Food or Flavor?

I did the "300 work out" again yesterday. Workouts like that definitely create an appetite for me. So after waiting for about an hour, I ate a BIG breakfast. Scrambled eggs, 2 strips of bacon and half a butternut squash.
Lunch was scheduled with customers and walking into the restaurant at 1:00, I was salivating. I was starving. The lunch was at Ted's. Good paleo place to eat, but lots of temptations if you're not careful. So here's a little trick I use when I go out somewhere AND I'm hungry. While walking from the car to the restaurant, I decide what I'm going to eat and when I sit down, I don't even look at the menu. So had a huge salad with a bison burger on top. Dressing was evoo. I was stuffed.
At around 6:30 pm I got hungry. But was it really hunger? I'm sure I had stuffed my body with enough calories in the 2 meals I had for the day. What I was craving was some flavor. Some comfort perhaps. So I made a small very flavorful veggie dish.

Bok Choy, garlic, chicken stock, coconut milk, orange pepper and green curry. Saute the garlic in coconut oil, add couple of splashes of chicken stock, add some coconut milk, then add 1/2 tsp of green curry paste. Let it come to soft boil, add the bokchoy and turn down the heat to medium. I diced a small piece of orange pepper for color. It hit the spot and I did not even eat the whole thing. A few bites of great flavor satisfied my "hunger".

"Smile....it's good for you"

Busy?

Well.....it doesn't always look pretty ;-)

Had a press conference to attend, kid Halloween costume to pick up, corporate report deadline due and convince an angry client that they really shouldn't be angry at all ;-)

So even if you are "running around AND stirring the sauce" ( remember the movie Goodfellas?), it's important to stay with your way of eating and get the nutrients plus energy you need to handle the extra little stresses. Breakfast; a plum, strip of bacon, slices of avocado, roasted pumpkin seeds, almonds and a few brazil nuts. Easy right?

Someone yesterday, said it to me again "see you tomorrow....you know, hump- day" read this old post about that topic.

Have a great day!!!

Nuts.

A good for you snack, and satisfying when you are craving something in the afternoon at work.
Do you ever buy roasted nuts in the store? Especially in the healthfood stores, the prices of the roasted nut varieties border on criminal.
So buy raw and make your own at home. It's a nice change from munching on just raw nuts and you can control the ingredients.

In a bowl mix some almonds together with; evoo, dash of tamari, garlic powder and onion powder. Spread them out on tin foil or cookie sheet and roast on low heat (200) for about 20 minutes. Let them cool and enjoy. They are great to add to salads also.
Play around with different flavors. You can use coconut oil and add a dash of curry powder for example. Raw pumpkin seeds roasted are some of my favorite.
This mix consisted of; evoo, pepper, garlic powder and a dash of ketjap manis. (an indonesian sweet soy sauce)

"Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so." Marcus Aurelius

Enjoy your day!

Sharing is Caring ;-)

There are many great blogs out there. I so enjoy reading them and incorporating recipes, workouts, thoughts ,ideas, etc. It's people sharing with each other and good things come from sharing (except when you're in kinder garden).Thanks to Debs great blog , I made the Thai coconut soup she shared.It was absolutely fantastic. The only change I made to it was some ground beef with a little coconut oil at the start of making it and I added some fresh okra at the end also.In case you don't have fish sauce....or can't stomach the smell ;-) the recipe will still come together. (My kids refuse to taste the soup, as they saw the splash of fish sauce added.) The kefir lime leaves are essential to get that authentic taste.Take a look at Deb's blog for a great picture also.

Lox, eggs, and onions.A little spin on an old favorite of mine (I used to eat it in NYC all the time)
(oh great blogger spirit...please let me upload my pictures.....I'll post the pic when my prayer has been answered) Not bad...one day later ;-)

2 boiled eggs, wild smoked salmon, red onion and a few capers.

Enjoy the Day!

Here's is a quick picture of the finished flank steak, perhaps a little more appetizing then the picture of a raw chunk of beef marinating. ;-)
I slice it nice and thin and I'll use it all week and create a variety of meals.
My youngest daughter gave me the greatest line last night (she's almost 8) "Dad, what is this steak??? Is it some secret recipe or something??? It's soooo good". I knew it was pretty tasty....but that sealed it for me.






Old fashioned, simple, tasty and healthy;

Kielbasa, sauerkraut and a small splash of Heineken. In the crock pot on low for half a day. You can find good quality kielbasa at most health food stores. I'd stay away from the conventional variety. Although......like Art Devany says sometimes "maybe all those preservatives ARE good for you...they might even preserve YOU" ;-)

Have a great weekend everyone and ponder this one when you have an extra minute.

