really over. It’s still blazing hot, and there are parties coming up. I'm sure of it, and for anyone nearby reading this, I’m hoping for an invitation to a fabulous Labor Day get together. Plus, September is prime time for church picnics. What I’m getting at is this – you, my CrossFitter friend, need good food to take to end-of-summer picnics and potluck dinners so you can eat and look like a normal person.

Well… never fear! Sarah Fragoso at Everyday Paleo posted this recipe last month. Her version made twice as much. I’m giving you the half-recipe I made. Cliff and I liked this. We shared it with Caroline and Ashleigh, and I got the impression they liked it too. So if you invite me to your party, I promise I’ll bring you some yummy Faux-Tato Salad. 

No Potato Potato Salad
1 head of cauliflower
6 eggs, hard-boiled and chopped
1/2 a medium sized red onion, finely chopped
3-4 celery stalks, finely chopped
A lot of dill pickles, diced
About 1 C of homemade mayonnaise mixed with 4 T fresh dill (finely chopped) and 2 cloves garlic (minced)
About 1 t of yellow mustard
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Cut the cauliflower into large florets. Steam the cauliflower around 7-10 minutes, cooking until tender but not mushy. Rinse the steamed cauliflower under cold water to stop the cooking process.

 
Alternatively, if you have a pressure cooker, place the florets in the cooker, and then pour in about 1 C water. Lock the lid and bring to pressure. Cook the cauliflower for about for about 2 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat immediately and run the cooker under cold water to quickly bring down the pressure. Remove the lid and pour the cauliflower through a strainer and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Drain the cauliflower well and pat dry with paper towels. This is important. Listen to me. I skipped the paper towel part, and my salad was too watery. Crumble the cauliflower into a large mixing bowl.

Add all of the remaining ingredients including the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper; and mix well.

 
 
 
You can eat this right away, but it tastes better if you let it chill for a couple of hours before serving.

 
Serves 8.