"The prime rule of reality is that we must become in our lives, what we choose to experience in the world"

What's in your fridge?

When your fridge is full of "Feel Good Eating" choices, you end up throwing things together you would have never thought of.
Like this one above;
Celery, radishes, thin sliced raw asparagus, green olives, yellow onion and salami. Drizzled with some EVOO.
This was one delicious refreshing little salad. (salami, I really like the Applegate farms brand, very tasty and no crazy ingredients.)


Finances are a little tougher for all, food prices keep climbing, in comes grass fed flank steak.
This cut seems to fall out of favor with many that can actually afford grass fed beef these days.
So it ends up being priced low....right in line with conventional beef.
It just takes a little prep to make this steak worth it's weight in gold!


Marinate flank steak over night and grill it.



To marinade; cut a few "lines" in the steak so that the marinade can really get in there.
Orange juice, evoo, worchester sauce, garlic....lots of garlic, cumin, coriander, mustard powder, chili powder (Sarena, you don't have to add this one :-) )
Now the trick to grill flank steak right goes something like this; get your grill HOT!
Put the steak on direct heat, and get it nice and seared on both sides.
Take of direct heat, close the lid and let it cook through. Remember grass fed doesn't take as long due to less fat content. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.....slice thin and enjoy.
This 1.5 pound cut takes about 10 minutes to grill.


HAVE a WONDERFUL DAY!

Make it a great week!

Commit to making this a great week!

Get your workouts in, eat the way you know you should, be nice to people all week (tough one but try it ;-) ) and just will yourself to be happy no matter what. See how you feel come Friday.

Here' something so tasty and HEALTHY.

For breakfast, besides two hard boiled eggs and 4 strips of bacon (Applegate farms)

I had some strawberries with a small tspn of coconut oil. Just mix it together gently.

The flavor is amazing. Try this Nutiva brand if you like a lot of coconut flavor.

Has anyone tried the "300 work out" from my last post?

Have a great week!

Work out

I had such a fun workout this morning, that I just wanted to share it and see if anyone has tried it.
Chris has introduced me to some great websites over the last few years. Gym Jones has been one of my favorites. A while back they got a good amount of notoriety for training the actors for the movie "300". A session they laid out was called the "300 work out".
I tried it this morning for the first time.

25 pull ups
50 deadlifts (135 #) I did it with 110
50 push ups
50 box jumps (24 inch height minimum)
50 floor wipers (holy cow, get ready to cry on this one)
25 chin ups (or pull ups, but I did chins)
To be completed as quick as possible, 20 minute deadline.

I did it in 18 minutes this morning, but could only bust out 40 floor wipers and fell of the hanging rack at my 23rd chin up. ;-)

If you try it, let me know what you thought.

ENJOY

Combining cuisine's and cultures

I like figuring out how I can combine and exchange flavors from different countries and cultures.

An example is break fast this morning.

Years ago, I used to eat regularly at an amazing sushi restaurant. Being a regular customer, they would serve you a complimentary little dish when you sat down.

It was raw salmon, thinly sliced cucumber, scallion and a splash of soy and toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds. It was AMAZING.

Good fresh raw salmon is hard to come by here and toasted sesame oil I don't really indulge in anymore, and soy sauce is an occasional indulgence. (to salt for my tastes these days)

So here's my recipe now;

Smoked salmon loin cut up in bite size pieces, diced cucumber, scallion and some tehina.

Mix together gently.

I do enjoy my raw fish and find some nice ahi tuna here from time to time. I think I wrote before that I often buy the frozen piece to save on cost, it's really very good especially made into a nice tartare. Simple and quick; tuna, cucumber, scallion, pepper, soy/tamari sauce

Have a great weekend everyone......love some, grill some and do something exhilarating!

Spices

Use spices!!

Scott K. at Modern Forager wrote a great post on spices. You can read it here.

Using different spices really adds some neat dimension to what would otherwise be pretty ordinary meals. Especially if you cook with coconut oil, it will allow for lots of variety.

Here I made some simple turkey meatballs. Ground turkey, curry powder, dash of chili powder and one egg. I've said it before, look around for some good quality curry powder, the flavor is worth the extra dollar compared to McCormick and similar brands.

Saute the meatballs in some coconut oil, mine were shaped more like little patties, when done add a handful of spinach and stir the spinach with the hot oil till it wilts. Very tasty and satisfying with lots of flavor.

"Change of diet will not help a person who will not change their thoughts. When a person makes their thoughts pure, they no longer desire impure food"

"As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen

This little self help book dating back to the 19th century is as good as anything out there today.

Check it out.

Have an awesome day everyone.

Fried food

It's been raining quite a bit here, and when it rains, I think back of growing up in Amsterdam, and when I think of my childhood in Amsterdam, I start craving fried stuff ;-)
So this one not strictly paleo, but so delicious and satisfies the "fried" craving.

Fish dipped in evoo, oregano and lemon juice, rolled in some potato flakes.
Preheat the oven to 500. About 10-15 minutes and voila. The recipe is perfect with orange roughy, but tonight I used some fresh flounder.
Some roasted asparagus to go with it.
I usually have some "garlic olive oil" on hand, and used that to coat the asparagus with.
The garlic evoo is so easy to make and so useful for so many things (including an ear-ache for kids, but that's another story) Small glass bottle, thinly slice some garlic and add evoo.

(if blogger works...you might actually get to see it, can you tell this is starting to drive me batty yet?) Next morning........ blogger works.

ENJOY the DAY.

Questions

I love this meal.
Toss a bit of coconut oil in the pan, scramble the eggs, add some spinach.
2 strips of bacon, and some left over salad from last night.


Question;
1. I sent an email to Art Devany asking about the protein/fruit breakfast.
I have not heard anything yet, but will let you know when I do.

2. Would you like to see a cooking video? Would it be useful?

Remember to smile a lot.

Break Fast and a question

Easy one;

Lamb, garlic and mint sausage. Plum and apple.

For all you readers of Art D's site, have you noticed that his breakfast pictures are always fruit and protein? (I never spot a veggie) I wonder if there is something to that. I will ask him and let you know if I find out anything. Any of you have any insight on that one?

So does our EF/Paleo way of eating really bring results? Does it really make a difference?

Take a look at my friends blog Mr. Dave C. http://davegetsfit.blogspot.com/

Dave has been reading my blog form day one and his insights are always right on and has become a "virtual" friend in the process. Look what he has done changing his eating habits. CONGRATS DAVE!!!!!

ENJOY your day everyone!

Breakfast Cereal Rant!!!!!!!

I just have to rant for a second!!!!!!!

Consumer reports came out with a warning today to parents about sugar in breakfast cereals.

Eye opening stuff right???

Guess what their advice was???????;

Just mix some fruit loops or other sugary cereal with the healthy ones like Cheerios, Rice crispies etc. That way you can "fool" your child.

Are you kidding me?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Feel Good Moving"

Take a look at "The IF Life" or "Jays' Stuff". It has a wonderful post about Jack Lalanne.
I won't rehash it, but he has always said exercise is king.
You must move your body daily.
I look at my contemporaries and I'm shocked and sad. Most of them can't do anything physical.
And these are guys that used to be good even great athletes. But when you have not sprinted in 15-20 years, it doesn't exactly feel good when you try and do it now.

Just like feel good eating, keep it simple and start slowly with change. I know that many start feeling very different after 14 days of eating real whole foods. Exercise takes even less time.
You will feel a difference with in 7 days. When you have not exercised in years, here's my simple plan to get you motivated and to get your body to "Feel Good Moving"
This plan does not require a gym or any equipment, so NO excuses. I am not an MD. nor a personal trainer, so if you have not moved in a while, check with your MD so that you don't put yourself in any danger.

Day 1: Walk for 30 minutes

Day 2: Walk for 30 minutes

Day 3: Walk for 30 minutes. During the walk, stop every five minutes and do jumping jacks for 20 seconds. Make sure you are done with them before last 5 minutes of your walk.

Day4: Walk for 35 minutes. During the walk, for 30 seconds I want you to alternately raise your knees as high as you can. Again you will do this 5 times during the duration of the walk. Same as above not during the last 5 minutes

Day 5: Walk for 20 minutes. I want you to smile for at least 10 minutes of the walk. And be proud of yourself that you have walked for an entire work week.

Day 6: Walk for 45 minutes. During the walk you will do your 20 second jumping jacks 5 times and the knee raises 5 times for 30 seconds. Do not do them right after another. (e.g. jumping jacks, walk 90 sec. then knee raises)

Day 7: Walk for 35 minutes and take notice how nice it is to be outside.

If you hold to this, I would like to know how you feel after a week.
This is a great way to start moving again, if you have been sedentary for too long.

ANYWHO;
Back to food ;-)

Chicken jalapeno sausage, celery, shredded spinach, some yellow and red pepper, scallion, 1 tbsp coconut oil (nightshade shunners, leave out the pepper, I just threw it in cause I had a tiny bit left). Quick and easy.

picture to follow.......you know.....when blogger lets me ;-) (20 minutes later......there we go)

Have a great day!!!!